The 2 Ways To Start A Podcast

We kick off the second season of the Podcast on Podcasting by first talking about starting a podcast. In my experience, there are two main personality types when it comes to planning and executing any creative vision — those that plan and those that do.

Though neither is better than the other, both have difficulties that will need to be overcome to produce the best podcast possible. Whether that’s getting stuck planning every detail of your podcast but never actually getting in front of the mic or the polar opposite where you just record whatever comes out of your mouth without much thought, knowing what type of personality you have and the problems you’re most likely going to deal with puts you in the driver’s seat.

Join me on this episode of the Podcast on Podcasting to better understand yourself and get your podcast up to snuff even faster.

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Episode transcript:

In working with countless creative people during my career, I’ve found that they all follow one of two paths when starting a new project. In my experience, creative people either meticulously plan out every detail before getting started or they jump in with both feet and figure it out as they go.

Determining which type of person you are can save you untold hours, as well as needless difficulty and frustration.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting with me, your host, Matthew Stevens from Q’d Up Audio.

Now, before we get started, I want to stress that neither one is better than the other. I’ve seen both types of people find massive success in their projects and lives. However, each personality type comes with its own challenges that must be met. That’s why it’s so important to know which personality type you are so you can quickly get on the right path and make better content

Let’s first define the two personality types . . . I call them planners and movers. 

When it comes to starting a podcast, planners will determine their target audience, their competition, which hosting platform they want to use, a list of guests they’ll reach out to, the music and tone they want to use throughout the show, so on and so forth. 

While that’s all great information to have and I truly believe that every podcaster should at least think of these things, planners also tend to take forever to actually produce something. There are a million reasons for this but in speaking with the planners that I know, they’ve been more anxious and concerned about actually performing up to the standards they’ve set during their planning phase. They’ve envisioned something so well that they stress about executing that vision — which makes creating even harder.

On the other hand, movers have an idea and jump in with reckless abandon. Because they haven’t planned much, their first episodes are often far sloppier and can jump all over the place until they find what they like. So, that time saved during the initial planning phase isn’t really saved, it’s just spread out over a bunch of episodes. Podcasts made by movers can also require far more editing to make a cohesive finished product and movers can fall into the trap of never knowing who their target audience is, seeing lower audience engagement and retention as a result.

Like I said, neither of these personality traits is better than the other. Both have their own specific challenges and of course, each has their own unique solutions too. While both types can produce amazing podcasts without ever thinking about what personality type they are, let me tell you, it’s a hell of a lot easier to put out consistently great content when you understand how you work and know how to work around your weak spots.

For my movers, force yourself to put your idea down on paper in the form of a rough show playbook. That will include things like your target audience and the goal of your podcast, two things I truly believe you need to know to have a successful podcast. Then refer back to it when you’re making decisions on your podcast to guide you in the right direction.

For those planners out there, trust your process and yourself. You’ve written out and wrung your hands over every detail, so you know you’ve done it right. No matter if you’re the host or not, get someone on the mic immediately and carry this podcast across the finish line. If you’re concerned about being biased during the editing phases, bring on a production team like Q’d Up Audio to help out. A production team like Q’d Up can help pull you out of the end of the process, allowing your initial vision to shine through.

I want everyone to sit down and really think about what type of personality they have. Figure out what difficulties you’ve had because of your creative process and write down a few plans to combat those issues. That way when you go to make another podcast or even another episode, you’re working with your personality type instead of against it.

Have fun, trust the processes, and trust yourself. Now go create some amazing podcasts and share them with us on Twitter at qdupaudio or with myself at matthews_pod.