Tricia Duffy Of In Ten Years Time: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Very Successful Podcast

Stick to your instincts — I took a lot of advice when I started planning this podcast, and a lot of people told me that I was more likely to be successful if I followed the conventions of weekly interview-led podcasts. But that is not what I wanted to create. Take advice, listen hard, but be prepared to go against the grain and hold your nerve. Trends are cycles, yes right now the trend is for interview-led podcasts, but it won’t always be that way. Perhaps you will be the person who starts a new trend. Innovate with pride.

As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a very successful podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tricia Duffy.

Tricia Duffy is a polymath — She’s a media consultant, podcaster, public speaker, songwriter and singer. Her podcast In Ten Years Time was created when Tricia was seeking to encompass the duality of her consulting identity with her songwriting career. Finding few resources that could help her navigate the challenges she encountered, she decided to use her own experience to support others, and so In Ten Years Time was born.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?

Thank you so much for including me, I really appreciate it. I guess that everything I have ever done has brought me to this moment — that is probably the same for everyone. As a child I was creative — I wrote poems and sang, I worked on cruise ships in the entertainment department from the age of 19, but as I got older I felt myself being seduced into more conventional societal success measures driven mainly by economic factors. After 4 years at sea I took a job in TV thinking that it would allow me to continue to work creatively, but in those days the TV industry had some deep seated gender biases that pushed women into administrative or business roles and so that is the path I took. I am grateful for my TV career, because it allowed me to launch my own consulting firm in 2012 which I loved. It gave me a life balance I craved, and I made a living working with clients on their creative strategies, helping them to achieve commercial success. But during the pandemic my relationship with my day job changed dramatically, I spent every day behind my desk on zoom and I missed the performative parts of my role — there was no opportunity to get out with the whiteboard and pen. For a few years prior to the covid crisis, I had been writing songs for an Americana duo Duffy and Bird and also for my solo music project Little Lore. One day, I woke up with a question in my mind … could I possibly change my life, could I live a more creative life, could I make it as a songwriter? It was a pivotal moment for me. Soon after that I decided to enroll in a masters in songwriting and I looked for resources to help me with my transformation — I found very little out there to support anyone in mid-life who wanted to change the creative balance of their lives, so the In Ten Years Time concept was born out of that experience.

Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?

The most fascinating thing about hosting a podcast about creativity is, predictably, the number of creative people you meet. The format of my podcast is not primarily interview led, but despite that the people that get in touch with me to share stories or suggest topics for me to research are fascinating. I have met writers, calligraphers, photographers, artists, stained glass designers, illustrators, musicians, songwriters and poets. Despite our varying crafts, we have a lot in common. A desire to live a creative life and all the benefits that brings, and that unites us.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Oh lordy, so many I don’t know where to start. Ok — you asked for funniest. I mentioned that I am a songwriter. I have a home studio and a good condenser mic for recording my vocals. It is so good that it picks up EVERYTHING! And I really mean everything! The first recordings I made, I could hear this sound like little sand crabs tapping their claws. I just couldn’t figure out where it was coming from! Then my producer explained that it was probably the sound of my own mouth — gross! I have invested in a dynamic mic since then, which is lower quality but comes without free sand crab sound effects!

How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?

I guess you could say that I have been at this for nearly 3 years. At least, that’s when I first recorded a demo of what the podcast eventually became. For reasons I can’t really put my finger on, I didn’t feel confident about releasing it then. It was summer 2024 that I finally felt ready to release my first episodes. The podcast has a format, they are a bit like a box set. Each series has 6 episodes with a theme, which includes 5 carefully researched episodes and 1 specially selected interview. The first series addressed the overall theme of the In Ten Years Time philosophy and how to live a creative life and I interviewed photographer Richard Cranefield about how we sometimes pivot to creativity after tragedy and his experience of losing his wife. The second series came out in September 2024 with a theme of ‘overcoming’ and the next series will be available weekly from 9th January with a theme of ‘amplifying’ our creativity. I am already working on the 4th series with a theme of ‘communion’ from creativity. I am loving the research.

What are the main takeaways, lessons or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?

I want to celebrate the different identities we all have. I half-jokingly call myself a polymath, to make the point that we are all multifaceted. There are some deep-seated societal pressures that stop us from taking our creativity seriously. Whether we are succumbing to the ‘who’s the busiest? competition’ which I wholeheartedly reject as a measure of our worth, or driven only by economic pressures, or giving our time to the attention economy in our phones. I believe that creativity in any form can offer us meaning, purpose and an ability to reclaim some of our most precious commodity — our time. The benefits are so wide reaching, not only for our own health and wellbeing, but for our family and friends, our community and the planet at large. I also want to offer everyone a way to adopt a beginners mindset at any stage of life. In midlife it is likely that you have some form of success, usually in your job. You might even be at the top of the tree — a head teacher, a managing director or an expert in your field. By adopting a beginners mindset we challenge ourselves and our identities in ways that can feel uncomfortable, but we’re all living longer and if you can’t be a head teacher at 90, perhaps you can be an artist or a songwriter or a potter? If you start today, in a year you will have some wonderful skills and in ten years you could, if you chose, achieve mastery. It is never too late to live a creative life and the richness of life in art is beyond anything you could imagine if you give it a go.

In your opinion what makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or your content?

Everyone loves a box set! Each series is designed to be listened to from the start as they follow a theme. I do a huge amount of research for each episode, that is distilled to make it easy for the listener to get immediate benefits. The first 5 episodes of the series are about 20 minutes long, so they can fit into busy lives, the commute, the 3km run, the lunch break or the walk back from the school run. I have tried to make them as accessible as possible for all lifestyles. The 6th interview episodes are slightly longer, around 40–45 minutes, but this is still concise in the podcast world. I have had to really stick to my instincts with my format — all the advice I had was to follow the trends of weekly hour-long interviews when I first started. But the feedback I get from my listeners is so positive, I am glad I went with my gut! The interviews are very special — they are hand-picked to illustrate the theme for each series.

Doing something on a consistent basis is not easy. Podcasting every work-day, or even every week can be monotonous. What would you recommend to others about how to maintain discipline and consistency? What would you recommend to others about how to avoid burnout?

Well, as you know, my podcast isn’t weekly, it is a series format. However, because the research is so involved, it does feel like a constant job to keep on top of all the information I am collating. I also experiment on myself with all the techniques I learn about, so that is quite a commitment too. But of course, the benefits are that I am living my truly creative life — I am living what I talk about — and learning all the time. I find that there is inevitably a void between each series, but I am learning to lean into that as fertile time for new ideas to emerge. Each time we create, we go into a cycle, just knowing that and leaning into the phases of each podcast really serves me. The episode coming on the 9th January goes into a lot more detail about how the fertile void can be a creative act … something for us all to embrace.

What resources do you get your inspiration for materials from?

I read a lot of books, scour medical and psychological journals, I read blogs and I live the creative balance I am talking about. So inspiration really is everywhere. If something occurs to me I try to back up my thinking with evidence wherever possible. Either from external resources or from trial and error myself! I am also indebted to my listeners who have made suggestions of topics they would like me to research. In the next series there is an episode on how creatives can set about using research techniques, stealing form academia which was suggested by a listener. In the series I am researching now I am exploring how to use networking techniques for our creativity which was also a suggestion via instagram.

Ok fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main questions of our discussion. Is there someone in the podcasting world who you think is a great model for how to run a really fantastic podcast? What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful?

I am a huge fan of a series podcast, I love what India Rakusen does. Her podcast Witch had that box-set quality which I found completely intoxicating — I couldn’t wait for the next episode, and I consumed it in a very similar way to a TV drama or documentary series. The depth of her research is sublime and the editing is so polished. That is not to say that I don’t also enjoy a more spontaneous podcast, I think that Elizabeth Day’s podcast How to Fail is an excellent, alternative premise for an interview. In the creativity space, I enjoy Sodajerker and Songexploder — must listen for songwriting nerds. And I also love free flowing creativity conversations such as Creative Genius with Kate Shepherd and The Wilderness of Creativity with Lucy Colgan.

You are a very successful podcaster yourself. Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast? (Please share a story or example for each, if you can.)

Well thank you! My five lessons are these:

1. Just start — I sat on my podcast for 2 years. I have a habit of reframing my life to say that everything happens when it is meant to and life works out for the best, but I could easily have justified waiting when I did start for something else to be perfect or to have more information. You don’t need much to start and you will learn more from doing it than you can possibly imagine.
2. Research = Quality — I think you can tell the difference when someone hasn’t taken the time to research their guest or prepare what they are going to say. Investing time in research gives you confidence, you will find it fascinating, and it improves the quality of your podcast! Win win!
3. Lean into the void — the in-betweens, between each episode or series are important. If you can embrace taking a moment, however short, to just hover in the space between finishing an episode and starting the next one you will find that subliminal learnings are all available to you if you give them space to emerge.
4. Stick to your instincts — I took a lot of advice when I started planning this podcast, and a lot of people told me that I was more likely to be successful if I followed the conventions of weekly interview-led podcasts. But that is not what I wanted to create. Take advice, listen hard, but be prepared to go against the grain and hold your nerve. Trends are cycles, yes right now the trend is for interview-led podcasts, but it won’t always be that way. Perhaps you will be the person who starts a new trend. Innovate with pride.
5. Get a decent mic — the one thing that does put me off some podcasts is the sound quality. If you can afford a half decent secondhand mic or at least find your old headphones and wired mic, it makes a huge difference to the listener experience. Don’t let poor sound quality stop people from finding your great content.

Can you share some insight from your experience about the best ways to: 1) book great guests; 2) increase listeners; 3) produce it in a professional way; 4) encourage engagement; and 5) the best way to monetize it? (Please share a story or example for each, if you can.)

To date, I am very fortunate that all my guests have been people I know well. They have been hand-picked to help tell the story that I believe will interest anyone wanting to live with creative balance. Before the podcast was a real thing, I worried about asking people to participate — it was a leap of faith for them after all. But if you start with your own connections, I have found that they want to support you. And they are flattered to be asked. As you grow, you can cast the net wider.

Increasing listeners is a difficult one! Everyone warned me it would take time, and they were right. I think because I am so sure that what I am doing is important, I take some comfort in that. My numbers are still small, but the feedback and thanks I get from the people that have found the podcast really keep me motivated to keep on keeping on.

In terms of professional output, I have mentioned getting a half decent mic already. Decent quality audio makes a huge difference. I think preparation shows, not to prepare so much you lose the spontaneity and joy but investing time in research and having a genuine interest in your subject, or what your guest has to say, really comes across on a podcast.

How you get engagement varies depending on your target audience. I would advise anyone creating a podcast to think carefully about who the content is for. Bring your listener to life — give them a name, a job, put them in a place, consider their interests and speak to them directly. My target listener is found mainly on Instagram, so that’s where I target my social media content — I think it is better to pick one platform and do it thoroughly than scattergun many. I also create free resources and templates and I have a newsletter that goes out every fortnight. I gain an average of 4 new subscribers a week for my newsletter — these are tiny numbers, but 6 months ago I was gaining 2–3 a month — so it grows steadily over time. I also have some lovely fliers which I take to craft fairs, artists studios and creative cafes.

Creating a podcast is not a get rich quick scheme, so if making money is the aim, your efforts are probably better used elsewhere! Once you have over 2000 listeners you can attract sponsorship via most of the aggregation platforms, or at any stage, you can talk to a sponsor directly. Sponsorship is a choice though, and if you go that route, you are asking your listeners to give up their time to listen to ads. As time is very precious to my listeners, I have chosen the donation model. I ask folk, if they have had some value from the podcast, to consider buying me a coffee which they do on my website.

For someone looking to start their own podcast, which equipment would you recommend that they start with?

You’re gonna need a mic, headphones and a computer — that’s all you need in terms of hardware. If you want to record guests in real life, then naturally you will need two mics and headphones are optional. But there are some great online tools that are easy to use and means you can interview folk wherever they are in the world. I work with a producer to record my podcast, and we use Riverside to record the episodes and I also record a backup recording in Logic Pro — but that is quite specific to my circumstances because I am a musician so I happen to have some recording gear that I can use for other purposes. It really wouldn’t be necessary to have something as sophisticated as that — a voice note on your phone is fine for a backup. You only need it in case there is a glitch in your master recording. Then you will need to choose a platform to distribute your podcast — I use Acast, but there are many others that do a similar job just as well.

Ok. We are almost done. :-) Because of your position and work, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Why thank you! I don’t feel like a person of great influence right now in my jogging bottoms and t-shirt! But in all seriousness, the medical community tells us that one of the biggest public health threats is dementia, the scientists also tell us that creativity, of any kind, can both slow down the onset of dementia and offer purpose, meaning and communication tools to those who have been diagnosed with Altzheimers. I believe that everyone should be striving to live a creative life. To find a balance of creativity that works for them, even if it’s only 10 minutes a day. To be human is to be creative. We will all live a more satisfying, healthy and joyous life if we engage in any form of artistic learning every single day.

How can our readers follow you online?

I am @intenyearstimeofficial on instagram and facebook and my website is www.intenyearstime.com to sign up to my newsletter and get all the free resources. The podcast is available on all streaming platforms — just search In Ten Years Time and look for my bright pink logo!

Thank you so much for sharing your time and your excellent insights! We wish you continued success.

Thank you so much for having me!