The greatest internal obstacles to podcasting are opposites.
1. They will hear me and disagree with me.
2. No one will hear me.
Risk and podcasting
Podcasting involves risk. You risk having haters and you risk having no one listen. The rewards are fans and listeners. People who don’t podcast, but want to, are usually focusing on the haters or don’t believe enough in their message. They think no one will listen. They create a self-fulfilling prophecy by not creating content they ensure no one is listening 100% of the time. They also ensure there are no haters, except they are hating themselves by not believing enough in their ideas to create content.
Don’t cuss in church
There’s an internal filter all of us have before we speak. If you’re in church you try not to cuss. If you’re with a girlfriend you try not to be crude. If you’re at a job interview you try to be professional. If you call into a radio show you are probably sharing an opinion. So what’s the filter for podcasters? Your internal filter has to be very thin or you’ll waste people’s time and they won’t come back. I’m not encouraging you to cuss, be unprofessional or lack humility. The filter I’m focusing on is the one that tells you try to be articulate as you share your opinion. It (the filter) tells you that more people will listen if you’re middle of the road. It tells you to speak to the masses. The masses are millions. You’d be happy with 5,000 listeners wouldn’t you? You need to talk to 5,000.
A guy talking about birth
My internal filter tells me that I’m a man and I can’t start a show about natural childbirth. My wife and I have two kids and a third will be arriving in Ocotber. She’s had both of our children with no pain medication. We’ve gone to months and months of classes and read lots of lots of information on the subject of birth. When we have our kids we do it as a team, she literally leans on me for support through most of the labor. (Even as I write these words my internal filter is telling me to stop writing them.) I believe women need encouragement and education regarding natural childbirth. It’s something most women can do and yet so few of them do. They are being robbed of a beautiful birth experience in the name of modern medicine. I want to help them reclaim the power that modern medicine has stolen from them in the name of “progress”. I’m going to interview women about their birth experiences and it’s going to be controversial, blunt and awkward. I’m going to have a show about natural childbirth because my filter is thin. How thick is your filter? Thin it out and do something. The world will be a better place if you do.
