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Transcript

You Can Do Everything Right and Still Lose · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Every season had the same script. The client jets wreck shop all year win after win after win after win
• 0:09
  parents talking dynasty in the bleachers me and my friends walking into school in jerseys like
• 0:15
  tiny gladiators then the peewee super bowl hits and the spring raiders show up and suddenly
• 0:23
  it doesn't matter what happened in september october and november we're back on the field
• 0:29
  staring at the same helmets the same colors and the same sick feeling in our stomachs four seasons
• 0:38
  same ending
• 0:44
  this is your mic my name is Freddy Cruz and today is not a motivational poster
• 0:50
  today is about the sick ugly truth you can do almost everything right
• 0:57
  and still lose when it counts and that has to be okay or you're not built for this
• 1:06
  now if you can't picture this me as a client jets player sweating through
• 1:10
  august practices and if you know anything about august in the houston area it is hell on earth
• 1:16
  quite literally we're learning the plays run the drills listening to coaches getting hit dropping
• 1:22
  and giving coach to me as 25 pushups it worked week after week we dominated as impressionable young
• 1:30
  boys we started to believe this is just how the world works you show up you work hard you execute
• 1:36
  and you win and not only do you win you literally kick everybody's ass then the raiders walk in
• 1:46
  and the gridiron gods declare not today boys not today and here's why this matters for your podcast
• 1:53
  most of the content shoved in your face will say this hustle hard enough and you'll always win
• 2:01
  prepare enough and you'll never fail control every variable in the outcome is guaranteed
• 2:08
  that's cute it's also a lie you can do all the research you can write the perfect questions you
• 2:15
  can confirm with your guess three times that they'll be on you can test your mic test your internet
• 2:21
  test your backup and then internet goes out guess gets sick 10 minutes before you're supposed to
• 2:26
  start the interview or worse you record everything and you just choke you talk too much you forget
• 2:34
  the follow up that would have cracked them open you fumbled the hook the spring raiders of podcasting
• 2:39
  win again so what do you do with that when you're 10 standing on a field with confetti falling for
• 2:47
  the other team for the fourth year in a row you learn a brutal math effort does not equal guarantee
• 2:55
  preparation does not equal entitlement and yet my friends and I went back for more season after season
• 3:03
  after season nobody sat you down at that age and said listen king if you visualize hard enough you'll
• 3:10
  never lose after all this was in the 80s okay it was more like get your s up give me five laps
• 3:16
  around the field and don't you dare stop you did not keep playing because you were guaranteed a trophy
• 3:23
  those were cool you kept playing because you were a football player see the difference in podcasting
• 3:32
  most people secretly believe they're owed wins I put in the hours why isn't this show bigger
• 3:40
  I prepped so hard for that interview why did it flop I released weekly for a year why didn't the
• 3:48
  charts kiss my ring that last one that's kind of sort of me talking to me I worked in terrestrial
• 3:55
  radio for more than 25 years and let me tell you when I launched my first show Freddy's huge
• 4:00
  ask podcast I had less than 800 downloads over the span of about 10 months and that was a serious
• 4:09
  gut punch coming from a guy who worked for Marconia award winning radio station with a million weekly
• 4:15
  listeners it hurt but there's a spring raiders built into every meaningful game because every
• 4:26
  meaningful pursuit has some combination of bad timing structural disadvantage stronger competitors
• 4:33
  and the unrelenting cruelty of the real world and if you want to mitigate the impact of all that
• 4:40
  is uncontrollable download the official speak podcasting roadmap for essential tips tricks and
• 4:46
  tools that'll help you level up your podcast it's free for you speak podcasting dot com slash
• 4:53
  free resources that is spke ke podcasting dot com slash free resources
• 5:01
  now any football coach will tell you you can have a great culture and development and still lose
• 5:10
  championships and you can have a terrible culture and float your way to a trophy if the talent lines
• 5:16
  up same with podcasts so what are your choices option a you only play for guaranteed to win
• 5:23
  for option b you play because playing is who you are you're built for the journey let's break
• 5:30
  this down for your show because this can't just be therapy all right there's spring raiders
• 5:35
  that you can absolutely positively never control your podcast hosting site goes down for no reason
• 5:41
  that's happening to me your guests PR pulls them 24 hours before your interview that's happened to
• 5:45
  me your internet dies mid interview and the recording is corrupted been there done that and I've
• 5:51
  got more than a few shirts all right but there are systems you can control and losing those games
• 5:59
  should force you to get ruthless your pee we football version is that maybe you keep losing in
• 6:05
  the fourth quarter conditioning becomes non negotiable you keep getting burned on the same play
• 6:10
  you change your scheme the podcast version is you keep getting wrecked by cancellations
• 6:18
  stay six to eight episodes ahead so one flake out doesn't kill your entire feet
• 6:23
  maybe you keep getting crushed by power outages you think about backup batteries mobile recorders
• 6:29
  or you adjust your recording schedule maybe you're in a podcast studio you keep blowing interviews
• 6:36
  because nerve spike you practice solo you rehearse your first five minutes you stack reps and
• 6:41
  lower stakes conversations you lay off the caffeine right before an interview trust me that last
• 6:46
  one does work but even with all that sometimes you still lose the big one you're gonna have an
• 6:53
  episode you swore would explode and it lands like a wet sock been there done that you'll have a
• 6:58
  dream guest who turns out to be boring on the mic been there done that you're gonna have a season
• 7:03
  where you pour more heart into the show than ever and the numbers barely move that was the second
• 7:10
  season of cruise through htx mother podcast and that is your pee we super bowl the question is
• 7:17
  not how do I prevent this again the real question is who am I now that this has happened are you a
• 7:26
  podcaster only when your show is quote unquote winning or are you a podcaster like I was a 10-year-old
• 7:34
  pee we football player because that was what your body did on Saturdays here's something you probably
• 7:42
  haven't done you probably actually you certainly have not named your spring Raiders in podcasting
• 7:52
  terms that's going to be a type of episode that always underperforms but you keep making it because
• 7:57
  you love it it could be a recurring tech problem because you're an entrepreneur you got better things
• 8:03
  to do than figure out podcasting tech so you just hope that the problem goes away maybe it's a blind
• 8:10
  spot like asking weak follow ups that cost you every time the stakes are high name the problem then
• 8:16
  decide am I going to adjust my game plan around this am I going to train to beat it or am I going
• 8:23
  to accept that sometimes in this matchup I might still lose and that's okay because here's the
• 8:28
  hidden win from those pee we years you learn to separate preparation from control you prepare
• 8:37
  because it's your job you control what you can because you're not a victim but you do not confuse
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  that with a cosmic contract that says if I do all this you owe me a win okay so here's your challenge
• 8:55
  write down your last three proverbial super bowl losses as a host interviews that went sideways
• 9:01
  episodes that tanked opportunities that fell apart for each one of those losses ask yourself
• 9:08
  what was my spring Raiders here what could I actually control what was just the game being the game
• 9:15
  build one new system that your episodes backup power or recording plan yes that includes
• 9:22
  running a studio maybe it's a pre interview checklist and then emotionally you do the hardest thing
• 9:28
  you accept that you can do almost everything right and still lose and you hit record anyway
• 9:37
  and if you're an entrepreneur you know this that's the beauty of entrepreneurship and podcasting
• 9:44
  is essentially an extension of your brand it's another business and that real flex is not being
• 9:49
  undefeated you know this sometimes you like the else because it teaches you more the real flex
• 9:56
  is suiting up every season even when you know the spring Raiders might be waiting for you at the
• 10:01
  super bowl hey look if you got any use from this please consider sharing with the podcast host in
• 10:06
  your life who needs to hear it and don't forget to grab the speak podcasting roadmap at speakpodcasting.com
• 10:13
  slash free resources that is speak spke podcasting.com slash free resources