This is a limited series podcast right for you. So last week we talked all about private podcast, what types there are and if they are a worthwhile tool for your business. So in today's episode, I actually want to walk through how you can structure a limited series private podcast for your brand. Hey, y'all welcome to the clocking in Podcast, the podcast for podcasters entrepreneurs and professionals making their way in the working world while building their own personal brand in the podcasting industry. I'm your host Haylee Gaffin, owner of Gaffin creative a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. If you're a podcaster, or even just dreaming about launching your own podcast someday, this show was built to help you merge your love of conversation, education and business. You can find resources, show notes and more for the clocking in podcast at Gaffin creative.com. Today's episode is brought to you by MIC CHECK society, a community that was built for podcasters who are looking to take their podcast from good to great, scale your podcasts, improve your processes and connect with your listeners through our educational trainings, our private members only community and our monthly calls. If you're ready to join us, you can head over to Mic check society.com and enroll today. And you can get $10 off per month with the code podcast. Now let's clock in and get to work. So last week, we did talk about private podcasts and we kind of walked through what options there are. Today, we're specifically going to lean into the idea of a limited series private podcast. And for the most part, I see my clients use these four opt ins to grow their email list. So today, I want to walk you through structuring them why you need one. Well need is a strong word. But why you would want to use one in your business. So the purpose of a limited series private podcast is to impart or share a specific training or knowledge about something to your audience in a more structured format versus if you were to do a single podcast episode that didn't cover everything. Or maybe you are really into I don't know sharing about education on social media, or maybe you're you're considering stepping into the role of educator and creating courses. But you're not quite there yet. So this is where a limited series private podcast could come in to kind of test like, oh, how many people would be interested in learning about this particular topic? How many people can I expect to actually show up and potentially purchase from me. So that would be the purpose, and then your audience would need to be based on what you've niched into. So, for myself, I have a very wide variety of people because of the different spaces that my business has been over the last few years. So there are a lot of photographers that follow my account, versus podcasters. While I was pivoting into the podcasting space, I had to start creating more content that would attract the right people. So this is also a great way to explore that. So if you're someone who is pivoting into maybe you've served clients for a long time, and now you're trying to serve the same people who have connected with you, this is a great way to pivot your email list to that direction, versus selling to the customers that you've always served who are not the ideal audience for your new pivot. All right, let's jump in to actually planning your episode. So in my opinion, I think that private podcast should have three to five episodes. That is a sweet spot for me. Three is just enough to like give them everything they need. Five is enough to like dive a little deeper without overwhelming them. Because you don't want to have a private podcast that is like 25 episodes long it that becomes overwhelming when someone comes in. You also have to think about the time capacity that someone has, and how much time they're willing to actually spend with you in a free educational audio space. For the sake of this example, I'm going to actually help you outline five episodes. So obviously, you can take this and run with it. If you need to adjust the structure. That's totally fine. This is your private podcast, but this will actually help you set up your own structure for your own private podcast. So episode one, this is where I really like to highlight the introduction and the foundation of the private podcast. So you want to introduce it Topic lay those foundational concepts. And then within that, you want to actually provide an overview of what you're going to be talking about why it's important, the outline of what listeners can expect from this limited series pot private podcast. And then also, what I would do is include some sort of hook, like get get them to where they want to continue listening, because it is so easy for someone to come in, listen to the first episode, and then kind of fizzle out because it didn't give them any information other than the description. So you want to make sure you're giving them more than just the simple. This is what the whole thing is about. You want them to feel okay, this is the outcome I'm going to get from this limited series podcast. If you're only using Episode One as like an introduction and foundation and a selling point, I would not make this episode too long, like five minutes max. In order to do that, if you're actually diving into some of the content, it can go longer. But definitely make sure you're not just speaking to speak in some of these episodes, because time is very limited. Now, the second episode that I want you to consider is deep diving into the key concepts. So whatever your topic is that you introduced, in the first episode, break down those topics into manageable parts in episode two. And this is where you can customize this, if you need to break it down into like episode two, three, and four, that's totally fine. I do have other concepts to consider for Episode three and four. But break those down, use real world examples that actually illustrate the points that you're making. And then provide actionable steps with each of those key concepts that your listeners connect can start implementing today. So once you have actually outlined those key concepts, that's when we go into Episode Three, and allow for practical application. So as you shared some of the examples, what I want you to consider doing an episode three is dive deep, deeper, offer tips, techniques that listeners can apply directly to their business, or whatever it is you're teaching on. And share your best practices share those tools and strategies that are easy to implement. And then the fun thing you can always do with a private podcast is if there are examples, and this could even be a bonus episode in your private podcast. Or you can work it into an episode. But bring in people who have learned from you like that is a fun way to engage your listeners show those examples coming to life, but also a way to set yourself up as the expert and build their trust within you.
Now, Episode Four is where I would push for you to go further. So in my opinion, I feel like whether your private podcast is actually a free opt in or a paid piece of a paid product, which we will actually talk about next week's episode, whether it's free or paid, you really need to be able to provide a transformation for your listener. So in this scenario where your listener is actually knowledgeable in your topic, you do want to be able to provide those advanced strategies like you don't want someone walking away being like, oh, like that's common knowledge, which may not be all too common if someone is opting in for your specific training. But in the case that there are and someone is looking like to go a little bit further, that's where I'd push for Episode Four to be a little more advanced. So consider common problems that your listener would face in whatever the topic is. You can even address like listener submitted questions about specific concerns. And the way you can do this is put out those those questions prior to actually recording. The other thing you can always do for specifically q&a is like, have your first set of listeners send you their questions, fill out a form, then you can update an episode or even add a bonus episode of like a q&a session. Another thing that you could do with that is if you're doing a launch for this private podcast, and you have like a solid week of push or whatever your timeline looks like, if you decide, You know what I want to host a live event with this where I will do a q&a After everyone has listened. You could record that q&a and put it as a bonus episode in here as well. So that's just like another thing that would get people engaged and active within those first within that long each period, so that you are getting as many eyes on your content as possible. Now, the final episode in this limited series private podcast would be recapping and next step. So summarize everything you talked about, and then provide guidance on where they should go next. My recommendation here is offer your resources. So for the most part, people know that they are opting into a free, specifically free private podcast with the intention of being sold to especially if they're business owners, if they're not, that's okay. But this is where you can actually drive people to your own offerings. So whether it is a book, you're selling a course, a workshop, a paid podcast, anything that you that would be relevant to your existing audience, that is what you want to be selling to. Now, this is where I, I feel like a lot of people are like, Oh, but I have 15 products and 15 things that people could potentially, by on this topic, I get it same. For the most part, if someone wants to launch a podcast with me, or through my resources, everything I offer is relevant to them. But when you are creating a private podcast, you want to have an end goal in mind. So with the amount of work that goes into a private podcast, consider the price point of what it is that you need to sell. So if you are outsourcing the entire launch and production of your private podcast, you're looking at a nice investment. So how can you make back that money, if you're selling a $15 product as your end result of your private podcast, that's not going to make up that money. But if your goal is, oh, I want these people to get on my private podcast. And then I want to send them over to my free public podcast to listen and become a subscriber. Because I make money off of that. Like, that's a different story, too. So just think of what your goal is what you want to offer at the end, and make sure that it makes sense for you. Now, those are the five episodes that I would highlight. The other thing to consider, too is whether you want to offer a worksheet for a workbook, an online community. Like where do you want people to be able to have a resource within this, this does not mean that it's required. Like, I will say the number of people that are going to listen to this while they are driving in the car is probably pretty high. They don't necessarily need something to support them in the process, unless you like have this very specific way of teaching through workbooks and worksheets. Now, I want to walk through really quickly structuring episodes. And this is where I tend to edit and work on private podcasts differently than I do public podcast. So in a public podcast episode, what I would normally say is you need like a podcast intro, which today like as of May 2024, intros and outros are actually becoming a little less common and a little more obsolete, isolate them for brand recognition, so people know what they're listening to. So I do still encourage them. But I would normally say you need a podcast intro your content and a podcast outro. With a private podcast, though, what I tend to do is only put an intro on the very first episode. And then if you want to highlight it in the main conversation of your episodes, you can, but I typically structure them with just music after the first episode, you can still do an outro. But if you consider like how people are listening to this, especially the length, if your episodes are five to 10 minutes, I would not include an intro and outro and your private specifically or your private podcast but structuring the way I would do it is an introduction of what you're talking about main content, and then the kind of recap slash CTA so if there's something you want them to do at the end of each episode, I don't necessarily suggest that your CTA drive them to different things that you offer, or even like, oh, come connect with me on Instagram because you've connected with them in email because they have opted into this So you can use your your email nurture sequence to actually connect with them on Instagram. But that would be my recommendation. You can even include a teaser for the next episode, especially if you have long episodes because someone may not sit down like if your episodes are an hour long each time, they may not be listening back to back to back, so you could give a teaser. But I wouldn't necessarily do it for shorter episodes that are all already out. But this is also not a private podcast. So I am going to tease you as to what we're talking about next week. And that is how you can convert a free opt in that is your private podcast and turn it into a shot product. So come back here next week, where we will be talking about how to turn your private podcast lead magnet into a shop product. And I will see you all in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to clocking in with Haylee Gaffin. For resources mentioned in today's episode head to Gaffin creative.com. If you're a podcast or looking for a community that will help you improve your podcast, make sure you check out Mike check society, our community for podcasters who are looking to take their podcast from good to great enroll today at Mic check society.com and use code podcast for $10 off per month. If you love this episode, I'd be honored if you'd leave me a review in the Apple podcast app. Until next time, I'm your host Haylee Gaffin clocking out
