7 Lessons Learned Publishing My Third Podcast Book - The Podcast Report Episode #34

Seven lessons learned by publishing my third podcast report. It's the podcast report episode 34. Show notes, links, the conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 34 it's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. At the risk of preaching to the choir here, my new podcast book is out and if I've learned anything in this process, and this is the third one I've done, your podcast is about your voice, not your tech. The tech has gotten in the way. The technology has caused more confusion than good. Not as many people are podcasting as should be because, well, gosh darn it, they're still in the microphone wars and that kind of thing. My name is Paul Culligan. I am a multiple time bestselling author. One of them is a new book that just came out today, how to podcast 2015. I have been part of the podcasting space since day one. I love the audience, I love podcasters. I love people who are thinking about podcasting. That's kind of what this podcast is all about. Two people, two audiences for this podcast, the podcaster, those who want to make a better podcast, and those podcasters who have listened to this podcast, who have thanked me for it, who have sent me notes of encouragement, thank you. That is pretty tremendous and I appreciate that. The other one is those thinking about getting into podcasting who know that podcasting is about more than the tech. Podcasting is more, you know, more than just what platform we put ourselves on and that type of thing. And for those of you who are investigating podcasting, please get into it. Get your first episode out. Do that soon. If how to podcast can help, great. If not, don't care. Get your podcast out. This particular podcast is not a massive play, but it's a deep one. So today's topic, the book, is out today. You can go to howtopodcastbook.com for more. This is not going to be an ad for the book in any sense of the word. I figure if you want to pick it up, you're going to pick it up. And I just want to share with you what I learned in the process. I learned a lot. I got seven points. Let's get to them. Number one, a lot of damage has been done in making things complicated and I've slowly been realizing that. But I'm realizing that more and more these days. Another one of the books I did was it was a book on YouTube and it was funny because I did a series of videos about YouTube and again, trying to help get People past the technology of this. And one of the big questions YouTubers ask all the time is what's the best format for my YouTube file? And I basically did this video where I said, doesn't matter. Whatever format you got your video in, send that to YouTube. That part doesn't matter. And it's a good message, and it's a message I believe in. And to this day, I still believe the format doesn't matter. And what's funny was if you go back to that video and I've got links to it in the show notes, if you go to the podcastreport.com 34, I've got a link to that video, you'll see I've got thousands and thousands of thumbs down. I've got thousands of comments of people saying I'm an idiot and that I don't understand these things. And it's all because they're fighting about the format. The format doesn't matter. The format doesn't matter. And I don't want to go into YouTube. I don't want to go into this. But the thing is, there's this time, there's this effort. And the thing is, people are looking for this topic. People are searching for this topic. The funny thing is, I got a lot of thumbs up and I got a lot of people who like the video. And I've sold a lot of books as a result of the video, but it's been an interesting one. But it's complication. It's a simple issue made complicated. Your podcast is about your voice, not the tech used to create your voice. Your first episode will be your worst sounding. Episode will be your worst put together episode will be your worst everything, but it will be you. That's the power of podcasting. That's the power of what we have here. I'm going to get some flack for writing this book. I made podcasting incredibly simplistic. I'm expecting negative reviews at all the book sites, but I don't care. People aren't podcasting because it's been made too complicated. And gosh darn it, well, let's change that. The second thing I've learned, the tech has changed, but really the message hasn't. I was looking back at my old business podcasting bible and I could have lifted pieces out of that, but. And nothing had changed. I wrote the business podcasting bible to be sort of eternal. And it's funny, I've got some people who have written it, who have read it and bought it recently, and who have emailed Me saying things like, hey, Paul, you don't mention the iPhone. Yeah, I don't mention the iPhone because the book came out in 2006. I wrote the book 10 years ago. Some simple things haven't changed, but the tech has. But the simplicity of grab a microphone, share your voice, get the word out, that hasn't changed. Now here's something else. Other industries are embracing our model. And it's not just the model of podcasting. This isn't just a story of serial doing really, really well out there in the podcasting world or startup doing well in the podcasting world or all the comedians who ju well, this is a story of the self published, getting the respect and the attention we believe. And I have a funny personal story recollection that isn't the right term. I've got a story about that. So social Media Marketing World, one of the great events and if you're listening to this, before Social media Marketing World 2015 come if you listen to this after Social media Marketing World 2015, you missed a great event, but come to 2016 anyway. The first event I went to and I come down on the plane and I get an email from them saying that they got my book and my book's going to be in the bookstore. And I was excited. You know, I just released my YouTube book and I wanted to do a signing and I wanted to do all these things and that was great. And I get there and lo and behold, the book is my business podcasting bible from then seven years ago, but still not something I necessarily wanted associated with my name. You know, it's new, I don't mind it being associated with my name. But like right now, I mean, that's not the book you buy at the up and coming event about, you know, all things social. And so year two, my new podcast book was out, my new YouTube book was out and I said, hey, put this in the store. And at the time they contracted with Barnes and Noble and the company that I'm working with is print on demand. I believe that's the future. I believe that having warehouses full of dead trees is silly. And as a result, traditional bookstores at events aren't going to print these off in case they sell, don't sell kind of thing. So as a result, they weren't able to put my book, they weren't able to put a lot of books of people inside of the store. And fine and dandy did well, brought a bunch of books, gave them out to a lot of people. Not a big deal. But what's interesting is this year, same process, same publishing company, same everything. I just got an email that the book's going to be in there. Why? Because they're realizing the power, and not just social media marketing world realizing the power, but Barnes Noble is building into their infrastructure the power for this. You know, everybody's realizing the need for this. And gosh darn it, you can be embraced this way. You can be part of the process. You can be part of what people are looking for. Number four, we could be meeting needs better. I put a link to this in the show notes the podcastreport.com 34. If you look at Google Trends, if you look over the last year, how to podcast, people are still asking the question almost to the same degree. If anything, they're asking the question more ten years later than they are now. We haven't been helping them. I'm kind of a little embarrassed that it took me so long to get this book out the door. If you go to Amazon, there are a couple of books on how to podcast, but I don't want to speak badly of any competition or that kind of thing, but I don't think they're meeting the needs for what's going on. And there's no major ones, you know, and they definitely have that indie groove to them. You know, there's podcasting for dummies. But what if I'm not a dummy? You know, I know Evo, who wrote it, and he's a great guy and I appreciate what's been done, but there are just people who are going to the web, typing how to podcast. Can we help them? Your audience is going to the web, typing in how to X your topic, your passion area, your situation. Are you helping them? We could be meeting needs a lot better. Number five, there's still a ton of confusion. I was on a client call yesterday, one of my clients, great podcast, doing well. Hundreds of thousands of downloads, still confused, still not understanding some issues and some areas. Now, the cool thing is is they're worried about the content, not the tech. And so I appreciate that. But, man, we got to make this easier. We got to be able to explain this better. We got to be able to work on some definitions. If you come up with definitions for this, if you come up with ways explaining infographics, whatever it is, than better than what I've got, please let me know. There's a lot of confusion in this space, and if we do better, we'll be better for our industry. And let's do that. Number six, I spoke to This a little bit last week, but in my research for the book and just in looking numbers and how people are doing things and that kind of stuff, subscribers are still the number one secret weapon. And this leads to what this is. You know, some might look at this and go, this is a podcast marketing technique. But it's not. Podcast subscribers are the number one secret weapon. I spoke to that last week. I've got people doing tremendously well. I've got people doing better than some podcasters can dream of, all from subscribers. They're not doing the weekly marketing, they're not doing the follow up everything. And they should, and they should get more listeners and they should get more subscribers. But the fact of the matter is, once you have a subscriber, you've got a subscriber for life. And that's the power of podcasting. See, a lot of us are thinking, you know, the power of podcasting is the fanciest flash player that'll let our podcast look the greatest. When they go to our website. Well, they're not going to our website on a regular basis, if at all. You know, this idea of bookmark and come back on a regular basis. What's the last website you bookmarked and come back to a regular basis? That was content. You know, that's not what we do. Our content comes to us now. Our content comes to our Kindle devices, our content comes to our podcast players. Subscribers is the power of podcasting and we need to push to that. And that goes to number seven. The very things that made podcasts different are the very things that make podcasts worth doing. The things that make podcasts different are the things that make podcasts worth doing. You know, it's interesting, there's all this rage right now about how public radio has come to podcasting and Serial has done a great job and Startup has done a great job. But if you listen to, and I'll link to this in the show notes as well. Thepodcastreport.com 34. Tim Ferriss recently did an interview with Bloomberg, the guy from Startup, and there's a moment in there that's absolutely brilliant where basically he admits, I'm not quite sure that podcasting is ready for the deep level of production that he puts into his shows. And maybe podcasting should be more of the type of interview that Tim Ferriss does and that Tim Ferriss does so well. It's a great interview, by the way, and you definitely need to listen to it. And it's a lot about how podcasts are put Together, and we have a lot to learn from the professionals in this. Don't get me wrong, it's a great interview, but the fact of the matter is, it's the stuff that makes podcasts different is the stuff that makes it so exciting. You know, if Tim Ferriss had a traditional studio and, you know, four cameras and all these audio engineers and he built all this stuff and he had to fly Bloomberg out and he did all these things, I don't know if the interview ever would have happened. I don't know the specifics of that interview, but I know Tim and he does it the easy and most impactful way, the whole 80, 20 bit. If you listen to the Tony Robbins interview, you know, he just went to Tony's house and he listened to the audio. You can just tell they put a digital audio recorder on the table and it went from there. Now, the things that make podcasting different are the things that make it worth doing. The fact that you can get it out so quickly, the fact that you can edit it so quickly, the fact that you can distribute it to the world so quickly. The fact that it goes on all the platforms so quickly. These are the things that make podcasts worth doing. Now I'm going to give you the cheat sheets to the book. Number one, make media. Number two, put it online. Number three, make it podcast ready. Number four, tell the world that's the book, that's the outline, and that's the part that makes it so easy. You know, the things I have to do just to get you the mind map from this episode. You know, the standards, the formats, the software, all this stuff, all gone with podcasting. Okay, quick review. Number one, A lot of damage has been done in making things complicated. I am glad I got this book out because it's simpler. Those who have read the book are so happy with how uncomplicated it makes the process. We all need to do that. The tech has changed, the message hasn't. Get your word out. Leveraging this platform. Other industries are embracing our model. The self published, the self produced is gaining more and more credibility. We could be meeting needs better. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own voices and in our own ideas, we don't understand our audience as well as we should. There's still a ton of confusion. That's part of the process. The sooner we help people make more sense out of podcasting, that type of thing, the better off we're all going to be. Subscribers is still the number one secret weapon. I spoke to that a little bit last week. And if you missed that, go to the podcastreport.com 33 because I, I do ask. We're making it too easy to listen and maybe not putting enough emphasis on subscribing. It came from this process. And then finally, the things that make podcasting different are the things that make it worth doing. Every time you compare your podcast to an existing tech, that's okay. It's a good intellectual exercise. But the power of podcasting is that it's not like any other tech. So what am I doing? Well, I think I described it throughout all this. Part of what I'm doing is I'm just going to try to make it less and less harder to consume, less and less harder to learn. I might do some more training, I might do some more stuff. But man, we're going to make it simple. We're going to explain things and we're going to help walk people through the process. And I'm going to embrace the power of podcasting that makes it so viable and so easy. And I'm going to do that in everything I'm doing. What you can do, you can certainly make anything you're doing, whatever your topic it is, whatever your audience is, make it less complicated, make life less complicated for someone else. It's a great way to give back to the world. Work on how you explain things. Don't assume anybody knows anything. Help people understand what it's like. Work on your subscribers. If you didn't learn that last week, learn that this week. It's really, really powerful. And one thing you can ask yourself just simply is, what are the three ways that your podcast is different from anything else that you're doing? If you understood the three ways that your podcast was different than anything else you're doing, you'd have a new respect and a new focus and attention on your podcast. I promise that. So there we go. Those are the seven lessons I learned. If you want a transcript of this text, hashtag EP34 to the show hotline at 503-897-1290. I will also attach on my mind map. My mind maps are all free flow of information. Some stuff makes it on, some stuff doesn't. A lot of typos, that kind of stuff. But some people really, really like them. Social. We love interaction with social. We are on all the social platforms. If you just go to the podcastreport.com Twitter or Facebook, you'll find what it is that you're looking for. I would love interaction. Go ahead and follow us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. That's kind of fun. The blog is up if you want to comment away. The podcastreport.com 34 I mentioned the whole thing about the mind map and the description at the website. I've got five links for you this week. I got a link to the book. I mean, for goodness sakes, I got to promote the book. I've got a link to the how to Podcast Facebook site if you want to get a little bit more about what we're doing there. I've got a link to the YouTube video that I shared about, the one where I tried to make something less complicated and got the ire and frustration of those who enjoy making things complicated. I've also got a preset link to Google Trends and you can see that how to podcast has not changed over time. And I got a link to that Tim Ferriss interview that I chatted about. Next episode. I have no idea what I'm going to chat about. Should be fun. If you got an idea, reach out and let me know. As I mentioned earlier, all the social options are there. You can also email me@the podcastreportoutlook.com that's the podcast report@outlook.com if you'd like to leave a review, I'd love one. ITunes is a great place. Stitcher is a great place. Those are the two main ones I'm focusing on now. I spoke earlier about subscription. If this is your first episode, please subscribe to the podcast report. Part of the power of podcasting is to get updated every time a new episode comes out. Right now I'm getting a new episode out for you every Tuesday. We'd love to continue to do that. And the way we do that so that you don't have to get on a mailing list that you don't have to monitor. Social is just subscribe on whatever platform you tend to use and thepodcastreport.com iTunes or Stitcher or Pocketcast, TuneIn, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, they're all there as of the time of this recording. Not on SoundCloud yet. Who knows, maybe one day soon I'll be announcing my plan for that. There we go. This has been episode 34, the podcast report seven lessons learned about publishing my third podcast book. If the book would be viable to you, go ahead, pick up a copy. Wherever books are sold, digital, print, it's all over the place. Thank you so much. Talk to you next week. Bye.