Just Start the Podcast
I was sitting at a country club in Charleston, West Virginia - slightly awkward, as I often am, and eyeballing the cheesecake on the dessert tray. I was selected to be part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program for the rural West Virginia cohort. On one of the final days of the program, they were going to treat us to a nice meal at the country club. I was at a table with four other talented individuals, yet I was keeping to myself.
I’m not going to lie. This training session was not my best outing. I’ve participated in several weeklong trainings throughout my career. When I worked for AT&T, they spent a lot of money sending me off to Chicago for management training. This training was no joke. They did this five times over the course of the year. My initial training at AT&T had me travel to Columbus for weeklong training. Additionally, when I was working for Comcast Spotlight, we had weeklong training in Philadelphia, PA. Although I’m never the life of the party, I was far more social in my previous cohorts.
After reflecting, I wasn’t as social this time around mostly because of the mental weight I have as a business owner. In the other situations, I was just a manager of a large company. When I left the training session, I no longer worried about the business.
Not so much when it came to this training. During the several days I was in Charleston, I rushed back to the room to edit a podcast so it could be released on time, recorded a podcast to get to our other editor, and finished launching a website and recording training videos. I did not spend time at the bar or at the restaurants with my cohorts.
I was even invited to one of the local cohort’s houses, which I like to pretend was an adult “kegger.” It wasn’t, but that’s the story I like to envision.
Of course, this isn’t a story about how I regret not being more social. I’m not even sure if I regret it. I signed up for the business owner life, and I need to live it. Instead, this is a quick story about the one piece of advice I gave at that country club while eyeballing the cheesecake.
Start the Podcast
I was sitting and talking with Heather, an owner of several cabins in West Virginia. She was actually at my table the first time we had class. When we had some small talk, it came up that I produce podcasts. At that time, she said she wanted to chat with me about an idea she had. We never talked until she was sitting at the table during dinner.
She has an idea to do a podcast, which primarily deals with stories about travel, and she has a friend who will co-host. As she is talking, I can see this being a fun podcast. Granted, I get a lot of people spinning their ideas at me, and I’m not often so amused. I tend to cheer everyone along, but Heather has a good personality and also, I think she has a vehicle to make sure there’s an audience.
But what I heard from Heather after her idea was exactly what I fear when talking to creators.
She was waiting for the perfect time and everything to align before she would record.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been there. I’ve held off on many projects because I never wanted to launch anything that wasn’t quality. I’m not a perfectionist by any means, but I am also pretty proud of my creative work. And because of that, I tend to push off projects that I know could be “better.”
So when she was talking about how she needed to “do this” and “do that,” I hypothetically cut her off.
“Record the podcast.”
I explained that you should just record the podcast. With tools like Riverside.FM, you don’t need fancy equipment or sound engineers. Although I’m not advocating to replace high-quality equipment and talented editors, this shouldn’t be a hurdle. The biggest hurdle is hitting record.
Because once you get the first episode recorded, you will keep the momentum going. You will laugh, have fun, and have something tangible that you can share.
And it’s probably not going to be great. But that’s okay. Only your closest friends and family are going to find and listen anyway. For now. And they will keep listening and give you the necessary feedback to get better.
But if you don’t record, you might never start.
Why Podcasts Are Back on My To-Do List
It’s funny that I wrote one of my first blogs for Strong Minded about how you shouldn’t podcast anymore. At the time, we were seeing the large takeover by celebrities and brands. That hasn’t changed, but I also noticed that podcasts are no longer just about listeners. I wouldn’t go into podcasting expecting sponsorship money or brand deals unless you already have a following. Instead, I think of podcasts as being your pillar content.
Recently, our company has created several plans that focus on extracting valuable information from our clients through a series of interviews. While everyone else is moving into the “AI will do it for you” mindset, we still feel that the people in the companies are the most valuable asset to gather information. Let AI spit out the same regurgitated slop they find online while we actually create new content from experts. There is no better way to interview than to have it in podcast form.
We’ve learned that if we record our interview, we can take that content and put it on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else that podcasts are hosted. You might not end up with thousands of downloads, but we can take that same content and break it up into other pieces of content.
For example, short-form videos with our clients giving expert advice - that’s an easy win. Those videos do far better than most graphics. It also helps build authority to see the actual face of a person giving real advice. And with podcasts, they come off more organic than a selfie video or a structured Q&A.
If you tried to reverse engineer those short-form videos, you would take triple the amount of time, and I’m not sure you would get anything else from it. Just a few short-form videos.
Other Considerations for Podcasting
My brother and I have recorded nearly 500 episodes of our podcast, The TodCast PodCast.
Do we have a ton of listeners? Nope.
Do we care? Deep down, we would like a few more, but it doesn’t stop us.
Why? Because we’ve actually found another benefit of recording.
It’s about documentation.
We often say, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we randomly found a box of cassette tapes from our father talking?” Bill Hersey died when I was 16, and Todd was 26. I can’t say I had a single adult conversation with him. I have lots of questions regarding what he did in life. I don’t have anyone to ask. But if he had a podcast, I would be able to learn quite a lot.
So Todd and I decided that was a major reason why we chat into a box and hit record. Even if it’s just for our children, that’s enough of a reason to record a podcast. It’s our own autobiography - just in audio form.
It’s also a great excuse to chat with my brother on a weekly basis. Both of us would probably suck at keeping in touch if not. But now, we know pretty much everything about each other, and it’s mostly because of podcasting.
It’s not about money or reach. It’s about connection and leaving a diary for those who might want to hear it in the future. It’s the same reason many of us don’t delete the voicemails from our loved ones when they pass on. It just so happens that there will be hundreds of these voicemails - some explaining my thoughts on fast-food restaurants or the Star Wars Holiday Special.
Start Your Podcast
I will check back in with Heather in a few weeks to see if she ever hit record. With the technology at our fingertips, if you want to record, you can.
That goes for everyone out there with an idea. That also goes for those who want to write, create a YouTube channel, make a phone app, create music, or take up photography. The tech is here to really help the creator. Ease of entry is easier than ever.
And even if you don’t become an influencer or make money from these projects, there are so many other valuable reasons to create content.
Hit record for yourself. Your audience will find and appreciate that you did.
