We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taylor Graham Chloe Willemsen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taylor Graham below.

Taylor Graham, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

When we started our podcast back in February 2021, we were both freelancing and burnt out from being on social media as much as we were throughout the pandemic. Both of us built our freelancing careers posting on social media, but it got to a point where it felt like our respective niches were all we could talk about. Working by and for ourselves was getting lonely, and we wanted to connect with other entrepreneurs and creatives that were feeling the same way. We wanted to create a space where entrepreneurs and creatives could be dynamic people, with more than one interest or niche. We wanted a safe space to talk about the impacts that being chronically online had on our mental health as online business owners and creatives.

CEO-ish is an entrepreneurship meets lifestyle podcast hosted by creative entrepreneurs Chloe Willemsen and Taylor Graham. The CEO-ish Podcast highlights conversations about navigating the world of entrepreneurship in early adulthood, social media trends, self-care, spirituality, and how they all come together to impact our mental health as creatives.

Taylor Graham, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Before the podcast was even a concept, we lived together for three years in college and became close friends. We were in the habit of listening to music and podcasts together while painting, one of Chloe’s favorite hobbies. We also frequently had deep discussions about social media, mental health, spirituality, and entrepreneurship – topics we’ve since built our brand off of.

During the summer of 2020, when everyone was still either working from home or laid off due to the pandemic, we finally got together after months of not seeing each other and cooked up the idea for CEO-ish. Taylor suggested started a podcast after a couple drinks, Chloe immediately agreed, and we haven’t looked back since. We were both excited to get started and quickly realized how well we work together. Chloe is on the creative side and Taylor is more on the backend/admin side which makes it easier for us to get the work done without stepping on each others toes.

Since launching in 2021, we’ve made it our mission to foster a community amongst our listeners and interview some of the most inspiring guests. We want our community to leave each episode feeling like they were hanging out with their besties while also learning something new. We regularly go over out analytics and and post polls to better understand what our audience wants to hear from us, and it has become a fun way to push ourselves and connect with our creative community.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The #1 thing that helped us build our reputation was our strategic approach to the podcast. When we initially launched, we prioritized guest interviews because we knew interviewing the right people would expand our audience reach faster than we ever could simply posting on Instagram to our own audiences. But, we didn’t interview anybody and everybody. We were selective with our outreach and networking, and prioritized entrepreneurs, influencers, and creatives who were already talking about topics related to what we talked about on our podcast. We built authentic relationships with the people we interviewed prior to asking them to come on the podcast, and always made our pitches mutually beneficial.

We also think it helps that we aren’t afraid to overshare about our own, personal lives and embarrass ourselves. Being that level of authentic always makes the episodes more entertaining and keeps listeners coming back for more.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We’ve actually made a few pivots since starting this podcast, which is very on brand for us as we both crave as much flexibility as possible in our lives. During the first year or so, we prioritized our guest interviews to help grow our audience and get more comfortable behind the mic. As we entered year two, we noticed an increased interest in our content creator interviews and solo hosted episodes. Additionally, we both got out of long term relationships and moved back in with each other in a new city, so we decided to take the opportunity to start putting out two episodes per week: one CEO interview and one solo hosted episode, “the -ISH”, which focused on more casual, personal updates from us.

In retrospect, we made the decision too soon as scheduling recordings and managing last minute cancellations by guests proved to be more than we could handle with us both still working full-time jobs. We are still happy that we made the decision to temporarily put out two episodes per week as it gave us clarity into what our audience wants to hear from us. We’ve noticed that we retain more listeners for a longer length of time with our solo episodes, which gives us confidence moving forward with our plans for the future!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ceoishpodcast.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceoishpodcast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ceoishpodcast

Image Credits
Raechel Marie Photography