Pod Insights The Psychology of your 20s 300. How to start a podcast About this episode It is our 300th episode and 4 YEARS since The Psychology of your 20s first began. To celebrate, I'm releasing one of my most requested topics ever that has nothing to do with psychology: how do you start a podcast? More broadly, why is it a good idea? What do I wish I'd known when I'd started? How much does the gear cost? What happens if no one listens? All your burning questions on my journey and where to start will be covered (along with a few tears of gratitude), thank you for 300 episodes and giving me the best job ever!
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2:31 Jemma Sbeg? Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast, new listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world. It is so great to have you here back for another episode as we, of course, break down the psychology of our twenties. I want to formally welcome you to the 300th episode of the psychology of your twenties. And it's not just our 300th episode, it is also the four year anniversary of the podcast, which completely blows my mind. I don't really have the words to express how insane that is to me that I started this four years ago.
3:14 Jemma Sbeg? It feels like it was yesterday and also a decade ago at the same time. It has completely changed, transformed, you know, just, yeah, just blown up my life in the most magical, beautiful way. And for the 300th episode, I knew I wanted to do something special. And I was racking my brain, I was thinking about it. And the one thing that people always ask me about that has nothing to do with psychology and kind of also nothing to do with our twenties is this thing right here, is podcasting. How do you start? How do you do it? How do you make money from it? Why is it a good idea? Should I start a podcast?
3:55 Jemma Sbeg? And my answer to that final question has always and will always be absolutely yes. But I feel like a lot of people don't really know where to start. It feels like the market is saturated. We have this deep fear of being perceived. And in many ways, I completely understand because four years ago, I was at that very place that I'm sure some of you are right now, wondering. Is this a good idea? Is this something that I should do? And what I really want to talk about today is what I wish I'd known when I started. My best learnings, wisdom, advice that I can bring you from the last four years and over three hundred hours,
4:37 Jemma Sbeg? probably more at this point of episodes, just to, you know, bring you into the behind the scenes area, kind of break the fourth wall. You guys know at the psychology of your twenties, we are not about gatekeeping. And there is something so, and I'm gonna use a very cliche word, so magical and transformative about a medium like podcasting that makes me see it as a very special thing. And if you can do it, and if you want to do it, I really think that you should. And I think that you should have the opportunity and kind of the advice needed just to start. So that is exactly what we are going to do today. We are not holding back.
5:20 Jemma Sbeg? I'm gonna talk you through the last four years, what it's done for my life, the origin story, if some of you don't know how the psychology of your twenties started, my seven best practical tips for starting your own podcast. And why, if you are in your twenties right now, I absolutely believe that you should. So I wanna say thank you so much to every single person who has ever listened to an episode, to the people who have been here since genuinely day one. I know some of you started listening in twenty twenty one and you DM me every now and again. And the fact that you have stuck around for so long is just incredible and amazing to me. So thank you. And to my new listeners, welcome.
6:04 Jemma Sbeg? If you've only been here for a day, for a week, for a month, you mean so much to me and to this community. And we are constantly bringing new people into the world of psychology and into the world of practical explanations for your twenties. So thank you, every single one of you. You have absolutely changed my life and I do not say that lightly. So without further ado, I wanna hopefully give something back to you guys, especially those of you who wanna start a podcast, let's get into it.
6:38 Jemma Sbeg? So if you don't know the story, if you're a new listener, or if you have heard the story, I'm gonna remind you, I guess, of how exactly the podcast, The Psychology of Your Twenties, and now the book, Person in Progress, came to be. Because I realized that I don't think I've ever like sat down and given the story. You kind of had to be around for a while to kind of understand it. So back in 2021, I went through a breakup. I went through this really terrible breakup, actually. It was my first really serious relationship. I thought that this person was the love of my life, how sadly mistaken, but also how great that it ended. And I'm in a completely new, happy, healthy relationship now.
7:21 Jemma Sbeg? But I think that's this, there's this element to our first breakup that is just so wildly disruptive, but also sacred. And in kind of my grief and my loneliness after that relationship ended, I had this idea. I was studying psychology at the time at A and U, the Australian National University. Shout out to anyone who is currently or has been to that uni. And I was actually doing a Bachelor of Politics, Economics and Philosophy, and a Bachelor of Arts. And in my arts degree, we had all these options to do electives. I'd chosen my major as psychology and I just found that all I wanted to do was psychology. I wanted to do every single possible course that there was.
8:04 Jemma Sbeg? And slowly but surely, I found myself not really caring so much about the economics and the politics and all that element of things. All I wanted to do was learn about human relationships and the human mind and the human spirit, I guess, and the biology that shapes us, the, everything that shapes us from a psychological perspective. So these kind of things intersected at this very important point in my life. I was going through a breakup. And I wanted to know why it hurts so badly. And so I started reading all these academic papers and reading all these articles and, you know, revisiting theories that I'd learned. And I was like, oh, wow, there's this whole explanation. And then I started bringing that to other things as well, thinking, oh, why does it suck so much to be
8:48 Jemma Sbeg? job hunting right now? Why is, why is my FOMO so intense? Why do I get anxiety? What's this quarter life crisis thing? And as I was trying to, I guess, explain it to myself, I also had friends coming to me and we would, you know, sit around the dinner table or be studying together and they'd bring me their dilemmas as you do as a friend and I couldn't help but be like, my God, but did you know there's this article and did you know there's this researcher who can explain this for you? And, and it was there that the psychology of your twenties was really born. Like I said, the intersection of all these, all these, you know, cruel, but also amazing, but also very human experiences. I've talked about this before, but the name, the psychology of your twenties, it almost felt like it
9:30 Jemma Sbeg? dropped from the sky into my lap. And if you listen to our episode with Elizabeth Gilbert, you'll know that she has this analogy that ideas are actually not ours. Ideas are their own things. They're their own living, breathing organisms, ideas for books, ideas for movies, ideas for songs. And basically they want to find the person who is most likely to make them happen, who is most likely to bring them into a form and make them alive. And I feel like that's kind of what happened to me, this idea that just seemed to happen out of nowhere was really already an idea that existed. It was just looking for a host and I was its host. Pretty quickly after I had the idea, I started the podcast. I'm saying like within a week and
10:13 Jemma Sbeg? the first few episodes, actually the first like 10 episodes were recorded on my phone in the back of my car, which was like a Subaru Forester on my friend's floor. And there was really like no structure, no ambition. I just wanted to do it. And that's how it kind of continued. I got into a new relationship. I kept podcasting. He broke up with me. I kept podcasting. And I need to be completely real with you guys when I say that for the first year and a half, I did not have any lessons. I continued along that way for quite some time. I went and worked a corporate job and I really thought that my life was gonna be climbing the corporate ladder as a management consultant.
10:57 Jemma Sbeg? And I was working in the mental health space as a management consultant, helping out the government make mental health programs. And I was like, I'm really fulfilled and I'm happy and this is what I'm gonna do. And this is who I'm gonna be. And then this strange thing happened in September of twenty twenty two. Suddenly, people like you started finding the podcast. The biggest question I always get is, how did you make that happen? How did you get people to find you? And the answer is, I have quite literally no idea. I really don't, and it's not even me trying to safeguard secrets. Like, I really don't know. I didn't have social media. I wasn't really doing guest episodes. I wasn't appearing on other people's episodes.
11:41 Jemma Sbeg? I didn't have any money in it. I wasn't, didn't have a publicist. I wasn't featured anywhere. It was all word of mouth. It was you guys, the listeners, sharing this with other people. And overnight, it blew up. And I was number ten, then I was number three on the podcast charts. And then I was number one, above Roger, above all these other people. And it was terrifying because suddenly people cared about what I had to say. And until that point, it had just been like ramblings of a twenty something. And now it felt really serious. And pretty quickly, I realized like, oh, this is my calling. This is gonna be my job, like this corporate career that I invested so much in.
12:26 Jemma Sbeg? Like, this, this might actually not be it.
12:30 Jemma Sbeg? I was so lucky. I found an agent from the US. She approached me and I remember getting her email and being like, this is a scam, like this is totally a scam. And she was the one who was really like, you have to make a decision. Do you wanna quit your job and do this because it's gonna take a lot from you? Like, you've really got something here, people are already listening, I think we can make it happen. And so, at the start of, oh, probably the middle of twenty twenty three, April twenty twenty three, I walked into work and I quit my job. And podcasting became my career, became my full-time profession. So that as well was two years ago. Now, I have another podcast called mantra.
13:11 Jemma Sbeg? I wrote a book, I just finished this amazing Dinner with Strangers series of events across Australia, where we met a hundred, two hundred people who came out and chatted to us and met each other. I speak on panels, I get to meet you guys, and that is so different to how I thought my life was gonna turn out. And I always try and use my story to emphasize to people that your life can change for the better at any given moment. If you give the idea that you think is almost good enough, a chance, and if you give yourself a chance. Now, I'm not saying that everyone who starts a podcast is going to be able to quit their job. But I think that even if I hadn't been able to quit my job, this whole experience would still, and would remain to this day, be invaluable.
13:55 Jemma Sbeg? And I wanna explain why I think that if you are in your twenties, you should start a podcast, and it has nothing to do with money, and it has nothing to do with success, or visibility, or fame, or whatever else. It has everything to do with the fact that it is a completely eye-opening experience, and it will open slash put up a mirror to the deepest parts of yourself. Let me explain my four arguments for why you should be doing this. Number one, starting a podcast in your twenties is basically a way of keeping a personal journal of the things you care about and what you're going through right now. It is not for anyone else. When I started, what I really wanted to do was explain my own experiences
14:38 Jemma Sbeg? and capture this, like, decade and all these moments that felt, like, so important. I remember being like, this is something I wanna remember. And I had this weird obsession with not forgetting things and withholding on to memories, and podcasting was my way of doing that. A podcast acts as like this incredible time capsule for the point in your life that you are at now. And I really wanna emphasize that it's not for anyone else, it's for you. And even if no one ever listens, this thing could live on the internet for years and years and years. It will live on the internet for years and years and years. And how amazing would it be to be thirty five, forty five, sixty and be able to listen back to the voice of you at twenty one?
15:21 Jemma Sbeg? What she or he cared about, what, what they were going through, what they thought was fascinating, what they thought they knew about life. The second reason why I think podcasting is a really important endeavor, if you're in your twenties, is that it teaches you to really follow through. So this was another element of the story that I didn't really talk about. And it was that I was very, very lost when I started the psychology of your twenties. I actually didn't have my corporate job yet. I didn't have any job offers. I was about to graduate. In fact, I think I had already graduated for one of my degrees. And I had no clue what I was doing and I just felt this overwhelming sense of like the path in front of me is going to always be me doing things for other people.
16:06 Jemma Sbeg? And it feels very like laid out, like I graduated, I get the job, I do this, I do this, I do this. And I hadn't really challenged myself and I hadn't really given myself a goal to follow through on that wasn't according to a timeline that was given to me. So to explain it, like, obviously I had a goal of graduating university, but that kind of felt expected. I had a goal of getting a job, but again, I needed to make money. And I was like, when was the last time I actually did something for myself? Because I wanted to prove that I could do it and I wanted to follow through. And podcasting really gave me that opportunity to trust myself and to say to myself, I'm setting a goal. I'm doing this not because anyone else is gonna give me praise or it's gonna give me an award.
16:50 Jemma Sbeg? I'm doing it just for me and I have the motivation and the capabilities and the trust in myself to do it, even if no one else is watching. So that's the second reason why I think it's really important to have a podcast or do some, have some kind of project that is just personal to you. The third reason why I think it's so invaluable is that it allows you to climb cringe mountain.
17:14 Jemma Sbeg? You've probably heard this, but so many people these days say something along the lines of everyone has a podcast now, everyone does this nowadays. And it's kind of set in a way to, um, I don't know, tear down the people who do it. And to discourage people from trying and to make it seem like this is easy and anyone can do it and it's not valuable.
17:39 Jemma Sbeg? I have a theory, the people who always say that, and I've heard it before. I think they actually secretly wanna do it, but they don't have the courage. And so they have to convince themselves that this thing isn't desirable as a way to not look in the mirror and realize that they actually just don't have the courage to do it. They don't have the bravery, they can't put themselves out there. That is not going to be you. You're not going to be that person who belittles other people's ideas or who tries to downplay other people just trying. One of my guiding philosophies in life has always been that you will never be criticized by someone who is doing better than you or by someone who you admire.
18:23 Jemma Sbeg? Especially if that person is secure in themselves, because someone who has done the thing that you wanna do is gonna understand how hard it is, is gonna understand what it takes to be successful. And is going to understand how brilliant of an opportunity it is to just try. And so they will look at you and think, wow, I'm so excited for you. Wow, come and join us, come take a seat at the table. The people who are gonna criticize you for putting yourself out there aren't the people who are already sitting at that table. They're the people who are standing over in the corner, looking over enviously and with jealousy and thinking, ugh. I don't actually wanna sit there, but they do. Podcasting allows you to climb cringe mountain and it allows you to understand that some people probably won't like what you have to say.
19:08 Jemma Sbeg? Some people will think it's embarrassing. Some people will think that you're entering into an oversaturated market. It really doesn't matter because it's something that you wanna do and that is the most valuable part of this exercise. I actually have a story for you on this. When I first started podcasting, I was dating someone and I remember him telling me that some of his friends thought that my podcast was, in no uncertain terms, lame. I remember him telling me about this one friend who said to him, "Oh, like that Gemma's podcast is like kind of weird and like that name is too specific. The psychology of your twenties, like no one's going to listen to that. It doesn't
19:48 Jemma Sbeg? appeal to a broad enough audience." And god, that's just so funny to me now because I have no idea. I have no clue what that guy is doing, but here I am getting to do my dream job. And I remember saying to the guy I was dating after he told me these things that his friend had said, I kind of indignantly was like, "Well, I don't really care if I'm not successful. Don't you see that? This isn't for applause. This isn't for visibility. This isn't for fame or whatever it is. Like, this is because I like it." And the fact that this other person can't see that shows that he has a real insecurity towards people trying because he can't. Finally, the reason I think you should start a podcast is because it's fun firstly, but also it's a really good thing to
20:31 Jemma Sbeg? put on your resume. It shows that you care about things. It shows that you have a passion. It shows that you have follow-through. It shows that you can handle a project. I always get resumes from people who wanna work for the psychology of your twenties and if they have started a podcast, I will always look twice and I always, even if I don't reply to them because sometimes I can't, but I will always check out their podcast because I think it's such a personal reflection of someone's, you know, inner self and who they are and what they care about and what they represent. And you know, if you're struggling in the job market at the moment, if you are finding that you can't get opportunities, it's a great way to make an opportunity for yourself and to leverage
21:14 Jemma Sbeg? that into maybe a job or leverage it into an internship, leverage it into a connection and have this thing that you have made that says, "I do care. I have skills. I can be a self-starter." So that is my argument first and foremost for why you should start a podcast in your twenties. I hope you don't need any more convincing. I hope you're sitting there thinking, "Yes, I'm gonna do this." What I want to now talk you through is exactly how and what I wish I had known before I started, because it was a lot of trial and error. And now that I'm at this point where I think the error is a little bit less, I can share those learnings with you and I can give you kind of the blueprint and the roadmap to maybe getting to where I am, hopefully getting to
21:59 Jemma Sbeg? where I am, where you get to live at, what is an amazing career. So stay with us. We'll be back after this short break.
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26:01 Jemma Sbeg? So my best tips for starting a podcast. I took this very seriously. I was up last night after me and my boyfriend had dinner and I was like making all of these notes on my little iPad around exactly what I wish I'd known. The first tip and the first thing you kind of have to, the hurdle you have to jump across is what do I even want to talk about? How do you find your topic? The best question to ask yourself is what do you already talk about all the time anyways? What is the thing that fascinates you to no end? What do you chat with, with your friends? What do you like to read about? What do you like to watch? What do you really care about? That's your topic.
26:44 Jemma Sbeg? I would really say, don't try and copy what someone else has already done because you won't care about it as much as your own idea that comes from your passions and comes from your interests. And, and people can really, really tell if you're just doing something because you've seen that it's worked for someone else and you don't actually care about the content matter. I remember someone actually started a podcast. This is awkward. I don't know if I should say this, but I'm going to. I have no like ill will towards them, but it was called The Philosophy of Your Twenties. And they started a while back and it basically was a complete copy of what I'm doing. She copied my artwork. She copied my episode titles, my bio, my Instagram layout, my colors. And it really bummed me out.
27:27 Jemma Sbeg? I was like, oh, I put a lot of time and energy into this thing. This is like my entire identity at that point. I was so like consumed with podcasting. I really didn't do anything else. And so it really hurt me kind of. And then I was like, I know how much effort this takes. I know how much work is actually contained in making something you're proud of. And the only thing that's going to drive you to do that in that initial like starting phase is if you genuinely care about what you're talking about. So what do you already talk about a lot right now? What do you already feel fascinated by? You're allowed to mix and match some things. Like you can talk about politics and you can talk about pop culture and you can talk about books, but you can also talk about music and you can talk about dating, but
28:12 Jemma Sbeg? also about science. Like there's as many combinations as you want, just find what you care about. Secondly, my biggest tip here is don't worry about having all the gear. Just start with what you have. Sometimes having like the five thousand dollar microphone or even the two hundred dollar microphone can be discouraging because you feel like you need to make your production more professional at the beginning and that adds a lot of pressure, which can really just be gasoline on, you know, the procrastination fire. Start with what you have. You can record with your phone. I recorded with my phone. In fact, you can go back and listen to episodes where you can hear that that is an iPhone,
28:54 Jemma Sbeg? whatever it was, an iPhone eleven, like it wasn't great, but I just started with what I had. And then as I got further along and I knew I had my follow through, I upgraded my equipment. What we're really focusing on here is consistency. That is the, the most important ingredient for you to have in the first three months. So if you're intent on starting a podcast, I want you to choose just one day a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and force yourself to post an episode. Force yourself to post anything, even if it is literally a five minute rant about someone who cut you off at the grocery store, even if it is just your take on something small
29:39 Jemma Sbeg? or random, even if it's like, it just, it can be anything. I just need you to start posting one day a week consistently. We know the science, it takes three months to form a new habit, three months for your brain to say, oh, this is something that we do. We are someone who makes a podcast and three months for you to really adapt to the energy and the effort needed and to feel like this is part of your routine. After that three months is up is when you can start focusing on other things. That's when you can start focusing on polishing your form, on improving small things about the content, about audio quality, but in the beginning, you know, Don't worry about video. Don't really worry about having the most perfect, spectacular
30:24 Jemma Sbeg? audio quality. Don't worry about ums and ahs. I used to edit on GarageBand. I still do. It's like the free software on my computer. I still use like the, I still sometimes use my phone for audio pickups and for ads and for filming. Like podcasting is like the best thing to be a beginner at because people can't always notice that that's the case. Another element of this is also don't focus too much on social media. So I don't think I really focused on social media until maybe a year and a half in. Again, evidence of this, if you have some extra time, scroll down to the bottom of my Instagram feed at that
31:06 Jemma Sbeg? Psychology Podcast. It was terrible. It was like Canva graphics that just looked awful. And I would just post like the cover of my podcast with a different title on it over and over again. And you know what? I think if I'd been too focused on, you know, the social media appearance or the visibility, I wouldn't have put the time and attention and the care into making the long form content matter. And I see this all the time where people are like, I've launched the Instagram, I've set it up, I've got my fonts in my posts and I'm doing this. And it's like, but you're not starting an Instagram, you're not starting a brand, you're starting a podcast. Like, it's a different thing. Focus on perfecting
31:47 Jemma Sbeg? the long form content first, and then you can get to the decorations. Another tip, don't do guest episodes at the beginning unless it is the theme of your show. So what I mean by that is finding guests for a podcast is actually quite difficult. And you want to find people that you align with and that are interesting and that will bring you something. I really think that at the beginning, as you set the tone and the theme and the idea of your podcast, it needs to be you. Your voice needs to be the one who comes through. So I would say for the first 10 episodes, make them solo. Unless obviously you have like a co-host, make it just you two. And then as you get further along, you can add
32:30 Jemma Sbeg? in guests when they feel appropriate. And this is something that I still do to this day. I have guests really sparingly. Obviously, we have like the 12 days of guests in December, which is just an opportunity for me to really just talk to cool people. Um, hate to break the, hate to break the news, but it's entirely selfish. I still feel like guests are really important and I love learning from them, but my voice is the one that I wanted to come through and it's the one that matters. You know, people, those people who are guests have their own platforms. And the reason they've been able to build their own platforms is because they understand that what people are really tuning into is you and is to your voice and your personality and your takes.
33:10 Jemma Sbeg? So I know it's can be kind of anxiety inducing to put yourself in the spotlight and on center stage, but it is really important for those beginning moments. I've got two more tips here. This one I also think is important. If you can't already tell, I obviously think all of these are important. Don't compare even a hundred listens. A hundred listeners, it is more people than your brain could even imagine. Like, I genuinely want you to imagine a hundred people right now and give them all distinctive names and distinctive faces and professions and remember them all. And you can't do it because a hundred people, even fifty people, is a whole lot of people.
33:50 Jemma Sbeg? If you put all of these people in a line, you would be amazed by like how, how big that number is. You know, at the beginning, you know, small numbers are really mighty. If you're not an influencer, if you're not a celebrity, it's unlikely that someone is gonna, people are gonna find you from your first episode and that you are immediately going to have listeners and have a big audience. And that's actually good because it means that you can try things out and that you're not worried about what other people think and that at the core of this experience, remember, like you're doing this for you, what kind of content do you wanna make? And that's really my final tip. Have fun with it.
34:34 Jemma Sbeg? Don't worry or start thinking about what other people wanna hear. What would you wanna hear? That is my biggest tip, actually. Make what you would want to hear. That's why I think the psychology of your twenties has been so successful is because I'm making something that I already knew I would tune into. And so people who are probably like me would also tune into it. I wasn't trying to appeal to some anonymous amalgamation of a listener. I'm trying to appeal and make myself happy. And I think that makes it authentic. And it means that hopefully you guys can see that when I choose topics and I talk about things, it's not like I'm giving you a Wikipedia overview. Like, I really wanna know myself and I really wanna explore that with you guys.
35:19 Jemma Sbeg? Okay, I'm gonna finish up with some listener questions around how to start podcasting. I asked you guys over on Instagram at that psychology podcast to send in your burning questions, because I feel like people don't really talk about the like functional parts or the practical parts of creative work. And yeah, I wanted to give you guys the opportunity to just ask whatever you wanted. This was our first question. What are the overhead costs of starting or producing a podcast? So this really ranges. You can keep them minimal or you can get really expensive. I typically see it as occurring in three tiers. So tier one is the beginner's ideal point.
36:01 Jemma Sbeg? It's recording at home on like a cheap thirty dollar mic or on your phone, using free audio software, editing on GarageBand and filming with your iPhone. If you already have a phone and a computer, which I'm kind of assuming you probably do, that means that starting a podcast for you is basically free. You then wanna choose a particular platform that you wanna host your podcast on. So this isn't like Apple or Spotify or iHeart. Your podcast does not live on one platform. It lives on your RSS feed. So you wanna choose a hosting platform that works best for you. The one I use is Omni. I also use Spotify for podcasters or Odyssey are all really good options.
36:45 Jemma Sbeg? And it basically means that this is where you upload audio and then it distributes out. For you. This is where you can see how many people are listening. This is where you can even edit or you can add in ads or whatever it is that you wanna do. Choose one that works for you. For a beginner, I always say Spotify for podcasters. The second tier where it gets expensive is if you hire a studio. I see a lot of people do this. I wouldn't recommend unless you've been doing it for at least a year. Or unless you have, you know, it's for work or you've already got money behind the podcast because it is incredibly expensive. When I had a studio that I was paying for, which I no longer do, it was like three hundred and twenty five dollars per hour, which is.
37:27 Jemma Sbeg? I know that it's costly. It's not expensive because I know that that money is money they do need, like the studio, that is the cost of running a studio. But for someone who was, you know, that was like maybe year three, like I didn't have that money and it was kind of a waste for me. But that's when it can get kind of expensive. Tier three is when you make your own home studio. Now, this might even fall between tier one and tier two. It's kind of like a create your own situation. If you want to really elevate your podcast, you wanna get a good mic, you wanna get a good camera. You wanna get a good audio software and you wanna get a good soundboard. And that's what I have now. So. I always recommend a Rode mic or a Shure mic, S H U R E.
38:11 Jemma Sbeg? Those are incredible. Get like a Yamaha plug-in box that you can plug into your computer. And the camera I am currently recording on is a Sony, like a V one Sony vlogging camera. That was all an investment that I made, but I think the total for all of it would have been around two grand. If you see like people like Alex Cooper or Jay Shetty who have their own studios. They, that would probably end up costing around twenty grand. You know, they're building out cameras for multiple angles. They're building out. Mics that stand up, they're buying furniture, but the best thing about podcasting is that it can really range for you. All right. I feel like I spent too much time on that question. But the next question is, how do you generate episode ideas?
38:55 Jemma Sbeg? This is a great question. It's a combination of things that I'm experiencing, things that my friends are experiencing, things that I'm seeing in the news or online that I'm like, hmm, there's probably some interesting psychology behind that. And also episode suggestions. So the last episode I did on emotionally immature parents, that came from a listener. Another episode that I'm doing coming up also came from a listener. It's on chronic apologizing. So that's kind of how I get my episode ideas. But I would say the majority of things that I'm currently experiencing or questions that I have that I selfishly just wanna answer for myself, if that makes sense.
39:35 Jemma Sbeg? But I find that, again, what's personal to you is what is gonna be most informative and interesting to others. Question three, how long do you work on one episode for? So typically between five to 10 hours. So the longest episodes, I find an idea and then I dive into the research and I'm reading sometimes 20 to 30, 40 academic papers that relate to that or website entries or watching TED Talks that relate to it. So that research phase is normally around five hours in itself for really long episodes. Then I will write the entire script. So people always ask me, is the podcast scripted?
40:18 Jemma Sbeg? Yes, it is scripted for the most part. I would say around 80% of it is stuff that is already written down. And then I add my own takes in as I go along, or if I have an idea of, I've forgotten to mention something, I'll add it in. But I find that having a scripted episode works best for me, just because I don't wanna give people false information and I wanna be able to reference certain studies and certain concepts as best as I can. The recording phase for me, I've gotten it really quick. So I don't have a producer. I edit it all myself because I'm a bit of a control freak in that way. But I record directly into GarageBand, so I can edit as I go along. If I make a bad take, if I stumble, I'll just start the recording again from where I left off
41:01 Jemma Sbeg? and I can continue and I find that's easiest. And then publishing doesn't really take that long. I normally upload, put in whatever ads I need to, I'm required to buy my company and write the little description and then it's out. The other component of it is then promoting it on social media. That's something that I now have to do at the level that I'm at. That probably takes around, I would say, ten to fifteen hours per week. If you guys have seen like my elaborate like Instagram posts um that I do of like the episode descriptions, like I put a lot of time and energy into them that I probably shouldn't. So that's definitely a big part of it nowadays.
41:45 Jemma Sbeg? And then there's just other little things that come with podcasting that aren't to do with episodes that you have to do. So you have to talk to lawyers every now and again for, I don't know, copyright disputes. You have to record ad reads, you have to jump on calls with people who are handling the website or people who are handling, you know, whatever it is. So that also kind of fills in some of the gaps. And then now that I do video and I'm recording on YouTube, that's a whole other level. So I typically think that in a, in a single week, I'd probably spend twenty hours actually writing and recording episodes and then the remaining, I don't know, fifteen to twenty hours doing other little jobs and little things like social media or other things like that.
42:30 Jemma Sbeg? Okay, the next question, how do you handle things you want to share but you know wouldn't make good content? Uh, I share them anyways. You guys will know I did an episode um about a year ago on a mental, on my mental breakdown on when I had, uh, yeah, a really terrible, terrible time for a couple of months. And it was just awful and I just, it was really dark, low place. Sorry, this has taken a turn, but yeah, it was really rough. And when I was going through it, I remember being like, do I talk about this? Is this something that? I share. And I remember thinking, no, don't share that. No one's gonna wanna listen to that.
43:13 Jemma Sbeg? That, nah, don't do it. It's too personal, it's too private, it's too weird. People aren't gonna trust you anymore if they know that you're really struggling. And I was like, whose voice is that? Cause that's not my voice. That's, that's, the voice of my inner critic is, is not my voice. It's someone else's. It's people from high school who bullied me. It's teachers who didn't believe in me. It's ex-boyfriends who were cruel to me. What I wanna do is I wanna share. And that episode actually ended up being not one of my most popular episodes, but definitely one of my most engaged episodes. The amount of messages I got from people who were like, I can relate. I feel seen. That is really what mattered to me. So I'll just share it. Honestly, I don't,
43:57 Jemma Sbeg? there's certain things maybe I won't talk about, but the majority of it, yeah, I'll just share it. And if people don't like it, there'll always be another episode coming out in like the next three days. The final question I have is, what is the piece of advice you wish someone had told you the day you started? I wish someone had told me that to do it well, it's a lot of hard work, but to just do it, it's not. And that it is so valuable and also to just start. It doesn't need to be perfect. You just need to start and you just need to get consistent and you just need to do it for the right reason and remind yourself why you wanna do it. Is it because you wanna, you wanna time capsule of this time? Is it because you want a project? Is it because you wanna
44:42 Jemma Sbeg? forward your career? Is it just because you really care about something and you wanna find people who also care about that? Remind yourself of the why. It takes time, but it is so rewarding and it's, you get exactly what you give it. Like you're gonna get back every hour in terms of community, in terms of a sense of pride, in terms of this thing that is gonna exist and in out there for as long as you live and that you can return to and which will make you feel accomplished, even if, you know, even if you never get a listener, it'll make you feel accomplished. So I wanna thank you for listening to the end of this episode. If you made it this far, drop. The name of your favorite episode down below. And if you haven't been listening for that long,
45:26 Jemma Sbeg? drop the name of an episode that you want me to create. And I'll let you know if we've already done it or I'll put it to the list. I'll add it to the list of one of two hundred plus ideas that we have, that we wanna make into into shows and into episodes like this. Thank you for listening in general. I just feel so emotional thinking back on when I started and the times when I wanted to quit. You know, there was a period where I didn't make an episode for over two months. And I think that could have been the end. And for some reason, I don't know why I came back and I'm, I just, I'm wow, I'm like, oh my, I'm just like, thank God I did like, oh my goodness.
46:08 Jemma Sbeg? I, I like, I just can't even think about what my life would be like if I hadn't, if I hadn't just been like, no, this is something I wanna do. Like, it really changed my life and I just, I really don't have the words for what my life is now. It's everything I ever wanted when I was a kid and a large, well, almost all of it. It's because of the people who tuned in and who shared episodes and who followed along. And so this episode is really for you and just it's a love letter to you guys, the listeners, to say thank you, thank you, thank you so much for listening and for sharing.
46:47 Jemma Sbeg? And oh my God, I'm getting emotional, but yeah, just means, my God, I don't know, I'm crying. Yeah, just means so much. And, um, oh my God. And, uh, yeah, the fact that like now I've written a book and yeah, I just met so many beautiful people. And it just is, I don't know, I just never imagined it would be like this. And yeah, that like twenty one year old who was like heartbroken is now a twenty five year old who is sitting here and who, who has a book and who has two podcasts and who has friends she never would have met and, you know, a partner she never would have met if this hadn't have happened. So thank you for listening.
47:31 Jemma Sbeg? Oh my God, I can't, I'm gonna get emotional again, but yeah, thank you for listening. And until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle with yourself. Start that podcast if you have the desire and we will talk very, very soon.
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