Episode Review

We started this Intentional Content series with a pre-recording exercise to help us get up and rolling with our episode content. Since then, we have also delivered our content using the simple “tell them” formula and enhanced it with some triggers to capture the attention of our audience. Now it’s time to bring the episode to a close with 5 simple questions to review and refine our episodes content creation.

Jump To It!

(select the chapter marks within the player above)

00:15 - The last piece to our Intentional Content series
00:41 - About The Podcast Planner.
01:15 - Reviewing our episodes after publishing.
01:45 - Questions number 1.
02:13 - Questions number 2.
02:36 - Question number 3.
03:12 - Question number 4.
03:47 - Question number 5.
05:28 - Next series teaser!
06:21 - Facts you should know about.

Reviewing Our Published Episodes

Making time to step back and review what we’ve created helps us to be aware of our progress towards the goal we have with our podcast. If we don't, the opposite tends to happen. We continue to just roll with the punches, produce and produce. A sense of direction and purpose can get lost and eventually Podfading!

The first question to ask after you’ve produced and published an episode is:

What 3 things did you like most about this episode?

Try to provide 3 reasons.

The Struggles

Let’s get real with ourselves and ask:

What struggles did you experience with this episode?

Did the interviewee cancel at the last minute?
Technical issues? Such as recording gear or editing?
Hows about the actual content…weak? not enough?
Or having some issues with your voice getting tired?

Progress Not Perfection

We’ve answered the tough question, now it’s time to address it with this question:

What steps can you take to reduce or eliminate these struggles?

Answering this question encourages us to think outside of our problematic box and come up with ways to make it easier for us to share our voice with the world.

If it’s a technical issue, who can help you?
If it was the interviewee canceling issued, what can you have as a solid backup?
If it’s something that can’t be immediately dealt with, write down a step that will get you closer to the solution. Make progress.

The Audience's Reaction

The fourth question:

How was the episode received by your audience?

I usually wait about one to two week to answer this question, because that's typically enough time for me to review any feedback I received from my audience.

Feedback comes in different forms, for example:

Emails or voicemails about the episode
Directory reviews (like apple and stitcher)
Social media shares.
Download numbers

Knowing how your audience reacts to an episode provides data on the kind of content that our audience is most attracted to. Whether you tap into that or not is up to you.

Final Thoughts

The last question is simple, yet valuable to our podcasting journey:

What are your final thoughts about the episode you just published?

This is where the journaling aspect comes into play. Not everything is about strategizing, the reflecting and expressing how we are feeling is just as important.

I encourage you to make this part of your post-publishing exercise so that you can review and refine your episodes for effective content creation.