Welcome to Digital Podcaster. My name is Dylan Schmidt, your host, and this week I want to talk about a podcasting subject. I want to talk about how much time and energy should you put into your early podcast episodes. Because I hear a lot of people spend way too much time. And rarely do I hear people not spend enough time, which is kind of funny to think about. And just a little disclaimer here, everything I'm about to share here in this episode is not for the simple hobbyist, who's just doing it for themselves. Because I come across a lot of people podcasters come across a lot of podcasters, who are just doing it for themselves. And I guess they just like hearing themselves talk or something. But those who want to put out a quality podcast, a quality product that other people want to listen to, that's who I'm talking to in this episode. So if that's you, you're in the right spot. Also, if you are a hobbyist who is continuing to listen to this, and you're just doing it for yourself, well, next week, I got an episode for you, that's gonna go more on that subject. But in this one, I just want to talk to people when we're talking time and energy. The two most important things when you're just starting podcasting, because it takes more of that. So as a new podcast here, it can be really tempting to spend a lot of time and energy on your first few episodes, because you want to make a good impression. You want to make sure that you're giving people a good taste of what's to come, right. If they're going to invest some time into your podcast, you want to make sure you're wowing them, and making a great first impression. And you're off to a good start. And you're going to attract listeners. However, it's important to remember that your early episodes for your podcast are likely to have a smaller audience than your later ones. So if there was a curve, small audience, small podcasts at the moment, and then the more you do it, the more you're going to grow. And that's just the way it goes. However, you know, depending on how many episodes you release, how many episodes you continue to release, people will still go back and listen to your original episodes. So you want to of course, make sure that it's decent, you don't want to just put out something that's you're almost embarrassed by I think a little bit of embarrassment is okay, for your podcasts in the beginning, because there's going to be some nerves, it's not going to be your best stuff. And if you've been well, I'm getting ahead of myself. First things, most podcasts see their biggest growth after around 20 episodes, which a lot of podcasts don't even make it to 20 episodes. So the fact that if you make it to 20 episodes, that's something we congratulate yourself on in itself. But the fact is, if you have 20 episodes, so you get to Episode 20, people will still go back and listen to your first couple episodes, if they're good. And if there's something for them to listen to. Right? If you're just publishing it just to publish it. And it's for yourself. In those episodes. Your early episodes are nothing which you talked about on episode 20. And again, Episode 20 is the first few episodes for a lot of people that have episodes in the for hundreds or, you know, a 1000s or something, you know, but for a lot of people just starting out episode 20 is a an achievement in itself. And if you've been listening to podcasts for a while, you've probably noticed that some of your ship favorite shows if you've listened if you go back and listen, they probably not they probably they all have rough beginnings, because it takes time to find your footing and develop a style and a podcast format that works for you. So how much time and energy should you put into those early podcast episodes? I think the answer may surprise you. And it's not obviously, I can't say 20 minutes, two hours, something like that. I gotta kind of break this down a little bit more. First, some bad news, your first few episodes are likely to be your worst. And that's completely normal. nothing to be ashamed of. It takes time to get the hang of things. But the good news is that you don't need to spend a lot of time on those early episodes. What I always suggest for podcasters just starting out, if you're new to this, is just publish them quickly and move on to the next one. Don't spend so much time getting wrapped up in your voice and oh, how do I sound? How do I come across a witness a lot of podcasters get wrapped up in their own as I hear they say you get high on your own supply and they get wrapped up in their own thing that they're doing and then they just it becomes this weird vanity thing of I guess liking hearing themselves talk. I don't know the same thing that happens on social media where people are just like so wrapped up in what they're doing. And they're missing the whole point of it is like you're making something for someone else. So that is all that to say publish it and move on. Like don't look backwards so much. It's doesn't it imply whatsoever, you should put out low quality material, or put out stuff half heartedly not say that I'm saying, put everything you've got into it. But set a deadline, give yourself some constraints here. And it just means that you shouldn't spend hours upon hours editing every little detail. Because a lot of those details only you notice your audience doesn't notice. And the goal is to get better with each and every episode, not make every episode perfect. As I've said, for a while now, the perfect podcast is the one that you publish. And the value of your podcast is informed by the person listening to it, not always you, people will listen to your podcast for different reasons, your audience will often take away value that you didn't even realize was the reason that you were transmitting to them in your podcast. And the more you try and control that experience for someone, the more energy you're spending on things that are just outside of your control, honestly, you know, you could say you have a podcast for board games or something like that. But you might not know this, but your audience is actually being like, Oh, actually, I came to you for the connection that I feel with you as a host, not just the board game talk board games I could give or take. But you as the host is why I'm here. So if you try and obsess and perfect over every little detail, you're gonna find yourself stressing out and not putting it out and moving on. So you want to just put it out and move on. And the balance is this. You want to put enough time and energy into your early episodes to make them good, but not so much that they're exhausting or unsustainable for you as a podcast host to put out content. Because what I believe is that podcasters shouldn't be obsessive over audio quality and production. In the beginning, the first step you have as a podcast host, is to get comfortable with recording and editing, those little things like that, that takes a lot of time and energy in itself just to know the basics. But the most important thing is that you find your voice as a host. And you do that through publishing and going and keep going. You don't have it's not everything is an epiphany in every single episode, you know, and there's a lot of emphasis podcast hosts put on each episode in the beginning. And it feels like this monumental thing. However, speaking from my own experience, just doing a podcast that day, for the month of May, I found and I continue to find that when I just publish a high number of output, I find myself I can't obsess over the details, I just I don't have time for that. And I don't have a lot of time or energy to obsess over the details anyways. But especially when you have a high output, if you were really busy, you would have to sacrifice some details. So I would say start thinking about it as if you're really busy, because there's probably other tasks, either in your life or around your podcasts that you're maybe neglecting. And that could be promoting your podcast, finding guests, there's like always a number of things to do, you know. And as you start to publish more and more, you can think more and more about how things should sound. And that will start to develop. And that's all part of you as a host developing that's a part of your podcast developing. But even then, even as you keep going and keep going, don't get too caught up in your podcast itself. Because I like to think of a podcast as being bigger than you. It's bigger than it's bigger than just a person. It's an idea that's transmitting through you. But if you take so much ownership over that idea, it starts to get a little weird, and then it starts to feel a little ego driven. Personally, that's my take on it. And the most important thing of your show is the content. And if people enjoy listening, they're gonna forgive a few imperfections that they find in your podcast, especially with, you know, audio drops or things like that. Now, you're gonna get 1000 different opinions on this in podcast forums and message boards and Facebook groups. And a lot of times, you'll find that the people that are like, you must create a great listening experience with audio of your podcast, or people that are audio engineers turned to podcasters or they have a deep passion for stuff like that. But if you look at majority of top podcasters podcast hosts, the most successful ones aren't ones that obsess over little details. You don't know all the gear I'm using as I record this, and you don't know how many corners I cut through my podcast. But the listening experience is acceptable, and it works good enough. And that's all I care about at the end of the day. It just don't and it doesn't affect my ability to create and transmit one idea. And that idea today is how much time and energy you should put into your podcasts episodes. put more time into creating, getting that number that those 10,000 hours behind the microphone talking and become interested in serving people with your podcast. You'll find yourself being more excited to podcast. And you'll find people are more excited to listen to you podcast. And that's exciting to me is your excitement. Remember that with time and practice, you will get better, and it will get faster. So I just want you to know that if you're interested in exactly how to find your voice as a host faster, I'd invite you to check out Podcasting Academy. It's a fun On Demand training and coaching program that helps podcasters be successful so that they can grow their audience, business and life. Just visit podcasting academy.com to check us out. Next week on the podcast. I'm breaking down the idea of making the podcast for yourself versus making the podcast for your audience. This is something I see almost daily in the podcasting community. It's not as cut and dry as you think. I'll see you next week.