How to Pick Your Podcast Publishing Schedule

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How many episodes should you publish in a single month? today? I'm gonna help you answer that question. Welcome to your podcast consultant, small lessons with big value. Now, he wants to work with you. He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson. I decided to launch another podcast. And if you're new to the show, I launched many podcasts, to test new technology to try out a new media host things of this nature. And so I have a number of podcasts already. And so in this case, I knew the episodes were going to be short. Now, you might ask, Well, how short can your podcast be? And back in probably around 2009, I used to listen to a podcast. Now here's the fun thing. I can't remember the name of the podcast, I remember the host name, because it was the same name as the lead guitar player of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page. And at the end, he'd say this show was brought to you by the Federation of Christian Athletes. And every day, they will drop an episode. And I actually just looked it up. The show was called Fit live today. And the one episode I just found is a minute and a half, actually, it's one minute, 24 seconds. But their job was to get me to remember the Federation of Christian Athletes. And it obviously worked. I didn't remember the name of the show. But I remember the name of the brand. And sometimes, if that's the goal of your show, which always goes back to who is this for? And why are you doing it. So if the why is I want to keep my brand in front of people's names, so that when they go to buy a product like mine, they go, oh, let's buy their product. So that's a reason to do short shows multiple times a week. Now, if your show is designed, your why is I want to flex my muscles and position myself as an expert, then maybe you do a 20 minute, weekly show where you can do a deep dive to really show people how much you know about your subject and how you can save them time and money. And I just threw out 20 minutes there. As always make your episodes as long as they need to be. And not a minute more. How long should my podcast be? I don't know, how long can you hold their attention. So I started to do this new podcast. It's called the podcast trailer show where I bring a couple trailers or some people call them promos to you. And the goal is to help you find your next favorite podcast, your next favorite guest or your next favorite collaborator. And what it's doing, it's giving me another chance to say School of podcasting in front of other people who may not have heard about me. And these people already have a podcast. So they're not looking to launch a podcast. But they're looking to grow their podcast, which is similar to the show, this show. And this is a number I picked is nine minutes or less. And when we come back from this quick break, I'm going to explain to you why did I pick nine minutes.

WHY NINE MINUTES?

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So why did I pick nine minutes? Because I was watching Jimmy Fallon one night, and from the minute that show started to the minute they went to their first commercial it was, you guessed it, nine minutes. And as someone who's done a lot of public speaking, it's actually harder to do a shorter show, because you have to figure out what you really want to say what is really important to the topic. And the topic today is how do you pick your schedule? So I mentioned I'm launching this new show called the podcast trailer show, I thought it was going to be a daily show because I'm using this tool called adrie.io. And it's super simple to go and say, Look, I'm looking for this kind of podcast, and only show me those that have a trailer. Well, it turns out that while they do definitely make it easier, it's still not quite easy.

TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT

So all of a sudden, I actually recorded an episode. And as I did this, I grabbed my phone, started a stopwatch and off we went and when the episode was over the episode, I thought it was going to take somewhere between five to 10 minutes was taking closer 10 to 20. And I was like hmm, this is going to be a daily show. Do I have 20 minutes every day to do a new podcast? And the answer was no, no, I do not. And so then I had to look at myself in the mirror and say okay, how many times a week or a month? Do I have 20 minutes to create an episode? And I thought about it long and hard. And I came up with Monday, Wednesday and Friday that I recorded it A few more episodes to make sure that I was right, it's going to take around 10 to 20 minutes. Now it's getting closer to 10 than 20. I'm learning things as I go along. But by coming up with a schedule that fits into your life, now you can be consistent. So many people talk about consistency. And it is important because when you have a consistent schedule, people can count on you, you know, you're going to find me on the first of the month, and the 15th of the month, then they trust you, and you become part of their routine. When I talk about consistency, yes, consistency and schedule is important. But more important is consistency in quality. And that's where you have to know how long is it going to take to create a quality episode that I can do on a consistent basis. And that's how you then pick your schedule. This might be a quick, five-minute show daily, it might be a longer 20-minute, 30-minute, 40-minute show, weekly to show your expertise. It might be twice a month like this show, it might be once a month, and somebody might say wait, is once a month enough? To which I asked how many podcasts are you doing now? How many episodes and they go? None, then one episode is better than none. And at the end of the year, you'll have 12 episodes for your audience to listen to. So my advice this week is when it comes to picking your schedule. Don't pick your schedule, and then try to get your life to fit into it. record some episodes because realize those first couple of episodes, you might actually throw them away. Because you're still getting confident behind the mic. You're still learning tips and tricks and things of that nature. Record a few episodes, time yourself and then pick your schedule. This will help eliminate burnout. So many people start a podcast and they quit before 10 episodes. Why? Because they created an expectation that is completely on realistic so you can avoid that crash and burn by starting a stopwatch when you go to kind of practice. Record your first few episodes, you're not going to be guessing how long it takes to create an episode you're going to know, and that way you can pick a schedule and stick to it. Now if something happens because there is this thing called life and you need to change your schedule. That's okay just communicate with your audience. Your audience wants you to win. So just communicate why things are changing, and they will stick with you because they love your content. If you need help with your podcast, I would love to help you go out to podcast consulting.com And you can schedule a coaching time with me today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai