Your Podcast Questions Answered!

Hey you got questions and I have answers and let me just preface this episode by saying these are just my answers to these questions, so I asked my audience to give me questions that they had about podcasting, so I could answer them in long form. Sometimes I do this on the Internet and you only get sixty seconds to reply. So I want to be able to give you detailed information about the things that you need to know about. podcasting before we get started. I always want to invite you to my community. It's called podcast Builder Club, you just type that in and facebook and you're going to find the podcast filter club group were podcasters, collaborating networking and growing together, I think, is the best podcast facebook group in the world. But again these are my opinions, so I invite you it's free and I'd love to meet you on the Internet. So let's get this off with a couple of questions.

The first question comes from tiffany. She says what are important metrics to focus on as you grow, and I love this question because metrics can be confusing and people can spend too much time focusing on them and and feeling stress about them and just trying to hit some next weird milestone. And the answer to this question is very simple: there's two metrics that I will focus on for a podcast. So let's Say I'm coaching, you let's say you're part of my mastermind group. This is exactly what I would tell you. So the first metric you're going to focus on is simply the average consumption of your podcast episode. This can be achieved by creating an apple podcast connect account, or maybe you already have one, and when you go into the Dash Board and Click on your podcast, you can actually click on analytics and it's going to show you a percentage which is the average consumption of your podcast. Now, let's say it's: Seventy two percent: does that mean that nobody makes it to a hundred percent? No it's the average, so they're taking everybody and saying about how long do they last in this podcast? So one of the metrics to be looking at is how far are people making it through my episode and if they're only making it about a half way, we might have a content issue. We may not be getting people the information they need soon enough, and so we want to optimize that now this is, you know again an average, so we don't want to base every decision off of it, but it's a good indicator of are people consuming my whole episode now the second metric I'll focus on is simply just comparing different styles of episodes. So, for example, I do interviews- and I do solo cast just like this now I can look at my analytics for not how many people are listening, but rather are people enjoying the interview episodes I'm doing more than they're enjoying the solo casts, and so I'm going to use these numbers as a comparing contrast and usually there's an outlier here, and that doesn't mean you stop doing interviews. But if you're an interview, podcast are doing three interviews a month and one solo cast, and you see that the number on your solo episodes is way higher. Maybe let's say double of what your interviews are. You need to do more solo episodes. Now, I'm just going to also throw in here that I don't really look at the metrics of my podcast, because I don't let an analytic dashboard. Tell me what I'm worth as a creator. I'm going to make great content, I'm going to keep showing up I'm going to put a hundred and ten percent in and if that resonates with twenty five people the first week, fifty people the next week, whatever it is, that's cool with me because podcasting doesn't end in the measurement of podcasting doesn't end. So if you post an episode on Monday and look at the numbers on Friday, all you're getting is a snapshot of how many people looked at that episode that week, but don't discount the fact that some people haven't found you. Yet some people don't even know who you are and when they do find, you they're probably going to fall in love with you and they're, going to download all those episodes, so don't measure something that you can't really measure because it never ends all right.

Phil Brown asks what are the essentials and what is a waste of time when it comes to editing. So what is a waste of time? A waste of time is removing little things like breaths. You know you breathe, and I've never listened to a podcast before that the person was breathing or took a breath. That turned me off from listening now, if you're heavily breathing over the the microphone. Yes, we have a different issue. We need to move your microphone a little bit further from your mouth, but I think people get too worried about making it perfect. So they remove anything and then it sounds sterile. It sounds fake. I also think a waste of time is removing too many crutch words. I say um I will say Um. I use all kinds of crutch words and we don't really notice people's crutch words as much as we notice our own, because we're putting ourselves under the microscope. Now. What are the essentials? So the essentials of editing, I think, are number one. Is content editing just because you record it doesn't mean it needs to end up in the final version. Think of it, like you're wrriting, a book, you write a first draft and then you chisel it down. When you make a statue, you take a lump of clay and then you remove pieces to show the image that you want to show to the viewer. So content. Editing in my opinion, is essential, removing things that just don't need to be in the podcast in order to make a point in order to tell your story in order to make great content now, the next essential, in my opinion, is making audio sound pleasant. You can accomplish this in two simple ways as podcast editors. We we're just editing voice, so this doesn't have to be complicated, but you have Eq or equalization, and compression e q is often over used by people when they boost different frequencies, but I actually use subtractive Eq, so I will boost until it sounds bad, and then I will remove that frequency from the audio and with compression you want to use it like salt. You want to use it sparingly. Compression is used to simply gently massage the the peaks and valleys of your podcast audio and make everything sound uniform. So here's a tip on how to make this process really easy. Make sure your microphones set up is the same all the time and what I mean is figure out how far away from the microphone you need to talk. Make sure that the gain is at the same level all the time and then at some point, this quand compression setting just becomes a standard and you don't have to fiddle with knobs. You don't have to make everything sound good. So by creating a consistent input, your output gets a lot.

The Nostalgia Test podcast asked: Is it mandatory to do video podcasting now, so my answer to you is no podcasting is an audio medium, so it's mandatory to have audio now. Video is going to really help you with marketing, because video is very popular on social media and it allows you to show yourself in a new way to attract new listeners. But by no means is this mandatory. So my challenge to you is: If you're thinking about doing video, you've got this little square in your pocket and it has a camera on it actually is a video camera on it and you can easily start doing video or getting your self comfortable or dipping your toes into the video ocean by simply setting up your phone and filming yourself podcasting and then from there you, when you're editing, you just figure out what something that's going to attract someone to depress the button to listen to the podcast and that's a great way to start with video and to be honest with you, video is going to be important going forward, but you don't have to have a video podcast in order to be a successful podcast

Banana land podcast asks my podcast covers a lot. What's the best way for me to narrow things down well banana land pod. Your answer to the question is actually buried within your question. You need to narrow things down, it's very easy to want to talk about everything, and you can do that. But it's going to be harder to explain to people what your podcast is about. Listen, YOU'RE, busy right! Are you busy everybody's busy everybody's got lots to do lots to consume less to keep up with? If you don't make it easy for them to understand why their time would be valuably spent with you, it's good. It's going to be harder to get people to press the button and listen to the podcast. So if you want to narrow things down, just pick three categories that you talk about and that way it's much easier when you run into your front gus on the street- and he says: Oh Your podcasting! Now, what's it about, and you say: Hey, listen! I talk about business. I talk about sports and I talk about finance or whatever your three things are, but at some point you have to be able to tell somebody what your podcast is about, because growing an audience is all about making sure you can tell the right people that you're there for them and to make sure that the wrong people know that you're not there for them. It's a very simple but overlooked aspect of becoming a podcaster. Let me paint you another picture, you're a restaurant and you make all kinds of food you make Chinese Food American food. You make hot dogs, hamburgers, you make steaks, you make Sushi right, it's a lot of great food, but when somebody says, Oh, you have a restaurant. What kind of food you sire and you go on this list of things it's confusing, be the best Sushi restaurant be the best Taco spied be. The thing for a specific person were to your mother's asks, thoughts on having your podcast on Amazon. I'm not loving their terms. Okay, so listen! Amazon is not yet a huge force in podcasting, but they eventually will be it's the biggest company in the world and because podcasting is very popular they're. Investing in it they're scooping up other podcast and they're going to be making a big push to be in the podcast world, but none of the platforms matter at all unless your audience is looking for you there. So you have to ask yourself: Is My audience looking for podcast on Amazon or maybe they're looking for podcast on Youtube? Now I don't have any problem with having your podcast getting distributed everywhere, but sometimes it could be a little bit of a waste of time to say my podcast is available at Apple spotify, stitcher, Iheart, radio, amasis like okay. You just need to teach people that podcast exists and there's lots of different ways. They can access it. It's always good to ask your audience hey. What do you listen to podcast on? You might be surprised by the answer. They might all be spotify. They might all be apple, they might none of them might be apple, and so ask your audience where they're at and use that, as your key flagship way to tell people where they can find you and everyone else will find you in their own unique ways. But it's okay to have your podcast be distributed everywhere. In case People Start Finding podcasts on that platform. Now about the terms and conditions. Yes, any company, any mass global corporation is going to have some terms and conditions that benefit them, they're, giving you the platform to distribute and they want something for it. So as a podcaster, we have to be okay with using their infrastructure in order to reach their people. So sometimes the terms and conditions can be a little bit shady, and sometimes you just have to say listen. This is a way for me to get seen or heard by more people, and I'm going to gamble on that. But the way to protect yourself is to make sure that your podcast isn't the only income stream that you have. You want to make sure you have income streams outside of the PODCAST pellison asks. How do I get as cool as you? Well, you're is a good answer. I'm not cool, and I also think that if you just lean into who you are the good, the bad everything and you just truly be yourself- I think it comes off in a way that is magnetic to the right people. I know for a fact that there's people out there that hate my guts or the first time they saw me they thought look at this idiot and that's okay with me, because I can't win everybody, but I can't not be my authentic self and feel good about what I'm doing so. The question to you, Alison is: Do you feel like you're being your true self, or do you feel like you're, trying to be what your audience wants and because I know you, I know that you're not trying to be something that you're not. But I appreciate the compliment I'm going to take it as a compliment. I'm going to screen shot it and put it in my feel. Good file and I feel good file is a folder. I keep of cool stuff that people have said messages they've, sent me and every time I'm feeling down or like I'm not making an impact in podcasting or in the world. I just open up that feel good file, and I look and remember: There's people out there like you who are lifting me up, so thank you. Mojo asks transcripts worth the effort of editing. I think this is a good question, so I use transcripts in a very specific way for my podcast. I think you all know by now that I use sounder F M as my podcast host and when I upload my audio to my hosting company, they automatically transcribe the episode and when I publish that episode, they're creating a web page for me, I don't typically send anyone to that web page, but the transcription lives on that page and so the way the Google works is they've got all these little spiders crawling all over the Internet. Looking for words looking for key terms because they need to know when someone types something in the box where to send people for the information just called crawling, and so when Google crawls the Internet and it's looking for key words. Every word that I say on this podcast is listed on that page, so I'm using transcripts simply for the potential of ranking in a search when someone search for how do I podcast or whatever I'm talking about that day, but as far as editing a transcript, I don't know if it's necessarily worth it unless your audience likes to read content, so you have to remember, as podcasters were using audio as our medium, but not everybody likes to listen to podcast. Some people prefer reading. Some people prefer watching a video. Some people prefer taking a course. If you think your audience likes reading, it might be a good idea to put that content somewhere where they can access it and now. One final thing: if you are thinking about editing transcripts, I definitely think that most podcasts can turn into a book, and I know that sounds crazy, but podcasting has become the breeding ground for all kinds of new movies. TV shows concepts, and you know sometimes a movie starts off as a book. So as a podcaster, if we're transcribing our episodes were basically able to take this all this data. All these words and potentially turn it into some form of book down the road. So I don't think transcription is a bad thing to have in your back pocket, but I don't spend a lot of time editing it. I actually have spent less and less time creating show notes for my podcast, because I just don't know if people are reading them. The only reason I go to show notes is if somebody mentions they're, putting a link that it's going to be easy for me to quickly find now again. This whole episode is one guy's opinion. So, if you think editing transcriptions is amazing. Please send me a DM and let me know all about it, because I love learning these things. Ralph asks. Is it wise to Trade Mark Your podcast name? Now, listen. I understand there's a lot of fear out there someone's going to steal your idea or take your product or take your name so down the road. At some point, if you experience a certain amount of success, I think yes, trade, Martin Trade Marking your podcast name would be important, but right now it's going to cost you probably around six to eight hundred dollars and then, if there's an appeals process with the government, you have to hire a lawyer to fill out all these forms and it could be expensive. So the question to you is: If you've got a thousand dollars to spend on a trademark. Is that really the most important thing? You should be investing in your podcast at this point, because let's say somebody does steal your name or does something with your name in order to basically win that you have to hire a lawyer and go to court and do all these things that are going to eventually end up costing you a bunch of money when in reality I don't think people are out there stealing ideas. We may have similar ideas. We may have similar names, but I don't think anyone's out there looking to rip you off and this sort of comes into the mindset aspect of podcasting. Is that there's enough room for everybody, but don't worry about people stealing, your ideas worry about how successful you're going to be and how you can know truth, your audience Leman Creations. Ask What program do you use to create graphics for your podcast and Instagram? This is a great question. I use one program, it's called canvas and can va. Let's me make any graphic I want if I make a presentation for my mastermind group, if I make a caracal post for Instagram, if I make a cover post for my title card for Youtube, it all comes into canda canvas got all of my tools that I need it's easy to use the same color schemes and templets over and over again. So, if you haven't checked out CANVALIA lease asks: What is one quick tip to help draw an audience? I think all of us want to grow an audience, and so this question I'm going to answer in the best possible way I can in order to grow an audience. You have to water it and nurture the soil, and what does that mean another plant analogy from this travis sky? I know, but the thing is you don't just plant a seed and it just grows into this huge thing. You spend time with it and you focus on it, and so what most podcasters do is they spend time creating content and they post on the Internet and they wait around and they look both ways and they're like where is everybody, but finding content on the Internet is getting harder and harder because unless you're, specifically looking in a specific place, it's like finding a needle in a haystack to Larry. You have to get really dialed into who your audience is. Who are the people you want and you need to go out there and engage with those people and when I say, engage I don't mean hey, I have a podcast come check it out. I mean talk to them, have conversations. I love using the example of you go into a dinner party with me and I say: Hey this is my friend Larry and you just blurred out subscriber review. You wouldn't do that you'd say hey. How are you today? What's your name? What do you do for a living and you would start to have this conversation and at some point in time, there's an opportunity for you to bring up your podcast and that's when you can say hey? This is what my podcast is. This is who it's for, and if that person's interested in it maybe they'll take the next step and if they're not they can go their own way. But the point of this is: If you want to grow an audience, you have to get out there and grow it. No One's going to just stumble upon you they might, but discoverability is one of the hardest things that we have to do is content creators. How do I get discovered and the way to get discovered is to go out there and o show up in the communities of your people to make friends to send ms to comment on other people's posts and give exactly what you want to gain all right. So here's the last question. This comes from my Buddy Robs Smith and he says if you're having fun does any of the other stuff really matter, and I love this question because the answer is no, it doesn't matter if you're having fun podcasting. If this is a hobby for you, you shouldn't be worried about download numbers and marketing and social media growth. You should be focused on having fun enjoying the process and I think what happens to us now with the Internet- and this is just my opinion- is that we think everything we do has to be publicly shown on the Internet and if it's not great, were embarrassed of it and if it doesn't get a bunch of likes, we think it isn't good enough, and so we do less things. We try less things you might want to paint but you're like afraid that if you don't make this great painting, you can't post it on facebook or you may want to try something new like music. But if you don't post it somewhere, so somebody can see you and give you the validation that you don't try it, but everything you do doesn't have to be posted on the Internet and everything you do doesn't have to be for money. I know making money on podcasting sounds awesome and it's possible. It's totally possible, but too many people are only focused on podcasting for money. Are You podcasting for fun? Are You podcasting for passion? Are you podcasting, because you can actually reach the entire globe through this medium and tell stories and make connections so rob? I love this question and I love ending here, because if you are having fun podcasting, that's really what matters and if you love making things, that's what matters and if you're happy with the podcast that you make that's what matters, the validation and the money and the likes and the hearts, and all that other stuff is a by product of making something good so have fun. This should be fun. You started a podcast because you thought it would be fun and then all this external garbage got into your head and made it into a job. Now you're repurposing content, now you're trying to grow and scale, and you know you're, looking at analytic DASHBOARDS, that's not fun! That's not art! That's business! Now, I'm all about business. I'm all about podcasting podcasters can turn themselves into business, but not every one of you has to so. Sometimes you have to have to ask yourself what what am I trying to get out of this? Do I just want to have front fun with my friends. Do I just like the medium or am I trying to turn this into a career because you don't have to turn it into a career? You don't even have to publish every episode. You record on the Internet because you're worth more than what that Analytic Dash Board, tells you and the perfect person just hasn't, found you yet so that doesn't mean what you're doing is it or so? If I miss your question or if you have another question, please hit me up, you can an you can ask me any question. You want in the podcast Builder Club, facebook group, or you can send me a DM at poddecks on Instagram happy to answer your questions, help you get that next step to get you where you want to go and as always, that's your boy travis trying to give you the information as authentically and truthfully as I can there's no bullshit on this podcast, and I love you all. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the next episode! 

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