The Podcast Life is a newsletter by Deanna Chapman that helps you create a great podcast.

Before we get into the dissection, I wanted to mention that the podcast is going to go on break for the next 2-3 months. I’ll likely be bringing it back in September as a way to experiment with doing a seasonal podcast. I’m aware I’ve been inconsistent as it is, but I do plan to continue the newsletter.

I’ve been trapped in a cycle of thinking about what I “should” do instead of making sure I’m enjoying the full process of creating both the podcast and the newsletter. The truth is, I want to focus on writing more right now and not whatever the YouTube algorithm is or isn’t going to do. So that’s the plan!

Anyway, onto the dissection now.

Dissecting Acquired

The basics

Frequency: Monthly

Drop day(s): Sunday

Average episode length: 3-5 hours

Music tone: Energetic, inspiring

What is the show about?

Deep dives into the biggest companies in the world to give you the playbook on what makes them great.

How is it different from other business shows?

There are other business podcasts that have long episodes, but I’ve never listened to one that is nearly as well researched as these. Take their episode on Nike, for example. There are many books on Nike, thousands of articles, and there’s even more to dive into with regard to the athletes who undoubtedly helped make Nike the company it is today. The Google Doc of sources for this episode is 8 pages of links to the various books, articles, etc. that were used to shape the episode (this is honestly a thing I think more shows should provide, where applicable).

Passion: I’m not saying there aren’t other business shows out there, but the fun thing about this one is that Ben and David split up the research and don’t tell each other what they’ve each found. It makes for some great real time surprises (or let downs when the other does already know the fun fact). You can tell that they genuinely love doing the podcast.

How do they open? 

They have a cold open that usually includes quick banter between the hosts, but the key here is that it doesn’t last too long (usually less than a minute), their theme song plays for about 20 seconds and then they jump into introducing themselves and the episode.

This is important: I listened to a podcast that spent nearly a full hour in a four hour episode talking about everything except for the topic their episode was supposedly about. It was the first episode I had ever tried to listen to and I didn’t even make it to the part that I was interested in. Even with two likable hosts, Acquired does not waste the listener’s time. Personally, if you don’t get to your topic within the first few minutes, I’m out. 

It’s crucial that you get to the point if you want to keep attracting new listeners. It’s not impossible if you don’t, but it does put the barrier a lot higher. It’s tough to hook people in, so if you’ve already done the hard job of getting them to click play in the first place, you don’t want them to quickly lose interest and go listen to something else. I know a lot of shows will pull an attention grabbing line from somewhere in the middle of the episode and place it at the top to give you a taste of what’s to come. 

Play around with it and see what works. Platforms like Spotify will show you a retention graph so you can see if people are dropping off quickly. The same goes for YouTube if you’re posting your episodes there. This will really help you find out if your hooks are working.

How do they close?

At the end of each episode (that doesn’t have a guest), they do a segment called carve outs before going into their outro. This is where they talk about recent products they’ve been using and/or media they’ve been consuming. Basically, whatever has caught their attention as of late.

Should you have a closing segment? Segments are great! After my talk with Eric Silver, I’m starting to brainstorm what types of segments I can implement into my own show. But make sure it’s topical or if you’re going to recommend things, make sure you emphasize why you’re recommending it. Don’t just list off things. 

Do they have a CTA? 

This varies in their episodes. If they have a live show coming up, they’ll promote that in addition to mentioning specific episodes you may also enjoy if you enjoyed the one you just listened to, which includes their secondary show, ACQ2. They will also plug their email list and/or Slack that listeners can join.

Episode titles and descriptions 

Acquired’s episode titles are straight-forward. For their regular episodes the title is just the company they’re discussing. For the interview episodes, it’ll include the guest name (and company name, if about one specific company).

Their episode descriptions tell you who/what they’re talking about, includes links to what they talk about (including the link to the aforementioned episode sources so they aren’t overdoing it in the show notes), links to their carve outs mentioned, and links to their plugs at the end. They also have a legal disclaimer at the bottom of all of their show notes.

Include links! I would honestly love it if more shows put links in their descriptions. How I Built This and Masters of Scale are two other shows that I’d put in a similar category as Acquired. Both of those shows do similar, straight-forward descriptions, but only include links to their socials and websites. If you’re talking about a specific company, product, etc., give me the links!! I’m way less likely to search something out if I have to hunt it down on my own, unless I’m extremely interested in it. 

What time do they drop episodes? 

For their Sunday episode drops, the time is usually between 7:30-8:00 PM PT. 

Why does this matter? It’s pretty wild to drop 3-4 hour episodes on a Sunday evening on the west coast, when chances are a lot of people on the east coast have gone to bed. I’d bet that very few people are listening to the full episode on Sundays (unless they don’t sleep, then by all means start that 3 hour episode at 8pm!). However, it is a smart release day because it isn’t a crowded drop day and that means it is waiting for everyone first thing Monday morning. This is also why no matter what day I schedule podcasts, I typically schedule them at 12:15 AM PT. Get those episodes ready for commuters!

Social strategy

Acquired is by no means a video podcast, but they do use video to create short clips and post them as YouTube shorts and Instagram reels. They also create individual covers for each short, as you can see on their Instagram grid. While they have a Twitter account, they rarely post to it (I genuinely don’t think it’s a good place for anyone to be posting their podcast at this point.)

How far in advance does it seem pre-recorded? 

I’d say at least a few weeks on this. I remember I was listening to one of their holiday episodes and they mentioned that the unedited versions of the episodes are typically about 10 hours. This tells me two things: they aren’t recording it all in the same day most likely and they give their editor time to go through it all and get it down to the usual 3-4 hours for release.

Create within your means: Don’t try to replicate this workflow. This is their full-time job and they have a dedicated editor for the show. Most people don’t have that luxury. Countless hours go into these episodes and you need to work within YOUR means, to create the best show that YOU can make. 

What can you implement from Acquired?

Tip 1: Focus on the details

The thing that really sets this podcast apart is their attention to detail in their research. Ben and David split up the research in a way that plays to their strengths. If you know what you’re good at when it comes to making your podcast, lean into and put as much detail as you can into it to really separate your show from the others in that category. And I don’t mean detail in production, I mean detail in the content itself. No one is going to care if you spent 5 hours editing a podcast if the content itself isn’t grabbing their attention.

Tip 2: Be passionate about your topic

It’s clear that Ben and David love talking about companies and talking with the people who run them. Find out what you’re most passionate about and find your unique angle on it. Trust me, people can tell when you have no interest in what you’re talking about. I know as someone who forced myself to talk about movies, books, etc. that I didn’t always enjoy.

Tip 3: Be strategic about your release day

DO NOT drop your show on the same day as your biggest competitors. Sure, you can’t avoid some overlap because there are so many podcasts at this point, but take a look at your audience and find out what else they listen to and pick the day that the most shows don’t drop episodes. 

How does Acquired use YouTube?

Their YouTube channel has 229,000 subscribers and 951 videos. 

At the start, they used to post a lot of shorter clips (don’t get this confused with Shorts), many of which never cracked 1,000 views. 

Now, they utilize Shorts pretty heavily and post audio versions of their episodes, unless they get a major guest like Steve Ballmer. They just include a static image of the person or company they’re talking with or about. Due to the show’s massive increase in popularity in recent years, even the audio-only videos are getting tens of thousands of views. 

However, there is one glaring issue I noticed. 

The ACQ2 interviews exist as a separate podcast feed, but do not exist as a separate YouTube channel. The downside to this is that these interviews are getting drastically fewer views. I can’t see their backend analytics, but I’d bet that this is hurting the channel at least a little bit and I’m curious how the main episodes would be doing if they didn’t have so many other videos with lower views. It’s possible the channel’s average view duration would increase, therefore increasing the likelihood of the algorithm pushing the episodes out to even more people.

If you enjoyed this newsletter and really want to level up your podcast, I interview the smartest people in the business. I’m always looking for the best ways to help you grow your podcast. So be sure to subscribe and share this with a friend! And if there’s something you’d like to see covered, reply to this email.