3 Podcast Mistakes That Just Make Me Kind Of Sad - The Podcast Report Episode #69

Three podcast mistakes that just make me kind of sad. It's the podcast report, episode 69 show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 69. It's the podcast Report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. The biggest podcast problems have nothing to do with the tech. Hey, this is Paul Colligan, author, podcaster. Obviously, we're doing a show right now. This is episode 69. I've been doing this show for a while, but I've been in podcasting even longer. Been podcasting pretty much since day one. I love this industry and I love you, the podcaster. And I really appreciate the fact that you've come down this many episodes with me. You're a podcaster looking to make your podcast a real business or do more real business because of your podcast. This podcast has never been a massive play, but it's always been a deep one. We hit the issues that matter to you. The podcaster. Thank you so much for joining us. This is your first episode. Go ahead and hit out the back catalog. It's very good, very evergreen, and done that way on purpose. So three podcast mistakes that make me kind of sad. Why this one, Paul? You've done topics like this before. What's the angle? What's the purpose? What's the reason for this one? Well, I've just signed another big client that I am really excited about that you'll be hearing about very, very soon. We'll be doing a lot of the stuff we're doing with him and as case studies, but really brave move. Very exciting, very inspiring. And as I've been putting together the plan for what we're doing here, I've been realizing just some of the things that just are not inspiring, that are not exciting, that are not that are exactly the opposite. There's just some mistakes out there. There's some great podcasters. They're just making the same mistakes over and over and over again. And it's just kind of sad. I'm looking at a bunch of copycats out there. I mean, there's a lot of podcasters, people in the how to space, copying each other, trying to, you know, and not to leverage, not to rising tide floats, all boats better kind of thing, but just in a, you know, in a pretty sad little. I don't know, I don't want to go into that. But here's the thing. Some people are copying each other's lies, and these lies are getting propagated, and it's just a big mess. So let's do this right, let's be smart, let's go from there. I was listening to Dave Jackson's podcast a couple episodes for when you hear this live, maybe even back further when you listen to this. So I'll have the link over to it in the show notes@the podcastreport.com 6 9. You know, Dave was talking about a common conception and he's just saying, no, it's just a flat out lie. And it is a flat out lie. And so let's do better as an industry. Let's all learn from each other. Let's definitely use best practices. If somebody's doing something that works, let's figure out if it works uniquely for them or if it works for the industry. And if it works for the industry, do it. If it works uniquely for them, don't copy it because it happens to work uniquely for them. Make sense? Okay, let's get to work. The three mistakes. The first mistake are people who make a podcast, not a show. A podcast, not a show. You know, I'm flipping over right now. I'm looking at the website for Stitcher. Now, Stitcher is a tiny percentage of podcasting, obviously, but it represents a tremendous amount of the future of podcasting. And people like Tunein represent a big future. And some of these other players represent a big future. I'm looking at Stitcher and up at the top, get the app, learn more. Top shows, top episodes, Listen, listen, grow. Radio that instantly connects you in a conversation. Get the free app. You keep scrolling further and further down the page. The word podcast isn't anywhere until the bottom of the page. And no, this is not the podcasting is doing us damage. Podcast is the format. But the world is looking for a show. The world is looking for content that doesn't just come to iPhones, but content that is universal, that comes to our cars, that comes to our television sets. The new Apple TV is supposed to come out next week. It's gonna interesting to see what's happening there. I'm privy to a beta of a really cool app that I think is going to have a big impact on podcasting. We're bigger on podcasts, it's going to have a bigger impact on our content. It's going to get us bigger than that. Stop making podcasts make a show. I've joked about this before, but my mom, to this day, you ask her if you can listen to my podcast and she says no because she doesn't have any Apple devices yet. On my mom's Kindle Fire, which she loves dearly more than life itself. Sometimes she has iHeartRadio. When I told her I was on iHeartRadio, she's like, you're on the radio. No, mama, it's. It's a podcast. It's on iHeartRadio. Well, how could it be a podcast if it's on the radio? These lines are blurred. Don't confuse anyone. Not that mom's ever gonna listen to the show, or not that mom's the demographic for the show, but most of you, the demographic for your show. It's considerably better than people who know what a podcast is. So the first mistake I see is people who are focused on making a podcast, not a show. Make a show, deliver it by podcast. Podcasting's still great term, still awesome. It's a lot better than some of the other terms. But make a show. That's what everybody's thinking about. The next mistake is encouraging visits over subscriptions. And I've chatted about this time and time again and it's a big deal. But I'm watching people say, visit my site, not subscribe to my show, come to my page, listen to this episode, you know, download this piece. And it's sad because it's a one off. You have to do it every single time. You have to start over and over again every week. You gotta get new people to come to your website. You got to get new people to click to the play button. You got to get new people. We don't need to do that. We have podcasting, we have subscription. You know, some of you have been on the show since day one for 69 episodes. Well, for 68 episodes because you clicked subscribe after the first episode. This stuff has come to you automatically every week. That's the power of podcasting. Once versus repetitive. Now, I've covered this before, but it's so, so key. And the funny thing is, is this is where the money is. And this is where the money is in both of the models, all the models that I em of the higher end stuff, the greater generation through, you know, lead building and your own products and that kind of stuff. But even if you are one of these people who sees your money to be, and I'm sorry, one of these people, that's. That's a bad way to say it. If your model is downloads for download revenue for CPM ad insertion, that's great. You want subscriptions even more than I do because you want these things to come automatically like clockwork. Again, I've got clients, they Release an episode, 10,000 downloads in the next 24 hours. You can do this if you build subscribers, if you encourage subscriptions over visits. It's so sad to see people start again every single week. You don't need to do that. So that's the third, the second mistake. The third mistake, this one's so huge, is letting technology dictate the content. And sadder than that, even letting the perception of technology dictate the content. I've met people who believe that to do a podcast, you have to do an interview, or to do a podcast, you have to use Skype when you're interviewing something. Or to do a podcast, you have to use GarageBand, or you have to use a Mac, or you have to use Adobe Audition, or you have to use something. And it's so funny because you don't. There's a lot of ways to skin the cat. Last week, you heard a session of a presentation I did at Lisa Sasevich's event. It was about a five minute episode. It was really short, but it was totally fun. That I recorded on my iPhone using a $20 microphone. The Irig mic cast, I think is the name of it. I'll put a link to it in the show notes. And the room was thrilled because it was like all these perceptions of the right microphone and the right chord and that kind of stuff all went away. As a room of content makers, you realized, I can just start making content now. Certainly make the best sounding content you possibly can, but don't let the technology dictate the content. I'm going to date this episode, but last week, the big preview, the big final preview for the new Star wars movie came out. And I'm a big nerd. And I've loved Star wars ever since I was a little kid. And it's funny because, you know, the first three came out, they were fantastic, and then the next three came out and they were lousy. And why were they lousy? They were lousy because George Lucas let the technology get in the way of. Of the storytelling. It was really sad. And you just look at the last three movies and they were just all about the tech, and they were all about the things that you can do with the tech and not about the storytelling, which is what Star wars originally was. And the new movie hasn't come out. Maybe I'll be wrong. But I'll tell you, from the preview, everything I'm looking at, it looks like this one is going to be about the story. And that's what's made podcasting so powerful, is that it's about the story. So if there's something that you've heard that a podcast has to be this or a podcast has to be that or it has to be recorded that way, you know, flee from that, run from that. Get your content out to the world in the way that makes the most sense to you. I call that easecasting. You can call it whatever you want. Just get podcasting done, you know, get it out the door now. There was a posting once to my Facebook page, you know, and it was really funny because somebody said, what do I do if I'm having a hard time getting interviews on my podcast? It was a legitimate question, and I gave a swarmy answer, which I sometimes do. I just said, well, don't do a interview show. And the person responded on the page. They said, well, is that allowed? This person had been told that podcasting was interviews. You know, oh, it's so much bigger than that. Interviews, a great format. I've had interviews on this show. I've been on plenty of interviews. Just don't let the technology get in the way of your content. Don't let the expectations, the correct ones or the incorrect ones get in the way of you getting your content out in the world. You do that, and we'll be at a much better place. So if, you know, you've been listening to the show for a while, I was in it with, what do you do about it? What am I doing about it? Well, what do you do about it? Just check to see if you're making the three mistakes. If you're focused on making a podcast, not making a show, just regroup a little bit. Move it to a show. You'll reach more people, you'll have more distribution, and you'll be at a better place, and the concept there will be bigger. Yes, podcasts are fun and sexy, but for a certain demographic. Produce yourself a show, you'll be at a better place. Encouraging visitors over subscriptions. Make your message subscriptions. Get subscribers. Get people who come back every week, the second a new episode is released. That's fantastic. That is the power of this industry. And then finally, don't let the technology dictate the content. You know, write on a big whiteboard what it is that you want to get out the door, and then figure out the best, fastest, easy way to do it. Don't let the nerds, don't let anyone get in the way of you doing that. What I'm doing, and it's neat because my new client's forcing me to do this. It's content first. We've regrouped everything. We've taken a look not at the podcast, but what is the show? What is the content? The technology hasn't been talked about yet and we're over a week into this project and I just love the fact that that's been done. My focus is going to continue to be on content. If it makes sense to send it to you by podcast, it's going to come by podcast. If it comes by blog post or book or anything else, that's how it's going to come. If it comes by an app. Paul, you don't have an app yet? No, I don't yet. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I'm going to make sure that the content comes to you the way that it needs to come to you. I'd love your thoughts on this one. I'm all over social thepodcastreport.com Twitter podcastreport.com Facebook that'll take you there. If you want to just go out to the website thepodcastreport.com 69 there's a great place to comment on this episode and get the links and all that good stuff. Links at 69 the how to podcast book podcast cart, SMS to opt in Dave Jackson's link there and I'll do a link to the Irig as well. I'm just adding that to the show notes as we do this. Do subscribe. I'd be a hypocrite to speak to subscribing and not ask you to do the same. Set it up so that every time an episode comes out you get it automatically. You can do that@the podcastreport.com iTunes if you're an iOS user or thepodcastreport.com Stitcher or PocketCast or TuneIn or Spreaker or iHeartRadio. Of course you can listen along with mom or evenovercast. If you wanna send me an email, it's the podcastreportoutlook.com if you wanna leave a review. I love those. My favorite places for reviews are itunes and Stitcher. But if there's a place for you to leave a review, go ahead and do that. Thank you so much for listening to the show. We'll be back again next week. Of course you'll get that automatically if you subscribe, which is something I'm encouraging you to do and something I'm encouraging you to get your audience to do. We'll chat next week. Bye.