There's a moment about nineteen minutes into a lot of podcast episodes where you can hear the host has checked out.
They made their point at minute six. It was quite good. But there were eleven minutes of slot left, so they made it again, slightly differently, this time with a story about their brother-in-law's conservatory.
This one's about the clock. The one radio had, the one podcasting got rid of, and the brand new one we all built ourselves about five minutes later. It's short on purpose. You'll understand why.
In this episode:
— The radio news jingle, and the best podcast editor I ever had
— How we escaped the clock and built a new one immediately
— The dinner party and the single Twix
— Gareth (made up, but you've heard his show), his caravans, and 28 minutes of car park
— The question that'll make you wince. It made me wince. My last one was 26 minutes.
— The Post-it test
Six minutes of me, plus a podcast from one of our Podmastery Community members — which doesn't count, because it's theirs and they can make it as long as they like.
Want in on the Podmastery Community?
Doors open in October. Get on the waiting list at podmastery.co/podcasting-community
Stuck on something specific?
Come and get your next podcasting challenge solved one-to-one with me at podmastery.co
Podmastery: Podcasting Insights is my podcast for people who've actually had a go at this and are a bit sick of being told they're doing it wrong by people who've never properly done it at all. I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster.
Transcripts
Speaker:
There's a moment about 19 minutes into a lot of podcast episodes where you
Speaker:
can hear the host has checked out.
Speaker:
They've made their point.
Speaker:
In fact, they made it at minute six actually, and it was quite good.
Speaker:
But then there's 11 minutes of slot left, so they make the point again slightly
Speaker:
differently, this time with a story about their brother-in-law's conservatory.
Speaker:
And my hope with this episode is to make you aware of that and stop you doing it.
Speaker:
This is Podmastery: Podcasting Insights.
Speaker:
I'm Neal Veglio, the Podmaster.
Speaker:
More than 30 years in radio and audio, and these days I help indie podcasters figure
Speaker:
out why the thing they've built isn't getting the results they'd hoped for.
Speaker:
This one is quite short on purpose.
Speaker:
You'll understand why.
Speaker:
Anyone who's ever done any radio, and I realise that's a very small
Speaker:
section of the audience for the show, they'll know the feeling of that
Speaker:
news jingle turning up while you're still halfway through a sentence.
Speaker:
The news is at the top of the hour.
Speaker:
It does not care about the call to action that the sponsor has asked
Speaker:
you to make every single hour.
Speaker:
And the clock was the best podcast editor I ever would have had. But
Speaker:
then podcasting came along and got rid of that, made it redundant.
Speaker:
That was the whole joy.
Speaker:
Say the thing for as long as the thing takes, and then stop.
Speaker:
And what did we all do?
Speaker:
We built a new clock immediately.
Speaker:
30 minutes now on this new clock because that's a commute.
Speaker:
45 minutes in some cases because the bigger shows are longer, and an hour for
Speaker:
some shows because anything less feels, I don't know, a bit cheap, like turning
Speaker:
up to a dinner party with a single Twix.
Speaker:
So the duration gets decided before there's an idea to measure
Speaker:
it against, and then your job as a podcaster is to fill it.
Speaker:
Picture Gareth.
Speaker:
Gareth does a podcast about restoring vintage caravans
Speaker:
from his spare room in Swindon.
Speaker:
He knows a frankly worrying amount about 1970s window seals.
Speaker:
His wife has politely begged him to stop.
Speaker:
He has not stopped.
Speaker:
Every episode is 40 minutes.
Speaker:
Every episode has about 12 minutes of brilliant caravan content in it.
Speaker:
The other 28 are Gareth driving round the car park looking for somewhere to stop.
Speaker:
His listeners notice, not in the way that they could actually put into words.
Speaker:
Nobody emails in to say, "Gareth, minute 23 was a little bit bloated."
Speaker:
They just stop listening.
Speaker:
He goes from something they religiously click play on to something that goes on in
Speaker:
the background while they do the washing up and hopefully catch the odd bit from.
Speaker:
And nobody ever has recommended a podcast to a mate on the strength of the
Speaker:
bit where the host said it all again.
Speaker:
So here's the bit I'm gonna make you wince.
Speaker:
If you only published the bit of your most recent episode that was actually
Speaker:
the idea, how long would that be?
Speaker:
Yeah.
Speaker:
And before you go and check, my previous episode was 26 minutes long.
Speaker:
I'd argue that it earned them.
Speaker:
There was a proper story in it, and a man in America saying really nice things about
Speaker:
me, and I was always gonna milk that.
Speaker:
You're welcome to disagree.
Speaker:
I'm also not gonna tell you that every episode should be four minutes.
Speaker:
That's just a smaller clock, and you'd probably fill that too.
Speaker:
My point in this episode is let the idea decide.
Speaker:
Work out what you're actually trying to say.
Speaker:
Say it properly.
Speaker:
Back it up with something real.
Speaker:
And then, and this is the bit that pretty much everyone ignores, just
Speaker:
stop, even if the clock says 11 minutes, and even if last week's was 40.
Speaker:
Well, will you look at that?
Speaker:
Less than five minutes and I'm already to the community mid-roll, and the
Speaker:
final actionable tip will be on the way in a couple of minutes' time as well.
Speaker:
But this is the point.
Speaker:
This only needed to be six minutes long, and it is.
Speaker:
After this short break, I'd love to play you a podcast from one of
Speaker:
our Podmastery Community members.
Speaker:
We will be opening the doors to the public soon.
Speaker:
If you'd like to join the founding members, go to
Speaker:
podmastery.co/podcasting-community and get yourself on that waiting list.
Speaker:
All right, lovely.
Speaker:
Thank you for that.
Speaker:
So here's your one thing I want you to do off the back of listening to this.
Speaker:
Next time you sit down to record, write the point of the episode on a Post-it,
Speaker:
just one sentence, the thing you'd want a listener to repeat to somebody down
Speaker:
the pub when they talk about your show.
Speaker:
And when you've said it and earned its spot, stop recording,
Speaker:
whatever that clock says.
Speaker:
Look at that.
Speaker:
This episode is ending at precisely 6 minutes, and that's
Speaker:
exactly how long my idea was.
Speaker:
I'm Neal Veglio.
Speaker:
Until the next episode, good luck with your continuing journey
