7 Podcasting Mistakes I Made That You Should Avoid

When I started my podcast in 2020, I made many mistakes. In today’s post, I want to share with you some of the most prominent ones that had a negative impact on my success.

By avoiding these mistakes, your podcast can grow faster.

Let’s dive in!

I Did Not Prepare My Guest For The Conversation

When I started my podcast, I used Zoom and set it to record as soon as the call began.

That was a huge mistake. Without preparing my guests beforehand, I created an awkward situation where we began recording even before I let the guests know what would happen in the call.

Since then, I moved to Riverside and made it a habit to chat with my guests and set expectations before hitting the record button.

Those little chats consist of checking in with the guest and seeing that they’re good to do the interview, giving them a chance to bring a bottle of water, or maybe setting up their lighting. Then, we go over what the interview will cover. I assure the guests I won’t give them any questions they aren’t prepared to answer.

After we finish the recording, I don’t end the call immediately. Instead, I will stop the recording and continue chatting with the guest to ensure they’re happy with everything they shared on the call.

I Neglected My Podcast Platform

To this day, I still have a massive problem with my production funnel. Dumping the file to YouTube is so much easier, but I also need to send it through podcasting platforms.

And I had only done that for 25 episodes at this point.

Don’t make that mistake.

Build a system around your podcast production. These days, I do publish any new episodes at the same time as on YouTube. I need to fill in the gap in previous episodes.

I Did Not Start an Email List For My Podcast

Starting an email list for your podcast from Day one is one of the best things you can do for your podcast.

Imagine growing it to hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands. If they like what you do, they will listen to your podcast and will help you rise in the podcast ranks.

Don’t rely on the different platforms’ algorithms. Build your own traffic channel by offering an email list from day one.

I Did Not Transcribe My Podcast

Transcribing your podcast will help search engines understand and rank it.

We’re nearing the day when AI will do that for you, but AI is still faulty and will make mistakes. Especially if your podcast is in the entertainment industry and you discuss fictional terms.

Besides, transcribing your audio enables disabled people to enjoy it, and that’s always a cool thing to do.

The easiest way to transcribe your podcast is by uploading it to YouTube, letting it transcribe it with AI, and then fixing its mistakes.

You can then download the file from YouTube Studio and use it elsewhere.

I Did Not Repurpose My Episodes

Understanding this bit made a HUGE difference in my views, especially on YouTube.

Imagine this: I published an interview, and it got around 2000 views after a week. Nice right?

But then I took one question from that interview and made it its own video. It got over 20k views. What?!

Yes, it’s true! Repurposing your podcast into shorter bits will bring more awareness to it! So don’t forget to do it.

Today, it’s especially effective with shorts and TikTok.

I Did Not Outreach Clearly

A massive mistake you can make in your interview outreach is being unclear.

What do I mean?

Well, if you start an email to your potential guest with how much their work is important, how glad you are to contact them, and how much you love them, you’re wasting your potential guest’s short attention span and move your email from the “interesting” to “spam” bucket.

Doing so will result in not getting the replies you want. Instead of doing that, you should be specific and clear.

Answer the following three questions clearly in your email and nothing more:

• Who are you?

• What do you want?

• What’s the context?

Providing context like previous videos your guest can look at is supremely important to allow them to set an expectation for the call.

Knowing what to expect dramatically reduces the pressure, and sometimes, sending over some previous interviews for your guest to watch may affect their decision to work with you if they like what they see.

I Did Not Optimize Meeting Scheduling

As a beginner interviewer, scheduling is one of the most annoying things to do.

You go back and forth with your guests about whether they can or can’t meet on specific dates.

It’s time to move on to using services for that.

Calendly is a fantastic example of one such service that takes away the pain of doing those meetings.

I use Calendly for my interviews. It connects directly to my Google Calendar. That way, I can define what days I’m available and what days I’m not. I can also define how much notice I need if someone wants to schedule a meeting on my calendar.

It made scheduling very easy for me. If you don’t need more than one type of meeting, Calendly is free to use.

What Next?

Now that you know what to avoid, you need to keep going. Publish more episodes, optimize them, and ensure they’re shared.

The most important thing you can do for your podcast is to build a system around it that would make the whole process take less brain power.

We can talk about ways to do that in future posts.

As always, if you have any questions about anything I discussed above, feel free to hit reply and let me know or comment below if you’re reading this on the website!

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