One of the reasons why I wanted to share this with you today because I myself have been more focused on my day-to-day work and the work I do with my clients than working on my own podcast. Yeah, believe it or not, I teach people about podcasting and can’t even maintain my own podcast. Hey, it happens but that doesn’t mean that your podcast is for not. When you started your podcast, what was the goal? What was the defining moment? What was your reason and your why, I keep talking about this, what was your why in beginning your show?
And if you haven’t started your show yet, this is the perfect time to think about that why? Why does your podcast exist in the first place? I wanted to look back at my notebook. Why did I start my podcast in the first place? I remember I wanted to start this podcast since last year at some point and I knew I wanted to have it for 2020 and then pandemic, COVID. Like a lot of other people in the world, I had my kiddo at home, I had work to do still which I was so grateful for that I still had work, but I had a lot of people inquiring about starting a podcast.
It made me think back to why this is another reason why I want to have my own show. I want to have a place that I can tell you that you can stop overanalyzing all these things and just hit that record button. Sometimes that’s all it takes. I’ve had so many people come to me on our first strategy session saying oh I’ve been thinking about creating a podcast for years. Be it a year, two years, three years, four years, plus and they still haven’t started their show. How is this possible?!? But it is.
People get sidetracked with their full-time job because podcasting is a full-time job as it is, but then you layer that on top of all the other things that we have to do in our life including, like I said, a real full-time job that pays the bills, taking care of your kids if you’ve got any or maybe you are a caregiver to someone right now during this time. There are so many reasons to either not start a podcast or to continue your existing podcast. During this time, we can get a little bog down by that. Creating excuses coming up with “I should be doing this” or “Oh, I don’t have time for that”. And I’ve got to admit, as I said earlier, podcasting really isn’t at the top of that hierarchy, is it? We gotta pay the bills. We gotta take care of our families and whatever energy we have left for our creativity, maybe that’s when podcasts will be in focus again.
But I want you to go back to that “why”. Did you ever write that down in the first place? because remember you’re “why” shouldn’t just be an arbitrary number or to bring in more money if this is part of your business marketing platform or if this is tied to your business. It shouldn’t be about, “Oh I just want ten thousand downloads. I’m gonna have so many superfans!” which is lovely but that is all ego-driven. What is your “why”?!? Why did you start your podcast? Why do you want to start a podcast? You want to connect with others, right? You want to be able to create impact. Not only in your own life, but those that are listening to you. How are they going to create action and impact and create that ripple effect where you impact their lives and they will take the knowledge that they learn from you and impact somebody else’s life. And even if your podcast is not for educational purposes and it’s just for entertainment, that’s okay too because you would have entertained somebody else lightened up their mood and created a more bright positive space for them, in turn, being able to care for others, to take care of themselves, and to have a more positive outlook on life. Because we all need that right now.
So here I am today, being perfectly imperfect just like in episode 9 “Starting a Perfectly Imperfect Podcast”. I am starting a perfectly imperfect episode.
I’m gonna be fully honest with you. I did not create this episode like I normally would. I’m riffing a lot of it, but I know that I have editing skills. I’m going to cut most of this down, but I usually come in with an outline or bullet points. This is what I would tell my clients too. You start your episode with the beginning, a middle, and an end. So you know where you’re going in, you know how you’re coming out, and all the stuff in the middle is all the bullet points, which I have. I have my beginning and my end, so if you think of it like a sandwich, I got my two pieces of bread, it’s the filling in the middle that’s a little all over the place. Not sure if the flavour is going to meld, if you get my drift.
But hopefully you understand what I’m saying because I’m just using my voice just like you are when you’re recording your show and how you say something the tone of voice you’re using is really going to come through. They’ll understand how you’re feeling based on your tone.
If I were to record this episode and just be full of doubt full or negative energy, I’m not going to bring my A-game. I may have felt this before I turned on the mic, but I know when you get behind your microphone, you’ve got to amp yourself up a bit. You’ve got to smile. You’ve got to bring your hands out, animate yourself, and use your face and facial expressions, like we’ve mentioned before to share your voice, how imperfectly it might be.
To know that you can have this connection with someone and that they hear your voice, they can relate to you. They understand “hey, this is what I’m going through too”, that is the whole point of podcasting. It’s to connect with a listener.
And so I hope my rambling today made some sort of connection with you. I want you to go back to your original goals or, again, if you don’t have any goals to start them. Why are you podcasting? Why does it matter to share your voice? And so, are you?
Because clearly I wasn’t. One of my goals was to publish an episode every single week. I’m a couple of weeks behind and that’s okay. I did put a little pressure on myself on the first week I missed. I was like, “oh no, I should be doing this”, but that word “should be” came up to haunt me on my little shoulder because it was, well, who put that pressure on themselves? Well, me! I created that schedule! So it’s okay for me to let it go. But just know, if you take that time off, recollect your thoughts and get back behind that mic because what you have to say is valuable.
Okay, but even though I had not turned on my recently, I do have some things that I’ve been working on behind the scenes. I knew in the first handful of episodes, they were going to be solo just you and me. Now, I have plans for some interviews and I still want these interviews to be short and sweet because like I said, I know as podcasters, we don’t have a lot of time on our hands We’re editing. We’re promoting. We’re interviewing. We’re scheduling. We’re doing more editing. We’re fixing our tech. We are doing all sorts of things to promote our show and to connect with listeners.
So my episodes are going to be edited down. I’m aiming for less than 20-minutes per interview. You get focused energy on what the person has to say. The people that I will be interviewing, they’re going to be pretty juicy. I love it. I haven’t reached out to everybody yet, but that’s something that we will talk about in a future episode; about interviewing, interview techniques, and all that.
But I will be taking a break in December that was the plan. I will be away for most of December and probably a bit into January too. Not that I’m going anywhere. There’s nowhere to go, still staying within our community. However school’s closing and I’m so fortunate that my daughter was able to start kindergarten and have school this year, but we do have winter break so I’m going to take a winter break too. Away from the podcast and away from work and be with my family.
So, I hope you also have the opportunity to do that. If you do plan on taking time off with your podcast too, I hope you embrace that time away. That you get to review what you’ve done this whole year. Yes, 2020 was a little crazy. But we’re going to be through it on the other side. I hope that podcasting was a bit of a refuge for you and your listeners.
Review what you’ve done all year with your podcast. Take a look back at your original goals, and then tweak what worked and didn’t work. So for me, I think maybe that weekly schedule that I decided to go with was a little bit much. So, I might go with my initial thought of every other week.
New things for me also is to reach out to my list of people that I want to interview and even the dreamy of the dreamiest people on that list. And hope that they will come on because you never know until you ask. So you’ve got to make the ask. If that is also one of your plans for the new year, ask one or two people from your dreamy ideal guest list that you wish to interview. Seek them out and make the ask. Get them on your podcast.
I hope this helps you out in some little way. If nothing else, to realize it is the end of 2020, let’s go back and review what we did during the year for our podcast and what needs to be tweaked and what can be repeated. Because podcasting is a journey. I always say that we learn something from creating an episode each and every time. What will it be for you? What did you learn this past year? I’d love for you to tell me. Send me some feedback with the “Send Voicemail” purple button on my website on the right-hand side of your screen. I’d love to hear from you. So with that, you’ve got this. Go forth and record your next episode, or if you do interviews reach out to someone on your dreamy dreamy list. It’s all about taking one small step to move your podcast forward.
