Presenting is difficult
When presenting a podcast, your responsibility as the host is to entertain your audience. Yet, the only tool you have, unlike other hosts, is your voice/audio. You don’t have the luxury of a funny background. Or, like many YouTubers, a funny zoom in on the camera and comic sans text that says ‘iconic. You have to be engaging and entertaining from the offset using only your voice and script. To combat this entertainment issue, many podcasters have a co-host. However, that can come with its own set of problems.
Today, I will compare the pros and cons of solo and co-presenting. To help you figure out which style will work for you.
Pros of solo presenting
The first big pro of solo presenting a podcast is that you don’t have to agree on content with that other person. You decide and have the final say in what to talk about on your podcast. You don’t have to compromise on anything, so you can genuinely call your podcast your own!
Suppose your podcast becomes popular enough to the point where it can be monetizable. Then you don’t have to split any of the profits between any of the hosts. Meaning you have more to spend on things to improve the podcast or on utility bills.
You don’t have to worry about falling out with another co-host. And how it affects all the other things such as branding, scheduling and income as a result!
Cons of solo presenting
For all the pros of solo presenting, some significant flaws come with it.
The first being that you have nobody to bounce off of when recording. Meaning there aren’t as many jokes. You can’t go as in-depth in topics. There’s no one to question your ideas. And you can’t cover certain subjects as profoundly as you could if multiple people were presenting.
And that back and forth banter between you and someone you know can create great chemistry that your audience will want to listen to regularly.
You have nobody to share responsibility within the production of the episodes equally. So you have to do the editing and social media posting. You are considering all the other things you have to do as an adult. It can be exhausting trying to keep up with the maintenance that comes with a podcast!
Pros of joint presenting
Suppose you decide to have another presenter for your podcast. In that case, you have another person to help develop ideas and help you figure out what future content will be, which can lower the pressure of having to create ideas for future instalments.
Solo presenting is tricky as you have no one to help create a natural conversation. And can be off-putting for listeners. Also, having a joint presenter can add a layer of interactivity, and we can see your personality shine more brightly. It’s more entertaining and easier to pull off than a solo presented podcast.
Also, they can help you with the other maintenance that comes with a podcast! Especially one with a high viewer count. The larger the audience, the more social media sharing it requires, and it can get tiring quickly!
Cons of joint presenting
However, there are some cons with joint presenting you need to be aware of. And yes, it may sound like I’m repeating my points. But it’s still the opposite you need to be mindful of during conception. So you can start your next venture with the best foundations possible!
If you co-present with someone, you might want to record and upload your podcast on a bi-weekly basis. The other host might not be able to commit to that schedule. And so, you might have to change or agree to a different upload schedule than intended.
Another thing that could happen is that you could fall out with a co-host. This means you have to rework the schedule, way of presenting, and branding for your podcast. Also, depending on how bad the fallout is, it could result in problems for your brand because of bad publicity.
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If you were planning to use the podcast to launch your status as an influencer, the problem with joint presenting is that the other presenter could outshine you and be more popular. This means their influencing career could start more powerfully and efficiently than yours. It’s a small problem as many other podcasters have been fine with something like that. But it is still something to take into account.
Make it rewarding
When working out, whether you will co-host or go solo, always keep the genre and type of content you will provide to listeners in mind. Also, always do what is best for you as the project’s presenter, editor, and marketer. If you do all of this, podcasting is sure to be a rewarding experience.
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