One of the best ways I like to up my skills is by taking training courses that challenge my skills and get me outside of my comfort zone. For a long time, everything in podcasting seemed that way. But one thing I found lacking from podcasting conversations was how to edit for sensitivity and inclusion.
When I saw ACES: The Society of Editing had a few courses on those subjects, I looked further into them before signing up.
I don’t know who needs to hear/read this, but you CAN take breaks from your podcast.
Sometimes you may need to take a break because your personal or professional life is going through a transition and you need to put some of your creative work to the side to focus on something big like a move or health concern. For parents like me, you may find you want to take some time off before school starts to make sure you can focus on getting everyone ready.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
When it comes to podcast outros, new podcasters often make the mistakes of asking their audience for every single thing possible, like they’re throwing spaghetti against a wall and hoping something sticks. Surely, they think, the audience will find something they’ll want to do!
But let’s think about your podcast like a visit from a friend. Would you want to visit a friend, have a nice conversation, enjoy one another’s company, only to get bombarded at the end with a bunch of requests? Even if they are free, like following on social media or subscribing to a newsletter full of information, it’s not something you may have necessarily had in mind when you were initially invited to your friend’s house.
Whenever podcasters ask me how to become better at interviews, the No. 1 piece of advice I offer is to practice, practice, practice!
If you listen to any interview podcast, most likely you’ll hear a difference in the interviewer’s comfort level when you compare an earlier episode to a more recent one.
But when you’re first starting to podcast and not yet in that interviewing groove, here are some mistakes to be aware of:
Thinking of starting a podcast in 2022? Here are 3 things I tell new podcasters to consider before pressing that record button:
So many podcasters think podcasting works like this: they get a mic and start talking about everything and anything, and boom! Ka-ching 🤑🤑🤑
Here's the reality: 50% of podcasts stop producing by episode 7. (This is called Podfade 😉) Why? Because they didn't plan topics and ran out of things to talk about. Or they failed to realize how much time and effort it takes to podcast and it's not just about getting on the mic and talking, and they give up.
Imagine going on your podcast app, searching for a new podcast. Let’s say you want to find a Mindfulness podcast since this is what I’m currently taking a course on and it’s on my mind (well, obviously 😉).
You find one you think you might like, but you can’t be sure just from the title and cover art, alone. And maybe the description is even a little vague (which is more common than you’d think).
Most likely, you would go to the list of episodes so you can check out what kind of things they talk about. But what if all you saw was this:
Episode 45
Episode 44
Episode 43
Episode 42
Episode 41 … you get the idea.
I’ve started creating an Instagram Stories Highlight on my Instagram page for Frequently Asked Podcasting Questions, and as much as I love helping people when these questions are asked, I realized it would be a great resource to put the 5 most common questions in a blog post. So, enjoy!
The four places I tell soon-to-be podcasters to look at for hosting are:
Depending on your podcasting needs, one of these may be better than the others.
My favorite, though, is Libsyn. It’s where I host my podcast and I use their free Podcast Page as the website for my show. (Want to see how I set up my Libsyn website? Click here to watch the video.)
Want to try Libsyn free? Use the code EMILY when you sign up!
So you’re ready to start your podcast but … oh, what do you say?! Well, you know generally what you’re going to say. You have ideas for your episodes, but what do you say to get started? And how should you end the podcast?
Listen to a handful of podcasts, especially from different genres, and you’ll find a multitude of different ways to start a show. None of the suggestions below are set in stone, and people are coming in all the time to change how “things have always been done,” and that’s awesome. But for those just starting out and need just a little bit of guidance, here are what I look for in a podcast intro and outro.
