Every Podcast Host Should Understand the 110% Rule.
It’s Not Quite Used the Same Way in Podcasting.
Giving 110% is an old mantra with a meaning that is pretty obvious. Always give everything you’ve got and then a little more.
It is a philosophy used in sports, in business, and in just about any area of life. People that want to win tend to want to give 110% so that their competition does not stand a chance.
In podcasting, it turns out that giving 110% is just as important (perhaps more important) but for a slightly different reason.
It’s About Being 110% Yourself.
“Be Yourself” is another piece of age old advice, and it works wonders. What’s tricky when you are a personality is that you sometimes have to be yourself to the point that even you can’t keep up.
Weird right?
That’s what we are getting at in podcasting. Being yourself is good, but it doesn’t shine through in your podcast if you are just being 100% yourself. You have to be 110% of yourself, 100% of the time.
In other words, you need to be exaggerated.
The Microphone Dilutes Your Energy.
The reason you need to be exaggerated is because the microphone takes some of your energy away. At least that is what I like to tell people.
Just think of it that way. You want to have a lot of energy when you are putting on a show, and you want the listeners of your show to be able to feel that energy.
The problem is that everything you say has to go through your microphone and come out of their speakers before it actually gets to them, and you lose some of that energy in the process.
So while giving 110% makes it feel like you are being very over the top in real time, it is really just to compensate for the diluted energy that your listeners will be receiving.
To them, it will just sound like you are giving 100%.
On Top of That, Give Out the Right Energy.
Another pro tip is to make sure that you are actually giving out the right type of energy before you start pushing that energy through the microphone.
You can find new podcasts all the time where the host gets over the top angry or over the top giddy just for the sake of being over the top. That never works.
The first thing you need to make sure that you are doing is just exaggerating your real emotions. What a lot of you will do after reading this is go and change the emotion associated with your show in order to try and bring the energy out more. That’s bad.
There are certain emotions that will help your podcast grow:
- Anger
- Lust
- Inspiration
On the flip side, there are certain emotions that will not help you:
- Sadness/Depression
- Joy (Most of the time)
- Relaxation
Why is that? It’s because of arousal.
People are more likely to spread the word and/or share your podcast with others when they are aroused and people get aroused when they are angry, inspired, or horny.
So if you can plan those seeds in people’s… you’re in good shape.
What’s the Bottom Line?
The bottom line here is that you need to be 110% of yourself, 100% of the time when you are on air.
Do not try to be someone that you are not, and do not try to forward emotions that are fake.
Just take what is real, and amplify it a little bit (or a lotta bit).
That will help you get more people paying attention to your show, and in turn that will make them more likely to talk about your show, and grow your show.
