Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:56 — 6.1MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I prefer the Zoom brand of digital audio recorders, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson that I’m learning about making improvements one step at a time.
Today’s Fun Fact of the Day is: Today is Napping Day. You might feel like taking a nap after losing that hour of sleep over the weekend. Did you know that in Antarctica, there is no daylight in the winter and months of 24-hour daylight in the summer. But many of the research stations there still observe Daylight Saving Time anyway, to synchronize with their supply stations in Chile or New Zealand.
Before I go on I want to again take a moment to thank every one of you that helped get Stuff I Learned Yesterday, Arrow Squad and The Blacklist Exposed nominated for a 2015 Podcast Award. It’s incredible that we have three Golden Spiral Media podcasts in the running this year and I’m very humbled to be listed amongst so many other great shows.
Now we need your help with the voting. The way it works is you get to cast your vote once per day, through March 24th. After voting, you may get an email asking you to verify your vote. If you do, just follow the instructions in the email. To cast your vote visit podcastawards.com. We ask that you select Stuff I Learned Yesterday from the General Category, Arrow Squad from the Best Produced category and The Blacklist Exposed from the Entertainment category. You can choose your favorite shows from the other categories if you like as well. Then fill out your name and email at the bottom of the page and press submit. That’s all there is to it. Until the next day, that is, when we ask you to do it again. So enlist your family and friends and get them voting each day as well. With your help GSM could take home these coveted awards. Now back to our regularly scheduled podcast.
Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum! Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
What I Learned Yesterday:
Last year I really struggled with the idea of separating out my podcast production services into a separate company from Golden Spiral Media. I sought out several of my friends for advice, and even got advice from a marketing executive from one of the biggest media companies in my city. The results were pretty much split 50/50 as to those who thought I should break them apart and those who thought I should keep them together. Both sides also made good points to support their perspective.
I thought about it a lot and as you are probably aware, I decided to break them apart. Last September I formed Pro Podcast Solutions to serve as the company that handles all of my podcast consulting and production, and kept Golden Spiral Media as my podcast network.
Last week someone asked me if I had made the right decision. My response? No question. I totally made the right decision.
Since I separated the two business out, my production and consulting business has grown steadily. I’ve picked up several new consulting clients, and I’ve helped launched some great podcasts.
Last month was the best month I’ve had since TV Talk shut down operations last May. It’s still a bit away from reaching my financial goals, but it’s a lot closer to reaching that goal than I’ve been in a long time. While I’m sure there are a lot of factors that affected my income, there are some things that I know for a fact that played a positive role.
This calendar year I have begun shifting my focus from working IN my business, to working ON my business.
When I started doing podcast production for other people, I was a one man operation. I think it really had to start that way. I had almost no capital to invest in a big team, and saw a clear path that would allow me to grow the business to a level that could support my family, while still keeping me as the only worker.
A few months after I began down that path I started looking for help in various ways. I started looking for a freelance graphic artist that could assist me with more complicated podcast art projects. Soon after that I began looking for a freelance audio producer to help me out so I could put together my presentation for Podcast Movement and then go on vacation. Both of those decisions were good ones. They expanded the capabilities of what I was able to do and the number of clients I could serve.
Even though I had done those things, I still found myself spending more time on tasks than I’d like. I knew that I needed to spend more time planning and growing the business. I needed to make sure I was leading the business down the right path for scalable growth and success.
Last month I did quite a bit of work to help grow my team and reevaluate the various services I offer. I added 10 voice over artists to my website. I’d always offered voice overs as a service, but hadn’t really had any success with selling that service. Last month, a mere week after I added the new artists and redid that page on my website, I landed 2 voice over jobs.
While I haven’t fully finished the work on my website that tells about the service, I also added advanced show notes. These are really in-depth show notes that we write for podcasts. The notes are more like articles than show notes. They’re really fantastic. Now, I was only able to add this service because I found an amazing script writer. I hate writing show notes. He loves it. And he’s wonderful at it. I’ve already signed up one of my clients onto the new show notes, and he’s thrilled with the quality of show notes he’s getting.
The work that the Pro Podcast Solutions team is doing is getting recognized in other ways too. More and more people are mentioning Pro Podcast Solutions in Facebook groups when someone asks for help with audio editing.
In addition to that, my equipment partner is noticing too. They’ve invited me to be part of a select group of affiliates that is able to check out equipment on loan so that I can review the equipment, create blogs and videos about the equipment, and make more informed recommendations to my clients. This will go a long way to helping me gain knowledge and become a bigger authority in my field.
Here’s what I’m learning.
As I’ve said before, having a strong team around you is so important. In 2014 Golden Spiral Media exploded with new podcasts. We did that because of a great team of hosts and producers. As a result, we are now finalists for 3 podcast awards.
In 2015, I believe Pro Podcast Solutions will see an explosion too. I’m already seeing signs of it as I’ve just shared.
The lesson here is that each one of us is only capable of so much. We all have our limits. Once those limits are reached, something has to give. Either we won’t grow, something will have to go, or we burn ourselves out trying to do more than we can handle.
I have very specific ways that I like things done. I have to recognize that in order to grow, I have to let go of some things. One of the things I have to let go of is control. I’m not totally letting go of control, but I have to let go of it enough to empower other people. I have to communicate to them what my standards are, and then trust them to do the work.
By doing so, I am freed up to do things that are a better use of my time like growing the business. Before I made the decision to add the script writer, I had a conversation with my wife and we did some math. The cost for me to pay the script writer is not cheap. He does amazing work, and I believe he’s worth it, but it was still quite a bit of money.
We had to decide how were were going to answer a very simple question. The question was, “Is it better to pay a script writer to write really amazing show notes and I only make a very small amount of money, or is it better for me to make quite a bit more money, but spend time doing something I’m not nearly as good at nor do I enjoy.” We both decided it was better for me to make less money and have more time. Why? Because I can then use that time to do things that I am good at. I can use that time to do things that make me more money. I can use that time to get out of my studio and be with my family.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, today’s question is one that I think you can apply to your life. The main question today was, “Am I spending time working IN my business, or ON my business.” That is, am I working on just getting by and getting the work done that I have in front of me, or am I actively spending time and effort to improve the situation around me?
When we take time to consider this important question, we’ve just made the first step toward growth. Identify the next few steps to move you toward your goal, and also identify the people that you’ll need to help get you there. No one gets to the top alone, and we’re all better when we have the strength of others to help us along the way.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
Follow Golden Spiral Media on Twitter at GSMPodcasts and Facebook.com/GoldenSpiralMedia. To subscribe to Stuff I Learned yesterday, visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/subscribe. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.
[sc:stuff]