I’m Terrible At Following My Own Advice

I don’t always follow my own advice.

Heck, I don’t USUALLY follow my own advice! 

And maybe this is true for you, too.

One thing I always tell my podcasting students is to release their show on a consistent schedule. This goes a long way in showing your audience that you’re committed to providing for them, and establishes trust and rapport. This in turn earns you more downloads from a more loyal and supportive audience.

Essentially, when you set an expectation — for example, by establishing within the description of your podcast that you’re a weekly show — you should stick to it.

But I don’t. The Write Now podcast is a weekly podcast that isn’t weekly. Sometimes it isn’t even monthly. (Yikes.)

In the past, I’ve let this become a major source of anxiety. I’ll look despondently at the declining download numbers and wail, “Why am I like this?!”

I mean, it’s a 30-minute weekly podcast! Is it really so hard to produce consistently?!

But… yeah. Sometimes it is. Especially when I look back at the REASON I started podcasting in the first place.

When I first started podcasting (and before that, blogging), I wasn’t doing it for the numbers. I wasn’t doing it to build an audience or sell a product or leverage X, Y, or Z.

I was doing it because I needed to create — I needed to better understand and process my own mind. And I do that best externally, by unfurling the big giant mess of thoughts in my brain and untangling it via written or spoken word.

Today, I don’t release a podcast episode because I have to. I create a podcast episode when I need to.

I know this sounds INCREDIBLY selfish, and I struggle with that. I like to approach everything I do with a servant’s mindset, and ensure that I’m helping people to the fullest extent possible.

But at the same time, maybe it’s good to acknowledge that I do some things for myself. And if they help others along the way, it’s a bonus.

Words & warmth,

Sarah