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639- Podcaster Chris Brogan — in the beginning…

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In this repurposed episode, we deliver to you an interview with Chris Brogan at a Podcast Movement conference, in which we learn the beginnings of one of the earliest podcasters and sponsors of the podcasting conferences (namely podcamps), as well as other topics in the early stages of the podosphere which made Chris Brogan a top celebrity in New Media, podcasting and authorship.

This interview had a bit of ambient noise, as it was right off the expo center floor of the conference — but the topics and interest of Chris Brogan to podcasting are still alive today as he continues his career in New Media:

Now, I have followed Chris Brogan from interviews which I have done with him over the years, as well as memories of the Podcamp conferences of which he was a co-founding member in 2005.

He and I do share a common ground in podcasting, and I have also purchased some of his intellectual property products and offerings in the past. His books, on the other hand, have turned into best sellers — some he has authored alone, and others he has co-authored with authorities in the field (e.g., Julien Smith in Trust Agents).

Now, as you will hear in this REPURPOSED EPISODE, the podosphere has some themes that are evergreen, and there are a few good “gems” of suggestions that are viable in today’s environment of the podosphere for those who are new or aspiring or upcoming podcasters.

I would highly recommend that you consume this brief interview to select some ideas that can help your show with content, as well as to grow and increase your audience. This could be a key case in point when you feel that maybe growing “dark” to pursue other New Media ventures would be a good direction for you and your business. And Chris has pivoted from his early podcasting days to the environment where interviews and business ownership were key focus points.

Thus, we hope that you can benefit from this evergreen content from Chris Brogan to help you and your business and your podcasts become successful.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2023, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Chris Brogan and Podcast Movement.com All rights reserved.

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BONUS – 2021- Steps and time to create a podcast episode

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In this BONUS EPISODE of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver an audio copy of some content that I sent to Dave Jackson (the podcaster for the School of Podcasting) to answer his “question of the month” for November, 2021. The question was: how much time does it take for you to create a podcast episode — from idea stage until you click PUBLISH and have your episode go live. By the way, Dave is the Author of the book titled “Profit from your Podcast.”

So, I responded with a five-minute audio section, which is played right after the intro content of this episode. Now you can see what it takes in steps and in time to create a “micro-cast” that is 10 minutes or shorter in length of time, as well as an interview episode, or an episode with a co-host.

I hope that you gain some value to understand what is required to create a podcast episode — both a short-form episode and then a 40-minute episode. If you are doing “double-enders,” then this episode may help you understand the steps it takes to create and release an episode.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Dave Jackson of schoolofpodcasting.com. All rights reserved.

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589- Podcasting in the past — luck passes me during a war

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In this very brief episode of The Podcast Reporter, we remember past podcast shows that can have a memorable mental event during a date that triggers an anniversary. And a podcast show that you, a podcaster, can have at this time can also possibly bring back memories — in the form of flashbacks or other mental traffic.

For this podcaster, the event was 48 years ago, during the October, 1973, Yom Kippur War in the Middle East. At this time, I was an infantry paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division; and we were mobilized and deployed for action in the Middle East. In fact, our mission was to make a combat parachute jump at night in the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula during the War on the side of the Israelis to go and fight both the Egyptian army, and then their future allies as well, the Soviet Airborne troops.

This event came into my mind as a remembrance when I thought about the podfaded podcast called The Combat Infantrymen podcast show that honored those US Army soldiers who earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Association which sponsored the podcast show.

In this show, I not only had solo episodes about my own life (such as the combat tour that I had during the Vietnam War), but I also interviewed other veterans who had earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge from experience in combat during a past campaign (since World War II and then afterwards, like Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan, etc.).

As a podcaster, we can reflect on our own past experiences that have contributed to our podcast shows to deliver value in the past to our targeted audience. For myself, I had veterans who were combat infantrymen and their families (who really wanted to hear about their experiences, since most veterans never spoke about their experiences in combat) who were my audience. And thus, I provided value to them — that value allowing them some type of closure with their past, especially trauma and stress.

So the VALUE to your targeted audience should be a podcaster’s main objective and concern — although that may not be someone else’s cup of tea.

So, this October marks the 48th anniversary of my mobilization and deployment activities for the Yom Kippur War of 1973. And truthfully, after having come back in one piece from my combat tour in Vietnam, I was scared that I would not make it during this upcoming campaign — it was a spectre that I dreaded. And the reason was that this was a new war — and for veterans, this is the dread.

You see, when you are new to combat and have never experienced it, your fear has a way to drive you to survive in that situation while you are accomplishing your mission. But once you have tasted combat, then the fear grips you in an ugly way where you cannot “hide” yourself as you did when you were going into combat the first time. Your anticipation of the worst case haunts you, and all you can think of is to get through the environment by remembering the experience that you had that did allow you to survive and yet recover from fear and do what you had to do:  “TRAINING TAKES OVER.” And I lived this phrase and was prepared as I got ready for the parachute jump and then the care of the squad that I had to lead…training takes over.

However, thank goodness that the superpowers did not decide to fight each other, and so we stood down and went back to our own division to regular garrison duties.

And so I did get through the anticipation and fear from being involved in the war of the Middle East. And the CIB (Combat Infantrymen’s Badge) podcast helped me get past that incident and to experience some closure.

And for this, the podcaster like myself can appreciate past experiences and past podfaded episodes to prepare for newer episodes and have success in podcasting.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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577- Determining which people can be good podcast guests

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In this episode, we discuss podcast interview guesting — but more from the angle of which people can be good guests as opposed to the folks for whom guesting will probably not work.

For this theme, we turn to a post from Tom Schwab, a podcast interviewer with a site called Interview Valet, as well as author of the book Podcast Guest Profits: Grow Your Business with a Targeted Interview Strategy

Now, I have known Tom Schwab since 2015, and I have interviewed him in several podcast shows, including this one, in the past. I have a copy of his book, and I find it very helpful for those who want to focus on becoming guests on other podcasts, in addition to interviewing guests. I would strongly encourage aspiring or new podcasters to read this book and find out about the art of guesting on other podcasts from podcasters, in order to get discovered and increase your reach in the podosphere.

So in this article, Tom explains how podcast guesting may not work for certain people within these five suggestions and tips:

1. “Your Clients Are Geographically Constrained

It’s not about reaching more people, it’s about reaching more ideal customers.

2. Transactional Sales with low Life Time Value

I’m not going to hire a lawyer, accountant, or surgeon from a Facebook Ad.  Conversely, if the purchase is a low-cost, low-risk, transactional purchase I don’t need to spend 30 to 45 minutes to get to know the company or founder.

3. One Time or Perishable Product

While podcasts may not be evergreen, they are like a can of soup – good for 3 to 5 years.

 

4. Your Digital Presence is Weak

When I hear you on a podcast before I engage I will check out your website and social media.  Here is an online assessment to find if podcast interview marketing will work for you.

5. Not Committed To Delivering Value

This means everyone must win: Audience, Host, Guest, and us. Guests won’t get the desired results if they don’t take an active part in making a great interview:

Show up on time                                 Use a professional mic

Add massive value                              Promote the show

Prepare (here’s our checklist)  

With these types of hints, tips and practices, you can understand how much work it will take for you to land the great podcast guest for an interview or discussion or dialog in your episode. Since Tom has made a business (and he was one of the first in 2015) of the art of guesting in podcast episodes in order to better your business, his success speaks for itself.

I would strongly encourage you to speak to Tom in perhaps an exhibit hall if your attend a podcast conference in which Tom Schwab or the Interview Valet is present. I think you will find the material and the tips  of value to you as a podcaster.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Tom Schwab and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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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.