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7 Lessons Podcasters Can Learn From "Weird Al" Yankovic · Randy Unscripted

0:09
Randy Black: The goal
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isn't to win the moment.
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The goal is to outlast
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the moment.
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Randy Black.
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Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy
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Black. Randy Randy
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Black. He's a troublemaker.
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Welcome back to Randy Unscripted.
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I'm Randy Black, and this is the podcast where
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I kinda just talk about things that come across my brain whenever they happen to come across. And then last night,
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as I tried to go to bed,
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I was hit with a burst,
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a burst of inspiration,
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and that's where this episode came from. So first off, I wanna start
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with a question.
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When you think of successful creators,
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who comes to mind?
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Maybe it's a best selling author.
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Maybe it's a famous YouTuber.
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Maybe it's a musician who's topped the charts for years.
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My guess, though, is that
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very few of you
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answered
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weird Al Yankovic.
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And yet if your definition of success includes longevity,
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relevance,
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professionalism,
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and the ability
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to build an audience that stays with you for decades,
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he might be one of the most successful creators
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of the last fifty years.
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After all, he's the guy that turned beat it into eat it,
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bad into fat,
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happy into tacky.
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He's the accordion playing parody musician who somehow built an entire career around taking popular songs
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and giving them a comedic twist.
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But here's what's fascinating.
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While countless artists have come and gone over the past four decades,
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Weird Al's still here.
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I just saw him in concert on Saturday night.
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He's still recognizable.
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He's still respected,
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and he's still finding new audiences.
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And when you look closely at how he's managed to do that, there's some surprisingly valuable lessons there
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for us, for podcasters.
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In fact, I'd argue that many podcasters spend their time studying people who become famous quickly
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when they might be better served studying someone who managed to stay relevant for more than four decades.
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Because podcasting,
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it isn't about going viral.
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It's about staying in the game,
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and that's where Weird Al has a lot to teach us.
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The first lesson that we can get from Weird Al Yankovic is this.
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Find your niche and own it and stick with it.
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One of the biggest mistakes that creators make is trying to be everything
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to everyone.
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When Alfred Yankovic started his career, he wasn't trying to become the next rock star. He wasn't trying to outsing the biggest artist of the day. He wasn't trying to compete directly with the people at the top of the charts.
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Instead, he found a lane that was uniquely his.
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He took music seriously enough to make it sound great, but he didn't take himself so seriously
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that he couldn't have fun with it.
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The result was something that audiences
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hadn't really seen before.
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Now let's bring that back to podcasting.
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There are thousands upon thousands of podcasts available today.
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Whatever topic you're interested in,
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chances are there are dozens, maybe hundreds of shows that are covering it. Technology,
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education,
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faith, politics, sports, business, everything.
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The temptation is to look at what's popular
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and try to imitate it.
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But if you're simply copying someone else's show,
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listeners already have the original.
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What makes a podcast memorable
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isn't that it sounds exactly like every other podcast in its category.
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What makes it memorable
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is
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that it sounds
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like you.
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That's something I've
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thought about quite a bit here with Randy Unscripted.
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This isn't strictly a technology podcast.
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It's not strictly a faith podcast. It's not strictly an education podcast. It's not strictly a personal journal. It's a little bit of all those things because that's who I am.
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And whether you're a podcaster, a writer, a musician, or any other type of creator,
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your greatest advantage is the one thing nobody else can duplicate,
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and that's your perspective.
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Weird Al,
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he understood that.
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He didn't try to become somebody else.
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He became the best version of himself,
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and that's a lesson every podcaster
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should take to heart.
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The second lesson is one that many creators
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know intellectually,
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but they struggle to embrace emotionally.
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Consistency
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beats virality.
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We live in a culture
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that loves overnight success stories.
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Every week, there's a new creator who seems to appear out of nowhere. A video goes viral. Podcasts explode in popularity. A social media account gains hundreds of thousands of followers seemingly overnight.
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And because those stories are so visible,
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it's easy to assume that's how success normally happens.
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The reality is that most lasting success
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is much less exciting.
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It's built one project at a time, one episode at a time, one audience member at a time.
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That's certainly true for Weird Al. His career wasn't built on a single hit.
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It wasn't built on one lucky break. It wasn't built on one moment of Internet fame.
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It was built on showing up year after year, decade after decade, and continuing to create.
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Think about how many changes we've witnessed.
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Vinyl records,
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cassette tapes,
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compact discs, digital downloads, streaming services, YouTube, social media, entire industries have risen and fallen during the span of his four decade career.
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Yet somehow
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he remained relevant through all of it.
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Why?
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Because he understood something that many creators forget.
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The goal isn't to win the moment.
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The goal is to outlast the moment.
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I think that's especially important for podcasters to hear.
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Podcasting can be discouraging at times.
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You spend hours preparing, recording, editing, publishing, and promoting an episode.
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Then you compare your numbers to someone else's and wonder if any of them are making a difference.
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Maybe you've experienced that yourself.
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Maybe you've launched a project with excitement only to discover that growth happens much more slowly than you expected.
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Well, that's normal.
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In fact, that's probably closer to the rule than the exception.
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Podcasts
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that succeed over the long term
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are often not the ones that start the fastest.
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They're the ones that refuse to quit.
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Every episode becomes part of a larger body of work.
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Every conversation
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strengthens your skills.
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Every publication date becomes evidence that you're still showing up.
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Over time,
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compounds.
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It's a little like planting a tree.
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For a long time, it doesn't look like much is happening.
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Then one day you realize
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something has taken root.
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The creator who keeps showing up eventually has something that the creator chasing shortcuts never develops,
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trust.
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Listeners begin to trust that there will be another episode.
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They begin to trust the quality of the content.
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They begin to trust the voice behind the microphone,
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and trust is far more valuable than temporary spikes in attention.
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Weird Al didn't build a forty plus year career by chasing every trend.
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He built it by continuing to create while trends came and went around him.
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The third lesson is simple,
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respect your audience.
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Every podcast listener has choices,
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more choices than ever before.
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When someone chooses to spend thirty minutes or an hour listening to your show, they're giving you something valuable,
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their time.
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Once you begin viewing the audience that way, it changes how you approach your work.
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You stop asking, how can I get more downloads?
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And you start asking,
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how can I better serve the people who are already listening?
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And that shift, it matters.
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It affects how you prepare. It affects how you communicate. It affects the level of care that you bring to every episode.
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Some of the most successful podcasts have huge audiences,
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but many of the most meaningful podcasts
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have loyal audiences.
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People who return week after week because they feel a genuine connection to the creator,
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people who feel seen,
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people who feel valued,
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people who feel like they're part of something,
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And that doesn't happen through marketing alone.
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It happens through trust.
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It happens through authenticity.
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It happens when listeners know that a person behind the microphone
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genuinely
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appreciates them.
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Weird Al's reputation wasn't built simply because he was talented.
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It was built because he treated people well.
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Fans appreciated it. Collaborators appreciated it. The artists he parodied
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appreciated it.
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His success demonstrates that you don't have to build an audience through outrage,
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controversy,
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or arrogance.
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Sometimes
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the most sustainable path is simply becoming someone people enjoy supporting.
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The fourth lesson is one that often gets overlooked,
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and that's that quality matters.
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When people think about Weird Al's music, they focus on humor.
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But the humor works because the music itself
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is exceptionally well crafted.
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The arrangements
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are all polished. The performances
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are all professional.
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The production is excellent. His band doesn't sound like they're mocking popular popular music at all. They sound like they could have recorded the original songs themselves.
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And,
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honestly,
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they really could have. I've seen them live three times, and they're amazing.
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The joke of the song of the parody succeeds
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because the craftsmanship
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that Al and his band has is real.
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Podcasting works in the same way.
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Listeners notice when your audio is clear.
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They notice when stories are organized. They notice when research is thorough. They notice when transitions feel natural.
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The goal isn't perfection.
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The goal is excellence.
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It's bringing your best effort to every single episode.
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It's respecting your audience enough to produce something you're proud to put your name on.
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Quality compounds just like consistency does.
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Each episode teaches you something.
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Each recording
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sharpens your delivery.
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Each editing session improves your skills.
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Eventually, listeners begin associating your work with a certain standard,
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not because you're the biggest creator,
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but because you're committed to doing good work.
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The fifth lesson is adapt without losing yourself.
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Every creator eventually faces this challenge.
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Technology changes,
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platforms change,
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audience expectations
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change.
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The question becomes whether you can
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evolve without abandoning what made you unique in the first place.
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And,
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Weird Al adapted constantly.
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The songs he parodied in the nineteen eighties
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were very different from those in the nineteen nineties.
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The songs of the streaming era were still different,
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far beyond those.
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His subject matter evolved because culture evolved,
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yet every project
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still felt unmistakably
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like Weird Al.
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The tools changed.
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The personality did not.
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Podcasters face those same challenges.
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Every year brings a new trend.
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Video podcasts, and that's the big one right now. Short form clips,
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live streaming, artificial intelligence,
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whatever comes next, it's important to pay attention
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to the new opportunities.
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It's equally important not to lose sight of who you are because trends are coming and going. Identity endures. We should continue learning. We should continue to experiment. We should embrace technologies that make our work better, but technology
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should never become a mission.
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The mission should remain the mission.
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The sixth lesson is one I think many creators often overlook,
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and that's the power of being known for something.
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Mention Weird Al's name and most people immediately know what he represents,
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not because he's the biggest selling musician in history, but because he owns a specific place in people's minds.
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When people think of parody music, they think of Weird Al. That's powerful.
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Not because it's limiting,
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because it's memorable.
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As podcasters, it's worth asking ourselves a difficult question. What are we known for?
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Not what we hope to be known for, not what we put in our social media bios.
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What our listeners are associating with our work.
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Most creators don't struggle with a lack of ambition.
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They struggle with a lack of focus.
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We want to cover every topic.
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We want to chase every trend, reach every audience,
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but the broader we spread ourselves, the harder it becomes
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for people to understand what makes us unique.
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Being known for something doesn't mean being one dimensional.
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It means being recognizable.
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When someone recommends your podcast to a friend, what do they say?
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Can they describe it in a sentence?
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Can they explain why it matters?
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Can they explain why it's different?
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For me, Randy Unscripted has never been about chasing headlines. And if you look at the downloads, it's definitely not about that. It's never been about following the trends.
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It's been about sharing lessons from technology, education, faith, family, and life through
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honest conversations,
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through my own personal experiences, my own research.
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Those themes appear repeatedly because they're part of who I am.
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Eventually, the things you care about most
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begin to define your work.
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Weird Al became memorable because he was unmistakably
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himself,
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and that's a lesson worth remembering.
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In a crowded world, clarity
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is definitely a competitive advantage.
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And finally,
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the seventh lesson that podcasters can learn from Weird Al,
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build a career,
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not a moment.
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One of the reasons we're talking about Weird Al today is because his success can't be reduced to a single achievement.
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It's the cumulative result of decades of work.
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When people discuss his career, they don't point to just one song.
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They point to an entire body of work,
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a legacy.
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That's something creators often forget,
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especially in a world today that's obsessed with metrics.
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We're tempted to focus on individual moments. You know, the episode with the most downloads, the post with the most engagement, the video with the most views,
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and those moments, they're exciting.
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But moments fade.
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Careers, however, endure.
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A creator who builds everything around one moment eventually spends their life searching for the next one.
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A creator who builds a body of work creates something that's much more durable.
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That's one of the things I appreciate most about podcasting.
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Every episode becomes part of a larger story,
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a larger journey,
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a larger collection of lessons, experiences, and ideas.
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And years from now, listeners may not remember every individual episode,
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but they may remember how your work made them feel.
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They may remember lessons they learned.
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They may remember moments that encouraged them when they needed encouragement.
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That's meaningful.
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That's lasting.
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When I look at Weird Al Yankovic's career, I don't see someone who's mastered parody music.
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I see someone who has mastered longevity.
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Someone who found a unique voice,
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committed to quality, adapted to change, respected his audience, stayed true to his values, and kept showing up year after year.
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Those lessons
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apply far beyond music.
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They apply to podcasts.
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They apply to business. They apply to leadership. They apply to life.
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So perhaps the greatest lesson podcasters can learn from Weird Al Jankovic is this.
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Don't focus solely on becoming successful.
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Focus
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on becoming sustainable
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because success can happen in a moment,
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but a meaningful creative career,
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man,
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it's built over a lifetime.
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Thank you for joining me today on this episode of Randy Unscripted.
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I'm so happy that you've taken the time out of your day to give it a listen.
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I would appreciate any feedback you might have. You can do that by commenting on the post on our website, randyunscripted.com
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for this episode. You could also send me an email, Randy@RandallBlack.com,
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and I'd be glad to hear whatever you have to share with me there, and I might even mention it on the show in the future.
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You could also if you're willing or wanting to support us in some way, you can head over to randyunscripted.com/support,
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and there's a link there. You can use PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, a couple other services there that you can throw some support our way to help with the cost associated
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here with the show.
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I appreciate every one of you again. I just wanna make sure that you know that. I appreciate those of you all of you because you listen. You take the time, the time out of your day to listen to what I have to say when I ramble on these things every week or so. So until next time, remember that this is Randy Unscripted.
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I'm Randy Black, and we'll be back again in the future for real talk,
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real life that is 100%
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unscripted.