Today I share the story of some pretty harsh criticism I received, and how I had to deal with the fact that my listener had a point. Welcome to episode 639 of the School of Podcasting

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Today I'm talking about branding, and I could've invited Greg Corey  (Corey says, I love to talk to audiences about how creating better branding for themselves and their products can skyrocket their sales).  It took all of three seconds to find Greg, and we know he's looking to get on podcasts. 

Sign up at PodcastGuests.com/sop 

Fat Fingers Can Cause More Them Embarrassment

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In the last episode, I mentioned that I had brought up a controversial subject (Collin Kaepernick) and that people might tune out (the subject was controlling the conversation).

What is offending is not the episode but rather your poor grasp on basic spelling and grammar throughout many pages on this website.. By the way, if you want to sound like an authority, please learn basic spelling and grammar or hire someone (fiverr) to do it for you.. How do you have an education degree when this is how you write and communicate?

By the way, in the sub-title, “Freedom of Speach is Not Freedom from Consequences”- The word “speach” is spelled Speech. Any sixth grader knows that and certainly a g college graduate should know that as well.. It is not that hard. At least have your written copy proof read by someone who does know how to spell and write decently before publishing it to the world. Geez! I think that is pretty basic..

How again can you confidently charge $200 an hour for consulting when you have such poor spelling and grammar skills in your written web copy? You are a joke sir!

What college granted you a degree when you consistently cannot write legibly? and you are tying to sell yourself as an expert? Please! I will say again.. Please!

At least hire someone to cover your mistakes and not try to promote yourself as some sort of “expert” – You look like a damn fool sir

So I sent Mark Doyle and Email

Dear Mark,

Thanks for the comment. My Apologies for the typos. You're right I'm a damn fool and a joke of a human being...

Dave

Mark Sent Me a Reply

Mr. Jackson

I would like to take a moment and apologize for my comments and harsh criticisms. It was unwarranted and uncalled for and not like me at all to post something like that

Please accept my apologies Best of luck to you sir

Mark Made a Really Good Point in a Really Crappy Way

I hold no ill will toward Mark. Mark may have had a really bad day, and I have forgiven him. He did get me to check into why these typos got through (I was using two spell checkers, and Grammarly does a GREAT job). In a nutshell, I had logged out of Grammarly and it no longer was checking everything I typed. 

There is Probably More Than One Way To Fix Your Issue

I had typed my show notes about an hour before I published them. I did this to "flush out" ideas before I pressed record. Then I thought, would this not work a day or two (or a week) in advance so I could come and look at the copy with "Fresh eyes." Yes, this could be done. 

Another option would be to type shorter notes. This makes sense to a certain extent. I always want to have at least 300 words. I am currently at 1591. 

If I pushed thing back even further than a few days, I could hire someone to look over my posts. 

This is not an unsolvable issue. It just means I can't keep doing what I've always been doing. 

Your Podcast Is Your Brand

In looking up different items about what makes a good brand, I kept seeing things that I saw that I had dropped the ball on.

Neglecting Public Perception: The public’s perception of your brand might not be the rosiest, but instead of chalking it up to bad luck or pointing fingers, it’s time to get serious about turning that frown upside down. (source). 

Another article mentioned this as "Not providing great brand experience." Brand experience is not only about your stuff, but also your website experience and every other touch-point where customers come in contact with your brand. Another article stated, "Many savvy consumers judge credibility by grammar and attention to detail."

Why Branding Matters

The audience might feel:

• You value quantity over quality when you get sloppy
• You appear irresponsible
• You appear uncaring
• You think the audience stupid (as they won't notice)
• You're not the most intelligent person on the planet. 

The Internet Writes in Ink

While many blunders appear on the news and are replaced by tomorrows new headlines, don't plan on everyone's short attention span. Just ask Louis C. K (Sex offender), Chi-Fil-a (homophobic), Uber (employee Harassment), Target, Facebook, and many others (data breach), as well as other companies that have had topics that left a black eye. 

It's Just a Podcast

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You may be tempted to think, "It's just a podcast." That kind of talk will keep us in the "Minor Leagues" of content creators. 

We end up with a stereotype that sounds a lot like this video or this video where we are all giant nerds. 

Building Your Brand

You need to develop a brand strategy, and understand your business objectives and shift focus to that instead of designing a beautiful logo that won’t work. Also, realize your business strategy may be "THIS IS NOT A BUSINESS." With that in mind, you may want to blow off your brand. I would recommend you don't. 

When you launch your podcast you are creating your brand. In looking at a TON of articles about branding, here are some things to consider:

22:35

Pat Flynn talks about the Four P's. These are: Places: You want to create your list of places where your target audience exists. This could be online or offline. I like to go to conferences, meetups, and events. My goal is to tell you the eye color of my target audience. It's not just in person, look at what publications they read (those kinds of things). 

People: Look at the people in your space who already have a following. You don't do this to rip them off, but to see what is working. You can see what they are covering.

Products: Make a list of all the products and their prices. 

Position: After you look at where they are, who they are following, and seeing the products, you can see if there is any place where you can take your unique perspective (where you explain things in a way that immediately obvious or cliche). 

I love the quote by Seth Godin, "Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” 

If you haven't read the book "Will it Fly" by Pat Flynn, you should. You can even listen to Pat Read it on Audible (you can get the book for free if you're a new customer) go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/freebook 

You need to research your competitors, look for points of differentiation, then define who you are, who your customers are and how to connect with them

The Podcast Brand Experience

Some 23% of consumers say they would stop using a brand after a bad experience. (source) In that report, they were talking about dealing with rude employees, etc. However, in podcasting what is part of the experience:

• Your intro/outro 
• Your audio quality
• Your logo
• Your voice (tone, accent)
• Your grammar
• How quickly you get to your topic
• The relevancy of advertisements if you have them
• Your volume levels
• The quality of your content. Are you boring?
• Your show notes (we did a whole episode on do people look at these?)

I'm Worried About This Post

As I write this in October of 2018, people are freaking out about the little things that often don't matter (what font on your artwork, what theme for their website) and while all of that is your brand, if you try to wait until everything is perfect you will NEVER start your podcast. Keep in mind you can change your brand (Dunkin Doughnuts is changing their brand to Dunkin, Starbucks used to have BOOBIES in their logo. BOOBIES!

What I Want You To Take Away

From time to time you may get some negative feedback. Some of it may be constructive, and some it may be cruel. Today my point is, no matter how feedback is provided you need to ask yourself, "Is it true? Do they have a point?" and in the case of Mark Doyle - he did and I thank him for that. 

Ideas For Adding Merchandise To Your Podcast

I have an interview with James from Tee Public from the last day of Podcast Movement (hence the lack of voice, and the loud background).

• Ideas on how to integrate merchandise with your show
• How to sell without being "salesy"
• There are more products - not just t-shirts
• Now with coverage in the UK
• More features coming very soon.

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