Episode Summary
When starting a podcast the interview-based format is probably the most common It provides a solid foundation for a companys podcast because you get an opportunity to leverage your guests experiences
But interview-based podcasts do present their own challenges In some situations its difficult to find a guest for a specific topic And in other cases your guests may cancel a recording session and throw off your entire production schedule
In this episode of Recorded Content our host Justin Brown welcomes Camille Trent the Director of Content Community at PeerSignal They break down the benefits of mixing things up by adding other formats to your podcast The two also pinpoint why you should consider doing solo episodes and how you can make this type of episode work for you
Guest Profile
Name: Camille Trent
What she does: Shes the Director of Content Community at PeerSignal
Company: PeerSignal
Noteworthy: Camille is the host of the Content Logistics podcast where she interviews the marketers behind the best content marketing flywheels to uncover the tactical aspects of content production
Key Insights
- Solo episodes take practice Solo episodes are a great way to shake up your podcast and engage your audience But dont expect the first episode to go smoothly Camille says It doesnt feel that weird Im sure everyone is like this but the first few minutes and this is the same with any interview podcast the first few minutes are brutal Thats always awkward So once you get past that I think it was actually more normal than I thought it would be
- You become an expert by interviewing experts One of the greatest benefits of hosting a podcast is that you become an industry expert Camille explains On the flip side of that the marketer or the host in that situation they can be an expert in that market Once youve interviewed and talked to enough of those the best of the best the cream of the crop within your industry its hard to say that youre not an expert once you get to that point And I dont think you ever get to that unless youre a content marketer interviewing other content marketers or something like that But you do get a lot more confident and Ive talked to enough hosts of podcasts who feel this way that I know its true
- The first time you do a solo episode is the hardest The first time is always the hardest and the same goes for solo episodes Camille shares a few tips to make it work She says The first time you do it you dont know what the right type of outline is So for me recording the intro or just getting those first few minutes because you just dont know how to be like Its me here just me So that I think took a few takes And then the other thing was that I had probably two brain freezes The first time when I was running through the whole thing and so I just stopped it and then did a new take And that wouldve been fine because we can clip it together but then it was also Can I get this a little tighter I think thats a good rule of thumb in general of putting in extra time more time than you think that you want to for that first time that you set out on a new campaign or a new content type Putting in the extra time to do it right the first time makes everything easier from there
Episode Highlights
Mix it up and get outside your comfort zone
You also need that little bit of outside push to do your first of anything So you get comfortable in one thing this is working and you get good feedback about it But then it was the same with having two guests on I wouldnt have known that that would have positive feedback until I did it It was like everything was working pretty well It wasnt like people were hungry for a different type of content at least I wasnt getting that feedback But I think theres an opportunity here Lets chase it Lets mix up the format Thats how you keep the momentum going weirdly it is by mixing it up
Use notes for solo episodes
It keeps it pretty open so that youre not feeling like youre reading off a script but you have something to refer to so that you feel prepared throughout the whole thing
The Russian doll concept
Content marketing 101 or content distribution 101 maybe So having done similar things thinking in terms of that Russian doll I guess the mentality is how I think about it for anyone who doesnt know the doll within a doll within a doll And so I think if you have a post that does really well what was it about it that did well And if its the content and if its listicle type style thats really easy to lend itself to a blog or to a podcast So thinking about micro content and expanding that and then also thinking about macro content and then condensing that So I think the best way to think about this is a podcast or long-form blog really easy pillar macro content that you can condense
Have fun with your podcast
If youre bored its going to show And if youre bored your audience is probably bored a little bit And so if you know youre getting bored then youre at risk for not doing it for pausing or for losing some of that momentum So whatever you can do to keep yourself excited and keep yourself on track is probably a good idea