So You Want to Start a Podcast
What you need to think about to set up your show and get your message to the world.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how to start a podcast. I’m 350+ episodes in so I hope I know what I’m doing. Here are steps you’ll need to take in order to get your podcast going.
First, there are some excellent FB groups to join. People are really good about answering questions on this one.
Next, you’ll want to come up with a name. Make sure it’s not one that’s already taken (google and also do a search on apple podcasts). Then, choose a podcast host. I use Podbean for my first podcast, The Innovative Mindset, but I set up Buzzsprout for the second one (yes, I have a second one I just started and will be doing a lot more with called, The Under One Sky Podcast). I think I prefer Buzzsprout because they make things super easy.
Once you choose a host, then, you need to record Episode 0. That’s the episode that lets your host create an RSS feed. This one can be short – just an introduction. “Hi I’m [your name]. And this is the [name of podcast] podcast. Stay tuned for a lot of [whatever cool stuff you’ll be sharing]. Once you have that, your correctly-sized podcast image (your logo and whatever else you want it to be [sized between 1400×1400 and 3000×3000 pixels as a jpg or a png] – that will have to be uploaded to your podcast host also) and your brief but effective tagline for what the show’s about), you’ll want to register that RSS feed with all the major players.
Here’s mine podcast image for The Innovative Mindset Podcast. The sky’s the limit on what you can do, but be sure the name of the show is visible as small no matter what size you make the image.
Here’s a list of all the podcast channels my podcast is on.
This isn’t an exhaustive list. There are new channels popping up every day. But these are the main ones. I also submitted to Pandora, but they take the better part of a year to accept you. Oh, and you can now also submit to amazon/audible because they are getting into the podcast listening game too. As you can see above, I created little thumbnails of the channel logos so they would be easy to tell apart and use. People have their favorite channels so it makes sense to submit and distribute your podcast to a variety. The must-haves, in my opinion? Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
To Interview or Not To Interview
You’ll also want to choose how often you’ll have guests and how often it will be you talking about some pertinent piece of information. Plan your stuff out ahead of time. If you’re going to be doing lots of promo for every episode, get your bottles in a row on which channels you’ll be using and how you’ll be posting. For example, I use Hootsuite to schedule my promo posts. But LinkedIn doesn’t allow videos to be posted that way. So, I still have to post those manually (grrr). And then Instagram doesn’t let you post from a computer native so I *have* to go through hootsuite (or some other scheduler).
Promote Promote Promote
I love the audiograms I make for a promo. I take bits of my guest’s audio from my show and then make into an audiogram (complete with sound waves) and put it up as promo on IG, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. There are many ways to promote, and I’ll add another post on that soon.
Here’s an audiogram of this week’s guest, attorney Girija Patel talking about the importance of and the steps to take to build a solid legal foundation for a creative business.
Additionally, I create an image to share on my social media the day the show airs. It’s in my brand colors, and I post it on LinkedIn, Twitter, FB, etc.
I also create an image for my guests to share on their own social media. It has the guest’s headshot and the info for where to get the podcast. Per the advice of some excellent people like Lauren V. Davis and Chelsea Brinkley, I make them in my guests’ brand colors. See below for an example.
Here are a couple of recent episodes of my show. A few weeks ago, Tee Morris, coincidentally is the guy who wrote Podcasting For Dummies, was on the show. https://izoldat.com/author-entertainer-tee-morris/
Then, there’s NPR Books Editor Petra Mayerhttps://izoldat.com/npr-books-editor-petra-mayer/
And Grammy-winner Andrew Lippa https://izoldat.com/andrew-lippa-award-winning-composer-and-lyricist-on-his-musicals-creative-thinking-and-self-awarreness/
If you listen to these, you’ll be listening to them on my website. But if you want to see the Apple Podcasts page, it’s here.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-creative-mindset/id1447555741
Once you have made those decisions, be consistent in when and how you release episodes. In the next little while, I’ll write a post on the more technical aspects of creating, recording, editing, and releasing an episode. In the meantime, if you have questions, get in touch.
I can’t wait to hear your voice on the air!