In our fast paced world, we have everything we need at the tips of our fingers. Literally. Our smart phones are an amazing access to any information that we may want, from recipes, to how to jump a car, to YouTube tutorials on how to get almost anything done. The world we live in is truly amazing.
The downside of having everything available super easily is that we expect everything to happen quickly. We get frustrated when our internet browser takes more than 3 seconds to load. We’re annoyed when our Uber drive takes more time to pick us up than the app said. We are impatient.
And this impatience transfers over to other parts of our lives. We expect to start at a management level making $50,000+ a year in our first year in the workforce. We expect to start a YouTube channel and instantly have 10,000 followers. We expect to start a podcast and immediately be sponsored.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe there is a difference between setting lofty goals for ourselves and expecting to get Insta-famous in the first week of having an Instagram account. Having goals that you can work towards is undoubtably a great thing, but we must also have patience with whatever we are trying to achieve. Fame and fortune will not happen over night.
Here is a personal example that is relevant in my life right now:
Ryan and I started our travel podcast, The World Wanderers, just over 3 years ago. I distinctly remember that we launched the podcast and I was like, “Now what? When do we sign our first sponsor?”
Ryan laughed at me.
“You need thousands of downloads to get a sponsor, and even more than that for it to be worth it.”
Oh.
We didn’t sign our first sponsor until July of 2016, 2 years after we launched our podcast. We plugged away at it consistently, worked hard, and practiced patience… and it eventually happened.
When I started my second podcast, M.B.Om, in February 2016 I knew what to expect. I knew that I would have to provide consistent, quality content for a while before I would sign a sponsor.
I have plugged away on M.B.Om since that launch date over 1.5 years ago, interviewing guests from around the world, taking time each week to produce my own episodes, writing quality content for my website, and posting consistently on Instagram.
I kept telling myself to practice patience and it would all come together.
I assure you that I have considered giving up more times than I can count. I’ve thought about just abandoning this business idea because it takes up so much time for so little monetary return. I’ve watched my bank account dwindle to nearly nothing, and seriously considered a different career path that doesn’t cause me to dip into my savings or pay my rent using my line of credit. But then, I always come back to my little engine that could mentality, remind myself that nothing ever worth doing is easy, and continue to plug on.
I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.
This summer, I made my first dollar off of M.B.Om by building a yoga teacher a website. Then, I did a video project for another yoga teacher friend. Then, I built a second website for another yoga teacher friend. The money was slowly, but surely, coming in.
Throughout all of the small projects that were coming my way, I continued to plug away on the podcast, growing my audience, finding new guests, and putting out quality content. And then, just this week, I received emails from not 1, but 3, companies who would like to sponsor the podcast.
And just like that, I monetized my business.
Don’t get me wrong, I certainly haven’t “made it”, but it’s a reminder that being patient (literally) pays off.