Start Small, Stay Consistent: Key Strategies for Effective Science Communication

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This episode is for those of you who are in the audience that want to

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use science communication to help get the projects or

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the science that you're working on out into the real world using

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social media. And we're going to talk about three things that I

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think you need to know to make sure that you can succeed in

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doing science communication for ocean conservation. We're going to talk about that

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on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's

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start the show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'm your host Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with

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the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live

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for a better ocean by taking action. And

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this is a resource, this podcast, this company that I've built

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is a resource to help you find out all the information you can on the

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ocean and what you can do to live for a better ocean. And you can find out

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more information at speakupforblue.com. That's speakupforblue.com.

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And if you want that information to come to your inbox Monday to

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Friday, you can sign up to our newsletter at speakupforblue.com. forward

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slash newsletter that speak up for blue dot com forward

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slash newsletter. You put your email in it's free. You get it

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out and you will get three job related ocean

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week, Monday to Friday, speakupforblue.com forward slash

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newsletter to sign up and get yours today. Let's

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start the show. I'm super excited about this because I love to

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talk about science communication and today We are gonna go over the

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three things that you need to know to be successful in

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science communication. This has helped me be successful for almost

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a decade in podcasting, doing video, doing

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other social media. I've done some great things in podcasting.

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I've done some pretty bad things on social media, but

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I wanna talk about some of the lessons that I learned and what I

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do to become successful or I try to continue to do to become successful.

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the first thing to know right before I get into the three items

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is like sort of like a little caveat is pick

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one thing if you're just starting pick one platform

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whether it be a podcast whether it be a video whether

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it be long form or short form Pick one platform that

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you are going to focus on because it will make everything easier. If

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you try to be on every platform at the same time and you don't

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have the time to keep up with it, it's going to be difficult because just doing one

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is going to be difficult in and of itself. I publish three

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times a week. I spend probably about

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six hours a week trying to get all this done. That's

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including the research, the recording, the editing,

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the posting, and the promotion. There's a lot to go in to making

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sure that people know what you're trying to do, just even on

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one platform. Now, you can use other platforms to promote, but

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those aren't as consistent as it's going to be for that one piece of

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content that you're going to put out, that one platform. So make sure that

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you decide what's best for you. And we'll talk about workflow in

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a second. But what's best for you and what platform works

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best for you, what you like the best, what's easiest for you, what comes naturally

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for you, that's going to be a big deal. And we'll talk all about that in

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these three things. So the first thing to know is that, yes, there

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is going to be a fear to begin whatever project you want.

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It doesn't matter how badly you want. It doesn't matter your personality. If

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you're good in front of people, if you're good in front of a microphone or you're good in front camera

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you're comfortable you're not there's always a fear to begin especially

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in science communication because there's an imposter syndrome right

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everybody has it we all talk about it we're all surprised I can't

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believe you have an imposter syndrome everybody has it even

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the smartest of professors the smartest of researchers the

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smartest academics the smartest government people. We all

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have imposter syndrome. We can't know everything. We can't

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be experts in everything. So yes, when you put something together,

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know that yes, it's okay not to be the smartest person in the room.

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It's okay not to know the most about this information. You

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cover topics, you put it out there, you find out as much

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as possible, and there's some people that are going to say you're wrong or don't agree with you. That's

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okay. It's okay not to know everything. I've been doing this for

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almost 10 years. I don't know everything. I know generally

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what's going on, and there's certain things I know a little bit more of

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than others because I read up on it because I'm most interested in that. But

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I get to know more and more each and every day. And I get to

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repeat that behind this microphone and behind this camera. And

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I'm able to get it to you enough so that in a sort

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of a package where you can understand that enough to go and do whatever you

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want to do with that, whether tell a friend, a family member, or

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do some action around it where you're doing conservation projects,

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where you're working in a career, or something like that. The goal for

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me, and it might be different from yours, was just to inform people. So

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when you're doing science communication, inform people from what you know, keep

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it easy, keep it simple. You're gonna hear that a lot this episode.

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So yes, you're gonna have imposter syndrome, it's okay. The

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way to get over it is actually just to put out information. Start

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recording, you don't even have to publish it, just start recording so you get

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comfortable behind a camera, you get comfortable behind a microphone. I

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started off just with the microphone because doing the microphone and

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looking into the camera for me at the beginning was uncomfortable as

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hell. Hell, I did not like it one bit. It would throw me

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off. Seeing myself in the camera, I can see it on my screen here. I can see

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it on the camera screen up there. It throws me off every once in a

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while because I'm like, what's going on? What's going on in the background? Do I have

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everything? Do I look okay? It gets very distracting. So I

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didn't do it for a while, just to be honest, until this

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past July when I started posting regularly videos and

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I started to record myself. You eventually get used to it, but at the beginning, it

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can be challenging. So anyway. Just understand that it's

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going to take a while to get used to it, so just start and just go. When

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you start to publish, yes, you are going

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to find negativity on the internet. It happens. It happens. It's

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the internet. Don't let that get in

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the way of you putting stuff on. The first video that I ever posted for

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YouTube, I remember correctly, because I will never forget this. It

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was one of those videos where I actually talked about a couple

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of different stories. I think it was three different stories. One of those stories was about

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Sea Shepherd and how I didn't like the violence they used at the time to

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do their whale wars. I still don't like it. I still don't like using

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violence to do some type of conservation and say that's conservation. they

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have a pretty big following and they can get

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aggressive online sometimes so i got to hear about it when i posted that

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that episode on the same episode i also posted about rosie o'donnell

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how she caught a uh a scalloped hammerhead

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shark in florida it was in federal water so it was legal

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and you know I didn't like the way she did it because they are protected, they

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are under the Endangered Species Act of Florida, they're protected under Florida law, but

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it wasn't federal law, so it was just, it was a bunch of things, I didn't like

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it, I mentioned my opinion on it, I mentioned why it was important to protect these

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animals, and the fact that it should be federally protected as

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well as state protected, but some people didn't

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like it. The first comment I ever got was STFU. You

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know what that stands for. If you don't, you can look it up. But it's one

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of those things where you're just like, oh, wow, that was fun to see.

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But not everybody is going to like your episodes. Not everybody is going to

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like the content that you make. People are going to criticize. Just try. Just

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try to put anything that you title climate change on there and see

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the bots that come out and say, nope, you're wrong. You should watch this YouTube video.

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It dispels all of the other journal articles that talk about climate and

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how bad it is for the planet. This one dispels it all. It's not climate change.

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Don't worry about it. Just watch this one YouTube video. Well, that's

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not how it works, right? But that's what happens. You'll get that. But

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there are more people that want to know and want to learn the information that

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you have to give than there are people who want to criticize. I

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guarantee you, right? It all comes in the delivery. If you're aggressive

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with people, people will be aggressive back. If you come out and

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say, hey, I'm just going to be a resource for you. then people tend to

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be like, oh, this is great. Like if I wanna find something out, I will find something

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out. They may not agree with you all the time, but at least you can

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answer somebody, right? You can answer somebody's question that they might

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have, right? And you can even start by looking up on chat GPT

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or Google and be like, what are the questions around the ocean? What are the questions around

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coral reefs or whatever those questions are and start answering those

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so that people can be like, oh, okay, like I had this question, this

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is a common question, but I had this question and this person answered it.

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You know, and I think that's an important part is to be that resource for

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the people when you do science communication, just inform people what

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they need to learn and whether they want to learn or not. Those are the people

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that are going to, you know, answer or respond or

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even click a like or even, use that information. You may not hear from

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them for a while, but they're going to be there, and they're going to want you to

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keep providing information. That's what's happened with me. I've seen it happen to

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a lot of other people. People look up to you. People think you're like a celebrity at

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some times. It's kind of weird, but it's fun. It's really fun when

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you start to see people who really depend on the information that

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you provide. At one point, people were like, hey, I noticed that you took

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a week off. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't put out any content for a week.

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And people were like, hey, Andrew, I noticed you didn't put everything OK. You didn't put out any content today.

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You didn't put out an episode today. I was kind of waiting for it, hoping you'd get it. And

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then you're like, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't do it. But it's coming.

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Don't worry about it. I took a week off. You know, you gotta tell, sometimes you get to a position where

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you gotta tell people you're gonna take a week off. Regardless, it's something

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that's important. Just don't worry about the fear to begin. Everybody

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has it. Start recording first. If you don't wanna publish right

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away, that's fine. But then start publishing. And then just

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publish it and you don't even have to look at it. Just because it's already tough when you

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look at it when editing. We're gonna talk about workflow in a second. But

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once you post it, don't even look at the statistics. We'll talk about that in

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a second. All right, so the second thing. The first one was

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fear to begin. The second thing is trying to stay consistent. And

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I say try, and I know it's weird, because you're like, when you're consistent, you're consistent. It

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doesn't waver. But trying to stay consistent is a

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better effort than not being consistent at all. And I see this

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happen a lot. I'll see people try and make an effort. And I've done it myself, make

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an effort on a platform. say tiktok and they'll start posting

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videos every day sometimes twice a day sometimes three times a day

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and then all of a sudden they get burnt out because they realize how difficult it

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is to actually begin so the key to try

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and stay consistent because consistency matters when you start

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to publish stuff online because people want to come back and be like all

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right andrew's starting to publish Like what he says so far, so

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I'm gonna come back and if he publishes on a regular basis I'm gonna keep

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coming back and keep coming back now the platforms like that because they

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keep coming back to that part like your Profiler or your video or

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whatever it is and then people are like, oh cool Like the platform starts

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to say well if this person likes it that other people are

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gonna like it So we're gonna serve it to more people. That's how things go viral. That's

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how people get loyal you know,

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followers and so forth, and so that's what helps. So the consistency actually

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helps, right? It may not be the way to grow to

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a million, but the consistency matters, because if people know that you're continually

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going to be putting three episodes a week, or one episode a day,

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or one episode a week, people will come back and they will understand that

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this is the episode, I'm going to value it when I see it, and I'm going

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to look out for it. Some people, like I said, will wait for that timing, and

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like the first thing in the morning, that's what they want to hear, what they want to watch, that's important.

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So that's always great, but to be consistent doesn't

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mean you have to be the best. It doesn't mean that your editing

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job has to be perfect. It doesn't mean that you have to be discovery style

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good or National Geographic style good. If you're doing a vlog and

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it may not be the best editing or may not be the best of what you want to

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do, it's okay. Put out the product. It's

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the internet. The internet and podcasting and videos

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and YouTube is not made to be the best

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quality, the best audio, nor the best content. A

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lot of the times the content of YouTubers that do the best aren't necessarily

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people who actually have great content. It's just people who've gotten

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popular for a number of different reasons. It could just be

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they have a silly show that people are entertained by. could be

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that they're playing a video game that people want to watch. I've never gotten

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over people watching other people play video games, but that's a

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thing. That's just not my generation, but that's a thing, right? I've

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seen, you know, the culture around that and how that grows

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channels. I even have a friend, Emily in the

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Sea, I think is the YouTube channel. And Emily does

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these, for a while she does these vlogs, but

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then for a while she started like, I'm going to do a video game. And it was like a marine biology video

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game. And she started doing that, and she got like 80K people watching

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her play this video game. And she did a few of

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them, but then she's like, this is not the content I want to do. I want to do vlogs. And her viewership

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went down because people weren't, like that crowd was not

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a vlog watching crowd. But she still does really well on YouTube. You

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should check her out. I'll put a link in the comments below or

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in the description below. But that's something that's really important, right,

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is to stay consistent. You don't have to be the best. You don't have

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to have the best quality. You don't have to be the best editor. I've spent a

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lot of money on this microphone. I've spent a lot of money on this camera and

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this lighting setup, but that's over 10 years of doing stuff. It's

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Christmas money. It's birthday money. It's money I've got from

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editing podcasts and so forth. I've got better equipment. quarter,

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I've spent thousands of dollars. You do not have to spend those thousands of

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dollars. You can get a very similar sound

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that's podcast ready from just your MacBook if you

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want, right? Because it has a microphone on there.

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You can go out and spend $100 on a microphone and

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get a podcast sound. It may not be the

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best, but it doesn't have to be the best. Right? It just

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has to be good enough to get your content out so that people will

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listen. You still want good audio, but you don't have to be

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the best of the best. You know what I mean? Not everybody is

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going to have a radio broadcast or a CBC

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or an NPR style show. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on each

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episode of their shows. Right? If you are on

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the internet, you just have to make it sound good enough

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to get it across, to get the viewership across. And

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of course, you're going to get better, which we're going to talk about over time. You will

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get better as you remain consistent because you're going to try more things, right?

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That's the big thing is you get to try more things once you get

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used to your work process, your workflow. Okay,

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your workflow is everything that goes into putting an

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episode together, right? So it goes down to the idea, the

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research of that idea that you come up with that you wanna discuss. There

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is the recording, there's the editing, there's

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the publishing, and then there's the promotion, which is probably the

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most you spend on, the most time you spend on that 80-20 rule, right?

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You spend 20% on the production and you spend 80% on the promotion. That's

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a big marketing rule that I've learned that it's helped. I still haven't mastered

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it because I spend more time doing the stuff because I really enjoy it.

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But promoting it is a little bit more difficult to do. And

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that's probably why I'm not bigger in terms of followers over

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time. But that's something that you hear every creator talk about

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and you've got to promote. But that workflow is important

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because it's hard to set, especially when you're just starting off because

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you're experimenting. Right, you're trying to be the

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best editor. You're trying all the stuff I said, you don't have to be the best. You're trying to

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do that right off the bat. Everybody makes that mistake. Everybody wants it to be perfect.

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They don't want to stumble over words. They want to edit the crap out

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of your episode. And when you're just doing an audio, it's really easy

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to edit because nobody sees the difference. The visual aspect

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isn't there. It's just audio. So if you cut something, as long as

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you're not cutting in like in the middle of a word, people aren't

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really going to hear it unless it's really badly edited. But

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for the most part, I found editing just audio makes it a lot easier

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because you can cut some pieces out and make it sound like it wasn't even cut out.

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And it made it easier, especially when I do my solo episodes. I didn't want to mess up

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in the way that I speak. I didn't want to have too many ums. I didn't want to

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have too many ahs. But that's how we speak. It's

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raw. It's podcasting. That's what I love about podcasting. It's

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who you are as an individual. I always said people

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really enjoyed the stories that I told or the information that

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I gave at parties or at a function or something when they asked me

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about marine biology or ocean conservation. So that's how I tend to

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speak. I tend to speak like I would speak to anybody that I'm at a

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party with, or I'm at a function with, or I'm just talking to

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my friends. And that's the way I speak. And that's sort of my style

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of doing things. Some people like to be super professional. They want to be a

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radio broadcaster, and that's fine. But don't let all

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of that take up your time so that you don't publish

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consistently. Because that's what I see a lot of people do. They perfect

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the crap out of the stuff, and it takes four to five hours

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to put out an episode. but then you don't even do the promotion, right?

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It's all in the editing, right? Or it's all in the prep.

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Just get the information out as much as possible. It'll allow you to

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be more consistent and then you can get better later on.

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We'll talk about that as the third thing, but we'll talk about that in just

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a moment. But the big thing is, is getting used to that workflow, setting

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yourself up for something easier. So for the longest time,

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I've kept my editing down to a minimum where I would record and

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then I would just do audio, I would record, and

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then once I was finished recording, I would chop it up into little pieces, not

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little pieces, like three different segments. Actually, two different segments.

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I would have my pre-intro, then I would have my musical intro,

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and then I would have my actual intro with the rest of the episode, and then I

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would have the music at the end. That was all a template. I

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just had to plop in the recording, cut where I needed to cut, and I would put

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it together. And I would put it together within 10 minutes, unless

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something happened where I lost the recording or something happened with

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the audio, which happens all the time, or more than you think,

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and I had to just kind of fidget around with it a little bit. You

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know, I was able to do it. If the mic didn't get picked up

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and it was just my computer that picked it up and it wasn't the greatest

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sound, I would still put it out because I'm like, I spent enough time

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recording it and enough time putting it together. I

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wanted to make sure it went out. It wasn't always the best. I think I did it a couple episodes.

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It wasn't always the best sounding, but it was different. And a lot of the times the

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mistake happens when things are changed. For

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instance, I record on Riverside. It's a software that's

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designed for remote recording. And I do it, I record my

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solo episodes, I record my interviews on it. It's a great piece of software. Highly

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recommend if you wanna get into science communication, especially

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digitally, you use that. But they just

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came out, I was using it off the web, off the web browser, but they just came out with

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an app. When I did the app, settings changed. It

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wasn't always the same setting. My microphone didn't pick up. It was my laptop microphone. which

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wasn't bad, but it was different. And I didn't like it. I knew I

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didn't like it and I could have re-recorded the show, but I said, Oh, I did

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a pretty good job on the first time. So I'm just going to edit that and I'm going to

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send it out. Right? And then when I'd switch from audio to

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audio and video, I had to change my setup process. I had

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to change my software. I didn't just go with

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an only audio software. I went with a video software. So I

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had to learn DaVinci Resolve. That's a free software, although

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I paid for it because I wanted certain aspects of it because I was doing another project. We'll

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talk about another time. But I had to change my process. That

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took some time to get used to. I had to figure out the software. There

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were some complexities to it because I've never really done video editing or it's been

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a long time since I have. And then I kept to

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my process. And so I made that workflow new. Now I'm into

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that workflow and I'm starting to change up because I'm like, okay, now

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I'm on YouTube, I'm on Spotify. How do I get people to

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listen to this on those platforms a little longer without

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changing too much of my process, but it means I'm going to have to change my

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editing and the way I did structure the show. That's going to take some

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time to come to it, but I'm not going to let it stop me from posting

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consistently. I'm going to learn in the background. I'm going to do some editing tricks.

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I'm going to do some experimentation, and you might get some benefits of

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that. You might not get some benefits of that, but I'm going to continue to

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do that, and once I get into that new workflow, if I find that it's working, I'm

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going to have a new workflow, I'm going to have some hiccups, but I'm going to go through

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it, but I'm going to stay consistent. I'm still going to put out some episodes.

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I may not look great all the time, but I'm still going to be there,

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and I'm still going to say what I want to say and

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get that information out there. It's important for me to get that to you. That's my why

358
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is to get this information. Be that resource to

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you. Stick to that workflow. The

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last thing on this part of this trying to stay consistent is

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you will have to make sacrifices for consistency. And

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there's going to be some sacrifices in quality, just as I mentioned earlier,

363
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but there's also going to be sacrifices in time you dedicate. you

364
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know, to other things that will have to be sacrificed in

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order to remain consistent. If you decide to do one

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a month, one episode a month, then you may not have to make as many sacrifices

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depending on how much time and effort you put into each episode. But

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if you do, for me, like three episodes, I have to come

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up with a workflow where I batch record, so I try and do all my

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three episodes of that week in one or two days. Then I

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have to edit them, I have to prepare them, and I have to come up with a workflow to do that. I

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have to sacrifice five to six hours on those days

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to ensure that I get this done. If not, I'm

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piecemealing it together, I'm staying up late, I'm not getting the right sleep, my

375
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whole schedule becomes shuffled, and I'm gonna have to sacrifice something other

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than that that's not good for my health. So here

377
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I try and find some time every week and I say I have this block of

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hours, I'm gonna do research all week to make sure I know what

379
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I'm gonna say, I'm gonna write it all down so that when I'm ready to record, Bam,

380
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I'm recording, I'm recording one episode, I'm recording two episodes, I'm

381
00:22:19,261 --> 00:22:22,602
recording three episodes all at once. It doesn't always happen. Like this time,

382
00:22:22,922 --> 00:22:26,183
going away for the weekend, I'm doing two episodes now. I'll do the next

383
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one probably on the Thursday before I publish. It'll be a little last

384
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minute, but it'll be good. But I'm gonna make sure that I have time to

385
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record that as well as the week after's episodes, right? So

386
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you have to find the sacrifices. You have to make some

387
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sacrifices in order to get the consistency that you want.

388
00:22:43,187 --> 00:22:46,568
Now, we've gone through the fear to begin. We got to the second thing,

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which is trying to stay consistent. Now here is the third thing. Get

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better at what you do. To get better at

391
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what you do, the first thing you need to do, keep it simple. Keep

392
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it simple. Start with a minimal viable product, right?

393
00:23:01,254 --> 00:23:04,476
You're putting out an episode, keep it as simple as possible and

394
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build on that as you go around. It's an evolution, people.

395
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It's an evolution. You have to realize that

396
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you are going to evolve slowly. And there's going to

397
00:23:15,728 --> 00:23:18,991
be some things that you experiment with, that you come up with, and people

398
00:23:19,011 --> 00:23:22,315
are really going to like it. And it's going to go. It's almost like natural selection. Oh,

399
00:23:22,335 --> 00:23:26,247
this is the way to go now. We're always going to use this piece. And

400
00:23:26,287 --> 00:23:29,529
sometimes it's not, it's gonna go extinct. You're gonna have to

401
00:23:29,670 --> 00:23:33,332
drop that quickly if you find that people don't like that, people aren't watching, or

402
00:23:33,372 --> 00:23:36,895
the numbers drop. It's an experiment, but it's an evolution. And

403
00:23:36,915 --> 00:23:40,317
the ones that survive are the strongest numbers that get you what

404
00:23:40,377 --> 00:23:43,519
you want, and people giving you comments back, like, I

405
00:23:43,539 --> 00:23:46,662
really like what you did there, but also going in with your

406
00:23:46,702 --> 00:23:50,264
instinct, like, I really like doing that, that's a really creative piece. But

407
00:23:50,384 --> 00:23:53,476
build on that, just nice and slowly. You know,

408
00:23:53,536 --> 00:23:56,917
as you build on that, you start to get stronger and stronger. And after about

409
00:23:57,437 --> 00:24:00,678
20 to 60 episodes, you start to have

410
00:24:00,698 --> 00:24:03,899
this product that's getting better. If you start by keeping it simple, it's great. If

411
00:24:03,919 --> 00:24:07,160
you start by keeping it complex, like with editing and everything

412
00:24:07,180 --> 00:24:10,601
like that, it's going to be harder to put out consistently and it's

413
00:24:10,621 --> 00:24:13,941
going to be harder to get better. People understand that you're not going to be perfect

414
00:24:13,981 --> 00:24:17,263
when you get behind the mic the first time. or the second time or the third,

415
00:24:17,303 --> 00:24:21,126
but they're going to expect you to get improved over time and you will as

416
00:24:21,146 --> 00:24:24,228
you get used to your personality will come up behind the microphone behind the

417
00:24:24,288 --> 00:24:28,271
camera. We're going to start to see some smiles. It's not going to be all monotone. It's

418
00:24:28,291 --> 00:24:31,574
going to be nice. It's going to be fun. You're going to change your voice pitch every

419
00:24:31,674 --> 00:24:35,257
once in a while. You're going to you're going to start with some fun segments, right?

420
00:24:35,397 --> 00:24:38,579
All that different stuff. Like I'm starting to think about things that I can

421
00:24:38,619 --> 00:24:42,022
do creatively with now that I have video that will help

422
00:24:42,462 --> 00:24:45,765
get people more tied into the episode. especially people

423
00:24:45,805 --> 00:24:51,270
who are visual watchers instead of just audio listeners.

424
00:24:51,751 --> 00:24:55,054
But you have to keep it simple right from the get-go so

425
00:24:55,094 --> 00:24:58,378
that you can get more complex and you can get better. There's

426
00:24:58,598 --> 00:25:01,801
always room to be better. You can always improve. You're never

427
00:25:01,821 --> 00:25:05,565
going to be perfect and that's okay. Right, because you're going to put out information consistently,

428
00:25:06,005 --> 00:25:09,188
but you can always have room to be better. That could

429
00:25:09,208 --> 00:25:12,431
be the way you speak, the way you get your message across, the

430
00:25:12,471 --> 00:25:15,613
way you edit and you start to start to learn about effects and

431
00:25:15,633 --> 00:25:18,976
you start to learn about transitions. You start to learn all about all these

432
00:25:19,197 --> 00:25:22,579
background noises and things like that that can get better, maybe some music and

433
00:25:22,619 --> 00:25:25,862
all that kind of stuff. And you can get better and better as you go

434
00:25:26,042 --> 00:25:29,541
along. You don't have to be the best right off the bat. Like

435
00:25:29,581 --> 00:25:33,004
I said, it's an evolutionary process. And growth doesn't always

436
00:25:33,064 --> 00:25:36,847
mean success, right? People always

437
00:25:36,907 --> 00:25:40,510
start podcasts or video podcasts or a YouTube channel

438
00:25:40,530 --> 00:25:44,053
where you're vlogging, everything like that, and you start to look at the views or

439
00:25:44,113 --> 00:25:47,495
the downloads that you get depending on what you're doing,

440
00:25:47,635 --> 00:25:51,379
right? How many followers you have, how many subscribers you have, how

441
00:25:51,419 --> 00:25:55,662
many views you're getting, how long people watch your content. Obviously,

442
00:25:55,682 --> 00:25:59,939
that's a big one. probably I think the most important over time, but

443
00:26:00,799 --> 00:26:03,940
everybody wants to grow. Everybody wants to increase in the number of

444
00:26:03,980 --> 00:26:07,301
downloads, increase in the number of views, increase in the number of

445
00:26:07,341 --> 00:26:10,702
subscribers and followers. That means success. No, that

446
00:26:10,742 --> 00:26:13,823
doesn't mean success. Your success depends on

447
00:26:13,863 --> 00:26:17,520
your why. For me, I always want the person

448
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,022
who's listening to this or watching this to learn something

449
00:26:21,082 --> 00:26:24,324
new about the ocean that could change their behavior in

450
00:26:24,344 --> 00:26:27,587
the future and how they look and view and act for the ocean.

451
00:26:27,967 --> 00:26:31,629
That is my why. So every time someone new listens, I

452
00:26:31,649 --> 00:26:35,252
get a little closer to my why. So I don't need millions

453
00:26:35,292 --> 00:26:38,834
of people to listen to my podcast. I just need one

454
00:26:38,874 --> 00:26:42,177
more person. every single time just one more person or

455
00:26:42,337 --> 00:26:45,600
one different person who's discovering the podcast for the first time and

456
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,863
they're listening to this and all of a sudden they're like hmm that could be good

457
00:26:48,883 --> 00:26:52,006
it's not always successful that that person who listens they may not like what i

458
00:26:52,106 --> 00:26:55,530
have to say or they may not like my style they may not like the content

459
00:26:55,610 --> 00:26:59,073
it doesn't matter but one more person is listening to it so i have that

460
00:26:59,153 --> 00:27:02,396
much closer But growth for me, I don't have to have

461
00:27:02,476 --> 00:27:05,599
millions of viewers or downloads or anything like that. I just

462
00:27:05,619 --> 00:27:08,801
want one more person. Because somebody said this to me one

463
00:27:08,821 --> 00:27:12,483
time. I think it was Dave Jackson, who is a

464
00:27:12,824 --> 00:27:16,867
big podcaster. He's a Hall of Fame podcaster. He teaches people how to podcast. School

465
00:27:16,887 --> 00:27:20,109
of Podcasting is a great site if you want to learn how to podcast. He

466
00:27:20,149 --> 00:27:23,892
talks about all the different sites. He's really great. And

467
00:27:23,932 --> 00:27:27,355
he told me one, he said on his podcast one time, think about

468
00:27:27,395 --> 00:27:30,878
like the people who start off and they have like one or two downloads. Maybe

469
00:27:30,898 --> 00:27:34,160
it's their mom that's downloading or their dad or their brother or

470
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,763
sister or siblings. And that's okay.

471
00:27:37,803 --> 00:27:41,046
But after a while, you'll start to get five, you'll start to get six, you'll start to get, and some people

472
00:27:41,106 --> 00:27:44,489
get like 100 and 120. And then people are like, oh man, I only have 120. I only have 120 people who download my

473
00:27:44,529 --> 00:27:49,632
podcast and listen to it. And

474
00:27:49,652 --> 00:27:52,874
then he said to me, he said on the podcast, and I think he's speaking to me, that's how good

475
00:27:52,894 --> 00:27:56,456
of a podcaster he is. He said on the podcast, he said, imagine filling

476
00:27:56,496 --> 00:27:59,817
a classroom full

477
00:27:59,837 --> 00:28:02,999
of 120 people. Those 120 people in one

478
00:28:03,039 --> 00:28:07,821
classroom, imagine what that would look like. It would be standing room only. Right,

479
00:28:07,841 --> 00:28:11,663
because what, in a classroom you can fit, there's what, 20 some odd desks? Seems

480
00:28:11,683 --> 00:28:16,021
to be more and more these days, but that's okay. 20 some odd desks. and

481
00:28:16,041 --> 00:28:19,343
you fit 120 people in there. It's packed to the brim. People

482
00:28:19,363 --> 00:28:23,146
are probably waiting outside, listening in just for you. So

483
00:28:23,206 --> 00:28:26,809
think about that next time when you have 100. You'll be like, oh, I need more downloads. No,

484
00:28:26,849 --> 00:28:30,191
you don't necessarily need more downloads. You have 120 people that are listening

485
00:28:30,211 --> 00:28:33,554
to the message that you're saying, and that's important, right?

486
00:28:33,614 --> 00:28:36,756
And if you get too big, all the people might be

487
00:28:36,796 --> 00:28:39,939
listening. They just might be listening because other people listen to it. They're just like, oh, I don't really

488
00:28:39,979 --> 00:28:43,068
like it, but I'll download it, but I'm not really listening. But if you get a

489
00:28:43,128 --> 00:28:46,550
core group of people that are listening, those 120 are always listening and

490
00:28:46,590 --> 00:28:50,211
maybe interacting with you at some point, even if you get like

491
00:28:50,731 --> 00:28:53,953
10 to interact with you on a regular basis and just have

492
00:28:53,973 --> 00:28:58,315
discussions about the ocean or about what your topic is about, that's

493
00:28:58,375 --> 00:29:02,036
where the growth is. That's the engagement. That's the success.

494
00:29:02,516 --> 00:29:05,718
Because like for me, I'm starting a conversation on the ocean. I

495
00:29:05,758 --> 00:29:08,839
want you, the audience member, to continue it. So I

496
00:29:08,879 --> 00:29:12,421
want you to reply back. That's the reason why I give out my how

497
00:29:12,441 --> 00:29:15,822
to protect the ocean Instagram account. It's why I

498
00:29:15,862 --> 00:29:19,224
have my email readily accessible through the newsletter. I

499
00:29:19,324 --> 00:29:23,306
want people to email me back. I want people to DM me because

500
00:29:23,326 --> 00:29:26,768
I think it's important that we have discussions. Hence why

501
00:29:26,788 --> 00:29:30,409
I started this podcast. It's a one way street, but it can be two way very

502
00:29:30,490 --> 00:29:34,231
quickly. And so I ask every episode to, hey, give

503
00:29:34,271 --> 00:29:37,413
me a shout, DM me, respond to the newsletter if you

504
00:29:37,473 --> 00:29:40,697
want. Right? We can have conversation on this.

505
00:29:41,737 --> 00:29:44,878
That's the important, that's my why, that's my success. It doesn't mean

506
00:29:44,898 --> 00:29:48,739
I need a million downloads. It doesn't mean I need a million viewers. I'm

507
00:29:48,759 --> 00:29:51,920
gonna take more viewers if they want, but I want them to learn. That's the

508
00:29:51,980 --> 00:29:55,342
point. I don't want them just to watch for like five seconds and then get out. I

509
00:29:55,382 --> 00:29:58,723
want them to watch a majority of the episode, form a thought,

510
00:29:58,863 --> 00:30:02,044
respond to me, or respond to somebody else, or take an

511
00:30:02,184 --> 00:30:05,827
action. So growth doesn't necessarily mean

512
00:30:05,867 --> 00:30:10,071
success or lack of growth doesn't mean that you're not successful. I

513
00:30:10,091 --> 00:30:13,469
should probably say it more that way. So I want you

514
00:30:13,529 --> 00:30:16,631
to think about that when you're starting and you continue to do the

515
00:30:16,691 --> 00:30:19,933
science communication stuff. A lot of people in podcasting will

516
00:30:19,973 --> 00:30:23,316
stop after seven episodes. I don't know why seven is the magic

517
00:30:23,356 --> 00:30:26,638
number, but after a while, after about seven episodes, people, a

518
00:30:26,699 --> 00:30:30,201
lot of people, most people will stop their podcast. And it

519
00:30:30,241 --> 00:30:33,464
could be for a number of things. It could be that the consistency is hard to

520
00:30:33,504 --> 00:30:36,706
maintain. They made it either too difficult or they just don't have

521
00:30:36,726 --> 00:30:40,009
the time or they didn't expect the amount of effort that they wanted to put in. It

522
00:30:40,029 --> 00:30:43,429
would take them that long per episode. coupled with,

523
00:30:43,709 --> 00:30:47,192
or in and of itself, not seeing the huge downloads

524
00:30:47,212 --> 00:30:50,675
that they expected after seven episodes. And I don't know why they're expecting huge

525
00:30:50,715 --> 00:30:54,218
downloads. They obviously didn't do their research in podcasting. Because

526
00:30:54,278 --> 00:30:57,982
even with podcasting, it's very difficult to grow these days. There are so many podcasts out

527
00:30:58,022 --> 00:31:01,244
there. And so it's hard to grow your numbers, especially if

528
00:31:01,264 --> 00:31:05,308
you're not focused on promoting, or especially if you're at the beginning of

529
00:31:05,348 --> 00:31:09,685
your podcast journey in terms of the first seven episodes. And

530
00:31:09,725 --> 00:31:12,927
if you're not willing to put in the work, that's fine. If you don't

531
00:31:12,967 --> 00:31:16,588
like the numbers you have and you don't wanna continue, that's okay. But

532
00:31:16,628 --> 00:31:19,810
most people stop after seven. If you remain consistent and stay for

533
00:31:19,850 --> 00:31:23,151
at least the first three years, you're gonna see immense growth right

534
00:31:23,171 --> 00:31:26,773
from the beginning, from zero to maybe 1,000, maybe more, it

535
00:31:26,813 --> 00:31:30,346
depends. But that's what you're gonna see. You will

536
00:31:30,386 --> 00:31:33,549
see growth, but you may not see the crazy growth, and

537
00:31:33,589 --> 00:31:37,373
that's okay. That's okay. As long as you have people listening, you

538
00:31:37,413 --> 00:31:41,156
are successful. That's my opinion. You can make money. There aren't

539
00:31:41,497 --> 00:31:44,740
many podcasts that are making millions and millions of dollars like you see like

540
00:31:44,780 --> 00:31:47,977
the Joe Rogans. the Alex Coopers and things like that.

541
00:31:48,398 --> 00:31:51,720
It's very, very rare to make that amount of money. But there are people who

542
00:31:51,860 --> 00:31:55,263
have businesses and it's around their podcast and make money off

543
00:31:55,283 --> 00:31:59,106
of their podcast where they can have a full-time job as a podcaster. There

544
00:31:59,126 --> 00:32:02,228
are people who do that. I don't, but there are people who do that. And

545
00:32:02,268 --> 00:32:05,610
if you put the money in and you put the time in and you get the money, then good

546
00:32:05,630 --> 00:32:09,213
job, congratulations. Tell me how you did it. But

547
00:32:09,513 --> 00:32:12,836
the big thing is, you know, start, don't be afraid to

548
00:32:12,896 --> 00:32:15,978
start. Try to be as consistent as

549
00:32:16,058 --> 00:32:19,240
possible and get better at what you

550
00:32:19,260 --> 00:32:22,783
do. Don't stress the numbers. Those

551
00:32:22,823 --> 00:32:26,166
are the three things that you really need to know if

552
00:32:26,206 --> 00:32:29,889
you want to start science communication in ocean conservation. If

553
00:32:29,929 --> 00:32:33,491
you have any questions, I would love to hear from you. Hit me up

554
00:32:33,511 --> 00:32:37,975
and DM me at HowToProtectTheOcean. That's at HowToProtectTheOcean.

555
00:32:38,834 --> 00:32:42,218
You can also respond to the newsletter that this goes out on if

556
00:32:42,238 --> 00:32:45,461
that's how you heard about this show. And you can just respond to that and

557
00:32:45,501 --> 00:32:48,945
just say, hey, Andrew, I heard your show today. I really loved it. I have some questions around

558
00:32:49,345 --> 00:32:52,929
science communication. I would love to listen and I'd love to hear. If

559
00:32:52,949 --> 00:32:56,413
you have a comment, you can put it on our YouTube under these video

560
00:32:56,453 --> 00:32:59,996
in the comments below or on Spotify. They allow commenting

561
00:33:00,056 --> 00:33:03,779
now. And you can watch the video on this one. And yeah,

562
00:33:03,799 --> 00:33:07,502
let me know your thoughts. I would love to hear what you want to do for science communication. Or

563
00:33:07,562 --> 00:33:11,165
if you've already started, I'd love for you to share your channel or

564
00:33:11,205 --> 00:33:16,369
your platform or your account on whatever platform you're on. But I

565
00:33:16,389 --> 00:33:19,531
think this is a really important episode for me to

566
00:33:19,571 --> 00:33:22,834
tell you, because I've been doing this for almost 10 years. Actually,

567
00:33:22,854 --> 00:33:26,016
really longer than that, but podcasting for almost 10 years. And it's

568
00:33:26,136 --> 00:33:29,239
really changed my life, not only and the

569
00:33:29,259 --> 00:33:32,381
fact that people recognize me a little bit more and listen to

570
00:33:32,421 --> 00:33:35,684
me a little bit more and understand what I do, but also

571
00:33:35,744 --> 00:33:39,808
it's changed my life and the confidence that I'm able to do in presentations

572
00:33:39,888 --> 00:33:43,150
and speaking in front of people. It's gotten me jobs in and out

573
00:33:43,190 --> 00:33:46,613
of marine science and conservation, and I think it's just

574
00:33:46,653 --> 00:33:50,837
an important skill to have. I want my daughters to have this skill. They've done

575
00:33:50,897 --> 00:33:54,300
some podcasts where they haven't published anything, but my one daughter is going into

576
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:58,299
zoology. I'd love for her to be able to follow in

577
00:33:58,359 --> 00:34:02,401
my footsteps and do science communication for wildlife biology,

578
00:34:02,661 --> 00:34:06,004
what's important, what will be important, and what's important to her. But

579
00:34:06,024 --> 00:34:09,526
it's something that I think everybody should get into because more people need to learn

580
00:34:10,006 --> 00:34:13,489
about the things that are affecting our oceans, our planet,

581
00:34:13,809 --> 00:34:17,251
nature in general. And being able to do that is to be able to connect

582
00:34:17,291 --> 00:34:21,174
with them where they're at on social media, on these digital platforms, and

583
00:34:21,194 --> 00:34:24,616
be able to inform them. Because people are looking for resources to learn

584
00:34:24,656 --> 00:34:28,260
from stuff and quality resources. And if you get scientists and ocean conservationists

585
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,624
who do great work and want to share that great work, whether

586
00:34:31,684 --> 00:34:34,827
it's an organization like a large organization like WWF or

587
00:34:34,907 --> 00:34:38,603
Oceana, or Ocean Conservancy or whoever, or

588
00:34:38,643 --> 00:34:42,224
if it's an individual like you and I that just want to share and share

589
00:34:42,244 --> 00:34:45,445
our passion for ocean conservation and science and

590
00:34:45,565 --> 00:34:48,906
also making sure that people know what's happening with the ocean or what's happening with

591
00:34:48,946 --> 00:34:52,447
our planet, I highly recommend that you take this up and you contact

592
00:34:52,487 --> 00:34:55,629
me at HowToProtectTheOcean. I want to thank you so much for

593
00:34:55,669 --> 00:34:59,133
joining me today. This has been a fun episode to do. I look

594
00:34:59,173 --> 00:35:02,356
forward to having more conversations about this with you. Have

595
00:35:02,376 --> 00:35:05,879
a great day. This has been the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Angelo,