Take a look online, whether on Twitter, Facebook groups, Reddit, etc, and you’ll frequently come across questions about starting a podcast. From there, many answers share equipment to buy, hosts to use, etc.

All well, all good. But what you don’t often see is what you shouldn’t do, and why, based on personal experience and lessons learned.

So, while this is in no way an exhaustive list of do’s and don’ts - after all, it’s all subjective to individual needs - here are three lessons I wish I’d known when I started podcasting seriously back in 2016.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Audio recording and editing software | Adobe Audition
• Logic Pro for Mac - Apple
• REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits
• Hindenburg Pro
• Audacity ® | Free Audio editor, recorder, music making and more!
• GarageBand for Mac - Apple
• Mark Asquith, That British Podcast Guy on X
• The Podcast Launch Accelerator - Free Online Podcast Course | Captivate

Products I Use for One Minute Podcast Tips

Note: these contain affiliate links, so I may get a small percentage of any product you buy/use when using my link.

My equipment:

• Shure SM7B dynamic mic
• TZ Audio Stellar X2 condenser mic
• Rodecaster Pro II audio production studio
• Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor Headphones
• JOBY Wavo Boom Arm
• Elgato Wave Mic Arm Low Profile

Recommended resources:

• Captivate.fm
• Substack
• Boomcaster remote interviewing

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Danny: 00:00:00

Hi, and welcome to this special bonus episode of One

Danny: 00:00:02

Minute Podcast Tips. If you take a look online, whether that's

Danny: 00:00:05

Twitter, Facebook groups, Reddit, etc., you frequently come across

Danny: 00:00:09

questions about starting a podcast. From there, you'll see

Danny: 00:00:12

a lot of answers about sharing equipment to buy, which hosting

Danny: 00:00:14

companies to use and more. All well, all good, but what you

Danny: 00:00:19

don't often see is what you shouldn't do and why. Based on

Danny: 00:00:22

personal experience and lessons learned. So while this is in no

Danny: 00:00:25

way an exhaustive list of do's and don'ts, here are three

Danny: 00:00:28

lessons that will shine on When I started podcasting seriously

Danny: 00:00:31

back in 2016.

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Number one, I would have had a plan If you discount my

Danny: 00:00:36

first foray into podcasting, a single episode on Blogtalk Radio

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way back in two thousand and nine my first real podcast was

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an old hobby podcast called Life Through a Dram. It basically

Danny: 00:00:46

consisted of me talking about a topic that caught my eye that

Danny: 00:00:48

week and ruminating on it while savoring a dram of single malt

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whisky. While it was fun for a while and let me indulge in one

Danny: 00:00:55

of my favorite pastimes. It soon run out of steam as I began to

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struggle on what I should talk about. Should I recount news

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stories? And if so, how serious should they be? Should I talk

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about my personal life? Should I have friends on? And would it

Danny: 00:01:10

matter if it was infrequent? All these questions and more came

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about because I didn't have a plan when I started out. Instead,

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I saw some people podcasting and thought, How hard can it be? I

Danny: 00:01:22

also expected that tons of people would want to listen to

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my missives - how wrong I was on that one. So needless to say,

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because of this and because of all the questions I was now

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asking myself, I soon fell out of like with the show and it

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tapered off. Today, whenever I start a podcast, I have a plan

Danny: 00:01:37

already in place with the questions I want to answer

Danny: 00:01:40

before I even start in a show format. Goals, Marketing Plan,

Danny: 00:01:45

Community outreach. If I meet my goals, then what? And how do I

Danny: 00:01:48

pivot if needed Do I? These are just some of the notes I go over

Danny: 00:01:52

with each new podcast and plan out a framework of what

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everything looks like when it comes to answering each point.

Danny: 00:01:58

Without that, I won't launch a podcast because I know I'll

Danny: 00:02:01

probably run out of steam with that one down the road. Now,

Danny: 00:02:03

this is different from a podcast reaching its natural end, just

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to highlight that difference. So plan ahead and know what you

Danny: 00:02:09

want from the show. And if you're in that boat at the

Danny: 00:02:12

minute at Captivate, where I'm Head of Podcaster Support and

Danny: 00:02:14

Experience, we've got an awesome free launch course, no strings

Danny: 00:02:17

attached, no email required, to help you get started properly,

Danny: 00:02:21

and I'll leave a link to that in the show notes.

Danny: 00:02:23

Number two, I wouldn't sweat the numbers. This is

Danny: 00:02:27

probably one that all podcasters could nod along to: that

Danny: 00:02:30

obsessive pull to check your analytics every minute. That was

Danny: 00:02:33

me. Seriously, every damn minute New episode dropped. Check the

Danny: 00:02:37

stats. New share on social media. Check the stats. I haven't

Danny: 00:02:41

checked the stats in a minute. Yep. You got it. Check the stats.

Danny: 00:02:44

I guess it's a natural thing for a new podcaster. You're excited

Danny: 00:02:48

that you've launched and you want to see how many others

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share that excitement. After all, you've told your friends, your

Danny: 00:02:53

family, your connections, and you just know they're all going

Danny: 00:02:56

to listen right? Right. So I checked the stats and checked

Danny: 00:03:01

and checked once more, just for good luck. And of course, the

Danny: 00:03:04

difference was minimal and that was deflating. Even though that

Danny: 00:03:08

first podcast was a hobby one and one that I didn't plan for,

Danny: 00:03:11

it still felt discouraging to be doing something that few people

Danny: 00:03:14

want to hear. But then why would they? I didn't have a marketing

Danny: 00:03:18

plan in place. I didn't have an email list. I didn't network

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with other podcasters. Most importantly, I didn't give

Danny: 00:03:25

anyone a reason to listen. I just simply recorded, uploaded,

Danny: 00:03:29

published, and that was it. Maybe I was expecting my Field

Danny: 00:03:33

of Dreams moment, but like the listeners, it didn't come.

Danny: 00:03:37

Building a podcast takes time. Even with a kickass marketing

Danny: 00:03:40

plan and a growth strategy. There's so much that goes into

Danny: 00:03:43

it that it's almost impossible to hit the ground running with

Danny: 00:03:45

great analytics to show for it. So, don't sweat the numbers

Danny: 00:03:49

because you're not getting the thousands of downloads all the

Danny: 00:03:51

gurus tell you you should be getting from day one. Instead,

Danny: 00:03:55

look at the data that you can use to optimize your show.

Danny: 00:03:58

Listen to growth recommendations from listeners and other

Danny: 00:04:01

podcasters. Churn rate and stickiness of episodes and where

Danny: 00:04:04

listeners are dropping off. Most effective referral channels.

Danny: 00:04:08

Analytics are great because they inform us on where we're

Danny: 00:04:11

succeeding and where we either need to put more effort or cut

Danny: 00:04:14

our losses and run, but use them. Don't be chained to them. For

Danny: 00:04:18

some really insightful thoughts around this, there's a great

Danny: 00:04:20

thread over on Twitter from Mark Asquith, which includes this gem.

Danny: 00:04:24

A podcast episode must be constructed in such a way that

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it benefits the listener, not us. Rather than creating a simple,

Danny: 00:04:30

repeatable format for the show we should be focused on creating

Danny: 00:04:33

a simple, repeatable formula that results in a depth of

Danny: 00:04:36

content. It's a really good thread on growth and analytics.

Danny: 00:04:40

And again, I'll leave the link to that in the show notes so you

Danny: 00:04:41

can check it out

Danny: 00:04:43

And number three. I would have learned how to edit. I

Danny: 00:04:46

cannot state this one enough. When I first started, I really

Danny: 00:04:49

wish I'd learned editing and the importance even the slightest

Danny: 00:04:52

tweaks can make. Instead, Life Through a was recorded and

Danny: 00:04:56

uploaded raw. And man, when I listened back to it, it's

painful: 00:04:59

long gaps in the audio, coughing, rambling sentences

painful: 00:05:04

that go nowhere, and lots of echo and background noise. Now,

painful: 00:05:08

some of that was always going to happen. I was in a large room

painful: 00:05:11

with lots of hard bare surfaces with either the AC or the heater

painful: 00:05:14

running. Our windows open and lots of outside noise coming

painful: 00:05:17

through. But knowing what I do now, through hours and hours of

painful: 00:05:20

watching YouTube videos, asking other podcasters and just

painful: 00:05:23

getting to know more about the production process in general,

painful: 00:05:26

there really was no excuse for not learning at least some basic

painful: 00:05:29

editing processes. I think the problem back then was twofold. A

painful: 00:05:33

I was ignorant as to why sound mattered. I know that sounds

painful: 00:05:36

silly though. And b, I was just too lazy. Editing was something

painful: 00:05:40

professional podcasters did. It cost a lot of money and it took

painful: 00:05:44

a lot of time. Why would I be bothered about that? But then

painful: 00:05:48

maybe that's one of the reasons my show wasn't growing. Maybe

painful: 00:05:51

the audience took a listen and thought, If he doesn't care

painful: 00:05:53

about our experience, why should I care about him? Think about it.

painful: 00:05:57

You go to see a new movie. You've been looking forward to

painful: 00:05:59

it and you spent a small fortune to get a seat in one of the VIP

painful: 00:06:02

lounges with the Dolby Atmos sound. You're all set for an

painful: 00:06:06

experience. And then the movie starts. There's hissing in the

painful: 00:06:10

audio, and there's no editing, and the visuals just sharp cuts

painful: 00:06:13

when the cameras stopped rolling, etc.. It would seriously dampen

painful: 00:06:17

your enjoyment of the movie if you stayed around to watch it,

painful: 00:06:19

that is. Podcasting is the same. Create the experience for your

painful: 00:06:23

listener that they deserve. So learn about audio levels and

painful: 00:06:28

normalization. Learn about LUFS, what it is and why it matters.

painful: 00:06:33

Learn about filler content and unwanted noise Learn mic

painful: 00:06:36

technique and learn about the importance of a good recording

painful: 00:06:39

environment. This last one is probably one of the most

painful: 00:06:42

overlooked yet one of the easiest to fix. If you're in a

painful: 00:06:46

room with bare, hard surfaces, it's going to echo. Yes, you can

painful: 00:06:49

get close to your mic, but then that can cause new issues like

painful: 00:06:52

plosives, for example. So add softness to the room. Cushions,

painful: 00:06:57

pillows, a rug, curtains, a soft chair. All of these dampen your

painful: 00:07:02

voice bouncing off the hard surfaces in the room, which

painful: 00:07:04

makes it a lot easier to edit afterwards. Now there are some

painful: 00:07:08

podcasters who say they never edit and don't need to. And

painful: 00:07:11

that's fine. If it works for you, great. But for everyone else, I

painful: 00:07:15

highly recommend learning the basics of editing and different

painful: 00:07:17

audio production tricks and techniques. Trust me, it's worth

painful: 00:07:20

it. There are some great options for editing to depend on, on

painful: 00:07:24

your budget, hardware and learning curve. So for example,

painful: 00:07:28

there's GarageBand for Mac and Audacity for Mac and PC, and

painful: 00:07:32

they're both free. There's Hindenburg Pro, which I use.

painful: 00:07:35

Reaper, Logic Pro, and Adobe Audition just to name a few. So

painful: 00:07:40

these are three things I'd do differently if I was starting a

painful: 00:07:42

podcast today There are more, like not giving transcripts the

painful: 00:07:45

respect they deserve, for example. But these three are

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probably the ones I could easily have avoided right from the

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start. I hope you've enjoyed this bonus episode and it might

painful: 00:07:54

give you some pointers if you're looking to start a new podcast

painful: 00:07:56

soon. Until the next time, happy podcasting.