Even with our podcast, you know, we're, we're giving our messages every day and we sit at home alone with our microphones. You know, sometimes we're lucky enough to, to interview somebody and connect with someone in another part of the world, but we forget, I think that every time that we get behind the mic, we do have a chance to build a community that matters, something that's meaningful.
And I just, I think that story, I'm really glad you shared it because I feel like everyone needs to know that you don't just have to be a podcaster. You don't just have to be a true crime podcaster. You don't have to just be a health and wellness guru. You can be so much more. And I just think it's awesome. Well, you know, when we started broadcasting out of necessity, ours was interactive. I didn't know enough about swimming.
So we had this chat room where we oftentimes would have coaches tuning in, college coaches that were watching recruits and they would like, give me information and hey, that kid just set a new record. I'm like, oh, great. And so we've really established the whole social, you know, live streaming is not TV. So don't use it. It's so much more than TV. It's a step up beyond TV. So I get irritated when I see people just live streaming and talking at you. Social media is social. So open that up.
And it's a great way to build that trust and to build those relationships. And it's one of the reasons people will stay a part of your podcast audience. That's awesome. So basically it's almost like throughout your entire messaging, you shouldn't just be waiting till the end of your episode to leave a call to action and said, you should be, you know, it's something in this resonates with you, tweet us at RSS, you know, that kind of thing.
And so I love that idea and I never really thought of it that way. So. All right. I'll be taking lots of notes from this. And one of the things that you said in the book that I really liked is you said, our communities are a direct reflection of ourselves. All of these communities from the ones I built to the ones I was simply a part of, have brought me closer to the human experience and allowed me to walk a few steps in other people's shoes. Speak to me a little bit about that.
What, uh, speak to me a little bit about that. You know, for me, because I am such an introvert, I mean, I'm in my sweet spot right here, sitting behind a camera, just talking to you and then we're done. And I'm back in my lower permit shelf. Um, that is perfect for me, but there are other people that it's not. I mean, my husband's an extrovert extrovert. He needs to be out amongst the people. So the communities that we build and we're active in, they really are a reflection of ourselves.
So I was really good at building the online audience there. My husband was really great at being actually talking with the swimmers and talking with the people. So first you have to know your personal comfort zone with where you want to be when building your audience.
Um, podcasting may be great for you because you do have this passion, this voice that you want to do, but that microphone is a great audience for you rather than standing in front of, you know, 20 people getting interaction that way. So you have to know your comfort zone there. But the other thing that I do feel strongly about with community is community. The actual word, it means more than one.
Even, and I talk about this in my book, I talk about the community of one, meaning the conversation is happening in your head. You're going to have the naysayer, you know, the self doubt, the imposter syndrome, you're going to have the cheerleaders saying, Oh, I think I can do this. So you do have even in your own head, it's a community of voices.
So looking outward to our actual communities, our podcast audience, you know, need to be able to understand where they're coming from, what they're thinking. If your goal is to truly grow that audience, then you have an obligation to be thinking about how to engage them. And so you're going to need their feedback. You can't assume what they know or what they understand or what they want. So you're going to have to get that feedback from them.
And many times that means being empathetic, having a listening ear on finding that feedback any way that you can.