Because of My Podcast, I Will Be Attending A Taping of the Black List Television Show - Troy Heinritz 1:58 Troy Heinritz has had story after story when it comes to his Black List Exposed show. He recently won a podcast award, and now was called by Sony to attend the taping of the 100th episode the Black List. Troy was on the Ask the Podcast Coach show and talked about he when he gets these opportunities, he prepares and delivers, and consequently keeps getting more opportunities. Check out his show at www.goldensprialmedia.com Questions of the Month 3:00 I need the answer to two questions by November 13th 2017. What will you be doing differently in 2018 with your podcast? What is your favorite podcast (if you could only pick 1)? What is it, what is it about? where is it? and most importantly WHY is your favorite? (be sure to mention your show as well). I need your answers by November 13th, 2017. For more information go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/contact  Embracing the Experience Gap 4:52 When podcasters first start, they put a lot of thought into their launch (sometimes too much), and they get their show out and into Apple Podcasts and the other directories.  Then they do one thing that can really knock the passion out of them: they compare themselves to others.  They want to know how many downloads other shows get, and start to focus on other podcasters instead of focusing on their audience.  Back to the Woodshed I've played the guitar since I was 11. When I got done with school I would deliver my papers to my paper route, eat dinner, and my friend would come over and we would play guitar for hours. We weren't very good. We weren't taking lessons, and I was learning to play lead by trying to recreate the sounds I heard on albums.  In other words, I would study music, and then practice, practice, practice, until I could play it. The music that was produced on the path to "getting it" was not pretty. I have hours of tapes of us playing Ted Nugent's Stranglehold for hours. Each of us would take turns soloing over the top of it.  I recorded these so I could evaluate my process. I never intended to release them to the public. You can do the same with your podcast. Record a couple test shows for evaluation. How Can Podcasters Get Better? Podcasters get better by podcasting. I know that sounds stupid, but there is no way to know if you're content is good unless you get it in front of your target audience.  You can also study other podcasts and entertainment. You see podcasting is part of the entertainment industry. Sure some of it is educational. Then again so is Sesame Street, and it's pretty entertaining.  I recently watched a documentary on Steven Spielberg. Spielberg got turned down to be in the USC film school due to grades. He would take a tour of Universal Studios, and when the bus stopped for a bathroom break he would sneak away and watch people like Alfred Hitchcock direct.  One of his first films  (Amblin 1968 ) was geared toward studio executives to show he was not a normal independent filmmaker. - he knew his audience, and it worked it got him hired. As the youngest director under contract, he was a bit of a novelty item, so he had to prove himself over and over. One famous director pulled Steven aside and said, "There are days you will go on the set and have no idea what you're doing. Your job is to make sure the cast doesn't know that. The film interviewed Richard Dreyfuss who sais he was hired on the third day of the Movie Jaws. He said they didn't have a script, and they didn't have a shark. Steven decided to the movie on the ocean instead of a back lot of a movie studio.  In fact, the first shark doesn’t appear until one hour and 21 minutes into the two-hour film. This was partly due to the mechanical sharks they built didn't work. The cost was 225,000. So you'll notice the use of barrels moving instead of the shark. You didn't need to see the shark. Just the music and the thought of the shark made it scary. Th