Jeff Bullas

Finding and successfully booking great guests for your podcast involves a combination of methodical research and professional, personalised outreach.

First, let us talk about finding potential guests. A very effective method is to look for guests who have appeared on other podcasts in your niche or in complementary fields. This confirms that they are open to the format and are likely experienced speakers.

Second, you should use social media platforms strategically, particularly LinkedIn and Twitter/X. You can search for keywords, job titles, or relevant hashtags to identify experts and thought leaders in your subject area.

Third, keep an eye on new book releases in your field. Authors with a new book are almost always looking for promotional opportunities and typically make for well-prepared and articulate guests.

Fourth, you can explore podcast guest matchmaking services. There are several online platforms specifically designed to connect podcast hosts with individuals who are actively looking to be guests on shows.

And fifth, do not overlook your own existing network. Ask past guests or professional contacts if there is anyone they would recommend. A warm introduction is always more powerful than a completely cold outreach.

Once you have identified a potential guest, the way you reach out is critical. Your pitch, which is usually best sent via email or a direct LinkedIn message, needs to be well-crafted. First, it must be personalised and concise. Always address the person by their name and demonstrate that you have done your research by mentioning a specific article they wrote, a talk they gave, or a project they worked on. This shows genuine interest.

Second, you need to clearly and briefly introduce your podcast. Explain who your audience is and what your show is about, and provide a direct link so they can easily check it out.

Third, and very importantly, explain why you think they would be a great guest for your specific audience. This highlights the value for them, which is exposure to a new, relevant group of people.

Fourth, make your request clear and straightforward. Suggest a specific topic or angle you would like to discuss and propose a time commitment, for example, “a 30-45 minute remote recording to discuss your recent work on X.”

Fifth, you should make scheduling as easy as possible. Instead of engaging in a lot of back-and-forth emails to find a time, it is highly efficient to provide a link to a scheduling tool like Calendly.

If you do not receive a reply after about a week, it is generally acceptable to send a single, polite follow-up message. The key to successful outreach is a personalised, respectful, and value-driven approach that makes it very easy for a busy person to say yes.

Cheers,

Jeff

Improving your podcast audio to sound more professional is one of the most impactful things you can do to enhance the listener experience. It often comes down to focusing on a few key areas in your recording and editing process, many of which do not require expensive equipment.

First, you must improve your recording environment. This is a crucial and often overlooked step. The goal is to reduce echo and sound reflections (reverb). You do not need a professional studio; you can achieve this by recording in a smaller room that has many soft surfaces to absorb sound. For example, a room with thick curtains, carpets or rugs, and bookshelves filled with books is a good start. A walk-in wardrobe filled with clothes is often an excellent makeshift recording booth for this reason.

Second, you need to refine your microphone technique. It is essential to get close to your microphone, typically speaking about 10 to 15 centimetres (around 4 to 6 inches) away from it. This technique, known as close-miking, allows you to reduce the microphone’s input gain or sensitivity. A lower gain setting means the microphone will pick up much more of your voice and significantly less of the room’s ambient noise and echo. Also, always speak clearly and directly into the microphone, and use a pop filter to control harsh plosive sounds like ‘p’ and ‘b’.

Third, you should always use headphones to monitor your own audio as you are recording. This allows you to hear exactly what the microphone is capturing in real-time. You will be able to immediately identify issues like background noise, plosives, or if you are moving too far away from the mic, and you can correct them as they happen.

Fourth, learn to use some basic post-production editing techniques. After you have recorded your audio, you can use your editing software to clean it up significantly. A few key processes will make a big difference. One is using a noise reduction tool to remove any consistent background hiss or hum from a computer fan or air conditioner. Two is applying some light equalisation (EQ) to adjust the tonal balance of your voice, perhaps by slightly boosting the low-end frequencies for warmth and the high-end frequencies for clarity. And three is using compression to even out the volume levels of your speech, which makes the quieter parts louder and the louder parts a bit softer for a more consistent and pleasant listening experience.

Fifth, ensure you are exporting your final audio file in a suitable format. For a spoken-word podcast, a mono MP3 file at a bitrate of at least 128 kbps is a common industry standard that provides a good balance between audio quality and file size.

Significant improvements in your sound quality will come from controlling your recording space, using proper microphone technique, and applying these basic editing processes. These steps will often elevate your audio quality far more than simply buying a more expensive microphone.

Cheers,

Jeff

While the standard Poll and Question stickers are reliable, several other interactive Instagram Story stickers are often underutilized but can be very effective for driving engagement in more creative ways.

First, the “Add Yours” sticker is incredibly powerful for generating user-generated content and creating a sense of community. Instead of only participating in broad trends, you can create a prompt that is highly specific to your brand or niche. For example, you could prompt your audience with “Add Yours: Show us how you style our product” or “Add Yours: Your biggest win this week related to [your niche].” When users participate, their followers see the original prompt with your account credited, which is excellent for discovery.

Second, the Quiz sticker is often underused for educational or brand-related content. It is more engaging than a simple poll because it has a correct answer, which makes users want to tap through to see if they were right. You can use it to test your audience’s knowledge about your industry, debunk common myths, or highlight features of a product in an interactive way.

Third, the Emoji Slider sticker can be used for more than just a simple rating. It can be a tool for gathering nuanced feedback or gauging sentiment. Instead of just asking “How much do you like this?”, you could ask a more creative question like, “How ready are you for our next product launch?” with a relevant, excited emoji. It is a very quick, low-friction way for a follower to interact with your Story.

Fourth, while not a sticker in the same way, the interactive Countdown timer is excellent for building anticipation and driving future action. When you use it for an upcoming event, product launch, or sale, followers can tap on it to set a reminder for themselves. This is a valuable form of engagement that directly encourages a future return visit or action.

An effective strategy can also be to combine these. For example, you could run a Quiz, and in the next Story frame, use a Question sticker asking, “What answer did you choose first?” to spark a more detailed discussion.

By thinking creatively about how the “Add Yours,” Quiz, and Emoji Slider stickers can be used, you can generate different and often deeper forms of engagement than what the standard Poll or Question stickers typically produce.

Cheers,

Jeff

Creating a retargeting audience from your website visitors is a highly effective strategy in Facebook Ads. The entire process is managed within the “Audiences” section of your Ads Manager, but it relies on one crucial prerequisite.

Before you can create this type of audience, you must have the Meta Pixel installed correctly on your website. The Pixel is a piece of code that tracks your website visitors and the actions they take, such as viewing a page or adding an item to a cart. It then sends this data back to Facebook. Without the Pixel installed and active, Facebook has no way of knowing who has visited your site.

Once the Pixel is in place and collecting data, you can create your audience. First, navigate to the “Audiences” section of your Facebook Ads Manager or Meta Business Suite. This is typically found in the main menu, sometimes under the “All Tools” section.

Second, click on the “Create Audience” button and then select “Custom Audience” from the available options.

Third, you will be asked to choose the source for your custom audience. For this purpose, you will select “Website” as your source and click “Next.”

Fourth, you will then need to define the rules for your audience. This is where you specify exactly which website visitors you want to include. Some of the most common and effective options include:
An audience of all website visitors within a specific timeframe, such as the last 30, 90, or up to 180 days.
An audience of people who visited specific web pages. This is very useful for targeting people who have shown interest in a particular product or service category.
You can also create audiences based on specific events that your Pixel has tracked, such as “ViewContent,” “AddToCart,” or “Purchase.”

Fifth, you can further refine your audience by including or excluding people based on these rules. A very common and powerful practice for e-commerce is to create an audience of people who have added an item to their cart but did not complete the purchase. You would achieve this by creating an audience that includes people who triggered the “AddToCart” event but then excluding people from that audience who also triggered the “Purchase” event.

Sixth, you need to name your audience clearly, for example, “All Website Visitors – 30 Days” or “Viewed Product X – 14 Days.” After you create the audience, Facebook will begin to populate it with users who match your criteria. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.

A good starting point for most is to create a broad audience of “All website visitors” from the last 30 or 90 days. As your website traffic grows, you can then create more granular, high-intent audiences based on visits to key pages or specific actions taken on your site.

Cheers,

Jeff

Realising your Facebook account has been compromised, either by being hacked or cloned, can be very stressful. It is important to act quickly and methodically. The immediate steps are slightly different for each situation.

First, it is important to distinguish between the two. A hacked account means someone has gained unauthorised access to your actual account. A cloned account means someone has copied your public information, like your name and photos, to create a new, fake profile.

If you believe your account has been hacked, meaning someone else has control of it, you must act to secure it. First, if you can still log in, go immediately to your “Settings & Privacy,” then “Accounts Centre,” and then “Password and security.” Change your password straight away. While you are there, use the “Where you’re logged in” feature to review all active sessions and choose the option to “Log out of all other sessions.”

Second, if the hacker has already changed your password and locked you out, you must go directly to Facebook’s dedicated account recovery page, which is facebook.com/hacked. Follow the on-screen prompts to report that your account has been compromised. Facebook will guide you through a process to verify your identity and reclaim your account.

Third, once you regain access, enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) if you have not already. This is one of the most effective measures to prevent future unauthorised access. You should also review all recent account activity, including posts, messages, and ads, for anything suspicious. Finally, it is wise to post on your own timeline to let your friends know you were hacked and to disregard any strange messages they may have received from your account.

If your account has been cloned, which means a fake profile is impersonating you, the process is different. First, you need to go to the fake, cloned profile page. Do not send it a friend request.

Second, on the cloned profile, find the three dots (…) menu, which is usually near the cover photo. Click it and select “Find support or report profile.”

Third, follow the prompts. You should choose the option for “Pretending to be someone” and then select “Me” to report that the account is impersonating you.

Fourth, it is very important to ask your friends to also report the cloned profile. The more reports an impersonating account receives, the more quickly Facebook’s team is likely to review and remove it. You can do this by creating a post on your own, real timeline. In that post, it is helpful to include a link to the fake profile and clearly instruct your friends not to accept any requests from it and to report it for impersonation.

In either situation, acting quickly is key. For a hack, the priority is regaining control and securing your account. For a clone, the priority is reporting the fake profile to get it removed.

Cheers,

Jeff

Regularly cleaning your email list, often called list hygiene, is a critical practice for maintaining good deliverability, improving your engagement metrics, and, in many cases, reducing the monthly cost of your email marketing service.

There is no single, rigid schedule that fits everyone, but a good rule of thumb for most businesses and creators is to perform a major list cleaning process at least once or twice per year. If you have a very large list, a high volume of new subscribers coming in, or you notice your engagement rates are steadily declining, you might consider doing it more frequently, perhaps every three to six months.

The best way to clean your list is through a methodical, step-by-step process. First, you need to define what an “inactive subscriber” is for your specific context. A common definition is someone who has not opened or clicked any of your emails in a set period, for example, the last 90 or 180 days. The timeframe you choose will often depend on your sending frequency.

Second, once you have created a segment of these inactive subscribers, you should not immediately delete them. The best practice is to first run a re-engagement or “win-back” campaign. This is typically a short series of one to three emails sent only to this inactive segment with the goal of getting them to interact one last time.

Third, your re-engagement emails should use a compelling and direct subject line, something like “Is this goodbye?” or “Do you still want to hear from us?”. The content of the email should remind them of the value you provide and must include a very clear call to action that asks them to confirm they wish to remain on your list, usually by clicking a specific link.

Fourth, after the re-engagement campaign has concluded, you can then confidently remove the subscribers who still did not open or click. These are the subscribers who have demonstrated they are no longer interested, and keeping them on your list is likely harming your sender reputation and skewing your performance metrics.

Fifth, in addition to this major cleaning process, it is also good practice to ensure that any hard bounces – which are emails that fail permanently due to an invalid address – are removed from your list immediately. Most reputable email service providers handle this part automatically.

This process ensures you do not prematurely remove people who might still be interested, while effectively cleaning out the subscribers who are negatively impacting your list’s health. It is a vital part of maintaining a high-performing email marketing program.

Cheers,

Jeff

Using the built-in “Branding watermark” feature on YouTube is generally a recommended practice, though it is important to understand its primary function and its limitations.

First, it is crucial to clarify what this feature is. It is not a traditional watermark that is permanently burned into your video file. Instead, it is a small, customisable image that YouTube overlays in the bottom-right corner of the video player, primarily when viewed on a desktop computer.

The single most significant benefit of this feature is that when a viewer on a desktop hovers their mouse over the watermark image, it expands to show a clickable “Subscribe” button. This provides a persistent and convenient opportunity for viewers to subscribe to your channel directly from within the video player itself, without having to navigate away from what they are watching. This can help to increase your subscriber conversion rate.

Second, it does contribute to consistent channel branding. Using your channel logo or another recognisable icon helps to reinforce your brand’s identity across all of your videos.

Third, regarding content protection, the branding watermark offers very minimal defence against video theft. Because it is an overlay added by YouTube and does not always appear on all devices or in all viewing contexts (its functionality is most prominent on desktop), it is not a robust anti-piracy tool. Someone could easily screen-record your video, and the watermark might not be visible or could be cropped out. Its main purpose is not content protection.

There are very few downsides to using it. The main consideration is to ensure the image you use for the watermark is simple, not visually distracting, and does not obscure any important on-screen information that might appear in the bottom-right corner of your videos.

You can set this feature up in YouTube Studio, under the “Customisation” tab, and then “Branding.” YouTube gives you the option to have it display for the entire video, only at the end, or at a custom start time. Setting it to display for the “Entire video” is generally the most effective choice to maximise its utility as a subscribe button.

In summary, the key benefit of the YouTube branding watermark is that it acts as an ever-present subscribe button for your desktop viewers. It is a simple and recommended feature to enable for channel branding and to potentially help grow your subscriber base.

Cheers,

Jeff

Using TikTok’s Duet and Stitch features effectively is a powerful way to engage with existing content, trends, and conversations on the platform, which can significantly boost your own visibility and engagement. While both involve using another creator’s video, they serve different creative purposes and require slightly different approaches.

First, it is important to understand the fundamental difference. A Duet places your video side-by-side with the original, with both playing simultaneously. This format is ideal for real-time reactions, comparisons, dance-alongs, or creating harmonies. A Stitch, on the other hand, allows you to use the first few seconds of someone else’s video as an introduction to your own, which then plays in full. This format is perfect for providing commentary, answering a question posed in the original video, or adding a surprising continuation or “punchline.”

For creating an effective Duet, your contribution needs to add genuine value or entertainment. Simply watching the other video silently is not enough. Your reaction is the new content. This could be a comedic facial expression, providing a different perspective on the topic, acting out a complementary role, or demonstrating a technique alongside the original. It is often effective to Duet with videos that are already trending or are highly relevant to your niche to join a larger conversation.

For an effective Stitch, the success often depends on your response to the original clip. The first part of the video sets up a premise, and your video needs to deliver a satisfying, insightful, funny, or surprising conclusion. Using Stitch to answer questions posed in other videos or to add your expert commentary to a topic is an excellent way to provide value and demonstrate your knowledge. Creating a comedic or unexpected twist on the original clip’s premise is also a very popular and effective strategy.

There are a few points of general etiquette to keep in mind for both features. First, always give credit to the original creator. While TikTok does this automatically by linking to the original video or sound, mentioning their username in your caption is a respectful practice. Second, do not use these features to bully, harass, or spread hate, as this is a clear violation of community guidelines.

The overall goal is to add to the original video’s narrative, not just to passively react to it. Your contribution is what will make viewers engage with your version and be curious enough to check out your profile. By choosing videos that allow you to provide a creative, insightful, or entertaining response, you can use these features to significantly increase your engagement.

Cheers,

Jeff