Don't Quit Your Day Job

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My Week On The Road

I spent Wednesday with the Cincinnati Podcasters meetup which was a great time of sharing information about what is and isn't working in podcasting. If you are in the Cincinnati area, you should make the trip. From there I went to Nashville for the first ever Podfecta event which was organized by my friend David Hooper. This event used my favorite format which is one track, one room, so all participants get the same information. It's a great way to build community. Then I went to Craft Content Nashville which was an "unconference" (much like the old days of Podcamps). This had over 50 speakers with TONS of tracks. while not all the sessions I attended were stellar, I did walk away with some great info, and got to network and answer some questions. Both events brought in food which made networking very easy.

What is a Valuable Show?

Jennifer Briney does the congressional dish podcast and did a presentation and the put up a slide that asked, "What is a Valuable Show?" and for Jennifer, it is "An Impressive display of public Entertainment that is useful or important.

So Good They Can't Ignore You

I listened to the Book "So Good They Can't Ignore Your (Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love) and he goes hard against the strategy of "Following your passion and the money will come." It's a very interesting book and I agree with some of it. He talks about to move forward you need to develop skills that are rare and valuable. This leads to more jobs where you start to control more of your destiny. He also points out and gives many different illustrations on how few (if any) people can say exactly what they want to be when they grow up. Most people talk small steps (doing rare and valuable work) which leads to more opportunities that lead to you having more control over your life (when you are rare and valuable, you control and call more of the shots).

The Law of Remarkability:

The law of an idea remarkability. Your podcast inspires people to remark about it and if it has the ability to be spread in a venue that supports these remarks. He also talks about having a goal of acquiring skills that are rare and valuable. I want to take this idea and use it as criteria for your podcast. Jennifer Brinery read a bill going through Congress that was over 2000 pages. I'm pretty sure it's rare that anybody would read that (the Senators receive a summary that was four pages) and in regards to really getting a good picture of what is going on in Congress, Jennifer provides a ton of value.

Podcast Monetization

I got to meet in person Jeff Sanders who is the author of the 5 AM Miracle and The Free-Time Formula (Hear my interview with Jeff Here) did a great job of giving some great insights into having advertising on your show (for the 10% that have enough downloads to support CPM models) and Jennifer Briney of Congressional Dish (hear my interview with Jen)provided a stellar presentation on creating a podcast that is 100% listener supported. In both presentations, Jeff and Jennifer pointed out that it took YEARS to build the audience big enough to be able to do this full time.

Don't Quit Your Day Job

We have seen people who are super successful. Their pitch goes something like this, "I can show you how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes. Step one, give me a million dollars." In his book So Good They Can't Ignore You author Cal Newport tells the story of a young blogger who was "fed up with living the conventional life working nine to five for the man with little or no time and little money to pursue my true passions so I've embarked on a crusade to show you and the rest of the world how an avergae Joe can build a business from scratch to support a life devoted to living the dream. The business he referenced (as is the case with most Lifestyle designers) is his blog about being a lifestyle designer. In other words, his only product is his enthusiasm for not having a normal life. "

Enthusiasm alone is not rare or valuable and therefore is not worth much.

I Couldn't Believe My Ears

In talking with a brand new podcaster, I was shocked to hear they had QUIT THE MARKETING JOB that they had been doing for years to start a podcast that didn't scream "EASY TO MONETIZE." Jennifer mentioned how she had taken a part-time job as a waitress so she could still do Congressional Dish and pay the bills until the show was built up enough to jump to full time.

We think it's courageous, we think if we don't jump now we never will, and so we jump.

When we see people jump from building to building we can't believe what we see

https://youtu.be/f0xyzj545tc?t=1m9s

It's one thing to jump over a mud puddle. It's a totally different story to jump over a lake.

As my mother used to say, "just because Johny Johnson jumps off a bridge doesn't mean you should"

https://youtu.be/5wOiYjN2_gA?t=2m1s (disturbing)

A Reporter Hears Your Latest Episode, What Is Your Headline?

In Nashville, I did a live version of the Podcast Rodeo show. I pointed out that most of the content I consume does one of the following:

Makes me Laugh
Makes me Cry
Makes me Think
Makes me Groan
Educates me
Entertains me

If the episode you are going to record does none of the above.

Question of the Month

As I record this it is April 1. The first quarter of 2018 is over. What had you planned on doing in that first quarter that didn't, and what are you going to do differently to make it happen in this quarter. You can leave your answer using the options on the contact page

I need your answer by April 26th