The Magic Wand Question For Your Podcast

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Have you ever been in that place where you are wondering how to describe your podcast to somebody?

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Maybe they came up to you and said, "Tell me about your podcast."

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Now, imagine how much more stressful that might be if you were actually talking to a podcast editor about potentially

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taking on some work for your show and they said, "Hey, tell me about your show," and then you didn't know what to.

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Welcome to Hiring a Podcast Editor my name is Bryan Entzminger.

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I'm a podcast, editor and manager at TopTierAudio.com.

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This show is intended to help you be able to find the right podcast editor for you, whether you're

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looking for your first editor Or your next editor.

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In season one, we're going to help you get clarity on what you really want before you start

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connecting with editors and then provide you with the tools to make the right decision for yourself.

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This show is sponsored by TopTierAudio.com, where we provide podcast production services for

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multi-passionate coaches, trainers, and consultants.

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Be sure to stick around to the end, and I'll tell you how you can get a free tool to help you organize

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your thoughts and make sure you don't anything.

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When it comes time to describe your podcast to a potential editor, you want to make sure

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that you have all of your bases covered.

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You don't want to end up feeling like a deer in the headlights when they say, "Hey, tell me about your show."

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You want to be able to be relaxed and confident and fully engaged in that conversation.

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And so part of that is going to be making sure that you've done some of the pre-work to make sure

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that you know, how you want to describe your show.

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You want to think some of that through.

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But if you've never done this before, you might not be sure what you want to talk about - what would be important to an editor.

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And of course, as an editor, I'm happy to share with you some of those things that are important.

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Some things that might be important to cover.

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And also in case you might miss something, just make sure that we talk about these.

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Now, of course, I'm not necessarily going to hit everything.

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I'm going to share some of the things that might be important to me or some of the people that I know.

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It's not possible to cover everything, but maybe we don't necessarily need to get everything because the

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reality is, if you're talking to an astute editor, they're going to help guide you through the process too.

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But if you've got your thoughts kind of lined up, then it makes it easier.

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So, in terms of describing your show to a potential editor, I like to think of it in kind of two broad categories.

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And of course there are kind of some subcategories as well.

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But in the first broad category, I'm thinking of it in terms of describing your show, like you might describe it to a potential

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listener or to a potential advertiser or something like that, where you're saying, "I want to tell you about my show."

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I'm going to talk about what's the goal of the show?

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Who is it that the show is serving?

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Who's that audience?

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Is there a strategic fit between the show and my business or, between the show and an organization?

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How does it serve them?

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How does it serve me?

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I'm going to talk a little bit about that because I think that it's important to do that when you

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share that with the editor, because it helps them kind of get a flavor of what's important to you.

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But that's probably going to be the smaller part in terms of this conversation, because there are going to

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be other things that need to talk about that are really more of the technical or the structural aspects of your

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show, so we're going to spend most of our time on that.

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When it comes to describing the things that go into your show or the, the show itself.

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First off, I would recommend spending some time thinking about the format.

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Now, if you've not launched a show, then of course think about the format that you might expect to

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have, but if you've already launched then yeah, absolutely, talk about the format of the show.

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And in this, I'm going to think of it in terms of, is it a talk show?

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Is it an interview show or something like that?

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Where the it's basically just a conversation or perhaps a monologue or something like that,

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where it's essentially a straight through show.

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You start recording.

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It's not that you don't edit, but you start recording, and then from top to bottom, you kind

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of go through the process and that is the show.

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Think of it like a lot of the shows that you might see on TV during the day where people are talking to each

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other, maybe a panel discussion or something like that.

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That would be a talk show as compared to what I would think of as a crafted story show.

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So a crafted story would be something that could be fiction.

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It could be an audio drama or something like that.

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It could also be nonfiction.

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It could be some kind of investigative reporting, or it could be some other kind of nonfiction that's a crafted story.

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Maybe you're going out and interviewing people and you're putting together a story with lots of different people.

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That could be a part of it.

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And then the, the third kind of broad category is a little bit of a blend of multiple things,

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and I just kind of call this the variety show.

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I'm not talking about a show that occasionally breaks format.

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I'm talking about a show where there are multiple segments and they're all kind of pieced together,

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and so it's kind of a talk show and certain parts of it are produced and, and that kind of thing.

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So I call that a variety show.

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In the world of old, old TV, this might have been something where you have a host and several performers

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that come out and perform things, or you have a host and you bring on multiple guests kind of in sequence.

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That would be more of a variety show.

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After you've talked about the format or you've thought about the format, then think about the cast of the show.

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And we've already kind of touched on this as well.

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So, for either kind of show, is it a cast of just you?

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Is it a solo or a monologue show?

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Is it a show where it's co-hosted?

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Maybe there's you and one or two other hosts.

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Maybe it's a linear interview where you interview somebody and it's just you and one guest or you and two guests.

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That could also be, generally.

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A panel discussion.

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I think of a show called the Podcasters' Round Table, which is often a panel of three, or maybe even

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four people where they will talk about some topics.

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And if you want to, you can check out the Podcasters' Round Table.

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I'll make sure that there's a link in that description for you, so you can click through to that.

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And don't feel like when you're doing this, you're going to have to necessarily describe all of the

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nuances, but do kind of think that through, because some shows do tend to break format a little bit.

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So I think about one of the shows that I work on is the Christian Woman Leeadership Podcast.

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And this is a show co-hosted by Esther and Holly, but sometimes it's a monologue with one of them.

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Sometimes it's a co-hosted show with both of them.

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Sometimes it's one of them with a guest.

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Sometimes it's both of them with a guest.

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And the episodes can vary in both length and the cast of characters that are there.

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So don't feel like you have to be tied down, but at the same time, in order to be able to share that with your prospective

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editor, somebody who might be coming on your team, or you might be bringing in a, a freelancer or somebody else, you

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want to be able to share that information with them because that's going to influence how they think about your show.

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It's going to influence pricing and some of those things, and you want to make sure you've got all that stuff up front so that

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you can create something that works really well for both of you.

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And so that nobody's surpris.

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We've talked about the cast of characters.

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We've talked about the format, but we really haven't talked yet about the length of the show.

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The length matters.

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And there's two ways that I think about this length, and it's important that you get clear on both of them.

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One of them is, "How long is the raw audio that's provided?"

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in radio, they might call that, "How much raw tape do you go through," or something like that.

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So if you are generally recording an hour long interview, then generally an hour of raw audio is

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what you're putting together or what you're providing.

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And when you think through this also think through how consistent do you think that's going to be?

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Is it always going to be 35 to 40 minutes?

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Is it always going to be 60 minutes?

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Is it sometimes going to be 15 minutes and sometimes going to be two hours?

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Think through that because it's important to make sure you have those conversations.

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And then also think of it in terms of how long is the finished episode going to be.

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In some cases, this isn't going to matter that much.

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If you think about an interview that typically runs an hour of raw audio and the interview, once you're done editing

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just ends up being as long as it is, that's one thing.

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It's another thing to be taking hours of tape and needing to create a four minute episode that can

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also be played on radio or something like that.

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So make sure that you're clear on what those goals are, what those kinds of things are.

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Also think through the publishing frequency and the duration of your potential engagement.

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Are you thinking about something that's going to publish once a week forever - so ongoing production that's on a regular cadence

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- or once a month or three times a week or something like that?

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So think through, is it going to be ongoing production?

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And if so, how often is it going to be published?

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Is it something that's going to be produced in seasons where you might produce 10 episodes or 20 episodes or

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something like that, and then get them all done, and then release them all at once or release them over the course

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of several days or several weeks with, then, a planned break in between to then create your second season.

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Is it something where you're just looking for an editor to help you get launched?

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Maybe they can help you with the technical setup of your show and then maybe they help you put together

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your trailer or your Episode Zero or your 1 0 1 episode.

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I've got a friend over at Two Guys Talking that calls the first episode, "Your 1 0 1."

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You can find a link to that in the description as well, but is it going to be something like that?

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Because that will definitely affect things because...

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Not so much because it's necessarily going to affect how that editor approaches pricing, but

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it's important to be clear on this up front.

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And again, this is something that can change.

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It doesn't have to stay the same.

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For example, one of the shows I work on is the Focusrite Pro Podcast.

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When they started, it was twice a month on a very regular cadence.

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And now they're in the process of transitioning to a seasonal show where they will produce, I think 10 episodes is what

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we kinda landed on, and they'll provide all of those and we'll get those into production, get them produced, and then

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they'll take a break and they'll come back and do a season.

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But because we have those conversations in the open, it makes it pretty easy to have the conversation

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around what kind of turnaround time do we need?

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Is it important that they always get them back at a certain time so they can hit a regular production schedule?

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Or is it something where we will get them released when we get them released?

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It all can vary.

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And like I said, all of this stuff is important.

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It can all be negotiable in the sense that you can have a conversation.

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But if you know what you want to talk about, then that can definitely help you get some clarity.

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Now what you have to do is important and your show is important.

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So go out there and make a great podcast.

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If you'd like to be able to get the clarity you need to avoid making a hiring mistake, be sure to download our

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guide 15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor.

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You can find it at hireapodcasteditor.com/15questions, and it'll be linked up in the show notes.

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It's totally free.

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We don't require an email address or anything like that.

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We just want to make sure that you have the tools that you need to make the right decision for you.

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That guide has the questions we'll talk about on this show, some instructions and suggestions, even a place to take notes.

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If you want to get even more out of it, though, be sure to subscribe to the show at hireapodcasteditor.com/listen

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and share it with the rest of your team.

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Your work is important.

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Now.