Imagine five years from now:
Your podcast is “Joe Rogan successful.” It’s on everyone’s mind, and newscasters reference it when telling their stories.
While being interviewed, you’re asked, “What was the tipping point? What made your podcast become a hit?”
– Perhaps someone influential stumbled upon it.
– Perhaps you were a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and the exposure tipped the scales.
– Perhaps you got to interview someone no one else has.
– Perhaps you marketed your podcast for syndication, and it worked.
– Or, perhaps thousands of people found your individual episodes while searching online.
Do you ever think through things like that during strategy sessions with yourself and/or your team? If you do, you know the problem—you can’t predict how your success will happen.
But you can do your best to make sure that every avenue to that success is a possibility. The only speedbump is time… having enough of it to address the avenues and get everything done as a one-person or small-team podcast.
You probably know that you could outsource your production needs, but do you know what that entails? What does a professional podcast production team actually do?
Bradley Denham’s RecordEditPodcast is a professional, full-service firm that does everything podcasters need done, and likely a few things they don’t even know they might need.
On your path to success, with limited time, which of the following services would be truly beneficial to have someone do for you?
Booking Guests
Booking guests is a critical task for an interview-based show. From a time standpoint, it involves finding the right people, getting their attention, gaining their interest, piquing their desire, and getting them to take action by agreeing to being a guest. After all that is done, it requires additional follow-up and reminders to make sure that guest actually shows up.
It may seem like a proprietary task—one only you can do, because of the unique way you go about choosing guests. But don’t let that stop you from outsourcing. You could easily provide a list of guests you’d like to have and the tone you’d like to present when reaching out to them.
Or, you could have a series of phone calls with your team wherein you share your knowledge and preferences.
If you’re truly ready to become a successful podcaster, your life will inevitably get busier, and like any company, you’ll need to trust in others to extend your mission. Encapsulating your secret sauce in this area could be a good first step to scaling.
Show Prep
The essence of any show is what the listener hears. Whether it’s an interview show, documentary, or topic conversation, the critical piece is the research completed. From there, the conclusions, questions, and insights gained differentiate an amazing show from “just another one.”
From his experience doing show prep, Bradley Denham believes “Most people don’t know why they are podcasting.” What most of his clients love about having a team handle show prep is that they aren’t susceptible to going down rabbit trails. Their team keeps in mind what the audience wants.
Monitoring Live Calls
A podcast can’t afford technical problems, delays, or recording issues. There just isn’t enough time or energy to schedule and reschedule calls, either.
But the angst that comes from worrying about problems doesn’t have to be there. Having to call a partner or guest with the news that you forgot to hit “record” doesn’t have to happen.
While it may be considered an insurance policy of sorts, sometimes having the confidence that all the bugs are taken care of means the difference between a relaxed and enjoyable conversation and one that carries a tinge of pre-occupation.
Editing Audio and Video
Editing is truly the art of audio, as exemplified by the NPR podcast—they do more than just remove the “ums” and “ahs.” They have the ability to create seamless conversations that are rich in tone and make the guests and hosts sound amazing.
Yes, it is possible to edit a show to make you and your guest come off as even better versions of yourselves. From a guest’s perspective, would you rather promote a show where you gave a good interview, or one that makes you and your interviewee sound amazing?
Show Notes
Seemingly the last thing podcasters focus on is setting up a website for their show and then putting as much energy into the show notes as they do the show itself. And for many, that is the difference between success and failure.
Show notes are a strategic and powerful aspect of the entire show. The headlines, calls-to-action, and searchability make the difference between a show that creates an audience and one that never does.
Well-produced show notes are much more than a transcription of the podcast episode, as well. They contain links and are fully edited and readable, while being designed for search engines to find their relevant content.
Perhaps the best use of outsourcing starts here. There’s a good chance that thousands of people are searching for the content in your shows… if only they could find you.
Distribution
It’s easy to upload your finished show to your podcast host and have it show up in iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher. It takes more effort, however, to also load your show up to YouTube, your website, and the social media platforms. Further, if your podcast isn’t on Reels, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, it surely can’t be found there.
Plus, according to Denham, “Clips are king.” Listening to the show and finding the 15-second segments to turn into sharable, bite-sized clips takes time and energy for sure.
The great part is, with a service like RecordEditPodcast, it doesn’t have to be yours.
Can you imagine what your success looks like five years from now when you’re not spending your time and energy on these types of tasks?
Would you rather find the time to do them well yourself, or maybe take a risk, gamble on yourself, and spend some money to make sure these things get done right?
Ask yourself, “Is this truly a hobby podcast that I only want 50 people a week to hear? Or have I got something special I’d love the world to know about?”
If your answer echoes the latter, consider outsourcing to make it happen.
February 2022 Issue
