Happy 1st Birthday to Dream Business Dream Life

Can you believe it? Dream Business Dream Life is officially ONE! That’s 55 full episodes, 3 bonus ones, and a trailer that kicked it all off. And no, I haven’t counted the hours of recording, editing, and uploading...but trust me, it's a lot!

In this special birthday episode, I’m looking back at my first year as a podcaster. What I’ve learned, what I’ve loved, and what I definitely won’t be doing again 😅

If you’ve been here since the start, you’ll remember how quickly this show went from idea to live. (Okay, it took me two years of thinking and two weeks of doing... classic Emma move)

🎙️ In this episode, I chat about:

• Why launching messy is better than never launching at all
• How I kept my tech simple (hello Zoom, GarageBand & Buzzsprout)
• Why you don’t need a big budget or a fancy studio to start
• The truth about promoting your podcast and what I’ve learned
• My favourite parts of podcasting and the moments that stressed me out
• What I’ll be doing differently (and better) in year two

💡 My biggest lessons?

• Done is better than perfect...get it out there and improve as you go
• Stay ahead of your content to avoid last minute panic uploads
• Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose...your episodes are a goldmine
• Keep it fun and short if that’s your style (it’s definitely mine)

💌 A huge THANK YOU

To all my incredible guests, my lovely sponsors, and most importantly...you, my listener. Whether you're walking the dog, making dinner, or sneaking in some “me time,” the fact that I’m in your earbuds is not something I take lightly.

So, here’s to the first year and to what’s coming next!

Happy birthday Dream Business Dream Life—cheers to you 🥂

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website: https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

Hello & welcome to Dream Business Dream Life, helping ambitious people, like you, to grow a business they love.

 I’m Emma Hine and I’m on a mission to show you that it is possible to grow a business without sacrificing your life.

 Having experienced the rollercoaster of making millions of pounds, but feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and totally unsuccessful, I know first-hand the importance of growing a business on your terms.

 On this podcast I'm going to share with you lots of tips and advice that will enable you to grow a business that gives you the financial freedom to live the life of your dreams while sharing with you some inspirational growth stories from other fabulous business owners.

Ready to live the dream? Then let’s get stuck in…

Hello & Welcome to today’s sneaky bonus episode of Dream Business Dream Life.

 Can you believe today is Dream Business Dream Life’s 1st birthday…that’s 55 full episodes, 3 bonus episodes and of course the trailer…I have not worked out how many hours of recording and editing that equates to but it is a lot.

 A brand-new episode has landed in your ears (and of course on YouTube too) for a whole year…wowzers!

 So, I thought Emma you simply cannot just let this day pass you by you need to celebrate and so here I am celebrating and what better way than to share with you my year one as a podcaster…my learnings, the highs, the lows and everything inbetween.

 If you have been around for the whole year then you will recall that I launched Dream Business Dream Life really quickly, well that is probably the wrong thing to say as I had procrastinated about for a good 2 years before it finally went live but what I mean is I went from I’m doing this to live in literally a couple of weeks as that is how I like to roll.

I work best under pressure and yep 2 weeks was pretty pressurised so nope I do not recommend it but I do want to talk about the thing that it did prove that is a valuable lesson for anyone who has been thinking about a podcast for as long as I did…or who is thinking about it right now.

 Yes, there are lots of moving parts with a podcast, as there are with most things, but you do not have to over complicate it and you definitely do not have to spend a fortune on a fancy studio and expensive producer to get it live. 

My conversations with people over the last year have been very clear…you can do it yourself even if you consider yourself as not great with tech. I 100% considered myself a tech dinosaur last May…not so much now as I no longer let it scare me.

 And you absolutely can do it yourself for virtually nothing, so you do need a big budget…you just need to allocate time to learn and do.

 So let’s look at what you do need…

 To launch your podcast, you need something to record it in…I use zoom. I have zoom already, I am familiar with it and it does everything I need, as in it records video and audio.

 You need something to edit it in…I use GarageBand as it is already on my mac so why spend hours researching other software as I do not want an overedited podcast, I want it real and raw, so no extra fancy software needed.

 And you need somewhere to host it…I use Buzzsprout for the audio, it is easy to use, is connected to all the main places you want your podcast to be live such as apple and spotify and it is great value for money. You get 3 hours per month for something like $12 which is less than £10.

 And then I upload the video to YouTube. Again no over-editing, I just add a cover as those freeze frames are never great.

 Beyond that you need some graphics…I create mine in canva, a way to transcribe your audio…I use descript and then a good old strategy to map out the content and get it promoted.

 Which brings me neatly onto learning number 2…which is no different than anything else your launch…if you do not promote your podcast you will not get the downloads and yes, I know downloads are not everything, but you do need people to listen as ultimately your podcast is a lead magnet for your business and you need to get a return on the time you spend creating it.

 Did I promote mine as much as I should in year one? Absolutely not, I have basically announced the new episode once a week and that is it but do you know what I am at around 2500 downloads, across 41 countries and I am over the moon with that. 

 I talk a lot about done is better than perfect and that is exactly what my first year as a podcaster has been about…getting it done consistently and not worrying about perfection.

 You can build on something once it is live and that is exactly what I have been doing as I go along.

 I love recording my podcast, I love all the conversations I have had with my guests, and I love recording my short solo episodes too.

 What I realised really early on is you have to enjoy it if you are going to be consistent, I don’t like listening to long podcasts, I have a very short attention span so recording long episodes was never going to work well for me, so I stuck with short episodes, making it fun for me and making it easier for my listeners to find the time to tune in and listen all the way through.

What I also failed to do at the start was repurpose the content. I soon realised that each episode is packed full of value and therefore repurposing it is a great time saver for content creation.

 My biggest advice is to make sure you are always ahead of yourself as it can become really stressful when you realise at 10pm you need to get a podcast episode out the next morning…yep I have been there and done that too. Thankfully I only made that mistake once, now I aim to have at least a month’s worth recorded.

It would be wrong of me to end this episode without saying a huge thank you, to my guests, to my sponsors and to you…my listeners.

 I do a little happy dance every week when I look at the downloads coming in…I don’t think I will ever get used to the fact that people have me talking in their airpods as they take the dog for a walk…I love being here and I have some really exciting plans for the next 12 months.

 So happy birthday Dream Business Dream Life…I will of course raise a glass of something bubbly to you later.

 Thank you for listening for a whole 12 months; see you next time

You have been listening to Dream Business Dream Life with Emma Hine. If you want to know more about how I can help you to build your dream business and your dream life, then visit my website emmehine.co.uk. Until next time remember you really can have it all!