Flamingo Heights Academy - Help Your Podcast Take Flight
Welcome - Ashleigh King
Ashleigh thanked everyone for coming along and talked about launching her new podcasting course with support of Creative UK with lots of progress and challenges. These workshops are about specific problems people have including brand, courage and unlocking your voice with four speakers to hear about content, community and collaboration.
Levelling up your podcast with video - Joel Lowson
Ashleigh met Joel in 2009 and has seen him grow and what has only got better is his attention to detail and quality of his work and runs his own business Joel Lowson Photography. Will be talking about levelling up your podcast to help increase engagement online. 26% of podcast consumers say they prefer watching videos over listening ang watching videos is preferred in particular by podcast newcomers. People are usually multi-tasking when listening to a podcast like driving the car so can't watch a video there.
YouTube is the biggest podcast platform in the United States and most people watch and listen to podcasts there compared to Spotify and Apple with Spotify transitioning to video podcasts. YouTube is the biggest entertainment search engine in the world, when searching the first thing to come up is videos, you can search by videos or short form videos. If you have an audio only podcast people aren't searching for you on YouTube. A lot of podcast platforms don't have comments or recommendations on shows, and you can't have paid subscribers on most platforms but can on YouTube where it is all integrated into one space.
Benefits of video is increased accessibility which allows you attract an audience you may be missing by having audio only. In terms of how we consume content most people prefer to watch videos online but lots of people don't utilise this, so adding video is another element to your podcast and make it look, seem and feel different to other podcasts. If just talking to someone from a visual standpoint it won't stand out, there are formats and schedules to shows on the TV that you could emulate. He listens to a true crime podcast which is audio only but when talking about certain things on the video podcast they show a picture of this which helps people interact with your content better and help them truly engage as with video you have someone's full attention. You get a vibe meeting someone face to face so video can allow you to build on this and you can get increased monetisation opportunities to advertise people's products in your video podcast. You can have your own merch and if people see it all the time, they may think it is cool and want to buy it.
The platforms are set up as a pay to win setup on platforms such as Spotify where if browse for podcasts they are well known ones. Short form video is everywhere, and LinkedIn has just introduced this. There are thousands of people discovering podcasts every day on social media. To cut a long story short, Steven Bartlett has changed the game, it is not just about pulling a clip from a podcast, Steven takes highlights with an emotional impact and adds music, and a Steven Bartlett trailer is something they are asked for. You could have the funniest, most emotional clip or the most interesting facts, does it have a hook is it the most controversial take which can create engagement.
Videos are important for your podcast, but you don't need a video podcast, if you're doing a business podcast post videos on LinkedIn or on Pinterest for arts and crafting podcasts. How long should shorts be is most people say under sixty seconds, but this is not necessarily true, it is as long as people are engaged but might not be to finish a point if you want to have them come to your podcast to hear the rest. You can use audiograms where turn waveform of podcast into a visual component which will dance around as someone talks and you need to add captions as if people can't hear too well a dancing waveform won't help them and when people watch short form videos they listen with their sound off, so if there is no sound or visual component they will scroll past. When editing you can use something like Riverside Magic clips which can add captions, you don't have to be an editing whiz to do this, what is important is putting this stuff out in the first place and reminding people who you are.
Trying to fit in, your aspect ratio is the width of the image divided by the height so a screen would be 16:9 but social media videos are 9:16 so will be cropping video accordingly, there is also 4:5 which was used on social media but the main aim is to fill as much as possible, so you have someone's full time and dedication even if it is just for a few seconds. Where should you be is the composition with the rule of thirds so can't both sit in the centre if doing a video podcast so are evenly spaced apart which helps for social media so need to consider where the UI of the social media will appear such as not having things to the far right or bottom but have captions more centrally and have eye level two-thirds of the way up.
Pros of video is discoverability and accessibility where captions can be easily translated to other languages so people who speak those languages can enjoy your podcast. You can have a broader audience or appeal to people who only watch a video, and it helps trust and credibility along with monetisation opportunities. Video is more expensive with more setup time with more complex editing, you might need to buy cameras, lighting or props or for a business podcast my have to dress more smartly. There is a technical challenge such as more cameras or more things can go wrong, could forget to press record, a battery could fail or other potential problems so to offset this may need to hire crew so northing can go wrong but this increases cost. Knowledge gap with cameras including shutter speed, framerate and more, but you can just use your phone especially if using this only for social media.
Someone asked about being on Riverside as a guest and has some experience of basic podcasting with their phone and Audacity, so if using Riverside so may have a guest in another country so is it still worth doing a video podcast? It is worth doing this as Riverside will record things locally so if there is a problem it will record everything from their side and from your side. If you want to speak to guests around the world as not worth doing a big production set when the guest is not in that, so could have something like a Zoom call but can check out Riverside on how to do this properly and there are different formats for social media so you could have one person on the top and the other and the bottom and you could edit within the software so keeps everything simple and under one roof, traditionally would have to record everything separately which needs to be synchronised which is too much for people to deal with.
Someone else mentioned that they are going to be using their own studio in the office, but their IT is stringent so won't allow them to use Riverside. Some people do have lower quality content works fine as long as the message you are providing good content as content is the most important thing. You could also record in Teams, and you could also connect this with OBS, you could record in high quality with a mixer locally so if there is a connection issue can record from this. They did want to use OBS but tried a multi camera setup but could use the mixer to act as a virtual camera with OBS and this works well and there are different methods of doing things such as with Zoom.
Sometimes when people watch videos and can see people who is talking or listening, so can be distracting that they aren't listening enough or distracted or nodding along too much. You need to presume that you are on camera, when they work in their commercial business for a promotional video where they want to do a two-person video which they will only do if you can bounce off each other, can't have one person take the reins and the other just sit there and do nothing, so need to make sure people are aware and practise it. You could also use multi cameras with a wide for both people and one for each person and when someone is talking then you can just cut to the person who is talking, so if just on a lower budget can maybe cut out things or get people to be relaxed or comfortable. When inviting people on a podcast they may be more reserved. Riverside can cut to the person who is talking, there will be video for both parties along with a combined mix which will cut between both people but can also edit between the separate videos. Where people may get distracted where people forget they are being recorded so people can see your facial expressions where you see someone drifting away or thinking so to tackle this have briefing notes with what to talk about it and keep questions short, so they aren't long monologues, so people won't get distracted. When using Riverside close down all other applications on your laptop so if have other applications on this will drain resources and will have connectivity issues and it is also possible to get distracted if have tabs open. Can mitigate distractions and orchestrate things so you can cut our awkwardness.
Ability to connect with people all over the world so on studio podcast people come in and record in the studio and are there in person so there are stories around the world might be missing out on so could do things online with Riverside to get more people on the podcast. You might not know people in other country, you don't know who your story may touch and people may have their own connections and people all over the world may listen to your podcast who are listening and come back so if doing something online it opens up more possibilities for who you can have on your podcast. There is content in other parts of the world and other content creators from there and there can be a different element for other cultures and if can make something that is easiest to translate for other people, for Brazil they are the third biggest country for podcasts but just know Portugues, you don't have to have a video element you could have your brand logo and a audiogram and people can caption it in their language and have it in that different format they can access. Riverside does caption your content, it is a great platform that does most of what you need, but you can also edit it so with AI it is not perfect but does save a lot of time.
Issues someone has when playing around on TikTok they get double captions and then they edit them and have this on social clips where some platforms have an automatic captions features, so this may be something they need to turn off as may be an accessibility mode that can be switched off on TikTok if they have the captions that has been added on Riverside.
For getting started when recording on phone what are top tips what you need, what to recommend for this? Tripod is a definite and the main standpoint is composition to have it at a good eye level for people to engage with you, so don't put on the floor. You want to make sure the level of the phone is correct where tripod is a good place to start, phone is good at adjusting to light but if going out and about can ignore lighting and most places won't approve of people plugging in lights but if doing things at home or though Riverside on laptop then make sure don't have harsh shadows and light is on the subjects, you could get a light and point it at you or have window light shine behind you but there is a problem that this light changes from really bright to really dark so studios will often have no windows so they can control the light. When getting lights get something that is dimmable, as can have too much light, get something which is bicolour where can adjust the white balance, so think about light outside winter is bluish and summer is orange, so bicolour allows you to adjust things from blue to orange and match environment better so that the whites look white. The most important thing is a good quality microphone, if recording onto laptop get a USB microphone, if going out and about get a lapel mic you can connect to your phone.
How to create purpose led products to increase your revenue - Corinne Lewis-Ward
Ashleigh first heard about Corinne at Newcastle University, and they would do beautiful corporate gifts and over the years they've needed things for VIP gifts has supported Corinne and her mission and they have both grown and to welcome them to share about their various different endeavours. We might spend a lot of time doing content, but it needs to be for the right community and personal goals and the journey of the community you want to take them on. Your purpose is the key to creating a really engaged community including products that can help you build your community.
Corinne is founder of Powder Butterfly since 2012. Their experience has been locally themed products including a keyring for Sunderland University and has worked with a variety of local suppliers and have developed a supply chain who deliver high quality products and probably one of the reasons their customers keep returning, #madeforlastandnotforlandfil what is your sustainability strategy. They have worked on something that commemorated a moment or a clock as a gift for a new office are just some of the products they have worked on. They have also worked developing a social impact brand and develop products including a sustainable product for a conference and a steel bottle for Square One Law for guests who appeared on the podcast and products for Ashley for TEDx such as pin badges and an award. They also source relatively local tea and sweet treats along with things for events for relatively local clients.
She has been on a neurodiversity themselves as well as their child who is also awaiting an autism assessment. What is their purpose and what social impact work would they want to do. 1 in 7 people are neurodivergent with 30-40% of people between 16 and 64 are unemployed and around 20-50% people working in creative industry are neurodivergent. UK creative industries contribute £124.6 billion in 2022 so there is a lot to offer. Their mission is finding out what their community needs and to provide that with opportunities to learn, gain confidence, excel and learn. They have public engagement projects which give clients access to the communities they serve to further their aims and objectives and demonstrate diverse revenue streams.
She is working on a commission to celebrate centenary of Gateshead Library in 2026 which is a co-designed project where people will co-design products and see these sold in the shops and involving people in the community where have buy in from them. Another commission is a corporate gift for a tech company in Sunderland which shows the diversity of the clients they work for, and the owner is wanting to support young people in the North East and these companies are particularly interested in social impact.
How do you identify your clients and develop products that serve your community, with what they have learned and provide common ground that meet other needs, how do you identify your clients. You may have listeners and audience who you know their age, hobbies and other essential information you need to gather before you start on merchandise. If you are creating a customer profile this will help identify their needs, wants and problems you want to solve so if a podcast about managing finance, then they may want some kind of financial management tool which could be downloadable and free or something you develop that people buy in.
Problems you can help an audience solve, such as staking your place in a music community, you build your fan credentials about how much knowledge you have of a band but breaking down idea you have to be someone who knows the most, been to many gigs but instead making an inclusive space of enjoying and not demonstrating dedication. Building healthier habits which is linked with coaching to see where someone is now and how they can feel better about themselves and looking at their everyday life and the small steps they can make and help them learn what they need to do and the steps to get them there, could be a downloadable tool to help form better habits and relationships with an app you could bring that community onto.
Look at what other podcasts already produce, promotional products or products that you sell, could have giveaways like the bottles for One Square Law for those guests who spend their time on the podcast. Draw inspiration but don't copy, do something that is unique to you and something that it suited to your niche and your business. Steven Bartlett is very driven and has a corporate bundle with The 1% Diary which is to change 1% of your habits and has volume discounts which shows there are companies buying this to help their employees or also has conversation cards as people struggle with starting conversations and people's soft skills are being reduced so the challenge we have is how young people will communicate effectively as they are living slightly isolated lives. Steven Bartlett's podcast is heavily monetised but also he is doing it from a perspective of finding businesses to invest in but has also had issues where he hasn't been challenging his guests, so when you create something you need to back up the evidence, do you hold podcasts to the same journalistic standard as something like the BBC but he does have a duty of care and responsibility.
Wondery Shop has merchandise for different podcasts with print on demand where products are more expensive, so margins are smaller, if choosing to print on demand choose carefully and your creative IP is protected and is sustainable at the core, the one they use is Prodigy but need to look at your margins and markup as they are expensive to produce. Chris and Rosie Ramsey have their own merchandise and with What's you Beef they were able to craft a variety of products that felt their audience feel part of something which demonstrates having a customer profile is important for products. Example products that are best sellers include mugs, but also hats are a good idea as they are one size, key rings, pin badges, bookmarks are a good one if have a book community and you can put something visual on one side and text on the other. Pin badges are a good example such as for TEDx or a heart pin which are made in Birmingham, you could use a phrase that people feel they are part of a club. Mugs are good for people who work from home where people can tag your company in photos of them holding it. Bags are underestimated with the humble tote bag where with I Love North Shields bag where people have taken photos of themselves out and about, they could be used to promote your podcast and could have a QR code that people could scan and go direct to your podcast. Audience profiling and learning from social media, test a product with a mock up to show what you are creating and get preorders to minimise your financial risk.
Can your products become part of your marketing strategy, what would your call to action be to deliver on your return on investment. What would your call to action be to deliver your return on investment? Could have a few items for people to have and or have print on demand for a given period and make people interested in your products in the first place, have influencer and exclusive limited-edition high-quality merchandise where have the right people wearing them and like the idea of keeping things local. There are some print on demand companies in the North East, it is a good marketing strategy to keep things local. You could have "take a photo and tag us", people from North Shields love where they live and there is an 800 year celebration, tap into an emotional reason why someone would take a photo and tag you such as exclusivity feeling or may be doing inclusivity such as women's safety at gigs where can galvanise people to come together and become part of a group or create a pin badge for men who can say they are part of that community or are a safe space.
Think about creating things that have purpose and meaning, we don't need any more things people will throw away. What is your story and what is the story you want to tell, is the product that is designed or created going to be one that people say they want that. Do they share your values and unite your audience, what else can you share with your product as there could be an artist or community interest group you could work with. Also, something carefully thought through is something better than something with your logo on and always encourage to make products that are #MadeToLastNotForLandfill is it part of your values. What next steps to take include researching audience and thinking about products.
Starting and Growing a Podcast - Oladapo Nuga - Daps
Daps talked about growing his show and how he is consistently putting out content week after week and is good to see how people can improve over time and have the courage to be consistent. Daps is talked about growing a community in podcasting, anything more than five friends is being part of a community and may be part of a bigger community. When talking about growing a community is to ask what is the hardest challenge, but it is finding people who care about what you do, why is it harder to find people on social media.
Daps started their podcast five years ago and not many people were listening but strongly believed that there were things they needed to talk about that people needed to hear so needed to be clear about who will listen to this podcast. They moved over to Ireland from Nigeria and then to the UK and thought about why would people care for what they say, why would people care as they're not from here, they used to think that a lot but thankfully they don't anymore. Everyone in the room has a story or knows someone who has a story, podcasting is storytelling, so how well can you tell or articulate a story.
He started off being shy but had to get over that, they remember their first few views and now their first thousand and now can get that for one piece of content. You can't be afraid of being consistent and taking your content on social media consistently, it has to be that you show up every single time and there are things that they have done that have made their podcast successful. They learned how to play the piano and when they moved to Newcastle they got into music and what they felt, and their podcast was about the pain points of being a musician in the North East. They were talking about people getting real jobs as music wasn't paying and they got people to listen week after week after week. When they started, they didn't have a camera but they knew before they got into it that video was an important thing, listening was important, but video is different when they can see your reactions and inflections people love that, they can take the audio and video and form a connection. They had a guest show up with their own camera but didn't have that and didn't know how to edit but figured it out and put their episode out, you can have multiple cameras now, but everyone has a beginning, most phones film in 4K.
When want to create community have to talk consistently about what you want to talk about it, when going to events talked about their podcast. If you do multiple things but you need to learn talking about the thing you are most passionate about, as this is the thing you want to grow the most, if you don't talk about your podcast enough then it will be very challenging to grow your podcast. Every gig they went to they talked about their podcast, they remember the days of first thousand views and had 80k views on something on Instagram where they name dropped someone, they hadn't met but how they were fascinated about their journey and being proud of the religion they were and that artist saw it and reposted. They remember their first 100k and 200k on TikTok, they hadn't taken YouTube Shorts seriously but had met another YouTuber in the North East who makes their living from being on YouTube and asked them how they built that following and it was to care more about YouTube Shorts to take long form content and post it there. They were only getting a few hundred views on YouTube but getting thousands on Instagram but decided to go back and post some short videos on YouTube Shorts and found a few hundred views from just that, so take advantage of your social media and short form content and are always talking about your podcast with your community and that's how you grow a community.
He started to make his hats a year and a half ago as was about wearing something they wanted to wear and wanted to create a channel where people came to buy something, they said they had 20 hats and is first come first served or get T-shirts but can do whatever you want but have something you can show people. They wear their merch all the time and have people who have bought some and the best complement about their podcast has been their brand being consistent over the years, which is all done on Canva, so think about what would look well as a brand and translate well. The guests on your show matter, every guest you have has a network or community as well and you can leverage that massively, if you actually do you research you can find ways to attract that community over to you, it isn't the case of having a guest on and all the rest follows. If you haven't done your proper research such as not talking about things that are relevant to them then are wasting their time, you need to be thinking about why certain videos did well or what guests who did well what are they doing consistently. They didn't have a plan initially but now are intentional including their thumbnails now.
In terms on YouTube the United States is five years ahead of the UK, but in the North East we are a couple of years behind this and apart for a couple of podcasts none of the popular ones are in the North East. Something that happened for a long time was thinking of their podcast being just from the North East, can someone somewhere else in the world, what would they think about it, you need to think globally about a podcast and what will happen from intro, description, and thumbnail then everything is going to be on par, don't just think North East but think globally, you need to be global people and be international.
How do they cope with the attention? they grew up in church in Dublin so from a young age was to have a spirit of humility, when he was young there was a lot of praise from how well they do in music but learned so it never affected them, so be humble and don't pay attention to it, especially there will be haters. There is that fear of success, it is about uplifting communities. The biggest thing they wish they knew was to believe in themselves from the get-go, it was like can this be a thing and thinking why should anyone listen to this thing but don't know where that comes from, so knowing what they know now was to go back and say do it, no one cares and be impactful. If you content is authentically good people will come, it starts with you.
How do you self-motivate, were there occasions where they wanted to give up, how to you pick yourself up? Daps wanted to quit so many times, so had to stop thinking about the podcast as a talk show but instead as a movement, you are starting a movement, if you don't want to do this then don't start a podcast, you will build an audience who appreciate them, to represent those people who don't want to be on camera and share their voice. Think about it as being responsible for the people you are doing the show for, might have someone in the community reach out. One of the things was people wanting to listen to them in prison, want to do it for people who have turned their lives around and want to help others.
It is not just about yourself it is altruistic and it is about the bigger picture, they had went online and looked how to start a podcast as were the biggest fan of podcasts growing up, they listened to audio only content starting with the Ricky Gervais show and realised that talk shows are becoming a big thing so became a fan of listening which informed the person they wanted to become and listened well and knew what it took to make a podcast very well. There are so many people you can reach or impact.
Building your community and own spaces, social media channels and collaborating with guests. What is their view on going to other like-minded communities, there has to be a reason for this, or connection to this. A lot of the things we feel, what is too much really, but what feels right for you is enough, what is your capacity and are you comfortable with your capacity. The first year or two they tried everything, they had done Standup Comedy in Prohibition bar. If posting to other people's communities and aren't getting much engagement, then it might not be the right place. Video format is so important, and they were lucky enough to go to The Podcast Show in London this year and it was incredible and everyone was saying the same thing "video, video, video, video" and tightening formats is more important and things are changing year on year, pay more attention on what you put out there and your massaging. Think about your hook, what is in the first five seconds you will say will take everyone's attention and it might not be initially that exponential growth.
Daps have their own YouTube channel with 164 videos and 864 subscribers but in the last month have had 10,000 views so are they monetised, so what kind of income could they expect. They are not monetised yet and there is a partner programme where have to have 4,000 watch hours from main videos that needs to be more than 10 minutes long and need 1,000 subscribers but they have their 4,000 watch hours and got this in about a year. Everything from 2024 onwards has been much better and came from a year without spending anything on ads with just organic growth, you can see what your watch time is, why are people not watching your content. There are going to be people who want to watch your content, and the money will come. It is about £1 per thousand views when are monetised but the bulk of the money comes from sponsored ads and when get to bigger subscriber numbers then bigger brands will reach out, if want to get paid from views then can go on TikTok but need to have people following you as well as views. There is still a lot of work to get monetised. They did have a US sponsor in Silicon Valley sent them some drinks and paid them and a year later they liked the sponsored videos and wanted to do more with them but none of this sponsorship came from the UK, the UK brands that have sponsored them are local brands such as free clothes from a local retailer or free food from places but is not the kind of sponsorship that is £1,000 per month. When they realised their podcast editing skills were good enough then they could make money from it no matter where your client is from and there will be someone who doesn't care about editing.
Fireside Chat with Dawn Young hosted by Ashleigh King
Ashleigh has known Dawn for a while and as even spoke at a few of her Podcast Paddock event. Dawn started Scottish Murders which is a podcast about those who have been murdered in Scotland although they did try and cover cases outwith Scotland but those were less popular. Dawn prefers to do older cases, as there are families of victims around for newer cases, for those older cases for research they use the British Newspaper Archive with hundreds of tabs open, so they note everything down and type it out and manually write it out and tell the victim's story which is important to them. It is from the victim's perspective, and they are reclaiming their identities and have the victims have attention.
Dawm was at the The Podcast Show in London and was being recognised for their voice from someone who said their girlfriend listened to the podcast when they slept at night. Dawn mentioned that it was great to be part of a community online with those from the United States and in the UK with Crimecon where people are friendly and they have given away things like torches and pens. People do stop doing their podcast with true crime and do take breaks with their podcast, so being consistent is important and need to have a budget for time, energy and resources.
They have started on Patreon, when they started, they started a merch store, built community, they did buy me a coffee right from the start but they don't promote it as find it difficult and don't actively promote it but it is there but do mention it in an off-hand way. People just want to support you so many in true crime will just have bonus episodes so many out there will support and can do shoutouts to those supporting her on Patreon who want to support them and don't necessarily have to have anything in return. You could offer something digital like Scottish Murders wallpaper that is on their phone or shoutouts on the podcast. Set up merch store with own graphics with own intellectual property but it isn't for making money, it was just something to have in place for people who want it and see what works and what doesn't.
What would she do differently? Dawn said that it would be to focus more on the Patreon and nurture that community as they are paying every month and do more for that community. When people do join Patreon they do get a shout out on the podcast. Anyone who asks about doing a topic for an episode get a shout out on the podcast.
Dawn did do all the writing and editing at first but got someone else to do the editing and initially it started out with Dawn and her sister. They listened to Crime Junkie initially so that's what they wanted to do, it didn't work and wasn't quite as focused so made the decision to do it themselves but was worried as people were used to that style and did lose a few listeners but gained a few but it was more respectful and sensitive and to change and adapt.
Dawn helped cofound Cluarantonn which is about giving back and be able to ask anything, as they would have loved to have someone to ask all their questions so wanted to be that person. The goal has been to find people like that but have often found those wanting business podcasts instead, but it is still ongoing. There are events to bring people together who want to start a podcast, have a podcast and have a studio or on their journey to start talking and collaborating and started in October and has been every month since where there has been incredible response to them and the next event will be a True Crime special which will be something different.