In this solo episode I am talking about the things I wish I would have known before I began podcasting. Listen in if you are curious about key information that you should really consider before starting a podcast. Also, if you currently have a podcast, listen in to compare notes! After this episode, you will definitely be more in tune with the little things you can do to boost your podcast as well as help to create material that will keep your listeners coming back for more. Thank you to Adam from The Podcasting Business school for the episode introduction!

Podcast Collaboration Group

Podcasting Business School

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You are listening to episode 24. Wait, I don't like the way that sounds. Alright, hold on, let me stop. Alright, let me try this again. You are listening to episode 24 of Tried and True with Caroline.

Oh my gosh. Do people really even care what episode services? I mean, seriously, like really? Does it matter? Isn't it more about the content than me telling them what the episode number is?

If this sounds like you and you keep hitting the pause button, the stop button, because you don't like the way it sounds, you don't think that it sounds great. You're wondering if people are even going to listen. Is my content even worth listening to? I mean, how is it going to compare with somebody out there that already has a well established podcast? I don't know if this even worth it.

If any of that conversation sounded a lot like the conversation you have with yourself every time you get in front of your podcast microphone, this episode is perfect for you. You are listening to episode 24 of Tried and True with Caroline. On today's show, I will be talking with you about many of the things that I wish I would have known before I started my podcast. And yes, some of these things I've discovered after the fact. But had I known a lot of what I'm going to talk to you about today, I feel like my journey maybe would have been a little smoother.

So that's why I decided to create this episode. So that in hopes of someone that's new, that's starting their podcast, it will give you such a head start on the things that you really should be focusing on in your podcast. So let's get this show started. This is Tried And True, a place to chat about how aligning your daily wellness, routine, mindset and selfcare contributes to building meaningful businesses and relationships while curating an empowered and fulfilling life. Being an entrepreneur isn't easy and learning to balance all of the things is another story.

Through these podcasts, my goal is to bring creative conversations to the table that empower, enlighten and elevate your workspace. Wherever you are listening, if you're looking for a place that's going to support that big dream of yours, replace your doubt with you got to do this thing. Know that progress is better than perfection and momentum is magic. You're in the right place and you know that thing you keep looking for that you believe is going to change everything? I've got news for you.

If you're still looking for it, I have your answer. Go and look in the mirror. You are the answer, my friend. I believe that the messages we hear are never a coincidence. And when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

By listening to these conversations with experts, thought leaders, fellow entrepreneurs, and more, you are opening the channels of expansion and allowing new sources of inspiration to ripple across your brain. Waves, reminding you to come home to your already amazing self, learn from the past, be wildly curious in the now, and blaze a new trail to the future. If this sounds like your sort of conversation, I've got a seat reserved just for you. Your time is now, my friend. Welcome and thank you for joining me.

I'm your host Caroline, and let's get this episode started. Well, hey there. Tried and true with Caroline Podcast fans. It's your buddy Adam from Podcasting Business School. That's the podcast where I teach people about podcast launch growth and monetization strategies.

Be sure to check out episode 220 where I help you discover where you're at in the podcasting success timeline. You are listening to the Tried and True with Caroline podcast and it's time to bring out your host, my podpal Caroline. Hi friends, and welcome back to the podcast. If you are new to the podcast, welcome. Thank you for joining me.

I decided to do a solo episode here today. I've done quite a bit of guest episodes in the last month or two and I decided to or that I wanted to do a solo episode on some of the things that I've learned in my podcast journey. That I feel like had I known prior to starting my podcast that maybe things would have gone a little bit smoother, I would have had a little bit more direction and my focus would have been better because I would have had a better grasp on what I was doing and what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to share in hopes that someone who is wanting to begin a podcast that possibly they can take the things that I have here and look at them and it kind of will give them a little bit of a jumpstart in the starting of their podcast.

Let's see. I had enrolled in probably three different podcasting mini courses and as I go through my list here of things that I am explaining to those of you that are listening that you should be doing, the majority of these things were not mentioned and these are the things that are critical in your growth, in your stability and just feeling like you are creating a robust product. So this is like me having a conversation with you. We're sitting at the pool, we're sitting at the beach, and I'm just kind of rattling off to you the things that I've learned that I did not know prior to me starting my podcast. So at the beginning of the podcast, when I was pressing stop and rerecording and rerecording and that was me, I must have recorded my intro, which was literally three or four minutes, I don't even remember.

I must have recorded that thing like ten times because I didn't like the way that I sounded. I felt, oh my gosh, this is like the first thing and this is what people are going to hear. And it's got to be perfect and all the things right? I spent so much time on that goofy little recording that I don't even like to admit it. But I am admitting it because what I want to tell you is don't stress over the sound of what you think people are going to hear because we never hear ourselves the same way that another person receives our voice.

Because we're used to hearing ourselves talk all the time. But we sound very different to someone else. So just take that into consideration. And why I really felt called to do this was because if you are out there taking some of the same, I don't know, I'm not going to say the podcast course that I was taking, but if you are taking those courses, okay, yes. Are they good for what's your equipment and how should you be recording and what are some of the podcast platforms and so on.

It's very generic. The things that I'm giving you are things that are kind of like on the Peripheral, but they are very important things on The Peripheral. And if you're not doing those things, you're going to find yourself in a very frustrating place because you're not going to have all of the moving parts that are going to make your podcast productive. And that's what you're in the business for. That's why you want to start your podcast, because you feel compelled to share your message.

I don't know, maybe you don't have a message. Maybe you're going to do a crime podcast. You're going to do reading books, you're going to do maybe you don't have anything to sell, but you're just sharing messages. Whatever it is, if you're feeling called to the microphone, there's a reason for it. Okay, the first thing is that most podcasts don't really make it past month three.

Now, if you're a celebrity and you already have a huge following and people are excited that now you're starting a podcast, that's going to be very different because they're already out there in the media. But if you're starting from scratch and maybe you have a small following on Instagram or Facebook, or you belong to lots of Facebook groups and you're telling people about it, you're still going to start out relatively small and that's okay. But the frustration there is you're not going to see as much growth so fast. And yes, there are things that you can do which I'm going to reserve for a different podcast. This is more for the beginners and things that you could be doing as you begin.

I want you to think about the fact that your podcast is a platform that allows you to get your message to larger masses of people in the media and by doing that, you are in front of more people. So instead of you saying, oh well, I only have 1000 people that follow me on Instagram, well, imagine if each of those thousand people shared your podcast to someone else and those people follow you, then you have 2000 people. And think about if you released a podcast every Tuesday or whatever day you chose to release a podcast and you had 2000 people sitting in front of you knowing that they were going to be listening to your podcast. That's a lot of people. It may sound like Crickets at the very beginning and you may not get a paragraph of reviews or you may not even have people posting on your Instagram or wherever it is that you're sharing that you've dropped a new episode.

But people are listening and it doesn't happen overnight. But don't lose hope, okay? I'm hoping that the things that I share with you today will give you that extra boost so that you don't feel like maybe you're talking to Cricket. You get a little more of a grasp on who your listener is and all of the other things as I go through these. And hopefully you're taking notes.

If you don't take notes, that's fine, there will be show notes. But if you do use something from the podcast or you found something like super helpful, I would love for you to reach out to me and let me know what you found helpful. You can go to my Pod page which is tried and true withcareoline.com and it's true without the e and you can leave me a voicemail or you can actually send me a written message and I would love to hear if something that I talked about today really helped you in your podcast journey. Without further ado, I am going to get busy with talking to you about things that I wish I would have known before I started my podcast. First thing really defining the why behind why you are doing your podcast.

It doesn't matter to me why you're starting your podcast, okay? But when you have a defined why, it will make your content so much easier to create. Honestly, I just wanted a podcast. I wanted a podcast. I said I was going to start a podcast for probably the last five years and I never did because one, I was afraid of hearing my own voice and two, I didn't really think that people cared about what I said.

So I never started it. And when I did start it, not that I felt like I was struggling for information to share, it was just I wasn't organized with it. And I feel like when you really have a concrete why as to why you are starting this podcast, who you are wanting to serve, it really, really will make a difference in how you show up. And remember, when people choose to listen to our podcasts, they are choosing to listen to you because they are doing something that doesn't require 100% of their attention. Meaning people are listening to your podcast in the car?

Yes, they're driving. And driving requires like your 100% attention. It's okay that they're listening to something in the car. But what I'm talking about is when people are folding clothes, when people are taking a walk, when people are sitting at the beach, when people are doing something that they feel like they have the capacity to listen to something and hopefully learn something or have a takeaway from listening to that particular message. I want you to really think about that and really feel into what messages you want to leave your listeners with.

Because if you show up to your podcast with lots of fluff with messages that really just are not, I don't want to say just like bubblegum, if people are going to take the time or to have you in their ear, leave them with something at the end of your podcast. Let them be wowed. Let them want to share your message with other people. Give them something to think about. Remind them of something about themselves that maybe they didn't remember.

It's not just always about teaching, teaching, teaching people. We can also remind people to find glimpses of hope. We can remind people to go and smell the flowers. We can remind people to look up at the clouds. We can remind people of little things that are going to make a huge impact in their life.

So defining your why, really remember why you're doing this. It's going to help you create content easier and it's also going to solidify who you are actually talking to as your podcast begins to grow. The second thing being consistent. I am completely guilty of this one. When I started the podcast, I started the podcast and then like a month or two after I got into a car accident, I just was not in any shape to be podcasting all the things and I kind of ended up taking like a month or two off.

The thing about consistency is when people really like your podcast, they are going to want to listen to you once a week or maybe your podcast is twice a week, whatever it is that you choose to do. But when you are in the flow and consistent, you're building trust with your listeners. They know that every Tuesday if they show up, you're going to release a new episode or maybe you release it on Fridays or whatever day you're releasing. But being consistent builds trust. Your listeners are going to look forward to what you have to say next week.

And if for some reason maybe you're going on vacation or you know that you don't have the time to record something that's like 30 or 40 minutes, then maybe you just put in a little message that says, hey, this week I have a lot going on. But here are a few reminders about some of the things that I talked about in the last podcast and I hope everyone is doing great. I will see you next week. It kind of gives them something to know that you didn't just like, oh, this is just another failed podcast. They showed up for three podcast episodes and there weren't enough downloads, so they decided to just quit.

If you were going through a rough patch or you need to take time off, let your listeners know that that's what's going on, so that they know that you're actually not just quitting on them. Because I did say something, I think, in the beginning about how most podcasts don't make it out of the three month mark plan for your releases. So again, pick a day and stick to it. If you know that you want to release content on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then tell your followers or your listeners that, hey, every Tuesday and Thursday I release new episodes. And if you're just getting started, I would record at least four to five full episodes so that when you do launch your podcast, they have a couple of episodes to listen to instead of just your one three minute intro to get you on Apple podcasts.

Because the more of a head start that you have, it's going to give you a lot more time to create your material consistently. I hope that was very clear. One more thing. When you are recording and you mess up in your recording, instead of stopping and going all the way back and starting over again, just think of a word. Maybe it's the word pause.

Maybe it's the word start. The two words start over. And then you know that after that you start it over to redo what you just said. And that way you're continually in the flow. You're not just stopping and starting, stopping and starting, stopping and starting, because then you lose your train of thought.

Number three, the promos before you launch. I was so scared to tell people that I had a podcast. I think I waited until I had posted like three or four episodes before I even told people that there was a podcast. Why? Because I was afraid of what people were going to think.

I was back in that mode again of what if my content isn't good enough? What if people think it's goofy? What if people think it's dumb? What if people don't care? I came to the conclusion that maybe it's really not.

It is about the people that are listening to some degree, but it's also about those of us that want to podcast and share. It's about us getting our message out as well. And someone who needs to hear it is going to find it and listen to it. That's what I've come to learn. And it's interesting because you'll find people that you've never heard of and they will reach out to you and they will say, oh, I just listened to this podcast.

It was so interesting. I never looked at the topic this way. Whatever they might say, don't always think that people are, you know, you're more worried about who's going to listen and what they're going to say. People are always going to have something to say, whether it's great or whether it's not so great about the things that we do. So if you're speaking from the heart, if you are producing great content, then people will receive it however they need to receive it, or maybe they won't even receive it at all.

They will have no interest in your podcast at all. And that's okay too. If you are just starting your podcast, think about ways that you can start telling people about your podcast. Maybe you start dropping little audio clips about. Maybe you've done an interview with someone.

Maybe you're just going to do a little audio clip of you in your podcast and maybe just telling people, okay, my podcast is releasing on August 5, and I'm in the process of batch recording four or five episodes so that I get them all ready for my launch so that you guys have a couple to listen to while I'm busy creating more. That's what I would really recommend because when you just release one and you realize the time and energy that it took for you to release just one, it might be overwhelming to you to think, oh my gosh, I have to do this all the time. And maybe batch recording will make you feel a little bit better in getting more episodes out at the very beginning gives you a head start to some degree. You can also do some lives on Instagram and Facebook about maybe what your podcast is about, what you're going to be talking about, what the format of your show is going to be. If it's only going to be a solo show, you're not going to be doing guest interviews or it's going to be a coaching platform where you're going to have people come on and you're going to help walk them through things.

Whatever your format is, maybe you can do little lessons on social platforms where you're talking about what it's going to be about so that you can create some buzz around it. You might also ask your audience to leave questions. You might do a Q and A for them. And I would also recommend if you have anything to give away, then you could do giveaways to encourage people to listen, to leave reviews. I think it would really help.

On to number four, creating a flowchart for your show. The first 72 hours of the release of your podcast is very important because that is the time frame that Apple kind of places you on the rating scale for podcasts. So if you can get, let's say, 100 downloads before the 72 hours window, I think that your podcast is like in the top 20%. If you get 1000, I think downloads at the end of 30 days, I think you end up being in like the top 5%. I know it sounds like a lot.

But if you really push your podcast and you do your promos when your podcast is released and I'm going to get into that a little bit further into the show. But there are little things that you can do instead of just posting an audiogram. Which is what I was doing. That will help get your message out and get the word out that you have a new episode promo materials. Advertising your episode using different avenues.

So if you have a newsletter that you send out to your email list, if you are on TikTok, if you participate, or you have a Facebook group, or you have your Instagram, you have your Facebook, you have Twitter, LinkedIn, you have lots of ways for you to share your podcast platform. Do you need to do all 50 of the ways that you can share your podcast? No, you don't have to do all 50. I would pick maybe three or four and stay consistent with those posting, like just posting your audio. Gram yes, you're going to get a couple of listeners that way, but it's not going to be enough.

And it's not going to be enough because I know, because that's what I did for many, many months. I literally would just post an audiogram on my Facebook page, on my Instagram page and just wonder why I have only 20 downloads or however many downloads. You can't always rely on a guest to be out there sharing your podcast for you. Yes, it would be great for them to do, but that's not like my sole mission for why I ask a guest to be on my show. Yes, it's my job to help promote my show and I'm very grateful when guests promote my show, but that's not the only reason why I have them participate to be a guest and to be interviewed.

And another thing about creating a flow chart for your show is that if you know that you are batch recording on let's say you batch record on Mondays. You record all of the audio material on Mondays and then for the next three episodes. And then on Tuesday you create the social media things maybe on using Canva for your episodes and for your guests to share on their platforms and then whatever else you're using to use to put your podcast out there. You do that on Tuesday. So you record on Monday, you do all of your artwork, all of your things that you're using for your podcast to put it out into the social media world on Tuesday, maybe you edit on Wednesday if you're also doing the editing as well, which is what I still do, and then maybe you release things on Thursdays, you have a flow as to how your podcast works.

Because like I've learned in a podcast that I've really been following and very involved with Podcasting Business school is that if you're doing your podcast for a hobby okay, that's great and wonderful. I guess you're not going to have lots of expectations as far as are you getting a return, how are you measuring your growth on the podcast if it's just a hobby? But if you're really building this podcast in hopes that you're going to create a business out of it, you're going to want to be able to monitor and create a business flow within your podcast. And that's probably part of another episode of a podcast is teaching you the flow and all of the things that create the day to day workings of a podcast if you're building it as a business. Okay.

Number five, research different podcasts that you enjoy listening to. Why do I say that? Because those podcasts are going to leave you tips if you listen carefully as to what is working for them. And I'm not saying you have to copy those podcasts, but look at what they're doing, look at how frequently they are releasing episodes, listen to the format of how they do their show. Are they putting ads in the middle?

They don't have any ads. Maybe, I don't know. But find four or five podcasts that you really enjoy listening to and then from there write down the things that you would like your show to have in it. So you have some guidelines as to, oh, this is what this one sounds like. And they have an intro and they have a little clip about something that maybe they have coming up.

Whatever it is that you like about their podcast, then do that on your show but with your own twist, okay? And remember that what inspires you is then going to help inspire your show, which is then going to inspire someone else and be impactful in someone else's life. Alright, number six. I really wish I had done this and I did not know about these, but they're basically called like a one pager. It's like a resume, more of a creative style resume for you.

Once your podcast starts to pick up a little bit of traction and maybe you want to be a guest on someone else's podcast, I would highly recommend you creating a one pager for yourself, which is what I call them. And basically what it is is it's a snapshot of you and what your talking points are if you have your own podcast and the things that you would be able to share on someone else's platform. And it's all in one place. So if someone says to you, hey, can you send me your one pager on the things and the topics that you were able to talk about, your availability, etc. And I'm available for speaking engagements, I'm available for podcasting, I'm available for guest blogging.

Whatever it is that you are available for in the social media platform world is where you would put that on your one pager. And also talking about the fact that if you do have your own podcast, then you can also put that on there as well. And it just makes it really easy when I talk about the next thing because when you get into the next topic, which is joining podcast groups, it's so much easier when somebody says, okay, hey, can you send me your information? It's already ready to go on a sheet in a link and you can send it to them very quickly. It's not about, oh, let me get all the things together that I can do and that I talk about or that I'm able to talk about and then I'll send it to you next week.

At that point, they probably already found five people to be guests on their show, so you want to be ready for that ahead of time. So my next thing is joining a podcast group because it's a great way to meet other podcasters and you don't feel like you're in the boat by yourself. Podcasting can be lonely if you don't have a co host, if you're doing everything by yourself, it can be very isolating. It's almost like writing a book because you are doing all of the work yourself. I'm not talking about like the Joe Rogan show, I'm not talking about these high end shows that a lot of people are behind the scenes working, providing content, doing the editing, all the things that's probably not the average podcaster.

So one of the groups that I do belong to on Facebook is the Podcast Collaboration Group and it's run by Sarah Penner. She has two different versions. There's a free version on Facebook and then there's one. I think it's like $15 a month or something and that's where it's a little more detailed in the fact that we have like. Podcasting meet up groups and basically it's like a round table and we go to different virtual rooms and we talk about what our podcast is about and we ask if we're looking for we're looking to be a guest on someone's show or we can also find guests for our show in that private group.

You can also find guests and learn lots of other things on the podcast, the free Collaboration group, but it's really been very helpful, especially when I started and I found this group probably three or four months in, I was able to find guests that I'm still in touch with now and it was really, really helpful. There's lots of information that goes on. People are always posting about new things that are happening and it's just a really great place for you to go. It doesn't have to be the Podcast Collaboration Group, but I'm sure there's lots of other podcast groups out there. But definitely join a free group if you can so that you don't feel like you're by yourself.

Another podcast that I have found that has been very, very helpful is the Podcasting Business School Podcast. And Adam, who runs that? Podcast. He does something really cool, and it's called Pod Pals. And what that is, is you sign up to participate.

He does this, I think, once a month or maybe twice a month, and basically it's a zoom call. He teaches a little bit at the very beginning for about 1520 minutes, and then the rest of the show is Q and A about what he talked about. And then you also have the opportunity to pitch yourself with other people that are on that platform at that time during that session. And you talk a little bit about your show, and you're able to say, I'm good as a guest for this type of show, and I am also accepting guests for my show. If you are versed in the topics of ABC, whatever it is that your show talks about.

And I just did one of the podcasts and it was actually really cool. I really enjoyed it. Super useful. Yeah. So I think you should try that out.

All the things that I'm talking about, I will have links in the show notes, so have no fear. I know I'm talking fast because there's a lot that I need to get through here today. Another program that I found very helpful and I just became a part of the beta phase about a month ago is called Cap Show. And that program, basically what a time saver this program is. So basically what it is, is you record your podcast and you upload your podcast into the program Cap Show.

What Cap Show does is, first of all, it gives you a transcript of your podcast. It also gives you social media prompts. It gives you email, like, if you're sending out to your email subscribers, it already gives you like, preset based on what your podcast was about. I mean, it's really phenomenal. Yes, there are things that you need to tweak.

Like if maybe you don't like the way this sentence sounds, you can go in and change it, but it puts in captions for you to put in your social media. And I know there's a couple of other things that it is able to do, but it's really amazing and it is a huge time saver. So look into that. I know that it was just released out into the open from beta. It's really good.

So make sure you look into that. All right, number eight is make sure that you're subscribing to a few of the digital newsletters. I know bus sprout puts one out. Podfest puts one out. I think Podcast Movement, Pod News, I think there's like 20 or 25 different digital newsletters that go out that talk about nothing.

I mean, it's like all podcasts. There's also podcasting. I think it's Podcast Magazine or it's either Podcast Magazine or Podcasting Magazine. I don't remember what the title is, but I'll get it. And then I will make sure that it goes into the links at the bottom and I will also put a few links to some of the digital newsletters that I subscribe to.

And they're really good because the podcasting world changes fast. And there's lots of new things that are coming out on the Daily. There's updates that are coming out with things that are already in existence. And so it's a lot to keep up with. But these newsletters I find are really beneficial in helping you find things that you might not have found otherwise on your own.

So definitely, if you subscribe to a couple, I know it's a little bit more for you to read, but definitely worth your while. I really didn't say anything about picking the right podcasting host platform. I have mine on Captivate, and I think people will say, oh, well, this one over here is better than this one is over here. And I think it's really all personal preference at the end of the day and what your goal is. I think for somebody who's beginning, it's really cool.

Captivate does something great where it really looks at all of your metrics and you're able to look at a lot of different things as far as how much you're growing. And Captivate does a really good job with that, not saying that the other host platforms don't do those things. I know what Captivate does. I know there's some limitations and Captivate, but I've been very happy so far. And they have also since put in a program called Descript, which you can edit your transcripts and you can edit your podcast in Descript, which, again, that's like another podcast, but they've just started that not too long ago, which is really helpful as well.

Moving on, number nine, focusing on creating amazing content yes, done. Is better than perfect. You will maybe at the end of your podcast, you're like, oh, gosh, I wish I would have put this in, or I wish I would have added this, or whatever. You can always do a smaller podcast right after instead of going back and reformatting everything and fixing and lining up the music and all the things. Make a smaller podcast that's like a branch off or do an Instagram live say, hey guys, I just feel like I want to talk a little bit more about this topic that I talked about on my podcast.

And after listening to it again, I feel like there's a little bit more I want to share. People will love that, and you don't have to go back into your podcast and reedit the whole thing, but just remember that people are spending their free time listening to you. Just like I am grateful that you are here listening to me, and I am hoping that the information that I'm sharing with you today is valuable. And something that I'm sharing today actually helps you in either launching your podcast or if you have a podcast already. That I'm helping you look at something.

Maybe a little bit differently that is going to help your podcast grow. Reminding you to give people actionable and easy attainable steps that they can take at the end of your podcast that will help them achieve something and involve their input when you can and make your focus to create community and collaboration around your podcast. It doesn't have to be just all about you. Make it about your listeners as well. Because your listeners, without your listeners, what do you have?

You have yourself in front of a microphone talking away and yes, someone is going to hear you. I get it. But the more that we involve our listeners and the more validation, the better content that we give to our listeners, the better our platform will be. You want your platform to be known for content enriching material, not just a time waster, because then people are just not going to start showing up. And then when you want people to refer your podcast out, you don't want people to say, oh, their podcast is just a bunch of fluff and it's a bunch of ads and they're always just talking about themselves.

No, you want to be able to share useful information and yes, I guess if you're doing a crime podcast, you're entertaining people. Don't get me wrong. If your podcast is entertaining and you're a comedian or you're doing book reviews or you're doing whatever it is that you're doing, I guess what I'm saying at the end of the day is make it meaningful and do what you say you're going to do there. Okay? Number ten, be resilient.

And this is a difficult one because we want to see growth fast in society. We now have literally everything at our fingertips. If we want to research sorry, could you say that again? Oops, that's siri. If we want to research blue whales, we no longer have to go to the library and get a book and read about blue whales, although we can.

All we have to do is search in Google and it's right at our fingertips. But the difference is your podcast is not going to grow overnight. And it can be frustrating because you're doing all the things, you have amazing content, you put so much effort into your editing and all the things and it's not growing as fast as you want it to. Remember, big beautiful trees take years to grow and then they provide shade and they provide a relaxing place for people to go and sit under and enjoy the day. That's what you want your podcast to be.

You want your podcast to grow. But it's going to take time. Realistically, I know I talked about this earlier a little bit, but your podcast will take time to grow. It's a marathon, it's not a sprint. And the sooner you realize that, I think it just becomes easier to digest and create and not always have this thing over your head like, oh, well, I don't have 1000 followers yet on my podcast, or I don't have that many subscribers yet on my podcast.

Keep doing your thing, keep showing up. Because, think about it, do you think that when the crickets start making noise at night, do you think they all sit around asking themselves, does anybody care about the noise that we're making? Do you think people are listening to us crickets out here making noise? No, I doubt that they sit around talking about that. They literally just make noise.

And I'm not saying for you to just go out and make noise. What I'm trying to say is just do your thing, be consistent, offer robust content, offer content that is meaningful and that's going to make an impact and people will start showing up. All right, number eleven, what can you offer your listeners now? Again, this goes back to if you are offering a product, a service, maybe you have a course, maybe you're a coach, I don't know, maybe you do consulting services, whatever it is. Is there something that you can offer your listeners on the back end of your podcast?

Meaning your podcast is talking about maybe what you do in your job, or maybe this is a side hustle that you're talking about. Okay, whatever it is. But is there something that you can offer your listeners? Because after a while, whatever it is that you're talking about, your listeners might wonder if there's something that more that you offer that you can help them with. And that's why I'm asking you.

Do you have a product service, a course, a coaching program, something that you can help others with while you are doing your show? Okay, number twelve, use card stock for your notes or an iPad so you can just kind of skim through it and people will not hear your papers shuffling. When I first started, I had my papers and I would like shuffle them and it just wasn't working. So now if you could see my podcasting space, I have some papers that are taped to in front of me on the wall. I also have my notes on cardstock.

So hopefully you have not heard any paper shuffling. And it might sound really old school, but it totally works for me because as a former teacher, I love notes and I can just look at something, I know exactly what I need to say on it. It's only a few sentences, but it's just a reminder for me. But at least with cardstock you don't hear that it's a thicker paper and you can fit more on it. I guess you could say note cards you could also use, but note cards you're going to be shuffling, whereas I can fit a lot on three harder pieces of the cardboard paper and it's good to go.

Okay, number 13, don't wait any longer than what you have. I don't want to see someone wait five years or more to start a podcast because they don't know what their voice sounds like or they're afraid of hearing their own voice or they don't think that what they're sharing will resonate with other people. Whatever the excuses are, whatever the excuses are, don't keep listening to them anymore. And another word to the whys don't record with an Apple Watch on? Because my Apple Watch has gone off twice because it thinks that I'm asking it to research things and I am not asking it to research anything.

So that is not on my notes. But I'm going to put it in there now because it's gone off twice and boo on me for leaving it on my arm. I should know better, especially when you're interviewing people. I've had this happen where I'm interviewing people and I guess I'm asking like a research based question and my watch will go off and they're like, what's that? And I'm like, oh, it's my watch.

It thinks I'm asking it to research something for me. Those are the things that I wish that I would have done, or at least I wish I would have been aware of going into my podcast. And yes, it's been a slow growth, but I've learned so much about podcasting in this time. And are my numbers where I wish they would be? Well, probably not, but it's okay because all of the other things that I've learned to now propel me forward, it's just going to be that much faster.

And you listening to this, if you haven't started your podcast, you're going to be so far ahead of where I started that, yeah, you're going to have a big learning curve ahead of me. But that's not why we're all in this. We're not all in this to be and jump and get ahead of other people. Universally speaking, you are where you are right now because that's where you're supposed to be. But it doesn't mean that you stay stuck there.

There's always a way out and there's always a different and maybe more resourceful way to do the thing that you're doing so that you can be more successful in what you're doing. If you're afraid to get started, please reach out to me. Leave me a message. I will do a zoom call with you. I will help get that nervousness out and really cheer you on because we need more podcasters out there that are speaking from the heart, that are really wanting to convey amazing messages.

And it takes more than what's out there because you have to be resilient. Some people start it and they don't have the ability to keep going because it's a time consuming process. So a few other things that I wanted to share. So that's from just the podcasting. You doing the podcast yourself standpoint now.

I'm going to look at it from the business perspective of what it can do for a business. So maybe you haven't thought about wanting to do a podcast. You're just listening to this out of curiosity if you haven't thought about doing a podcast. Podcasting will also give people a feel for what you do and what you're about and help to create more awareness around your brand or around your platform. And it's a quicker way, I think.

Instead of somebody signing up for a coaching call with you. If they listen to four or five different podcasts with you on it. They can pretty much tell the kind of person you are. How you speak. How you respond to others.

What your platforms speak on. What's important to you. What you like. What you don't like. What are your passions.

What are you like all in on? Those are the types of things that are priceless when it comes to helping you get out there in front of lots of people. And especially if you're going out and you're speaking on other people's podcasts, you're now speaking to their audience, not speaking to them. You're obviously in their listenership, but you're helping put yourself in front of someone else's audience, which you wouldn't normally get the opportunity to do if you weren't on a podcast. So from a growing your brand perspective, I highly recommend you going out there and pitching yourself to be on other people's podcasts and also being on other people's shows helps get your message in front of the same kind of niche of people, but in someone else's ballpark.

Okay? And that's always a plus. Maybe someone that is in the world of business might not need to know, might not normally come to my platform to learn about wellness and meditation and hypnotherapy. But maybe if I'm on a business podcast and I'm talking about helping someone get through a business block using hypnotherapy, they wouldn't normally have heard of that from me because they wouldn't have come to my podcast. They'd only listen to business podcasts.

Do you see the correlation here? So sometimes by you being on other people's platforms, you also create an awareness about what you do in a different niche of people, okay? The exposure is going to be faster than you just doing this, sitting over here in your corner by yourself. And it also gives you the opportunity to network with other people, meet new people, whether it's virtually or in person, and tell them that you have a podcast. If people don't know that you have a podcast, they're not going to know that you have a podcast, especially if you're very shy about saying that you actually have one and it's out there and it's live.

That's it. I think that's all I want to share. I think I gave you a lot to listen to. And there's one more thing that I wanted to share. I'm thinking about doing a part two to this podcast, and that part two is going to be more geared towards you started your podcast and now you're like, okay, I wasn't aware of some of these things.

What am I supposed to do now? And what are some of those things that I'm talking about? Knowing all of the puzzle pieces involved that go with a podcast. It's not just about putting yourself in front of a microphone and speaking, although that is a big part of it. There's lots of work that's involved in having a podcast.

There's also a learning curve that goes with having a podcast. Getting your feet wet in the first 1015 episodes and then you're like, okay, maybe I need to revisit my content. Maybe my content is not I need to edit my content here and look, and maybe I need to be focusing a little bit more on this piece or not on this piece and so forth. So it's kind of revisiting your content path. Is the type of show that you're doing, is it working?

Do you have a content plan? Are you sticking to the amount of time that you're showing up? Are you tech savvy? Are you having a hard time with the time commitment? Have you started doing interviews?

Do you not know where to start to do interviews? How are you promoting your podcast so that people can find you another thing? How are you besides doing the things of showing up on social media? Are you doing anything else to advertise your podcast? How's your social media going?

How are you measuring your growth? Are you getting on other people's shows? Are you focusing on SEO? Has the goal of your show changed? What types of promo things are you doing?

Are you running ads on hosting platforms? And hopefully you're getting used to hearing yourself talk in the microphone. So I know that that was a lot of stuff that I just rattled off. But I feel like that is another podcast. Especially when it comes to all of the little working parts that are behind the scenes in a podcast that I think that's where a lot of the courses don't talk about and even the things that I mentioned today really weren't part of maybe join their group.

But aside from that. There wasn't a lot of these are the things that would be beneficial to you. I hope that you found something useful and that you can implement a couple of things that I gave you in here. These things that I'm doing now, my podcast move a lot smoother. And this is a learn it's a learning curve.

There's things that I learned that I implement that I learned a couple of weeks ago when I started following the podcasting Business school. And that's really made me much more aware of how I am putting myself out there on social media and just creating an awareness around my platform and what I am wanting to put out into the world. Please reach out if you have any questions. I would be more than happy to help you and I hope this is really useful for you. Thank you for listening to the show today.

I really appreciate and value your time. If you think that someone else could use a listen to this, please share. And if you want to make sure you don't miss any upcoming episodes, hit that subscribe button. I hope you have an amazing day. I can't wait to chat with you next week.

Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes, and the choice is all always yours.