A year ago this week, I started a podcast show.
Of course there are many reason why you might think I started one:
- to increase exposure
- to get new eyeballs to the site
- to leverage other people’s fans to get new subscribers
- to boost our credibility
- to garner sponsors
- to generally market our stuff
Sure that’s why most people start a podcast.
But…
The main reason was that I’m incredibly lucky to have conversations with super cool women business owners all the time and I wanted to capture these conversations and share with others in our community. Having them one-to-one is awesome! But having these inspiring conversations AND then sharing… well that makes my heart happy.
And I’ll admit, I have a selfish reason as well.
It gives me the chance to reconnect with women I’ve been networking with and have become friends with over the years. Let’s face it, it’s hard to say “let’s spend 30 minutes catching up”. No one has time. But if I say, let’s catch up AND do an interview that we can share, well that gets in an easier “hell yes!”
Win. Win. Win.
As I was reflecting on the year…. there are some definite takeaways from the experience.
I look at everything I do in our business as an experiment. It’s like my days of being an acupuncturist and herbalist… a little of this, pinch of that, tweak that, try this, and work that. And voila – the perfect herbal prescription and acu treatment to get the results desired.
So here are few of the cool things I’ve learned that came out of the Podcast experiment:
Sticking to it
One year sounds like forever but it isn’t. It is however a good amount of time to see if A) you still enjoy something and B) if it resonates with others. I’ve gotten two affirmatives. So I guess I’ll keep going!
Being ok when you don’t stick with it
I’m not perfect and I don’t pretend to be. Some weeks over the course of the year I fell behind. I think I may have missed a week or two over the Summer – who doesn’t just want to play rather than work. Hey it happens. Instead of berating myself for not keeping up or planning ahead, I forgave myself and caught up the following week. Still I managed to get 52 episodes in so I must have doubled up somewhere. Ha!
Getting others involved
We work so often in isolation as solopreneurs. Whenever you can kick off a new project or design a new offering that involves other people – either a team or people outside your biz – it makes the process more enjoyable and guess what … You’re instantly accountable!
After interviewing someone, I couldn’t just say “Hey thanks… and shove their interview in a file.” It had to get out in a timely manner.
Familiar with the Ask
Let’s face it, women aren’t big fans of asking for help, asking for the sale, or asking for what we need from others. But it’s a whole lot easier to do ‘the ask’ when it benefits everyone involved. And, having the mindset going into it that it’s a win-win, makes asking so much easier. Even when it comes to a sale. Go into it with the notion that everybody wins: you selling a product/service and the buyer who receives your product/service!
Try it yourself! Pick a project… a blog, a podcast, an interview, a coffee, for one year and see where it takes you! You might be surprised how much you learn.
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