Start a Podcast Production Business
Podcast Launch Checklist
Companion to "Launch Like It Matters" and "Your First 90 Days & Going Deeper."
Days 1 to 14: decide and build
- Record three phone test episodes; finish the fit check
- Write the one-sentence listener promise
- Pick the name; run the search, trademark, and say-it-out-loud tests
- Make the artwork (square 3000x3000 px, 72 dpi, JPG or PNG, RGB)
- Order the microphone stack (dynamic USB mic ~$70; complete studio under $200)
- Claim the hosting account so the feed exists (~$15/mo tier)
- Book the first four recordings from the inner ring of the dream list (the people who say yes easily; your first two interviews are practice)
Days 15 to 30: bank the buffer
- Produce the trailer (2 to 3 minutes: what the show is, who it is for, when episodes arrive)
- Produce three full episodes minimum (five is better)
- Choose the standard blocks: intro, music, outro one-liner, episode title format
- Submit the feed to Apple and Spotify the moment the trailer is live (submit to Apple a week early; review usually takes a day or two, occasionally longer)
- Write the fifty-to-two-hundred-name invite list; draft the personal three-sentence message
- Do not launch yet. The buffer is the launch.
Days 31 to 37: launch week
- Publish all three episodes at once (three episodes of listening per person is three times the download signal)
- Send the personal invitations launch morning, individually, in the channel you actually talk in
- Follow-ups: everyone who said they would listen gets a mid-week nudge with the direct link most relevant to them
- The review ask: once, plainly (ratings and reviews are not chart factors; they still change whether strangers listen)
- Deliver the first share kit within a day of publishing
- Reply to everyone; write down every "you should talk to" name
Expect launch week numbers to be your personal best for a while, then drop. The real baseline forms over the following eight to twelve weeks from strangers.
Days 38 to 90: rhythm and checkpoints
- Settle into the weekly blocks: outreach, prep, record, edit, publish, promote, maintain (6 to 9 hours/week for a weekly interview show)
Relationship-engine lane, day 90. Ten or more interviews recorded; two or more guest relationships continued past the episode; one coffee call, referral, or work conversation that exists because of the show; a dream list that keeps refilling.
Media-business lane, day 90. Stable publish rhythm never broken; downloads per episode trending up across the quarter; searchable packaging on every episode; at least one cross-promotion or guest appearance on an adjacent show.
Shared checkpoint. You still want to record. True and the numbers lag: patience and outreach. False: season break, cadence cut, or a graceful finale (a finished show is not a failed show; two shows in three never reach episode ten).
Day-90 temptation is a redesign. Almost no day-90 problem is solved by a redesign; change topics or guests inside the existing frame before you ever change the frame.