DON'T FORGET TO ASK FOR HELP!

Many of our Podfly clients are entrepreneurs, motivators, and shakers of the world, which is why it's so important for them to be reminded that everybody needs a little bit of assistance sometime. When our minds are filled with too many tasks, it can be difficult to take a step back and look at upcoming problems objectively and see if we need an extra pair of hands. Remember, you can't advance if you're stuck putting out fires. 

WHEN TO ASK FOR HELP

No one likes to fail. Many entrepreneurs realize they're on a sinking ship and all the life boats have left a little too late. It takes a bit of experience to know when to ask for help ahead of time, but even if you feel like all hope is lost, make the effort to reach out and say something. You will be surprised at how many people will help you if they only knew you needed help. So, when's a good time to ask? 

YOU SHOULD ASK FOR A HELPING HAND WHEN:

• You are launching a new service/product
• You feel like you're lost
• You want to move in a new direction
• You want to expand
• You're feeling overwhelmed and not good enough

Our minds have a habit of playing tricks on us. We need that outside perspective, especially from somebody we respect, to let us know we're not going to die, we're not in direct danger, and, if we fail, it'll still be okay in the end. Breathe, relax, and just communicate. 

HOW TO PREVENT EXTRA STRESS WHEN PODCASTING

Podcasting can be extra stressful for entrepreneurs because it takes up 'too much' of their time and the rewards of podcasting take sometime to see. In a world of instant gratification, people are often too quick to kill their podcast before they're able to see the full benefits and results of their hard work. It can be really, really easy to fall into a pattern of feeling overwhelmed every week when you're about to release a show, but it doesn't have to be that way. 

The key to podcasting is to develop a routine. Easier said than done, right? Well, some of our professional hosts schedule 2-3 guests to interview in one day, so that they have some shows lined up for their podcast way ahead of time. It's also easier to plan a full day for interviewing people, producing show notes, and the like than to spread it out throughout the week. The brain is more productive when you have it focus on the same topic for the day instead of having it bounce around on different things. 

Scheduling is probably the most stressful for our clients because they need to depend on someone else to make 'it happen' and guests can cancel out of the blue and for no reason too. Guests will always cancel on you, but you reduce a great deal of stress for yourself when you know in the back of your mind you have 2-3 shows already prepped and ready to go for your podcast. 

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

Well, would you look at that, it's almost February.  Nearly 31 days has passed since we've made new year resolutions, goals, and proclamations that our life will be better, different. Have you been able to accomplish everything you wanted to this month? No? Well, this post is for you, my friend, and for those of you who said yes? Good for you, now get out. 

REVISIT YOUR GOALS

Are your goals clearly defined enough or do they set you up for failure? Do you have daily, weekly, monthly milestones? Tri-monthly? Why you are failing them only you can answer, but I know if you don't have your goals broken down into little bits and pieces, then all you are doing is drifting without direction. Revisit your goals, break them down, and try again. 

Tip: Although not free, Lynda.com has a great video with Dave Crenshaw on how to achieve your goals using these broken down milestones I talked about. Link here. 

I HAVE NO TIME

It can be easy to use the good old 'I have no time' excuse. Everybody knows what that saying means -  you're not serious. If you've come to this point in time and realized that the goal is simply not for you, then just discard it. Throw it away and make a new one. However, if you've come to this point genuinely feeling like you've let yourself down, then let's work on your time management. 

There are several time management systems out there that will track your computer and app usage, but for the first week use pen and a paper to track where your time really goes on an hour by hour basis. It doesn't have to be perfect, but try to time it around every hour. How many times a day do you visit Facebook. Is it productive like talking to a potential client or guest or are you just looking at cat pictures? A detailed description is key and by the end of the first week of February you'll get a pretty clear idea of where all your time is going. 

PRIORITIZE AND OUTSOURCE

Now that you have 7 days worth of data on how you spend your time, you can find solutions that will help you stop sabotaging yourself. You are now presented with several choices instead of feeling constricted with your time and day. You have the ability to completely remove unproductive actives in your life or schedule time blocks in your day for these less productive activities. You have the ability to decide what's really important on your list and what's not and you have the ability to outsource the activities that make you procrastinate or outright dread. You always had this choice before, but now you can physically see what's been happening and you can prevent another month like this one from passing you by. 

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PODCAST VALUABLE

Podcasters worry in the back of their minds whether or not their audience resonates with their message and if their podcast is providing true value to their listeners. In fact, this is one of the biggest concerns our Podfly clients have. Our clients try to increase the value of their podcast by using our services to boost up their intro/outro, make it sound more professional with either high-quality mics or selective editing, and create detailed show notes for their listeners to read. Though, is all of this enough? Obviously as we mentioned in previous posts, content is king, so how do you know for sure you're producing something great?

HOW DO WE DEFINE VALUE? 

As defined by Google it is: 

“The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.”

Really though, anybody can Google the word 'value' and get a text book understanding of the word, but how do you really define it? What makes things valuable? Value is a relative term that each individual will see differently. What might be valuable to you may not be valuable to your neighbor and so on and so forth. So, instead of thinking about you and what you find valuable for your show, turn the tables and ask what does your audience find valuable? 

Now, you don't always have to cater to your audience's self-interest; it would become a boring show to host. However, developing good, valuable content for your audience is the baseline of how you build strong followings and communities. It also increases your self-worth, because you know you're helping others find usefulness in something. 

WHAT DOES YOUR AUDIENCE CONSIDER VALUABLE? 

If you don't know this question, then it's time to sit down and do a 'fake' profile of who your ideal audience is. Their age, gender, and cultural background are all important things to figure out when creating this profile. Go see if your podcast hosting service has user stats on your audience. I know Libsyn has fantastic stats you can use to help compare your ideal audience profile with your actual listeners.

Profiles are essential. They help give you a clear focus of who you're catering to or, at least, who you want to cater to. I could go into a whole other article about how to properly profile your ideal audience, but to keep it simple and concise you will want to write down your ideal listener's demographics, interests, hobbies, potential dislikes, etc. 

HOW TO PROVIDE VALUE IN YOUR PODCAST 

Once you know who your audience is, you can now go and produce valuable podcasts without any self-doubt. What are some of the main problems or annoyances your audience has? Work on helping them solve it. Bring guests and experts on to your show that talk specifically about those problems. What would inspire your audience? What would be the ultimate 'oh-my-god' guest for them? 

To make your podcast valuable, focus on fixing problems and helping your audience accomplish more. It can be easy to do a deep dive into your guest and learn about their back story, but that doesn't help your audience grow as people. Remember, people, for the most part, want to learn useful information that they can apply when they're consuming a podcast. 

HOW TO BE A FANTASTIC PODCAST INTERVIEWER

There are so many great tips to share on how to be a better interviewer, but one thing is for certain, every serious podcaster must pick up this skill if they want to take their podcast to the next level. Working on being a great interviewer means your show will have interesting content no one else has heard of before or, at least, your show will be able to deliver unique perspectives and teach your listeners something new.  

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Whenever you invite a guest on to your show, take the time to find out who they are and what kind of work they’ve been doing for the past couple of years. Take this knowledge and pick out certain themes or subjects that your audience might find interesting. When you take the time to do this very simple exercise, you will also develop the extra confidence needed to interview someone for the first time. Another benefit to doing this is that it will also relax your guest a little bit and they won't feel so nervous when the two of you are talking about something he or she is extremely familiar with. 

You do not have to spend a lot of time doing a background check on your guest. All you have to do is gather enough cliff notes to make yourself familiar with the types of things they've been working on and let the interview take care of itself. If you run 5 episodes a week, then doing these checks can become a bit problematic, but hopefully you have staff helping you and they can comprise quick notes for you to get an idea of who you're dealing with. 

“Questions are important, but having a good ear to pick out key details and gems the person is revealing is just as important too.”

YOUR QUESTIONS ARE A TEMPLATE

Some people like to wing it in a podcast and others like to have a list of questions for their guest, but the key to good interviewing is to have a balance of both of these skills. Questions are important, but having a good ear to pick out key details and gems the person is revealing is just as important too. Be prepared to have the interview be taken in a completely different direction than what you planned and expand on topics your guest is talking about to get a better idea of what's really going on. 

WHAT'S INTERESTING TO THE LISTENER? 

It can be so tempting to take an interview on a wild ride that only you find fascinating, but you have to remember it's not about you. Always have the listener in the back of your mind and figure out if this is a subject that can help them or not. Is this something they need to know or should you move on to the next subject? If someone is listening to your show for the first time, would they understand what your guest is talking about? Try to be as considerate as possible to your listeners and make sure the information your guest is revealing is relevant to your audience as well.  

By the way, if you haven't checked out last week's post about how to add value to your podcast, be sure to check it out over here.