# Why Podcast Awards Matter: Grow Your Show and Build Credibility

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** RSS․com - Start & Grow a Podcast
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60
- **Дата:** 15.04.2026
- **Длительность:** 54:19
- **Просмотры:** 157

## Описание

Join RSS.com and The Signal Awards for an essential conversation and AMA about leveraging podcast awards to elevate your show's visibility, credibility, and growth potential.

In this free webinar, Greg Wasserman, Head of Relationships for RSS.com and Jemma Brown, General Manager for The Signal Awards will explore how awards can amplify your podcast's reach, attract sponsors, and position your show among the industry's most recognized voices. Whether you're an independent creator or part of a larger network, learn how to make awards work for your show's unique goals. Come and learn about podcast awards, and ask your questions about how to enter.

What you'll learn:
→ Why there’s value in entering awards
→ Best practices for selecting categories and crafting compelling entries
→ How to budget for and maximize your awards investment
→ How awards recognition drives measurable growth for podcasts
→ Real examples of how Signal Awards recognition has transformed podcasts

Recorded: Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT

Don't miss future trainings lead by RSS.com on podcasting. 
Sign up below and we’ll send you the livestream link.
You can join us live — or watch anytime afterward.
https://rss.com/blog/events/

#podcasting #podcastingtips #podcastingawards

## Содержание

### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00)

Hello everyone. I am Greg Washburn, the head of relationships for RSS. com and you are tuning into another exciting training this month. So we're in April. If you are coming here live, um think about it. Award season may have all just ended for, you know, the Academy Awards, Grammys, and so forth. And so we want to start talking about how podcasting actually fits into all of this and how awards can really help you in so many different facets for your podcast. You know, whether it's the success that you get, the domination, or just being able to get judged. So I'm excited today to bring on someone who actually runs an awards, Gemma Brown. Allow me to bring her to the stage here. Gemma, welcome. Hello. Good afternoon, y'all. Um All right. So I gave you an intro of who you are, but like give us a little more context and why you're why I'm talking to you about award season. Um so my name is Gemma. I run the Signal Awards and the Signal Awards honor the podcast that define culture. And so it's truly a for podcasters, by podcasters award that honors the full spectrum of the medium from deeply investigated narrative shows to, you know, comedy stand-up chat shows. Uh we really look to recognize the full range of podcasts that are being made today. All right. So let's dive into here. You know, and I think the biggest question that I feel most podcasters come up with is why should I enter an award? Like what is the value of entering an award? It feels like there there's it's expensive. There's a lot of effort to it. So let's start there. I like to think about the moment um maybe anyone who's tuning into this can relate to, which is you spend weeks or months of your life, your creative energy, conceptualizing of a show, booking guests, cutting tape, and then when you go to press publish on call it your rss. com, there's [laughter and clears throat] a bit of an emotional drop-off. Like you press a button like publish, and then there's this kind of feeling of is anybody listening? And I've spoken to people who run massive shows with tens of thousands more downloads per episode who have the same feeling as small shops and independents, which is anyone listening? Does this have value? And so um you know, the work that we do, it all happens in silos. It happens in independent studios. It happens in rooms like the one that I'm in right now. You can feel as if you're alone in making the work. And so I think there's a huge emotional investment into valuing your work enough to take that step of submitting it for consideration. And then what happens next is the work gets judged. It gets listened to and adjudicated by people who are really premier ears in our industry, top executives at big networks, are listening to the work and evaluating it across a series of five criteria. They're listening with intention and rigor. Um which I think a that alone holds a tremendous amount of value. And then of course, you know, if you go home with an award, there's the value for your team. There's that motivation of like, okay, I can keep going. I can make that second or third season. Um and then a full range of um both business benefits that come. I've talked spoken to um uh people who work at nonprofits who won a Signal Award and were able to use that to apply for grants, for additional philanthropic funding, or put that Signal Award winner logo on their sales deck, and go out and take meetings with that kind of institutional cosign. Um I feel like I'm probably speaking expansively across other questions you had prepared, so I'll pause right now, but that's the high-level I think value of entering an award. And I think you touched on so many of those different features and functions of it. Um you know, having been a judge in multiple awards, I can speak to the fact of hearing someone who, as

### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00)

you've said, like whether you're getting thousands of downloads or small downloads, I never would have found these shows as a judge. Uh or sorry, I never would have found these shows had I not been a judge. And being able to then go like, okay, I was assigned, you know, whatever category the awards gave me is the category that I had to judge and go like, all right, this is interesting. Let's hear what's out there. Yeah. We survey our judges. I'm interrupting you. No. — We survey our judges at the end of the season to ask them about the value of the experience and any changes they'd want to make to the judging portal and um bless their eager hearts. The I assumed my first year running this program that the number one reason they wanted to judge was to, you know, be able to make that announcement on LinkedIn and kind of get their professional bonafides. And I think it was something like 85% of the judges said finding new work that I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise, which you know, is a seconding what you just shared. And I I mean, I would say the first thing, yes, like being a judge going like, okay, I I've got this accolade. I'm able to say, look at me. I'm a judge for Signal Awards. That feels good knowing I'm not the creator submitting, so it's kind of like, oh, I got nominated, which is really the same kind of feeling. But yes, it was being able to go, hold on. How do I discover shows? But also, I mean, in one category I got was true crime. I'm not a true crime person, right? So for me, it was I now have to put on a hat that I normally would never wear. Take out my this isn't my category of choice to listen to and start putting my my feelers out there of like, what does this category feel like? And it gave me such a different feeling for that category, for the creation of different types of shows that I'm like, wow, this is true crime or this is this I wouldn't have figured this to be true crime. Um but then that allowed me to have a different feel for that overall category and to now start recommending to other people, hey, here's some decent shows that I didn't think was true crime, but it was true crime, so go for it, right? You're speaking to two things here, which is A, podcast discoverability, still a problem. — We can send four people to the moon and yet we cannot solve podcast discoverability. Um but also, I I've heard this anecdote from other Signal Awards judges and I know we're going to speak primarily to the experience of being an entrant, a podcaster interested in awards, but um I just think it is uh so beautiful listening to our judges describe exactly the same sensation that you had, which is okay, I had to step back from kind of my personal flavor profile, let's say, of podcasts and think about what is inherently good in this work along the measure of craft, innovation. Um we have five points that our judges uh score entries on, which are all publicly accessible on our website. Um and kind of then how that perspective permeated into other parts of their lives, at least for a short period of time afterwards. Like, all right, you know, rocky road might not be my favorite ice cream flavor, but here I am eating rocky road and thinking um you know, is this a good ice cream flavor, right? So little anecdote there. And so I think that covers for anyone that's thinking about entering a podcast awards. And I mean, [snorts] you did a beautiful job of explaining all the different functions that you can get from it, right? But if we think about the judging feature here right now. And I'm seeing the question like, what are the five points at Signal Awards? So well, I want you to answer that, but the question's going to be each awards that you're looking at, anyone that's looking at awards, whether it's Signal or something else, what should they be thinking about of like, is this the awards they want to enter? Is it in the case of point, who's judging this? Right? The fact that your awards are pulling some of the experts from the industry and going like, look, these are people that know, love, and trust podcasting. It's not just the person who's creating something and they're judging among your peers. Now, there are awards out there where you're being judged by some of your peers as opposed to here, being judged by experts, which technically are your peers, but in a different level. So what uh what would you what should someone be looking at from a awards submission? And then what are the five points that Signal follows? Beautiful. I think in terms of what

### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00)

awards to submit to, obviously, I I'm not I can't say I'm a versed expert on all the other award programs out there, but I think it does reflect back on, you know, the work that you make. There are programs out there like um uh Peabody, Murrow, um Pulitzer that are really looking at journalistic endeavors. Um you know, even Tribeca, I believe the work has to be narrative and yeah, I'm not and it has to be released for the first time at Tribeca. It can't be something previously published. So, there's different contingencies that the different awards have, and then of course there's niche award programs out there. Black Podcaster Award, British Podcaster Award. Um again, I think where Signal differentiates itself as being this kind of full spectrum program. Um we have really robust category offerings that run across genre. Um so, kids podcast, history podcast, and craft. So, you know, best editing, best sound design, best hosting. Um and it's really meant to honor that full spectrum of what is being made in podcasting today, and we change our categories annually to reflect the state of the industry. So, it's a very responsive award in that regard. Um so, that's the answer to your first question. I pulled up our judging criteria on our end. If anyone wants to do a deeper dive, it's signalawards. com/judging. Um but effectively, I think, you know, the first criteria is probably fairly familiar or um intuitive, but it's, you know, quality of craft. It's speaking to rigor, technical execution, you know, um that I think we know it when we hear it. Um but then there's also I I the piece I'm maybe the most attached to myself is we have this experience score. So, it reflects basically the overall impression that an entry made on the judge. Like that stickiness, that emotional resonance of the piece. Like did you listen to it and then immediately text your friend like, "Hey, you got to listen to this. " Right? So, it's impact in effect. Um and then we have creativity and innovation. Is this a show that feels very cookie-cutter, something that's been made before? Does it um innovate in terms of format, question style, um edit style? Um as well as content, um which is really like, did the creator's idea and intent come through in the work that is being made? Um our last category criteria is really actually only applicable to our brand storytelling categories, um which are you know, those white label shops that um produce shows on behalf of brands. Um and that one is basically like, did the podcast amplify the brand's uh vision and mission? Um so, yeah. There you go. Um I guess touching on that, it's interesting cuz if we go back to the judging component and now looking at the criteria, I could imagine if I want to submit my award and going like, "Mm do I feel like I'm at that level? " Or how can I compete with the big shops that are able to put in the craft? So, I'm not going to submit and and take a chance. Yeah. What would you say to that person? Mm. Um I mean I think it's a it is a big common question that we get where people feel like, "I'm a little too indie to compete. " I would say look at our past winners. Um I think Signal does a particularly incredible job at honoring work at all scales of um you know, production robustness. Um you know, in 2025, our winners included, you know, very small, intimate um hobbyist {quote} and {quote} projects as well as big shops. And I think you know, some of it is about playing that game of category fit and thinking about you know, who do I want to be in my imagination of the other entrants paired up against. We do have an indie podcast category. We also have a student podcast category. Um but, you know, thinking through the lens of um how competitive the awards are they are competitive, and this is also one of the ways that you level up your show. And so, I think it's a risk worth taking. I think I would agree, right? And then and being a judge and I look at the 100

### [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=900s) Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00)

shows that I had in one of the awards that I I judged and going like, "Mm That's a lot. We do not ask our judges to listen to 100 shows. And there you go. So, everyone that's watching this, keep that in mind. Each award season, or sorry, each award um each award will have different criteria. So, what Gemma just gave us for what Signal does, so you want to look at the criteria that the awards you're looking at. Um we haven't even talked about price, so we'll go down that path, but look at the criteria. Look at who's judging. Get an understanding of what kind of judges are is that awards pulling in, and what they see on average in terms of like how many entries are they allowed? You know, is it there are they putting a cap? Now, I would say maybe it's a good thing that you guys are on the smaller size and not a hundred, and some shows or some awards maybe like oh, the entry price was uh the price was the dictating factor of going like, "All right, we've got fewer people that entered because or entered because of the cost of this or where you're you're sitting. " Um but those are all different criteria that I think anyone that's watching right now, you should start thinking about um when you're evaluating which award center. Mhm. Yeah, we do um just on the back end ask our judges to listen to 20 submissions. Um which is, you know, it is a lot, and it's also um I think a quite healthy number in terms of getting that suite of exposure to the work that is being made today, and every entry gets listened to by multiple judges. Seems we have a fan here that's excited for the solopreneur podcast category. — Yeah. — Lovely. Um so, we didn't talk about price. So, what is it the price to enter for Signal Awards? We have pricing for shows. It's 285 from now until May 8th. That's our early entry deadline, essentially like early bird pricing. Um if you want to submit at the individual episode level, 235. Um and then we do have, as I mentioned, some discounted categories. Um I can't remember the pricing off the top of my head. I can pull it up for you, but I'm just at signalawards. com/eligibility, uh which is where our pricing is uh itemized, and you can see how it goes up um once our early entry deadline passes. It goes up by uh a few bucks when we get to the June deadline, which we call our final entry deadline. So, from a pricing standpoint, anyone that's watching this, you know, Signal Awards is probably on the higher end of entry pricing? Would you say? I cannot speak to the other awards out there. I I'm not trying to dodge the question. I just actually do not I'm not versed. Yeah, yeah. So, I would believe you're probably on the higher end, but like yourself, I don't know all the awards. Um and so anyone that's watching, you know, that's something to think about. It's what Signal Award and the value of what you've created as a awards the accolades you get by winning that award. It's like, "Okay, paid 300, 285 dollars, but if I win that award, that's great. You've got you're going up against 20 people in the category. " So, like all those things are things to actually think about when you're considering is this the award? Am I setting a budget aside for entry into these awards um at the beginning of the year? Or you're thinking about it now as you're uh we're in April, and you're like, "All right, what are my Q2 budgets going to be? What's my Q3 budget uh for advertising um my show? Maybe I'll go do that. " Or you go like, "You know what? It's okay if I start smaller and go, let's find the award show that is maybe a 25 dollar entry. And next year, I've worked on my craft a little more, and next year I decide, you know what? I now have the budget. I'm going to enter it in, and I'm going to go for Signal. " Right? For sure. And I um you know, I'm not going to peer pressure anyone that I cannot see on this live stream anyway. Um but I will say that, you know, with an award that's more competitive like this, it is a more um robust offering to the winners, and also, you know, it's a bigger accolade. We have uh really broad entry pool, and so it means a lot to win a Signal Award. And, you know, I've heard different stories. Um I interviewed one of our winners last year who reached out to me just to say, you know, how much Signal meant to him and

### [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=1200s) Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00)

and his name is Michael Osborne. He's down in Austin. He said that entered Signal a bit on a whim. Again, put that logo. We give a Signal Award winner medallion essentially to our winners on a pitch deck. Pitched the show to Wondery, RIP. But the show was network by Wondery for about a year. And you know, that's a great way of utilizing and leveraging a win for the next step in your career or in the life cycle of your podcast. I mean, I think that's a mic drop moment. Anyone that's watching they're like, think about you're entering your podcast to be judged. So, if you pay attention to who are the judges of that award, you're now being able to go like, okay, who's discovering me that didn't Yes. — have me be know of me before. I don't know who these judges are, but if you're entering is a judge for Signal, I mean, I'd look at myself and my hopefully credibility in the podcast industry, but also the connections. You're now entering your show to hit my ears that it never would have. And I'm thinking, how do I help this show potentially or what can I do to promote this show even if I'm not even if they don't make it to the nominee level whatever. It's like, you've now entered a ethos that you didn't have before. A ring For sure. And when our shows are so Signal actually, one thing that's um important to explain is it's a judged awards, an adjudicated award. But every show every podcast that is selected by our judges gets put through a process we call listeners' choice. And it's basically the possibility to win an additional honor from your fans. Um so, only the shows that have won effectively um go into this open pool and then we run a two-week campaign of voting. Um it's a really interesting fun couple of weeks. People get super creative with getting their show out there. And then it's kind of the opportunity to represent and honor communities, fandom, devotion, um which is a it's a kind of different how would you call it? Like barometer than the judged award. But when that happens, it's a really buzzy moment. People see uptick in listenership. Um they see an uptick in site traffic. Last year we had I think I'll pull the exact number, but I think it was like 174,000 voters casting almost 400,000 votes on shows. Um so, that's a big you know, public moment for a podcast. That's something I mean we didn't even touch on. The fact that how many people are now aware of your show if you get the nomination. And what spike that will do to the awareness, the downloads. So, I guess that's also a question you can ask when you're looking at which award to enter, which is the right award for me is we've got the judging, we've got the criteria, we've got the payment, but what is that award doing to promote, you know, it's nice to ultimately say like, oh, I'm on their website, I got nominated. But if they're not telling anyone that you got nominated, then you're doing all the work on, hey, I got nominated and you're helping to promote more or more about that. But in your case, as you said, you guys are helping. You're leveraging your massive audience. You're pulling a massive audience to help drive more potential listens and awareness of your nominees. That's correct. And we do as much as we can on behalf of our winners and try to create a machine around their work. And then we also have a big winners' party in person in November. All winners are welcome to come and attend. And it's really, really fun and rewarding and people make connections in real time in the room. Find their next collaborator. You know, find the next network that they're going to pitch to. It's a really special gathering. And there goes to another point about awards and the value of awards, community. I mean, think about how important podcasts and community, those two we are always saying in the same sentence. So, if you're looking at an awards here, think about what is the community component that they're offering. As Gemma just said, for Signal Awards, you've got this whole in-person bonding moment that you get to have with other

### [25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=1500s) Segment 6 (25:00 - 30:00)

podcasters across different genres and different niches. I'm guessing you guys are beyond just the US. Is it entry for anyone or is it only US only? It's fully international. Um went to London personally myself last year, Toronto as well, to meet with podcasters. Met a lot of really great like met the Canadian scene, which was wonderful. But we do accept entries in languages other than English. We have our judges uh self-identify as, you know, speakers of other languages and funnel those entries to those judges as well. There you go. We got winners' party introduced me to the Advice and Filtered podcast. I collaborated with them on their show and one of the hosts on mine. And so, as we know, thanks for that one. Um we know that cross-collaboration is one of the greatest ways for podcast growth. Yes. — So, from what this person's saying, not only did they get the raise from being a nominated show, but the opportunity to do more work with someone else that they never would have met had they not been there. Yeah. I love how um technologically advanced and yet totally human this industry is. — It is all relationships at the end of the day. That's truly the currency. I mean, it's my motto. Life is about time and relationships. It's literally why the title's Head of Relationships. So, I'm all about the relationships on this one. And I mean, who would have thought we'd be covering relationships when we're talking about awards. But that is something from an ROI standpoint I think you have to be considering. Yes, definitely. And you know, it's the work that's really valuable to me personally as a human. I um love connecting people and connecting people with opportunities. I know there was I'm just thinking of one woman who I met at the work this year. I'd listened to her show for the first time because it came up on my radar via Signal. And she's well, it's a two women. They'd both made a podcast as their senior thesis in college. Um and it was is so good. So deeply researched. It's called True Crime podcast and it's about basically the um pain and the problems and the ethical dilemmas of true crime podcasting. Um and looking at that from like an ethics standpoint. Um and then ended up inviting this person to a coffee meet-up that I host monthly in New York. I also host bi-monthly happy hours here. Try to get to LA at least once a year. So, you know, just building as many um points of contact between our winners and our judges and our community as possible. Cuz I think really different things happen in the room when you can meet people um than on screen. Though I appreciate speaking with you, Greg. — I mean, I agree. You know, that's something also to think about from an awards. Is this a virtual award? Do they even have a quote-unquote award ceremony or is it a is it you you submit it, you won, and that's about it. And there's nothing no big fanfare. So, those are but those are things that you can consider. Is that something you need? want? Another value, you know, if you're looking at it from a simple price of paying I'm paying $300 for this. Well, let's think about all the things that you're getting from $300 versus if you paid another entry for another awards, it's $25. Going like, okay, can we compare apples to apples? There's different components to this. So, I think when you're looking at an award, weigh all those different features and functions, but also be honest with yourself, right? Like, is my show at this level yet? Would it make sense for me to enter in a different awards before I decided, you know what, Signal's where I feel I'm at that level. There's nothing there's no harm in saying I'm not there yet in this season. Or maybe you are. I'm not the I mean, I can't be the judge of that. You can that, right? Yeah. I think there's a lot of imposter syndrome in this industry. So, I'd like to kind of wind that back. Um you know, a lot of people feel like, oh, I'm just making this up as I go. I'm just in my closet recording and it's like, yeah, that's how great things are made, right? — Um it is you would be so shocked to hear

### [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=1800s) Segment 7 (30:00 - 35:00)

the kinds and caliber of producers I've spoken to who are like, I don't know what I'm doing. Is this even good? And um it's I don't know if it's unique to the podcast industry and business and the fact that a lot of people come from a kind of more journalistic background and they don't have giant egos or what it is, but um the uh impostor syndrome is pervasive and the only way you know is if you submit it find out. That's a good point. I guess comes question comes to me mind is you've been doing this for a while. You've seen are there shows that you're like how did you not submit? Like you were shocked that they didn't submit uh to be awarded or to be nominated or be considered and you're like, hey Joe, how did you not submit your show? Um and here, you know, I didn't think I could win or whatever the excuse may be. Yeah, I am I guess yeah, sometimes it's people feeling insecure about the value of their work or um you know, I didn't make enough new work this year. It's easy to get tangled up in your own head. Which is what I think friends and community are for. I'd encourage, you know, folks here on this call to reach out and ask like hey, has anyone and you know, you can go to Reddit, various podcast groups. Did you apply to Signal? Did you win? What was the value of it for you? Um but I think a lot of people feel um that I would say the counter to that is that a lot of people are making really incredible podcast work. Um and that work should be rewarded and recognized um for its contribution to the medium. There you go, impostor syndrome. Everyone watching get over it. You're creating something beautiful. There if you even if you had just 10 people listening try and get yourself a room with 10 people every week and then work on growing that. I mean, that's the way to think about podcasting is like if I got just 15 people in a room every week how could I how happy would I be to have that? So take the time to think about the work you're doing, but also take the time to consider all the different awards. And yes, I don't have a resource. Uh one of our members in the RSS. com uh RSS space community even is like, hey do you know about this award? I'm like, I'll be honest, I don't know all the awards. One, there's new awards that are coming up. I think about my friend Dan Kendall's doing the awards around health podcast. Interesting. The guys over at Higher Ed's Podcast Con, they're doing a new award. So we're seeing new awards constantly come up that are niched. And each one's kind of operating it differently. So think about what makes sense for you. Could you submit to Signal and submit to that niche one? Like there's so many different reasons to do it Jim and I've kind of been covering of um where this could take you and what you should be considering and thinking about. Um yes, easier said than done, but it is still valuable to do so. Um are there any questions that I mean, I'm seeing the comments come in here. Um are there any questions that anyone has that we haven't touched on? Is there anything that you want to cover that I haven't asked you about? Well, I will just say as people are thinking through their questions as you know, a very common one we get is which category should I enter? Um which is totally fair and valid and again, Signal we have you can enter at the show level which is, you know, submitting your whole show for consideration. You can enter at the episode level and so that's really thinking through the lens of I have one showcase piece that I think is the best representation of my work. Um which could be great especially if it's your first time entering an award to think about like, all right, I really want the judges to listen to this one episode where I nailed the interview or the edit is spectacular. Um [snorts] and then um the categories are split by again, genre or craft. So thinking to yourself, do I want to recognize me and my co-host work as co-hosts? Um that would be a craft category or genre, you know, we really want to be in competition to win the best travel podcast which is one of our new categories this year and I think the question worth asking yourself is what do you want to be recognized for? What would be the institutional co-sign

### [35:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=2100s) Segment 8 (35:00 - 40:00)

that would push your business and your podcast to the next level? Um and what would you be proud of to shout from the rooftops? So if you're, you know, a financial um services podcast, I'm just making this up. Um you might really want to win, you know, best business podcast because that would be the thing that can get you and your show to the next level. Um So yeah, those are like some of the questions to ask yourself as you're considering categories. So I see that one of the questions in here, can you submit for both the show level and the episode level? And I'll go and I'll take that question a little step further. Are there different is it are there differences? Like can I submit for both, but also in the way you've got it set up, is it I'm only submitting this one episode for the best true crime and therefore is a judge cuz this is what happened is like someone submitted an episode in one of the awards I did and I'm like, this episode fits the category, but this show, I can't give this show best whatever that category was because the whole show wasn't just that episode. So you're only looking at it from a this episode wins the category of best true crime episode or is it best true crime overall? Yeah. Um I will say just one note while we're talking about true crime. We now have distinguished true crime chat from true crime investigative, which I think is an interesting delineation to make just in terms of apples to apples comparisons. Um but yeah, I mean, I think it's, you know, if you pick episode level, you have a little bit more control over what the judges listening to ultimately, right? If you go show level um and I'm going out on a limb here, but I think it's fair to say that the judges will probably listen to the episodes that intrigue them and or are the most recent. And so the benefit of that single episode entry is control. Um but it is also saying this is the exemplar of my show that I want to be heard versus the show in its totality is the um work. All right, so if I'm submitting, let's go back to this true crime. I don't know why I'm stuck on true crime. Whatever. Uh it's We can do travel. It doesn't matter, but um Okay. — I'm submitting go cooking. Cooking okay. You don't want me cooking. But if I'm submitting a cooking show and actually my whole show is cooking. Am I saying, hey here's one episode from my cooking show that I want this judge to listen to? Yes. So then the other side is if my show is travel but I happen to have this cooking travel episode I can submit that one episode to best cooking category and it's not competing against the whole cooking show. Does that make sense? — I think I'm following. — Cuz the biggest thing is like if if I look at big shows Yes. They're not necessarily a travel show, but they might cover a episode on travel. And it feels wrong that they're able to win the best travel show when it's only that one episode and they should actually just be like, no, you had the best travel episode, but your show is not the best travel show. Yeah. Uh — Do you delineate between the two or no? It's still they're judged against each other in the same category. They'll be judged, but also category fit is one of the things that our judges do look at. So I think that does help with cleaning up some of the kind of like let's call it human error of the entry process. Um but also if, you know, anyone here has a specific question about what category to enter to or how they think their work is being perceived. Um we have uh my colleague Lauren Atkins who's a incredible um incredibly versed in our categories and can help guide you um one-on-one with your category selection. Um and that's uh customer service at signalawards. com is the email address. Amazing. So, that goes to anyone else that may be having questions about what category should I be submitting or what should I be doing when you're looking at any awards that you're evaluating? Reach out to them. Ask the questions so you can have the best way of uh, of

### [40:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=2400s) Segment 9 (40:00 - 45:00)

submitting the right way. Um, going into this, someone asked the question, what categories typically get the fewest amount of entries? Cannot say. There you go. Um, another one, touching back on discoverability, what inspired you to introduce such separate categories like mental health and solopreneur? Um, yeah. Um, I ran an analysis of the shows being made today and against our categories to make sure that there was a home for effectively most kinds of great work that is being made today and that informed some of our new category selections for this year. Um, I do believe that the best way for an award to be judged is that apples-to-apples comparison and so if a, you know, we don't want to punt a true crime against a cooking show. Um, and so that's why we have such a range of categories available. Is that I think I'm answering the question. If you want to follow up, standing by. — Well, wait for uh, the answer of going like, did you answer that question correctly, right? Um, I mean, Rune Childhood's Pod, what categories typically get the fewest amount? She's like, I'm kidding. I actually think that's a great question because if we can understand what a what what's not getting nominated enough or what's not getting enough submission that could either be there's a missing alignment, there's a category that shouldn't be a category. Like you get start getting the data of understanding is this a niche that shouldn't that's too niched or whatever it may be. So, I think it was a great question, Rune Childhood. I didn't mean to shut you down. It's just not information Yeah. able to share. They just said I was kidding. I'm like, no, that's a great question. Whether you can answer or not, that's a great question. Yeah. Um, NJ Lee did not come back with us, I'm guessing you answered the question correctly. I would just also say, you know, you can visit again our winners page and look at the winners per category and get a sense of, you know, uh, obviously 2026 is a different year than 2025, but you can see kind of the range of people winning per category that way as an indicator. Yeah. Uh, he said you did a good job, so the answer was good. Um, [snorts] so I think we've touched on, I mean, we've talked at looking about the judging criteria for awards, uh, pricing for it, what you get the value of it. Is the award that you're submitting, what are they doing to promote? Now, if we think about new awards that are just starting, it's like, okay, that's not going to be as they're not going to have the massive email list like you that has been doing this for a while, but you can go and find out, hey, what are you doing to grow? promote this, not just the submission of awards, but actually once the awards are being held in the nomination, is it all on me as the podcaster and now I've just got to tell everyone, hey, look at this award, which let's be honest, everyone, you should be doing. You should be screaming, I won an award and telling everyone. We have a couple of podcasters that have won awards after, I think one lady won after, I think like her seventh episode that she had released. And I was shocked and like, your artwork wasn't optimized for Apple, wasn't a 3000 by 3000, but it sounded great. She won the award. — locked in on. Right, but like, but the whole thing is it wasn't perfect. And that was okay. She's like, it's not I don't have to be perfect to submit and and win. I didn't have to have a year under my belt to submit and win. She was like, this is a good show. I'm going to submit and I know there's things I can do to improve. If I win, I win. She won, great, and then she improved from there, but that gave her the the additional downloads, additional exposure that she never would have had she waited to get to whatever level she of perfection she needed to. Yeah, I think it's a great call out and, you know, again, just think if you imagine yourself sitting in the seat of a judge, yes, these are people who have many years of exposure and experience with listening

### [45:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=2700s) Segment 10 (45:00 - 50:00)

to audio. Um, but they're also people. And if you're listening to multiple things back-to-back, something that is standout and different, um, is going to make an impression, right? And um, if the show starts in with a great hook and it's compelling and it's has a great momentum and it's driving forward, like that will be judges will take notice of that. Um, if it's, you know, uh, really rigorously researched and it's bringing them new insights and they're getting inspired and it's hype. — You know, I think there's some just I want to like what am I trying to say? I guess I'm trying to peel back the curtain in like a Wizard of Oz kind of scenario here and just remember that these are um, people who love what they do, who love the medium of audio and storytelling and interviewing conversation. Um, it's not a very like obfuscated process. It's people who are deeply invested in this work listening to work that they know was made with a lot of care and consideration. Um, and that is our judging process, right? I think that is it goes to understanding different awards, what that judging process is and I think you laid out why yours is a cream of the crop, what you guys focus on, who you bring in, not only for the judging, but also uh, the kind of shows that are submitting for um, that opportunity. Yeah. And I'll just say, you know, if you're thinking about it now, you have until May 8th. Ask the questions, reach out to us. Um, you know, reach out to your community on LinkedIn. Um, hit us up directly. Early bird pricing runs until May 8th, so that's, you know, the best financial aid, best bang for your buck in terms of entering, um, and then we will have a final entry deadline of June 26th. There's your deadlines. Pay attention to deadlines, everyone. But I like what you actually called out here of reach out to your community. I think that is something that you could leverage if we think about a call to action that most of us are always asking. If you want engagement with your community and your listeners, your audience, you can always go, hey, I'm thinking of submitting to awards. A, does anyone know any awards I should submit to? That gives you access to more people thinking about awards that you may not know of, but also, hey, would you think this is award-worthy? Is this what should I do better? Like you could use awards as a way to ask for feedback and going, I'm submitting this to some place who if you were to judge this, what would what feedback would you give, you know? Leave me a review and there's so many different now ways that you can leverage the award season, award submission for helping you gain feedback that we all, if we started if we look at how we started this conversation, we're talking to avoid. How do we get feedback? Well, the awards helps us understand that someone judged us and they found us a value and the work that we did compared to our peers, but asking our listeners, our audience for that feedback is going to be key. That just came to mind when you were talking about community. We forget about that a lot. Absolutely. Um, I'm actually um, been producing a podcast myself over the last few weeks. It's a five-episode limited run series called The Signal Room and it's uh, my pitch to you all is that it's a very not evergreen show about exactly this moment in the industry and the challenges and the new technology um, and you know, what creators are up against and I'm thinking about this now because our last episode is about exactly that, about building a fan community and a shared language with them and investing yourself into your listeners and then also the toll that can take on the individual as a creator, the learnings, um, the kind of two-way street of community building. So, we'll be releasing that episode in a couple of weeks. We just released one today about clips Um, basically like short form video excerpts of your show and are clips you know cannibalizing your long form listening audience or are they bringing new listeners into your funnel so that episode just dropped this morning it's really fun we made a clip at the time in the episode where we just said like

### [50:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuQ2VOaWc60&t=3000s) Segment 11 (50:00 - 54:00)

sensational things to make a social friendly version of the episode So we were getting you know Goofy and trying things on for size and experimenting even within the context of recording this episode which I loved. And there you go experimentation one of the categories right or one of the criteria like are you experimenting does it sound different so do that um We got a good question here Summoning up check the signal awards and don't see where the show would fit in so as you already said Pamela reach out to the team there and see if there's guidance but it's also worth noting Paying attention does your show fit into if you don't see an award having the category that fits what your show would be one reach out What it is events from a biblical and prophetic perspective So do you have a religion and spirituality category? Just calling that out under genre If you scroll down to our religion and spirituality So maybe that fits for you Pamela but it's also worth noting It may be the award The awards that you're looking to submit to like maybe signal doesn't have the category as you said you're evaluating every year so think about what your show is but also reach out to the team going I would love to submit where do I fit in do I stand a chance based on what my show is and what its categories are meant to be because the person that's putting on the awards would understand kind of what they're looking for but some of it is subjective based on what the judges going to be looking for right? Absolutely and that kind of feedback is also just helpful to us like sometimes we get a chorus of emails around a category that doesn't exist yet and it absolutely influences our next year Of category development I think that is a good piece to remind reach out to everyone find the awards have questions but reach out because if you're not asking the questions you're making decisions without In this case Gemma's team knowing what your decision is to either submit or not submit why you're submitting That's feedback that every award Company every award section that's putting something on would love to know so they can improve so they can refine their process for the next year or ensure you're getting what you need Mhm Was there anything else that we haven't covered anyone that's still watching this live anything that you want to cover that we haven't covered yet? Oh I'm just so grateful to this um Speak with you all I cannot see your comments but feel welcome to hit me up on LinkedIn I try to keep myself and my team as accessible as possible throughout this process and I really hope to see your work this year again our early entry deadline is May 8th Um and yeah I would just encourage folks to Take the risk and also to make that investment in themselves and their team and in their work I think it's a very worthwhile one so thank you Greg Thank you so much for joining me thanks for shedding light on awards being a judge seeing these awards that come up it is really interesting and now that I have a show of my own maybe I'll have to be submitting it but it's I appreciate everyone that watched anyone that watches this on a replay you know where to find us RSS. com the hosting place for your podcast that hopefully becomes the award winner the signal awards or any awards that are out there Beautiful Well until next time thank you so much Take care everyone — Gemma's been asked to repeat the name of her podcast Oh it's called the signal room Yeah it's available on Spotify Apple and YouTube There you go All right everyone One more listener I'm just kidding

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*Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/46292*