Being a podcast producer is great work if you can get it.
Evo Terra:But it's still work.
Evo Terra:Work that somebody else is paying you to do.
Evo Terra:How can you prepare for when - not if - that relationship comes to an end?
Evo Terra:Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
Evo Terra:Write these two rules down, podcasters.
:Never meet your heroes.
:A dream job cannot be both.
:Now, there are exceptions for both of those rules.
:Obviously, I've met Drew Ackerman from Sleep With Me in person, and
:he is genuinely a lovely person.
:I've also had jobs that I have really loved.
:For a while.
:And they've loved me.
:For a while.
:There's that old adage find a job that you love and you'll never work a day
:in your life and that's utter garbage.
:Because a job is a job.
:At some point in time, it just becomes a job.
:Some jobs are a lot more fun than others, but still it's going to be a job.
:And a podcast producer is one of those jobs that is fun.
:It really is.
:I've been a podcast producer for a long time.
:I've been doing it professionally on behalf of other people
:for several years now.
:And it is a lot of fun, but it is still a job.
:Now, in the early days of podcasting, I resisted the temptation that
:many of my friends jumped into wholeheartedly - and go for it, why not?
:- I resisted the temptation to become a podcast consultant.
:And probably missed out on a lot of money because a lot of my friends who were
:doing that were charging quite a healthy rate for being a podcast consultant
:back in the early days of podcasting.
:But I resisted.
:I also resisted launching my business of podcasting where I produce
:podcasts on behalf of people.
:Because I didn't really want to do that at the time, but I think
:the bigger thing for me was back in the day, I resisted bringing a
:podcast consultancy to my day job.
:One of the reasons I didn't jump into the other things is I had a nice
:well-paying day job that could have dovetailed nicely into podcasting.
:And many of my friends decided to do that.
:They said, Hey, I'm sitting here.
:I got this great job.
:Podcasting.
:We can do it.
:Let's bring it in.
:And I, someone said, I will become the principal of this new podcasting
:division within my company.
:Great idea.
:Sometimes.
:But oftentimes not.
:Because I have seen this play out at many different new media
:things that come up in the world.
:My background is in advertising and I've seen the influx of blogging,
:video production, social media.
:I've seen those things blow up inside of the company and then
:blow right back down again.
:So I had always resisted that temptation of building that into my own company.
:And of course now I do produce podcasts professionally.
:So I've gotten over it, but still you see there's a conflict that
:happens between the creators, people like you and me, who want to create
:amazing things on behalf of another entity, and then there's the company.
:And the company, they may say they want amazing content.
:They may say they're looking for great engagement and things
:that really elevate them.
:But what they really want is to make money.
:Cause if they don't make money, they can't make payroll or they can't
:pay you or they can't pay anybody.
:So they can say they want all those other things.
:But at the end of the day, they still have to make money.
:And if you, as the podcast producer, either internally for an organization or
:externally as a consultant or contractor of some sort, if you're seen and the jobs
:that you do are seen as something that's a cost center for the company, there
:will always be pressure to either lower those costs or increase the efficiency,
:the outputs of those standard costs.
:And that's the race that you're into when you're a cost center only.
:If you're not core to the biz, if podcast production is not core to
:the business that you are in, that you are working for, if that is not
:what they do, if podcasting is not core to their business, you're always
:going to have to fight against those people who don't get podcasting.
:And you'd think 15, 20 years later that we wouldn't have to fight
:that fight anymore, but we do.
:Let's not forget the most recent data from the Infinite Dial 2021 shows us
:that 78% of people in America still don't listen to podcasts on a weekly basis.
:Chances are your boss, the person that you're reporting up to, the person
:you're turning stuff in, it's very good chance that if they're listening to
:podcasts at all, it's infrequent at best.
:So, you're already at a disconnect.
:So, what do you do about this harsh reality?
:I've just laid out in front of you?
:If you are a podcast producer, at some point in time, you're looking
:and saying the writing is on the wall.
:Maybe not today, but tomorrow, sometimes this is going to end.
:What do you do about that?
:I've got three ideas for you.
:Do your best work.
:Always do your best work you can do to the specifications laid
:out and then go above and beyond.
:But while you're doing that work, document what you're doing.
:Take screenshots, grab source files, show your work.
:Now, obviously I don't want you to get into employment contract issues, if you
:signed something that said, you will not do this, then look, don't break the law.
:But assuming that's not the case, you're putting something out publicly.
:Go ahead and grab some interesting bits about how you did that job
:and document exactly what you did.
:Put it in your portfolio.
:That's number one.
:Get credit.
:Get credit for your work, even if you are just a contractor,
:get credit for your work.
:Sure, you can get on the website if that's at all possible.
:But I'm thinking about inside of the in-app episode details.
:If you are an integral part of that show, and you're not just a cog in
:the wheel, tell your client, as part of your job as a podcast producer,
:that best practices is that we should include the names of the people who
:worked on the show to show we are human.
:And again, it's best practices.
:Go ahead and give your boss the title of executive producer and
:give them credit in there, as well.
:That'll help.
:But get your name listed in the credits inside of the in-app details
:of each episode and save those.
:And the third thing to do is build your credibility.
:Now, again, watching out for any employment issues, but get on the circuit.
:Take the knowledge that you have and start talking to people.
:Referencing the job that you worked on, yes, but more importantly, referencing the
:products you were producing for that job.
:Update your LinkedIn profile listing each of the podcasts you're working
:on as a project and specifically what you were doing on the project.
:Yeah, talk about you, obviously.
:The reason you're doing this is to talk about you as a podcast producer.
:You're not here to represent the show.
:Don't misrepresent anything, but start building your credibility.
:Chances are, someone who's not happy with their job as a podcast producer
:right now, maybe they need to hear this.
:So go ahead and send them a link to this episode.
:Or you can go to the article and send that link at podcastpontifications.com.
:That will be helpful to them.
:And if you got any great value out of this, if it helped you
:at all, please consider going to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra
:and buying me a virtual coffee.
:That's always nice.
:That's it.
:I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.