Celebrating 100 Episodes

In this weeks episode, we’re celebrating 100 episodes! Marvette looks back at her podcasting journey from where it started to today and how her consistency paid off and got her to 100 episodes of the podcast.

Transcript:

Introduction

Hey friend, the time has come to finish your dissertation, graduate and become doctor. Welcome to office hours with Dr. Lacy where we talk about how to finally master this time management thing so you can stay on top of it without losing your mind. Every Wednesday you can find a new episode wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure you hit the subscribe button to make sure you never miss an episode. I’m Dr. Marvette Lacy, your dissertation writing strategist here to be with you along every step of the way. I would like to thank you for coming to today’s office hours. Let’s get started on today’s episode. Hey, how’s writing going? I know you don’t like the question, but let me tell you, when you join the finish your dissertation program, you will love that question. Clients often report feeling excited and joyful to go into their process even before they even get to the dissertation process, and that’s what I’m inviting you to do. I’m inviting you to come inside the group and join us so that you can get the structure you need and the tools that will help you to show up consistent and disciplined in your process. All you need to do is come on over to Marvette lacy.com/apply and sign up for the wait list and you will be the first notified when doors are open. See you soon.

The Journey To My 100th Episode: 

Hello, welcome back to the podcast. I am excited! I am in a spirit of celebration, y’all because guess what it is episode 100. And I know I say this a lot, but I am not going to be here long because I want to spend today just celebrating because I did not believe that I have recorded a hundred episodes of this podcast when I started this. Um, it was in 2017. It was right before, um, I left the city. So I went to the university of Georgia and I was living in Athens where UGA is located. And I had this idea. I was like seeing people talking about, you need to get into podcasting. You need to get into podcasting. You know, I was building this business. Um, because for those of you who do not know, I started thinking about having my own business while I was in my PhD process. Um, probably a year before I graduated is when I really started to take it more seriously and started to learn more about what is, what do people mean their on the internet. They talk, like people pay them to talk to them on the internet. I’m still confused. And so I started deep diving into this whole world, um, and like watching all of these webinars and videos and reading blog posts and YouTube videos, and just trying to learn as much as possible that I could like on my own without having to pay someone. Um, and I came across like people like, yeah, you need, you need a podcast. Podcasts is a new thing. And I remember being like, but how do you do that?

I don’t understand the tech and like, who’s going to edit. And do I need a special microphone. And I remember talking to very good friend, Dr. TJ Stewart. And he was like, Oh yeah, you just need to go, just get a snowball mic off of Amazon is probably like 50 or $60. You can use your Mac. There’s a, um, there’s garage band and you just record it and upload it. And I was like, Oh, okay. And I asked him, would he be a guest on it? I was like, I guess the easiest way that I know how to do this is to interview other people. Cause I’m like, I don’t know what I’m going to say. I don’t have much to say to people that they can learn from me. I’m just telling you a lot about my mindset at that point. And he graciously agreed for me to interview him. And so then I just started reaching out to other friends to interview them. And I think the reason why I went towards an interview style is because there was this, I can’t think of the name, but there was this podcast that I was listening to. And it was this guy he had just started. And he was, um, his podcasts were about like celebrating HBCU grads and telling their story.

And I’m like, that seems simple enough. Um, I was also heavily into the read at that point too. And I was like, I can’t do what Crystal and Kent Berry does. I can’t, but I can do interviews like homeboy. And so, yeah, I started reaching out to friends, other friends who were in the program, other friends who graduated with me and I said, this is not going to be something serious. I don’t have to do this every week. I can just do episodes here and there. And yeah, it was just reaching out to people and interviewing them. Y’all it is, it was janky, janky. If you go back and listen to earlier episodes, I’m just like, we’re just having conversations. I’m having conversations with my friends. Like, yeah. I had like a set, um, five questions that I would ask everyone, but I was like, we just having a, we just have a conversation. So earlier episodes, you will hear there’s one with Dr. Jillian Martin and she’s getting her hair done and we’re just having a conversation and you can hear in the background, her being in a salon, um, other people just be at home, doing things. The audio definitely was not the best. Um, but that, that, that started to grow. Um, and I, and I, you know, started to take it more seriously. Um, as I would, I took it more seriously for a good like six months or so, and just interviewing people. And then it just became a lot. I, I, in my fashion, I just tried, I was doing too much. I was doing too much.

I had stopped letting it be simple and easy. Right. I’ve made it more about, excuse me, I made it more than just interviewing people. I wanted to get into, like, how do you edit and, you know, control for sound and make it all fancy and have these like complicated episode outlines. And I just ended up overwhelming myself. And so there’s a period where I just stopped recording. I stopped uploading. What also started to happen is I was getting more consistent clients. And, you know, before, when I didn’t really have clients or I had one or two clients, I had enough time to play around on garage band and edit. And it would take me a good anywhere from five to 10 hours to edit one episode, to give you an idea, especially interviews, because you have to account for the other person’s audio and making sure it matches. Um, and so it just, it was, it was too much. And I just, I took a break, but then I want to say about another six or eight months later, I missed it. And people were telling me that they miss my episodes and that they look forward to it because in my mind, nobody was listening. I was like, nobody’s listening to this, maybe two or three people that are like, you know, guilted into listening to the podcast. But I was like, no, one’s listening. So it doesn’t matter. But then, you know, one person I would go to a conference and they would be like, yeah, when are you going to do the podcast again? And then I would go to maybe a few months later, somebody else would ask me. And I was just like, try to play it off. Like, I don’t know, it’s just too much work. I’m just focusing on posting on Instagram regularly.

“I Have More To Say”: 

But then more and more people started asking and I started thinking about it, like I do miss it. Um, I do miss it, but I don’t only want to do interviews anymore. I’m like, I have so much that I want to say to people, my mindset started to develop, my confidence started to grow. And I was like, I have more things that I would love to talk to people about. But like, do they really want to hear what I have to say. Like, who’s going to listen to m? It’s the, those were the thoughts that were happening. And I was really scared to do it, but I was like, you know what, if no one listens, Oh, well, but at least I can show myself. I can prove to myself that I can do this consistently. Also at the time a coach I was working with had just celebrated, she was celebrating her hundredth episode and she, for her, she was really proud that for two years straight, she uploaded a podcast and she never missed a week. And she had this, um, she lives in South Carolina and she had this big celebration. She had a contest for people and I entered the contest to win a free ticket to her event, celebrating her 100 episodes. And not only did I get a free ticket, she flew me out there. She paid for my hotel room. The event was amazing. And I remember just walking away from the event feeling so inspired. And I was like, I want this same thing. I’m gonna take the podcast more seriously. And I want, I want to be able to say, I’ve made it to it to episode 100.

I DID THAT!: 

That would just be wild. But I, while I had that motivation to like start the podcast up again, I also, at the same time was thinking, but a hundred is so far away. There’s no way I’m going to make it there. Cause I think by that point I was probably in the twenties somewhere. And I was like, there’s no way I’m gonna make it to a hundred, but you know, it would be fun to try. That’s a long ways away. And so I showed up, scared that no one was going to listen, scared that I was going to do it wrong, scared that I had nothing to say, scared that, you know, all these fears and stories I was making up in my head and I decided, well, you know, I’ll, I’ll switch things up. One week I’ll talk about a topic. And then the next week I’ll interview people. And so I did that for a while. I did that process and the following grew more and more people started listening to the podcast. Maybe you came to the podcast because maybe you knew someone who was being interviewed or maybe someone suggested it to you. And so that started to grow. And now on this side of things where I’m primarily do individual episodes, I’m just blown away at my consistency, at my willingness to put myself out there and have courage to do this, this podcast every week. Um, and then I started to like develop a system for myself. So I was proud of that.

Taking My Next Best Step: 

And now, you know, it’s not just me doing the podcast, I having an amazing editor. And I have the amazing, Alex who makes sure I get the podcast in on time and who transcribes it. And we have, um, we have like a podcast guide for the people who are in Plan Your Dissertation to take the conversation further. And so now that we have this process and this routine and it’s growing in our listener-ship is growing, I’m just amazed. And it just, this really shows the power of you don’t have to know what the end is going to look like. Right? You just need a goal to give you a direction, but I didn’t believe that I was going to hit a 100th episode. I just was like, that’ll be cool. And all I had to worry about was taking my next best step. That’s all I had to worry about. And I just, all I had to worry about is showing up every week and recording an episode. And if I could just stay there and just think about, it’s not about getting to a hundred, don’t get overwhelmed by the number. My only job is to show up and record an episode for that week.

And that is what I’ve been doing. I just been showing up every week, recording an episode and letting it go out. We are now getting into planning it out for the, you know, for three months at a time, but I still approached this with you just got to show up and do one episode. And I also heard somewhere that if you want to know, if you can do something, if you want to get into a new activity or for some of you who are thinking about starting consulting businesses and you know that you need to market, and you’re like, I’m going to market on Instagram, the way that you can show yourself if you should do it or not, Maybe another way of saying this is if you’re trying to weigh a decision of like, if you will be good at doing it or not like posting on Instagram or having your own podcast, the rule that I heard this person say is do it a hundred times and then make the decision if you’re good at it or not, then make the decision if you will want to continue it or not. Because if you can do something a hundred times, you’re going to have so much data and information to be able to make a sound decision from.

So I just wanted to share this whether your goal is to have a podcast or your own business, or to finish your dissertation, finish this program, what is your equivalent to showing up and doing it a hundred times? Are you willing to review a hundred articles for your literature review? Are you willing to rewrite your dissertation a hundred times? And I know that might seem like WHAT! But are you willing to try it? Because really like nine times out of 10, you won’t need to do it a hundred times in order to know if you should continue or not. A lot of times getting to 20, 30, 40 50 will help you to learn so much about yourself and learn so much about what you’re capable of doing. So my charge to you is what is the thing that you’ve been on the fence about that you’ve been going back and forth about and how can you just commit to, “I just need to get to a hundred and then I can make a decision from there” I just need to commit to getting to a hundred and then I can see!

Final Thoughts: 

So, um, I’m gonna leave it there. I will say I am open to suggestions because we want to celebrate this milestone. We want to have a celebration of a hundred episodes, but I’m kind of lost for suggestions on what to do. And so if you have a suggestion of something we can do in these quarantine streets, please let me know, please, please let us know. You can come on over to the Facebook group: Qualitative dissertations made simple, or you can come over to Instagram at qual_scholars and let us know. But I just want to say sincerely from the bottom of my heart, whether you just this your first episode or your hundredth episode, thank you so much for listening every week. Thank you so much for sharing your time with me because time is very valuable and I don’t take that for granted.

THANK YOU!!!: 

So thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of the community. I cannot wait for you to see what is coming up because we have some plans for this podcast. We want to help more people get to the finish line of their, their doctorate program. And give you a sneak peek of what’s to come. We also want to help you get your, like, start your own consulting business. Like what would it mean for you to turn your dissertation work, your research and turn it into a consulting business and have some extra money on the side or let that be your full-time thing. So I’m so excited to start adding that content in, but please let me know your your celebration suggestions. And thank you again. All right. Y’all I will talk to you all next week. Bye. 

Join Finish Your Dissertation: 

Hey, you ready to take this work further? Then it’s time for you to join the finish your dissertation program. Finally get the tools, resources, and structure. You need to show up consistent and disciplined in your process. All you need to do is come on over to MarvetteLacy.com/apply and join the finish your dissertation wait list. I’ll see you there. Bye for now. Thanks. Thank you for joining in for today’s office hours. Make sure you come on Instagram and tag me at Marvette Lacy. Let me know what your thoughts were on today’s episode until next time. Do something to show yourself some love. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye for now.