First and foremost thank everyone who has made the effort to download, listen and subscribe to this podcast. It has been a huge blessing to look at the stats and see how many of you think this material is worth downloading and keeping. God bless and keep you. Can I ask you a favour? Please will you share the link to this site with your friends and circle of influence? It will be great to reach even more people. For those who are subscribed on iTunes, please can you spare the time and leave a review? It helps the rating of the podcast. I look forward to your reviews. Finally, please can you leave a comment on this page? This helps in fueling the fire to continue to serve you. Thanks in anticipation.
On today’s post, I want to talk about the power to begin. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach the Faith and Leadership Service in Church and I was talking on Initiative. We defined Initiative as The Power to begin. Most of the content of that teaching centered around why a lot of people never begin, and we concluded that while having talent or great ideas is an important ingredient for winning, it takes the power to begin to actually begin to win.
To buttress that fact, let me tell you the story of this podcast. It was in January of 2012 when I spent some time in South Africa with my Coach and friend Anna McCoy. We had gone shopping that day and this was an exception as Coach Anna hates shopping. When we got to the mall and I was excited by the jewellery and shoe stores, she went into a musical equipment shop. By the time we came out of our respective shops I had a bag of jewellery with me and she had a box that had a microphone in it with her. We had been discussing the possibility of me starting a podcast and she was giving me a gift to accelerate my start.
I was touched and I let her know, but I came back and tried my hands at the audio blog thing for a few weeks and packed it up. I had the equipment even though basic to start but I had no power to begin. In 2013, I began talking about podcasting again. This time, I wanted to do a proper podcast that could be subscribed to on iTunes, Blackberry and other Android platforms. I had been listening to some podcasts myself and I knew I could do it. However, instead of starting, I called a Committee; that comprised of some of my staff and people I thought should have an idea how to achieve what I wanted done. Needless, to say we never got off the ground because the process seemed complicated and expensive.
However, at this point I was at the end of my rope and I truly wanted to do this, so after we closed for the year, I kept thinking to myself this is possible. The more I thought about it, the more real it was for me. So when I set my goals for the year 2014, I wrote down that I was going to release my first podcast episode in February and shared with my team for accountability. Next, I spent one week in January learning everything I needed to learn about Podcasting and as they say; the rest is history because this is my 5th episode.
So what is the difference between my attempt in 2012 and 2013 and what I did in 2014? Here is my learning from that experience.
1. The Power To Begin is in How Much You Want it.
The first time I tried Podcasting, even though I wanted it. I didn’t want it badly enough. How do I know that? Well, this time around, I wanted it badly enough to submit to do the work of knowing how it is done. I wanted it therefore I worked for it.
2. Nobody else can be as vested as you.
The second thing I learnt from all of this is that nobody else will help you start except you take the step to begin. The reason why this is so has nothing to do with the character of those you are dealing with as it does with their interest level. When you take a critical look at the stakes, you and you alone have vested interest.
3. First Begin and Get Better Along the Way.
One of the reasons why I stopped in 2012 was because I didn’t think my audio recordings had as much kick as I wanted. Rather than find a way to continue to tweak them along the way, I stopped altogether. When what you want to do is begin, you cannot allow your quest for perfection or lack of stop you. Since we started, I have learnt to record the audios by myself, I have learned how to edit and even underlay the sound track. These were all skills I thought above my head to master.
4. Your Idea is A Solution Others Are Waiting On.
Without been presumptuous and given the number of downloads we have had of the podcast in the last four weeks, it has dawned on me that somehow, others were waiting for this; even though they didn’t know they were. Starting has now given them the opportunity to recognise what it was they were looking for. If you start too you will be amazed how many people are waiting on you.
This episode will be incomplete if I do not acknowledge to you the number one reason why most of us never begin. For me it is and has always been fear. I was afraid what my voice would sound like, I was afraid if my message will resonate and I was even afraid what the cost implication will be. However, I have come to learn from this experience that you cannot worry in advance for what could be that might never be. Yes, there is still a lot of improvement I want on this podcast, but at least now I have started… and that my friend is progress.
Regardless of what your idea is, you need to get up today and give yourself the power to begin; want it bad enough that you do something about it.
You will make it NeverTheLess.
Here is to your success!
Bidemi