Hello and welcome to a special end of the year episode of Impact Factor! I’m your host, Katie Van Aken and this week I wanted to look back on our first year of the pod and share with you some of the things we learned along the way! Cue the theme song and let’s get into it!
I probably mentioned this in the trailer episode but it’s always good to reflect on the why. So why did I start this podcast? Well, my network contains a ton of people who have finished, are in the middle of, or are about to start a PhD program and I felt like there was a lot of wisdom to be shared and learned. We did some topical episodes which covered things like picking a program, building a relationship with your advisor, fighting imposter syndrome, and how to give a good technical presentation. My favorite episodes to make, though, were the interviews. It was a blast to reconnect with some old colleagues and make new connections through the podcast interviews. We welcomed 14 guests in 2022 at all stages of their PhD journey! We had some technical challenges with audio recordings here and there but ultimately we felt the episode content stood on its own without a ton of editing. There is always room for improvement heading into 2023 though! In addition to guest interviews, we did our first LIVE panel discussion and recording in partnership with Drexel University’s graduate college which was a huge success! Hopefully we can do some more of those events next year. Call me old fashioned but I love an in-person event.
Next, we all know that Spotify sends its listeners a “wrapped” summary of their year of listening but what you may not know (because I didn’t either) is that they also send podcast creators a wrapped summary about their podcast for the year! For example, they shared with me that as of the time of the wrapped publication, I had published 666 minutes of content (a number that’s significance is not lost on me) and they also shared that this is more than 94% of others in the Education category! We also reached 12 countries and landed in the top 10 podcasts for many of our fans! And with that, I want to give a huge shoutout to you guys, our listeners! According to the wrapped, our listener’s personality is The Enthusiast, meaning “Your listeners are superfans. When their favorite podcast releases a new episode, they are among the first to know, going above and beyond to show their support.” While I don’t know how that description is generated, I definitely do feel the support of our listeners so thanks for tuning in, sharing the episodes, and liking our posts on Instagram.
And speaking of Instagram, I also wanted to thank our social media manager, Becca, who is also my sister. She has designed all the posts, logos, and icons we have used to promote the show and also taught me how to use Instagram.
Looking ahead, we will be taking a few weeks off for the holiday so make sure to catch up on older episodes that you missed and we will be back with a new episode on Monday, January 9th! More interviews to come, and hopefully some more outside of the science and engineering fields. We also have a guest lined up who did his PhD in Germany which should be interesting and like I said earlier, maybe some more in person events, or special episodes.
As always if you or someone you know wants to be interviewed on the pod, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn and connect with us on Instagram at @ImpactFactorPod. Thanks again to all of you for listening and supporting the show. Have a wonderful holiday season and we will be back in 2023!
Music by Katie Van Aken.