We recently connected with Amanda Jacobson and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear your thoughts about making remote work effective.

Our team has always been remote! When we launched our show, I was in Minneapolis, one host was in Des Moines Iowa, and another in Johannesburg South Africa. We have since hired three additional employees, all of whose work from home. This allows us to work at the time and pace that is most productive for us and maintain a solid work/life balance. We love it and will always support remote work!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We launched Wine & Crime in 2017 in a not-so-subtle response to the election (ha!). The three of us are childhood friends. Lucy and Kenyon have been friends since third grade, and I (Amanda) became a friend in middle school. As adults, we found ourselves hanging out a lot and watching old Forensic Files episodes and laughing at the hairstyles and the reenactments and perpetrators, and just riffing and drinking wine and being a part of the true crime fan community. We always felt like those riff sessions were pretty entertaining, and Kenyon was an avid podcast listener, so she floated the idea to start one and we went for it! Six years later the show has grown into a full blown business and we couldn’t be more proud.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I know I had to unlearn a lot of imposter syndrome and self doubt. There will always be a voice inside that wonders what if I’m not good enough, smart enough, talented enough? Deciding not to listen to that voice takes practice. Along the way you’ll hit walls and road blocks and the questions will arise again, but you also learn creative problem solving and idea generation to navigate those blocks. I have learned so much by simply trying and readjusting.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Our specific business started with $300, 3 pretty crummy microphones, and three ambitious weirdos who wanted to share their love of true crime. The production quality started out ROUGH! What we learned was that the content is key. Folks will bear with you as you learn and improve from a technical standpoint, as long as they are entertained and enjoying the content. Listener support and participation as we grew was unbelievable and their support allowed us to gain sponsorships and start generating the funds to improve our quality, upgrade our tech, even hire an editor! So the listeners had a direct role in improving the quality we could provide to them and it was such an amazing experience to grow that way. You don’t need to be perfect right out of the gate! Be passionate and be open and connect with your client base, and you will go far.

Contact Info:

• Website: Wineandcrimepodcast.com
• Instagram: @WineAndCrimePod
• Twitter: @WineAndCrimePod
• Other: TikTok: @WineAndCrimePod

Image Credits
Tracy Le Capitaine Le Capitaine Photography