Evo Terra:
Ask a dozen podcasters to define success
Evo Terra:
and you'll get a dozen answers.
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But I think they all have a common thread, a thread available to every podcaster
Evo Terra:
that, when pulled, keeps them in the game.
Evo Terra:
Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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Weird question, are you watching Ted Lasso?
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I know this is a show about podcasting, but I'm rewatching Ted Lasso.
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I watched it originally.
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I'm on round two now.
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And let me tell you, it is every bit as good the second time around.
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If you haven't tried out Ted Lasso, it's on Apple TV, you should
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totally get a copy of Ted Lasso.
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It's amazing.
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And there's a line in the series where Ted tells a reporter something that
Evo Terra:
sounds really dumb to say to a reporter.
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He says that success for him as a coach or a manager, isn't about wins or losses.
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And of course there's more to that story.
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So what I want to do today is take that same idea, not being about wins and
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losses, not being about success, at least that's not how we define success.
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I want to refactor that to have a little bit of a chat about podcasting
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that I think might help you.
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Because to me, success as a podcaster isn't about having a big podcast.
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It's about being proud - proud of you as a podcaster and your podcast itself.
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So my question to you today is are you proud of yourself as a podcaster and
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are you proud of the podcast you have?
Evo Terra:
Now, by the way, for my religious friends out there,
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screw the deadly sin crap, okay?
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Ignore that for a minute.
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Deal with that Sunday.
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Right now, you're making content.
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You're putting out content into the world.
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You're putting yourself into the world.
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And as much as I avoid the word "should" in my vocabulary, listen, you should
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be proud of the work that you do.
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And if you're not proud of what you're doing right now as a podcaster, you
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should be - yes, there I go again - you should be working on that pride.
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You should be working on the things you are doing so that you can make yourself
Evo Terra:
proud of them at some time in the future.
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Pride is a, it's a tricky thing.
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It's an overused word, I think honestly.
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I mean, we're supposed to be proud of the States we were born in
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or the country we were born in.
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I had no control over that.
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But we can take control over the pride we have in ourselves as podcasters
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and of the podcasts we produce.
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That's something we have control over.
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That's really all I'm trying to say to you today.
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You know, with all the churn, uncertainty, doubt we're seeing
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right now in podcasting, which we can't control, what we can control,
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what we should - there's that word again - control is the pride we have.
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The making of content so that we are proud of the work that we are doing and the
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work that we're going to do in the future.
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And listen, does pride equal money?
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No.
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Look, money is going to flow into podcasting the way money
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flows into podcasting, but I implore you, if possible, do not
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let that define success for you.
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Same thing for attention, audience size.
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Look, attention is always, I'm sorry to say this, but attention is always
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going to be disproportionately allocated to big podcasters who
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say oftentimes ignorant things.
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And yeah, that's unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do about that.
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We can't control that.
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What we can control is how proud we are of the shows we make, the efforts
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we put into making those podcasts and those episodes and how that effort
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changes us as people, even when we're not sitting behind a microphone.
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Never forget that.
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Never forget that.
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We should be able to take control of the pride we feel in ourselves as
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podcasters, even outside of podcasting.
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Thanks for that, Ted.
Evo Terra:
Now, if you know a podcaster who needs to be reminded of this, please forward
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this to them because I think, time to time, we all need reminding of this.
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And if you wish to show me your appreciation for reminding
Evo Terra:
you of this, again, please go to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra.
Evo Terra:
That's it.
Evo Terra:
I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
