What it's like to make a podcast
Our latest episode is out today. We interviewed Nadia Eisa, a brand manager at Anthropologie, and co-founder of MDLTN. You should definitely give it a listen if you haven't already. It's a good one.
Since our podcast is interview-based, to have a podcast, we have to interview a guest. This involves reaching out, scheduling, and then having them show up at the agreed-upon time and place. Amazingly, this works. People show up on time, ready to go, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We’ve never had an episode we aren’t proud of.
Unless it’s absolutely impossible for our guests, we keep a consistent recording schedule: a Monday evening at 7:30pm. JP, his wife, and daughter join my wife and I for dinner at my house beforehand, we set up for the show, our guest arrives, and we record.
There’s a routine and a rhythm to it that provides consistency.
We’ll record each Monday for several weeks in a row until we produce a bit of a backlog of interviews to edit. Then we stop scheduling interviews for a few weeks and enjoy our Mondays together without an impending interview.
Our podcast is published every other week. It allows us to have a rhythm of on/off for the show. We could technically record an interview every other week, but having a backlog provides us with some breathing room and allows us to be strategic.
How should we promote and release these shows? Are there any themes in our lives that are worth sharing about or taking about alongside these shows? More often than not, we release episodes in the same order they were recorded, but sometimes certain episodes are released out of sequence.
The night before a release, JP and I tag-team the remaining tasks: finishing the edit and bouncing the file to .mp3 format, writing the show notes, making sure all our marketing collateral is ready for release, updating the website and podcast hosting provider with the photos, links, and show notes — and then scheduling it all for the next morning.
Although this is a process that we could batch together and schedule, there’s something nice about the rhythm and routine of doing it every other week.
It reminds us that we have a podcast.
It forces us to pay attention to the fact that we’re actually doing something. That we’ve made something. That it’s worth taking one last look before hundreds of people listen.
The day after we release a show, I never quite know how to feel. In a sense, I feel lighter. In another sense, I actually feel a little empty. That little gem, that little thing that was only ours and was so special to us is now out in the world. There was something so beautiful to having it all to myself — and now other people get to experience it too.
Then I listen to it over the weekend and it’s mine again.
Thanks for listening,
-Steve
