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When you start a podcast and start getting people to listen to it, you don’t want to leave them wondering when your next episode will drop. Usually, people who have a podcast will try to stick to a publishing schedule if they plan to make their podcast a regular thing.
Of course, there are some podcasters who only post once in a while. It’s more of a hobby for them. Either way, you’ll want to make sure your listeners know it’s something you do on a weekly or monthly basis. Try to develop a schedule and plan for all future podcast episodes. The following tips will help you create a good work plan.
Make a list of topics to cover
To start planning your podcast topics and episodes, you should have a list of topics to cover. How you make this list is really up to you. You may already know the topics for the next few months based on the type of podcast you have, so it’s just a matter of putting them in some kind of consistent order. In other cases, you will need to do some research on the topics and decide what you want to talk about.
Be sure to leave some room for flexibility, as something may come up that you really want to discuss. This will allow you to speed up the release of that episode a bit. Also consider certain events you want to cover, such as things that happen on certain holidays or seasons.
I like to use an excel spreadsheet to help me with my planning. I call it my “10×10 matrix”.
At the top, I list my main topics. The thing is, even though I “call it” my 10×10 matrix, it’s just a suggestion for ease of reference. Part of my training may have 5 or 6 main themes. About 12-15. But you get the general idea.
Under each main topic, I write the points that I want to emphasize during the training or discussion on that particular topic. This allows me to know what I am going to teach on any particular training topic on a particular day.
If you filled out the top ten rows and all ten rows in each column, you’ll have 10 top topics with 10 points each = 100 items to discuss. Therefore, the 10×10 matrix = 100 topics!
I have used this same system for years and have shared it with my clients. It also works in other niches besides podcasting. Blogging, writing articles, etc.
Use Questions/Comments for Inspiration
If you’re running out of ideas for topics for your next podcast, don’t forget to use questions or comments from some of your previously published episodes. Even when someone doesn’t specifically ask you to host a podcast on a particular topic, these interactions can still provide some good ideas.
Maybe someone makes a general comment about a part of a podcast that they liked or didn’t like. Or another listener asks a specific question about a topic you’ve already covered. These types of interactions can let you know what’s working and what’s not. It can also let you know what your listeners might want to hear next.
The important thing to remember is to “have a plan and work on the plan.” Because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!