All right, welcome to 526. This one’s likely going to be a short one because honestly I’m feeling a little ranty and I need to get this out, and you’re going to be subjected to that, but it’s okay because that’s what podcasts are for.
I don’t care about your clean audio. If your purpose in hiring is to get clean audio, just hire a freelance editor. Look in podcast groups, look on Upwork, look on Fiverr. There are a lot of options. Reach out to your favorite podcasters and ask them for just a freelance editor. They care about clean audio. I don’t. Clean audio is important, 100%. Certainly want the podcast to sound as clear and professional and clean and beautiful as it can. You also want it to sound human. But clean audio is not what converts your listenership into buying from you. Hiring an editor will not get you more sales. It just won’t.
Hiring an editor is not how you grow your business. It’s not even how you run your podcast. It’s how you deliver a better product, but if your podcast isn’t currently getting anyone to listen to it, and isn’t currently getting anyone to buy it, an editor won’t change that. You have to be looking at your content strategy. You’ve got to be looking at your show’s purpose, your content purpose. You’ve got to be looking at your process. Are you sharing the episodes? Are you marketing the episodes? Who are you marketing them to? Are you talking about the same things that your ideal clients care about?
That conversation is what gets you more listeners. That conversation is what converts more clients. So, what are the two things I care about? What are the two pieces that I do want you to be getting support on, I do want you to be thinking about, instead of your clean audio?
First, Strategy.
What is the purpose of each episode? What is the call to action? You remember, I think you heard this episode last week, but we talked about the changes I made to my show and I can’t remember which point it is, but at some point I make a point, I’m almost positive I do, about selling.
That’s your strategy, actually using my show to sell. Actually using this content to tell you and chat with you about what’s next. What comes after this just insightful, inspiring, entertainment podcast episode? That was my best mock podcast voice, how’d it go? But when you start looking at that strategy, when you start thinking about, “Here’s what I’m talking about, here’s why I’m talking about it, here’s who I’m talking about it to. Here’s what they do next, here’s what I do next, here’s how often it’s shared, here’s where it’s shared, here’s how it’s put into X, Y, and Z. Here’s how it’s repurposed.”
When you start looking at that, when you start looking at that component, we start seeing more listens, we start seeing more conversions. Your strategy. So sit down with a content strategist, sit down with a coach, sit down with a marketing strategist, sit down with a podcast strategist, sit down with an agency that offers strategic support alongside of your editing. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Right? An editor who’s just cleaning up your audio is not going to impact your strategy.
What’s the other one? Marketing.
Here’s the deal. If you don’t market your show, if you don’t tell people there’s an episode, no one’s going to listen to it. Yes, if you’ve been doing this awhile, you very likely have a subscriber base that helps at the beginning and gives you some sort of first initial jump of downloads, but then you’ve got to be emailing it. You’ve got to be sharing it on social, you’ve got to be talking about it consistently. You’ve got to be promoting the episodes. If you’re not promoting the episodes, if you’re not singing that time on your calendar, every single episode, in your to-do list or your task list or your production checklist or whatever you want to call it. If you don’t see, “Share on social”, “Write email”, “Create social posts”, “Share in group”, “Promote to blah-blah-blah”, “Send to such and such”, “Add to whatever”. If you don’t see those kinds of things, if you go right from schedule episode to record next episode, you are leaving money on the table.
You have to, have to, have to market your show. I did an episode several months ago now, I’ll link to it in the show notes, where I talk about why I treat this podcast like my most premium offer. Listen to that if you haven’t yet, it’s a good one, but it’s more of this. You have to be promoting your show as if you were selling it, because you are. The same thing is true by your email opt-in by the way, the same thing is true about the free round table, or masterclass, or webinar, or Q&A session, or virtual hot seat call. I don’t know, whatever variant of that idea you want to call it. If you’re not looking at, “How do we promote this? How do we get this to listeners?” You are leaving money on the table.
You just are. And you have to be looking at what you should be doing instead, all right? Strategy and marketing are not going to be supported by an editor. This doesn’t mean you have to hire a podcast agency. It doesn’t. It doesn’t mean you have to hire us. You can get those things from your coaches and independent consultants who just do one-off calls or VIP days, any of those things we offer. I have single sessions. Head over to the website, book one.
This can look like lots of things, but these are the investments I want you to be making before you hire an editor. Even if you’re early in your show and you can’t work with an agency on a recurring basis, or you can’t work with a coach on a recurring basis, book a session with somebody, a single session. I know a lot of coaches and consultants who have like, “Buy me a coffee”, and for a moderate amount of investment, you can get a half hour call with them, or an hour call with them.
I sell single session strategy calls, book one of those. Doesn’t mean to be a long-term commitment, but you do need to be having these conversations, and it’s really impactful to be having these conversations outside of your head. Your head is a dangerous place. At least mine is, right? I needed perspective. And so biz besties, consultants, wherever you are right now, book them. If you are thinking about hiring an agency, this is a great way to test out what working with them is like. Book strategy sessions. If they don’t have them on their website obviously available, email and say, “Hey, I’m looking for just a single session. I want to get in and talk to, really experience what it’s like to be supported by this agency. Can I book a single session?”
Like I said, we’ve got it on our website. Go grab one. But these are the conversations you need to be having, before you start getting too, too, in your head about cleaning up your audio.
The thing I want to wrap us up with, and again, I told you this was going to be a short one because it’s mostly me ranting, and this is where we’re going to get pretty ranty. But for me, I mean, we have on our sales page a line that says, “Clean audio is the least important part of our job.” That’s it. “Clean audio is the least important part of our job.” And that’s saying something, because I went to school to learn how to edit audio. I went to school, I have a degree in audio engineering, and your clean audio was the least valuable part of your investment with us, is the least important part of our time together.
Because for me, the uncommonly more that is Uncommonly More, is that we care about your show. We care about you as a podcaster, as a business leader, because the kind of podcasters we work with, aren’t just podcasters. This isn’t a hobby. This isn’t us creating a really great show about Schitt’s Creek, right? This is about you creating an asset in your business that gets results. And, overextended podcasters and overextended business leaders can’t deliver. They can’t. They cannot deliver at 100% if they’re not cared for at 100%.
And so, the biggest part of what we do is we give our podcasters somepalce to ask questions, some place to feel supported, some place to feel like they’re not trying to figure this out all alone. I get messages from our clients all the time. We’re like, “Hey, I’m thinking about hiring X, Y, Z.” Maybe it’s a podcast pitching agency. Maybe it is a marketing support person. Maybe it is a PR opportunity. “What do you think? How can we use the show to help this? I’m thinking about submitting to be on such and such show. Have you worked with anybody who’s been on their show? Have they seen results? Do you know if there’s a fee?” Because some podcasts you have fees to be on the show.
“Hey, I’m thinking about launching this opt-in.” What episodes can we use to support them? What episodes need to go in the funnel after that? “Hey, I can’t record for the next six weeks because I have X, Y, Z happening.” Maybe it’s a launch, maybe it’s illness, maybe it’s a wedding, maybe it’s a vacation, in a land when vacations happen again. Whatever it is, it’s, “Hey, I need some support in figuring out what we’re going to do.” Cool. Let us figure it out.
That’s not about clean audio. And in my opinion, it’s the most important part of our job. The strategy support, the marketing support and above all else, taking care of our podcasters. Taking care of the humans that lead these incredible shows. That’s the most important. All right? Told you it was going to be short. I told you it’s going to be ranty. I hope it was at least also entertaining and helpful. DM me and let me know how it went.
With that, if you were interested in getting some support with podcast production, reach out. Strategy sessions, like I said, are available in the website. Head over to UncommonlyMore.com and you can find both of those things. I look forward to chatting with you and I will talk to you again next week, really next month, because it’ll be May. Did anybody else just see that Justin Timberlake meme in their head? “It’s gonna be May?” No, just me? All right, I’ll see you next week.