If you had asked me a few months ago when I was finally going to start a podcast, I would still be considering what to talk about. I didn’t want another year to go by so on Sept 13, 2021, I gave it a shot. Five weeks and 24 episodes later, I wrapped my first season!
The Evielution Podcast came to fruition with the help of an online writing course, Write of Passage and some accountability partners. It’s a daily-ish (weekdays) podcast that introduces ideas and concepts around getting through those creative blockers.
The episodes ranged from 5-10 minutes long, yet it was still a challenge to keep the momentum going for so long. I drew up the topic, wrote the script, recorded, edited and published the episodes on my own using Anchor. Here is what I learned about myself throughout the process.
1. Be Okay With Imperfections
This was the lesson I struggled with the most. Not every episode is how I would have liked. Some episodes had airplane noises in the background. Some were shorter than I liked due to time restraints. Yet, each episode was a stepping stone I needed to get to the next one. I knew that if I wanted to keep up with the cadence of releasing every day, it meant doing the best I could at the moment. Just keep publishing.
2. Goals Don’t Care If You’re Tired
I wanted to take this goal seriously. For me, that meant waking up at 6am every morning to get up and record. In the beginning of course, it was nothing short of excitement. I eagerly got ready to walk to my garage and begin recording. By the fourth week, I struggled with the urge to jump back into bed instead. My goals didn’t care about what my excuses were. If I didn’t release an episode, then it’s me not holding up the end of my bargain.
Before I embarked on this journey, I wrote out a letter to my future self congratulating 2022 Evi on making it to the 100th episode. This helped me realign with my why. I didn’t want to let her down. There were many days where I had doubts about why I was doing this in the first place. It gave meaning to the work I was doing and who I was doing it for. I came back to this letter often, really often. Other times I would reach out to friends for encouragement or bribe myself with a yummy lunch after recording. One episode I got so frustrated because of the noisy background, I had to wait until the afternoon to record. Releasing an episode on the difficult days felt even more satisfying. It was proof that I could push through all the uncertainty and publish anyways.
3. Leverage Your Tools
Utilizing technology can be a catch 22, but you can certainly leverage them in your favor. During the third week, I had a trip planned to Los Angeles and needed to figure out a way to keep the episodes going. Although it was tempting to use that as a reason not to record, I wanted to keep in line with my goal. So, I recorded an extra episode the night before and scheduled it to be published the next morning while I was 30,000 ft in the air. It worked out nicely and I was able to use another platform to help me create a video format to publish on LinkedIn, IG, etc.
4. Preparation Is Half The Battle
Sometimes I thought I could get by if I just had an idea without writing out what I was going to say. It worked a few times. When it didn’t though, it made it more difficult to record things on the spot. This eventually made the process longer. The following episodes I made sure I had at least three points to discuss and wrote out as much as I could in my notes. This made the recording process much easier and only came with minor adjustments as needed.
5. Feedback Is A Gift
There would be no Evielution Podcast without the folks who were listening and providing feedback. Adding music wasn’t something I had considered until a friend mentioned it to me. She said that it would help to know when a podcast is starting or ending through a music cue. The following week, I added an intro and outro track. Getting feedback from friends who were listening really helped and allowed me to make the changes immediately. Thank you, friends!
6. Every Little Win Adds Up
The most satisfying part of this process was adding a shiny star in my journal to conclude that the episode of the day was published. This allowed me to celebrate every win, no matter how small. After these 5 weeks, every episode contributed to the first season. I’m grateful to look back now through my journal and see the small bits of progress I made.
7. Get Inspiration From Anywhere
I didn’t always have all the ideas of the podcast planned out in advance. Some episode topics came from conversations I’d have with friends or inspired by something else I read or watched. Ideas can sprout from anywhere. This kept me open-minded about where my next topic might come from.
8. How To Learn In Public
Learning in public is a concept I’m relatively new to. It’s a bit overwhelming at first. You’re not sure how others might respond or what they will think once your work is out there. I couldn’t help but wait for someone to point out how horrible my podcast was. Yet, no one did. At least not loud enough for me to hear. Now, I’m not as scared to press publish because I’ve had the practice of doing that on a daily basis.
However, if there was some negative feedback, always take it with a grain of salt. Not every piece of feedback is valuable or applies to your situation. There are the cheerleaders who are rooting for your progress and those who may just be looking for a nitpicky error to point out. As long as you are learning in the process, there are hardly any real failures. Remember, feedback is a gift though you don’t need to accept it if it doesn’t apply. If the feedback does resonate with you, then stay curious. Don’t feed on the negativity, use what could help to make your experience better.
9. I Can Make A Change
The topics on the podcast ranged from sharing my thoughts on setting your environment to silencing your inner critic. My favorite part was hearing back from listeners about how they resonated with a specific episode. Some folks felt inspired to start decorating their room while others felt heard when I shared my own experiences around being a creative. It showed me how we are all looking for spaces where we feel represented. I was happy to spark even a small change for someone.
10. Reiterate! Reiterate! Reiterate!
This was by far the biggest lesson I learned. In the writing course that inspired me to start the podcast, we learned a lot about receiving and providing feedback. This helped me think about how I could make each episode better than the last. Once my process was streamlined, I started experimenting with different audio editing techniques. It was such a pleasurable moment to listen to the first and 24th episode to see how far I’ve grown in a short amount of time. Now I get to take what I’ve learned and explore more possibilities for season 2!
If you started a podcast or already have one running, I would love to hear about it!