Pod-Crashing Episode 31 Controlled Chaos

A single snap shot of our present place on the digital platform and barely anybody can figure it out. There’s a lot of guessing going on and you’ve gotta love it.
Heard a quote today, “When I jumped onto this there were no forefathers.”
Sharing that message was Michael Stevens who’s helped strengthen YouTube’s footprint into something other than free music and crazy self-created smartphone videos. His show Mind Field gets into the head and heart of why we feel fear, have anxiety and face every other emotion available to mankind.
Michael went on to say, “If they aren’t watching you. They’re watching someone else.”
He’s right. YouTube fans and followers know what they’re looking for because it’s delivered on demand. They may be leaving you but they’re not leaving the platform. Just give me that big beautiful search engine.
As podcasting continues to gain in popularity its visibility must become clearer. Hardcore listeners know where the episodes are. The average newbe to the platform continues to struggle with what the difference is between Apple Podcasts and Castbox, Deezer, Spreaker and even Podcast Addict.
iHeart Radio has earned their rightful place at the top of where listeners are making connections. The search engine can be a little tricky. You’ve got to have the name of the podcast exact. Which is a big issue for many show creators. I’m horribly guilty of it. Every one of my podcasts are not street speak. I have Unplugged and Totally Uncut, Like its Live, Poetic Elevation. Unless you know what to look for it goes against the natural flow of reaching for what you seek.
Spotify is also a pretty good sized owner of the podcast pie. Through a free digital hookup on Anchor the Spotify platform is gaining in numbers. Who better to know that than a huge amount of podcast promoters that have taken over Linkdin and FaceBook with How To videos filled with promises of locating a stronger listening base for you.
I’ve sat through a lot of webinars. Taken boxes of notes. Questioned by questions. It takes me back to what Michael Stevens was saying, “When I jumped onto this there were no forefathers.” Millions of us are striving to reach the same success goal. How we’re getting there is the multiple layered story. How I got to my first million probably won’t work for anyone else. I’m honest enough to call it being at the right place at the right time.
Maintaining what I started is murdering the clock. Podcasters like Jake Brennan on Disgraceland keeps his episodes on a track of once every other week. Will Ferrell does his in seasons. We don’t know if he’s knocking out 8 to 10 episodes in a week. Maybe we’ll find out more since he and iHeart Media have teamed up to create what looks to be the globes first comedy podcast network.
I was talking with actress Missi Pyle about her podcast called The Mother Load. Two moms talking about raising young children in 2019. The challenges, the chores, the victories and struggles to keep your career alive while loving those brought to life.
In every podcaster’s voice I talk with I hear the journey. The expectation of trying to keep up. The disappointments of not getting enough downloads of listens for potential advertisers. Everybody’s good day always has the potential of helping others make their way down an extremely twisted river with so much fish to eat but getting to them requires more than a worm on a hook.
Comedy Clubs are capitalizing on the popularity of podcasting. Mommy-casts pull in so many female fans that food and wine sales are going through the roof. To land on that stage you’re gonna need deep pockets or huge numbers. I’ve seen comedians play to a room of 25 or less. How does a podcaster react when the club rented shows a couple of people sitting on stage still hacking it up and rolling around like two kids driving mom crazy?
I don’t know if I could pull something like that off. My interviews and motivational shows are designed to be one on one. To talk with the person that happened to check in with you. Don’t get me wrong, I love a live stage with a big amount of people expecting something from my flow of creative energy. As a podcaster though… I don’t think that’s my thing.
“When I jumped onto this there were no forefathers.” Michael Stevens went on to say that as podcasters we need to become more of a community and not linear. Another words lean away from the microphone and wink at those watching the performance. From that ledge you say something like “Don’t wing it. Prepare for it. Listeners are smarter than you. I know where the next button is.”
Most of us get our podcast lessons from listening to the giants that’ve been doing it for decades. Today I was checking out Joe Rogen and Kevin Smith talking about how podcasters have become addicted to creating seasons. That’s when the host does 12 to 15 shows then takes off a few weeks. Kevin and Joe both agreed that it’s just wrong. This isn’t television. Podcasting shouldn’t be treated as such.
Rogen’s into the performance as well as the game. He knows the importance of being loyal to how he’s designed the total package program layout. He’s doing seven episodes this week. Which doesn’t sound like much until you realize his interviews are up to two hours long. He likes to win and doesn’t let anything get in the way of a winning performance.
Compared to that, my style of podcasting is completely different. That’s part of the soul of doing it. Nobody’s truly sticking to a format or corporate driven approach to getting the job done. We’re artists and artists to their own thing. The majority of the episodes I do are 7 to 14 minutes long. Then I program the hell out of the platform. I do it like a radio station lays out music. Three of my fifteen podcasts get five episodes per day. 5:30 am suddenly becomes 3 pm. Then it’s time to show prep for tomorrow’s conversations.
This isn’t anything new to my lifestyle. For forty years I’ve always been associated with specialty programming on terrestrial radio. Now I can do it the way I hear it not by playing the same 15 songs on a weekly countdown or penning out and executing a Classic Rock Update that barely clocks in at 55 seconds. Writing my own rules meant fighting for my own space. I’ve been known to get extremely protective while dealing with outsiders that haven’t lived the path.
So what’s the moral of the story? No two pieces of clay are worked the same. The Potter doesn’t know the end result until it’s fired with all that glaze. Podcasting is no different. The goal is to head into everyday knowing you’re committed to making a ton of mistakes while never going over the top with affection when an episode exceeds the listening limits. Tomorrow a new day. Bring the game.