Becoming a Podcaster in Four (Plus One) Basic Steps

I was recently invited to give a talk to a youth group in my community about my experience of becoming a podcaster.

To begin with, I really wasn’t sure about how well-placed I was to lead a session on this. As a hobby blogger/podcaster, I’m still such a novice, and with only six podcast episodes (plus a trailer, thank you very much) under my belt, I’m hardly an expert. And let’s just say that my listening stats are nothing to write home about.

But I like a challenge, and I was happy (not to mention flattered to be asked) to contribute to this volunteer-led initiative.

“Behind the Mic” – my session plan

Preparing for the session made me realise and appreciate how much I have learned and done to get my podcast, ‘A Fine Balance’, up and running. Considering my nerves and technophobia at the idea of it, that’s been no mean feat.

I read around and listened to podcasts about podcasts, which gave me some ideas, not just for the session, but for what more I could be doing to improve mine. And I reached the conclusion that there are four main steps to getting a podcast started, and becoming a podcaster, and an additional step, which precedes them all (read on to see what they are).

Rather than talk too much about my own podcast, I decided to create a practical exercise to engage the young people in my audience, who I imagined might not be too interested in the subject of work-life balance.

I prepared a range of ‘podcast concepts’ on strips of paper. These were a few lines, summarising some podcast subjects, for example:

• “A podcast about friendship – making friends, losing friends, the meaning of friendship…”;
• “A podcast about school – subjects and teachers you love/hate, playground survival tactics…”;
• “A podcast about anger….”;
• “A podcast about football…”;
• “A podcast about your favourite Netflix series…”;
• “A podcast about the environment…”.

… And more.

I set out all the strips of paper on a table and asked the children to get into pairs and choose a podcast concept that interested them.

In their pairs I tasked them to come up with a name for their podcast, decide on the format it would take, sketch a plan for some episodes, and create a mock-up of what a trailer would sound like.

The group came up with some creative ideas and I genuinely think that some of what we brainstormed would make engaging podcast content.

I learned a lot from planning and delivering this session, and thought it might be helpful to preserve and share a summary of the main points. So, I’ve listed below the four main steps (plus the extra preceding one) that I identified as being critical to becoming a podcaster, and some of the observations I took away from my discussions with the kids.

Step One – Choosing a Podcast Concept

If you want to start a podcast, the first thing you need is an idea of what the subject of your podcast will be. Beyond just being something that you’re interested in, this should be something that you feel a sense of passion for, and something that you could talk endlessly about; a subject that can tangentially spark ideas in your mind that excite you.

It’s worth giving some consideration to who your desired audience is and, of course, you need to decide on what to call it. With millions of podcasts available worldwide, it also helps to give some thought to what will make yours distinct from all the others.

Step Two – Planning Your Podcast

Once you have your concept in mind, there are a few planning elements to consider. Firstly, what format you’d like your podcast to take. Do you want to be a sole host or partner up with someone, or a group of people in a round-table style? Do you want to be presenting directly on the issues you cover, or invite in guests to interview? Or a mixture of all of the above? How long do you want each episode to roughly be, and what tone do you want the podcast to take (chatty, serious, informative, reflective etc.)?

This step is all about the content. My podcast, ‘A Fine Balance‘, is an extension of my blog, where I interview people about how they balance work with everything else in life, and why. So for me a lot of the thinking and planning for each podcast episode has already taken place before I prepare for its recording.

Yet, even if your podcast is based on pre-existing content, it’s still worth giving some thought to a plan to make sure that the episode flows and that you have an idea of what will come next.

Many podcasts have a regular hook at the start of each episode, such as a standard question or set of questions, or a quirky anecdote or joke. This helps create a structure and uniformity, which not only dinstinguishes your podcast from others, but also lets your audience know what to expect and warms them up to the upcoming episode.

With ‘A Fine Balance’, there’s one question I put to all guests that feature on the blog and podcast, which is: “How would you quantify your work:life ratio, and why?“. Each answer is unique, and usually serves as a good introduction to my guest’s work-life balance story.

Step Three – Recording Your Podcast

Here is where I can dispel any preconceptions that you need to be especially tech-savvy to start a podcast. I am not; but I do have an iPhone. And if you can work your way around a smart phone’s App Store, I’d say you’re basically proficient enough to start a podcast.

I chose to start my podcast using the Anchor app and I record, edit and publish my podcasts exclusively on my iPhone. The editing facilities on the app are really simple and intuitive to learn, and it’s also very straightforward to add musical interludes and sound effects. Of course, there are plenty of more sophisticated and advanced options that you could invest in. The internet is full of ideas and advice on this.

The other thing to bear in mind on this step is your recording location. Making sure you’re in a quiet space with good acoustics and internet connection is really important. Again, there are endless options for improving the audio quality of your recording and you really can spend as much as you’d like to invest in this aspect of your podcast.

Then again, the microphone in your smart phone is adequate enough to get started. My first episodes were recorded in this way and I’m not ashamed to admit that I recorded my first trailer sitting crossed legged on my bed with my duvet draped over me to drown out any outside noise. It wasn’t until my family kindly clubbed together to buy me a microphone for my birthday that I upgraded to a USB one that plugs into my iPhone. I went for the Shure MV88 Portable IOS Microphone for iPhone/iPad/iPod, which has served me well so far.

Step Four – Marketing Your Podcast

Once you’ve recorded, edited and published your podcast, you’ve reached the step where you need to make people aware of its existence. As above, you can invest as much time and money in this as you’d like. The first step is ensuring that your podcast is featured on all of your own media platforms. For example, if you have a website, make sure links to your podcast are embedded in there.

Most social media platforms make it easy to advertise your podcast, but to expand your reach, you really need to expand your network. This can involve joining online groups, engaging in other people’s podcasts, and collaborating and cross-promoting with other podcasters.

The other element to consider in this step is your artwork. Though I’m sure it helps, you don’t need to be – or employ – a graphic designer to do this. There are plenty of apps on smart phones that are free and simple to use, and which do most of the work for you.

Key Take-Aways

From the couple of hours I spent with this group of young people, a couple of observations stood out for me. To start with, most of them hadn’t listened to podcasts before; other than in the car with their parents. It seems that visual media plays a much bigger part in the lives of teens than audio. And if they’re going to listen (rather than watch) something, they’d choose music over someone talking at them.

Mostly though they’d prefer to be socialising with their friends if they’re not in a position to be watching something. It’d have to be a pretty special podcast to entice a teen to choose that over the other things on offer to do in their spare time.

I found my young audience’s response to the number of listens I’ve had to date not to be what I’d expected. I assumed that given how prominent mass influencers are to the teenage demographic, a measly few hundred followers would be shrugged off. But, that wasn’t their reaction at all.

Step Minus-One

There is one final step that didn’t come up in my research, but which increasingly struck me as relevant when I was planning my youth group session on becoming a podcaster.

And that is overcoming any fear and self-doubt at starting a podcast.

Such feelings may be impacted by your reasons for deciding to become a podcaster in the first place (e.g. to promote your business, or as a hobby etc.). They could be related to the practical sides of podcasting, like battling with the tech or concerns about how time-consuming it might be. Or, they could be related to worries about making a fool of yourself, or being judged and criticised by others. These feelings, however they manifest themselves, and whatever the reasons belying them, can be the hardest obstacles to overcome if you want to start a podcast.

On reflection, there were three main things that pushed me to overcome my hesitancy at starting a podcast on account of such feelings:

1. Champions in my corner: There’s no way I could or would have started a podcast without the encouragement of my closest and most trusted confidantes. These are people who I know have my back and who I trust whole-heartedly. They took the care and time to listen to my ideas and drafts, and give me honest and constructive feedback, which fuelled my confidence.
2. A Covid-inspired ‘no regrets’ mentality: There’s nothing like a global pandemic to give you perspective on how fragile life is and how your whole world can change in an instant. Though starting a podcast felt terrifying for many reasons, I knew deep down that I’d be sorry if I didn’t give it a try, and was inspired with a sense of carpe diem that I may not have succumbed to in “normal times”. I also didn’t want to miss the opportunity of being the one to create my podcast. Instinctively I could imagine how disappointed and annoyed at myself I’d have felt if someone else had started a similar podcast. I wanted to own it, even if doing so meant overcoming my fears and self-doubt.
3. The encouragement of strangers: I started my podcast exactly a year after launching my blog, by which time my blog had started drawing the attention of people that I’d either never met, or acquaintances that I hadn’t connected with for some time. Some of the messages I received were so touching and it was exciting to hear that my writing was resonating with others. It made me feel like I was onto something, and that there was value and potential in continuing to explore new angles of an issue that impacts people’s lives in countless ways.

Reflecting on the stepping stones to becoming a podcaster has provided a useful perspective. Much as I’ve taken huge strides to get my podcast started, as its first anniversary draws near, I’m well aware that there is much more that could be done to refine and professionalise it (including many of the points I mentioned above that I haven’t done yet myself).

Hopefully, my experience and observations can help other novice or aspiring podcasters. But, in any case, it has served to consolidate some newly acquired knowledge, and feast my ambition for other areas to build on.

Unlike the youthful audience I presented to on this occasion, I’m no longer in full-time education. But when it comes to becoming a podcaster, I’m finding there is always, always something new to learn.