146 | 12 Days of Podcast Growth Day #4: Your Podcast Format

This is Grow the Show, the podcast to help you grow your podcast. My name is Kevin Schmidt and I am your podcast growth coach and this is Lesson 4 of a 12-part audio series on how to grow and monetize your podcast that I'm calling the 12 days of podcast growth. Super creative, I know. Today we are focusing on a crucial element of your show, its format. Now your format is the structural backbone of your content and how you deliver on your podcast's listener mission. And your format is the third part of a clear and unique category of one podcast premise. So you've already determined who your audience is, you've already determined the listener mission of your show, now we need to decide what is the format and how is our show going to deliver on the listener mission. Now while there are truly endless possibilities for how you can creatively deliver podcast content and that's what's great about podcasting is that there are no rules you can get super creative, still most podcasts tend to boil down to three types of content. There's guest interviews where you bring in guests every single episode and every episode you interview that guest, share their insights and their stories and their knowledge. There's also discussion slash talk show podcasts. So that's where you have usually multiple co hosts and those co hosts have conversations that are centered around a sort of topic and then there are solo episodes. You are currently listening to a solo episode. This is where it's just one person talking the whole time, kind of like an audio book, so to speak. And so the big question is, okay, of those three buckets, which format is best? And the answer is none of them, they are all great. But the real question is, which format is right for you and your podcast? Only you can decide that, but you want to pick a format that is the ideal combination of three things. Number one, and most importantly, a format that serves the listener mission that you have set forth, that you have set out to deliver on. Number two, a format that you actually enjoy making, that's pretty important. And number three, a format that you will be able to sustain long term because this podcasting is a game of consistency and momentum. Above all else, when you are choosing your format, what I want you to do is avoid the default. You want to avoid defaulting to what everybody else who starts a new podcast does, which is weekly guest interviews. Oh no, Kevin, that's what I do. Have no fear. We're going to talk in through, don't panic. But why do I think you should avoid the default? Well, actually what I should say is that you should choose your format with intention. And so only choose weekly guest interviews if that is what truly makes the most sense for you. But here's why I say you should avoid just defaulting to the default without any intention. There's a few reasons. Number one, interviewing in and of itself is a pretty difficult skill. Everybody out there thinks they're a good interviewer. Oh yeah, I ask great questions. But most people by the laws of statistics are quite average. And podcast listeners do not fall in love with average podcasts. What's also true is that with a show that only features guests, that show really lives and dies by the caliber of the guests that you can land. So there's also another skill involved, which is pitching and getting in touch with incredible people and scheduling them, right? And average guest means an average podcast. And like I said, listeners do not fall in love with average podcasts. They only listen to the best. What's also true is that guest episodes are so much freaking work. You have to find to the guest, invite the guest, book the guest, rebook them when they cancel the morning of, research them, interview them, thank them for their time, edit the interview, take out the boring parts, write an intro and work really hard to convince your listeners to care about the person you're about to share with them. You got to hope that they deliver, that they are engaging, that they actually deliver value. And then of course, when the episode gets published, you have to beg them to spread the word and most really won't do that. There are other reasons why, but these are just a few reasons why I don't recommend just straight up defaulting to weekly hour long guest interviews. Now am I saying that you should never have guests on your podcast? Absolutely not. There are indeed fantastic perks to having guests on your show. Many guests are truly, truly excellent, they're awesome and your listeners will indeed love hearing and learning from them. Also when you have guests on your show, it's pretty much networking on steroids. You get access and you get to spend time with people you otherwise probably wouldn't. What's also true is if you're savvy with how you promote your episodes on social media, it can grow your audience and there's a hint for a topic that we're going to talk about later on in this course is that guests don't grow your audience by you begging them to post on social media, they grow your audience by you posting the right things on social media. What's also true is that some guests, you know, bigger named guests or at least guests that your audience might recognize, that does lend credibility to your show and what's cool is that you do get a snowball effect. Once you land a couple of big name guests, it makes it way easier to land other big name guests and so on and so forth. Those are the pros and cons of guest episodes and like I said before, it's not the end of the world if your show is only guest episodes, but I would also like you to consider the alternative solo episodes, which again is what you're listening to right now. Solo episodes are in my opinion and my experience, the most underutilized podcast format and here's why I love them so much. Number one and most importantly, they are so much faster to produce depending on how you do it. It is also a skill to record a solo episode efficiently and your first few aren't going to be that fast, but once you get rolling, once you get used to it, my goodness, it is so much more faster and efficient than putting out guest episodes. What's also true and what I've found is that guest episodes actually do perform better because they are more efficient in delivering value in being useful and in being entertaining. And that's because you don't have to do, you know, the interview dance to try and get someone else to deliver value to your listeners. Instead, you just simply share with them what they need to hear and they love it. And what's also true is that your listeners, they're there for you. They want to hear from you as the host. They love you. They want more of you and for you business owners out there, your solo episodes are also going to be the one that drives the most sales because they're the ones that actually nurture your leads. If you only have guests on your podcasts, that doesn't do so much for your business because people aren't hearing from you. They aren't learning about what you know. They aren't establishing no love like trust factor with you. They're doing that with their guests. And so they're going to buy from your guests, not you in my experience. As I've said, many of my listeners prefer my solo episodes to my guest episodes. And I find that to be true for a lot of the shows that I help as well. And as I said, these episodes, they take me about 30 to 60 minutes to make all in. So the big question is, okay, what about you? What should you choose? What format should you choose for your podcast? Well, I actually recommend both. I recommend a mix of host only and guest episodes. This approach offers a balanced diet of personal insight and external perspectives and that keeps your content rich. It keeps things fresh and it keeps your audience continually engaged. And you get the best of both worlds and you get to mitigate the cons of over relying on guests. Because another thing that I mentioned before is that when you, if you only ever have guests on your show, there will be times when you are pressed to publish a new episode and you might be tempted to publish an episode with a super average or non-engaging or sub-par guest or you might be out there just trying to find guests because we need content. That rarely makes a good podcast. And so if you're a podcaster who has already launched and you've only ever published solo episodes, I'd say give guest episodes a try. And if you're cranking out weekly guest episodes now and you're finding yourself on that hamster wheel, do yourself a favor and record some solos. Your mind is going to be blown at how much easier they are to create and how much your listeners love them. Okay, I know what you're thinking. Thanks Kevin. I now have a pretty good idea of my format options, but I have one more question. And I know what that is. How often should you publish? I get this one a lot and my go-to answer is this. Publish your podcast as often as you can handle and stay consistent with but aim for a minimum of once per week. I come across a lot of podcasters who ask me why their show isn't growing and they tell me that they only publish once a month. And to that, I say, hey, podcasting is a game of momentum and it's going to be really hard to build momentum if you're only giving new content to your audience once every month. And if that's you and you can only create 12 episodes of your podcast every year, then what I would recommend doing is go seasonal where over the course of the year, you make 12 episodes, but you publish them all weekly in a three month period. It's still harder to build momentum with a podcast that's only around for three months out of the year, but it's going to be easier to build momentum with that show than it is a show that only publishes once per month. Having said that, what I have found to be the sweet spot is twice per week. But I'll admit and I'll grant you that that is a lot. And if you're a solo podcaster, that might be tough. I myself used to do twice per week, but this year, at the time of this recording in 2023, I've only been able to manage weekly and my goal is to get back to twice per week in 2024, because that is when I have experienced the most show growth momentum was when I was publishing twice a week, eight times per month. Some of you overachievers out there will do daily. If that is you, Godspeed, that is impressive. You will not regret it. Your show will get more momentum, but that is certainly not a requirement. Okay, so let's bring all this together. You now have the three ingredients that make up a cat one premise. You've defined your audience. You've stated your listener mission in 10 words or less. Now you've chosen or maybe adjusted your podcast format. Congrats. You've officially made it through level one of the podcast success ladder. You have a clear, unique cat one premise. Tomorrow, we need to get started on level two, which is retention, because now that your show can attract listeners, because it's more clear who the show is for, what it will do for them, and how it will do it, now we need to learn how you can keep those listeners. And we'll get started on that tomorrow. I'll see you then. By the way, as I've said already, if you want to get the written versions of these lessons in your inbox every single day for the remainder of this 12 days of podcast growth, go to one, two days of podcast growth.com. That's 12 days of podcast growth.com and enter your email and I'll send each lesson in written form to your inbox every single day. And if you're getting value from this and you know any other podcasters that would as well share it with them, share the link via the podcast app you are using right now, or you can send them as well to 12 days of podcast growth.com. That's it for today. I'll see you tomorrow.