How to AVOID Mistakes in Your Podcast from The Audacity to Podcast

The Audacity to Podcast

Daniel J. Lewis

Episodes

How to AVOID Mistakes in Your Podcast

29 minutes Posted Mar 29, 2016 at 6:27 am.

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Throughout this episode, I'll liken podcasting to piano performance. (The Real Brian would be proud!)

1. Prepare

As the proverb goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” My worst episodes have always been when I didn't spend enough time preparing.

Don't only prepare what you want to say, but how you want to say it and how you want to transition between things. This will significantly reduce how much you'll have to fix and speed up your podcast-editing.

You don't have to script your podcast. But I have found that “scripting” is a great way to prepare the content and presentation, even if I don't read from that script.

(Here's the iPad teleprompter and PromptSmart Pro app I use for my video shoots.)

This is like learning the music a pianist is going to perform. They don't have it perfect, yet, but they're still preparing the finer details.

For fewer podcasting mistakes, prepare more!Click To Tweet

2. Practice

After you have prepared the “what” and “how” of your communication, practice it!

There have been several times I threw away an episode I had just recorded because I thought I didn't communicate well. Then, when I rerecorded it, the episode was far better. Why? Because that first recording was essentially a “dress rehearsal.”

But you don't have to practice an entire episode. Sometimes, concert pianists will practice only small sections over and over until they play it perfectly every time.

Practicing doesn't even have to be out loud. You might simple review your notes and remind yourself how you'll be transitioning or specific things you want to say.

3. Slow down

There's nothing wrong with going fast. But as with driving, it's easier to crash when you're going faster. Sometimes, you may simply need to slow down so you don't stumble over your words or start adding filler words.

If necessary, pause completely. It's far easier to edit out long silences (or short, if you used your recorder's pausing feature) than to edit out bad content.

Slowing down isn't only for your presentation. You may also need to slow down with everything else around your podcast.

Are you rushing your preparation? Are you in too much of a hurry to publish an episode that you forget important things?

There are times to be fast and times to be slow. Like the performing pianist, you may simply need to slow down on the difficult parts.

4. Review

Reviewing is something you can do both before and after you record your episodes. Reviewing beforehand is a form of practice. Reviewing afterward is a form of quality control.

I'm not necessarily recommending that you relisten or rewatch your complete episode looking for things that need to be fixed. But reviewing can be a good way of finding those big distractions or things you might have forgotten to edit because you were so focused on the smaller details.

Reviewing could take only a few minutes to jump around to particular spots or double- and triple-check the common areas where you struggle.

Overcast is a my favorite podcast app for iOS. If you support the app as a patron, then you can unlock an “uploads” feature. This is perfect for listening to your draft MP3 through your podcast app.

5. Fix as appropriate

Sometimes, a mistake makes it way through and you have a few choices. You could either continue without acknowledging the mistake, like a good piano performer would do. Or, you could correct the mistake in the moment, like a communicator should usually do. Or, you could takedown the mistake altogether (and perhaps force a redownload of the fixed version).

Listen to “How to Fix a Podcast Mistake” for some practical and technical tips on what to do when something goes wrong with your podcast.

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