Stop Waiting to Be Ready: Your Podcast Journey Starts Now | EP313

Ever found yourself saying, “I’ll start my podcast when I’m ready”? We’re halfway through 2025 now, and if that January goal is still sitting on your to-do list, don’t worry, it’s not too late.

The middle of the year is the perfect time to pause, reflect on your business goals, and decide what’s still possible. In this honest chat, I dive into why so many business owners put off launching their podcast. Whether it’s fear of getting it wrong, perfectionism, or just sheer decision fatigue, recognising what’s holding you back is the first step to moving forward.

Here’s the truth: feeling “ready” doesn’t just happen. Readiness comes from taking action. Think about other things you’ve tackled in your business, you didn’t wait until you had it all figured out. You started, learned as you went, and got better. Podcasting is no different.

Having your own podcast gives you something social media can’t a consistent, personal connection with your audience on a platform you actually own. When people can hear your voice week after week, you’re building trust in a way that doesn’t rely on algorithms. And with buyers needing around 21 touchpoints before they take action, that kind of connection is priceless.

I also talk about how using an all-in-one platform like FEA Create can make the tech side of things far less overwhelming. And if tech feels like a sticking point for you, getting support with the setup could be a game changer.

If you’re wondering whether podcasting is the right move for you, come along to my Podcast Clarity Workshop on 30th June. We’ll work through a simple process to help you get to either a confident “yes” or a clear “no” both are powerful outcomes that bring clarity to your next steps.

Imagine having your podcast up and running before Christmas. What would it mean for your business to head into 2026 with your voice already out there, building momentum? Now’s the time to find out.

FREE 3 Part Audio - Access Here

www.donnaeade.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Birthday Reflections
• 4:54 Halfway Through the Year: Reassessing Goals
• 9:18 Breaking Down Podcasting Procrastination
• 12:50 FEA Create: Streamlining Your Business
• 18:34 Why Starting Your Podcast Matters
• 22:25 Podcast Clarity Workshop Introduction
• 26:02 Closing Remarks and Next Steps

Transcript

Donna Eade: 0:33

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody, I am so glad to have you here with me today for this episode. So what are we talking about today, donna? Well, we are halfway through 2025 already and I want to ask you something. What if this was the year that you finally started your podcast? In today's episode, I want to help you explore the idea, not from a place of pressure, but from a place of possibility. Let's talk about what's holding you back, what you could create and how starting your podcast might be more doable than you think. I am also sharing a quick tip about the all-in-one platform that's helped me grow and streamline my business behind the scenes. So let's jump in.

Donna Eade: 1:38

Before we hit that, I want to tell you why. I know we are already halfway through the year, and it's not because we're in the sixth month although technically yes, but it's because it's my birthday this week, so it is my birthday week. I am off work this week, so this is a recorded. I batched, I got it recorded, I got it edited, I got it up for you guys and I'm on holiday and I am off work this week. So this is a recorded. I batched, I got it recorded, I got it edited, I got it up for you guys and I'm on holiday and I am determined not to work this week. So if you see me on social media this week, tell me off, because I want to have a complete blackout on social media this week. So there will be social media posts that come out because I've scheduled them. However, if you see me replying to comments, tell me off and then I'll know you're a podcast listener as well, which will be fun. So, yeah, I am planning on going to the beach one day this week. You know how much I love the sea, so fish and chips on the beach is hopefully going to happen on my birthday It'll depend on what the weather's doing and then we're also planning on taking down a shed that is practically taking itself down at the top of our garden that houses our pond pump for my fishes and getting that sorted. So, hopefully, a working week off, but not business work, so that will be fun. So what we're talking about today is how your podcast might look.

Donna Eade: 3:04

I want us to pause and reflect today because we're hitting that halfway mark, do you know what? Because it's my birthday this month. It is always that halfway mark for me. So my birthday is exactly six months from Boxing Day. So it is always that break in the year for me is really obvious break, Whereas other people might see it's like their birthday is the start of their new year and then the new year is the start of the world's new year, and you kind of get two new years, I get here's a half year, here's a half year. So I get that reflection a little bit more. I think, intently maybe, that some people probably a lot of June birthdays kind of feel that as well, because they know it's that real stamp that we're halfway through the year.

Donna Eade: 3:52

Time moves extremely fast and I don't know whether it's my age, but it just seems to get faster as you get older and we just blink and months are gone and you think what on earth did I do with that time? Like what have I achieved in the last few months? And if you're not careful, if you're not on it, if you're not reflecting and you're not planning, time can really disappear without you having done anything yet. You were busy the whole time. It can be really strange and confusing and that, to be honest with you, is how I felt the beginning of 2025 has been for me. It has been the most peculiar year for my business in terms of the business that I've done, the clients that I've had and where my efforts have been and where they haven't been, and a lot of that is internal feelings, mindset, personal things that I'm going through that have really put Spanner in the works and affected my mental health in a way that has impacted on my business. So that's a conversation for another time. But are you where you hope to be at this point in the year? Because, like I've just admitted, I'm not, certainly not. You know my workshop that I'll talk about a bit later. That's coming on the 30th of June. That really should have happened in April, end of April, and it didn't because I just wasn't there and things just take so much longer when you're not in that right mental frame of space.

Donna Eade: 5:29

So let's have a look back January 2025, a lot of you will have set your goals then. What were those goals? What was on your list that you wanted to get done this year and how far have you got? And this isn't about berating yourself for not getting there, because I could totally get upset with myself that I haven't done what I wanted to do. It's not about that. It's about saying, okay, this is where we are, this is the time we've got left.

Donna Eade: 6:01

What can we still do? What is more important? What is what is driving us? Why haven't we got those things done? Is it because actually they don't fit in with the vision anymore? Has the vision changed? Is it because there was something, the sticking point? You know the tech fears getting in the way of something or other people that you're working with, collaborations not kind of coming to fruition. You know, what is it that stopped those things happening? Or has stopped those things happening? And do you want to do them? Because things may have changed to the point where actually they're no longer viable for you.

Donna Eade: 6:40

So let's have a look at that. It's not too late to get things done. We've still got six months left of the year. You know we've got that whole time again before we get to the end of the year and we've got the summer holidays, and I know that affects quite a lot of females in business, specifically because we do tend to be the main carers for the children and if we are solopreneurs working from home and our other halves have got day jobs, then the childcare will fall on us and we do have to look at how that affects our business. So you may be stepping back for six weeks, you may be taking a break, you may be doing less over the summer holidays and so that cuts down on that time. But if you look at it now, you can start preparing for that. Maybe you do what my business bestie does, maybe you work one day a week and you have that really planned, really functional, that you get everything done. That's on your list because it's very specific about what you're going to do on those days and you get your work done, so that actually when you come back in full force in September, you have everything already hit the ground running with the stuff that you've got done over the summer.

Donna Eade: 7:59

It's really hard, I think, as a business owner, to step away considerably from your business, and anybody who manages to do that in the summer holidays and be there with their children more, I think hats off to you, because it would just be playing on my mind. I would not be able to deal with it. So I think it's really good when you can set those strong boundaries. But just be aware of that so you know what exactly is the right time for you to get this done. And obviously I'm talking about podcasting in this moment, like was podcasting on your to-do list in January? Was it like? This is going to be the year and now you're halfway through and you're thinking crap. I haven't even started looking at it yet, let alone like getting it out there. This is going to take forever. I'm never going to get it done. It's not too late. You know, we can get a podcast, absolutely. We can get a podcast out before the end of the year. It is absolutely doable and it could make a huge difference for you.

Donna Eade: 9:02

So one of the things that I want you to look at is why are you procrastinating on it? Because that could be a key to releasing the block. Is it a fear of failure? Are you scared that you'll start talking about doing it and then it won't happen and then, oh my God, I'm going to look like an idiot in front of all of my business friends? Is it because you are a perfectionist and you need to know all of the nitty gritty, all of the details, all of the methods, the systems, et cetera. Before you get started the methods, the systems, etc. Before you get started. Or is it a case of you have been thinking about it for so long, you've been throwing out all these questions to yourself and you've kind of got decision fatigue with it and it's just like, oh, I just don't know what to do anymore?

Donna Eade: 9:52

There is always going to be something that is stopping us. If you haven't done it yet, there is a reason for that, and oftentimes it's one of those three things. But it could be something else entirely. So I would love for you to come over and tell me on social media what it is that is stopping you from podcasting. So you can come and join me in my Facebook group, which is Start Podcast UK. So you can come and join me in my Facebook group, which is Startup Podcast UK. You can tell me in there. Or you can DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn. Linkedin is my favorite place to be. I do go and hang out on Instagram still, even though I said I was giving it up, but you'll notice I don't really post on my feed anymore. I'm more in my stories, but I will read my DMs. So, yeah, dm me, tell me what it is that has stopped you from getting your podcast started so far this year.

Donna Eade: 10:45

And I just want to really bust that myth of the ready. You know, I'll do it when I'm ready. I'll do it when this falls into place. I'll do it when that falls into place, because being ready is a myth in itself, because we're never ready for anything. That, you know, sort of scares us a little bit or is a change from our norm or anything like. You know, we don't like change as human beings. It's really bizarre because it's the one thing that is always going to happen. We don't particularly like it and we always say these you know, I'll start the diet on Monday, I'll do this when this happens, I'll do that when that happens. Well, ready is when you start doing it. So if you just start doing it, you become ready. It's an amazing little mindset trick. So if you're thinking, oh, I'm not ready yet, there is something that is stopping you from putting your best foot forward. Because if you look back at all of the things that you have done in your business, did you wait until you were really ready before you did those things, or did you just start and then things fell into place. I bet you most of us are in that second camp that we just started and things fell into place.

Donna Eade: 12:07

And speaking of things that fell into place, something that has helped me massively in my business journey is FEA Create. It is about simplicity, making things doable, especially when you're building your online presence, and I have really loved FEA for the last three years. It has been a game changer for me. I think if you are somebody who is a complete tech phobe, then it is going to be something that again is that thing. That's just oh. It's hard to learn and I would say that if you are really a tech phobe and you're scared about changing over, then you have two options Stay with what you've got or get somebody who is an FEA specialist to help you and there are lots of FEA create specialists in the group that you can hire to help you set up your website, help you set up your funnels and things like that and I would highly recommend that I would actually go for that option because if you stick with what you've got, the likelihood is if you listen to my last week's episode, I told you that I didn't have a lot of the things I wanted to help move my business forward, like the ClickFunnels landing pages.

Donna Eade: 13:30

I didn't have Kajabi. I didn't have a platform for my courses, etc. I didn't have a lot of the things that I wanted in my business to make it a more seamless process and a more streamlined experience for my clients, and FEA gave me that at a lower cost than it would have been if I'd have bought all those different platforms and had to log into all of those different platforms every time I wanted to go into it. So take the money that you would save having FEA Create and put it into paying someone to help you set it up. That would be my go-to.

Donna Eade: 14:07

Now, if you are what I would call okay with tech, you know you can work your way around WordPress without too much issue, or your own website. You can work your way around that. I think you'll be able to pick up F3A Create quite quickly. It has fantastic training videos on how to do everything. You can migrate things over to it and it is a simple kind of plug and play, drag and drop, copy and paste, type backend to it it. So I think it would be something that you could pick up quite easily. But again, like I say, the support is there if you want it, and I have always found, because there's only been ever one issue I had with customer service, which was probably around the end of year one, and it's when they started growing. So it's a fairly new platform in terms of technology. Well, actually suppose in technology terms it's probably old now, being three years old, but it's quite a new platform. I think it's like three or four years old at this point.

Donna Eade: 15:11

I've been with them since they went public with it, so I know that they dropped it to their membership first. They were growing quite quickly and they needed more help on the customer service side and they implemented chat agents that weren't the ladies that we knew and loved in our core group. You know they were people that worked for Carrie that were there. This was more of an agency that was bringing in outside and there were a few teething problems and I ended up sending a letter saying how upset I was and I got a wonderful apology back. They made it right with me. So even when things didn't go quite right, they made it right, which I really really appreciated.

Donna Eade: 15:56

But the chat has improved no end and I find it really, really useful. I find the guys really knowledgeable and if they don't know, they'll get you help. And the great thing is is if they're trying to show you how to do something. Obviously, with chat it's not easy to sort of show you how to do something or just type the words and tell you what to do. So they'll actually do little videos for you and send it to you in the chat so you can open it up, see what to do and go and do it. So really really helpful. I absolutely love the platform.

Donna Eade: 16:28

So if you are interested in bringing all of your stuff into one place my website, my email marketing, my CRM, my invoicing funnel, building, all of my programs, everything is in there. If you want to do that, then go over to the link in the show notes and click on that. It is an affiliate link. I am an affiliate for FEA Create. I will not hide that because I love the platform and I wouldn't share with you anything that I didn't love. So if you are in the market for a new website or you need a CRM system or you want a place to host your courses, fea Create is a great one and you can connect it to your current website, so you don't have to give up the website you've got if it's a new website and you love it. But you need an email marketing system, you need funnels, you need email automation, you need an invoicing system, you need somewhere to host your programs and things like that. You can host everything else on FEA Create and link it through to your website, which is fantastic. So head to that link in the show notes or head over to donnaecom forwardE-A and you will find all the information there.

Donna Eade: 17:41

So let's stop for a moment and imagine what it would be like if you had started your podcast by Christmas. What a fantastic Christmas present for yourself. What do you think? It is totally doable and you can get clients and leads from your content. So that takes strategy.

Donna Eade: 18:05

You need to be calling attention to the things that you do within your podcast episodes. It's no good just putting out podcast episodes and expecting people to just come and buy from you. Because you put out a podcast episode, you've got to ask them to buy from you. Buy from you because you put out a podcast episode, you've got to ask them to buy from you. So, just like I'm going to talk about my workshop in a moment and I've talked about FEA Create today, you have got to talk about what it is that you do and what it is that you sell to be able to get those clients. But having a strong call to action within your podcast episodes, giving them a link to a free download in your episodes, having that front end pre-roll and post-roll that tells them what to do next go and join your email list et cetera, those things are really, really important to drive the message home and to get those clients and that email list growing. And it it's a fantastic feeling, I have to say, when you don't have to rely on social media so heavily. So how confident and proud would you be of having that platform by Christmas, this platform that even if you forget to tell your social media audience that it's there, people are still downloading it and listening to it. Because I've done that before. When I get behind with my batching and stuff, you may notice that on my social medias I don't talk about my podcast episode that's come out this week, or it may take me until Thursday to tell you about the episode that came out on Monday. You know it has happened. Yet when I go into my downloads, I still have downloads on those episodes without talking about it on social media and that is a really powerful tool to have at your disposal.

Donna Eade: 19:49

Because, like I said, I think it was last week I was talking about Amy when Amy Porterfield sent that email to her list on a day when Facebook went down. Now, she didn't do it because Facebook went down, it was already in her system, but she made money on a day when Facebook went down. Now, she didn't do it because Facebook went down, it was already in her system, but she made money on a day when social media broke. And the thing is is we do not own social media. It is not our platform. We don't own the content on there. It belongs to Mark Zuckerberg and at any moment he could switch it off or it could break or any number of things could happen and we lose that audience.

Donna Eade: 20:23

So, as quickly as possible, we need to get them into our world. One of the ways to do that is with a podcast, because even if they're not on your email list, if social media did go kaboom or whatever and they're listening to your podcast, then they will come and listen to your podcast and you can say, oh my gosh, social media went down or you know, it's completely disappeared. I would love to stay in contact with you. I've lost so many connections. Come and join my email list and you're going to get the people on your email list then. But just having them on your podcast, listening to you consistently, is just going to be building that know, like and trust with them and it's just going to be endearing you to them. And I think it says something like it used to be, something like people needed to see or hear from you seven times before they would buy from you, and I think it's now at 21. So having a podcast is really great in terms of those connection points to your potential clients really great in terms of those connection points to your potential clients. So I would hope that you would feel really, really proud and confident if you had your podcast out by Christmas, especially if it is on your to-do list in January, and especially if it was actually on your to-do list last year and you still haven't got it done. I would say, definitely dig into those reasons why, because potentially it's not the right thing for you. And that is where my podcast clarity workshop comes in. So I usually work with my clients one-on-one on this process. It's a 90 minute session where we go through.

Donna Eade: 22:00

Okay, what are your business goals? What are you planning to do with the podcast? What does that look like in your business? What time can you dedicate to it? How would that work? You know how often would you upload? Would it be serial? Would it be episodic? Will you have guests on? How would that work in terms of your strategy and how you're bringing people to you and selling to them what you do rather than what other people do?

Donna Eade: 22:27

We talk about all of that and we get some real clarity, and my hope is that at the end of that 90 minute session, you are going to be able to say you know what? Hell, yes, I want to podcast, or you're going to go. Absolutely not, it is not for me, I do not want to do it, that's too much, that's not going to give me what I want. It's not going to work for me. Because both of those answers are brilliant answers for me. I want you to be able to say I'm ready to take the next step. What does that look like? Like, and I can tell you about how you could work with me on your podcast, or you can go out and find somebody else or something else in terms of how your podcast is going to come to fruition. But if you know that it's definitely a yes, that is going to get you into the place where, like actually now, okay, what's my next step? Or you're going to say, no, it's not mine, it mine, it's not for me.

Donna Eade: 23:22

And that is also a brilliant place for you to be, because it means that you can take it off your mental list and to me, anything that is sitting there and has been sat there on your to-do list, it's just sitting niggling at the back. It hurts, you know, there's no other way to say it. It hurts. It's just something that is frustrating, it's annoying. You're beating yourself up, you haven't done it yet, you're procrastinating when actually it's because it's not right for you and you just haven't taken the time to sit down, dive into it and find out that.

Donna Eade: 23:55

And so by doing this podcast clarity workshop, I'm going to help you get to that point where you're going to say heck yes or hell no to podcasting and either way, it's a win for you, right? So it is on the 30th of June at one o'clock. It's a live session done on Zoom. I'm going to be there. You're going to get a workbook. We are going to work through that workbook and decide whether podcasting is right for you or not.

Donna Eade: 24:24

This is not a big sales pitch. Into my thing. We'll tell you how you can work with me at the end. But it is not a big sales pitch. It's not like a webinar where I'm going to spend half an hour at the end telling you all about my fabulous programs which are fabulous, by the way, but you know we move. It's not that it is going to be 90 minutes of us going through that workbook and answering your questions and then, with your permission, I'll take five minutes at the end just to tell you how you can work with me going forward. If it's a heck, yes.

Donna Eade: 24:53

So the podcast clarity workshop called your Voice, your Platform is £33. It's on the 30th of June at one o'clock. You can come and join me for that. It is available over at donnaecom forward slash PC workshop. If you go to the link in the show notes you can click through from there, or donnaecom forward slash PC workshop. I hope to see you there because that will be after my birthday and after a nice long weekend I will have had. So I will be ready and raring to go and helping you make that decision for yourself, so I'm really excited about it.

Donna Eade: 25:29

So that is it for this week.

Donna Eade: 25:31

Guys, I have got a guest episode coming up for you next week, so make sure you stay tuned for that. I've had some fantastic guests that I've been speaking to over the last couple of months whilst I've been doing these live sessions out loud for you. So make sure you stick around for that and make sure you get on my email list. If you haven't, because I have two bonus podcast episodes that are a little bit different to what you are used to, and that's why they're not going out on the public feed. You're only going to be able to access them if you're on my email list, so I'm giving people a couple of weeks to get that done before I send them out in an email. So if you go over to donnaeedcom forward slash blog on any of my podcast episodes, you can sign up to my email list there and you will get access to those episodes very, very soon. That's it. I am going to go off and enjoy the rest of my birthday week and I will see you in the next one. Bye for now.