300: Celebrating 300 episodes and my advice for consistency

Can you believe it? The Content Queen Podcast has reached 300 episodes! Wild. 

This isn’t a “let’s reflect on all my favourite episodes” type of podcast, no I am sharing with you how I got to 300 episodes and what you need to be consistent with anything you do in business. 

If you have been thinking of starting a podcast or even a new content channel, this episode will help you a lot! 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ The three core lessons from 300 episodes 

✨ How you can be more consistent 

✨ What do to if you “don’t feel like it” 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 300, so we're celebrating 300 episodes, and I'm gonna give some cheeky advice. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creative content bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content, and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you.

Each week I'll deliver a story, tell you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business and content creation. I'll also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs who here share their own journey, along with actual steps to help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful aligned marketing and content strategy.

Let's do it. Hello gang? Yes. 300 episodes. Can you believe it? I've been in people's ears for 300 episodes. That's absolutely insane. That is a lot of content, but I wanna take you back. It was 2018. And we went out for our Friday lunch with [00:01:00] my team. When I worked in corporate. We would go every Friday out for lunch, loved it.

Might have to start doing it again. And yeah, we would chat, share stories, all the things. And when I worked in corporate every Monday, we would also do a recap of the weekend and no matter what, even if I'd done nothing, I was so excited. I like to hear people's stories and I like to tell my own. And one of the things I really liked to do was on my commute to work, I listened to a lot of podcasts.

First it was self development and storytelling and crime podcasts, and then, and also like just cheeky podcasts. I like to listen to women talking about their antics and all the things. I loved it. Um. And then, yeah, obviously as it evolved, it was business, so I loved sharing at work, like a podcast I listened to and telling people everything.

I just like to talk. I was always the one in the tea room, like if you were making a coffee [00:02:00] at the same time, I was making a tea. You better believe it wasn't taking you two minutes, it was taking you 10 'cause we were chatting. So anyway, one of my colleagues said to me, you should start a podcast. Like I feel like you have so much to share, so much to tell.

Like you would really love it. And these were my times when I used to drink and party and have fun. And you know, you'd have all those funny stories, you know, going out with friends and ended up meeting the owner of the nightclub. And then next thing you know your name, dropping him every time you go to said nightclub to get to the front of the line.

Just like stories like that that I'd love to tell. And. So I was like, oh, okay, cool. Maybe I will start a podcast. And this was back when I was working full time and I wasn't doing business. I was doing a little bit of freelancing side hustling, I think just for a bit of extra cash. And I loved doing different things, exercise writing.

I had a travel blog. I had a travel Instagram, which is a, [00:03:00] was a Travelers antiques, which is now a travelers.co with Mitch. And, um, yeah, I just love doing things. So I love challenges. Like in 2017, for the month of November, I sent myself a challenge to write a book in 90 days, uh, nine days, 30 days, shall I say.

And in 30 days I wrote 18 8 80 6,000 words. You know, I like to do no alcohol challenge months. I like to do like just random things like skipping challenges, where every day for 30 days I would see how many skips I could do and see if I could skip, you know, like. Do skipping and get to a hundred skips or 200 skips or whatever it was, plank challenges.

So I was planking for five minutes by the end of the 30 days, like just random hobbies, all that. So I was like, I would love to do that. So I sent myself a 30 day challenge. Every day for 30 days. I learned something about podcasting. One day I was learning, yeah, the cover art and like what size and dimensions.

And then another day I was learning how to write show notes and what platforms I need to host on. And this [00:04:00] was back when like there was no Spotify for podcasters and you just put it on and all of a sudden it's on all the channels. This is when you had to like create ISS codes and like submit them to all the places and it was a lot of tech.

So I had to learn all of that, where I was gonna edit it, all that, all those things. So by the end of the 30 days, I had recorded my first episode and it was ready to go out. The podcast was called How Do You Solve a Problem Like Mariah. It was recorded on Apple headphones plugged into my iPhone in the record section, and then I would load it onto my computer and edit in a platform called Audacity, which is super old school platform, and I would load it to Sound Wave where I decided to host the pla, the podcast.

And. That was the beginning. I remember it took me hours to edit my first episode and edit all the ums and ahs and everything, and I'm sure if you go back and listen to that, I would sound like a completely different person to how I am [00:05:00] now because my voice has evolved. I've done lots of work on it, the way I present everything, so.

I loved it. I recorded a weekly episode. I recorded it in my walk-in wardrobe, in my rental in Melbourne. I interviewed my friends, I interviewed my dad. I was in Facebook groups. I did a segment where it was, have you ever lied yourself into an opportunity? And I shared a story of a guy who lied about being a part of the team that.

Managed the red hot chili peppers so he could get backstage. And then he ended up becoming a manager for them, like a woman that lied about a journalism degree and ended up on a, b, c radio in Darwin. Uh, lots of different things and I just loved it. I loved giving people a platform. I loved learning from people.

I connected with people through that and actually only did 20 episodes. It felt like I did so many because it [00:06:00] got too. The end of 2018. No, sorry, the end of 2019. So I'd done about 20 episodes, it's about 20 weeks. Might've had a bit of time off because I did go to Europe and I had started Content Queen at the start of 2019.

So at the, towards the end of 2019, I really wanted to start taking it serious and I was. Really burning the candle at both ends. I had the side hustle, which was content queen. I had my full-time job. I loved going to the gym. I still liked to party and I had my travel blog, which I was posting a lot about the podcast and like restaurants.

I went to a Melbourne and all that and I had a mentor session and she said, look, you're doing a lot. Could you potentially pause your podcast, pause your blog, and get back into it when you've got a little bit more space. Maybe when you know you've quit your job or whatever it looks like. I was like, yeah, okay, cool, I'll do that.

So I paused the podcast and I paused my blog, which was a travel [00:07:00] blog, and about a few months after that I was like, I could probably set a podcast again, but I would make it about my business. So that would create me a core piece of content that I could use to repurpose across a lot of channels. And that was the birth of this podcast, which was called Life as a Freelance Writer.

And it evolved a year later in 2020. I called it the Content Queen podcast. Since then, I've had a short breaks from this podcast, so, uh, a, you know, week or two off over Christmas, and then when I got really sick in 2021, and I took about two months off the podcast. But since then, it has been weekly episodes.

So I wanna go through the three key things to 300 episodes. That might help you with anything you're doing, really with your marketing, your content and business in general. The first one is know your why, your expectation. Even if you're starting [00:08:00] a ho, a podcast for a hobby, know that, know why you're doing it.

So this podcast, my why was originally around how I could repurpose and use it. As part of my content ecosystem now is a few things. My expectation and my why around doing it is one, to connect with other podcasters, bring people on, build connections. 300 episodes. I've probably had at least 120 guests, so there's a lot of people that I've met.

It's also part of my funnel, so acts as a really good way and a credibility piece for people to get to know me. It really is about credibility. I haven't got this, I wanna monetize the podcast. It's mainly monetized through leads and connecting with people and, and building it that way rather than like ads or, you know, whatever.

So knowing why you're doing it and what you wanna get out of it can really help you and it'll evolve and change, but it means it helps you stay on track with like what you're trying to achieve. And then you don't get lost along the way when people are like, you should do this, you should do that. Why don't you try [00:09:00] this with your podcast?

And then you can adjust the meter, but then at least while you're doing it, and if there's some weeks where you feel like you're talking no one, you go back to your why and why you're doing it. Which leads me into the second one, which is consistency. I went to a. Social media content summit a couple months ago and they had a, a session on podcasting and one of the women on the panel was a podcaster, and she said, if you rely on your energy to create a podcast, you'll never do it and you'll never be consistent with it because it is true.

Whilst I'm really big on like, you have to feel like doing it. To give your energy, there are gonna be times where you don't feel like doing it. So on those days to create that level of consistency, say you commit to fortnightly, weekly, monthly episodes, there are gonna be some weeks where you don't really feel like doing it, but you have to set up the processes so you do it anyway.

If you desperately need a [00:10:00] break, I'm not saying like force yourself have to do it, but if you have set yourself a goal, stick to it as much as you can. Because you can't move forward unless you do it consistently, and you won't see the results if you do it haphazardly. It has to be a level of consistency that you can commit to.

So that's why setting up processes, setting up accountability, make it really easy for you to show up even on the weeks when you don't feel like it. I am telling you to record this podcast has not been easy. It's Monday night at 10:00 PM I don't really wanna be recording a podcast this late. I have to get up really early to drive to Sydney.

We had a wedding all weekend. It just didn't work. I actually recorded this episode on my Apple headphones with Zoom because I don't have my equipment with me. And I went to pop it into garage band just to quickly pop the music on and stick it onto Spotify because I don't have the luxury right now of doing as much editing as I would normally.[00:11:00]

And the headphones cut out most of the sound. So I'm re-recording this. I don't really feel like re-recording it, to be honest. I was quite happy with what I had recorded, but I just, I had the notes, I had everything. Just had to make it easy for myself and just do it. And after this, I'm literally going to pop the music on each ends, pop it into Ds script so I can make my snippets to give to my team to create the promotion stuff.

And I'm just gonna pop it on Spotify with my show notes and call it a day. I would love to make it better, but that's kind of where I'm at right now. I need to go to bed. So there are gonna be weeks where you don't feel like it. Please try and show up anyway, obviously, unless there's like really something going on and you can't, but there, yeah, there are gonna be weeks, actually, for the weeks I don't feel like it.

I just write my notes and then I get really [00:12:00] excited because I'm like, oh, I really wanna talk about that. So set yourself up as you says, have the processes have like build the habit. Consistency really is the biggest thing, and with consistency. Comes exponential. Growth comes the numbers, comes the people listening, comes all the things.

But if you are like not really, really consistent with it as much as you can be, you, you just won't see the results. And this is what happens with a lot of content channels. We think we're being consistent. And I don't mean consistent as in frequency. I mean if you say you're gonna do X amount of things, do X amount of things, even when some days you feel like you're talking to no one 'cause it does work.

And then the third one is just remembering it won't grow overnight. So one, build the process of what your podcast fits. So if it is for your business, where does it sit in your funnel? Mine is like top to middle, so it is more about like [00:13:00] connection, brand awareness, and lead gen and credibility. Yours might be more like middle to bottom, where you wanna convert people, know where it sits in your funnel, know the purpose of it.

Repurpose it as much as possible so you can get more people to listen to it. 'cause that's the goal. You do have to promote it. You can't just leave it, sit there and do nothing. Like get people to leave reviews, get guests on, if that's the format you wanna do, promote it on your social media. Talk about as much as possible because people don't know unless you tell them.

And of course, unless they search, but there's lots of podcasts out there, so you gotta be found. You gotta be. You gotta be found by talking to people about it and then just enjoy it. Like you really gotta enjoy the topic that you wanna talk about because you gotta talk about, you gotta find creative ways to talk about the same thing, like 300 episodes.

I've definitely repeated myself, but some episodes you might not resonate with how I spoke about it and others you will. It might be that a certain guest shared it in a certain way or I told a certain story [00:14:00] that goes like, oh, I get it. Yes, you'll repeat. People say, oh, don't you run out of content ideas?

No. Because we're always talking about the same thing. We always talk about it in different ways, and that's the point. People come in at episode 10, people come in at episode 210. Not everyone's gonna listen to every episode. And it's, again, you might have listened to a similar concept, you took it differently.

So when it's not growing overnight, your love for the topic and your understanding of why you're doing it. And your knowledge around consistency will help you keep going. And for you, like the podcast might not be about reaching heritage episodes. Like that's not like what's, what's my end goal with this?

There isn't one. I love talking about this until a day where I go, I don't wanna talk about it anymore. But for some it might be like, oh, I wanna do five seasons with 20 episodes, and then I'm just gonna keep [00:15:00] sharing those episodes. Obviously things can date, so you might go, oh, I'm gonna update those episodes, or whatever.

Everyone has a different strategy. My strategy is it's a credibility piece, it's a brand awareness and it's lead generation, and I'm gonna keep using this until it doesn't align with me anymore. That's my kind of end goal. So I hope that's helpful and that can work with like anything you're doing right.

But I think with things like YouTube or podcast. Because you are sharing your voice. You are sharing your ip. Obviously in a blog it's the same, but it's not you talking, right? It's, there's a lot of energy that goes into it, right? There's a lot of different bits and pieces. So really when you are committing to something like this, it is having those foundations, obviously.

Where does it sit in the strategy? Why are you doing it? How can you be consistent with it? What are the processes? Do you need [00:16:00] accountability? Do you need just a reminder of it doesn't happen overnight. I've been doing this for 300 episodes and yeah, there's some weeks I feel like I'm talking to no one, but I know 'cause look at the numbers.

There's people there sometimes. Yeah. You go, oh, I don't know. And then you look at it over time, like the compound of content. Right, compound interest. I look back on all my reviews and all the things and I'm like, oh my God. There are people that listen. But if you don't hear pee from anyone for a few weeks, you might go, oh, what's the point?

But having those things on hand are really powerful. Like I have every testimonial, or even comment or anything DM about this, this podcast in a spreadsheet. So if I ever feel like, oh, why am I doing this? I can go back and look at that because, yeah, it's a lot of work, but I love it and it's worth it. And I wanna thank you for supporting me.

If you've listened to one episode or 300 episodes, or. 100 episodes. Thank you so much. Uh, I love sharing this stuff. I love [00:17:00] talking at you, but I also feel like I'm talking with you. Like I feel like there's people on the other end Yeah. Talking back at me or I get messages. So I know there's people out there and you don't know who's listening either.

So unless people tell you and you look at the numbers, so you know there are people and that's why influencers, sometimes they can. Post some pretty crazy stuff on their social media or, or create content creators in general because they go, you know, I just think about one person that I'm talking to, not millions, so.

That really helps as well. When you're like, oh, who's listening? You just talk to that one person that you wanna help. I think that makes a difference. Be your content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today and joining me any day that you've listened to this podcast.

Please don't forget to share who your business and entrepreneurial friends can do this by adding it to your Insta Stories and tag me at Content Queen Mariah, or just tell 'em about it. If you do [00:18:00] rate and review on whatever platform you're listening to this on, it does help me get this podcast out there.

Amazing guests coming on all the things. And yeah, I just wanna thank you. That would be amazing. Little 300 episode gif gift is a cheeky five star or a little comment or a rating. And follow me on Instagram or TikTok and let me know for the next 300 episodes what you wanna hear, who you want me to get on the show, all the things, and I'll talk to you next week.

Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment