WEBVTT 00:00:00.399 --> 00:00:03.999 Ask your audience these 3 questions in 2026. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:13.039 Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast. 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:14.080 I'm Daniel J. Lewis. 00:00:14.205 --> 00:00:17.484 Surveying your audience doesn't have to be a complicated matter. 00:00:17.565 --> 00:00:20.605 Moving into a new year, at least at the time of this recording, 00:00:20.684 --> 00:00:24.765 here are the 3 most important questions I recommend you ask your 00:00:24.765 --> 00:00:25.324 audience. 00:00:25.404 --> 00:00:28.765 And you don't need a fancy form or survey system for this. 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:33.579 Simply ask your audience and provide an easy way for them to 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:37.820 respond, such as by email or voice mail, a contact form, a social 00:00:37.820 --> 00:00:41.579 post, a comment on your website or Facebook group or community 00:00:41.579 --> 00:00:42.140 and such. 00:00:42.825 --> 00:00:46.824 For example, you could use Podgagement's podcastfeedback.com 00:00:46.824 --> 00:00:50.024 feature to collect written or voice mail feedback from your 00:00:50.024 --> 00:00:51.784 audience, and that could be really easy. 00:00:51.784 --> 00:00:55.784 It doesn't have to be this whole complicated thing of setting up 00:00:55.784 --> 00:00:59.189 a form plug in on your WordPress website and then building a 00:00:59.189 --> 00:01:00.229 whole survey out. 00:01:00.229 --> 00:01:04.950 It could simply be asking your audience these 3 questions and 00:01:04.950 --> 00:01:08.229 telling them how they can then send that feedback with their 00:01:08.229 --> 00:01:10.165 answers. So here are the 3 questions. 00:01:10.165 --> 00:01:13.045 If you'd like to follow along in the notes for this episode, they 00:01:13.045 --> 00:01:16.084 are a simple tap or swipe away or go to the 00:01:16.084 --> 00:01:20.084 audacitytopodcast.com/ 3 questions. 00:01:20.405 --> 00:01:27.040 Number 1, what would you like more of from me or my podcast? 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:30.959 Or you could say us or our podcast if it's multiple people. 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.519 This starts off with something positive. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:38.424 This question assumes they already like you and your podcast, and 00:01:38.424 --> 00:01:42.424 you're looking for additional content they want from you because 00:01:42.424 --> 00:01:44.825 they already like what they're getting from you, and maybe 00:01:44.825 --> 00:01:47.064 there's something more that they want from you. 00:01:47.225 --> 00:01:51.319 Anything your audience says could be a potential episode, a mini 00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:51.799 series. 00:01:51.799 --> 00:01:54.920 It could be some kind of extra value that you provide through a 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:56.439 community or something else. 00:01:56.439 --> 00:02:00.119 It could be a product or a service that you create and sell or 00:02:00.119 --> 00:02:01.479 some other opportunity. 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:04.519 For example, you might have an interview based podcast and your 00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:08.625 audience might ask to hear more from only you. 00:02:08.784 --> 00:02:12.305 Or maybe they give you some topics they would love to hear you 00:02:12.305 --> 00:02:15.985 cover in future episodes. Question number 2. 00:02:16.064 --> 00:02:21.040 What would you like less of from me slash us or my slash our 00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:21.920 podcast? 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:26.800 Again, you can assume your responding audience already respects 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:30.719 you to some degree if they're taking the time to respond to your 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:31.040 questions. 00:02:31.694 --> 00:02:35.615 So while it may sting a little to learn the things they want you 00:02:35.615 --> 00:02:40.735 to do less, take it as constructive criticism from people who 00:02:40.735 --> 00:02:44.175 care. Maybe they want less packed into each episode. 00:02:44.449 --> 00:02:47.409 Maybe they want less of a particular subject you frequently 00:02:47.409 --> 00:02:48.050 mention. 00:02:48.129 --> 00:02:51.250 Maybe they don't like a new thing you've added to your podcast. 00:02:51.489 --> 00:02:56.770 And even for anything that they say they want less of, try to 00:02:56.849 --> 00:02:59.650 understand what they're really looking for here. 00:02:59.974 --> 00:03:02.935 For example, with this, I kind of alluded to it a little bit just 00:03:02.935 --> 00:03:06.694 now, but if they say your episodes are too long, I'd really like 00:03:06.694 --> 00:03:08.055 it if they're shorter. 00:03:08.215 --> 00:03:11.254 Well, maybe they're not actually talking about the length of the 00:03:11.254 --> 00:03:11.655 episode. 00:03:12.099 --> 00:03:14.740 Maybe they're really expressing that what you're putting in the 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:16.659 episode is just too boring. 00:03:16.740 --> 00:03:21.379 Or maybe you're trying to pack too much into an episode, and if 00:03:21.379 --> 00:03:24.900 you reduce how much you're trying to include in the episode, yes, 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:28.384 that shortens the length, but it also simplifies the episode and 00:03:28.384 --> 00:03:32.064 maybe simplifies the take home value that they get from it and 00:03:32.064 --> 00:03:35.185 the actionable steps that they might implement or whatever it is 00:03:35.185 --> 00:03:36.865 that they're getting from your podcast. 00:03:37.104 --> 00:03:39.425 You've likely heard the adage less is more. 00:03:39.860 --> 00:03:42.659 Keep that in mind when your audience is telling you they want 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:46.340 less of something because it might actually mean they want more 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:49.700 of you in some way, but less of something else. 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:53.139 And it might actually present more opportunities for you to 00:03:53.139 --> 00:03:58.254 engage deeper or share more of what your audience does want from 00:03:58.254 --> 00:03:59.694 you and your podcast. 00:03:59.775 --> 00:04:02.254 So they're not saying they want less of you. 00:04:02.335 --> 00:04:04.815 They just want less of a particular thing. 00:04:05.055 --> 00:04:08.969 Question number 3, what do you want to tell me slash us that's 00:04:08.969 --> 00:04:09.930 been on your mind? 00:04:10.090 --> 00:04:13.370 This is the catch all question, but I like the wording because it 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:16.170 implies there might be something that they've wanted to share for 00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:19.290 a while but maybe didn't think you'd be open hearing. 00:04:19.290 --> 00:04:22.730 You could get positive or negative feedback from this question, 00:04:23.044 --> 00:04:25.044 but it is very open ended. 00:04:25.044 --> 00:04:28.404 All of 3 of these questions are open ended, but especially this 00:04:28.404 --> 00:04:32.004 1, while it still leads them in that direction of there's been 00:04:32.004 --> 00:04:36.004 something on your mind, and I would like to hear that question. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.680 But keep the assumption that your responding audience is sharing 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.639 this because they care. 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.400 Then after you've asked these 3 questions and you start getting 00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:50.254 feedback from your audience responding to these 3 questions, Your 00:04:50.254 --> 00:04:56.014 responsibility is then for you to turn these into to dos and take 00:04:56.014 --> 00:04:56.814 action. 00:04:57.055 --> 00:05:01.375 The worst thing you can do with solicited feedback is nothing. 00:05:01.535 --> 00:05:05.509 Even if some feedback suggests something that you really don't 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:09.430 want to change, the least you can do is thank that person for 00:05:09.430 --> 00:05:12.629 their response, acknowledge the value of their opinion and the 00:05:12.629 --> 00:05:15.845 time that they took to share it with you, and be respectfully 00:05:15.845 --> 00:05:19.285 honest about what you're willing or not willing to do. 00:05:19.525 --> 00:05:22.884 I remember for the TV show fan podcast I had about the TV show 00:05:22.884 --> 00:05:26.485 Once Upon a Time, we went really in-depth on that. 00:05:26.485 --> 00:05:30.529 So the TV show episodes were in an hour slot on TV, which means 00:05:30.529 --> 00:05:33.490 they're really about 43 minutes after you remove the commercials. 00:05:33.569 --> 00:05:38.290 And some of our podcast episodes would go 2 to 3 hours long 00:05:38.290 --> 00:05:40.449 discussing 1 episode of the show. 00:05:40.610 --> 00:05:44.295 A couple of people sent in some feedback saying, your episodes 00:05:44.295 --> 00:05:45.254 are really long. 00:05:45.254 --> 00:05:49.014 I wish they were a lot shorter, like 20 minutes or so. 00:05:49.335 --> 00:05:54.375 And the thing is, well, we did do a short form episode, which was 00:05:54.375 --> 00:05:55.335 initial reactions. 00:05:55.335 --> 00:05:58.230 But the whole reason we had the long episodes was because there 00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:00.069 was so much to talk about sometimes. 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:04.790 And the understanding that I had is, well, our podcast is 00:06:04.790 --> 00:06:06.310 obviously not for you. 00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:09.685 If you don't want us to go this in-depth, 1 person actually, and 00:06:09.685 --> 00:06:12.245 this was in a podcast review that they left for our show. 00:06:12.324 --> 00:06:16.084 They said, oh, I love that they go so in-depth, and they catch 00:06:16.084 --> 00:06:19.205 things I would have never noticed before, but I wish the episodes 00:06:19.205 --> 00:06:21.845 were shorter. What how do you do that? 00:06:22.084 --> 00:06:26.620 How do you go as in-depth, but keep the episodes super short 00:06:26.620 --> 00:06:29.420 without trying to speak super quickly or brushing over everything 00:06:29.420 --> 00:06:31.899 with only a couple of sentences per subject? 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:33.020 That just doesn't work. 00:06:33.020 --> 00:06:37.514 So, obviously, it was easy to understand that we appreciate the 00:06:37.514 --> 00:06:38.154 feedback. 00:06:38.475 --> 00:06:42.235 And clearly, this is not the kind of podcast maybe that you're 00:06:42.235 --> 00:06:44.634 wanting most. If you enjoy us, that's great. 00:06:44.634 --> 00:06:46.154 We'd love to have you stick around. 00:06:46.394 --> 00:06:50.634 And it sounds like you might also enjoy other podcasts that do 00:06:50.634 --> 00:06:51.914 things completely differently. 00:06:52.159 --> 00:06:55.919 But no matter what, remember that just because a tiny portion of 00:06:55.919 --> 00:06:59.839 your audience says something doesn't mean you should or should 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:01.120 not do it. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:05.475 I've heard people alienate a majority of their audience because 00:07:05.475 --> 00:07:09.954 of what the very small minority of their audience said, even when 00:07:09.954 --> 00:07:12.915 what the audience said was positive. 00:07:13.314 --> 00:07:16.274 Like, oh, I love it when you do this thing. 00:07:16.274 --> 00:07:19.154 I would like it if you would do that thing more often. 00:07:19.314 --> 00:07:21.720 And then the podcaster thinks, they like that. 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:23.319 I should do that thing more often. 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:25.639 And they do it more often, and then the majority of their 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:28.120 audience is like, no. That's too much. 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:30.519 We don't want you to do that thing that often. 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:34.875 So you have to take these things with several grains of salt at 00:07:34.875 --> 00:07:36.154 this rate with inflation. 00:07:36.235 --> 00:07:38.875 So here's where I want you to take some action. 00:07:38.954 --> 00:07:43.435 I want to hear your thoughts about The Audacity to Podcast. 00:07:43.594 --> 00:07:48.420 I would love for you to answer these same questions from me and 00:07:48.420 --> 00:07:49.540 my podcast. 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:53.620 Those questions are, number 1, what would you like more of from 00:07:53.620 --> 00:07:55.620 me or The Audacity to Podcast? 00:07:55.620 --> 00:07:59.980 Number 2, what would you like less of from me or The Audacity to 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:00.259 Podcast? 00:08:00.564 --> 00:08:04.004 And number 3, what do you want to tell me that's been on your 00:08:04.004 --> 00:08:06.004 mind? I'd love to hear from you. 00:08:06.004 --> 00:08:10.644 You can go to podcastfeedback.com/audacity to send your feedback 00:08:10.644 --> 00:08:13.970 written or voice mail right there from the site, and that will 00:08:13.970 --> 00:08:17.170 email it to me right away, even transcribing your voice mail if 00:08:17.170 --> 00:08:17.970 you include it. 00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:21.250 And if you send a voice mail, it really helps if you speak any 00:08:21.250 --> 00:08:24.930 kind of URL, type it in that message box that still appears when 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:27.410 you're sending a voice mail because that gives me the extra 00:08:27.410 --> 00:08:31.415 context and helps me to be able to link back to you if I include 00:08:31.415 --> 00:08:33.975 your voicemail in a future episode in some way. 00:08:33.975 --> 00:08:35.735 So you get some love back that way. 00:08:35.735 --> 00:08:39.095 And that extra context is available because of how I've made 00:08:39.095 --> 00:08:41.769 Podgagement to be able to do that. And that's the thing. 00:08:41.769 --> 00:08:44.170 There have been voice mail systems out there long before 00:08:44.170 --> 00:08:48.170 Podgagement came along, but it would be like, you could only do a 00:08:48.170 --> 00:08:48.730 voice mail. 00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:51.129 You couldn't add anything else except an email address. 00:08:51.129 --> 00:08:55.704 So if someone was talking very slowly and then got to their web 00:08:55.704 --> 00:08:59.625 address instead, the audacitypodcast.com, and then you might be 00:08:59.625 --> 00:09:02.584 like, wait. What what did you just say? I didn't get that. 00:09:02.584 --> 00:09:05.784 And how do I even spell that thing that you just said? 00:09:05.944 --> 00:09:10.200 Well, that's where the message box still applies so you can add 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:13.399 some extra written context in there or your audience can. 00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:16.919 So it's very easy for then you as the podcaster to see, oh, 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:20.440 that's the URL that they mentioned or that's how that thing is 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:20.759 spelled. 00:09:21.065 --> 00:09:24.584 Or sometimes people will say something in a recording, and then 00:09:24.584 --> 00:09:27.384 after they've pressed stop, they realized, oh, I forgot to 00:09:27.384 --> 00:09:30.504 mention this thing, so they can add that in that message. 00:09:30.664 --> 00:09:34.430 And then when you share that in your podcast, you can incorporate 00:09:34.430 --> 00:09:37.070 that into how you include their message. 00:09:37.070 --> 00:09:40.750 And I would do the same thing here if you send a response to 00:09:40.750 --> 00:09:44.910 these 3 questions to me at podcast feedback dot com slash 00:09:44.910 --> 00:09:45.550 audacity. 00:09:45.550 --> 00:09:48.190 And that's powered with Podgagement, which I would love for you 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:48.430 to do. 00:09:48.754 --> 00:09:53.875 And maybe by you doing this about me and my podcast, you're doing 00:09:53.875 --> 00:09:56.995 this yourself will help you feel better about the kinds of 00:09:56.995 --> 00:10:01.315 responses that you might get from your own audience when you ask 00:10:01.315 --> 00:10:02.434 them these 3 questions. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:04.799 And you can send these questions through email. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:06.240 You could ask them in your podcast. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:09.200 You could post them in social. Really, do all of that. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:12.559 Post it in all of the places that you have an audience related to 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:15.679 your podcast, but especially ask in your podcast. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:17.975 It could be your call to action. Instead of, hey. 00:10:17.975 --> 00:10:20.455 Give us a rating review or share the episode. 00:10:20.455 --> 00:10:21.894 It might be something like, hey. 00:10:21.894 --> 00:10:24.934 For this month, what we'd really love for you to do is please 00:10:24.934 --> 00:10:28.054 answer these basic 3 questions for us, and then you give them an 00:10:28.054 --> 00:10:29.975 easy way to send that feedback to you. 00:10:30.339 --> 00:10:34.419 And speaking of feedback, I appreciate the value feedback given 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:39.620 by Brian Insmeter from toptieraudio.com, who gave 1,363 total 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:43.059 Satoshis for my previous couple of episodes, and those were 00:10:43.059 --> 00:10:45.700 streamed automatically as he was listening to those episodes. 00:10:45.855 --> 00:10:47.455 I really appreciate that. 00:10:47.534 --> 00:10:51.454 Also, thanks to the upcoming couple of podcasters who invited me 00:10:51.454 --> 00:10:56.334 to speak on their podcast about Podcast Chapters and my new Pod 00:10:56.334 --> 00:10:57.934 Chapters app that I made. 00:10:58.014 --> 00:11:01.019 And these are other podcasts about podcasting that will be a 00:11:01.019 --> 00:11:03.899 delight to talk with them because I love talking about podcasting 00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:04.860 with anybody. 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:07.580 And especially to talk about this thing I'm so passionate about 00:11:07.580 --> 00:11:12.220 pod chapters and how that helps you and other podcasters make 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:15.394 better podcast chapters, even better than the ones that you get 00:11:15.394 --> 00:11:17.875 from Apple. And here's what's really cool with it. 00:11:17.875 --> 00:11:20.915 Now with the new Apple feature, you can actually download the 00:11:20.915 --> 00:11:25.955 chapters from Apple in a text file, and you can upload that into 00:11:25.955 --> 00:11:26.674 PodChapters. 00:11:26.899 --> 00:11:31.460 So it immediately converts it into podcasting 2 chapters and m p 00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:33.540 3 embedded chapters for you. 00:11:33.620 --> 00:11:36.980 You don't have to do any kind of fancy conversion or anything 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:37.379 like that. 00:11:37.379 --> 00:11:40.500 It's doing it for you, or you can use the AI tools to make the 00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:41.139 chapters for you. 00:11:41.404 --> 00:11:45.325 I'll be talking more about those 2 podcasts and the episodes 00:11:45.325 --> 00:11:47.965 after we've recorded those episodes because I definitely want to 00:11:47.965 --> 00:11:50.205 give a shout out and let you hear those episodes when they're 00:11:50.205 --> 00:11:50.764 available. 00:11:50.764 --> 00:11:54.044 So that's why I'm not saying the names of the podcast yet until 00:11:54.044 --> 00:11:55.965 we've actually recorded some episodes. 00:11:56.490 --> 00:11:59.690 So what I would love for you to do, although there are lots of 00:11:59.690 --> 00:12:03.129 things I've mentioned, the main thing I would love is for you to 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:06.730 send me your answers to these 3 questions for my podcast. 00:12:06.730 --> 00:12:09.289 What would you like more of? What would you like less of? 00:12:09.289 --> 00:12:10.570 And what else do you want to tell me? 00:12:10.774 --> 00:12:15.335 Send your feedback to podcast feedback dot com slash audacity. 00:12:15.335 --> 00:12:17.975 Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of 00:12:17.975 --> 00:12:20.934 the tools, it's time for you to go start and grow your own 00:12:20.934 --> 00:12:24.379 podcast for passion and profit. I'm Daniel J. 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:28.940 Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com and the Daniel J. Lewis on X. 00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:29.899 Thanks for listening.