Getting Out of Your Own Way: Finding the Courage to Podcast

You've been wanting to start a podcast for a while. You keep

trying to record and you are just paralyzed

with fear. I'm going to tell you some things that I do to

get your content out. Welcome to Your Podcast

Consultant, small lessons with big value.

With more than a decade of experience and millions of

downloads, this Hall of Fame podcaster is a

featured speaker, author, and mentor to

thousands. Now he wants to work with you.

He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

So I'm on Reddit and I see this post, and this person says,

I have a message I need, want to get out,

and literally cannot get out of my own way. I keep thinking about

all the editing I'll have to do, uh, followed by the criticism

I'll receive from God knows whoever. I also tried

telling myself, do it for you, but I still freeze

before I even hit record. Perfectionism?

Hell yeah, she says. I want it to sound so good,

like really good, but I don't have the budget right now for production,

so I'm stuck between just drop it and but

what if it's bad? Here's my other issue: I have

notes, but I ramble anyway. I have a script

and it sounds like a Roam bot. Then I have, of course,

nothing. She says Whitney Houston here. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

And the thing is, some of my best stuff happens when I'm just

in it, in the zone, talking, uh,

feeling it. But I can't figure out how to capture that in a way

that is also listenable without spending 4 hours editing out

every um, like, and tangent. So the main

question is, do people care? Like, do people

actually care about the rambling or the audio quality if the content

hits? Is there a format that lets you be in the moment

and still keep things tight, or do you just let it be

messy and trust that people will follow you anyway? Are

there folks here who just record and post with minimal editing?

How do you live with yourself? Because I have something worth saying

and I'm tired of it sitting in my head. So this is what I

recommended, and I realize I didn't read this

whole thing. The question is, do people care?

They do when you waste their time.

They do when you— that's the big thing. Podcasts are free, but

they're not. People are paying with their attention

and their time. And so I said, I have found that

even if you over-edit, because people do say,

um, But when they say, um, like, you know, um, so much, um, that

it gets annoying, that's a problem. So an um here

and there isn't a big deal. So this is what works

for me. I write a blog. Why? Because I'm kind of ADD,

and I have to figure out what am I trying to say and how do

I want people to feel. And so that's the first thing.

Then I read my blog 3 times. Not to

memorize it, but to get the gist of it.

And I do not cheat. I read the whole thing from top to

bottom 3 times. Then

I boil that down to 3 or 4 bullet points, however many bullet

points you need, and that's kind of my map to keep

me on track. Then I press

record and I talk to my friend, you, You're sitting

right across the desk from me right now. And much like a phone

call, it's just this invisible person on the other side

of the desk, and I riff on the bullet points.

Then what do you do? You edit, because you're not perfect.

Anything that went off the rails too much, you edit out. And that starts by

knowing who you're talking to, because again,

you don't want to waste their time. Keep in mind,

you don't have an audience yet, so you're worried about people leaving comments.

Who? You don't have an audience yet. And so this person

is worried about people leaving comments. If you're really worried

about comments, don't start a podcast. It's that simple. You're

gonna get comments. You will eventually get a 1-star review, and

that's okay. There's a name for that person: not your target

audience. But also, you don't have an audience yet.

You're not going to get any comments because you're going to get maybe 10

downloads that first episode, depending on how many cousins you have.

So even if it's bad, nobody's going to hear it, and

you should get some feedback before it goes live. At the School of

Podcasting, we have listener parties. I love them because

it's just the most constructive feedback an

uplifting experience. Everybody that's done it loves it.

And so we often say at the School of Podcasting, thanks to,

uh, Ryan Parker, he was the first one that said it. He said, look, nobody's

gonna punch you in the face. It's, you know, you're across the world.

So keep that in mind. Do people care? Yeah, if you

waste their time. And I have listened to

shows where it was just someone talking

about what they did during the week, but there wasn't any lesson

to learn. I always say you want to make people laugh, cry, think,

groan, educate them, entertain them,

and if you can save them time or save them money, that will deliver

value. But here's the other thing: you can't

get better at something if you aren't doing it.

When I first started to play the guitar at a young age, my fingers were

too small. When my hand grew, I was left-handed,

and it was like trying to learn how to play the guitar in a mirror.

And so I said, that's it, I'm not left-handed anymore. And then it was

a matter of I wasn't strong enough to press hard. You have to press hard

on a guitar to get the notes to sound right. But I

kept trying, and eventually I was able to play. And

I've played since I was, I don't know, probably I don't know,

12. I mean, I tried when I was 5, my hands were too small. But

it's not something that you're just going to turn on the mic

and all of a sudden you have the same experience as someone who's had

3 years on a microphone. But how do you get better? You

practice and you keep going and realize that there is

nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do to

make episode 1 as good as episode 10. Here's

something else you can do. Instead of focusing on you and how scared you

are, focus on your audience. Focus on that one

person who really needs to hear your content.

Because in the end, when your need to serve

is larger than your fear of looking stupid,

you will press record and you will publish.

Now here's the other thing I'm gonna point out, and maybe you've already figured it

out. I have a cold. I've stopped 3 times to cough,

and my nose is a little stuffy. Who cares?

Yeah, I sound a little different. Can you understand what I'm saying? Yes.

Don't overthink it. Don't let perfectionism stop

you from making, you know, what could be a really good

podcast. If you aim for perfect and you miss,

you might land on really, really good. If you need help

with this, if you need somebody to listen to your stuff, maybe you want to

have a listener party of your own, go over to

schoolofpodcasting.com and use the coupon code listener,

and that'll save on either your monthly, quarterly, or your yearly

subscription. See, I can't breathe, and so I can't talk.

Do we care? No, because you know exactly how this feels when you're

sick. But I wanted to get a message out. I've been on the road

and I saw that and I was like, oh, that's this week's episode. So

schoolofpodcasting.com. I'm Dave Jackson. I help

podcasters. It's what I've been doing for almost 21 years now,

and I want to see what happens when I work with you because I want

to be your podcast consultant.