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Ways To Make Your Podcast More Memorable
Episode 10524th March 2022 • Podcast Pontifications • Evo Terra
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Evo Terra:

When people complete your latest podcast episode,

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what do you want them to do?

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Reflect on your brilliance?

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Bask in a sense of satisfaction?

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Or would you simply be happy if they remembered what you

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said five minutes later?

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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

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All this week, I've been exploring ideas that came during my chat with

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CJ Silva of Vocalize on Monday.

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Today's no different.

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And the topic now is about making the things that we make memorable.

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Specifically, how podcasters like you and me can make memorable shows,

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episodes, and other forms of content that, well, are memorable to our listeners.

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Making memorable content isn't easy.

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It's not like there's a template for you to fill out.

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There's not a filter that you can apply.

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It's not a task you leave to the very end of the creation process like you

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might do with a final proofreading pass.

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And even if you do manage to make something memorable, that memorable

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thing you make is competing with the dozens of other types of

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content your listeners might have been exposed to during that day.

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That good and memorable impression that you made as they listened to your show

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this morning can be completely knocked out by something they listened to over their

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lunch break, pushing you and the message you had for them out of their mind.

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And I'm not talking about other podcasts they listen to.

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Not only, at least.

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I'm talking about the full compendium of content that they and we are

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exposed to every single day.

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You know, there's a lot coming at us.

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We quite literally cannot keep up with everything and keep

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it all in our active memory.

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Forgetting is a survival mechanism for our species.

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And forgetting is something that we creators do, too.

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My wife will often ask me what I talked about on today's show and, more often

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than not, I draw a complete blank.

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Just a few short hours after I created the content, a process which takes

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me between three and four hours each day, and it's completely gone.

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So if I can't even make content that sticks in my own head for longer than

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a day, how can I expect anyone to remember what the hell it was I said?

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Let's start this discussion about making memorable content

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with a few acknowledgments.

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First, an acknowledgement that we have zero control over what goes on

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inside the heads of our listeners.

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Second, we must acknowledge that we can't control what other people listen

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to, what other content they consume.

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And the third acknowledgement is that our experience as a creator

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is markedly different than the experience our listeners have

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when they consume our creations.

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And it's that last one that's important.

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And I'll, again, use myself and this show as an example.

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For the three to four hours it takes me to create an episode, I'm

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engaging the creator part of my brain.

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That part, I guess better said, those parts, are busy doing creator things

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as I slowly turn an idea into a concept and into a final product with

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all the pieces necessary to publish.

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Now, that's a very different part of the brain than you use

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to enjoy the content I create.

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Unless you're intentionally listening to see where I got something wrong, and yes,

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I get things wrong all the time, your creator-mode brain is mostly dormant.

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At least until you hear me say something that may activate your creator brain.

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But until that time, you're just enjoying, or at least I hope you're

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enjoying, and grabbing onto the concepts, and, hopefully, considering how to

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apply the ideas into your own podcast.

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So even though I've forgotten everything after I'm done, it's possible

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that you do not forget everything I've said after you've heard it.

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And by the way, the same goes for the content you create

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that you can't remember.

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Your experience is not necessarily your listeners' experience.

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Now, with that the very long last acknowledgement fully explored, let me

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run through a few ideas on practical tips that I use that you can use to make

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your podcast content more memorable.

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Number one, have a schtick.

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I have at least two, one at the top of the episodes and one

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at the bottom of my episodes.

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Now, I know these schticks, well, stick in at least some people's brains

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because the people repeat those same things to me when we see each other.

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Those phrases, and you probably know what they are, are said by

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me each and every time I record.

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They aren't canned.

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They aren't in someone else's voice.

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I can, and I do, change them slightly each time.

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When I forget to do them, or I dramatically change them, I hear about it.

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So I know that at least those two aspects of my show are making an impression.

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Number two, be about one thing.

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Some formats, like news roundups and variety shows, well, they have

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to be about more than one thing.

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But for most other podcasts, adding on more themes or points into a

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single episode could lead to your episode being less memorable.

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Earlier in this episode, I said how much content people are exposed to every

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single day that forces their brain to choose one memorable thing over another.

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Don't do that to yourself by packing your episodes with more than one thing.

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And if you're the host of an interview, think seriously about

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this and consider not asking your guests about a myriad things.

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Have them on again to talk about something else if you need to.

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Number three, reinforce and repeat.

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It's the old, "Tell them, tell them what you're going to tell them,

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tell them again, and then tell them what you just told them" concept.

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Yeah.

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And that rings true.

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If you or your guests drop a nugget of wisdom, ring that bell loudly.

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It's okay even to break into your interview and say, I want to

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underscore what my guest's just said, and then repeat that back, and

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then jump back into the interview.

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And then you'll do that again at least one more time with a custom

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closing just so your listeners have heard that choice bit two or three

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times to stick in their memory.

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Number four, less is more.

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Now, this may seem in stark opposition to what I just said about reinforcing and

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repeating, but it's very easy to go deep into an explanation on a discussion that

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to you, with your creator-brain fully engaged, seems like excellent content.

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But your listeners, with their brains fully in enjoy-mode,

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might find tedious or boring.

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So don't be afraid to cut out content.

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Something you may have to do by taking another pass on the content you recorded

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when your brain's not in creator-mode.

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And number five, don't flood your audience.

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And by that, I mean, don't give them more to think about than they can handle.

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Personally, I'm guilty of this on Podcast Pontifications.

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I've known I've been doing it for quite a while, and now, more than 550 episodes

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in, I'm finally doing something about it.

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Starting next week.

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Stay tuned for more on that note.

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With that, I shall be back directly with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

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Cheers!

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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.

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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.

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Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes

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section of your podcast listening app.

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A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at

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podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected

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transcript, both created by Allie Press.

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.