How To Start A Top 10% Podcast

Hello and welcome to the You Can Podcast. I'm your host Sarah Jolly Jarvis and today we're going to be talking around how to start your own podcast.
And I'm going to go through step by step with you what sort of things you need to be thinking about and what you need to be doing. So if you've been thinking about starting a podcast for some time but you're feeling overwhelmed by all the tech and setup, you are not and this episode is for you so I started the you can podcast off the back of my selling without sleeves podcast that was out there for I'm just shy of 200 episodes and you know now we're in a position where we are just over six months on you've got this is the 30th episode which is why I thought I would share that, share my knowledge with you at this stage.
There's been over 37,000 downloads of this podcast across 42 countries. So today, what I wanted to do was share with you how to go about creating your own podcast around your chosen topic area, around something that is passionate to you.
And that's what I would encourage you to do before we even get started on the steps and the processes and the strategy and everything is to think about actually, you know, what lights me up? What am I going to want to talk about week in, week out? And is actually my topic area enough? Now, I was speaking to somebody recently who I was supporting with their podcast setup, and they were actually quite niche with their focus their focus was a particular area of marketing and with that they were hoping they were wanting to do weekly podcast episodes for their audience on various elements of that the thing is is for your audience that is a small pocket of a much bigger picture. And so you want to be

thinking around, if you want, if you're creating this podcast, we will come on to the strategy behind your podcast in a moment. But if you are wanting to create a podcast for your ideal client, then, you know, sometimes you want to think beyond your area, beyond your remit to their bigger, their wider concerns.
We'd all love to think that actually their main priority is exactly what I do but in reality it's not um in the vast majority of the time you know even with me um with sales and marketing and generating for your bit leads for your businesses you know you've got other things in there you've got areas in there that actually aren't necessarily my speciality but you've got accounting and things like that that you want to be thinking around and getting involved with so you know it is really important to um to kind of acknowledge that and be realistic with how committed am I going to get people in the long term are people going to tune in week after week after week if I'm only talking about a very small segment and how can I better serve these people and that's what it's all about I love talking business I would talk any element of business. I know I'm sales and marketing heavy, but I am really aware that there are so many different elements to running people's businesses.
And that's what I want to bring to the table and share with you. So it is worth considering, you know, what's in it for them.
So that kind of feeds into sort of the first step. I'm going to go through five key steps with you on this podcast this evening um the first one evening my time sorry shouldn't do that should you on a podcast anyway I'm going to move on and not edit that out so step one is choose your concept so what's your podcast topic um you know what's your niche are you going for a real niche niche where you're not necessarily going to have you know reams and reams of seasons and and all different aspects to talk around or you're going to go with a broader appeal which you know could go into the hundreds of episodes then the kind of next thing is is thinking around okay so if you know who you're aiming it at you know what's the sort of topic you want to focus on what you want to call it and what I would encourage you to do here is make it clear make it memorable and make it kind of do what it says on the tin and obviously you want it to be aligned with your audience want to be appealing to your audience so I'm a big fan of of saying what things do that's why I do it in my podcast that's what I tend to do with a lot of my labeling because people then they know what they're getting into people want to name things obscure stuff um you know like oh well coca-cola did it nike did it yeah they did

but they're bigger brands and you know they were starting in a different place and um you know i would it it provides no clarity and so people actually have to take the time to bother to get to know what it is then you're talking around so you know in a world where people are increasingly spoon-fed I would spoon-feed them what it is that you are actually providing and offering which is why you can is all around the fact that you can and inspiring women in business which is what it says in its title then you've obviously got the sort of format do you want to go solo in every episode do you want to do a interviews do you want to do co-hosting do you want to do a mixture of solo and interviews what is it that you're wanting to do as far as structure is concerned what is the format for those episodes what how long do you want it to be all those kind of things um you want to be thinking around in that kind of initial step um 20 minutes is the kind of optimal uh last time i looked into it that's what i tend to aim for with this uh podcast sometimes it's a little bit longer sometimes a little bit less um at the end of the day i'm not going to try and squeeze more time out of something if i've kind of already said it is my kind of thought process i feel really respectful of the time that people give to things and so you know i don't want to be rabbiting on when i don't need to and trust me that, that is actually quite hard. So you've got that.
You also want to think around what do I want to get out of this? Why am I doing a podcast? Is it because I love speaking into a microphone and being committed to making content every week? Is it the fact that actually I prefer to talk than write? Is it the fact that you want to reach your audience in a different way? Is it the fact that you want to actually interview potential clients? And that's something that I was really quite surprised when I found out that people did this. But you will interview people, it'll be an in.
And so, you know, you'll get into an organization or you'll get in to speak to a particular individual, because you've invited them on the podcast, then you'll start talking about their challenges. And that is when they'll start looking at working with you.
And and that was kind of news to me I kind of always came to it from serving your audience in those people which are listening but it wasn't actually about the listeners it was about the interviewees and getting striking up that conversation which was very very interesting you now see actually in some of the podcasting groups when they're asking for coaches or experts and they basically want to sell you something and they've already got actually like a landing page and everything else where they're selling you

into extra stuff um puts me right off and I never ever go through with being interviewed on those

podcasts because I just can't be bothered it's just it's that's not a place I want to come from they're not serving the audience that's actually listening which I just find really strange but anyway so moving on from that step you know your intentions and everything else the next thing is to think about your tech and your setup you don't have to go crazy with this i've had a client who has just bought um the same microphone as me which is a yeti i have then a like little um it looks like a little book it's like a little sound booth bit around it to um reduce the amount ofing. If you are in an echoey space,

then you might want to look at doing that. I'll come onto that in a moment.

Your minimum viable though is your microphone, your recording software. So basically you've got it on some sort of computer and then headphones.
Recording tools on top of that, you've got lots of different options out there. I tend to go with either Riverside or actually use Garage garage band because i am completely appled and so and those are the the things that i tend to use um there are obviously other options for recording i know actually quite a few kind of trainers within um podcasting and now encouraging people just to use zoom whereas riverside was always the preferred because it did optimize the sound.
I have had technical problems with Riverside where the delay, the lag has been so much that I've had to re-record, which recently has put me off. But that was a lot more to do with my Wi-Fi than the platform itself.
But it was something that I was experiencing on Riverside, but not on Zoom. So, you know, obviously Zoom has kind of improved, particularly since lockdown.
And so, you know, that is an option for you as well. As far as hosting platforms are concerned, there is Buzzsprout, the Spotify, Red Circle.
You need to host it somewhere. So you need to host it somewhere.
And then you basically put out little bits of string called rss feeds to your different um providers so spotify apple etc etc so you have to keep it in one place and then you kind of connect the dots together um to go look here and you will whenever this is updated here then put it on your platform is basically what you're doing so you don't have to to go to each platform and do the uploads each time. So that's kind of the best way of doing it.
As far as your editing is concerned, I edit on GarageBand when I'm doing solo, when I am doing interviews with other people, it tends to be on Riverside. The reason for that is Riverside, despite his little glitches with me, has got a really good editing tool it does little magic little excerpts and snippets and all sorts of stuff so i thoroughly enjoy on there i know that descript and d-e-s-d-r-i-p-t has um you know improved i really enjoyed editing on descript because i think you can just highlight actual phrases um it can also take out the ums and the ahs and I do um a lot just generally and so it is very helpful to be able to sort of remove those all in one go and it can do those filler words.
I don't tend to put things through Descript as much as I used to. Riverside tends to be for the interviews.
If I find myself umming and ahhing too much, then I will stop my recording on my GarageBand and edit as I go. I do not use an editor anymore.
I used to have an editor. I used to pay him $60 an episode.
And in all honesty, Riverside can come up with better excerpts. And for when I'm doing the interviews, I'm not too

fussed with the solo episodes. I should be really, but I'm not.
And so for the effort involved,

I haven't bothered to have somebody. I find it helpful to be able to listen

back to my podcasts and see how I went on. So that's the kind of

second step is your kind of basic stuff, your basic editing, your tech setup. Then looking at step three, it's recording and editing.
So scripts versus bullet points. I am not a fan of scripts, but if you don't give me bullet points and structure, then I go off on random weird and wonderful tangents as it is, even with a structure in place that I have created, I will go through and I will still jump ahead and I'll still put things in the wrong place but I'm still got more of a structure more of a backbone to my episodes than if I was to go off on a random I don't agree with scripts I sound terrible I sound robotic and it becomes then acting and it doesn't feel real so you know you generally have conversations even really quite difficult ones even confrontational

ones you don't tend to have a script you might have bullet points to make sure you cover stuff so you know that makes sense to I think be human and use your bullet points I would encourage you to find a quiet space to record background noises and apps at pain the bottom I am currently in our work office I do this I I record the podcast episodes where I'm solo actually when my daughter and son are at Beavers which is just down the road from the office so I'll do that it's quiet in the office in the evening because it's always between sort of five and six o'clock if I was in here during the day we have those soft closed doors which actually the hinges are so loud on them that i don't know why they bother and so i presume it's to keep the walls from falling down but you know there's no point and in trying to record anything when other human beings around so i always do it in that quiet time i have known people who do it in their airing cupboards and soft places the more soft upholstery you have the better this is probably a little echoey um ideally i'd have a sofa in here um but i tend to not work in this office i tend to work at home so um i can't really go rearranging it with plush furnishings and fluffy cushions um when my husband is not going to really appreciate it so um think about the acoustics but don't you know don't overdo it at the end of the day you're better to record stuff and it be a little bit tinny than not bother at all. Then you know as far as cutting out mistakes I have already said around doing the editing as I go so if I make a mistake I'll pause it I'll chop it back out'll do it there.
And then I find that a lot easier, but for some people you might find that it cuts your flow. As far as publishing and getting out onto the platforms, you set up your podcast hosting, and then you will tell it, like I said before, the little bit of strings, the little bit of communication that RSS feed to your Spotify, to your Apple podcast, et cetera, et cetera.
You want to then write interesting, compelling episode titles and descriptions to encourage people to listen in. Obviously, you know, you want to, you don't want to go crazy.
I don't think in my opinion, you know, the proper hyped up there, be honest, what is in the episode? If you have, I would

encourage you to have Canva. I mean, doesn't everybody have Canva? If you don't have Canva,

then Canva is amazing. But, you know, obviously, from a business point of view, the vast majority

of business owners do have access to Canva. And you can even get the free version and you can

create podcasts. You've got some templates going on on there.
So that would be my go-to. Again, previously for Selling That Sleaze, I paid somebody to do my cover art.
It's crazy how quickly time moves on. That was 2020, four years later.
And I was like, obviously I do it myself. You've got templates, you've got other bits out there, I follow the design that I've had from the designer and then actually to be fair I had a design revamp done on my business and as part of that they did do the tile but it wouldn't be something that I would do separately and particularly not when you're first starting out.
You can get inspiration from the other podcasts in your niche and go from there would be my encouragement on the way forwards then as far as growing and monetizing your podcast is concerned you know you can promote it i would encourage you to start with use social media use your email list use collaborations to get the information out there and get people to to start supporting your podcast and having that launch that big push so you can be in a position where you are able to to really get that energy and enthusiasm behind it can be really really helpful you can use your podcast to do all sorts of directing of your listeners to different offers to different leads different resources based on the theme of that podcast episode you know and that long-term strategy is always around your consistency consistently turning up makes so much difference consistency is like yeah I feel like you know if you were to force me to have another tattoo it would probably be in relation to business it would be the word consistency um you'd have to prettify it out there when you, but anyway, um, so, you know,

you want that long-term strategy to have that consistency in there, to have engagement of your audience and obviously to look at ways to monetize it, to get it to pay for itself, to get it to provide you with some sort of return for the effort you're going to be putting in. Now, if this sounds a little bit like what on earth, where do I start? Don't worry I've made it a super simple for you I put together a good few months ago now a step-by-step guide that walks you through everything with over-the-shoulder videos and how you set stuff up etc I've kept adding to it I've kept running clients through it I am really really happy with it it is a fantastic resource it to launch, it helps you to record, it helps you with all that strategy without all the overwhelm.
I'm putting that out for you guys. I'm only going to be charging £27 for it.
You get instant access, it takes out all that guesswork. You see, I went and said that there was nobody in the office and then there was somebody in the office banging said doors anyway um you know it's direct access instant access um all you have to do is head to the link which is in the show notes um or sorry show description um and in there you can go straight through to the offer pay your money and access it straight away if you have any questions on it then there is information in there on how to get in touch with me so that i can support you i'm happy to jump on a quick call if you need to if you have any questions i am here to help as much as i possibly can okay so that is it from this week guys i am off to collect my kids so i will say thank you so much for listening and if you've enjoyed this episode if you want to support the podcast if you don't want to start your own podcast then you know you don't have to obviously go on and start one or download the resource you can simply like review subscribe and share this podcast with anybody you feel could benefit from it so that's it for me this week guys i look forward to speaking to you again next week in the meantime have a great rest of your week and i will speak to you soon bye for now