Podcasts are to radio what Netflix is to cable
If you've been following me for any length of time, you know that podcasts have played a vital role in my personal and professional growth. It got me out of a depressed state, connected me with a world I didn't know existed, and has given me a medium for learning on the go. I can't tell you how many podcasts I've listened to. If I don't have my AirPods in my ears and you see me walking around, there's something wrong. I always want to take advantage of mobile time and I want to be learning whether that is an audiobook or podcast. Here is my top 5 recommended list to get started:
Tim Ferriss Show (best interviewer still Larry King and I just love Tim)
Model Health Show (Shawn is the perfect blend of Research and Real World content)
Impact Theory (Tom knows what people want to hear)
MFCEO Project (No description needed just trust me)
The Peter Attia Drive (The level of depth is extraordinary)
These are all personal development related podcasts that will be a good start for you to both listen to AND model yourself after. While they differ in some aspects, they are all at the top of the iTunes Charts for a reason.
I want to share with you the Top 5 mistakes I see most podcasts who are just starting out do so if you launch your own, you'll know what to do and what to avoid.
Mistake #1: They have no vision for the podcast
Just like with anything, it's important to understand where you want to end up when you first start. If your podcast just for fun, then ignore this mistake. If you are planning on making this a viable revenue stream for your products and services, failure to have a vision for your podcast will deeply damage your long term growth.
You want to have an ultimate vision for your podcast. KPI (key performance indicators) you should include are: downloads per episode, reviews, ratings, and social media tags/shares. The last one is difficult to track but it's important to have a gauge on. These 4 metrics are ones you will want to see increase monthly to know you are on the right path. How you do this is for another post. However, for you to do that, one must set a long term goal to strive for. This number is completely dependent on you and your category/niche but it's important to understand it and remind yourself of it when things aren't going your way at the beginning. I have a sit-down with each one of my one on one clients to get very clear about where they want their podcast to be long term.
Mistake #2: They don't plan for problems and challenges
You are super excited to launch and get going! After a few weeks, you're not happy with the results. So you lose momentum. You stop recording. It ends. You'd be surprised how many people start something (blog, podcast, YouTube channel) and give up because they didn't anticipate possible problems and obstacles that could occur during the course of reaching their ultimate vision. Hiccups are normal especially if you are a one man/woman show but consistency is the #1 thing you need with a podcast. Some of the most frequent problems and challenges I've seen are:
- People aren't listening
- Disorganization
- Marketing is off
- Consistency/Time
- Quality of Audio
All of these are avoidable if you PLAN AHEAD. With all of my clients, we sit down with what I call the Podcast Machine and ask theses questions before they become a problem and dig deeper to the root cause of why these would be an issue. Why wouldn't I be consistent? Well, because I didn't set a weekly time to record and plan. Well, there's your answer. Schedule a time every week and block it off. While marketing and listenership is a long term game in a lot of instances, these are aspects you can plan for and avoid as best you can at the very beginning.
Mistake #3: They let tech/hardware/fear keep them from launching
I take my technology knowledge for granted a lot of the time. I kind of assumed we were all born with a tech manual and this all comes easy to everyone. I know that's very much not the case after a few years of working with clients. The top 3 questions I get:
- What mic should I use?
- What software do you use to edit?
- What podcast service do you use?
A lot of people are letting these very minor decisions keep them from launching and progressing on their podcast (like any big life step there will be resistance). So I'm going to give you all the answers here so you can't use this excuse not to launch your podcast.
- Blue Yeti mic. It's around $129 dollars and well worth it. You can travel very well with it and do interviews with it well. If you don't have that kind of money to spend on a mic right now, use your Apple wired headphones. I'm super surprised of how well the quality is on these headphones. I did an intro for one of my podcasts with it and I could barely tell the difference. For a slight upgrade, get yourself a shock mount and mic stand for around $50-70 dollars. The quality of my voice skyrocketed and makes me feel like a real podcaster :)
- Garageband. It comes free with a Mac. Windows users, I don't know your alternative world anymore. I looked it up and Sound Editor looks similar. You can outsource this part to Fiverr or other service pretty cheaply.
- Libsyn. I wouldn't bother looking at another. For 20 dollars a month, that will get you once a week release at about an hour an episode. Libsyn also comes with a dedicated webpage you can customize and use as an external source for your website if you don't want to take the time to integrate it internally to your website (that was plain English to me but not for a lot so again I do take my tech knowledge for granted). Libsyn has been around since podcasting started so you can trust it won't flop one day.
Mistake #4: They aren't clear on their target audience
Who are you talking to? This is more than a podcast question; it's a vital question to your entire business. It's important to understand this when creating content. Are you talking to:
- Fitness enthusiasts and online fitness coaches looking to gain more knowledge?
- 6-7 figure earners looking to invest in commercial real estate?
- Hungry and obsessed athletes and high performers looking for the edge against their competition?
- Those looking to be inspired by stories of transformation?
Obvious, the commercial real estate content is going to look vastly different than the online fitness coaching. But, what is your audience looking for? The more you get this dialed in, the more emails and reviews you will get saying, "It's like they are speaking right to me." That's because you are.
Mistake #5: They don't have the time to do it all themselves
So you record and it goes great! But now, you have to edit it. Throw on the intro and outro. Export it. Now you have to upload it to Libsyn. Write the copy. Publish it. Whew you're done! Or are you? Now, you should have a promotional piece of content to market the episode. All of this takes time that takes away from your area of genius. If you're reading this, it's probably coaching, content creation, and program creation (like me). All you want to do is record the content and bam! It's all done and up! That's why I created my Podcast Complete Service for mainly online coaches but anyone who is building an online service based company with a message.
If you plan for these 5 mistakes before you launch your podcast, it will go a very long way to sustained growth and more money.
If you are wanting to launch a podcast or have someone take over the editing/production of your podcast, email me at Kyle@rappflex.com. We'll get on a free call and discuss what your podcast's vision will be, potential challenges and obstacles, what the podcast will lead to for your business, and if we are a good fit!