In this instructional video, Shaun Whynacht explains the foundational steps for launching a successful podcast. He begins by dispelling the misconception that podcasts must function as direct advertising tools, emphasizing instead that they are akin to weekend radio talk shows designed to build relationships and showcase personality. Shaun advises creators to identify a unique angle that blends their business expertise with personal passions—using examples like a florist who loves motorcycling or a technical entrepreneur who cooks—to make the show distinctive. He then links the chosen format to appropriate equipment, suggesting lightweight handheld recorders or phone apps for mobile setups rather than bulky studio gear. The core message stresses the need for commitment, a consistent theme, and a clear, unique positioning that will attract listeners. Finally, Shaun assigns homework: spend time brainstorming and narrowing down podcast ideas to one that truly reflects the creator’s individuality, ensuring the concept is both original and sustainable.
Chapters
Okay, so the first thing that goes into creating a podcast is first understanding what type of podcast you want to create. Now, when you're thinking about podcasting, it's usually lumped in there with marketing and digital marketing. And a lot of people, when they think of digital marketing, they think, okay, this is advertising, that's what this needs to be. You know, it needs to be almost like an ad. I need to go on, I need to talk about my products and my service all the time. Well, let's just squash that myth because that is not exactly what a podcast needs to be or even should be. You see, a podcast is like a weekend radio show. I mean, if you've had a chance to listen to your local radio over the years and you have like a Saturday or Sunday morning show, it's like a talk show. It's very conversational. It's not heavy on advertising. It's not heavy on sales. But the purpose behind it is to build relationships, make connections. And as a small business owner, you are passionate about something, right? Obviously you're passionate about your business or you wouldn't be in it, but I bet you there's something about you that you're even more passionate about that really makes you, you. And that's where your podcast can come in and do that. Obviously you're going to portray the expertise and the knowledge that you have in your business if that's the purpose of your podcast is to grow your business and build your fan base so that people will ultimately come and do business with you and buy your products and services. But the key is to build in a little bit of flair. Make it you. I mean, your podcast is all about you and it's about that personalized touch that you can bring to it. So let's just say, you know what, you are in the flower business. You know, you make flower arrangements. Now you can go and do a podcast and talk about different flowers and things like that, you know what, but maybe What you like to do is you like to ride your motorcycle, right? When you're not working, you are an avid motorcyclist, you love to tour around your area. Well, in that case, maybe what your podcast could be is you taking a mobile recorder, going out on your bike, cruising around, seeing different sites, and at different locations either interviewing people, talking to people, or just sitting there and recording your podcast. From these different locations. This would make this more personal and that would make it more about you. Now, let's just say you are somebody who likes to cook and you have a business that's fairly technical, has nothing to do with cooking. Well, maybe you're going to do a podcast in the kitchen where you're going to cook a recipe, but while you're cooking the recipe, you're going to talk about a certain topic or maybe you're going to bring in a specific guest. Into it. You know what, there's a ton of different combinations out there for your podcast. You just need to figure out what is going to work best for you. And once you understand and pick that topic and how you're going to be portraying it and recording it, that's going to really determine what type of equipment and technology you need. For example, like when I told you about the motorcycle one a few seconds ago, you're probably not going to cart around a big heavy audio mixer on your motorcycle so that you can record there. No, it just logically doesn't make sense. Most likely you're probably not going to be using these type of studio microphones. You're going to have like a handheld recorder. We're going to show you one in another video when we talk about technology that we use. Or maybe you're just going to go light and you're going to use an app to record audio on your phone and you're just going to dictate into that and then you're going to go ahead and create that into a podcast. But the number one thing is that you need to commit to doing a podcast. This is something where you just can't say, okay, today I'm going to do a podcast, I'm going to turn on my phone, I'm just going to record, I'm just going to ramble. It's not going to work that way. What you need to do is you need to figure out what that theme is. What is that consistent feel? What is that unique position of the podcast that's going to make people say, you know what, I want to listen to this, this is cool, this is something that I haven't heard before or seen before, a combination that has never been put together before. This is going to make people want to listen to you. And then we can look at how do you then start the podcast, how do you record the podcast, how do you edit the podcast, how do you publish the podcast, and all those topics we're going to cover in the upcoming videos. So here's your homework right now. If you're serious about podcasting and you seriously say, you know what, Shaun, I definitely want to do a podcast, I want to do it. Take a piece of paper, sit down, spend 10, 20, 30 minutes today and just write out some ideas. And then stew over them, think about what they would be and then try to narrow that down to one exact idea. Once you have that gem, what I want you to do is grab a hold of it with all your passion and run with it. Because even if you went out to your friends and family and say, hey, I'm thinking about doing a podcast that's talking about flowers and motorcycles. They're not going to get it, right? They're just going to be like, well, I don't really understand. And if you're not prepared for that, you're going to be deflated and you're going to be like, you know what, maybe this isn't right. But you know what? It is right because this is something you're creating. If everyone else has done it before, people will know about it. You don't want to do something that everyone else has done before. The podcasts that are successful, the people who have created an audience and a following that have had huge amounts of success with podcasting have done it with a unique twist and a unique trend that they have created about themselves. So that is your homework. Come up with your idea list, start to narrow it down, but make sure you find one that is exactly you.
