Starting Your Podcast Part 1: Your Format

The first episode of the first podcast we made debuted on March 13th, 2017. It was video and audio, both imperfect, neither precisely what we wanted them to be, but the journey to get us there made that first episode feel like a victory.

Purely relying on my (flawed) memory, I’d estimate that it was at least 4 months, maybe half a year, to get from our initial pitch to our boss to that first episode being released. A lot of that time was spent considering and reconsidering all the minor decisions we needed to make. Another good chunk of time went into writing a script that, ultimately, was so detailed that it made our jobs harder.

If you’re considering starting a podcast, I’d love to release you from some of that extra worry and help you move forward to making something awesome faster. Because with all the preparation we did before releasing a single recorded word, we learned even more by just doing the darn thing.

Now, having said all that, I also know that there are a lot of practical considerations to starting a podcast, and all of those decisions can paralyze you if you let them. Been there, done that.

So, my first bit of advice is to let your podcast grow and take shape in an iterative way.

Do something, see if it works, build on it, and make it even better. (Or, see that it doesn’t work and congratulate yourself for learning that and moving on.)

That means you really only need to know two things to start:

1. How you’ll make the first episode.
2. That it will change from there.

Ok, that’s an oversimplification, but I promise more detailed advice is on its way. To get you on the road to Episode #1 of your podcast, I’d encourage you to decide how you’ll handle four big things: Format, Production, Post-Production, and Distribution.

As a podcaster with a lot of experience releasing a show but somehow shockingly little technical training, you can do all those things with low, medium, and high effort or, maybe also accurately, hardly any money, some money, and a big investment. Or a mix of those.

The funny thing is, at least in my observation, the High-Effort, Big Investment shows are not a wildly different experience once you put in your earbuds. So, at least for now, the playing field feels pretty level for new creators with some passion and a great idea.

Now, here come the details. Let’s start thinking about your Format.

1. Low Effort

Some pretty successful podcasts are simply conversations between the hosts that can twist and turn like conversations in real life. In fact, these shows can be real life, just with someone recording what you say.  

If that’s your kind of thing, I wouldn’t go with zero preparation, but minimal prep will do.  

Start by creating whatever ground rules you and/or your co-hosts want to abide by. Will you not talk about politics and religion? Maybe only talk about politics and religion? Is explicit language ok? Are there any topics that are totally off the table? You can flex these rules as you learn what works and what doesn’t, but to grow a loyal audience, you have to find a sweet spot with some predictability.

Another thing to consider is whether there will be an overarching topic or theme, either in each episode or for the whole series. There are plenty of examples of shows with an overall theme (check out Conversations with People Who Hate Me for a good example) and some that go all over the place (like This American Life). If you haven’t already, listen and see what you like best.

You’ll also want to consider how long you want each episode to be. Shorter shows may mean fewer listeners drop off early, but they may be too short for what you’re trying to accomplish. With podcast listeners averaging between 7 and 10 hours A WEEK on their favorite podcast app, create something that appeals to your audience, and chances are they’ll stick around to hear it.

2. Medium Effort

You’ll make the same choices here but add a layer of structure that moves the show along and keeps you on track. For our current podcast, we choose a topic or guest together, and then one of us creates an outline with questions that keep the conversation flowing and distribute the airtime evenly. That outline doesn’t have everything we’ll say (not even close), but it does have enough prompts to cover the high-level areas we want to hit in each episode.  

That flexible outline leaves plenty of room for getting off-topic or going down a rabbit hole but offers enough structure to wrap things up in under an hour.

Some of our topics can be off-the-cuff, but if it’s a topic we need to prepare for, we each do some independent research and bring what we find to the show.

We generally don’t share this outline with our guests because we don’t want them to feel the pressure of keeping things on track or getting thrown off when we ask a question that’s not in the notes.

For another show that involves some prep but keeps it conversational, check out Smartless. 

3. High Effort

The additional effort here could include a lot of things that are generally more work to prepare but can lead to a much more focused and on-point show if that’s more like your creative vision.

You could write a full script for your show and have more of a newscast/magazine/documentary style. Another option is to prepare questions and discussion points and have the participants come with prepared notes or even create a radio play with no opportunity for deviation from the page.

In our experience, the more carefully scripted your show becomes, the more finely honed your presentation skills need to be to pull it off in a way that sounds natural, but it’s a good option when you want to hit precise talking points and not veer off from your message.

Ok, friends, that’s all a lot to think about, so let’s give you a break and come back next time for Part Two: Production.

About the Author: Suzanne Campbell is the Lead Creative & Brand Champion on the Exclamation Marketing team and the self-proclaimed evangelist for Brand Voice. She’s picked up a lot of smart ideas from a lot of amazing people in her nearly 25 years of experience, and you can frequently hear them on the Awsomology podcast.