8 Brilliant Podcasts Produced and Hosted by Women

The Digital Women Awards takes place every year to celebrate the work women are doing through digital. Digital Women’s Podcast of the Year award recognises female-led podcasts within any niche or area that informs, educates and serves its community.

Here are our brilliant women and their amazing podcasts, here’s your Digital Podcast of the Year 2022 Finalists:

Name: Anna Parker-Naples

Podcast: Entrepreneurs Get Visible

Anna is known as the leading British woman in podcasting. She’s among only 4 women to have written a book on the subject worldwide, and is currently responsible for consulting, producing or training over 350 podcasters in the business and personal development categories. Over 10% of all of the top business shows in the UK are influenced by Anna and her team. What makes Anna unique amongst her competitors is that she doesn’t just tell people how to have successful podcasts, She runs two of them herself. She is host to two top global podcasts – Entrepreneurs Get Visible has reached no.1 in Entrepreneurship in several countries and is consistently ranked in the top 1% of all podcasts globally. Her newest podcast ‘Podcasting for Entrepreneurs’ became an instant no.1 in Marketing, and for a three week period she was the only solo female podcaster in the Top 10 in the main UK Business category in Apple. More importantly, her clients are able to create equal results with their shows, which go on to help them achieve their first million dollar launches, fill their Facebook Groups in droves, and open up huge opportunities that were previously closed to them, such as having traditional publishers reach out to offer book deals, or being able to be requested as a high profile speaker at a highly converted speaking event, as a direct result of the impact of their podcast.

Name: Aoife O’Brien

Podcast : Happy at Work

The Happier at Work podcast statistics so far have been really excellent, it has reached nearly 40k listens, Aoife consistently release a podcast every week with few exceptions; listener feedback has been phenomenal; guest feedback in relation to the process and way she manages the podcast as well as the questions she poses (which are purely conversational, and not prepared in advance); the high profile guests that have been featured on the podcast; the podcast is available on all podcast platforms, is listed on IMDB, is available to be streamed on Facebook and LinkedIn, and is also on YouTube The podcast reached 35k listens in January and is set to reach 40k listens by mid-March 2022. It is set to reach 4k listens so far in 2022, which would mean it hits at least 24k for the full year if the same trajectory remains. It has peaked at number 3 in the Irish business podcasts on Apple, and regularly features in the top 200. The podcast has a global reach, with people from more than 50 different countries listening to it. It has reached peak position 429 globally and 387 in USA (business podcasts). The number one country by listenership is USA, followed by Ireland and then the UK. It has 30 5-star reviews on Apple podcasts, and has received very positive reviews on Apple as well as on LinkedIn. It is in the top 5% of podcasts according to Listen Notes.

Name: Berenice Howard-Smith

Podcast: The Full Stop

The Full Stop is the only continually produced podcast for the childless not by choice community who comprise 48m women. The data on men is not recorded as it’s unspoken but we’re hoping to change this as our third presenter is (in his words) a hairy Australian engineer! We are still unique. We saw a gap in December 2018, a space in which we felt was needed, there was no podcast for us in amongst the many that existed. We picked up 200 listeners on our first episode and it’s grown to over 14,900 downloads in a market that’s hard to get into…. it’s the podcast that nobody wants to listen to, who wants to be in our demographic? We have completely thrown our schedule out of the window in March 2020 to accommodate stories of lockdown and mental health. We covered single and childless in a pandemic allowing a voice for the single person watching the families in Spain from her balcony and ageing without children. We’ve also empowered, our latest episode features two Australian counsellors taking on the Queensland Government (we are global!) and handed the entire episode to author Yvonne John who spoke about being a woman of colour and infertility. We’ve talked about the gender pay gap and inequality in the workplace and business communities. We’ve also collaborated with the LGBTQI+ community and encouraged conversation with men. From the podcast we’ve created The Clan of Brothers, the only dedicated support group for men who are grieving whilst living a life unexpected. Critically, we do not just help our demographic, our work is listened to by parents, friends and family who may have colleagues, business group leaders and founders who want to provide a better space for now and for future generations, for your children if you have them and beyond. We are now applying to be a CIC. Below you have asked for stats, we’ve provided then but if the above makes you think that you didn’t know about disenfranchised grief of a live that was unexpected then we’ve enabled you. And that’s our aim, to shine a light on a community that’s overshadowed by pronatalism and help just one person who is devastated by grief or the friend who says ‘just adopt’ . To build a bridge of positivity and honesty, so we can live with empathy and respect, not pity or judgement.

Name: Meg Kissack

Podcast: The Daily Pep

Meg hosts The Daily Pep, a short, snappy and sassy podcast for creative and multi-passionate women, designed to start their day off with a compassionate bang and as a daily companion of encouragement and remind listeners they are not alone and it has become a daily companion for thousands of women. The innovation comes both in the consistency and the length of each podcast episode. Each episode is around 6 minutes long which means episodes can be creative in their simplicity – focusing on one actionable idea/reframe which can be easily implemented to improve the listener’s everyday lives. The frequency of the episodes and the close relationship that has formed with listeners because of this has built trust. One listener describes it as ‘a warm hug in word format’. The Daily Pep! has been featured on the Spotify Daily Wellness playlist since April 2020 which has massively expanded the audience and many women get in touch to tell me they finally feel like they’re not alone or the odd one out, and that it has made a real difference in some really dark moments. The Daily Pep! has been downloaded 3.3 million times since it started on 29th February 2020.

Name: Rhea Freeman

Podcast: Small and Supercharged

The Small & Supercharged podcast is a labour of love for Rhea, and with well over 150K downloads and an award to its name, it’s one she is incredibly proud of creating. The podcast is published each week and she alternates between education/information and insight which she provides and sharing information and stories connected to founders, business people, authors, influencers, and people that she knows will provide value to her audience and they’ll enjoy listening to. On the run up to Christmas, she also used the podcast to directly benefit and promote members of her membership group, Small & Supercharged Mastermind, as she invites them to join her on episodes in December. In 2021, she used Live recordings from inside the Small & Supercharged group and repurposed these into podcasts to give her members the chance to reach their customers where they were, and with great success too. She is also very aware of the power of the podcast and is happy to have listeners on who pitch (well!) about something they’re passionate about. She’s featured three or four of her listeners so far and hope to include more in future episodes- it’s lovely to be able to give people who have got a clear message a megaphone. She says that consistency puts her head and shoulders above many in her field. She has now published well over 200 episodes. She also thinks her honesty, ability to speak to people on the podcast and allow them to tell their story, and make everything she teaches accessible is very useful. Since the podcast launched, she has received some fabulous reviews and ratings on Apple.

Name: Esther Ocampo and Melanie Boylan

Podcast: Monday Morning Marketing

The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast gives a voice to small businesses struggling with their marketing. They ask the “silly” questions (hint – there are none) to their guests and investigate topics of interest to those who are just starting out as well as those who have been in business for years. They know that marketing is every changing and keep on top of those trends as much as possible. They aren’t without their struggles themselves. Esther is currently going through chemotherapy for lymphoma (and still records the podcasts when she’s fit to) and Melanie is suffering with a problem with her throat and still records the weekly episodes (even picking up the slack when Esther’s not well enough to attend the recordings) They might not be saying anything new, but they’re saying it in a way that’s easy for everyone to understand. They keep the episodes short and sweet and to the point – 10(ish) minutes when it’s just the 2 of them, 20 (ish) minutes with guests. That’s what people like about them and their podcast. They now have over 114 episodes under their belt (don’t listen to the first ones – they were very nervous) and have increased their listenership regularly and organically.

These are our 2022 Podcast of the Year Finalists. We feel inspired do you? Let us know by sharing this and tagging us on social media – #DigitalWomenAwards @Digita1Women

Name: Joy Foster

Podcast: Sparkle and Thrive

Joy believes that one of the best ways for women to gain confidence and choice over their future is through education. And, at TechPixies, this comes in myriad forms. To complement their training programmes, she decided to start the TechPixies’ Sparkle and Thrive podcast as a powerful way to connect with their community and serve them with practical and valuable information. Podcasts in the marketing, business and tech space have exploded recently – in fact, podcasting is something they actively encourage their own listeners to jump into with their Quick Start Guide to Podcasting. Joy is proud that the Sparkle and Thrive podcast continues to grow its audience and the trajectory of downloads is always upwards. In fact, they’ve amassed 54,000 downloads to date, 34,000 of which have come in the past year alone.

Name: Claire Waite Brown

Podcast: Creativity Found

When claire started the Creativity Found podcast she had no idea of the best ways to record, how to edit audio files and how to get an RSS feed. She had two friends that she knew had relevant stories of finding their creativity as grown-ups, one who had been told as a child that her art was rubbish and she should simply stop painting all together. Fast forward a year-and-a-bit and she has released 40 episodes, won an International Women’s Podcast Award, recorded with guests in Dubai, France, US and Canada, and her calendar of bookings for recording with new guests is full until September 2022.

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