Episode 82: How to Start a Podcast Without Overwhelming Yourself

Ever felt overwhelmed by your own expectations? Join me as I share my personal journey of navigating the pressures of maintaining a strict podcast schedule. In this episode of the One Girl Travel Podcast, I open up about my struggles with self-imposed deadlines and how they drained the joy out of my creative process. Reflecting on a recent mastermind session in Puerto Rico, you'll hear why it's crucial to give yourself grace and adjust your personal rules to keep your energy and passion alive. Learn how to transform your approach to personal projects, making them fun and manageable, and why missing a week or changing plans isn't the end of the world.

Ready to launch your own podcast but don't know where to start? I’ve got you covered. From choosing a name to picking the right equipment, I break down the process into simple, actionable steps. Discover my favorite tools like GarageBand and Zoom, and hear about my experience hiring a voice actor for a professional touch. Whether you’re a perfectionist or a beginner, I’ll remind you that authenticity trumps perfection. Mistakes are not only acceptable—they're part of the journey. So, let’s get started and bring your creative vision to life, whether it's a podcast, YouTube channel, or any other passion project.

Shop my favorite podcast tools HERE
Save $20 off of your Buzzsprout membership HERE
Get 10% OFF of Fiverr HERE

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click on the link or make a purchase using the link. By using the affiliate links, you are helping support the services and content that I provide, at no additional cost to you.

I only recommend products and services that I personally use and believe will add value to my readers. All opinions expressed here are my own.

If you enjoyed this episode of the One Girl Travel Podcast, then I invite you to follow me on Instagram. That's where all the fun is happening! @ONE_GIRL_TRAVEL

Follow me here: https://www.instagram.com/one_girl_travel/

Chapters

• 0:00 Relaxing the Rules
• 6:06 Starting a Podcast
• 10:56 Creating a Podcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the One Girl Travel Podcast, episode number 82.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Welcome to the One Girl Travel Podcast, your passport to the world of solo travel with certified life and travel coach, alessia Tenebruso. Join Alessia as she shares her own journey of self-discovery through solo travel, while also focusing on topics such as life coaching insights and travel tips along the way. Now here's your host, alessia Tenebruso.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Welcome to episode number 82 of the One Girl Travel Podcast. It's been a few weeks since my last episode and that's actually what I want to talk to you about today. I did have something else planned that I wanted to talk about, but this has been speaking to me because I am sure so many of you can relate to the fact that we push ourselves, we create these rules for ourselves, that we need to abide by, these rules that we ourselves created, that we are forcing ourselves to do, even when maybe we don't have the time or we don't feel up to it or we don't feel in alignment with it at that moment, but yet we tell ourselves no, you created these rules for yourself, you set this schedule, you said you were going to do this and now you have to do this. And I'm here to say that that's bullshit and we should not be doing that to ourselves. I created this podcast as a fun way to interact with all of you, to provide you with education, entertainment, value, inspiration, whatever it is you need, and I wanted to do it because it was something I wanted to do and I had it in my head from early on.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Like I'm going to create an episode every week on this day, at this time, and it's going to look like this and eventually life caught up with me and things happen where maybe I wasn't feeling good or I had something going on, or I was traveling and I didn't get to record an episode, and I would beat myself up about it, like, are you committed to this? How could you not show up? You're disappointing people, it's not right. Like you're a failure. All these thoughts come up which I know aren't true. I know I'm not a failure for not recording the podcast the day I said I was going to record it, but still I put all this pressure on myself and then I realized that I chose to create this podcast. I chose to show up on this format and make these videos and recordings for you, but no one's forcing me to do it. There's no rule saying I have to do this. Yes, it is the norm to produce an episode every week, but things happen and when you are a solo entrepreneur handling every aspect of your business, or even if you're just a human being, there are things that happen. And I want this to be a reminder to all of you listening that you don't need to put this additional pressure on yourself. We have enough pressure in our lives as it is, with our everyday tasks, that the things that we voluntarily choose to do shouldn't be forced upon. You shouldn't be so rigid and so structured. It can be more organic, it could be easy, it could be fun, it doesn't have to be stressful.

Speaker 1: 3:36

So, if you've noticed, there have been some gaps within the podcast episodes, because again, life happened and I am giving myself grace when I miss a week and I've been talking to people about this topic in my life because when I went down to Puerto Rico this past week actually it was my first time going down there I went down for a mastermind slash think tank with other incredible business owners and entrepreneurs and we were talking about starting a podcast. And my biggest piece of advice for people who are getting ready to start a podcast was to go easy on themselves, to not beat themselves up if they miss an episode or feel like they need to write out a year's worth of topics for episodes before they even record the first one. That it should be fun and your energy should be there, because if it's not, if you're not feeling it, you shouldn't be doing it in that moment and it's okay if you say that you're going to post on a Thursday and you end up posting on a Friday, like again, there's no rules. We create these rules for ourselves and we are allowed to alter those rules if it means that it's going to benefit how we feel and also how we show up. So that's a topic I want to talk about because if you're interested in starting a podcast, I want to help you because, honestly, starting a podcast was one of the easiest things I ever did for my business. I don't remember if I mentioned this on a previous episode, but I know I mentioned it to my community on calls and in the One Girl Travel Club that I decided on a Friday to start a podcast and by that following Monday, I had my first episode up and running. And it really doesn't have to be that difficult. It can be easy. The things that you want to do that should be fun can be easy and I feel like that's such relief knowing that, and I hope, if you do have a desire to start a podcast, this gives you that relief or that sense of ease going into this new journey Because, again, this is fun. This is an extracurricular thing that you're adding to your list of many other things in your life.

Speaker 1: 6:06

And starting a podcast is simple. I'm here to tell you. It is simple. You do not need to know all the things about starting a podcast. You do not need to do research I mean, I didn't anyway. You do not need to write scripts. You do not need to learn how to use certain tools. I'm going to go over what I personally use and what I found to be extremely user-friendly, because this is important. I know so many of you have something to say and you want to say it, but you just spin and overwhelm because you feel like you need to research how to do all these things, or you feel like you don't know how to do them, or you're not tech enough. Like it's not that hard. It can be easy. Allow yourself to be easy.

Speaker 1: 6:58

So let's get into what I personally did when I started this podcast. First of all, you want to pick a podcast name. I obviously went with the One Girl Travel podcast because, again, that's easy. I can change it. And that's the thing with all of this. You can change your mind, you can change your title, you can change your brand, you can change your colors. Just start, stop thinking about. You know your text, your font, your images, your name, because you're never going to get anything done that way. Just start, pick something and go with it and don't think about it until much later on. If you have that desire to change it, then go ahead and change it, but just start, so get your name all right.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Next up is you do need some equipment, but it can be the most basic of equipment. You have a phone. You have voice notes on your phone. You have a pair of headphones that came with your phone. You can easily start there. The mic is pretty good on the wired headphones. I know for iPhones and I'm sure Androids are probably even better. But you have everything you need. If you wanted to just start, if you want it to be more polished, you go on Amazon and you find a mic.

Speaker 1: 8:13

I have a link to a blog post I just created on this topic because I, for the people that I spoke with in Puerto Rico, I wanted to help them out by sharing what I know about podcasting. So I have a link to my microphone. And then the software I use it came with my computer. It's GarageBand. If you do not have GarageBand, there are other applications that you can use. That most likely came with your computer already and, like I said, audio notes, voice notes with your computer already. And, like I said, audio notes, voice notes it works just as well. Or you can easily use Zoom as well. So there are plenty of options. I don't want to hear excuses about this. It's all there for you. And when I first got my Mac, which was very recently, I didn't know how to use GarageBand. I went on YouTube, I quickly learned the keys to use the shortcuts and I started recording. And again, it doesn't have to be that hard. You just have to follow instructions and hit play and start talking, and the same goes for every other application out there that you want to use. So find your application, get your microphone and start talking.

Speaker 1: 9:25

It is good to know the general idea of what you want to discuss on your podcast, because you want to stay in alignment with your message and your brand. For me, it's solo travel, it's inspiration, it's sharing my personal travel stories, and those are pretty much the pillars that I stand on for every episode. So you know when you come to my show, that's what you're going to get from me. And you also know my show is not curated. I am not I. You know I fumble my words. I will say words incorrectly, which some of you will enjoy calling me out on for some reason. It's fine, I know it's not necessary, though, but it's just showing up as yourself, and I think that being authentic, being genuine, being yourself, is more important than anything else, and that's what people appreciate most is you being you because they're getting you, and not a fake persona. So don't worry about feeling like you need to memorize scripts or pronunciate everything correctly, because we're all human and you know we're talking for quite some time. Things are going to happen, mistakes are going to happen, and that's another thing. You have the choice to leave the mistakes on the recording or you can simply delete them and nobody's going to know. So that's up to you.

Speaker 1: 10:56

And the next thing is, if you want to be a little extra, if you want to be a little fancy, I have my intro and outro, which I absolutely adore. You know where I got that from? I went on Fiverr and I hired a voice actor to create my intro and outro for me for under $100, and it was given to me, I think in 48 hours. I had it that weekend when I uploaded my podcast episode and I love it. You don't have to do it. You can create your own intro and outro, or you don't even have to have one. It is entirely up to you. It's your show. You get to do whatever it is you want to do. That's the beauty of it and that's the fun of it. So, if you want, you can go on Fiverr, hire somebody to do your intro and outro or record it yourself.

Speaker 1: 11:51

And then the most important thing you need is a hosting site. I love Buzzsprout. I did my research when I started, basically on the most affordable, because some of them were just ridiculous price for them. Buzzsprout is very affordable. I love it. I have not had any issues with it. I recommend it to everybody. I have a promo code that I will put in the show notes for you where you can sign up for Buzzsprout also. But that's it. That's all you have to do.

Speaker 1: 12:23

The hardest part is starting, and I can tell you like even getting back your momentum if you miss an episode or two, it's still difficult, because then you might overthink like, oh, what am I going to talk about? But once you start talking, it will flow, it will come to you, you'll know what you want to talk about. You'll think of a relatable topic. Hopefully, I can't guarantee you any of this, but most likely that's what's going to happen and you just go with it and you're not forcing anyone to listen to you. You're just putting it out there and see who enjoys it and your people are going to find you.

Speaker 1: 13:03

But, just like anything else in life, if you have a desire to do something, what's the first step? You have to try. You have to do it Like research all you want. That's not going to help you get started. Researching is easy because you're not doing anything. You're just filling your head with more information. Most likely, it's going to be conflicting information, because everyone has their own opinions about every single topic there is, rather than just trying it for yourself and see what works for you.

Speaker 1: 13:39

Again, you get to make the rules on this. You get to make the rules for your life in general. If you want to talk about the big picture here, anything that you desire to do in your life should be on your terms. Whether you want to get married, have kids, be an entrepreneur, live in an RV, whatever it is. You get to decide that, not society. So the same thing goes with a podcast, and, of course, I'm using the podcast for this example, because it is a tangible thing that I believe that you are all capable of doing if you so desire. And I just want to take the scary away when it comes to podcasting because, as somebody that never thought about being a podcaster before, it was easy and it's fun and I enjoy it, and, from what I hear from you all, you enjoy it too. So it is very rewarding to know that I'm reaching my target audience and that I can help in any way, and so if this episode helps you start your podcast. Like please, let me know if you start a podcast after hearing this, because I want to know that this resonated with you and it helped, and that means so much to me to hear from all of you. If I inspire you to go on a solo trip or do whatever it is that you do, it just it makes it all worth it and it makes me so happy and I love cheering you on along the way. So that's where we're at. I have a full blog post I am going to post in the show notes on this topic, because they have links, and it has a breakdown of everything that you need to do to start a podcast easily, and also just a heads up.

Speaker 1: 15:35

I am not recording a video for this episode of the podcast. I am tired. I pulled myself up from the couch to record this because I wanted to make sure I recorded it, but I am beat, so that's okay. I'm not going to force myself. I'm going to not record a video, and that's okay. I'm not going to force myself. I'm going to not record a video, and that's okay. And it is so freeing to give yourself permission to do what feels good for you rather than what you think you should be doing. It feels kind of like a wild child move, like okay, like I'm not going to do that, I'm going to rebel against the rules, but really I get to make the rules and I'm doing what feels good to me and I hope you always do what feels good to you. Let that guide you, let your desires guide you, in a responsible way, of course, but do what speaks to you and I encourage you all. If you want to start a podcast, if you want to start a YouTube channel, if you want to start a social media, do it, show up, get over yourself, get over your fears and start sharing whatever message you have to share with the world.

Speaker 1: 16:57

So, before I end this episode, let's just do a quick recap of what you need to do to start your own podcast. Let's get a name Pick any name, make it easy. Get a microphone if you desire to use one, or you can use your headphones and your mic and your phone. Get a software GarageBand, if you use Mac. Go on Zoom if you want whichever and get a hosting site, which I recommend Buzzsprout. Again, I'm going to post all the links for everything I recommended, which I personally use, so check them out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I'm always happy to help. And that's it, my friends. That's it for today, nice and easy. Go check out the blog post for all the information. Thank you so much for listening, and I will be updating you next week with a new episode, because we are going into a new month and there is a lot happening. So stay tuned and I'll talk to you then.

Speaker 2: 17:57

Bye. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the one girl travel podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can find out more about your host on our website, onegirltravelcom, or follow her on Instagram, facebook, pinterest and TikTok. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode.