Podcasting Do’s & Don’ts: A Conversation with Dave Jackson – Part 1
“And I hit play on it, and I hear ‘Hello, Dave, this is Michael Van Lahr from Nuremberg, Germany.’ I’m in the basement of my brother’s house. This is where I started. And that, which goes back to, it doesn’t matter. Just, just start. And my brother goes ‘Did he say Nuremberg, Germany?’ And I go ‘Yeah.’ And we just sat there for the longest time, just, ‘Hello, Dave. Hello, Dave.’ I’m like, and I was just like, wow, there’s somebody, I’m in the middle of Mogadore, Ohio – everyone together, ‘Where?’ Yeah, exactly. It’s me and the cows. And there’s some guy on the other side of the planet that found my stuff.” — Dave Jackson
This week’s guest has been helping people understand technology for over twenty years as a trainer and consultant. He launched the School of Podcasting in 2005 and was inducted into the Podcasting Hall of Fame in 2018. He’s also the author of Profit From Your Podcast: Proven Strategies to Turn Listeners into a Livelihood, and has launched over thirty podcasts with four million downloads.
His name is Dave Jackson, and if you want to learn more about what it takes to have a compelling podcast that lasts – and I’m always interested in learning about that myself – this is the place to be. Dave’s also a musician with a unique perspective on where podcasting has been and where it’s going, and he’s pretty outspoken, so you won’t want to miss out on what he has to say.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House every Wednesday (check the schedule for times). Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available, when new audio rooms are scheduled and what they’ll be about, and it’ll give you access to a resource called The Studio with lots of interesting sound-related mp3s, videos, educational pdfs, and exclusive discounts from previous guests.
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(0:00:00) – Passion for Sound and Podcasting
We start the conversation with Dave’s early memories of sound, his start as a musician, and how tinnitus has changed both his life and his relationship with sound. “When it comes to sound,” he says, “I’m, like, I hate silence because it makes my ear-ringing, just, you know, kick into gear.” He tells us about how a surprise career change led to him to Libsyn and podcasting. “I was, like,” he explains, “if I wanted to, if I have to stand up and say ‘this is the place where you host your media,’ I’m, like, where would I go? And at the time, I was like, you know what? Libsyn. So that’s why I chose them.”
(0:10:43) – Improvising and Rolling With Technology Glitches
The topic turns to the lessons Dave learned as a musician about improvising and rolling with the performance punches, and how they’ve helped him grow as a podcaster. “That’s one of the things that I think podcasters don’t do enough of,” he says, “just play, like, as a musician. You spend hours in the basement, just, wood-shedden’ is what they call it.” We discuss the art of what Dave calls messing up with finesse, and how a listener’s surprising feedback helped cure his tendency to apologize at the start of his early podcast episodes. “Finally somebody emailed me” he recalls, “and said, ‘Dave, I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t hear the fan. I wish you just would move on.’”
(0:16:05) – Podcasting Adventures and Connections
We talk about podcasting’s ability to reach out to and connect people from all over the world, from Ohio and Germany to Australia and Shanghai, and his most memorable episodes, including the fan-favorite sketch Binky and the Wiz. He also shares the lessons he’s learned from critiquing podcasts. “They spent the first eight minutes asking for money,” he recalls, “and complaining that nobody was giving them money, and I’m like, probably because you haven’t given them any value yet.”
(0:24:00) – Podcast Best Practices and Mistakes
As we reach the halfway mark of our discussion, Dave tells us his best practices for a podcast. “I’m not really a stickler. It’s introduce the show, and then introduce the topic of the day, whatever it is, so then, at that point, I know I’m in the right place and I know I want to hang around.” He offers a warning about the “double intro” mistake he used to make as a podcaster, and the dangers of relying on inside jokes while building your audience. “And they’re all laughing,” he recalls one celebrity podcast, “because, ‘oh, that is such a Mike thing.’ And I’m like, ‘yeah, I don’t know Mike.’”
Episode Summary
- Dave’s early sound influences, how he’s managed tinnitus, and his start in podcasting.
- What you should know before starting a podcast, from improv to engagement.
- Looking back at Dave’s journey and the thing they don’t tell you about podcasting.
- Podcasting tips for beginners, from the intro music to the background noise.
Tune in for the second half of our conversation as Dave and I talk about figuring out the essential “why” of your podcast, the new audio landscape that AI tools have created for users and listeners alike, and why now’s the best time since before the pandemic for starting your own podcast.
Connect with the Guest
Website: https://davidjackson.org/
Follow Dave Jackson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schoolofpodcasting/
Connect with Dave Jackson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davejackson
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This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.
