5 Things You Should Know About Starting a Podcast

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And why P fam what's My name is Dr.

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Cynthia Esteban, and I am your host and I've been producing publishing,

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monetizing and marketing podcasts for the last six, seven years or so.

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And this show is to help you learn what does and does not work when it comes to

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marketing and monetizing your podcasts.

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So this episode is titled five things.

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You should know if you're starting a podcast and it's for people who are

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thinking about starting a podcast, because that's what prompted the conversation.

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But if you've already started a podcast, then you should know these things as well.

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Because if you don't know them, then they aren't going to affect you.

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So let's get into

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Okay.

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Thing, number one that you have to know is that things in podcasting

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take longer than you expect, and that's almost everything, right?

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Whether it's downloads or listens or audience.

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Monetization, whatever it is that you're trying to do with

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things are going to take a little longer than you expect.

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So just know that going into

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Here's the reality.

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Results take time.

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I mean, if you think about it, Joe Rogan started in 2009.

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That was over a decade.

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It's like a decade plus before he quote unquote hit it big with Spotify.

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Right The unfortunate truth about podcasting is that most shows aren't

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getting the numbers that you think.

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And a very few amount of shows are getting way more downloads

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than anyone would imagine.

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, so if you want a number that you should shoot for 25 episodes, it's the number.

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And if you think about That should take you either a half a year.

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If you're doing one episode Or it could take you a year if you're

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averaging an episode every other week.

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And sometimes that happens when things get delayed or maybe that's even the cadence

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that you've picked us to do it biweekly.

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But if you can commit to putting out something every week, then you should

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hit that within about six months.

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And in six months, you should be able to know whether or not this is for you.

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And the earlier that you can figure that out, the better

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off that you're going to be.

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But I've got three quick tips to get you to 25 shows as quickly as

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possible, or to get you to your next 25 shows as quickly as possible.

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The first one is make a plan and map it out.

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The second is to have checklists . So you, that you're not making stuff up

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every time and things can flow when they can start to be a lot more efficient.

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And the third is to have fun with it.

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And you've got to find ways to do that, whether that's with the content,

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whether that's with the recording.

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You've got to find a way that it can be fun or else you're

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not going to follow through.

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Okay.

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So that's number one.

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Do it for the longterm.

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Get the 25 episodes.

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. Second thing that you want to know is that your recording schedule matters.

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A lot of people think that they can just be Willy nilly with this, or they can.

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Just do it, whatever.

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I was one of those people, but after a while things stopped working

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and you either get really busy.

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You forget, you hit a content LOL.

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And so if you are not doing it consistently and you aren't doing

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it regularly, And then we're going to talk about the ways that

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we can do that in just a second.

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Then there's going to be sometime in the future where you're going

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to hit a bump in the road and not have the content that you need.

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I don't want all this to be doom and gloom about podcasting, but unfortunately

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it's more work than people think.

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And so if you can eliminate a lot of the fatigue and the decision fatigue

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that comes along with it, then it's going to make it so much easier for you

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to actually once again, fall through, which I think is such a big part of

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actually having a successful podcast is being able to actually follow through.

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. So I mentioned the two keys here are regularity and consistency, and

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you can either do one of two things.

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Or what we recommend is one of two things.

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The first thing that you can do is you can record every week,

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the same time every week, Like.

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On Mondays, you record whether you have a guest to record with, or whether

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you don't, you make it a point to record at the same time every week.

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So that way you always have stuff in the queue.

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And you can get bonus points if you can record multiple episodes on that

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day, so that you can start to get ahead, or maybe you can even start to

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publish multiple episodes in a week without needing multiple recording

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, so if that's not going to work and some people think,

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well, that sounds like a lot.

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I don't have a lot of time as it is.

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And so if you're not going to be able to sit down every week at the same

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time, then what we recommend is to sit down once a month and to knock out

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all of the episodes for that month.

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And that may sound like a lot at first.

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But what it really only ends up being is if you, if you were producing

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a weekly show, that's really about three or four hours, Not, not

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every show is going to be an hour.

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I wouldn't recommend that.

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Well, maybe, maybe 45 minutes, something like that.

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45.

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Um, Two hours.

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Okay.

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But.

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It's just going to be that's just an afternoon.

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And so if you think about it, if you can devote an afternoon a month and

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be able to record all the episodes that you need for that month.

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That's going to do so much for you because you've got the rest of the entire month.

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You've got 29, 30 more days to be able to do whatever you need to do and

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focus on whatever you need to focus

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So those are the two things that we recommend either record every

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week at the same time, or to make sure that you record once a month

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and record everything for that

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The third thing that you should know when it comes to your show

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is that the only people that matter are you and your That's it.

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, you don't necessarily need podcasting

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partner or your parent or your kid?

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Unless they match your ideal listener.

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I see too many podcast hosts who take too much advice and take too much input from

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people who aren't actually in their target market, who aren't an ideal listener.

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And they end up getting feedback that isn't coming from the right perspective.

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So make sure that if you're going to get feedback, if you're going to

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get input on your show that you ask people who are in your ideal listeners,

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it's okay to show it to your partner.

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It's okay to show it to your kid, but I wouldn't wait their

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input very much because a lot of times podcasts are so unique.

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They're so specific to the person that they're supposed to attract.

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That they're almost going to repel anybody who isn't in that target market?

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So understand what your listeners want, understand what they're looking for?

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Both in their quality and in their content, but also in the tone, in

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the music, in the field and the vibe, all that stuff matters when

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it comes to your audience as well.

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The fourth thing that you know is sound matters and your room actually matters

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just as much, if not more than your mic.

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And so before I got started, I had to do some stuff to my room because

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even with a good microphone, having a good room can also really help.

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Now here's the other side of that.

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Having a bad room with a bad microphone can also really,

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really make it even worse.

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So your room and your mic with the two things that you want to make

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sure that you take into consideration when you're recording It's ideal.

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If you get a dynamic, a, usually an XLR mic, because those only pick up the

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host or they only pick up the person.

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Other Mike's like a lot of popular ones, especially the blue Are

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designed to pick up the entire room.

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And so that means that if there's a car driving by right now where there's, you

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know, I'm looking at a car, cut, pulling up to the stop, sign outside my office.

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That you'd be able to hear that car.

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You might even be able to hear what they're listening

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to with those types of mics.

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And so you want to get a mic that's designed to only pick up

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the person that's speaking into

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The second thing that you want to do is you want to be in a room that That ideally

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has lots of furniture and has lots of curtains and drapes and really things

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. That can absorb a lot of the sound.

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Honestly, I'm looking around at my office and it's honestly, probably not

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a very ideal situation for recording.

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I've got a glass mirror, I've got two windows.

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I've got only furniture that I have is my desk and my chair.

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And there's a variety of reasons I've talked about in previous

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shows, why that's happened.

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But just to give you an example, that is not something that you want.

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If I had my druthers, what I'd probably be doing, we're working

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on kind of redesigning the studio.

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I'm redesigning it into a studio right now.

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Is I'd put, probably put a couch.

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We're going to put some blackout curtains and drapes.

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. We want to put some foam boards all along the.

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Drywall.

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And maybe even hang some curtains over the mirror as well.

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I think that's something that might also help.

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So your room and your mic, they definitely matter.

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And they're definitely important when it comes to your sound.

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The last thing that you should know about your podcast is you

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want to think about your podcast.

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Not like a podcast, but more like a show.

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and when I say a show, I mean that your podcast.

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Is not just going to exist in an audio form.

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On apple on Spotify rate because the industry is changing and things are

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changing and Spotify is incorporating video and YouTube Twitter, just

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so that they're going to start doing something with podcasting.

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And so what a podcast is, is actually going to change

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But what is going to stay the same as people are always looking to

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be either entertained or informed.

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And so if you have a show that can entertain somebody that can help

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somebody for 30, 45 minutes an hour, however long you can do it, the longer,

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the better that can take them out of their world and bring them into a world

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that helps them, that that makes them laugh or makes them cry or keeps them.

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In suspense, whatever it is, if you can entertain then that is going to be around

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and people are going to be doing that.

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As long as we're around as humans.

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And the app in the format in which we're doing it might change

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and might evolve over time.

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So if you can think about your podcast as a show and less about just as an

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audio podcast on apple and Spotify and these other podcasts apps, well, then

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it really starts to allow you to create an experience that's much different

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for your listeners that can evolve and adjust to the changing landscapes

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and mediums that are out there.

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Now to that point, that also means that your show.

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Should be cohesive.

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Everything should fit.

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There's a branding part to it.

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There's a visual part to it.

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There's kind of three parts of the show, right?

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There's how it sounds.

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This is how it looks.

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And then there's the words that are kind of written on it.

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And so you have these three different components.

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You've got your, your, your title, your description, you get your episode art.

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You've got your.

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Your F your trailers and stuff, all these things that kind of create this cohesive

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Of your show.

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And so, as long as you were thinking about that, or as long as you have those

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things in mind, then that's, what's going to make your show successful.

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So those are the five things I'd encourage you to go back and listen to these,

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share it with podcasts or who is thinking about starting their show, or even

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someone who's newer in their journey.

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Maybe they haven't hit those 25 episodes yet, but.

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Appreciate you guys listening.

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Go back, listen to some of the other episodes.

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And if you have any questions . Or if you have ideas for future episodes,

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come find me on Twitter at Hector underscore podcast, and we'll see if

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we can make it a topic on a future

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Thank you guys for sticking around and being part of the