Ep #111: 5 Things That Stop You from Starting a Podcast, Blog, or YouTube Channel

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. Thank you so much for being a listener, for sharing, for subscribing, for reviewing. And if you haven’t done any of those, you can just go ahead. I already told you thank you in advance.

But we’re going to have an amazing time on the podcast today. Now, if you haven’t listened to episode 109 where I talk about the seven things you must do before you start a podcast, blog, or YouTube channel, once you’re done with this one, I want you to go listen to that one.

So, we talked about that. But today, I want to talk about the five things that stop you from starting your podcast, blog, or YouTube channel. And you know, you know that I think every physician should have a platform. I think we should put our voices out there because we have a lot to say.

Now, I’m going to start off by telling you a story that I heard John Lee Dumas tell. He’s told it on his podcast. He’s told it in his book. His book is called The Common Path to Uncommon Success. It is a really good book. And if you are going to podcast specifically, that is a book that you should read.

And if you’re like me and you don’t like reading Audible books that were not read by the author, his was read by him, so you would enjoy it as well. Okay, so Common Path to Uncommon Success, really great book.

But he tells this story about when he started his podcast. It’s called Entrepreneurs on Fire and he started it in 2012. So, he had done the work deciding who he’d be talking to, who is avatar was. He put all of that work in, got his gear, recorded episodes and all of that. And then, he set his launch date for August 15^th 2012. So, this is when he was going to launch his podcast.

And he had a mentor called Jamie who he was working with to launch his podcast, because she’s been where I want to be, so I’m going to work with her.

So, he sets the date. It’s August the 12^th. And on that date, everything was set. All he needed to do was hit submit. This was all he had to do. And then, what happened to him, which is something that happens to us, stopped him.

So, he’s like, “Oh, wait a minute. What if it fails? Wait a minute, what if nobody wants this? Wait a minute, what if my assumption is wrong? The whole prelaunch stage I was thinking everybody wants this, everybody wants a daily podcast. It’s going to be amazing. What if nobody wants it?”

So, he postponed it. He didn’t set a date. He just said, “I will do this later. Let me work on some other stuff.” So, before he knew what was happening, another month had gone by and it was September the 15^th. And hi mentor called him.

And he got on the phone and he’s like, “Oh yeah, you know, I was thinking about this little sidebar on my website, do I move it from left to right?” and all that kind of stuff.

And if you’re like me, you’re probably giggling when you hear this because yeah, we’ve done all those things, “Do I change the color from blue to pink? Should I change the host from Buzzsprout to Libsyn?”

And his mentor – I love her – this is what she says. She says, “I am going to say this one time and one time only. If you don’t stop messing around and launch your podcast today, I’m going to fire you.” She’s my kind of girl. She’s like, “I’m going to fire you.” So, guess what happened on that day, September the 20^th 2012? He hit submit and entrepreneurs on Fire became a thing.

Now, why am I taking the time to tell you this story? Because one, it shows you that everybody has these feelings that we have. The fear of, “What if it fails? What if nobody wants it? What if the haters come for me? What if, what if…” everybody has that.

But let me show you the flipside of it. That podcast now does a million downloads a month. One million. One million. And has had more than 100 consecutive months of $100,000 in net revenue. So, think about him not starting his podcast and nine years down the line, the impact the podcast is having.

So, what if he didn’t start because he was afraid? He would never have known that he could have built a podcast that had a million downloads a month and that would generate even figures in net revenue every single year. He would never have known that.

So, the question I ask you, which is a question I’m asking myself is, what is not happening in my life or in my business because of procrastination? What is not happening because I haven’t said yes to the things that I know I should say yes to?

So, if you’ve been thinking about starting a podcast or a blog or a YouTube channel, let me be your Jamie today. Start it, okay. I will be nice and not say start it today. But at the end of this podcast episode, you’re going to set a date. You can even PM me, okay, on Facebook or send me a DM on Instagram and say, “Hey, I set the date. This is the date. I’m going to get this done.”

So, let me tell you the five things that stop you so you can get them and you can decide, “These are not going to stop me.” And this matters whether you are starting a platform or you are up-leveling or revamping your platform. Either way, these are five sneaky things that keep coming up.

Number one, perfectionism. And this is a disease that most doctors have. And it is crucial that you have something close to it in medicine. But in entrepreneurship, it is so harmful.

Now, John Lee Dumas, in the book, did have a quote that I found very interesting. I may not have put it that way, but you get the point. He says, “You have to be a disaster before you become a master.” Isn’t that so cool? You have to be a disaster.

So, “Oh my gosh, what if it’s not the best?” You don’t become the best by preparing to become the best. You become the best by preparing as well as you can, going out, taking action, getting feedback, and getting better.

You become a master by making a commitment to continuous improvement, not by starting off perfect. So, I want you to divorce perfectionism in your business. It would make sure that you do not get things done.

When I started my podcast, I started it with the voice memo on my cell phone and the earbuds that come with the iPhone in the box. But here we are, 18 months, 92,000 downloads later, I mean, start. Give up perfectionism. Divorce it. You can use it in your medical practice. Don’t use it in entrepreneurship and 100% don’t use it in content creation.

So, think about it. If every week, all you did is 1% improvement in your technique or in your ability to run a great podcast, blog, or YouTube channel, in a year you would have made 52% improvement. 52%, not adding compounding, 52%. And you would do it every year after.

So, perfectionism is not the thing. The commitment to continuous improvement is will you choose to start from where you are and get 1% better every single time? So, that’s number one. And don’t let it stop you anymore.

Number two is the tech overwhelm. And it’s a thing, “What gear should I use? Should I use the Samsung Q2U mic or should I use the Rodecaster podcast mic, or should I use the Shure mic? Oh my goodness, what website? Should I do WordPress or should I do Podpage or should I do Wix or should I use Squarespace? What kind of website? What apps should I use for editing. Should I use iMovie?”

Okay, deep breath. Deep breath. Deep breath. First if all, there’s always going to be many options. Your job is to get enough information to make an educated decision and then just make the decision. There will always be more than one.

Think about when you got married. Think about when you had to choose friends. Was there only one friend you could have. Think about when you went to the store to buy a dress for a very important occasion. It wasn’t just one option. You look at your options and you make an educated decision and you take action. That’s what you do.

So, if you have a podcast, I mean, you can use your phone if you want. If that’s where you want to start from, you can get the Samsung Q2U. You can get the Shure mic. There are options. Just look and pick one. “is it Buzzsprout or Libsyn or Podbean?” pick one, okay. Look at the options, make an educated decision, decide.

I use Buzzsrout. I like Buzzsprout. You know, it’s very simple and user-friendly. If you know me, you know I don’t like complicated things. So, you can use that.

With a blog, get a WordPress. If you don’t know what to do with it, pay somebody 70 bucks on Fiverr to set it up for you and then you just add the blog pieces. Boom. Done. And then you can learn more and then you can do better.

YouTube, “What kind of camera can I use?” I don’t know. But I know you should start soon, so use your iPhone. There are whole movies shot with the iPhone and older versions than the one you have. Do your iPhone. Get a $14 stand from Amazon. Do your thumbnail on Canva. Boom, done. Don’t accept the overwhelm.

So, overwhelm is a feeling. It’s a feeling. And you can choose to accept it or not. Like, “Oh my god, what mic are you going to use? What website are you going to use? What kind of camera are you going to use?” You just have to say, “I have three decisions to make here. I have to choose a camera. I need to choose a microphone. I need to choose a website platform. I need to choose a hosting platform.” That’s four, not three, but you know.

And then, make the decisions. Don’t accept the overwhelm. Just make decisions and be done. Boom. And guess what. If you’re like, “Wow, I think this other mic is better,” then upgrade. iPhone’s not ashamed to do that. They upgrade every year. Just upgrade.

Number three, decision paralysis. Very close to tech overwhelm. Decision, decision. Now, how do you know this is an issue you’re having? Here are some pointers. You signed up for five courses on how to launch your podcast and you’ve read five books about it and you still haven’t done it. Or you’ve done three weeks of internet research but you still haven’t done anything. You’re still trying to decide, you know, what’s the name of my podcast?

Name it. You’ve done enough research. Name it. And later on, if you need to change the name, change the name, okay. So, I’m not saying don’t do any research at all. But if your researching is an everlasting research, make a decision and move on. Make a decision, move on.

“Who’s my ideal client? Who’s this?” Make a decision, move on. Don’t stay in constant research mode because nothing gets done there. and you don’t know, your podcast could be the next one that does a million downloads a month. You could be the physician who has a YouTube channel that’s generating enough revenue that’s matching your physician revenue. And all that is waiting for you to make a decision. So, make a decision.

What if it’s wrong? Then you tweak. You tweak. That’s what you do. If it’s wrong, you adjust. If you’re going to get it wrong, you might as well get it wrong quick so you can fix it. And a lot of times, it’s not wrong, you know. Okay, so that’s number three.

Number four is time constraints, “I’m a busy doctor, I don’t have time to do videos every week. I don’t have time to do a podcast every week or write blogs or do any of that stuff.”

One of the things that’s made my journey as a content creator so wonderful, and that is batching. Batching, batching, batching. So, think about it. If I do four podcast episodes, my episodes run about 25 minutes on average, that’s 100 minutes. That’s less than two hours.

If I spent one day a week, gave two hours to producing four episodes, then I don’t have to produce again for another month because it’s one episode a week, that’s four episodes a month. So, I can take care of that in two hours.

How does that make you feel? All of a sudden, it’s like, “Ooh, okay, I can do that.” It feels like relief. And that’s exactly the way it is. You don’t have to produce an episode every week. You don’t have to. You have to create enough content that there will be episodes going out every week, but you don’t have to do it every week.

Now, I do two episodes a week at this point in my podcasting game, so I have a few times a month where I’ll just sit and do three or four episodes each time. And then that way, I can stay eight weeks ahead. So, I can have a whole month, six weeks where I don’t record. But every week on Monday and Thursday, I have episodes that go out.

So, you batch. You can do the same thing for blogging, you know. You can put your headphones in, listen to some nice music, sit and write through your four things. Maybe have a different day where you sit and you edit all four and boom, done, done, done.

So, you don’t have to feel like you’re on a hamster wheel. You can produce content consistently and not feel like you’re on a hamster wheel if you will batch.

And with the time constraint, another thing you can do is delegation. You know, sometimes it’s something that we’re not quick to pick up because we’re like, “I can do it myself,” and all of that stuff. But I want you to track back, okay. Track back.

You’re a doctor. You didn’t do all the vitals yourself. You didn’t check in the patients yourself. You didn’t collect the copays yourself. You didn’t bill. You are just a part of a whole process.

And in your business, if you learn to do that as well, you have so much peace and quiet and balance and you can get so much more done if you stay in your zone, you know. So, you can delegate some of that. You don’t have to do the podcast art. You don’t have to write your show notes if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to upload to Buzzsprout.

There are services where you can upload it to Drobox and your people will take care of the rest. And you can do that in phases. So, what I’m trying to say is you batch, you delegate, your time constraint problem is gone. And you, my friend, can go on to own your own platform and make your voice heard.

The fifth thing that stops people from starting their platforms is self-doubt. Like, what I want to say, does anybody really need to hear it? Or, “This is stuff they can get on Google anyway for free. They don’t have to come listen to me. This I not important.”

I want to tell you this. So, first of all, let’s talk about the Google thing. There is so much on Google. And I want to ask you a question that I can’t hear you answer. But I want you to answer it for yourself. Has there ever been a time when you Googled something, and as usual, 7.5 million articles came up and answers to your question and you literally thought, “I wish someone could just tell me what to do. I don’t want to read through all this stuff. This said A, the other said B, I don’t know who to believe. I just wish someone could tell me what to do.”

Well, when it comes to your ideal client, they’re sitting there Googling. And like you, they’re thinking, “I wish somebody would just tell me what to do.” Well, guess what. You’re that somebody. You’re the somebody. So, why don’t you just tell them what to do? Why don’t you give them the real scoop?

There are people waiting to hear what you have to say. And there are people waiting to hear your spin on what everybody else is saying. People are waiting to hear your opinion. It matters.

But that aside, when you think about being a content creator, again, if you haven’t listened to episode 109, I want you to go listen to it. But it’s not about you. You need to get you out of the picture. It is not about you. It is about you helping somebody else, your ideal client, your ideal audience. That’s what it’s about.

You don’t create content for you. You create it for them. So, let me tell you what they’re not looking for. They are not looking for a perfect talk. You’re looking for a perfect talk. They’re not looking for a perfect blog piece. You’re looking for a perfect blog piece.

What they are looking for is a solution to their problem. Can you give them a solution to their problem? Can you give them the information they’re looking for? Can you answer the questions that they are driving themselves nuts trying to find the answer to?

If you can do that, you have an amazing platform. And they will love it and they will love you and they will follow you and they will share our stuff and they’ll review your stuff. Why? Because you are helping them.

So, stop thinking about, “How do I talk perfect?” And again, I’m not saying don’t learn to be better in communication. We can all be better at communication. I still work on communication. We can all be better. But the point is, do I have enough to help people right now? Yes. I am going to help them. That’s what I show up to do on this podcast.

So, for instance, this episode, are there things I could do better? Of course. Could I use a better mic? Of course. Can I use a better editing software? Of course. The answer is yes. But is this episode going to help many doctors start or revamp their podcast, blog, or YouTube channel? Yes.

So, what has this podcast episode done? It has helped. And guess what? People are going to share. People are going to review it. People are going to send me PMs later and say, “Oh my gosh, you changed my life. You did that episode. I started my podcast and look what’s going on now.” That’s what’s going to happen.

Is this perfect? No. But will people still love it? Yes. Why? It is solving a problem. So, you go on your platform and you go and solve a problem. Don’t worry about the self-doubt because this is not about you. So, go help. Go solve problems. Go make somebody else’s life easier. Go open their eyes to a new dimension of what is possible for them. Go make some pain go away.

I have a client who – Dr. Toomer, she’s been on the podcast before. And she helps people with wellness and weight loss. And what she does is so amazing. She herself, she lost 60 pounds two decades ago, over two decades ago, and she’s kept it off.

And she has clients who’ve lost 100 pounds, 40 pounds, all kinds of stuff. She doesn’t need a perfect YouTube channel. She doesn’t need a perfect podcast or blog. She needs to get her voice out there to tell people, “Hey, did you know you could do this quick tip? Did you know you could apply this quick tip? Did you know this is a way that you can go to a party and eat and it doesn’t mess up your diet?” That’s what they want. They don’t need a perfect anything. So, you go help.

Alright, so those are the five things that stop you. And I want you to make a commitment that they will stop you no more. Number one, perfectionism. Number two, tech overwhelm. Number three, decision paralysis. Number four, time constraints. Number five, self-doubt. And today is your day to stop them from stopping you.

So, what I want you to do is I want you to set a date, a start date or a revamp date for your podcast, blog, or YouTube channel. You can OM me, DM me, say, “Hey, this is a date.” You can post it in social media, like, “This is the date.” And I want you to own it.

Do you know – I was checking it, do you know the root word for doctor is docere? I don’t speak Latin. So, maybe I didn’t pronounce it right. And it means to teach. We’re teachers. We’re educators. That’s what we do. Who else should own platforms if not us?

So, set the date. Set the revamp date. Let me know when you launch, tag us on your posts, #entremd. I’d love to shout you out, reshare your stuff and say, “Look…”

You guys know 80,000 doctors with 80,000 platforms. Just imagine that. In fact, imagine us showing up in person, say at EntreMD Live. Okay, so live event, it’s amazing, we have 250 doctors in the room. And between us, there’s 250 blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels that are changing the world, that are changing whole communities, where we’re swapping stories of what people have told us has happened in their lives just because they listen to our platforms.

Think about the revenue we could be generating with that. Think about the shift we could be making in the healthcare space. We complain about all the misinformation. But imagine us taking control and controlling the narrative. Imagine us taking medicine back because we’re right back in a leadership position, where we should be.

That can be out story. It all starts from you setting a date or a revamp date today. So, let’s go do this. This is going to be amazing. And I think I’m going to go plan an in-person EntreMD Live just so we can live out what I just said.

Alright, so tag me, #entremd. I would love to reshare your stuff, shout you out. But let’s go do this and I’ll see you on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.