We will be talking with Meghan Enriquez today from True Conversations. We’re going to hear how she started a podcast to grow her movement, how she grew the podcast into a network, and how she fosters engagement with her target audience. She also is hosting an event at the end of September 2017, so listen for that later.
How Meghan got into podcasting
Meghan was not looking to become a podcasters. She started her company, True Conversations, back in January 2016 after shifting career goals and being home with 2 young children. She felt there was a need to change the culture in how we communicate and lead. True Conversations started out being events and training, but one day at a lunch, the broadcaster for the Baltimore minor league team suggested podcasting as a useful platform for her to explore. Although Meghan at the time didn’t know what a podcast was, she soon saw the value of it as a medium for spreading the mission of True Conversations—to promote understanding around stigmatized issues—into the world. Although she didn’t know how to do it, she knew she could learn, and so that’s what she did. It has been the biggest blessing and best decision she made around True Conversations.
From one podcast to a whole network
In order to cover the breadth of issues and all the life and human experiences that deserve to be talked about, Meghan realized she’d need to open up the podcast network. That way, a variety of people can have it as a platform and a safe space to respectfully bring to the table stories, networks and topics that Meghan personally didn’t have experience with. People were invited to have their own show as long as they were willing to maintain the same sort of vibe of having true conversations that are real, transparent, uplifting and empowering, being respectful of all sides of an issue and promoting the culture of spreading understanding.
So much of what overwhelms our social media dialogue right now is arguing, pettiness and taking sides, and that’s part of the reason all the shows on the network are on the same podcasting channel: it means listeners bump into and naturally come across topics, conversations and perspectives that they might have otherwise have avoided due to the personalization in how news is consumed these days. The diversity aspect is really important and what pushed Meghan to create the network.
Before the podcast, there were live events
True Conversations began by hosting small coffee shop events with a panel of people from as many sides of an issue as possible and having a true conversation around it. The first event was about redefining the health journey and featured four people living a health journey and going about it very differently, with different beliefs. The goal was to normalize that whatever you choose is good for you. Other topics have included world peace, faith and body image. True Conversations also has a contributor-fed blog, which was a way to allow people from different walks of life to have their space on the platform before the podcast came about.
This year, the vision is for the events to culminate into an annual larger event on a central topic, which will happen with the first annual True Conversations Live Event on September 30th in Baltimore. The topic this year is entrepreneurship, and the event will feature a screening of the She Started It documentary as well as the true conversations panel discussion with local female entrepreneurs. Being that September 30th is International Podcast day, Meghan is inviting local podcasters to come to the event for free, interview people and cover the event.
Live interactions and conversations online
A few months ago Meghan began to do weekly Facebook lives every Thursday at 7pm Eastern as another way to...