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Every Podcast "Must" Is a Lie (Here Is the Proof) · Your Mic

• 0:00
  Somewhere in the guru corner of the internet, there's a guy in a ring light telling you if you don't have a cold open
• 0:07
  Nobody's gonna listen to your podcast
• 0:10
  Right next to him is another expert. I use that term loosely and he says cold opens are dead
• 0:16
  Hooks only and then a third one chimes in she'll tell you that if you're not on video and clipping your video into
• 0:22
  47 different clips your show is basically a voicemail
• 0:26
  Cool story not really
• 0:29
  Today, I want to introduce you to a little philosophical razor that slices through all of that
• 0:34
  absolutist garbage and hands your show back to you
• 0:40
  This is your mic the show where we take podcast rules
• 0:45
  Hold them up to the light and see which ones are strategy and which ones are just somebody's ego in a turtle neck
• 0:53
  My name is Freddy Cruz founder of speak podcasting and my job is
• 0:57
  Not to turn you into a content machine
• 1:00
  My job in this podcast is to help you build a show that can actually stay alive long enough to matter
• 1:08
  Today we're gonna talk about why any
• 1:11
  absolutist rule probably deserves a side eye and how to build rules that actually fit your life and your listeners
• 1:19
  Philosophers have this thing they call razors little one liners that help you cut through bad thinking
• 1:26
  Occam's razor, Hanlon's razor, Hitchens razor, that kind of stuff
• 1:31
  The one I want you to steal for your podcast is simple the more absolute the rule the easier it is to break
• 1:39
  Anytime somebody says you must or you always have to or you can never
• 1:44
  That's your cue to reach for the exception razor in logic those universal all X must Y statements are the most fragile
• 1:55
  One counter example and they're toast
• 1:58
  So when somebody tells you you've got to publish weekly or you've got to be on video
• 2:03
  It takes exactly one successful show that doesn't do that thing to prove it's not actually a rule
• 2:11
  It's just a preference with a loud microphone and a bunch of followers on LinkedIn
• 2:17
  For the next few minutes, we're gonna run some of the most common podcasts commandments through that blade and see what survives
• 2:26
  First up, you need a cold open or people won't stick around
• 2:31
  Well then explain every successful show
• 2:33
  Joe Rogan that doesn't use a cold open shows that start with a music bed in a straight-in
• 2:38
  Interviews that just fade up hey welcome back and still crush the exception razor says if even one hit show breaks the rule
• 2:47
  It's not a rule. It's a format choice
• 2:50
  The better question is this
• 2:54
  Does a cold open help your listener get oriented faster if yes?
• 2:59
  Keep it if not you're allowed to go straight into the episode without sacrificing your first born to the algorithm
• 3:06
  Commandment number two if you're not on video your podcast is dead I
• 3:13
  Say tell that to the audio only shows doing serious download numbers with zero
• 3:18
  YouTube strategy just consistent strong episodes on a cadence that doesn't wreck the hosts life
• 3:24
  You see video is a channel not a sacrament the exception razor says if plenty of thriving shows live without a channel on YouTube
• 3:34
  That channel is optional not mandatory the exception razor says this if plenty of thriving shows live without a channel that channel is
• 3:44
  optional
• 3:45
  Not mandatory so the real question is does video help your business and your audience right now if the honest answer is
• 3:55
  Not yet. You don't owe anyone anything especially on YouTube or TikTok and
• 4:02
  Then there's this the duoling commandments
• 4:06
  One side says be audio first protect the podcast the other says the podcast is just there so you can chop it into clips
• 4:15
  Both are pretending to be
• 4:17
  Universal laws in reality some shows grow like crazy on short-form clips others
• 4:24
  Barely clip it all and grow through email partnerships or one killer guest per quarter the exception razor says
• 4:31
  This if a tactic works brilliantly for some and terribly for others. It's not a rule. It is a tool and
• 4:39
  Tools last time I checked
• 4:41
  They don't get to boss you around
• 4:44
  So if all these absolutes are nonsense what does count as a real rule for your podcast?
• 4:50
  I like these three filters, okay?
• 4:53
  Capacity audience behavior and fit
• 4:57
  Capacity ask yourself can you do this on your worst week without hating your life if you can't hit it when everything goes wrong
• 5:06
  It's not a rule. It's a fantasy. This is why I keep saying weekly is not a commandment. It's only a suggestion
• 5:14
  Audience behavior what of your actual listeners shown you do they watch video do they reply to emails do they binge audio on drives
• 5:23
  Let their behavior promote your rules not some
• 5:27
  Strangers carousel on linked in or Instagram and I'll give you a personal example all right
• 5:31
  If you were to look into my back-end analytics the vast majority of my listens are just that
• 5:38
  Listen yes, I'm on YouTube. I do occasional full full-length videos and I clip those full-length videos
• 5:43
  I do some guest interviews with clients, but for the most part my YouTube strategy is
• 5:51
  Well, it's RSS audio only with the podcast cover art and if I have time thumbnails and that's probably
• 6:00
  Like sacrilege to the most religious youtuber and that's okay
• 6:06
  You know why because the vast majority of my following is through RSS listens specifically on
• 6:15
  Apple
• 6:16
  Yes, the vast majority of my performance comes from Apple not YouTube
• 6:23
  Not Spotify even though I am on YouTube and on Spotify
• 6:28
  So I know where my bread is buttered so back to the third one we did capacity
• 6:33
  We did audience behavior that third one is fit. Does this rule move people closer to your business?
• 6:38
  You're non-profit your mission or is it just feeding
• 6:42
  Platforms with free content while you burn out back to my personal example
• 6:46
  I am on YouTube, but I know where
• 6:49
  Everyone gets this show
• 6:51
  It's on Apple, but here's a scenario for you
• 6:55
  Let's say your reality is this you can record twice a month edit on the weekends and you've got a service-based business
• 7:01
  Your rule might be
• 7:03
  Audio only and it's not YouTube video
• 7:07
  Simple but strong show notes with one clear CTA occasional clips
• 7:11
  But only when there's something actually worth amplifying and that is a coherent system
• 7:17
  Not because a guru blessed on LinkedIn with a carousel
• 7:20
  But because it fits your life and it still serves your listeners and they've got that expectation two episodes on Apple or Spotify
• 7:27
  Wherever they listen and if they follow you on Instagram or on Facebook or on LinkedIn
• 7:32
  They're going to see content. So the next time you hear you must or you always have to or every successful show does X
• 7:41
  I want you to pause and run that exception razor through it
• 7:46
  Ask yourself this
• 7:48
  Is it a law of physics or just one person's favorite tactic pretending to be the 10 commandments of podcasting?
• 7:54
  If you want some help building a show that's based on your capacity your audience and your business
• 7:58
  Not somebody's absolute is hot take that sucks
• 8:02
  Well
• 8:03
  This is literally what we do at speak podcasting. I've got a road map
• 8:09
  I would love to send it to you for free. Hit me up. Freddie at speakpodcasting.com
• 8:15
  Or tap the link in the show notes. This is your mic. Thanks for listening
• 8:20
  Go break a fake rule or three