Striving to be a voice for the middle woman, UNT advertising senior Sierra Boudreaux began her podcast “Ask Me in a Year” on Aug. 13 to speak about the daily life of a college student, and she has gained 50 listeners since her start.
Boudreaux was inspired to start her culture and lifestyle podcast after seeing many podcasts for older and younger groups of women, but none for the average college student. She said she wants her platform to serve women in between early college life and adulthood. “Ask Me in a Year” is available on all streaming platforms and comes out with a new episode every Wednesday.
“I like to tagline it ‘The early 20’s personified,’” Boudreaux said. “I’m talking about college, talking about [the] transition between graduating college and going into the workfield kind of unprepared and not really knowing what it’s supposed to look like going into a creative job. I talk about dating and relationships and Christianity. [I’m] really just talking about everything I feel that I am and everything I personify.”
Senior advertising major Sierra Boudreaux types on her laptop at Jupiter House on Sept. 9, 2019. Her setup consists of her laptop and a plug-in microphone. Image by Meredith Holser
Boudreaux considers herself to be a very spontaneous person, and once she came up with the idea for her podcast, she began immediately. She purchased a microphone from Amazon, learned how to use the Anchor app to record and GarageBand to edit.
When starting her podcast, Boudreaux found support from her friends, who have been continuous listeners of the podcast and constant encouragers. Karrie Johnston, UNT alumna and Denton resident, has been friends with Boudreaux for roughly a year and has been with her throughout the process of starting her podcast.
“I was there when [Boudreaux] asked me ‘Hey, if I started this would you listen?’ Now it’s all come to be and here we are,” Johnston said. “[Boudreaux] is such a dreamer and does these really big things, and it’s just awesome. There’s a lot of people who talk about doing these big things but never follow through, and she really has the initiative and the want and always does these big things that she talks about, so it’s been really awesome to see her follow through with it.”
Boudreaux said she wants to include different people and opinions on her podcast. She plans on having a special guest on the show once a month. Her first guest on the show was Denton resident and co-worker of Boudreaux, Abigail Cartwright.
“We were just talking about something [at work] and she said ‘You have to come on my podcast and talk about that,’” Cartwright said. “I went over to her place and she briefed me on the questions she wanted to ask, then we pressed record and kind of just went for it. It was a lot of fun. It was more of a conversation and not like we were just recording something. This is something she is definitely finding importance in.”
While Boudreaux said she is enjoying her new passion, there are some challenges that arise when recording a podcast for all to hear. Boudreaux said it is very important to be careful what you say on all social media platforms, especially when speaking about potentially controversial topics.
“Once it’s out there, it’s out there and you can’t take it back,” Boudreaux said. “With a podcast, people can’t really misquote you because it’s your words, you’re on air and you said it how you said it. I’m just very careful about how I say things because people may not know my heart. They may not know where I’m coming from. So I just have to be very clear whenever I say things because I do kind of push boundaries [with] things like Christianity, graduating, work ethic and all these things that I talk about.”
Boudreaux will be spending her fall semester studying abroad in England and hopes to continue her podcast during her trip to help give people access to global perspectives.
“I think that [studying abroad] is a whole new level of experience that a lot of people don’t get to have,” Boudreaux said. “I like opening up new perspectives for people because it can feel like were in a bubble— a college bubble where you only get the college perspective or a North Texas bubble and only get the North Texas perspective. So I’ll be able to offer many different perspectives and have many different people on the podcast.”
When considering the future of the podcast, Boudreaux said she hopes to learn about becoming more transparent and open with her audience and allowing herself to explore new things while on the air. She said she also hopes to potentially gain sponsors in the future and potentially make money from the podcast.
“My favorite thing about the podcast is the ability to give myself a platform and say whatever I want to say on it, and how freeing it is to know that I’m really just doing it for me,” Boudreaux said. “I hope that it’s a resource for other people. I just wanted to tell stories as many ways as I possibly could. I think a podcast is such an easy way to do that. It’s not about what you look like and it’s not about the editing and all of that. It’s just about a girl and a microphone, talking.”
Featured Image: Senior advertising major Sierra Boudreaux talks about her podcast at Jupiter House on Sept. 9, 2019. Her podcast, titled “Ask Me In a Year” encapsulates what life is like for a woman in her 20s. Image by Meredith Holser
Article Originally Published by on North Texas Daily
Source: North Texas Daily