Podcircle Podcast

[00:00:00] Mickenzie Vought: I cannot bang on this drum enough.

The reason that only 20 percent of podcasters make it to episode 10 is because they're trying to do it all. And we don't want you to do it all.

I run a podcast. I am the producer and host of another podcast. And I outsource my weaknesses. I do a lot of it, but I asked Kyle to edit because it's not a skill set that I want to have. It's not a skill set that I currently have. Outsource your weaknesses.

[00:00:25] Kyle Cummings: Welcome to the Podcircle podcast where we bring practical tips and insights for every podcaster.

[00:00:30] Mickenzie Vought: From aspiring podcasters to experts with hundreds of episodes under your belt and everywhere in between, these conversations dive into all the topics that matter most to you.

So today we are coming at you with a quick episode six things that we have been talking to you about all year long.

And we think if you kind of go back to these things and look at them as you go into the new year,

you are going to be set up for success. So, first, right off the bat, we are going to remind you, tell you, continue to beat our drum to say, be consistent. This is one of the number one ways that podcasters fail.

And I hate to say this, I think it's one of the biggest mistakes we talk about, mistakes that podcasters make in episode three. But it's just the inability to be consistent, right? You, you've got this goal. You want to show up for people

and then you miss an episode and then you miss two episodes and then you maybe go a little bit,

like a big lapse and you come back and, and that's how you're going to lose listeners.

It's how you're going to run out of steam. And frankly,

It is going to set you up for failure because you're not going to enjoy your podcast. And so, we say the best way to reach success, remember podcast is a long game,

is to continue to be consistent and continue to show up for your audience.

[00:01:45] Kyle Cummings: I think another way to help

is just to start small.

I've seen several,

people talking in the podcast space lately about,

you know, like, should I start a video podcast to start my podcast with kind of thing? And I like the advice that I've seen

here lately, and it's like, just start with an audio podcast, get a high quality mic,

and maybe a decent webcam,

so that you can record video, even if you don't

decide to start a video

podcast till later,

you can still have those, you know, clips of the podcast for social media, that kind of thing, but just start small.

bite sized pieces that way you're not getting overwhelmed. It's easier to kind of turn those episodes around and get them out. Um, and then later, if you want to scale into video one, you have a little, you have some reps under your belt, you have some comfortability just with. Podcasting in general and you've kind of figured

your show out a bit, you've gotten maybe some listener feedback and then you can go and add in that visual element and invest in some cameras and some lighting and things like that.

But

I really liked the idea of starting small. And I think that's part of what attracts a lot of people to

starting a podcast is because

it is pretty simple to get set up. You need a nice USB mic. Right into your computer. If you're

recording remote interviews, like McKinsey and I are, there's great platforms like Riverside that capture those seamlessly.

and then it's pretty lightweight.

[00:03:05] Mickenzie Vought: Yeah, I think this is keeping you from having,

paralysis by analysis, right? I need to have everything perfect and set all that up. We want you to launch. We want it to get out into the world. We want you to stop sitting on this idea you have. So start small. But, here's my caveat to that and our number three point is begin with the end in mind.

Don't begin before you have established your goals. So, if you've been podcasting for a while and when we say to you, hey, what is the goal of your podcast? What do you want out of it? And you can't answer that question, it's never too late to get the answer there.

but before you begin, get really clear and think about.

Where is this going? What do I want it to achieve? And if you're having trouble coming up with goals, we do strategy sessions all the time. We have one literally today, uh, where we're going to help one of our clients get really clear about what she wants the next quarter of her podcast to look like. And so if you are in that place, if you're, have been podcasting for a while, you're about to begin, we want to help you begin with the end in mind.

So. Get really clear and know what are your goals so that you can be consistent.

And number four, I think along these same lines,

is just right sizing your expectations.

we talk a lot about this in episode nine where we asked like, are you winning with your podcast?

How are you defining success? And so we want to remind you,

to just be clear about what you know, what success is for you and your podcast. Um, I think there's that old adage about You know, swimming in your own lane and not looking at the people next to you.

when you know really clearly what your podcast is about, you can set the right expectations and go into it for the long haul and continue to show up and be consistent and have the show that you want.

[00:04:44] Kyle Cummings: another one is just a bet on yourself. We've talked about that a lot this year. I think a lot of people have an expectation of like, Hey, when I come into this podcasting thing, how, like I want to sell ads. I want to figure out how to monetize this thing right away. And I think there's a big misconception there.

You have to grow a show to a pretty sizable level before advertisers are going to become interested. And oftentimes that means probably joining a podcast network where they have advertiser relationships, and they're going to advertise across all of the networks shows. So I think for new podcasters, we're always telling them to bet on yourself.

What is it that you have to offer? What is it that you have to offer to the marketplace? Are you, uh, an entrepreneur, a business owner, a leader with within your space? Are you a coach? Are you an author, a speaker? those sorts of folks we work really, really well with because they see podcasting as a way that can really boost whatever they're already bringing to the table. and all of the different social media assets and marketing assets.

[00:05:44] Mickenzie Vought: Yep.

[00:05:46] Kyle Cummings: Those are the kind of folks that we love to talk to because we can help them get even clearer about their, their goals and kind of their stated vision for what they want to do. and we can help them start a podcast that helps them achieve that.

[00:06:00] Mickenzie Vought: yeah, I think about this one. We talked a lot about monetizing like five different ways to monetize your podcast in episode five And ads are one of them but betting on yourself is always the one we're going to return back to because

it's one of the best ways to,

serve your audience, to show up consistently for them and to nurture them so that when you ask them to do something, to check out your product or your service, they're going to be so excited because they have been spending copious amounts of time where you're just pouring into them and giving them access to you for free.

And then the last one is outsource your weaknesses.

I cannot bang on this drum enough.

The reason that

only 20 percent of podcasters make it to episode 10 is because they're trying to do it all. And we don't want you to do it all.

I run a podcast. I am the

producer and host of another podcast. And I outsource my weaknesses.

I do a lot of it, but I asked Kyle to edit because

it's not a skill set that I want to have. It's not a skill set that I currently have. And I recently read that the number one reason people

stop listening to a podcast is because the audio quality was bad.

And so

I don't know how to make myself sound right sometimes I record and I've got two people at different levels And I don't know what happened and Kyle is magic and he makes it beautiful.

So

whether it's editing whether it's Audio, visual,

um, video, whether you're like, Hey, I recorded this podcast, but I don't want to write my show notes. I'm not sure how to do that. Stop doing it all of yourself. We at Podcircle,

we want to make it easy for you so you can get back to doing the things that you do best.

Outsource your weaknesses.

[00:07:36] Kyle Cummings: there are some tools out there that make it easier for podcasters. Like there is a program called Descript you, where you can actually record into it and it allows you to edit and it transcribes. I like these programs and I do think that they equip people that are the more DIY type folks.

[00:07:53] Mickenzie Vought: Yep,

[00:07:53] Kyle Cummings: that there's always a learning curve. And once you get into it, It doesn't take very long to realize one, there's a learning curve. It's going to take time to learn this new thing and then still to edit, even though it's a pretty easy editing platform and they have some nice tools, it still just takes a lot of time.

It's just a lot of time. And

I think that's what gets people is once you get into those six and seven episodes, it just becomes a bit of a grind. And I think that's when folks start saying like, I need to. You know, I need to outsource this and I encourage people to do that earlier than later because they go in and it's like, they don't even kind of kind of know what they need and, or they don't know what platform to get, even get their podcasts on like the podcast hosting platform.

So I really encourage people, obviously I'm biased, but to partner with an agency sooner in the process, because then you can, we can kind of consult with you and help get you situated with the right gear for your podcast. And the right platform for your podcast and just the right expertise to where you're going to set yourself up for success.

And you're not going to be trying to do it all yourself.

[00:08:54] Mickenzie Vought: what I love about pod circle is that we can help you wherever you need help. And so I love that you are a one stop shop where you could go to Fiverr and find an

You could go to Fiverr and you could find someone to do your copy and do this and this.

But if you want a consistent tone and brand and quality to your podcast. It's so incredible to start with an agency like Podcircle, but again, we're biased.

So,

Thank you for joining us this year. It has been so incredible to come to you week in and week out, um, and get to just talk about the things that we love.

We are passionate about helping you get your idea out into the world. And so if you are ready to launch, you can go to podcircle. com slash start, and you can get our free complete podcast starter kit. It is full of resources to help you finally get.

that podcast out into the world.

And we'd love for you to subscribe on YouTube. We're putting all of our episodes up on there. We're doing what we tell you to do and utilizing video.

the last thing, Kyle, tell us about that last thing that we absolutely love to do.

[00:09:54] Kyle Cummings: We love to do strategy sessions. We mentioned it a little bit ago, but we have one here in a couple hours for a client. the key word there is just clarity. We just help people find clarity. so we're, we're about to do a brainstorming session and we're going to outline and brainstorm topics and guests.

For the first quarter of, someone's podcasts. So we're going to bring some, a lot of ideas, topics that are, people are talking about right now in the financial space. it's just going to be a huge win for her. I'm really excited about it.

[00:10:22] Mickenzie Vought: We would love to do it for you. All right, everyone, we will see you in 2024.

[00:10:26] Kyle Cummings: right. Happy holidays.