I still feel like it’s the start of the year, I am back from hiatus and I’m coming off the Lunar New Year, I’m celebrating Chinese New Year in my family. In fact, it’s still going. Technically, it’s two weeks long. But my seasons follow with the lunar calendar, I’ve come to realize. Whenever January first rolls around, I never feel like it’s the start of the year because I’m still decompressing from the winter holidays, you know, travelling, seeing family, and there feels like so much pressure about starting the New Year on January 1st every single year. So even when I was young, I never liked that idea. However, with Chinese New Year in my family, it flows with the lunar calendar and so it never lands on the specific date of the Western calendar. And this year, Chinese New Year, the year of the Tiger landed on February first and it just felt right. My season was flowing with the calendar, and it feels like this is the right time of year to launch new projects and to get going for what I plan for the next twelve months or so. So it’s never too late to review your podcast is basically what I’m saying. Go with your own flow.
Looking ahead, though, for 2022, we will still see a lot of growth in the podcasting industry. With the pandemic still the overarching figure in our lives, oh my gosh, when will this end? You’re thinking. You know, 2021 was the year of dabbling and doing to figure out how to market in this new world. So this year, in 2022, we will still see many new shows come to life as people realize this is the new way to connect. I mean, yeah, I think people got it last year, but now it’s really solidified. And we’re all tired of being on Zoom or video chats and forced to be on an app or platform we don’t want to be on. So the beautiful thing about podcasting, is it really is about choice and accessibility, key things that make podcasting really the favourable choice for communication these days.
So if you haven’t started your podcast yet, this episode is for you. I’m sure you’ve been thinking about one for a long time now. Is this really the time? Can I really show up each and every week? Oh, the amount of work that goes into a podcast to make it successful because I also have a full-time job. Perhaps I’m a parent. I have a family life. There’s a lot to handle in this pandemic world. And then you add a podcast on top of that. So here are three quick tips for you since you plan on starting a podcast this year.
Tip #1 – Figure Out Who Your Audience Is
Number one, I hear this all the time. What microphone should I buy? Or they go out and buy the one that their friend recommends to them, and they start recording or start doing interviews. That’s great. I know people are action takers and they just want to get going, so they have the momentum of creating content. All well and good, but what are you going to do with this content? How is it going to get out there? You do need a plan.
The plan isn’t which microphone I should buy first. Figure out who your audience is. What do they want to hear? How can you best serve them? What are their challenges that they are going through right now that you can help with?
So even before you buy or plug in your microphone and hit that record button, remember, it’s not about the tech. It is about the connection, the human emotional connection you are going to have when you start your podcast.
Tip #2 – Find Your Community
The second tip is to be in community with others because podcasting can be a very isolating space. And that’s why a lot of podcasters would love to have a co-host. You don’t have to do it alone. You have someone to bounce ideas off of and you have this accountability partner built right in. But sometimes a co-host is hard to find, especially if you’re using the podcast as a marketing tool for your business. A lot of podcasters tend to do solo shows and interview style, so at least they have someone else to talk to. At least that’s what they’re thinking in their minds. Especially with solo shows, it can be very isolating. You create a podcast, you edit it, you put it out there. You create another episode, figure out who your guest is, record it, edit it, put it out there. On and on, the cycle goes, you do some marketing, you record another episode, you publish it and that can get tiring. Who is your cheerleader? Who will show up with you each and every time and is in your corner? To be in community with other podcasters is like having a built-in accountability partner.
That’s another good reason why a lot of podcasters hire editors. A good editor will not only take out the cough, the sneezes and put in your intros and outros, and take out the occasional uhms and uhs, a good editor will also empower you to continue to podcast and record those episodes. With an editor, you get to let go of the time-consuming task of editing, so you have that mindset and focus on your own content and what the next episode will be about. Hiring a good editor will also provide feedback to you, which will be invaluable when you are isolated and doing those solo shows.
As an editor, we are that outside ear that we’re hearing your show not only for editing but as a listener as well. So it’s not only about editing out the ums and uhs and plunking down those intros and outros I mentioned earlier, but it is about the nuance of editing. How do you want each episode to sound? Because it’s not just about editing for your entire podcast, just the general overarching sense, but each episode can bring on a different emotion and nuance that a really good editor will hear and edit for that particular piece. So when you are in community with other podcasters, you are not doing this alone. I’m not saying that you have to hire everyone for a team.
It’s also finding those groups and working with like-minded people. There are loads of groups that you can be in. There’s the Asian-American Podcasters Association, the Women of Color podcasters, and there are also editing-specific Facebook groups out there too for podcast editors, female podcast editors and so on. So you don’t have to podcast by yourself.
Tip #3 – Define Your Own Success
The last tip will be to plan, very similar to the very first tip. Like any good project, sure, you can dive in, plug in your mic, hit record. But with a plan, you have a better sense of what success will look like and you can achieve it. So like the first tip, we talked about figuring out who is your audience or your ideal listener, things I talk about all the time. Who is your ideal listener? But what about figuring out what actually success means to you? Very specifically for you. Having worked on plenty of shows with a range of download numbers, you know, people who are just starting this from scratch and don’t even have big social media following to thousands of downloads per episode for someone with an established brand.
So what does success mean to you? It will vary. It will never, ever be about the numbers because each show and each host is unique. When we talk download numbers, those are mainly just vanity numbers to boost your ego. We need to look beyond the numbers. Look to why you want to serve this particular ideal listener in the first place. What makes you keep going to show up each and every episode? Why do you hit that record button? Plan to have a vision to drive your show. This plan can be overarching a general plan and vision for your show, and it could also be episode to episode. And what I mean by that is you can have a vision for your entire show describing why you’re doing this and who you serve. But episode to episode, you can really think about your ideal listener and why. For example, if you have an interview-style show, why you picked this guest to be on your show. What is the plan, drive, and vision for this guest that your ideal listener is going to love?
So that’s it for the tips for the episode today. I would love to know, though, what is your vision for your podcast? And it’s kind of like tip number two. Do you have an accountability partner for you? I would love to be part of that. So tell me, what is your vision? What keeps you accountable and showing up each and every time behind the mic? I’d love to hear your stories, so let me know. Leave a voicemail with the purple “Send Voicemail” button to the right of your screen and I can be your accountability partner as well.
