Episode 307
Career Conversations with Patricia Q Jenkins
On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, we speak to a successful entrepreneur who runs a podcasting business. Patricia shares their journey of building their business from scratch without a strong tech background and how they manage to indulge in something they love. The conversation revolves around the importance of making connections and attending events, as well as the challenges of being an introvert, as the speaker prefers one-on-one conversations to big gatherings. There's also a discussion about the evolution of the podcasting industry and how one can get started. The episode concludes with valuable insights on self-care, the importance of taking breaks, and having conversations about the division of labor at home. Tune in to get tips on how to make connections and build a successful podcasting business as an introvert.
Patricia Q Jenkins values focused energy and giving her full attention to people or tasks at hand. She finds introversion to mean focused attention on what's important and can become overwhelmed and scattered if pulled in too many directions. Patricia struggles with large groups and the dynamic energy that comes with them, preferring instead to connect with individuals on a deeper level.
[00:00:47] Introversion = focused attention on what's important. Large groups drain energy.
[00:02:57] Self-employment as a podcast creator is satisfying but challenging, with the risk of burnout if not managed well. Building a brand and receiving recognition is an amazing feeling.
[00:04:24] Plan breaks even if you're not busy. Take public holidays off and have someone to discuss business with. Don't work on holidays.
[00:05:44] Make time for self-care and indulge in hobbies unrelated to work. Communicate with partners about division of labor at home. Attend meetups and business meetings to build connections, even as an introvert.
[00:08:46] Meeting her partner led to becoming an expat, a traveling spouse, and building a podcasting business. Meeting a kind lady while in the US who understood the expat experience was also life-changing.
[00:11:13] Person says no to many social activities, especially crowded ones, due to living in a small place and not wanting to introduce themselves to big groups. Energy levels dictate whether they attend events.
[00:12:38] The writer loves meeting new people but prefers one-on-one conversations because they can give it the energy and thought it deserves. They find it more restful and relaxing.
[00:13:54] Overwhelming experience at Podcast Movement led to seeking a quiet space in lady's bathroom.
[00:18:31] Podcast editing requires minimal equipment and misconceptions about earning exist, but friendly competition exists and entry barriers have lowered thanks to innovative software.
[00:20:47] The origin of the sandwich is unclear but it may have been invented to allow a gambler to continue playing while eating.
Transcript
And hello and welcome to
Speaker:another episode of Career Conversations with Janice myself,
Speaker:obviously. And we have a guest today. Her name is Patricia Q.
Speaker:Jenkins. Welcome, Patricia.
Speaker:Hi. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Oh,
Speaker:man. Podcast voice. Everyone I interview has a podcast voice.
Speaker:I feel like I need to create a podcast voice.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I don't have one. I just blab. But everyone comes on and they're like,
Speaker:hi, I'm chardet on the mic today.
Speaker:So welcome.
Speaker:And the first question I ask everybody is, what does introversion
Speaker:mean to you?
Speaker:That's cool. What does it mean to me? It means
Speaker:focused energy and
Speaker:not in a snobby way, but I
Speaker:like to give my full attention to people
Speaker:or what I am engaged in.
Speaker:If I'm being pulled in too many directions,
Speaker:I can be overwhelmed and a
Speaker:bit scattered. So introversion to me means
Speaker:focused attention on what's in front of me and
Speaker:what's important. So if I'm having
Speaker:a conversation like we are now, you are my main focus,
Speaker:which is why big groups of people and all of
Speaker:that dynamic energy just wears me out
Speaker:because I feel like I'm spreading myself too thin.
Speaker:Wow. Okay. I'm going
Speaker:to add that to my little idea of introversion. That's great.
Speaker:Thank you so very much. And so because this is Career
Speaker:Conversations, I have to ask you a,
Speaker:what would you consider your title to be now? And B,
Speaker:what was the first job you had? Okay, first job is
Speaker:easier. The first unofficial
Speaker:one, I had a paper round. First official
Speaker:one was I was sort of like a
Speaker:junior administrator on a project.
Speaker:Good God. This takes me back on a project in Lasotu
Speaker:where they were resettling people because they were going to build a
Speaker:dam on that land.
Speaker:Okay, I'm fascinated, but I
Speaker:will carry on with out of the jobs you've had because
Speaker:we're going to skip the what you call yourself now part. Out of the jobs
Speaker:you've had. Which has been your favorite and why?
Speaker:Favorite I'm.
Speaker:Or worst, actually. Oh, no, that's that's a long list. We don't have that
Speaker:time. My favorite one was it was
Speaker:probably being self employed running podcast,
Speaker:maven. Because it
Speaker:can be over. No, not overwhelming. It can be difficult sometimes
Speaker:to keep all the balls in the air,
Speaker:but those successes and when things build
Speaker:on things and people get to know who you are
Speaker:and you've actually done the work to career a niche
Speaker:for yourself, and you get that recognition for you and your work
Speaker:and it's nobody else, that's an absolutely
Speaker:amazing feeling.
Speaker:Not managing it well can lead to burnout, but I still feel
Speaker:like that's one of the best things I've done because I
Speaker:built it from scratch on my own without really having the
Speaker:techie background. So you mentioned burnout
Speaker:there. It's a favorite topic of mine. And as
Speaker:someone who had a business, ran their own business as an introvert
Speaker:and you mentioned juggling all the balls can lead to burnout.
Speaker:If you don't mind,
Speaker:what advice would you give to an introvert
Speaker:entrepreneur to avoid some of that?
Speaker:Plan in the breaks. It doesn't matter
Speaker:if your schedule doesn't look like whatever you see on Instagram
Speaker:and you're not busy, busy, busy, busy bouncing around. Plan in
Speaker:the breaks. That can mean on busy days,
Speaker:making sure that if you need at least ten minutes before
Speaker:phone calls, make sure you've put in 15 if
Speaker:you need public holidays are something
Speaker:as well. Where I used to think, okay, now I can really push through and
Speaker:get everything done. No plan in the holiday.
Speaker:Take the break. Have even
Speaker:just one person that you can discuss your business with
Speaker:from sun up to sundown, who knows what you're trying to achieve,
Speaker:who's possibly trying to do it for themselves or is a little bit ahead of
Speaker:you because it's important to have somebody to bounce
Speaker:ideas off when you
Speaker:take a break. Take one completely. So if you go on holiday,
Speaker:okay, you're going to take your laptop, but for goodness sake, don't use your holidays
Speaker:to catch up on work. Feel I'm going away from the question more.
Speaker:No, keep going, keep going. That was great. I'm like,
Speaker:she's calling me out. I feel called out on this.
Speaker:I know it's an overused phrase, but self care.
Speaker:Find something that you really love and indulge in it.
Speaker:Indulge in it. You don't have to be working 18 hours
Speaker:a day. Find something that is totally
Speaker:unrelated to what you do and make the time for it.
Speaker:If you are coupled or in a partnership or
Speaker:whatever it is and you are running
Speaker:your own business. Mine was small and I was working from home,
Speaker:so I found that we needed to have
Speaker:a conversation about kind of division of labor in the home.
Speaker:Just because I am working at home, it doesn't mean that
Speaker:my job is entirely looking after the whole house
Speaker:and doing my little project. It's like, no, I'm trying to do something
Speaker:here and positive things.
Speaker:It's hard to promote yourself as an introvert. I think for me
Speaker:it was really difficult. I felt like I
Speaker:didn't want to tell people what I did off the bat because I wasn't sure
Speaker:how to balance it. But don't be afraid to go
Speaker:to meetups and business meetings and all of those things.
Speaker:Just Google it, go to the local ones and if there's
Speaker:a lot of people there, just I used to make myself I
Speaker:made a promise to myself that I would meet three people,
Speaker:have three really great conversations, and then I was allowed to leave.
Speaker:But I couldn't leave unless I'd met two or three people and
Speaker:I know what they do, and even if it wasn't related to what
Speaker:I do, you're just making those connections.
Speaker:Yeah, okay, I've run out of steam.
Speaker:That's perfectly fine. What I loved in there was when you said
Speaker:indulge in something you love. I feel
Speaker:like as humans, never mind as introverts, it's very
Speaker:hard for us to make carve out, find insert
Speaker:word. Here the time to indulge,
Speaker:because indulgence is extravagant. It brings to mind extravagance,
Speaker:and there might be guilt around that or
Speaker:other things pulling you in different directions, but the idea
Speaker:of indulging is so luxurious and so
Speaker:upfilling. I guess I like that phrase,
Speaker:indulge in something you love. And it brings to mind a conversation
Speaker:I was having yesterday about what are your vices? I'm like, I don't really know,
Speaker:maybe chocolate. I'm not really sure what my vices are, but a vice
Speaker:might be indulging in something that you love.
Speaker:You mentioned about going out there and meeting connections.
Speaker:So how have you made a connection that
Speaker:changed the course of your life? It doesn't have to be a big course change.
Speaker:I'm not saying you pivoted and got married or whatever it
Speaker:might be, but is there a connection that you have made that has changed your
Speaker:life in some way?
Speaker:I was thinking on this one, and I
Speaker:guess meeting my partner was life changing because
Speaker:I became an expat and I became the traveling spouse and
Speaker:I built my podcasting business.
Speaker:So that was a connection that changed the way
Speaker:that the plan that I had for my life, because I very much didn't
Speaker:think that I wanted to get married.
Speaker:I am happily married and it works. But there was that another
Speaker:connection. Let me see.
Speaker:I think it's hard for me to come up with one because for
Speaker:the past, let's say two and a half, three years, it has
Speaker:kind of been pretty isolating,
Speaker:what with COVID and lockdown and moving countries.
Speaker:But I did meet a lady when I was in the US.
Speaker:And she's a really great friend. We talk
Speaker:sporadically, which is nice. That's our communication
Speaker:style. It doesn't have to be every day, we just talk sporadically.
Speaker:But we had similar backgrounds
Speaker:and when I was new in the US. It was just
Speaker:really beautiful that somebody held
Speaker:out the hand of friendship because they had
Speaker:been in that position before and they knew that it could be just scary,
Speaker:overwhelming not to know how to interact
Speaker:in a certain environment or country. So that
Speaker:was amazing. I was touched and was still good friends. But I
Speaker:also tried to do that myself by creating
Speaker:expat meetups and joining
Speaker:that expat organization where you can meet up every month for lunch and
Speaker:stuff like that, just so that people wouldn't feel weird
Speaker:or lonely or isolated in a new city.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Wow, okay. And so you
Speaker:talked about time and overwhelm
Speaker:and doing all the things. What is
Speaker:something that you say no to?
Speaker:I say no to a lot of social activities.
Speaker:I live in a very small place. There's only one or two things
Speaker:to do, and a lot of the time I say no
Speaker:to going to the pub.
Speaker:I say no to going to the pub when it's going to be full of
Speaker:people. Now, do I want to meet people and make friends?
Speaker:Yes, I do. Do I want to go introduce
Speaker:myself to a big group of people that have known each
Speaker:other for years and years and years? No, I don't. So it's going to be
Speaker:a slow burn. What else do
Speaker:I say no to? I say no to my husband
Speaker:making that noise in the passage while I'm recording this.
Speaker:But that's an aside.
Speaker:I say no to a lot of social invitations.
Speaker:It's nothing personal. It's really weird. I want to be invited, but then
Speaker:on the day, I might not want to go. It depends on what
Speaker:my energy is on the day. It sounds really childish unless you
Speaker:have the time to explain it. And I don't at the moment.
Speaker:But overwhelming, heaving social situations
Speaker:is the thing that I say no to the most.
Speaker:And how does saying no improve your life?
Speaker:Oh, God. The relaxation. God,
Speaker:the relaxation.
Speaker:I like to meet new people. I love it. I love
Speaker:to form connections. I want to hear about people and their lives.
Speaker:I just find it fascinating. You could
Speaker:have lived in the same place all of your life and I think your story
Speaker:will still be amazing.
Speaker:But I would prefer that that was always sort
Speaker:of a one on one or at the most a one to two
Speaker:kind of conversation, because then
Speaker:I can give it the energy, the time, the listening,
Speaker:the thought that it deserves. So I
Speaker:find that it's improved if I'm not thrown into situations where
Speaker:I'm trying to remember a whole lot of things about a whole bunch of people
Speaker:because my memory is crap. Yeah.
Speaker:So I find them more restful. Okay.
Speaker:And so that kind of leads me to
Speaker:what is the scariest and or most uncomfortable
Speaker:thing that you've ever had to do for maybe a job or for your
Speaker:business? Certainly for my business.
Speaker:I went to, oh, what is it?
Speaker:Podcast Movement. I went to Podcast Movement and
Speaker:there were so many people there, and I just think,
Speaker:yeah, nobody knew anybody. Like, it was, I think, one of the first
Speaker:ones. It was really amazing and I met some people there,
Speaker:but it was just like there was no
Speaker:place just to collect yourself.
Speaker:So I keep using this
Speaker:word.
Speaker:What I did was I just needed a quiet five minutes from
Speaker:all the hustle and bustle, from all of the stalls, from all of the noise,
Speaker:from all of the promoting, from all of the business cards. So I went
Speaker:to go hide in the lady's bathroom. Yeah.
Speaker:And I really wish ladies bathrooms were like, they were like back in
Speaker:the day in the something where there was a toilet bit and then there
Speaker:was a place where you could just sit down. The used to have sofas in
Speaker:there and stuff like that. I'm just like I just need two minutes to collect
Speaker:myself from all of the noise is yeah, sorry, went on a tangent.
Speaker:What was the question? No,
Speaker:we're talking about something that was scary or uncomfortable to do because
Speaker:of your profession or whatever it might be.
Speaker:And conference creators
Speaker:and event creators 99.9%
Speaker:of the time. Never think about entry
Speaker:fence or anyone who's neurodivergent, to be fair in any
Speaker:way, shape or form or other. People just think that everyone
Speaker:wants all the things I think they do. But it's
Speaker:like kind of that's the VIP treatment, because then you get to go
Speaker:sit in the VIP lounge when it all gets a bit too much for you.
Speaker:But if there was maybe just some
Speaker:sort of quieter space that was, I don't know,
Speaker:sponsored by somebody just where you could gather yourself.
Speaker:And these are the seats where you can gather yourself,
Speaker:look at your phone, make your notes or just be for
Speaker:five minutes. That's the thing. Yeah.
Speaker:Putting that out there so that maybe somebody can run with that.
Speaker:Please use that idea.
Speaker:Conferences. But you're right about the VIP thing, especially at conferences
Speaker:like podcast movement, they did have a VIP section because
Speaker:I went to a podcast movement event and one of the
Speaker:people that I sort of went with was in the VIP
Speaker:section, and it's normally those with enough money, so it's gatekeeped
Speaker:in a really weird way. And for Schmoozing, it was very
Speaker:much people in there dressed a certain way
Speaker:and were like names of humans. They weren't the speakers
Speaker:lounge, it was the speakers. So you got to go and try not to be
Speaker:fangirl over the speakers. But also yeah, you write the VIP section,
Speaker:especially in that particular conference was the peace and
Speaker:quiet section. Yeah, and it was the big names. And I get it. I mean,
Speaker:that's what you're going to do to attract those big names to your
Speaker:conference. I mean, it's got to be done, but I'm just saying maybe there's a
Speaker:way to shape it a little bit and have
Speaker:just another quiet corner. I'd be prepared to pay,
Speaker:like, I don't know, some stipend to get in there and
Speaker:just have quiet and I can bring my own headphones and then just listen
Speaker:to something. Yeah, putting it
Speaker:out there to all of these what do you call these things?
Speaker:Oh, God. The meditation app. People like
Speaker:calm. Yeah, well,
Speaker:calm on this side, but I also know there's the UK one headspace.
Speaker:Yes. And Balance. I'm a fan of balance.
Speaker:Like five minutes to calm breathing exercises.
Speaker:Beautiful. We need more of that at conferences.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm going to start tagging these people.
Speaker:We really would like this. This would be so
Speaker:good. I wish I could insert this
Speaker:into an event that I am currently planning, but I don't think we have
Speaker:time. I've never seen the venue space before. So I've been told that
Speaker:everything bounces everywhere, so I don't think I can have a but next time.
Speaker:Next time, Gadget. Next time. All right, so speaking of
Speaker:podcasting, haha. Let's get a bit meta here. What is a
Speaker:misconception about your job and or industry with
Speaker:podcasting? That I am in a great big studio,
Speaker:perhaps not so much anymore,
Speaker:and I've got all of the bells and whistles in front of me. I don't
Speaker:before we turned on this video, I'm going to be honest, like, I'm sitting
Speaker:in my makeshift study in my messy home
Speaker:with a blanket over my head, hoping that this audio turns out well
Speaker:because I haven't dusted off my mic in a while.
Speaker:What else? Misconceptions?
Speaker:I think sometimes the money.
Speaker:There's a whole spectrum when it comes to
Speaker:earning.
Speaker:I'm going to say there's friendly competition. So, yeah, it's not
Speaker:all jawing and fighting for clients
Speaker:that much, but I'm just going to say what people
Speaker:think you need to get started. The barriers to entries,
Speaker:they've changed so much in the past 18 months that
Speaker:you truly, truly, truly, truly just need a laptop
Speaker:and a microphone to get started now because they've done
Speaker:some amazing things with the software, where a lot of
Speaker:all the dithering about with it is going to be done for you.
Speaker:So, yeah, I love it. Like,
Speaker:everybody's innovating now and the competition between the
Speaker:Door programs and where you can record interviews,
Speaker:they're all just trying to be better. So it's amazing
Speaker:for the users. All right.
Speaker:It's all about the consumers. All right, so thank you so very
Speaker:much. I have one final question
Speaker:for you. And the question is,
Speaker:is a hot dog a sandwich? Oh,
Speaker:God.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yes. All right.
Speaker:Yeah. This is a hill I'm prepared
Speaker:to die on, almost. What was the thought
Speaker:process? Because you stopped and you're like, tick, tick,
Speaker:tick were okay. What was the process that
Speaker:happened then? Well, I'm thinking about well, maybe it was just
Speaker:what I was used to growing up and what I call a sandwich.
Speaker:But I think that the story I heard was
Speaker:it came about because there was some sort of or don't
Speaker:quote me on this, there was some guy a couple of
Speaker:hundred years ago and he was a gambler
Speaker:and he didn't want to stop his game so that he could
Speaker:go eat. So what they did was bring
Speaker:him some slices of roast beetle, something between two slices
Speaker:of bread, hence the sandwich. And that
Speaker:might just be all cobblers, but I think it's a super story. So if
Speaker:it is something in between a slice of bread or
Speaker:sliced bread, it's a sandwich.
Speaker:All right, thank you very much for walking us through that. It has been
Speaker:a pleasure talking to you. I have learned so much and got some
Speaker:really good quotes. Everyone indulge in something you
Speaker:love. That's the one I'm taking away. I don't know what it's going to be.
Speaker:I think overindulging in chocolate might be bad for me, but, hey,
Speaker:Patricia said I should do it. So indulge in something you love.
Speaker:Any final words you have for our audience before I let you go back
Speaker:to this beautiful day.
Speaker:Wow. So no pressure.
Speaker:I'm going to say that what I learned through being
Speaker:kind to myself and learning to rest more and
Speaker:following joy and dreams is
Speaker:don't be afraid to go after what you really want.
Speaker:Don't let things stand in your way. And if people are
Speaker:negative the whole time to your idea,
Speaker:you're talking to the wrong person. Find a new crowd.
Speaker:It will happen. It happens slowly, but yeah,
Speaker:just try it out. Just jump. See what happens.
Speaker:Just jump. That's my life advice. Just jump. Just jump.
Speaker:All right. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. This is Janice@thecareintra.com
