Okay, so before we get started today and dive into all the goodness that I have to share in today's episode, I wanted to tell you about something really special. So I've been working on something behind the scenes that I think you're going to be pretty excited about because if you've ever heard me talk about my digital course profit podcasting, or my membership the Poddy People, well, you might just be interested to know that I'm creating a brand new program that smashes the two of those
together. Yes, we're taking the best pieces of profit podcasting, and the community aspect of the party people and basically we're setting it all on fire and coming in a blazing with a brand new program and I'm so excited. So to learn more, go to KrystalProffitt.com/waitlist. I don't have all the details to share with you just yet. But if you want to get notified as soon as the new program is available, then you want to get on our
waitlist. So again, go to KrystalProffitt.com/waitlist to find out all the details as soon as they're ready. Okay, let's get into today's episode.
Okay, so we're gonna talk today all about your podcast artwork. I'm gonna kind of share with you just some of the questions I've gotten over, really the last two years when it comes to podcast artwork, but one of the main ones is something that most brand new podcasters ask me every single time so we're gonna get into all of it today. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast.
I'm your host, Krystal Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Okay, y'all today, like I said, in the beginning, we are talking about your podcast artwork. And I want to be very clear, because I know a lot of you are brand new, or maybe you stumbled upon this podcast episode because we were talking about podcast artwork, and you're like, what is that? Is that what you share on social media? Is that what I see an apple podcast or what? Tell me what you're talking about. So first and foremost, right out of the gate. I wanted to define
what podcast artwork is. So whenever I say that I am specifically talking about the artwork that shows up on all the players where your podcast is listed. So if that's Apple podcasts, Google Play Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, any of those players that that image right there is your podcast artwork. Some people call it your podcast logo or your podcast cover are but for the purposes of this episode, we're going to use the
term podcast artwork. And this is very different than graphics that you share in your marketing material, or maybe something that you may use as part of your like soundbite image. This is very different. And the reason why it's very important is because this is how you brand your show. Over time, people will get to the point of seeing your image. It's really funny y'all and I'm gonna go down a little nerdy little nerdy rabbit hole for you.
But if you didn't already know this, I went to school for marketing. And we had a particular class called consumer behavior that I was obsessed with it totally makes sense why I go down different rabbit holes for like when marketing comes up and understanding your people and thinking about how like how consumers work like this was one of my favorite classes that I
ever took in college. I was just blown away by like, the psychic things that happen to just say psychic, it's not when I'm in the psychological things that happen there we go. That's the right word. That's the word I
was searching for. The psychological things that we go through whenever we're making purchasing decisions, buying decisions, or and I think about podcasting as a purchasing decision because you are spending your time right like you are spending your time your hard earned day your hard earned hour to listen to a podcast and more than likely you aren't going to explore brand new podcast that have really crappy cover art. Come on, guys. It's not like, we're not gonna do it.
And I know. And I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but we all say, we don't judge a book by its cover. But, you know, you know, you've been scrolling. You've seen other people's artwork, maybe when you're like trying to get inspiration for yourself, you're like, you know what, I don't know how I wanted to be. So I'm just gonna go look at Apple podcasts. And the ones that I've subscribed to, I'm going to see, you know, how did they format
theirs? was our textbook like, do they have shapes on there as a picture of themselves? Like all the things right? And you're judging them? You can say or not, but we all know you are. We all know it, we all know that. You probably have two or three images, even right now in your mind. You're like, oh, man, I love her artwork. And then someone else like there's a guy on the cover. And you're like, I don't really love his artwork, but I love his show. So it's okay. Like I, I will listen to
it for him. And I don't really care about his artwork, but it's okay, because he has great content. These are the things that listeners actually like, this is what happens in their mind when they're looking at your podcast artwork.
So whether you already have a podcast and you've launched it, let's pretend that you've been podcasting for six months. And you're like, Oh, you know, I don't really know what people think whenever they look at my pot, they think all of those things. They think that they either like it, or they don't. Or it's kind of like, it's okay, but I don't really, I don't listen to it. Because the artwork is phenomenal. I listen to it. Because I know the host, and I love their message. And I
don't really even care. I don't care what it says like you could literally have a stick figure in black and white on your cover art, and someone would want to listen to it because it's you. Right? So I want you to just understand from a listeners perspective of what is actually happening in their brain. And I talked about this a little bit in Episode 201. We talked about like, what are your listeners actually paying attention to their paying attention to your artwork, they really are.
And so I don't say that for those of you that haven't launched to feel all this pressure and do not want you to have oh my gosh, like Krystal is telling me like this is super, super important. I have to have this perfect before I can launch now you don't know. I changed my artwork. I had a picture. If you go back to, I'm gonna give you I'm going to tell you this in
the show notes. Okay, so KrystalProffitt.com/Episode 207, you are going to see the original image for the rookie life podcast, which is what this podcast was before I rebranded it. And now the artwork that I created for this podcast had an image of me, I was at my parents house, I knew I was gonna launch my podcast soon. And I knew that I wanted my mom because she had a really good camera like this is pre I had like an iPhone six at this point. And I don't think she had a really great iPhone
either. And we weren't really taking pictures on our phone as much as we are today. And I just remember saying like, Mom, you have a great Nikon or Canon, I remember what kind of camera she has, but I was like, Can you just take my picture? This is gonna go on like, I'm just gonna I'm gonna use it. And I have my brand colors on I had my glasses on. Would you be to know that I wear glasses to watch TV and to drive at night. It's really the
only time that I wear them. I don't have to wear them all the time. I can see up close, far away. No, Mama's gonna squint. Okay, and I have prescription sunglasses, and I wear those all the time. Okay, so yeah, it's very off brand to see that picture and you'll see it, go to the show notes, you're gonna see a picture of me wearing glasses. But I felt like I needed to wear those because it made me look smarter. I was going for that. Like, I want to look smarter.
When I have my glasses on, have my coffee, I'll be professional. Let's just get real. I was not being myself. I really wasn't I I wasn't being true to who I am. And the brand that you know and love today, right? If you've been listening to this podcast, or if this is your first time, hopefully you'll stay around for the shenanigans that I share on this, like all the episodes that are here. But if I'm being really honest, that's kind of what happened with the first go round of my artwork.
Now, to kind of segue from what I did in the beginning to the number one question that people ask me is, should I be on the cover? Should I be on my podcast artwork? And I always ask people, well, do you feel comfortable being on your podcast artwork, and they're like, well, I don't but should I be it's it's usually like that. Not, it's like they they immediately flip the question back around to me, like, I should tell them what they
should do. And I think they get frustrated, maybe this is me like being a mom of three boys, whenever they have questions to me, and I kind of like, throw it back, like no balls in your court, like, I'm gonna ask you another question. And usually, I get kind of a sense of where they're coming from. They want me to tell them, well, if you put your picture on the artwork, it's gonna get more downloads, or if you put the picture on there, people will feel more
connected to you immediately. Or if you put the picture on there, then you are just immediately going to hit the top of the charts. No, no, no, none of that is true. None of that is true. And if someone tells you they are, they're lying, you don't know, they don't know, unless somebody's like, Where's the proof? Where's the studies, like, give me the data to back it up, and then we can have
another conversation. But having your picture on your podcast does not guarantee that you're going to have this Uber successful show.
Actually, just for fun, just for fun. I'm going to pull my phone out of my phone here. So I'm going to look at some of the most the shows that I listened to most often. Okay, perfect example, one next step. And I'm going to link to all these in the show notes. So KrystalProffitt.com/Episode207. One Next Step is a podcast by the CEO and CEO of belay
solutions. They have a, like a virtual assistant company I have been, I love this podcast, I binge on all the time, they have really great recommendations for how to run the back end of your business. They do not have a picture of anybody on their cover art. None. Like there's not a single it says one next step. It's very simple, very clean. And I love it. I love this image. And I believe they have an Uber successful podcast, I love to listen to it. So let's
scroll down here. And so jen hatmaker she has for the love podcast, she has a graphic image. So it's like a logo designed it but it's it's kind of a picture of her but it's not like it's not a photograph that she took of herself and put it on the cover art buzzsprout they have the q&a, podcasting podcast, they're not on there. Brene Brown she has unlocking us with Brene Brown. She's not on there. I have the potty Report. I'm not on there. Entrepreneurs on fire john Lee Dumas he's not
on there. The reason why I'm giving you all these examples, entree leadership, there's not a person on there is because how it built this with Guy Raz. Like I'm just looking at all these like, they're just they're popping up and you're like, Oh my gosh, Krystal, you're subscribed, yes, I'm subscribed to a lot of podcasts. I'm not even gonna read them all, because we'd be here forever. Buzzcast doesn't have anybody on
their artwork. But I'm trying to give you examples of people who have very successful shows, and they are not on the cover. Oprah's super soul conversations, right? And I mean, come on, it's Oprah. She doesn't have to be on there. Everybody knows who she is. But I want to give you it's basically I'm giving you permission to not have yourself on your show, like on your artwork, if that makes you very uncomfortable. very
uncomfortable. Now, that is me being gentle with those of you who are just like, Oh, I don't know, if I want to be on there. Like I'm self conscious. Or you know, maybe, maybe in a year, whenever I know that I'm better. And I can take a better picture. Like, that's fine. It's fine. I don't like listening to all these people that are saying you have to be on your cover. You absolutely have to or your podcast is gonna fail. No, it's not true. It's not true at all.
You could start out with a picture today that you're like, I don't love it, but I got to start somewhere. So I'm going to put it out there and just like me, you can rebrand.
Now, one caveat to me even mentioning rebranding is you can't switch your cover art, like or the artwork. I keep saying don't say cover art, but it's podcast artwork, you can switch it now. But don't go flip flopping every other month. You do not need to change it because we're trying to create that consistent brand. So whatever picture you decide to go with when you launch I'm gonna recommend highly recommend you keep that for at least six months, it'd be even better to
keep it for the first year. But if you're just like I really don't like it then keep it for six months and then see if you change your mind. See if you're like, Okay, like I I really want to change I really wanted to change it for first month, but I'm gonna listen to Krystal. And I'm gonna go with what she says. Because I want you to create that consistent branding piece where people see the notification pop up on their phone. And they're like, oh,
there's a new podcast. But what if that artwork is switching all the time? And they're like, oh, like, is this a new show? Did they start a new podcast? Is it the same thing? Do I still want to listen to it, it kind of throws people off. And I don't know about you and how you operate. But I am a creature of habit like 100% creature of habit. And if you go switch and things on me all the time, I'm gonna walk away. I like stability. I like things that
are predictable. And if a podcast was changing their artwork all the time, I would be like, man, what's going on? Like, what's going on behind the scenes, like changing it up once a year or once every other year? Totally cool. But not changing. Every every month like that's don't do that. I highly recommend from a marketing standpoint, do not do that.
But this actually brings up another question that someone had is, well, shouldn't I change the artwork for all of my episodes, because if you're your buzzsprout user, and you can learn more about buzzsprout, and you can actually sign up for a 90 day free trial where listening to this episode, there's going to be a link to try them out for free. I'm an affiliate of buzzsprout. I've been using them since day one, I highly recommend them. You can go learn more about them in the
show notes. But I know on the back end, I don't know how other hosting sites do this. But on the back end in buzzsprout, you can upload specific episode cover art episode, what is it called? Hang on, I'm actually I'm a look it up. Because we're here and I have my I have my actual buzzsprout account right here. So I'm going to tell you exactly what it is for those of you that use best route. Okay, so there's episode artwork, which defaults to what your podcast artwork is. So that's
what it defaults to. Or you can choose Custom artwork that changes from episode to episode. I do not recommend that I do not because I think that it confuses your brand, it confuses your listeners. And I would much rather see you use different images on social media, right? Like, you can put a different picture out on Instagram and a different one out on Facebook.
If you look at my Facebook and Instagram, I put out different pictures all the time I put out I just recently changed the soundbite picture that I use whenever I do a soundbite in buzzsprout. So you can change the marketing aspects of your show. But we're talking about the artwork here. I'm talking about what you use and what you upload in your hosting site. Do not change that all the time. Please, please, please do not. Okay, so we covered should you be on the cover of your podcast artwork.
The other questions that I get is should my name be on the cover? Now, there are a few different approaches to this. My gut reaction is no. And the reason why is because the artwork itself like the image isn't very big. And if you have a picture of yourself or you have the graphic name on there, then it kind of can either be really small and hard to read if you put your name on there, and you don't want that you don't want someone to say, Well, I see that there's something else now I
just I can't read that. What does that say? What does that say down there? Or you have like your name shoved on there. Like let's let's imagine that your name is really long, like Mike Krystal Proffitt isn't that long. But if I were to add that, I'm looking at my artwork. Now, because I bust broad open, I'm like, I don't even know where I would put it on there. And then I'll be distracting. So I'm always a fan of cleaner images with less text and less buisiness. But that's my style.
So if that's not your style, then that's a different conversation. But I like things clean and simple and very easy to read. So if your name being added to your artwork is going to make it all jumbled and harder to read. Don't add it, please don't add it because that just if you can't read it, your audience is going to have a hard time reading it too. And you don't want that to happen.
So another question that I get about podcast artwork is when does it need to be ready? Right. So if you're launching when do actually have to have it ready? Well, you do have to have your artwork ready to be submitted when you go in to set up your
podcast settings. So you have to have this done before you can get connected to all of the places with your hosting site to like Apple podcast, Google Play, you have to have your artwork ready to go You can't submit without having that done and having at least one audio file so you do have to have it ready before you launch your podcast. So don't think like, Oh, I can set everything up and add it later. Now you have to have it before you get connected to all the places.
And the only other question I can think of that I get asked most often about artwork is, what about colors? Like should? Is it Should I just keep like one color? Because I mean, if you've listened to episodes that we've talked about here, we've had a branding episode that I'll link to in the show notes. It was all about branding your podcast. And we've talked a little bit about colors. I have specific brand colors. For my business. I had specific ones for my book, I have certain ones for my website. And I've had people ask me, well, should I use all the colors? Like, do I need all of my brand colors? No, you don't. If you just want to pick one and go with it one that pops awesome. If you just want to go with something even plainer than that. Awesome. But I don't recommend trying to shove all of your brand colors onto your podcast artwork, if they don't all jive together. And at the end of the day, if you're just like Krystal, I'm not a designer, I don't know how to do all the things that you're talking about. outsource it, outsource it. I really I feel very strongly about that. Because I feel comfortable. I've been playing around in Canva for Let me see, I think I started playing around with it like 2014 2015 like it was right when Canva really kind of hit the scene and took off like a rocket ship. So I've felt comfortable. I've been working in Canva for years. And so whenever I thought about creating my artwork, I was like, I'm just going to do it myself, I'm going to do it myself, I did have a designer design, the potty report my daily podcast, I had someone help me with that logo. And she did a phenomenal job. I love the artwork for the party report. And I just have to recommend if you don't feel comfortable with it, if you're just like this just feels really overwhelming. outsource it, outsource it to someone who knows what they're doing, because they will be able to tell you, okay, this is the design way that we should go. But you should have at least an idea in your in your head of the direction that you want to take it as the host of this show. You do need some buy in you don't just need to say yeah, just just create something cool creates in the quote because they'll come back with something that may not match your brand at all. And you will have probably wasted their time and wasted yours. So if you are going to hire somebody have at least five examples of artwork that you love, not ones that you're like, Oh, that's okay, no, go like on a rabbit hole and find five podcast cover art that you love, love, love, love. Like you're just like, Oh my gosh, I look at this and I get excited. And I'm like, I can't wait to the right gas because this is so cute. Like find those. Find five of those and then take them to your designer and say get creative. Do something like this. Do something similar to this because this is what I really
love.
But that's all I have to share with you today about podcast artwork. I want you to go to the show notes. KrystalProffitt.com/Episode 207. Go look at my original artwork. Go Go see it's not fancy you guys like I did this myself. And I don't want you thinking you have to go spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on your podcast artwork, you can always
change it in the future. I've done episodes where I've talked about Amy Porterfield has rebranded her show I've seen Rachel Hollis, she's actually rebranded her show for the third time. So it's possible to pivot once you get going, but you got to start somewhere, right? That is the motto around here is we all have to start somewhere. So just get something and make sure that you can read it when it's really really big or when it's
really really small. That is like the other thing that you have to make sure that your artwork is legible on someone's devices. But that's all I have for you today. So like I said KrystalProffitt.com/Episode 207 to check out the show notes. If this is your first time tuning in, I would love for you to subscribe to the show and leave
us a review. Tell me what your number one takeaway was from this episode or tell me what you have enjoyed listening to on this podcast or something that you want to see us talk about in the future because we have some really fun things left. Oh my gosh, I just I can't wait going into 2020-21 like we have some really cool things that I cannot wait to share with you. But as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.