How I found my confidence through club Podcasting.

By Mira Folarin

After I attended the commissioning of Oralvault Radio studio in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, in 2019, I realized what passion with desires could do. Paying attention to the process alone, thought me a lot about keeping focus and achieving my dreams. There were no words of motivation at all, just reality and questions and yes, I asked a few and that was more than enough for me to help me realize the extent of gratitude we are missing.

I studied mass communication at the university of rivers state and like every other institution in the country, I knew what would happen as soon as I graduated from school. I would call my friends in Lagos during my last days in school and we joked about how I would end up in the bank as cashier or make up artist with my degree. It sounded like a joke and yes, it wasn’t all funny because we already knew the outcome.

Fast forward to when I decided to make an attempt, somehow I am used to implementing what I hear. According to the director of broadcasting, C S Nwilliams, Podcasting in the most causal way built Oralvault Radio was scratch all the way to the top, every expenses had come from her progress both home and abroad and yet, it was only serving the interest of less than 1% of the world’s population at the time. As soon as I heard the management had plans to give free airing opportunities to new and existing broadcasters and podcasts host, I immediately signed up for Anchor and started practicing. Bottom line, those words and more motivated me even when none sounded like a motivational speech. Hence, I knew it was time to start building my experience and my audience in a much better way.

A few months later, Oralvault launched her club program in Port Harcourt, which was good for me at the time because, i could access her studio and use her equipment for my personal production and also, I could do live podcast shows and interact with professionals and that was more than a dream coming to light for me. By the way, I was just having fun as that was part of the demand the Radio made for her members to adhere to.

Learning podcasting made things a lot easier for me coming into the labor market after I graduated. I still use Anchor to host my podcasts, and I believe that, most students and graduates are yet to understand that their chances of working for a media house is little if their degree isn’t certified abroad or without connections. Building my audience and confidence is what I achieved with podcasting and I wish a lot of people would buy the idea. We talk a lot, we can make our talking useful, we chat everyday we can transform gossip into interesting episodes. The world has long evolved and given everyone the chance to start something good. I am happy I attended the commissioning of Oralvault Radio, even though I couldn’t get a job there but at least, I get sponsorship and freelance jobs and I can easily apply to any radio station of my show which huge chances I am going to get employed.

Try podcasting, talk with benefits and dreams in front of you.