Did you know that a recent study found that podcasters are some of today's most [00:01:00] influential figures in media? I found that really interesting, but not all that surprising.

Her compositions have been featured on NBC, CTV, Foxtel and in advertising campaigns. Most notably, And quite enviously with Adidas. Brianna has a bachelor's degree in popular music and absolutely loves everything audio. Her current focus is in podcast production. and editing, including video podcasting.

In addition to looking after their portfolio of podcast clients, Brianna and the team at Bamby Media have developed some excellent resources for podcasters wherever you're at in your podcast journey. There is the Let's Get Launchy course for those that are looking to dip their toe into learning about podcasting and starting their own podcast.

And also over on YouTube at Bamby Media, there are so many tips and strategies that podcasters can use wherever you're at in your space of an emerging or an established podcaster. I have to say that For me, I found these resources invaluable. I actually followed Bamby Media for two years, maybe a little bit longer than two years before starting my own podcast.

So if that isn't a testimonial as to how good these resources are, then I don't know what is. Of course, we'll have. All the links to the resources that we've mentioned in the show notes, including the Bamby Media podcast production schedule freebie, which I use. I use the production schedule as part of my planning tools, so I can highly recommend that one as well.

So it's been really interesting for me as a brand new podcaster to receive so many questions about what is it like to start a podcast. it's probably one of the most frequently asked questions I've had through my friends and my professional network. So I thought given your depth of experience and All of the incredible shows that you have on your production schedule, maybe we can start at the [00:06:00] beginning and you can explain a little bit about what a podcast producer does and how important is your role in shaping the content and success of a show.

Brianna: Okay. So the world of podcasting is so fun when you first get into it. And if you've never done it before, but you love to talk, it's an area that's going to be really great for your business and the role of the podcast producer, like. Me here at Bamby Media and the rest of our team is to really make you sound really good.

I mean, it helps if you don't need to be edited very frequently, but if you're feeling a little bit more like you want to start, but perhaps you don't sound professional enough, that's where a podcast producer actually steps in, that they listen to the content, they edit it really thoroughly, and they make you sound professional.

The best that you can possibly sound and on top of that, we'll coach you through the kind of microphone setup that you need, you know, headphones, your lighting, that sort of thing to present yourself in a way where whoever you're trying to reach will listen to you. Because the quality that you're giving is above the masses.

Can you elaborate a little bit more For people that are wanting to start out, what do you recommend for that process? How long in advance do they need to consider before going live, before a podcast goes live? What's the process that they should engage in perhaps with a producer and buying the right equipment and all those steps?

Brianna: I'd like to say that probably three to four months ahead of when you want to launch is when you really start to think about it. And When I say think about it, it's more than being like pie in the sky. Oh yeah, it'd be nice to have a podcast. I think I might do one. You know, I've got a few ideas in my head.

They've done a little bit of research and they've produced a few episodes, but then they've realized that. It's work, like it's a fair bit of work to continue doing it and the work gets amplified if you haven't mapped out your content in a thorough way beforehand. And I don't mean you have to have recorded 20 something episodes, but you need to have a really solid plan as to who the podcast is serving.

You can be someone who wants to educate people, someone who wants to entertain people, you're doing it more of a, as a hobby or like just a, like a passion of yours, but a lot of the time. It is to help with your business as well, like the running of your business, trying to get leads into your business, trying to get people interested in your business.

And so for it to support your business, you need to really think about those things that someone interested in your potential services would want to learn from you. And then how are you going to deliver them in the form of a podcast? So that's why I say you need to have maybe three to four months.

So content is number one, number key, number yes, please do this. And then once you figure out, okay, I think my content's pretty solid, I've got 25, 30 episodes, I would like more than that, maybe 50, I'm ready. Then the next step is, what do I need? My production equipment, microphone, lighting. Because if you know that you've got enough content to stand the test of time, then you actually bother to get the show started.

So you knew that you had enough valuable content to start a blog and that you could then develop each of those. Themes or topics out into individual blogs podcasting's a little bit different though because. You need to put more effort into that content because it's extended, you know, whether it's a 15 minute show or a 30 minute show or hour long show, it doesn't matter.

I didn't have I'm going to what to expect. And runway to development was longer than I anticipated it to be. And like everything, you know, you plan a project and you think, I've got enough time and then something happens. You get sick, or you want to go on holidays or work, and, ebbs and flows. So there's all of those extra challenges that you need to factor in.

So I think that lead time, that runway is so important because you've got all of that planning to do pre launch before you even get to that recording stage. And then I think it's talking about the planning, and promotion. From my point of view, that is something that surprised me for my.

Brianna: I think that if you can outsource the editing for a start, that's great. because it means that someone will edit your show for you and then upload it. To the podcast host for the date that you need it to be released. So you don't have to worry about it actually going out, which is good. Like that's important to get a really solid, uh, structure around your release day and time because people get used to hearing you on a certain day and time and they expect it.

And there's some tick boxes that you can tick off in this version of the spreadsheet that go. Have I edited it? Yes. Have I done my show notes? Yes. Have I done my blog, post article? Have I, you know, tick, tick, tick sort of things. Having those tick boxes will help you actually get those things done for every episode and keep track of them.

And that's based off of the podcast episodes. You can have blog posts, I guess, from there, which you can then put on your website, which then you can use as a LinkedIn article, which then you can use as a medium article, which then you can use, you know, any sort of number of ways by getting it into people's newsletters.

That's just your copy. That's one facet. Then you've got video snippets or audiogram snippets that need to be produced, uh, in some format to then share on all your social media platforms and get some promotion happening there as well. So it shouldn't just stop with, I've produced a podcast and I've put it up on the podcast platforms.

And I think the podcast itself is incredible. And there's such a depth of information, but people learn differently, right? And we want additional resources to back up that listening experience. So when I was speaking about the time investment that I make each week to the podcast, it's Not just the research, the planning, the, you know, the storyboarding, the recording.

It's all the things that come in after, after I receive the transcript and it's converted into probably at least three pieces of, uh, website content. So that could be a blog, a download, and an embedded resource in the website with the podcast episode. But it's the social content and the newsletter.

And going back to that production schedule, it is really important to have that. And one of the things that you spoke about in a recent post of yours was looking at the insights too, and analyzing the feedback from your podcast, because I've found that I populated. The production schedule with what was my anticipated podcast episodes or topics, but based on feedback that I'm receiving from my audience, but also my general community, I've shifted those topics somewhat by listening to that feedback and modifying the production schedule.

Brianna: The insights are something that you don't need to worry about too much when you first start out. And in fact, I say, just don't look at them, you know, as in just allow yourself to explore the kind of content that you feel comfy creating, because as soon as you get more voices. You know, as in you get other people giving you feedback, it can dilute kind of what your overall message is or where you take it, you know?

You also look at which episodes are going well on LinkedIn. So, as in, the articles or whatever, blog posts that you're putting, which ones have good engagement there? And then also on your socials, what's happening over on your socials? Who, who's responding to what over there as well? So it becomes more, it's like this big amalgamation of not just your downloads, but also the spread of the insights.

How is everyone interacting with you on different platforms? Try not to overwhelm yourself with it, but kind of then go, all right, if I distill this down. This is what my audio listener wants. This is what my people on LinkedIn want. This is what my people on socials want. And you start to really get a very nice shape like how your show goes and who it's for and how you feel about it.

Karan: Yeah, that's interesting because that's probably contrary to what we would do, say, in a digital space, like a social media space. We look at insights and analytics quite differently. quickly. But then I guess it aligns somewhat with perhaps your website metrics. Because if you've got a blog or a website, it can take some time for content to populate and gets a real, true picture of what's working well.

Brianna: That's exactly right, Karan. Let's hit that point on the head. Like, make that really clear for people that it's such a different to socials. Podcasting is so different because it's growth over time. And socials, when you put out a post, it's like you got 24 hours, you got 12 hours, depending on the platform.

You've got even less than that to see what kind of engagement. It happens, and then it's kind of gone. You've got to put the next thing out. Podcasting is great because it's evergreen. And so as you grow, the podcast grows and they go back and they listen to old episodes. And as long as you're providing content, that's not like trending content all the time.

It's, what's my growth over six months? And if we take one example, Alex Hermosi talked about it a couple of months ago, how he had a podcast that I think it was like four or six years or something like a really long time where he didn't get a lot of traction on it. And then over that time, the growth, the growth, the growth was slowly, slowly building, started to other platforms.

Karan: Yeah. I'm more and more seeing the nexus between say podcasting and web content, uh, like blog content. And I think it highlights also the importance of creating and controlling your own content as well. Uh, social you're really at. The behest of the algorithms and your trending content one day, you might have your 15 minutes of fame and that's it.

And a lot of people consistently put huge effort into creating content for social, but to no end, you know, they might have a short period of success there, but sustaining that content is really difficult unless you have the other platforms to build out on. Because there is, social does play still an important role in podcasting too, doesn't it?

Brianna: Yeah, absolutely. TikTok especially. The metrics we saw Gen Z we're talking about specifically how they rely on social media to tell them about new podcast episodes that are coming out. I think it was, it was some crazy big number. I can't remember it off the top of my head, it was like 70 something perhaps. It was a pretty big number. And so that's the important of those social media assets that go with them. And so when you're able to do video as well, which I know Karan will get to as well, but when you're able to support with video snippets that you've put time and energy into that then feel like really support and they're a standalone.

So if you can then support. So that, and it also helps you create more social media content. If you're an influencer and you're always posting things on social, this gives you a little bit of extra repurposable stuff, as long as you've videoed it or you've got good audiograms or some great graphics or something to support it, maybe some quote cards or whatever, it helps you pull some other content.

Karan: Yeah, it definitely makes a difference around building out that content and certainly as you say, influences of content creators really have the leg up here and we've touched on all of those high points for people that are wanting to get into the podcasting space, how they can really continue to engage their audience, working through that comprehensive planning phase, the runway stage.

Getting a good production team behind them, planning out using a production schedule, certainly share those assets that you've got there as a guide, being committed to recording, uh, your podcast regularly and having them scheduled regularly, and then making sure that you have quality content that is well produced and delivered consistently.

Brianna: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Karan: It's just consistency, consistency, consistency and quality. Before we wrap up, Brianna, I want to get excited about some emerging trends that might be coming out in the podcasting space.

Is there anything that you can share with us that we can be really excited about?

And then when you're ready to move to video, your podcast is already there on YouTube. So that's a trend that's very exciting for me. And when it is launched, I will be spreading that news everywhere. So make sure you follow, you know, all our links and things. Uh, but that's a trend that I find particularly exciting.

Karan: That is hugely exciting because what I've noticed each week when I do a roundup and analysis of all, enhancements and trends and, new, things that the platforms are delivering, I think that YouTube has. Been doing a lot of work in this development space and they're releasing new features that are making it very, very competitive and they're drawing over an audience from these other channels.

Brianna: And YouTube, let me just say about that too, Karan, is YouTube is the second largest platform for podcast listening. Just let that soak in for a second.

So I think that more users should be utilizing it because the monetization opportunities in YouTube are far more favorable as well. There's a lot of creators that have had challenges through TikTok and Facebook with the monetization of content. but YouTube monetization is quite good. And so that just opens up a whole new avenue for content creators.

So I guess the message there is if you're not already on it, start planning to get on it, to get ready for launch. And I, I guess people that were there when TikTok. came into play, you know, they were able to build an audience quickly. So if you start that runway now, you can be there for the launch and ready to go and ride that wave of that new feature that's come in.

Brianna: Have more fun. That is my absolute number one, feeling in life. But especially for anything that's content, creative. If you're not having fun with it, then why the hell are you doing it?

Karan: And that's why you're so good at what you do. You've got all the skills, you've got all the production expertise, all of the business expertise, but you deliver that expertise through the lens that you've got to be having fun while you're doing it.

Of the enjoyment to really get the best value out of it. And podcasting is the same thing. Your show needs to feel fun to you because if it feels fun to you, it's going to feel fun and exciting for the person listening to it and engaging with it. And that is really important. Get out of your desk, get out of your space, get out of your normal life, go and have adventures, have more fun, take more breaks.

You will be more creative. And you'll be able to deliver more creative, inspirational work.

So make sure you take advantage of leveraging Brianna's expertise if you are looking to venture into the podcasting space. Or if you're an existing podcaster that wants to look at ways to extend the reach or the commercial viability of your podcast, there's some additional resources again, that I'll be sharing, Bamby Media do masterclasses in, commercializing your podcast, how to create revenue.

So we'll wrap those all up nice and tidily in our show notes for you. Thank you, Brianna, for your time.

And so if you can show some love and just take a moment of your day to tell one person about the show, then that's really going to help it grow as well.

Karan: Thank you, Brianna. You're wonderful. Have a great day.

Brianna: Bye.