Starting a podcast – what we have learnt (and enjoyed) so far

“Why don’t we start a podcast?”

A simple question and quite easy to answer with an enthusiastic: “Sure!”

But then I started to think: “How does it work?”, “Will we be interesting enough?” and “Will we have time for it?”.

Setting aside these concerns, my colleague Sertalp ?ay and I embarked on our podcasting journey about two months ago. We have now published seven episodes of our FPL Optimized podcast, and here’s what we have learnt.

Find your niche

First of all, it’s important to know what you’re going to talk about. We were quite clear what we wanted to talk about: Fantasy Premier League (FPL), and specifically applying analytics in FPL.

FPL is a game played by millions of ‘managers’ every season. You get a budget of ￡100 million to build a team of football players. Based on the real-life performance of your chosen players (e.g., goals scored, assists given), your fantasy team collects points. It’s competitive, with a very active community on social media.

I introduced Sertalp to FPL some two years ago now. Since then he’s been using his data science expertise to develop different models to optimize his team. By contrast, I am a more ‘casual’ manager, making my picks based on my personal judgement and knowledge of the game.

Analytics in sports in general, and in fantasy sports in particular, is a growing trend. We therefore thought that we could create an interesting podcast about this. Plenty of FPL managers share their tips and tricks on social media, but there are not yet many podcasts about analytics, so we wanted to fill the gap.

Do a tech check

Our first issue was to work out how to start. Should we just use Zoom or Teams to record ourselves? How could we get our content published on podcast platforms? Luckily there is a lot of information available on the web and we were also fortunate to have some colleagues with experience of podcast production.

We were advised to make sure that we both had good quality microphones, and to pick the right publishing platform. After doing some research, we found that Transistor was generally recommended as the best platform for podcast publishing. It charges a fee, but we decided not to settle for less.

We chose to record our sessions on Teams. Fortunately, Sertalp has good technological knowledge, and knew how to record audio in separate streams and do the postproduction. He was also able to add some music to the start and the end, to make it seem more professional. However, this is not strictly necessary, and many podcasts don’t worry about it.

Build your network (audience)

Simply publishing is not enough to ensure your podcast will be heard. There are so many podcasts available these days that you need to make sure that people will find yours.

Luckily for us, Sertalp has spent that last year or so (very) actively sharing information and tips with the FPL community on Twitter. This has led to a steadily growing group of followers that now numbers about 10,000 people. A simple tweet from him about our first episode therefore gave us good visibility and engagement right from the start.

My network is smaller on Twitter and I haven’t actively shared FPL content so much yet. However, I am more active on LinkedIn and intend to occasionally promote our podcast (t)here.

The main lesson here is to try to build your network first and see a podcast as an alternative (or: additional) type of content.

Be consistent

We both believe it’s important to be consistent in podcasting. In particular, we aim to offer a regular flow of information that our listeners can rely on. We’re currently following the ‘schedule’ of recording on Tuesdays and publishing on Wednesdays. FPL is a very active game and there is news to consider and decisions to be made each week, so we decided it was important to follow a weekly routine.

This is quite a big time commitment, but so far we have managed. We’re already invested in the game (and the sport) anyway and are keeping track of information, so the additional work is limited. It takes us each about an hour to prepare, an hour to record and then an hour for post-production.

Make it ‘snackable’

I am an active podcast consumer and have a preference for podcasts lasting about 30–40 minutes. Any shorter, and I start to wonder if it will be worthwhile. Any longer, and it’s difficult to listen to all of it. About 30–40 minutes is the ‘sweet spot’ in my opinion, and fits many activities, from commuting to going for a run or gym session. We therefore aimed for that.

We have found that the length is starting to creep up slightly as we’re getting new ideas. However, Sertalp is doing a great job of tidying up the recording in post-production, and keeping the length under control.

Build in a ‘quality check’

It’s important to check your work before you publish. You would always proofread a blog, or ask a colleague to have a look. Sertalp’s wife (and our colleague and fellow FPL manager) Pelin is our ‘quality controller’ for the podcast. She listens to each new episode before it’s published. Our sports analytics colleagues Dan Axman, Reece Clifford and Luca Spinelli are also always ready to lend a hand.

Have fun

Last point but also one of the most important ones. If you don’t enjoy (producing) your podcast, why do it in the first place? This isn’t part of the job, it’s an add-on. We’re both active in the analytics industry, but we see this podcast as our own personal project. It’s a bonus that we can combine our job and knowledge (data, analytics) with something we love doing (sports, football).

For me as a marketer, it’s also a great opportunity to learn more about podcasts as a medium. It means I can add this to my skillset and give advice and recommendations to others about it. A lot of other marketing skills are useful, from communication to promotion, which also makes it interesting and fun.

It’s also great to be doing this with Sertalp. We have quite different backgrounds and came together quite by chance, through discussing a blog a few years ago. Having different skills makes working as co-hosts easier, because we have very different things to say. I think the joint working adds to the fun of podcasting and it’s also better for our listeners, because it makes the podcast more dynamic.

What’s next?

It seems odd to be talking about next steps when we have only just started... It has been quite easy so far, as we recorded the first episodes during the ‘calm’ period between two FPL seasons. It will be interesting to see how we’ll cope once the new season starts in August. We’re certainly having fun so far and are committed to it at least for the 2022–23 season. If you have a chance to listen to an episode of FPL Optimized, let us know what you think!

The FPL Optimized podcast is available in all popular podcast players. Just search for 'FPL Optimized' and you should be able to find it. Enjoy!