Imperfect Marketing
Imperfect Marketing
269: From Idea to Airwaves: Planning Your Podcast in 5 Simple Steps with Host Kendra Corman
Kendra discusses the five essential steps to plan a successful podcast. From finding the right niche to setting up systems that save time, this episode is packed with actionable advice for aspiring podcasters.
Highlights from today's episode include:
- Why narrowing down your topic is key to audience engagement.
- Setting realistic schedules and the importance of consistency.
- Tips for creating a content calendar and managing guests.
- Using AI tools like Perplexity.ai and ChatGPT for brainstorming and scripting.
- Systems and tools to simplify your podcast workflow.
Join Kendra every Tuesday and Thursday as she discusses how to make progress and grow through Imperfect Marketing.
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Hey there and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. I'm your host, kendra Korman, and I am excited to be recording again in the Walsh College Creator Studio. I think I have that right and I'm really excited to be here and recording. I feel like a real news reporter, with my notes and everything. So if you're listening, do me a favor and jump on over and check out the new digs at youtubecom. Forward slash at Kendra Korman to check it out.
Speaker 1:So today we're going to be talking about something I wish that I knew back when I started my podcasting journey, and that is how to plan your podcast in five simple steps. So if you're, if you've been listening for a while or listened more than like 10 episodes, you've probably heard at least one where I talk about my first podcast the failure. I had zero plan. I just turned on the mic, started talking yeah, it was learning experience, we'll call it. But then I swung completely in a different direction and I planned out imperfect marketing. I had a script, I had a list of questions, I had a formula that I was going to follow and it was going to be awesome. Well, that took out all the spontaneity, all the conversation, all of anything of value, because I was so nervous and I kept to like to this strict outline and rigidity, and so let's find the happy medium and talk about that today.
Speaker 1:The biggest mistake new podcasters make isn't about equipment, it's not about editing. It's trying to be everything to everyone, and I think that applies to a lot of people on a lot of things right. It applies to new business owners, it applies to established business owners, it applies to everything that we do. Right. We want it to be open so that it appeals to more people, and that's really not the right direction to go. When I started Imperfect Marketing, I covered everything marketing. Nobody knew what I was covering next Most days, including myself, so it wasn't really about having any type of predictability. You knew it was small business marketing and that's really all you knew.
Speaker 1:But now I actually focus on some things. I focus on email marketing, productivity, leveraging AI and podcasting, like you're listening to right now, and I try to theme and come up with several weeks about the same topic so that you know what to expect right? Last week, we talked about why 2025 is great for podcasting. Next week guess what we're talking about Podcasting again. So I want you to go ahead and grab a piece of paper. What's your podcast topic? Let's start there Now. Narrow it down. I'm not going to wait while you narrow it down the whole time, right, and then narrow it down again and then narrow it down yet a third time.
Speaker 1:I really want you to think about your topic and what you can cover, and a little bit about how niche you can go. Your topic and what you can cover, and a little bit about how niche you can go. Social media examiners got a great podcast on AI and I think it's called Exploring AI and it's literally about exploring AI these different guests that come on and they talk only about AI and there's so much to talk about. Could I do a podcast weekly just about email marketing? Yeah, could I do one just on SEO about? Could I do a podcast weekly just about email marketing? Yeah, could I do one just on SEO? Yes, could I do one just on podcasting? Yes, again, there are so many opportunities and so many different angles that you can go to to add value to your audience, to bring in guests, to bring in other opportunities and other opinions.
Speaker 1:So, whatever you think you're going to be talking about, narrow it down and then narrow it down again and see again where you can do. Now you don't want to go too narrow and talk about just cars built in the 1950s, right? You might really run out of topics at that point, but again, there's a lot of stuff that you won't run out of topics. So what unique perspective do you bring, what is the angle that you're going to be talking about, and what problems does your audience have that you can help solve, right? So I want you to think about that and put that on your piece of paper. If you're out walking your dog, that's okay too. I get it. You don't have to. You don't have to have your paper right there. Head on over to the Imperfect Marketing website or on YouTube. You can go ahead and find all of the show notes with these instructions there. Again, you can expand your topics as you grow, but you want to build that loyal following, and if they don't know what you're going to talk about next, how do they know? They want to listen. So that's really important there.
Speaker 1:Now that you know what you're going to talk about, let's talk a little bit about how often you're going to be talking about this. This is probably the question that I get the most often is how often or how little can I actually release show episodes, right, because people are concerned about that consistency and how often this person's doing daily episodes. Ok, that's insane. I already think that two episodes a week is a little bit insane and that's what I do. But weekly episodes, daily episodes, bi-weekly, they're not mandatory.
Speaker 1:Figure out what your consistency is going to be and then set it, and then that's what you're going to follow. So if you want every other week episodes, if you want just twice a month, if you want every third week or maybe monthly, all of that is okay. There are no hard and fast rules. It's what can you deliver on a consistent basis. And again, before you start your podcast, make sure you record 10 episodes minimum. You'll hear me like a broken record on that, but if you have that buffer, it makes it a lot easier to stay consistent and not end up with that pod fade where you fall off the wagon before seven episodes, right, or before eight episodes. Again, the magic word here is consistency. It's better to consistently release every other week or every third week than to, every once in a while, release an episode, right? So it'd be every week and then every other week and then every third week and then back to every week. People can't keep track. You want them to know when to expect your content on a regular basis. But again, you can set and define what that is and set people's expectations. Okay, your podcast is not a prison. Okay, I know that that sounds like crazy. It's okay to mix formats.
Speaker 1:I decided I was going to do a solo show. I decided I was going to do guest episodes. I still remember so when I, if you go all the way back to like episode 10 or something of imperfect marketing, you'll see all of a sudden there's a solo show thrown in there. It looks planned. It wasn't. I had a couple of guests back out and reschedule and I needed to launch an episode and I was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? And so I ended up doing a solo show. And then I was like this is cool, I need to do more of these, because I have so much more information that I want to share with you, and so I wanted to release different episodes on a regular basis, and so I started off doing some solo shows mixed with some interview shows, and now I have a more consistent episodes where every Tuesday you get a solo episode and every Thursday you get an interview episode, which again is okay because you know what to expect, right? So eventually it'll get into the mix.
Speaker 1:But as long as it's on topic, it doesn't matter if it's you or you with a guest. It's all about adding value to your audience. And if it's three solo episodes and then a guest episode or one guest episode a year, it doesn't matter, right? It is not a prison. There are not bars guarding you away from doing something different, and that's the fun part about podcasting is doing things differently every single time. You are welcome to do whatever you would like, but again, start with what's comfortable. You can always evolve. Imperfect marketing has evolved so much over the past few years that it's become, hopefully, more of a conversation, you feel like, than me just dictating stuff and reading scripts and following some crazy set question outline that I came up with. There's just so much there. Crazy set question outline that I came up with, there's just so much there.
Speaker 1:Now, again, be realistic on what you can schedule. Consistency is important. Find what that consistency is and know what you can do With AI. I save about three hours an episode, which is amazing, but you're probably looking for about an hour of prep and planning for an episode Again probably looking for about an hour of prep and planning for an episode, again either solo or interview, coming up with those bullet points that you want to do, as I have right here in my hands. If you're watching on there, you're recording. If you're bulk recording, it's one to two hours in a group and then editing can be one to two hours again, depending on how much AI you use. And then, of course, scheduling social posts. Probably average 30 to 45 minutes on doing social posts for each episode, but again, I'm keep like creating seven to 10. But again, be realistic about what fits your schedule the best and what's going to work for you. Now let's talk about working smarter, not harder, with your content planning.
Speaker 1:I use perplexityai, which is one of my favorite AI tools for research. It is amazing and it is a great brainstorming partner. I will tell it some of my episodes and say, hey, what do you think about some other ones? I'll use chat GPT. Sometimes I'll use quadai to help me outline and script and just give it a big, huge brain dump, which is a lot of fun. Now you can use AI to generate episode and topic ideas and maybe even help you outline it, but you got to add those personal experiences and insights. If you don't do that, then you're going to sound like a robot, and nobody wants to sound like a robot. Actually, I think I did one that was mostly AI assisted not AI generated, ai assisted and one of my friends called me on the carpet for that and said it just didn't really sound like you and I was like, yeah, I think I totally phoned that episode in. So things happen sometimes and that's okay, but make sure that you're allotting the time that you need to create your episodes. Now let's talk a little bit about content.
Speaker 1:Calendars Again, simple spreadsheets, all you need. I use episode number, topic, guest and released date, and then I also actually do a recording date so I don't lose track of it, especially if I have to move things around and I plan one quarter ahead, but I stay flexible, so if I need to move something in some place, I can move things around a little bit. Nothing is set in stone. And then I keep a running list of topic ideas and I do that again either in my Excel sheet or in Asana, which is my task management tool.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to guest management, podmatch has been a game changer for me in finding guests. I love it and I have an affiliate link in the show notes if you want to check those out. One of the reasons that Podmatch is so powerful is because it gives me a lot of my research and I don't have to do a lot of things. But again, I use perplexityai to research the guest. I will look at their website. I'll listen to other podcasts that they've been on to really understand what they have to talk about so that I can get the best value for my audience. And that's really important, especially when you're using guests, and it's always great to send guests a brief prep document with the episode focus, any key questions. I actually have my guests submit key questions that they'd like me to ask. They know their topic best and I can narrow it down in the pre-show conversation or pre-recording conversation a little bit, if we need to.
Speaker 1:Now, structure itself creates a little bit of freedom, and here's why I want you to start thinking about your listeners and why they care. I started listening to an episode and I can't remember which podcast I was listening to and it was just droning on and on and on, and I'm like, oh my gosh, when are we going to actually get to the topic? And it was horrible, right? So you want to lure people in and let them know exactly what it is that you're talking about from the get-go and then share a story, right? Or have your guests share a story this year or late last year, in 2024,. I changed up the structure a little bit and instead of introducing my guests and giving their bio long or short, I ask them now to introduce themselves. The reason I do that is because I say so. How did you get into this? The reason because they usually have a story. That story isn't in their bio and it is just so much more interesting and engaging at least, that is what my listeners and watchers have been telling me. So fingers crossed that you think the same thing.
Speaker 1:Then you want to deliver your teaching points. Everybody wants to walk away with more knowledge and action items, right, they want to know what to do next. And and then you want to end, of course, with actionable steps, because that's always important, especially if you're doing something that's sharing perspectives. You're sharing stories. Maybe there's not an actionable step that relates to your business. Maybe this is a passion project for you. One of my friends, wendy Erson, has a show called let's Plant Houses where she tells the story and gets the stories of just amazing and unbelievable things of people who have children with different abilities and how they're going through and what they're doing and the successes that they've had and the miracles that they have created for their children. Again, that's a passion project, but she still has actionable steps of subscribing and listening to her show.
Speaker 1:So now, when it comes to maintaining a natural flow, I used to script out my episodes, mostly because I was nervous and I didn't know actually what to say, and talking to a camera can sometimes not be fun, but I do bullet points now, not scripts, so I can add in just a little bit more of my personality when I'm doing this. You want to leave room for spontaneity. I mean I think there's like four places in this episode where I started rambling. You want to leave room for spontaneity. I mean I think there's like four places in this episode where I started rambling. You heard that that is my spontaneity. That's where I was bringing in extra stories and extra information, and you can feel free to use transitions like that reminds me of, or you know what's interesting about that, you know what excites me about that and that's what's important there.
Speaker 1:Now, systems save sanity when you're planning your podcast. Systems save sanity, so create your own system. Content calendar Again, simple Excel spreadsheet combined with Asana for my episode templates and all the different tasks that we need to do. We use Calendly to schedule guests, but if you have Microsoft tools, go ahead and use another scheduler like Microsoft Bookings. There's so many different things. If you have a CRM, maybe you can leverage that for people to book themselves and then set up email templates for guest communication. Carol, my assistant, is amazing at this. Let's just say I used to send out reminders to my guests about their episodes coming out 30% of the year, maybe 40% of the year, definitely nowhere near half of the year and her taking that over has really changed the game, where she's letting people know that their episode is releasing. We have a template for that and links to their resources. It's really easy and it makes the process so much simpler, saves so much time.
Speaker 1:So let's go ahead and recap what we talked about planning your podcast in five simple steps. We talked about focusing right. Be specific, narrow down that topic, set realistic expectations consistency over frequency. You do not have to start off daily. I actually would not recommend starting off daily. You don't even have to start off weekly. Come up with what that consistency is going to be for you and then create your content strategy. Use AI tools for that. Develop your episode structure and you want to be flexible yet focused and set up your systems. Automate whatever you can, because it's going to save a lot of time down the road. Remember, your podcast is going to evolve and that's okay. None of these steps are rigid, hard and fast rules. They're guidelines to help you start strong and stay consistent.
Speaker 1:Again, I think this is the 30th time I've said consistent in this episode and it's probably the millionth time I've said it in this podcast all the imperfect marketing episodes that come before it because consistency is important. So I'd love to hear about your podcast journey. Be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn, because that's where I'm active and share your biggest takeaway from today's episode. I'd love to hear about it. You can find me at kendracormancom. Forward slash LinkedIn and it'll redirect you to my LinkedIn profile where we can connect. And don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you're listening and watching, and be sure to rate this podcast, because that really helps me out too. Again, thanks so much for tuning into another episode of Imperfect Marketing. Until next time, have a great rest of your day.
