Ep 66: What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Podcasting

[00:00:00] Verity: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Lazy Girls Guide to podcasting with me, Verity.

[00:00:06] Verity: This is a little bit surreal, this episode, because I'm actually recording it on Instagram Live and on Twitter spaces as well as recording the episode.

[00:00:15] Verity: So if you are watching on either Instagram live or listening through Twitter spaces, you're actually going to be hearing this episode a little bit earlier because it's not coming out for another two, two weeks.

[00:00:25] Verity: But then it's a little bit strange as well because I'm looking at my computer and I can just see my face everywhere.

[00:00:29] Verity: So if I do this again in the future, I need to figure out a way of doing it so that I'm not distracted by seeing my own face.

[00:00:36] Verity: But this is something that I wanted to do more of.

[00:00:38] Verity: 2024 is just recording the episodes live as well so that we can, I don't know, reach more people and just pushes me out my comfort zone because I'm all about experimenting with different things when it comes to podcasting.

[00:00:52] Verity: And you never know, this might get more people listening to the show, but what we are talking about today is, and bear with me on this one because you might think it's a little bit of a care of bull, but what Taylor Swift can teach us about podcasting now, before anyone gets too, too excited.

[00:01:10] Verity: To my knowledge, no, Taylor Swift has not started her own podcast.

[00:01:15] Verity: That would be super cool.

[00:01:16] Verity: Not too sure what she'd talk about if it'd be like a personal thing or whatever.

[00:01:20] Verity: The point is, Taylor Swift has not started her own podcast, to her knowledge, and that is not what this podcast episode is about.

[00:01:27] Verity: I'm sure if she had started her own podcast, we would all know about it already because the swifties of the world would have already let us know.

[00:01:34] Verity: And I live with a pretty big swifty in my daughter.

[00:01:39]

[00:01:39] Verity: But I want to talk about what Taylor Swift can teach us about podcasting.

[00:01:45] Verity: In a speech not too, too long ago, Taylor said, and I quote, they're saying that I'm dating too much in my twenty s.

[00:01:53] Verity: Okay, I'll stop.

[00:01:55] Verity: I'll just be single for years.

[00:01:57] Verity: And now they're saying my album red, is filled with too many breakup songs.

[00:02:01] Verity: Okay, I'll make one about moving to New York and deciding that really my life is much more fun with just my friends.

[00:02:08] Verity: Oh, they're saying my music is changing too much for me to stay in country music.

[00:02:12] Verity: All right.

[00:02:14] Verity: Okay.

[00:02:15] Verity: Here's an entire genre shift and a pop album called 1989.

[00:02:19] Verity: So what has this got to do with podcasting?

[00:02:23] Verity: Well, to be honest with you, the biggest thing that I want you to take away from this episode is that you will never, ever be able to please everybody or appeal to everybody with your podcast.

[00:02:37] Verity: And that is absolutely fine.

[00:02:40] Verity: You do not need to appeal to everybody.

[00:02:42] Verity: You do not need to be everybody's favorite podcast.

[00:02:44] Verity: You need to appeal to your audience and to your target audience.

[00:02:51] Verity: And that's the most important thing.

[00:02:53] Verity: And I think sometimes we can get so bogged down with listening to feedback and people saying, oh, I don't like this episode.

[00:03:00] Verity: I don't like this.

[00:03:01] Verity: And you're trying to change so much for the people who are really, really vocal that actually you end up not creating content necessarily for yourself or for the people who come and talk and talk about your content, listen to your content, they just don't shout about it.

[00:03:23] Verity: Now, obviously, we know that that's then going a little bit away from the Taylor Swift example, because we know that people are incredibly vocal about liking her content and loving her music.

[00:03:32] Verity: She is an absolute icon at this stage in the world in 2024.

[00:03:38] Verity: But my point is that you could go down an entire rabbit hole with your podcast.

[00:03:44] Verity: You could create a certain suite of episodes or a series of episodes, whatever, and then you get some feedback, maybe from just a small community of people saying, I really didn't like this.

[00:03:55] Verity: And you're like, okay, then, so I'll change, and I'll do this instead.

[00:03:57] Verity: And then you still get people saying, oh, but I don't like this either.

[00:04:00] Verity: And so you're like, okay, maybe I'll do something a little bit different.

[00:04:03] Verity: Maybe I'll change the intro, or I'll do this, or I'll do that.

[00:04:07] Verity: And I face that as well.

[00:04:08] Verity: So, for example, when I got rid of that kind of quote unquote classic intro from the podcast and decided to literally just go straight into the podcast episode, I had people turn around and be like, but why are you doing that?

[00:04:20] Verity: That'll never work.

[00:04:21] Verity: That's just a completely stupid idea.

[00:04:22] Verity: What are you doing?

[00:04:23] Verity: But I wasn't changing the intro for them, and I was changing it for me.

[00:04:28] Verity: And actually, I've received feedback from people who say, I quite like the fact that you just dive into it and you don't have this crazy long intro and, like, all this music, which is really irritating, and you just can't get onto the actual episode.

[00:04:39] Verity: And a lot of that was because my episodes are only 1015 minutes long.

[00:04:43] Verity: They're designed to be binged.

[00:04:45] Verity: So I don't want you to have to be stuck listening to the same intro all the time because I could see how that would get slightly annoying.

[00:04:51] Verity: It annoys me when I listen to podcasts that are short and snappy, and I spend half the time in my car just listening to an intro.

[00:04:59] Verity: So my point is that you are never going to be able to create content that is going to please everybody.

[00:05:06] Verity: Now, I'm not saying don't experiment with your content, and we're actually going to be covering that in March.

[00:05:11] Verity: I think I've got that episode scheduled for.

[00:05:13] Verity: We're doing a great episode.

[00:05:14] Verity: We've got Adam from podcasting business school back on the podcast, and we're talking all about the importance of experimenting with your podcast, which is really cool.

[00:05:22] Verity: And really, you know, I'm not talking about experimenting and saying don't experiment.

[00:05:28] Verity: What I'm saying is don't be afraid to experiment, but also don't be afraid to stick to something that you know and you love just because a few people have been negative and responded with, oh, but we don't like this, or why have you changed that or whatever?

[00:05:47] Verity: The end of the day, it's your podcast and it's your content.

[00:05:50] Verity: You've got to be happy with what you are creating.

[00:05:54] Verity: So, yes, as I said, create what you and your audience love and never be scared to switch it up.

[00:06:01] Verity: And if you do switch it up, if you're enjoying that switch up, then do you know what?

[00:06:05] Verity: Most of the time, your audience will come with you.

[00:06:09] Verity: They will come with you, and they will go on that journey with you.

[00:06:12] Verity: And if you lose one or two listeners, then do you know what?

[00:06:16] Verity: You'll probably gain an awful lot more listeners with your switch up.

[00:06:22] Verity: Like I said, you can't appeal to everybody.

[00:06:24] Verity: And if you change something and it really doesn't work, the worst thing that you do is you run that change for a few episodes, and then you can actually do a reflection on it and turn around to your audience and say, do you know what?

[00:06:35] Verity: I tried this, but I'm not going to try it again because it just did not work.

[00:06:40] Verity: And then they're going on that journey with you, which, to be honest with you, people will probably enjoy going on that journey with you as well.

[00:06:48] Verity: And like I said, if it doesn't work, your audience will probably still be there.

[00:06:52] Verity: Yes, it might have gone down by a few listeners, but your audience also has the potential to possibly be even bigger than before.

[00:07:00] Verity: So, as I said, don't be afraid to change, but also don't feel like you have to change because of what a few people say as well, I hope that you have found this episode useful.

[00:07:14] Verity: I'm going to sign off there because otherwise I feel like I could keep going on.

[00:07:17] Strategies for Successful Podcasting

[00:07:17] Verity: Before I do, I want to shout out Hannah on Instagram who left me a lovely message saying I'm about to release a podcast and I'm loving all of these success tips.

[00:07:28] Verity: Thank you.

[00:07:29] Verity: As ever.

[00:07:29] Verity: I love reading all of your comments, all of your dms, so please do keep them coming in because I might shout you out on a future episode.

[00:07:38] Verity: If you want more nuggets of inspiration like this about your podcast, then please subscribe to the weekly newsletter.

[00:07:45] Verity: It's at veritysongon.com newsletter.

[00:07:49] Verity: I will get that link down in the show notes.

[00:07:52] Verity: It would be great to see you.

[00:07:54] Verity: Like I said, I send that email out every week.

[00:07:56] Verity: It is my thing for 2024 and so far I have not missed a single week since I want to say like November of 23.

[00:08:03] Verity: So the weekly newsletter is a big goal of mine for 2024.

[00:08:08] Verity: So I would love you to be signed up to it so that you can keep up with all of the goings on of the Lazy Girls Guide to podcasting and also all the podcasting tips that I send out each week as well.

[00:08:18] Verity: So that's Verity song slash newsletter.

[00:08:22] Verity: Otherwise, thank you so much for joining me for another episode.

[00:08:26] Verity: I'm Verity.

[00:08:26] Verity: This has been the Lazy Girls guided podcasting and I will see you next episode.