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Hey Reader!

Did anyone notice my absolute goof introducing the last email? Turns out I missed a bracket when setting up the email. Sigh...

Get to the Point Faster for the Sake of Your Listeners

People don’t want to hear rambling stories about your life.

People want you to start providing the value you promised that made me click play in the first place.

Otherwise:

• New listeners won’t stick around
• Old listeners will get bored
• Your retention rate will drop, so you won’t get promoted inside apps

This took me 18 long months to realize

When my wife and I started our podcast, we would sit down, hit record, and start catching up. It was our way to deal with the nerves of recording before getting to the story.

In my ignorance, I left 90% of this chat in the final edit. I thought that since we were having a good time and laughing, our audience would feel the same way.

At its worst, we would talk for 14 minutes before introducing the show and getting to the story. 14. Minutes.

But again, ignorance prevailed. I thought that because the episode was two hours long, this was totally reasonable. I thought that this was us letting our personalities shine so our audience could connect with us as people. I was wrong.

Our lowest reviews reflected it. We got one-star reviews from people who said they wanted to like the show, but there was too much chat.

(Quick aside - not every 1-star review is helpful, but if there’s a theme, it’s worth questioning)

This is why I want to share this rule of thumb with you:

Introduce the show within 30 seconds. Get to the point within 5% of the show.

If I could go back in time, this would have made all the difference. I cringe at how many potential listeners came and went because of rambling that could have been edited out.

As a rule of thumb, one of the first things you say should be who you are and what you do so new listeners can join in. Then, within 5% of the total show length, get to the meat.

If I have an episode about Edinburgh Castle, I need to be talking about Edinburgh Castle, not the movie I watched last night.

Yes, personal intros are a great way to connect, but not too much. If you have a 30-minute show, we don’t want 10 minutes of chat. Keep it brief.

Since we started introducing this, we’ve started getting feedback like this message I got from a friend.

The difference from before? We are getting to the point faster. Friends chat and catch up in front of the microphone, while pros deliver on their promises.

Learn from my mistake and keep your intro brief. Your listeners will thank you for it.

Community Wins

If you have a win you want to share, hit reply!

How I Can Help You

1) I can add you to my best podcast lists. Just reply to this email with the podcast name, description, and category. I can also add new categories as required.

2) I have a page of ​Recommended Tools​. These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.