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The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E653 - You Allow Your Own Distractions - Podcast Lessons applied from Do It Today by Darius Foroux
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Okay, we're rolling. Hey, welcome back to the how to Podcast series. Glad to have you here. Yeah, a little different music, right? We're doing a little mini series, so we changed up the music. Is that okay? You all right with that? Okay, good. My name is Dave. Welcome to the show. If your first time here, then you wouldn't know that I changed the music. So let's just go back there and go. Okay, let's move on. So we are doing a little miniseries around a book called Do It Today by Darius Faroux. And what we're doing is I'm pulling out some key parts of the book. It's not a podcast book per se, but there's a lot of great things in there that can challenge us as podcasters, and I wanted to share them with you. As I was reading this book, I was thinking of you, and I wanted to share it with you and bring up some things that might help you in your show. So today, I want to talk about the fact that you. Yeah, you. I'm pointing at you, and I'm kind of pointing at me at the same time. You. We allow our own distractions. We allow it to happen. We really do some podcast lessons for you from do it your. Do It Today from Darius Forou how to Podcast series. Let's go. So I'd like to know from you, and you can respond over at howtopodcast Ca Speak Pipelink. It's a way to leave a voice message for the show, and I love hearing from you. So a. First of all, I want to know who you are, where you are in this big, huge world of ours. If you have a podcast, tell me the name of your podcast, because then everyone else will hear it as well. When I play your message on this very show and then answer this question, what is one of the biggest things that kills motivation for you as a podcaster? What just stops you derails you from your motivation. Okay, in your show, what is it? I'd really like to hear what stops you in your tracks? Because I think it's different for a lot of us, and it's the one thing we have in common is it'll happen at some point, but how it happens, I think is different from a lot of us. So let me know howtopodcast ca. What is that thing that just. That just stops you, right? Is it like your social media promotion of your episodes? Is it overflowing emails, Family. Families, like, hey, why are you podcasting? What is it? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I'D love to connect with you as well. Hear your voice. You're hearing my voice. It's only fair I get to hear your voice. Howtopodcast. Ca let me know. Distractions don't actually ambush you. They only win if you permit them to. If you allow them to. As I was reading through Do It Today by Darius Varoux, there's something that caught me. It was like, if you don't allow it, meeting distractions, it can't bother you. For podcasters like us, it's really, actually connects really well. We set up a recording session, get the mic ready, and then all of a sudden we get all these notifications pop up on our phone, right? Oh, somebody left up some message. Oh, we got a review. Oh, something happened. Oh, it's an email. And we get pulled away into endless scrolling. During our brainstorming and planning part and creation of our podcast emails. Ding. Mid intro, we're like, oh, I should handle this right now. I should stop and just focus on this. And suddenly 20 minutes vanish away just like that. Family calls out, oh, dinner. So and so's here. Ding dong, right? The door goes. The dog barks. Males here. I got to grab another coffee. I got to do this. Oh, I should throw a load of laundry in the washing machine. And we still haven't done our podcast yet, right? We still haven't done it. We're still like, why this stuck? Why am I doing this? We're on this kind of, this endless loop of distractions. And they're not accidents, though. We're hand handing our permissions over to the distractions. We're inviting chaos into our studio time, installing our episodes that could really inspire our audience. And we're getting caught in this. So how do we, how do we combat this? How do you combat this? I think we need to build our podcast fortress. I don't know if you did this when you were a kid. I remember building these, whether to me at the time, they seemed like elaborate forts. In my home, I take the. The couch, or chesterfield, whatever you call it, apart. I take all the cushions off. I'd grab pillows and blankets and I'd make this a coffee table. I would make this whole world. And I'm sure my mom loved it. The fact that I just upended the entire living room, probably like moments before people were coming over. My timing was not that great, but I would create these forts and they were, like, powerful, right? My imagination would just run wild. I think in podcasting, we need to create our own version of a fortress. A fun Place to play, a safe place with no distractions. I know not all of us have a dedicated recording space. We're sharing our recording time with our family and maybe we're doing it from the kitchen table or a bedroom. We got to squeeze it around nap time and bedtime and the neighbor who likes to cut his lawn every Monday morning at 7am we have all these different things that we have to navigate. And having our own dedicated spaces are luxury for many people in podcasting. I'm grateful I have a space, but I do have people above me in my house, my dog barking. I have a bunch of different things going on all the time. I try to limit the amount of noise, but life is life, right? Sometimes you just got to edit that stuff out. But having that kind of recording, do not disturb sign hanging from your door, it's nice. I think that we need to. To figure out a way to do our day to day podcasting stuff in blocks and give ourselves breaks as well so that we're not just chained to our desk and not getting up and getting some exercise, clearing our head, resting our voice. Right. We need to. We need to do what we call like a distraction audit and do it live in the moment while we're recording. So. So picture this on your next recording, grab a notepad and jot down every single interruption. 10 10:02 Instagram link 10:15 Email ping and after review it and look at what you've written down. Then the next section, block them proactively, like pick one and just block that one thing off the list. Turn off your phone, put your phone away. If your phone is right beside you right now. My phone's right beside me right now. And I've looked at it like seven times since I've been started this episode. It's just right there. And emails are coming in and people are responding and I'm like, oh, I want to. I want to get to that. And it's pulling my attention away from you in the moment. It's happening as I do this. I think we need to audit our time, capture what's distracting us in the moment, and then make a plan on how we're going to erase that to give us back the space we need so that we could be more productive with our time. I think that's what we're getting out of this book, is that Darius is challenging us and do it today, that we need to have a plan to address the things that derail us and pull us away from what we should be doing in our show as Creative people. I think we need to own our distractions and not place the blame on the distraction itself. I think we need to own this. This is ours to control. This is ours to deal with. You're not a victim of all those buzzing alerts and notifications. You're the gatekeeper. You are the one that allows things in. You're the goalkeeper. You're the one who keeps the ball out of the net. So it's up to you to make the decisions on how you're going to deal with it so that you can reclaim your energy and your time so that you're not draining yourself in the process of creating your content. You can be more focused on telling a better story, having better edits in your podcast, because you're focused on it being more consistent with how you release your episodes and when you do it and growing your audience, reaching out to listeners. They're going to feel it. Your listeners are going to feel your organization and your lack of distractions. It is very difficult for me with some of the podcasts about podcasting, where the host goes off on wild tangents. Some of the podcasters do, like a live taping of their show in front of a live audience online. So they're on YouTube, they're on LinkedIn, they're on a bunch of different places, but they're distracted. They can't focus. And they do like half a sentence and they're on to the next sentence. They don't complete a thought and they're so caught up with the chat, they're caught up with what's going on and tech and the screen and go to that screen and a sound effect and a thing and a blah, blah, blah. And as a listener and a viewer, you're like, can you just do the show? Like, I. You're not even finishing your sentences. You have so many incomplete thoughts, and then they don't even edit on top of that. They throw it out as is and go, ah, it's good enough. I think we need to audit one session of our podcast recording time this week and, and figure out where the gaps are. Where are the things that we are allowing our distractions to take us away, and why do we value these distractions so much? We need to guard our focus like it's the most valuable part of our podcasting and what we do behind the scenes. Because if we don't guard our focus, we're going to lose it. No permission, no chaos, just pure creativity. I think it's time for us to take back the excuses that we have that we tell ourselves that it's okay to be distracted. Again, you're the goalkeeper of your distractions. So if you want to be distracted, you will be. If you don't want to be distracted, then you start removing the distractions one by one by one till you get to the point where they don't have a hold on you anymore. So my encouragement for you this week, next episode, is that you find the quiet. You find a better spot in your calendar, a better time of day. You find a quieter time of day. You don't show up at podcasting tired. Just like you don't go shopping at the grocery store when you're hungry. Don't come to podcasting when you're tired because it's really hard to fake energy. It's really hard to pretend that you got it all together and that you're in it for the listener because you can hardly keep yourself entertained in the moment. So if you're bored, your audience is already gone. Just keep that in mind. So show up, be you, and don't let the distractions take you away from your content and from your audience. Don't be easily distracted and focus in your time. Develop this. It's going to be different for all of us. It's going to be different for you. What works for me probably won't work for you. And that's okay. You got to figure out what works for you. And by putting these things into place and having this hard conversation with yourself, look yourself in the mirror and go, we got to fix this. You're going to get better. Return on your investment of time. It's going to save you time, it's going to save you money. You're going to feel better about podcasting. Your family's going to get to see you again. I'm sure they'd love to see you again. Create that space in your calendar and turn off the things that distract you the most. Pick a way out of them, one by one, and you'll find. You'll find more time and find more peace and more fun back in podcasting again. Do you need any help? Let me know how to podcast ca thanks for being here. Hey, it's Dave. Thank you for sticking around to the end. This is where we do our call to action, or pathway to engagement as I like to call it. And here's what's interesting. I've been doing this podcast for years now, hosting meetups, helping podcasters, editing for people, doing a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. And I when we have people who follow the show, reach out to me and say, dave, guess what? I'm like, what? They said, I just hired my first consultant. I'm gonna go work with them and help me with my podcast. And I kind of go, wait a minute, you what? They're like, yeah, yeah, I found a podcast consultant and they're gonna help me with my show. It's hard to pretend to be happy. Why? Because I want to work with you. I like, wait a minute, like Dave, you know the guy Dave who's been doing the how to podcast series and eight other podcasts and the guy that's been with you the whole time and we've done meetups, we've done time together, we've spent time together. And you've hired somebody else. Now maybe I'm not your person. That's okay. I'm totally fine with that. By the way, keep coming back. I love having you here. But if you're like, well, I didn't hire you because you don't have anything like that, do you? And I do, and I have been for a long time and I don't talk about it enough apparently, because people are going to other people looking for things that Dave does. So in the spirit of Dave and in the spirit of making better connections with you, I do have personal coaching in podcasting. I have podcast community, I have all of the resources, I have all of the background, the history in podcasting and the love for you as a fellow podcaster. If you're looking for a podcast coach, somebody who can walk with you, somebody who cares about you, someone who is your challenger, your cheerleader and your coach. Because even though I've said on the show you can't be all three, I think I am. And I want to help you. So. HowtoPodcast ca, please, before you go searching anywhere else, come to where we started and where we met first, right here. I'd love to help you. How to podcast Ca Come reach out to me. I want to talk to you. Thanks. Okay, so you're still here. Great. The question came in from a podcaster, Dave, what should I do in my intro and what should I do in my outro? What? Any advice? And really it comes down to your audience, comes down to your content, comes down to your personality, comes down to the tone of your show. Intros, I like to say. And if you've been here before, you might have already heard me say this. Intros, I find, are best for new people, and outros are the best for long standing listeners. So if you have that in your mind that'll help you to craft better intros, better outros. So in your intro, remember that there's going to be new people coming to your show on almost every episode. That's the goal, right? New people coming in the door who don't know you, they don't know the show. This is their first time pressing play. They have no idea what the show's about. They don't know who you are, they don't know what this podcast is about. They don't know what happens here. They're just somebody sent them or they stumbled in and they have no idea what's happening. Right? Think of walking into a classroom when you've just transferred schools when you were a kid and you just went from one school to the next school. You walk into a brand new classroom full of a bunch of strangers and a teacher you've never met and you're like, I don't know if I'm supposed to be in this class. Right? That feeling, that's what people feel when they come to your show. So your intro needs to address that feeling. So intros are focused on new people. Outros are focused on people who have been with you the longest because they're still listing at the end of the episode. We all know that our episodes, people don't listen to the entirety of every episode. That's a fact. But the people who do stick around to this part right here where you are, this is the people that a know about the episode care enough to listen to the end. And they're still here. You're still here. The fact that you hear my voice right now, you're the minority of my listeners. True. So this part, this part here, the end of the show is for the long standing, long suffering listeners of the podcast. So talk to them like I'm doing with you. Talk to them at the end. Because the new people, they might have come and gone already, the people who stick around to the end are the people that you can invest in. They're the ones who care. They care it enough to stay to the end. So honor them. Focus your attention on them. That's why I've been doing in the last 153 episodes these little bonus pieces at the end. And you're like, you have been. Yeah, ever since episode 500, I've been doing these little bonus pieces. So do that. Honor the people who love your show and follow you and love what you do. Put that at the end. Super important. Intros are for new people. Outros are for long standing listeners. If you have that focus, I think you'll come up with a better intro and a better outro. Go try it. Let me know how it works out. Podcast ca catch you on the next one. See you tomorrow.