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

This week’s episode!

I talk about the pros and cons of podcast networks. I previously managed a network and have worked on several shows that have joined networks and wanted to share some of my experiences with them. Watch it below or listen to it here.

Bonus content!

This week, I want to share some of my struggles with launching this podcast.

I set this podcast up on a schedule that I felt would be sustainable by alternating between interview and solo episodes and by only releasing an episode every other week. Oddly enough, I’ve found that a much harder schedule to maintain and some of that has to do with the fact that I created a sheet in Airtable to track this podcast and haven’t updated it since launch.

Which means every Monday I find myself asking, “Wait, am I supposed to have an episode ready for tomorrow?” That’s… not great to say the least.

Not to mention, I was depressed at the exact time I had set the launch date for the podcast. It took me a full month to even email the Seattle Radio Google Group to let people local to me know that I had launched the podcast since I had mentioned it to some members previously at a meetup.

I still haven’t sent out a post to the larger groups I’m in. I’ve made shorts for my first episode, but I’ve only posted a few of them. My show notes could use some more work. My YouTube thumbnails could also use some more work. I’m sure there are a handful of other things I could list that I would like to improve on.

Maybe I’m shooting myself in the foot here by telling you all of this, but what I do know is that I want to help people make the best podcast that they can. And sometimes the best you can do means that it isn’t going to be perfect.

Big podcasts have teams for a reason, this is hard to do alone. Yet I almost always take my projects on by myself. (Don’t worry, I’m aware I’m too stubborn for my own good.)

So I know it’s going to be a bumpy ride, but I really have learned a lot along the way and will continue to do everything I can to help others with their podcasts. It’s truly a passion of mine.

That said, I’m going to do my best to bring as much value to this as I can. If you have any questions you want answered, let me know and I’ll cover it in a mailbag episode in the future.

P.S. Next up on the guest list is Arielle Nissenblatt and we talk all about podcast trailers!

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.