🎤 Podcasting Predictions (Issue 110) January 6th 2023

Prologue

Meet the New Year, Same as the Old Year

As podcast hosts, we're used to asking questions. But how many times do we ask ourselves questions?

The seven questions below are a great way to review what happened with you in 2022 and plan for the year ahead. Depending on the format of your podcast, answering them, or having listeners answer them, may make a great episode.

What did I change my mind on last year?
What created energy last year?
What drained energy last year?
Who were the boat anchors in my life?
What did I not do because of fear?
What were my greatest hits and misses?
What did I learn last year?

As I mentioned in the previous issue of Big Podcast Insider, I'm working on a few new projects to help you "go big" with your podcast in 2023. The first one will help you improve your hosting and that will launch within the next week or so.

It's free, by the way.

More coming. Stay tuned ...

Podcast Marketing

A Robot Wrote This Podcast Summary (and Related Article)

AI-powered tools can be used to create episode notes for podcasts. These tools use natural language processing and artificial intelligence to generate notes that include summaries, key topics, and important quotes. They can also be used to create transcripts, which can help make podcasts more accessible and searchable.

I've been playing around with "AI" writers for the last year or so. I think they can be great for content ideas, such as questions about a topic, or general outline points, but the output is often lacking when it comes to longer content, such as blog posts, podcast scripts, or books.

When I saw Swell AI, I was curious. An AI tool specifically for podcasters?

Yes.

If you're looking for content based around episodes you record, it's worth a look. You upload the audio from your episode and it comes back with four things:

A related article
Episode time stamps (a couple of versions)
Episode summaries (several of them)
Episode titles (several of them)

You can see the raw output here and as well as an article on a different episode in the same series that I rewrote from Swell AI's output.

I look at "AI" like a word processor or the compressor/EQ I use on audio – they'll all just tools. And they're neutral, with each of them working only as well as the data they're fed.

If nothing else, sign up for an account and try it (It's free). At best, you'll love it. At worst, you'll at least be able to participate in the discussion happening around these tools now.

Podcast Hosting Skills

40 Questions to Ask Yourself (or Guests)

This is one you'll want to bookmark as it's a good way for you to remember the past year and where you were. But I think there are also some questions here that, when modified, can make for some interesting interviews.

For example:

What do you feel has been your biggest achievement?
What do you feel has been your biggest failure?
What is the biggest hardship you've faced?
What are you really excited about?
What's the best _____________ you ever bought?
Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
What do you wish you’d done more of?
What do you wish you’d done less of?

I'm not one for planning questions in advance as that's a surefire way to stop good momentum in an interview. But familiarizing yourself with great questions ahead of interviews and thinking in terms of the overall "feeling" you're going for is time well spent and will help you to get quality interviews you're proud of and attract the listeners you want.

So many good conversation starters here ...

These 8 Decisions Will Make You a Better Podcaster

I just released a 4-part series on Build a Big Podcast about how Jay Clouse got his podcast on a major podcast network (and how you can do the same with your podcast), so I've seen and heard a lot from him lately.

He just released a list of decisions to help creators make the most of the new year and these are things that absolutely apply to your podcasting.

For example:

Get uncomfortably specific
Do fewer things (so you can do them well)
Get better every day
Give actionable advice (instead of just opinions)
Advocate for yourself and your work
Say NO when your gut tells you to
Play a multiplayer game
Keep going (even when it's hard)

I'll be going through all of these in the audio edition of this newsletter, but I want to focus on one of them for this version – saying no.

Imagine being this guy and having to follow through on a promise you shouldn't have made ...

Unfortunately, most all podcasters are "this guy" at one time or another.

How many times have you said "yes" to an interview that you really didn't want to do? I'm not saying something you thought might be good and you took a chance on, but something you took on as a favor, or because saying "no" would have been uncomfortable.

Stop that. This is a new year and you don't have the time or energy to put into guests who aren't a match for what you do. Beyond that, it's not respectful of the people who listen to you.