My first podcast was a success. By success I refer to the number of subscribers and the positive feedback.

I released my first podcast last week.

I was nervous, but I believed in the message I wanted to convey.
You know what the best part was? Not one person judged me. That doesn’t mean everyone enjoyed it. It means you should not be scared to put yourself out there.
If you’re genuine people will appreciate it. Well, the people that matter will appreciate it. As a wise doctor once said:

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

–Dr. Seuss

I wasn’t sure what to call my podcast or what it was “supposed to be” or if I would ever do it again. Now I understand in order to find out if I have a good idea I need to validate it first.

Idea Validation

The podcast is similar to writing a book – if I’m going to spend the time to write a book (or produce a podcast) I should make sure there are people that want it first.
In the case of my podcast and FireSide, I wanted to know if I should follow through with creating a full blown website just for the podcast – which is now FireSide.
So I started small. I did one podcast on my current personal website foundersway2.wpengine.com – the website you’re on right now. I told myself if I get some traction with the first podcast it will justify creating more podcasts and a website.
I had about 75 people sign up for the podcast. The listeners I spoke with said the kindest words to me.
The reactions of my peers fueled my fire to press on. More importantly than positive vibes was the validation I received from (1) the number of subscribers, and (2) the extremely positive feedback I received. That’s a green light in my book.

FireSide

I wanted to start a company like FireSide for the last few months. I was busy with other projects and couldn’t put the time (or brain power) into building something new. I also realized the idea wasn’t fully developed in my mind. I can’t build something until it’s ready to come out of me, creatively speaking.
As you may know, I’ve been writing a book the last three months. Yesterday I was supposed to be wrapping up the launch process for the book. Out of nowhere came this intense explosion of creativity, insight, and forward thinking. I knew exactly what had to be done for FireSide. I had validation from the initial podcast and now I had the vision for the website.
So I stopped working on my book launch yesterday and spent the last 24 hours building FireSide.
The FireSide website is not complete by any means, but it is up and running. I scheduled the next show for Monday October 14th at 10pm EST…and it’s going to be LIVE 🙂
Join us for the upcoming FireSide Chat.
That leads me to the production aspect. I’ve been so fortunate to have my friend Chad Robinson take over the production of the show so I can focus on the content. Chad sent me a few versions of potential music we’re going to use for the next show. I was so impressed. He’s very talented. Don’t hire him too fast though, I still need him to help me!
If you want to learn more about what we’re doing on the next show, go check out FireSide to see what’s up.