Podcast : Making your choices

Get out a piece of paper. You need about 10 minutes today and 15 minutes tomorrow to complete this exercise. Really, if you just wait a day or two between the phases of this exercise, you'll get a much better program by following this process:

1. Make three columns on the page. Place a heading for the left column, "Topics," and call the middle column "What I can add."

2. Under "Topics," write down five things you think about every day, whether it's a hobby, your business, sports, politics, or something you argue with friends about frequently and energetically — things people enjoy talking with you about. Don't take too long, just a couple minutes. What wakes you up? Are you worried about finances, the state of your relationships? What gets you going?

3. Now, under "What I can add," write the ideas you've had about each of your topics in the past couple of days. These could be your "original notions" about the topic, such as a theory that the Red Sox consistently under-invest in third basemen, that there are three regions of the world or industries that are ripe for investment by people like you seeking improved returns, or maybe your ideas about how to resolve the political problems in the Middle East. You get the idea; write down what, if you were to do a podcast on that topic today, you would talk about. Got it all on paper? Now, stop. Let it percolate.

4. On day 2, return to your worksheet. Add a title to the third column, "Sound." Have you thought of additional topics? Add them to the Topics column. More importantly, as you went about the intervening day, did you find yourself identifying stories in the news, ideas in your head, or things people said to you in conversation that you'd like to have recorded for a podcast? Write these under "Sound" for each of the topics. Seriously, are you already looking for audio as a natural part of your day? That's the producer's habit that we're looking to cultivate, starting with this list. Finally, write down the ideas you'd add about each of the topics or the sound you'd record; that's the raw material of your own comments.

After the second visit, your list probably looks somewhat lopsided. Some of the ideas you had yesterday yielded little or nothing, because they aren't sustainable topics. This is the problem with picking a topic: Unless you genuinely engage with the subject, you'll quickly find yourself experiencing burn-out. Don't be one of the people who launch two or three podcasts on a whim and then fade away. You may want to repeat the exercise for a few days; this is an approach we've used with programs created for a news network staffed by young journalists who needed to work through the difference between what they could talk about and what they really wanted to talk about day-in and day-out on a regular program.

Of the topics you've identified, which produced the most notes? Take a look at the environment for that topic. Begin by doing searches on news and search sites for articles that relate to the topic. You're looking here for how much material you can expect to draw from. Whether you're doing topical political humor or investing ideas, you need fresh material to write about. If the topic doesn't present you with enough subjects to talk about as frequently as you hope to produce, then you need to look again at the list and combine topics or find another more fruitful one.

This exercise also forces you to begin the process of producing the show on paper, making you test your resolve about the topic and the frequency with which you can expect to deliver programs. Even if there is lots of material, you may not find all of it particularly interesting to talk about, so you must start to think through what you're going to do with outside information, especially how you're going to link it to the ideas you want to add — after all, it's your head that people will want to tune into. Make sure you're offering a podcast that accesses the busier parts of your brain. You can discuss your ideas about phenomenology, a branch of philosophy, or global warming, as long as you know you'll be productive and engaging.

Look, if you're contemplating a show for your family, they'll probably want to listen just to hear you. Your family loves you, or at least we hope they do. But if you want to earn the attention of an audience — whether they're your customers or complete strangers — for a long time to come, these are serious questions to ask yourself. Some labor now will save you from totally retooling the show after launch.

Finally, how often should one produce? That answer depends very much on the format and topic you choose. For example, doing news commentary once a week will not keep up with the pace of events, so you'll have difficulty convincing listeners you are timely. Daily may be your only option, unless you decide to focus on some aspect of the news that can be wrapped and summarized less often, such as The Week in Advertising or This Week's Seattle Mariners Moves. A show about history or math, however, that goes into detail about events or concepts can be a weekly or monthly program that is listened to repeatedly in order to get the most out of it.

Frequency is up to you, although you should avoid the temptation to over-deliver. People may not be able to keep up with your production schedule and feel they are falling behind if, at first, you offer a program a day (music programming, where there is no narrative to lose track of, can be daily from the get-go). It's probably best to start with a less frequent production, gather feedback from your listeners, and then decide about increasing how often you deliver new shows. That way, you will not find yourself backing off an original and overly ambitious promise to offer a daily show when it's not what is needed. Or, think of it this way: It is better to add shows — it's like increasing the value — than justify producing less.