072 My Top Tips for Podcasters Recording on the Road

02/05/19 • 7 min

Just One Tip from Your Podcast Performance Coach

So, you’re hitting the road and you want to take your podcast with you. Well, you’re in luck because I love to travel and I know exactly what you should and shouldn’t do to record decent audio on the go.

A lot of podcasters need to record audio on the road. And my tip is DON’T. Seriously, if you don’t need to, as in, if with just a little bit of planning and organization you could record before you go on vacation then do that. Seriously, if you’re just going on vacation for a week don’t bring your podcast along. You’re only going to annoy your family, turn off your listeners by irrelevantly bragging about where you are (instead of enjoying it) and, take it from me... getting sand out of a windsock is a real bitch.

If, on the other hand, you are often on the road, you’re a digital nomad, or your podcast is about being on the road - then let’s get down to some tips on how to get a consistent sound wherever you and your mic find yourselves.

Your Listener Should Not be Able to Hear that You’re on the Road.

In this episode, I weigh out the options I considered about how much gear to bring (ranging from nothing to my entire studio). I also test out a few mic options (you’ll never believe what won out!) and share live sound tests so you can hear the difference a room can make.

I’ll even share my favourite, act like you’re 4 years old’ trick, that will vastly improve your recording. Plus, it’s so much fun!

So, if you’re location-independent, a travel podcaster, or just too damned busy to pre-record enough shows to cover off your vacation - this episode is for you. Time for the mobile podcast.

Speaking of being too busy, why not off-load something... like say editing. Did you know that I edit podcasts? Yes, even from the road. If you want to find out how you can ship your podcast editing off to me, visit my website or sign up for a free 15-minute call and we can chat about it.

Referenced in this episode:

Episode 42 Getting the most from your podcast mic

Episode 67 This is the Bare Minimum You Need to Reach in Podcasting

Recording App for iPad: Voice Record Pro

Your Listener Should Not be Able to Hear that You’re on the Road.

I’ll even share my favourite, act like you’re 4 years old’ trick, that will vastly improve your recording. Plus, it’s so much fun!

So, if you’re location-independent, a travel podcaster, or just too damned busy to pre-record enough shows to cover off your vacation - this episode is for you. Time for the mobile podcast.

Referenced in this episode:

Episode 42 Getting the most from your podcast mic

Episode 67 This is the Bare Minimum You Need to Reach in Podcasting

Recording App for iPad: Voice Record Pro

Previous Episode

071 How I Tripled My Podcast Downloads One Day

It’s the holy grail of podcasting - the secret to growing your audience! In this episode, I’m going to reveal the one thing you need to do to see those download steadily increase. So, get ready to have you mind blown.

For a lot of podcasters, a big audience is the sign of success. But, should it be? Really, when you park the ego for a minute - do you really need astronomical downloads for your podcast to be worth the effort? If your podcast is a marketing tool (as in, it’s part of your content marketing strategy) then big numbers aren’t always the most important thing. Having a relevant audience filled with potential customers - that’s much more important. But, how do you attract that audience?

In this episode of Just the Tip, I talk about how to use some of the standard audience-growth strategies. Plus, I’ll share the one thing I did that tripled my daily downloads. Before we get to that, let’s review some of the basics that pretty much every podcast marketer will tell you to try.

The Basic Podcast Marketing Tips

I can’t lay claim to creating any of these strategies but lots of podcasters are consistently doing these to grow their audience:

Be Consistent (in your quality and release schedule)
Promote on Social Media
Appear on Other Podcasts
Use SEO Best Practices on your Podcast Website
Ask Your Listeners to Subscribe
Distribute Your Podcast Everywhere (including YouTube)

These all take time but if you want to grow your audience, these are tried and tested strategies.

In addition to these, I also recommend shining a spotlight on yourself and showing off your expertise and knowledge. This leads us to my growth hacking experiment. I wanted to see if I could significantly move the needle on my downloads if I did just one thing. And, it worked!

I’ll tell you what I did and how you can do it too. I’ll also tell you what NOT to do when it comes to testing this out for yourself. Take my challenge, and see if you can move the needle too.

Hey - don’t forget to subscribe to my podcast. You never want to miss one of my tips! They’re just what you need to consistently make your podcast better. Or, you could just keep being mediocre. Your call.

D’uh. Subscribe!

Next Episode

073 How to Kill a Bad Podcast Interview

It happens to the best of us. Even the pros have bad interviews. Or, rather bad guests. So, what do you do when your podcast guest is crappy, drunk, an ass, incoherent or just pointless? You kill the interview.

In this episode of Just the Tip, I walk you through the steps of killing a bad interview. Yes, there is a right and a wrong way to do this.

So, what constitutes a bad guest? It’s simple - the content they deliver doesn’t serve your audience and/or it doesn’t help you deliver on your promise to your listener.

There are ways to avoid getting into this situation, ahem, episode 67. And, there are ways to solve it on the spot, cough-cough, episode 63. But, if you do all of these things and you still wind up with an episode that just needs to be encased in cement and dropped off a long pier - this episode is your guide.

I’ve seen a lot of people in forums and groups discuss this scenario. And, frankly, that’s what inspired this episode. Mostly because I saw some pretty bad advice in those forums.

It happens from time to time in radio, when we’re lucky enough to have pre-recorded the interview. And let me tell you, a good radio producer will not hesitate to kill a bad interview. And, they don’t feel guilty about it either. It’s all about having the right mindset and commitment to your listeners.

It’s these producer tips that I’m sharing in this episode. Every podcaster experiences a bad guest. Be armed with the right way to get rid of them (and sooner rather than later) so that you never have to freak out about what to do (and go to get advice from some online forum that will only lead to you getting a crap reputation).

By the way, there’s even a way to kill a bad interview AND turn the whole thing into an opportunity. If you want that tip, sign up for my Tipsletter right now... it’ll be in my next newsletter!

Or, tap directly into this kind of ridiculous genius by booking a free 15-min call with me.