Podcast Workflows - Better Systems to Prevent Podfade and get More Listeners

What Mowing the Lawn has to do with Your Podcast Losing Money

January 12, 2024 Growth

If you’re in the northeast United States, you know you need to mow pretty much every week in the summer. Well recently due to rain, lack of child care, and travel, i didn’t get mow my lawn for nearly 3.

So one day, I set out to mow the very long, still kind of wet lawn. On top of that, I had to weed wack¹, and take a hedge trimmer to some overgrown bushes. It was shaping up to be a big job. Something that normally takes an hour took basically all afternoon.

And because I was choosing yard work over billable work for my business, that afternoon cost me about $750.

Opportunity Cost

It was a big job. One my lawn mower couldn’t handle. Grass kept getting stuck in it. I kept having to stop and start. Weed wacking took forever. And I’ve never trimmed hedges before.

I could have paid someone far less to do faster. This is known in economics as opportunity cost. What was the cost of me choosing something I didn’t personally need to do vs. doing work that actually makes me money?

Most People Don’t See The Hidden Costs

If I hired someone to mow my lawn, they would have had better equipment to mow, weed wack, and hedge trim. They would have had more experience and therefore more skill to do the work quickly and efficiently. And they would not have charged more per hour…

5 Content Ideas for Your Podcast

January 12, 2024 Content

Your business is stagnating. Maybe sales are as high as you’d like. Maybe you can’t seem to attract more customers.

Have you had that feeling? that no matter what you do, your sales and mailing list, and income, are flatlining? You know something needs to change, but you don’t know what.

I know what that feels like. I’ve been there. As I prepared to leave my full time job, I had a false sense of security for how much work I thought would come in. Boy was I wrong. I ripped through my small amount of work quickly.

Do what you set out to do

You didn’t start a business to struggle or worry about money. if you’re like me, you wanted freedom. But when you’re struggling in your business, it doesn’t feel like freedom. You feel chained to your desk, hoping more work comes in.

It doesn’t have to feel like that. And with a podcast, it won’t. Launching a podcast will help you establish yourself as an authority in your field, reaching a new audience, and generate more leads…

…with the right content.

5 Ways to Get More Podcast Downloads

January 12, 2024 Tips

There are times in life when you have a fairly captive audience. You’re giving a lecture at a college where attendance is required. You’re the keynote speaker at a conference. You’re leading a meeting at work. You’re explaining to your wife why CSS Custom Properties are the bee’s knees¹. But a podcast…and most online content…is the opposite of that. In-fact, unlike all of the examples names above, the audience might not even know your podcast exists. To get more downloads, you not only need to engage the audience. You need to find the audience.

4 Ways to Make Podcasting Easier Through Automation

January 12, 2024 Tips

Podcasting is a time consuming effort, which is why many podcasts fall victim to the dreaded podfade¹. It can sometimes feel like you need a herculean effort to get it all done. Come up with topics, find and book guests, coordinate schedules, do the tech checks, record, post production, then publishing and promoting. That’s why putting a process in place and moving things off of your plate is a must. Here are 4 tasks you can take off your plate thanks to automation.

Podcast Do’s and Don’ts

January 12, 2024 Tips

When I became a parent, there was no shortage of advice from anyone who had a kid at any point in their lives. From the most common, “sleep when the baby sleeps,” to the less common (but way more useful), “take the baby with you the first 2 months of their lives because all they do is sleep,” I was bombarded with a seemingly endless list of all the things I should and should not be doing as a freshly minted dad.

And while podcasting isn’t the same thing as being a parent, there is that same firehose of advice from everyone from people who started a podcast this week to people who’ve been doing it for 10+ years. This advice comes from a good place, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Want to cut to the quick? Click: Do’s | Don’ts

Why This List is Different

When I started podcasting, I documented my journey. I wrote down the questions I had, and the answers I got. I made note of the hard parts, and the advice I didn’t get that I should have.

As a podcast coach, I check in with my students and clients. I ask them what they are struggling with. And I ask them what their revelations are, as they happen.

This list is the culmination of all of that — my 10+ years experience, and the new problems facing podcasters in 2023.

Podcasting Can Be Hard

As…

Making The Most Of Your Podcast Guest Spot

January 12, 2024 Tips

A few weeks ago I wrote about how to get on someone’s podcast. Congrats! Now you have your first podcast guest spot lined up. You’re set to provide value for a ready and willing audience. But being a podcast guest is about more than just talking. While you shouldn’t be going on just to hawk your wares, you should be ready to help listeners learn more about you. Here’s how.

How to Improve Audio Recordings at Home

January 15, 2024 Tips

Recording audio at home can be tough, especially if you don’t have the environment. On top of that, what app do you use to record, and how can you prevent that “robot voice” that happens if you’re recording online with other people. Let’s take a look at a few helpful techniques.

How to Make Your Sony a6400 Camera a Webcam (Step-by-Step)

March 15, 2024 Gear

Having a killer looking camera for your videos is great, but there are usually a few hoops you need to go through. In this step-by-step, you’ll learn all the hardware, and software settings, you need to convert your Sony a6400 into a Webcam.

How to Get Yourself on Someone’s Podcast

January 15, 2024 Growth

Going on someone’s podcast can be a great way to establish your authority and promote your work, right? Wrong. Well…it is right, but it shouldn’t be your primary motive.

Much like how the intentions behind your actions get you into The Good Place (I just finished Season 3 please don’t spoil it!), your intentions for reaching out to a podcast host and coming on the show also need to be good. Otherwise, the host and the audience will see right through it. So how do you get on someone’s podcast?

Establish Trust

Look, as someone who’s been podcasting for a long time, and someone who knows the value of getting in front of a different audience, I understand. I know that time is an important commodity.

That said, in order to people who want to know more about you, or check you out, they need to trust you. You will not establish trust with the host or the listeners if you just come out the gate hyping up how great you are. So how should you do it?

Be Intentional About the Shows You go on

First, don’t just email every podcast host whose info you can find. Look at shows that cover the topics on which you’re a subject matter expert. You can do this a few ways:

Look through the categories (and secondary categories) in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Podchaser.
Apple Podcasts and Google and both improved their podcast indexing lately. Do general searches for…
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How to Make a Good Podcast Trailer

January 15, 2024 Tips

Recently I got a question regarding creating an “episode 0” (or podcast trailer) for your podcast – namely, “do I need an episode 0, and when should I do it?” The short answer is, you should do it as soon as you know you want to have a podcast. But let’s take a deeper look at your trailer and launching your podcast.

What is a Podcast Trailer?

Basically, it’s the very first episode in your podcast feed. Most people treat it as “Episode 0” because it’s not part of the show, but it’s crucial for submitting your podcast to directories.

They usually cover the following talking points:

Name of the show
The host
What listeners can expect from the show
A very general time frame for launch
A call to subscribe (don’t miss the first episode!)

Hook the Listener

You want a structured narrative that starts with a good hook. Give potential fans a reason to keep listening.

Here’s the trailer for my show, How I Built It:

Start with a Story

Much like a good talk, you should start with a story to hook the listener. It can be personal, or something from pop culture.

Once you hook them, tell them…

How to Get Good Room Acoustics

January 15, 2024 Tips

Since professional recording is now the lion’s share of my work, I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything I could to get good room acoustics. Here, I break down what I did to make sure that my sound it top quality, before it ever hits my mic. If video is your preferred format, I have that too, after the jump!