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Welcome to Podcast Answers, the show where I help you start and grow your podcast and

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your live stream.

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I'm doing a live stream.

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I love doing live stream.

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So guys, we're here.

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It's the beginning of the year.

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Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about tasks that you can do yearly to

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keep your show up to date, to keep your show looking good, sounding good, and just be the

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best podcast that you can be.

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So that's right.

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Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about yearly tasks that you can do for

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your podcast.

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And let's start by a very obvious one is developing a content calendar for your year, outlining

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your episodes, your themes, your guests, the appearances and special events.

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So for me, what does that look like?

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For me, I am sitting down and I'm taking an actual calendar and I'm saying, "Okay, these

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are my release dates.

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These are some ideas that I want to do."

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So I've talked before a little bit on this show about having a Notion document that I'm

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using for planning my episodes.

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So I have all my content in there.

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And if I get an idea, I throw that into my Notion document.

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But this is also taking it a step further.

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And you can actually even do this within Notion.

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You can plan your episodes out.

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So you can put them on a calendar, say when they're going to be released and it shows

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up on a calendar.

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So I like this idea because it allows you to go in there and say, "These get a strategy."

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Instead of going week to week and saying, "Okay, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going

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to be talking about.

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So let's talk about this."

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Or, "I don't really know that I have something to talk about this week.

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So I'm actually just going to sit and not do an episode.

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I'm guilty of that, guys.

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I'm guilty of not necessarily knowing what I'm going to talk about.

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And so I don't actually do the thing.

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I don't actually talk about podcasting because I don't do an episode because I just don't...

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It's easy to say, "No, I'll skip it and do it next week."

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If you don't have the content planned out.

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If you have your content planned out, then you know that you have to do this show this

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time, this day, and release it when everyone is expecting it.

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So sit down, take a day, maybe a day and a half, go on a retreat, if you will, especially

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if you're co-hosting that...

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And I love doing this.

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If you have a co-host for your episode, sit down and actually take some time, go away,

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maybe rent a room somewhere, maybe get out in there and take some time, plan your episodes

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out.

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If you're going to have guests, get them, maybe even contact them, or at least know

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when you're going to contact them so you have enough time.

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Because I'm guilty of that too, where we say, "We want to do this episode," and we try to

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get a guest and then they're not available.

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So what do you do then?

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So take some time, plan your content out, get it on the calendar.

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That way you're ready to go.

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And again, it doesn't have to be jam packed full.

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You can do an episode maybe or leave a couple spots in your calendar open or just so you

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know that those spots are there that way, when you go ahead and try to do your show,

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you're going to have people...

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You'll have the rest of your year planned out.

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Now another fun thing that you can do at the beginning of the year, and I know we're already

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a month into 2025, and that's crazy guys.

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That's crazy that we're a month into 2025 already.

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I can't believe that we're already a month into 2025.

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But what you can do is you can conduct listener surveys to gather feedback on content performances,

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areas of improvement, things that people want to see.

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And again, you don't have to say, "What was bad about my show this last year?" or "What

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was good about this year?"

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But you can use this survey to say, "What kind of content did you like?

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Did you like this episode?

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Did you like this?"

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So for me, I could create my survey and it's really easy to do that with Survey Monkey

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and other free survey sites or plugins that you have on your site you can create if you're

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depending what kind of website you have.

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If I have a WordPress site like I do, you can easily create a survey on there.

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And so I would say things like, "Hey, do you like what I'm talking about video?

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Are the video topics hitting it with you?

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Do you prefer that I'm talking audio?

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Do you prefer that I do how to edit your podcast, or how to do video editing or live streaming

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or whatever?"

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The idea is to get your content out there.

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The idea is to get what your listeners like and want and want to hear from you.

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And again, it's your show so you can do what you want.

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But if you have listeners and they have ideas, listen to them.

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So also, one of the things you should be having for your show is a marketing strategy.

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So you want to take the time this time to look at your marketing strategies and explore

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maybe new platforms or methods to reach a bigger audience.

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Maybe that means that you're gonna do paid advertising this year.

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Maybe it could also mean that you're doing things like being on a different podcast or

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a different social media.

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Maybe there's a new social media that you want to be part of.

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Take this time to update your strategy and try to figure out what that means for you.

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Are you going to change your strategy?

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Are you going to just post during the week?

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Are you going to create a Facebook group, not just a Facebook page?

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And then what kind of content are you going to put in there?

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And how are you going to engage with your audience?

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So this can all be done in that same planning meeting, the first of the year, and then figure

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out what you're going to do for your social media presence.

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How are you going to get out there and be a leader in your community?

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The other thing you want to do is also make any changes in your website or your social

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media to reflect any changes in your branding or content focus.

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So if your podcast has changed, if your brand has changed, and maybe this is a good time

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to actually sit down and rebrand, how long has it been since you've updated your podcast

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logo, your podcast cover, your podcast colors?

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Maybe this is time to sit down and actually take a look at your podcast content, your

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website, your social media, making sure it's a cohesive unit.

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It's all one brand.

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I know for me, I recently changed my logo on another podcast like a year ago or so.

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And I found that some of my things still show the same old logo.

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So not to get too technical, but there's a way to when you share a website like a URL,

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that a graphic shows up in it.

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So like, let's say I text you the link, there's a way to have a graphic show up and a couple

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of my links on one of my podcast sites still show the old logo guys, it still shows the

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logo.

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And I don't see that because I'm not constantly looking at that because that's not something

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that I'm constantly looking at.

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It's when I share the site that I go, "Oh, that actually is not correct because it has

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the old logo in it."

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So this is where you need to take a look at all of your things.

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And again, this is a good time to do it at the beginning of the year and maybe even half

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a year.

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Sit down and look at something like that and make sure just that your branding is cohesive

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with your colors, that your colors didn't change, that you're not using a slightly different

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color for something.

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The next thing that you want to take a look at at the beginning of the year is your software

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and your hardware maintenance, your equipment.

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Do you have a soundboard?

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If you have a roadcaster, is it up to date?

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Is the software you're using up to date?

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I'm using Ecamm.

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Is Ecamm up to date?

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For me it is because I'm actually running on the beta software because I run like that.

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I run with scissors, I run beta.

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But for others, you have to look at things like that.

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And not just that, but also you have to look at things like the website hosting.

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Are you hosting on a WordPress?

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If so, is your WordPress up to date?

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Is all of your plugins up to date?

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Because if they're not, your site can easily get hacked.

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That's a task that I do every month.

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In fact, I actually do it every Friday.

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Every Friday, I go into all of my websites.

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I look and say, "Oh, there's an update for WordPress.

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Oh, there's an update for this plugin.

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Oh, there's an update for this plugin."

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Making sure that my stuff is up to date and fresh.

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Now again, that may take some time and it's a good thing to do regularly because if you

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get behind on some of your software updates, if you get behind on some of your hardware

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updates, there may be trouble if you try to jump up to a very fresh version if you're

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behind several versions.

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So it's important that you keep those things up to date.

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Now the other thing you want to do too is analyze your podcast financial performance,

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including expenses, revenue, potential monetization strategies.

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I know that not everyone is doing a podcast to make money.

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And that's great.

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We need people who are doing podcasts just because podcasts are fun to do.

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They're easy to do.

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And we need people that are going to be doing podcasts just for the fun of it.

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Not necessarily to make money.

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Making sure if you don't have a budget, create a budget for your upcoming year.

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Look at your costs, your marketing, your equipment, your hosting services.

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I know for me this year, one of my goals is to upgrade some of my cameras for the podcast

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studio.

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So I need to create a budget.

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I need to look at my expenses.

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I need to know what I can spend on new equipment because I do want to update my equipment.

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So I need to know what my budget is going to be for that.

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What it's going to be for marketing, hosting services.

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Podcasts do cost money to produce.

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They are, they do.

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And so I need to have a budget to know, "Okay, this is how much I want to spend this year

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on my podcast."

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Whether it's a hobby or a business, you need to know how much that's going to cost.

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Another thing you need to think about doing is networking and collaboration.

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What events are coming up this year that you can do conference-wise that you can go and

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network with other podcasters and professionals that are in your niche?

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Go ahead and look at that at the beginning of the year and say, "Okay, in October, I

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want to go attend this event."

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That plays into your budget too.

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You need to make sure that you have money for that in your budget.

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And so as we go throughout the year, create that in your budget.

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Because that's a good way to grow your podcast too is networking with other people that are

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in your niche, whether it's a podcast or not.

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It's good to be able to networking.

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And then another thing you need to do, and it's good to do at the beginning of the year,

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is invest in your skill development.

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Invest in learning new skills related to podcasting, such as like how to present yourself on mic,

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how to edit your audio, how to do storytelling techniques, how to market your show.

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Considering courses or workshops that enhance your podcasting abilities, hire me as a one-on-one

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consultant.

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You can do that at podcastanswers.com/contact.

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And I would love to help you out with that.

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But you can hire me to help you out to learn such things related to your podcast.

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But plan that ahead of time.

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Plan that now.

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Plan when you're going to do that this year.

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By addressing all of these things at the beginning of the year, you can ensure your podcast remains

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relevant, engaging, and successful.

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You can have an amazing podcast, guys.

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And sometimes we forget, "Oh, we need to take a look at these things at the beginning of

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the year."

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It doesn't have to be the beginning of the year.

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The beginning of the year is just an easy way to say, "Hey, calendar is changing.

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I want to get in here and I want to make sure my podcast is good.

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My audio is good.

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But I've got content planned for the rest of the year."

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And maybe you're not planning content for the rest of the year.

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But you're only planning content for six months.

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But getting in there, doing the job, those are things that you need to take a look at

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every...

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I would say at least every year, but even six months.

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So guys, with that, thank you so much for tuning in for another episode of Podcast Answers.

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Again, if you want to hire me, I can help you live stream, I can help you podcast edit,

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I can help you teach you how to podcast.

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We can get your podcast rolling.

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You can be a better podcaster today.

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Go to my website, podcastanswers.com/contact and contact me and we can set up a one-on-one

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time to do whatever you need to do related to podcasting.

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Guys, thank you so, so much for hanging out with me.

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And if you have any podcast questions you'd like me to answer, hit that same website up

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podcastanswers.com/contact.

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Have a great weekend.

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And keep podcasting!