Worth Every Penny - Worthfull Media

Worthfull Media is the Utah Microloan Fund's March Business of the Month, and we can't wait for you to learn more about them! We digitally sat down with owner Christine Baird to learn all about Worthfull and what makes them worth every penny!

UMLF: Hi Christine! We’re excited to interview you as our Business of the Month. Tell us about yourself.
Christine: "Hi and thank you! I am a media producer who loves podcasts, hosting, and design. After years in corporate sales, I did a career 180 and have been working in podcast production and media strategy since 2014. I worked on Lewis Howes’ brand, The School of Greatness, for four years, where I grew his top-ranked podcast from less than 1 million downloads to over 80 million. In 2018, I stepped away from producing that brand, moved to Salt Lake City from LA, and started Worthfull Media. Since then it has grown to support dozens of small businesses, personal brands, and larger endeavors in launching and growing their shows and impact."

UMLF:  For those who need the 411, tell us about Worthfull Media and what you do?
Christine: "We are a boutique media production house that serves seasoned coaches, consultants, speakers, and authors who want to podcast and YouTube. Our core values are worth and well-being. We LOVE what’s possible when experts share their wisdom through podcasting and YouTube. We think it’s one of the very best ways to connect our human race and share the knowledge we are learning together. Our core values come from nearly a decade of working closely with recognizable personal brands and seeing the power — and pitfalls — of making media in the digital age. We make shows that share your most enticing ideas, thus attracting your ideal audience, without sacrificing your well-being or self-worth. We call it worthfull media."

UMLF: What are some of your favorite productions that have taken place at the studio since you opened?
Christine: "I have loved having my longtime friend and now client Magalie René in studio twice in the past few months to film two seasons of her new YouTube show, The C Word. She's a brilliant compassion and confidence expert who facilitates trainings in the corporate environment, plus she has great style and personality, so it's been really fun to bring her wisdom to a YouTube show and give her the full support of a studio and team. We also recorded Season 3 of our own podcast, Think Like a Producer, with my co-host Tiff Tyler, and we brought in guests to be our case studies as we showcased how to put together great video episodes in studio."

UMLF: Do you have any advice for people who are thinking about getting into podcasting?
Christine: "Yes! It's a super powerful medium to share your expertise and ideas with your existing audience. No other media format creates the kind of intimacy that podcasting does, however, no one is very good at it when they start. So start! You'll get better as you go and learn a lot along the way. You'll pick up skills like owning your voice, being comfortable speaking publicly, and it may lead you to opportunities you could never imagine. It's a lot more fun when you hire people to help you with production, but it's okay to start on an amateur level and find your way."

UMLF: It’s Women’s History Month. Do you feel proud of your accomplishments so far as a woman-owned business (you should!) and what does the future look like for you?
Christine: "I do feel proud of myself for how far I've come as a small business owner. It was never my plan, but the path kept opening in front of me, and it's where I see the biggest possibilities for me to contribute to the world. Working in a male-dominated industry like online media, it's been really interesting to see how valued a female perspective and emotional intelligence is, so I plan on leaning more and more into those talents as I build out my team and clientele. We are doing way more YouTube shows now, which is why we opened our studio, and I see more of our future work being video-first."
 
UMLF: Every business has its highs and lows. Can you tell us about a challenge you faced as an entrepreneur and how you overcame it?
"I think I've become so used to self-doubt, I'm numb to it, haha! It's been a wild ride to expand my business from a solopreneur shop to a full agency with a brick and mortar studio coming out of a pandemic, but I've learned to trust the next right step instead of trying to figure out the big picture right away. One of my biggest challenges is keeping in my lane and focused on what I know I do well, rather than getting tempted to just do it the way everyone else has been doing it. I want to make media better, so that means doing things differently."

UMLF: How do you feel like the Utah Microloan Fund has helped your business?
Christine: "Having kept my business fully remote until last year, I hadn't prepared for a physical location expansion in my business. But I kept getting the idea and seeing the possibility and then I found the perfect space, so I needed support to bridge the gap in my finances. UMLF was so helpful for a non-traditional business like mine that had been mostly a solo operation up until that point, and I'm so grateful for their support in thinking through how to make this expansion successful."

Website: https://worthfullmedia.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/worthfullmedia
Facebook: www.facebook.com/worthfullmedia