This January, I started a podcast, the Paterfamilias Podcast. I’d actually been trying to start a podcast for a few years. I tried with my good friend Rita El Khoury, but trying to match schedules around the globe just didn’t work out. I tried again with my friend Jason Harris, but even scheduling across two time zones in the same country proved challenging. So I grabbed two local guys and setup a microphone.
We’ve now published 21 episodes of the Paterfamilias Podcast, which focuses on three guys talking about the adventures of being a father, a husband, and a man. If you’re interested, we recorded our initial brainstorming session, and it’s a pretty fun listen. Over the last 42 weeks (we record/publish every other week) we’ve learned a few things that might help a new podcaster get started:
- Share The Editing Responsibilities – when we first started, I was responsible for all of the editing duties. While that made it simple, not having to transfer raw recordings around and all, it was an additional challenge on my time. We’ve since started rotating editing duties, and it’s worked out really well.
- Plan (a little) Ahead – when we started, we laid out an outline of the show – what it is, what it isn’t, overall structure, etc. Having this document available to refer back to has kept the show on track and helped us keep the quality up. We’ve also noticed that when we determine the topic for the show a few days in advance, the show turns out MUCH better.
- Streamline – I’ve gotten the recording/editing/publishing process pretty well streamlined. This made it significantly easier to teach Jason and Jaye how to do it all. We actually have it laid out in a step-by-step document, which can be shared or updated easily as things change. Depending on how many “umms” are in the episode, it now takes less than 2 hours to edit and publish, which is pretty good for a 30-45 minute podcast.
- Advertise – Once we publish an episode, I use Buffer to post about the show on my personal Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles repeatedly over the next two weeks (until the next episode). With Buffer, I’m able to set this up once, and have them spread out so as not to be annoying. I didn’t do this on one episode, to test, and it definitely makes an impact on listeners.
- Have Fun – while we keep an eye on the stats, and make changes if we see a drop, it’s not something we’re focused on. The focus is on getting together every other week and just hanging out with a microphone on. This keeps it fun, and something that we want to do, instead of something that we’re stuck committed to doing.
If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, there’s no better time than NOW to get going. Don’t focus on saving up for a full-blown equipment setup, or having the right voice. We record huddled around a single Blue Yeti microphone for now. Just start recording, and improve from there. In fact, I highly recommend recording your brainstorming session – it’s fun to listen back, and gives you a “practice” session for recording, editing, publishing that’s not crucial.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Paterfamilias Podcast and share it with your friends, too!
The post What I’ve Learned After 21 Podcast Episodes appeared first on RickyCadden.com.
