Coffee & Coaching Creating your own podcast

Good morning. Good morning, and welcome to Monday's session of coffee and coaching. So excited to be here with you today. Today I want to do one. So sometimes with coffee and coaching, you know, I'm a little bit more casual, but today I want to actually be pretty specific in talking about how you can start your own podcast, because I've had a lot of questions around it in the last couple of weeks as people have kind of got a little bit of time on their hands and figuring, you know what? One of the things that I want to do is create my own podcast. Should I, shouldn't I? And how do I do it? So, I mean, I'm a massive podcast fan, obviously, love podcasting, and I love doing my podcast because it's a way that you can reach people at a really intimate kind of medium and form a relationship very easily, very cheaply. It's free for people to consume, and it's very, very low cost for you to be able to provide. So when you're looking at, should I or shouldn't I start a podcast, is it going to be right for me? I would say, do you have something regularly of value that you can share to your target audience, so to the people that you are helping? And most people would say, yes. And so that's why I'm a big podcasting fan. So let me know if you're watching, if you already have a podcast, or if you're wanting to start your own podcast in there. So when you're going, okay, I want to start a podcast, where do I first begin? The first place we want to look at. Who, what, and why. You want to be super clear on that before you go any further. So the first one is who. Who are you creating for? So I've had three different iterations of my podcast. I started out with the female advantage, and I that because I kind of was at the place where I was like, you know what? I just want to interview some really great females. I have zero point with doing it other than I want to have really great conversations. And so that was the first one. My second iteration was an intentional life, and I did an intentional life because I was traveling at the time, and I was feeling very intentional about life and wanted to kind of have these sorts of conversations in being able to. To kind of talk to people about being more intentional and living. Living more on purpose. And then now we've got her empire builder, which is, again, niched down even closer to go if you're in podcasting and publishing and online courses and personal Branding, then this one's for you. So you want to be really specific about who your audience is when you're going to start a podcast, because it's going to really help you to then decide the what. So our next one is what are you going to talk about? So once you know who you're going to talk to, the what is absolutely vital because there are so many podcasts out there. So when people are coming to choose yours to listen to, you want them to be able to know what they're going to get from you. And you want that to be relevant because that's how you kind of either attract or polarize, which is what we want to do. We want to have your audience dialed in so that what you're saying is relevant to them. And so then you can figure out the what. So then we figure out the why. So for some people, with Good morning Carla, for some people when it comes to podcasting, there's no why at all. And there's nothing wrong with that. It is okay to do a podcast purely for entertainment reasons and for your own things. I mean, one of like my first podcast, the Female Advantage, was literally for my own enjoyment. I was like, I want to have awesome conversations with really kick ass women. That's it. No other why other than that. Now I use it as an engagement technique to really communicate with my audience that are eventually going to become customers of mine. So I'm pretty clear on that why you need to have the purpose with your podcast. If you're going to have it as a commercial thing and going, you know what, we're going to use this to be able to get business. Then there's a whole lot of other things that come into play and that is being really intentional with the info cast. You're often doing a whole lot of top line stuff. So it's like this is kind of the what. And if you want to know the actual how, like the nitty nitty gritty, then become a client and I can share all of that with you, which is how it works for ours. Good morning, Frances. Good morning, Mike. So you want to really be focusing on what your purpose of doing the podcast is, because you're going to have call to actions each week that are going to grow that list, that that's going to grow that engagement. So what I mean by that is if you want to get your one page of how you can create your own podcast, you're going to go to tina tower.com actually, I don't even know if this is published Yet I really should have checked this before I actually did it. I think it's Tina Tower.com forward/79 for the page. No, it's not up yet. So for people that are listening later, it will be up. For people that are on now, don't go yet. So because the this is episode 79 of the podcast, we will put a call to action there so that people can go and download the things that they need to download. So that means that anyone that wants to create a podcast will then go there, and then they'll be on my email list, which means I can continue the conversation and continue that nurturing. Good morning, Belinda. So I can see a couple of people that are on here already, already have podcasts, which is great. So if you haven't started a podcast yet. So I've gone over the who, the what, the why. Make sure you know you're doing it. Because for a lot of people, they'll come to me and they'll say, you know, I've done 100 episodes of my podcast, but I'm really not seeing any spike in inquiries that come through to us or I don't know if it's worth it from a business and a commercialization point of view. And if you're in that sort of scenario, it means you're not putting enough call to actions in there. You're not inviting people to come and take that next step of business with you. And that comes down to putting that out there, having those call to actions, and being ready for that sort of thing. Because I find podcasting is an amazing way to create business. Because for me, if you look at the statistics, the average podcast will have 117, I think it is listens per week, which for a lot of people, it doesn't sound like much, but that's 117 people that have you in their ears and they're listening to you. For a lot of people, if you're talking with that many people every week, that's absolutely incredible. That's amazing. And so you don't want to lose that opportunity to then say, hey, if you like what I'm putting out there, jump into contact, email me@podcastinatower.com and ask me any questions that you've got, and I'm happy to answer them for you. And that way, you're connecting with people on another level. All right. Belinda said, I have that many. Nice. So Belinda is above average, which is awesome. Hi, Kathy, how are you? Hi, Carlos. Carlos said he loves my organizing of my books behind my shelf we're color coded on my bookshelf. I love it too. Okay, so if you're wanting to start your own podcast, if you don't have one yet, you can get the free sheet from me. Just email podcastina tower.com and ask for your free podcasting sheet and I'll send this to you in a checklist form. But basically, it's very, very easy to set up. So it's one of the reasons I love podcasting so much is that you could be set up in a couple of days. You can go on, you can order your mics. So the mic that I'm using at the moment is a rode podcaster mic. Prior to this, for my first, like, 50 episodes of my podcast, I use rode lapel mics. So rode lapel mics cost about, I think they're somewhere between 60 and $80, and they just plug straight into your phone or straight into your computer. So super easy. The sound quality is pretty damn fantastic. One of the main reasons I got my podcaster mic was so I had an easy desktop mic, so that when I'm having lots of zoom calls with and that sort of thing, I had good sound quality and didn't have to shout all the time. Because you know when you're having a zoom with your computer and it's like you're like, shouting because you're worried they can't hear you. By the end of the day, I was just having too many conversations. I was like, I really need a microphone. And the other reason was that it looks really cool and makes me feel professional. I'm not ashamed to say, I just love it. So that's a podcast, a mic. So you want to get your mic sorted. Once you have that, you have all the equipment to get your podcast going. That's the only hardware that you really need. Now when you first search, like, podcast hardware and what I do for that, you can end up with, like, a whole heap of things. You can get mixing boards, you can get all of this sort of stuff. But I always take solace in that. What you. You don't need all that much. I will listen to a lot of really good podcasts that have, you know, half a million downloads a week, and they use ro lapel mics, like a $50 mic. It's incredible. So you don't need that much. Then you want to start setting up your intro and your outro. So every time that a podcast comes on, of course, for people that listen to podcasts, you know, you have the intro and then you have the outro. So this is perfect timing for Francis's question of where do you get the music for the intro and outro? There are heaps of places that you can get music. I use a company called Music Bakery. So Music Bakery is a whole heap of music clips that you can get. Costs around 30, $35 for a licensed piece of music that you're allowed to use on your podcast as many times as you like. That's in about 60 second blocks. So it's not easy trying to decide what sort of music you want. I know you can waste a day doing this in kind of going through and going. You listen to all of the different little clips and you're like, oh, I like the sound of that. Do I want to sound like Rocky or do I want to have Tren Tranquility? Or do I want to have like the piano or do I want to have like the super built up motivational music? Like, there's so many different options that you can choose. And so I would set a time limit on yourself and go like in 30 minutes you have to choose the best thing that you've heard so far. Otherwise you can waste hours and hours going through every single different clip because there are thousands of them. So kind of think about what you want for the feel of your podcast and then go with something that is in line with that. So then, then you get your music and then you want to first record your intro and your outro. So it's figuring out what do you want to say on that. And so you're obviously going to do your introduction. This is where the who comes in and the what comes in. Because I think on the intro you want to be really clear. Talk specifically to that person who you're making this podcast for and tell them every time how they can take the next action with you. So, like one of mine and how we start a lot of conversations is every time on the outro we say, have you got any questions? If I can help you with anything, email me podcastinatower.com and so we're repeating that over and over again so that if someone's stuck on a business thing or they've got a question about the episode, they can very simply get in contact. And that way we can start the conversation. Because you don't want to be elusive, you don't want to, you know, have people want to engage you further and want to start something with you, but not know how. And so having that in there all the time is really, really helpful. So then you want to Design your cover art. Now, for people that love design, you want to keep your cover art super duper simple. So you don't want to make it really fandangled. You don't want to have all this crazy design on there because it's tiny. So when a lot of people are seeing it, they're seeing it on their phones, which is about a centimeter by a centimeter. So very, very, very itty bitty. So a lot of people will put something like the title on the front. They will put a picture of themselves and the name of the podcast. That's it. That's all you want. Make it simple, make it punchy again, keep it in line with the branding of what else you've got, and then that's it. So you can get something done like that on Fiverr. So Fiverr is something that I use a lot for itty bitty things like that tasks. So that's F I V E R R. And you can put that on there or Mike says, thankful that Tina is helping me actually convert our audience for her coaching and guidance. Thanks, Mike. Mike is one of my coaching clients. So for that, and that's an important part, we do want to focus on converting clients. We do want to focus on having a call to action that people can use that can then engage you. If that's the purpose of your podcast. Sometimes people, that's not the purpose of your podcast. So it's working out what is the purpose and really being in line with that. Okay, where was I up to? I was talking about COVID art. Making it simple using Fiverr. So you can do it. Using Fiverr will cost you about $10. Or you can do it yourself in a program like Canva, if you don't have any of those design programs. So you want to keep it n simple. Okay. Then we look at hosting. So you've got your cover, you've got your description written, you've got your intro and your outro. You've got your first episode. So we want to do for episode zero, I would do a really short, like three to five minute. This is what you can expect from my podcast going forward. And that's the first one that you put online. So I use Libsyn for mine. That's L, I, B, S Y N. That is the hosting company that I use. The reason I use it is it's one of the biggest. So it costs about $15 a month, depending on how many episodes you're publishing. But for most people, it's about $15 a month and because most of the big ones use it. It's never gone down, so I've never had a problem with it. It pushes out to everything really easily. So you can put it on Libsyn and it'll push out automatically to Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher. What are all the other ones? There's lots of other ones, but it pushes out automatically to all that. Iheartradio, there's quite a few that it goes on there. And so I go for simplicity and reliability, which is why I got that one. Now, if you don't go Libsyn, there's a whole heap of other podcast hostess and so you can have research, do your own research and figure out what one is going to be right for you. But that's the one that I use. So then when you've got your first episode, you upload it onto Libsyn. It'll then take some time to index across to to both Google Play and both Apple podcasts as well. So this is why we do episode zero is it's not like you can go on and go, okay, when I first release my podcast, I'm going to load it onto Libsyn and then I'll do a big launch tomorrow. Because you don't know when it's going to be indexed on the main podcast apps that people listen on. And so I recommend putting out episode zero first and then just waiting because it can take anywhere from. It could be there the next day, it could be there in 14 days. That's kind of the top line. Most people, it's there in like three to five days. So you want to put that out and you have your next episodes ready to go, but you don't put anything else out until you see that show up in the podcast listening apps. And so then as soon as that hits, you go, okay, now I'm getting ready to launch. So it's up there. You do your big social media promotion in going, whoop, whoop, here we go. It's out here, it's there. And then as soon as that comes out, then put episode one, and then 48 hours later, put episode two. The reason that I do that straight away is because it's likely when you do that, that it'll hit the top charts. And so if you want to be able to say, you know, when our podcast was released, we were on the iTunes top 10, which is always a nice thing. If you follow that system, you'll get in the iTunes top 10. It may only be for like an Hour, so keep an eye out, but it'll usually jump up there, and then it'll start to taper down because you've got that high activity when you first go. Said ours got approved last week and was indexed within 48 hours. Good work, Sammy. So Sammy is just releasing her new online course and podcast to go with that, too. Sammy, put it in the comments so that people can see the link to your new podcast as well. So people can do that. Good morning, Clint. Clint has an absolutely sensational podcast for dance studio owners. He's up to, Clint, how many episodes are you up to? Like, hundreds. So the thing with podcasting, and I will mention that now, too, is a lot of people will start a podcast and not continue because it sounds really simple. It sounds simple to go, you know what? I'm going to reach hundreds of people every week, or thousands of people every week. It's very cheap. And all it's going to take is an hour of my time, easy. And a whole lot of people do that, and they really enthusiastically do it for six weeks, and then they're like, oh, my gosh, I've got to do another episode again. How am I going to do that? And so a lot of podcasts that get started actually stop. So Clint just said he has done five years of podcasting every single week. Round of applause for that one. That's commitment, but that's the consistency that it takes to be really super successful in podcasting. And so when it comes time you first got got, you've got it launched, it's out there, it's there in the universe. How you then create it to be one of the good podcasts, the ones that get the thousands of listens a week, the ones that convert into paying clients, is by showing up consistently and adding massive value again and again and again. And you want to make that easy for yourself. So for me, the way I make it easy is in an ideal world, I batch. So what I mean by that is one day every month, I spend the morning recording podcast episodes for that whole month, and then they can get pushed out. And it's not taking me too much time to be able to do that. Now, I say in an ideal world because it's amazing how often I'm catching my tail. I go, whoop, I missed batching day because other things came up, and I've got to record, like, the day before it goes on. And at the moment, that's what we're doing because we're in the midst of coronavirus. Everything that I have had pre recorded was now no longer relevant. Like one of my episodes that was supposed to hit last week was creating a high end retreat because the week before we were supposed to have our high level Mastermind retreat in Palm Springs. Now I couldn't put that on last week because our Mastermind retreat ended up being virtual. And so it just was kind of not relevant anymore. And so now I recorded a new episode with how to run a virtual retreat, which will go up next week. So sometimes you can batch and have all the intentions, but like when the bushfires were on, when this is on, you want to kind of adapt the message to be relevant to right now. And so yeah, Micah said a ton of work and dedication for a podcast, which it does. It does take that. But I think it's very worth it because what you, the effort that you put in for the reward is huge. So let me just give you an example of repurposing content with the podcast because that's one of the biggest things to keep in mind when you've got an established podcast that's out there, how much you can use that content to create other content and other leads. So when we do our podcast, Sammy's put hers in the comments there. So if anyone has a podcast already, feel free to drop it in the comments so that everyone else can check yours out as well. So when we create our podcast, it takes about 45 minutes to an hour's effort from me. So the way I record is I will dot point out what I want to go over and then I just start speaking. So I don't ever write word for word what I'm going to say. I did a couple of times to trial it and it sounded terrible because it takes a really special skill to be able to read something word for word and have it not sound read and rehearsed. And I just don't think it's as engaging or interesting. So I always keep a list of dot points and then that's kind of what I'll go over. So like for today's one, I've got who, what, why Process. That's my notes for today. And so I have to be reminded to go over those things. And then happy days. That's what I wanted to record and so I'll do that. But then what happens with it is my team can then create lots and lots of other bits of content out of my one hour of effort. So from this they'll then get the video of coffee and coaching and it will then go up onto YouTube. It'll also go onto Instagram TV. Then we get the audio, we extrapolate that out and it'll go up on the podcast. The 60 second highlight will then go onto the headliner app which creates one of the Instagram posts, which is how we get a lot of listens is people will listen to that 60 second highlight go, oh, I like the sound of that, I want to hear more. And they'll jump through to the rest of the episode. We then get the transcription and that goes on the website, which helps our SEO. We then then from the transcription do a summary and that becomes a blog post with some dot points which also helps SEO and helps the people that go, you know what, I'm not into podcast listening. I still like to just read dot point things. Then we get the quotes and they become social media posts there as well. From that one piece of content that I spend an hour creating, we've kind of got like another 10 pieces of content to use throughout the week. So it's massively beneficial in terms of content creation and adding value and reaching out audience no matter where they are there as well. So Sammy said episode zero is there for now. So Sammy, if you've indexed, hurry up and get those next ones out. So get episode one out today, get episode two out in two days time so then you can get that ranking up there as well. So Frances is going to launch this week with your Forever home with Frances Cosway. Love it, Love it. Okay, the other thing that I want to touch on is, is how to actually edit. So there are a lot of different programs that you can use to actually create your podcast. Because I use Adobe a lot already. I use InDesign and Illustrator on a daily basis to do a whole lot of design stuff. I use Audition, which is the Adobe program. It's just the one that I've got already. It's the one that's easy for me. I can record directly into it with my microphone and just top and tail the intro and outro and it's good to go. So that way one is the one that I use. That does not necessarily mean that that's the right one for you to use. I would look at what you already have access to in your suite, in your toolbox and then kind of pick what's going to work there. So Audacity is a nice easy one to use. Descript is a nice easy one to use. But have a play with different ones and figure out what's going to be the easiest for you. Because really you just want to drag and drop solution. So you want to be able to kind of of drag your intro in there, drag your main interview, drag your outro, and balance your sound levels nice and easily. And that's about it. I'm not a fan of, like, super over editing, so, like, if you can hear birds in the background, for example, I won't edit that out. I'll leave that in there because, well, I think it sounds nice. The only thing I'll ever stop and edit out is if my dog barks really badly, which does happen sometimes. And that is probably the hardest part of podcasting, is actually finding quiet time, especially at the moment, because everyone's on quarantine, so everyone's all at their homes with the rest of the families. So my poor kids, the amount of times they've been told in the last week or two when I'm on calls or when I'm on webinars, or when I'm recording podcasts, and I'm like, do not make a sound. It's not easy. But that's. That's kind of the stuff that you're going to go through with that. So, Sammy, good question. She's asked, how many hours does your team spend on creating all those other assets? So it takes about three or four hours a week to be able to get that and create all the social media assets that go with that and to push it out across all of those different platforms. So about an hour from me and about three or four from them. So it's quite a time commitment, but totally well worth it in terms of the output and the results that we get from there. So I've talked about editing interviews, so if you're doing other people. So I do a combination on my podcast, as you know from listening, of ones that are just me and ones where I interview others. Now, if I'm ever going to interview others, I like to do it in person wherever possible, because the sound quality is always much better. And I find the conversation flows really, really well as well. If that's not possible, though, I go for Zoom. And again, when you're doing it on Zoom, you just always want to make sure that they have good sound quality first. So always telling people, make sure you've got a microphone plugged in, make sure you've got headphones, make sure you've got it all sorted, because there's not much you can do if you've got really good sound quality and they're kind of shouting at their computer. It's an editing nightmare. And it's not very nice for the listener, but sometimes there's nothing you can do about that. So I would always ask them for that first. And then you record on zoom. So zoom is the easiest way to do it. Record it again. Same with what I said before. You've then got the video that can go up on Facebook Live. It can go up not on Facebook Live, but it can go on Facebook video. It can go up on Instagram TV, it can go up on YouTube. You can get the audio, you can put it on the podcast, you can get the transcription, you can get the blog post, you can get all the things. And then I would give them the COVID but with them on the COVID So your podcast cover, but with them on it. Because what that does is it then allows that person to push it out on their social media channels, but with them on the front, which then increases all of your engagement and the listenership that you have as well. Okay, so that is the overview of podcast. Does anybody have any questions about how to start or grow their podcast? Let me know in the comments there. Okay, so I've got database. Should we share it on? The database is one of the ones that I've got here. So it's a good way as well, if you're sending a weekly email to your database to be able to say, hey, here's the new episode that can help you and to give them the downloads that correspond with that as well. All right, no other questions coming through. So hopefully that helps you in podcasting. As I said, massive podcast fan. I do think it's one of the best mediums that we can use at the moment. It's one of the cheapest that you can use to reach that amount of people, and it gives you so many other opportunities to be able to market and have valuable content that can go out as well. So get podcasting. If you're stuck on anything or you want what everything that I've just said in a checklist form, email me podcastinatower.com and I will send that through. Francis has asked how many podcasts a month should be interviews. With podcasting, there's no rules, so you can make up your own rules. It all comes into the purpose of the podcast. So I kind of do a one interview for every two or three solo ones, but that's just how my pattern ends up. So you could have 100% interviews. Totally, totally up to you. One of my favorite things about podcasts is there's no rules. It doesn't matter how long you go for. You can go for five minute episodes, you can go for 50 minute episodes, you can do two a week, you can do one a week, you can do three a week, it doesn't matter. So it's working out that who is it for? What would they want? What are you going to include in there? So you can be really, really specific on your message and why? So what is the purpose of it? And that will help answer all of those other questions as well. Stacy said, so helpful. You're welcome. We've got so many episodes recorded, but just need to get it launched. Yes, launch that baby. So hopefully that has helped running through the process of how to get that launched and it makes it nice and simple. People can make a really big deal out of starting a podcast and being like, oh my gosh, there's so much involved. I like. One of my favorite quotes that I've got up on my wall is what if it was easy? And it's a question I asked myself again and again and again. And it comes into podcasting. It doesn't need to be that complicated. Do it nice and simply and easily and just get it up there and get it launched and start connecting with your audience in a really, really intimate way, which is beautiful. Francis has said you have a mic and a stand or it all comes together. So I use the rode lapel mics and then I've got the rode podcaster mic that I' talking on at the moment. And I've also got the arm that goes with that which attaches to my desk. So I would recommend that otherwise I would be holding it and using it like Mariah Carey, which I would probably get carried away with. So it's a good thing that I have the arm. Alrighty, everyone, get podcasting. Any questions again, email me and I will send you that checklist and help you get going. Have an absolutely fabulous week. See you later.