What should podcasters focus on in 2026? And how will that affect your recording and editing process moving forward?
In this episode I'll cover the 2 biggest pieces of advice I've been hearing:
- Be Authentic
- Do a Solo Show
What do you think? Let me know at https://streamlinedfeedback.com
Check out RSS.com for free podcast hosting: https://rss.com/?via=joe-newsletter
00:00:04 --> 00:00:09 It is officially 2026 and the podcasting landscape
00:00:09 --> 00:00:15 is changing. For one example, I have heard time
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 and time again that a pre -recorded intro on
00:00:18 --> 00:00:22 a podcast, it just ain't it these days. You want
00:00:22 --> 00:00:25 to get to the content as quickly as possible.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 And that makes perfect sense, right? There are
00:00:28 --> 00:00:33 so many things that are vying for our attention.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:37 that we have so little time to capture people
00:00:37 --> 00:00:41 and convince them that what we are doing is worth
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 listening to. Hey everybody, welcome to the Streamlined
00:00:44 --> 00:00:48 Podcast. My name is Joe Casabona. I'm a podcast
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 and systems coach as well as the evangelist for
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 rss .com. And I have been thinking a lot about
00:00:54 --> 00:00:59 a series I want to create in 2026 called How
00:00:59 --> 00:01:03 to Start a Podcast in 2026. But as I recorded
00:01:03 --> 00:01:08 take one of this episode, this is take two, I
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 came to the realization that based on the trends
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 and things I'm seeing and the advice that I'm
00:01:13 --> 00:01:16 getting, this might not be the best series for
00:01:16 --> 00:01:20 me to do. So today I want to talk about the two
00:01:20 --> 00:01:24 things that I think podcasters should focus on
00:01:24 --> 00:01:29 to have a good process in 2026 and what that
00:01:29 --> 00:01:33 could mean for the future of this show. So I
00:01:33 --> 00:01:37 went to PodFest earlier this year. I gave a talk
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 called Don't Let AI Steal Your Podcast Soul.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 But also on behalf of RSS .com, I went around
00:01:44 --> 00:01:51 and asked a handful of podcasters what we should
00:01:51 --> 00:01:55 be focusing on for growth in 2026. And I will
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 link the video. I would strongly recommend you
00:01:57 --> 00:02:00 watch that to get the full effect. But far and
00:02:00 --> 00:02:06 away. The most common answer I got was to focus
00:02:06 --> 00:02:13 on authenticity. And this warmed my heart. Because
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 as I just mentioned, the talk I gave was about
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 not letting AI steal your podcast soul. I think
00:02:19 --> 00:02:24 that over the past few years, we have used...
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28 AI, and when I say AI, I mean large language
00:02:28 --> 00:02:33 models. This is what AI means colloquially, right?
00:02:34 --> 00:02:38 There is no intelligence in what these things
00:02:38 --> 00:02:41 are doing. They are a glorified word association
00:02:41 --> 00:02:46 machine. But we've been using them for too much,
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 from writing the scripts for us to generating
00:02:49 --> 00:02:54 audio for us and video. to coming up with ideas.
00:02:55 --> 00:03:00 And if you are trying to be authentic in 2026,
00:03:00 --> 00:03:04 you should not be using AI for those things.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:09 Because even if you do something that seems benign,
00:03:09 --> 00:03:13 like use AI to come up with 10 episode ideas,
00:03:13 --> 00:03:17 those are not your episode ideas. Those are other
00:03:17 --> 00:03:24 people's episode ideas. You need to tell your
00:03:24 --> 00:03:28 story because that is how you are going to stand
00:03:28 --> 00:03:32 out. Telling other people's stories or making
00:03:32 --> 00:03:36 other people's ideas come to life is not the
00:03:36 --> 00:03:40 way that you are going to make yourself show
00:03:40 --> 00:03:43 up for people and stand out. And this is coupled
00:03:43 --> 00:03:47 with another piece of advice I keep hearing.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 I heard it at PodFest and I heard it in a recent
00:03:50 --> 00:03:54 training we did at RSS .com as well. And this
00:03:54 --> 00:04:01 was to do a solo show. So Colin Gray mentioned
00:04:01 --> 00:04:06 this during our RSS .com training. He is over
00:04:06 --> 00:04:10 at the founder, creator of Alitu and thepodcasthost
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14 .com. And he mentioned this. And then during
00:04:14 --> 00:04:18 a panel discussion. at Podfest that I went to
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 with lots of smart people on it, right? It was
00:04:20 --> 00:04:24 my friend Seth Silver's panel. He asked great
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 questions to three people, Ellie Puckett, Rox
00:04:27 --> 00:04:31 Codes, and John Lee Dumas. John Lee Dumas, of
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 course, the host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, one
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 of the most popular business interview podcasts.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 And this is important because he said if he was
00:04:40 --> 00:04:44 starting a podcast in 2026, he would not do an
00:04:44 --> 00:04:47 interview podcast those are a dime a dozen these
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 days those don't help you stand out to there's
00:04:50 --> 00:04:54 too many of these podcasts he would pick a problem
00:04:54 --> 00:05:01 that he was best at solving and make a solo podcast
00:05:01 --> 00:05:06 about that and this is really important it can't
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 just be a problem you want to solve it needs
00:05:08 --> 00:05:13 to be the problem that you are the best at solving
00:05:13 --> 00:05:17 because there are so many things vying for our
00:05:17 --> 00:05:22 attention in 2026 and i mentioned this because
00:05:22 --> 00:05:25 one time hearing something once is an opinion
00:05:25 --> 00:05:29 hearing it multiple times could be a trend and
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 i've been thinking about this for a long time
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 how i want to do more solo shows if you listen
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 to my other podcast i mean this is a solo show
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 but then if you listen to my other podcast streamline
00:05:38 --> 00:05:42 solopreneur which was an interview podcast, it
00:05:42 --> 00:05:46 is slowly becoming more and more of a solo podcast.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 And then Colin mentions it and John Lee Dumas
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 mentions it. There are more people coming to
00:05:52 --> 00:05:56 me about wanting to do a solo show. My friend
00:05:56 --> 00:05:58 Becky has a great voice notes podcast. My friend
00:05:58 --> 00:06:03 Kat is repurposing and formatting her live streams
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 in such a way that gives her a good 15 minute
00:06:06 --> 00:06:12 or less solo podcast show. And I love this for
00:06:12 --> 00:06:16 a couple of reasons. It goes really well with
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 authenticity, right? Solo show plus authenticity
00:06:19 --> 00:06:23 is like a potent combination. Because you are
00:06:23 --> 00:06:27 crafting a narrative to help solve a problem.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:29 And that's what's going to help you stand out.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:35 And I've also seen this trend of shorter content
00:06:35 --> 00:06:40 doing well. And this is not. I'm going to say
00:06:40 --> 00:06:42 something that I don't think a lot of people,
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 especially my age, I'm 40, I'm an elder millennial.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 I don't think a lot of people my age feel this
00:06:48 --> 00:06:52 way. I don't think our attention spans are getting
00:06:52 --> 00:06:56 worse. I think there's a lot of things competing
00:06:56 --> 00:07:03 for our attention. But I think that if you create
00:07:03 --> 00:07:08 something good to keep people's attention. then
00:07:08 --> 00:07:12 you have you have lengthened their attention
00:07:12 --> 00:07:16 span if you create garbage then people are just
00:07:16 --> 00:07:20 going to churn right but shorter content that's
00:07:20 --> 00:07:25 really helpful has a lot of versatility if you
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 saw that this episode was 40 minutes you would
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 then have to think about can you commit to listening
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 to this episode for 40 minutes but i'm going
00:07:33 --> 00:07:37 to keep it under 10 And now you think, well,
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 that's shorter than a commute. Or I can do that
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 while I'm doing my morning routine, while I'm
00:07:42 --> 00:07:46 drinking my coffee. And I'm giving you something
00:07:46 --> 00:07:51 tangible to take away. So I think that this short
00:07:51 --> 00:07:56 solo episode focused on solving a problem is
00:07:56 --> 00:08:01 a great way to go with podcasting in 2026. Now,
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 how does this relate to what I said earlier?
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 about me maybe doing a series on launching a
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 podcast in 2026. Well, if I want to be really
00:08:08 --> 00:08:12 good at solving a problem, launching a podcast
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 in 2026 is just something that so many people,
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 every podcast hosting company is going to do
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 this. Every podcast coach is going to do this.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:25 This is not a thing I am uniquely qualified to
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 solve. While I have opinions, everyone has an
00:08:28 --> 00:08:32 opinion. So what am I going to do for this show,
00:08:32 --> 00:08:36 Streamlined Podcaster, to make it hyper -focused,
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 hyper -niched? This is the other thing that I
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 didn't mention, right? If you're going to be
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 really good at solving a problem in a solo show
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 that's 10 minutes or less, you want to be really
00:08:45 --> 00:08:49 niche, niche, niched, niche. You want to be really
00:08:49 --> 00:08:55 niche about it. You want to pick a problem and
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 solve it well. And so for me, that is going to
00:08:58 --> 00:09:02 be... Building automations for solo podcasters
00:09:02 --> 00:09:07 so that they can actually focus on creating great
00:09:07 --> 00:09:12 content. Building automations. There are a lot
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 of ways I can do this. It doesn't just have to
00:09:15 --> 00:09:16 be like here's the Zapier of the week or the
00:09:16 --> 00:09:20 Zap of the week. It could be that. But it could
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 be around tools and systems and emerging technologies
00:09:23 --> 00:09:27 to help you solve that problem. So this is what
00:09:27 --> 00:09:30 I'm thinking about. for 2026 for The Streamlined
00:09:30 --> 00:09:34 Podcaster. I'd love to hear what you think. Head
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 over to streamlinedfeedback .com and leave a
00:09:37 --> 00:09:41 message or a voice note. If you liked this episode,
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 be sure to share it. And I definitely want to
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 hear from you. I want to solve real problems.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 But that's it for this episode of The Streamlined
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 Podcaster. Thanks so much for listening. And
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 until next time, I hope you find some space in
00:09:53 --> 00:09:53 your week.