Design is everywhere, but do we podcasters get it wrong? And when we do get it wrong,

what is the real life impact on the success of our show? That is what I'm gonna

talk about today here on the podcast Accelerate because it's a very, very important

subject. And you might be fooled into believing that we're just gonna talk about

graphic design. That is completely wrong. We are not, because design is so much more.

This is of course the podcast accelerator. I'm your host, Mark Asquith. And I just want

to thank, before we go any further, the wonderful Rich Graham, who recently sent

me, he sent me a little bit of beer money to say thank you for the podcast. So

Rich, I appreciate you, my friend. Thank you so much for doing that. And if you want

to be like Rich, and if you want to say, Marco, listen, I appreciate the podcast,

go and have a little meretti on me. You can do so at mark.live slash support. I

also want to thank. A couple of my most recent guests, Mike Willa and the wonderful

Dave Jackson. Two amazing previous episodes that we've just done very, very recently. And

we've just had fantastic feedback. In fact, the last three episodes. I feel like

people have got a heck of a lot from it was revenue lessons from big podcasts, which

I think is, again, a very important subject for the independent podcaster. And

we're sort of going to build on that today. We're going to build on that today because

design is tied to that. And also. The lessons that we learned from Mike Waller and

Dave Jackson in the previous two episodes have really been well received. So thank you

to everyone for the kind words on those episodes. I like mixing it up a little bit

with this podcast. I'm enjoying the fact that I'm doing interviews and doing some

of my own content and so on. So if you're enjoying the format, let me know on Twitter

at Mr. Asquith. And I say, if you want to be like rich and chukkas a little bit of

beer money, you can do so at mark.live slash support. Design. is everywhere. Design

is vital and you interact with design every single time you look at something, you

touch something, you move something, you enjoy something, you don't enjoy something,

you have a good experience, you have a bad experience. Everything in our lives in

2023 and beyond is affected by design. Good design, bad design, indifferent design,

design that you don't notice because it's either very good or very bad and very

often you actually only do only notice. bad design and that's the sort of irony of

designers that great design just like simplicity goes unnoticed because you expect

good things we are well designed as human beings you know we don't we don't notice

that we're so well designed but we are and that's fine you know we have expectations

of what we are as beings we've got the two arms we've got the two legs we've got the

head we walk in a certain way and you know we don't notice unless something is different

okay and that's the point that I want to get to today is that design is everywhere.

All right. And there's a few misconceptions I want to just bash. There's some, I guess,

some thoughts that I want to give you about what you should be focusing on when it

comes to design. Now, I'm not going to tell you how to build cover art. I'm not

going to tell you how to design things. This is a mindset that I want to teach you

and talk to you about because it's something that I've always had, I've always had a design

oriented mindset, even though I didn't realize I had for a long, long time until I

really got into business. And even now, I know I drive some of our graphic designers

and our user interface designers crazy because I'm a bit of a stickler. I'm a bit

of a stickler for good design. You know, I don't, bad design stands out. I'd rather

you didn't notice that Captivate was well designed, but you never had any problems.

You didn't have any friction. You just somehow it felt easy and you didn't quite know

why. Like that's the ultimate. Okay. That's design. doing its job. So let's think

about design for podcasting. Design for podcasting generally takes or is generally

considered to just be graphic design. All right. And that's the first mistake that

people make. So design is very often commoditized. Graphic design in particular,

we've got amazing tools like Canva that you can knock up some cover art. Really nicely

done cover art within Canva within a few minutes. You can do that. I did that only

this week. for a new podcast that I'm putting together with some friends. And I did

it. It's good. Is it professional enough? Yes. Does it tick the boxes and will it stand

out in the directories? Yes. Did it cost much? No, it didn't. And this is, I think,

the first mistake that people make when it comes to design and then, you know, the

sub niche of graphic design. Just because Canva is free doesn't mean that design is cheap.

OK, let me say that again. Just because things like Canva are free, doesn't mean that

design is cheap. Because all of these templates that are within Canva that allow

people that aren't designers, you know, you, me, and people that aren't designers,

tools like that allow people to democratize design and to access good design and to just

mildly customize it to look good, guess what? They are powered by a very expensive

designers. So design is a skill, it's a talent, it's a craft, it's something that

you own. and that you should value. It's not cheap, all right? A lot of people

say, why does it cost so much to design a logo or design a website? Because you can't

do it. And if you think you can, you're probably wrong, all right? The point is, right,

I can move bricks around and I can mix mortar up and I can dig. And they're all the

constituent pieces of building a house. Yeah, and I can buy timber. I can buy glass

and glazing, I can buy window frames. But do you think the house that I build myself

using my own hands that aren't skilled in that way is gonna be livable, is gonna be

good enough? Of course it's not because everything's a skill and we cheapen design,

we commoditize design and we shouldn't do, all right? So just because design is accessible

using things like candle, which you should be using. I did mine on Cambly yesterday,

the new cover art. My podcast accelerator. Cover art is done on Canva. Now granted, it's

done using brand guidelines, which I'm not going to talk about today because it's

very different. It's done using brand guidelines so that I almost can't get it wrong.

And it's got good photography, so I almost can't get it wrong. But it's still physically

done on Canva. But as I said, really want to hit this home. Design is not cheap

and you shouldn't think about it as being cheap because the Canva design platform,

to use that as an example again, is powered by world class designers designing

those templates. Like they don't come from nowhere. They're not magic. All right.

So that's the first thing I want you to understand. Design is not cheap, but we

sadly commoditize it. You see all the time in the Facebook groups in podcasting,

why does it cost this much to get a cover art? Well, you either have bad cover

art, you either use a template and understand it's probably gonna be from a template and

look templated, or you get someone to do it. And if you get someone to do it, they

deserve pain. So don't be an asshole. when it comes to paying people or something

like that. I would hate for someone to, why do I have to pay a subscription fee

to get your premium content? You know, you would think, well, of course you bloody

do, because this is what I do, look at all the work I put in. So don't be a dick

when it comes to design, all right? Don't cheapen design just because you think

it's easy or think it's cheap or well, it's easy. Look at that, that can't have taken

long. It's only a few lines on the screen. Well, you go and do them then. And that's the

point, you can't do it that well. So. Graphic design is what we normally think of

as design when it comes to podcasting. But what I want you to really understand is

that design touches everything. All right. I walked through a door. This is an

analogy from a good friend of mine, Kyle Wilkinson, who runs one of the best design

agencies in the UK and beyond. He has done all my branding. He has done, I've worked

with him for years. He's done an agency with him. He's one of the finest in the business.

He genuinely is one of the best designers, not only in England, but I believe in the world

is fantastic at what he does. All right. And he always talks to me about this idea that

design is everything. Okay. And you walk through a door and guess what? That handle

somewhere, somehow, not only the concept of a handle working, but that physical handle

that you've got, the aesthetics of it, they've all been, all that's been designed.

It's been designed. The hinges have been designed. The door has been designed.

The mechanism, do we walk in, do we walk out? Do we open inward? Do we open outward?

Does it slide? Is it a bifold? All of that has been designed for different use cases

so that we don't notice it. just a door, but it works. And it goes the same for podcasting,

all right. Bad design stands out, okay. Design in your podcast should be considered

across the board. Yes, graphic design is very important, but you might have heard

the phrase sound design. I design my sound. I design, I've designed my audio. I've

designed not for this show, but some of the sound effects that we use in other shows.

I've designed. the experience and if you take that upper level, so go to shows like

what Wondry does with the business walls and even things like the news agents, the new

show which is by us here at Global, UK's biggest podcast in the news criteria and

it's the sound design is very well done. So we cut clips into it, we don't cut clips

into it. The design has been considered and we don't notice it as listeners. We just

think, well, of course that's there. Of course that clip is there because they contextualize

that clip. And then they talk. about that clip and so obviously they were going

to play the clip. But we, so we don't think about it, but someone has, someone's

considered that. All right. We also need to think about user experience design.

Okay. So how do I interact as a new listener with your podcast? Okay. Have you

got a good trail? That's very obvious. Are you naming your titles? Are you typing

your title, writing your titles in a good way? There was a fantastic podcast that

I really love. The golf podcast that I tweeted about this a few months ago. And

their titles were shocking. Like it said, such and such podcast with such and such

host, episode such and such. And then the guest and the subject was like at the end

of the episode title. So on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, in my car and whatever, I had no

idea what that episode was about. And it was a big podcast. So I tweeted them, I

said, look, listen, Timmy, here's a screenshot. I'm struggling like heck with this.

I wanna listen to your back catalog, but I don't know if I'm listening to Butch

Harmon or Bubba Watson or Nelly Corder. I've got no idea. can please name them like

this. And guess what they did, their producers went through and they changed all

the back catalog. That's we're in the back and said, thank you, it's much, much better.

So that's an experience design, even to do with things like your membership, so

you know your, we talked about a couple of episodes ago, how to design a paid subscription

and to sell things through your podcast, whether it's fixed price sponsorships, whether

it's getting tips like I got from Rich and Drew. or whether it is selling your memberships,

your bonus content, your exclusive content, your windowed content, whatever that might

be. That experience has to be designed. And when we designed that system, that platform

into Captivate, we did a lot of that thinking for you. But how do you word the benefits

in your membership? How do you deliver those? A great example of this is when we do

things like with Spark of Rebellion, which is that Star Wars show. When people sign

up to our membership for whatever it is, a few bucks a month, we send them out with

sticker, a Sparkle Rebellion sticker. And we could just do that, but instead we write

a handwritten note saying, thank you. And it's part of the experience which has been

designed. Okay. So design touches everything in your podcast. Yes, the graphics, yes, your

website, but it's also the experience. You need to design the experience that you

give to people. You need to design the experience. that goes alongside your membership

options and your tipping options. You need to design the experience for your guests.

What does that look like? Do you send production notes like we do? I always send

production notes out. I plan them episodes using Captivate and I send production notes

by just exporting the PDF from Captivate which is what it's intended to do. Do you do

that? Is that guest experience well designed? Will they remember that? Will it

stick out? Will they understand that is a good experience? Because they probably

won't. But they'll definitely know if they have a bad experience. If the guest turns

up and they say, well, what are we talking about? I don't know, what do you think? We

got any talking points? Well, that's sort of your job as the host. Oh, sorry, I

forgot to tell you, I've got to finish after 15 minutes because I've got such and

such. No, no, no. Set all the expectations up front, design that experience, all right?

So that is super important. Design everything. within your podcast from your graphics to your

sound design to your guest experience to your user experience, your listener experience,

everything. The way that you write your show notes has to be well designed. Everything,

design touches everything. What can you do today? Can you do anything with this?

Can you implement better design without spending any money? Well, yes, you can. Now,

like I said, we don't want to commoditize design. Just think this through before you

sort of run off and do anything. I want you to just stop now and think about what I'm

about to say. Just because we can get things done cheaply doesn't mean that it's

commoditized. So the graphic design, like I said at the beginning, just because

you use Canva doesn't mean that design is cheap. That's just a tool that gives you

templates from designers who are highly talented and who have been paid a lot of money

to do those designs. The money still changed hands, it wasn't you that was doing

the paying. But remember cheap does not equal commoditized. Commoditized does not

equal cheap. And when I say commoditized, what I mean is people take it for granted.

So what I don't want you to think when I say this next thing is that... It's easy

or you should take it for granted. All I'm about to say is that you don't have to

spend a pile of money doing it. All right, so let's forget graphic design. Let's

think about other things. Guest design, the experience. Do you have to spend any money

on that? No. But you've got to spend time thinking about it. OK, just sit down,

grab a cup of tea, write down a process, a flow, design the experience for your guests.

What is the pre-booking experience? What is The post-booking experience, what's

the interview experience, what's the post-interview experience, all right? Design

that out and then you've got it as a standard operating procedure. What is your

episode design process? How do you do that? What's your intro, what's your outro?

What is the middle bit? What is your flow per episode? Because it's not good enough

to wing it anymore. There's too many podcasts now for you to wing it. Other people

will do your thing better if you don't do it well, okay? So... All of this just takes

thinking time, it just takes a mindset, it just takes prioritizing focus. It doesn't

take money, but that's not to say that it should be taken for granted, all right?

Just because you don't pay for something doesn't mean that it is not valuable, all right?

That's the misnomer of free when people give... That's why we don't have a freemium

product at Captivate, because people take free for granted. They do. They've got

no skin in the game, so why would they care? They're not going to bother. It's not

a business model that is for us. So think that through, all right? How can you

design every part of your podcast from all of the experience to the visuals, to the

audio? Where do you need to put a bit of money? Well, maybe you need to put a bit

of money into graphic design or to graphic design software like Canva. Do you need to

spend money on your episode design or your sound design flow? Probably not really.

To your guest experience design, no. But I want you to think through the fact that

design touches everything. because not enough people think like that. And if you can

do that, you'll stand out. The biggest shows, if you go and look at the top charts,

they're well-designed in every single aspect. They're calls to action, but well-designed.

Their graphics are well-designed. Their listener flow, so the format of the episode

and the way that they guide people through the episode is well-designed. The news agents,

go and listen to it. It's a great example. Business wars. great example, all right? You

can stand out from your crowd, all right? We talk about niching down and focusing on

just your core audience, but the sad fact is there are enough podcasts now where

it doesn't matter really what competition, sorry, what niche you're in. You will have

competition. It doesn't matter what niche you are in. There are enough podcasts

in the world that you will have competition now. You can stand out by designing every facet

of your podcast. So take some time to do it. It matters, it will help, and it will

set you up for success because once you've done it, you really don't that often

need to redo it. So spend a bit of time up front doing it today. It will help you to

stand out. But let me know how you get along at Mr. Asquith on Twitter or X, whatever

we're calling it these days. Let me know how you get along. And as I say, if you

love the show, if it helps you, feel free, a little bit of beer. over at mark.live

slash support. And until the next time, much love, keep doing what you do and just

keep publishing, keep providing for your audience because they enjoy it and they

need it, all right? So until the next time, take it easy. Adios for now.