You may think podcasting is easy. But of course, entrepreneurs never know how things will turn out.
I’ve often said that if I’d known how difficult it would be to start a company, write a book, OR run a podcast at the outset – well, I might have chosen a different path!
In reflecting back on my first year as a podcaster (2018) I wanted to share with you the three most valuable lessons I’ve learned.
Let’s take a look
Three Lessons I’ve Learned From My Year in Podcasting
1) Everything is harder “on the inside.”
GREAT athletes make what they do look effortless – so it is with the great podcasters: Rogan, Harris, Ferriss.
A sixty-minute podcast takes me approximately a day to produce.
This is partly because if I’m interviewing an author, I always read their book. Partly, I put a lot of thought into the show notes which are extensive (see below).
2) In our noisy world, quality is the “ante”, the rest is promotion, promotion, promotion.
When I started writing and podcasting, I had this fantasy that if I only produced excellent work, I’d quickly, virally, and effortlessly rise to the top of the heap.
LoL.
Despite acclaim such as “your book on change is the best in 20 years”, and “your podcast is up there with Sam Harris’”, I’ve got thousands of listeners, while Harris gets hundreds of thousands!
The big learning, for writers, podcasters, and entrepreneurs alike is that there are no easy results.
We’d love to lose weight by reading a book – it takes a year of intense effort to lose 10% of your body weight.
The question or conundrum is: how do you promote to win fans and followers, without becoming annoyingly salesy? Without clickbait headlines? Without sacrificing quality?
3) “Overnight success” takes about 15 years. (I didn’t’ coin this one.)
When I look at great non-fiction authors today, say Thomas Friedman, it is humbling how well they write, and how well their books do.
The most important thing for me to remember is that building a new career (writing and podcasting in my case) ALWAYS takes time.
I used to trade on Wall Street (well on London’s version of Wall Street – the “City”), and in that business feedback is instantaneous – you either made money that day or lost it.
The rest of the world ain’t like that!
Conclusion
The Journey of a thousand miles starts with a step (maybe Confucious). My first year has been immensely rewarding – I’ve spoken to some extraordinary guests about things that matter.
NOW… to get the word out!