What Every Podcaster Should Know About Stalkers
I live in Cleveland, Ohio. Out sports teams are not good. We have tremendously talented people like LeBron James and Johnny Manzel, but still we can't win. Last year out football team the Cleveland Browns draft Johnny Manzel with their first round pick. Johnny rubbed his fingers together in a way to say, "I'm going to get paid." It became his signature. It appeared in Johnny's mind that he had achieved his goal. He had maid it to the NFL. The bad news is that is not THE goal of a football player. THE GOAL is to win the Super Bowl.
Johnny had a reputation as being a person who was more interested in parties than play books. He always seemed a bit unprepared. This was his first year, but Johnny was now a professional football player. In this league you either carry your weight, or you are traded. As more and more stories of Johnny (more or less) goofing off came to the surface (welcome to being famous), it really appeared that this kid had his priorities out of whack.
Paul Colligan has an episode where he said, "Starting A Podcast To Hit iTunes “New And Notable” Is Like Launching A Business To Get Into The Phone Book." This is a classic, and it ties into this analogy. The goal of a podcaster is not to be in New Noteworthy, the goal is to impact your audience. Your goal is to bring value. For some, the goal is to create revenue streams that help supplement their income. When I wrote my book "More Podcast Money" getting it into Amazon was not the goal, the goal was to help people set realistic financial goals with their podcast. Amazon is a tool to help me do that.
The 8 Week Myth About iTunes New and Noteworthy
In the book Podcast Launch (by John Lee Dumas) a very unfortunate paragraph states that you "Have a mere 8 weeks to be featured within the best podcast advertising real estate on the planet." This needs tweaked. It should read, "You can only be considered NEW for 8 weeks, you can be considered Noteworthy any time." Because of this unfortunate paragraph people are spending all their and effort focusing on getting into New and Noteworthy. This is very much like Johnny Manzel focusing on getting into the NFL. It's not the goal, it's a milestone. In the same way that being drafted into the NFL equals success (as many people get cut, and many first round draft picks never measure up to their potential).
You can get into iTunes (I outline the 27 steps here), and to get into New and Noteworthy you pretty much need a pulse.
Podcasting and Stalkers
When I was growing up my sister gave too much information to a guy she met on the bus. The next thing I know, is she is getting really creepy phone calls. We eventually had to work with the phone company and the local police (and his mother) to get him to stop calling. It was creepy
Talking in Generalizations Today
Let's not get to tied up in being 100% accurate today? What I mean by this is most stalking situations are men stalking women. In some cases it's men who are creepy. In many cases it's the women who are being too polite. Men are from Marz and Women are from Venus is not entirely accurate. There are always exceptions to the rule. Today, let's generalize and be OK with it.
Dr. Steve Albrecht
Dr. Steve Albrecht has worked with the San Diego police for years where he spent six years in the Domestic Violence Unit, and he handled over 1,500 cases. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in high-risk HR issues. he has authored many books on the subject of work place violence. Check out Dr. Steve Albrecht's Books and Amazon.com
The bad news about the Internet is when you put information out there, it's out there (pretty much forever). If you don't want naked pictures of yourself (celebrities) on the Internet, then don't post them. For me, I have a Facebook profile for my podcast, and one for my family and fiends. I share different items with different profiles.
Some questions we answer:
When is sharing personal information too much information?
What should I do if someone is crossing the line?
When do you get the police involved?
All I said was I liked her Steaks...
It was the first day of a new job. My boss introduced my to Angie Salsbury. I said, "I like your steaks" (making a silly joke). The next day I was told I would have to apologize. At first I thought my boss was joking, but he wasn't. So I walked over and stated I didn't mean to disrespect her and moved on. She actually was a great person, but I had no idea where she drew her line and I crossed it.
The bottom line is (Gentlemen if I can have your attention please), we don't know where the ladies draw the line. I've worked with women who said things that were so over the top sexually explicit that it would make a prostitute blush. We all have our limits. The bottom line is we have to respect each other's boundaries.
Don't Be Polite
Ladies, I love that you are so loving an caring. This is not one of those times when you need to worry about hurting someone's feelings. You don't have to be mean and call names, but you need to say in clear and precise words that you do not want any further interaction with this person. Do not leave any room for doubts.
Don't Let This Episode Stop You From Starting A Podcast
There are weird and creepy people who need help every day. You stand next to them at the grocery checkout. You sit next to them at the movies. This is not a huge problem in podcasting, but as more women get into podcasting I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. I wanted to let you know what to do, and how to act, and who to call if you think you might be having an issue.
Mentioned on this Episode
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