What If Podcasting Was A Sport? Have You Been To Training Camp?

Because of My Podcast: A Veteran Got a Home Robert Kerns produces the Living the Vet life. He had a mortgage specialist on his show. He was contacted by someone in another state (again, podcasting is global) and the mortgage specialist was able to get the listener in contact with another specialist and the veteran was able to get his loan with a special VA Home Loan rate. None of this would have happened, but it did because of hist podcast. Check out Rob at livingthevetlife.com If Podcasting Was A Sport. I live in Cleveland. A fairly famous sports town. Famous, for not quite being good enough. We were 1 pitch away from winning the world series. Two yards away from going to the Super Bowl. Over the years the Cleveland Browns Football team has taken over leading the pack of bad sports teams in Cleveland. Every few years we fire our coaches and their staffs. Our players get suspended. Our coaches stink when they are here, we fire them, and they win mutliple super bowls. What does this have to do with podcasting? Stick with me. In 2014 after having a miserable year the owners of the Cleveland Browns decided to work on the stadium. They installed: Massive, uniquely shaped video boards, Escalators that helped eliminate congestion and a cranked-up audio system The quote was they hoped these items "Improved the fan experience." The next year they added more concessions and better lighting. The cost over two years? $125 million Again they stated they wanted an "improved fan experience." The best way to improve the fan experience is to put a WINNING FOOTBALL TEAM TOGETHER. The last two years our combined record is 11-21. HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO PODCASTING? At the core of the stadium is the team. A team we come to root for, and a team we expect to win. When they win, the fans brave insane temperatures to pack the stadium in the winter. Everyone is talking about the game on Monday morning. When the team stinks, they don't. I don't care if I can take an escalator to my seat. If the team has no shot at winning, I'm not going. I'm not watching from home, and nobody is talking about it at work, because it is horrible. Well, we see people investing in a better microphone (when their original microphone was fine). They invest in a new theme for their website (that most of their audience never visits). They switch email list providers. They switch media hosting companies. They get a new player for their website. In a sense they are sprucing up the stadium of a losing team. They need to put a winning team on the field. They need to create content that will impact their audience. We need to focus on our audience, that leads to great content, and the finally we need to promote that content (and hopefully get our audience to promote it as well). How Do Sports Teams Get Better? They prepare. They watch film of both their opponent as well as watch tapes of their own games and look for mistakes they made to help avoid them. They Listen Good players are open to feedback. They listen to their coaches. They listen to their fellow players. They have a mindset of constant improvement. They might take a week off when the season is over, but then it is back to the gym to prepare for next season They Trade Players That Didn't Work When a player doesn't meet expectations (Johnny Manzel in my case) and you gave him a chance, you cut your losses. They Bring in A New Set of Eyes Tiger Woods has had numerous coaches over the years. The Browns hired a guy from BASEBALL who has a completely new perspective and strategy on choosing players. How Do Podcasters Get Better? They Prepare They Prepare. They think about what they want to say before they hit record. I am writing these notes way before I press record (it's the way I do it, and I find I get better content). They listen to other podcasts. Not to rip off the content, examine why a show works (and what they can learn from it) and what doesn't work (and how they can avoid it). Realize this is all...