Speaker 0: Avoid these 5 common mistakes that new podcasters make.
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
No matter where you are in your podcasting journey, it's possible
to make 1 of these podcasting mistakes, whether launching or even
recording your next episode.
Even if you've been podcasting for 10, 15, 20 years, you could
still fall into making 1 or multiple of these mistakes.
Especially if you're looking to start your first podcast, start
it outright and avoid these mistakes before you start.
Here we go. Number 1, striving for perfect.
This plays out in a few ways.
First, we often think about perfection and the curse of
perfection.
We try to have the perfect sounding audio, the perfect podcast,
the perfect presentation.
We try to edit ourselves to absolute perfection, editing out any
kind of or or a pause that's even a microsecond too long.
And sometimes we strive so hard for perfection that it ends up
sounding artificial because it is.
You might not actually sound that way when you're speaking.
I'm not saying leave in every single mistake because that's the
authentic you as some people might put it.
Still try to edit out the mistakes, try to present something that
sounds great, but it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect.
We also strive for perfect in some of the options that we're
considering for things.
The perfect microphone, the perfect camera, the perfect lighting,
the perfect backdrop, the perfect website theme, the perfect
podcast hosting provider, the perfect this or that podcasting
tool.
I fell into this even just recently as I finally, after nearly 15
years, upgraded the camera that I've been using for recording my
podcast, which I'm still not doing anything with the videos that
I've been recording lately, but I will someday soon.
Thanks to this new camera that I feel a lot more confident with
this new camera and some of the things that can do for me better
than the old camera could.
I've been using a Canon T4i digital SLR camera for 15 years.
And that works great for recording videos and for taking
pictures.
It doesn't work great for streaming video or connecting that
video in any way to my computer.
Believe me, I have tried everything.
I even installed Magic Lantern and got just the perfect version
to be able to do a clean HDMI out and got an HDMI capture device
for my computer and tried to connect these things together.
And it looked pretty good, but still had some major problems to
it. And I realized I need to upgrade.
And 1 of the cameras that I've been looking at, the Sony ZV E10
Mark 2 went on sale.
And it was a 1 day sale, and it hasn't been that sale price in
more than a year. And it's the best price it's ever been.
It's never been lower than this price.
And it was this price only 1 other time that I could see in its
entire history of being released.
So I knew this was a good price. I needed to snag that deal.
And I did.
But even with the camera literally in my hand, I was still second
guessing my choice because I was thinking, is this really the
perfect camera?
Now I know I can't afford the best camera out there that's
multiple thousands of dollars, but there was another camera that
is really good, especially for its price.
The Sony a 6,700 does a lot more than my ZV E10 Mark II can do,
and it does certain things better.
And it has things like in body image stabilization. Oh.
And it has other things to it that are also nicer than the camera
that I ended up getting.
And that to me was a different level of perfect.
And even though I'd already purchased the camera and already got
a good deal, I was still thinking and even still watching videos
comparing the camera I got with the other camera I wanted.
And here's what it came down to for me.
And you can try and apply similar thinking if you're facing a
similar situation where you're torn between trying to get
something that's quote perfect, unquote.
I looked at the ZV E10 Mark II and what I paid for it.
And I looked at the a 6,700 and what it's currently selling for.
It would cost 60% more to get the 6,700.
Would I get 60% more benefit from it? No.
In fact, some of the features that it has that the camera I got
don't have like the in body image stabilization, I might not
never actually need.
Because in the years that I've had my DSLR, it's been very rare
that I've taken it off the tripod.
Even when I've taken it to conventions like CES, NAB Show,
Podcast Movement, such, and recorded on-site video interviews
there, even then, the camera was on a tripod, so it didn't need
image stabilization of any sort.
So the camera that I got doesn't have any kind of in body image
stabilization, but it does take very good videos, especially
beautiful videos with a lens that I happen to get for a great
deal on a beautiful lens.
I thought there was something wrong with the lens based on how
low of a price they were asking for, but I got a fantastic deal
on it. I thoroughly checked it out, and it's it's great.
It's beautiful.
At some point, follow me over on YouTube, the audacity to
podcast.com/youtube, as I will at some point get back to making
some videos here and there.
And this camera was 1 of those things that I needed to help me
with that because there's a very simple thing that the camera can
do that I really wanted to be able to do some videos again.
Cause I didn't want to have a separate video studio like I've had
in the past.
I just want to have my 1 place where I sit down and record audio
and video, have a great camera for that and be able to show
products very easily by just holding up a product to the camera
and having autofocus really well. This camera does that.
This camera also does 4 k and some of the really nice stuff too.
It's a great camera. It's not perfect, but it is very good.
And I can't afford the 1 I really, really wanted.
And I was very tempted to think, well, as long as I'm spending
this much, maybe I should just go ahead and spend 60% more and
get this other camera.
But I had to remind myself, I actually didn't plan to spend money
at all on a camera yet. But I saw this great deal.
I knew that if it went on sale, I wanted to get it.
I knew it was a good sale. So I took action.
You might feel this way about your microphone.
I saw this in a podcasting subreddit group where someone was
asking, should I get the Samsung q 2 u for $70 or should I get I
think they were saying the Shure MV 7 or maybe the MV 7 x for
more than twice the price.
And you have to first think how much money you even have to
spend.
If you only have $70, well, that should make the decision very
easy. Get what you can get for $70.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
It doesn't have to be a 300 or 400 or $500 microphone.
Your audience might not even know the difference, especially if
they never hear you use both microphones in the same episode.
Even if you switch microphones between episodes, they might not
even notice the difference.
Now if you're going from super cheap microphone to something
better like a q 2 u or an ATR 2,100 x USB, if you can even get 1
of those since they've been ironically and and really weirdly
discontinued as great as of a microphone that is, but your
audience might not know the difference.
We could strive for perfect in the perfect podcast hosting
provider, the perfect website theme, the perfect this or that
podcasting tool. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Even if you have the perfect tools, if that was even possible,
that doesn't mean your podcast episodes are going to be perfect
because you are not perfect. You never will be perfect.
Strive for excellence.
Don't strive for perfection because we'll never reach perfection
in this life.
And even when it comes to certain tools, there is not a perfect
tool.
And I know we can be so tempted by trying to find the perfect
tool.
That can come into play with AI tools, like which model is the
best? Is it Opus? Is it Sona? Is it GPT? Is it Gemini?
That stuff is going to go back and forth for years to come.
And it's about what works best for your needs.
And when I see people ask, what's the best podcast hosting
provider? I try to find out what are their actual needs.
And there are a few I recommend.
There is not 1 single podcast hosting provider I recommend to
everyone because I recognize that people's needs are different.
So if you need this, then this provider is best.
If you need that, then that provider is best.
But maybe you don't need those certain features.
So don't strive for the perfect choice, the perfect podcasting
tool, or even perfection in what you're doing to try to edit it
to absolute perfection because that might not even sound good if
you manage to try and get it there.
Even stuff like noise removal.
I remember many years ago, I think my first time at CES, the
Consumer Electronics Show, something was messed up about the way
that the camera or the microphone were working with each other,
and the audio was recorded with a lot of noise in it.
I could run that audio through noise processing tools that were
available back then.
This was 10 years ago, more than 10 years ago.
So the tools weren't as good back then, but they were still
pretty good.
I could run it through those tools and completely eliminate the
background noise. Perfect. Right? Wrong.
It eliminated so much noise that it even affected how well you
could hear the speaking.
The part that was most important for people to hear removing the
noise completely and dare I say perfectly then messed up other
aspects of it. So don't strive for perfect.
I spent the most time on this point because I think this is the
thing that can affect all of us the most is that at any point,
just like I was facing this with a camera, and I've been
podcasting for almost 20 years, and I was still falling into a
trap of trying to strive for the perfect camera, even the perfect
camera that I can afford or the perfect lens I can afford.
Don't strive for perfect. Strive for excellence, not perfection.
Number 2 mistake that new podcasters make or podcasters might
make this at any point in their podcasting journey, doing too
much.
When I started my TV show fan podcast about the TV show Once Upon
a Time, I started trying to do too much.
I had these big grandiose plans.
I want to interview every cast member of the show.
I want us to be podcasting every week even during the hiatus.
I want to do this and that and do live video and do all of these
things. And you might think that too.
And right now, there is this obsession with video where everyone
is saying, oh, video podcasting is making a huge comeback.
The definition of that aside, there is all of this pressure, and
maybe you even feel it yourself to video, video, video, video,
video, video, video. You have to be doing video.
You have to be on YouTube.
You have to be doing all of this video with this high production
value, multiple cameras, and this perfect looking set and all of
this stuff. No. You don't have to do all of that.
You don't have to do everything people say they think you should
do. Don't try to do too much.
Even if simply live streaming is too much for you, don't try and
do it.
At some point, yes, you can add that and learn how to do that and
mix that in with what you're already doing as you grow.
But don't try to do too much when you're starting out.
Or maybe you're feeling overwhelmed already with how long you've
been podcasting and all of the new things that everyone is
saying, you need to be doing this.
And you might feel like, that's just too much for me to do.
Then don't do it.
I give you permission to not do that thing that is too much for
you to do.
Right now for me, yes, even though I've got a brand new camera
that looks great, and I recommend that you follow me over on
YouTube for when I do publish some videos over there, the
audacity to podcast.com/youtube.
Right now, even though I am recording and I have been for the
last few months recording videos of each of these audio episodes,
and I'm looking into a camera when I record the videos and I have
my notes in front of me, even though I've been doing that and my
lights are on and everything, the videos look great.
I've not done anything with those videos yet.
I did some little experimenting last year, but haven't really
done much with the video since then.
Because to me, right now, it just feels like too much.
While I'm a full time dad, single, homeschooling my son, and
running a business, then trying to edit video on top of that, I
can't afford to pay someone else to edit the video for me, and I
really can't afford the time and energy to edit the videos
myself.
So I've just been recording the videos and not doing anything
with them yet because it would just be too much for me at this
point.
Now with a brand new camera and what this new camera will enable
me to do, maybe that will allow me to do some more video stuff
separate from the audio podcast in the future.
But please don't fall into this trap of trying to do too much
with your podcast. Simplify things.
Maybe even for your individual episodes, you might be trying to
squeeze too much into that episode.
For this episode, I want to have an interview.
I want to have a monologue.
I want to have a dialogue with my audience.
I want to answer q and a.
I want to do this and that and this and that and that and this
and all of this stuff that you're loading into your episode, and
it could be just way too much.
Split that stuff out if you want to.
Maybe you do a monologue in a separate episode.
Even though it's the same subject as your interview was about,
maybe you separate those 2 things, and that can have its own
strengths to it.
Don't try to do too much with your podcast, whether you're
starting out and trying to plan what you do or you're planning
your next episode for a podcast you've been doing for years.
Don't try to do too much. Number 3, starting without a plan.
Whether you're starting your first podcast or even your next
episode, have a plan of some sort.
Unless you are extremely experienced in the art of communication
and public speaking and presenting an idea and teaching, don't
just sit down to the microphone and try to wing it.
The best content will always have a plan behind it in some sort.
Many people have quoted this and I don't know where it originally
came from, but failing to plan is planning to fail.
That really does apply.
Now that doesn't mean that if you don't have a plan, your podcast
is going to be an utter failure, but I don't think it's going to
be as successful as it could be without a plan.
What does that plan look like?
Well, it depends on what the context is for your plan.
I do recommend that you have a general idea of where you want to
go both for your podcast as a whole, like whom you want to serve,
what kind of content you want to put out there, what you want to
be known for, but also for your individual episodes.
What is the takeaway that you want your audience to get from
this?
Even if your podcast is focused on entertaining your audience,
well, that's part of your plan.
How are you going to go about entertaining them?
How are you going to get them to laugh?
What stories are you going to share or jokes are you going to
tell or interesting things are you going to pull out to entertain
your audience? Have a plan.
Even if you don't completely follow that plan or you ad lib along
the way, that's fine to do, but start with a plan.
I've changed something about how I do episodes of The Audacity to
Podcast for the last 6 or 7 episodes or so.
And a couple of people have picked up on something I've changed,
and they are correct in their suspicions.
And I'm curious if you've picked it up too.
Reach out to me, any of my channels on x or anywhere I am as the
Daniel J.
Lewis, or even just email feedback at The Audacity to Podcast dot
com.
Let me know if you can tell what I've been doing differently.
But every episode I've done for years always has some level of a
plan.
Even though I know I could, at this point, I feel very
comfortable just sitting down and talking about any aspect of
podcasting, and I can do that for hours.
And I have done that for hours, but it's always been with a plan.
And even if I want to record an episode and I have only a few
minutes, I'll spend those few minutes to make a good plan for
what I want the episode to cover.
Even a a simple basic outline, that could be your plan.
Number 4, obsessing over the quote launch unquote.
This is the other side of the plan where you might go too far and
you're starting to think, oh, I want launch day to be this.
I have to have this many episodes, and they have to have this
specific thing.
I need to make this really big splash when I launch my podcast.
It is fun to have a big launch, to have that whole thing to say,
we're now available.
Everyone go listen today because today is the day you can listen
to it or build up that hype, that momentum, put out that trailer,
that teaser, whatever it is.
Build up the engagement ahead of time, the anticipation for your
episode. That is fantastic to do.
Don't obsess over that, but also realize that the size and impact
of your launch doesn't actually have a direct correlation with
your long term success. Here's a very good metaphor for this.
A wedding.
The size and fanciness of the wedding is in no way guaranteeing
the success of the marriage. This is pure conjecture on my part.
I even sometimes wonder if the bigger and more grandiose the
wedding, the more problems they have later on in the marriage.
Not because of the size of the wedding, but because of maybe it's
reflecting something about their personalities or their
priorities and such that they're more interested in the big show
than actually making the relationship work.
That little tidbit and conjecture aside, and I have no scientific
backing to that. That's hypothesis at this point.
But with your podcast, I have seen this happen too many times for
me to count, where someone has made a big deal about their
launch. And where are they today? They're not podcasting anymore.
They fizzled out.
And it's not because of their size of their launch that they
fizzled out, but certainly how much effort they put into their
launch didn't keep them going years later.
So don't obsess over the launch. Yes.
It's fun to make a big splash and to get all of that energy and
momentum from day 1 and have people anticipating your episode,
but don't obsess over it.
I don't see this so much now as I used to.
But in the past, there was certainly the obsession over trying to
get into, back then called iTunes, new and noteworthy.
Dave Jackson just threw up a little bit in his mouth when I said
that.
People don't obsess over that so much anymore because I think the
truth of new and noteworthy and how that works has spread more
and also people realize that new and noteworthy isn't in as many
places as it used to be anymore.
It is still cool to get in there, but it's not something you can
follow a strategy to get in there other than try and make an
amazing podcast with great marketing behind it.
And some of us can't afford that. That's fine.
But the size of your launch isn't going to affect the success of
your podcast. So don't obsess over the launch.
And number 5, not launching at all.
Or we could even say fizzling out after you've launched.
It is a statistic at this point.
You can go over to podcastindustryinsights.com and look at the
statistics, especially from Apple, of how many podcasts have
launched with 1 episode and have done nothing since then.
It is staggering.
Most of them came from Anchor or now called Spotify for creators.
I think there is a certain demographic that that attracts that
it's a lot of people just testing, just playing with things and
not really intending to have launched a podcast into all of the
podcast apps and directories out there.
But still, I really do think that the biggest hurdle for
podcasters to face is episode 1, both getting there and also
getting past episode 1.
And you can see it in the data that so many podcasters struggle
to get past that first episode.
They might obsess over the launch and either they never launch or
they launch and do nothing after that.
So don't make this mistake.
Don't leave your message only in your mind and never getting it
out there. Get your message out there.
Make the impact that you want to make for good.
Don't obsess over trying to make a perfect launch, but also don't
obsess over a perfect launch, but also don't forget to actually
launch. Put it out there. Get the message out.
You can improve things as you go.
Even if you want to just start on a free podcast hosting
provider, like Buzzsprout has a pretty good free plan with them.
The audacitytopodcast.com/buzzsprout is my affiliate program.
I only recommend things I truly believe in.
But you can sign up for a free hosting plan over there and launch
with a couple of episodes, play with things just to see.
And episodes over there will expire over time, and you can only
have so many episodes on the free plan.
But that can give you a chance to just experiment.
See if you can survive past episode 1, and you can improve as you
go. Or you could even decide that was a good practice.
I'm gonna scrap it all, start over much better, and then keep
going from there. Yeah. You can do that too.
It's not like you're married to your podcast.
So don't make these 5 mistakes that I see new podcasters make all
the time. Number 1, striving for perfect.
Number 2, doing too much. Number 3, starting without a plan.
Number 4, obsessing over the launch.
And number 5, not launching at all.
I would love to help you build a deeper relationship with your
audience because I think for many of us podcasters, it's not
really the size of our audience that matters the most to it.
It is the change we're making and the connections we're making
with the audience.
And that's why I made Podgagement over at podgagement.com to help
you deepen the relationship with your audience, to engage with
your audience through ratings and reviews, through feedback,
through voice mails from your audience, to engage more with other
podcasters in your space, like through the networking feature, to
track how you're doing in the charts, tracking your podcast
across nearly 34,000 charts, to engage with great images that you
can share on social networks and share the feedback that you
receive with the rest of your audience outside of the podcast and
share the reviews that you're receiving, showing off the change
that your podcast is making in people's lives.
And so much more that you can do with Podgagement to supercharge
the engagement you have with your audience.
Go to podgagement.com to sign up for a free trial to help you
deepen that relationship with your audience so that you can grow
your podcast. That's at podgagement.com.
And now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some
of the tools, it's time for you to go start and grow your own
podcast for passion and profit. I'm Daniel J.
Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Reach out to me on x at the Daniel J.
Lewis and pretty much everywhere else too as the Daniel J.
Lewis, and thanks for listening.