Launched my first side project yesterday

TL;DR

I launched a side project that mainly consists of a podcast with a friend and learned that everything takes time, and that marketing is always a grind!

Yesterday, my co-creator and I launched www.cultivateandkeep.com — a website, podcast, and community for Christian men. We had been talking about the idea in May and June, and then actually working on the idea since early July.

I was the overly optimistic one: “We could launch mid-August. I don’t see why we couldn’t.” The reality is that a lot more goes into it than even we originally thought.

In fact, when we sat down to record our very first episode, it took us 5 hours and a few phone calls just to figure out how to get the audio correct.
In the end, we figured out that there was (of course) a big red button called PHANTOM POWER that just needed to be pressed in order for everything to sound smooth and crispy.

Or the reality that a logo isn’t designed overnight. After trying to hold a contest for designers (on a platform that shall remain nameless) and not getting anything quality back, we decided to tap into our network and get a pro. By the time we found someone, we had already spent and wasted well over a month.

Or the fact that there’s no “audio editing software for dummies” that could accommodate inexperienced people like us. I looked up a few, but none allowed us the customization and audio quality that we were looking for. So I had to take my GarageBand skills up another level. And don't even get me started on designing our website...

A few things I learned in the process...

Pick a date or it won't happen: Since we thought things would relatively smoothly in designing the website, recording podcast episodes, and getting our logo designed, we didn't feel like we had to pick a specific date. It was more of a "as soon as possible" but without the urgency. But this lead to us delaying pivots, procrastinating (mostly me), and our estimated launch date further and further back.
JUST SHIP: Once we finally agreed on September 30th, it gave us some clarity on what we needed to do to make that date happen. We also realized that there were some things that weren't going to happen. The website wasn't going to be perfect. I still couldn't figure out how to get our center-aligned logo to stay center-aligned across smaller screens and make it responsive. Also, I forgot to add Google Analytics until a couple hours after we started promoting it (whoops). The podcast wasn't going to be in every directory. In fact, it's not even on iTunes (Apple Podcasts) yet. In hindsight, that's a major mistake by us. But it's also allowed us to drive more traffic to our website. But if we were striving for perfection, the launch date may have been pushed back a couple more weeks.
Marketing is a grind: We got a couple hundred website sessions, a few podcast downloads, 5 email subscriptions, and several follows on social media. This is just the beginning. Expecting the world to freak out and bow down to you in worship every time you launch something will only leave you depressed and discouraged. Marketing is not a one-time thing, it's every. single. day.