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Jan. 14, 2025
Mastering Podcasting with Traci DeForge: Consistency, Sponsorship, and Audience Engagement
Have you ever wondered how podcasters consistently release episodes while making money along the way? The secret isn’t just great content—it’s consistency.
A regular release schedule is the backbone of a successful podcast. It’s how creators build trust, grow their audience, and keep listeners coming back for more. Consistency not only strengthens your connection with your audience but also opens doors to sponsorships and monetization.
In our podcasting tech episode today, we chat with podcasting expert Tracy DeForge about the importance of consistency in podcasting, the value of integrating audio marketing, and effective strategies for monetization.
Tracy DeForge is the founder of Produce Your Podcast, a full-service podcast production company. With over two decades of experience in broadcast radio before transitioning to podcasting in 2015, Tracy brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. She’s also the host of multiple shows, including Growth Accelerator, Journey There, and Ask Brian Radio Show.
This episode is a must-listen if you want to master audience connection, unlock monetization potential, and understand the critical role consistency plays in building a successful podcast.
In this episode, we cover:
- Tracy shares her enthusiasm for Alanis Morissette's recently reactivated podcast, highlighting the significance of consistent episode releases. (3:15)
- Strategies for podcasters to reengage with their audience after a hiatus, akin to rekindling a relationship after "ghosting." (8:45)
- How to leverage your immediate network for podcast sponsorship and monetization. (15:30)
- Tracy talks about the enduring power of audio podcasts and the risks of video content overshadowing audio.
- Tips on how to integrate your podcast marketing organically across different platforms like newsletters, social media, and blogs. (28:00)
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
- Produce Your Podcast
- Tracy DeForge's podcasts:
Connect with Tracy on Linkedin
- Recommended software: Riverside -
http://www.riverside.fm/?via=mathew
**As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases of podcasting gear from Amazon.com. We also participate in affiliate programs with many of the software services mentioned on our website. If you purchase something through the links we provide, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The team at Podcasting Tech only recommends products and services that we would use ourselves and that we believe will provide value to our viewers and readers.**
For additional resources and insights visit podcastingtech.com or follow us on social media:
- Instagram: @mathewpassy
- LinkedIn - /mathewpassy
- Threads: @mathewpassy
- Twitter/X: @mathewpassy
- Facebook - /podcastingtech, /mathewpassy
PODCASTING TECH IS POWERED BY:
- Captivate - Easy, professional podcast hosting to create, grow and make money from your podcasts
- Podpage - Build a beautiful podcast website in 5 minutes
- Riverside.fm - Record Podcasts And Videos From Anywhere
- Castmagic - 10x Audio Content With AI
- Hostinger for Website
- Podgagement - Engage your audience and grow your podcast!
EQUIPMENT IN USE:
- Rodecaster Pro 1st Gen (No longer available). Consider the Rodecaster Duo or Rodecaster Pro II
- EV RE20 with 309a Shockmount
- Rode PSA1+
- iPhone continuity camera but previously the Logitech Brio 4k
- DCMEKA In-Ear Monitors
- BusyBox Smart Sign
Transcript
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Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy
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entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective
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solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance. I'm
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Matthew Passi, your host and a 15 year veteran in the podcasting space.
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We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and hardware that
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can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly for insightful
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interviews with tech creators, behind the scenes studio tours, and strategies for
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podcasting success. Head to podcastingtech.com to subscribe to
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this show on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform and join us on this
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exciting journey to unlock the full potential of your podcast.
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It's always nice when I get to connect with somebody I already know to do
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this podcast, and today is no exception. I am chatting with Tracy
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DeForge. She is the founder of produce your
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podcast with a ton of experience in broadcast and and executive
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management and more. We will have a lovely discussion about where the space of
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podcasting is and some thoughts on monetization. And, Tracy, thank you for joining me
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today. I am so happy to be here, Matthew. We were just talking off mic
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about how it's so fun that we're connected in so many other ways, but getting
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together on the podcast is sort of the natural thing, but neither one of us
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ever thought about doing it until now. So it's great. No. Right. It's the obvious
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thing to do. How do we overlook it? Exactly. Which is funny. You know,
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it's funny you say that when I was giving podcasting advice and I was doing
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audits, it it always felt like one of the big things that I was doing
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was telling people something that they already knew, and they would just be like, oh,
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duh. Of course. Why didn't I see that? Right? It's like right in front of
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my face, but, right, it takes somebody else to to kinda point it out to
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you. So I'm glad your team pointed this out to us and that we are
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getting together. So before we jump into what Produre
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podcast is and some of these other strategies, tell me, how did you find your
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way into the world of podcasting to begin with? Well, I fell in
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love with the platform of audio just actually really, really
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young. I loved radio. I used to
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I've shared this before, but I literally used to sleep with the radio underneath my
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pillow listening to AM transmitter or ghost
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stories. And when my friends would come over, we would I would have
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them make, radio shows. And my dad was the
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president of the March of Dimes when I was growing up, and the walkathons had
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live radio remotes. And so for me, it just was like a first
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love, first sight, scenario for me. And then I
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had the most amazing opportunity to work for over 2
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decades in broadcast radio professionally. But it wasn't
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until I was my own business owner and
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working and doing business business development strategy for Fortune 5
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100. There's a specific project I was working on with Weight Watchers
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International that was just it was a catalyst for
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me to want to start my own podcast. And at
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that point in time, I I looked around and there weren't
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really this again was 2015. There weren't a lot of full
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service production and marketing agencies at that time,
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if any, really, that that was totally done for you.
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And I think because I worked in radio for so long, a, I was spoiled
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and I wanted a broadcast quality show, and b, I knew exactly
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what kind of work that was gonna take. So I pulled a team together,
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of people that I had worked with in the industry, and we launched my first
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podcast in March of 2016. And
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swiftly after that, I just really
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realized how many been as business owners could really benefit from a
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full service podcast production support because I knew it it was gonna be
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just like social media and websites and ultimately people were gonna have a
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podcast for their business just like they had those other marketing vehicles. And I just
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wanted to be there to help be a catalyst for their podcasts.
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So with so much love for radio, experience in the
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broadcasting world, you, you know, make this transition over to broad,
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podcasting. You bring, you know, management expertise, all these
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different things. You know, one of the things that people love about podcasting is it's
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different from radio. Yes. But but
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there's a lot we can learn from the broadcasting and the radio world.
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What are some of the the key things that you brought from your
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expertise to podcasting that still apply today? I
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think for me, because my the majority
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of my broadcast radio experience was on the sales and
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management side, so that involved a lot
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of working with strategic partnerships and bigger brands and
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local businesses and really helping them build an audio brand
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for themselves and and really leverage radio
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in an in a way that was a business development tool. And
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so I think for me, having that level of
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expertise and how to work with the radio
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stations and the brands and the radio stations and the businesses was just
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such a natural transition for me on the audience
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growth and monetization side of podcasting because it
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a lot of the same formulas apply, a lot of the same
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strategies apply. But I also think what's so great
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is that, like, for me growing up, I mentioned how much I loved radio and
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I mean I was that girl who would call into the radio station and
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request like 2 out of 3, 8 bad for meatloaf and like I would
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listen for when they would play my song. Radio was such
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a as an aspirational place for me all
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through my youth high school college. And so when I actually had the
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opportunity to go work for radio, it was a big deal for me
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because it was so unattainable. And what I love
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about podcasting is that it's really made the platform
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of getting your voice out. It's made it so possible
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and it's made the technology now over the last 10 years has evolved so
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much that it's made it easier and more simple to get your
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voice out. So I think from a strategy and execution
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standpoint, my expertise really helped with businesses to help grow
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their businesses through podcasting. But I also just think in general,
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podcasting has given accessibility to a platform that was so
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unattainable in the past. So so many more people
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can have their voices heard and change conversations about things in their
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industry or things in their life. So that's why I truly love how
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the 2 have merged. When you are working with businesses and
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they're developing a podcast, what do you find are
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the strategies that help them reach more
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listeners with their podcast and then from
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there, turn that into useful conversions for their
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business? Yes. So there's kind of a for me, there's a 2
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pronged answer for that, and it's a carryover from your first question. So
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when we build shows for clients, we I fall back
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to the original radio clock, if you will. So
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we literally will and I use the language, the
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structured, unstructured podcast. And what we mean by that at Producer
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Podcast is that we will align a format for
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the host that how they're gonna open the show, how they're maybe they're
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gonna highlight industry insights if they're gonna do q and a
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interviews, integrating a special segment that has an
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opportunity for sponsorship and really showcase their expertise, how
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they utilize a music bed, professional open and close.
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So just that piece alone has been a really nice transitional
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piece of education and motivation for
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us to build shows that sound and feel and the
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listeners enjoy because it's edutainment. It's not
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an infomercial. And I think that's just really important to
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start with a quality product, especially if you're a business owner.
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You need your podcast to be as professional as your
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website, as your social media needs to be an audio brand
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extension of who you are in your own voice. And then the audience
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growth piece becomes a little more simple, not too much
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more, but a little bit more simple because everything is has that
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continuity when people experience your brand on the different platforms.
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They listen to your podcast, they watch it on YouTube, they go to your website.
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Everything has a nice continuous flow. So that builds the
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trustworthiness and the credibility factor. And then when you get
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into really specific growth tactics, I mean, we could talk all
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day about that, but there's, you know, consistency compounds over
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time. You've got to commit to a schedule that is gonna be attainable for
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you that you can not only just survive to maintain, but also
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thrive in. And because that consistency is so incredibly
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important for audience growth. And then looking at your
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marketing strategy and what are you doing organically, What
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are you doing to integrate your podcast in all the other areas that you're marketing?
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And then are you setting aside a specific budget to
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market your podcast maybe inside other podcasts that have
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similar audiences? So it's not a
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simple one size fits all, but there are
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certain pillars of this strategy that I just outlined that if all of those
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come together, then you're going to have organic
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and accelerated growth. Do you
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find that there are particular platforms,
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and I know this is gonna change for business to business, depending on what they
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rely on, what they use, and where they target stuff, but just in general,
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is there a platform that you think drives more direct
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listeners or subscribers to a podcast? Because, you know, we put out a
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ton of stuff on social media. We do email newsletters. We
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do podcast. And, right, like, there's lots of these growth
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hacks that are out there. Some of them have a lot of merit. Some of
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them work brilliantly. Some of them, you know, people trying to, they don't work
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all that well. Maybe it's for lots of different reasons, but, like,
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it's I find it's hard to go from
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brand recognition of a podcast to actual conversion of listening. And
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have you seen or found any trends that really show a
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better direct relationship with that with, you know, where you're putting the message
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versus where they're coming in and becoming new subscribers?
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Yes. So the the first answer to that, I'm gonna just pinpoint
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how you started out that it may be different for everyone. So at produce
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your podcast, we work primarily with business owners. So we are
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working with the brands and the businesses who want to
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leverage their podcast to basically increase their bottom
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line for visibility, for leads, and for sales. So the why
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for that and the end game for that is gonna have a different strategy than
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someone who is maybe doing a true comm or entertainment focus
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or a narrative storytelling focused podcast. Those are definitely
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2 different types of growth strategies. So we're gonna be
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focusing on the one that's gonna be really optimized
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for the businesses who wanna grow their business through their
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podcast. And in doing that, there's 2
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basically, there's 2 schools thoughts. And one is make sure those foundational
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pieces, like you said, are all buttoned up and
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have the podcast integrated into them. So that's the newsletter. That's
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your social media. That's how you have it presented on your website.
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That's your call to action in the show itself. That's a huge
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thing that a lot of times people get they overlook the call to
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action. I literally just did a podcast audit yesterday for
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a business owner who is very successful and has a very
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successful show. But the way they ended their show was, okay. Thanks.
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Bye. And then it and and one of their biggest
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objectives for doing the podcast audit was because they said that they
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weren't getting enough conversions from the podcast to their
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newsletter or from the podcast to their website. And that was just such
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a simple okay. But because you're not asking people to continue the
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conversation with you after the show, like highly engaged
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host, super powerful, guests,
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really great show, but zero call to action at the end.
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So you've gotta go through almost like a checklist of these foundational
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pieces first. And then you also have to have your mindset
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around your metrics to be appropriate because I
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think that what is going to be successful
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for a niche podcast or business focused podcast,
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those metrics are gonna be different than what you're expecting
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to hear out of a celebrity podcast or a
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Joe Rogan podcast or, again, the True Crime podcast. Those who have a
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wider audience and and achieve wider
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results, lots more downloads. But in business focused podcast, you
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don't need 1,000 and hundreds of thousands of downloads.
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If you are using the right call to action and the right strategy,
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you can convert quality over quantity. So
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that mindset around your metrics is really important. And then
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let's look at the platforms like you're asking. I personally
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am a huge advocate for leveraging
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other podcasts to promote your podcast because
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you are already reaching people who are, a, consuming content that they like
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on podcasts. Easy peasy.
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And then 2, they're already consuming content that's similar
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to the content that you're putting out. So it is the perfect
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place to introduce your podcast to
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this audience who's already listening to podcasts and listening to
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podcast content similar to yours. So it's a natural conversion to be
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like, oh, well, I'll definitely check out this show because
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I'm already meeting box 1, box 2, and now box 3.
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Yeah. I mean, I I couldn't agree more that one of the best ways to
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promote your show is to have it on other
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podcasts because at least you know there, the target audience
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knows how to listen to a podcast. If nothing else. Right? You put it a
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Facebook ad, you put it a Google ad, you put it anywhere else. It's like,
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I hope they know how to consume podcasts or I hope they do consume podcasts.
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In a podcast ad, we know they're listening to podcasts. That's
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how they're getting this information. So it's just And if if you are
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using those other platforms, I run across this a lot too. It's like,
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Instagram might be your marketing platform of choice for your business.
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Let's say you're an interior design business, for example.
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Podcasting can work really well for interior design businesses. We've
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been producing multiple different interior design firms for years,
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but Instagram doesn't necessarily grow your podcast audience because
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you can't link directly to the episode from the stories,
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from the reels, from the post. So you also wanna be
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mindful of being on a platform where your audience is
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engaging. Yes. But also being in marketing your podcast
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on a program or platform where they can link to the
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episode because we want everything so easy right now. Right? Like, we don't wanna have
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to go hunt for anything or search for anything. Even if we know how to
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listen to podcasts, we if you don't make it super simple
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easy, then you're gonna lose the opportunity for somebody to find your
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show. I couldn't agree with that more.
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So shifting just a little bit because I wanna make sure we we get on
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this topic of monetization. And, you know, for businesses, obviously, the
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big part of monetization isn't so much we're gonna directly
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build an audience and sell ads and make money that way. Right? It's
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usually, we have this podcast so that we can make money over here where
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we tend to make more money or, you know, we've been working on this for
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a long, long time, right, things are good. But you have an interesting
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series on other ways basically to monetize a podcast,
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and I'm curious what you think the future of that looks like for podcasters today
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who, you know, they're reading the headlines. They're reading people saying podcast is, you
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know, we were it's the bubble has burst. It's not as good as it should
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bubble. Wait. Like, all the doomsayers are out there. I I don't
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believe that, and I sense you don't believe that, and that the future is is
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pretty bright for podcasters who are taking this seriously. A 100%.
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And so monetization, again, it's not a cookie cutter one sauce fits
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all. And I think, what you're speaking to is
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we do a lot of coaching for podcasters in how to
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monetize their show, and we focus on a couple of things. First of all,
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the cost per 1,000 model, it does work. If you are in those
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higher tiers of listenership, 10,000 downloads of your
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podcast episode or more, then you're naturally gonna be able to make more
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money off of the cost per 1,000 model. But most
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podcasters fall into the 9,999
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or less or significantly less category. But
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that does not mean that they cannot monetize their podcast.
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You can start monetizing your podcast even in a prelaunch
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stage based on the network that you bring
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to your to your business, to your audience. And what I mean by
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that is very similar to how we started out this podcast when we were
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thinking, hey, we've known each other for years, but it never crossed our mind that
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we should actually, you know, get together on a podcast interview. I encourage
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people to think about their immediate network the same way when it comes to
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monetization. Most likely, again, as a business owner who's
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using their podcast to grow their business, you have vendor relationships
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that you've built over time that you've purchased from for years.
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You have clients that own their own businesses that know you like
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you trust, you know, that kind of work that you do. So they're going to
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believe that your product of the podcast that you put out is going to be
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similar to the quality of the work that you do in other areas. So you
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can start having conversations with people that you
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know that, you know, and there's a phrase that I use quite frequently and
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it's that most people over s
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underestimate the number of people they know. They underestimate the
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number of people they know, and they overestimate the number of people
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that know what they do. So if you really think about
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that, you underestimate the number of people you know. So if
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you really just sit down and think about, okay, who do I know that might
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be interested in being aligned with my podcast or my podcast content
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or who could benefit from being in front of my audience? Mighty
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quality of quantity audience. And then
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don't overestimate that people know what it is that
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you're doing or know what it is or know that you even have a podcast.
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So so many people just assume that
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everyone knows what they're doing and that they have a podcast and then they end
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up on the ball field or church or somewhere else and
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they find out that, oh, I I just launched a
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podcast last week and I'm like, really? Did you know that I do
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that for a living? Like, you know, it it can happen to anybody. So you
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have to you have to be very mindful of just really being able
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to acknowledge and put out to people what it is
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that you do so that they think of you either when they're
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ready to use a product or service similar to yours or they know somebody that
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they can refer you to. So that immediate warm network is
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incredibly important as you start the process of sponsorship and monetization.
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And then to your point, you're marketing your own products and services in your
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own show is often sort of a, like, duh moment
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because that's your oceanfront real estate. Your podcast is your
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oceanfront real estate. No one is gonna explain your products and
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services better than you're going to. You can bring in your own clients. You can
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bring in people that have worked with you, share their stories. You can share success
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stories through podcast interviews like we're doing right now.
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And your own products and services, you can get conversions
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that way. That is a monetization strategy. And then the 3rd
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piece is I'm gonna, again, circle back to what we were talking about.
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A lot of times people don't think about marketing their podcast on other
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podcast, but the piece that they really don't think about, which is what
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where we're finding a lot of success with our clients right now is
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invest in the ad strategy to grow your show
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and have it underwritten by your sponsors. So what
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very specifically how this works is that if you sell a sponsor into
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your show, they can access your audience vertically and
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the audience that you're already currently reaching. But if you
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supplement that with an audio ad spend strategy that you're
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getting in front of mirrored audiences that are consuming similar content,
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then they are likely gonna wanna do business with the sponsor that's interested in your
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audience. So include that sponsor in that ad
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strategy. So then you go to your brand and and this can
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work for local businesses up to, you know,
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household name brands. You're saying you're gonna reach my highly engaged
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audience vertically, and then we're gonna get this many impressions
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and this many plays of my podcast
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in an widespread mirrored audience that is
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listening to similar content. So you're gonna get a wide
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horizontal reach and a vertical reach. And once you can have those types
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of conversations, it's almost a no brainer because they get
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impressions. They get the whole language
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around cost per 1,000. They get the whole you know, that's where you can compete
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with digital marketing in a big way because you can bring the same language to
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them in those conversations. So we're getting a little bit in the weeds about it,
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but I really like talking about it because it's something that
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people aren't really necessarily connecting the dots on quite yet, and
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I feel like it's something that could really explode for people with smaller
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audiences to really be able to achieve bigger results. Well and so
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that was actually gonna be my next question, which is, you know, what we're talking
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about easy easier said than done when you're getting 5, 10,
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50000 downloads in an episode. What if you're a smaller show,
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very tight niche audience, you know, you're very specialized,
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your audience is engaged, but, you know, often we say
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podcast ads, and company
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first question is how many downloads do you get? And you're gonna be like,
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not enough. But but how do you turn that around? How do you make
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a smaller show work for you? Yes. So I think
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that's an excellent question. So much of that, again, has to
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do with your mindset around your metrics because how you feel about
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them is going to translate in the energy of what you bring in
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the conversation. So if you are in in and this is a
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100% the the types of audiences that we're working with, we're
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seeing sponsorship work successfully in, for example, of
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an a divorce attorney who's licensed to
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Minnesota and Wisconsin need you know, they're geographically
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restricted. They are a divorce, podcast.
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So they're already a niche audience of either you're going through 1, you know, somebody
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who's going through 1 or you're thinking about going through 1. And so
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that strategy, I mean, her downloads are 300 maybe or
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less on average. But the conversation that she has with
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the brands that have sponsored her show are
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it is a smaller audience, but the quality of the audience
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that I'm reaching is exactly who you need to be
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talking to. So you're not just doing a ricochet
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sporadic approach to your marketing. You're getting, you know, every
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single episode you're getting in front of people who need
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your services or and we're and that can be anything from
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travel to weight loss to, recovery
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programs like you have to think about what are the services that your
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audience needs when they're going through a divorce and how can those businesses
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support them. The same with a podcast that we produce called Bury Nation,
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which is very specific to people who are having
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gastric bypass surgery or they are considering
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having gastric bypass surgery. They're very
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specific nutrition drinks, protein bars,
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how they travel changes, their wardrobe changes,
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even psychology, the mindset around food changes. And
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so that's a very niche audience, but they're able
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to connect with brands who wanna reach that very specific audience.
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And then they also have a community so they can convert people from their podcast
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into their community and monetize it that way. So I'm I'm one of
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those people that's like, yeah. Don't talk to me about small audiences
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that don't work. Talk to me about how smart small audiences
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can work. And, yes, it's a more difficult
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conversation to a cold outreach. And this is
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why we encourage you to start having these conversations with brands
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that you already know that and already know of you. And then
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you hit that bull's eye target in the center with your warm
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network and then go out from there. But it's a 100%
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possible and probable to get sponsors
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for 1500 downloads or less. I mean,
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literally, we specialize in it, and we've seen it happen successfully over and
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over. But you've gotta really be comfortable having
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the conversation, and that can be done through you can gather
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your own social proof. How how are people acting on your podcast?
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Do you do podcast surveys? Are you getting
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comments on your social media that you can screenshot? You
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know, what are your reviews like on your show? Like, there are ways that you
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can show transformation of your audience from your
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podcast, even starting by marketing your own products and
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services and track your own data that way. And then have
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that as a case study story as you're talking to other advertisers. This
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is all as we are starting a new year here, this is some great advice
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to think about how to approach your show, how to, you know, really
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hit your revenue milestones in 2025 is
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to think about your show differently, put more credence to all the, you know, all
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the specific things that you're doing, put more into, you know,
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all the extra places that your podcast touches people,
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not just right directly in the earbuds, you know, coming through Apple
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Podcasts or Spotify or something like that. So, love these
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thoughts and and hope more people, get a chance to act on them. As a
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reminder, we're chatting with Tracy DeForge. She's the founder of Producer
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Podcast. She's a consultant. She does a ton of other stuff. She hosts
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Growth Accelerator podcast, Journey There, and Ask Brian
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Radio Show. Is that right? Yeah. It's a live radio show that's based out of
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Los Angeles. It's repurposed as a podcast. It's probably, you
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know, I'm a little bit of a shoemaker with no shoes when it comes to
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my end podcast sometimes. But even that's one of the things I started produce
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your podcast so that I wouldn't put my own shows. But what I
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didn't because I'm so focused on our clients. Right? And I was doing
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business development strategies strategy at that time, and I was like, okay. I need
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a team because if left to my own devices, I know I'm gonna put my
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clients first. And so I need a team to hold me accountable. And then I
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started a podcast production company and all my clients have podcasts. So
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it so I I I have challenges,
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people. I'm not going to lie, but a live radio show keeps you accountable
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because you have to show up every week for that show, and we repurpose
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that as a podcast. But, so thank you for that.
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But, yes, produce your podcast.com is by far the best way. You can check out
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all of those and, and some of the examples of some of the
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sponsorship integrations that we're talking about today. That's one of the things I love about
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our portfolio page. You can go hit some of these shows and you can hear
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how the sponsors are integrated into them or you we have some great blogs
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and on sponsorship and monetization that dig a little deeper into what I was
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talking about today. But I, you know, I just encourage people to start where
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they are with it because, you know, I come from a background of broadcast
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radio sales. It sounds really easy for me to sit here and say,
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oh, all you need to do is this. All you need to do is that.
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I get it that if you're a financial adviser or you're
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an interior designer or you're a coach or you're a consultant, this doesn't come
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naturally to you. But talking to people that you already know that
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you're already doing business with does come naturally for you. So all you have
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to do is just pivot that conversation around. Hey. Have you ever
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considered wanting to be involved with my podcast and just start
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the conversation from there and build on that
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because that really truly is the easiest way. And think
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about all of the other touch points you
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can give your audience through your news I mean, to your sponsor, to
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your audience. So you like you said, newsletter, social media, blog
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post, website, show notes, like, you can feature them in all of
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these other areas. So all of a sudden that conversation isn't just about how many
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downloads you have. It's I have this engaged audience plus all these
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other touch points you'll be included in, and then they're like, hey.
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Sign me up. Great. That's all they want is access to
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people. So if you can just provide them as much access to people as you
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can, then you're doing your job. Well, as a reminder, we'll have all those links
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here in the show notes, but produce your podcast.com is the best place to, you
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know, find Tracy and all the the great things that she is working on. Before
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we let you go, couple of questions we'd like to ask everybody who appears on
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the show. First one is, is there a place in podcasting
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where you would like to see improvement, whether it's from
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content creation, distribution, consumption? Is there just something that's
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annoying at you about podcasting that you'd like to see fixed? I
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don't know if this is something that's fixable, but what I would love
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to see is people not diminish their
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perception around the power of audio podcasts.
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Yes. There's a place for video. Yes. There's a place for audio.
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Audio is very strong. Theater of the mind is
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amazing. The ability to connect with people in a portable
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medium to get around screen fatigue
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to all of the things like the 2024 was the year of
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conversation around video, and then it became video podcast.
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And then it became, oh, you have an audio podcast?
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So, you know, I I'm often thrown a
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temper tantrum saying I did not launch
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and grow produce your video podcast. I built produce
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your podcast, and the power of audio
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from early radio days preceded television.
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You know, audio podcast preceded the term video
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podcast. Like, audio podcasts are still
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incredibly powerful, so I just don't want that perception to be
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shifted, changed, or diminished just because
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YouTube plays strongly in the video
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space now. Yeah. I mean, I I think I listen. I I
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agree. Video is obviously an important
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video is very popular. It's popular on all the platforms. Right? We we prioritize
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video in our lives. We see it everywhere we go. If you can do
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video, if you could put out video, it can only help you, right, reach
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more people, find more people, but I'm not convinced that
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just because more people are consuming podcasts on
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YouTube, that more people are actually watching podcasts.
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Right? Pod the the joy of podcasting is it's
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one of the mediums that you can really absorb, be
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entertained, laugh. Right? Like, you can feel all those things while still
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doing something else. And with video, that becomes a lot harder. So I agree
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with you. Produce video, use it to your advantage, but
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don't don't forget the audio audience. Don't forget the people who listen
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while they're driving, while they're working, while they're working out, doing dishes, running,
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whatever. Like, don't lose that focus. You
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know, audio conversations have been around 1000 of
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years and will be around 1000 of years in the future even when even when
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the RSS feed and YouTube go away. Yeah. You know, and a piggyback to that
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because you're asking, like, what what would be one thing you would change. So this
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you can change right now if you're a podcaster. If you were recording a
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podcast, if you're creating content for audio and for video,
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please do not forget that your audio audience cannot see
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what it is that you're talking about. So be very mindful
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if you I I use this very specific example we're recording
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right now in video. You can see the back of my wall. The back of
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my wall, for those of you listening, are multiple different
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examples of cover arts of pod casters that we produce, shows that we
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produce. Awesome. By the way, it's a great wall. Thank you so much. But if
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you had just said, hey, Chacey, that's a great wall. And I said, thanks,
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Matthew. I appreciate it. Then the person listening would not
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be able to feel included or part of our conversation. So we're
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automatically dismissing and and alienating them.
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Where if you said, hey, Tracy, tell me about that wall. It's pretty
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cool. And then I said, thanks, Matthew. It's a it's a wall full
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of shows that we produce over the years. Then the person listening
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can visualize that in their own mind, and they don't feel like they just got
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kicked out of a conversation. And I think if you're a podcaster,
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if you don't take anything else away from this conversation today,
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be mindful of your listening audience when you're recording video.
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And I would also stress, you know, there are lots of shows that, you know,
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they talk about something they saw on social media or things like that, and you
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can't really embed images into your podcast post, but you can embed
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links. So go ahead and say, oh, you know, I saw that
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post on Instagram. There is a link to it in our show notes so that
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somebody listening can go quickly click it, see it, and then be a
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better part of the conversation. So love that advice. And, yes, I I
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would encourage people who are listening, go look for a clip of Tracy. I'm sure
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we're gonna post plenty of them, and check out her wall behind her. It's very
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cool, especially if you're a production company or clients are lots of
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podcasts. It's a great way to design your, office. Is there
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any tech on your wish list, like, hardware,
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software, something either that's out there that you just haven't quite, you know,
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pulled the trigger on or something that's yet to be invented that would make your
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life better, easier, or more enjoyable?
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Wow.
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God, that's such a that's a question that stumps me a little bit because
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I love to adopt new technology. Like, I'm I love I
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like to be I like to experiment with the new
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stuff. But I think I think where I am as a
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business and right now, I feel like we have really good
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podcasting tech and engineering, tech in our business.
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So my focus right now is I'm just gonna answer this of where I am.
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I'm really, really looking
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at support technology for lead generation, for
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business development, for, you know, I love our
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we already have an amazing project management software that we use, and I
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feel really confident about our engineering technology. So what
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I'm exploring right now and really looking at are things that make
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lead generation, cold outreach, things that
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are are good aggregators as business development tools
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for us to grow our own business. So I don't know that that's
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really necessarily a fair podcasting tech question,
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but I do really feel strongly that that's an important part of business
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is to be able to establish your systems
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around lead generation and outreach and how you're growing your business outside
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of your podcast. So that's really that's our 2025, that's what we're really
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focused on for next year. Love it. Alright. And last
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thing, is there a podcast or 2 that are your absolute favorites to
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listen to, the ones that regardless of what else you're listening to, whatever you're
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doing, they drop a new episode, you're going to listen to it.
Speaker:
You're not gonna expect this answer because no one will probably.
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But this is such also a good example of why you should never,
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if you can help it, not pod fade. And if you do, just
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acknowledge it and come back. So one of my all time
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favorite podcast for years has been Alana's Morsetz's
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podcast. Now I'm huge into
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music and I worked in, as we know, in the industry for years, but her
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podcast is actually not about her music.
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It's about her personal growth journey, her journey as a workaholic,
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her, issues around hers, you know,
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really getting a lot she interviews a lot of really great
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people around the personal growth side of things. But
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she hadn't released an episode in, I wanna say, like, 4
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years. And it was about 6 months ago,
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it popped up in my feed that she had a new episode. So
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that's what triggered the memory when you said, like, what's the podcast? When it pops
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up in your feed, you're like, stop everything and listen. I literally
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was like, what am I doing right now? I lost my I had
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to send her episode out. And I posted about it because
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she had been gone so long without releasing 1, and then she released
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1. And I was like a kid in a candy store, could not wait to
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listen to it. And sadly, she only just released the one, and I was like,
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I thought she was gonna be back in her groove. So
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my lesson and takeaway for this with people listening is, like, your audience loves
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you, and they love when you they hear from you. And don't disappoint
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them. Like, figure out a way to have a sustainable
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release schedule and stick to it even if it's once a month,
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once a quarter, you know, probably more frequently than that.
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But just really be mindful that you're building a relationship. And so if
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you ghost them with your podcast, you're gonna be disappointing them. And then
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when you reach out and do the text and
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reengage with them like you would if you had ghosted somebody and reengage
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with them, then they're excited to hear from you. Don't do it again. Well, even
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though it's technically a coincidence, I'm just gonna say, isn't it ironic?
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We have a chatty with Tracy DeForge, founder of Proteus Your Podcast. Learn
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more at produce your podcast.com, and we'll have links to that and all the other
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things that she's working on in the show notes, Tracy. Thank you for joining me
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today. Thank you, Matthew. It was so fun. Thanks for
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joining us today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to all the
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hardware and software that help power our guest content and
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podcasting tech available in the show notes and on our website at
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podcastingtech.com. You can also subscribe to the show on your
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favorite platform, connect with us on social media, and even leave a rating and review
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while you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on Podcasting
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Tech.