The Case For Non-Hippie Meditating Over Your Podcast

Podcasters spend so much time doing their podcast that they often lose sight of why they are podcasting. Getting out of the tactical mindset isn’t easy. Maybe it’s something you should meditate over?

August 27, 2020

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Podcasters tend to cluster in two groups: those who think about their shows all the time, and those who don't think about their show until they realize they have to release an episode that day. Obviously, those are the extreme ends of the spectrum. But if you could somehow track “time spent thinking about my podcast” on a scatter plot, a barbell-shape would appear.

It's not great to constantly obsess about your podcast. Nor is it great to have it completely out of your mind until the very last second. Those who occupy the middle of the spectrum probably have a more healthy relationship with their own podcast.

I’m a weird outlier, since my podcast is about the future of podcasting, coming up with novel concepts and ideas you and all working podcasters should be thinking about. But I don’t think about this podcast all the time, so I’m sorta healthy, I guess?

Meditating for Non-Meditators By A Weird Meditator

As you read this, a thousand articles are being published by gurus, spiritual leaders, and self-actualization experts that all extol the virtues of meditating to fix all of your problems.

That’s not what I’m advocating for. This isn’t some weird hippy-dippy trip. I’m not suggesting we form a drum circle or pass around the sage smudge. Yes, I’ve done all of those things in my past. And if you’re into that stuff, groovy! But if not, I promise you won’t come out of this with beads woven into a lock of your hair, OK?

I'm also not talking about transcendental meditation. No need to go into a trance, either with or without the assistance of mind-altering substances. Again, if you’re into that, have at! But that’s not the kind of medication I’m speaking about.

But I do mean meditation. Not getting into the zone and planning out your next episode. That’s important, but it’s not meditating. Likewise, taking some quiet time to do the work of your podcast is also not meditating. That’s finding an opportune time to be tactical, and you’re likely already too tactical when it comes to you and your show.

Meditating On You And Your Relationship With Your Podcast

That's the meditation angle I want you to explore when you find your quiet space and carve out a half an hour - or five minutes - of reflection. (Pro tip: noise-canceling headphones are super helpful to block out the world and leave you alone with your thoughts.)

Thinking about where you and your show might be in five years is a fine thing to think about while meditating. However, using the time to plan out a week-by-week action plan to get you there isn’t. Again, that’s going tactical. Sure, having a plan (or at least understanding your direction of maximal interestingness) will help you get there. But for now, just be content thinking about you, your show, and the future of podcasting on whatever time-horizon you want.

You may also think about large groups of people who don’t yet know about your show who you might try to reach. Stop yourself if you start plotting growth hacking techniques or marketing plans to reach them, however. Instead, think about things like what aspects of your show would most appeal to them. Or what changes might be required to make your show more appealing to this as-of-yet untapped audience. Think strategically, not tactically.

By all means, let your mind unpack your current processes, or the overall sound of your show. But if you start making a list of equipment to buy, you’re slipping back into tactics. Stay focused on the need for that equipment, and what it might allow you to do with your podcast if you had it. Or think through any problems you’re aware of with your show’s sound without going so far as finding a solution. Examining the problem in depth from lots of angles will often lead you to novel solutions. Don’t force it.

If you find your brain offering up potential guests (if your show has guests), don’t make a list of those guests. Instead, pretend you are that guest receiving an invitation to be on your podcast. Think through their decision process. Will they listen to an episode? Will they visit your website? Your social profiles? And if they do, do those properties and experiences make it easy for the guest to say “yes”?

Most important, and probably advice running counter to adherents of guided meditation: Let your mind wander! Sure, you should try to keep it focused on you and your relationship with your podcast as much as possible. But for me, the best part of meditating this way is the unexpected connections that spontaneously happen when I don’t try to force it. Stay strategic, and see where your mind takes you.

Good Advice From A Bad Meditating Podcaster

Classic meditation never really worked for me. Neither did guided meditation. Heck, I find it hard to stay in a yoga pose for more than 10 seconds. Tools, tech, and apps help, but I’ve found my own path to meditation. Though true meditators will likely say “that's not meditation.” Yeah, well… I don’t care. It works for me.

I meditate from the prone position, either on the couch or in bed. I try (and often fail) to take a break at around 3:00p every day. And by “break” I mean nap. And by “nap”, I mean maybe going to sleep for a bit, but mostly just decompressing and thinking about bigger picture things.

I also meditate during the twilight hours before dawn. I normally start waking up around 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning. No alarm. Just me. Sometimes I’ll just get up and start my day, especially if my mind is racing through all the things it needs to get done. But more often than not, I’ll just lay there for an hour or so, drifting in and out of sleep, but always trying to return to the big picture thoughts where podcasting is often a part.

Again, this is what works for me. It very well may not work for you. But it’s probably worth a shot, right?

Maybe you know some hippy, new-age, granola-crunchy person with a podcast (again, I've lived all of those adjectives so I can use them with impunity) who's been trying to convince you to do some meditating. Maybe they're not yet aware of Podcast Pontifications and this would be a good gateway for them to experience the program. Send it!

If you like what I offer you every week, please go to BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra and sign up to buy me a virtual coffee. It lets me know that you really do appreciate the show and keeps me motivated to keep going.

No episodes from me on Friday, but I shall be back on Monday with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Transcript

PPS3E29 The Case For Non-Hippie Meditating Over Your Podcast - Transcript

Podcasters spends so much time doing their podcast, that they often lose sight of why they are podcasting. Getting out of the tactical mindset is not easy. Maybe it's something you should meditate over.

[00:00:20] Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo Terra. Podcasters tend to cluster in two groups, I have found there are those who think about their shows all the time, like nonstop. They're always thinking about their show. That's one group on the other end of the spectrum are those who don't think about their show until they realize, Oh, crap, I have to get an episode out today.

[00:00:43] Those are obviously the extreme views, but if you plot it out, you'd probably find a bar bell shaped graph. Of the number of the, the amount of time people think about their show all the time on one side, none until the very last minute on the other one. And that's a challenge. That's a challenge that everybody has to face because you're fighting your own nature.

[00:01:06] It's not great to constantly obsess about your podcast, nor is it great to ignore it until the very, very last second, it's gotta be a happy medium in the middle. And that's where I tried occupy. I try to occupy a happy medium, even though I'm weird, you know what I'm going for a lot of reasons, but number one, I talk a lot about the future of podcasting we're podcasting.

[00:01:33] You should go and, and provide you with some things to think about in podcasting. So for me, I'm, I'm one of the people that are always thinking about podcasting. I don't, however, always think about the podcast, this particular podcast or the others that I'm involved with. Those, I think about individually a lot less, but I do think overall a podcasting.

[00:01:51] So what I want to talk about today, Is some, some techniques to get you into podcasting and I'm going to use the magical M word. And I don't want you to leave me because hang on, I'm talking about meditating about your podcast, but not that kind of meditating, not that kind of meditating. Okay. Just relax for a second.

[00:02:10] This is not some hippie trip. I'm not breaking out the drum circle, right? We're not going to pass around the Sage. None of that. It's a part of my life. I've done all of those things, but no, no, no. I don't want to, I don't want to try and get you into, into that mindset. I want to, when talking about meditation, I'm not talking about transcendental meditation.

[00:02:29] Okay. I don't mean that we're not going into trances and none of that fun stuff. I mean, maybe you want to do that. Maybe you want to go on a, what does that stuff Escuela? That's not even the name of it, whatever it's called, you know, some, some trip, fine. Knock yourself out. If that's what you're going to do, that's not what I'm talking about.

[00:02:45] Not that kind of meditation. And when I say meditation, I also don't mean just planning out your next episode. That's not meditating. That's planning out your next episode. That's a two very different things. It's not meditating on your next episode. We're talking about medicating it with the podcast. I'm also not talking about taking the time to do the work.

[00:03:07] Of your podcast. That again is the tactical issue. You're probably already doing too much of that right now. So sure. You need to carve out time to plan out your next episode and actually do the work of your podcast, but that's not meditating. I'm talking about dedicated time where you actually end, truly meditate about your podcast, meditate on your podcasts, whatever adjective your verb you want to use for that.

[00:03:34] And I mean, specifically, You and your podcast, that relationship is what I want you to think about. That's the meditation we're looking for. You can meditate a lot of different ways. I'm going to talk about those in just a moment I want to talk about for you first off, when you find your quiet space and you carve out your.

[00:03:58] Half an hour, if you can, five minutes, if you can, whatever the timing is, and I'm not here to set that for you, but when you carve out the time, I want to give you some things to think about when you're, when you are meditating, we've calmed down, kind of let the outside world go away. Big fan of using earbuds with noise, canceling so much help to me when I try and do this.

[00:04:21] But I want you to thinking about things when you're doing this meditation. Don't you think about the future? Not now. I don't want you making a five year plan. Quite often. You close your eyes, you sit down, you start thinking, all right, next week, I'm going to do this next month. I'm going to do this. That's not helpful.

[00:04:37] Or you go to the other side now, five years from now, and this is where I see me. Hey, that's good. Actually, if you see yourself, how you see you and your show in five years or five months or whatever the future means to you, you should totally think about that. Just don't make a plan to get there. At least not during this meditation, that my lead are you planning on, you know, later on, but right now during the meditation, I just, I just want you to cogitate and think about what the future actually it looks like between you and your podcast.

[00:05:09] Also don't plot out growth hacking techniques. It's so simple to think about what the things, what, who people I'm not reaching. And you, and you want to think about people that you are not reaching large groups of people who might need to know about your show. You should totally think about those groups, but don't start plotting out growth hacking techniques.

[00:05:27] Again, that's being very tiny practical. And for this exercise, just thinking strategically as your goal. Also, if you start thinking about the processes on your sound, these, these are all good things to think about. Don't start making a list of equipment to buy in your head. Once again, you're going tactical.

[00:05:46] Stay higher up on that. Definitely think about the processes. Think about the problems. With your processes and how some software not specific software or some equipment not specific equipment might help you through those processes or improve your sound. Definitely think about those things. Just don't plot out what you need to buy.

[00:06:05] As soon as you get done with the silly meditation thing. Now, if you find yourself wandering down the path of what guests should I have on my show. If in fact you have guests on your show, go ahead and think about that, but don't make a list instead, instead. Think about that guest individually that you've got in your head, but I want you to picture that guests listening to your episodes.

[00:06:31] You're going to approach this person site on sound, but let's say that they listened to an entire episode of your show. Your most recent episode, perhaps, is that the, would they have the right experience to say? Yeah, I definitely want to be on that podcast. Think about that. Critically. Think about that.

[00:06:45] Critically. Ask yourself those hard questions. And by all means redoing doing this, let your mind wander. These are just some ideas to think about to me, the best part of getting in this zone, where you're thinking about the show, which pure I'll call it meditating is that you never know where your mind is going to go.

[00:07:02] You never know what's going to come out of it. So let your mind. Wander, try to keep your thinking as high level and strategic as possible. If you find yourself going down a tactical path where you start laying out things, force yourself to stop and back up. Now for me, classic meditating never really worked guided meditation.

[00:07:26] Didn't really work for me. So when I've tried it several different ways and if it works for you, that's perfect. I'm not saying that it does it, but for those I'm talking right now to you, who is also going med, hitting stuff here. Here's the way I meditate. I meditate on the couch. And by that, I mean, I'm laying down on the couch around three o'clock in the afternoon.

[00:07:46] Usually thinking about taking a nap. Sometimes I can actually take a nap and that's great, but oftentimes I don't and I just lay there with my noise, canceling earbuds in, and I'm thinking about the things I just talked about before. Sometimes I meditate during the Twilight hours. See, I don't sleep well past around four or four 30 in the morning.

[00:08:08] So sometimes I get up and get things done, but sometimes like, no. I'll just take this time. Cause I don't want to get up yet and I've got an hour, but I'm supposed to be at yet. Maybe I'll just take that time to lay there, dozing in and out. Trying my best to just think about the future. Think about where the podcast might go.

[00:08:25] Think about something meditating if you will. But during that weird Twilight time, take some discipline, obviously to keep my thoughts on track during that time. But you know, it works for me. It works for me. Maybe it'll work for you or maybe, you know, some hippy new age, granola, crunchy type person. Again, I've been all of those.

[00:08:43] So I can use those terms with impunity, maybe, you know, a podcast that fits that bill. Who's been trying to get on you to do some meditating. We're talking about meditation, go ahead and send them this episode. Maybe they're not yet aware of podcast pontifications and this would be a good gateway for them to show that I'm somewhat nice.

[00:08:58] So I'm just not sure. I'm always nice to, to that particular community. I poke Barb's, but you know, They can usually take it. Most of them can. And if you like what I offer you every week, uh, go to buy me a coffee.com/evo Terra, where you can sign up to buy me a virtual coffee. And that's a wonderful thing.

[00:09:15] It lets me know that you really do appreciate the show and keeps me motivated to keep going and meditate about more things. All right. Enjoy the rest of your week. No episodes from me on Friday. So also enjoy your weekend and I shall be back on Monday with yet another podcast. Pontifications cheers.

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As you read this, a thousand articles are being published by gurus, spiritual leaders, and self-actualization experts that all extol the virtues of meditating to fix all of your problems.