Tag: schoolofpodcasting.com

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626- Using POC tactic for podcast consulting success

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter Show, we deliver to you a real-life example of a strategy and tactic that may bring success to you in your role as a podcast consultant — and that includes other business areas such as editing, billing, promotion, sales and a lead to other parts of your consulting business (e.g., video). This strategy and tactic is from my own experiences, and it is called the PROOF OF CONCEPT method and strategy.

This comes from the age-old tactic from a vendor who wanted to prove that he could successfully create a deliverable and successfully have it approved and satisfy a potential customer or prospect.

The age-old formula probably started initially as servitude. In other words, a craftsman or a skilled prospect would make a deal (or contract) with a master or principal. He would offer to work for a specific time period (e.g., a week or month) — or his offer would be to deliver a specific piece of work in a specific time span. If the principal (in this case, his potential customer) was completely satisfied, the agreement was that the prospect would then be upgraded to a formal laborer of the principal — or that the specific piece of work or deliverable that met the requirements would be the proof that the concept of his employment would be honored for continuing such deliverables to the customer (or master or principal — call the end receiver of the VALUE what you will) and be recognized as a true craftsman or valued employee for a period of time. And in some cases, the free time worked by the prospect would be recognized as time worked for pay, and he would receive the back wages, as well. In the case of deliverables, the agreed upon price for creating and finishing the said deliverables would also be paid, in addition to the terms of another agreement. For the deliverables, this would be a contract for creating and delivering some more final pieces — and  usually they would include back-pay for the proof of concept, as well (only this was flexible in the terms of the “contract” for the proof of concept.

So what was my experience in the world of podcasting with this tactic known as “proof of concept”?

Well, a prospect approached me after receiving my business card that mentioned my skills in podcasting. He wanted to know more about what I could offer him.

Instead of spouting a litany of sales-oriented offers, I wanted to know what he wanted and what he felt he needed in his business.

I saw that he wanted a full soup-to-nuts service of creating the podcast show and infrastructure, as well as the editing and production of episodes for professional polish. He called it “productizing” the episodes. Well, I declined on the large scale project and referred him to the consultant who had helped me to jump-start my podcast shows. The reference were the podcast shows I had done.

So he contacted the reference that I gave to him, but then he wanted to see what I could do with the several interviews which he had done and recorded — although some of them had very, very poor audio quality.

Now, he said that he wanted to start off with an interview show and he had recorded on his own these several audio interviews.

I told him to send me the audio files of a couple of interviews. I also looked at his web site, and I gave him a timetable for its completion and that he would receive the finished or “golden” mp3 files.

However, I gave him an amount that seemed reasonable and competitive for creating each final or golden mp3 audio interview, so that he could determine if his needs were met.

And I decided to exceed his expectations.

I took the mp3 files and listened to the poor quality of the interviews. I then cleaned up the audio, and then I added intro and outro music from quality musicians (for which I had obtained licenses to use in podcast episodes). I also added the voiceover intro with the intent of getting the listener interested enough to want to listen to the content of the interview. And I finally did the research of the interviewee and the program or situation being discussed. I also got a photo head shot of the interviewee from the public info center libraries. And then I created the SHOW NOTES, with the content and images included that would have the professional qualities that I would expect in that podcast episode.

And finally, I delivered both edited and “productized” episodes before the deadline.

The prospect was delighted, and I produced a written contract for him to sign. The contract, however, was not for the work done, but included the provision that I would receive a future minimum of episodes as content for future work to be “productized.”

Thus, the basic amount was for 10 additional episodes, as well as payment for the 2 episodes that I had delivered to him with his satisfaction and approval.

The deal was done by using the tactic of the proof of concept.

And so, the prospect then became my CUSTOMER and I would receive his interview files, which then I delivered to him in return as golden mp3 files, along with the added value of the show notes, the intro voiceover, the musical intros and outros, and any photo or images in the show notes content.

Well, he delivered to me over 25 episodes in the year. And they were ALL done with the same quality and delivered to him on time.

But then, after the 25th episode, he went silent and I did not hear from him for a month or so.

Why?

I never asked why, but only saw that after the brief absence, he contacted me in a email note and began to send me more interviews again. My suspicion was that another “podcast consultant” came to him with a lower price. However, the VALUE received of the services and deliverables probably did not meet his expectations. And so he returned to me for an additional 20 episodes. In fact, he asked me to create a video that promoted his offerings and his programs to his targeted audience. And I did deliver 2 videos — one as a proof of concept that was for no charge, and the other to meet his deadline. And when he wanted me to continue with the videos, I did decline, because I did not want to go into that business, as the return for my business was not really worth the time, effort, money, work and costly equipment and requirements. So I removed myself from the video world for him.

So that is the story of the tactic known as the proof-of-concept which was used in a real-life scenario in the podosphere by yours truly.

Perhaps this tactic may be one that you could use, or that you could take and improve on the method with your own style and delivery for potential customers.

But you have to be careful. You have to KNOW that your skills are very high, and that your pricing is competitive, and that your financial planning has proven that you can work within the structure of your proof-of-concept to make your tactic profitable for your business. And you can see what others are doing who use a variation of this tactic — and the name of Ben Krueger from cashflowpodcasting.com comes to mind. I have seen his offers and I have taken him up on purchasing a deliverable when he used the POC method. And I was pleasantly surprised with the quality, value and final deliverable from him within the time frame specified. And Ben would be a good example to see some of his offers using the poc tactic. In addition, Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting also had offered several deliverables using a variation of this tactic.

So if you do decide to use the proof-of-concept for your podcast consulting business, we wish you the best in generating a great revenue stream for your business by having a successful podcast business.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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623- Step by step guide to editing and producing Podcasts

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we disclose information about a post by Ben Krueger that describes “a step by step guide to podcast editing and production.”

As you may know, Ben is the podcaster with his site called Cashflowpodcasting.com. He has delivered many resources (many of them free as pdfs) to those who are mainly new or aspiring podcasters. I have valued his deliveries of advice and resources since I met him personally in 2014 where I shared a booth with him in the expo hall during the very first Podcast Movement conference.

Ben Krueger

Ben first goes into the do-it-yourself approach to creating a podcast show and recording and editing its episodes. He refers to free software, such as audacity and others like auphonic to help podcasters in the editing of audio for podcasting. In fact, I, myself, have used various versions of the free software, Audacity, since my beginning in the podosphere. And with the help of good microphones, other devices and good software, I still continue using it today to record and edit my podcast episodes.

He then explores the idea of hiring a team to do your podcast editing, thus freeing you up to pursue content creation and marketing and sales and other talents. As we said in our last episode, you could hire a studio or an agency or get a podcast consultant to which you can “farm this out.”

But he ends this summary of the article with the suggestions for the do-it-yourself podcast editing — and he emphasizes why you should not be afraid of learning the tools and getting a good workflow down for editing the audio files yourself.

When I started my trip into the podosphere in 2005, there were no tools or training for being a podcaster and creating a workflow to do editing. It was not until I had read the book by Evo Terra and Tee Morris called Podcasting for Dummies that I learned the elements of a podcast and its creation. And it was not until 2006 that I was able to view and follow the audio and video training by Jason Van Orden to learn how to podcast. And in a little over one day, I had my first podcast episode created, edited and published on a public platform. And after that, I started discovering the podcasters who were podcast  consultants that offered to help you create and publish your podcast shows and episodes — and I chose Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting as my podcast consultant. With his advice and his tutoring, I quickly learned a good workflow about podcasting, and I started creating more shows and publishing more episodes in the podosphere.

And I have never looked back after some 16 years.

Now, although today, you have a myriad of choices from agencies to consultants from which to choose,  you can select the best source and alternatives for you (in terms of quality, offerings, cost and results) to begin your career (be it part-time or full-time) into podcasting. And then you can also progress to the next step of setting up your podcasting as a tactic for your business — or you may even set up your own entrepreneurship as a podcasting business, as the tools and education and training for this are also available in many places and from many sources. As stated by Adam Schaeuble of the podcast show called the Podcasting Business School, you can treat your podcasting endeavor like a business, but enjoy it like a hobby.

And take it from someone like myself that has been a podcast consultant for over 10 years, there is a lot of room in the podosphere for those who want to use their creativity to improve the way podcast editing is done and the workflow for podcast production today.

One final note — Ben also has a call-to-action at the end of the post for you to download his free book, as well as know about his roadmap. I would suggest that you scan the article in the post by Ben to see if your world of podcasting can improve with the help of others — either as consultants, agencies or professionals — or with books or tutorials that can help you learn new materials, new ways, new tools and become more successful in publishing your podcast episodes.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com and audacity and auphonic and Dave Jackson of schoolofpodcasting.com, and Tee Morris and Evo Terra. All rights reserved.

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629- Podcasting under fire with controversy of censorship and harassment and cancel culture

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter Show, we discuss the events from Podcast Movement 2022 where the controversy sprang from the appearance of management of the conference displaying harassment due to demands from some of the attendees to execute censorship and cancel culture and blatant bigotry.

One example of a team in the podosphere who attended the conference and paid $30,000 US dollars for a booth can be stated by the firm that felt harassed and damaged by the hateful tweets from the PM Conference management that can be interpreted as censorship and bigotry:

 

Now, my opinion is that the first 20 minutes or so of this discussion tries to identify the event situation from one side, and the resulting harm from the Podcast Movement management.

Feedback from those who were there

For myself, I tried to get some feedback from some of the people that were actual attendees or sponsors of the conference.

In one instance, I listened to a podcaster who spoke at the event, as well as was an exhibitor in the exhibit area with Libsyn. This was, of course, Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting. And you can hear his response of his perspective from episode 843 in the last 20 minutes of the episode. Enough said from just one podcaster that has been around since the beginning of the podosphere and who not only podcasts, but also attends these conferences.

From other reliable sources, I had conversations with other attendees  that made these multiple points about the incident at the conference:

  • No physical violence or threats resulted;
  • The tweet from conference management with the alleged hate and bigotry was later taken down;
  • the next 3 conferences were posted for 2023 to 2024;
  • many people — including some of the management of the conference itself — were guilty of overreacting and permitted this type of triggered controversy to develop and even grow;
  • some damage has been done to the name of PM and to podcasting itself, unless this controversy dies down and podcasting can resume to content creation and value delivery to audiences.

As for myself, I have been in the podosphere for over 17 years, and as a podcaster, I have had over 18 shows. I was also one of the first contributors to podcast movement with my initial kickstarter contribution. I also attended the first Podcast Movement conference in 2014 in Dallas, Texas, and I shared a booth with Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting.com. I was grateful to Gary Leland for starting the idea of this conference, so that the excitement and thrill of podcasting could once again be felt in an atmosphere of podcasters sharing information in an open community.

I had also attended the recent Podcast Movement Evolutions 2020 conference, as well.

In addition to PM, I also have attended and spoken at various podcast conferences and podcamps, etc. in the past 16 years. So I have supported the podcast conferences since their inception.

But my perspective of this whole situation from a podcaster point of view is that “demands” should not be made and that the conference should not be politicized just to get your narrow or personal “message” to all audiences. For me, the open nature of podcasting and the meaningful dialog of what it can provide to the audiences is still tremendous. And very much like what Dave Jackson said, my feeling is that if you feel that you want to demand the conference to be the way you desire to meet your own political goals, then you can go out and start your own conference — as with the example of ShePodcasts.

So will I attend the PM conference any more?

Perhaps — I will make my decision by March of 2023, when PM Evolutions 2023 will be in Las Vegas, and with the web site, I can see who will be speaking and what the topics will be to see if it will truly deliver VALUE to the audience of podcasters, and not be targeted to just the few agitators and those who make demands. By that time, hopefully this type of controversy and demand for cancel culture, bigotry and censorship will have gone away (perhaps the “demanders” will have started their own event, where they can be satisified, and I can avoid it). If this situation increases, then the event of Podcast Movement will turn into nothing more than a Bowel Movement.

My feeling is that I support OPEN PODCASTING with DIALOG — not demands — and that there is always room for anyone starting another conference to meet their own narrow objectives and leave open conferences for all podcasters alone.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and schoolofpodcasting.com and Podcast Movement. All rights reserved.

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610- Companion Podcast shows — possible resources for success

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss an age-old manner of supporting your podcast business, as well as promoting your podcast show. And this is by incorporating a resource known as THE  COMPANION PODCAST. And we have two cases-in-point of success stories about companion podcasts that highlight and promote books written by podcasters who are also authors:

and I will also briefly mention my own experiences with companion podcast shows for my programs of Finance for Startups and Gain Control of Your Day in the earlier years of the podosphere.

In this book, Dave has had an update to his earlier book titled More Podcast Money. This is really just the latest information that Dave has delivered on how to monetize your podcast, should you wish to get money from your podcast. This is a current example of a companion podcast to help promote and sell the book. And it has resulted in a success story, but not one of titanic proportions of revenue success.

In this original book published in 2005-2006, a companion audio podcast show started by Tee Morris actually had resounding success for the promotion and sale of the book. Now in its third printing, and with a sequel that followed the original book titled Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies, this was the original case-in-point about how a companion podcast can grow your show and provide success for monetization of your podcast show. I myself first learned of this book in 2007, and I did promote it at the first Podcamp in Phoenix, Arizona, when Evo Terra sat in my session when I presented monetization strategies for serialized podcast shows. Of course, that is when I first met and spoke with Evo Terra.

My own experience with COMPANION PODCASTS

In my experience as a professional podcaster, I have had  several shows in which I implemented the concept and practice of creating and publishing a companion podcast:

  • One show was Gain Control of Your Day — this now podfaded show was a training course delivered by audio podcast episodes that used a technology developed by Paul Colligan, (who was a thought leader, a pundit in New Media and podcasting and an author of podcasting books) that mainly dealt with monetization of podcasts. His Technology of “dripping” episodes in his resource called Premiumcast, along with a one-to-one podcast feed for every paying member was key in the initial years of the podosphere. And this method of supporting the course and delivering training by having a smaller companion podcast that introduced the show and delivered content during the marketing and promotion of the show did have some limited success — although the problems that put the nail in the coffin of my success in this endeavor were both a delay in announcing and delivering the show, as well as the introduction of the competition by Apple (which was the 2010 promotional marketing and introduction of the original iPhone 1).
  • The other case-in-point was my show that was originally called Finance for Startups. Also now podfaded, this show had more success in launching and promoting as marketing tools the course by the same name. Originally delivered as a companion podcast, a late entry also hampered its  success, but the audio book that served as a nine-episode companion podcast did see some limited success — as I had a partner that created content and helped me to prepare the podcast episodes. But again, the novelty of the day in 2010 was the latest toy in the podosphere, the iPhone 1. Thus, although you may have the right tactics, the right marketing and sales promotion and the right delivery, the competition in the podosphere may be an obstacle to success in your original plans. So this course was removed from the podosphere in the USA, but my partner had seen limited success in the Australian and other foreign markets for podcasting and online courses.

So, my view of these experiences are that planning and executing a companion podcast is a great competitive tool that can bring success in monetization — but you have to be early enough in the announcement and delivery of the course or the companion podcast that describes your book or course before the competition arrives. And you should be certain that new announcements will not hinder the success of your show.

As Dave Jackson stated, with over a million new podcasts being announced and published in just the one year of 2021, you will have to promote your offering and deliver a companion podcast (mainly for no charge, until you have a purchase-base or subscription-based success for your book or course, thanks to your companion podcast.

Thus, we do wish you well if you wish to create, publish and deliver a companion podcast that will promote your education courses or books or other assets or podcasts that you wish to monetize. You just have to be aware of the vast amount of time that will be used to create your companion podcast and figure in the return on investment (ROI) factors that will be needed to judge its success.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Dave Jackson of profitfromyourpodcasting.com and Evo Terra of Podcastingfordummies.com. All rights reserved.

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607- Pre-launch feedback can be critical for Podcasting success

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss some experiences that I have had when trying to sell my own products from my podcast shows — and the good, bad and the ugly about their results.

The inspiration for this show came from a podcast show of various episodes from Dave Jackson, podcaster and author of the book, Profit from Your Podcast. Yes, I had ordered the book and have read it — in fact, Dave will even send you a personally autographed copy if you order it from him.

Latest book from Dave Jackson about monetizing your Podcasts.

In addition, Dave has also produced a podcast show called Profit from Your Podcast, with the same content.

In these episodes of this podcast show, Dave talks about how both feedback in the form of survey results — as well as perhaps focus groups — can be critical for getting audience buy-in for your own products that you may want to sell to monetize your show. And, yes, there are many other strategies in which he goes into within his book, but these are the 2 in which I personally can deliver some experiences when I started off in podcasting and had courses to sell about my podcasts since 2006 (which, in those days, was the very beginning of the podosphere with very few rules — in fact, they called it the “wild, wild west” of New Media).

ABOUT FOCUS GROUPS

Focus groups can give you immediate reaction of your audience from selected members (besides your family and friends) who may be part of your intended and targeted audience. They can help you see if you do, indeed, have a solution or product which they not only want, but also need — and if they would be willing to spend money for it. And in the book and podcast from Dave, he spends time talking about what a focus group is, how to conduct one and what to do with the results for you to analyze the landscape into making a decision to proceed with the strategy and solution you wish to sell.

For this podcaster, I did NOT perform any focus groups. I had only brainstormed this idea with a current podcaster in 2006 when I had the podcast premium course that I had been creating almost done. And it seemed like a good idea at the time, for there were hardly any solutions like mine. And I had been teaching this course in a stand-up inbound class in person for many years — and so the content was second nature to me, and I saw the reviews of my classes and felt very confident that this would sell in the market of that day.

So I went on to finish the course using some technology that came about to make distribution, security and monetization easier for this podcast premium product that I wanted to market. However, I did NOT consider the market landscape of ALL of New Media. And this is the snake that bit me in the back.

Why?

Because Apple had announced, launched and marketed their iPhone product to the world — and that included the majority of my target market. And so the Apple announcement and the audience’s desire for “apps” destroyed my marketing efforts and killed off 99 per cent of my sales, regardless of my strategies and investment in my solution.

And because I had not done any focus groups to wet the appetite of my audience and get good feedback and positive reinforcement that I was on the right track, I was faced with an albatross for several years until I had written off my project and finally withdrew it.

SURVEY RESULTS

I had also committed another grievous sin — I did not have solid pre-launch survey results from my target audience about the utility of my product and their desire to obtain it to solve their problems. The desire for “apps” overcame their senses, and they dropped my product and podcast like a hot potato, as they circled around a solution in an app for their problem.

And, truthfully, up to this day, there has NOT been a solution in app format on the smartphone that has delivered the same solutions as my premium podcast course. But the lure for an all-encompassing app led my target market astray, and I suffered the results.

Why did I not have pre-launch surveys?

At the time, I, as a podcaster and trainer of a successful in-person course, felt overconfident that my solution was the best and that it would sell to my audience.

How wrong I was. In fact, the only surveys came AFTER the product was launched and after seeing the results that lacked success.

For if I had done surveys, I know that the responses would show that the only format that would have been suitable to my target audience would have been an iPhone app — and, again, that day not only did NOT arrive then in 2010, but it has still not arrived even today. And, yes, one or two scattered customers recently saw the value of my course and have purchased it now — but the marketing and sales plans that I had so carefully prepared did not show up, because I was flattened by the competition in the marketplace by mere illusory dreams of a solution that has never been delivered.

Now, the lessons I have learned have been to create a marketing plan for any monetization that I wish to follow with pre-launch activities that include:

  • surveys; and
  • focus groups

and to rely on their feedback to create milestones in which to make a hard decision that is fact-based on whether to continue or change course — or even to scrap the project solution due to audience feedback.

And since that time, I did create another podcast course with another podcaster — and we achieved more of a success, but it was still not enough to get us over the hurdle into great profitability.

Thus, my lessons learned included the inclusion of feedback from many sources (here we only touch upon 2) in pre-launch activities that can provide great information before sinking any more time and money into continuing on something that may not provide a good ROI as we desired.

These are lessons that I could have used if Dave’s book had been available to me at that time. For in his book, Dave speaks about both, but he also gives some scenarios and recommendations on how to conduct both surveys and focus groups — and these may be well worth consuming if you are a newer or aspiring podcaster that wants to monetize your show with online courses you wish to sell or with other products of your own

So, I hope that you can get more information from Dave’s book and free podcast, as mentioned. And I wish that you can avoid the mistakes that I had made and then get your show to have successful launches of your products that will make your podcasts more successful and profitable.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Dave Jackson and profitfromyourpodcast.com. All rights reserved.

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594- Ben Krueger on Podcast Procrastination

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we consider an article by Ben Krueger (podcaster and creator of cashflowpodcasting.com) in which he ponders the reasons why potential podcasters delay in getting started — in fact, he titles it “The One thing stopping you from starting your podcast.”

Now, you could consider this a type of procrastination from getting your feet wet in the podosphere as an aspiring podcaster.

And as we delve more deeply into this article, there is food for thought that someone who would like to podcast should really know what he may be missing out on by not starting. And we would ask ourselves the same question — what is the one big reason why anyone who wants to podcast would hesitate?

In the article, Ben describes the dilemma and the lost potential of communicating with a good audience and telling your own story and delivering your own message:

“The biggest thing that gets in the way of podcasting dreams is the desire to do it right. And it’s not surprising if you think about it. Industry advocates and leaders have become successful because when they decide to do something, they make sure they do it well.

They make the effort to create high-quality work, use a strategy that gets results, and make the most of their time so they can focus on what they’re best at. This drive to do it right is key to their success in other things, and podcasting is no different.

The problem is that because they are so focused on this, their podcast becomes the project they think about for months—if not years—before they’re ready to commit. In my experience, this is usually due to three main issues that must be addressed before these would-be podcasters feel ready.”

And so Ben describes these main issues for aspiring podcasters and their procrastination:

  • Issue number 1:  the excuse or reason is “I don’t have the time.”
  • Issue number 2:  Being intimidated by the tech in podcasting;
  • Issue number 3:  The desire for success (and the resulting fear of failure to meet expectations).

Now, in my past, I have taught Personal Productivity (aka “time management”) courses to professionals. There is always some proven method to be able to be more productive (about 25 per cent for many people) with their time. In fact, when I taught the course, the objective was “to accomplish more in less time with better quality and to reduce stress.”

As Ben addresses in the article, getting help with software, or with virtual assistants, can free up time for you to be able to engage in the podosphere and get some good results. Obviously, his call to action is to hire a professional who can assist in helping you get started (like himself). And I have no problem with this, as I myself did hire Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting to help me get my podcasts launched (even after I had taken self-study courses in starting a podcast show and creating and publishing an episode).

And, of course, if you have the money and want to get a pro to do it all for you, the hiring of help is the ideal way — even though most of the aspiring podcasters cannot afford it:  “The third and best option is to hire a full-service podcast production agency that takes care of the strategy, as well as all the time-consuming and technical stuff so that all you have to do is show up and hit record.”

I highly recommend that you, as an aspiring podcaster, should review the contents of this article so that you can really get past the excuses of “no time” or “no tech savvy” to get yourself into the podosphere — especially since most of us cannot go with the third alternative, which is to hire a full-blown studio to do it all for you. And although this is one alternative that can be provided by Ben Krueger, your budgets may have a warning for you from proceeding down the full-blown studio setup.

Yes, it may take some time and some self education, as well as a minor investment in training materials, as well as the tech devices and software. But once you get past the learning curve, you will find out how satisfying it can be to prepare, produce, publish and promote your own show and episodes.

As Ben summarizes, the HELP you need is something which you must explore, investigate, analyze and plan for stepping into the podosphere: “The moral of the story? Get help at whatever level is appropriate so that your time and effort are maximized for success…Instead of trying to figure out all the tech on your own, there’s a much simpler and more effective way: Ask for recommendations, and keep it simple…Starting a podcast can be time-efficient, simple and rewarding — if you let it.”

In fact, Ben recommends one of his resources to start with, as it is a free key piece of advice:  “(A great place to start is to download our free book, which breaks down our proven 5-step process for starting and managing a podcast…)”

In his book, Die Empty, Todd Henry (a podcaster and author) also mentions that a graveyard is the biggest container of lost ideas and valuable projects that never got started. Thus, Ben, in a similar manner, suggests that you NOT let procrastination of getting into the podosphere be one of your tragedies that were never realized in life.

Thus, we hope that you will find the time and get the training and education and put together a realistic plan to engage in the podosphere and have a successful podcast.

Thank you for your attention.

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

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615- BONUS- Update Interview with Dave Jackson at PM 2022 Evolutions

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver an interview with Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting show while he was winding down his participation at the Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022 conference in Los Angeles.

As you will hear in this 40-minute episode, Dave delivers a report as a “boots-on-the-ground” demonstrator and exhibitor at the Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022 conference, including:

  • his thoughts on the nature of the show and audiences;
  • his perspectives of new announcements and innovations;
  • his vision of the future of the Podcast Movement conferences; and
  • a bit about his own future and participation in the podosphere as an author, a podcaster, a tech support personnel at Libsyn and a podcast consultant.

We hope that you enjoy the interview. We think that you can get a lot out of this, especially if you could not attend the conference — either in person or as a virtual attendee.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Dave Jackson of schoolofpodcasting.com and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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614- BONUS- Preparing for PM Evolutions 2022 conference

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we deliver our plans to check out Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022 conference in Los Angeles, California, in late March, 2022.

Now, I have been an advocate and supporter or the conference since its inception in 2014 by Hall-of-Fame podcaster, Gary Leland. In addition to contributing to the crowdfunding program, I was also a speaker at this Dallas event.

In addition, the last podcast conference in which I did present was in Las Vegas in 2015 at the New Media Expo. My session was about podcasting for service groups and non-profit organizations.

But for this event, I will be taking a page out of the book of Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting. What he did in 2013 at the New Media Expo was NOT purchase a ticket to be an attendee or presenter; rather, he stood outside the exhibit hall and other areas where you needed a badge to enter. In those days, there were more events that were open to everyone — such as keynotes, speed-interviews, etc., where anyone could attend. So Dave told me in an interview during that show in Las Vegas that he got more out of being a non-presenter or a non-attendee in person. He said that having all this free time enabled him to meet people in the hall and outside the exhibit hall and renew older relationships or generate new relationships, as well as do interviews and get the “buzz” from the attendees that did want to meet him in person.

So I will do the same at this conference, to the extent that it is limited. I do plan to meet with Dave Jackson, as I had scheduled to be with him ahead of time — and we can do an interview in the lobby or the restaurant or coffee shop of the hotel. I hope to schedule the same with pundits such as Paul Colligan, Todd Cochrane, Rob Greenlee, Rob Walch, Gordon Firemark and others. We shall see.

But of all the interviews that I perform, we hope to deliver to you interesting trends and directions of podcasting, as well as new innovations that will be interesting for you, my audience.

Thus, stay tuned for upcoming bonus episodes that will deliver to you the information from the Podcast Movement Evolutions 2022 conference.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and PodcastMovement.com and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.

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podcast

613- Key entrepreneur Thomas Umstaddt — a repurposed interview

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver a REPURPOSED episode in which we spoke to Thomas Umstaddt in Austin some years ago. This evergreen content (for getting new devices for podcasting) was the episode that showed the strategy for Thomas in purchasing one of the first iPad devices, as part for his business.

Now, I met Thomas when I stood in line with him for over an hour at the time that the Apple iPad was introduced and waiting to be sold at the Apple Store. I later had him as a guest for our Podcast meetup in the Austin area, in which he demonstrated the business use of the iPad device for our audience.

And recently, I heard his name mentioned by Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting episode in which Dave described a scheduled webinar in which Thomas would be featured. This webinar will be in the near future on April 5, 2022, and you can get reserve a seat at the following web site: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/Book-Launch-Secrets-Dave-Jackson-2022

or at schoolofpodcasting.com/booklaunch.

And the subjects to be discussed would be creating a book and then marketing your content in the publishing industry. Again, you can find out more about this at schoolofpodcasting.com/818.

Now, I myself have signed up to attend this webinar, and I also encourage you to do the same. As Dave Jackson mentioned in his podcast show episode 818, Thomas is a wealth of knowledge (a “walking wikipedia”), especially about marketing for written content.

Thus, I hope that you will sign up and attend this free webinar, as Thomas and Dave combined can give you some good ideas with a few gems about creating and marketing your own book.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Thomas Umstaddt, Jr.. All rights reserved.

 

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podcast

568- Key ways to get your podcast discovered

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we dive into the ways that you can get your podcast discovered — especially from the words of wisdom delivered by Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting.

These ways were published and described with a link in a post on The Podcast Business Journal recently. Dave is the author of the recently published book called Profit from Your Podcast.

Now, I have personally known Dave, and I have interviewed him in the past since 2007, and I have even hired him as a podcast consultant since then. His skill and acumen are well noted, as he is a member of the Podcasting Hall of Fame and has an award-winning podcast show of The School of Podcasting.com.

What Dave discusses for us in this post is the age-old problem of DISCOVERY. Since 2005, he has been giving hints, tips, tools and other recommendations for having your own podcast show do well in the area of discovery. This also relates to Dave’s internal mission in life today, which is to help you avoid making your podcast BORING.

So Dave gives some simple suggestions to help your podcast in the area of DISCOVERY in the podosphere:

  • Tell people to share the show — especially since word-of-mouth is one of the strongest means of promoting your podcast and letting others “discover” that your podcast has valuable content for them — and have a great call-to-action;
  • Be Down with other people’s podcast — “Do your homework and find other podcasts where you can deliver value to the audience.”
  • Apply to speak at all events — your presence in front of live audiences (and even virtual or online events) will help to grow your audience and introduce you to those who don’t know about you or your podcast;
  • Always be promoting — you should be a 24-hour marketing and promotion system for your own podcast show and emphasize the VALUE that you bring to your listeners;
  • Paid advertising where podcast listeners reside — a strong method, if you can afford it in your budget and target the right audience with the right ROI (i.e., return on investment) that gets you results.

Now, Dave gives examples and sample situations for each of his five suggestions. I strongly recommend that you run this checklist mentally and compare to see how it relates to your show, and whether or not you can get good results from this. For a few minutes of examining this checklist, a gem of good opportunity may come your way.

We hope that you will be better at DISCOVERY in the area of podcasting, and that your show’s audience can grow so that you can have a successful podcast.

Thank you for your attention.

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