PM 100: Milestone Moments: Celebrating 100 Podcast Episodes!

The Psychic Matters Podcast celebrates its 100th episode milestone and explores life-altering moments and spiritual growth while sharing insights into the host, Ann Theato’s creative processes and the logistical challenges of running a podcast.  

Ann reveals how topics are meticulously chosen and interviews are prepared. The podcast doesn't shy away from sharing the challenges Ann has faced along the way, demonstrating the resilience required in the world of podcasting. Equipment and software used in the production process are also discussed, shedding light on the technical aspects of the show's logistics.

Central to the podcast's success is the thriving community that has formed around it.  Ann Théato, acknowledges the unwavering support of family, friends, listeners, and collaborators who have contributed significantly to the podcast's growth and been instrumental in its success.  Furthermore, this episode explores the host's personal spiritual journey since its inception, offering listeners a deeper connection to the show's ethos.

With a commitment to continuous growth and evolution, Ann Theato takes her Psychic Matters podcast in new directions, announcing some exciting developments, and shares her vision for a future that promises fresh topics and innovative ventures to inspire and engage her audience.

"Milestone Moments: Celebrating 100 Podcast Episodes,"  is a heartfelt journey of gratitude, both for the profound moments and spiritual growth it has fostered and for the supportive community that has made it all possible. It stands as a testament to the Ann Theato’s dedication to the world of podcasting and spirituality, with an exciting future that promises to captivate and inspire its audience

Transcript

Hello, my name is Ann Theato and welcome to a very special 100th episode of the Psychic Matters podcast. It is incredible to think I've made that many shows and to celebrate I'm taking a reflective journey today through the heart and soul of my podcasting adventures. Over the years, I've explored a multitude of topics, engaged with some incredible guests, and connected with an ever-growing community of wonderful listeners.

And today, I'm pausing to look back, to take stock, and to share some profound insights into what this podcast means to me, and to all of us, both personally and spiritually. It's a moment to celebrate the victories, acknowledge the challenges, and there have been many of those, and to express my gratitude for the amazing journey we've all been on together.

So, grab your favourite beverage, settle in, and join me as I delve deep into the lessons learned, the transformations experienced, and the profound impact that the Psychic Matters podcast has had on me, and hopefully on you, the listener. 

First of all, this week's hot news, we did not win the People's Choice Podcast Awards in the Religion and Spirituality category, but we continue to celebrate the fact that Psychic Matters has been nominated for three years in a row as one of the top ten podcasts. And for that, I remain humbled and truly grateful. 

Let's go back to the beginning. Why did I start the podcast in the first place? Well, you may or may not know that I've got a background as a voice artist and a radio producer, and I have won awards for my radio script writing. I've voiced everything from adverts for face creams and breakfast cereal, to adverts for luxury cars and chocolate bars. I've voiced the news, television idents and cartoon characters. And just for fun, I'm going to play you my cartoon voice reel. It's just under a minute long and you'll be able to hear jungle creatures, parrots, monkeys, all of them are my voice.

Crying babies, my voice. Air horns. My voice! The white noise and that high pitched whine of the old-fashioned way of tuning in between radio stations. Do you remember that? My voice! Spaceship noises! My voice! Everything on here that you're about to listen to is my voice. Enjoy.

Ha ha! The wires on your time machine are fried!

Why won't you stop crying?

No, I'm Dave. I'm Davina at weekends. We take strong objection to people. Just one night when the backseat of that Thunderbird was sweeter than all the... Mufti. Don't stop barking. Will you carry your porridge with fork? You guys will never catch me! Did you hear the like it ask? You have to look your best for the big whoop-dee-doo! My sister Nellie can dance. Come along Nelly and dance with the man..

Yes, as you can see, I can do a lot with my voice. And coupled with my background as a script writer and radio producer, along with my passion for the science of mediumship and the psychic mind, it seemed like a natural progression of the work I feel I've been put on earth to do. 

My creative process for each episode. What does that look like? How do I choose topics? How do I prepare for my interviews? And how do I structure my content? Well, let me start with my creative process process. How do I choose a topic for the podcast? Who do I choose as my guest this week? And how do I put the whole thing together? Where do I get my inspiration?

Where do I get my energy? All of those things. Well, let's start at the beginning. When I first decided to create the podcast, I had several people in mind whom I wanted to be a guest, and I started with people that were very close to me. Mediums in the field whose work I truly admired and valued. And I started with my friends, people like Larry Davids, Leslie Malone, and Tyrone Cusack.

Each of them came along into the studio, they recorded an incredible episode with me. Telling their stories and teaching you, the listener, through their shared experiences of communicating with the spirit world, they shared methodology and exercises for listeners to try at home. And if you've not listened to those early episodes, I highly recommend that you do give them a re listen if you've already listened to them.

Um, I had. A long list of fantastically talented mediums whose work I truly, truly admire. Most, most of us not on the television or in the mainstream, but whose work is equally as brilliant and remarkable. And who simply must be acknowledged as fabulous workers in the field. And I wanted to give a platform to those people, not only for them as individuals, but to honour Our work as a community of like minded souls, my podcast has always had a mission and an aim, and that is to push forward the boundaries of human consciousness to redefine the significance of living.

I've had the great good fortune of speaking to so many talented human beings on a vast array of topics as well. And I can tell you, dear listener, there are some exciting episodes coming up over the next 12 months and some amazing guests. Lined up to share their wisdom and guidance. So make sure you subscribe to the show so you don't miss any of those upcoming episodes.

Yeah, and then my guests would recommend people that they knew, and so it grew and grew. I can't. Unfortunately, I have every guest on who sends me an email asking to be on the podcast. I mean, I have hundreds of requests from all over the world and from many, many talented people as well. They'd all love me to interview them.

But I try to keep it to those people whose work I truly admire or whom... who are new to me, but I've researched them thoroughly, or people I've trained, um, excuse me, well, maybe people I've trained, but people who have trained themselves with other tutors for many, many years, um, and they would have had to train with excellent tutors, or people whose books I've read and I really want to recommend so I'm always trying to keep the quality of advice and tuition given through this podcast as high as I possibly can, and I've had some fantastic feedback.

People have been really appreciating the tuition that they are receiving through Psychic Matters. I've had some fantastic reviews from listeners as well. I mean, I'll read some of them to you. Let me just look up. Um, let me just Google myself. It's quite fun, isn't it? Google myself, uh, Psychic Matters Podcast.

I nearly typed in Google myself. Here we are. I'm on Apple Podcasts. And I'm just going to scroll down to the reviews. Um, what does it say here? Psychic Matters, um, it's got 55 ratings on Apple Podcasts. I know I've got 155 review, 5 star reviews actually across all podcast platforms. But here we have some, uh, from the latest people who have reviewed it.

This is from somebody on the 13th of August, London Magic. Ann, I just found your podcast and I'm starting from the beginning. Love it. Thank you so much. So good. Oh, bless you, London Magic. Thank you so much. And then one from Faye Ellie May. “Absolutely love your podcast and came across it by accident. Find it very interesting and informative. You sound such a lovely lady.” Thank you. Oh, that's so nice of you. Thank you very, very much. And then Nikki Williams. “Thank you. And so very, very much for this amazing podcast. I've had psychic abilities throughout my life, but it's only now I've decided yet. Let's work with this in a really positive way”. And it's quite a long review. So I won't read it all out. But she says “thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work. It's so appreciated with much love and light Nikki.” That is so lovely of you Nikki. Thank you so much. And Soulfully Embraced has written a beautiful review. “Where do I start? As I write, my words are far too small compared to how much this incredible podcast has moved me. Each individual interviewed by Ann is so unique and inspiring, uh, sharing their world experience through their experience. I've been moved to tears. I've laughed and been captivated.” And again, the, the review goes on and on. It's so, such a lovely review. “This podcast is amazing at gaining knowledge from great people, uh, from everyone interviewed as well as Ann's knowledge too. So, thank you again, soulfully embraced.” And so, it goes on. I've had just. Beautiful, beautiful review. So, thank you everyone for taking the time. And if you would like to leave a review, please do because they move the podcast up the podcast charts. I can't tell you how important it is to write a written review. And even if you've written one before, you can write one for every new episode that you listen to. And I would really, really appreciate that if you could find the time to do it in your busy schedule. 

So, um, yeah. My own growth spiritually over the past three years has been incredible. Um, it's been an amazing journey of spiritual unfoldment, I suppose. And I've met so many beautiful people through this work that I've been doing. And I've gone through a lot of human stuff as well. And I always say that our mediumship development And our psychic development is not separated from our human experience.

Sometimes we feel if we're not able to attend a class or go to any classes at all, if we have commitments elsewhere, we have to look after somebody or we don't have time or we have to work or we're too tired or things, you know, life experience gets in the way sometimes. We just think we're missing out. You know, the human world calls upon us and we can't do our one-on-one readings. We can't learn because human life calls us in such a way sometimes. We sort of feel we're missing out on our spiritual development and somehow, it's been put on hold. But it's been my experience that nothing could be further from the truth in that when we get immersed in the human experiences, quite often that's when we do our most growth spiritually. So, yeah, I found that really fascinating as well. 

So, I'm going to ask myself a few questions. I'm interviewing myself this podcast. Hello, Ann. Hello. How are you? Yeah. Okay. Um, I'm going to interview myself about my podcasting process over the past three and a half years since I began. So, the podcast began on February 13, 2020. 

Now listen, as in the best of my podcasting episodes, you can probably hear traffic going past the window. I'm going to try and run this finished track through Descript and add studio sound to it to try to take away the traffic noise. But unfortunately, I'm up against it. I've only got a small window of time to record this and then I've got to edit it and put it all together. And, um, I just happen to be recording it in rush hour, so I'm just going to work with the cars that are passing the window. What can you do? Just roll with it, folks. Roll with it. 

So, number one question, have there been specific moments or interviews that have had a profound impact on your life? Well, here's the answer to that. I found absolutely everybody I've interviewed fascinating. Everyone's got a unique individual story and I have loved making every single episode and it would be impossible to pick out any one person from the hundred episodes I've done. Um, However, there is one guest that will stay with me and his name is Ethan Sisser. He was also known as E3. You hear me talking about him in the past tense because Ethan or E3 as he's known, is now in the spirit world. He suffered from brain cancer. He had a very rare form of glioblastoma. He suffered a minor stroke in October 2019 and had many surgical procedures and operations and brain surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. And, um, then he had a new tumour growing rapidly in the right side of his brain and it was causing increasing paralysis to the left side of his body and excruciating pain which never left him day or night. And his saying, E3's wonderful saying was that he was embodied, empowered and ecstatic. And he wanted to come on my podcast and many other people's podcasts as well, it was his, his wish to be interviewed so that he could share words of wisdom from his soul, words that he hoped would be a source of help and inspiration to others. And for me, I interviewed him at the same time as going through or supporting my brother who also had a very rare form of glioblastoma. My brother is now also in the spirit world. And it was just the most moving experience to talk to this beautiful man, Ethan, who was dying and listen to his courage and bravery and his words of wisdom about his dying process. It was one of the most moving interviews that I've ever done, and it's possibly one of the most moving interviews you may ever hear. And I thoroughly, thoroughly recommend that you listen to that. And that was episode 22, called Bringing Heaven To Earth. He was so close to heaven and yet he was still on earth. And that's why I called it Bringing Heaven to Earth. And if you go on my website and you look at the artwork that I created for that episode, that has been drawn by Ethan while he was in hospital. So, um, he was an incredible, incredible man. 

And he was recommended to me, um, by my beautiful friend, George Koury.And George Koury was a  fantastic psychic and medium and Trance medium and healer. And he was in episode 25, which was called Mediums, Angels and Clowns. George Koury is now with E3 in the spirit world and terribly sad, so terribly sad. I miss George every single day. Oh, I think I might cry. Oh, hold on to myself. Hold on. But I walk out here in the countryside and I've got a special little tree that I've called George's tree and it has these tiny little red berries on it and George used to be a clown. In the circus years ago, he was a circus clown for many, many years and a very, very talented and excellent clown, as I understand. And because those little red berries on that bush look like a clown's nose, I call that George's tree. So, I try to walk there every day and I touch a little leaf on that tree and I speak to George in spirit world and I ask him how he's doing and uh, yeah, so that's very beautiful. 

And George also introduced me to a lady called Rachel Pollack, Rachel Pollack, is now in the spirit world also. She was on episode 32. Um, and we explored 78 degrees of wisdom. It was called, the episode was called 78 Degrees of Wisdom-Explored and 78 Degrees of Wisdom was a very famous book that Rachel wrote all about the tarot and we were exploring that in more detail. Uh, fascinating, fascinating human being. Rachel Pollack, sadly, sadly missed and a beautiful, beautiful guest. And just one more person I want to honour as well. 

Another guest who passed away. Um, Is Jon Underwood. He was in episode 74, which was called, What is a Death Cafe? And actually, that episode was me interviewing John's mother, Susan Barsky Reid, because Jon had set up the Death Cafes, uh, over here in the UK with his mother's assistance.  And I interviewed Jon years and years and years ago, and I already had the footage from the interviews. That I did with him years ago for another documentary and his mother very kindly gave me permission to use some of those clips in that particular episode. So, he actually speaks about why he set up a Death Cafe and what we can all gain from it. Another fascinating, fascinating episode. Um, I'm not sure if I mentioned, that George Koury's episode was called Mediums, Angels and Clowns. 

So, I'm just going to go over those, uh, one more time to honour my guests who passed away, who contributed their knowledge and their wisdom and their guidance and their sense of humour and their beauty and their wonderful souls. So:

George Koury, episode 25, Mediums, Angels and Clowns. 

Ethan Sisser, episode 22, Bringing Heaven to Earth. 

Rachel Pollack, episode 32, 78 Degrees of Wisdom Explored 

Jon Underwood, episode 74. What is a Death Café? with Susan Barksy Reid?

People often ask me, how do I choose topics and prepare for my interviews? Well, It's sort of evolved by itself. Um, I sort of tumbled from one recommendation to another, really. That's kind of how it's been over the past three years. And I've tried to include topics that I haven't, um, so we've always got something very interesting and unique and individual to have a look at. But this coming year, I want to do a lot more planning. I've got specific topics I really want to cover and therefore I need to find specific guests to cover those topics. And um, yes, I think I'm going to be doing a lot more planning of my podcast because at the moment it's so last minute all the time and I'm finding it really stressful.

It's so stressful every… the two weeks goes by so quickly and all of a sudden I think oh my goodness I've got to get a podcast out and it takes four days to make one it takes so long to make one. So, I need to plan it out a bit better. That's, that's one thing. 

Um, but how do I choose topics? I go with what interests me, I suppose. And people that I know, whom I adore, whose work I adore. And preparing for interviews is a good one because I do go to people's websites, I read up all about them, I make my, my notes for my guest, I work out what my introduction will be for my guest and then I work out my first question. Then I have a list of questions that I might ask them as well. If they've... written a book and I want to promote that on the episode, then I read the book, so that takes several days to read the book, and while I'm reading the book, I'm underlying specific passages in the book. I know you shouldn't write on books, should you? So they say. But I like to scribble all over my books these days, and underline, I use them like workbooks. Uh, I underline the bits that interest me, and then when it comes to doing a podcast interview, I go back through all the notes I made on the manuscript, and transfer them into my guest notes, and create questions around them. So, it's a lot. It's a lot of planning. It's a lot of preparation.

Um, and what are some of the challenges I faced?  Well I've already spoke about the death of my beautiful brother, Paul, that was incredibly hard. Um, dealing with grief. Uh, what are some of the challenges I faced? Well, currently I've got a real challenge on my hands because I'm traveling between Ireland and England every few weeks, probably every three weeks now. My mother isn't very well, so I'm back and forth and back and forth. And while I'm in Ireland, I can't work. And while I'm in Ireland, I can't make a podcast. Because I'm very present in the moment when I'm there. So, that means I'm behind on everything, so that's a real challenge. My... Can you hear all the traffic? I'm so sorry about the traffic but do roll with it. I'm rolling with it. I'm pretending it's not happening.

Um... My podcast equipment has failed. I was interviewing Darren Brittain at one point and my headphones literally fell apart in front of him. That was pretty embarrassing. And the beautiful, beautiful soul that he is, he immediately sent me money so that I could buy a very expensive pair of new headphones, and I'm so grateful to you Darren. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast in that way. I'm wearing them now, and they're going strong, so thank you so much for that. 

The Wi Fi cuts out during interviews, you might have seen I've just put the first, my first filmed, uh, podcast episode on YouTube with Tony Stockwell. I mean, how brilliant is that? I get a chance to interview Tony Stockwell of all people. And it's the only episode I've recorded where my internet was cutting in and out and in and out and in and out the entire episode. And I fixed a lot of it in the audio version of the podcast that you can listen to on all podcast platforms, but on YouTube you can actually see, I can't fix the audio because I can't, I can't re-record it. I can't lip sync to my own moving lips. So I've just had to leave it in. It's going in and out and in and out. Oh, dreadful. So, but you know, we have to just go with it. Go with it. It was a disaster. I just went with it. 

Guests cancelling last minute has been a big thing for me over the past few weeks. Especially as my schedule is... is so tight with all the time I'm having to spend in Ireland, I've only got a finite amount of time to record my episodes and, uh, if I lose out on a guest, I don't have a podcast episode. That's how tight my schedule is. And I lost out on four guests over the past couple of months. So that has really been a disaster. Um, but it's just how it is. I've also had to cancel appearing on other people's podcasts. Um, and I feel terrible for them because maybe they're in the same boat as I am. But anyway, so creating quality episodes out of thin air has become a bit of a thing. 

Sound problems like the traffic going by outside here now. Horses clip clopping past. Um, When I've been in Ireland, combine harvesters and tractors and things going past the windows. The boiler in this cottage in my partner's house comes on in the middle of a podcast and just suddenly roars into life because I've got a I've got a boiler in my space here in the, in the studio here. If I'm in London recording, then there are people who knock on the window. Hi, how are you? Am I recording a podcast? Recording a podcast? What? Can't hear you. How So I've got all that. Then I've got The Beard who comes in. Um, that's my partner, in case you don't know. The Beard. He comes in and there's a latch on the door here. So he'll rattle the latch. Dinner's ready. I'm like, I'm recording a podcast! Oh, I didn't know. God! Strife! I'm recording! Um, the dog will bark at the postman going past, I'm dealing with all that. Flies in the studio, plenty of flies and wasps and little honeybees at the moment I'm having to catch and put back outside. And just the current challenge of constant catch up, the amount of time it takes and the lack of finance to run it and keep all the overheads paid. So, and then I've got Patreon, I'm not looking after my patrons very well at the moment. Unfortunately, they've had to take a little back seat because of everything else that's going on. And so they're leaving. Oh, we're not getting what you promised us. Well, I can't give it to you as well as all the podcasts. I'm so sorry. So that's all going a bit of a disaster. But if you did want to be a patron and just pay 5 a month, just... to support the podcast because you love it. Please do it. Please. I'd be so grateful to you. And I will be kickstarting the Patreon into action next year. Once I've dealt with all the other things. 

Um, yeah, so. I've got to a point now where I'm having to consider handing over the editing of the podcast to a company. Now that's scary, isn't it? However, I have found a brilliant company that are going to edit it and put it together as a film because I now have to put my podcast on YouTube. So planning is going to be very important to me over the coming months. I need to stop, I need to sit down, I need to plan quietly instead of, instead of, you know, creating things on the fly all the time.

I mean, I'm a great believer in building the plane while you're flying it, right? Goodness me, the plane keeps nose diving down to the ground. 

So, yeah, they're some of my challenges. They're the challenges I'm facing. The current challenges is lack of time to do everything and try to keep the podcast running and I'm finding it Yeah, it's really, really stressful. Um, always playing catch up. Um, so if anybody can help me with anything, just drop me an email. Please, ann@anntheato.com will come straight through to me and offer your assistance. And I'll go, yes please! Please. That'd be great. Um, but yeah. So that's that. You can buy me a coffee as well. Five pound. Buy me a coffee. Three pound. A pound. Going, going, gone. Buy me something. Help. Support the podcast. It'd be brilliant. 

Um, now, what kind of equipment and software do I use? Well, I've got these wonderful new headphones thanks to Darren Britain. Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones. I've got a Shure SM7B microphone. I've got a Cloudlifter and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. I've got a, I use GarageBand to edit together and I also use Descript. I buy my music royalty free. I buy it from an outside company. So nobody else kind of has the same sort of music. Mind you, they must do because the guy sells music to everyone in the world. But anyway, I, I, I outsource that and buy that in.

Um, I use Headliner to make my trailers for the podcast. Buzzsprout is my web, is my hosting provider. And I, of course, I've got my website, WordPress. So, you know, the running of the podcast involves this complex web of logistical considerations that extend so far beyond simply hitting the record button. It's extraordinary and I'm doing all of it all by myself. Oh, I think we need a violin now. [SOUND OF SAD VIOLIN] Thank you very much, violin player. 

So, I'm going to have to plan. If I can get some time, I'm going to plan. Definitely going to plan my podcast going forward. Um, so yeah, so there's brainstorming. Episode topics, guest interviews, scripted content, creating a content calendar so I can maintain consistency. I know when everything's coming out, there's the technical side, equipment selection, audio recording, editing software, ensuring a quiet, if possible, no traffic going by and acoustically sound recording space, managing the release schedule, podcast hosting platform.

Um. RSS feeds, crucial for reaching the audience, I have to put those on every podcast platform as well so that the podcast gets fed out to Apple Podcasts and Google and iHeartRadio and Pandora and all of these other places across the Podcast app platforms, and then I've got to promote the podcast through social media with SEO optimization and collaborating with, um, people.

And then there's the engagement with you guys, the listeners and handling the feedback and tracking the analytics, gauge the podcast performance. So, it's this sort of delicate dance of creativity and what should be meticulous planning but is actually building the plane while I'm flying it every, every week.

And, um. Yeah, so that's that's what goes on behind the scenes.

So the process of making the podcast I find a guest I schedule the guest. I ask the guest to fill in a guest release form.  They just sign it and say I've got permission to use what they've said across all platforms in perpetuity then I research that guest and I read their book, I look at their website, I prepare the interview notes as I've already said.

Then we do the interview on Zoom, which is great and then we just hope the Wi Fi doesn't cut out. Then I download that and then I edit that in. I've, up until now, I've been editing it in GarageBand, but now I'm starting to move into the visual space on YouTube for podcasts. I'm actually now editing using Descript because that's such a fantastic system. I don't know what you call it, a software, I suppose. And what it transcribes immediately. The file, so I drop the zoom file in there, and then it transcribes the entire episode in about, uh, probably less than a minute. So, a whole hour of content is transcribed in less than a minute. Now, when I started my podcast, I laboriously hand transcribed every single word I typed, I'd re listen and listen and listen, sentence by sentence by sentence, and transcribe every single word. I've always transcribed the podcast, but by golly, it used to take me an entire day when I first started out, and now it takes one minute, which is brilliant. Once I've got that transcript, I can then go into it, and you can take out all the ums, and the uhs, and the ums, and the maybes, you can take them all out with one click, and then you can...rake out, say for instance, if you wanted to take out a sentence that somebody said, um, quite often I go wrong. So, I have to go back and re say my sentence. I can take out the bit that I did wrong and it will edit the film together at the same time. So not only are you editing the audio, but you're also editing the film.  It is absolutely brilliant, uh, so I'm loving Descript at the moment, but of course I only know the bare bones of it. I don't know it inside outside. Everything takes me sitting down in front of a tutorial to try to learn all of these things and I just basically learn just what I need to know for the bare minimum to get it out. 

So, once I've edited it in either GarageBand or Descript, I then write the introduction and the Out outro. It's not such thing as an out introduction. Is there the intro and the outro? Basically, hello, this is Ann Theato. Welcome to episode, whatever it is of the Psychic Matters podcast. This week I'm interviewing this person about this, and then at the end I'll, I'll sum it up. Um, but I need to transcribe it first so I can remember what I said to that person so that I can write that intro and the outro.

Then I have to record the intro and the outro. Once I've done that, I drop the intro in at the beginning and the outro at the end. And then I add the music on the track underneath, I adjust all the levels, and then I bounce it. Then I have to listen to it all the way through to make sure that there's no hairs in the gate. And, um, yeah, once that's done, that's done then, that's the episode ready. Then I create the artwork on Canva. So I create new artwork for each piece, and then I create the transcript, so I have to, um, pull the transcript off Descript and then check it for spelling errors and names and things like that to make sure it's absolutely as correct as it possibly can be.

Then I print the transcript, and I highlight on the printed page. piece of paper, the significant moments that happened within that episode so that I can create an audiogram trailer, one minute of one minute in length, that puts together a really interesting teaser for what's to come for this week's episode.

And that takes a little bit of work to try to stitch, you know, I might take something from page one, page five and page nine and put them all together to make that little short trailer. So, I create that trailer using the artwork I've already made in Canva, and then I put it into something called Headliner, which, um, are you bored yet? God, I feel like you'd be bored listening to the whole process, but this is what I do every single time I make a podcast episode. So, with a trailer, I'll get the original final bounce of the entire track and I'll pop it into a new file in GarageBand. And then I'll get my transcript and have a look at the bits that I need from the transcript to put into the trailer and then I'll... Edit those together, and get rid of all the rest of the track, and just keep, so there'll just be a one minute, less than a minute track left, and then I'll bounce that, and then I'll add that into Headliner as my one minute track, and then add the artwork, and then once I take it out of Headliner and do a few bits there and there it is. Make sure that I've got the transcript for everybody for my deaf and hard of hearing listeners I then bounce that and then I've got my one-minute trailer. 

So, then I go back to the script and I underline all the resources that have been mentioned so if anybody's mentioned the Arthur Findlay College or a certain medium or something we need to look up on Wikipedia or somebody's website or where they get, where you can go to get the book that they wrote so all the URLs for the show notes And then I create the show notes with everything in The show notes consist of the resources the tags I find a quote. So I do all that. So that's the show notes. And then what I do is I create my website page for the podcast episode. So, I go to my website and I create a new pod, uh, podcast episode page for that particular episode. And I'll put in there the, the... the show notes, the transcript, the resources, um, any kind of links to promote the work of the person that I've interviewed.

And then when I've done that, I'll create a newsletter. So I go on to ConvertKit and I create my newsletter to promote the episode. And once I've done all of that, I'll send. The artwork and the trailer to my guest to approve. Hopefully most, nobody said no. Well, one or two people will say, can you tweet this or tweet that, uh, which is fine, but I just fingers crossed people would just say, yes, I love it.

So, I don't have to tweak anything. And then, um, once I've done that, I'll pin the whole episode up on my podcast. Um, service provider, which is Buzzsprout. And schedule it for release 6am Thursday morning every two weeks. So that's what I do. 

Then once it's out, then I have to do the social media. So, then you have to go, I mean, I, I think we'll stop there. I think you're tired now from listening to me about it. Basically, social media, you have to put your trailer out on Twitter and threads and TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook.

Facebook, this, this. Uh, my Psychic Matters podcast page, of course it goes there first and then it goes to my Ann Theato Psychic Medium page. Sometimes I put it on my personal page, um, you know, and so it goes on and so it goes on and then I get the newsletter sent out and then I make the website page live.

So that's why the podcast takes such a long time. It's a lot for one person to do and, um, it's tricky. It's tricky, it's tricky, but I've done a hundred episodes, so woo hoo, celebrate with me. That is a real, real achievement for all of us. And I'm super proud, I'm so proud of that. Really, really proud, so really, really delighted.

And also, we've created a beautiful community around the podcast now. lovely fellow psychics and mediums coming together on the Psychic Matters Facebook group. I've got my lovely bunch of patrons, um, who are just wonderful. There are people I know out there who have been inspired to create their own podcasts, which is fantastic. So they're out there having conversations with people in this space as well. And then we help each other. We can, we can collaborate and help each other out with our, each of our podcasts. So, it's, it's a great big family and it's really super lovely. 

So, I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me along the way. My family and my friends and, and you, the listener and all the collaborators. I just want to really acknowledge your contributions, uh, to the success of this podcast, really want to thank The Beard he gets a bad press from me. I’m always moaning about him. Oh, The Beard. Um, but he's been just so kind. He brings in my dinner. He cooks my dinner. He's just like, brings me in cups of tea, asks me if I'm okay. It's just the kindness. Kindness itself. So, thank you very much, The Beard. I want to say thanks to my kids who are incredibly supportive of what I do. Um, Jacob and Joccoaa. So, thank you. Joccoaa was on an episode. which was really lovely. So do go and listen to hers. She talks about her experiences as a child of her first experiences of spirit when she was a child. It's very interesting coming from a child's point of view. Very much worth listening to that one. And then I just want to thank Jacob, my son, who has helped me out of so many little pickles, but I've got into he I'm so lucky. He's a sound producer. He knows all about sound and things. I think he wants me to be a bit more sophisticated than I am with my equipment, but I can barely use what I've got at the moment. But just thank you, Jacob, for all of your help and all of your support. You've been incredible and beautiful and thank you for your patience.

And my friends who listen to the podcast and really support me and my fellow mediums and psychics and, um, always encouraging and supporting me along the way and thank you for fellow mediums inviting me on to your podcast as well, just share the love. So, It's just wonderful. It's a wonderful wonderful, happy family. So, yeah, so all very busy in podcast world and of course since starting the podcast I'm continuing to study.

I'm a lifelong student myself studying all kinds of mediumship and psychic courses doing a lot of um, private study, I suppose, um, at the Arthur Findlay College and other places online. Uh, I've gone through the SNU program, so I, I got my Platform Accreditation Scheme, then I got my Certificate of the Spiritualist Union, uh, National Union, and now I've got my certificate. Uh, what they call a CSNUt, so it's a Certificate of the Spiritualist National Union - Teaching, uh, which, uh, teaching, demonstrating, mediumship, so I'm really, really pleased about that. And of course, I'm heading towards that elusive goal of tutor at the Arthur Findlay College. Will it happen? Who knows? We will see, but I keep moving towards it and... If it's going to unfold in my lifetime, it will unfold, but we shall see. But there's still a lot of study to do for that. I've got to now sit a diploma. So, it will be my DSNU, Diploma of the Spiritualist National Union, which is going to take a couple of years, maybe even three years and. Thousands more words in essays. Definitely at least 70, 000. Maybe double that. I don't know. I can't even bear to open the manuals. I just can't face it. There's so much to do. Um, but I will do. Jacqui Mcleish, she's my tutor for one of them. I will be writing my essay soon, I promise, and I will send them in to you. 

Thank you, everyone, for supporting me with the podcast over the past three years. I'm just, you know, overwhelmed with your kindness and your gratitude as well, and how... It really fills me with a lot of happiness when I hear that people are learning so much from it because we're learning not just from me, I mean, I'm bringing you the podcast, it's out there, but you're learning from the people I'm interviewing, you're learning their wisdom and their guidance and their advice, and that is fulfilling its mission, and I'm absolutely delighted it's reaching four corners of the globe, I think, um, Let me just have a quick look on my website, because I wrote it on here yesterday, at the top of the podcast section.

Here we go. 154 five-star reviews. Um, and it's in the world's, the Psychic Matters is in the world's top 1. 5 percent most popular shows globally, out of 3,191, 665 podcasts. It's listened to in 133 countries, and 7,269 cities and towns across the world with just over 140, 800 downloads to date. That is some achievement. It truly, truly is. And of course, we're the finalists in the People's Choice Podcast Awards in 2021, 2022, and 2023. And I was delighted to get the Silky-Smooth Award with the Sonic Bloom Podcast Awards for 2023. So, um, thank you so much for that as well. 

So, so, moving forward, I've got to do some planning, I've got to get my guests lined up, I've got to try and catch up with myself a little bit, and hopefully over the next 12 months, what you're going to see with the Psychic Madness podcast is, I'm moving It's always going to be available on every podcast platform as an audio version. But there's also going to be the filmed version available on YouTube. So if you haven't done it yet, go over to YouTube and subscribe. You'll find me at Psychic Matters on YouTube. And, uh, subscribe there and you'll be able to watch. Uh, things unfold over the next 12 months, so I'm really looking forward to it. And all my back episodes I will eventually get put up on YouTube, but I've got a feeling I might need to find some money to pay a company to edit those together, just because of time. So, if you've got a spare fiver and you fancy helping me do that. It'd be appreciated. 

For now, thank you so much. I'm so delighted we've reached 100 episodes.It truly is a remarkable achievement. Thank you to all my guests and thank you most of all to you, the listener, for your kindness and your support and your wonderful listening ears. And now for the sad news, I won't be making any further podcasts. I'm taking a break. I don't know when I'll be back. I hope to be back by January 2024, if not before then, but I need to win back some time to deal with some life issues that are going on right now and to be fully present for those as they take place and then hopefully with the spirit world standing beside me and the wind at my back, I should be back again in 2024 with some fabulous new guests, some fabulous new topics and a wonderful, wonderful YouTube channel with all my back episodes on it. Until then, my name is Ann Theato and thank you for listening to Psychic Matters.