The Daily Pep! Part Two
This is part three in my month-long series, taking a warts and all look at behind the scenes of launching a daily podcast (The Daily Pep! launches on 29th February 2020). Here’s Part 1 and Part 2.
We’re now less than 3 weeks until the launch, and now the cat is out of the bag and I’m talking about it publicly, it’s definitely getting more real, and more exciting.
I realised a two big things this week:
Big Duh Moment # 1 - I somehow forgot, and completely dismissed the fact that I’m a writer
One of the biggest things that has been freaking me out is pressuring myself to do every episode unscripted. I’ve had my microphone plugged in for most of the week, have made rough outlines for episodes, and some have worked, some haven’t.
Mr. Meg has been my guinea pig and I’m really grateful that he shares his honest feedback and will tell me if an episode doesn’t really go anywhere! While I’ve been feeling so stressed out about doing everything ad-lib and without a script, it was like my mind went blank and I’ve completely forgotten how I tell stories, how I start episodes, how I make points, everything.
I then thought back to the hundreds of blog posts I’ve written - and enjoyed writing - to look back at my style, how I start them and if this whole daily podcast thing really is a lost cause!
So I took my iPad into the bath, got my previous blog posts open and was surprised to find they were /exactly/ the style and topics I want to cover in this podcast. Cue the realisation that maybe if I approach it like blogging, then I’m actually making a mountain out of a molehill?
Isn’t it funny, and infuriating how much we can get into our heads sometimes?
Big Duh Moment # 2 - I need to stop worrying about worrying 😂
I realised this week, that this launching a daily podcast thing is a bit of a waiting game. Ultimately there’s only so much worrying I can do, and only so much I can stop myself from worrying. I feel like once the 29th gets here, I’ll feel calmer because then I know it’s showtime and I have to just get on with it regardless of how I’m feeling.
Upcoming Sabbatical
Behind the scenes this week, I’ve been doing lots of coaching calls, getting on top of admin, recording episodes, finalising the media kit as I look for sponsors and getting the organisation side of things sorted. I’m on sabbatical starting tomorrow evening so this week has been a Get Shit Done week where I’m getting everything in order to take a week off.
(I’m experimenting with taking every seventh week as a sabbatical as a burnout strategy. I first heard about it from the Seanwes podcast and you can read more about it here).
My hope is that the sabbatical will give me space to rest, recharge and allow me to come back before the launch feeling fresh and inspired. I’ve spent most of the last week focused on my coaching clients, making sure I am as present, helpful and fresh I can be, after six weeks of pretty intense work.
I think on Tuesday I simply plan to sleep all day! I’m also know that I get my most creative ideas when I give myself permission to rest, so hopefully it’ll be a week of sleep, reading and lots of ideas! I’ll report back next week!
How I’m organising everything
Talking of getting organised, I’m a massive nerd systems and processes. One of the things I knew in starting a daily podcast is that I’m going to have to have a solid system in place so it’s not a chaotic mess!
In case you’re a bit of a nerd too, I thought I’d share with you the behind the scenes of how I’m organising everything: I’m using:
Notion for project management (I’m in LOVE with it, if you’re curious, here’s a great video explaining how it all works)
Bear App for writing (trying to be a bit more organised than Google Docs and still undecided if this is the system I’m going to go with)
FocusMate to give me a push and get the fuck on with it if I need it! (FocusMate is an AMAZING co-working app thingy, where you get paired with someone for 50 minutes to get shit done and keep each other accountable) - well worth checking out!
Things to do before it goes live on 29th!
Open a new show with Libsyn (the company I host Couragemakers with) and submit The Daily Pep! to iTunes for manual approval!
Create a landing page for The Daily Pep!
Start an archive page on the website for show notes for all episodes
Pitch sponsors
Decide on hashtag for The Daily Pep! community on Instagram and Twitter - my current thought it #dailypeppers but I welcome ANY suggestions!
Work out how I’m going to launch it - I’m thinking of doing five mini pep talk episodes on Couragemakers as a kind of crossover collaboration in the week leading up to the launch
Record more episodes! I have 7 recorded and 20 mainly ready for recording
Try and be more present and actually lean into the excitement instead of feeling controlled by my to-do list
Finalise the artwork cover and edit the file so it meets all iTunes specs etc
And speaking of artwork…
I promised you in Part One I’d share with you my previous draft designs for The Daily Pep! Here goes 😂
Fear Update
So that’s everything for this week. There’s definitely been less wrestling with fear this week, and in all honesty, I think that’s because I’ve just had so much to do with dwindling energy that I haven’t had the mental space for an existential crisis.
I am SO looking forward to a break, I think I’ll be re-reading some of my favourite YA dystopian books like the Matched series by Ally Condie, finishing Call The Midwife and hopefully getting a massage on Thursday! 🎉