Best Podcasts for Moms

May 27, 2020 / podbean / Leave a comment

Moms come in all shapes and sizes, from diverse cultural backgrounds and family situations. There’s no one right path to navigating all that motherhood brings. But, no matter what your situation or how you figure things out, knowing you aren’t alone helps. And, one place you can find support, resources, advice, stories, and solidarity is in podcasts.

So, we have put together a list of some of the best podcasts for Moms. Just like the Moms we love, these podcasts are diverse in their perspectives and approaches. Moms, we hope you find something you love! We would very much appreciate it if you would share some of your favorite podcasts in the comments section too.

You can find this topic featured in the Podbean app to listen on the go. If you don’t already have the Podbean app, download it for free in the App Store or Google Play store. It’s the best way to listen and discover new podcasts you’ll love, with recommendations of hot topics plus personalized recommendations based on what you listen to most. You can also listen to these podcasts online here.

Best Podcasts for Moms

Band of Mothers Podcast

(Formally The Pump and Dump Podcast) Shayna and Tracey, creators of The Pump and Dump Show — a nationally touring comedy show for moms — go deeper into what it’s like to be a woman who is also a mom

Yours Cluelessly, Mom

A podcast for pregnant ladies and new moms where we share our experiences and research so that YOU can be better prepared than us!

The MILF Podcast – Mom I’d Like To Friend

Join @momshamilton founder Shelbi De Silva and her fellow mama neighbourino @chelseymarieoc Chelsey O’Callaghan for your dose of sanity on the Mom I’d Like to Friend podcast.

Thankful Homemaker: A Christian Homemaking Podcast

A Homemaking Podcast to encourage Christian wives, mothers and homemakers in the role God has called them to.

The Pumping Podcast l Motherhood, Babies, Family

Listen to interviews of other families while you’re pumping or breastfeeding those little babies. Episodes by mamas, for mamas about being and becoming a mom

Nourishing the Mother

Journey with us as we discuss the many layers of being a mother today, where we have come from and where we want to go.

The Mother Like a Boss Podcast

Here at the Mother Like a Boss Podcast, we dive into the good, the bad and the ugly of motherhood and modern homemaking, with honest conversations, tips, strategies and tools.

Don’t Mom Alone Podcast

Heather MacFadyen, mother of four boys, connects you the listener with people and resources to help you feel less alone.

Where My Mom’s At? w/ Christina P.

Christina P. is a comedian and exhausted mother of two young boys. WMMA explores all thing parenting – from colossal mom fails to the quiet rage you feel when your toddler won’t nap.

Mom Struggling Well

Join the host as she asks all kinds of moms how they’re struggling WELL.

Mom Brain

Being a mom is full-on and full-time. Equal parts FUN and WTF. Our kids don’t come with instructions, and it’s ok if we don’t have all the answers. We’ll figure it out together.

The Mom Hour

Weekly conversations offer practical tips and real-life encouragement for moms who want to enjoy motherhood more, and cut back on comparison, worry, and stress.

Mom Is In Control Podcast

Each episode brings you successful women who share their journey, failures, aha moments and successes along the way. We end each episode with a lightning round of action steps, tips and resources to help you take back control and get started on a life that truly lights you up.

It’s a mom’s world (Swiss)

Der ehrlichste Mama-Podcast der Schweiz. “The most honest Mom podcast in Switzerland.”

Mamas Unplugged (Swiss)

Elternsein Unplugged – Über Leben mit Kindern. Der erste unabhängige Schweizer Elternpodcast. Wir reden über alles, was der Familienalltag mit sich bringt. Mal Freud, mal Leid, mal Humor, mal Tiefgang. Und immer: Unplugged. “The first independent Swiss parenting podcast.”

Woke Mommy Chatter

Host Tanya Hayles has curated a list of guests who tell stories about everything from making Mom friends to keeping kids safe and cover topics like homeschooling, mental health, Trump, and single mothering.

Plus Mommy Podcast

Plus Mommy explores plus size pregnancy, motherhood and body love.

The Adoption Connection

If you’re an adoptive parent looking for hope, practical tools, and friends who understand, this podcast is for you.

The Single Mom Podcast

Helping single mothers break through the struggles holding them back so they can start building their own success stories!

Updates to Podbean Sites: “Like” and “Follow”

May 26, 2020 / podbean / Leave a comment

We have updated and optimized some items on Podbean sites. First, the “follow” button can now be found at the top right corner of the navigation bar.

Additionally, if you use our brand removal feature, the Podbean logo in the top navigation bar will be removed. If you have added your company logo, it will be displayed there.

You will find “RSS” and “Share” buttons now under the podcast logo on the site.

Users can “like” your episode in the Podbean app and you will see a display of the total “likes” on your site or in the app.

Google Podcasts Manager – How To Submit Your Podcast To Google Podcasts

May 21, 2020 / John Kiernan / 1 Comment

Google has recently released Google Podcasts Manager, which makes it easier than ever to submit your podcast to Google Podcasts. Once your podcast has been indexed by Google and is viewable in Google Podcasts, you can monitor and analyze your listener data on Google Podcasts Manager.

If you have a podcast and website (which you automatically do if you’re hosted with Podbean!), you can likely already be found there. Podbean’s sites are optimized so they meet Google’s requirements. Thus, any podcast using the combination of podcast hosting and website from Podbean will automatically fit all the Google specifications. However, it is still not viewable in Google Podcasts, Google Podcasts Manager makes it easy for you to verify ownership of your podcast and have your podcast indexed by Google.

Here’s how to use Google Podcasts Manager to index your podcast.

Go to podcastsmanager.google.com.
Enter your podcast’s RSS feed, then click Next Step.
If you’re hosted with Podbean, you can find your RSS feed by logging into your account and navigating to Settings – Feed. Also note that your podcast must have at least one published episode in order to proceed.
Google will show you a preview of your RSS feed.
In order to verify your ownership, a verification code will be sent to the email address that’s associated with your podcast. You should receive an email with a verification code. Type in this code in Google Podcasts Manager to proceed.
If you logged in using the email address that’s already associated with your podcast, Google will not need to send a validation code.
Click Submit.
Your ownership of your podcast has now been verified. You should also see a message from Google stating “We’ve submitted your show to Google’s Podcast Index”. This is how to submit your podcast to Google Podcasts.
Please note that Google states that the indexing process should take up to five days or longer.

Click here to learn how to submit your podcast to various other directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!

How To Record Your Podcast: Podbean’s New Webinar!

May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 / Roni Gosch / 1 Comment

Podbean is proud to announce the latest webinar to join its roster: How To Record Your Podcast!

In the world of podcast recording, there are so many different tools that you can use to record your podcast! Which tools should you choose to suit your needs? This webinar will aim to help you understand how to record high quality podcasts and give you a general understanding of audio gear, as well as best practices to achieve the best results.

The topics in this webinar will include:

How to effectively prepare and plan recording your podcast
Essential gear for home or remote recording (mics, headphones, interfaces, and more)
How to record high quality audio from anywhere in the world
Editing tips and tricks for producing your own podcast recordings

This webinar will also feature recording tips from some of the biggest names in the recording industry, such as Samson and Focusrite.

Presented by John Kiernan, Podbean’s Head of Marketing, this webinar is for everyone who’s ready to start podcasting but curious about how to start recording!

How to Create a Private Podcast for your Remote Team (& Why you Should!)

May 15, 2020May 15, 2020 / Shannon Martin, Podbean / Leave a comment

Guest post from Colin Gray*

Have you had to move to remote working in recent months? If you’re anything like the rest of the world, there’s a good chance the answer is yes! And if so, you might share a lot of the same worries.

How do I stay connected to my staff and my colleagues?
How do I maintain a human connection, when we’re all in separate places?
Zoom calls are fine, but it’s too granular. How can I engage more of my team?
Is my company culture going to suffer? How do I keep it going?

It’s true, we can try our best to stay connected, but there’s a definite drop in engagement, when we move to online work. How do we fix it? Enter, podcasting!

Podcasting is one of the “big 3” content types, and is, in my view, the highest engagement of the three. It works alongside blogging and video to form the top of the engagement stack, really building trust and fandom through the personal connection it forges with your listener.

Put simply, podcasting is ‘intimate’. Listeners feel they are having a friendly conversation with the host. It’s one of the best simulations of a real conversation we have, the most scalable way to ‘speak’ to people on mass, while still keeping it personal.

This has a lot of power in a working situation. It means managers can ‘speak’ to a big team of people, maintaining a connection with them. It means CEOs can brief a whole company, and help people feel involved. It means colleagues can broadcast to colleagues, sharing skills, learnings or status updates in a way that’s very close to a watercooler conversation.

Add to this the just-in-time element, and it’s really powerful. Instead of requiring all staff to be on a zoom call at a certain time, your team can listen in their own time, while washing the dishes or walking the dog. They can stay more engaged, because they choose when to interact, and have more control.

If you can see the benefits, then the next step is figuring out how you use it. Let’s take a look at some examples.

How can you use podcasting inside a company?

Here are some great ways I’ve seen companies use podcasting:

All-staff update: the CEO records a short briefing, each week, to give staff a high level update on how the company’s doing, and current plans.
Small-team update: managers produce more detailed summaries of recent work, learnings and plans for the coming week.
Staff training: regular lessons and learnings from managers or colleagues. Or, formal training in specific skill areas for particular staff.
Repurposed meetings: allow staff to sit in on other meetings, if they’re interested, by posting board meetings, decision meetings or other important get togethers.
Staff onboarding: instill culture in new staff by offering an onboarding series with introductions, training and informal talks from others in the company.

Can I keep the audio private?

This is obviously one of the #1 concerns when podcasting for your team. Can you share internal info, or sensitive data, and keep it away from prying eyes?

Well, thanks to Podbean’s great private podcasting tools, yes you can!

With Podbean, you can run any number of private podcast feeds, or channels as they call them, in one Podbean business account. This means you can set up a CEO Update podcast, a staff training one and a community podcast, for example. All would be available to your entire team.

Even better, you can also set up smaller team podcasts which are available to only certain staff. So, you could then have a ‘developer team’ podcast, or an ‘HR Team podcast’ to update those teams on info relevant only to them.

Those teams can be managed really easily, too, via Podbean’s group feature. You can bulk upload users to Podbean’s platform, and assign them to staff groups as you do so. Or you can tie login to your own systems via a SSO link. It’s set up to make this really easy for you as a company.

To see the whole thing in action, and get a tour of all the private podcasting options offered by Podbean, take a look at this tour:

Is it hard or time consuming to make a Podcast?

In a word, no! You can make the process really quick and simple.

Some aspects can seem intimidating, such as choosing the gear, recording your audio, making that audio sound good, or publishing the file. But, with a bit of guidance, they’re no barrier at all. So, to the guidance!

Recording Equipment

Let’s keep this simple. Choose a good USB microphone that plugs right into your computer. The best value option, for me, is the Samson Q2U. It comes with a stand, or can be handheld, so it’s pretty versatile in how you use it.

So, get yourself and Samson Q2U and think no more about the gear!

But, if you’re a real gear geek like me, and desperate for all the options, by all means check out our guide to the best podcasting microphones here.

How to Record Good Quality Audio

For this, I’m going to show you Alitu. Alitu is a podcast maker app that we run at ThePodcastHost.com. It’s designed to make podcasting super-easy for anyone.

For sure, there are other options, and if you want to explore a free one, check out Audacity. It’s totally free, but the downside is that it’s pretty clunky and old fashioned, and you need to learn how to do the audio cleanup, the levelling and the exporting by yourself. Not impossible, at all! Just time consuming. Whereas Alitu is a paid product, but it’s designed to do all that for you, automatically, saving a bunch of time and technical stress.

So, here’s how to record in Alitu, and get your audio cleaned up automatically.

By the way, I’ll include a full video walkthrough of the whole process below. That’ll show you recording, editing and publishing, all in one. So, if you want the full guide, just scroll down to the header: Video Walkthrough.

First, in Alitu, create a new episode, and enter the episode details, as shown.

Next, you’ll see the ‘upload’ screen, where you add files to the episode. One option, as you’ll see, is to record, directly in.

Name your recording, hit record and speak! Keep it relatively short – 10 minutes is a good length, in my opinion, for this type of update. Plenty of time for some detail and engagement, but not too long to lose interest.

Theme Music and Editing

Next, you’ll be taken to the episode builder. Here Alitu will add theme music to the recording, if you want it to (nice to have a little bit of audio branding to add polish and make the updates familiar) and you can edit the recording, if you need to. The episode builder is shown on the left, below, and the edit screen on the right.

Don’t feel any pressure to edit your audio. The quickest and easiest way is to hit record, speak naturally, and just excuse any mistakes you make. If you trip over your words, it’s fine. It just makes you sound human, and it can actually help your listeners (your staff!) to connect even more with you.

You might need to remove any big issues though – such as a big sneeze in the middle – and you’ll normally have a bit of silence at the start and the end you can trim out, just to keep it tight. That’s what the Alitu edit tool is there for.

How to Publish Your Private Podcast

Finally, it’s time to publish so that your team can hear it! You’ll see in the screenshots below that you can listen to a preview of the episode first, before you hit the publish button.

Alitu has a direct link to Podbean, so you can publish your episode without ever leaving the app. The first time you do it, you’ll need to authenticate your Podbean account. This will link Alitu to one of your podcast channels. From then on, you can publish directly to your private podcast channels, making the whole process really quick.

You can also download the final episodes for use anywhere else, too. So if you want to post to many different channels, or put your audio into an intranet or elsewhere, you can do that really easily.

Video Walkthrough: Creating a Podcast Episode for Your Team

Here’s the full video walkthrough of everything I covered above:

To learn more about Podbean’s private podcasting solution, join our free webinar.

*Colin Gray is a podcaster, speaker, PhD and founder of The Podcast Host and Alitu. The Podcast Host is a huge resource on running a successful show, including a full guide on How to start a Podcast. And, Alitu is a web app that helps you make your podcast, automating cleanup and branding, and assisting with editing. It makes podcasting quick and easy!

Livestreaming In The Classroom with Podbean Livestream

May 11, 2020May 11, 2020 / John Kiernan / Leave a comment

When it comes to your classroom, communication is key. You want to ensure that you are properly reaching your students – and only your students. No matter the day and age, you want a tool that will ensure that no one but your students will have access to your material and curriculum, and Podbean Livestream’s unlisted feature is the ideal tool for the job.

Host Your Classes Online

Podbean Livestream allows you to deliver an audio only livestream to a large volume of listeners. You can ensure that your students can listen no matter their circumstances. With the unlisted feature, you can make sure that your students are the only ones that can access the livestream.

Podbean Livestream features a live chat feature that allows students to chat with you directly in the interface. You can also enable or disable the call-in feature for your students, thus allowing a classroom-like setting without worrying about everyone being in the same location at the same time. And if for any reason someone attempts to crash your livestream, there is a block button readily available.

No matter a student’s circumstances, they should still be able to get the educational materials and get the chance to interact with their peers. Podbean Livestream’s unlisted feature provides the opportunity for both students and teachers to keep up classroom interactions.

Give Students Extra Time for Review and Study Halls

Your students could have outside situations that impede their ability to come to a class scheduled during normal school hours. They may need extra help or extra time with you to get the material. With Podbean Livestream’s ability to schedule a livestream at any time, it gives you the maneuverability to host them at any time, for any reason.

With Podbean Livestream’s unlisted feature, you can host livestreams at any time with the focus being on reviews, study halls, or general office hour-esque questions. Students can ask questions that are then answered for the benefit of everyone in the livestream (or even for the benefit of those that could be listening later if you upload your livestream post-broadcast).

You can also hold livestreams for review and study hall sessions. These can offer your students chances for collaboration and conversation surrounding the material. They can receive help from each other during the stream, as well as getting their questions answered by you.

You can also give your students the opportunity to teach the material through the call in feature. Whether it’s to one fellow student or the entire livestream class, they can demonstrate their knowledge to you while cementing their own knowledge of the material.

Mobility

One of the best ways to accommodate a wide variety of issues is to offer a mobile option for their learning. With Podbean Livestream, they can easily tune in to listen, chat, or call in from their mobile device no matter where they’re located.

Podbean Livestreams are accessible from an iOS or Android device using the Podbean App. By marking your livestream as unlisted, you get the added benefit of security, knowing that the only people in your livestream are the students you’ve invited.

This mobility gives your students flexibility with how they learn, from giving them the option to attend while they’re traveling or commuting to letting them multitask while they listen to a lecture. The mobility of audio-only livestreaming allows your students to find the best way for them to learn and engage with the material.

Remotely Record Your Content

Podbean Livestream’s unlisted feature serves both as a tool to connect with your students, and a tool to remotely record content to push as a podcast episode. Simply launch an unlisted stream, record your content, and then download it after the stream has ended to edit as you see fit, or publish directly into your Podbean feed.

Podbean Livestream allows you to create a recording on either your desktop and mobile device. With this method, you are able to record without worrying about the lack of intricate recording equipment becoming a roadblock between your students and your content.

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Education and the paths it takes are forever expanding as students and teachers alike encounter new situations and learning styles. Podbean unlisted livestreaming aims to assist teachers as they look for new ways to reach and help students as they encounter new methods for learning.

Learn more about Podbean Livestream and its interface with our Podbean Livestream webinar, and check out how to start an unlisted livestream with our video tutorial!

April Top 10 Podbean Livestreamers and May LiveStream Contest Announcement!

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020 / John Kiernan / Leave a comment

Congratulations to our top 10 Livestreamers for April 2020!

April Top 10 Podbean Live

May Livestream Host Contest

For May, our top three live stream hosts will receive prizes by way of Golden Beans, Podbean’s virtual currency, that can be cashed out via PayPal. We will also be highlighting our top ten livestreamers via our social media channels. The prizes will be:

Virtual yacht (Golden Beans value – 24000)
Double virtual diamond (Golden Beans value – 5000 x2)
A virtual diamond (Golden Beans value – 5000)

Click here to start your own livestream at www.podbean.com/live!

Podcasts for Mental Health Awareness Month

May 1, 2020April 30, 2020 / podbean / Leave a comment

Guest post by Al Levin

Four years ago, I wrote a blog post titled, “It’s Mental Health Awareness Month????”. The point of that post was my surprise at how few people had even heard of “Mental Health Awareness Month”, which had been observed since 1949. While I’m happy to say that, at least anecdotally, it seems that more people are recognizing this month, there is undoubtedly a long way to go before talking about mental health becomes the norm; where we don’t have to hide the fact that we’re going to our weekly psychologist appointment or whisper about a friend or relative who is living with anxiety, depression, or another mental illness.

Educating oneself about mental health is an important way to work towards ending the stigma. Subscribing to some of the many podcasts on the topic is a great way to start! Podcasts are an incredible resource, as you can listen whenever you please. You can start and stop anytime and pick up where you had left off. You can rewind and listen again if you missed something or just need another listen to process the information at a deeper level.

There’s a huge variety of mental health podcasts. There are podcasts in which guests share their personal stories. Others have guest experts sharing the biological and physiological aspects of mental illnesses. Many share suggestions on living with mental illness or supporting a friend or loved one.

So, whether you’re looking to learn more about mental illnesses, trying to gain insight after your own new diagnosis, or supporting a friend or loved one, you should check out some of the many podcasts on Podbean! We’ve listed a few below just to get you started.

You can find this topic featured in the Podbean app to listen on the go. If you don’t already have the Podbean app, download it for free in the App Store or Google Play store. It’s the best way to listen and discover new podcasts you’ll love, with recommendations of hot topics plus personalized recommendations based on what you listen to most. You can also listen to these podcasts online here.

Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness

Need a free online life coach? Look no further than the most motivational self-help authors of the past. Inspiring readings from James Allen, Napoleon Hill, Hellen Keller, Booker T. Washington, Khalil Gibran, Marcus Aurelius, and more.

Guided Sleep Meditations

Relax and fall asleep with a Tracks To Relax Guided Sleep Meditation. Life is stressful, especially during this pandemic! Our sleep meditations can provided a welcome distraction and help you relieve stress during these challenging times. Sleep is the cornerstone of good health and we can help you get the rest you need.

CLEANING UP THE MENTAL MESS with Dr. Caroline Leaf

Dr. Caroline Leaf is a cognitive neuroscientist, bestselling author, mental health and mind expert. Whether you are struggling in your personal life or simply want to learn how to understand and use your mind to live your best life, this podcast will provide you with practical tips and tools to help you take back control over your mental, emotional, and physical health

The Last Symptom

A comprehensive, intimate discussion about escaping emotional unhealth, by Brian Barnett, who authentically rid himself of Borderline Personality Disorder, after having lived with it, unaware, for the first thirty-seven years of his life. New episodes published Thursdays.

Depression Talks Podcast

Welcome to the Depression Talks Podcast. My name is Immanuel. I’m a YouTube Creator and Certified Life Coach dedicated to changing the mental health stigma. On this Podcast, we openly talk about depression, anxiety, and low self esteem, but you’ll also hear coaching tips that has helped many clients take action and transform their lives. No matter what you’re going through, I promise, you are not alone. For business and a free 1 on 1 session, go to immanueljones.com

Mindfulness Sessions & Podcasts

At the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC) our mission is to reduce suffering, promote resilience and realise human potential across the lifespan through mindfulness. Our podcasts are suitable for the general public, you do not need prior experience to listen. New podcasts are available weekly.

Mental Oasis

Christine Forte delivers brief and straightforward strategies for finding inspiration, calm, new energy and focus where it’s needed.

The Depression Files

Men experience depression differently. Al Levin interviews men who have suffered from depression, educating those who may know little about mental illnesses while giving hope to those who may be suffering.

The Embody Podcast ❤ Self-Love & Healing

Interviews, Meditations, and Thoughtful Episodes about Embodiment, Yoga, and Healing. We explore remembering and embodying your true nature, alignment with your soul, and deeply loving, and expressing yourself. Wonderful wellness practitioners and healers share their healing tips, philosophies, and how they shine. It’s about loving support to advance your own healing process as we will journey together. A creative blend of Yoga, Family Constellations, and Somatic Experiencing practices.

The Hilarious World of Depression

A show about clinical depression…with laughs? Well, yeah. Depression is an incredibly common and isolating disease experienced by millions, yet often stigmatized by society. The Hilarious World of Depression is a series of frank, moving, and, yes, funny conversations with top comedians who have dealt with this disease, hosted by veteran humorist and public radio host John Moe. Join guests such as Maria Bamford, Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Richter, and Jen Kirkman to learn how they’ve dealt with depression and managed to laugh along the way…

Overcome Depression + Thrive

Feeling depressed? Then, be sure to join Depression-Busting Specialist, Author and Professional Life Coach – Marie O’Neil on this podcast: Overcome Depression + Thrive. In this show, you’ll discover highly-effective tips, tools and techniques to overcome depression from every angle. We’ll explore solutions for your Mind, Body + Spirit. So, you can completely heal your total body-mind system, bringing you back to ultimate health + well-being…

The Science of Happiness

Learn research-tested strategies for a happier, more meaningful life, drawing on the science of compassion, gratitude, mindfulness, and awe. Hosted by award-winning professor Dacher Keltner. Co-produced by PRX and UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.

The Anxiety Coaches Podcast

The Anxiety Coaches Podcast is a relaxing and inspiring show sharing lifestyle changes to calm your nervous system and help you heal Anxiety, Panic, and PTSD for life! We Bring you 2 episodes every week. There is no need to walk this path alone. Join us for a relaxing, informative and inspiring time and start your journey out of anxiety-panic! Find meditations, info about anxiety and more at http://www.AnxietyCoachesPodcast.com

The Anxiety Guy Podcast

The Anxiety Guy Podcast is the only resource you need to begin lessening and eventually ending your struggles with generalized anxiety disorder, hypochondria, and depression. Dennis Simsek takes you through the life of a former professional tennis player, who struggled with and eventually ended his 6 year struggle with panic disorder and health anxiety. Within those 6 years a dream was reached, a child was born, and suicide was being contemplated. This podcast exists so that you don’t make the same crucial mistakes when it comes to stress and anxiety, that thousands of other people around the world are making. Change begins today…

Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast

From the number one non-fiction bestseller, comes Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast – with everything you need to hear to get on top of your anxiety. This practical and relaxed series explores everything from what anxiety is and why it happens to us, how our brains work and why it”s actually very normal to the various tools and techniques necessary for owning it. Author Caroline Foran shares her story, along with some expert input, in an attempt to help you show your anxiety who’s boss. Most importantly, this is a series that tackles the reality of anxiety from a refreshing and relatable perspective.

About the author:

Al Levin is an assistant principal at a PreK-8 school in Saint Paul Public Schools. He has been in education for over twenty years, the past fourteen years as an administrator. He is married, has four children…and a puppy.

Al has completed all of the coursework in working towards a Co-Active coaching certificate through the Coaches Training Institute and is certified in Cognitive Coaching. The coaching work has allowed him to support the staff he works with in the public schools, as well as others who are seeking support in reaching their goals or working past challenging times in their lives.

Al is also a person who has recovered from two major bouts of depressive disorder, one of which was quite debilitating for nearly six months of his life. Through this experience, he has become very passionate about learning more about mental health and supporting others with a mental illness, particularly men with depression. In addition to a blog, Al has a podcast in which he interviews men who have struggled with depression and/or other mental illnesses. Both his blog and podcast can be found at TheDepressionFiles.com. Al also speaks publicly for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and, more often, on his own. He has also written for various publications. You will also find Al Tweeting @allevin18.

Three Common Pitfalls of Podcasting

April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 / John Kiernan / 1 Comment

You put a lot of effort and time into your podcast, crafting it to be the best it can be. However, sometimes you find that your engagement might not be where you want it to be, or that your audience is more stagnant than you would like. We’ve identified three common pitfalls for the modern podcaster, and what you can do to avoid them so that your podcast can flourish.

1. How Active Is Your Audience?

Challenge: While you are creating and publishing content, your audience is passive and doesn’t do much beyond just listen to the episode – no reviews, nothing on social media, etc.

Solution: Activate your community.

While your podcast exists to inform and entertain, you can also make it a conversation. Actively invite your listeners to answer questions or submit things they’d like to hear about on your podcast, and make a point of mentioning their questions or topics in your next shows. By responding to them in your podcast, they’ll see that you’re really listening, and looking to make your podcast more collaborative.

Think about the “why” behind your podcast and how this relates to building a community. Create reasons why listeners would want to engage and be part of the community as active participants. Make it easy for them to do, for example taking comments various ways and even having a podcast voice mail where they can leave messages or occasional live streams where they can chat or call.

The same thing goes for your social media channels. While having these accounts allows you to spread the word about your new episodes and content, they also allow you to connect with your listeners and fellow podcasters. Post fun pictures, jokes, questions, or other pieces of content that invite interaction. Social media feeds in which you post nothing but updates about your latest episodes create the atmosphere of an account that’s strictly for updates and nothing more. By posting content that asks questions or invites interactions from other users, you show that you are a podcaster that truly wants engagement and a good experience for the listeners.

We’ve spoken of this before in one of our articles giving tips on podcast promotion, but keep in mind that first impressions are crucial. Your social media channels make you the public face for your podcast, so how you handle interactions and conversations on these platforms will color how potential listeners think of your content.

2. Where Is Your Audience Located Online?

Challenge: You’re spending more time than you’d like on crafting posts for social media, which is detrimental to your content. You may not be spending enough time on your actual content: your podcast

Solution: Consider what your personal bandwidth is and where your listeners engage most online. This is different for different podcast audiences. There comes a point in which you need to take a step back and take into consideration what social media accounts you prefer working with, which ones can be automated, and how you might need to adjust your posting schedule to balance efforts.

Previously, we’ve published content regarding the best times to publish on the top social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) and the amount of times you should be posting per day. While keeping these things in mind, we definitely recommend post-scheduling tools like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite for Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. These tools allow you to schedule posts so you can prep your podcast’s social media for the week (or even the month) and not worry about having to go in and type out new posts every morning. Some will even automate repurposing content for you.

Podbean also has built-in social share tools that automatically push posts to various social media platforms, and other sites like WordPress offer similar automatic sharing tools. Explore your chosen platforms, and investigate the settings to see where you can automatically cross-post and push to other platforms when you post to your main ones.

In cutting down your social media channels (or converting where you can to automatic posting), do ensure that you still take the time to check interactions on your main platforms. By focusing efforts, you can actually free up more time for meaningful interactions where you get the best results.

3. How Do You Organize Your Content?

Challenge: Your audience varies; this week’s episode gets hundreds of views while last week’s only delivered a dozen or so. You try to change topics to drive more people to your content, you’re not sure what method works the best.

Solution: Consistency can be what your listeners are looking for. This doesn’t mean that you need to rehash the same episode topic for the next batch of episodes, but it does mean that you need some sort of regularity within your show. It helps listeners know what to expect and to gain a sense of familiarity with your podcast.

Figure out your main areas that you cover, and turn them into segments that your listeners can come to depend on appearing in the show. If you do a sports podcast, cover news in relation to the sports, then cover your opinions on what’s happening. If you do a book podcast, cover new releases, industry news, and reviews. Some podcasters even name these segments (clever names that almost make listeners feel like they’re “inside your circle” can be fun) and use transitions to distinguish them and build a flow.

By segmenting your podcast episodes, you’re giving your audience a roadmap by which they can navigate your content, and creating a level of dependability. Your listeners will know that you’ll have a segment on news and a segment on you and your cohosts’s opinions, for example. Some podcasters even name these segments (clever names that almost make listeners feel like they’re “inside your circle” can be fun) and use transitions to distinguish them and build a flow.

This will also help streamline your show when you record and edit it – it gives direction for you to write your shownotes, and keeps you on track if you happen to lose concentration while you’re recording. Rather than being restrictive, episode uniformity can help you stay creative within a formula that works for you and your listeners.

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Podcasting is a wild and varied form of media, with room for all sorts of podcasters and podcasting content. What works for one podcaster might not work for another. However, these pitfalls are something that any and every podcaster can be on the lookout for, and the solutions are methods that can be implemented by all content creators, regardless of experience or content genre. By taking advantage of these solutions, you can ensure that your podcast takes as smooth a path as possible to your podcasting goals.

Click here to learn more about how you can engage and activate your audience in our Promote Your Podcast webinar!

Top 5 Patron Rewards

April 15, 2020April 22, 2020 / John Kiernan / 1 Comment

When it comes to your patrons, there are a wide variety of backer rewards that you can offer. There are specific rewards that patrons will seek out, or join your specific patron program to gain access to. We’ve listed off 5 of the most popular patron rewards that fans look for, and what you can do to implement them in your own patron program.

1. Patron-Only Livestream

Your patron program is a great way to offer extra or behind-the-scenes content to your listeners. A patron-only livestream is the perfect place to provide that content. Livestreams allow your listeners and patrons to interact with you in a new way by further lowering the barrier between you as the podcaster and them as the listeners. Check out how to create a patron only livestream with Podbean by clicking this link: https://help.podbean.com/support/solutions/articles/25000022905-how-to-launch-a-patrons-only-livestream-with-podbean-livestream

With a patron-only livestream, you ensure that only those who support you and your patron program have access to these streams! By simply setting your livestream as ‘unlisted’ in Podbean Live, no one can access the stream unless they have a link directly from you. The livestream is not listed in the app, nor will anyone be able to enter it unless they do so through the link you send them.

The exclusivity of such an encounter – being that they are interacting directly with you via the live-chat and the call-in feature – means that more people would subscribe and donate to your patron program in order to gain access to you and your streamed content.

2. Merchandise

Whether it be a sticker on a water bottle, a shirt to wear to your favorite comic-con, a keychain to hang off your backpack, or a pin to stick to your lanyard, people love to rep their favorite sources of entertainment. (Or even their favorite company – Podbean loves making stickers and folks love having them, so those are a win-win in our books!)

If your listeners are subscribing to your patron account, that means that they’re willing to put money towards you and your content – meaning that they would love to rep your work outside of the internet. Take your patron program as a way to test out merch designs, as well as get feedback and run votes for what sort of merch they’d like to see. You can also create patron-exclusive merch.

This is also an opportunity to give out things like discount codes for your online shop, so that those who may not have received a free item from you on their tier can still have access to the wonders of your podcast merch.

3. Homemade Swag

Patrons, by and large, subscribe to you because they like you and your content, and want to help you make more. This means that they’d appreciate any gift from you, no matter how big or small. If you find yourself as more crafty and homebrew with your patron rewards, your backers will surely love to open mail from you containing homemade gifts.

Some things we’ve seen program-runners make and send out:

Clay pieces (small figures to coffee cups)
Hand-carved stamps
Bookmarks
Patches
Keychains/buttons/pins

4. Services/One-On-One Time

Your patrons join your patron program because they care for you and your content. Your patrons want to hear more from you! They may also see you and your success as a sign that you are capable of teaching them to replicate your journey to success.

Offering services or one-on-one time with your patrons will reach to your patrons who want to learn and know more about what you do. Providing these extra services will foster deeper relationships with your patrons.

Examples of some services to offer:

Voice-over tidbits (IE giving a character/word amount for your patrons to send you that you then record yourself reading for them)
Lessons/feedback on a patron’s work
One-on-one question sessions
Consultations

5. Exclusive “Behind the Scenes” Content

Exclusive content is one of the main reasons your patrons will join your patron program. By including this content in your patron program, you give the followers more of what they already love: your content. These rewards work for any tier, and can be used alongside any other gift as a way to underline the nature of your patron program.

Things to consider:

Early access to your content before it’s published
Blooper reels
Extended cuts/deleted scenes from your episodes
Commentary on past episodes/fan-favorite episodes

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When it comes to you and your patrons, we know you want to give them the best experience possible with the best tools at hand. Thanks to thing’s like Podbean Live’s unlisted mode and merchandise sites, it’s easier than ever to give back to the patrons who give so much to you. Let us know what methods you implement over on Twitter!

Have you signed up for our Patron program yet? Learn more about it here!

Curious about our new unlisted mode for Podbean Live? Check out how to get it started here!

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Top 5 Patron Rewards

1. Patron-Only Livestream

2. Merchandise

3. Homemade Swag

4. Services/One-On-One Time

5. Exclusive “Behind the Scenes” Content