← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E586 - Refining the Craft of Podcasting - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro
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Okay, we're rolling. Welcome back to the how to Podcast series. It's Dave with you. I still have my voice 12 episodes in now. We're moving forward with our our little mini series. We're doing here The Podcaster's Path 24 Steps from Beginner to pro. I'm recording this in a 24 hour period of time and I'm doing one episode every hour, posting it to the podcasting world and YouTube. If you want to get all of these episodes grouped together, one of the easiest ways that I've found to do that is by my YouTube channel. And you can go there to the playlist, aptly named the same as the podcast episodes, and you can see all the episodes grouped together. I love the idea of grouping like content together for your audience to give them bite sized chunks instead of this overwhelming amount of content that they have to wade through and maybe drown in. Giving them little bite sized pieces is a great approach for your audience, especially new people who don't know you yet and haven't been sold on whether or not this is a podcast for them. Go and check out the YouTube channel. Go and check out the playlist for these episodes. A link in the show notes, and you will get all of the episodes, all 24, in one location, no matter when you listen or where. And you can always listen on the app you're listening to right now as well. They're all numbered together and they'll all take you through step by step by step. And yeah, it's. The idea came from a listener saying, dave, love your show, but there's so much content and all I want to know is how to start and how to get going in podcasting. Do you have kind of like a condensed version of your podcast in a smaller chunk to get me started to see if it's even for me. So instead of sending them into my catalog and giving a bunch of random episode numbers for them to hunt for, how about just create a little miniseries aptly named the Podcaster's Path. So when I'm meeting somebody for the first time, they're like, dave, where do I start? Oh, go to the podcaster's path. It's 24 episodes in a row and it's going to help you all the way through. Listen to these together. And this is a great starting point for your podcast. So if you know somebody that's looking at starting a show and they're not really sure what podcast about podcasting they should listen to, hopefully they love this one and you can send them a Link to the playlist with all the 24 episodes in one spot. There you go. Steal the idea. I'd love for you to steal the idea and do this for your show. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. We're going to be talking about refining the craft of podcasting here on this episode. We're up and running now. We've got some episodes out. We've. We've got through the initial hurdle of getting started. Now it's time to refine what we're doing and take our podcast one step down the path further. Here we go. When we talk about refining the craft of podcasting, this marks the moment where every podcaster realizes that it's time to level up. It's time to move forward with this new little baby podcast that we started from fumbling around as a beginner recording our episodes and that. And we're like, I'm not sure if this is working. We pull in our listeners in and we start leaving them wanting more. As a listener in our community, that's a good thing. By the way, this is where storytelling and production stop feeling like chores and start becoming your creative signature. Think of when you sign off at the bank or you sign off for a house or a car. You sign that permission slip for your kids. That's your signature. That means something. It represents you. Your signature is your podcast and it means something. It does. It represents who you are. And when we have our fingerprints all through our podcast, our podcast becomes an extension of who we are. And people begin to realize that there's some really good storytelling and production in the show. And it's. It's exciting to be able to see our podcast grow and newcomers stepping into podcasting for the first time. My encouragement for you is to make your show so tied into who you are that people get a little taste of you every time they press play. Imagine recording that one episode where everything just clicks. Your story flows. There's really. The rambling is being reduced. The emotional peaks hit just at the right time like your favorite movie and the final edit feels polished and. But it's still authentic. Like actually you. That's the level up milestone that I'm talking about here. Proof that your early awkward mic time and unscripted tangents and things just falling apart and you have to go back and put it back together again. These were building towards something of more of a pro level approach to podcasting for beginners. This stage demystifies the how of captivating audio. It's not magic, it's structure, it's intention. There's a three act episode structure to give your show this natural rhythm. Here are the three acts for you to consider as you map out your episodes to get that natural rhythm in your show. Act one is your setup. Here's where you hook in with a question or a scene. You introduce the listener's problem. It's the initial hook. Think of a fishing expedition. You got a rod and a reel and a hook and a worm or whatever. You're using bacon, a corn apparently works. And you start fishing. You have that hook. That hook is necessary to be successful as a. As somebody to catch fish. Right? Yeah. Okay, good. So that's your first step. Act one setup. It's the hook. Act two is the conflict. It dives into the tension, the challenges, the what went wrong. Building curiosity for your audience. Getting in some stakes, some table stakes, like, and then what? And then. And then. And then you want people leaning in in Act 2. Act 3 is the resolution. Just delivers the payoff for your audience. The solution, the key insight. The cult of hope. Break longer episodes into three to five chapters. And this is going to help your podcast to not be so overwhelming as well. Label them and. And use chapters where possible. In Spotify, they're automatic. I haven't turned on for all my episodes. This really helps for mental navigation. And the one little trick that I use, which you've heard already in this episode, is I have this little sound that takes us from one scene, one context of the episode, one conversation to the next. And I'm going to do it again right here. This is where we reline through editing and pacing, the clarity and emotional arc for our show. And here comes the sound. So I encourage podcasters, when they edit their own show or to instruct their editor for this, to trim silences longer than two or three seconds because they can be a little overwhelming. I've had guests on my show that you'll ask them a question and they start talking and then they stop. They're thinking. They say a couple more words and they stop and they're thinking. And as a listener, you're like, what's going on? So there's. There's silence, there's pregnant pauses, and then there's obvious gaps. These obvious gaps might be exhausting for your audience. So if you're getting feedback from your audience that it's too much silence, then maybe you need to trim this out a little bit. So keep that in mind. Trim your silences where it makes sense. Cut the fluff that dilutes your point. Like, do you really need a five minute explanation of your big idea? Or can you just state the big idea and amplify your emotional shifts? Speed up, Be energetic with your stories and slow down. Be more reflective moments when you're dealing with something that's a little bit more tender or requires you to be gentle. Listen on headphones and on your speakerphone, like, turn it on like so you can hear it. Listen in the car when you're driving down the highway and the tires are making noise on the highway, and just put yourself into the spot of the listener and listen to your show the way they do it. If your show drags anywhere, fix it. Beginners gain confidence fast here. Poor audio teaches you levels and EQ rough cuts teach you tight scripting. When people tell me that they just go live and post the podcast as it is, they don't do any editing. A they are either perfect as human beings to never have to fix a mistake, but most likely they're not. Most likely their podcast could benefit from some light touch editing for the sake of the audience. Now, it might not be something you want to do, but it's something your audience wants you to do. I'm just telling you, your lack of desire to edit your show could be laziness. Not always is it laziness. And I'm not trying to be judgy, but I'm telling you that your audience would appreciate you removing the sound of you sniffling, you sounding like you need a drink of water, and you coughing, sneezing. The dog barked and you're like, I'm just gonna leave that in there. Be natural and authentic, man. Well, it's naturally an authentic annoying is what that is. And as a podcaster, there's a difference between recording a conversation and recording a show. Recording a conversation is just you and your friend talking and who cares, right? Because it happened, it's over. A podcast isn't a conversation. A podcast is a show. It's got. It's got show elements just like anything else. And if you're going to compete in a world of podcasting and you want people to press your press play on your show over someone else's show, you better have the goods that comes with editing. So when people tell you you don't have to edit, that sounds like a rule, and I'm not. Again, I'm not all for rules here. Does everyone need to edit their show? No, not really. If it's good, it's good. We can't argue with good. But if you say that nobody should edit the show, Then I got a problem with that because now you're setting a line in the, in the sand saying if you edit your show, you're not podcasting correctly. And those are called gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are not allowed in podcasting. Just keep that in mind. Great talk, Dave. Now what do we do? Action step. Right. Okay. Pick your next episode and outline it in three acts. Setup, the hook and the context. The next act, two, conflict, struggle and stakes. And third, resolution. Win. And the next step. Record using this roadmap and you're going to notice that you're going to have tighter delivery for your podcast and your listeners might just stick around a little longer, maybe all the way to the end, because you have a form to what you do. It's not random, it's not sporadic, it's not full of just these innumerable tangents that just take you all over the place. You're like, I have no idea how we got here. Yeah, your audience is still dizzy from your. Your intellect. So please have a some form and function to your show. It's going to make your podcast last longer, have better impact and reach more people. It takes work to be a podcaster. It's not one click and we're done. There's work involved and the best podcast, think of their audience first. Not about our comfort level as a creator, but the acceptance of our content as a listener. Listener first. If your listeners are looking for a well edited, well performed, value filled episode, you better deliver or they're gonna leave. Just so you know, thanks for being here. We're gonna be back with the next episode in the series, so stick around. Glad to have you here. Let's move forward. Let's follow this path. Take care. If you're looking for more information about podcasting and you're looking for a community around podcasting, come check out howtopodcast ca. It's my website where everything we do around podcasting, this show our community or meetup resources. There's a lot of great stuff there for you. A whole list of free tools that you can use as a podcaster to save yourself some money. That's based on my website, podcastforfree.com which just leads you back to my regular website. And if you want any more information as well, there's a calendar link on my website where you and I can meet anytime. It's always there, it's always available. Whatever you see available on your end. I'm ready to talk podcasting with anybody. I'd love to help you. No matter what your questions. Are. We can grab a virtual coffee and we can talk through what your big idea is. Maybe some of your struggles in podcasting, maybe some motivational things, maybe some growth things. Happy to help you over at howtopodcast ca come check out the website. Let's connect. Stick around, because we have a bunch more episodes here on The Podcaster's Path. 24 episodes here in a row. That's meant to be kind of your starting point for your journey as a podcaster, or if you're going to start a new show or you want to refresh your journey and catch up on maybe some of the things you might have missed. That's what this show's about. I'm glad you're here. My name is Dave. Love to help you reach out anytime. HowToPodcast CA take care. Talk soon.