54. Podcasting Tips For The Holiday Season - Keep Your Show Running Smoothly Without Stress!

Think you can't possibly keep up with your podcast during the holidays? Think again! In this episode, I dive into planning for the holidays so you can enjoy your time off... without your podcast missing a beat. Tune in for my top tips to manage your podcast workload during the busiest time of the year.

This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Hey. Hey. And welcome back. Today, we're talking about planning your podcast for the holiday season because even though it's still October, it's going to be here before we can blink. And I'm intentionally doing this right on the heels of last week's full episode. So if you haven't listened yet, you may want to go back to episode 52, should you take a break from your podcast. Spoiler alert, I don't think that you should take a break, and I explain why in that episode. But, understandably, the conversation about taking a break gets louder this time of year.

You may be thinking about taking a break from your podcast during the holiday season, and it makes sense. Right? December is crazy busy for most of us. Maybe you're traveling or hosting guests. Maybe you have little kids who are out of school or big kids who are home on a semester break. Or maybe your December schedule is not crazy busy for once, and you just really want to relax and rest up before hitting the ground running in 2025. I get it. So today, I'm sharing some ideas for how you can keep your podcast going without a break in your podcast release schedule and lighten your load a bit so that you can take some time off from your podcast to travel, spend time with the kids, relax, live your best life, and so on. 1st and foremost, plan ahead.

I know that sounds super obvious, but it's a whole lot easier said than done. I'm guilty of not planning ahead myself, and it comes back to bite me. So, seriously, plan ahead. Make a game plan now so that the timing doesn't sneak up on you. This episode is intentionally airing in mid October so that you have some time to plan ahead. Look at your calendar now and identify when you want to take some time off from your podcast tasks, from planning, from recording, from editing, etcetera. We're going to plan for your podcast to release episodes seamlessly during this time, and so we need to know how many episodes we are strategizing for and when it is that you're going to be stepping away. So pull out your calendar, identify the times that you want to take off, and let your podcast run on autopilot.

Then identify some spots where you can work on those podcast episodes in advance. Block it off on your calendar now. Seriously, You and I both know that something else will come up to fill those spots if you don't lock them off now. Depending on how long you want to take off, you may need to block off just a few hours, a single day, or maybe a few days. Use what you already know about your workflow process. So if it takes you 4 hours to plan, record, edit, and schedule a single episode, and you want to take 3 weeks off, that's likely 3 episodes, which would mean blocking off 12 hours. The next few tips that I'm going to give you will help you to create episodes in less time than usual, but I'd prefer you block off your usual amount of time and then possibly have some surprise free time to devote to getting ahead on other things. We all like surprise free time.

Right? Okay. So you've gotten out your calendar. You've blocked off some time. Now let's strategize how you can make the most of that time and get some episodes done quickly. One idea is to do some quick tip episodes. This is a great strategy for anyone, but especially for podcasters who primarily do interviews. Interviews are super time consuming to prep for, to record, and especially to edit. So perhaps you take a break from interviews for a few episodes and air some solo episodes instead.

Keep these quick tip episodes short and sweet. It's okay if they're not as long as your normal episodes. Generally, I do recommend keeping your episodes around the same length, but I'm happy with a compromise of shortening them during the holiday season if it helps you to keep getting new episodes out. A similar idea is to do FAQ episodes. You could answer 1 question per episode for another kind of short and sweet episode. If you're someone who generally scripts out your episodes, which of course is very time consuming, I know I script most of my content, you can probably get away with just an outline for an FAQ episode because it's meant to be a more casual and conversational situation. Another idea is to do a mini series around a specific theme. This is similar to the idea of a quick tip episode, but it's related to the holiday season.

So if your podcast is about weight loss, you could do a 4 episode miniseries about losing weight during the holidays. One episode could be about handling the presence of treats during holiday social gatherings. Another episode could be about maintaining exercise habits during this busy time, and so on. So short to the point episodes that are especially timely, things that people are going to need information on in real time this time of year. And one final strategy, if you've been podcasting for over a year, you can replay an old episode. I say if you've been podcasting for over a year because I don't suggest replaying something that has just aired for the first time in recent memory. That's going to be relatively fresh in people's minds, and most existing listeners will have already heard it. So if you've been podcasting for a year or more, you can choose something that aired a while ago that new listeners may not have heard yet or at least it isn't fresh in their memory.

When you're deciding which episode to replay, make sure to choose a good one, one where the content is worth hearing a second time in case a listener has already heard it. Then I suggest recording an intro specifically for that episode. Explain that you're taking some time off to enjoy the holidays and that you've chosen to replay this particular episode for x, y, and z reasons, and just kind of set the stage for them so that they know you're thinking of them in real time as you're putting this new intro together. Now this last strategy that I mentioned here of replaying a past episode should be used sparingly. I don't recommend 4 straight weeks of replay episodes during the entire month of December. Try to replay only 1 episode, maybe 2, and fill in any other gaps with quick tip episodes, FAQ episodes, or a miniseries. Okay. So there are a few different options for you.

Go ahead and block some time on your calendar now to batch some of these alternative style of episodes, get them planned, recorded, edited, and scheduled before your holiday plans begin, and then you get to enjoy some well deserved time off while your podcast doesn't miss a beat. Until next time, happy podcasting.