We were lucky to catch up with Maddie Pellman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maddie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

– I was visiting my sister in Seattle and we were having dinner with family friends. During dinner, we ended up talking about the Yellowstone Superintendent and I was enthralled. I had never heard about the Superintendent position before and couldn’t stop thinking about all the things they had to manage in the park and everything the superintendent did leading up to becoming Yellowstone Superintendent. My family was like “Maddie, why are you obsessing over this? it’s not that big of a deal” but I couldn’t get over the fact that I had never heard about this position and I was a huge fan of our national parks. “Why do more people not know about this, I thought” – Then the next day, I was sitting on the beach, journaling and overlooking the Puget Sound when the idea to start a podcast interviewing superintendents popped in my head. Immediately I was enthralled. But I didn’t do anything about it right away. This was July and I sat on the idea until October, when I really decided I was going to pursue it. But why I decided to pursue it came from how I held the idea those four months. I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. I remember having a long phone call with my best childhood friend, one who I dream big with and we talked for what felt like forever about all the ways the idea could grow, and I had never before gotten so excited. That conversation sparked me telling everyone and anyone about my idea until it got to the point where I was like, I should stop talking about this and do it. I knew I would be devastated if one day, someone did a podcast with this idea.
– I was intrigued by the challenge of figuring out how to create a podcast, how to even get in contact with the superintendents, how to grow an audience, all of which I didn’t know how to do. But I have always been wired that way, to pursue crazy and wild ideas and figure them out/prepare for them along the way.
– I am still in the growing phase but am confident that I am creating a community of park enthusiasts and educating people about all that goes into protecting and preserving our national parks, ensuring that people leave listening to Who Runs This Park episodes with a greater sense of appreciation for those that steward our national parks and that they feel inspired to pursue a dream or adventure that they have.

Maddie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

– Who Runs This Park is a podcast that invites listeners into the untold stories of people serving and protecting our national parks for over 100 years (truly a miracle). It’s hosted by me, Maddie Pellman and together we’ll uncover the stories of national park superintendents that have never before gotten the attention and appreciation they deserve. I can guarantee how you view our National Parks and protected lands will change and you will leave inspired and itching for an adventure. – Before being in the podcast world, I was a Product Manager at Google. I wasn’t on social media, had no journalism experience (English was my least favorite subject growing up), and had no idea how to record, edit or produce a podcast. I got into this industry of podcasting because I felt I had a niche that deserved being told at a larger scale; I felt I had a community to create and build. The skillset I had to do so was a desire and love for jumping into things headfirst and figuring them out as a I go.
– I’m excited for listeners to join the family of park enthusiasts, becoming more inspired and knowledgable and more appreciative of our national parks and all that goes into preserving and protecting them. I want people to feel confident in their value as stewards and know that, in the words of Chip Jenkins, Grand Teton Superintendent, “creating memories is an act of preservation”. You coming to the park and appreciating them for all they are is an act of preservation and stewardship.

How did you build your audience on social media?

– This is what I am actively working on, building an audience is crucial to having a successful podcast, and social media is the platform I am choosing to build my audience on, which in hand will grow the podcast. When thinking about a content business, it can be broken into three main buckets: content, growth (audience) and monetization. Monetization doesn’t really come without an audience. For Who Runs This Park, the content is there and the next step to a successful business is building a bustling and engaged audience. Once you have that audience, monetization becomes a lot easier. Different avenues for podcasts revenue are ad reads, social media posts (once the audience is big enough), subscriptions (like Patreon), affiliate links, etc. My goal here is to grow on social media through producing viral content on Instagram and TikTok. People come across this content, become interested and follow my account and as they become more invested “fans” they end up “converting” and listening to a podcast episode. – A lot of people who start a podcast already have an audience, typically through a big social media following. I started this podcast without even having a social media, so it is a grassroots effort. In order to grow my audience across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc, I am creating 5 videos/posts per week. In addition, for each episode release, I am working with each national park itself and their partner organizations to hopefully do collaborative posts, highlighting the episode. I am additionally putting a lot of effort into connecting with fellow content creators to do collaborative posts/endeavors. I am also working with various brands to do ad read deals and working with potential sponsors to financially support the podcast.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that putting yourself out there on social media is ok. I had built this identity around being someone who didn’t use social media, and thought I was “superior” for that. It was very humbling and very scary for me to realize that in order to grow the podcast, social media was a huge part of that equation. I had to let go of this “identity” I had created for myself and “embrace the cringe” of creating new and seemingly scary content. I realized that I had to start somewhere, and that I can have a social media presence without being attached or addicted to my phone. I learned that having or not having a social media didn’t define me. It is funny looking back and being like well of course that is the case, but in the moment everything felt so big and putting myself out there on instagram felt impossible and so not like myself. But, I have embraced producing content and realized I actually like the creative journey of creating content. In this journey I hope I continue to create continually more engaging and interesting content, growing the community of park enthusiasts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/whorunsthispark
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whorunsthispark/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddie-pellman-890117a0/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@whorunsthispark
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@whorunsthispark