Episode 2 - Mastering Podcast Formatting

In this episode, Jon dives deep into the specifics of podcast creation, focusing on crucial elements such as podcast titles, timelines, descriptions, genres, and overall formatting. He stresses the importance of selecting a title that reflects the podcast’s essence and leaves a strong first impression. Jon also emphasizes the role of a well-crafted, concise description as your podcast’s elevator pitch, helping you attract new listeners. Throughout the episode, he shares practical tips and examples to guide podcasters in making these critical decisions effectively.

Takeaways

• Select a podcast title that mirrors the content and makes a strong first impression.
• Write a clear, concise podcast description to serve as an elevator pitch for potential listeners.
• Identify the right genres and subgenres to categorize your podcast properly.
• Follow formatting best practices to create a professional and engaging podcast experience.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Overview
01:11 - Crafting an Effective Podcast Title
04:32 - Writing a Compelling Podcast Description
09:56 - Choosing the Right Podcast Genres
13:47 - Mastering Podcast Formatting
14:44 - Conclusion

Resources

• Download the Wayfare Podcast Strategy Workbook
• Need help with your podcast? CLICK HERE
• Need help starting your podcast? CLICK HERE

Versions

• Check out our video version of the podcast.
• Check out our audio version of the podcast.

Acknowledgments
A big thank you to:

• Kath - Creating the podcast artwork (You can find more of her work here)
• Anna - Wayfare's Admin Assist.
• Matt - Graphics creation for the show
• Dan - Post-production work

For any additional questions, please reach out through this link.

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

Jon (00:01.204)
Hello and welcome to episode two of the Wayfair recording podcast. today we are going over podcast specifics and the podcast genres for your show. So this should be pretty quick. It should be pretty, straightforward. feel like we're going over, I can look at the camera and tell you specifically what we are doing without, reviewing the whole book. this is a test and I'm already starting to forget what it is.

podcast title, the podcast timeline, the podcast description and your genre for the podcast. Did I get all that right?

Yep, I did. Cool. So yeah, it'll be pretty simple. I might take a little bit of time kind of going over each one, but it's, it's very, I know I feel like by the time you get to this point, you kind of already have an idea of what the show is going to be about and what the, what you want to kind of come across with your show. but it's just putting purpose to, I don't know what's the, is maybe I'm making this up purpose to pen. I don't know. if not.

Sounds kind of cool. So a podcast title, what is the name of your show? So the name of this show, the one that you're listening to right now is the way fair recording podcast. so why, why, why that title? Well, you know, it's better to title something without giving a false impression of what it is. So, you know, take for example, right off the top of my head, what is, what's a, what's a big,

podcast show. So let's just say, crime junkie. Let's go over that one. so that, I think that's like a top 10 podcast, crime junkie. would be kind of weird if they titled it something like, great British bake -off review and someone who's really excited to talk about pastries or listen to someone going to kind of digesting, like what the recent episode was like, or something like that. What did

Jon (02:10.196)
Paul Hollywood do how many times did he say, how many times did he say soggy bottoms or something like that? But then they click on it it's all of a sudden, you know, about crime stuff, someone committed this or someone did that. And, know, they found these many people here and it's like, my goodness, that is not what I signed up for. you want to, you want to make sure it's titled appropriately and you want to make sure it's titled, something that gives it the potential listener, a great first impression.

That's usually what the goal is when you want to push your show out there on YouTube, Apple podcasts, Spotify. It's all about first impressions, right? kind of getting a little ahead of myself, but to kind of hammer it home, like you want a really good, podcast artwork. you really want a good description. You want a good, title. You want a good, you really want to make sure like you're telling the listener.

I'm important above everyone else that is in the search bar that, know, when you type in, podcast how tos, I want to make sure that I'm clear distinct, like clear, specific, distinguished, set apart from everyone else. And I don't want to give the wrong impression. so yeah, like, one more example, quick one way for recording podcast.

I titled it because that's the name of the agency. Again, if you, want to get to know more about this agency, we have an episode zero out there that you can hear on a YouTube, Apple podcasts and Spotify. If you're checking us out on the website. Hello. Thank you for listening to episode two. you can find more about that, you know, website. You should know who we are at that point. That's the whole point of the website. but if you want to hear me actually talk about it, episode zero.

YouTube podcast. but yeah, that's the name of the business. That's name of the agency. So why not make it the name of the podcast? Cause that's, mean, it just makes sense to me. I don't know. Maybe not. podcast timeline. This one's a little bit more, we're going onto the next section. This one's a little bit more, optional. It kind of just helps kind of clear stuff up. Maybe, you know, if you're kind of using something like,

Jon (04:32.326)
One of our clients with Wayfair recording, one of our clients, they have a great title for their show. It's called Research Renaissance. But if you just kind of had the title there and it wasn't super clear what the title is off of first impressions, it could be, okay, cool. What are they researching? What's the new age? You know, Renaissance, I don't know if that's what that means, but what's the new age of research coming on here?

But they, they have a tagline underneath, that says exploring the future of brain science. Okay, cool. So they're doing brain research. Great. That makes much more sense. again, great title, but it just kind of helps clear stuff up a little bit. trying to think of anything else. I wrote a couple of notes down here, but that feels really strong to me as an example. I don't know if you're a Disney kid and I got one for you here.

land of the giants is the name of it. sorry, if you guys hear that, lo -fi podcast means you might hear my ice machine going on right now. for my fridge freezer, whatever. but land of the giants. Okay. Cool. So are we like doing a folk tale thing? Are we doing, are we talking about, I don't know.

Baseball, New York giants or something like that. Is that right? Yeah. So what does that mean? Well, I kind of already spoiled it by seeing Disney kids out there, but, it's land of the giants and then tagline the Disney dilemma. Okay, cool. So we're talking about Disney. Something's kind of going on. great. I'll click on it. I'll go onto an episode, see how it goes. they're not a client, but I just kind of looked it up and I was just kind of scrolling through them like, that's a good example. Cool. I'll use that.

But I used it. So yeah. And then there's some other podcasts where it's like, you know, it just makes sense on the whole, like, you know, I like to listen to a rich role so that he has an app or he has a podcast out called the rich role podcast. makes sense. I don't think he has a tagline technically. yeah. So that makes sense. It's not important to have a tagline, but it can help clear stuff up. Just in case something to think about it's very optional.

Jon (06:58.87)
podcast description is the next one. last topic on our, on our workbook for page number five, podcast description. This is your elevator pitch. This is, the reason, the definition, the clarity that the potential listener needs to read. If they want to commit to listening to an episode of your podcast. So it doesn't need to be long.

two to three sentences maybe would be good. one, if you really want to challenge yourself. so yeah, I usually like, I'm trying to think through of an example on Apple podcasts. When you click on a podcast or artwork and it sends you to their catalog of episodes, usually it's the.

Usually it's the, I don't know which side this is going to mirror on if you're watching it on video, but a top left will be like the podcast artwork. And then to the right of it is going to be the title. And then underneath it, underneath a couple of like, you know, follow buttons and stuff underneath it will be the description of the podcast. It'll define, it'll tell the listener who they are. So, for this one.

don't have one specifically fleshed out yet for this show. Cause again, I'm working through this workbook with you. and I'm doing all these episodes before I hit publish. So I haven't fully fleshed out yet, as of this recording, but, if I could think of one idea, again, I was kind of joining down some notes. I was thinking something to the effect of, John. That's me, John owner and operator of Wayfair recording.

goes through the process of what it takes to build a podcast. So that's one sentence. I think I'm going to do maybe two more, but that's something I have written down to kind of get my ideas going. and yeah, it's just, you know, be simple, be clear. just be earnest. It's, it's the goal. The goal is to get the person to click episode one or your trailer. That's the goal.

Jon (09:13.254)
so if you can do that, great. You gotta, you, got a, potential follower, a potential subscriber, potential fan. So yeah, it's.

Jon (09:25.898)
Just something to like think through, be, be a meditative on, and it should be pretty good. yeah, I'm trying to think through of anything else for this page. think, think that's it. And again, a quick little side before I go into the last section, podcast genre, if you have any questions, feel free to let me know. Feel free to reach out, schedule a call, talk about it. yeah, I, I, us as a crew, the agency, we offer free 30 minute chats, for people.

I can be clear as to what's consulting and.

Jon (10:02.326)
I don't know if one of our techs is gonna do a noise plugin, but if you can hear my dog, he's sleeping pretty hard. But yeah, so that's what we're doing. Sorry, maybe we'll do a hard cut at this point.

Jon (10:30.954)
Cool. I think we're good. Sorry about that. yeah, I don't know if one of our texts is going to edit that out, but it was kind of cute. I, Morris is a good boy. if you live in the South bend area, you might meet him. He's cool. He's chill.

Jon (10:54.056)
Yeah, let's, let's edit that out. That'd be great. yeah. So podcast is genre podcast genre is the next page, page six. again, if you're jumping through, just hanging out, you can download this, check it out. this one's going to be really, really simple. Like it's, it's literally just, I'm, I'm kind of on the workbook. I want to help.

make things easier for you as you set it up, set up your publishing. And again, if you find someone that can help you do all this stuff, all the consulting work, like they'll do it for you and you can give them this and they'll just do boom, boom, boom. We're done. We're good. So, normally for most podcasts hosting websites like buzzsprout and simple cast, they'll ask for three genres of what your show is. And underneath that will be sub genres. So,

Yeah, it's kind of helped think through and this, this list, this genre list that you'll find on this workbook will, I kind of did a quick little like scrub through of most of these, hosting websites to kind of get an idea of what the general, sub genres are that they look for. but on here, you'll see like, okay, genre one, let's just say, you know, right off the top of the list, arts is the overall genre. So the sub genre would be like books design.

food and beauty, food, food and beauty, fashion and beauty. Food's pretty cool too. Fashion and beauty, food, performing arts and visual arts. So you'll write down genre one, arts, sub genre. Let's just say food, cause I like food. Yeah, and that's pretty much what you do. That's all it is really. And the reason why this is important is because it helps

Categorize your show throughout all, all of the other, shows out there and helps kind of categorize it. Are you, let's just say you have a really awesome food podcast and your number one. like, Apple podcasts will take your podcast, put it in the category of, arts food and help, you know, people will be like, I really want to listen to a food podcast. So I'll click on it and yours could be number one on the list.

Jon (13:17.482)
pretty simple. it's just good for like, you know, buzzword, but you know, the SEO of podcasting, which, know, we could talk about later on a different episode, but yeah, that's pretty much it. I think that's it for this, episode. think that's it. The next one's going to be podcast formatting. that one's going to be quite a bit. I don't think it'll, maybe it'll be a longer one. Maybe it'll be like 20 minutes long, maybe 30, but.

yeah, that should be it. if you guys, again, I said before my, before my pooch was sleep talking, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. let me know if you have any questions or should be a email, on our website. If you want to do that, if you're listening to this on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, there should be links to.

go through and submit a form or to reach out or, yeah. there's also the comment section on YouTube. Again, I think I saw this in the last episode, but it'd be really cool to keep this as a, forum type discussion and be really helpful for people. and I don't know all the other stuff like subscribe, follow, share, comment. Yeah. If you do all that stuff that helps, get the show out to others, but.

Yeah, thanks again for listening to another episode. hope you guys are doing good and see you on episode three or another one if you listen to a different one. Cool, see you guys.