Paul Jarvis’ Podcast Challenge

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

I’m subscribed to an awesome email newsletter called The Sunday Dispatches. It’s run by Paul Jarvis, a writer, designer and freelancer for the past 17 years. He has created an array of e-courses and products designed for online creative makers.

The Sunday Dispatches is one of THE emails I look forward to receiving every week in my inbox. There’s discussions about the sour nature of online advice monetization, client process, mental minimalism and even the correlation between happiness and gravy! Whohoo!

Back in May, he sent out an email out with the subject line “I have a challenge for you”. I thought maybe he had gotten on the internet bandwagon and was asking his email list to do some “out there” sort of thing. What challenge? Cinnamon? Smoothie? Phone pinching? Nope.

It was a podcast challenge.

He wanted people of his email list to start a podcast. They’re easy to consume (even passively) and are on-demand media. You just have to grab a person’s attention once. They sign up for your podcast (by subscribing via iTunes or a podcast app manager like Podcast Republic) and if you have good content and hook them, you have a long time listener.

If you weren’t one of the ones who was part of the Serial craze, then let me tell you, podcasts are a great way to consume content. It’s nice to hear someone’s excitement or nervousness or tenacity as they talk about something. It makes for a (warning: I’m about to use a saturated word most often used as a hashtag on Instagram) rich ~authentic~ experience.

I had been toying with the idea of doing a podcast for a while. Reading the podcast challenge email finally prompted me to get started. The challenge required getting three episodes recorded and uploaded to iTunes by July 15, 2016. There were no prizes or incentives. Just a good ol’ kick in the pants action to take part in a medium of communication worth exploring.

At first, I had no freaking clue what to do a podcast about. Eventually, and at the last minute, I decided to do a solo mini-show about money tactics and current trends going on. The official synopsis for my podcast:

Rebel with a Plan: a solo mini podcast series centered around millennial personal development, personal finance, and intentional living.

My podcast is on iTunes now with three episodes and I will be adding two more episodes to it soon. I really loved doing it! Recording the show made me get better at organizing my thoughts and making sure things were cohesive. Whenever I get into telling something, I sometimes have a problem with rambling on and not being sure how to tie things together. Recording over, and over, and over, and practicing some more helped a lot.

As a result of Paul’s podcast challenge, 29 people started podcasts! Yessssss. I plan to listen to at least some of all of them. Company Ink is one I really like so far.

Company Ink is one I really like so far. The podcast is an audio diary of two business owners, living, working, and sleeping together.

Here’s the full list of all 29 podcasts below:

• New Age Nomad Podcast – telling the personal backstories of the individuals who turned their back on the status quo and have made travel, the great outdoors, and extreme sports their life.
• Black Sheep Podcast – are you a woman who owns her right to design her life celebrating her brown skin but not being defined or contained by it either? Welcome.
• The Cool Kids Club – we’ve all been led to believe that “normal” is cool and the older Dillian gets, the more he realizes cool isn’t what he thought it was.
• Life Beyond The Message Table – a short, no BS weekly talk about the realities of running a Message Therapy practice.
• Road to Launch – a podcast focused on the product building process.
• A que no me crees – a podcast by Fernando Castellano.
• Southland Students – a podcast by Southland students.
• Breaking Espanol – one family’s honest journey into becoming more compassionate for other cultures by learning Spanish.
• The Secret Library – most people believe that books are created in cabins all alone, where authors pound away on some manner of keyboard.
• Company Ink – audio diary of two business owners living, working, and sleeping together.
• Rebel With a Plan (hey, that’s me!) – a solo mini podcast series centered around millennial personal development, personal finance, and intentional living.
• The Business Plan Podcast – a weekly show for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
• Loose Parts – a podcast about a bunch of interesting things all loosely related to a topic that changes every week.
• The End – disasters, dystopias, and doomsday scenarios: apocalypse stories and why we love them.
• Taking Charge of Your Life – yoga philosophy meets artistic expression in podcasts that reveal personal authenticity and beauty.
• Emma Fogelholm – a podcast from Emma Fogelholm.
• Let’s Meet in The Now – mindful connections with Nicole Birkholzer.
• Bloom Baby Bloom – straight talk from now or never kind of women over 50.
• Behind the Canvas – inspiration, insight, interviews, and action steps for artists and creative entrepreneurs.
• Anthony’s Desk – lessons learned from entrepreneurship, building social impact businesses, startup investing, and running succcessful for-profit and non-profit organizations.
• Anita no Trabalho – on female entrepreneurship.
• Indie Comic Audio – interviews of indie comic creators and makers as well as how to’s and reviews.
• Hey Batter Batter – the baseball podcast that’s more about stories than stats.
• Front End Center – a podcast by Chris Landtiser that talks about design, development, and how to keep things simple and effective.
• What’s It Like To… – dedicated to turning over stones, pushing past assumptions, and discovering what it’s like to have unique experiences in life!
• Design Yourself – for people who want to lead a well-designed life.
• Creative Women International – a global group with women connecting from over 27 countries, all working in the creative industries.
• Sociale Media voor Zelfstandig Professionals – a Dutch podcast from Jolanda Gooiker.
• Definitely Totally Normal – 3 totally normal people define phenomenon in various states of coherence.

Check some of them out and let me know what you think! Have you ever considered starting a podcast? 

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Colin // RebelwithaPlan

Colin Ashby is the writer behind Rebel with a Plan, a website dedicated to people who choose to rebel against the norm of living in debt and feeling financially unenlightened. He believes everyone has an eccentric quality to embrace and that lattes are sometimes a necessity (despite what the personal finance community tells you).

Latest posts by Colin // RebelwithaPlan (see all)

• A Guide on How to Get Irish Citizenship - August 9, 2018
• Monthly Progress Update: July 2018 - August 3, 2018
• Did Travel Ruin My Sense of Fulfillment? - May 30, 2018