SPI 546: My (Terrible) First Podcast Episode

SPI 546: My (Terrible) First Podcast Episode

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Smart Passive Income podcast, where it’s all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, he’s determined to be a world champion Pokemon trading card game player, Pat Flynn.

Pat Flynn: I just want to warn you really quick. What you’re about to hear might be a little disturbing. So here we go.

Ghost of Pat Flynn Past: I mean, really, I really don’t know what I’m going to talk about yet. So I just wanted to get familiar with all the equipment that I have right now and what it’s like to post something online and hear what people think about it.

Pat Flynn: So that was a clip from episode one of the Smart Passive Income Podcast. That’s 545 episodes ago. That’s crazy, or 546, right? I don’t even know. Math’s hard, but you know what else is hard? Podcasting. Podcasting was very difficult back then. It was so hard because it was technically hard, but it was also hard because there was less people showing that this thing actually worked. And it was also hard because as somebody who was very much in my own head, who when I started blogging was like, I love blogging because I can hide behind my keyboard. I never have to interact with anybody in real life. The thought of putting my voice out there into the world was very, very scary. And what you heard was actually the third take of episode one published in July of again 2010.

Pat Flynn: But the story goes back even further. I actually had my blog up and running in late 2008 and I knew I wanted to start a podcast. I was motivated to because a podcast had changed my life. And I knew that I wanted to affect other people’s lives in the way that podcasting had already had an effect on mine. Big shoutout to Jeremy and Jason from Internet Business Mastery, by the way, that was the name of the podcast. So what did I do? I bought all this equipment. At the time I was living back at my parents’ place. I had just recently gotten let go.

Pat Flynn: I moved back in with my parents. I was recently engaged as well. And to save money for our wedding, I moved back home with my parents as did my fiance. And so I bought all this equipment, it arrived at my parents’ place. And I remember opening up the box and getting really excited, right? Just like you do when you get any new toy. It’s like, wow, the possibilities, all the things that we could do with this. So I hooked up the microphone. It was a Samson microphone. I can’t remember the exact model number. And then it came with a stand and I also bought one of those pop filters that sort of bend around and it adds like a big circle in front of the microphone. It was profesh—it was a professional setup. Plugged it into the computer and I was just like, okay, I’m going to go.

Pat Flynn: I hit record. And I just froze. Wow. This is hard. Now I froze partly because I had no idea what I was going to talk about. I was just like, I always do, I’m the type of person who opens the box on the way home from Best Buy to play with the toy or play with the piece of electronics. So I was just quick and ready to see it all in action. But obviously just setting up the podcast mic and putting your headphones on is not going to be enough. You have to plan ahead a little bit. So I decided to make it a little bit easy on myself and attempt to record the introductory episode. So I wrote out a little bullet point list on a Post-it note near me. And I just was like, okay, well here’s what I think the episode’s going to be about.

Pat Flynn: Here’s what I’m going to talk about. It’s going to be just a little bit about myself and what the podcast is going to be about and what people can look forward to. So then I hit record and I said, wow, okay. I don’t know how to do this. Still even with a script in front of me, I was a little bit scared. So I said, you know what? I’m just going to do a test episode first. If I can prove to myself that I can record just like random thoughts first, I’m not going to make it serious. I’m going to actually post this file on my website. And I remember getting access to a free MP3 play button that you could attach a file to on my WordPress website. And this was smartpassiveincome.com December of 2008. And so I recorded just a little teaser, like, Hey everybody, this is Pat. And it was very, very weird. In fact, let’s play a clip of it right now.

Ghost of Pat Flynn Past: Hey everybody, this is Pat from the Smart Passive Income blog. Thanks for taking the time to listen to this. I think that’s so awesome that you guys are helping me out, figure out all this new podcasting stuff. I’m actually, just bought a whole bunch of podcasting equipment for myself, because I mean I listen to a lot of podcasts, so I figured, Hey, why not do one? So I mean, really, I really don’t know what I’m going to talk about yet. So I just wanted to get familiar with all the equipment that I have right now and what it’s like to post something online and hear what people think about it.

Pat Flynn: So I mean you tell me, should I give up on podcasting now because my voice sucks so bad or should I talk a little deeper or I really have no idea. So again, just thank you so much for taking the time to listen to me. Keep coming back to the website. I got tons of information coming up in the near future. And let’s make 2009 a great year for all of us. Let’s make it the most profitable year we’ve ever had. And I’ll try my best to help you get there. So again, good luck with everything. Happy holidays. And this is Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income blog signing off. Peace.

Pat Flynn: All right. So that was the first, first thing that I ever recorded and posted online. So as you could see, even more timid than that first one. So posting it online, seeing people react to it, people were excited. They’re like, oh Pat, this sounds really good. I didn’t believe that. Said, oh, I’m looking forward to the show. Again in my head I’m like why? And I talked myself out of it. That was published in December of 2008. Now if you’re doing the math, like I said, my first episode came out in July of 2010. It’s a year and a half of waiting and starting and stopping, and starting and stopping, and starting and stopping. And I did that so many times. I would always find some sort of excuse, oh, well the tech is too hard. Blogging’s easier. Nobody’s going to listen to me. I don’t like the sound of my voice.

Pat Flynn: Nobody else will either. Everything I could tell myself to talk myself out of that scary moment when I hit record on the microphone, I found it. And it wasn’t until early 2010 where Jason Van Orden, one of the co-hosts of the Internet Business Mastery Podcast reached out to me and said, Hey Pat, I thought you were creating a podcast. What’s the deal? And he actually helped coach me through a lot of the mental process of that. And a lot of it was about service to my audience, reminding me that I was served by his and Jeremy’s podcast. And that every day I went without publishing a podcast was a day that I was losing out on the opportunity to potentially help people. And that I think Jason knew was really important to me. So I’m very grateful for that.

Pat Flynn: I also reached out to Cliff Ravenscraft, formally known as Podcast Answer Man. And he was very helpful. In fact, provided me a lot of specific clarity on the technical pieces of it and really helped me again, through the mental blockages. So big shout out to Cliff Ravenscraft who I still continue to speak with every single week. And we’ve done this for about a decade now, close to a decade, at least with our green room mastermind that meets every Wednesday. And I just am so thankful for that group, as I am for my other mastermind as well, that has been together for even longer. It just shows you the importance of surrounding yourself with people who will lift you up. I’m very, very grateful for them.

Pat Flynn: Well, I finally got my first episode recorded and I listened to it and it was terrible. So I decided to script the entire thing. That means writing every single word that I’m going to read off and record. And I had spent two and a half days writing this thing out. It took so many hours because I wanted to get every word right. And it was actually simple to do. It just took a while. I was a blogger first so writing was a little bit easier and I wrote this script and I hit record and I read it. And it just didn’t translate very well to a podcast. One, I just was not very proficient with reading with personality. Number two, it just didn’t sound right. It didn’t sound even like me. It sounded like my words but written, but just read and it just didn’t sound right. So I came to a decision point. I was like, okay, am I just going to give up again and just continue blogging? Or am I just going to muster up the courage, screw it and just do it?

Pat Flynn: And I of course did the latter as you know, as we sit here in episode 546. And I am so grateful that I got through those terrible first episodes in order to get to where I’m at today. And even now I’m still learning, still continuing to experiment and try new things. But as John Lee Dumas once told me, you have to be a disaster before you become the master. You have to be the disaster before you become the master. And when I think back at my podcasting journey, a lot of great things have happened since I’ve started the show from reaching new audiences. The podcast has become and still is the number one way people find out about myself and SPI and the brand so that we could better serve them. It has provided a lot of income directly through sponsorships and advertising, but even more so indirectly through getting to know people, having people come on to the website and join our email list to attending one of our webinars, or joining SPI Pro, becoming a student of one of my courses, attending one of my workshops or in-person events.

Pat Flynn: It’s turned into millions of dollars, not right away, but it has. It’s allowed me to connect with people who I would’ve never had the chance to connect with without the podcast, big names like Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferriss, people who have in the space that I’m in become my best friends, like Chris Ducker and Chalene Johnson and Amy Porterfield and other people within this space who our time on the podcast together was time for our relationships to bud and grow. It’s incredible when I really think about it. This medium has changed my life and I know it could change yours too, should you want to decide to start one. It’s also provided an opportunity for me to get into different industries. I had once gotten into Hollywood a little bit, not like truly acting in a movie or anything, but I was able to be a background in a movie as a result. I was the social media director for an independent film, as a result of a independent producer finding my show.

Pat Flynn: You can find my IMDB actually. I am executive producer on a number of things as well, but you can find me for social media sort of director and manager for a movie called Crooked Arrows, which is sort of like a Mighty Ducks, but in the lacrosse world. The list goes on and on for opportunities that the podcast has provided. It has provided advisorship opportunities for different companies. Again, it’s truly changed my life. And this is exactly why I want to teach everybody in the world, how to start a podcast. And I do this for free on YouTube and other places on the website. But for those who are truly serious and who want the step by step handholding of this process, I have a course, as you might know, it’s called Power-Up Podcasting. We’ve served thousands of people, many of these people starting their show and going full time with it.

Pat Flynn: I’ve invited several students to come on the show before to talk about their success. Episode 275 of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, you can listen to three of my students, Dr. B, Dr. Shannon Irvine, and also Rob host or co-host of Disney Travel Secrets. Dr. B, she tells a story about being over 60 being deathly afraid of technology and using the course to get through that and build a podcast that helps people with ADHD and being listened to all over the world. She said it was life changing. Dr. Shannon Irvine having a in-person slash offline business now online and most, if not all of her business is now online as a result of her podcast. And it’s changed her life as well with epic success. You can go listen to it. Disney Travel Secrets, Rob told a story about how his business increased 348% at the time as a result of the podcast. They actually now have to turn clients away because people are coming and finding them through their show.

Pat Flynn: And that’s just a microcosm of the incredible success stories that have come out of Power-Up Podcasting. And if you’re listening to this and this sounds of interest to you, and you can imagine yourself potentially getting behind the microphone. Yes, maybe needing a little bit of help, but that’s why we’re there, myself and my team and you have access to the SPI academy with other students. You have access to me every week for two hours during office hours to on a Zoom call, ask me questions and I can give you answers right away so you can move forward. This is why they say that our courses are some of the only ones that people actually complete. A lot of people buy a lot of online courses. That is my favorite piece of feedback.

Pat Flynn: My other favorite piece of feedback is when somebody, a graduate comes back a year later and says Pat, that course changed my life. That happens with all of our courses. And Power-Up Podcasting is our most successful course. Right now if you go to smartpassiveincome.com/pup, P-U-P for Power-Up Podcasting, smartpassiveincome.com/pup, you’ll see likely a special deal there. And if you’re listening to this at the time that this recording comes out, that is at the end of January 2022, or just the beginning of February 2022, you’ll have access to a really sweet deal that relates to us having just finished Pitch Your Pod, which was a campaign to help people create their first episodes. And now we’re running a campaign to help as many people as possible with getting their show up and running and doing it in a way that’s not going to break the bank, right?

Pat Flynn: That’s the other thing. There are so many different microphones, so many different pieces of equipment. This course, the beauty of it tells you exactly what you need and nothing more. It gives you the most economical way to sound the best, to build an audience, to build a community, to become known, and seen, and heard as an expert in your space, to be able to have access to other people in your industry, that you wouldn’t normally have access to, to be able to potentially monetize, not just through advertising and sponsorships, but through affiliate marketing, through promoting your own courses. This can be a game changing course for you, which is why I’m promoting it really hard right now, because sometimes you need that push. And if you’re worried, there is a 30 day money back guarantee, but that’s not anything I’m worried about. I’m worried about you and your success with a podcast. And here at the beginning of 2022, you got to check out Power-Up Podcasting. It will help you. Smartpassiveincome.com/pup, P-U-P.

Pat Flynn: Thank you. Go there now. And I look forward to serving you there. You got to get in before the campaign ends. You can see when the deadline is at smartpassiveincome.com/pup. Hope to see you there, hope to see you in office hours. And I cannot wait to have you join the ranks of us podcasters here, because it’s just been absolutely tremendous, life changing, and so much fun. Join us.

Pat Flynn: Thanks for listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast at smartpassiveincome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess. Our series producer is David Grabowski and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media. We’ll catch you in the next session.