Case Study: Gloriously Unready Series 1
Charlotte Foster Podcasts has worked with Josephine Hughes to produce 3 series of Gloriously Unready
Josephine is a counsellor and mum of three grown up children. In 2015 two of her children came out as transgender aged 16 and 21.
Josephine wanted to tell her story of becoming a mum to transgender children so that she can support other parents going through a similar journey.
How We Worked Together
In the initial planning sessions the podcast goals were set as
Gain a new audience so that Josephine was speaking to the right people who would be engaged and interested in her story.
Introduce Josephine as an authority in being a parent of transgender children so that she can offer support to other parents who need it.
Charlotte quickly understood that with Josephine being so involved in her own story it was hard for her to plan and structure it objectively.
It was decided the best format for series 1 of the podcast would be for Charlotte to interview Josephine with a view to creating a series of edited monologues.
The monologue format allowed Josephine to tell her story entirely in her own voice and her words. This was important for conveying the right tone as well as keeping the sensitivity of the content in mind.
Charlotte’s experience as a journalist meant she was able to ask Josephine the right questions to draw out Josephine’s story so that it was clear and told with the audience in mind.
That journalistic experience was also used to go through the 4 hours of recordings and to produce 7 episodes from the content.
Each episode covered a different part of the story and had a theme. The episodes were similar to chapters in a book and were produced to leave the audience wanting to come back for the next instalment.
The podcast was released during Transgender Awareness Week in November 2022. Two episodes were released on Monday and then from Tuesday to Saturday one episode was released each day.
A daily release encouraged the audience to come back for more without waiting too long and losing interest.
It also meant there could be a loud and intense marketing campaign around the week.
What we achieved
The podcast has been heard in more than 70 countries - with most downloads in the UK and USA.
85% of the audience is classed as engaged by Apple Podcasts - meaning they played at least 40% of an episode in one session.
Every episode has a 75% + completion rate, the majority of them have 90% + completion rate.
Data shows a majority of listeners identify as women and are in the 45 - 59 years old age range. This indicates that the audience is made up of potential parents - precisely the audience we were looking for.
The Guardian made the podcast one of its picks of the week in its weekly podcast newsletter Hear Here with this review
Counsellor Josephine Hughes found herself “gloriously unready” when both her daughters came out as transgender, unbeknown to each other. Hughes is brutally honest and endlessly wise as she tells their story, outlining the moments that many parents face with so much love and support that she can’t fail to help others in the same situation.
The day the review was published we saw a spike in downloads from a new audience which was sustained in the days and weeks following.
Josephine has also been featured in industry magazine Children and Young People Now talking about being a parent of transgender children, which helps boost her credibility as an authority in her subject.
We’ve also gone on to produce another 2 series of the podcast. Series 3 was also made a pick of the week by The Guardian’s weekly newsletter Hear Hear with this review
Warm and wise: Josephine Hughes is the mum of two transgender daughters and wants to give other parents, partners and loved ones in the same situation a voice. Dr Lulu kicks off the third season with her very personal experience of supporting her trans child. Political debates feel irrelevant when you have this much love.
If you would like to work with Charlotte Foster Podcasts to produce your charity podcast please get in touch.
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