Week One
During which I decide to start a podcast.
There’s nothing like a friend telling you she’s going to start a podcast to motivate you to start your own. (Thank you, Phoebe!)
I’ve been sitting on this idea for over a year. I bought the domain name; set up a google workspace, email, and website; ordered a microphone and pop filter online; and started playing around with recording software. I even listened to a podcast on how to start a podcast and drafted scripts.
But then, I stopped…
After several months, I realized I was never going to follow through on my idea, and I canceled all my subscriptions. Waste of money, right?
But then a few things happened recently where it all started coming back together again.
I’ve been thinking about how much time we spend on our phones every day. Playing solitaire. Watching YouTube. And all the things we could be doing instead. I had a slow summer, and I did not take advantage of all that extra time. I didn’t go to the gym for two hours every day. I didn’t cook or bake more. I didn’t garden or read more books or try to build my business. I hauled my kids around to baseball tournaments and watched a lot of Olympic volleyball. But I felt like I wasted my whole summer, and then as soon as school started work suddenly got real busy.
I’ve never been much of an entrepreneur until I decided to work for myself. That was scary, and I took the plunge knowing I had a fallback plan. But what I do for work isn’t exactly entrepreneurial. I’m a consultant in the health care and public policy world. I see all these amazing people around me and in the news who have an idea, and they just go for it. Some people are delusional, some are stubborn, and some just know they have a good idea. “Dare to fail,” I kept telling myself.
I want to write a book before I die. When people ask you to imagine a blank piece of paper and what would you do if you could do anything in the world, my answer is: book author. I write a lot for work, and I know I’m a good writer. I kept travel journals in college, had a blog back when Blogspot was a thing, and wrote funny letters to my family. Travel narratives were my favorite genre, and my friends and I would pass around anything we had purchased at the English section of the bookstore in whatever country we were in at the time. They say you should write what you know, and I always thought that meant I could write a memoir. I have started several times, but I never knew how to structure it or fill in dialog or whether anything I wrote would be interesting to other people.
Recently, it occurred to me that I know a few other things. I know about lobbying, and I know there are a million stories out there that others would find funny, interesting, or shocking. I also know that they type of writing I do and the type of person I am would translate well to non-fiction. I often work on projects where I interview subject matter experts, organize the topics into a fashion that makes sense, conduct additional research to make the content more compelling and factually accurate. I analyze and synthesize information into a readable and digestible flow for non-expert audiences. And I make it sound good!
Thus, I decided to give it another go. Since last Friday, I have:
Relistened to the how to start a podcast podcast;
Repurchased the domain name, reset up a google workspace, email, and website;
Developed a logo using AI (which was a hilarious endeavor because the software is not as far along as I would have expected);
Came up with a tagline and summary;
Actually started building out the pages of the website, including:
a homepage
a password-protected guest registration page, which includes an embedded google calendar where guests can schedule their interview time slot and an embedded form to register and sign a release waiver
a post-interview questionnaire to gather feedback on guests’ experiences and how I can improve
a tips for guests page
this blog (note to self: spend more time recording, and less time writing!)
an eventual merch page
Drafted new scripts for intro, outro, social media plugs, the trailer, and the first episode;
Created spreadsheets for potential guests to invite (and track their responses) and future episode ideas;
Recorded — and figured out how to edit — the trailer and first episode, including laying down intro and outro music, splicing segments together, improving audio quality, and removing pauses;
Created several checklists, including pre-recording reminders for eliminating background noise (forgot to silence the vibration on my phone and someone was cooking downstairs, oops!)
Set up my social media handles
And… the part I never did last time because I was too scared… reached out to people I know to start setting up interviews.
I have four interviews scheduled between now and the end of the month, plus I have a few ideas for episodes with only myself that I will need to research, write scripts for, and record. Once I have a sufficient bank of episodes ready to publish, I will be able to launch on Spotify, YouTube, and other podcast outlets.
I have no idea if this podcast will ever go anywhere, and I am not doing this to try to become an influencer or turn this into my sole source of income. I am not social media savvy, and podcasts are not my favorite medium for consuming information. I am doing this because:
I wholeheartedly believe it’s a good idea. I have done research on similar podcasts, and I think this one will be different enough to appeal to a wider audience.
I want to gather content for an eventual book. If I can just write one, I know I’ll be able to write another.
It draws on my strengths as a researcher, writer, and interviewer.
It allows me to grow my network and my skill set.
Even though I don’t lobby anymore, it’s an opportunity to market myself as a consultant.
It’s an opportunity for other lobbyists to market themselves and try to get new clients.
It’s something to do in my spare time that is productive and allows me to channel my obsessive-compulsive, anxious tendencies into something positive, rather than sitting on my phone for hours on end.
