151 - Find A Co-Host

151 - Find A Co Host
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to the MaYapinion podcast, where I share my opinions on leadership and, of course, entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Maya Raffler, and today I have a really special episode for you guys. My guest is me. So I'm going to be talking to you guys about my latest business and sharing my story, my opinions, and how you guys can get involved with my latest project.

I've talked about this project, and now business, a bit on the show. I've teased it a little bit. It's been around for a little while. But today we're gonna be talking about Find a Co-Host. Find a Co-Host is a project I've been working on for many years now, and I wanted to bring it to the MaYapinion show so that you guys are understanding how businesses come to fruition, understanding the entrepreneurial journey.

But I've [00:01:00] always been someone who on both of her shows, this show and also my show about sibling grief, where I felt it has just been so important to be open, raw, and honest about my own journey, my own wins, and most importantly, of course, my own struggles. So I wanted to share the journey of Find a Co-Host with all of you, and what's going to be really incredible is the guests that will be coming on, the incredible women that I coach and help on this show, are all going to be from my new business venture and from my site.

So I'm excited. I'm excited because they're gonna get to share their experience about finding me on the platform and then connecting on the show, which is what this platform is about. So let me get into the story of Find a Co-Host. I have been an entrepreneur for many years now, and it evolved from my corporate career, which I've talked about on many episodes, and I've done episodes about my corporate career transitioning [00:02:00] into entrepreneurial ventures that I have.

And you can feel free to go back and listen to those episodes if you wanna know a little bit more, but it'll be sprinkled into this story today as well. But Find a Co-Host is something that I call a COVID thought, and it came into my mind in late 2021, which I know we were, I, we were kinda coming out of the pandemic.

People have different opinions on this, but for me, I think I very much still felt like I was in the pandemic, especially being in the event industry. You had so much virtual still happening. People were scared to go back in person, and some people were more than ready to go back in person. So I, I felt it very much still, and I think a lot of us, a lot of us did.

And I had this thought. I was podcasting. I had this show. This show's gon- gone through many different iterations. But the first couple seasons of this show were very different. I had done reality television, I had lost my brother to a homicide, and I didn't have my other show at the time about sibling loss.

So [00:03:00] this was in, 2017 and 2018. I had a co-host, and I don't think I ever would have started podcasting had I not had this co-host. He had many, many years in radio, a lot of experience. I mean, we're talking two decades, if not more than that, and he was my producer. And we did the show together and we produced it together, and he did all the editing.

I was kind of the talent, and we did the things that we liked to do. I did a lot of the social, and it did very well. Well, when he moved away, and then when I met my husband at the time, like it just wasn't really appropriate anymore. The show was also evolving. I also didn't really wanna talk about pop culture and e- reality television.

That was just a moment in my life. So I wanted to evolve the MaYapinion show a little bit more, and I really wanted to continue to have a co-host. I really enjoyed that format. But it was really difficult to find a co-host, so I decided to relaunch [00:04:00] MaYapinion just me, and talking about leadership and kind of corporate aspects, and then it's now evolved into the show that it is now, which is where I of course still talk about leadership, but I talk a lot about entrepreneurship because that's my life now, and it's okay for a show to evolve in that way.

But I really had wanted a co-host. I really did. And I had this thought one night, midnight thought, "Why isn't there a place to find a co-host? Why isn't there a place to..." Like, I mean, you can go on Facebook, you can go in forums, Reddit, things like that, and try to connect to people, but you don't know who these people are.

So I started googling and searching and there was nothing out there for this. So within a few months, I, I mean, actually that night, to back up, that night I bought the URL findacohost.com And I knew I was gonna do something with it. So by the beginning of 2022, we had a website, and this was probably October, November when I filed the LLC.

I grabbed the website, I grabbed the [00:05:00] email, and we were off to the races. And those are kind of the basic things when you're wanting something, like go grab all the socials, go grab the website. The website was not cheap, but I believed in it. I knew this could be something. And I created just a simple WordPress website.

I created some of it. I hired a gentleman that had done some other work for me for a couple hundred dollars just to prove the concept, and we charged a pretty nominal fee, about $50, to match people. What was interesting to me is we had people signing up almost right away with little to no promotion.

We never paid for any Facebook ads. We never paid for any promotion. I started a little Facebook group, and I just started telling people, like, "Hey, if you have this problem, come sign up with us." So we did. I mean, the bulk of the folks that signed up with us were most- it was mostly 2023 because that's when I had a little more time to look at it.

And so between [00:06:00] 2022 and 2023, it wasn't, like, thousands of people signing up, but we had a couple hundred. And this was handled in a white glove way. So when somebody signed up, they were looking for a co-host, and they would tell us the different things they were looking for. You know, are you looking for male, female, non-binary?

Like, what- whatever you're looking for. Are you looking for someone that's local, or do you not care? What kind of personality do you want for this person? How often are you gonna be recording together? And people were into it. And so we started to make matches, but it was a lot of work for $50. But to prove your concept, who cares?

But people matched and have shows to this day together. So the wheels in my head were turning as I was visiting my dad in late '23, going into 2024, and I remember telling him, like, "Hey, I think this could be something. I think it could be not just us helping people match with, like, a permanent co-host, but [00:07:00] even just guesting a, you know, guest co-host for a couple weeks, things like that.

The possibilities are really limitless for this, you know, they're unlimited." And he really saw the vision too. So in 2024, we started working, to kind of find a designer or someone we might wanna work with. It was kinda slowed down because I had some other business things that were just really big.

I did the summit for our siblings for the first time. I had just gone through my divorce. There was just a lot of things going on personally and also professionally for me. But by the time we were At the end of 2024, people were still signing up for the service, and I said, "You know, we can't do white glove.

We need it to feel like a dating app, but for podcasters." So going into late '24 and then into '25, we identified some developers to work on the concept. And during '25, it didn't really go the way that I wanted it to. I wasn't really happy with [00:08:00] the product. I wasn't happy with the team. Neither was my father.

My father decided that he was going to help as an advisor, and he's also invested at this point, too, which is pretty cool. And it's been really great for our relationship, too, just from a personal, um, perspective to work together. He's got so many years of experience with IT. I mean, gosh, I think it must be 40-something years at this point.

Sorry, Dad, now they know how old you are most likely. But I think it was really great. And even when we didn't have the right team in place and we had to kind of move on from that in '25, I think it, it really showed, I think, both of us that we can work through some challenging things together. So that was good.

I identified a new designer and have been working with her ever since, and she's phenomenal, and she really brought my vision to life. And so this is the vision. The vision is it's a place for you to come in three different roles, right, as a [00:09:00] podcaster. So you can be a host, which means that you have your own show.

You can be a co-host, which means you want to join an existing show and/or a show that is, potentially going to happen. So to back up, as a host, you can either have a show that you're hosting currently, or you can maybe have the desire to launch a show, and we ask you those questions during the intake process.

So hosts can kind of be in two different roles, existing show or wanting to launch a show. Then if you're a co-host, you're wanting to either join an existing show as the co-host and/or you wanna join shows that maybe are launching, but they're not gonna launch till they find the right co-host. So right there, there's a lot of different matching.

There's a lot of different matching with that. But we also wanted to include the guest role. The guest role is so important in podcasting, and there are some other platforms that help you with guesting, but we knew our platform would be really powerful if we had that. So essentially, a guest is exactly what it sounds like, [00:10:00] right?

You wanna go on a show once, maybe twice, maybe, you know, whatever that is, but you're looking for, shows to be on. And it's great because we're gonna have these hosts and co-hosts on this platform, and they can find you as well. What's also phenomenal about the platform and my vision for this is, look, I'm a host.

I'm a host of two different shows. And so being a host of two different shows, I'm not currently looking for a co-host, but I definitely am open to guesting on the right shows, depending on bandwidth, topics, what I'm focusing on right now. So when I sign up for this website, Find a Co-Host, I can be a host and feature my shows, but I can also feature myself as a guest.

So this is kind of an all-in-one marketplace, an all-in-one matching platform that I had wanted many years ago when I was wondering, "How do I get on podcasts?" And I was also wondering, you know, "How do I find this replacement co-host?" What's great about our platform, too, [00:11:00] is you know it's not like posting on Facebook, where you might never hear from someone ever again, or you may never make the connection with them ever again.

The reality is, if somebody's signed up for our site, that means they're serious. They're serious about getting guests on their show if they're a host. They're serious about getting a co-host if they're a host. If you are a guest, you've taken the time to sign up, so you're serious about getting on shows.

You're probably gonna show up for the podcast. You're taking that extra step. And then as a co-host, if you're signing up for our site, again, there's just, there's a seriousness about this. You're signing up to be matched. You're signing up to be featured, and, and that's really huge. That's big. So to go back, when I met, my designer, we really spent the time to go through what didn't work before and what, you know, what we were looking for this time.

And I just think she really nailed the first version. She did a great job. We've collaborated very well. And we [00:12:00] officially launched a month ago. And it's been incredible, and we're looking for founding members still. We have over 200 folks on the platform already, which is wild, because we're just coming up.

It'll be a few days, and we're coming up on our month, but when you guys start hearing this, we'll be at our month, so we'll be well over 200 users at that point, which we're excited about. And we think, you know, organic growth. We've run no ads yet. We've run-- We've done no marketing, traditionally.

It's just really been organic growth and user sharing. The other cool thing we decided to do too, and podcasters appreciate this, is anybody who is signing up right now, they're getting free credits to try this out. We're doing this on a credit basis instead of a subscription basis to start for our founding members, because we only want you guys to have credits taken out when you are matching We don't want you paying for something you're not using in the beginning.

We want our founding members to really enjoy this and give us that feedback and help us [00:13:00] push to the next level. Some other features that we have that other, you know, competitors or platforms don't have, we have internal chat, which everybody has, but we have video capability built into our program.

So most of the time when you meet people on Facebook or some of these other matching sites, you chat with them, you chat with them, and then you set up a time to meet on Zoom, or you set up a time to meet on Google Meet or whatever platform you're using. You don't really know this person. You should be meeting on a call.

You should be connecting with them on a call before you're releasing all your personal information. Once you make the match with us, that's when you guys can decide to share that personal information. But I know, especially as a woman, it's not the safest thing to share your Zoom link or share their Zoom link, or share your phone number or FaceTime someone.

You don't know who this is. So one of my goals when launching Find a Co-Host as well, is thinking about it from a female lens and from a safety lens. [00:14:00] This was not safe getting booked on people's podcasts sometimes, and I know this is gonna feel much safer for people when you can do everything on our platform.

Everything. You can browse the profiles, you can connect, you can chat, and you can meet via video. So before you go and book an entire podcast episode with someone, just book a call right on our platform and see, and this is a part of your match experience. This is included in all of that, and see if you guys have chemistry, see if, or see if you're comfortable with this person, see if this person really has a show that you can take seriously, regardless of your role, whether you're guesting or you wanna be a co-host.

But I especially think this is important if you're wanting to co-host. You're gonna have a consistent relationship with this person. So these are features that were really important to me, and all of our early adopters have a referral link. So when you're on our site, you can go to your credit area, and you can copy your referral link, and every person that signs up that you recruit to come, you get free matches.

[00:15:00] We want people to try this. We want people to use it, and we want people to love it. And so the more people that you tell about it to come to the platform, the more secure, relatable connections you can have. So I think that was super important to me as well, is creating this safe space and also a natural growth loop so that you guys are the ones that are helping us grow this and take this to the next level.

Of course, we'll continue to start marketing this and pushing this out, but I wanted you guys to know a little bit about a project that I worked on and this huge vision that I have moving forward for this. I wanna change the way that podcasters connect I think it's so messy what we do on Facebook. We have so many Facebook groups, thousands of people.

Sometimes people don't message you back, or they send you links, and they try to sell you stuff, and it's just... It's a lot of garbage. It's a lot of spam. It's a lot of nonsense to [00:16:00] try to create something incredible like a podcast. And I think we need to cut all of that away, and I think we need to get serious about serious connections and people who are legitimate.

And so you can go on our website, findacohost.com, and browse these podcasts and make sure they're legitimately something you wanna be a part of. You can connect with these hosts and make sure they're legitimately something you wanna be a part of, whether you're a guest or a co-host. And if you're a host, the benefit for this is these are people that are signing up because they're serious about being on a show, whether they're wanting to be a co-host and consistently show up for you and build a partnership, or if they're a guest and they wanna come on one time, maybe you invite them back again multiple times.

I know some great guests I have back on my show. It just depends on the nature of the content. But I think when somebody's signed up to a secure platform, that means they're serious. They're serious about being featured on shows. Or if you have a [00:17:00] show, you're serious about featuring your show, and you're serious about making real connections, and it's not just, "Hey, I'm recording today at 3:00.

If you wanna be on a show, come on my show." The, I personally never go on those shows. Just last night, I had a gentleman reaching out to me because, you know, we were chatting on Facebook about Find a Co-Host. And he had reached out to me, and he said, "Hey." He's like, "I want you on my show. Can you record tomorrow?"

I don't know who this person is. I don't even know what his show is about. And he kept... He's like, "I'd love for you to come on and talk about breathwork and this and all of that." And I shot him back a message. I said, "I don't talk about those things. I talk about entrepreneurship for women, and I talk about sibling grief on my other show.

I, that's not a topic I talk about." So he hadn't done any of the research. He really didn't know anything about me. This is why I created this platform. This is why I created Find a Co-Host, so that you guys can find fully vetted people in a secure [00:18:00] way on a secure platform, and you're not wasting your time going back and forth answering DMs on public platforms like Facebook, Instagram TikTok, you're actually talking to people that read your profile, know what you like to talk about, and you can get serious about creating the right content for your podcast.

Essentially, what we do is we help you find your perfect podcast match. So whether that's someone just coming on the show one time, or if that's someone that's a co-host that's going to show up consistently, that is what matters to me, creating genuine, deep connections as podcasters so that you can make the best shows possible.

And I just have not found these other routes effective. I have not found them effective at all as someone who uses them herself. But I also haven't found them safe, as I was mentioning earlier. In my opinion, I think they leave us really vulnerable. I think they leave us vulnerable to our personal information, to our personal accounts, and on, especially on [00:19:00] Facebook, I think, Facebook's been a wonderful thing.

I love so many of the groups that I run and so many things that I do over there. But in many ways, I feel uncomfortable sharing my information and chatting with people that I don't know there. So I wanna invite you guys, whether you are someone who hosts a show or you're someone who's like, "God, that would be cool to be a co-host and meet somebody," or all of us guest at some point on shows, especially women in entrepreneurship, especially female professionals, you know, and, um, you know, I do have some guys that listen to the show too, so of course everybody's welcome to use this platform.

But the reason I wanted to create this platform and kind of disrupt what some competitors and other people are doing is I just feel like having that video component and that chat component, and also the only time you guys are using a credit is if you're matching with somebody.

Instead of just paying for these exorbitant, fees every single month to be a part of a platform. We're all signed up for so many subscription services. I wanted this to be effective. I [00:20:00] want it to be cost-effective, especially in the beginning. You know, I'm sure we'll evolve and we'll change. But in the beginning, give you guys a way that's affordable and really secure to match with serious podcasters, whether it's guests that you're looking for as a host, or whether it's a co-host you're looking for as a host, or if you're a co-host looking for to join a podcast, or if you're just a guest, which a lot of you guys listening will be a guest, and I encourage you to sign up.

And let me know what you think about it. I wanna hear your opinion. My opinion is we can always get better. This is our first version, and I have some really cool ideas for our next version too, to continue to make this the marketplace that w- you want to go to, whether you're guesting, hosting, or co-hosting.

Whatever it is you're looking to do with podcasting, I want this to make, be the most accessible platform and safest platform for you to connect with other folks. And you can do everything there, right? You don't have to book a Zoom meeting. You can do the virtual call right then [00:21:00] and there and see if this is even a fit for the two of you.

Because on-camera chemistry and on-mic chemistry is really what makes the difference, whether it's just an episode you're doing together, or if you're looking for a co-host, it's really important that you have chemistry on a consistent basis, and that comes off flawlessly for you. So again, I invite you guys to check it out.

Go to findacohost.com. And as we're loading up our first 500 founding members, you can use my personal code, founder, for extra credits to match, and test this out, whether, again, regardless of what you're looking for and who to match with. And it's something I like to drive home too with our name.

You know, the name was founded on helping people find their co-host. But what I love to, to kind of drive home now in this first version that we've put out there that's like a dating, kind of like a dating vibe and matching, is that it's not just for, you know, long-term co-hosts. I like to think when you're interviewing somebody, they're your co-host for the day.

They really [00:22:00] are. And so that's where this idea came from, and that's where the name continues to stem from. And I'm looking forward to your opinions about the website, and would love feedback from you, so feel free to reach out to me at, for this particular site, it's maya@findacohost.com. And of course, if you need help with the website, feel free to reach out to support at support@findacohost.com.

We'll put all the information in the show notes with the code and then also the website. And I just wanted to give you guys, you know, my opinion on the site and why I did it and why I'm excited about it, and this is my newest business venture. And I'll be doing episodes throughout as we do different updates and where I am and share more about my journey with this particular, business venture Because as you guys know, I have my event business.

I now have Find a Co-Host. I have this show. I have the Surviving Siblings brand, which is a show, but also an annual event, a monthly [00:23:00] support group, and other resources. So I enjoy doing multiple things. I'm not just a singular entrepreneur. I can't just do one thing. But I think if you're gonna do something, do it well.

And I was quite impatient for a long time that this kind of Find a Co-Host kind of took some time. But it's interesting. I've always felt this way, like when I created Surviving Siblings, even when I created MaYapinion, I look back and I'm like, "No, the timing was just right. The timing really worked out right."

So that's something I would leave you with as well. I think in my opinion, we have to trust the timing of life. So if something's taking a little bit longer, there's a good reason for it. Doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. It's probably just gonna be better than what you expected. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode.

I hope to see you on Find a Co-Host, whether you're a host, co-host, or guest, or maybe all three. And I will see you guys next time on the MaYapinion podcast. Don't forget to follow us @mayaraffler on socials and @mayapinionpodcast. We'll see you next time. [00:24:00] Thanks so much for listening.