075: Summer Launch Series: Roadblocks That Hinder Getting Started
Is something holding you back from launching your podcast? Perhaps it’s something like perfectionism and wanting to have a perfect cover art. Perhaps it’s that you feel like you don’t have enough time. Maybe, you don’t know the name and it’s stalling your progress.
In this episode of the Summer Launch Series, we’ll be talking about the roadblocks people face when starting their podcast. You’ll hear some of the most common things that people encounter that keep them from starting their podcast, plus my tips on how you can overcome these situations when they arise.
What’s in this episode:
One of the biggest hurdles you might face when getting started
The most frequent roadblocks we see clients hit when starting their podcast
Links:
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The Transcript:
075: Summer Launch Series: Roadblocks That Hinder Getting Started
If we get hung up on perfectionism and wanting them to be perfect right out of the gate, that's usually where we get stuck. And so as you start your podcasting journey, you have to kind of manage your expectations, and especially if you're doing it yourself and know that some things are going to have to be done so they can be updated later.
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting, life and all the wild in-between. Join me, Caroline, every week as I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Wild Home Podcast. This is a special series I'm doing on launching your podcast, and the reason I wanted to do this series now is because we are embarking on summer. When this episode comes out, it is May. May is almost over. I believe when this episode comes out or close to you and we're getting into the summer time and I really love this summer for getting a podcast ready to launch in August or September, and that is why I wanted to have the series for you now.
So if you are wondering if you are ready to launch a podcast, we're going to dove into some stuff today, but you can go ahead and head over to WildHomePodcasting.com/ready and grab my free assessment and it's a really great place to start. And then also be sure to listen to all the episodes in the summer launch series.
So today specifically we're going to be talking about roadblocks to starting a podcast and how to deal with them. I have worked for years with clients helping them to launch their podcast, and a lot of the work that I do is mindset. Its kind of interesting. I never saw myself being a coach of that nature or being able to coach people through roadblocks, and it's become a part of the launch process because there is something so personal and what's the word I'm looking for personal and it just requires a lot of you when you're not used to sharing, just starting to sharing your message on a podcast. And I know for me it was a really big deal because I was not confident in my voice, in sharing my message or my story. And I want to just say right away, I guess we could say that's a roadblock in and of itself, that practice is going to help and it takes time to get used to sitting in front of a microphone and pouring out what you want to share. And you cannot expect it to happen right away.
And that's the good thing, though, about podcasting is there is room to evolve and grow and get better. And when we talk about things that you're going to be recording, like your intro in your outro, in your trailer, these are things that you can do again later. You can redo them, you can update them. And so it's never anything that you're stuck with right now. And my encouragement and the reason I'm telling you this is because I don't want you to think that everything has to be perfect right off the bat. And that is a huge roadblock that we see a lot of our clients when they come to us, they want everything to be perfect. And if this is your first podcast, it may not all be perfect, but just know that you can update it and it's really important to get started instead of constantly putting it off, waiting for whatever the thing is that you're waiting for.
If you are like, I want to improve my messaging, a podcast is going to help with that. If I want to improve how my voice sounds, a podcast is going to help with that. So it really does take practice, but you have to start and that really is the key, right? The first hurdle that you're going to get over as a podcaster is to start, and it's important to not keep putting it off because as I've seen, the more you put it off, the less likely you are to do the thing right.
So another roadblock in this kind of ties into that is having doubts about your podcast and your message. A lot of times when we start researching podcasts, we may fall down the rabbit hole and see that there are there's a lot of podcasts out there. But let me tell you, there is not too many. In the grand scheme of things, of numbers, if we're comparing it to YouTube or anything like that, that podcasting is still growing. But here's what I really want to drive home, and I've probably said this in about 20 some episodes because it is really, really important and key.
Everybody's story and message is unique because it comes from them. You are not the same as somebody else and so you can be a graphic designer and have a podcast and it be completely different from all the other graphic designers. And one thing I sing all the time too is what's cool about a podcast is you can find people that speak to you and there is someone out there looking for a podcast like yours that speaks to them. And so, you know, you have to put that out of your mind right away that there are too many podcasts like mine or my message isn't important enough because somewhere out there there is somebody who needs to hear what you have to say.
The other roadblock that I find very common is just not knowing where to start. And so actually when to give you kind of like. A little tip here and where we start and where I think it's really important to start. So let's say you're getting ready to work on your podcast. You've got your idea, you're ready to go. The first thing I would do is think about what the mission and the why of your podcast is and use that to draft the description for your podcast.
This description, it seems like it's not as important as you would think it would be, but we find that when we have the nailed down description, it helps kind of dictate everything else that we're going to be doing. And so from that description, we're able to create a trailer, which is the next thing I want you to do, create and record a trailer, and then from there you're able to go to your first episode, which is usually an introduction episode. Telling a little bit about yourself and why you wanted to start a podcast is that that is where I would start. So if you don't know where to start today, what I want you to do is sit down and come up with a description for your podcast. And if you feel like you need some guidance doing that, that's actually part of our launch consulting package is we help you lay the foundation for your podcast, which is that description. It is the foundation. It is what we are going to pull a lot of things from. And so that's always where I like to start.
And then one of the last roadblocks and this is a huge one and I think I talked about it on like the last five episodes. So it's a little repetitive, but it's important to say time is a huge roadblock. I cannot tell you the number of times I speak to people who are wanting to launch a podcast and they haven't done it because they don't have the time. And if you really, really are passionate about starting a podcast but are not sure how you're going to fit into your schedule, my best piece of advice to you is to get support, find somebody to help you produce and manage your podcast, because that is the vehicle in which you are going to be able to actually sit down, record and get the episode out every week. And if the podcast is going to be a vital part of your marketing and getting your voice out there and helping you hone your message, it's worth it to have people helping you because it's going to allow you to be able to concentrate on your content, which is in turn going to help the podcast work for your business.
So these are the most common roadblocks that I see. I'm sure there are others and there may be some that you're working through yourself. Maybe it's something that I listed. Maybe it's something that I didn't list. You know, it could be something as simple as deciding on a name or trying to design cover art. There's all these little pieces. And again, like I said at the beginning of the episode, if we get hung up on perfectionism and wanting them to be perfect right out of the gate, that's usually where we get stuck. And so as you start your podcasting journey, you have to kind of manage your expectations, and especially if you're doing it yourself and know that some things are going to have to be done so they can be updated later.
I think I've updated like everything on my podcast two or three times and we've had clients kind of go through evolutions and phases themself where they'll do a season of a podcast and then realize, you know what, I need to tweak some things. And so we tweak them and it's no big deal because what it is doing is getting you closer into alignment of finding your ideal listener, which equals your ideal client, right?
So please let me know if this helped you as you are going through the launch process. Again, if you're wondering if you are ready to launch a podcast for your business, you can head to WildHomePodcasting.com/ready and download my free little assessment quiz. It's just a fun little checkbox quiz and if you have a certain score, it tells you that you are ready or not ready to launch a podcast. And if you take that assessment, I would love to know what you got so you can do me on Instagram at WildHomePodcasting, or you can shoot me an email hello@wildhomepodcasting.com and I will be back next week with another episode about launching. Have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
