3 Truths the 'Gurus' Won't Tell You About Podcasting

What the 'gurus' rarely tell you... Podcasting takes time, work & patience.

Yup. Podcasting tends to take more time, work and patience than initially expected! I am in a few groups around podcasting and observe a regular type of post being made. It is the typical post where a newish podcaster comes out of the closet, and states that actually having their podcast is great BUT.....

it is taking them far longer per episode than they ever expected

they are not getting the download figures yet that they expected

it is a lot more work than they ever expected

and... when should they expect a sponsorship deal....

Oh and this one.... it's a lot harder than that 'guru' said it was on their webinar . Yes, the webinar that got them all excited about the endless possibilities that having a podcast would bring. And now they are not so excited anymore, and feeling sad, frustrated and somewhat overwhelmed with the work and underwhelmed with their 'results'.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I don't like to be negative but YES, having a podcast IS a lot more work than people typically expect.

Let's Look At The TIME Podcasting Will Take

Per episode here are the typical tasks - how long do you allocate to complete each one?

Preparation:

If you have guests:

sourcing guests

scheduling guests

preparing guests

maintaining a pipeline of guests and keeping your show planner up-to-date

keeping your content items organised and secure

If you don't have guests:

preparing your notes / thoughts / content plans

keeping your show planner uptodate

keeping your content items organised and secure

Recording:

recording the episode

storing the recording

Audio Editing:

editing the recording to your personal preferences

adding in intro / outro

enhancing the sound

id tags

Releasing The Episode:

Releasing the audio file to your podcast host

Releasing the episode to Apple Podcasts & all the other destinations you want your podcast to be found.

Episode Content Creation:

Creating the optimised episode metadata such as title, description, keywords, tags,

Creating the optimised show outline, show notes, links

Creating the episode artwork - typically needed in different sizes / formats for optimal sharing across different social media sites

Creating the optimised episode blog post as the primary hub for your podcast

Episode Marketing & Sharing

Establishing a social media sharing schedule

Posting on relevant social media platforms about your new episode - multiple times

Creating audio snippets / audiograms / memes also for sharing on social media

Sending out an email newsletter to your list subscribers informing them of your new episode

Sending out an email to your guest informing them their episode has gone live and encouraging them to share

And finally, if you want to be a guest on other podcasts, that takes time to research, reach out, organise and record too.

Oh and let's not forget the time you will have to spend if you want to attract sponsorship and advertising revenue.

So... those are the typical tasks a podcast episode requires.

What time estimates did you allocate against each one?

What about the rest of your business - you already spend a lot of time on that, you spend time with your clients and your revenue generating products and services, so where does your podcast fit in with all of that?

PHEW - does that list surprise you now you have seen it written down? So yes, it's a lot of work.

That is work for you to do, or work you have to pay someone else to do.

There are plenty of skills involved in that work so you might have to find a team or a couple of people. What are your delegation and team management skills like?

Related: Podcasting: 7 Things To Perfect Before You Hit Record

If you want to Do-It-Yourself then do you have all those skills? Or how long is it going to take to learn them? And is that a wise use of your time.

Onto WORK.

So the list above is a lot of work. And it's time consuming and repetitive work, and being organised makes the whole process so much easier. So you also will benefit from some project planning time and tools - like Trello for example.

What about keeping up with podcasting trends, technology, tips and tricks?

Do you have the existing capacity to get this work done, or do you have the budget to pay to get it done. If the answer is NO and NO then really at this point in time a podcast really isn't a sensible option for you. Silence from the Gurus at this point, perhaps?

Lastly, PATIENCE.

Podcasting isn't instant riches. Podcasting isn't instant anything other than instant hard work! It does take patience to keep on creating your content and your episode and marketing it. It does take patience to steadily grow your podcast, just like it takes patience to achieve worthwhile results with any sort of content creation strategy, be it blogging, videos or a podcast. Many established podcasters will agree that it has taken them much longer than they first thought to gain momentum with their show and begin to achieve their goals and achieve success as they have defined it.

As I suggested in a previous post, you don't have to podcast for ever , but if you are planning on podcasting on a consistent and longer term basis then you must be prepared to be patient in growing your results, and be prepared to spend a lot of time or a lot of money to do that.