January has almost disappeared, and so has my first month learning about podcasting. It looks as if Richard’s – Goals for the Week – email will be a regular Monday occurrence. Dipped out from replying. My diary has the list of goals for 2022, and goals for January, and I write at the top of the page the things I think I should do today, so perhaps I should try and get into the habit of replying.

Georgina’s Feedback Frenzy! email arrived, looks like a pattern for Wednesdays. A reminder to reach out to others in the community rather than struggling forth on your own. Nyoungsma reached out about the use of Calendly, a new thread; I replied, and now courtesy of Richard I have some links with regard to the new Full Site Editing arriving soon at WordPress. This is certainly something I need to try in case I can’t include podcasting into my current theme, the new Twenty Twenty-Two theme surely does. The lesson learnt from this is that a reply to someone’s feedback request might result in something useful to you, get involved Andrew.

Made my first real contribution to the community this week, Module 1 and 2 Complete – What next? I did step over the boundary and went to press with some objectives for the next couple of weeks, I ought to review at end of week 5 to see what progress was made. Then, following the responses I stepped over the boundary again, and revealed that I’ve never listened to a podcast, well not until we were asked to in Module 2. So, while I’m in the confessional I’ll reveal that apart from LinkedIn I’m not on social media, have I said that already, apologies if so.

I must have been on a roll because I followed my first real contribution with a request to the community to critique my podcast logo – Your Honest Opinion? The logo was created using Canva, and perhaps I was lucky because it literally took a few minutes, 30 at most, I really expected someone to say it was naff. Seems not, and it got a thumbs up from my wife, so I think I am settled on this, another tick in the box. The podcast description will need to say IBM Maximo, because it seems Maximo is a boy’s name in S.America, and there is a rock band called Maximo Park.

I have been listening to Richard’s podcast http://www.CanIMakeAHitPodcast.com, on episode 7 now, but I think I will go back and listen to the last 4 again, I wasn’t making notes. There really is something useful in each of these episodes and I just want to make sure that I don’t miss a nugget.

Having heard that 92% of podcasts fail in the first 10 episodes and that there is such a thing as podfade, I was soon thinking that my podcast journey could be over earlier than I thought. A 1-hour podcast could take 8 times that to prepare, record, edit and publish on social media. But success in podcasting seems to occur when someone is consistently and frequently creating output. Perhaps that is verging on a full-time job, and not just a hobby.

There were two big tips picked up in Richard’s first few episodes which has immediately had an impact.

• Document, document, document. Document your thoughts on what you want to say. Is there a clear objective for the episode, and do you have enough material for it? Refine your document to hit those objectives. All of this can be done before you even think about going near a mic.
• Use the one-hour rule. Work on your podcast for no more than 1-hour a day, this is sustainable, more than this it may be taking over your life.

This week I have been documenting. I put on a CD and a kitchen timer set for 60 minutes, I cannot finish until after the ring, but I will stop before the end of the last track. I am trying to get into a daily habit, currently just documenting, but later I will be recording or editing or whatever else. 

I think I now know what my podcast will be about, and it has changed from my original intent. I’ve written 200+ articles on Maximo over the last 5 years, 9 in January. I can then reuse this material in another format, by summarising it. This doesn’t need any screenshots, or diagrams, or presentation material. The aim will be to summarise what I have been writing about during the week, a diary of sorts. But things happen, and when the day job becomes super busy, I can fall back on the older material. It does feel as if I can sustain this into the future, a weekly podcast.

I’ve documented week 4, and week 3 of my podcast. I’m working back to week 1, this would be more of an introduction. Something seems logical to start a diary type podcast at the beginning of the year. However, with so much still to learn I’m thinking that I may not launch until after 10 weeks, or is this me being naturally optimistic, perhaps a plan can sort it out. One great advantage of having 10 podcasts by the time I launch; I’ll be in the 8% who have made a success of this.

There is something nagging away. Why am I doing this? What’s In It For Me? I obviously need to give this more thought. Richard’s podcast episodes gave three key points to consider, this turned out to be 7 points from my notes. I need to start working through these. I think I have found the key to my podcast journey, but will I get bored, and then ultimately enter podfade like so many others.