No Pain No Gain Podcast Workout

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I recently rejoined the gym. It's not a brand new gym, but it’s a gym that's a brand new to me. I'm not going to name the gym, but if Los Angeles had a fitness center, it would be called this. Anyhow, it’s a nice place. I’ve been a couple of times now starting with a yoga class to get some flexibility back into the old body before I do anything more drastic.

As I sit on the bench waiting for the room to clear out so I can go do yoga, I observe the other gym patrons. And I’m struck by the realization that the fitness center is a great metaphor for podcasting.

The building itself and all of the equipment inside represent the tools and services we working podcasters use to make our podcasts. As you’ve no doubt noticed, there's a lot of equipment and gear in the gym that you never use when you go workout. You probably don’t use half of what’s available. You have your go-to tools, and you largely don’t even consider the rest. To at least some degree, you don’t use that other stuff because you don’t know how to use that other stuff. Or why you should use that other stuff!

Let’s dig deeper into the people metaphor. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of people found inside a fitness center. The people working out -- patrons -- represent working podcasters like yourself. You don't know how serious these patrons are. They could just be in there like me trying to get limber once again (as if I ever was), or they could be training for the next marathon, or they might be professional bodybuilders. Who knows? The same holds true in podcasting. You don’t know how serious they take podcasting when you encounter another podcaster.

The second type of people are at the gym are usually not working out, but are instead assisting the patrons of the gym. Personal trainers, you might call them. These people represent the professional service providers found in the podcasting industry. Audio editors. Copywriters. Podcast strategists. Personal assistants. Anyone really who offer ways to help podcasters with their craft.

Some patrons, perhaps most, only use a limited set of equipment for their workout. They check-in, workout for a set period of time, and then they leave. That's the same pattern a lot of podcasters employ: they ply their craft using one or two pieces of equipment to make their podcast episodes, and they’re done. In-and-out. No muss. No fuss. And that’s perfectly fine. People who approach podcasting like that are why we're approaching 900,000 podcasts.

For most of these people, all the equipment they don’t use is superfluous. They see no need to use more equipment because they either don’t understand the equipment itself or the don’t understand how using that equipment during their workout might benefit them.

Enter the gym-employed personal trainer. Their job is to get you comfortable with the equipment you aren’t comfortable with so that you keep coming to the gym. The metaphor breaks down a little here because most podcast service providers -- I’m thinking hosting companies or fee-based software -- are quite passive in their approach to education. It’s often relegated to a small support staff, a few help desk FAQs, or videos. But rarely will they pursue a customer to make sure they know to use the services in the same way the gym won’t stop calling me to schedule a session with a personal trainer. Hrm. Maybe there’s wisdom in restraint.

Where the gym-employed trainer can show you how to work any of the equipment, they probably aren’t much help beyond that. The same goes for podcast consultants. Some, perhaps most, can show you how to podcast the way they podcast, but they probably don’t have much experience beyond that. It's not like podcasting has a certification body out there vetting the qualifications of someone claiming to be a podcast consultant. (In fact, personal trainers go through more certification than podcast consultants do.)

But beyond the trainers on the payroll of the gym are the “professional” personal trainers who have studied training or physical therapy at university. Maybe they previously worked for a professional sports team or at a sports medicine clinic. These trainers will have a much more complete service offering that goes beyond the confines of the gym they are working in with their clients.

So too is it for podcast consultants who do who have been in the trenches for a long time. (I promise this is not a sales pitch for me. I'm just exploring a metaphor with you.) Truly professional podcast consultants are going to be more qualified to help you make a more well-rounded show or to help you get to the next level with our podcasting.

But the problem with working with truly professional personal trainers is that you must follow their routine. If you instead dictate the type of workout you want to do, the type of equipment you want to use, the frequency and the length of the sessions you want to commit to, and then state what outcome you’re looking to achieve… Well, you're probably not going to have a very good time.

If the only reason you hired a professional is so that they can show you proper technique, you're missing out on the larger picture. And probably wasting money.

Instead, you should tell your truly qualified personal trainer the end-goal you have in mind. Tell them what you want to get out of your sessions together, and let them design a workout that’s right for you.

The same thing holds true in podcasting. A good professional podcast consultant will find a way to get you where you want to go. They'll find a way to use the equipment you have, or they’ll make recommendations of what you need to acquire. They’ll help you craft your message and explore different formats you hadn’t considered. And yes, they’ll do it all within the budget you’ve set forth. Unless they can’t, and then they’ll be honest with you about either what it will take to get you to your initial goal, or they’ll tell you where you can go with what you have now. And then they leave you to make the informed choice. After all, it’s your body. Or podcast.

If anything I’ve written (or said, if you listened) resonated with you, I would appreciate it if you would go to RateThisPodcast.com/podpont. It only takes a few seconds and is a free way for you to show your appreciation.

If you feel like it, you can BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra and slide a couple of bucks my way. A

Finally, if you are looking for a personal trainer who knows what they're really doing to help with your business-focused podcast; get in touch with me. Evo@podcastlaunch.pro or go to SimplerMedia.pro to see a list of the services we offer clients today.

I’ll be at Outlier SLC, so please say hi if you are there. And if not, I’ll be back on Monday for another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Your local gym or fitness club is a great metaphor for understanding how people approach the craft of podcasting. So here's how to keep your microphone out of the juice blender.

Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo Tara. So I recently rejoined the gym. The number of gyms I've joined over the years is. Does it matter like you? Perhaps you've probably on again, off again on again off Kim, but I know I need to do it. So I finally joined the gym again, and it's a brand new gym for me.

It's not a brand new gym that's a brand new to me. Gym, gigantic gym. You know, I'm not going to name the gym, but if Los Angeles had a fitness center, it would be called this. Anyhow, nice place, Ben. A couple of times. I'm really only there to do a yoga class to kind of get my body stretched and moving back into place.

So I've been twice and I sit for about 30 minutes waiting to get into the yoga room because there's something else going on and I make my observation and I'm observing the people that are in the gym and I'm realizing that the gym, the workout place, the fitness center is a great. Metaphor for podcasting.

Let me break it down for you, cause I think it's kind of fun to explore and it's fun for me to explore. So thanks for exploring along with me. So the gym itself, the building itself, and all of the equipment inside of the building, that's basically the tools and services we working podcasters use to make our podcast.

Now you'll notice there's a lot of stuff in the gym that you don't use when you go workout. When people go work out at the gym, they don't use every single piece of equipment. They use a fraction. They don't use half of it. I mean, it's a small number depending on what kind of gym you go to. So all of those products and services are the things you could use in the process of your podcasting.

You get to pick and choose which ones you want to use so that people there. So that's the building and the equipment. That's all of podcasting. The people there are well people in podcasting and there's really are two kinds of people broadly speaking, at a gym. There are those who are working out. That's one class of people.

The lion's share. Most of the time of the people in the gym working are the war people who are working out. Those represent podcasters, working podcasters like you. What you don't know about these people is how serious they are. They could just be in there like me trying to get limber once again as if I ever was, or they could be training for the next marathon, or they might be professional bodybuilders who knows?

You don't know, and it's hard to tell by looking what kind of person is at the gym. Now there's a second class of people who are at the gym, and those are the people who are not working out, but those are the people who are helping patrons of the gym, workout, personal trainers, you might call them. Now for our metaphor to work into podcasting.

These are the professional service providers. These are the audio editors. These are the copywriters. These are these strategists, these are the personal assistants. These were the other people. I guess even podcast strategists who come along and help people with their craft, providing those goods and services.

So those are all the players we have out there in my metaphor to understand how it works. I really want to focus on how we're all this goes together. So, you know, some people go to the gym and they use a handful of pieces of equipment do, or three pieces and they get their work done and they leave.

That's the same as a lot of people who approach podcasting by using one or two pieces of equipment, one or two things that they do, and then they do their podcast and they leave perfectly fine, no problem. I'm happy that we have the people out there. I like the fact that we're approaching 900,000 podcasts and I want more people who are just going in and doing their stuff, but those people, when they hit the gym, they might look around at all the other equipment.

And the reason they don't use it is probably because they don't know how to use it. It's probably because they don't know why they should use it. It's probably because they don't see the benefits of using that equipment. So that's why the gym has personal trainers. They want you to use the gym because they want you to keep on using the gym.

Well, I suppose you could think that some podcast hosting companies or other ones have personal trainers, but they really don't. It's much more of a incentive for you to do it yourself and you the podcast, or it might look at all the other pieces of equipment tools and think, I don't know how to use these things, so I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to use them because I don't know what they do. I don't see the benefit. I come here, I do my butterfly lifts, I do a little bit of stretching. Maybe I take a couple laps in the pool, done. I've worked out. Well, these trainers that are onsite are here to help you get through that well, help you better understand what all the equipment does.

But as I said, there's two different types of trainers. There are those who work for the place who probably know how all the cools work, but not necessarily the best way to apply those tools. They can show you how to use the machine and what it does. And a little bit on your form, but they're not perfect at it.

They know how the equipment works. What they don't know is how other equipment, not in this gym work. It's not their job. They're only presenting what's available to you because that's where you happen to be. That's one level of podcast consultant of one level of podcast service provider. They can do one thing and they might do that one thing really well.

But who knows? It's like there's a certification body out there saying this person is qualified to be a podcast production expert. This person is qualified to be a consultant. We don't have that. In fact, personal trainers go through more certification than podcast consultants do. Again, not that you have to use one, but how do you get to use all that equipment.

And then there's the personal trainers, the real live personal trainers who have studied this, went to school. Maybe they worked for a sports team or some other outfit at a doctor's office that specialized in sports medicine, whatever. Now you've got the real personal trainers who were in there, which are, who are doing a much better job doing a much more complete job is the way I should say that.

You have podcast consultants who do that too. Who have done this, been in the trenches for a long time. This is not a sales pitch for me, by the way, just, just, I'm just exploring a metaphor here. Those people are going to be more qualified to be, to make a more well rounded show for you or to help you get to the next level of where you need to be because that's what they do.

But the problem with working with personal trainers is you got to follow their routine. If you have a personal trainer. And you go in and say, these are the kinds of reps I want to do. This is the kind of exercise I'm looking for and my outcome should be this. While you're probably not going to have a very good time, because if you dictate to the trainer what you want to train on, and the only reason that person exists is so they can show you the ropes, how to do those things specifically, you're missing out on the larger picture.

What you should do if you're working with a truly qualified personal trainer. Is set that in the goal. Here's what I want to do at the end of our sessions together, my goal is to do this and let them design a workout for you. The same thing in podcasting. Let them, let them do that. Let them work towards your goal.

Let them find a way to get there. They're going to use the equipment that's in this gym, the podcasts, consultants, going to use the equipment and the services you have available to you and find a way to get you to the outcome that you're looking for. Personal trainers like a gym. Yeah. I think that actually works.

I think that's a good metaphor and it's up to you, the person using the gym, the person using the podcast landscape to figure out which one is right for you. My 2 cents on how podcasting can be kind of like a gym. So if you didn't mind this rambling episode to children much, I would appreciate it if you would go to rate this podcast.com/pod Ponton and rate the podcast.

It's okay to say he rambles from time to time. That's part of pontificating. If you really liked it and you liked what I've been doing for awhile, you can use buy me a coffee.com/evo Tara to slide a couple of bucks my way. And if you are looking for their personal trainer who knows what they're really doing.

Again, this isn't a commercial for me, but if you would like to chat more about how I can help your business with their podcasting goals and how to meet them, get in touch with me. evo@podcastlaunched.pro also, you can go to simpler media.pro to see a list of the services we offer clients today. Enjoy your Thursday.

See you at outlier SLC if you'll be there over the weekend, and if not back here tomorrow, not tomorrow, on Monday for another podcast. Pontifications cheers.

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