Being open to receiving feedback is crucial for growth, especially as we head into 2025. If podcasters are unwilling to listen to their audience, they risk repeating the same mistakes and achieving the same results. This episode delves into the importance of having a receptive mindset regarding advice and input from listeners. Today, I share anecdotes and examples, including the cautionary tale of Elizabeth Holmes and the pitfalls of ignoring expert advice. He emphasizes that understanding your audience is the foundation for creating compelling content and encourages podcasters to seek feedback to enhance their shows actively.

Takeaways:

• Being open to audience feedback is essential for podcasters to improve their content.
• If you ignore audience advice, you risk repeating the same mistakes year after year.
• Feedback is critical to podcasting success; embrace it to grow your show.
• Creating an audience survey can provide valuable insights into what your listeners want.
• Understanding your audience's needs can lead to more engaging and resonant content.
• Ignoring expert advice, as seen in the case of Theranos, can lead to failure.
• With a CLEAR understanding of your WHY and your audience, you can decide which advice to accept and which to dismiss.

Links referenced in this episode:

• schoolofpodcasting.com
• schoolofpodcasting.com/survey
• jordanharbinger.com (on taking advice)
• thepharmacistvoice.com (Kim Newlove's show)
• perrysburgpodcast.com (Kim Newlove's show)
• podpage.com
• schoolofpodcasting.com/960 (on media hosting)
• schoolofpodcasting.com/961 (full show notes)
• Welcome to Earth Stories
• Apple's Dashboard podcastsconnect.apple.com
• Spotify's Dashboard podcasters.spotify.com

Mentioned in this episode:

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And the thing I've noticed is if you're not open to any advice or input from your audience, then you're not going to do anything different.

So today we're going to look at getting into the mentality of receiving and using advice.

Hit it, ladies.

The school of Podcasting with Dave Jackson.

I am your award winning hall of fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson.

Thanking you so much for tuning in.

If you're new to the show, this is where I help you plan, launch and grow your podcast.

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Today we're going to talk a lot about growth and how it takes courage.

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That's L I S T E N E R.

When you sign up for either a monthly or yearly subscription.

And don't forget, that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Every good podcast starts with one thing, and that is knowing who your audience is and knowing what they want.

All right, maybe that's two things, but you get the idea.

It's all about the audience.

And I advise all podcasters to take the temperature of their podcast.

How are things going?

And when you first launch, you should get feedback prepared.

Launch.

If you think about it, athletes have preseason's writers have rough drafts, so you should get some feedback on the first thing that you put out.

Now, I realize that you've worked 20 hours on that thing and you're like, I'm ready to get this out of here, totally get that.

But it makes more sense to get some feedback on it and realize that what you just made is probably a rough draft.

And what's interesting is when I work with people and they come to me and they're like, dave, how do I grow my audience?

The first thing I'm going to ask you is, well, what did your last audience survey look like?

And I'm going to say 97% of people go, what do you mean, audience survey?

And so we're going to be talking about this over the next couple weeks, but today I want to talk about, are you mentally ready?

Because that's really one of the key ingredients to get some feedback.

Are you ready to take the advice of your listeners?

So I have an example of Someone who didn't listen to the audience, they didn't listen to their advisors.

And we'll talk about that, too.

I'm not saying you have to do everything I say, but it starts with having an open mind to listen.

So if you've never heard of her, there's, I think, a documentary on her on Netflix.

Elizabeth Holmes was the founder of what I'm going to call Theranos, which isn't that the villain in the Avengers?

No, that's Theranos.

But anyway, Theranos.

That's how I'm pronouncing it.

And she was advised repeatedly by experts and advisors to ensure that her company's blood testing technology was scientifically validated before making broad claims about its capabilities.

So they're just kind of saying, you might want to make sure that what you say this thing can do, it can do, and validate it scientifically.

And of course, she ignored it.

Great.

Now let's tie that into the podcaster.

Kind of like the person I talk about.

The podcast launches and they tell everyone they know that their show is ready.

They might even spend some money in some cases on advertising, and they'll, you know, put promos on other shows.

They're basically, they want maximum exposure.

However, when the general public gets their ears on the new show, it doesn't resonate.

It doesn't make them go, oh, this is amazing.

In fact, it might fall flat.

And it turns out that mom said it was great.

And apparently mom lied.

Maybe.

Could be, I don't know.

But right now in Ohio, it's kind of chilly.

It's winter.

As I record this, and at this point, you could pull up a chair and warm yourself by the fire with the money that this person just spent on advertising.

It's really not the key.

I'll give you an example.

I just started watching a documentary on Vince McMahon, and from what I understand, I haven't made it all the way through yet.

But this guy is not a good person.

Like, he's got all sorts of lawsuits against him.

And I'm not using him as an example as a human.

I'm human.

I'm giving him as the example of somebody who A, didn't ask his audience, and B, all the promotion in the world will not fix something.

So I realize this guy is not a good guy.

But anyway, he had.

He's the guy behind all the wrestling stuff.

And I'm not a big wrestling fan.

If you are, you know, you do you right.

But this guy was brilliant as a business person and a marketer and he decided he was going to go up against the National Football League, which is like the sport in America.

I know that.

Baseball and apple pie and all that.

No, no, it's football in America.

And I realized for all my friends across the pond, it's a weird game called football that we play with our hands.

Yeah, I get it.

But anyway, we call it American football.

How about that?

He's going to start the xfl and he had all the promotion and he had the cheerleaders, and it was going to be different and everybody's going to be miked up and blah, blah, blah, yada, yada.

So it sounded different.

Sounded like something you couldn't get anyplace else.

And all the promotions went.

They spent all sorts of money to get on a major TV network.

And then the first game came and they forgot one thing, and that was the content.

The actual people playing the game were not good.

A lot of things where people would just pass the ball to somebody and it would hit them in their hands and they would drop it, or in some cases, the guy throwing the ball would just drop it before he threw it was bad.

It was really, really bad.

And so the ratings for like the second game were drastically reduced from the very first game.

And so eventually, even this guy is like a billionaire, or so he says.

The league went out of business.

And so all the promotion is not going to work.

If in the end, somebody gets to the actual podcast and they listen to your content and they're like, so what happened with good old Elizabeth Holmes?

The company that was going to do all this magical things in the medical space was valued at 9 billion.

That's with a B.

Well, that giant company, or so called valued company, it collapsed after investigations related that its technology did not work as claimed.

I said it did this, but when we went to, like, you know, use it.

Yeah, no, and I believe it.

Yeah.

It was last month I was in Indianapolis speaking at Pod Indy, and a few podcast consultants were there, and we were talking shop and we kind of brought up the subject of, hey, have you ever been paid as a consultant for your opinion to have it 100% ignored?

And it turns out this is a fairly regular practice.

And I think in some cases, when people say, I want to hire you as a consultant, I really just want you to agree with everything I've done so far.

And I get that it was hard work and you had to struggle to get to where you are.

You don't want somebody to come in and go, yeah, you've done it.

All wrong.

But in some cases you've done it all wrong.

I had a client once that came to me.

He had recorded a year's worth of content.

He had 52 episodes in the wrong format.

Yeah.

And so again, that person's not stupid.

They were uninformed.

But had they asked someone ahead of time and gotten some advice, they could have avoided that.

And so, as I mentioned this, one of the ways to get your show to resonate is to do an audience survey.

And I work for PodPage, where I'm the head of podcasting over there.

We did just release an audience survey tool.

I'm going to be talking about that in the next episode.

And some best practices for surveys.

And no, it's not just get Pod page, although that would be my advice.

It's a lot easier to just use the built in survey that's made for podcasters.

But nonetheless, the one thing you can do to see how you're doing without doing a survey is to go into Podcast Connect.

That's with an S Podcast Connect, Apple Links in the show notes and you can go in there and see how far people are listening.

And as many people go, man, I wish I knew how far people were listening.

Well, you might want to be careful with what you ask for.

And for years I was pretty happy with what I was getting.

For me, I'm an old teacher, right?

So 80 is a B, 90s, an A, 70s, a C, 60s D.

And so I was getting grades that I was like, okay, not straight A's, but I'm getting up there.

And I went and looked in and was like, oh, this is going the wrong way.

And so you'll hear me talk about in the future.

I have a survey right now.

If you want to take it, you can go to schoolofpodcasting.com survey.

But you have to realize, is this resonating with your audience?

Otherwise what's the point?

And this also isn't about my ego.

And what I mean by this is, as a consultant, you don't have to do everything I say.

I spend a fair amount of time with new clients.

The first thing I do is I have to understand your why.

Why are you starting a podcast?

And then I want you to explain to me who is the audience and what do they want?

Because that's the key.

How can you talk about the what?

What are we going to talk about on the show that's going to entertain or educate the who and move people towards your why?

And then we talk about how are we going to do that?

And so the first thing I do is listen to you.

What are you trying to do?

But when it comes to growing your show, here's what you do.

Step one, get your content to resonate.

And by that, I mean the content has to resonate with the audience to inspire them to tell a friend.

That is not easy.

And it's not something you may do on every episode, but that's the goal.

You want it so good that people go, wow.

And then they go tell their friend.

And then now that you know your product, which is your podcast, is good and that inspires people to tell a friend, then get the content in front of people who do not consume your content, but they should.

Now, getting back to advice.

There are times when we've worked on things so hard that we don't want to change, or in some cases, we just want that shortcut.

And there are best practices in podcasting.

Absolutely.

But there's no shortcut where you can wave a magic wand, talk into a microphone, get 10,000 downloads in a month, and then retire.

That just doesn't happen.

It takes time to build an audience.

And if you're starting from zero, it takes a while.

What?

I mean a while.

I mean a couple years.

And so I remember this is where we talk about content that you want to tell your friends.

And as I was working on this particular episode after having that conversation where a bunch of consultants went, have you ever had people, like, just completely ignore everything you say?

It reminded me of an episode from the Jordan Harbinger show.

And you can find him@jordan harbinger.com really good show, really great guy, super nice, always willing to share whatever is working for him.

I've talked about Jordan before, but he did an episode on how to receive and take and use advice.

I'll have a link to that out@schoolofpodcasting.com 961.

But I wanted to play a clip from that show that kind of shows that sometimes people just aren't open for advice.

And hopefully you can't see yourself in this story.

So a few months ago, a random listener of the show, he hits me up on Instagram.

A lot of people hit me up on Instagram and they ask for advice.

And he said something like, I need some guidance on following my dream.

Which is always kind of a red flag.

But look, people have dreams.

I get it.

And he wanted to start a clothing line.

And I said, all right, well, why?

And he said, well, I love the idea of designing things, and a lot of wealthy people have clothing lines.

Eh, not that they got wealthy that way usually, but he said, plus, where I'm working now, it sucks and I need to get out of there.

And I replied, of course, in my experience, to really succeed, you need to be pulled towards an idea, not just running away from something.

So you start a business because you're attracted to an idea or.

Or that business, not because you hate your boss.

And I asked him if he worked in fashion now, and he says, no, no, no, I want to work in apparel.

It's my dream.

And I said, look, work in the industry for a while, get a job in the industry, learn how the apparel business operates, and then use that experience to decide if you really love it and then set yourself up to succeed.

And I said that I would start in supply chain if I were in his shoes, because that's the nuts and bolts, and that's where a lot of the problems arise in clothing lines, according to all my friends who run apparel companies.

He's just like, no, no, no, no.

I want to design things.

So now I'm getting a little frustrated, but I understand.

He's got goals, he's got dreams.

I said, great.

I wouldn't start there, though.

Operations is where the problems arise.

That's the real business.

You're not getting paid for designing the cool print on the T shirt.

You're getting paid to get quality materials at a great price from China or wherever over to the United States or wherever your market is.

And then I never get a reply to the last message, which is fine.

Three months later, I see a post from the guy, something like that, or I remembered his name.

I can't remember why.

So I go in and I DM him and I say, hey, how's it going with the line?

How's it going with the job?

He replies, I don't even freaking listen to you anymore.

I'm like, okay, well, what happened?

You told me to give up on my dream, and now I'm just like, oh, what a turd.

Okay, when did that happen?

You told me to get a job.

I already have a fricking job.

I want to do my dream, and you told me to give up on it.

So there's a great example of someone who appears.

They didn't really want advice, they just wanted you to wave your magic wand or whatever.

And so there are a couple things that make it difficult to accept advice and being open to advice.

And the first one is you didn't ask for it, right?

You're sitting down, you're eating dinner, Somebody walks in Your house and goes, get a haircut, you hippie.

Okay, you didn't really ask for that.

Thanks for that.

But no.

And then the other one is.

And look, we all have one, your ego and your self image.

When accepting advice, in some cases, people see it as like, I know what I'm doing.

I know my sister's that way.

I'll be like, no, you just need to do it this way, this way.

And the next thing I'll hear is, I.

I could do it.

I could do it right.

Sometimes where we kind of see advice is we're doing something wrong.

And sometimes it's not wrong.

It's that you are in a situation where you are uneducated.

Right?

You don't know what the audience wants.

So keep that in mind.

Sometimes you're just not in the emotional state.

You gotta be in the right state to accept advice.

And when I say accept, what I mean is to hear it.

You're not agreeing with everything the person says.

I'm just saying you're open to hearing it because.

And this is the same if you ever argue with someone.

So in both cases, you're kind of hearing an opinion.

But if all you're hearing is your brain going, I can't wait till this person shuts up so I can explain how wrong they are.

That's not a good thing.

What you want to do is write down everything the person says.

Because that way, instead of having to remind yourself in the head, you're going, okay, I got to remember, as soon as they, oh, now I got to remember two things.

Oh, now I got to remember three things.

And they're still not shutting up.

I can't believe it.

Now write those things down.

Because the goal here is to listen, not to agree.

You just want to make sure that you're hearing what this person says.

You want to ensure there is communication that what they said is what you heard.

Because sometimes somebody will say something.

And what's going on in your head once it goes through all your filters is not that.

So you got to get the right emotional state.

And you want to be open to new ideas and changes.

Again, not that you're going to take them in just hearing them.

The other reason we often don't put advice into action is we're worried about negative outcomes.

Well, if I make any changes, the whole thing's going to fall apart.

And I get that you have concerns about negative consequences, and that can create some hesitation, and they worry that, you know, if I act on this advice, it could make things worse.

Well, at least remember this, there is no failure if you try something and things go the wrong way.

That is a huge educational tool because, you know, don't do that.

And let's do the opposite of whatever made it go down, let's do the opposite and make it go up.

And sometimes you don't act on advice because you're not really sure how to put it into action.

And also you're not sure if it's going to work.

I did an episode about using UTMs.

These are basically, they're free.

It's little links that you can use.

So it takes all of, I don't know, 5, 10 seconds to make a link.

And then you put that into your social and you put it into your show notes so you can see where the traffic is coming from.

So you can do more than that.

So if you're like, ah, it's not going to work, well, let's prove that.

And there are tools you can use to do that.

And I'll put a link to that episode and I'll put a link to some things that make it really easy to do that.

Sometimes the advice is not given in a loving and caring way.

Get that, Understand that.

And sometimes you're worried about changing social norms.

Well, my answer to that is be yourself.

And those that don't like you, they're not your target audience.

But the bottom line is if you're not happy with how everything is going with your podcast, there are a couple of things you need to think of.

Number one, where nobody's happy with the growth.

It's even if you had 50% growth, I used to get, you know, 20 downloads and now I'm getting 30.

You're still hoping it was 50.

I get that.

But remember to kind of step back and go.

It is going in the right direction.

So that's another thing.

Sometimes can do that and then sometimes I am this way.

But I'm also very open to suggestions.

But if you're used to working by yourself, and many of us are, because we are introverts, we're used to getting in the bedroom and just figuring it out.

It's just me and the Internet and I'll figure it out.

So that preference for self reliance can also kind of hinder you from being open to receiving advice.

And so those are the things that can slow you down.

Now one of the things that I always say is when in doubt, ask your audience.

And there are things you can do, right?

You can go to YouTube and read comments, you can go to Amazon and read Comments.

You can go to Apple and read the comments on other shows like yours and see if anybody says anything of value, which most reviews.

And Apple are basically, great show, love the host on occasion, but many times a one star review is very.

It's like, horrible show guy sucks.

Okay, great.

That's not really helpful.

Why?

Why do you think that person stinks?

So there are ways to do that, but by far the easiest and most reliable and the most bountiful is to ask your audience and then listen.

And that's what I did last month.

I had a question of the month.

And I know one of the reasons why people don't do surveys is you are deadly afraid that you're going to put out a survey and you will get zero answers.

And I'm going to say something that sounds very kooky right now.

There's a word I haven't used in a while.

Kooky.

What am I, sinatra in the 40s?

Hey, that guy's kooky.

But it's kooky.

If you get 0 replies on a survey that you've promoted and you got nada.

That's a great survey.

How is that a great survey day?

Because you can only go up from there.

That is kind of showing that you have zero kind of interaction, communication, connection with your audience.

And we'll talk about how to get people to fill out your survey.

Go to schoolofpodcasting.com follow.

I'm breaking this over a few episodes and I just want to say that when I put out a question of the month, and I've been doing this for years, at this point, I still go, I hope somebody answers.

And so the question of the month last month was.

And I thought, let's get the ball rolling on some feedback.

Let me show you that nobody's going to punch you in the face.

Let's show you that.

You know, you might not get as much feedback as you want, but let's look at some feedback.

So I threw it out.

And I said, hey, here's the deal, here's the question.

If you were to take something out of the school of podcasting this show, what do you wish I would do less of?

And if you wanted to make the show longer, what would you add?

And I got two responses, which is awesome.

And so the first one is from York.

Hi, Dave.

This is York from Welcome to Earth Stories, a sci fi podcast minus the fillers and the wokeness on welcome to Earth stories.com I was brainstorming some ideas of how you could make your show Longer.

I listen to your show all the time.

I'm a huge fan, but it's too short.

40 minutes sometimes.

Some of your episodes are.

And then sometimes even less than that.

I'm like, I want a long show.

Not every podcaster could pull this off.

There's some podcasts I listen to where it's just, wow.

I mean, I'm good for 15 minutes, but they just keep on going on and on.

And then there's some others, such as no agenda.

There are shows, as you know, they're like about three hours long or a little bit more than that.

I can't get enough of it.

It's just right for me not to say you need to go three hours.

I think a good fit for you would be at least an hour long.

You could achieve that.

I think it's with some of your rants and raves.

It's engaging to me.

I listen closely.

I know that a lot of other people do as well.

And if you could just make those a little bit longer.

I think what's compelling about you is that you're not afraid to go a little bit controversial.

I mean, it may offend some people, but, man, like, almost everything is offensive these days.

Also, I enjoy your interviews, and the style that you're using is great with the.

I'm not sure what you call it, the journalistic or the storytelling interview.

I also like the classical style as well, where you're going back and forth.

If you could just throw in as well, the traditional conversational style, it's just more relaxing to listen to, and that's about it.

I really enjoy what you're doing with the show.

And the one thing about you, man, is that you give your heart into every single episode that you do.

That's what I like about you.

All right, once again, this is York from Welcome to Earth stories.

P.S.

your voice, Dave, would be perfect for my show.

I know that you're not into audio dramas, but please consider it.

I'm currently looking for more voices for the upcoming season.

York.

I'm going to have to investigate that.

So I will go over to your website.

You can come over to mine.

Whatever.

Let me know what's involved with that, because I've never done it.

And there's only one way to find out what it's like, and that's to do it.

A couple things there.

He likes my rants.

I think one of the things that makes a good podcast, that makes it stand out, is when you voice an opinion.

And right now, this past week, so many people Came out because Spotify is like, look, you can make a gillion dollars with video.

We're gonna be YouTube, blah, blah, blah.

And in true, you know, Spotify fashion, they didn't really say how much you were going to get paid.

And I don't know, call me crazy as a musician, I've heard they don't really pay that much over there.

So they're like, yeah, make a gazillion.

Quit your day job.

Okay, so when you stand for something, they're going to be some people that are like, how dare you?

How dare you speak evil of Spotify?

Right, okay, well, you're not my target audience, and you got to be good with that.

And I.

That is just something I learned growing up.

I didn't know it at the time.

I figured it out by junior high, but we didn't have a lot of money, and I was not dressed.

I often went to the.

I don't know if my mom went to, like, the Peter Brady collection at Kmart or something, but I was not really stylish and it showed.

And I just had to realize, all right, well, you got to like me for what I am or don't.

And I'm fine with that because I had friends who did.

And, you know, focus on what's good, forget all the bad stuff.

So appreciate that.

You're going to be disappointed.

It is the holiday season as I record this, and my Christmas is weird because almost all my family goes out of town.

And so my Christmas is, I believe, December 14th.

So I'm in, like, crunch mode right now getting ready for Christmas.

And so consequently, this episode is going to be probably around 40 minutes.

So.

And I also go by the make the episode as long as it needs to be, and that's it.

And so if you listen to my last episode about how to choose a media host out@schoolapodcasting.com 960 links in the show notes, you'll notice that one was longer.

It was close to an hour.

Why?

Because I had a lot of content.

I covered it.

And at the end of this episode, I'll talk about one thing I forgot, but I usually go by how long is it needs to be.

And when I get to that point, I cut it out.

So thank you, York, so much for that.

And next up, we have Kim Newlove.

Hey, Dave.

This is Kim New Love from the Pharmacist voice podcast and the Perrysburg podcast.

If I could add something to the school of podcasting, I would ask you to mention the tools and gear that you're using more often specifically for that particular episode.

So if you are using a certain type of a microphone or recording software or audio interface, what are you using for your interview recording software for that particular episode?

Let us know while it's happening.

What would I remove from the school of Podcasting podcast?

I would say it's your bloopers in the middle of the podcast episode.

The ones that you don't catch and put at the end.

They're funny when you put a group of them at the end.

When you leave them in the middle.

I just feel bad for you.

I don't leave my own bloopers in the middle of a podcast episode.

I think you should try harder to remove yours.

It's okay to put them at the end.

I enjoy them at the end, but please don't leave them in the middle.

This is Kim Newlove from the Pharmacist Voice podcast, which you can find@the pharmacistvoice.com we talk about pharmacy topics and careers so you feel connected to the profession of pharmacy and inspired to contribute to it.

Again, that website is thepharmacistvoice.com I also have a second show and that is called the Perrysburg Podcast.

I run a local podcast and you can find that@perrysburgpodcast.com the Perrysburg Podcast is an informational podcast for prospective new and current Perrysburg, Ohio residents.

We talk about what's in Perrysburg and why people like to live here.

Again, you can find that@perrysburgpodcast.com thank you, Kim.

Well, right now I am using a Rode Podmic USB that is going into a Rode Rodecaster duo.

And then right now I'm not actually recording on the Rodecaster duo.

I'm just using it as an interface and it's going directly into Hindenburg.

Then I realized that kind of goes against what I normally preach.

I'm always like, hey, record, make sure you have a backup recording.

Well, if I was doing an interview or something with a co host like Ask the podcast Coach or Future of Podcasting or podcast review show, I would definitely have the Rodecaster recording.

That way, in the event whatever I'm recording into just, you know, does technology and leaves me hanging, I will have a backup.

So that's what I'm using right now.

As for the bloopers in the middle, this is embarrassing, but I'm going to throw it out there because, hey, you've already heard the blooper.

I've already, you know, taken a hit with my brand.

What it was And I also got to thank ralph from ask ralphpodcast.com because Ralph is like, hey, Dave, what's going on in the middle of your show?

And I was like, what are they talking about?

So what it was.

And this is where dynamic content, the good and bad of it is, I inserted that was an ad where I was talking about the school of podcasting.

And somewhere in there, I.

I took a left turn.

I was like, oh, this sounds like crap.

And I had heard it, and I had fixed it in the actual MP3 file on my computer and apparently never replaced it in Captivate.

So it's not a Captivate issue.

It's a Dave Jackson issue.

And so I.

When Ralph said, hey, you got a weird thing with your.

Your ad.

And so I went to my computer, listened to the ad on my computer, and was like, no, it's perfectly fine.

I don't know what he's talking about.

And Ralph told me, like two or three times, I should have gone to the file on the website and listened to it.

And I've said this multiple times.

When I don't do that, it always bites me in the butt.

Now, the good news is being that this was a dynamic ad.

When the question of the month, or whatever that particular one is, is gone, that's gone.

So the mistake is gone.

But I believe that was a question of the month, if I remember right.

But I will definitely listen in the future and, you know, do as I say, not as I do.

And that's one again where I'm like, oh, I needed to listen to the whole episode, not just the part I had edited, etc.

So, like I say, the good news is, because that was dynamic, it was easy to fix in all the back episodes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I wanted to do some housekeeping.

In the last episode, I mentioned all about how to choose a media host, because people are like, who's the best?

And you could say Buzzsprout, you could say Captivate or Libsyn or Blueberry or whoever, but that's best for that person.

It's better to understand the different options available and pick the best media host for you.

And one of those sections was unique things that this media host does.

And sometimes it was two of them that might do this feature.

And there was one that, as it's like, you know, Tuesday after, I'm listening to this episode, and I'm like, oh, I can't believe I didn't bring it up, because it's so unique.

And here it is.

This is A Captivate feature.

And if you turn on the artificial intelligence and Captivate, you can have it look at your past episodes, which will then look at the stats of that and have it suggest, hey, here's what seems to be working.

You might want to do more episodes about blank.

And so when I tried this, it made a suggestion that was really good.

But the part that blew me away is it was like, you should also interview so and so and so and so for this episode.

And both of the suggestions were amazing.

And that's when I was like, that's pretty cool.

And it dawns on me, I should go use this feature.

But that is a unique feature that right now, as far as I know, Captivate is the only one that does that.

And I was somewhat kicking myself when I was like, oh, how did I miss that feature?

So if you haven't heard the whole thing again, it's out at schoolofpodcasting.com 960 yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

One thing I wanted to point out, if you're a person that was using Chartable, if you haven't heard, and it'd be kind of weird that you hadn't, but I realize we're all busy at this time of year.

Chartable is going away very soon.

And what that means is if you have their prefix where it.

Basically what that means is you're saying, hey, when somebody clicks play, go over to Chartable.

And Chartable will go like, all right, it's a download for Dave.

Send it over to the media host.

And so the media host, I don't know, Libsyn, goes, all right, that's a download for Dave over here as well.

And I've seen people that will have a redirect from Chartable over to POD track.

So POD tracks like, thanks, Chartable, we got it.

Download for Dave.

And then they send it over to OP3.

OP3 is like, hey, thanks, Dave.

We got it over here, too.

Download for Dave.

And then they finally send it over to whatever Captivate.

Captivate's all right, we got it.

Download for Dave.

Mark the board.

And what people don't realize is these prefixes, these things you put in where when you click Play, it goes there for first.

So hence, prefix.

Is that in the case of chartable or OP3 or pod track or any of these?

If they go down none, zero, nada, any of your episodes will not play because you hit play and it goes over to Chartable.

And the Internet goes, what's a Chartable?

They left a couple weeks ago.

What are you Talking about.

So there's no chartable to go send it over to so and so.

So it just dies.

You've sent your audience, when they click play into the void.

And so many media hosts are going through and just removing it, but probably not all of them.

And so realize that when you wake up and you go, hey, what's going on?

My audience says it doesn't work.

I'm gonna go yell at my media host.

Hey there, Libsyn.

Hey there, Blueberry.

What's going bad?

Captivate, Buzzsprout.

It's not their fault.

You put in a prefix and he didn't remove it.

I think Buzzsprout has removed theirs.

I know Blueberry was talking about it, but there's gonna be somebody that's using, you know, Fred's House of Hosting.

I'm Fred.

Give me your MP3 files.

Let's take them right.

Stick them.

I'll stick them right there.

There we go.

Welcome to Fred's House of Hosting.

And he doesn't, you know, it's.

It's some guy.

Well, usually we do funnels, Internet funnels, but we heard podcasting is hot.

So.

Welcome to Fred's House a hosting great.

Well, Fred doesn't know what he's doing.

And the next thing you know, your show is down, not because of Fred, but because you're using this prefix to which I always ask, what is this prefix giving you?

Like, what is Pod Track giving you?

That Captivate or Blueberry, you know, Buzzsprout, what kind of stats are you getting there?

And with Chartable, there are some people and again, you be you that go, oh, I love to see where I am in the charts.

And that was one of the things that chartable did that people are kind of bummed about.

Well, the good news is my buddy Daniel J.

Lewis over at Pod Gaugement has now added the ability to check your progress on different charts in different countries.

It's actually live.

You can sit there and watch the charts update.

It's kind of cool.

So if you're a person that's like, oh, how am I going to know if I'm up to 121 in comedy?

Well, now you can.

And Pod Gageman.

I've had Daniel on the show before.

Links in the show notes and you can go in and see all your reviews come in from all the countries and you can get feedback.

Speaking of feedback.

Right.

He's got built in voicemail in there, all sorts of fun stuff.

But if you're a person that's like, what am I going to do if I can't see if I'm up or down the charts.

And again you be you.

Well that's now in chartable.

I'll have a link to that out at the show notes@schoolofpodcasting.com 961 yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, York, I'm sorry, I know we're clocking in at whatever, 42 minutes, something like that.

But in the next episode, I'm going to talk about the actual survey.

I'll tell you right now if you number one, it's not going to be a giant commercial for POD Page, even though we just released a survey tool.

But honest, I've got you covered.

If you're not using POD Page, but you should try it, try podpage.com but we'll talking about the book the Audience is Listening by Tom Webster that has a great list of questions.

And we'll talk about which questions you need, when to use this, how to use this, all the nitty gritty stuff.

And Dave, how do we get people to take the survey?

So I'm researching that right now, but today I just wanted to focus on the immortal words of in Vogue.

Boy, there's a word I haven't said in a while.

Remember them.

Free your mind and the rest will follow.

Today we're talking about freeing your mind.

Because if your mind's not open to advice, what's the point?

Ish.

Something.

I don't know, but they were always big on surveys.

Let's do a customer survey.

And the first thing I would say is like, what are we doing with the information?

Because the worst thing you could do is ask your audience for their input and then not use it.

And so that is something I have done and I'll be talking about that in a future episode.

When is it okay to ignore your survey results?

It's all there and it's coming soon.

Next week.

Go out to schoolofpodcasting.com follow and you can follow in whatever fine app.

Notice how I did that in a way that reinforces my brand.

And speaking ofschool of podcasting dot com.

And hey, while you're out there, click on the sign up button.

Don't forget to use the coupon code listener.

That's L I S T E N E R.

And that will save you on either a monthly or yearly subscription.

And by the way, in case you've ever wondered.

So let's say you get a discount this month.

That's also next month.

And the next month, it's a lifetime coupon.

That's my way of saying thank you for being a listener.

And if you ever wonder, like, I wonder what that's like.

I wonder if I should check it out.

You got 30 days to check it out.

And then on day 29, you're like, Dave, not for me.

You get your money back and it comes with unlimited consulting.

So, Dave, can I get unlimited consulting and then say it's not for me?

You can, and that's fine.

Doesn't happen a lot, but it has happened.

But again, I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters, and sometimes I help podcasters realize I shouldn't start a podcast.

And that's okay.

I just love helping people.

So until next week, take care.

God bless.

Class is dismissed.

If you like what you hear, then come down, somebody.

If you like what you hear, then you're.

How many times will I leave slider 3 up?

Or here's a novel idea.

Close your email program, Dave, and you won't have that lovely la La thing and.

Ugh, geez, I was on a roll.

While you're out there, click on the login button.

Except it's not the login button.

You do that after you sign up.

You wouldn't want to click on the sign up button.

Yes, that is correct, Dave.

Try that again.

Someone.