3 Valuable Lessons That Lead to Better Solo Podcast Recordings

Behold…the key to better solo podcast recordings…

I remember my first solo podcast recording like it was yesterday.

I over-prepared. Wrote down far too many notes.

And even then, I was nervous.

🤔Am I going to sound like myself?

😐Will I have enough content to talk about?

🤐Is anyone in the audience going to give a damn?

I knew there was only one way to find out…

So I pressed record.

And it really wasn’t THAT bad. I spoke my piece, kept it light, and did my best to keep the energy up.

Then I hit the 15-minute mark….

Started flubbing a line. Couldn’t get passed it to save my life.

But instead of just pausing, collecting my thoughts, and getting back on track…

I HIT STOP AND DELETED THE WHOLE RECORDING!

🙄🙄🙄

Now today Me looks back at past Me in that moment and just wants to scream, “DUDE, work it out, get on track, and fix everything in post-production!”

But I was very green to the process and I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 5 Tips For Effective Solo Podcasting

So after finishing a beer and pouring a new one (it WAS a beer podcast, so I get a pass 🙂), I restarted and the episode came together.

Was it going to win any podcast awards? Not by any stretch.

But I learned three valuable lessons that ultimately led to better solo podcast recordings going forward:

1️⃣ It’s OK to eff up. Perfection is unattainable and the glaring mistakes, flubs, and fillers can be fixed in post-production. Plus…perfection is boring!

2️⃣ The parts of my recording that sounded more natural were when I was just riffing. No notes…just leaning into my zone of genius. Having too many notes and reading them verbatim sounded canned and scripted. So instead of full scripts, make a list of bullet points for the key topics you want to feature in your episode and let things flow naturally.

3️⃣ You gotta just press record and GO! Dwelling on the questions I listed above, trying to do everything perfectly, or attempting to hit an arbitrary time mark are man-made obstacles we put in front of ourselves that prevent us from starting.

And guess what? The more I recorded solo, the better I got.

Just like anything else, “practice swings” and consistent repetition made ALL the difference.

Now, I prefer recording solo podcasts over any other form of content creation.

I share this story today because you may be in the same state of mind with solo podcasting that I once was.

You want to launch a solo podcast or add solo content to your existing guest-driven episodes…

But those feelings of sounding unnatural, not having enough to talk about, or your audience tapping out because they don’t want to hear just you are stopping you from making it happen.

SNAP OUT OF IT!

You have a powerful message to bring to the world.

And it’s time to leverage the podcast medium to share it.

Questions about solo podcasting? Set up a free Discovery Session and today!