How Do You Make A Great Pilot Episode?

Hello! My name is Deanna and I help people create great podcasts. Every Sunday I'm sharing one tactical tip to make a killer podcast. So let’s get into it!

This week, my tip is coming in the form of a podcast recommendation. Despite hearing about Pitch Party before it launched, I finally listened to it this weekend. Turns out when you edit podcasts for work all day, sometimes your ears need a break and it’s harder to listen for fun! Which is quite unfortunate given how much I love listening to podcasts for fun.

Anyway, my listening habits are not what this issue is about. It’s about podcast pilot episodes! Pitch Party is a whole podcast dedicated to pilot episodes. As of me writing this, there are 5 that you can go listen to right now. But that’s actually not the only thing to make note of. Pitch Party also has a quick chat with the creators who made each episode (there are 4 of those interviews that you can listen to now).

The latest episode "Searching for DOOM” blew me away. It’s one of the unique episodes I’ve listened to (and I’ve listened to A LOT despite my recent listening decline). I’m not even someone who listens to MF DOOM, but I was engrossed from start to finish.

For those of you who don’t know, I actually started off in music before working in podcasts. Not as a musician, mind you, as I’m actually terrible at playing any instrument at all. BUT I was a music industry major and had wanted to actually focus more on the business side because I didn’t want to live in ProTools all day. Turns out the joke’s on me because boy do I spend a lot of time in ProTools.

That’s all to say that not only did I find this interesting from a podcast perspective, but also a music one. It’s the most innovative way I’ve heard anyone talk about music in a while. It far exceeds what you get out of something like an album review and truly feels like a music documentary in one episode.

I highly recommend giving this show a listen if you’re wondering what it takes to craft a great narrative podcast. You’ll get a variety of episode lengths and subject matters and seeing what people in other areas are doing is always a great way to learn how you can apply it to what you’re working on (mostly a note to myself: this is actually a good topic for another day).

Plus, one of the best ways to learn how to make a great pilot episode is to listen to great pilot episodes. So go listen to Pitch Party on your app of choice below! 👇️ 

Last week, I talked about video podcasts and a few of the different ways you can format them. If you missed that, check it out here.

If you enjoyed this newsletter and really want to level up your podcast, I’m bringing you tips from the smartest people in the podcast industry. 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.