Podcasting and vulnerability
Laura Borichevsky shares her path to podcast host and freelance creator
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Laura Borichevsky has a knack for connecting people and their stories. I’ve only met her briefly in-person, at a vanlife gathering for nomadic women in New Mexico where there were so many people (and vans, and dogs) and so much going on, we may not have actually exchanged names. But I saw her get up in front of big groups and just ease into this role of connector—giving others the stage to share their own stories and moderating in a way that made it feel like a small group of friends rather than hundreds of strangers.
Laura connects people through screens and over airwaves, too. Through articles, podcasts, social media, and photography, she produces just about every type of content you can imagine, always with a focus on honest, vulnerable storytelling. And she is one of those people who I think demonstrates how social media can be a valuable, sacred place for expressing ourselves as writers, building community around our own stories, and amplifying those of others.
You might know Laura as the host of the now retired podcast Women on the Road. But she has a new one premiering soon, and I was excited to ask her how podcasting and writing have come together in her career path as a multi-talented freelancing creator.
So, writers! Meet Laura!
Laura Borichevsky on podcasting and vulnerability
B: Can you start by telling us what type of work fills your typical day—and specifically, what kind of work pays your bills?
L: Like many folks who navigate freelance and self-employment, this can fluctuate! For the most part, the work that fills my day (you know, the bill-paying kind) involves podcast production, writing for both social media and longform articles and newsletters, and some photography. However, I also lean on the skills I picked up in the earlier part of my career, which entailed Human Resources work, to take on part-time, contract positions to help cover expenses as client needs (or my personal budget) fluctuates.
My income for the past couple of years (which is the timeframe that really tells the most accurate story financially) has been coming most steadily from working with Ravel Media (the company that produces She Explores and other related projects!) but I have also taken on contract positions with other organizations during that time as well, like No Man’s Land Film Festival, to support creative and marketing needs. I also freelance independently with clients (both businesses and individuals) for digital content creation and photo sessions as a portrait photographer.
From a distance it seems that your work and your passion are one. When I read your words on Instagram, I get this intimate sense of reading someone's journal or a memoir-in-progress, but social media is also a big part of what you do as a professional writer and podcaster. Can you explain the relationship, as you see it, between the various types of "creating" that make up your career and your more personal creative explorations?
Oof, this question resonates! I actually love the different ways the creative process enters my life, mostly because I am a continual content producer. It's always been my hobby (before it became my paid hobby and eventually my career). Social media for me has always been an outlet to share whatever is on my mind, experiment with different content styles, and try to process some of my own personal challenges when it comes to navigating the freelance/self-employed world.
While social media has the capacity to boil a lot of personalities and topics down to something one-dimensional, I've always tried my best to continue sharing as many different parts of myself as I feel is comfortable or important to, so in many ways it's been a space that is less focused than much of my other content work, which has more of a laser focus per project.
I see you went to school for mental health counseling and then HR management. Can you explain when and how you shifted to a career based around storytelling?
The common thread between each of these very different-looking career paths really comes down to an interest in people. I've always loved listening (nobody really knew my name in high school yet I was still voted "Best Listener my senior year, my only claim to fame as a teen), and each of these directions I took both academically and professionally in my early career years really set the tone for my comfort level in being able to hold space for meaningful conversation and remain present with folks on their journey to share their stories.
When it comes to storytelling as the creator I am now, the same rules apply. If it doesn't involve people in some way, I'm probably not as passionate about it.
What was your very first paid writing job or assignment?
Hmm, I had to think back on this one! I believe the first paid writing job I ever had was actually as a transcriptionist for Rev. I was living on the road at the time and was in the process of getting my freelance writing business up and running (as a photographer of 15 years, I was largely depending on that income as it was available), so doing transcription writing (and later, freelance podcast show notes writing for another production team) was how I first began to pay my bills as a writer.
When did you first get involved in podcasting?
I first became a podcast host and producer in 2016 when I hit the road full time and pitched Gale Straub of She Explores on a show concept based on females in road travel (a now-retired show called Women on the Road).
To be candid, I wasn't completely sold on getting into audio at the time-- but three years, 100 episodes, and over 1.2 million listens later when we passed the show off to the Diversify Vanlife team to reboot it as Nomads at the Intersections, I knew I would want to keep podcasting because listening to stories and elevating voices in this way is so rich with detail, emotion, and opportunity to bring people together.
How do you think your skills as a writer have transferred over to podcasting?
In so many ways that I didn't even foresee initially! Not everyone produces shows the same, but the style and format I love the most involves writing a script post-interview. It was around the time of putting together my first script, in fact, sitting in front of a blank Google Doc, that I realized just how much writing I was going to be doing as a podcast host. It felt like a relief, given that podcasting was so new to me, but writing is something I've always felt at home doing. Knowing how to write with voice is important in podcast scripting, but it takes a lot more than that! I've learned over the years just how important it is to be practical about how something is scripted so that it's easy for the reader to convey and sound natural in speaking, as well as keeping in mind that listeners don't have a visual to refer to, so using metaphors or adjectives that enhance the mental picture you're painting (rather than distracting from it) is fairly critical.
Tell us about the new podcast, Sex Outside, and how it came to be!
Sex Outside is the culmination of two of my biggest passions: sex education and reproductive justice advocacy, and experiencing the outdoors. I have a longtime history as a former sex educator and public policy advocate for reproductive health and gender issues, but it's never been something that felt connected to my public, outdoors-focused life until recently.
Randomly, while doing some seemingly pointless brainstorming one day in August of 2019, I came up with an idea that I called Sex Outside, and I wrote it down in a note pad. I was feeling pretty excited about it, so I texted a couple of friends and I was like, "What do you think if there was some type of a podcast or content that blended sexual health and hygiene, reproductive justice, and discussions of gender and relationships with the outdoors?" Funnily enough, I got a lot of "???" back in reply! Most folks were like, "Well, that sounds interesting, but I don’t really know what that looks like." So I decided to keep thinking on it, but truly I was already pretty busy with work at that moment in time, so things fell by the wayside.
It was all but forgotten for about a year, and there was an opportunity for me to step into a new project. Sex Outside, fortunately for me, came back into memory at just the right time.
A recent mini episode of She Explores digs into this further!
What do you hope to do or achieve with Sex Outside that you've not done with previous projects?
Honestly, I will get to return to the career path I've wanted to return to for about 10 years. The experiences in mental health and human resources were both predated by my work as a sex educator, and I always told myself I'd get back there someday. It's strange the paths we take to get to where we need and want to be, but I am so thrilled that things are finally feeling full circle for me and that I have the opportunity to lean on every single one of the skills I've been building up for years-- multiple life chapters!-- to get to this point.
I think one of the biggest things so many writers struggle with is how to balance work that we're passionate about and work that pays our bills. I already mentioned that it seems like you have melded those two sides of creative work seamlessly—but it's never as easy or picture-perfect as Instagram might lead us to believe. So do you feel like you've struck that balance between lucrative work and fulfilling work? What has helped you (or is helping you) find it?
Well, thanks for the compliment! I can say, however, that I agree with you when you say that nothing is completely what it seems, especially online. I've done my best to be as transparent as possible about what my work has entailed every step of the way in my freelancing/self-employed career, but what often gets lost in the mix is just *how many* hours I am actually working. It's a lot, let me tell you! I could likely work less hours for the same or more money elsewhere (again, leaning on my HR experience can help a lot when I need it to!), but honestly, I generally enjoy working the amount of hours I do because I know for a fact that I would be spending at least some of my spare time doing this exact thing anyway. :)
How do you see your background in writing informing your work on this next project?
Sex Outside is going to take a lot more research—both on specific topics and in finding the most effective voices for the podcast—and finding ways to translate that into an entertaining, approachable tone for social media content, blog posts, and podcast scripting will be an area I'm flexing my skills in writing for sure!
Other than your talent for storytelling, what are some skills (or just one) that have been most valuable to you in your career path?
Two skills that I am thankful to lean on came to mind! Photography has been a very fun, portable, practical skill to utilize and grow so that I could diversify the kind of creative freelance work I’m capable of. In a totally different way, I’m truly thankful for my years in Human Resources and my studies in Mental Health so that I had the opportunity to learn more about effective communication and relationship building. Those experiences have absolutely helped my business management skills as well as my abilities with interviewing guests for a show.
What are you most excited about in life/work right now?
Sex Outside and the community being built around it! The premiere episode airs next Thursday, 2/11 and I can't wait to kick this off with everyone.
A big thank you to Laura for joining us for a Q&A!
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That’s all for today, friends.
Stay inspired,
Britany