Day 11 of the 30-Day Challenge: Creative Movement:
Task: To take a leap of faith and get my podcasting party on. Well, to get the researching phase of the party started, that is.
Reason for Task: If you’ve spent any time on the Degrees of Maternity blog lately, then you’re probably aware of my interest in doing audio work. It’s been a naturally-occurring process that I’ve somehow gravitated toward — just through my daily routine. Check out this post, DIY Voice Training for Audio Content, to see what I mean. Furthermore, I’m reminded of a friend of mine who told me that I should look into podcasting when I first introduced her to my YouTube site. She wasn’t dissing my YouTube videos. No, not at all. She was simply getting me to think about a platform that was more in line with who I am, since I seemed more comfortable in sharing my voice in my videos than in showing my face within them (which I never have). Sounds more like a podcast to me. And although I didn’t bite on that piece of advice at the time, it was always in the back (waaaaayyyyyy back) of my mind.
Now, I had no intention of actually starting a podcast during this challenge, namely due to my reluctance to add more tasks to my unending list of to-dos and hugely due to the fear of the unknown. But WordPress completely shattered any doubt I had about venturing into this new territory with its new podcasting feature through Anchor. Text-to-audio transferring of my blog posts into podcasts would be another way to reach an audience who may prefer audio, and I’m all for spreading the Degrees of Maternity love to anyone who has an ear to hear.
Nevertheless, I must admit that I ignored WordPress’ initial introduction to the podcasting feature as well as “The official WordPress.com blogging guide” course they’re offering. (I’ll probably jump on this opportunity as well. Why not? After all, I’ll be learning from some of the best.) Getting back to the reason I ignored WordPress’ initial announcements — there’s just so much information that’s pushed in front of online users each and every day and there’s no way to absorb it all (even if it seems to be in line with your aspirations). So, I continuously engage in the filtering process. Filter this in by absorbing its content; filter this out by ignoring it altogether. It’s what I have to do to protect the old noggin from complete information overload to where I have no more capacity to take input in or produce output out.
BUT . . . this 30-day challenge has lighted a fire in me to try some new things — some things that didn’t even get listed out as part of my original goals list for this challenge. Podcasting was one of those things. However, audio work research was on my list. Go figure. As a matter of fact, here’s what I listed as one of my creative content goals: “Starting audio work research: how to create a home studio (what equipment and supplies are needed, where’s the best location in your home for audio, when are the best times to record, etc.); how to prepare your voice for audio (DIY and professional voice training, what to eat and drink (or not) before recording, etc.); and what audio platforms are out there for distributing your content (pros and cons).
Because of my interest in audio and my desire to grow the Degrees of Maternity blog audience, WordPress’ announcement in “My Home” page feed reeled me in today. Yes, I’ll admit it. I finally took the bait. And that bait came in the form of information on setting up a free account with Anchor. Then, I proceeded to look up some more info on podcasting a WordPress blog on Anchor and came across this article from The WordPress.com Blog.
After reading the article, it became quickly apparent to me that I had to give podcasting a try. I’m already doing audio work in reading excerpts from my book, Playground Instruction for the Growing Adult, for my email subscribers and reading excerpts from my Untitled Book #2 on this blog. Furthermore, I do my own audio recordings of the Bible for my family and verbally read with my son almost every night. And since I’m already doing the work and have thought (in the past) that it sure would be nice to put my blog posts on audio, then there you have it — a union between content creator and content delivery platform that was bound to connect at some point in the timeline.
Duration of Task: 1 nighttime session. I simply clicked on a link that said “Create an Anchor Account”, underneath the heading that stated “Grow your audience with a podcast. Easily turn your blog into a podcast with Anchor — the world’s biggest podcasting platform” and started reading. Really the word “easily” drew me in instantly.
Outcome of Task: Well, what I thought I was going to do for today’s task morphed into something completely different. I RESEARCHED ON PODCASTING MY BLOG POSTS! I told you that this need to be flexible in my strategy for task completion would come into play, which is why I didn’t want to create a creative content goals calendar that assigned each task to a specific day in the 30-day challenge. I knew I would have moments like the one I experienced today, where I just needed to be open to whatever goal spoke to me. And honestly, podcasting research wasn’t even on the radar as I mentioned previously. I was just planning on taking some time (later on in the challenge) to get some audio work (non-podcasting specific) research accomplished. But here I am, seriously contemplating starting up a podcast on Anchor in a matter of a few days. (Of course, I’ll let you know when that actually comes into fruition.)
Practical Application of Day 11 for Your Life: Get ready! Get ready! Get ready! So, today’s applicable advice is as follows: there’s a time and season for everything. And sometimes, the time and season requires you to research things out before the implementation. At other times, it’s the time and season for taking that information you found during the researching phase and then implementing it. I’m currently in the research phase; but I have every intention of taking action on what I’m learning.
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