To play a wrong note is insignificant!

Passion!

To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable!

―Beethoven

Content creation in all its forms, including podcasting is all about passion.

If you are not passionate about what you are doing, then it is difficult that you will find success.

In fact, the difference between mediocre content and amazing content is “Passion”.

When you create from a place of genuine excitement and interest, it shows through in the quality and originality of what you produce. Passion breathes life into your work.

So how can you cultivate more passion as a content creator?

Here’s 5 things that I learnt in my 20 years of being online. These can help you become passionate about what you are doing.

Enjoy the process:

If you are not enjoying it, then it is not for you.

We tend to pick up things just because we see others doing it.

In doing that we forget to ask ourselves a very important question – “Is it something you will enjoy doing?”

It necessarily need not be a “YES” and it is ok too.

If you don’t think you will enjoy doing it, course-correct yourself.

There are tons of things out there that you can pick up and start off with.

I remember this Instagram influencer who has about 700k followers. When she started off, she was doing the same comic stuff that a lot of people were doing. She was getting followers too.

But then she wasn’t really enjoying what she was doing. She slowly moved into the “sustainable living” niche and started creating videos about sustainable living.

She lost almost all of her followers but then attracted the right audience and grew to what she is today.

I know a podcaster who I had interviewed some time back. She was running a show about birthing and the problems and solutions associated with it. She was so passionate about the subject that she went onto get a formal education on the topic and even rebranded her podcast.

You can listen to her at “Birth Agni”!

That’s what passion can do to you as a creator.

Simplify:

When what you are doing is easy to do, you will do it more. So simplify the process.

I am extremely lazy and hence I try to find simpler ways of doing things like automating, eliminating repetitive activities etc.

And it has not only helped me do things faster, but I don’t feel like it is a chore.

A lot of times we push out things because of the friction involved in doing it.

Eliminate these barriers and keep things easy and simple.

You will find that you are interested in doing more of it and there is that motivations that pushes you to do it. (more of this in another edition)

Learn:

If you are finding things difficult, then you probably don’t know everything about how it is done. So learn from others!

Most of the things that we are doing today was once unknown to us.

Take for example podcasting. Very few in India knew about podcasting, let alone the technical aspects of it.

But everyone of learnt it. And we learnt it as we did it.

When you are starting off, you will find that things are difficult because you don’t have all of the knowledge that is required. But as your learn more about it, you will find that things are easy and you will slowly start to enjoy the process.

Learning is easy.

Read blogposts, watch YouTube videos and learn from other creators.

Follow some of the best creators in your niche/topic.

Learn from –

• What they do
• and how they do it

Commit:

Things don’t happen overnight.

It takes a lot of time even for a seed to grow into a full plant.

So commit yourself for a specific amount of time.

Our podcast had only about 100 listens until the first 6 months, but we hit 200k downloads in about an year.

Micro-commitments are the best way to stay in the game like buying a good microphone or, even paying a year upfront to your podcast host will keep pushing you to produce episodes.

There is another trick that has worked for me and could work for you as well.

If there is a goal that you want to achieve but are unsure of, if you will pursue, then walk up to a couple of those people that you know around you, who like getting back at you when you don’t achieve goals.

And tell them that you are targeting that goal.

You are sure to pursue and achieve it, just for the fear of those people coming back at you and ridiculing you. Try it, it works!

Remember that everything takes time. Success could be just round the corner.

Make mistakes:

Mistakes are common and are “insignificant” if you are passionate, in Beethoven’s words.

We were never taught content creation in schools or, colleges. We were only taught to be consumers.

So when you are doing something that doesn’t have a proper educational methodology, the only way to learn is through trial and error.

And in trial and error, you are bound to make mistakes.

So it is ok to make mistakes.

But the key is to learn from your mistakes, correct them and move forward.

I made a lot of mistakes in my online journey. Some were disastrous like running after shiny objects, and impacted my growth a lot and some were minor ones that took me off course.

But everyone of them were lessons. Lessons that led me towards the right direction.

One of the biggest and disastrous mistakes I made online was in trying to save a few cents by going with cheaper products/services. This set me back almost 3 years when I lost all of my hard work and had to start all over again.

I learnt it the hard way and I also learnt how to get back up and start running.

REMEMBER – “Cheap” proves to be costly in the long run!

Embrace Imperfection:

If you wait until you are perfect, you will never be able to do it. So it’s ok to be imperfect!

Our firsts were all imperfects. The first blogpost, the first episode, the first video.. all of them were cringeworthy.

But I don’t feel embarrassed when I watch them. I feel proud that I started off without waiting to be perfect.

If I hadn’t started, I wouldn’t have been here today.

This post too might not be the perfect one that checks all the attributes of a “perfect post”.

But I am learning. If I don’t do this today, I might not be able to do it any day!

What’s one of those mistakes that you made in your journey online, that taught you a good lesson?

Drop me a note and I would love to hear from you!

A Confession I need to make!

Before we get into the next section, there is a confession I need to make.

You might have seen that I have been a bit too inconsistent with the newsletter for the last 2-3 months.

I think I have taken too much on my plate and as a solopreneur, I have been finding it difficult to juggle with the many things.

Since my business has been growing (podcasting is just a small part of my overall business), I wanted to realign things in such a way that I do justice to the things I am handling.

Some of the things I plan on focusing more on are the Course on Podcasting, a Book on Solopreneurship, my core affiliate marketing business, a few speaking gigs and of course this newsletter.

It will take a few weeks to realign everything but I am making a promise to myself that the focus on this newsletter will not be compromised.

Thank you for being on this journey with me until now and I hope you will continue to stay with me.

I put in about 18 hours every month to create this newsletter, starting from researching to writing and editing it.

So, If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could recommend it to others. You can send them to https://theloudspeakeronline.com to subscribe to it for FREE!

What am I reading?

The latest book that I am reading is “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.

You might know by now that I love productivity tips and specifically books that talk about productivity.

This book is one such book that helps you put together a productivity system. And I think I desperately needed it!

You can check the book out here!

From the Podcast

There is quite a bit that has happened at the podcast in the last couple of months.

Here’s the 3 of the latest episodes:

• Episode 138 – Creating a listenable quality audio!
• Episode 137 – Embedding your podcast episode on the website!
• Episode 136 – Creating for your Ideal Podcast Listeners!

Do let me know your comments and feedback.

That’s it for this week!

Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinions about this newsletter.