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

Because of My Podcast: I'm GettingMarried

Today Matthew Cox from Brunch with theBrits explains how he went to a podcast event who eventuallybecame his wife.

Why I Turned Down My First PodcastSponsor

I had been contacted by a sponsor atadvertisecast.com. I decided to low ball my pricing ($10 anepisode) just to see if anyone would jump. An advertiser did. Theywanted 10 episodes of my Weekly Web Tools podcast. That would bealmost three months and the advertising would pay for my hosting(minus the 20% that advertisecast take). I would take home $96. Myhosting will cost me $45 for three months. I might have some gasmoney. Here are some of the bullet points:

To get started and receive a $50 signupbonus

You’ll earn $1 for every new email lead and upto $200 for every new member you refer from yourcomputer

Has already generated millions of dollars forover 200,000 happy entrepreneurs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I later would go back to School to get aBachelor's Degree in Education. My dream job was to get back totraining people on Microsoft Products. I had the most fun doingthat in the past, and I was good at it. I could be funny andeducational. Because of my knowledge of computers I start to dabblein building websites, and the Internet. That lead to me a guy whohad come back from a conference who told me aboutpodcasting.

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

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

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

I Want My Podcast to Be Original

It's hard to really come up with somethingcompletely original. Why? Because talking and entertainment andeducation have been around for a long time. In the movies mostplots 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, TheWizard of Oz

Comedy - Four Weddings and A Funeral

Tragedy - Breaking bad

Rebirth - The Grinch who stoleChristmas

Source

Create an Original Combination

As I write this, the musician Prince died lastThursday. Some might say there was nobody like Prince, and that istrue. What was original about Prince was his mixing of Genres andstyles. If you ever saw him live, he borrowed a lot from JamesBrown. If you watched him play the guitar, he reminded you a lot ifJimi Hendrix. There was a hint of gospel an blues. What Prince hadthat was unique to him was his vocal range. He took that range andsurrounded with the stylings of James, Jimi, and his owninfluences. So the way he paired these genres wasoriginal. 

Learn From Others Who Are Doing itWell

I've spoken in the past about grabbing people'sattention right up front. One of the longest running shows ontelevision does this the best: 60 minutes. They pull at your heartmaking it near impossible to turn off the channel. Can youincorporate this into your podcast? You sure can.

Podcast News:Google (Yawn) Play

What should have been a tidal wave ofopportunity 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 portabledevice but Google is using Flash technology which dosn't workon mobile devices.

You can't download the podcasts.

It's not really available anywhere except onthe web

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

Music MTV Is Getting intoPodcasting

MTV announced five new podcasts focused onfilm, politics, pop culture and, obviously, music that will rollout over the next week. The shows will be hosted by a mix ofcurrent MTV News journalists including Anna Marie Coxand several new hires.

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

Customer FeedBackMultiple Feeds of a Podcast

How do you handle more than one feed withLibsyn or Blubrry?

WordPress as a Free Website Option

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

BTW, I have a new favorite podcast because ofyour “favorite podcast” episode at year end.  Never heard ofNo Agenda until I heard someone mention it on your end year endshow, actually it was last years show i listened to afterdownloading the transcript.  I know shame on me for being apodcaster and not knowing of Adam Curry’s show until recently, butI have not missed an episode since hearing about it earlier thisyear and have also sent a few dollars their way. ? it’sexceptionally good given the upcoming presidentialelection.

Hope all is well and I’m sending money your waytoo via Amazon shopping.  ?Thanks,Richard Warfield, Jr.RDubStudios.comLoudPipes.net

Podcast Conferences Where I WillBe Speaking

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

Podcast Success Summit - Online May 16th June9th 

Podcast MidAtltantic - NJ - September 9-10th

 

Check out Dave's Course 

Planning YourPodcast