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b'The Nitty Gritty\\n\\n* What inspired Sarah to launch Startup Pregnant (and how that concept pivoted from book to podcast)\\n* Sarah\\u2019s strategy for securing sponsors before launching a podcast (hint: it\\u2019s all about knowing your target audience and what their pain points are)\\n* What new resource Sarah\\u2019s working on to meet the precise needs of her community\\n\\nSarah Peck is a writer and the host of Startup Pregnant, a weekly podcast where she explores and reimagines what parenting, entrepreneurship, work, and motherhood looks like. Listen to this episode of What Works to hear more about Sarah\\u2019s journey in launching Startup Pregnant, plus her vision for the podcast and her body of work.\\nWe release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.\\nSecuring podcast sponsors before launching\\n\\u201cIf somebody\\u2019s going to put dollars for advertising somewhere, they\\u2019re going to spend it on Google ads and Facebook ads because they\\u2019re better. But I can happily lose that game because what we\\u2019re looking for in sponsors is people who believe in the value and the mission of what we\\u2019re doing. They think that providing services for new moms isn\\u2019t just a business opportunity \\u2014 it\\u2019s also worth doing in the world.\\u201d \\u2014 Sarah Peck\\nAt a bare minimum, Sarah needed enough to cover the costs of running the podcast \\u2014 and while that didn\\u2019t mean she paid herself (at least not yet), she didn\\u2019t want to pay out of pocket to launch Startup Pregnant.\\nLuckily she didn\\u2019t need to. She asked four people who were already a part of her blog community and they all said yes to sponsoring the podcast. So what did it take for them to say yes, especially because the podcast wasn\\u2019t even launched yet?\\nIt was all about the intended audience of the podcast: women entrepreneurs who might also be mothers and what might help make their lives easier. Sarah says they value things that save them time, save them money and also help them with efficiency\\u2026 so services like Acuity and MeetEdgar are two sponsors that meet those needs.\\nCreating a wildly valuable resource that your audience needs\\n\\u201cHere\\u2019s what I made. Steal it. I\\u2019ve just saved you 25 hours of time and here are the negotiation scripts. It solves a really specific problem for people \\u2014 but I hope it can also change people\\u2019s lives.\\u201d \\u2014 Sarah Peck\\nWhat happens when you need to go on maternity leave\\u2026 but you aren\\u2019t sure what the policy should be? Sarah\\u2019s target audience are entrepreneurial and working moms \\u2014 specifically new moms \\u2014 and this was a question she heard all. the. time. \\nShe decided to put together an entire resource, dedicated to not only answering this question \\u2014 but also providing policy language and negotiation scripts. \\u201cLook, you\\u2019re pregnant so you\\u2019re really tired,\\u201d Sarah says, \\u201cand you have limited time. You\\u2019re trying to finish your job and you\\u2019re trying to do a good job. Doing research is not easy.\\u201d\\nThink for a moment about the struggles and pain points that your audience might face. How can you offer something as specific and resourceful as this?\\nLetting your vision lead you\\u2026 even when you don\\u2019t know where it\\u2019s heading\\n\\u201cIt\\u2019s not easy for me to do but I\\u2019m trying to remain as open as possible to the fact that I might not even know what this is becoming yet.\\u201d \\u2014 Sarah Peck\\nThe truth of entrepreneurship is that everything is an experiment. The path isn\\u2019t laid out for you. You have to forge through, learning more about your customers, your product or service, and yourself along the way.'