Why I was Scared to Start a Podcast

Well, I did it. I finally started a podcast. As discussed in episode one, there were a few reasons why I was resistant:

• I don’t like the sound of my voice.
• There are already a lot of podcasts out there.
• I thought people might not like me anymore once they heard my podcast.

These were actual thoughts in my actual 41-year-old brain.

When we set out to do new things, our natural reaction is fear. The brain will fixate on all the reasons why it won’t work. It will offer up many suggestions about why it’s a bad idea. We will question our abilities. We might question our very worth. We might just question everything.

A lot of people never get beyond this point. The fear of doing something new is strong enough to persuade them not to even try. Take me as an example: it took me YEARS to start a podcast—years! I’ve been thinking about this since 2017. That’s four years of convincing myself it was a bad idea. That’s hilarious!

Let’s say fear doesn’t completely hold you back. You have an idea or want to do something new, and you start taking some action. Then, as soon as an obstacle or challenge comes up, you head straight for the hills.

Your fear shoots its ridiculous head out like a crazed jack-in-the-box (I mean, those are creepy, right?) and you’re reminded just how scary it is to try something new. You go back to questioning why you’re doing this. You convince yourself it’s not the right time. You get easily confused. You tell yourself that it won’t work anyway. You look for all the reasons why you can’t. You draw the curtains and give up the dream.

When we understand that fear is a natural part of doing something new, and this is just how the human brain works, we can see it for what it is. Your brain is trying to keep you safe. That’s it. There’s nothing wrong with you.

Humans are built to survive and we’re wired to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy.

Of course fear comes up when doing something new. Welcome to the human experience!

Being aware of this human tendency won’t magically make it easy to do the thing, but it might just stop you from walking away altogether.

You know what got me to say, “Screw it!” and do my podcast?

I realized that it wasn’t about me. By worrying about people not liking me, I was making it impossible for anyone to benefit from a Clean Food Dirty Girl podcast.

Maybe people won’t like the sound of my voice. I can live with that.

Yes, there are a lot of podcasts out there. None of them are mine.

It’s very possible that people won’t like me once they hear my podcast. Those aren’t my people.

Once you honor fear for what it is, you can keep moving forward. You can keep putting one foot in front of the other until one day, the thing is done, and you realize it wasn’t all that scary after all.

Look up the Clean Food Dirty Girl podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or stream episodes directly on our website. I would be honored to have you listen.

xo
Molly