[00:00:00] Before we get started with today's podcast. I want to take this opportunity to ask you when the last time it was that you changed out the air filter in your home. And would you believe that most people don't change out their air filters monthly, or even know that they have to change them out monthly or until they realize that something is actually wrong with their HPAC system.
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[00:00:34] The real reason you're not changing your air filters. It's because you forget half the time. You're like how I used to be. That's why I went with second nature. Air filters. Second nature has created a subscription plan to send your home's air filters each month, right to your door, which forces you to change out your old air filters before the new one arrives, keeping your air clean and your HVAC system in working condition.
[00:00:56] I've certainly noticed that regular replacement of my home's air filters has reduced the amount of dust flying around in my place, but has also reduced how much I've been sneezing in my place before I was cheating on my air filter every three months. And I was sneezing constantly. Now that I change out my filter monthly, I hardly ever sneeze.
[00:01:11] This is all. Thanks to second. Nature's a filter subscription plan and it's the one delivery that I actually look forward to every month. Get started with second nature air filters today with my referral [email protected] slash second nature
[00:01:27] makes down media production. Today's episode of The Podcast Therapist is brought to you by the Adobe Creative Cloud. Creativity is everywhere and all you need are the right tools to turn those creative ideas into reality. Whether it's building stunning new artwork to promote your podcast, editing simple videos for your video podcast or stepping up your audio production game.
[00:01:48] The Adobe creative cloud gives you access to Adobe's entire suite of software products that will enhance your content creation across all digital platforms. Go to the podcast, therapist.com/adobe to learn more and get started. Today, we're going to be talking about building new skill sets for your podcast, specifically in the area of graphic design, especially if you're starting your podcast for the very first time, this is a skill that can be very valuable and unbalanced audio from losing
[00:02:25] the podcast. Welcome back to another episode of The Podcast Therapist. I am your host, the Shan man, or you can call me Shannon Hernandez. I'm a radio broadcast or podcast or, and a podcast producer and your podcast, a therapist, hopefully here to get. The answers that work best for me, but my also work best for you as well.
[00:02:47] In today's episode, like I mentioned in the intro, we're going to be talking about building brand new skill sets for your podcast. Now, this is an area where I think a lot of podcasters, they are struggling because it comes down to graphic design. And a lot of us don't know how to use graphic design programs.
[00:03:03] They don't, we don't know how to use Photoshop. We don't know how to use Adobe illustrator. And these are some of the programs, actually the applications. Really take everything to the next level. Now I realize that there are apps out there that can do a lot of the stuff. There are different SAS products [00:03:20] that are out there as a software, as a service like Canva and whatnot.
[00:03:23] We're going to talk about them here after a little while, but I do realize that those exist, but not all the time. Do those graphics make the impact visually? For you and your podcast. And, as we know podcasts, and we know podcasting is obviously very auditory we're hearing sounds, and hopefully those sounds can translate into some type of branding, but when it comes down to the promotion of your podcast, we can't rely on things like video because.
[00:03:52] It's not all the time. Can we do a video podcast? Not all the time. Can we sit down and record a video podcast? And it doesn't make sense for us sometimes. So that's where we have to jump in. Maybe make something that promotes a little bit differently. So I want to dive into that today and I want to talk to you about my philosophy and I don't know if it's a philosophy that will really impact you, but it was something that was inspired by a book that I am rereading right now called relentless by Tim S Grover.
[00:04:22] He was Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant's strength and conditioning coach back in the day. And if you've ever, if you've never had a chance to listen to that book or even read that book, I highly recommend it. If you're finding yourself stuck in any area in which you might be struggling with your podcast that area might be in motivation.
[00:04:41] It might be in building new skillsets and that's. Today. I wanted to focus on why we build new skillsets outside of the audio realm of building podcasts. Okay. This is something that I think is very important. I personally find it very important. I don't believe in being one-sided in terms of building content.
[00:05:02] I do my best to try to be well-rounded. This is a lesson that my father has really tried to instill in me. And he's tried to see, it's going to be a well-rounded human being to be able to do a little bit of everything. And you're going to hear that there are entrepreneurs out there.
[00:05:19] There are life coaches. There are everyone out there. People telling you how to start a business. And they're going to tell you that you need to focus on one thing at a time and just be the expert at that one thing, but not all the time. And are those people right? I'm going to say that, maybe they are making six figures, six figures more than what I'm making, but what I like to look at the value in terms of.
[00:05:40] Who I am as a human being what I can do and the ropes that I've had to be up against that all comes in the form of playing with the pigs, getting down into the dirt and learning how to build out a new skillset to know, and put myself in someone else's position to know how difficult it was, or maybe how easy it was to build a piece of content.
[00:06:05] Especially in the area of graphic design. As we jump into today's topic, we're going to get a lot more deep into this particular topic. Now, before we jump into today's topic, I want to invite you to check out a rocket book. The Podcast Therapist is powered entirely by rocket books. It's a reusable notebook that you use special pens with.
[00:06:25] They're called friction pans. And what you do is you basically take all of your notes in these notebooks. And then when you're done, you can go ahead and grab the rocket book app and scan. Your notes into the cloud. And then what you can do is all you do is just get some water and a cloth that they [00:06:40] give you.
[00:06:40] When you get your own rocket book and you wipe clean all of your notes while they're already saved into the cloud. This is a great way to reuse your notebook again. And of course you can save the. With as well, there's different types of notebook varieties. There's the core, which I have the court's a smaller notebook, also the fusion, which is like a planner and they have many others, the matrix, the flip.
[00:07:02] And then there are these things called beacons. If you're someone who likes to do things on dry erase boards, you put these beacons on the corners of your dry erase board, and you can still use the app to take pictures of those particular notes and save them into the cloud. Rocket books are really amazing and very cool for not only the podcast or, but also maybe someone who working in a corporate environment, rocket book is powering the next generation of ideas, a save your notes and save the planet with rocket book.
[00:07:29] You can get one over on my affiliate [email protected] slash rocket book. So let's go ahead and jump into today's topic and why I came up with this idea of building a new skills with graphic design. Now, I think it's very important to know that super pro at graphic design, there are some really amazing graphic designers out there that know a lot of skills.
[00:07:55] When it comes down to using programs like Adobe Photoshop, maybe Adobe illustrator, or other vector programs that are out there. Does it mean that you have to use them? Not necessarily, but the reason why I bring up these particular apps, especially when you're using something from Adobe or the Adobe creative cloud, is that these seem to be the industry standard.
[00:08:16] When it comes down to developing graphics and graphic design. Likely you are the person who is probably just developing very simple graphics, probably through Canva. Maybe you're doing it through another application. And by all means doesn't, it doesn't mean that those applications or software as service don't do a great job.
[00:08:37] I've seen some amazing artwork built in Canva. And I think that you could do probably just the same, but when it comes down to the little details of customization, Artwork then it might get a little more complicated for you. There may be times whenever you need to create an image that needs to have a transparent background.
[00:08:58] You can do that in certain programs, but in my cost, you so just know that what I'm sharing with you today are based on the experiences or the experience. That's the one thing that I want to share with you is the experience that I went through when it came down to learning how to use vector graphics programs or Photoshop.
[00:09:17] All right. And when I talk about vector graphics, I'm talking about Adobe illustrator because that is the industry standard. When it comes down to developing graphics. All right. Graphic design is used for multiple purposes. Okay. So when we think about our podcast, we're really focused on just the audio portion, right?
[00:09:34] We're really focused on the editing. That's what I think a lot of podcasts is they get the rocks off about these I'll go, oh my God, I get to create a podcast. That's all, whether that be about like a podcast that is storytelling, or maybe it's a podcast that sounds more like it's on the radio.
[00:09:47] Very similar to what this podcast sounds like. The Podcast Therapist, either way, whenever people jump into audio itself, they get very excited. But what they're missing is that [00:10:00] audio design or audio editing is just one part of that equation. It's one part of the podcasting equation. And when we have an equation that has the right variables, or I wouldn't even say the right variables, cause I don't even know if equations have right variables, but when you have the equation that has the variables that are available to.
[00:10:21] You can create not only a quality audio product, but a quality visual product. So we want to focus on not only the audio side of things, but also the visual side, because this is how we're going to promote our podcast. Visually we won't always be able to use video. We won't always be able to go in and record our video podcast.
[00:10:46] Maybe you are a solo podcaster, solo podcasters. Maybe they don't want to record themselves. Maybe they just need some type of image to promote their podcast. How do we do that? We're going to talk about that here in a second. All right. So let's talk about the things that, or I guess the designs that you would be using for graphic design when it comes to you and your podcasts, these are all applicable.
[00:11:10] These are all things that I ended up discovering down the line over time. Without anyone telling me someone maybe had referenced it at one point in time or maybe glossed over it, but they were the things that ended up becoming more important than what they were really talking about, what these other people were talking about.
[00:11:32] Okay. So number one, graphic design is used for yeah. Your podcast artwork is going to be the one thing that is going to promote you and your podcast. It's going to be showing up in the apple podcast store Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts tune in. It's going to go to all these syndication platforms.
[00:11:50] And if you don't have a solid podcast artwork square. Then it's not really going to get recognized now, does it mean that I think that my podcast, our work is the best. Yes, no, I'm just kidding. I don't know if it is, but it is something that really fits, more towards my brand. And I'll explain to you hopefully how I came to the decision of how my podcast artwork came to be.
[00:12:11] But graphic design is going to apply with your podcast artwork. Number two, it's going to apply to the graphics that are going to show up on your website. So when you develop a build, excuse me, when you develop and build a skill of graphic design, you can really take advantage and really kick your website's graphics into high gear.
[00:12:33] You have so much flexibility when you learn this skill of graphic design for your podcast website. This also jumps into number three, you're going to need to have graphic design skills. Whether it be in Canva or Adobe illustrator or Photoshop, you're going to need them for number three, your websites, SEO image.
[00:12:58] What is the SEO image? Likely you have seen the SEO image if you're not familiar with the search engine optimization image. Okay. The SEO image is what, excuse me, is what you see whenever say you're on Facebook and someone shares an article out from say, I dunno, we could say the wall street journal or New York times or whatever it may be.
[00:13:18] Okay. Or your favorite [00:13:20] website, maybe it's Upwork. And that rectangle that shows up that is the SEO image that is showing up on your website. It's I don't know. How would you explain it? It is hidden inside of your websites post or your pages. There's a specific area where you would put the SEO image and work.
[00:13:40] I believe you're using the Yoast plugin to put these SEO images up there for me, I use Kajabi. My website is Kajabi, and they already have a field where they say, this is where you should be filling out that or uploading that artwork into your not only blog posts, but your pages, the SEO image applies to every page on your website.
[00:14:02] If you have a blank image, then it shows up ugly on social media platforms, whether you're sharing on Facebook, whether you're sharing on Twitter, whether you're sharing on Pinterest, it's going to show, it, it just is going to make a big difference when it comes down to you and your podcast artworks.
[00:14:19] So graphic design really applies to this very critical key image for your website. What are we on? Number three, I believe, or no, we're on number four. You're going to be using graphic design for your promotional images to promote your episodes. So I have a video on my website that I will try. I'm going to write down right here on my notes app.
[00:14:41] In real time, we're going to put in a headline or videos. I'm going to write headliner on my notes. So what I'm referring to with headliner is that I did a video series on. YouTube on my YouTube channel. And that talked about building out promotional images to share out for your podcast. So there was this program called headliner that I had talked about a few years back.
[00:15:03] Those videos are still very relevant to this day. They probably need to be updated and a little bit, but basically what a headline. Images is basically it's a square box. It could be a square box, or it could be a rectangle and you can put way forms on top of an image that you have created with embedded audio that you could share onto Instagram.
[00:15:22] You could share it to Facebook, you could share it to Twitter, wherever you want. And this is a great way to build a body of work, to put on your social media, especially when it comes down to Instagram, we see more and more people using Instagram as a means to promote. Hopefully we can get an Instagram pro and expert onto this program to share why Instagram is important for you and your podcast and how you can promote on your podcast.
[00:15:45] But just so you know, headliners app or the headliner app, that is going to be one of the opportunities for you to create not only a moving image with audio, in a sense, but. Is going to give you the opportunity to build out artwork for a headliner so they can embed that artwork into your headliner. I'm going to leave a link for those videos in today's show notes on this particular podcast.
[00:16:17] So make sure you go ahead and check them out, whether you're on apple podcasts or maybe you are on Spotify, you can find that link down there in the description of this particular podcast. So we're going to be using graphic design to create promotional images, to promote our episode specifically headliner number five.
[00:16:36] I believe we're on number five. I've lost count, but I just, I know I have six points here that [00:16:40] I want to make. We are going to be using graphics to create skins for your live stream, whether that be lower thirds or what they're called Chirons if you want to get technical, but I used to call them lower thirds people in the news industry, call them Chirons.
[00:16:56] We're going to create skins for your live stream. That can be used on either stream yard, maybe that's re excuse me, it's restrained. And these lower thirds can be used and broadcast over these platforms into say Facebook or YouTube, live Twitch Periscope, LinkedIn, all of these. And there is nothing better and nothing more legit than to have something that is a lower third that looks legit, or maybe it's, a lower third might be an overlay that has your branding on it.
[00:17:26] Maybe it says The Podcast Therapist, or it says your brand, whatever it may be, or maybe in the top right-hand corner of the screen, the video screen, you might have that you might have that a logo image on the top right-hand corner of your logo. This is where graphic design really comes in handy for you and your podcast.
[00:17:43] And number six, I know there's six because here it is number six. This is the one I've been waiting for. Graphic design is used for building out merchandise. You decide, you want to create it. Graphic design is used for merchandise. If you decide you want to create it, maybe you are a podcaster who has a pretty decent audience.
[00:18:08] Maybe you were an influencer and you decided to go ahead and build out this platform on Tik TOK. And now you want to go jumping into podcasting and with podcasting, you want to be able to promote clothes. Maybe you want to promote t-shirts with sayings on them. Maybe you want to build out hats. You want to produce hats.
[00:18:28] You need a graphic designer to do that. You could very well hire someone else out to do this, but you can do it yourself. I promise you that you can do it yourself because you have the motivation. You have the skillset you have what is with. To develop and build a new skill set of graphic design to build out merchandise if you decide to do it's very important for you to build out these skill sets. All right. So like I said, I'm not a professional graphic designer. I know enough to be dangerous. And what I ended up doing is that's how I ended up learning graphic design. I learned graphic design specifically through it was through necessity, but I also developed it because it helped me earn the amount of money that I needed in a very tense situation.
[00:19:23] Let's get into that on today's mixdown right here on the podcast, therapist will be.
[00:19:39] To a lot of you, coffee is the nectar of the morning, wake up. God's right. I totally love that feeling. Just like you, of being awake, especially as I get older. Tends to get a little bit harder. It wasn't until I made a visit to the doctor a few years back and I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and I had to give up all of the caffeine in my life, including coffee.
[00:19:59] Even though [00:20:00] caffeine can wake you up and make you feel alive for some part of the morning, it also has side effects like the jitters anxiety, and you'll get terrible sleep. All of the things that I was experiencing that's when I discovered mud water is a coffee replacement with one seventh, the caffeine of coffee that actually gives me.
[00:20:16] Focus and immunity without jitters crashes or a downside. So what's in it. Mud water is a mixture of herbs, spices, and magic mushrooms that dial in on your immunity, boost your clarity, creativity, and your mood. I can't tell you how much of a difference it has made in. In the last few months, so lose the jitters and find more focus with mud water.
[00:20:38] Get your mud water starter kit today at the podcast. therapist.com/mud water. That's The Podcast Therapist.com/mud. Dwtr to learn more. First-hand and froth, or today it's time for the mixed podcast therapist.
[00:21:02] Welcome back to The Podcast Therapist. And let's jump right into the mixdown. This is the time where we get to take all the layers of ideas that are all laid out for you in specific order and share with you how we come to the conclusion or remix it down into the final product or the final idea. The mixdown is the area in which I share with you all of those little steps for you.
[00:21:26] So in the last segment I talked to you about that. I wanted to share with you the history of graphic design, from my perspective, how did I get involved in it? And it really was something that came out of, necessity. It was an area in which I really needed to get a final result. For a particular, I would say problem, I guess it was what I had a, you're going to learn about that here in this particular story in the mixdown down.
[00:21:54] So I have some points here and I guess I want to walk you through that timeline of how I learned graphic design, starting from the very basic of me, just struggling and stumbling along with learning graphic design, to the point to where I could just do graphics on my own and be good enough to be dangerous.
[00:22:15] Okay. So I want to take you back a few years ago. In fact, let's take you back about who I'd say, what are we in 2020? So let's say about 2015. This is about the time whenever I was really jumping in and getting really good. A WordPress site. Now I had a WordPress site but I couldn't afford a graphic designers.
[00:22:36] So I decided to go ahead and start exploring and doing research to find different graphics programs. There were a number of them out there that you could use. There were different apps that you could use for your phone, but it just made everything. Look. I don't know, bulky, generic. I didn't really like it compared to what I was seeing online compared to who I was looking at in terms of influencers at the time.
[00:23:00] But I didn't want to hire a graphic designer because graphic designers, they cost a lot of money graphic designers back in the day. I don't know what their rates are now, but they were ranging anywhere between a hundred dollars per design to a thousand dollars per design. It just really all depended on who you were going to.
[00:23:18] And those are pretty [00:23:20] legit. Prices to get a design done. If you know what the concept is for your podcasts. But if you're someone who is like me, where you come up with the idea, but then you want to see it tweaked a certain way. Graphic designers may not work out for you. So that's why I wanted to explore looking for different pieces of software.
[00:23:38] So what I did is I went into Google, like most people did, and I did a search for designing software graphic software. And I ended up testing up or I ended up testing a free open source software for GRA vector graphics. I can even remember the name of the program anymore because it just. I just don't even use it anymore.
[00:23:59] But it's probably one of the only ones that are out there that are free. If you go look it up inside of Google. Now I use this vector graphic program for about two years and I was actually pretty good at it. And, if I needed a change to a graphic I could make it. But what I did realize with that was that if I wanted to change to a graphic or someone had sent me a graphic, that if I was doing it in this free open source software, it sometimes wouldn't read the file because most people were doing things in Photoshop.
[00:24:28] Most people were doing vector graphics in Adobe illustrator and this open-source software just wasn't working. It wasn't converting the files overwrite. And I, I was missing out on jobs. People were asking me to, I was like, I can do that because it would see the graphics that I was doing.
[00:24:45] And then. It turned out to be that this free open source software just wasn't working out for me, it was very difficult. In fact, when you're using something like open source software, whether that be free, open source software for audio or graphics or video, not all the times, will you get all of the features that you were looking to do?
[00:25:07] You'll see someone else's piece of content and you'll see, I want to do it that way. And then you go to a free open source software and it doesn't do it, or it takes a long, then much longer to do. And that's where I don't want you to waste your time. I want you to learn the skill set immediately off the top.
[00:25:26] Learn now while you can. All right. So software with free open source software ended up crashing. When I was trying to edit my own graphics, someone else's graphics because. Operating system updates, whether it was Macko Wes or you were on windows. I was on windows back in the day, even then when I was using a windows program, those programs were crashing.
[00:25:50] Those three free open-source softwares were crashing in windows. And then I tried to do them in Mac when I moved over to a Mac and they just were not working the way that I needed them to work. And they just kept crashing. It just did this for about, oh, I'd say up to four years before I decided to go ahead and learn, how to use graphics and Adobe illustrator.
[00:26:09] And by all means I wasn't perfect at it. I was just looking up a couple of YouTube videos here and there and I was, I was just getting the basics done. So then I decided that I wanted to move my WordPress site over into Kajabi. At this time, I had started really getting serious about wanting to develop a side hustle.
[00:26:28] And that side hustle of course, is what you're hearing right here. It's all about The Podcast Therapist. It's the YouTube channel. It's my website. It's building out digital products, all that. And all of that was housed on Kajabi and Kajabi was a very [00:26:40] basic site. Back then. It was the only site or as one of the only sites where you could develop a training software for, or training programs for people who wanted to come in and learn from you.
[00:26:51] But that's all it did. It was just a training website is where it was like teachable. Like you just put your content up there and you drove people from your WordPress site over to your Kajabi membership site, and that's where they took your training course. So at the time, my graphics on Kajabi were very basic.
[00:27:09] I started using canvas instead, so I broke away from the free open source software started using camp. And I found that Canva was very useful for certain things. It's a great program and believe it or not canvas, they've done a lot of improvements to Canva. But what I found was that it was useful for social graphics, but when it came down to things that I wanted to take to the next level, it was very basic.
[00:27:37] In terms of graphic design, you had to search for certain things inside of canvas. Maybe you had to pay a dollar for a graphic that you wanted to embed into your main graphic. And that wasn't a problem for me. That's how Canva makes their money. They're our business. And I don't disagree with that, I think is actually really good thing that they do that, but it wasn't what I was looking for in terms of graphic design.
[00:28:02] It was limited on design functionality in terms of gradients, on words, gradients, meaning it fades from one color to another color. It might make, may, might make like a little shine or sheen on a series of words. If you want that, it might have a great Intuit. If I wanted to bend the word, I couldn't do that too much inside of Canva.
[00:28:26] If I wanted to curve circles around and make a specific design, I couldn't do that. Coloring was okay. The positioning of graphics inside of another graphic, might've been difficult. And that is just, that was just what I was struggling with. I wanted to do more with my graphics. So in the summer of 2019, that was when I really learned how to use Adobe illustrate.
[00:28:52] 2019 was already a super difficult time for me. In fact, anyone who has ever talked to me about 2019, especially my my supporters on Facebook, they were with me through that entire year, all of last year. They were, if you thought 2020 was a difficult year, which it has been, I'm not going to say it hasn't been a difficult year for any of us, but two of my 2019 really prepared me for 2020 because I had something going on every single month of the year, other than maybe two months out of the year.
[00:29:24] I could get really deep into it, but it turned out to be the majority of those things were home repair, home repair issues that I was having to attend to. It was a home repair hell for me, between the month of January through may I had a refrigerator go out. I had walls that were crumbling.
[00:29:46] Cause I live in a condo complex where they were watering on the outside of the water was leaking on the inside of my house and the wall was crumbling on the inside leaking. I had little electrical problems. I had so much going [00:30:00] on all the way up until may oh 2019, and then June rolled around and I was able to finally take a little bit of a break.
[00:30:10] In fact, I could start building more content for my YouTube channel, but it wasn't until the end of June. And I remember this like it was yesterday because I know exactly when it happened. It was the first week of July because 4th of July was coming up and I came into my condo and I noticed that the air conditioning there was now starting to kick on a little bit more here in the Arizona desert.
[00:30:40] So I noticed the air condition. Was cycling on and off, it would run for four seconds and then it would turn off and then would run for four seconds and then we'll turn off. And he would do that constantly. And I was like this isn't enough to cool the house. Either there's something wrong with the thermostat or there's a problem with something else that is technical.
[00:31:00] And as in Arizona, the temperatures can reach anywhere between one 17 and one 20. And that happens, that starts happening in July. And this is going to be a problem. I had to get an air conditioning tech out to fix that particular problem that was going on. So I needed to pay for AC repair.
[00:31:16] So what I ended up doing is I called up someone that I knew and he came out and he's look, this isn't going to end up costing you $1,100. To fix. We have a problem with the motors. These motors are so old, they have never been replaced. So just a little background on my place. I live in an older area of Phoenix.
[00:31:36] It's called uptown Phoenix. And I live in these older condos. Everyone who lives here loves the location. Location is great, but the buildings are very old. And if you have not done the maintenance on the building, things start to break down. So what ended up happening was that the motors that were inside the air conditioner blower, they hadn't been replaced since the place was built.
[00:31:59] This place was built in the sixties. And there was a note on the motor that ended up saying that you had to oil the motor every month. So think about it. I didn't know any of that. So it's very likely, yeah, the motor was done, but the biggest problem was that those blowers and those blower fans, they didn't make.
[00:32:25] So this guy had to come into my house, take apart the entire blower itself because you could not find them anywhere. Take them back to his shop, clean them up because whoever lived here before I left and moved in and who knows how many people have lived here since then someone was smoking in here and you could see all the tar just disgusting on the fan blades.
[00:32:51] So he had to go clean this. So this was going to cost about a thousand dollars, probably could have cost 2000. I think he gave me the friend discount. And when he told me the bill, how much it was going to cost, he said $1,100. That is the quote that I'm going to be giving you on this particular fix, but it's going to take about two and a half to three weeks.
[00:33:11] So at this point, I'm thinking to myself, this is not good. Like I have to live in this place and what do I have to do? How am I going to stay cold? [00:33:20] Luckily I already had a portable air conditioner. For my place and that this is where it came down to me learning how to build out a brand new skill. So I had a Facebook I had, I still have a Facebook supporter program.
[00:33:36] I started the Facebook support a program for my radio, a station, I guess fans. I started that back in January of 2019, and it was by accident and someone ended up supporting me. They paid five bucks and I was like, oh, this is cool. Someone gave me five bucks soon. It turned from one person to five people to 10 people.
[00:33:55] And then it just grew and mushroom doubt. And it turned out to be something that ended up saving my ass in 2019, as all of these things started to happen. They, as they all started to fall apart around me, but I needed it. Wasn't enough to cover the 1100 bill $1,100 bill that I needed to pay my friend for fixing the blowers and the air conditioning unit as well.
[00:34:19] So that's when I decided that I wanted to make a shirt for those who were a part of my supporter program, but I needed a graphic designer. This is when I dove head first into graphic design. So from the first I'm sorry. So from the second week of July, all the way into the third week of July, this is when it is the hottest in Arizona.
[00:34:47] This is where we get 117 degrees outside. And it turns to be about 95 degrees inside this isn't like Florida heat where you're just getting the humidity. I hear that's a miserable Arizona heat. It just makes it stuffy. So what I ended up doing is I boxed myself in, this is how legit the problem was.
[00:35:12] I boxed myself. My bedroom, my master bedroom with a desk, the portable air conditioner, blackout curtains, an extra box fan. And that's where I lived for two weeks. And in that room, that is where I just dove headfirst into YouTube videos on how to use Adobe illustrator because the bill was $1,100. I only had about $300 to cover for that particular repair.
[00:35:49] I actually had extra money in my bank account, but that was really more about emergencies than anything else. I needed that money for other areas that I needed to repair into the house. And so this is where graphic design and learning how to do graphic design started. I was already paying for the Adobe creative cloud.
[00:36:15] And I just wanted a simple design with words on it. My group happens to call themselves the Shan clan family, and somewhere in the conversations of the light beads, we brought up the idea that they're the original gangsters, did their original ones that are a part of my group. And so they said, we'll make a shirt that just says, oh, gee SCF, hashtag OGs, CF.
[00:36:38] And we'll see [00:36:40] what we can do. And I was like I want to make sure that the design is good enough for you. And they said, just go ahead and make it. And I said, okay, we'll do that. So I started researching YouTube videos for basic tutorials on how to create graphics and graphic design and how to graphic design t-shirts.
[00:36:59] And I spent those two weeks in July in a hot bedroom with the lights off with an air conditioner blowing on my back, a fan blowing from the other side of the room to try to circulate the air. Ordering takeout, Uber eats and learning what I could to be a graphic designer or to create graphics for a t-shirt.
[00:37:26] And I just studied, I took notes in a notebook. I had a friend on the phone with me sitting while I was sitting in the dark and encouraging me to build out these t-shirts would I have enough to pay for the AC repair bill? How much would I charge for each t-shirt? All of this was research that I was having to go through within two weeks because it was getting really hot.
[00:37:58] And then once we would jump into August, it was going to get even hotter. This is where I really was put to the test of how to develop and learn a new skill. So the last week in July, the AC guy comes, Ricky is his name. So when Ricky came over, he goes in and he starts putting the motor in and he fixes it.
[00:38:22] Everything looks super clean, looks great, but he has to add on another a hundred dollars because he saw that the coils that were on this particular unit were filled with who knows what could have been mold could have been smoked, could just crap it wasn't. He had to clean it off with some special degreaser.
[00:38:40] That was another a hundred dollars. We're talking $1,200 to fix this AC within the two weeks after I developed and created the teeth. So we'll say a week and a half being on YouTube, learning those things. And then of course, another half of a week building out the t-shirts and getting them up into a sh a store through Shopify, and then promoting it up onto my promote.
[00:39:08] My Facebook supporter group. Would you believe that the cost of the repair, which was $1,200, I sold a thousand dollars worth of t-shirts. I could afford the extra $200. I had the money, but those people saved my ass. They would not have saved my ass. If I had not taken the initiative to sit down in front of YouTube and learn how to build out graphics.
[00:39:47] That's when I realized that graphic design. Could really open up the world for myself. That's when I realized that graphic design [00:40:00] could open up the world for podcasters. This was a huge moment for me. This is where everything came into clear view. And from there I started building out more merchandise, the area 51.
[00:40:17] I don't know if you remember the area 51 thing that was going on. You might've seen some of the images that I have shared out onto not only my personal Instagram maybe I'll share it onto The Podcast Therapist, Instagram, but there was an image where I had created a t-shirt that said area 51 Raider squad.
[00:40:33] This was an, everyone was trying to jump onto that whole bandwagon of selling merchandise. But for me, yeah, it was about selling merchandise. My audience really didn't like it, but for me it was about. Being able to go into Adobe illustrator and learn how to build those graphics and become a better graphic designer, learn how to use the the tools inside the application itself and become better at them.
[00:41:03] I went through and I started saving YouTube videos that I found online into a special private playlist. If I couldn't remember how to do a specific skill inside of Adobe illustrator, I referred back to that particular video and now I'd be like, oh yeah, I remember that. And then I would execute and develop.
[00:41:23] So I started making more and more things, more t-shirts hoodies, hats, socks, beach towels, ornaments. You name it. It opened the world up for me. Then from there it was like if I can do this, I can really start making my website, look a little bit more like. With D decent graphics and that's when things opened up and I started making more graphics.
[00:41:54] Maybe I got a little more crazier than normal, but I soon found my footing on how to develop a better graphic using Adobe illustrator. So I want to go into this next part, if you are someone who is thinking, yeah, I can do this. All I need to do is take the time to learn it. You maybe don't have maybe you have more time than I did because I didn't have all the time.
[00:42:26] I didn't have, I didn't have three months to do it. I had two weeks to get this 1100, $1,200 into the AC repair man's hand. And I turned out, it turned out that I ended up getting a thousand dollars. Exactly for this particular repair saved my ass. But for you, maybe you have a little more time.
[00:42:53] This is a perfect time to start learning how to open up the opportunities to create these graphics, to share onto social media, to share on your website so that you can get people to see that you have a podcast and you can promote that podcast on those social platforms. That is what you will need to do when you start podcasting.
[00:43:13] The biggest question I get from podcasters is how do I get more listeners to my podcast? There are a number of things [00:43:20] you can do to get. Podcast listeners. But I think that one of the things that you're really missing out on as a podcast is developing the skill of being a graphic designer. Most people will tell you, go to fiverr.com, go to canvas and use those outlets to develop your graphics.
[00:43:38] But if you're someone who is like me, if you're creative, if you love to develop your own graphic, because you have the inspiration to develop something that fits you, you have to build a new skill set and building that skill set in programs that make your dreams, make your visions come to life.
[00:44:01] Here are some things that I wished I would've known before designing graphics in Adobe illustrator. Now this can go for any program that you want to use, but I recommend that you use. Adobe illustrator, a vector graphic program like Adobe illustrator. There are all kinds of tutorials on YouTube that you can use for this
[00:44:27] number one. Excuse me, number one. If you want cool fonts, you have to download them. Most people don't know this. They don't know that whether you're using windows or Mac, they go, how do you get those cool fonts? I didn't know this in the beginning. When I started doing all this research, in fact, the videos that I was researching on Adobe illustrator of how to like make certain designs, make certain bands on words or alternate image.
[00:44:57] They didn't say anything about fonts. And I didn't realize that you had to download fonts. In fact, a friend of mine had told me years ago that he went to specific websites to get different fonts for his designs. And then that was like, When I started designing, I was like, oh yeah. I, he remember he mentioned that website.
[00:45:19] The website that I'm talking about is called defiant.com. You may have heard of it. Maybe you haven't. I'm sure there's many others out there. I think there's was, I think is font squirrel or something like that. There's all kinds of them out there, but the font.com D a F O N t.com. This is a website where you can get free fonts and download them onto your computer and then put them into your font.
[00:45:44] On Mac, it's called a font book. You can put them in your font book on Mac, I think is something it's obviously something else on windows. Sometimes you need permission to use those spots for selling t-shirts or building out graphics other times, or if you're just using it for personal use, you can just use it.
[00:46:06] But sometimes you need permission to use fonts. If you want to use for your website, if you want to use it for your merchandise, all those things. Now, then you jump into the other areas where maybe you want a cooler font, a different font, a font that is a little more unique. And so I started doing searches on Google of how to get these fonts.
[00:46:25] And I started coming up with different designers. I came up with different websites that that shared their fonts. Tom chocky was one of the guys that I went to initially, whenever I was getting my fonts, he had font packs that you could buy, whether that be for [00:46:40] $20, it could have been for, 50 bucks.
[00:46:42] I can't even remember how much I paid for some of those fonts, but I ended up getting those font packs from Tom chalky. And they gave you the full usage rights of those fonts. You could put them on merchandise or whatever, your website, whatever it may be. And that was really where it, my world started to open up even more.
[00:47:04] Then later on in the year, I ended up getting a new client, a new podcasting client, and I needed to get music for that client so that when we were building out their podcast, they had some theme music for each episode. It was different for each episode. And as I was going in, I didn't want to buy theme music each time I built out a podcast.
[00:47:31] Sometimes, if you jump in and you're trying to get royalty-free music to use for a podcast, it can cost you anywhere between 10 bucks to 25 bucks. And I was like, I just do not have the money for that. But then I came upon and I discovered that when I was using audio jungle had a subscription program called Envato elements.
[00:47:50] And I started using. And vital elements I paid for a subscription for in vital elements. Now this is for someone who is really going to be using, I guess you could say assets or digital assets constantly, whether you're talking about music for your podcast, you're talking about stock video. You're talking about stock photo.
[00:48:11] You're talking about it could be different graphics themselves, but you could also download fonts from elements where you're paying $25 for a font. You could pay a subscription to in vital elements and get all of these assets that will help you out. That is what I use, and that comes in so handy.
[00:48:34] I've built out different websites. I built out a trucking website earlier this year using Involta elements. If I would have done this before. It would've cost me so much. It have, I would have to give an estimate based on how much it would've cost to build out the website. But since I had Envato elements, I knew exactly what my charge and surcharge could be for building out that website.
[00:49:01] So in bottle elements is what I use. If you have the money to do that, you'll get a year subscription and you get all those assets and you can incorporate them into your podcast, podcasts, artwork, podcast, video, whatever it may be. It's so easy. So easy. If I would've known that I would've paid the 200, $300 for an a bottle elements subscription, it comes in so handy.
[00:49:25] Number two, I know we were just on number one, but number two things I wish I would've known before designing graphics and Adobe illustrator, you can get logo designs, which are really just tools of the trade, because you're going to need some type of low. And maybe it's something that is very simple.
[00:49:43] Maybe you need a different a different look to how you want your logo to look. You can go to the vector lab. That's the one that I went to vector lab can be a little bit expensive, but it could be worth it for your project. Everything that I do is already in Adobe. I'm sorry. It's already [00:50:00] in.
[00:50:00] And vAuto elements. Vector lab allows you to download different graphics, like multiple graphics with their packs. Sometimes the packs are going to cost you about 80 bucks. Other times they may cost you 50 bucks. And sometimes I think, I can't remember if they do, if they did it back then there was a website that I had found where they said you could do a subscription to their website and you get some of the packs, but then they teach you how to use some of the programs on how to alter those different graphics.
[00:50:29] I think vector lab was one of those. So getting logos can be done through the vector lab or just, you can go to, and vAuto elements. Number three of the things that I wish I would've known before, designing graphics and Adobe illustrator, number three, learning the shortcuts in Adobe illustrator may take some practice, but it's totally worth it.
[00:50:55] It's totally worth it. It took me a long time to learn how to do the shortcuts in Adobe audition when it came to editing audio. So I knew what to expect when it came down to using Adobe illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. I knew what I was getting into. I knew that Adobe followed this basic principle of something called layers in audio and video and photo in graphic design.
[00:51:23] Every. But I knew that there were different shortcuts for each program, but I knew the basic understanding of that we are working in something called layers, as you will know when you're editing audio and you're layering one piece of audio on top of the other. That's what you get when it comes down to mixing down to a final product.
[00:51:44] I wish I would've known that it took me a long time to figure that out. So learning the shortcuts in Adobe illustrator may take some practice, but it's totally worth it. Number four, some things that you're doing have to be done in Photoshop first, or they can be done entirely inside of Photoshop. You don't have to totally rely on Adobe illustrator.
[00:52:08] You can do most of the things in Photoshop, but sometimes you need illustrators. Sometimes you need Photoshop. I use illustrator more because I have more flexibility to create different graphic designs. We're not talking about dealing with photos. We're talking about dealing with graphics now, again, I'm not a pro inside of Photoshop and illustrator.
[00:52:30] I know enough to be dangerous, but my process is my process. Your process may be a little bit different. My process for cutting out images starts in Photoshop, and then it's expanded out into illustrator. So if there is an image of myself where I'm in a crowd, but I want to cut everyone out that is around me.
[00:52:52] And I, because I thought that the pose that I was holding was really cool, but I want that post. I take it into Photoshop and I cut everyone out. I'm sure I probably could do it in illustrator, but I think it's more common inside of Photoshop. And I edit everything out in Photoshop. Save that edited image and then put it into Adobe illustrator and incorporate it into my final product image.
[00:53:19] That's how I [00:53:20] do things. Number five of the things I wished I would have known before designing graphics in Adobe illustrator, you have more control over your vector graphics then with open source software, that's just it. You have more control to fix or alter the things that you're looking to create.
[00:53:42] Maybe there is an image that is a PNG image that you want to turn into vector. You can do it in Adobe illustrator. Very. Typically PNGs are the image file types that you're going to be using to upload a lot to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, your website, all that. And when you're talking about individual pieces of graphics that need to be altered, it makes it so easy.
[00:54:14] And Adobe illustrator, number six, you can create multiple canvases for one design. This is where I wish I would've known this from the start. Y our canvas is important. So if you're using Canva, the program Canva, you can create different canvases for different art pieces of artwork. So if you jump into Canva and you create a piece of artwork, and then you say I want a variation of this particular design that I want to create.
[00:54:49] You all you do is you go into canvas and you create a copy of that particular design. Then it opens up a brand new tab. And then of course you can go in and then you can make an alteration to that particular design. So now you have two designs, let's say you want a third design. Then you make a copy of that design.
[00:55:07] And now you have three designs and you can make an alterations to that. So now you have three different designs, but they're all separated out and that's fine. You can totally do that inside a canvas. But to me, a little more difficult, few more steps, a little painful. And you're dealing with having to fight with the internet and internet connection or a website speed, something like that.
[00:55:30] When I moved over into Adobe illustrator, it made it so easy because the canvas that they share with you, whenever you open up the app application, they just show you one canvas. That's all it is. You can create multiple canvases within that one file itself. If you want to create variations for that one design that you're creating.
[00:55:52] As an example, I create podcast art for this particular podcast, The Podcast Therapist, I went through a different, very, I went through a few different variations of creating artwork for The Podcast Therapist, but I needed to see two different variations. The VR, the artwork that you're seeing now has red lettering on it.
[00:56:15] It says the, and then of course, podcast is in red and then therapist is in black with a stroke around the the text. The stroke is meaning like it's the outline of the text. So that should be red. And then the text itself on therapist should be black. So it should be therapist and black. And then the outline should be in red.
[00:56:34] The outline would be called the stroke. So I had that. [00:56:40] And then I made a variation of that design where podcasts looked like it was meters audio meters on a mixing board where it was green at the bottom. And then it had a a gradient, meaning that it faded into a different color. So I had a gradient from green to yellow and then into red, like peeking out, meaning that your audio is way too hot.
[00:57:07] So I had that variation of that, but I didn't have to create it in a separate file. I created it within the same file itself on two different canvas. So I was able to get an idea of what this artwork was going to look like. I shared it with my sister and a couple of other people, and I said, which one do you like the most?
[00:57:26] And they said, I like the one that is red. The one that is all complete read it does, the other one that has the colors. It's cool. But it looks as though you're, it's like a country's flag or something like that. And I said, okay, I get that. So I stuck with the one that's red.
[00:57:43] So when I stuck with that one, then I said, okay, what do I need next? I said, okay, I now need the SEO image art for the web page itself. So when I mentioned to you, The Podcast Therapist.com/podcast, if you were to go and take that link and paste it into a phone message, you were to paste it into Facebook, pasted into Twitter.
[00:58:05] You're going to see that podcast artwork that came from a square normally would be a square, is now a rectangle. So the way I did that, Was that I copied the image of what my original artwork was and I pasted it onto another canvas. There is a function inside of Adobe illustrator where you can add different art boards.
[00:58:30] So if you need to go in and learn how to build art boards, just go do a Google search for it. You could find it, but it doesn't stop there. I went on and I created more images of Facebook page cover photo for my Facebook page. I created a Twitter page, a cover photo canvases allow you to create different variations of the artwork that you are creating so that you don't have to go in and have multiple files.
[00:58:58] This particular file is just saved as The Podcast Therapist's graphic design. That's all it is. So when I open that file in Adobe illustrator, it shows up with all the different variations and the different canvases of that design. That I can customize as I wish, really. So if I'm doing a podcast with someone else on their podcast and they need a different design, or they need me to customize a design, I just go to that file.
[00:59:29] Find the SEO image, find the podcast, cover art, find whatever image they need. And then I can customize it to say, I'm showing up on their podcast or whatever it may be. You can do this in Canva, but it takes a lot longer. And then you're struggling trying to find the right design. That's where I found a lot of difficulty with that.
[00:59:49] So creating multiple canvases for one design is super, super helpful. So with that, I want to share with you, [01:00:00] I do have a training on how to use Adobe illustrator for podcasters themselves. These are all the things that I ended up learning along the way. And I thought you know what? Everyone needs to know how to do this.
[01:00:14] If you're a podcast or you need to know how to do this stuff. I don't know if you need to, but developing a brand new skill to become, I don't want to say lethal, but to become a force to be reckoned with so that when you're developing the audio that you create for your podcast, that you can accompany it with a quality piece of graphics.
[01:00:38] Does that make sense? Piece of graphics or piece of graphic or a graphic? Clearly English is not my first language. Does that sound okay to you? Does that sound like something that you should do for your podcast? Do you want to create a podcast where you're just pumping out audio and that's it, or do you want to create a podcast where people find visually that your podcast is appealing and they go, oh, I want to listen to that podcast because not only do the visuals come across.
[01:01:09] But now I can go and hear what, how they sound. What makes this podcast appealing? Someone who's going to come across your podcast more than likely is going to come across a visual. If they're not already in the apple podcast app or Spotify. And even then, they're still looking at your podcast, photo, your cover art photo and determining whether or not they want to listen to that podcast.
[01:01:35] Then they're going to go to the description and see if that description is worth their time to listen to the podcast. So it's important that we build a new skill outside of audio because they go very hand in hand. That's why I created my training, Adobe illustrator for podcasters. So if you go to the podcast, therapist.com/graphics training, and that's all one word.
[01:02:08] You're gonna be taken to the page where you can jump into this training. If you use the code graphics 43, you're going to get 43% off the list price of this particular training, which I believe is it's $47. So you're going to be getting it almost close to half price, and you can learn everything that I talked about in this particular episode about building out graphics.
[01:02:37] I will walk you through the basic. Now you can go to YouTube, but you're going to spend more time searching for the videos that you know, I that's what I did. I spent way too much time in YouTube during those two weeks that I was doing the research. I wish I just would have had that training where it just showed me, Hey, this is what you're doing.
[01:02:56] This is how you create the bends. This is how you get your fonts. This is why this is what you're doing with Adobe illustrator. Here are all the menus that you need with. Adobe illustrator. That's what I broke down in that particular training. So again, go to podcast, the podcast, therapist.com/graphics training, and enter in the code graphics 43 to get 43% off.[01:03:20]
[01:03:20] The training. If you are interested in creating graphics to accompany the sound of your podcasts, to get more people, to be attracted to the visual aspect of your podcast. I certainly hope that what I am sharing with you is going to be useful for you to develop quality podcast contents, unnecessary explanations coming up next.
[01:04:04] Right now you might be in the middle of the research phase of launching your podcast. Maybe you've gotten some equipment signed up for a zoom account and have recorded a few podcast episodes. But what steps do you need to take when it comes to a successful podcast launch? Would you believe the biggest mistake podcasters make is the launch.
[01:04:21] Seriously, just like a space shuttle has a sequence to put astronauts into space. Podcasts, have sequences to put a podcast in the marketplace successfully. That's why I created the podcast launch checklist. After helping numerous clients build their podcasts, I developed a step-by-step guide to help podcast creators, just like you have a clean launch sequence without wasting time.
[01:04:42] The podcast launch checklist is a 12 step sequence that walks you through the prelaunch mid-launch and post-launch process with specific steps and instructions that will save you time. If you're tired of walking around in the dark. Everything that comes with a podcast launch. You can grab the podcast launch checklist today.
[01:04:59] Visit The Podcast Therapist.com/plc and use the code pod therapist. All one word to get 25% off this checklist today
[01:05:15] explanations. You can always reach out to [email protected] slash. Podcast. And of course, when you go onto that page, you can scroll down and see that there is a contact section or contact me section. You could find me on the different platforms. Facebook, you can find me on Twitter also Instagram, but what I would really love what I would really love, especially because you're in the podcasting space.
[01:05:39] And what I would really like to encourage to you is that you leave me a voicemail. Is there a question that you have about podcasting? It could be about podcasting could be about graphic design. It could be about social media is social media marketing. It could be about a number of things. Just leave me a voicemail and You're your genuine inquiry.
[01:05:55] It could be anything that is something that I am doing personally. That's what unnecessary explanations is really all about. I can give you an unnecessary explanation that is about something that is not even podcast related, and I'll be willing to answer it for you. But for right now, we're going to still keep it, podcast related.
[01:06:10] But again, I want to encourage you to get, go on over there and leave me a voice message again. That is The Podcast Therapist.com. Podcast. So in today's unnecessary explanation, I want to answer a question that I get a lot on my YouTube channel, and that really focuses around is wanting to get their podcast out more to more people.
[01:06:31] And maybe they think that there is a different area in which they can gather more listeners. And there are different ways in different areas, which you can get more [01:06:40] listeners. But when they come to me with this particular question, they're specifically talking about radio itself. And because I am in the radio industry, you would think that I have some knowledge on how to get a podcast that shows up on podcast on radio airwaves, whether that'd be the am band or the FMB.
[01:06:56] And this can be something that that does happen in certain markets and different radio markets around the nation. I don't know how much this can really apply to international audiences, whether you're in Canada, maybe you're in the UK. I don't know, France, the, the EU, I don't know if this is really going to apply.
[01:07:12] I can just only give you my perspective on what I see. The trend is as far as podcasts on radio. So just know that what I'm sharing the information about podcasts on radio. I'm sharing it from the perspective of my local market and how my local market and radio cluster looks at podcasting for the airways for AM/FM airwaves.
[01:07:40] So the question, let's go back to that question. How do I get my podcast on to the airwaves am FM airwaves. So if you were to do that or how do I pitch someone to get my podcast on the. We would have to talk about first the pitch and who you need to get in contact with and whether or not it is worth your time, or even the person's time that you're going to be pitching the podcast too.
[01:08:07] So the person that you're probably going to be going to would be a program director in the radio markets. Now I'm going to be the first one to tell you here. And this is, completely subjective, but I'm just going to be the one to tell you that if you try and go into the market, say like Phoenix, and you try to pitch someone in the Phoenix market.
[01:08:29] Excuse me, likely no one is going to take that on. And there's a P there's a specific reason why we do that because podcasting in on the AM/FM airways is not something that we do. It's just not part of the company itself. Podcasting. But it's just solely as podcasting. There's a podcasting division within my company.
[01:08:55] But as far as putting a podcast onto the airways, not likely going to happen, that goes for music radio. That goes for a sports radio talk radio, you name it. Okay. It's political radio. You're likely not going to get a podcast on those platforms now, does it mean that it's not impossible? It's impossible.
[01:09:15] No, it's not impossible to get a podcast on airwaves. I know that there are some podcasts in other markets that do this. Phoenix just does not happen to be one of them, nor will they consider that. I think I can't be the one that give you the full answer on that, but I think, but going to other markets might be an option.
[01:09:34] It may be a tougher get. Because program directors, they are looking for specific things when it comes down to the programming itself. And when it comes down to the programming, when I talk about programming, I'm talking about how you parse out the content of your podcast. Likely whenever we go in and we create a podcast, if I try to make my podcast all sound the same in terms of [01:10:00] organization, in terms of parsing them out in terms of what it looks like in full.
[01:10:06] So the reason why you see it, or the reason why you hear The Podcast Therapist, if there are breaks, is that if there is that opportunity that I want to get on the radio airwaves, I have this ability to parse out the different segments that could be put onto the radio airwaves, but there are other reasons why I parse out my particular podcasts.
[01:10:28] But in radio, this is what we look for. We're looking for particular segments. Typically most segments are going to last anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes, because they have to account for commercials to play on their airwaves. And typically, I, at least I know from the Phoenix market, and since I've been in radio for 20 years, we've had anywhere between two to three commercial breaks within an hour early in my career, we were doing three commercial breaks at the rock station that I was working with.
[01:10:57] And there were, I think there was like five minutes of commercials for the first two breaks. And then there was like three minutes of commercials for the third break. I think, I can't remember it was so long ago, but I do know that we had three commercial breaks within an hour. These days it's two commercial breaks per hour.
[01:11:15] Separated by 20 minutes of music. So it's 20 minutes, 15, 20 minutes of music, commercial break, 15, 20 minutes of music, commercial break, and then 15, 20 minutes. I think the last break after the last break, there's more music that happens after that. And there's all these little elements that we put into radio.
[01:11:31] So your podcast, which more than likely have to be parsed out and account for the commercial time that is given for am FM radio. So that is important. You have to think about that. And radio stations are likely going to edit out your content if they don't, if it's going to not fit. So as an example, there is a show that I run on Friday nights at KUPD and it's called full metal, Jackie or full metal, Friday night with full metal, Jackie and her show is accounted for two hours.
[01:12:08] It starts at 10:00 PM and ends at midnight. And the content that she is creating, you can see how it is created. It's about 15 minutes of content, whether that be music or an interview that she's doing, it's about 15 minutes, a content mixed with interviews and music. And then she gives time for us to play our commercials.
[01:12:27] And then there's another, maybe 15 to 20 minutes of interviews with music. And then we go into another commercial set and that will, that is how it happens every single time. She is someone that is broadcast all over the nation on rock stations, but now has this ability to create content in a specific amount of time so that it accounts for the commercials for the radio station.
[01:12:56] So you have to think about that when it comes down to your podcast, maybe you do get in on a smaller market, you are able to reach out to a program director and they're like, yeah, we are looking for that likely you're not going to get your. Program on probably primetime, unless maybe, possibly they're looking for a spot.
[01:13:14] Maybe your content better be pretty good though. I will tell you that most radio people [01:13:20] are pretty on point when it comes down to content and what's good and what's not. So if your content is not on point, then it's probably not going to be worth it for you likely. They're going to put you on a Saturday morning, your podcast is going to air on a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning.
[01:13:36] Maybe it's a Sunday night when typically when there's less listeners. So it's a harder get. And if you ask me, is it worth trying to get on AM/FM radio? If you're asking me, this is just my own personal opinion, this is not an opinion of the radio station. It's not worth it. I would focus solely and specifically on promoting my podcast through the social and digital media.
[01:14:02] I would focus on building out an email list. I would focus on building out a social media following. I would focus on making a better program. That's what I would end up doing. I think once you implement those elements and you build out content that makes your content stand out. That's when you start to get the listeners that will start coming and listening to your podcast and say, Hey, I think this is really quality content.
[01:14:26] I want more. Can you give me more? You won't need to be on am FM radio. You can just be you on your own platform. You're paying for the hosting. You're paying for the website. You might as well start figuring out a way to monetize your podcast. Whether that be through sponsorships, starting a membership site.
[01:14:50] So focusing on radio, AM/FM trying to get on there. Probably not worth your time. Really not worth your time. If you're asking me. You're going to spend more time trying to reach out to program directors and they're then telling, you might get a yes, but more than likely, they're going to tell you no, because they have a specific agenda that they have to follow.
[01:15:09] According to the company, each company is different.
[01:15:16] You have to follow their rules. That's what I think is the information that you need to have if you're thinking about going into that realm. So that's really all I have to say about this particular topic. Again, I want to invite you to ask more questions at the podcast, therapist.com/podcast. Go down to the contact me section and leave me a voicemail and I'll be happy to answer it.
[01:15:42] Unnecessary explanations, or maybe if the question really needs to be played, I'm maybe play it in the beginning part of this podcast. So that's where I'm going to leave it to for this week. I hope you guys enjoyed this particular episode about graphic design and my thought process of a look into my brain about how I seek building out new skills, why you should build out new skills in the areas of graphic design.
[01:16:07] This just isn't going to apply for graphic design. It's going to apply for a lot of things. And I think that is where it makes you a stronger force in your particular program and niche. So if you have something you want to say a comment again, I want to invite you to go ahead and leave me that voicemail.
[01:16:24] I hope you guys have a great week. I hope you are building quality content that makes an impact with your listeners. And I will see you next time. Take care.[01:16:40]
