I Almost Quit Podcasting 10 Times

I l almost quit podcasting 10 times, and I was too embarrassed to admit it for years. 

I had a full-time job, then I became a full-time entrepreneur with even less time to focus on personal development. (If you are an entrepreneur, you know work will always fill up the time you have… It was the same for me). 

Podcasting felt like too much work and it never ends. And no, I wasn’t generating revenue directly from podcasting. So it was the easiest task to eliminate, right?  

I went into a phase of releasing episodes every other week (instead of every week), apologizing at the beginning of each episode, though no listener ever complained that I wasn’t producing enough content. 

Somehow, I kept going with little to no fuel in my podcast engine. Until one day in 2016, I had a conversation with my mentor Dorie Clark, who clearly pointed out in our short conversation, that my podcast had been generating all the client leads I had as an early entrepreneur. 

It became more obvious than ever that my podcast was my “free, yet very powerful” marketing engine for a business I started on my own. 

Podcasting is hard work. Podcasting, like any other creative endeavor, is emotional labor. If you do feel overwhelmed like you can’t go on, it probably means that you can’t do it all on your own, and that’s ok. 

Deep down I knew I needed help. I knew I’d be better off with someone who can edit (much) better and faster, manage social media more consistently. (Look, I was a project manager for a decade, I should have known better.)

…But how much money will it cost? Editors and VAs are for the fancy and ultra successful entrepreneurs, that’s not me. 

…Wait, if I’m not making money directly from my podcast (i.e. sponsorships, advertising), I cannot and should not justify hiring an editor or a VA. 

…Plus, I don’t even have time to write everything down, put them into columns to figure out what I need help with. 

These are all the thoughts that went through my head, for over a year… it was overwhelming to swallow all that information and blame. I became a prisoner of my own podcast.  

Something snapped one day. I stopped complaining, threatening to cancel the show. Instead, I posted several jobs in freelancer networks. I ended up evaluating 3 editors by asking each one of them to edit a separate episode, for not a lot of money. My editor (still) today has been with me for over 4 years. Dare I say he’s one of the best people I’ve ever worked with. German Ceballos and I produced a documentary that’s now live on Amazon Prime, based on our podcast.  

Two years later in 2018, I hired my first virtual assistant. She’s wonderful. Within weeks, we figured out a plan of attack for Feisworld – from content calendar, to social media strategy. She also helps with my other clients’ work. 

I often look back to those moment, those tipping points, and it’d scare me if I didn’t take the action to hire the help I needed. 

And no, they didn’t break the bank either. In fact, I treat my small team as my strategic partners and never as worker bees. Perhaps this philosophy and model won’t work for everyone, but it does for me, as an independent creator entrepreneur.  

I’ve been thinking a lot about people who have quit podcasting too early, before they realize the potential and power it can have on their personal and business lives. 

So I decided that it’s finally time to package everything I’ve learned over the past 6 years into a course called Virtual Assistants for Podcasts.  

To take learning to the next level and offer as much accountability, support as I can for my community, I decided to host a 4-week live accelerator program just for this course starting Wednesday September 9th, 2020