Latest / Abbey the Podcast Lady / Why You're Too Scared to Start Your Podcast (And Why That's Normal)

Transcript

Why You're Too Scared to Start Your Podcast (And Why That's Normal) · Abbey the Podcast Lady

• 0:04
  We're not doing a podcast today. We're doing
• 0:06
  a doc cast today because I am on what I can only
• 0:11
  refer to as a small business owner vacation,
• 0:13
  which basically means instead of working from
• 0:16
  my normal places, I'm just working at the lake,
• 0:18
  which honestly does work out a little bit better
• 0:20
  in my life because the internet at my parents'
• 0:23
  lake spot. is way better than what I have in
• 0:26
  downtown St. Cloud and at my home. So you know
• 0:28
  what? Vacation is pretty dang sweet. But I needed
• 0:31
  to record a show, and I really wanted to talk
• 0:34
  about starting your podcast. And I know that's
• 0:36
  kind of the whole premises of this show, but
• 0:38
  I feel like we need to get into... why people
• 0:41
  are so scared to start because I feel like that's
• 0:43
  been something that I keep running into lately
• 0:45
  with people. They reach out to me and then they
• 0:47
  want to start their show, but they're just so
• 0:49
  scared to put themselves out there. And I know
• 0:52
  I kind of touched on this last week of how there's
• 0:55
  so many people consuming content and not a lot
• 0:57
  of people making the content, but I just want
• 0:59
  to talk about the mindset of podcasting and starting
• 1:02
  even when you feel like you're not ready because
• 1:04
  it's just so important to get the ball rolling.
• 1:07
  When I first started my first podcast, podcast,
• 1:10
  the small town tourist. I don't know if I was
• 1:12
  nervous because I kind of did this for a long
• 1:15
  time with being a radio DJ. But I didn't know
• 1:18
  what I was doing. And that's so hard. Like when
• 1:20
  you start something, you don't know what you're
• 1:21
  doing and you don't have the confidence and the
• 1:23
  skill set. That's a really hard thing to get
• 1:25
  over. And it's something I don't know if you
• 1:27
  ever truly do get over because I still find myself
• 1:29
  floundering sometimes trying to put out fires.
• 1:32
  I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. And then
• 1:33
  the fire gets put out and I realize, oh, wait,
• 1:35
  I do know what I'm doing. I just need to slip
• 1:37
  out of panic mode. So I just want to chit chat
• 1:40
  about having the confidence to go for it, even
• 1:42
  when you have zero confidence at all, because
• 1:44
  I think it really isn't. important to take the
• 1:47
  leap because you never know unless you try. So
• 1:50
  an example of starting the podcast, not feeling
• 1:53
  like you're ready. I worked with Lindsay Salzberg
• 1:55
  and she owns White Peony Boutique in St. Joe,
• 1:58
  Minnesota. And we started recording for her show
• 2:01
  January of last year. And we recorded for, we
• 2:06
  started in January. I don't think we launched
• 2:07
  until end of April. So we recorded for like four
• 2:10
  months. We just kept recording, kept batching
• 2:12
  content, kept kicking the can down the road on
• 2:14
  officially launching. the show because Lindsay
• 2:16
  didn't feel like she was ready and that's fine.
• 2:18
  She luckily stuck with it long enough to actually
• 2:21
  get the show out. I feel like there's a lot of
• 2:23
  people who would have given up because they don't
• 2:25
  feel ready and they would have stopped recording
• 2:26
  altogether but she kept showing up for recordings,
• 2:29
  she kept booking guests, she kept recording and
• 2:31
  she was nervous. Lindsay was so nervous and I
• 2:33
  look back now and I'm like she was so good and
• 2:35
  so ready but she just didn't have that confidence
• 2:37
  in herself to launch the show and luckily I was
• 2:39
  there to kind of help guide her and push her
• 2:41
  off the cliff of doing it but she was so nervous
• 2:45
  to get going and when she launched everyone was
• 2:48
  just so excited and they were craving this content
• 2:50
  from her and they were craving her leadership
• 2:52
  advice and without that little kick in the pants
• 2:55
  people would have never gotten that from her
• 2:56
  and it's just so important to finally like take
• 2:59
  that leap of faith and know that you can do it
• 3:01
  messy and people are still gonna love it like
• 3:03
  people are not expecting perfection from the
• 3:06
  first of anything think about going to a new
• 3:08
  restaurant it's day one this restaurant just
• 3:10
  opened you don't walk in there and expect everything
• 3:13
  is gonna be going great. You're going to get
• 3:15
  five -star service. Your food's going to be perfect.
• 3:17
  Your drinks are going to be cold and on time
• 3:19
  and correct. No, you're not expecting that. You're
• 3:21
  walking into the restaurant because you see this
• 3:22
  new business in your town and you want to go
• 3:24
  support them and help them get off the ground.
• 3:26
  Their service is probably going to be top tier
• 3:28
  within the next month. But for the first day,
• 3:30
  first week, you're still figuring out all the
• 3:32
  kinks. You're still figuring out where the forks
• 3:34
  are at in the back of the kitchen, you know?
• 3:35
  So no one is expecting perfection. So when you
• 3:37
  put out your first podcast, the people who love
• 3:40
  you and respect you and the audience you've already
• 3:42
  curated, They're not expecting it to be absolutely
• 3:44
  perfect. They're expecting some stutters. They're
• 3:46
  expecting maybe a little bit of robotic speech,
• 3:49
  like you're reading off of something. They just
• 3:51
  are wanting more from you. So give them that
• 3:53
  more and you're going to get better as you go.
• 3:56
  No one is perfect at anything right off the rip.
• 3:58
  I mean, think back to when you were a kid and
• 4:00
  you tried a new sport. Personal story. I was
• 4:02
  a golfer. I was in high school golf. That was
• 4:05
  my spring sport. And I was a pretty casual golfer
• 4:08
  my whole life. I had always done like summer
• 4:10
  rec league. My family did big golf. tournaments.
• 4:12
  We always played scramble. I knew the rules,
• 4:15
  but very loosely. And I didn't have a coach that
• 4:17
  was like teaching us the rules of golf. They
• 4:19
  pretty much sent us to the driving range every
• 4:21
  day at practice and that was it. So my first
• 4:24
  golf tournament, it was horrible. It was so bad.
• 4:27
  It was like a 10 stroke maximum on every hole.
• 4:30
  And because I didn't totally understand the rules
• 4:32
  of the game, I just automatically took 10 strokes
• 4:34
  on every hole. I'm like, just get me through
• 4:36
  this and maybe I'll never show up again, but
• 4:39
  I just need to get through this. It was miserable.
• 4:41
  hated it. I had like the worst score out of everyone
• 4:44
  there because I just took the maximum on every
• 4:46
  hole but it was a learning experience. No one
• 4:49
  was expecting me to go out there and win my first
• 4:52
  tournament right out of the gate. They were just
• 4:54
  happy that I was there on the team participating
• 4:56
  and they knew I was going to get better. I was
• 4:58
  just this 13 year old girl with a golf bag of
• 5:00
  used clubs and wanted to be on the team. But
• 5:04
  I got better eventually and I ended up getting
• 5:06
  some pretty decent scores in high school. I'm
• 5:08
  great in a scramble golfer today, but no one's
• 5:10
  expecting you to be perfect right from the very
• 5:12
  beginning. So when you start your podcast, start
• 5:14
  messy, but just start. That's the biggest thing
• 5:17
  is just crossing that hurdle of starting because
• 5:19
  if you don't do it, you'll never know what could
• 5:21
  possibly come from it. If I would have never
• 5:23
  started my podcast, I would have never gotten
• 5:25
  to the point now where I'm self -employed making
• 5:27
  podcasts for people all around the world. I would
• 5:29
  have never gotten the opportunity to be the lead
• 5:32
  of social media for Vic. East Camp and Country
• 5:34
  Jam, I would have never met some really amazing
• 5:36
  people that I now get to call friends and colleagues
• 5:39
  in my life. So you got to be brave enough to
• 5:42
  start and it's such a hard hurdle to get over.
• 5:44
  And I wish I had better advice for you on doing
• 5:46
  it other than just do it. Do it messy and just
• 5:49
  get it out there because you are going to eventually
• 5:51
  look back on that first episode and hate it.
• 5:54
  Like if you made me go listen to my first episode
• 5:56
  of any of the shows I've created, I wouldn't.
• 5:58
  I straight up wouldn't. I just would not go and
• 6:01
  listen to those episodes because I No, I've improved
• 6:03
  since then. And you're going to improve every
• 6:05
  single time. Great example of this. I'm working
• 6:07
  with clients right now. They haven't even launched
• 6:09
  their show yet. We've actually only had three
• 6:11
  recording sessions. So we're getting everything
• 6:13
  kind of squared away and ready to go. But by
• 6:15
  the time their second session rolled around,
• 6:17
  they had texted me and said, hey, Abby, we're
• 6:19
  already more confident. We're already feeling
• 6:22
  better about how we're doing this. Can we rerecord
• 6:24
  our trailer? Can we redo that before it even
• 6:26
  goes out into the world? And I said, yes. And
• 6:28
  isn't this what I told you? I told you guys that
• 6:30
  the first one's going to be close. and you're
• 6:32
  going to feel weird about it and you're going
• 6:33
  to hate it and you're going to want to redo it.
• 6:35
  And they already have flipped that switch and
• 6:37
  realized that they've gotten better at it. They're
• 6:39
  more comfortable in what they're doing. It's
• 6:41
  not as foreign. It doesn't feel as weird and
• 6:43
  awkward. They've already made that change. And
• 6:45
  that's before we've even launched. Sneak information
• 6:47
  here. Their podcast is coming out on July 29th.
• 6:50
  It's called the Love, Truth, and Wisdom podcast.
• 6:52
  I have been just totally vibing with it. So I'm
• 6:54
  really excited for you to hear that as well.
• 6:56
  But that's just my message for today. Don't be
• 6:58
  afraid to start. Do it messy. Do it impartial.
• 7:01
  perfect because step one is just doing the dang
• 7:03
  thing so get out there make that podcast if you
• 7:06
  need help with it I do have online coaching programs
• 7:08
  that help you through the start of your podcast
• 7:11
  I have some resources for you if you want to
• 7:13
  just pick my brain and have me help you through
• 7:16
  that process I also have an option where you
• 7:18
  can just pick my brain for an hour and ask me
• 7:20
  any question you have and I'll get that answered
• 7:22
  for you there's a lot of different ways that
• 7:23
  I am here to help with you making your podcast
• 7:25
  so please just do it reach out I'm here to help
• 7:28
  I'm here to be your Sherpa in this podcasting
• 7:30
  world and we will catch you next week on another
• 7:33
  episode of abby the podcast lady until then i
• 7:36
  will be out here enjoying the lake