065: Podcasting: Behind the Scenes, Paul & Cinnamon

The Good, the Hard, the Costly

We are celebrating one year of publishing episodes on our podcast!! After making the decision to start a podcast in January of 2017, we bought our equipment and started testing it out! You can now record podcasts straight from your phone. The barrier to entry is really low, but just like with blogging, most people have the misconception that it’s harder than it is. Today we just want to talk about the things that go on off-air that go into making this podcast.

Podcasting: Behind the Scenes with Paul & Cinnamon  |  Focus(ed) Podcast 065

Show Notes

Getting started

It actually doesn't take a whole lot to get started with podcasting now, you can even do it on your phone with certain apps. Honestly, we skipped a lot of the baby steps and dove right in with heavier equipment and processing, but there are easier and cheaper ways to do it. Cinnamon’s friend, Kinsey Roberts, was one inspiration for starting a podcast and has since created her own course. We also followed Pat Flynn’s Podcasting Series (which is a bit outdated, but still great) to help us get our start here in the podcast world.

Here’s what it takes

Our process has definitely changed over this last year, along with our housing, which plays a role in our recording process. Once we moved across the country, Paul’s schedule has changed and we also realized there is a time issue with interviewing people on the East Coast. There are several hours invested in each episode before and after we just hit record.Having a really good system in place allows it move move a bit smoother each time. Interviewing people on your show adds a little bit more to your process. We have to set up the interviews, pick a few questions, send all the right links to join, put the audio from garage band, level the audio, and a whole lot more. When you are just doing a show by yourself, there’s still a lot to plan for, but it is a bit easier.

One thing we realized is not to host on your own site. Choosing something like Libsyn allows them to handle the traffic so your site doesn’t crash. You can also see more of your metrics on sites made for podcasts. Another thing to consider is having show notes (like this!) and how do you want to handle them. Are you doing a long form blog post with graphics? It also takes time to put all of it together. We hire both the show notes and graphics out now, but we didn’t at first. You can definitely use podcasting as a daily diary without any of the extras, but if you’re going all in, we want you to be prepared.

Show me the money

Oh, there isn’t any. Our podcast has increased business for us, but we don’t make money directly from this podcast. Unless you have paid sponsorships, you don’t make a whole lot of money for having a podcast. You can use your own affiliate links for your podcast to get a little kick back from products you love, but we see it is another marketing tool to get your name and business out there. We also see it as a great way to educate people on this industry and we love being able to give back to our industry.

Our overall thoughts

Podcasting is much bigger now than it used to be, but we still don’t think it has hit its stride. It is missing some of the social aspects of other platforms. We’ve had our ups and downs through this process, but we’ve loved learning about podcasting and sharing others’ stories with you. Many people feel that being on a podcast is like being on a TV show, and we love being able to give them that feeling and to share our people with you. Having a podcast has been a lot of fun for us.

Cost of running the podcast

The main cost of running a podcast is your time. You can calculate how much your time is worth and add that number here, but it is truly your biggest investment. Once you hire out tasks to people, the cost continues to go up. But you can start a podcast on a budget. Other than that Lisbyn runs about $15/month and Auphonic is about $10 month. Sound boards and mics are another one that you can get at an affordable rate, but just keep in mind the quality of your audio with each piece of equipment you buy.

If you’ve ever wanted to start a podcast, we say just start! Record a couple of episodes and learn as you go.