Hi. This is Timothy Kim O'Brien, and this is Kyle Bondo. And you're listening to Pod Rec where we help you survive your podcast. Today's episode, 10 ways. Count them. 10 of them to podwreck your show. You're listening to the brand new podrick sponsored by Depends adult undergarments. That's right. It depends. No. It's our answer to everything that you have to ask. And tonight, we're gonna be talking about 10 ways not to screw up your podcast. Kyle, give us drum roll, please.
So our first thing is 10 ways. 10 ways. 10, 10, 10, we need 10 ways music. Pod Rec's episode of 10 ways not to, Pod Rec your podcast. So 10 ways to pod rack, Tim. There are 10 ways. You can actually, there are way more than 10. Mhmm. But we don't have time for 10. Yes. and 2 minutes each. 2 minutes, even 2 minutes each. Like a maybe a minute and a half each. Number 1, not knowing your why. Why are you podcasting?
The not knowing your why, I think, is probably the thing that a lot of people slam their podcast up against the rocks of pod wrecking. And that's because they have yet to figure out why are they even doing this. They haven't established their purpose. They don't have really a topic that they're talking about. They're kind of all over the map, and they're doing what we call winging it. Having it know why means
you don't know what your direction is. Your direction is important because it's telling you how to guide your show This includes your perspective, what side of the argument are you on. This includes your bias, what your opinion about that side of the argument, and it it also includes who your target audience is. If you don't have those 3 things going for you, and you have a problem in the y category. And you need to definitely fix that before you start because what happens is after episodes, 7:8
all the way to 13. If you don't have a y by the time you get 2 months in, you're lost. What happens to a lost ship? Plamo right on the rocks. So number 1, not knowing your why is critical. Number 2, not researching your topic because you don't know what you don't know. Researching your topic is important. because you have to understand all the arguments that you're going to make and all the counter arguments that other people other people might make. It is important that you keep yourself
informed about what's going on. Now I like to call this lurking with purpose.
You need to find these people online and learn with purpose and find out what they're talking about. What do they love? What do they hate? What do they buy? What do they do? What do they talk about when it comes to these kind of arguments? and then know which sides you're on, and then use that to do your content. But if you don't have a really vested interest in researching your topic, you're not going to know what you don't know. So research is key. Those who don't research are destined
to smash on those rocks. Then we get to number 3. Oh, Kyle's gonna let me talk this time. Cool. Alright. That's a running gag with a lot of truth. Very painful truth. So not understanding your equipment. Now how many of you have hit record 1 time when you're supposed to hit it twice? Yet the first time is to arm it, the second time is to actually do the recording. And then, you know, 3 hours later, you've lost a wonderful wonderful interview. Know that equipment.
Now, I'm not going to bring the elephant in the room. Yes, I will. The blue yeti. the blue yeti, I'm not here to slam it, but if you don't use it correctly, it sounds like a horrible horrible. I have Yeah. Okay. A minute and a half. It sounds like a horrible microphone. When the real thing is, folks, you're using it wrong. So understand how to use the equipment. You're gonna save yourself a lot of time and a lot of worry. Read the owner's manual.
I know it can be very dry, but if you suffer from insomnia like me, read the owner's manual. It'll put you to sleep. You could listen to a podcast about how to do your equipment. How to run your equipment. Oh, I don't know, like, the Audacity of the podcast. that would be a great podcast to listen to because Daniel J Lewis' voice is very soothing to me, and it has helped me learn how to do a mix minus breakdown. So make sure that you understand
how to work this wonderful equipment because you spent the money on it. You need to know how to use that. Now for my next topic, topic number 4, not seeking support or constructive criticism. Alright. So folks, I have a theater background. And 1 thing that we used to do is we used to do what's called a post mortem. Now what that was is you've done your show. And then after the show, you had all the academics,
all the actors, all the other students there, sit down and tell you what you did wrong with your show. Now, you had to sit through that and listen to that and take notes on that and you weren't allowed to defend yourself until the very end. And you got some really good criticism from that because nobody wanted to be in the hot seat. You need to put yourself in the hot seat. There are multiple ways to do this. Dave Jackson is gonna be on later.
as we all know. The Hall of Fame Dave Jackson. Dave, you owe me a hundred bucks for that. And he does a wonderful $5 show the podcast rodeo, and he will let you know what he thinks about it in the first 5 minutes of your show. You need to go ahead and do that for yourself. I don't get paid by Dave. I don't get a dollar out of that 5. But go ahead and do that for yourself because somebody other than your mom needs to listen to this show.
and to provide you the criticism that you're gonna need in order to make your show a better show. do it for yourself, do it for your audience, get that criticism. It's also a great networking tool. If you have other people,
listening to your show that are looking for the cracks in your armor, it's only gonna strengthen you. And you need to be open to that. and accept it. Some of the criticism is gonna be horrible. Some of it's gonna be great. Even Dave Jackson's criticism, some of it is horrible. but most of it is pretty dead on. So that is topic number 4. Kyle, where do we go next? Well, number 5 is not having a schedule.
And this is this is this has oh, okay. I believe now, Kyle. I can't I can't I can't be here. I gotta leave. I I got stuff to do, Kyle. No. I'm out. I'm out. Sorry. I you know, the wife is getting a hysterectomy or something. I gotta go. She I I I need to get it depends for her. And that is exactly what happens is life happens when you're podcasting. 1 of the things that that crushes podcasts a lot is you've you decided on this rigid schedule that that shelf have to have your podcast
out on Monday at 8 AM. And if it does not at 8 well, you know, 1, it's over. You might as well just forget about it. Just hang it up. Put your you know, go sell your equipment. You can go you know, just just pack it up. It's over. Not True. You can miss a week, you can miss a month. Some podcast doesn't miss 6 months, and they come back like nothing ever happened. It's okay to pause your show.
And if you think about it, having a schedule gives you an idea of what's coming next, gives you an idea of what you have planned, so you can tease it in the show you're doing now for what you're gonna do in the next show. Teasing is a good way of marketing your show because if a listener is interested in what you have to say and then they hear about a tease with that show that keeps them listening. That's important.
But heck, if you have a life event, which most of those have on a regular basis, it's okay. I have life events probably every other month. That's just the way my family rolls. So you know what? Sometimes my shows don't come out on time. And you know what? You know who notices? Nobody nobody notices. The audience is still there, and it's okay. And if you if you need reassurance, I'm telling you,
It's okay. But, you know, dive your plant. Plan your dive. You plan out your schedule, what's gonna do in advance, then dive your plant, and it's okay to skip a couple. Kyle says it's okay. Now, Tim, now we're gonna move on to number 6, which is not reaching out to your community. You know, not reaching out to your community. That's horror that that's sacrilege, Kyle. That is sacrilege.
Anyway, oh, sticky people. Yuck. Now, Kyle, we're actually reaching out to our community because we are talking at i Icon 6. I'm telling you I Other I love I love them. They're not sticky. You love everybody in the community, Kyle. I do. So we are actually speaking here at Icon 6, and we're talking to other podcasters just to remind them that, hey, You know, you probably know this kind of stuff,
but we wanna make sure that it's at the front of your head. right there, not at your back end where the depends belongs. Why? Because we wanna help you survive your podcast. Now, I run another podcast. It's an arts podcast. Guess what I like to go do, pre COVID. I like to go to art galleries, art openings, talk to people. I like to go to book fairs. I even set up a shop at a book fair and sold some of my books and talked to people about podcasting. Yes. What happened?
I got interviews that way. Now, do I get artist interviews from going to a podcast conference? a couple here and there, but my community is out there doing something. So I need to be out there with my community, with my audience, doing what they're doing, enjoying what they're enjoying. So if your podcast is about, I don't know, competitive Rubik's Cubic. Alright? Thank you, Dave Jackson. That'll be another hundred bucks, Dave.
Then you need to be out there with Rubik's cube in hand and being competitive and enjoying the crap out of it. Folks, go where your community is. yes, here in, you know, podcast conference world. It's a great thing. We're all giving hugs to each other, but get out there and join your audience. Kyle, lucky number 7 is yours. 77777. Oh, crap. tell you, not reviewing your past episodes is a problem. And why is that? Well, a lot of podcasters
have blinders on. They think about the herein now. They don't realize how far they've come, and they don't celebrate their wins. What have you learned? You'd be surprised
what you can find out by looking back in your past catalog and hearing episode 1 and what it sounds like. Some people are totally afraid to hear what they sound like way back when. But I'll tell you what you learn. You learn how much you have changed, how much you have developed as a voice, and how much your equipment has improved, how much your audio technique has improved, you don't say ummas and ahs anymore. Now you've evolved,
which like me, you say things like so and ready and awesome. I say awesome all the time. and you've learned those things, but also he also discovers a lot of other things, is when Tim and I at 1 of our meetups way back and looked at what our episodes were way way back,
way back machine. Right? We discovered that, oh my gosh, our intros were super long. We played music forever. We didn't really get to the point right away. and we thought we did, but now we're we're much more concise and we learn that and we should celebrate that. Plus on top of that, we should celebrate the fact that we have learned so much now that our show is better than it was before. And by listening those past episodes, I think you get that context.
Not only that, you can give yourself a pat on the back that you made it this far, that there is an accomplishment in getting to episode 20 5 or getting to episode 50 or getting to episode 100, you should celebrate those wins. And that is by looking to the past to see where you are in the present, to move yourself into the future. However, there are some things you shouldn't do, Tim. And number 8 is 1 of those things. and has everything to do with good old fashioned spam.
So spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Wonderful. Spam. Alright. So I have to say this as full transparency. I am 1 of the moderators for the independent podcast and conference community. The first rule of that is do not spam or promote your episodes. Do not do that because I am Iron Fist. That's what I'm known as. I am Iron Fist moderator, and I will dilute that post in a heartbeat because We are not your target audience.
When you go to a podcast conference, more likely, unless you're Hall of Fame, Dave Jackson, another hundred bucks, Dave, you're gonna buy my next microphone. You that's not your target audience. Okay? If you're doing a podcast about podcasting, okay. Yes. Okay. I understand. Got it. but anything else, we're not your audience.
Don't spam Facebook because a lot of times you're breaking the first rule that's right out there for you, and people are gonna think you're a jerk, and you're gonna get deleted. And you're not gonna pick up any listeners that way. Utilize Facebook correctly. If somebody has a question about something, answer the question. Be very generous with your knowledge. And if they a a case of point is, I was on a veteran arts program page,
and somebody had a question. I responded to it. And I was like, hey. By the way, I do a podcast about artists, and I like your stuff. Can we talk? Now, can you be on my show? Can we talk? and that turned into a wonderful episode, and I bought the piece of artwork from that lovely young lady. That's the proper way to use Facebook If you go on to independent a independent podcasters conference Facebook page and you start spamming your episodes,
I don't wanna see it. Nobody wants to see it, and I'm gonna delete that post. And guess what? All the energy that you put into that? God. Toast. You didn't get any new followers. You didn't get any new listens. you sabotaged yourself. So stop for the love of God, spamming Facebook, LinkedIn, you know, all the other stuff. The Twitter
the love of God. Stop spamming the Twitter. Okay? But we can't. We can't spam Facebook. What No. We can't do. Kyle, I'll tell you what you can do. You could spam LinkedIn. No. Don't spam LinkedIn. No. No. No. No. Have a backup plan. Okay? You're gonna be on Facebook. answer questions. If you wanna tell everybody about your stuff, grab some stickers thrown on your car. handouts, you know, handout stuff at the library or wherever you're going. Let's say you're going to you're an arts podcast.
and you're going to a art convention. Boom. Then throw all your stuff out there because everybody else is doing it in rock and roll out there. But have a backup plan. Let's say, oh, I don't know. Kyle usually likes to say this thing, but I'm gonna I'm gonna steal it from him. 2 is 1 and 1 is none. So let's say that your trusty Dusty zoomh8. Your brand new zoomh8 blows up. Well, hopefully, you have a zoomh4.
Is it back up and a Zoom h 1 has another backup because, you know what, Mister Murphy is not just Kyle's dog. Mister Murphy actually exists, and he will destroy your best laid plans. If you've got a schedule
and you have a family, which Most of us do? Alright. You're related to somebody. You just didn't pop out of thin air. Maybe you did. I don't know. If you did, get on my shelf. We'll spam Facebook together. But, no, seriously, what's gonna happen is if you have a schedule and you don't have a backup, then your whole thing is Kapolei. Alright? And that is a technical term. Kapolei. Kapolei yeah. You know what I'm trying to say there. but have that backup plan because
it's gonna get messed up. It is gonna get messed up. And, Kyle, can you finish us off, please? I can. Because number 10 is probably the most important contacting tip we can give you. Oh, definitely. Correct. You will certainly podwreck if you are not having fun. I like to connect something that you hear a lot everyone says, you should have passion. You should have passion with your podcast, which should monetize.
You should. but passion is important because to me what passion means is energy, which means you can create energy. You can create all the energy you want by really deep diving into a topic, learning everything you can about it, becoming very passionate about the topic itself, by connecting those 2 things, which means if it's energy, passion dies. It goes away.
And you're gonna have to push yourself through this messy middle part in order to get that passion back. You can let that energy die off and then be stuck with something that isn't fun anymore. And not being fun, is probably the worst waste of time you can consider. Because I'm sorry to say podcasting isn't for everybody.
If you're not having fun, it's time to fix something, to change something, to to think about what you're talking about. Maybe you need to talk about something else. Maybe you're talking about financial systems, maybe you need to talk about basket weaving. Maybe you're talking about something that just isn't exciting you in real estate. Maybe you'd be talking about things like canoes. Who knows? But these are the kind of things you really need to dig deep in and realize,
and if you're not having fun, then people who are listening to you, they're not having fun either. and they can tell if you're not having fun. If you dial this in, if you fake fun, you fake passion, man, your audience can smell that a mile away. and you're going, why won't no 1 listen to me? That might be 1 of the reasons. So consider yourself. Consider yourself 1 of those kind of things where if fun is not happening in your podcast life, it's time to reevaluate
what you're doing. And that is really how to survive your podcast and really the tagline for PodRecht. And I wanna thank you for listening to this special presentation. of our Icon 6 talk that we gave exclusively for pod rec listeners. Send us out to them. What's your left final thoughts? Well, I just wanna let everyone know that they've got this exclusive 1 here. Now, yes, we're gonna be talking in icon 6. but you you get it before everybody at Icon 6 does. And you get the fun version.
They get the professional license, slick version, and all that kind of good stuff. You get the fun version. and you wanna know why you get the fun version because you sit here week after week listening to us, and we definitely appreciate that. And 1 of the best things that you can do You can do this. I believe in you. You can go to gagapod.com. You can go to more importantly, pod rack.com,
because gabapods are network. So you go to pod rack.com, smash that Patreon button, and give what you can because Lord knows we need more coffee. Cliff, thank you for the coffee. The rest of you we need more coffee. I had to go buy some coffee. And this is the first time in, like, 2 months that I've had to go buy coffee. So go out there, smile at the Patreon button. Well, it's real. That's that's a true thing. I think, Kyle, you gotta go get some coffee.
So if I could help me, to help you, to help Kyle not raid my fridge and get my coffee. Okay? Just just do that and go to pod rack.com. Smash that Patreon button. Thank you so much. I'm gonna let Kyle have the last word. Oh, the last word. Is that possible? Is Kyle never shut up. Kyle never shut up. So the last word is kind of a that's a that's a misnomer. But, again, just like Tim Sand. Totally appreciate you for being here. If you have any questions, email us at pod rack@gmail.com.
Also, if you would wanna listen to our past episodes, by all means, subscribe wherever you get a podcast, But if you wanna listen to them or find our show notes and everything, everything is at oddrec.com. That's where all the good stuff is. And
I'm I think I'm probably gonna put our slides for icon 6 in the show notes. So you're gonna have not only a sneak peek to what our pockets about, I'm gonna show you our slides too. And on top of that, I'm gonna give you a special link that's gonna give you access to some of our goodies we have heighten in the in the gaggle pod space, which is like show design things and different kind of forms you can use to help you design a new podcast if you're still kinda struggling or some of the talks that we've given to help you refine what podcasts you are working on right now. Thank you very much for listening, and we hope you survive your podcast.
Take care. Tonight's episode is brought to you by Depends. That's where it depends under garments, adult under garments. Not only are they for you when you need to go, but we're here for you when you don't. Well, that's a load. So hashtag math. That's why we do our friends. That's right. Arc for those who couldn't do math, but we're good at colors. I feel strong about it. I feel strong.
Are we done? Are we done? Dude, are we done? Was that the end? That I've dude, that's the end, man. You weren't supposed to keep track. That's the end. That's the end? No. That's it, dude. That I I I got the notes right here. It says, hang on. This is the end. word. This is the end. The My beautiful friend. The end. This podcast is part of the Gagapod network. Find more podcasts like this at gagapod.com.