What Business Are You In ? - The Podcast Report With Paul Colligan Episode #87

What business are you the podcaster in? It's the Podcast Report Episode 87. Show notes, links, conversation and more at the podcastreport.com 87. The most important thing about being a podcaster has nothing to do with being a podcaster. That's right. The most important thing about this whole industry has nothing to do with this whole industry. What are we doing here? What is this? My name is Paul Culligan. This is the Podcast Report. I show podcasters you how to reach more with your message and how to profit more from your content. Each episode we take a different element of what's happening in the podcast space. Things that are changing, things that are moving, what to do about, what to think about it, where to go with it. And that's what it's about. This is episode 87. If you haven't listened to the past episodes, hit them. I'm still in favor of all of them. I still like them. I want to tell you which one's my favorite, but we've come a long way. The big idea in today's episode is just simply that it's not the podcast that's important, it's the content that comes from the podcast that is important. It's kind of interesting in this episode because I'm actually recording this episode live on Facebook video live to my Facebook page@paulcolligan.com Facebook and I've got a bunch of people watching it right now. Some of you are watching the recording of this at the Facebook page. Later, some of you are listening to the audio of this at the podcast. There's a lot of different ways to consume this podcast, and that's always been a theme of what it is that we're doing. But this episode's different. If you want to see the video of what we did, head out to the podcastreport.com 87 and you'll not get just the video of this presentation, but you'll get everything we did before. When I'm shaking the camera to set everything up as well as afterwards, I'll take any Q and A that comes from the audience and we should have a fun time. So why this episode? Why this topic? A couple things. Number one, just announced New York Times. All the news that's fit to print is getting a podcast division. All the news that's fit to print is getting a podcast division. Is that going to be one of those PDF podcasts? No, they're doing podcasts. Forbes just announced this morning that they're getting a podcast division as well. Are they getting rid of the magazine now podcast Audible. Audible has had. Audible is responsible for getting me into podcasting. I always wanted to play Audible. Podcasting and Audible, they tried something once, didn't necessarily go that well. They've launched a new thing and I'll put links to all these in the show notes@the podcastreport.com 87 but the fact of the matter is a lot of people are in the game. Facebook first interesting live streaming platform for me. The blabs, the periscopes, the meerkats, anything that the world doesn't know yet didn't catch my attention, didn't excite me. But Facebook being first generally easy, intriguing. YouTube I think will be more. But that. So we've got different players playing in the podcast space, playing in the broadcast space. Then some interesting things have happened. I got an Alexa that is the Amazon speaker tube that lets you call out the name. And I'm realizing now that I'm looking at it across the room. And when I say the name of the product, unfortunately, it might turn on and we'll find out what happens there. But it's basically their answer to Siri. And one of the things that's interesting about that product is I can call out, I can say, well, let's try it. I wonder if you'll be able to hear it. Alexa, play the latest episode of the podcast report. Getting the latest episode of the report. Here it is from Tunein. Alexa, stop. So that actually grabbed the report. I should have said the podcast report with Paul Colligan. It's not perfect, but the fact of the matter is we now have the ability to speak out, get our podcast content from devices that cost less than 100 bucks. They can also have us. Well, check this out. Alexa, turn off deadlights. Okay. Huh? Alexa, turn on deadlights. Now, for those of you who are watching this, listening to audio, this is not that exciting. But we've got this automated voice system that is much better than Sirius that's letting me get content now. And so we've got everybody producing audio content. We've got voice activated audio content. Now. My clients, they want to be on Alexa. And so that's fascinating. And the funny thing is it's Tunein, which was the platform that we kind of poo pooed. But Tunein's also on the Tesla, which, as you know, in the last couple of weeks has gotten a lot of attention for having this, this massive launch. So audio is, is expanding in some pretty crazy ways. And all of the ways that on demand audio is being Consumed and is being appreciated and is being taken in. None of them have to do with podcasting. Even though we as podcasters might want to get into it now. Do I think the New York Times is going to help get me more listeners? Yes, it's going to help get me more listeners, and it's going to help get some of my customers more listeners. Because if the New York Times is doing it, it becomes a legitimate way for us to get content. Because Forbes is doing it, it becomes a legitimate way. What type of effect impact Audible is going to have on it, I'm not quite sure, but it adds to the list of big names. At the same time, when I watch this show. I'm sorry, when I record this show using video right now, again, we're doing this on Facebook Live. I'm leaving the audio world to the video world. Interesting, interesting stuff. So it's getting bigger. What do we do with this? Well, here's the thing, and this is the title of the episode. It forces us to ask the question, what business are you in? Yes, I'm recording the podcast report, The Podcast Report, episode 87@thepodcastreport.com 87. But I'm recording the podcast report live on video to Facebook. Am I in the business of teaching? Am I in the business of video broadcasting? Am I in the business of audio broadcasting? Am I in the video business of podcasting? What is the business that I am in? In? It's not podcasting per se. I said the most important thing about being a podcaster has nothing to do with being a podcaster. Well, the fact of the matter is I can reach more and more people through more and more of these platforms. When I play with Alexa and I get my update, even though these things technically are coming through tunein and are technically podcast elements, the person who's listening might not even know that they're a podcast. Somebody answers their fancy new Tesla and they get it, and they got this, you know, computer screen, which is fabulous, and they listen to something. They might not know it's a podcast, but I still want them to listen to my show, and I certainly still want them to listen to my client shows. Me being a show about podcasting here at the Podcast Report, maybe not as important for me, but for my audience, for my customers, they want them to be average. So what business am I in? Is the New York Times a podcast company? No. You know, has Audible stopped doing digital books on tape? No. You know, now some are going to say, oh, Paul, it's that same changing the Name thing. You know, Leo Laporte calls it a Netcast, and it's never worked. It's always been a podcast. Yes, this. Those of you who listen to this on your iPhone through the podcast engine, or those of you who are at the website listening to the audio of this, yes, it's always been a podcast, but it's bigger than that. And here's the thing. It's not about the tech. It's not about the name. It's about the content. Two of the other big ideas I was thinking about for this episode is, well, one, being a podcaster is as insignificant as being an emailer. The fact that I can podcast, no more exciting than the fact that I can email. What am I going to podcast about? What am I going to email about? Or this other big idea I was playing with. It's not the podcast name or the tech. It's about what the podcast allows us to do, which is important. So we have this thing, we have this ability, we have this technology. Now what are we going to do with it? And is it more than podcasting? I think it is. So what the question is, are you making podcasts? Are you making more than that? Is this episode just a podcast that happens to have video, or is it more than that? My other shows. It's going to be more than that. I want to record. I just got back from a really fascinating trip and I want to record some thoughts on that trip over at my audio podcast. Thinking out loud. Is that a podcast? Is that an audio blog? What is that? Where are we going with this? Where do you want people to find your content? I know people who have said to me, if they don't want to listen on podcast, I don't want them to hear me. That's fine, I guess. But man, that Alexa device over there is pretty cool. And if people want to listen to me on that, I want them to listen to me on that. And if they want to listen to me on the Tesla, I want them to listen to me on the Tesla. If they want to go out to my blog and click the play button and not worry about the iPhone, I want them to listen to me and I want them to consume me there. So we're making podcasts or more. What business are you in? Where do you want people to find your content? Do you want to limit it to the tech? So now what? And I would love your thoughts on this. I would love it if you could visit thepodcastreport.com 87 Leave a Comment I would love it if you went out to social thepodcastreport.com Twitter Twitter thepodcastreport.com Facebook I would love it if you could do it at any of these. And now coming to think of this, maybe I shouldn't have done this@facebook.com PaulColliganFan maybe I should have done this over at the podcast report page. But I guess more people would pick this up here. But what kind of business are you in? Are you a podcast or are you something bigger than that? Are you an emailer or are you something bigger than that? I want to say you are something bigger than that. I want to say you are bigger than a podcaster. You are more significant than a podcaster. You're produc content better than podcasting because you're just like the New York Times and you're just like Forbes and you're just like Audible and you want to be on the Alexa and you want to be on the Tesla and you want to be at all these places. And this is just what's come up over like the last week or so in my life. So I'd love to hear what kind of business you think you are in again, the website and leave your comments there or put it on social. I think that'd be great. I think your task is to figure out what business you're in. Because here's the deal. If you are solely in the business of podcasting, if the only business you are in is in the business of podcasting, then you only have a certain audience that isn't going to get that much bigger over time. That's just really what it is. But if you were an audio, the consumption for that is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and podcasting is going to make it possible, but it's not going to be the defining nature of who you are. I hope this makes sense. And I know I've chatted about this in previous episodes before, but I think it's really important and I think it comes down to this question of. Of what kind of business are you in. So this is the podcastreport.com 87 I've got a link to something about the Times, Forbes, Audible, even got a link to Alexa if you're interested in it. I would love to have your comments on what you think you are, what business you think you are in. Maybe we'll figure this all out together. If you've not yet subscribed to this show, definitely do so. One of the power of podcasts One of the great things about podcasting is the ability to let people subscribe to to what it is that you're doing and then it automatically comes out. Next week you'll get episode number episode 88 and the week after that you get episode 89 automatically. That's awesome. If you head up to the podcastreport.com iTunes thepodcastreport.com TuneIn podcastreport.com Stitcher any of those. Those will come to you automatically. Love to interact with you in social thepodcastreport.com Twitter thepodcastreport.com Facebook Pick your favorite social network. Definitely subscribe, Definitely interact with us socially. And if you want to see what happens on this video, head out to the podcastreport.com 87 where we'll have an embed of this entire thing as well as the Q and A that will come up after this. But with that said and done, we are done with this episode. If I don't see at the website, I'll chat with you next week. Bye.