Category Archives: Blog

Audience Relationship, Blog, Podcast content, Uncategorized

Make Your Listener The Star

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Make your listener the star.  It is your show.  You know the plot.  When listeners are involved in your show, it is always your job to lead your guest and make them the star.

There are many ways to incorporate your listeners into your show.  Live interviews, live calls, recorded voicemail messages, and e-mail are a free of the possibilities.  Incorporating listeners into your podcast gives  your entire audience a vested interest in the show.

With guests, you must remember you always know more about your show than they know.  You know the goals of your show.  You know the plot and strategy.  You are always on the show.  They are new.  Lead your guest.

Phrases like “great question”, “I’m glad you mentioned that” and “I didn’t realize that” make your guest feel they are adding to the show … as long as you are authentic and sincere in your comments.  It also make you look unselfish.

Financial guru and radio host Dave Ramsey is great at guiding his listeners.  When a caller begins to ramble on, Dave will always step in with, “How can I best help you today?”  That is a great way to say, “Get to the point.”  You need to remember that your callers are not professional broadcasters.  They are not sure how to adequately edit their question while still providing all of the necessary details.

Edit your content to make your listener look good.  Just as you do not need to answer every e-mail you receive on your show, you do not need to read the entire e-mail either.  When you are using voicemail and e-mail questions, edit them before you use them.  Keep the essence of the question while eliminating the unnecessary details.  Nobody will fault you for editing a 4-minute voicemail message to a great 30 seconds.  In fact, they will probably thank you.  The edited call is still the call as long as you aren’t changing their words and intentions.  Your show is entertainment.  Edit is as such.

When interviewing a well-known guest, make it easy for them.  Open with great questions for which you already know the answer.  Talk hosts like Jay Leno and David Letterman have producers that do a pre-interview with their guests.  They will ask their guest, “If (host) asks you about ____, what will you say?”  The producer then puts the great questions on the blue cards for the host.  The host may not know the answers, but the guest is prepared for the question.

If  you know your guest has done some amazing things, ask them about it.  Then, let them answer.  I hear so many hosts interview guests as if they are trying to show the guest how much they actually know.  In turn, they answer the question as they are asking it.  “You just released a book detailing ways to reduce your work week by half by outsourcing many of your tasks to companies like X, Y and Z.  It has already sold 100,000 copies.  That’s great.  Tell us about it.”

This poses 3 problems.  First, the guest now has very little to say.  The question was already answered.  Second, the host looks like a know-it-all.  Finally, what’s the point of having the guest on the show if you already have all of the answers?

Let your guest shine.  Lob them softballs that they can hit out of the park.  You will look brilliant for asking such fantastic questions.  Your guest will love being part of your show, because you make them look so good.

You and your show become great when you make your guests and listeners the star.

Audience Engagement, Blog, Podcast content

Delightful Details Dazzle

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Delightful details dazzle.

Great storytellers use delightful details.

Great stories reveal things about the person telling the story. It allows the listener the opportunity to discover new things about the storyteller. Stories are how strong relationships are built.

When you’ve used an intriguing introduction in your podcast, your listener can now enjoy the details of your story. The more vivid the details, the more your listener will enjoy the story. Make them see the story in their mind. Draw the mental picture for them.

“We were walking through the woods when I lost my footing, rolled down a hill and into some mud.” Generic stories like this do very little to spark the imagination.

Use delightful details. “It was a muggy, hot lunchtime. We had ducked into the cool, dark shade of the thick woods where the sun was barely visible through the thick leaves. My eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the leave-covered path when I lost my footing near the edge of an embankment. I ended up landing on my hip and rolling head-over-feet down the fairly steep, 10-foot drop where I promptly landed on my butt in the muddy mess below. My legs were completely covered in mud as if I had been rolling in it for hours.”

With the delightful details of that story, you can almost feel yourself in the woods. You can see the muddy mess in your mind. You can smell the thick, wooded area. Details help your listener experience the story rather than just hearing it.

Put your listener in the moment. Always include delightful details in your story.

Blog, Podcast content

Lead With An Intriguing Introduction

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Lead with an intriguing introduction.

This is true for your podcast in general as well as each individual topic. Your intriguing introduction should hook your audience, let them know exactly what to expect, and allow them to enjoy the story.

What do you hope your audience will take away from this particular discussion? Your introduction should spell it out. It should set up what is to come.

If your goal is to make your listener laugh at your misfortune over the weekend, lead with it. “This weekend was so disastrous, I wouldn’t have had time for anything else to go wrong even if I tried.” The audience will now have time to enjoy the vivid details of your horrible weekend rather than trying to figure out what point you are trying to make.

When you begin your story with the details, your listener spends energy trying to determine the point you are trying to make. They are trying to figure out what the story is about.

Have you ever been stuck listening to someone tell a story while you’re thinking, “Will he ever get to the point?” That is what we are trying to avoid.

Here is an example of a story you might hear. “This weekend we went to the mall. It was just the two of us. We were looking for a gift for my dad.” Are we telling a story about finding gifts? Is this story just recapping the weekend? Maybe it is about my dad. You don’t know. I haven’t told you. There is no lead to this story.

To hook your audience and allow them to truly enjoy the story, lead with an intriguing introduction.

Audience Engagement, Blog, Passion

PODCAST ABOUT YOUR PASSION

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Podcast about your passion.

I know that sounds like logical, common sense.  I know you probably think only a crazy person would ever put the time and effort into a podcast on a topic about which they do not care.  It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Podcasters and broadcasters alike will often discuss topics they think interests their audience.  These may be topics in which the podcaster may have a slight interest, but not a passion.  They tell themselves, “I must discuss this.  It is what the audience expects.”

It creates a problem when you are only generally interested in a topic and  you’re only discussing it because you think the audience will be interested.  As you discuss, you will sound generally interested.  It is tough to fake interest for any length of time.  Your listeners will notice.  When you aren’t interested, they aren’t interested.

Find that topic that stirs your passion.  When you are passionate, your audience will hear your enthusiasm come through the speakers.  Your enthusiasm will be contagious.  Your passion will stir their interest.

I’m sure you’ve seen a professor who had the ability to make a dry subject interesting.  Maybe it was your trigonometry teacher.  They were passionate about the subject and created an interest with you.  There may not have been a passion in  you for trig.  But, there was some interest.

Interest works from speaker to audience.  It won’t work from audience to speaker.  For true audience engagement, podcast about your passion.

Audience Engagement, Audience Relationship, Blog

Audience Of One

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As you are creating your podcast, treat your audience like you are talking to each person individually.  This is critical when creating a trusting relationship with your audience.

I hear many shows address their audience as a group with comments like “hello everyone” or “hey guys”.  Each person in your audience is listening to you as an individual.  Audio is a very personal medium.  Many times, they are listening with headphones.  It is just you and her.  Talk to her just like that.

Addressing a crowd on the radio began when radio began.  As radio was just being created, station owners needed content to broadcast.  Radio programming began with rebroadcasting live, theater events.  The person on the stage would address the crowd as “ladies and gentleman”.

As radio progressed, live audiences were eliminated.  However, people on the radio continued to address the audience as a group.  It was fitting.  The family still gathered around the radio before television was introduced to the family room.  An on-air personality could address the audience as a group and be justified in doing so.

Radio then became a personal medium.  The television replaced the radio as family entertainment.  In-car and headphones became the preferred method of radio listening.  Each listener was now creating images and visions in his or her own head that were unique to their imagination.  Their thoughts were different from those of any other listener.  The conversation was now between the person on the air and the individual listening.

Unfortunately, radio personalities continued to address the listener as a group.  “It has always been done this way.”  The disconnect began.

Podcasts are even more individualistic than radio.  Most people select a podcast because of their own tastes.  Groupthink does not play a factor as it would to select a movie or television show for the family.  It is one person listening on their own to a show that interests them.

If you are talking to your listener as if they are in a group, using plural terms like everyone and you guys and you all, your listener will wonder who you are addressing.  They will think, “You guys?  I’m listening by myself.  Who are you talking to?”  In the end, they will not follow your call-to-action, because they will think someone else in your “group” will handle it.  Talk to an audience of one and build that relationship with each listener individually.

Audience Engagement, Blog

Make Them Care

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I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “what’s in it for me?”

Your audience will be asking this very question every time they tune into your podcast.  Your introduction better tell your listener exactly how your topic will affect them.  You need to hook them right at the beginning with an intriguing introduction.  If you don’t hook them early, they will be gone in search of something more captivating.

When your audience knows what is in it for them, they begin to care.  Making your listener care is the only way to get them to listen and more importantly come back again.

Audience Target, Blog

Narrow Your Target and Focus

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I was listening to The Podcast Answer Man (PodcastAnswerMan.com) the other day. He made a great point. He described his audience as podcasters who are serious about the quality of their show and serious about turning their podcast into a business.

He admits that even though he has many hobbyists listening to the show on a regular basis, his show isn’t necessarily targeted toward them. His show is for the serious podcaster.

Your target audience for your show should be just as clearly defined.

Audience Engagement, Blog

Don’t Waste My Time

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Make the introduction of your show compelling. It should make your audience want to stick around for the payoff. I hear so many shows begin with their standard show open immediately followed by a bunch of housekeeping. Don’t waste the time of your audience. Your introduction should make a promise (tell the audience what to expect). You should then follow through on that promise (give them the content they expect).

When a show begins with, “I’ll show you how to make a million dollars in 4 easy-to-understand steps”, followed by, “But first, I want to let you know that my increase in speaking engagements has slowed my ability to respond to e-mail, blah, blah, blah”, you are losing your audience. Your fan tuned in to hear your secrets, not your problems.

If you have housekeeping notes to pass along, sprinkle them within the show among the content. Lead with your strongest material. Housekeeping is not it.

Your introduction should set up your podcast. It should be an intriguing introduction that tells the listener exactly what the podcast is all about. What will I get when I listen? It doesn’t matter whether your podcast is 10 minutes or 60 minutes long. You need to tell the listener what is to come.

“Welcome to Podcast Talent Coach Podcast. My name is Erik K. Johnson. Over the next 30 minutes, we will answer your questions about transforming your podcast from information into engaging entertainment and from a relationship into cash.”

With that quick introduction, I told you exactly what to expect. You know the name of my podcast. You know the name of the host. You know exactly how long my podcast will run. You know the goal we are setting out to accomplish. I’ve also put you in the mix by referencing your dreams and how my podcast will help you. In those brief seconds, I’ve given you who, what, when and why.

That content should be followed immediately by a creative tease of this particular show. It might be something like, “We will help Steve figure out how to gently end a bad interview. Shelly asks about incorporating a call-to-action without making the show sound like an infomercial. And finally, we will hear a clip for the ‘The Golden Garden’ podcast and help Chris increase the energy and forward momentum in the show. Let’s get to it. First up …” This goes right into the show content. We start delivering on the promise made in the introducion. The show is moving forward.

If I said, “Before we get to it, let me explain the new look of my website”, I would only be relevant to a small portion of my audience. Who cares about my new layout? That would assume first that most of my audience has visited my website prior to this show, and second that they can’t find their own way around the new layout. That’s a pretty big assumption. If is important enough to include, put it at the end, or somehow incorporate the information into an answer.

Don’t waste the time of your audience. Make your introduction intriguing and get to the content immediately.

Blog, Branding

Own Your Category

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Great brands own their category by consistently communicating one focused message.  Think of some of the best known brands in America.  The best-known soda in the world is defined by “the real thing”.  Who serves more hamburgers than anyone in the world?  Save 15% on your car insurance.  You’re a great athlete … just do it!  Coca Cola, McDonalds, Geico, and Nike all deliver focused and consistent messages and thereby become solid brands.

If you study the great brands, you will notice they stand for one specific thing. McDonald’s isn’t simply “food”. It isn’t even “fast food”. McDonalds is hamburgers. Sure, they have other items on their menu. However, they are not known for their apple pies or chocolate milk. McDonald’s is known as a hamburger joint.

When you begin to define your brand and strategy, be specific. What is the one thing for which you will be known? What is the one thing that will make you stand out and be remembered? You can ask yourself, “When people think of my brand, they think of _____.” It will be very difficult to become a memorable brand if you fill in that blank with some generic term like computers or cars or health.

Be specific, be focused, be consistent and own your brand.

Blog, Uncategorized

Storyteller For Success

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As you create your podcast, become a great storyteller.  Great storytellers create fans.

Interest in your story never remains constant.  Your information can only become entertainment when interest is rising.  If interest is falling, the show is becoming boring and is no longer entertainment.  A great story continues to develop the plot and raise the interest.

Have you ever sat through a long, monotonous story that never seems to end?  You stare and wonder if the speaker actually has a point to this monologue.  You pray for your cell phone to ring and save you.  That scenario is exactly what you want to avoid.  Practice becoming a great storyteller.

Stories help define your character and personality.  You should always be yourself.  It is difficult to play a character consistently and tell great stories.  Your true feelings and identity will always be revealed in the stories you tell.  If you are successful hiding your true self, you simply are not telling great stories.  Vivid details and interesting points that stir emotions in your listeners can only come from your true feelings. Reveal your true character.  Storytellers create raving fans.

Audience Engagement, Audience Relationship, Blog

Talk To Me, Not At Me

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When you are podcasting, talk “to” your listener.  Don’t talk “at” her.  You are not announcing.  You are having a personal conversation and building a relationship.

Podcasting is an intimate conversation with one person.  The conversation is typically one person speaking into a microphone addressing another single individual.  There may sometimes be hundreds of thousands of people listening.  However, they are all listening by themselves.  Even in an automobile with others listening via communal speakers, the members of the audience are listening by themselves in their own head.  Each listener is developing their own unique, mental images.

Have a conversation directly with that individual.  Put your listener in the moment.  Avoid addressing the group.  Instead of using “hello everyone”, use “hi, how are you?”  Make her feel like you are talking directly to her.  It will make your podcast relationship much stronger.