I Failed

It’s been All-Book-All-The-Time around here, as my book launch looms closer.

(November 15th! That’s less than two months away! Ack! Click here for more info.)

But, of course, life doesn’t slow down just because you’re writing a book. No, sir-ee!

That’s why I got ruthless a few weeks back, and cut out a bunch of activities I’d been doing regularly which weren’t directly helping me get the book done.

Like making calligraphy videos for my @calligraphyhowto Instagram feed. So fun, but so time-consuming… So they had to go on a shelf for awhile. (Sadface. But as I always say, all time management is really priorities management.)

And that’s why I made the commitment to produce my weekly podcasts as quickly and efficiently as possible. What I’ve been calling “minimum viable” podcasts.

Here’s what making the podcast looked like before:

1. Spend 2 to 3 (or MORE) hours to write a blog post.

2. Record an audio version of the post.

3. Spend a bunch of time editing, then export, process, and upload.

4. Add links, make graphic, schedule.

All well and good, but sheesh, that could take a FULL DAY to accomplish!

This had to change, if I was going to have any chance of getting the book done.

So for now, I decided, I would make “minimum viable” podcasts:

No script, just improvisation. With minimal show notes, rather than a full-on article.

Great idea, right?

Except that I failed.

My goal for this week’s podcast was to get the podcast recorded, edited, uploaded, and scheduled, in ONE HOUR.

Ha. MASSIVE FAIL.

It took me over two hours.

Still, it’s quite an improvement over a full day.

And as I like to say, we need to let ourselves suck first if we want to learn to unsuck.

Right now “minimum viable” is something I kinda suck at. (Drat those overachiever tendencies!) But I’m learning!

And if I keep working at it, I’ll bet I can get better at producing high quality podcasts in a lot less time.

I may have failed at reaching my goal, but this week’s failure was actually a huge success if I look at it in terms of learning and growing.

Like anything else, learning to produce podcasts quickly and more efficiently takes practice!

And of course the ultimate test is whether it works for my listeners. If I produce a “minimum viable” podcast that nobody wants to listen to, well, that would be the real failure.

So have a listen to this week’s attempt at “minimum viable” podcast, and let me know what you think of it!