Lessons Learned from 100 Episodes

Join host, Mike Meiers on a journey through the highs, lows, and revelations of the Songwriting for Guitar Podcast. From initial hesitations to unexpected growth, Mike shares the top five lessons he learned in reaching 100 episodes, and how they can relate and empower your music career. 

From a rigid NPR-like beginning to lively chats with industry icons, the show evolved, creating a warm environment for insightful conversations. Now in the most current form, our episodes offer tangible takeaways for musicians learning and growing their craft. 

As we celebrate this milestone, I invite you to embark on your own creative endeavors, bringing your authentic self to the table and enjoying the ride. 

Visit songwritingforguitar.com for free resources or share your thoughts by leaving a review of the podcast.

Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey! 

Listen HERE or read the transcript below....

We’re here! 100 episodes!  At the beginning of this journey I honestly never thought I’d get here. So I want to tell you about the top things I’ve learned through these 100 episodes and the lessons you can take away for your own music career and goals. 

When starting anything, you never know how it’s going to go, so the fact that we’re here is amazing and I’m so happy and excited to be recording this today.

At the beginning I didn’t want to do a podcast but I had a business coach who said I needed one . I also didn’t think there needed to be another white guy with a podcast and it sounded like way too much work. 

Plus!  And once I found guests, what were we even going to talk about?

It was all so so intimidating . When you open up Apple and Spotify Podcasts, and see an endless amount of people already podcasting, you start to think who the hell would listen to this? And My ultimate fear was that it’d just be my mom texting me saying how nice it was. 

Needless to say,  I was getting in my head.

But that’s normal for anyone starting something new or going after a big goal.

I’m so glad that the negative voice didn’t win, because we’ve had amazing guests on, I grew my team,  I grew as a person, I grew as a coach and I grew as a host! I proved over and over to myself that I could do hard things. In turn I’m able to help a lot more people do what they want to do.

I consistently preach not to take advice from people who aren’t doing what you want to do or  from people who aren’t actively trying to reach goals of their own. There’s a  unique motivation and so many great and surprising lessons if you take advice from the right people. 

If you’re trying to do something big, surround yourself with people who challenge themselves, are life long learners who constantly find ways to keep going, and people who consistently reinvent themselves.

Looking back at the 99 past episodes from Songwriting for Guitar Podcast, it brings back tons of memories of chats with so many inspirational people.  I’m so happy to have been able to interview heroes of mine, musician friends,  entrepreneurs  and fellow coaches. They all helped keep me on track.

Like anything that’s new and challenging, there’s times of inspiration, breaks, highs, lows, pivoting and reinvention. And I’ve broken the last 100 episodes down into a few different phases.

Phase one! 

When you’re starting out with anything, you’re likely going to want to do the best you can, but you’re probably not going to bring your full, most comfortable self to the table. That’s what this phase was. 

You’ll  learn so much right at the beginning that you’ll quickly see that some things you’re doing aren’t how you want to continue doing things. Luckily I had a producer, Chris Fafalios who helped me with that and who’s thankfully been with me since the beginning!

So, Phase one is what I call my warm up and NPR stage. 

Some of the beginning episodes are a little funny to listen to.  I’m  giving a million points to you listener, if you got through those early episodes because they are some of the longest episodes we’ve had. 

When I started this, it was a time in podcasts that existed before video. I would log on, and when the guest showed up, all I could see was a wav form and hear their voice, as opposed to now where, there’s a more human interaction with video.

And as someone who loves interacting with people, I found it hard not to see them and their mannerisms while talking. So needless to say these episodes started as rigid interviews. I came prepared with a lot of notes but I didn’t guide the conversation and I frankly just let the guest talk - I was more of the observer or  shy one if you can believe it! 

As much as I appreciated the episodes at the beginning,  a lot of them turned out long, and heavy.

But what kept me going was mostly the excitement of doing something new. And as things progressed, I started to see a shift in myself and in my guests as I loosened up. That’s where it really started getting fun. 

 

Phase two

This was my let’s grab a coffee stage. The seriousness of my voice started to change and episodes became shorter and  more digestible.. I think of episodes like the one with Weird Al’s guitarist, Jim West.  The chat was less of an interview and more of a fun conversation.  

I knew I was starting to help create a friendly environment during one particualr episode because after the call this famous guitarist and I chatted for a little while after recording, where he admitted that he sucked at playing barre chords. He even got out his guitar and showed me how much it didn’t work for him.  I was honored he opened up and It made me realize that’s why he used a different tuning.  Everything was just becoming really fascinating and I was learning a lot.

I then started to invite people I’ve always wanted to talk to like Chris Blue from Presidents of the United States of America, and people I thought were inspiring like _____ and  entrepreneurs like Michael Elsner, Anthony Clint Jr. who are friends to this day as well as artists and musicians who I thought would be friendly and positive like Steph Trivison and  _______. 

More and more, friends in the industry like Trevor _____- from Soundstripe guested and conversations about guitar and music opened up.  I started seeing views increase because I think people felt more a part of the conversation. 

I also  noticed some of my favorite clients found me from listening to the podcast.  When that happened, it completely shattered my fear from the beginning that people weren’t listening.

I realized at that point even if I wasn’t constantly taping episodes or if I needed breaks every now and again to reinvent, that’s okay because there was plenty of content for people to turn to.

The podcast was also being recommended by algorithms and people who I was connecting with and so every time I collaborated on something, gave a talk at school or organization, our podcast would shoot through the roof. 

This all gave me more motivation to keep going.

This brings me to Phase Three

This is where we are now! It’s my “share the knowledge stage”. I noticed from reviews and emails that people were getting a lot out of the episodes, so I wanted to keep giving tangible things for people to walk away with and make episodes really clear so people could search them.

We started bringing on our Songwriting for Guitar coaches as guests on the podcast. Conversations with Josh Doyle, Heather Taylor, Lainey Dionne, and Madeline Finn,  were great to have.  They were especially relevant to the community since we all actively work with clients through courses and coaching and we were able to notice patterns and things that people were being challenged with. This way we could talk out how to problem solve and present solutions to share with listeners who might be going through similar challenges. 

That’s when things really started to change. 

Now when I bring someone on, we give you something to take away or tangible action points to work on or think about. 

Let’s bring themost important person back into the fold here- you! So What can you learn from this  and how does this translate to your goals and music? Number one….

1.  Bring yourself to the table in what you do. The more success I have with anything I go after,  the more I realize I could have been myself more from the start. When you’re starting something new, it’s easy to want to put a part of yourself away or put on a show, but it’s just not the success formula these days. In music you need to draw from your real emotions, your personality, and experiences that make it up. It’s the best way to get to where you personally want to go. 

Number 2…. 

1. Patience wins. It’s easy to tell people to be patient but I really practiced patience with the podcast. Even though I needed breaks in order to keep going and push forward, I realized that things weren’t going to happen overnight. Neither will your music career.  It will always be an upward climb, conquering one mountain then the next. Don’t rush it, just keep putting in the work and draw on little wins to keep you going. At some point you’ll look around and realize the people you started with, just aren’t there any more because you’re the one who went the extra mile.       

Number 3…

1. Develop your listening skills. My ears are sharper now for interviews and listening for interesting things that my guests have to say. If I could have gone back and stopped a guest from brushing over some really interesting things now, I would have. Same with your music, sometimes ideas just need to be listened to and developed and dove into. Don’t just brush past ideas that spark your interest, but really pay attention and hone your listening ears so you don’t miss out on something cool. Learn how to keep focused and present

Number 4….

1. Create a safe environment. I was able to hone my skills in creating a natural environment for people, just like in my co-writing sessions. The best interviews and the best music come out when people are allowed to be themselves and share openly. Som Of the most listened to episodes are the vulnerable ones.

And Number 5…

 

1. It’s never a waste of time. Don’t underestimate the power of investing your time into something. At first podcasting was just something I did because I had to, but now it’s a priority.  You may just be doing this as a hobby, but if you continue to build your skills, your team, and continue to show up and develop yourself,  then eventually it can become something that you can’t stay away from. 

I like podcasting now. I feel excited about it, and I enjoy it. I’ve even made a ton of friends from this.  Even more so now, I realize the value of consistency, patience, persistence, and of building a team.

Looking back, what I appreciate about my guests besides their precious time, was that Everyone was willing to come on and share their stories, lessons learned and their wisdom. They were willing to relax, have fun and be themselves. 

I'm happy I get to be creatively myself while providing value, and take moments to reflect and reevaluate what’s working and what I’d like change moving forward. 

I’m hoping you take this as a sign to do the same, and to take a leap into something you’re interested in.

Thanks for being on this journey with me! To the next 100! 

Go to songwritngforguitar.com check out our free resources, or leave a five star review of the podcast to be entered to win a custom Kyser capo!