In this video, Christine talks about how far podcasting has come as a recognized media channel and the benefits of calling yourself a podcaster in 2024 versus 5 or 10 years ago. She references the help that celebrities have given by becoming podcasters themselves and why this is a good thing for your own bio and accolades.
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Transcript:
Welcome to today’s show host series. I want to talk about something that is happening much more often now in podcasting than it was five years ago, 10 years ago, two years ago. And this is relevant because I was just at a client event this week in LA and there was a lot of really cool talent and marketing executives at this event. And I was noticing when I was backstage that I heard one of the guests right before he was brought on stage, you know, they were doing his intro and he’s an NFL player, he’s a sports commentator, and he’s a podcaster. Those were like the beats of his, you know, log line that they were giving as they introduced him on stage. He’s a very well-known obviously sports figure. But it was so relevant to me, and this is kind of how I wanted to lead into this video, that now very high-profile people like NFL athletes, ESPN sports commentators, are also being introduced as podcasters. And this is a moment that has been 10 years, 20 years in the making, right? You’ve heard me say back in the day when I started working in podcasting, nobody knew what it was and this certainly was very abnormal to introduce someone as a podcaster. Like that was a hobby thing. And most people didn’t even know what it was, even if it was a hobby. And so it’s, I’m sure you can think of many, many high profile folks now who are introduced as podcasters and everybody just gets it. They’re like, oh, amazing, awesome. There’s huge networks like iHeartRadio or Wondry, SiriusXM, who have built all of this talent and done all this marketing and promotion, so people now get it when someone is introduced as a podcaster. And the reason I wanted to make a quick video about this, you may be like, that’s for famous people, Christine. Of course, you’re talking about celebritydom. But it marks a really significant chapter in podcasting and in being a on-demand media host, which is different than TV or radio, right? Like podcasting and YouTube is this whole new chapter of media. that we’ve been co-creating for years that lets people be a very experienced, very popular, very followed media host without going through the traditional channels. And even a lot of the people who originally went through traditional channels like news anchors and commentators and radio hosts have become podcasters. And we’re seeing that shift. And I think it’s relevant no matter if you’re a brand or a show host or an independent creator or, you know, a sole proprietor. It’s very valuable to notice when the shifts are happening in the media landscape because this is kind of an unprecedented time where as a podcaster, you can have the same title as an ex-NFL athlete and like ESPN sports commentator. Like, when else has that been an option, you know? Like, authors, for a long, long, long time, you had to be, like, if you were an author, you had to be published by a publishing house, so that was a pretty big gateway that you had to get through. And now it’s like, oh, you can self-publish a book. You can be a super famous writer and just write on Substack. You can be a podcaster and nobody had to give you the keys to enter into like the very, you know, hush-hush gated community of media personalities. Now, we talked about this in other videos, just because you can podcast doesn’t mean you’re going to be great and famous and have a huge following. But I think it’s super worth it to notice, like I said, these trends and these shifts. And this was just a moment for me this week when I was at this event backstage looking at how everyone is being introduced and then hearing that and watching this great NFL player go up on the stage. Everyone knew and loved him and was excited to hear from him. But that was what they included like as the third thing to include in his quick intro when he just launched a podcast. And so I think there’s a few takeaways here as a show host since this is our show host series. One is if you are enjoying podcasting, if it was placed your strengths, if it supports your goals, if you’re finding ways that it’s working for you, you can now be assured that being a podcaster is just as noted and relevant and significant as being like an author or a public speaker or a thought leader. Like podcasting has now kind of entered that realm. So it is something you should include in your bio. And It should be the thing you lead with, at least one of the main things that you lead with when you talk about your work, or in your elevator pitch, or all these little ways we talk about ourselves. Include podcaster, because people get it now. The progress has been made, and major celebrities are podcasters now. I want you to just put that in your own psyche and maybe update your profiles, your bios, like if you haven’t done this in a while, your email signatures. I want you to really take it seriously that if you are a podcaster, whether you started this year or two years ago or five years ago, know that people get it now and it’s a very relevant, not title card, I lost the word, you know what I’m talking about. It is understood now, just like authors and speakers are understood, podcasters are now understood. It’s like a real thing, legit, you’ve put a lot of work in, you’ve been recognized, you are a media host, but you’re a podcaster. So that’s one thing I want you to pay attention to, like takeaways from this moment in the evolution of new media, which I call YouTube and podcasting and social media even. I also want you to think about like, okay, well, what opportunities could that open for me? A lot of our clients at Worthful Media are also authors, and some of them bestselling authors, and some of them New York Times bestselling authors. So I’ve gotten a peek into that world through the years, because like any media that my client works on, and I include books as media, is relevant to like what we work on. And so I’ve seen a lot of clients go through that process, whether they’ve self-published or they’ve traditionally published, whether they’ve hit a bestseller list or not. And I know what a crazy and intense and wild and subjective road it is to become a best-selling author recognized by the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or Amazon or USA Today or whatever. And I want you to just notice if that’s a world you’ve been in and you felt like, oh, like trying to get on the bestseller list just feels so intimidating or like that’s so much. I’ve talked to friends and they did everything they could and they couldn’t make a bestseller list. Think maybe instead of like how, if podcasting is working for you and it plays to your strengths and you’re like, I want to do more of this. Think about how you can put the same energy you’d maybe put into writing a book or pursuing maybe some of these other titles and accolades and awards into podcasting. Because even though it’s young and the awards that are given to podcasters are still pretty unknown, like the Webby Award is a really big award a podcaster can get, and there’s a lot of smaller organizations that award cool podcast accolades each year, but it’s not like the mainstream knows about them. You know, the mainstream doesn’t follow Apple Podcasts, Podcast of the Year, or the Webby Awards oftentimes. So there are awards given to podcasters, but they’re still not mainstream. But I want you to start thinking now, this is growing. It’s becoming more relevant. It’s becoming more mainstream. There’s a lot of weight behind it now. So maybe writing or authorship, maybe that’s felt like a dead end. But could I pursue the same goals via podcasting? It’s something to consider. Maybe another way to think about it is, Do I want to be known as a podcaster or do I want to be known as like a talk show host or a thought leader or a writer? Just kind of play around with some of those titles and think like maybe, we’ve talked about this in other videos, maybe you are more drawn to writing and podcasting is kind of your second fiddle, but Maybe you really would rather put podcaster first and like a writer second, you know, it can go both ways. So I want you to consider that just because podcasting for a long time was just like guys in their garages or like the hobby thing or the techie people. And we were in a new chapter now. It’s still growing up, but I’d say we’re in the teenage chapter and people know what it is. And all these, you know, high profile folks who are well-known household names who are becoming podcasters or who have been podcasters, it’s really helpful because they’re doing all this marketing and promotion of the medium. And you can now connect the work you do on your show to the work they do on theirs. because it’s the same medium. Obviously, there’s like a big spectrum, but people get it now. So introduce yourself as a podcaster. It’s legit. Put it in your byline. Next time you’re speaking on stage, have the person introing you mention your podcast. It’s a real deal. Okay, I’ll stop it there for today. If you have questions about this or want more details, want me to do another video on the nuances of this, feel free to leave a comment, subscribe to the channel, and we’ll see you in the next video.
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