Teresa Blaes’ first podcast didn’t work.
Instead of walking away from podcasting, she learned from it.
Years later, Teresa has built and hosted multiple shows, published more than 200 episodes of Unresolved Life, launched a podcast production business with her husband, and discovered that podcasting could become something far more personal than simply creating content.
In this episode of My Podcast Story, Teresa shares why her first podcast struggled, the importance of choosing a clear niche, what she learned from trying to produce daily episodes, and why she eventually reduced her publishing schedule to something she could sustain.
We also talk about building several different podcasts around different interests, growing shows through real interaction on social media, turning podcast production into a business, and why even 10 or 20 listeners can represent real people whose lives may be affected by what you publish.
Teresa also shares the deeper role podcasting played in helping her open up about painful parts of her past—and how years behind the microphone eventually helped prepare her to write Protected, a book she spent four years avoiding and another year finally bringing to life.
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Connect with Teresa Blaes
Book: Protected: A Story of Survival, Faith, and Redemption
Website: https://protectedbook.com
Chapters
00:00 When a Podcast Changes Someone’s Life
00:40 Meet Teresa Blaes
00:58 The Podcasts Teresa Currently Hosts
01:28 The First Podcast That Didn’t Work
01:46 How Unresolved Life Started
02:36 Reaching More Than 200 Episodes
02:52 Starting More Podcasts Around Different Interests
04:16 Building a Football Podcast for Fun
04:50 Starting The Equipped Podcast With Her Husband
05:33 Running Four Podcasts at Once
05:43 The Listener Message Teresa Never Forgot
07:33 The Moment She Understood the Power of Podcasting
08:37 Why Podcasting Is Such an Intimate Medium
09:19 Hearing From Listeners With Similar Stories
09:49 Why 10 Downloads Still Represent 10 Real People
10:50 Starting Without Any Podcasting Experience
11:00 Why Her First Podcast Failed
11:13 The Importance of Niching Down
12:07 Turning Failure Into a Learning Experience
12:47 Trying to Produce Two Daily Podcasts
13:10 Why Teresa Switched From Daily to Weekly
13:34 Why Podcasting Is a Long Game
14:32 Building a Podcast Production Agency
15:02 The Story Behind Kadosh Media Productions
16:09 Learning Podcast Production While Building the Business
16:40 Who Kadosh Media Works With
18:58 How They Found Their First Podcast Clients
19:12 What Teresa Has Learned About Growing Podcasts
19:37 Using Social Media to Grow a Show
20:14 Why Social Media Is the New Town Square
20:33 Interaction vs. Simply Posting Podcast Links
21:17 Why Good Content Creates an Obligation to Share It
22:04 Marketing the Why Behind Your Work
22:32 How Teresa and Her Husband Work Together
23:10 Monetizing Four Different Podcasts
23:37 Promoting the Podcast Production Business
24:17 Why Each Podcast Has Its Own Website
24:46 Building a Podcast Network
25:37 Looking Back on Years of Podcasting
26:08 The Personal Impact Podcasting Had on Teresa
26:53 Why She Can’t Imagine Walking Away From Podcasting
27:20 Finally Writing Protected
28:08 How Podcasting Helped Prepare Her to Write the Book
29:22 Four Years Avoiding the Book and One Year Writing It
30:19 Why Teresa Was Afraid to Tell Her Story
30:31 Podcasting as a Bridge Into Sharing Difficult Experiences
31:08 Where to Find Teresa Blaes and Her Work
