lessons fr. launching a podcast in 14 days: combatting perfectionism + taking action

Whatever you're launching, whether that's a podcast, a new series, a new service, a new product, bring your community along the right. The worst thing that you can do when launching something is just coming out of the blue and launching it. I'm Alyssa and welcome to the Inspired Media Podcast, a space for creators, creatives, and entrepreneurs who know they're meant to do more than just stop the school. So we're putting the spotlight on the unspoken truths and the unconventional takes on how to truly build a standout brand online. Now, let the show begin. So I need to start off this episode with a little warning for you first. During this episode, you may feel a little called out, a little attacked, a little out at the ego, but always, always with love. Because today, we're going to be talking about one of the number one enemies to any content creator, any entrepreneur, which is perfectionism. And specifically, how I personally attempted to combat my own toxic perfectionism through this podcast. And the lessons I learned after launching this podcast in 14 days, that I hope you can take with you, whether that is because you want to start your own podcast, you want to start your own YouTube, or whatever project that has been in the back of your mind, maybe it's been on your to-do list, but you haven't taken action yet. I hope this episode and these lessons will allow the fire under your ars to actually start doing them. But before I get into the lessons, I need to give you some context on why I even attempted to launch a podcast in 14 days. I was watching Mel Robbins podcast, and she read a couple of different studies that said, most people quit on their goals 19 days into starting them, and that's why it is called Quitter's Day. And I was like, oh my gosh, instantly my ego went up. I was like, oh my gosh, is this me? Like, okay, well, I've been consistent at the gym, I've been consistent with my business, I've been consistent with content, and I thought, oh, how could I miss this? How could I miss my number one failure? Which, if you follow me on Instagram stories, and if you're on my close friends, you already know the thing I have been failing at the most lately has been my morning routine and waking up early every single day. I don't know how some of you do it. If you're in the 5 a.m. club, you are an alien to me, and if you have tips, please DM me, please email me because I need them. But it also got me thinking, the toxic habits and the toxic personality traits that we have in our everyday life do trickle down into content and can trickle down into our businesses, because I will wake up early on Monday, and feel so good about myself. Tuesday, if I don't wake up early, I'm like, it's done, I hate it, I hate everything. I'm so mad at myself that I didn't do it perfectly. Or, let's say I wake up early four days out of the week, but I miss that fifth. Oh my gosh, I'll throw a tantrum with myself. I will start arguing with myself like it's not perfect. I didn't make it through the whole week, it's not perfect. And then I'll just give up and I'll quit. I'll be like, I don't wanna do this anymore. And how has that trickle down to my business? Oh, this podcast. I wanted to start this podcast in 2023. And every single time I would say that I'm gonna start it or that I'm gonna work on it. Oh my gosh, I just gaslit myself into thinking I was quote unquote working on it. No, I was procrastinating trying to make things perfect, feeding in to my own toxic perfectionist habits. So, after watching that episode, I was like, okay, I'm done with myself. I'm done with the perfectionism. I wanna give that integral energy. I wanna make it so impossible to quit that I'm gonna do this in 14 days. We're not even gonna make it today 19 because we're gonna do it in 14 days. And I'm happy to say we have done it. We did it in 14 days. And here are the main lessons I learned that I wanna share with you. Number one, going into something with no expectations is so freeing. When I launched the podcast, the first three days after the launch, my podcast editor texted me and he was like, Alissa, you got 400 listens in the first three days. Like, that's amazing. And obviously we were so excited. But I think one of the reasons why I was so excited was because I had no number in my head already. I had no expectations already. And on social media, your reels, your TikToks, your carousels were like, okay, I usually get this many likes. I usually get this many views. I usually get this many comments. So, we have a sense of expectancy, right? We don't wanna be in 200-view jail, for example. But with something like this, I was honestly ignorant. I was going into this new and any number. It could have been any number. One, listen, I would have been so excited. I had no sense of expectancy. And it reminded me that as content creators, as entrepreneurs that also wear the content creator hat, we're always gonna have to be learning. We're always gonna have to be adapting. And it might be scary to try to learn a new skill for you if it's a podcast. Sometimes it is your first face to camera video. Come in free, come in excited. Come in understanding that your lack of control isn't a bad thing. Go for it. Go for it 110% and just let yourself create. Because we get so in our heads and we get so stuck in strategizing, over strategizing, over analyzing, perfectionism, all the things and it makes content creation not fun. Anymore, content creation is supposed to be fun. Of course there's gonna be low moments. Of course there's gonna be times where hey, maybe I don't wanna be on camera, but I know I have to for my business. Of course there's gonna be moments like that. But every single time you pull out that camera, it trains you and it's dreading and it's not fun. We need to reframe our mindset behind it. And maybe what you need is to start something new with no expectation so that you can feel that feeling again so that you know, we're not so clouded with what other people are doing. What we think is right, what we think is good, what we think is bad, that we can just do it. We can just do it and see what happens. Okay, I went off and tangent a little bit but I hope that one hit. Number two and this one's gonna be more about tools and the things that I use for this podcast. So number one, the software that I use is simple cast. Been loving simple castes and sponsored, okay? But I've been really loving it. And basically what we do is I record these episodes. We upload it onto simple cast. We can publish things on simple cast with the episode notes, everything that we need. And it will post to all the other podcast platforms that you are listening to this podcast on right now. So love simple cast. The second piece of equipment that I really like is the famous Shurmaik, the SM7B. It is worth the hype. It is so worth it. The sound is so crisp, so clear but, but, but. If you are not a tech person, me included, make sure you get an audio interface. I have the Shur audio interface, but when I bought the Shurmaik, I literally did not buy the audio interface. I was ready to record and nothing was recording. Nothing was recording and I felt like the dumbest person alive because I didn't know you needed an audio interface. So learn from my mistakes, have an audio interface. Number three, if you want to level up your podcast experience, okay, maybe you want to outsource some of your podcast tasks, my advice, my experience, have your podcast editor fall in love with you. Yes, so that you can go to the studio, you can film in the studio, you can film some cute bead roll in the studio for your aesthetic videos, you can use the podcast studio for your guest interviews, which I did the most exciting guest episode. It's my first guest episode, so. But, oh my gosh, you are going to want to tune in to the episode for next week 'cause it is one of my most highly requested episodes. It is with one of my favorite content creators that I absolutely adore. It is so, so good. You're going to want to tune in. Okay, anyway, podcast editor to fall in love with you. Yeah, that's the number one tool that I used for this podcast is, anyway, I digress. Get a podcast editor to fall in love with you. But, if that is not possible, if that is not in the cards for you, simple cast and a good quality mic, even if it's not the sure mic, get a good quality mic and audio interface. I will no longer be answering episodes about Mr. Podcast Editor. Number four, let your thoughts flow without interruption. This is something I am also working on. This also a note I gave to one of my VIP clients. If you are filming on TikTok or doing any face to cam, everybody knows that the common habit is to film and then stop, film, stop, film, stop. And it makes your sentences sound really, really choppy. And even though we like when people speak a little bit faster and you cut out all the breaths and the dead space within your sentences, sometimes, and this is very, very common, sometimes it actually cuts your messaging and waters down your messaging because you're stopping the train of thought of your content. And one of my clients was doing this. She had a really good idea. She had a really good message. She had really good points, but because she was continuously stopping and starting her video at every single sentence, I lost it. And I think she lost it too because your train of thought is like being bombarded every single time you stop and start your video. So I said, I want you to do this again, but I want you to not hit the stop button as often as you did. And she was like, Elizabeth, this was really hard, but I watched the video all over again, And she actually had really good points like her points and her arguments to those points that supported the overall message felt so much more clear. She sounded so much more confident too when she wasn't stopping and starting. And again, this is something I am working on, but for you, for your face to cam videos, and I know this is not super related to a podcast specifically, but just for content as a whole, let your ideas flow without interruption. Let them come out naturally and edit it after because I'm going to guess that you stopping and starting your videos isn't actually as helpful as you think it is. Alright, number five, whatever you're launching, whether that's a podcast, a new series, a new service, a new product, bring your community along the right. We need to be primed for this thing that you're going to launch. We need to be told, we need to be reminded, we need you to tell us what is going on. And I'll use myself as an example. I was having full on debates and discussions on the name of this podcast and the podcast art. I was giving my girlie's options on Instagram and TikTok, which one, okay, let's never write down to these two to these three, to these, whatever, whatever. And I was really, okay, first of all, I was genuinely, genuinely, genuinely. I did not know what I was going to name this podcast and I did not know what the art was going to be. So I actually didn't need the help. But more on the strategy side, I didn't just come out of the blue with this podcast. I invited people along the journey. I invited people along the right. I didn't try to make it look perfect. I was super open and honest about all the things that I didn't know. And I invited my people throughout the process so that when it did launch, they felt like they were a part of it. It wasn't just, hey, this is what I'm creating. Take it. Hey, this is what I'm creating. Listen, it's, hey, this is what I'm creating. And I want to invite you to be a part of it because this is for us. This is for our community. And what better way to create something for your community by inviting them to take a part in it to feel like they're also doing this with me to feel like, oh, she's actually listening to me. She cares about my opinion and I'm actually seeing it come to life. Whatever your, whatever big project you want to work on, it doesn't have to be perfect. Tell your community what's going on and invite them on the journey. Let us be a part of it. That's going to make the launch so much more exciting. That's going to make us invested. When you have taken the time and you really show like, oh, she really does care. And when I did launch the podcast, our people were like, oh, I voted for that one. Like, oh, that was in my top two. It actually made it exciting and it was social. It was me using social media to be social. So whatever you're launching, invite us for the ride. And the last lesson I'll leave you with is make delayed gratification important to you. And I know this is so hard, especially if you're deep in creating your short form content, which me too. I love it, but we will create content constantly refreshing our page constantly looking at, okay, I got this many likes, this many comments, this many saves, this many views. How do my posts do in the last 24 hours that determines the overall performance of my posts and thus the overall performance of my page and thus the overall performance of my entire brand? We do these things. We train our brains to chase and crave that answer award, the instant gratification that instant dopamine hit and if we continue to train our brains to do that one, we become very ungrateful and I think we become very greedy. But also it makes those milestones and it makes hitting those big goals, not worth anything because we didn't work for it. I love hearing stories about people who made those little sacrifices, who pushed through the low moments, who persisted through all the things that they went through to hit that goal. That makes your story so much more powerful, so much more impactful, so much more juicy, inspiring and interesting when the process did take a little bit longer just because it's taking longer now, doesn't mean it's not working and I think social media, and this is coming from someone who one is chronically online, two is a social media manager and strategist, social media has tricked our brains into chasing that instant hit, that instant reward. So do something now to make delayed gratification important to you and I'll use this podcast as an example, I don't quote unquote win anything or gain anything instant from the podcast. I'm talking about finances specifically, I don't have a sponsor for these podcast episodes, do I want one, am I working on it, yes, but that's not the reason why I started this podcast. I started this podcast because I knew something was missing in my digital strategy because I knew that this was going to be a slow burn but I knew it was going to be worth it because without long form, without something like this, I was only going to be reliant on social media and I rely heavily on social media for my business but I knew I needed something else and I knew that my equal version of myself, the future version of myself would want this missing piece to come into play now. So again, whatever that is to you, make delayed gratification a priority to you and when you are doing podcast interviews about your journey, when you are doing guest speaking events, when you are just talking about your journey and the milestones, knowing that you made those little sacrifices, knowing that you pushed through, knowing that you were consistent, knowing that you weren't chasing the next big thing but you had a goal in mind and you stuck to it and you kept the promises that you made to yourself, that's going to make that moment so much more special. Okay, so those are my lessons after launching this podcast in 14 days, I hope that you learned something from this episode and I hope you tune in next week for a very, very exciting guest. Use so much for hanging out with me and I hope I see you on the next one and I'll always break a leg.