Ready, set, podcast

and we’re rollin’…but what am I doing?!

For my first month of “podcasting,” I was all three Kermits. My emotions fluctuated between terror (of the commitment I had gotten myself into/was now accountable for), excitement (about the incredible opportunity and support I was being given), and extreme confusion (I needed to learn a LOT of new material). In my typical fashion, I had jumped right into the deep end without attempting to first tread water. As my Mom likes to point out, I have a habit of doing that. I guess for me, I’m driven by challenges and everything that comes with the process of overcoming them. Yes, I wanted to produce a top-notch quality product, but I was more motivated by the adventure of learning something new while supporting a cause about which I was passionate. COVID made sure I was confined to my apartment, so I need to push myself in other ways.

I have another confession: I wouldn’t have learned to podcast had it not been for COVID-19. In fact, before getting super into this idea, I listened to several podcasts but was by no means a podcast junkie.

If I am being 100% honest, I spent months networking and pitching a digital marketing role to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), supporting their elevating women in sport initiative. When the pandemic hit, my potential dream internship went down the pipes, so this podcast is my COVID-adaption. This is my attempt to take lemons and not make lemonade, but to stomp the crap out of them and make Pisco Sours. Sure, lemonade is good, but everyone expects you to make lemonade (or wallow in self-pity) and in my opinion, Pisco Sours have more pizzaz. Flame Bearers is my recipe, using the same basic ingredients of 2 cups of female empowerment and 1 cup of storytelling to work outside the traditional system to accomplish the same goal: celebrating women athletes and inspiring future athletes. Unlike Pisco Sours, there’s no age minimum for this podcast…Cheers!

From a professional perspective, I wanted to continue to grow my digital marketing skillsets and work with female Olympians and Paralympics (but in a manner that was safe for all). The challenge was that I had never done a podcast before and in many ways, didn’t speak tech. So, I immediately went into research mode and went on Amazon and bought every highly-ranked book on podcasting that I could find. The book I found most helpful was Casey Callanan’s, How to Podcast When You Aren’t Tech Savvy: A Clear-Cut Book about How (and Why) to Launch a Podcast. Callanan helped me understand the steps to launching a podcast, and the tech that I would need to buy. I also appreciated his simple and definition-oriented style, as I noticed that other books glossed over words that looked greek to me.

In addition to reading every book I could get my hands on, I reached out to anyone I knew who has a launched podcast before, and I asked for their advice. I wanted to know what they didn’t know when they started, and I asked the questions I felt stupid asking but needed to know:

• what’s an XLR cable?
• a condenser microphone?
• the gain and why is it important?
• phantom power?

When I started, I didn’t know that I would need to learn a new language, but podcasting, just like painting, or Spanish, is its own language with nuances and masters. It became very clear to me that sure, anyone can podcast, but few podcast well. This was a freeing, yet intimidating realization for me. My thought? Game on.

Originally published on Flame bearer – Medium