Turning Your Interests Into a Business with Jennifer Navarrete

Curiosity Becomes A Business

Do you want to turn your interest into a business? Well, today's conversation might be interesting for you. I'm talking with Jennifer Navarrete. She's the founder of Brewing Media and National Podcast Post Month. I'm Judy Oskam, and this is Stories of Change, helping you navigate what's next. We're exploring how curiosity about podcasting became a family business. And now Jennifer's making room for the life she wants beyond her work. That's something that we all need to think about, whether you're building a company, leading a team, or considering your next chapter. What do you want to keep doing and what would you like to make room for? I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jennifer Navarrete

Community Building Before It Was Cool

So because I was doing a lot of community building, I had started the San Antonio podcasting group. And then in 2007, we did PodCamp and we did that for a few years. We did Bar Camp, we did TweetCamp, we did all these community user-generated conferences. And I was kind of becoming more and more aware of what was going on. And I would speak at lunch and learns, breakfast events, different kinds of things. And there were times when I would talk about social media too. I would talk about social media, podcasting, blogging, and all that stuff. And I remember being at a business mixer in San Antonio, and somebody said, Jennifer, you're talking about Facebook? That's for the kids. This is a business event. And I and they walked away and I stood there stunned. And I thought, well, I get that it, but you know, I could so clearly see where we were going. Yeah. And the rest of the world wasn't ready. So I like to say that, you know, I was speaking Klingon for a long time and no one understood what I was saying, or very few people did. And then the world catches up. So because I was talking about these kinds of topics a lot and I was very visible in this space. Um, you know, we were in the newspaper, all kinds of stuff. Um, people started going when it started becoming now more mainstream. People were like, hey, you've been talking about these things for a while. Can you help me? Can we hire you to help me? Can we hire you? Can you can we do these things? Can do you coach? Do you consult? Do you do trainings with our team? So I started doing that with small businesses in San Antonio, where I was going in and training their team on social media, on podcasting, helping entrepreneurs. And um I did a lot of that, you know, it just kept growing and growing and growing because then it became more and more mainstream. And then not only was had I been talking about it for a while, now I had existing clientele. Sure. And so I was, you know, someone who had business experience within something that everybody was scrambling around, trying to figure out, much like we're trying to figure out with AI right now. Exactly. And so that kind of graduated to where my company's name is Brewing Media. And it comes from that original coffee show. My sister and I did that coffee show called Morning Brewcast. And so I thought, well, when we're doing media nowadays, it's a mix and mingle of a lot of things. It isn't just one thing. So I called it Brewing Media, and that's what I've been doing for uh a while now. Um, that it turned into something that I do for 100% for a living, so much so that it's

How Reputation Turns Into Referrals

a family business now because both my sons now work in the business.

I love that.

And we have subcontractors and folks that work with us and people that, you know, come in seasonally and different things. And it's been a lot of fun. I can say that I am so grateful to the 2005 version of Jennifer who saw something and said, that's for me. And then even through all the years, you know, when it wasn't, it wasn't paying bills and it wasn't doing anything, it was just this thing that I was very excited about and just could see very clearly that it was going to be not just a thing, but it was going to be my thing and just didn't give up because now I I tell folks I'm living the dream right now. It's fantastic.

I love that. And explore kind of how you got to that dream. You talked about some of the some of the how, but I mean, how how do you net how do you now work with businesses and bring in your family and all of that? Talk a little bit more about that. I think that's fascinating.

So I think we have to believe in ourselves. And a lot of times we we don't. And I'm going to say we as an even at some points where you second guess yourself and go, okay, how does this work? Um, having been out at in the front of a lot of things, what I wound up happening in the more recent years was that somebody had seen me speak at a conference years before. Somebody had been at a lunch and learned that I had spoken at years before. And then they were ready to do a podcast. And they said, I always knew, and I heard this more than once, that if I was ever going to do a podcast, that I was going to work with you. And I was like, wow. Five years ago, Jennifer didn't know that, but now current Jennifer was able to take it to benefit from that. And so that kind of is how the business really kind of solidified itself. It was all those early adopter things, telling folks about how have you tried this? Have you heard about this? Look at this, doing those kinds of things turned into where now people were seeking me out to work with them and referring me to other people who were looking for someone that, you know, could be their spice and flavor. And that's real key here. I think we have to work with people that are our spice and flavor. And I think that discovery call that you do, where you kind of get a sense of whether you kind of mesh, you know, both in the vision and just personality types and also your calendar, you know, because someone may say, I want to launch like in a month. Well, that's a huge commitment versus two or three months where you're working through all of the steps that you need to take to get there. And so it's all of those factors combined. And then you then you decide, okay, yeah, we actually do like each other. Let's let we do, this does fit, let's go ahead and go forward. But I think it's all of those referrals and all of that that time I put in beforehand that has paid off in spades. Now, and I joke around that um I've been in podcasting 21 years now. And so I joke around and say, it took only took me 20 years to become an overnight success.

I know. Yes, I've heard that before. And that's so true, right?

It is so true. But if you love it, it's not work. It's work, but it's not because it's like, what would I be doing? I would be doing this anyway. I truly would. I'd be doing it for myself only, but I would still be doing it. And I love the work that I do. I get to work with on amazing projects. Um, I kind of pinch myself every once in a while that I get paid to make audio magic and now video magic these days. And it's like phenomenal because I'm learning. You know, the clients that I work with are all business professionals. And the work that they want, the mission and message that they have to get out to the world, I'm learning because I'm there in the trenches with them, building their show and then putting it out week after week. Well, me and my team. But that learning is amazing. And it's like, holy smokes, the power of that. Because then there's the ripple effect of like their impact. It's not just their impact, their right fit client. It's also the impact that influences the company, the team. So we have, you know, we do the recordings and we do the post-production, we put it out to the world, we'll have conversations about what how what did you think about that episode? Wow, well, it made me think about this. And then we go, well, can we internalize it? How can we grow? Is this something that we need to do, or is this not for us? And sometimes when I find out something that I'm like, oh, this is really helpful, I will share it out to my network. I'll be like, hey, I saw this, I heard this, worked on this, and I thought of you and thought you might be helpful. And I think that's just the human connection point where we hear something and we think of someone else that we're like, this would be perfect for them. So when I say living the dream, it's like all of the curiosity, the childish version of Jennifer who was curious and asked a lot of questions and still does. Um, and to the person who was the 2005 Jennifer was like, I'm gonna try this thing. I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna try

Designing Life And Owning The Chaos

it, you know, to now where this is what I do for a living. I say that we all design our lives, and that's good or bad, right? I I was did a post recently where I said, you know, I talk about designing my life a lot. Meaning it wasn't like in 2005 when I said I was gonna make a podcast that it was funding my life, that right, that I had my, that my sons were little, but that my it was a family business. None of that was true, but it is now. But I designed my life that way over time. Doesn't mean that there weren't hills and valleys, bumps and bruises along the way, but I kept, you know, that that very narrow focus of what I knew I wanted to do, what I was good at, what I enjoyed, and what people were seeking me out for. The flip side to that is we also design our life for chaos. And I recently did a blog post where I looked at my studio. So this is, I'm in studio B right now, but studio A is where I do production, and I have a bunch of boxes in there for studio stuff, stuff that I need to put away, stuff I need to put in stores, stuff I need to just get rid of. And it's just stacked in my studio. And I've been frustrated by it. And the other day I was like, oh, I'm so frustrated with this room. I just need to get, you know, clear out these boxes, you know, get it in my studio the way I really want it. And then I thought, you designed it this way. And I was like, oh, I designed my life for all the wonderful things that I'm doing, but I also designed the chaos, you know, the frustration. So I think when I tell people, you know, design, I design your life, you're the designer of your life, it's true, but it does work both ways.

It does. It really does. And I always like to share that with students or clients that I coach too, as far as what you can do. And you really are in charge of that. And I think a lot of what you talked about is over the last 20-some years, you've built such strong identity capital, you know, and you've built that currency with the local San Antonio and national business community who are seeking you out and hiring you to do that because you were there in the beginning. So look ahead five years.

Delegation That Buys Back Time

What's going to happen in five years? What do you think?

I have told my sons that in three years I'm going to be taking um 30 days off, emergency access only. I'm going to be adventuring a little more. There was a time in my life when I did something called the Health Fitness Beauty Quest, and it was where I wanted to learn what it was like to be healthy, fit, and my version of beautiful because I think everyone's beautiful in their own way. And I did that from 2013 to 2015. And I wound up doing a bike trek from San Diego to Deming, New Mexico in 18 days, and it was amazing. And there's a whole story that goes behind there. But those are the kinds of things that I want to get back to. And so I've told them what we're building now as a company is we're building our systems, our processes, our procedures, our team, our framework that can sustain without me at being involved in every aspect of it. And so that's kind of a different thing for me as a leader because I've been so involved at every single, you know, in the weed of every single everything. To have a team now means I need to empower them. I need to delegate to them. I need to set them up for success. I need to be here for anything that they need. And it's a different thing. It's a very different thing.

You've got to build it to last, to outlast you.

That's the goal. So in five years, I hope to be um hiking, kayaking, um cycling, um, adventuring, still owning the business, still doing these things because I love this. I would still do this, but being able to take that uh personal time. You know, we like the one of the things that you talk about profit is that is it personally profitable? Is it professionally profitable? Is it financially profitable? I can say that what I do now is extremely is professionally profitable and good, financially profitable. But personally, because I've poured so much into this, I thought, well, what am I what else would I? I love it. What else would I be doing? I go, well, I kind of miss hiking and and kayaking and cycling. I haven't done that in a really long time, I guess since pandemic, right? And so I would like to get back to that. And I look at my calendar now and I'm like, there's no time for that right now. But I can see where in three, you know, as I as I get closer to that, that it makes sense that it would happen. Cause I, of course, want to set this up, want the clients to be set up for success, want the team, want my sons, and to be able to do it. So I'll probably baby step it like next year. I'm gonna take a week away emergency access only and see what happens. I mean, I'll be available if they that's with the emergency access to have them come and just kind of start slowly kind of increasing what that is year over year over year to where hopefully I can go away for a month and everything just keeps running smoothly without me, which is the business owner's dream, or at least mine.

If you're a leader, you're always thinking about how to how to leave the company, the organization better than when you when you started. But where do you fall in that? And this is what you're trying to get back, right? You're trying to recapture some of your own life back.

Legacy And NaPodPoMo Impact

I am, you know, one of the things is legacy, right? So, what's the legacy that we're leaving behind? And it isn't just, you know, necessarily, you know, the kids are gonna get money or somebody's gonna get a how. You know what I mean? It's not that kind of legacy. I'm talking about the legacy of who we were as a human being and the impact that we had in the world. Purpose. Uh, my goal is that Napod Puma would continue far beyond me. And I have to set that up for success. And I have to really build that infrastructure and make sure that it can, because I've so many people have told me stories about how their participation has changed their life, has impacted them in this way or that way. Again, you know, they're very grateful, but it's like I just created the space. It was all you. It's always all you. It's just maybe you needed permission. You didn't need it, but maybe you did. Maybe you needed just a space to do it in and a time frame to do it in, like that positive pressure. And that's really what this is. November 1 through 30th, 30 podcast episodes in 30 days. That's positive pressure. It's pressure. You're gonna feel it. You're gonna feel the whole thing. But it's it's for something that you want to do. And so it's helping drive you. And because we're all as a global community doing it together, there's this real nice sense of, like you said, you said purpose. There's this real nice sense of that I'm not in this alone. Other people are going through this too, and they're probably struggling just as much as I am in week three when I'm like, why am I doing this? So I think that is key, right? Leaving that legacy in some capacity that can continue to have an impact. And to me, that's really the big key. Um, when I was first doing events, um, you know, I was worried about attendance at conferences at these user-generated conferences. And I had um, I think it was Mike uh Michael Verde who told me if you have a handful of people show up and you have meaningful conversations, you have had a successful event. And that shifted everything for me. Yeah. Everything. So ever since then, I have never cared about numbers. Numbers are nice, they feel good, they're vanity metrics. It feels good to have lots of numbers, sure, but it's that impact. And Napod Pomo for me continues to be that impact. Whether we have 20 people participating or 200 people participating in any given year, that impact is very real every single time. And that's what keeps me coming back year after year after year.

Takeaways And Closing Question

Well, here's what I'm taking away from my conversation with Jennifer. She started by following her curiosity and then shared what she learned and started helping people. Over time, that became a business. Is there something you've been thinking about that you might want to give it a go? I think it's important and I think it could lead to legacy. I'm Judy Oskam. Thanks for listening to Stories of Change helping you navigate what's next.