How to incorporate multiple episode formats into your podcast feed

Travis:   0:00
today on five minute Monday's, you'll learn how to incorporate multiple episode formats into a single podcast. Welcome. The five minute Mondays will bring the best tips and strategies for building your podcast in five minutes or less. So if you knew here, consider subscribing Now.  

Travis:   0:15
This week, we're gonna be answering a question from Nick, who submitted a question through our form. If you want to commit a question, there's a link in the show notes for this episode. Ah, but he had a really good question, and I want to dress it here on the podcast. Something would be super helpful for a lot of you guys.  

Travis:   0:30
So Nick asks, We do a weekly show with two co hosts than have occasional long guest interviews. We also want to do 5 to 10 episodes in a series of short 10 minute episodes in specific topics with these vastly different formats. How would you suggest organizing them in the feed? Do you do different seasons, or should they even be different shows?  

Travis:   0:50
So, great question, Nick and I think this is something that a lot of podcasters think about when you've been doing your podcast for a little while. you have a particular form and you're like, I wanna branch out. I want to try something different. I want to do an experiment. And so the first thing that you should do whenever you're thinking about doing anything different with your podcast is ask your listeners, Ask your audience. Is this something you'd be interested in hearing? Because quite often we can get in our own headspace and think, Oh, well, this is gonna be a great idea. People are gonna love it, and then we execute it and it really falls flat because that's not what your listeners were expecting when they showed up to listen. Your podcast. And it didn't really align with kind of the core value proposition that your podcast has. And when I say that, I simply mean what your listeners expecting to hear when they download an episode of your podcast. You never want to sacrifice that, especially without talking to them about it first.  

Travis:   1:40
So if you want to experiment with different formats and two different kinds of episodes in the same podcast feed, I would encourage you to do new mention it in an episode and say, Hey, guys were thinking about doing this. If you want us to do that, let us know on social media or shoot us an email. Or however you stay in touch with your listeners, right? Once they're like, Yeah, that sounds cool. Or at least you get a neutral response to your like we're gonna try this. We're gonna go for it then.  

Travis:   2:05
I think the big thing is you want to be consistent with whatever it is that you decide to do. You want your listeners to know when they download the Monday episode, what they're getting And when they download of Friday episode, they know what they're getting. Um, or you title them specific ways. So that way they know if it's a normal episode or one of these bonus interviews or a shorter episode in the context of next question, and so there are a couple different ways you could do it. If you want to incorporate all three of these every single week, then you would choose a different day of the week. So, like Monday would be your normal episode, for instance, and then you could do your interviews on Wednesdays and your short episodes on Fridays. So you have a nice little kid. It's a nice little rhythm for your show, and your listeners know, know what to expect. And if they only wanna listen to the interview episodes, then it's very easy for them to know when they should show up and expect those episodes. Another way you could slice it is you could do your normal episodes every Monday and then alternate interviews in short episodes on a different day. So maybe you choose a Thursday and one week it's an interview, and then the next week it's a shorter episode. You could do that, or you can just stick with your bread and butter and then Sprinkle in bonus episodes here and there.  

Travis:   3:13
And this is something that's good if you want to test it and you're not really sure you want to commit to, you know, including a totally different essentially podcast inside of your podcast by changing the format for particular shows and particular episodes, and so just released some bonus material that kind of sticks out like a sore thumb and then gauge their feedback. So maybe you drop in one of these 10 minute episodes where you go deep on a specific topic and see what people say. See if you get any positive or negative feedback. Ask your listeners to let you know if they want to hear more stuff like that so you can dip your toe in the water a little bit before committing to incorporating it in a big way. But then the big thing is just maintaining consistency, and at the end of the day, it really comes back to what your goals are.  

Travis:   3:57
So if your goal is to grow your audience and to grow your podcast as large as possible, then I would probably refrain from doing this. Focus on what you do best and what resonates best for your listeners and focus that extra energy on promoting your show instead of creating more episodes. But if you just need a creative outlet, you want to try something different than that's how I would do it. I would ask you listeners, and then I would experiment with some different formats before you commit to consistently putting on episodes of that type,  

Travis:   4:28
that is it for today. Hit the subscribe button. If you're watching this on YouTube, or you can subscribe to the five minute Monday's podcast In your favorite app. Squeeze even more podcast related content into your life. And if you have a question like Nick that you want to submit for five Mondays units, click the link in the show notes and submit your question. Thanks for listening and is always keep podcasting.