Many podcasters wonder what the most important part of podcasting is. It is the equipment? The pre-production? The post production? Your guests? Social media marketing? Even though they are all important, the most important part is consistency.

Consistency is key. You can get help with everything else, but only you, as the creative, can produce the content required for each episode. Let’s jump into the basics first.

Equipment: A high quality microphone and components makes a big difference in your podcast quality, but you shouldn’t spend thousands of dollars before you get into your journey. You can start small and slowly improve. Take it one step at a time. One way to do this is to contact a local podcast studio and use their equipment instead of paying upfront to buy your own.

Pre-Production: Pre-production is a vital aspect of your show, that people often overlook. Planning will help you to achieve your goals. Like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry says “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Local studios and independent production experts often offer services to support your pre-production efforts.

Post Production: Post production includes everything from editing, mastering, hosting, and distribution. These are essential tasks for a podcast that can really pile up. You can learn these skills and do everything by yourself, but as the creative brain of the show, it’s always better to use your time on developing your show’s content and hire help for all those pesky post production tasks.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

As you can see, the steps above are very important to creating a podcast. However, none of them matter if you don’t have consistency. Podcast listeners are loyal… but only as loyal as their favorite podcast. If you’re inconsistent, your listeners won’t prioritize your show. You have to view your audience as waiting on your show every week. If you miss a week or release your episode late, you are letting them down. This is how you lose listeners.

Long story short, it is not easy to keep up with all the work involved in producing a high quality podcast. But consistency is vital. You might have the best equipment or pay the best studio or work with pros for your show, but at the end of the day, if you don’t release episodes regularly, it will be difficult to develop a loyal fanbase. Working on your show every day, releasing new episodes every constantly is the key to success. 

The She Said/She Said podcast is a great example of a consistent show.  Created by Laura Cox Kaplan, the show celebrated its 100th episode just a few weeks ago. Laura Cox Kaplan has been doing the work for almost two years now and She Said/She Said is a legit podcast with amazing guests and a huge listener based. If you haven’t listened to it, check the show on Apple Podcast or Spotify.

Podcasting is a long journey and if you don’t have the patience and desire for hard work, maybe you need to use this lockdown to rethink your goals.