Coffee Chat: 1 year of running my podcast E51

July 19, 2022

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This episode is again a more relaxed coffee chat and it’s going to be all about my podcast. This is the first birthday of my podcast “Raise Your Energy” and I am so happy to share with you behind-the-scenes info on why I have a podcast, what I have learned over the last 12 months and how it actually gets created. And I share some mistakes I made in case you’re thinking about starting your own podcast. Stay tuned for an amazing celebration episode!

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Happy birthday, dear podcast. I am so grateful that I have you and that you are in my life. I hope we have a good time together in the coming year and go together on a lot of adventures! Love, me!

This is my personal little message to my podcast. I feel truly blessed that I am already one year into having a podcast all about energy. (Episode 01)

So why did I even start the podcast?

When I started to be more visible on Instagram and Facebook I just posted about energy topics and I just felt like it was not enough, like I wanted to share in a longer format to go deeper into topics with you. I considered my options and because I was obsessed with listening to podcasts at that time, I decided to start a podcast.

If you follow the podcast or me already for a while you know that for the first 6 months this was just a podcast without any video. But then I pushed myself in January to step out of my comfort zone and use as well video when I record my episodes. This was an amazing exercise for me to grow and learn how to be more confident in front of the camera. And it gives me now so much more material for my weekly social media content.

So that’s a little bit of the history and an overview of the last 12 months. Let me share with you my 3 biggest takeaways from having a podcast.

Takeaway 1 – It’s like my own therapy

A lot of the time I talk about topics that I have just been processing. And talking about it on the podcast really helps me to either still work through it more or to close it off as a topic for my own self-development. It’s the episode where I am more emotional and sound like a preacher or cheerleader to you, that’s when it’s a hot topic for me. And to be honest, I love it. It keeps me accountable for my own growth journey and it forces me to go deeper and really put words to my inner world. That’s my first takeaway from having my own podcast. I can just recommend it🙂

Takeaway 2 – Expose myself to new information

Secondly, the podcast helps me to learn and grow mentally and improves my knowledge about topics. When I come across a topic either myself or someone suggests to me to speak about a certain topic, I check in with myself if it resonates with me and if I can already talk pretty well about it. And sometimes I can’t – I actually use these kinds of topics as a study and research to expand my horizon and to acquire new knowledge. The 2 examples I had recently were the episode where I explained the Ego and the episode about the symptoms of imposter syndrome. I did not know enough to just script out the episode. So I researched the topic and looked at what other people, magazines and research tells me about it, so I can then form my own opinion and put it into words. So having my podcast is great for expanding my knowledge and exposing myself to new information. Which is fantastic!

Takeaway 3 – Consistency and mastery

And thirdly, and this is more a personal area of mine that I want to get better at, is the consistency that I have to have with running a podcast. If it rains or shines, there has to be a new episode every single week. With all the travelling I have done over the last 6 months, I had to pre-record a lot of materials. Or if my inner voice is telling me that I don’t feel like doing an episode this week, it’s a great opportunity for me to overcome my limiting beliefs. Why this is so personal for me is that I usually get bored pretty quickly with new activities or new skills. And the podcast gives me the chance to practice becoming a master at something instead of moving on to the next shiny thing. It really has helped me to stick with a routine, to prioritize and plan ahead and push myself out of my same old comfort zone. The podcast gives me the possibility to become really good at something and keep improving it every time I do it. This is fairly new to me but I like the challenge as I think it will help me personally as well in my business to be more consistent and become a master in a certain topic.

So these are my top 3 takeaways from running my podcast for one year now.

Now, let’s talk about how the podcast gets actually created.

And first of all, let me tell you that I am doing just the first part of it all. When I finish recording I am mostly done and then I am handing everything over to my fantastic Podcast Manager Sarah.

So let me hand it over briefly to Sarah for her to introduce herself to you.

Hey, everyone! Happy Birthday to the podcast. Thank you, Linda, for the lovely introduction. I would like to take a second to thank Linda and all the listeners and watchers for being a part of the podcast. I appreciate you.

I, too, resonate with all your takeaways.

With each episode I work on, I gain new knowledge and a chance to work on myself. I’m so grateful for that.

My favourite episode (all of them are my favourite), but if I have to pick one, it will be episode 44, Becoming a new version of yourself. Please let us know which is your favourite episode.

Again, thanks for your support. More amazing episodes are coming your way, so stay tuned.

Thank you, Sarah, you are the best! So back to how the podcast gets created. I collect ideas and topics all the time and keep a running list. I sometimes get asked by followers or friends to talk about something specific or Sarah will collect as well ideas based on previous episodes and comments or feedback that we receive.

I script everything out. I spend quite some time writing my script as it turns as well into a blog post, so in the end, I need to write it anyway. If I interview someone I obviously don’t have a script but I will prepare questions and share them with the interviewee before the recording.

When it comes to the recording, I do most of them at my desk in my office and then I do the coffee chats like this one always somewhere else in my house to mix it up a bit for the people who watch my episodes on YouTube – and to be honest even for myself.

And once it’s all recorded, I will upload all materials including the script and blog content to our shared Google drive, so Sarah can take over editing the episode. Sarah edits the audio version for the podcast and creates the video version for YouTube. She uses the videos, the script and the transcript of the episode to create all of our social media content for this episode. That’s why it was so important to have the video recording of the podcast as well so you see more of me.

My number 1 resource for running a podcast and a business

In another episode, I am happy to talk about all the programs that we use and the equipment I use for recording. But the one resource I do want to share with you in this episode is Monday.com. Everything in my business is somehow managed through Monday.com. It is a fantastic resource for project and workflow management. As I worked for over 20 years in the corporate world, I knew that I wanted to use a management system that will give me high-quality features but as well flexibility in creating my own processes and workflows.

That’s how Sarah and I work together on the podcast creation. Every step is documented in a workflow template so we don’t forget anything. We can easily hand over tasks when one person is done and it’s time for her to edit the episode or for me to review the YouTube thumbnail or the newsletter. It’s all in one system and it makes our lives so much easier and more effective.

We use it not just for the podcast, but all of our social media posts are stored on Monday.com and that’s where I review and approve it after Sarah created it all. We keep our To-Create lists, our meeting notes, our project plans and all-important links and information in there as well. You can create nearly anything in the system but there are as well a lot of amazing templates that you can choose from and then adapt to your needs.

If you are looking for such a system to make your life and business easier, I will provide you with the link in the show notes below for you to check it out. So that’s how Sarah and I run the podcast that comes out every Tuesday of every week!

Learn from these 3 mistakes when starting your own podcast

And last I want to share with you 3 tips if you are thinking of starting your own podcast. Thinks that I learned the hard way throughout my podcast journey and I want to share it with you so you can avoid these mistakes.

Mistake 1 – I did not create my podcast blog until later

I did not create my podcast blog on my own website from the start. Sarah and I just finished creating the blog of all our past episodes a few weeks ago and it was a lot of work to do this for about 45 historic episodes. So if you are thinking about starting a podcast and you think having a blog on your own website or like me, creating your own website for the podcast, makes sense to you in the long run, then I can just recommend you to start it straight away. It took us a couple of months to catch up with all of this work after 10 months of running the podcast already and it was quite painful. So please learn from my mistakes🙂

Mistake 2 – I did not use video for the first 6 months

I mentioned it before but if it makes sense for you to be more visible to create your own brand, start straight away with filming your podcast recordings and use the video format for Youtube and for social media content. I would have loved for me to be brave enough to have done it from the start but it took me 6 months to get there. So be brave and be bold and use the time you are already putting into your podcast and straight away show your beautiful face on camera. (Episode 27)

Mistake 3 – Don’t wait to get started

And the third tip that I have for you is just to get started. If you just considering it now or already for months or even years, I can just advise you to get started. It is much easier than you think. All the tech and the programs and publishing process sound more difficult than it is. It’s really not that hard to publish a podcast. And a year from now you wish you had started today. So take this as a sign to start your own podcast or something else that you are pondering about for a while. Just get started even if it feels hard or overwhelming at first. Even if your first few episodes, blog posts or videos are not that great. The important bit is to just get started! A great book to read that helps with procrastination and how to finally just do the hard things is “Eat that Frog” by Brian Tracy. I will link it for you in the show notes. When I want to get myself to start something that is out of my comfort zone, I say “Eat that Frog” to myself. It really helps me a lot to just get started!

I am finishing off this episode with the wise words of Dr Joe Dispenza:

“You are greater than you think, more powerful than you know and more unlimited than you could ever dream. So go for it! Do it! You can do anything – so go out in the world and do it!”

Two easy ways to show your appreciation!

If you found value in today’s episode, here’s what you can do to show your support:

First, consider making a donation to the podcast. Every little bit helps to cover the costs of producing and hosting the show. And ensures that I can continue to bring you the latest insights and opinions on the topic of energy and improving your life.

Second, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This helps boost the podcast’s visibility and attract new listeners, which helps me create more tailored content for you to enjoy.

So whether you choose to donate, leave a rating and review, or both, know that you’re an integral part of my vision. You are helping everyone who struggles with burnout or high-stress levels to experience how awesome their life can be. So, thank you for your support!