My guest this week is Marc Sollinger. Marc is one half of Dead Signals, a podcast production company that produces the modern radio drama podcasts Archive 81 and Deep Vault. In this episode, we’re going to take a deep dive into what it takes to plan, write, and produce a modern radio drama. This is part one of a two part series: Next week I’ll be interviewing Dan Powell, who handles a lot of the editing, sound design, and music for Dead Signals.

If you podcast long enough, you're going to get criticism or negativity. You can't create work and share it with the world without experiencing it. I say you haven't really made it until you've got haters. If people feel strongly enough about what you're doing to love it, then someone is going to feel strongly enough to hate it, or at least severely dislike it. I'm still pretty unknown, and I know that because I've only ever received negative feedback once. I could say that I just brushed it off, but it did affect me. Instead of letting it get me down, I sat with it. I thought about it. I analyzed why it made me feel the way it did, and I asked myself why. I want to share what I've learned about feedback and criticism to help you learn how to process it when it comes to you (and it will), but also to help you give feedback more effectively and waste less time engaging with people or on feedback that doesn't really matter.

It's been said that in basketball, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. The same is true for getting guests on your podcast or being a guest on other podcasts: If you don't ask, it's not going to happen. So getting over your fear of rejection is step one, but today I want to talk about things that you can do to increase your chances of getting a yes from the guests you want, and how you can ask to be on someone else's podcast without feeling awkward.

Charli Prangley is a designer by day and a content creator by... well, pretty much the rest of the time. In addition to her day job, she produces two high-quality Youtube videos and a podcast every week, and also runs an online apparel shop. https://charlimarie.com/ I was so impressed with the consistency and quality of her output that I knew I had to get her on the show to share how she creates so much while still working a full-time job. If you've ever struggled with creating consistently or trying to get everything 100% perfect before shipping, you need to listen to this episode.

Talking music today! Where are the best places to find music for podcasts? Can you use copyrighted materials in your podcast if you keep the clip under 30 seconds? And is podcast music even necessary?

I got this topic from a question that I read in Gary Vaynerchuk’s recent book, #AskGaryVee. The question was this: “What’s the best way to grow a following or community from nothing?” For some people, an audience means ad revenue. For some people, it means enough people to buy your product or work to support you. Some people just want the attention because they feel empty inside and need to feel like people love them. Hey, I get it, I’m not judging. I love feeling loved. So how do you grow a following from nothing? That’s what I'm exploring in this week's episode.

It seems like some people can get on a podcast or video and sound so effortless and natural. How is this possible? What's the secret? I got a question from a listener asking how they could improve their speaking voice when reading from a script. Since most of my episodes are scripted, I decided to share everything I've learned about improving my speaking voice and how I read from a script without sounding monotone or boring.

Ever wondered how to make a living with just your voice? Interested in becoming a professional voice-over artist? This week I'm joined by professional voice-over artist Jay Britton, who has done work for companies like HBO (Game of Thrones!), Marvel, Amazon, and more. He built his voice-over career from scratch in his late 20's, and in this episode, Jay shares everything you need to know if you want to be a professional voice-over artist too. We talked about how he got started, what gear he recommends for beginners, how to find work if you're just starting out, how to get your first agent, tips for improving your speaking voice, and so much more.

The introduction to your podcast (the first 30-60 seconds) is a critical part of the success of your show. If you don’t introduce yourself, new listeners will feel lost. If your intro is too long, people will get annoyed and switch to listen to something else. Listeners want to know what they’re going to get out of an episode. If you don't tell them that right away, they're going to start wondering if there's a better way to spend their time, and maybe go find a different podcast to listen to. I don't want you to lose listeners, so today I'm talking about how to make a great podcast intro.

My guest this week is Caleb Wojcik, the DIY Video Guy. If you're anything like me, you've been interested in making video for awhile now, but you probably also worry that you'll look or sound dumb on camera. I get it. In this episode, I talk with Caleb about how he makes video podcasts for iTunes, but we also talk about what keeps people from getting started with producing videos, and share some practical tips to help you overcome your fear of being on camera. Enjoy!

How many of you have ever published anything on LinkedIn? If you're anything like me, you probably thought that LinkedIn is for the older generation or the corporate stooges who want to work 9-5 jobs in office buildings. Glenn Leibowitz is back to explain why LinkedIn is such a powerful blogging platform for creative professionals (and not just somewhere to host a digital resume). Even if you're not interested in LinkedIn, you're still going to learn a ton about writing and publishing in this episode (I sure did).

Glenn Leibowitz returns for part two of our three-part series about writing. This week, he shares how he turns podcast interviews into stories, why it's led to huge audience growth for both his podcast and his blog, and how you can use the power of story to reach a whole new audience.

Want to be a better podcaster? Something I’ve seen over and over again is that the best podcasters spend a lot of time writing. Want to learn how to be a better writer? My guest this week – Glenn Leibowitz – wants to help you get there. Glenn has been writing and editing for the past 17 years, mostly for his company, but two years ago he started his own blog and also started to blog weekly on LinkedIn. He writes about professional development, technology, social media, and writing. In April 2015, he launched his weekly podcast – Write With Impact – where he interviews authors of nonfiction and fiction and tries to pick apart their secrets and have them share what they’ve learned over the years as writers. In December 2015, LinkedIn named him one of 90 “top voices” on LinkedIn (out of the 1 million people who blog there). He ranked #2 in the marketing and social media category. I asked Glenn to join me for a three-part podcast series to share what he’s learning about writing and growing an audience, the benefits of storytelling, how to turn a podcast interview into a story, how to get started with publishing on LinkedIn, and more. In this episode, Glenn shares his top tips for becoming a better writer, we discuss why outlines are critical for success, why you should edit after you’re done writing, how to write great titles, and so much more.

My second episode was a guide to gear for podcasting, but I’ve learned a lot in the past months, so I wanted to make an updated guide. I said back then that if you couldn’t afford good gear, you should wait and save up money. I was wrong about that. I still believe that great gear will give you better sound quality which will help your show be more successful, but I don’t believe you should wait to get started. There’s so much you need to learn when you’re first starting out; great gear isn’t going to magically make the process easier. It’s best to get started with what you have, or buy what you can afford and then upgrade later. So let’s talk about podcasting on a budget. I’m going to cover gear for those of you who have little-to-no money to spend, and also share what I think is the best podcasting gear so that you’ll know what to get in the future when you have money to upgrade.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to make a podcast? What the steps are? This week, I’m going to walk you through my process, step by step. I'm going to give you a better understanding of what it takes to make a podcast, take some of the mystery and scariness out of podcasting, and give you actionable steps to follow to make your own podcast. Couple quick updates to this episode: I now use MP3 chapters instead of writing time stamps for each paragraph. My show is also now hosted on Simplecast, so my workflow has gotten a lot faster/easier.

One of the ways to stand out from other podcasts is to pay attention to sound quality. One of the ways to get good sound quality is to have a great microphone and a quiet room to record in. Depending on the room you’re in, you may hear echos from your voice (either in the low-mid frequency range, or in the high end). Echo becomes especially apparent if you’re recording with a condenser microphone instead of a dynamic mic. Background noise and room echo creates a poor listening experience for your audience. They may get distracted from what you’re saying or annoyed by the constant reverb or background noises. You don't want listeners thinking about the noises in the background or the way your room sounds; you want them to focus on your message. Eliminating background noise and room echo will give your recording a more professional sound. It will be more pleasing to listen to. Your audience won’t hesitate to share it with their friends. My goal for today's episode is to help you understand how to get better sounding recordings.

Today I’m sharing my process for writing outlines. If you've never written an outline for your podcast before, I'm going to teach you how today. What does a podcast outline do for you? It helps you stay focused. It helps you make sure you cover all the topics you want to cover, or ask or answer the right questions. It helps you keep the episode on track. Listeners want to know what they’re going to get from a show. You may have recorded an epic episode with tons of great advice and takeaways, but if you don’t tell the listeners in advance what they can expect, they won't know what's coming. People will tune out if they don’t know to expect or what the point of the episode is. In this episode, you'll learn how to outline your episodes and explain the content of your episode at the start of your episode so you can keep people listening (and subscribing) to your show.

Welcome! My name is Aaron Dowd. This is a show about how to make a great podcast. If you're interested in learning how to start a podcast, grow an audience, or improve at all the various skills that are a part of being a podcaster, this show is for you. In this trailer episode, I'm going to share my backstory, and talk about why I decided to start this podcast, who this show is for, and what topics I’ll be covering in future episodes. 2020 update: I've decided to change the title of this show from The Podcast Dude to Podcasting with Aaron. The main goal is the same, but I felt it was time to move on from The Podcast Dude title.