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How To Start a Podcast as A Beginner Part 2

How To Start A Podcast

Where to start can always be difficult and it can be very overwhelming when thinking about starting a podcast as a beginner. It is no secret that there are millions of podcasts currently published every day  but there is nothing stopping you from standing out in the big pond full of podcast fish. One of the first things I recommend when starting a podcast as a beginner is to think of what gets you excited.  Publishing a podcast can sometimes be very laborious but if you're creating a podcast around something that gets you excited it will be a lot easier to continue and be consistent.

For me that something or subject that gets me excited every day to work on my podcast is being creative and designing things that people can enjoy. By no means does this make me unique.  I think the problem that some people face, is that they think they have to be the most unique or the most innovative podcast in order to produce one. I would strongly disagree with this. I think the beauty of producing a podcast is that your personality and voice is what makes you unique.‍

Developing Your Podcast Idea

‍The next step in starting a podcast as a beginner will be to develop your idea further. Now this can sound a little vague but it is not just good enough to grab a mic and start recording yourself. As with a lot of content out on the internet, the most popular or top performing do well because they answer questions and provide solutions to everyday problems that people may have.

This was very much the case for why I started my own podcast with Wellfed. I wanted to branch out and begin to learn how to develop my career further as as a designer in the creative industry. Knowing that this was a problem for myself and also my friends around me and similar jobs I thought this was a good reason to start a podcast. Once I had this main idea down on paper it provided me with a north star to develop steps to fulfilling this goal. I cover more on those steps in part 2 of how to start your own podcast.‍

Coming Up With A Name For Your Podcast

‍After you further develop your idea for the podcast this might be a good time to come up with a name for your podcast. Part of me can't help but think that the name is very important when it comes to starting your own podcast. Here are some quick tips to keep in mind when coming up with your name for your podcast (remember do as I say not as I do).

1. Your podcast name should be immediately understandable. People should read the title and understand what the show is about.
2. It should be fairly short. Think no more than three to four words.
3. It should be recognizable. Think easy to remember and recall.

For me coming up with the name Wellfed was pretty straightforward. The podcast originally started as a side project in my kitchen. At the time and still very much today I am obsessed with food. I wanted to speak with and learn from my creative heroes in the industry that I admired which ultimately would feed my creativity and continue to inspire me to grow as a designer. Now by no means do I think Wellfed is the best name and that's fine. If anything it means I have a little bit more work to do to explain to people what my podcast is about.

Make sure you checkout How To Start A Podcast As A Beginner Part 2 if you are interested in starting your own podcast!

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So after reading Part 1 of How to Start A Podcast As A Beginner, you're probably asking yourself when will I get to the part about buying the gear. If you didn't read part one then I would suggest going back and clicking here to read that.

In part 2 we’ll cover what gear to purchase, developing your show format and all things planning your guests.

What Podcast Gear to Use

Purchasing podcasting equipment can be a little scary. It definitely took me awhile to understand all the different types of microphones, cables, audio interfaces that you may need when starting a podcast. Luckily I have a friend in the audio industry that is able to help me when I need to ask questions and learn more about the gear.

We recently chatted and put together a beginner's buyer guide To starting a podcast. This guide includes all the equipment any beginner should purchase without breaking the bank while also maintaining a high quality of sound. For this setup you will need a laptop running either garageband or audacity. After you have that you will want to purchase the Audio Technica ATR-2100 USB dynamic microphone, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface, and two windscreens. That's it.

This is a really simple setup that allows you to have your hands free and have a very comfortable conversation with either a guest or amongst yourself. The audio interface would plug directly into your laptop to make sure you have a high quality of sound. From there you would need to set up your audio software such as Audacity or GarageBand to record each time. This is not my current setup that I use for my podcast but if I was starting from day one tomorrow this is what I would purchase.

Developing Your Podcast Show Format

This is probably one of the most important things about starting a podcast. I've mentioned in the video above that some of the podcast that I've listened to before tend to talk in circles and that immediately makes me want to switch off when I’m listening. I personally like listening to podcast that start at point A and work their way towards point B.

So for my podcast I wanted to make sure that I knew a little bit of background on my guests as well as have some questions on hand to ask them to continue the conversation. With this in mind I knew that I wanted to start each episode at an early stage of my guest’s past. Either their childhood or the moment they realized they enjoyed being creative. Because most of my guests are Professionals in the creative industry that I admire, I knew that I would want to understand what led them to where they are today.

This was the general idea for the format of my podcast. Once you have this skeleton of a show format you can begin to fill in the spaces or parts of the conversation with lighter questions about your guests personality or their preferences in food. This helps keep things interesting each episode so it doesn't sound robotic.

Planning, Scheduling and Contacting Your Podcast Guests

Planning, scheduling and contacting your guests for your podcast might be one of the hardest things in this whole process. When you start a podcast as a beginner realistically no one knows who you are and no one knows about your idea. this can be a super hard speed bump to get over and the way that I did that was to put together a formal podcast one sheet. This one sheet was something that I've seen while working in the marketing and advertising industry and thought that it would help when starting a podcast as a beginner.

My podcast one sheet included a few things that I think can really help your potential guests understand your idea. The first thing I included was a summary about the podcast and my reasoning for starting it. “Wellfed was started to answer some of the burning questions I had as a younger designer going through the creative industry.” ‍

The second on my podcast one sheet was a section about how I would publish the podcast and where it would live. Being a designer in the creative industry I knew that I could build a website that looked different than most which is something I used to my advantage. I also talked about some of the social media pages and our following at the time. Albeit, I probably didn't have more than 200 to 300 followers combined between instagram, pinterest, and facebook but it was still good to show motivation.

The third and final thing that I made sure to include on my one sheet was a publishing schedule for the podcast. Now this can be a little tough but it really helps out in the beginning. If you can give yourself an idea of how many times a week or per month you want to publish your podcast you will have a better understanding of how much work each episode will take. I decided to include this on my one sheet because it helped guests understand that there was a clear goal that I wanted to achieve by the end of my first season. It also help them understand that they would be part of a larger community. ‍

Conclusion‍

I hope this helps any beginners looking to start their own podcast. If you have any questions feel free to tweet or DM me on Instagram. You can also sign up for our mailing list here. On the mailing list you can email me with any questions you may have.

I have decided that I was going to start making videos over on youtube recording and tracking my progress as I grow my podcast and work towards a few of my personal goals of launching a brand. In this first video I go over some of the tools that I use to build websites and that I have even used to build the website for my podcast, Wellfed.

I produce a podcast called Wellfed. It was a project I started a year or so ago and I already completed the first season. It had eight guests and for the second season, I've decided I was going to double the guests, redo the web site and all that other good stuff. There's a lot of different tools that I use that I think can really help when you're considering how to build your next website. If you go to wellfedpodcast.com, you'll get to see what the website looks like. Everything on this website I've designed, there's nothing that was made from a template. That has been the really fun part for me as a designer. It can get really complicated sometimes. And if you don't have the right tools you can really get yourself in the weed trying to figure out what code to use and things like that. For the Wellfed website, I haven't really had to do any sort of unique code or anything. It's all been through this wonderful tool called Webflow.

Webflow

Webflow has been great for that. I am able to come up with a design, whether it be in another program or on paper, and then I can begin to start building it right  in the browser. I can add sections or divs within the web page that contain the content and information that you need to build a website. This means that I am able to fully customize everything whenever I want without the help of a developer.

Another really awesome thing about Webflow is that you're able to design across multiple device screens. I can go from desktop to tablet to mobile really easily. And I think that is also why I chose Webflow over something like WordPress or Squarespace. In the back end of Webflow, it provides me a full CMS, so I'm able to update podcasts episodes, add articles, and any other content that I create within the CMS of Webflow. Overall Webflow has just been a great tool to use. I've also used it outside of my personal projects for client projects and work.

Most of all it really helps me move quickly and efficiently. You can check out and try Webflow here.

Adobe Xd

Another tool I want to mention is Adobe Xd. This is more for designers, people that are in the creative industry that are looking to build websites and mobile apps. Adobe Xd is a free tool from Adobe. If you don't already have it, you can download it. Just go check out the Adobe website. It's part of the creative suite, but Xd is such a new program that they are letting people download for free at the moment. This is another great tool that helps me get my ideas out from my head onto the screen so that I can start building them as quickly as possible. In my Adobe Xd files, I have all of my ideas that I started when I was first starting building my podcast website. I'm able to jump back and forth between designing for desktop and mobile. You can actually prototype as well in Adobe Xd, which is really great.

Sometimes when I am designing, I tend to get hung up or in the weeds with design ideas and end up letting things sit for a while. You want to avoid this especially when you are trying to get things out there and in front of people to test and get feedback. Adobe Xd actually helps me move through that process quicker than than I used to. I definitely love Xd and I've switched over from other programs like Sketch and Figma. They all do the same thing in my opinion, but Xd happens to just be part of the creative suite, which I already pay for and that is really convenient.

You can sign up for a free trial here.

Anchor.fm

The last tool that I'm going to talk about is Anchor. Anchor is a podcast platform that lets me publish my podcasts on all of the platforms. This includes Spotify, Apple music, Google, Stitcher and many more. Basically, if there is a platform that host podcasts, Anchor puts it there and this is great. It hosts every podcast episode for free and is actually owned by Spotify.

Before I hosted my podcast with a service that charged you. After a while, it felt like I was going to have to figure out an altnerate solution and change providers because of the cost. Thankfully, Anchor came around and their service is completely free of charge. It has been great so far and I have had no problems with it whatsoever. It is super seamless and helpful and I would recommend it to anyone if you're starting a podcast to definitely check out Anchor.

Thanks for stopping by! If you have any other tools you find super useful feel free to tweet or DM them to me. Also if you like this sort of content you can subscribe to my youtube channel or signup for my mailing list here.

Check out my free logo guide here.

If you like Amazon Alexa, I prototyped an Alexa skill a while back here.

I took the day to explore downtown Jersey City in hopes of finding a few bars and restaurants that I thought had wonderfully-designed materials. As I began to write this post (which was originally going to include more than one place), I slowly focused in on one bar.