The Six Podcaster Practices That Do More Damage Than Good - The Podcast Report Episode #22

Seven podcaster practices that do more damage than good. Hence the podcast report episode 22 show notes and links@thepodcastreport.com 22 it's the podcast Report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. Hey, this is Paul Colligan, the Podcast Report. Each episode I normally give you a big idea. This time we have seven big ideas. So we're not going to start with a big idea. We're going to go deep into it. But if you would like to tweet any of these ideas, get the graphics for any of these ideas, help promote any of these ideas, and help us maybe change a couple of things in podcasting, please go ahead and visit thepodcastreport.com 22 with that said and done, let's get to work. Okay, My name is Paul Colgan. I'm the six time bestselling author of the business Podcasting Bible, the number one top selling podcast strategies, a bunch of books in the space. I've been part of this since the beginning. I love podcasting and part of it since day one. Two audiences for this show. There's the podcaster. And if you are a podcaster, welcome. Use this to make your show better. This show in a lot of ways is specifically for you. There are those of you thinking about getting into podcasting. You've looked, you've watched, there are a lot of you. You're trying to figure out what's next. I would love to help you there as well. I love this industry. I will fight for it as I think you'll see in this episode. So why this topic? I'll be honest with you. I had lunch earlier this week with Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. Social media marketing podcast, Social media marketing world. Mike's a big player and his podcast is a really important part of it. Mike and I are friends and we were chatting and there was just this realization that in the podcasting space we need some leadership that is attractive to the non podcaster. There are a lot of podcaster leaders. There are a lot of people in this space that are extremely attractive to those who know what podcasting is. But unfortunately we as an industry, we do some things and we act some ways and we have some tendencies and some practices that are, I'm going to say it, doing more damage than good. And I want to chat about it in this episode. If this is you, you can send me hate mail if you want. You can respond on social about how I don't know what I'm talking about or you can Change. It's your call. All right, where have we come from in podcasting? It started with an understandable pride that we knew stuff that other people didn't. We knew how to make podcasting work. We knew how to talk into our microphone, make it come out, you know, the other side on somebody else's ipod. There. There was early pride in needing nobody else to do this. There was early pride in beating the system. But, guys, now it's the Internet of things. We have cars that talk to the Internet, that play our shows. We have television sets that are going for our content just as much as they're going as the latest sitcom from NBC. We are reaching more people. There is more opportunity, and we've got to change. I personally am trying to get my clients to reach as many people as. As possible. I personally love the podcasting channel. I always have, always will. But I'm realizing it's bigger than that. I'm treating my content like it's bigger than podcasting, and I hope and I encourage you to do the same. So. So with that intro, let's hit the 7. They're not in order of importance. They're not in order of implication. I was trying to figure out how to order these, and I figured I would just do it alphabetically. The first one, and I hate this one. Confusing audio quality with quality of content. There are a lot of podcasters that are so excited about their microphone and about their setup and their soundproof room and all these things that they judge the value of a podcast, and they judge the value of what they're doing by the quality of the audio. And here's the quote, here's the idea. I'm telling you, too many podcasters would throw away Dr. Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech because of the sound quality of the recording. Sometimes the content is bigger than the quality of the recording. Sometimes the ideas are better than the microphone. Sometimes what you are trying to say is more important than what tech you are using to say it. If you are confusing audio quality with the quality of content, and I'm not saying that your quality can suck, I'm not saying worry about it, but just don't confuse the two. If you've got great content, don't discount it because it wasn't recorded in absolute, complete and total high fidelity. And as you're looking at other pieces of content, as you're examining other things, you know, go to the good stuff. Don't worry about how it was recorded. Number two, we're confusing the message with the medium. This is very, very important. Your show is bigger than your podcast. A lot of people forget that I am a podcaster. I make podcasts. No, your show is bigger than your podcast. One of the classic examples, Grammar Girl, a podcaster that all of us respect, all of us love. I think Mignon is just one of the best in the industry. But remember, her first audiobook that was a top selling audiobook for months, was simply the content for the first five or six episodes of her show because she got on Oprah. See, the thing is this. Nobody cares that you have a podcast. They only care what you are podcasting about. Speak to that, go to that, and worry about your message over the medium. Again, the podcasting medium is fabulous. Let's keep podcasting. Let's podcasting until the cows come home. But nobody cares. They have a podcast. They only care about what you are podcasting about. All right, number three, criticizing an audience member unintentionally. Podcasters do this, and it is frustrating and it is annoying and it is doing a great amount of damage. I was listening to a podcast who basically shamed everybody who was listening to his podcast on the platform that I was actually listening to it on. Now, not the best platform. Platform has some issues, but I was consuming that person's content. And he basically told me I didn't know enough about audio because I was using that platform. That's ridiculous. You know, it's part of the. Nobody cares that you have a podcast, only what you're podcasting about. But really, why would an audience member keep listening to your show if you criticize their format choice of that show? I don't like Android phones. I don't like Microsoft phones. I don't like BlackBerry phones. I think they're all really annoying. But that's my decision. Choice if I criticize you. I don't want people listening to this on Windows Phone. I do. I want people listening to this on Android phone. I want people listening to this on their car. I want people listening to this on their stereo. If you say something derogatory about somebody's platform choice, be it the device they're consuming on, be it the phone network they're consuming on. If you make them feel bad or you say something to indicate that maybe they're not as intelligent, not as positioned as you are, you know you are criticizing an audience member unintentionally and gosh darn it, comma, stop it. All right, Missing the list. A big chunk of your podcast audience would love to stay in communication with you. Even if they miss a show or, heaven forbid, cut back on social media, are you giving them that option? Podcasters who don't build a list just aren't thinking through the process. You want to be able to access your audience in ways other than podcasting. I'm not saying that podcasting is going anywhere. I'm saying that your audience would love to communicate with you and you need to give them a way to do that. If you've been listening to the podcast report at all, you know I've got the show hotline at 503-897-1290. You know that I tell everybody if you want to get the transcripts from any episode, they can send episode number to the show hotline to get the transcripts. And if you want to get the transcripts for this episode, go ahead and send EP22 to 503-897-1290. I am building a list. The most engaged people in my audience are coming to me and we're communicating externally to the podcast now. We're still chatting on Facebook and we're still chatting on Twitter and some of you are even making comments at the blog. But I'm building a list and you want to do that. Don't miss the list. Your audience would love to communicate with you externally to the ways they are communicating, the easy ones right now. Build a list. Give them that option. So number one Confusing audio quality with quality of content. Number two Confusing message with medium. Number three Criticizing an audience member unintentionally. Number four Missing the list. Number five Selling themselves short. Oh my goodness. Podcasters doing this like crazy. Here's the big idea for this one. Your podcast is worth what you know what it is worth only when you start charging what it is worth. Your podcast is worth what you know it is worth only when you start charging for what it is worth. Don't put ads on your show that sell your you short. If you don't have a viable, valuable revenue stream from what you're doing, don't replace it with one that doesn't represent who you are and doesn't really show what you're quality. Paul, what the heck are you talking about? Well, first of all, the whole CPM model. Everybody knows I'm really not a big fan of the $40 every thousand episodes. And it's funny because people point to the big people who are doing it. But if you look at the big people who are doing it, they're doing that in addition to other things. They are selling their own products. They are selling their own services. They are selling things that are considerably more than $40 every time 1000 downloads of the podcast happen. The whole podcast report, I'll tell you right now, this is me getting high profile podcasting clients. This is all about me selling my coming course, which is not going to be cheap in any way, shape or form. And until that happens, this podcast is going to continue to go out for free. Because the value of this, I know what it's worth and I'm treating it like that. Don't just sell out to some random ad that pays you next to nothing because it's all you can get. Dream bigger, dream higher. Make it happen. Know what you're worth. Know how to advertise. It might be selling your own product, it might be selling something entirely external to what you're doing, but your show has great worth. Start acting like it. This next one, number six, is huge. Unintentionally producing shows that self destruct. All right, what do I mean by that? You ever listen to a podcast where they speak to something happening maybe in the future, maybe in the past, and they speak to it in such a way that the show no longer becomes important? Have you ever listened to an episode that goes, oh, well, next week this TV special is going to happen, let's talk about that. Well, if you're listening to it later, it already happened. If somebody's talking about a book that's no longer popular, there are a lot of ways. A lot of people do time shows. A lot of people speak to meetups over the course of the weekend. A lot of people do podcast episodes that are single points in time, and there's a time and a place for that. If you're doing a news podcast, if you're doing a social commentary podcast, if you're doing the type of thing that is moment in time, then that's fine. You'll notice I said unintentionally producing shows that self destruct. But here's the deal. If you produce content that is still viable in six months, your podcasting game will change forever. If you produce content that's still just as viable in six months, your podcasting game will change forever. If you speak to something dated, if you say, next weekend, I'm going to this, or hear me speak at this, or you speak to a future event, just speak to people who are listening to this afterwards, speak to the timelessness of what you're doing and go from there and you'll be fine. If I tell you that there's this great event happening next week and I want you to go and you're listening to it next week still in the future, that's great. If I say there's a great event happening next week and I want you to go and there's no way physically for you to go to it, now you're asking yourself, why in the world is he saying this? However, if I say, and if you happen to be listening to this after the event, here's where you can get the recordings of the event or here's where you can find out what was said about the event or that type of thing. If you speak to dating, speak to the timeless nature of what you're doing and you will be at a far better place. All right, so let's speak to this again. The top seven. Number one, Confusing audio quality with quality of content. Yes. Produce shows that sound good. Yes. Bring high quality into it. Yes. Be a class act. But stop excommunicating content that isn't perfectly engineered when it's really, really, really good. Number two. Confusing the message with the medium. Your show is bigger than your podcast. You don't just create a podcast. You've got a show. You've got a body of content that the world needs to hear. Start acting like it. Nobody cares that you have a podcast. They only care what you are podcasting about. Number three. Criticizing an audience member unintentionally. Why would an audience member keep listening to you? If you criticize their format of choice for your show, next one's missing the list. Your audience would love to keep up with you. Have you built a list? If so, great. If not, why not? Selling yourself short. Do you know how much you're worth and you're allowing and selling yourself for less? Stop it. And unintentionally promoting shows that self destruct. If you speak to a specific event, realize that our history we got a lot more in front of us than we got behind us. And if you speak to something in the future that for a larger part of your audience is going to be in the past, speak to it, talk to it, tell them what to do and you will be at a great place. There we go. Those are the seven. I'm sure there are others. I would love your thoughts. Twitter podcast rpt please follow us on Twitter, facebook.com the podcastreport and of course the blog is up. You can comment away@thepodcastreport.com Tutu for episode number 22. If you'd like to get the transcript for the show, text EP2 2 to 503-897-1290. You can also call that number, leave a voicemail message, tell us what you want. Links to each of the seven points with a graphic that represents them will be available@thepodcastreport.com 22 would love to have you there if you want to leave me voicemail Same show number works 503-897-1290 if you want to send me physical email the podcast reportoutlook.com now. If you have not subscribed to the podcast report, please subscribe to the podcast report. Put yourself in a position where every time I release a new episode, it comes to you automatically. Itunes. It's called subscribe. It's called something else on Stitcher. 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