Our guest on the podcast today is clearly someone who fits the definition of Cranktivity. Tom is not only a seasoned podcaster but he also is the host of America’s largest syndicated home improvement radio show! Tom shares insights on everything from how to start a podcast to how to entice podcast listeners with storytelling.
On this episode, discover the best way to prep your podcast guests so they sound uber professional and you end up with a quality podcast. Plus, strategies on consistency, engagement, audio quality, transcripts, and lots more, so stick around.
Today’s Guest: Tom Kraeutler
Tom Kraeutler is a hands-on home improvement broadcast journalist and the kind of guy homeowners want to call at midnight — when their basement floods! He hosts The Money Pit, America’s largest syndicated home improvement radio show, along with The Money Pit Podcast, which Chartable ranked the #1 Best Home & Garden Podcast of All Time. An accomplished author, columnist and blogger, Tom has amassed over 10,000 posts devoted to home improvement, remodeling and décor on his popular website, Moneypit.com.
Tom first earned his home improvement stripes as a professional home inspector, amassing over 20 years experience learning how houses are put together, and how they fall apart! He has appeared hundreds of times as a how-to guru on network and local television stations including CNN, MSNBC, The History Channel, HGTV and the DIY Network. Tom served as the home improvement editor for AOL and his work has been featured in House Beautiful, Smart Money, Reader’s Digest and in hundreds of daily newspapers across the nation. Together with his long-time co-host Leslie Segrete, Tom wrote My Home My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure.
Tom’s unique ability to combine encyclopedic home improvement knowledge with a comfortable and educational broadcasting style has earned him many loyal followers. Talkers Magazine named Tom one of the “100 Most Important Talk Show Hosts in America” and when listeners experience his dynamic presence, they’ll know why!
Website: Money Pit
Podcast: The Money Pit Podcast
Quick Win
- If you’re already blogging, consider taking evergreen content, and sharing the story behind it.
Next Steps
- Download this spreadsheet for podcast planning.
Show Notes
- 1:00 How to take content from a website and expand it to reach an audience.
- 1:35 When and how radio show got started. Tom found that he had content without a shelflife.
- 6:35 If you’re already blogging, consider taking evergreen content, and sharing the story behind it is part of how the podcast got started. Sharing this experience and creating a personal connection is a good way to use audio.
- 7:00 Today was the 2,000th episode of podcast hosting for Tom.
- 7:45 At what point when you are growing a podcast does it make sense to add a cohost
11:30 Reasons to have a cohost
- someone with a skillset
- background in relevant space
- not just because you are friends (that level may not be detectable by your audience) – avoid nonsense part, lead with something of value
- identify a pain point and offer a solution, who is most interested in what you have to say
- topic diversity and value of your content
- 12:50 How you talk to your audience, what you have to say (Lead with pain, then give answer/solution) think of the value of your audio, don’t get sidetracked with banter.
14:20 How to prepare your show. Live vs. Scripted advantages and disadvantages:
- Look for parts of the conversation that may be irrelevant
- You cannot be better live than you are prerecorded or scripted
- Everything needs to be edited after the fact
- 17:00 Trying not to sound “ready” and how to not sound that way. Making people comfortable.
- 18:43 Always give yourself an edit point (instead of self-correcting) know how to back up and start again.
- 20:20 Starting over and remembering that you have that power – guidance on how to make self-corrections. Editing after publishing and correcting after upload.
- 21:57 More tips on how to make a podcast sound like it’s live.
25:35 To make your podcast sound high quality, pay attention to your audio quality.
- Echo delay, repeat, moving microphones
- Having guest on a separate track so you can better edit (affiliate link)
- Editing tips (remove um, ah, popping your p’s, etc.)
27:33 Tips for bloggers transitioning from blog content to podcast, keeping the content relevant, enriching the content experience.
- Show schedule with relevant content for the podcast topic
- Leverage posts for content or audio to drop in posts
- Tom records shows about a month in advance to give him more room in his schedule
30:00 Consistency with podcast episodes is crucial
- Consistency of content, time, length and delivery as well as with publishing podcasts – external interviews, producing segments about topics
- Be your own best guest
- On the streets type podcast, record interview on the go
- Segments about topics
- 35:00 Engage your audience, length of the podcast, have audience send in questions, use questions on audio files to add to the episode and then answer the question on the podcast. Shownotes and other content to include. List main topics in the title, a preview of what’s to come, say this in the intro.
- 38:30 Tips on including transcripts
- 40:24 The process of storytelling, getting the hook started right away.
- 42:12 Craziest things that have happened
- 44:00 Planning in advance
45:23 Tips for growing and monetizing your own podcast.
- Disclose things that are sponsored
- Tom’s three-legged test
- Dropping audio spots into existing podcasts
- 50:00 Problem solving for the service or health & wellness industry.
Resources
Products and Recording Equipment Mentioned
- Adobe Audition, Garageband, or Audacity
- Quality Microphone
- Popping filter
Next Episode
003: Grow Your Podcast Audience Using Pinterest Marketing Strategies
Meagan Williamson is a Pinterest Strategist and niche marketing expert who retired her husband and is now living her dream. Meagan gives us her best tips to reach your target audience using her Pinterest Marketing Strategy.