You spend hours writing posts and designing carousels only to see zero engagement, and this reality for a lot of us is super frustrating.

Organic reach has dropped significantly across social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn, because the platforms operate as advertising businesses (for them! not necessarily for us!). They prioritize content that keeps users in the app, so linking out to podcasts or newsletters doesn't work that well even if you do get the views. Your post will be suppressed if it starts to get any traction.

In this episode:

1. The shift from follower-based to interest-based algorithms
2. Why platforms are motivated to suppress organic reach for professional services
3. How to evaluate if your marketing time is actually productive

Evaluate if reach metrics actually matter for your business goals. You might find better ROI by investing in search-ranking assets like articles or podcast episodes that build relationships with the right people over time (more slowly). More on that during this week's episodes.

Resources mentioned: https://stereoforest.com/beyond-social-media-business-growth-strategies-that-work-for-professionals/

Find more episodes and subscribe at stereoforst.com/minute.

A blog post sits on your website waiting for someone to find it. That article you wrote six months ago? Buried in your archives. Maybe someone stumbles across it through search. Probably not.

Audio works differently.

An audio version of that same content goes into podcast apps, gets recommended by algorithms, and reaches people during moments when they'd never sit down to read. And unlike social media, where your content disappears in 48 hours, podcast episodes from years ago still get discovered.

In this episode, I explain why audio compounds faster than written content and how to give your best ideas a longer life

.

Written, edited, and hosted by Jen deHaan.

Website and Contact at https://stereoforest.com/minute

Get StereoForest’s newsletter for podcasting resources at https://stereoforest.com/newsletter

Produced by StereoForest https://stereoforest.com

About Jen at https://jendehaan.com

We love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact me anytime to ask me anything. You can support my shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytz

Transcriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqk

Schedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands), and you can support using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZR

Support the show and get creative templates and assets: https://share.uppbeat.io/p4od8inwhc2j

Host: Jen deHaan is the founder of StereoForest. With a background of over 20 years in tech, education, & instructional design and 10 years in improv and performance, Jen brings systems and scientific approach to media production.

Jen's website: https://jendehaan.com

This podcast is a StereoForest production. Made and produced in British Columbia, Canada.

Nobody cares that your episode started as a blog post. They care whether the next ten minutes are worth their time. That opening basically announces recycled content.

In this episode, I share the cold open technique that hooks attention immediately. You'll learn where to find your opening line and why it should never come from the beginning of your script.

Written, edited, and hosted by Jen deHaan.

Website and Contact at https://stereoforest.com/minute

Get StereoForest’s newsletter for podcasting resources at https://stereoforest.com/newsletter

Produced by StereoForest https://stereoforest.com

About Jen at https://jendehaan.com

We love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact me anytime to ask me anything. You can support my shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytz

Transcriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqk

Schedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands), and you can support using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZR

Support the show and get creative templates and assets: https://share.uppbeat.io/p4od8inwhc2j

Host: Jen deHaan is the founder of StereoForest. With a background of over 20 years in tech, education, & instructional design and 10 years in improv and performance, Jen brings systems and scientific approach to media production.

Jen's website: https://jendehaan.com

This podcast is a StereoForest production. Made and produced in British Columbia, Canada.

Your prospects are comparing you to three or four other experts before they ever reach out. Everyone's credentials look similar. Everyone's website says the right things.... so how do they decide who to trust?

When someone reads your blog post, they get your ideas. When they hear your voice, they start to feel like they know you. There's a term for this: parasocial connection. Podcast listeners feel genuine loyalty to hosts they've never met. That same dynamic can work for you.

In this episode, I break down why audio does more pre-selling than any case study ever could.

Written, edited, and hosted by Jen deHaan.

Website and Contact at https://stereoforest.com/minute

Get StereoForest’s newsletter for podcasting resources at https://stereoforest.com/newsletter

Produced by StereoForest https://stereoforest.com

About Jen at https://jendehaan.com

We love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact me anytime to ask me anything. You can support my shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytz

Transcriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqk

Schedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands), and you can support using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZR

Support the show and get creative templates and assets: https://share.uppbeat.io/p4od8inwhc2j

Host: Jen deHaan is the founder of StereoForest. With a background of over 20 years in tech, education, & instructional design and 10 years in improv and performance, Jen brings systems and scientific approach to media production.

Jen's website: https://jendehaan.com

This podcast is a StereoForest production. Made and produced in British Columbia, Canada.

Most people think they need expensive equipment before they can start creating audio content. So they spend weeks researching microphones (often on Reddit or YouTube!), buy gear they don't understand (and return to those places to get help setting up or buying more gear), and still end up sounding like they're recording in a bathroom.

The issue is usually and primarily the SPACE you're sitting in. A cheaper microphone is just fine.

In this episode, I explain how to use your bedroom closet for killing that amateur-sounding echo and the proximity technique that radio broadcasters have used for decades. Your setup is probably simpler than you think.

Written, edited, and hosted by Jen deHaan.

Website and Contact at https://stereoforest.com/minute

Get StereoForest’s newsletter for podcasting resources at https://stereoforest.com/newsletter

Produced by StereoForest https://stereoforest.com

About Jen at https://jendehaan.com

We love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact me anytime to ask me anything. You can support my shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytz

Transcriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqk

Schedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands), and you can support using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZR

Support the show and get creative templates and assets: https://share.uppbeat.io/p4od8inwhc2j

Host: Jen deHaan is the founder of StereoForest. With a background of over 20 years in tech, education, & instructional design and 10 years in improv and performance, Jen brings systems and scientific approach to media production.

Jen's website: https://jendehaan.com

This podcast is a StereoForest production. Made and produced in British Columbia, Canada.

You have articles sitting on your website. Hours of work, buried in your archives. Turning them into audio seems simple enough. Just hit record and read, right?

That approach sounds awful. I tried it.

Writing for the eye and writing for the ear require completely different structures. Sentences that look elegant on the page come out robotic when spoken. Or you stumble. Or you sound like you're reading (because you... are).

In this episode, I walk through the translation process that turns a written post into something you can actually perform. It takes about fifteen minutes per article and makes all the difference.

Written, edited, and hosted by Jen deHaan.

Website and Contact at https://stereoforest.com/minute

Get StereoForest’s newsletter for podcasting resources at https://stereoforest.com/newsletter

Produced by StereoForest https://stereoforest.com

About Jen at https://jendehaan.com

We love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact me anytime to ask me anything. You can support my shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytz

Transcriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqk

Schedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands), and you can support using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZR

Support the show and get creative templates and assets: https://share.uppbeat.io/p4od8inwhc2j

Host: Jen deHaan is the founder of StereoForest. With a background of over 20 years in tech, education, & instructional design and 10 years in improv and performance, Jen brings systems and scientific approach to media production.

Jen's website: https://jendehaan.com

This podcast is a StereoForest production. Made and produced in British Columbia, Canada.

If you try to sound professional by flattening your voice into a "newscaster" tone in your podcasts or videos, you are actually making it harder for people to listen. Science shows that listeners physically mimic the tension in your voice. Basically, if you feel nothing, then they feel nothing.

This episode looks at Simulation Theory and Emotional Contagion. I go over how your vocal prosody triggers the mirror neurons in your listener's brain. This biological link is why that "NPR Voice" thing often doesn't work all that well in podcasting, and why you need to use techniques to connect.

Get better at communication and public speaking to improve your next episode.

Key Takeaways:

1. Why listeners physically mimic the emotions they hear in your voice.
2. Why sounding objective or impartial creates a barrier to connection.
3. Mirror Neurons: How to trigger the "audio-motor link" in your audience's brain.
4. A simple script analysis and practice drill to inject genuine emotion into your episodes.

1. Emotional Contagion: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/mirror-neurons-critical-development-empathy
2. Simulation Theory: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2865077/
3. Prosodic Cues: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4588126/
4. Deep acting: https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/deep-acting-at-work/
5. Newsletter: https://stereoforest.com

You might remember the red Swingline stapler from the movie Office Space. All these years later. You can apply that principle to your episodes to stop sounding like every other show.

This episode explores Dual Coding Theory and Concreteness Fading. This science explains why abstract phrases like "an efficient workflow" are forgettable while concrete details like "fast editing with Stream Deck" stick in the brain better.

Key Takeaways:

1. Dual Coding Theory: Why your brain processes images and text separately and how to trigger both.
2. Concreteness Fading: Why memory fades over time and how concrete nouns act as "handles" for the brain.
3. The Problem with Jargon: Why "safe" business words and AI make you sound kinda generic
4. The "Zoom In" Drill: A simple editing exercise to turn more of your words and phrases into specifics.

Dual Coding Studies:

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312316469_Concrete_vs_Abstract_words_-_What_do_you_Recall_Better_A_Study_on_Dual_Coding_Theory
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008223001120
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/dual-coding-theory (multiple studies)

More information about dual coding

1. https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/dual-coding/
2. https://plato.stanford.edu/archIves/sum2020/entries/mental-imagery/theories-memory.html

Concreteness fading

1. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2018/2/1-1 (general)
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475221000839

Random word (suggestion) generators

There are many! Here are two options

1. https://www.impromuse.com/
2. https://www.andismith.com/games/improv-suggestions/

Join the Lab &...