Episode 17
The Roadmap Show
January 1, 2016 · Mike Murphy
Ep17: The Roadmap Show 2016: The Roadmap To Success for Mike Murphy Co. Episode Summary: If you don’t know where you are going, any road will do.
Episode Summary: The full 2016 roadmap for Mike Murphy Co. — 6 top-level priorities, a concrete weekly content and social plan, and real financial goals for the year ahead.
What You’ll Learn
- 6 top-level priorities for the business heading into 2016
- A concrete weekly content and social media plan, platform by platform
- What a mix-minus is and how to solve for it without special hardware
- Real financial and list-growth goals set for the year
Ask Mike Anything: What Is a Mix-Minus?
Question (from Blab.im’s Open Mike Night): What is a mix-minus?
Answer: A mix-minus is typically used when interviewing guests over Skype. It lets the guest hear everything going through the podcaster’s mixer minus their own voice — preventing an echo on their end, since they’re also talking into a mic and would otherwise hear themselves reflected back. Hence: the mix, minus their echoed voice.
Alternative solution using Skype: ECamm Call Recorder (Mac) or Pamela (Windows). Ray Ortega’s tutorial does a great job simplifying a proper mix-minus setup for anyone who wants to go that route.
Roadmap for 2016
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” — Lewis Carroll
Top-Level Priorities for 2016
- Get better at the art of podcasting and audio production
- Get better and more consistent at making tutorials and classes
- Network with other podcasters and establish authority
- Grow the email list and community
- Drive more traffic to the website
- Repurpose content to build exposure
What Gets Created, and How Often
Podcast: once per week. Newsletter: once per week. Blog posts: one per week. Tutorials: ideally one per week. Classes: 3 full classes on Udemy and Skillshare across all of 2016.
Social Media Plan
Twitter: 5 tweets per week — easy, since most are re-shares of discovered articles. Facebook: 2 posts per week, sharing blog posts and episodes; growing the Facebook group is part of the roadmap. Instagram: a daily photo streak has held since the podcast launched, without a single missed day — that goal is complete. 2016 backs off slightly to 3-5 posts per week; daily was too aggressive to sustain, but the creative and marketing boost from Instagram has been real. Pinterest: largely set-and-forget, but not ignored given its marketing potential — one day per month dedicated to cleaning up and managing boards. Blab: keeping the once-a-week schedule, aiming for more structure and focus per session — the unsustainable 9pm-2am, 5-hour Blabs are done. Blab is seen as a huge platform for podcasters, and getting in early is paying off. Overall social goal: 2 hours per week of “serving hours” — browsing Facebook and Google+, answering questions, and engaging in discussions to help people.
Taking Mike Murphy Co. to the Next Level
Podcast — priority #1. Mike Murphy Unplugged remains the hub of the business and the main platform for teaching and marketing the brand. Technique and audio editing skills are a focus, along with 2 new show features under consideration — including guest interviews, plus accepting more opportunities to be interviewed on other podcasts for exposure. Goal: double monthly downloads.
Teach more. Growing the YouTube channel and building educational resources is a high priority.
Website traffic & email list. Building the subscriber list is the real key to the whole business — it’s how a community gets built. The plan: 3-4 new resource guides (lead magnets) to drive traffic and signups, with a target of over 100 subscribers by year’s end. Doable, but it’ll take real focus.
Repurposing content. More discipline needed here — every episode can be chopped into blog posts and articles, and 2016 needs to get better at actually doing that.
Financial goals. 2016 takes the next step in monetization — more affiliate income through gear tutorials and product recommendations, plus hoped-for income from educational courses and products. No exact target, but $500-1000/month as a year-long average is the number being tracked toward. Better accounting and expense tracking is also part of the goal — 2015 fell short there.
Conclusion
“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” — Ben Franklin
Music: “Life of Riley” & “Wallpaper” (incompetech.com).