Reflecting on a Four-Year Podcasting Adventure | EP225

Celebrate with us as we pop the champagne on four incredible years of 'Mindset in Action'! I'm taking you behind the scenes to uncover the pivotal strategies and lessons that have helped me reach chart-topping host status. Get ready to discover the systems that have streamlined the podcasting process, the art of episode batching for consistent content, and the virtue of patience in cultivating a space that truly makes an impact. 

This episode isn't a walk down memory lane; it's a treasure trove of actionable insights. You'll learn why crisp, clear audio isn't just a luxury, but a cornerstone of podcast success (and how a good mic can be yours).  Join me for this special reflection and gear up to amplify your own podcasting journey or simply get inspired to chase your ambitions with renewed vigour.

Apply for one of my spring Cohorts HERE

www.donnaeade.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast. Everybody, I am so happy to have you here for this mini Mindset Monday episode. And I'm here on my own. Guys, I am here on my own Now. You will be pleased to hear that I have now planned out the next 12 weeks of podcast episodes, so regularly scheduled stuff will be happening going forward. But today you've got me, and that is because I wanted to talk to you about what it is that I have taken away from the last four years podcasting.

Speaker 1: 1:40

So for those of you who weren't here, last week we celebrated four years on this podcast, which is just amazing to me still can't quite believe it and we've had some highlights. So we hit the top 40 in the UK entrepreneurship charts, with Stephen Bartlett being at number one with Diary of a CEO and me being number 40, which was absolutely wild. We reached number one on the GoodPods charts for one of the categories and I can't remember it straight off the top of my head. Should have looked it up beforehand, but it is on my podcast page, on my website that we reach number one there, you know. So we've had some fantastic chart positions. We have also had some amazing guests from all over the world. We had Amy Porterfield. We've had Amy McLaren. Matt McWilliams came on to talk about his book. We have also had some amazing UK professionals in their genre come and talk about their work. I've had some really close friends come on the show as well. So it has been absolutely amazing to see what this podcast has evolved into over the last four years. But what I wanted to talk to you about was how that actually looks like, what that looks like to me in terms of the things that I have learnt along the way, in terms of you know my mind state about it and what I think you should take away from my four years of podcasting. So let's jump into it.

Speaker 1: 3:17

The first thing that I wanted to talk about is systems. Systems are your friend, and it is so, so important to have systems in place throughout your business. You know, standard operating procedures are something that we talk about in corporate, but every business owner should have standing operating procedures, and I always tell my friends a story of a colleague that I used to work with when I worked in an office who came into a job role that really wasn't given any kind of formal parameters, as it were. She was kind of just given this is what we would like you to do, make it your own. And she wrote out an entire book of SOPs so that if she was away for any reason, somebody could just grab a book and they could follow her formula and they could do the thing that she did. And it was amazing. She was a machine. I was absolutely astounded by it and I was just like you know. Everybody in business should be doing this because, at the end of the day, oftentimes we are working by ourselves. But if you do have to take time off for anything, if you have a folder on your Google Drive or wherever Dropbox that has all of your standard operating procedures in, if you wanted to hire a VA to run your business maybe you get sick, maybe you go on holiday, whatever it is, and you need to take some time off. A VA could keep the basics ticking over if you've got those standard operating procedures in place. If you haven't, it's very hard for them to come into your business and know exactly how you like things done or exactly the way, the processes of the things that you do. So it just stands to reason and it is so much easier to get things done when there's a system in place for it. So I'm going to take this podcast for an example on that.

Speaker 1: 5:01

For me, one of my biggest things is batching. I love to batch. It means that I don't need to take time off from the podcast, because I batch it when I'm working, and when I'm not working, the podcasts are uploading in the background without me having to worry about it. What happens when I fall off that batching wagon is what you've seen unfold in the last couple of weeks on the podcast, where I got to the end of my batch, I hadn't quite managed to sort myself out with getting things sorted because I was ill, because we had holiday, because of Easter. All of this culminated in the fact that I didn't get my bum in gear quick enough to get my next batch sorted and able to provide that consistency for you. Not that you're seeing any difference because I'm still uploading, but what's happening in the background is I'm recording as I go, which actually just puts more pressure on me, because now I've got to record it, edit it, get it uploaded quick because it's got to go out tomorrow, rather than doing my batch where it's like I'm recording an episode that's going to go out in four weeks time. If I don't get around to editing it today, it's not a big deal, I've got time, etc. So systems is one thing that I started with this podcast doing and it is something that I will continue to shout from the rooftops that you need to have some sort of system where you are batching and baking your podcast. It's so, so important.

Speaker 1: 6:28

The next thing I wanted to talk about is things take time and you know getting results is one of know, it's one of those how long is a piece of string? Type things. You know I had a YouTube channel, have a YouTube channel where I do some vlogs and some crafting. I did my Sensi stuff For those of you who don't know, I'm also a Sensi consultant and I did that for 12 months. I uploaded 140 videos in 12 months and it got me virtually nowhere. I have around 473 subscribers on there, which is a great number of subscribers, for sure, but it doesn't get me to monetize. It didn't get me the watch hours I needed.

Speaker 1: 7:06

I burnt out because I was going hell for leather. You know I'm going to do this, I'm going to get it up, I'm going to get it out there, and I've basically not uploaded regularly in the last 10 months on that channel. But the rumor has it that it actually takes two years of consistency to see an impact on YouTube. So I didn't know that when I began. So I just thought, you know, if I am consistent which is what they all say if I put out good content, then I will get what I want out of this. And it didn't happen quick enough for me. Excuse the twinkle interruption there. Yeah, it was something that just didn't happen quick enough for me, but I wasn't aware that that was the standard kind of amount of time it took for a YouTube channel to gain traction. So I went too fast and did too much too soon and ended up burning out, and that was, you know, not what I had planned for the channel. But that brings me back to why.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Your why is so important? Because if I had had a strong enough why behind the channel, then the growth wouldn't have been the thing that I would have been focused on. What I would have been focused on is you know what's resonating with my audience. What do I want to do more of? What do I want to do less of? What do I want to focus on? And I would have been focused on the content itself, not the outcomes so much, because I knew the outcomes would come down the line. I just needed to focus on making it the best that I could make it with what I was doing, and that wasn't my focus With my podcast.

Speaker 1: 8:40

However, my why has been really strong. I knew that this is the way that I wanted to talk to my audience. This is the way that I wanted to bring you value, bring you information and share with you, and so it doesn't necessarily matter how many downloads I'm getting, how many people are listening at any one time. If an episode doesn't do as good as another, then I have to look at how did I market it? What time of year was it so? Was it the Easter holidays? Things like that affect the listenership of podcasts because people are doing things out of their normal routine.

Speaker 1: 9:13

So I have to kind of take all those factors into consideration when I'm looking at what I'm doing in my podcast before I make a decision on whether or not to carry on with a certain idea. And you know that's the same for things like these mini mindset mondays that I'm doing with viv. You know I'm weighing it up, I'm looking at the downloads, I'm looking at what people are saying, I'm taking on board your um thoughts and ideas and that gauges the it what I'm going to do about um, those mini mindset mondays, which are coming back in um two weeks time. So don't worry about that. They are still here and you can still let me know what you'd like me and Viv to talk about. So if there is a particular block that you have, then head down into the show notes. I've now got a little form that you can fill in. You can let me know if you want to stay anonymous or not and you can talk to us about the block that you're having and give us a bit of background. So you can do that in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 10:11

So a why is really important to have that really strong connection to why you're doing something and rather than having it fixated on a particular outcome of time constraint, it's like what is the overall reason for you doing it? And the reason's got to be bigger than I want thousands of downloads because why? What is that going to do for you. So it's more about the deeper why you want to do something. And then it doesn't actually matter if you'll get in the thousands, because thousands of downloads is you want to be impacting people? I'm sure, but for me that is a big part of it. I want to be impacting people. Well, it doesn't matter if I'm impacting 10 people or impacting 100 people. If I can impact somebody, I'm making a difference to their lives, I'm helping them in some way. That's the important thing for me. So it's not so much the big numbers that are the important part there. So just something to consider.

Speaker 1: 11:01

And then audio quality. That's something I've noticed over the last four years that I am really, really big on. I am a big audio snob. I now listen to things and I'm thinking, gosh, the sound quality on that isn't very good, etc. And I'm not by any means saying that my audio quality is perfect. I know it's not. There are improvements to be made. But I am somebody who tries to do the best with what I've got, and that's what I teach my students as well is, do the best with what you've got. It doesn't have to be perfect, you've just got to get it going.

Speaker 1: 11:35

But oh my goodness, if your podcast sounds like you're sitting in a toilet, I'm not going to listen to it. I'm really sorry, I just can't stand like that it gives. It really does give that mental image of why are they in the bathroom? Because that's all you can hear is this kind of echoey sound, and that's not what this experience should be about. This is a podcast. You are only using your senses of your ears to listen to a podcast. You're not watching it, you're not reading it, you're not touching it, you're not tasting it, you're just hearing it. So if that quality isn't good, then why is somebody going to give you their airtime? They're not, and I have stopped listening to certain podcasts because I just can't get my head around the fact that they're a podcaster and they're not focused on bringing good audio quality to somebody.

Speaker 1: 12:29

Now some people might say, yeah, but the message is the most important part. They're getting the message out there, but not if nobody's going to listen to it because it sounds like they're sitting on the loo. Oh, my goodness. I may be a snob about this, but I really think that when you are only using one sense to consume something, it better be a really wonderful experience on the whole. You know, for the most part, for the best that you can do with what you've got, it's got to be a good experience and I just don't think somebody standing in an office with a microphone with no sort of sound dampening around on Zoom is a way to provide that good audio sound. Just my opinion. Don't come for me, do come for me, I don't care, it's my opinion, it's what I feel, and to me, you know, audio quality is really, really important. So that is something that has just become very apparent to me over the last four years. So now I'm just about starting to see the fruits of my labor, you know. So with YouTube, about two years before you're supposed to see anything, and it's taken me kind of four years and there are reasons about for this and I will get into these. On Thursday's episode I'm going to do a deep dive into the reasons behind successful podcasting, the steps that you need to take to create a successful podcast. So come back on Thursday for that one, and you can obviously apply them to other areas as well, but I will jump more into that then. But yeah, so I'm just seeing starting to see some fruits of my labor. Now, you know my business is growing.

Speaker 1: 14:10

The Start your Podcast program, my eight week program, is open for spring cohorts now and if you get your application in before Friday at midnight, you will go into a draw to win my microphone. So, talking about sound quality, my microphone. I absolutely love it. I am considering a microphone upgrade in my future, but that's. I've been with this one for three and a half years, so I love it. I'm quite happy to stick with it, but you know, I might I might have seen something that I fancy, but this is the one that I highly recommend to all new podcasters if they actually want to start with a microphone, and I am going to be giving one away to one of my new students. So if you want to be in with the chance of that, you need to get your application in by Friday at midnight this week. So this is going to be the oh, let me think 26th. I've got in my head the 26th. Friday, the 26th at midnight. Get your application in, go to donnaeedcom, forward slash, apply, join me for my eight week program and be in with a chance of winning that microphone. So I'm now starting to see opportunities from getting to work one-to-one with people I've been offered to step into the corporate world and talk about podcasting.

Speaker 1: 15:24

I've had a couple of my quotes published in a book which I got in the post last week. It is called Boost Yourself, boost your Brand. It's by Becky Sanderson and her company is Miss Digital Media and it's a journal that you can write in and it goes over kind of your ICA, it goes over your brand. There is lots of lush stuff in there and there are lots of quotes from inspirational businesswomen Her words, not mine Inspirational businesswomen and I have two quotes in this book so I am super excited for that. I'm going to link it in the show notes for you so you can go over and get your copy and, if you do, you want to pay attention to pages 89 and 161. And you just might see a name you're familiar with. So things like that have been happening for me and it's been amazing.

Speaker 1: 16:21

So my mindset takeaway for you today is know your why and keep moving forward and making improvements as you go. Know that no one can guarantee when things are going to take off for you, but if your why is strong, it will carry you through. Okay, so don't forget, you can submit your mindset blocks for me and Viv to talk about on the mini mindset Mondays coming up soon, and Viv will be back with me on my next mini mindset Monday solo episode, which isn't solo because she's with me. And we will be back with me on my next Mini Mindset Monday solo episode, which isn't solo because she's with me and we're going to be talking about self-sabotage. So if self-sabotage is something that you suffer with hands up I am definitely somebody who suffers with that then you'll want to be there for that one. So this has been a slightly longer Mindset Monday just because I wanted to kind of go over those takeaways from the last four years.

Speaker 1: 17:13

It's always good to reflect and look back. That's why I like to do my quarterly reviews and things like that. So make sure that you're thinking about that. Have a look at what it is that you're doing. Maybe you have a pillar content that you've been putting out. Have a look back and see is it working for you? Is it giving you the traction you want? Is it giving you the results that you want? Is it time to make a pivot? Maybe podcasting might be for you. If you're interested in joining me for my eight-week program, head over to donnaeedcom forward slash apply. I hope to see you in a cohort very soon. If not, I'll see you on Thursday for the next episode of Mindset in Action. I'll see you there. Bye for now.