I launched my podcast, The Energetic Entrepreneur, in December of 2019. While this wasn’t my first podcast, it was my first PUBLIC podcast. I had been podcasting internally for my day job for the past two years. But this was different. This new show was going out to the WORLD and carried with it a new weight of responsibility and significance in my mind.
M new podcast is weekly, where my corporate show was twice a month. The potential audience size was exponentially bigger, even though I knew I was starting from scratch again out in public. But mostly, this podcast was 100% in my voice, with my thoughts, free from corporate lexicons and jargon. The thought of it was both liberating and terrifying!
I recently flew past the 10th episode, (PS: I consider anything ending in a zero or five to be a pretty cool milestone worthy of celebrating – I celebrate a lot) and it gave me pause to reflect on what I have learned about this journey so far. Doing a weekly podcast while I work a full time 9-5 has been a powerful mindset exercise for me as a Side-Hustler Entrepreneur. This is what I have learned so far:
Planning + Passion = Consistency
Doing a weekly podcast is a lot of work and nothing is more important podcasting than being consistent with your delivery. Add in guests and that work quickly multiplies. Planning your content well ahead of time (I stay about a month ahead) is essential so you aren’t caught off guard with nothing to say. But even if you have everything planned out to the day, sometimes you just don’t want to do the work! This is where your passion for the mission of the podcast (or business) comes in, to drive you forward even when you are tired or feeling a bit overwhelmed by the commitment. Those are the times that you reflect back on what your bigger purpose is. So you dive back in, respect the plan and stay true to your audience.
Love Thy Medium
There are a million different ways you can connect with the people (or customers) you care about. I started with this blog, knowing that writing wasn’t my all-time favorite activity, but I have to say, I have enjoyed the process of challenging myself here! However, I have always known that my strengths lie in communicating verbally. It comes easily to me and I really love it. Podcasting, for me, is a no-brainer. Identifying no-brainers in your business is a powerful way to capitalize on your strengths and let your real talent shine through. Want to talk to your people and stay authentic? Identify your communication strengths (writing, speaking, imagery, video, illustration, sky-writing – whatever!) and embrace it!
Dream Big
When I launched my corporate show, I imagined everyone in the company listening to my podcast. While it’s a pretty dang big company, it pales in comparison to thinking about the WORLD listening to my podcast. It’s a new level of dreaming for me and it energizes me! The roll-on effect is that I imagine the world having access to my mission of finding and embracing one’s own power to take massive action and effect change. Wow.. that blows my mind and creates a whole new sense of urgency for me. Is the whole world listening to my podcast right now? I would say, not. But they can and they will if I continue to drive forward consistently and authentically – one week at a time.
Check out my show on your favorite podcast app and leave a rating or review. Want to be a guest on the show? Reach out to me at bridget@bridgetcobbcoaching.com for more information.
Comments