The 4 Cs of a Standout Podcast: Clarity, Contrast, Consistency, Character

When Macaulay Culkin went on the Ellen show to promote his podcast, he described it as me and my buddy talking about stuff and stuff. And that right there is why most podcasts don't stand out. You see, Jay Acunzo has a great podcast. It's called why they Resonate.And we don't just want to be a podcast, as Jay says, we want to be someone's favorite podcast. So in this episode, I. I want you to walk away with a clear one sentence, what is it? Line for your show.I also want you to have ideas to tweak your name and description so they actually stand out. And a simple way to collect personal stories AI can't copy. Hit it, ladies.

The school of podcasting with Dave Jackson.

Podcasting since 2005. I'm your award winning hall of fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson. Thank you. Thanking you so much for tuning in.If you're new to the show, this is where we help you plan, launch and grow your show. Today, we're kind of leaning in to grow because we're going to be talking about your content.The show is brought to you by the schoolofpodcasting.com and podpage.com I'll be talking about those in just a second. But right now, let's get into standing out. That is the theme of this. I want you to stand out. So it's simple.There are a couple different ways that you can do this. One is clarity. This is where you don't pull a McCulkin.When somebody asks you about your show, you have a way to describe it that makes them want to listen to it. There's contrast. That's a clear way that you're different from other shows. There's consistency.That's something that you need to deliver on the promises you make. And then there's your character, and that's your stories and your quirks and things that AI can't steal from you, at least not yet.So we're going to walk through these as we go through. It's the four Cs. Okay. And the first C, Clarity, is from the book Save the Cat. It's an actual book about screenwriting that I'm listening to.It's by Blake Snyder. And this is another great example of word of mouth. I heard so many people talk about this book. I was like, all right, I gotta check it out.But in it, the author talks about the what is it? Test. And I guess I should explain the save the cat thing first. I'll give you an example. There's A movie where Al Pacino is playing a cop.They've set up a sting operation, and they have all these criminals who think they're going to meet the New York Yankees, the famous baseball team. And this one guy gets there late, and he's bringing his son.And so this apparently, you know, Al Pacino is a guy you're not going to like because he just, you know, faked out all these people to. To arrest them. And this guy shows up, and because he brought his son, he flashes his badge and. And says, hey, we're full up.And when the criminal sees the badge, he's like, okay, thanks so much, and takes his son and leaves. So he saved the cat, he did something nice so that you don't hate him.It's an interesting book, but the clarity part is he mentions if you can't explain your movie. So in our case, we'll say podcast in one sentence. You don't have a movie, and so we need to keep that in mind. So just a couple quick examples here.A shark terrorizes a beach town. We all know that is Jaws. Here's one. A lawyer can't lie for 24 hours. That's the movie Liar Liar, starring Jim Carrey. Very funny movie.He says, you know the movie from one clear sentence. And when you think about it, your podcast should be that way, too. So if somebody describes it, they go, oh, that's that podcast.And instead, we have a lot of shows that are like, well, the host interviews entrepreneurs about their journey and their struggles on their way to success. Okay, what show is that? That could be about 50 different shows.I know there are over 20 shows that have the same exact name, which is thinking outside the box. To which I want to go. You do realize that you didn't think outside the box, But I'm going to play an example here of Macaulay Culkin.I played this in the last episode. This is from the Ellen Show. But this is just going to help us see how this is not the way to get people to go, oh, man, I want to hear about that.

So you have this podcast that you're doing.

Yes, Bunny Ears.

Bunny Ears. What is Bunny Ears? And what? So think about this. You got one shot to convince people to come and listen to your show. And this is how he answers.

Oh, gosh. I mean, it is me and my buddy Matt Cohen.

So first things first. Do you know who Matt Cohen is? I surely do not, but Macaulay does. But that doesn't mean anything to us,.

And we kind of just talk about things and stuff. And stuff.

Now that is not a good way to describe your show. He continues on, but it doesn't get much better.

And we do. Sometimes we have guests. We do a lot of them.It'll be a theme about firsts, like just firsts, like anythings or conspiracy theories or sometimes we just shoot the breeze.

So does it sound like he's putting a lot of work into this? From my point of view, we're just gonna turn on the mics and talk and see what happens. Doesn't really instill confidence in me.

We got some really great guests. We've had. Seth Green and Breckin Meyer were on together, which was great.

That's great.

And that was all she asked about it because that was a horrible pitch to come listen to my podcast. You got to be ready to explain what your podcast is in a way that people want to listen to it. Now, in this case, he has the celebrity card.So the fact that it's Macaulay Culkin, the little kid from Home Alone who's now grown up, because it's his show, he will get me to click on it once.But if the content's not any good, many celebrities have found out just being a celebrity will get you the first click, but you've got to have great content to get the second. So I made up some examples.I was thinking about this, and one might be it's stories of small town mayors fixing big city problems that might be interesting if you're interested in politics or if it was something like podcasting. Right? Like this show, Practical Podcasting Tips for Busy Solo Creators. So there you've niched down even more who don't want the fluff. I had someone.We started our Podcasting in six Weeks course at the School of Podcasting, where we meet once a week to go through the steps of launching a podcast. And I was honored to have someone who said, man, I've been listening to your show for years.And so I said, well, you know, I'm going to ask you now, why do you listen? And they said, well, they always learn something and that I am somewhat entertaining. And they said, and there's no fluff. You don't.You get right to the point. And I've never had somebody say, you know, I like your show, but man, you get to the point too quick. I've never had anybody say that.What you need to do, if you want to pause right now, you can. What is the one line you go to some sort of podcast event. Somebody goes, hey, what brings you to the show.And you're like, well, I'm here to do this and that. And they go, do you have a podcast? And you say, yes. And they go, oh, what's your podcast about? How do you explain it?And please don't say, oh, you know, it's about stuff and stuff. You have to have a clear, concise explanation of your show that you're ready to say. And by that, I mean, you might have even practiced it.Ready to go?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now we get to the hard one, the second C. Contrast. And this is. How is your show different than anybody else's? I typed in business stories into Apple Podcasts. There were a bunch of podcasts.And I looked at one and it was something like, we unearth a great business story that's been thoroughly researched, and there were new episodes every Wednesday. I don't really care when it comes out, for the record. And I hope it's thoroughly researched. As opposed to what? Well, we kind of did a quick Google.We asked chatgpt and thought we'd share it with you. That's kind of weird. Now, there's nothing quote, wrong with that, but they could be described like dozens of shows. If I said, oh, it's a.It's a business show where we interview entrepreneurs about their story. You know, it's. It's me and my buddy, we do movie reviews. Okay, how. How is that different? What are you doing that's different? And if your description.And this is where this is hard. If your description could be swapped with someone else's and nobody notices, you don't have contrast.And according again to the book Save the Cat, you need this. And that can be very hard. There are things that make shows different. My favorite, like I said, is coming up with a name that stands out for me.A good show name is filled with your keywords. So I've told this story before. A guy was going to do a show called after the Darkness.And I always say, go ask people you know or people you don't know. I'm doing a show called after the Darkness. What do you think it's about? And somebody said, vampires.Another person said, said, isn't that a band from the 90s? And I said, what's your show about? And he goes, life After Blindness.And I go, that is the name of your show, because people are going to be typing blind and blindness and things like that. And then you have your whole tagline. But There are easily 20 shows named Thinking Outside the Box, and that is just not thinking outside the Box.So I always say, you know, I'm launching a show called Blank. What do you think it's about? And if their answer doesn't match your content, it's not doing its job.Now, this show is called the School of Podcasting. Now, technically, you look it up in Apple. It's the School of Podcasting Tips and Tricks for Podcast Success.It's got a tagline, and if you go with a cute name, which is not a good idea because remember, they have to find you before they consume your content. I'm going to say that again. They have to find you because it's one of the things like, oh, no, everybody knows that this means this.And you're like, not until you explain it. So if you've got to explain your name, you picked a bad one. So keep that in mind.And when it comes to the name of your show, search in Google and search in podcast apps to go, hey, is anyone else using this? Now, if somebody is, that may not be the end of the world. Go in and see when was the last time they put out an episode?Because my guess is it's probably 20, somewhere between 2020 and 2021. And if they have, you can reach out to them.You know, you have to do a little work here and track down their website and such and ask them if they're interested in letting you either take over or buy the show. Now, in many cases, you'll get no reply, but it's worth a shot because, well, they've got the name you're looking for.The other thing you can do to make you stand out is listen to the active shows with similar names. And then this is homework that I assign at the School of Podcasting.Write down what you like about this show and write down what you don't like about that show and see if you can do a show differently. Even if it's something you're like, oh, I like the way they do that. Well, don't rip them off.But you can use that as inspiration and maybe tweak it a bit. So it's not a direct rip off.But I thought it was interesting that this person who had heard my show said, I like the fact that you get right to the point. So I could go in and use that as part of my description in the show because it resonated with her.And in this case, she is the kind of person that I'm trying to attract because, well, she's listening. So you can say who it's for and like the one I just read above it was something about solo entrepreneurs as opposed to just entrepreneurs.You can say who it's for, you can say how it's different. So while other shows do this or that, ours is different. I've got an example coming up in just a second.And then promise what they will get in every episode. Now, I don't know about you, but the word promise has a lot of weight in my world, in my heart.If I say I promise I will do it, that means I'm going to do it. Because a man is only as good as his word. And I kind of believe that.And so I heard a show on the POD News week of review and they played a little promo of another show that's a great example of we're not like other shows. So I'm going to play this and kind of comment over it.

There are so many podcasts about podcasting, how to start, how to grow, how to monetize. No other podcast brings you the conversation with podcast networks like this one.

So Greg has pointed out the obvious. There are a lot of podcasts about podcasting. Check out podcastaboutpodcasting.com and then points out his is different.

Networks come in all shapes and sizes. They start from all different ways.From someone not liking how things were being done so they crafted their own network, to someone who started in the media world and understood content to niches or broad networks. This podcast is filled with hot takes and blueprints digging into the conversations that I normally am having off the mic.

So there's the promise of what you're going to get when you tune into the show.

I'm Greg Wasserman. I've run podcast listening platforms. I've run a podcast content platform.I'm currently the head of relationships for the podcast hosting company RSS.com and so.

Greg has just answered the question, why should we listen to you? Greg? Well, he just said why?

I believe life is about time. Relationships. It's through my relationships that I get to bring you this unique perspective of podcast networks.I've talked to so many podcasters who've been upset with their network experience. I've also talked to plenty who love their network. If you're a podcaster, should you join a network? What should you consider?Since I work in the industry, I get to bring you names of people and networks you may never have heard of.

So there's unique content. And also he's helping to solve the problem, which is, should I join a network or not? Well, his show is unique in discussing.

That if you're a Network operator or you work in the podcast industry like myself, you'll walk away with ideas how others are operating their business. Tune in weekly and get ready to learn about podcast networks.

And so I subscribed to that show just from that promo. Why? Because it didn't sound like every other podcast about podcasting, which I'm already subscribed to and many times last about three minutes.Before I go, yeah, I've heard this before. It's nothing new. Greg has a topic that I haven't heard anybody really discuss much.I did a couple episodes on starting a network, but Greg's is all about that, and Greg is. It makes so much sense that Greg is doing this. Greg is a networking machine. He's one of those guys that knows everybody. He's a great guy.He's always looking to. In fact, here's an example. He's always looking to grow his network. And I was kind of scratching my head going, that's not what I would recommend.But again, I always say it's your show. When you go to that podcast and you click on let's go to their website, it's Greg's LinkedIn. So talk about thinking outside the box. Yeah.Not only does he have content that's outside the box of your typical podcast about podcasting, but the website is his LinkedIn. Because Greg knows his why he wants to grow his network. And so there are two ways to describe your show. One is, what do you do?Or you could say, this is what we don't do. Because depending on your audience, one of those might resonate more than another.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right. The next C is consistency. And this is where your title. Your title is the key one here. Your artwork, your description.You are promising something to your audience, and the content has to deliver that. I don't bought you, but I run into this a lot on YouTube, where I'll see a title. I got the thumbnail. I. I click on it, and instantly.I just watched one the other day where they were talking about the comedian Bill Maher, which is spelled M A H E R. And of course, the AI Voice called it Bill Maher. And I was like, look, come on. But I was, you know, whatever, a minute and a half in.So they did not deliver on their promise because it was, look, if you don't have time to say it, why do I have to take time to hear it? So that's, you know, stay consistent in your quality. So many people think consistency is about schedule.And yes, that's important because you come, you Become part of someone's routine. And I've had one guy I never will forget. He said, dave, you're with me every Monday on the way to the feed store. All right, well, that's.You know, I listen to podcasting 2.0 every Friday night when I'm grocery shopping. You become part of the routine, and do not overlook that. That is huge. That is huge.And so the reason I consistently listen to them is because they consistently don't break their promise and they deliver great information. Because I don't care if you're air every Wednesday. If your show is awful, I'm not going to be listening to it every Wednesday.I'm going to find somebody who delivers value. But I thought about it and I was like, well, wait a minute, let's look at some shows. Like, how do they stand out?And so, of course, you know, we're what, almost 30 minutes into a podcast here. So we have to say Joe Rogan. But remember, you right now, listening are not Joe Rogan, because I'm pretty sure Joe just doesn't listen to this show.But you're not Joe Rogan. So don't try to be Joe Rogan. Be you. Be you. And so Joe is a very curious guy.And one of the things I notice about his show is for anyone under, like, 30, it used to be if you and somebody else had a difference of opinion, you would have what was called a dialogue. And where they would voice their opinion and say, I think government should be big enough to help those who are having a hard time.And then the other person would say, I think government should be small and people should pick themselves up by the bootstrap. And at no point did somebody go, that's it. You're dead. You know, and that was, you know, pitchforks and torches and things like that.No, you can actually just voice your opinion. And that's kind of why I think people listen to Joe Rogan, because he allows people to view opinions, even if it's not entirely accurate.Just so you kind of go, hmm, I never thought about that. That's one of the reasons.Now, for the record, I have listened to less than 10 episodes of Joe Rogan, and every time I do, I go, you know, that could have been an amazing episode if they just cut out about 30 to 40 minutes of it. I do wish that, but I think that's Joe being Joe. And I have another example I'm going to play here. I love his YouTube channel.Tom Buck is a great guy. He has great content. But Tom just likes Bad puns. I don't know, it's almost dad humor.But here is Tom introducing a review of some sort of podcast gear. But listen to what he does with this.

Everything you're going to see and hear in this video is being recorded right here through the OC Ghost Stream duet 8 ISO. And I so excited to go see if the OC duet can do it all. I'm very sorry about all of that.

I'm trying to get Tom to come on the show. I think he's amazing. But another great thing I believe that makes different shows stand out and it could just be what you cover.So, for example, Pod News and Pod News Weekly Review. I love the Pod News Weekly Review with James and Sam. They have a great chemistry and.But they cover things from a global perspective, which means there are times that they're talking about countries that being a. A, a product of the American school system I probably couldn't point to on a map, but it's nonetheless to get a different.Again, it's information I can't get anyplace else. And your show is your show. You can do whatever you want. So I've been really trying to do an Akron, Ohio podcast. That's where I live.And in that show, I do not talk about sports. Why? Because I don't care about sports. The closest big city is Cleveland, Ohio, and we call our football stadium the Factory of Sadness. So.But we focus on politics, what's going on with schools, because there's always some drama going on with the Akron public schools and different events, calendars, and just ways people can benefit from living in Akron, Ohio. So you don't have to cover what everyone else covers.Commit to your version of the show that you can consistently deliver without basically hating your life. All right, next up, we're going to talk about character. And this is you.And one of the things that AI, to the best of my knowledge, does not have yet is personal stories. Because I always say anytime you can make a point with a personal story, they're gold. And then people are like, what do you mean by that? And I'll.I'll tell you. I'm going to tell a quick story here, which is always weird because it's like, enough about me. What do you think about me?But nonetheless, I'm gonna tell a quick story here. And in the show notes, I will have a link to. Matthew Dix has an exercise called Homework for Life. And I try to practice this.If you're on an Apple, there's Apple Journal. Now I use a Thing called day one. This could be Apple Notes. It could be whatever's on an Android. But you have stories.You're just not writing them down. So let me tell you a quick story.Look, I am in my 60s now, and that is painful to say, but, man, in my 20s and 30s, I would get up and ride 20 to 30 miles on my bike. So on this particular night, I got about six miles and was kind of the kind of moon, But I saw a sign for Brandywine Falls.It's this lovely waterfall. I've seen pictures of it, but I've never got to see it in person. And I thought, huh, let's go see the falls.And the interesting thing was, I was tired. I was ready to turn around. But by turning right and getting a new goal now, the goal was not I want to ride 15 miles.The goal was, I want to see Brandywine Falls. I somehow got a little more juice in my step. I wasn't quite as tired.But I also noticed that the path, which was normally, I don't know, six feet wide, was now more like four, maybe two. It was very, very narrow. It was muddy. There were roots from trees and rocks, and it no longer looked like a bike path.And I really had to pay attention to my surroundings because some of these turns were super tight. And eventually I hit stairs and had to start carrying my bike. And it's all muddy. It's just awful.And that's when I had the realization, you know, this isn't a bike path. And later, I discovered that I was about three minutes from the falls. If I kept on walking, I could have got there.But I did go back the next day, found the proper route, and just walked to the falls. But that's just a quick story, right? And I've really cut that up. But here's the thing.There are clear lessons in here that you could use when you're trying to make a point. So one was I went from exhausted to let's go see the falls, and suddenly add more gas in my tank.So the lesson there is, by changing your goal, you can change your energy, you can change your enthusiasm. You can find more passion. So instead of focusing on downloads, what if you instead focused on completion percentage or newsletter signups?You could have different goals, and that might put a little pep in your step. So keep that in mind. Change your goal, and you can actually find new energy. Now, the other thing, another quick lesson there.I had to pay attention to the ride, not just the destination. So, sure, I was going towards Brandywine Falls, but If I didn't pay attention, there was, like, this tall grass and all sorts of other things.And so the lesson here is for podcasters, don't just look at your stats, look at your skills, look at your network. You know, all these people now look at how confident you are on a microphone.Sometimes we get so focused on downloads, we don't see our current surroundings and how they're changing. This is where I'm like, enjoy the ride. It's there. And then the other lesson is that, you know what? Sometimes you're on the wrong path.I always love this when I see people on Facebook and they go, I've been doing this for, you know, six weeks, and I don't seem to be going. And nobody's. I can't even get my cousins to listen. And somebody will reply, just keep going. Which I get.But we don't know if they're headed in the right direction. If you're supposed to be going north, and you go, I don't seem to be getting any closer to the north. And you look at them and it goes.Because you're pointed south. Looking at that person and saying, just keep going is not really helpful. Keep that in mind. Here's another quick story, and I'll keep this quick.My oldest great nephew. So for those of you that, like, great. It's like having a grandkid, but it's your brother's grandkid, but makes him your great nephew.Carry the one, Divide by pie. It's a whole family tree thing. But my great nephew is graduating, and I remember him as this super tiny. Like, he was so fast in football.They would just hand him the ball and nobody could catch him. And he's graduating, and I was like, wait, he was really good in baseball as well. And I saw him on Facebook, and I saw.You know, I saw him a couple times in person, but I had 18 years to watch that kid play sports. And I'm like, I missed a lot. And so what's the lesson there? The fact that our calendars reveal our priorities.And so as much as I want to go, I want to be the best uncle ever. Apparently, I kind of suck in the uncle, you know, world.And so if your show matters to you, you know, make time to create stories and experiences worth talking about, you know, now this does mean. And I know this is crazy talk. Get out of the chair, go touch some grass, go to a concert, go whatever.Live a life that you can pull stories from, because maybe the reason you don't have any stories is you're just stuck in your basement doing whatever, playing video games. And there may be stories there, but probably not as many as if you were out and about now. You just heard two stories.Those happened, by the way, in less than two weeks. I had stories that I could, if I needed to, make an example of having your priorities straight or being on the right path or whatever.And I mentioned it before, homework for life is something that I learned about from Matthew Dix of the book Storyworthy. If you want to learn how to tell stories, I cannot underline bold. Lots of exclamation points. Buy the book Storyworthy.I have read no less than nine books on storytelling, and I'm here to tell you that is the best one. And all you do is at the end of the day you just ask yourself what happened today that might be a story? And then all you do is write one sentence.Because when you read that one sentence, your brain is going to go, oh, I remember that now. You can use whatever you want. I use a tool called Note Joy because it's on my phone, it's on my app, it's on my tablet, it's everywhere.But you could use Apple Notes if you're on a Mac, whatever app is on a Android, you could go, I do a lot of voice to text. I use this thing called Whisper Flow and if you're a person that's like, oh, it's time for a tangent, hold.

On to, for crying out loud, here comes another 10 second tangent. 10 Seconds indeed. Such absolute rubbish.

If you're a person that hunts and pecks when you type, I have found and been using Whisper Flow and you basically hit a couple keyboard shortcuts. This thing pops up, you talk for as long as you want and then when you hit Stop it. It puts in type and in some cases cleans up your talk.It's an amazing tool and making a newsletter used to cost me a lot of time to do. And Whisper Flow, it's just a text to speech. I'm sure there are other ones, but that's the one that I really like.

Ugh, finally back to the show.

But you have things that happen and you also have things that you do that are just you like, I don't know, ten second tangents. Look, I've never been diagnosed, but I'm pretty sure I've got a lot of letters. ADHD plus maybe something like that.They used to just call me hyperactive when I was little. And then later when I got jobs, they called me creative and often stuck me in the Marketing department. But I take tangents. And so what do I do?I make fun of it. I could edit it out, but I don't know. I wanted to talk about whisper flow, so I have tangents. You know, I.Somebody it was thought it was great that I now have a I hate Spotify jingle that I made. Why did I do that? Because I thought it would be funny and it made me giggle. And if it makes me giggle, it might make you giggle.So don't shy away from being yourself. I mentioned I think Joe Rogan is really just being Joe Rogan. We could throw out a bunch in here.Daniel J. Lewis, if you think about it, is if we look at just podcasts about podcasting, Daniel J. Lewis, in my opinion, is known for being extremely detailed. Like, if you want a deep dive. And I know I now sound like I'm AI, but if you want a deep dive, spoiler alert, it's Daniel J. Lewis. Is.Is the guy to go to if I wanted to learn about podcasting for business. I was on a show with Jeff. He does a show called Podcasting Momentum. How is it different? It's about using podcasting to grow your business.Just another example of me, because I only know me, but I do a thing. And it wasn't planned. It was just me being a teacher and wanted to make sure that you got the main point.I interrupt my own interviews to go, did you hear what they just said? And I heard somebody go, oh, somebody else did that. And they go, oh, they're doing a Dave Jackson.So is there something that you do that only you do that? That's your thing. Find your thing, whatever it is, because that's gonna make you unique. And again, it might make you someone's favorite podcast.Now you might be thinking, hey, Dave, I'm doing this exercise and it appears that I'm doing a show exactly like somebody else again. Look to see if they're still active, and if it is, that's fine. Are you having fun doing it?Because that might be a show that you then network with and maybe you swap promos and maybe you do shout outs and things of that nature. Because just because they're doing a show like yours doesn't mean they have to be your dire enemy. And you will die. Pistols at dawn.I say ho, ho, pip, pip and stuff. When I started this, the show Ask the podcast coach, the thing that made it different was we were live. We're still doing it. Whatever.10, 11 Years later. We will take your calls live on the show every Saturday at 10:30 Eastern. That was like our thing that made us different.Mark And Fred and Dr. And the whole gang over at Podcast Morning show, their live podcast show. Well, is that a copycat? No, because they do it five days a week. No, thank you. Don't want to do a daily show. But that's what makes them different.They're for the person.If you want to show up and maybe you're getting ready for work, you go over at 8 o', clock, turn on Podcast Morning show, and while you're drying your hair, they're talking about how bad Spotify is. This might be a future question of the month where I, like, give me a unique show. And how is it unique?But as we start to kind of turn the corner here, if you have a tagline, what, like, what's your one sentence? What is it? So if I came to you and say, tell me about your podcast, what's your one sentence answer to that?If you need help with that, of course, come join me at the school of Podcasting. We can help with that. We help shows stand out and make sure they're. They're not looking silly and they sound professional and things like that.But remember, we don't just want to be a podcast. To use Jay Akunzo's line. Again, I don't want to take credit for this, but I love the line. We want to be someone's favorite podcast.So get clear, be different, deliver on your promise, and lean into your humanity, lean into your stories. That's how you stand out in a.

World full of, you know, things and stuff and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There is one show I really want to talk about that is huge, and that is hot ones on YouTube.This is where just a journalist is interviewing what used to be B list and now is A list celebrities while they eat progressively hotter chicken wings. And I guess these are insanely hot. And he was doing a commencement speech, and here's what he said about this.

Here's the thing about Hot Ones, that I think is worth saying it out loud because it took me a while to understand it myself. What you see on screen, the wings, the sweating, the celebrities cursing me out after eating Blair's Mega Death Sauce with Liquid Rage.That's really only 5% of the job. The other 95% is preparation, reading, watching, listening. If I'm interviewing Ariana Grande, her music becomes the soundtrack of my life for a week.If Matthew McConaughey is coming in the studio, I'm ending every night with a double feature. And if Shaquille o' Neal is coming into the studio. I'm watching every documentary and highlight reel on YouTube.If a job is defined by what you do the most. I'm not an interviewer. I'm a student. And the reason I'm standing here today, I honestly believe this is because I never stopped being one.

I could be wrong, but I don't think Sean is sitting in front of a laptop asking chat GPT for questions, because if you listen to his interviews, he has done the work, and that's what most people don't do. And you will hear time and time again, people go, man, that's a good question. Wow. I haven't talked about that in years.All right, I just did some research. If you. I will put links to these. But there are volumes of Sean Evans asking people. And then the celebrity goes, man, you guys did your research.And in one, he's talking with Dave Grohl, the lead singer of the Foo Fighters, and he kind of turns the question back around on Dave, and. And Dave's like, oh, man. And you hear Sean go, hey, I read your book.He does the work that creates amazing content that makes people share it and talk about it. Mark Roble or Rober, we talked about him last week. He said, nobody. You don't share a video that you didn't watch to the end.And to be remarkable, you have to do something to, you know, remark at. And I will put a link in the show notes to Mark and his Squirrel Olympics if you want to see what makes people share stuff. That was.He mentioned last week, the. The fact that when there's a, you know, a porch bomb and people get covered in glitter and farts and then the squirrel thing.Those are things that the first time I saw them, I had to share them. I ran to my brother and was like, dude, you got to check this out. It's crazy. So if you really want to grow your audience, look at being unique.Look at creating content that's so good that people can't help but share it with a friend. And that great content comes from doing the work. Like Sean Evans.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The school of podcasting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

One thing I know I'm going to do. This episode prompted me to go read my own description in Apple Podcast. And I went, oh, yeah, we got to change that.And one of the things you might do is take the comments from your audience, and when they say things like, dave, I like your show because you get right to the stuff. Well, then put that in your description. Are you Looking for a show with less chit chat and more meat on the bone.Check out school of podcasting, where, you know, whatever, 20 years or 30 years or 800 years of helping people understand technology. Dave Jackson. Blah blah, blah. But I know that we all do our best to come up with a description. Maybe that'll be next week's show.But we come up with a description and a year and a half later we're like, ugh, I'm not going to use that. So I'm just here to tell you that's, that's what I did. I went, okay, I got to change that.But if you need help with any of this stuff, you know where to find me. Schoolofpodcasting.com use the coupon code Listener. That's L I S T E N E R when you sign up for either a monthly or quarterly or yearly subscription.And that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you're a little worried about it, day 29, you're like, Dave, this is harder than it looked. Yeah, we'll give you your money back.So that's just some of your heart, your homework. Check your description and make sure you're ready to answer the question. So what's your podcast about?In a way that makes them want to listen to it and for the love of God, point them at your website. I said that before I worked at PodPage, but I'm still hearing people say, just find me wherever you find your podcast.And I'm like, no, because search in Spotify and many other apps is not great, but I am. Dave Jackson. I've been doing this for 20 plus years and I can't wait to see what we're gonna do together. Until next week. Take care. God bless.Class is dismiss. So I did something different on this episode.And this is because last week's episode, it might be the very first one out of a thousand thirty whatever that I actually re record. Why? Because I had good content and the organization of it got a little sloppy. And I made the same point multiple times and was like.And so today what I did was again, I had done a lot of research on this and I last night recorded it, exported it, transcribed it, and I put it into I think OTTER in this case, which is a transcription service that has a backend that has chat GPT. And I said, how could I make this better? What am I missing? And it organized it. I didn't really want so much like what am I missing?But I was open to suggestions and it just organized it a little better now, of course, I added tangents and I davified it a bit, but it did come up with some structure, like the four C's. That wasn't me. And when I looked at, I'm like, well, I said that that's a better way of saying it.And so that might be something where I have podcast hot seat.com, which is where I will listen to your show and give you feedback. Maybe I'm out of a job because I got decent feedback.All of it wasn't great for the record because again, a robot doesn't have feelings, but it was interesting that it helped me organize it in a way. So again, I didn't have it write it for me. I said, here's what I have. Help me make it better.And it, in my opinion, was a little more organized and it flowed a little better. So hence behind the show. And since you're still here, I haven't done this in a while. I'm using a Rode Podmic USB into the Rodecaster duo.I'm recording with Hindenburg and this show is hosted on Captivate fm. Now class is dismissed.