Okay, I don't always show my true countryside. Okay. And if you did not know this about me, I grew up in a small town in East Texas, Athens, Texas to be exact. So shout out to my small town peeps, if you're out there, and I had to, like, I felt like I needed to forewarn you because I'm about to use some terminology that you're like, oh, wow, like you're showing your true country self today. So I wanted to tell you a phrase that we always heard growing up from all of our coaches, right.
So if you're an athlete, you probably have heard this. Maybe not as country as I'm about to say it. But you've probably heard this phrase, excuses. Everyone's got, um, just like buttholes. And they all stink. Okay, like it butchered it made it a lot more inappropriate than it really needed to be, but it's true. Oh, my gosh, we all have excuses. And that's what they are like they all stink every single one of them that you
like, have come to mind. Whether it's starting your podcast, launching your podcast, growing your podcast, wherever you fall in the stages in today, I specifically wanted to talk about four reasons why you really haven't started your podcast. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Proffitt Podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today.
Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Okay, I feel like I just like I'm all over the place after the beginning that we had here. But you know, you just got to show you true color sometimes. And you should just know. Like, I'm a plumber's daughter, y'all. Like that's not even the worst
of it. I have way worse material sitting in like, the background recesses of my brain that really only my close friends and family members get to see because I feel like I would scare everybody away if a truly unleashed the country, plumbers daughter that is inside of me. But you know what, it's slowly starting to seep out. I'm starting to show my true colors a little bit more, as well as my love for comedy. And I hope that you see that throughout, like everywhere that I'm sprinkling content.
But today, I did want to talk about four reasons why you're really not starting your podcast because this is something that okay, if you don't know this, I recently put out a YouTube video about how I plan my podcast content, right. And if you haven't watched that YouTube video, go check it out. It's all about like a mid like early morning, podcast planning session. But whenever I was going through my spreadsheet, like God, love a good spreadsheet and being able to
keep your ideas organized. I kept seeing this recurring thing about starting a podcast, starting a podcast, starting a podcast in my facebook group, I have these questions were asked people, you know, what's the number one thing you want to know about podcasting? And people are always saying starting a podcast, starting a podcast starting a podcast, and I'm just like, okay, something's going on here. Because I know that these people know how to
get started. Right? Like maybe they don't know, the fundamental logistics that I teach, like in my course, or in the party people membership, like I get that. But I wanted to dig a little deeper. And it's funny, because I've had a few friends reach out to me recently about their troubles with their podcast. I have dubbed myself, I'm the self proclaimed podcast therapist. Okay, this is my new title. I feel like I've graduated from just being a coach to where I'm now your
therapist. And so we're gonna dig into some of the deeper rooted issues of why you aren't starting your podcast. So if you are a seasoned podcaster if you've been around here with me for a while, and you're like Krystal, this doesn't apply to me. Well, it may apply to you in some of the ways that I'm going to dive into these issues where you're like, Oh, it's not keeping me from starting. It's actually keeping me from growing or from going from just a solo podcast, to inviting people on
to interviews. So just just just stick with me. Okay, just just hang on with me for a second, because the four reasons why you may not be starting, and I'm going to give them to you right here up front, and then we're going to break them down.
The first one is equipment and software. The next is the content or what you're supposed to talk about. The third is confidence behind the microphone. Ooh, that hits a lot of you. I know, I know, we're gonna dive into that one. And the fourth one is, you're afraid You look like you don't know what you're talking about. All those last two, y'all I'm telling you, I'm telling you, like people say, Oh, I don't know what equipment to use. I don't know what content, but really, they're terrified,
they're gonna look stupid. Or they are just like, I don't know how to show up behind the microphone. So we're gonna dig into all these today. But I wanted to just throw them out there. I didn't want to, like, keep you waiting on pins and needles to see like, Who was she going to talk about, I want to just get it out there and tell you these four reasons why you're really not getting
started. Because to be totally fair, and not feel like I'm attacking all of those like, this is where everyone struggles in the beginning. Most new podcasters have either one or all of these struggles. Okay, whenever I first started, these were all of my issues. And I'm gonna use like the word issues and quotes, right? Because we all got issues. If you say you don't have issues, then I don't know that we can be friends. Okay, we all got issues of some
sort. And these were some of my biggest issues whenever I first started, but the thing is, is that if you're listening to this podcast, you don't have those excuses anymore. Remember, we talked about excuses are like buttholes? We all have them and they all stink. Oh, no. Okay, I think I said it better that time, the first time I kind of butchered it. The second time around was a little bit better. But you don't have those excuses
anymore. You have so many resources here on this podcast on the YouTube channel in our free Facebook group. If you're not on there, then I'll link to it in the show notes. Join us on the free Facebook group where there's other podcasters on this same journey. But you don't have
those excuses anymore. So I wanted to give you my recommendations to combat all of those excuses so that you can get your podcast off the ground, whether it's in the next few weeks, the next few months, whatever that looks like for you. I wanted to tell you how I overcame some of these excuses and how you can move forward.
So first and foremost, and I get this question all the time. What is the podcast equipment and software that you recommend? So I always tell students and members of the party people that I got started with a $20 microphone. If you haven't heard that story before I bought a USB five find plug and play where it was $21 when I first bought it now with everything that's gone on with COVID and people working from home, I feel like it's gone up to like $30 Okay, it's still not breaking the bank. But I wanted to buy an affordable microphone and there are tons out there. So that's the one I recommend. It's five fine f i f i n e and I'll link to this in the show notes. But the five fine USB microphone. The next one I upgraded to was a Blue Yeti. This is one that I had seen so many other people in the online business space using that I just by default was like, Okay, I guess it's good enough for them. It's good enough for me. So that's what I started using as my upgraded microphone for my podcast. Now. It does come with a higher price tag. But it's a pretty decent microphone. I used it for I guess, a year and a half of my show. And then I recently upgraded to a road our Eau de procaster that's what I'm using right now. I love it. It's my favorite of all the microphones, but y'all it's not cheap. It's a few $100 but I teach podcasting and I feel like you know what? I wanted to invest in better equipment for my show. And that is what I use. Now when it comes to software. I tell all of my new podcasters audacity is a great place to start because it's free. So many of y'all Tell me, Krystal I have a lot of money to spend up front or I'm just trying this out. I don't know if I'm gonna love podcasting, so I don't want to invest a ton of money. So the first recommendation I actually learned this from my good friend Heather Sager. So shout out Heather Sager from the Heather Sager show you should go listen to her podcast, but she is a public speaking coach. And she said, what I tell my people is to start talking to yourself in your phone, like record yourself in your voice memos out on your phone, and I thought, Oh my gosh, that's so genius. Because you can do that as a podcaster as well. So you don't need fancy equipment y'all like this is an excuse. Do you hear what I'm saying? Like, the things that we're telling ourselves, I don't have the right microphone, I don't have the right equipment. If you have an iPhone, you can literally take your phone out today, and record a podcast on your voice memos app and upload it to your hosting site. I do this all the time for the party report. Literally, you can go back and listen to tons like dozens of episodes, I've recorded directly on my phone and uploaded it to buzzsprout my hosting site. So it's an excuse to say I don't have the right equipment, right software. No, you're more than likely procrastinating your podcast. Okay, now I'm gonna get off my soapbox for a second, we may get back on in a little bit. But I'm gonna hop down for a second, because I want to go back to Audacity. So audacity is a great free software that you can download. That is I think it's fantastic for beginners. But now that I have recently started working with a different software, and it's not too expensive, okay, I will say it's not free. But it's not going to break the bank either. It's Hindenburg Journalist. I feel like this software is even better for beginners, because it has some intuitive qualities that audacity doesn't have. So for example, and Hindenburg, it's around $99. That's what I okay. So first of all, let me back up if you're a buzzsprout user, and if you're not, you can go to KrystalProffitt.com/buzzsprout, to try a 90 day trial with them. But with when you're a buzzsprout user, you can go into your resources tab, and there is a trial to try out hindenberg I want to say it's for 90 days as well. It's a long trial period that they give you maybe it's 60, maybe it's 90, I don't remember the exact number of days. But that's what I did first, before I purchased the full blown version of Hindenburg. And then even then it was just $100 like a one time fee. It's not this recurring every month, it's like boom, you pay for it, it's done. And it makes my life 1000 times easier. I can publish directly from Hindenburg. Whenever I'm done recording, it brings my like the volumes up to the right level. Like it does all this automatically. And it's fantastic. It saves me so much time in the editing process, because I don't have to do that. Okay, so that's software and equipment, which I know people just like, give it to me, Krystal, I just want to know what your recommendations
are.
So as far as content goes, right, this is the second reason people tell me I haven't started because I'm afraid I don't know what to talk about, or am I run out of content and all the things? Well, I'm actually going to take this excuse away from you right here. And right now because I have a resource. That's 500 plus podcast ideas for any industry.
No matter what industry you're in, you're gonna find at least 10, possibly 20, maybe 50 ideas that are in this guidebook that literally has more than 500 ideas in there. And you're like No, really, I get people ask me and it's a really fun, yes, I think that there's 554 or 545. I always get those numbers mixed up. It's one of the two. I sat down I grabbed a whole bunch of industry topics that I know a lot of this audience like this is where you're coming from.
These are your industries. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna challenge myself to come up with it at least 25 for every category, and I'm gonna throw them in there. So if you have a business, podcast finance, if you are a hairstylist, a fashion blogger, if you're in real estate, like pet grooming, parenting, it's all in there. It's all in there. I want you to go grab this. So go to the show notes, Krystal
roffitt.com/Episode212. And you ill find all the things that I m ntioned in here today, but I wa t you to go grab this download So 500 plus podcast ideas. I will absolutely help you to n t have that excuse anymore. I don't know what to talk abo t. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. ou at least have 10 good ide s that you can iterate on right now. I promise you say you don' . Yes, you do. I know that you
do. Okay, we can we can do hard hings and coming up with pod ast content is not one of those hard things whenever you have a resource like this. Okay.
Moving on. Number three, confidence. I don't have confidence behind the microphone. I feel like I have Not professional like and I get this like, this is actually a legitimate excuse, if you want to call it that. It's still an excuse, but it's legit. Okay, it's it's the same thing that I had. Who am I? It's all the imposter syndrome questions. Who am I to start this podcast? I haven't been doing this for 20 years, and people are gonna say
that I'm brand new. I don't know what I'm talking about, like all the things. So I want you to go listen to a podcast episode. It's sound like a pro. Even when you're not, I want you to go listen to this because this show was created just for you. If you're struggling, struggling with a capital S, trying to figure out how do I actually sound like a pro like I have, like I'm stuttering, I don't really know like, I can't complete a sentence, I start going off on different tangents.
And then it takes me forever to edit and like yada yada yada, right? Like, they I feel like it's almost a domino effect. When you don't have the confidence that it takes you forever to get through an episode that takes you forever to edit, and then all that leads to burnout. And then it just makes me sad. Okay, people that burnout, podcasting, it makes me
sad. So I want you to go listen to the episode, it will absolutely help you show up with your shoulders back and have that confidence that you know, your shin Taki, right, you know your stuff, and you feel good about it. And that is what I want for you. So go listen to that episode.
And then the last thing, fourth reason you are not starting your podcast, you're afraid you'll look like you don't know what you're doing. Okay, let's have a little Real Talk session. Because let's be honest, you may not know what you're doing. That's okay. I think it's one of those like, let's admit our problems first. And then we can address them. And then we can move past them. Because you, dear sweet listener, you are the one that's most likely holding
yourself back. You're in this cycle of telling yourself, you don't really know what you're doing and your podcast will never be as good as insert whatever podcast you're comparing yourself to right. So I'll give you a perfect example. Whenever I first started, I was an avid listener of so many podcasts, so many podcasts that were run by people that have million dollar businesses and possibly million dollar studios, right. I mean, I listen to Dave
Ramsey. He was one of the very first podcast I ever started listening to way back in the day. It was his podcast and other people that were also within his organization. And I knew that they had access to this, probably several $1,000 if not a million dollar studio. And I remember thinking, well, if I ever did that, I mean, it would take me years to be able to afford a studio like that. My podcast will never sound as good as Dave Ramsey's. So why should I even try? That's literally
what I kept telling myself. I was like, you're gonna look stupid. If you try to do this at home, you're just a stay at home, Mom, you just need to be taking care of your kids. What are you even doing now? That's Dave Ramsey, you can't compete with him. Yo, how defeating is that? Right? Why would I have confidence behind the mic? Why would I feel like all my content is going to help so many people when I was self sabotaging my
own success. I was talking myself out of podcasting before I ever even got into podcasting. Maybe this what you're doing too, maybe you're just telling yourself? Well, my podcast isn't as good as Amy Porterfield. Mine is not a chart topper like jasmine star. I will never have a podcast that has a following like Rachel Hollis, I will never have a Dave Ramsey sized following. Right? we're comparing ourselves or you're saying my show notes won't be as
good as theirs. Oh, I just know I want to have ads and sponsors. But I'll never get to that point. You're holding yourself back. Like you're thinking about all these things that aren't even issues because you You haven't even started. That shouldn't even be an issue for you. That's never going to be an issue for you if you never get your podcast off the ground. So stop comparing yourself. It's not fair. It's not fair to you.
It's not fair to your potential audience, and all of the people that need your message so like, let's circle back around, hang on, let's step up on the soapbox again. If you have not listened to the episode all about the ripple effect of podcasting, I need you to even stop this episode right now and go listen to it go to the show notes. KrystalProffitt.com/Episode 12. go listen to the ripple e
fect of podcasting. Because here are people right now that need the message that you are haring whether you're helping eople save time, save money, s ve their sanity, you're helping hem get over a loss. You're h lping them navigate marriage you're helping them be better p rents, whatever your message s, there are people out there ri ht now that need your message, the message that only you can eliver, you can do this. Yo just need a plan to get ther
. And speaking of a plan, an I was like really excited o talk to you about this pro it podcasting, which is my digit l course. It's actually opening eally soon and I'm so excited ecause I have been working y butt off like, like, just let s not sugarcoat things. I have b en working on revamping this cou se for the last eight weeks. Y u may not have seen everythi g behind the scenes, but I ha e been recording I've been edi ing videos, I've been putting ogether a killer tech library.
Oh my gosh, y'all. I'm so proud of this tech library. Because t's all of the the videos t at you need to get your podcast tarted, figure out editing, organize your files, schedule interviews, like all the thin s, all the technical question that I get asked all the time are in this digital course. nd the reason why I'm really e cited about it is because ou no longer have those excuses, right? That's what we're ca ling them. Like our butthole our excuses are gone, they sti
k, get them out of here. We don't need that stuff in here. So I want you to start a podcas in 2021. If that is your goa , I want you to start your pod ast. And if you want to do that f you want to go on this jou ney with me then I invite y u my friend. It is not open yet Okay, so let me let me throw th t out there real fast profit p dcasting. As of me airing T is episode is not open right no . But it will be soon. So make ure that you're on the waitlist for whenever that happens.
So go to KrystalP offitt.com/waitlist or go to th show notes. Check that out beca se I am so excited for the new odcasters that are starting in the new year. And if you've h d these excuses if you've h d these reasons, while you're r ally not starting, then I want y u to kind of give yourself a gut check. Why is it? Why is i that you've been listenin
to this podcast? I know som of y'all Okay, look, I'm gonn call you out right now, I'm not gonna say any names because hat's that's a little too much That's a little too in your fac . But I'm gonna call you out. If you have been listenin to this show for weeks for mont s for all of 2020 and you stil have not started your podcast? What is holding you back? Wh are you waiting? Like, seriousl , I want you to say it out loud to yourself right now. Why are
ou waiting? Because I just rip ed all the excuses that you have I just told you what equipmen you needed. I told you what sof ware you need to get started. I gave you resources to get your content out there, I gave you a resource to help you feel mor confident behind the micropho e and I gave you my best tou h love speech on getting ut of your own way. You have no ore excuses. So I want you to g
t on the waitlist. If you've b en listening to this podcast nd you're like I just I really j st need someone to show me step y step what to do get on the w itlist for profit podcasti g. Let's walk through this tog ther in 2021. If you're nervous bout getting started by yourself if you're worried that you're g nna do something wrong, if you j st start like, I need a checklis to know that I'm on the righ track, get on the waitlist so you can be notified as soon s the program opens because
t is opening soon. And I am so xcited about the brand new reva ped version of the course b cause it is the best version hat we have done to date.
So that's all I have for you today. I hope that you enjoy this episode today. If you want to see some more content that's a little bit more tough love and in your face, because I feel like this is what we need. Because we have so many people in our podcast community. And most of y'all still have not started your podcast. So I want to know, like if we've talked about something here today, and you're like, that's not really
my reason. I actually have another legitimate reason I haven't started my podcast, join us in our free Facebook community and tell me I want to know because I want to help you. It's not that I'm going to say oh yeah, you suck. You suck. Yeah, that's why you haven't really started. No, I want to help you like help me help you. What does that said? Jerry Maguire, right. It's helped me help you. I want to see you create a podcast and 2021 but that's all I have for you today.
So make sure you go check out the show notes so you can see everything we talked about here today. Again, go to KrystalProffitt.com/Episode212 to see everything that we talked about, and as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.