Do you have a podcast? Host it on Libsyn and let the tool automatically push to hundreds of podcast players.

Today, I’m going to talk to you about Libsyn – why all the major podcasters use it, and how you can sign up on it in under five minutes.

Quick Sign Up

To get started hit Sign Up, then put in the URL’s name that you want. 

Then you’re going to go to choose your plan. It’s going to show you Classic versus Advanced.

You have three options in your Classic, ranging from $5 to $15, and then Advance, $20 to $150.

The biggest thing that you’re going to note is the storage. You’ll get 50MB for a $5 Classic plan.

So this would mean you would have enough storage space to do a 50-minute podcast episode for a $5 Classic Plan. 

After choosing your plan, you could add a promo code if you had one. And then just put in some basic information. 

Something new that Libsyn has added is a step-by-step guide on how to start a podcast, and migrating a show to Libsyn. If you’re brand new to podcasting, you take advantage of those resources because that would be extremely helpful.

Settings

So the first thing you want to do is to go to Settings. Here is the required information.

Add a brief description, your slug, add your website address to your actual website address.

Then let’s go to the Recommended Information section. For Show Type, you’ll pick between Episodic (if listening in order isn’t all that important), or Serial (if you’re going to have a show where they need to listen to the episodes in a particular order). 

If you want to put in a sub title, you can. 

Actual categories are essential. Make sure your categories are related to what your show is about. If you use multiple categories, make sure you do it in the order of importance according to what your podcast is about.

The public contact email is optional. Add the owner’s name, email, and author. For content rating, if your show will have a lot of bad words, add Explicit or Clean. For language, you can change from English or to a different language if you want.

Keywords will help people find your podcast especially if they are searching for particular topics. 

The Default Show Feed is new. You have to choose between Libsyn Classic Feed or the Custom Third Party Feed. Then you can have the Copyright notice if you like. 

The Thumbnail is going to be a crucial aspect here. Use the parameters that they suggest. But you also have to make sure that when you create your thumbnail, it looks good when it’s small because that’s how people will see it when they scroll to your shelf. 

A few more final settings are to choose your primary theme color and add all of your social media handles. Make sure you hit save.

Adding New Destinations

So Libsyn automatically publishes to the majority of podcast players like Stitcher, Pandora, Spotify. You can also go to Add New Destination, and Libsyn gives you a lot of other options.

Adding New Content

To add a new episode, click Add Media File and select the source of your podcast episode. 

Once it’s uploaded, you’ll go to Details. This is where you will add the name of your episode and add a sub title if you like. 

In the Description, I recommend having a default template. You have to make sure that you have a consistent call-to-action. You can insert links that are contingent upon that episode. Then if you want to add keywords and tags to that specific episode, you can.

For the Artwork, if you want to change it for that particular episode, you can. If you’re going to keep it consistent and just use your show’s basic thumbnail, you can do that as well. 

You have the option to schedule the publishing too. If you’re editing it on Tuesday and you want to release it on Thursday, then you can schedule it. Libsyn will publish when you want them to, which is suitable for your audience because they will know when to expect your content.

If there’s anything else you want to add, you can do that in the Advance column. Or you can just hit Publish at the bottom, and it’ll be good to go. 

Once you hit publish (or hit schedule), you will be given an embed code. If you want to take that embed player, there are options you can choose from. You can add it to your website or blog, which I highly recommend. Having an accompanying blog post for your podcast episode will help you have searchable content.

Statistics

In your dashboard, you’ll have a quick view of your podcast statistics. The numbers are necessary. You want to know where your downloads are coming from, what age group, and what episodes are being downloaded versus just the overall episode. You will also want to know which podcast players are getting the most downloads.

As you publish, make sure you see the unique download statistics for date ranges for episodes and destinations. Below the graph, what you’ll see is Storage Usage. You will see how much you’ve used. The good thing is your storage will archive every single month. Your 50 megabytes is going to go over 50 megabytes again in the next month.

Libsyn also has Monetization options where you can apply for certain things and sell subscriptions, which is good for securing advertising. 

So that is how you get your show up and running, plus understanding the basics of Libsyn. If you’re interested in podcasting, subscribe to my Youtube channel and hit the bell for notifications.

I can talk about the rest of launching your podcast, about editing, equipment runs, and microphones. We’re going to cover all those basics.

If you want me to do more of these tutorials, let me know in the comments section below!

Here’s a fact about me: I’m extremely ADD and Binaural Audio has been one of the most effective tools in my toolkit. It helps me alleviate some of my concerns and tap into a level of productivity and flow state that I wouldn’t otherwise accomplish.

So if you want to learn more about what Binaural is and its power, stick around. Let’s start.

What is Binaural?

Binaural Audio is an audio illusion effect. It is comprised of conflicting frequencies.

You have one frequency at a certain hertz and another out of different hertz. The difference between those two creates an auditory illusion; that illusion is what you hear.

And so what that does is you can have various frequencies that are effectively meant to create a brainwave state.

5 Brain Waves

Gamma is essential for problem-solving, learning, or simply being at a heightened state.

Beta is more of an active brainwave state. It’s when you’re working, reading, speaking, or thinking. It’s whenever you’re focused on what you’re currently doing.

Alpha is when you’re transitioning from a neutral state to a meditative state. They help calm you down and promote feelings of deeper relaxation and content. 

Theta is when you’re in a flow state or a very creative or meditative state.

Delta comprises your deep levels of relaxation and deep sleep zone effectively.

So here’s the deal. We enter into the states usually and naturally on our own. Your environment will dictate how easy it is for you to tap into those various spaces. Binaural helps you tap into it more seamlessly.

My Experience Using Binaural

If you Google Binaural beats, you’re going to find a ton of controversy. You’re going to see some studies that showed how it had helped lower anxiety, depression and how it has increased focus. In some cases, this is true.

I want to get into some of the benefits of what it claims to help you accomplish a health standpoint. Let me share my experience.

Binaural has helped in reducing my anxiety and stress. It has increased focus and relaxation. It has helped foster positive moods, promote creativity, and manage pain. I don’t think this is a placebo effect because I didn’t know them before using Binaural.

So I’m going to show you Binaural, it’s an app that I use. I think it will help you, and I want you to try it out for yourself.

Quick Tip

Binaural is fantastic for helping you to enter into deeper states of sleep. But, you have to be realistic and put yourself in the best-case scenario. You can’t drink a cup of coffee at eight o’clock at night and then say, “Binaural doesn’t work, Bro.”

It is not a miracle worker.

If you don’t watch TV, you wear blue light blocking glasses before you go to bed at least two hours before going to bed, and you listen to Binaural audio, you won’t have an issue getting a night of deep sleep.

How It Works

If you listen to classical music, instrumental, or more relaxing meditative music, it cannot create that same effect with Binaural.

So here’s how it works.

I recommend getting any pair of noise-canceling headphones and then pop them on your ears.

Then turn on your audio file.

And then what you can do is slide your scale in Binaural, all the way up to Gamma, you can drop into Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta. So that’s amazing because you can dictate where you want it to be on your own.

What you’ll find as you listen is you’re going to feel like your heart has shifted to your head.

That sounds so ridiculous. I know. But, one of the things that you’ll notice is you’ll start feeling like there’s pulsate in your brain.

Binaural won’t work the way it’s supposed to unless you can have those two different frequencies in each ear. And if your headset is not noise-canceling, you’re going to be picking up other sounds and can’t get fully into it.

If you only hear those frequencies, it’s not the full effect.

Using With Other Apps

What’s remarkable is, you can layer Binaural on top of your downloaded music that you want to listen to.

So you’ll just be going to hit PLAY.

And you’ll also be able to go to your settings widget and then go to the actual Settings. And then, mixed with other apps, turn that ON.

Using other apps is powerful because, once you turn that on, you can then go to Spotify or YouTube and turn on some channel that you find that you like, and you’re going to get the benefit of Binaural with music that you want to listen to.

So something I highly recommend, definitely check out the Binaural app.

Discernible Difference

One of the things that I experienced is that when I come up in my office, even if I have music on in my room. I pop my noise cancellation headphones, turn on the Binaural app. I can tell there is a discernible difference. 

I don’t have the proof. I don’t measure my brain waves in my room to tell you if it’s happening. But I know it’s different. Those are some of the most productive days that I have, or I feel like I’m really in a flow state.

Look, if it only made a 1% increase, it’s worth it. If it’s only making moving the needle just a tad, it’s worth trying it out.

So here’s what I would recommend you do. Try it out, download the app, go to YouTube, get a pair of 20 $30 noise-canceling headphones, pop them on, and see if it helps you.

In the previous blog of this series, we talked about finding your virtual assistant where you learn about where you can post your job posting, the hiring process, and how you can pay them, but it doesn’t stop there. In this episode, I’m going to show you how I keep my remote team aligned with my goals by creating a streamlined workflow using Trello.

You don’t wanna miss this out because I’m going to walk you through the whole process, and I’ll also provide a sample board that can help you kickstart your workflow.

Let’s dig in ..

1. Record yourself doing it

So when you’re doing things in your business, record yourself doing it. Record yourself going through the process, explain why you’re doing what you’re doing, get your thoughts out on digital paper as much as you possibly can.

In that way, you do it once you never have to do it again. We are using Screencast-matic to record our screens, and this will serve as a training resource to the newly hired VA.

 2. Provide the link to the resources

Some of the cards that we have here, we’ve actually put in a checklist too, as well as other links for resources. If there’s a specific resource that they need, like an image for a thumbnail for YouTube, you’re gonna include a link to your Google Drive.

3. Utilize Trello basic features

In Trello cards, you want to make sure that you use the description area to include any other details that they may need to reference that you’ve talked about in that specific video.

Now, the beautiful thing is you can also add a comment inside the Trello card, So if they still have a question, they can see that and then new hires that come on, if they’re going through this, they can actually look through the lineage of conversations, because it’s going to turn into an FAQ.

Build your Workflow using Trello

Braindump ideas in your board 

 I typically put in ideas, so these are all video ideas that I’ve had of different things we could talk about. We use certain things like labels, if it’s a green label, I know this is a high ranking video using VidIQ.

Tag the person assigned to the task

So when I put them on the content board, I will tag one of our analysts, and she will go through the process of researching that. And then she’ll provide all kinds of suggestions and things that we could talk about in the VidIQ scores.

Communicate using the comment box

You’ll notice that we’re constantly leaving notes for each other when emails were sent, who the contact person was, so on and so forth. So we’re able to communicate back and forth with the team in real-time

Move your cards

 Once the task is done and the VAs are finished with their assigned task, it’s time to move the cards to the next step, or I can just put them in the Done list.

 This is how we handle that process. Everything is very streamlined, and everything makes sense in terms of natural flow from left to right. You want to create something like this doesn’t have to be exactly mine, this is just our process. I’m continually tweaking this like it’s never perfect, but you want a general flow of something, that’s why I love tools like Trello and Slack.

Wrap Up

All right, so what I’ve created for you guys, I think it will benefit you a lot is let’s go to the example training board. So I’ve already given you some general topics to include these general lists like email marketing, YouTube, podcast, blog, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest tools, and then you can add whatever you want to do once this is yours, you can make it your own, you can add other things to the list. Grab your copy here.

Establish your training resources first, whatever job you’re looking to hire. That’s your focus. You’re going to spend a week before you hire that person going through and creating training videos. 

Hope this is helpful, see you in the next one!

-CMH