Hey, friends, last week, I was in Denver for Podcast Movement. And I wanted to share five of the most powerful lessons I learned while I was there, there are so many more. But this is primarily lessons in the podcast industry not specific to my business or to a particular podcast. Because every session that I went to, I was thinking about different ways I could incorporate it into my own clients podcasts. Not only that, but mine as well. So let's walk through these five key lessons that I learned from Podcast Movement, so that you can take them into your own podcast as well. Lesson number one was, while video is valuable, YouTube is not a requirement for a successful podcast. Because even the successful podcast, this was where things got a little interesting. A representative from Lipson was giving a talk on podcasting. And he said that the views for video on video versus audio podcast is 15 to one so 15 audio listeners to every one video viewer, which I found to be very interesting, but also it kind of aligned with the video podcasts that I have been a part of and have worked on. So I thought that was a very interesting stat. Later on. I did hear some pushback and someone who said the opposite almost. But I more often than not I heard that video is not a requirement. But that does not mean you should completely step away from video. You can use video for your promotionals you can use video as repurpose content. I do have a client that she has her podcast episodes. And sometimes, depending on the topic, she will repurpose the video of her podcast that she's recorded and use it on YouTube. Now, if you're not on YouTube, do you need it? No, not necessarily. I personally don't have a well I have a YouTube channel. It's not active. It's not branded. It's not themed. I'm not uploading, it has like one video on it. And I'm pretty positive it's unlisted because it was part of a bundle I did. But if you are going to use YouTube, make sure you have a full YouTube strategy. I think that's the missing piece for a lot of podcasters who want to jump into YouTube is they're getting into it without any type of strategy. But YouTube has its whole like a whole other concept and a whole other strategy that you have to have in order to make it work. So if you want to use the video, wonderful, but if you are scared to use video, you don't have the capacity, the time the resources to use video. That is okay. Number two, one of the most underrated marketing tactics is episode drops. And this is like a feed swap episode swap. I did I knew what these were I did not realize how standard these were in the industry for people to continue to use. Like I didn't realize how many podcasters were doing it. And then I started looking after I heard it multiple times on multiple stages. I started looking at the podcasts I've listened to. And then network specific podcasts are doing it all the time to grow the audiences. So a lot of times I've seen podcasters, a lot of my clients, I've encouraged them to do it, where they have a slower season or a slower block in their schedule. And they're like, Okay, well, I'm just going to ask this person that interviewed me on their podcast, if I can use the audio, which is great. I love that idea. It's content that you support, and you're behind, and you're putting it on yours. But this is what was so shocking to me, I think, is the amount of people who were putting episodes in their feed that had nothing to do with them. They weren't a guest on it, they weren't mentioned in it, they weren't featured on it. And it was simply to provide content that their audience was like, but it also promoted another person show in a way that a listener could enjoy. And the listener could explore a new podcast that's out there. So this is something that I'm going to start experimenting with. I've already worked with a client, literally, I have a client sitting right next to me at Podcast Movement, and we looked at each other, and we were like, We got to do this. So we asked someone else that was there, and we did it. It was a really, really cool move. And I'm excited to see how those numbers end up looking for them. Okay, number three, the most successful paid partnership strategies include full concepts with all of your channels. So paid partnerships, sponsorships, whatever you're looking for, if you're looking to monetize your podcast, one thing that I heard multiple times as well was that if you are trying to get paid partnerships, like for your podcast, consider all of your marketing channels, because a podcast is a great resource for a marketing opportunity. But if you can create a bundle of newsletter, paid social posts, any any community that you've created anywhere that you are able to market to your audience, find ways to build a bundle, or a package of resources or opportunities that they can actually be featured across all of them. And for me, this was such a huge like, Duh. Like, why not? But I always saw it as like a way for the Creator, so me as a podcaster to make more money. But I had never really thought of it from the advertisers perspective of like, oh, well, if I can get in front of all these things, that's worth my money. But if it's like just the podcast, I don't know, maybe not? Absolutely. So consider that as you're creating packages, or paid partnership opportunities for your podcast, include all of those other channels as well. All right, number four, is really funny to me, because I do work for podcasters. I work with podcasters. And I have harped on getting ahead staying ahead. And I'm preaching to the choir as well, I, myself need to do follow what I preach. But working ahead is essential for success. And here's why it's not just for, oh, we need to stay ahead so that we just always have something to produce. But working ahead is essential for quite a few things. So one is content strategy. Where are you marketing all your other things, because if you want to be ahead in your marketing, or you want to create more content with your podcasts episodes, you have to have a content strategy that is working ahead. So that you were always ahead in every aspect of it. So if you as a podcaster, create an episode this week that goes live next week. If you don't get your files back from production, and you're not paying someone else to create all the content, what how are you getting ahead? That's just one small piece because you can you can use the original audio files, but it's almost as if, like you're doing double the work because your producer could give you ideas of hay, this was a good key point or whatever, or they could be doing it for you. But then you have to go on and schedule it or just finding ways to make sure your marketing strategy is always ahead is really important. But not only that, it also allows for better opportunities in pitching your podcast content to sponsors to partners of hey, I have these episodes coming out. I think they would be a really great fit for your brand. Would you like to sponsor any of them? Not only that At but it also was great for PR, which PR was a big thing that I had never really considered offering to clients. And it's a huge thing that we're going to explore in the coming weeks at Gaffin. Creative, but being able to pitch your podcast to outlets or to people who would help promote your podcast. If you're working ahead, it gives you time to explore more options. And I think that's something that I've never really considered for my clients is okay, I want to be ahead. Here's why. On the selfish like production side, I want to be ahead in case I get sick, you get sick, my contractors get sick, or any of us go on vacation, I try to stay ahead so that it does not impact the time that I take off. It does not impact the time you take off or your the contractors and our businesses. So that was something that was really important to me is like getting ahead for more than just like time constraints, getting ahead for pitching for advertising, for partnerships, all of those things that we just don't explore, because we're not ahead. And so if you're a client of Gaffin, creative and you're like okay Haylee, I see I, I want to explore this. It is something that our team is putting packages together for actively