You Can't Change - What You Won't Start

Because of My Podcast: I'm Getting Married

Today Matthew Cox from Brunch with the Brits explains how he went to a podcast event who eventually became his wife.

Why I Turned Down My First Podcast Sponsor

I had been contacted by a sponsor at advertisecast.com. I decided to low ball my pricing ($10 an episode) just to see if anyone would jump. An advertiser did. They wanted 10 episodes of my Weekly Web Tools podcast. That would be almost three months and the advertising would pay for my hosting (minus the 20% that advertisecast take). I would take home $96. My hosting will cost me $45 for three months. I might have some gas money. Here are some of the bullet points:

To get started and receive a $50 signup bonus

You’ll earn $1 for every new email lead and up to $200 for every new member you refer from your computer

Has already generated millions of dollars for over 200,000 happy entrepreneurs

My audience is predominant male, and I know I have some entrepreneurs in my audience. So far this sounds like a great fit. Then I went to see what I was promoting.

It turns out the product was a video chat and dating service. Hmmm, that doesn't really fit, but maybe I would do this as an experiment. Then I dug a little deeper. You see this wasn't some ordinary video chat/dating service. It was porn, oh I wait I mean adult chat. Can we just call it what it is? Porn.

Beside my religious beliefs there are lots of non-religious reasons that porn is a cancer that most people feel is "not a problem." Well I disagree. It's an opinion, and we're not here to talk about that. Let's get back to podcasting.

I will not have a sponsor on my show that I can't go to bed at night feeling I served my audience by sending them toward a product I fully endorse. So I turned them down. I also contacted advertisecasts.com and suggested they put in a way for podcasters to save people time so I can say, "No porn, cigarette, alcohol, etc)

Every podcasters starts with two things in common. Zero listeners, and they have integrity. When you lose your integrity, you may not ever get it back.

Don't Be Afraid To Start Your Podcast and Find Your Voice

When I started college I thought I wanted to "Fix stuff" so I went to an electronics school and got a degree in electronic engineering. The other thing I got was a clear understanding that I wasn't very good at fixing stuff. I fixed copiers, but luckily got an opportunity (based on relationships I had formed in the company) to go out and set up the equipment and train the users. I was a customer service rep. Had I not gone to college to be a technician, I never would've ended up in training.

I later would go back to School to get a Bachelor's Degree in Education. My dream job was to get back to training people on Microsoft Products. I had the most fun doing that in the past, and I was good at it. I could be funny and educational. Because of my knowledge of computers I start to dabble in building websites, and the Internet. That lead to me a guy who had come back from a conference who told me about podcasting.

I started podcasting, and got to know people in the industry. Using my strongest skills of serving and teaching, I created value. I developed relationships with all of the podcasting companies. I remember one day about a year and a half ago when a student asked me a question about combining two features in Microsoft Excel. I explained I had never tried those two features together, to which he pulled out his iPhone and asked Siri. Right in front of my eyes, the phone solved my customers problem. I thought, I'm going to be replaced by a phone. A year and a half later what was once a staff of five trainers, what cut down to one (and it wasn't me). However, because I had been playing with computers, and playing with the Internet, that lead me to podcasting. Those relationships I built over ten years lead me to being employed by Libsyn.com (A podcast media company).

Now I would never have though my life would turn out the way it has. Anything that put me into position to help me later began by starting something. Knowledge is only power when you act on it.

Richard Prior is considered by some to the THE best comedian ever. Richard launched his career being very safe, and incorporating a lot of physical comedy in his routines. He was basically trying to be Bill Cosby. There was only one problem. He was Richard Prior and being Bill Cosby-ish was not easy, and eventually Richard walked off the stage mid-performance cause he couldn't do it anymore. But he wouldn't have known that if he hadn't started stand up. You can manage, pivot, adjust, something that you never start.

I Want My Podcast to Be Original

It's hard to really come up with something completely original. Why? Because talking and entertainment and education have been around for a long time. In the movies most plots can be summarized by one of seven plot lines.

Overcoming Monsters - Dracula

Rags to Riches - Cinderella

The Quest - Lord of the Rings

Voyage and Return - Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz

Comedy - Four Weddings and A Funeral

Tragedy - Breaking bad

Rebirth - The Grinch who stole Christmas

Source

Create an Original Combination

As I write this, the musician Prince died last Thursday. Some might say there was nobody like Prince, and that is true. What was original about Prince was his mixing of Genres and styles. If you ever saw him live, he borrowed a lot from James Brown. If you watched him play the guitar, he reminded you a lot if Jimi Hendrix. There was a hint of gospel an blues. What Prince had that was unique to him was his vocal range. He took that range and surrounded with the stylings of James, Jimi, and his own influences. So the way he paired these genres was original. 

Learn From Others Who Are Doing it Well

I've spoken in the past about grabbing people's attention right up front. One of the longest running shows on television does this the best: 60 minutes. They pull at your heart making it near impossible to turn off the channel. Can you incorporate this into your podcast? You sure can.

Podcast News: Google (Yawn) Play

What should have been a tidal wave of opportunity was a drop of technology as Google Play Music was "Launched" kind of. Here is what's missing:

70% of podcasts are listened on a portable device but Google is using Flash technology which dosn't work on mobile devices.

You can't download the podcasts.

It's not really available anywhere except on the web

The good news is starting today (28th) you will be able to have more stats to obsess over. HOORAY!

Music MTV Is Getting into Podcasting

MTV announced five new podcasts focused on film, politics, pop culture and, obviously, music that will roll out over the next week. The shows will be hosted by a mix of current MTV News journalists including Anna Marie Cox and several new hires.

For MTV, the move into podcasting shows how it’s targeting young people who are staring at their phones, rather than the television. Dan Fierman, MTV News’ editorial director, told Digiday that of its young target audience, 80 percent of all content they consume is on their phones and that the audience has been underserved with podcast options.

Customer FeedBack Multiple Feeds of a Podcast

How do you handle more than one feed with Libsyn or Blubrry?

WordPress as a Free Website Option

John Wilkerson comments on last week’s show and wondered why I didn’t mention WordPress.

BTW, I have a new favorite podcast because of your “favorite podcast” episode at year end.  Never heard of No Agenda until I heard someone mention it on your end year end show, actually it was last years show i listened to after downloading the transcript.  I know shame on me for being a podcaster and not knowing of Adam Curry’s show until recently, but I have not missed an episode since hearing about it earlier this year and have also sent a few dollars their way. ? it’s exceptionally good given the upcoming presidential election.

Hope all is well and I’m sending money your way too via Amazon shopping.  ? Thanks, Richard Warfield, Jr. RDubStudios.com LoudPipes.net

Podcast Conferences Where I Will Be Speaking

Podcast Movement - Chicago - July 6-8 Use coupon (sop40)

Podcast Success Summit - Online May 16th June 9th 

Podcast MidAtltantic - NJ - September 9 -10th

 

Check out Dave's Course 

Planning Your Podcast