Thoughts

  • August 25, 2023

    Thinking About Podcast Process Audits

    I spent last weekend (Sat-Mon) in Scranton for an in-person mastermind with some friends and it was great.

    One of the exercises we did was a Customer Journey Map, where we mapped out a customer’s pain points.

    We’d get feedback, make sure we have the pain points right, and then come up with new products to address those pain points. It was really well done.

    I think the most helpful part for me (aside from actually seeing on paper I have a good understanding of my customer’s journey) was the feedback we got on those new products.

    It confirmed that I should have a Podcast Process Audit to go along with my Podcast Growth Audit.

    The process audit falls much more in line with my coaching services, and the places where I can help my customers most.

    So here’s what I’m thinking about, approaching this as a process.

    The main goal of the audit is to get podcasters to see their process written down.

    In my observations, many don’t. Instead they keep it in their head, or do it weekly so it’s always fresh.

    Because of that, I’d want a process that asks a lot of questions, eliciting answers that make the podcaster think about how they produce their show.

    So the first thing I might offer is a quiz that gives people some pre-written tips based on their answers. I’d design the quiz to ask lots of questions, like:

    1. Write down everything you do for your podcast
    2. What tools do you use?
    3. Do you feel like you spend a lot of time booking interviews?
    4. Do you have guests? Do you do any research?
    5. Do you edit your own show? What do you use?
    6. How do you record?
    7. Do you publish your own show?

    …and lots more. It would be ideal for them to spend 10-15 minutes really thinking about these answers to get the best results.

    As an aside, I’ll probably test this with members first, so stay tuned.

    I’d charge a nominal fee for this ($9-29) and they’d get a real asset to move forward.

    For some, that will be good enough. They likely already have an idea of where they can improve, and this asset (likely a PDF) will confirm for them the steps they need to talk.

    But there will be some where this only creates more questions — they now know where they need to improve, but they’re not sure how.

    This is where I’d offer async feedback like I do with my growth audit. I’d recommend they take the quiz if they haven’t (and give quiz takers a quiz-priced discount on the async feedback), then send them a Loom video where I offer personalized advice based on their results.

    The price of this would be more in-line with my growth audit, and provide a TON more value.

    Then, there will always be the option for a single live call, a bit higher than the async feedback, and including everything (quiz, loom video). The idea here is this would give the podcaster the opportunity to ask me specific questions and get immediate answers.

    From an implementation standpoint, there are lots of tools that likely allow for this. I have 2-3 quiz platforms I can try. The hardest part will be coming up with the right questions and testing this theory.

    I suspect I’ll probably post about it on social media soon, asking for some low-price beta testers. And of-course, you’ll have the opportunity to try the quiz for free.

    I’d love your feedback too! I’m trying to build in public more, and the content first and foremost goes to you — the members — as a benefit of your membership.

  • August 18, 2023

    Using AI to Generate a Podcast Promotion Schedule, then Importing it to Notion

    One of the forcing functions for me to try new and interesting things is the fact that I’m a LinkedIn Learning instructor.

    For example, I just finished writing the scripts for my next course all about generative AI for podcasters. We’re covering a wide range of use cases for podcasters to leverage AI to make their lives easier.

    Earlier this week, I wrote about using Chat GPT to create listener avatars. But yesterday, I did something incredibly cool using Chat-GPT and my former nemesis, Notion.

  • August 16, 2023

    Why Descript Buying SquadCast is Great for Podcasters

    Descript made a big splash on Tuesday by announcing they acquired the popular remote recording service, SquadCast.

    Something I couldn’t stop thinking about after Riverside, SquadCast’s biggest competitor, launched edit via transcripts is how it felt like they’re trying to eat Descript’s lunch.

    After all, Descript has made a name for itself as the easiest way to edit your podcast. Before that app, for most podcasters editing was a tedious fever dream of scrubbing wave files and hoping for the best.

    Then Descript came along and made editing audio as easy as editing a Google Doc.

    Brilliant.

    Riverside made its name as being an incredibly reliable, usually easy, way to record the highest-level quality audio possible…but they wanted to be a one stop shop.

    Meanwhile, it was starting to feel like Descript lost the thread. Studio Sound is a revelation, but then they redesigned the app to be more video focused. They started adding more AI features…like Eye Contact.

    What are they doing?

    So when they announced this acquisition yesterday, I was happy to see a great return to form.

    Descript + SquadCast looks like it’s going to be an incredible tool for podcasters to greatly improve their process. Record in SquadCast, automatically get those files in Descript, and use a familiar interface to edit AND publish…as seamlessly as possible.

    The best part is that SquadCast is included in Descript’s plans (at least for now). That makes it a very competitive, very compelling offer.

    Riverside is one of the few services I pay for annually, so I have until November.

    But I have a hard time seeing myself staying with Riverside. SquadCast being part of Descript effectively cuts my costs in half.

  • August 12, 2023

    Webinar Registrations: Simplifying Overcomplicated Automations

    Back in May, I shared with you how I decided to roll my own webinar registration software that allows me to “easily” integrate with ConvertKit, use Zoom Meetings, and more.

    Something else you should know about me: automating too much is my toxic trait.

    I think that it’s fun to see what I can automate in order to leverage the tools I already use, instead of adding another tool to my toolkit.

    But there’s a reason most webinar software is so expensive; there’s a lot to think about.

    As such, I’ve done a 180 on trying to roll my own webinar software. It’s too complicated and introduces a poor user experience for webinar registrants, many of whom are interacting with me for the first time.

    That’s why I’ve decided to use Luma.

    First, I want to give a shoutout to my friend Ren, who told me about Luma.

    I was skeptical at first — why add another tool — but then I saw it in action.

    It’s super simple, and has a very generous free plan.

    You sign up, connect your Zoom account, and create your event…that’s it!

    When you create the event, you have the option to associate it with an existing event, or create a new one.

    People who sign up will be automatically invited to the Zoom meeting.

    Amazing.

    You get your own page, as well as an embeddable form. Each page is just customizable enough.

    You can also set an attendee limit, which is cool…especially depending on your Zoom plan.

    One original blocker for me was that there’s no direct integration with ConvertKit, and the Zapier/API integration is part of the $60/mo plan.

    But then I realized…this is actually a gift.

    One of my biggest issues with my current webinar setup is making sure I consistently exclude webinar registrants from all other emails. If they weren’t on my list already, I want this webinar to be how they learn to know, like, and trust me.

    But I’d somehow mess that up…either they’d get too many emails, or I’d exclude too many people from a broadcast.

    It may be that they signed up for multiple forms and confused the automations/sequences.

    That problem doesn’t exist if they aren’t in my ESP. So now, after the webinar, I can import them (or have my VA import them) and add them to a custom sequence.

    And I’ll know that I’ll always have the option to automate this if I think Luma is worth paying for in the future.

    The other problem is that I’d have to remember to send reminder and follow-up emails.

    Luma handles that, and they are easy to copy from one event to another. Check one more thing off my list.

    I think this solution is probably the best in an evolution that saw my webinar registration process move from “I’ll just do it on YouTube” to “Zoom is the way to go.”

    I also want to make clear that it’s not about cheaping out on proper webinar software.

    But this is one of the areas where I can hold off and make sure the investment is worth it.

    So far, my webinars haven’t consistently been money generators for me. So I’m tweaking and experimenting without having to pay $50-100/mo.

    One of the big places I’m experiment is with my offer. I don’t think Podcast Mastery was the best play for my webinars (or even my main offering). But I think my podcast audits are a great candidate for webinar upsell.

    In other words, I think the experimenting is going to pay off very soon…I’ll keep you posted on that.

  • August 3, 2023

    A Moratorium on Business Books for 2023

    As I wrote this article, I was on vacation at the serene Bethany Beach in Delaware. My mind clear and thinking about big picture stuff as my kids napped, I thought about how I’m consuming content.

    In preparation for this trip, I made a decision: that I was going to stop reading business books for the rest of the year. Here’s the Tweet (Xeet?)

    Why?

    Well, they’re basically all I read. I’m pretty terrible at reading fiction books, and most of my non-fiction content I get from podcasts.

    But after my conversation with Tim Stoddart on the podcast, I felt I should expand my horizons a little.

    There are three other reasons:

    1. I’m kind of tired of stoping every few pages to highlight and take notes.
    2. Reading business books without taking action is wasted time.
    3. They are all starting to sound the same and as a result, they’re kind of unhelpful.

    Kind of like the scene in the Matrix where Neo realizes his powers and can see the very code making up the Matrix, after reading dozens of business books, it’s easy to see where they’re going.

    Plus, any homogenous reading defeats the purpose of reading: to introduce new ideas.

    Thankfully, my request for recommendations was fruitful and I have plenty to get through now.

    At the beach, I read Upgrade by Blake Crouch. I loved Recursion, and read both of them super quickly. I couldn’t put them down.

    Now I’m reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, then The General and the Genius — a story about Oppenheimer that was selected for a book club I’m a part of.

    I’m excited to see what kind of new ideas reading non-business books sparks; I’ve made a promise to not read anymore until at least January.

    What are you reading? Let me know!

  • July 31, 2023

    7 Years

    I got a little reminder from Transistor, my podcast host, this morning: How I Built It is 7 years old.

    Over the course of 6 weeks in 2016, several life-changing things happened to me:

    1. I got married on June 11th.
    2. We found out we were having our first child on July 10th.
    3. I launched How I Built It on July 27th.

    You might read this and wonder why I’m lumping in the launch of a podcast with marriage and fatherhood, and while I don’t think they’re equals, all 3 deniably changed my life.

    By launching How I Built It in July 2016, and I don’t think I’m being dramatic here, I changed the trajectory of my career.

    Sure, I started podcasts in the past, but this one felt different.

    Less than a year later, I’d quit my full time job with a 3 month old at home, bolstered by the initial success of the show.

    A year after that, I’d get the first piece of advice to focus on helping people podcast.

    Today, I’m no longer a full time web developer. I’m a podcast and automations coach.

    Podcasting has changed a lot in those 7 years. With the help of AI, better recording tools, and stiffer competition, the podcast space is more exciting than ever before.

    I’m grateful I bought an Italian domain in June (got the idea from my honeymoon), that I decided to start having conversations later than month, and actually went through launching the show.

    I’m also grateful for a supportive wife; I wouldn’t be where I am without her.

    The show is enjoying renewed success thanks to some experiments I’m working on that I’ll share with my members (another benefit of launching the show) soon.

    For now, I’m looking forward to the next 7 years.

  • July 20, 2023

    Why I Continue to Choose Airtable Over Notion

    I’ve been using Notion more thanks to a little in-person Mastermind I’m planning with friends; to be honest, it’s pretty nice.

    I don’t really know my way around Notion, but the co-organizer who set it up absolutely does, and it looks really fantastic. In fact, this is the closest I’ve come to wanting to use it more.

    That said, there’s a few reasons why I still continue to choose Airtable over Notion. Don’t worry though, my Notion-loving friends; stick around until the end and I’ll tell you how I can see myself using Notion.

  • July 6, 2023

    Some Quick Thoughts on Meta’s Threads

    At its core, a mostly tech-based social platform is child’s play for any competent developer…but the secret sauce is in people wanting to be there.

    It’s why Mastodon isn’t the heir-apparent to Twitter. That platform is too hard and siloed to figure out. And since it’s not algorithm-based, it feels even emptier.

    It’s why Bluesky isn’t good. That platform is a ghost town because of the Draconian invite system that was last effective for Gmail…a patently non-social platform.

    It’s why Clubhouse, Apple’s Ping, and Google+ ultimately failed.

    And it’s why I think if anything is going to replace Twitter1, it will be Threads.

    First, Threads is made by Meta/Instagram. If you’ll remember, they tried to buy Snapchat for $3BN. When Snapchat declined, Instagram rolled out Stories and more or less ended Snapchat’s meteoric rise to social media power.

    That also means they also have a TON of people…2 Billion I believe…who can easily join the platform, profile, followers and all. No invite needed…just an instagram account.

    They reached 2 million users in 2 hours. That’s the power of leveraging their current Instagram user base.

    Next, because it’s algorithm-based, it feels busy. Maybe a little too busy right now, but that will mellow out.

    But it definitely doesn’t feel like a ghost town, which means people want to be there.

    Finally, they timed it right. This was in the works for a while, but they launched after another tumultuous weekend for Twitter.

    Every time Elon does something stupid, people leave (or at least threaten to). Without a suitable replacement, many end up coming back. Threads feels like that suitable replacement.

    Expect them to iterate quickly. Threads already has some features Instagram users want, like clickable links. But I expect DMs (probably, sadly, through Messenger), hashtags, and a web-based interface to come soon.

    Are you on Threads? Give me a follow, @jcasabona

    1. BIG if. ?

  • June 30, 2023

    Building a Monthly Digest Engine

    Earlier this month I made two decisions about the newsletter that you may have noticed:

    1. I got rid of the “Quick Hits” section (which was mostly my own content) in favor of a 300-500 word section on some top of mind topic.
    2. I added a monthly digest of all the content I put out during the month, sent on the last weekday of the month,.

    The two are related. I still want a way to let my newsletter subscribers know about the content I’ve put out, in-case they missed it. But it also serves 2 other purposes:

    1. It allows me to promote the month’s podcast episodes one more time.
    2. The sponsors get one more mention in the newsletter each month.

    After putting it together manually, I knew there had to be a better way, so I built version one of a Monthly Digest Engine, designed to aggregate and format all of my links, which I can then add to ConvertKit.

    Here’s how I built it.

  • June 16, 2023

    My First Automation Didn’t Feel Like a Big Deal

    There are some events where we know the first time is a big deal.

    We know the first signed of the Declaration of Independence was John Hancock because the Second Continental Congress knew how important it was.

    We know Neil Armstrong was the first person to step foot on the moon, which he marked with the eternal words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

    There are other times where the events doesn’t seem huge, but is in retrospect.

    We don’t really know the text of the first email. It was some keyboard-mashed thing sent by a computer engineer in 1971.

    My automation journey seems like the latter (not that me automating is at all similar to any of the events listed here).

    When I created my first automation, I didn’t know how transformative automation would be for me.

    In fact, when I decided to put an appreciable amount of time into automation back in 2018, it was well after the first time I created an automation.

    I had automated parts of my home.

    I had auto-responders and automatic bill pay.

    I had notifications on my phone.

    And, since I’m a programmer, I wrote code that would do stuff for me.

    I’ve been automating in way, shape or form for 20 years.

    The point being this: automation doesn’t need to be a huge deal when you start (or at all).

    It’s about making your life easier…not more complicated.

    And it can be a slow burn.

    In-fact, this very post is the first step in a new automation I’m testing.

    Here’s how it’s going to work:

    I want there to be a place on my blog where members (that’s YOU) can read posts without having to log-in to my site.

    So my first step is going to be to look for specific information ConvertKit sends when you click on a link.

    One of those is your unique subscriber ID.

    Eventually, I will store that ID (thanks to Make.com), and you’ll have a completely password-less experience.

    But for now, I’m just going to check for the existence of the ID.

    One small step.