I was in Houston for the Spark Christian Podcast Conference where I was speaking. It was a great event for the first time out of the gate and I met some really cool people. My buddy Sunny from the IPN asked me if I wanted to go see Joel Osteen who runs the largest church in America and is also an author and someone I refer to as "Happy Jesus Man." Jole is incredibly successful (his church is the building where the Houston Rockets professional basketball team played. It's a stadium that holds 16,800 people).  I have listened to Joel on and off over the years. I went to feed my spiritually, but I was also there to observe and look for the clues of his success. You don't get this big without doing something right. Time Codes 01:08 Spark Christian Podcast Conference Review 02:38 What Podcasters Can Learn from Joel Osteen 30:52 How did you get over your self Doubt? 41:10 Free Webinar on Equipment 42:19 Have you surveyed your audience? Joel Started As A Geek Joel was the technical person in his church working with his father. He was the lighting tech and worked for his Dad. Joel Did Something Different There is a style of preaching in the church known as "Hellfire and brimstone." This is where you explain to your audience that if you don't accept Jesus you are going to Hell where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Instead of peaching about the horrors of Hell, Joel went to the bible and found all sorts of scriptures that point out how God wants you to prosper. Some have deemed this the prosperity Gospel, and because it's different than what people previously did, this has its critics. This has not swayed Joel from his message. He is covering the bible the way he wants to. He Makes it Easy for First Time Visitors Sunny and I had walked into what appeared to be a side door, and weren't exactly sure where to go. It was easy to identify who the staff was and we just walked up and said, "Hi this is our first time here." The worker knew exactly what to do and before I could blink I was given to a person who was giving me a tour of the building and explaining that there was a book store and if I wanted to buy anything Joel would sign it at the end of the night. He then escorted us to fourth-row center stage seats. I felt lucky. I felt special. The sanctuary was beautiful. They had cool lights in the ceiling and an amazing backdrop behind the band, and a choir made of people of every shape, size, and color. He Honored The Heritage of the Church and What They Believed in He played clips of his father who started the church and acknowledged those who came before him. Oh, I'm sorry this isn't for you... It's for the academy of podcasters. Let's move on. It Was a Well Oiled Machine There were no lags in the presentation. You didn't see the praise band ask, "He should we move on to the missing thing" and then someone says "Yeah, let's do the missing thing. Let's roll the mission intro." When the song was over, the mission people came out, the spoke about a conference that had just wrapped up. They introduced the video about how they were helping with Ebola in Africa and the video clip came on. Everyone knows what was next. They Through in a Curve Ball Their band did two praise songs (very upbeat - very easy to sing along) that engaged the audience. Then one of the soloists on the stage snuck into the audience at the end of the song. She then launched into an old Christian classic "Nothing but the blood" from the back of the auditorium so the people in the back now get the same view as those in the front. Most music performers pull this trick in concerts. They went back to singing more songs from the front of the stage. Pacing and Anticipation This is a great tip for those narrative style storytellers. They kept the service moving with the music, but about five songs into their performance their backdrop which looked like the galaxy with millions of stars started to reveal the word JESUS in big bright letters as the band hit a crescendo