Where's your audience?

Quick note: These first few issues of The Segue will feel a bit broad. While most people won’t start at the beginning, my goal is to begin linking other issues at the bottom so people can get foundational if they need to. IF you need more specific help, and don’t want to wait for the deep dives, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly and I’ll help you!

Coming up on The Segue:

Here’s a sneak peek into future issues of The Segue:

• Your show is a startup, act like it.

• Podcasting Software: Call the engineer

• 720 degrees of marketing your podcast

• Podcast revenue: The account exec is underpaid

The biggest mindset hurdle for radio people

There is one hurdle I’ve seen over and over again in the transition back and forth between radio and podcasting. The mindset around audience sizes. On the radio, we turn on the microphone and there they are. Maybe you are battling their favorite song, or they are passively listening while in the drive through, but there they are. In podcasting, we hit publish and… CRICKETS!

This is really difficult for a lot of broadcasters to wrap their heads around. It’s true. Maybe we aren’t as good as we thought! MAYBE the audience chose the radio station, and you happened to be there. Damn that hurts.

These three things are now truth:

1. You have no audience.

2. You have no marketing.

3. No one cares about your content (yet)

You’re moving from BROADcasting to NARROWcasting. The same things won’t work when it comes to marketing and you won’t have other radio shows to tell people to listen to yours. Instead, you have to build those highways yourself.

Podcast listeners are better anyway

Here’s the beauty of this - the listeners are far more into you when you do get them. In my opinion, one podcast listener is worth 10+ radio listeners. Think about it. A podcast listener’s journey to you is much more complicated than hitting seek on a radio and landing on the song you’re talking after.

The podcast listener’s journey might look like this:

1. Follow you on Twitter.

2. Interact with none of your tweets

3. Remember seeing your name somewhere

4. Seeing your name in a podcast app of their choice

5. Clicking play

6. Liking it

7. Missing a few episodes

8. Clicking play again

9. Subscribing

10. Becoming an ACTUAL fan of your content

Look at all those steps! By the time someone subscribes to your podcast, they’ve climbed mountains to get there! So, treat them right.

These are not casual people! These are people who sought out your special brand of audio. Make sure they know how you feel about them. Encourage them to tell you what they love, but more importantly, what they don’t love. Converse with them. Engage with them on social media. Nurture their support with your attention.

Do all the things you wish you could have done on your radio show when you didn’t have enough time to get to all the callers.

Where radio pros shine with podcast listeners

You’re damn good at audio. This is your sexy advantage.

Take everything you know about audio (the mechanics, processing, show structure, soundscape) and use it to its full potential. And if you’re feeling weak in an area, take the time to learn it. It will take you half the time of a podcaster who hasn’t been on the radio or produced a segment before.

Three things you need to do with every episode:

1. Stop and ask yourself if this is good enough for the radio (quality, volume, processing)

2. Aircheck it. Send it to a radio friend and ask them for feedback.

3. Listen to it all the way through (Don’t you even think about it. I know how it is. You’re busy, you know what you said… it’s fine… I’ve been there. Just the other day I sent out part of a syndicated radio show and missed one of the 7 dirty words. I was lazy. Don’t be lazy. Listen to it all the way through as a listener one last time)

I hope this issue was hard to read. It’s supposed to be! Remember, we are leaving our ego at the door on this segue to the world of podcasting. Be a word of mouth MACHINE and you’ll have that radio sized audience in no time.

Again, I’m here if you need me.

Speaking of marketing

I am on the hunt for other newsletters to collaborate with. If you know of any really valuable newsletters in the radio or podcast space, please let me know. Best to do it on Linkedin or Twitter and tag us both. I would really appreciate your help vetting the best!

Also, starting next week, I will include a section in The Segue dedicated to HIGHLY VALUABLE articles I’ve read in the previous week. So, if you see any you think I should include, please let me know!

The Segue is brought to you by Beehiiv, the only email service provider with a built-in referral program. Explode the growth of your newsletter by using the most powerful persuasion tool out there, word of mouth.If you’ve considered starting a newsletter, there’s no better place to get started and no better time than now. Try Beehiiv absolutely free with no credit card required.

Beyond The Segue…

If you’d like to see what I’m doing when I’m not writing for you, here are some other projects in the podcast and radio space I am working on…

🪐 The Podosphere is something I built with my co-founder (and podcast expert) Harry Duran. It’s the most comprehensive podcast company directory in the galaxy! If you feel inclined, create your free account and make your PodStack™ - allowing you to share the tools you use with the world.

🛰️ Airspeed Studio is software made for syndicated radio shows. If you deal with syndicated radio shows (or have one!) this software is designed to be an operations hub between the show and its affiliates. I’ve been working on this in the trenches for a couple years as an executive producer and it’s finally ready to share.

📻 The Jubal Show is the show I executively produce nationally (along with it's 9 daily podcasts). It's a Top40 show syndicated to 30+ cities in the United States. Something really cool about this show - it's independently syndicated. The show owns itself! Kind of rare in the world of radio, and we try to take full advantage of our freedoms!