Big Podcast Playbook - Grow Your Podcast. Build Your Audience.

Chris Curran, like me, spent a lot of time in the music industry. While my focus was marketing, mostly working out of office buildings, he was in the studio, engineering acts like Naughty by Nature, Heavy D & the Boyz, and Helmet.   When you spend that much time in the studio, you learn a lot about what it takes to get a quality recording. You also learn a lot about the psychology of getting a good performance on tape.   Between us, Chris and I have been part of over 3000 podcast episodes and interviewed hundreds of people. We've seen and experienced the good, bad, and ugly of podcasting.   In this episode, we talk about the process of getting a quality guest interview.

Want more? Visit Chris at Podcast Engineering School.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Podcast editor Steve Stewart is back with a "bonus episode" that's very specific to the newly released Audacity 3.0. This one is short and to-the-point with a couple of things for you to consider if you use Audacity to edit your podcast.   On this episode:

• Audacity 3.0's new file format – this will make your podcast editing easier
• How to get a "clean cut" in your podcast edits (with a single keystroke)
• Sending your podcast directly to your editor (or anybody else) directly from Audacity

Links mentioned:

• Behind-the-scenes of Steve's podcast editing business
• Audacity 3.0

Want more podcast editing help? Visit Steve at Podcast Editor Academy.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

95% of the time, the focus of Build A Big Podcast is marketing. Steve Stewart is a podcast editor. What does he know about marketing a podcast?   A lot – as the guy who runs the 6000+-member Podcast Editors Club on Facebook, he's seen and heard it all.   On this episode:

• The importance of owning a niche...even if you're just editing podcasts
• The editing "side-hustle" – a good option for you as a podcast host?
• How to start a podcast editing business (and how Steve was able to do it)
• The "psychology" of working with guests to get a great podcast interview
• The right way to do a mic test when you're interviewing a podcast guest remotely
• Getting comfortable on the mic (and how to make your podcast guests more comfortable)

Want more? Visit Steve at Podcast Editor Academy.

  Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Audacity 3.0 is out and it's got some new things that you'll find helpful if you're a user.   Not a user? it's not for everybody, and there are arguable more powerful tools like it available, but it's worked well for me for about 20 years and, for podcasting, I think it's worth a look.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

This is a "feel good" episode about the power of being able to connect with your audience.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

The people at Apple Podcasts have decided "follow" is the right term for what we currently call "subscribe." So in the future, if you want people to "subscribe" to your podcast via Apple Podcasts, you may want to use the word "follow" to match their wording.   James Cridland of Podnews has some interesting thoughts on this, which I'll share with you in this episode. I'll also tell you my thoughts both in the episode and in here:   It doesn't matter.   What we call "subscribe" from now on isn't nearly as important as how we explain what that word means. And we still have a lot of work to do if we want podcasting to be at the levels of social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.   Also – why are we trying to win over people who don't listen to podcasts? I get that it would be nice to expand the audience that podcasting has, but it's a better growth strategy to work with the audience you already have and let those people help you grow than worry with people who don't listen to podcasts and may never listen to podcasts, regardless of what you call "subscribe."   Just to be clear – nobody is wrong here. There's no one way to do anything in podcasting. But changing one word isn't likely to be the gamechanger so many people are saying it will be.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

Go on any forum for podcasters and you'll likely see people arguing about the best microphone and best headphones.   The best microphone is the one you have. And if you don't have one, assuming you have some experience hosting and can say something worth listening to, get this one.   The best headphones? When I'm doing remote interviews, I like cheap earbuds. Do they sound great? Not really. But I've found them much better that closed-back, fancy headphones since earbuds allow me to better monitor my own speech and, because of this, sound more natural on the mic.   And when I'm not doing a remote interview and simply recording, either by myself or with somebody else in the room, I usually don't wear headphones at all.   Risky? Yes. But live a little, man. And if you're good enough to get this mic, you should be good enough to make "no headphones" work for you.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

I've interviewed hundreds of guests over the years. Most have been great experiences, even if the interview didn't always work out the way I wanted.   This is not one of those stories. This guest lied to me, brought me in on his lies, and pissed me off because of it.   On a positive note, it's a great story for Big A Big Podcast and I hope it helps you better handle similar situations when they happen to you.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

I think it's important to keep a good relationship with publicists and booking agents, but you need to remember who these people work for – not you.   Their main goal when dealing with you is to get you to cover something or talk to somebody. Because of this, you need to make sure that what you cover and who you book works for you – do not leave it up to somebody else to make a decision like that.   In this episode I talk about a publicist who tried to dump a guest on me, how I tried to work with her, but ultimately, how I had to walk away, because the guest didn't meet my standard and she wasn't able to make the (somewhat) interesting story that would have allowed him to participate as a ride-along work.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.

     

If you do enough podcast interviews, you're going to have a bad one. I once had a guy, well-known rock star, stand up in the middle of recording and tell me, "This interview is over! Take me back to my hotel!"   Even Larry King had some bad interviews. But he made it work...at least sometimes.   Don't Let Your Podcast Be Ignored - Download my free "Podcast Growth Toolkit" to double your podcast audience.