There are many great leaders in the podcasting field and they have some great ideas on how to get going. They can give you equipment suggestions and tell you how to build people up to your launch… and how wonderful New and noteworthy is on iTunes.
It’s all good advice. It all has value.
But putting my energy into all that how-to, is a reason I never actually did. Till now..
When I finally had my epiphany of just do something, and be ok if it’s not perfect… the weight was off my shoulders.
Yes, you can build a launch army that tells all their friends and waits anxiously for your podcast to publish and they subscribe and leave a review and tell everybody and blog about it… and… so what.
If you have never done a podcast before, I have some advice. I’ve been doing this for almost a week now… since they published and this is what I learned. Just start. On your own. Figure it out as you go.
When I launched, as I said I put my files on Libsyn. I wanted my shows to start NewYear’s day. So, I submitted them about awed ahead of time to iTunes and Amazon.
They were quickly accepted and so my first episodes, one that was actually dated for the Jan 1, sat there for about a week…
gasp
Oh no!
So what?
I was just excited they were accepted. In the meantime, I had been recording more episodes, editing and now I had a bunch to upload to my hosting site. I poked around, sent emails for help, did youtube searches for tutorials.. and got a bunch loaded. And On Jan2 I saw I had corrupted files. I didn’t know that right away. I was a newbie… still am… and so I sent emails and searched YouTube… and eventually learned what I did wrong and found an online converter, cuz I asked in one of the facebook groups Im in for podcasting and got several recommendations, converted the files… and stayed up late replacing all the audio files I had previously loaded… and it worked.
So what that the first couple days of the year we’re goofy and are now fixed?
I bet it affected like 5 people… Sorry to those 5 people if you are still listening. I appreciate your patience.
But again… don’t let the planning for perfection take over your life.
If for whatever reason you absolutely must have your podcast that you always dreamed of, launch perfectly to crowds of adoring fans.. then create a different podcast first.
There’s plenty of room online for more crap. It is evidenced every day.
Come up with a different topic that is not your whole future, and start … let go of all that baggage of artwork and music and guests yada yada yada… just publish some stuff
This is true for blogging too… Just get it going.
This podcast, Focus on Your Small Business is what I really wanted to focus on. But having started those other two, and figuring out that the entire world is not watching… and will go on spinning if I screw something up… makes this show much easier to do.
I don’t have any plans to be on new and noteworthy. If it were to happen, I’m not sure I’d even notice.
I am not going to beg people for reviews. It will happen when it happens.
I do hope that the people who find my voice grating and my message infuriating just move along. But, I can’t help it i they feel a need to leave a scathing review.
I do hope that the folks who need to hear some motivation and encouragement do find me… if I’m somebody they can click with.
That’s that.
So the wrap up to this is all the experts have great ideas… but if their suggestions are keeping you from moving forward… then discard them.
See ya tomorrow. Maybe… I’m still getting the hang of this.