Here’s a sample chapter from Fan Podcasting: The Complete Guide that most readers voted as their favorite. It speaks to a big point in the book, which is that giving your listeners a voice on your show can only make your show better. We were blessed with tons of engaged listeners, which made getting good at podcasting a whole lot easier.
Enjoy the sample chapter! Remember, you can pick up the book for free at http://doanything.media/fanpodcasting/ .
“Bobby’s Always Here”
Bobby Hawke called in with a Once Upon A Time theory as “Robert From Bradenton” a few months after we started the show in 2013. We loved Bobby’s voicemails so much we gave him “pride of place” in our Feedback section. For the majority of the 500+ podcast episodes we produced, Bobby’s voicemail was the first voicemail we played.
Bobby quickly became one of our most prolific contributors, there in the chat room for every live stream, sending in a voicemail ten minutes before we went live, and creating unique content we never asked for and always loved.
We got along with Bobby so well, we eventually handed him the reins to our first podcast, Greetings From Storybrooke, after we stepped away for reasons I’ll discuss later. He even appeared with us at a live Legends of Gotham panel in Tampa Bay, near Bradenton. Bobby was always there with support and encouragement. His presence made our podcasts better. When we’d set up to go live, we’d invariably open the chat room and have this exchange:
Bill: Well, Bobby’s here.
Anne Marie: Bobby’s always here.
Bobby’s always here, and I hope he always will be. I don’t get to talk to Bobby as often as I’d like these days, but we’re still tight. Our kids have met. I know that, whenever I’m hatching my next creative project, I can always depend on Bobby to participate, or at least cheer me on. I can count on Bobby Hawke.
“There’s no end to the different ways it’s fun to connect with people on the internet. All you gotta do is put in the effort, and there is this great reward.” Justin Robert Young, Host – Who’s The Boss?
We had a lot of “Bobbys”: Hope Mullinax and Wynn Mercere and Dawn Owar and Annemarie Davelaar and Debbie Deb Deb Deb and Dave from Michigan and Michael Lucero and Angel Tollefsrud and Tony G Hooper and Monica Jones and Amy Powell and Bud Vanderkay and Joshua Phelps and Elizabeth Plascencia and Woo S. Kim and Nicole Troyer and Niko and Lady Jae and Peter Price and so many others whose names escape me at the moment. These people felt like friends because these people are my friends. By having them appear on our podcasts, we started a two-way conversation that’s still ongoing, long after we quit fancasting.
Sure, monetizing your podcast is important. You should want good numbers, as you define them. Using your podcast to refine your craft is great too. But my greatest accomplishment in podcasting was the community we built, the “Bobbys” who all banded together to cheer us on as we stumbled and fumbled our way through getting good. I’m glad we were able to give these people’s whacked-out theories and brilliant insights a platform. We also had the privilege of introducing these people to each other. Some of our community members have teamed up on their own projects, or meet up at conventions, or chat back and forth on Twitter about whatever they’re obsessed with now. Whenever I see these echos of our community as I mindlessly scroll on my phone, it makes all the time and energy we put into these podcasts feel like it was worth it.
I hope your podcast finds a Bobby.