I talk with co-owners of Speakerbox Media and producers of the One Year From Now podcast, Ray and Sarah Smith, about their journey in entrepreneurship together and growing the suite of services and products within their podcast production company.
In this podcast, Sarah and Ray cover:
- Building different business models underneath the umbrella of one company
- Maintaining curiosity and pursuing what’s next
- Learning to divide their time and money across different projects
- Entrepreneuring as a couple and accepting challenges together
- Fostering connectivity and sustainability in their One Year From Now vision
Focusing on clients and scaling to match their needs
Forming Speakerbox Media has been a journey centered on finding solutions. While Ray’s background was primarily in audio editing, he quickly realized there was so much potential in the ever-expanding and changing podcast market. Sarah and Ray seek to provide all-encompassing solutions for each and every one of their clients, which has allowed them to expand into an entire suite of services, including editing, video, marketing, and so much more. Every decision is a collaborative effort, not just between themselves as partners, but also between their company and their clients.
“We never want to become this detached huge podcasting machine… We’ve always wanted to have a very customer-centric and human-centric approach.” – Sarah
Expanding into physical podcasting spaces with Expansive
So much of the podcasting world, just like the entrepreneurship world, takes place at home. However, many of Ray and Sarah’s clients do not have the access or ability to use high-value, professional-level materials to record and edit their podcast from their home environment. While Speakerbox Media has always included podcast editing services, a recent expansion for them was to offer an opportunity that changed the recording game for many of their clients: the ability to record in a completely set-up and optimized recording space with the best equipment at their disposal.
“Anything that we have to bring on is heavily discussed between Sarah and I, and it has to serve more than just one benefit.” – Ray
Taking the leap into full-time entrepreneurship as a couple
While Ray began his journey at Speakerbox Media full-time, Sarah maintained a part-time position within the corporate world to help support them and their new business, until the pandemic caused her to take on entrepreneurship full-time. Since starting their business 3 years ago, Ray and Sarah have encountered their own challenges and successes as a married couple and entrepreneurs as their business has grown, including learning leadership styles, making collaborative decisions, working with strong personalities, and defining roles together.
“The first 6 months of working together challenged us more than anything else in our relationship.” – Sarah
Looking forward to the future while creating community
Considering the name of this podcast, I always want to know the vision that my guests have for their business one year from now. For Ray and Sarah, their focus isn’t on scaling bigger as much as it is continuing their mission with sustainability. They want to be able to support their team at Speakerbox Media with a safe and supportive work environment while providing opportunities to include fellow creatives in their industry. Most importantly of all, they want to help their clients build communities with their podcasts, providing the very best content at the highest quality.
“I’m not trying to push growth so much right now, I’m trying to push sustainability.” – Ray
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Applications for One Year From Now: The Residency will be open from now until December 1st at brainspaceoptimized.com/residency.
Check out Speakerbox Media on their website. Find Sarah and Ray on LinkedIn.
Additional resources mentioned in this podcast: Shut Up and Listen! by Tilman Fertitta, the Expansive website.
Connect with me through my website and on Instagram.
Schedule a clarity call with me here: https://oyfn.co/clarity/
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