Stop waiting for perfection and launch your podcast now! In this episode, learn why "your first episode is not going to be perfect" and that's completely okay. Drawing from his own journey since 2007, the host shares how his initial geocaching podcast "sounded terrible" but consistency led to improvement and professionalism over time.

Welcome to podcast answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast. That's

right. I help people start and grow their podcast, answering any podcasting questions

along the way. Today I am talking about just starting your podcast, just getting it out

there because you know what, if we have this fear, we're never gonna do it. So that's right.

Today, I've got a couple things going on. I am live streaming like I normally do. I

stream to YouTube, to Facebook, and I also stream live on the new podcast apps. You can

get a new podcast app at newpodcastapps.com. And my favorite one is Castamatic. So I would

suggest using Castamatic because honestly, that is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite

podcast apps.

And and you can listen live as I'm recording the episodes.

If you have a iPhone, which I hope you do, because Apple is great and that's my opinion.

But anyways.

If you have an iPhone, use Castamatic, go ahead and download it, try it out.

You can listen to our show live.

get notified as I go live and as I start doing this podcast.

And it's great.

So you can actually be listening to me right now in your podcast app,

as well as Facebook and YouTube.

And this time, I'm also doing something kind of fun.

I'm doing what I'm calling backstage.

I have a Zoom room going and you can find that at podcast answers dot com

slash backstage, and that'll get you into my what I'm calling backstage,

where you can have direct access to me.

I can actually bring you on the podcast video and audio.

So if you want to do that, podcast answers dot com slash backstage today

will get you on to the show with me.

But so what are we talking about today?

I was chatting with somebody this earlier this week, and I told them

we were talking about just getting started, just getting started,

just getting started.

And they were talking a little bit about, hey, shout out to you, Kim.

They were talking a little bit

and just saying how it's not perfect.

So they want to listen to it and go over and listen to it

and try to get their their talk and the way that they sound perfect.

Well, for me, I was listening and she actually sounded perfect.

She actually heard her with the way she was talking.

The tone was great.

But I told her a little bit of information.

I said, Listen, Kim.

Yes, again, shout out to you, Kim.

I said, Hey,

Your first episode is not going to be perfect.

I have been podcasting since 2007, so I want to talk a little bit

about my podcasting journey, because I don't think I've actually even

mentioned to you on on this show

what my podcasting journey was, how I got started a podcasting and

and how far you know where I've come.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about that and just getting started.

So for me, I was starting podcasting in 2007,

And I was I was into this thing called geocaching high tech scavenger hunt.

It's a great thing to do if you've never done it.

But what it it does is it allows you to

go hide some things and people can find it with their with their GPS.

What what I did, though, is I was listening

and I knew that there was one podcast about that already,

and I was listening to that and I came across this thing called Talkshoe.

Those of you who have been around a long time know about talk show,

you know about how it was.

So essentially what it was is it was a conference bridge.

So think of kind of like Zoom, but it was meant for before Zoom.

You could call up and you could talk to, you know, people on the conference

bridge. And what was cool about about talk show is is they were starting

to get into this podcasting business.

They were starting to get into podcasting and all about it.

And what what they were doing is kind of cool is you could have

essentially a call in show.

You could use talk to you to call in because you could record your podcast on it.

But then you could have them dial this phone number and they could be on the show.

So I decided I was going to start a podcast about geocaching

and I was going to have a call in show

because the other podcasts about geocaching that I knew weren't doing call ins.

They were just doing a recorded podcast.

They were putting it out.

I said, This is perfect.

I'm going to do a call and show kind of like a radio show.

And which is, again, why I'm doing this backstage thing right now.

So you can join me if you want to, because I'm all about people joining.

Now, I started doing that in my office at the time.

I was, you know, help desk somewhere.

And I said, Hey, I'm going to record on my lunch period.

And I did. And it.

Sounded terrible.

I had never really done anything like podcasting before,

and I did some training as far as radio broadcasting goes,

but I'd never really put it into use.

And so I was.

I had some training, but I had never really done it live on air,

except for to the parking lot of the school where I did the broadcast

training at.

And so what what that did for me is it sounded terrible for one,

but it got me going.

So my first episode, it sounded like this.

Thank you for talking about the geocaching.

What is geocaching?

The geocaching is this.

And I was very monotone and it sounded terrible.

And I did the geocaching podcast for several years after that,

and it went through some iterations, I got some co-hosts in there

because at that point, like, that's what helped me

actually produce a decent podcast is having a podcast with like co-host.

Since then, I've done lots of podcasts with co-hosts, but I've also

I've also went ahead and done podcasts without co-hosts.

This this podcast that we're listening or watching right now

is one that I don't have a co-host on.

And so what I realize, though, is this

during this whole process was.

Your first episode is going to sound not great.

your first episode, even if you have done podcasts before

a new podcast, your new episodes are still not going to sound super great.

They may not sound terrible,

but as you go along, you're going to learn skills.

You're going to learn things that help you get behind the mic better

and do a better job podcasting.

And so what that's allowed me to do is to be able to say,

You know, if you wait until your podcast is perfect,

I'm using that in quotes, if you're not watching the video,

if you wait till your podcast is perfect, you're never going to release your podcast.

You just aren't.

If you always wait for the most opportune time,

if you wait till you have the best equipment,

if you wait till you have the best microphone,

you're going to be chasing that that equipment.

You're going to be chasing that perfection.

You're going to be chasing the perfect podcast episode.

and you're never going to release your episode.

So just record it.

Get out there and just record your podcast episode.

Now, again, if you're just joining me

and you want to join my backstage, go to podcast answers dot com slash backstage,

and I'll get you into my Zoom meeting where I have a backstage going on

and where you can chat and interact with me.

But we're talking today a little bit about just getting your podcast

episode out there.

I if you wait to do it, you're never going to be right.

So what I would recommend doing is I would recommend listening to it.

Create your first episode.

Listen to it first.

Get it going.

Listen to it.

See how it sounds.

It may not be perfect, but just get it out there.

You can try if you do record your first episode

and you decide it's not perfect or it's 100% trash recorded again.

No big deal.

But don't don't do 10, 15, 30 takes.

It's never going to be perfect.

And also, this is the same reason why I don't edit my podcasts

for the most part.

For me, I'm a one take kind of person for that reason,

because for one, I don't if something's going to take me a long, long,

long time to do it, I'm going to get tired of it over over time.

So I want to find better ways to do things.

And so for me, I've always done one take type of things.

The sound effects that you're hearing.

These sound effects, podcasts are cool.

Those things I'm putting in to the show as I'm recording.

I'm doing the music as I'm recording.

I'm taking one take.

I hit stop.

I post process a little bit, then I push it out to the Internet.

And the reason for that is, again, because I know

And if I just record and don't go live,

and that's another part of the reason why I go live to

to allow you to hear the raw episode,

because I know that if I know someone's listening, someone's watching,

I'm going to actually do a better job at it

because I'm going to know that I really am putting out a product right away.

Like I started nine minutes and 52 seconds ago and.

I know that that my product is going to be good

because I know that I have people listening to this episode.

And so whatever it comes out as if it's if it if it if I flub up,

I flub up, you know, I'm real, you know, I'm you know, I'm not some robot,

some AI guy.

And also, I do it live because that allows me

to have a little bit of pressure behind me, I've tried to record voiceovers,

I've tried to record things where I'm not going alive.

And if I don't go into it with the perception of I'm hitting record

when I'm done, I'm stopping.

I always mess up.

I say something wrong, I trip over my words, I restart,

and I do like 50 takes and that gets really annoying.

So for me, I'm a one take type of person.

I leave my podcast recorder started and I record all the things

as I'm doing it, and then I'm done in a post process just a little bit and post it.

So that way I can get the podcast episode out really quick.

But as well as also, I also know that it's not going to be perfect,

but it helps me be a little bit more perfect in the way that I record

because I know that I have to be because I'm delivering it live.

Essentially, people could be watching.

Delivering it live.

So with that said, record your first episode, get it out there.

It's not going to be perfect, and that's OK.

You're going to get better as you go along.

You're going to get better as you have 10 episodes under your belt.

20 episodes, 200 episodes, 2000 episodes.

You're going to sound way better and more professional

the more you do it when you just start out.

You're just learning how to do this as a hobby.

You're just learning.

Give yourself grace.

Get out there and just do it.

Guys, that is what we do. If you need help podcasting, I would love to help you.

Go ahead and hit podcastanswers.com/contact. I do one-on-one consulting and help you do your

podcast all the way from consulting on how to do it to actually helping you do a remote recording

and podcast editing and production. That's me. That's what I do.

And so I would love to help you with that. Again, that's podcastanswers.com/contact.

We can do a one-on-one consultant and you can hire me to do anything you want for this for your

podcast. Also, guys, if you feel like you've gotten any value out of this podcast, I would

love that you'd return it to me. Go to podcastanswers.com/buymeacoffee and donate back to the show.

Thanks. Have a great week and keep podcasting.