Three years ago, doing a podcast was the latest novelty in my life. I spent hours and hours doing research on different podcast formats, different equipment, different marketing strategies. I was going to be the next Joe Rogan, the next Howard Stern.
But I found out that:
- I am not a talented speaker. My speech is mired with “Ums” and “Ahs”, as well as many others, sound crutches.
- I have a big Spanish accent. It’s not just the accent, it’s that often I mispronounce words, I misconjugate verbs and I make a myriad of grammar mistakes that make me feel embarrassed.
- I am a slow thinker. It takes me a moment to organize ideas in my head and to find the proper words to verbalize them, and give an intelligent answer to my podcast guest.
So I accepted after the first year, that I wasn’t going to become the next Joe Rogan. But I didn’t quit.
I found that podcasting was:
- teaching me how to become a better communicator.
- it was forcing me to read every day and thus become more informed, and
- I was having access to people to whom I regularly don’t have access.
So I stuck with it and I built a routine to help me keep on going.
The routine
Social Media
Right after preparing my first coffee of the day, I fire up the computer and check out social media.
I use Facebook to see what’s happening with my family, LinkedIn to see what’s happening in the Montreal community, and Twitter to follow my favorite authors. Instagram never made sense to me and I found it cumbersome, so I closed my account. I don’t need to be everywhere.
I consider social media as part of my job. I ‘like’ a few postings, I make a few comments on other people’s posting and I make sure to post something of my own on either LinkedIn or Twitter or both.
I am not much into engaging or tagging other people (or being tagged) but I know that curious podcast listeners (and future guests) like to check out my profile and I like to have what it’s considered to be an organic and natural social media feed.
I would prefer not to spend any time on social media, but I see it as part of the job, so I try to do it as efficiently as possible.
The News
I read mostly the headlines on my Google New feed and The New York Times. I am not a subscriber of the New York Times, I am too cheap for that, but I get a sense of what’s going on in the world. If I find something that picks my interest, I Google it and I get the gist of it. To be honest, after looking at these headlines, I feel that I just wasted 15-20 minutes of my life, other times I feel dirty by being exposed to so much bickering.
I also like to check out Yahoo Finance to see how my stocks are doing. I own mostly index funds, I have owned the same index funds for many years, so there is nothing to get excited about, but occasionally I buy an individual stock that holds my interest for a couple of weeks until I sell it or until I stop caring about it.
The hunt for new guests
The lifeblood of my podcast is the guests. Every day I have to go on a hunt. My favorite hunting place is the Amazon book store. If it’s on the first page, either the author is great at manipulating the Amazon algorithm, or people really like her book.
Ideally, I send three emails per day. My response rate is less than 30%, but I am always surprised to find out who says yes.
Also, I have built some relationships with some book publishing houses and occasionally they ask me to interview their authors. I consider this a big win. It’s as if someone did par of my job for me.
Working on my craft
I have never considered myself a good writer, so I have to do writing exercises every day. I have an English manual that I follow. I do about 30 minutes of writing exercises and I check that box.
Reading for my next episode
Most of my guests are authors, so I try to read their most recent books. Either they send me a free digital copy or I read the free sample chapter on the Amazon Kindle store. I read for about half-hour and I take notes on interesting questions I could ask the author on behalf of my audience.
Keeping up with SEO
Organic traffic (Google) is the main source of traffic to my site.
At the beginning of my journey, I believed all the hype about social media. I believed that social media was the be-all and end-all of website traffic, but nothing is further from the truth. Sure, if you spend a gazillion hours on social media, creating gimmicks so that people would look at your profile, I am sure that you would get some traffic, but that traffic is made up of lurkers who have no intention of sticking around your website. If you want some real website visitors, the best alternative is to work on your SEO.
My SEO strategy is to optimize one old blog post per day. I check how much traffic that blog post is generating and I try to improve the content. If the blog post has become irrelevant, then I delete it. There is nothing Google (and humans) dislike more than obsolete content.
The Real Work
Recording an interview
Of course, to interview anyone, I have to do a lot of research. In addition to reading their books, I take a look at their social media profiles, their Wikipedia pages, their “About” pages, their Amazon profile page, and I listen to some of the previous interviews they have done with other podcasters.
I set up my recording equipment, I wish myself good luck, I make the call, and I press the record button.
The more interviews I do, the more I can block it out of my head that it’s a podcast and the more it becomes an organic conversation.
No matter what people tell you about being on the microphone, they will tell you all these theories to improve your communication skills, the only teacher is experience. The more you practice, the more it’s easier to improve. You improve in one area of your conversation, and then you improve in another area of the conversation. Hopefully, one day it would become an excellent product for the listening audience, for the guest, and for yourself.
Podcast editing of blog post writing
On the second half of the day, I answer emails and I tie loose ends.
After the emails, I begin the process of editing and publishing a previously recorded episode or I write a blog post. If possible, I do this routine five days a week. At the end of the week, I should have produced five pieces of original content.
Generally, I publish at night after I finish the work. Yes, I know, some social media gurus suggest publishing your work in the morning, but since I don’t believe in the power of social media, I do it when I get done.
Unwinding at the end of the day
At the end of the day, after supper, I read for pleasure, I read anything that catches my fancy, that feeds my imagination, that makes me dream, that makes me believe in humanity, that fills me with optimism.
After reading, I do about 30 minutes of yoga, I empty my mind and I go to bed.
Conclusion
What I just described is an ideal day, it’s how I Do the work, it’s the daily grind of creating a podcast. Of course, not all days are like that. Every day has something unexpected happening that may interrupt my flow, but if I can do my work five days a week, I can say to myself and to my tribe that I had a good week, that I did the work.
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