Podcasting Secrets: How to Start Your Own Podcast

1. Welcome and Overview: Hey guys, I'm Nicalia, and I am your instructor for the how to start your own podcast course. So three years ago, I decided to turn my blog into a podcast. I had no audio experience, barely any tech experience, I just knew I wanted to start a podcast. So armed with my laptop and a microphone, I got started, and the Side Hustle Pro podcast was born. Since then, Side Hustle Pro has gone on to a mass over a million downloads in two years. It's a top business podcast on Apple podcasts, and it was even named by Mashable as the perfect entrepreneurship podcasts. I had no idea podcasting would take me this far and it all started with that first step. I want to help you do the same. In this course, we are going to go over step-by-step, how to refine your hit podcast topic, how to determine who your target listeners are, and I'm going to break down all my podcasting secrets. You learn how to record, edit, and launch your podcasts in the world. By the end of this course, you will be a fully equipped podcaster ready to launch and start attracting your loyal listeners. So let's get started. 2. What is Podcasting?: Now, let's jump into, what is podcasting? Many of you have obviously heard about podcasting and you're in this course because you want to know more about it and how to get started. But before we do that, let's take a step back for a minute and talk about what podcasting is and why it matters. I think it's so important to understand the landscape of any industry you are about to get into. So here is a quick look at the Oxford dictionary definition of podcasting. Fun fact, Apple launched podcasts on iTunes in 2005, the same year that the Oxford dictionary named podcast it's word of the year. According to the Oxford dictionary and this is a very straightforward definition, a podcast is simply a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically. So sounds pretty familiar. You have a podcast app on your phone, you subscribe to your favorite shows and whenever they release an episode, you get it. But now I want to add my own personal definition of podcasting and I add this because there's a little bit more context to why I care so much about podcasting. My definition of podcasting is, it's a unique platform that allows you to share your message with the world and connect instantly with interested listeners. Here's a little bit more about the podcasting landscape. According to Apple in a recent Fast Company article, Apple is now home to over 525,000 active shows. It has more than 18.5 million episodes in over a 100 languages spanning a 155 countries. In case you're starting to get worried now thinking, wow, this is a really crowded landscape now that I know more about it, I want you to know that you will fit in because as the content grows, so has the podcast listening audience. In 2016, there were 10.5 billion podcast downloads. In 2017, that number went up to 13.7 billion podcast downloads and streams and in March 2018, Apple podcasts reported over 50 billion all time episode downloads and streams. What does this all mean for you? What it means is, now is the time to start your podcasts. The opportunity is ripe, it exists and your unique message is missing from the marketplace. What I love about podcasting is that it allows you to create engaging content that people carry with them. They carry with them as they're commuting, as he do their laundry, as they cook. It allows you to connect with listeners all over the world. It allows you to forge a deeper connection with your audience and allows you to build a platform that can launch other opportunities. What are you waiting for? Let's get started. 3. Set Your Podcast Goals: Let's go over your podcast goals, and aspirations. Right now, you are likely in one of two camps. The first one is, you already have an idea, you know exactly what you want your podcast to be about, and you may even have a couple of names you've been tossing around. The second camp is you are interested in starting a podcast, but you're not sure what you want it to be about. You're interested in talking about a few different things, and you're not really sure what your ultimate subject will be. It is okay to be in either camps, you are all in the right place. Because in this lesson, I'm going to help you clarify your podcast goals and aspirations. First, let's go ahead and define your why. What do I mean by why? Well, answer this. Why are you starting a podcast? Why now, and not before, or later? Why a podcast and not another medium? When you sit with these questions and think through the answers, write down what comes to you. Your why will keep you going when you run into roadblocks. For example, my why is, I wanted to diversify the narrative of entrepreneurship. I was tired of seeing the same stories over and over again. So when I run into a roadblock, that why is what keeps me pushing, and keeps me going through challenges. Next, I want you to remember that done is better than perfect. It's so easy to get into analysis paralysis and keep yourself from pushing the trigger because you want everything to be perfect. But let me tell you, done is way better than perfect. By now, I'm sure you listen to other podcasts, and it's so easy to compare yourself to them. You may want to sound exactly like your favorite podcaster. But I'm here to remind you that every podcast had to start somewhere. You have to first start and then you can improve. I guarantee you that a lot of your favorite shows did not sound the way they sound today in their very first episode. Comparison is going to be the thief of all of your joy. Trust me on this one. Don't expect your independent podcast to sound, look, and feel like a podcast that is three to five years in the making, or a podcast that has a major production studio and staff behind it. Rather focus on just getting started. Within this course, I am going to equip you with everything you need to develop a podcast that has all of the ingredients to create phenomenal content with awesome sound. Now that we've talked about your why and why done is way better than perfect, let's go ahead and set a long-term goal. Here's why this is so important. They're going to be times when you may not feel like recording and you may not feel like editing. But when you develop a podcast and your audience expects to hear from you at whatever cadence you promised, whether that's twice a month or once a week, you have to commit to that. Otherwise, you disappoint your audience and guess what? They will stop listening, they'll unsubscribe. I want you to set a long-term goal to podcast for a year. Yes, I said a year. Why a whole year? Well, think about what happens when you only commit to doing something for 21 days or 90 days. After that time has passed, it's so easy to stop doing that thing that you committed to. But when you commit to something for a whole year, that process then becomes part of your daily life. Before you know it, you won't know what life was like before you started podcasting. Go into podcasting with that mindset. With a long-term goal to ensure that once you get going, you won't stop when the going gets challenging. In addition to knowing your why, fighting through perfection paralysis and setting a long-term goal. Your goal of podcasting should be to tell a story that no one else should tell. Yes, there are over 0.5 million podcasts out there. We went over that. But there's no one with the perspective and life experience that you have. No matter what your subject matter is, that perspective will seep through and it's going to add color and life to your show. You might also be wondering, well, how do I do that? Start with your secret sauce. The unique traits that make you, you. For me, my unique traits include, being an avid social media listener. I love following and learning from new people. Because I love to do that, it enabled my discovery of all these different black woman entrepreneurs who I then began to admire and wanted to know more about, and my next step was to reach out to them to learn how they did it. Thus, my site as the pro blog was born and it eventually evolved into a podcast. So what about you? What are your unique traits that you will bring to the podcasting world? Jot them down, and keep that in your arsenal to tell a story that no one else can tell. 4. Choose Your HIT Podcast Topic: Now, let's get into choosing your hit podcast topic. You may be wondering, "How do I go about selecting my topic?" I know that some of you, like I said, are in different camps, so you might know or have some ideas of what you want to talk about, and you may also have absolutely no idea. In this lesson, I'm going to help you to clarify your ideas and to narrow it down and to finally choose your hit topic. Step 1, grab a sheet of paper and write down the answer to these questions. What would you talk about if you are not making any money? What are you passionate about? What do you have a strong opinion on? What do you have unanswered questions about? What's your expertise? What do people always ask your advice about? Who do you want to impact? What do you want to be known for? Here's where you get to identify topics that you hear a lot of information on, but you feel like you have information to share that no one else is sharing quite like you would and quite like you want and need to hear it. Aka, now is the time for you to identify a problem that your podcast will be the solution for. After reviewing the answers to your questions, write down a list of topics, write down everything that comes to mind. Now, narrow it down to one to three ideas. Yes, I know you just made that big list, but it's time to slash and cross off everything that just doesn't make sense. The answers to those previous questions will help you to clarify what makes sense. For example, if you are not passionate about it, if you don't have unanswered questions about it, if you don't want to leave an impact with this topic, then guess what? This is not the topic for you. Step 2, let's conduct market research. I want you to identify five to ten other podcasts that talk about the topics on your final list. Then make note of what themes are covered in the different episodes, check out an episode or two. Yes, listen and answer what are they not talking about. When you check out those episodes, listen in and ask, "What will you cover that they don't? " Step 3, determine your unique lane. What can you talk about that no one else can as it relates to these topics where you, the perfect persons, tackled the subject. Step 4, evaluate if your idea is a hit topic. Now, this is my favorite part. It's one thing to have an idea, it's another thing to have a hit topic. How do you know if you have a hit topic? Well, let's define what a hit is. A hit topic has an audience, is interesting and intentional, and tackles new ground. Oftentimes when we see other people covering the topics that we are interested in, we might get a little discouraged because we think, "Oh, it's already been done." No, this is actually a good thing. If you check out these podcasts, and they have a significant number of reviews, they have multiple episodes, they've been going for a while, that means there is an audience and there will be an audience for you too. Because remember, you'll be bringing something new to the table that they aren't getting on these other shows. When I say interesting in intentional, this means that as you go through this course and you learn how to record a prayer for your first episode, you're going to make sure that your content is interesting and that you really take time to be intentional about what you put into your episodes to provide value for your audience. That pays off in a hit topic. Finally, tackles new ground. So again, you are going to take on themes and different parts of the topics that are not currently being covered. That's how you differentiate yourself. Step 5, I want you to evaluate the longevity of your topic. When I say evaluate longevity, I mean, it's time to really ponder. Will you be able to produce multiple episodes about the same topic? If this were a TV show, how many seasons would it have? Remember, you want to have an ongoing podcast. This is something that you're going to do for a year and beyond, this is not just a one-off. So really make sure that not only do you have a hit topic, but it's a topic that can less your next steps. Building on this lesson, head over to the topic refiner worksheet assignment and finalize your hit topic. 5. Find Your Target Listeners: All right. Now let's get into how to find your target listeners. You're probably wondering who is your target listener? Well, your target listener is your ideal listener, your die hard fan, who's going to be your podcast ambassador, who's going to rave about your podcast to others, this will enable shares of your podcasts and discovery of your podcasts. Your target listener is more than just their age and their occupation, they have goals, challenges, interests, dreams, and you want to tap into all of that, because your target listener has a problem that you have the solution to. When you know who your target listener is, then you know what content to discuss on your podcast. Your content is their solution. You're probably wondering, okay, how do I find this person? How do I get to know them? Well, here's a quick exercise. This is something that I did before I lost Side Hustle Pro, and it was extremely helpful in helping me strategize and develop my content. Step 1, get on the phone with 5-10 people. Really easy way to find these people is to identify people within your network, within your circle, who are interested in the topic of your potential podcasts. Then, if you can't find those people within your circle, you can also pull your circle and see if they know anyone interested in that topic. Then get on the phone and make note of, what's their name? Where do they work? Where do they want to work? What do they want to be when they grow up? Where do they live? What do they do after work and on the weekends? Where do they get their news? What other podcasts do they listen to? What TV shows do they watch? Who do they admire? These questions are all examples, you can adapt and adjust, and make up new questions that suit your needs. The point is, you want to dig a little bit deeper and get to know what motivates these people, why they're interested in this topic, and what within this topic do they really want to explore more of. Make note of their answers, that's Step 2. Then, once you've completed your calls, Step 3, write a profile of your ideal listener. Yes, summarize those common themes to determine the name of this person, where they live, where they work, what they're interested in, and all of that into a couple paragraphs of the summary. Remember, when you know your target listener then you know what content to discuss on your podcast. Next steps, get on the phone with your target listener and start learning more about them. 6. Choose your Podcast Title and Create Your Logo: Let's talk about how to choose your podcast title and create your logo. When choosing your title, here are some key factors that I want you to keep in mind. First things first, clarity. Will people know what your show is about based on the title. This is not the time to use coy language, slang, a play on words or inside jokes, because believe it or not, your target listener might not know what in the world you're talking about. Also think about searchability. Will your target listener be able to find you? This is not the time for weird or cute spellings either, because when they're searching for that keyword related to the topic they want to find out about and you're not coming out, you're missing out on an opportunity to connect with that target listener. Remember, your content is their solution. Also, think about availability. Is your preferred name even available? Check what else is out there with a similar name. You do not want to have the same exact name as another podcast. Not only will you not stand out, but you might be infringing on a copyright or a trademark. Speaking of that, let's talk about differentiation. Will there be brand confusion or will you stand out in your own lane? I'm not saying that you can't use the same words that another podcast might use in their titles, but you don't want it to be the exact same title. Case in point, Side Hustle Pro is not the first podcast with the word side hustle in the title. However, I knew my point of differentiation would be the fact that I was exploring people who are building out their business, their future entrepreneurial business as a side hustle while working full time. Whereas other side hustle podcasts really explore side hustles in the vein of a job you do an aside for quick cash, some extra income, but you're not trying to build that into a larger business. That was my point of differentiation. Really think through what will be your point of differentiation and how will you stand out with your title? In summary, your title should be memorable, it should be searchable and available, it should be clear and tell your target listener what your show is about. This is not the time to get creative with spelling or use slang or inside jokes, and it should differentiate you. Now, let's talk about that logo. When creating your logo, here are some key factors to keep in mind. Podcast titles and logos can't be literal or figurative or eye-catching. What do I mean by this? I'm going to show you some examples. Here's some literal examples. These podcasts, you can clearly tell what they are about because the theme and the subject of the podcast is in the podcast name. Something like Married Millennials, you can probably guess they're going to talk about being married and being millennials. The Mental Illness Happy Hour, you can probably see that this is going to be about mental illness. What about the Why Won't You Date Me podcast? You can guess that the host of this podcast is going to talk about her struggles with dating. These are some examples of how to be literal with your title and your podcasts logo. Now, let's look into some figurative examples. These are podcast artwork that don't quite know exactly what the show is about just by the title or just by the artwork, but by putting context clues together, you can figure it out. Something like Dear Sugars, there are two band-aids into the shape of a heart. You can guess that this show is going to talk about love and the journey and heartbreaks and different struggles and challenges that we go through on the path to love. What about, The Daily? Now that, you can say, okay, that has the New York Times logo, it says The Daily, I guess you're going to do something every day, but then that subtle podcast artwork that looks like a sunrise, signals to you that, hey, this podcast is going to come out early in the morning. It's going to be daily and it's going to be early, and that's exactly what they want you to know. Look at these examples and even do some exploration yourself to start to get a sense of how when you're creating your artwork, you can be figurative with the meaning. Then finally, I will leave you with some eye-catching examples. These are podcasts that are in the middle where their podcast logo, their artwork is just striking. They're colorful, you might not know exactly what it's about, but it's going to catch your eye and then once you become a raving fan and once you read that podcast description, then you're going to get to know exactly what the podcast is about. But it's beautiful artwork that's going to stand out in that Apple Podcast Store. They have that as an advantage, they catch your eye. But they don't have the advantage of being so literal that when people are just searching for that subject matter, that they will pop up right away. Next steps, start brainstorming your title and mocking up your logo. Which approach will you use? Will it be literal? Will be figurative? Or will it just be eye-catching? Play around and get started. 7. Podcast Equipment Overview: Here's your podcasts equipment overview. So you're probably wondering, I'm ready and know what I want to podcast about, but what equipment do I need? So let's get into it. I'm going to give you an equipment rundown. You're going to need a microphone, headphones, a pop filter, and windscreen recording and editing software, call recording software for virtual interview podcasts, and a post-production service. You're probably wondering, what is all of that? Don't worry, I'm going to break it all down with pictures so you know exactly what to get. Let's start with the microphone, headphones, pop filter, and windscreen, here are three options. Now, the reason that they're in this order is because it goes from low to medium to high as it relates to cost. On the lower spectrum, you have the Audio Technica ATR 2100 this is what I started out my podcast with. It's a really excellent microphone that can be used for recording phone interviews, recording intros, recording solos, your entire podcasts basically and it's great for traveling with. Now, again, this is on the lower end as it relates to cost. Then when you want to get into a slightly higher end microphone, so this is more of a studio quality microphone, you go into the Blue Yeti medium here. So the Blue Yeti is excellent because it's very powerful, it picks up a lot of sound, it really sounds like studio quality. However, be careful because it picks up everything, every breath, every swallow, everything. But that's why we have the pop filters and the windscreen, which I'll show you in a second. Then if you want to go really on the high end, which is absolutely not required because as I said, the Audio Technica and the Blue Yeti are excellent microphones. But you can also check out the Heil PR-40, which is something you'd see in like a recording studio and has super powerful recording capabilities, and picks up a lot as well. But Audio Technica, Blue Yeti, perfectly suitable like I said, I've used both currently, I use the Blue Yeti. Then, if you're doing in-person podcasting and recording, you want to check out the Zoom H6 Six-Track Portable Recorder. This is something you can take on the road with you. You have to plug it into a microphone. So this is one of the microphones you can do the Audio Technica, you can do the Shure microphone, which comes without the cable that's why right next to it, I've included a cable that you can bring with you. All three of these, you can use when you're going on the road and you want to just record people face to face. So these are your microphone options, something you'll also need is headphones. Headphones makes sure that you don't pick up an echo from your computer, your laptop or your recording equipment, plus your microphone bouncing off of each other. So you want to make sure you get stereo sound and sound canceling headphones. Now, the reason that I don't include a label here is because, guys, you can get any standard pair these were $15 on Amazon. Just get yourself a pair of standard headphones. Now, here is what a pop filter and a windscreen looks like. The pop filter, you put it in front of your microphone. That thing on the side screws onto your microphone and it keeps those sounds, those hard p's that we all say, they keep those down, in addition to the windscreen helps to protect the microphone again so the wind and the background noises, so that your audio can be as crisp as possible. Now let's get into recording and editing software. These are the programs that once you have your microphone and you are recording, these are the programs that your audio is going into and you will use this to save your files, you will use this to edit your files. Here are some options, there's Adobe Audition, one of the most popular softwares that people use, there's also Audacity. All three of these are really popular and common place. If you go into any podcasting group, you'll see that these are commonly used. If you have a Mac, Garage Band already comes with it and that's what I use, free software where you're able to record right into it, edit right in there and that is where the actual podcasts itself is built. Let's say you have a podcast where you are interviewing someone or speaking with a co-host who lives in a different city or state. You can record your two different audio inputs with call recording software. So what I like to use is the Skype plus ECamm Call Recorder combo. What you'll do is, you'll open up Skype, download the ECamm Call Recorder software, you can also use Pamela if you have a PC because ECamm Call Recorder is for Macs and together, when you call your guest using Skype and you'll see more of that when I show you the recording, your podcasts lesson. But you will open up ECamm Call Recorder, press record, and it records the entire conversation, your work is done for you, you just save it afterwards, edit it afterwards, and you have your podcasts. Now, some people don't like that whole combo of having it open up different programs and they like it all in one place. Here are some other options for you. There's Zoom, where you can either do a video or audio only call and it's actually recorded within Zoom all-in-one platform. You don't have to worry about opening two things or getting a guest to tell you their Skype name and you can also use the Zencastr platform that's pretty popular. Some of the major podcast that are out there use Zencastr currently to record their interview-based podcasts. Again records the audio within the platform, saves it and Zencastr even delivers two separate files for you after the call. So that is pretty convenient. Now let's talk about post-production software. Once you have recorded and edited your podcasts, and again, you edit it using the software that you use to record. Adobe Audition or Audacity, Garage Band. Once you have that file, you use what's called a post-production service to really polish that podcast. So it's a web-based audio post-production mastering tool and it helps you have an overall smoother sound. For example, if you have a guest interview and you guys have different sound levels, Auphonic helps to level it out so that you both sound like you're at the same level, it's called auphonic. Just go ahead to auphonic.com to sign up, register, and pay for that and that's the final tool in polishing your podcasts before you submit it and publish it to your RSS feed. Next steps, let's go ahead and purchase that equipment so we can get into recording and editing. 8. Set Up Your Podcast Host Account: Let's set up your podcast host account. What is a podcast host? Your podcast host is essentially the place where you host your podcasts, MP3 files. Your files take up a lot of space and you need a place to host them and also push them out to the various podcasts feeds, so your host provides that service, it also provides the RSS feed that is then published to the various podcast players. Every time you upload a new episode, then that episode is able to get to your listeners. The host also provides statistics, so you can see things like how many downloads you're getting, at what country people are listening in, and all of that good stuff. Now there are various options for podcast hosts. Some of the most popular options that I've seen are Blubrry. I'll click into this so you can take a look at the website, Blubrry dot com or Fireside, FM. There's also Podomatic, and then there is Libsyn. Libsyn is what I've always used and I love Libsyn because it's so reliable, it provides really accurate statistics, and it also of course, provides a very reasonable rate for a great amount of space. If you head over to Libsyn, you can actually click ''Sign Up'' and enter in the promo code hustlepro so that you can receive all of this month that you're listening in and all of next month free. That begins once the month has started. Go ahead and head over the Libsyn for that. Now full disclosure, this is an affiliate code, but again, I only recommend things that I really vouched for. I've been using Libsyn for the past two years that I've had a podcast and really recommend it. You can use hustlepro for all of this and next month. Whoever you choose to go with, it's completely up to you. All you have to do though, is make sure that your host is an Apple partner. You can click on iTunes partner dot apple dot com slash en slash podcast slash partner search or just Google iTunes partner to make sure that your host is an Apple podcast partner. The reason you want to do this is because you want to make sure that your statistics are recognized, especially when you start to work with sponsors. You want to make sure you're getting the most accurate data. Head on over there and sign up for a host that provides that. Next step, sign up for your podcast host and let's get one step closer. 9. Set up Your Apple Podcast Account: Let's set up your Apple Podcast Account. Apple Podcast is the largest podcast player, and you want to make sure that your RSS feed is pushing to Apple podcast. So your first step will be to head over to podcastsconnect.apple.com, sign-in with your Apple ID, don't worry, if you don't have an Apple ID, you can sign up for one, then you are going to log in to podcast connect, then click "Add Podcast", aka the plus sign that you see here. What you'll see next is a field for you to enter in your RSS feed. So go ahead and add in your RSS feed. This will be available to you via your podcast host. Once you've signed up for your host, it will produce a feed. So just copy and paste that URL into the URL box. Then you are going to select "Validate". So this is where your feed will be published and previewed for you, so that you can see what it's going to look like in the different podcast players. So you can read it over and make sure your description looks good, make sure your logo looks good, and when you're all set, click "Submit". So next step, sign up for your Apple Podcast Account. 10. Record Your First Episode: Now, let's get into recording your very first episode. So there are two different ways to record. One, you can record directly into your recording software, so that you have a straightforward solo episode. There's also recording virtual interviews, where you use whichever recording software you prefer, and record the audio that's coming from both parties. So I'm going to show you how to conduct a virtual interview. First, you open up Skype. I use the Skype and Ecamm call recorder. All of these we went over this in the equipment lessons, so just go back there, and you'll see that. So once Skype opens up, so does Ecamm call recorder. Once you've downloaded the software onto your machine, every time you open Skype, it also opens up Ecamm. So you just go ahead and search for your guest, plug in their name in this field, and then they'll pop up and select "Call." You can also use the Dialpad to dial their number directly. After you've done saying your pleasantries and small talk, then go ahead and select this red button, to make sure that you actually record the call, because it doesn't record unless you press that. Once your conversation is over, you click it again to stop. That is how you record using Skype and Ecamm. So now, I'm going to quit Skype. You might be wondering, "Okay, where do my audio files go once I've completed an interview on Skype and Ecamm?" You just go to your Ecamm Movie Tools folder, and your interview will show in this list. Then once you have it in this list, you can go ahead and export the files. It will be down here as an option, and it's very very straightforward. Now, let's talk about recording your solo episode. So you open up your recording software of choice, for me, that's GarageBand. So I open up GarageBand. Usually, when you open up GarageBand, it will default to opening up the last thing you had opened. So you just close out of this and then it will allow you to open a whole new file. So the default selections are voice, then you make sure your audio input is whichever microphone you are using, and your output is the built-in output. You then go ahead and choose that, GarageBand will open up with all of these different type of vocal options, but if you just do in a straightforward recording, you just want the narration vocal. So you can go ahead and delete these extra and miscellaneous tracks, and just focus on the narration vocal. You'll get the picture, I won't delete them all in this recording, but you can do that when it's your time. Whenever you're recording in GarageBand, just make sure that you have narration vocal selected, and then this red button is where you'll go ahead and record. So testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, is how you record. Then you can always play back, to hear your recording. Then you make sure you file and save that recording to keep your episodes saved at all times. You can even save it as soon as you begin and open up a new file, just to make sure that it works. There you have it guys, how to record your very first episodes. 11. Edit Your Podcast: Now let's walk through how to edit your podcast. Before you start editing, make sure to organize all your files into a folder so that you can make your life easier. You want to have all the components of your episode. You have your master show intro, where you kick off the show each and every week and let people know what your show is about. I usually say something like,, "You're listening to side hustle pro the podcast where," so you can do something similar. Then you want to have your master show outro. This is where you tell people, "Hey, if you like the show, do me a favor and rate, review and subscribe on iTunes. You can connect with me online and XYZ, " and list out your social profiles. Then you also want to have episode intro, where you go in and you add a little bit of information about what people can expect from the show, and what that gets talked about. In my case, I have interview tracks. If you're just recording a solo episode, you will just have one track. But because it's an interview, I have a track one, and a track two. Why? Because, I might want to edit out something from my track or edit out something from my interviewees track, and it's easier to do that if I have them as split tracks. Finally, I have the music for the episode. Now that I have all of that together, I open up GarageBand. If you don't use GarageBand and you use Adobe Audition, or Audacity for example, just know that they all have similar functionality. This tutorial is still going to help you understand how to edit your episode. Open up GarageBand, select the Voice File. Your audio input should always be your microphone, whichever type it is, as in the audio output should be built-in output. Select "Choose", and then GarageBand will open up. As always, it opens up with these default vocals. Remember you only need one straightforward. You can do narration, you can do classic, whichever you prefer. Then what you're going to do is create a couple of new audio tracks, so you can name all the different elements of your episode. You highlight the track that you want to rename, and I'm going to put in the element, so for me, that is the master intro. Then I'm going to have my music. Then I'm going to have my episode intro. Then I'm going to select the next one, and that's when I'll have my interview track 1. I'll just do track 1 for sure, and then my track 2. Finally, I'll end with the master outro. As you begin to edit your episode, and get sponsors for example, you might add in some different elements here, but these are just the basics. Another few things to just de-select, make sure none of these things up here are selected. The metronome, the count in, this is a cycle thing and you really don't want your episodes to be looping or any of the tracks to be looping. So make sure all of these are de-selected. You can tell they're de-selected if they're gray. Also switch this display to time instead of beats and project. Because you want to see your time codes to make sure you know where to cut out whatever you want to edit and also how long your episode is. Now that that's all in place, go ahead and drag in your files. Select the file, select the track where you want to drag it, and go ahead and start to place things in to your GarageBand. It really doesn't matter where you drop things for now because you're going to move things around anyway. You can drag this thing to see exactly how long things are as you're dragging. Keep on going ahead and dragging and dropping until you get in all of the files that you want to have in your episode. Remember that it does not matter for now because we can always move them around. I'm going to do my final drops, and we'll have a full-blown built out episode before you know it. This is the last file that I've dragged in. Once they're laid in, go in and begin to arrange them in the order that you like. Again, you can drag this to see where they are. Let's say I know I want my music to come a little bit before my intro, I'll drag it here, I'll move the intro file here. Then after the intro, the master intro, that's what I want the episode to come in. I'll drag the episode over here, the episode intro that is. Then with these, you can of course do shift and select two things and move them at once, to exactly where you need them to be. Your tracks will extend as you move things further alone, so that is just how you go ahead and move things around in your GarageBand. Then you want to go in and listen to the different tracks. For the purposes of this exercise, I will just demonstrate listening to the master intro. You can also mute other tracks, while you just edit one file at a time. I might listen to my master intro and I don't hear any of my other files while that's going on. Then remember that you can also mute things and move things around. That's my master intro. I also have the music, so I'm going to unmute the music so you can hear how that sounds. [Music] so let's pretend everything is where it needs to be. Once you go into the different tracks, that's when you can edit out time codes. To edit out, you would just select the track where you want to edit. Let's say I really don't like the part of the conversation we had around the 19 minute mark, so I'll go and I'll do "Command T". That allows me to cut out that section, and then I would simply delete that and drag it over and it's like it never happened. That's how you take out bloopers, you just cut it out, move it all around. Then once you're all done with editing this, getting it exactly how you want, you go to share, export song to disk, and save it as a high quality MP3 file, and then export it. In my case, I'm exporting it to my desktop. As you can see the longer your episode is, the longer your file will take to export. I usually like to look at this show notes and do other things related to the podcast while this is happening. Once you have your final episode file save, here's a quick tip on how to level out and get a final polished episode. Here is where I go to the post-production service Auphonic, and this helps to level up the sounds. Let's say you and your guest, one of you sounds higher, one of you sounds lower. You just head over to auphonic.com. I log in and then everyone, by the way, they give a free two hours of available audio processing time. If you just want to check it out, you can do that. You would select new production, you would choose your file, which in my case is on my desktop, this final episode file. Then you would go ahead and put in any info you want. It allows you to add in your metadata, but I like to do this on iTunes, which I showed you in the publisher podcast lesson. I skip all of this and I just go into start production. It goes ahead and processes the file for you. Once your file is returned to you, you have your polished episode with audio levels all leveled up, and a file that's ready to be published. Head over to the next lesson, to learn how to publish your podcast. 12. How to Publish Your Episodes: Now it's time to publish our episode. The first thing you want to do is have your completed MP3 file for your episode in a folder. I have it in my completed audio folder. I open that up and I open the episode, which then opens in iTunes. The reason you open it in iTunes is because you want to update the info that is attached to that file. While I'm doing this, I always have a Google Doc open with my show notes for that episode. I simply highlight the information and go ahead and copy and paste it into that file. I'll click on Options and I'll select Podcast, I leave description blank for artwork, I go ahead and add my Apple podcast logo. You can see that it's saved as a resized file because when you create your podcast logo, it has to adhere to iTunes dimensions, which is 1400 by 1400 pixels. Make sure you have that save. Then I go in and I update my title with the episode Title, there are a lot of different naming systems, you use what you're comfortable with. I always include an episode number, some people just include a title. Decide what you want to use and stick to that so your audience knows what to expect. After I've done all that and updated the file info, I select Okay. Then I make sure that that file is saved in the location that I want it to be saved in and in this case, I want it on my desktop for the purposes of this tutorial. Now I close out of iTunes, then I head into my Libsyn, I login and I click on Content, Add New Episode. Once you're here, you click Add media file. Let me do that again, make sure you got it. Go to the Media tab, click Add media file, click Upload from hard drive and that will take you to uploading your episode from the folder in which you have it saved. Now, Libsyn or whichever your Podcast host is, has many different fields and we'll go through them here, while we're waiting for your episode to load you can add in the details for your episode, but it will also auto populate once the file is loaded, you can add it at artwork but again, it will auto populate, and then you can do your scheduling. Scheduling is something that you can create presets for in the advanced fields of your podcast host or you can go ahead and manually select things like release immediately on Publish. Let's say you're publishing your episode on the same day, you can select this. Or if you like to schedule your episodes for certain release date, then you'd go to release date and you would set new release date and select the date and time. One thing about this, these can all be selected and you can create a preset so that it always publishes at the same time every single week. That makes it convenient because sometimes I'm a little late with my show notes, I don't always publish at the same exact time, but I do always publish every Wednesday. I like to go in and manually just make sure that the episode is coming out on the date that I want it to. Another note on the show notes while we wait for this to load, I write out my show notes. I keep this template saved in my Google folder. This way whenever I have a new guest, a new episode, all I have to do is go in, copy and paste in their blurb swap out the older blurb, swap out the sponsorship, links then information, and then add in the links that are mentioned in that particular episode, as well as the social media info for the guest in that particular episode. Easy peasy. This is one of the things that you can always have set and ready to go when your podcast needs to be scheduled. By keeping your show notes and organizing it even as soon as you're done recording an episode, that means that when you are ready to schedule your episodes and schedule your show notes, that's something you can do in book on a particular day. I talk about that a little bit in the summary where I talk about how you can batch process your task and devote an hour a day to each of those tasks. This is what I mean when I say scheduling my show notes and scheduling out episodes. Now our episode is loaded, it will say upload successful, I go ahead and close out of that. Then I just want to check that all the details are correct. Obviously those numbers are not correct. I go in myself and I copy and paste in my show notes. Now, show notes is really up to a matter of preference and style. I like to keep them very long, not only to add additional SEO capabilities. So people who are searching for Clare and Nicole Gibbons and all the things related to my guest, all of this summary helps this to show up in the search, but also because it's a great place for people who may not make it to the website to see the information that they need. I go ahead and paste that in there. Artwork was auto populated because I included that when I updated the file, and then I go ahead and schedule. Once everything is set, I select Update ID3 tags, and select Publish and there you have it. 13. Conclusion: All right guys, congrats. You have made it to the end of the course. Now, you know how to record, how to edit, how to publish your podcasts, so you're probably wondering what comes next? What's next is consistency. How you were podcasting into your life in a consistent way is to start small. I always recommend starting with one hour a day. Map out what you'll do in each of those hours each day. For me, I like to batch process. That means on Mondays, I would devote that to recording my podcasts. On Tuesdays, I would use that to edit. On Wednesdays, I would do things like write my show notes and prepare for interviews, and then on Thursdays, I would do things like write out social media promotion for the episodes and social media marketing. Determine what days are best for what tasks for you, devote an hour a day, and that is how you work podcasting into your life. The second thing is determine what your goals are. A common question that I receive is, how do I know what is successful as a podcaster? Well, you start by running your own race and staying in your own lane, and meeting your milestones. I started out by setting a milestone to myself that I wanted to hit 100 downloads. Once I hit 100 downloads, I focused on hitting that next milestone, which for me, was 500 downloads. Pay attention to what is helping you hit those downloads. Did you do more social media promotion? Did you send out an e-mail and do more of those things to reach that next milestone? Speaking of social media promotion, choose the channels that your target listener is on. How do you know what those channels are? Remember, in the target listener exercise, which spoke about how to determine who that listener is and how to find out what their interests are, where they're hanging out. When you do that, you know which social media platforms they prefer. Promote your show on those platforms, grow your audience on those platforms, and thereby, grow your target listener and your downloads. Finally, keep track of your progress and let me know how it's going. Feel free to reach out @[email protected], and let me know how you're doing. With that, happy podcasting.