I started a podcast on a whim a few months ago. My blog readers had been asking me for one and I knew they were popular in finance. So, one weekend I decided to just do it. Truth be told, it was kind of an experiment just to see if I would even be able to keep up with it.
Six months later and I’m happy to report I’m still podcasting. I’ve also learned some important lessons along the way that I believe have improved my podcasting skills. In this post, I’m going to share these lessons in case anyone else is considering starting a podcast.
It’s more work than you think it will be, so plan accordingly.
I knew that starting a podcast was going to be a lot of work, I just didn’t know exactly how much work. Between recording, editing, scheduling guests, writing a post and repurposing the content for social media outlets like YouTube, podcasting takes a lot of work behind the scenes.
I started my podcast during the slow season in my business, so I had a little bit more time to do a weekly episode. As the end of the summer rolled around, I started traveling and had a lot more client work, so I decided to scale back my podcast to twice a month.
Starting a podcast is a golden opportunity for repurposing content.
Even though starting a podcast is a lot of work, it is a golden opportunity for repurposing content and making sure your name is everywhere. For example, I’ll take the audio from a podcast episode and upload it to YouTube. The episodes also automatically go to Libsyn, iTunes and Stitcher.
The reason you want to repurpose content is because it makes the notion of “being everywhere” a lot easier. It also helps tremendously with SEO.
Interviewing other people may be my new favorite thing.
When I first started a podcast, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to interview other people so I just recorded episodes of myself talking. This was okay, but it was so boring.
Eventually, without me going out looking for it, people started asking me if they could be interviewed on my podcast. I was kind of hesitant at first, but it’s pretty much become my new favorite thing.
First of all, I learn from other people. Second, the content is fantastic and everyone loves interviews. Third, it’s fun!
I hate editing.
Because I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue my project after starting a podcast, I didn’t want to invest a whole lot of money into it. I really just wanted to try it out first and then decide whether or not it was worth it.
Well, I’ve learned I absolutely hate editing audio. Like, really hate it. I would rather stick a fork in my hand than mess around with GarageBand.
With that being said, since the podcast has proven to be a great form of marketing, I may look into outsourcing the editing of the audio in 2017.
Final Thoughts
Starting a podcast has proven to be one of the best ideas I ever had for marketing my business. What started out as a little experiment, has turned into a staple for my company.
