In my next three blogs, I will be looking at podcast planning for 2023. By separating the plan into three distinct phases, I’ll give you a roadmap to follow and get yourself primed for a New Year of podcasting success — even better than this year!
In each phase, adjust your lens to whatever hat you wear as:
- The podcaster/producer of your own show
- The producer/consultant/editor of MANY shows
- A business owner who has a podcast either as the main axis for conversation OR as a branch of your overall marketing/outreach
If you have been following us for the last two weeks, then you have already taken a podcasting inventory of 2022, noting ALL of your accomplishments, which is a great place to start!
And, you have set yourself up to end the year with a bang by planning for everything you need to get done in order to publish your last 2022 episode and take some well-earned podcaster vacation time over the holidays.
Now, let’s get started with podcast planning for 2023!
What if in 2023 you didn’t have to do EVERYTHING you did in 2022?
Bold statement right?
Look back at this year and evaluate.
Is there a way to streamline your workload? Can you let go of something that you’re doing just because someone said you should? What actually is working for your show?
Take the first steps to plan your content by looking at your investment in time both for production and from a calendar perspective:
- Do you want to keep on producing content at the same frequency that you did this year? Is your current schedule working for you? Is there another schedule you have been toying with but feel like you are too scared to try?
- Will there be any family/work periods during 2023 that may make “business as usual” untenable? Think about business or vacation trips, summer break, etc., anytime that you will be off your daily schedule.
- At a minimum, look at Q1/Q2 (aka January through June) so you are starting with a fresh look at the first half of the year..
- Think about how your MIA times affect your production. Did you have to scurry this past year, or maybe just work ahead a bit, or skip an episode? Keep this in mind.
- Look at the whole year and break down how many episodes you will be publishing in 2023 — I want you to really look at that number — are you willing to commit to it?
For those of you that are reading this as podcasting professionals, start to get clear on your capacity to scale OR not.
How many shows are enough? How many clients are enough?
Capacity — what does this look like for you?
The blessing of looking back at the year is that you get an opportunity to learn from your mistakes as well as adjust based on what actually happened.
- Look at 2022 as a whole, how did you respond to the highs and lows both personally and professionally? This is when you look with eyes wide open at your everyday life, from health and productivity to WFH, family commitments and everything in between. Take note of those things that impacted you the most.
- Did you learn something from your podcast working style?
- What were you really able to commit to and really follow-through on with your podcast?
- What was simply too much? Just enough? Open to more?
👆🏽The answer to those questions is to make sure that you set yourself up for success in the coming year, regardless of what the year throws at you. Since 2020, life has fundamentally shifted for many, and it continues to require that we be nimble with our choices, re-adjust, and re-align so that we can keep on doing what we want to do.
Looking at your capacity to do so will help you figure out what you can commit to, what you need help with, and what you need to let go.
On to Podcast Planning Phase 2 — Growth Goals
Now that you have revisited your actual workload in 2022 and the effects that it had (positive and negative), we want to use this as a starting place for what you can realistically accomplish in 2023.
From this point, we will move on to your goals for growth 2023 — Phase 2 is all about where you see your podcast going in next year and exactly how you are going to get there!
