004: Bold Conversations for Women in Business with Jennifer Barcelos and Sandy Connery

Carli van Heerden
October 15, 2023

There’s a pervasive stigma that tells women to keep the peace, make sure everyone is happy, and put themselves last. Turns out, that approach doesn’t work in business! The people-pleasing tendencies often ingrained in us hold a lot of sway, but solely putting out safe topics that don’t draw criticism won’t grow or hold your audience. No one wants to listen to boring podcasts! This is the bold stance of today’s guests, Jennifer Barcelos and Sandy Connery, who are the brains behind the Marvelous software platform, the founders of And She Coaching Co. What’s more, and the hosts of the incredible podcast, And She Spoke, where they unleash the tactics and mindset required to build and run online businesses raking in six figures and more.

In our conversation, we get to the heart of genuine podcasting and the importance of tackling bold and often untouched topics, as Jeni and Sandy are all about stepping up the quality of their content and making a big impact on people’s lives. We also discuss the importance of embracing diverse reactions in a content-driven world and our guests advocate for ditching perfectionism and allowing room for growth as you start your content creation journey. We barely scratched the surface in this episode, but be sure to tune in today to learn more about why Jeni and Sandy are dead-set on creating content that moves people and changes lives.

Takeaways From This Episode:

We dive head first into what Jeni and Sandy do through Marvelous, And She Coaching Co, and the joy they find in hosting their podcast. They share what their journey was like when they started the podcast and why they wish they had known that releasing episodes more frequently and being “more strategic” from the get-go could have impacted their growth exponentially.

Quality is important to our guests. They offer their take on creating “dope shit” and how this mindset can lead to extraordinary work. Jeni and Sandy also share the unexpected benefits of starting their podcast, including bigger networking opportunities, relationships, and collaborations that would never have happened if it weren’t for the instantaneous connections they established through podcasting interviews.

The And She Spoke Podcast is a sacred space for important conversations. We find out how Jeni and Sandy decided on their podcast format, how learned to say no with ease, why they almost never accept cold pitches from people who want to come on their show, and why they believe in setting a high bar for their guests.

There are various ways that you can measure the success of your podcast. Jeni and Sandy do it using metrics-driven outcomes that include the number of downloads, DMs, comments, text messages, and the responses they get (from people they know or don’t know). The caliber of guests, the number of episodes per week, and creating work that could change someone’s life are other metrics to consider.

The best episodes are the ones that you might be slightly afraid to air! Jeni and Sandy say that they’ve become criticism seekers and explain why the key to dealing with responses, good or bad, is to practice being okay with all the different reactions that will come if you put out thought-provoking content. External validation shouldn’t be your driver. Create content based on what you want to say (and, for goodness sake, stop with the people-pleasing!)

Jeni and Sandy share their advice for listeners who feel like they’re not putting out the “dope shit” they dream of, why evolving and changing is part of being a creator, and the importance of being adaptable if you’re reaching for success. What’s inside the package should be more important than the packaging. Try refocusing the energy that you put into stressing about appearances into the work itself and the people you want to reach.

Quotes:

“I wish we had released episodes more frequently early on. Because of when we got started and the timing of podcasting, I think we could have grown our show much bigger and much more quickly had we released episodes more than once a week.” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:07:42]

“People get addicted to the show when you’re more frequent. It just becomes a part of the cadence of their daily lives.” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:09:02]

“[Podcasting] is a much bigger networking opportunity than most people realize.” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:12:20]

“We are protective of our audience. Our show is like a sacred space for us. It’s like our little corner of the universe where we have the important conversations that we want to have, whether they’re with each other or with someone that we’ve curated to be on the show.” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:17:33]

“If people are moved by what we’re doing or their life is changed in some way, then that’s success to me.” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:21:57]

“For females, we’ve been just told, ‘You keep the peace. Make sure everybody’s happy with you. Make sure everyone’s okay. Take care of them before you.’ That absolutely 1,000% doesn’t work in business and it doesn’t work as a podcaster.” — @sandyconnery [0:24:48]

“The only way out is through. The only way you get to be good at podcasting or anything else is by being bad at it [first].” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:27:21]

“Get to [a] place where you can put out great ideas and great content and get used to the idea that there’s going to be some people who maybe don’t like you so much.” — @sandyconnery [0:30:27]

“[Podcasting] is an industry that is not going anywhere. It’s just continuing to grow and be more and more embedded in the daily lives of so many people in the world.” — @iamjenibarcelos [0:32:48]