Podcast Movement Postmortem 2017

by | Sep 4, 2017 | Listen, Podcast | 0 comments

About This Episode

Host/Producer/Music

In This Episode

I share my thoughts and clips from Podcast Movement 2017.

Links

Episode Credits

This episode is hosted, produced, and scored by Mark W.

Transcript

Intro

Oh, Hi. My podcast?

Uh, it’s called ApexThis. It’s a meta podcast about me trying to start my own publishing and production company with the end goal of me taking my short-stories and other writers short stories and producing audio drama’s, and fictional podcasts. It’s like Startup, but with no money or experience.”

Yeah. Haha, I know. What about yours? Uh-huh.

If there was ever a need to have practiced my elevator pitch, being at Podcast Movement was one of them.

Coming up, I share my experience at Podcast Movement 2017.

To Go Or Not To Go?

I stared at the screen for the longest time. Thinking. I then closed the browser tab, went about my day, only to have it return when I hopped back onto the computer to write. This happened for days. I knew what I wanted but I was just too afraid to do it. One night, I came home and said: “screw it”. My phone buzzed and I was soon the owner of tickets for Podcast Movement 2017.

Seven months later, that decision would pay off.

Don’t Be Shy

The first day was intimidating…

To start, I was late to the first timer orientation. I awkwardly stood at the door staring at all the full tables thinking to myself If only I had gotten here 8 minutes earlier, I would have a seat. Not only had I left my room late, but I got lost outside walking to the wrong building.

And this is where my first tip comes in – if you are at a convention and find yourself lost, follow everyone else.

As I stood there, thankful that all eyes were on the front stage, A few more people snuck into the orientation and lined up against the back wall. I breathed a sigh of relief as I was not the only late arrival.

After some time, I began to slip my way into comfort in the back of the room but that was soon dashed as they called out for everyone to write down their goals, and not only that, but share them with everyone at the table. I was in a panic. I wasn’t at a table. I looked around and my eyes locked onto the table in front of me with an awkward chair between two gentlemen. It was almost out of place. As if it stealthily scooted its way behind the two men. Peering into their conversation.

So, I followed suit.

At every turn, after every session, in every line, I scooted between a group of people or into someone’s view and awkwardly started a conversation. And the very conference itself was the perfect ice breaker –

So, what’s your podcast?

Hollywood Hacks

I started the official first day of the conference attending the Hollywood Hacks session by Dan Klass. I did not have much of anything for notes from this session but there was one thing I wrote down as a Hollywood Hack. Dan told us that to improve our delivery, our performance, that we must decide who we are speaking to. No, not speak to our fishing audience if our podcast is about fishing. We need to picture Janet or David. That one specific image of a person, and speak directly to them. This would be repeated as a tip in another podcasting session that I would later attend further driving it home as something you and I should try.

Create a Show That Grabs Listeners And Keeps Them Coming Back

Another great session was by Joe Saul-Sehy from Stacking Benjamins podcast. Joe navigated us through how his podcast and another friends podcast was formatted. The feedback they received, and the changes they made. In this we listened to audio clips of another podcast that housed a long intro by an announcer, only to have the show host enter and repeat everything the announcer said. With changes to their show opening, theme, and format to be the Car Talk podcast of the money niche, they were catapulted from less than 5k downloads to over 20k downloads.

Share Of Ear

We rounded out the day with a keynote from Edison Research who gave us a peak into their Share of Ear report data. Data that is typically NOT shared with the public. In their most recent report, they collected 6500 one-day audio diaries. These were online and offline data collection in both English and Spanish. Of those surveyed, 86% listen to music each day and of them 41% listen to speech each day. Continuing, for speech audio they listen for 57 minutes per day on average. For all time spent listening to Speech, 11% belong to podcasts.

Tom Webster from Edison Research continued speaking on podcast discovery. He shared how people typically describe podcasting and they typically started with “It’s like Talk Radio…” Tom warned that Talk Radio has an image associated with it and it could turn people off. So, we should instead explain the content and not the technology.

Then, take out those earbuds, and let others embrace what they hear.

Podcast Awards Show

Some Guy – “Hey! Aren’t you going to talk about that Awards Show?”

MARK – “There wasn’t an awards show…moving on…”

Some Guy – “Nope! It clearly says on the schedule that-” MARK I fell asleep, OK? I just wanted to catch a quick nap before the awards started and the next thing I know

MARK – “I fell asleep, OK? I just wanted to catch a quick nap before the awards started and the next thing I know its midnight. So, I missed it. Can we move on?”

Some Guy – “OK”

Brand, Grow And Market Your Podcast…

Well rested, I started off the day with Stephen Hart from Trailblazers FM. The session was “Brand, Grow and Market Your Podcast While Still Working That Full-time Job.”

Stephen started with branding and how your brand is the promise you make to your listeners. He spoke on how the effects color can have on your brand due to how it is perceived in different cultures. For example, blue signals trust in the western world but represent mourning in others.

To be honest, I never thought of color in that manner. I picked the color code for ApexThis and built around it. It was something that I visually liked but not something that I defined, or knew to be defined by others.

Storytelling In The Dark

The next standout was from Wondery Media called Storytelling in the Dark.

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Closing

And that’s it for this episode. If you want to take a look at the notes I took for some of the sessions I attended as well as pictures, go to apexthis.com/pm17.

I had so much fun, that I have already purchased my ticket to Podcast Movement 2018. So, if you were on the fence, you must hop off it and join me!

I want to hear from you! You lend me your ear, and most importantly your time. And I ask for just a few minutes more.

Please check out my survey at apexthis.com/survey It will be quick and painless, and a way for me to hear from you.

If you are new, welcome! Thank you for making it this far. I am on a break from main content episodes that focus on ideas and themes as I try to build my own narrative podcasts. The reason is that I must focus on writing and there is only so much one can do with a full-time job.

If you follow the bonus monthly – air quote – “business updates”, you’ll find that each episode such as this can take hours to complete. From writing, recording, and editing, and producing. I try to do the best I can in each episode and that takes time.

If you want to reach out, I am on Twitter and Instagram @ ApexThis.

If you like what you hear, subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or through your favorite podcast app.

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Until next time.

 

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