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Hey Reader! - Today's dispatch from the writing shed is talking about something interesting I noticed... Enjoy!

Your Best Episodes Are Yet To Come

I’ve noticed something interesting while I’ve been listening my way across the podcast-verse.

Of all the major established shows (running for 5+ years), they rarely promote their first 100 episodes. If they’re re-sharing the golden oldies, it’s generally from at least episode 100, and I think only once or twice have I seen a popular episode republished from the first 50.

Why is that?

I have a few theories

You get better with practice

Podcasting is hard. You know it, I know it. Only the listeners don’t seem to know it.

But podcasting is also a craft. It’s a craft built up of different skills that you get better at with time:

• Editing
• Presenting
• Interviewing
• Guest pitching
• Storytelling

All of these, and many more, improve with practice. As you continue to develop your skills and move towards mastery, your show gets better and better. But this only happens if you commit to the long haul and continue improving.

That practice compounds, and your show becomes leagues better after two years of practice, which, at an episode a week, takes you to 100 episodes.

You learn about your audience over time

All successful podcasts started with an audience in mind. They focused on that audience and delivered content they thought they’d enjoy. They were mostly right, and the audience started to build.

But then you find the nuance. When we started Generally Spooky History, we decided not to include too many stories about castles because we thought it would get same-y. We were wrong. Those castle episodes quickly became our most popular, and we had messages from people saying they wanted more castle content.

So we lowered the draw bridge and doubled down on the number of castles we covered in a series, much to the enjoyment of our audience. Because we were making more content our listeners loved, we had more chances of hitting on popular episodes and creating episodes we would go on to reference again and again.

Be in it for the long haul

A curious time compression happens in podcasting. People can find your older episodes and ask you about them, but you fail to remember because it’s been four years since you recorded them. To the listener, it’s fresh in their ears, but to you, it’s an old project that has long since closed.

Perhaps podcasters don’t reference their first 100 episodes because they simply happened so long ago that they don’t think about them that often. After all, if you recorded an episode 6 years ago, you probably won’t remember the details.

If you have 500 published episodes, only 10% are your first 50. If you play the odds, you’re more likely to reference the 90% than the 10%, right?

But what that says to me is that you can’t give up too early. Your best work is ahead of you, but you will only see the rewards if you stick with it. Play long-term games, and you get the rewards.

Much love from Scotland,

Kieran MacRae

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