The dichotomy between the so-called "fraud-casters" and legitimate podcasters is the focal point of our discourse today. Fraud-casters are individuals who embark on the endeavor of creating podcasts without possessing a genuine understanding or appreciation for the medium; they often fail to engage with existing podcasts and neglect the fundamental elements that constitute a true podcast, such as an RSS feed. In contrast, authentic podcasters invest time in not only producing content but also in immersing themselves in the intricate dynamics of audio storytelling and audience engagement. I draw from personal experiences and observations within the podcasting landscape to elucidate the significance of valuing the listening experience, which is paramount for anyone aspiring to host a podcast. Ultimately, this discussion serves as a clarion call for those entering the podcasting realm to cultivate a deeper respect for the craft, ensuring that their contributions are both meaningful and enriching to the listening community. A profound exploration of the distinctions between the terms 'fraud-caster' and 'podcaster' reveals critical insights into the integrity and authenticity of the podcasting medium. The dialogue elucidates how individuals who aspire to host podcasts, yet possess no genuine engagement with the medium, undermine its value. This discourse posits that true podcasters exhibit a deep respect for the auditory experience, investing time in both consuming and creating content that resonates with listeners. The episode further examines the concept of the fraud-caster, individuals who may produce visuals and claim to host podcasts without providing an authentic audio experience or an RSS feed, thereby diluting the essence of what a podcast ought to be. The discussion highlights the necessity of understanding the podcasting landscape, emphasizing that aspiring hosts must appreciate the nuances of the genre to contribute meaningfully to the community.

Takeaways:

1. The distinction between a 'fraud-caster' and a legitimate podcaster is crucial in understanding the podcasting landscape.
2. A true podcaster engages deeply with the medium, having a genuine appreciation for the audio experience and its nuances.
3. Individuals who aspire to host podcasts must first be avid listeners to grasp the format and structure effectively.
4. The importance of an RSS feed cannot be overstated; without it, one cannot claim to be producing an authentic podcast.
5. Visuals alone do not constitute a podcast; the essence lies in the audio experience that resonates with the audience.
6. Engagement with listeners is paramount; podcasting should foster habits that encourage regular consumption and interaction.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. qcamplified.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Joe Budden
2. Earn Your Leisure
3. QC Amplify
4. Apple
5. Spotify
6. Netflix
7. Bill Simmons
8. Jada
9. Michael Irvin
10. Dame Dash

What's going on, everybody?

CJ Williams, and welcome to show up Better a podcast about content.

I want to talk to you guys about the frog caster versus the podcaster.

And what is a frog cast?

What's a podcast?

Now, this is just my opinion on this.

I see a lot of stuff going on on social media about people really having podcasts, so I want to touch on that.

I am someone who produces podcasts, video podcasts, but I also listen to a ton of podcasts.

I love it.

I respect it as a medium, but I know and, you know, we've all seen them, these frog casters out there, and I want to talk about who these people are.

And I would say up to a couple weeks ago, this.

I would say this is none of my business, but as somebody who produces, again, produces podcasts, video podcasts, all this stuff and my respect for the medium, I feel like I have to kind of defend it, and so I have to guard it in some way because of my respect for it.

I want to start off by playing a clip from interview on Earn your leisure podcast.

This is Ian Schwartzman.

He's the guest on that podcast.

He is the business partner of Joe Budden of the Joe Button podcast, which has been around for 10 years.

Hit podcast.

One of my favorite ones, probably my favorite podcast.

Listen to.

I want to play for you a clip of him.

Check it out.

I've been offered every check from every business that you see on every other podcast, and we've turned it down because it's going to disrupt the experience.

At some point, podcasters, media personalities, networks, have to make a decision.

What's more important, what is more valuable, the experience or.

Or this check.

Today, I play this video because of what he's talking about.

He's talking about the audio experience, a podcast being about the audio experience.

Now he's talking about it in terms of ad interruptions and things of that nature, but he's talking about the listening experience.

I have another clip I'm going to play for YouTube by someone else, but the audio experience, this is important.

So I recently put out a threads post about how I'm.

I have a podcast network I'm starting here in Charlotte called QC Amplify.

Y' all can visit that website, qcamplify.com and I put out a thread post saying that I'm looking to launch three podcasts this year.

You know, the production and marketing, all that stuff I'm gonna handle.

The hard part is gonna be finding hosts.

So some people hit me up and I had Them go fill out a form.

And I got actually talked to one of them, talked to a couple of them.

Actually.

The first one I talked to, I asked a question.

This question wasn't on the form, but I have to add it to the form as I'm filtering out.

People who have interest.

Interest in starting a podcast.

So the question is, or question was, what podcast do you listen to?

Because I think it's important that if someone's gonna.

They're looking to host a podcast that they listen to podcasts to know what kind of podcast they listen to.

Right?

Now, the first person, she was able to rattle off three or four podcasts that she listened to.

Great.

She talked about the hoes, why she listened to them, all that stuff, basically what she gets out of them.

And I love that.

So that, that makes this a good question to me.

And I was like, oh, that's a great question.

I need to know that.

So I asked the other person this, and she couldn't tell me one podcast that she listened to.

Now, this is somebody who has an interest in starting and hosting a podcast.

Why is this important?

It's important because if you don't understand podcasting as a medium, you don't understand it as a listening experience, you're probably not gonna.

If you don't get value from it as a medium, you don't get value from any podcasting.

You're probably gonna struggle to deliver value as a host if you don't understand, you know, again, the listening experience, things like how hosts interview and ask questions, how podcasts are structured, just the format in general, you know, cadence when speaking.

If you don't understand this stuff, then how can you deliver it yourself?

I am someone who listens to several podcasts.

I love it, put on a podcast, listen.

And I always.

And one of the things I'm telling people is it should always be about the listening experience.

And going back to my question, I think this wouldn't matter to me if I was producing a podcast for someone and then they doing what they want to do with it.

But if I'm building a network, creating a network of podcasts and I'm looking for hosts who to partner with to, and I'm looking to be consistent with.

And we're looking for longevity and ultimately being able to attract sponsors and things like that, it's like this host, I want this host to understand this medium, understand podcasting, understand how this works, to respect it as a, as a medium.

And if they don't, they're probably not gonna make good hosts.

They're probably in it for something else.

And I get it.

I understand.

Again, if I was producing this, this was out of network podcast.

I'll produce it.

Here's your stuff, here's your video, here's your audio.

Do your thing.

But in network, they gotta understand, first and foremost, this ain't about, you know, just having content for social media.

This is about creating an experience and allowing visitors to engage, engage with you on this level and understand, allowing them to create habits.

They get in the habit of listening to you.

They get in the habit of looking forward to those notifications when new episodes drop.

They get in the habit of going to the gym and knowing they're going to work out and listen to what.

What it is you have to say.

You and your guests, conversation, all that stuff.

They get in the habit of putting you on when they're on that commute to work.

So now let's talk about frog casters in the terms of these people who will create visuals, videos, call it a podcast, but you can't find it anywhere on any podcast platform now.

Apple?

No, Spotify.

You lurk, search for it, and it's not there.

A couple weeks ago, we were snowed in here in Charlotte or Iceland, whatever you want to call it.

I turn on Netflix, and for the first time, I saw the podcast start to be listed there.

Bill Simmons, Jada and Joe and Jada, all these.

All these podcasts.

Michael Irvin, who I didn't know had a podcast, but I refused to watch any of those podcasts because I don't want to watch something that I can listen to.

I don't want to watch something.

I want to spend the valuable time that I have on the couch where I can relax.

I don't want to spend that time watching something that I can listen to.

Visually, they're not that appealing, especially if it comes off as it should be, something that comes off better as a listening experience.

And if I have this time, I want to watch something that is Hollywood produced, you know, highly produced.

You know, I'm a fan of Landman, so watch that.

You can't just listen to a show like that.

Like, you got to watch it.

I want to watch and binge on my favorite series or new series or something like that.

I don't want to sit and watch something that I can listen to.

So these people out here, they're creating these podcasts, but they're recording.

They're going through the work of hiring videographers or video and editing.

All that stuff matters.

But it's like, why stop with just uploading it to YouTube?

I want to play another clip for you.

This was by Dame Dash.

He was well respected in media.

And despite what he got going on now, what you think of him, he's, you know, he knows what he's talking about.

I want to play this clip.

But of course, the future of the industry is podcasting, because what's happened now is black people like AM radio.

We never knew.

We like listening to people talk so much.

And the visual podcast is an audio experience.

It's not a video experience.

So that's why if someone does like a show and they call it a podcast, it's not on a set.

I'd be like, yo.

I mean, if it's on a set, it's a TV show.

But yes, the voice of our culture needs to be heard and we do have the attention span to listen.

All right, from that clip, you can see that you listen to him and he's saying basically the same thing that Ian Schwarzman was saying, that it's about the listening experience.

People will listen to it.

And if you have, if you have a video and you don't have the audio uploaded, then you just have an interview series, TV show, and you should call it that.

What I think is going on is people are.

People want in on this whole podcast craze.

People want people, everybody wants a podcast.

And doing that, they will call anything a podcast, even if it's not a podcast.

Podcast, by definition is that audio feed that RSS feed the audio.

And if you're not uploading, like, it's like, why go through the trouble of creating or getting this video, doing all the editing and not uploading the audio to these platforms where at least it can be consumed there.

Do that, do it.

Even if it's a video first type thing, I think it should be, you should be focusing on the audio of this podcast.

But that's just me.

So somebody say, if you're a video podcast producer, which I am, why wouldn't you watch video podcasts?

Why wouldn't.

Why are you saying the podcast should be about the audio experience?

Well, I think in the beginning, video has its purpose, and I think that purpose is for discoverability.

Video is how the video is how people are going to find you.

If you starting a podcast from scratch Day one, no listeners, nobody knows you're doing it.

The video is probably the best way, the best tool you have for being discovered.

We have the social media clips, obviously, then we have the YouTube, the searchability and SEO that comes with YouTube.

But I don't think it's about uploading the full video to YouTube.

I think in both cases, social media, social media and YouTube, I think it's about giving them just enough to make them gonna go listen, getting the audience over here to listen.

So social media is obviously creating clips, but not too many that people can already.

They're getting everything from those clips.

And YouTube don't upload the full video yet.

You don't have an audience that's gonna sit through the whole thing.

And having them watch the first couple minutes of a 45 minute podcast is not gonna help you when it comes to YouTube.

They're just not gonna serve up the video if nobody's engaging with it.

So Uploading short segments, 5 minutes, 8 minutes, 10 minutes, these shorter segments that maybe topic driven, they get down to a specific point.

These are more shareable and it gives them, you know, a little something to think about where maybe they now want to go and listen to the podcast instead of watching.

Another thing is YouTube.

You got to have the video and the YouTube app open.

If you're gonna play it, like, you can't close it or have it in the background and listen.

So that interrupts the experience.

When you can't, you have to have that app open to play this video.

Like, who wants to do that?

Like, you know, the phone got to be constantly on is you're draining your battery, all this stuff.

So that's another thing that interrupts the experience.

So broadcaster, podcaster, are you doing it because you respect this medium?

You love this medium.

You, you yourself have gotten value from from this medium.

These podcasts, you like to listen to different shows and you understand how they all formatted differently and all that stuff.

You like to listen to conversation, or you're doing it because you want content, because you want to look like you're in front of a mic.

You want to look smarter.

You want to get your friends together so y' all can talk shit.

You want to get your friends together so y' all can talk about stuff that happened 20 years ago.

Like, what are you.

Why are you doing this?

I think that's important.

Now, again, none of my business for you, but I know when it comes to me and building a network and having hosts that actually care about this, that are engaged, that are bought in.

I think it's important that they understand this and they respect it.

Again, none of this is none of my business what you do, what your content is on you.

But I think if you're not one thing, if you're not uploading that audio, then you're missing out on potential audience.

You're missing out on potential opportunity.

There are people that love podcasts, and if people.

There are people who might be missing out on potential sponsorships and other like, speaking engagements, things like that, by not having that audio experience.

So again, you can continue.

It's none of my business, ain't personal.

But if I had any advice, if it's a podcast, make it about the audio experience.

The video in the beginning is just a.

A search tool, discoverability tool.

So make it about that.

All right, I want to thank you guys for watching.

Be sure to subscribe to the channel.

If you listen on the podcast, be sure to add it to your favorites.

If you have any questions.

I'd love to hear what you guys think about this.

On this topic.

I'm not the guardian of this, but I feel like I have to protect it in a way from people who ain't serious about it.

So there you go.

I'll see you guys next time.