Why Making Mistakes Makes You a Better Podcaster

06 Dec Why Making Mistakes Makes You a Better Podcaster

Fact: the road to learning a new skill or trade is filled with unexpected errors. Nobody masters greatness overnight. Even Einstein scribbled around on a blackboard for hours to arrive at his aha moments.  It’s undoubtedly defeating to watch a project steal hours of your brainpower, only to fall short of your expectations. The seemingly sad reality is that outcomes don’t always match input.

Chin up: at TCP Learning, we think there’s no such thing as “wasted” brainpower. You’re simply warming up the engines. We think the true merit of learning lies in the process.

And when it comes to producing podcasts that engage listeners and leave them wanting more, we can confirm: making mistakes makes for better podcasts. It might seem a bit backward, but the trial and error approach to learning, when applied over time, will produce better quality podcasts.

Why? Let us illuminate:

This Medium was Made for Edits!

Podcast production is a playground for making mistakes. With the right tools, you can mix and match sound design, rewrite elements of the script and re-record even the tiniest components of audio on a whim. If you’re kicking yourself for forgetting to ask your guest speaker the burning question that ties your whole plot together, call her back. It’s 2017. We have technology on our side!

You’ll Learn What Doesn’t Work

Trial and Error. You erred. You know not to do it again. The sound clip you selected simply didn’t match the dialogue you were trying to enhance. The announcer botched the timing of your intro. Your script was sub-par and it showed. Well, now you’ve learned a few things: you need to test numerous audio options before finding the ideal sound effect, you should read our upcoming  article: How to Write Scripts that Bring Podcasts to Life, and you might want to hire a better announcer.

You’re in the Driver’s Seat

You’ve had the opportunity to learn what doesn’t work, but you’ve also experienced what does. And you were at the wheel when it happened. If you hadn’t tried and failed, you wouldn’t have the applied experience which becomes the biggest takeaway in your learning process.

You Become the Subject Matter Expert

The only way to command your expertise is to try and fail. Since podcasting is a forgiving way to fail, allowing for plug and play throughout the learning process, you can spend your time testing which approaches work best until you have numerous styles in your mastery. You’ve hosted an informative speaker, relayed crucial news, promoted a worthy product or told a captivating story. Each type of podcast is a different trial and error experience in the making, so the more you test out, the more well-rounded an expert you become.

Sometimes, Making Mistakes is Fun

Remember college? We joke. But seriously, mistakes make the best stories. Don’t beat yourself up if your first few podcasts horrify you in hindsight. You have the unique ability to look back on them in comparison to the far superior podcasts of your future. The ones you produced when armed with the wisdom of all your mistakes. Remember it’s a process, you’re an aspiring podcaster and you’re well on your way to producing audio gold. Try to have a little fun in the meantime. Otherwise, what’s it all worth?

Learn more about sound approaches to podcasting from our Learning Solutions Design Studio blog series here.