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Podcasters are impressed when other podcasters make
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difficult tasks seem effortless.
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But generally speaking, the public cares more about quality than complexity.
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Sometimes the easier path is best.
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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I talk a lot about making podcasting better, not just easier.
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Heck, that's my mission statement, if, in fact, I have one.
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I think it's on all of my bios.
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But I'm a little concerned that the message I'm putting out
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there is "Don't do easy things."
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And that is not the message I'm putting out there.
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Because a lot of what we do as podcasters, that means behind the
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microphone like this, or also in the engineering thing, it should be easy.
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Let's unpack this with one of my favorite tools of all times
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that's called a two-by-two grid.
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I'll describe it for you, but if you want to grab a pen and paper and make
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one of these, knock yourself out.
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So on the X-axis, that's the one that goes right to left, on the X-axis
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we're going to plot out things that are easy to hard with difficulty
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increasing over to the right.
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Makes sense.
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On the Y-axis, that's the up and down axis, we're going to go from bad to good,
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with quality increasing across the time.
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So now I have difficulty right to left, quality up and down.
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Got it?
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Now, when you do that, you will notice that your paper is now drawn
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into four, nice and neat quadrants.
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Hence, the two-by-two grid.
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Let's label these quadrants, if you will.
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Northwest, that's the upper left.
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Get my hands going right.
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In the upper left, we're going to call that one Staples, and
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I'll explain why in a minute.
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We'll come back to that in a minute.
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Staples.
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These are the things, in that upper left quadrant, that are good
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quality, but also pretty darn easy.
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They don't track over to the difficulty stage but they're
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also of good or great quality.
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Northeast, right to the right of that, in the upper right-hand
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corner, we'll call this section Solo.
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I'll explain why in a minute.
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Again, quality is really good, but everything in here is a little difficult.
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It's not easy.
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It warranted being moved over to the difficult path.
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You have to struggle to get these things done.
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Staying clockwise, going down, southeast corner, lower right
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corner that's Aspirational.
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These are difficult things that when you do them right now,
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really aren't all that great.
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You have room for improvement.
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Hence why we're calling these the Aspirational areas.
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Hard to do and they're not in the good sides of things yet.
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Sliding around to the last quadrant, lower left, southwest corner, Inexcusable.
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These are easy things, but they sound terrible or they look
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terrible or they're just not good.
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Stop doing these.
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Hence the name Inexcusable.
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Okay.
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So now, looking at this grid, either in our head or on the
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paper, what should we be working on other than no more Inexcusable?
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Right.
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We definitely want to do no more in that southwest quadrant.
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No more Inexcusable things.
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But where should you, as a podcaster, focus your efforts?
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Obviously, Aspirationals are what you're going to think of right away.
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These are things that are hard to do and I'm not doing them
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great so I want to get better.
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You bet.
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But take small bites of these.
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Don't try and do everything in here.
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Whatever things you're doing, if they wind up in that quadrant and they're
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not good, well, yeah, you want to slightly try to make them better, but
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don't try and do everything all at once.
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Now, above that's Solo.
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These are things right now that are difficult that sound really great,
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or that look really great, but are very difficult for you to do.
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Should you do more of these things?
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Probably not, in my opinion.
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And this is why I call them, this quadrant, the Solo quadrant because
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one, it's tiring for you to keep doing things that are hard to do,
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very difficult and of good quality.
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But also think about it from a solo from a musical performance.
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Some people absolutely want to hear a seventeen-minute guitar solo.
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You bet they exist.
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But the vast majority of people don't have the patience or desire to sit through
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a technically proficient, extremely complex piece that goes on and on and on.
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And as their fan, they have their fans, they are there, but most people
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like, yeah, that's hard for me to listen to for a long period of time.
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So too, I say, for podcasting.
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So instead that leaves the Staples quadrant.
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Why do I call them Staples?
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Well, it's like staples in your pantry.
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It's things you go to again and again and again.
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These are things where the quality is already good.
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It looks good.
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It sounds good.
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It is good.
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It works really well, but they're low-effort items.
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Here's the secret.
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No one, other than maybe other pesky podcasters, but none of your regular
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normal humans listening to your show know these are low-effort things.
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And more importantly, they don't care.
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They genuinely do not care.
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They just know that the work that they're seeing, reading, consuming, interacting
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with from you is of good quality.
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Who cares that it's easy for you?
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They certainly don't.
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Now, this is a really fun exercise to do on your own, but I think it's better
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when you do it with another podcaster.
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So share this episode with someone and then meet them somewhere
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virtually or in person socially.
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This is whatever you want to do.
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Draw your own two-by-two grids and then go through with the
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other person all the various tasks that you do during your podcasts.
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I don't - again, not just behind mic and on a mixer, but also marketing
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and writing and ideation and all the other things that come out there.
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Work with them and find out where, how you can help that person put
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little things in your boxes and then they do the same for you.
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Sharing the idea, share the love.
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It's a fun little group experience, and you'll find out where you have
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room for improvement and what more easy things you should be doing.
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Cause that's okay too.
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Don't be afraid of doing easy things when the quality is high.
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Now, if you love this idea, please go to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra and buy me
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a virtual coffee to show me your love.
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That's it.
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I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
