Gaining perspective on passion

“Get some perspective!” they say. Well, we agree with them (whoever they are). As a podcaster, you need a firm idea of what your show is about. If you’re not sure what your point is, your audience isn’t going to be sure, either!

Marc Blackburn’s America at War podcast (Figure 16-1 at http://www.americaatwarpodcast.com/) started in February 2016, relatively recent in geologic terms. The content, on the other hand, has been centuries in the making and has taken decades of Marc’s life to collect and document his particular story about military history. Marc, a Ranger for the National Park Service, has a PhD in American Military history and has been in love with the topic since he was a teen — let’s just say a “long time ago.” He loves his topic and he loves to write. That’s what we call a certifiable subject matter expert!

Marc was one of a dozen or so people who participated in a podcsating course offered to the National Park Service western region by Chuck Tomasi in 2009. One day he found himself with training, the material, and enough Amazon gift cards to get some equipment so he decided it was time to let the world know about his love for military history.

He has a well-thought-out method to his madness that can serve aspiring podcasters well:

• Learn the landscape. Take time to find out what shows on your topic exist. Like any good prospective podcaster, Marc did some listening to other similar podcasts to understand what is out there and identify a unique place he can fill in the podcast universe.
• Look for a unique angle. The last things your listeners need are carbon copies of other podcasts or (perish the thought) radio shows based on a template. If your passion is commonplace, focus on a niche or small aspect that you have the most knowledge about. Many of the shows Marc heard focused on specific events, often leaving the listener desiring more context of how we got those events. Marc opted for a chronological approach starting with the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. Until Chuck listened, he wasn’t aware that the reasons for our early colonists seceding from England go back so far.
• Make it personal. Let’s face it, history in high school was pretty dull because it was mainly facts about people and places a long time ago — okay, as teens we also had other things on our minds to distract us, too. Marc explains that it helps to make the listener feel a part of the story. He’s got expertise in this area as well having interpretation training from the National Park Service. Here’s wishing we had someone like Marc leading our high school history class. It would have been a lot easier to relate to what these people went through since we were of the nerdier persuasion who didn’t have to think about a date on Friday night.

Podcasting passion with a purpose

Podcasting with a purpose is an essential. By doing so, you have a destination. It doesn’t matter if that destination is to educate, showcase your material, or entertain. Pick something as your core reason for speaking and don’t be afraid to have fun with it and make it exciting.

That’s what Chuck has done with one of his productions for his day job. Twice a week, Chuck creates a video for developers inspired by questions and comments he reads in the online community. The purpose is to educate and enable his audience to be more effective developers. The genesis was that he had been spending time in the community for several years answering questions and building a reputation when the idea struck him to start providing the thought process behind the typed answers, so he started a series.

His approach to podcasting can be summed up like this:

• A new perspective on content: Chuck is constantly evaluating the good, bad, and ugly from his work projects and asking, “Would this be good in the show,” “I should think about adding this in a future episode,” and “Do I think people on the show will find this helpful?”
• Improvement: It’s hard to listen to another show, watch TV or a movie without thinking about the production, editing, lighting, vocal inflections, really everything that goes in to it and taking inspiration to try to improve his own product. That’s called being professionally aware.
• Continuity: Produce episodes on a regular basis with a consistent format. Chuck got a tip from a former podcaster a few years ago. She said, “If you want to make changes to your show, do it how you would cook a frog. You don’t just throw a live frog in a frying pan or it will hop out. You put it in a pot of water and slowly turn up the heat.” The metaphor, gross as it may seem, is also appropriate to podcasting. If you suddenly shift topics or format, your audience may think they got the wrong show.
• Because it’s fun: Sure, the primary purpose of the show is to drive interest with current and potential developers, but it’s the passion for what he does that keeps the show going.

Sharing your passion with friends

Enthusiasm can be infectious. Podcasting can sometimes feel like a very solitary endeavor when it’s just one voice behind the mic, but as we mention in Chapter 5, getting multiple hosts around the microphone can be a challenge. However, when the mics go live and the banter begins it can be a challenge to stop talking. It’s that spark that all podcasters strive for, and sometimes, with the right people, the chemistry is instantaneous.

This shared passion was the driving force behind Tee’s decision to call on his friends while working on the third edition of this book to launch a new podcast, Happy Hour from the Tower (http://www.happyhourfromthetower.com) seen in Figure 16-2. There are video gamers that are forces of nature dominating in Destiny like iLulu (http://twitch.tv/ilulu), Gladd (http://twitch.tv/gladd), Gigz (http://twitch.tv/gigz), and Red Queen (http://twitch.tv/redqueen). Then there's Nick Kelly, his son Brandon, and Tee. They may not be the best players in Bungie’s epic space opera, but they can’t get enough of the game, the lore behind it, and their own experiences within it. Every two weeks, it is that love of the game that brings them together on the mics to talk about the game. On occasion, they are joined by other streamers, voice talent, and even people who helped create the game. Happy Hour from the Tower is Tee’s celebration and unabashed love for this science fiction epic, and he’s inviting friends over to his studio both physically and virtually to join him in that celebration.

When you invite friends together to launch a podcast, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Make sure to have an agenda for the night. Coming up with a plan is more than just saying to the people you work with, “We should do a podcast because it’s cool. Here’s what we talk about in Episode One.” A podcast’s agenda, or game plan, or to-do list, should be an idea of what you will want to gather around the mics to riff about for at least five shows. If you have ideas that go well beyond Episode 10, then you might just be on to something. When getting the cast and crew together for your podcast, you will want to make sure it is clear what the topic of conversation is. Otherwise, you might find yourself recording awkward silence, and that makes for terrible audio.
• Make the most of your time together. If the subject matter is not time-sensitive, or if you have mapped out evergreen topics (subjects of discussion that are relevant no matter when they drop in a show’s schedule) for a few episodes, then record these episodes in one night. Granted the ability to create a buffer for your podcast will depend on the running time for your episodes. If at all possible, record several episodes in case schedule conflicts occur.
• Nominate one person to take the point in a conversation. Usually in situations where many hosts are on mic, there should be one person calling the plays and prompting others for commentary. In a quick-paced, back-and-forth conversation, that might mean the lead host has to sit back and moderate the episode. What matters is that you stay on topic lest your episode goes bouncing off the rails and into the great abyss. Having a lead host — and that position can vary from show to show, depending on the topic — will keep you, your cast, and your episode on track.
• Invite others to join in on the fun. While there should be core hosts in every multi-mic podcast, inviting people to join in only adds to the dynamics of a podcast. It could be a formal interview, or better still, it can be an informal sit-down where everyone contributes. These sort of roundtable discussions may open your podcast up for more hosts, or some hosts may offer to pick up the mantle for a spinoff podcast out of loyalty to and joy from the podcast. We’ve seen this happen too many times to count. Open mics also offer different perspectives and backgrounds, providing your podcast a broader scope and reach.

A passionate love for the podcast

All successful podcasters share in common a true love for the podcast. Something about getting behind the mic and producing quality content is satisfying. That passion can tax you, especially if the podcast is an emotional ride; and if a podcast reaches a conclusion, it would make sense if the podcast’s host decided to step away from the mic for a spell.

However, when you are one of podcasting’s original voices, it is hard not to want to podcast, especially when embarking on new adventures overseas.

Such is the story of Evo Terra, a name very familiar in podcasting circles. Evo was one of the original advocates of podcasting, hosting alongside Michael R. Mennenga The Dragon Page in October 2004. He launched Podiobooks.com with Chris Miller and Tee Morris, and joined Tee on the first edition of Podcasting For Dummies. “One thing we had going for us,” Evo recalls, “is that Mike and I were already doing The Dragon Page as a syndicated radio show, both on Internet Radio and terrestrial radio since 2002, so we hit the ground running while many other podcasters at that time were figuring things out as they went. Many of the technical challenges of podcasting gear we already had figured out.”

Evo loved podcasting so much, he brought in his wife, Sheila Unwin, when The Dragon Page launched a Y.A. Fiction spinoff series, The Dragon Page with Class. Together, Evo and Sheila podcast on Evo at 11 and The Opportunistic Travelers which evolved into This One Time…. All three podcasts are very different, but all three are very much full of the intellectual snark that Evo and Sheila are known for. “When I was asked to deliver the keynote at the very first Podcast Movement event, I was told ‘You should be podcasting more…’ but by then Sheila and I were transitioning to leave the country,” Evo recalls. “I had sold most of my equipment, but I had kept my H4n, a few cables, and a pair of Shure SM58s. It occurred to me that we needed to produce a podcast to explain what we were doing. I had been listening to The Startup Podcast with Alex Bloomberg, and I really liked that journalistic style. So during our drive out to California, I broke out the mic and started asking Sheila questions, and that was the first episode of the Opportunistic Travelers.” As seen in Figure 16-3, The Opportunistic Travelers, while a dramatic change in the kind of podcast Evo was known for, still retains his signature of a light-hearted look at life and the world around him.

Sheila’s own love of the podcast took root not on the technical side, but more on the content provider side. “When I first started, I was primarily voice talent, and it was a lot of fun. Initially, The Dragon Page with Class was an interview show, and I really loved the back stories of these books I’ve been reading and how they came to be.” After Evo at 11, Sheila believed her podcasting chapter had concluded. As she states, “When we were getting ready to leave the country, Evo said, ‘We’ll update people in a blog format,’ and I came back with ‘That doesn’t make any sense. You’re a podcaster. We need to podcast this.’ So we started The Opportunistic Traveler.” Not only has podcasting made Sheila a better public speaker and presenter, Sheila gives podcasting credit for the close friendships she has cultivated over the years. “I have friends all over the world, and I’ve met people at different conferences all of whom know me from my appearances on podcasts.”

What keeps both Evo and Sheila podcasting today, on a more personal level, is their online dynamic. “Our podcasts are our personalities amped up,” Sheila says. Evo agrees. “It’s a project and a platform that we not only can work on together, we work on it well together.”

And it doesn’t hurt Evo’s passion at all that it has now become a source of income. Since returning to the States, Evo has started a strategic consulting service and helps others launch and maintain their podcasts, allowing them to focus on the content. And yes, he’s still podcasting with a podcast about podcasting called Podcast Pontifications (https://podcastpontifications.com).

The desire to continue recording, producing, and uploading shows simply for the love of the podcast is not uncommon. Many podcasts are created out of that need. These shows and their hosts stand out in their dedication, infusing raw enthusiasm for this medium into every new show. It is this passion that brings the podcaster back to the microphone and invites new podcasters (like you!) to take the host’s chair.

Podcasting on puree: Mixing it up

After you’ve racked up a few episodes of your podcast, take a look at its format. How do you have it set up? Is it all commentary? What can you do to vary the content?

Just because this is your first, second, third — or seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth — episode, that doesn't mean you’ve set your show in stone. (That’s where you find the fossils of all sorts of creatures that didn’t manage to evolve.) In this section, we look at ways to dodge that asteroid and keep your show from suffering an extinction-level event.

Don't be afraid to try different things with your podcast's format. For example, you might

• Talk about a product, a service, or an idea that’s only loosely related to your normal focus.
• Interview a guest with a unique perspective on the focus of your show.
• Experiment with adding a cohost, even if only temporarily.
• Podcast from a remote location or from a studio if you normally do remote shows.

Technorama, hosted by one of your illustrious authors, has been in a near-constant state of evolution since inception in May 2005. It started with a single host and acquired a second after only a handful of episodes. Things stayed constant for a while, and then its hosts — Chuck Tomasi and Kreg Steppe — added an “On This Day in History” segment to the show to review tech, science, and geek events that happened in history on the day the show is released.

With the addition of “On This Day in History” segments, Chuck and Kreg started experimenting with production elements and other kinds of regularly occurring features in the podcast. Soon the show, described as looking at the lighter side of technology, started covering odd news in the “Hacks and Strange Stories” segment and began scratching their heads at how silly people can get over tech with the “What the Chuck?!” segment. Following the wacky wake-up morning show format, Technorama gained a loyal following.

Fast-forward through the years (time travel saves belaboring the point), and the award-winning show continues to offer something different than its normal fare. While taking pride in their lighter look at tech, Technorama has also featured interviews with hosts of TV’s Mythbusters, oceanographer and Titanic-discoverer Dr. Bob Ballard, and renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. The guys have also ventured in to video podcasting, on-location recordings, and elaborate audio spoofs ranging from “How Can You Tell He’s a Geek” (inspired by Monty Python’s “How You Can Tell She’s a Witch” sketch) and several parodies inspired by Star Trek, Star Wars, classic TV shows and more. Even today, Chuck and Kreg continue to challenge the status quo and try new things.

Your show may not have to go to elaborate lengths to stay fresh, but it does need to heed the creed: Evolve or die. Remember the story about cooking a frog mentioned earlier in this chapter — do changes like this slowly and get feedback from your audience to see what works.

If you decide your podcast is going to be in a constant state of flux, keep in mind that the risk of alienating your listeners is ever present. Podcasting for podcasting’s sake is like improvisational comedy: It’s a skill. You can keep your passion alive by continuously changing the format of your show, but you run the gambit of making your show an acquired taste.

Starting a second (or third) podcast

Keeping the passion alive and well in one podcast can be found in variety, but what happens when you are finding yourself cutting off the microphones and still having a lot to say. Some podcasters decide to fire up the mics again and keep going. Sure, the occasional “super-sized” show isn’t a bad thing, especially if the topic is timely and your normal running time can’t cover everything you want or need to. What happens, though, when your special super-sized shows are becoming less and less special, but becoming the norm? What if your broad focus on a subject matter is becoming more and more focused on one aspect of it? Are you willing to risk overloading your podcast’s audience with new content, and possibly burn out you, your cohosts, and your audience?

It might be time for another podcast.

Okay, that may double your workload. Well, no, it will double your workload; but spinoff podcasts allow you to follow this new rabbit hole you’ve discovered while keeping the original podcast’s voice true. A new podcast also keeps your perspectives fresh and excited about what unknown discussions you have yet to record for upcoming podcasts.

If your gut instinct is telling you to begin a second podcast, go for it. Variety, not only in a podcast’s original content but also between the different podcasts you create, can benefit both shows. Now, instead of the same old podcast every week, you can allow yourself different avenues to explore — and maybe in the new venture, attract a whole new audience.

When cybersecurity professional, cyberpunk author, and rock musician Nick Kelly first sat down in 2013 with Tee and Pip at an author event, he had no idea what new creative outlet would unfold before him. After a second in-studio visit on The Shared Desk, pictured in Figure 16-4, Nick took his first step in podcasting. “I had most of what I needed at home and I knew one of the writers of Podcasting For Dummies, so I figured I was covered,” Nick says. “And I aimed to keep it simple: Get around the mics with the family and just geek out a little.”

Since its inception in 2014, the Geek Wolfpack brand, expanded quickly, all its podcasts carrying the same signature wit and wisdom from Nick, Stacia, and Brandon:

• The Geek Wolfpack Podcast (http://www.geekfamilypodcast.com): The Geek Wolfpack is the Kelly Family at their nerdiest. Nick and Stacia are both science-fiction writers, while Brandon is an avid gamer. Together, these three settle around the mics to talk about their passions as a family in their travels, what they are watching on various streaming services, and what new app they are currently mastering on their smartphones. This podcast is about keeping it geeky in the family and the fun to be had when you do.
• ADHD D&D (https://adhddnd.com): Part Dungeons & Dragons playthrough, part comedy, ADHD D&D features the adventures of a merry band of adventurers comprised of the Kelly family, the Morris family, a Dungeon Master and his wife in St. Louis, and finally, Steve “The Blind Gamer” Saylor (https://stevesaylor.net), an avid gamer and advocate for accessibility in gaming. Between the dropping of pop culture references to overall observations of how many ways the DM is trying to kill them all, ADHD D&D is less about the skill and prowess of our heroes and more about whether they will make it through a battle without quoting Clue or Caddyshack. This isn’t Dungeons & Dragons unplugged. This is D&D unhinged.
• ADHD D&D Classic (also https://adhddnd.com): Before the arrival of Steve “The Blind Gamer” Saylor, the wrath of Arrow Storm, and Ashimei the Teenage Barbarian adopted (with love and brute force) a dinosaur named George, Nick played a half-dragon War Mage who constantly gave the party’s Ranger serious side eye over a pair of dragon hide boots. This was also the time of Shade’s evolution into “The Murder Hobbit” and “Protect the Healer!” became the party motto. ADHD D&D Classic are the hours of content from the early days of their party’s adventures that never made it on the Geek Wolfpack Podcast.

“When it got harder and harder to take three hours of what was some hysterical content and edit it to a ten-minute segment for Geek Wolfpack Podcast,” Nick states, “I knew I was going to be making a spinoff podcast. Then, as I started editing segments and looked ahead at the hours on hours of content I had recorded, I knew it would be years before I would introduce Steve Saylor’s blind wizard.” In this interview, he admits an inconvenient truth: “Tee warned me. He did.”

And while Nick manages the Geek Wolfpack Network of three shows, he also appears with Brandon on Tee’s earlier-cited podcast, Happy Hour from the Tower. Considering Nick didn’t even know what a podcast was when he and Tee met, this has been an epic journey for him.

If you’re thinking about branching out with a new show, consider these tips:

• Take your audience with you. If you’re podcasting about triathlons, yet hold a secret passion for seventh-century Gaelic text, expect only a handful of folks to subscribe to both shows. However, if you move from triathlons to a podcast on sports medicine, they may find the new topic an easier pill to swallow.
• Cross-promote. Even if your podcasts are quite close in scope, there will be listeners to one who aren’t aware of the other. Although we caution against turning one podcast into a giant commercial for the other, plug the heck out of your other show. Within reason.
• Look for the niche within the niche. If your main topic is broad, break it out into chunks and see what needs further exploration. Granted, a deep dive into the minutiae of a niche topic may reduce the size of your listening audience. But so what? This is about exploring your passion, not about gaining market share. And (we promise) there’s always someone else out there who will want you to delve even deeper into the obscure topic you’ve just built an entire podcast around.
• Keep trying. Don’t expect to hit your stride in the new show by Episode 2. You have to try different formats, flavors, and ideas, just the way you did to make your first podcast perfect. (Or is it? Maybe it’s getting a little stale. Time to spruce that one up, too. See the following section.)

When enjoying the journey of your first podcast, keep in mind that your next podcast may be closer than you think. Keep a close eye on your feedback; look for recurring themes that your audience likes to hear. If it’s a broad enough topic and you can speak on it with authority, you may be able to craft a show around audience suggestions instead of having to sweat bullets to come up with something brand new every time.

Moving forward with a plan

If you are keeping the fires burning for your podcast whether it’s a spinoff podcast, something new, or a complete rebrand of what you’ve been doing for some time, it’s a good idea to move forward with a plan. So here are a few dos and don’ts — with the don’ts first.

What NOT to do (Ack! Run away! Run away!):

• Don’t use shock-radio techniques. Hearing a podcaster drop a few words that would make most grandmothers blush isn’t anything new, and it’s a cheap way to get a laugh and attention. We personally don’t have any moral compunction against the more colorful aspects of the English language. If that’s your style, don’t change it; otherwise, try to use them sparingly, okay?
• Don’t swing between kid-friendly and adults-only. If you’re unhappy being a family show, give some advance notice so folks can unsubscribe. Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned (or even unpleasantly surprised).
• Don’t get angry when you get dissenting email. Not everyone will be happy with your decision to change things around or to add a new segment. Deal with it and move on. You can’t please everyone — or “correct” their opinions — so don’t even try.

What to DO with all your might:

• Cast your net wide. Be open to a variety of new ideas and concepts and don’t be afraid to try them out on your audience. Your loyal listeners will likely forgive you a few miscues along the way.
• Have a purpose for the change or addition. Find the common connection with what your show has focused on before and talk to your audience about it. You can do this before or after the “newness” goes in the show, but your listeners will enjoy knowing the method behind your madness.
• Encourage feedback about the change. When you do this, ask more than “Do you like it?” Find out whether your audience members feel differently about your show, if they think it’s “fresher” or perhaps more appealing — and ask why. The changes you put in place are designed to give your show a boost; be sure and ask for confirmation that it actually happened!

If you find yourself in need of a break, there’s nothing wrong with taking some time out. As a courtesy to those who are listening, however — whether it’s 20 or 20,000 — let them know you’re holding off on new episodes for a few weeks so you can reorganize priorities, goals, and the whole momentum of your podcast in order to make it even more rewarding for them to listen to. The same courtesy applies when you’ve had an unexpected illness: Give your listenership a quick update on what happened; reassure them that your voice is back and that your podcast is back. As passionate as you may be about a podcast, always remember your health and your voice must come first. There’s nothing wrong with missing a week or two of a podcast while you get back up to par.