How To Start A Podcast
Podcasting is an amazing way to build relationships with people in your niche. You don’t have to have millions upon millions of downloads for it to be effective. If you get the right listener, it can open up a million opportunities.
Since starting my own podcast, Construction Brothers, I have been asked by a lot of people how to start their own show. In this post, I hope to give you a ton of information that will help you get moving in the right direction. Before we begin, though, here are a few questions you need to ask yourself before starting.
Do you have the time to dedicate to recording, editing, and promoting? (budget about 10hrs per episode)
If you don’t have time, are you able to pay people to get it done? (if no, you need to leave this idea alone)
What does success look like to you? (100 plays per episode or 100,000?)
How long are you willing to commit to the journey? (if you’re under a year, reconsider)
Setting a Foundation
Here are a few things you need to ask yourself to lay the foundation of your show. If you answer just a few of these, you’ll be farther ahead than I was when I started mine.
Will you host the show by yourself or with others?
Will you interview guests?
How often will you commit to posting?
What day in the week will you post?
What time on the day in the week?
Do these things to help you craft your messaging.
When selecting a name for your show, make sure you’re using keywords for your niche. So if it’s a construction podcast, try to include the word “Construction” in your podcast title. It helps you pick up more search traffic on Google and on Podcast Apps.
Write down the reason your show exists in one sentence.
ex. “We exist to spread ideas and encouragement throughout the construction industry”
Recording Equipment (Audio)
There are a ton of ways you can record audio for your podcast, but instead of going into various options of equipment, I just want to give you a shopping list. This list will henceforth be known as “Old Faithful” If you get these things, you will be completely ready to start recording and have a better sounding show than most people.
Recording Equipment (Video)
If you have another 5 hours you can dedicate to editing video clips out of your episodes, here are the tools to capture it. In the setup below, we use the A6600 as our webcam so it serves a dual purpose while recording.
Recording Guests/Co-Hosts Virtually
If you have your Rodecaster Pro sitting in your office at home, you’re going to need a way of recording a clean audio feed of your guest, co-host, or both. Can you use Zoom? Yes. However, you’re not getting a clean audio feed.
The best way to record audio virtually is by using a service like Riverside.fm.
What Riverside allows you to do, that Zoom doesn’t, is capture audio from your guest live on their computer and upload it to a central place. It also allows you to record video straight to the cloud in 4k, which is awesome if your video editor happens to be in a different location.
Check Out Riverside.fm
Editing Your Audio
If you’re already a subscriber to the Adobe Creative Cloud, you most likely have access to Adobe Audition which is my preferred audio editor for podcasts. You can find free editors like Audacity, however, they don’t let you add EQ and Compression tools as Audition does. Having those options for your episode will make it sound just a little bit better.
Check Out Adobe Audition
Great YouTube Channel for learning Audition
Editing Your Video
It’s most likely best that you stick with the Adobe Creative Cloud for this as well. If you have the full suite of tools, you’ll also have access to Adobe Premiere. Here’s where I’ll give a personal preference, though. I have a hard time working in Premiere, so I use Final Cut Pro for all of my videos. Most people won’t want to spend the extra $300 on that preference, though.
Check out Adobe Premiere
Check out Final Cut (MAC ONLY)
Getting Started with Adobe Premiere
Do you still have questions? You can book a time to chat with me!
If you need help deciding whether or not to pursue podcasting as a way of promoting your company, I can help you! Book a consulting call with me and I’ll answer any questions you have.
