Labor of love

Producing a podcast in your off-work hours is no small feat, but Yale staff members Wendy Battles and Kathryn Van Sickle make their separate creations sound like labors of love.

Battles, the cybersecurity awareness advisor in the Information Security Office, says that in nearly every decade of her adult life she has had a re-occurring quest for purpose. While recovering from surgery for six weeks when she was 30 years old, she had time to reflect on her life and discovered her mission: “to speak, teach, motivate, and inspire.” This sparked an interest in voice acting, health coaching, and, while working at Yale, podcasting.

In 2019, when she was serving on a personal-branding panel, listening to the “Package your Genius” podcast, and meditating in the mornings, Battles came to embrace the words “Reinvention Rebels”, which she launched as a podcast in 2020, focusing on diverse stories of reinvention by women over age 50.

“What am I meant to do?”

Seven seasons and 135 episodes later, the podcast features women from all over the world who have transformed their lives. One guest took up running at 55 years old and recently ran up 104 floors to the top of the World Trade Center at 74. Another, who retired at 60, started wearing bright clothes because she felt she was becoming invisible. A chance appearance in a local clothing designer’s video where she noted how older women are not represented in fashion led to regular appearances in the designer’s videos and other opportunities. Today she is a fashion model who has walked the runway during New York Fashion Week, modeled in Europe, and starred in commercials.

“It is never too late because we’re never too old,” emphasized Battles. “We can always start with where we are today. I didn’t know anything about starting a podcast, but I took a self-paced course, mapped out a strategy, gathered equipment, and just started recording.”

Today, Battles handles social media and newsletters for “Reinvention Rebels” in addition to interviews and editing, believing that consistent content-creation is the key to high engagement. She often wakes up at 4:45 a.m. to work on the podcast before her day job, where she helps faculty, staff, and students make safe choices online. This includes co-producing the Bee Cyber Fit podcast with colleague James Tucciarone, a project that “Reinvention Rebels” prepared her for.

While inspiring others through “Reinvention Rebels,” Battles was also inspiring herself. She began speaking at online conferences and training sessions for midlife women. She has also hosted a live Reinvention Rebels episode at the Arts and Ideas Festival in New Haven. She was recently recognized by “Women Who Podcast” magazine, placing second in the Profound Nugget category.

“I’ve learned that anything is possible,” said Battles. “I’ve also realized that we can set our sights so much higher. I think that as women especially, we tend to play small. I may not know how to do something right now, but I bet I can figure it out. The sky’s the limit as we age.”

“How can I merge my passion and expertise?”

When Van Sickle interviewed for her current Yale position over two years ago, she shared that she produced a fundraising podcast titled “The Development Debrief,” a stories-based program that interviews professionals, donors, and thought leaders in the field of fundraising. She said she is grateful that Yale was receptive to her creation, which she keeps separate from her day-to-day work.

Van Sickle is the director of parent gifts, and with her team of seven focuses on non-alumni parents. “I love my job because I get to learn about so many aspects of the university,” she said. “And it’s fulfilling because I know we’re doing good work.”

The idea for a podcast came to Van Sickle while she was studying for her master’s in strategic communications at Columbia University in 2019. “We learned about building a brand, how to communicate ideas, and build communities,” recalled Van Sickle. “I knew I didn’t want communications full time, so I thought I could put my passion for fundraising into a podcast through that framework.”

Van Sickle’s fondness for her profession derived from the work her father does as a fundraising leader in higher education. There came a point in college when she knew she wanted to try it. When she did, she enjoyed it immediately and never looked back. The same could be said about her podcast, which has grown steadily to nearly 160 episodes with over a thousand downloads per session.

She produces about eight episodes at a time during nights and weekends and releases them in a cadence that is consistent for her audience, posting each one on LinkedIn. Van Sickle noted that the recording is easy while the editing is intensive but straightforward. “My personal opinion,” she added, “is that the most important thing is having a rhythm of production. Make sure you have a topic that you can talk about forever. When it is your own creation, you can make it as professional or as fun as you want. What I love about podcasting is there’s room for everything.”

The episodes often receive positive online responses, but also in-person acknowledgements. After interviewing the president of Albertus Magnus College, Dr. Mark Camille, Van Sickle ran into someone who had listened to that episode before interviewing for a job at the college. The person shared that she was much more confident going into the interview, knew so much about the organization, and got the job.

The “Development Debrief” has led to speaking engagements at the annual industry conference hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals as well as with smaller teams on Zoom. In-person presentations have covered specific topics such as working in major gifts or building high-performing teams.

“Recently, I spoke at the Parent Fundraising Conference with one of our Yale volunteers, and that was fun,” Van Sickle said. “Podcasting is a really exciting form of expression to pursue your own passions and interests.”