TJ Walker (host) reviews his recent six-month run of primarily daily video-to-audio podcasts focused on public speaking, reports sustained month-over-month audience growth to more than 10,000 iTunes downloads in July and a catalog of over 200 episodes, but notes limited listener interaction/questions. He announces a strategic shift toward long-form, in-depth interviews with world-class communicators (influenced by Inside the Actors Studio/Charlie Rose/Tim Ferriss), beginning with an interview of Diane Diresta, planning weekday (Mon–Fri) releases of ~60–90 minute shows, splitting shorter daily commentary onto a separate audio channel, and making long-form episodes audio-only on YouTube. He solicits audience feedback and provides contact routes (email TJ@mediatrainingworldwide.com, Twitter J. Walker, Facebook TJ Walker Interactive).
Questions this video answers
Early August 2016 (speaker: 'a beautiful, beautiful Friday morning on a Summer Day, early August 2016').
More than 200 episodes.
More than 10,000 downloads in July.
Diane Diresta.
One episode per weekday (Monday through Friday).
Chapters
Hi folks. It is a beautiful, beautiful Friday morning on a Summer Day, early August 2016. I'm about to go to the pool and relax the rest of the day, but I wanted to share with you, be transparent on a few things that we're doing here. A shift. Now, for the last six months, I've been doing for the most part, a daily podcast. I do it as a video, strip out the audio, put the audio on itunes, people listen to it. We frankly have a larger audience on itunes than we do on YouTube. And these have been how to tips, primarily answering questions about public speaking. Now, when you look at the typical podcast that people start, they quit after seven episodes and then the vast, vast majority quit after about 23 episodes, according to most research. Really gains no traction. Happy to say I've now done more than 200 episodes. The audience has grown every single month from initially a couple thousand up to more than 10,000 last month, month of July. So there's been growth every single month. That's the good news. The bad news is, and I'm just being completely transparent here with you, completely straightforward. The traction has not been as great as I would have liked as far as creating a higher rate of interaction. More and more questions. There just aren't that many questions. So what I am look and at the very same time, I've had more and more of you ask for instant commentary of things like major political speeches. So in the last couple of weeks you may have noticed I've started doing the topical commentary people in the news, speeches in the news. So I've had an increased demand in interaction on the topical stuff and frankly not an increase in the evergreen content of people with their questions about public speaking. Speaking to the media crisis communications. So I'm going to practice what I preach with my own clients. I always tell people, let every speech you give be a starting point and subject for fodder for focus group testing to make your next speech even better. I'm trying to do the same thing with these video and audio podcast. I want to make it better. So as I do more and more research, what I have found frankly brings in a larger audience is bringing in other voices and doing interviews so that the audience hears from a wider range of voices. Now, not all shows are like that, but increasingly many of them most popular are. Now, my goal isn't just to be popular. I'm not trying to be Justin Bieber on the Internet, but I am looking for growth that can be significant enough that it either brings in more business, creates a high degree of community. Ultimately an audience large enough to monetize through advertising. And when I look at the trend levels of the current show as it's going, you know, 10,000 downloads per month is a lot more than most people. But it's nowhere near what's needed to really satisfy either those metrics of huge active community or enough eyeballs and ears to monetize through advertising. So I'm looking to do a shift. Here's my immediate plan. You may have heard earlier this week. In fact, I'll link to the show in the description here. My first long form interview and this one was with Diane Diresta, a well known public speaking expert. My goal now is I'm going to start interviewing people. It's going to go really, really in depth. It's going to put a spotlight on world class communicators, not just public speaking coaches and presentation experts. But it could be movie stars, TV stars talking about how they communicate when they are on a press tour, how they give speeches, really diving deep into their signature stories. And it's going to be a combination of Inside the Actors Studio, Charlie Rose and Tim Ferriss. These are all influences of mine. I'm not going to try to copy any of them. The show is going to have a communications focus and the show is going to be for people who have a passion for communication. Maybe you are a full time public relations communications official or you may be a a political leader or a CEO and you understand that becoming an even better communicator, building more excellence in communications is important to who you are. So that's going to be the focus of the show. I'd love to hear your feedback. I mean you could tell me T.J. that's crazy. Stick with what you're doing. You could say, yeah T.J. just do that. Don't do any of your other tips and topical stuff. I'd like to hear from you. So what I'm planning on doing is starting to do these long form interviews. Probably have a schedule of one per day, Monday through Friday and then at some point I'm going to split off the audio channels, have a separate itunes channel that is just for the daily commentary, answering your questions, how to tips and then keeping the Speaking with TJ Walker brand as the place just for the long form. Typically it'll be an hour, maybe even 90 minute show where I really go in depth with world class communicators. So I'll give you an update before that happens because you may want to subscribe to the new channel. You may want to unsubscribe from one or both. But I want to be transparent with you. Becoming a great communicator is a process. It's an approach. It's not something you just get to so I do want to thank all of you who've been listening on the itunes audio side, those of you watching here on YouTube. I'll continue to post content here. The one exception will be if I do the long form or when I do the long form 60 minute audios. I'm not going to be doing those in video. Now. What will probably happen is the audio will be put onto YouTube. So if you just prefer experiencing things through YouTube, you can, but there won't be anything to look at, there won't be any picture, there'll just be the icon. But at least it will be available if you want it from that format. Some people just prefer downloading from YouTube. Beyond that, if you have any suggestions on a show, regular content that you think would be interesting, that you think isn't being provided out there already in the world, let me know. I am open to ideas. I've given an awful lot of thought to this new format. I've already taped several shows and for me frankly it is more interesting. It is a lot more time and a lot more work. But if more of you can enjoy it, appreciate it, find use from it and the audience gets bigger, then it will all work. So please let me know. Feel free to write to me directly TJ mediatrainingworldwide.com or on Twitter J. Walker Facebook. It's TJ Walker Interactive. Really, anywhere you're hearing this or seeing this, just reach out to me. I'd love to hear your feedback. Thanks a lot. And we'll have continue to have more and more content programming every day on this channel and others as well.
