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Transcript

Building a Podcast While Nobody Claps · Your Mic

• 0:00
  In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt said it is not the critic who counts.
• 0:04
  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
• 0:08
  whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.
• 0:12
  If you host a podcast, especially a small one,
• 0:16
  you are that person in the arena.
• 0:18
  And your critics are not just people.
• 0:21
  They're your own stats.
• 0:26
  Back to Teddy, because this is an all-time fave.
• 0:30
  Teddy gave that man in the arena speech in Paris,
• 0:33
  talking about people who actually do things,
• 0:35
  versus the ones who sit in the stands and sneer.
• 0:38
  In 2025, soon to be 2026,
• 0:41
  those people show up in the Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn comments.
• 0:47
  And they live boring, sad, vapid lives.
• 0:52
  The hero in his story is the one who shows up, gets knocked down, gets back up again,
• 0:58
  and again, and again, and again.
• 1:00
  Knowing he'll never be perfect only daring mighty things.
• 1:06
  Now, your arena isn't Rome.
• 1:08
  It's not even the United States in 1910.
• 1:11
  It's a blank Riverside.fm session.
• 1:14
  It's a thumbnail that might flop and a podcast dashboard
• 1:17
  that doesn't care how much heart you poured into the last episode.
• 1:22
  Here's what that dust and sweat and blood looks like for a podcaster.
• 1:26
  An episode you loved gets 19 plays.
• 1:29
  A guest who doesn't share the link once.
• 1:32
  A YouTube video where the retention graph falls off a cliff at the 45 second mark.
• 1:37
  Friends who say, oh yeah, I keep meetings to listen and never do.
• 1:41
  From the cheap seats, people get to toss comments like,
• 1:44
  is that podcast still a thing?
• 1:46
  Or how about this one?
• 1:48
  How many listeners do you even have?
• 1:51
  Or worse, and I hate this one.
• 1:54
  They say nothing.
• 1:56
  Indifference.
• 1:57
  I hate indifference.
• 2:00
  Paulo Quayla, one of my favorite writers once said that the opposite of love is indifference.
• 2:06
  And for the podcaster who's just now starting out,
• 2:10
  potential listeners just scroll past the show.
• 2:12
  Roosevelt would say,
• 2:14
  those people do not count.
• 2:16
  And here are three ways to stay in the arena
• 2:18
  when the game sucks the life out of you.
• 2:21
  One, define your season.
• 2:24
  Not your forever.
• 2:25
  Roosevelt's arena is about periods of struggle.
• 2:29
  You're not signing a blood oath to podcast until you die.
• 2:32
  So define a season.
• 2:33
  For the next 90 days, your mic publishes two times a week no breaks.
• 2:39
  After that, maybe, just maybe.
• 2:42
  And even then that's a very small maybe.
• 2:44
  I'll sit down and review my plan.
• 2:46
  All right.
• 2:47
  You're not trapped.
• 2:48
  I'm not trapped.
• 2:50
  We, you and I, are committed for defined stretch.
• 2:54
  That alone kills a ton of mental drama.
• 2:57
  Two, shrink the stands right now.
• 3:00
  Your show is vulnerable because every random opinion feels like gospel.
• 3:05
  So pick your inner circle.
• 3:07
  Three to five people whose feedback actually matters.
• 3:11
  A client who listens, a peer who hosts, a friend who will tell you when an episode drags.
• 3:18
  Everyone else,
• 3:20
  background noise.
• 3:21
  The algorithm is not your coach.
• 3:24
  Strangers on LinkedIn are not your board of directors.
• 3:28
  Three, measure courage, not just clicks.
• 3:33
  Ask yourself after each episode.
• 3:36
  Did I say the thing I was a little bit afraid to say?
• 3:39
  Did I tell the truth about this industry or did I play it safe?
• 3:42
  Did I make one person's life easier even if they never DMed me?
• 3:47
  That's daring mighty things.
• 3:50
  A messy, brutally honest, 12-minute solo that helps one founder reframe their show is more
• 3:56
  man in the arena than a safe, forgettable interview that gets 500 plays.
• 4:01
  Roosevelt says the man in the arena at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
• 4:08
  So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory,
• 4:15
  nor defeat.
• 4:17
  That's you with this podcast, your podcast.
• 4:21
  Who knows how long it'll take for you to have chart topping numbers.
• 4:24
  You might pivot formats three more times before you find one that sticks.
• 4:28
  But you will know what it feels like to build something in public to keep talking when the room
• 4:33
  is so, so small that it messes with your psychology to keep sharpening your craft instead of day
• 4:40
  dreaming about someday starting a show.
• 4:44
  So the next time you open your dashboard and feel that little sting of humiliation remember
• 4:51
  that's not proof you're failing, that's proof you're actually in the arena.
• 4:59
  If you want an actual battle plan instead of random swings for the fences,
• 5:03
  email me, Freddie with the why at SpeakPodcasting.com.
• 5:08
  Grab the SpeakPodcasting roadmap that lays out how to aim this thing,
• 5:11
  who you're talking to, what the show sells, and how it grows over time.
• 5:15
  I'd love to hear from you.
• 5:17
  And if you find this episode useful at all, please consider sharing with a friend who's thinking
• 5:22
  about getting into the podcast universe. Thanks for listening.