You don’t need fancy gear to launch your podcast—just a few simple tools and your voice. This episode walks you through exactly what’s essential (and what’s not) to get your show off the ground, including microphones, hosting platforms, and recording software. If you've been putting off your launch, this loving nudge will get you moving fast—with confidence.

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 Welcome Radiant Souls. I'd like you to take a breath and settle in. Your voice matters. And today we have a checklist, an important topic to discuss. I am Kim Parkinson, your podcast growth coach and podcast producer and host of this show, podcasting for Spiritual Women. I am here to offer you some guidance on how to launch your podcast, and if you find that you need additional help with this.

I am here to help you and you can visit me@kpcreativemedia.com, and you can click on that little button or that big button, I should say, at the top of the page that says, book your growth clarity call. And if you are walking your dog or doing the dishes and you don't have the time right now, to click on that or to go search for that.

They will be in the show notes as well. So let's get on with talking about your podcast. So you have chosen your name and you are ready to take action, but what do you actually need to launch your podcast today? We're going to talk about that specifically because we've already moved through your fear in episode three, and we've picked out your SEO driven name in episode four and now.

We just want you to like really get a clearer picture on what it is that you might need. And maybe you already have a podcast and you're like, I already know, but there could be a couple of tips in here that you might want to want to touch upon. So you don't need everything all at once, and that is the number one thing that I wanna tell you about.

I have mentioned in previous episodes that people have gotten started with just their phone, and that is a great way to do it. Once you have gotten something established, then you can go ahead and get yourself a basic microphone. I. My favorite is one that just plugs in as A USB, right into your laptop or your computer, your PC of some kind.

Now, some of them will pick up a lot more outside noise. I know it's a very, it can be very confusing. So stick with something basic, something that plugs in, and then just learn how to use that one. Right, and that's the one that you're going to be recording on. But here's the thing, record, even if you just record in Zoom, right?

We're gonna talk about recording software in a moment, but if you just record in Zoom real quick. And then play it back. You can kind of hear which one's better. And for the love of all, please don't just use whatever microphone comes with your laptop. I mean, if you have to, I get it. But at the same time, you do not want to turn people away because they couldn't hear you.

There was too much wind noise you really wanted people to be able to hear your voice and hear what you have to say. And so having the, phone close to your mouth, or maybe having a microphone, they even make these really adorable little microphones nowadays that hook onto your clothing so you can go on, on the road with them.

Again, you don't need to get started with everything. Just there is just a little bit of information about microphones that maybe you needed to know. The goal here is to just start messy, start simple and start now. Right? So basic microphone or your phone. Okay. And then a recording software of some type.

So if you're on your phone, you're probably gonna record right into your phone, and then you're probably gonna need to have a Google Drive or Dropbox connected, so you can upload that somehow into the cloud and then be able to download that onto your computer and all that. That is the one thing about, putting it onto your phone is you're gonna need to make sure that it's connected some way to the internet in order to be able to get that recording.

If you are recording on your laptop, I recommend recording into Audacity, which is free. It is a recording software. You don't have to use that, but that's a free platform. Zoom. I know everybody knows Zoom. There is a fee to Zoom I don't know what the Times, 'cause I'm a paid subscriber of Zoom, so I think it used to be 45 minutes, but now it could be less.

I'm not quite sure. But just just so you know, you could do it in Zoom and record it to your computer and so you then you would have that. That is not an editing software, so you would need to put that into an editing software such as Audacity or DS Script or something like that. lots of other, options there to do some editing.

But those are the two that I use so those are the two that I'm most comfortable with. I would record in either Audacity or I would, I would record in Zoom, or I would record in D script.

Now D Script does offer you the ability to record interviews, as does Zoom. it does have the ability to have two different, recordings of those people, but also in a video format if you want. And I believe that is through their sister platform squad cast. So you could do that. Otherwise you could use Zencaster is another one.

You can actually do all of your podcasting in Zencaster as well. Same for Riverside. Riverside. You can do all of your recording and your editing inside of Riverside as well. Now, I've heard of other people using other platforms. cap cut for, for recording, and editing.

I feel like that's more video and I'm not really doing video. I'm doing audio, so I can't get all those really tiny nuances down, but it depends on what you're looking for. So absolute essential. Any kind of recording software, audacity, descrip, zoom, then you're gonna need some type of a podcast hosting platform.

my favorite is Captivate. I have clients on Buzzsprout and I have clients on Libsyn, that's L-I-B-S-Y-N, and all three of them are great. To use for that. There's others out there. Use the one that you're comfortable with that fits in your payment plan. There is even, uh, Spotify for podcasters, which I believe is free, but I have actually had trouble with that.

I did have a client that wanted to use it and I tried to use that in the fashion that I know how to use, getting it up onto all the different platforms and stuff, and it was a little cumbersome. So if you're okay with learning, having a little bit of a learning curve, you can go with the free version as well.

Otherwise, some of these other ones have really low package prices. Lipson has a really low one. Buzz Sprout Captivates. In the media Captivate actually allows you to have multiple for one price and a private podcast for one price and dynamically add in your ads for one price. So that's kinda why I use Captivate, but you don't have to.

And then another piece that you're gonna want is your cover art. Now we. Touched briefly on that in your last episode, episode four, and we talked about how you would want to have your cover art, have the name. It could have a little bit more than just your name on it. Now, here's the thing about your cover art.

Make those words your podcast name is, big and bold. Don't even bother putting a picture on there. Okay? Unless you are somebody very well known. People are not going to be able to see it 'cause they're looking on their phone screen. If you want a podcast cover art on your social media with your picture on it, have that as your social media podcast cover art.

But the one that's gonna be in the Players in Apple, in Spotify, in Overcast, in podcast addict, and all those other podcast players that are out there. Just make those be the one with the big, bold names. Okay. Now you're gonna need a show description and we'll talk about that In the next episodes, we will talk about the show description 'cause you really want that to be also SEO optimized. And then you're going to also want a podcast intro, an outro, and then you're gonna want one to four launch episodes in a trailer Now.

I talked about all of those, that's all recording. So we're gonna need to record an intro and an outro, and that's going to be, you know, Hey, welcome to blah blah, blah. And then you're also gonna do the, thank you so much for listening and please, and move on. So those are the podcast, intro and outro. I typically put those two music, but yeah, you don't have to, I am a music person. I really feel like music lives within us and flows within us. And when we hear that beat, it automatically is a, is a mind connection. So I always recommend having music, but it's not necessary. This is supposed to be about essentials here. And then your one to four launch episodes and your trailer.

Now your trailer is gonna be what gets you that RSS feed. It's basically your commercial that you can put out. And if you were listening to this at all, you know that I recorded my trailer on, or released my trailer on Mar May 5th, and then I didn't actually release any of these episodes until later because I wanted to get.

The buzz going with that trailer, but I wasn't quite ready for all the rest of it. and then one to four launch episodes, because the key is here is if you have any episodes that are between 10 to 20 minutes long, you want people to kind of binge it. Right. You want people to like really love you and be like, oh my gosh, this is such great information.

I really want to continue with this. And so you're gonna binge maybe one to four episodes, or I'm gonna say actually three to four episodes, and you're gonna launch them all in the same day. then you're going to move on from there. All right. What can you skip? I still don't have any fancy mixer board. Oh, hold on, hold on. I was gifted one a couple of months ago, now that I think about it. I have never plugged it in. I think it has like laughing sounds and stuff like that to it.

So my, it's not really like a really super fancy mixer board. I will say we do have one in the house. I would say that is also maybe not podcast. Driven as it was something that my husband had when he was writing music. So we do have a fancy mixer board in the house. I don't have it in my office. I don't use it.

I, I honestly don't know that I would actually be able to even help you set that up. So, something you definitely don't need for sure. You don't even need any fancy studio setups, right? So, yes, I do have my microphone on a boom arm with a, windshield, which is the pop filter. and I also do have carpet and I do have curtains, and I do have sound dampening pieces of art on my wall.

But I didn't have all of this all at once. I have been. A podcast producer for for five years, and I've been teaching this for five years, so I've been accumulating these over time. You do not need any of that to begin with, okay? Uh, you also don't need a full website. Unless you already have a business, then you probably do.

And in the case that you have a website already, just add a little nav bar or nav bar thing that says podcast in the top, and then point it right to your podcast. Now you could point it right to the host. Every host has a little link specific for yours, or you could find the embed code and do the editing and all of that.

Totally up to you on what you feel you can do in regards to that. But ultimately, does it have to happen on your first 10 episodes? No. Nope. You also don't even need any kind of heavy editing. Now, I have edited all four of my first podcast episodes, and I'll probably edit all of my podcast episodes because that's what I do for a living.

If this is not what you do for a living, you don't need to. I'm gonna tell you though, I have listened to an audible book before where in the middle of a conversation, the narrator or one of the people sneezed. Please edit that out. That's actually really hard to listen to and was really quite the turnoff.

. So I do, I do edit all those out. If you notice that you say, um, a lot or ah, a lot, or you know a lot or so a lot, which I do, I do say those.

You can edit them out and you can just use those editing software like Descrip, Riverside, Zencaster, Audacity. Yeah. Any of those you can use, uh, zoom will not let you do that, but all the rest of 'em you can, but here it is. Your voice is the most important tool you have.

So as long as you are recording and then once you do, you are hitting the ground running because you know what?

As they say, done is better than perfect, and the energy of what you have is going to be out there, and that's really what matters. You already have what you need or affordably can get, because realistically, again, I think the only thing on here that I talked about in my little list here, so basic microphone recording software, podcast hosting, platform cover, art show description, podcast, intro, outro, and launch episodes.

I'm pretty sure microphone. If you use your phone, you're done recording software. I did tell you there was a free one. Audacity. If you already have Zoom, you've got it. Podcast hosting platform, you could use the Spotify for podcasters. I don't know how to use it very well, but you could. Otherwise that is your only expense.

Realistically, 'cause you're already paying for some of the other stuff. You know, you're already paying for your phone, you're already paying for Zoom. You, may already be paying for Canva, or just use the free version of Canva to create your cover art. Your show description is just you writing your podcast intro and outro is just you recording with your voice.

Your launch episodes are just you, again, recording with your voice. So ultimately, to get started, this could be less than $20 to get you started. I hope that is inspiring to you. I hope that you feel like this is something you can do So if you are launching. I really encourage you to let me know. and if you feel like, oh, I didn't write all that down, let me tell you, you can go right to my website, kp creative media.com, and there is, at the bottom there is a little link for eight steps to launch your podcast, so you can grab that freebie.

And you can use that PDF and just use all of the knowledge that I gave you today, and that's right in there. And you can get started. realistically, you could really launch your podcast within the next couple of weeks, depending on how long it takes you to record. all right, I am so excited if you did launch your podcast, I look forward to listening to it. Really, I love them, so I would love to hear it. So send me a message and let me know. Until next time, have a beautiful day and I will talk to you soon.