What do Alex & Sigge have that other podcasts lack, and why have they been more successful than most? Alex Schulman explains the strategies behind their success and the most common mistakes made by inexperienced podcasters.

“How far can Alex Schulman and Sigge Eklund take their joint project?” wrote Svenska Dagbladet in the fall of 2015. Today the duo has released more than 500 episodes, performed successful live podcasts, and written two books together—making it clear just how significant their collaboration has become.

“You have to fight a little for people’s attention”

In the podcast Alex & Sigge, long anecdotes are mixed with in-depth reflections on current events, and regardless of the topic, humor is often at the center. But the sometimes relaxed tone should not be mistaken for carelessness—according to Alex, they spend more time preparing their episodes than most podcasters.

“We take the podcast very seriously, and that’s probably why we spend more time on it than most people do. If you ask listeners to give you an hour of their time—to turn everything else off and listen—then you have to fight a little for their attention.”

One of the most common mistakes he sees among inexperienced podcasters is a lack of preparation. According to Alex, simply placing a microphone in a room and “being a bit charming” is not enough to keep listeners engaged.

“Many podcasters think they can just talk about random things without preparing. As if it’s enough to be a bit charming and everything else will work itself out.”

If you want to succeed with your podcast, you need much more than that. A clear structure and a script for each episode is a good starting point, Alex says.

“Write a script! Record until the episode becomes far too long, and then edit it down until it feels slightly too short.”

“If you ask listeners to give you an hour of their time—then you have to fight a little for their attention.”

“Podcasting is a more intimate way to communicate”

Despite being one of Sweden’s best-selling novelists, Alex believes podcasting has several advantages over written text—particularly when it comes to building a deeper connection with the audience.

“A podcast is a more intimate way of communicating. You reach people directly in their ears. You get incredibly close to them—physically speaking.”

With more than 320,000 weekly listeners, Alex & Sigge is one of Sweden’s largest podcasts. This not only requires strong content and relevance but also careful research. In the past, Alex often used Google to stay informed, but many of those searches have now been replaced by All Ears—the world’s first media monitoring platform for spoken media.

“I still Google my name when my book is released in another country because I want to read the reviews. But otherwise I never search for my name on Google anymore. I use All Ears all the time.”

This might involve finding information about specific media personalities or understanding how certain topics are discussed in media.

“All Ears is very effective when I want to know what people are saying. Whenever I get curious about a person or a topic, I can quickly find information about how they’ve been mentioned in the media through All Ears.”

Alex’s Top 3 Podcast Tips

1. Spend a lot of time on it

   Invest in planning and research before each episode, and allow recordings to take time. It’s better to have too much material and cut it down than the other way around.

2. Write a script

   What do you want to discuss, and from what perspective? Prepare topics and supporting material before each episode.

3. Respect the listener’s attention

   Never take the listener’s interest for granted. Work deliberately to keep their attention.