Welcome to episode 509 and the last episode of 2020. That’s right. The next time you have a fresh podcast episode from me, it will be 2021, and we’ll be kicking off the Podcasting 101 series, which will have some bonus content exclusively for email subscribers, so be sure you are subscribed to the email list. Now, I want to jump right in because I really am committed to this episode being short and sweet. And so I’m going to hop right in, because I mostly want you to spend any time you’re paying attention to your podcasts this week doing these things and not hearing about them. So I’m going to jump right back in. Cool? Cool. I’m going to pretend you just nodded along. You did, didn’t you? You totally did. I’m not even really here. In fact, it’s weeks before. I’m talking to you from the past. You are in the future. I’m feeling a little silly this afternoon. Anyways, let’s jump in. This is how these episodes end up not so short and sweet, guys. All right. Let’s hop in and let’s talk about the very, very first thing I review, and it’s kind of boring.
It’s the stats, it’s the data, baby.
Top podcast topics of the year. The reason I do this is because this is a really great time for me to update the old war chest with emergency repurposing episodes. What are the episodes that if need be, we could share these babies again? But also informing the content we’re planning for next year, informing the other kinds of content we’re creating. If I were committed to building a course, or a membership, or a program, or something like that, as one of these leveraged revenue pieces, this is the list I’m going to go to, is, what were my top episodes?
And so this is actually something I look at quarterly, but I always do a deep dive once a year into, what were the trends quarter over quarter? What were the just runaway best episodes of the entire year? Were there any surprises in that? There almost always is one. I like this data because it empowers me to make a lot of decisions when I’m back from my break and I’m rolling through the new year. And so this is always, always, always one of those things I do every single year.
In fact, as you’re listening to it, I’m probably doing it this week because this is some of the stuff I do during my off time, my unplugged time from work stuff. This is some of the work that does end up getting done in that no work time, mostly because my brain doesn’t shut off all the way for large pieces of time. But it’s also because I have the space to look at this stuff more creatively and less tactically when I’m in that off time. It’s a little more inspiring. It’s a little more, “Oh, hey, that’s surprising,” and I’ve got room for it. I hope that makes sense.
Next, and where I’m going to really challenge you a little bit, your intros, your outros, your commercials.
Far too many people are not paying attention to those intros, those outros, those promos frequently enough. I know we have talked to podcasters who have not updated their intro in years and years and years, and it’s because it’s great and it does exactly what it needs to do. We’ve also talked to podcasters who haven’t updated their intro or outro in years and years and years and it’s 1000% no longer relevant. You’ll notice when we launch the Podcasting 101 series next week or next episode, I think we actually have a week off, when you do that, you’ll notice there’ll be new language here. You’ll hear some new stuff.
Music will be the same because we’re not changing the music, although always check on that too. Maybe you want a new sound, a fresh vibe. But we’re going to have some different language in our intro and our outro. So stay tuned for that. I don’t have an episode next week, but the first episode will be January 5th. And so really look at, does something need to be freshened up there? This is also really important if, like me, you don’t have something different you sell depending on the time of year. For example, we’ve got clients who’ve got membership programs and single one-on-one services and masterminds. We have clients who have group programs and single one-on-one sessions and ongoing one-on-one packages. We’ve got clients who have different courses along with their one-on-one services, and those are all different outros.
And so depending on what’s being sold, there’s different promos, and that’s great. Always good to check those, but especially if you’re like me and there’s not a ton of stuff you’re selling. I’m not selling you guys programs. I’m not selling you a membership. It’s our services. You’re either launching or it’s ongoing production. Now, we do have one outlier, which is booking one-on-one time with me, which, by the way, is available in January. We have some sessions open still. So if you want to get those booked, I highly recommend doing it because generally once the new year actually lands, that fills up pretty quickly, just from past experience. So make sure you get those in. But outside of that, there’s not a lot.
So the outro of this, the promo of this show, doesn’t change dramatically based on the season of the year. And so every year, one of the things I do is I go, “Is this still relevant?” And more often than not, it gets freshened up a couple of times a year, just because you will become completely blind to it. It will have less impact because you’ve heard it so many times. And so it does get changed from here and there. We have a couple of versions that we’ll roll out, starting in January with that Podcasting 101 series. But this is a great time to look at that. All right?
The third and final thing I’m reviewing right now, and I review every year, and this is the one where you’re going to be like, “But Stacey, that’s boring,” and don’t. No, no, nope, nope, we’re not doing it. We are not doing it. You have to sit and listen to this. Or stand. Maybe you’re walking, I don’t know, but you have to listen to this.
Your systems and your process.
Really sit and, to borrow a word from my friend and my coach, Tara Newman, “debrief” your process and your systems that you are using for your podcast. Are they working for you? Is there something you need to change up? We’ve had this conversation over the last couple of weeks about scripting or not scripting, guests, and the kind of structure you have.
Look at the format of your show. Is it the format of your show that you want to have next year? By this point, I’m guessing you’ve probably done your planning for the most part. You probably have a baseline idea of what’s going to happen next year, whether you’ve written out a real tactical marketing plan, or you’ve got a general idea of what you’ll open when, or you’ve just got a list of launch dates, whatever, you have some image of what 2021 is going to look like for you. Does the format of your show right now serve that goal? Does the format of your show right now get you where you want to be? Does the system you use to record your show, does the process in which you create your content, your calendar, and you batch content, does that serve those goals? If you’ve got a revenue number in mind you want to hit, is the content you’re creating now and the process in which you’re creating content make space for the clients and the workload you’re going to need to do to get those results?
I tie this in with episode one, or tip one, rather, and looking at your top episodes, because if you’re seeing a gap and you’re saying, “I want to produce at this level. I want to do X, Y, Z,” as far as client work or whatever, “I don’t know if I’m able to produce this many shows,” cool. So where can we take those top episodes and intermix them throughout the year so you have planned breaks, so you have fixed, dedicated, already established spots where you don’t have to be at the same level of production that you normally are? That’s what I want you to be looking at: is your project management system working for your show? Very simply, the software you’re recording into. Do you need a mic upgrade? Is it time to bring in some support with production? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we can help you.
But I want you to look at, is what’s happening now serving you? And here’s the deal. It doesn’t actually mean you have to change anything right now. It certainly doesn’t mean you should change everything right now, because if you’re listening to me say this and you’re going, “For the love of God, Stacey, I want to change everything about it, and I want to bring on Uncommonly More to help. I can’t close the gap to make that work yet,” cool. Look at one thing you can change. What’s one piece that you change? Maybe it’s booking a call with me in January so we can go over those top episode topics and those intros and outros, and we can get strategic about how to repurpose content, some upgrades to your intros, outros and promos, and that’s the start of it. Maybe that’s what it is.
Figure out where you have gaps. Figure out what’s working and what’s not and then start one step at a time. All right? I told you it was going to be a quick one this week. No episode next week. We’re going to take next week off. So you’ve got two weeks to really be working through what we talked about today. Sitting down doing this, looking at your data, auditing your intros, your outros, any promos or commercials, midrolls, if you run them, and then having a real good sit down with your systems and process. If you have help and you have support with your podcast already, this is a great thing to have them help you with, by the way. A great thing. All right? All right. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being here. Happy New Year. I will see you in 2021, baby.
