I’m thrilled to talk with fellow podcaster Emily Holland on the show today.
Emily has been producing, hosting, and editing shows for over 3 years, including The Stokecast and the Nature Untold Podcast.
After recently stepping back from hosting for a bit now she helps other podcasters get started or supercharge what they’ve already built.
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Show Notes
Emily’s first Outdoor Experiences
I grew up in upstate New York at the foothills of the Adirondack mountains, which are basically like the rest of Appalachia. Really nice rolling Hills. And I grew up on a Christmas tree farm with my family and my two sisters. I think my first experiences in the outdoors were really taking care of the farm. We didn’t have a ton of resources, so my mom was really always bringing us outside to go on nature walks and point out different types of plants and animals and that kind of stuff. I feel like my first real nature experiences were on that 10-acre farm in upstate New York.
And then we did a lot of kayaking, canoeing, camping, hiking, fishing, stuff like that in the Adirondacks. So those were my first experiences in the outdoors.
The Nature Untold Podcast
I started The Nature Untold Podcast, the first episode came out at the beginning of 2021 and, really I had stopped drinking in February of 2020. I had found that while there are great stories of addiction and recovery and sobriety within the outdoor community here and there, there wasn’t a dedicated place for the stories to be told. And in addition to that, I wanted to hear more than just what I saw as like the traditional recovery journey, which is, someone ends up in a jail cell and then they go to a recovery program, and then they are cured, right? There’s this traditional media narrative. And there are just so many more types of stories than that. And that is a valid story as well. But I just wanted to have a place where people in the outdoor community can share their stories. No matter what it was with, if it was alcohol or drugs or love addiction or codependency or whatever, it was a way to show also how the outdoors either aids in that recovery or sometimes doesn’t aid in their recovery, how it plays in.
What inspired you to create a podcast versus one of the other many creative avenues?
I had always loved audio mediums. I’m a big NPR person. And in fact, I grew up with my parents listening to NPR all the time. So I really loved audio storytelling from when I was a kid too. But I started a podcast, a different podcast in 20 beginning of 2018 with a friend of mine, Jonathan Ronzio. He and I started what was called The Stokecast and we interviewed outdoor athletes and entrepreneurs and all that.
It was really awesome. It was essentially like an excuse for me to talk to people that I really admired and respected in the outdoor community. And then, I think you and I can agree on that probably, it became much more than that. There was a great community around it and I just felt wow, this is so what a great medium, and then obviously podcasts just became bigger and bigger. And I just am such a nerd about it. I love it so much.
So I think it’s just an incredible time that we live in that at this point in history, you can listen to the most interesting, engaging, funny, educational, anything you name it. There’s a podcast out there for you. You can hear from people that you would literally never know existed in the past. So I just feel like it’s such a beautiful medium and one that we’re really lucky to have.
Emily’s motivation to get into coaching
I was thinking about leaving my job, my corporate job for a while, and I wanted to do something on my own. I just didn’t exactly know what it was going to be. So I was thinking about writing down, like what are the tangible skills that I have? And then what are the more theoretical skills that I have. And obviously, I’d been podcasting at that point for three and a half years. I felt like I had a good handle on the different aspects of it. And someone reached out to me and said Hey, do you do any sort of, support or consulting? And that just sparked a whole thinking process of yes, I could definitely do that. And in fact, that’s what I want to do. Sometimes you just need someone to ask the question and it starts this whole thing for you. So anyways I was fortunate enough to be able to quit my job and June of 2021 and go full time and begin building a business around podcasting.
Emily’s Outdoor Activities
I would say that climbing, skiing, hiking, and trail running would probably be my main activities. I obviously camp a lot. So that’s an outdoor activity. I backpack a little bit here and there. You got to just live in a tent for a lot of that stuff, we do a lot of that.
What is your favorite outdoor gear purchased under a hundred dollars?
I have a tiny little shovel that is intended to shovel when you have to go to the bathroom and the outdoors because it could be digging a hole and then covering it because you want to leave no trace.
So that thing is like not even an ounce, I think it’s so light. It’s so cool.
Favorite Books
Atomic Habits by James Clear
60 Meters to Anywhere by Brendan Leonard
Advice
Similar to what I said about podcasting, I think we live in this really interesting and weird time in which you can create a name for yourself regardless of where you want to put yourself in what industry. So I think the thing that is most helpful is just to start being consistent with whatever practice you want to do. If you want to be a writer, then you should write on most days, begin creating those habits to start building that level of content or what you’re trying to do. If you want to be a guide, then start getting those certifications to start volunteering for different organizations that might need some extra help, things like that.
I think there are always ways that you can start even before you feel mentally ready or financially, ready to go into a new industry and try to start a new career. I think you can produce a lot of stuff on your own. So if you want to be a creative or a content creator, then you already have everything you need. You just need to start actually doing it consistently.
Follow up:
Website: https://emilyholland.co/
E-mail: emily@emilyholland.com
