Hello. I'm Mike dell Vp of customer relations here at Blueberry. And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist at Blueberry Podcast. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about some of the ways not to pod fade. In other words, how to stay motivated and consistent with your show. You're listening to podcast insider hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team. Bringing you weekly insights, advice and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcasting, with all the support of your team here and blueberry podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in. In some ways, podcasting can be kinda hard. Staying with it can take a little bit of work on your part. I'm the king of pod faith. I know how many shows have started and stopped over the years, but With this show, we use a lot of these tips. We're going to discuss. 1 of the first ones that we have is setting clear goals, defining what you want to achieve with your podcast, whether that is just spreading information that you enjoy with your listeners, but it gives you something to strive for and helps you maintain your focus. Whether it's just sharing information, growing to a... Certain audience level, just saying I wanna do this series of 10 episodes, whatever it is. It's just good to have. Having some sort of goal definitely gonna help you stay motivated. Our goal with this 1 is a spread information about podcasting about what blueberries is going on. Blueberries is doing. Secondary goal is they wanna keep these things coming every single week, no matter what. And 1 of the other things is create a content calendar and we do that for this show. We have a, spreadsheet that's what topics are we gonna cover and dates of recording and dates of, when we're gonna publish and all that stuff, and we have our own little show notes doc that we work off of, That's all in this spreadsheet and what's really cool about that as we can look and say, okay. Today, we're gonna record a couple episodes, figure out the topic and do the... Work ahead of time, and it really keeps you on track. We have a lot of help from Kate and her team over at Blueberry Pro. And now she's on set up that calendar and it works really well. It's wildly helpful to be honest just because there's poor people involved. If I was doing a show on my own, I would still do the same thing probably. But when you're managing multiple people at the same time, it's really good. Then of that calendar is something else that we recommend that people do to podcast podcasts successfully is batch recording. Even Mike and I are doing that today. This is 1 of 2 episodes that we're doing, but we've done 3 or 4 in a day sometimes between myself, Mike and Todd or someone else on the team. It helps us get them out of the way so that we can release them throughout the month whenever, like, they make sense. And then it's really helpful too because 8 with the production team, we just send them a couple episodes at a time, and they're able to get through them and they're not, Like... Down to the wire the day of having to do edits or anything like that. It's really helpful. That's what we used to do is we would record them day up, and and they had a... A quick turnaround and we got to thinking it. And a lot of our content before we are covering news and stuff. So if you're doing that, if it's topical, then maybe you can't batch record, but These things are evergreen, You can listen to 1 from 2 or 3 years ago, and it mostly will be relevant unless we're talking about some feature that no longer exists. Which happens, a little in podcasting. Truth be told. This is June 26 that we're talking to you on and according to our calendar which this 1 won't go out till the fourth of July So we're a little ahead. Another thing that can really motivate you is engage with your audience is much as Mckinnon, try to get listener feedback, Try to find let listen to your show. Now, we have an unfair advantage since that shows about Blueberry and I work Blueberry support, so I get phone calls and, hey, I hear you heard your voice on the podcast all the time. And That just just, like super motivating to know that that people are out there listening. And look at your stats, and you can see... Yeah. I've got couple hundred downloads, so a couple hundred people heard this. But if you never hear back from them, that's not as nice as when you're walking into the ether, a Nobody responds. It's just... Yeah. Is anybody listening? Hello? Is this thing on. Similar to that is we recommend that people collaborate with other. Can be difficult sometimes to engage with their audience. If you're just starting and you're trying to get a feel for, like, who is listening, there are show similar to yours with topics or just if you're in a network by chance, anything like that, collaborating with other podcast and guests can bring some fresh perspectives and ideas to your show just is, like, it's kind of a motivational boost to have people sharing the enthusiasm about the show. So really something to consider even if you are new, it is possible to do it even if you're new. And 1 of the things that a lot of people do is a promo swap with somebody in your in your genre in your content area, Promo shot shop, hey. I'll send you a promo. You can play on your show, and I'll on on mind or be a guest on somebody else's podcast. Or have some other podcasts, your genre, gaston on your show. We've actually had the guys from Buzz pro on our show with is a compelling competitive company. Maybe not a great idea, but they weren't talking about podcast hosting. So that was cool. And, you, kind of expose their audience to us and our audience to them, and that was cool. Another thing, keep you motivated and to make things interesting. Just make sure you keep learning about podcasting, invest in your skills, audio editing, marketing, etcetera can be a great motivator. You see the quality your podcast get better over time, Louise to keep up with what's going on and podcasting is listen to podcast podcasts like this 1 and others that talk about podcasting and what's going on and technology and whatever, hot news is a pretty good 1 to keep up with the industry, although, that's a little more high fa news on that 1 being more company interesting, but some nuggets in there. So we'll check that out or sign up for newsletters, the pod news is 1 of them. Pod the north, which is a Canadian 1. That's pretty good. I know it's kind of a neat name for that 1 I thought. The but or take a class on audio editing or watch Youtube videos about the editing software you're using. You might find some tools in there that you didn't know about. Or something to make your life a little easier if you're editing your own stuff. You could hire an editor, but then, again, you're not learning anything when you hire or somebody 1 of the things that we really like about conferences is that there's so many different sessions for people to go to, sessions, workshops, is just constant learning. While you are there. So always are interested to see what people are attending at those and kinda how they have changed over the years of this was be popular back then and less so now or video is picking up, whatever it may be, but definitely 1 of the options for continued learning and improvement. Overall, when you're starting your podcast, choose a topic that you are passionate about. Personally, I kinda hate the word passionate or passionate, I think it could over overused, but the sentiment still stands, you will be enthusiastic about whatever it is but we'll be able to tell if you are not, they will know. Well, sometimes I'll get podcast? I wanna start a podcast. And I'll ask them. What do you wanna start your podcast about. I don't know what's popular. Let's us fire away underwater Basket weaving is very popular these days. And if you're not interested in it, it's gonna help you. Right. If people try to say, oh, I'll just do, like, what's popular right now. That's great. If you want to just be popular and don't care however you're gonna get there. That's the only way that's gonna work and that you're not gonna be miserable. And this is hard work to stay up on it. And there are some topics that kinda run out. If you're talking about soccer. Okay. Yeah. There's always news about soccer. If you're talking about stuff, like, how to play it, mh. Some strategies you can use and all of that kind of stuff. Eventually, you're gonna run out of topics. That's okay. But just stay passionate about what you're talking about or stay and and not passionate. Agree with you. Don't like that word. Stay interested. Stay on what's going on. If you're talking about cars, do car events that are separate from podcasting. And it'll give you topics for your show, and it'll keep your interest up. We are talking about Pod though, and 1 of the things that makes people fade quickly is that they are... Just genuinely not interested in their topic. And if you started out truly passionate about whatever it is, show us on, and then you no longer become that way, and that's not pod fade. You deciding... I don't wanna do this show anymore because I don't like this or I don't care about this the way that I did in the past. That's fine. Nope. There is nothing wrong with ending a show. The example I always used when I talk about that is Mommy cast way back in the day. K? So these women had this really great podcast they got. So sponsorships and super successful. Kids grew up and left the house. So... Right. They talk about now. They kinda head of Pod fade that 1 only because the hosts had kids at home anymore, and that's what their main topic was. And that happens. And there's nothing wrong with that. A podcast has a took pickle and and you you don't see Tv series staying on for 30 and 40 years unless they're silly like the simpsons or obstacle stupid like that. But the for the most part, they have a logical beginning middle and end and sometimes the whole podcast series has that, don't feel bad about it switch to another topic if you wanna continue to podcast. Nothing wrong with that. Know when it is time to to start over. And 1 1 of the things that a lot of people don't do or a lot of people do too much. I guess there's a happy medium in here somewhere, but take a break when you need 1. Be afraid to take a week or 2 off or whatever. Because if you get burned out, that's a major demo motivator it's important to take care of your mental and physical health, schedule breaks or hiatus to get recharged and refocus on your show. And maybe in the interim play some reruns or run an episode that you had in the can from earlier to cover your brake. Again, that record a head thing. Like, when we take breaks, like, the month of July, our production team's taking a break. And so therefore, we're taking a break. So we're recording ahead a little bit. That that we can all not worry about the podcast for for 2 or 3 weeks, and that's cool. Here are lots of vacations and whatever, and don't be afraid to do that I would rather play, like, reruns if you don't have anything recorded, but or record ahead. Do you have to just take a hiatus to say so. And, hey, this will be the last episode told... August first or whatever you're gonna say. Long as you let your audience know, it shouldn't cause too much trouble. The things that you can do... Like, if you're gonna take a break is saying, like, hey, that was our tenth episode. We're gonna take a break for a couple weeks. It's important to celebrate your milestones, and the... Achievements that you've made with your show. It goes back to that first thing that we talked about is setting what goals do you want to have with this podcast, those are gonna change over time as everything does, but recognizing your progress can be very encouraging. Looking back on what you've done and deciding what you wanna do moving forward can just really be fun sometimes Yeah. For sure. Celebrating milestone episodes like we just did 400 couple weeks ago. And exactly. Not that... The end of the world or anything super cool, but it was fun. We got the whole gang together here and talked about some of the stuff in the past and rem a little and just sort of re energize this the hey. We're still hanging in here 400 episodes later. It's cool. 1 of the big motivator is money. Of course. Right. So if possible or if that's part of your goal. It monetize your show. It's some money coming in, it's a pretty good at. Motivator. You could do that through sponsorship or sell Merch or Patreon or some other, something like that buy me a coffee, whatever. Streaming satoshi. Yeah. We won't get too geek here. But there's ways of monetizing maybe not majorly, but, you know, even a little bit coming in really motivates. There's definitely some people who like to just make as much money to cover their expenses each month. I have to pay for hosting. I pay for my website. I pay for maybe someone is helping me edit or they just kinda think of it as, like, this... Amount of time doing this. Not agree. Right. Exactly. All of those types of things. It's not necessarily, like, I need to make a living off of this. It's just, oh, okay. Great. Now I have some fun money to reward the show or myself with. It's really great. As an aside, though, if you're just doing this for a hobby? Oh, how many other hobbies out there, do you have people ask, oh, you're a podcast? A hobby... You make any money with that. Right. I'm collecting stamps. I don't make money from collecting stamps. I don't make through money from flying. I don't make money from my ham radio stuff. So if you doing it as a hobby, it's just a hobby. You don't have to make money. Have you does not have to be a side hustle. I wish more people remembered that. Right you know. Because so so many people are... That's their only motivation and that I honestly think that's... Not a really good motivation for podcasting. And Think I wanna print you out. And this is a job because I gotta make a podcast today. Comes crossed on the microphone. Though although if it's kind of ironic. This is a company show, so we technically get paid to do this, but what mean we're less passionate here. So... Yeah. We wouldn't be doing this if we wouldn't be working here if we didn't love podcasting. So... Exactly. And 1 of the last things that we wanna tell people is join podcast communities. This can be line, a social media group, a local meetup up, to those conferences, anything, in any type of capacity just having that community of podcast, they are able to provide... Support, inspiration, motivation, accountability, really just... I think it's 1 of those things that you don't necessarily think about until if you... Unless you don't have 1. It's kinda 1 of those things you don't know what you have until you don't. For a long time, we sponsored the local Columbus meetup up podcast. Since we don't have an office anymore, we only any place to put them, but that group is still going on. I still get the notices from them, and It's a group, maybe 10:12 people most of the time sometimes more, and it's just great to know other podcast because like, I'm up here Northern Michigan. I know maybe 10 podcast that live up here. And it's cool that I know them, but that's not, like, a big thing here. 1 of our competitors. 1 of their developers lives right here in Town. Which is kinda weird, but we have 2 podcast employees in this town. Yeah. I'll just be part of, like, Facebook groups, Now sometimes those can get a little weird because new people come in all the time and they ask the same questions, and some of us that have been in there a while roll our eyes about it. Of course, we have a pod guest community on Facebook, a Blueberry podcast group. So I'll join that and if you have some questions, not tech support questions, which just general podcast questions. Jump in there. Get to know some of the... Some of your fellow blueberry podcast. Also, we would love to take your questions. In our podcast. If you wanna email us, anything specific like that. If you are so trained in some specific podcast thing that you're, like, I wanna get on your show, pitch us why you wanna be on the show. I mean, we might just let you So we would love to hear from you guys with the... As part of our community. So we're doing the show for you. And if you have something you wanna hear, let us know. Usually, it's interviews of our podcast or of of the month or some special things coming or whatever. But so if you got some sort of milestone, you want us to help you celebrate. That's another reason to get a hold of us. We could either mention it or have you on the show? That kind of thing. Though... Yeah. We're always looking for new stuff. But anyway, implementing some of these strategies can help you maintain motivation and consistency. Again, I'm the king of inconsistency with this show. We... Pretty. I think we've missed 1 in the last 2 or 300 episodes something like that. Yeah. And I think around, like, a holiday or something. So... Yeah. That's absolutely... Doing good. Yep. And, of course, thanks for listening. Don't forget we have rich show notes. And for this 1 in all of our episodes over at podcast insider dot com. And if we happen to disappear from app that you are listening on, is find us there. Nope. Thanks for listening everyone. Thanks for joining us. Come back next week, And in the meantime, head to podcast insider dot com for more information to subscribe, share and read our show notes. To check out our latest suite of services and learn how blueberry can help you leverage your podcast visit blueberry dot com. That's blueberry without the ease. We couldn't afford the ease.
CHAPTER 1
00:00:00
Introduction
CHAPTER 2
00:00:39
Challenges of Podcasting and Staying Motivated
CHAPTER 3
00:00:56
Setting Clear Goals for Your Podcast
CHAPTER 4
00:01:24
Creating a Content Calendar and Batch Recording
CHAPTER 5
00:03:09
The Value of Evergreen Content in Podcasting
CHAPTER 6
00:03:53
Engaging with Your Audience
CHAPTER 7
00:04:23
Collaborating with Other Podcasters
CHAPTER 8
00:05:34
Continuous Learning and Skill Improvement
CHAPTER 9
00:07:09
Choosing Topics You're Enthusiastic About
CHAPTER 10
00:11:04
Taking Breaks and Handling Pod Fade
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