The Talent - Team Clarity Matrix Part 2

I think I'm going to scream the next time somebody tells me, how do I be more like Oprah? You're not going to be Oprah. There's only one of them. This is part two of a six part series on the team Clarity Matrix. The thing we do at the Podcast partnership to help our clients, our team members, figure out exactly the team that makes up the podcast. We have found over the years that no podcast is an island. Someone might attempt to wear a number of hats, but it does often go well, regardless of even if they wear the different hats, they need to understand the different hats they're wearing. And that's the team Clarity Matrix. Today we're going to chat about the team member of the talent should be obvious. What do we do? What do we say? Where do we go? Now, in many ways, the talent is the easiest and the shortest of this series, and it's the one that we go to often and we think about often. And I appreciate that. But that's said and done. There's some stuff about podcast talent that isn't always spoken about, always said, isn't always pondered. And that's what we're going to do here. So first, number one, a rule, a primary rule, the law, if you will, the talent you start with might not be the talent that you end with. And that's okay. If the podcast has a purpose, if you're trying to meet an audience to get your message out there, it might not always be the person that you started with. And again, that's okay. This is one of the reasons why naming a show after the talent isn't always a good idea. Now, you can, in the technology, podcasting, change things and that kind of stuff, but instead of calling it the Paul Colligan show, call it the podcast report. Instead of calling it the Joe Polish show, call it I love marketing, that type of thing. Know that the talent could leave, that might be more important, that might happen, and that might be okay. And that might even be a good idea. Now, some other things to know. The message, and this is huge, is more important than the style. I open this up with a, a bit of a rant that, you know, people can be, how do I be Oprah? How do I be the best interviewer? You know, how do I, how do I, you know, beat primetime tv? You're not going to, but that's okay because podcasting is about message, podcasting, about the connection with your audience. The people who want this, the people who need this, the people who are looking for it, and the Style where by which you do it isn't as important as the message that you give that audience. Podcasting is intimate. Podcasting is connection. And message will always be more important than style. And when that's said and done, the voice will always be more important than skill. And by voice, I don't mean the, you know, sexy, sassy voice for radio type of thing, but the voice that you bring to it, the voice that the talent brings to it, the experience, the stories, the who they are in this space is always going to be more important than the skill they bring. In interviewing, the best interviewer in the world might not know anything about the topic that the show or the podcast is about. And someone who knows that topic intimately is going to do better on a podcast than someone who knows all the right questions to ask. So message more important than style, Voice more important than skill. Now, another thing to think about, and this is really interesting, and this is not spoken to a lot, but sometimes the talent has already recorded the podcast. What? How is this possible? Did they know they're recording the podcast? A podcast doesn't have to be someone in front of a microphone getting stuff done. Doesn't have to be the interview. Doesn't have to be anything. The podcast is digital media placed online for, you know, automatic downloads and subscribed consumption. And so you could be in a situation where content from the talent has already been recorded in the form of speeches already done, audiobooks already recorded, presentations already made, webinars already performed. Sometimes the talent is already done, it's already recorded, and you want to pull from it. Think about that. Sometimes, of course, if the talent is there in a recording that existed a while ago, maybe you want to bring someone before it, maybe you want to bring some additional talent to introduce that kind of thing, something like that. But the fact of the matter is, the talent may have already recorded the content. All right, again, don't think about Yoda. I'm sorry, we'll talk about Yoda in a second. Don't think about Oprah. She's already there. But think about Yoda or think about Haymitch. And I'm going to recommend Donald Miller's Story brand, Building a Story Brand book, Building a Story Brand podcast. We helped him launch that. And one of the things that he has, and one of the things he speaks to that's really key and really vital is that you're not the hero. Your customer is. And I would dare say in a podcast, the talent is not the hero either. The listener is, and the talent becomes the guide. So it's not Luke Skywalker. And again, this comes from Miller. It's Yoda, it's not Katniss, it's Haymitch, you know, and you can go through all the great stories, and that's where storybrand does such a good job. And you can find out that the positioning is not that guy or the gal up front, but the person who helps the person consuming the content and consuming the podcast to be at a good place. And then really, the question you want to ask deep do they want to hear interviews? Do they want to hear conversations? Do they want to hear monologues? What is it they want to hear? Once you've figured out what it is that they want to hear, and once you figure out what it is that they came for, and once you figure out why they are connecting with the talent, then the connection is made. They're not coming for the skill, and they're not coming for the sultry tones that come out of the larynx. They're coming for the voice. Something to think about. A few questions you want to ask in dealing with the talent. And these questions are key. These questions are vital. Number one, will the talent be available for the weekly schedule? The marketing people, you know, they're. They're ready to get things out just like that. You know, the editor might be waiting for audio or video to come in, but is the talent? And the higher up you go for the talent, are they available every Wednesday morning to record the show or whenever the show needs to be done? And if they're not available, what about batching, doing four or five at a time? What about seasons? You know, there are different ways to bring the talent in to the process without making it a weekly process or a weekly requirement that you want to think about and you want to walk through. And then when you think about the talent and you think about working with that talent, how. What is the delta between the talent and the editor, which is actually the thing we'll be speaking to in the next section here? How much time needs to happen from talent to editor to publication, and are they ready for that? Can they make changes? Will changes be recorded? That kind of thing is the talent. And this is a big one, because they might not have the media training, because they might not be Oprah, because they might not be Dave Letterman? Are they going to be okay with ums? Are they going to be okay with Oz? Is the talent going to come in and once they heard their voice or watched their face on camera, are they going to freak out that's something you want to test way early, before you launch things out. Does the talent match the production schedule? Does the talent match the cycle that you're going to have to go through? Do all these things happen? That's just as important as, do they have the right voice? Do they represent the brand? Are they knowledgeable of the content and that type of thing? And then finally, you know, how will all this be handled? That's the operations piece of the Matrix that we'll chat actually in part six of this process. So last episode we chatted about strategy and review. You know, you gotta have a strategy, but you gotta review to know that it's actually working. And part of your strategy and part of review is figuring out how good the talent is doing. And that's what we chatted about today. A little bit later, a little bit into it, we spoke to the fact that the talent and the edit have to work in conjunction with each other. And that will be our next section. It'll be a little bit more in depth, but that's how all of this comes together. And then, of course, once the edit's done, we'll talk about the publishing process, the publish, we'll talk about the promotion, which of course is something you want to track. Speaking to earlier, strategy and review, and then of course, the operations that brings it all together. As you can see, there are six hats and they work in conjunction with each other in a perfect podcast. And we want you to have that. So thank you so much for listening, watching. We actually did get a comment here on the live recording of this from Steve Gottschalk. Steve said good part about the talent. The Daily show and the Late Late show only got good after Craig Kilborn left. Bingo. And that's an interesting idea on the talent leaving, but. But you look at a lot of shows, you know, the Tonight show has had how many different hosts, The NBC Evening News has had how many different hosts? It might not be one person associated with that podcast for the rest of time. And if you take away that heavy requirement and that need to cater to that, what if the talent becomes too much to handle? What if the talent gets a bit of a chip on their shoulder? What if the talent demands too much at the end of the day? All things to think about. And that's why you need the strategy review. Is the talent worth the pay and is this working and does operations, reporting, problems? It all does come together. And these are the six hats of your team. And that's why a little bit of clarity through a matrix might be helpful. In the next episode, we'll go over the process of how you can get yourself a blank matrix and how you can go through this process of deciding what's best next. But thank you so much for listening. If you are looking at this on Facebook, go ahead and make a comment. If you're on the membership site or at least in the podcast, do your thing. Loved having you on board. Thrilled to be the voice and maybe the talent on this one. Chat with you soon. Bye.