5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Podcast
This month is filled with lots of podcast teaching - I will be working with the young ladies at Mercy Academy, then off to Washington DC to present at the Plaid St. Blogging Conference. Finally, I’ll be kicking off my third round of podcast classes with Level Up Louisville. Lots of learnin’ for everyone! What I am most excited about is launching my first online podcasting course. I have so many friends who aren’t in Louisville that have wanted to get started with their podcast, so I love that I can finally bring my in-person course to a platform that they can use. If you are interested in finding out details about my course when it launches, you can sign up for the waitlist here.
However, if you are wondering if a podcast would even be a good idea for you to start, I have five questions below that should help you clarify.
Can you commit to something long-term? I talk to some students that maybe have a few topics in mind that they would talk about, but aren’t sure what they would discuss beyond those first few episodes. You don’t want your listeners guessing when a new podcast will come out, you have to set up a routine, but set realistic expectations from the beginning to keep your listeners happy and to keep you from burning out.
Would the content be better delivered audibly or visually? A lot of lifestyle bloggers have gravitated towards YouTube, which makes complete sense. A Sephora order unboxing, a new home tour, or cooking a new recipe aren’t going to come across that well on their blog or a podcast, for that matter. It needs to be in a video format. Think about what content you would deliver and how it can best be showcased.
Are you okay with diving deep? An average podcast episode delivers the same amount of content that’s in 6.5 blog posts. So when I say diving deep, yeah, it’s deep. I have plenty of guests who make it easy to fill the 20-30 minute goal I have, but there are others you have to ask tough questions to get to the heart of the conversation. This makes some people uncomfortable, but for me - that’s what I love about podcasting.
Would this content complement what you are already doing? I like to think back to grade school when the teacher would write facts about past US Presidents on the board, but we would also practice saying the US Presidents chronologically as a group (yes, I can still recite this list!). They would have complimentary concepts that helped students learn in various ways. If you are blogging, maybe it makes sense to add a podcast to your portfolio, but if it doesn’t enhance what you are already doing, it could just be a waste of time. Some people have excellent and engaging Instagram Stories - in many cases, they probably don’t need a podcast. Work smarter, not harder!
Are you willing to get it right? This is the most important question of them all, if you aren’t willing to invest and get your podcast right from the beginning, I don’t think it’s worth doing at all. Really. There are so many people out there that think - oh, I have a laptop microphone, oh, I have editing software on my computer, oh I have a website. But please. This does not mean you can crank out a good podcast episode. Now don’t get me wrong, I spent one year researching all things podcasting, and then spent another year recording and editing my first season. Both of them took far too long and were not necessary to waste that kind of time. But I had a little too much imposter syndrome and perfectionism going on. Podcasting is relatively inexpensive to keep up, but I do encourage you to invest on the front end to get it right from the beginning. First impressions in the podcasting world are just as important as they are in the real world.
So what do you say? Is now the right time to make your podcasting dream come true?
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