I am excited, delighted and more than a little proud to announce that the The Good Life Well Lived podcast is one year old.
In February 2018 I committed to creating one episode each week. I can’t quite believe that today episode 52 has gone live and I have achieved my goal.
I want to share with you the highs and lows of creating this content over the past year. I also want to give you an insight into what is possible when you set a goal and take consistent action to make it happen.
Why I Started The Good Life Well Lived Podcast
For context, it’s worth sharing why I started The Good Life Well Lived podcast in the first place.
Back in early 2018 I had just pivoted my business and was mapping out my goals for the year. Two of my goals were:
· To create content to establish myself as a thought leader in personal development.
· To network with likeminded professionals and make connections with interesting people.
Creating Content
I am no stranger to creating content. To support my work as a business mentor I created hundreds of blog posts and a similar number of videos.
I have created content for my own blog, guests publications, social media and my paid programmes. I know how to create content!
But, back in early 2018, I felt that I had blogger burnout. I didn’t feel the spark or passion for it anymore.
And I’m not camera shy but I knew that if I would make excuses about creating videos on a weekly basis. While it shouldn’t, I knew that I would let hair, make up and lighting be a barrier to getting my message out.
That’s when I started to consider podcasting.
I love listening to podcasts and I have several that I listen to on a weekly basis. 13 months ago I had absolutely no idea how to create a podcast but I knew I would figure out. As Richard Branson says:
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”
I presented myself with an amazing opportunity and I decided to make the commitment and learn how to make it happen.
I also knew that my podcast wouldn’t be great to start with. I had no experience of creating audio content.
But I also knew that the more I practiced, the better I would get. As Ernest Hemmingway famously said:
“The first draft of everything is sh#t”.
I had to get that first draft out there and improve upon it week by week.
Meet More Interesting People
The second big goal that I had in 2018 was to network and to meet more interesting people.
Face to face networking is fun but it can be time consuming. Once you factor in travel time it can take up between a day and half a day of time. And you can never be sure if the people that you want to connect with will be at the meeting on the same day as you.
I work around my kids’ school hours so I generally have about 25 hours a week, 40 weeks a year available. My time is precious and I need to spend it wisely.
I then had the idea of inviting the people that I wanted to network with into my own home. I could easily do that by having a conversation with them online and sharing it with my audience.
It was a win win situation. I got to make new connections and learn about other people. My audience get to know me better and learn from other experts as well.
One Year On
So here we are, 52 weeks later and the result is that The Good Life Well Lived Podcast has has 12,333 downloads.
That sounds like a big number.
In the world of podcasting, it’s not that big a number, particularly for 52 episodes.
However, I am incredibly proud of it. You’ve got to start somewhere and 12,333 downloads is a pretty good place to start.
Of the 52 episodes 30 of them have been interviews.
I have interviewed people that I already knew. I have interviewed people that I never met before. (You can see the full list HERE)
One of my guests lives half a mile away from my home. Another lives in a remote part of Vancouver. Another in the Philippines and another on a boat in Portugal.
I love that I can make connections all around the world from sitting in my little office in Surrey, England.
Not only have my interviewees been from diverse geographical locations. The Good Life Well Lived podcast has been downloaded in 33 different countries.
The bulk of the downloads come from UK, US, Canada and Australia.
But I’ve also had downloads from Lithuania Bulgaria, Brazil, Korea to name but a few.
It is quite incredible to think of having that kind of international reach.
I’ve also had some fabulous feedback for the podcast and five star reviews from all around the world.
The Challenges
As you can imagine I am feeling pretty chuffed with myself at the moment but I need you to know that this has not been easy. There have been many challenges along the way.
I am fairly technical, but oh my goodness. I’ve had some horrible technical mishaps over the past 12 months.
I’ve had to figure out recording software. I’ve had to figure out editing software. I have accidentally posted a file that hadn’t been fully edited. I had to quickly take down the episode and make changes to it.
I have had struggles with my branding. I didn’t invest a lot in branding up front and I have struggled with getting the right look and feel for the podcast.
I have also sent out many requests to people to ask if I can interview them and then I’ve heard nothing back. That is par for the course, these things happen. But at times it has dented my confidence and made me question, should I carry on.
It hasn’t always been easy but oh my goodness I can say that it’s been absolutely worth it.
Lessons Learned
Putting this into the context in your own world, some lessons learned.
1. Do the thing. I want to encourage you to do that thing that has been bubbling away at the back of your mind. Once you set your mind to do something, you can do it. Figure out that thing that you want to do and start taking action and make it happen.
2. It is possible to create something from nothing. One of the things that I have learned over the past few years is that I am much more creative than I ever used to give myself credit for. I always thought that creativity was about drawing or painting or doing something artistic.
But creativity is creating something from nothing, creating something that didn’t exist before. If I can create something from nothing then you absolutely can do this too. The Good Life Well Lived podcast was created on a minimal budget and I had zero experience. I rolled up my sleeves, I learned and I did the work. 3.
3. The world is full of interesting people. Think about who it is that you would find interesting to talk to and make connections. Be interested in other people. It’s incredible what you can learn and it’s incredible the opportunities that can arise once you start to make those connections.
The Good Life Well Lived podcast is my way of connecting with people, but you can do this in your own way. It could be joining a local choir, going to a conference or getting involved with your church. Get yourself out there, meet people and make those connections.
What Next For The Good Life Well Lived Podcast?
I knew that it was going to take time to build momentum with a podcast. In order to build that momentum I committed to putting out an episode a week.
But in all honesty, it’s is a lot of work to get an episode out on a weekly basis and I’m not sure I can keep it up.
I might switch to a fortnightly format. I might switch to seasons and release 12 episodes at a time and then take a break. (If you are a podcast listener and have any feedback on how frequently you like to get new episodes then let me know! [email protected]).
For now I’m going to stick to weekly episodes and will decide in the summer how I’m going to take things forward.
I have planned out and am starting to write The Good Life Well Lived book (I’ve shared this publicly now so I have to do it!).
Writing a book is a big undertaking, I’ve done it before and I know what is involved. I feel like I have got to a point where I want to solidify and share The Good Life Well Lived message with more people. I know that the blood, sweat and tears required to write the book will be worth it.
And the final thing that’s going to be coming later in the year is a new website. I want to make sure that that branding and graphics reflect the ethos of The Good Life Well Lived. I am not a visual person and it’s definitely time to get some help with this to help me take The Good Life Well Lived to the next level.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
I want to take the opportunity to say a massive thank you to everybody who has contributed to the podcast. You have all been incredible, sharing your wisdom, your compassion and your humour.
Another massive thank you to all of my listeners for each and every one of those 12,333 downloads. A special thank you to those who have taken the time to leave a review. It means the world to me.
If you haven’t listened yet you can access and subscribe on iTunes HERE and on Stitcher HERE.
If you would like to be updated when new episodes are released and get my weekly roundup you can sign up HERE. Please be assured it’s a spam free zone and you can unsubscribe at any time with no hard feelings.
And remember… that thing that you want to do. Go do it! 12 months from now you will be glad you did.
Nicola x