83: Podcasting Pet Peeves (And How to Avoid Them)
Everyone has pet peeves and podcasts are no exception.
When it comes to podcasts there are certain things hosts do that not only annoy their potential listeners, but actually hinders the growth of their show.
So, take a listen as I break down the most common things I've seen people complain about over the past several years and explain how you can avoid being the inspiration for the complaints.
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Podcasting for Coaches | Episode 09: What Should be Included in Your Podcast's Intro and Outro
Podcasting for Coaches | Episode 18: How to Edit Your Podcast Using Audacity
Podcasting for Coaches | Episode 30: What Link Should You Use When Sharing Your Podcast?
Podcasting for Coaches | Episode 49: Tips for Being a Great Podcast Interviewer
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My Launch Consultation Packages
Online Course | How to Start a Podcast (For Your Coaching Business)
Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to Episode 83 of podcasting for coaches. As promised in the title of the episode, I am going to go over some podcast pet peeves today, and how you can avoid them. And these are not just my pet peeves, although some of them definitely are. But these are pet peeves that I see people complain about constantly and have for the past several years. And this is other editors, other podcast hosts and of course listeners. So to get right into this because we have several to cover today. The very first thing I want to talk about is music. If your music especially for intros and outros transition pieces, anywhere you have music in your show is too loud or distracting. It is really really, really frustrating. I mean, just think about it in terms of commercials and TV shows back in the day when we used to actually watch live TV. If you're listening to a show, and you've got the volume just right, it's totally comfortable. And then it goes to a commercial and all of a sudden it's blaring super loud. That's really frustrating and annoying. And you don't want to be that for your listeners, you don't want them to be listening to one podcast episode where the volume is fine, I suppose it they have it dialed in where they like. And then they play one of your episodes. And all of a sudden the music is just like blaring in their ear because it's so loud. And we also don't want it to distract from the words you're actually saying we want to be able to clearly hear what you're saying. So having music that is like really upbeat, really like high piercing noises, just, of course the volume, but I'm talking about the actual like tempo and the music itself. If it is very, very distracting. That's going to get your listener and not the best mindset going into your content. So we want it to be music that fits the tone of the show, but enhances what you're saying rather than distracts people from it. So speaking of intros, another major, major, major pet peeve, and something that could actually be hurting the growth of your show, is having a very long intro. I say absolutely no more than 60 seconds. And that is at most, I actually tell my lunch clients to give me something around 30. It eventually comes in around 45. And then we go from there. But absolutely 60 seconds at most, including any music that you have at the end to help transition into the show. If you can get it done in 15 seconds, 20 seconds. Fantastic. Now, there are some things that I do want to make sure you include in this intro. And I did go over those in episode nine of exactly what should be recorded in your podcast, intro and outro. So make sure that you go back and take a listen to that if you're not sure what you should have in there, and why the heck people are taking so long with their interests of you know, not speaking of taking too long. Another huge pet peeve is when people take too long to get into the actual content of the episode. So we have all i'm sure listen to those podcast episodes where we really like the title. We're intrigued by the topic, the description hit us Yes, this is the information we're looking for, we hit play five minutes into the thing. And they're still not talking about what was promised. They're still not getting into the content that relates to the title. They're talking about updates in their business. They're talking about what they did last weekend. They're talking about, you know, what tantrum their child had, I mean, all of these different things that have nothing to do with the actual content that was promised and the content that you clicked play for? No, of course, there are some shows that are more like talk shows. And they can just kind of shoot the shit about whatever they want. And it's not a big deal. But for you, as someone who has podcasting as part of a business, and you're delivering trainings, and content that your audience is desperately seeking, don't make them wait for it. The longer they have to wait, the more likely they are to hit that stop button and check out a different show. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't include these little tidbits and you shouldn't include these updates because obviously you're podcasting as part of a business you need to talk about your services at some point. You also need to share some little personal anecdotes every now and then to the your audience can connect with you and see you as a real person and start to form a bond with you. But the beginning of the episode is not the place to do that. Work it in here and there with like a little quick clip if you want but no long drawn out stories. And then at the end of the episode, if you want to include those things, then Go ahead because you've already delivered on the promise that your title made. And then now this is just like little bonus content, if they want to hear it, you're not forcing them to. So sort of along these lines of things taking too long. Another pet peeve is dragging things out when you don't really need to, if you can explain your topic in five minutes, and do it in five minutes, don't make it take 20 or 30 minutes, because that's how long your episodes normally are. If you can cover it in five minutes, maybe do four different topics that you can cover in five minutes to get you that normal link so that you can stick with a consistent length. And your audience knows what to expect when they hit play time wise, but you're not dragging things out and wasting the listeners time. I have definitely come across this and episodes I've personally listened to and I kind of equate it to someone calling a meeting for something that could have been an email, you know what I mean? Like don't call them to this whole podcast episode when you could have delivered it so much more concisely, and so much more efficiently. And moving on one of the major, major pet peeves that could absolutely be just completely tanking, your show in terms of growth is poor audio quality. I have said it on this podcast numerous times, you do not have to have a show that is like NPR quality, which by the way, even some of those aren't so great. It doesn't have to be super polished, you don't have to go out and spend 10s of 1000s of dollars on equipment and a studio to get a great sounding show. But you do need to put in at least a minimum amount of effort. So that it's pleasant to listen to, there have been so many podcasts so many. Over the years, where I have liked the person, I have really been intrigued by the content is exactly what I've been looking for. I love the titles, the descriptions, they all draw me in. But as soon as I hit play, and that audio is poor quality, I immediately hit stop, like within 10 or 15 seconds at most, I'm just not going to sit through something that is not pleasant to sit through. So have a decent mic. Right now, what I'm currently recommending is the Samson cue to you or the ATR 2100, but they've actually discontinued the original version, they have the 20 100x now, which is a little bit more expensive. So depending on what's available on Amazon, you can get either one of those. They're great starter mics, they sound great. I'm actually recording on an ATR 2100. Right now, this is the same mic that I bought when I first started podcasting over four years ago, I have three other microphones and this is the one I still come back to. So you don't have to go and spend hundreds of dollars on a microphone. Next record in a decent space. Don't record somewhere that has super high ceilings, hardwood floors, tons of glass, just record in a nice quiet space that absorbs sound rather than bounces it around. So the least amount of hard surfaces you have the better. Next use a decent recording program don't record straight into your phone. I know that with the rise of anchor, this is becoming more and more popular, people are so excited, they can just record right into their phone and have a podcast. But it sounds terrible. This show is a representation of you and your business. We want it to be a good representation, not a bad one. And then I also want you to do some very basic editing. At least I'm not saying you need to go out and become a skilled editor. Of course, if you have it in the budget to hire an editor, just do that, it will be such an amazing time saver. And they will make your show sound really good as long as they're a good editor of course. But just some basic edits, like making sure that all of your audio is the same volume making sure that the background noise is minimized, removing arms and ahhs that just drag out the audio, those types of things that we need to do, you don't need to get an audio engineering degree to do your show just some basic things, check out Episode Number 18, where I go over the basics of editing with Audacity. And then if you find you need more information after that, of course, feel free to reach out to me, I'm on Instagram at podcasting for coaches, you can reach me via the contact form on my website as well. And I can provide you with some more advanced courses and trainings if you're ready for that. So the next thing that is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I am not the only one. This is a real thing that people have. I cannot pronounce the name of the condition but I cannot stand to hear mouth noises. I cannot stand to hear saliva moving around in someone's mouth. I can't see any hear people to either those sounds just like they grossed me out. They really really do. They make me physically cringe. So if you have a lot of those mouth noises and your audio even if the rest of the quality is really good and even if the content is amazing. I physically cannot listen to it. It grosses me out. There's no other way to say it like it is so cringy to me. And this is generally caused by either having not enough saliva in most cases, or in my case, too much saliva and this is so gross. So I I apologize for that. But this is the reality of recording audio. I am one of the worst people without voices. And I know that and it is what it is. And most of the tricks to get rid of mouth noises are not going to help me because I actually produce too much saliva rather than not enough. But I edit that out, I have a program that I use called isotope RX six, I use the standard version. And it's a really expensive program, I'm not gonna lie, it's far more advanced than what most podcasters need. But it has a setting that specifically removes these things. Now it can't get every single one of them. But you would not believe how many of those mouth noises are in my recordings before I clean them up. And before I get rid of them, there's some things you can do on the front end to reduce these mouth noises. If you are in the most popular boat where you're not actually producing enough saliva, drink plenty of room temperature water before you record, angle your microphone, which you should be doing anyways to help with plosives. But angle your microphone so that it's actually pointed kind of at the corner of your mouth and you're speaking diagonally across it rather than directly into it. Don't be too close to the microphone. The closer you are, the more it's going to pick up those noises. Next one is to open your mouth fully well speaking, don't mumble, the more you mumble the more your lips are touching. And the more you just hear all of those noises. Another thing is, if you are in a super dry environment, like if you're recording in Texas, or Arizona or New Mexico, or you're in Colorado where I am, have a humidifier in the room as well. And that will help there just be more moisture in the air, which will also help with you having a dry mouth. Now, of course who please do not have the humidifier running while you're recording. Just turn it off during your recording sessions. Another thing that people really recommend, especially if it's because you don't have enough saliva is to eat like a green apple before you record and that obviously will get all those juices flowing. I am going to have an article linked in the show notes for more tips on how to reduce these mouth noises. So if you want to check those out, just go to podcasting for coaches. com, click on the podcast tab in the main menu and go to episode number 83. Okay, moving on from that absolutely disgusting topic. The next one, that is a pet peeve for a lot of people, if they're in the know, is asking for ratings and reviews, this is one of my biggest ones as well. I did a whole episode basically ranting about why you should stop doing this just last week. So make sure that you go and check out that episode if you want to know exactly why you should not be asking for ratings and reviews on your show. Alright, and another one that is a pet peeve of mine and anyone else in the know in podcasting is when people share just their Apple podcasts link when they're promoting their show. So anytime they share an episode, they just get the apple link. anytime they talk about their show, they just give the apple link. Now I covered in Episode 30 exactly why you should not do this and what link you should do instead. So if you want to find out that information, go check out Episode Number 30 of the show. But basically, you are alienating a lot of people by doing this. And you're probably making a lot of potential listeners not very happy with you. Alright, so the next one, during interviews, there are two things that really frustrate people. And I'm sure that you have experienced this as a listener yourself. One is if you're talking over your guest constantly. If you're not letting them get out a full thought before you feel like you have to interject with a comment. And this can be vice versa as well. This is of course, when the guest says the same thing to you. This is really, really frustrating. Anytime you hear somebody, at least for me, stepping all over somebody else when they're trying to talk to just be cognizant of that most of the time it just because you're really excited. You're not necessarily doing it in a malicious way, you just want to chime in, you want to have a conversation, you're excited, you want to respond to what they said. But just be aware that it could be frustrating the guests and the listener when you do this. Now most of the time, you won't know you do this unless you listen back to your own show. And then you're actually like paying attention for it and you realize that you do tend to cut people off. On the flip side of that is also letting the guests dominate the conversation. It's really frustrating for me as an editor, because I have to listen to so many of these different types of shows. Because honestly, as a podcast listener, I don't listen to a whole lot of interview shows. But as an editor I listened to several every week. And it's really, really frustrating for me when the guest goes on for like a 10 minute straight block, answering a question, and there's no introduction from the host. So it's the exact opposite of the other pet peeve. And most of the time, it's usually because a guest has gone off on some tangent. I literally just edited an episode last week for a client, where she asked a question that honestly could have been answered in like two or three words. It was a really simple question that could have had a really simple answer. And she let the guests go on for 12 minutes answering this question that Didn't honestly have anything to do with the content of the episode, she starts her episodes off with like a fun, unrelated question, kind of like an icebreaker. And literally the whole first 12 minutes of this person talking was about this icebreaker question, nothing to do with the content of the episode itself. So if that is the case, I want you to prep the guests ahead of time if you can. So if you have something like that, where it's a little bit unrelated, just be like, Hey, listen, I have a couple rapid fire questions. I'm going to ask you this one at the beginning, if you could just like keep your answer to you know, just some of them pretty quick, 30 seconds, one minute, that would totally be great. And then we'll get into the raw content. So I mean, you can always communicate that with your guests ahead of time. And then if they are just going on and on and on, and they will not stop, I have a tip for that, that you can actually get an episode 49, where I went over tips for being a great podcast interviewer. So feel free to check that out. If you feel like you need a little bit more guidance on how to really nail down these interviews so that they're a pleasant conversation for your listener. Okay, and the last thing that I'm going to talk about here, something that gets brought up quite a bit, especially by men, is the topic of vocal fry. If you don't know what vocal fry is, I have done it several times, I have vocal fry, most women have vocal fry. vocal fry is a when we draw things out and we get our voices like this. And it just kind of drags on and it's a little bit scratchy. That's vocal fry. And a lot of women have that in that. Okay, so many men, bitch about this, to be honest, like so many women podcasters get complaints and reviews talking about how their voices are annoying because of vocal fry. So yes, this is a pet peeve for a lot of people, but fuck them. I'm gonna be blunt. Your voice is your voice and you need to own it. Don't ever let anyone put you down for the way that you sound, especially if it's a man putting you down because you just sound like a woman. Okay, so I'm gonna have a vocal coach on the show. There are ways to improve vocal fry, if you yourself want to improve it, but not because somebody else tells you that you should. But eventually, yes, I will have a vocal coach on the show. If you are a vocal coach, reach out to me because I do not yet have anyone in mind for this. And we can talk about ways that you can reduce vocal fry and of course, just make your voice sound more powerful, and help it from getting more out because if you record long enough, your voice is going to get tired and you could possibly do some damage to your vocal cords. That we'll talk about that in a later episode. But for now, don't worry about your vocal fry. It's your voice on it. That's gonna wrap up for today. If you have any other podcasting pet peeves that I did not mention, I am really curious to hear about those and maybe I'll do another follow up episode if I get enough of them. Feel free to reach out again of course Instagram at podcasting or coaches have a fantastic week. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches calm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcast that you create and put out into the world.