TBF 111 | Podcast Success Tips

 

The easiest thing you can probably do to learn a few strategies to improve your own podcast is to listen to other successful podcasts. But not just any successful podcast, but a podcast for podcasters in particular. In that way, you can maximize what you learn and what you should apply from there. On today’s show, Tracy Hazzard introduces her podcasts, The Binge Factor, and Feed Your Brand, which she co-hosts with husband Tom Hazzard, and what each show offers. She also shares some ideas on listening and being more productive and successful with applying what you hear on the shows. For podcasters who want to monetize their podcasts, you wouldn’t want to miss out on Tracy’s success tips in this episode!

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How To Listen To A Success Podcast For Podcasters And Improve Your Show

This is going to be a crossover episode from The Binge Factor and Feed Your Brand. It’s just me going solo to talk to you quickly about ways in which you can learn more from the podcast and improve your show. We want to learn on a podcast about podcasters or a podcast for podcasters. We want to maximize what we can learn and what we should apply from there but we also need to filter some of that. I want to talk about that because these are things I hear again and again from my clients. I hear it again from you guys in the audience that I’m hearing this trying to decide whether or not this applies to my show. I think it’s important to put everything into context.

If you’re listening to Feed Your Brand, it’s Tom Hazzard and my podcast about tactics and strategies for business podcasters. If you’ve got an entertainment-style show, our advice may not always be right for you. There’s some advice that’s universal like, “How to fix your description on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,” and all those places. That’s a universal bit of advice. When we talk about show structure, it probably doesn’t apply to you.

Think about the context of whoever’s podcast you’re listening to. What is their driver for you? We’re focused on business podcasters, people who want to make money off their podcasts. They’re not necessarily making money solely in the advertising way, which is also something you need to construct and put into context. A lot of times, we’re advising people not to advertise too soon and to not do this.

If it’s solely your model, you may want to listen to that. That may not be the way you want to go. We have a different perspective and our show is set in that perspective. Keep that in mind when you’re listening to shows out there, what is their perspective? Often, I get it where I have somebody who comes on The Binge Factor or I have somebody who listens to Feed Your Brand, who reaches out to me and doesn’t understand that I have the core business. That we, Tom and I, are the Founders of Podetize. If you don’t understand what their core business is, you don’t understand what’s driving the purpose of the podcast. Put that into context. Do a little research, check out their website. Simply click through. Everything should be in their profile for their podcast.

TBF 111 | Podcast Success Tips

Podcast Success Tips: You don’t hear Instagram influencers talking about how they buy clicks unless they’re in the business of selling you clicks. They’re not telling you that’s how they made it. It’s the same thing in the podcasting world.

 

If it’s not, then they’re not doing a very good job of setting up their podcasts and that may be a sign that you don’t want to work with them. If they can’t properly link through, let’s say, you’re going to get a coach who’s advising you on marketing and yet they don’t have a proper link through from their podcast on the app to their website, then they don’t truly understand podcast marketing. They don’t truly understand one section of the media. That’s a red flag right there. They don’t get it. They’re not following their own advice to other people. They’re not paying attention to this. This isn’t important to them.

If these details aren’t important to them, then maybe they’re not going to take good care of you. This is something I would push back and I’d ask questions, especially if you think you do want to work with someone. Looking through these things and getting that perspective is essential in the process of evaluating like, “Am I getting an agenda that doesn’t match my goals or what I want to do?” I say that all the time here. We are not necessarily for the story entertainment type podcasts. We’re not always going to give you the best advice for that.

If you want that, maybe come on and do a hot seat because I can tailor our advice specifically for you. I can get into what your goals and the way that your show runs. I can get into more detail there and make sure that we’re advising you properly through that. Hopefully, there’ll be some other people who have that style of podcast who will be able to learn from that. That’s why I don’t usually have those kinds of people on my show for The Binge Factor.

We don’t give out a lot of advice like that on Feed Your Brand because it’s probably less than 5% of our podcasting base. It’s not a story style podcast. For most of them, it’s hard to compete with iHeart who puts out 200-plus of those style shows at all times. That’s not something that we would want to play in. We’re solely focused on alternative monetization for business podcasters.

Let’s talk about success tips. The thing is that I’m interviewing people on The Binge Factor. That means that I’m not always in control of what they say. I rarely, if ever, edit something out, unless they’re seriously misleading you or if you took their advice, it might harm your show. Just because it works for them, doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you. This is what I find again and again.

When you're listening to shows, keep in mind their perspective and driving force. Getting that perspective is essential in the process of evaluating whether their agenda matches your goals. Click To Tweet

The Gary Vees of the world, even Pat Flynn, who I absolutely adore. They have advice that they give to people but you don’t necessarily have the bandwidth of things that they’ve already got under their belt. The platform, I talk about that all the time. The platform underneath them that they already have, so when they try something new and they think, “This is the hottest thing ever.” That’s great, except that you didn’t have this gigantic email list to launch it with. You didn’t have the success of having all these courses to upsell people to. You didn’t have a giant membership group. If you didn’t have that basis for what they already have, you may not be successful.

We don’t always dive into all those details with each of the success interviews that we do here on The Binge Factor. It’s not a long interview, so I’m going into the things that they’re doing specifically related to podcasting. If I know that they have something, I will talk about that. Sometimes there’s a lot of hidden things that they have in their business that they don’t talk about, like the fact that they have a giant list or that they spend money on ads and they don’t tell people.

This is a thing. A lot of people pay for listens, but would they admit that on the air to me? Not likely and they won’t admit that to you, too. It’s happened once where someone actually admitted to doing that. It’s not likely something somebody’s going to fess up with. You don’t hear Instagram influencers talking about how they buy clicks unless they’re at a company selling you clicks. That’s how it works. Unless they’re in the business of selling you clicks, they’re not telling you that this is valuable and that’s actually how they made it.

It’s the same thing in the podcasting world. I want you to take some of the things that they say and think about that. Based on the way my show is structured for The Binge Factor, I’m structuring it to set you up for success. I’m structuring it so that at the beginning, I’m introducing and I’m trying to give you that little nugget that I want you to listen for in the show. What they’re sharing with us that’s valuable. The title should also give it away for you. I’ve given you the direction of the title of what is the most valuable thing that we talk about in the show.

TBF 111 | Podcast Success Tips

Podcast Success Tips: The Binge Factor is structured to set you up for success. Even the titles give you the direction of the most valuable thing that is talked about in the show.

 

In the post, if you don’t listen to my close, then you’re missing out. In my close, if there’s something they said that might be a quicksand that you could fall into or pitfall or something that you might not find success with, I’m going to point it out there. I sometimes will point it out while we’re in the interview, but sometimes I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole and derail the conversation. I use my close to talk about the detail, “It’d be worth trying this. However, if you’re going to do it, try X, Y and Z, to make sure that you’re able to be successful with it.”

I’m going to try to frame it for you and help you through that with a little additional advice or warn you off of it unless you have a specific type of show. That’s my place for doing that so make sure you’re listening to the clothes, especially if you found something you think you’d like to try. Remember, it’s hard. You’re listening. You’re not necessarily taking notes. I can’t imagine that most of you are. Although, I have to say that I listen to podcasts and occasionally, I flip over to my Notes app on my phone and I take notes or I’ll send myself a text message to remind me to try something. I will do that. Better yet, I jot a note off to my team in Work Chat, send it to them and tell them to do it. That’s a better plan altogether.

The idea is that you’re not always able to do that. That’s why we have such a rich blogging environment. We have blogs for every episode. It’s why we have keyword searches and why we have everything that you might need to find, even if you can’t remember what episode it is, the topic. To find what you’re looking for within it. Our search on our website is so much richer than anything you could possibly do on the app because the app is not searching for what is being said. It only searches that short description that goes with the episode or the title.

It’s not giving you the ability within a podcast listening app, whatever you’ve chosen to be able to find all that information. I, definitely, want you to go check out the website. We’ve got The Binge Factor and we’ve got Feed Your Brand. You can go to TheBingeFactor.com and you can go straight to Podetize.com and you can get Feed Your Brand, The Binge Factor and our new one, The Next Little Thing. You can connect to all of those through that method. I just wanted to give you some ideas on how to listen and be more productive, be more successful with applying what you’re hearing on the shows, both from our successful podcasters that we’re interviewing and the tips and tactics we’re sharing with you.

I use my close to talk about the detail and whether something is worth trying or not. Make sure you're listening to it, especially if you found something you think you'd like to try. Click To Tweet

Remember on Feed Your Brand, we’re sharing them with you after we’ve shared them with our clients. Our clients have likely tried some of these things and refined the questions before we’re even putting them out into the podcast. You’re getting them at a place at which we know these are good to apply. That they have some application with some of our shows with some of our podcasters and they’re looking for this piece of information or it wouldn’t have made it even into an episode at all.

I hope this helps you. I’ve got tons of great new interviews for the show. I’ve had some great successful podcasters who are doing some unusual things. Some of them have explosive shows. Shows that have hockey-sticked and grown. I’ve got others that are plugging away but making good money for their podcasters. I want to share with you all types. Some that have low listenership, tons of episodes and it’s successfully working for their business. Others are blowing it up and ready to take ads and move into other places for monetization.

I know all of you have shows that are in all different stages and all different places. If there’s anyone you’d like to hear on our show, if there are any tips that you haven’t heard yet, that you’d like to know, burning questions that you have about what you should do with your show, make sure you send us a message anywhere on social media. You can find us @TheBingeFactor or @Podetize. Thanks, everyone for reading. Here’s to being a successful and continuous podcaster.

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