J Cleveland Payne's Creators Pep Talk

Does a 'good' podcast name matter? It never hurts, but there are plenty of cases where it does not help all that much.

Maybe you and your buddy can talk for hours on arrays of topics. Does that mean you two should launch a podcast project? Maybe. Maybe not.

Struck down with fear because of imposter syndrome? Stand up while you record like a voice-over artist does. Dress up as if you were speaking in front of a crowd. And of course, smile. Believe it or not, the listening audience can ‘see’ the difference in your work when you play the role of a professional.

You have to find ways to get yourself noticed by the people producing shows you want to appear on.

This is advice from a blog post by Kent Julian on how to Become a Motivational Speaker, but it is truly about delivering great content in an unforgettable way that you can use for any audience. Find more on Kent Julian at http://kentjulian.com .

Working with musicians over the years has taught me that they are a superstitious lot about how they like their sound. But their individual mixes in their ears is meant to help them perform. It is not meant for public consumption.

The most common debate tactic you will see used against you is not at an attack to counter the good you intend to do, but to highlight the bad, real or perceived, that you can possibly do if left unchecked. Fighting the objections is irrelevant and useless.

You should be making content that you enjoy that will be consumed by strangers who also enjoy it. If you do not enjoy it, you will not stick to the process to get it produced.

Or power cords. Or cables. Or whatever random accessory that is rarely thought of until they fail and ruin your recording session.

A business card may seem like a primitive form of networking and marketing, but it is a simple and fairly inexpensive way to spread the word about your podcast.

The internet makes it simple to find a place in bytes for your podcast to be found by the world. Finding a place in the listener's hearts for your particular podcast is not that simple.

With so many people creating content for so many different platforms (and even some with video), it can be difficult to maintain your personality for every one of your distinctly different audiences.

Speaking about your podcast is just you telling a story. And like all stories, the more complicated it is, the easier it is to lose listeners in the telling.

You may not like the way your voice sounds after you start recording yourself and you hear a ‘true’ version of your voice. Get over yourself and your voice.

A runner would never start a race without stretching prior to the event. You should take time to ‘stretch’ your voice as well before you record. Do a few minutes of vocal exercises every day to expand and strengthen your speaking range.

This is not about know, like, and trust. This is about the literal open to your podcast. Do you approach it as an explanation of who you are or do you just get on with it and let the new listeners get the feel for it on their own?

Podcast Consultant Dave Jackson took a deep dive into the expression to find that the man it is sourced from was basically taken out of context. This goes to not believing everything you hear on the internet and how to ensure you get people to spend more than 8 seconds on your productions.

Consistency in delivering content is a mantra than cannot be said enough. But you have to deliver consistent styled content (that is hopeful consistently good) to make a real impact with being there on a regular basis.    

Even when you have no audience, you always have you to cater to what you want to hear in a show you are voicing and producing yourself. Otherwise, why put in the work?

Someone extremely famous popped-up with a new podcast just like the one you were preparing to launch? So what? Create and launch yours anyway.

Podcasters have a fear of not owning enough quality tech to produce a good podcast. Don’t let the fear of producing a bad podcast get in the way of trying to deliver a message to the world. 

Podcasting is becoming more of a cut-throat business as the medium matures. But you can still work it like a geek focused hobbyist.

Learning doesn’t come from success. learning comes from failures and finding solutions to overcome those failures. Success is the validation of a failure you have successfully overcome.

A podcast has a very distinct definition, which few people care to understand. If you want more listeners, but don’t want to target more techie types, don't be some stuck on training the world to understand what a podcast really is.

When I Was In High School, Radio Airplay Was Social Proof. And the band none of your friends listened to is akin to the indie podcast host who is a star in the making.