I Can Learn That! ... I Think
Join your host, Catrione Lee-Rocca (she/they), as they tackle topics and skillsets that generally have no business next to each other, but they do have one thing in common: Catrione hasn't learnt them yet. From your everyday internet rabbit hole to a brand new crafting skill, Catrione attempts to learn more around her as she navigates becoming a "real" adult in her late-twenties.
I Can Learn That! ... I Think
001 Finding My Non-Niche: A Creator's First Episode
Ever wondered what it takes to start a podcast? Join Catrione as she pulls back the curtain on her podcasting journey – learning as she goes and sharing every stumble, revelation, and victory along the way.
This premiere episode dives into the surprising complexities behind hitting the record button. From silencing phones at crucial moments to navigating the labyrinth of hosting platforms and RSS feeds, Catrione offers candid insights into the technical and personal challenges of podcast creation.
Beyond the technical aspects, Catrione explores deeper questions about creative identity and sustainability. How do we start new projects without getting overwhelmed? What happens when our brains tend to jump from interest to interest? How do we carve out unique space in saturated creative fields? Through authentic reflection, she transforms her podcasting experiment into a broader conversation about learning, growth, and finding your voice.
Whether you're a fellow creator, a curious listener, or someone who loves watching others navigate new territories, subscribe now and join Catrione as she documents her journey of acquiring new skills and sharing fascinating rabbit holes with the world. What will she learn next? Tune in to find out!
Hello, welcome to the podcast. I can learn that I think. Hello, I'm Catrione, I go by she they pronouns and welcome to the first episode. This episode is kind of a bit of a no brainer because I'm starting podcasting and what better way to document, what better content to document on a podcast, where I learn things, than learning to podcast? So I think this will just be a one off. This won't be a series, but I do plan on having like mini series where I work with different videos that all line up in maybe a few episodes. I don't know how long they'll be.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:Learning to podcast is something I have tried before. I attempted to make a podcast with my sister. That was my phone. I need to learn. Step one of podcasting Learn to silence your phone while you record.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:The next step of podcasting is to have a topic in mind. The podcast that I started with my sister was characteristically non-topic. It was basically the premise of it was to have random conversations. We would start our conversations with a random Wikipedia page and then from there, see how long a half an hour to an hour conversation went between the two of us just going back and forth, and it was a lot of fun, it was a lot of effort just because our schedules didn't always align. If you're co-hosting, you need to have someone with the same schedule and availability as you. Another super important aspect is to know your budget. There are tons of different resources and subscription plans for hosting sites and RSS importing and websites and all of that, but you really need to focus on what you actually need and what you want to get out of it. If it's just a hobby, maybe don't go into the most expensive plan Not talking from experience, obviously but also you also want to make quality content and have the resources to make what you want. If it's just a side hustle, maybe invest a little bit in. If you want to try to engage with a broader audience, having a website is really important for that, having search terms, rather than just having it hosted and then thrown out into the different directories.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:I assume that if you are listening to this episode, you have no idea what goes into a podcast, because anyone who knows or has even looked into podcasting knows everything I'm going to say. But, that being said, there are some hurdles and things that I've learned about myself that are, I guess, unique to my situation. First off being podcasting is, you do need the right equipment for it. I got a microphone for myself. It's like the cheapest microphone I've never heard of the brand before but it works. It has a noise filter with, like the foamy thing, and so that's really nice and it's just learning to work with what you have when you have it.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:If you want to dive headfirst and put in all your resources, that's great, but for me I have. I've learned that I'm scared of committing to things because I know with how my brain works. I jump from thing to thing really frequently and that's always not always useful, especially when I go into expensive hobbies and if they only turn out to be hobbies. But I think being realistic with yourself on what your expectations are when you start a project or an endeavor is really useful and really important to prioritize. What I learned for myself is that I need to not do and dive headfirst in immediately. I need to maybe try it once before, certainly in this case, and then the second time around try it again, be more clear with myself, with my expectations, and keep myself accountable to how I want to pursue something. For example, another thing that I went into headfirst was crocheting. I really liked that, but I had been only like picking it up every once in a while for years, but then over the summer last year I really got into it and now I can just and I put the time in and now I can just kind of pick up mostly any project, and not saying that I'm an advanced person, but the fact that I can maybe attempt to learn the techniques that go into different projects. They're still hard, don't get me wrong. But I want to apply that same mindset to podcasting.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:One of the largest obstacles I found is letting myself choose to do something different, and in particular with podcasting. I know the industry is hyper saturated and so I wanted to carve out my own little space that I am not boxed in. I've made so many different social media accounts thinking that, oh, if I do this hyper specific thing, I'm gonna capture my audience, because that's because there's so many other different creators on these different platforms. But here I think one of my biggest strengths is that I realized I'm not a niche person. I mean I guess I am niche in that I have no niche that could work. But I love I call it getting my grubby hands on things.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:I love learning. I love okay, I'm. We're gonna have to have like a buzz counter on how many times I say the word learn or learning, because I need to find some synonyms, but I like applying myself and learning new skills. Oh, there it is again. Acquire new skills might be a better way to phrase that, but specifically with podcasting. With podcasting, it's a way for me to share all these random rabbit holes that I go down, and it's not a waste, because hopefully you all will enjoy listening to how I go about navigating different topics, navigating different skill sets, and so that's my hope. So, really, this really isn't a episode on podcasting, is it? It's more of an episode on just getting started in this new chapter of my life. Again, this isn't going to be a lifestyle podcast. This is going to be specifically focused on hmm, what's the most archaic word I can use catalog? No, I was gonna say cataloging, but we'll. We'll go with acquiring new knowledge, and yeah so, but specifically with podcasting.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:Um, I knew that there's like some artwork that you need to be able to create to have a definitive brand, but oh, my goodness, there's so many different platforms of how to host, where to promote and like different options, all at different price points, and so I was going back and forth between three different options, because I'm not sponsored, I'm not gonna mention any of the products, but there is the hosting site, and then there was one of those podcast specific membership sites, and so there you could customize your own web page a little bit and like import your feed, and it would go there. And then there was another site where it was basically does it all, but it doesn't. It's not made for this podcast specifically, so it doesn't have any of the paid options that will help you, um, like clean up your audio, help you with notes and stuff, and so I really liked the hosting platform that I went with, but I didn't know what else I wanted, and turns out that there are. I went with a combination. So I went with like a paid plan with the hosting site, and then I am working with the free versions of that monetization site, and so I'm hoping that having another web page will help funnel and work together with everything.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:If not, and it's just extraneous, I'm not going to use it. But the biggest thing I thought was that that site, podfan, had a blog like a post section, and so I thought that would be really good to catalog photos to accompany different episodes, but it's just text and I want to share photos that can link a podcast with, like an episode with its associated content, so basically a blog post. So I'm gonna have to work around that and figure out exactly what I want. But for now I know I'm going to be going with the hosting site, so that's just the one thing, and then I might have to get another website. But if I don't have my own domain it's kind of whatever. But I do kind of want a domain because it's just easier. I do kind of want a domain Because it's just easier, because I want people to think that I actually care and I'm actually putting in the effort to. You know, buy my own domain, but that's another.
Catrione Lee-Rocca:Hmm, okay, so I don't know if you heard that, but there was a car revving its engine along the street. I live in a complex that is right along like a main thoroughfare that hooks up to one of the highways, not too too far away. Like you can see the highway overpass from my place. So I apologize if there are loud cars because they get excited. They can see the freedom ahead of them, but there are still like two red lights to yeah, sets of lights before the highway. Yeah, sets of lights before the highway. Anyway, I think that's going to be it for now. Thank you for tuning in, and I have yet to come up with cool catchphrases or anything like that, so I don't know. I'll probably have a part two to podcasting later. Two to podcasting later, like once I've gotten a few episodes under my belt and really have figured out what works for me, more like a touch base, like an update kind of thing. All right, take care everyone and stay safe.
