Audience

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks with Arielle Nissenblatt about building a community around your podcast. There are so many great takeaways from this episode, from community engagement to building an audience, podcasting habits to monetization. Arielle lends her expertise in answering Matt’s questions about podcasting and Twitter.

Arielle is a podcast expert in every sense of the word. She founded the EarBuds Podcast Collective in 2017, a podcast recommendation engine which sends a themed newsletter (including five podcast episodes centered around that theme) each week. She has also been the emcee for the Outlier Podcast Festival, attended the Salt Institute in Portland, ME for documentary studies, and has worked with podcast industry leaders to establish the Podcast Taxonomy system. The Podcast Taxonomy system aims to systematize roles for audio and podcast production.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to Castos.com/podcast. And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at castos.com/subscribe.

Today you’ll learn about:

Resources/Links:

Arielle Nissenblatt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arithisandthat?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor 

Arielle Nissenblatt’s website: https://www.ariellenissenblatt.com/ 

Castos Academy: https://academy.castos.com/ 

Castos, private podcast: https://academy.castos.com/private/ 

Castos, website: Castos.com/

Castos, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/castos  

Clubhouse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8729ZpWpmIw 

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Matt talks with podcast veteran Nathan Gathright about his latest venture: Steno.FM. The podcast 2.0 movement is bringing a lot of great things to podcasters and listeners. This also means transcripts. Descript is great for podcasters who need to work on their own podcasts, but what about listeners? There are a limited number of podcasting apps that have transcript features. Enter: Steno.FM. But we’ll let Nathan talk about that.

Matt and Nathan also talk about the future of podcasting, the latest in podcasting news, what’s going on with Apple, and Nathan’s tips for new podcasters.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to Castos.com/podcast. And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at castos.com/subscribe.

Today you’ll learn about:

Resources/Links:

Nathan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/NathanG 

The Lightning Network: https://lightning.network/ 

Steno.FM: https://www.steno.fm/ 

“Apple must allow other forms of in-app purchase, rules judge in Epic v. Apple”: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/10/22662320/epic-apple-ruling-injunction-judge-court-app-store 

Twitter Tips: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/bringing-tips-to-everyone 

Audience’s new home: https://castos.com/audience/ 

Castos Academy: https://academy.castos.com/ 

Castos, private podcast: https://academy.castos.com/private/ 

Castos, website: Castos.com/

Castos, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/castos 

In this episode Craig takes you behind the scenes with 3 Castos team members as we describe the process of the brand redesign we're launching today.  Recreating a brand, even after just a few years, is a major undertaking, but one that every brand (and yes, your podcast is a "brand") should consider.  Taking the time to properly align your mission, vision, and goals with the actual visual elements that you put out into the world goes a long way towards conveying brand consistency and trust with your fans.  Resources Mentioned In This Episode: 3 Hour Brand Sprint Castos' Tempo Style Guide Castos Originals

There aren't many more well-understood growth channels for a brand's audience than social media. But like a lot of things when it comes to growing your brand, it's often not complicated, but it's hard.

Twitter in particular is a favorite for brands (and let's face it, your podcast is a 'brand' whether you've admitted it to yourself or not) to grow their reach and drive traffic back to a website.

Today Craig sits down with Bridget Willard, social media management pro, and someone who has been helping the Castos team manage their Twitter presence for the last few months.

The Castos team decided to invest in a dedicated person to help with social media management, and Twitter in particular, because they know that it's vital to meet your audience members wherever they want to engage with you.

When it comes to podcasting we know this as listing in directories like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Google Podcasts. But the conversation often goes on beyond just the episode, and for a lot of podcasters the social media platform of choice is Twitter.

In this episode Craig and Bridget talk through:

Hope you enjoy this conversation with Bridget. To find out more about her please check her out on BridgetWillard.com

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Stuart talks about a different type of podcast. While most of the Audience podcast episodes focus on podcasts and podcasters who want to glean financial value and brand awareness from their work, other podcasts originate from a group of friends hanging out. 

Today, Stuart focuses on a few podcasts which have started off that way. Renee from the ConspiraTea Podcast and Gavin from the What Kind of Monster Are You Podcast share their formula for success and how their podcasts have helped their friendships evolve. This begs the question, do you and your friends have a podcast in you?

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to Castos.com/podcast. And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at castos.com/subscribe.

Today you’ll learn about:

Resources/Links:

ConspiraTea Podcast: https://linktr.ee/conspirateapod 

What Kind of Monster Are You: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/what-kind-of-monster-are-you-what-kind-of-AqIwdmX9YKU/ 

My Brother, My Brother and Me: https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/ 

The Fantasy Footballer’s Podcast: https://www.thefantasyfootballers.com/ 

Castos Academy: https://academy.castos.com/ 

Castos, private podcast: https://academy.castos.com/private/ 

Castos, website: Castos.com/

Castos, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/castos  

Clubhouse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8729ZpWpmIw 

On this week’s episode of the Creator’s Spotlight series, Sam talks with Chris Desmond about how to start a conversation and engage with your podcasting community. Chris’ healthcare background easily transferred into a podcasting hobby. It has since morphed even more, changing from a hobby, to a mental health tool, to a resource for the healthcare community. Sam and Chris share their advice about how to create these communities as well as tips for interviewing, making the editing process smoother and faster, and the advantages of setting up a recording schedule.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to Castos.com/podcast. And as always, if you’re enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at castos.com/subscribe.

Today you’ll learn about:

Resources/Links:

The Art of Healthcare Podcast: https://the-art-of-healthcare.castos.com/ 

The Art of Healthcare: https://artofhealthcare.nz/ 

Uncomfortable is OK Podcast: https://uncomfortableisok.libsyn.com/ 

Mighty Networks: https://www.mightynetworks.com/ 

Descript: https://www.descript.com/ 

Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org/ 

Castos Academy: https://academy.castos.com/ 

Castos, private podcast: https://academy.castos.com/private/ 

Castos, website: Castos.com/

Castos, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/castos  

Clubhouse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8729ZpWpmIw 

Today’s episode is all about saving time as a podcaster, especially a solo podcaster. 

Running a podcast resembles running a small business more than you might have guessed...or hoped. 

As small business owners, you’re responsible for wearing many hats. If you’ve ever launched a business, you quickly found out that not only are you the owner but you’re also the: 

If you’re a solo podcaster, you’re responsible for: 

Lots there right? Here’s the good news...many of us who are solo podcasters are also small business owners...yay. Wait, I said good news didn’t I?

That means with everything else we have going on how the heck are we going to produce a successful podcast with the limited time that we have? I’ll reveal some of the helpful tools, apps, and theories I’ve leveraged over my career as a podcaster. 

By the end of this episode, hopefully you can take a few nuggets of this wisdom away with you. 

Hey, by the way, if you’re looking for a great place to start your podcast or maybe you’re bored with your old podcast host -- look no further than Castos.com! That’s us, that’s who makes this podcast. We’re building a platform for the podcaster like you, who desire something clean, fast, and powerful for all of your podcast needs. Want to start a podcast network? Check! How about connecting up to your WordPress marketing website? Done! Sell private podcasts or members-only content? You bet! 

Learn more about Castos at castos.com or drop us an email [email protected], tell them you heard it here, on the Audience podcast. 

Start with the mindset

Please don’t skip past this section, I know you might have rolled your eyes a bit, but I think this is important -- especially if you’re a new podcaster. Getting in the right mindset sets the foundation to managing your time as a busy podcaster. 

Tip #1: What’s your goal?

We need something to measure, something that gives you feedback that reassures you’re headed down the right path. 

I don’t care what it is. It could be downloads, retweets, email subscribers, ad revenue -- give yourself something to aim for, which will help you build processes in the future to save time and become more efficient. 

P.s. if you’re brand brand brand new, with no goals, I always love to point to growing an email list first. Jump on something like Mailchimp.com to make that process easy. 

Tip #2: Develop the plan

I’m a terrible planner. Maybe like you, my super power is just diving into a creative project and...creating. 

Starting something new is exhilarating and a chance to show the world something new you’re capable of. Until 3 months from the starting line you’re just clicking the dozens of open tabs in your browser thinking of something new to do. 

Have some structure heading into the show like:

Plans can be complete plans like outlining seasons OR having plans for each episode. I built a career on podcasting not having plans for shows and guests, and while I could fly by the seat of my pants for a while, it catches up to you, I promise. 

Even having 3 - 4 bullet points readily available for your show recording will save you from the pitfalls of creating lackluster content. 

Tip #3: It’s your show; there are no rules

Guess what? You’re not really competing with anyone else. YOU are your biggest enemy right now. 

Not the show you’re trying to mimic or the lavish lifestyle you see your favorite YouTuber living...No, it’s you.

The last tip I have for mindset is to give yourself room to create and learn to love the process. I can guarantee you that once the honeymoon phase of podcasting wears off, you’re going to try to find something else to do. It’s easy to give up on a podcast when there’s so much else to do. 

Don’t let your show podfade! 

If you set a goal and formulated a plan, you’re on the right track. If time is an issue, don’t do a weekly show. Stick to a twice-monthly schedule, instead. Same advice for promoting and marketing your show. If content creation is all you have time for, cut that in half and spend the other half promoting your show. 

If you like to take vacations in the summertime, take a break! Make podcast seasons or dip into your emergency content vault to fill your airwaves. 

Bottom line: produce the show however you see fit, to a degree that displaces the chance for burn out from the work ahead. 

Tip #4: The power of a pre-interview

You ever remodel a house and say, “We should have just knocked it down and started over, it would have been cheaper.” 

That’s how I’ve felt about the dozens and dozens of episodes I’ve published where I wasn’t prepared. And I don’t mean not prepared in the technical sense, but in the good content + knowing who I’m talking to, sense. 

There comes a time in the “interview show” podcaster’s life where you start running out of people that you know to be a guest and find yourself in front of people that you don’t have a background on. 

Sure they know the premise of the show and their LinkedIn profile looks good, but have you built any rapport in the split seconds after hitting record? Do you know the exact 1 or 2 topics you can punch in to produce quality content? How about tension, the core of great storytelling? 

The pre-interview is something I’ve arranged for all the guests I interview on my shows. I spend 10-15 minutes total, really giving them the broad brushstrokes of what I expect out of them as a guest: 

Being prepared like this is what avoids the “we should have knocked this episode down” feeling after you spend an hour with someone you don’t know barely holding on to a conversation to save your life. 

Commit to the pre-interview! 

Tip #5: Guest wrangling with the SavvyCal app

Podcasts guests can be like herding cats. 

Picking a time to meet, letting them know which tool you’re using to record, mic checks, and head shot photos can all be a bit daunting. 

Luckily, there’s a few ways you can tackle this and at the core, at least for me, is a tool called SavvyCal.

SavvyCal lets you connect your calendar or multiple calendars up to a shareable link to give out to your future podcast guests. It automagically connects their availability across timezones to give them the ability to pick a time that works well for the both of you. 

Here’s a few ways I use it: 

What's that you say, a landing page for requirements? 

Another valuable time saving feature would be to have your guest read through your requirements, to reemphasize the importance of a good show or to upload a headshot photo for you to use in the podcast featured image.

This is a massive time saver across pre-interviews, interviews and post show email follow-ups.

Tip #6: Easy recordings + audio quality

If you’re in the early days of your podcast production, maybe you’re using something like Zoom or Skype to record your episodes. And then maybe, you want to start pushing the quality of your audio up a few notches. 

Fumbling around with complex audio editing tools does not equal a time saving formula. 

So do what I did for a long time, and still do for some podcasts I work on, use a better recording platform to make your episodes sound better without having to do much heavy lifting. 

It’s not audio engineering or heavy editing, but I use a platform called Zencastr which will automatically sync up your individual audio tracks and normalize them through their production tool. 

You have to pay for it, but it’s a huge time saver to make the show sound somewhat good without having to do a lot of heavy lifting. 

Tip #7: Extend your audio editing with Hindenburg or Descript (or both) 

I used to spend hours editing a 45 minute minute interview. 

The days of using ecamm skype call recorder + adobe audition would send me down an audio engineering rabbit hole that I had no business doing. 

Once I started using Zencastr as a competent recording platform, about 6 months ago I shifted to using the Descript audio editing software. 

I switched for a few reasons: 

Descript as a MASSIVE time saver for me. Die hard audio engineers probably won’t use it, but you can export to other DAWs if you’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of audio engineering. 

I will say that, at least at the time of this recording, Descript lacks on the audio enhancement tools. Sure it’s got basic EQ and compression, but I never found it all that compelling. 

Recently I discovered Hindenburg which has an extremely competent + user friendly interface for recording audio. Now I use Hindenburg to record at the source, at least on solo episodes like this one, and then export to Descript for the bigger chunks of editing. 

Adding another _thing_ to a workflow certainly is the opposite of time savings, but it does pay off in a better sounding show in the long run. Plus, less futzing around with making a better quality audio. 

Tip #8: Maybe it’s time to spend some money on equipment

Cover your ears if you’re just getting started. 

Lots of people ask me about the equipment they should get for their podcast. It’s the glitz and glamour of becoming a podcaster. When in reality, it's easy work and oftentimes expensive work, depending on what you’re buying. 

Newsflash: it doesn’t make your show any better, at least in the important areas like great content + getting it in the earbuds of your audience. 

The difference between a $99 Audio Technica ATR-2100x microphone vs a $399 Shure SM7B microphone is only marginally better for most of us. 

While the cost is 4 times more expensive, you certainly won’t be able to hear a 4 times better sound. However, great hardware will save you lots of time when you do get to the point of where you want to push the audio quality boundaries. 

If you find yourself spending lots of time editing EQ, compression, noisegate, etc in software editing tools, that’s where the great hardware steps in. Record your audio at the highest quality at the source, so you’re not left spending hours on adjustments. 

I don’t want to turn this segment into a whole hardware episode, but the devices that do come to mind for time savings beyond a better microphone are: 

Tip #9: Automation

This isn’t a one size fits all solution. Automation can come in many different forms and tools, which largely will depend on your aptitude for these things and where you’re at with your podcast. 

I’m going to break it down into 3 different sub categories:

Another caveat is, none of these tools are set in stone. All 3 have alternatives you can seek out or pair up with. The following concepts are just what I’ve used before. 

Zapier

Zapier is like the glue for apps across the web. Want to send a file from Dropbox to Auphonic for audio processing? You can do it. Take your WordPress blog post and drop it into a shared Airtable database for collaboration? Easy peasy. 

Zapier can automate a lot of things in your podcast based on triggers. Someone books a Savvycal time with you, automatically have Zapier set up a Zencastr room + fire off a welcome email to them. 

Your creativity (and the apps they support) are the limits. 

Buffer

I love Buffer to schedule all of my Twitter or LinkedIn promo items. I love the simplicity of it, coupled with the calendar view. There is something familiar about seeing all of my work in a 30-day view that I’m comfortable with. 

If you’re busy like the rest of us, maybe getting to tweets early morning or on the weekends isn’t going to fly. Or maybe you want to queue up 10-15 posts based on 1 episode you publish, make your life easier using something like Buffer. 

Mailchimp

Email automation can be the king of delivering your past valuable content. Like Zapier, your creativity is the limit here. But if you’re pushing your listeners to join an email list as part of your call to action, why not send out an automated series of emails that helps with repurposing your favorite podcast episodes. 

Get someone hooked immediately on past content that was amazing and get them sharing to resurface these episodes to increase awareness. 

Marketing + promotion on auto-pilot. I love it!

Tip #10: Outsource it!

Okay, okay, I know this is a bit of a cheesy #10, but hear me out: If your podcast is earning a living, through ads or a service based ROI, get the busy work off of your plate! 

Look at your podcast in quarters: 

If you could outsource 25-50% of the work you don’t want to do, think about how much that clears your mind (and your plate!) to make the other components that much better. 

Grab someone from your team, a friend, a freelancer or hey (shameless self promotion) if you want an experienced & professional team to do it, hire us at Castos! We have an award winning production team waiting to help take the busy work of podcasting off your plate. Learn more at Castos.com/services

Conclusion

A successful podcast takes a lot of work. 

Lots of moving parts and lots to do to get it top of mind with our Audience. Take it one step at a time and don’t give up! The hidden benefits of podcasting are yet to be discovered! 

If you enjoyed today’s episode, just go on Twitter and share it with others. If you’re listening in a pdocast app hit the share button and post it to your favorite social media channel. If you’re listening in a Podcast 2.0 app...well, we don’t get streaming satoshis here, I’m sorry. 

The best value for us is to check out Castos.com if you’re looking for a new podcast host and leave us a review on Podchaser.com. Search for Audience on podchaser.com and rate us, we’d appreciate it. 

Okay, I’m Matt and I’m done for today! See you in the next episode.

Today’s episode is all about new podcast apps + podcast 2.0. 

It’s a big topic, and a bleeding edge one for most of us, suffice to say this one episode wouldn’t do the whole of it justice. However, if there’s one thing I leave you with, it’s that you’re encouraged, as podcast creators, to go out and explore.  If you’ve been hearing more and more about this from other shows you listen to but are still left scratching your head, well, allow me to illustrate it for you. 

To do that, lets start with a quote from friend of the show Evo Terra:

“Apple Podcasts has been fumbling the ball since April of 2021. Treat their non-stop stumbling as a gift. Anchor/Spotify is now making RSS feeds optional for all new podcasters that join their platform. Again, take that as a gift.

They’re distracted. They’re doing their own things which may not align with the larger podcasting ecosystem. It’s up to you, to me, and to and the companies we pay to host our podcasting content to take advantage of these gifts and push podcasting to the next level. Podcasting 2.0, even.

As I’ve said for years on this program, please spread this idea with other podcasters and get them as excited about the future as you are. “

“Treat their (Apple’s) non-stop stumbling as a gift.” That’s a thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. 

Let’s face it, Apple’s backing of podcasting in the early days helped make podcasting more mainstream. Lots of us wouldn’t have jobs if _Steve Jobs_ didn’t take the stage showcasing the pod fathers first show.

 But the Trillion dollar brand has meandered along the last decade barely giving us a working portal to submit our shows, let alone advance the industry. A feeling which has compounded during their updates to the platform earlier in the year where podcasters were left scratching their heads: 

“Where is my show?” 

“Why are my episodes disappearing?” 

“Why can’t I submit a new podcast?” 

Questions which still don’t have answers. 

I know this because I see our support desk at Castos, and Apple’s lack of effort with transparency costs us time, money, and in some cases customers. Suddenly, “we” all start looking around and begin to question…“does apple even care?”

As the all too familiar feeling of “Oh God, another major platform failing creators”starts to set in, out on the horizon, a ray of hope appears in the form of an open-source movement called Podcast 2.0.

I talked about this on previous episodes of Audience, if you follow me on YouTube.com/castos you’ve seen me demo and explain some of the features. Features which Castos will be adopting in the very near-future. If you’re seeking out who the real innovators are, aside from podcast hosting companies, look no further than the podcast 2.0 movement + enhancements to the RSS namespace. 

If that sounds too technical for you, well, it kinda is and that’s a topic for a different episode. Just know that Podcast 2.0 efforts work to keep podcasting open, where the stark contrast of Spotify shutting down popular RSS feeds is the complete opposite.

The fact of the matter is that, when you combine the efforts of the Podcast 2.0 movement along with new podcast listening apps, you start to unlock the _real_ innovation happening in our space. 

As Podcast 2.0 continues to make strides, so must the podcast listening apps and hosting companies. 

Hosting companies must unlock features from the Podcast 2.0 namesapce inside their software in order to pass those features to podcast listening apps, where they carry it the rest of the way. Apps can display things like funding information, host information, chapters and even transcriptions. 

Think of it like Podcast 2.0 sets the blueprint, hosting companies run the plumbing, and the listening apps have the nice fancy faucets and knobs. All for a better podcast listening experience. 

Oh, there’s this thing called “value4value” yet another topic of monetizing podcasts through bitcoin, which some apps support, again we’ll save that for another day. 

Let’s recap:

I said this episode was about podcast apps, but I’m not going to highlight or give you a definitive list…sort of. 

As podcasters we have to come together and recognise first that our call to action for years “Subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify and Google” needs to be thrown out. The proof is in the podcast pudding. 

So before I recommend what apps or where to find them, if you’re a podcast creator, change your call to action to tell your audience where to listen to your show. Change starts with us, and a near 20 year habit is going to be hard to break. 

I’ll give you my early take on which apps to explore, which ones look at least the most promising to me, and maybe you once you start to dig in. 

First, go to newpodcastapps.com, it’s the best place to start your research and experimenting. I’ll be up front and honest right now: the biggest challenge I have with these apps is that they aren’t smooth, they aren’t feature rich, and they aren’t sexy. 

It’ll be challenging to pull PocketCasts out of my cold dead hands. 

However, there are some that are interesting from a certain usecase, that I can picture myself using. 

Fountain is a new app that lots of people are talking about. I think because of it’s “boostagram” feature and how it makes the whole value4value, paying with Satoshis, a breeze. 

Curiocaster, looks like a great web-based listening experience with a lot of the Podcast 2.0 features. 

Sphinx chat, which I covered on the YouTube channel, has a fairly straightforward way of setting up your bitcoin payments + integrating live-chat while listening to a podcast. 

Antennapod sounds like a promising open source podcast app for Android users. 

If you feel a bit overwhelmed, you’re in the right place. I am too. 

As creators, we need to play our part in helping advance the industry too. Let me restate that: As creators, _we_ advance the industry too. 

We shouldn’t throw our hands up and just give in to the Billion dollar companies competing with Trillion dollar Apple. When has that story ever played out well for us?

Give yourself some breathing room, spend some time with these new apps, see what works & what doesn’t. Give the creator of the apps some feedback. Maybe promote podcastindex.org or by all means your own website, before you push Apple or Spotify. 

If you need to setup a website for your podcast, Castos makes that easy with our WordPress plugin and special templates for Elementor site builder.