135: {Solo} How to Start a Podcast

Have you ever thought about starting a podcast? If so, this episode is for YOU! In todays solo shorty, I'm breaking down exactly how to start your own show. Click the link below for my go to recording studio. Thanks for listening! 

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Transcript

Caroline Pennington (00:00.993)
Hey friend, today I'm actually doing a podcast on how to do a podcast if that's something that lights you up that you're interested or curious about. I'm actually speaking on this topic specifically this week here locally in Beaufort and I wanna jump on here and press record and do a solo for you. Okay, so for the record, starting a podcast has been one of the best capitalized B-E-S-T things that I have done in

general and my business and all the things and here's why. It's introduced me and connected me to the most amazing women that I never would have connected with, become friends with, networked with if it weren't for the podcast. Okay? So that alone has carried its weight in gold when it comes to the relationship piece. Number two, it is an amazing tool for top of funnel.

So what does that mean? That means people know I have a podcast, I have a platform, people listen to this podcast all around the world, and it's just a great conversation piece too. I think a lot of times people get all banana shaped in the weeds about the tech stuff or the strategies or all that, but at the end of the day, I was a recruiter, I was a headhunter, I was interviewing people for a living. The only difference now is I press record in the conversations.

If you're on the fence or you wanna start a podcast or you're thinking about it or considering it, hell yes, do it. It has been the best experience. Is it a lot of work? Yes. Is it long game? Yes. But has it been worth it? So many times, yes. So many times over, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so if you wanna start a podcast, and it's okay if your journey is not linear, it can be up and down, just for those of you who've been with me from the beginning,

When I first started this podcast, I was still working in corporate as a recruiter, as a headhunter. And I wanted to talk to people, to leaders about recruiting and hiring practices. So that's how the podcast actually started. And now it's completely flipped over. I interview female entrepreneurs. You know what I interview. You listen to me every week. I appreciate you. So if you're gonna start a podcast,

Caroline Pennington (02:23.543)
Think about a topic that lights you up and at the time that was recruiting and hiring, company culture, all of those things. So I decided to start my podcast in the career section department. That's what I chose for my topics, okay? So, and again, if that changes throughout your podcast journey, that's okay too. You wanna design a logo for your podcast. So for me, is what I did is I went to Canva and I just typed in podcast cover and I found one I liked that

was my vibe and I customized it to have my face on it, have the colors, the branding colors that I wanted to match with everything too. And so that's how you create your podcast logo. It's just go into Canva, type in podcasts, cover, and choose something that feels like you. Okay, tech stack. I literally, when I started this podcast, I turned to Gary, my husband, and said, I'm starting a podcast. He said, okay, go for it.

And I went down a rabbit hole and read a blog. I'm gonna actually put the blog and the show notes. This is the exact blog that I read when I started my podcast. And this is basically the roadmap of how I figured out how to do these things. And just for the record, for those of you listening, I am a bootstrapper. I like to learn how to things myself. I knew that I couldn't afford to and I didn't want to outsource the editing piece, so I had to figure it out myself.

In the beginning when I started this podcast, would sit there at the computer and the editing and I would take out every um, every aha, whatever breath that was going on, and now I don't even do any of that anymore because I like more real conversations and even if they do have the ums in them, that's okay. So let's talk tech sack. Okay, the podcast host that I use for my podcast is called Buzzsprout. I record in Riverside.

A lot of podcasts that I've been on as guests, they do Zoom. Zoom is the free version, that's fine. If you wanna do Zoom, maybe start with Zoom and then transition to Riverside. One of the reasons I chose Riverside is because a couple reasons. Yes, it costs money every month. I think it's like 15 or 20 bucks a month. I can record in there, but it also pulls my marketing material, my videos, and I can also edit in there. So there's a lot of different things you can do in Riverside that literally makes it so worth it.

Caroline Pennington (04:43.696)
So when you see videos I put out there on Instagram or on LinkedIn, I didn't even edit those. Literally, Riverside went in and I would tell it exactly how many seconds I want it to be, that I want to have my voice and my guest's voice, and it literally spits out the technology for me. And so I just repurposed that on social media, and that's what you see. For editing, if you have Apple products or Mac,

you're gonna wanna edit a podcast in a software called GarageBand. I'm a PC user. I have a software called Audacity. You just go online and you download it to your computer. And then for my scheduling with my guests, I just use Calendly. I typically only record on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and so I just set it up so that those days are only open for recording podcasts. Okay, let's talk about some do's and some don'ts of podcasts. Again, for those of you listening,

Podcasting is the long game. I've been doing this for two and a half years. I've been showing up every single week for two and a half years. That is why the podcast has had the success and is ranking where it is right now is because I've remained consistent. And one thing that I'll say to you if you're like, man, consistency is where I struggle. I struggle with it too. You're not alone. A lot of times what I'll do is batch. So when I have high energy or maybe I'm pretty sassy, I'll just literally jump on.

my phone, I have a Riverside app and I'll put my headphones in and I'll just press report. So that way I'll have episodes kind of already stored up and batched up so that when I have a week that maybe I don't have fresh content for or maybe I don't have an interview or there's a lag time, that those solos are there to fill the gaps. So whatever it is that you can do to stay consistent, make sure that you can do that for the podcast. I am a huge fan of just every week. So every week now I do

I do two interviews a month now and two solos a month. So that's my cadence. I publish an episode every Tuesday at 3 a.m. and that is the cadence that I've chosen and it works for me for this podcast. One thing that I would highly encourage you to do if you, and this is a huge mistake that I made when I first started podcasting, is I did not do any solo episodes. So I was comfortable recruiting as a recruiter, interviewing other people, pressing record.

Caroline Pennington (07:06.736)
literally second nature to me. But jumping on here with the mic and talking to you just solo made me so uncomfortable, which is why you see some of these episodes are short. This one's gonna be a longer one, because I'm all fired up about this specific topic. But in general, I would highly encourage you if you are gonna start a podcast to make sure and do solo episodes. At the end of the day, your audience really does want to get to know you as the host. And so getting on here, pressing record, talking about all the things, we want to hear from you.

I think it's really important to have fun with the podcast too because yes, it can be a lot of work, yes it can be a grind, but you wanna make sure you have fun with it too. Okay, so don'ts. Do not over complicate everything. This mainly I see happen in the editing and tech side. Again, back to when I used to spend three hours on every episode and take out every and every Don't really worry about that. Don't over complicate everything. Don't make.

don't make everything perfect. Like perfect is boring. You wanna be consistent, that's super important. I wouldn't record any episode over 60 minutes. For me, I specifically like the 30 minute and below mark. I mean, if I'm really on a roll with someone, we might go 35 minutes, but 30 and below is what is my sweet spot. Why do I choose that? Because I don't really like listening to podcasts that are longer than 30 minutes. If you are starting your podcast journey, let's say maybe you're in the beginning,

stages of it, it is gonna be difficult to compare. Don't compare yourself to others, okay? Don't compare yourself to someone that's had a podcast for a year, two years, five years. So make sure to not play the comparison game, okay? Okay, so for mics, right now as I'm recording this episode for you, I'm recording it with my Apple earbuds. Like I'm in my office, I...

you know, don't have any makeup on, my hair's not done, it's like not a fancy day at all, that's okay, I'm still recording this for you and getting it out there. My first year when I have a podcast, I ordered the Logitech Yeti mic off Amazon, I think it cost around $100, that was a good mic to get started with. Since year two, I decided to invest further with the podcast and I have now a shirt.

Caroline Pennington (09:30.744)
S-H-U-R-E mic. Those are more expensive. They're around $300. You don't need to start with a Shure mic, okay? So if you want to start with something less robust, that's completely fine too. The whole thing is that you start and that you stay consistent. I get a lot of questions about how I land guests, okay? So when I get started with this, it was important for me to invite people on the podcast that could be

power partners with me. So maybe they were talking about leadership or human resources or recruiting or company culture. People are talking about those kinds of similar things. And I chose individuals that honestly, I love the work that they were doing. And so I just wanted to have them on the podcast and start showcasing everything that they were doing. Now I have a lot of requests that come in every single week and I have a podcast form that they have to fill out.

And that's typically how I choose guests now. And then you also network and get plugged into the podcast community, which is the best community. Everyone's so nice in the podcast community. One cool thing you can do too when you start a podcast is do a podcast swap. So a lot of times the guests that I'll have on my podcast, I'll do a swap with them and then go be on their podcast. And so what that does is that cross pollinates audiences, which only furthers the growth.

for your podcast. So that is a strategic step I would highly encourage you to do if you choose to start a podcast. Podcast swaps have been the game changer for me and it will be the game changer for you too. So let's talk about mindset shifts when it comes to podcasting. A lot of times people will say to me, I wanna do a podcast but I don't know what to say. And it's the same thing that I say to my clients about marketing on LinkedIn or social media is people do want to hear what you have to say.

what you have to say is worth recording. And with podcasting, you really have to start showing up for your audience, for yourself, all the things. And guess what? It is so worth it, so, so worth it. And don't get caught up on not being perfect or not sounding perfect in the beginning. I literally stumbled, had no clue what I was doing when started this journey. And the reality is just like anything else, you get better at it, okay? So if you start out and you're like, man, I suck.

Caroline Pennington (11:56.808)
I did too in the beginning, who cares? I kept going and that's what's important. You'll get better, okay? You will get better, I promise you. It's just like anything else that you keep doing. You will get better at it. And with podcasting, I will literally say the sky is truly the limit. You can have a thriving business, it can open up more podcast guesting opportunities for you, speaking opportunities, media features, all of the things. So if you're on the fence about starting a podcast, my advice to you would be to do it.