Welcome to Digital Podcaster. My name is Dylan Schmidt, your host today, this week is a solo episode. What I wanted to do was take a little bit not too long, not too verbose. I wanted to take a minute and share and kind of celebrate since this is episode 20 in the podcasting world, Episode 20 is, in my opinion, kind of significant because most podcasts, don't make it past episode three, and then episode seven, and then Episode 20, statistically speaking, and also I probably should have record this as episode 21. But it just so worked out to be this episode. So what I wanted to do in this episode was share four big lessons I've learned since starting Digital Podcaster. And again, not going to go super in depth, but I thought it would be cool to be able to share some of the things that I've learned along the way that you could use in your own content strategy, your own podcast, your own social media, all that good stuff, because I tried to pick out lessons that weren't super common either. And I wanted to share. So a little recap of what's been happening so far. In case you're new to the Digital Podcaster. podcast, I started Digital Podcaster. Last August, I've been working in podcasting for years now. I've actually been working in audio since I was in high school, like I've been in bands and things like that. And then I did terrible at in high school because I knew I was going to go straight to doing audio that was my dream was doing like audio production. And so yeah, I've been doing audio production. And then around in 2010 2011, I started getting into marketing, I was a coach became a coach and kind of drifted a little bit away from the audio stuff and more into marketing. And then in around 220 16, I reconnected both of those things together. And then I've been working behind the scenes, but I launched Digital Podcaster finally kind of going public with what I was doing, because I was working behind the scenes with a lot of people. So that's kind of, excuse me, that's how we got here. And then in September last September 2021, I launched Digital Podcaster, the podcast, and I did a soft launch, meaning it wasn't like this big lead up to the first episode, just quietly put it out there. I didn't launch three episodes at once, just one episode didn't even tell anybody about it at first, and then just started rolling with it. I started booking clients for the clients, not clients. I started booking guests for the podcast before I launched it, I reached out to people. And this is something that I had been advising clients and people to do before is you don't have to launch your podcast to book guests for your podcast, if anything, like it's all on the pitch and keeping the pitch short when you're getting guests for your podcast. So what I did was, I just reached out to people and said, Hey, I'm watching this podcast soon. Would you like to be on it? This is who it's for. I think you would be great for my audience, because of this reason, kept it like a paragraph. And again, not too long. Basically what it comes down to so many people are just overwhelmed with content these days, you got to really make it easy and clear and digestible. And that goes for people when you know when you're making a quick little pitch to come on your show as well, making it clear, easy and digestible. So they can just go yes or no. Because everyone's busy. Even if you don't feel like you're busy enough. When someone like makes a pitch to very quickly the brain kind of scrambles and go this. Is this for No, I need this yes or no. So just making it an easy yes for people is, in my opinion, one of the best practices of booking guests. So yeah, booked guests. And honestly, before I launched the podcast in September, I rebelled against the idea of doing a podcast because I didn't want to do it. I thought I could. I'm like, my background is like punk rock, rock and roll hip hop, like. And I just I don't know, I just wanted to rebel against the idea of me having a podcast because I thought it would be, I don't know, funny, not having a podcast and being like the person that would help people with podcasts, but didn't have a podcast themselves. And I had a bunch of people ask me, like, where's your podcast? Why don't you have a podcast? Or they assumed I already had a podcast because it was called Digital Podcaster. And so that's kind of why I launched the podcast because it felt a little bit ridiculous. I've been told my therapist, yes, ELO therapy, and emotional health, all that stuff, mental health. And I even told my therapist, like I don't really want to do a podcast, like I don't feel like I need to and if anything is kind of fun for me not doing it and she was like, why? Like, why like, okay, like, was it? You know, like, do a podcast but also you can just kind of like, okay, like, if that's what you want, but there was this hesitancy that I think, just by her hesitancy and she's normally not like that. The hesitancy was like, you know, okay, maybe I need to do a podcast. So that's what I started. That's why I created it. And now it all makes sense. Now it all is coming together. But that's kind of the thing and that's kind of been one of my lessons that I don't cover in the for today is you know, you don't know how it's gonna unfold. You know, you start with one thing, and you don't know how it's all gonna unfold. And that's still what's happening. So I'm not like saying, I have a clear vision for the future. And this is where it's gonna go. This is how it's gonna lead all that stuff out the window. I don't claim to know exactly step by step where I'm going except up. And except in a general direction. I know the general direction I'm going to go of creating conversating all that good stuff. But to tell you the absolute specifics, no, that's like, knowing what the weather is going to be like, in three years. Yeah, I have a general idea. I could look up the history, things like that. But I'm also writing history because Digital Podcaster hasn't been done three years ago. So there's no history to pull from. So big lesson number one, launching Digital Podcaster. So far, and I'm talking about the podcast specifically. But now the podcast has become one with the brand in the company. big lesson number one is sticking to a day is most important. So I launched a release an episode every Tuesday. That's like clockwork, I am good at staying consistent. I do have a DD or ADHD one of those. I don't really talk about it. Because honestly, I don't like know enough about it to really go into detail about it. But yeah, diagnosed. But I do have these like triggers, I should say, or I call them traps, that it's like cues I get accused is probably the healthier term. But I've accused that like, Hey, do this, do this, do this. And I'm good at staying consistent. When it's the same thing when things are very like go with the flow. I don't know if something's going to happen. That's good to me for creativity in some ways, which I can talk more about another time. But for the most part, I need like cues. So my cue is released an episode every Tuesday, I can do that. And I can set myself up for success to do that. But sticking to a day has been so vitally important, because especially in the beginning, there's no big audience there. Naturally. That's how everyone, everyone starts zero, for the most part. And so yeah, so in the beginning, it would have been easy to just give up and stop because no one would have been there. And if I didn't have like a consistent time I needed to release every week, I just stop. And yeah, like some efforts, some of the earlier episodes, you know, I could judge them all I want. But at the end of the day, I got it up, I got it out. And that's what's most important. So knowing that there was a publish date I needed to hit kept vitally important to me keeping that published date. And what if I missed that date? Well, then I would have just gone the next day. I don't think I did that though. I actually I might have very early on. But I think I only missed it by like a day or two. But that was within the first five episodes probably. So big lesson number one, sticking to a day is vitally important for any creator or podcaster. big lesson number two, not knowing where things are gonna go are perfectly fine. I didn't know I was going to interview people. In the beginning, I knew I wasn't gonna have a co host, because I got nobody to be my co host with. And I had, I kind of wanted complete freedom over what I wanted to do and talk about, I have very specific interests. And I have a lot of experience. So I thought it would be cool if I just did solo episodes and talk with people, but I didn't know who I would talk to. And then I started reaching out to people online, started looking at people on Amazon. I have to talk about that in another thing, but it was it's kind of one of my things is like, you know, you can look for products on Amazon. Well, I find sometimes I'll find podcast guests on Amazon, because there's a lot of authors on there. So that's pretty cool, too. So finding podcast guests on Amazon. Is that on Amazon, that? That Instagram or Tiktok? Real? So yeah, so I recorded a lot of solo episodes in the beginning. But interviewing people I found actually to be really fun. And at first I cringe Well, I still kind of cringe listening to myself but cringing listen to like talking because I would I feel like take up too much time. And it was it I actually I use a service called otter.ai to do the transcriptions of every episode for the SEO, I use rev.com for more fine tune transcription that gets turned into a blog post because those are human generated. otter.ai is machine generated, AI generated. And I found it show up. So it shows you the breakdown of who's speaking during the episode. And I found in the early episodes, interviews, I'd be talking way too much. It just wouldn't give the guests enough room to talk. And it's kind of treating them like my co hosts in some ways. But very quickly, I kind of pivoted to, oh, I need to like get more information from them. Because I don't I could save my what I need to say for the solo episodes. I don't need to say it for those interview episodes. So that's an interview. I just need to set up questions for them and let them do the talking. It makes it easier on me makes it easier on them. And the less I can talk but the more I can get them talking and feeling safe and comfortable and all that the more of a win. It's going to be for both of us. Well, three of us, the interview guests, me and the listener Also, big lesson number two. Yeah. And I found interviewing to be pretty, pretty awesome. Like I'm I'm enjoying it more and more. And I have a lot more interviews scheduled and coming out that I'm really excited to share. And I have, I have a whiteboard in my office. In my office slash studio, that I've made a list of the type of people I want to talk to you like in the different categories and things like that. And it all revolves around creativity, marketing, business, mental health, all those things. And I'm really excited to talk to those people. I don't even know if I'd had room for a co host. Because I have so much I want to say or so much I want to ask and so many conversations I want to have, it would be difficult for me to have a co host. So I'm really glad I went in the direction I went. And I'm really glad. And I'm really thankful for the podcast, big lesson number three, schedule interviews during times that work for me. So I have, you know, ideal times where my mentally sharper than other times, and those times are not very early in the morning, I'm not I can't wake up and just be super sharp. And what I was doing in the earlier interview episodes was I would, I wouldn't look where so like a couple things that I don't still don't care about is like, I don't care if I'm interviewing the person I'm interviewing. Personally, I don't care if they have a bunch of followers, I'll interview with someone with like 200 followers, almost no followers, they're an interesting person to talk to, that's totally fine. I'm all about the episode itself, I don't care if they even have a social media, I got to find them somehow. But I don't really care if they're like super active on social media, I'm most concerned with the person I'm talking to. Because I don't want to talk to someone boring. Obviously, it's not going to be good for the content for the listener. But if I'm talking to, like, that's just sound, it's just not fun for me, like I'm trying to have fun with this, right. And it's, it's got to be fun for me, and that will translate. So. But yeah, I was scheduling interviews with people, I have scheduled interviews with people that are all over the world. And what I was doing was not really looking at where they were. And then I would send them times, and I would like kind of take their time zone into a lot of consideration. So I was booking things super early sometimes. For me that's like before 7am, probably. And a couple times, like I woke up right before 7am.
And I was like 6:50am, I'd wake up and come in and be like, I just can't be mentally sharp and show up on a podcast when I have no idea like I just my brains not online yet, you know, I need some time to wake up. So what I do now is either wake up much earlier and give myself time to wake up, which I don't really do. Generally speaking, what I'll do instead is just set some our boundaries for when I'm booking interviews that it's got to be during this time. And that's just how it goes. And I haven't had any issues with that. And it's been much better, much more enjoyable for myself. And I'm sure for the guests because they're not looking at me like my eyes are all puffy, like he just woke up. So scheduling interviews during times that work for me has been a huge lesson and having questions going into it. Sometimes with the guests. It depends sometimes I go in having I send questions of the guests, I'll send three to five questions. So they have an idea of what I'm going to talk about. Because giving them an idea of what they're showing up for is crucial. I don't expect them to know Digital Podcaster. I don't expect them to have listened or seen anything I've done. So I give them three to five questions. And then I have this three to five questions on my notes app when I'm talking to them. And I also have any additional questions that I've thought of. I'm not like, diligent on sticking to the questions. The questions are there more as a safeguard is, you know, I you know, whether it's like social anxiety or whatever it is, or I do get like, I guess that scatterbrained of like I could talk about something else that has no relation to what I'm trying to talk about. Because I could talk to anyone about anything for the most part, I could talk to a stranger in line about anything. So what I do is I have those questions just to keep me on track. Same with this episode, I have an outline. But it might go down different avenues, and I keep the outline loose. If it's too tight, then it's just scripted. That's boring, too. It's like machine generated stuff. So I got to have some personality in there. So keep it light. And I keep the questions there. And I think the questions help with my own confidence just because I feel more comfortable. And if I'm comfortable, I can be confident or uncomfortable. I don't feel very, it's like a fake confidence. What else? So yeah, so sometimes with the people, though, that I'm talking to, I don't even use the questions. The questions are just there. And I'll go the whole episode without even looking at them. Because they'll start talking and then just naturally the conversation will go down a path. But yeah, I just have the questions there. And they're there. And then I'll go at the end of episode i'll go oh, oh, actually, we covered all that stuff. Which is cool. But if we didn't cover that stuff, that's cool, too, because the conversation took the way it's going to go. And that's a lot like creativity. I think you have an idea of maybe where it's gonna go but at the end of the day, the real fun and juice of creativity is not totally knowing and then creating something better than you thought possible. So that's what it's been like for questions and interviewing guests. And then the last big lesson I want to share so far is despite not feeling certain, or 100%, confident in what I'm doing, I just keep moving. So I started Digital Podcaster. If you don't know, which I don't know, if I actually showed this, I started digital pick the name Digital Podcaster, I went through a lot of names. I was using artificial intelligence name generator, I love using artificial intelligence for content creation. And I had some names I wanted to use. So I had gone through so many names. And at the end of the day, I was like watching like all these videos on like, naming and how do you name something. And it basically came down to you can choose any name because you give meaning to the name, the name doesn't give meaning to what you do. And that's hard to like, see at first because, you know, you're trying to build this vision, and you want to know where you're going and all that stuff. But you could I think really choose any name. One thing, I did find that a lot of popular names are two syllables, Face Book, goo, go my space, Snap Chat, Tic Toc, all those things, two syllables, Digital Podcaster. That's five syllables, I think might be wrong. Maybe it's five syllables. And that's obviously longer. But I just like the name. And I don't know, it just seemed to fit because that's what this is. So yeah, and then the domain was available. And it was way less because some of the things I had found that I actually liked, the domain was like, three to $5,000. And I'm like, I don't know if that's the right move yet. I own stay on target.com. It's tattooed on my arm. But I also bought the domain after I got the tattoo. And I paid a good amount of money for that I don't currently use stay on target.com for anything. I also own Dylan schmidt.com. I bought that for cheap. I don't remember exactly how much. But the minimum price you can buy a domain for on Google domains, which I love using Google domains is $12. Digital Podcaster was 12 bucks. And I'm like, this is just a good sign. This is just feels good. It didn't it wouldn't have felt good if I spent like 3000 or $5,000 on a domain, which I was like so close and willing to do. But I'm glad I didn't. And of course now you know, of course now in my head I'm like sometimes like I just call it digit Dylan Schmidt like do I even need Digital Podcaster. But I love the meaning that's been given to it. And I have Mike, the microphone mascot. And having make the mascot and Digital Podcaster. It's almost given like, alter ego in some ways, which I would will say would love to I will talk about that in future episodes, the idea of an alter ego. And that's part of how Digital Podcaster was created to. But that helps a lot to is is the name Digital Podcaster in it not being my real name, I guess or like my real name is that no one's no one's born Digital Podcaster. Is that your real name? No, it's not my real name. So yeah, having been named Digital Podcaster has been, I think, allowed me to feel more confident. Not always 100% Confident. But it's allowed me to experiment and test and move forward in ways that I don't know if it'd be the same if my name was attached to everything. So I'm pretty thankful and grateful that I had hatched Digital Podcaster as the main name for this. And, you know, I still these days, I've recorded 20 episodes, and this is episode 20. I don't care for my voice a whole lot. Which is funny because I think I say the word like too much or I don't speak grammatically correct. I was talking to a friend the other day. And he's like, done a lot of voice. And that voice well, he has done voice acting and he's an actor. He's like, are you from? In? I thought he knew this. But he's like, Are you from the south? And I guess maybe I talk sometimes I think my voice changes sometimes because some people think I'm like East Coast or something like that. I'm California, Southern California born and raised. But I know where my influences come from, like musically, and I've been listening to a ton of southern rap lately and Gucci Mane. And, you know, I like Tim Armstrong from the band rancid like he's he's, uh, you know, hero or mythological. You figure in my head and his voice I guess is kind of southern little southern, like Louisiana, New Orleans kind of thing. And then listening to a lot of southern rap. I think there's something in there because I've spent some time in like North Carolina and places like that. And sometimes they kind of think that I already have that Southern drawl and I'll say y'all and stuff like that, but no, in that's not like saying that people say in Southern California, but I say so. You know, I don't speak grammatically correct all the time. I didn't pay much attention in school, audio curiosity, marketing, business. This is my entrepreneurship, you know, creativity, these are my passions, and that's what I do. came about. And so I tried to push through that. And I do believe that, you know, confidence will come over time. But in the beginning, it's hard because there's not a lot of feedback. I mean, there's some feedback, I've had some great feedback. But it's been hard to just kind of, you know, always feel great. But at the same time, that's where I think the mental health in the mental game comes in. Because even when I don't feel 100% Confident, it's like, okay, let's just take a break, or, let's go do something else that doesn't require my voice all the time. Or let's go do something else that's just completely different. Like, let's just how can we make this fun, and sometimes making it fun is relaxing, and not pushing myself so hard. And it's in those times where usually another idea pops up for Digital Podcaster that I wasn't thinking of before. Most of my ideas for fun ideas that I have usually come either in the shower, or while I'm driving, and something about when I go to get my haircut, I guess, I mean, I don't leave the house that much. But when I go to get my haircuts something about the drive to the haircut, which is every other week, I have so many ideas. And yeah, they always seem like great ideas. And for the most part, I don't know for myself being easy on myself, they have been good ideas so far. So that's that's the big four lessons. Just to recap, big lesson number one, sticking to a day has been vitally important to Digital Podcaster. big lesson number two, not knowing where things are gonna end up are perfectly fine. big lesson number three scheduling interview times that work for me, is vitally important to showing up and being my best self in an interview, and extracting the best conversation. And then finally, big lesson number four is despite not feeling certain, or 100%, confident in the direction I'm going, I just keep going anyways, because you know, momentum is funny, you just got to you get momentum by moving, you don't get momentum by being still. So sometimes there is a call for stillness. But in a way, you're kind of moving still, you've created that momentum. And then it's be still and then keep moving. Because no one is a machine, no one can just work and push through all the things. So recognizing that has really helped me some closing thoughts I wanted to share with you, I am excited to do another 20 episodes, this podcast is far from over. And I don't know when I'll do another check in like this, it might be episode 4050 100. But we'll just kind of keep cruising and see, I've got a lot more to say. And like I mentioned, you know, things are becoming more clear by the week about how I can add more and more value through Digital Podcaster. Through these conversations through the people I'm meeting and the people I want to talk to, I've got a bunch of interviews booked for the show, I'm still planning on sticking to the show release schedule that I'm going to do, basically the first weeks of the month each month. Basically, it'll be interviews, all interviews, and then the final week of every month will be a solo episode. That's the plan for now. I'm just gonna say I reserve the right to change that depending on what's going on. Sometimes I just have more I want to share with you. So that's the plan right now, though, is just keep doing interviews and have really enjoyed the conversation, the people in the make, like connections I'm making. And then the last thing I want to say, and I think this is probably bonus, big lesson number five, honestly, is the key I think to all this has been being extremely kind on myself. It's really easy to judge and criticize and do all that stuff. But unlike Digital Podcaster has low key. And now taking some sanity, Loki has been a lesson in compassion for myself. And at the end of the day, having conversations is awesome with people. But the spiritual journey it has been so far has been incredible. Because I have, you know, shown up for myself in different ways than I have ever done before. And sure I'm showing up for others and adding value. And that's a huge thing. And yes, of course I get stuff from that. Whether it's like monetary feedback, connection, co regulation, all these benefits from that of just stepping outside of my shell and meeting new people. And encouraging each other in the podcast community has been so positive and it's been incredible. But speaking like, solo and selfishly for a second, the self compassion it takes to continue on, even when you're unsure of what's next or how things might turn out or, you know, you're relying on your own voice. Just giving myself that kindness that I would give any of you who are listening has been crucial. And it's still an ongoing process. It's not like, Oh, I've reached the pinnacle of kindness and all that stuff because it's not so black and white some days. I'm like, how what am I doing here and the imposter syndrome will creep in or something like that. But I think acknowledging it becoming aware of it has been key and just being kind of myself and just going into it. Here's an opportunity to just be kind like what would you do if someone else was sharing something like that with you or those thoughts that are getting tossed around like with if it was with them, you would encourage them You wouldn't show up for them, you tell them how awesome they doing. So I'm trying to do that for myself, which is a new feeling, I guess I didn't really expect to come into podcasting and have to not have to think I would be learning such a lesson and self compassion and kindness. But here we are. So thank you for sticking around. If you haven't already, maybe you already have, check the show notes, I just created a cool thing for myself that I wanted to share. Because Transparency is key. And if I make something cool, I always want to share it. I've traveled the world. And I'll tell you what, I've done a lot of solo adventures, and life and trips are much more cool and enjoyable. When you experience them with somebody, whether that's the locals in the town, or you know, someone that's close to you on a trip with you. That's way better. You know, there are some times where solo trip is cool, but I think it's healthier to be with somebody else. So I don't even know that's total side note. 365 titles and topics. It's a free download, I'll link it in the show notes. Basically what it is, is I went through all the top YouTube videos and piece of different viral pieces of content. And I made it plug and play. So what it is, is you can use the prompt as a title, but it also will spark something for you to teach on. Don't remember I made this map, I think I made this map, or this outline for the show before I used it. I might have gotten it from it, actually. But basically, it's like four big lessons I learned when like, and you'll see it 365 of them. It's pretty cool. I've seen people charging for this stuff. This is some of this is probably one of the most valuable things I've put out. I'm super proud of it. I think it's incredible. And the fact that it's free is I know it's good when people tell me I should charge for it. And also I like start to second guess myself. I'm like, wait a minute, should I have charged for this. But again, I'm going to be using it. And I want you to use it too. And I want you to see how easy content creation can be. Because again, I guess just like the self kindness thing. At the end of the day, it comes back to a lot of the mental game and certain strategies in place. But it doesn't need to be this confusing thing. What do I talk about? That's what the 365 titles and topics give you that starter to launch from. So please get that and then enjoy it and then use it and then let me know what you think of it. And tell me all the success you've had with that'd be awesome. Again, thank you for listening. I'm glad you're here and I'll talk to you soon.