Whether you're passionate about
storytelling, sharing your knowledge, or connecting with an audience,
podcasting is an awesome platform for making your voice heard. Fortunately, the basics are much
simpler than you might expect. My name is Tom, and in this
video I'll run you through five steps to starting a podcast. Did you know that most podcasts
stop at seven episodes? That's the average when they just
sort of run outta steam and end. So it's a really good idea when you find
a concept to see if you could break it down into more than seven episode ideas. That way you'll know that your show
has "legs," which means you can keep podcasting and keep exploring
that idea for as long as you'd like. Before getting into any production,
editing, recording concept and branding is all about your idea. This is where you find the
concept for your show and the audience that it's intended for. And this is often the most
difficult part of the process when it comes to starting a podcast. So it's usually a good idea to take
some time and brainstorm several different ideas, concept approaches. Basically try to look at every
possible concept for your show, and then find ones that you can break
down further into more episode ideas. Now, once you've got a concept that
you like, then it's a good time to come up with a title for your show. Great podcast titles are usually
pretty simple and catchy. A good way I like to think about
it is imagining someone telling their friend about your show. Is your title simple and easy for them
to remember and share with somebody else? You'll also need podcast
artwork for your show. Most platforms won't let you
upload an episode without some kind of artwork to go along with it. This is usually a 3000 by 3000
pixel image that can be as simple or as complex as you want. You can use free design tools like Canva
to get started, paid options like Adobe Photoshop, or even take it further and
hire a professional graphic designer. It's entirely up to you. You can change your podcast artwork
at any time, so don't feel too much pressure to get it perfect right away. And if you really want, you
could have different artwork for every single episode. Some people love to kind of give
each episode its unique identity and brand, but that does take
quite a bit of extra work too. Now that your concept and
branding are solid, it's time to outline your episode ideas. Having a content plan will help
keep you organized and make your recording sessions much, much smoother. This is also where you can decide
on the format for your episodes. Do you want solo discussions, interviews,
storytelling, a mix of everything? Some podcasters use scripts that
are read word for word during the episode, and others stick to a more
loose bullet point style outline. Again, there's no right or wrong. It's whatever's going to help you
communicate most effectively and feel most natural while you're creating your show. There are a ton of different software
applications to help keep you organized, but I think a cloud-based application
like Google Docs or Apple Notes is really the best way to go, and that's
because they sync between different devices so you can access your notes and
add to them and edit them anywhere from any device, which is incredibly handy. And Google Docs is especially great
if you want to do collaboration with a co-host or a team for your podcast. At this point, don't stress about
super proper script formatting. Just focus on making something that is
clear enough for you and anyone else working on your show to understand. As long as everyone's on the same
page, your format is just fine. Now, if possible, it's a really good
idea to outline more than one episode. Don't just focus on your first episode,
but try to outline several different episodes because again, the more time that
you spend in this planning pre-production phase, the easier everything else will be. And now it's time for what is
my favorite part, which is the actual production of your podcast. But this is also where you might
find yourself feeling overwhelmed with all the options when it
comes to equipment and software. So the important thing to remember
is to start off by keeping it as simple as possible, even if all
you've got is your phone, you can use a voice memo or recording app and
essentially create a podcast production studio in the palm of your hand. But if you wanna take things
further, there are a few important things to consider when it
comes to podcasting equipment. You don't need the fanciest
studio or equipment in the world, but investing in a microphone. Headphones, maybe some recording equipment
or software will really help level up the sound quality of your podcast, along
with finding a nice, quiet place to record if you don't have a professionally
sound treated studio or a room that sounds good. It is not uncommon for some really
great podcasts to be recorded in closets or cars because those are
kind of naturally sound treated spaces that end up sounding really great. On microphone, USB microphones like
this are the simplest, most cost effective, and just best way to
instantly level up your sound quality. They connect directly to your computer or
even a phone and tablet and let you record into your software program of choice. There are a lot of great USB mic options
out there at all kinds of price ranges, but my personal favorite is this one right
here, which is the Sennheiser Profile. At $130 it's relatively affordable,
it has great sound quality, and it has all of these physical controls
right here, which mean you can adjust all of your microphone's audio
without needing to dive into software. Right now I'm just using software
to record my audio, but everything else is just being done through the
microphone, including monitoring into my headphones and any headphones
will work for monitoring, but it's nice to have a decent pair. I really like these ones, the Rode NTH
100's, because they're super comfortable and I think that they give the best
like natural neutral sound quality. So what you're hearing is probably
the most accurate representation of what you're actually recording. Now one downside to USB microphones
is that typically you can only connect one to a computer at a time. So if you're recording with guests or
co-hosts or multiple people in the same space, you might need to then move on to. XLR microphones like this XLR
microphones are more professional style microphones that do require some sort
of interface or mixer in order to record or get the signal into your computer. This microphone right here is the
Shure SM7B, which is a pretty legendary broadcast studio podcast microphone,
but it's also pretty expensive at $400. So there are so many options
when it comes to XLR microphones. Some of my personal favorite budget
options are the Lewitt LCT 240 Pro, which is usually about 130 ish dollars. And it's a great sounding microphone. Or the PodMic USB, which is about $200. And the cool thing about this one
is it is an XLR and USB combo mic, so you can use it both ways and it's
a great sounding microphone too. A simple interface like the Focusrite
Vocaster Two will let you connect one or two XLR microphones to your computer. And with more advanced mixers like this,
the Rodecaster Pro, you can also record directly to the device itself while it's
sending a signal to your computer, and you can also do all kinds of editing and
mixing an audio EQ in the device itself. So a simple interface will just
get your signal into the computer, and then you can record into
software just like with a USB mic. Whereas a dedicated mixer will not only
do that but it will also let you have onboard recording EQ and effects as well. And when it comes to that software
recording and editing, which we'll talk about in a little bit, there are so many
different software applications out there. There are quite a few free recording
apps available like GarageBand and Audacity, which are more than capable
of producing excellent podcasts. And then there's paid software
like Logic Pro or Adobe Audition, which can allow you to take things
a little bit further if you'd like, but they're definitely not required. To create a great sounding show. Now when you're recording, it's important
to speak clearly and confidently. Don't be afraid to let your
personality show and remember that after your recording, you'll be
using editing software to trim out any mistakes or weird pauses. So don't be too hard on yourself. If you make mistakes or you need to take
a break and even remember that a few mistakes and hiccups in your show can
actually make it sound a little bit more natural and a little bit more authentic. And now that you've recorded
your show, it is time to edit. Editing is a skill that
you will develop over time. It can be incredibly complex, but
it also can be incredibly simple. So when you're just starting out, I
definitely recommend, again, keeping things absolutely as simple as possible. At the most basic level, you're just
cutting out any egregious errors and maybe adding in a couple things like
music or sound clips or interviews to make your show feel complete. How heavily edited your show
is is entirely up to you. Some people love to do
layers upon layers of. Audio with all kinds of
advanced sound design. While other people do
little to no editing. There's no right or wrong. More editing doesn't
automatically make a show better. Now if you are adding music to your
show, it's important to know that you're legally able to use that music. A subscription to a royalty free music
service might be a worthwhile investment. Artlist and Epidemic Sound are my
two personal favorites, but there are many, many more options out there. And using that music that you have the
license to use means that your show will not get any kind of copyright claims
or any kind of issues when it comes to people discovering that maybe you
used a bunch of copyrighted music in your show, which is generally something
you probably wanna stay away from. And once you're finished editing
in whichever software you're choosing to use, you can export
your show as a .wav or a .mp3 file. Either one will work, but in general, a
.wav file is a little bit higher quality with a bigger file size while an mp3 is
a little bit lower quality, but with a much smaller file size, which takes up a
lot less space and takes a lot less time to upload to your podcast host, which is
what we're gonna be talking about next! Because now that you've got
your show edited, it is time to share it with the entire world. But before you can do that, you need
to choose a podcast hosting service. Again, there are so many options out
there, just like with everything else, so don't stress too much about it. Just try to find the one that
you feel like works best for you. Some of them are free and
some of them are paid. But basically what a podcast host lets
you do is upload the audio file to your episode and then distribute it to all
of the different podcast directories. So if you've ever wondered how a podcast
gets on Apple Podcast and Spotify and Google Play and all of these other
different podcasting directories and platforms, It's all through the host that
the audio was originally uploaded to. Every podcast hosting platform will
help you submit your show to different directories, but the process does
differ a little bit from host to host, but they're all really good at
explaining clearly what you need to do. Free hosting platforms like Spotify for
Podcasters allow you to share your show view, analytics, and even monetize with ads all for free. Paid hosting platforms offer all of that
as well, but they usually have a little bit more premium customer service and
sometimes more in-depth analytic options. I've personally used Buzzsprout
for years, which is a paid platform that I absolutely love, but there's
absolutely nothing wrong with a free platform like Spotify for Podcasters. You can change your podcast
host at any time, and it's a relatively simple process. So again, don't overthink this decision. Just go with what seems
best for you right now. And if you decide you don't like it and
you wanna change to something else later on, it's pretty easy to do and it won't
affect your show or your audience at all. Once you've selected your podcast
host, it's time to upload your episode or episodes, add descriptions
and artwork, and publish your show. You can publish episodes immediately
or schedule them for future release if you want to record a batch of episodes
and then space them out over time. That can all be done automatically,
which is incredibly helpful. And at this point, that's it. You have now created and
published your own podcast. You are officially a podcaster! Now it's time to share your show with
the world, connect with your listeners, heck, maybe even start a Mighty Network
for your show and your listeners. Remember that the key ingredients
to a great podcast are dedication, passion, and a willingness to
learn and grow along the way. So don't be afraid to share your
unique voice with the world. And I really hope you have a ton
of fun creating your podcast. And if you'd like to know a bit
more about creating with Mighty, check out this video right here.
