Episode 35: Building a Long-Term Legacy Project with your Podcast and Tops Tips to Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Welcome back to Healthy Profits Podcast. I'm your host, Rae Ireland. And today we're going to be diving into something that is so crucial if you want to be creating a legacy project, something that is going to be long lasting for friends, family and online friends, online strangers who don't even know you, as a resource for them to continue to go to year after year to get support, get help, get started stories, get inspiration. Then there's one crucial thing that you have to do, and that's what we're going to be diving into on today's podcast. So welcome to all my listeners, newbies, people that have been with us from the start. We're just so glad you're here. Healthy Profits podcast is all about really supporting the entrepreneur who is in health and wellness and has a big mission and wants to get it out there using the tool of podcasting. So what we found is so many people come to us with that desire of having this legacy project, of building up their brand as a thought leader, as a leader in the health and wellness space, and they have this huge desire, right? Like this is not a small dream. This is not a one year goal, one year plan. This is much, much larger than this. It's usually really connected to your entire sole purpose for being here on the planet at this time. And so when we're working with these types of people, there's just so much motivation, so much encouragement, so much excitement at the beginning. And the problem that we see is that there's this fade that happens where things maybe start to get a little inconsistent. Maybe you miss a few episodes, maybe you're just not as thrilled, as excited. Once you get through your first 10 or 20 episodes that you were so excited for at the beginning, then you're like, what else do I talk about? There can be kind of this dryness that comes into the episodes. And we just notice that as things get more sporadic, including the energy and the excitement towards the podcast, it can really start to hurt your podcast itself. The listeners start to drop off. They might not be listening to it as long as they were in the beginning, because you're just circling around, not being specific with what you're sharing. And it really will diminish this legacy project that you started for that purpose from the very start. And so today I want to share some tools that you can use to stay consistent and to truly build out this legacy project, not just talk about it. So I was actually on Instagram this morning and I saw this reel and there was like a school teacher and all These kids lined up and the school teacher was saying, what is one word that describes your mom? Obviously, I believe that the exercise was to encourage and love the moms that were in the audience, that sort of thing. It was really cute. The kids were all around 5 years old. And he, the host, gives a microphone to one of the little boys. And the little boy, like, smiles. He's so excited. Like, you can see that he's going to say something really profound or really sweet and special. And he's obviously thinking of his mom. And then his face drops and he says one word. Tired. Oof. I saw that myself as a tired mom. Like, I get it. I'm a new mom. We're doing a lot. There's a lot of things going on. Sometimes sleepless nights. I just felt myself, my. My heart sink. Because if there's one word that I want my child to remember me by, it's not going to be tired, right? And yet it really had me check. And what am I saying? And what am I showing up as in my life, in my business, that my child is watching or your kids are watching, or if you don't have kids, maybe it's your family, your best friends, your tribe, your community. How are they watching you and what are they saying? You might be doing all this stuff, but what is hitting them? The impact of what is hitting them is how you feel and how you're experiencing the journey. So that brings me to the point of what kind of impact do you want your listeners to be remembering you by now? Of course, you're starting out as a legacy show. You're excited. You have all this stuff to share, all this wisdom, all these stories, but what if that doesn't last? What if just like a tired mom, she's, of course, so in love with her child and all that, but what if the feeling actually is something similar to tired? Or what if it's inconsistent? Or what if it's boring or dull? Obviously, things that we really, really want to avoid. So this is the problem that we see podcasters have is this podcast fade. And it comes from this lack of engagement throughout the journey as a mom. Again, I'll circle it back to there. I would want my son to say, she is, like, either creative or loving or courageous. She's fun, playful, adventurous, silly. Like, these are the kind of words I would want to receive. So I, I think, start thinking, like, what kind of words do I want to receive from my podcast as well from my podcast listeners? So ask yourself that. See what kind of words come out and are you hitting that word? Is that being shown or being shared within your podcast? Every single episode. This is the type of consistency we're talking about. Not just the, I have to do it, it's on my calendar. I gotta record these, I'm gonna just show up and do them. And trust me, I've been there. It's not fun for yourself. Your listeners won't really care and everything is going to start to fade out. So can you keep yourself motivated with that initial feeling of creating a lasting legacy project? And can you keep that feeling moving and bubbling within you as you're recording the podcast? And it takes. That's step one. Step two is then sharing the podcast. If you have something amazing to share, you're going to reach out to people, you're going to tell them about it. It's not about spammy, self promotion, anything like that. It's when that inner desire of having this legacy project be heard boils out of you, that there's no other way for you to share it than to just share and say, look what I just created. Can you, like, take a listen to this? If you have anyone that you know that's going through X, Y, Z, have them listen to this episode. I talk right about that. It's about truly coming from a helping and giving source and giving heart. So this is going to be a few different keys that I want to share with you to keep that motivation going. So, number one, plan ahead. This is an easy thing that you can do because I do see, and I've experienced it myself, or maybe I even plan ahead. And then I, I forget to plan ahead and I, I miss it. And all of a sudden I'm in a scramble and I'm just trying to pump episodes out. If you can truly plan ahead, you can actually create a really beautiful way of getting ready for your episodes. Having a system, having a flow, having time to also prep for the episode. So you really are coming prepared. You're not just throwing the camera on in your PJs, you're showing up, you're excited and you're ready to go. Just like any type of show or performance or speaking gig, right? You're there, you're ready, and your listeners are going to feel that as you plan ahead, that will also ensure that you always have topics lined up. Now, I do know some people, and I've been here too, where I'm like, well, I just want to flow. I want to see what comes up and how can I plan every episode ahead? And for instance, how Would I be able to plan this episode where I was scrolling this morning and found this, this story, and I was able to tie it in. Guess what? We had the theme. I had the theme planned out. I didn't have to go in and figure out every single nitty gritty detail, but I did have the core essence. And I think it's amazing. I think a lot of people will relate to this, but it's just incredible how the world and the synergy works too. I feel like when I have a game plan mapped out, it's almost like life gives me the experiences I need, like, right in time, just so I can be like, oh, this just happened. And I relate it back to that. And the theme might already be in place, but I can bring in the energy and the stories of what's more current. Another thing you can do is if you map it out, say you go to record, you can always switch them around, right? But if you have these topics lined up, you at least have a pool of topics that you can choose from. And depending on your excitement and what you're most interested in on recording day, you can switch them around. So it really reduces a lot of the stress around. Oh, I have to come up with something, and I don't know what else to say. I feel like I've said everything. Well, if you have a big list and what I like to do is actually, you know, add to the list as my days and weeks are going by, even if I'm not recording those episodes, and I just have this bulk list of topics and themes that I can go back into and create episodes from. So that's a really fun way to do it. Number two is batch recording. So if you have this pool of different themes that you can work with, I believe that if we batch record, you're going to get the most bang for your buck. Because humans, we are all challenged by multitasking. When we're multitasking, we're going to get less done. When you're doing one thing, you're in one energy, you're ready to deliver, you've gotten ready, you put on your makeup, you're showing up, the cameras are set up, the lights are ready. Then if you just bang out these episodes, you're actually going to see yourself and feel yourself get better and better each time. It's. If you go to the gym for a few days in a row, you'll start to see the progress happen a lot faster and make these more minute tweaks and changes and shifts to activate those specific Muscles where if you go to the gym and you space it out and you go once every month, you're not going to remember what you did last time. And so it's like you're almost starting over again. So if you really want to build up the, the energy, the mastery of podcasting, batch recording is going to be so helpful for you. You'll see what works, what doesn't work, and you'll just get into that nice flow. So again, when you plan ahead, you have those episodes ready, you batch, it'll make it a lot easier to also stick to that schedule because you're not trying to just squeeze in recording an episode here and there. You can have a day or half day dedicated to going in and recording your content and then boom, there you go, your team is ready to go and they can take action from there. Number three is going to be set realistic goals. When you set realistic goals, this helps you to not over commit, not feel like you're a failure. And you can just get started taking one step at a time. For instance, maybe releasing a few episodes a week feels like too much. Great. Scale back. If even doing one episode a week feels, feels like a lot, which is usually what we do advise, then you can always scale back and do like a bi weekly schedule. So know that whatever is most realistic for you to maintain is going to be the most important. As you're syndicating shows out, your listeners are going to start getting used to your syndication schedule. So if all of a sudden you're doing four episodes and then one episode and then three, and then none for two weeks and then one more, your listeners are going to be all over the place. They don't know when to tune in, they don't know if you're going to have many episodes and they need to check in every day, or maybe they should just check in once a month and then if they do, then they're going to miss all these other ones. So get into a nice cadence and your listeners are going to thank you by listening through and your downloads are going to go up because you're building that type of trust and consistency. Not to mention, this is a really important thing to have within your business and your brand. And so as you're looking at it outside of just keeping consistency and creating a legacy project, as you're building up your brand in your business, you want those people to feel like they can trust you and receive support from you and rely on you. And that's how they get encouraged to take that next step with you on their journey. Number four is going to be leveraging automation tools. We have some incredible episodes where Sami's talking about leveraging AI and different tools that you can use. Do this to help you stay organized, to help you stay on top of it, and you can automate syndication for episodes going out. This will just ensure that things are going to be happening on a timely manner. And number five goes along with this is just build out your support system. So make sure that you have a team in place, at least a va. We always say that, but you can have a podcast production agency that's really supporting with creating that accountability, making sure that you're getting these episodes out in time. When I had a period where I actually did it myself, and I was like, I'm gonna hire someone. I'm not gonna go with an agency that's doing it for me. And that was the most stressful time of my podcasting because I was like all over the place and I'd forget episodes sometimes and recording and this and that. When you have someone to be accountable to, it just makes it so much easier. And if you are connected to community that supports as well, because you can get motivation from each other. When you're feeling discouraged, creating a legacy project, something this big, this long term is not always going to feel great. It's not always going to be fun and easy. So when you're in those valleys, having people to walk through with you is going to be so key. That's why within evolve podcasting, we are a podcast production agency, but we also have our community, we have our network. There's masterminds, there's courses that you can go through. And that community building has been so key for our clients. We see them creating with each other, going on each other's shows, swapping ads, swapping intros. There's so many fun ways you can do that. And of course, many other episodes that we talk about that. But build out your support system, your team and also your community. So what I want to do is just empower you guys to take action today. So just start by evaluating your current podcast schedule, your routine, how is it feeling? Is it feeling consistent? Is it feeling? Are you excited about the consistency? Are you into it? Are you engaged? Are you thinking of new topics, whatever that is? Can you do one step to just up level that consistency in how you're showing up? So maybe it is in your content calendar, maybe it is in batch recording, maybe it's in getting more of a team around you, or maybe it's in just reigniting your energy around your topic and why it's important to have this legacy project be out there for the world. Overcome those common traps of over committing or neglecting the plan ahead, feeling like you have to do everything manually, have to do everything yourself. These are going to derail you from being in your genius and truly taking charge and going after something that is so big. Like what this podcast can be for you, your family, your loved ones and your clients. So I'd love to hear from you what strategies are helpful for you in staying consistent? What what's working for you, what's not? Share some thoughts and experiences on social media and how staying consistent on that has been working for you. Let's go ahead and connect as a community and share some tips and advice, so feel free to add those into the comments or find us on social media. Evolve Podcasting on Instagram so remember, we're here to help. Always feel free to reach out to us. Sammy and I and our team are here to support you in creating your legacy and building it and bringing it to the world in that incredible level of professionalism, creativity and spark that you desire. So people listen and also take action from your podcast. Until next time, keep creating and I'll see you soon.

Now that was a great episode. Thanks for joining us and tuning in to the Healthy Profits Podcast.

Sami and I are here to help you turn your health podcast into a treasure trove of opportunity for your listeners and your business. So join us twice a week as we unleash our favorite tips and strategies that have helped our clients at Evolve Podcasting turn their show into a thriving part of their business.

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