Every step of the way the voice of self-doubt kept discouraging me. But I did it anyway! I launched a brand new limited series podcast for vegan food entrepreneurs. And it hit the top 200 Apple Podcasts Charts running! Going all the way up to number 59 in India-Business and number 15 in India-Entrepreneurship. Woohoo!!!

Doing this taught me a valuable lesson about dealing with that niggling self-doubt monster that tries to eat away at your belief in yourself. I’ll tell you all about it in this episode.

If you’d prefer to 🎧 listen to this episode, go here. Or continue reading the edited transcript...

Hi, I have something super exciting to share with you. Yay!

If this is your first time here, I’m Susmitha Veganosaurus, and you’ve just discovered the Feel Good Factor. Welcome, welcome, welcome! And for everyone who’s been listening to this podcast regularly, welcome back! 🙂

So the exciting news is, after years of running this podcast, which thanks to all your love and support has been running for so many years (this is the 141st episode)…

I’ve released a brand new podcast!

Wait, wait, don’t worry. The Feel Good Factor isn’t stopping. Haha This one’s not connected to the other podcast. It’ll go on. I’ll be back here every single week as always talking to you, sharing stories and all of that.

My brand new podcast is a completely different concept. It’s called Vegan Business & Marketing Tips for Cafes Restaurants, Cloud Kitchens, Home Bakers & Chefs.

It’s a limited series podcast. Only 21 episodes. It acts like a course, or like an audiobook. And it comes with a downloadable, printable companion workbook.

Each episode is a lesson, and there are questions related to that lesson in the workbook

So, you listen to the lesson, then go answer the questions in the workbook, do your homework and implement.

If you’re a vegan food entrepreneur, then I built this 21 episode limited series podcast just for you!

You just have to go to your Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any of your podcast apps and search for “Vegan, Business and Marketing Tips” and it’ll come up. It’s got orange colour artwork and is easy to recognise immediately.

But even if you aren’t a vegan food entrepreneur, I believe this is going to help you. I believe there are lessons in there that you might find useful, interesting.

I have to share this with you. So I launched the podcast and shared the link to it in one of the groups that I’m a part of. Now there are other vegan business owners there and of course they were happy about it, responding, “Oh yeah, we’re going to share it. I look forward to it. Can’t wait” and all that.

And then randomly, out of the blue, this one person says, “Starting listening and enjoying so much already, even though I have no plans to open any business yet.” laughs

Within two days of launching the podcast, it hit the Apple Podcasts Top Charts running!

I was so excited!!! Not the entire Top Charts, just the Business and the Entrepreneur charts of Apple Podcast India. But it’s still very exciting.

Over the next few days, it went all the way up to number 59 in the Business category. And in the Entrepreneurship category…it touched number 15!!! Woohoo! I was over the moon about it.

The way this happened is because people, as soon as it was published and they heard about it, people started to follow it, to download it, to listen to the episodes and that’s what brought it up higher and higher on the charts. So yeah, you know, even if you aren’t a vegan food entrepreneur, please go follow the podcast, listen to a couple of episodes and yes, if there is something useful, something that you like in it, then I would love an honest rating and review.

Well, 5 stars is preferable haha but whatever you feel. Only if you find something useful, then leave a review, I’d really appreciate that. It’ll really, really help me get the word out there about my brand new podcast – Vegan, Business and Marketing Tips, for cafes, restaurants, cloud kitchens, home bakers and chefs.

Now if you’re a vegan food business owner, then here’s a tip

When you write your review, when you say, “hey this is the episode I like, this is the lesson I learned”, whatever you write about it, whatever you found useful, sign the review with your name, and the name of your vegan food business. It’ll be a great way to promote yourself!

I would love that because…I mean, I built this whole podcast to help vegan food business owners. So hey, what better way to do it than to let you put your name on the review? More people are going to find it, and I’m going to be taking snapshots of the reviews and sharing them on my Instagram, my newsletter. I’ll tag you if I know what your id is. Or I’ll definitely mention your business.

So yeah, go ahead and do that. If you leave me a review, and you have a vegan food business, then put the name of your business in the review, alright? Sign it with that in the end.

By the way that workbook is beautiful, even if I say so myself! laughs

I’m super proud of it, the whole process – recording the podcast, all the content, putting the workbook together, publishing it.

Oh my god, it took a lot more work than I had actually thought it would! Haha I poured my heart and my soul into it, and you know what, I feel so good that it’s out there right now!

Yes it’s a bonus that it’s up on the charts. More people are listening to it, downloading it, the word is spreading, all of that, yes. But just the fact that it’s out there…if doing all the lessons and implementing things is going to help the person doing it…make even one positive, helpful shift on their vegan food business journey…then you know what? My work is done! It’s the most fulfilling thing putting in this work.

Before I started building the podcast, I had so much self-doubt

Things whispering in my head, like…

• All this has been said already, do you really think you need to share it again?
• People probably already know it. It’s obvious, you know?
• There’s nothing clever about it, nothing interesting about it, nothing new about it.
• Who are you? Who are you to share this?

You have that nagging voice. We all tend feel that nagging voice of self-doubt which comes and says, “Who are you to share this content? Who are you to share those lessons?”

All of that was happening to me, and you know what? I did it anyway!

I was like, “okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Thanks voice, thanks voice of self-doubt. You’ve expressed your opinion. Now, sit quietly, I have to record this episode.” And I just kept going at it, going at it.

If you listen to that podcast, you’ll hear testimonials from various conscious entrepreneurs, artists, vegan food business owners and non-food business owners. You’ll hear testimonials from several people who I’ve had the privilege to work with or to give guidance to or to mentor.

And despite listening to all these voices again and again, listening to how I actually managed to help them, despite this, the voice of self-doubt kept coming up.

But you know what? Getting over that voice, ignoring it, or like, soothing it and putting it aside and moving forward, it was so totally worth it! I saw that result when I hit that publish button.

The deep sense of fulfilment that, “oh my God, this work is done!” Something that I’ve been pouring myself into, something I’ve been putting all the effort into creating, it’s out there in the world.

There’s no other feeling like that. It’s so satisfying, so fulfilling!

It’s like, whatever purpose we’ve been put on this world for, that purpose is being met, being reached. That’s the kind of feeling.

And of course, now I get feedback from people who’re listening to the podcast. I’m getting all these messages, people telling me how it’s useful to them, how they love it, all this stuff, and yeah, it’s a validation.

But even before the validation, just that publish button being hit, there itself, it’s done. The purpose is done.

I’m sharing this with you because if you’ve been thinking of a project, if you’ve been thinking of putting something out there in the world, something that stems from your knowledge and experience, and is bound to make an impact, and help someone make their lives better in some way…either more peaceful or more fulfilling in some way, if it’s going to help somebody…

Do it! You know, just do it. Don’t let that voice of self-doubt stop you!

Because, you know what? It’s a permanent guest, okay? laughs It doesn’t matter how successful you are, how high you reach, how far you go…none of it matters. It’s always, always going to be there. Always going to be whispering.

And it’s there because it’s actually inbuilt in us. It’s trying to help us, it’s trying to protect us. So you don’t even have to hold anything against it. Just stop listening to it.

Acknowledge it, soothe it, put it aside, and then you just keep doing your own thing

Whatever the hell you want!

So, I hope I encouraged you today to start doing something that you’ve been wanting to do, something that you want to put out into the world.

It could be starting your own podcast, or maybe writing a book, creating videos…I don’t know…starting classes and workshops, creating some kind of fun artwork…

There’s so much, so much that we all want to do, but self-doubt stops us

The lack of confidence in ourselves, our abilities, that stops us. Don’t let it stop you. Because on the other side, I promise you, there is the most rewarding feeling waiting just for you!

All right, so go check out Vegan, Business and Marketing Tips. Search for that on your podcast app, Apple podcasts or anywhere else. Follow it, listen to the episodes, tell people about it, leave me a review, and I’d be forever grateful to you.

As a solopreneur, I depend on the support of my community, and I never take it for granted

I truly appreciate the amount of time you spend even listening to this podcast. Any of you who signed up to my newsletter, reading those newsletters, responding to me…every little bit, it’s so appreciated!

All right, this is it for today. I look forward to talking to you next week. Take care!

Listen to the episode on the audio player below 👇🏽 (or on any podcast app that you like).

If this is your first time here, I invite you to find out more about The Feel Good Factor Podcast. If you think this content can help someone, do share the episode with them. I’d also greatly appreciate a rating/review wherever you listen to podcasts. They help the show get discovered by more people who resonate with this kind of message.

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Susmitha Veganosaurus

“I read voraciously, find humour in most things, and I’m most in my element when I’m teaching, writing, and playing with clay. I believe authenticity and kindness are the key to a joyful world. Sign up for my free newsletterwhere I share Life and Business Tips, Vegan Hacks, Holistic Guidance, and more.

Vegan cuisine and holistic business building are my two biggest passions. If you’re looking for guidance with vegan cooking, or want to grow your conscious business with joy and fulfilment, explore ways we can work together here.”

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