Is Podcasting Hard?

Kathleen Shannon 0:02
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Emily Thompson 0:29
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Emily Thompson 1:12
This episode is all about what Kathleen and I think about the hardness of being podcasters

Kathleen Shannon 1:22
podcasters sometimes,

Emily Thompson 1:28
sometimes the difficult

Kathleen Shannon 1:32
thing, sometimes the most complicated thing about podcasting is getting the words out of your mouth.

Emily Thompson 1:38
That is definitely the hardest part.

Kathleen Shannon 1:42
No, but this is like legit a question that we get all the time, which is is podcasting hard. And I've heard some people tell me that they've thought about podcasting because they think it would be easier than writing, which I just have to laugh at probably because we turn podcasting into a business. But like my ultimate kind of quickfire answer to this question is podcasting is as hard or as easy as you want to make it.

Emily Thompson 2:06
I think that if I were podcasting alone, I'd probably write it out first.

Kathleen Shannon 2:11
And just like read what you were going to see. So I don't understand how what where that even came in.

Emily Thompson 2:20
Just putting that out there. Like if it's easier or harder than writing. If I were doing it alone, I think it would be the same. Just extra steps afterwards.

Kathleen Shannon 2:29
Exactly. I think that writing is easier than podcasting, for sure. Because there are less steps. That's a good point. Because if you're podcasting alone, you're probably going to write it out anyway. Or just ramble in which case God bless you. I some people are good at that. We ramble but with each other, so it makes it right.

Emily Thompson 2:50
Imagine if it was just one of us trying to do this. Ooh. Um, but anyway, so is it hard? Yes. Like, whenever I pitch doing the podcast with Kathleen, like, I didn't pitch it thinking it was gonna be the easiest thing. We actually I pitched it with Kathleen, because I knew it would be hard. And I didn't want to do it by myself. To get real railroad to get really real with you. Um, so yeah, I think I mean, podcasting is hard. But I also think that anything worth doing is hard work. So it's almost for me, like a cue that it's something that I should be doing. If I see it as being something that's going to be a little difficult, because also the rewards of podcasting have proven to be much better than any writing I've ever done. And I think it'll cycle back round to writing one day. But yes, podcasting is hard. It's super difficult, but also totally doable. Because we do it. We taught ourselves to do it. And here we are.

Kathleen Shannon 3:52
I think podcasting is easy.

Emily Thompson 3:54
Oh, get them?

Kathleen Shannon 3:55
Hmm. No, I mean, I'm not really trying to be contrary. But for me, podcasting has been one of the things in my business that has been the most fun, the most rewarding. It has been a really easy way to dive into exploring areas of expertise. I have asked myself more questions. I have challenged myself more as a creative entrepreneur than I ever have, in my whole life. That sounds a little dramatic, but like, you know, in the in the past five years, like what have I been working for, and getting to meet weekly with you and have a podcast where we get to explore these boundaries of our expertise and what we want to be known for and what we want to talk about and just getting to have the conversations that we get to have with people like Brene brown and David Heinemeier Hansson, and Ramit Sethi and Brooke Castillo, I mean, we've gotten to talk to so many amazing people. We would have never had that chance before. And so I guess I'm going to say that podcasting has been easy in that. It has been the first time in my history of working for I saw that I have really enjoyed the process along the way.

Emily Thompson 5:03
Yes, half five. I agree with that entirely. And like the whole, you know, is a hard thing I think of it starts with food and the whole 30 and how how they say that, you know, is whole 30 hard. No, like having cancer is hard. Like, there are really hard things in the world going 30 days without eating a bar of chocolate isn't the hardest thing that you will ever do

Kathleen Shannon 5:30
was a very pointed comment you just and Emily's talking all this shit at me right now? Because I just told her So Emily is doing a whole 30 and is completely morally superior right now. And I was just talking about how like, I have an impossible time resisting the chocolate in my house. Like I cannot quit this chocolate in my house. Right? You can't hard that is not eating a bar of chocolate is harder than starting a podcast.

Emily Thompson 6:03
Oh, I think I definitely agree with that too, though hardcore. Um, so yeah, I think that it's it's difficult in that you are doing something new and doing something new is always hard. I think you're doing something new, you're learning new skills, you're putting yourself out there probably in a way that you have never before. But it certainly results in some pretty big rewards. Because I agree all the conversations we have has like made my life for the past year and a half. And the you know, growth that we've seen in the expansion that we experience, and all of the things that come from doing something kind of hard, makes me look back and think how really simple This has all been.

Kathleen Shannon 6:43
Yeah, it's it's challenging, but not hard, I think is kind of what I'm thinking about. And I've been challenging myself in ways that have me almost feel like an athlete, right? Like podcasting is kind of like working out or anything else. And I think even if we didn't have the growth, or the numbers, or the sponsors, and all of like those things that look flashy and great on the surface, I think that even if we didn't have those things, it would still totally be worth it just for how it's pushed us as creatives in our own expertise in our own businesses. So it's hard, but it's worth it. But if you love writing, and you don't love speaking, maybe a podcast isn't for you. Like I wouldn't podcast as a way to replace something that's already working or something that you already love.

Emily Thompson 7:33
Agreed, agreed. I mean, we both found podcasting because we were kind of done blogging, like in the I know that you don't see yourself as being done blogging, we obviously have the been boss blog that I enjoy writing for. I know that you do as well, but like our own personal blogs had kind of stopped happening. And but we both really wanted to share content, just not in the way that we had been for so long. And so for us, and especially in the world of building an online business content marketing these days is really how you do it. Like if you want to like build a impactful online business, you're doing some content marketing to educate people and bring people into it. And if blogging isn't working for you, because oh my goodness, do I hear a very large amount of creatives come to me and say they want to start a business but do not want to blog like I get it, I totally get it. You don't have to do anything that podcasting is a perfect alternative for people who don't want to sit and write and do those things, but do have an expertise and a point of view to share. You can speak it pretty easily into a podcast mic and send it off to be edited and posted from there. Agreed.

Kathleen Shannon 8:42
So I did some a little bit of content coaching with Jay prior, who just launched a podcast of his own and he's had one of our most popular episodes on being boss. A lot of people loved his episode. Anyway, he knew that he wanted to start a blog, I almost put that in air quotes because I feel like that's where a lot of people start with content marketing, but he hates he legit hates writing. And so I told him, listen, you are so good at speaking he is one of those people that can just hit record and off the cuff, spout out some genius. So I said just hold up your iPhone, hit record. This is right before periscope to upload those videos to YouTube and call it a day and then you can embed those YouTube videos into your blog. But I think that podcasting is the same thing now. And I think that I remember in your email where you pitched me, you were like podcasting as a future Trust me. And you were right like finger on the pulse and so many people are consuming content through podcasts. I think it's a great place to get started. So yeah, podcasting is hard, but I think that everyone should have one.

Emily Thompson 9:48
Agreed.

Kathleen Shannon 9:53
This minisode was brought to you by Twenty20. Check them out at Twenty20.com/beingboss. That's t w e n t y 20 as in the number.com slash being boss.

Emily Thompson 10:07
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