It’s Curious More Podcasters Aren't More Curious

People are led to podcasting for any number of reasons. But if there’s one trait that predicts podcasting longevity, it’s curiosity. Luckily, it’s a skill you can develop.

April 28, 2020

Article

To keep my podcast agency running smoothly. I've learned to adapt and adopt processes and procedures. That’s because I am not a process-oriented person. Ever since I came into the world, I’ve been driven by my own internal curiosities. Yes, I often fly by the seat of my pants and will try things -- crazy things -- to just see what happens.

I think that’s a great way to approach podcasting. But that’s much less great when you're trying to run an agency. Since that’s what I’ve done for 20 or so years, I’ve learned to tamp down my general scatteredness so I can get things done on time.

I’ve been working with lots of podcasters over many years. Not just with my current podcasting agency that services business-minded clients, but even back when I was helping “underpublished” authors release podcast-versions of their self-recorded audiobooks. During that time, I’ve noticed that a big chunk of people getting into podcasting aren't very curious.

Here’s what’s most curious: More people than ever before are deciding to launch their own podcasts. That takes a certain amount of curiosity to get started. What is it about podcasting that takes that curiosity away?

Fear Stops Podcasters From Being Curious

With newness comes a healthy amount of uncertainty, which often leads to fear. The layperson curious enough to investigate what it takes to make a podcast can be quickly overwhelmed by equipment choices, service providers, time constraints, and more.

Podcasting is rather complex. Not that any part of the process is particularly hard, we all understand as working podcasters. But the complexity we’ve mastered leads to uncertainty for those who have yet to master it. For some, that uncertainty turns to fear, and fear stops curiosity in its tracks.

No Time To Be A Podcaster, Let Alone A Curious One

Most people aren’t blessed with an abundance of time. In fact, if it were not for a lack of available time on my clients’ part, I wouldn’t have a podcasting business. Without disposable time, the prospect of spending hours experimenting on their setup, tinkering with their format, or wondering what’s changed recently is unfathomable. Should they spend time investigating new recording software or switching website hosting when they could be bringing in more business? Can they afford to carve out more time from work, family, and the overall enjoyment of life?

Without copious amounts of unallocated time to develop podcasting curiosity, they pay my firm to inject that curiosity into their podcast. Layered in with good processes and procedures, obviously.

Not All Podcasters Care About Podcasting

It may seem odd, but a lot of podcasters just don’t care enough to become curious. It’s as if someone is forcing them to podcast. Which, in some cases, might be true. You’ve probably heard at least one disaffected-sounding cohost of a podcast who cares a lot less than the other host. Truth be told, that was me a long time ago. I was talked into doing a show that I genuinely didn’t care about. The show was popular enough, but I wasn’t having any fun. Luckily I was self-aware enough of this to eventually turn the show over to someone else who did care.

But not everybody has that wherewithal. Some people cohost a show because it's part of their job. Some don't want to offend or disappoint the other host of the program. Which sucks for them and sucks for listeners, because their lack of caring bleeds through the mic.

Why Be Curious When You Have A Podcasting Tribe?

The hyper-connected, always-available hivemind is a powerful force that can short-circuit our curious nature. Some are much more likely to turn to a Facebook group of 17,000 podcasters or a Reddit sub with 57,000 podcasters with their question rather than doing their own research.

And I get the appeal, especially for those feeling the time crunch. Spend countless hours chasing down various rabbit trails or spend a few seconds crafting a question for the tribe? That’s an easy choice.

But how do you vet those answers? What if the people who reply also aren’t all that curious and are just repeating un-researched advice they were given when they asked the same question a few weeks ago? It might have been easy. But it’s sure not helpful.

Pitfalls For Podcasters With A Lack Of Curiosity

I know that I’m easily offended when I see stock photos of people talking into the top of a Blue Yeti microphone. Any curious person, upon taking delivery of this mic that seems to be in every stock photo used to talk about podcasting, would plug their headphones into the unit and immediately notice that recreating the same pose from those pictures gives a terrible sound. A truly curious person would try talking into various points of the R2D2-looking mic until they found the sweet spot. A truly curious person would notice the three-position switch on the unit and take notice of how the sound changes as they cycle through each of those positions.

But not if they’re scared of screwing something up.

Not if they don’t have the time to be curious.

Not if they don't really care how they sound.

And not if there were conflicting opinions on which switch position is the best from randos on Facebook.

Those things kill curiosity. Not just of proper mic placement. But all aspects of podcasting, from sound quality to hosting to formats to the future. We need a twist on an old saying:

A lack of curiosity killed the podcast.

How To Inject More Curiosity Into Your Podcast

In a medium awash with practically unlimited content, it’s puzzling that more podcasters don’t seek out various opinions. Instead, theor lack of curiosity tends to increase their bubble factor. It feels right to listen to the other shows that cover the same or similar material to your podcast. But if that’s all you listen to (and Podcast Pontifications, obviously) you may be missing out on advances in other areas. I see a shocking number of podcasts where 3-year-old best practices have yet to be implemented.

I feel a little weird giving advice about this, because curiosity is second nature to me. I don't know how to not be curious. I'm the person you don’t want to hike with, because I invariably want to see what’s on the other side of the next hill. I’m the person who can’t sit still on the perfect beach because the cove on either side might be even more perfect.

If that’s not you and you want to change that, let’s go back and figure out which of the four problems -- or what combination of problems -- is stopping you from being more curious.

If it’s uncertainty and fear that stops you in your tracks, I’ll help by reminding you that you probably won’t screw things up if you experiment a little. This isn’t live radio, so if something you try doesn’t work, no one but you will know. And even if you do decide to release something live that you’re unsure of, I promise you that the vast majority of your listeners will not be offended by you trying new things. So go for it. It's probably going to be fine.

If you’re lacking time, find someone with time. You can take yourself out of the time equation, but it’s going to take time to experiment with your podcast. You might be able to lean on someone close to who is curious. Or you might have an employee who you could turn to for some help. And if all else fails, you might need to bring in some outside talent and pay for their time.

If it’s a lack of caring, then you should stop. Period. It’s not worth it to you or the listeners to keep putting out something you're not feeling. Tell your co-host if necessary. Tell your boss. And if it’s all on you, record a quick “I quit” episode and shut the show down. That’s the responsible thing to do.

And if you find yourself relying on the tribe to do your research - stop. Do your own research. Come up with some options on your own that work in your unique situation and environment. And then turn to your hivemind for validation. That might keep the randos at bay.

Next Steps

Politicians and civic leaders around the globe are either thinking about or are in the process of lifting lockdown restrictions. Won't that be nice? And maybe terrifying? I'm curious what that means to you as a working podcaster looking forward to the end of the lockdown. Record me a minute or two of audio and send that to me via a Dropbox link, which you can send to evo@podcastlaunch.pro.

If you're curious what happens when you go to BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra, I encourage you to scratch that curious itch. And you help support the making of this show. Win-win!

Finally pick up the phone and use it like a phone to call another podcaster and ask them if they listen to Podcast Pontifications. That’ll get them curious about what sorts of goodness they’re missing out on over here.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Transcript

[Download & share this transcript]

PP302 - It’s Curious More Podcasters Aren't More Curious

Evo Terra: [00:00:00] People are led to podcasting for any number of reasons, but if there's one trait that predicts podcasting, longevity, I think it's curiosity. Now, luckily that's a skill you can develop and it's fun to do it too.

[00:00:21] Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo. Tara. To keep my agency running smoothly. I've had to learn to adapt and adopt processes and procedures. I say I have to learn that because I am not a process oriented person. I am and have been since I came into the world kicking and screaming.

[00:00:47] A person who's driven by his own internal curiosities. Fly by the seat of your pants. Let's just see what happens. That's really my attitude about life, which is great. In the podcasting world, but not so great when you're running an agency. So over the years, you know, 20 or so years I spent running marketing and advertising agencies, I had to develop process and learn to become reliant upon them to, if not, if for nothing else, then to tamp down my nature of just scatteredness and get some things done, really, really apt to get some things done.

[00:01:23] So in my time working with lots of podcasts over the many years because I've done that, not just here as the agency, but also when I was helping authors release podcast versions of their own self recorded, uh, novels and self recorded books making their own, uh, audio book, if you will. I noticed that a whole lot of people weren't very curious.

[00:01:47] And for the longest time, I just chalked that up to, well, you know, it's new. It's scary and uncertainty is certainly a one big factor though. The fear factor of what is all of this stuff, am I going to do it wrong? Is great. There's a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt that is out there around this idea of podcasting.

[00:02:08] It's kind of complex. Not that it's hard, you know that you're working podcasters, but it is kind of complex. And it's that uncertainty that stops people from becoming really, truly curious. Another challenge that I think that the people who aren't curious face is they have no time. And that's one of the things I think my clients are up against right now is they're out of time.

[00:02:30] That's why they pay my firm to come in and do lots of things that many working podcasters know how to do. They just don't have time. And so when you get a piece of equipment or when you get new software or the thought of changing out. From one website, hosting company to another. It's very scary. Not, not because of what's going to happen, but it's scary because of all the things you can't do.

[00:02:53] That lack of time. You've got X number of hours in the day dedicated to this thing because you've got other things that pull on your life. Work, family, enjoying life overall. No time to play around in that one. For some, it's actually a lack of caring. I mean, it's as if they don't want to be doing this, that someone is forcing them into it and in some cases that's true.

[00:03:17] I know more than one cohost of a podcast who you can just tell by listening to the podcast that the cohost would rather be doing anything but. Being on that podcast, if I'm honest, that was me long time ago for one of the shows I was doing. I was just not having any fun. Now I'm self aware enough to say, Hey, that's not fun for me.

[00:03:39] I don't care about this topic. I am no longer going to be a cohost. Not everybody has that wherewithal. Some people are cohost because it's part of their job or they don't want to offend the person they're talking to. And so for them that you know, you can, I can hear the lack of caring, but they're just, you know, unable to get out of the situation.

[00:03:57] Well, I think the biggest challenge that stops the curious, the curiosity from happening is the tribe that we've developed. Look, it's easier to jump on a Facebook group that has 17,000 podcasters or a Reddit sub that has 57,000 podcasts and ask a question than it is to go do your own research and figure things out.

[00:04:23] Sometimes you get really good answers to the tribe. Sometimes they say it's a timesaver. Just just go ask the tribe what they think. Well, the problem is you're getting people who also may not be all that curious, who's already giving you answers, and it might actually not be all that helpful.

[00:04:38] So the curious, the lack of curiosity and podcasting lead to some challenges. You know, you know all those funny pictures you see of people who were talking into the top of their blue Yeti microphone. That's a problem that curiosity solves. Look, if you were more curious about the way that you sounded, you'd put the headphones on, you'd turn them up loudly, and when you're facing this microphone that looks like R2D2, you would say, um, I'm not sure where to talk into it, so I'm going to try various bases, and you would notice, Oh wow, it sounds really good from this one angle.

[00:05:14] Or you'd flip on, go to the back, and you'd go, what are these three buttons? Do? Gee, I wonder. What they would do. Let's go try it and listen to it, but they don't either because of the uncertainty factor. I don't know what's going to happen if I switch that switch, no time. I could play around with this all day, but I have got no time to do this.

[00:05:35] I don't really care how I sound, which is a big one, or my tribe said nothing about switching. This button's rap, or I asked which button should I use? Goodness. They're all for different reasons. Right, and that's just one thing about a microphone. But it's the same thing when it comes to the way anything sounds, the way anything looks and feels, the way your show appears in different directories, on different platforms, what new formats might look like.

[00:06:05] A lack of curiosity tends to increase your bubble factor. Maybe you do a podcast about this one thing and the only other podcasts you've listened to are about that one thing, and obviously this podcast clearly, but if you're not curious about going outside of that, you're not understanding new options, new ways to make quality sounds, new ways to make engaging interesting bits.

[00:06:31] You know the number of people I see still who have podcasts, who are doing things that aren't part of business best practices, podcast, business best practices. I chalk a lot of that up to a lack of curiosity. I mean, I honestly think that if you were more curious or if they were more curious about this, they'd be looking at every aspect of their show from, from time to time.

[00:06:58] So I said I was going to make this show a little bit about how do you develop a curious nature. I mean, to me it comes second nature. I don't know how to not be curious. I'm the person who will, when I'm traveling somewhere, go over a Hill and hate to stop because there's another Hill, the road continuing.

[00:07:14] I want to see where the end goes. I want to see what's next. I want to walk the beach and I want to walk around the next Cove because as cool as this little Cove looks, the next one might be even cooler. So how do you develop that particular outlook on life? I think it comes back to the four problems. I mean, the first one is you figure out what is stopping you.

[00:07:37] Is it uncertainty? Is it a lack of time? Is it that you simply don't care? Can't help you there? Are you too involved with the tribe thinking they have all the right answers? I think you need to look back at whatever is the main driver that keeps you from being curious and work on that. I can solve the first one for you.

[00:07:56] If the uncertainty and fear, just try things. Really just try things you don't have. We're not doing things alive. This isn't live radio, so you know, strap on your headphones, try something new and see what happens. You want to try a new website hosting company. Okay, go for it. It's probably going to be fine.

[00:08:15] It's probably going to be fine. Just just try is the easiest way to do that one. If you don't have any time, then that's when you start having other people do it or reevaluate your time because this does take time. I'm sorry. You can't, you can't not take time to do this if you don't care. I don't care to be really honest with you, and before you go relying on the tribe, do a little research.

[00:08:37] Don't accept what just some randos says to you in a group. Try it. Other opinions are out there. You can still Google things, right? There's lots of ways that you can get around this problem. Speaking of coming out of problems, I hear every government around the world or the vast majority of them are thinking about lifting the lockdown restrictions.

[00:08:56] Won't that be nice and maybe terrifying? I'm curious what that means to you. Working podcaster who's been stuck under pandemic. Would you record me a minute or two of audio about what. The end of the lockdown means and send that to me. Just put it up on Dropbox and send the link to evo@podcastlaunched.pro.

[00:09:15] Also, if you're curious what, buy me a coffee.com/evo Terra looks like you should do this and it will only cost you, I don't know, the price of a coffee to satiate that curiosity. Buy me a coffee.com/evo Terra right, and then finally pick up the phone, new thing, pick up the phone, call one podcast, or who needs to be more curious.

[00:09:36] And tell them to listen to podcast. Pontifications yeah, I'm seriously pick up the phone and call someone. When's the last time you did that phone? Still do that. Isn't that weird? Alright. I'll be back tomorrow with yet another podcast. Pontifications cheers.

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