Episode 200 - What I Learned From 4 Years of Podcasting (Part 2)
We have made it to 200 episodes of the Self-Growth Nerds podcast! In this celebratory episode before a well-deserved break, I continue last week’s retrospective and open up about the obstacles I had to overcome and the wisdom I have gathered after 4 years of weekly podcasting. If you have a creative project in mind and you’re waiting for a sign to get started, this is going to help you find the inspiration and confidence needed to pursue your dreams.
Topics
Podcasting Workflow
Marie's weekly preparation and recording routine.
Podcasting as a ritual that Marie finds rewarding.
Maintaining consistency during low moods.
Memorable Podcast Moments
Podcast Content and Strategy
Philosophy on Life and Self-Compassion
Importance of surrounding oneself with supportive and inspiring individuals.
Temporary farewell
Links
👉 Want to dig deeper into what you learned in the podcast?
Join my online program The Courage to Start New ! We start in January. Go to selfgrowthnerds.com/courage to learn more. 👈
Upcoming Event:
Rétrospective 2024: Soirée de journaling
We are having a journaling evening to wrap up this crazy year with intention (and a little side of mulled wine or holiday tea!)
The date is December 12th at the Café Lili & Ollie in Montreal, and it's only $20!
Space is limited so make sure to reserve your spot HERE
Transcript
[AUTO-GENERATED]
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:00:04]:
Hey, welcome to the Self Growth Nerds podcast. I'm your host, Marie, a courage coach, creative soul and adventure seeker. Since thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019, I'm on a mission to help you embrace your most confident self so you can achieve your dreams too. If you're eager for deep conversations, big questions and meaningful connections, join me on the quest to discovering how we can create a more magical and memorable life. Hello nerds. How are you? This is episode 200. Oh my God. I can't believe this.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:00:46]:
I feel celebratory. I'm wearing my Christmas pajamas, it's snowing outside and I'm excited to record this last episode. For a while. We'll see what comes next. I'm pretty sure I'll come back, but I just need a just need a break to let the creative flow reset and see what comes alive in me and what I feel like sharing with you next. Today we are continuing what we started last week. So I asked ChatGPT to interview me about what I learned from four years of podcasting. Last week we went through the first six questions, so if you haven't listened, pause this one and go back to last week.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:01:42]:
And today we're going to go through question seven to 18. So buckle in, we're going to have a good conversation. I'm going to get myself a tea and then we'll be ready to go. Before we dive in though, I want to remind you of two things. First, if you live in Montreal, I'm doing my first in person event here in French. I'll be translating everything, but it's going to be mainly in French. E journaling evening on December 12 to look at the year that just went by. Get curious about what we learned, what was beautiful, what was hard, and then consider how we Want to approach 2025.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:02:23]:
Be intentional about the next year that's about to start. I can't wait. There's going to be some mulled wine because I'm nostalgic from my time in the uk. There's going to be some holiday tea for those of you who don't drink alcohol. And my partner is going to be there to take care of the music. So there's going to be some good cozy music while you're sitting in silence reflecting. And they will. There will also be moments where you can share what comes up for you with the community that's going to be gathered there.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:02:56]:
The community of self growth nerds. Really excited. And also remember that I'm starting the third cohort of my course the courage to start New, which is an eight week course at the end of January. In 2025, the price is going to go up. But right now, until the end of the year, it's $280 for eight weeks of teaching and coaching in a small group. It's very powerful, very valuable. So if you know you've been wanting to do it but haven't jumped in, now is your chance to get a discounted price. It's@selfgoodnerds.com courage to reserve your spot.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:03:44]:
And at the start of the year. I will let you know when we begin, but it's going to be towards the end of January or early February. All right, Question number seven. How do you decide what topics to cover or guests to invite? This is what often worries people who come up to me and tell me they would like to have a podcast. They're worried that they will struggle to come up with ideas from one week to the other. But to me, that has never felt hard. I just share what feels alive in me in the moment, what I feel called to talk about, what I think also my people need to hear. Sometimes I'll think of a specific person, like a client or a friend of mine who's going through something and what would help them through this moment in their life.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:04:39]:
This requires you to pay attention to the world around you, to be curious and also to trust that what you have to offer will be welcomed, that it will be of service to others. Maybe it's a book I've just read. Maybe, like I was saying, it's a problem that me, a client of mine, or a friend is having that I think my listeners might be dealing with as well. Maybe I just want to have a conversation with someone interesting and inviting them on the podcast is a good way to do that. Sometimes it's more strategic. Sometimes I have an offer in my business that I want to sell. So I'll create episodes that will help potential clients decide if they need this in their life. I don't overthink the topics much.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:05:32]:
I just ask myself, would I as a listener think this was interesting? And if the answer is yes, I just go for it. Question number eight what's been the most popular episode and why do you think it resonated with your audience? So here I looked into the top three. The first one, the most popular, is episode 102, how to use journaling to change your life. I don't know what happened with this one, but it exploded, especially in India. If you have an idea of what might have happened, please let me know. I find this very mysterious and I think it's probably kind of random or maybe it's because it's quite actionable. I teach you a tool that you can start implementing in your day to day life right there and then the second most popular is episode 111 how to be calmer. Three strategies to reduce Stress.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:06:31]:
All the episodes that have the word stress in them are quite popular, and I think that's because that's a keyword that people search for. They want to feel less stressed. And the third most popular is 139 why we overthink and how to Do It Less. Again, I think the word overthink is probably searched quite a lot. The word confidence is also one that makes if I add the word confidence in the title of an episode, it almost guarantees that this episode is going to be more popular. That's some of the things I've learned over time. Question number nine how has your relationship with your audience evolved over the last four years? Okay, so this is something I would have liked to work on more because podcasting can be quite lonely. I just sit with my mic and look at my notes as I record and I would love to be in conversation with you about each episode, about what you love most, about what you find helpful, about what you want more of.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:07:41]:
But it's not something that I have known how to create or I haven't honestly put a lot of effort in creating that. I can see in the analytics that my episodes are listened to around the world by lots of people, but I don't get a lot of real time feedback. I've received lots of messages over the years from people telling me about the impact I've had in their life, how I've helped them through a rough patch, how my voice was an anchor for them, how calming my voice is, how I've inspired them to believe in themselves, to be courageous, to go after what they really want. But only a small percentage listeners reach out to let me know. So most of the time I have to remind myself of my invisible impact because I have no idea how much I actually help people in the day to day. So yeah, as I think about what's next for this podcast, this is going to be part of my reflection. How could I create more of a sense of co creation or collaboration with my listeners? And if you have any idea as to how I can do that, please let me know. I'm all ears.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:08:57]:
Or maybe it's just going to be about me accepting the nature of this practice Personally, there's so many podcasts that I deeply love and I never reach out to the people recording them and I don't really want to. I'm not interested. I love my parasocial relationship with them as it is. So yeah, maybe it's going to be about me fulfilling this need for connection and collaboration elsewhere. I don't know. This is to be determined. And again, if you have thoughts on this question, just reach out to me on Instagram elfgrillednerds and don't be shy to let me know. Okay, question number 10, 10, 11 and 12 are more technical and operational.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:09:46]:
So what's one technical tip or tool you wish you had known about earlier? The answer is very easy for me. It's AI. We use cast magic to create transcripts of every episode in seconds, And I use ChatGPT to help me with the episode descriptions. So I'm going to write like a messy description of what I talked about in an episode, and then I'm going to ask ChatGPT to clean it up and to optimize it for SEO. So it's going to add popular keywords in there to make sure that it's easily searchable or findable. Question number 11 what does your production process look like now compared to when you started? At the beginning? A friend of mine would do the editing, and although I paid them, they were not the most reliable. I think they wanted to be helpful, but I could tell that their heart was not into it and they were not also, I think, a fan of self growth. So eventually I started doing the editing on my own and I did that for a while, but it took a lot of joy out of the process for me because it's far from being my zone of genius.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:11:07]:
So about two years ago I hired Franz. She was a client of mine. She went through my program brave and bold, and she's the person who's been taking care of it since she is so reliable and so sweet. All I have to do is record the episode, drop it in the drive, then I find the title, write the description, add some editing notes for her, and that's it. She. She does the editing, she uploads it onto our distribution platform. She updates the show notes, gets the transcripts in there, the links, if I talk about a book and everything, she does all of that. And I want to share a quick story about friends.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:11:55]:
The reason why I wanted to work with her is because of how direct and honest she is. So when she came to my free workshop in which I was selling my program Brave and bold. Afterwards, when I asked her what she thought, she said, actually, you know, I was already sold and you were doing too much of this and too much of that. I think she said that you were sharing too many client testimonials and I thought, oh, wow, she has an opinion. I love that. And it's happened a few times after that. She was just telling me what she thought in a transparent way, and I deeply respect that. So I'm sharing this for those of you who are people pleasers and you don't want to upset anyone, you don't want to ruffle any feathers, it can actually be a good thing because it shows that we can trust you, that you're not going to keep everything for yourself, that if there's something important that you want to share, you will.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:13:00]:
So I love Franz. She allows me to stay in my zone of genius, and working with her was one of my best decisions. So thank you, Franz. If you want to say something here, if you want to say hello to the listeners so they can hear the voice of the person who's been behind the scenes all this time, feel free to do so.
Franz [00:13:23]:
Hi everyone. Franz here. Just so you know, I'm not a real editor. I've always thought of my job as making Marie's life a little bit easier. But I hope that you have been enjoying the audio quality. I'm deeply grateful for this opportunity. It has set me in motion in many, many other ways. And I always tell Marie she's a gift that keeps on giving.
Franz [00:13:49]:
I genuinely enjoy the podcast, and even though Marie told me I don't have to listen to the episodes in full, she told me just to edit some bits here and there. I always do. I always listen to the episodes in full, so make sure you don't miss her answer to the last question. Alright, back to Marie.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:14:10]:
How do you balance podcasting with other aspects of your business and life? I'm not sure I understand how to answer this question. Maybe I should have asked ChatGPT for more clarity. I guess I can share how podcasting fits into my schedule. So I create an outline earlier in the week, like on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. And this takes me about an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. Sometimes, if I'm really inspired, takes me 30 minutes. And then I sit down, usually on Thursday or Friday mornings to record. Today is a Thursday.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:14:53]:
I just sit down, usually, like with messy hair, still in my pajamas, feels cozy, feels intimate. I sit down with my mic and I record. It takes me usually about three hours to record the solo episodes sometimes less if it's a 15 minute episode. But most of the episodes are around half an hour. So for half an hour of content, it's three hours of recording because I stop and start again to make sure it's clear, to make sure I'm expressing myself in a way that makes sense. I'm kind of, you know, editing as I go. So podcasting takes me about four hours every week. It's become kind of like a ritual.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:15:39]:
Okay, question number 13. What's been the hardest part of podcasting consistently for four years? Good question. Two challenges came to mind. The first one is showing up on the weeks when I felt super down and slightly depressed. Most often I would tell you in the intro and you probably heard the difference in my voice. And I tried my best, but sometimes I would just repurpose an old episode that week. It didn't happen much. Most of the time I managed to pull it together and do something.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:16:16]:
Often it was a shorter episode to adapt to my level of energy. And sometimes it was also kind of helpful to have to show up because it got me out of my head, out of my darkness, to be of service to others and to get into action. As a anagram 4, I can get stuck in my emotions and the solution I've figured out over the years is to get into action so I get out of this mental and emotional slump. Highly, highly recommend. I've had clients also who feel depressed and when we figure out a purpose for them, when they have mission that they care about, that they want to show up for, they start feeling better. Because when we feel down, we can get self centered and lose perspective. We become narrow minded and can focus on everything we think is going wrong around us and within us. We can only like hear the noise of our negative self talk.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:17:25]:
So it's helpful to have a way to get out of that and focus on others. It helps us regret, regain some perspective and reconnect to reality. The other hard part of podcasting was when I was dating. It's super weird to meet someone for the first time and you talk about what you do and if I mention I have a podcast, which, you know, it's an important part of my life, it's something that I'm proud of. I had to tell them, I don't want you to go listen just yet because it would create like an imbalance. They have this breadth of knowledge. They have access to hours and hours and hours of me talking and lots of the stories I share with you are personal. So I've met this person once or twice, and I know almost nothing about them.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:18:22]:
And if they want, they can binge listen to this podcast and learn so much about me. And there was one person on a dating app. We just had, like a conversation, like a one hour conversation by text. And they didn't even know my last name. I didn't tell them I had a podcast. And then the next day they said, I looked for you online. I found your website, I found your podcast. I listened to a few episodes.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:18:49]:
It's really good. I have lots of questions. I'm excited to meet you, to go on a date with you, to ask you my questions. And I was like, whoa, no. That is a big no for me. Get a life, bro. You're way too eager. Their intentions were, you know, I think probably harmless.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:19:08]:
They were just enthusiastic. But to me, it's a lack of judgment. It showed a lack of judgment and some form of entitlement. Anyway, we could keep talking about this, but let's move on to the next question. Number 14. What's a moment or story from the podcast that stands out as particularly memorable? There's two that came to mind. First of all, contacting one of my former heroes, NDJ Pizza, to ask if he would be a guest on the podcast. When I was an illustrator full time, I would listen to his podcast, the creative pep talk, every week, and loved him.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:19:50]:
He was a big model, helped me show up as my authentic self, and I thought, you know what? Maybe I can just reach out and see I have nothing to lose. So I crafted this email for him, sent it out, and within minutes he said, sure, let's do it. So my jaw dropped and we scheduled an interview together. By the way, that episode is great if you want to go listen. It's episode 112, how to carve your own path and do what you love with Andy J. Pizza. But behind the scenes, I was a mess. He booked our interview the day I was landing in Miami.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:20:33]:
I was going there for a work event with my friend Allison, and if it had been anyone else, I probably would have rescheduled. But I was starstruck, I think, and I didn't want to be a burden. So I figured, okay, let's just leave it there. I booked co working space a WeWork in Miami, went there, and I booked, like, a small room in which I could record my interview. And I traveled with my podcast mic in my luggage. When I got to the wework, I realized I'd left my phone in the Uber, so I had to figure that out. I think I had an hour and a half before the interview, so I had to track my phone and call Uber. In the end, the driver came back and gave me back my phone.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:21:23]:
So lucky. Then I had, like, five to 10 minutes to figure out where my room was and sit down, get ready for the interview. And it was a one hour interview, and I booked the room for one hour, which is pretty silly. I was trying to save a few bucks, which is never a good idea in those kinds of situations because your peace of mind is valuable. It's worth a lot more than, whatever, 30 bucks. Anyway, he showed up. We started talking, laughing. It was really great.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:21:56]:
And when the interview was coming to an end, I asked a really deep question and Andy started answering. And from the corner of my eye, I could see the next person who had booked the room waiting for me to get out. So I was even more nervous. I was not listening to what Andy was saying. And then I had to, like, conclude our conversation in a very rushed, clumsy way. Then I got out and I was so, so flustered, so worried about the impression I must have made. It was a. It was a big learning experience.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:22:34]:
Now, looking back, the person I am today would have acted differently. I would have asked him to reschedule to make sure that when we meet, I'm in my office with no distractions, or, you know, I would have had the wherewithal to book the room for longer than the conversation so that I have time to prepare so that I have a buffer afterwards in case it runs longer than expected. Yeah, I've grown in maturity for sure. But it's a memorable moment for me because it's like, oh, she was so courageous reaching out to her hero. And, like, thinking back, I think it's kind of cute the way I handled it. I did my best. But, yeah, I. I want to give that past version of me a hug and be like, see, like, it is possible people do want to talk to you, and you.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:23:31]:
You've got this. All right. The other moment that stands out as being particularly memorable is the episode deconstructing the decision to break up. It's not a specific moment, actually. It's recording it and being able to share what I so needed to hear with people that were in a similar situation to mine. Being in a relationship where everything is kind of fine. You don't have, like, a quote, unquote good reason to leave, but you still want to go. It felt so good and so valuable to be able to share this.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:24:12]:
And I received lots of messages from People telling me that it really helped them in meaningful ways. So, yeah, it's one of the episodes that I'm most proud of. It's very vulnerable. The information in there is quite unique. It's not advice that you often hear. I think about breakups. It feels. It feels like it comes from my core.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:24:37]:
It feels rich. By the way, if you want to go listen to that episode, it's episode 115, the decision to break up. All right, question number 15. Have you ever dealt with burnout or creative blocks, and how did you overcome them? I recorded an episode about this recently. Episode 190. The Power of Consistency. Five mindset shifts for achieving your dreams. But I'll share briefly my thoughts, my tips on the topic here, and if you want to dig in more, go listen to that episode.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:25:17]:
Okay, so basically what I do is sit with a blank page until an idea comes. And I don't judge whatever comes up. The first idea might not be the one I go with. I just write a bunch of stuff, and it eventually starts making sense. I go in, like, five different directions, and then one of them catches my attention more than the others. Sometimes it's just going to be good enough, and other times I will surprise myself and be blown away by what comes out of me. But you have to lower the bar. You cannot expect yourself to have the same level of quality as highly produced shows like this American Life when you are on your own or when you're, you know, on your own with an editor like me.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:26:11]:
I think creative blocks are often caused by perfectionism. Your standards are too high, so you think it's better to do nothing than to do something that's not perfect. Personally, my mindset is different. I'd rather show up every week and give something that's a 5 out of 10 instead of give something that's a 0 out of 10. And if you feel uninspired, you've got to mix it up. If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested. So read books, listen to other podcasts, listen to music, go to places, go to your local coffee shop and listen to conversations, go to concerts, go to exhibitions, go to watch movies, go to the theater, or just, you know, take the bus somewhere to an area of your city that you've never been. Find ways to nourish your mind and nourish your spirit.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:27:12]:
And then it's going to be so much easier to create. Okay, it's time for question 16, but I want to let you know that I took a break in the middle of recording this episode. And I had received a DM on Instagram from someone telling me they want to sign up to the Courage to Start New, the third Cohort. But they were wondering if I'd be open to creating a payment plan for them. So since I have a lot of respect for people who have the courage to ask for what they need, I said yes and asked them what their ideal would be. They said that they would like to split the payment into three. So it's going to be three payments of $94 for a total of 290. If you want to benefit from this payment plan, it's going to be available to everyone else in 2024.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:28:08]:
So if you join us, join the group in December. You'll have access to it. So you can go to selfgirlnerds.com courage and reserve your spot now. Okay, question number 16. We have three left. How do you see the podcast evolving in the next few years? Well, first of all, I told you I don't know yet if I will keep going. I know for sure I will keep creating, but the format is yet to be decided. If I keep going with this podcast, it's for sure going to be with Seasons so that I can get breaks more often.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:28:52]:
That's going to make it much more sustainable. I might also experiment with subscriptions so that paid subscribers can get more content. I think that could be fun. Or another idea I have is there's a corner of my office with a really comfortable chair, and I was thinking I'd like to every week or every other week, record, like, a spontaneous video in which I chat about different topics. There's a person on Instagram that I really love. Her name is Afrika Brooke. She does these live videos where she sits down with tea and she just talks for like an hour. They're super interesting, so I might do that instead and then turn them into podcasts.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:29:44]:
Who knows? I might also decide to write blog posts because that's a skill I would like to develop and then turn these into podcasts. So we'll see. We'll see in January how I feel and what seems joyful. Question number 17. What's one thing you would like to do differently moving forward? So I told you about maybe finding a way to connect more deeply with you guys, with the listeners. I also want to be more intentional. I have proved to myself that I can be consistent. Now I want to put more thought into what I'm doing and how.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:30:27]:
What I mean by that is instead of just going with the flow, looking for systems and strategies to grow my audience in a consistent way and to monetize the podcast because I love doing this. But I. I also want to earn a living and take care of my financial health. So the podcast has brought lots and lots of high quality clients my way. Now I want to think about how to refine this funnel, so to speak, so that it's even easier for people to find the podcast, to stumble upon it and become a listener, and then to join one of my programs or courses or work with me one on one. How can I make this process easier? Okay, time for the Last question. Question 18 what legacy do you hope your podcast will leave for your listeners? I love this. Well, first of all, I hope you dare to believe your dreams are possible.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:31:40]:
I hope at least like a small part of you starts to believe or to consider that maybe they are more possible than you thought. I hope you realize that a big part of turning your dreams into a reality is influenced by the way you think about them and the way you think about yourself and what you're capable of. I hope you get in the habit of questioning your beliefs, questioning the beliefs that have been imposed onto you growing up. I hope you question the way that you see yourself and don't just accept it as the truth. I also hope you're not too harsh on yourself. I hope you think about the obstacles you're going through in a more open, curious and creative way. I hope you develop a bias towards action. I hope you are playful in your trial and error as you pursue your dreams.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:32:47]:
I hope you don't take life too seriously. It's just missions that you go on, side quests. You try something, if it doesn't work, you just try something else without making it mean anything about you other than your courageous for getting out in the arena. I hope you give yourself grace as you try to figure things out. Life is hard. And lastly, I hope you surround yourself with other brave, vulnerable, creative souls because it makes everything so much easier. And if you look around and your friends don't inspire you, your friends don't support your growth, you feel like you can't be your true self around them, or you can't share your dreams with them. I hope listening to this podcast makes you want to create some distance with these people and find people who do light you up, who are on the same path, people who care about depth, about connection, people who are compassionate, who are curious, who want to grow together, who want to make the world a more inclusive space where everyone can be their true selves.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:34:08]:
There are self-growth nerds all around the world and I hope we find each other. I'm getting emotional now. It's a goodbye for now, but it's not really a goodbye because I know I'll find other ways, if not this, to connect with all of you. So I'm giving you all a big, big, big hug wherever you are. I'm so thankful for every one of you who shows up every week or when you. When you need my support. It felt very special to be there for you for all these years. So, yeah, I'm gonna miss this and I'll be back when I feel ready.
Marie-Pier Tremblay [00:35:03]:
Okay? I'm sending you all a lot of love and happy holidays, everyone. Be kind to yourself if this is a hard time for you. Okay, bye.
Hey. If you love what you're hearing on the Self Growth Nerds podcast and you want individual help finding a new direction for your life and developing the courage to make your dreams a reality, you have to check out how we can work together on selfgrowthnerds.com or message me on Instagram @selfgrowthnerds. My clients say they would have needed that support years ago. So if you're tired, tired of feeling like you're wasting your life, don't wait. Get in touch now, I cannot wait to meet you.