I’m planning to launch a new gaming podcast about PlayStation, and I did record the intro part today as I promised myself I would. But I can’t stop second guessing myself and just sitting here wondering if it’s even worth the effort. My plan was/is to record the rest tomorrow and launch, but I’m really not sure if I’m going to go through with it after all. Idk who’s going to see this post or care but I guess I wanted to tell someone how I’m feeling about it. That’s all.
As Wayne Gretzky once said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
So we’ll start with the reality check. Probably no one’s gonna like your podcast. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s at just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Could be that you put in a whole bunch of work and even spend some money trying to get some production values, and it just doesn’t work out.
But for the other reality check: every other podcast out there had a first episode. A lot of them failed, but a bunch of them succeeded and went on to be relatively successful. One of the top media personalities in the world right now is a guy just sitting down and having discussions with people.
So take the shot. Worst case scenario, it turns out no one listens. Then you can move on with your life knowing that you tried.
Besides, it’s not like you did something crazy like write a novel length book over the course of a year with the philosophies you want to pass down to your son and get it professionally edited and commission artwork for the cover and get a primo ad read during the trial of the decade only to sell like a dozen copies. Now that might be embarrassing. But you can bang out a podcast in a couple of days!
I’m dumb or OOTL. What book?
I wrote and published a book a couple years back called The Graysonian Ethic. That’s the joke.
Do you have a small synopsis of what the book is? Beyond the generic “lessons to tell my child”, it looks like it’s only $7, if it’s something I’m interested in I’ll buy a copy to read while I’m camping.
So it’s a series of essays about things I think are going to be important.
I start off with a reminder that he needs to question everything and everyone including or especially me.
Then I start talking about some basics because, before you start talking about different things that are a little lessons that will make your life a little bit better, you need to be talking about the basics of the big stuff, stuff like staying safe and exercising self-control and so on and so forth.
I told some stories about the history of our family and how those lessons are going to be important throughout his life. The story of his world war 2 veteran great grandfather is shockingly relevant today.
I talk about how to perform miracles – not literal religious things, but there are lots of goals that people have that they would like to accomplish, and they just find that they can’t. Usually, it’s relatively straightforward to do some pretty amazing things; you just need to know how, so I talk a lot about how to do that.
And then the counterpoint to that, I talk about the fact that failure is an option, and that it sucks, that you can learn from it, but you’d really prefer not to. I talk about grit and the need to push through the hard times in your life. I talk about an existential crisis that I once had and the lessons that I learned.
Then come two of the most core essays in the book: one that talks about thinking ahead and details the two lives you could live if you make the right decisions or if you make the wrong decisions. I also tell him that he needs to go out and build something, and I get into quite a bit of detail about what that means.
Then I talk about a couple of the popular political movements of the day, and I talk about how I agree with the fundamental ideas, but that you can’t just let someone lead you around and you have to think for yourself.
I talk about the concept of success since how you define what success is has a fundamental effect on your outcome. I have a small crash course on economics because I think that understanding that is key to understanding the world we live in right now.
I talk about change and the fact that we need to embrace it and the sort of changes that I predict will happen over the next generation. I talk about what to do when you make a mistake in the context of a really dumb mistake that I made at the same time that I was writing the essay.
I talk about the internet a lot, and in particular, the fact that big companies want you to think that the internet is your friend when it isn’t – especially not their websites (haha relevant in the past 30 days!).
I then keep going by talking about shame and guilt and the fact that those negative emotions are something that sometimes you need to embrace because they are telling you something about the way you’re behaving.
Then I have a chapter all about attraction and meeting men or women. I didn’t really know whether I was going to have a son or a daughter when I wrote that one, so I tried to make it applicable to both. Unlike a lot of attraction materials, this would be in the context of a father trying to explain the world to his son. So, rather than just getting out there and meeting women, I talk a lot about the things that I’ve discovered in terms of pitfalls and dangers.
I close out the book by talking about how ultimately nobody owes him anything, not his parents, not the government, not the church, not society. And I give some advice for strategies on how to deal with that fact.
This is a really broad overview, half the fun of each chapter is delving into the different stories about the earth and the human race and my family and myself.
One of the interesting things about writing it is that it really changed my view of the world and helped me realize how important it would be to take the time raising my son (and so I went out and did it).
I’ve been pretty happy with the feedback I’ve gotten, people enjoy the book. It’s just not a focus group market tested premise so it’s tough getting someone to pick it up the first time.
👍 purchased. It doesn’t arrive prior to my camping trip, so I’ll read it after I’m done with the last Malazan book.
Hey! Thanks! Please let me know what you think if you think of it!
Chads more real than you don’t exist.
This is good advice, and I really appreciate the perspective. Thanks
Do it. Even if the odds aren’t in your favor of blowing up you’ll learn new skills, you’ll be doing something you wanted to do, you’ll break personal barriers. It’s worth it in ancillary benefits regardless of if the main project fails.
Just do it and don’t care about the numbers. Having fun is the most important part of the process. Seems like a great hobby!
I agree, thanks
Record the first 4 episodes first, then release them one at a time.
I read something a while ago somewhere that said something like 90% of podcasts don’t make it past episode 3.
I want the episodes to be somewhat topical and keep up with recent news / releases so I’m probably not going to record that far in advance. I’m thinking today might not work for launch but I’m going to try for tomorrow or I’ll have to push to next week. The stat about 3-4 episodes makes sense, that was my cutoff point as well lol
If you’re unknown now, the currentness of the topical stuff won’t matter to most of your viewers. Because they’ll only start listening once they find you and are more likely to do so once you have a few available episodes.
Your wishy washy “I’ll post tomorrow or next week is already a red flag.”
Start doing weekly or however often once you have 4 episodes done and cover topical stuff then.
This seems like especially good advice; you’d be kind of betting on someone 60 days from now coming across the podcast and going “Hey, this is pretty good!” They’re not going to care as much if the conversation is about very recent, fast-expiring news. Probably better to aim for something that makes for a slightly more timeless conversation.
No one is going to be paying attention from the get-go so it doesn’t matter if it’s very recent. The content quality is more important. It’s your first time round so getting the format down and why people should listen is paramount; respect the listener’s time and keep it detailed.
#1 is to have fun and expect nobody will listen to the podcast. While you can get a couple views by posting links all over the place odds are there won’t be much retention.
The second thing you need to do a dry/test run and produce a couple episodes before publishing anything online. First impressions are important and the first few episodes you record will be awkward and difficult to listen to. Those podcasts should be produced as if they will be posted online and everybody involved should listen to them and take notes on anything that could be improved for the next test recording. This is also your opportunity to iron out any production issues while also getting into that weekly/bi-weekly/monthly recording routine.
I would also suggest looking at what else is out there and take notes on what they tend to cover. A quick search shows there are over 20 PlayStation focused podcasts out there. Many of them will have overlapping content but can you spot any gaps you could potentially fill? Unless you can find a certain niche or bring a different style it’ll be hard to attract people who already listen to other long standing podcasts.
In my 15+ years of content creation the overwhelming majority of newcomers tend to stumble at the first 2 points and give up after 1-2 episodes. The barrier to entry is very low and people seem to forget the time and work required to produce content and grow an audience. Hopefully this wasn’t too discouraging!
Wow this is a great reply. Production issues absolutely make or break my continued listening to a podcast for sure. Bad audio, or a cohost who is clearly being recorded on Zoom with audio jitter.
As others have said, just go into this with the view that it’s for you. It’s a hobby and if people listen, even better. I do something similar. I have been using BandLab to produce music. Nothing that will ever get regular listeners, just a fun creative outlet for me.
These are very valid points and I don’t think it’s discouraging at all. Thanks for chiming in
Creating something and sharing it can be so difficult and daunting! I hope you give it a try, share it here so we can listen. I would say the toughest thing will probably be the marketing aspect, there is plenty of competition. Doesn’t mean it isn’t worth giving it a go, hell I spend time watching a guy clean out culverts on YouTube and so do plenty others, and I like video games way more than culverts.
Anyway good luck and worst case you just spend some time talking about something you enjoy hopefully with some good company.
Yeah so true. I’ll share the link in this thread once it’s up tomorrow. Thanks
As Shia Lebeouf once said, just do it.
I made a couple of communities here on Lemmy and initially freaked about not getting people interacting and whatnot but whatever I made them anyways because they’re about things I love. You’ve gotta do it for you, not anyone else. If you create something you love then who cares if no one else sees it? It has value to you, and that attracts people, it’s like an unspoken rule of the universe or something.
If nothing more, it’ll be worth the experience you gained from doing it. That is of course worse case-scenario. Realistically, you’ll probably get at least a few people listening at first, and grow from there.
Best of luck on your ventures!
I think this is exactly what I needed to hear but couldn’t quite articulate myself. Thanks
No problem. :) We all have those moments. Don’t be scared to get out there and try your best. 😁 (Maybe just don’t spend a ton of money on it at first though. Okay? haha)
Oh for sure, my budget for the first episode is $0 but I’ll try my best 🫡
That’s the best way to start out!! Good luck and have fun! 😁 😁 😁
Don’t discount your time and effort! Keep us posted
I did a very very mildly related thing about a year ago trying to set up monthly “Twilight Imperium” teaching games at my local boardgame shop. After the first two months of going and not having enough people show up to actually play we now have 3 different games running each month.
It’s hard to put yourself out there, but you might as well give it a chance
Thank you!
Just do your best my guy! We’re rooting for you!
Thanks!
Hey all, just a quick update on my podcast plans:
As of today I’ve recorded about 45% of the 1st episode and I feel pretty good about it. Considering some of the feedback here I’m going to record the first 2 episodes and launch the podcast next Wednesday. This will actually really help because I need to travel quite a bit 2 weeks from now for a wedding and I’ll still be able to post the 2nd episode on schedule.
I’ll post the link here for the first episode (hopefully/definitely) next Wednesday. Thank you all for your kind words, I really appreciate it!
1st episode will release on 7/26.
Your only enemy is yourself. Just do it. And if you fail it’ll still likely be worth it. I had a personal goal when I was younger (music, not podcast). I failed. It sucks. But I don’t regret for a second. I met a lot of amazing people along the way and still ended up with a lot things I’m very proud of. I also learned a ton about life.
You just have to do it. Buy in. Go all out. There’s zero way it can be worse than doing nothing at all right?
Yeah, no regrets. Thanks
