Podcast Success Blueprint Phase 2 - The Making of the Podcast

This is Amplify You the podcast about you discovering your message and broadcasting it to the world. If you're a coach, author or speaker, you'll want to tune in, if you're looking for the best return on your time investment, to get your message out to the world in a bigger way, we're giving you full access behind the scenes look of how we're running our podcasts, how our clients have found success, and what you can do to launch your podcast today. The world needs your message. I'm Michelle Abraham, the host, join my family as we unleash your unique genius and find the connections you need to launch your venture today. Join us and let's get amplified.

Awesome, so bring it back out to you. phase number two here. phase number two is the making of the podcast. Alright, so here's where you want to talk about where does it fit in your business? What style is show frequency all the pieces of it, and what equipment is needed to get started. So we thought we would give you this, this anatomy of a podcast just so that you can see where all the pieces are. This is something I wish I had when I started if I'd realized all the things that I needed to get going, I would it be given me some more direction. So here's some things to think about as you're getting going. So there's lots of pieces that come together to make a perfect podcast. One of the biggest mistakes that I see out there, and I also made this mistake was not having a literal title. Right, amplify you what does that mean? What does that really mean? What are we going to talk about when we get there, it's not that clear. Therefore, it needs a tagline. If you are going to go to a show called the profitable photographer, that's pretty clear. We know we're going to talk about the business of photography on that show, right? So if you can think of a very literal title that helps people understand what the show is going to be about. Before they get there, when they see it, that's going to be more helpful for you. And it's going to be more helpful for your audience. And then if you can keep that title around like a trifecta of, of content. So you got an online course or coaching program, you've got your book, maybe and you've got your podcast, if you can kind of keep those all kind of around the same name, excuse me, same name, that would that works a little bit better as well. Okay, the next thing you need to do is a compelling description. Where do you find show descriptions, you find the right underneath the icon on like Spotify or Apple podcasts, when you go right underneath the icon of the show, it gives you a description of the show, there's a lot of real estate here that you can play around with. And you can do a lot of great things. Couple things you want to do in there is put some keywords, you get some keywords in there that will be helpful for people to who are searching. Podcasting is very much a keyword game. Because if you can get descriptions in your titles, and in your descriptions, or sorry, I'm sorry, if you can get words in your titles and your descriptions that are descriptive, and what people might be Googling or searching for, then that's more likely you're gonna get organic traffic to your show. And so if you know, say, you're in the business of photography, and you're really focused on like, there's 10, or 12 keywords that you focus on in your business, we'll create an episode around each of those 12 topics. So that's just going to also help with SEO. So they nearly done the right category. So there's lots of different categories of podcasts. But when you launch a show, you got to pick your three main categories. Sometimes, and this is not like the Amazon bestseller category pick where you pick the least likely category to have less, you know, competition kind of thing, it doesn't kind of doesn't really work that way. You want to pick a category that you're going to be founded by the people who are searching for the things in that category. So personal development, and a lot of you guys in here have shows that are going to be around personal development around self improvement. So the category is actually under education, and then is self improvement. Very interesting, right? So have, you want to make sure you're in the right category. So you want to pick the three main categories for your show. So they're coming up with new categories all the time, they're changing them sometimes. And they're broadening them because it's funny them. The biggest growth on podcast is I think in entrepreneurs and in self improvement, yet, they didn't really have those two categories from the beginning. And so it was complicated as to where you would find those shows. Sometimes there'll be like health and fitness. Sometimes they'd be in wellness. Sometimes they'd be in personal journals. Sometimes they'd be in all sorts of different places. So now they're getting a little bit more clear and realizing there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there. So let's make an entrepreneur category. There's a lot of people out there and alternative alternative wellness, alternative medicine. So let's make a category for that. So it's an it's a work in progress. Let's just put it that way. Anyway, moving on to the next thing. We need to have the intro and outro you need to have something that people come to They hear our music, they have a quick little introduction to your show. And then an outro, where you say goodbye and thank them and usually have a call to action here. So those two things we create in the creation stage, the making stage of the podcast. And then we have these two pieces that are already put together with music. And we put them onto your episodes each week, as we are then publishing the show. The intro done right can really help people get excited about your show. There needs to be kept short now nobody's gonna listen to a two or three minute introduction every single time. You see, I know I get annoyed by some of the shows that have tons of ads and these intros and just like skip through them. So think about your experience as a listener. How do you how do you navigate your podcasts? Let's say you do do a lot of skipping yourself, you know, try to remember the listener and keep it short and sweet. And but memorable, right? And then the outro? Is that a call to action in there, tell them where to go next, where to find out where more about you. The next piece is called a trailer. So this is like anywhere from like four minutes to 10 minutes long, can even be shorter, two or three minutes. It's up to you. That's what I love about podcasting, the creativity is totally up to you. There's no right or wrong about anything. And so the trailer, the whole idea of the trailer is to let them know who you are, what you're all about what they can expect for listening. Remember, your listeners want to know what's in it for them. This is the main law of a trailer. What's the difference? And why should they stop and listen? And as Brian always says, we're in the Netflix generally show generation, right? We never we're not we don't watch things on TV, usually anywhere without watching a trailer first. So it's the same in the podcasting space. Okay,

Michelle. So what's the difference between a trailer and the intro?

Yes. So the intro is something that goes on every single episode, the trailer goes at the very beginning of the whole pot, all of the podcast is episode zero. But it's typically a lot shorter. Like think of a movie trailer, if it serves the same purpose you give like a highlight. After you've done a whole season, what I've seen really cool some people have done with their trailers if they gone back and taken pieces of like the audio Gramsci views, and like put that together as a as the trailer so people can get an idea of what people are some of the conversations within the episodes. But obviously, you can't do that until you've done the whole event attend a whole bunch of episodes first. Yeah. The trailer is oftentimes sometimes sometimes the hardest thing to record. And so what we recommend, instead of recording it, first, you go and record your episodes, a couple of interviews, your solo shows, and then come back and do the trailer. Because it's really hard to record a trailer, where you're talking about all these things that this show is going to be all about when you haven't recorded anything. So know what you think is going to be about what actually comes out of your mouth and what actually happens on those episodes. Sometimes they're totally different things. So to really is always great to do just before you launch, but after you've recorded some other episodes,

I'll jump in here for a second. I'm Michelle, if you don't mind. Wow, the trailer episode has really revolutionized us in supporting people to get launched because it takes away from the desire to put everything you ever want to say into your intro. When you think of your intro, it's the first thing people hear each episode. And for a lot of us as we launch, we want to tell people everything that shows ever going to be. But remember your intro they only hear for the first time once so when they're hearing it, it's usually a welcome back. Right? It's this is the show where we do this, let's dive in, we want to keep it nice and short. If you've listened to your podcast on Spotify, or Apple, you know, there's that little 15 Second skip button, or sometimes the 32nd skip button. If you're if your intro is longer than 30 seconds, you run the risk of people starting to hit that skip button and not listening to what you're saying. And then they skip into the episode and they might miss something. And the last thing you want is people slipping through your content. So the introduction keep it nice and short. And then the trailer episode is that longer format. This is what this show is going to be all about. Here's my mission. Here's what I hope you get out of this show. This is what I'm aiming to achieve. It's that nice longer format. And it's going to sit there at the top of all your episodes so people can always go back and revisit that.

Awesome. Thanks for that, Brady. So those are some great things to think about when you're recording those episodes. The next thing that's really going to set you apart is cover art that stands out. Okay, so we already mentioned that that cover art needs to have a literal title, cover art that stands out. It's really important here because you're looking at a page usually you're looking for podcasts on, you know, Apple podcasts or Google or some or Google podcasts or Spotify. There's a sea of cover arts there and what's going to grab someone's attention and stand out is what's going to help your show get picked as the show people want to listen to, you know the saying don't judge a book by a cover, but people judge their podcast by the cover art. So make sure it's good. Make sure it has your name on it. If you're doing a personal brand I mean you don't have to have your image on it at all, there's, in fact, I think more and more people lately are leaning towards not having your image on it, especially if you have two hosts. But if you are doing a personal branch and you want to have your own image of it, it's fine. Just make sure it's a really good image of you. And, you know, it doesn't have to have your image. But a lot of the shows out there do have people's images on I know, I'm sounding like I'm saying two different things at the same time. But it's really up to your creativity, it's up to you. But if you do have a personal brand, say what the intro and outro like there's that voice over or no voice over conversation. I think the elevated version is having a voiceover and having your no image on the floor, or a very professional looking image on your cover art for you. If it's a personal brand, if it's more about a topic, or if it's more about something that's not personal, then I was I would go more without the image on the show. And you can have your image on the on the cover art from week to week we change the cover art, so it's got a so what we what we deliver our clients back usually is an audio grammar, video gram, so some piece of social content, audio grab and video grammar, those things that's like a clip from within the show that then we can promote on social media to get people kind of hooked on the show and like interested in coming, right. So that's like a little hook in there. So that can then we can put that on credit cards, you can put it on all sorts of different things. But one of the things that we give you back as an audio gram and video gram, and also the cover for the episode, which maybe has the guests image on it and your image on it. So your image gets off that cover. The next thing we need is music to set the tone and the mood for the show. So you can have like a, you know, is it a peaceful kind of calming music? Or is it like energetic and you come in energized at the top of the show? What kind of mood do you want people to have? What kind of one of the things we want to think about in podcasting is like, what's the evoke emotion we want to evoke from people. And when we're evoking emotion from them in the show, we're gonna get them to take action on whatever we're suggesting they go and do next. So evoking emotion is super important. And one of the ways you can do that is through the music. And we had a show we were one of our podcast managers was editing for a long time. And her music was just so much fun to dance. So like she said her and her daughter used to get up and dance to it every time she was editing the show. So that was really a great sign that that music was inspiring and made me want to stand up and dance. Another thing that is helpful and this is not a necessity, this is just a nice to have is that same like kind of audio ground that we were picking out of something like a good quote or something really good that your guest said, you can also take that and put it at the beginning before the introduction, music as a hook. So you oftentimes you'll hear a show start just like, you know, think of a James Bond movie starts in the middle of the action, right? And then it goes back to the beginning, right? So that's kind of a way that you can start your show that way, right right into the action, and then taking that same thought of like the James Bond movies where you're starting in the middle of the action. And as I heard someone say, on stage, this guy getting crazy, and he's a great copywriter, you're here to talk to him on stage. And he said, it's like a James Bond movie. You know, starts with like the guts flailing and things happening in action happening. And then you know, Indiana Jones movie not so much and why was early like couple it to Joe's movies, and there's a lot of James Bond movies? Well, it's because you get right to the action. So think of your listener, when you're starting your podcast, try not to start with how did you get started doing what you're doing? Because that question is going to take a long tangent to answer from your guests. And it doesn't get the doesn't get to the juicy stuff right off the bat. So if you could start your show with a question that gets into some great content, like right off the bat, then circle back to the backstory of how they got started later. That's that's two thumbs up for that kind of setup. A couple other things you would have is a clear call to action at the end of your show. Thinking about this. Here's something and those of you guys have been to the podcast success, blueprint for guessing you'll know I say this all the time. My call to action has changed so many times over the last five years, that I cringe I cringe at the thought of how many broken links are out there and the show notes of things that I said on shows that don't lead back to where I wanted to lead to anymore. So get a really good domain name that's really easy to understand. Remember where your listeners are, they're listening and while they're in the gym or driving in the car, they're not going to remember a really long domain name. They're going to remember a free gift from a shell.com or they're going to remember podcasts goodies.com where they're gonna Don't remember something good. What that does is it allows you to be able to change that whatever it is over time. But if you keep the same domain naming you can you can change the gift that they're gonna get over time. That's totally fine. All right, so clear call to action. Also, just one more point on the call to action. Think about your podcast listeners, they're auditory learners, auditory learners, like 99% of the time, they're auditory learners. And if they're auditory learners, are they going to go and read a book? If you send them to a book? Probably not maybe a small percentage of them? Well, if the auditory learners, are they going to go listen to something that's on audio? That's your free gift? Probably? Or are they going to go watch a video? Maybe, but I would say something. Auditory is like the best gift to give a podcast listener because they're already on audio in audio format.

So again, if you don't mind, again, thinking of podcasting is this one sided conversation. So you've got, you've got people listening to you, you're speaking or you're having a conversation with a guest, you're sharing insights, and they might be getting really excited. So your call to action? Is you inviting them into the conversation, inviting them into your world? Where do they go next? How do they connect with you? How do they grow in that conversation you just had?

Yeah, so a couple other things that are really important for your show good quality audio, you want to make sure that you sound good, you have clear connection, you might think you sound good. But you won't actually know until you record something and then listen back to it. Because you don't know what your microphones picking up outside of your room. And depending on the type of microphone you have, you want to have one that really picks up right, what's right here. In fact, we had this very fascinating conversation earlier today, Braden and I with whenever and Trey with one of our new clients. He played the flute for us. And zoom wouldn't pick up the flute sound because it was eliminating background noise. So well, I've heard that that was so fascinating. I never seen that before. And I know the microphones, you know, cancelo background noise, but I guess I thought the flute was background noise. So I eliminated the sound room is crazy. So that was really interesting. So good quality sound and then good quality sound comes from your microphone, but it also comes from like where are you like I'm in a really high ceilings, there's glassware I am it's not the best place for me to. This is a hard surface by desks. So it's not a great place to record. You want to go somewhere where the soft it sound is soft and you have maybe a cloth on your desk. And then if you guys have ever seen that picture of these people who are like in their closet with their hoods over their heads, recording their episodes, do some the best it's not great for video, but they sound the best. Yes, they're there but the sound is so dense right? You can create that yourself. Brady used to live in an apartment that was all glass windows Oh, he created this little box with some foam in it he put his microphone and it's up speak into the box and that sounded great. So think about your environment he WHERE ARE YOU are the dogs gonna bark as the are the kids get to come home are you know are your neighbors yelling at each other, like, where's your environment that you're recording to you. So not only good quality audio is not just what comes out of your microphone, but also the room that you're in as well. If you need to have a promotion plan, and we do something called a launch plan, we give you some things that you need to start thinking about as you're getting close to launching when we launched, we don't launch with one episode, we launch with five. And so the reason we launch with five is to keep people there listening. While they're leaving reviews, it's going to help you get up in the algorithms a little bit faster. Rather than just putting the trailer up and then not coming back for a week you won't ever you'll you'll lose everyone. These are things thinking about your promotion plan, how often you're going to promote your show. What are some things you can do as you're launching, like behind the scenes pictures, get some great you know, feedback from your guests, maybe photos with your guests, maybe them introducing themselves lots of things that you can do to help your list help your social media following. Come along the journey with you. Okay, so we want them to feel like they're a part of the making of the show. So do you like this, this song or this song for my new podcast? Or what do you think about this cover or this cover? No, you don't have to always like you know, if they pick the one you didn't like, you can always pick the heart. You know, you don't have to like make that determine your show. But what it does is that when you do launch, those people that were involved in the making of it, feel like they want to contribute to it. And they also want to be a part of your world like they want to support it as well because they are a part of the making of it. And then of course if you're going to have guests on your show, you need to have a way to connect with them and have a guest booking system which will show you one a little bit later on, what you need to do is collect. So we're gonna put your guests information in the show notes when you publish the episode. So you want to have their social media links would have their gift that they're gonna give out, you want to have their website, you want to have their bio, you want to have their headshot, and you do not want to chase them for any of that stuff. So we have it set out through that when someone actually books on to our show is an interview, they actually have to submit all that stuff before we even take their calendar booking. So make it easy on yourself, you don't have to chase them around. And then what happens is when because it's put up all in my calendar booking link, I then it shows up on my calendar on Google. So when I go to the interview, I open the calendar link, and all their information is right there in front of me. So I can take a look at that before we start recording. And I can look at it, you know, weeks ahead of time, or I can look at it again a few minutes before recording. So all those things to make it easier for you guys, that's the anatomy of a podcast, a few pieces that go together to make a really successful show. Okay, so moving right along, we are going into the next phase. Okay, so now we've got the making of the podcast, we're going to move on to kind of like figuring out the rest of the show. So what are we going to do? What kind of show we're going to do? Here's some decisions that you're going to need to make in this part of your podcast creation. Okay, so how long are your episodes gonna be? I always get asked Michelle, what's the perfect length of a podcast? My annoying answer is however long, you can concisely deliver one message. So that can be five to 10 minutes, it can be 15 to 20 KB 30. Plus, that's first solo show. So you want to deliver one concise message, what you don't want to do is like the three ways to do this, and the five ways to not do that. And then sum it all up in one episode. That's way too much content for one episode, you want to keep it a little bit shorter and succinct. A great kind of format would be an introduction, what's happening with something going on in your world. Here's the concept idea that we're talking about today. Here's a story about it. And here's some call a call to action. Now, I am really speaking to those entrepreneurs that have a podcast that's going to lead to their business in this that and that makes sense of the kind of content you're going to deliver. And that's more for a solo show for your episodes for you're guessing with a guest those can be longer, they can be 30 minutes long. And maybe you have the similar questions every time maybe you have different questions each time. Maybe you have one question you ask every time. And it's totally up to you how you do it. But consider what else can you do with this content and when you're structuring your show? So for example, if I asked every single podcast that came on my show, what is one piece of advice you would give to yourself before you started your podcast? And they gave me that piece of advice. And I edited that out and I took that and I transcribed it. And after 100 episodes, I had 100 podcasters, telling me, what's the piece of advice they would do? At the end of the day to help someone get started, oh my gosh, that'd be a cool book, right? Or that would be a really cool trading program. Or that would be really cool for another piece of content, right? You can make money from it. You can also use it to grow your list. You can also lead use it as your free gift, right? Lots of different things that you can do with that content. Okay, so back to your show. These are your time how long is your show gonna be? How often will it be? What's the key to see your show? My suggestion is definitely a weekly show. Monthly gets a bit long between shows, people are less likely to come back and it's hard to grow a show that's so free, less frequent. Daily, that's a little bit insane. And if you start off with more than one episode a week, you're gonna have to stay consistent because there's nothing worse than starting off as a daily show. And then after a year you're at like once a month that doesn't look very good. So you want to keep consistent, you're growing the trust of your listeners. Let me tell you back to that show. Eventual Millionaire if after I listened binge listened to every episode she had, I was waiting every Monday morning to take my son for a walk. I put my earbuds in and if she didn't show up and it produced an episode that Monday I would have been pissed. I would have been like, where's my episode? I'm here ready to go for my walk like so you lose that trust when you don't produce your episode. Each week. You might not think anything of it. You might not think anyone's listening but that one person who's listening that's like it's changing their life that makes a big impact of it. Something to consider. Also, we checked chatted a bit about this already. What do you want your listeners to feel when they're listening to your show and what emotion is on how that emotion is going to help them take action to do something with you.