Good morning everybody. I got this message today about
what I've learned running a remote video podcast, and I was
already starting to write this answer, but I figured instead of
sharing this with one person, I might just answer it here and
give more people the chance to learn what I learned and what I
would do differently. So let's get into it.
OK, so let's look at this from three different areas.
The first one is what even makes a good podcast.
The second one is how to make this sustainably.
And the third one is how to grow this.
Starting with the What makes a good podcast.
I was really worried in the beginning that people don't care
about remote conversations, that in person conversations are
inherently better, and that is simply not true.
I found it for my show to be true, and I found across the
board that people really don't care if it is in person or
remote as long as the base layer quality is there and if there's
some kind of value there, a reason for people to listen.
That brings us to the second point.
You do have to have the base quality covered, but that
doesn't mean spending a fortune. Any decent mirrorless camera
that you can hook up via USB as a web camera will do.
A decent microphone for a hundred $200 is totally going to
cover it. And maybe using a platform like
Riverside where you have control over the separate tracks.
It's going to make your life so much easier in post production
and it's going to deliver better sound and video quality.
And the third realization in that ballpark I've made is that
a lot of people actually just listen.
So it is still true that audio Trump's video.
As long as you have decent sound, people can enjoy the show
and you don't have to over edit it.
Like all the graphics, the whatever inserts you want to do
are not as crucial as you think. Once you have people listening
to that and how we get people to listen is going to be in the
next block. OK, so now that we have the base
layers covered, what makes this actually sustainable?
And a big keystone mindset shift here for me was that 200 views
is actually really, really good. You don't have to aim for
100,000 for a top 1% podcast. If you stop looking at the, you
know, Huberman's diary of your CEO, Colin and Samir, the top,
top top percent of podcasts, you will find that most podcasts
like 98% get a couple 100 views, even the ones that have a really
dedicated following. And so being OK with this number
and being happy with this number is a big mindset shift And
understanding that a conversational video podcast
does not play the same game a entertainment YouTube video
does. Yes, you still have the chance
to go viral and reach millions, thousands of people, but that is
generally not the game that you're playing with this.
Another thing that is going to make this much easier is to
understand that longer does not equal better.
I think there's a common consensus that a conversational
podcast is an hour long, but honestly, it doesn't have to be.
I'm starting to learn more and more into shorter episodes that
are more dense with information, more dense with emotion, rather
than dragging it out with fluff over an hour.
Not just because that's a better experience for the audience, but
also it makes my life a lot easier.
Editing a podcast takes so much time simply because you have an
hour or two hours of raw material to go through.
And if you want to do your job well, just watching it before
you publish would take an hour. And so take that into
consideration. The longer your episode is, the
more time you gonna spend in the edit.
And the last piece of the puzzle here is to really dial in what
the conversation is about. At the beginning, I thought
about just sitting down with a friend and having a conversation
would make a great podcast. That might be true for some
guests, but it definitely isn't true for a lot of them.
And it becomes very easy to get derailed with some side tangents
that might be fun in the moment but hold no merit to anybody
watching it, listening to this without the context that you're
having. And so once you understand why
you reach out to somebody and what you want to talk with them
about, it makes the conversation flow much simpler.
It makes packaging much easier, which is going to be the next
point, and it's going to streamline the whole thing from
top to end. So yeah, think about that before
reaching out to anybody. All right, so how do you grow
this thing? Even if we're already happy with
a couple 100 views with, you know, the network that you have,
that is great. But while this is very different
from entertainment on purely educational YouTube content, we
are still playing the packaging game.
And that is the area that I'm thinking about most right now.
It is not that I start with title and thumbnail before I
even reach out to a guest. I think that would be silly.
You never know what the conversation is going to turn
into, but having this topic is going to help you package it.
And the way I think about it, because there is not a lot of
good advice out there on how to package a conversational video
podcast, the thumbnail is there to get somebody's attention and
communicate in the simplest shape of and form what this
video is about. Two 3-4 words maximum in there.
Everything beyond 5 is kind of destined to fail unless it's
really nicely designed. And when I say that, I don't
mean aesthetics. That's a big mistake, I thought.
I thought thumbnails are about aesthetics.
They are about communicating the essence of what this video is
about and standing out in the sea of options that a viewer
might have. And then the title is there to
give context to the image, give a better understanding and a
better reason for somebody to click and pose some kind of
question or use some kind of words that speak to a specific
group of people so they know it is for them and it holds
something interesting to them. That 1-2 combo is what gets
people to click. If they don't know you, they see
like, oh, this is about, this is a conversation that I might
learn something from. Let me give this a try.
And so then they click on it and in the 1st 10 to 30 seconds, you
really have to make sure that you communicate more of what
this is going to be about and give people reasons to hang in
there for 20-30 minutes. Retention graphs on podcasts
simply don't look like a Mr. Beast retention graph.
What I've been doing now is really start at the deep end,
really go into the topic that this person is here for.
And now they're maybe more interested in that person.
And it's like, oh, and it becomes this like dopamine kind
of release where it's just like, it's, it's this reward for
hanging in there. And then the last couple points
are really about understanding yourself more than anything
else. And to be completely honest,
it's hard to figure this out on paper.
This really becomes clearer as you release more episodes as you
engage more with the people who interact with it.
But in order to make a podcast that resonates with people, you
have to understand the audience. You have to understand who
you're making this for, who you want to reach.
And why would they care? What are the questions that they
have? What are the desires they you
know they don't have filled where you can come in and help
them with a conversation that also plays into pick a lane that
makes this different? Probably, I don't know.
Most people start by imitating a show that they like.
I certainly done it and you see it, I think across the board who
I was inspired by. But once you get through this
inspiration cycle and replay what others have done, hone in
on your own perspective. What are those conversations
that you admire? What don't they deliver?
What unique perspective, What unique lens can you apply that
makes this different? If I already have 5 shows I
listen to, it is really hard to replace that unless something
happens with that show. Podcasts stop all the time, so
that is an option, but how do you replace my commute listening
to the show with a new show that has to give a different view, a
different take that is interesting to me, or it has to
fill a gap that opened up or that simply exists.
And then lastly, really understand why you do it.
I don't want to be like pessimistic or anything like
that, but the chance of starting a podcast and landing giant
brand deals and exclusive deals from a platform and becoming
rich and famous, to put it simply, are so so so slim.
It is 100% possible, but there is much more value to be gained
from starting and running a podcast.
And to me, first of all, that is creating connections, making new
friends. The end of the conversation is
the beginning of a relationship because every guest, you might
have a conversation with them for an hour, but some of them
are going to become lifelong friends.
You can also do it just to learn something right?
You want to. I think J Klaus does this a lot.
He has a specific thing he's interested in right now, and so
he invites a guest who knows a lot about it.
He learns about it, the audience learns about it.
The expert can share what they've learned.
And so it's like a triple win situation.
It's great. Maybe you just want to spend
more time with friends or with people you know, and a podcast
is a great excuse to do that. Maybe you want to give context
to what is happening in, in a hobby that you're interested in
and nobody's talking about it. And you can just deliver this,
this banter about, I don't know, PlayStation games or, or, or
plants or whatever it is. And so understanding the reasons
why you're doing it, I think is really a big key, giving it your
own perspective and then understanding who you're doing
it for because that makes all the steps before it so much
easier. Those were my top 10 tips on how
to start and grow a remote conversation podcast.
Let me know if any of them stuck out to you, If you what's your
take away from that? And if you want to see more of
these creator support solo shows, If you do have a
question, leave it down in the comments and I'll pick one to
answer in two weeks time after the next podcast comes out.
And yeah, see you in the next one.
Hey, editing Val here. Before you click on the next
video, I just wanted to let you know that we're running a summer
of progress inside the Orbit community.
So if you want to improve your channel, focus on something in
your creator life, or start a podcast, this would be a great
time to join. It's going to give you structure
and accountability to make meaningful progress over the
summer while everybody else is on vacation.
We're going to get shit done. If that sounds interesting to
you, the doors are open until June 8th, and then they're gonna
close at least until September. But I would love to see you
there.