Following podcasting best practices is always smart, but it
Evo Terra:doesn't leave much room for creativity.
Evo Terra:Sometimes success is serendipitous and what seems to be a pointless thing
Evo Terra:may have an unexpected future upside.
Evo Terra:Today's episode is brought to you by the Advancing Podcasting
Evo Terra:community at advancingpodcasting.xyz.
Evo Terra:Because why would I do anything normal?
Evo Terra:It's a special community just for listeners and readers of
Evo Terra:Podcast Pontifications and it's populated by like-minded working
Evo Terra:podcasters just like you who also want to make podcasting better.
Evo Terra:You're already listening to the show.
Evo Terra:So why not extend the conversation and your influence
Evo Terra:on the future of podcasting?
Evo Terra:Join us today at advancingpodcasting.xyz.
Evo Terra:Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
Evo Terra:Productivity, prioritization, and podcasting.
Evo Terra:I say this not because I like alliteration, although I really
Evo Terra:do like alliteration, but because it's what we hear all the time.
Evo Terra:And, generally speaking, I tend to agree with that.
Evo Terra:There are lots of things that you can waste your time on as a podcaster, and
Evo Terra:there's no shortage of Top 10 Things to Improve, Grow/Blow Up Your Podcast.
Evo Terra:And you may not be doing all of those things, and, in fact, you're probably
Evo Terra:not doing most of those things.
Evo Terra:Also, you only have a limited amount of time every single day or week, or month
Evo Terra:to invest in your podcast when you're not actually podcasting, which already
Evo Terra:takes up a whole lot of your time.
Evo Terra:So yeah, prioritize because your productivity needs to be well-versed.
Evo Terra:However, all of those things being true, I'm a big fan of doing pointless things.
Evo Terra:Or, rather, I should say things that seem pointless, and if not
Evo Terra:pointless by themselves, then things that don't have an immediate,
Evo Terra:measurable payoff for your podcast.
Evo Terra:I'm just going to give you one example, and then we'll talk about
Evo Terra:this through the process of my singular example, and that is a thing
Evo Terra:that I call my Minute of Pod Zen.
Evo Terra:Or actually, I call it your Minute of Pod Zen.
Evo Terra:If you listen to Sounds Profitable, Podnews, or even the Ear Brain Heart
Evo Terra:podcast, you might've heard this little episode that I put together.
Evo Terra:That assumes that you listened all the way to the end of an episode of those shows
Evo Terra:that have included that little snippet.
Evo Terra:And by the way, the vast majority of people who listen to those shows do
Evo Terra:not listen all the way to the end, so they never hear your Minute of Pod Zen.
Evo Terra:Also, an extremely small number of people have added Minute of Pod
Evo Terra:Zen to their Amazon smart speaker.
Evo Terra:Very small, like single digit, like not even approaching double digits.
Evo Terra:Now, in case you're unfamiliar with it, this is not a pitch for it, but Minute
Evo Terra:of Pod Zen is an extremely abbreviated version of Podcast Pontifications, which
Evo Terra:I do write and record every single day.
Evo Terra:Just like today, I will write and record a Minute of Pod Zen after I've
Evo Terra:done all the production work for this episode of Podcast Pontifications, it's
Evo Terra:this thing that you are listening to.
Evo Terra:Now, when I started it, I was playing with the notion that syndication
Evo Terra:beyond just, you know, RSS syndication, but truly syndicating content was
Evo Terra:going to be kind of a good idea.
Evo Terra:It might be something, this short little piece, might be something other podcasters
Evo Terra:who have podcasts about podcasting might want to incorporate into their show.
Evo Terra:And yes, I am thrilled to death that Bryan and James and Mark have
Evo Terra:decided to take me up on that offer and are incorporating the content.
Evo Terra:I really appreciate it, but let's face it, the general idea of
Evo Terra:syndication is that it's picked up and redistributed in lots of different
Evo Terra:places by lots of different publishers.
Evo Terra:Three is not lots.
Evo Terra:So the general idea of, "Hey, let's syndicate this" hasn't really panned out.
Evo Terra:However, it's far from a failure.
Evo Terra:The words that I condense and rewrite into a Minute of Pod Zen, which I'm going to
Evo Terra:do here in just a little bit, those words have found a new purpose, which you've
Evo Terra:probably seen if you're following me on Twitter or other social media properties,
Evo Terra:which is mostly just Twitter for me.
Evo Terra:You see the script of Minute of Pod Zen.
Evo Terra:That pointless thing I've been doing has suddenly become the base of what I share
Evo Terra:out as a Twitter thread for each episode.
Evo Terra:You might've seen that happen over the last couple of weeks when
Evo Terra:I switched to this new format.
Evo Terra:I'm also using that text that I write in the Minute of Pod Zen to
Evo Terra:share on LinkedIn and on Facebook as the episode is published.
Evo Terra:You see, I'm no longer just sharing a quick blurb and a link
Evo Terra:to the episodes detail page on my website, on social media.
Evo Terra:That's relatively low effort.
Evo Terra:It's also, as we know, not the greatest when it comes to success.
Evo Terra:Better than nothing?
Evo Terra:Absolutely.
Evo Terra:However, using this new longer form content is working much better.
Evo Terra:I can tell you that since implementing these new longer form posts - again,
Evo Terra:that all started life as the script for a Minute of Pod Zen, that thing that,
Evo Terra:statistically speaking, extremely few of you have ever listened to - is making a
Evo Terra:really big difference when I post things.
Evo Terra:Not just in engagement, social engagement, you know how I feel
Evo Terra:about social engagement, you can't eat engagement, right?
Evo Terra:But it's also delivering lots more traffic over to
Evo Terra:podcastpontifications.com, my website.
Evo Terra:I'm seeing more people engage on content now in the Advancing Podcasting
Evo Terra:community brought in there because of this new longer form content I'm
Evo Terra:able to share socially all because of that thing that no one statistically
Evo Terra:listens to called Minute of Pod Zen.
Evo Terra:It's going from pointless to powerful, trying to keep
Evo Terra:the alliteration going here.
Evo Terra:I'm not ready to cut it out because I'm finding a new life for it.
Evo Terra:What about you?
Evo Terra:Are there things you've always wanted to try?
Evo Terra:Try with your podcast to see, "Hey, this feels right.
Evo Terra:Maybe I should do it."
Evo Terra:Well, give it a shot.
Evo Terra:You have no idea how or even if it's going to pay off later on.
Evo Terra:Don't kill it too early.
Evo Terra:Let it develop.
Evo Terra:It took me over fifty episodes of Minute of Pod Zen until I figured
Evo Terra:out its real value, and now it has become a staple of what I do.
Evo Terra:There are some times, like last week, when I will do all of the work to
Evo Terra:create the Minute of Pod Zen, don't actually record the Minute of Pod
Evo Terra:Zen, but I still use the words as my social shares every single time.
Evo Terra:So those things that you might think are pointless may not be pointless.
Evo Terra:Do the things that don't matter because sometimes they wind up mattering
Evo Terra:big time for you and your show.
Evo Terra:Now let's enter the Boostagram Corner.
Evo Terra:Now it's time for the boost-the boost-the boost- Boostagram C orner.
Evo Terra:Boostagram Corner.
Evo Terra:I don't know a thing about crypto.
Evo Terra:I want to thank Kyrin from the Mere Mortals podcast they used Podfriend
Evo Terra:to send about 1200 sats along with the message of, "Hey Evo, I heard your
Evo Terra:podcast mentioned somewhere in the 2.0 community," - yeah, I'm semi-active
Evo Terra:over there - "and wanted to come here to check out what you're up to."
Evo Terra:Aw, how nice.
Evo Terra:"Lots of handy advice."
Evo Terra:Thank you.
Evo Terra:"And will definitely check in every now and then to find out some small
Evo Terra:snippets to make me a better podcaster.
Evo Terra:Just about to go listen to you on Podland as well.
Evo Terra:GO PODCASTING!"
Evo Terra:Thank you very much, Kyrin.
Evo Terra:I appreciate you staying here and checking out what's going on.
Evo Terra:If you figured out how to send boosts in your new podcast, listening app, feel
Evo Terra:free to do so along with the message much like that, but if that's too complicated,
Evo Terra:Let's face it, it's pretty distinct.
Evo Terra:And the complicated, there are always the option there for you to
Evo Terra:go to buy me a coffee.com/evo Terra, which is what Josh Lipton did.
Evo Terra:Along with virtual coffee.
Evo Terra:They said one of my favorite shows about our medium, the
Evo Terra:discussions are thought provoking.
Evo Terra:It's the entertainment value ever.
Evo Terra:That keeps me listening.
Evo Terra:Well, thank you very much for listening, Josh.
Evo Terra:I do appreciate that.
Evo Terra:And with all of that, I'll say that's it.
Evo Terra:And I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
Evo Terra:Cheers!
Evo Terra:Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
Evo Terra:He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
Evo Terra:Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
Evo Terra:section of your podcast listening app.
Evo Terra:A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
Evo Terra:podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
Evo Terra:transcript, both created by Allie Press.
Evo Terra:Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.