73. Girl's Guide to Building Community, Dating, and Creating Your Podcast Empire with my Podcast Producer, Elizabeth Evans

Brittany: Hi friends. Welcome to the Life with Loverly podcast. I'm Brittany, a wife, mom, and lifestyle entrepreneur here to help you discover your best daily style and encourage you to try new things when getting dressed each day, I took a tiny following on social media and turned it into a community of over 1 million amazing women, and I am so glad you're here. I'll be sharing my heart with you beyond the 15 seconds on Instagram. So we'll be diving into things like personal growth, friendships, motherhood, marriage, and of course the business of blogging. Really, this space is here to serve as your go-to resource to building a life you adore while sprinkling some kindness to others along the way. Grab a nice coffee and let's do life together. I'm Brittany, and this is The Life with Loverly podcast!

Hi friends! My guest today is my podcast producer Elizabeth Evans. Elizabeth and I first met in Nashville last year through a mutual friend when I was wanting to level up Life with Loverly. Elizabeth's agency, Elizabeth Evans Media is a 360 boutique podcast studio helping bestselling authors, award-winning musicians and impactful content creators strategically build their show from concept to launch with dozens of top show launches, her uniquely created methodology creates transformative podcasts full of timeless quality conversations that empower listeners into extraordinary action. And while she gives straightforward advice at the end of the episode on how to start a podcast and how to build a business, we mostly focus on her personal and love life in this episode. So single girls, this one's for you. We covered her recent move from Nashville to Austin and how to find your people in your city life as a single girly think dating apps, how to not settle, finding yourself in the process and how to build a business along the way. Her insider info on exactly where to go for the full Nashville experience, things I had never even heard of, and of course, three things you need to start a podcast today. This conversation is the kind of girlfriend's guide to finding yourself before finding your partner and maybe even building your dream business and life along the way. Here's my conversation with my podcast producer, Elizabeth Evans.

Elizabeth: Hi! How are you?

Hi, Brittany. I'm doing so good! I'm so honored to be here!

Brittany: I know it's kind of funny as we're prepping, I'm like, this is crazy because usually she's doing all this prep for me behind the scenes and now we're just like going to continue the conversation together.

Elizabeth: Now we're just chatting. I just love working alongside of you and your team because one, you guys are so organized, but two, because you're so organized, it makes it fun so that we can have fun side conversations. I'm of course wearing a lovely gray inspired dress today, which we did have the thought, what happens if we both show up in the same dress, but even better? So it's just been really fun to learn alongside of you while also working alongside of you. Because of the organization, we can have fun and be creative. So I'm just endlessly inspired and motivated by the way that you run your team.

Brittany: Well, You're the best and it's honestly been such a dream to work with somebody who knows so much about the podcast industry, which we're going to get into in a little bit, and it's just this past year that we've been together has just been so much fun. I'm really excited for future seasons too. I think we're just getting started.

Elizabeth: I feel like you've really ramped up this last season and a half. You're interviewing skills. You just seem like you're really in the flow.

Brittany: Thanks. It's all thanks to your inspiration and just, I don't know, you present us with, "Hey, what if we interviewed this person?" I'm like, that person wants to come on my podcast? And you're like, well, let's ask. So I feel like we've just been a great team. So good.

Elizabeth: Well, thank you. Very excited when you first started following me. I think I was with my friend Tara, and I was like, I think this person just started following me on accident was how that initially was in my brain. I was like, I think she hit the wrong button.

Brittany: Wait, is Tara the one that, was that the concert?

Elizabeth: Yes! You did meet Tara very briefly. Yeah, at the very sad RIP Taylor Swift concert Situation.

Brittany: Yeah, so if you guys remember, Nichelle and I missed the concert. We were going with Elizabeth and her friend Tara, and it was just, we saw them as they were getting their car out of LA as we were checking into the hotel about five hours past. That was tough.

Elizabeth: It was like a 3:00 AM moment, but I will tell you, Brittany's makeup and hair, you stayed snatched at 3:00 AM I had been out drenched in the rain and you had been traveling for 12 hours. And I was like, we do not look the same. When you and Nichelle walked up. I was like, whatever you're doing, I need to be doing. Because after 12 hours of travel and what you guys had been through and it was 3:00 AM and were hugging each other outside the hotel, I was like, I'll have whatever she's doing in three of it because you guys were doing a good job.

Brittany: Well, I appreciate that, but in the exact moment I would've loved to have what you are having as a completely drenched outfit, but I feel like we got to redeem this. We're going to see Taylor at some point. I don't know when, but we can maybe do it like a round two.

Elizabeth: I will believe in you guys for sure, and I'll let Camila know. She is my friend that sings backup for Taylor, and that's where she got us those amazing seats. So if anything else happens to come around, of course you guys will be my number one call.

Brittany: You just call us. Yes. Okay. So you guys or you just moved to Austin from Nashville?

Elizabeth: Yeah, I did!

Brittany: Okay. How was the move? Tell me all the things.

Elizabeth: Okay. It was kind of scary to be very real, it was really best decision I've made in a long time, but I moved from Nashville to Austin just a couple months ago, and so I moved to Nashville in 2016. When I first moved to Nashville, I felt specifically called to Nashville. I felt like God had laid on my heart. Nashville is where you're supposed to go, but this time when I moved to Austin, it just more so felt like God was like, your time is up in Nashville for now, but let's choose together where you want to go next. And so that for me was a lot scarier because I didn't have the direct clarity, but it did feel like it was kind of me maturing in my faith. It wasn't just like God spoonfeeding me. He was like, let's kind of go through this together sort of thing.

So Brittany, my initial plan when I moved was I'm just going to find a small house to rent for eight months. Fully furnished would be great. So that way if I get there and I'm like, this is just not what I thought it was going to be, no harm, no foul, I'll just go back to Nashville and we'll just call the lesson learned. So put all of my stuff in storage in Nashville, found the most perfect spot in the neighborhood that guy had dreamt up moving to in Austin. Plans didn't quite go accordingly, and so there was a little bug problem that then turned into a big bug problem. I am not a bug girl. And so I think what ended up happening was there was a garden outside that had an irrigation system that would water it every hour. And so that was just attracting all of those little suckers in there.

And so when I tell you I had 48 hours to basically find a new place and then went back to Nashville for a few weeks, packed everything up in a 26 foot U-haul because I didn't trust any movers because I had just heard such horror stories. So my friend Caitlin was like, I'll ride with you. So I hired movers to put everything in this 26 foot and I drove it from Nashville, Tennessee to Austin, Texas, met my movers on the other side and they unloaded everything. And so I always tell people that taught me so much though because I felt it was time for me to move, but it was not a peaceful soft landing. So if somebody does feel like a call from a word to do something and it's not necessarily easy on the other side, that is not to say that you made the wrong decision. I am so happy I'm in Austin. It was just not a soft landing.

Brittany: It sounds like it's a good thing that you didn't sell all of your stuff and that you had that as an option.

Elizabeth: What would I have done? It was one of those things I was like, did I hear from the Lord incorrectly on this? We'll see if we want to keep this in or not. But my sweet mother, when you're not married and you have a problem, you call your mom. I don't know, maybe you still do, right?

Brittany: You still do!

Elizabeth: And so she was just praying for me. Her bible study was praying for me. We were trying to figure out what to do. So she had just, I think met her Witts end and she was like, Elizabeth, you're 34. Go to urgent care, get a Xanax and get it together.

Brittany: You're like, okay, yes maam.

Elizabeth: Can you get Xanax at urgent care? I still don't know, but my sweet.

Brittany: Okay, I was about to say can you?

Elizabeth: I never followed through on her advice. For whatever reason, Brittany, it was so shocking. It shocked me out of my spiral of doubt. And I was like, I got this. And then she told me, she's like, you're steel Magnolia. You're a Texas wildflower. Then she gave me the scripture and the promises that I needed, but it wasn't after the urgent care Xanax advice.

Brittany: Listen, I mean, I will say having a few doctor friends, they have some benefits here to be make a few phone calls call inthe goods in the time of need, and then add some Bible verses and...

Elizabeth: Keep it going, keep it going, find a new place, you get settled and then you figure it out.

Brittany: So is your new place, is it good vibes, you love it? Does it feel like it's going to be like what you were expecting?

Elizabeth: And more honestly, it wasn't the area of town that I thought. And so when I initially moved to Austin, I was much closer to the downtown area. I'm not a city girl. I really thought that I could be. And so I'm a little further outside the city, maybe like 15 minutes outside the city, but there's a place called Dripping Springs out in Austin, Texas, and it's a little bit more, I wouldn't say hill country, but maybe close. And so I do have a lot of friends that are out there, so this way I'm closer to them and to downtown and they feel a little bit more safe too and bug free. So...

Brittany: Listen, your girl does not do bugs, so I get it. No. respect.

Elizabeth: I had to be very brave for about a month.

Brittany: Oh gosh. Yeah, no, thank you. We were at a friend's house, one of my new neighbors, we were at their house the other day in the pool and this giant, I'm talking like a toad this big, was swimming and then would come up for air and swim back down, and there were six girls and they're all just like, ah, screaming little squeals. And we're trying to catch it. The mom and I are like, we have to be the adults. We have to,

Elizabeth: You could do it.

Brittany: Put on our big girl baby. Yes, it was a whole thing. We finally got the frog out and the kids just were like, then they were afraid to get back in.

Elizabeth: Of course.

Brittany: Okay, so how has the transition been for you as a single girl in the city?

Elizabeth: I have loved moving to a new spot. And what I'll say about that is it is scary making a lot of life decisions on your own. And that's probably one of the harder things about being single and making life decisions is you don't really have a person to bounce your ideas off of. And so you're always just sort of in this, at least for me, I can stay in a decision spiral because it's just me making these life decisions. But I loved my time in Nashville and I trade that really for anything. But there were certain things that I think being in Austin, it's such an active city, it's such an outdoor city, and so with something in relation to your relationship status, you can't just change that overnight. So even if you desire to be in a relationship, you really can't do anything about it.

And so for me, it's a mindset game until you find your person. And so being active and being outdoors just resets me so much. So every morning I get up, I walk around town lake and just being in the energy of people being outside has been such a game changer for me and Nashville just wasn't that active. And so I know that when you move, you are not fixing all of your problems, but if you do have an element that you can find yourself a little bit more easily in a new city, I absolutely suggest that. So I tell people, I feel like I've been able to kind of access more seamlessly the most genuine version of myself after moving. And so it's been fun, it's been scary, but I do feel like from a mindset perspective and from a clean slate perspective, it's been really, really helpful.

Brittany: Yeah, no, I love that. Okay, so people always ask, we moved here from Atlanta to Athens, which is an hour, so that's like nothing compared to what you just did, but still moving to a new city nonetheless. And I grew up here, so I had some friends that I still connected back with, but how, or do you have any suggestions? People are always asking, how do you get integrated in a new city? How do you get yourself out there? How do you meet new people? What kind of suggestions do you have for them that maybe you're currently putting into practice?

Elizabeth: I love this question. I love meeting new people and it kind of is a little bit of an art form. So this is my second life overhaul, so obviously I moved to Nashville and I was completely starting over, kind of same thing with Austin. And so I was able to repeat some of the tactics and techniques in Austin and it worked again. So the first thing that I like to tell people is find a spot that you want to be a regular at. And so in the morning, go to the same coffee shop at the same time, order the same thing, and so you'll at least feel like you're known in a part of a city that way. For me, in Nashville, well slash Franklin, it was the urban market. Have you been to the urban market when you would visit Nashville? Amazing. No, I really ever shot trying to be a regular somewhere.

I was really a regular at the urban market, and so I found my place here to kind of do the same thing. And so they would say, oh, Elizabeth, welcome back. You want the regular. And so for me, that just helped to feel settled and I would just get a black coffee so you not have to bring the bank to do that. Another thing that I like to do is if I need to get out of the house to get some work done and maybe I need to get some food, I try to go to a restaurant between three and five because a lot of people won't be there. And if I am working, I'm not taking up space for other people to come. And again, you kind of get to know the staff, you get to know what's special on the menu, so when you have people come visit, you can be like, oh, this person that works at this restaurant suggested this specific dish to me. And it's just kind of a cool experience when people come to visit. Another thing that I have found that has been very helpful for me is Austin has a lot of community events, and so I've gotten back into running, not like Chris, your husband has gotten into running, but two to three mile running and love that we have a fleet feet here and it's like a running store. Do they have that in Georgia too?

Brittany: We have one in Athens actually. Okay.

Elizabeth: They are amazing at putting on group events and runs three or four times a week. And it's one of those things where if you're running, you can kind of talk, but if you don't want to, you also don't have to. But it's a community event, so everybody's looking to kind of meet somebody. So find something that you enjoy doing and then find an area in the community where you can show up and meet other people doing similar things and other things that other people like doing with you. And then because I am a Christian, I got really involved with the church pretty early on, and so one of my closest friends, she was the only person I really knew when I moved to Austin, she and her husband pastor a church, and that was just so helpful to get ingrained so quickly. But I'll tell if anybody is listening and you do go to church and you try to meet people and it doesn't work out, and if you leave on a Sunday morning from church and more lonely than when you came, please DM me.

I have been there and it's really hard when you really try to put yourself out there and you leave feeling more lonely than when you walked in. So give it a shot and give people grace. But that can kind of be hard if you're putting yourself out there. But those are my four biggest pro tips is become a regular at a coffee shop, go somewhere between three and five, meet some of the people in the town at a restaurant, find a community event that you like to do with other people, and then if you feel so led to be involved with the church, that has really expedited my ability to feel very deeply connected to people very quickly.

Brittany: And I am hearing a lot of what you just suggested is being very intentional, as you were saying, talking with the staff, getting some of what are some favorite menus, but then you are going to use that information later when you have a friend in town to be like, oh yeah, it's as simple as pulling out the notes in your phone and just writing out favorite restaurant. Here's the special, this is the waitress that told me this and saving all of that. I used to do that when we moved here. I had a note of my neighbor to the right, this is their names, my neighbor to the left is this name. Then there's times I would be like, what are their names again? Or haven't seen them in a while, but if you were intentional at the front end of that, I feel like that can be really helpful in just remembering and having something to show for that.

Elizabeth: That's such a good point because that is where you start to get into the storytelling of your life as well, and then you're able to share it with other people and maybe that's it. Maybe that's just the heart of it is finding things that you want to share with other people. And sometimes you have to be the pioneer to do that, to figure out what those menu items are or what those group community events are, but you really are just looking to share those intentional moments with other people, and that's really a gift to them. What a gift it was that you were intentional enough to remember and write down and almost study your neighbor's names and their likes so that if they do, whether they need something later on down the road or a pick me up or it does provide that sense of community and feeling known. So that's a really good idea. Honestly, I'm terrible with names. I'll almost remember your phone number before I'll remember your name. So that's a really, really good life hack too.

Brittany: Yeah, I need to actually pull that back out with my neighbors. In our new neighborhood, I have their names in numbers in a group text thread with our neighborhood, but then I'm like, wait, where does she live and what is her husband's name? And I'll be with my best friend and we'll pass somebody. I'm like, okay, now who is that? So I need to do that again for once we actually get moved in the neighborhood, I'll know who my neighbors are. I'm so

Elizabeth: Excited for the house. It's been so fun to follow along, especially as a bi, I feel like I,

Brittany: Yeah, well, and I feel like you probably know even just a little bit more, we talk weekly and sometimes we give updates, but I feel like I, it's kind of a boring following along with the house right now for followers and listeners. There hasn't really been any crazy. We've just been doing it for over a year now, and now I'm like, I feel like I don't have any cool updates, nothing exciting. I mean, it's very exciting, but

Elizabeth: Drywall's in it's like that's not really fun to show. Cool emotionally that feels great, but from a progress perspective, I can see it's not necessarily the most Instagram bull aesthetic to show what's going on behind the scenes. So it's been fun for me to follow along, but I don't have my heart invested of waiting for the process. You would.

Brittany: Yeah, it's a good time, for sure. Okay. How would you say to not fall behind being single?

Elizabeth: Yeah, it's a good question because I think for me personally, and I do wonder if other people can relate to this, is I was always a long-term relationship girl. I was in a lot of four year long relationships and I don't know why four is the magic number, but whenever I talk to other people, they're like, yeah, me too. It was always four years. And then kind of take your split ways. And so I think for me, I have grace now looking back on the younger version of myself that would stay in these relationships that she knew she didn't necessarily want to stay in or maybe it wasn't healthy or I just didn't have the emotional tools or resources to leave some of those relationships at the time. And so I was off the market for almost all of my twenties and into my early thirties.

So of course I haven't necessarily found my person. And so I think for me, what I have then kind of changed my mind on was what was I doing in these relationships? What was keeping me when I knew I should leave, and then what can I change and do differently now? And so I would find that I would almost turn up dials and knobs of my personality for the other person. And it wasn't necessarily that I was fully abandoning myself. I was just given a little bit of a heightened version in certain areas that I knew that they would. It was the people pleasing coming up. And so then we would kind of go our separate ways and I would typically in the relationship and get into another one. So having grace for the younger version of myself that repeated that cycle for a long time, and now I really view life almost in seasonal assignments.

And I do believe being a follower of Jesus, we have our purpose set in Jesus no matter what, but I think there's different times in life where we have different life assignments. For a while, for me that was moving to Nashville and then I felt like that assignment was closing. And so coming to Austin, and I think that can be the same for relationships and friendships too. Right now I really feel like a large part of my assignment is to build community here in Austin. And for some people, maybe for you right now, your life assignment is to really focus on your marriage. Obviously that would be a long-term purpose of being a mom and a wife, but I think there's just certain assignments that God gives us to really focus on. And so in this season of my life, I've really been able to develop maybe over the last three years more so a life.

I just love living. I love waking up and being able to experience that every day. And there isn't this kind of low hum of anxiety of should I be in this relationship or not. And so I think that's how I don't feel behind is because I feel very grounded in my overall purpose, but also my seasonal assignment. My assignment is not yours and yours is not mine. And being able to win the day and feel the day and go to sleep knowing I accomplished what I wanted to for that day, inviting the Lord into it, and then starting the next day with a clean slate. I just feel so much purpose and I really feel like I'm creating a life that I love living. And maybe that's later than most people do, but for me that helps me to not feel behind when I'm focused on what my seasonal assignment is versus focusing on what other people's looks like.

Brittany: And those are probably things that are going to be so attractive to somebody, like the person that you do meet that is your future husband. Those qualities that you are just so intently living in right now is going to be so attractive to them. And then you're going to be able to look back later and be like, I loved that season of my life and I lived and that was exactly what I needed. So that's so cool that you can already see that you're doing that right now and recognize that,

Elizabeth: And I hope so, and I want to be able to provide that for the person that I end up with too, of. I feel like I have had this season of my life where I have been able to really discover myself. I love my thirties way more than my twenties. I don't know if you would say the same thing, but

Brittany: I agree.

Elizabeth: I just feel so much more certain than who I am, and so I hope that the stability that I feel like I've been able to step into my full potential more so that stability will also help my person do the same thing. So yeah, that's how I view it though, is I just, when I'm focused on what my assignment is and even who it could be a friend, I'm just not as worried about what other people are doing,

Brittany: Which is such a great attribute. What would you say is the best part of being single and the hardest part of being single?

Elizabeth: Okay, the best part. I mean, sometimes personally, the biggest decision I have to make that week is what outfit of Brittany's am I going to wear when I date? And my friends are trying to keep small humans alive. Those problems are not the same. So I think for me, just even from my life problems right now where yesterday there might be more emotionally driven of wanting to find my person, but I just have to worry about me and there is something very relieving about that. So I don't want to waste that time while I still have the brain capacity and the time and the energy of being single. So it's probably, I would say the best part and the hardest part, this might also sound silly, but Sundays are hard for me, especially leaving church. I love going to church and love being with my people, but then you go home and you're like, oh, I'm still alone.

So I would say as silly as that sounds like Sundays are really hard. So my girls and I call it single Sundays, we'll try to get dinner, we'll try to go for a walk or do something or get ready for the week, but that's probably the hardest part is actually a specific day. You still want to feel that Sundays are family days, you still want to fill that void. So yeah, best part is I just have to worry about me and my date outfits. And then the hardest part is the whole day of the week.

Brittany: Okay. So let's talk about dating apps. You've mentioned dates. Do we love them? Do we hate them? Do you have any tips? Funny stories?

Elizabeth: Yes. I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I don't mind dating apps. I think that they're actually really helpful to meet people. My number one pro tip that I would probably say as far as dating apps go, so I've only used Bumble. I'm not currently on it, but I've only used Bumble. I haven't used Hinge or any of the others. But on Bumble, the girl has to be the first to reach out. So you match, but then you have to start the conversation, which I get from a safety perspective. But after a while it's hard being clever and funny of your first entryway into a conversation. And so I was like my business brain, I was like, I have to systemize this a little bit. So what I would do is I would love that look through the guy's profile, and if they had a dog or a pizza or a beer or whatever it is in the picture, I would literally just say that one word with an exclamation point and send it off to 'em. So that way it's uncovering that you have something similar in common, but they're still the ones that have to really start and initiate the conversation. Just like fish! or dog!, it takes a lot of the work off of you. But I would say too, if you're not on a dating app, I think the easiest way to meet people is to be out and about at a coffee shop, but don't wear headphones. It's very difficult for a guy to approach if you're wearing headphones and I don't know, I

Brittany: Also feel like headphones is sort of the universal sign for Don't talk to me.

Elizabeth: Yes. And if they do still tap you on the shoulder with headphones on, it's probably not your person anyways. It's

Brittany: Kind of like on a plane, I purposefully put my headphones in because I'm like, I don't want to talk. I recently had a guy sitting next to me and he just kept so, and I would be like, yes, I am still listening to the book. Is Austin, would you say it's a good dating scene? A lot to do, a lot of singles, because some cities I feel like don't move there if you're single because there's nothing to do or nobody who else is single lives there. But I feel like Austin's got some good vibes.

Elizabeth: I don't know, again, if this is a hot take. I've had really good dating experiences in Austin so far. The guys have been standup guys. There are a lot of really strong Christians here, which is what I'm looking for in a relationship. A lot of them are really entrepreneurially minded, and so they're pretty well off. They're business savvy. It is. I would say the age group is a little bit older in Austin than in Nashville, which I really appreciate. And they think the men here are a little bit more established in themselves and in their career versus Nashville. Nashville was a lot of musicians, which is fun. I had some really interesting and different types of experiences in Nashville seen behind the curtain of whether it was backstage or on buses, and that was a really fun experience. But if you're dating somebody that's on tour, they're gone half of the time, and so that's hard.Yeah, it's a really hard lifestyle. So that is what's a little bit more alluring to me in Austin is the guys are here, they're not touring musicians, they are a little bit more established and I don't know, I've had some really, really great dates. Obviously it hasn't led to anything, but I would say it's pretty good for the dating scene.

Brittany: Yeah, okay. That's good to know. Okay, so back to Nashville, since you did spend some time there. Let's say some of our listeners are wanting to plan a girls' trip to Nashville, what should we know? Okay.

Elizabeth: Nashville is such a fun place to visit if anybody is thinking about it.

Brittany: I love it. Yes.

Elizabeth: Are you guys going back anytime soon?

Brittany: No, but we can. Yeah, we'll come to Austin. Chris's best friend lives in Austin and his family, as you're saying all this, I'm like, I wonder if they have any friends.

Elizabeth: I'm here for it, I trust Chris' friends,.

Brittany: We'll come to Austin and see you and see them. But I love Nashville so much. There's so much to do. I feel like there's always just new things popping up. It's growing crazy and it feels like it is such a hotspot for a quick trip or girls weekend. Yes.

Elizabeth: So we'll plan even right here sitting here, we'll plan on Girls Weekend Austin and in Nashville. Yes. Let's do it. So one I would say is if you can get to something called a Writer's Round, have you been to one when you were visiting?

Brittany: Okay. No.

Elizabeth: Okay, so I didn't know what this was when I first moved, but a writer's round is essentially, it's like three to four songwriters will play the songs that they've written for artists that you hear on the radio. So a lot of times the artists are not actually writing their own songs or with other people. So it's kind of fun to be able to go to hear the songwriters tell the story behind the song and just to kind of hear how it evolved and how it was created. So again, it's usually three to four people on stage and they each sing one song at a time and then they just go through another round.

Brittany: So and anybody can go to that?

Elizabeth: Anybody can go to that. There's a couple places in town. The biggest one is probably called The Listening Room. And so a lot of times, because it's Nashville, Kelsey Ballerini or a Carly Pierce will show up if it is one of the writers that they're really close with. So there's usually some level of a celebrity appearance.

Brittany: That's cool.

Elizabeth: Yes. So my first writer's round, I had no idea what it was. My friend, I had just moved to Nashville and my friend was like, Hey, my sister-in-law's playing at this place. Do you want to come? I was like, sure. She's like, it's a writer's round. We'll meet at the Green room. And I was like, I don't know what a writer's round is, and I dunno how I'm going to find a room that's green, but I'm going to figure it out. I learned what the Writer's Round was in the Green Room, which I'm sure everybody knows is where the artists get ready before show.

And so her sister-in-law, she said it was Rachel, her stage name is Raelyn. And so this was my first kind of exposure into some country music world stuff. So this woman comes before the show is talking with Raelyn. I'm thinking it's maybe a Raelyn super fan. She's here with her kids, she's British. The woman was probably in her forties. We go to actually watch the Writer's Round. This woman, her name is Amy Wag, and she wrote every Ed Sheeran song, including Thinking Out Loud, and I was not, it was just so mind blowing to me. I was like, I really just thought she was here to introduce her kids to Raelynn. She wrote the biggest song of our entire generation. I was like, okay, Elizabeth, we're going to have to have a little bit more awareness here if we're going to be living in Nashville. And so go to Writers Rounds. You just really never know what's going to pop up. My favorite restaurant is probably called The Optimist. It's out in Germantown. Go get you some seafood. They have a really, really good margarita. Have you had the bread from there? No. Okay. The bread is amazing and to die for it, I think you might have to ask for it. It's just a free appetizer, but it's extremely memorable bread.

Brittany: I love a good bread situation, so that's great.

Elizabeth: Yes, add the optimist to the list. I do typically tell people to stay in the 12 South area. It's safe, it's fun. You can still walk to Frothy Monkey. It can be a little collegey, but I think it's still probably the most accessible to other places. And then if you do have a car, the two places I would say outside of Nashville to go is Franklin and then Leper Fork. So Franklin is a little Hallmark movie town. Go to Urban Market, say hi to Matt, to Ashley for me. They own that little spot. The Iron Gate is the most beautiful home decor spot in downtown Franklin, so definitely go in there. There's a frothy monkey, so get some coffee. And then Leaper's work is also a small town. It's probably 45 minutes outside the city, but they also have rider's rounds out at Fox and Luck and a little winery that you can go sit and get some wine and sit by the creek.

Brittany: Oh, that's fun. Yes.

Elizabeth: Those would be my top things that people, if you don't necessarily want to do the Broadway thing, which I dunno, maybe they do, but if you don't want to go listen to a ton of live music and it's just not very clean, these are some other things that you can do. Especially if, I dunno if somebody's bringing their mom, those would be the places I would suggest.

Brittany: I've never heard anybody suggest going to a writer's round. So I think that's such a cool hot take from this episode is that's something that you can do and anybody can be a part of, and that would be really cool to attend.

Elizabeth: Absolutely. And it's small. It's usually an intimate venue, so it's not going to be a big concert kind of thing. So look at the listening room. Obviously the Bluebird, they do writer's rounds and I think there might be a couple other places. Whiskey Jam is another kind of insider, like a local thing, and that's where artists really get discovered.

Brittany: That's awesome. Okay. Maybe we should plan a team trip to Nashville and then you can meet us there. Absolutely.

Elizabeth: Okay. I'm in.

Brittany: Okay. So I know you haven't been in Austin for long, but what if somebody was coming to Austin, what would you tell them to do?

Elizabeth: So Austin has a lot of taco places, which sounds silly, but honestly the taco and the queso here is it's top notch. So good. So one of my favorite places that I enjoy going. So East Austin is kind of similar to East Nashville where it's kind of artsy, creative musician sort of vibes, really good coffee shops over there. So there's a place called Greater Goods Coffee that is amazing. It's a big open, it almost feels like a garden area. So I would suggest there for coffee. There's a little brewery that is called Lazarus, and they have an amazing taco as well. And then just beer if you like that. I think they have a frozen cocktail, so you can kind of do those side by side. Swerte is over there as well. It's a great Mexican restaurant. And then a fun experience, I think a lot of people don't talk about a lot is a brunch place called Maddie's, and they have, it's this old almost plantation style white home. It's beautiful and they have peacocks all over walking the grounds and they're beautiful and the food is amazing. So go to Maddie's for brunch, eat some fried chicken and watch the peacocks walk around.

Brittany: Man. We're going to need to cut these specific parts of the podcast and save it to stories so that we can remember all these delicious restaurants because I feel like I need a trip to Austin now.

Elizabeth: The food scene here is really good. I mean the atmospheres are really great. It's pricey, don't get me wrong, but there's even this place, it's called a holiday on seventh. They have a frozen mezcal. I think it's a mezcal margarita. It's so

Brittany: Good. That sounds delicious.

Elizabeth: Yes. And ask for if somebody does come ask for a Mexican martini, I think is what it is. It's basically a martini, but with tequila instead. So if you like olives, but you still like tequila, it's great. That's a very Texas drink.

Brittany: It's a good crossover. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. I love that We're going to make some little clips with this to put on stories because I feel like this is some good takeaways for sure.

Elizabeth: If I stop podcast producing, I am going to now be an event planner. I'm just going to keep moving to all of these cities and give you guys the insider takes.

Brittany: I'll support that for you. Okay. I want to talk a little bit about some business related things because I feel like as an entrepreneur you have a lot of advice and I think a lot of people are just kind of want to know a little bit more about podcasting as a whole. And since that is what you do, I think it would be cool if you could tell us a little bit about your agency in the podcasting world.

Elizabeth: Yes. So I started the podcast agency really on accident back in 2018. It was one of those things that it really did happen On accident. I was working a nine to five and I was fully remote at the time, and I started to build up the skillset of marketing. So I started doing social media management, email marketing and website redesign was really how it got started. And then I was at the urban market, which I went to every single day in Nashville and ended up meeting my first podcast client and she said, can you help me launch my podcast? And I was very honest and I was like, I can launch physical products. I've never done something digital like a podcast, but let's go ahead and try this out. We ended up creating a strategy and she landed at, it was iTunes back then, number two on iTunes, and I was like, this might actually work.

Okay. Second client was Mallory, and so she said, can you do for me, Mallory Ervin, what you did for Jordan? And I was honest with her and I was like, I don't know if we just struck lightning in a bottle or if we can actually replicate this, did the exact same process. And she also ended at number two on the charts. So that was kind of birthed out of, I started to build up on the side this marketing skillset, and then I just reverse engineered everything I needed to know about the podcast side of the industry. And the biggest thing I think I learned was if somebody wanted to start a podcast, they had to hire a videographer and then an audio engineer, and then a designer, and then a copywriter, and then a researcher. And I was like, if I can create a one-stop shop for these people, whether it was a musician or a content creator, we have a lot of rodeo clients now too. I was like, I think this is where the gap in the market is.

Brittany: That's so interesting. So what made you say yes to when Jordan asked you? Were you just like, this could be fun project, or I guess what kind of really made you want to do this?

Elizabeth: So that specific morning when I went to the market, I didn't actually want to go. So there is a little bit of a story behind that, but I really felt like the Lord was three different times. I heard him say, go to the market, go to the market. And I was like, fine, I'm not putting makeup on, but I'm going to go. And so begrudgingly I went, I would follow Jordan on Instagram for a while, and I was like, okay, Lord, this is Nashville. You don't approach people. If you want to make this happen, you're going to have to make this happen. So she gets in front of me online to get food. She leaves her credit card at the cash register, and the guy that was working there was like, Hey, can you go give this back to this girl? She left her card and I was like, God, you answered that prayer so fast.

Brittany: You're like, wow,

Elizabeth: Okay. So I go and I, yes sir, hand Jordan back her credit card, and I think my laptop was open on my little place where I was working and drinking my coffee. And she was like, what is that? And I was like, I'm putting a marketing strategy together. And she said that the second I walked in, I was praying for somebody to help me do this with my podcast. We ended up having a couple false starts. She was also in the middle of writing her book, but that's where, to me, it was such a God opportunity that I was like, this is the time I need to take advantage of this. Her podcast performed so well, her publishers let her rewrite almost her entire book before it came out, and that was when I realized the powerful connection between podcasting and authorship. And so a lot of times we help our podcasters walk into first time publishing and we use the episodes to kind of beta test what content will perform really well in a book chapter.

Brittany: That's so fascinating. I know we've talked about that a little bit in the past too, which just having some of that in the back of my mind, I'm always like, this is so crazy to just all of the kind of backwards things that you do and then it creates something amazing.

Elizabeth: I mean, your level of influence and impact that you have built with your community, and I think extending into podcasting is so smart for you, for most brands in general, but for you to be able to really have a place to extend more of your heart than maybe just the 15 seconds on Instagram or 60 seconds on stories now. But I mean, you have such an amazing eye for fashion on your Loverly Grey handle, and then being able to have long form pieces of content that live there forever. You don't really have to worry about the algorithm. If people want to hear about whether it's your really intimate story with your miscarriage or Chris's sobriety or other things that have really made you and built up your character and integrity. They have a long list of episodes that will live there forever. So if you have a new follower, that podcast content is long form and evergreen. And so that's where I always tell people of, if you want to continue to just deepen the intimacy with the people that are following you in your community, number one way to expedite that trust.

Brittany: No, absolutely. Which sidebar, I feel like we should have Jordan on next season. Let's do it. Her story is wild right now. The

Elizabeth: Fostering and then the adoption and then having her own pregnancy.

Brittany: I mean, yes, it's just been like, oh my goodness, watching and knowing her background and then watching the last year happen. It's like if you would've told her that was going to happen when she was struggling, she would probably laugh at you.

Elizabeth: The amount of abundance and blessing and double blessing that has come upon her. And so I think that would be an amazing conversation.

Brittany: That's amazing. No, for sure. Okay, so how did you build your business?

Elizabeth: So it started out, it was just me. I was still working my nine to five and I think I launched three top podcasts and I still held onto my nine to five. And so I told myself when I had one more client or six months went by, I had to cut the ties with that

Two weeks later that ended up happening. So be careful what you pray for. And my very first hire as far as building a team was my sister. She was on maternity leave. I think she had left her job. She was a new mom and she was really high up in Deloitte for a long time. And so she's very systemized, she's so brilliant. And she knew just from obviously living with me, growing up with me where my strengths kind of stopped. And that's really where hers started. If it wasn't for Allison, I don't know if I would've been able to scale my business outside of just being me. And so I'm so grateful for her for that. So when she ended up having another child and then she went on maternity leave, we hired somebody just part-time to come in and backfill her position, but she created this 10 page basically standard operating procedure.

And I was like, it was the first time, it was a light bulb moment of, oh, I've created something that can be repeated and I don't know why. Seeing that on a piece of paper was what I needed. So building up that standard operating procedure. Then I was like, well, if I bring in new shows, I can hire new talent because I can easily train them. And so that's when we started more so building the team. And I think that one of the biggest mistakes I made in hiring initially, maybe this might be specific to podcasting, but I would put somebody that was a really good writer and I would have them write for all of the different shows that we were producing. What I found in this world, it's so much easier to find somebody that's more passionate about the content of the person that is going to be the host.

And then they start to really create through my process the visuals and the copywriting, and they're basically the project manager per show, and they do it even better than I could at this point. And so that's how we were able to continue to build the team and to scale and to bring in new people and produce more shows and tell more stories. So I just found a hole in the market. We did expand our revenue streams as well. So we do consulting, we do launching, we do creating, and now we're probably go back to niching, down to only working on specific shows and doing specific things. We tried it all and now we can kind of narrow back down.

Brittany: Where does the majority of your team live? Are they kind of just remote everywhere?

Elizabeth: Great question. So I do have one girl that's in person here in Austin and love when we can kind of get together and have those conversations. Another girl, she lives in Kansas City, so she's fully remote. We do have another girl in Texas, she's more of a summer intern and she's remote. And then her audio and video engineers are also remote. One of them is still in Nashville where all the audio people are. So yeah, our team is almost fully remote with one person, in person. And then we have our weekly calls, our weekly check-ins. We had to really get very streamlined in our communication of confirming receipt, confirming delivery, are there any obstacles? And so now we basically have a standard communication practice every day we check slack at certain times. If there's again, any obstacles, that's when we raise it to a level of, okay, now Elizabeth needs to handle this. I've tried to implement, if it's a problem under a hundred dollars, you take care of it. Here's the company credit card. If it is going to be more expensive a problem to fix, then elevate it to me. So everybody's fully remote, but we have really worked hard to streamline our communications process.

Brittany: Yeah, I think it's so fascinating how many brands and people's jobs have gone remote and figuring out how that works. But so many people who are entrepreneurs on these online businesses have teams that sit everywhere. I feel like I'm somebody that likes to have people in person with me, but we do also have remote help as well, and it's just like you just learn how to kind of make it work. So I think it's fascinating. I

Elizabeth: Mean, it would be a dream of mine to have basically what you've built and to have everybody housed in one spot and in one space. I mean, even tying that back into a relationship status of when you are single, and if you happen to be living by yourself and you're running a business and you don't have coworkers, that's when things can get, you got to have those mindset and mental health practices in place. So for me, I actually prefer being in person. I love that in person exchange.

Brittany: I know

Elizabeth: It just kind of keeps you energized, keeps you passionate. So that's where it is helpful to have one girl in person with me. But my girl, Emily out in Kansas, she found me through a podcast. It's a great way to have people to hire through that. I was a guest on another show, so if you can find somebody remote, just make sure that they're very much a self-starter.

Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so tell us about running a business as a single woman. I have experienced running a business as a married woman. When I started my business, I was already married and I was kind of talking with Cat just yesterday as we were prepping for this, and I was like, I wonder what her perspective is, because there's so many times where I'm like, Chris, what should I do about this? Or Here's some feedback, or I need to, should I buy this? Or should we build an office? But there's always a sounding board, but so how do you handle some of these things as an entrepreneur,

Elizabeth: I really appreciate you. Yeah, asking that. That's the scariest part, especially when I first started out, there was no backup plan. If this didn't work out, it wasn't like I had a second income to fall back on. So it was really going all in on this dream and betting on yourself. I think for me, I don't necessarily have a good business coach or a business mentor right now, but being in Austin versus Nashville, there's so many more entrepreneurs. So putting yourself in those types of communities where even just knowing that other people are going through similar things is extremely helpful. So sometimes it is just almost that empathy of relationship of knowing I'm not alone in general. For me, again, like I had said before, getting outside every single day, I have to do that for my mindset. Otherwise, things just get a little bit wonky, and it really has forced me as an entrepreneur to make decisions more quickly and to trust myself more.

I usually would be a very slow decision maker, and I feel like having this business has forced me to make a decision, but trust myself that if it isn't the right one, I have the level of confidence and skillset and competency to pivot if I have to. And so that would be probably my biggest thing in telling people is get your community around you. Trust that even if it's not the right decision, that you have the skillset to change it, because no decision is still a decision at the end of the day. So move quickly, believe in yourself, find the people around you that are going through the same thing and get outside every single day.

Brittany: Yeah, I love that. No, well, and so many, I think there's a lot of single women who listen to this podcast too, and we talk a lot about marriage and motherhood, but we haven't necessarily had somebody on just kind of single girl, here's some advice. So I've really appreciated this conversation. I think there's a lot of great tips that you've given that can be our single girls will hear, our entrepreneurs will hear if there's somebody that crosses over. So I really appreciate that perspective.

Elizabeth: No, thank you for having me on and having this conversation because I so love this phase and stage of my life that I'm in, and I think where people can kind of get tripped up as you're starting to find your person, whether you're building a career or not, but my litmus test, I like to tell myself and other people just for the single girls out there, or if you're even in a relationship that you feel like you should get out of is make sure that you are finding your purpose or your person based on purpose, not based off of your pain. Make sure that what's bringing you guys together is not some level of you're trying to heal yourself through that relationship because I think that's what keeps us in unhealthy, toxic relationships, or it will get us into a relationship too soon. So find your person based off of your purpose and not your pain. And I think deep down we know the difference and that will help you not to settle. That will help you to really find the person that you feel like is such a good fit for you, that sharpens you, that encourages you and challenges you. I just really love where you're at right now and try to win the day every day. And I think healthier people will turn into healthier relationships and more impact in our businesses longterm.

Brittany: I love that. Okay, I have one last question before we sign off. If somebody listening wants to start a podcast, I feel like I wanted to start a podcast for four years before I actually started the podcast. So if somebody's listening that wants to start a podcast, where should they begin and what are the benefits to someone's brand if they start one? Yes.

Elizabeth: It's so funny, that's like everybody's story. When they come to me, they're like, I wanted to start a podcast for about two or three years and I haven't yet. So when it does come to Mic Mindset, be confident that what you have to say you can actually do and set a deadline for yourself. So set a deadline when you actually want to launch. Secondly, I would say equipment. Don't let that intimidate you. Yes, right now what I'm on is a sure MV seven. That would be what I would suggest. This is a little technical, but it's currently plugged into an XLR cable. This can also just be plugged in directly to your computer via U S B. So if you need equipment, get the Sure MV seven and plug it into your computer. That would be from a technical side. And then from more of a brand perspective, the way that I like to do podcasting, this is what you and I have done, is we break the seasons up into X amount of episodes.

And so I do suggest for season one, shoot for 12 to 15 episodes and then reverse engineer what you want those to look like. That way it's not just this evergreen model of consistently putting out content. You have a start time, you have an end time, and you can start to plan around that. So get your equipment, get your confidence, don't wait two more years to actually get it started and then figure out 12 to 15 episodes that you would feel really proud to put out and then figure out if it's going to be a solo format or an interview format. Best case scenario would be a little bit mix of both, in my opinion. And then from a reasoning of why to start one. We talked about that a little bit earlier, but content is evergreen on a podcast, people can binge it, people can learn your story, and you don't have to necessarily worry about the algorithm.

The algorithm could be great on Instagram because it feeds you information, but a podcast model is going to be evergreen. The content will always live there and people can always dive in, and it's almost less of a barrier to entry. It's just your voice and your words. Where on a different social media platform, you have to figure out the aesthetic and maybe how to write. This is just a natural extension of your personality. So set a deadline, get your equipment, figure out what your messaging angle will be, set out an outline for to 15 episodes and go ahead and hit record.

Brittany: I love it. Anybody can do it. It's such a fun release too. I feel like there's times where I'm like, let me just tell the story. I want to, for example of the house episode when we were, I was coming on and sharing, Hey, we're moving and this is what all is happening. All of that is great information, but it's kind of too long to be shared on Instagram.

They don't care. People will just want short things on Instagram, but there are some people who want to know all the details. Maybe they just don't have the time to watch it in video form in stories. So that's why I was like, I feel like this is a great place to share where I can give all the details. And that has been this true with so many different topics that we've covered here. We went through I V F and people would always ask about that, and instead of me writing back paragraphs of our story, I could just grab that episode and be like, here you go. Here's our story. Go listen to it. And then they get all that information in one place instead of, oh, well, I have another question. It's all answered there. So I feel like it's such a great tool if you are somebody with a platform and you are wanting to share this information to be able to give your followers and listeners another place to find the answer instead of just not replying or giving them a short version when maybe they just want to know the full thing and they can easily listen.

Elizabeth: That's it mean is. So if you have more to say than what can fit into an Instagram caption, get that mic and start recording. And you're so generous with your words and your time and the sharing of your vulnerable story because I do think it takes a level of courage to be that vulnerable and transparent with what you're going through. And I think that's just a whole other level of generosity when you're willing to let people in that you don't know personally in parts of those, and you guys can kind of heal together. So you really have pioneered and trailblazed a lot of the way for people to learn more about you and what the backside and backend of a content creator's life might look like. So I just think that you've just been so generous with your vulnerability of how you shared your story.

Brittany: Tell our listeners where they can find you.

Elizabeth: So on Instagram, you can find me and my personal handle. We'll probably be talking a little bit more about dating @elizabethevans.co. And then the business side, we're building up a little bit more for some podcast education @ElizabethEvansMedia. So if you want podcasting advice or if you just want some personal lifestyle things, you can find something on both of those platforms. And I do think soon, Brittany, we might be coming out with a course on how to start a podcast. So if somebody does want a little bit more direction onto that, we'll have some online resources there too.

Brittany: That's perfect. And you guys, we will leave all of that information in the show notes, so you can just easily click below and go give Elizabeth a follow on Instagram. Well, I truly appreciate this and Life with Loverly followers. We will talk to you guys soon.

Hi, friend! I hope you enjoyed this episode on the Life with Loverly podcast. Be sure to snap a screenshot on your phone during your favorite part of the episode, post it to your Instagram stories, and tag us @lifewithloverly. I love seeing what's resonating with you and reposting the spread more kindness along the way. See you next week, friend. This season of life with Loverly is produced by Elizabeth Evans Media Productions.