Make 2022 your best year yet in podcasting.
Whether you are the type to set resolutions and actually follow them, falter somewhere around mid-February (stop glaring at me, dusty treadmill in the corner), or prefer to call them something else such as goals or a business plan, having a vision provides you a roadmap of what you’re doing, and why you are doing it. The new year is a great time to recalibrate and reframe how you go about recording and promoting your show, plus seeing what’s already working and how far you’ve come!
We don’t need more holiday stress, so I wanted to keep it simple with FOUR easy and fun New Year’s Resolutions you may consider this year for your podcast. Feel free to focus on all four throughout the year, or just pick one and try to really get comfortable with it.
1. Get Specific About What It Is You Want
It’s very common to just desire more followers, downloads and a larger social media network, but what exactly does that mean to you. For some podcasts, having 60 downloads and reaching that 200th Instagram follower is fantastic and is the next ladder up on the step. For others, reaching their millionth download and selling 20 merch pieces a week may be their next move. I invite you to get REALLY nerdy in early 2022 and write down specific numbers and goals for almost every aspect of your podcast.
It’s easier to gauge progress when you say “I’d like 30 more email subscribers per month” than “a bigger email list.” If you have other podcasters in your life, host a “pod party” where everyone does this together and brainstorm how they can help one another. Over pizza and drinks, you can write down your specific goals and check in every couple months to see how it’s going. Please invite me to this party, it sounds nice.
2. Go Deeper With Your Guests
Deep and insightful conversations are not just reserved for Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, they can be for you too. I spoke with Jeff Sirkin, host of the Long Story Short podcast, where he shares the stories of marketers and their brands in a compelling way. For 2022, he plans to dive in even more. Jeff said, “A resolution that I have is to focus on having conversations that interest me and going DEEPER with our guests.
Often, the thought is that if you go too deep into conversations, they will become less interesting to your audience. However, when you keep things surface-level, it can be too generic. The audience isn’t really that interested, and it’s easier to find myself checking out of the conversation. If something is interesting to me, it will only make it more interesting to listen to!”
3. Realize That Whatever Stage of the Game You Are In, You Can Always Learn
For podcast vets, it’s easy to feel like we’ve put in the work and now get to curl up in the sunshine and take a nap. Unfortunately for us, but good for this article, there’s always more to learn. For me personally, my 2022 podcast resolution is to learn how to actually use TikTok to promote my show, and then post one video on the platform a week. For podcast newbies, the goal itself may be just to keep consistently growing and getting into a rhythm of promoting your show.
Historian and comedian Dawn Brodey recently launched her show, HILF: History I’d Like To F**K, and the response to it has been even better than she imagined. Dawn hit it out of the park with her launch, and now shares her resolution for 2022. “For me, it’s about getting to the next layer outside my family, friends and social media. I’ll be inviting guests on that I don’t know personally, and promoting in groups outside of my initial sphere.”
4. Get In Shape – But In Podcast Shape
There is typically so much of an emphasis on health and wellness for our resolutions, which is great, and we can copy that over to podcasting. It’s a great resolution to “trim the gristle” off your show and make sure your description is current, your art is high quality, and your RSS feed is healthy and working in all areas. Once a year in January, I’ll pour an extra large eggnog and go through all the places I know our show is, and make sure they are working and everything is in order. I keep an excel spreadsheet so I know my progress.
Be sure to tell us about any of your resolutions, and be sure to check out our Editor’s Pick section on Blubrry for some inspiration for examples of both great guests and shows.
Happy podcasting!
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