AP 0911: How Do I Schedule a Second Podcast around My First?

AskPat 911 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 911 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today, as always I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions, five days a week.

We have a great question coming in today from Stephane, but before we get to his question I do wanna thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks, one of my favorite companies, honestly, I mean they're just so cool. I've had talks with them, I've actually sat down and had a meal with them at an event once, who I speak with actually, and it's just so cool, what they're doing. And they have so many things in the works, they've just revamped their entire website and the way things work, because they've just been collecting feedback from people. And it's just a really true, honest company, and I love that. And they help you with managing your business finances, from your money coming in, to the money going out, to invoicing. They make invoicing super simple, in less than thirty seconds you can create one and bill whoever it is you need to bill. You can see who owes you, you can see who's even opened those so you can follow up properly. Just amazing what they're doing and I use them myself, and I've actually been on the receiving end of invoices going through FreshBooks too, so it's just so easy to use. So if you wanna check it out for thirty days for free and give it a free trial, all you have to do is go to FreshBooks.com/askpat, and just make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Sweet. Now here's today's question from Stephane.

Stephane: Hey Pat, Stephane here, from BazinPhotography.com. First of all, thank you for all the good work man, kudos to you my friend. My question is this, well it has two sides. First of all, I have a podcast called SB Photography Podcast, but I wanna do a new category, which is also gonna be about basically business in general. So it's gonna be SB Podcast. And my question is, since I'm already giving one podcast every week, is it fair to my photographers to now give them one podcast every two weeks? As in, I would do—this week it would be about business, the other week it would be about photography. So, would that be okay if I do that, or should I do Tuesday, photography, and on another day, would be Thursday, it's about business? So I wanted to know your input. Thank you very much.

Pat Flynn: Hey Stephane, thank you so much for the question today, I appreciate it. You know, one of my favorite things to hear about is when podcasters, after they go through a little bit of a rhythm, they wanna kinda change it up a bit. Now, that might sound kind of weird to those of you who are like, “Why would you wanna do that?” Well, what's really cool is you are looking for better ways to serve your audience, right? And I love that you're conscious about, “Well how might this take away from them, if I add this other, sort of business aspect to it?” I'm curious to know if your decision to do this was based off of just, this is something you know your photographers needed based on your audience, or have you collected survey feedback, or have you had conversations with them, knowing that this business thing would be a good thing to have?

And then really, in terms of the frequency, it's up to you, because if you go Tuesday, Thursday, or two days a week, I mean, you're gonna basically double the amount of download that you have, you're gonna have people choose between a Thursday show for business and a Tuesday one for just photography in general. And they might mix a little bit, but that's okay, but they're gonna be kind of knowing that there's this rhythm there and they can choose based on that. Whereas if it's every other week, that's fine too. I mean, this is your show, you could do it the way that you want. But I will say, if you go twice a week, it's gonna double the frequency, which is gonna double your work flow.

Now, hopefully you're using strategies to help you in terms of standard operating procedures and checklists and things like that, and just have this whole process down. Maybe you're even working with a team to help you create these podcasts, in which case it would just be very easy for you to just spend a little bit more time recording a new episode and having it be inserted on top of the episode that you already create. But actually, what I would do is actually try it out either way, and what's really cool about podcasting is it's your show, you could run it any which way you want. But let me share with you what I would do if I was in your shoes. So, Stephane, I would create an episode that would come out on my regular day, and I would have it be about business. Like, just strictly be about business, and have it really feel like a big event, the fact that, you know, “Hey, this is a different episode that's coming out.” It's one of the strategies I mentioned in my course Power-Up Podcasting, and that is to create an episode every once in a while that's much different, to kinda reset your audience, to kinda get them to say, “Oh, that was great.” Like, “Let me share that one.” You know, those kinds of things, it helps you get more exposure. But it also allows you to test whether or not your audience responds to this kind of thing. So, make a big deal out of it, make it an event, maybe there's some contest or something you can run on top of that too to gain even more access to other people who may not even be a part of your ecosystem right now. But have that go out, and then start to collect feedback. Literally ask for feedback on that episode at the very end, and say, “Hey guys, just send me a tweet or email if you liked this episode, you want more of this stuff. I'm thinking about adding it to the list of things that I do here for you, and having it be its own kind of separate day, or a different episode for you, or I might go every other week, switching between photography and business.” And then you start to collect the feedback from there, right? You don't have to make decisions right now, but what you're doing, essentially, is validating that this is something people want.

And that's what I would take the time to do, and again, you make a big deal out of it so you make sure as many people see it as possible. And then boom, it's gonna work one way or another, and then you can make an informed decision from there, instead of guessing, right? That's why I think whenever you try to do new topics on a podcast . . . Like, I love that idea, but I would make sure to test it, to micro test it first, before you actually make the commitment to do it in one way or another. Because yes, I mean, you're producing this show for your audience, and you wanna make sure you're doing right by them.

So, that's what I would recommend Stephane, and you can take it any which way you want, and some people might even say, “Hey, you know what? That could be its own podcast.” So you can actually separate it and actually have it become its own podcast, and have it be one specific stream that you could actually have to do the business stuff. But, then that adds, like, literally double the amount of work, not just adding a new episode to your show, but having a new show to actually manage. Which could work, or maybe not, but it's up to you, but that's just another option that you could play around with too, and using that strategy you get a little bit of an advantage up front, with the New and Noteworthy references, and the fact that you're a brand new show, people are gonna find you a little bit sooner. But you already have this audience already, so again, many different options, there's really no wrong way to go about it. It's kinda cool that you're wanting to add this new topic, and I think it's gonna be great; your audience is gonna love it.

So, whichever way you do it Stephane, congrats, it's gonna be great, and I look forward to hearing the results from that. So thank you again Stephane, for your, just support, here. I appreciate you. I wanna send you an AskPat teeshirt for having your question featured here on the show. And for those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show as well, just head on over to AskPat.com, and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much, I appreciate you, I appreciate all of the new students who are coming into my brand new course, PowerUpPodcasting.com. If you go there now, cart is open until next Monday at midnight, and we're taking new students, I'm holding their hand through the process of creating their own podcast, so you can have a podcast just like Stephane or me, and hundreds of other people who have gone through the course now. So, super stoked to have you in if you're in, and I'd love to see you there, PowerUpPodcasting.com, open till Monday.

Alright guys, here is a quote to finish off the day, and this is from Benjamin Franklin, and that is, “There is a difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.” Alright guys, take care, and I'll see you on the next episode of AskPat. Bye.