Ep. 40: What Podcasting Has Taught Me About Writing

I've made it to my 40th episode! In fact, podcasting is not something I ever seriously considered before I created my coaching business less than two years ago. It blows me away that I’ve reached this milestone. So this week I want to share with you my reflections about podcasting and the four main lessons it has for YOUR scholarly writing projects.

Check out Leslie's website at www.YourWordsUnleashed.com

Transcript

YWU Podcast Episode #40 

What Podcasting Has Taught Me About Writing

Hi writers. 

Somehow, I’ve made it to my 40th episode!

I wanted to share with you some incredibly touching feedback I received recently by email from a listener who is an associate professor in the United States.

She wrote, “I discovered your podcasts earlier this year, when I was feeling especially low about my book publishing trajectory, my academic career, and my mental health, and it really saved me. 

I would listen to your podcasts while hiking on the trails near my house... and now I associate your voice with my most precious and beloved activity, namely hiking. 

So good thoughts always come to mind when I think of you and your advice!”

I love hearing feedback from listeners.

The feeling is similar to when I would get emails of appreciation from people who had read my research or students would who wanted to express how much they had learned from my classes. 

What’s funny is that becoming a podcaster is not something I ever seriously considered before I created my coaching business less than two years ago.

It blows me away that I’ve reached this milestone!

So this week I want to share with you my reflections about podcasting and the lessons it has for writing.

You can find the full transcript of this episode at YourWordsUnleashed.com/40.

Why I Chose to Create a Podcast

Before I get into the details, I want to talk a bit about why I decided to create a podcast at all.

I’ve always been a huge fan of podcasts.

I love listening to stories and learning new things at the same time as doing other more mundane tasks like cooking or driving.

Maybe it’s also because I’m a music lover and enjoy auditory experiences.

And, of course, there’s also the intimacy that comes from listening to people talk. 

There’s an emotional connection and a camaraderie you feel with your favorite podcasters as you learn their world-view and hear snippets about their personal lives. 

But I didn’t decide to actually start a podcast until I was working with Rhonda Hess, an amazing coach who helps new coaches build their businesses.

She herself has an incredibly successful weekly podcast called “Prosperous Coach.” 

(As a sidenote, you should definitely check it out if you are building your own business or side hustle involving coaching.)

When Rhonda and I first started working together in 2021, I knew I was getting ready to leave academia.

I had a wealth of coaching experience, but didn’t have a very specific focus yet. 

Rhonda helped me figure out my specific niche of coaching scholarly book authors and helped me design the six-month private coaching package that’s on my website.

As part of building a business, I had to choose a primary way to distribute content to the public. 

Options included things like blogging, sending out a newsletter, and posting YouTube videos.

I chose podcasting even though it terrified me.

I just felt drawn to a medium where I could truly express myself in my own voice. 

My mission for the podcast, as in my coaching, has been to peel back the curtain covering so many aspects of the Ivory Tower and to help demystify the book writing and publishing process.

I also wanted to give tips and strategies, not just about writing, but also about lifestyle and mindset that I could have used when I was a highly insecure, workaholic junior scholar.

And because I’ve now left academia and no longer have a stake in it, I feel like I can be more honest and see the career more objectively than when I was still a professor.

A lot of academics have told me that my journey out of the profession has been a source of inspiration for them.

Still, creating a podcast was really hard for me to do, and I procrastinated on it more than any other aspect of my business.

Looking back, I was totally intimidated by the steep learning curve that comes with doing something involving unfamiliar software and technology.

I didn’t believe I could learn how to do things like record, edit, upload, and distribute the podcast on my own.

I also got into analysis paralysis because there were so many decisions to make!

For example, you have to create podcast cover art and decide whether or not to put your own face on it. (I decided not to.)

You have to choose open access theme music.

You have to decide if you will do a solo podcast or an interview-based one.

You have to figure out how long your episodes will be.

Beyond all that, I was also scared of the marketing and visibility piece. 

I was worried about how I might be judged by my peers or of not having any listeners at all.

I had no idea how my overall message would be received. 

Ultimately, I was paralyzed by fear of the unknown for a good four or five months.

And then came the point where I couldn’t move forward with my business until I had some podcast episodes ready.

And I was forced to actually do it. 

Even then, it probably took me at least 10 episodes to figure out a process and get really comfortable.

Fortunately, all of the hard work does pay off.

I recently was pleased to learn that out of over 123,000 active podcasts globally, Your Words Unleashed is in the top 20-25% based on downloads!

Not bad for something that’s geared towards a more specific audience!

So with all of that said, let’s talk about the lessons that podcasting has taught me that can be applied to your scholarly writing projects.

Lesson #1: Know Your Audience & Your Message

The first lesson my podcast has taught me about writing is the importance of knowing your audience and your message.

The most obvious thing about a podcast is that you’re making it for other people to consume. 

And when there’s endless options out there competing for attention, you have to know exactly who you’re speaking to and how exactly your message is unique.

Early in my journey, I read a book called Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling by Eric Nuzum, who started some of NPR’s most famous podcasts.

In it, he offers an exercise that asks you to describe your podcast in as much detail as possible in only 10 words.

It’s like a mission statement.

The challenge is to avoid generalities and distinguish it from everything else that’s already out there.

This is a surprisingly difficult thing to get right because we’re so used to describing things in a more abstract way.

But when you’re given only 10 words to hook an audience member, you need to be much more thoughtful.

My short description ended up being 12 words, but it truly conveys the spirit of the work I do as a coach and podcast host.

It’s also the first line you see on my website, which is “Helping women scholars master their writing habits and publish a book that matters.”

As simple as it seems, I went through many, many different versions of this statement before landing on this one. 

In order to get there, I had to choose my audience: women scholars, especially those who are working on their first books.

Now, do I only work with people who fit this category?

Definitely not! But, keeping a specific audience in mind helps determine the tone I use, the examples and personal anecdotes I share, and the general content I offer.

This lesson clearly applies to scholarly writing as well.

How would you describe your book in only 10 words? What is the mission statement that guides your work?

And who is your audience if we are thinking beyond the small number of experts in your subfield?

One thing that’s easy for academics to do is to forget that their book is meant to be read and enjoyed by other people, ideally a lot of them!

Authors who feel disconnected, or even cynical, about the purpose of writing their books have often not spent enough time figuring out who their ideal audience is.

I’ve spoken at length about the importance of having a supportive, interested person in mind when you’re writing, as opposed to Reviewer 2.

Imagine if I approached this podcast defensively out of fear that I would be critiqued.

I would speak in a much more formal way and share far fewer of my own opinions and experiences. 

I think it would really suck to listen to!

So when you’re feeling down about your writing, envision your book connecting with an audience—making them feel seen—and transforming them in positive ways. 

This is a good antidote for the malaise that everyone experiences from time to time when working on a complex, long-term project.

Lesson #2: Progress, Not Perfection

The second lesson is: progress, not perfection. 

As I’m very open about, there is a big part of me that is a true perfectionist.

This part tends to rear its ugly head whenever I’m working on something that is meant to be consumed by, and can therefore be judged, by others.

I used to be a perfectionist when it came to teaching, which manifested in spending huge numbers of hours overpreparing my lectures.

I was a perfectionist when writing my first book, which resulted in me hoarding my work and not sending it out for feedback until I felt like it was in great shape.

So naturally, I was also a perfectionist when it came to this podcast, which led to me resisting learning how to do it until I absolutely had to.

My first episodes are actually a little bit embarrassing to me now because I didn’t know what I was doing.

I made a lot of mistakes, in part because I had a hard time listening back to episodes after editing.

In fact, after I had released the first few episodes, an acquaintance kindly reached out to let me know that I had cut a few seconds off from one of them!

I was mortified, but also touched that she was listening AND went out of her way to help me out.

Since then, I always listen to my episodes before posting them!

But I do know there are still some mistakes on certain episodes, and I’ve learned to be okay with that because I’m only human.

I’ve noticed that many of the children’s books I read to my 3-year-old have messages like, “Mistakes are okay. That’s how we learn.” 

But for some reason that message gets lost by the time you’re an adult.

So I’m trying to embrace mistakes, because once I’ve made one, I pretty much never do it again!

And each time I record a new episode, I feel like I learn something new about the process. 

So how this applies to writing is obvious.

At the beginning of a major project, you probably don’t actually know what you’re doing yet. 

And that’s okay. In fact, it’s to be expected.

Leaning into the unknown and allowing yourself to learn from the process rather than be completely fixated on the finished product is the key to getting your book written.

And this is true regardless of whether you’ve already published a book before.

Lesson #3: Consistency Overrides Inspiration

The third lesson is that consistency is way more important than inspiration.

And by consistency, I don’t mean doing things in the exact same way every single week.

When I first started this podcast, I envisioned that I would publish short 8-10 minute episodes on a weekly basis because that’s what my business coach did.

But I quickly learned I would not be able to keep up with that pace.

I wanted to go more in-depth on certain topics and record slightly lengthier episodes, which requires additional research and writing time.

And I learned through experience that each episode requires about 6-8 hours, when you factor in the time it takes to write, record, edit, publish, and market it.

Life also intervenes. 

There are weeks when I’m doing a lot of coaching or am preparing for a workshop or I’m sick or my child is sick.

All of these things compete for time. 

So normally I publish episodes every other week, but sometimes it’s every three weeks.

There’s a lot of advice for podcasters that says if you’re not publishing on the same day every week you will lose listeners.

I haven’t found this to be true at all because it is a long game.

It’s about doing it consistently and building a body of work I’m proud of over time.

This has a clear application to writing.

You don’t need to be working on your book every day to make progress.

And you don’t need to feel inspired by your work all the time, nor should that be something you’re shooting for.

You just need to be working on it consistently, maybe 2-3 times per week.

With feasible goals and enough accountability, this will move your project forward a lot.

What you want to avoid is a pattern of binge writing where you write furiously whenever you have a chunk of free time or inspiration hits you and then don’t write again for months.

And, of course, there will be weeks (or even months) when you are not able to touch your writing at all because of life circumstances.

I now know to expect that in May and September I will have a flurry of clients who need to reschedule because there is just too much going on to write.

This is totally normal.

But if you find that you struggle to write consistently regardless of circumstances, then you need to reexamine your priorities.

Are you spending too much time on teaching and service? Are you starting your day doing hours of emails instead of your own work?

Are you trying to write late at night or on weekends in a desperate effort to catch up, thus burning the candle at both ends?

Do you have enough sources of accountability, and are they helping you to move forward?

If you need some more pointers on how to prioritize your own writing during the semester, relisten to Episode 3: Create Bulletproof Boundaries with Your Job.

4) Commit, Commit, Commit!

This leads into the fourth lesson from podcasting, which is that you need to commit, commit, commit to your project!

Consistency requires commitment.

Did you know that 75% of podcasters stop producing episodes after 3 months and more than 90% quit within six months? (https://thepodcastinguniversity.com/why-podcasts-fail/) 

There are also estimates that 90% of podcasts don’t get beyond their third episode.

So by reaching 40 episodes, I’ve already beaten the odds.

My commitment comes from having the right mix of motivations.

I’ve talked in other episodes about how successful authors need to have both internal AND external reasons for writing their books.

For me, the internal reasons for producing this podcast including wanting to help others feel better, give them strategies to reach their goals, and to shake up the way things are done in the academy.

My external reasons obviously relate to my business. 

This is the primary way that potential clients get to know me and my coaching style.

If you don’t like what I say on this podcast, we’re probably not going to be a great fit for working together.

And, if I didn’t have this external motivator, it would be extremely difficult for me to continue committing the time and effort to it, no matter how much I loved doing it. 

And I really do love it!

So when it comes to writing, you always need to be aware of what is motivating you both inside and out and trying to find a balance between the two.

When you have a fire inside to express yourself as well as good, tangible rewards that will come from you doing so, you feel more of a sense of purpose and you’re more likely to finish your manuscript.

Summing It All Up

So there you have it, the four major lessons my podcast has taught me about writing.

Let me sum them up again quickly.

#1: Know your audience and your message.

#2: Progress, not perfection.

#3: Consistency overrides inspiration.

#4: Commit, commit, commit!

Thanks again for tuning in, especially those of you who have been with me from the beginning.

And if you have any specific topics you’d like me to address in future episodes, don’t hesitate to email me at Leslie@YourWordsUnleashed.com.

Take care until next time!