5 Actions to Start Your Podcast Right Now

Let’s be real.

You haven’t started a podcast for your business because you’re too focused on the “how.”

If you Google “how to start a podcast,” you will get more than 794,000,000 results. Who has time to look at all that when you have a business to run?

Whenever you start something new, it’s natural to begin thinking about the “how” and then get so caught up in information paralysis and never start because it’s just tooooooooo much.

Today I received a great piece of advice from Phillitia Charlton at the Virtual 2020 Untruth(ed) Summit that I have been leading tech support for this week.

She recommends that instead of focusing on the “how,” focus on five actions to put your idea in motion.

If you are stuck in information paralysis from trying to Google your way to podcast success, here are my top five things you can do to get started:

Think About Your Why. What do you have to offer to someone’s earbuds that will position you as a trusted voice in your niche? There are more than 1 million active podcasts (Which means there are more but, people aren’t actively publishing episodes!). Understanding your why will help guide you in content and help you create core values for your show. As a podcaster, my core values for Pink Lemonade Podcast? are self-reflection, transparency, brevity, and energy. You will find those values embedded in every episode. I know that I will always self-reflect, be transparent in a short amount of time and bring lots of energy.

Understand Your Capacity - Podcasting takes work. You have to record, edit, schedule guests, send emails, create social media, post content to your website, and a slew of other little details that are not mentioned. If you don’t already have a team, think about hiring a podcast manager to help facilitate success. If you plan to do it yourself, you have to be realistic about what you can do, because you do not want to forfeit the quality of the episodes. When I first started, I did one episode a month and created a strategy to repurpose the heck out of the episode until it was time to publish the next one. I had 101 other things on my plate and wanted to make sure that I leverage what I had already created. I follow Gary Vee's repurpose strategy religiously for my episodes and that has allowed me to scale my podcast as a one-woman show for number of years.

Create Podcast Business Goals: While exposure may be the ultimate goal, we have to strategize beyond the surface. How do you turn your listeners into subscribers? Subscribers into customers? One of my favorite podcasters is Amy Porterfield, because she has a downloadable resource (i.e., checklists, worksheets, etc.) to complement many of her episodes. She also repurposes the show notes and transcript for her website to generate downloads for her podcast and traffic to her website. Think beyond exposure and think about how to leverage the podcast to help your business grow. Other goals can include:

• Developing strategic relationships with guests to do future webinars, events, and programs together
• Positioning the CEO/Founder or team member as an expert
• Creating an pipeline of new clients
• Building authority and search engine rankings on the web by publishing episodes as blog posts
• Using your podcast to plug in products or services
• Using your podcast to teach your customer how to leverage your product or service

Conduct Your Own Market Research - Have a conversation with at least three of your customers or the people who you want to listen to your podcast to know what problems need to be solved on your show. The other day, I created a post about how I source my best podcast episodes from talking to people in my audience. A big piece of podcast overwhelm is choosing what content to produce. Have intentional conversations so you can begin to have a handle on the topics you will cover.

Talk to Other Podcasters and Listen to Episodes - There are a ton of fantastic podcast communities online. Before you start your podcast, join podcasts communities. Three of my favorites are the Podfest, WOC Podcasters, and ShePodcasts communities on Facebook. People often share their experiences and give you answers and shortcuts you may not find on Google. If you know a podcaster or have access to one, schedule time to ask them about their experience. The most important question to ask is, “What is the one thing you wish you knew before you got started with your podcast?” That question alone may save you time and pitfalls along the way.

I also challenge you to actually listen to different types of podcasts in other genres. Listening to different styles will provide inspiration for your format and allow you to think about things that will work for your show and things you don’t want in your podcast. Make a note of what you like and don’t like. When I was an instructor at a media school, this was an activity I would have my students do so that they didn’t feel like they had a blank slate when it was time to produce their show.

Podcasting may seem intimidating, but it is essential to align yourself with quick actions to get you started. At least one of the steps mentioned will help you get closer to your goal of creating a podcast.

Which tip will you start with first?

Whitney L. Barkley, M.S. is a podcast producer and the host of Pink Lemonade Podcast, a podcast to help you turn life's lemon's into lessons. She is a former podcast instructor of two media schools and has helped organizations turn their podcast phobia into powerful episodes that help build their brand and authority. Hit her up at www.speakerazzi.com.