Top 6 tips for Starting a Podcast

Back in the spring of 2017 Sandra and I created our first episode of the Women who Succeed podcast. We started with the simple goal of sharing the amazing stories of women in our communities. Listening to that first episode now makes me smile because we didn’t really know what we were doing! Aside from the desire to share women’s stories, we knew nothing about the actual process of recording and producing a podcast. It turned out to be quite an adventure for us! Looking back over these past few years, here’s what we’ve learned about creating a podcast.

1 - Work with a partner

Motivation tends to wax and wane, especially when there are no deadlines (no boss around threatening you to get it done!). Inevitably, Sandra and I frequently swung in opposites. There were times when I lost my motivation or got discouraged and she just said, “So who are we interviewing next?” and vice versa. Likewise, sometimes one of us will get bogged down with work or projects and the other would pick up the slack. 

If you can find a partner with different strengths than yours, even better. If you listen to our podcasts, you will probably notice that Sandra asks most of the questions. That is her strength - she is a wonderful conversationalist. My strength lies more in editing and producing the podcasts. 

2 - Don’t let the technical stuff scare you

While the technical issues are by far the most frustrating part of producing a podcast, don’t let them stop you. Keep researching to find the answers you need. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube for the equipment needed for a podcast (it’s not that expensive). There are free apps to use for editing your audio and enhancing the sound. Keep in mind that it will take some time and practice to get the hang of using the apps, but it’s well worth the journey. And finally, there are affordable courses on how to create a podcast (I took one on Udemy) that can prove helpful.

I can guarantee that there will be technical issues and many of them are not within your control. One of the areas where we don’t have much control is with the internet connection. And when you have 3 people on the call (forced to be in separate locations due to Covid), all 3 of us need to have a good connection (as you can imagine, this is quite unpredictable).

Try to have alternative platforms available for interviews and procedures on what to do if someone unexpectedly drops from the call.

3 - Don’t expect perfection

We’ve all listened to those very polished, professional podcasts such as NPR, American Experience, or TEDTalks. They are all wonderful, but they also have a staff devoted to creating those podcasts. For the rest of us who are just starting out with a podcast, we are working on a shoestring and learning as we go. You do get better at editing as time goes by, but don’t expect it to sound just like the professional ones. At least not at the beginning.

4 - Schedule guests well in advance

Inevitably, there will be times when your guests need to reschedule, and sometimes you can’t reconnect for weeks. Make sure to keep a steady flow of interviews going so you don’t get caught behind.

5 - Create audiograms for your podcasts

Audiograms allow you to share short clips from your podcast along with a picture that you can share on social media. They’re easy to create and give a professional appearance. This is a wonderful tool to advertise your podcast. Many sites offer this service, but we use https://getaudiogram.com/. (No, we’re not an affiliate of this company - we just like it).

6 - Be patient

Once in a while, a podcast emerges that rockets to the top of the charts within a year, but that is not the case for most podcasts. Most of us are building our listener base slowly. Enjoy the process and keep going. Over time you will be able to fine-tune your content by noticing which episodes did well and which yielded a less than stellar performance.

Creating a podcast can be an exciting and rewarding adventure filled with all the ups and downs of any journey. Along the way, you’ll learn and grow as you work your way through the challenges and every once in a while, you’ll be able to step back and say, “Wow, we did that!”. 

Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Let us know! We’d love to hear about it.