WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.879 No matter your experience or success in podcasting, any podcaster 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:07.519 can improve with these 2 things. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.934 Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to podcast. 00:00:16.934 --> 00:00:18.214 I'm Daniel J. Lewis. 00:00:18.214 --> 00:00:21.414 I have an announcement about my brand new product, but you're 00:00:21.414 --> 00:00:23.975 gonna have to wait until the end of the episode to hear about 00:00:23.975 --> 00:00:24.454 that. 00:00:24.454 --> 00:00:27.335 In the meantime, do you want a bigger audience for your podcast? 00:00:27.335 --> 00:00:30.054 Do you want to make money with your podcast or make more money 00:00:30.054 --> 00:00:31.974 than you're making right now from your podcast? 00:00:31.975 --> 00:00:34.429 Do you want to become a better podcaster? 00:00:34.670 --> 00:00:37.310 Do you want to grow your authority and popularity? 00:00:37.549 --> 00:00:40.990 I believe that whatever it is you want from your podcast can 00:00:40.990 --> 00:00:44.590 probably be achieved with these 2 things that I'll share in this 00:00:44.590 --> 00:00:47.734 episode. But I'll warn you, these 2 things are not easy. 00:00:47.734 --> 00:00:51.894 In fact, 1 of them could even be downright painful. 00:00:52.134 --> 00:00:56.695 These 2 things are know your problems and work on your problems. 00:00:57.015 --> 00:00:59.734 If you'd like to follow along with the notes for this episode, 00:00:59.734 --> 00:01:03.670 and this episode does come with some homework, then they are a 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.950 simple tap or swipe away inside your podcast app or at 00:01:06.950 --> 00:01:11.109 theaudacitytopodcast.com/improve2things. 00:01:11.109 --> 00:01:13.670 And I'm serious about doing some homework with this episode. 00:01:13.670 --> 00:01:17.364 There will be a point where I will encourage you to pause and 00:01:17.364 --> 00:01:18.805 write some things down. 00:01:19.045 --> 00:01:23.045 So you might want to save this episode for when you can focus and 00:01:23.045 --> 00:01:26.004 write these things down as you're thinking about them. 00:01:26.084 --> 00:01:28.884 So here we go. Number 1, are you ready for it? 00:01:29.125 --> 00:01:30.405 Know your problems. 00:01:30.965 --> 00:01:35.129 It breaks my heart when I see podcasters heavily investing time 00:01:35.129 --> 00:01:40.489 or money or both in their podcast, but not seeing any results 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:43.209 after lots of times, sometimes years. 00:01:43.625 --> 00:01:45.704 Some podcasters will blame others. 00:01:45.704 --> 00:01:47.704 Someone else is stealing the attention. 00:01:47.704 --> 00:01:49.144 Their audience isn't responding. 00:01:49.144 --> 00:01:50.584 They can't get the guests they want. 00:01:50.584 --> 00:01:54.025 No 1 is pressing play, and so on and so on and so on. 00:01:54.104 --> 00:01:58.185 I'm going to give you some free, but not licensed mental health 00:01:58.185 --> 00:02:02.439 advice. Other people aren't the problem. You are. 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:07.239 Please hear me out on this because this is actually good news 00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:11.159 that you are the problem and not other people. You're not God. 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:13.639 You can't change other people. Believe me. 00:02:13.974 --> 00:02:17.254 I've tried unsuccessfully, as you could probably guess. 00:02:17.254 --> 00:02:19.895 You can't make other people do what you want them to do. 00:02:19.895 --> 00:02:22.935 That's something I have to remind my 8 year old son every now and 00:02:22.935 --> 00:02:27.254 then. The only person you can control and change is yourself. 00:02:28.010 --> 00:02:32.889 So when your podcast has a problem, you have the greatest power 00:02:32.889 --> 00:02:37.849 to fix it. But you have to know what your problems actually are. 00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:41.530 Not just the symptoms, but the actual root causes. 00:02:42.115 --> 00:02:45.314 Obviously, you can ask others to point out your problems, and I'm 00:02:45.314 --> 00:02:47.955 sure they'll be more than happy to point out your problems. 00:02:47.955 --> 00:02:51.314 If they're not related to you or maybe if they are related to 00:02:51.314 --> 00:02:53.474 you, they'll be super happy to point out your problems. 00:02:53.555 --> 00:02:57.319 You can even pay people like me or others to tell you your 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:00.199 podcasting problems. But you can do this for free. 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:03.639 Start by looking at yourself without any pride, which I know can 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:05.000 be very hard to do. 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:10.439 You must be objective, honest, practical, and non emotional. 00:03:10.775 --> 00:03:14.615 But also don't be harsh on yourself, belittling yourself, 00:03:14.615 --> 00:03:17.495 comparing yourself to others, or punishing yourself for past 00:03:17.495 --> 00:03:18.215 mistakes. 00:03:18.375 --> 00:03:22.535 If you're willing to do this exercise, you have to focus on just 00:03:22.694 --> 00:03:26.409 uncovering the facts, Not blaming yourself, not blaming anyone, 00:03:26.409 --> 00:03:29.129 not kicking yourself for doing anything right or wrong in the 00:03:29.129 --> 00:03:33.449 past. Just focus on the facts. Consider these examples. 00:03:33.449 --> 00:03:36.810 An overweight person needs to know how overweight they are and 00:03:36.810 --> 00:03:38.889 what problems that's causing for their health. 00:03:39.185 --> 00:03:42.705 A student needs to know what they got wrong on their test. 00:03:42.784 --> 00:03:46.625 A business owner needs to know how much money they're losing and 00:03:46.625 --> 00:03:48.145 where they're losing it. 00:03:48.305 --> 00:03:52.064 Knowing these things and being told these things is not hateful 00:03:52.064 --> 00:03:53.104 at all. Yeah. 00:03:53.104 --> 00:03:56.680 It might hurt to hear these things, but it's the good kind of 00:03:56.680 --> 00:03:57.159 hurt. 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:02.040 It's the kind of pain that will help you to make changes and to 00:04:02.040 --> 00:04:05.000 fix the problems that need to be fixed. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.275 Imagine if you had cancer, and your doctor was like, yep. 00:04:08.275 --> 00:04:12.354 You're all good. Bye. Wait. That would not be loving. 00:04:12.354 --> 00:04:14.915 That would not be caring of the doctor. 00:04:14.995 --> 00:04:20.115 The caring thing to do would be for him or her to tell you what 00:04:20.115 --> 00:04:24.280 your problems are, saying, hey. You've got cancer. 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:26.040 Here are some ways to deal with it. 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:30.440 You cannot effectively fix a problem that you don't know about. 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:33.800 When it comes to your podcast, you have to think about things 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:37.000 like, is your podcast delivering on its promises? 00:04:37.495 --> 00:04:40.854 Look at your podcast description for seeing what is your podcast 00:04:40.854 --> 00:04:44.535 actually promising. Is your content actually good? 00:04:44.774 --> 00:04:48.535 Do people actually want or need what you're offering through your 00:04:48.535 --> 00:04:51.414 podcast? Are you communicating as well as you could be? 00:04:51.569 --> 00:04:55.090 Is your production quality helping or hindering? 00:04:55.250 --> 00:04:59.569 Are you actually doing anything to improve and grow your podcast, 00:04:59.889 --> 00:05:01.889 or are you just coasting? 00:05:02.129 --> 00:05:06.305 I encourage you to stop listening right here and make a list of 00:05:06.305 --> 00:05:08.545 all the problems you see with your podcast. 00:05:08.625 --> 00:05:10.545 Remember, don't attack yourself. 00:05:10.625 --> 00:05:14.785 Focus on collecting just the facts as much as you can. 00:05:14.785 --> 00:05:17.345 If you're up for this, yes, it can be a little painful to do 00:05:17.345 --> 00:05:17.504 this. 00:05:17.504 --> 00:05:21.159 But if you're up for it, pause right now and come back when 00:05:21.159 --> 00:05:24.919 you've got a list of some of the problems and root causes that 00:05:24.919 --> 00:05:27.399 you're facing with your podcast. Alright. 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:31.479 I'm gonna trust you here. Scout's honor, have you made that list? 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:34.039 If not, pause and make a list. 00:05:34.334 --> 00:05:37.694 Set this episode aside if you need to and come back to it and 00:05:37.694 --> 00:05:40.495 make that list of actual problems and root causes. 00:05:40.574 --> 00:05:44.495 But assuming that you have, now that you know your problems or at 00:05:44.495 --> 00:05:47.375 least some of them, the real work begins. 00:05:47.730 --> 00:05:51.090 So number 2, work on your problems. 00:05:51.250 --> 00:05:56.370 Podcast growth by any metric doesn't really happen automatically. 00:05:56.529 --> 00:05:59.410 You might look at others and think they got lucky, but you 00:05:59.410 --> 00:06:02.875 probably don't see all the contributing factors, probably 00:06:02.875 --> 00:06:07.594 entirely within their control that brought them to that point 00:06:07.594 --> 00:06:09.675 where you're seeing them all successful. 00:06:09.834 --> 00:06:12.714 A lot of people like to talk about podcasters like Pat Flynn of 00:06:12.714 --> 00:06:15.914 Smart Passive Income or John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs on Fire 00:06:15.914 --> 00:06:19.810 because both of these gentlemen seemingly became an overnight 00:06:19.810 --> 00:06:20.449 success. 00:06:20.769 --> 00:06:25.009 But I remember meeting John Lee Dumas at John's Pizzeria off 00:06:25.009 --> 00:06:27.729 Times Square in New York City when we were there for Blog World 00:06:27.729 --> 00:06:29.250 in June 2012. 00:06:29.665 --> 00:06:32.705 And that, by the way, was the first time I spoke on podcasting in 00:06:32.705 --> 00:06:37.024 a major podcasting or social media conference. I loved doing it. 00:06:37.024 --> 00:06:40.545 And that's when I got to meet some awesome people like Ray 00:06:40.545 --> 00:06:41.345 Ortega. 00:06:41.345 --> 00:06:45.220 And that's when, by the way, podcasters roundtable was born, was 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:48.100 just after we all did a session together. And we were like, hey. 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:50.020 We really enjoyed working together on this. 00:06:50.020 --> 00:06:51.220 Let's do something together. 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:52.980 And there's this cool thing coming up. 00:06:52.980 --> 00:06:55.379 We could go into the historical background from that. 00:06:55.379 --> 00:06:59.060 But back to when I was meeting John Lee Dumas in John's Pizzeria, 00:06:59.284 --> 00:07:04.084 we were standing in this very cramped area waiting for our table. 00:07:04.084 --> 00:07:08.084 And as we stood with our group, John told me about the podcast he 00:07:08.084 --> 00:07:11.604 was starting. He hadn't actually started EOFire yet. 00:07:11.685 --> 00:07:15.740 And he told me that his idea was for a daily show interviewing 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:18.779 entrepreneurs, and I loved the idea. 00:07:18.860 --> 00:07:21.899 And I told him that if he could keep up the pace, and I warned 00:07:21.899 --> 00:07:24.220 him, it's going to be difficult to keep it up. 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:28.779 But if you can, it would be a unique idea and would be a great 00:07:28.779 --> 00:07:30.615 resource for entrepreneurs. 00:07:30.774 --> 00:07:34.694 I certainly didn't expect that it would be so successful for 00:07:34.694 --> 00:07:38.935 John, but that was still 3 months before his first episode 00:07:38.935 --> 00:07:41.735 published on 09/20/2012. 00:07:41.814 --> 00:07:48.389 John made it work because he worked, and he worked hard. 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:54.550 He is a driven man. It is amazing how hard he will work. 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:58.310 And if you look at successful people in any industry, you'll 00:07:58.310 --> 00:08:02.944 always see not overnight success as some people call it, but the 00:08:02.944 --> 00:08:08.225 way I like to put it is a lot of overnights before their success. 00:08:08.545 --> 00:08:13.040 They faced failures, rejections, bad ideas, and more, but most 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:16.319 importantly, they worked on their problems. 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:20.960 If you did that little, maybe painful exercise that I shared a 00:08:20.960 --> 00:08:24.080 few minutes ago, you should have a list of your own podcasting 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:28.035 problems and some root causes. Now, here's what to do. 00:08:28.115 --> 00:08:32.754 Take 1 of those and copy it to a completely new document, whether 00:08:32.754 --> 00:08:34.115 that's digital or physical. 00:08:34.115 --> 00:08:36.514 And it's important for it to be a completely new document because 00:08:36.514 --> 00:08:40.169 I don't want you distracted by the other problems that you 00:08:40.169 --> 00:08:40.809 listed. 00:08:40.809 --> 00:08:45.129 I want you focused on only this 1 problem that you've decided to 00:08:45.129 --> 00:08:45.529 work on. 00:08:45.529 --> 00:08:47.929 It could be the first thing on that list, the most important 00:08:47.929 --> 00:08:50.490 thing, the thing that you might think is the easiest to solve, 00:08:50.490 --> 00:08:53.565 whatever your criteria is for choosing which 1. 00:08:53.565 --> 00:08:57.404 You could roll a dice if you want to and see which 1 that you 00:08:57.404 --> 00:08:58.125 should pick. 00:08:58.125 --> 00:09:01.325 Whatever 1 it is that you pick, start a new document. 00:09:01.565 --> 00:09:05.404 Put the problem at the top of that document with the title, how 00:09:05.404 --> 00:09:09.389 I'm going to fix, and then however you describe that problem. 00:09:09.629 --> 00:09:14.029 And this is where you get to go crazy with positivity. 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:19.549 Write every possible idea you can imagine for solving that 00:09:19.549 --> 00:09:19.870 problem. 00:09:20.184 --> 00:09:24.184 It doesn't matter how outlandish, just document it and really 00:09:24.184 --> 00:09:28.585 push yourself to come up with at least a whole page of ideas. 00:09:28.585 --> 00:09:30.985 You might even come up with multiple pages of ideas. 00:09:31.144 --> 00:09:35.144 When you've exhausted your brainstorming creativity, pick just 1 00:09:35.144 --> 00:09:38.709 idea that excites you the most and copy it to a new page. 00:09:38.709 --> 00:09:41.509 You can keep it in the same document this time, but copy it to a 00:09:41.509 --> 00:09:45.990 new page. Then start building your strategy to try that idea. 00:09:46.070 --> 00:09:48.789 I really want you to focus on just this 1 idea. 00:09:48.789 --> 00:09:52.065 That's why I'm saying copy it to a new page, not just a sub point 00:09:52.065 --> 00:09:57.105 here in your list, but really focus on this 1 idea and start 00:09:57.105 --> 00:09:59.664 building a strategy. It could be a step like, okay. 00:09:59.664 --> 00:10:03.105 If I'm going to do this, then what's the first step I need to do? 00:10:03.184 --> 00:10:04.784 Then what's the next step after that? 00:10:04.784 --> 00:10:05.904 What's the next step after that? 00:10:06.170 --> 00:10:08.250 Maybe it's collecting resources that you need. 00:10:08.250 --> 00:10:10.330 Maybe it's building another list of things. 00:10:10.410 --> 00:10:13.370 Maybe it is talking to certain people, reaching out for help, 00:10:13.370 --> 00:10:17.690 getting some consulting, buying some resource, or investing your 00:10:17.690 --> 00:10:18.730 time in some way. 00:10:18.730 --> 00:10:23.084 Whatever it is, start building that strategy to try that idea. 00:10:23.245 --> 00:10:26.845 If you're truly investing yourself into this exercise, you'll 00:10:26.845 --> 00:10:30.044 probably notice you're not focusing on the problems anymore 00:10:30.044 --> 00:10:34.845 because you now have a big list of ideas for solving the problem, 00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:39.740 and you have the workings of a plan to try 1 of those solutions. 00:10:39.980 --> 00:10:44.620 And here is what matters most, do the work. 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:47.980 Don't just sit there with all of these creative ideas doing 00:10:47.980 --> 00:10:51.725 nothing. Actually, do something with those ideas. 00:10:51.965 --> 00:10:54.605 You might even consider sharing your strategy with your audience 00:10:54.605 --> 00:10:56.684 and inviting them along for the journey. 00:10:56.764 --> 00:11:00.285 Maybe some of them might have just the resources you need when 00:11:00.285 --> 00:11:04.769 you are specific about what you're doing to accomplish your goals 00:11:04.769 --> 00:11:07.330 or to solve some kind of problem you're facing. 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:10.690 When you've fully attempted 1 strategy, you could switch to 00:11:10.690 --> 00:11:13.090 another and see if that 1 can work for you, or maybe you've had 00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:16.129 success with 1 of these strategies so you could start over 00:11:16.129 --> 00:11:17.809 addressing a different problem. 00:11:18.125 --> 00:11:20.524 And please share your results with me. 00:11:20.524 --> 00:11:24.924 You can reach me on most social networks as the Daniel J. Lewis or 00:11:24.924 --> 00:11:28.684 send me a written or especially a voice mail feedback through 00:11:28.684 --> 00:11:31.725 podcast feedback dot com slash audacity. 00:11:31.725 --> 00:11:34.700 I would love to hear with you and celebrate your wins. 00:11:34.940 --> 00:11:37.899 And maybe if something's not working very well for you, but you 00:11:37.899 --> 00:11:40.940 had some lesson that you learned along the way, maybe I could 00:11:40.940 --> 00:11:43.419 share that with others in my audience too. 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:46.059 Know your problems, work on your problems. 00:11:46.475 --> 00:11:50.235 That's what it really comes down to. Know your problems. 00:11:50.394 --> 00:11:51.675 Work on your problems. 00:11:51.835 --> 00:11:55.675 Thanks to Brian Inspooner for streaming 604 Satoshis through a 00:11:55.675 --> 00:12:00.315 modern podcasting 2 app, and Lyceum for streaming a 146 Satoshis 00:12:00.315 --> 00:12:05.399 and then sending a thousand satoshis in a supercomment saying, 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:08.600 here is a symbolic dollar in satoshis. 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:13.320 Today, 1,000 sats equals 1 dollar and 8 cents in United States 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:15.080 dollars according to currency.world. 00:12:15.414 --> 00:12:19.335 I will bring a silver coin, 1 Troy ounce, to a conference in the 00:12:19.335 --> 00:12:21.335 future. That'd be really cool to see. 00:12:21.335 --> 00:12:24.054 And also, wow, this is really generous. 00:12:24.375 --> 00:12:29.909 $25, just a straight outright PayPal gift from Rocky Thomas who I 00:12:29.909 --> 00:12:33.509 got to meet her at Podcast Movement 20 25. That was really cool. 00:12:33.509 --> 00:12:37.669 She did a fantastic job interviewing Adam Curry on stage at 00:12:37.669 --> 00:12:39.110 Podcast Movement recently. 00:12:39.269 --> 00:12:42.309 And she is full of energy, and I love her passion for the 00:12:42.309 --> 00:12:44.504 industry. She said, hey, Daniel. Great. 00:12:44.504 --> 00:12:47.945 Quickly seeing you at Podcast Movement and really enjoy your 00:12:47.945 --> 00:12:48.425 show. 00:12:48.504 --> 00:12:51.544 You have such a soothing, intentional voice with interesting 00:12:51.544 --> 00:12:55.144 perspective. Go podcasting. Thank you so much, Rocky. 00:12:55.144 --> 00:12:56.504 That means a whole lot to me. 00:12:56.860 --> 00:13:00.700 Now the little tease I mentioned at the beginning, my new product 00:13:00.700 --> 00:13:04.540 is about to launch. It's called PodChapters. 00:13:04.700 --> 00:13:08.779 You can use it to create legacy MP3 chapters for your podcast, 00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:10.779 new podcasting 2 chapters. 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:14.514 It even exports in other formats like PodLove Simple Chapters, 00:13:14.674 --> 00:13:17.714 YouTube time stamps, and a timestamped outline. 00:13:17.875 --> 00:13:21.235 It can provide transcripts for you, help you find the chapters if 00:13:21.235 --> 00:13:25.154 you already have your outline, is something I really wanted, or 00:13:25.419 --> 00:13:28.299 you can use the AI to suggest the chapters for you. 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:31.179 And I think the AI does a much better job than many of the other 00:13:31.179 --> 00:13:34.059 AI systems out there that are trying to do chapters. 00:13:34.059 --> 00:13:37.899 But the cool thing here is this puts the chapters in the file for 00:13:37.899 --> 00:13:42.195 you in the m p 3 right there in the legacy format and podcasting 00:13:42.195 --> 00:13:44.034 2 format that you can use. 00:13:44.034 --> 00:13:46.835 There's so much more that this will be doing in the future too. 00:13:46.835 --> 00:13:49.235 I'm really excited about this. 00:13:49.315 --> 00:13:52.274 You can check it out at PodChapters.com. 00:13:52.809 --> 00:13:56.170 And as of right now, it's a waiting list. 00:13:56.250 --> 00:13:59.610 So you can sign up to join the waiting list, but maybe by the 00:13:59.610 --> 00:14:02.649 time you're hearing this episode or shortly afterward, it will be 00:14:02.649 --> 00:14:05.210 open for you to actually sign up and use it. 00:14:05.355 --> 00:14:08.154 So check it out at PodChapters.com. 00:14:08.154 --> 00:14:11.434 And if you're not interested in signing up for that product, but 00:14:11.434 --> 00:14:14.074 you love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting 00:14:14.074 --> 00:14:17.514 inspiration and education I provide, would you please consider 00:14:17.514 --> 00:14:20.235 giving back whatever you feel it's worth to you? 00:14:20.235 --> 00:14:23.330 If you feel it's worth a 100 satoshis, go ahead. 00:14:23.330 --> 00:14:27.009 If you feel it's worth 500, a thousand satoshis, or a thousand 00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:30.129 dollars or whatever you feel it's worth to you, you can do that 00:14:30.129 --> 00:14:34.769 over at theaudacitytopodcast.com/giveback or through your 00:14:34.769 --> 00:14:36.290 modern Podcasting 2.0 app. 00:14:36.534 --> 00:14:39.735 Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of 00:14:39.735 --> 00:14:41.975 the tools, even though it might have come with a little bit of 00:14:41.975 --> 00:14:45.254 pain and discomfort, but it's for the good, it's time for you to 00:14:45.254 --> 00:14:50.790 go start and grow your podcast for passion and profit. 00:14:50.790 --> 00:14:54.389 I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com. 00:14:54.470 --> 00:14:55.269 Thanks for listening.