Rob Answers Your Questions - How to start a successful Diabetes blog or podcast

[00:00:07] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We've been telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world since 2015, and we have over a thousand years of living with T1D on the podcast. The interviews range from incredible feats to everyday victories, and we celebrate them all just the same. Thanks for listening, and if you want to get involved even further, just send me an email at rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com. What's up, guys? Do I have a deal for you? Not only are you about to get some fresh diabetes podcast material, but I come bearing gifts. Today's episode is brought to you by Real Good Foods. That's Real Good Foods. Makers of the 4 gram net carb per serving pizza. That's right, ladies and germs, 4 grams of net carbs per serving of delicious, trust me, I eat it on the regs, pizza. P-I-Z-Z-A. It's available at Walmart, Kroger, and you can check if your local store has it online at realgoodfoods.com. But you can also order the pizza and other products online, which is super dope. But not just that. Listeners of this podcast, that's Diabetics Doing Things, the podcast you're listening to, will get 10% off their order plus free two-day shipping when you use code RobHowe, that's me, all one word, RobHowe, at checkout. out. Did I tell you I came bearing gifts or what? So hit up realgoodfoods.com today and get your pizza delivered before I release another episode of the pod. It's that simple. Also, Real Good Foods raised nearly $25,000 for Beyond Type 1 during National Diabetes Awareness Month, and they've committed even more than that over the next year. So support companies that support you. Be right back. About to use my code to order some pizza and get that 10% off code. Later. Hello, everyone. Rob Howe here. I wanted to take a little time before the end of the year to answer some of the more popular questions that I get either on Instagram or via email from the podcast. And I think one of the most popular ones is how to start a successful online diabetes presence, whether that be a podcast, which I get a lot of questions about, whether that be an Instagram account, whether that be some sort of blog. And I think ultimately, you know, whatever the media is or whatever the medium is, I'm going to start with a couple of simple steps that I think can help you get started. So that's what we're going to do today. We're just going to talk a little bit about this. So first of all, I want to tell the story of diabetics doing things just to give you a little bit of context on where I came up with the idea. So I was very fortunate. In 2015, August 2015, I went on a trip through my previous employer, and it was a work exchange. So we had hosted a couple guys from South and Central America at our office during the month, and I had taken a Saturday. It was kind of funny. It was just I wasn't really doing anything, and I had asked them what they had planned for the weekend on their exchange, and they didn't really have anything. So I thought, you know, let me just take a little initiative, go hang out with these guys and take them around Dallas, which is where I live, and show them some of the sites. So we went around and we did some touristy things and we had just a really fun day. I didn't really think too much of it. Well, a few weeks later, they had nominated me because of that day. They nominated me to get sent by this organization to South or Central America as part of the program. So I got to go back after their work study. So I got to go to Bogota, Colombia with my friend Daniel, who I'm going to send this podcast to. So shout out, Daniel. And Daniel showed me around Colombia for like two weeks. And for the most part, it was just me and him. And there were some nights I wasn't allowed to go out because I stand out like a sore thumb. And Colombia in certain areas is dangerous. And I don't speak Spanish. So if the translator couldn't go with me, I had to sit in the hotel. But I knew this, so I used that as an opportunity to just create some space for myself. It was two weeks where I didn't really have to work, and I was seeing sites. I was meeting entrepreneurs and talking to companies in Columbia just sort of as this American marketing tourist. And Daniel had amazing meetings lined up for me the whole time I was there. So I had a lot of space. I was 26 at the time. the yeah that sounds right 26 about to be 27 and I was thinking like most middle 20s millennials think what am I going to do with my life I'm happy with where I am from a career perspective I think I'm doing the right things but at some point just working for money is I don't know it's not it's not a dead end but I wanted something more for myself so I thought back to something my dad had told me when I was in high school and I was trying to volunteer, find a place to volunteer for my National Honor Society hours. And my dad told me, son, I know you're happiest when you're helping people. So I think whatever you choose for your volunteer hours, you should choose something that helps people. And I mean, that's pretty broad, right? But he was right. It does fill my cup to help people, to get involved with people. and so I thought it was just kind of this like stream of consciousness moment where I looked down at my pump and I was like oh oh right I have type 1 diabetes and I feel like I've lived a pretty successful or special or fun life and I'm sure there are people who could benefit from maybe hearing my story and I know there are other stories out there like my own who need to be told so I decided like in that moment I was like well what is it going to be called I was like well diabetics doing blah blah and I was like okay well working title diabetics doing things and it kind of stuck I so I decided that I was going to call it diabetics doing things and I knew that I wanted to make something that was sustainable and so for me personally a blog writing a blog was not something that I wanted to do all the time my heart doesn't burn for blog writing. I still do it. I like writing, but doing it every single day, I have not yet dedicated myself to that successfully to the point where I would feel comfortable being a writer or a blogger. So the year before Serial, the podcast had come out and was wildly popular and I really enjoyed it. And I thought, you know, podcasts are kind of having their moment, this big comeback moment. There are a few diabetes podcasts, but not a ton. And I thought, okay, maybe I can find a space. So I thought it would be great. I do 10 episodes and my metric for success. And this is really important. Setting your metric for success of whatever it is that you do is probably the most important part of building a successful online platform. My metric for success was help one person. So if I did 10 episodes and one person wrote back saying that it helped them or that it was meaningful to them or something, that I would continue to do it. Fortunately for me, it didn't take all 10 episodes. We had some great feedback. And I also chose a platform. So I chose that I was going to do most of my marketing through Instagram, A, because I love Instagram, and B, just because I felt like it was easier to be more targeted. And that's another key point. Knowing who your blog, podcast, outreach platform, community is for. It's sometimes difficult when I do advertising or marketing for companies because they think that their product is for everyone. Nothing could be more difficult than having a product for everyone. I knew that this podcast wasn't going to be for everyone and that was going to be a huge advantage. It was going to be for people who either have type 1 diabetes, who live with or caretake for someone with type 1 diabetes, or know someone with type 1 diabetes. So it was like right then I've narrowed my audience. And even further, I was going to tell stories of amazing accomplishments. So I wanted people who were actively seeking to either be inspired or learn tips and tricks about their life with diabetes, somewhere where they could learn what some of the most influential and even just some of the most amazing people with great stories of everyday adventures, as my pump goes off, I had a little calibration alarm, podcasts are not immune to pump interruptions for sure. So I knew that there are people out there who were trying to better their lives through podcasts and through content and through blogs. So I knew that if I could communicate meaningful content, telling great stories for those people, that I assumed that people would continue to listen to it and want to share it. And I would also enjoy it, which was another primary key metric for me. Because if I didn't enjoy doing it or listening to it, then how could I expect other people to do that? So when I'm creating content or evaluating sponsors or planning trips or coming up with different concepts, it's late at night in Des Moines, Iowa right now. So my words are a little bit suspect at times. But if I didn't enjoy it, then how could I expect somebody else to? I didn't want to feel ingenuous, disingenuous. I wanted it to be a true outpouring of my own heart and interests and create a place where creative, curious people with diabetes could find what they were looking for. So that's what I did. As you know, inevitably, because you probably found this podcast through Instagram, Instagram has hashtags that you can search and you can find people who are talking about different topics, which I thought was super important at the time. So I went to find people who were using those hashtags and people who were actively contributing some sort of content to the diabetes community. And I just did the most important thing of starting a blog, podcast, whatever it is. I asked for other people's help. So I just would either comment or message or follow. I started to become part of the community so I could learn, A, who the big players were and what the big issues were. and become part of something. And I wanted to feel genuine. I think all of my work on diabetics doing this has been driven by the need to be authentic, genuine, and help the community. So if you're going to be in the community, you've got to be in the community. So there's really no quick fix advice that I have on this topic. I mean, it's really is just going in and doing the work. So back to the tactics. I developed these relationships with these people. I did not have many, honestly, probably only three people that I knew with type 1 diabetes when I started the podcast before I started. One was a boxer who lived in Ireland. And then two were friends that I had from Improv, Lindsay and Scriven. So I made them my first three episodes. And then I started to fill out the rest of the episodes with people that I just could find on Instagram. So if you look and you find the first 10 episodes or so of Diabetics Doing Things, if you go way back, most of those people were my friends or they were just first listeners or people who said yes initially. And those people I'm so grateful for, I did not do this on my own. This is not a self-made entrepreneurial story. I stood on the shoulders of giants of people who were so willing to help me and participate in the community that they came on my podcast even before I had released an episode. So I knew that I needed to have a backlog of content because if there's one rule, content begets more content. So I knew I wanted to have a few planned out. I made some Instagram posts. I started writing some emails. I did, posted some things on Facebook. I asked my friends to listen to it and to give me feedback. I drew a line in the sand publicly and said, this is what I'm doing. I think too often we talk ourselves out of doing things that we want to do because we're overthinking them. So if you were going to ask me today, and this is my most common answer when I don't have time to really dig into specifics, someone will ask me, hey, I really want to start X. I really want to make funny videos on YouTube. I really want to have a podcast, but blah, blah, blah. And my answer is always no, do that. There's nothing really stopping you from putting a video on YouTube. There's nothing really stopping you from putting a podcast. There's a simple Google search that could teach you the tactics of how to get it done. But what's preventing you from doing it is your fear of it not being very good. So I had to overcome that fear initially because I was like, okay, well, I have a lot of friends. I'm very fortunate. They're very supportive, but they don't have diabetes. So this is not for them. so how do I create a community or how do I get involved and create content for people that I don't really even know yet and I just had to get over that fear and I'm so glad that I did because I realized that I found my voice as a type 1 diabetic much quicker than I thought and it wasn't something that I was necessarily hiding but I just hadn't embraced that side of myself yet so I learned a whole lot more about myself by putting myself out there than I ever would have just sat around thinking about what was good and what's not good. So if I haven't gone back and listened to the first episode of the podcast, because I'm sure they're not great. I think I recorded them through my, through my internal microphone on my computer. I feel like the fan and my old laptop was like spinning and you could hear it in the background. And most of the people I interviewed were not in the same room as me. So I had to, I had to like figure out a way and Google. I went to some weird corners of the internet learning how to write Skype through GarageBand. And I essentially started a podcast on like $100. I think I bought a microphone after that. I bought like $70 worth of software to make sure that it sounded good. And then I had some friends help me. My friend Ryan helped me load the podcast on iTunes. It's much easier now than it was three years ago. And even then, it really wasn't that difficult. I think he did it in like an hour. So I had it on iTunes. I knew that's where I wanted it to be. I made some social posts. I decided that I was going to post on Tuesdays. I remember being in my executive meeting at my old company on Tuesday mornings. It was at 9 o'clock. And that's when I published my podcast is at 10. So I was like copy and pasting copy and putting links and images on Facebook and on Instagram. And in these meetings, like not paying attention, just trying to get my podcast out there. And I remember after the first couple episodes, I think I published three or four, and I had seen way more downloads than I thought. And I mean, I'm sitting at like 100, you know, like not dramatic numbers. But I remember people were commenting. People were saying it was a cool idea. The community was very receptive. and this is like not even that good content. Like the podcast itself was just two people talking. There was no music. I did the intros because I thought that's what you wanted, what you needed to do. I had, it was just me talking. And fortunately over time, I've started to get better, started to ask better questions. One of my favorite podcast interviews is with Dana Howe from Beyond type 1 because I just challenged myself to ask tougher questions. And she answered the challenge and really delivered amazing answers that I had not quite gotten to that depth before at that point. And then I was just, from there, I created those episodes for about six months. And then I was going through some stuff in my life where I was really not focused on giving back or being involved in the community. And I was just kind of traveling and doing whatever I wanted and doing a lot of partying. And I came back and I kind of got back down to earth and, you know, fortunately some, some maturity had seeped in during that portion of my life. And so, and I discovered looking at my analytics that over the course of those months where I was away, not creating content, there had continued to being more downloads every single month. And I remembered as I was kind of feeling empty at this point as well, emotionally, that the well that this podcast created really rang true what my dad had told me, which was, you're always happiest when you're helping people. So I thought, okay, well, at this point, I've got the metrics to back this up as a good idea. Even if it wasn't diabetes, if it wasn't helping people, the trend, you would look at them as an analyst and say, this is a good idea. You should do more of this. So I dug back in and this was right at the same time that I quit my, quit my previous job and started my company recreation with my business partner, Sterling. And when you start an agency with no clients, you don't have that much to do. So I spent like really a few hours a day, the first week or so where we were hammering out the agency and just doing a lot of outreach. And I was doing a lot of outreach with diabetes. I made a big list and I reached out and I started scheduling. I made templated emails to send to people when they agreed to do the podcast that would tell them, you know, all the instructions and what I needed from them. I had amazing people starting in January, 2017 that came on the podcast and delivered amazing stories and continued to share. And some of those people have become some of my closest friends. So again, if I had talked myself out of it and said, Rob, you don't know anything about podcasting. Like, what are you going to do with this? This is not going to make you any money. This is not going to be a worthwhile use of your time. Like you should just spend this focused on work, blah, blah, blah. If I had listened to any of that practical advice, I wouldn't be making this podcast right now sitting in Des Moines, Iowa, but we also wouldn't have reached the point where we'd reach today where we're helping, hopefully helping thousands of people with diabetes across the world. And that's the part, even tonight, talking with some of the other leaders in diabetes here at this conference who have been guests on this podcast. Each of us has stories of interacting with people in the community that have dramatically shifted our perspective on what's possible in the world. And I mean that in, I'll give you an example. Jeremy Robertson, who is from Diabetics Doing Aviation Part One, is from Australia. His story is dramatically powerful. I totally encourage you to read into his profile. He's type 1 pilot on Instagram. His interview was one of my favorites. And he actually came and stayed at my house earlier this summer. And he was in Dallas for a conference from Australia. and he was like, hey, he had emailed me. He was like, hey, I'd love to get together and get coffee. I said, no way, you're going to stay with me at my apartment, which is rare. I typically don't make those types of offers for people, but he accepted, and we hosted him in the house. And one of the nights he came back from the conference and he said, Rob, I want to tell you something. He's like, because I'm here, I was able to meet with one of the heads of the U.S. and Australian Federal Aviation Associations, people who were in charge of legal legislation around flying and commercial flying in Australia and the U.S. And because he was there, he was able to start a conversation that will get both of those organizations on an accelerated path to help people with type 1 diabetes who were pilots get their wings back. and Jeremy's story is incredible because he's not only a pilot but he's also a doctor he went after he was diagnosed he went back to medical school so because he's an expert in both of those things he can speak to issues that would would come through for type 1 diabetic pilots from the medical and from the flight perspective which gives him a very unique voice in that community and so this is a person who I had never met and would never have found if not for putting myself out there and starting diabetics doing things and fumbling through the first, you know, 25, 40, 50, 80, 100 episodes to getting to where we are today. So if you're out there and you're thinking, hey, Rob, I've got this idea, but I don't know if it's going to work. And I'm really concerned with what people are going to think about it. I would encourage you to just do it. Just start because the journey of a thousand miles begins with a simple step, a single step. So you got to step, step, put yourself out there. Stop overthinking because you're definitely overthinking. Uh, it's not that difficult. No one has messaged me with any of my podcasts and said, Hey Rob, this podcast sucks. You need to stop doing it. I hate you. Uh, stop taking model photos of yourself go away. Now I'm not ruling that out. That's totally fine. If someone wants to do that, that's totally their prerogative, but imagine, and I'll give you an exercise from my guy, Tim Ferriss, who I also didn't know about before I started this podcast, but has now become sort of a podcast aspirational. He has a great podcast, Tim Ferriss show. Just listen to it. He talks about with an exercise that Seneca, Stoic Master Seneca, goes through and recommends. And that is to just imagine the worst case scenario. It's called fear setting. So whatever your, we'll use me as an example. So if I started this podcast and I fully expected that no one was going to listen to it, and I just cranked out 10 episodes and not a single person downloaded it or did anything, that would be my worst case scenario. and just imagine if that happened and put yourself in that scenario and it's really not that bad. You know, if no one listens to your podcast, it's really not the end of the world. You probably learned how to do something like how to build a podcast, how not to market a podcast. You know, Thomas Edison talks about, he found a thousand ways not to make a light bulb on the way to making a light bulb. So I'd encourage you, whatever your idea is, even if it's crazy, half-baked, harebrained, stupid, put it out there. See what people think. Because if you keep it inside forever, it's going to drive you insane and you're never going to get any feedback on it. And I think that you will also, if you ask for things, if you find and use your voice, you'll be so surprised about people's reaction. If you approach it the right way with people's reaction to wanting to help you. And there's a ton of resources that I would use as well. I highly recommend the podcast, the essay 1000 True Fans, which is online. I think it's on Kevin Kelly's blog, 1000 True Fans. Just Google it. It's like not even a page long. It's incredible. it focuses on finding the 1,000 people out there. Imagine if there's only 1,000 people out there that go nuts for your product, service, blog, outreach platform, face, whatever it is. If you find those 1,000 people, the concentric circles that will spread from over-delivering to those people will build you a strong audience. So that's a lot of the principles that I've built this podcast on. That's the way that I run my business. That's the way that I try to live with everything that I'm producing is who am I making this for? And can I over deliver it to them? So yeah, that's a, that's a little bit of behind the scenes on how I think you can approach starting a successful diabetes blog or podcast. And if you have any questions, I'd love to hear from you guys on Instagram. Let's get specific, ask a tough question. If I'm going to spend the time to answer it, make sure it's one that you really want to know. And you can't just find Googling because I've worked with almost every diabetes organization now. I've worked with and had conversations with a lot of different pharma companies. I've had conversations with a lot of different medical device companies, a lot of different diabetes celebrities. I've got the insight on the industry and you're probably overthinking it. So yeah, shoot me a note, shoot me an email and, you know, tell a friend about this podcast, even if they don't have diabetes. I think this is something that for all of us who are looking at for that extra thing that we're trying to add to our lives to fill that little void, that missing piece of our creative outlet. Hopefully this can help someone. So get in touch. Thanks so much for listening. And I'm going to try to do some more of these just stream of consciousness podcasts. So if you like these, let me know. If you hate them, go ahead and send me that message like, hey, you're ugly. I hate your face. I hate your voice. I hate your podcast because I need to hear that too. So I'll see you guys around and keep doing things to the most out there. And let me know what you think about this episode. Bye, guys. Today's episode is brought to you by Real Good Foods. That's Real Good Foods. Makers of the four gram net carb per serving pizza. That's right. Ladies and germs, four grams of net carbs per serving of delicious, trust me, I eat it on the regs, pizza. P-I-Z-Z-A. It's available at Walmart, Kroger, and you can check if your local store has it online at realgoodfoods.com. But you can also order the pizza and other products online, which is super dope. But not just that. Listeners of this podcast, that's Diabetics Doing Things, the podcast you're listening to, will get 10% off their order plus free two-day shipping when you use code RobHowe, that's me, all one word, RobHowe, at checkout. Did I tell you I came bearing gifts or what? So hit up realgoodfoods.com today and get your pizza delivered before I release another episode of the pod. It's that simple. Also, Real Good Foods raised nearly $25,000 for Beyond Type 1 during National Diabetes Awareness Month. And they've committed even more than that over the next year. So, support companies that support you. Be right back. About to use my code to order some pizza and get that 10% off code. Later.