In this episode of Podjunction, hosts Sadaf Beynon and Matt Edmundson discuss the challenges and strategies of podcasting to grow a business. They share personal experiences and insights from their guest, Skip Wilson, who highlights the initial struggle of creating content that feels like it goes into the void, the importance of consistency in posting, and the concept of maintaining parasocial consistency in character roles.

• Consistency in Posting: Skip highlights how crucial it is to maintain a regular posting schedule for your podcast. While recording times can vary, ensuring that new episodes are consistently published on a set schedule helps build and retain an audience.
• Finding Your Voice and Style: Starting out, Skip encourages podcasters to focus on finding their unique voice and style. This involves gaining confidence and comfort through continuous practice, and understanding that initial content may not immediately reach a wide audience, which serves as valuable training ground.
• Storytelling and Character Consistency: Effective storytelling is vital for creating an engaging podcast. The episode emphasises that Hosts should maintain consistent themes and character roles within their episodes to provide a coherent and reliable experience for listeners, enhancing listener engagement and loyalty.

If you enjoyed this episode of Podjunction and want to dive deeper into the world of podcasting, don't miss out on our future episodes! Subscribe now on your favourite podcast platform and join our Podjunction Cohort to connect with other podcasters and access exclusive content. Start transforming your business with the power of podcasting today!

Skip Wilson | How to Master Podcast Consistency

So whether you're a podcasting newbie or a seasoned podcaster, this episode is for you.

Matt Edmundson: Well, hello, welcome to Podjunction. My name is Matt. Beside me is the talented Sadaf Beynon, and we're here to talk to you about podcasting and how to use it to grow your business. That's the plan. That's the aim. That's the strategy for today. Is that right? Have I got that right?

Sadaf Beynon: That is right. Absolutely.

100 percent correct. Woohoo!

You know, I mean, he, he did super well, bless him, but it was so, there was so much tradition in this graduation ceremony, uh, that it just, it just tickled me because when I graduated from university, I think, you know, I think I was saying, If I got a high five from the Chancellor as I went past, I did well, I think, whereas Josh, oh no, there was a whole lot more to it than, uh, than that, so, um, he's definitely top of his class and he's graduated, so, yeah, that was the link, that was the segue, by the way, uh, was, was Josh, uh, being top of his class,

Sadaf Beynon: so,

Sadaf Beynon: It was a long time ago.

Matt Edmundson: Was it?

Sadaf Beynon: What? Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Oh yeah, it's Wednesday today, as we're recording this.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's my first day back in the office, to be fair.

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, we had some good friends visiting us. From the States. Oh, good friends. Yeah, as opposed to just friends. Yeah. Okay, so I

Matt Edmundson: Like this, I'm just drop my pen.

No, no, I'll get in a bit. So good friends, right? Here's my question for you then What what what makes a good friend versus a friend? Like, am I on the friends list or am I a good friend?

Sadaf Beynon: You'd be on the good friends list.

Matt Edmundson: You have to say that. I have to say that.

But when I'm not listening, what list am I on?

Sadaf Beynon: You're on the good friend list. We're on the acquaintance list. It's the, no, it's, it's the friends you can laugh with.

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Sadaf Beynon: Lots of laughter.

Matt Edmundson: Lots of laughter. Yeah. Very good, so good friends, who are your good friends, uh, you can use podcasting to grow your good friends, just pointing that out, anyway, maybe that's a whole new podcast, podcastyourwaytobetterfriendship.

Sadaf Beynon: we are, um, having Skip Wilson back on.

Matt Edmundson: Legend. And he is

Sadaf Beynon: going to be talking about some of the challenges he's faced in podcasting.

Matt Edmundson: Ooh, podcast challenges, dun dun. Are they like, um, emotional challenges?

Are they like physical challenges? You know, like a bit like Iron Man? The reason I'm asking this is because, uh, again, you won't know this. Even if you're watching the video, you won't know this. Our studio has changed dramatically, uh, in the last few days, mainly because I decided to rearrange everything.

So is that emotionally emotionally, I was distraught. I, I left this place on Saturday cause I had to do it. No one's in. And I just, I was crying. Yeah. I was, I needed counseling is what, is what happened. Uh, cause Matt decided to change the studio around. Um, and so then again, before we hit record, there was three of us in here, wasn't there, talking about, you know, setups and how it all works and stuff like,

Sadaf Beynon: yes.

And to the eagle eyed, we've lost our table,

Matt Edmundson: which you are really upset about,

Sadaf Beynon: but it's coming back. I hear in a different form, slightly different form,

Matt Edmundson: hopefully. Uh, we do need, I, I get your point. We do need some kind of table in here. Um, we don't need it now. We're going to carry on. Uh, so yeah, should we play the Skip Wilson clip?

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, let's do that.

So we're going to play a clip from that. After that clip, Sadaf and I are going to be back to talk about that clip, what it means for podcasters, what it means for us, because we're podcasters as well, stuff we learn from it. Uh, so stick around. We'll be back, uh, after this. Here's Skip.

Sadaf Beynon: What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced in running the advertising podcast?

Skip Wilson: I mean, the biggest challenge is, uh, you, you, I would especially. For someone starting out, the biggest, the biggest challenge is overcoming that like sense of that. You're just doing, creating content that's going out into the void. That's this big hurdle. I'd say that everyone's going to have to overcome at some point, but just remember that everyone did that, right?

In other words, we're a, we're a small team, we're a team of only about 10, 10 individuals, and we actually got so overwhelmed just with work, like just with, you know, having client flow and keeping up with orders and those types of things that. We essentially ceased all marketing efforts, including the podcast for, for a time, because we just, the last thing we needed was more business for a period of time, I would say that was the biggest challenge.

And so what stinks about that, when you have to take a long break like that is you're essentially starting, starting over again. So I would only do those things if you have no other choice, keeping something going, going from weekly to biweekly, you know, is better than stopping entirely.

Sadaf Beynon: So what did you do?

You stopped, did you say?

But yeah, that's, that's something to think about, especially if you, if it's a business focused podcast or a podcast that you're doing for business reasons is you just want to almost sort of have. The seasonality in mind. Um, for example, if I was an accountant, let's say that we were an accountant and we were doing an accounting podcast, which doesn't sound thrilling, but let's say that it, let's say that it was, then what I would, you know, you know, that January through April is horrible time for like every accountant everywhere is just hating life for those three to four months.

And that's, and that's why that was our biggest challenge.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Well, I guess there's learning from it. Right. Yeah. And that's. What's the best thing that comes out of challenges? So, um, yeah, so how do you then manage your time and maintain that balance now with draft media and with the podcast?

Skip Wilson: I mean, we've hired, we've, we've hired folks.

I mean, that's, you know, that's the, the main way, uh, you know, delegation and, uh, and scaling things up. I mean, that's, that's one way to solve the problem. The other thing is just to be intentional about your to do list and your task list.

You know, like my calendar today looks incredibly different than my calendar tomorrow. There would be no way I could do a live at Thursday at 2 p. m. podcast, right? Because I would have no clue whether. Tuesday at 2 p. m. on Thursday works. So that means that I either need to pay for a service that I can pre record and make it seem live or not do just intentionally not do a live.

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. You have to make it work for yourself. And like, as you mentioned before, the consistency aspect of it. With bearing that in mind and still being able to, um, make the podcast work for you.

Um, but if you, when it goes out to the public, that's what you need to be consistent with constantly. And so that's why I would not choose a live format podcast because I don't really like the ones that seem live, but aren't, because I think that's disingenuous. Um, and, uh, although no judgment on anyone that does do that, cause that's, that's fine too.

Um, but the, um, but you know, I just don't like that format because I can't say have consistency on the recording side. But there's really no excuse not to have consistency on the posting side. That's just like making, you know, at some point during your week, make sure that you've got something scheduled for next week.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. Yeah. So we've talked about consistency. Is there anything else that you think, um, are good skills or attributes that are essential? For, um, running a successful podcast.

Even if you have a purely conversational type podcast, you want it to always have a consistent theme. You want each person to sort of play a role or character so that they have, you know, what's called parasocial consistency. So, um, in other words, if someone's always the funny, goofy guy, You know, you want that person to always be the funny, goofy guy.

And if somebody else is always the more serious person, you always want that person to be a more serious person. So you want to recognize that what you're trying to do is provide some sort of benefit, even if the benefit is just educate, just entertainment to that listener. That's your number one priority.

Sadaf Beynon: If that got you curious and you want to catch the full episode, be sure to subscribe to the show. We've got plenty more great conversations coming up.

Matt Edmundson: Welcome back. So that was an interesting, uh, I got sucked into that, uh, interestingly ended with storytelling and I got sucked into his story, uh, into Skip's story with the challenges. So this is an interesting one, isn't it? The challenges of podcasting. How hard is it to actually do? So if you're. If you're podcasting, you probably know the answer to this question already.

Sadaf Beynon: From my point of view, I would say the challenges, um, when you're starting out are finding your voice and finding your, um, Your style, I guess, and being comfortable with it, um, and the confidence that you need to, that goes with it.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah,

Sadaf Beynon: I think those are the first, first things.

Matt Edmundson: So how did you find your voice then?

Sadaf Beynon: Um, I think through just doing more, more, more podcasts and the great thing about what he said actually, and I know it's, um, it's not great for some, but for me it is, that the first content that you're creating, he said, um, You know, you're putting it out into the void and no one's probably even seeing it, which is fine because it's training grounds.

So, um, I like that.

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I probably do both.

Sadaf Beynon: Probably

Matt Edmundson: do both.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: No, you're right. I think, I mean, he talks about the challenge there, didn't he? The big challenge I think everybody faces when they start a podcast is just the, just the, the doing it.

Cause it, I remember the first podcast I ever recorded just felt really weird. You know, it was a solo podcast. It was just me in a room talking into a microphone, uh, about something. What I was talking about, I have no idea, but I was talking about probably eCommerce, I think. Um, and it just felt really, really odd.

Um, and the only way to overcome that was just to keep doing it. Uh, that, that's it. I mean, if you, we're looking at a camera now, we're talking into a microphone. So obviously it's easier because we're sat beside each other. We chat away. Um, but we're still talking to a camera and you, you still have to overcome that.

Can

Matt Edmundson: you name the movie? No. No. Heartbreak Ridge. Anyway, I've shown my age there. Uh, so. It's so hot here, I can, I can read you, it's showing on the camera, I can read your lip. Um, so yeah, so, um, so I think, I think he's right. That's the first hurdle. And I think that's a major hurdle for a lot of people, which is why our advice is always if you're going to start a podcast, plan to do 20 episodes, because by the time you've got to episode 20, you'll have started to have found your voice, you'll start to feel a bit more comfortable.

Mm hmm. Uh, in front of the microphone. Yeah. You get the hang of it. Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: that was a really good distinction actually.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. But you need to be consistent with the posting. Yep. And I think that also, um, going back to what we're talking about with the confidence, the voice, all of those things, It's part and package of that.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. I think it's a really good distinction to make. Um, the distinction, the consistency in posting.

So doing what you need to do to post consistently is super important. So when we record the podcasts, um, we have recording days. So I have recording days like Mondays and Thursdays, I think. And like tomorrow I'm not recording anything cause I'm clearing off to the States. Um, but there are days where I'll do like four or five podcasts in one go and like with Pod Junction, little secret, we don't all, we don't, it's not like we record a new podcast every week.

hmm.

Matt Edmundson: In one go, and I think that's okay. You know, we do the batch recording, um, because that enables us to post consistently, and I think that's such an important distinction.

Do what you need to do to record and to enable you to post consistently, whether that's every week, every other week, once a month, probably once a month is maybe too few, but. Um, I think Find Your Consistency Groove.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Is that a phrase? Sure.

Sadaf Beynon: It is now.

Matt Edmundson: Consistency Groove. Quick. Go register the domain name.

Consistencygroove. com. Uh, so you've got to find your consistency groove. What's going to work for you? What can you put out there? Um, and then just make sure you hit that every time, figure out a way to make sure you can do that, um, because consistency wins every day, right? Absolutely. What do you think about the seasons idea?

He was talking about the accountant, uh, and seasons.

Sadaf Beynon: I think something like that would make sense, like from his example of an accountant, I think that would make sense.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Um, yeah. Cause we, well, we did seasons, didn't we?

Sadaf Beynon: We did. With EP, uh, with eCommerce

Matt Edmundson: Podcast. So if you don't know, I host a podcast called eCommerce Podcast. That's one of my ones that I do. Um, and initially we did seasons cause we couldn't, we couldn't create a mechanism whereby We could hit that consistently every week because it, when you're starting out, you do everything wrong and way more bigger and way more time is involved than you need.

We thought we'd live stream.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, we were doing.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, and so Overwhelm I think is a big deal, um, but you can do Seasons. The, the thing that I don't like about Seasons is obviously you don't get the downloads during the, between the Seasons, um, and so whether that harms you from a discoverability point of view, I, some people would argue one way, some people would argue another.

Um, and I think that's fine. I think that, so the accountant could do seasons. We did seasons. We then went to weekly because we, we got our groove, our consistency groove. com, trademarked Matt Edmundson. Um, so we got our consistency groove. But we were

Sadaf Beynon: also very keen to have that consistency. Yeah. We wanted that.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, we, we did. So actually it was easier for us to move to a weekly show than try and do the seasons. Ironically, it took less thinking.

But once we got there, yeah, it's been a lot better.

Matt Edmundson: It's been a lot easier. And I think our system now is, is a lot more straightforward. Um, he says, cause we're about to increase the amount of episodes we do on EP. So we may be going from one episode a week to maybe one or two a week. Who knows? Watch this space.

Um, it depends how many guests we get on, I suppose. Um, but we are going to increase the consistency of the show, but I think we can do that without creating over, this is my big thing. Can we do it with a resource that we have without creating overwhelm? How do we make that happen? Um, and so, I mean, you mentioned Amelia, she's, uh, earlier on.

So yeah, I thought that was a really good point, but seasons can work.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. But another thing talking about seasons and consistency is that as a listener, if I've got a podcast, I really like, and I like tuning into it and it's become a bit of a habit, Then if there's, if there's seasons, I think I would find it harder to stick with them because in that time when they're not playing a show, I'll find something else and I might get hooked onto that.

Matt Edmundson: That's true. That's one way to think. I suppose the other way to think about it, because I'm, as you're talking, I'm thinking of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History, which is a seasonal podcast. Um, I am more likely to listen to all of his episodes in just not cause I know I don't have to consume the content every week.

which is a weekly show, I am much more likely to filter the different episodes. So I'm, I'm like, I don't listen to every single one because I've not got the time to devote to listening to that podcast every week. Do you see what I mean? So I'm filtering by the title, just as we talked about on previous shows.

So I'm on the tiles. I'm looking at the tiles. Don't want to listen to this one. Yes or no? No. Right. Bush, that's out. And so, I think, I think there's a counterargument to what you said. Yeah, I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong. I think there's a, there's a different way of looking at it. So, which basically means there's no right or wrong way.

You've got to figure out what works for you, for your audience. So yeah, maybe we should go back to doing seasons. Yeah, no, we're not doing that. Not doing that at all.

Sadaf Beynon: So what did you think about what he said with the parasocial consistency? So you were, he was talking about like, you'll have, um, so you want to maintain the themes for one.

Matt Edmundson: I thought it was interesting cause he, he talked about the, uh, the goofy guy and the serious guy and I'm like, which one are you and which one am I?

Sadaf Beynon: That's the question I

Matt Edmundson: had. I don't know, I don't know, but it is an interesting thought.

And again, as he was saying that I was listening to some of the podcasts that I've consistently listened to, um, suddenly the conversational podcast, which is the podcast format we tend to do. There is consistency of character in that. And I'd never thought about it that way. So they always play the same role.

So, I mean, we've joked about on this podcast, like who introduces it? Do you want me to do that? Do you want, and it's, you tried it a little bit. It's defaulted to me introducing the show. Um, and maybe that's a good thing, listening to it because it's consistency of character. Whereas if you started introducing the show, um, I mean, you would be way better at it than me, but do you know what I mean?

Sadaf Beynon: a pattern. Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: And if you do it, you do it,

Sadaf Beynon: but

Matt Edmundson: it's not you one week, me the next week, because that's inconsistent in character. And I thought, actually, that was really fascinating.

And I really liked that idea of, um, get good at storytelling. It feels like it should be a whole separate Podjunction podcast, but that concept, that idea of storytelling, um, and so on eCommerce podcast, it's always the same. I'm always playing the same character. On this podcast, I play a different character.

Um, and so. What I can't do on one is two. Be the person trying to absorb all kinds of information, but on the other one, be the coach. Yeah. Do you see what I mean? That, that wouldn't make sense necessarily. So it's that kind of, I have to remember that actually, when I'm doing the interview, and that was, that was quite clarifying.

I thought it was a really good point. And that's why I wrote that down. I thought, yeah, actually, with this new content, I need to have a consistent character, even though we're introducing slightly different, um, you know, uh, interviewees into the same thing. So I think, otherwise, you're right, you probably have to do a different podcast.

Which I think is really fascinating. So I like that. What did you think of it? Which one are you? Goofy or serious? I'm definitely goofy.

Sadaf Beynon: I want to be both. Sorry, Skip. I don't know. Maybe the audience can tell us. Yeah, which one Sadaf, goofy or serious?

Sadaf Beynon: He's lying.

Matt Edmundson: I've known you mad. Or upset, serious. I don't know. He's

Sadaf Beynon: made me mad and upset. Many occasions,

Matt Edmundson: probably. I just want to get the text messages late at night. Matt, you said this earlier.

What did I do? I don't know. Um, so yeah, I thought I, I really liked that. Um, uh, I, I thought they were very, very valid points, uh, off this. So, yeah, anything else to add from your point of view?

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, I think we've covered it.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So, I hope you enjoyed today's Podjunction podcast. This is how it works.

It's definitely not mine. No. So what were your key takeaways? Um,

Sadaf Beynon: I think consistency. I know it's a big one and it's an obvious one, but I think, um, Especially as we're starting out with something like this, we're still kind of trying to figure it out. I think it's important that we keep that at the forefront of our minds, um, for the sake of our audience.

Yep. Um, yeah, how about you?

Matt Edmundson: Storytelling, um, consistency in storytelling. So yeah, that would be the biggest one for me, uh, would be that. Um, cause I think we're pretty good consistency wise in getting content out. Yeah. Um, it's more thinking that storyteller thing through with the changes we want with eCommerce Podcast and what that means.

And then we could go say what it is. Okay. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Can you make that happen?

Sadaf Beynon: Mmm. Yep. I can. I'm good at delegating as well. It's coming back to you.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Matt's in your diary to create. I'm going away for three weeks.

Sadaf Beynon: Your diary will be waiting when you get back. But

Matt Edmundson: yes, uh, so this is the beautiful thing actually about batch recording is I can go away for three weeks, come back and no one knows.

Everyone just feels like, Oh, Matt's out there every week, which is nice. So yeah, um, are you going to miss me when I'm gone?

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, so much. Yeah. Whatever. I'm

Matt Edmundson: going to catch up on everything

Sadaf Beynon: while you're

Matt Edmundson: gone. Going to get so much work done. Uh, but yeah, no, it's cool, man. Well, thank you so much for joining us.

And also tells us the wonderful people like Apple and Spotify and all that sort of stuff that we can do some funky stuff and they promote us, which is a beautiful thing. So anyway, plug over. Thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything else for me? All right. Bye for now.

Sadaf Beynon: And that brings us to the end of today's episode at Podjunction. If you've enjoyed the insights from this episode and want to hear the full conversation with today's special guest, don't forget to visit podjunction. com where you'll find more information about how you can join Podjunction Cohort.