Why You Need Solo Episodes on Your Podcast

There are many valuable formats for your podcast, but the most important one is the solo episode. If you’re not regularly publishing solo episodes for your audience, how will they know the value you can offer to them and how you can help them solve a problem?

Solo episodes don’t have to be a specific length or offer a specific number of solutions. What they do need is your expertise spotlighted. On this episode of the podcast, I’m sharing the benefits of showing up on your stage for your own audience instead of always elevating your guests.

Be sure to tune in, and then start making plans for your first or next solo podcast episode!

Mentioned In This Episode

Transcript:

Abby Herman 0:07
Hey there, and welcome to episode 183 of The Content Experiment podcast, a podcast for podcasters that supports the idea that content and marketing are ever moving targets. And it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re doing it. All right all of the time, you have permission to experiment with little tweaks and changes in your content to find what works for you, what increases value for your audience, and what grows your business, and most importantly, what feels good for you.

Abby Herman 0:37
I’m Abby Herman, content strategist and consultant for podcasting, business owners who want to make their podcast their primary content marketing tool, feel easier and more streamlined, so they can get back to serving their clients and making those sales. Because your podcast is your primary marketing tool, and you want to leverage it to grow your audience authority and business. I’ll show you how, while you do business in a way that works for you. I can help by supporting you through building a content and marketing strategy, taking care of the podcast management for you, or giving you the tools and resources to take this on yourself.

Abby Herman 1:15
Now, there are a lot of different podcast formats out there. But the one I see most in the small business world is interview style. The host interviews a guest who has value to offer to the listening audience. Now, I like this format, because no podcast host can be an expert in all the things I know for me, there’s a lot I can talk about around podcasts on podcasting, but I don’t know at all, even though maybe sometimes I pretend like I do. Having guests on the show helps to deliver more value to you the listeners. And to be honest, it also feels a little easier sometimes. I mean, you do a little research, you come up with some great questions, and the guests does a lot of the heavy lifting. Plus, you have the benefit of having the guests promote the episode to their audience, which, if you have listened to Episode 179, you know, is really important as a guest. So while guest interviews are important and valuable. The most important type of episode you can publish on your own podcast is not a guest interview. It’s a solo episode. These are critical to the success of your podcast and your business. In my humble opinion. Let’s talk about why.

Abby Herman 2:30
So a couple of reasons why solo episodes might be appealing is that you don’t have to worry about scheduling anyone else you can batch your episodes, you can talk about exactly what you want to talk about. And you don’t have to worry about someone else’s schedule. Or maybe somebody’s not showing up to an interview, you know what’s going to get done. I actually have a series of about 10 or so episodes coming up later in July, from July into towards the end of September, that I’m really excited about bringing to you. And then also I find editing to be a lot easier when it’s a solo episode. So I have an editor for my guest interviews. But I edit my own solo episodes because I literally record I record in Audacity, and I literally edit as I go. So when I feel like my mess up is delete worthy, I can do that. And then just keep on talking. So I find editing to be a lot easier.

Abby Herman 3:35
But the reason why your solo episodes are so important to your business and to your podcast. The reason why it is this is a topic worthy of a whole episode by itself is because solo episodes allow you to showcase your own expertise. And when you do that you build your personal brand, you elevate yourself to being an expert, the expert that you are my friend. So of course having guests on your podcast can help you to share wider topics with your audience that you’re not an expert on. But you are a business owner and you have a mission and a vision something that you want to share with the world something you want to teach a problem.

Abby Herman 4:23
you want to solve a really specific way of talking about something and you are uniquely able to do that with your own skill set and knowledge base. If you have an audience for your podcast, you have an audience for your skill set. I’ve talked here before about how your podcast is a great way to nurture the audience members that you already have your listeners stick around because they see value in what you share and what your guests share. So why not share your expertise? Now in guest episodes you are are really tied to talking about the guests expertise. Your goal is to pull information from them so that you can share it with your audience. You have hopefully done your research and have really pointed questions to kind of pull out that expertise. But in a solo episode, you get to share what’s on your mind. Now take this episode that I’m recording right now, I have clients who are resistant to solo episodes, because they would rather have conversations with guests, it’s a lot more fun. And because they don’t feel like they have enough value to record a whole episode. And I also have clients who are resistant, because it’s more work to do a solo episode.

Abby Herman 5:45
And I do agree with all of this to some point. And I know that the value of showing up as the expert on my own platform, instead of always spotlighting others as the expert is huge. Your podcast is not simply a stage that you place others on it is your stage. So think about this, when you attend a conference, the organizer of that conference usually takes the stage a few times over the course of the event. And certainly the organizer is out there mingling with attendees, eventually pitching something to them. And they get to pitch that thing in whatever way they want, because they’re the organizer of the event. So I want you to view yourself as the organizer, and your listeners as the attendees. If you don’t talk directly to those attendees to those listeners, how will they know what you have to help them. And I’ve talked in previous episodes about how you can insert some of your expertise and you can insert your offers. You know, in the beginning and end of episodes, you can have mid roll promos in your episodes, you can have things in your guest episodes that allow you to talk about your offers and your own expertise. But why not have a space just for you. And if you’re concerned about like talking at yourself or to yourself or to dead air, like the microphone during your solo episodes, look at how long this episode is.

Abby Herman 7:25
So as I am recording, I’m not quite seven and a half minutes in, it’s probably going to be less than a 10 minute episode. And that’s okay. You can speak on the topic that you want to speak on the topic that you know your audience needs, until you’re done talking. And then you can enter there’s no rule that says how long or short a podcast episode needs to be. So I urge you to please start creating solo episodes for your podcast. Even if it’s once a month or once a quarter just try it, I guarantee you’re going to see some really great results from it.

Abby Herman 8:08
So on that note, if you need support and figuring out how to create so episodes for your podcast, or you want help developing your next 90 Day content strategy, let’s talk I can help you with the process including serving your audience to find out exactly what they need and want. I can help with developing your zones of genius and a list of content ideas, outlining what that might look like on your podcast or social media and emails and even mapping out some of those solo episodes to get you started. If you go to thecontentexperiment.com/chat You can book a free quick chat with me. Or if you go to thecontentexperiment.com/vip You can find out more about that VIP session where we can create that 90 Day content strategy together.

Abby Herman 8:57
If you found value in what you heard here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it over on Instagram stories and please tag me at the content experiment. If you tag me I will reshare and give you a shout out. The more you share the more we can get the podcast into the hands of more business owners just like you who need to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time. Take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai