In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we repurpose a previous episode that deals with a review of many considerations for podfading. If you are experiencing some of the symptoms described in this audio episode, we deliver some strategies to deal with the beginnings of podfading and perhaps avoid it altogether.
As you will hear in this audio episode, the 35 minutes are spent with descriptions that lead us to consider podfading and then think about some strategies to either podfade in the right way or to deal with the thoughts of podfading and not do so because of a resurrection of the passion and the good environment that may exist for you.
We hope that this evergreen content can assist you in any way so that any possible thoughts of podfading (for whatever reason cited) can be dealt with in a positive manner that will help you overcome the environment that leads to this thinking, and then help you to steer your shows and your business in the right direction for you to become successful.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Daniel J Lewis and PodcastersSociety.com and noagendashow.com and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we contemplate on some possible lessons learned from the experience of D-Day on June 6, 1944. And this is especially memorable, as this episode is being published the day before the 77th anniversary of Operation Overlord — i.e., the invasion of France in World War II (both the airborne and the sea-landing operations).
(1) You should not plan everything to the nth detail and not budge for any reason — as this may cause delay and unnecessary frustration of correcting the content over and over again. Some thoughts on this are:
Daniel J Lewis tried to edit his initial podcast episodes so that they would be absolutely perfect — but this led him to delay launching his show and posting episodes for over a year. This delay was really a negative blot on his history and it just slowed down his success.
If you fall for this type of negative situation, you would then be subject to the syndrome that Charlie “Tremendous” Jones (a sales and motivational speaker) calls the “Production to Perfection” model. If you have this type of situation, then you may NEVER get around to publishing your relevant content. Because the content can go stale, your edits may not become relevant and never be used. Why? Because you will be saying to yourself “Just one more tweak; oh, and another tweak…” and then your episode may never see the light of day, because perfection is something that does not really exist in our worlds.
In D-Day, the plans were so extensive that this military operation was the most detailed project in the history of the world (with a close second being the Apollo 11 project — the launch to the moon in 1969). But when the paratroopers landed in the flooded fields, and when the beaches were hit with the landing barges — then all the best laid plans of the allies were worthless. It was the initiative of the landing forces and the paratroopers that changed their plans to suit the new situation that saved the day for the Allies.
So, too, can your podcast shows be “just good enough” to publish, and then you can chalk up the learning that you have from your current episodes to improve the next episode and use that experience to help your workflow and practices become better. You will see that your audience will be understanding, especially if your show is new. Thus, get started when you feel it is appropriate — and NOT perfect — and publish your episodes. You don’t want to wallow in the podosphere aimlessly when your perfect planning seems to go wrong and you must adapt to the conditions of reality for getting your show off the ground and improving it for the next episode.
(2) You should be open for new and changed ideas, in spite of plans that have gone wrong, to continue your show with good content.
In D-Day, the American 4th Infantry Division landed on the wrong beach. Did this stop the advance? Not in the least. As the Assistant Division commander said on the beach when confronted with the possibility that the reinforcements may land on the correct beach and not the wrong beach: “The reinforcements will have to follow us, no matter where we go. We are starting the war from right here. Let’s go inland.” (dialogue taken from the book and the movie from Cornelius Ryan’s content of The Longest Day).
So, too, you can learn and adapt from the situations from which you learn when you are thrown into a new area that you did not plan for, and when you encounter new possibilities. You may end up telling yourself that this is where you start, and you can then incorporate new experiences into your workflow and content creation, content publication and content promotion and marketing.
And there are other instances where either serendipity or a rude awakening can ignite new and better ways for you to deal with the speed-bump or road-block that you may encounter in podcasting.
We hope that these lessons from D-Day can help you to adapt any potential derailment of your podcast plans and help shape them into a new workflow that will not only improve your podcast development and publication, but also help to make you a more successful podcaster.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation . All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss the news that podcasting had reached a milestone months earlier — which is more than 2 million shows in April, 2021. This is important for each podcaster — but this can be a double-edged sword. In addition to going more mainstream, this can be a dilemma for a podcaster, because now it becomes very difficult to be known in the podosphere, as well as getting more listeners in audio for your show.
This was discussed in an April, 2021 email from Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com to his email list, in which he titled the content “This month in podcasting.”
In summary, Ben wrote:
“Hi friends, This month the podcast industry reached a new exciting milestone by officially hitting 2 million shows on Apple Podcasts, according to Podcast Industry Insights courtesy of Daniel J. Lewis. This means that after a decade of audience growth, podcasting remains an extremely appealing and ever-growing advertising platform for your business.
As the industry becomes increasingly more mainstream, this platform gives you an opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level, therefore allowing for more trust and commitment to your company, product, or brand. While your followers may otherwise feel overwhelmed with visual inputs or marketing tactics, this will give you the upper hand.
So how can you continue to show up for your audience in a way that provides them with enough valuable content that they want to keep coming back for more and share with their loved ones? Here are a few of our tips:
Engage with your audience. Be responsive. Let your listeners know you’re there for them. Try to make it as easy as possible for them to provide feedback, ask questions, or make topic recommendations.
Write top-notch show notes. For some of you, this might be a new venture as you start your podcast. Copywriting can be daunting and overwhelming. We suggest including a brief summary of the episode, top takeaways, links and resources mentioned, guest bios, and of course ending with a call-to-action. If this seems a little too stressful for you to attempt on your own, we also provide this as a service to our clients. You can learn more here.
Provide good quality audio. Try to minimize background noise and avoid raising or lowering your voice too much as you speak. Recording in a padded or smaller room often helps. We also recommend using a pop filter to remove plosives and making sure the level on your microphone is not too “hot.” Again, if you have questions, please let us know. We are happy to help! …
Some of you may be aware that Libsyn recently launched the 5th version of their publishing interface to their Beta community. It appears they officially launched it as a public beta on March 30th. You can take a sneak peak at what the new layout will look like HERE. This is what they stated in their recent email:
“ ‘This means that at this time new customers will initially be directed to the new interface at five.libsyn.com after account creation. All customers will be able to switch back and forth between the current interface and Libsyn 5 via available dashboard links. Remember Libsyn 5 is still in Beta, so there are features that may be in your current workflow that are not in Libsyn 5. They are coming and so many other good things. The new updated interface is available to libsyn.com customers and is not available for LibsynPRO customers at this time.’ ”
Ben Krueger
And, of course, Ben will update the status of Libsyn5 to his email list subscribers — and we will forward the news to you via this podcast show.
As we have stated several times in this podcast series, we respect Ben and his contributions to the podosphere, in not only educating aspiring podcasters or those who wish to make their shows better, but also for delivering many times free contributions in the form of pdf files and other content that are genuinely gold nuggets that aid recently published podcasters to improve their show.
But for the podcaster, the other side of the good news for the podosphere is that now, aspiring and current podcasters must create realistic strategies that will attract even more listeners and have them subscribe (or “follow” as the new term emerges from Apple) your own podcast shows, so that you may engage with your audience (as Ben suggests) with good audio and excellent show notes.
So we hope that you can put together some strategies that will help you to improve your show and generate the kind of listener growth that you will prefer and enjoy, and that your show will not only be popular — but with suggestions from podcasters like Ben, you can also then be successful in your strategies and action items to monetize your show in your business.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com and Daniel J Lewis of theaudacitytopodcast.com and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
This came as a promotion in an email note from podcastguests.com. And the summary of this very short pdf document (just seven pages) is as described:
“In this completely free guide from PodcastGuests.com, you’ll learn:
1. The value of being a guest expert on podcasts 2. How to put your best foot forward to get booked as a guest 3. How to find and pitch podcasters 4. What you need to do to prepare as a guest 5. How to leverage your podcast guest appearances for maximum impact
No email address is required to download this guide — just click here to view the guide in PDF format! (Or right click and select “save as” to download it.)”
Now, after downloading and reviewing this guide, I feel that this could be of value to new or aspiring podcasters. As you step through this pdf document, the words of wisdom for preparation and to present the best of yourself are key.
For example, the ONE SHEET concept is a great one — it almost resembles the one-page resume that was so popular in the early 2000s for those who wanted to seek new employment. Yes, the podcastguests.com site offers a resource to create a one-sheet document. And they suggest that you can send a prospective podcaster your own one-sheet resource for that individual to consider you and your qualifications to be a guest on a specific show.
In fact, the podcastguests.com site also has not only a newsletter that has a listing of podcasts seeking guest for which you can enroll, but they also have a directory (where you can list yourself as a potential guest) in which you can have the podcasters seeking guests come to you.
Then the document gives some suggestions for preparation — both technically and for substantive subject matter content for an interview as a guest. By the way, for the right preparation for recording or joining a recording as a guest, you can refer to the checklist that is provided for free from The Audacity to Podcast from Daniel J Lewis. You can get a free copy of this “Pre-flight checklist” for recording in podcasting. The better prepared you are, then the better your chances of having a great interview as a guest.
And, of course, one of the most important steps in being a guest or “being interviewed” is the follow-up — something that is covered and emphasized toward the end of the pdf document.
And speaking of follow-up, this is a good lead-in to bring to your attention what is said as a key step in a past podcast episode that discusses how to get the most out of “being interviewed.” In fact, you should be aware of some advice given in an evergreen podcast by Max Flight that deals with another side of a podcast guest — that of “Being Interviewed.” It describes the other aspects of being an interviewee that you should also consider:
In addition to these two resources, I also recommend an episode from the back-catalogue and archives of Daniel J Lewis from his show, The Audacity to Podcast, where he discusses being an interviewee, as well. These go farther and deeper into the action steps needed to be both a good interviewer and an excellent interviewee.
With these resources that we present, we hope that your skills as a podcaster can improve and that they will help you to succeed as a professional podcaster and a great guest for other shows in which you can be interviewed.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and podcastguests.com and Max Flight and Daniel J Lewis and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we revisit the topic of helping the podcaster get over any negative feelings that may creep up for podcasting when the passion and thrill is gone for you.
In this repurposed episode, we hope to give you tips and ideas to create strategies and help you to avoid the negative feelings that can result from the following:
Boredom,
burnout,
overwork,
lack of socialization with other podcasters,
lack of content (because you may have exhausted your content and cannot spawn new episodes from newer ideas), etc.
competition that has overtaken your show;
too much repetition in your workflow;
inability to participate in podcast meetups or podcamps or podcast conferences;
you feel attracted more to social media instead of podcasting;
you may feel that you have “grown out” of podcasting;
health problems that make you lose energy or ability to engage in podcasting in the way you did when you first started;
and other reasons that are mentioned in this episode.
I, myself, have felt down in certain times. And I give you a number of strategies that can help you get out of your slump of negativity. These did work for me.
In fact, there are GROWTH strategies that may work for you — for example, starting a podcast membership site (such as the one Daniel J Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast show created called Podcasters Society), or even starting or participating in a podcast network.
I hope that some of these strategies that have worked for me as a podcaster can also help you during the times when you may begin to feel that “the thrill is gone” from podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.
The original podcast pre-flight checklist (before you start the actual recording) was delivered in a podcast episode in 2014 by Daniel J Lewis in episode # TAP164.
I, myself, have used this checklist and have promoted this as a free aid to other podcasters — especially the newer and aspiring podcasters. And this checklist is to confirm that you have prepared for the audio environment and processes before you hit the RECORD button. It does not focus on the CONTENT of your episode (it assumes that you do know what you want to say and how you want to say it).
The Ben Krueger checklist
Ben Krueger
However, this new article from an email delivered from Ben Krueger’s distribution list promotes a free checklist from cashflowpodcasting.com. The article is called “HOW TO PREPARE FOR A PODCAST EPISODE: WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU HIT RECORD.” But when I clicked on the link to get access to the free checklist, I received the message that this was not available, even after I entered my name and email address. So, you should be aware of this error from my own attempts. Thus, I could not adequately compare the checklists.
[Editor’s note: after many attempts after I recorded this episode, I finally got the link to the pdf one-pager from Ben Krueger.] And the pdf with the checklist (Copyright (c) 2020, Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com) is:
So, due to this, I review the posting from the link in an email from Ben Krueger that outlines not only what to do prior to start the recording for the episode, but also what to do in order to prepare for the CONTENT of the episode. He discusses what you should plan for in what you are going to record and how to do it. And these are the key points in the Ben Krueger article are the following (with some discussion for each point):
On preparing content
He discusses scripting and bullet-points in the planning of the content of the episode;
He advises on stories, parables, questions and scenarios for the preparation of content;
He finally advises on asking deeper questions to get better answers on interview episodes;
On preparing HOW to record
1. Is your microphone positioned appropriately?
2. Are your audio levels where they’re supposed to be?
3. Is the room ideal for recording?
4. Are you likely to be interrupted?
5. GET RECORDING and hit the record button.
Other resources that Ben points out and gives the links to are those that suggest how to be a better podcast host, as well as perfect podcast equipment.
Now, for this podcast reporter, the pre-flight checklist from Daniel J Lewis is a free resource that is much more comprehensive for the audio preparation of podcasting before you hit the record button. And other checklists that I have seen, including the suggestions mentioned in Ben’s article pale by far in comparison.
However, in addition to the simple bullet points we mention on Ben’s suggestions for the preparation of content, there are numerous episodes in the back-catalog of The Audacity to Podcast show that give hours of detail in the preparation of good content for the genres of podcasting that will help any podcaster to improve the content of any podcast episode. My recommendations, therefore, go to Daniel J Lewis and his back-catalog for a deep dive into preparation for good content in planning a podcast episode.
We hope that these two podcasters and their resources may give you the help you need in preparing the content and the audio environment for you to record great episodes of your podcast show.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com and Daniel J Lewis of TheAudacitytoPodcast.com. All rights reserved.
[Editor’s note: since this was originally planned to be a 24-hour broadcast of presentations and panel discussions, etc., it has grown to a 30-hour time span due to the international date line and the ability for some Asian countries to start earlier on the 30th of September, allowing the close to be in the Eastern time zone of the USA at midnight]
Since the very first celebration in 2015, I myself have participated in this event and have either listened to the presentations, as well as have delivered welcome announcements from my good buddy, Adam Curry, of the No Agenda show for the initial event.
I would suggest that you can either listen live to some events during the broadcast online, or you can also get to consume them later online from the recorded archive. The growth of podcasting in the world has seen more sessions and presentations being delivered in national languages (not just USA English or British Commonwealth English), as well. This was true last year for the Latin American countries that delivered their content in Spanish. Thus, this has grown to a worldwide event with participation from all podcasters of various topics.
We hope that you find International Podcast Day a worthwhile event for you, as a podcaster, and that it can indeed bring VALUE to your show and help you become a more successful podcaster.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver our perspective and historical background when related to the ideas from Clayton M Christensen of his book titled The Innovator’s Dilemma (which you can get in hardcopy or kindle from amazon.com).
As a backgrounder and historical point, we see such companies that had the opportunity to take advantage of future technology and innovation and be true leaders in the fields of:
Movie rentals — how Netflix stole the market from Blockbuster, even though the latter had the opportunity to buy the former, but declined;
Xerography and copiers — how Xerox stole the market of copiers from IBM, even after IBM had the opportunity to buy the technology and firm that was later a key competitor, Xerox; and
PC Operating systems and portable phones — how google and Apple stole the market of smartphones and search engines from Microsoft.
Now, what about podcasting? Has there been new technology that can now upset the apple cart for podcasting?
Well, in several podcast episodes of Grumpy Old Bens and No Agenda and other tech-focused podcast shows, the example of DeScript is given as the possible next technology to turn the podcast industry and podosphere upside down.
So, if you understand the technologies used with DeScript, do you think that being able to change the text of a text transcript will be revolutionary to change the face of podcasting and force the indie podcasters to become extinct?
For this podcaster, my perspective is that the podosphere is still a level playing field for indie podcasters — this is my opinion. And with the growth of podcasting by the new shows (now over 1 million shows in podcasting), the technology of creating audio from text and including it into a podcast or making an entire show from the audio-generated from transcripts will compete with the following areas of the indie podcasters:
the perspective and credits and credentials of the indie podcasters who have gained a reputation and a loyal following in the podosphere;
the audio of an accepted podcaster’s character, voice, sense of humor and personality that sets the podcaster apart from anyone else;
the loyal fans of podcasting who hate to hear any type of robot-like voice, regardless of how “perfect” it may seem to the newer publications creators (like the millennials);
Those listeners who still find value in the older methods of publication and reception of audio podcast episodes and shows and refuse to change; and finally
Those podcasters who still want to continue their workflow in creating and publishing outstanding content for the audiences which they have (and have worked so hard to get over the past 15 years).
So, as the above is only my opinion, I suspect that we all have to keep watching the space of technology in podcasting and see what the newer innovations will be. And perhaps we need to focus on the podcasting tech shows to see if innovations like DeScript will grow (and how fast it will be accepted by the podcast community). Please remember that when blab was available several years ago, many podcasters jumped on this technology and predicted that this would be the game-changer in podcasting for the future — and you saw that this was removed after a year or so from the podosphere.
So, we hope that you keep involved in understanding the technologies that are being created, and the innovations that may change the participation of podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and DeScript.com . All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we review some suggestions delivered by several well-known podcasters on the theme of acquiring sponsors for your podcast. These suggestions were delivered in a July, 2020, post specified in email delivered to a distributiion list that was titled “4 Industry Experts On How to Get Podcast Sponsors.” And it was published by Captivate.com. From M. Asquith, “Captivate is a Rebel Base Media platform, made with in the U.K.”
Jordan Harbinger of The Jordan Harbinger Show; and
Chris Ducker at YouPreneur show.
This article was quite long in its explanation. But for me, hearing from both Evo Terra and Daniel J Lewis interested me. Not only are they long-time associates of mine and podcasters whom I have interviewed over the past 15 years, but their sincerity and their expertise is always acclaimed by myself in promoting them forward.
In fact, sponsorship is a theme for monetization for which they have been dealing and in which they have much experience. But I feel that they left out a key expert in this field from the Blubrry network, namely Todd Cochrane of the New Media Showpodcast.
So this article answers the key question of “How do you get Podcast Sponsors for your show?” as presented to these four individuals.
And so here is a brief list of their responses (and there are a few paragraphs to explain each response):
1. Do… Think About If Podcast Sponsorship Is Right For You
2. Don’t… Forget About Your Listeners
3. Do… Use Social Proof
4. Don’t… Be Afraid To Ask!
5. Do… Prepare Your Podcast Sponsorship Pitch
[Note: according to the author, this may sound easy, and he says it actually is — with the following items being addressed in his “sponsor kit” — and his final message:
6. Putting It All Together: How to Find
Podcast Sponsors:
“Getting there is simple: keep it relevant, keep it entertaining, and most of all:
be confident that your podcast and audience is valuable.”
Now, Mark Asquith has been a relevant speaker at the Podcast Movementconferences and different events — and I myself saw his presentation at the last inbound Podcast Movement 2020 Evolutions conference. He has had success in gaining notoriety.
And so, from some of the top experts with experience in the field of sponsorship, I would suggest that you consume the content of this post. And if your marketing and sales plans for your business contain the element of sponsorship for monetizing your podcasts, then this may be a gem waiting for your to create elements in your checklist for marketing tactics. And we hope that this will help your podcast become more successful.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Mark Asquith . All rights reserved.
The link given in the published article is from medium.com.
Now, as I have been podcasting for 15 years, this article interested me, for I have had over 18 podcast shows, and I have had nearly 2 million downloads. And I wanted to compare my lessons learned after some shows that have had nearly 500 episodes (both The Struggling Entrepreneur, as well as my current podcast show of The Podcast Reporter with over 430 episodes).
From this article, the 11 lessons learned are:
Solo episodes;
Reach out to potential guests more than once;
Most podcasts don’t even get past 7 episodes;
Most days you feel like an idiot;
You reconnect with your real voice;
Discover your why;
Other people’s assumptions and experiences;
Treat social media as an ongoing experiment;
You don’t need to earn money;
You don’t need a huge audience;
A personal development vehicle.
And each section contains a couple of paragraphs to explain just what the learned lessons provided as value to Denis Murphy as the podcaster.
However, for this podcaster, I have learned many lessons since 2006 — and I keep on learning lessons from my involvement and participation in the podosphere still today, as well as the future.
In addition, I do take issue from my own experience with several of Murphy’s lessons — in particular, numbers 4, 9 and 10. That is,
I have NEVER felt like an idiot when I participated as a podcaster in the podosphere;
I have tried to earn money, and I have been successful as a profitable podcaster; and
I have grown a large audience in the podosphere, with nearly 2 million downloads.
As a matter of fact, this episode is giving me some impetus to prepare and publish an episode in this show for the future that will deliver to my audience MY OWN lessons learned after over 1500 podcast episodes from all my shows. Keep watching this space for any news of this upcoming episode later this year.
We do suggest that you read this article from Mr. Muphy, but then we recommend that you put together YOUR OWN list of lessons which you yourself have learned in any number of key podcast episodes which can mean value and importance to you.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation . All rights reserved.
