What you should cover in your first few episodes

Now that you have your trailer episode out of the way, let's take a look at what you've got planned for your first few episodes.

Open up your Production Schedule and see what your plan looks like.

Are these strong episodes?

Do they answer a particular question?

If you're planning on having guests - are these guests likely to share your podcast episode to their following?

It's important with the first few episodes to really hit people in the face with value. Obviously you want every episode to be jam-packed full of value, but when we go through the launch plan, you'll understand why it's so important to really think about these first few episodes.

Take a moment to see what you have, and if necessary, fiddle with the release if you feel like they aren't strong enough.

You only get the opportunity to launch your show once, so it's good to launch with some absolutely gold content if you can.

Transcript:

00:00
Welcome to Pump Up Your Pod What should your first few podcast episodes cover? If you're just new to podcasting, you haven't started your show yet? It's going to be a kind of question that you're going to be asking yourself, I want to make a big impact from my first few episodes, I want people to really tune in, and I want them to enjoy it. So what can I deliver to people that I feel like is going to connect the best?

So first of all, I guess we have to have that discussion about is it a solo podcast? Or is it a guest based podcast? Are you doing interviews? Or are you doing mostly solo content, those sorts of things, because obviously, that will decide for you what your first few episodes are going to be about.

Perhaps, if we just look at the solo episodes as an example, we want these to be the low hanging fruit type episodes. So the kinds of questions that you get all the time from clients or from customers, from friends, or anyone in your social network, anything like that, those are the things that you need to cover first, those are the things you're going to know the most about. And it's actually going to make you look and sound like you really know what you're talking about. Because this is a topic that you know so much about. So it's easy for you to talk about it without feeling like you have to be overly scripted, or you have to try really hard to get the information because it's just so in your head, it's like the FAQ is on your website. So that's the low hanging fruit that we want to make sure we really hit in those first few episodes. And I would take a moment to actually think about that have five or six episodes that you feel like you could really rattle off and make them really Schmuck, because you only get a chance to impress once.

So if you've got a new show, and you're launching it, your subscribers, the people that are in your social network, the mailing list, people, you know, anyone in your sort of realm of life and business, they're probably going to tune in to those first few episodes, because that's when you've promoted it most heavily, I would say. So they're gonna go to this, if the audio quality is not good, if the content is not good, they're going to assume that it's going to continue in that trajectory, it's going to continue to be subpar. So if you come at it with good quality audio, and high value, low hanging fruit type stuff, you're going to have the best chance of actually hooking them and getting them to press that follow or subscribe button, so that they will continue to listen in.

Now, if you have a guest based podcast, I would still really want you to be open to the fact that a few solo episodes in that first few weeks is something you should look at doing. Because unless you can establish from your guest episodes, who you are, a person coming to your show will be interested to know why they should care about you interviewing someone. So if you haven't established that you're a leader in some particular field, or that you know something about some particular thing, anything like that, if you just launched with a bunch of guest episodes, then there'll be like, Okay, well, unless you're an amazing interviewer, and that's what you're known for, you're gonna need to establish that groundwork as to who you are as a person and why an interview with you would be something that someone would want to tune into.

So don't treat your podcasts like not, I'm only going to have guest episodes, be open to the fact that you're going to need more than that to keep someone listening. If they don't really know who you are, you have to establish that connection first, then when you actually get to the guest episodes, you have to be quite strategic with this. Because again, this is where people are going to be going, Oh, who are they interviewing? Oh, that's an interesting person, I'm definitely going to follow because they're interesting. And they're obviously going to have more interesting people on this show based on what I can see here from other episodes that they've released already. But you don't want to have anyone too big on your show to begin with. Because you don't want to peak too early. And this might be different to what you hear elsewhere, you know, launch with your highest value, biggest guests, because you might not be as good an interview or even from those first few episodes with a new podcast. So in fact, I would say you want to go for guests that are kind of in that middle level that they have decent enough social followings that maybe they have a good mailing list, maybe you know them on a more personal level.

So it's got to be the kind of guests that Do you feel like they would support you, with the new show someone that if you provide them with some sort of graphics with some sort of assets to go with the show to promote it, then they would share it on their social platforms, because in that first few weeks of your podcast, this is where you're trying to establish the listener base. And if you have quality guests on there that feel like they will support you that they will share that they will help you out, then you are going to reach a larger audience that way, if you go for your big guest first, not enough people will know about your show. Yeah. And although you can search key phrases they can search for, you know, these guests just on their Apple podcasts, or their Spotify, and they may see your show there. If the guest is too big, the guest has been on a whole bunch of shows already as well, which means that even when they search in the key phrase for that guest, your episode isn't likely to show up, because you don't have a big audience yet. And so where you show up in the search is much lower.

This is something that I go through in our more premium experience within the pod lovers. This is like the high level how do we get more people in? How do we establish this connection? And how do we really focus on who we're targeting and how we're getting to this new audience. So it's not something I'll cover right now. But it is something to be aware of that that guest that you have, needs to be a mid range type of guests that you feel like we'll support you. And then as you grow, then you can start to have the bigger guests on because you've got the download numbers behind you, you've got a bit of an audience behind you already. And those bigger guests are going to be more likely to share.

The other comment I'll make on this, regarding these first few episodes is what else are you providing, from a graphics point of view, to promote it? So if you are to have a guest on your show, and you're wanting them to share something, is the graphic that you're providing them with going to hold up? Is it something that's good enough for them to go, Oh, that looks nice, I'd be happy to share that on my feed to my stories on my reels to my mailing list subscribers, if the graphic isn't good enough, if it looks poor, if it looks homemade, you know, and you've targeted a guest that's kind of in that mid tier, they're not likely to share it, it has to be something that they really look at and go, Oh, that looks cute. I'll share it. And I will cover graphics in other episodes. And certainly it is covered in our more advanced sort of programme stuff. But keep that in mind. In that first few weeks, what are the graphics that you are providing to support the show? That's for solo episodes and guests episodes. You can have a quality episode. And if you haven't provided any sort of graphic to go with it that you can share on your socials, you're not going to get the impact that you want. Because you don't have a way to promote it. That is interesting enough for someone to click through, go to your Lincoln bio, go to your website, find out more and actually listen to that podcast episode.

So it's more than just chucking a bunch of episodes up there. And you know, just getting through your content. These first few episodes are important. They are setting you up to Who are you What do you know, what are you a leader in the content that you get asked all the time, that FAQs that you feel like you could rattle off and those mid tier guests that you feel would really support you that you feel like you could connect with and that you can provide them with graphics that will support that. So that's it for today.

I hope that that really cements in your mind what you should do for your first few episodes. If you haven't launched your podcast yet, you want to DIY yourself, go and join. Let's get launchy the programme, which is my online programme, it teaches you all about how to DIY your own show teaches you how to record how to edit how to mix it. scripting for your intro outro for your trailer episode, documentation, schedulers, tutorials for different programmes and things that you can use to record your guests like it's such a good programme. I'm enjoying it so much. And I'd love to see you in there. So there'll be more information on that in the actual description below here. And yeah, I hope you having a good day and I will talk to you again soon.