Note: “Automated” transcript
Show 2
Is it possible to make a hit podcast show on your home computer in the year 2020 with limited time and resources of a normal person with a day job? If you’re like me, then you like podcasts and with so much free advice out there on how to make the next big hit show, it feels like we’re only a few steps away from an international hit.
[00:00:19] Right? But I’ve tried making five podcasts myself, and none of them have exactly set the world alight. Logic says if some people can do it though, so can you, and I. If we can find the right market and deliver what the audience wants, we should have no problem as distribution to billions of people is virtually free these days as well.
[00:00:41] So I’m tapping into my journalistic past in this program and going on a journey to find out how to do it right this time. I want to know what actually works in practice, not in theory. And I want to know what works now in the 2020s not the last decade. In this series. I’m going to be creating a podcast myself as well.
[00:01:00] I’m putting the advice to real world test and I hope you’ll do the same too, so that we can share what we learn as we go along. I don’t know what that program is yet, but I want to try and work out what would be the right show for me and I want to share that experience with you. So this show has really quite a straight forward title.
[00:01:18] Can I make a hit? Podcast.
[00:01:24] Hello again. When you’re listening to the audio podcast version of this show or watching on YouTube, welcome. If you haven’t seen the live YouTube videos, what I’m going to be going through the different points and learning in real time. That’s my plan for the future. Then please do subscribe on YouTube.
[00:01:40] Now you can find all the details on my website at can I make a hit podcast.com you can subscribe on YouTube as well to make sure you keep up to date with that, and so that it gives you notifications in your channel when I release new shows. And then there’s the audio summary version, which I hope will be the perfect.
[00:01:58] A antidote for listening to in the car on the train, or if you’re lying in bed, thinking about your podcast in future as well to try and get a summary of what we’ve talked about in the main program. But I really want to make a live program as well so that we can work together on some of these things.
[00:02:13] So make sure whatever you do use to describe now to both the YouTube show and to the podcast on your favorite podcasting app as well. So last week I looked at some of the many mistakes I’d made in the past, and I hope that I could stop you from making them too, and perhaps if you have made those mistakes, perhaps it’s served as a bit of a reminder or a wake up call as well.
[00:02:35] Then those question on my mind though, is this one. And I felt this had to be addressed because the question is, what actually is a hit podcast? Now that might sound like, okay, we just go off and have a love in with some of the big podcasts out there, but I think that’s completely wrong because a lot of people seem to have different ideas about what a hit podcast is.
[00:02:53] What is it for you and me and how do we work that out? Because. You know, I want to show which people like I want to hit show. I want something that actually delivers some value, which makes me feel good and keeps me motivated to actually work on it as well. And the only way I can do that is by knowing what I’m actually. Aiming for. Right? So does that mean a big show? Does that mean you know, it’s going to set the world and it’s going to be talked about in all the newspapers? Or does it mean something that makes a hundred people really happy and gives them something which gives them tremendous value? Um, you know, you can try and dumb stuff down and, and, and in podcasting, people just don’t have to listen anymore.
[00:03:32] It’s not like the old days. We even had a few TV channels. So what is it. In terms of the audience that I want to achieve. You know, your view of a hit podcast could be very different to mine as well. So I don’t know what it is. It’s gonna make you happy. And what would be a hit podcast to you? So in this show today, I want to define for you and me.
[00:03:52] What is it that we’re actually looking to achieve? What will be our hit podcast and what makes sense to you? I guess I know my gut also. You know what I want. I want it as a say, an audience who respond to what I do because that’s really important. I was talking about last time to keep me motivated on this project because it is going to take a lot of work and I want people to value what I do as well, but that’s not my ramming it down their throat.
[00:04:15] They have to genuinely value it. Yeah. I want to feel also that I’m doing something that helps people, but what does that mean? Will I be happy, as I say, with a hundred people, or do I need many more. As usual, I have been researching this question or we just looking at the tip bit is looking out for tweets, looking for articles that I’ve seen around the internet because there’s so much advice out there, and I wanted to run through some of those articles I found this week with you.
[00:04:41] Now in this program, you can find all the links as you’re watching this or listening to the podcast on. Can I make a hit podcast.com I’ve listed them on the, uh, the latest posts there so you can find them at and give the number of them and you’ll be able to see them. On the website corresponding. So I’ve been doing some Googling as I say, I’ve ruled out the most pointless links that I found because, gosh, when you search for what is a hit podcast, my God there’s a lot of rubbish out there. But anyway, and I think it’s clickbait. So I try to find something that would offer some real value to you and me today. So let’s have a look at some of this stuff that I found and the first link.
[00:05:20] The first resources. As I say that you will find on the website. Let me just grab that link. We are, well, I am filming this in real time and as the same future. I hope that by going live, you can share with me as we look at this. So let’s bring that up on the page. The first resource then is this one, and it’s from the New York times and it was an interesting title.
[00:05:44] Have we hit a peak podcast, which sounds like it’s not quite. Um. When I was trying to find here, but it actually threw up quite a few really interesting points. And if I, if we just scan through that, you can see as by Jennifer Miller, it w it’s quite recent and it basically talks about, um, how some people made a podcasst and how they got success with it.
[00:06:09] So let’s just have a quick look at some of the points that I noted down. Um, why, why is it that we want to make a podcast? So again, we’re thinking about. What is a hit pod`cast for us, it plays into a sense of self importance. Let’s be honest. It’s an ego thing here, isn’t it? We want to express ourselves. We want to feel some value.
[00:06:28] We want to get something from it. So they made that clear that it is about self-importance, and that’s not a bad thing, but the fact is, or the fact is they say is that you have to have something. To tell people that other people are going to care about. So there’s an awful lot of people who are just sitting down with a microphone and recording something and no one cares.
[00:06:50] And if that’s what you want to do, then great. But if your aim is to achieve an audience, then you’ve got to, um, to reach out to. It says in the article, uh, another one they say, here is a pod. A podcast is a credibility indicator of your skill. If, if people listen to it, which is something that. You know, would be nice.
[00:07:09] Again, it’s, it’s like people who write a book isn’t it? And they have a, a, you know, bestselling book, and that’s their claim to fame. If you have a podcast that’s kind of still seeing a little bit of, uh, a credibility indicator, although perhaps that’s going down a bit now, networking is a big plus. They talk about in the article, uh, the fact that even if no one listens.
[00:07:31] By having a podcast and inviting on guests, and it’s still kind of hard to quantify exactly how many people are listening to a show or watching the show. Um, even if you’re in a situation, we haven’t got that many. If you can get on good guests, you can use that as a networking opportunity. What else do they say?
[00:07:50] There’s an interest in quotes, which, let me just see if I can find it. It was in here and it was Jordan. Yeah. Here we go. Jordan harbinger, the host of the Jordan Harbinger’s show podcast, and he thinks that things have changed a lot. Because podcasting has become, well, what he describes as a, as a, um, whether it is the words, they’re a podcast industrial complex.
[00:08:18] So people are now making shows, not because it’s a fun niche hobby, uh, they do it for Martin to make money or because it will make them an influencer. Perhaps that’s your aim as well. Or perhaps it’s the fun hobby. It’s just, you sort of think about. What needs to be created. He said is a real conversation that will benefit the audience, not a host, but in our case, it’s great if the money was coming in, then you don’t mind doing something you’re not so interested in.
[00:08:45] But like, you know, um, I’m sure many, many day jobs you’ve done in the past or that first day job you ever had. Um, but in this particular case, we need something that’s going to motivate us as well. Um, and also the point being made in this article too, is that doing a good interview show. Can be really hard.
[00:09:03] A lot of people just set themselves up to and grab a couple of Mike’s and just chat to people, and this is great for networking, things like that. But. And there’s a lot of evidence to show that the majority of podcasts now are just chat shows or just talk shows, which are really good fun to do, but getting a really gripping interview, it takes a lot of skill.
[00:09:25] They’re saying this article, and unless you’re asking really good questions or unless you’re going to spend a lot of time editing to bring out the really good content, it can be very hard to compete when so many other people are are doing this. So what can we get from it so far? What did, um, what did I get from it so far on that one?
[00:09:46] I wish we were alive because I would love to hear your thoughts from there. I suppose the first thing is you have to provide the value. Yep. Nope. I’ll spell this slightly better that later. You have to provide value. Um, what do you want to make? Do you want to make that will. I encourage you to work on the project.
[00:10:14] Yeah. What’s your, your reward and do you want it, yeah. For networking or to just enjoy a chat or to deliver a specific type of value. We’re a business. So those are some of the questions I think we’ve got so far. So let’s move on to resource two. And I was looking around for someone that had done really well with podcasting, who had made a big success, and one of those people is Tim Ferriss.
[00:10:57] Now I know what you may say straight away because this is something I said that said in the introduction, his whole show is that. I don’t want to know what worked 10 years ago, because these people who have made a huge success over the past few years, we’re in a very different place. They didn’t have the competition we have now, and they must have made the name of build up.
[00:11:15] And I’m not saying Tim Ferriss is lacking in anything if fantastic marketer and give some really good content, but to do that breakthrough now, I think is an awful lot harder. But I still wanted to look at what some of the points were that he was going to make, which might help. Um, the first one was this section in here.
[00:11:39] So what’s, he got 60 million downloads. It’s actually staggering, isn’t it? Let me see if I can actually find what I was looking for. This section. What’s your, and you’ll find this as I say, as resource to on the website, and what’s your longterm revenue strategy with a pod with his podcast. Um, and he says here that the.
[00:11:58] The revenue opportunities often present itself as you focus on creating something that you would pay for. And I love this one because if you actually think about it, how much content out there would you put your own hand in your pocket to get money out and actually pay for? Not a lot. Not a lot of stuff, would you actually do that?
[00:12:20] So if you can find some value that you would actually pay for, then you really hit the nail on the head. Um, was he saying if you can easily sell it to 10 friends and do some basic market research on top of that, the whole concept of it, then the odds improve. So can you get 10 friends interested in what you’re doing?
[00:12:36] If you go out there and say, I just want to talk about my day. Um, unless you’ve got a really interesting life. Uh, would those 10 friends listen? Can you guarantee it? If you can definitely get 10 friends to listen, then you’ve got something. Um, he was saying that everyone should try podcasting for at least five to six episodes, even if you just, even if it’s just to get better at asking questions.
[00:12:58] I said that I’d done five. I’ve done five podcasts myself. I made a huge number of mistakes. Um, and that’s five different podcasts, not episodes, but I think that is a great. Learning thing. You got to do it a few times and be prepared. Trick seven. I think the podcasts are making this series as well. If it doesn’t work, the first one doesn’t matter.
[00:13:17] Move on to another one. It’s all about make it getting to that point where we will achieve a hit podcast. If someone ends up better than me, says a ranking better than me, they deserve to beat me. I’ll be the first person to buy them a beer. Remember that podcasting isn’t a zero sum game and a rising tide raises all the ships.
[00:13:34] So in other words, when one podcast does well, everyone does well. That’s what he was saying. I think that’s probably something more for the past. And then there was another point here. Cause I so wish you were watching this live because then you could scan through this as well and pick out useful things too.
[00:13:52] But this section here about, um, uh, what’s he saying here? But for God’s sake, I don’t have a best selling book or a big blog. You have an unfair advantage. What can I do as in he has an unfair advantage. So what he says here is. But what’s this? No one knows you. Nothing. You’ve got to actually go out there and do something.
[00:14:15] So like everyone else, at one point, he had zero readers and zero listeners. Um, we start out naked and afraid coming to the party with a preexisting audience isn’t enough celebrity. Yeah, this is, you see, he makes out here is it. You can’t just be anyone that turns up and then give up a few weeks later.
[00:14:34] You’ve actually got to go in there with a commitment to carry on. With the podcast upload at least two to three prerecorded episodes. When you launch your podcast. This is to help your ranking, and also people will then be able to enjoy more content as well from you straight away if they liked what you like.
[00:14:51] Keep the format simple. I have gone, I made the mistake so many times. Most would be blockbuster. Podcasters quit because they get overwhelmed with the gear and the editing. Yes, I completely and completely agree. It’s a difficult one though. Cause when you think of some of the successful ones, like, like, um, S town, um, and a lot of the sort of, uh, true crime type podcasts, there’s a lot of editing and a lot of time that has gone into them.
[00:15:17] What was it? There was one recently about, uh, Dolly Parton. I think they had spent two years to make six episodes or something. So I don’t know whether you sitting at home want to do that complexity. I like this quote from Tony Robbins saying, complexity is the enemy of execution. Don’t pursue or even think about sponsors until you have a critical mass.
[00:15:39] Yet. We talked about that before. Get transcripts. Totally. If you use blog posts or utilize graphics to increase podcast downloads, yes. And experiment constantly. So he’s got some interesting points in there. Um, I think my main takeaway from that is the whole importance of, first of all, um, do a few episodes and learn and learn from it.
[00:16:06] Let me just bring up the notes so that you can see that, do a few episodes and learn from it. Um. See if you can get, can get 10 friends genuinely interested, interested in your project, and. If so, you are onto something. The thing, there’s another book I want to talk about soon. Of course, it’s called the mom test and it’s a great business book about finding out where the people really, genuinely are interested in something or whether they’re just saying it because they are your mate.
[00:16:48] I think those are my main ones. I’m taking out of that article. I don’t know if you’re watching along with this and I’m going to look at the article at the same time. Be interested to know what your. Your finding, feel free to treat me as well. By the way, it’s a hit podcast, 2020 on Twitter and on Instagram.
[00:17:04] So hit podcast 2020 on Instagram and on Twitter and upload at least two tutors. I’ll keep it simple. Keep it simple, keep it simple. Upload two to three episodes, which I guess is where I’m kind of doing here. Moving on. The resource number three is also Tim Ferris. Just don’t we look at how long they’ve been going on here.
[00:17:32] 19 minutes. I felt wow. And, um, it’s a video and as I say, you find the link again on the website. It’s just have a quick look guys, Tim Ferriss here, author of four hour work week, four hour, this, that, and the other thing, tools of Titans, host of the Tim Ferriss show, all that. And I want to take a stab at a very common question, which is, if you were starting a business from scratch, if you were starting a podcast from scratch, what advice would you give law.
[00:18:02] Um, I’ll leave that going on in the background, but I’ve watched this video already and I think there is some absolutely fantastic advice in here, and it really has focused on setting up a business, but it’s the same principles. So you’re starting from scratch, as he said, make sure you watch this video because there’s some great recommendations in there and some also some book recommendations as well, which is really interesting.
[00:18:24] He said, first of all. Um, is it, when you look out there and you see so many other people doing the same sort of thing, don’t try and just instantly copy them. Because it’s very hard to move into a market that’s already existing and you can say to yourself, I’m going to do it better. But if the best people in that market are already brilliant at it, and I’ve got loads of experience, what hope have you actually genuinely got of doing better?
[00:18:47] So he says that it is far better and far easier to create a category and own it than it is to dominate an existing category. Or, uh, as I say, trying to be the best in it. So the law of categories, he talks about that and he refers to a great book. Um, I’m going to struggle to say this, the 22 immutable laws of marketing don’t obsess over scaling as the next thing he says.
[00:19:09] Don’t, you know, do great work in a category, in a niche, and you can always expand from there. But. A focus on a niche, create a podcast that you can’t find. I love this one that you can’t find for yourself that you would want to listen to. So don’t create for an audience as you’ll struggle. So if you identify a niche audience, which seems the logical thing to do, but if you identify any shortness and you go, okay, I need to make a podcast for eggs.
[00:19:36] I’ve done that several times now and just I wasn’t interested. I wasn’t passionate about the actual topic. If you’re excited about a podcast, then if there’s something that you would like to listen to that no one else is making, then chances of you’re excited about it. He says, then someone else’s likely to be as well.
[00:19:56] He talks about a thousand true fans. This was an essay that he talks, as I say, talks, right? Um, which talked about the importance of focusing on a core group of people who love what you do. And if you can reach a small group who love what you do, rather than lots of people that don’t really care that much, those people will be your advocates or market.
[00:20:16] So if you can get a thousand people really passionate about your project, a million people will be easy. So it’s a thousand people. You want to start with. Um, so do something different. Get a thousand true fans. Be effective. Oh, this is something that I love. Obviously he’s a master there, and if you haven’t read the book is the four hour work week, make sure you read it.
[00:20:45] It’s all about making the maximum efficiency of your time tremendously powerful stuff in there, the 80 20 principle and all that. So have a look at that one. There’s some really, really interesting stuff because podcasting takes time. Identify who your most engaged listeners once you’re underway, what characteristics do they have?
[00:21:02] Make a profile of them and make that the person that you’re imagining in your mind as you’re talking to them. One of the things for me right now is that because I haven’t interacted with you yet, I don’t quite know who I’m talking to, is I’m talking a little bit in the dark game. Know what your end goal is, what we’ve just been talking about.
[00:21:18] Do you really want a huge audience or is there another aim? Is it access to events? He talks about. I’ve kind of mentioned this, but the mom test, I read this a while ago, I originally pitched an idea for a tech company to a venture firm, and let’s just say the, uh, the S the sales pitch didn’t go so well because what they said at the end of it was they basically said, go and buy a book.
[00:21:44] And it was called the mum test. Uh, you can find it. In fact, actually, let me see. If I can just remove mr Ferris for a moment and place it with this mom test book. Yeah. Here we go. Um, and it’s a really interesting book because what he basically says, and it’s quite short, but the basic message of it is if you ask your mum, she will say she loves what you’re doing.
[00:22:08] If you ask your partner, they will say they love what you’re doing. But the reality is that. You need people who really do care about what you’re doing. And the whole approach that I got from reading the book is that when you want to test an idea, and this would be I think the same for the podcast as well in terms of us the testing, what will be the idea that will really actually work.
[00:22:32] We want to go out there and not say, I’m going to make a podcast about X. We want to ask, what is it you’re missing at the moment? What do you wish you could listen to. What would you really like to hear and what would give you value? But don’t say, because I’m going to make a podcast about it. Just say what’s missing?
[00:22:54] Because if you say, I’m going to make a podcast, people immediately want to help you and they want to encourage you and they want it to be your friend. But if you say, what’s missing? Or I’m curious, what is it? Or what did you think of that? What did you think of that? And really test out what people genuinely say.
[00:23:08] Without them thinking that you’re going to do anything, you will get a much more honest answer and a more authentic, um, project that you can come work off. In fact, we actually did, I was talking to my partner about this and we were discussing the podcast S town and how much we liked it. And I was saying to my partner, well, what is it you really enjoyed about.
[00:23:31] That podcast, and it was the story. John maca mole was a great character and the editing and the production of that podcast was tremendous. And this is true of all of these true crime things. Now you get a great story and you get to sort of question about the evidence and decide whether you think they were really guilty or not.
[00:23:53] So then I said to my partner, okay, well would you be interested in putting those criteria crimes aside? Would you be interested in a story about an archeologist? She’s like, no, not really, because it would need to have a bit of a sense of immediacy. And one of the things with S town is you just didn’t know which way this story was going to go.
[00:24:11] So story was a really big factor in what she found interesting. Um, and it was expelled. I thought I would try, if I can find my phone somewhere here. There it is. And perhaps you want to try this one too, is if you grab your, your phone. And have a look at your podcast app once it loads for me, and then look at the podcast you’ve got on there.
[00:24:41] And then in all honesty, if you had to pick three, four you wanted to listen to, apart from your own, which would it be? No, I’m looking through mine. I’ve got a whole variety of stuff on here from history too. Um, to sport, to membership staff, to my own podcast, obviously, and I’m genuinely just going to try and have a look and see what would I listen to.
[00:25:12] I would probably listen to absolute rally, which is about ratting, which is a sport I’m really interested in. I like behind the membership, which is from the membership guys. They have a great, great podcast. And the thing. I like about that is that there’s a story with learning, so you actually kind of go on a journey with the people in it.
[00:25:33] It’s not just a sort of list of tips. It’s actually, they’d sort of describe how they got involved, how they got started, what happened, what they felt like. And I think that story aspect makes it more interesting to me than the other podcasts they do where they just list off the tips and it’s quite interesting.
[00:25:49] You fit, I guess you feel inspired at the end of that. So you learn, but you also feel like. I could do this. Whereas when you just hear a series of sort of factual tips, you don’t get that same good feeling. That same bars, what else is down here that I would immediately grab or masters of scale with Reed Hoffman like that one too, and whether you’ve ever heard it, it is a highly edited, very highly edited and so quite entertaining, fast-moving.
[00:26:20] Uh, it’s a story about startups and lessons and. The tech world and Silicon Valley, but it is very heavily edited, but it’s very easy listening. It’s entertaining. So even if you’re not really interested in about business learning that day, you can listen to it and still in quotes, have a good time. Um, anything else that I would grab on to, I would probably listen to a few political ones, but mainly the ones that are entertaining.
[00:26:51] Rather than deep and heavy because some of these political ones can, the academic ones just just don’t interest me. So I mean, I’m, I’m a bit of a political junkie or certainly used to be as it is. I’ve put them up before, so I would probably listen to both the young Turks, which is from the left, and possibly even listen to Zanny like Ben Shapiro, because I think the both contrasts.
[00:27:18] Oh, really? Interesting. And I’ve got how many actual podcasts on here? Uh, 2030, 44, 45 or so podcast I’ve got on there. And I think those are the ones that are listened to. And that’s the reason why. So good story, accessible, entertaining. Um, also learning. I mean, that’s, um, add those points. So what type would I listen to or you listen to
[00:27:57] good story. Good story. Feel good. I like a feel good or funny. Um, but learn from with story, story, also highly edited and easy to listen to.
[00:28:21] I think those are my, those are the points that I would listen to on that one. Okay. Let’s move on. That was an interesting little exercise actually. I can start to give an idea actually about what would they a hip podcast for me. Okay, so have a look at the next one. Now this is from the BBC and. The title of it is what makes a podcast to hit and, and that’s fine.
[00:28:52] But the problem is when you listen to this, and I recommend you do because it’s still quite interesting. They record, they talk about a few things, they talk about how you can make a podcast, and then talking about people that have got lots of time and energy. And I think this is probably a BBC thing, because when you’ve got the entire production of the BBC behind you, but also they’re talking about independent ones, but still people who have got.
[00:29:13] Time, resources, the background, the equipment, the people are already, so it’s not very good for people like us who were just trying to do it from their room. There’s, the points I got from this was there are two common formats, interviews with people and following a real life event journalistically. So an interesting story.
[00:29:35] They talk about the importance of intimacy and the fact that when you’re a presenter. You’re really just a script reader. So someone on the TV or someone that does a home design shows really to someone that’s there to say the words podcast is about, and this really was powerful for me, actually, is about showing something of yourself, about being honest.
[00:29:58] And you know, getting close up to the mic, um, being almost literally in the ear and giving something of you away, your insecurity, your vulnerability, and a presenter. I showed him never does that. So if you’re investigating something, you then are prepared to say, I’m wrong. I got that wrong. What, you know, the mistakes I made.
[00:30:18] And it’s that journey, that realtime journey that kind of comes back to that S town thing again, if you don’t quite know where it’s going, there’s no obvious path to the story. But there are ups and downs and they give two examples of good podcasts, but both of them, as I say, really heavily edited, um.
[00:30:36] They’re full on commercial productions and as I say, we just don’t have time for that. If you want to make a podcast, have a look at you. Oh, this was an interesting point. They make as well. Actually do listen to this one actually. If you want to make a podcast, have a look at YouTube, but what people are interested in the, as they point out, Riley, that you can find every topic on.
[00:30:54] There are people talking about your niche even badly and if they are talking about it badly. Is that an opportunity for you? So what videos instead of doing the usual like I do on YouTube, but you just skim through a lot of dross, go and actually look for something that you genuinely want to watch and see what people are currently doing and seeing if you could go in there and do that, do that better on there if it’s being done really badly, but not if it’s been done well, I was saying before.
[00:31:24] Overall. So far my search is for a hit podcast and what makes a hit podcast, as you can see, don’t really throw up so many clear answers. So I’m just going to cover two more resources in this program. Let me bring the next one up. And this one is resource number five on the website.
[00:31:48] How to create an award winning podcast in five simple steps, which obviously there’s another one of these click baity type titles. This is from wired, and it’s a, a chat with the people behind the podcast. And I don’t believe you’ve ever heard this one, but very popular one is the one called my, my dad wrote a porno whereby they, uh.
[00:32:10] A readout, a section of supposedly there’s this dad who’s written this very bad novel, um, and it’s, it’s a very popular podcast and it’s been going for a long time. Their advice on the makers of that said that, that you need to focus on sound quality and consistency, which I guess we can kind of almost take his red, but that’s the point.
[00:32:31] They may, they got a comment from a Karen Pearson, here we go. As CEO of of folded wing, an independent production company who was saying that you have to do something that you care about, that’s fine, but listen as much as you can to what’s out there on the subject of your interest with some inspiration.
[00:32:55] So, for example, if you want to make a podcast about entrepreneurs, listen to the Virgin business bunk after in the UK or eBay is open for business in the U S but basically whatever your topic area is, listen to what’s out there already and see what’s missing. See what angle you would bring to it that other people haven’t already.
[00:33:17] I’m going to definitely do that for the next show. I’m going to have a listen to my. I’m going to have a look at my topic, get at the topic areas that I’m interested in, of which I think there could be a few and see what other people are doing, both podcasting and YouTube and see if there’s an opportunity in there.
[00:33:37] They use an example as well of, um, I podcast called histories of the unexpected. And this is actually another good example of what could they get hit podcast because they took them out. The, this, these people who I wanted to get academic research across to the general public. So what they did was they set up this kind of popularist podcast that looked at these tales of, of items and their history, uh, and made that a, and they’ve got, I think it was at 1.5 million downloads in the article in the first two years.
[00:34:13] They were, they did get some help from someone from the BBC. Um, but it’s still. Showed us how you can, it’s another aim, isn’t it, of pot gas. Now my final link is from a person called Matthew Sweezey, and this gives a slightly different perspective on things. This is resource number six. Um, and he is the principal of marketing insights at Salesforce.
[00:34:44] Uh, at least at the time, I don’t, I’ve never met the trap so. I can’t say much more than that, and he set up a podcast, but he did this differently. Where’s for me? I want to just start getting on with it because I just, I can’t sit there for two years making something. But that’s what he did. And his attitude was that to make a hit podcast, it’s gotta be quality over quantity.
[00:35:09] I think if you’re prepared to do it, it’s a bit like writing a book, isn’t it? If you write a book for several years and then you release it. And you can have the patients diligently write that without getting any sales or anything like that, then great. All power to you. That’s gotta be the approach, perhaps to take care quality over quantity.
[00:35:26] But for me, I need to just get something out there and, and start practicing. But that’s an interesting one to just skim through there. Uh, it’s a mini series, not a show. So keeping it down to a shorter number of episodes is a point he makes in that one. Well, I think there’s, there’s a tremendous number of ideas in it that we’ve been through today.
[00:35:50] I don’t think I’ve written half of them down, but I’m going to put them in the podcast show notes, some of the key lessons that I’ve got out of it, but I think for me it’s . You got to consider some topic areas. Look at what people are doing in those spaces at the moment. think about what value I can offer.
[00:36:12] Test that with people without telling them. I plan to make a poke off and just sort of see whether that would provide value to them. I’ve got to then consider those points. Am my in the last one last show, will that genuinely interest me? Will I be interested in making that on and on and on and keeping going?
[00:36:35] Caroline make something which has got a good story but also gives value as well. I think those are my main takeaways from today. I don’t know about you. This has been prerecorded. I wish it was alive. I would. I will try to make this line for the next few shows and so that we can learn this stuff together.
[00:36:57] Well, I hope you found something of value in there. The whole question today has been, what actually is a peer podcast? What, how do we define a hit podcast and. Perhaps that’s given you some ideas. Do let me know. You can find me on the website or can I make a hit? podcast.com you can also find me on Twitter and on Instagram at hit podcast 2020 so that’s hit podcast 2020 I will round things off for now, but I hope to speak again very soon.
[00:37:28] Don’t forget to sign up on YouTube and also have a look at our website. Can I make a hit podcast.com kind of make a hit podcast.com for all the links for how to subscribe to the podcast as well.