The Basics of Podcasting

1. Introduction: today, we're going to dive into the podcasting. One on one course. My name is Brandy, both on the host of the Power Project podcast. And I get asked all the time. How do you start a podcast? What to do on a podcast? How to record a podcast. So I thought it might be helpful if I created a course for you that walked you through the entirety of that process. Now, for starters, there are a lot of resource is out there that are wells of knowledge where you can go to find step by step tangible takeaways of how to start a podcast, run a podcast, maintain a podcast. I personally dove headfirst into Jenna cultures a podcast episode about podcasting. And I listen to that, like, 30 times over easily on repeat taking notes on how to start a podcast. However, some of it was a little higher level than what I was really needing to hear it the time. So I thought wouldn't it be great if I did a podcasting for dummies? Course. So you're welcome. Here we go. Not name calling. But this is from the basic level ground floor of how you go about starting a podcast. So just stick with me through this and I'll have you up and podcasting in no time at all. 2. Lesson One: Finding a Solid Theme: passing for dummies. Lesson number one is going to be that you need a solid thing. Okay, Now, if you're thinking that you want to start a podcast, the first thing that I ask anyone that comes to me is what is it that your theme of your podcast show is going to be? Maybe you give great advice, Major. That friend that people come to to ask questions of. Maybe you're an expert in the field of mechanic ing. Maybe you're a great cook and you want a food podcast. Maybe you love horror films and you want a podcast that talks about four films. So you have to have one solid theme that is going to stand the test of time for your show. Now there are a multitude of podcast that cover the same subject. But what is going to make your podcast stand apart from those shows? Because it is totally fine for all of us to come to the table together. But you need to be serving up something that is uniquely yours. So the three steps of picking your solid theme that I always tell people to start with is going to be number one. What are you passionate about? This has got to be the core driving factor of your show and every single episode, all right, because you can't show up and record a podcast weekend and week out and edit it and submit it and publish it unless you you are totally passionate about it. So, for instance, my podcast is a podcast about inspiring women toe lead, purpose filled lives and own their God given power. I am so passionate about that in all areas of my life. I think the saddest thing in the world is to see a woman that is not living her truest, best version of herself that doesn't see herself in God's eyes. That doesn't understand her abilities and her possibilities in life. So I'm passionate about that. So that's something that I'm always. It's always going to fuel me, and it's going to make me go into my office and record an episode weekend and week out and do the editing and do the publishing and do the scheduling day in and day out because I am mad passionate about it. So start with that. Start with what you're passionate about that's going to be the first step to choosing your your theme. Your your solid theme. Right? So the second step is going to be something that is sustainable in terms of being plenty to talk about. OK, so there are some things you may be passionate about, but there might not be a long term ability to speak about them. Okay, so let's just take for example, let's think if there's if you're going to start a a podcast about music, you don't want to just be about one bant because that bands probably gonna fizzle out over time. But you want to be about music as a whole and a genre of music as a whole, so find something that sustainable. You try to stay away from anything that's trendy, anything that could have a short life span. So if it's a fashion podcast, great, Let's make sure we keep going with the trends to wear that it evolves and it's sustainable . And you can talk about fashion over the weeks, months, years. You obviously wouldn't want to do a podcast. That is all about Christmas. If you're wanting Teoh publish episodes every week for 52 weeks, so whatever it is that you are passionate about, just makes certain that it with stands, the test of time. And it's not something that you're going to run out of things to talk about. For instance, I like to spotlight women that are leading purposeful lives because I feel like the best way to tell someone at home that they could do something is to show someone like themselves doing it. Now I can tell you that there is no shortage of amazing women doing amazing things in the world. So I just don't think I'm ever going to run out of those spotlights and those interviews to bring to you guys to introduce you to these women that are starting businesses and nonprofits and ministries and overcoming insurmountable odds. So that's something that I think I'm always going to have to talk about now. For instance, if I was on Lee doing a podcast about like the Real Housewives, eventually, when that franchise ends, my podcast is going to be over, and I'm going after shift into another gear of finding a different subject. So make sure you have something that is going to sustain you throughout the course of your show, and you're always going to be able to come up with new, exciting, relevent information for your audience because, really, that's what it's all about. You don't want to be bringing the same subject over and over and over to them that you want to bring new, exciting subjects to them. So the third step Teoh creating that solid theme is that you have a subject that you are knowledgeable about because it is great to be passionate, and it is great to be able to have the gift of gap. But if you don't bring knowledge to the table, you were kind of just rambling into a microphone, because at the end of the day, you want a tangible take away from your show. You want your listeners to walk away and say, I can do what they told me to do because I have this step that leads to this step that produces this result. So whatever realm and whatever genre you're in, it means to you something that you're knowledgeable about. So, for instance, I love coffee. I am passionate about coffee. Coffee is going to sustain the test of time throughout the course of my show. I am fueled by coffee and Jesus, but it's not something that I am necessarily knowledgeable about. I love coffee. I know what blends of coffee that I like. I know what strength that I like it, and I know how I like it made. I know about different ways to brew coffee or the French press or that drip, and I know the places in the world that it's sourced from, but I don't know coffee well enough to dedicate mine show to coffee. So if you were going Teoh do a SciFi podcast. Well, you need knowledge about sci fi in the history of sci fi, so I I really encourage you to do your homework did deep. So those three steps again are going to be something that you are passionate about, something that sustains the test of time and you're not going to run out of things to talk about on that subject. And the third is the knowledge. Do you have the knowledge to show up weekend and week out and cover that subject that is your solid fame 3. Lesson Two: Equipment: listen to is your equipment and software. Now this is an important lesson, especially for those of you that are less than tech savvy like myself. Just ask my assistant when I waas trying to launch my podcast from the very get go, it literally looked like my seven year old grandma trying to learn how to use. And I felt so. This is important, but it is not the most important factor to your podcast. You will find serious, serious podcasters that have been doing this for a year. That will tell you that the quality sound quality equipment Mike software that you are using is the most important factor. And you'll find others that say, As long as your content is really great, then people will overlook your quality. Now, I personally the first thing I did. I found this Samsung Q to you, my friend, and it's one that is really easy to install. It's really easy to use. It works great. It does pick up a some decent amount of background noise, and so I tend to try to make sure I do in my ceiling fan on or, um, or my air conditioner. My heater running things like that in the room. However, other people that are a little more advanced than I am in the tech world of podcasting refer the Yeti Blue Mike. That's a really fantastic one. I'm actually going to be moving over there to that pretty soon. But just use the resource is that you have you guys. If you don't have the money to invest in in a might that's expensive or in software that's expensive. And for don't waste your time or your money on super expensive software, put your time in your money into a microphone that plugs into your Mac book or your computer and use that now. When I first got my microphone and I plugged it in, I could not for the life of me determine why I did not have sound coming out of my computer . And it was just something that I needed someone to help me with and someone to tell me how to go in and change my output setting. So you guys, when I say that I am teaching you guys podcasting from the ground level, I mean literally from first day of podcasting. That's where I was at So you've got your microphone. Now you need to know what program you're gonna use to record it. So if you have a an apple computer, if you have a Mac, then you most likely have garage man installed in that. That's what I've used to record. It's really easy to record an edit in GarageBand. It's kind of set up for anyone that would like Teoh recorded anything that doesn't know a whole lot about tech. They can go into GarageBand. So any questions you have about it, there are forums that you Congar Google. I did a lot of googling about the editing and GarageBand and how to split tracks, emerged tracks and join tracks. So don't get scared. Just go dig into GarageBand, start doing some recording their that is my favorite place to record it. Edit It is the most user friendly. And like I said, use the resource is you have now. If you are a Windows user, you're gonna wanna look into audacity. So audacity is another super easy program to use. I assist. It uses audacity, I believe, and she loves it. She has no problem with it. However, I personally have not dug into it on my own because I loved Garageband so much, so that's just a great one that I used that. Like I said, if you're not an Apple or Mac user, jump over and use audacity. So you've got your microphone. You've got your recording software that you're going to use, and I want you to know that you can also record on your phone so you can do that. And GarageBand, it's not as user friendly as if you're doing it on a computer, but once again, we're going to use. The resource is that we have. We're not going to drop a ton of money on software and instruments in the beginning because you guys, you might get into this podcasting world and decide it's not for you. You might evolve into a different direction, and I would hate to see you drop a ton of time and money so there is another platform that you can record on, and it's actually a distribution platform, but it is so user friendly to record, and I'm going to talk a little more about that in hosting. But it is the anchor act. It's super super easy, super user friendly, and it's really easy to, uh, to just take Tiu, send a link over to someone and record an episode and then shooting in a garage band and edit it. So I'll talk a little more about that in the next course. But for now, just know you can use garage me under audacity to record in. You can use a Samsung Q to you, Mike that I ordered from Amazon Prime. You needs a blue getting mine now. The other thing you're going to want is a tripod. So this is only going to be relevant if you are doing video with your podcast. So if you're only doing audio, all you need is the microphone. However, I highly recommend doing video as well, because podcast really great on YouTube channels with video so you can goto Wal Mart and get this $16 tripod. That is great. It works perfect. It holds your camera. You're able to record and free of your computer, your desktop and whatever else it is that you need. So my friend software tripod, it's that simple, you guys, and if you don't know how to use any of them were, operate them Google, it 4. Lesson Three: Recording & Editing: three is going to be recording and editing now. I touched on the recording of the podcast in Lesson to, but I wanted to go a little more in depth into that. So for starters, you guys, I'm going to tell you a little secret. And that is, Guess what. Everyone hates their own voice. Seriously. No one is comfortable hearing their own voice online on a recording. I don't know why it sounds totally different than it does from where I'm sitting today, However, that is a common common theme that I see amongst podcast hosts and bloggers and people that are online and in your ear. So just know that going in this is something I struggled with so much in the beginning because I just I'm not a fan of my personal voice. I'm getting much more used to the voice now that I have heard it for several several several episodes over the course of nearly a year of podcasting. So going into it don't stress over that you guys I have. Sometimes, during the allergy season, I get horrendously scratchy voice and through, and it's not really bad cute, but I just make sure that my content is such quality content that it's OK if I'm a little raspy. So do not over think that also you were going to be so nervous about recording it. If you're like I waas, but you just have to press, start and go for it. That is the number one thing to know You have got to start. If you have a call on your heart to publish a podcast and put a podcast out there, then there's someone in the world that needs to hear what you have to say. So you, over analyzing your voice, is only keeping you from sharing what it is you have. Sure. Froome. So when you record you were going toe, want to be in a room that is not too echoey? All right, so you're gonna want to put some blankets and pillows around you. I have a love seat that I pillars on and some quilts. Typically, if I'm getting an echo that day, I'll throw some pillows around the recording area. There are all kinds of tips and tricks to minimize your audio sound to minimize the echo that is coming out in the midst of your podcast. So you're gonna want to make sure that you don't have talked about this earlier. You're gonna wanna make sure that you don't have a noisy heater running or a noisy fan, because it does distract. And when people don't have your face to see in person, it can tend to open up the platform to kind of over, analyze the background noises, make sure you don't have, like people running around and kids screaming in the background, so I try to record only when my kids were gone. However, if that gets tricky, I send them away. During the summer. I give the mature outside to go play, so make sure you're in a quiet space. Also, your car in a park that is not very crowded in the downtime sometimes is a great recording studio. I've done that. I've done that. I've used that anchor app that I was telling you about on my phone and recorded straight from that, and it worked just fine. So as far as editing goes, you're going to have times where you clear your throat, where you cough where you sneeze where you stumble over your words and you can spend countless hours obsessing over the editing of your podcast. When truth be told, people don't really mind that much. As long as you're not like stuttering, every single step of the way, you're not saying 1000 thumbs. You're not clearing your throat over your guests. That is speaking. You're OK. You don't have to edit out every deep breath. Every, um, every pause. When I started, I was so obsessed with the fact that I take a gas before I speak typically and it sounded, that's all. I could hear my broadcast so I would spend like hours editing out every single one of those breaths when in all reality, it didn't matter that much. So don't go crazy on your editing. You can do all of that within GarageBand, just like I mentioned in the earlier slide. So you ca ndu. There are all types of tutorials YouTube videos that will walk you through doing the editing and merging and splitting and pausing. And so that's this is a learning curve. But the only way you're gonna do it is if you get in there and you really get hands on. Now I'm in a place where I no longer spend time editing podcast. I have an amazing assistant that as my editing for me, and she knows what I want taken out and left. And so if you're like me and you're not necessarily a hands on technical person, you're more of an achiever that just wants to get the project done and out there. Then you may look into outsourcing your editing. There's a great there's a great program called fiber that you can go to its F I V E R art and they have freelance outsourcing. Just about any job that you need done. You could get done on on that. So starting out you could do your own editing. If you get to the point where you need some help and you need a virtual assistant than those jobs are over on, fiber look into it. So that is, uh, that's the basic of the recording and editing of it. Now I want to speak Teoh when you have a remote interview for a guest, because this is something that I never was really clear about how to maneuver in the beginning took a lot of trial and air, so I do my recordings from my office, and a lot of my guests are all over the world, from Bulgaria to Washington state to Hawaii. So I'm not able to physically meet them in person. So if I'm doing remote interviews, there are a few different programs that you can use. One is is called Zen Castor z e N C E S T. R is a free program that you can use, and I like then caster in the sense that it records you and your guest on two separate tracks. Now, if you're just starting out, you probably have no idea why this is necessary. But sometimes your guest, the audio is not the same quality as yours because they are somewhere else and you're recording. And then also they may have a lower volume and you may have a higher volume, and that needs to be adjusted. So I like the fact is, in Castor does two separate tracks. If you have a totally stable WiFi connection with no problems, this is a great, great program to use. However, I have a very unstable platform, her WiFi network, and if I lose a little connection, intends to drag and it drags the audio so you can just play with that anchor is and I am by no means endorsed with anchor. I just want you guys to know Anchor is really ridiculously easy to use. When you have a guest, it's on your phone. You send them a link, they click on it. You record you download the audio, you drop it into your garage band and you edit from there so easy, and you could also publish from anchor and use them as you're hosting platform. If you want, we'll get into that in just a moment, actually, and lesson four. But for now, that's what you have for recording and editing. Just remember, don't go crazy with your editing. Not every breath has to be edited out. If you're nervous, that's fine. Just press go or start or record. Just make sure that you get your voice out there and you actually do this because remember , guys done is better than perfect 5. Lesson Four: Hosting: lesson number four, We're going to discuss hosting your podcast and your host platform now, just so you know, the whole, like the devil is in the details. You can get so overwhelmed and stuck at this process of publishing a podcast. And I just want you to know, just make a choice, commit and move forward, because at any given moment, if you're not happy with the platform that you choose, you can then just move that over to whatever platform that you choose that works best for you. Now. I started out with when I was dabbling in the idea of a podcast before I really had any idea what I was doing. I started out over on Pod Bean. So Ponting is a free platform where you can put a podcast out there and it's it's user friendly. I had some difficulties with minor things, such as creating my money artwork, my album cover with the correct dimensions of my picture. And now this was early on in my journey, so I really just did a little more research and investigation before I switched over to speaker. But for all rights pod bean, I hear a lot of people say that for a free service, it is a great service to use. It's really user friendly. It's not difficult. And it's one of the quickest, easiest ways to get a podcast up and running if you're wanting to do it as just a free podcast that you're not investing money in, and then let maybe the monetization start rolling in before you build up to a larger platform. So I personally chose Speaker, and before I get in this bigger, I'm going to tell you that it was between Speaker and Lipson and I played with it. I had a lot of different opinions. I pulled people. I question other podcasters. I listened to a podcast episodes about my options, and I read reviews because I'm kind of a research junkie. So those that use Lipson love it. It's L. I be as quiet and I have had people tell me that it is easier to navigate if you're technologically challenged. However, I personally have found Speaker to be fairly simple to navigate because anything that they don't have easily accessible my fingertips, there's a help article in a blogged that I can read or a tutorial video that I can watch toe learn how to do what it is that I need to dio and you guys, I'm a person. That is definitely not attack junkie. I am a novice at this. So, uh, let's just say that this was the easiest podcasting for dummies platform that I found the speaker platform. So if you're new to the podcast world and you're thinking OK, wait. So I am, like, recording and editing with GarageBand. But if I'm doing a remote interview, I'm recording that on Zen Caster or Via Zoom, because zoom is another option and that that's a super simple way to record your podcast as well. You can separate the video from the audio there. So then you're shooting that over to your garage man and editing it, but then you have to have a platform that distributes it all. OK, so we're recording where editing were distributing. So your platform that you choose is like your website, your host for your podcast. All right. And then you're going to put your show notes in that platform. You're going to put your tags your S CEOs For that, we will get into all of that So Speaker gives you an account. You technically think of it as a channel. So you have your show, and then that show. Each week you can upload your episode. You can ride in your show, notes your description, your title, your tags and then it distributes directly to whatever platform you have your podcast on. So I have mine set up with it, distributing straight to YouTube, Facebook Spotify I heart Radio soundcloud What else? And then on iTunes it. So the platform itself shoot straight over to those other platforms. That's where my speaker location sends my episode out into the world and does it every week . I can schedule it. I can record, and I can put my notes in and I can get everything ready. And then I can schedule it for when I want it to publish. So I can record and upload 15 episodes at a time and then schedule them to come out weekly , freeing up more of my time. So it's really user friendly. It's it's not hard to work with you. Can you can Google search any question that you need an answer to or you can find it in the block there. So the other thing is, we're on iTunes and you get what is called an R s s feed, like really simple feed. I had no idea what an RSS feed was before I started podcasting. So you can you have to submit to I tunes as well as I heart radio to get your show put on there. And once you get submitted on there, it runs off of your RSS feed that is customizable through Sprecher. So I know this is a lot to take in you guys, but if I could do this, I promise you that you could do it. I do pay for speaker. I pay about $60 a year for the podcast host. And then what that gives me is not just a distribution platform, but it also attracts my insides, my downloads, my plays. It tells me where my shows were being listened, Teoh, where they're being played. So that's really good to know that I'm not just podcasting for my health, but I actually have people that are tuning in and listening. And then when you start looking for brand partnerships and affiliate marketing, you're going to want to have those numbers to share with the world. And don't worry, we're not going into all of that today because that is a different lesson for a different day. However, another benefit of speaker is the fact that you can choose monetization option with your podcast so you can choose to have commercials at a deer podcast and you get payments for the clicks of the downloads, like when it's listened to on your podcast. So, for instance, you can choose to have a commercial inserted at the beginning of the rial mid real or end of real. You control it. You can totally turn it off if you don't want any ads on your podcast. So I signed up for the monetization program. In the beginning, however, I personally just didn't like that. I didn't get to control what commercials were added to my podcast at that time. So, for instance, there was a water burger commercial at the end of my broadcast, and I don't eat fast food, so that's something to keep in mind with your podcast monetization. Actually, turn that off. I personally own a skin care franchise, and I run an ad for my own business, so I don't feel the need to monetize in other ways. However, that is an option. It's a great option. It's built in on speaker. It's super easy. And then you don't have to go chasing down partnerships and sponsorships and ads. So there are three different plans with the speaker. There's an on air talent. It's like $6 a month. If you pay for yearly. There's Broadcaster, which is 18 a month bill dearly. And then there's Anchorman, which is 45 filled nearly. You figure out what works for you you've got with the base level. You've got 100 hours of audio storage, 45 minutes per live podcasts. I've never had a live podcast. Actually, I've never done a live podcast, but I've never had a podcast go more than than 45 minutes. And then you have your customer customizable RSS feed and the monetization. I hope that that is clear to you guys. Like I said, whatever platform that you choose to go with, just commit, go with that platform. You could always change it in the future. You're not walked in and re single one of these platforms has an ability to move over to that platform. 6. Lesson Five: Actually Publishing Your Podcast: Okay, you guys, you have made it. You have made it to the final final course of final lesson in the podcasting for dummies course or podcasting 101 Whatever you would like to call it. So we're going to talk today about actually publishing the podcast. So you have your software, You have your equipment, you have your editing software. You have your platform host. You know everything you need to know to do a podcast. You know what type of podcasts you're going to do? You have a solid theme for the show. You know, if you're going to distribute weekly or every other week or monthly, this is up to year. You're the boss here. So now we just need to know what it looks like to actually publish the podcast. So for starters, it's good toe. Have several episodes recorded and ready to go when you publish. Now, there's two schools of thought on this. How maney you publish in the very beginning. So a lot of podcasters will tell you that they recommend publishing 5 to 10 episodes in the very beginning so that people can binge watch and what, listen or watch all 5 to 10 episodes. Right front. I do not come from that school of thought. I want to really people in weekly, and I want them to know that I'm going to be showing up in their podcast subscription downloads every Thursday. And I don't want to create a lot of content aware that I published five episodes and details get lost because they listen toe all five. In the beginning, that is me. Personally, I published one episode at a time, even though I had several episodes recorded and ready to go. No, the best advice I can give you about this is going to be lying out. Your guest. Have a spreadsheet and a calendar of when you're interviewing who, what your your themes are for the month and then this is going to free up so much more of your time because I kind of ran around like a chicken with my head cut off in the very beginning, because I didn't necessarily have this information. But remember, our platform host is going to give us the opportunity to record upload and scheduled to be published over time. So seriously, batch record these podcast you guys. If you can record your entire verse season right up front. You're going to be so much better off throughout the year as you get busy with kids and business and work and life and everything that comes in your way. So that's going to be the first piece of advice that I have for you is to have episodes pre recorded and pre uploaded before you ever hit publish, and you're never like digging around trying to find guests or subjects. So the second is going to be set a date that you are launching your podcast before you ever launch it, promote it to your network, promote it to your social media. This is that whole taking, massive action step. So this is the point where you're telling people, Hey, guys, guess what? I'm working on a podcast. Even if you don't have one single podcast episode recorded, start teasing that. Start telling your network I'm working on a podcast. I'm recording episodes. Take pictures. If you record guest, live one on one, take pictures with them, promote that on social media that you just interviewed them and you can't wait for people to listen in on the podcast so make sure that you're face is showing up on social media. Make sure that you're providing content to your network. That relates to the podcast that you are about to publish, because this gets people more bought into your brand and bought in your message and bought into your mission. So as soon as you have something recorded that's going to be coming out every Thursday, they can't wait to tune yet. Don't give it all away before just tease them and tell them what type of topics you're going to be covering, what you're going to be talking about when they can expect to hear you tell them what days you're going to be publishing. So I started out publishing on Tuesdays because it's important to set a date at a time that your podcast is going to publish, and then it's also really awarded to consistently show up at that date in time. There's two different schools of trains of thought on this, and one is on the boss. I make my own rules. If I wanna publish on a Tuesday, then published on a Thursday, that's my derogative. That's my right, and that's my freedom right However, I personally show up that you consistently show up like your hire yourself as an employee and you say I'm going to show up every single Thursday at 6 a.m. Now are there sometimes unforeseeable events where something glitchy happens in the tech world? And episode doesn't get pushed out until six PM or Friday morning at six AM Of course it happens, and that's okay. Nobody's firing me for it. But I published every Thursday at 6 a.m. as a standard rule of thumb for my podcast. So these air the things that you need to know when you're actually publishing the podcast. So the third thing on that other than, well, the force because you have the have a few episodes ready before you publish, set a launch day and promote it on your social media actually published on the day and the time, and then the fourth is going to be you guys. It's just like anything else that you do in life. You cannot just put the podcast out there and expect listeners to come to you. You cannot put the podcast out there and expect partnerships and sponsorships to come to you you're going to have to promote this and work this like a business, so you're gonna have to tell everyone you know about it. You have to ask your friends and family to tell everyone they know about it. You're going to have to get active in groups where your target audience is and share your message and your mission with the world. Because otherwise, that is a lot of work to do, to sit at home and just expect people to come to you. So some other ways, other than just social media and email list sharing with your network, like make up some T shirts that say your podcast name on it. Business cards, hats, things like that where you're promoting your brand constantly and make sure that everyone knows you have a podcast. They need to be listening to it, and their life is going to be better for it.