Zita Christian hosts a podcast called Ritual Recipes, a show that celebrates the milestones of life and the cycles of nature, one ritual at a time. She describes a "ritual" as a visible act performed with invisible intent.
Confused? Don't be. If you’ve ever made a wish and blown out the candles on a birthday cake, you’ve performed a ritual. Church services are full of rituals, as are weddings.
Here's the letter I got from Zita this week:
And this is the package that came with it:
So now I've got my own custom ritual. And as you'll see from the fourth image above, the first word I drew was "valor."
Valor, at its core, is "personal bravery." You know, that thing you need to have a successful podcast.
The True Power of Podcasting
An example of valor (and the true power of podcasting) is Pedro Pena, host of My Stuttering Life.
Pedro also sent me a package this week:
How to Make Postal Mail Work for You
Looking for a new (and memorable) way to promote your podcast? Consider postal mail. This works especially well when, like Zita, you can send something related to your podcast.
Looking for a way to better connect with guests and make the experience of being on your podcast more memorable? Consider postal mail. A simple "thank you" postcard goes a long way.
Why This Is Important For Interview-Format Podcaster
You want people to have a memorable experience when working with you or your podcast. People like the guests you interview on your podcast, for example. This is harder than it sounds as, when doing interviews remotely, your guests see the same thing when talking to you as they do when talking to anybody else.
Something like this:
Think about the times when you've been a guest on a podcast? Can you remember them all? Not likely, if you've done more than a couple.
Sending something by postal mail breaks the monotony of "just another interview" and turns an experience with you into something guests will remember for a long time. As mentioned, a simple "thank you" postcard goes a long way. But it's just as easy to send a custom shirt, a book, or other items that were mentioned during an interview.
It's a lot of work to find great guests, schedule them, do interview prep, work around technical issues, edit audio, and publish a podcast. This work deserves to be heard. Don't stop short on your episode creation process by not following up with guests you've interviewed to help make the experiences they've had with you stand out.