In today's episode, I'm sharing my podcasting journey and how I went from newbie to 1000 episodes and why you just need to get started to achieve goals you can't even imagine right now. Let's go!

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Welcome to the Own Your Career podcast.

This is your host, Andy Storch.

And I just realized something interesting.

I knew this was coming.

I've been thinking about this for several weeks.

And I wasn't sure, you know, what the exact numbers were when I was

gonna talk about this and what the lessons were that I wanted to share.

But the, the, the . The topic of today's show is just start because

you don't know where it might go.

And let me tell you where this is coming from, and I know I haven't

published an episode in a while.

Sorry about that.

It's been definitely very busy time with lots of travel, a pending move

and lots of things going on with my business and other podcasts.

But I am committed to continuing to put content here to support

you in owning your career.

That's what this show is all about, owning your career and owning

your life so that you can achieve more, be happier, more fulfilled.

And a lot of times we have dreams, we have hopes, we have things that we're

thinking about that we really want to do.

And we think about them.

We, we kind of keep them in our brains and our hearts.

Maybe we talk to some friends about it.

I'd really like to do this one day.

Maybe we talk about it, maybe we don't.

A lot of times, unless we sit down and make a plan doesn't really happen because

a goal without a plan, as we know, I've talked about this in the past, a goal

without a plan is really just a wish.

And sometimes that goal is even smaller than what it really

could be if you just got started.

So let me tell you what the impetus or the inspiration for this episode

today is what I've been thinking about.

. I started podcasting for the first time in 2017, and I think I've

shared some of this story before.

I definitely, when I did a recap recently on the 400th, or just past the 400th

episode of the Talent Development Think Tank podcast, my other show I started

podcasting in 2017 with this show.

It was originally called the Entrepreneur Hot Seat because I wanted to be an

entrepreneur and I didn't know what to do.

I was reading lots of books and listening to other podcasts.

And I wanted to start something and I wanted to connect

with other entrepreneurs.

And so I started a podcast called The Entrepreneur Hot Seat, and

I started interviewing different entrepreneurs about their businesses.

And I learned a lot during that time about what other people were doing.

And you know, some people kind of putting on a show, some people actually

doing really interesting things.

I also connected with some great people and I realized like, oh,

this gives me the opportunity.

To connect with people, to build relationships and to learn things,

and also put out content to build my own brand while I'm doing it.

And when I first started it, I had zero self-confidence in my own ability

to share content and knowledge.

I thought like, oh, it would be nice, you know, I hear all these experts and people

on other podcasts, like, I would love to be a guest on other podcasts one day.

I don't know if I have that much to say, you know, what, that could look like.

But let me interview other people.

And so it was probably 50 plus, maybe more, I should look it up, how many

episodes it was before I ever did a solo show like this where I just

talked and I didn't have anybody else to interview to rely on, right?

It was just me and I had to build my self-confidence during that time, I

also had to build my knowledge, right?

I didn't know that much about entrepreneurship as I'm doing

a show on entrepreneurship.

But I learned a lot and that set me on a path.

To not only starting and running my own business, which I've been doing

successfully for the last few years, but also realizing the power of this mode

or model modal of podcasting, right?

This media medium, I.

So many different words I'm trying to fit in here, this medium of

podcasting and what it can do, right?

And this is not a show just about podcasting.

This story is about podcasting because that show the Entrepreneur Hot Seat gave

me the confidence to go start a second show, which at the time was called the

Talent Development Hot Seat in 2018.

And that grew and turned into a conference and a membership community

and a whole business that I run.

And the show is now called the Talent Development Think Tank Podcast.

That show has recently hit I think it's at 418 episodes, or it's gonna be a four 20.

Very, very soon.

I've actually recorded a few more that haven't published yet.

This show changed from the own Your Career show to the Andy Storz show.

I think also in 2018, maybe after I hit a hundred episodes in the show and I

realized like there's more that I want to talk about besides entrepreneurship.

I wanna talk about personal development and fitness and all these things.

And so I changed to the Andy Store Show.

I wanted to do more solo episodes like this, but I still continue to do a lot

of interviews and that lasted for a couple years until I published my book.

Own your career, own your life in November of 2020.

And I thought it'd be good to create some type of companion podcast to the book.

And so I changed the name of this podcast again to the Own Your Career

Show and the Own Your career show has been running since November, 2020.

Not entirely, consistently like the other show.

But it's still going, right?

I haven't published in a month or so, but this is out.

It's still going.

And in fact, if I look back,

At these collection of shows putting my glasses on here,

the Entrepreneur Hot Seat.

I published 100 episodes.

The Andy Storch show, roughly 131 episodes, I believe this show, 124, I

think this is the hundred 24th episode.

The talent development hot seat slash think tank.

I mentioned over 400, 420 episodes roughly.

I also started a third show called My N F T Journey.

Some of you may remember that.

To kind of share my journey through the N F T world buying and investing in NFTs.

That did not work out too well because the market kind of collapsed in 2022.

I lost a lot of money.

I also lost a lot of interest in it as I started to focus more

on my business and other things.

And so I'm not running that show anymore.

But there were 79 episodes there, and I may do another one soon.

Just kind of talking about how I'm like, sort of exiting that space.

And then I also mentioned that, you know, I thought when I started this

journey, . Seven years ago, six years ago, that it'd be really cool if I

could be a guest on other podcasts.

And that has absolutely come true.

I haven't at sometimes I sought it out.

Most of the time I haven't, but I went back and looked and I, I

can't find them all 'cause I'm not very good at keeping records.

But I think I've been on a guest on about 150 other.

Podcast so far and, and, and people reach out from time to time.

And if you have a podcast, you're listening, you wanna have me as a guest

feel free to reach out, let me know.

There's some that are really, really good fit and some that I still decline

because it's just not a good fit and I have a lot of stuff going on.

Same with having people on my show.

I'm very particular now about who comes on my talent development show

and this show I have transitioned to making only a purely solo podcast.

I rarely do interviews on here.

As you, you may know if you listen, I've been focused on creating content from

the book and then sharing inspiration and stuff from my life and my career.

Anyway, if you add all of those numbers up, We are now over 1000 episodes.

So think about this, and then I'm gonna give you the lesson.

And the reason why I'm telling you this is not just to brag.

I started podcasting in 2017, had no idea what I was doing.

I luckily did have some friends who were podcasters already like Nick

DiNardo and Larry Hagner, who are both mentors of mine during that time.

And still to this day.

Good friends and they helped me and other people I connected with who helped me.

And I had no idea where it was gonna go.

I knew that I wanted to do something to build a brand, to share

content, to get things out there and to learn myself and to grow.

And I figured, okay, let me try this and, and see what happens.

And now, I have been six years later, I, my voice has been heard on over 1000

podcast episodes, including this one.

Like, think about that.

That's pretty incredible.

And you know, it's not like I've ever turned in any kind of sensation.

None of my podcasts have ever blown up and become incredibly popular.

I.

With, you know, millions of downloads or even tens of thousands of downloads,

they've all been like mild successes.

But the thing that they've given me is a, a voice, right?

A way to get my voice out there and talk to people.

A way to build my brand.

Really a way to connect and build relationships with lots

of great people because I.

Of those thousand episodes, I would guess that maybe a hundred of them were

solo shows like this, and the other 900 were conversations with other people.

So think about that.

I've had over 900 recorded conversations with different people on different topics.

Mostly entrepreneurship, talent development, career development,

NFTs, and a few other topics, personal development, et cetera.

You name it.

And it's allowed me to become more versed on so many different things and to learn

a lot from other people and to build my experience and my confidence and my

speaking voice, right, and be able to speak more eloquently on different things.

And you can be the judge on how eloquently I speak.

But I'm very confident to get on a mic, especially on somebody else's

show without any preparation to talk about anything, especially content

from my book, which I know from heart.

I also now get booked for a lot of keynote . Talks, right?

Just this week I had two paid keynote features where people paid me a lot of

money to speak into a mic to other people.

And they were both virtual by the way, doing almost what I'm doing

right now, except with an audience.

But I couldn't see them at least for the first one because it was webinar style

that were 960 people on, and I got paid a lot of money for that just to talk.

Like I started doing with podcasting years ago, and it all started with the

first podcast and then the second podcast.

And then as I talked to more people and was doing all the work I was

doing, I realized I had the, I think the knowledge and experience

to maybe teach and help others, and that maybe I could write a book.

I've been, I've been listening to podcasts about people publishing books

and thought maybe I can do that too.

And I went and learned how to do that and you know, I had the

idea, I put down the outline.

I just started writing one day.

And eventually that turned into a book I published.

And right now I'm writing my second book.

And the lesson I want you to take from all of this is that when you have that

idea in your head, that thing that you really want to achieve, the first

thing you gotta do is put down a plan.

You know, like, how am I going to make this work?

How am I gonna achieve that big goal that I want to achieve?

But the next thing you need to do is just start.

You've gotta just start, right?

Like you can't wait for things to be perfect.

You can't wait for the stars in the moon to align in the exact right

place for you to be able to start your podcast or start writing that blog or

post your first post on LinkedIn, or go get that certification or take that

class or reach out to somebody in your network that is doing the job that you

want to be doing or to learn how to.

X, Y, Z, you name it, right?

Lots of things.

Take on a new kind of project.

Make that move from marketing into HR or talent development, whatever it

is, you've gotta just start, because if, I mean, we all know this, right?

You miss a hundred percent of the shots.

You don't take nothing's gonna happen if you don't take action.

But your first action might be imperfect.

It might be a mistake, it might go nowhere, but the second one,

and then the third one, and then the fourth one, if you keep going.

You just keep going and just keep start.

You, you try something, you learn from it.

You try again.

You learn from it.

With a growth mindset, you never know where it might lead.

Right?

When I started my first podcast in 2017, I had no idea where it was gonna go.

I just knew that I wanted to start something.

And if I'm honest, I did have fantasies of it turning into a really big podcast that.

Would, would attract like huge name guests and that I would

turn that into a business.

And I had advertisers and I would make lots of money and

I'd be coaching other people.

That's what I thought I'd be doing when I started.

And that was my fantasy.

And that did not come true.

None.

Like I said, I've started three different podcasts multiple iterations of this one.

None of 'em have ever been that big, right?

None of 'em have been huge, you know?

Yet, and, and none of them ever independently turned into a

big income generating business.

Right.

I've never had really, I've never had any ads on this podcast.

My other podcast is Talent Development Hot Seat.

Had a sponsor advantage Performance Group for the first three

years, I think until a year ago.

They stopped.

And then I built the membership community around it.

But I never had a business around a podcast or direct income from it.

So I didn't achieve that original goal or fantasy.

In fact, at that time I thought I wanted to get into coaching.

In fact, I went and got certified.

I went through a program called Performance Coach University, run by

Jar Robbins and Amanda Robbins who are good friends now to this day.

And I learned a lot in that program.

And I started doing some coaching.

And what I realized, This is a great lesson for all of you that are, you

know, you're doing a job, you have a career and you fantasize about

doing something else, and you think, oh, I really want to do that thing.

Sometimes you just gotta go try it.

Like, not only learn how to do it, but go try it and see

like . Can I get into coaching?

Can I run my own business?

Can I turn into a writer?

Can I move from marketing to hr?

Will I actually like it?

And you know, when it's a job situation, you may not always have the luxury

of just trying it, but if you work in a large enough organization, can

you take on some projects, right?

To try that thing.

So I tried coaching and you know what I found out?

I, I thought like, I'm gonna love coaching because I love helping other people.

I don't really like it that much.

, I really found out that in a, for a one-on-one coaching arrangement, as

much as I love helping people and I love coaching people in sort of one-off

situations, and maybe I could go back to offering like a quick hit, you know,

one-time coaching experience, I don't really like the recurring one-on-one

coaching, and I don't, honestly, I don't think I'm that good at it.

Like I'm in a one-off.

Trust me.

Like if you were like, look, I wanna start a business.

I wanna start a podcast.

I, I'm trying to figure out how to get things off the ground.

Like, can you sit down with me for half an hour, an hour and, and

you're gonna pay me for that time.

Like, I'm gonna give you all I got and we are going to get you going.

I'm, I'm certainly committed to that and I have a lot of wisdom to bring,

but as like a like an executive coach or something like that, I don't

think it's one of my top skills.

In fact, I have a couple executive coaching clients right now.

And it's going pretty well, but I think they would be better served if they

were working with with other coaches.

I know some executive coaches who are really good, like my friend Masimo

Baku who's become a good friend.

And so I'm being honest, right?

I think actually like part of owning your career is being honest about your

strengths and your weaknesses, even the things that you want to do and recognizing

like, Hey, this is this thing that I really wanted to do, and turns out I don't

like it that much or it's not my strength.

And it's really hard when you're running a business because you don't want to turn

things down, especially in early days.

You wanna take any money you can get.

And so I've been there, I've taken all kinds of stuff, and I've also,

as I've become more successful, been more particular with what I do take

on and the type of work I do, I.

And you know, I've kind of grown with that.

So I learned during the early days that like, maybe coaching is not for me.

And I got into more selling and running workshops and then I

published my book and I decided I wanted to be a keynote speaker.

So like, let me go try that.

I.

And it's taken a couple years, but I've built that up and now, like I've

mentioned, I'm getting paid keynote speaking gigs and I absolutely love it.

I absolutely love it.

I could do, you know, a couple a month easily, maybe one a week

easily, and I think I'd be really happy and I'd make a good living.

Right.

I'm not doing quite that many, but I'm doing quite a few, and

I, and I really do enjoy it.

And so what I discovered for me, I think is I like speaking.

I like the one to many model, not as much, a lot more than the one-on-one, and I love

building personal relationships and having one-on-one conversations with friends.

And I even love coaching friends asking . Challenging questions and giving advice.

Of course, we all love giving advice, right?

But like I said, it turns out the, the coaching arrangement is not for me.

Maybe that is for you.

Maybe that's something you dream of doing one day but you don't know until you,

you start and you try something, right?

So when I like the whole formula that I talk about with owning

your career that's in the book and that I talk about in keynotes.

A lot of it's about setting a vision and making a plan.

And then developing the right mindset and, and taking action on that plan.

But something I don't talk as much about in keynotes and things.

And if you've been to one of my keynotes and you're listening to this now,

like thank you so much for joining.

I, I hope you are taking some things to, to really think about owning your career.

Is that how a chapter in the book about having a bias for action because there's

no shortage of knowledge out there.

You can literally learn how to do anything you want.

It's all accessible, right through books, podcasts online

courses, YouTube, you name it.

Like if you wanna learn something, that information is accessible.

Usually for not that much money, we have unprecedented access to information.

The difference between those who are . Successful in those who are

sitting on the sidelines is action.

It really is the difference maker.

It's someone who says, okay, I learned the basics.

Now I'm gonna go try this.

I'm gonna try this thing and I'm gonna see how it works.

And if it doesn't go well, that's okay.

At least I'll say I tried and I've learned from it.

As I'm recording this, I'm actually using brand new recording

software I've never used before.

And I don't know how it's gonna go.

I mean, it looks like it's working really well.

It's pretty simple.

a friend recommended it.

It's called Squad Cast and it's been around, so it's not

like it's, there's no risk.

But the thing, the point of that is saying like, I'm all about trying new things.

I try new software all the time.

I'm trying new things in my business all the time.

I drive my assistant Stephanie crazy because every week I come with new ideas.

I'm like, let's do this, let's do that.

And she's like, we haven't even finished this other thing.

And so and that's just me.

You may want a, a steadier thing, but I've gotten to know

my strengths and weaknesses.

I know what I like doing.

I like trying new things.

I like building things.

And thank goodness I have Stephanie to help me implement and

operate on a lot of these things.

And I think that there's so much value in developing a growth mindset

so that you are interested in willing in innovating and trying things.

And once you have that vision, that idea of what you want to do, Make a

plan, but just start and recognize that hey, things may not work out

exactly the way you want them to.

You know, I had that fantasy that I was gonna build a big business around the

entrepreneurship podcast and somehow be an entrepreneur coach, which, what the hell?

Like, I had never been an entrepreneur.

I mean, I had done some entrepreneurial things.

Really off and on for many years.

But you know, the idea that I was gonna go be a coach for entrepreneurs,

like I thought maybe I could do it.

I had some confidence in that, but you know, that wasn't to be, that

wasn't, that wasn't it for me.

Now fast forward to 2023.

Not only do I run this membership community, I have started a

mastermind group for entrepreneurs in the talent development HR space.

And if that happens to be, you go check it out.

Our website is t dtt us.

Slash community t dtt us slash community, and there's the info

in there on all of our tiers, including the entrepreneur group.

But it's mind blowing to me to think that in 2017 I was listening to

all these podcasts, reading books.

Dreaming that maybe one day I could be one of those people that's on podcasts

and has his own business that somehow makes money, maybe runs a community

and has a book or something like.

But would that really happen?

Because for most of my life, I think I was the person that like dreamed of

something, but thought, no, that's not really me though, that's for other people.

And then I just started taking action and just trying stuff.

Like I said, I started that first podcast, no idea where it's gonna go.

Started the second podcast, no idea where it's gonna go.

And now fast forward several years later, I still have two podcasts.

I have a book that has sold thousands of copies.

I'm giving keynote talks in global companies all over the world.

I have tons and tons of content out there on the interwebs.

You can go search my name and you'll find more stuff.

And I run a I, I've run two conferences and I run a membership community.

And all of this wouldn't be possible if I didn't just start.

If I didn't just start, so what I ask you to do as I close this out, I don't

want this to be too long, is to think about that dream that you have, that

thing that you're interested in doing.

If it's a different type of job, if it's taking on a new project, if it's

learning new skills, getting certified in something, maybe it's starting a

business or a blog or a podcast like me.

Think about what that is, sit down and, and start to write out a, a,

a short little plan of like, okay, how do I need to make this work?

Maybe you're already working on that.

Maybe share it with somebody else, a, a good friend or a colleague or

a boss, and then just figure out what's the first step, what's the

first next step that I need to take?

And then, then just go do something.

If it's starting a podcast, like go sign up for a podcast media host.

I use Captivate.

There's others like Libson and others out there.

Get the software you need, zoom or squad cast, whatever, schedule that

first interview and just hit record.

Just hit record and see how you feel and maybe publish it and maybe one or

two people will listen your parents.

And that's it.

Like, it's not gonna blow up.

It's not gonna be huge.

And that's okay.

'cause it's just practice.

You know, your first 50 or a hundred are just practice anyway.

Just get started with whatever it is, and then get feedback

and then keep going because you never know where it might lead.

But it won't lead anywhere unless you start.

If you need more guidance and help and inspiration on owning

your career, go grab my book.

It's called Own Your Career.

Own Your Life.

It's available on Amazon, and I also have free resources on my website.

If you go to andy storch.com/career.

Andy storch.com/career.

All the resources are there, as well as the book and any

other information that you need.

And I wanna thank you for listening.

Thanks for tuning in and for making time for this.

I really wish you the best in owning your career, getting started on

something, and I hope to share it with others, share it online, and I

hope to talk to you about it soon.