Co-Hosted Podcasts: How to Succeed Without Ruining Your Relationship
So you’re thinking of starting a co-hosted podcast, or maybe someone has come to you and wants you to be part of their show. Should you do it?
My friend, Lyn Lindbergh, joined me on Podcasting Step by step to discuss the absolute essentials you must have in place for a co-hosted podcast to succeed. Because if you get it wrong, the consequences go far beyond having a bad show. A co-hosted podcast gone wrong can ruin your relationship.
Lyn hosts the solo show Couch to Active and co-hosts The Lindberghs podcast with her husband Erik Lindbergh. And yes, he’s related to Charles.
Subscribe to Podcasting Step by Step for free (click a button below) to hear all of Lyn’s great advice on how to produce a quality co-hosted podcast without losing your mind. Scroll down for highlights on what to consider before you get started.
Lyn and Erik Lindbergh, podcast co-hosts. Photo courtesy of Lyn.
Is your potential podcast co-host reliable?
If you want to co-host a show, you need to be realistic about your relationship with the potential co-host, and your own time commitments and behaviors. This person might be fun to hang out with, but will they show up week in and week out?
“We knew we could do this. We're a second marriage. The podcast’s theme is second chances,” Lyn says. “Be really, really confident that that is what you want to do and that the relationship can weather it.”
Do they know what they’re in for?
Do they want this as much as you do? You both have to want to be part of the show, and know what you’re getting into. Your potential podcast partner should know how much time goes into podcasting and what you expect from them. Flexibility and the ability to re-evaluate and set priorities/boundaries are other great qualities in a podcast partner.
“We just made a decision to go from every week to every other week and then we're going to take the summer off and do a season break,” Lyn says. It works because she and her husband, Erik, talked it out and are on the same page.
Chemistry is key for a podcasting partnership
You need to have great rapport with your co-host. This doesn’t mean you agree on everything. In fact, it’s fun if you have different opinions and can debate these. The movies that suck us in often have pairings that seem opposite to each other: the zany one, and the straight-laced one. The wise big sister, and the younger sister trying to figure it all out.
“it's our therapy on the couch that we just publish out to everybody.”
Book specific time to work on the podcast
Set up a system for recording and also discussing your show. Get it on the calendar.
“We have an online signup form for our guests. That’s been a beautiful, beautiful thing because our calendars are all connected and it only shows free time when both of our calendars are free,” Lyn says. “We have a weekly, two-hour block that, every Tuesday afternoon, we sit down and talk podcast stuff. That is more for me and my sanity because I have to be able to compartmentalize that a little bit. I can't be talking podcasts at breakfast and then at dinner and then during a commercial break of a show at nine o'clock at night.”
Define roles and responsibilities
“One thing that was critical for us was role definition. Who's doing what and when,” Lyn says. “I produce it all...he brings in some really incredible guests...We realized that he is a really good speaker, and I'm a really good interviewer.”
Feedback is essential
When something isn’t working or can be improved, talk about it and accept feedback with the assumption that the giver has positive intent.
“We have this thing in our relationship, and in our family, of ‘feedback is okay.’ Sometimes one person can just be grouchy, awful, you know, for a half a day. And it's okay. It doesn't mean the relationship is at risk. It doesn't mean the sky is falling down. It doesn't mean we're on the way to the courthouse to get divorced. It just means we're human.”