November 14, 2024 • 16 mins
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Ep #76 - My dear childfree Latinas, we're obviously in trouble. The assignment everyone seemed so excited to turn in last week was an utter failure. Like most group projects, it sucked.
So what do we do now? How do we exist in a world where people voted for both AOC (yay!) and Donald Trump (boo!)? How do we co-exist with people who have effectively told us we mean nothing to them?
Well, if we mean nothing then we have nothing to lose. So let's try to combat some of our toxic cultural bullshit while we still have our rights intact.
5 takeaways from this episode:
- Reject imposter syndrome; it’s a form of self-sabotage.
- Embrace the power of your voice—speak up and be heard.
- Be mindful of your media consumption; diet isn’t just what we eat.
- Become media literate to avoid being a “useful idiot.”
- Question religious narratives about women’s roles; reclaim the story.
Finally, pass your knowledge on to the people around you. Break the patriarchy's influence over us one conversation at a time. Grassroots, mi gente. That's where we'll thrive. We've done it before, and we'll do it again.
To get the full show notes and an episode transcript, go to PauletteErato.com/shownotes. This is episode 76.
Like what you hear? Reach out to send your thoughts, and don't forget to grab a limited edition LVMC baseball t-shirt. Check it out at pauletteerato.com/shop.
How to reach me:
- Got a thought, or a comment? Send a text!
- Email me at hola @ pauletteerato dot com
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hola, welcome to A MiManera, Defining Your
Success in Podcasting.
I am Mónika.
I am so excited to bepart of the Latinas
In Podcasting Summit.
Let's get started.
First, if you haven't alreadydownloaded from the freebies,
there is a workbook that goesalong with this workshop.
(00:23):
And in it, you will find lots ofoptions to record your answers,
to reflect, to set some goalsabout what success means to you.
So I highly suggest you havethat or something to write with.
You can either go to thefreebies section for the summit.
You can use this QR codeor you have the link.
(00:45):
Come right here.
All right.
My name is MónikaAldarondo Lugo.
I have beenpodcasting since 2017.
That top picture is merecording my very first podcast
episode in my parents closet.
That was for my firstpodcast, PSC Mami.
PSC Mami was stories atthe intersection of having
(01:08):
the rare disease primarysclerosing cholangitis and
what it means to be a parent.
It was a collection ofstories from other folks
who had met within therare disease community.
PSC is something I have beendiagnosed with, and I took the
time after one of the thingsthat PSC causes is liver damage,
(01:30):
and I had to have a life savingliver transplant in 2017.
So as part of my healingprocess, I learned how to
podcast in order to createthis resource for my community.
It was my way of giving back,and I will speak more about
that process as we go along.
I did, launch it nine monthsafter my podcast, so I felt it
(01:54):
was like my second little baby.
Our Latina Lens is mysecond podcast, which I
released in late 2022, 2023.
It is a collection ofinterviews and also sound
produced vignettes aboutwork, but produced by Latina
and Latine photographersin the United States.
(02:16):
It's all about elevatingtheir work and stories.
And I also am a podcastdevelopment consultant.
I have been called a creativedoula because I really help
people with their ideas.
and getting startedwith their podcasting.
A couple of things aboutme before we keep going.
I'm Boricua, all ofmy grandparents were
(02:37):
from Puerto Rico.
My parents are New Yoricans,both born and raised in
New York, in Brooklyn.
And I'm a military brat.
So I've lived all over andfeel connection to many places.
I'm an unschooling mami.
I have a nine year old whoI homeschool, in addition
to being a photographer andpodcaster, and we live in
(03:00):
the San Francisco Bay area.
So if you're in the area,please do reach out.
I love to connect with folks.
So we're going to betalking at its core today
about what does successmean to you in podcasting.
And in order to get tothat, you really want to
think, answer this question.
(03:20):
Why am I creating this podcast?
If you have the workbookout this is there with
some spaced journal.
Why am I creating a podcast?
Why am I creating this podcast?
So all of this pre work,they say your pre work
should be two thirds of thework before you even start
recording your first episode.
(03:40):
And in order to think about whyyou're creating a podcast it
might be really helpful to thinkabout what is your overall goal.
And there are many goals thatyou could have that would
lead you to create a podcast.
So it may be, I just wantto have a new hobby and
podcasting looks fun.
That's a great overall goal.
I want to learn how to podcast.
(04:01):
Maybe your goal is togenerate more revenue in
your business and you'vedetermined that a podcast is
one of the ways to do that.
Maybe your goal is tohave a media company and
one of the channels thatyou will be communicating
with is podcasting.
So all of these arevalid larger goals.
(04:22):
There are many more.
Those are just 3 examples.
But think about whatis your overall goal.
And then related, how willthis podcast reach your goal?
So it may be that as a hobby,this podcast is my learning one.
It is the one where I'm justgoing to learn the basics.
Maybe this, I have a hobbythat I want to learn how to
(04:44):
interview better, or I wantto learn how to speak better.
This could be partof your overall goal.
If you were trying toincrease revenue from your
business, it may be thatthis podcast is how you
communicate with your clients.
All right.
What do you want thispodcast to do for you?
(05:06):
So this, again, I'm going tosay this over and over again.
There's such a wide range.
There's no right answers.
If you came here to get onelist, here's the list of
things that you can do tobe successful in podcasting.
This is not the workshopI'm going to be telling
you over and over.
You get to decide.
You get to define success.
(05:26):
For those of you who are raisedin an educational system or in
households where it's like, thisis what you do to be the good
kid, it is really difficult.
But in truth, you reallydo get to decide what
your podcast gets to be.
So here are just some options.
It may be that your podcastingjourney is about developing
(05:48):
your voice, becoming abetter storyteller, building
confidence, taking up space.
That is an amazing goal fora podcast and something that
it can do for you, even ifit's doing other things.
Maybe your goal or what you'regetting out of it is gaining
a skill or building authority.
You are creating a libraryof information for your
(06:09):
clients or generating revenue.
All of those are valid.
For me, in my second podcast,I will say I had a very clear
goal as part of that journey ofbecoming a better audio editor.
I wanted to learn howto incorporate sound and
music into my interviews.
I wanted to learn how to edita story in a more cohesive
(06:32):
way, even if it didn'tfollow the original path of
the interview that I did.
So, a lot of editingand a lot of education.
I took classes.
I consulted with othersaround those specific skills.
For my first podcast, it wasdefinitely about generating
a library of information,not for my clients,
but for other patients.
(06:53):
When I asked for folks to sharethese very vulnerable stories
about what were the questionsthey asked around having a
rare disease and deciding tobecome parents or not to become
parents or how they parented?
Those vulnerable stories I wasasking to share, the purpose
was so that other young women,other young folks who were
(07:14):
diagnosed early, like some of uswere, had those answers that our
doctors really couldn't give us.
They could tell us themedical aspects of our
disease, but they couldn'ttell us, how do you decide
if you have a family or not?
They couldn't tell uswhat it was like to
parent and occasionallybe hospitalized, right?
So my goal was really forsomeone who was in my shoes
(07:38):
when I was twenty nine,diagnosed with a rare disease
that on paper is a middleaged white male disease, that
I could have searched andsaid, can I start a family?
And up pops a podcast withstories of different people's
experiences of what it meant.
So that was a goal.
That was something that I wastrying to get out of my process.
(08:02):
You just, you may want to justresearch an area of interest.
You have a lot of information.
You have a deep interestin some area and you want
to share that with others.
And it could be related to jobor career, but it just could
be related to something fun.
Maybe you really love birds.
Maybe you really love a turnTV show and you just want
(08:22):
to share your love for thathobby, that interest and find
other people who have thatinterest and love as well.
This could be its own workshop.
This could be a wholeday of workshops thinking
about your premise.
And I will say we won't spendtoo much time on this, but
I would feel irresponsibleto not say, your premise is
(08:45):
one of the most importantthings of your show.
And your premise is when I workwith folks on their podcast
ideas, it's the thing that wemassage and look at the most.
And shifts and changes the most.
Because this is the, asit says here, core idea,
the essence from whicheverything else flows.
Podcasting has been aroundfor a really long time.
(09:07):
And you both get to take upspace however you want to, and
if you have certain goals, ifyou have certain listenership
goals, if you have certainmetrics of success that you
decide you want to reach for,knowing that the, "all my
friends are super interesting.
I love them and everyone shouldhear their stories" framework
(09:29):
has been done many times.
So what makes yourpodcast interviewing
your friends different?
What is the intersectionat which that sets?
What's the theme?
How are you engagingwith them in a different
and interesting way?
All of those things are going tobe part of what your premise is.
And there's some reallyinteresting shows out there now.
(09:51):
And I do believe that withinthe Latina, Latine, Latinx
space, there's so much energyand excitement right now for
some new, creative, innovativekind of podcasts that we
don't have in the space yet.
And that we canhave in this space.
And it's really excitingtime with so many folks being
(10:14):
excited to start their podcasts.
Take what Juleka Lantigua,who is a OG in podcasting.
She has her ownproduction company.
She's an amazing Latinaleader and leader in general
in the podcasting space.
She talks about having tohave an intersection of ideas.
So talking aboutmedicine is sort of one.
(10:37):
I'm going to do apodcast about medicine.
Okay that's all right.
I'm going to talk aboutmedicine as actually LWC
Studios has a podcast outwhere they're talking about
the health of Latinas andwe're following them every
year from birth to year 100.
In Chicago.
That is a much morespecific, interesting, oh,
there's something there.
(10:58):
I want to listen to thatmore than if I just saw
here's a podcast about themedical field or health.
So thinking about howdoes your premise really
stick with people?
What makes it multidimensional?
What makes it somethingthat someone's going to
say, "hmm let me press play.
Let me keep pressing play."Also important to ask
(11:18):
is once you have yourpremise, why a podcast?
Podcasts can be audio first.
That's how they started.
There are still purists.
There's still, and I'm alittle bit in this camp
where I love audio podcasts.
I love the sound engineering.
I love the creativity that folksdo with an audio first format.
(11:40):
And it is in itself a craft.
There is also a space where youhave the video podcast, where
you have a video component,where you're showing what's
happening and incorporatingvideo editing elements.
Is your podcast audio first?
Can it, should it have video?
And as you think about yourpremise, as you think about your
(12:00):
goals, is it even a podcast?
Should it be a book,a blog, a series, an
IG series, a workshop?
Really make sure becausepodcasting always is more
work than people think it is.
Make sure that it actuallyshould be a podcast.
With my first podcast, PSCMami, people were asking
me this, why a podcast?
(12:21):
And I thought that I wantedto tell these stories.
I wanted to makethem accessible.
I wanted to include the emotionin the stories that you couldn't
get necessarily from a blogor reading someone's stories.
I always keep in the pauses,the hesitations, the little
(12:45):
laughter or the, whensomeone holds a second before
they tell something that'svery emotional, I think
that's a really importantpart of the storytelling,
especially in that context.
And it's something, again,that we wouldn't be able
to get from our doctors.
And I did not think it shouldbe video because most of the
(13:05):
people that I was interviewingwere not content creators.
They weren't folks who weretrying to be on video, trying
to be in a public space,and they were telling very
vulnerable medical stories.
And for most people, whenyou put a video camera, or
say you're recording them,you get a different energy.
You get a more guardednessunless they're really
(13:26):
used to being on video.
So for me, it was very clearthat was an audio first format.
All right.
So we talked a little bitabout what are you getting
out of the podcast project?
And it's really importantto also take some time to
consider what is your listenergetting out of your podcast?
What are they walking away from?
(13:47):
Some of the podcasts that I lovemost are the ones where I have
to stop and put a note in myphone or write something down
like, "Ooh, that's a good one!"Or, in some of the podcast
players now you can actuallyhave clips, which I love.
That you can say " Oh,that was a great quote.
Or I want to remember that."What are those moments
that you're creating foryour listener that makes
them not only pause, butthen come back for more.
(14:13):
So whatever realm you're inand whatever way, and this
can happen so many ways.
I'm not saying there'sone way to do this.
Again, depending on your genre,depending on your structure,
who you're speaking to,your audience, how are you
engaging them and giving theminformation, story, something
to listen to that is reallyadding value to who they are.
(14:36):
And that might alsobe entertainment.
It might be a laugh.
It might be something thatallows them to disconnect
from their everyday life.
So it doesn't always haveto be like a to do or
here's this actionable item.
It can also, sometimeswe need those spaces
to relax and just be.
So thinking about, in yourwriting, and you guys can
(14:59):
be pausing as you listen orcome back to these in your
journal or in the workbook.
What is your listenercoming back for?
All right, so here's theheart of the workshop.
15 minutes in, we are talkingabout now that you're sure
that it's a podcast andyou have your premise, you
have this really strongfoundation for your podcast.
(15:21):
Often when people will startat these things, but really
you need that foundation inorder to then build these
elements that are what youmight measure for success.
So we're going totalk about structure.
We're going to talk aboutcadence, length, and longevity.
We're going totalk about metrics.
We're going to talk aboutexternal factors, and we're
going to talk about intangibles.
(15:42):
So structure.
Often in beginner forums, I'llsee right after what kind of
mic should I buy you, and you'llnotice I have one of the, it's
the AT, ATR, what is it, 2100.
It's one of the basic,not very expensive mics.
I've loved it.
You don't need superfancy equipment.
(16:03):
The equipment just works.
But after people askthose technical questions,
where do I record?
I record on Squadcast.
You know, what kindof mic should I buy?
Then often it's howoften should I publish?
How long should my episodes be?
Those kinds of things.
And these are parts of yourstructure and there are many
different kinds of structure.
(16:24):
And think about who'sgonna be in your podcast.
Is it just you talking?
Are you talking to someone else?
Is that a co-host?
What is that energy like?
Are you doing a panel ora round table, or are they
certain people who areconstant in that round table?
Is the round tableitself constant?
Or in larger podcasts withbigger teams like a Futuro
(16:46):
Studios or a LWC studios.
Do you have a reportingteam who's then
creating your episodes?
What you're doing withthe folks who are in it
can also vary widely.
These are not exhaustive lists.
These are just the ones that Icame up with off the top of my
head from podcasts that I love.
A very common one isthe interview structure.
(17:08):
Again, if you're interviewingfolks, that is a skill.
How are you developingyour interview skills?
How are you engaging in away that is interesting and
compelling for your listeners?
What are you trying to elicitfrom your interviewees?
Fictional storytelling OchentaStudios does a great one called
(17:29):
La Cabina Telefónica, which isa really fun fictional story
telling podcast about one ofthe old school I think it might
even take place in the 90swhere they're calling their
families and all the chismethat happens in the cabina.
So there's really funpodcasts like that.
You have your non-fictionstorytelling ones.
(17:50):
Futuro Studios is incredible atthe non-fiction storytelling.
La Brega is one of myfavorite podcasts that
they have put out, but theyhave tons of other ones.
When we talk about Latina ledproduction media companies
and production houses.
You can havecommentary reaction.
Maybe you're talkingabout things that are
(18:10):
happening in the world.
Futuro Media has In The Thick,which I also love, but you
could be talking about shows.
You could be talkingabout world events.
You could be talkingabout things that are
happening in your industry.
Repurpose content is whensomething is already being
produced and then you usethat audio or video as a
(18:31):
podcast to think of, if you'veever heard the Moth Radio.
That is a storytellingshow, a live show, but they
record it and repurposethat content as a podcast.
Folks who do live podcastrecordings, that is, or if you
are recording a concert and thenputting that into a podcast.
(18:52):
And then how to's or tutorials,instructional kind of podcasts
are also what you could bedoing with all these folks.
And then you could alsohave different things about
like how you're engagingwith these structures.
You could have Q andA's, live streams.
I've heard some reallyinteresting folks experimenting
with just voice memos.
Their podcasts are reallyhighly produced, but then they
(19:13):
insert these really personalupdates or here's this idea
I've been contemplating.
I just wanted to tellyou guys on my walk.
How they're incorporatingvoice memos.
You could have a wholepodcast that has a voice memo.
There are podcasts thatare engaging, great content
that people record on theirsmartphones and just upload.
(19:34):
And it is that simple.
But the content iscompelling enough that
people come back for it.
Games are a super fun way.
I've heard some really funfolks either incorporating as
segments or having the entireshow be in the form of games
and taking their premise andputting it in a game format.
(19:55):
So again, any of these doesn'thave to be all one episode, any
structure can also be segments.
Any structure could vary.
So, I love the Trevor Noah show.
That's not a Latinapodcast, but I love his
show and he has interviews.
He has roundtable topics.
He has roundtables with guests.
(20:17):
He does one on one interviews.
They vary their format a lot,but their audience at least
I can speak for myself comesalong, regardless of the format
because of the engaging content.
There's lots of ways to engageyour listener voices as well.
So think about these andthen brainstorm your own.
One of the most excitingthings about being in
(20:39):
podcasting is that not all theformats have been tried yet.
Not all the things that canbe done have been done, and
you might have a really great,innovative way to structure
your podcast that engagesyour listeners in a new way.
So think aboutwhat that might be.
(20:59):
All right.
Cadence, length, and longevity.
Like I mentioned, peoplewill often ask how often
do I need to publish?
How long each episodeand how many episodes?
This again is up to you.
There are someindustry standards.
There are some things thatif you have certain kinds of
goals, there are best practices,but that doesn't mean that
if you're not aiming towardthose goals and you don't
(21:21):
do those things, that yourpodcast is any less valid.
That is a trap I fell intoat first because my podcast
was an occasional podcast.
It was very specific.
I was very clear on my goals.
But when I would go intopodcasting communities,
everyone had a weekly show.
Everyone seemed to be caringabout download numbers.
I was talking to a , raredisease community.
(21:44):
I was never going tohave 50,000 downloads.
There aren't 50,000 of usin period that have PSC.
There's no way that I wouldget that kind of numbers.
What I've learned over theyears is that there are
other voices out there.
They're just not as loud.
They're not the onespitching their programs.
They're not the onespositioning themselves as
(22:05):
podcasting experts, gettingall the results and monetizing
and making the money.
So they're quieter voices.
So you really do get to decide.
Do you want to do a dailypodcast, a weekly podcast,
and every other week podcast.
Monthly, once everysix months, occasional,
cuando te da la gana.
Like you get to decide andreally the most important thing
(22:28):
is that with your audience,with your listeners, you're
setting an expectation andthen meeting that expectation.
That's all consistencyreally means is saying,
are you consistent with theexpectation that you've set
for yourself in your audience.
That's very freeing.
If you think about it, inthis world of produce content.
(22:48):
How long each episode, I'm sureit's not gonna surprise you.
I'm gonna say you get to decide.
For the most part, mostpodcasts are 20 to 40 minutes.
One of the reasons that I'veheard for folks that they
say 20 minutes is about thelength of a commute, but
obviously people have lots ofdifferent lengths of commutes.
Think about when you listen topodcasts and what you're doing
(23:10):
while you're listening to them.
I often listen while I'mcooking, cleaning, driving.
So thinking about the spacethat people have to listen.
But if it's a goodepisode, and it's long,
I'm coming back to it.
I'm going to finish it.
You think about, again, yourgoals, your content, your
audience, and what works.
How many episodes?
This is a space where I thinkit's helpful to set a goal
(23:33):
and try to meet that goalor renegotiate for yourself.
So some people might say, Iwant to produce 12 episodes
and see how it goes.
I want to, you know, ifyou're further along, you
might say, I want to makeit to a hundred episodes.
You might say, Iwant three seasons.
I want two seasons.
I want a trial season,and then I'm going to try
(23:55):
to refine, by 10 percentbetter in my second season.
You get to define all of thosegoals and when those goes out.
There's no set, like if youhave a seasonal podcast,
when that needs to come out.
There are folks who willproduce four seasons in a year.
There are folks who produceone season and the next
season is three years later.
(24:17):
All of those are valid.
You're really thinkingabout what is your capacity.
Especially if you're a oneperson team or if you're
a small team, what is yourdesired production level?
If you are just record, notjust, if you're recording in
Zoom and putting it up withwith an intro and an outro,
(24:39):
with minimal editing, that'sgoing to be really different
than if you're doing, tryingto match a full production,
fictionalized story with sounddesign and sound effects and
all of those things, actors.
Thinking about what isthe desired production
level that you want isalso going to determine
what you're able to do.
And finally, resources.
(25:00):
As a one woman show, I knowmy capacity now and what it
means to create a podcastthat is a little simpler,
that is an interview base,that is once in a while.
And a more highly produced,20 to 40 hours of production
per episode and what thatmeans for my seasons and
when I can produce a season.
(25:21):
You might say, okay, I cando the interviews, but I'm
going to outsource editing andmarketing and all of that stuff.
Or you might bringin a whole team.
I know that there are teamsin the summit that will do
this production work for you.
So depending on yourresources, you might set
your goals, how it is.
So write in your journal,write in your workbook, what
(25:43):
is it that you're thinking?
What are your goals and why?
Again, always go back to yourwhy, always go back to how
does this help me meet my goal.
Metrics.
So, at the top of this one,I put, remember, always go
back to your goal becauseas a analytical, numerical,
achievement-based society inthe U.S., things like numbers
(26:05):
become the holy grail thatwe are trying to achieve.
But you don't want to placethis one as your top measure
of success, except for incertain instances that I'll
talk about in the last category.
There are metrics that you'llhear a lot like downloads.
And anyone who spent anytime in the podcast industry
(26:27):
knows that downloads is avery problematic measure, but
it's the only measure thatpeople have, so they use it.
Just because someone downloadedan episode on their phone,
doesn't mean they listenthrough it the whole thing.
So it doesn't really giveyou a lot of information.
There are places whereyou will need it.
Listen through rate is howfar into your episodes, the
(26:49):
percentage of how far peoplegot into your episodes.
That can be a little bitmore helpful of a measure.
You can think about ratings,reviews, follow, subscribes,
but I always remind myself howmany of my own podcasts that I
love, have I not gotten aroundto reviewing and starring?
Sometimes I try to make theeffort and say, you know what?
I'm going to go over, reviewsome podcasts and give
(27:11):
them some ratings becausethey're the ones I listen to.
But as a person who doesn'tuse Apple podcasts or a
platform that allows me toeasily rate and review, it is
an effort to go and rate andreview my favorite podcasts.
So I remind myself justbecause there aren't ratings
and reviews doesn't meanpeople don't love it.
There are podcasts I haverecommended to all kinds
(27:34):
of people and never ratedand reviewed, but that
is one measure that youcould have if you encourage
that from your audience.
Engagement is, people say, amuch better way of measuring
your audience's connectionto you, how loyal they are.
Putting out surveys, there'slots of information, how
(27:55):
to do podcast surveys, evenagain, knowing that there's
a fairly low response rate.
But still, it can be helpfulto have that information.
Comments on social media.
Web traffic, if you'redirecting them to certain
places, or if you havelinks in your show notes.
Those are all can be metricsand levels of success.
And then again, dependingon your goal, there
(28:17):
could be revenue goals.
There could benumber of sponsors.
It could be salesof merchandise.
Or maybe one of your goalsis I want to show people
who I am as a speaker, myenergy, my vibe, so that
I get more speaking gigs.
So again, let's goback to your goal.
And then decide, do any ofthese actually help me decide
(28:37):
if I'm meeting my goal?
If none of these helpyou, you don't have to pay
attention to any of them.
Even if everyone else inthe forum is talking about
downloads, if downloadsdon't help you get to
your goal, we don't care.
All right.
External measures.
So here's a place thatsometimes downloads do matter.
Let's say you've setfor yourself a goal of
(28:59):
network qualification.
You want to be on apodcasting network.
You want to be on HubSpot.
You want to be onLatina Podcasters.
You want to be in oneof those networks.
Some of them do have downloadqualifications in order
to meet their sponsorshiprequirements for the
sponsors that they work for.
So this is a space that ifthis is your goal, then paying
(29:23):
attention to your downloadsis something you want to do.
Another thing is podcastingnewsletter features.
So there are folks who willput out newsletters that
highlight podcasts, eitherin playlists by theme.
Here's some interestingpodcast episodes this week.
If you have a goal of gettingone on one of those, subscribe
to those newsletters.
(29:43):
Take a look at who it is thatthey feature, how they choose.
They might talk about wherethey find their podcasts
and you can help positionyourself in order to get there.
There are many podcastingconferences, the big huge
ones, Podcasting Movement.
I believe I heard ThirdCoast might be coming back.
I'm not sure.
I personally loved and went toResonate, which is in Richmond,
(30:07):
Virginia at their Art Institute.
Fabulous, really focusedon the craft of audio.
If you are interested in thatkind of measure of success that
you are presenting, then lookingout for those speaker calls
when they put out their calls.
And then another measurefor folks is awards.
Awards you have to apply for.
(30:29):
Often there are fees.
So I did put a littlenote in here to check out
Podcasting Seriously Fund.
This fund is meant tosupport BIPOC, queer and
trans folks in podcasting.
And I'm not sure if theyactually pay the fee, or
if they reimburse the fee.
When you submit to awards likethe Ambies or any of those
(30:51):
other awards in podcasting,they really wanna see more
folks in the bipoc, trans andqueer community get awards,
but we can't get awards ifwe're not applying for them.
So there is a LatinosPodcasters Award ceremony
that you can apply to.
So if awards is a goalof yours, then there are
avenues and systems thatyou want to be aware of.
(31:14):
Just a note before I go onPodcasting Seriously Fund
also supports education.
So if you take certain classes,qualifying classes from
certain spaces, then you cansubmit for a reimbursement,
for your education.
So it's actually how I tookan audio engineering class was
(31:35):
because of Podcasting Seriously.
So thank you LWCstudios for that.
The fifth category tothink about your success
and how to measure yoursuccess is the intangibles.
Are you having fun?
That's huge.
That's huge.
Are you having fun?
Are you building confidence?
Are you learning the new skillsthat you're aiming to learn?
(31:57):
Are you creating relationships?
I mean, I definitely havecloser relationships with
folks that I have interviewedin both of my podcasts.
And in the podcastingcommunities where I have
connected, asked questions,gotten involved and engaged.
Are you being of servicein a way that you
want to be of service?
For me, a huge sign of successfor PSC Mami is when I go on to
(32:20):
our patient forum and there'sa young woman who is scared,
who's just been diagnosed.
She wants to know, shouldshe start a family?
And someone else recommendsmy podcast to her.
Like that is that's all I need.
That's all I need toknow that all that work
that I did to learn howto podcast was worth it.
And it may just be, Iwant to complete a goal.
(32:42):
I want to put out 50podcast episodes about
my favorite show or myfavorite hobby and I did it.
And I completed thatgoal, and that was what
I wanted for the year.
So whatever your heart, yourintuition tells you, what at the
core, what serves your humanity,what makes your soul happy?
(33:06):
What about that can be listedin your areas of success,
that when this gets hard, andit will inevitably get hard.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of tedium.
Especially if you don't havethe resources to outsource,
then what, where are you goingback to, to say, you know what,
I have met these intangiblegoals that don't have any
(33:28):
numbers attached to them,but I know that podcasting
is serving me in this way.
So definitely take a momentto write those in your journal
and your workbook so thatyou can come back to that.
And even though it's the fiftharea, is definitely something
I would put at the top ofyour list when you, if you
make a checklist for what yourtop measures of success are.
(33:50):
All right, so just wrappingup for this workshop, remember
that you decide what success is.
And that sounds super obvious,and yet it is so easy to
get caught up, especiallyif you go to one of these
big conferences where othermeasures of success, other
people's definitions of successare really loud in the room.
(34:15):
So set your goal.
What is it that you are aimingto do with your podcast?
What are you aimingto get out of it?
What are you aiming to give?
And then go into these fiveareas and say, Where am I
seeking my goals and my success?
Again, my name is Mónika.
My company is Laancla Creative.
(34:36):
I am a branding and portraitphotographer is my main
gig, but I love podcasting.
I've been super involvedin the podcasting world
behind the scenes.
In addition to my twopodcasts, I love talking about
podcast ideation and I loveconnecting people to resources.
In these seven years, I'velearned a lot of stuff.
(34:58):
And I always joke, I would loveto share that with other people.
So if you want to consultwith me, please, these
are my superpowers.
I love podcasts.
I listen to a podcast everysingle day, I'm pretty
sure almost every day.
And I want to listen to yours.
So please do make sure toshare your podcast with me.
(35:20):
If you've downloaded theworkbook, you'll get an
email from me, hit reply.
Tell me about your project.
Here's my website andalso my Instagram handle.
If, when you download theworkbook and I have your
email address, I can alsosend you some examples of some
of my favorite podcasts thatuse some of these different
(35:40):
structures and measuresthat we talked about today.
So we can continue aconversation about what
are the different ways thatsuccess appears in podcasting?
Muchísimas gracias.
I hope you enjoy therest of the summit.
Hola, welcome to A MiManera, Defining Your
Success in Podcasting.
I am Mónika.
I am so excited to bepart of the Latinas
In Podcasting Summit.
Let's get started.
First, if you haven't alreadydownloaded from the freebies,
there is a workbook that goesalong with this workshop.
(00:23):
And in it, you will find lots ofoptions to record your answers,
to reflect, to set some goalsabout what success means to you.
So I highly suggest you havethat or something to write with.
You can either go to thefreebies section for the summit.
You can use this QR codeor you have the link.
(00:45):
Come right here.
All right.
My name is MónikaAldarondo Lugo.
I have beenpodcasting since 2017.
That top picture is merecording my very first podcast
episode in my parents closet.
That was for my firstpodcast, PSC Mami.
PSC Mami was stories atthe intersection of having
(01:08):
the rare disease primarysclerosing cholangitis and
what it means to be a parent.
It was a collection ofstories from other folks
who had met within therare disease community.
PSC is something I have beendiagnosed with, and I took the
time after one of the thingsthat PSC causes is liver damage,
(01:30):
and I had to have a life savingliver transplant in 2017.
So as part of my healingprocess, I learned how to
podcast in order to createthis resource for my community.
It was my way of giving back,and I will speak more about
that process as we go along.
I did, launch it nine monthsafter my podcast, so I felt it
(01:54):
was like my second little baby.
Our Latina Lens is mysecond podcast, which I
released in late 2022, 2023.
It is a collection ofinterviews and also sound
produced vignettes aboutwork, but produced by Latina
and Latine photographersin the United States.
(02:16):
It's all about elevatingtheir work and stories.
And I also am a podcastdevelopment consultant.
I have been called a creativedoula because I really help
people with their ideas.
and getting startedwith their podcasting.
A couple of things aboutme before we keep going.
I'm Boricua, all ofmy grandparents were
(02:37):
from Puerto Rico.
My parents are New Yoricans,both born and raised in
New York, in Brooklyn.
And I'm a military brat.
So I've lived all over andfeel connection to many places.
I'm an unschooling mami.
I have a nine year old whoI homeschool, in addition
to being a photographer andpodcaster, and we live in
(03:00):
the San Francisco Bay area.
So if you're in the area,please do reach out.
I love to connect with folks.
So we're going to betalking at its core today
about what does successmean to you in podcasting.
And in order to get tothat, you really want to
think, answer this question.
(03:20):
Why am I creating this podcast?
If you have the workbookout this is there with
some spaced journal.
Why am I creating a podcast?
Why am I creating this podcast?
So all of this pre work,they say your pre work
should be two thirds of thework before you even start
recording your first episode.
(03:40):
And in order to think about whyyou're creating a podcast it
might be really helpful to thinkabout what is your overall goal.
And there are many goals thatyou could have that would
lead you to create a podcast.
So it may be, I just wantto have a new hobby and
podcasting looks fun.
That's a great overall goal.
I want to learn how to podcast.
(04:01):
Maybe your goal is togenerate more revenue in
your business and you'vedetermined that a podcast is
one of the ways to do that.
Maybe your goal is tohave a media company and
one of the channels thatyou will be communicating
with is podcasting.
So all of these arevalid larger goals.
(04:22):
There are many more.
Those are just 3 examples.
But think about whatis your overall goal.
And then related, how willthis podcast reach your goal?
So it may be that as a hobby,this podcast is my learning one.
It is the one where I'm justgoing to learn the basics.
Maybe this, I have a hobbythat I want to learn how to
(04:44):
interview better, or I wantto learn how to speak better.
This could be partof your overall goal.
If you were trying toincrease revenue from your
business, it may be thatthis podcast is how you
communicate with your clients.
All right.
What do you want thispodcast to do for you?
(05:06):
So this, again, I'm going tosay this over and over again.
There's such a wide range.
There's no right answers.
If you came here to get onelist, here's the list of
things that you can do tobe successful in podcasting.
This is not the workshopI'm going to be telling
you over and over.
You get to decide.
You get to define success.
(05:26):
For those of you who are raisedin an educational system or in
households where it's like, thisis what you do to be the good
kid, it is really difficult.
But in truth, you reallydo get to decide what
your podcast gets to be.
So here are just some options.
It may be that your podcastingjourney is about developing
(05:48):
your voice, becoming abetter storyteller, building
confidence, taking up space.
That is an amazing goal fora podcast and something that
it can do for you, even ifit's doing other things.
Maybe your goal or what you'regetting out of it is gaining
a skill or building authority.
You are creating a libraryof information for your
(06:09):
clients or generating revenue.
All of those are valid.
For me, in my second podcast,I will say I had a very clear
goal as part of that journey ofbecoming a better audio editor.
I wanted to learn howto incorporate sound and
music into my interviews.
I wanted to learn how to edita story in a more cohesive
(06:32):
way, even if it didn'tfollow the original path of
the interview that I did.
So, a lot of editingand a lot of education.
I took classes.
I consulted with othersaround those specific skills.
For my first podcast, it wasdefinitely about generating
a library of information,not for my clients,
but for other patients.
(06:53):
When I asked for folks to sharethese very vulnerable stories
about what were the questionsthey asked around having a
rare disease and deciding tobecome parents or not to become
parents or how they parented?
Those vulnerable stories I wasasking to share, the purpose
was so that other young women,other young folks who were
(07:14):
diagnosed early, like some of uswere, had those answers that our
doctors really couldn't give us.
They could tell us themedical aspects of our
disease, but they couldn'ttell us, how do you decide
if you have a family or not?
They couldn't tell uswhat it was like to
parent and occasionallybe hospitalized, right?
So my goal was really forsomeone who was in my shoes
(07:38):
when I was twenty nine,diagnosed with a rare disease
that on paper is a middleaged white male disease, that
I could have searched andsaid, can I start a family?
And up pops a podcast withstories of different people's
experiences of what it meant.
So that was a goal.
That was something that I wastrying to get out of my process.
(08:02):
You just, you may want to justresearch an area of interest.
You have a lot of information.
You have a deep interestin some area and you want
to share that with others.
And it could be related to jobor career, but it just could
be related to something fun.
Maybe you really love birds.
Maybe you really love a turnTV show and you just want
(08:22):
to share your love for thathobby, that interest and find
other people who have thatinterest and love as well.
This could be its own workshop.
This could be a wholeday of workshops thinking
about your premise.
And I will say we won't spendtoo much time on this, but
I would feel irresponsibleto not say, your premise is
(08:45):
one of the most importantthings of your show.
And your premise is when I workwith folks on their podcast
ideas, it's the thing that wemassage and look at the most.
And shifts and changes the most.
Because this is the, asit says here, core idea,
the essence from whicheverything else flows.
Podcasting has been aroundfor a really long time.
(09:07):
And you both get to take upspace however you want to, and
if you have certain goals, ifyou have certain listenership
goals, if you have certainmetrics of success that you
decide you want to reach for,knowing that the, "all my
friends are super interesting.
I love them and everyone shouldhear their stories" framework
(09:29):
has been done many times.
So what makes yourpodcast interviewing
your friends different?
What is the intersectionat which that sets?
What's the theme?
How are you engagingwith them in a different
and interesting way?
All of those things are going tobe part of what your premise is.
And there's some reallyinteresting shows out there now.
(09:51):
And I do believe that withinthe Latina, Latine, Latinx
space, there's so much energyand excitement right now for
some new, creative, innovativekind of podcasts that we
don't have in the space yet.
And that we canhave in this space.
And it's really excitingtime with so many folks being
(10:14):
excited to start their podcasts.
Take what Juleka Lantigua,who is a OG in podcasting.
She has her ownproduction company.
She's an amazing Latinaleader and leader in general
in the podcasting space.
She talks about having tohave an intersection of ideas.
So talking aboutmedicine is sort of one.
(10:37):
I'm going to do apodcast about medicine.
Okay that's all right.
I'm going to talk aboutmedicine as actually LWC
Studios has a podcast outwhere they're talking about
the health of Latinas andwe're following them every
year from birth to year 100.
In Chicago.
That is a much morespecific, interesting, oh,
there's something there.
(10:58):
I want to listen to thatmore than if I just saw
here's a podcast about themedical field or health.
So thinking about howdoes your premise really
stick with people?
What makes it multidimensional?
What makes it somethingthat someone's going to
say, "hmm let me press play.
Let me keep pressing play."Also important to ask
(11:18):
is once you have yourpremise, why a podcast?
Podcasts can be audio first.
That's how they started.
There are still purists.
There's still, and I'm alittle bit in this camp
where I love audio podcasts.
I love the sound engineering.
I love the creativity that folksdo with an audio first format.
(11:40):
And it is in itself a craft.
There is also a space where youhave the video podcast, where
you have a video component,where you're showing what's
happening and incorporatingvideo editing elements.
Is your podcast audio first?
Can it, should it have video?
And as you think about yourpremise, as you think about your
(12:00):
goals, is it even a podcast?
Should it be a book,a blog, a series, an
IG series, a workshop?
Really make sure becausepodcasting always is more
work than people think it is.
Make sure that it actuallyshould be a podcast.
With my first podcast, PSCMami, people were asking
me this, why a podcast?
(12:21):
And I thought that I wantedto tell these stories.
I wanted to makethem accessible.
I wanted to include the emotionin the stories that you couldn't
get necessarily from a blogor reading someone's stories.
I always keep in the pauses,the hesitations, the little
(12:45):
laughter or the, whensomeone holds a second before
they tell something that'svery emotional, I think
that's a really importantpart of the storytelling,
especially in that context.
And it's something, again,that we wouldn't be able
to get from our doctors.
And I did not think it shouldbe video because most of the
(13:05):
people that I was interviewingwere not content creators.
They weren't folks who weretrying to be on video, trying
to be in a public space,and they were telling very
vulnerable medical stories.
And for most people, whenyou put a video camera, or
say you're recording them,you get a different energy.
You get a more guardednessunless they're really
(13:26):
used to being on video.
So for me, it was very clearthat was an audio first format.
All right.
So we talked a little bitabout what are you getting
out of the podcast project?
And it's really importantto also take some time to
consider what is your listenergetting out of your podcast?
What are they walking away from?
(13:47):
Some of the podcasts that I lovemost are the ones where I have
to stop and put a note in myphone or write something down
like, "Ooh, that's a good one!"Or, in some of the podcast
players now you can actuallyhave clips, which I love.
That you can say " Oh,that was a great quote.
Or I want to remember that."What are those moments
that you're creating foryour listener that makes
them not only pause, butthen come back for more.
(14:13):
So whatever realm you're inand whatever way, and this
can happen so many ways.
I'm not saying there'sone way to do this.
Again, depending on your genre,depending on your structure,
who you're speaking to,your audience, how are you
engaging them and giving theminformation, story, something
to listen to that is reallyadding value to who they are.
(14:36):
And that might alsobe entertainment.
It might be a laugh.
It might be something thatallows them to disconnect
from their everyday life.
So it doesn't always haveto be like a to do or
here's this actionable item.
It can also, sometimeswe need those spaces
to relax and just be.
So thinking about, in yourwriting, and you guys can
(14:59):
be pausing as you listen orcome back to these in your
journal or in the workbook.
What is your listenercoming back for?
All right, so here's theheart of the workshop.
15 minutes in, we are talkingabout now that you're sure
that it's a podcast andyou have your premise, you
have this really strongfoundation for your podcast.
(15:21):
Often when people will startat these things, but really
you need that foundation inorder to then build these
elements that are what youmight measure for success.
So we're going totalk about structure.
We're going to talk aboutcadence, length, and longevity.
We're going totalk about metrics.
We're going to talk aboutexternal factors, and we're
going to talk about intangibles.
(15:42):
So structure.
Often in beginner forums, I'llsee right after what kind of
mic should I buy you, and you'llnotice I have one of the, it's
the AT, ATR, what is it, 2100.
It's one of the basic,not very expensive mics.
I've loved it.
You don't need superfancy equipment.
(16:03):
The equipment just works.
But after people askthose technical questions,
where do I record?
I record on Squadcast.
You know, what kindof mic should I buy?
Then often it's howoften should I publish?
How long should my episodes be?
Those kinds of things.
And these are parts of yourstructure and there are many
different kinds of structure.
(16:24):
And think about who'sgonna be in your podcast.
Is it just you talking?
Are you talking to someone else?
Is that a co-host?
What is that energy like?
Are you doing a panel ora round table, or are they
certain people who areconstant in that round table?
Is the round tableitself constant?
Or in larger podcasts withbigger teams like a Futuro
(16:46):
Studios or a LWC studios.
Do you have a reportingteam who's then
creating your episodes?
What you're doing withthe folks who are in it
can also vary widely.
These are not exhaustive lists.
These are just the ones that Icame up with off the top of my
head from podcasts that I love.
A very common one isthe interview structure.
(17:08):
Again, if you're interviewingfolks, that is a skill.
How are you developingyour interview skills?
How are you engaging in away that is interesting and
compelling for your listeners?
What are you trying to elicitfrom your interviewees?
Fictional storytelling OchentaStudios does a great one called
(17:29):
La Cabina Telefónica, which isa really fun fictional story
telling podcast about one ofthe old school I think it might
even take place in the 90swhere they're calling their
families and all the chismethat happens in the cabina.
So there's really funpodcasts like that.
You have your non-fictionstorytelling ones.
(17:50):
Futuro Studios is incredible atthe non-fiction storytelling.
La Brega is one of myfavorite podcasts that
they have put out, but theyhave tons of other ones.
When we talk about Latina ledproduction media companies
and production houses.
You can havecommentary reaction.
Maybe you're talkingabout things that are
(18:10):
happening in the world.
Futuro Media has In The Thick,which I also love, but you
could be talking about shows.
You could be talkingabout world events.
You could be talkingabout things that are
happening in your industry.
Repurpose content is whensomething is already being
produced and then you usethat audio or video as a
(18:31):
podcast to think of, if you'veever heard the Moth Radio.
That is a storytellingshow, a live show, but they
record it and repurposethat content as a podcast.
Folks who do live podcastrecordings, that is, or if you
are recording a concert and thenputting that into a podcast.
(18:52):
And then how to's or tutorials,instructional kind of podcasts
are also what you could bedoing with all these folks.
And then you could alsohave different things about
like how you're engagingwith these structures.
You could have Q andA's, live streams.
I've heard some reallyinteresting folks experimenting
with just voice memos.
Their podcasts are reallyhighly produced, but then they
(19:13):
insert these really personalupdates or here's this idea
I've been contemplating.
I just wanted to tellyou guys on my walk.
How they're incorporatingvoice memos.
You could have a wholepodcast that has a voice memo.
There are podcasts thatare engaging, great content
that people record on theirsmartphones and just upload.
(19:34):
And it is that simple.
But the content iscompelling enough that
people come back for it.
Games are a super fun way.
I've heard some really funfolks either incorporating as
segments or having the entireshow be in the form of games
and taking their premise andputting it in a game format.
(19:55):
So again, any of these doesn'thave to be all one episode, any
structure can also be segments.
Any structure could vary.
So, I love the Trevor Noah show.
That's not a Latinapodcast, but I love his
show and he has interviews.
He has roundtable topics.
He has roundtables with guests.
(20:17):
He does one on one interviews.
They vary their format a lot,but their audience at least
I can speak for myself comesalong, regardless of the format
because of the engaging content.
There's lots of ways to engageyour listener voices as well.
So think about these andthen brainstorm your own.
One of the most excitingthings about being in
(20:39):
podcasting is that not all theformats have been tried yet.
Not all the things that canbe done have been done, and
you might have a really great,innovative way to structure
your podcast that engagesyour listeners in a new way.
So think aboutwhat that might be.
(20:59):
All right.
Cadence, length, and longevity.
Like I mentioned, peoplewill often ask how often
do I need to publish?
How long each episodeand how many episodes?
This again is up to you.
There are someindustry standards.
There are some things thatif you have certain kinds of
goals, there are best practices,but that doesn't mean that
if you're not aiming towardthose goals and you don't
(21:21):
do those things, that yourpodcast is any less valid.
That is a trap I fell intoat first because my podcast
was an occasional podcast.
It was very specific.
I was very clear on my goals.
But when I would go intopodcasting communities,
everyone had a weekly show.
Everyone seemed to be caringabout download numbers.
I was talking to a , raredisease community.
(21:44):
I was never going tohave 50,000 downloads.
There aren't 50,000 of usin period that have PSC.
There's no way that I wouldget that kind of numbers.
What I've learned over theyears is that there are
other voices out there.
They're just not as loud.
They're not the onespitching their programs.
They're not the onespositioning themselves as
(22:05):
podcasting experts, gettingall the results and monetizing
and making the money.
So they're quieter voices.
So you really do get to decide.
Do you want to do a dailypodcast, a weekly podcast,
and every other week podcast.
Monthly, once everysix months, occasional,
cuando te da la gana.
Like you get to decide andreally the most important thing
(22:28):
is that with your audience,with your listeners, you're
setting an expectation andthen meeting that expectation.
That's all consistencyreally means is saying,
are you consistent with theexpectation that you've set
for yourself in your audience.
That's very freeing.
If you think about it, inthis world of produce content.
(22:48):
How long each episode, I'm sureit's not gonna surprise you.
I'm gonna say you get to decide.
For the most part, mostpodcasts are 20 to 40 minutes.
One of the reasons that I'veheard for folks that they
say 20 minutes is about thelength of a commute, but
obviously people have lots ofdifferent lengths of commutes.
Think about when you listen topodcasts and what you're doing
(23:10):
while you're listening to them.
I often listen while I'mcooking, cleaning, driving.
So thinking about the spacethat people have to listen.
But if it's a goodepisode, and it's long,
I'm coming back to it.
I'm going to finish it.
You think about, again, yourgoals, your content, your
audience, and what works.
How many episodes?
This is a space where I thinkit's helpful to set a goal
(23:33):
and try to meet that goalor renegotiate for yourself.
So some people might say, Iwant to produce 12 episodes
and see how it goes.
I want to, you know, ifyou're further along, you
might say, I want to makeit to a hundred episodes.
You might say, Iwant three seasons.
I want two seasons.
I want a trial season,and then I'm going to try
(23:55):
to refine, by 10 percentbetter in my second season.
You get to define all of thosegoals and when those goes out.
There's no set, like if youhave a seasonal podcast,
when that needs to come out.
There are folks who willproduce four seasons in a year.
There are folks who produceone season and the next
season is three years later.
(24:17):
All of those are valid.
You're really thinkingabout what is your capacity.
Especially if you're a oneperson team or if you're
a small team, what is yourdesired production level?
If you are just record, notjust, if you're recording in
Zoom and putting it up withwith an intro and an outro,
(24:39):
with minimal editing, that'sgoing to be really different
than if you're doing, tryingto match a full production,
fictionalized story with sounddesign and sound effects and
all of those things, actors.
Thinking about what isthe desired production
level that you want isalso going to determine
what you're able to do.
And finally, resources.
(25:00):
As a one woman show, I knowmy capacity now and what it
means to create a podcastthat is a little simpler,
that is an interview base,that is once in a while.
And a more highly produced,20 to 40 hours of production
per episode and what thatmeans for my seasons and
when I can produce a season.
(25:21):
You might say, okay, I cando the interviews, but I'm
going to outsource editing andmarketing and all of that stuff.
Or you might bringin a whole team.
I know that there are teamsin the summit that will do
this production work for you.
So depending on yourresources, you might set
your goals, how it is.
So write in your journal,write in your workbook, what
(25:43):
is it that you're thinking?
What are your goals and why?
Again, always go back to yourwhy, always go back to how
does this help me meet my goal.
Metrics.
So, at the top of this one,I put, remember, always go
back to your goal becauseas a analytical, numerical,
achievement-based society inthe U.S., things like numbers
(26:05):
become the holy grail thatwe are trying to achieve.
But you don't want to placethis one as your top measure
of success, except for incertain instances that I'll
talk about in the last category.
There are metrics that you'llhear a lot like downloads.
And anyone who spent anytime in the podcast industry
(26:27):
knows that downloads is avery problematic measure, but
it's the only measure thatpeople have, so they use it.
Just because someone downloadedan episode on their phone,
doesn't mean they listenthrough it the whole thing.
So it doesn't really giveyou a lot of information.
There are places whereyou will need it.
Listen through rate is howfar into your episodes, the
(26:49):
percentage of how far peoplegot into your episodes.
That can be a little bitmore helpful of a measure.
You can think about ratings,reviews, follow, subscribes,
but I always remind myself howmany of my own podcasts that I
love, have I not gotten aroundto reviewing and starring?
Sometimes I try to make theeffort and say, you know what?
I'm going to go over, reviewsome podcasts and give
(27:11):
them some ratings becausethey're the ones I listen to.
But as a person who doesn'tuse Apple podcasts or a
platform that allows me toeasily rate and review, it is
an effort to go and rate andreview my favorite podcasts.
So I remind myself justbecause there aren't ratings
and reviews doesn't meanpeople don't love it.
There are podcasts I haverecommended to all kinds
(27:34):
of people and never ratedand reviewed, but that
is one measure that youcould have if you encourage
that from your audience.
Engagement is, people say, amuch better way of measuring
your audience's connectionto you, how loyal they are.
Putting out surveys, there'slots of information, how
(27:55):
to do podcast surveys, evenagain, knowing that there's
a fairly low response rate.
But still, it can be helpfulto have that information.
Comments on social media.
Web traffic, if you'redirecting them to certain
places, or if you havelinks in your show notes.
Those are all can be metricsand levels of success.
And then again, dependingon your goal, there
(28:17):
could be revenue goals.
There could benumber of sponsors.
It could be salesof merchandise.
Or maybe one of your goalsis I want to show people
who I am as a speaker, myenergy, my vibe, so that
I get more speaking gigs.
So again, let's goback to your goal.
And then decide, do any ofthese actually help me decide
(28:37):
if I'm meeting my goal?
If none of these helpyou, you don't have to pay
attention to any of them.
Even if everyone else inthe forum is talking about
downloads, if downloadsdon't help you get to
your goal, we don't care.
All right.
External measures.
So here's a place thatsometimes downloads do matter.
Let's say you've setfor yourself a goal of
(28:59):
network qualification.
You want to be on apodcasting network.
You want to be on HubSpot.
You want to be onLatina Podcasters.
You want to be in oneof those networks.
Some of them do have downloadqualifications in order
to meet their sponsorshiprequirements for the
sponsors that they work for.
So this is a space that ifthis is your goal, then paying
(29:23):
attention to your downloadsis something you want to do.
Another thing is podcastingnewsletter features.
So there are folks who willput out newsletters that
highlight podcasts, eitherin playlists by theme.
Here's some interestingpodcast episodes this week.
If you have a goal of gettingone on one of those, subscribe
to those newsletters.
(29:43):
Take a look at who it is thatthey feature, how they choose.
They might talk about wherethey find their podcasts
and you can help positionyourself in order to get there.
There are many podcastingconferences, the big huge
ones, Podcasting Movement.
I believe I heard ThirdCoast might be coming back.
I'm not sure.
I personally loved and went toResonate, which is in Richmond,
(30:07):
Virginia at their Art Institute.
Fabulous, really focusedon the craft of audio.
If you are interested in thatkind of measure of success that
you are presenting, then lookingout for those speaker calls
when they put out their calls.
And then another measurefor folks is awards.
Awards you have to apply for.
(30:29):
Often there are fees.
So I did put a littlenote in here to check out
Podcasting Seriously Fund.
This fund is meant tosupport BIPOC, queer and
trans folks in podcasting.
And I'm not sure if theyactually pay the fee, or
if they reimburse the fee.
When you submit to awards likethe Ambies or any of those
(30:51):
other awards in podcasting,they really wanna see more
folks in the bipoc, trans andqueer community get awards,
but we can't get awards ifwe're not applying for them.
So there is a LatinosPodcasters Award ceremony
that you can apply to.
So if awards is a goalof yours, then there are
avenues and systems thatyou want to be aware of.
(31:14):
Just a note before I go onPodcasting Seriously Fund
also supports education.
So if you take certain classes,qualifying classes from
certain spaces, then you cansubmit for a reimbursement,
for your education.
So it's actually how I tookan audio engineering class was
(31:35):
because of Podcasting Seriously.
So thank you LWCstudios for that.
The fifth category tothink about your success
and how to measure yoursuccess is the intangibles.
Are you having fun?
That's huge.
That's huge.
Are you having fun?
Are you building confidence?
Are you learning the new skillsthat you're aiming to learn?
(31:57):
Are you creating relationships?
I mean, I definitely havecloser relationships with
folks that I have interviewedin both of my podcasts.
And in the podcastingcommunities where I have
connected, asked questions,gotten involved and engaged.
Are you being of servicein a way that you
want to be of service?
For me, a huge sign of successfor PSC Mami is when I go on to
(32:20):
our patient forum and there'sa young woman who is scared,
who's just been diagnosed.
She wants to know, shouldshe start a family?
And someone else recommendsmy podcast to her.
Like that is that's all I need.
That's all I need toknow that all that work
that I did to learn howto podcast was worth it.
And it may just be, Iwant to complete a goal.
(32:42):
I want to put out 50podcast episodes about
my favorite show or myfavorite hobby and I did it.
And I completed thatgoal, and that was what
I wanted for the year.
So whatever your heart, yourintuition tells you, what at the
core, what serves your humanity,what makes your soul happy?
(33:06):
What about that can be listedin your areas of success,
that when this gets hard, andit will inevitably get hard.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of tedium.
Especially if you don't havethe resources to outsource,
then what, where are you goingback to, to say, you know what,
I have met these intangiblegoals that don't have any
(33:28):
numbers attached to them,but I know that podcasting
is serving me in this way.
So definitely take a momentto write those in your journal
and your workbook so thatyou can come back to that.
And even though it's the fiftharea, is definitely something
I would put at the top ofyour list when you, if you
make a checklist for what yourtop measures of success are.
(33:50):
All right, so just wrappingup for this workshop, remember
that you decide what success is.
And that sounds super obvious,and yet it is so easy to
get caught up, especiallyif you go to one of these
big conferences where othermeasures of success, other
people's definitions of successare really loud in the room.
(34:15):
So set your goal.
What is it that you are aimingto do with your podcast?
What are you aimingto get out of it?
What are you aiming to give?
And then go into these fiveareas and say, Where am I
seeking my goals and my success?
Again, my name is Mónika.
My company is Laancla Creative.
(34:36):
I am a branding and portraitphotographer is my main
gig, but I love podcasting.
I've been super involvedin the podcasting world
behind the scenes.
In addition to my twopodcasts, I love talking about
podcast ideation and I loveconnecting people to resources.
In these seven years, I'velearned a lot of stuff.
(34:58):
And I always joke, I would loveto share that with other people.
So if you want to consultwith me, please, these
are my superpowers.
I love podcasts.
I listen to a podcast everysingle day, I'm pretty
sure almost every day.
And I want to listen to yours.
So please do make sure toshare your podcast with me.
(35:20):
If you've downloaded theworkbook, you'll get an
email from me, hit reply.
Tell me about your project.
Here's my website andalso my Instagram handle.
If, when you download theworkbook and I have your
email address, I can alsosend you some examples of some
of my favorite podcasts thatuse some of these different
(35:40):
structures and measuresthat we talked about today.
So we can continue aconversation about what
are the different ways thatsuccess appears in podcasting?
Muchísimas gracias.
I hope you enjoy therest of the summit.
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