Playing Up (Or Down) Your Podcasting Personality

Sometimes we just need a change in our podcast, either subtle or fundamental. But one thing remains the same. Us. What do we do when some aspects of our personality just aren't perfect for podcasting?

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

Before we get started, I am not a psychologist. So if you have a personality disorder, if you're in therapy, or you're working with a professional mental health provider, do what they say, not this moron. All right?

Now, there's a lot that we can change about our podcasts. We can change the topics because, you know, we're people and we have lots of interest and lots of experiences. Or we can even learn new experiences and pass those along, that knowledge along in our podcast if that's what we wish to do. We can change the angle that we take because, again, we're persuasive people and we know that subtle shifts in how we talk about something might make that topic more palatable to the people on the other end. Might make our case better, if you will.

We can change the format of our podcast because we know that millions of shows already exist and something like 20,000 new shows are added every single week. So we're constantly being exposed, if we're paying attention, to new people doing new things with their format.

We can change the branding elements for a fresh look of our podcasts, or even the branding elements inside of our podcast episodes for a fresh sound. Going further, we can change our voice. We can use speech-language pathologists, or even vocal coaches. They give us more confidence that we are sounding the way that we really want to sound.

And there are a myriad of other subtle changes and really big changes that we can make to our podcasts. But what about our personality? Now, I'm not qualified to answer the question definitively, "Can people change?" I'm not answering that question. Nor am I going down the path of whether or not you should or should not, or anybody should or should not change basically who they are. But I will say that there may be some aspects of your personality that are more effected habits, muscle memory in the brain to use a lay person's thinking metaphor around this. And I'm going to use me as an example for that.

So I, if you know me, I'm pretty quick with the joke, which makes me, in my opinion, kind of a rotten interviewer. But on the same - I recognize that about me. That's why I don't do a lot of interview shows. However, weirdly enough, I'm actually paid to interview people. Not on this show, and not on anything related to the topics of podcasting or honestly things I'm very interested about, but I do, I am paid to do these short conversations with professionals and markedly unfunny topics.

Why do I do this? Well, partly because I get paid to do that and that's important, but also because suppressing my own natural knee-jerk, let's-crack-a-joke-now-quickly-Evo, that's helping. I think it makes me a better, more rounded, better overall podcaster.

Let's talk about my friend Don. I'm just going to call him Don because that's his name. Don is a long-time podcaster who has successfully monetized a long-running multi-host show. But Don also, in the decades almost he's been podcasting, realizes he's never done a solo show or a scripted show. So now, he's quietly experimenting on doing both of those on a semi-secret show. And it's very likely the show's not going to continue. In fact, he said straight up, it's not going to continue after the ten episodes. But I bet that he is going to take the lessons learned and then incorporate those new aspects of his own personality - not new aspects, but uncovered aspects and incorporate those for his multi-host podcasting efforts.

Or take my other friend Terry. We'll call him Terry because, again, that's his name. Terry is taking a break from his podcast right now. It's changed names and changed focus and direction many times, but Terry right now is finding really good success in a short-form video platform. Which is interesting because Terry, I know, is prone to waxing poetically, which makes his episodes longer than they really need to be and has a tough time cutting out the extra stuff. But this new restrictive, shorter format stops him from doing that. He can't. And because of that, Terry's going to relaunch his podcast before too long and he's going to bring those lessons learned from that short format down, suppressing that ability, that innate need to talk forever, and just get to the point.

I'm not sure that any of those, mine, Don's, or Terry's, qualify for really changed personalities. Probably not. But I think that all of them recognize a change in which parts of the personality we each choose to expose, which ones you are likely to see and/or hear on the podcast. We're de-emphasizing some parts and emphasizing other parts. Maybe recently discovered parts. And all of that's making for a better podcast, not just for them, but also for their audiences.

Now, if you know someone who's letting maybe a part of their personality, maybe they recognize that parts of their personality just aren't conducive to doing great podcasting anymore. Maybe it's getting in the way of their podcasting efforts. Well, share this episode or article with them to show them some ideas of how they might be able to work through that by emphasizing certain parts and deemphasizing other parts of that.

And, of course, if you love the idea and the content I bring to you every day on Podcast Pontifications please, I'd appreciate it if you would go to buymeacoffee.com/EvoTerra, and do that, buy me a virtual coffee.

All right. That's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!