There are so many gems in the podcasting world that haven’t yet been picked up. Leaving them under-appreciated would not only be a waste of great wisdom but would also be a disservice to those who need them. Bringing them to light, Tracy Hazzard welcomes you to a new special feature called #GivingTuesdayPodcasts, where she devotes her episode to shows you may not have heard of before and that you should be listening to, guesting on, learning from, and more importantly, sharing with others. Starting it off, she introduces you to The Giving Done Right Podcast; Give – A Philanthropy Podcast; Pro Bono Perspectives; Released Global; and Givers, Doers, & Thinkers. Discover these new social good podcasts devoted to inspiring us to be more and give more in this episode!
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Listen to the podcast here:
Listen Up! Emerging New Social Good Podcasts Devoted to Inspiring Us to Give More – #GivingTuesdayPodcasts
Featuring The Giving Done Right Podcast; Give – A Philanthropy Podcast; Pro Bono Perspectives; Released Global; and Givers, Doers, & Thinkers
Unless you’re new to the show, you know that I normally talk to top podcasters about how they create bingeable successful shows. I get them to share actionable tips on how to increase listeners, get engagement, get great guests and produce some more professional shows. As a part of a new special feature called #GivingTuesdayPodcasts, I’m going to devote my episode to shows you may not have heard of before. New and under-appreciated podcasts you should be listening to, guesting on, learning from and more importantly, sharing with others that haven’t had a chance to get to that level of success where they become the teachers. What is #GivingTuesdayPodcasts? Giving Tuesday is traditionally the Tuesday after Thanksgiving here in the US. It’s where we give back after consuming a lot of food and consuming a lot of products between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday. You know the drill.
The idea for #GivingTuesdayPodcasts wasn’t mine. It came from an interview with Brett de Hoedt of The Hardest Word Podcast. He’s out of Australia. He had a #GivingTuesdayNow, Australia version. He did it in partnership with the UK partner podcast Radio Network. As a part of the campaign, podcasters can give other creators what they want more than anything else, publicity and new listeners. You know that’s what you want. Here, I’ve decided to make this a regular occurrence starting Tuesday.
Why am I doing this? It’s a lot of work. I physically can’t interview enough podcasters in my normal Binge Factor feature to help highlight great shows. I can’t help everyone get visibility and publicity. I can’t be able to share where and why they are likely to be successful and also share lessons to all of you aspiring podcasters, and even some of the active and successful ones out there where you might be able to learn some lessons from what’s going on here and shift your show. This way, we raise all the binge factor on all the shows and improve the listener experience in the process.
Let me explain a little bit about how this is going to work. Shows are nominated and submitted. People reach out to me like publicists or my team comes across a show that they think is doing something right. We review them for listenability and to make sure they’re currently posting weekly because consistent and constant is my mantra here. I personally listen to at least three episodes, usually the intro or trailer, one that catches my eye because of the title of the guest or the topic, and then the most recent episode. Why? Because that’s exactly the path that binge listeners follow and so I’m going to do the same thing to check out the shows. Why do we care about binge listeners? For those of you who are new, I’m going to remind you it’s because they will become your most active and engaged community, quoting your show, raving about it, sharing it and posting it.
More importantly to those of you who are building shows with a business purpose, binge listeners become the ones who buy everything you have to sell and look for even more. Who do we have? It’s Giving Tuesday 2020 as this episode airs. I’ve chosen five podcast shows that have to do with giving and philanthropy. The five future shows are The Giving Done Right Podcast, Give – A Philanthropy Podcast, Pro Bono Perspectives, Released Global, and Givers, Doers & Thinkers. As I introduce and review each of these shows, pay attention for my mention of their binge factor. That special something that’s an indicator that they have great promises of a good show, even if some of them are getting started and some of them are. I’m also going to suggest some things you might want to notice as you create your show, things not to do and things that you might want to emulate because they’re serving the show well and it might serve yours as well.
Lastly, the most important thing, if you’re going to take the time to build a podcast show with guests and feature companies, especially one that requires this much time because I have to do all the research for all the different shows and put a lot of work into it and a lot of prep in it. You want to make sure that you and the host and the new show are getting the best results from it. You guys out there, the listeners, because we want to make sure that everyone’s getting high value from what we’re putting out there, that we don’t just throw out the podcast and be done with it. Here’s what we do with this, just so you understand how we’re serving these podcasters because we want to give to them. We’re not just giving by airing this episode, we’re doing more.
We tell them they were on the show by emailing them, and then emailing a reminder seven days later in case they didn’t get it. We entice them to share this feature by giving them a graphic with their binge factor so that they can share that like a testimonial. We give them all the code links, images and everything they need to put it on their website, press page and social proof of a great show. This is ideal if you just launched your show. We also tag them on social media each separately and as a group feature together in the genre using audiograms, quote, graphics, videos, all the repurpose stuff that we create here at Podetize for our episodes.
I then do a follow-up feature article in Authority Magazine and send a second set of graphic shares and links. If it’s good, I’m going to try and get them in Buzzfeed. My end game is to try to get it mentioned in Buzzfeed because if you get your show mentioned in Buzzfeed, a lot of people will see it and now you got more listeners. If this sounds like a lot of work, this is why this is a gift. It’s in the planning. Once you have the system set up, once you have the processes that you’re going to use, the residual value, the sharing and listenership growth almost makes you feel a little bad because you’re receiving as much as you’re giving, but that’s no reason to stop giving and serving.
The Giving Done Right Podcast
How about we dive into our first podcast show feature and that’s The Giving Done Right Podcast. The Giving Done Right Podcast is sponsored by the Center for Effective Philanthropy. The hosts are Phil Buchanan and Grace Nicolette. They only have seven episodes at the time. They’re just getting started. Giving Done Right is everything you need to know to make an impact with your charitable giving. If you’re wondering, “Where should I give? How do I know which nonprofits are effective? How do I know if I’m making a difference with my donation?” This podcast puts you in the right place. My amazing sister-in-law, Laura Curtin Hazzard started a philanthropic fund called Cultivating Success Fund. I didn’t understand exactly what it was. It took me a while to get it that they’re providing financial grants to nonprofit organizations across the country and trying to build strong support structures for families and individuals.
It is amazing that she’s building this fund and she needs people who’ve walked the walk before. Giving Done Right is the right place to find some of those guests, to find some people who have walked that walk so she can be more successful with her venture of what she’d like to do. She’s the perfect binge listener for the show. I want you to listen to a couple of things. I want you to listen to the opening quote that they’ve created. Sometimes they call it an opening clip. It doesn’t matter what you call it, but this type of opening quotation from one of the guests or something that said on the show has a high production value if it’s done right. Too often, I find that the clip is taken out of context and sometimes it confuses a listener or it doesn’t set the tone of what the real discussion is.
It was something that sounds bitey and catchy. I want to caution you about the amount of work if you’re producing your show yourself. They probably aren’t because they have an organization, but if you are producing your show yourself, this is a lot of work you’re creating for yourself. It usually requires you to put edit notes when you listen to the show before you submit it for production. If you’re not and you’re leaving it up to somebody else, that’s why we get these weird, irrelevant quotes and little teasers on the beginning that don’t make sense when you listen to the whole episode. If you’re a subject matter expert, in order to make an introduction quote or clip have the impact that you want, you’ve got to be picky about it, even if you’re producing it yourself or if you’re using a producer.
The other thing I want to mention is the binge factor here because that’s what we’re all about here. The Giving Done Right Podcast, what’s their binge factor? First off they have some nice intros and they go straight into the conversation. More importantly, with their target audience, people like Laura who are trying to make an impact in the world. There are not enough knowledgeable and ethical podcasts out there. They’re in the right place at the right time, helping people who want to make a difference, build better and stronger organizations. Whether your goal is to raise money to provide grants or deciding where your corporate or personal money should go, we all need a guide like The Giving Done Right Podcast. Here is The Giving Done Right Podcast and their episode called No Easy Answers: The Hard Work of Giving Done Right with their guest, Melinda Tuan. Let’s check it out.
From the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), Giving Done Right is the show with everything you need to know to make an impact with your charitable giving. Whether you’re donating a few hundred dollars a year, a few thousand, or a few million, you might find yourself wondering: Where should I give? How do I know which nonprofits are effective? How do I know if I’m really making a difference with my donation? Join hosts Phil Buchanan and Grace Nicolette as they welcome leaders and experts from throughout the nonprofit sector to answer philanthropy’s burning questions and bust some myths that have long plagued donors and nonprofits alike. In a time when effective giving is especially crucial, Giving Done Right cuts through the noise and focuses on what you need to know to put your money to work.
Hosts: Phil Buchanan & Grace Nicolette
About Phil Buchanan
Phil Buchanan, president of CEP, is a passionate advocate for the importance of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector and deeply committed to the cause of helping foundations and individual donors to maximize their impact. Hired in 2001 as the organization’s first chief executive, Phil has led the growth of CEP into the leading provider of data and insight on philanthropic effectiveness.
About Grace Nicolette
Grace Chiang Nicolette, Vice President of Programming and External Relations, works closely with the President on the organization’s partnerships, outreach efforts, communications, and innovative programming, including oversight of CEP’s biennial conference for foundation executives. Prior to this role, Grace was a manager on CEP’s Assessment team, where she led the marketing, creation, and presentation of CEP’s benchmarking assessments for individual foundations. Grace is a frequent speaker at conferences and to the foundation and nonprofit boards and staff on topics of philanthropic effectiveness and also philanthropy in China.
GIVE – A Philanthropy Podcast
For our second show, GIVE – A Philanthropy Podcast. First things first, when you type the word GIVE into your podcast search, if you’re following along with me and you’re going to your podcast player and you’re trying to search for the show, don’t type the word give. It’s a common problem with one name shows or short shows. It doesn’t show up because it’s a pretty new show. It doesn’t show up yet. You need to type give and the word philanthropy in order for it to show up in the search engine. This is a problem with certain titles. Be careful when you’re titling your show, but I’m going to highlight that here because I want to make sure you don’t miss out on checking out the show. This show is sponsored by Prodigi Marketing. The GIVE Podcast is hosted by Shannon Maganiezin.
She never pronounces her name on the show side. I couldn’t find a place where she pronounces her last name. In that intro, they don’t say it. You don’t know who you’re talking to, except that she identifies herself as Shannon at some point. Give – A Philanthropy Podcast is what we’re talking about. It is for seasoned marketers using a show to promote their clients, target clients and overall niche community. Give is a podcast that highlights foundations, nonprofits, thought leaders, people interested in philanthropy, bringing mission-driven impact stories, opportunities and nonprofit marketing tips and tricks. Their perfect binge listener is nonprofit, public, private foundation managers and directors who are looking for a more personal connection on a higher trust factor and where to give for the general public side of it.
They’re matchmaking the two pieces. Bringing exposure to the nonprofits and the private foundations and matching them up with the general public and thought leaders in the philanthropy world so that they can get a higher trust factor for both parts about the foundation. Some things to listen to. The formal intro bumper on this episode is informational. It’s too long and slow for binge listeners. If you hear it again and again, you’ll understand if you go from one episode to the other. I didn’t include that intro bumper onto this clip that I selected here. You’ve got to go and make sure you listen to the Give Podcast to hear it for yourself. They’re making some significant branding style choices that are hurting the bingeability and growth to their listener audience. We see this a lot when branding and marketing firms create shows or advise on creating shows.
A few of those things are obvious to long time listeners as a show who have things like episode art that looks the same with titles and images that are overpowered by the branding, and episode titling that’s all about the guest. In this case, they have the guest organization’s name. That does nothing to tell me why I should listen to the show. In some cases, like the clip I chose for you here, the name is not even descriptive of what the organization does or the type of organization.
The thing that they do right here though, their binge factor is choosing guests. It’s one of the most critical care items to a bingeable podcast, and the Give – A Philanthropy Podcast does this well. It can be tempting when you’re interviewing clients or prospective clients to be too loose about who makes the cut, especially when you’re starting your show. You want guests on there and they don’t have an example of how great the show is going to be. Give does not make that mistake here. They are very discerning about their guests. They present them and they present their story well. They should be good at it because that’s the mission and services provided by their core company, Prodigi Marketing. Structuring interviews to show off how well Shannon can structure a story in impactful and compelling ways to engage more helps her and her company and her podcast shine. Let’s give a listen to Give – A Philanthropy Podcast, an episode with a San Diego-based nonprofit called Fine Print Funding and the Founders Chantal and Justin Crompton.
GIVE is a podcast for high-quality foundations, nonprofits, thought leaders and people interested in philanthropy. Each week we interview some of the best in the business to bring you mission-driven impact stories, philanthropy opportunities, and nonprofit marketing tips and tricks. There really isn’t anything comparable in the podcast space, so it is great (free) marketing for the organizations we interview. Episodes are evergreen, so they never go away. The interview is pre-recorded, not live.
Host: Shannon Maganiezin
About Shannon Maganiezin
The thought leader behind Prodigi is Shannon Maganiezin. Her experience began 16 years ago in product development and sales strategy for As Seen On TV products. After that, she spent 10 years as Marketing Director for commercial and residential real estate development companies. She’s also logged a couple of years in event planning and has hosted award-winning events for clients like Microsoft Office 365, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, NBCUniversal, and many more. With a deep understanding of consumer psychology and detailed organization her work is cutting-edge, moving, and effective.
Pro Bono Perspectives
The next stop is Pro Bono Perspectives, a podcast sponsored by Common Impact. It is a podcast about the power of a purpose-driven career. It’s a little bit on the shift side. Common Impact is a national nonprofit focused on creating successful skills-based volunteer programs that build the capacity of the nonprofit sector. Common Impact CEO, Danielle Holly interviews everyday leaders from their network, working at both big companies and small nonprofits, using their skills to support their communities. It’s meant to highlight those partners, learn about their personal and professional backgrounds, and explore what drives them to create positive change to inspire others to do the same. From my ear, the perfect binge listener is corporate employees leading community engagement programs, social giving companies like John Hancock, Fidelity, Marriott, Charles Schwab. Their perfect binge listeners are probably commuting to work on a train and a carpool or rideshare.
With remote working and less commuting, that’s going to be harder and harder to get attention from these busy corporate managers and directors. That’s why success of this podcast relies on a great guesting strategy. One that targets right to the heart of a network, similar positioned individuals, and create this fear of missing out from them that they don’t want to miss the show. What are some things you should listen for as a podcaster with this show, Pro Bono Perspectives? I’m sharing you the whole formal intro and a clip.
Unlike the way I didn’t share it with the last one. This one for most of you out there is going to have way too much promotion for the organization. Putting this long of an intro with this much promotional framing of what their organization is, is usually a mistake. It’s not a mistake here. I’m going to explain why, but this is not a “yes, you should do it” strategy unless you fall into the world of what Pro Bono Perspectives is doing, which is why I’m highlighting it for you. Their guests are in large corporations. Their share of it with other employees in the corporation, their directors, people above them, those people might only listen to this one single episode because someone they know was featured as a guest.
You’re going to have the episode listened by multiple people throughout an organization, but they might not turn into binge listeners because it’s not a part of their job or it’s not their perspective. We do want to hit them with this intro that explains what the show is about, what the organization is doing, and why Pro Bono Perspectives is there. That way, they can refer it out to other people who might be right for it. You can envision yourself as the next client though if this is a right fit for you. That’s what they’re framing up. The key to this is selecting guests who work for companies with high name recognition and that’s a great strategy for social and business proof. The trick is to get the decision-makers and similar corporations to listen at least once. That’s where the FOMO comes in. You want to make sure that you’re sharing and that when someone from Fidelity shares that, there’s someone at a competing company going, “I wish that was me.” Getting them to LinkedIn Share is ideal here.
One last thing I want to mention those with a company or nonprofit sponsored show and a corporate site. When you have a main site website that is corporately based that you’re putting your podcast on, you want to make sure that you don’t leave any digital value on the table.
This is an even greater value when your guests come from big corporations. Imagine the value of having a social post from John Hancock, or a press page and executive profile on Fidelity Investments linking back to your website and not to Apple Podcasts. Getting your blog consistently and constantly filled gives you extra time. You don’t have to write and it gives you a lot of authority and value to that core website, especially a corporate site. Converting the already recorded podcast into a full-length blog post with graphics yields high dividends in terms of organic traffic and compounding digital rank authority.
What’s the binge factor here? Common Impact and Danielle Holly are strongly connected with leaders with higher name recognition. The premise of Pro Bono Perspectives is a show that’s going to talk about purpose-driven careers, and that circumvents the usual PR block that can happen at those large corporations. The show itself is not necessarily bingeable, unless you’re actively working in community engagement positions. Having a strategic core focus on purpose-driven careers encourages guests of Pro Bono Perspectives to share the show and gets the corporation they work for to share it too, which boosts impact for all. Here’s a clip from Pro Bono Perspectives with Danielle Holly on, What Drives Young People to Act on Social Issues? It features guest, Derrick Feldmann, Managing Director of Ad Council Edge and INFLUENCE.
Pro Bono Perspectives is a podcast about the power of a purpose-driven career. Join Common Impact CEO, Danielle Holly, as she interviews leaders from all walks of life to learn about their personal and professional backgrounds and explore what drives them to create positive change through their careers and daily lives. Common Impact is a national nonprofit focused on creating successful skills-based volunteer programs that build the capacity of the nonprofit sector. Hear from our network of everyday leaders working at both big companies and small nonprofits who are using their skills to support their communities and get inspired to use your own talents for good.
Host: Danielle Holly
About Danielle Holly
Danielle Holly is dedicated to creating previously unseen pathways for individuals to meaningfully contribute to making their communities thrive. She envisions a world where every person is able to bring their values and personal mission to their day jobs, integrate healthy and sustainable personal lives and, as a result, have the drive and energy to make our communities more equitable and vibrant.
She is currently the CEO of Common Impact, an organization that designs programs that direct companies’ most strategic philanthropic assets – their people – to the seemingly intractable social challenges they’re best positioned to address. Danielle has supported hundreds of nonprofit organizations on positioning and branding strategies to more effectively scale their models of social impact. In addition, Danielle has helped numerous corporations navigate the new era in corporate social responsibility and skills-based volunteering, including global powerhouses JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, Marriott International, and Fidelity Investments.
She is a contributing writer for Nonprofit Quarterly on strategic corporate engagement. She is a member of the NationSwell Council and has served on the Board of Directors for the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network and Net Impact NYC.
Released Global
Continuing our #GivingTuesdayPodcasts, we’re going to feature a podcaster that I know. We’re featuring Cammy Bowker. Cammy is the host of Released Global and the head of the Global Education Philanthropists Foundation. That is what produces the show Released Global. She’s only about twelve episodes in, so she hasn’t gotten that far. The show features real-life firsthand human trafficking stories. It’s spreading awareness of one of the fastest-growing crimes on the planet and it inspires you to know more, do more and save more. Cammy is very passionate about this. I met her at an event and she puts everybody into tears, and that’s what I heard is happening on this show. The perfect binge listener already has an interest in learning more about combating human trafficking. That’s because you’ve got to type that into the search engine to know that you want to go here.
It’s a place for you to dive a little deeper than the statistics and learn about the impact you can have with working with an organization. It may be hard to find lots of listeners. The ones that find it and listen to the show are going to be eager to learn more. This is a good show with a great attract for new donors and for keeping the ones you have engaged and supporting. I’m singling out Released Global for this tiny nitpicky technical syndication error, which is easily fixable because it has a large impact on getting audience to find you and engage with you. I want to make sure none of you are making this mistake as well. This is one of the most common show launch mistakes that podcasters make. Many make it because they’re launching themselves and they don’t have the technical know-how, but I’ve seen it happen with good coaches and producers who make the same mistake.
All of the shows here, every single one that I featured had the exact same problem. The website link that shows on Apple, Spotify or any podcast directory or app all points back to the podcast hosting service. In this case, it’s sending Cammy’s hard-earned listeners back to Podbean and not to her core website, GlobalEP.org. The other podcasters are all pointing to Libsyn. What it’s doing is it’s stealing your authority, but this can be fixed if you can find the link spot to your hosting account and change it. This also happens on the episode links. Even if you fix it in the website links, you do have to fix it in the episode ones as well. Here at Podetize, we believe that a paid podcast hosting service should not steal your hard-earned audience traffic and digital authority by subverting your website and episode links.
That’s why I’m raising this to your awareness. We want all of you to capture authority right back, no matter where you host your show. If you notice that your podcast sends your listeners back to Libsyn or Podbean, I have a special gift for you. My partner, Alexandra has recorded a tutorial video for you on exactly how to switch it for both your show and your episodes. It’s a tutorial so you’ll know exactly how to go in and fix it immediately.
Unfortunately, we are only able to show you how to do this in Libsyn. It appears that Podbean, like SoundCloud and Anchor, has disabled the ability to make sure that subscribers can find your website. Here is how you do it on Libsyn:
One more note on Released Global Show, they need a way to play the podcast over their website and view episodes through their blog.
I’m already talking to Cammy about this. This is not to belabor that topic with her, but I want you to see this because you want people to share a single episode and be able to go back to your website. You don’t want to have to share the entire show catalog or share a single show, and only have them play in a podcast player. You want to drive them back to your organization’s website. This is especially important for those of you who are nonprofit and foundations. How are you going to get them to join and donate or become your clients if you’re not sending them back there in the first place? This is critically important and don’t make the same mistake.
Let’s talk a little bit about her binge factor though because it’s there already, even though she’s only a few episodes in. Released Global is a personal show for Cammy and she’s got a real personal mission and it comes across in the story she chooses to sell. The sensitive probing way she asks questions, this is what’s going to make this show truly bingeable. Listeners are going to hear story after story and have no choice but to join her organization because you become emotionally invested the more episodes you listen to. The authenticity of how passionate and emotional Cammy Bowker gets as she shares these traumatic and inspiring stories is what makes it a must keep listening podcast.
I wanted you to check out Cammy Bowker’s eighth episode on Released Global. It’s called Amie Ellis: A Mother’s Story of Her Domestically Trafficked Child. It is heartbreaking. Amie Ellis is so generous with how she talks about this. I’m sharing a clip to show you how passionate and emotional the host is and her guests as well, and how that is translating to attracting the right people to become sponsors for her programs and donors into her mission. Let’s take a listen to Cammy Bowker’s Released Global.
Real life first hand HUMAN TRAFFICKING STORIES. Released Global helps spread awareness of the fastest growing crime on the planet. Sharing real life stories of those affected by this monster- human trafficking. Know more. Do more. Save more. GlobalEP.org
Host: Cammy Bowker
About Cammy Bowker
Cammy Bowker is the founder of Global Education Philanthropists. With a degree from the University of Washington and Stanford with emphasis on education, Global E.P. was designed to provide business owners and community members ways to find hands-on philanthropic opportunities that support educating communities for long term empowerment. The world-class non-profit organization, Global Education Philanthropists (Global E.P.) strategically fights human trafficking through education on a global scale.
Global Education Philanthropists has a for-profit international partner as well, founded by Cammy- Expedition Global. Volunteers register to travel with Expedition Global, to various worldwide locations. Travelers who attend an Expedition Global humanitarian aid excursion, directly serve in orphanages, aftercare centers, medical clinics, schools, and universities in villages worldwide, empowering communities through education on self-reliance and small business principles.
In 2020, international service opportunities are available in Dominican Republic, Haiti, Belize, Costa Rica, and Ireland.
Givers, Doers, & Thinkers
Covering giving philanthropy podcasts, covering that whole category wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t talk about the podcast Givers, Doers, & Thinkers. It’s sponsored by Philanthropy Daily. It has the host Jeremy Beer. It’s a new one. It’s ten episodes in, but it’s a spinoff from a bigger publication, so they’ve definitely got a lot of experience. Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, or GDT, as they like to call themselves, introduce listeners to interesting people and important ideas at the heart of American civil society. They speak with philanthropists, foundation leaders, reformers, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit executives, religious believers, historians, sociologists, philosophers, journalists and anyone else who can shed a light on contemporary civil society’s achievements and failures. They bring a little practical advice for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers as well. The show is geared for anyone interested in that vital space where philanthropy and civil society intersect.
It’s a thought-provoking show as the name implies. It’s set for those looking to put philanthropy in context. First, a few things to listen for as a podcaster. As with most new podcasts, this one has a rough start in terms of sound. The very first episode, the host has an echo in his environment. He’s not using a proper microphone or something like that. I’m going to add a link to a comprehensive review of microphones just in case you have this problem as well, so that you know what we recommend here. Keep in mind that overpaying for a microphone can have a reverse effect and causes the sound to be worse. Be cautious there. Kudos to Jeremy Beer though because by episode ten, which is the one I’m going to share with you, he got it all sorted out and his sound quality is good.
Don’t go scrapping early recordings and redo them to make them better as you go. That’s a mistake. Move on and get better. There are a couple of items I would recommend that they do fix on this show and that’s the title of the episodes. Get rid of the episode numbers. There are a couple of others in the list of ones that I’ve covered here, a couple of other shows that are doing this too. It’s a waste of space for viewing the guests’ name and title because only so much shows on our little phone or on the scroll there, so take out the episode numbers. Without going into great detail on why, take it from someone who’s recorded over 600 episodes on one of my shows, this is going to eventually cause high listener confusion and way more work for you later when you have to remove the numbers.
Get rid of them now. Don’t mention them on air. I guess your first episode is okay because that’s always going to be the number one. It’s easy to figure that one out. Other than that, don’t mention that unless it’s a specific episode like, “This is my 100th.” Those are okay as well. The other recommendation I have for Givers, Doers, & Thinkers is to do a trailer or introduction episode. It can be set to be a pre-episode. Sometimes people call it the Episode Zero or pre-episode, but it’s before number one, and sometimes it doesn’t even play in the list. It’s hooking up as a trailer piece and you can do that in Apple and some other podcast players. The purpose of it is to be more of an intro on what to expect from the show.
It gives the host a chance to properly set up why he or she is the host. This is a must-have for attracting binge listeners. They love those trailer episodes. They love those intro ones. It gets them to the tone for like, “What am I going to listen to before I get halfway through the show and find out it wasn’t what I thought it was about?” I have a particular process that I use with all my clients to get to a succinct and informative introduction episode. I will link that episode. It’s on another podcast, not on this particular one. I will link that at TheBingeFactor.com. You can check that out. If you don’t have one and you want to create one, this is your guide to how to do that. I will share that with you.
This show is important that it has one because there’s an editorial staff at Philanthropy Daily, which is hosting this. In the future, they may want to switch up the host of the show. They may want to use other editors. Things could change in the future. This is a great way to do it to set that tone up. You can always change that out when you bring in a new host. You can talk about the different editors in the process. This is a good way for them to get people to know what the show is about, get a great introduction to it, and then have a lead in to be able to make it more flexible in the future as well.
The first episode is great, but it dives right in and you need that prep, “Why am I here if I’ve not been a Philanthropy Daily reader before?” As to that, that’s their binge factor. Philanthropy Daily is exactly the reason why they have a great binge factor because they already have a unique focus. It’s not served by other podcasts. It’s not served by other publications in the philanthropy space. Givers, Doers, & Thinkers knows their audience and is interested in discussions about philanthropy integrated with civil society. They deliver with informed guests and probing discussions. Because it’s sponsored by Philanthropy Daily, they also have the credibility and experience of having curated content for quite some time to their target readership. They know who their readers are and they know who they want their listeners to be. The connection with the publication is going to expand their reach quickly. This bodes well for a successful and bingeable podcast in the future. How about we take a listen to a clip from episode number ten where he’s interviewing Ben Soskis and talking about the untold history of philanthropy.
Givers, Doers, and Thinkers introduces listeners to the fascinating people and important ideas at the heart of American civil society. We speak with philanthropists, foundation leaders, reformers, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit executives, religious believers, historians, sociologists, philosophers, journalists, and anyone else who will help us understand contemporary civil society’s achievements and failures. We also sprinkle in practical advice for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers. This is the podcast for anyone interested in that vital space where philanthropy and civil society intersect.
Host: Jeremy Beer
About Jeremy Beer
Jeremy Beer is Principal Partner at American Philanthropic, LLC, a consulting firm whose mission is to strengthen civil society by improving the effectiveness of charitable foundations and nonprofit organizations. He works closely with dozens of philanthropies and nonprofit clients in such areas as strategic planning, message creation, program analyses and audits, major-donor club creation and implementation, direct mail, grant writing, and collateral material development. He is also the co-founder of AmP Publishers Group and has served as a literary agent for a select group of clients, including the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn family.
Jeremy has published more than forty essays and articles on philanthropy, culture, and politics in various academic and popular journals, including Perspectives on Political Science, First Things, Touchstone, The American Conservative, Front Porch Republic, and the Utne Reader. He was the project director or editor in chief for four editions of a critically acclaimed essay-style college guide, Choosing the Right College, and the coeditor of American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. He has lectured at Georgetown University, Calvin College, Augustana College, national meetings of the American Political Science Association, and elsewhere.
Jeremy is the author of Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity and Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player, as well as co-author with Jeff Cain of Forgotten Foundations of Fundraising: Practical Advice and Contrarian Wisdom for Nonprofit Leaders.
I hope you all have enjoyed this brief exposure to some fabulous new podcasts and got some great tips in the process as well. As podcasters and passionate podcasts listeners, I want to hear from you. Who should we feature next on the #GivingTuesdayPodcasts? You can recommend any podcast you’d like. Simply go to #GivingTuesdayPodcasts form on TheBingeFactor.com to apply. You can pay it forward and nominate someone. You can also spread your recommendations via social media using the #GivingTuesdayPodcasts and tagging @TheBingeFactor. To apply or find out more. Go to TheBingeFactor.com and go to the Giving Tuesday tab. If you’re a podcast host and want to join in on the giving too, I give some description on that page on what you might want to do to build it for yourself and feel free to reach out to me.
If you want to start a #GivingTuesdayPodcasts feature, you don’t have to feature five shows like I am. You could feature one new one on Tuesdays, whatever is best for you, give back to your fellow podcasters and your sister podcasters out there. If you want to do that, there’s more information about what I recommend on how to do that. I have enjoyed preparing for and trying this new feature out on the show. I’m hoping I can sustain this and do this more than once a month, but that’s what I’m going to shoot for right now, at least doing this once a month on the first Tuesday of the month. I’m going to try and do it every Tuesday if I can. I am looking for you guys to send me some great podcasts out there because I can’t do all the work of finding you. You’ve got to let me know who you are. I hope this is a great added feature to the show. I’d love to hear from you longtime readers. Let me know if this has been valuable for you as well. As always, go to TheBingeFactor.com, tag me @TheBingeFactor or Tracy Hazzard and find me anywhere on social media. Thanks for reading. I appreciate you and I’m grateful and thankful for all of you.
Pay It Forward and Make Every Tuesday a Giving Tuesday!
Podcasters and passionate podcast listeners recommend any podcast you like, even your own. Remember, we’re being generous, so please pay it forward to other podcasters too! Simply send them to the #GivingTuesdayPodcasts Form to apply. You can also give podcasting love by spreading these shows and your favorite shows via social media using the hashtag #GivingTuesdayPodcasts.
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