Nail Your Podcast Interview – PCI 320

0:10 Hey everyone. Welcome to Podcast Insider. My name is Todd Cochran. Join this week by my cohost Mike Dell. Mike, it's like we're playing musical chairs here, and show. Yeah, I think, uh, I can't remember the last time you and I were doing it, but, uh, . Anyway. Very good. Thanks for Mackenzie for covering for both of us, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, here we are. Hey, today we got some news. Got a best practice for you. We've got Blueberry News. We do not have an interview. We do have Pro Tip of the weekend. We have a question of the week. So first things off, there was a, uh, a summit, the Hot Pod Summit, and then there was a, uh, recap of that and, um, they had some takeaways. Number one was scripted.

1:01 Podcasting still hasn't had its serial moment. Yeah. There, there's a bunch of scripted podcasts out there, and so far, none, none of them have taken off in the way that Serial did and a lot of the true crime type genre, but, uh, they're still working on it. This is, this summit was basically talking about what's going on in Hollywood and podcasting, it seems, even though hot and sort of a, you know, sort of a, a general newsletter, but they tend to, to, uh, stay on the coasts. . And, and there was a little bit of a weird one. I read this, I was like, What are they talking about? Says how Crooked Media combats the right Wing Talk machine. And when, when I was reading that, I was like, Okay, that could be two taken, two or three different ways. And it really, the topic was is how they're trying to compete with AM radio. Is that what.

1:54 Was right Wing Talk show hosts, like, you know, Rush was doing and Hannity and all those guys. Crooked Media is a company not, not to, we're not calling the media crooked or they're not. Right, right, right. . But anyway, they, the genre on AM radio, the, the right wing talkers have always been number one in, in radio and they're kind of doing the, the opposite of it. But not for radio, but for podcasts. For podcasting. Yeah. Because they can't get on radio. Well, there's, there's been a fantastic assortment of shows for both sides of the political spectrum for a while. Sure, sure. So I don't know why they're trying to combat that because there's been in podcasting an equal amount of content on both sides.

2:42 I would even say that the, the content on the left in podcasting has done just as well. Oh yeah. Maybe better than. The, sometimes better. Yeah. So it's, it was, it's a little interesting tagline, you know, know, um, I know that there was an article here recently about where now podcast listing is exceeded am Radio listing, which, you know, kind of makes sense, obviously. Right. But, um, yeah, just kind of a weird, a weird, a weird topic per se, because, you know, the podcasting space is pretty diverse. Oh, for sure. Another thing they talked about was why late night comedy is shifting to podcasting. You know, like, uh, Koan O'Brien, you know, he, he just sold his company for some ridiculous amount of money and, uh, his podcast network and, uh, he's strictly on podcast now.

3:37 He is not on television. Trevor Noah and James Gordon both left their shows or they're leaving their shows and probably going back to, you know, either podcasting or, uh, just doing standup. It's interesting because those groups, you know, coming from tv they have massive writing teams. So it, it's interesting. They're making, they're making this move. Yeah. It is, it is a bit strange, but they talk all about it in the article, uh, you know, why that might be and that kinda thing. So, so Facebook, Facebook Live audio rooms are closing in December 1st, so they're, they're pulling out completely. And I didn't even know audio rooms existed, to be kinda honest. Yeah, I didn't either. So maybe that's, that's why they are going away now, and uh, speaking of which, I, I can't wait till our New Year's show, so, you know, somebody owes me a dollar.

4:24 Oh, okay. . So podcast ays providers at IV certified will have to be certified inly from now on. And matter of fact, I've been hot and heavy in a, uh, Slack check group this morning figuring what's going on there because this is very unexpected and, uh, very, it's, they raised the price very expensive. So it could be a, a huge detriment to IB certified folks. If you have to spend $35,000 every year to be certified on a spec that's not changing. On, on top of, uh, the annual fee, it'd be part of the I A B. Right. You know, so there's the, we, We'll see if the I b responds on this and what they have to say.

5:08 Overcast is discontinuing the web version of their player. And to be honest with you, I didn't even know that existed. Yeah. It, it did for quite a while. I, I used it a while back, but now you know that I've got an M one Mac, he can actually load Overcast directly on your Mac. So that's what I've been using for desktop listening. Oh, interesting. And, uh, so, and you know, Marco explains in here, he is just not a good web designer and really doesn't have the, uh, the technical resources at hand to, uh, to, to make it a good experience. Right. You're just gonna have to listen on the blueberry podcasting directory. There you go. , There you go. That's a, that's a way to do it and got.

5:50 Some improvements coming. Drink the Kool-Aid and uh, write up improvements. Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. So speaking of Overcast, Dave Jackson from the school podcast is moving from Overcast to Matic because of podcasting 2.0. Yeah. Basically, uh, you know, matic, well, he, he has a couple of, uh, strikes here. He says the web version's going away now, you know, he says he used it, I guess, but Okay. Uh. The other thing's, no support for streaming Bitcoin. Well, that's, you know, value for value. Right. And so he's talking about, uh, Matic and, uh, you know, how it, it mimics what Overcast does. Uh, I haven't personally played with it, so I think I might have to go check it out cuz I am a heavy overcast user. User.

6:36 Yeah, absolutely. And get on that podcasting wave@newpodcastapps.com. Yep. Yep. I use, uh, Fountain has been my, uh, 2.0 Yeah, that's what I, that I've been listening on. Me as well. Lead Balloon recorded an episode in a F 18 fighter jet. That's interesting. Yeah, well some, uh, I, I read the article in, uh, in radio or Insider radio that they said it was the first time a podcast was recorded in a fighter jet. But I know that not to be true, cuz uh, I heard one about 10 years ago, but still pretty cool. He rode with the Blue Angels, uh, and recorded the whole thing, uh, while doing a routine with the Blue Angels. So pretty slick.

7:24 And he even did a, uh, a, uh, YouTube video of it, so. Okay. You know, the old ad Oh, was. It, was it a short episode? Uh, no, I can't really tell. Oh, 48 minutes, so no, he probably recorded the full thing. And must have talked with the pilot then been jacked in. That. That's probably what was going on. You know, it's pretty cool. But, uh, I remember hearing one, like I said, several years ago, and, uh, one of the takeaways, if you ever get a chance to ride with any of those teams, Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, whatnot, uh, the good advice is to have bananas for breakfast. Or no breakfast. Well, bananas, uh, taste the same coming up as they do going town.

8:08 . Well, yeah. The best devices don't have breakfast. Right. . Some best practices here for you. It's, uh, starting to get close into the holiday season and should you take a break over the holidays? Yeah, we, we talk about this every year, but, uh, you know, we, I think you shouldn't, uh, you certainly are welcome to, There's no rules in podcasting, but make sure you let your audience know that that's what's happening. Well. I I'm on the opposite side. I think you should, but there's a reason for that. It's because people have time to relax. They're listening to podcasts, they're going through their phones, cleaning things up, and if you're not there Right. I you could be, you could be canceled, but you could pre-record your episode if you're so lens to it.

8:55 Yeah. Like this show in in Your Geek News Central just doesn't lend itself to pre-recording only because it's topical. No, not at all. Yeah. And of course you could do a best of show with clips from past episodes. That's kind of a cool, fun thing to do if you have the time to put it together. Yeah, I think that's doing that takes as much time as recording a real show. True, true. But if you do it ahead of time, that's why we're talking about it a little early here in November. . Yeah. Everyone is familiar. You can do a rerun of a previous show. I'm not a big fan of this per se, but you could, but you should post it as a new episode. Yeah. What I like to do when I run reruns and I have in the past run, run some is I do a new intro and, you know, and, and upload it as it's as if it's a new episode. Don't just, you know, relink the same file to right. To your feed and, and, you know, schedule it out again. So.

9:51 So you could also for half do a Crosspost with another podcast. Be careful with this because, um, my audience specifically said, do not ever do that. Right. But if you do that again, uh, record an intro for it and maybe an outro of you so that they know what's going on and they're not just like, what the hell happened here? I'm listening to a podcast I never heard of . True. You. Know, also you can do, uh, play Pod Safe Christmas music if you can find it. , I threw that one in there for fun, . But. Uh, gotta be careful with music, any music, and it's, Oh yeah. Key is to be pod safe and a lot of Christmas music that you would think is is not.

10:34 True. True. But yeah, I remember years ago in the Pod Safe Music Network, there was a bunch of Christmas music because of this. But you know, you know, a lot of the radio stations will do that over Christmas day as they, they'll flip to all Christmas music and. Yeah. They, they can do that. They're legal to play that, uh, copyrighted Christmas music. Right. So be careful, but you know, if you want to. Do it. Yeah. . So anyway, those are our best practices over the holidays. It's your choice. And again, uh, you know, depending on your circumstances on, you know, what your show type is and whether you have time, if you're planning for New Year's stuff, we'll probably have some discussions about this in the near future. But you definitely, if you've got stuff that you can carry, people are gonna be traveling and people are gonna be looking for new content on their devices as well. So anyway, just a few things here.

11:24 Let's get into a little blueberry news. Our press has been updated to 9.7 0.2, so be sure to keep all your plugins up to date and WordPress, not just PowerPress, that's very important to do. Right. You know, we always have little bug fixes when we put out a point release like 9.7, there was a couple little bugs that needed to be squashed, so, uh, just keep it up to date and you won't run into those bugs. That's right. And we're working really hard on a whole bunch of new features. Another add-on product. Oh yeah, there's a whole stack of stuff in work mm-hmm. and, uh, but working hard on new features for the podcasting 2.0 tags and features, and again, integrations with third parties. So yeah. Uh, very, very, very busy, um, time for the entire team.

12:14 Well, we're trying to add some value to what we're doing. Absolutely. And now that's the key. You know, the podcast hosting is generic, uh, but it's the features around it that, uh, that keep everybody happy. And it's definitely the point where we're adding, got a new stats feature coming. So there's a whole bunch of stuff that, uh, is in the final design and about ready to be turned over to Deb and Deb's working on some stuff. We've got a top secret project that we're working on that's actually gonna launch on a new domain name too, so I'll just leave it at that. But, uh, we're excited about being able to op open that up to our hosting. Session. Not like somebody around here has a lot of domain names.

12:57 No, no, no, not at all. . All right. So, uh, what about this q and a We're doing? Yeah, we're doing our, uh, we're doing this every other week, but, uh, this next one is coming up November 15th, but it's our getting started in podcasting q and a session. It's not really a webinar in traditional sense, we're just using webinar software. So if you'd like to sign up for that, we'll have a link in the show notes. But it's at four 30 Eastern time on Tuesday. And it's just Todd and I and if you got questions about how to get started or how, you know, basic questions about, uh, growing your audience and just yeah, whatever you'd like to talk about, uh, it's an open q and a.

13:38 All right. Awesome. Next up is our Blueberry Pro tip, how to approach interview as the host. Hi, it's Toby Goodman here. I love the Properly Set Up podcast enables anyone to put out content on their own terms, but just like publishing on any public platform with a view to sharing our content, we might receive feedback of all types when it comes to interviewing people on your podcast. Then it's worth taking a moment to decide what position you want to take as an interviewer. Here are a few thoughts on how you might approach an interview and some pros and cons around that. Number one, be the enthusiastic interviewer.

14:23 This kind of guest interview can be really magical, but it comes with risks. When you are fully on board with who your guest is and what they're doing, they can really open up and help you create some fantastic podcast content. But if you know too much, you could be at risk of alienating the listener and even maybe coming across as a bit of a sicker fan. So be aware and keep a stock of sign post questions up your sleeve to help listeners stay engaged and on track. For example, just because I understand what podcast hosting is, it doesn't mean I wouldn't ask somebody like Todd Cochran from the hosting and podcast Tools company Blueberry to help me serve my listeners with a question.

15:06 Like, for those listening who aren't sure why they need Safe podcast hosting, how would you explain the difference? Number two, being the cynical interviewer. A fairly aggressive investigative journalist approach has the potential to get a juicy interview that's highly listenable and could even make the headlines, but it can create friction. You just have to ask yourself, is that the kind of friction you need? Or are you just setting yourself up for the trolls and a load of unhelpful noise? Number three, the passive interviewer. Be like a journalist. Take a balanced view, be detached and ask questions that represent everyone's viewpoints. For example, why do you love podcasts followed by What would you say to those people who don't think podcasts are worth listening to?

15:57 You will get a balanced interview this way, but it has the danger of being a little dry. And the worst case scenario is that it turns into the same cut and paste interview Your guest has given hundreds, if not thousands of times before. But hey, here's the good news. If you set it up properly, it's your podcast. You get to decide what you say, how you say it, and to who you say it. You don't need any blue checkbox to validate you. So if you'd like support to start or graduate your podcast to a professional level, the Blueberry Pro team are standing by to help you, you can find us over@blueberrypro.com.

16:40 Awesome, awesome tip from Toby. A lot of great things to, to, uh, to consider there. Yeah. And of course, if you want help with your podcast, definitely consider the Blueberry Pro team@blueberrypro.com. Very, very cool. Mm-hmm. . So, uh, we got an interesting question. We haven't seen this one come up in a long. Time. Yep. Figured that's why I'd, uh, throw it in here. . So, uh, from Jimmy in the blueberry Facebook group, he says, Is there a way to distribute my podcast feed to SoundCloud? I'm like, Really? Okay, go ahead. Well, and, and this comes up a lot because there are a couple of hosts out there that will post it there for you, but they're posting it there for you. It, it SoundCloud's a syndication point, it, it pull, you know, or it's not a syndication point. No, it doesn't pull feeds in.

17:32 It originates them, uh, or can originate them. If you choose SoundCloud's, kinda like YouTube, at least that's what they were going for, is being the YouTube of audio. And just like YouTube, you have to specifically upload your content to SoundCloud to get there. And a lot of times it's not worth the trouble. There are some listeners over there, but guessing that probably not the type of listeners you're trying to go for anyway, so. Well, part of the problem too is, is that the site does not support any of the new podcasts. I mean, stuff that Apples introduced like three years ago. Oh. Yeah. At least. At, at least three or four years ago.

18:12 So a lot of the stuff that's modern in current podcast apps is not available on SoundCloud. So you, you're missing out on a whole bunch of stuff that just won't translate over there. They won't even be able to read it. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I, I that's, there was this mass migration off SoundCloud. Yeah. What, two or three years ago? So. Haven't done one lately. I think everybody that wanted to get off there has . So Yeah. So I think so for their. Podcast. Anyway. Yeah. So anyway, if you got a question you'd like us to answer in the show, drop an email to mike@blueberry.com. Audio, text or video may use it. Of course. You can also post a question on the blueberry podcasting Facebook group.

18:54 That's the best place to go for just kinda the simple questions like that. General. Questions, the general question. Not account specific ones. Yeah. Yeah. Not, not support. Ones. Of course. The best place for support for any blueberry product or service is our ticket system. We're blueberry.com/support. Of course that gives the whole team access rather than direct emails or calls, which can get lost in the shuffle. So we've been coming to you this week from the new media production studio in Coldwater, Michigan, and Mike Dell's World Studio and Traverse City Michigan produced a course by the Blueberry Pro production team. And. Be sure to fill out our listener survey@surveysblueberry.com slash podcast Insider. It's a great time to schedule one-on-one with me hosting customers only.

19:37 Email todd blueberry.com. That's something I do on a regular basis. My schedule's been pretty good recently, so good time to get on there. Yeah. My schedule's been a little tight, but you can schedule a tech checkup with me by emailing mike@blueberry.com. Again, hosting customers only. And you can send us your podcast sticker and a self address stamped envelope, and we will send you a blueberry care package or just send us a note and say, Hey, we'd love to have a care package. And McKenzie will get that out to you. The mailing address is on the website at uh, podcast insider.com. But you wanna thank a you for hanging out with us today. Yeah. Uh, quick and quick and fast show in the, in the scheme of things. So it's sort of a slow Newsweek, uh, a lot of other things in the news, taking up the space. I think.

20:20 Yeah, it's, uh, the politics thing taking up air. Yeah, for sure. But everyone, thanks for being here. Thanks being part of our family of listeners and uh, yes. We'll see you next time on the new Media show room. Take care. Bye.