Part V - Lessons Learned
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Lessons Learned
He had learned a long time ago that some things were worth being afraid of. And some things were not. Things that he had done before and survived did not justify fear. To be afraid of a survivable thing was irrational. And whatever else he was, Reacher knew he was a rational man
The above quote is the description I chose for Week 1 Day 1 as a way for me to set an intention.
If you've ever tried to start anything & there was a voice in your head that told you that you were not cut out for it, you might have an idea of the anxiety, nervousness, doubt, and fear I felt right up until I finished recording this episode.
On the other hand, contrary to what many people might think, if your life has been like a constant uphill climb, overcoming odds after odds, you might also have an idea of how bad I wanted that quote to be true for me. I wanted to look back at this first step in my journey that terrified me and be able to say that, no matter whether or not my story ends up a book on the NYT Best Seller list or not, I've faced my fear and saw what was on the other end. And I did.
So the most important lesson I learned from producing and distributing Week 1 Day 1 is that being afraid of a survivable thing is irrational.
Like, who knew that I would get an email like this only 4 days after dropping Week 1 Day 1? If you haven't listened to any of the episodes. I was born in Rwanda. Ndi umunyarwanda (I am Rwandan -or Rwandese 🤷🏿♂️).
I will tell you more about this email in a bit. Before that, I want to tell you what you can do after reading this debrief & what you can expect moving forward.
What you can do
- You can buy me a cup of coffee (or 2 cups) if you enjoyed this debrief or learned something from it or appreciate the work I put into creating this podcast and writing this debrief in the hopes of helping someone else who might want to start a similar journey. Thanks in advance. Disclaimer: I will NOT buy coffee with your money.
- If you want to get more of these debriefs, which I will be creating for each episode and major content I create in this journey, you can click the "Subscribe to more of this" button. From the subscribers, I will pick the 10 most motivated individuals to join an exclusive mastermind & accountability group. One of the things those 10 will get is a bi-weekly 1-on-1 Digital Self-Resilience coaching call with me (stay tuned for more about this)
- If you've read this far, would you mind sharing my podcast & this debrief with your audience? If you like what I am doing, by sharing my content with your audience you'd be supporting me beyond what you can possibly understand & I will be forever grateful for your support. If you do, consider tagging me (Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter)
- Tell your own story & hit me up if you need help getting it out to as many people as you possibly can.
What you can expect moving forward
Of course, Week 1 Day 1 eventually moved out of that beat-up 1 slide presentation recording to a fully edited and compressed mp3 file with studio audio that's now consumable on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon's Alexa podcasts powered by TuneIn.
If you've never ventured into creating podcasts, did you know that the audio mp3 file that you listen to is actually (not) stored on Apple, Spotify, etc? You basically have to find a platform that will host your mp3 file that's separate from the Apples and Spotifys. Then, these people that host your mp3 file give you a link to an XML file that has all of the information about your podcast (for the digitally self-reliant folks in the audience, think API that instead of responding with a JSON file, you get an XML file instead). It's this podcast's RSS feed link (that's what that link is called in layman's terms) that you upload to the Apples and Spotifys.
After this debrief for episode 1, I intend to start writing up a debrief for episode 2. But, if you want me to take a quick detour and share the tips, tools & techniques I used to get my podcast fully edited & published on all podcast streaming platforms, let me know of your interest and I will oblige (if 0.1-1% of the people who read up to this point express interest in me sharing that).
About the other email, as promised
I got that email from these good people and I'd recommend them to anyone interested in tracking the analytics of their podcasts (or any podcasts really). Like if you wanted to check whether a podcast was popular or not, you can just go to their website, put in the podcast's name (e.g. Walk The Talk Teacher), and hit search.
Of course, when I got the email I wanted to double, and triple-check for myself to make sure this wasn't some spam email I was getting. So I went to their dashboard to quadruple-check.
Full disclosure, 3 days after Week 1 Day 1 (09/22/2022), I released episode 2 of the podcast on YouTube exclusively.
So yeah, episode 2 might have influenced the numbers with it being dropped a day before I got that email. But still, numbers don't lie.
It also seems like my audience is in love with my content. How do I know? The same good people I told you about above who can hook you up with your podcast's stats told me.
Thank you for reading this far. I hope you enjoyed it and got something from this debrief. Wondering what to expect in Ep 2's Debrief? Check out the Ep 2's Debrief Trailer.
P.S. If you'd like me to share your company/products/services with my audience, I'd love to hear from you.