Dave and Chris have been publishing ShopTalk Show for roughly 10 years. And they just rolled over episode 500 which is worth at least a few milkshakes in celebration.
As I’ve written about many times, Chris & Dave were my first podcast editing client that helped kickstart me on a year long journey of transitioning from WordPress clients to 100% podcast related clients. Big thanks to Dave for thinking of me and reaching out when he did.
Speaking of Dave, he wrote up a blog post titled “Five Hundred ShopTalks” and he’s got some good nuggets for podcasters:
The biggest lesson I’ve learned about podcasting over the last 10 years: it’s all about consistency and quality. Releasing on a consistent day/week/etc (whatever that is for your show) and making sure the show you send to people’s earbuds and cars is a good quality audio file; that means good mic, good edit, decent music and audio cues.
Dave Rupert
In watching them from the producer / editor sidelines, I would upvote the consistency idea for podcasts. Not for the listeners – though they appreciate it when your episode is there each week. But for you, the host of the podcast. Take it from someone who has started and fizzled out on many podcasts of my own over the years: once you fall off the schedule, it’s way harder to get back on schedule. It’s like your brain suddenly realizes you’re allowed to skip a week – and then it becomes two. And before you know it, 10 years go by.
One other thing that’s helped Chris & Dave maintain a podcast over 10 years is at a fork in the road, choose whatever is easiest:
The other thing Chris and I talk about often is that whenever we’ve needed to make a decision we’ve always sided on making our lives easier and we have no regrets. This allows us to continue to enjoy the podcasting with less stress. For example, I use a USB mic with no audio interface, because easier. We don’t do high concept shows that often, because easier. We don’t typically have more than two guests, because easier. We pay an audio editor, because easier. “Easier” has been a good compass for us.
Emphasis mine – naturally. 🙂 Hiring out an editor like me to take the “grunt” work out of producing a weekly podcast means you get to to the fun stuff – having a conversation that’s recorded – without having to worry about any of the other stuff you don’t like doing: editing out mistakes, adding in sponsor spots, writing up show notes, checking links, setting up the episode in your CMS and podcast host, publishing it out to the world.
Want to hire someone like me just like Dave & Chris have done? Get in touch!
