Hello. Hello. I hope you’re all well today. We are doing something a little bit different on the podcast today. I am actually turning the microscope—microphone, I guess—on myself to talk about a year of podcasting.

I passed a year of recording this podcast, and I have learned a lot of lessons that are relevant for book writing or really any long-term project that you need to sustain. And I am going to tell you about some of those lessons today so that you can use them for your own projects. So let’s get into it.

Welcome to Academic Book Writing Simplified. I’m your host, Jane Joann Jones, a writing coach and developmental editor who’s here to give you some tough love about the way you write. This podcast is for women and non-binary scholars in academia who are writing academic books but feel as if the process is a little or a lot like a mystery. If you’re ready to trade your confusion and frustration for ease, clarity, and purpose, you’re in the right place. Let’s head into today’s episode.

So before I get into telling you the lessons that I’ve learned after a year of podcasting, I’m going to tell you what—actually, I guess this is one of the lessons I learned, but I want to say it first because it’s something I give my clients such a hard time about—and then I turned around and did it, which is that I didn’t celebrate a year of podcasting.

And first off, a year of podcasting passed like over a month ago. I only just realized it was a year, a couple—like a week ago. And I was like, oh, well, Jane, you didn’t—you are not practicing what you preach, which is celebrating milestones, recognizing your progress and your achievements. And I didn’t do any of that. So, lesson learned. I have to do what I tell everyone else to do, which is, you know, celebrate your milestones and be proud of what you’ve learned and how long you’ve been able to maintain something.

So that’s how we’re going to get started. But I have more for you about, you know, like my year of podcasting—a lot of what’s happened, some course corrections I’ve had to make, and also some things I’ve had to, you know, really accept about the podcasting process and also just long-term projects more generally.

So I have a couple of lessons. Of course, I numbered them because, you know, I love—I love a good list. But the first one is that, for me, getting started was the hardest part. And I think that’s true for book authors as well, right? Because in both instances—especially for the majority of people who listen to this podcast—I think you’re writing your first book, and you’ve never done it before, in the same way that I had never done a podcast before.

So there was a lot of—I had a lot of confusion. Like, how do I start? What do I do? How long should it be? Where does it go? Like, literally, like, does it go on Spotify? Does it go on Apple? Like, I didn’t know any—any of those things.

So there was a lot of confusion about how to get started. I remember I didn’t know what microphone to use. Like, I had to, you know, desperately text a friend who, you know, does movie production and ask him—you know, like, thank you, Adrian, by the way—what kind of microphone should I use? You know, like, I felt very novice. And that was very disconcerting because, you know, I’ve been—you know, other parts of my business and my work I’ve been doing for a long time. And I had to really just confront that confusion and decide that it was okay. It was okay to be confused, and I can still start while I was confused. That it wasn’t a barrier to starting. It wasn’t fun to feel that way, but I can still get started and figure out some things along the way.

I also had a lot of doubt. Like, I had doubt that people would listen. I had doubt that the topics would be appealing to people. And again, like, that was something that I had to overcome and tell myself, like, well, you have no idea if people will listen to this topic until you release it and see if people will listen. Like, that’s literally the only way to do it. And, you know, I look at my downloads, and I now—you know, I have that information and data to tell that people listen. But, you know, I had that doubt, the same way I coach writers through that doubt about, are people going to believe in this argument? Are people going to think this is enough evidence in the book? And, you know, the answer is, you don’t know in advance. And also, more importantly, you can’t control it in advance. All you can do is try your best, right? Because you can never control how people will receive something. You just have to put it out there and then prepare, of course, for reactions—but you cannot prevent reactions.

So I had to, you know, coach myself through that doubt. And also insecurity. You know, I had some—to be quite candid—I had some insecurity about starting a podcast because across my life, I’ve gotten some comments about the sound of my voice, the tone of my voice, the pace at which I speak. And all of those comments suddenly, like, came into my brain all at once. And I was thinking, you know, audio is not my strength. People are not going to want to listen to me. They’re not going to like it. I need to work on my, you know, my cadence and my tone and my pitch.

And again, I had to coach myself and say, if people don’t like it, they don’t have to listen. And that’s okay, right? So being able to confront this confusion, this doubt, this insecurity about getting started— all of these were mindset issues. All of these were my thoughts, right? I had a lot of thoughts about this podcast, and I had to, you know, process each one of those thoughts and address them and think of ways to work either around them or with them in order to get started. And that made it, you know, hard for me to start. It made me delay. It made me procrastinate, right?

But ultimately I was like, you just have to do it. You know, there’s nothing that is going to—for me—I was like, there’s nothing that is going to eliminate all of these thoughts and feelings besides starting and realizing that it’s not going to be as bad as you thought.

I haven’t gotten one comment on my voice, by the way. My microphone’s fine. We edit. You know, the things that I was worrying about are not worries anymore. It was fine to have them, but the only way to get rid of them was to do the thing and then realize that those worries were not nearly as insurmountable as I thought they would be.

So often when getting started is hard, it’s because of the thoughts we have about getting started, not because there is any actual action that is impossible for us to take.

And then after getting started being the hardest part, lesson two is that staying consistent was the hardest part.

So, you know, I had thoughts—just like, and, you know, again, like, coaching writers and taking my own advice. When I started this podcast, I had a goal. I was like, I’m going to publish every week. Every week I’m going to have a new podcast, and they’re going to come out every Tuesday, and it’s going to be great, and I’m going to be so consistent.

And that worked for a while, and then I realized that I have a lot of other things going on in this business, in my life, and that once a week was not realistic.

I coach in both of my coaching programs. I write my newsletter twice a week. I manage a team in my business. I write curriculum. You know, I work with clients. And, you know, for me to write the scripts for these podcasts and deliver them with the care that I wanted to, it was not possible for me to produce a weekly episode. It was for a while, I think, because I had that early beginning adrenaline. And then I was like—you know, and I think, you know, this is just like writers, when people are like, “Write every day.” And people are like, “I don’t have time to write every day.” You know, like, “I have committees. I teach four classes. I have kids. I have—you know, I have all of these things. And writing every day is not realistic for me,” right?

So building something sustainable—and I want to be really clear about this—sustainability and frequency are not the same thing. Consistency and frequency are not the same thing. Those three words have different meanings: sustainability, consistency, and frequency.

Consistent means it just happens regularly, right? So you can consistently do something every month, right? It doesn’t have to be every day. You could decide that you write every Monday and Wednesday or just two days a week. That’s consistent, okay? It doesn’t have to meet some standard of frequency. It meets a standard of regularity in order to be consistent, okay?

So working on finding your pace and your cadence is so important in sustaining a long-term project because you either fizzle out, like I did with one episode a week, or you will get really resentful that you’re doing something that you don’t really have time for.

So finding your pace, finding your cadence, finding your consistent schedule is really important.

And with that, this is where systems come in when you want to build a sustainable and consistent writing practice, right? Because this is a podcast about writing. You want to write your book and not do it in a series of all-nighters. You want to write your book and actually use your time well. You need systems.

So, for instance, I’ve created routines and systems to help me get this podcast done. I created this three-phase process, right? Where first I script, then I record, then I do all of the post-production things. I write the show notes, I write the emails promoting the podcast—some of you get them because you’re on my newsletter. I write social media posts if I need to, right? Those are the three phases that I’ve created. And then I know that there are certain things I do within each phase, and I set deadlines for myself for each phase. Every phase has its own deadline so I can do this every other week, right? But this is part of the system that I have created to get this podcast out.

And you will figure out what your systems are. Maybe you break your writing sessions into a system. You know, the first five minutes I review what I wrote last time, then I spend 45 minutes writing, then I spend five minutes, like, planning my next writing session. Right? That would be like a three-phase process for a single writing session. Maybe that’s the type of system that you build to help with your writing, right?

But if you want to maintain consistency, a system is going to help you.

And then finally, when I started this podcast, I asked, you know, friends for a couple of tips about, like I said in the beginning, microphones, about how they actually published their podcast. You know, like, my team helped me, of course. But in terms of actually sitting down and writing the script and doing the audio, I did that on my own for a while before I sought professional help.

And this is why: I had never done anything like recording a podcast before. Even now, I am much more comfortable with the written word than the spoken word. So this was—it was an experiment for me.

But even though it was brand new, I did not immediately go to work with a coach or a consultant or anything like that because I wanted to start with my basic knowledge from, you know, looking on the internet, asking around to see what I enjoyed about the process and to identify my strengths, okay? Because with that information, I could be more strategic in asking for help.

So I think I recorded about nine or ten episodes and then sought a consultant who helped me with the podcast, right? But I had to know what I really wanted help with. And for me, because this podcast is an extension of my business, I needed help in making sure the podcast was discoverable, that it had some search engine optimization elements to it, right? That the title was a title that would draw in people who want to write academic books.

There were some parts that I felt stronger in, like writing scripts, because writing is something I feel confident in and that I’m good at—I mean, I’m not—I, you know, it’s one of my strengths. So that part I was like, I think I’m good. I think I’m good with scripting.

I got some support in figuring out how to organize the topics, set up SEO, figure out a structure for podcast episodes, different types of episodes. Those were the areas where I really wanted support. So that’s what I went and got support for.

And you, as a writer, you should do the same thing, right? Like, figure out your strengths. Like, maybe you’re like, I’m already really good at planning, but I need some help with sticking to my plan. Or in writing, maybe I’m already—I feel like I’m very good at theorizing, but when it comes to the more descriptive writing— you know, showcasing my evidence, storytelling—like, that’s where I really want an editor to step in and help me. Or I want to work with a writing coach to teach me some of those skills, right?

But you can only identify your strengths and then figure out what your opportunities for support are if you first do some work, right? Like, first you have to do some work.

So when people come to me—of course, as book writers—you’ve already been writing a lot, so you probably know some of your strengths already, right? Like, you’ve already written a dissertation. You might have even written some articles. Some people have already written one book. So you have a sense already about what types of supports you need to complete a long-term project.

And then there are some parts where you have no idea—especially if you’re a first-book writer—because you’ve never done it before, right?

So you might say, I want to, you know, spend some time kind of figuring out my own process and then seek help. Or you might be like, I already know a lot about my own process and I know where I need support, and then I might discover some new things along the way. And that’s fine, right?

But I think it’s really important to be strategic in asking for help because sometimes we get—as I mentioned at the beginning—confused, doubtful, insecure, and we just seek all the help we can get, right? Like, we start asking for a million questions. We start paying for different workshops and programs and reading books and talking to people and getting like a firehose of information because we feel insecure.

And of course, because we are lifelong learners, we feel like, well, I just need to go learn more, and once I learn more, then I’ll feel better. And yeah—sometimes. But sometimes you just have to do things, right? Like, that’s what’s going to get you to the other side of confusion. That’s what’s going to get you from confusion to clarity is taking action and then realizing, okay, well, I took action and I’m still confused about this thing, so now I’m going to go seek help. Or, I took action, I realized this thing wasn’t nearly as scary or overwhelming as it was going to be, and I can do it, right?

So just to recap these four lessons:

• When getting started is really hard, it’s often because of the thoughts you have, right? Because there’s always some small action you can take to get started.
  
• I’m going to put 2 and 3 together. Lessons 2 and 3: staying consistent is important, but staying consistent requires systems.
  
• And finally, number 4: do some experimenting. Try it out so that then you can ask for help strategically.
  

And those are the four lessons. So I hope you can take these and apply them to your writing. And of course, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for any amount of time—but especially if you’ve been listening for the entire year I have been releasing it—thank you so much.

It’s an important anniversary. I am so grateful that you hang around with me and listen not every week, but every other week, because that’s our pace around here. But in the meantime, I wish you well, and I’ll see you in the next episode. Take care.

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Remember, writing an academic book is challenging, but that doesn’t mean you have to overcomplicate it. If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, please leave a review. This helps get the word out about the podcast so more people will listen and we can continue the conversation.

Take care and tune in for our next episode.