I’m going to preface this by saying, this only applies to anyone who intends to swear in their podcast, but if you do then you should make sure you swear in EVERY SINGLE episode.
Consistency! Consistency! Consistency!
One of the most important things in podcasting is consistency. By being consistent you are providing set expectations for your listeners so that they know what they are investing their time towards.
This is an extreme example but imagine you start listening to a true crime podcast and then suddenly after episodes of true crime the hosts suddenly start discussing pop culture. That’s not what you signed up for and as someone who invested time listening through a back catalogue of episodes, you may feel kind of ripped off and annoyed. When confronted with a change like this listeners may choose to just…stop listening and no podcaster wants that to happen.
Now this is an extreme example but for some people swearing is an extreme turn off. Now you might be thinking that doesn’t matter because you’re going to start swearing in episode 1! You may even feel like your listeners have listened from the beginning so they will already know you are going to swear. What you need to remember though is that
Every Episode Is A Potential First Impression To New Listeners
You may have released 1000 episodes, but a new listener might just decide to go to your most recent episode first and go from there.
That’s fine, but if you have been swearing for 999 episodes and just don’t swear in your 1000th, any new listeners who start with that episode will start listening on the assumption that it’s a clean podcast. So from that episode you have a brand new, committed listener…until they listen to your back catalogue, find out you swear and decide to stop listening because your podcast is not what they expected.
That dissonance and confusion can be off putting and could lose you listeners so, if you want to swear, make sure you swear in every single fucking episode!
