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How confident are you in your podcasting skills? As in, all of them. Everything. The knowledge and processes required to create compelling audio. Your strategic planning skills. The ability to implement tactical marketing initiatives, copywriting, graphic design, and hundreds of other minor and major things I’m not mentioning.
How confident are you that you’re doing all of those the right way? If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll likely admit that you’re on shaky ground for at least one or two elements of your podcasting recipe.
Sorting Podcasting Jobs By Intrinsic vs Instructions-Required
The next time you get into podcasting-mode, take stock of the podcasty thing you’re about to do and assign it to one of two buckets by asking yourself a simple question:
“Is this podcasty thing I’m about to do intrinsic to me, or are instructions required?”
Let me expand on each of those:
- Intrinsic tasks are things that you’ve internalized. You know them deeply and can execute those tasks or processes without much hesitation. You probably have proof that they work, relying on data from before you started doing that task compared to after. Or they are things that are a part of Your Way because they are important to you and it’s important to you that you continue to do them Your Way.
- Instructions-required tasks are everything else. They are the tasks and processes you've been taught about podcasting but still aren’t quite sure of. They’re often assumptions you've made from watching other podcasters. Those activities seem to work for them, but you still haven’t seen concrete proof. Or maybe they are items you were taught in a class or training course. Perhaps they are in the form of a checklist or are in a guide you turn to when it’s time to execute those set of tasks. They may have become routine, but they’re not quite intrinsic, because you’re still following someone else’s instructions, either figuratively or literally.
And once you’ve identified those instructions-required tasks, I want you to abandon them.
“Abandon Normal Podcasting Instructions, Evo?”
OK, maybe don’t abandon everything all at once. You still have a podcast episode to produce, after all! But yeah, abandon at least some of the recipes you’re following. Especially the ones you aren’t sure about.
Not every recipe is great. My grandmother mastered the art of boiling all the flavor out of a chicken. The family didn’t complain when I was growing up, but I opted to not carry that tradition into my own kitchen.
It’s the same for many of the assumptions you’ve made about podcasting. The instructions you’re following but questioning may be the podcasting equivalent of a chicken with all the flavor boiled out of it. So you stop boiling that chicken, and I’ll stop torturing this metaphor.
Take a critical look at the podcasting recipes you’re following and choose at least one to abandon. Sure, you can seek out another recipe if you want. But I much prefer you throw away the recipe and focus on the reason for the recipe. The outcome that recipe was supposed to achieve. Chances are, you might have a better—or at least more creative—way to get to that goal, creating your own recipe in the process. And if it works, it can become one more intrinsic thing about podcasting you can pack away.
But I get it: getting away from instructions is hard. I know many podcasters love checklists and routines. Some of the podcasters you interface with on a regular basis may need a helpful nudge to break them out of their unproductive routines, so please share this article with them. Perhaps it will help them get past the checklist mentality and start to develop their own intrinsic way of podcasting.
And if you love the things that I had to say for you on today’s program, please go to BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra and slide a virtual coffee my way.
I shall we be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
Cheers!
Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He’s on a mission to make podcasting better. Allie Press proofed the copy, corrected the transcript, and edited the video. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
