Podcast appearances and mentions of cory mccabe

Working from home comes with different challenges depending on your situation, but one of the universal problems to solve is trust building between the employer and employee. How do you handle working with an employer that wants to track your every click and keystroke? How do you produce work that not only gets the job done but showcases your capabilities? In today's episode we welcome our good friend Cory McCabe to talk about all these things and more.

Cory McCabe & Stephen Barbettini discuss how they each interact with film and their different ways of experiencing the art form. While there isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to watch a movie, Stephen and I talk about the multiple and many ways to interact with the art form of film. Our individual experiences with films are inherently different than anybody else's. There are so many factors that come into play that cause each person's experience to be a subjective one. The goal of this video is to get you thinking about how YOU experience and watch films. Please share in a review how you find yourself watching movies. I wanna hear. Something I'm setting out to challenge in this video podcast series called "Behind The Film" is to see where objectivity meets filmmaking. Essentially, can a film be objectively good?? Art, and fine arts, have a clear subjective nature to them. But is all forms of art purely subjective? Continue following along to see what I find out. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/behindthefilm/support

In this episode I'm joined by filmmaker Cory McCabe as we expand upon why you shouldn't call yourself a freelancer and the importance of your job title to your brand.

Live from the rooftop of seanwes conference 2017 in downtown Austin, Tx! In this episode I sit with filmmaker / videographer Cory McCabe and video marketer / digital creative nathan Allotey for a value packed interview. We discuss the power of seanwes community, goals, struggles, what drives us, what we're most excited about in the future of video and much much more!

On September 7th, one week before the Overlap book launches, we're releasing a new documentary! "How to Write a Book" is a film Cory McCabe has been working on for over a year. This 22-minute documentary takes you behind the scenes of writing my first book. In today's mini sabbatical episode, I interview Cory about the making of the film. I suppose you could say it's a behind the scenes look at a behind the scenes film! We'll be talking about Cory's thought process, how he came up with the narrative, and why it almost didn't happen.

As much as some people want to deny it, change is part of life. We get older, our physical appearances change, our personalities evolve over time. The world around us is constantly changing. But what if you don't resonate very will with the brand of your own business? What if your customers or audience live completely different lifestyles than you do? What if your competitors or peers seem to have certain ways of doing things that you don’t agree with? Sometimes you may have to adapt and change with the flow of your business, and other times you may need to fight against the “status quo” and the pressures of changing who you are. On today’s episode, special guest Cory McCabe joins the show to talk about the idea of maintaining your sense of “self” as you grow and how to protect against the pressures of unnecessarily changing who you are to fit some predetermined mold.

Here are the original notes for this episode, published at the end of 2016.So… I’m pausing my podcast.The decision to quit or pause a podcast shouldn’t be taken lightly. There are many reasons to stop doing something, and many reasons to keep going even when it’s hard.In this episode, I want to share why I’m pausing my show, and hopefully give you some clarity if you’ve been thinking about quitting or putting your show on hold as well.Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins:If your relationships or your personal health are suffering, it’s time to stop your podcast.Tell people what you’re doing and why.There’s a huge benefit to sticking with something for a long time, because it takes people time to notice you.Once you’ve had a strong impact on someone, it’s okay to take a break and step away for a while. People won’t forget you.If you want to make massive progress on one project, say no to everything but that one thing.Why Am I Pausing My Podcast?A lot of you know that I’ve been working on podcasting courses this year. I’m pausing my show to focus on finishing them and getting them launched. At the beginning of 2016, I said, “I’m going to get these courses done this year.” I started writing this big master course called Successful Podcasting.I wanted to teach everything you’d need to know to start a podcast: planning a show, recording a show, getting good gear, getting the hosting set up, interacting with your audience, and everything that goes into making a great podcast. I wanted to do videos, screencasts, PDF downloads, checklists, and more.I got it done (well, almost). I worked really hard on it this year, especially in the springtime. Cory McCabe (the video guy at seanwes) came up from San Antonio to help me shoot all the video lessons in the last two weeks in July.I wrote something like 30,000 words for the course, and finished shooting all the videos in July (we ended up with 75 video lesson). The next thing was recording a short screencast course called GarageBand for Podcasters. That was six or seven screencasts about how to get started using GarageBand for podcasting. I got that done, too. The very last thing was my Logic Pro X for Podcasters course.I knew my Logic Pro X course was going to be challenging. I knew it was going to be anywhere from 30 to 50 screencasts about everything I know about editing podcasts in Logic. I’m not quite done with that yet. I’ve recorded 90% of the screencasts and I have the other ones outlined, but life got crazy.There’s so much I’m still doing: Editing shows on the seanwes network, trying to produce content, interacting with my audience, trying to answer questions for people, making videos, playing in a band...It’s hard to do big, important work when you’re also doing lots of shallow work. I was trying to do a whole bunch of things and I wasn’t making much progress on the course as a result.The primary reason for me pausing The Podcast Dude is so I can finish the Logic Pro X course, get it edited, and get all of these things launched. That way, people can invest in them and go through all the lessons at their own pace, on their own time.I’m not going away completely. I’m pausing my podcast to free up time to finish my courses and get them launched. I’ll be returning to make more podcasts after I’m done with that.I want to interact more with my audience and create more content that helps them specifically.When is the Right Time to Pause a Podcast?The biggest reason to stop podcasting is if your podcast no longer aligns with your long term goals.If the thing you're podcasting about is no longer something you're passionate about, if you want to do something else, it’s okay to stop the podcast. It’s okay to change, to go from caring intensely about one thing to caring intensely about something else. You’re supposed to evolve as a human.Don't Sacrifice Your RelationshipsI asked my friend Cory, "What would cause you to stop doing a podcast?"Cory said, “If my wife came to me and said, ‘I feel like our relationship isn’t good, like you’re investing a lot of time in this podcast and you’re sacrificing family time or personal time with me to do this podcast,’ that would cause me to quit the podcast.”If your relationships or your personal health are suffering, it’s time to pause your podcast.You might be doing too much. This is a trap a lot of people fall into, at least in America. We fill every second of our time with doing stuff, trying to get to the next level. At some point, you wake up exhausted, you’re out of shape, you don’t feel good about yourself or your life. If your relationships or things that are important to you are suffering, pause the podcast. Put your podcast on hold.If your audience isn’t growing and you don’t see a way to make money from it, if it’s a huge time investment and you’re not enjoying it anymore, it might be time to quit.You can change the format so that it takes less time to produce, or you can admit that the investment isn’t worth it for you, and that’s fine. Maybe you should be doing five minute YouTube videos instead. Maybe you should be writing instead.This comes back to knowing your audience and what they want. I was listening to a writing podcast the other day, and they had their podcast editor on to talk about podcasting. Their guest said that she started a podcast for vapers (people who love electronic cigarettes). She thought, “There’s a huge, strong vaping community. They’re going to want to listen to a podcast.” She started a podcast about vaping and got no response.She didn’t understand why the show didn’t get any traction. It might have been because she wasn’t well known enough, or maybe she hadn’t done it for long enough (she did it for four episodes and then cancelled it).She said she realized that her target audience really wanted videos. They wanted to show off their gear and their clouds of smoke (it’s the dumbest thing in the world, but people get excited about blowing these huge clouds of smoke when vaping. Ridiculous.) She said that they wanted video, and the audio podcast just didn’t work for them.There are some circumstances where video works better than audio.Some topics just aren’t right for podcasts. For example, it’s really hard to explain how to do audio mixing and mastering on a podcast. It’s so much easier to record a screencast so your viewer can see what you’re doing.Don’t Quit Just Because You’re BoredPodcasting is a long term investment. You have to be thinking in terms of years rather than months when doing a podcast.There are lots of benefits to podcasting: Meeting awesome people, growing your network, building an audience, and even getting clients (depending on what kind of show you’re making).You’ll learn a lot of valuable skills, but in most cases, podcasting won’t make you a lot of money right away. You won’t get to 10,000 listeners and $5,000/month in sponsorships overnight. Many podcasters won’t ever get to that point, and if that's your only reason for podcasting, you'll probably end up disappointed.If you’re looking for a quick return on your investment, podcasting is not the way to go. This ties into what I said earlier about your podcast not aligning with your long term goals: If your heart’s not in it, if you don’t really care about this thing that you’re podcasting about, it’s okay to shut it down.Be Careful of Shiny Object SyndromeCory and I talked about this too. He said, “There’s one guy I know who always starts stuff and then stops and goes to something else.”That’s Shiny Object Syndrome: You get excited about doing a new thing, and then it’s not as fun as you thought it would be or you get bored with it, and you move on to the next new thing. You bounce from thing to thing and never get really good at anything.I see that happen in podcasting a lot. People get really fired up about the idea of starting a podcast, so they start a podcast. When it doesn’t turn out to be everything they dreamed it could be, when they don’t get Tim Ferriss levels of money coming back from it or tons of people talking to them and investing time in their show, they quit. They forget that getting good at podcasting and growing an audience takes time.It takes time for people to notice you. You can announce, “Hey, I have a podcast,” one time, and most people aren’t going to notice.You know what they’ll notice? They’ll notice if you post about your new podcast episode every single week for a year straight.They’ll notice if you consistently talk about the same subject all the time. There are authors who don’t get noticed until their 10th, 20th, or 100th book.Sometimes it’s hard to know when you should keep going or when to quit because the thing you’re working on just isn’t working out. Just be careful of Shiny Object Syndrome.Quit Permanently, or Just Pause for Awhile?You don’t have to quit permanently. It’s okay to take breaks, like I’m going to do. Bands take long breaks all the time.There was a band I used to listen to when I was 14 (I think they were called Johny Q. Public). They put out a great CD in 1995, one of the first CDs I ever got, and I loved it.5+ years later, I was browsing through the CDs at a record store and I came across a new record from this band (I hadn’t thought about them in years). They released a new record and I bought it, because I’d loved their first album many years before.Once you’ve had a strong impact on someone, it’s okay to take a break and step away for a while. They won’t forget about you.People don’t forget the people who've had an impact on their life. Momentum is important, and a track record of consistency is great, but sometimes you need to take a break to plan your next move.Thank You for Listening!Thank you for coming along with me on this journey. This podcast been one of the coolest and most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I want to say thanks to you for listening, sharing my show online, and for all the encouragement.I hope I’ve had an impact on your life, encouraged, helped, or inspired you in some way. That’s why I do this.Finally, I would really appreciate a review in Apple Podcasts if you haven’t done that yet. It helps other people find the show, and I really appreciate it. Thanks again, and I’ll talk to you again soon!

Lambo Goal is going on pause. More on that in the show. I know... it's tough. Trust me. We have to say no to some good things right now to say yes to some great things. And there are some great things coming (don't worry, Lambo Goal isn't going away forever). But today's show with Cory McCabe is all about using video to bring people closer to buying what you have to sell. If you want people to buy from you, they need to know, like, and trust you. Video is the fastest way to build those relationships. But is it the right time for you to go all in on video? See, I thought it was for me with seanwes tv back in 2014. I ended up doing a total of 186 episodes, but then I put the video show on pause. It was the wrong time. I share what's next for seanwes tv, why we paused the video show after 186 episodes, and why it's coming back in 2017. You'll learn how to recognize the right time to go all in on video and what to do before you start doing video.

I only recently got comfortable with podcasting. I don't think I'm amazing at it yet, but it doesn't stress me out like it used to. I've been thinking a lot about video lately. Why do so many people spend so much time on YouTube? I watch a few videos here and there, but it seems like the audience for YouTube is much larger than the audience for podcasts. Am I missing something?I was curious, so I spent a few hours doing research and what I discovered has changed the way I think about video. If you're like me and you've been mostly ignoring video so far, lend me your ear for a few minutes. I'm going to try to change your mind.Key Takeaways:Sight is our strongest sense: 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and 40% of nerve fibers to the brain are connected to the retina.Visuals are significant drivers in inciting emotion, instigating action, and achieving memory retention.As with podcasting, making a video starts with a message—an idea of what you want to communicate.If you want to grow an audience and reach people, start making videos.If you don’t know what to say, start writing.I’ve always been a little curious about why so many people are so into Youtube, because I prefer listening to podcasts, audiobooks, and reading. I do like TV shows and movies like anyone else, but when it comes to learning, I prefer reading or audio. But I started wondering: Why have I been ignoring making video for so long?The other day, I saw an article that John Gruber linked to about a lawsuit where Apple sued Samsung for copying the industrial design of the iPhone.Apple was saying that the visual design is so similar that people think Samsung phones are the same quality as the iPhone and therefore are more likely to buy them, so Samsung owed them the profits because Samsung was piggy-backing on their design. This group of 50 different industrial designers and companies (the best of the best) wrote this PDF called Professional Designers Amicus Brief and sent it to the courts.This brief is a fantastic read on how visual design impacts sales and how important it is for things to be designed well, but inside this PDF was a quote from an article from MIT called The Rise of Visual Content Online that blew my mind:Sight is our strongest sense: 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and 40% of nerve fibers to the brain are connected to the retina.As a result of this hardwiring, visuals are processed faster in the brain than text. Not only are visuals processed faster, they are processed better. Some suggest that 80%–85% of our perception, learning, cognition, and other mental activities are mediated through vision. Visuals are significant drivers in inciting emotion, instigating action, and achieving memory retention. One interesting experiment showed that when someone hears a piece of information, they will remember only 10% of it three days later.Adding a picture to that information increases retention to 65%. Using visuals as a primary method of communication continues a longer trend towards short-form content and diminishing attention spans. In 2000, average customer attention span was estimated at 12 seconds, while today’s estimate is 8.25 seconds. Since it only takes humans about 0.25 seconds to process an image, we can still communicate much more information within these shortening attention spans with visual content.”After reading this, I finally understood. Most people aren’t like me. Most people don’t love podcasts. Most people are visual learners.To illustrate this point a little bit further, I read an article on Medium called Why a Visual Really is Worth 1,000 Words that had this great point: “The usefulness of text paired with visuals becomes obvious when you try to answer, “What is a circle?” The correct answer is: a circle is a curved line with every point an equal distance from the center.”Sometimes it’s just easier to convey information with an image. You could just draw a circle! See how much simpler that is?Is Video the Right Format for All Your Content? No.Let’s look at a counter argument. An article called Video Is Not the (Only) Future of Media says: “There is a use case for PDF reports, just as there is a use case for text articles, audio clips, video clips, and other formats. For example, text is a lot easier to skim than video or audio content, so it makes sense to opt for that format if you want to give audiences the ability to do so (skim).Additionally, videos are, by nature, attention hogs. It’s hard for audiences to get full value from the format if they’re not actively watching the visual content. So in return, you’d better be sure that your video is worth the time spent on it, or else it’s just another piece of clickbait. In other words, just because it can be a video, doesn’t mean it has to be a video.Great digital strategies are a mix of formats optimized for how audiences actually want to read, listen, and watch what you have to say. Before you publish on a subject, ask yourself if it would be easier for your audience to watch or read what you’re trying to communicate. Ask yourself whether a video should be the focus of, or a supplement to, your editorial coverage.My Experience With VideoI’m still not comfortable with video. I’ve still got a lot to learn. But I’m fooling myself if I can’t admit the truth: Most people prefer watching video instead of listening to podcasts. I talked with my friend Brett Terpstra yesterday and found out that he’s seen at least one of my Youtube videos but he’s never listened to my podcast. He didn’t even know I had a podcast.He actually introduced me as a YouTube personality when I was a guest on his podcast. I laughed because I’m not trying to be a YouTube personality, I’m just trying to share and teach stuff that I care about. He said that he doesn’t listen to many podcasts, and I know most people don’t. Podcasting is on the rise, but I’m not convinced it’s ever going to be as big as video.I don’t know that much about Youtube, but I need to learn. I need to start from the beginning. I need to swallow my pride and google “How to get started with Youtube”. I need to tackle learning this medium like I did with writing and podcasting. I still feel weird about YouTube personalities—all those vloggers who wander around and talk about whatever they want to, it just doesn’t appeal to me, but I can’t let that stop me from making videos. If you feel the same way, you need to stop for a second and think about why you’re resistant to making video.If you want to grow an audience and reach people, start making video.Yes, you’ll have to Google how to do it if you’ve never done it before. If you’re more comfortable just writing or taking pictures, you don’t have to make videos, but I want to encourage you to. Let’s do it together. I’ll share what I’ve learned, and you tell me what you’re up to. It’s also great practice for online courses, which are a great way to make money and establish yourself as an expert in your field.How To Get Started With VideoYou might be wondering, “How do I do this? I’ve never bought any video gear before. I’ve never shot a video. Maybe I’ve shot a little bit here and there, but I don’t really know how to put a full video together.”As with podcasting, making a video starts with a message—an idea of what you want to communicate.Write out your message, plan out the video, and hit record. You can get into shooting B-roll and getting different angles or investing in fancy gear, but it really comes back to what you have to say.Start with writing. If you don’t know what to say, start writing. You don’t have to publish everything you write, but if you do a little bit every day, you’ll start finding things to share in all different mediums (blog posts, podcasts, and video).If you aren’t sure what to write about yet, pay attention to the questions people ask you. Pay attention to the stuff you talk about with your friends. Figure out your message and record a short video. Don’t use gear as an excuse not to get started; you can get started shooting video with just a smartphone. I started with an iPhone, a Shoulderpod clip, and a tripod. Good audio is really important so I invested in a little Shure MV88 lighting microphone, but you could also get the Rode SmartLav+ mic for $80, it sounds good too.If you’ve got an iPhone, get a microphone that plugs into your phone, a smartphone mount and a tripod, you’re good to go. As far as tripods go, you can either get something affordable like the Amazon 60 inch Tripod ($23) or the Moby GorillaPod ($23). If you want a sturdier tripod and you’ve got a little cash to spend, I’ve been very happy with the Slik Sprint Pro 2 ($70). You can buy some LED lights to get better lighting, but you’ve probably got some natural lighting in your room that you can use.I learned a lot about lighting while shooting a mini-course called Getting Started With Video with Cory McCabe. I learned that you don’t want to have windows behind you when you’re shooting, so keep the windows in front of you and keep the camera between you and the windows so you’ll be lit up properly.For editing, iMovie is great, and there are other free video editing apps out there too. If you want to record and edit screencasts, Screenflow ($99) is great for that (and for editing regular video, too).If you want to use your podcasting setup for recording audio, you can pick up a Logitech c920 webcam ($62), which is great because you can clip it onto the top of your laptop or computer monitor or stick it on a tripod. It can act as a standalone camera that can record video straight to your computer while you use your podcasting setup to record audio.If you already have a DSLR and are curious about microphones and interfaces for that, I actually figured out a way to run a shotgun microphone into an H4N portable recorder and then have a cable that runs out from the H4N straight into my DSLR. That way, the audio from the shotgun microphone was passing through and being recorded straight into the video, which comes in pretty handy if you don’t want to sync up audio files later.It’s going to take some time to learn everything, but I don't want to ignore video anymore because most people learn visually and I’m not going to get romantic about the medium.Links:Podcast: https://podcastingwithaaron.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/aaronpodcastingYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/aarondowdBlog: https://www.aarondowd.comRecommended Gear: https://kit.co/podcastingwithaaron

This is the second part in a two part series about shooting the video lessons for my upcoming Successful Podcasting course. If you're thinking about making a video or screencasting course, you'll want to listen to this! Cory McCabe and I just wrapped up shooting video and WOW. What a week. I've got the video gear packed into my car, and I'll be heading down to San Antonio in a few minutes to take it back to Sean, but I wanted to take a few minutes and share 7 lessons I've learned in the past two weeks.Links:Podcast: https://podcastingwithaaron.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/aaronpodcastingYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/aarondowdBlog: https://www.aarondowd.comRecommended Gear: https://kit.co/podcastingwithaaron

I wanted to make this episode to inspire you if you've ever thought about creating an online course or screencast series. If you've never done it before, there's a lot to learn. You wonder, “How do I plan this thing? How do I write out what I want to say? How do I get good audio and record good video and how the heck do I record screencasts in the 16:9 aspect ratio? (Hint: just buy a 16:9 monitor.) Cory McCabe joins me today to talk about setting up to shoot a video course. We're going to talk about how the first week of shooting went, the gear we're using, what went well, what didn't go well, and what we'd do differently next time.Links:Podcast: https://podcastingwithaaron.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/aaronpodcastingYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/aarondowdBlog: https://www.aarondowd.comRecommended Gear: https://kit.co/podcastingwithaaron

The introduction to your podcast (the first 30-60 seconds) is a critical part of the success of your show. If you don't introduce yourself, new listeners will feel lost. If your intro is too long, people will get annoyed and switch to listen to something else. Listeners want to know what they're going to get out of an episode. If you don't tell them that right away, they're going to start wondering if there's a better way to spend their time, and maybe go find a different podcast to listen to. I don't want you to lose listeners, so today I'm talking about how to make a great podcast intro. Key Takeaways: Listeners want to know what they're going to get out of an episode, so tell them within the 30-60 seconds (if not sooner). Assume that you're going to get new listeners every week. Try to craft a short intro that will tell them everything they need to know about you and your show. Your intro should include who you are and why you're doing your podcast. Try to keep it as short as possible but make sure it communicates those things. A professional voiceover can make your show seem more legit, but it runs the risk of being repetitious and boring to your regular listeners after awhile. It's your job as a podcast host to tell your listener why they should care about listening to your podcast. Don't assume they care; make them care. Make sure that you're doing shows about things you really care about, make sure that your heart is in it. Here's what I'm going to cover today: Why you need to introduce yourself at the beginning of every episode Why you shouldn't assume that everyone knows your story How to give your listener enough information without going too far and boring them The pros and cons of professional voiceovers How to apply this advice to your website homepage (and get more engagement from your visitors) Introduce Yourself Every Episode You need to introduce yourself at the beginning of every episode and tell your audience what you're going to talk about in the episode. Charli Prangley said: On our podcast (Design Life), we include a snippet of a takeaway at the start before the intro music so that people can figure out immediately if this is an episode they're interested in. Then we introduce the topic and say why we're talking about it. We also do a quick ‘check in' about how our week has been and what we've achieved with our projects (which gives our listeners context as to what we're working on and how we spend our time outside of the podcast). Charli is doing it right. You should introduce yourself at the beginning of every show. Tell the audience your name (or names if you have co-hosts), and tell them what you hope to do for them in the episode, or what you're going to talk about. This is important because everyone who hits play on a podcast is wondering (whether they realize or not) what they're going to get out of it. If you answer this question for them right away, then your listener is less likely to switch to a different show. Listeners want to know what they're going to get out of an episode, so tell them within the first 60 seconds. Don't Assume Everyone Knows Your Story After you've been podcasting for awhile, it's tempting to just jump into a topic right away. But you need to think about the new listeners who are checking out your episode for the first time. What info do they need? How can you deliver that most efficiently? At the very least, a new listener needs to know your name and why you're doing your podcast. You don't want to have a 5 minute introduction every single episode, but you need to communicate that basic information for the newcomers. Assume that you're going to get new listeners every week. Try to craft a short intro that will tell them everything they need to know about you and your show. For your regular listeners, maybe include a new, random or funny fact about yourself in your intro every week. I'd like to start doing this myself. Your intro should include who you are and why you're doing your podcast. Try to keep it as short as possible but make sure it communicates those things. Professional Intros VS DIY Intros It's entirely up to you to decide what kind of show you want to make and what kind of feel you want it to have. I prefer to do the introduction myself. It feels more personal that way, plus I can change things up every week if I feel like it. Karma Senge asks: Should you copy and paste your intro and have the same exact one in every episode or should you do your intro new every time? It is a good idea to have a template for your intro, but I think a static intro starts to feel boring to regular listeners after a few episodes. A professional voiceover can make your show seem more legit, but it runs the risk of being repetitious and boring to your normal listeners after awhile. Should I include a funny part of the podcast at the beginning? Cory McCabe asked: Do you put in the intro the best part of the podcast? Or just a good section of it? As editor for the seanwes network, one of my tasks is to pick out a short section of the podcast to use as an intro. This section plays before the intro music for the various shows. During the show, I listen for short sections that are either valuable insights or funny (sometimes even both). My goal is to either give the listener a valuable takeaway from the episode or make them laugh. So yes, I do think you should find a funny or interesting clip for the intro, if it makes sense to do so for your show. Bonus Tip: Make your website home page about your visitor This advice applies to your website's landing page as well (if you make a podcast or if you're a freelancer). If the first thing a person sees when visiting your website “me, me, me, me, here's what I do”, that's not great. Instead, tell your visitor what you are going to do for them. Make the first thing they see about them, not about you. Start with your why. Don't tell your audience what you do, tell them WHY you do it. Check out Simon Sinek's book Start With Why. If you make a podcast, or blog, or vlog, or run a small business, you should check this book out. Q&A: Garrett Mickley said: Tip for what NOT to do: I listened to a podcast that I was disappointed with episode one so I waited 20 episodes to listen again and was disappointed in episode 20. The episode 1 issue was that it sounded like it was recorded in a park in downtown Manhattan. Way too much background noise. But the 20th episode had excellent audio quality. The problem was he spent the first 10 minutes talking about himself and the podcast and not even what that episode was about. Then he started plugging his courses and I was like, “dude, what is this episode even about? You haven't provided any value yet!” Then he just word for word read a blog post he had written about a year ago that I had already read (a year ago) and it was nice to hear it again but I wish he wouldn't have just read it off to us. The ONLY reason I didn't turn it off in the first 5 minutes of him talking about himself was because I was washing dishes and my hands were wet. Otherwise I would have stopped listening pretty quickly. Audio quality is important, and it takes time to develop that, but if you aren't telling listeners up front what kind of value you're going to provide in the episode and you just start rambling, they're going to tune out. I've stopped listening to many shows because the hosts stopped respecting my time. It's your job as a podcast host to tell your listener why they should care about listening to your podcast. Don't assume they care; make them care. Scott Hofford asked: Are there certain things that you shouldn't say that makes you lose listeners? If you podcast long enough, eventually someone is going to disagree with something you say. That's fine. The bigger mistake is either not saying anything because you're worried that you might offend someone else, or not feeling confident in what you do say. If you don't believe that you have something good to offer to your listener, they're going to pick up on that, because no one follows someone who doesn't believe in what they're doing. Make sure that you're doing shows about things you really care about, make sure that your heart is in it. Taylor West asked: When using a prerecorded interview in your podcast, is it more effective to add an intro that you record later (possibly even days later after the interview) introducing the interviewee and explaining the episode? Or do you give an intro at the beginning of the actual interview, right before you start the discussion? I'm gonna say both. A lot of people do interviews without a real plan for what they're going to talk about, and that can work out fine, especially if you're good at interviewing. But thinking about it from my perspective as a podcast listeners: I like to know up front what the interview is going to be about, even if it's just a broad overview of the topics covered. I like shows where the host plans out those things in advance and tells me at the beginning of the show what the topics are. It is a good idea to record the interview and then go back and record an intro where you share some of the most valuable takeaways from the episode. It's like providing a table of contents for your podcast episode. Even though it's in audio form, you can still say, “Here's a list of all the subjects we're going to talk about.” Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/

The introduction to your podcast (the first 30-60 seconds) is a critical part of the success of your show. If you don’t introduce yourself, new listeners will feel lost. If your intro is too long, people will get annoyed and switch to listen to something else. Listeners want to know what they’re going to get out of an episode. If you don't tell them that right away, they're going to start wondering if there's a better way to spend their time, and maybe go find a different podcast to listen to. I don't want you to lose listeners, so today I'm talking about how to make a great podcast intro. Key Takeaways: Listeners want to know what they’re going to get out of an episode, so tell them within the 30-60 seconds (if not sooner). Assume that you’re going to get new listeners every week. Try to craft a short intro that will tell them everything they need to know about you and your show. Your intro should include who you are and why you’re doing your podcast. Try to keep it as short as possible but make sure it communicates those things. A professional voiceover can make your show seem more legit, but it runs the risk of being repetitious and boring to your regular listeners after awhile. It’s your job as a podcast host to tell your listener why they should care about listening to your podcast. Don’t assume they care; make them care. Make sure that you’re doing shows about things you really care about, make sure that your heart is in it. Here’s what I’m going to cover today: Why you need to introduce yourself at the beginning of every episode Why you shouldn’t assume that everyone knows your story How to give your listener enough information without going too far and boring them The pros and cons of professional voiceovers How to apply this advice to your website homepage (and get more engagement from your visitors) Introduce Yourself Every Episode You need to introduce yourself at the beginning of every episode and tell your audience what you’re going to talk about in the episode. Charli Prangley said: On our podcast (Design Life), we include a snippet of a takeaway at the start before the intro music so that people can figure out immediately if this is an episode they’re interested in. Then we introduce the topic and say why we’re talking about it. We also do a quick ‘check in’ about how our week has been and what we’ve achieved with our projects (which gives our listeners context as to what we’re working on and how we spend our time outside of the podcast). Charli is doing it right. You should introduce yourself at the beginning of every show. Tell the audience your name (or names if you have co-hosts), and tell them what you hope to do for them in the episode, or what you’re going to talk about. This is important because everyone who hits play on a podcast is wondering (whether they realize or not) what they’re going to get out of it. If you answer this question for them right away, then your listener is less likely to switch to a different show. Listeners want to know what they’re going to get out of an episode, so tell them within the first 60 seconds. Don’t Assume Everyone Knows Your Story After you’ve been podcasting for awhile, it’s tempting to just jump into a topic right away. But you need to think about the new listeners who are checking out your episode for the first time. What info do they need? How can you deliver that most efficiently? At the very least, a new listener needs to know your name and why you’re doing your podcast. You don’t want to have a 5 minute introduction every single episode, but you need to communicate that basic information for the newcomers. Assume that you’re going to get new listeners every week. Try to craft a short intro that will tell them everything they need to know about you and your show. For your regular listeners, maybe include a new, random or funny fact about yourself in your intro every week. I’d like to start doing this myself. Your intro should include who you are and why you’re doing your podcast. Try to keep it as short as possible but make sure it communicates those things. Professional Intros VS DIY Intros It’s entirely up to you to decide what kind of show you want to make and what kind of feel you want it to have. I prefer to do the introduction myself. It feels more personal that way, plus I can change things up every week if I feel like it. Karma Senge asks: Should you copy and paste your intro and have the same exact one in every episode or should you do your intro new every time? It is a good idea to have a template for your intro, but I think a static intro starts to feel boring to regular listeners after a few episodes. A professional voiceover can make your show seem more legit, but it runs the risk of being repetitious and boring to your normal listeners after awhile. Should I include a funny part of the podcast at the beginning? Cory McCabe asked: Do you put in the intro the best part of the podcast? Or just a good section of it? As editor for the seanwes network, one of my tasks is to pick out a short section of the podcast to use as an intro. This section plays before the intro music for the various shows. During the show, I listen for short sections that are either valuable insights or funny (sometimes even both). My goal is to either give the listener a valuable takeaway from the episode or make them laugh. So yes, I do think you should find a funny or interesting clip for the intro, if it makes sense to do so for your show. Bonus Tip: Make your website home page about your visitor This advice applies to your website’s landing page as well (if you make a podcast or if you’re a freelancer). If the first thing a person sees when visiting your website “me, me, me, me, here’s what I do”, that’s not great. Instead, tell your visitor what you are going to do for them. Make the first thing they see about them, not about you. Start with your why. Don’t tell your audience what you do, tell them WHY you do it. Check out Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why. If you make a podcast, or blog, or vlog, or run a small business, you should check this book out. Q&A: Garrett Mickley said: Tip for what NOT to do: I listened to a podcast that I was disappointed with episode one so I waited 20 episodes to listen again and was disappointed in episode 20. The episode 1 issue was that it sounded like it was recorded in a park in downtown Manhattan. Way too much background noise. But the 20th episode had excellent audio quality. The problem was he spent the first 10 minutes talking about himself and the podcast and not even what that episode was about. Then he started plugging his courses and I was like, “dude, what is this episode even about? You haven’t provided any value yet!” Then he just word for word read a blog post he had written about a year ago that I had already read (a year ago) and it was nice to hear it again but I wish he wouldn’t have just read it off to us. The ONLY reason I didn’t turn it off in the first 5 minutes of him talking about himself was because I was washing dishes and my hands were wet. Otherwise I would have stopped listening pretty quickly. Audio quality is important, and it takes time to develop that, but if you aren’t telling listeners up front what kind of value you’re going to provide in the episode and you just start rambling, they’re going to tune out. I’ve stopped listening to many shows because the hosts stopped respecting my time. It’s your job as a podcast host to tell your listener why they should care about listening to your podcast. Don’t assume they care; make them care. Scott Hofford asked: Are there certain things that you shouldn’t say that makes you lose listeners? If you podcast long enough, eventually someone is going to disagree with something you say. That’s fine. The bigger mistake is either not saying anything because you’re worried that you might offend someone else, or not feeling confident in what you do say. If you don’t believe that you have something good to offer to your listener, they’re going to pick up on that, because no one follows someone who doesn’t believe in what they’re doing. Make sure that you’re doing shows about things you really care about, make sure that your heart is in it. Taylor West asked: When using a prerecorded interview in your podcast, is it more effective to add an intro that you record later (possibly even days later after the interview) introducing the interviewee and explaining the episode? Or do you give an intro at the beginning of the actual interview, right before you start the discussion? I’m gonna say both. A lot of people do interviews without a real plan for what they’re going to talk about, and that can work out fine, especially if you’re good at interviewing. But thinking about it from my perspective as a podcast listeners: I like to know up front what the interview is going to be about, even if it’s just a broad overview of the topics covered. I like shows where the host plans out those things in advance and tells me at the beginning of the show what the topics are. It is a good idea to record the interview and then go back and record an intro where you share some of the most valuable takeaways from the episode. It’s like providing a table of contents for your podcast episode. Even though it’s in audio form, you can still say, “Here’s a list of all the subjects we’re going to talk about.” Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/

I see podcasters make lots of mistakes, and it'd be easy for me to make a list of mistakes to avoid, but I decided to make it a little more personal today. I want to talk about some of the mistakes that I've made. I've made so many mistakes, and I keep making mistakes. But I've realized that some of my biggest mistakes or failures have turned into the greatest wins of my life. Now I believe that the only mistake you should be afraid of is inaction. Franklin D Roosevelt said, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Allowing the fear of making mistakes to prevent you from taking action is what you need to avoid. Key Takeaways: Focus on giving a gift to your audience. Make the experience about them. It takes time (years) to learn audio equipment and post-production. Do the best you can right now and keep publishing episodes. Break longer episodes up into multiple topics. Try to make shorter but better shows. Listen back to your recordings to identify your vocal tics and mistakes. If you don’t know what speaking mistakes you’re making, you can’t work on fixing them. Be ok with saying “I don’t have the answer to that right now, but I will try to find it.” No one expects you to know everything. Don’t waste time arguing with people on the internet. Mistake 1: Being Selfish I made this mistake when I first started podcasting. Back when I was the co-host of the seanwes podcast, I was not focusing on providing something valuable or interesting to my audience. I ended up leaving the show after some of the listeners wrote in to complain. In retrospect, that was a mistake. If you want to be successful as a podcaster, you need to focus on delivering something that your audience is interested in. Focus on giving a gift to your audience. Make the experience about them. Mistake 2: Having Crappy Sound Quality This is something most people go through. When I started, I got a decent condenser microphone but I didn’t really know how to use it. I didn’t know how to set input gain levels and I wasn’t using a pop filter. I was recording in my dining room which had a bunch of echo. It just didn’t sound very good. It takes time (years) to learn audio equipment and post-production. Do the best you can right now and keep publishing episodes. Mistake 3: Episodes That Are Too Long I’ve made this mistake many times. I’ve tried to cover too much in a single episode. If you have a really big topic or you’re trying to cover multiple topics every episode, consider breaking them up into separate episodes. If you do an episode that is too long, your listeners might start to lose interest, or they might not be able to follow the thread. Break longer episodes up into multiple topics. Try to make shorter but better shows. Mistake 4: Being Bad at Talking If you want to hear how good (read: bad) I was when I first started, you can go listen to episode one of the seanwes podcast. I was pretty bad at talking; I used a lot of filler words, I rambled, I said “like” like a hundred times every episode. The worst part is that I thought I was good at talking. You just have to practice more. Fake confidence until you make it. Slow down. Breathe a little more. Watch some videos about speaking from voice coaches like Roger Love. Listen back to your recordings to identify your vocal tics and mistakes. If you don’t know what speaking mistakes you’re making, you can’t work on fixing them. Mistake 5: Imposter Syndrome Ever feel like an imposter? I have. You might feel like you don’t know enough, or you might actually not know enough. If you’re going to podcast about something, you should have a pretty thorough knowledge of the subject, so spend time doing research. Find out what your audience is interested in learning about. Spend time writing about your topic. Writing will help you feel more confident. Confidence will also come with time, as you answer questions and have conversations with people. Be ok with saying “I don’t have the answer to that right now, but I will try to find it.” No one expects you to know everything. Bonus mistakes: Forgetting to hit record. You won’t make this mistake more than once or twice. Coming up with a system or a pre-show checklist can help. Typos in show notes and admin errors. It happens sometimes. Don’t beat yourself up about the minor details. If you can’t hire someone to proof your show notes, slow down a little and review them carefully before you publish them. Dwelling on negative feedback. If you do something like podcasting long enough, eventually you’ll get someone who doesn’t like what you’re doing. It’s very easy to get angry or depressed when faced with negative feedback, but that isn’t going to make the situation any better. Don’t waste time arguing with people on the internet. Never launching your podcast. Your work can only ever be a snapshot of the moment. You can’t make something that will be perfect forever for everyone. Few people expect perfection, and everyone has a different idea about what perfect means. You might think that you’re releasing crap, but it could be exactly what someone else needs. You’ll never know unless you put your work out there. Don’t let perfectionism keep you from putting work out regularly. Q&A: Cory McCabe asked: How should you treat mistakes that cannot be fixed? I’m a filmmaker, so in a final product like a film, some things can’t be re-done. You just have to choose your battles. I’ve learned to be ok with little mistakes, and like I said earlier, everyone has a different opinion about what makes something great. Some people are going to like the little imperfections, some people might hate them and think your thing is crap. That’s just how it is. Keep your eye out for the biggest mistakes, fix them, and then decide which mistakes you can live with. At some point, you have to say, “this is good enough” and put your thing out and start working on the next thing. Remember, it’s a snapshot of where you were at that moment in time, and you won’t get better unless you keep making new things. Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/

Recording audio out in the real world is not like recording audio at home. There are many factors that you’ll need to consider when recording in an environment you don’t have control over, like a coffee shop, bar, conference meetup, or any other public place. Great audio is ESSENTIAL if you want to have a great video that keeps your audience’s attention, but you don’t have to have microphones that cost thousands of dollars to record good audio. In this episode, I'm joined by special guest Cory McCabe. Cory is a videographer, filmmaker, and the creator of behindthefilm.tv. We're going to teach you how to record better audio for your videos, how to record podcasts away from home, and what gear you need for the various situations you might be recording in. Cool Stuff to Check Out: Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com/ Follow Cory on Twitter: https://twitter.com/corymccabefilms Behind the Film TV: https://behindthefilm.tv/