3. How to Create a Podcast: How I Started My Own Podcast & The Tools I Use

How to Create a Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWZbHx_wPgo

Podcast Transcription Tool

I decided to use Otter.ai to create my podcast video transcripts because it works (pretty much) flawlessly, and is only $10/month that you can use when you need on a monthly on and off basis, so I got it for this month to transcribe all 6 of my episodes. You can also use it for free for small audio files, and that's how I tried it and saw how amazing it was so I had to get premium which is something I don't usually do. You literally upload an audio file to Otter, it takes a few minutes to process it, and then gives you a perfectly transcribed text version ready to copy paste, with all punctuation, amazing spelling, and speaker names and timestamps. I couldn't believe how perfectly it worked, especially because I'd been playing around with Google's Demo transcription tools, which had so much trouble getting punctuation right, among other issues. If you use my referral link to sign up all I get is another month of Otter.ai free, no affiliate money or anything like that, and I love it so feel free to send the free months my way because I'm sure you'll love it as well.

My Podcasting Story

Because it was my own rule that I didn't listen to podcasts, I thought they were a waste of time. And things that could be summarized in much shorter bullet points. I just really disliked podcasts, which is so funny because now, I obviously have a podcast. Hi, and welcome to the Hearst SEO podcast with Stacy Caprio. The best advice comes not from your critics, but from those who are already where you want to be. Listen along with Stacy each week to learn from those who have already built their dreams so you can learn how to build your own. Welcome to the episode where I'm going to walk you guys through my podcast story. Starting with why I ended up starting my podcast to what tools I use for each step. And to make it easy for anyone thinking about starting a podcast to get started. Or if you're just curious about the behind the scenes of how podcasts are made and what goes into it, then this will be a fun episode to listen to. I've been thinking about starting my her SEO podcast for over six months, from six months ago from now. And I kept pushing it to the bottom of my to do list. Because it was such a daunting task with so many variables and moving parts. First, I'd have to decide exactly what guests I wanted on, then I'd have to email them and see if they were interested, then workout scheduling, and then eventually choose times to record put that in my calendar, then I'd have to have all the proper equipment. And what type of recording software would I use? Choose the type of recording software, choose the hosting for the podcast, which I didn't even know was a thing until I really started researching it, I'd have to edit every single episode, or hire someone to do it. And I have to say, editing podcast episode takes so much time. I only interviewed guests for 30 minutes apiece, but it took me hours to edit each episode. I keep getting better as I go along. But editing podcast episodes is a very very dull, dull task. And it takes a long time. It's the same with editing YouTube videos, it takes so long to really do a good job. And it's not my favorite activity, which is my least favorite part about starting this podcast is editing the episodes. And it's actually the one reason that I might not film as many episodes in the future unless at some point, if the podcast does start making money, and I can hire someone to edit. It's very, if you ever have edited a YouTube video or a podcast video, you'll understand what I'm talking about. But before you actually do it yourself. I don't think you'll ever understand what I mean when I say it's a very difficult task, it's not something you want to do and it takes a lot of time. Anyway, the editing the episodes you have to either do it or hire someone to do it. Then there's the keyword research for YouTube keyword research for blog posts, keyword research for the podcast name, the podcast description, then there's figuring out how to post it on the different podcast networks and getting to rank for organic search, you've got to transcribe the episodes, you have to record the audio, video and video intros and outros. Record the actual audio of the sessions and use a tool to do so. And then you have to figure out how to post the podcast and promote it. You also have to make sure you have a good branding, figure out what images you want to use, maybe have a mini little photo shoot or other things and make sure you're setting up a brand for long term success. So much goes into each episode. And for me, it was daunting to think about, so I just kept pushing it to the bottom of my to do list. Since I wasn't sure when starting my podcast this month, I decided to finally dive into it. I wasn't sure if it would or ever will make any money at all. Or if I even will enjoy it enough to keep doing it past a few episodes. My goal was to keep my costs as low as possible. That's also my philosophy with everything I do even when something is making money. I tend to keep my costs pretty low or at least try to because anything can happen at any time and it's always better to have higher profit margins. Maybe that's something I take away from my days running ads for companies in my nine to five. But my goal is always to keep costs pretty low, but also to use tools that are very high quality. And I will spend money on things if they do work better than the free tools. So let's dive in the goal of my podcast. However, it was never an isn't really to make money from it. It's been able to talk to people who have done things that I admire, and to use the podcast as a learning opportunity that will help me and others listening, grow their own businesses, and really get inside the heads of people who are successful and have done things that I want to do personally or I simply want to understand how their mind works, and get takeaways that I can use in my own life in business. First, I want to give a huge shout out to Nick Loper the owner of the Side Hustle Nation Podcast, which you should all go listen to that really I'm going to be talking about Nick and his podcast quite a bit in this episode, because he's had a huge influence. He's pretty much the inspiration for me starting a podcast and I'll kind of go into why that is. Before Nick a few years ago. I never listened to any podcasts ever. I would always listen to music instead, if I ever had any downtime. If I was on a bus or at the airport or just walking or getting groceries, I would either have silence or music. I had been on next email list for a few years the side hustle nation email list. And at first, I never listened to any of his podcasts. Because it was my own rule that I didn't listen to podcasts, I thought they were a waste of time, and things that could be summarized in much shorter bullet points. However, I always read all of Nick's PDF podcast summaries, because they were so interesting with great side hustle case studies and tips. I never listened to the audio, but I would read all of his summaries and I love getting his emails. One day, he asked readers to reply to an email if they had an interesting story, because he was working on a secret project. I was intrigued and replied with my her co website investing story. He replied back and said it wasn't a fit for the project, but that he'd love to talk more. And feature me on the side hustle podcast if it was a fit. At the time I wasn't looking to go on any podcasts, but I felt pulled to say yes, for some reason.

Tips For Starting a Podcast

And to this day, I feel incredibly lucky or blessed to have gone on his podcast before I went on any other podcasts, simply because next process is so simple and amazing. And I've modeled many of my tools and own podcasting process after his. He has a pre-podcast interview where he hops on a call with each guest to learn more for 30 minutes or so, a few weeks before the actual podcast call. I don't do this with my podcast guests. But I think it's a smart move because it allows him to dig deeper into the person's business model and their thought processes so he can craft the best possible questions before hopping on the actual podcast recording call. Then, and this is an incredible part that has really inspired my podcasting to this day. He has each previous guest mail the next guest a professional quality ATR 2100 audio recording microphone when he mentioned this to me on the pre call. I remember thinking "Do I really need this?" I think I even said something along the lines of "I do I need that I'm not sure that that is really something that will make a difference." And I was super skeptical thinking he was being too perfectionist he However, having that microphone on my first podcast allowed the audio quality to be insanely crisp and perfect. This is so much more important than you might think initially. And a side note he mentioned on the podcast intro how I have a quiet voice. But he must have adjusted the audio and I have to adjust my own audio actually I do have a quiet voice. But you can't tell when listening because the audio on first podcast. It sounds impeccable. And right after that podcast and hearing it live, I was stunned at the difference a quality microphone made. I went out to Amazon, I bought my own ATR 2100 microphone, and I have used it on every podcast I've been featured on every podcast I record for her co having the professional quality microphone elevates the audio quality and the whole podcast experience for listeners. There have been some great podcasts I've listened to, that I've had to turn off. Because even though the content is so good, the audio is so scratchy and hard to listen to. Even though the content is great. It's safe to say I no longer think that Nick's request to male microphones to each guest is unreasonable or perfectionist like instead, I recognize it as a way to make the podcast audio, incredibly high quality, elevating the production value in the experience for all listeners, making people want to come back and listen to more because they know you'll have great content, but also great audio that won't hurt their ears or be hard to listen to. So far, I've had guests on that have all done podcasts before or even have their own podcast. So they've had high quality audio, and microphones in their own collection already. But I am considering a male out microphone option for future guests. If they start to fall into the computer only microphone category. Something I've taken away from Nick also is that he asked the best question I've ever heard on a podcast. And he comes at each topic with the mind of an entrepreneur who is interested in knowing the details of the business and starting the business himself. Which is unique from a lot of podcasters who sometimes will ask questions for the benefit of their audience instead of from the perspective of if I was doing this, what would I want to know. So this allows the episodes to be very educational, where you can learn actual tips to start the side hustles yourself and dive deeply into the subject matter, as opposed to surface skimming or stat spouting. His podcast is my favorite side hustle, entrepreneur podcast. And it's the podcast that inspired me to start listening to more podcasts. After I listened to my episode, I started listening to more of his episodes. And I started listening to a few of the other entrepreneurs I follow podcasts in. I especially do this during downtime if I'm doing a repetitive task, if I'm walking somewhere and don't want to be in silence if I'm at the airport, just any time when I have downtime I put in the podcast. And it's actually really nice to listen to. Sometimes you don't need to read a summary bullet point and you get to hear conversation and you get to hear stories and experiences. And it's a different way to learn that I had completely dismissed before being on Nick's podcast and then listening to more of his podcast. So if you are listening to this Thank you, Nick, because you definitely changed my life in the sense of podcasting and listening to podcasts. So since then, I've developed a handful of favorite podcasts that I listened to semi regularly. And I've grown to really enjoy the Nick side hustle nation episode featuring me, the Financial Independence Episode, that I'll put in the show notes so you can all check it out if you want to. Ended up being his second most downloaded for the year with over 60k downloads and it drove hundreds day of and thousands over time site visitors to her.co. And hundreds of people emailed me after it released. And for the next year after the release every single week. I'd get handfuls of emails from his listeners. I still get emails from his listeners. And it also gave me credibility. And it was a huge jumpstart for the her SEO brand. I was able to use that podcast episode on my resume and feature it in my applications to start speaking at a few events as an example of my experience and expertise. In addition to a few blog posts I'd written Podcasts can be a great way to showcase your expertise and show that you do have credibility on a certain subject. They can be a really great tool, either on your resume on your link Or even if you're just submitting to be on a different podcast, if you're submitting to write a blog post, if you're submitting to speaking event, they're a really great tool, even just being featured on a podcast can have a huge impact on your credibility. And if you're looking to become an expert in an area, I would say, gain the experience and then try to get on a few podcasts because other people will see you as more of an expert if you're featured on a podcast talking about that. So it can be a great tool to build your credibility in certain areas, even if you're not starting a podcast yourself. Simply being featured can be enough to give you the credibility, you need to reach your goals in a specific area. The quality of next questions and the high production value of the podcast, as well as his huge audience. And listeners look very loyal listeners made going on that podcast incredibly valuable to me over the next year. Even though it's not something I'd been looking for, I hadn't been looking to go on a podcast. And because of my view, pre site, hustle nation on podcasts, which was very anti podcast, I never would have actually searched one out. Regardless of all the benefits it has. I never really thought about the benefits. And I just really disliked podcasts, which is so funny because now I obviously have a podcast. So my views have changed quite a bit. But the huge benefits from going on Nick's podcasts would never have happened if I'd gone on any other podcast as my first podcast. Because I've been on a few other podcasts. And Nick's has such a large and loyal audience compared to the eyes I've been on, combined with his really good questions, and his perfect audio and great production value, all kind of wrapped together to make it a really valuable experience for launching the her co brand. And for providing a really credible, great piece of content that I was able to have in my resume toolkit. His podcast was able to launch her SEO brand into a bigger space for those reasons. And if I'd started on any other podcast, I don't think that would have happened. And I probably would have maintained my view that podcasts are a waste of time, and not good tools. So it's interesting how your experience with specific podcasts and types of podcasts can kind of shape your future experience. And I'm really grateful that my first experience was on the side hustle nation podcast, which is so well produced, and has such a loyal audience, that my experience was really good. And it catapulted me into the podcast world in a really positive way. It took me a while to build up the courage to start my podcast and I wasn't even thinking about starting one.

How to Start a Podcast

Right after my episode with Nick it more than a year after I it never even crossed my mind until recently. Because there were so many variables involved and so many things I had never done that I'd have to learn how to do. And it's just it is a big undertaking. And you really want to be sure it's something you want to do before you start it. What helped me actually start was just starting it trusting and taking it step by step. So before I had everything figured out, I started emailing a handful of my dream guests. Before I knew all the technical details or even how I was going to record, I emailed a few of my dream guests and my first email was actually a yes. from Michael asik, who we hear from in episode one. I invited him by replying to one of his daily email newsletters about t shirt sales. And he replied asking for more info. And then he said yes and wanted to be on the podcast. Once I had that confirmation and the first recording booked in my schedule, it was so much easier to figure out the next steps, which was for me to write a rough outline of the questions I wanted to ask and then figure out how I was going to record the episode and then taking it step by step from there, which I will go through below. I decided to use Nick from side hustle nation's microphone brand to record the one that I had already purchased that ATR 2100 microphone which I do highly recommend if you're looking for a microphone.

Best Podcast Recording Software

And then I also used the same recording software that Nick had used when he interviewed me for side hustle nation which is called Zencaster, Z and c a s tr at Zen caster.com. It has a free plan, and also has a paid plan but it's been free throughout the corona pandemic so far, no matter how many episodes you record, I love Zencaster, because it really does have the best audio recording out there. The quality is better than the Zoom recordings I've done. And it also has to track audio recording. So you can easily edit out coughs or heavy breathing from one person while the other is talking. This means it gives you two different tracks one for each person. So you can just cut out parts from the other person while the other person is talking. And zoom for example, gives you one audio track. So if someone coughs while the other person's talking, it's pretty much in audio and you can't really take it out. However, Zencaster is also right now it's audio only, but they have a video beta and it's launching soon. So there will be opportunities to record using Zen caster and using the video in the near future. I will also leave a link to all the tools I used in the show notes for this episode, so you guys can check them out. If you are interested in starting a podcast, next philosophy with podcasting and something he told me on the right before we started recording the episode is that his goal is to make you look like a genius to make his guests look like they are geniuses. And that is something I have taken away from his podcasting philosophy and aspire to in my own podcast. Because for a few reasons, because it's the best way to build lasting relationships with guests and make them happy they were on the show. It's also the best way to make guests want to share the podcast. And it's the best way to make listeners want to keep listening to your podcast. Because if the guests sound like they're smart and know what they're talking about, which they obviously do, they'll want to listen to the episode so they can learn from the guest. No one wants to listen to someone if they don't know what they're talking about, or they don't have any experience in the area. So if any of the guests sound bad, it's not their fault. It's obviously my questions. And my goal is to make everyone look as good as possible. Which is also a reason that the editing is so dangerous for me because I try to cut out filler words and other things and to make to make the gas to look good, but also to make the experience more seamless for listeners. So you don't have to be listening to really long pauses or arms. So I have to go through every podcast and edit out small things, which is something that I don't think every podcast host does. But I'm trying to make the best experience for both guests and listeners, which is part of the reason why the editing process takes such a long time for me after recording each episode with the guests. Next, I took each step one at a time. And I had to figure out how I was going to edit the audio and the video that I had recorded. It ended up being simple. I uploaded them into iMovie, which is free and comes on all Macs, I have a Mac and I already used iMovie to edit a handful of YouTube videos I've made over the years and published. So I already knew how to use it. And it's very intuitive and user friendly. And that's how I edited the audio and the video. When I was recording the intros and the outros. I used GarageBand on my local computer as opposed to Zen caster and would upload that into iMovie as well to kind of edit. Then I had to figure out how to make the intro music. I ended up using blubrry.com blubry.com and listening to a few tracks before deciding on an upbeat, happy one that felt like a great fit. It cost $44.95 one time fee and I can use it on all my podcasts. It's a one time buyout license fee, you have to be super careful because there is no fair use on copyrighted music on podcast. You can't use a song for 10 seconds and then say Oh, it's okay. You have to either use completely copyright free Creative Commons type music or pay for a one time buyout license. You can also buy license where you have to pay monthly or pay per use. So you have to be very careful about making sure that you purchase the right license or the right licensed music and you also have to make sure if you're using the free music, that it is actually copyright free, because you can get into quite a bit of trouble if you do that incorrectly. That was actually the most expensive purchase I made for the podcast was getting the music, I wanted it to be good. And I wanted it to be something that I could use legally. So I did spend the $44.95 on the podcast music, it's also urging me to record more episodes so I can get more out of that investment. Next, after recording and editing everything, and taking the pictures, making the intro videos getting all of that set up, I had to decide on a podcast host for podcast hosting. In the episode with Logan, he mentioned both Libsyn and the free anchor FM hosts, I decided to look into each but I was originally thinking I would use the free anchor FM because I thought, well, it's free, I should just use that one because I don't even know if I'm going to be continuing this podcast. And if it's free, why not just use that and then I don't have to pay for it. However, I'm glad I did more research first to figure out that anchor FM comes with quite a bit of baggage. After a quick Google search, I found out if you use the free anchor FM, it's free because you're technically the product, which is something people say often about free tech products. You're the product if it's free, like Gmail, Google stuff, they run ads on you, Facebook, it's free, they run ads, and you are the product. I don't mind people running ads on social things I do like Facebook and Gmail and that type of thing. But with a podcast, I'm not really looking to be the product. This means Anchor runs ads on your content. They also publish the content under their own ID, meaning it's not technically your own. And they also hide stats from specific podcast platforms, statistics and knowing exactly how many people are listening to my podcast are very important to me. Even as I'm starting out, actually, especially as I'm starting out, and having someone else run ads on my podcast is not something I want, it's not good for the brand. And if I do this long term, I would want to have the option to run ads not have someone else run the ads. And I also want to fully own my podcast and have full statistical transparency and control and the ability to potentially monetize it down the road. If I keep going that far, so anchor FM. After learning more about it, it did not seem like the host I was looking for, even though it was free. So I started to look into the paid podcast hosts, including Logan's recommendation of Libsyn. I did a Google search, I found out that Libsyn is one of the most cost competitive host options it starts at $5 a month for the basic plan, and $7 a month if you want to see statistics, while other hosts for 15 a month or more for their most basic plan. before committing, I decided to do a quick check to find what my current top four podcasts that I listened to regularly use as their host. To check what someone is using as their host. You can look at their podcast on site player and see if they use their hosts branded player. You can also view the source code on their website page, which you can do by right clicking on the page, selecting view page source code and then searching the HTML code that comes up for the unique words and symbols that are near their podcast player header if their podcast player is not branded, and then that will allow you to find the branding of their podcast player. So pretty much if they don't use a branded podcast player. If you look at the pages HTML code, you can find the brand of their podcast player, if that makes sense. Shout out to my people who are slightly more technical. They're shout out to my current favorite for podcasts to listen to when I have downtime currently, which is Nick's side hustle nation podcast, the boss babe podcast, Tim Ferriss podcast, and the Invest Like a Boss podcast. Every single one of these podcasts that I listened to regularly, we're using the podcast host Libsyn, except for Tim Ferriss, who happens to be using a very expensive high end player and host one that was so expensive. If they didn't even display their prices online, instead, they displayed a Contact us to learn more form, which is code for our prices are very high. So you can contact us to learn how high they are. And I did not contact them to learn more, as this podcast is making zero dollars a month, not $50k per episode like Tim, even if I was making $50k per episode like Tim, have a feeling I would still use a very low cost hosts such as Libsyn, which I then googled to make sure that libsyn was a good host. And at that point, I was 100% sold on using it as my own host. I also searched for a coupon and was able to get the first two months of Libsyn free. So this month and next month, free Libsyn hosting. The only expense I had to pay for this month was the 4495 Intro Music cost. And if I decide to keep going with the podcast, I'll have to start paying five to $7 a month, starting in two months. However, I pay much more than that, for my current website hosting and audio files are quite large. So it's not hard for me to justify seven a month for podcast hosting, if it ends up being an activity I end up enjoying. And if it does allow me to get great content for the her SEO website and YouTube which are two of my goals for her SEO right now. Starting a podcast was definitely overwhelming for me at first. But once I modeled my podcast creation after my original, amazing podcasting experience and favorite podcaster Nick Loper's podcasting process at side hustle nation, it became much easier for the gaps, I didn't have insight into how he did things. I simply broke down the steps and did each one at a time. So it became manageable. I will also put in the show notes, Nick, at side hustle nation also has a great podcast starting checklist where he goes through the things that he uses in his podcast and all those tools. So I'm going to put those in the show notes, so you guys can take a look at that. So we have Logan at sweet fish media's podcast launch checklist. We have Nick Loper his podcast launch checklist. And we have the tools that I use in my podcast launch experience. In this episode, hopefully those three things you can kind of look at and take away your favorites from each if you're looking to start a podcast To cobble together your own tools and what you think will work the best for you. And if it does get overwhelming, remember to just take it one step at a time, focus on what you need to do in that moment. And then once you complete that move on to the next step. That's how I was able to break it down into a manageable process that wasn't overwhelming. And that allowed me to take action and actually launch this podcast. I hope this was helpful. And you can let me know if you currently have a podcast or if you're starting one by emailing me Stacy at her dot CEO. And if this was helpful for you and learning more about what really goes on when someone is producing and putting out a podcast, the behind the scenes and what tools can be used when starting a podcast? Let me know your thoughts and looking forward to hearing from you guys. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Hearst SEO podcast. I hope you took something away that you can implement in your own life or business. If you want to make me smile today, you can leave a five star review on the podcast player you're listening to. Thanks again for listening and feel free to shoot me an email with any questions or comments at [email protected] that's [email protected]. Thanks again. Recommended Tools: Audio Recording: Zencastr.com (free & paid plans, all free during COVID currently) Video Recording: Zoom.com (free & paid plans, I only use free options) Microphone: ATR-2100 Microphone Transcription: Otter.ai (free & paid plans, caution if you try the free you'll 100% get the $10/month plan because it's so good) Hosting: Anchor.fm (free but not really recommended), Libsyn (not free but recommended for serious podcasters), and using your current website host + free PowerPress WordPress plugin (what I'm using currently and is 100% the best option for me currently). Blubrry.com: Podcast music (not free but allows you to get "copyright-free" music you can use once purchased) Nick Loper's Podcast Checklist Sweet Fish Media Podcast Checklist My first podcast episode on Side Hustle Nation w/ Nick Loper: https://www.sidehustlenation.com/stacy Affiliate Disclaimer: I have a few affiliate links in here & if you use them they may slightly help me, even if the Otter one just give me free Otter months, I love it enough to enjoy as many free months as I can get.