What I’m Working on (September 2023)

Podcast Workflows Podcast

First up is the Podcast Workflows podcast, finally. I’ve recorded 12 episodes — you should have one in your private feed right now, in fact.

I’m creating two types of episodes:

1. Short, daily tips
2. Longer deep dives based on the blog posts.

The first 10 daily tips are short, but they’ll get longer (more on that in a minute).

The deep dives are where I’ll spend most of my time. I’m recording, adding sound effects, and doing more than just a read of the episode — I’m making it more of a show with background music and sounds to add to the story.

I want to get 20 recorded before releasing it.

Recording has been going pretty smoothly, though I’ve had some issues with Descript’s templates and general editing there.

Still, I’m excited about the show and the direction it’s going in…as well as the ability to experiment with a daily podcast.

More Storytelling

I’ve been talking a lot more about storytelling lately — and on a live stream earlier this week, I as specifically asked about how to tell a good story.

This is definitely something I want to lean into more, so I’m working on a couple of resources.

One is a blog post on how to tell a good story. That should be coming out next week.

The other is an audit specifically for people guesting on podcasts. Among other things, I’d audit their interview to make sure they’re telling good stories, and work with them to come up with 2-3 stories to have ready.

This also means I want to get better at telling stories. So as part of Podcast Workflows, I’ll be writing a story for the shorter daily episodes.

This will be a bit of a challenge, but I’m up for it.

Direction of the Membership

Something I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about this week is the direction of the membership. I may have mentioned this before, but I definitely want to make it more focused on automation with respects to podcasting.

I think there will be a pretty generous margin for what I consider automation for podcasters, but I was feeling a bit stuck.

I’m also a member of Jay Clouse’s community, where he hosts fortnightly AMAs, so I posed the question: how do I reconcile the positioning of my two separate memberships?

Jay had some great insight: instead of trying to combine A & B, come up with a totally separate C that:

1. Isn’t tied to any deliverables (not yet)
2. Focuses on the story people who tell themselves sign up.

I thought this was fantastic advice, and drives home a lesson I’m constantly trying to internalize: sell the transformation, not the features.

So I have some thoughts on a whiteboard and I’m going to think about it more this weekend.

Naturally, as a current member, I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can respond directly to this email with:

1. What do you want to see more of?
2. What’s a problem you believe I’m uniquely positioned to solve?

That’s all!

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great weekend!