I’m going to break down what you need in order to get up and running with your very own podcast. This is what I’ve learnt from setting up my own podcast. I’m breaking down the equipment, software and content you need to get up and podcasting
🕒Timestamps🕒:
00:00 Start
2:36 Equipment (mobile)
6:30 Equipment (desktop)
8:55 Audio editing software
11:49 Podcast software (the easiest and free)
13:51 Podcast software paid
16:56 Content
20:42 Artwork
📙Resources mentioned📙
Deity V lav: https://amzn.to/2PwegAW
Boya lav: http://amzn.to/2nbU6zX
Rode Video Mic Me – L : https://www.rode.com/microphones/videomicmel
Rode NT USB mini: https://amzn.to/3nMyYMP
Mic – Shure SM7B: https://amzn.to/3qeR7ns
Rodecaster Pro audio interface: https://amzn.to/2HXYyhM
Canva 45 day free trial: https://saranguyenonline.com/canvaprofreetrial
🎙️Podcast Playlist 🎙️ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqAD0OPX91b1HYgIZR7JLM-xMXX1g9tf
💖Grab my Social Media Checklist💖
https://saranguyenonline.com/special/social-media-checklist/
How to start a podcast – Video Transcript
Welcome to the live stream, whether you are joining live with us now, or if you’re catching us on the replay. In today’s video, I’m going to be looking at what do you need to start a podcast? What are all the things that you need in order to get up and running with a podcast?
I’ve been going through the journey in the last month or so to get started with podcasting. And hopefully, by the time January comes, you’ll be able to see links to my actual podcasts, which is launching in mid-January, which I’m really excited about.
But I thought this was a great opportunity to, you know, talk you through the process, everything I’ve learned, everything I’ve discovered to walk through exactly what you need to do to get up and running with a podcast. And I’m really excited to present this content to you today, really fresh.
And you know, I worked with people on podcasts good decade ago, and the technology and the processes from for, you know, podcasting has changed significantly. I’m really excited to bring this information to you today.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sara Nguyen and I help you build your business using video and content on social media with ease. Now, whether you are live with us now, or if you are watching the replay, please, if you have any questions feel free to drop them in the chat or in the comments section, and we’ll answer them, I’ll answer them the best that I can.
And if necessary, then I’ll create extra content for you guys, because I love to do that. I love to create these videos for you guys. Now, everything that I will be presenting will be well, all of the information, all of the links will be in the description.
I’ll go back and add them all there because that’s what we are all about. It’s about sharing all of the resources. Let’s get started with what you need to get up and running with a podcast.
I’m going to break this down because I remember when I first decided that yep, 2021 is when I’m going to start the podcast. It’s been on my mind for a couple of years, but I’m going to pull the trigger so to speak and actually do it in 2021.
What’s all the things that I need to get started? And it was a little bit overwhelming. That’s why I thought, you know, it was overwhelming for me. It might be overwhelming for other people. I’m going to break it down to simplify it, and yeah, so that’s what we’re going to start with to start with.
Let’s talk first about equipment that you need. I really love the idea of podcasting. Particularly if you are already creating video, if you have already started your live stream journey and you’ve got stuff, it may be you, you may already have everything that you need to start podcasting.
When it comes to the equipment, let’s break down what you can actually use. I am a big fan of really using what you’ve got and not using equipment as an excuse to not create orq using an equipment as an excuse to buy, but then not create either.
I see a lot of times people buy stuff, and I used to do this a little bit in the beginning of my content creation journey, buy stuff and then not actually create it because like, well, I bought something and that justifies me doing work, but it’s actually, as, you know, buying a microphone doesn’t mean you actually have content.
You need to create the content with them. Let’s break down the equipment. I’m going to first talk about mobiles, right? Because most people have a mobile, I’m a fan of using what you have and a mobile device is sufficient to get started to record your podcast content.
If you are going to use your mobile device to get started and I highly recommend that you do, I recommend that you get a microphone with the podcast, with the podcast. I recommend that you get a microphone with the mobile device.
And there are two that I would recommend specifically that I use all the time. And you know, I don’t recommend stuff unless I literally use them. In terms of a lavalier microphone, this is really tangled, but this is the Deity V.Lav. And it’s a smartlav.
Literally you can use it with your mobile device. You can use it with your computer. You can use it with a DSLR. I like the Deity V.Lav because for the price point you have, you get with it, you get really good quality sound. Like there are more budget options.
The Boya BY-M1 is a lavalier microphone as well. It’s on the cheapest side. It’s cheaper than the Deity, but you get better quality sound with the Deity. And then, you know, I think for about, I think the Deity is about 50 bucks US.
You get really good quality sound and you can use it across multiple devices. That’s the first one that I would recommend if you are going to start creating podcasts and recording them with your mobile device. The second one that I recommend is this little one from RODE.
It is the Video Mic Me-L and it’s a little lightening microphone, right? That in there plugs into your mobile device like this, let me just do a demo here.
It works really well ’cause you’ve got the mic just there and then you can just record out of it. And it’s just like this neat little experience here. And then you just literally can, you know, hold it from yourself and record there. This little microphone is a couple of years old now.
Maybe even more than a couple of years, maybe even three or four years old now. It’s quite cheap. And the quality of sound that you get from it once again is really good. The other thing is that it’s quite cheap too. I don’t think it’s really expensive for the quality of sound that you get as well. And it’s really handy.
And you know, you don’t have to do anything with it. You don’t have to program it, you just plug it in and it works. In terms of equipment, if you are going to use a mobile device, which I highly recommend you do, because you’ve already got one, you can start creating right away, get a microphone so that you can get slightly better sound.
And those are the two I’d recommend you either get a lavalier microphone or some other, you know, plug microphone that you can plug in. Now, the second option that you have for recording your podcast audio is to use your computer.
And if you are going to use your computer, you’ve got a couple of options as well. One is to get a USB microphone. There are lots of USB microphones on the market. The one that I use a lot is this little baby.
This is the RODE NT USB mini. Admittedly, RODE did send this to me, so I didn’t pay for it, but I’ve used it in so many live streams. I’ve used it in so many, you know, tutorials that I’ve recorded. And I definitely recommend it. One, because it is really compact.
Two it’s quite affordable as well in terms of the way that USB microphones go. And three, you don’t have to do anything to set it up. I’m all for getting equipment that you don’t have a massive learning curve to use, because I know what it’s like to get a piece of tech and go, that is so overwhelming.
It’s going to take me forever to learn, and then you push it to the side and it never happens. Right? I’ve been there. I’ve got some pieces of equipment where I’m like, this is so hard or I’m, I’m just going to put some time aside later to learn it and you never do.
I’m all for equipment that has zero to very little learning curves. That’s the second option that you can have if you are going to record audio into your computer, a USB microphone. And this would, this comes with a cable and it plugs directly into your computer via USB cable.
If you are going to, pardon me, if you really want to spend, and I know this is not, you know what I recommend for people who, you know, don’t know whether they want to keep creating content or not. What do I use? I will be using this Shure sm7b.
It is an XLR microphone. It is not cheap. And it comes with a lot of things that you need to do with it. With the XLR microphone, such as the Shure sm7b, you also need an audio interface.
The Shure sm7b requires you to get a preamp as well. You can get the audio loud enough to actually record. I don’t talk about it and I don’t recommend it. Not because it’s not a good setup, but because it’s an expensive one and right out of the gate, I don’t think this is where, you know, people should be just throwing money, particularly if it’s not something that you know if you want to continue.
You may hate podcasting. You may not, you know, enjoy it and then imagine spending all this money. And then you have all these equipment that you don’t use. Like that would be a crying shame for me.
If you do want to look into it, the Shure sm7b’s a beautiful microphone. I’ve had it for, I think about a month now. Absolutely love it. But it came with, you know, a learning curve. It came with a lot of configuration and, you know, it costs money.
That’s just something to, you know, understand if you are going to go the higher end route. That’s what you would need in terms of equipment. Let’s talk a little bit about the next category of things that you would need, and this is editing software.
When it comes to recording your, pardon me I’m gonna grab some water, when it comes to recording your podcast, you need to produce that, right? You have the introduction, you may have an opening like or, you know, the same little thing that you say every single podcast, you have the content piece, and then ideally an outro. You can either record it all on the fly and produce it as you go. But most people will probably record it in bits.
With that said, you’ll need something to edit the audio with. A lot of people already have video editing software on the computers, whether that’s iMovie the free stuff that comes with your computer, or I use ScreenFlow a lot. These are adequate.
As I said, I don’t feel that you need to keep spending money in order to create content. You use what you’ve got. And then once you outgrow that, then start to look to buy more stuff, but use the video editing software to edit your audio.
It’s more than sufficient, and it will allow you to do what you need to do. And you can export the file as an audio file. In terms of software, there’s also other things like Audacity, which is a free open source software that you can use as well. You are looking for an audio-specific software to kind of edit the audio is that you actually record.
That’s another option there. And then yeah, so, so many options, so many options. And so people, you can either use your video editing software. iMovie, ScreenFlow, the PCU equivalence of them. You’ve got GarageBand as well, which is perfect for editing audio.
And then you’ve also got audacity, which is a free software option to help you record your audio. I think the other option that you have is that if you don’t want to edit the audio, and this is something where I sit in this category, you have an option where you don’t have to edit it.
You can send it to someone to produce it for you, and you can find sound engineers to put it all together for you to produce it for you and give you a final input and they’ll clean it all. And you can get editors from fiverr.com.
You can get editors from upwork.com. You can get editors from onlinejobs.ph.com. There’s lots of options for you to kind of outsource this work. Particularly if you are going to create a lot and batch it, like the work can be quite affordable if you, you know, find someone to do it for you.
I’m in that category where I do a lot of editing as it is, I will probably get my audio engineer to do this for me because it doesn’t really, I don’t really want to do it ’cause there’s so much going on. Consider that if you are looking to edit it and you don’t have a lot of time, you can always outsource it quite affordably as well.
Now let’s talk about the third category, podcast hosting software. What’s podcast, hosting software? There are a lot of options and I have narrowed it down in my research, in my copious research to do.
Let’s go over to my computer. Okay. Let’s get rid of you. I think in my view, in my research that there really have, there lots of options, but the two that I’ve narrowed it down to is anchor.fm as a software for hosting your podcast.
And I like anchor because they’re free. We all know we’ve got so many subscriptions going on, right. And what better than a free offering? I like anchor and out of all the research I did after all the people I know who use it, it does everything the paid stuff does for free. Right.
And after all the research as well, I think given that there are free service, given that you can upload it once to them, and then they distribute it to, you know, Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, Spotify, they save you all that time and you can use the service for free, why wouldn’t you?
I don’t think that them being free is a bad thing and you know, why not? Anchor is definitely one for you to consider this as their site here. And it’s really easy to get started, right? They’ve got options that you can pay for as well.
If you want to look to monetize it and put ads on the actual page, but in terms of hosting, like what a great option. The other thing with anchor is that they’ve also got an app that you can download and technically you can record the audio directly into the app.
You can record the whole podcast on your phone and upload it via the app using anchor. So I definitely recommend them. Now, if you are one of those people who are like, Hmm, I really don’t like the idea of free software.
The one that I’ve narrowed down to if I was to pay for it is Buzzsprout. And I liked Buzzsprout because they do have free and they have paid plans and they kind of like allow you to kind of scale. As you succeed with your podcasts, and I know you will, and be amazing, you can, you know, increase into bigger plans as you scale the podcast.
I like them for that reason, but they’ve also got a free option as well. You get two hours each month. And then as you upload more content, as you get, I guess, more downloads then that will enable you to pay more. Those are the two options.
There are so many different podcast hosting services. These are the two that I’ve narrowed down that I think will be the best for my needs and the best for, you know, people to kind of research to see if it suits them, these two.
And I will be first starting out with anchor because it’s free. The other thing with you, you can consider is with your podcast hosting software, you are not stuck with them for life. If you start with anchor and then you feel that you outgrow them, then it is very easy to move to another service.
It’s not, people are a little bit afraid, ’cause they’re like, Oh, once I’m there, what if want to move? Like you can move. There’s options to export it into another service, regardless of which one you choose to go with and good service will have the ability to do that.
And it’s not as painful as you may think it is. Definitely check out those two options. If you are looking to do podcast hosting, let’s go back to me now. You know, I get a lot of, I had a lot of questions when I was looking at podcast software and I know that back in the day, when I was helping other people set up their podcasts, there are lots of options where you can upload it to your WordPress website, use that as the hosting and then do about 17 different steps in order to push it out.
I find that technology has come such a long way now that the likes of anchor means that you upload it once you set up all of the different podcasting site and then anchor will push it out and you can even schedule it.
I think that software’s made it so much easier now that you don’t have to spend all this time producing it. All this time, uploading it. And that’s what podcasts, what podcasting should be about. It should be this easier experience where you create the content and then you can produce it really easily. That’s my little feel and two sense about like podcasting software. Use it.
There’s a free option and it will save you time. I’m all about saving time. Now let’s talk about the next element. All right. Content. Now that we’ve talked about all of the equipment that you need to get started, we’ve talked about the editing software.
We’ve talked about the hosting software. Let’s talk a little bit about what content do you actually need. You know, as I said, you can’t just buy the equipment and then expect for your episodes to produce themselves.
You need to actually have content to talk about. And in my view, you need a couple of things. You need an intro. My view, you need an intro where probably for every episode, you have a segment where you say, you know, you welcome your guests and tell them what the podcast is about. And this is for new people coming into the podcast.
It may be you’re listening to the thriving creator podcast with your host, Sara Nguyen. And then you talk about the benefit of the podcast, in this podcast, you’ll learn about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, welcome to today’s episode.
You’d have this intro and then it can have music as well that you have for every single episode. The other thing that you would ideally have in my view is an outro. The outro is a key part, and I find that people who do well with their podcast, people who can monetize their podcasts, this is where they, they get it right.
With the outro, this is where you verbally, you know, you thank your guest, but then you can also tell them like verbally what to do next, whether it is, you know, go to my website@findthebestdesigner.com and inquire for your design services or go to my website to sign up for the next master class.
And they verbally say it. I know within the podcast pages itself, you can add links to the actual content. However, I found that it’s a bit trickier because people are listening to the podcast for the most part on their mobile devices, right? And then to go back through to the page to find that link that, you know, there’s a bit more, it’s a bit of a clunkier experience, but if you are verbally saying a link, that’s easy for them to remember that they can go to later that’s where you start getting your conversions.
That’s where you start seeing people, you know, turn from listeners into your buyers, where you’re verbally telling them to go to a specific URL. You can track that because it’s not just a site and a link on your website. And then you’ve got, you know, you’re bringing them to the top of your sales funnel and that’s what it’s all about.
That’s, you know, my little soap box that have your intro have your outro and have your outro focused on conversion, have your outro focused on, you know, what do they need to do next in the sales process? And this is the part that people, I think don’t leverage as much as they used to.
Now, how about the content part? What about the guts of it? I’m doing another live stream where I’m going to cover all of my different live stream content ideas, podcasting content ideas.
You can come up with your own ones, but this, I think the difference between YouTube content and podcasting content is that with podcasting content, you have so much more freedom, so much more flexibility than you do on a YouTube video, because you’re not bound by trying to rank a video. You’re not bound by keywords.
You get the flexibility to do coaching, which I’ve seen people do really well. Pat Flynn, who, you know, teaches a lot about podcasting, he coaches people on his podcast and I love listening to it. He also has a channel with his son where he coaches his son about businesses.
And it’s beautiful. Go check them out if you, if you don’t follow Pat Fltnn already and specifically look for the podcast that he has with these startups, love it. Anyway, I digress. There’s so much things you can do. You can do coaching. A lot of the content that I will be doing on my podcast will be learning.
It’s all about things that I’ve learned, things that I’ve discovered, you know, it will be quite a deep and vulnerable look into. These are some of the mistakes that I’ve made and what I’ve learned so that you don’t make them as well. As well as these are some of my wins, these are some of the great things that happened.
And it really is about sharing your experiences through your stories and teaching people along the way. That’s where I think your content, you know, can be about. Yeah, you know, there’s no podcast police, there’s no one, you know, beating you across the head if you don’t do it a certain way, which is the beauty of all of this, which is the beauty of YouTube, which is the beauty of podcasting that we have the flexibility to do things the way that we want to do.
That’s, that’s content in a crash course nutshell of what you can include in your actual podcast episodes. Now, the last thing that you need is probably one of my favourite things is artwork. In terms of artwork, I’m going to go back over to my computer. Let’s go over quickly, Sara.
Okay. I’m a big fan, if you’ve been following me on the channel of Canva, right? You will need some podcast cover art work and this is Canva, and this is like just a glimpse of some of their templates. You can pick one of these, you can modify it, you can change the colours, you can create it really quickly using Canva.
And you know, the whole point of me showing you these resources is so that you can get things up really quickly. I’ve created my podcast template from this as well. They’re so stunning. There’s so many of them, there’s got to be something that will suit you. Right? There’s got to be something that would suit you. I don’t, what I don’t want to see is for you to spend, you know, weeks months, some people have seen some people take six months to come up with cover art.
And it’s like, no, this shouldn’t be taking you this long. One it’s stopping you from releasing the podcast. And two it’s something that you can do relatively quickly because there are existing templates. And also like, you’re not stuck with it forever.
Like if you create something, a cover piece now, and you’re like, I’m not in love with it. You can change it later, but it’s more important that you get all these bits and pieces together. You can launch the podcast and you can continue to actually push it out and push out the content.
That’s my massive like crash course into these are all the things that you need to get a podcast up and running. I’m going to quickly jump to the questions now. Greg, great to see you guys here. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. Gary Hall thanks for joining us today. PixelPia.
Hey, good to see you on the podcast. Good to see you, did I just say podcast? Good to see you on the live stream as well. Gary Hall says, “I use Libsyn”. There are definitely a great service. I use Libsyn to help someone else out there with their podcasts. And I think, you know, they’re a fantastic service as well.
All right. And yeah, so I think in terms of software, I’m a big fan of, you know, it’s not about which one is the ultimate best because different software providers offer different things for different people’s needs. It’s about seeing what’s available and then, you know, choosing the one that suits you the best.
Hopefully you found this video useful that, you know? I wanted to really make this a crash course so here’s everything you need all in one place so that you don’t spend copious weeks, like me trying to find everything.
And that way you can stop producing your content and producing your content for your podcast quickly and get it out there. Because I think, you know, it’s not over after you launched the podcast, as, you know, you need to keep producing it and you need to see how it goes.
You need to promote it. And then you can do wonderful with it. Like the more people it starts to reach, the more you can use it as an asset where you can sell spaces to brands, you can, you know, do collaborations. Like the possibility is really amazing.
I’m excited to launch my podcast. Hopefully if you’re watching the replay, then I would have launched it by the time you’ve watched this. And yeah, thanks for being here. I’m really, you know, really grateful for the opportunity to present this content to you.
Now, if you found this video useful, give me thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. If you haven’t already, where I do lots of tutorials on social media, on live streaming, on content creation, or to help you grow your business with ease.
And if you haven’t already got it and make sure you grab a copy of my Social Media checklist. I’ll show you how to get up and running on all of the major social media platforms so you can start building a business and leveraging the power of social to grow it with ease.
And that essentially is a wrap for this live stream. Thank you so much, everyone for being here. I’ll see you in the next live stream and bye for now.
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