I’d actually made the decision to start my new podcast series in October last year, but with the holidays and Sam and my trip to Australia it had to wait a few months for it to come to fruition.
After my first series on iTunes back in 2016 was entitled “Reinvention – creating the life you want”. Initially I found it hard going as I had to learn the software, overlay the music, write the script and then pull it all together to produce the final product…and that’s before trying to get it posted to iTunes and Podbean. Fun times!
A great introduction, but what I found was that it was at least a two week cycle minimum to produce a single episode.
Don’t get me wrong it was both a cathartic and illuminating experience from a deep personal and emotional perspective.
I literally poured my heart into the series with my candid and authentic (okay, my words) approach to the topic. It was my way of explaining the thought process into the why and how of my personal reinvention.
I just felt like it had to come out…no other way to explain it.
Perhaps it was a way to frame my journey in “long form” as I often get lots of questions about this topic when I speak.
For me it was more about the actual act of creating and publishing the podcast, and putting it out to the universe with the intent of helping others.
Overall I enjoyed creating it and, so late last year I began to ruminate on the idea of creating a new podcast series using a collection of my stories.
The great thing is that I have a ton of content from my many trips over the past couple of years.
So, I decided to call my podcast series “Stories from the road”.
That said, it’s one thing to have content and another entirely to have compelling or interesting content that would capture the imagination of the listener.
I thought that about around 15 minutes was the perfect commute time per episode. And using normal conversational style share with my listeners some tidbits of my travels to a city or country that I’ve experienced, thus giving you some insights or tips for your visit.
A part of me always thinks…why would someone listen me and my stories?
Granted there is always a seed of doubt when you throw caution to the wind and try something new. Overcoming this initial barrier is often the most difficult part in getting started in an endeavour like this.
That being said to develop and produce a podcast series you need to know what you’re signing up for in terms of time, energy and commitment.
Definitely not for the faint of heart, but, like my books which each took a year to develop, edit and publish (yep, that was after you had all of the content including photos ready to go) you need to make a personal commitment to see it through.
Now this may be in the form of the number of episodes you want to publish, or a commitment to always publish an episode a week, or multiple if you’re super keen, but committed you must be.
What I’ve found is that key ingredient with any creative endeavour like this is your personal consistency.
You might have noticed that I always publish and send out the MailChimp email to my distribution list on Friday nights at 8:00 pm EST.
I write, edit and prepare the story over the course of the week along with the MailChimp campaign email so that when Friday night rolls around everything is in place and pre-scheduled to be sent out without my intervention.
Your readers, or in this case your listeners, want consistency. Other than your incredible content, it’s the number one thing for creating a successful blog or podcast.
This has been my one secret ingredient to having over 600,000 people read my weekly blog…consistency. 🙂 There, you now have my secret to blogging success
I often read other writers blogs, and am always disappointed when a blog I follow just stops and ceases to be published.
It makes me feel like a jilted lover…just sayin!
So far, I’ve been able to write, record and publish five episodes, but luckily I have between 25 and 30 scripts ready to go and that’s without my upcoming trips to Boracay next month, which will be a dosey!
I seemed to have mastered the podcasting process as it take me, on average between 2 and 3 hours to prepare, record, then publish an episode. Certainly much faster than my original series. 🙂
It’s nice to see that my first series is still getting listeners with over 1,000 downloads so far and counting.
Early days yet but the new podcast series “Stories from the road” has been quite well received. Admittedly the first two episodes were a little rough around the edges in that my delivery felt a little stilted as I’d hoped for, but as you listen to the subsequent episodes I hope you notice that the flow and style are improving.
I’m looking forward to getting further afield in terms of the diversity of my trips and locations.
You can find my podcasts on either of the following locations:
Like all things in life, it may take a couple of episodes to become addicted, but don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. Lol!!! 🙂
Until next week!
Ciao
1 Comment on "Stories from the road…"
Adell
March 28, 2019Thanks for publishing this awesome article. I'm a long time reader but I've never been compelled to leave a comment.
I subscribed to your blog and shared this on my Facebook.
Thanks again for a great article! https://eleganzamagazine.com