1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,200 Hey everyone, Ashley here with RSS.com. 2 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:22,160 In today's episode, we're chatting with podcasting guru Arielle Nissenblatt about Discord, 3 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:40,640 podcast trailers, and so much more related to the wild world of podcasting. 4 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:52,920 So, let's get started. 5 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:57,880 I run a podcast recommendation newsletter called Earbuds Podcast Collective. 6 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,800 I work for Squadcast as the head of community and content. 7 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:07,840 I help people grow their shows with marketing and audience growth tactics, a bunch of different 8 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:10,720 clients who need different things at different times. 9 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,960 I also write a newsletter called Podcast Plunge. 10 00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:19,080 I also write a newsletter called This and That with Arielle Nissenblatt. 11 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:26,800 I host a podcast about podcast trailers, and I host a podcast about podcast recommendations. 12 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:32,040 And I sometimes co-host a podcast about the business of podcasting called Sounds Profitable. 13 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:36,040 And pretty much, if you approach me with an ask about what I may do in the podcast space, 14 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,840 I will probably say yes. 15 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:39,840 And it's good. 16 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:40,840 I love it. 17 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:41,840 I'm tired, but I'm happy. 18 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:42,840 And I really love this space. 19 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:49,480 And I just, yeah, I'm constantly excited by the news and the new audio. 20 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,640 And I just, I don't know, I'm very happy to be here. 21 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:53,640 Okay. 22 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,440 So basically what has just come through for me is we need a listener challenge to figure 23 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:01,120 out how many times we say the word podcast in this podcast episode. 24 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:03,080 Oh, I know. 25 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,480 So basically you live and breathe podcasts, it sounds like. 26 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:07,480 Yeah. 27 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:08,480 Yeah. 28 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,120 Is there anything you do in your life that doesn't revolve around podcasting? 29 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:12,120 I play soccer. 30 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:13,120 Oh, that's cool. 31 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:14,120 That's actually really cool. 32 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:15,120 I play soccer. 33 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:16,840 I have a podcast about soccer. 34 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:17,840 That's a great question. 35 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:18,840 I play soccer. 36 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,600 I like walking tours, but I still somehow think that walking tours relate to podcasts 37 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:25,000 because it just feels like a live podcast, you know? 38 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:26,000 Yeah. 39 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:27,000 I like that a lot. 40 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:28,000 I like that a lot. 41 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:29,000 What else? 42 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Uh, yeah. 43 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,520 And then I go to a lot of live podcast tapings or comedy, but that feels podcasty in some 44 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:36,520 way. 45 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:37,520 Yeah. 46 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:39,240 A lot of what I do is podcast related and it's great. 47 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:40,240 I mean, I don't know. 48 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:47,200 I just, I'm very, very grateful that I started listening to podcasts in 2014 and that, and 49 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:51,960 that they were able to so beautifully integrate into my life. 50 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:52,960 Absolutely. 51 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,760 There's something so magical about the world of audio because you can take it with you 52 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:56,760 wherever you go. 53 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:01,480 And like the, you know, I was listening to the, uh, the recordical, um, live that was 54 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:05,740 happening last week and, uh, they were talking about how like, you know, if you're trying 55 00:03:05,740 --> 00:03:09,880 to watch a video, you can't do that while you're driving or, you know, while you're 56 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,440 doing certain things, but audio you can always just have in your ears and it's so intimate 57 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,720 and it's, it's just such a fun, fun and wonderful medium. 58 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:22,200 And so, um, but speaking of like podcasting in terms of like how you market it and things 59 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:26,720 like that, one of the things that's really big and, and what made me reach out to you 60 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:31,800 is a lot of people are starting to use Discord as a means to build their community and grow 61 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:33,240 their podcast. 62 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,000 And I'm in your Discord for podcasting. 63 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,840 And so I'm curious, what was it that made you decide to start using Discord to work 64 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:41,840 with your community? 65 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:42,840 Yeah. 66 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:48,440 I started this Discord called, I think it's called the podcasting community on Discord 67 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,600 is the official name. 68 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:58,560 And we started it in October because of Elon Musk, because Twitter seemed like it was going 69 00:03:58,560 --> 00:03:59,560 down the toilet. 70 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,280 This was October of 2022. 71 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:07,760 And you know, there have been times before that, October of 2022 and times since October 72 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:13,680 2022, that there have been mass exoduses from Twitter and at times people have returned 73 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:15,000 to Twitter. 74 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,080 But we started the, we started the Discord because we wanted to give people an option 75 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:21,600 for another place to hang out. 76 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:23,820 And it blew up. 77 00:04:23,820 --> 00:04:28,280 It was, we had a thousand people in the Discord within two weeks. 78 00:04:28,280 --> 00:04:29,280 It was amazing. 79 00:04:29,280 --> 00:04:31,880 We got featured everywhere. 80 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:35,520 All the podcast newsletters covered, covered it, added a link. 81 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:40,820 And so many people joined from all walks of podcasting life, people from huge corporations 82 00:04:40,820 --> 00:04:43,120 to independent creators. 83 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:47,120 And I'm really, really grateful for the community that we've been able to build on there. 84 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:52,400 I wanted to start it because, well, I, I truthfully had no business starting a Discord. 85 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:56,680 I was barely involved in other Discords as a community member. 86 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:01,600 I had signed on a few times to Discords that I'd been invited to over the years, but never 87 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,200 really participated. 88 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:08,120 But Discord seemed like a good place because Slack just felt too corporate. 89 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:13,200 You know, I didn't want to start Mighty Networks or Circle.so or a Facebook group. 90 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,400 I wanted it to be independent. 91 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:16,760 And Discord seemed like the right thing. 92 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,760 Even though it can be really hard for a lot of folks to grasp, but we have things in place 93 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:21,760 for those people. 94 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,760 We do regular events where we help people orient themselves to Discord. 95 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:29,320 And we also have a newsletter that goes along with the Discord so that people can stay involved 96 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:33,600 in what's discussed within, if they don't want to be active day to day or week to week. 97 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:37,400 So we've got some things in place to make it more manageable, but Discord seemed like 98 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:39,660 the right place to be. 99 00:05:39,660 --> 00:05:44,340 It's interesting because it seemed like once you started yours, so many different podcasts 100 00:05:44,340 --> 00:05:46,800 or podcast companies were starting Discords as well. 101 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,880 Like I got an invite to the one for Descript and the one for Decipher. 102 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,840 And then all of a sudden I got one for Colin and Samir's podcasts. 103 00:05:52,840 --> 00:05:55,480 And it's like everybody's starting to do Discord. 104 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,880 And now it's more important than ever because you know, everything, I guess you'd call it 105 00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:03,600 the dumpster fire that is Reddit right now with everything going on with the fact that 106 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,040 they're removing the APIs from third party apps. 107 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:12,940 And I mean, I know that's probably for the whole trying to stop spam thing, but in reality, 108 00:06:12,940 --> 00:06:16,840 it feels like more and more of these different platforms are just making it harder for people 109 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:18,640 to build their communities. 110 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:25,160 And so with the Discord, what goes into starting it and do you, I noticed you have moderators 111 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:30,760 in it, but for people who have no idea what to do with the platform, can you give a little 112 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:36,360 bit of advice as to what you wish you'd done, how things are now and that kind of stuff? 113 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:44,080 Yeah, I've started the Discord late October, 2022 and almost immediately podcast friends 114 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,000 that I've had from the internet reached out and they were like, Hey, if you need help 115 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:48,840 moderating this, I'm here. 116 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:50,960 I was like, I'm going to take you up on that right now. 117 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:53,200 I'm not even going to pretend that I don't need help. 118 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:57,640 So I had about five moderators join on. 119 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:02,680 We have a group within the Discord channel where we talk to each other. 120 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:08,520 And then we also are constantly in touch on other social media platforms, just in case 121 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:10,000 like something goes wrong. 122 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:15,760 So we had to meet up in order to figure out what rules folks should abide by and what 123 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:19,500 is crossing the line when it comes to self-promotion and other things like that. 124 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:24,100 We also had to figure out what sort of back channels within Discord we should have, right? 125 00:07:24,100 --> 00:07:25,760 Do we have a resources tab? 126 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:27,480 Is that different from a help tab? 127 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:29,240 Is that different from a tech tab? 128 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:30,240 Is that different from events? 129 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,120 Yes, all of these are different, but we need to outline what goes into each one and what 130 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:38,720 is appropriate to be posting in each one and what happens if something is posted in one 131 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:40,360 of those that should be posted elsewhere. 132 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,320 How do you nicely tell somebody to move it? 133 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,120 And the reason is because, you know, ultimately we want to encourage people to be very active 134 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:50,360 in there and we don't want to moderate too heavily, but we also want to make sure that 135 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,960 it is a manageable experience for the average passerby. 136 00:07:54,960 --> 00:08:01,040 So I think, you know, number one piece of advice for this is get moderators who you 137 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,400 trust to both understand the medium. 138 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:09,100 So for us it's podcasting, but also the technology, which is Discord. 139 00:08:09,100 --> 00:08:12,960 So they know how to turn on two-factor authentication. 140 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:20,960 So they know how to turn on two-factor authentication and so that they know how to make it so that 141 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:25,880 if there's a million posts getting thrown up in one of the channels and people are kind 142 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:29,320 of getting out of control, maybe they're fighting, how do you turn on slow mode to make sure 143 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,880 that people can't post more than X number of times per minute or per hour or something 144 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:33,880 like that. 145 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:37,560 Those are not things that I knew about beforehand, but Discord has all of these capabilities 146 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:41,520 and my beautiful moderators knew exactly what to do. 147 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:46,960 So you kind of got a crash course in all the things Discord, just by starting it. 148 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:52,240 So now one of the things you said to me was you keep in touch on other platforms as well. 149 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:57,440 The thing that screamed to me is what people keep claiming and talking about and pushing 150 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:01,480 to people, but not paying enough attention to and that's don't put all your eggs in one 151 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:02,480 basket. 152 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:07,200 Is that why you are like having touch points in other platforms? 153 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:14,120 I keep touch points on other platforms because I just think it is important for me as what 154 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:17,920 I've recently been called as a portfolio entrepreneur. 155 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:20,280 I do a lot of different things in a lot of different places. 156 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,000 I don't want to put too many eggs in one basket for myself. 157 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,680 I continue to have a presence on Twitter. 158 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:28,240 I continue to build up a presence on LinkedIn. 159 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:33,200 I am relatively active on Instagram, but not necessarily professionally. 160 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:36,960 When it comes to being in touch with my moderators on other platforms, that's just because mostly 161 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:39,520 we met on other platforms in the first place. 162 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,880 So some of those folks I still have DMs going on with on Twitter. 163 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,880 For example, some of those people have left Twitter, which is interesting. 164 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:50,720 We also have an email chain just in case you get locked out of Discord and you need to 165 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:51,720 be in touch. 166 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,400 Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense. 167 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:56,360 For some reason it's reminding me of something I saw on a movie. 168 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,880 I can't remember if it was, he's just not that into you or what, but it was like I message 169 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:04,700 you on Facebook, but then you reply to me on Twitter and then you send me a text message 170 00:10:04,700 --> 00:10:07,640 and I'm being rejected in three different platforms. 171 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:08,640 No one needs that. 172 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,680 But still, it does make sense though because it even happened to me today. 173 00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:17,520 I sent someone a message via email and then they messaged me back in Facebook messenger 174 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:19,480 and I'm like, no, keeping it went fine. 175 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:20,480 I know, I know. 176 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,440 I have to with a few people. 177 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:28,200 So you're doing all these things and I got to ask you, it sounds like you're putting 178 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,560 a lot of time into all of this. 179 00:10:30,560 --> 00:10:35,400 Are you monetizing all of it or is most of it just community that you're building and 180 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,120 you're just hanging out with people? 181 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:39,160 How does all that work for you? 182 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:40,860 Some of the things that I do are monetized. 183 00:10:40,860 --> 00:10:42,440 Some are not. 184 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:45,280 Some were monetized and are not anymore. 185 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:48,200 Some were not monetized and are now. 186 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:49,800 And I think that's kind of the beauty of it. 187 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:54,440 I think I alluded to this before, but somebody recently on an interview called me a portfolio 188 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:55,800 entrepreneur. 189 00:10:55,800 --> 00:11:00,480 It's like I'm an artist, but I am collecting communities instead of canvases. 190 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,320 I think, yeah, that's the first time I said that out loud. 191 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:04,320 That was good. 192 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:05,320 That was really good. 193 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:06,520 Yeah. 194 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:13,000 I think for me, it's all about being the most helpful I possibly can, both for myself and 195 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:15,160 for anybody who needs help in any way. 196 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:20,720 So is it an independent creator who needs to know what mic to buy or is it a very established 197 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,800 creator who needs to figure out how to market their show because they're really great at 198 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,800 the content development, but they don't know the first thing about pitching newsletters. 199 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:34,400 So I just try to think about, I just try to have a really great grasp on who is doing 200 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:39,120 what in the podcast space, who should be collaborating with who, what new tools are there that you 201 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:43,320 should be using in order to get to the next level or to maintain the level that you're 202 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:45,880 at, which is okay. 203 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:51,240 I think right now I am full-time paid by Squadcast, which is a remote recording platform that helps 204 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:54,720 podcasters record audio and video in studio quality. 205 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:58,600 I manage the community and the content there, so that's my full-time job. 206 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:00,240 I love it very much. 207 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:05,960 And then I also do a lot of work that is monetized by helping people. 208 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:10,880 I do consulting with people on where is their show right now, how many downloads are they 209 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,240 getting per episode, what's their goal and how do they get there? 210 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:16,840 What sorts of collaborations should they be doing? 211 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:19,000 How should they be setting up promo swaps? 212 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:20,940 Should they be buying ads on other podcasts? 213 00:12:20,940 --> 00:12:22,840 Should they be buying ads on podcast platforms? 214 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,240 And I try to advise people on that. 215 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:27,240 The Discord is not monetized. 216 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:30,440 There's a newsletter that goes along with it that is not monetized, although we do have 217 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:33,080 the ability to take on sponsorships if we want. 218 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:35,960 I run a podcast recommendation newsletter that is monetized. 219 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,640 I run a podcast that goes along with that newsletter that is monetized. 220 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:39,840 Am I monetized? 221 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:41,520 I don't mean I'm raking in the big bucks. 222 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,920 I mean I'm making some money to offset the cost of my time. 223 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,320 And then the few other communities that I take part in or the few other projects that 224 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:54,920 I take part in, sometimes they're monetized, sometimes they're not, but I sort of use all 225 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:59,240 of these to just contribute to what I'm doing in the podcast space and my thinking is it 226 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,600 will come back to me in some way. 227 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:02,600 Absolutely. 228 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:06,280 And it sounds like, you know, in order to be able to do all these things, to have your 229 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:10,880 fingers on all these pies, it sounds like you're really, really passionate about podcasting. 230 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:15,360 And so for anybody who's listening to this and they don't hear it coming through, I can 231 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:18,120 tell just from everything I see that you do. 232 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:19,800 I hope you can hear it coming through. 233 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:20,800 I can. 234 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:21,800 I can. 235 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:24,840 But just in case, if someone's just reading the transcript and they're like, okay, I 236 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:25,840 don't have... 237 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:26,840 Wow, she sounds bland. 238 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:29,840 I don't think you sound bland at all. 239 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:31,680 I dig podcasting just as much. 240 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:36,080 Maybe not quite as much as you, but I do think it's pretty cool. 241 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:40,760 So now what other ways, I mean, I know we started this with talking about Discord, but 242 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,520 what other ways do you use specifically to get the word out about the podcast that you 243 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:45,520 do produce? 244 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:48,840 Because I know you have the Trailer Park podcast, which I absolutely love. 245 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:50,960 And actually, no, let's actually take that back. 246 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:54,360 So the Trailer Park podcast, I already heard you talking about this on the Best Advice 247 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:58,840 Show, but for people who haven't listened to that and are listening to this. 248 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:03,960 So what made you decide to do a podcast about trailers for podcasts? 249 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:05,360 I love trailers. 250 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:11,120 I love short audio snippets that are meant to draw you into something larger. 251 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:15,760 And I think trailers are just such a great way to potentially discover a new show. 252 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:22,740 So I wanted to start a podcast about podcast trailers because I love meta podcast stuff. 253 00:14:22,740 --> 00:14:26,840 So as you may have noticed, all of my podcast projects are about podcast recommendations 254 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,440 or about the podcast industry in general, because I just love the medium and I want 255 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:34,760 more people to discover podcasts and I want more people to understand how the space works. 256 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:39,840 So the way the podcast trailer podcast works is that each week we feature a different trailer 257 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:41,580 and then we talk about that trailer. 258 00:14:41,580 --> 00:14:44,680 We say what works, what didn't work, what we liked, what we didn't like, and then we 259 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:46,520 tell you how to find the rest of that show. 260 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:50,960 Sometimes the trailers that we feature are for shows that have many seasons. 261 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,560 Sometimes they were just made as a proof of concept. 262 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,240 Sometimes they are looking for funding. 263 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:57,240 It could be anything in between. 264 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,560 And I wanted to start it because I was looking at the new and noteworthy section on Apple 265 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:07,040 podcasts a few years ago and I decided to listen to all of the trailers for a month 266 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,920 straight that were featured on the new and noteworthy section. 267 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:14,840 And I tried to figure out like, what is it about these trailers that is enticing? 268 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:17,080 What is not pulling me in? 269 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:22,080 But then more importantly, is the trailer indicative of what's to come in the larger 270 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:23,080 season? 271 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:24,080 Right? 272 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:27,840 So does it match the tone and the texture of the larger season? 273 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:32,280 If you have a 30 second trailer that's very cinematic and really draws you in, but then 274 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,520 your show is sort of boring and doesn't match the tone, I'm probably not going to continue 275 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:38,360 listening because I was promised one thing and it wasn't delivered. 276 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:39,360 Right? 277 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:43,680 So I've been thinking about what it means to promise something as a creator and then 278 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,400 to deliver or not deliver on that promise. 279 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:52,200 So I wanted to start this podcast because I want to help people make really great short 280 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:57,680 audio teasers that help draw potential listeners in and make people loyal listeners. 281 00:15:57,680 --> 00:15:58,680 Yeah. 282 00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:01,600 And we're definitely going to leave that in the show notes because everybody needs to 283 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:05,480 listen to that podcast because one of the things that we heavily promote is that you 284 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:07,720 need a trailer for your podcast. 285 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:10,920 And it's not just because you're trying to show listeners what they're about to listen 286 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:15,160 to, but it can also be your first episode that you can use to get on all the podcast 287 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:16,160 directories. 288 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:17,480 I just think it's fantastic. 289 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:22,400 And I'm a movie girl, like I'm obsessed with movies and I used to joke that I wanted to 290 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,040 watch an entire movie of movie trailers. 291 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:26,040 And so I guess that's why I... 292 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:27,280 Every trailer's rule. 293 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:28,540 They really are the best. 294 00:16:28,540 --> 00:16:32,360 And I also like, have you seen honest movie trailers on YouTube? 295 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:34,920 I've heard they tell the truth about what is going on in the movie. 296 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:37,360 I think I've seen one or two of them, but nothing comes to mind. 297 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:40,080 Yeah, they're usually pretty comical and I enjoy the heck out of them. 298 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:45,320 But yeah, I think that's really good that you've created something that kind of shows 299 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:52,360 people what to do because not only is it somewhat critiquing, but also giving really good inspiration 300 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:53,360 for people. 301 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:54,360 And I think that's a great idea. 302 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:55,360 Thank you. 303 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:56,360 Yeah, well, all right. 304 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,360 So now that I'm done patting your back. 305 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:05,120 So I do want to ask you, if you were to start working on promoting your own podcast right 306 00:17:05,120 --> 00:17:09,440 now, what is the best advice that you would give to someone who has just started a podcast 307 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:10,920 to go about doing that? 308 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:16,200 So I launched Trailer Park, the podcast trailer podcast in February, and I did all of the 309 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:20,000 things that I recommend other people do when they're launching a show. 310 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,960 The first thing was I made a list of all of the podcast newsletters and I tried to figure 311 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:26,640 out an angle to pitching all of them in some way. 312 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:28,960 So I have a huge list of podcast newsletters. 313 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:32,200 Some of them are newsletters that cover news. 314 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:37,580 So you know, who bought who in the podcast space, who is being hired where, what new 315 00:17:37,580 --> 00:17:42,140 shows are dropping, how many podcasts are there, what new technology is out there. 316 00:17:42,140 --> 00:17:43,720 Some newsletters are more editorial. 317 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,400 So let me do a deep dive into this podcast and talk about why I love it. 318 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:48,740 Some of them are more curated. 319 00:17:48,740 --> 00:17:50,720 So here's a list of five podcasts that you should listen to. 320 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:52,120 And then there's everything in between. 321 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,240 So I made this list and I for the, you know, I've been doing this for a while because this 322 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:57,400 is what I do for clients. 323 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,360 But I thought to myself, what is the angle? 324 00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:04,600 Why would each of these newsletters want to cover the news of my podcast about podcast 325 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:06,240 trailers dropping? 326 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:10,500 And I wrote all those things out and I sent personalized pitches to all of those people. 327 00:18:10,500 --> 00:18:14,440 And I said, would you consider doing a story with me or would you consider interviewing 328 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:15,440 me? 329 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:18,880 Or would you consider a mention in your newsletter if nothing else or a tweet or something like 330 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:19,880 that? 331 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,040 Or would you even just screenshot that you are listening to the podcast and post it on 332 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:24,960 your Instagram story? 333 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:29,880 Whatever it is, how can I get this podcast to be everywhere all at once at the time of 334 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:33,560 the launch or soon thereafter so that people cannot not try it out? 335 00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:37,520 So I did that and then I also reached out to other shows about other podcasts about 336 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:42,920 podcasts and I tried to get the trailer of the podcast trailer podcast featured on other 337 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:43,920 podcasts. 338 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,880 So hey, you know, RSS.com's podcast, would you consider featuring, would you consider 339 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:52,400 featuring the trailer for the show and then talking about when it's going to drop because 340 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:57,680 it's going to be helpful for the people that use RSS to know that making a trailer is important, 341 00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:58,680 right? 342 00:18:58,680 --> 00:18:59,680 So let's point people to that. 343 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:04,320 I also got in touch with all of the different softwares and services that I used and asked 344 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,480 if they would highlight me in some way as a case study because I use their products 345 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:09,040 and services. 346 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:12,780 I also got in touch with all of the podcast listening apps that I have contacts with or 347 00:19:12,780 --> 00:19:17,400 that I had hopes of having contacts with and I let them know that I had a show coming out 348 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,120 when they would they consider featuring it in some way. 349 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:21,880 And you know, you're not going to hear back from everybody. 350 00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:24,320 You're not even going to hear back from 50% of people. 351 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:29,240 But I took advantage of every single thing, every single positive response, and I milked 352 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:30,480 that. 353 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,140 And I think a really big part of that was offering something in return and not just 354 00:19:34,140 --> 00:19:36,760 expecting that people were going to feature me in some way. 355 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:39,200 Well, I have two questions to that. 356 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:40,920 What was your response level? 357 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,240 And do you think that your response level was because of the fact you're already known 358 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:46,400 in the podcasting space? 359 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,560 I didn't calculate the response rate, mostly because I'm not a math person, so it doesn't 360 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:52,720 come naturally to me to do that. 361 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,480 But it was pretty high for this compared to some of the other shows I work on. 362 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,040 And part of it was because it was mine, you know, so I'm pitching on behalf of myself. 363 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,200 So there's a clear passion in that. 364 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,460 But also, yeah, I've been working in this space for a while. 365 00:20:04,460 --> 00:20:08,740 And a lot of people will push back on me and say, like on Twitter, I'll give advice about 366 00:20:08,740 --> 00:20:09,740 podcast marketing. 367 00:20:09,740 --> 00:20:13,000 People will say, yeah, the only reason that works is because like, you're in the podcast 368 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,280 space and like, your name is known. 369 00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:17,300 And I'm like, yeah, you know how my name got known? 370 00:20:17,300 --> 00:20:20,240 I worked really freaking hard to make my name known. 371 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:21,960 And it took me a really long time to do that. 372 00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:27,760 And I think that there is no substitute for asking people out for coffee so that you can 373 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,080 hear about how they got to where they are today. 374 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:34,800 And really taking a genuine interest and then them thinking of you because they just really 375 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:36,600 like your vibe. 376 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:41,920 And I think, yeah, of course, a good amount of my success comes from the fact that I am 377 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:47,860 me, but I am only me because I have been working on it for seven years in audio. 378 00:20:47,860 --> 00:20:53,960 So basically what you're saying is if you want to start getting yeses and positive feedback, 379 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:54,960 you got to put in the work. 380 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:55,960 Yeah. 381 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:56,960 And it has to be genuine. 382 00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:57,960 I know. 383 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,040 And look, there are some people who are going to get lucky and they don't have to put in 384 00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:04,360 as much work and their show is going to come at the right time. 385 00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:08,840 It's going to be at the perfect production level and the story is going to be perfect. 386 00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:12,400 And the right outlet is going to find it at the right time, which is going to mean that 387 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,640 it's going to get promoted to the right person who sees it, who has a really big platform, 388 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:21,520 who's going to basically your goal should be to make your show recommendable by word 389 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,760 of mouth so that you don't have to do the work on your own so that people are just like, 390 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:26,320 oh my God, you have to listen to this. 391 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:27,400 Everybody's talking about it. 392 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:28,400 That's the goal. 393 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,040 And sometimes that can happen. 394 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:35,720 Just sheer luck and circumstances and keywords and I don't know, so many other factors, but 395 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:40,640 also it's fun to work hard and find avenues and angles to get your show found. 396 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:46,440 Well, and plus, I mean, the big thing to me, because like I do a lot of outreach to try 397 00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:48,960 to get like freelance work and things like that. 398 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:52,920 And the big thing that is constantly said to me and that I completely agree with is 399 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:57,040 you have to send so many because you're going to get a lot of no's, but it's the yeses that 400 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,520 are what's most important, but you're never going to get the yes if you don't deal with 401 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:01,520 the no's. 402 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:02,520 Right. 403 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:03,520 Right. 404 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,680 And I think something important to think about with the no's is, you know, there are ways 405 00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:08,200 to cut down on your no's. 406 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,580 There are ways to get like a soft yes or a maybe or a non-response that you then can 407 00:22:12,580 --> 00:22:17,920 follow up on that maybe you hone your pitch a little bit and your second and your follow-up. 408 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:20,640 And I think a big part of that is just personalizing as much as you can. 409 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:25,200 It can really be tempting to mail merge something and just be like, hi, would you consider featuring 410 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:26,200 me? 411 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:33,920 But taking a moment to find out why your show or your news piece or you as a potential interviewee 412 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:39,360 would be perfect for them at this time and honing that pitch so that they can't say no 413 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:43,320 or so that, you know, you find a way for them to say yes to something small so that over 414 00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:47,320 time they say yes to something bigger, maybe in your third follow-up or maybe you go back 415 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,000 and forth, you have a phone call. 416 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:50,200 Eventually they say yes. 417 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:52,240 I think it's all about just not getting an initial no. 418 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:53,760 It's all about getting a response. 419 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:55,640 Get the response and go from there. 420 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:56,640 Yeah. 421 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:57,640 And don't do the spray and pray. 422 00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:58,640 No. 423 00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:03,360 You mentioned the mail merge and I, since I am a freelance writer, I am constantly, I 424 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:09,160 mean, I have a folder in my filters that basically chucks people to this press releases that 425 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:11,400 I have not signed up for. 426 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:13,320 And I get them every day. 427 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,280 I got 10 today and, you know, these people don't know who I am. 428 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:20,120 They don't know what I'm writing about, but they're sending these pitches constantly. 429 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:24,040 And it's like, if they just took a moment to, instead of saying, hi, first name, and 430 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:27,960 just find out what I actually write about, maybe they could get some more positive response. 431 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:30,920 So I think that that's the biggest thing that is, you know, coming through with what you're 432 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:35,840 talking about is that you send personalized stuff because even if you weren't, you know, 433 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:40,240 so well known in the podcasting space, you're taking the time and the energy to at least 434 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,600 make sure that who you're sending it to will possibly even care. 435 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:50,680 And I'm known in the podcast space, but I'm not known in the spaces of the, you know, 436 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:55,440 I pitch on behalf of clients a lot of the time and I am not known in the energy sector 437 00:23:55,440 --> 00:24:00,040 space, but I get responses because I'm taking the time to figure out, you know, here's a 438 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:04,240 trade publication for the renewable energy space and here's what they tend to cover. 439 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,800 And here's why this show would be perfect for them. 440 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:11,140 And maybe for example, that it's a monthly newsletter and they aren't currently covering 441 00:24:11,140 --> 00:24:12,920 podcasts in the energy space. 442 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:17,760 And maybe I can pitch them on a monthly podcast recommendation, right? 443 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:23,120 So just think about where are you adding value to these people? 444 00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:26,320 Are you doing a lot of guest posting and guest podcasting? 445 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:27,320 Like this? 446 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:28,320 Yeah. 447 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:29,320 Yeah. 448 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:30,320 I say yes to a lot. 449 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:31,680 I love to put my name out there. 450 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,920 I love to hone my craft as a, as a talker. 451 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:40,000 I love to figure out ways to tell my story in different, using different vocabulary. 452 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:47,480 I like to see if I can go sentence after sentence without saying um, or like, or ah, and just, 453 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,280 you know, not that that's a bad thing, but it is fun to figure out your craft and to 454 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:53,640 figure out your flow as a speaker. 455 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:54,640 Absolutely. 456 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:56,960 Like my big thing is I come from the blogging world. 457 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:01,100 And so I'm constantly like trying to figure out how I can get into other websites and 458 00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:02,100 things like that. 459 00:25:02,100 --> 00:25:05,160 And I'm like, my, my, my joke is famous Ashley Grant. 460 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,000 And it's because I'm constantly trying to get internet famous one posted. 461 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,720 It's not Kardashian famous, not Kardashian famous. 462 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:12,720 Cause who wants that? 463 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:17,960 Um, so kind of along with everything that we've talked about and yet maybe sort of side 464 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,400 stepping it, but, um, what do you think about video podcasting? 465 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,840 Cause that seems to be the big thing that people are pushing right now is everything's 466 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:26,120 got to be on video. 467 00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:31,080 Do you think that we still need to really respect the medium of audio or should we be 468 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,000 repurposing with video? 469 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,300 I like clips for video. 470 00:25:35,300 --> 00:25:36,300 You're right. 471 00:25:36,300 --> 00:25:37,440 This is a very popular question. 472 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,040 I think it's going to stress a lot of people out to hear that you've got to be making videos. 473 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,480 So I just want to take that weight off your shoulders. 474 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,380 You don't need to be making video if you like making audio, if you only like making audio, 475 00:25:47,380 --> 00:25:50,520 there are still people who want to listen to podcasts and do not want to watch podcasts 476 00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,280 and that is okay. 477 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:56,440 So if you want, if you are already recording video, so if you're using Riverside or Squadcast 478 00:25:56,440 --> 00:26:01,760 or Zencaster and you're recording video and it is not too hard for you to take that video 479 00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:06,360 and throw it up on YouTube, add some captions, add some waveforms, whatever. 480 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:07,360 Great. 481 00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:08,360 Do that. 482 00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:11,920 But if it is so, if it's so time consuming and you hate it and you're not seeing any 483 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:17,280 growth from it, step back, maybe make a few clips that will excite people about the show 484 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:21,560 so that if they see it on Tik Tok or reels or YouTube shorts, they might say, you know 485 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:22,560 what? 486 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:23,560 That's that famous Ashley Grant. 487 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:24,760 I want to check her out. 488 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,760 That's a great way to experiment a little bit. 489 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:32,120 And I'm a big fan of the three month experimentation segment. 490 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:35,840 So you know, trying out posting clips once a week for three months. 491 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,400 And if you're gaining traction from that, great, keep going. 492 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:42,760 If you're not, take a step back, maybe reevaluate, figure out maybe your clips were too long. 493 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:43,760 Maybe they were too short. 494 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,680 Maybe they were boring as hell and you need to try something else. 495 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:49,200 So do you do that with a lot of your stuff? 496 00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:53,760 Like do that three month test thing so you can see like A, B testing and seeing how it 497 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:54,760 goes. 498 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:59,680 Yeah, I did that on Tik Tok for a while, just personally posting videos of myself doing 499 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:01,880 podcast advice or podcast recommendations. 500 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:06,440 I saw some success, but then I ultimately weighed the scale and I was like, you know 501 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:07,440 what? 502 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,720 I'm also getting stressed out doing this because people are mean on the internet and I don't 503 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:12,920 necessarily want to deal with that. 504 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,800 So I, you know, I realized that I like Twitter a little bit better. 505 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,200 People are weirdly nicer there to me. 506 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,360 I will not say that that's the case for everybody. 507 00:27:21,360 --> 00:27:22,960 And I just would rather spend time on Twitter. 508 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:27,680 So I did do that experiment on Tik Tok. 509 00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,640 I did that experiment on Instagram reels. 510 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:35,160 I didn't do it on YouTube shorts at the time, but it's all a possibility. 511 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,240 I do think three months is a good amount of time. 512 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:43,760 Yeah, because I mean, things move so quickly and in three months it might not even matter 513 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,360 to anybody anymore. 514 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:49,560 Exactly. 515 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:51,480 So we've covered a lot. 516 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,320 I mean, we have covered so much, but is there anything? 517 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:58,040 Well, I have to ask you the one question that I ask everyone before I let them go. 518 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:11,000 What's one question I didn't ask you, you really wish I had. 519 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:17,280 A lot of people have been asking me what is my goal and I have no answer for that because 520 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,280 I love being everywhere. 521 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,160 And so that do we even have to have an end book? 522 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:23,160 Exactly. 523 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:24,160 Exactly. 524 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:25,560 I mean, a lot of people are like, okay, so you're doing this, you're doing that, you're 525 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:27,680 doing that, you're doing this. 526 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:31,680 Where do you want to be in 10 years or where do you want to even be in a year? 527 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:38,480 And I really love representing Squadcast and being aware of all of these creator tools 528 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:43,080 that are perfect for podcasters at any stage. 529 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,900 And then also being able to help people grow their show. 530 00:28:45,900 --> 00:28:51,560 My whole thought is if people are going to continue to use Squadcast, which is a paid 531 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:56,440 product, they are going to need to be able to associate success with their podcast so 532 00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,920 that they can associate success with Squadcast. 533 00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:05,440 So if I can help teach them, if I can teach them podcast growth tactics, if I can teach 534 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:10,160 them podcast marketing tactics, they see growth, they see success, they're making connections, 535 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:16,600 they are enjoying the creative process, and then they associate that success with Squadcast, 536 00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:17,720 I've done my job. 537 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,040 So I love representing Squadcast. 538 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:23,760 I also love keeping up with what's going on in the podcast space. 539 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:28,760 So to answer the question that I just prompted you to ask me, but I didn't really do that, 540 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:35,600 I would say my goal is to just continue being aware of what is going on in audio, in podcasting, 541 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:40,000 and continue advocating for this medium to continue growing. 542 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,760 I want more people to listen to podcasts because I want more creators to get paid, because 543 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:47,840 I want more people to discover podcasts, because I want more people to continue to get paid. 544 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,840 And it's a circle, it's a cycle, it's a... 545 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:50,840 I just love it. 546 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,880 And I think I said that 50 times, but it is where I'm at. 547 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:54,880 And that's okay. 548 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:59,240 And I think we're at like 75 or 80 of how many times we've said the word podcast. 549 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:00,240 Oh, gosh. 550 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:01,240 Anybody counting? 551 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:04,280 We'll have to put it in the transcript and I'll do a control F and find out. 552 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:09,000 Well, so you have so much going on, but where can people find you if they want to learn 553 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,520 more about you? 554 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:15,320 Best thing to do is go to Google and type in Ariel Nismlat because I'm the only one. 555 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,920 And also because my website will come up, which is arielnisimlat.com. 556 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:22,960 I have also bought the domain soundslikethisandthat.com. 557 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:28,280 I plan to redirect it, but for now it's just arielnisimlat.com. 558 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:31,560 There you will find my Twitter, you'll find all my newsletters, you'll find a link to 559 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,400 Squadcast, you'll find a link to all my podcasts and everything in between. 560 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:39,240 Well, and they should find the link to your Discord there too, right? 561 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:43,120 Yeah, because that's kind of circling back to what we started with after bringing in 562 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:44,120 the Discord one more time. 563 00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:47,360 Do you think that people should start a Discord for their podcasts? 564 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,360 I think that's a larger question about community. 565 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:56,200 I think not every podcast lends itself to an offline or an online community. 566 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,760 Not every podcast needs to be discussed all the time. 567 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:00,600 So I really think it's case dependent. 568 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:02,560 Oh, that's a great answer. 569 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,560 I like the cop out. 570 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:05,560 It's a cop out, but it's a good answer. 571 00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:06,560 I would need an example. 572 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:07,560 I would need an example. 573 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,960 Like the RSS podcast should have a Discord because it's also a technology, right? 574 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,480 And it's also a hosting site, right? 575 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:20,880 So it makes sense for RSS to have community surrounding the podcast that is in its name. 576 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:25,920 But if you have a podcast about, like, I don't know, I have a podcast about podcast trailers. 577 00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:30,120 I do not have a Discord dedicated to it because it would be overkill because I already host 578 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:35,040 so many things related to podcasting and I can discuss those things there. 579 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:40,840 But let's see, I had a podcast a while back called Counter Programming, called Counter 580 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:42,480 Programming with Shira and Ariel. 581 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,480 And it was a pandemic distraction podcast where we talked about anything with the word 582 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:51,000 count or counter in the title because it was supposed to be countering the grim COVID-19 583 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,480 news right at the beginning of the pandemic. 584 00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:56,760 And we started an Instagram and that was it. 585 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:58,560 We decided that that's what we wanted to do. 586 00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,040 That's all we had capacity for. 587 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:06,920 Do what you can, do well, and don't spread yourself too thin because people can tell. 588 00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:07,920 That's very true. 589 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:12,080 And I'm curious, I know that we're going all over the map here, but you keep bringing up 590 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,320 all these amazing things that I have to know more. 591 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,680 So with the things that you're no longer, like, really active with, do they still live 592 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:19,680 online? 593 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,280 Yeah, Counter Programming still lives online. 594 00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:23,280 I am still really proud of it. 595 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:28,520 Sometimes my co-host and I listen back and we're like, damn, we were good for 2020 people. 596 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:33,160 You know, for this time where things were tough, like we were funny. 597 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,120 That show is so hilarious. 598 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:40,560 And we basically, we have a series within it on countertops. 599 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:46,760 So we debated the benefits and disadvantages of marble, steel, granite, and wood, and laminate, 600 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:48,920 and recycled glass, and Formica. 601 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:50,120 And we really did that. 602 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:51,440 And it was strange and it was great. 603 00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:52,440 And we learned a lot. 604 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,000 So yeah, that's still online. 605 00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,040 We hosted on Buzzsprout. 606 00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:58,940 So it'll still be up on the internet forever. 607 00:32:58,940 --> 00:33:04,080 And we get an email every Monday from Buzzsprout telling us that we had still a hundred downloads 608 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,140 per week, which is shocking. 609 00:33:06,140 --> 00:33:07,520 And we're like, where are these coming from? 610 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:09,720 But we're very proud. 611 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:10,720 That's awesome. 612 00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:16,280 I think that's so cool because one of the things that I got the pleasure of interviewing 613 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:20,440 Tlaib Chassir from Afros and Audios and the podcast festival. 614 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,840 I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but he said in there that one of his favorite 615 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:27,960 things about podcasting is it's like a time capsule of everything that's going on in that 616 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:28,960 moment. 617 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,960 And that definitely sounds like what was going on with the counter in the COVID. 618 00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:36,560 I mean, because when we look back on all of that, just knowing what was happening in that 619 00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:41,440 moment, it's like, wow, this is a really big deal that we still have this. 620 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:42,720 And it's like etched in time. 621 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:43,720 Right. 622 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:44,720 Exactly. 623 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,480 That's a little philosophical, but still, you know, that's a thing. 624 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,880 Well, Ari, I want to say thank you so much for being here. 625 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,640 You have shared a lot of amazing information. 626 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,800 And I'm sure that we barely scratched the surface of what we could talk about. 627 00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,160 So I definitely hope we can have you back on again in the near future. 628 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:01,160 Yeah, absolutely. 629 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:02,160 Thank you for having me. 630 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:10,520 This was a lot of fun. 631 00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:15,000 Well my fellow podcasters, we hope you enjoyed the insights, tips and ideas shared in this 632 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:16,000 episode. 633 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:21,240 To learn more about launching and growing your own show, head over to rss.com backslash 634 00:34:21,240 --> 00:34:22,240 blog. 635 00:34:22,240 --> 00:34:26,520 And if you're ready to launch a podcast of your own, you can get started for free with 636 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:28,560 your first episode on us. 637 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:53,760 Thanks for tuning in.