Insights from my latest creative endeavor

I am writing this post feeling lighter than usual as I finally shipped my latest podcast episode out to the world about women’s productivity according to the 4 seasons of the menstrual cycle. I insisted on publishing it on a Saturday at 9:30 PM, which was too late in the day for anybody to listen, because it was time for this labor of love to take a life of its own and for people to experience it. I, on the other hand, needed to free the space this episode was renting inside me, for a new endeavor and a new week of possibilities.

The creative process behind this episode was very interesting.

I kept wondering why I was not starting, and the answer was the script. Reading, writing and editing the script took 70% of the effort put into this episode. I haven’t recently tracked time I spent working on an episode, but a quick math showed I spent at least 20 hours of hard work on this one. I edited the script too many times that I stopped counting. I recorded 40 minutes and deleted them all at one point. I felt I could study the subject for 2 more months and still not be ready to talk about it, but I persisted and reminded myself that what I learned about it thus far was good enough to be shared.

Hitting “Publish” on this one felt like a sweet relief. I am now ready to move on to the next project.

Indebted to the amazing book Period Power by Maisie Hill for all the knowledge I gained and used in preparing this episode.

Insights from my latest creative endeavor

Podcast Stats for Fun

I was delighted this morning to see that the numbers of my podcast downloads are growing fast. Yesterday was an all-time high in downloads per day reaching 303 with the release of the last part of Atomic Habits book discussion. This way the podcast crossed 18K total downloads to date, making a 1000 in one week. See how the daily downloads mean is shifting up in the chart below.

The number of unique listeners has doubled lately to reach about 700 per week. This is reassuring that I’m on the right track, although, as Seth says reassurance is futile. That’s why I am not spending anytime benchmarking my stats against other podcasts. IT’s pretty cool to me and I am grateful.

It’s also really fun to see where my listeners are in the chart below, naturally my home country Jordan is #1.

For spreading the word, listening and spending time investing in your growth with me, I thank you so much.

Podcast Stats for Fun

One Year Podcast Anniversary

Today is a big deal in my world. It marks the occasion of the first anniversary of my podcast with 22 episodes to date and +13K downloads.

Launching مشروع برديس podcast by the end of Q1 2020 was already planned before we even heard of COVID-19; The 2020 lockdown just sped up the production where I produced 5 episodes in 7 weeks. That is why I will always cherish those days that got my creative juices going like no other times I lived before.

After the lockdown was over, and I got back to work, my podcast rhythm slowed down, until I decided I was capable of producing 1 episode a month only.

However, growing my podcast’s impact is one of my goals for 2021, therefore, I have been working on launching more episodes, and succeeded in releasing 9 episodes in 13 weeks since the beginning of the year. This was possible due to a friend’s suggestion to create a short-form episodes where I share a quick update or one idea in addition to my usual longish in-depth discussions about a certain topic. I have other ideas in mind to grow my podcast.

Podcast Growth Plan for next year:

  • I will maintain a weekly frequency of launching episodes (maybe one month off in summer).
  • I will mix between in-depth topics like atomic habits books discussion that I am currently doing (20 minutes average) and the short-form episodes (5 minutes).
  • I will add interviews as a more regular part of the podcast, I find editing them way easier than host-on-mic which has been my format for the past year (except for 1 episode when I hosted my dear accountability partner)
  • I will try batching where I record more than one episode at a time, have focused editing sessions and schedule release in advance. Still behind in this aspect.
  • I might upgrade my equipment and recording setup to further improve audio quality.

If you are a listener of my podcast, thank you so much for the love and the time you choose to spend with me! I do not take it for granted.

One Year Podcast Anniversary