The Most Important Thing to Think About When Making a Podcast (hint: it's not the microphone).
It’s autumn, I’ve got my favorite sweater and boots on, the leaves are falling (I assume - I’m in Los Angeles) and it feels like the right time to get back to basics. Specifically, to my core podcast principle, the foundation of all my own productions and client work. In this article I share this principle, and why we should drop the ideas that distract from it – just like those hypothetical fall leaves.
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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with clients who wants to start a podcast that go like this:
Me: Congrats on starting a podcast! Tell me about it.
Them: It’s a show about wellness. I’m going to record it on a <microphone> using <program>, then I’m going to edit it in <software>, and I think I’m going to use <hosting service a> but I’ve also heard good things about <hosting service b>. I’m going to launch it next month and I’ve already made a TikTok account for it.
Me: Great. What’s the content of the show like?
Them: …It’s about wellness.
Me: Sure, but what’s your specific point of view? What do you want to say that’s missing from the conversation and how are you going to say it? What’s the format? Will there be multiple hosts, guests or recurring segments? Have you come up with any episode topics? What’s it going to sound like? Are you going to use music, clips, effects…?
Them: …I think I want to interview people?
Me: Nice! What kinds of people do you want to interview?
Them: …wellness people?
Me: ……
Them: I guess I haven’t really thought that much about the *show* part yet.
See what I’m getting at?
It’s easy for podcasters go straight to what we know we don’t know – which is almost always the technical and promotional aspects of podcasting. We hear the terms “digital audio workstation” or “RSS feed” and PANIC. So we pour most of our time, energy and care into figuring out the tech, and not nearly enough into what is actually most important – developing a great show.
When I refer to a podcast’s “content,” what I really mean its voice, its story, its point of view, and how it leverages audio magic to communicate those things. No one makes a podcast because they can’t wait to get a hosting platform, they make it because they have something to say. In other words, the show is where your WHY lives.
I’m not saying that the tech side isn’t crucial, it is! But here’s the thing: you’re going to buy a microphone once, you’re going to list your show on Apple podcasts once, but you are going to make your episodes over and over again.
The most important thing to think about when starting or making a podcast is the podcast itself. Clear choices for its storytelling, structure, and sound will make your podcast more compelling, better able reach and retain listeners, easier to promote and produce, and just way more fun to make – no matter which microphone you buy! Plus, it’ll make your show the one thing it needs to be to succeed: sustainable.
Unfortunately, the larger podcast landscape falls misses this point. A Google search of “how to make a podcast” brings up endless videos and listicles telling you what microphone to buy – not how to make a good show. Workshops and resources for active podcasters are almost exclusively about how to get more downloads through social media, promo swaps, or on-platform featuring – not ways to improve your show so more people will want to listen to it. Despite how critical this point is, I’ve spent days at some of the largest podcasting conferences in the world without seeing a single speaker or session addressing actual show content. Not one!
Don’t be this guy.
This self-defeating blind spot blows my mind. A potential listener is much more likely to spend their limited “ear time” on a well-thought-out podcast with a focused topic, distinctive sound, exciting point of view and clear format, than a sloppy show taped on a $3,000 microphone that has tons of Instagram followers, but is inconsistent and boring.
We all work hard to grow and retain our audiences, but “getting it out there” is only a part of effective marketing. Imagine if you spent ALL that time and money on promotion, snagged a new listener (yay!), they listen to your show and say “…Meh.” They don’t come back. They don’t subscribe. They don’t share it or tell their friends about it. What a waste! What a BUMMER!
Don’t let shopping for a microphone distract you from knowing what to say and how to say it when you get one. In other words, worry less about TECH and more about TALK.
Because you’re not just making a podcast, you’re making a podcast worth listening to.
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In my free PDF guide “Avoiding the Top 5 Podcasting Pitfalls” I talk in-depth about how to give your content the attention it deserves and what can happen if you don’t. (If you haven’t downloaded it, get it here!)
