Awards Season – PCI 315

0:10 Welcome to Podcast Insider. My name is Mackenzie Bennett and cohost, Staying with me is Mike Dell from the Blueberry Team. Welcome. Hey, how's it going today? I'm good. I'm rushing, but I'm good. . Yeah. Well, that's, that's always a recipe for bad things sometimes. So . Well, I got food on myself, so Yeah. That's what happened. There. You go. There you go. But, uh, yeah, today we're, uh, recording yet again with McKenzie Todd is, uh, on his way to a, uh, reunion of sorts, so, uh, he'll. He's gonna have fun. Yeah, he'll have a good time there. I'm sure. I think it's Reno, not Vegas. Yes, yes. So, uh, yeah, he's probably flying right now. And, uh, let's see.

0:54 It's rainy up here in case anybody cares, . So. Anyway, let's get on with the, uh, news. But the first one is Glen the Geek. He has his horse radio network and it has been acquired. Yeah. The Equine Network. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, Glen, uh, has been at this for, what, 15 years, 14 years or something like that. I forget. But, you know, he has over 3000 episodes of his main show, Horses in the Morning. And, uh, he just celebrated that recently, but I, I think Glen's ready to pass off some of the administrative stuff and add sales onto somewhere else. And, uh, it didn't mention any money in the, uh, press release, but, uh mm-hmm.

1:44 , I'm sure he did. Okay. And, uh, he's got a full-time job with him as the Director of Podcasting. And it says in here, it will result in over 30 podcasts with several more launched over the next year. So this is definitely not a slowdown, this is just a pivot. Right, right, right. But, you know, he does, Then he doesn't have to deal with all the advertising stuff and, uh, or whatever. Maybe that's gonna be his job over there, but, uh, he's got a team behind him now, so that'll be, uh, quite cool. And Horses in the Morning is, is going on with the two co-hosts that have been doing it forever. So. So good for them. Yeah. Good for them. And, uh, hopefully it's, uh, lucrative for both parties and.

2:27 Both worlds. Ha can happen sometimes. Yep. And speaking of acquisitions and things of that nature, Odyssey is, it's a group of companies, but uh, they have, what is it? Cadence thirteens one of their, uh, and Pineapple Streets and other one and, and. All that. Yeah. It, it's a, it's a culmination of a lot of things. Odyssey started out as Intercom, Right. But then they bought a big portion of Cadence 13, and then they bought, you know, Pineapple Street Media, like you said. So there's, there's a lot going on here. Yep. The rumor has it that they're looking to sell Cadence 13, and they want to get around a hundred million for it. Uh, they paid roughly 50 million altogether for it, so that'd be handy profit for 'em. But, uh, rumor, rumor has it that, uh, they wanna downsize some of their properties and, uh, and refocus on other parts. And so, uh, if you're, uh, in the market and have a hundred million dollars kicking around, well, you can buy a studio.

3:29 , Why not? Yeah. My studio's a lot cheaper. Yeah. I'll do it for half that mm-hmm. and nothing less. . That's right, that's right. Tom Webster, who used to be with Edison Research now, uh, a partner over, it sounds profitable. Mm-hmm. as part two of his article out. The first one was called After these messages, talking about add delivery or add, you know, how, how ads are put in podcasts and. Right. Like host Red or live read, or, you know. Programmatic. Inserted Programmatic. Yeah. There's all that a host of different ways. . Yeah. But, uh, on this one, it's called, we'll Be Right Back. He, uh, is wanting to rethink promo codes and, you know, we use promo codes for our affiliate program and, uh, you know, lots and lots of podcasters use promo codes for this and that.

4:25 And the funny thing is, they did a, a little bit of a study and they asked people that listened to Jordan Harbinger mm-hmm. , you know, do you remember any of the promo codes? And to a t almost everybody said Uhuh. So the thing is, is they. Remember strong thoughts on that. Yeah. They, they remembered who the advertiser was and, and, and all that, but they didn't really remember the promo codes. And so. I'm not gonna lie, I don't a lot of the time either. I do, if I'm really interested in the product, I'll write it down mm-hmm. , or I'll go back afterwards and hope they put it in the show notes or something. Yeah. But yeah, I, I'm the same way. You know, I, I don't use promo codes unless, uh, like I said, unless I'm really interested in the product, you know, if, if I'm not interested, I just sort of tune out for the ad. So.

5:13 Absolutely correct. And really a big part of it too, I think is a lot of times people choose bad codes. True. Like, it's, it's not necessarily, you know, fully up to them of what the code is, but I'm like, it literally needs to be just like your show title or otherwise I'm not gonna remember it. Right. You know, and Tom suggests in here that, uh, it might be a good idea for advertisers to set up a landing page instead of a promo code. Yeah. So in the case of Todd, you know, he has GoDaddy as a sponsor. Well, if GoDaddy had a page, godaddy.com/geek News Central mm-hmm. . Okay.

5:53 I would remember that more than I would remember. Remember, you know, these obscure promo codes that, uh, that they have for different offers. And, you know, Todd, of course, has got a page on his site that has all those promo codes on it, and that page ranks pretty well. And Google, so he does okay with the promo codes only because he does that extra step of making a landing page for himself. But I, I think the advertisers would do well to have a, a landing page for their, uh, podcast that they advertise in. That's probably the easier way to go. I, I think that would be beneficial for a lot of people. Yeah. But at the end of the day, what I really, truly want is links on the show notes, like is a link in the app of where I am listening to this episode mm-hmm.

6:39 that will take me exactly where I want to go. Yeah. And that's always a good idea as well. So, uh, so anyway, it's worth to read both, both articles. Were really good. So, uh, go check that out over it sounds profitable.com in their article section there. Yeah. But we'll, of course we'll have a link in our show notes. Of course. So here's, here's a good one for you to read. Boy, they Yes. Women on the Rise at Spotify. Alex Cooper, who does the show call her daddy has Top Joe Rogan. Yeah. Joe's not even in the top three. The last, uh, two or three times I've seen the rankings. Interesting. Alex.

7:20 I wonder, I, I'm just curious like how it's like the timeline here, why now? Yeah. Who knows? You know, things change over time and, you know, and, you know, could be that Rogans just just has a run of, of boring interviews or something, , who knows, You know, I don't pay any attention to. It really can be that simple. Yeah. You know, I, I, I look at who he's interviewing to see whether I wanna listen to it or not, you know? Mm-hmm. , and it's, it's pretty rare lately that I do, cuz I don't like listening in Spotify to podcasts. Well, yeah. I also don't do that. So, uh, you know, but, you know, I will make an exception. You. Know what, good written, sometimes things need to, uh, shake up and change a little bit.

8:04 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm, you know, I'm sure Joe's not hurting any, So . Uh, no. Right. I would say he's not. Okay. This next one I I found kind of interesting only because I really don't know any of the people on the list. , if. It's, Ooh, okay, then it's the. For ish most popular people in podcasting. Well, it says most powerful, but popular and powerful usually are the. Same. That's what I meant to say. Powerful. Yeah. That's what the title of it is. But, uh, yeah. You know, I mean, there's a couple in there that I know of mm-hmm. , but I don't personally know anybody. And usually these lists, I at least know somebody that I can give congratulations to. But.

8:48 , I, I would say I know almost every, every name in here. Some, some against my wealth, but that's just what happens. Yeah. This is almost every single one of those people are the content creators themselves. Yep. You know, like there's a lot of famous people in here, you know, uh. It starts out with three actors, so. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Will Arnet, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes? Yes. And, uh, let's see, Michael Barbaro, I've actually, I think met him. He was the, or is the host of the Daily mm-hmm. or one of the hosts of the Daily. Yeah. I think I might have met him in passing at some place, but really I, you know, I just, I've never really met anybody in this list. And that's cool. I mean, I'm not the, the center of the universe of podcasting, obviously, but I've been around a while. . Yes. So, And Alex, Alex, that.

9:39 Is a distinction on this, is that some of these people have not been around for quote unquote a long time in podcasting. Some of 'em have, have only been around for a couple years. But anyway, it's quite the list. Check it out. Uh, interesting article. Just the same, even though I don't personally know anybody . But they give you, uh, there's like some fun questions that they have for each person asking. Like, some of them are, what's your favorite guest? Um, what's your pet peeve? Like, who would you love to have on, like, that type of stuff. So I, uh, I'd recommend checking it out. Continuing on with the Women's Podcast award winners announced. So. Yeah, last week was the International Women's Podcast Awards, and so they have the list of, um, winners here. Mm-hmm. .

10:26 But we were happy to be a sponsor and be involved a little bit. Love to see this kind of shout out. And definitely some cool shows in here that I will probably check out myself. Yeah. I've already subscribed to a couple of them. just, just cause uh, you know, hey, they sound interesting. Yeah. And then speaking of awards, uh, Todd's, uh, People's Choice Podcast awards ceremony went off, uh, last Friday. And, uh, there's the whole list of winners there. And there was some, uh, interesting surprises. Best listening platform I thought was interesting. . That's cool. I did not know that was.

11:07 That's a new category. A category, Yeah. So Apple Podcast course one, but, uh, second place was blueberry podcast director. I wonder if that's skewed any . You never know. That was pretty interesting. And, uh. I'm fairly certain Justin Elsie from she podcast got a shout out. Yes. Or won their category or whatever it was. Yeah. They won some sort of category, but I find it in the list here. I feel like it had to do with influential or powerful. Influencer influencers or something. Like that. Something like that. Yeah. They've done an extraordinary job the past couple years. But the, uh, overall winner, the Adam Curry People's Choice Award was Baby Mama's No Drama podcast.

11:49 So. I've never heard of that show, but is a delightful title. Yes. Go check it out. The, the winners and links to their shows are over@podcastawards.com and the last one here I just found interesting cuz it's comical and a little creepy . Oh, it's a, it's a lot creepy in my opinion. Yeah. I listen to about the first five minutes of it, and it sounds almost realistic, but it was, uh, it's an AI that took samples of Joe Rogan and samples of Steve Jobs and produced a 19 minute interview of Steve Jobs on the Joe Rogan show. This. Is like the source of my nightmares. Like this is an actual nightmare.

12:32 I would have because I don't care for robots. Yeah. And I don't wanna hear this interview. . Right. But it doesn't sound completely fake. It, it's. No, That's why I'm terrified of. It. Yeah. And that's the thing, you know, the, the editing tools are getting such, and AI is getting such that, uh, you know, you could be on the phone with somebody that's not really that somebody or. Yeah. And like all the deep fake videos that they do Yeah. Especially the Tom Cruise ones. I'm like, eh. Oh yeah. They did that to Nancy Pelosi too and made he sound drunk and, and you know, I don't know, I don't know if she's a drinker or not. You know, it's like you just can't believe what you see or hear unless you're the same room.

13:14 . There's a fine line of technology and we are way past, way past it with this type of stuff. Yeah. It's, uh, like I said, it's a little creepy. Hey, here's the best practice. I I like this one. You came up with it, but, uh, I, I've preached this one before cuz I listened to a few interview type podcasts. But when you do interviews, let your guests talk . Give them free reign to say what they wanna say. You have picked them as your guest for a reason. Let people hear them speak. Yeah. There's some, there's a couple of interview shows that I've sampled mm-hmm. and basically it's the interviewer telling all their stories.

13:55 And the guest really, you know, is sitting there going, Uhhuh. Yep. Yep. Uhhuh . It's, it's like really just shut up, it. You don't need to add a yes man to your podcast to have it be like a guest show that's not actually a guest. That's just someone complimenting you as you speak. Yeah. And that's not what it's supposed to be. Yeah, for sure. And uh, like I said, I, I try to do that sometimes, you know, it's, it's hard to do cuz you, you know, they tell a story or you know, answer a question whatnot. And, and that brings up something Oh. You wanna talk about, but mm-hmm. , you own the podcast. So you talk about that when you're not interviewing somebody. . I think it comes with practice. Yeah. It, it takes a little bit. The last few that I've done, I've been, I think pretty good about it. So .

14:41 Cause you also needed to distinguish a little bit of, is this going to be a conversation or is this going to be more of like the traditional professional interview of. I do more, you. Know, back and forth like that. I do more conversational style. That's what I try to do. But I, you know, I try not to take over the whole conversation cuz you know, we're kind of letting it flow however the guest wants to go. Right. And the other thing that interviewers do is they ask a question and then they don't listen to the answer. Mm-hmm. listen to the answer. And then if you have follow up, ask a follow up question based on the answer. Don't just go down your list of questions. That just sounds so fake. The.

15:24 Boring list of like, it, the list of questions could be really interesting. But if you're just, if you're not listening to the answers and adjusting the questions, that's when it gets boring. All right. Well, I'm gonna have a a bonus best practice here. Okay. If you're a guest on a show, never answer the question with That's a good question. You just wanna immediately go into the edit room and take that out and get to the actual answer. Yeah. I mean, if you need time to think up the answer, just take the time. Mm-hmm. , because I don't know you hear that every question. Well, that's a good question. Oh, that's a great question. Oh, that's a good question, Dad. It just drives me nuts. Pet. Pee. I understand .

16:06 All right, well, let's get onto some blueberry news. Some Pod Ping stuff. We're gonna let you take the reins on that one. All. Right. Well, Pod Ping, of course, you know, most podcast listeners and, uh, and even podcasters will kind of glaze over a little bit when we talk about it, but Pod Ping is now supported in Blueberry Power Press and Blueberry Publisher feeds. The upshot of that is it just makes sure episodes show up quicker in apps that use Pod Ping. And there's quite a list of them that do One cool thing they put a link to it in here is pod ping.watch.

16:47 So you can watch in real time as shows are updated in Pod Ping. So, you know, it's just kind of interesting. I. Feel like people might actually understand what's happening more. They realize like, oh, there are things going on behind the scenes that are updating this. It's, I mean, it's, it's internet magic, that's for sure. But. And I just. Saw the a little bit. Yeah. I just saw Power Press one come up . So it's cool to see, you know, I've never seen my own come up, so when I publish this episode today, I I I'm gonna run right over here and watch . Yeah. You're gonna be on the lookout. . I mean, Fast is good. That is, that is something that podcasters always, always want and expect nowadays. So.

17:28 Yeah. You know, like we get a lot of support calls and questions about, you know, I put my podcast out 10 minutes ago and it's not on Apple Podcast yet. Well, Apple Podcast updates at its own speed. You know, I always say that, that this is a poll technology mm-hmm. , Well, with Pod Ping, it kind of makes it a push, which is more like what people think happens. So as this gets adopted across more and more apps, it'll just be the norm that things will just update right away mm-hmm. , which is great. And that's why we implemented it, and we hope other companies and apps and developers and whatnot will implement it as well. It's, uh, it's a pretty cool standard. Yeah.

18:09 I love it. I mean, no podcast has to be an island. It can be and do everything solely by itself. If you don't wanna be in apps and directories and fun stuff like that, that's totally an option. Mm-hmm. . But if you do, you're just kind of missing out on some fun technology and advancements and things that are happening in the community. Yeah. For sure. So what's going on in the blog this week? Oh, we got a good one from Tara O'Brien. It's got a fun name, a peek into what peaks your audience interest , basically saying, what does your audience want? . True. Yeah. That's who is your audience. Give them what they want and then you gotta hook 'em with what you're giving them.

18:50 And then finally taking a look into what your future holds for your podcast. Tara, she's been writing for us for, I don't know, a bit over a year. Definitely over a year. Yeah. So. She's great. Yeah. She went to Nashville with us, uh, for podcast movement last year. Last year. That. Was fun. That was, was fun. You guys actually dragged me out onto the dance floor, uh, , which is not normal. That just means we need to get another podcast party to get you out there, . There you go. There you go. All right. Well, Toby's up with a, uh, pro tip, This one in interesting title, Alumni matchmaking.

19:33 Hi, it's Toby Goodman here. It's great. When people talk about your podcast and your business in a positive light, marketing is awareness. Now, you already know a podcast is a fantastic way to reach the masses. Your listeners are aware of you, but you aren't necessarily aware of who they are. If you have a lead magnet, something that captures a name on your website through a free offer, and by the way, you absolutely should have that, it's great, but you could hardly say you really know them. But there are some people you do know pretty well, your podcast guests, and one thing they all have in common is you.

20:16 So remember, marketing is awareness. And I've come to realize a worthy marketing activity isn't an overt type of look over here, Look at me. One, it's in building on relationships you already have. And this is the crux of it. The new relationships you uniquely have the power to create. Your guests have invested time in you by being on your podcast. You can give them a return on time invested by making thoughtful introductions. In my book, Narrow Podcasting, I call it alumni Matchmaking. So question, if you took some time to make those connections, what could that mean for you, your podcast and your business? Do let me know, and if you'd like some more examples about how a podcast can help you connect to more people.

21:09 So they talk about you get in touch over@blueberrypro.com. That was kind of hidden in the, in the text there. . But very good, Toby, thanks for, uh, doing that again this week. Thank you. We were just flying through this stuff today. I know. Yeah. So, uh, I found this question on one of the Facebook forums and, uh, McKenzie rewrote it so it actually could be read . I tried, I did my best. So I'll give it a go. Okay. The question is, is it okay to have a scattered release schedule when I'm first starting my podcast until I get my footing and they're talking about, you know, like, for the first two months or so, can you release, add different times? Do you have to do every week?

22:02 Can you just put episodes out when they're ready? That type of thing. Right. And and my answer was yes, it can be okay, But is it the best way? Not really. . Probably not. Yeah. Consistency is what allows people to build you into their regular schedule, and over time it gets more important. It's more people discover your show and your schedule. Mm-hmm. , you know, there's podcasts that I listen to that, uh, you know, come out every Friday or come out every Monday or come out every day first thing in the morning or whatever it is. And I build that into my schedule of listening. And when one of them's not there, it's like, Oh, what the hell happened? You know, .

22:42 Yeah. And yeah, that's exactly how it feels. Well, it's because we're we're tuned into it for, we, we were all trained, uh, with TV and movies and stuff like that. I guess less so now with the younger generations because things just kind of come out on streaming and you can basically binge, but people crave routine. Yeah. And you know, the, the thing about being consistent is it helps you build your audience now. Mm-hmm. , if you don't really care about building your audience huge and you're just doing this for fun, then sure. Have a random schedule all the time. I I do that all the time with mine. Yeah. You know, if I don't have anything to say, I don't say anything, You know, I don't try to force myself to podcast with this show. Of course, we have things every week that we need to talk about or want to talk about and Yeah. You know, this one's consistent, but you guys know that, you know, usually on Friday morning you'll have a new podcast to listen to or Thursday night, you know? Yep.

23:42 And we're staying fairly consistent unless we put up the wrong episode like we did last week, uh, . But that's, you know what, No big deal. Yeah. Yeah. We fixed it, we fixed it. So if if last week sounded redundant, go back and download it again. Yeah. You, you can have whatever release schedule you want, there's no rules, but if you really want to grow your audience, be consistent and start with some sort of a schedule. Doesn't have to be weekly weekly's good, but you could do every other week to start with or whatever. You can grow into it. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. I would not describe myself as a traditional podcast listener, just because I don't actually subscribe to anything mm-hmm. . Um, but I like, I know like one of the things that, like you're in the past couple years that people have suggested is of the, like, when you're launching your show, come out with like three episodes or something, you're like, that's not important to do.

24:42 But if it is a new show and there's only one episode for me to listen to, unless you're like, blew it outta the water, and like, I'm gonna remember the name of the title, who you are, what you were talking about, Like, I'm not gonna come back to it, I'm just gonna forget about it and like, move on because you only had that one episode. I have to be able to look and see a consistency in the type of content that you're gonna be releasing. Oh, yeah. So like, being able to see those, you know, handful of episodes and like what they're called, the length, like if you have guests, if you have a cohost, like that type of stuff, and how often it's gonna be coming out, that sets the tone of whether or not like, have an interest in coming back.

25:25 Oh, yeah. Yeah. And like I said before, I, I don't subscribe to that mm-hmm. , uh, way of doing a launch. Yeah. But you know, I'm, I'm probably in the minority of people that think that, because the thing is, is okay, they maybe won't, maybe they won't discover you when you first launch. They'll discover you when you got 10 episodes. But, you know, so that's essentially the same thing. It just sort of delays the, uh, the launch. But I really don't like, you know, the word launch. I, I think podcasts just start and people come along the way and, you know, a lot of people go back and listen to episode one after they found you, even if it's five years later mm-hmm. , you know. Yeah, for sure. I'll definitely go through like your, your list of episodes if I find one that I like and, and we'll search for something else that catches my eye.

26:13 But you can do scattered. Yeah. We just probably would not recommend it. Yeah. You know, like I said, it all depends on your goals. And again, no rules in podcasting, so. But maybe set a goal. Yeah. Oh, it definitely set some sort of goal. Very spending time and money like this maybe set a goal. Well, you got, you gotta figure out what your goal is. That's the thing. You know, not everybody's goal is to grow their audience and make money. You know, some of 'em are just, I, I want to talk into a microphone and play with cool gear. Yeah. And you know, I, I can relate. All right. So if you got a question you'd like us to answer on the show, drop an email to me, mike@blueberry.com. We can take audio, uh, email, text, post it in the Facebook group, whatever. And, uh, we'll use it on the show. More than likely.

26:59 You can also post a question on the blueberry podcasting Facebook group. So yes, get active on that. Yes. But the best place for support for any blueberry product or service is our ticket system, blueberry.com/support. The tickets are much easier for our team to manage as opposed to direct emails and phone calls. All right. And I'm coming to you this week from Mike Doll's World Studio here in Traverse City, Michigan, which is rainy right now. And, uh, Mackenzie's on her very cool microphone and undisclosed location in Columbus, Ohio. Yes, it is kind of cold right now, but I'm about to head to warmer weather in an hour or so here. So. . Very good. So anyway, we're produced by the Blueberry Pro production team.

27:43 Go check them out@blueberrypro.com. We're big fans and you can listen or you can fill out our listener survey surveys.blueberry.com/podcast Insider. This just gives us, gives us some insight into who you are as a listener. Yep. And you can schedule a one on one with Todd hosting customers only. He'll do a 30 minute consult with you for free. If you're a hosting customer, email todd blueberry.com. And you can do the same with Mike for a tech checkup. This is also hosting customers only. His email is mike blueberry.com. And then of course, you can send us your podcast sticker and a self address stamped envelope or just email McKenzie and, uh, she'll send you a blueberry care package.

28:27 That I will, our address will be in the show notes. Yeah. So, hey, we made it all the way through without the road caster glitching. I think I figured out the problem. It's okay. We just figured it out four times last week. What? It was actually not supposed to be . Yeah. So, hey, one take. I love it. So well. Dono. All right. Well, I'm not sure who the host is. Next week I'll be here and, uh, we'll see who's with me. Mm-hmm. . So catch you next week. Thanks for listening.