Today’s entry will be a bit different than I’ve been sharing since I started this journey of building my personal brand. Today, I want to share my podcasting journey with you and provide some insight I’ve learned over the last year and where I’m headed in the near future.
So, I started Shop Talk in 2022. I named it Shop Talk because I am an introvert. I often share that if you caught me at an event or family function, I’d typically be hiding somewhere in the corner, keeping to myself – but catch me in my own element, chatting with an entrepreneur, I can “talk shop” all day long!
As I write this, I am 40 episodes deep into the podcast. It’s been some work to get here, for sure. Starting and maintaining a podcast consistently is no joke.
If you’ve been following my journal entries, you know I am an “A” type personality. I’m an action-taker. Most of the time, being an action-taker serves me well. I get sh*t done. I move quickly. While most are still “thinking things through,” I’m already off to the races. That said, starting my podcast was one of those moments when I wished I had done a little more homework before I started.
Here’s what I learned (so far):
Naming my Podcast
I didn’t give my podcast a good name. I should have chosen a more SEO-friendly name that aligns more with the content I’m delivering and the audience I want to serve if I want to grow it quickly.
There’s a good chance I will be changing the name of the podcast in the future, but I don’t know what that will be, so that I will stick with my current name for now.
My Podcast Goals
In the simplest terms, I want to be the host of a Top 5 Podcast 416 days from now. Honestly, I don’t even know what it takes to achieve that goal, but I’m not getting bogged down by that yet. All I do know is I have to publish more – and consistently. So that’s the first thing I need to master. I’ll revisit more details on what needs to be done in 30 days, or so once I’ve hit the first step.
When it comes to hitting big goals like this, I find that many people get caught up in ALL the steps it takes to achieve the goal. It’s a complete waste of time. I don’t have all the answers, and if I spend the next 3 days trying to uncover all the answers, chances are I’ll find myself overwhelmed and bogged down by the details, so I’ll just do what I can (and should) do – right now.
Growing And Scaling Plan (For Now)
I want to grow my podcast audience quickly, so here’s what I know I need to do:
- Publish a minimum of two podcast episodes a week. One episode will be a solo where I teach/coach/share. One episode will be an interview style.
- If I want my guests to help me grow my show, then I need to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. That means I will provide them with the graphics, social media copy, and email copy they can use to promote the show. This takes a lot of time right now, I need to look for ways to simplify and scale this process.
- I hired someone to help me edit the podcast, but I’m finding that it’s taking too long to get the episodes back. I am looking into AI tools that can help me scale the editing process so I can handle the editing process internally. In a perfect world, I am batching my episodes 4 – 6 weeks in advance, and the time to get the episodes back wouldn’t be a problem, but that’s not the case right now, so I need to have more control until I can record episodes in larger batches.
There are other strategies I need to implement to grow my podcast audience, but for now, consistency in producing two episodes a week is the focus. Once I am able to produce two a week, then I’ll look at other methods for growing.
Preparing For Growth
I’ve outlined roughly 100 solo podcast titles that I can choose from over the next year. For me, it’s easier for me to have a list of topics I can turn to when I batch record my episodes. It seems like if I try to come up with topics “on the fly,” I get inside my head and can’t think of topics. So, I sat down today and spent about 2 hours brain-dumping a bunch of ideas.
Oh, and another note. When I brain-dump my topic ideas, I put them in a Trello board, not a Google doc. I love using Trello because it allows me to create a card for each topic. Then, inside the card, I can link to my Google Docs for my outline, show notes, social post messages, Canva design, etc. Everything related to the episode topic is right inside that one card. In the past, I’d start a Google Folder, and all my assets and content would be all over the place. This helps me organize everything I need all in one place. #OrganizationWin
Once I was done outlining my topics today, I started down the rabbit hole of exploring AI tools to help make my podcast production process easier. I don’t have all the tools I’m going to be using figured out, but once I do, I’ll share them with you. I don’t want to share this with you now because I know how it can be a costly (both time and money) venture to take. I prefer to share once I know which tools are going to work best, and I won’t know that until I use them.
Final Thoughts
Why am I sharing this with you?
First, this is what I worked on today, so I thought I’d share. When I got the idea to share this journey with you, I wanted to show up real and raw in the process of building my personal brand. I don’t want to share 6 or 8 months from now when it’s no longer fresh. You are seeing my personal branding journey unfold daily (minus weekends). I have no plan for what I’ll share with you until the day comes. I think this will provide the most transparency so you can follow along and/or observe “a day in the life” of me building my personal brand.
In this process, I am quickly learning there are so many lessons hidden in these entries. Like today’s entry…
- I shared some mistakes I’ve made and the things I’ve learned.
- I shared what my goals are and my mindset around how to reach those goals.
- I share a simple process that I use to keep myself organized.
- I share the lesson that even though you don’t have all the answers, you still have to keep taking action.
- I shared that it’s ok to pivot later if you need to.
- I shared some tips for growing your own podcast.
And so much more!
I’m pointing this out because I think we as entrepreneurs can fall into the trap of thinking you need to have a complete road map to achieving your goals before you can take action. You don’t. Truth be told, I think the roadmap, at times, can be the thing that overwhelms us to the point that we get stuck. Nothing is permanent. You can change your mind. You can change your direction. But you MUST take action. If you just get on the expressway, you’ll find your way to your destination. You might miss a few exists along the way, but at least you will be closer than if you never got in your car.
