Hishem Azzouz, a full-time recruiter with a two-hour daily commute, explains how he produces a podcast by clarifying his why, using Gmail and Google Calendar to schedule guests, and turning lunch breaks and spare work moments into podcast tasks. Strong motivation and organization make it possible.
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So I'm a full-time recruitment consultant. It takes me an hour to get to work, it takes me an hour to get back from work, so I'm probably back home 6:30, 7 PM. How do I have time to do a podcast? Simple answer, you make time. But there's a few things that I've been doing that I've probably learned over the past month or so which have really helped, so I wanted to share. So first things first, if you're starting a podcast and you're working full-time, you're having to do it outside of working hours, then you're gonna have to— again, it comes back to the why. Why are you doing it? Because there's gonna be times when you get home from work and you just wanna put your feet up, watch Netflix or whatever, but if you wanna do this as well as your job, then you're gonna have to make the time. You have to be organised. That's the first thing. So what I've been utilising, which I've only started doing, and my friends have told me for a while now to use sort of Gmail and the Google Calendar, which I've been doing. So when I've scheduled conversations with potential guests and I'm going to be telling them about the podcast, why I'm doing it, those sorts of things, before we actually do a podcast episode, I'll send them a calendar invite and make sure that's in my calendar. I know what I'm doing. And yeah, so that's the first thing, be organised. Just maximise your time, even when you're at work. So what I've been doing is, before I actually decide to do a podcast episode with someone, I always want to take 5 minutes of their time to share with them why am I doing this podcast. They're going to be giving me their time, so I want them to understand what's in it for them, why I'm doing it, and I've been doing that quite a lot of the time at work on my lunch break. Utilise the time that you do have. So when you are at work and you've eaten your lunch, instead of scrolling through your Facebook, your Instagram feed, organise some calls with other people that you know that you want to get on your guest, tell them about your podcast, etc. So be organised and maximise your time. And the last thing to just note is when you've got a really strong why and you actually enjoy what you're doing in terms of the podcast, what you're speaking about, it should be easy. It does feel easy for me to go home after a long day and to prepare for a podcast or do a podcast episode because I enjoy it. So if you're feeling a lot of resistance to, I can't be bothered tonight, or whatever, think about why you're doing it. Are you sure you're doing it for the right reason?
