Pause, Plan, Publish: A Podcaster’s Blueprint for Slowing Down – Episode 108

[MUSIC IN – GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS]

MARY: When you are in the middle of a project or, okay, sometimes at the end of one, how often do you realize, well, that took a lot longer than I thought. Case in point, making this episode. [LAUGHTER] what I first started out as, Oh, yeah, it’ll be easy. I already have most of the notes in my Trello board. I’ve mapped out a few talking points already. Shouldn’t take me very long. Well, you start mapping out more things, organizing your thoughts, and even before you hit record, I went and had a couple breaks, got some tea, relaxed a bit, stretched my arms and diving into this recording finally, where has the day gone?
So I started thinking about all the pieces I need, not to mention, you know, I gotta edit this after. And then there’s the writing of the show notes, figuring out the titles. Well, that’s not me. I’m gonna thank Shannon Kirk, who does that for me and does all the writing work. And then there’s scheduling, the graphic, the audiogram. Again, that’s not all me, Kristalee, I want to thank for that. And then finally, like, I also have to do more scheduling, right? Media hosting platform, the website, all of this stuff. There’s so much more. Thanking a guest when I have a guest on the episode. Geez, I’m just adding more to the list that it’s never ending. It always takes longer than you think, especially when you don’t have your own Shannon or Kristalee in your life. So that’s a lot of hours in your day and week.
So for this episode, I want to break down the notion about how much work it actually takes to produce an episode. A good sounding episode, that is, because we all know we can do things for fast or cheap, or actually both. But that doesn’t actually mean it’s going to be a good product if you do it fast and cheap, right? So we’re going to get into that today. This is episode number 108 of The Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice.

<< WOMAN SINGS: So so so so let’s go >>

MARY: Hello and welcome back for my year end break. I’m in the midst actually, of getting ready for Chinese New Year.

[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

It is February. 2026 is the year of the Fire Horse and I’m hosting for the very first time. So it’s kind of like my Christmas and I’m hosting all of that. So it’s going to be a busy one and lots of kids running around the house and stuff. So, I’m kind of in the frame of mind about predictions as well for the year, right? It’s the zodiac again, the animal, is the horse this year and specifically, the element is fire. 

And when you traditionally think of the Chinese New Year zodiac animals, or any other Lunar New Year zodiac animals, they usually revolve around careers, relationships, finances, you know, money, things like that, romance. But more specifically, I was wondering this time how the zodiac animals might translate into the world of podcasting. Because when everything takes longer than you think, people are still thinking about productivity hacks, right? Like, okay, this is going to take forever. What can I do and hack this and do it in half the amount of time? And how does that all relate back to the Chinese animal for the year, for the horse, right? Year of the horse, though I am not a Chinese fortune teller, that’s for sure. 

I do want to have a little bit of fun with this anyway, because like I said, this year’s element is fire, and I predict a lot of fieriness. There’s breakthroughs, innovation, big changes. And I see that happening in podcasting with all the AI stuff that is also happening, and specifically that generative AI, it’s just growing tremendously. If you want to go back to last year’s episode with Amanda Cupido, we talk a lot about this AI innovation that I really think will just be part of those breakthroughs for this year. 

We’re going to have more AI-generated content as well in the podcasting space. So hopefully not more YouTube slop is what we’re seeing right now, but making sure that, oh, you know what, if we’re going to be using AI, how can we make sure that it’s actually usable AI and looks good, and sounds good, and actually tell people if you’re using AI in terms of, like, voice clones, you might not even know that you are listening to a podcast that wasn’t generated by a human, that it is actually an AI voice. How do you know that? Honestly, transparency here. I am always recording my podcast with my own voice, but it’s a thing right now. AI-created audio podcasts which uses a generated voice or a voice clone of the host. 

So I would suggest if you do go through that AI route in your show notes and in your audio, you need to tell people that. You don’t have to have a standard line, like, maybe you can even mention, like, how or why you decided to use an AI-generated voice in your show. So, for example, you know, this episode was created by using a clone of my voice. FYI. Side note, no, I did not. Or to the host’s voice. Because I love testing out new technology and wanted to experiment with this episode. So that’s an example line that you can use. So it doesn’t even have to just have like the standard, this is generated by AI, little transparency line that you throw in there. 

And I mention this only because too that I don’t think a lot of people do know that even in Apple podcasts for creators, their content and subscription guidelines do say in 1.1 for artificial intelligence AI transparency, it states that, quote, “creators using AI to generate a material portion of the podcast’s audio must prominently disclose this in the audio and metadata for each episode and or show”. So it doesn’t tell you how to do it specifically like what words, but you do have to disclose, alright, that was just an AI soapbox. Let’s get back to Chinese New Year, horses. 

[MUSIC IN]

Year of the Horse, also known for making quick moves out of the gate, quick action that might make you resist to slow down and think. So I was talking about how these breakthroughs, these quick fiery actions can really impact what you were doing as a podcaster. What ultimately happens when you make a quick decision for your podcast and why will that decision be ultimately helpful or hinder you, especially in the long run, right? It’s not just about, okay, let’s just do this because everybody else is. And when I say that I think a lot about video podcasts, it’s the big thing. So everybody’s making a video podcast. That’s what I need to do to grow my show. But I’m just going to use zoom and then we’ll just post our conversations on YouTube. Well, did that quick fiery action actually help with your show? Did it actually help? Will it? 

Because A, the visual aspect isn’t going to be great if it’s just a Zoom conversation. Only highly produced shows on YouTube usually do well. Secondly, did you even think about your visuals, right? The visual, the highly produced part of the show on a, uh, video podcast. And B, do you even have the money, funds, budget to create this in a way that is actually impactful for your show, right? So, these quick moves that the horses make out of the gate, we really want to think about that. You want to slow it down and go against the grain. So with that, let me circle back to the topic at hand. The need to slow down and realize how a lot of our work actually takes up more, more time than we all think. 

[MUSIC ENDS]

So back in November of last year, 2025, I was reading from the Culture Study newsletter and if you do not know that show, you really need to sign up for Culture Study, it’s a great podcast and also a newsletter. So this one was called, What Takes Longer Than Most People Think. And of course I immediately thought of podcasting. Yes, it is a very low barrier of entry. Everybody can start a podcast. In fact, you, if you’ve got a device with a microphone these days, you can generate AI audio too. As I was talking about earlier, anyone can create a podcast. So what’s really stopping you from starting one, right? Everyone can have one. You can even create one for your dog and your dog can just bark and it is a podcast. Sadly, that can happen. I actually never looked that up, but I bet someone’s got one out there. Let me know if that is true. [LAUGHTER]

Like I said at the beginning of the show, you can make a quick episode and you can make it cheap too. And if you do both, how good will it be? Is that dog barking podcast any good? Don’t get me wrong though. Short episodes, like actual limited time, like a five minute show, can be good. Like, if you’ve done this with intention, then yes, a short episode. But I’m talking about like, a quick episode, as in quickly produced. So let’s break this down to what it actually takes to create a podcast. No matter what the length is, be it 5 minutes, 65 minutes. Creating a podcast probably takes a lot longer than you think. 

[MUSIC IN]

A lot of the time podcasting happens in the background. You have a show, so you’re probably always thinking about topics you want to talk about for the show. An idea might pop up in a random conversation you’re having or you’ve got something like me, I’ve got a Trello board, so I always have cards as episode topics that I’ve got on hand that I can quickly look through and decide which episode that I want to record next and just organize things that way. So very rarely people track this sort of time, the pre-planning stages. And I remember very early on, I did track this in my business because I was really actually curious about how long it took me to do something because I was recovering from a traumatic brain injury. And so in my mind I felt like I was doing, doing all my usual tasks a lot slower. 

But I really wanted to know, was I, how much time was I actually doing work versus taking the needed breaks that I had to take from like the visual and eye strain that I was getting, the headaches I couldn’t stand and sit very well. So like, I was taking a lot of breaks during the day and not actually doing actual work work, you know what I mean? And when I started timing everything, this is where I realized, it took me about two to three times longer than the actual raw audio recording when I edit something. 

So for example, if I recorded an episode and it was about 30 minutes in length, I sit down to edit it, it’ll take me two to three times longer than that length. So that 30 minute episode would actually take me an hour to one and a half hours of solid work, not including those breaks because I was working on this all day. It did take a lot longer than I thought because it was a full work day working on that one episode, right? 

So it will actually take time to plan and to make these things happen, not including breaks. And for some people that’s really fast. So how long does it take for you to edit a 30 minute episode? And of course there’s so many variables like how much editing you’re actually doing, if you’re looking at content, if you’re just cleaning things up nicely. Like there’s a lot of different levels of editing. So this was just standard amount of editing that I would do for my podcast episodes and my clients and stuff like that. So there’s a fair bit of editing, but not like talking about like a full content, music, sound effects sort of deal. 

[MUSIC ENDS]

Another example, actually, I was chatting with a former podcaster who worked for a non profit and we were working on their show and he was saying to me that it probably took him a minimum of 8 hours from start to finish for his part alone and I only did the editing for him. So he’s talking about like, all the pre-planning, getting guests, research of the guests, and then after I edit it, he reviews, he makes notes, he reviews again after we do some adjustments. And then he also does all the scheduling and the graphics and all of that. 

So he’s saying at minimum eight to nine hours, eight to nine hours for one episode. And this was like a 30 minute interview episode and they probably recorded for like 45 minutes or so. So that’s eight hours of work from research to publish. And actually he was saying because they were a nonprofit, they had very specific goals for each episode. So there was a lot of planning and execution that had to happen to make these episodes happen. So maybe you might say that there’s more time put into it because maybe a nonprofit has very specific ideal listener that they need to have a, return on investment. 

So there’s lots of planning and execution, yada, yada yada. But you know what, essentially all podcasters still have to go through the same thing if you are not going to research and book a guest. You still have to research and plan out what you’re going to be talking about. Or you still have to have the life experience to then share stories and be able to create a podcast episode. Your episode doesn’t have to be 30 minutes, they can be five minutes, but they still take time to map out what it is you’re actually going to say. And that is the pre-planning part. 

So some people say, you know, having a solo episode actually is a lot more work because all the content is coming from you. But then there’s more pre-planning when it comes to having a guest because not only do you have to figure out who the guest is, maybe it’s the other way around. What answers do you want to provide to your ideal listener? So that you have to find what that challenge or theme is to take on for a particular episode and then bring a special guest on and find that guest to answer that question. 

So you either have someone already pop into your mind, you’re like, I’m just going to reach out to them, or you have to sit down and find out who so that you can contact and get a hold of that person. There are some more time emails there too. So do you already have their contact info? Do you have to get it from someone else? Then when you finally contact them, do you want to have an initial first meeting? You know, that way you can go over what your outcome for the episode is, what you want to talk about, how you think they can best support, things like that, or maybe you want to workshop some ideas first. 

Or maybe you skip all of that and you go straight to the interview, you book that, that’s done. Either way still takes time. From here you may want to brainstorm some foundational questions. Now I’ve mentioned before how to do interviews as a host where actually the best questions are the follow up questions and not those foundational questions. But you still have to know your subject, have a very good curiosity behind you to make some of those follow up questions really hit home. 

[MUSIC IN]

All right, I’ve rattled off a lot of questions and a lot of ideas here. And it just illustrates to you there are variations in different ways to create an episode, but all of this is still happening before you’ve even hit record or published that episode. And like I said, you don’t have to do all those steps. That’s a lot of stuff. And a lot of people don’t have all that time. Like if we go back to that non profit client, they batched a lot of the work, and they did it ahead of time. And sometimes that’s all they did during the week, was to work on the podcast. And I’m sure that if their boss found out how much actual work they were pulling in for this salaried position and not doing a lot of the other stuff for their work, they probably wouldn’t have created a podcast in the first place. 

But also, that’s why they had a limited run. There was only a few episodes that they were going to support and reuse over and over and over again. So there’s different ways of using your podcast as well. But know that depending on what you want to use your podcast for will also depend how much work you’re going to be putting into it. 

And that’s where I would like to come in. You know, this is where I’m reminding you to slow down. There’s all these questions I’m asking you, and it’s because I want you to be intentional and purposeful with your podcast. It’s easy to create episode after episode after episode, but if you don’t slow down and really set this up with intention and make choices that actually meet the needs of what your goals are, eventually you’re gonna stop podcasting. Eventually, you’re gonna be like, well, what was the point of this, right? What was my return on investment? Why did you want to make the podcast in the first place? 

So, for example, you might be a Swiftie, you might love Taylor Swift, but if you decide to pick a piece of music that sounds like her songs, it might not reflect your ideal listener. And if you haven’t sat down to realize who your ideal listener is, then who are you really creating your podcast for? You’re not creating it for yourself. I mean, yes, you can be creating it for yourself as a passion project, sure. But in the end, most people are creating a podcast to serve a listener. The end goal is to have someone to listen to it, right? It doesn’t have to be hundreds and thousands of downloads and people, but for someone to listen to it. 

So what do you want that person to know or feel? Do they even like Taylor Swift-type music? You know, maybe also a bit little. The words of Taylor Swift that you love, not the actual beat and the feeling of the music itself. So, you really do have to slow it down, stop making those quick actions and really think about what is going to be intentional and purposeful for your podcast. Because everything’s gonna take a lot longer than you think to make a decision. 

[MUSIC ENDS]

So, yeah, just because all the horses are coming out of the gate fiery and hot for the New Year doesn’t mean you have to be that way too. Okay? In our Western gaze of productivity and getting things done, when we set up for success and slow down and think about it and strategize before we go, go, go, we can make meaningful work that goes beyond download numbers. And especially if it is just your passion project. Not just, but if it is your passion project, even more so, you really want to have some intention behind it. And there’s a lot of time and resource that comes with anything. And we want to make your podcast purposeful. So creating a podcast is no different. 

[MUSIC IN]

So what part of podcasting has surprised you? Which part actually took longer than you think? I know editing was actually my first surprise. And here I am coming from a whole radio career made up of editing audio that I had never actually tackled tracking my time before until I started this business. So that’s my lesson learned, that I set myself up to slow down and review when it is needed. For example, this episode, however long it’s going to be edited out to be. I have been recording for a good 26, almost 27 minutes, and I know this episode is not going to be that long because I stumbled a few times or stopped and thought about something and then restarted it. So, I knew it was gonna take a lot longer. Take me a little longer than I would like. But again, everything takes longer than I think. [LAUGHTER]

So let me know, what takes longer than you think? What part of that podcasting process was like, man, this is taking a lot longer. Or maybe what does the Year of the Horse conjure up for you for this? Or what’s fiery and what’s a quick action that you’ve been thinking that you need or quote unquote should take? You can always leave me a voice note. Go to my website, VisibleVoicePodcast.com. There’s a send voicemail button on your screen there. Or email is always lovely, too, VisibleVoicePodcast@gmail.com. 

So with that, I’m off to clean my house before the New Year. Yeah, not because guests are coming, but because it’s the Chinese tradition of you’re never supposed to clean your house during New Year, otherwise you’ll clean all the luck away from your house. So you’re actually not supposed to do any house stuff during New Year, and New Year is 16 days, so I’m kind of liking that. I usually only stick to these traditions on, like, the first two to three days, maybe. Anyway, traditions are meant to be broken but yes, I am going to go clean my house. 

This year will include cleaning my studio and my podcasting space too, because it is part of my house. So maybe that’s not such a bad thing. And maybe it’s a good reminder for you as well to, hey, maybe check up on your podcasting gear. Dust around your desk that you’ve got there too, and around your microphone. 

[MUSIC ENDS]

Hey, on the next episode, we are talking more about accessibility and podcasting and more specifically how transcripts, if any of this actually is useful from an accessibility standpoint, or if it’s all done, we’re all doing these transcripts because podcast players like Apple wants more SEO in their audio. I’m going to be talking with Jess Schmidt, podcast producer, consultant and instructor based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Woohoo, Canadians. When she told me she had a background with closed captioning and how that translates into her world of podcasting today, I knew I had to have her on the podcast. So we’re going to be talking captions, transcripts, and whether the job of accessibility is off the plate for creators now that Apple and Spotify makes AI transcripts for podcasts. Spoiler alert. She doesn’t think so. That’s next time on the show, so we’ll talk to you then.

[OUTRO MUSIC IN – SHOW CLOSE]

<< GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS >>

MARY: Thank you so much for listening to the Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you shared it with a podcasting friend. And to reveal more voicing and podcasting tips, click on over to visiblevoicepodcast.com.

<< WOMAN SINGS: Let’s go >>

[MUSIC ENDS]