Production Won’t Fix Your Podcast Strategy

If your podcast isn’t doing anything for your business, three cameras probably aren’t going to fix it. Now that doesn’t mean production doesn’t matter because production does matter. Better audio, having better video, some better lighting, a better workflow, all of that can improve your podcast. But here’s the thing, a production upgrade solves a production problem. And sometimes what looks like a production problem is actually a problem with your podcast strategy.

Hi, welcome to Podcasting Pro Tips. I’m producer Travis and today I want to talk to you about a call I recently had with two people who were already more than 30 episodes into their podcast. They were recording with a single iPhone and they wanted to move towards a three camera production. But the cameras weren’t really the most important part of the production question. One of the hosts was in Miami, and the other host slash producer was in California.

And they didn’t want a system where somebody had to sit there operating OBS video switching or VMix or switching cameras. and they were s essentially running a live production. They had in-studio guests, some of their guests were remote, which they recorded on Zoom, and their existing workflow was pretty simple. the host would sit on her couch, she would record the video on an iPhone.

She would record the audio on a little portable audio recorder. Then afterwards, she would transfer the video and the audio to her computer, upload it, and then send that to an editor. So whatever I recommended to them, I had to respect that. That it was just a host sitting on a couch and there wasn’t another producer present. And the producer was in California, was basically just listening in and kind of guiding content. So

How do we give them a multi-camera production they want without creating a production system that they can’t realistically operate? And so that’s when I started looking at three iPhone setup using Riverside on the, Riverside app on the cameras. The idea wasn’t phones or better than cameras. It was just about matching the production system to what these particular hosts could actually operate.

And that’s important. I wasn’t trying to talk them out of improving their production. They had a legitimate production problem we’re solving, right?

But here’s the thing, getting getting three hundred dollar webcams, that’s fine. There’s some good quality, modestly priced webcams out there, and you can get some great recordings. production is really not the biggest problem with podcasting these days. But, if you’re recording three different webcams, now you need software. Now you need someone to kind of operate the software and either do live switching or software that can record the three different cameras and then

then now you’re doing three file uploads and and multiple file transfers to an editor, that’s gonna increase the production workflow.

So

I I wasn’t really trying to talk them out of improving their production. I I suggested the iPhones because we could install the Riverside app on them and just upload everything to Riverside and they wouldn’t have to do multi-camera switching. they have a great cloud editor that can do the switching for them. I have I do have an an article on how to build a solo podcast setup and what equipment you need to start a podcast on the podcasting pro tips blog.

And a little guide too to this three camera setup that I recommended to them. And you can you can download that for free on my website.

and I’ll put that in the show notes.

But the the conversation did change after I recommended this setup to them because we we stopped talking about cameras and the questions they started asking were like, How do we monetize our podcast or how do we turn this podcast into a business? And and I could tell they were they were struggling with, you why why are we doing this podcast? And so that’s a very different conversation because

Once they were asking those questions, we were no longer trying to decide whether an iPhone or a webcam or a traditional camera is the right tool. They were pretty much asking, what is this podcast actually supposed to accomplish for us? how do we how do we make this, a job and turn this into a living for ourselves? And they were already more than thirty episodes into the show, and that’s not

That’s not saying that the podcast is a failure. This is a problem I’ve seen a lot of podcasters, deal with once they get into, seven episodes, twenty episodes, thirty episodes, fifty-two episodes. And they were trying to solve that problem with upgrading their production. And that’s the production problem. The the business problem had started getting mixed together. There was this assumption underneath that that maybe if if the podcast looks better.

it’ll start working better. But those are two different things. The cameras can improve a podcast, but three cameras cannot give the podcast a reason to exist. Now that that’s what I mean when I say your podcast should have a job.

So, what does your podcast should have a job actually mean? This doesn’t mean that every podcast has to do the same thing, and it doesn’t mean that every podcast has to sell something directly. The question is, what useful outcome is this podcast supposed to support? Maybe its primary job is building authority around a particular subject. Maybe it’s educating prospective customers. Maybe it’s creating qualified awareness.

growing an email audience that you can actually own or supporting like a product or service, membership, event or community. maybe it’s to generate inquiries into your business. Maybe it’s part of a larger content engine. But different jobs create different decisions. And once you know the job, a lot of the other questions start becoming easier. You you can answer, who is this show actually for?

What should you be known for? What kind of episodes should you make? And what kind of production can you sustain? where where are you trying to move the audience?

also what what offers and next steps make sense. So once you have the job, you you can ultimately ask, how are you going to know whether any of this is working?

And once you know the job, the gear decision actually gets easier. Because now I can ask, does this production upgrade help the podcast perform that job? If I don’t know the job, I’m basically improving the machinery without knowing what I’m building.

So instead of spending the rest of the conversation only talking about cameras, we started looking at the larger podcast system. we talked about the show’s job. We talked about the show’s positioning, who who should the right listener be and why should they choose this show? And what should they come to know it for? We talked about their authority and they what they could legitimately build around.

what expertise, evidence, perspective, point of view should the show reinforce? We talked about what they could sustainably produce, right? Because if you don’t have someone live switching a camera, you can’t build a setup that requires that. We talked about communication and keeping the audience engaged, growing the audience. we talked about different offers that the podcasts could make. A lot of people measure ROI.

Based off of downloads. That’s that’s kind of the number that podcasters over the last 10 years have kind of measured the success of their podcasting efforts. how many downloads are they getting? But we’re I think we’re moving past that and we’re getting, for a business-minded podcast, you need to have other offers and owned audiences and other jobs that the podcast is supposed to do. We talked about monetizing their podcast.

I gave them some ideas about joining some affiliate networks, actually having some hosted events throughout the year, cultivating an audience and making these these affiliate deals or these these events be the primary ROI that their podcast can generate money and they can actually make a business out of their podcast. We started looking at how those pieces could actually connect. And one direction we discussed was

building an audience they owned and not relying entirely on somebody being subscribed to them on YouTube or following them on Instagram. they had these retreats that potentially gave the podcast something real to support throughout the year. So we also discussed whether appropriate affiliate relationships, products or services might fit in with their audience.

Now, none of those were results yet. We were defining possibilities. But that’s the point. Before you can measure whether your podcast is working, you have to decide what working is supposed to mean.

This is another place where podcasters get stuck. If you don’t define the job, it’s very easy to default to, how many downloads did we get? How many YouTube subscribers do we have? And how many views did that clip get? those numbers can tell you useful things, but they don’t automatically tell you whether the podcast is accomplishing its business purpose. If the show’s job is growing an owned audience, like email signups, those matter. If it’s supposed to generate qualified inquiries,

those those inquiries matter, right? If it’s supporting retreats or events, registration or influenced interest could matter. It’s supporting a a product or service. You can start looking for direct and assisted influence. The metric follows the job. So you’re not stuck with just downloads.

Yeah, I’ve got a full article on podcasting pro tips about measuring podcast ROI beyond downloads. And I’ll put that in the show notes if you want to go deeper into the measurement side.

And here’s the part I don’t want you to miss. After that entire strategy conversation, the three camera upgrade could still make sense, and that’s important. The lesson isn’t strategy good, production bad. The lesson is use production to support the strategy instead of asking production to replace it. A better production system can improve the presentation. It can make your recording process a little easier. It can give you more useful video and

Consistency, reduce friction, with file transfers and uploads and just get some of your time back. It can make the show look and sound more professional. And those are real benefits. But production cannot independently decide, who is this podcast for? Why should they care?

What are we trying to become known for? what should our audience do next after listening to the podcast? And what offers make sense? What business outcome are we trying to create? And how are we going to measure that? Those aren’t camera questions. And this is exactly why the broader podcast production operating system treats a podcast as a connected system.

So if you’re thinking about buying another camera, another microphone or building a studio, hiring an editor, maybe you want to, change your software around or spend more money on production because your podcast isn’t doing what you expected it to do. Don’t start with what’s what’s the better camera? start with what problem am I actually trying to solve?

here’s here’s how you can do this. the first thing you need to do is name the problem. what specifically isn’t working? Is the audio distracting? is your video actually limiting what you’re trying to produce? Is your workflow taking too long or files difficult to manage? these could legitimately be production problems. Then classify the problem

Because if it’s not a camera problem, the problem is probably, I don’t know who this podcast is for, or I don’t know what we’re trying to become known for. Or we’re publishing, but we’re not moving anybody anywhere. And, we don’t have an offer. We don’t own the audience because it’s all YouTube subscribers and, Instagram followers, or or we don’t know how the podcast really connects to

this business and we don’t know what we’re measuring beyond downloads and subscribers. So th those aren’t problems another microphone fixes.

So basically

You need to separate technical problems from business problems and replace equipment only when it’s justified.

Then ask what job is this podcast supposed to perform? Does this purchase help that job? If you can answer that clearly, you can make a much better production decision. And sometimes the answer absolutely will be buy the camera, buy the mic, but now you know why you’re buying it.

And if you go through that and realize the missing piece isn’t another isolated production upgrade, it’s the system connecting all those decisions. That’s exactly what the complete podcast business system is designed to help you build. It connects strategy, positioning, production, content, growth, conversion, and measurement behind the show. So your podcast has a clear job and a system for doing it.

You can find that complete podcast business system at podcastingprotips dot com backslash system.

Better production can improve the podcast experience. It can make the show look better, sound better, run better, but it can’t decide what the podcast is supposed to accomplish. Your podcast should have a job. Figure out the job first. Then build the production that helps it do that job.