Top Takeaways from Five Years of Successful Podcasting

One of my friends and clients, Tanya Steele, asked me, “I know all of your guests have been extraordinary. I've listened to many of the podcasts. But if you could pick one of your favourites, I know they're all spectacular, but one of your favourite moments with one of your guests. Who was that guest and what was that really great memory for you?”

I actually get asked, “What's your favourite episode?” So I went back through the lists of all the podcasts, looking at each guest. It's funny because I started to see patterns as to what I liked. I said, “Oh, I like that one best. No, that one. That one. This and this and this and…” 

​I can't give one name, but I can give one thing that I love. I love it anytime I hear a story that shows their vulnerability, their real side, who they are as a person, not just who they are on social media or what we see. That's the one part that I really like.

Sometimes, I've been caught off guard, and I've actually become very emotional with people's stories or what they're sharing, or I've heard myself in what they're sharing. It was really hard to stay professional and not be like, “Oh my, I’m crying because of what you said”. 

That's the one side and the other is the tips where I learn. ​

As hosts, it's our job to pull the information out of the guest. Sometimes we ask questions that we already know the answer to because we either train it or we just know, or we've read books or we've worked with this person, but we still ask those questions because our listener needs to have the privilege of the answers to those questions as well. 

Sometimes, I already know because I've done a pre-talk with them as well. But when I can ask something where I learned something completely new, where I'm like, “Whoa, I never thought of that?” Those are the ones I love the most because I get something really big out of it.

What I learned in running my podcast

Tanya also asked me, “What did you learn over these last five years in running a podcast? If one of your many amazing listeners is listening right now, and they're like, ‘I want to start a podcast, but I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. What would you say?”

There are two sides to what I've learned. The one side is the strategy piece of it. Don't just do a podcast to do a podcast. You need to have a strategy and intention to do it. ​

We have a member from the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) community, David Gouthro, who just started a podcast. He just wants to have great conversations with cool people to get different perspectives. That's wonderful. That's a passion project. 

But if you're doing this as part of your business, you need to have a strategy for why you're doing it. That could be…

• because you're going to build sponsorship, or
• because your guests are actually your potential clients, or
• because it’s promo for your business, 
• Or because like me, it’s the first piece to creating your content for the week 

I’ll share more, my two virtual assistants Karissa and Kristine, repurpose the video that I'm doing into the podcast, onto my YouTube, into my newsletter, onto my social, into my blog, and then into my email. It goes across the whole board. 

But you really have to know, “Why am I doing this?” and then build it based on that. Really, that's the secret to a good podcast.

The other is making it something that just naturally fits into your life or your business. Maybe you need to do it every single week. Maybe you prefer to batch them, like do four at a time. It's much easier, and you don't have to be thinking about it every week. 

Doing whatever it takes to be able to have it be manageable because the worst thing is to start a podcast, do some episodes and then your listeners are hooked and then they go, 

• “Where's the next episode?” 
• “How come there are only two episodes?” 
• “I'm listening to this podcast every week on my Wednesday walks. Then why isn’t their one this week”. 

The listener is going to go find a different podcast and you could lose them. 

Consistency is crucial, and for you, if it's once a week, great. If it's every day, good luck. I'm sure you have a plan for that. 

Tanya understands all this, as she is also a podcast host for her podcast, Safety Debris. She said that she records her episodes in batches. They film five to six episodes in one day, and then they release them once every three to four weeks. ​

They’ve been doing it for two and a half years. “We started just in the middle of COVID and I’ve got a cohost Richard Dulong, who's also a CAPS member, and we just have a lot of fun with our guests just like you do. Thanks, Diane. Really, I just wanted to be you when I grew up, so I'm just trying to follow in your footsteps because you're awesome.”

One of the hardest things in doing a podcast

One of the hardest things about doing the podcast is bringing on people who take a position or stance on a topic that is opposite to me or that I agree with, but I don’t feel I can publicly take that stance. 

Having the podcast, I'm very careful about who I bring on. I interview guests every other episode or for a while, I've just been doing it all myself, but I'm always cautious about, “Is this person's values, beliefs, morals in alignment with mine?” 

I care about my listeners, and I don't want them hearing something that's not in alignment or worse, is disrespectful. So that's been one of the hardest parts for me is if the guest is going to say or do something that isn't in alignment, “What am I going to do in the moment?” 

I'm not looking to be confrontational. I think that's been one of the hardest pieces about the podcast, is vetting people properly. I also don't want them to be all sales like, “Here's this product I have, and here's another product, and here's why you should buy for me”. That's not fun. And I think that's why I like the vulnerability story pieces more. 

Secret to a Good Podcast

What I'd like to say is that over the past five years, I think having good topics makes a good podcast. Sometimes my titles are a little bit trickier like, “Sometimes I feel alone”. That title might have drawn you in because you're like, “What? Diane feels alone?” That's true that I do, but I'm also speaking for others. 

Another is “The Best and Worst Gifts My Mom Ever Gave Me.” My husband, who doesn't listen to the podcast, said to me, “Okay, I haven't listened to it. But just tell me what are the best and worst gifts your mom has ever given you?” I had to tell him because he thought it was like an actual item rather than the gift of belief in me. ​

It's important to have keyword-driven titles for your episodes. What are your main people typing into search engines? This isn't to trick or trap them. This is to give them what they're looking for. Don't be super clever with your titles where they don’t know what you’re really talking about. Give them the things that they're actually looking for. 

As I said before, consistency is key. Batch your episodes if you need to be consistent. What I've also learned, which is kind of interesting, is doing my own episodes is actually less work. It's less work to have just me do it to record it than organizing a guest and the back and forth between my guests and Kristine, who does a great job of that. 

I often just choose to do my own episodes. But I also know the value of having guests, not just for my listeners to have another perspective, but also in a strategic way. They're now opening my podcast up to more listeners. It is a good thing. It's a win-win. ​

My intention in doing the podcast is to always be able to reach and serve my audience. Then over the years, I've realized it's also a content machine, and it’s how I prefer to create my content. I don't love writing, so it's much easier for me to speak into the podcast, and then to edit that into the blog, which is way easier than when I used to write the blog and then try to do the podcast from that. It was less from the heart and more from my analytical brain. 

Then I guess the last piece is to figure out what your ideal audience wants to know and it's kind of sad because I don't always know what you guys want because I don't hear from you. Email me at [email protected] to let me know or if you don’t know what you want to hear about, then tell me what you have heard that you love and want more of or your goals/obstacles, and I’ll come up with something to support you and your success. Whatever it is, I'm open to hearing it. 

The last thing I'll say to anyone wanting to do a podcast, who has a podcast, who's written books, who's put anything out there, even social media posts, LinkedIn articles, whatever it may be, you don't always know that people are consuming your content. I can remember when I stopped my weekly newsletter for a little bit. I had someone reach out to me and say, “Hey, did I get off your list somehow? I'm not getting it.” I didn't even know that person was reading them. Likewise, I bump into people at events or when I’m on stages and people will say, “I loved your recent podcast.” But they never comment!

For those of you who are actually commenting, writing reviews, giving me feedback that you love the episodes, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

For those of you who haven't yet, why not? Tell me what you like. It helps to spur me on to do more of that. 

For those of you out there who have put stuff out and you're just feeling a little frustrated, because you're not getting that feedback, there is a chance that your people are listening. They're just so busy they haven't replied or they didn't think you needed it. So keep it up!

Read my other blogs:

1. Diane Rolston Interviewed by Jack Canfield
2. How I Got the Courage to Stop Hiding
3. 3 Ways to Make BIG Money by Listening