It's The Climb

The biggest lie we tell ourselves as creators is that we need more inspiration, when what we really need is a system. For our season finale, we get honest about what seven weeks of building a podcast taught us about the social media algorithm, engagement, and the small choices that quietly decide whether people stop scrolling or never notice you at all.

We talk through the shift from using social media “for fun” to using it with intention, and why posting whenever you feel like it is not a strategy. We break down what actually moved the needle for us: consistency that survives low motivation, cleaner presentation, and fixing the tiny formatting details that can wreck reach (including text sitting out of frame). We also share why talking head video often beats voiceovers when you’re still earning attention, plus what we noticed when a collaboration post brought in people we didn’t know while an informative post lit up our existing circle.

Then we zoom out into the real storyline behind the tactics: the creator learning curve. We tell a personal story about buying the tools before knowing the craft, that humbling moment of realizing you’re not ready yet, and why starting over is not failure, it’s part of the work. Audio-only growth is tough, getting on camera can be uncomfortable, and the paint is still wet, but we keep climbing the next mountain anyway.

If you’re building a podcast, growing on Instagram, or trying to stay consistent with content creation, hit play and take what you need. Subscribe for the next season, share this with a friend who’s building, and leave a review with the one system you’re using to stay consistent.

It's The Climb Playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/521MZuM0WwX8rQly3BOizb?si=739a3344fcc245d8 

Yore on Smith Street is a weekly culture and commentary podcast hosted by Smith Street. Blending current events, pop culture, and storytelling, each episode connects today’s headlines to the deeper narratives behind them — because every moment has a backstory.

https://www.smithstreetsounds.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Episode seven. It's the season finale. If you didn't know. Yes, I had intended to do seven episodes. Thank you to the experience that I had from podcasting before. Not to jump the gun. But yes, I've learned way more. I've learned a lot. I've learned more than I expected to in the last seven weeks. And it's been an experience. I have felt a lot of different emotions from anger to fear to confusion, sadness, excitement, happiness, all of them. You name it. Tired. I felt it all in the last seven weeks. But I've learned so much about how the algorithm works a little bit. Not all the way. But I've definitely learned what makes people

Season Finale Reflection

SPEAKER_00 0:56

engage more. And I've been working on it. Because I still get ideas and I just want to post them, you know. But it's just I guess you gotta think about it as a business. And I I would imagine that there is a time for that. But off script, when we were younger, well, when I was younger, you know, social media was a a game to me. It was a fun thing. I used it to have fun. But now as an adult, you know, I'm using it for more in the more intentional way. I'll say that. Posting whenever you feel like it is not really a strategy and hoping for the best. Like we all wish that it worked, but it doesn't. I mean, it could maybe it worked for somebody. It don't work for me. But yeah, consistency is a system and not motivation, because the motivation will leave. It has left quite a few times in the past few weeks. It's not just about what you post, but it's also how it looks. How it looks is very important. Presentation matters more than you think.

Treat Social Media Like Business

SPEAKER_00 2:14

It matters more than I thought, that's for sure. Small mistakes like formatting layout can definitely kill reach. It was killing mine because I definitely didn't realize that my overlaying text, the headlining text was out of frame, and that was a consistent thing that was happening. And I didn't realize it because I wasn't posting it from the Instagram app. I was doing it from the from Opus clip and it was out of frame. And that was killing the reach. Another thing that I realized is that these talking heads do a lot better than just the voiceovers. And it may work for someone who has a huge following, but to grab someone's attention, you

Presentation And Formatting Pitfalls

SPEAKER_00 3:06

know, a talking head works better. And there are two things that I learned that I got a lot of engagement on. There was a post that I did about Aaron Marcellus. Then there was the other post that I posted just recently that was an informative post, and I saw the difference was the post that I did about Aaron, there was the fact that it was a collaborative post. More people that I didn't know engaged with that post. The post that I posted about podcasting and showing you an easy way to get started, more of the people that I know interacted with that. I don't know. That's just something that I uh I noticed. I remember when I first started my journey as a creative. Not a content creator,

Talking Heads Beat Voiceovers

SPEAKER_00 4:04

but just as a creative in general. And the medium that I was using was music, right? So I wanted recording equipment because I couldn't imagine paying every time I came up with a song to hear it back. How do you hear it back? How do you demo this? And I had friends who had recording studios, I won't call them out because they wouldn't let me use it. But you know, I and that now that I have my own, I trust me, I get it, so it's no shade. Like that's that's my bro. But that's also part the well not part, that is the the reason why I ended up building

Buying Gear Before Learning

SPEAKER_00 4:49

my own because I wanted to do it, he wouldn't let me record at his. I ended up buying all this equipment, I mean thousands of dollars worth of equipment, setting it up, and then I realized when I finally sat down that I didn't know how to work any of it. I really had no idea. It didn't even dawn on me. Like, I don't know what I thought. But I know when I sat down to like, okay, I'm ready to go, I wasn't ready to go because I had no idea what the fuck to do. Oh man. And then that's that realization that wow, there's another mountain, you know, like you get over this hump, and there's another hump. And I've run I've run into that a lot. I'm still running into that. I think that as long as we live, we will run into that. There is always going to be another mountain to climb, and that's okay. I think that we should be excited about the mountain. I like to say, consider yourself a rock climber because you got to put on those rock climbing boots and get to it. You know? Right, get it having the tools does not mean you are ready, so yes, every time that I overcame something, I had to overcome something else. I ran into another issue, and that's okay. And I also had to start over a lot of times. But every time that I started over, and sometimes it was like literally from scratch, right? But in the building, I was able to build better because I had the knowledge

Starting Over Builds Better Foundations

SPEAKER_00 6:41

and the experience from before. So the building, like, there was still a foundation, you know what I mean? Like, okay, I know what to do, I know what to do better. And I've come in I've come across that quite a few times for whatever reason. You can lose everything except for what you know. Right. They can take it all away, but they can't take away my dignity, you know? Okay. Because the greatest love of all, what Miss Houston said. But yeah, so starting over, and that brings me to my point. Because when I started this podcast, I didn't plan on starting this podcast. I didn't know that I was starting a podcast. I was in class, and they said you're gonna You're gonna publish a podcast, you know, and thankfully, because of the experience that I had a few years ago with Amp, shout out to Amp and Amazon, because of that experience, I knew what I wasn't gonna do, you know, and I was able to be consistent because I didn't have to worry about all those things, and I also set a reasonable goal. Audio is hard to grow. I think I talked about that a little bit, but audio is hard to grow. I mean I was resisting getting on camera a little bit, you know. I didn't want to

Accidental Podcast Launch And Goals

SPEAKER_00 8:17

do it, I'll be honest. But I did not have it all figured out, and I still do not have it all figured out, but I'm still growing. Remember my episode The Paint Is Still Wet? I don't know if you do, but that is one of my favorite episodes. I have a few favorites, okay? 30k Streetlights was a good one. The Paint is Still Wet was a good one. The last one was a good one. Number six. I don't even know what the name of that one was though. Oh, it was a just I think it was a just five. I don't know. But yeah, good of them were pretty were really good. I mean, in my opinion, if I'm gonna say so myself. Two, three, and six are my favorite ones. This one maybe come out good too. We'll see how this one goes.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Well, street lights

Audio Growth And Getting On Camera

SPEAKER_01 9:23

street lights whatever.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Alright, y'all. Get up out of here.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Sometimes you just gotta pick up. Just me and you both. Knowing the picture if you want to know the truth, this one too. Just

Favorite Episodes And Closing

SPEAKER_01 10:02

like two food On its way to be wanna see Light Life Don't make it all the way. On whatever vacation, we call everything, but who's with you?

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Beat me or do you do a bag? Don't need to carry on. Do you beat me though in the back?

SPEAKER_01 11:43

That's just going to be. If you want to look at the truth, get started to