Normalize The Making Of Abnormal Podcasts... Again

Podcasting has become the new normal for most people. And while more people listening to podcasts is an obvious Good Thing, are you sure they’re looking for normality out of your podcast?

October 14, 2020

Article

I've been accused of a lot of things over the years, but rarely has anyone called me normal. I’ve actively worked against normalcy for about as long as I can remember. It’s not always been an easy road, but it’s been a rather satisfying one.

As the title of this article hints, I’m concerned podcasting is getting a bit too mainstream. There’s nothing I can do about that, other than implore some podcasters - you, perhaps - to eschew normality and strive to do something different from the other 1,536,260 podcasts available.

Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with being normal. Most people are normal. Most podcasts are normal. Sticking to normal has definite benefits. Normal is routine and comfort, and people like routine and comfort.

Normal is also safe. As a species, we’re biologically wired to seek out safety. There’s safety in numbers, after all. Though I’d argue that straying away from normal behavior with your podcast comes with a low risk factor. You probably won’t get eaten by a lion if you explore on your own.

But normal is often boring. Boring for you, the creator. And boring for them, the audience you want to listen to your show. So while sticking with comfort, routine, and safety has its advantages, it also makes it hard to stand out when you make a comfortable, routine, and safe show. (Because that’s boring.)

Injecting A Little Abornality In Your Podcast

Abnormality is not a bad thing. It’s just not normal. Until you normalize it. Here are four different ideas here that might help you embrace a little more abnormality to your podcast.

1. Keep the standards, toss the conventions.

Standards and best practices are there for a reason. It’s not “being creative” when you improperly use your microphone. That’s “being lazy”. It’s not “groundbreaking” to publish episodes with crappy sound quality. That’s “making unlistenable content”.

Conventions, on the other hand, you can play fast and loose with. Or toss out altogether. Does inspiration strike when you’re not in your perfectly sound-conditioned studio with your fancy-pants microphone? Well, you have your phone on you, right? It has a microphone. Talk into it! Phones don’t capture “bad” audio. They just don’t capture audio the way your SM7B captures audio. And that’s fine, as you’ll clean up the recording back in the studio and work it into an eposide. That’s being creative.

Conventions have a lot to say about how many questions you should ask guests or how many points you should cover in an episode. So what? Experiment with maybe asking fewer questions of your guests. Or maybe keeps asking the same question until you get a shorter answer. Or if you’re giving the answers, perhaps shorter might work better for everyone.

2. Make a meaningful distinction between you and everybody else.

Yeah, I know you think you’ve done that. But look at the end of that sentence. Have you really checked “everybody else”? Or least every other podcast in your niche? That’s still doable today. And if you think it’s not, then you really haven’t understood the niche you occupy. Or you don’t occupy a niche at all because you’re being too normal.

Also, make sure your differentiation is a meaningful differentiation. The length of your episode is not meaningful. That’s a gimmick that looks OK on paper but doesn’t pay off in practice. And it’s not enough.

What you do with that length, the content you cut out as much as how you structure the content that you leave in, can be a clear differentiator.

Your ability to attract high-profile guests is also not a meaningful distinction. You know who else thinks they get the best, most unique guests? Every other podcaster who has guests on their show. And I remind you that if your guest’s name is the most impressive thing about your episode, then it’s not a very impressive episode.

Taking an abnormal approach to how you interact with guests, the way you ask questions, and what you demand of your guests, can certainly create a meaningful distinction between your and everybody else’s podcasts.

3. Forgive your relapses and try harder.

As a working podcaster, you have plenty of bad habits you're going to have to break to break free of normality. That means you're going to fall back onto those old habits. Very often, likely. Forgive yourself when that happens. Just go back and try and do better next time.

4. Check yourself and check-in with yourself.

Take an honest look at what you’re doing to be different. Make sure it actually is different, and you’re not just fooling yourself. One good test is how you feel about the content you’re consciously trying to change. The process of making abnormal content should feel unfamiliar to you. That’s the point! But it shouldn’t feel uncomfortable. If it feels that way to you, you may be going too far. You want to feel some unfamiliarity, but not a lot of personal discomfort.

It’s the opposite for your listeners, on the other hand. They should feel a bit uncomfortable with the change. Not alienated. And certainly not offended. But your new episodes shouldn't feel like prior episodes to them. However, and this is key, your new episodes shouldn't feel unfamiliar to them. You want to keep the familiarity they’ve established with your show, just with a fresh approach that might be a little uncomfortable for a few episodes.

I know it feels weird to go against the grain. Then again, you should be quite familiar with my offering up of oddball advice like that. If you’re feeling a little uncomfortable about it, I’ve done my job. Your job, now, is to normalize the making of abnormal podcasts… again.

Looking at the calendar, I see that Evo’s long winters nap is coming up. That's what I call the months of November and December when I take a break from the daily release schedule. As a treat, I open up the show to other working podcasts just like you who have their own topics and angles they wish to pontificate about. If you’ve a burning topic and unique take on something related to the future of podcasting or ways to make podcasting better, please send an email to evo@simpler.media and we’ll talk about your idea. And I really am looking for your own ideas and opinions. Even if they run counter to my own.

Go to BuyMeACoffee.com/EvoTerra if you want to support the show. And please tell a friend about Podcast Pontifications. The only way the audience for Podcast Pontifications grows is when you, the working podcaster, tells another working podcaster about the program.

See you tomorrow for another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Transcript

PPS3E47 Normalize The Making Of Abnormal Podcasts... Again - Transcript

[00:00:00] Podcasting has become the new normal for most people. And while more people listening to podcasts is an obvious, good thing. Are you sure they're looking for normality out of your podcast.

Hello, and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo, Tara, I've been accused of a lot of things in the. Many years of my life, [00:00:30] rarely has anyone called me normal. In fact, I bristle at that. I tend to not be normal and have never been really been normal. Not at least in the way that most people think about it.

And I want to talk about that in the podcasting world today, because, because as the title indicates, I think we need to bring back a little abnormal podcasting. I'm fine with normal, but normal is [00:01:00] normal. That doesn't have to mean boring, but normal means routine and routine is something that is easily commoditized.

Normal is normal. And if it's a routine, it gets commoditized well. Okay. I get it though. Normal safe. Save has is nice and stable safety is what a lot of people, most people gravitate towards. We are [00:01:30] biologically wired to seek out safety and I get safety, but the risk of podcasting is pretty low and being safe with your content and your approach really, really makes it hard to stand out.

And again, marketing's a safe space, so it's okay to stand out. But podcasting is no normal is it's boring. They're there I've said it. Finally [00:02:00] normal is boring. Well to heck with normal. So I don't have to bleep out my own show. Let's talk about some ways you can toss out normal and really focus back again on abnormality, which is not a bad thing.

Not a bad thing. Here's what I mean by that? I'm going to give you what, one, two, three, four different ideas here to help you be embraced a little more abnormal to you in what you do. Number one, keep the standards, but toss the conventions. [00:02:30] Keep the standards. Best practices. Mike placement. Good sound quality.

But toss out the conventions conventions don't have to be followed. Okay, so you aren't next to your giant SM seven B microphone. When inspiration strikes, you've got your phone on you, don't you? I just said don't do bad audio. Your well, the phones don't capture bad audio. They just don't capture SM [00:03:00] seven B studio, quality microphone, condor.

They still are fine for capturing content. Go capture the content you need with the phone that has a microphone on you all the time. Come back in the studio and boost the quality of that sound later. If you're doing interviews, you know, this conventions will tell you how many questions to ask and whatever.

So maybe throw out those convention, but maybe, maybe ask less questions of your guests. I'd say more, but I don't think [00:03:30] that's ever a good idea. Asking less questions is not a bad idea. Maybe from your guests you want to get, or maybe you want to give shorter answers. He's shorter. Shorter is always better.

So try something weird and different, you know, really work on it. Getting those answers to be nice and shorter. They give you a long answer. Ask him again to condense it. Or maybe if you're the one giving information like me, give shorter answers to people. Number two, make a meaningful distinction between you and everybody else.

[00:04:00] Everybody else. I mean, you've got to listen to everybody else in your genre, in the, in the things that you actually do, like should listen to lots of things besides just yourself and just me, but make sure it's a meaningful differentiation, right? The length of your show is not meaningful. I'll make a shorter show than everybody else and make a longer than anybody else.

Yeah. That's nice. It's not a meaningful distinction. Neither are guests that you get. I get the best guests. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Says everyone. I type cover topics. Nobody else covers. Are you sure? I don't think any of those [00:04:30] things are meaningful, how you use the length of your show and to make something different.

Abnormal is a differentiating factor, or can be the way you ask questions and what you demand of your guests can certainly be a meaningful distinction between you and everybody else. And your topics don't matter. But your angle, as I've talked about ad nauseum on this show, certainly does. What do you bring to the table?

[00:05:00] Number three, you're trying all this stuff it's going to be hard to do. So number three is forgive your relapses and try harder as a working podcast, or you probably have some habits you're going to have to break, which means you're going to fall back onto your old habits. Often. Forgive yourself. When that happens, just go back and try and do better.

Fourth. Check yourself and check in with yourself. I know that sounds [00:05:30] all hippy dippy. Here's what I mean by that. You should check yourself to make sure that what you're doing when you start doing this, when you start going towards abnormal T it should feel different to you. Not necessarily uncomfortable to you, but it should feel quite unfamiliar.

To you now, your listeners, on the other hand, I think when your listeners [00:06:00] find your new format or when you push the new format out to them, they should feel a bit uncomfortable. This shouldn't feel like prior episodes when you make this switch. However, this is key. It shouldn't feel unfamiliar to them. It should be the familiarity they have with your show, just with a fresh approach.

That might be a little uncomfortable. So I know there's a weird ways to think about it. But, you know, you've kind of expect that from me in this program, giving you [00:06:30] weird things to think about, because I really do think we need to really work hard to not be normal and be ourselves and be unique and be different.

So hopefully these ideas have, will help you along those, that particular path. Hey, three quick things, one egos long winters nap. Is coming up. That's when I take off the month of November and December, I don't push out episodes. That's coming up. Can you believe that's coming up really quickly? Well, if you have a topic that you wish to pontificate on something around the future of podcasting, the [00:07:00] ways to make podcasting better, please send an Eva an Evo, send an email to evo@simpler.media.

Just got a new domain set up evo@simpler.media. And let's talk about your topic and your angle. Want to make sure you've got that. And we'll give you a platform right here on the show. Go to buy me a coffee.com/evo Terra. If you want to support the show and please as always tell a friend about podcast, pontifications the only way podcast pontifications grows is when you working [00:07:30] podcasters, tell other working pod-casters about it.

That's it. See you tomorrow for another podcast. Pontifications cheers.

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