In this week’s podcast we are going to be talking all about podcasting and how you can start your very own podcast! Here are all the things you should be considering if you want to start a podcast. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• You need to have an outlet to give your audience long form content. For example, a blog, podcast or videos.
• As a business owner, you need consistent content.
• Podcasts are great if you like to talk, as opposed to write – you have to like what you’re doing.
• Set yourself a length of time you are going to guarantee to yourself how long you will be consistent for.
• Practise talking to yourself and record it – see what it is like.
• We are our own worst critic, get someone else to listen to your first recording to check it.
• Think about what kind of podcast you are going to have.
• Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have an interview for every single episode.
• If you are going to interview people and you want some great people on your podcast, it will take time.
• Will you do episodes or seasons? Think about consistency here.
• Think about the name of your podcast and your artwork.
• Google your name idea and search in iTunes and Stitcher – ideally you don’t want your podcast name to be the same as someone else’s!
• You will need an intro and outro to describe what your podcast is about.
• Intro script – summarise what your podcast is about and why people would listen to it. Needs to also explain what your listeners will get
• Outro – if you like the episode please like and subscribe or leave a review (Call to action)

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

A podcast is a brilliant way to give your audience consistent, long-from content. There is a big process to it, but hopefully this episode has helped you to break down all the different things you need to consider when setting up a podcast. Having a podcast is very rewarding so it is all worth it!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Consistent content - 05:27
• 5 steps to getting your podcast started - 09:00
• The process of a podcast - 33:01

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Phil King
• Contact Phil
• Becci (show notes)
• Download
• Audacity
• Wave
• Captive

Transcript below

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing so for me, it's been a bit of a tough few weeks. If I'm honest, I think generally in the world at the moment we are going through a lot of stuff. It's very hard and heavy, and there's a lot of things going on that can really affect our mood. And unfortunately, I've had some pretty horrible news myself that has also affected my own, uh, mood of myself. So it's been tough, but do you know what I've sent an email out to the Academy members yesterday saying we need to bring more light into our lives and I need to bring some fun and easiness and enjoyment because I don't know about you, but I think I've got to this point in lockdown and I am done. I just want to go out for dinner.

I feel like a child having a tantrum. I want to go out for dinner. I want to see my friends. I want to hug my family and I am now finding it quite tough, which is interesting because up until I don't know, maybe a couple of weeks ago, I was all right with it, really, I think. And I was really okay with it at the beginning when lots of people were nervous about it, whereas now I'm done and I want to travel. And the thought of not getting on a plane this year fills me with so much upset. I can't tell you because travelling is our worlds. That's what my husband's and I love to do. I love to stand on a stage and speak. And the thought that I can't do that again is really, really hard going, and, and with this other sad news on top, it's been a tough few weeks, but as I've said, I'm determined that I need to bring some fun and light and laughter back into my life.

So I am trying so very hard to find so much gratitude and positivity of everything at the moment. So yeah, I just, I was conscious last week, that last except set, I'd probably send it a little bit rushed and a little bit, uh, not my usual self. So I just wanted to say that that might be the reason why, and I'm trying super hard to stay as positive as possible, which I hope you guys are too. It is a tough time and we are all struggling. So I am hopefully here to keep you smiling. My mum said to me the other day that if I get upset, then we know we've got a problem because I am known for being the happy jovial joke, making smiley person in my family. So, uh, that is what I'm going to continue to do while we are going through this tricky time.

Also, in case you missed it and you do want some positivity and motivation, then do go check out [inaudible] episode, which was three episodes back ago. It was, uh, episode 120. It was so good. I got so many great comments about it. So if you are in need of some motivation, maybe I should go back and listen to it myself. Then do go listen to that. Anyway, let's get on with today's episode and I've decided that I'm going to dedicate today's episode to the subject of podcasting and starting your own podcast. Then let me explain why I want to do this because, well, one, I have done an episode on podcasting before, but that was a long, long time ago. Something like episode 19. I think if I remember, rightly I say, remember, rightly I obviously have not remember the number I went and checked it earlier and I forgotten, again, it wasn't a case of, I can remember what episodes I did walk, cause I honestly can't.

I can barely remember what happened at arrogance. So I want, I haven't done enough set up for a long time, but to, as you may know, I have a 90 day programme where I work more closely with business owners who are trying to achieve and are achieving amazing thing in their industry. They're normally launching an online product or an online brand. And we go through a whole process of basically, how do they make sure they're getting seen? How do they get people on their email list? How do they then launch and sell the thing that they're selling? So something that's come up a lot recently is that a number of them have decided that podcasting is the way to go for them and that that's going to help them in the getting seen category. And obviously I have a podcast and I am a big fan of them.

So in the process and the conversations we've been having, I've realised that more and more and more people are looking to start podcasts. So I thought, why not do a whole episode on talking about the things that you should be considering? If you want to start a podcast, now you might be sat there thinking, well, I don't want to start a podcast. Why do I need to listen to this? But as always, I am sure there are things that you can pick up in between even if podcasting is not for you.

Consistent content

Okay, let's get started now, first off, let me just remind you because I feel like I need to, again, I do it every opportunity and you're probably a bit bored of it, but why you need that consistent content. If you are sat listening to this podcast today, right now I am in your ears and you don't have a blog or a video series or live videos or a podcast or something where you are showing up on a very regular basis, ideally weekly, but it doesn't have to be, but you are not consistently showing up giving people longer form content.

So I don't just mean your social media. Then I am telling you right now, and I would love you to come and challenge me on this, but I'm telling you, you need to be. So if you are sat there right now, thinking to reason, I don't need any of those things, then please, please come and find me, please come and DM me on your favourite platform and tell me what you do, because I'd like to find the exception to the rule. But honestly, I can't see. And I've yet to come across a single business owner that does not need some consistent content. So before the podcast, I had a blog, I was terrible at it. Okay. Hands up dreadful. I was inconsistent. I lacked the motivation to want to do it. I dabbled at writing it myself. I got copywriters to write it with me, telling them what's right, but generally was not a big fan.

And you know what? No one read it. Well, I say no. And I'm sure a handful of people did, but hardly anybody in comparison to where I am with the podcast today. And it was torture. I hated the thought of doing it. I would sit staring at a blank screen and would have no idea where to start. And then I discovered podcasting and thought to myself, I've been told my entire life. I talk too much. Surely this has got to be one benefit when it comes to podcasting. So obviously the first thing I want to say is that you must have this consistent content. Podcasting might not be it, but the reason I chose podcasting over everything else was the fact that I do like to talk. And I hate to right now, as you will know, if you're on my email list, I write to you every Wednesday.

And I wrote those, write those emails. You can probably tell by the typos, but as I've told you a million times, I hate writing. So that's why podcasting for me was so much better. And you know what? Most of the time are not aligned States constantly, but most of the time it's easy. I think of something to say, I know my subject, I know what I'm talking about. And I say it, I hit record. Like I've done today. I have literally about four lines of scribbled notes about things I want to make sure I include, but otherwise I just talk. So for me, choosing the right content is so important. You've got to be able to like what you're doing now. You don't have to love it, but you, if you hate it, you're never going to do it. So think about that. Think about, do you like to write, do you mind going on videos, would you rather just do live videos rather than do all the editing and the prep and the process stuff?

Do you like talking? Do you want to do a podcast? So that's my first thing to think about. Choose something that you love. Also, I would say choose something that your audience is going to love, but in all honesty, I think any level of content is great. So I would be more concerned about what you can get on with. So if you're sat there thinking, okay, yeah, let's go with podcasting. That could be a good option for me.

5 steps to getting your podcast started

I just want to take you through five main steps that I've got to getting started for the podcast. The things that you need to think about to ensure that you are going about this the right way and ensuring that you are starting something that you want to continue with because there's no point going yet. I'm going to go all out with a podcast and then not do it properly or not hit your kind of consistency.

So you've got to take this seriously if you're going to do it. So there's a couple of ways that I've got that might help you do that. And I, let me remind you, cause I know I've said this before on the podcast a few times, but I started the podcast and I, my assistant at the time asked me, how long was I going to be doing it for before I knew whether it worked or not. And I told her 12 months now I know some people would like 12 months, you can begin it. That's 52 episodes of a podcast. That's more than 52 hours of my life. And do you know what I knew? I had to give it some time. And I was right too, because in the first nine months I had some steady growth, but nothing crazy. Amazing. And then suddenly month nine just shot out of nowhere.

All these new listeners, all these new downloads, it was like, suddenly everybody woke up and realised I was still showing up every single week. And therefore that's what I want you to think about as well. So whatever you start, I need you to be consistent. And I need you to set a length of time that you're going to guarantee to yourself that you are going to be consistent for. Okay? All that being said, the very first step of starting a podcast might surprise you. But what I want you to do at the very beginning before you do anything else is I literally want you to try and record an episode. I don't want you to buy the mic. I don't want you to sign up for the systems. I don't want you to do anything else at this point. If you are sat there thinking, Oh, I really want to do a podcast.

I want you to almost put your money where your mouth is. And I want you to record an episode. Now, one of the easiest ways you can do this is I would do something like zoom. I would go on to zoom as if you're going to be having a meeting. And I would hit record as if you're recording a meeting and I would just talk to yourself. There's lots of other ways you can do it. Lots of the systems is things on your phone. There's dictation things on your phone, but honestly I would try and record an episode, pick a subject in your industry that you love, pick something that you know, you're going to be able to talk about and just see what it's like. Because the ability to sit and talk to yourself for some length of time, I, I guess there is a skill to it. I don't feel particularly skillful. I just feel like I'm one of these people who can talk for Britain, but there is obviously some kind of skill to it and it might not be your bag. And the last thing you want to do is commit all this time

And money and effort into buying the equipment, coming up with the designs, thinking of the name, doing the process, and then go to record an episode and realise you hate it. So I want you to do that first, if you want to do too great. Because one of the 90 day students that worked with me, she said to me, threes, I've just spent the last, like it was some obscene amount of hours, like five hours talking to myself. I don't know how you do it. And I think she had to do that to know whether she could do it ongoing. So that's what I want you to do. Step one. I want you to have a go actually hitting record. Now, one thing I want to tell you is I don't want you to go back and necessarily listen to the episode and start judging yourself because I'm telling you it won't be good. And we know that we know that when we start things, we're not good at them. And the only way we can be good at them is that we keep going and we keep doing it. The first episodes that I did with a Bismal, like I literally could hear myself and don't go back and listen, I promise you. It's not worth it. I can literally hear myself like clicking to stop the microphone. I was like, so on and off, whereas now I hardly ever stopped recording.

I was about to say, I tend to just keep rolling. And I make very few mistakes. I need to stop. But you know what? I just did. It was like, I dunno, it was like the universe go, here we go. I'll make you make a mistake. The, so I had to stop, delete that last bit and then carry on. But that probably happened like two or three times in an entire episode. And they only happened in the solos because obviously the interviews, we don't do them like that. We just roll. So anyway, that's what I want you to do. That's why I want you to test it, but don't go back and judge yourself. Don't go back and go, Oh God, I sound awful. You're going to think you sound awful. I'm sure if I listened to my stuff while I'm telling you, if I do listen to my stuff sometimes, and I think, Oh God, you sound like an idiot.

But at the end of the day, we are our worst critic. So maybe give it to someone else, listen to if you want, if you do. And if you are concerned of Bates, like I'm going to keep messing up now on say, I'm determined. I'm not going to stop this recording. After I just said to you, I don't stop them. Right. I'm not going to mess up positive mindset, Theresa. Okay. So give it to someone else to listen to. If you are concerned that you just want to check it saying it's okay, don't worry about your same quality at this point. Just try speaking to yourself about your subjects and see how it feels. Okay. That's step number one. So let's say we got past at number one and you think, do you know what that was? All right. I can think I can do this every week. Then let's think about step number two. What kind of podcasts are you going to have now? This is one of the things I think about it straight away, or I would think about it straight away. Because when I started the podcast, it was something like 20 something episodes was.

So I think it's like 25 were all solo episodes. And the reason I did that is cause I didn't want to have the added pressure of having to find a guest. And in all honesty, I wanted the most, best brilliant kickass guests I could find when I had a guest. So I knew it was a waiting game because you don't get brilliant guests or it's very hard to get brilliant guests when your podcast is brand brand new. Now, lots of people, I'm not like this, but lots of people who go on podcasts and are interviewed, we'll ask you what your download numbers are. Well, if you've just started your download numbers and nothing or hardly anything so trying to get the most amazing person in your industry at that point could be a really tough call. So I knew I had to have some episodes in the bag as it were, but also I was given some great advice by strangely enough, the person that came onto my podcast as my first ever interview, Pat Flynn.

And he said to me, get really good at doing it first, get really good at recording and being on the podcast before you try and interview someone, because honestly that first, those first two interviews. So I interviewed Pat Flynn and Amy Porterfield, my first two ever interviews like Holy moly. And do you know what? I was terrified? Like sat there. I was like, the whole house had to be quiet that sit in a room like no internet, no TV, like no lights of Jacob. They were light lights, but like I literally was panicking interviewing them and I was comfortable, but with podcasting and things by then, so I couldn't have imagined trying to do that at the same point as trying to get it all together. So that's what I did now. I'm not suggesting you do the same. I'm just saying what I did, but I do want you to think about, are you going to do just interviews?

Are you going to do some interviews or are you going to do no interviews because that's going to help you plan going forward. And the other thing I need to tell you is if you are going to interview people and you want some great people, then they're going to take time. They're not going to be able to suddenly jump on an interview tomorrow with you. And therefore you edit it by the end of the week and you have it ready for Monday that isn't going to be the case. So if you are going to interview, I want you to think about that. And again, I want you to think about how you can practise doing that before you do the real thing. Now, if you've been doing lives and interviews on lives, or you have a membership and you've been interviewing experts, then again, you've got some experience, but if you've got none, then, like I said, she did not want episode number one first time ever to be recording with someone who is...