Hosting a podcast comes with a variety of fears that you’ll need to overcome—don’t worry I’m here to help navigate those! But one of the most common fears I get from people is hosting solo episodes. Whether you’re nervous about creating a flowing conversation, unfamiliar with how to approach planning them, or maybe you don’t ever want to host them unless you have to; the next two episodes will help you overcome those roadblocks.
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Mic Check Society
Today’s episode is brought to you by Mic Check Society, a community for podcasters. Each month, I’m dropping an exclusive training, hosting a monthly hot-seat call and coworking sessions, plus you’ll get access to our Facebook group to connect with and network with other podcasters!
The Benefits of Publishing Solo Podcast Episodes
I believe solo shows offer so many benefits to podcasts, ESPECIALLY podcasts that were built to serve as a marketing tool in your business.
Before we jump in, I want to clarify that a solo podcast interview consists of just you, the host, sharing with your audience. You don’t have a guest or cohost—it’s just you.
You may be wondering why anyone would want to do that, but there are quite a few reasons!
Connect With Your Audience
Solo episodes allow you to talk directly to your audience—which creates a relationship through building that one-on-one connection. I like this approach because I can easily talk directly to you, my listeners. The relationship you build with your listeners can have a direct impact on growing your audience. Connecting with your listeners in a more personable way creates return listeners!
Control the Messaging of the Episode
Solo episodes also allow you to easily market your end goal. For example, if you’re launching a big project, it’s easier to mention it and drive traffic to those particular things in your business when you’re creating a solo episode. When you have a guest on, you have to make them your priority. It’s important to understand that you can better plan your content to align with these marketing messages when you’re creating solo episodes.
Flexibility in Your Schedule
There are a number of steps and considerations that get added to your plate when you have guests on, including pitching, scheduling, and potentially even rescheduling. When you’re creating solo episodes, you get to work on your time.
Considerations When Hosting Solo Episodes
- Should you mix different formats: I think absolutely UNLESS your show is specifically geared to be talking to other people.
- How long should my solo episodes be?: I think a good rule of thumb is under the 30-minute mark, but that’s a personal opinion. I tend to stay under 15 minutes or less for all of my episodes, but that’s because I want to be very intentional about my episodes and respect listeners’ time.
- How do I keep the flow going?: If you’re just getting started with solo episodes, this is a really great question, and I believe it takes practice. Next week’s episode is actually going to cover this topic in more detail.
Join Mic Check Society
Now, if you’re using a podcast for your business and are looking for a resource to help you continue to grow your podcast in a way that serves your business, make sure you check out Mic Check Society. We have a community of podcasters sharing their questions, concerns, successes, and more in one Facebook group.
Members of Mic Check Society also have access to monthly training from industry experts, hot-seat calls with those experts, silent coworking sessions, and resources to help your podcast succeed.
Links Mentioned In Today’s Episode:
Catch The Show Notes:
The Benefits of Publishing Solo Podcast Episodes (1:30)
What is a Solo Episode (1:50)
Connect with Your Audience (2:20)
Control the Messaging of The Episode (2:40)
Flexibility in Scheduling (3:33)
Considerations (5:40)
Review the Transcript:
Hosting a podcast comes with a variety of fears that you’ll need to overcome—don’t worry I’m here to help navigate those! But one of the most common fears I get from people is hosting solo episodes. Whether you’re nervous about creating a flowing conversation, unfamiliar with how to approach planning them, or maybe you don’t ever want to host them unless you have to; the next two episodes will help you overcome those roadblocks.
Now if you’ve been around here for a while, you know that most of my episodes are solo shows, that’s because I have a fear of interviews, but I’m working through that. Even podcast hosts who have been doing this for a while can admit to working on improving things in their own podcast.
I believe solo shows offer so many benefits to podcasts, ESPECIALLY podcasts that were built to serve as a marketing tool in your business.
Before we jump in, I want to clarify that a solo podcast interview consists of just you, the host, sharing with your audience. You don’t have a guest or cohost—it’s just you.
Why would anyone want to do that? Well, there are a couple of reasons!
First, as a host, it allows you to talk directly to your audience—which creates a relationship through building that one on one connection. I like this approach, because I can easily talk directly to you, my listeners.
Additionally, it helps you to control the messaging of the episode. By this, I don’t mean that a guest’s knowledge keeps you from doing this, because the purpose of the guest episodes is typically to share their expertise. What a solo episode does is allow you to market your end goal with ease. For example, if you’re launching a big project, it’s easier to mention it and drive traffic to those particular things in your business when you’re creating a solo episode. When you have a guest on, you have to make them your priority.
I think too, it’s important to understand that you can better plan your content to align with these marketing messages when you’re creating solo episodes.
Last, but not least, releasing solo episodes on your podcast creates more flexibility in your schedule. There are a number of steps and considerations that get added to your plate when you have guests on, including pitching, scheduling, and potentially even rescheduling.
Now that we know the benefits, I do want to share a few considerations that you’ll need to keep in mind, and I’ll be sharing them right after this break.
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So here are a few things that you should consider if you want to host solo episodes:
- Should you mix different formats: I think absolutely UNLESS your show is specifically geared to be talking to other people.
- How long should my solo episodes be? Well I think a good rule of thumb is under the 30 minute mark, but that’s a personal opinion. Y’all know I tend to stay under 15 minutes or less for all of my episodes, but that’s because I want to be very intentional about my episodes and respect your time.
- How do I keep the flow going? Now, if you’re just getting started with solo episodes, this is a really great question, and i believe it takes practice but I’m actually doing an entire episode on planning for solo podcast episodes next week, so make sure you tune in next tuesday.
