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505- Third try for Podcast University — hoping to get it right

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we present to you the invitation that was sent by the folks at Podcast Movement for PMU (Podcast Movement University).

Now, this program is now on its third try for entering the podosphere with some success — since the dark days of 2007, when Jason Van Orden first published the Podcast University program when his book was on sale in the first Podcast and Portable Media conference in Ontario, California.

The promotion was sent out via email to members who had attended or registered for the Podcast Movement Conference in the past. And here is the pdf document that described this new program:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/fgcastgain/505-_Invitation_for_PMU_-_a_third_time.pdf

If you want to sign up for this, you have to choose between two plans. Since this is a paid offering, you may choose for the monthly or annual offering. Yes, although the first month is free, you still have to give the site your credit or debit card information and then begin to be charged after the first month.

I, myself, did not want to sign up for this program for a third time (the first 2 were failures), and so I chose not to enroll nor give my financial information.

However, as you will hear in this audio episode, the benefits for pro podcasters may not seem to be as rich as in prior offerings. At least, they were not for me when I did my cost-benefit analysis (which I also based on past experiences from the last “University” offering).

I hope that you can also compare and contrast the benefits and the return-on-investment for this offering of the program so that you can see the possible benefit of this program for your own podcast show. And if you do sign up for it, I wish you the best of luck in achieving your goals as a participant of this program.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and podcastmovement.com. All rights reserved.

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504- Podcasting future for me is NOT clubhouse

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a recent episode from Evo Terra of his PodcastPontifications.com show, in which he talks about his answers to five key questions that he is receiving about the new social audio enviroment, Clubhouse, for which the title of the post and episode is “Is Clubhouse the future of podcasting?”

Now, after knowing Evo Terra since I personally met him in 2007 at the 4th Podcamp session in Phoenix (in which he did attend my session on monetization of podcasts at that conference), I have tremendous respect for him, his businesses, his love of podcasting and his “disruptiveness.” And I have interviewed him several times in the past in a prior podcast show called The Struggling Entrepreneur (which has podfaded). So he has been a lighthouse for me in the podosphere since then.

And the five questions he answers are the ones which he has been receiving since January 1, 2021, when he installed and ran Clubhouse. And he makes sure that you understand that this is NOT video, but rather ONLY AUDIO in the environment of new and modern media.

Now, my opinion of this new entrant into the audio-sphere that is pure live-conversations with a “moderator” is purely from others’ descriptions and opinions of it (like Evo). Social audio, yes. But for myself, NO. I have seen the deterioration of social media to the point where “moderators” can deplatform those who do not share their ideologies (e.g., the face-bag or facebook deplatforming and shadow-banning any conservative voices, as well as twitter and google, etc.).

The five questions answered in this 10-minute episode by Evo are:

  • Is the future of podcasting Clubhouse? (Evo says “no”  — but the real question is that Clubhouse will be a part of podcasting’s future;
  • Is it a distribution channel for audio? (reply: it is not designed for that, as it is real-time)
  • Will Clubhouse kill Podcasting?  (reply: no — and Evo gives several examples in the past about other media introductions)
  • Should podcasters invest time in this new environment? (reply: probably not, as history proves that the new ideas may not be as successful as you may imagine)
  • How should podcasters use Clubhouse?

Now, with the details about this new environment are contained with his answers in this almost 10-minute episode. I do suggest that you listen to it, as he has impressed me with straight answers and not going for the “shiny new object” that catches everyone’s attention, even to go forward (remember “blab”?).

Thus, if you wish to try it, you can go to the site for this tool and you can get an invitation to it and try it out yourself.

As a podcaster, I do NOT wish to spend all my time in a real-time “party line” of podcasters who may end up being moderators to promote their social justice warrior themes and begin to ban and deplatform and prevent any discussion or promotion of ideas or themes for which you, the podcaster, may have a passion. To tell you the truth, I am sick and tired of the “karens” and the SJW themes that only will shout-you-down with their rhetoric and inability to carry on a conversation, because they are only promoting their agendas and cannot tolerate any logical thinking or discussion that does not agree with their own ideologies.

For myself, I will keep podcasting, and I will NOT be clubhous-ing, because I feel that this, too, may have a short life (like blab and others).

However, your opinion and your experiences may determine if you want to try it and possibly keep it going. Remember, your mileage may differ, especially if it does go the way of blab.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Evo Terra at podcastpontifications. All rights reserved.

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BONUS- 475A-Reverse benefit of podcasting — how your sphere of influence can grow YOU

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver some thoughts from an old benefit of starting a podcast. Initially, you were told by such pundits in podcasting like Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting that podcasts can help you grow your sphere of influence (as well as grow your audience).

Well, after some thought, I have a case study that proves to new and aspiring podcasters, that podcasting can help your sphere of influence to GROW YOU.

Case study is a podcast show that has been around since 2014 — The 2030 Podcast. And, as a short story, this podcast had absolutely NO promotion or marketing or sales calls-to-action. In fact, there was not even a SUBSCRIBE button on the web page of its latest episode, or on the web pages of its prior episodes.

This podcast show grew when its episodes were picked up anonymously by a current podcast show, Grumpy Old Bens, by one of the co-hosts (Sir Ryan Bemrose) and included on a 24-hour online stream (noagendastream.com). It was played as a published episode in which the producing managers found value in what was said and knew that the current audience of noagendastream.com would find it as having great VALUE to the current stream audience.

Now, I myself, as a subscriber to the Grumpy Old Bens show, had heard during various hours of this 24-hour stream my episodes being played and broadcast on the stream. What a wonderful surprise it was to me — and I quickly informed my co-host, Matt Cox of the podcast show called Brunch with the Brits, of that activity. He was surprised and glad of that activity.

But again, there was NO marketing, no promotion, no sales, no bumpers, etc. of any sort to try and increase our audience, and thus to GROW OUR INFLUENCE.

The results: well, since that time, over several months, our download numbers have grown — sometimes to 3,000 downloads per week per episode or more. And all this due to like-minded listeners receiving the stream and hearing our podcast show episodes. And they, then have downloaded the episodes and listened to them.

So, as Dave Jackson said in a recent podcast episode of his School of Podcasting show:  “podcasting can help grow your sphere of influence…”

And now, we have seen that, in our experience, podcasting can help your sphere of influence grow the PODCASTER and the SHOW.

As you will hear in this audio episode, we have included a recent small clip from a show, Grumpy Old Bens, that describes the VALUE of our 2030podcast.com show, in which the co-hosts actually promote the show to their fan base of listeners (that is, to their own sphere of influence).

 

So, as you can see, there is no absolute rule that your podcast must have a plan to drive listeners and increase your audience numbers by growing your sphere of influence. There is always a situation that defies conventional wisdom by having your sphere of influence grow YOU.

We hope that this episode could give you another proven method for you, as an aspiring or new podcaster, to improve the results of your podcast show and episodes. And we wish for you the best in podcasting.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Grumpy Old Bens. All rights reserved.

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468- The ups and downs and disillusionment in podcasting

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss this phenomenon called the “trough of disillusionment” (as was described in an article in the blog of pacific.content.com recently.

This notion deals with the curve on a graph that depicts the excitement and enthusiasm that a podcaster may have when conceiving, creating and publishing a podcast at first — but then the passion runs into the “wall of reality” for a stiff bucket of cold water in the face when the expectations do not always turn out as planned or desired.

As you can see in the post at pacific-content.com, the graph goes into several points of ups-and-downs:

  • The technology trigger;
  • the peak of inflated expectations;
  • the trough of disillusionment;
  • the scope of enlightenment; and finally,
  • the plateau of productivity.

As is described in the post, this curve on the graph depicted in the post is called ““Gartner’s hype curve” by renaissancechambara is licensed under CC BY 2.0.”

The main premise of the article is that there are some strategies that you can follow to realize that the disillusionment may not be as bad as you imagine it to be. In fact, the “slope of enlightenment” is suggested by the author to help the podcaster get out of the slump and trough and then be able to “bounce back” to a productive state where the enthusiasm and passion of the podcast may be resurrected — and in some cases, be even stronger than before. Mainly experienced by the aspiring or new podcasters, this trough of disillusionment can be overcome and lead you to the promised land called the Plateau of Productivity:  “Once you reach The Plateau of Productivity, you can actually start working on Episodes Two through 100 with a smooth path forward.”

For this podcaster, the trough of disillusionment has rarely occurred, mainly because I tried to set my expectations at a reasonable or conservative level. So if the wild exaggerations of highly successful expectations would not result, it did not bother me — for my passion and my enthusiasm still kept going. Just like the saying that we have in the computer industry:  “garbage in – garbage out” can have wild over-expectations of dreams that lead to depressive feelings once the reality of the world sets in. And if you, as a podcaster, do your realistic planning up front and with good personal productivity and organizational tools, I feel that you can minimize the feelings that accompany a potential curve as described in the post.

For myself, setting REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS and doing the hard work to get a podcast created and published is the key. For once you have done this, you can then monitor and adjust the episodes so that you can get positive results (not the wild expectations). Key examples of the trough described in the article were all the podcast shows that were started in 2014 to 2019 that imitated the old podcast shows that interviewed entrpreneurs — they had the false expectations of realizing the financial results of 6- and 7-figure revenues, as was done by a key podcaster that had fame at the time. But imitation without the realistic expectations could only lead to a state where the financial goals were not accomplished.

So, we hope that you, as an aspiring podcaster, can set realistic goals and not be caught up in the wild expectations of success (either by time or financial results) when you launch your podcast show. We wish you the best in having great planning skills, with realistic expectations and hard work to produce great content — but most of all, the PATIENCE to see your show grow and later become successful as you monitor and adjust the content to deliver VALUE to your listeners (and not just create imagined value for yourself that expects miracles in results).

Thank you for your attention.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and pacific-content.com. All rights reserved.

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463- BONUS- Addressing the Aspiration Gap in Podcasting

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss how podcasters can address what is called by Todd Henry in his book, Louder than Words, the ASPIRATION GAP. This theme is critical for Podcasters and Entrepreneurs who want to go beyond their own Peter Principle of stagnation and possible irrelevance as a master content creator and small business owner.

For us, the theme of constant learning (either from experience, education or training or perpetual acquisition and further development of skills) is lifelong.

In his book (and also his bookcast from 2016), Todd explains the four aspects of addressing the Aspiration Gap:

  • DISCOVERY – taking action and obtaining the basic skills or entering the environment of small business;
  • EMULATION – developing a proficiency with your craft and expression to gain mastery (usually by emulating others and their success);
  • DIVERGENCE – taking small risks with acquired skills with your launch pad of your mastery, so you can “carve out your own place which is unique”;
  • CRISIS – the phase where you feel stuck or stagnant, and where you have to decide whether you will settle into safety and comfort, or you can intentionally return to DISCOVERY to obtain new skills of mastery (although uncomfortable because you have to learn NEWER SKILLS).

As Todd states, you have to go through these phases multiple times if you wish to grow — not only to get to the next level, but to go BEYOND THE NEXT LEVEL in your mastery.

For podcasters, this is the constant learning curve; for the entrepreneur, this is the perpetual learning of marketing and selling skills as well as getting feedback and acting upon that feedback to improve your situation.

So, if you want to become a master, you need to listen to Todd when he quotes a professional drummer when the latter said “what is a master but a master student?”

Thus, if you want to become a master entrepreneur with the mastery of success, you have to address the Aspiration Gap and become perpetually better. For the podcaster, this Gap is critical because the rate of improvement and change of technology will force the content creator to improve and become the eternal “master student.”

As difficult as this may appear, and as stressful and hard as it can be for the professional, you have to decide if you wish to address this aspiration gap — because we all want to be better in our craft or our business.

And we wish you all the success in becoming a master of all 4 phases of the Aspiration Gap and reaching success.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Todd Henry. All rights reserved.

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460- Interviewing a celebrity for a podcast- a case study

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a case study of how a podcaster can get a live interview with a CELEBRITY at a live event, even though it was not planned and just happened to be done on a moment’s notice — with only a business card as an introduction to the celebrity.

In this case, I did an interview with Joseph Galloway, celebrated author, speaker and correspondent. One of his most famous works was the book We Were Soldiers…and young. It was co-authored with General Hal Moore (RIP). It was then made into a motion picture (with the same name, almost), starring Mel Gibson in 2002.

Now, as a case study for a podcaster, you may want to know about the tasks of getting on the radar at a live event, in an impromptu situation to get a live audio interview with a personality that is being surrounded and mobbed by the fans.

Here are the issues that I encountered and met:

  • Have your business card available and ready (you never know when you may need one). In my case, I had been a Public Relations officer of the local chapter of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association (since I did serve as a combat infantryman in the Vietnam War).
  • Make your way politely to the celebrity and get his attention, so that you can be recognized quickly;
  • Plan in your mind what questions you will ask and what the key points of his background are so that you will hit upon the issues that are most important to him, while being of interest to your audience;
  • After introducing yourself, ask for 5 to 10 minutes of time for a quick interview — and you do this while you pull your Zoom H2 (or similar portable recorder that has a very small footprint) recorder and power it on so that it can be ready to record;
  • Many times, the celebrity will be flattered and see that you are prepared; and he may not point you to his handler or agent for a very quick 5-minute interview;
  • Give the quick intro to the recording and praise the celebrity with his fame and his relevance (i.e., WHY he is important to your audience);
  • Ask the questions and take the lead from the celebrity’s answers to get a reaction and quickly go to the next point;
  • Do NOT go over the time that was granted by the celebrity for the interview; respect the time frame;
  • Finalize, summarize and thank the celebrity for his time and trouble;
  • Let the celebrity know that you will deliver the final mp3 file with the interview to him in the next day or two;
  • End the conversation with a good phrase, slogan or other relevant saying that is part of the celebrity’s positive past.

In this case, Mr. Joseph Galloway was the keynote speaker for the unveiling of the permanent memorial (a permanent “wall” with all 58,000+ inscriptions of the names of the fallen soldiers during the Vietnam War). He was always surrounded by hundreds of veterans after his presentation.

But he granted me the 5-to-10 minute time frame for a quick interview.  And I was grateful.

As you will hear in this audio interview, I had my Zoom H2 portable recorder — and with the background noise of a live event outdoors (especially with a Huey helicopter taking off in the background as we spoke) and I tried to get the best audio that was possible as I was reading the audio indicators on the device for his mic and for mine.

Afterwards, I tried to get the best quality audio with the tools available at the time in post-production. However, because it was live, impromptu and outdoors with ambient noise, most of the time, your audience will understand and will not be bothered by audio that is not studio-perfect.

Now, I have used this same technique for interviews that were not planned or done over the internet with either Skype or via double-ender. And this process seemed to work well, with the celebrity being appreciative once the final mp3 was received and reviewed.

Just a word of warning — if the celebrity reviews the final mp3, then please make the edits that are requested by him, and then send them back again for a final review and approval.

So, we hope that your interviews that are done in a live and unplanned environment can become good VALUE for your listeners — as well as for the celebrity — and that these will help to make your podcast show a success.

And at the end, we deliver to you the complete episode from a prior podcast that contained the 8-minute interview with Joe Galloway.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Joe Galloway and We Were Soldiers. All rights reserved.

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433- Red Zone strategy for Podcasting

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we focus on the theme of strategies that can make or break the success for a profitable podcaster. And this theme was targeted for creative individuals and entrepreneurs. It was taken from a podcast episode by Todd Henry from his podcast show, The Accidental Creative. And the title of the podcast episode was “Do You Know Your Red Zone Activities?”

As you may well know, in American professional football (i.e., NFL), the Red Zone is an area for 20 yards that can either make or break the success of a team in scoring — and usually, the team who can score within this area usually can win, whereas the teams who struggle to score touchdowns from this area is exposed and may not win.

As you will hear in Todd’s audio podcast, there are several qualities that can mark your own red zone activities; and you need to address to make sure that your podcast show can be sustaining the revenue streams and remain profitable:

  1. Activities that you can uniquely do or add value to because of your position or expertise.
  2. Activities that increase your personal capacity to generate ideas, such as study, purposeful ideation, or intelligence gathering. These are typically the first to go during a busy or stressful season. Are you taking the time to sharpen your mind and your creative intuition?
  3. Activities that provide cohesion or creative traction for your team and increase future capacity. 
  4. Activities that feed your energy, such as adequate sleep, exercise, or spiritual practice. These are most often neglected during busy or stressful times, but you will need these to be prepared to be profitable.

And Todd does explain with examples what he means in each of these qualities.

Now, do you yourself have what it takes to be a profitable podcaster and execute successful strategies for your own “red zone?” According to Todd, it does not take a super-hero to be successful, but rather someone who can place the proper emphasis at the right time: “The most accomplished people aren’t always the smartest or the most talented. Rather, they are the ones who do small, important things every single day for long periods of time. They succeed in the red zone.”

So for this podcaster, my suggestions would stem around the productivity areas where you can plan effectively and execute your plans and strategies effectively, with the proper importance to tasks.

We hope that you can include all 4 of these qualities in your own life and then execute your strategies that can help make your podcast successful and profitable.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Todd Henry. All rights reserved.

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426- Some criteria for best entrepreneur podcasters

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we repurpose an older episode that dealt with the criteria for discussing who would make the best entrepreneurs. This episode dealt with the article published in an email newsletter from Michael Hyatt.

Originally published in the recently-podfaded show called The Struggling Entrepreneur, we can relate to the idea of the criteria for the more successful entrepreneurs — especially in the area of podcasting.

Yes, the romantic ideals of the younger aspiring entrepreneurs visualize the young college drop-out starting a business and growing to be a business titan. Well, these are the exception and not the rule.

As you will hear in this audio episode, the more successful entrepreneurs are those who have age on their side — and with that, they also possess maturity, experience, resources, drive to succeed and knowledge of lessons learned.

“So who makes the best entrepreneurs?  No, it’s not who you think.”  As Michael Hyatt states, it is usually those over 40 years of age — and the numbers tell us that. So if this episode bursts your ideal bubble of romanticized billionaires and your path to join that club, well, join the rest of us who can accept the valid research and then also put our own strengths into channeling our resources, our drive to succeed, our age, our experience, and most of all OUR MATURITY into becoming a successful entrepreneur and podcaster.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and MichaelHyatt.com. All rights reserved.