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Intro: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of How I Built It, the podcast that asks, “How did you build that?” Today’s episode is going to be a little different – it’s just me, talking about all the great stuff I learned while I was at Podcast Movement.

One of the takeaways was around this – I’m going to start experimenting more. If you like these types of shows, please let me know!

Before we get into the takeaways, I also wanted to let you know about a new workbook I’ve created for launching your own podcast. It will help you determine your topic and format, and includes episode worksheets, checklists, and more. If you’ve been thinking about launching your own podcast, this free resource will be super helpful. You can get it at howibuilt.it/liftoff/

Alright – now before we get on with the show, here’s a word from Ahoy!, one of the show’s sponsors.

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Alright – let’s get to it. So if you don’t know, Podcast Movement is a giant podcast conference and expo where 3,000 attendees come from all over the world to talk podcasting. It’s 4 days of events, talks, and networking opportunities. If you’re never, been, I recommend it!

Goals

Now, before heading to the conference, I wrote down some goals I wanted to accomplish while attending. Some of them were networking related – connect with other attendees, promote my courses and videos, and things like that.

But other goals were things I specifically wanted to learn, and questions I needed to get answers to. From that perspective, I think Podcast Movement was a raging success. There were 5 major takeaways I got from the conference.

Value Converts

The first is value converts. Between the Patreon workshop I attended and some of the talks I went to – particularly with Pat Flynn – a common theme was to provide value to whoever you’re talking to.

This could be the audience you’re trying to build through free opt-ins, people you’re trying to convert into members or patrons, or even other podcast and show hosts where you want to be a guest.

People are pretty keen to just being sold to, and you definitely don’t want to do that if you’re trying to build a long-term relationship. You’re not a traveling sales person just trying to make a buck. You’re trying to build a business. So you need to show people that you’re business provides value.

Offer Quick Wins

One of the best ways you can provide value is by offering quick wins to your audience. This is something Pat Flynn talked about a lot in his sessions. How can you provide an immediate win for people reading your content?

What I try to do with this show is boil the conversation down to a few takeaways and some immediate action that you, the listener, can take.

When it comes to my own experience, The content I consume the most revolves around how quickly I could apply what I’ve learned. If I can listen to a podcast and then immediately do something to improve my work, I’ll be a fan for life!

Be Active with Your Audience

Engagement with a podcast audience can be difficult because it seems like a one-way street. But it’s not! There are lots of ways you can connect with your audience – Twitter, Facebook, and forums are 3 great avenues I’ve seen used.

It’s also important to get personal – know them and connect with them. One of my quickest wins from Pat’s talk is that I started to use Bonjoro. It’s a free app that let’s you send personalized videos to your audience. Now one someone buys one of my courses or signed up for my mailing list, they get a video from me. I know this will help me connect with my audience more.

Another great piece of advice is to highlight people in your community. If I know one of my students is working on something cool, it would be worthwhile to have them on the show and talk about their work!

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Be Where Your Audience Is

In order to be active with your audience, you need to be where they are. Here’s a great example: I never wanted to put my show on YouTube because I didn’t feel it added value. But if I have a large portion of my audience who prefers to listen to YouTube videos (or Facebook videos), then I should be there!

Similarly, if my students are using Facebook already, that’s where I should build the community.

The important idea here is that you shouldn’t go where you want to go. You should go where your audience is.

Promise What You’re Willing to do

Finally, when you’re working with your community, don’t just promise what sounds good – if you’re going to promise something, make sure it’s something you’re willing to do.

Perhaps a better way to put this is, “Don’t make more work for yourself.”

Here’s a great example: when I first launched my Patreon, I promised a bunch of extras I thought would be good, but when no one came to pledge (except for a couple of people), I wasn’t motivated to deliver on those promises. One of the things I did at Podcast Movement was revamp my benefits to make them more in line with work I can deliver on.

That means that I’ll be able to deliver on those benefits, whether I have 1 or 1000 patrons.

Implementing these Lessons

Now that I’m back in the office I’m excited to start implementing these lessons – and I’ve already started!

Just to recap, they are:

1. Create value because that converts
2. Offer quick wins
3. Be active with your audience
4. Go where your audience hangs out
5. Only promise what you’re willing to deliver

With that, we’re at the end of this episode! If you liked it, please let me know – I have more like this planned.

For the transcript and show notes, head over to howibuilt.it/135/

Thanks to our sponsors, Ahoy! and Pantheon. If you want a free workbook on launching your own podcast, head over to howibuilt.it/liftoff/

And until next time, get out there and build something!