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The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E643 - Foolish Things Podcasters Do That Do Not Help Their Podcast - The April Fools Day Episode
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Okay, we're rolling. Hey, it's Dave. I'm just jumping in at the beginning of the episode to let you know, I think I'm gonna stop podcasting. Yep. I think I've made the decision. This is probably going to be my last episode. And, you know, I. Big plans to do 365 episodes this year. Big plans to create content. But I've discovered a deep passion for. For something new in my life, and I'm gonna have to let podcasting go so I can pursue my. My deep passion for basket weaving. You know, it just. It draws me in. It's creative. It's. It's just. Yeah. So I'm gonna be a basket weaver, and I decided to stop podcasting. But before I go, I. I wanted to leave you with this episode without a podcast series focused on some foolish things that podcasters do that really don't help their podcast. Oh, yeah, and it's April Fools, so let's try this new music instead. Here we go. Bad advice from podcast guru. Bad advice from. Oh, yes. All right, so no, I'm. It's April Fools. Of course I'm not stopping my podcast. Relax. No. And of course I don't like basket weaving. If you love basket weaving, then good on you. But no, I'm not stopping my podcast. It's April Fools. All right, so there's that. So there you go. If that fooled you, then, wow, that was really more effective than I thought it was. Yeah. We want to talk about some foolish things. Take the song. Talks about bad advice from podcast gurus. Some foolish things that podcast gurus say that really don't potentially help your show here on the podcast. So let's do this. Are you ready? Okay, here we go. So I listen to a lot of podcasts about podcasting, so you don't have to. There you go. My public service for you as a podcaster. You got other things to do. Then follow all of the other podcast podcasting. So I don't mind doing it for you. I work a night job and I have time to do this, So I invest 40 hours a week podcast listening. So there you go. You're welcome. If you want to support me in my addiction of working nights, which I don't really enjoy. Actually, I do need to fill my coffee at work at night at 3am while you're sleeping nice warm in your bed, go over to how to podcast Ca. Buy me a coffee links right there. I'd love to get a refill on my thermos. Coffee's expensive, so I Listen to these podcasts about podcasting, and there's some pretty. Some pretty bad advice out there. I gotta be completely transparent with you. There's some really bad advice, and there's a lot of people making a lot of money off of unsuspecting podcasters. And for that, I am sad because I don't think anybody should have to pour in the amount of money that people are saying, you should talk to a podcaster this weekend. And they're paying, like twelve hundred dollars a month for podcast editing for four episodes a week break a month. So. Twelve hundred dollars? And they're like, yeah, they didn't even blink. They're like, yeah, that's. Isn't that the right rate? I'm like, really? That's. That seems a little bit insanely absurd to me. That's. That's a really high price. Again, they're not getting anything special with this. They're just getting basic audio editing. They're not doing anything extra. But. Wow. So anyway, so there's some really bad stuff going around there, and I. I wanted this to kind of poke fun at on April Fool's Day about some of the foolish things I've heard in podcasting from these gurus. So here's a few, and we'll see what you think. So here's one. Buy the most expensive microphone equipment and camera equipment you can, and your audience will magically appear because of the quality of your mic and the quality of your camera and your video. Yeah. You know what they have? They have affiliate links for you to click that goes along with that podcast episode and that advice for you to click. And when you click their link, you make. They make money off of you when you buy from their clickable link. It's called affiliate marketing. And a good number of podcasts about podcasting, they're more interested in you clicking the affiliate link than anything else. So they just want to make money off of you. You. I'm using using the same microphone for over 2200 episodes. Half of those are interviews I've been recording on Zoom. And everyone's like, oh, that's terrible. But it works. I've been using a free editing software called Audacity, and my host, My podcast website's on Canva. Like, I'm. I'm breaking, like, all of the rules. And not having a podcast that focuses solely on tech is refreshing because a lot of these other shows, that's all they talk about. Tech, tech, tech. And I think we need to talk about podcasting, not just technology. So don't need to buy the most expensive microphone out there. You don't have to click the links given to you by your gurus. Do your own research. Ask around, talk to other people. Go to a guitar store or music store and check out microphones and tell them what you're doing. Explain podcasting to them at the music store and get some real advice from an actual professional, not somebody with an affiliate link. Okay. Buying expensive microphones and your audience is going to find you because of it. No, that's foolish. So I heard this one, and it's quite interesting because it almost feels like they were talking to me. Publishing an episode every day is the best is guaranteed success for your podcast. Doing a daily podcast now what am I doing? I'm doing a daily podcast, but for not the reason of being a successful, successfully guaranteed podcast. That's not the goal. I'm doing this to challenge myself to be in a creative space for 365 days in a row. It's my own personal challenge. And whether people listen to the episode when it comes out or not, that's not the point. The point of this is I want to create content and push myself beyond my. Beyond the boundaries of what I think is possible for my calendar and continue to show up. And so far, so good. Knock on wood. Everything still works, and I'm still here, so. Yeah, so. But the guarantee that simply by creating content doesn't say anything about if it's good or not, but just creating content every day is going to make you successful. That's foolish. It is. It's foolish because people don't care how often you produce an episode. They care that your episode's good. So you could put out crap 365 days a year doesn't mean you're going to be a success. You're going to have a very crappy 365 episodes in a row. So focus on good content. Focus on what you can do. And when you start feeling that you're drifting a little bit and things are getting a little stale, then shake it up. Do something extra. Do something different to stay in that creative space. But publishing every day, it's not going to guarantee your podcast is going to be successful. That's foolish. Okay, another one here for you. See that? We have this April Fool's theme going on here, being the first day of April. How about ignore your audience and just trust the algorithm to present your stuff to the world? You don't have to do any work. You don't have to do anything to make your podcast Better just create content, throw it out there and the algorithm, the mighty Internet, will take care of everything else for you. And that's foolish. We need to have good titles, we need to have a good show name, we have good show art. We need to have the elements of what makes a podcast attractive to somebody who does not know who you are. Simply putting out content, bad content on a regular basis isn't going to be the thing that brings people to you. You need to focus on your audience and focus on the audience you have. Don't focus on the audience that hasn't found you yet. And by creating great content without having to be on social media all the time, without having to post a reel or upload this or up do that. No, those are marketing people who have come from the world of social media into podcasting, telling you that you have to do it their way. They're not podcast first content creators. They are Instagram influencers who now talk to podcasters. So ignore them. Because what works for Instagram doesn't work for podcasting and vice versa. So keep that in mind. Ignore your audience and the computers will just do all the work for you. That's foolish. You need to put some effort into your show. And when you don't put your effort into your show, it shows. It does. It shows that you don't really care about your show. So don't be foolish and don't ignore your audience. It's quite a foolish approach, if you ask me. This one always gets me. And I will, I will, I will come, I'll come at you like a little monkey. And when you say this, that you don't need to edit your show, I think that is foolish. Why do I think it's foolish? I think it's foolish because you don't create perfect anything. There. There's nothing that you do that you're perfect at. Everybody has a review process. Everyone has a, has some things that they do to make things better. Nobody is perfect. And I'm sorry, you're not perfect either. So the things that come out of your mouth, although you think they're gold, your audience might disagree with you. So if your podcast means anything to anybody, you'll have to edit your show. You will clean it up, you will fix the mistakes. You will do things that will drive, take that well, people will be driven away from your show. You'll remove them from your podcast. You'll remove bad questions from your guest interviews. You remove terrible interruptions and things that just make people go, oh my gosh, you're not perfect and your podcast isn't either. Edit your show. It's foolish to do anything otherwise. You need to edit your podcast. Now this, this whole idea that never editing anything as a good idea because it's authentic, man, this means leaving every mistake in. The only thing authentic about what you're doing is you're authentically showing to your audience that you don't care about them. There you go. So edit your show. I'm not talking about removing every single um and ah, because that makes you sound like an AI bot. I'm saying take out all the boring parts and all the crap. Remove all that so that your podcast listeners, A, don't invest time in stuff that doesn't matter and B, you have people who say this is a good show because your show is right next to every other show on your app and you better be in the same ballpark because if you're not, nobody's coming for you and your show's not going to grow. And I can't help you. If you don't want to make your show better. I can't help you. It all comes down to you. So foolish advice that you never need to edit anything. That's foolish. Okay, now, setting up your recording space. I've seen and heard a lot of different ways of doing this. I've listened to a lot of gurus who again have affiliate links for you to click. But setting up your podcast in a soundproof studio like you'd see in for like music musicians playing in or movies being recorded and that kind of thing. When you hear studio costs more than your car. You're doing something wrong. Create a place where you can record that's as quiet as possible. Have a microphone if you can afford a microphone. And create a space that's soft where sound doesn't bounce around the room. Again, walk into your bathroom, clap your hands. That's why you sound great in the shower. You don't sound that great out of the shower. Just so you know. You sound great in the shower because of all the reverb in the room and the sound bounces around all the hard surfaces and you sound like you are an Ariana Grande. So I don't. But you sound like her when you sing in the shower because it. It's called acoustics. But it's terrible for recording content. So if you can, if you go on and record your podcast, clap your hands and you hear echo, you're in the wrong space. That's it. Some people have just moved out to their car and recorded in their car. Great. Find a space that works for you. Be consistent, and create a space that works. That's it. That's all you have to do. But this whole idea of that you have to have to spend tons and tons and tons of money on equipment and soundproofing. It's ridiculous. It's foolish, really is. There's so many great tools out there now that can help you to sound better. All we want is great content. That's your focus. Great content, great connection with your audience. That's all you need to worry about. Microphone, soundproofing. Me. So real podcasting success doesn't come from bad advice from gurus. It doesn't come from shortcuts or magic tricks, doesn't come from spending a boatload of money on stuff you don't need. It comes from building something sustainable, listening to your audience, and then staying committed to your craft and staying committed to your podcast. That's what it takes. So in a world of foolish advice from bad gurus, I want you to simplify everything that you're thinking. And you don't need the things that you don't have to do something you've never done before. You just need to start again. You have to start to be great. So you need to get going. And if you need help with that, howtopodcast.ca love to help you. Happy April Fool's Day for you as we celebrate April 1st. And remember, I am not quitting the show. I am not taking up basket weaving. I'm sure it's fun, but no thanks. I am going to keep podcasting, and I'm going to keep hanging out with you. And I'm so thrilled that you have time to be here with me. Happy April Fools. Take care. Thanks for listening and we'll talk to you on the next episode. Cheers. You're still here. Great. Okay, this is a bonus stuff that we do at the end of the episode. And the question came to me from one of my coaching clients that I'm working with. They said, dave, how do I. How do I improve my storytelling skills? I want to tell better stories in my podcast, and I just kind of feel like I'm all over the place in a story. I don't. It doesn't seem to be concise, so they're actually on to something with that. I think what we need to do when we tell stories is focus on the only the peak moments in the story and not the finite details. The really, like, small little things that don't add value to the story. Cut out all the unnecessary tangents and and information that doesn't feed the story. And just get to the key peak moment of the story. That's your focus. Nobody's going to complain about a short story. People complain about a long winded story. But short ones that are to the point and bring people in. It helps people to connect with the story better. And I think that's a great starting point. So use shorter stories, use concise stories, get to the point and focus on the main, the main highlighted element of the story that your message is wrapped around and the story encompasses. And go there first. Make that your your main focus of your of your stories. I think it's really going to help you. And if you need more storytelling help, reach out. How to Podcast CA Take care.