Evo Terra:
How are podcasters supposed to embrace "Consistency is key!"
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when everything about podcasting keeps changing?
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It's no easy task.
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But if you approach change systematically, you can make it work for you.
Evo Terra:
Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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I woke up this morning a little worried that I'm flooding you, the working
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podcaster, with far too many great ideas for you possibly to implement.
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Now, even though this is very much not a how-to show, I do surface a lot
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of ideas that you can implement for your podcast right away, which would
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therefore make your podcast better and therefore, all of podcasting better,
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which is exactly what I want to do.
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You know I'm a big fan of change, but I've been wondering, is it too much, A,
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and B, am I practicing what I preach?
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So I decided to do a quick self-examination to keep myself honest
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about the things I'm telling you.
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And I reflected back over the last season, what have I personally, Evo Terra, changed
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about Podcast Pontifications specifically?
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Well, I came up with a list of nine things, which was pretty amazing.
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Nine different things.
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I've changed a lot.
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And some of which you may know about, some you don't.
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So I'm just gonna run through that list of changes just today.
One:
I have completely changed how I do episode prep, as in the way I
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build the outline for this episode.
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I'm using an outline.
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I've always used an outline.
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Well, maybe not always, but for the first, like, week I use an outline.
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That's just how I do things.
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And I create that outline ahead of time.
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How I create that outline has changed.
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Basically I flipped the model in the last year.
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Totally changed the model completely.
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That's number one.
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all new branding, which I know you've seen.
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If you haven't looked at your podcast listening app, you will see there's a
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brand new logo for Podcast Pontifications, looks like a very Zen garden-y like thing.
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Also, that meant brand new artwork for each of the episodes because one
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of them previously was kind of crap.
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And I credit all of that to Nik Gill who is the artist that I engaged, the
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graphic designer I engaged to do that.
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I'll put links to everybody that I talk about it in the
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episode details, by the way.
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So brand new branding for the front of the entire show.
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And when I got new branding from Nik, that, of course, meant I had to update
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the website because that hadn't been touched in a very long time and by
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someone who me, wasn't a designer.
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So I re-implemented a whole brand new website very much thanks to Steve Yong for
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his help in making the website really pop.
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I don't know what number I'm on.
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Three, maybe?
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Also, maybe more - I don't know if it's any more or less relevant to things, but
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I have incorporated corrected transcripts.
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Now, every episode I publish on publishing now gets a corrected transcript.
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And that forced me to change how I collaborate with Allie Press,
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my production assistant, who does the correction of the transcript.
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We had to work and find a method so that we could still get it done.
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I could get the data to her so she could correct that transcript
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in just a few hours, which is super tight change, but we did it.
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And now every episode that gets published has a transcription
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associated with it, a corrected transcription, not just an automated one.
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I totally switched the service that handles Podcast
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Pontifications in your inbox.
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That is the newsletter service that I use to send out to several hundred
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people now the episode as it's published every day at 10 o'clock.
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And changing that provider means I had to change the way I publish that information
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because it's all different now.
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And it still has to go at the same time every day.
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One big change I made that I had forgotten about until I took a sip
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of the tea that I'm drinking, I'm drinking tea now in the morning.
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And not really tea, it's a tisane, it's an herbal tea that has no caffeine in it.
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And the reason I'm doing a no-caffeine tea is I was speaking with some vocal
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coaches, a voice pathologist actually, and that's one of the things they recommended.
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Don't do caffeine because it's not great on the vocal chords first
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thing in the morning, they say.
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Which led me to the next thing I've changed, I'm seeing a vocal coach now.
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Hi, Ruchi!
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Seeing a vocal coach.
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I went a few weeks ago and had them stick the big scope down and make sure
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the vocal folds are looking all fine.
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Don't do that if you don't have to, by the way.
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That just is - A, it feels gross, and B it looks really gross.
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But nonetheless, I've done that and I'm committed to keeping the voice
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healthy so I can keep doing this.
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Speaking of sound, I have engaged a sound engineer.
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Hello, Marcus DePaula!
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Super nice guy, knows a lot about the space.
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Marcus has helped me improve the sound - like this week.
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Yesterday's episode probably sounds a lot better than the day before that.
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And this one's going to go through the same process.
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And that process Marcus now has me doing, it wasn't just tweak a few
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dials here and there, it's a brand new way I do post-production, totally
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flipping the model I had on its head and bringing in new tools to the mix.
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Also, I think maybe to wrap, I changed the way I produce in-app
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episode details, thanks to Apple.
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Enough about that.
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But nonetheless, I have changed the way that I'm making
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the in-app episode details.
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So when you click through on your listening app to get more
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details, you'll see new stuff.
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And I was forced to do that because of Apple.
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Anyhow, I did all of these things within the last season
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and most of them this year.
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So yeah, I am practicing what I'm preaching.
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I'm making changes to my show constantly.
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Kind of because that's me, that's just the nature of the person who I am.
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And I hope to impart some of that onto you.
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And I'm not done.
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One of the things I know about change is it's never finished.
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I can always get a little bit better and I've got a lot of
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changes planned for next season.
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Many of them I will implement almost immediately when the next season,
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when season four drops in July.
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All of these are going to make the show better.
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They're going to make me better.
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It's going to change the listener experience so you
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have a better time listening.
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Lots of really cool stuff.
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Now, I keep hinting at these changes coming for season four, and I'm
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probably going to keep hinting on those as I refine exactly what
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the roadmap is going to look like.
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I'm going to start communicating those changes in a few weeks, which, by the
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way, include some opportunities for other podcasters and podcast service providers.
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But I'm only going to be communicating that, I'm going to
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start communicating that to the people who have supported me thus far.
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So please go to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra, and sign up for a membership so you'll
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be among the first to know what these changes and opportunities might look like.
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Now, no episodes from me on Fridays.
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So tomorrow's Friday.
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I will say to you Happy Mother's Day if you are a mother
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and you are in the US of A.
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Or anywhere.
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Just Happy Mother's Day 'cause we should be happy with mothers, I think.
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That's it.
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I shall be back on Monday with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
