⏳Launch Series: Managing Your Time
While not losing your mind
Hey everybody! Shreya here. Last week, Wil touched upon how to time your launch to current events. This week, we’ll dive into how, when launching a podcast, you can make the most of your time!
I’ll share a percentage breakdown of how much time to spend planning, creating, and marketing your podcast.
Before we get to it, a quick reminder: in celebration of Tink’s fifth birthday, we’re giving $50 off of our Podcast Therapy sessions, if you book before August 19. There’s no discount code; the discount will be manually applied when we invoice you post the podcast therapy session!
⏳ Managing Your Time During Launch
I realize that most people reading this, just like most of our clients, don’t podcast full time. As someone who has many a side project, I believe that managing your time is important. Or else, that thing you love so much and are so passionate about, can quickly turn into something you resent or avoid because you could not give it the quality time you wanted to.
Let’s not let that happen to your podcast, shall we!
After working with multiple clients and friends, each of them precious about their work and time, I’ve arrived at a percentage breakdown of how much time to spend on your podcast – planning, creating, and marketing.
Start with…
Being real about how much time, on a weekly basis, you can dedicate to your podcast. Also, consider what’s sustainable in the long run, and perhaps do it right rather than doing it soon.
Then, split your time up as such:
🌗 Planning - 25%
(All the stuff that’s boring to hear but essential to say!)
Defining your boundaries – Spend some time to get clear on the basics like who’s the target audience and what’s your podcast’s purpose. Also, define what your podcast is not. Be clear with where your content boundaries lie.
Creating a content calendar - Get that spreadsheet or Airtable or Notion, and input what your calendar is going to be. Who are your guests? Do you have special segments? Answer those questions at the start.
Planning your setup - From what DAW you will use to how you (or a team member) plans to edit the show. Plan it all out and input it in your calendar. Discipline is freedom, my friends! And disciplined planning will help you be free with creativity.
🌓 Creating - 40%
(The fun stuff that you probably know all about tbh.)
Recording – Yep, that happens now!
Editing and post-production - All the heavy lifting that can make or break (truly) your podcast. From editing to adding music, this will likely take up most of your time. In fact, it perhaps should. If you have the funds to get help or outsource, this is the part you should consider outsourcing for a polished product.
Writing show notes and transcript - We’ve beaten the drum many times on the importance of show notes. Whether it be to enhance accessibility (which yes please) or SEO, you need to factor in some time to write those snazzy show notes.
🌔 Marketing - 35%
(Shameless plugin - or could be 0% if you outsource to Tink gosh wow I’m so smooth I’ll see myself out now.)
I might be incredibly biased but that does not make me wrong when I say – it’s never too early to build marketing into your podcast launch plan. Here’s what you’re setting time aside for:
Making podcast friends - Find the podcasts that are in similar or adjacent genres to yours and make friends with them. Reach out to them on social, shout out their show, and get involved with the community!
Subscribe to (and read) podcast newsletters - When your show launches, these are where you will be pitching to. So, now’s a better time than any to start reading them so your pitch can be customized and real. A few include – Podcast The Newsletter, Podstack, Pod The North, Earbuds Podcast Collective, and PodBible. There’s many more once you dive into that rabbit hole.
Social media - Right-o! See how it’s at the bottom of this list? Sigh. I’m not saying a social media presence for your podcast isn’t important. I’m just saying that, in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably the least impactful in getting real listener numbers. So, consider allocating it the least amount of time or outsourcing it.
🌝 Big picture takeaways:
Block time in your calendar for these activities; it’ll go a long way.
Allow yourself breathing room.
Don’t burn out doing the thing you love. There is an audience eager to listen to your story. Hey, maybe send it my way too?
You got this!
⭐ More Magic:
Here at Tink, Devin and Holly hosted a free webinar on Making Podcast Friends! Thanks to everyone who attended. Witness these happy faces —
Boundless Audio, a podcast network focused on empowering underrepresented voices in the space, has rebranded to Atabey & Co. [Check out this beautiful sparkly new website!] This bit from their press release pulled at my heart strings —
We chose Atabey & Co., inspired by the Taino ancestral mother, Atabey, symbolizing nurturing love and fierce power. This name also honors our Puerto Rican heritage, highlighting the strength and resilience of women.
The legendary audio drama Welcome To Night Vale is delighting our little nerdy hearts by launching a role playing game. I’ll be the faceless old woman. Who will you be?
🎨 From The Desk of Tink
We LOVE Lauren LoGrasso here! So obviously we LOVE her podcast, which is just as delightfully hilarious as her — Unleash Your Inner Creative. It’s about embracing the creative inner child that this world we live in is determined to beat out of us. This podcast sits at the wholesome intersection of creativity, spirituality, mental health, and self-development.
Thank you for reading! Next week, Wil launches a new series for August. This one is VERY close to our hearts so we can’t wait to share this with you.
Until then, stay curious!
Shreya