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How to Start a Podcast

If you’ve been wanting to start a podcast or you’re just really curious what goes on behind the scenes of running a podcast, then this episode is for you. I’m giving you the inside scoop about the specific steps on how to start a podcast from deciding on a name to the tech side of things.

Also, if you’re curious how to become a virtual assistant from the comfort of your home, you’ll love this post HERE!

Step 1: Select Your Name

Podcasts aren’t popping up on Google when you search for them. But when you go into a podcast platform, a lot of times people search for topics. So I would encourage you to include the type of content you’ll discuss in the name of your podcast.

That way, when someone sees your podcast name, they’ll easily understand the type of content you provide.

When deciding on a name, make sure no one else is using it. Obvious, but important! So you can search Google, Instagram and podcasting platforms to verify that your podcast’s proposed name is available.

Step 2: Decide on a Niche

Next, you want to figure out who you want to serve and what topic(s) you want to center your podcast around. And the beautiful thing about podcasting is that you could literally host a podcast around anything. If you love sports and could talk about it for hours on end, that might be a good fit for you.

Step 3: Choose a Format

The third step on how to start a podcast is to select a format for your podcast. Will it be a solo episode with just you? Will it be all guest episodes where a guest comes on the show? Or will it be a hybrid of the two?

The Bold Business is a hybrid. As much as I love talking into the microphone by myself in my closet, I know that there’s value in hearing from others. Business is such an expansive topic that it’s helpful to hear from different experts on certain topics of business.

Step 4: Determine the Episode Frequency

My advice would be to start slow and build from there. I would start with publishing either one episode every other week or one a week. Whatever feels good and attainable for your schedule.

When I first started podcasting, the recording part didn’t take the longest. It was the editing part. So that was the first thing to be outsourced. After I outsourced the editing, I was able to really get into a consistent schedule of publishing one episode every Monday morning.

The Tech for How to Start a Podcast

Step 1: Choose a Hosting Platform

You need a host for all of your podcast episodes because it needs to live somewhere on the internet. If you don’t have a hosting platform, you can’t get it onto platforms like Apple Podcasts etc.

The Bold Business Podcast uses Captivate. But have also heard good things about Libsyn and Anchor. I decided to go with Captivate because it’s user-friendly, great analytics and allows me to create templates for show notes.

Step 2: Choose a Platform to Record Your Podcasts On

I decided to use Zencastr. Again, I love basic, user-friendly things. So Zencastr is free, easy to organize and easy to record. You can record video and audio too.

This platform also can connect to a Dropbox or a Google Drive. So once you’re finished recording an episode, it automatically uploads into whatever you connected to Zencastr.

Step 3: Create Cover Art

The easiest way to create your cover art for your podcast is to use Canva. Type in cover art into the search bar, and a template will pop up that has the exact measurements it needs to be. You can always change your cover art any time.

Step 4: Record Your First Episode and Submit!

Before you can get onto podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you have to have your first episode recorded. You also have to have your show notes written along with your intro and outro to the episode.

With the intro, I used Fiverr to hire someone to create the music that’s in my intro. It was very reasonable compared to paying for music that you have to pay a royalty fee on. And that music that I have is unique to my podcast. So it was a win-win.

Step 5: Edit the Episode

When I was editing my podcast episodes myself, I used a platform called Audacity. It’s completely free and you download it to your computer. With editing episodes, you just need to smooth out the audio, clip away the parts where you might have messed up (totally normal!), and you’re good to go.

Once I had the intro recorded, put the music with the intro, recorded the first episode, edited it and then finalized with the outro, I downloaded it as an MP3 file. Then, I submitted it to places like Spotify.

With a brand new podcast, you have to “apply” to platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher etc. So once you submit your first episode to these platforms, they get back to you within a week whether they’ll approve your podcast or not.

Once they approve it, then you can sync your hosting platform like Captivate to these other platforms. From there, once you record your second episode and beyond, that episode will automatically upload to those approved platforms.

As you can see, it’s not overly complicated. You just have to take it one step at a time!