We recently connected with Victoria Featherstone and have shared our conversation below.
Victoria, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
One of the biggest things that holds us back from walking in our purpose is thinking we have to arrive at our assignment perfectly. In my journey, it is my continual pursuit of purpose that has provided me opportunities to fill the cracks in my own life. When we live on purpose, it has an impact on others. Purpose is not about perfection; if there’s one lesson that sticks with me, it’s that perfection is not a prerequisite for impact.
Four years ago I started the Seeds of Hope Podcast during a season in my life where I felt lost, lonely and so far from purpose. I felt like I was losing sight of who I was and I wondered if there were others who beyond the filtered lives portrayed on social media were struggling to find their way too. So, I decided to tell my story – as it was – before the page turned to a new chapter. I shared my vulnerable truth and through that choice, I reconnected with my purpose. I’m glad I didn’t wait to tell my story until I had my life figured out.
In my experience, the pursuit of purpose is one of the greatest personal development journeys one can go on. I’ve found that my purpose is intricately woven with the liberation of women, empowering them with the courage and confidence to share their stories. I have found sharing our stories is one of the most powerful tools for self-discovery and healing. Yet, they can also be the hardest to share because they require vulnerability. However, the reason we must push forward despite the fear is because our purpose is connected to people and folks are waiting on each of us to find the courage to start where we are.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I love what I do because I’m able to help brilliant women to be able to connect with their dream clients through their content without having to sacrifice time with their loved ones. I help busy entrepreneurs take content creation off of their plates by producing a podcast that becomes their content bank, which they can make withdrawals from each day for all their content needs, everything from newsletters to tik toks to reels to social posts to blogs to YouTube videos. By batch-recording their podcasts, I can give them back an extra two hours in the day that they would spend overthinking what to post.
With the continual rise of social media, many small business owners are having to adapt to not only being the face of their business but also having to take on this new role of being content creators. This pressure comes with an unending need for new content. And so I’m excited about helping them to be able to easily create content that attracts their most aligned audience and captures their authenticity. Watching my clients accept that they don’t have to trade authenticity for attention online brings me joy. Podcasting beautifully captures their personality because it’s a conversation. With the pressure to be consistent online, as business owners, we can get so focused on the outcome that we lose sight of the powerful opportunity we have to be able to share parts of our story with our community online. For that reason, I love that the podcasts I produce become a beautiful bridge between these brilliant women whose stories I get to capture, and the people who need them the most.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Learning to be able to repurpose moments that don’t go as planned has helped me to be resilient in my journey of being an entrepreneur. There are a lot of things that are beyond our control in life, but especially in business. We can be consistent. We can create the content. We can plan and create the offer, but the decision folks will make to work with us is beyond our control, I’m grateful that I’ve learned how to re-purpose the moment so that way I do not feel like any time is wasted, even when I don’t get the outcome I hoped. Repurposing the moment is simply being able to ask yourself what other opportunities exist at this moment, even though the outcome I hoped for isn’t what happened.
Entrepreneurship is an unpaved path and you are figuring it out as you go, but with that comes a lot of uncertainty and often insecurity. I remember when I first started my business I wanted it so badly for the people around me to validate I was on the right path. And I had to learn that other people cannot validate a vision that they did not give me. My purpose is not given to me by other people; it is something I was born with. And so while I can get affirmation and encouragement from other people, they can’t validate the vision for the calling on my life. I have found that waiting on other people to validate my decisions can lead to procrastination, and when I’m procrastinating, I’m outside of the position that I need to be to pour into the people who need me the most.
One of the practices that has helped me to be able to sustainably grow my business is stepping outside my comfort zone. I believe it’s really important to step outside our comfort zone and into our impact zone. However, for it to be sustainable it’s important to balance between stepping outside our comfort zone and honoring who we are and how we’re wired, making sure that we are nurtured well and that our needs are met while we are stepping outside our comfort zone. I think that’s what allows us to be able to be sustainable as we stretch ourselves towards purpose.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I would love to partner with women who have a heart for serving their community and sharing their stories. If you are trying to figure out how to navigate showing up authentically in the online space and would like to start a podcast, I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at @victoriathepodcastproducer. If you want to chat with me directly, you can send me an email at victoria@seedsofhope.love.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @victoriathepodcastproducer
- Facebook: Victoria Featherstone
- Youtube: Victoria The Podcast Producer
Image Credits
Catara Lane; Tre’Sean Sharpe
