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Rachel Brenke: “Here Are 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Very Successful Podcast”

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By Jason Hartman

Brand, brand, brand. Put yourself out there — no matter the topic. Podcasts are done with voice and people want connection.

part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a very successful podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rachel Brenke.

Rachel Brenke is the head attorney behind TheLawTog® — the legal resource for photographers, RachelBrenke.com, FitLegally®, and the host of The Business Bites Podcast®.

As an MBA, business consultant, multi-state licensed attorney, she knows the ins and outs of what goes into running a business AND how to legally protect yourself. Not only does Brenke have real world entrepreneurship experience, but she combines this with her intellectual property law and business knowledge to provide a one-stop resource to help protect your business.

Her resource is currently helping creative industry professionals all over the world initiate, strategize and implement strategic business and marketing plans through various mediums of consulting resources and legal direction.

With hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, TheLawTog.com has become the go-to legal resource in the industry. Pair this with the international stages that have held TheLawTog’s teachings, you’re sure to learn a lot from Brenke. Brenke’s experience and teachings have been featured on CreativeLIVE, WPPI, Professional Photographers of America, Business Insider, TedX, International Business Times, and more.

As a mother of five, Army Veteran spouse, Team USA Athlete, and IronMan competitor — she understands that life is busy, and we don’t have time to mess around.

Disclaimer: I am a lawyer but I’m not your lawyer! View my entire disclaimer here

Websites: https://rachelbrenke.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelBrenke2/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelbrenke/

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?

hen I was back in elementary, middle-school, I knew that I would never fit into a box. I was always giving my teachers suggestions on how they could do things better. As you can guess, it wasn’t very well-received. Fast forward a few years, I’m in college studying criminal law and married. We had our first son, and I realized that I didn’t want to work for someone else’s dreams and goals. At that point, I really dug into learning business. I got my MBA and then later went to law school. I was doing photography while in law school and realized the need for photography-related legal education. Eventually, TheLawTog® was born to help photographers with their legal needs and education.

Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?

Due to my exposure through podcasting and speaking my story was picked up by Ironman Tri and NBC Sports. I was invited to compete as a featured athlete in the 2018 Ironman World Championships and had cameras follow my whole journey.

Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaways you learned from that?

My biggest mistakes were spending time on things that didn’t’ require my fingers or time. I tried to be the best house cleaner and homemaker when it was taking away from my business time.

How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?

My first show kicked off in June 2016. Currently, we have 117 episodes with more scheduled!

What are the main takeaways, lessons or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?

My goal with each episode is to give quick bites of education with actionable steps that business owners can take now. I’m pretty transparent with mistakes I’ve made and lessons I’ve learned so hopefully they don’t have to learn the hard way.

In your opinion what makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or your content?

Most of my episodes are 15–20 minutes. I recognize that entrepreneurs are busy, so I want to give them valuable education as well as valuing their time. I own my own businesses, so the education I give is real-time and things I’m currently using myself. When we are vetting guests for the show, we look for people that fit our client avatar and have topics that they will relate to the best.

Doing something on a consistent basis is not easy. Podcasting every work-day, or even every week can be monotonous. What would you recommend to others about how to maintain discipline and consistency? What would you recommend to others about how to avoid burnout?

Don’t try to do everything on your own. Also, batch-processing is a life-saver. My team works towards finding guests or brainstorming topic ideas if I’m recording solo. They make sure to get the guest terms signed and guest assets turned in, and then I do the interviews. I try to record multiple episodes at a time, and I have set days every week that I schedule interviews on. Once the episodes are recorded, then my team works on getting them ready to post on the website and links and assets out to our guests. We try to have extra episodes ready to go because we all know that life happens…especially when we aren’t expecting it.

What resources do you get your inspiration for materials from?

I have a Facebook group for TheLawTog® where I get some of my topics. I just listen to what people are asking about and needing. When I see the same questions being posed over and over, then I will record an episode about that topic. I don’t just look at my group though. I pay attention to what is going on all through social media. Sometimes things come up in my own businesses that inspire topics as well.

Ok fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main questions of our discussion. Is there someone in the podcasting world who you think is a great model for how to run a really fantastic podcast?

One of my favorite podcast hosts is Amy Porterfield

What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful? If you could break that down into a blueprint, what would that blueprint look like?

Identifying your audience avatar and combining that with the unique selling proposition. The USP is not only the niche but the format of shows and platforms where the shows are delivered.

You are a very successful podcaster yourself. Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast? (Please share a story or example for each, if you can.)

  1. Identifying the target listener avatar — down to their specific demographics, characteristics, preferences and name
  2. Identifying a unique selling proposition — Identifiying aand putting out what makes you different than other similar podcasts
  3. Focusing on specific format — this goes along with the avatar — what is your avatar interested in? Solo? Interviews? Long form? Quick?
  4. Focusing on specific platform s- whereis your avatar? Spotify? Apple? Or prefer a native podcast player.
  5. Brand brand brand. Put yourself out there — no matter the topic. Podcasts are done with voice and people want connection.

Can you share some insight from your experience about the best ways to: 1) book great guests; 2) increase listeners; 3) produce it in a professional way; 4) encourage engagement; and 5) the best way to monetize it? (Please share a story or example for each, if you can.).

  1. Sometimes, we have people reach out to us about being on the show. We go to their websites and look at their blogs and social media. If we feel they may be a good fit, then we move on to the next steps. When we come across someone we want on the show, we reach out via email telling them why we would like for them to be on the show and why we think they would be a great fit for our audience.
  2. The podcast is hosted on multiple platforms including iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, etc. We also have it posted on our website with show notes and links to related episodes and other tools and resources that can further their education. The day the episode airs, we post episode graphics across our social media channels. If we had a guest, we provide them with a graphic to use as well.
  3. We have a defined workflow that we use to make sure we stay consistent from show to show. Each episode has its own board in Monday.com with each step of the workflow. This allows others to step in and fill in when necessary. We use email templates for different parts of the process, changing them up to personalize for each guest. By doing this, we ensure that steps aren’t forgotten.
  4. To encourage engagement, we link to the Business Bites Facebook group on every episode page. We post 3 times a week for each episode; each post also has a link back to the episode. Every episode also has a link to a downloadable guide available only to members of the FB group. Our 3 posts consist of a link to the episode with a blurb saying what it’s about, an engagement question relating to the topic, and we end the week with a quote from the show. Anytime someone comments, one of us is there to reply to try to keep the conversation going.
  5. We have just recently started taking sponsorships for our shows. I’m also an affiliate for Amazon and other businesses and will link different resources from there.

For someone looking to start their own podcast, which equipment would you recommend that they start with?

A computer and an internal microphone. Turn on quick time, throw a blanket over your head to reduce sound and done!

Ok. We are almost done. 🙂 Because of your position and work, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would want to impress on quality of life over business. No matter how much we love business — life is more important.

How can our readers follow you online? Instagram: @rachelbrenke @businessbitespod. Facebook: @rachelbrenke2 Website: https://rachelbrenke.com

By Jason Hartman

Sourced from Medium

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Knowable launches its ‘not a podcast’ $100 audio classes

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By Josh Constine

Books on tape were the lifeblood of self-help. But e-learning startups like Khan Academy and Coursera demanded our eyes, not just our ears. Then came podcasts that make knowledge accessible, yet rarely focus on you retaining and applying what they teach.

Today, a new startup called Knowable is launching to provide gaze-free audio education at $100 per eight-hour course on topics like how to launch a startup or how to sleep better. The idea is that by layering chapter summaries and eventually interactive activities atop premium, long-form, ad-free lessons, it can become the trusted name in learning anywhere. With always-in Bluetooth earbuds and smart speakers becoming ubiquitous, we can imbibe content in smaller chunks in new environments. Knowable wants to fill that time with self-improvement.

The big question is whether Knowable can differentiate its content from free alternatives and build a moat against copycats through savvy voice-responsive learning exercises so you don’t forget everything.

To evolve beyond the podcast, Knowable has raised a $3.75 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s partner Connie Chan, and joined by Upfront, First Round and Initialized. “The market is ready for a company like Knowable. Their timing is right and their team possesses the rare combination of product expertise and creative media experience necessary to win. That’s why I’m not just hosting Knowable’s first course, Launch a Startup, we’re also one of the earliest investors in the company,” says Initialized’s Alexis Ohanian.

There’s certainly a market opportunity, as 32% of Americans listen to podcasts monthly, up from 26% in 2018, with 74% of those citing the desire to learn. Half of Americans have listened to an audio book. The e-learning market is $190 billion today, but projected to grow to $300 billion as bloated and expensive higher education succumbs to cheaper and more focused options.

But to score consistent revenue, Knowable must build up its library and execute on plans to offer a subscription service with access to updates on prior lessons. A major challenge will be bundling classes on the right topics that don’t exhaust users so they keep listening and paying.

Building a school from sound

“My first-generation immigrant parents came here without college degrees. Great teachers let me move up the socioeconomic ladder pretty quickly,” says Knowable co-founder Warren Shaeffer. “The genesis of the idea came from our shared interest in education and the value of great teachers.”

Shaeffer and his co-founder Alex Benzer have already been through the struggles of startup life together. After meeting at MuckerLab in LA and splitting from their respective co-founders, in 2007 they created SocialEngine, a community website builder that sold to Room 214. Next they built up a video platform for independent creators called Vidme that raised $9 million but never became sustainable before selling to Giphy in 2018.

The pair had glimpsed how great content could rope in an audience, but felt like the true potential of the podcast hadn’t been explored. Why did they have to be produced on the cheap, distributed on generic platforms and supported by ads? Knowable emerged as a way to create luxury audio, delivered through a purpose-built app and paid for with direct sales or subscriptions. Instead of recording unscripted discussions as episodes, they mapped out course curriculum and filled them with structured advice from experts.

I’m a few hours into the Ohanian-hosted Launch a Startup. It’s certainly a lot more efficient than trying to learn the basics just through storytelling from podcasts like Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale or NPR’s How I Built This. One chapter breaks down the top ways startups die and the traits you’ll need to persevere. From optimism and resilience operating in unstructured environments to a refusal to make excuses why you can’t succeed, Ohanian cooly recaps the learnings at the end of the chapter. Open the app and you’ll get a written summary plus suggested blog posts and books for diving deeper. An accompanying 95-page PDF workbook collects all the key learnings for rapid review later.

The topic is huge, though, and Knowable is at its best when it’s distilling knowledge into neatly packaged lists and frameworks. The course’s weakest moments are when it feels most like a podcast, with somewhat meandering conversations with random founders discussing how they dealt with problems. Meanwhile, it currently lacks some basic tools like in-app notetaking and sharing, or as wide a range of playback speeds and rewind options as you’ll get on Audible. “We don’t think of ourselves as a podcast company,” Shaeffer says, but that’s still who he’s competing against.

What’s also missing is any true interactivity. The downside of audio learning is that if you’re not paying full attention, it’s easy to zone out. Knowable needs to develop voice and touch-controlled exercises to help users apply and retain the lessons. There are plans to launch learning communities where students can confer about the classes, akin to Y Combinator’s “Bookface” forum.

However, Shaeffer says that “we’re on a mission to make education more accessible and quizzes might be an impediment to that,” which leaves questions about what the learning activities will look like, even though they’re crucial to users coughing up $100 per class. It’s easy to imagine Spotify/Anchor, Gimlet Media or other major podcast players developing their own interactive features and classes if Knowable doesn’t get there first.

Snackable audio education

The startup’s bid for virality is the ability to give a friend a code to take the class with you. Knowable is also hoping big-name experts and quality driven by a team cobbled together from NPR, The Washington Post, William Morris Endeavor, Masterclass and Vice will set it apart. They’ve got a lot of work ahead to grow beyond the six courses currently available on topics like climate change activism and real estate, especially because there’s a 100% money-back guarantee if classes fall short.

 

For the moment, Knowable feels a bit late with its homework. It has the potential and demand to reinvent audio learning but currently sounds too similar to what’s already everywhere. I was hoping for a Bandersnatch for education that made a broadcast experience feel more like a game.

But the opportunity will only continue to grow as we spend more of our lives in earshot of AirPods and Echoes. With a broad enough library and clever editing, one day you might tell Knowable “teach me something about venture capital in eight minutes” as you walk to the coffee shop. That’s going to have a much better impact on your life than just scrolling through another feed.

AirPods and the rise of snackable audio

 

By Josh Constine

Sourced from TechCrunch

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‘Don’t read this poster. Listen to it’: The Guardian pushes its podcast to commuters

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By John McCarthy

The Guardian is promoting its daily news podcast, Today in Focus, with an unusual marketing campaign urging viewers not to read its ads.

A print and out of home (OOH) advertising push from the title and in-house creative agency group Oliver, saw ads reading ‘Don’t read this poster. Listen to it’ distributed from Monday (8 April).

The creative features text from Today in Focus episodes (one on climate change and another on Brexit) – all obscured by an unmissable call to action.

The ads are running in key spots on the London Underground, looking to drive podcast listens during the commute. The creative will also appear in print in The Guardian and on social media.

Kate Davies, head of brand and awareness at Guardian News and Media, said: “I am hugely proud of the concept behind this design, especially as it is one of the first times we have taken campaign creative for Today in Focus beyond our own Guardian channels. We know people often listen to podcasts when they are on the move, so this felt like a natural next step in reaching potential new listeners during their commute to work, while also providing an impactful design for use in print and on social”.

Sam Jacobs, creative director at Oliver said that the Tube was selected as the point of publicity for the campaign to “let tube commuters know that instead of staring at their social media or avoiding eye contact with the person opposite them they could listen in and discover the story behind the headlines”.

The podcast launched in 2018, led by presenter Anushka Asthana, who examines a major news story, drawing on the expertise of Guardian journalists and correspondents from around the world.

This comes after The Guardian announced its three-year pursuit of profitably had succeeded after turning around a deficit of £57m in 2016 to 2019 profit,

By John McCarthy

Sourced from The Drum

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Eight Tips For Creating A Non-Promotional Branded Podcast

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Sourced from Forbes

Many professionals spend their daily commutes and downtime listening to podcasts of their interests — from entertainment to industry-specific shows.

Capitalizing on this growing trend can be a great way to market your business. However, you don’t want your show to come across as too promotional. Below, eight Forbes Agency Council members explain how to stay on-brand while offering valuable content that keeps your audience craving more.

1. Make It Advice And Knowledge-Driven

The goal is not to say what you do. Just talk about what you know. The more you share your knowledge, the more you’ll get out of it. If you are simply talking about your services and how awesome you are, it will be seen as promotional instead of advice-driven. If you show that you know what you are talking about, it is worth so much more than self-promotion. – Jonathan Laberge, Reptile

2. Put Your Audience’s Interests First

Consider your target audience and deliver useful information. Make sure topics are relevant and timely. Be willing to give away some of your “secret sauce” in your podcast. Pushing your brand agenda should be a secondary goal. – Suzanne Rosnowski, Relevance International

3. Treat It As A Thought Leadership Activity

The purpose of your podcast should be to educate your audience — and that is it. Think of it as a thought leadership activity such as a panel discussion at an industry event, keynote or TED Talk. If youraudience is interested in what you have to say, they will begin following you. – Lisa Allocca, Red Javelin Communications

4. Tell Other People’s Stories

Our agency just launched a podcast dedicated to uncovering the ins and outs of the client and agency relationship dynamic. The key is to home in on the interesting stories of your guests. That’s why people listen. They don’t want to hear about the host, they want to learn more about the person on the other side of the mic. Uncover the gems that haven’t already been reported on. – Ashley Walters, Empower

5. Use The 80/20 Rule

Never forget your audience. Step back and think about what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them. You can even compare this to social media marketing. If you want to keep your consumers engaged, only 20% of your content should be directly promoting your company, while the other 80% should inform and entertain your audience. – Lisa Arledge Powell, MediaSource

6. Tell Parallel Stories That Tie Into Your Brand’s Mission

Build your brand promises into the podcast content. For instance, if your company’s primary cause — outside of selling what you sell — is the environment, tell stories related to conservation, energy efficiency, preserving wild areas, etc. You can reinforce what you’re about and what may make you more appealing to a large part of the audience without promoting your products. – Scott Greggory, MadAveGroup

7. Focus On The Problem You Solve

When targeting professionals, you need to learn how to sell without selling. You need to respect their level of intelligence and understand that they can quickly spot someone selling to them and will immediately tune out. Podcast about what problem you can solve or tell a story about how your product or service helped a customer. Make it relational and the good story will lead them to find you. – Amy Juers, Edge Legal Marketing

8. Fulfill A Universal Desire

Humans are motivated by four core desires: First, connect with each other. Second, provide structure. Third, leave a mark. Fourth, a yearn for paradise. Identify the desire your podcast can fulfill for listeners and build a persona that humanizes it for them. Show up consistently and feed your audience with content that offers insight and inspiration. – Katie Schibler Conn, KSA Marketing + Partnerships

Sourced from Forbes

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The IAB wants to make it easier to advertise on podcasts

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By Lisa Lacy

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its first IAB Podcast Playbook, a buyer’s guide to podcast advertising that provides insights into audience demographics, listener behaviors, creative treatments, ad formats, delivery, targeting and measurement.

The guide also features research that confirms the increasing popularity of podcasts as nearly 25% of US consumers over the age of 12 listen to podcasts on a monthly basis and, on average, each person subscribes to six podcasts per week.

Not surprisingly, the IAB found smartphones are the primary devices used for listening to podcasts and consumption is frequently on the move – particularly during commutes to and from work – but it noted consumers also frequently listen while doing chores at home, exercising and traveling.

In terms of audience demographics, the IAB found podcast listeners tend to be young – 44% are under 34 – and they are also are educated, wealthy and likely to be business influencers.

Advertisers have a variety of options on podcasts, including native and host-read ads, as well as dynamically inserted, standardized ad units. What’s more, the IAB said two-thirds of listeners cite high brand recall and nearly the same number say podcast ads inspired a purchase.

“Podcasts create an especially intimate space for listeners to engage with content because these listeners have made an active choice to download or stream,” said Harry Clark, co-chair of the IAB group that produced the guide and executive vice president at Market Enginuity, which says it connects marketers with the public media audience.

Recent IAB research forecasted podcast advertising revenue will top $220m in 2017, an 85% increase from $119m in 2016.

“This playbook will serve as a go-to reference guide to help brand marketers understand podcasts and effectively steer more ad dollars toward opportunities that will deliver in terms of audience reach,” said Anna Bager, senior vice president and general manager of mobile and video at the IAB, in a statement. “In an industry where explosive growth and dramatic change have been endemic, podcasts are having a standout moment. We want to educate marketers on the unique and valuable benefits of advertising on the medium.”

By Lisa Lacy

Sourced from THEDRUM

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