As I write this I’m currently in the middle of sharing 28 reasons to listen to The Instructor Podcast. Those reasons are coming surprisingly easily. It’s a great podcast, with excellent content and tremendous guests. But are podcasts a resource that we’re using enough as an industry?
You can probably guess that I don’t think we are.
And it’s not just driving instructors. There are hundreds of thousands of podcasts that have a handful of episodes, and then stopped. Why?
I can’t account for every podcast, but a large part of it is that podcasting is hard work. At least it is if you do it properly and it doesn’t come ready built with massive numbers.
There’s an old saying that a driving instructors hour, is 90 minutes. Well, a podcasters hour is more like 4! The recording itself may take about an hour, but there’s so much going on behind the scenes:
- Scheduling the guests. This isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when using multiple guests.
- Editing
- Research
- Pre/post show chat
- Show notes
- Recording intros, outros and mid show reels.
- Creating the cover art
- Promoting the show – those posts don’t write themselves
- Creating content to send to the guests
I love it all! With the possible exception of the scheduling. But for a podcast to be successful, it takes all of the above and more, consistently.
So it’s not wonder so many podcasters give up. Especially us driving instructors. We have so much other stuff to manage. But it’s still a largely untapped resource with a potentially huge audience. And some people are doing a great job, DIPOD have been around for over a decade! Kev and Tracey Field have just released a new podcast for learners. As well as The Instructor, I host the 5 Minute Theory and Driving Test Tales podcasts.
Here's link to those shows:
The driving confidence podcast
There’s room for more.
Think about the learning students can do while sat on the bus, walking or laid in bed at night. Not just that, lot’s of people learn better with audio. I do. I tend to listen to at least 4 hours of audio a day, often 8!
Starting a podcast isn’t easy and shouldn’t be done lightly. But help is available. I’m happy to talk to anyone who’s got an idea for a show. Heck, I can even host it on my network and cross promote it. There’s people (me) who can edit the show and help with promotion.
There is room for more podcasts in the driving instructor industry.
But, there’s also more people who could be listening to podcasts. I accept that audio isn’t for everyone, but there’s nearly 40,000 of us and hundreds of thousands of learners, so we should be doing more to share.
If you listen to a podcast relevant to our industry, share it with your students or fellow instructors. It doesn’t have to be mine, whichever to listen to, share it.
You can check out my 28 reasons to listen to The Instructor Podcast on my Instagram page.
What podcast would you like to listen to, either for learner drivers or driving instructors?
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