You Can’t Please Everyone: The Double-Edged Sword of Professionalism

If I started playing football today, I know that I would wake

up tomorrow bruised. And I'm here to let you know if you start a

podcast today, you might wake up tomorrow a little

bruised. Welcome to your podcast

consultant. Small lessons with big value.

With more than a decade of experience and millions of

downloads, this hall of fame podcaster is a

featured speaker, author and mentor to

thousands. Now he wants to work with you.

He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

When I was growing up, I worked in a grocery store and when

I would go on break, I would go to the

magazine section and there were a couple magazines, Hit

Parader and Cream, that followed the hard rock

scene. And I'm also a guitar player and one of my favorite

guitar players was a guy named Randy Rhodes who was in a band called

Quiet Riot before joining Ozzy Osbourne. So I

was way into Quiet Riot way before they

became hugely popular in, I believe it was

1983, something like that. And what was interesting

is most musicians or most music

lovers love a band when they are theirs.

They're small, they're scrappy, they're trying to get the big record

deal and then they get the big record deal and you kind of

celebrate that, hey, my team won. And then if

they keep getting bigger and bigger, you lose that

audience that liked you when you were small. And I'm here to say

it is the same in podcasting. So you

can't win in some ways and you have to be okay

for this. I'll give you an example that my buddy

Jim Harrell does the paranormal podcast. He is a pretty

much a one man band, really good at it, been doing it for 20 years

and he's the king of paranormal podcasts. Way before, you know,

all the true crime stuff came out, he was talking about spooky stuff.

And so Jim used to work at radio stations. I think he has some experience

with tv. And so he slowly started building up

his studio and he added video and

people loved his show and he started adding more and more spooky things.

He invested in some better lighting and, and I've been in Jim's

studio. It's really impressive. There was only one problem.

According to some people, it looks too good.

He got a comment once like, oh, I wanted to listen to this show,

but I'm looking for an independent show. This one looks too

professional. So most of the time

we're doing our best to sound and look professional. And

then when we do, we people go, yeah, you're too

professional. I am watching a video right now

from two YouTubers who are really

popular. And they talk about this, how people were

like, hey, I thought I was kind of coming in

for a really local restaurant,

only to find out it's a chain. It's called Colin and

Samir. They have a video called this was a Hard Year. And

they read some of their comments and they're brutal. There are people

that are just like, f you guys. Why would I watch a

failing YouTube channel? Talk about how to build a YouTube

channel. And so I say this not to make you

afraid to start your podcast. I will

say people on YouTube are much,

much more brutal than if you're just doing an audio podcast. So

if you're worried about that, start with audio first. That's always my advice

anyway. It's easier, it's cheaper, and it's faster. But if you want to do

YouTube, do YouTube. But just realize the trolls over there

can be a little harsh. And so

I just want to get your mindset ready because we do. We

want to compete in the big leagues and we want to look and

sound professional. And we spend all this money, we spend all this time. And

if you're doing YouTube, you will obsess over your background. That's the thing.

Thing. Not maybe not. Mm, mm. You will obsess

over your background. It's just. I don't know why that is, but we all

do that. And so we finally get it just the way we want and realize

you're like, perfect, man. I look just like I'm, you know, I could be like

the local news. And some people are not gonna like that.

So I say that to go, Some people may not like it when you look

too independent. Some people may actually like you because they're

like, oh, I can identify with this person because they look like me. And then

as you get a little more and a little more, some people are like, oh,

this looks. This guy's taking it really serious and wow, she looks really good.

Yada ya. And then eventually it just. The problem is

you will have some people that like you and some people

won't, and you have to be okay with that. I

got an early start on that. When I was growing up, my family was not

rich by any means. And there were times when I was wearing hand me downs

for my brother and things like that. And I just came to a spot when

I was like, you know what, you either going to like me

or you're not. And if you don't want to like me, don't like me. This

is who I am. This is what I am. At this point

and you know, go take a hike, go jump in a

lake. And you have to kind of have that attitude

now when it comes to accepting

feedback. I always listen to that with an open mind.

First of all, is this person my target audience? Because that has a lot to

do with am I going to listen to their comments? And then,

okay, yeah, it sounds like this person is my target audience. Do they have

a point? Maybe they're saying, dave, you do this all the time. And

I go, do I do that? And then you go back and you listen to

a couple episodes and you go, holy cow, I do that all the time.

And then you can change accordingly. To me,

feedback is the meal of success

because it's the people that ignore that feedback when it's valid from people

that you care about. They're giving you the opportunity

to change for the better. For me, I

have been to restaurants where you just ate a meal

that was, you know, meh, all right, well, it was better

than a frozen box dinner, which isn't really saying much.

Then you walk to the checkout and they go, how was everything? And you go,

it was good when it wasn't, but you're being polite.

And then you walk out and you never go back again.

So when somebody gives you feedback, you have

an option and a really huge opportunity

to make it better. I work for a company called PodPage

and we take all of our suggestions and feature requests.

We look at every one of those. Now, some people want things that would only

apply to them, and not all

podcasters, but we always look at every single one. But just

realize that when you make a change,

maybe you add a co host, maybe you add

a new music intro, maybe you decide to go

two days a week instead of one day a week. Whatever you do,

somebody's gonna like it and somebody's not. And you have to be

okay with that because in the end, if you want to do it because you

like it and it's gonna make the shore more fun, that's

hugely important. Because if you hate doing the show, it's

just only a matter of time before you quit. I

would love to help you. Simply go to schoolofpodcasting.com

join and you can join up there. Use the coupon code

listnr when you sign up. That'll save you on either a monthly, quarterly or

yearly subscription. And if you're worried about it, realize that comes with a 30

day money back guarantee. I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters. It's what I've been doing for 20 plus years.

And I can't wait to see what we're going to do together, because I want

to be your podcast consultants.