Untitled Episode

Meet Jenny & HighlightHer Network

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey, we're back at Learn to RV the podcast. Today I'm sitting down with Jenny Herman, and she's the host of another podcast called The Highlighter Network. And it's a show about all the women thriving in their businesses. All right. So before we get started, let's talk just a little bit about you, how you got into podcasting, and what highlight her is.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Sure. I love referring people to great customer service, great businesses, great products. And I especially enjoy lifting up and sharing about business women because I think there's a little bit of a shift these days, like the last three to five years. But there's a been a lot of you can't have something, you can't have success if I have success. If I'm a boutique, I can't recommend another boutique. And I just really enjoy cheering other women on. It's just one of my favorite things to do. And so because of that, highlight it's more.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I love that. And I think that's kind of like who we've become as a people. Is I don't want to tell you about such and such, but I think that that's so important. Like even in the RV world, we have to tell each other like who the recommendations, right? But it doesn't mean you have to pick one over the other in some cases. Like there's a lot of great things out there. And I think if we could all join hands, we'd find that there's enough shoppers out there or whatever that need our services or our heart or our passions. And you know, you might find it's we're stronger together than we are so separately.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

So, what would you say the biggest risk you took was when you created Highlight Her?

The real risk of starting For Jenny

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Honestly, I don't feel like it's been super risky other than putting it out there that I'm going to do it because now I can't stop. I right now. Yes, right now I'm doing very minimal expenses. I did get the website with the highlight her network name because I could save it, but I don't have anything on there right now. I use Convert Kit free for my email, and that has my landing page, so I'm not paying for that. I pay for my Buzz Sprout. For those that aren't in podcasting, Buzz Sprout is a service where you upload your podcast and it puts it out to all the different places, like Apple and Spotify and YouTube and all that. So I'm paying a dollar for that. So I think the biggest risk is actually starting because there are days where I think, why am I even doing this? And why, you know, maybe I should just stop. But you know, I told people I'm doing it, and I have interviews scheduled through the end of the year, so or episodes scheduled through the end of the year. So I kind of have to keep going because there's a lot of face saving to do or big pie on my face if I stop.

Behind the mic: gear & editing

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Well, and I think that the more you do it, the easier it gets. I know that was true for me. You know, a year ago, if somebody told me I was gonna start a podcast, I'd have probably laughed at them. And then in my Facebook memories the other day was like the first week we decided to do this. And my today podcast looks very different than how we first started. And so, you know, yours looks kind of the same as when you started, you know, different interview styles and stuff like that, but you're doing it solo. And so that brings a whole different level to podcasting. You know, you're fortunate. You said your husband does a lot of your editing. The girls that I worked with insisted actually on doing my editing. And so I got to learn a crash course in it just a few weeks back. So it's nice to have somebody that can do that for you. But at the same time, I would encourage you to know how to edit. When you record, we record in Riverside and it does a lot of the extra stuff for me. So like the ums and the ahs kind of just come right out as soon as I go through it the first sweep. Do you do like with the editing? Do you have some special editing software that you use or are you just manually doing it all?

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Reg uses shotcut because that's what he was familiar with. So he actually takes out all the ums and ahs, and then he uploads to a what it's um Adobe. Adobe has, I don't know what they call it, but I would call it the smooth outer. It kind of smooths it out and and makes it sound better. Like I guess if there's a little bit of background noise, or it just kind of evens out the audio for the two speakers because I record on Zoom, so it's two separate tracks.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah, I take the back. We actually one track, one track, but we're both on different microphones and that kind of thing. Sometimes my speaker, sometimes my guest is just on their computer microphone. Sometimes they have headphones with the microphone in it. And I usually use a sure podcasting microphone.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, I'm 50-50. So when I'm like this, I have my headset with me, but I have a microphone that I have at the house when I well, the RV when I'm you know recording at the house. But yeah, it's definitely a different dynamic. That's the other thing, is people don't realize podcast guests don't always come with their own equipment. And so you're working within the parameters of what you have. And and it's worth it, right? It's worth it to talk to whoever it is. All right, so if you could go back and tell yourself something before you started the show, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

That's

What Jenny would tell her past self

SPEAKER_00 6:03

a good question. I think I would encourage myself to make a big, hairy, scary list of people that I want to interview that I don't think would ever come on the show at the beginning. I have done that, but not I just had a couple people shortly in. And then probably honestly, I might tell them to do something like Riverside instead of Buzzsprout. But Buzzsprout was very user-friendly for a beginner, it it did everything for me with just a couple clicks, and chat GBT gave me options, and I think Riverside was one of them. I heard of Riverside first through Cody Sanchez. I don't know if you know her, she is, but she uses Riverside, and so she you know, she mentioned if you want a discount, use this code. And I looked at it, but I felt like it was a little bit much for me as a beginner.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

I know I'm

The podcasting tech stack

SPEAKER_01 7:08

well and it's changed a lot over the last year. You know, I was sitting there looking at it just the other day because doing it all myself, now Riverside has hosting options like Budsprout. I actually upload to BudSprout too. And so when we first started, we we got Riverside for the recording aspect of it, but then we added Bud Sprout because they didn't actually back then upload to all the things. And so BudSprout uploaded to so many more of them, and we're on all the networks. We're on Amazon Music, we're on, you know, iHeartRadio, and once you get to a certain point, you start applying for those. And BudSprout makes it super easy because you just add them. And um and then we added Podpage, and so we host our website on Podpage. Yes, I have the URL, but we put it on Podpage because it was another place they could play it. We could do the blog right on Podpage. People can actually leave us voice notes on Podpage. It's one of the things I love about it. Um, but it's another expense for sure. And we're fortunate, you know, we own a company in the RV space, and RV Roofing Solutions sponsors all of our podcast episodes. And everybody says I don't talk about it enough, but the reality is, is it's my company, so I feel funny doing that. So all right, let's talk about the ladies you've interviewed. I want to know your I don't want you to pick favorites because they might listen to us. But you know, after interviewing so many, what do you think that there's a lesson that shows up across a lot of their stories?

Three themes across every HighlightHer story

SPEAKER_00 8:34

That's a great question because I do notice a couple themes popping up. One of them is consistency, that just be showing up for whatever your adventure is, right? Whether for an everyday person, maybe you're not going to start a business, but you want to start a new habit, or someone that's looking to start a business, or someone that's still in it. A lot of these women talk about how just simply being consistent is makes a big difference in your business. And then another thing that keeps showing up is just do it, don't wait, just start your project, start your adventure. Again, even if you're not a business person, whatever is working in your head that you're thinking about, oh, do I want to start this? Even it could be a hobby, maybe you have a business idea. Don't wait. And then one last one that we've already talked about community over competition, that there's enough room for everyone in the business world. I don't know what the latest statistic is on world population, but last I heard it was like over 8 billion. There's plenty of people, and these days, a lot of our businesses have an online aspect anyway. Even if you're not local, someone can connect with you online somehow. So those are the three themes that keep popping up in these interviews.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah, and I think that so many people like need that encouragement, right? I mean, like that's what I love. I've listened to a couple of the podcasts that you've done. What do you think makes a highlight her guest story stick with you months and months later? Because I know I for me, like, you know, the people that I talk to, they become part of our community, right? In so many ways. But, you know, the impact that it has, you don't realize the ripples, like when you throw a when you throw a rock in a pond, you know, and then the ripples go out further and further and further. As podcasters, I feel like we have that and we don't realize it. And so I actually had a friend of mine come to me and she sent me a message through Facebook, and we haven't seen each other in years. Another RVer, and she said, you know, you tell the stories of when we were on and we're doing things together, and it almost feels like it comes alive again. When we have guest stories, I feel like that's the same too, is those guest stories stick with you or your listeners so differently. So take me to one of those.

The stories that stick

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I think the stories that stick the most are the emotional ones where, for example, um, Majestic Threads, she teared up because she was telling me about her name of her business and how it came from the majestic part is from her dad. He was, I don't, it was some sort of contracting business. Um, I can't remember what it was. I want to say an electrician, but I'm not sure that's correct. But whatever his business was, it had majestic in the name of it, and she wanted to honor him with her boutique. That's nothing related to what his business was, but she chose to keep the name Majestic as part of her business name. And then, like uh Lisa and Ann, they're both shop owners. One owns a nail salon, one owns it was a brick and mortar and online. Now she's changed and moved to Texas, so it's only online, but both of them they told stories of being single moms, and they they just had to make their business work. I remember Ann saying, I have to sell something to be able to take care of my kid today. You know, you can't just go, Oh, no, I'm not gonna work today. I don't feel like going in, I'm gonna call out. I had to keep my kids, we had to have food. And I think it was Anne that talked about the story of I have to sell something today, and her daughter was in a competition and wanted to stop for like a fast food meal. And so her Anne was thinking, okay, I got to sell something today so that we can make that stop on the way home. So those kinds of emotional stories are to be what stick with me.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Would you say that finding entrepreneurs, do you think that they like are all like making it happen? Or do you think that like I guess that's what I'm wondering is, you know, I think that that entrepreneurial spirit is something we all can dig deep and find. But when the things get hard, or when it, you know, when it does come to those things, what do you think is like kind of a thread within your podcast segments that like keeps people pushing through whatever that looks like? I mean, obviously the need, but the need doesn't mean that I shouldn't just quit owning a company and go back to a traditional job. So what makes that different? For me, like for example, I look at it and go, I love traveling and I love our life and what it affords us. And if I had to give it all up and go back to a traditional house, would I? I don't know if I would. But not everybody's made of that either.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Right. I think that a lot of them they just have that drive to be their own boss, and that's a big part of it. Now, there are times like Lisa, she had an infant, and what was going on in the salon in her area wasn't working at the time. So she did take a pause, but then she went back to it. And I think a lot, a lot of women that I've interviewed, they just want to be their own boss.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Well, and that makes sense, right? You know, I mean, it's easier to work for yourself in some ways than it is working for somebody that tells you what time you have to be there, being able to make your own hours. But I think a lot of people don't realize the other side of that life is that that means you're committed to it, right? And so that means sometimes you're, you know, writing posts at 2 a.m. Sometimes you're, you know, at work doing something, but it's sometimes you're, you know, you're maybe not on your computer all the time, or you're not doing what you love doing at the time you want to do it. You're actually like building the social media calendar because most people don't realize entrepreneurs, a lot of them, and and uh we're fortunate at this point to have a little bit of a team now, but you're a DIYer, you're doing it all yourself, and so there's a lot of trial and error, and so I'm sure you've seen how that impacts people's businesses too.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Yes, in fact, Maddie wanna she was the end of season two, so she was last week, she talked about that how even though she was leaving corporate lifestyle to launch her own practice in the beginning, it's it required a lot from her. But the benefit was that she was working from home, so she, even though she was working tons of hours, she was home with her son. It was during the pandemic, and her job wanted her to be out of the home, but her son was, I think, in fifth grade, and she was single at the time, didn't have anyone else to stay with him, but it was the pandemic, so it wasn't right. So it was a good time for her, and she did, you know, there were times when she thought, wow, I'm just I think she said like 60 hour weeks, but then her son at 16 came back to her and said, Remember when you had to work all those hours, I can see why you did it. And he understood the benefit and how it's paid off. And those stories also touch my heart when their kids notice and comment right about what sacrifice they made a while ago benefit and bring the life that they're able to have now.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Yeah. Well, and I like you doing the podcast, that's it's a business. People don't realize that podcasting to a large degree is a business and takes a level of commitment. What ways have you made different connections, whether it's the podcast space or the small business space? How do you find people to get on a call with you and have those conversations?

How Jenny finds her guests

SPEAKER_00 16:57

I've been very fortunate because of my natural love for referring women and making connections. I've just kind of been making connections. You know, I used to work for another company years ago. It's probably about 12 years ago now, but I made connections back then. I've made homeschooling connections, I made lots of special needs, moms connections, and then just starting in with keeping in touch with women that I've known that have had businesses, and then also locally I've started building relationships. So far, I've been very fortunate that it's been easy to find people because I already know a small group locally, and then they will say, Oh, you should ask this person, or you know, I really like this. And I also watch, I kind of watch the local Facebook group who people talk about. So when someone says, you know, hey, I need a a dog sitter, this person keeps getting mentioned, or for example, Chelsea that encouraged me to keep going with highlight her and not give up. She is recommended all the time. And down those um our local group is called Down River and Friends. Downriver is kind of the name for about six to eight cities in this area of Metro Detroit. So when someone asks, she's mentioned all the time, and that means she's a good businesswoman, right? If people are constantly recommending her, the the lady that I interviewed on Monday, she's going to be airing, I think in September, Hannah from the Mill. People are recommending her all the time. So right now I'm still in that close connection stage where I either know them or know someone that knows them.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Well, that could be all about to change by being on this show because I know a lot of RVers that went on the road and then started their own businesses or started their own businesses and went on the road in 2020 because of COVID. And so there's always that opportunity to open it up to people that RV and have those ladies in this space come on and have a talk with you. But is there a highlight her guest story that you would say changed how you think about your own business?

SPEAKER_00 19:30

I don't think there's been a guest story, one in particular, but when a guest says to me, I've had three or four say this to me, thank you so much for what you're doing. It means a lot. Or I think what you're doing is really great. I love that you're lifting up women. It means a lot to me. It it encourages me to keep going, it helps me think of it as a valuable, not service, but a valuable thing to have out there.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Well, sure, because you're seeing them, like genuinely seeing them. You know, I I can't tell you how many times, you know, I work in a man's world. There's no nice way to say that.

"I'm just a homeschool mom" (gone rogue)

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And so I own a business that, you know, if I'm in a booth and my husband is in a booth, nine times out of ten, if a man is approaching that booth, they're not coming to talk to me. Even though I know just as much as my husband does about RV roofs, it doesn't mean that they want to have that conversation with me. Now their wives will totally have that conversation with me. But I also think there's the other side of it is women as a whole are still seen, and I hate to say this, but from time to time they're not seen as knowledgeable. And so you're seeing them for exactly who they are, the value they provide. I did a thing on being just a homeschool mom this summer on a summit with Living the Good Life, Kimberly Henry. She was a radio DJ and just all the things, but she's got her own podcast. And she had me on as the keynote speaker. And my talk was, I'm just a homeschool mom. And I sent it to her and she goes, You cannot talk about that like that. And I said, No, no, no, no. I said, I'm gonna. I said, but the whole thing is about how we're every one of us is just something. And I bet if you asked all the women that you interview on a regular basis, do you feel like you're not as good as or just something, they would say, Yeah, I'm just a wife, I'm just a mom, I'm just a girl, I'm just something. You have to be an overcomer of that. And so you have to stop saying, so I used to say then I I started saying, I'm just a homeschool mom gone rogue. You know, I'm just a road school mom, but I'm not just anything, I'm all those things. And until you realize that within yourself, and you're actually showing people by bringing them on and highlighting their stories that their story matters.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Uh-huh. All right. So, where can listeners find Highlight Her?

Where to find HighlightHer

SPEAKER_00 22:06

So if they go, if they're on like YouTube, Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, the typical podcast place, or on that. If they are on Facebook, we have Highlight Her Network Facebook page. I am on Instagram, but I'm not very active over there. I get tired. And so that is an area of the code.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Well, and you have to focus on one area to grow it, but I would encourage you to um grow your Instagram. And here's why. So one of the things we do at Learn to RV is we do collaboration stories. So when we do our story, like you can collaborate with us there, and we can also both be seen. And so anybody that's got those followings can help, you know, it's kind of a mutually beneficial growth curve.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Yes, I'm gonna take that as a challenge to be good on Instagram. I know how to like be over there, I just don't take the time.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

So thank you for it's just one more thing, right? I mean, you know, there's that. And and I think that like women all over the place, you know, those one more things are just kind of like that topple point. All right, it's been a pleasure having you on. What is one thing that you would love every woman to hear from you?

Jenny's message to every woman listening

SPEAKER_00 23:19

That's a big question. My first thing that comes to mind without any preparation is don't give up because I come from a a background of special needs parenting and homeschooling and all those things. And you all women, like you said, run into moments of wanting to give up. Now, there is the aspect of sometimes we do need to give up because it's just not working and it's we need to pivot, right? Sometimes good decisions come from okay, this is just not working, we're gonna change. But in the grand scheme of things, don't give up. I think that's what I'll leave.

Jennifer's 2026 word is "pivot"

SPEAKER_01 24:05

That's beautiful. Yeah, pivot is my 2026 word. And when you pick a 2026 word, what you don't realize is God is gonna place things in your life that are gonna force you to use that word far, far too often. Yes. Well, Jenny, thank you for trusting me with your son's questions last time and for letting me turn the tables and do something very different that I've never done before. But this is exactly what I love about podcasting and about everything, connecting with savvy women that learn from each other, that edify and uplift each other and sending people each other's way. Until next time. Thanks for tuning in to Learn to RV. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow us on all the things. And then keep the wheels turning. We'll see you somewhere down the road.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

We'll catch you on the next stretch. Safe travels. Don't forget to hit that follow button so you never miss an adventure.