← Your Podcast Consultant: Podcast Tips To Avoid Podcasting Mistakes
Your Podcast Consultant: Podcast Tips To Avoid Podcasting Mistakes
You Can’t Please Everyone: The Double-Edged Sword of Professionalism
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If I started playing football today, I know that I would wake up tomorrow bruised. And I'm here to let you know if you start a podcast today, you might wake up tomorrow a little bruised.
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Welcome to your podcast consultant. Small lessons with big value. With more than a decade of experience and millions of downloads, this hall of fame podcaster is a featured speaker, author and mentor to thousands. Now he wants to work with you. He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.
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When I was growing up, I worked in a grocery store and when I would go on break, I would go to the magazine section and there were a couple magazines, Hit Parader and Cream, that followed the hard rock scene. And I'm also a guitar player and one of my favorite guitar players was a guy named Randy Rhodes who was in a band called Quiet Riot before joining Ozzy Osbourne. So I was way into Quiet Riot way before they became hugely popular in, I believe it was 1983, something like that. And what was interesting is most musicians or most music lovers love a band when they are theirs. They're small, they're scrappy, they're trying to get the big record deal and then they get the big record deal and you kind of celebrate that, hey, my team won. And then if they keep getting bigger and bigger, you lose that audience that liked you when you were small. And I'm here to say it is the same in podcasting. So you can't win in some ways and you have to be okay for this. I'll give you an example that my buddy Jim Harrell does the paranormal podcast. He is a pretty much a one man band, really good at it, been doing it for 20 years and he's the king of paranormal podcasts. Way before, you know, all the true crime stuff came out, he was talking about spooky stuff. And so Jim used to work at radio stations. I think he has some experience with tv. And so he slowly started building up his studio and he added video and people loved his show and he started adding more and more spooky things. He invested in some better lighting and, and I've been in Jim's studio. It's really impressive. There was only one problem. According to some people, it looks too good. He got a comment once like, oh, I wanted to listen to this show, but I'm looking for an independent show. This one looks too professional. So most of the time we're doing our best to sound and look professional. And then when we do, we people go, yeah, you're too professional. I am watching a video right now from two YouTubers who are really popular. And they talk about this, how people were like, hey, I thought I was kind of coming in for a really local restaurant, only to find out it's a chain. It's called Colin and Samir. They have a video called this was a Hard Year. And they read some of their comments and they're brutal. There are people that are just like, f you guys. Why would I watch a failing YouTube channel? Talk about how to build a YouTube channel. And so I say this not to make you afraid to start your podcast. I will say people on YouTube are much, much more brutal than if you're just doing an audio podcast. So if you're worried about that, start with audio first. That's always my advice anyway. It's easier, it's cheaper, and it's faster. But if you want to do YouTube, do YouTube. But just realize the trolls over there can be a little harsh. And so I just want to get your mindset ready, because we do. We want to compete in the big leagues and we want to look and sound professional. And we spend all this money, we spend all this time. And if you're doing YouTube, you will obsess over your background. That's the thing. Thing. Not, maybe not. Mm, mm. You will obsess over your background. It's just. I don't know why that is, but we all do that. And so we finally get it just the way we want and realize you're like, perfect, man. I look just like I'm, you know, I could be like the local news. And some people are not gonna like that. So I say that to go. Some people may not like it when you look too independent. Some people may actually like you because they're like, oh, I can identify with this person because they look like me. And then as you get a little more and a little more, some people are like, oh, this looks. This guy's taking it really serious and wow, she looks really good. Yada ya. And then eventually it just. The problem is you will have some people that like you and some people won't, and you have to be okay with that. I got an early start on that. When I was growing up, my family was not rich by any means. And there were times when I was wearing hand me downs for my brother and things like that. And I just came to a spot when I was like, you know what, you either gonna like me or you're not. And if you don't want to like me, don't like me. This is who I am. This is what I am at this point and you know, go take a hike, go jump in a lake. And you have to kind of have that attitude now when it comes to accepting feedback. I always listen to that with an open mind. First of all, is this person my target audience? Because that has a lot to do with am I going to listen to their comments? And then, okay, yeah, it sounds like this person is my target audience. Do they have a point? Maybe they're saying, dave, you do this all the time. And I go, do I do that? And then you go back and you listen to a couple episodes and you go, holy cow, I do that all the time. And then you can change accordingly. To me, feedback is the meal of success because it's the people that ignore that feedback when it's valid from people that you care about, they're giving you the opportunity to change for the better. For me, I have been to restaurants where you just ate a meal that was, you know, meh, all right, well, it was better than a frozen box dinner, which isn't really saying much. Then you walk to the checkout and they go, how was everything? And you go, it was good when it wasn't, but you're being polite and then you walk out and you never go back again. So when somebody gives you feedback, you have an option and a really huge opportunity to make it better. I work for a company called PodPage and we take all of our suggestions and feature requests. We look at every one of those. Now, some people want things that would only apply to them and not all podcasters, but we always look at every single one. But just realize that when you make a change, maybe you add a co host, maybe you add a new music intro, maybe you decide to go two days a week instead of one day a week. Whatever you do, somebody's gonna like it and somebody's not. And you have to be okay with that because in the end, if you want to do it because you like it and it's gonna make the shore more fun, that's hugely important. Because if you hate doing the show, it's just only a matter of time before you quit. I would love to help you. Simply go to schoolofpodcasting.com join and you can join up there. Use the coupon code listnr when you sign up, that'll save you on either a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription. And if you're worried about it, realize that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. I'm Dave Jackson. I help podcasters. It's what I've been doing for 20 plus. Years. And I can't wait to see what we're going to do together, because I want to be your podcast consultants.