Let's Start a Podcast...Why Not?

Welcome back to our blog!

One of the main reasons why the three of us work so well together is because whatever skill one person lacks, another one specializes in. So far, Alice has been leading us through the entire process of creating ACtS United (including all the lovely paperwork), not only because that’s what a CEO does, but also because leading and making big decisions is something she’s naturally good at...that’s why we made her CEO. As CCO, Michelle has been taking the lead on social media, website building, and logo/art design because her visual artistry and creativity far surpasses that of mine and Alice’s.

And so as we start to toss around the idea of creating a podcast, it was finally my turn to be the expert. Outside of ACtS United, I’m a singer/song-writer who mixes and produces all her own tracks. So I have some experience with sound mixing and how to edit a bunch of clips to make one cohesive track.

But before we could get to any of that, we had to sort out the logistics, something I despise. Starting off, does everyone have a decent quality mic? No. Ok, then is there a way for us to safely record together with only one mic? Not likely. Alright, how about we try to find a reasonably priced mic for those of us who don’t have one and record over Zoom? Ok, that idea seems to be doable. What about the slight time delay? I can fix that. It was tedious, but as the three of us met over Zoom and continued to brainstorm some topics, we came up with a few solid ideas and my excitement grew once more. Especially as another task was handed to me to make our podcast more official: compose a jingle.

Pretty much any time I sit down to write some music, it’s to process an emotion or tell a personal story. But writing a jingle is different because it comes with guidelines as it must serve a specific purpose. The three of us sat down and listened to some example jingles to try and get a sense of what vibe we wanted. We settled on a fun, upbeat, kinda folky, anime-opening type sound. Although this composition approach is different from what I’m used to, it was fun to try a different method of expressing my musicality. I experimented with some funky chords and finally put together a progression I thought sounded cool. It really only took a few drafts (which is very minimal in the realm of music writing) to have a finished product we were all happy with.

I hope you’ll check out our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, or our website to listen to the finished product and learn a bit more about us as individuals and our takes on some hot topics such as mental health, sustainability, and more!

- Christiana, Co-founder & COO