← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E579 - Launching Your First Podcast Episode - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro
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Okay, we're rolling. Welcome back to the how to Podcast series. It's Dave with you. We're just plugging along here. We're, we're making our way through and it's 24 steps from beginner to pro. It's our podcaster's path. This is designed to be a starting point for you. When you come to the how to podcast series, you're going to see a ton, we call it a crap ton of podcast episodes. And it's a little bit overwhelming for somebody new. So somebody reached out to me and said, dave, Dave, could you just create like a starting point that kind of gets us into podcasting to get us going, kind of a beginning, middle and end, like the whole thing. And then we can go into the episodes and pick the episodes that really work for us and learn based on the titles. And that makes a lot of sense. So what I've done is I'm creating 24 episodes in a row over a 24 hour period, February 13th and 14th, 2026. So I'm going live. I'm recording episodes and posting them hourly. And this is a huge undertaking, a challenge I gave myself at the beginning of 2026. Today's the day. So I've been going since 10am It's 3pm for me right now as I'm recording and I've done live on YouTube, I've done a live on LinkedIn and I'm just playing. I'm out there connecting with people, great people like you, and I'm really enjoying this. It's really putting me into a, a unique space. I'm hoping my voice holds out. You'll tell episode to episode. Kind of the my voice degrading between episodes. I hope it's well and I'll stay hydrated, keep going. But thank you for being here. I want to focus on the launch of your very first podcast episode. Wow. It's going to happen, right? It's going to happen. You're going to hit publish for the first time ever as a brand new podcaster. And we want to focus on this. We want to give it credit, we want to give it attention because this is a monumental moment for the life of a podcaster. Episode one, you hit publish. And then what? When you publish episode one of your new podcast, that first published post, where it goes live, it goes up, it's going to go to Apple and Spotify and Audible and YouTube and wherever else you do it, you do the thing. You did it. You. All of this planning, all of this heartache, all of this, all the tears, everything that you put into this, the passion. You hit publish. And you're like, what did I just do? What did I just do? You are crossing, crossing over that threshold, and it marks a pivotal moment for you as a podcaster. Hitting publish on your first episode. This is where hesitation meets action, and your voice finally enters the world. You are now in the arena for. For the first time. You've come down from the seats as a spectator and you've jumped onto the field. This is where it all happens. Imagine sitting at your desk. Your heart's pounding, your cursor is hovering over that upload button. You haven't clicked it yet. You've expected instant acclaim, a flood of downloads, messages pouring in, people loving your show. Just flood of dopamine hits from people reaching out to you, saying, oh my gosh, where have you been? And instead, silence. Nothing. The world carries on. It feels like you just spent all this time on nothing. A handful of plays from Friends, but no fireworks, no parades. You're not the mayor for the day of your city. Nothing. The gap between expectation and reality is normal. And it's your first lesson in podcasting resilience when the world doesn't show up for you. When you post your episode one. Welcome to podcasting. This is a common experience. You're in the right place. I want you to understand something right from the beginning. The debut episode of your podcast isn't about having a polish. Polished. Perfect. I just did it. Polished. Perfect. Episode. It's about courage. You did something where other people have never got to where you've gotten. Listeners forgive rough edges when they sense that you are truly you and you're doing your best. You're doing what you can with what you have, where you are. They get the intent and they will overlook some ums, some ahs, some stumbles, because we all do it. In the course of your day, you will not be perfect. You'll have a lot of imperfect moments just like everybody else. So you trying to be less than, less than human by being more perfect than everyone else is not helping you. You need to show up as you. We talk about authenticity doesn't excuse blatant mistakes that you could fix. Great. Fix the mistakes, but something obvious. Then do that. But don't get hung up on it, especially when you're first starting. Done is better than perfect. Get it out there. Get some feedback. Surround yourself with a challenger, somebody who's going to challenge you to do better. Find somebody who will cheer you on as a cheerleader and also Find yourself a coach. All three of these are three different people, by the way. Not one person who does everything. So find these three people as a new podcaster and you will see your podcast grow. Listeners will forgive the rough edges. It's okay. Tiny numbers as a podcaster is not failure. It's proof that you did the thing. You shipped out an episode. Most shows start with double digits. Growth compounds from consistent presence, not a viral launch. It's not about a big fancy launch that's going to get you sky soaring, sky high into the charts somewhat. It's about. It's about serving your audience, Creating content that can't be ignored because it's just that good. And pouring your heart into it to the best of your abilities without overextending yourself, without editing that episode 35 times without overthinking, without throwing it away and starting from scratch again without obsessing over. Could I said that one sentence better than this way or that way? I can tell you your audience is not going to pick up on that and they're not going to judge you as hard as you are judging yourself. When you start getting really focused on making your show perfect, I want you to ask yourself, would you say these same things about my show? Would you criticize my show to the degree that you're criticizing your own brand new unreleased podcast? Probably not. You're probably more inwardly critical than you are outwardly critical. So it's time to listen to your podcast with listener ears, not podcasting ears. Your podcast is never going to be good enough. I'm telling you, this episode is not good enough. I would love to do better, I would love to do more with this, but right now I'm under a time frame where I'm doing an hourly episode every hour, 24 hours straight. So this is going to be good enough to be, well, serving. I hope you enjoy it, I hope it brings you value. But I'm going to move on to the next episode after this. And that's where it comes, where you, you get to a point as a podcaster over time where you stop fretting about the little things and you focus on the bigger thing. Serving your audience, building great content, doing your research, showing up, being passionate, loving what you're doing and connecting with people. Everything else just kind of is in the margins of life. And you will see your, your over abundance of caution and super critical review of your content. And your process is going to fade away over time because you're going to focus more on the people who listen than the content. You're creating and how you did it. So keep that in mind. At this early stage, you're going to be hypercritical about everything that you do, but you need to have a limit. I'm not going to re edit this show 35 times before it goes live. I'm not going to spend 40 hours editing a 30 minute podcast. No, you need to set some limits and you need to set some guidelines. And you need those three people in your life, somebody to challenge you, somebody to cheer you on, and somebody to coach you. Because if you do all this by yourself, you're not going to get the wisdom of those three people and the support that comes with them as well. Here's where we go from words to action. This is we're on a path, right? 24 steps for going from beginner to pro. Steps require you to move like you actually have to pick up your feet. We're taking steps together. So this requires action. So this episode requires action. I want you to record and release a simple pilot or trailer this week for your podcast. If you haven't released anything, no overthinking, just press, record and record something. Snap a screenshot or publish the confirmation and share it with your social feed or your podcast community and do like hashtag firstpublish something like that, and then put this out into the world. And that public moment cements your commitment and invites others to to cheer your step across that threshold. You're going to get people cheering you on. You got this. Your voice is now live. You're gonna have people supporting you because you did the thing. So before you get super focused on making it perfect, make it available. By making it available, then you can get feedback. You will not get an ounce of feedback from an unpublished episode that sits on your hard drive or in your brain on your phone that nobody ever will hear. Make it available before you try to make it perfect. And the people that surround you, they'll give you the feedback for you to make your show the best show it can possibly be. Do what you can with what you have where you are. Launching your very first episode is a huge step. If you need help to get to that point, I'd love to be there for you. HowtoPodcast ca. Thanks for listening. New episode coming next. Here we go. If you're looking for more information about podcasting and you're looking for a community around podcasting, come check out howtopodcast ca. It's my website where everything we do around podcasting, this show, our community or meetup resources There's a lot of great stuff there for you. A whole list of free tools that you can use as a podcaster to save yourself some money. That's based on my website, podcastforfree.com, which just leads you back to my regular website. And if you want any more information as well, there's a calendar link on my website where you and I can meet anytime. It's always there. It's always available. Whatever you see available on your end. I'm ready to talk podcasting with anybody. I'd love to help you no matter what your questions are. We can grab a virtual coffee and we can talk through what your big idea is. Maybe some of your struggles in podcasting, maybe some motivational things, maybe some growth things. Happy to help you over at howtopodcast ca come check out the website. Let's connect. Stick around because we have a bunch more episodes here on The Podcaster's Path. 24 episodes here in a row. That's meant to be kind of your starting point for your journey as a podcaster or if you're going to start a new show or you want to refresh your journey and catch up on maybe some of the things you might have missed. That's what this show is about. I'm glad you're here. My name is Dave. Love to help you reach out anytime. HowToPodcast CA take care. Talk soon.