When I became a mom, I quickly realized that my hands would always be full and my attention would always be focused on something else. Therefore, it made my favorite pasttime of sitting on the couch soaking in a good tv show nearly impossible during the day. Putting on music was a great alternative, but sometimes you want to soak up a good story, learn something new or be entertained by a reality-tv like conversation!
I had listened to podcasts before, but mostly only when Thor and I would go on road trips and indulge in strictly crime podcasts (i.e. Serial, Dirty John, Dr. Death); but it was about this time in my life, when I was caring for a newborn, that I realized podcasts were so much more than Dateline-type stories.
I became obsessed. This was hands down (LITERALLY HA!) my favorite medium ever. I could learn so much while doing so much.
So one day, Becca Booker (my co-host) and I met for coffee at The Henry to catch up and handle some work-related things, when I told her that I was thinking about starting a podcast. I described that I wanted it to be interview style and similar to the types of topics we talk about for our Dames Collective events. I’ll admit, when I said it out loud, it definitely made it more real and more exciting, but I did feel a little scared and nervous to take on something so big all alone. I mean you not only have to take on the financial burden with all of the equipment and software, but you also have to book the guests, edit the show, start and maintain social media accounts, write the show notes, etc… I also was super worried and insecure that I might come off boring and just not have much to give with just little ol’ me!
So quite honestly, I think I felt compelled to tell Becca because I secretly, deep down wanted her to be interested in joining me on this new project! And I know I subconsciously picked her to lure in (lol) because we work so well together; she is so business-minded; and we have a lot of the same interests yet are very different at the same time… it seemed like it would just be the perfect fit.
Then she said, “Wait, I’ve been thinking about it too! Should we do this together??”
I’m like, “HELLLLL YESSSS!!”
And the rest is history… we started brainstorming, coming up with a game plan, a timeline, a list of guests, podcast titles… it was so fun. We ordered our equipment, set up our first six interviews and got to moving!
In the short time we have been working on this project together, we’ve already learned so much. And while we don’t have a ton of experience working in this medium just yet, I really wanted to take what we have learned and share it with you here on my blog.
Let’s get started!
EQUIPMENT
As beginners, we were drawn to the Blue Yeti USB Mic. It’s super easy to use, has great sound quality and I mean, come on, it’s the cutest mic out there. We ending up purchasing these and used them for our first six episodes.
They work great, but we never took into account the environment we would be recording in, which was our office. Our office is one big room in an older building that doesn’t have very soundproof walls and a pretty cranky air conditioning unit.
Therefore, when it came to editing, I had a difficult time because this mic is HOTTTT. Meaning it picks up sound like crazy. So, our voices would pick up on each others mics, and the AC would pick up on every mic. Here’s why this posed a problem in the editing process. Bear with me here.
In a natural conversation, people tend to respond to each other and talk over each other. In times where Becca, myself and our guest got a little too excited and would talk at one time, I thought, “Oh no biggie I’ll just cut out and delete mine and Becca’s tracks and leave the guest’s track alone on the recording so you can hear their full sentence without mine and Becca’s responses or cackling.” Well, because our voices picked up on the guest’s mic, you could still hear us in the background and it sounds like a distant echo. This is no bueno. It does not sound good. V amateur.
So the question was, “How can we control our environment a little bit more? What type of room would be better to record in? Is there anything we can do in the office to make it better?” While we had answers to these questions, we came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t realistic to be recording in the same place every time we had an interview with someone. The best part about interviewing a person is getting the full experience of them in their environment, who they are and how they behave in their comfort zone. We wanted to be nimble and have the ability to go to our guests instead of making them come to us all the time.
Not to mention the Blue Yeti mic keeps you strapped to a computer, which can be risky because well, computers are not always reliable.
So, we decided to buy new equipment.
While I would highly recommend the Blue Yeti, it was a better fit for us, the style of our podcast and the plans we had with how we wanted to interview guests, to just get different equipment. We haven’t recorded with it yet (it just came in the mail), but here is what we got:
Entry Level Mic
USB to Lightning Adapter
Mid Level Mic
XLR Cables
Portable Recorder
Stereo Headphone Amplifier
Pop Filters
Headphones
SOFTWARE
With the Blue Yeti mics, we recorded in Garageband, edit the tracks in Garageband, and then edited multiple final tracks together in Audacity.
With our new equipment, we will use the portable recorder (that has 4 XLR plugs) to record, I’ll upload the files to my computer and solely edit in Audacity. Audacity is free to use!
I’ve been looking into Zencastr because I’ve heard good things, but I’m not exactly sure what it can do just yet and it’s a monthly subscription. So stay tuned on that.
HOSTING PLATFORM
We decided to host our podcast on Libsyn (Liberated Syndication). Libsyn has several different payment plans ranging from $5 – $150. If you’re going to be uploading hour long shows once a week, you at least need a $15 payment plan because of the storage you’ll need. With this, you also get analytics, which is cruc (crucial, pronounced krewsh). A few others you can explore are Buzzsprout, PodBean, Castos, SoundCloud and even Squarespace.
MUSIC
We got our intro song from PremiumBeat.com. It’s a one-time $50 fee to use a track for a podcast.
BOOKING GUESTS
Starting small and appealing to a niche market is always a good piece of advice when starting up a business or brand. So, we have been interviewing guests in the Arizona market or with a tie to Arizona. We primarily interview entrepreneurs and bloggers. As we grow and exhaust our contacts here, we will expand out! Yay!
CADENCE
In terms of when new podcast episodes will be available, we decided to post a new one every Wednesday. Why Wednesday? It’s the middle of the week, people are still in work mode and ready to learn, but they also might ease their mind a bit more with a podcast on in the background. I have no data on what day is the best, this day just felt right.
In terms of our recording schedule, we are aiming to batch our interviews and record once or twice a month. For the introductions with just Becca and me, we’ll record those every week so that they remain very relevant with the times.
SUBMITTING TO PODCAST STREAMING SERVICES
These are what you’re listening to your podcasts on: Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, etc…
You have to get approved by most of these services in order to stream your podcast through them. For most of them, you need an RSS URL (which you get through you hosting platform), artwork and at least one episode with excellent sound quality. You will not be approved if your podcast sounds like shit.
Apple Podcasts definitely seems to be the most picky out of them all, but we got approved! Yay! We are also available on Google Play and Spotify.
Others that we have not submitted to, but plan to, are Stitcher, Overcast, PocketCasts, iHeartRadio and Tune In.
SPLITTING THE WORKLOAD
Becca and I never really went in depth about who would take on what with the workload, we kind of just understood what our individual responsibilities would be, which is really nice. I have a lot of editing experience and Becca owns her own social media agency, so I meannnn it couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. I do the editing and show notes, she does the social. ‘Nuff said thurr!
With other misc tasks, like guest bookings, we divvy it up based on who has the stronger relationship with the guest.
MONETIZING
This worddddddd. V important. But can also be v detrimental. This isn’t why we’re doing this podcast. We don’t plan to monetize any time soon. It’s a long term goal, for sure, but it’s not our why. We’re excited about this project and passionate about it’s mission, so that’s our focus. I’m sure we’ll have some affiliate links thrown around here and there, but as far as ads, no plans. Thank uuuu, NEXT.
WHERE TO LISTEN TO BETTER OFF SAID
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Play
Libsyn
WANT MORE?
Follow the podcast on Instagram @betteroffpod and your hosts @thenikkibutler and @bbooks.