WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:02.319 I have a challenge for you this year. 00:00:02.639 --> 00:00:05.360 Complete your unfinished podcast episodes. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:14.400 Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.344 I'm Daniel J. Lewis. Do you have any unfinished episodes? 00:00:18.425 --> 00:00:21.065 Maybe you've already recorded them, but you haven't gotten around 00:00:21.065 --> 00:00:22.024 to editing them. 00:00:22.024 --> 00:00:25.704 Or maybe you've started writing the outline or even the script, 00:00:25.785 --> 00:00:30.585 but you never finished. Then this is my challenge to you. 00:00:31.379 --> 00:00:34.659 This year, and I'm not going to say today, this week, or this 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:37.299 month, although that would be great if you do it, but at least 00:00:37.299 --> 00:00:40.100 this year, and I'm publishing this still near the beginning of 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:44.659 the year, this year, I challenge you to finish those unfinished 00:00:44.659 --> 00:00:45.140 episodes. 00:00:45.725 --> 00:00:49.645 I've got a few thoughts that I hope will inspire you for this. 00:00:49.645 --> 00:00:52.524 First, it's a quotation I heard long ago. 00:00:52.524 --> 00:00:54.765 If it'll keep, it'll preach. 00:00:54.924 --> 00:00:58.799 This phrase usually applies to holding up against scrutiny, it's 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.479 often used in circles for pastors and sermons and preachers and 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:02.799 such. 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.079 But the first time I heard it was when I was at an evening church 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:08.799 service, and the power went out several minutes before the 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:10.479 preacher was about to start his sermon. 00:01:10.715 --> 00:01:13.834 We had already sung multiple psalms in the growing darkness 00:01:13.834 --> 00:01:16.954 inside of that church and the lack of sound amplification. 00:01:17.194 --> 00:01:20.715 But when it came time for the sermon, the preacher realized the 00:01:20.715 --> 00:01:22.395 kids were too restless in the dark. 00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:25.689 The audience wouldn't be able to hear the message without the 00:01:25.689 --> 00:01:30.329 sound system and even if the kids were perfectly quiet, and he 00:01:30.329 --> 00:01:34.490 would be extremely distracted by the environment, basically 00:01:34.490 --> 00:01:39.215 preaching to utter darkness, which that is quite a metaphor, 00:01:39.215 --> 00:01:41.215 isn't that? That's something to think about. 00:01:41.215 --> 00:01:45.694 So he decided to dismiss the service, and instead of giving that 00:01:45.694 --> 00:01:48.974 sermon, he said, if it'll keep, it'll preach. 00:01:49.055 --> 00:01:51.774 And he admitted that he had heard that phrase said by someone 00:01:51.774 --> 00:01:52.734 else before him. 00:01:53.109 --> 00:01:57.109 His application of that saying was that if that particular sermon 00:01:57.109 --> 00:02:00.950 remained on his heart after the scrutiny of time, then he would 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:03.189 preach it again someday in the future. 00:02:03.269 --> 00:02:05.750 And he wasn't the normal pastor, so it wasn't just like he could 00:02:05.750 --> 00:02:06.229 say, hey. 00:02:06.229 --> 00:02:09.485 Come Sunday or next Wednesday or something like that to hear this 00:02:09.485 --> 00:02:09.965 sermon. 00:02:09.965 --> 00:02:13.324 It was he was going to preach on that particular night in place 00:02:13.324 --> 00:02:14.925 of who would normally preach. 00:02:15.004 --> 00:02:17.805 So he said, if it'll keep, it'll preach. 00:02:17.965 --> 00:02:21.770 So what I want you to do is look at those ideas that have been 00:02:21.770 --> 00:02:25.530 burning on your mind or that you've had on a list for a while. 00:02:25.770 --> 00:02:30.169 And if they've kept under the scrutiny of time, if you're still 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:34.805 interested in those ideas, if that script still excites you, if 00:02:34.805 --> 00:02:38.405 you still want to put that episode out, then do it. 00:02:38.645 --> 00:02:43.525 Actually, finish the episode and publish that episode or however 00:02:43.525 --> 00:02:47.840 many episodes that you have that are still sitting there on the 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:50.240 back burner. Try and complete those episodes. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:54.719 I have so many drafts in The Audacity to Podcast drafts folder 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:57.840 along with an ideas list. I have so many things on there. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:00.640 I've often talked about when I first started The Audacity to 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:02.875 Podcast and I was in my planning stage. 00:03:02.955 --> 00:03:08.715 Back in 2010, I made a list of about 35 episodes, 1 of the very 00:03:08.715 --> 00:03:11.275 few times that I wrote something on paper during planning 00:03:11.275 --> 00:03:13.514 processes because I usually like to type things out. 00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:14.769 But it was late at night. 00:03:14.769 --> 00:03:17.810 I was actually sitting in bed thinking about this because I just 00:03:17.810 --> 00:03:21.329 couldn't get the idea off my mind to start a podcast about 00:03:21.329 --> 00:03:23.810 podcasting. What a novel idea. Right? 00:03:23.969 --> 00:03:28.049 And so I made a list of about 35 topics of things that I wanted 00:03:28.049 --> 00:03:29.465 to make episodes about. 00:03:29.465 --> 00:03:33.145 I knew that I wanted The Audacity to Podcast to focus on pretty 00:03:33.145 --> 00:03:37.385 much 1 topic per episode and dive into that episode in deeper 00:03:37.385 --> 00:03:40.905 detail, but really focus everything around that 1 topic. 00:03:41.180 --> 00:03:45.500 So my list was a list of essentially 35 episodes that I knew I 00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:46.300 wanted to do. 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:48.940 There are items on that list I still haven't done today. 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:53.260 After more than 400 episodes, which should be a lot longer if I 00:03:53.260 --> 00:03:56.534 hadn't had to take such a long hiatus in the years, But I've been 00:03:56.534 --> 00:04:01.175 podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast more than 15 years now, 00:04:01.495 --> 00:04:05.094 and there's still items on that list that I haven't gotten to 00:04:05.094 --> 00:04:05.655 yet. 00:04:05.814 --> 00:04:10.135 And I continue adding to the items that I haven't gotten to yet 00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:11.819 because I think about things constantly. 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:15.819 I'm getting ideas from random places and random inspirations, I 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:16.860 put them on my list. 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:19.500 Or I start drafting an outline because it can happen at 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:21.100 completely random times. 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:24.620 I just think, oh, these couple points would be really good under 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:25.019 this point. 00:04:25.464 --> 00:04:29.625 So even before I recorded this episode, I revisited my list of 00:04:29.625 --> 00:04:33.625 ideas and I saw multiple drafts of things that I'd started 00:04:33.625 --> 00:04:36.824 preparing and some things I decided I want to do more research on 00:04:36.824 --> 00:04:38.584 that. I want to think about that more. 00:04:38.584 --> 00:04:41.769 I want to talk to more people about this before I publish content 00:04:41.769 --> 00:04:45.610 about it. I want to prepare this more. Certain things like that. 00:04:45.689 --> 00:04:47.529 And that's when I realized, wait a minute. 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:52.995 Just that, that crisis that I face with my own content is a topic 00:04:52.995 --> 00:04:56.435 in and of itself and something that you've probably faced too at 00:04:56.435 --> 00:04:57.074 some point. 00:04:57.235 --> 00:05:01.314 And it might not be topics that you have a list of, but maybe 00:05:01.314 --> 00:05:05.339 guests that you want to have on your podcast or movies that you 00:05:05.339 --> 00:05:08.699 want to review or shows that you want to talk about or products 00:05:08.699 --> 00:05:11.339 that you want to test and review or anything like that. 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:16.074 Look at that unfinished list of things, whatever that is, that 00:05:16.074 --> 00:05:19.834 unfinished list and try to complete those things this year. 00:05:19.995 --> 00:05:23.595 And a big step to doing that is my next point, complete the 00:05:23.595 --> 00:05:25.754 preproduction for draft episodes. 00:05:25.995 --> 00:05:29.115 If you're like me, you might have some episodes where you've 00:05:29.115 --> 00:05:31.899 actually started preparing for those episodes. 00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:34.620 It could be a guest that you want to interview and you've started 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:37.099 reading their book or you've started writing a list of the 00:05:37.099 --> 00:05:38.379 questions you want to ask. 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:41.500 It's a topic that you want to teach and you've started writing 00:05:41.500 --> 00:05:42.779 out your outline for that. 00:05:42.855 --> 00:05:45.175 Maybe it's some jokes that you want to tell and you've been 00:05:45.175 --> 00:05:46.694 trying to refine those jokes. 00:05:46.775 --> 00:05:50.535 Whatever kind of preproduction it is that you need to do to get 00:05:50.535 --> 00:05:54.455 that episode done that's been sitting undone for so long, work on 00:05:54.455 --> 00:05:55.175 that preproduction. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:59.199 That could be the planning, the preparation, the contacting of 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:02.960 people that could be scheduling issues, whatever that is. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:07.360 Take action on those things and complete that preproduction so 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.785 you can actually get into that production stage of recording the 00:06:11.785 --> 00:06:12.504 episode. 00:06:12.665 --> 00:06:14.745 And then you can get into the post production, which is the 00:06:14.745 --> 00:06:17.225 publishing of the episode after you edit it and do whatever kind 00:06:17.225 --> 00:06:19.785 of stuff you need to or feel that you need to do with it. 00:06:19.785 --> 00:06:24.585 But look at what you have in draft form, your draft ideas, your 00:06:24.585 --> 00:06:27.829 draft notes. Turn those things into episodes. 00:06:27.829 --> 00:06:31.029 I'm not saying you have to take everything and completely empty 00:06:31.029 --> 00:06:34.709 your draft folder or your collection of draft ideas, but I do 00:06:34.709 --> 00:06:37.990 challenge you this year, try to knock off some of those things, 00:06:37.990 --> 00:06:42.134 especially the things that have kept for years, like my previous 00:06:42.134 --> 00:06:44.055 point, if it'll keep, it'll preach. 00:06:44.134 --> 00:06:47.574 Those things that are sitting maybe just because you've been 00:06:47.574 --> 00:06:50.215 thinking, I want to prepare a little bit more for this. 00:06:50.215 --> 00:06:53.495 Well, set aside the time to actually prepare for that. 00:06:53.495 --> 00:06:56.250 If you need to do more research, if you need to schedule a call 00:06:56.250 --> 00:06:57.050 with someone. 00:06:57.129 --> 00:07:01.930 I was really inspired by this at Podfest 20 26 just recently, and 00:07:01.930 --> 00:07:05.850 I did an episode my previous episode, 4 17, was about some big 00:07:05.850 --> 00:07:06.970 takeaways from Podfest. 00:07:07.225 --> 00:07:09.785 And something I really liked during 1 of their they called it 00:07:09.785 --> 00:07:11.064 influencer meet and greets. 00:07:11.064 --> 00:07:14.745 And it's a really neat thing that they have for really structured 00:07:14.745 --> 00:07:18.665 networking where you move from table to table and each time you 00:07:18.665 --> 00:07:21.865 probably have a completely different group of people at your 00:07:21.865 --> 00:07:22.105 tables. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:24.879 Sometimes you might have 1 or 2 people that are the same, but the 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:27.120 questions are different each time when you get to a different 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.439 table and the conversation is led by someone. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.000 There's a timekeeper and all of this, so everything moves along 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:32.960 very smoothly. 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:37.514 But 1 of the things that they said is don't leave this room 00:07:37.595 --> 00:07:40.394 without an appointment with someone. 00:07:40.394 --> 00:07:45.035 Don't just say, let's follow-up, but actually make an appointment 00:07:45.035 --> 00:07:45.915 with someone. 00:07:46.074 --> 00:07:49.754 And I met a really nice young gentleman who does some podcast 00:07:49.754 --> 00:07:54.050 editing, and it turns out he's the son of 1 of the staff and he 00:07:54.050 --> 00:07:56.050 helps out also with Podfest. 00:07:56.129 --> 00:08:01.569 And he has an editing service and I have a product, PodChapters, 00:08:01.569 --> 00:08:04.689 well, 2 products, PodChapters and Podgagement that could be 00:08:04.689 --> 00:08:08.545 useful for podcast editors and service providers, especially 00:08:08.545 --> 00:08:09.425 PodChapters. 00:08:09.425 --> 00:08:13.185 Boy, if you are editing episodes for other people, PodChapters 00:08:13.185 --> 00:08:14.865 could be the perfect thing for you. 00:08:14.865 --> 00:08:17.504 In fact, there are several features in PodChapters designed 00:08:17.504 --> 00:08:21.939 specifically for editing multiple separate podcasts, not just 00:08:21.939 --> 00:08:24.180 episodes, but separate podcasts. 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:27.779 Like, you can have saved templates that even automatically apply 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:31.379 based on a filename pattern whenever you upload that filename for 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:33.220 adding the chapters and the transcript to it. 00:08:33.475 --> 00:08:37.235 Then it can automatically apply these presets to your episode. 00:08:37.315 --> 00:08:40.595 So it saves you time, speeds up your workflow, plus everything 00:08:40.595 --> 00:08:43.394 else that PodChapters does. Check it out, podchapters.com. 00:08:43.394 --> 00:08:45.955 I didn't mean to make this into a commercial for PodChapters, but 00:08:46.070 --> 00:08:49.509 I did want to speak with this gentleman about PodChapters and 00:08:49.509 --> 00:08:52.870 Podgagement because I thought this could be a great service that 00:08:52.870 --> 00:08:54.470 he could offer for his clients. 00:08:54.629 --> 00:08:58.070 And not just something like, hey, buy my product so I can make 00:08:58.070 --> 00:08:59.909 more money and you make less money. No. 00:08:59.909 --> 00:09:04.355 What I wanted to do and the selling point for it was I said this 00:09:04.355 --> 00:09:07.634 could be something that could be an extra value for your clients. 00:09:07.634 --> 00:09:10.195 So if you have clients starting to think, I'm not sure if I'm 00:09:10.195 --> 00:09:12.035 getting enough value, maybe you add this onto it. 00:09:12.035 --> 00:09:16.029 Or maybe you need to increase their price, and this is something 00:09:16.029 --> 00:09:17.629 that you can include with that. 00:09:17.629 --> 00:09:19.230 So they wouldn't just be saying, hey. 00:09:19.230 --> 00:09:21.950 We're increasing your price for our same services, but they could 00:09:21.950 --> 00:09:26.110 say, we need to increase your pricing, and we're now adding these 00:09:26.110 --> 00:09:29.735 extra services included in the new price for you. 00:09:29.735 --> 00:09:32.455 That helps to justify certain price increases and such. 00:09:32.455 --> 00:09:35.894 So had this great conversation with him, very short conversation, 00:09:35.975 --> 00:09:38.934 and I realized this is someone I need to make an appointment 00:09:38.934 --> 00:09:42.855 with. So we looked at our calendars and we scheduled it. 00:09:43.269 --> 00:09:46.709 And we had that follow-up call and he was very excited about what 00:09:46.709 --> 00:09:50.149 Podgagement and PodChapters could do for him and his company and 00:09:50.149 --> 00:09:52.389 his clients editing for podcasters. 00:09:52.389 --> 00:09:57.184 And that came from not just a, hey, let's follow-up sometime. 00:09:57.184 --> 00:09:57.745 Yeah. 00:09:57.745 --> 00:10:01.345 Sometime doesn't really happen unless you're really good at 00:10:01.345 --> 00:10:03.424 following up. It was really good. 00:10:03.664 --> 00:10:06.705 As I've heard from SAS Academy that I was a member of for a 00:10:06.705 --> 00:10:09.440 little while, book a meeting from a meeting. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:13.919 Bam fam is what they said. Book a meeting from a meeting. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:16.079 Bam fam, b a m f a m. 00:10:16.079 --> 00:10:20.000 Try to do that with your own podcast or with whatever it is that 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:21.279 you're trying to do right now. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:24.904 Instead of just reaching out saying, hey, can we try and find a 00:10:24.904 --> 00:10:28.264 time? Say, I would love to schedule an interview with you. 00:10:28.345 --> 00:10:30.345 Here are some times available. Please pick 1. 00:10:30.345 --> 00:10:33.304 Or here's my booking link. Let's pick a time for next week. 00:10:33.304 --> 00:10:36.345 Or are you available next week on this day? 00:10:36.345 --> 00:10:38.500 Give me some times that might work for you. 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:41.220 Whatever your system is for scheduling, try and make it easy on 00:10:41.220 --> 00:10:41.860 your guest. 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:44.899 Or whatever it is that you need to do to finish that 00:10:44.899 --> 00:10:48.579 preproduction for your drafts so that you can move those drafts 00:10:48.579 --> 00:10:52.304 into ready to publish, and then eventually published. 00:10:52.544 --> 00:10:56.784 Next, once you've recorded those episodes, move them from drafts. 00:10:56.784 --> 00:10:59.985 Now you've recorded them or maybe you've got several episodes 00:10:59.985 --> 00:11:03.824 like this where they have already been recorded, but you've not 00:11:03.824 --> 00:11:05.024 done anything with them yet. 00:11:05.299 --> 00:11:08.899 And it's not just because you like to batch record and then batch 00:11:08.899 --> 00:11:11.860 process, but these might be episodes that have been sitting 00:11:11.860 --> 00:11:13.139 around for a while. 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:17.939 Maybe there's a little bit of an inferiority complex or impostor 00:11:17.939 --> 00:11:21.584 syndrome where you might feel like, this episode wasn't very 00:11:21.584 --> 00:11:25.745 good. I'm not saying you have to publish bad episodes. 00:11:26.144 --> 00:11:29.745 Although, there could be a place to do that, actually. 00:11:29.904 --> 00:11:32.784 You could even say, and your audience might enjoy this. 00:11:32.990 --> 00:11:36.429 You could say, maybe you've been podcasting for 5 years, 10 00:11:36.429 --> 00:11:39.709 years, whatever it is. You could say, you know what I found? 00:11:39.789 --> 00:11:43.949 I found an old episode that I recorded 5 years ago. 00:11:44.190 --> 00:11:46.110 And my voice sounds completely different. 00:11:46.535 --> 00:11:48.295 My production style was different. 00:11:48.295 --> 00:11:52.215 I wasn't as confident, but I thought there's still some value in 00:11:52.215 --> 00:11:54.615 this. And so I want to share this with you. 00:11:54.615 --> 00:11:57.254 Even though you've never heard this before and I did this a long 00:11:57.254 --> 00:12:00.934 time ago, I think we could still benefit from what was shared in 00:12:00.934 --> 00:12:03.879 this episode. And you know what? I'm guilty of this. 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:08.759 Years ago oh my. It's probably been 10 years ago at this point. 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:11.799 I interviewed yes. 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:15.774 I actually interviewed someone for The Audacity to Podcast, which 00:12:15.774 --> 00:12:19.054 I haven't published an interview in I don't know how many years 00:12:19.054 --> 00:12:22.254 because it's just not my thing to do, which is kind of obvious 00:12:22.254 --> 00:12:25.934 because this interview I recorded with Chris Brogan, think more 00:12:25.934 --> 00:12:28.335 than 10 years ago. Yes. More than 10 years ago. 00:12:28.335 --> 00:12:29.535 I still haven't published it. 00:12:29.809 --> 00:12:32.049 And it's a very interesting conversation. 00:12:32.049 --> 00:12:36.209 And the reason I never published it back then was I just didn't 00:12:36.209 --> 00:12:38.049 want to edit an interview. 00:12:38.370 --> 00:12:41.409 And interviews don't really excite me, so I wasn't all that 00:12:41.409 --> 00:12:43.009 excited about it. 00:12:43.089 --> 00:12:47.544 So if you're in this place where you have recorded, then consider 00:12:47.625 --> 00:12:51.625 whatever that step is that you need to do to finish the editing, 00:12:51.625 --> 00:12:52.345 do that. 00:12:52.585 --> 00:12:56.664 Or maybe even consider publishing it with very minimal editing. 00:12:56.745 --> 00:13:00.730 You could do some bookend editing where you say something at the 00:13:00.730 --> 00:13:03.129 beginning to introduce the episode, like I mentioned earlier, 00:13:03.129 --> 00:13:05.690 that you can let people know, this was a very old episode. 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:07.850 I never got around to publishing, but I thought you might enjoy 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:08.570 hearing it. 00:13:08.570 --> 00:13:11.210 And then you say something at the very end, maybe you even end up 00:13:11.210 --> 00:13:15.034 laughing at yourself. Maybe you interrupt yourself along the way. 00:13:15.034 --> 00:13:18.475 Like, it's an episode where you shared old advice and so you come 00:13:18.475 --> 00:13:18.714 in. 00:13:18.714 --> 00:13:21.674 I hear Dave Jackson do this with some of his interviews or topics 00:13:21.674 --> 00:13:25.754 that he discusses where he will interject with extra thoughts and 00:13:25.754 --> 00:13:28.315 extra information. You could do that with your own content. 00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:32.450 Even if it's you monologuing, you could pop in every now and then 00:13:32.450 --> 00:13:35.410 and say and you could have a little transition sound or something 00:13:35.410 --> 00:13:35.730 like that. 00:13:35.730 --> 00:13:40.050 Say future me here or any whatever you decide is best for you in 00:13:40.050 --> 00:13:40.610 that case. 00:13:40.610 --> 00:13:43.884 But then you could say, I no longer recommend this, or I 00:13:43.884 --> 00:13:47.565 discovered that didn't work, or now I've discovered how much 00:13:47.565 --> 00:13:51.804 better this works and this led to this great success or anything 00:13:51.804 --> 00:13:52.445 like that. 00:13:52.445 --> 00:13:56.360 So you can build on the content that you hadn't released, or you 00:13:56.360 --> 00:13:59.720 could publish it with minimal editing. It's really up to you. 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:02.679 The big thing is please don't feel like just because you've 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:04.839 recorded it, you have to publish it. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.164 But if you've recorded it and you haven't deleted it, then maybe 00:14:09.164 --> 00:14:12.045 there's still something there that's worth publishing. 00:14:12.445 --> 00:14:14.845 Consider that. Maybe try publishing it this year. 00:14:14.845 --> 00:14:18.605 And maybe you will finally this year hear the Chris Brogan 00:14:18.605 --> 00:14:19.325 interview. 00:14:19.404 --> 00:14:23.360 And in fact, I am going to say something to my editor, John 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:25.919 Buchanan, right now, and you're going to get to be a witness to 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:27.279 that to hold me accountable. 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:30.799 John, please remind me to send you my recorded interview with 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:33.600 Chris Brogan so that I could finally publish that. Thanks. 00:14:34.085 --> 00:14:37.845 Next, discard what no longer sparks joy. 00:14:38.004 --> 00:14:42.164 This comes from the book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up 00:14:42.164 --> 00:14:43.924 by Marie Kondo. 00:14:43.924 --> 00:14:47.285 She said, the best way to choose what to keep and what to throw 00:14:47.285 --> 00:14:51.289 away is to take each item in one's hand and ask, does this spark 00:14:51.289 --> 00:14:54.649 joy? If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. 00:14:54.649 --> 00:14:57.769 This is not only the simplest, but also the most accurate 00:14:57.769 --> 00:14:59.769 yardstick by which to judge. 00:14:59.929 --> 00:15:03.804 And that's from Marie Kondo in The Life Changing Magic of Tidying 00:15:03.804 --> 00:15:06.204 Up, which is a book I have not read, but I've heard this 00:15:06.204 --> 00:15:09.565 quotation, and so I found it, quoted it for this because it is 00:15:09.565 --> 00:15:10.284 relevant. 00:15:10.365 --> 00:15:13.884 Look at those ideas that you've had, whether they are simple 00:15:13.884 --> 00:15:18.259 topics, whether they're unfinished episodes, maybe they are 00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:21.460 completely recorded episodes that you just haven't gotten around 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:25.139 to publishing, but you just don't feel like publishing. 00:15:25.139 --> 00:15:30.304 Well, look at that stuff and in a sense, think about does this 00:15:30.304 --> 00:15:32.945 episode still spark joy? 00:15:33.024 --> 00:15:36.384 Am I still interested in this topic that I wanted to do an 00:15:36.384 --> 00:15:37.264 episode about? 00:15:37.264 --> 00:15:41.745 Is this guest, this movie, this book, this resource, this 00:15:41.745 --> 00:15:44.529 whatever it was, do I still care about it? 00:15:44.529 --> 00:15:47.490 Do I still want to share this with my audience? 00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:50.450 Even if you care about it or care about that person, is it still 00:15:50.450 --> 00:15:52.289 something that you want to share with your audience? 00:15:52.529 --> 00:15:56.529 Does it still spark joy to quote Marie Kondo? 00:15:56.610 --> 00:15:58.644 If not, then maybe discard it. 00:15:58.644 --> 00:16:01.125 I'm not saying delete it permanently because you might still 00:16:01.125 --> 00:16:04.004 change your mind in the future, but at least discard it from your 00:16:04.004 --> 00:16:07.925 list and clean up your list so that you can know, yeah, don't 00:16:07.925 --> 00:16:09.764 really want to talk about that anymore. 00:16:09.845 --> 00:16:14.870 So discard those concepts, those episode drafts, those ideas, 00:16:15.029 --> 00:16:18.470 those unpublished episodes that you're just not really interested 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:22.309 in anymore, especially if it's something you haven't recorded 00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:22.710 yet. 00:16:23.125 --> 00:16:26.485 And you try to record an episode about something that you're not 00:16:26.485 --> 00:16:30.485 passionate about, that's going to come through in your voice in 00:16:30.485 --> 00:16:31.845 the podcast. Yes. 00:16:31.845 --> 00:16:35.845 You can drum up some enthusiasm for some things, and there are 00:16:35.845 --> 00:16:36.884 some places to do that. 00:16:36.884 --> 00:16:39.279 The whole fake it till you make it kind of thing, which isn't 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:42.480 necessarily about faking it, but it's more about forcing yourself 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:47.039 to take action, to get some momentum going, or like I like to 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:50.879 refer to it as bathtub theology or bathtub philosophy. 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:55.014 It was when I was a kid, I hated taking baths until I got in the 00:16:55.014 --> 00:16:55.495 bathtub. 00:16:55.495 --> 00:16:58.134 And then you couldn't get me out of the bathtub because I loved 00:16:58.134 --> 00:16:59.254 taking baths. 00:16:59.254 --> 00:17:02.535 I just didn't remember I loved taking baths until I actually got 00:17:02.535 --> 00:17:04.454 in and started playing with all the bubbles. 00:17:04.535 --> 00:17:05.894 Then I loved the bathtub. 00:17:05.974 --> 00:17:08.615 And that could be it for you with some of these topics that you 00:17:08.615 --> 00:17:11.309 might feel like, I don't really want to talk about it. 00:17:11.309 --> 00:17:12.909 Well, see if you can try. 00:17:12.990 --> 00:17:16.349 See if you can spark that joy while forcing yourself to work on 00:17:16.349 --> 00:17:16.750 it. 00:17:16.750 --> 00:17:21.630 And that's a good self discipline as well to exercise your drive 00:17:21.630 --> 00:17:26.465 and motivation, your determination, your thoroughness to work on 00:17:26.465 --> 00:17:29.904 it anyway and get that spark of joy through it. 00:17:29.984 --> 00:17:31.424 This is something I sometimes face. 00:17:31.424 --> 00:17:34.144 I'm an ambivert, which means I'm in the middle of introvert and 00:17:34.144 --> 00:17:37.200 extrovert. On my lazy days, I'll be an introvert. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:40.240 And if I go to a conference or a social gathering, I might 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:44.160 initially feel lazy and feel like, I don't really want to go try 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:45.119 to meet people. 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:49.360 I have to make an intentional decision in my mind and kind of 00:17:49.360 --> 00:17:53.894 like flip a switch to go meet people and decide, nope. 00:17:53.894 --> 00:17:56.535 I'm not gonna just hang out with the people I know, or maybe I 00:17:56.535 --> 00:17:59.335 will for a few minutes just to kind of rev up, but I'm going to 00:17:59.335 --> 00:18:00.455 go meet someone. 00:18:00.455 --> 00:18:03.174 I'm going to find someone who looks like they need someone to 00:18:03.174 --> 00:18:07.430 talk to and they're not busy or find a conversation I can join in 00:18:07.430 --> 00:18:10.390 on. And you might see me do that at conferences too. 00:18:10.390 --> 00:18:12.789 You'll see me come into a room, kind of look around, maybe 00:18:12.789 --> 00:18:15.509 connect first with the people I know, and then start moving 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.789 around and talking to other people and meeting people and 00:18:18.355 --> 00:18:21.234 widening the circle of conversation as someone else comes up. 00:18:21.234 --> 00:18:22.274 And then it's like, hey. 00:18:22.274 --> 00:18:25.154 How about you come on and join our conversation over here? 00:18:25.234 --> 00:18:30.194 So sometimes it does just take you that extra energy just to get 00:18:30.194 --> 00:18:32.434 a little bit of momentum going. 00:18:32.514 --> 00:18:33.954 And I've mentioned this in the past. 00:18:34.330 --> 00:18:36.490 You can't even use AI for this. 00:18:36.490 --> 00:18:41.130 This is 1 of my first uses of AI or LLMs, large language models. 00:18:41.369 --> 00:18:45.369 Before ChatGPT was even a thing, I was talking about Jasper, or 00:18:45.369 --> 00:18:47.690 back then it was called Jarvis and conversion AI. 00:18:47.690 --> 00:18:50.945 It's a tool that's not so popular anymore, and it, I don't know 00:18:50.945 --> 00:18:53.025 if it really exists in the way that I used to use it. 00:18:53.025 --> 00:18:55.025 I now recommend Magi instead. 00:18:55.105 --> 00:18:57.744 Magi is a super toolbox of AI things. 00:18:57.744 --> 00:19:01.744 You get GPT, you get Claude, and Gemini, and a bunch of image and 00:19:01.744 --> 00:19:05.549 video editors, and AI tools all in 1 subscription. 00:19:05.549 --> 00:19:07.390 It's a great value if you like AI tools. 00:19:07.390 --> 00:19:09.950 But I don't recommend using AI to create your content. 00:19:09.950 --> 00:19:13.150 It can, however, help you get some momentum. 00:19:13.390 --> 00:19:16.830 You can ask it to give you ideas of what to talk about or to at 00:19:16.830 --> 00:19:20.305 least give you an intro paragraph about a particular topic that 00:19:20.305 --> 00:19:22.544 you're struggling to just get started on. 00:19:22.704 --> 00:19:25.105 And there have been many times in the past when I first started 00:19:25.105 --> 00:19:28.704 using what's now called Jasper if it even still exists the way I 00:19:28.704 --> 00:19:29.265 used it. 00:19:29.265 --> 00:19:32.065 But when I started using AI back then, there were many times that 00:19:32.065 --> 00:19:36.519 I tried it to just start something that I needed to write, and it 00:19:36.519 --> 00:19:38.200 gave me a sentence or 2. 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:42.759 And then I wrote pages of content because I just needed that 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:47.160 little push to get started, and then the joy started sparking in 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:47.400 me. 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:50.914 And I got excited about it, And I got the momentum going, and I 00:19:50.914 --> 00:19:52.195 started going with it. 00:19:52.195 --> 00:19:54.515 You could do the same thing with your episodes. 00:19:54.515 --> 00:19:57.555 Might feel a little bit hard at first to get some of those draft 00:19:57.555 --> 00:20:00.595 ideas moving down the pipeline of your production workflow, 00:20:00.595 --> 00:20:02.515 whatever that looks like to you, but try it. 00:20:02.750 --> 00:20:05.710 See if once you get into it, it then sparks some joy. 00:20:05.710 --> 00:20:08.830 And if it doesn't spark that joy for you, if you don't feel like 00:20:08.830 --> 00:20:12.430 it's something you want to talk about at all anymore, feel free 00:20:12.430 --> 00:20:13.789 to remove it from your list then. 00:20:13.789 --> 00:20:17.544 Before I go, I wanna give a special thanks to Joshua Liston for 00:20:17.544 --> 00:20:20.904 sending $5 and saying a little help for someone helping indie 00:20:20.904 --> 00:20:22.984 podcasters. Thank you so much, Joshua. 00:20:22.984 --> 00:20:26.744 And also $25 from Leslie Martin saying, if you ever get to 00:20:26.744 --> 00:20:28.505 Anchorage, Alaska, give me a shout. 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:30.579 I'd love to meet with you and take you out to dinner. 00:20:30.579 --> 00:20:31.700 Well, thank you so much, Leslie. 00:20:31.700 --> 00:20:33.380 I'd love to visit Alaska someday. 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:36.099 There are a lot of places I'd love to visit someday that I know 00:20:36.099 --> 00:20:36.980 would spark a joy. 00:20:36.980 --> 00:20:40.180 It's just a matter of actually getting there and the logistics of 00:20:40.180 --> 00:20:42.984 such. But thank you so much for those kind donations. 00:20:42.984 --> 00:20:45.704 These have come in from the past couple of months, and I just 00:20:45.704 --> 00:20:47.944 never got around to thanking them publicly for them. 00:20:48.025 --> 00:20:51.704 If you value what I share with you in the Audacity podcast, would 00:20:51.704 --> 00:20:54.680 you consider what that's worth to you and give back whatever you 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:56.119 feel it's worth to you? 00:20:56.119 --> 00:21:00.599 You can do that at theaudacitytopodcast.com slash give back. 00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.960 Or if you want to buy 1 of my products, the big things I have 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:06.440 right now are Podgagement and PodChapters. 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:10.494 You can go to podchapters.com to help you add engaging chapters 00:21:10.494 --> 00:21:14.975 to your podcast within seconds or podgagement.com to help you 00:21:14.975 --> 00:21:18.255 supercharge your audience interaction and engagement. 00:21:18.335 --> 00:21:20.809 Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of 00:21:20.809 --> 00:21:23.690 the tools, it's time for you to go start and grow your own 00:21:23.690 --> 00:21:26.809 podcast for passion and profit. I'm Daniel J. 00:21:26.809 --> 00:21:30.250 Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com. Thanks for listening.