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498- For Podcasting — shedding bad mental habits for 2021

In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a recent episode from the podcast show called The Accidental Creative called “A Mental Habit to Shed in 2021.” The podcast is from Todd Henry.

For small business owners and podcasters, the topic of creativity is paramount when entrepreneurs do their planning and the execution of tasks for the upcoming post-pandemic year — as we feel that the virus crisis and fear-mongering will die down, now that vaccines will be available for those threatened by fear.

For myself, I can relate to this theme and prognostications both as an entrepreneur and podcaster.

I would strongly recommend that you consume this episode from Todd Henry’s podcast show, so that you can get an idea of what he considers as negative mental habits that will only drain you of your creativity, your strength and your positive traits needed for survival and success in the business world — especially post-pandemic (or, as we say, “post-scam-demic”).

As you will hear in Todd’s episode, there are three main habits that you need to steer away from, especially if your mental traffic becomes obsessed by methods of “keeping score”:

  • Avoid unhealthy ways of “keeping score” of results due to serendipity of others or the benefits of others — this is one area where you can accept your place today and move forward in your environment toward your success as you will create value for your customers and stakeholders and listeners and audience;
  • Avoid tracking too much or paying too much attention to things which you cannot control — and we should then focus on our larger sphere of influence, and not our specific sphere of concern ;
  • Avoid killing your drive and creativity by having an excess viewpoint of your own expectations — as we are too critical for the perfection of results that we expect of ourselves.

The question from Todd Henry to his listeners is:  “how will you define greatness of yourself and success for yourself in 2021?” — especially in a post-pandemic (i.e., “scam-demic”) world.

For the entrepreneur and podcaster, these 3 tips can deliver great results in improving your mentality and avoid using your “mental cycles” needlessly — instead, you can use them for your creativity and have the ability to nurture positive cycles that will have you focus more on the road to success.

For podcasters, this means planning your show and its themes, ideas, futures, etc. It can also mean being more focused and upbeat during the recording and post-production stages of creating your episodes. And most importantly, it means having the strong will to CONTINUE with your show and not podfading just as the negativity of the world situation tries to engulf us.

For the entrepreneur, it can mean sharpening up your business plan — or revising it for a post-pandemic world — and adjust to the situations now at hand, instead of worrying about negative situations which you cannot control. It may mean considering a move to adjust your business and its plans by pivoting within your overall strategy in a thoughtful manner.

As both a podcaster and a creative entrepreneur, I have found these three tips of great value when adjusting my focus and moving past the frustration brought about by the lame-stream media and the hype of the scam-demic. I hope that you can also find more positivity and peace-of-mind by not “keeping score” via someone else’s agenda or fear-mongering, and by focusing on the future success of your business.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Todd Henry of theaccidentalcreative.com. All rights reserved.

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463- BONUS- Addressing the Aspiration Gap in Podcasting

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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podcast

457- Less important parts in Podcasting can be important — Evo Terra

In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the recent post and podcast episode from Evo Terra of the Podcast Pontifications show that dealt with the topic of “The importance of the Unimportant Parts of podcasting.”

Now, this theme seems to be standard from Evo Terra, who considers himself to be a DISRUPTER in the world of tech and in podcasting and new media. And since I have been a fan of his topics — be they controversial or not — since 2007 when I first met him in a Podcamp event, I decided to explore what he meant and see if perhaps my own podcast shows are considering some aspects as unimportant or irrelevant when they perhaps could bear some importance.

So, as I explored this post and podcast episode, I found that he delivers some key issues to the question of podcasting success — especially if the extremes can be possible burnout from critical tactics and tasks in crisis mode versus the other extreme of lots of time off and having too much down-time. As Evo states, many podcasters have been in “crisis mode” in podcasting — including current podcasters who want to grow and become more efficient in the workflow and results of podcasting.

The sections of the post and podcast episode that Evo presents are:

  • Evo describes his idea of “…Podcast/Life Balance like an actual thing” when he disputes that idea;
  • Evo then describes what he considers “The Middle life of a Happy Podcaster and …The trick is finding that healthy middle ground for us”
  • And Evo states a great problem for most podcasters who have podcast ambitions:  “Finding the middle ground is probably hard for you as well, because you’re getting slammed on all sides with ideas on increasing the productivity of your podcasting efforts, ways to grow your podcast even bigger, and dozens of articles on ways to podcast better that you simply don’t have the time to read past the title.”
  • Evo finally uses the example of a lamp and his like or dislike of it to find someplace in the middle ground as a DISTRACTION, which then can be healthy:  “The perspective I gain by having this “focused distraction” is far too valuable to be without.”

Now, for this podcaster, I agree with Evo in that you have to find a “middle ground” area of either workaholic burnout or inactivity to keep yourself creative and active and successful in the podosphere. As stated by Todd Henry in the podcast series The Accidental Creative, you have to find ways to become a producer who can be “excellent in content results, as well as prolific and healthy.” I can say this as a past workaholic who ran into burnout on two occasions — especially when the business of entrepreneurship and podcasting were in conflict with both family and medical critical conditions that demanded time off.

As Evo uses the example of a lamp in his quest for the middle ground, I hope that you, as a podcaster, will be able to identify your own middle ground and then temper your ambitions and creativity in podcasting with the things that may seem unimportant in your life now, but could become important on second thought of your introspection. And if you do, I wish for you the best to deliver the best work in podcasting, while you keep on being prolific and healthy while executing your podcasting in the “middle ground” for yourself.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Evo Terra of PodcastPontifications.com. All rights reserved.

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439- Planning for uncertainty due to media hype and scams

In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we focus on the themes from Todd Henry in a recent episode of his podcast show, The Accidental Creative. The episode title is “How to Plan for Uncertainty.”

Now, I have known personally Todd Henry since 2013 when I did interview him for a podcast show. In addition, I have also puchased some of his books (e.g., Die Empty) and some of his audio premium podcast episodes from AC-Engage. This is because I have found great value from Todd. And I myself have used some of his suggested strategies, which had turned out to be the right formula for temporary success for me as a podcaster and entrepreneur.


Todd delivers some key issues and themes for us to do better planning and be ready to PIVOT if and when another crisis arrives — either from events that impact our economy or from the media hype and exaggeration of a plan-demic.

You have to wonder if you are going to be forced to PIVOT in your podcast and business as an entrepreneur and podcaster. If so, then you can apply these suggestions to your plight today.

The three issues that are addressed to be a better planner and be better prepared for uncertainties — especially when the lame-stream media presents us with scams due to censorship, scams and misinformation by not telling the truth (and Todd gives examples and more details to explain each of these points):

  1. You should ask better questions;
  2. You have to “build your runway” when times are good so you can have it available when they are not;
  3. What is your main thing that you will have and rely on for your success that revolves around your mission.

We recommend that you consume the episode — either in audio from the podcast, or from his email newsletter where Todd delivers the transcript summary of the episode. In this way, a small amount of time up front can help us to plan for the uncertainty of either the podosphere or small business for the entrepreneur.


For podcasts, it could be that you have already created another domain to which you will switch and generate new content — and maybe use some marketing tactics to generate different revenue streams in a premium show. And if you have the domain and a brief outline and business plan which you have created in the form of a plan, you can be ready to launch and execute the action items to publish premium content or other tactics to make money when the other podcasts have stymied due to the uncertain event. For more information on how to make money from your podcast, you may want to refer to the book previously known as More Podcast Money from Dave Jackson. And later next month, the plan is to for him to update this book with another work, the title of which is called Profit from Your Podcast (which is available now as pre-order at amazon.com).

So now, you can have a blueprint on how to plan some strategies to deal with podcasting uncertainties.

For other entrepreneurial themes, you may want to develop alternate business plans to either go into another business with a separate business model or to create a small (but new) revenue stream for your business and focus on that until the uncertainty has become more clear or until it is gone.

Either way, we hope that you can plan for your success by planning for uncertainty, as Todd Henry simplifies the process in his episode. In this way, we hope that you can avoid being spun around in confusion, frustration and loss of business and loss of podcasting by the uncertainty of the times.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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433- Red Zone strategy for Podcasting

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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podcast

406- Podcasting as a beautiful anarchy

In this episode of PodcastReporter.com, we discuss a theme proposed in a podcast episode of Todd Henry’s The Accidental Creative recently.

The experiences of one’s life may be “living in defiance of conventions.” In fact, as you will hear in this audio episode, my own examples of detours from the rules and conventional wisdom seem to be anything but linear.

An example of a non-linear experience of a young podcaster is exemplified in The Savvy Creative — a detour from conventional wisdom and a rush to live the experiences of a “bucket list.”

Now, for myself, the podosphere has presented me the non-linear detours and passion of creativity that can be fulfilling as a “beautiful anarchy.”

We hope that you can learn from Todd and his episode and interview about the non-linear “beautiful anarchy” that perhaps can enrich your life in the area of creativity.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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podcast

372- How podcasters can stand out

In this episode of podcastreporter.com, we discuss the theme proposed by Jason Van Orden and Todd Henry of how podcasters can stand out in the podosphere due to their podcasting efforts.

In this repurposed episode, we refer to the theme idea from Todd Henry of his podcast called The Accidental Creative, in which he interviewed Jason Van Orden.

Jason shares with Todd the key ideas of growing your own confidence and shaping a leadership role to impact others’ lives — especially with the messages of podcasts.

As you will hear in this audio episode, the magnetic messaging framework is discussed, as well.

We wish you well in receiving the value of the magnetic messaging framework in your own situation within the podosphere. And you may listen to the episodes from Jason in his new podcast show, IMPACT.

Thank you for your attention.

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