Tips for Picking Your First Few Episodes
I’m working on the plan for the Wild Home Podcast which is coming soon and was thinking about the first few episodes and totally hit a mental block. Guess what? This is totally normal!
So I sat down and started thinking through the mission of my podcast, what and why I want to share and why I want people to listen. This was a great starting point for me and actually led me to changing the entire format!
Launching a podcast is hard work. We focus on the intro, music, rss feed and then we get to which content does my audience want to hear first. This can seem like a no brainer, but often times can trip us up. We want to start off strong, but give our listeners something to look forward to, so how do we do it?
I have a few tips and questions that have really helped me in this part of the planning process:
Have a trailer or welcome episode (or both!) that gives your listeners an introduction to the podcast and you. What is going to be talked about on this podcast? What is your experience and background? Why did you start this podcast? By answering these questions, you build the trust factor with your new audience.
*Pro Tip: picking out music and recording your trailer or intro can be incredibly inspiring. It’s like it sets off the motion of recording and finding inspiration. Always start there.
Think about why your audience is here. Are they trying to solve a problem or get inspiration? How can you help them? Think about what is really important and timely to them right now and have an episode related to that right off the bat. For example, if you have a podcast about marketing and there is a new philosophy that is gaining a lot of attention on social media, talk about your opinions on an episode near the top!
Invite an exciting guest on to the podcast. Ask someone who your listeners (and you) really really want to hear from on a related topic. One caveat here, don’t expect downloads just because you have a celebrity. Never come at this from a place of gaining numbers but from a place to add value.
What makes sense for you as you move forward in content creation. Are you telling a story over a few episodes or have topics that will lead into others? Map out 10-20 episodes and see how they all fit together as a big picture. This will help you make decisions about content timing moving forward.
*Pro Tip: use something like Trello or a spreadsheet to schedule your episodes so you can see them all together. I like to use the calendar view in Trello and move things around. It’s so fun!
My last piece of encouragement is to not be afraid to share something you are passionate and excited about, even if you aren’t sure of timing. That passion and enthusiasm will show and draw people back to listen to more episodes.
Happy content creating!
