3 Podcasting formats you can try

When you decide to start a podcast one of the things you’ll need to decide is, what format you’ll use for your show. With the multitude of options available, I’m going to share with you 3 options you can try out and find the one that works for you.

Narration bite

This format is popularly used in broadcast radio. This is where the host narrates the story and they insert sections of the interview, or bites as they call it. This is to supplement telling the complete story. For podcasters, this means writing out what you want to say and transcribing the interview for the sections you want to use.

The drawback with this format is that it’s a lot of work. Both in pre and post-production. It involves doing the interview, writing your script and editing the show after you record your podcast episode. Entrepreneur magazine’s “Problem solver” podcast comes to mind with this format, the BBC also uses it a lot with their documentaries.

It’s a format you can use to get really creative with your episodes in post-production. But keep in mind it’s the most time-consuming.

Interview style

This format is the easiest of all 3. You have a guest, and you ask questions. Once you are finished you can edit the interview, keeping what you want and deleting the rest. In the post-production, all you need to do is an intro, and outro for your show, and add the interview in the middle and you’re done. You can knock out multiple episodes weekly this way.

The drawback with this format is a boring guest. If the interviewee is boring when talking about his or her subject area, then the show can drag on and is then hard to listen. If the guest is engaging and excited about the subject, then the interview can be easy to listen to and fun for your listeners. It will also be easy to edit.

Persons who use this format a lot include “story brand” podcast by Donald miller, “online marketing made easy” podcast by Amy Porterfield and Dave Ramsey.

Lone Ranger Style

The last one is the lone ranger. This is where you are talking about your area of expertise. You can also have a co-host. All throughout the episode you talk about or teach your thing. You answer questions, teach stuff and it’s just you.

This format takes a lot of prep work but its also easy to maintain with a system. If you have lots to share, you can record each response on the go, and that can save you plenty of time in post-production work.

“Side hustle school” podcast, “marketing school” by Neil Patel and ProBlogger use this format. You can listen to the suggested podcasts to get an idea of how the final show sounds. Try them out and get your podcast started.

How to create a campaign to promote an event

Attending an industry event is fun. You get to learn new things, meet people and reconnect with old ones. It can also serve as a great source of content for your podcast. Leading up to the event however, you can create a host of content to promote the event creating a mini-campaign.

In this post, I’ll show you how you can generate content ideas to promote an event.

Pre-event

A month or so before the event, secure an interview with the organisers to get some information about the event. This will help you know what’s happening and if there’s anything new to expect if the event is an annual thing.

If the event is new, get background information. Here are a few questions you can ask the organisers:

If its the first time, why did you decide to host this event?
What topics do you plan to cover?
Who are the speakers who will be there?
Why was this focus chosen?
What can persons expect when they come to the event?
Who would get the most out of this event?
You can wrap by asking location and pricing.

As a side note if they are looking to address a particular issue, spend time talking about it. This is a good way to entice your listeners to actually go to the event. As the event will bring out the solutions.

You can do that in one episode and also do giveaways of tickets or offer early bird pricing. This can serve as an incentive for your listeners to take action and go to the event. Leading up to the event you can do reminders and notices about the event and count down for when the early bird prices will end.

At the event

While at the event record the live presentations. The easiest way to do this is to get a feed from the PA system engineer and connect your recorder to the system. Just ask around and once you find them they will hook you up. Take detailed notes to share with your listeners. Also, update your social media pages while at the event.

Live-tweeting using the events hashtags, Instagram pics and stories.

In addition, get feedback from the persons attending the event using your recorder. These responses can be used for a podcast episode. Talk with the organisers about how well the event is going and general feedback. Also just to pick their brains for plans for next year. You can also ask about turn out.

Next, talk to some of the keynote speakers to get feedback on their presentations and ask follow up questions from your notes. This can help you clarify anything you might not understand and can help generate more content for your podcast.

The last thing at the event, talk to business owners with booths at the site. Talk to them about how the event is going as well as get tips to share with your listeners. Ensure the persons you talk to solve a problem relating to your business and your audience. These interviews can also serve as separate podcast episodes.

Post-event

After the event is finished organise all your notes and interviews in a logical order. Episode 1 talks about how the event went and general key discussion points. You can use clips from the keynotes in your show. That’s why you recorded it.

Episode 2 and 3 is feedback from patrons and sponsors. Let them share how the event went and their experience. Also, anything that can contribute to a full interview from different perspectives. From there, you can use the tips gathered from the business for future episodes that,s a not event-specific. And depending on how many tips you get will determine how many podcast episodes you can crank out.

How to make the most of live events for future podcast episodes

Going to industry-related events is a good way to get new content ideas for your podcast. this is so because you can talk to lots of industry insiders and other persons at the conference with valuable information for your audience.

To get started here’s what you’ll need. A portable recorder such a Xoom or Tascam. A dynamic microphone, xlr cables and rechargeable batteries, a notebook and a pen. This is your conference kit.

Once you have your kit ready it’s time to hit the conference. As a side note, you can use your cellphone to do interviews as well. So if you can’t buy the equipment then use what you have.

When you get to the conference first scout the booths and agendas for all activities that you can get valuable information for your audience. Make notes in your notebook before you start to hit the floor. That way you get the relevant interviews. Keep in mind that how you frame your questions will be super important. What you’re looking to get is tips to share on your podcast.

Once you have all the interviews you plan to do, get started collecting information. Connect your microphone for your digital recorder and go up to each booth one by one. When approaching people, smile, say hello and introduce yourself.

When they respond, let them know you want to ask them a few questions to get some tips relating to what they do for your podcast. Example, if the person sells drip irrigation equipment, ask for tips on how persons can set up a system, and maintenance tips. Let them know what the show is about. if they agree to do the interview proceed to ask questions.

Before starting the interview ask the person their name and title. This will help you identify each person you talk to when you are ready to edit. Here are some questions you could ask:

How did you get started in the business?
Walk me through how your product/software work?
what are some tips that people should keep in mind when dealing with this problem?
While building your business what challenges did you face? how did you overcome them?

The aim is to get their story and get them to talk about their product and services, as well as give you tips. While doing the interview look the person in the ey. It helps you connect with them as well as let them know you are paying attention. Don’t be afraid to ask follow-up questions. As well as ask additional questions to get a full understanding of what they do.

The people you talk to depends on the problem you solve for your audience. Get relevant information that is tied to your show. That way the value you collect will let the experience worth it. BE sure to talk to the event organizers as well as a few of the keynote speakers. TO round out your coverage of the event.

If possible share while you are at the event on your social media channels, and start prepping your episodes while at the event. Take notes of the things you can use and so on. THis will make life easier for you when producing the podcast episodes.

Collect contact information from the persons as well, so that you can share the episode featuring the interview with them for more exposure once uploaded.

These things should help you get the most out of any event you attend.

If you have other methods for covering events. let me know in the comments below. Also, feel free to share any questions.

The Frustrating thing about building a personal brand

The world is changing and how we go about looking for a job is not the same. A large part of the process is either finding persons willing to hire you to work, or pray and hope someone finds you. The latter is not the best strategy so it’s wise to put yourself in a position to work on your own terms.

Reaching a level of comfort, having enough leads and paying clients per month takes a very long time to master. It’s not like you can buy some ads and sit back and watch the leads come in. You have to work hard to build trust and your reputation. Paying for advertising don’t always work unless you have the right system in place.

I have tried multiple ways to build my personal brand, in order to branch out and work on my own terms. Not much worked. Maybe it was the industry I was in, the methods I was using or I might have missed a few steps along the way.

All in all, it’s a long process and one must be willing to do it for the long haul until something sticks.

Because of my personality, I stayed away from anything that has to do with video. I wasn’t as comfortable looking into a camera when I started.

I started our writing blog post on my website. The aim was to attract Christians to check out my site and hope that they would listen to the music I released. I wrote inspirational articles and stuff I was reading at the time, that I thought persons would like. I did it on a schedule as was recommended and over time I started getting lots of traffic.

My music was selling, though not by much, the needle was moving but I could not identify if what I was doing was contributing to that. I was, however, looking for feedback on my efforts and nothing.

As I researched more about content marketing I found out that I should be writing to attract my buyers talking about the problems they have and how to solve it. And eventually found out what I was doing wrong that led to a lot of frustration.

Not having a marketing funnel

In order to benefit from your marketing efforts, you must have a well thought out system. WHich means you get attention from potential clients, you capture their data and continue talking to them until they want to buy.

To do this effectively you need to have a well thought out marketing funnel. This will help you create messaging that will help potential clients make a decision about trusting you. Taking the time out to map out the funnel will help make your decision making easier.

They are people who say marketing funnel doesn’t make sense but all in all you have to have a system that will make your brand building and marketing activities easy.

I never used landing pages and didn’t create lead magnets

I must admit it took me a very long time to figure out what lead magnets were. This was ignorance of marketing jargons. But essentially using a landing page which is basically an advertisement in the form of a webpage with no navigation links to convince persons to join your mailing list in exchange for something useful.

This will give you free access to continue marketing to potential clients called leads. This makes marketing cost cheaper overtime once the list grows bigger. I ignored this piece of wisdom because I couldn’t find a way to apply it to my situation.

Having patience and being consistent

The last thing is showing up regardless and being patient. I lost patience not seeing the results I expected after putting in a few months at a time. My overall fear was being rejected for not being authentic. And just being afraid no one might like my point of view. So after a few attempts, I thought I was a sign of rejection.

But that’s far from the truth. I have written stuff and friends read it and never leave a comment on the piece, but say it to my face. Even from persons I never expected to read my stuff read it and give valuable feedback.

Conclusion

I’m in it for the long run because building a brand is a marathon and not a sprint. From the mistakes I have made I have learnt how to put my best foot forward. As well as spending the time to put the necessary things in place.

The best way to protect your career diversify your Income

Too many persons like the creatives – artiste, music producers depend on only what they are doing ( working with the artist, recording them, shows, selling music) to earn money. One of the traps you might end up in is if the music is not selling and you are not getting shows how are you going to eat or make money. what do you do then?

The alternative is to diversify your income. Create by-products of the service your offer.

For example, creating a clothing line.

Artiste such a Konshens, Vybz Kartel Jay z and others all have a clothing line or another company selling something besides music.

Examples:

Konshens – Kons 876
Vibes Kartel- street Vybz rum
PDiddy- Sean Combs
Jay Z – Rockerwearater

This alternative is another source of income, independent of the main income. There are unique ways to add to what you are doing to earn a living. Though primarily the focus may be making money, the bottom line is that you are creating a safety net in order to earn.

Consider this, if you are not booked for a show for some time, no music is selling. Ask yourself the question ” what else is there to do to earn an income?” After a while, you’d like to start a business. you have the option to do something else. It may not be a merch line, where you sell branded products. Other options may include speaking engagement, and related events supporting a cause.

For example:

The staging of a conference addressing how you overcame an issue. You collaborate with other persons, give the event a title, then charge for the event. This is now an income stream.

The basic thought is to determine what else can you do to be used to diversify your income.

In essence, you do not want to depend on one venture as your source of income as a creative person. Keep in mind there will be down times meaning no shows, no music sales. If you are a producer, you may not get as many clients for a period. You have to find other things to do to fill the void in order to manage.

There’s no need for stress or worry when these times come. You are protecting yourself.

Living in a country like Jamaica, for example, there’s is the idea that there are limited options apart from merchandise. Instead, you think globally. With the internet, you are able to create small businesses and sell products or services to persons without the worry of storage or establishing a physical location to sell your goods. you have direct access to the consumer.

There are services that allow you free access to set up your store. This is just one of several options.

You have skills that you can promote and charge for service as a freelancer. Persons will pay for the service.

You may be good at marketing and social media persons can pay you to manage their social media page or run campaigns. If you are an accountant you can charge persons to manage their personal or small business accounts or another artist.

Branch out, at the end of the day the income that comes in overtime adds up. For instance, you do five shows consecutively and earn fifty thousand ($50000), and at the same time you are managing a social media account for a small business for a period of 6 months. you receive $50,000. Adding the 2 two incomes you have a total income of $100,000 per month. If you have a clothing line that brings in $100,000 that’s an additional $100,000.

Evaluating your monthly income all together with what your expenses are, there should be an adequate amount to cover the expenses. You are able to save and expand doing whatever it is. In the event, you decide on doing other things you have a protective base for your income and investment options.

3 Benefits of Using Outreach Projects as a Marketing Tool

1. Expose your music to a cause and to people who share the same vision.

Seeing improved cancer care or better options for care facilities is an initiative you want to be a part of. Partnering with groups that share the common interest is during cancer awareness month, is one way for you to get involved in building awareness to a mutual cause and creating an awareness of who you are.

As you align yourself with different cancer affiliated groups, eg the cancer society you volunteer your time to help them push the awareness campaign.

Posting the series of activities leading up to the event is one of the ways to of getting the word out. This is a way to invite persons to the event through your social media channels and various efforts.

Media appearances is another way of supporting the cause, the outreach initiative benefit by an increased awareness created, surrounding the cause. As the artiste associated with the cause, how you benefit, comes from performing at their live event being apart of the support team. You get an opportunity for an audience.

Outreach projects sometimes involve travelling from place to place, having a reach of hundreds or perhaps thousands of people. Your involvement with these projects provides an opportunity to present your work-music to these people.

Other opportunities to share at other projects of similar nature are created too.

You might be drafted among the support team of causes such as sickle cell awareness, a blood drive, autism awareness, as well as volunteer your time to a community drive, hospital visits and so on. These are various outreach projects that allow you an opportunity to give talks to the youths for instance.

You get to share your ideas through song as well. This opportunity of influence to reach and challenge individuals positively. These are ways to continuously expose yourself to various audiences who will like and appreciate your music.

2. Touring opportunities in other countries

Aligning yourself with various outreach projects is not limited to your community or country. In fact, you get to travel to other countries worldwide as well.

Eg. Christafari some time ago did a Scandinavian tour and other countries with the same region. they partnered with churches and other non-profit organisations and travelled to schools to share the gospel with persons through music. In addition, they go out and give talks to persons at the places that they go to. They not only interact with these persons.

3. Media Exposure for your brand through cross promotion

In order to expose your music to a wide cross-section of people and cultures, you must think creatively. How do I utilise the various mediums available to building my personal brand?

By aligning yourself to different organisations, travelling and being apart of the initiative You get media exposure for your brand

The promotion of an event is about pushing to get people out to the event as they become aware of the cause and what is being done. The media is definitely a means to facilitate the promoting of the event.

The organizers of the outreach project will share the cause and venture by way of interviews- be it print, tv, or online channels. Because you are affiliated with the supported cause, you get to share in the promotional efforts. So, for example, you might share snippets through the social media channels of interviews, what that will do is create a situation of a cross promotion. The media audience becomes aware of you and the vice versa.

As a marketing tool use various media to promote outreach. organisations non-profits projects these will help to build your brand getting exposure for your music to more people, being at these various events.

You can share your song by WhatsApp by youtube link and persons listen on repeat. Chances are when you have a concert or new release persons will want to see and hear you because they like your music. As a result of the interactions and will appreciate your brand.

let me know if this was helpful. God bless.

How to get paid for the work you do

One of the worse things is doing work and not getting paid

You pour your heart out getting everything perfect. You spend the time, busting your brain figuring out every detail. Taking the time to craft the masterpiece and deliver it on time to the client. Finally, the stress is over and you can move on with your life and get paid.

Then the unthinkable. Nothing. Silence. No comment about the job. Nothing. You don’t even get paid.

As a freelancer, this is one of the most frustrating experience I have ever faced. Not receiving feedback from a client and worse not getting paid after all the hard work you put in. Is it a lack of principles? Is it a lack of good judgment when accepting the work from a client? What is it that makes not getting paid sucks so much.

We must ensure we protect ourselves from deceptive clients. This will ensure we get paid for the hard work we put in. No one likes getting a six for a nine and lots of stories and excuses. And worse of all no one likes doing work and not getting paid.

Here are some things that will help you guard against deceptive clients.

Ask for a deposit

Getting money upfront helps to ease the cashflow burden. You get a percentage of the total fee and start the work. This proves the client is committed to getting the job done. The process has begun. But asking for it is very uncomfortable. It’s very simple but uncomfortable.

Here’s an example of how you can do it.

You: to do this project will cost you $25,000.

Client: Ok, I can work with that, when do we begin.

You: We can start this week. But I’ll need a 20% deposit when with the signed contract.

That’s it. Nothing complicated about it and this can be done via email.

Get all your money upfront

Asking for all your money upfront can be a pre-qualifier to weed out bad clients. You might lose sales doing this but at the end of the day when you start the job, you are already paid. All the money worries are out the door and you can work on the project stress-free.

Here’s an example of how you ask for payment in full.

You: To do this project will cost you $25,000.

Client: Ok, I can work with that, when do we begin.

You: We can start this week. But I’ll need full payment with the signed contract.

Ensure you get paid before you deliver the final product

Nothing is worse than delivering on your end only to no hear from the person ever again. To prevent this ensure they pay you in full and you deliver the final product. Fair is fair. If there are any changes that need to be made you can quickly make adjustments and move on.

Conclusion

All in all, asking for money is uncomfortable. But if you don’t ask you won’t get paid. I had to learn to ask for money and get comfortable explaining the cost of my different offerings.

How to overcome the fear of sharing your work

One of my greatest fear is letting people know what I have to offer. I don’t know, it’s very crippling trying to muscle up the courage to say to someone I’m skilful enough to do what you want. Even if I do tell them, after completing the job there’s this thought about whether I did the job right and waiting to get a call asking for a refund.

Call it rejection, call it stupid but it’s an actual thing. Paralysis to tell people you are good enough. Why this happens I can’t explain it but it happens very often. Is like you don’t want your friends to know what you are up to. Its kinda private and personal, but I expect people to find me and give me money.

This is a fantasy of mine, I set up a basic social media profile. Share a post every now and again and magically my business grow leaps and bounds and I can run off into the sunset rich. I know this sounds stupid but I actually wish this happened in real life.

In the book the magic of thinking big, the author shares that you overcome fear by taking action. But this one is true somewhat but it’s still uncomfortable. I hate calling people but a large part of my job is calling people for interviews. Strange isn’t it. You have to call someone but you spend the entire day trying to convince yourself to make the call. Intentional procrastination because of fear.

This is real and I know I’m not the only person that this happens to. Fear is an actual thing and persons hoping to build a business and let other people know what they have to offer, overcoming fear is part of the journey.

One of the skills you have to master is learning how to show people over and over that you have the skills. This can be in multiple ways. Sharing video, blog post, audio and so forth. Stepping outside the box and putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

Knowing what to do is half the job. The next half is doing so in a very creative way that grabs people attention. But creativity cannot be taught you have to steal ideas and fuse them with other ideas to make them your own.

Creative borrowing as they call it. Fusing your influences in such a way that it works to convince enough people to trust you. Do it long enough to create a habit. And once you have the habit of fusing what you like, it will always turn out to be unique.

So how does this help in terms of marketing yourself and what you do?

Everyone has to learn how to sell other people on them. So before you even think about everything else you have to know your product. Meaning what do you bring to the table and who will want it. The next thing is knowing how to explain it in such a way that people get it.

Once you have this down, you create an offer which will be used to tell the world about what you do. Sometimes a one-shot message repeated over and over is what you need. Sometimes teaching your skill works. Other times just sharing your creative pieces and your work works as well.

The key is do something consistently and people will start to take notice. Knowing this is just the basics you’ll need in order to move forward with building a successful career at anything. The next thing is you’ll need marketing material to share that message with people.

That’s one of the things that is often not explored and I must add I never spent enough time doing this in the early parts. I knew I had something to offer but never spent the time to nail down the specifics and focused on how to explain it to people.

If you have read this far, then hopefully you start to get the picture that taking the time out to share a little piece of you will make a big difference to building your business, music career or whatever it is you are doing.