I have recently celebrated 50 episodes of Mrs Mummypenny Talks, my inspirational, interview and money-based podcast. I thought it would be a great time to share a few tips on how to setup and promote a podcast. It is a common question I am asked.
I also thought it would be an opportune moment to ask Eve Dawes, host of Glamour & Gains podcast to add her view and learnings.
A reminder of Eve, my Las Vegas friend. She toured internationally as a professional dancer before becoming Mrs. Nevada United States 2017, a fitness professional, WBFF Pro, founder of Glamour and Gains By Eve blog and podcast, and Dawes Custom Cosmetics; a natural, cruelty-free luxury custom cosmetics line. Her business has excelled since customising her services and products to her customers requirements.
She interviewed me on this episode of Glamour & Gains Podcast. Best Budget Cruelty-Free Beauty Products with Mrs. Mummypenny.
And I interviewed her on this episode of Mrs Mummypenny Talks with Eve Dawes.
How to Set Up A Podcast and Share it with the World
Lynn – I love recording Mrs Mummypenny Talks and getting to interview my favourite people is so much fun. I have a podcast with a difference which makes it stand out from the crowd. The guests I interview vary from business owners to authors, marketing experts to theatre producers, personal finance experts to well-being specialists. I am blessed with meeting all these incredible people in my work and I love to invite them onto my show for an interview.
Eve- I agree with Lynn, in that interviewing a diverse range of people offers the most interesting and valuable content to listeners so they’re not always hearing the same thing and also shows how the topic is relevant to so many.
Lynn – Each interview lasts around 30 to 45 minutes, it all depends on how much the conversation wanders! We talk about their story, how they got to what they are doing now. Then their biggest money mistake and biggest money success. And then finally what is next for them, be that next week, neat year or the next five years.
Eve-When creating a podcast, decide how long your podcast is going to be before you start so that your audience knows what to expect. You’re not stuck with that length but it’s a good starting point to be able to plan your content accordingly.
Lynn – My guests have joined me from all over the world, Japan, Antigua, Germany, Vegas, Chicago and many in the UK. Mostly my guest skype or call in but the occasional special episode sees a guest join me in the studio. As Simon from Steps to Investing and Sue from Body Bliss Yoga did.
Eve – You could also use Zencastr. Regardless of which recording platform you use, the most important thing is to instruct your guest where to record to reduce echoing and to make sure they have a high quality mic and headphones. Also, make sure if they’re on a different time zone, you’re both clear on what time the interviews happening!
Lynn – I totally have some favourite episodes and wrote about my top five interviews here. Although I wrote this post at episode 30, so maybe that list might have changed by now. I still remember that Micheal Taggart episode being incredibly funny. And recently being hugely moved by the homelessness story from Hollie of Thrifty Mum (who also asked me to write this post).
Why set up a podcast?
Lynn – Do you love talking? Can you talk at length by yourself week in week out about a subject you are passionate about? Do people enjoy listening to you talk. Have you done lots of public speaking? Have you been a guest on other podcasts/radio shows and have had good feedback?
Eve – If the answer is yes and you have the time to commit to it, then podcasting is for you.
Lynn – I really feel that content is split into three areas, written, audio and video. And in order to progress in this world of content creation and marketing you need to have a presence in all three. How do you prefer to consume content? For some subjects I like to read, for others I like to listen and then for others I like to watch. So why not cover all these areas for your brand.
Eve – Now more than ever, videos are being consumed more than ever from Instagram to TikTok to YouTube.
Lynn – I think in the future content will move more towards audio and video and away from written. Just my prediction mind you, back up by similar views from a few thought leaders. We will reassess in 5 years’ time.
Podcasting is scary, but feel the fear (Lynn)
This was my initial view of podcasting. It scared me. The technical side, the audio quality, being able to talk for 30 to 60 minutes on my own. I started thinking about starting a podcast during 2017. I was a guest host and being interviewed on lots of different podcasts. And I was being a regular guest on BBC Radio Five Live, Radio 4, Radio Kent, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio London, plus many more.
The more appearances I did and the more positive feedback I got the more confident I became in my ability.
And then I did a PR from the heart meditation one year later in 2018 and there was clear message that I needed to do my own podcast or audio thing. I spoke to the team from SG1 radio, where I had been interviewed one year prior and asked if I could use their equipment to record a podcast and learn how to produce it myself. They said yes and that was it.
A week later a test was recorded with the help of the radio station owner. Slightly different to a traditional podcast but my show was to broadcast on the SG 1 radio waves as well as being released as a podcast. But I will tailor my guidance to just a podcast.
Producing content
There are two main things to think about with a podcast first content and secondly audio quality.
Lynn – Content wise. Plan it out. Write bullet points of what you will say or even script it. And plan for a few weeks in advance. Maybe pull together 6 weeks’ worth of content. I always know who my guest are two months in advance, and I book them in.
Eve – Calendly is a great way to schedule guests on your show and send them the links and information they need.
Lynn – Practise before you press record, do a test recording, listen back and be critical of yourself. Share it with a friend and get their view.
Eve – Make sure you listen to all of your podcasts and interviews so you can learn and grow from them. Being able to critique yourself is key to improving and getting rid of any bad or weird habits that might creep in.
Audio quality is essential, so invest in a decent microphone, the following brands are good. Blue Yeti .Also, you need to be in a sound proofed room with soft edges. Recording in kitchen is not going to work. Cheap tip put eggs boxes on wall, or buy this foamy stuff from the internet, or record it under the stairs with duvet over you. It works!! Pete Matthew, who admits to loving the tech has got a booth in his office with the foamy stuff on the booth walls. The FT recording room is huge with very special foamy stuff on the walls.
Eve records on the floor of her closet as the carpet and clothes reduce echoing. Make sure if you’re recording from home, pets, children, and husbands aren’t going to create noise. The microphones are incredibly sensitive at picking up noise. Also, use a mic boom, don’t place it on a surface, to reduce vibrations.
Consistency
Lynn – Your podcast needs to be produced week in week out and be released at the same time every week with consistency. A podcast is a slow grower, it can take years before it takes off.
Eve – So basically, you must love doing it to carry on producing the content week in week out. If you’re also publishing to Alexa Skills, be aware that you have to produce content a minimum of once a week so if you’re planning vacations you’re going to need to bulk produce, upload and schedule in advance.
Lynn – Consistency I think applies to everything in content creation. For written content get into the habit of producing content three times a week, once a week or once a month. Whatever be consistent. The same for video, get regular content out there onto your channel on a regular basis. And the same for social media. Be consistent.
Recording the audio
Lynn – Audacity is a free piece of audio software that you can download. It is so easy to use; anyone could pick it up with an ounce of common sense. Just plug in your microphone and press record and go for it. Its easy to edit as well, but I must admit I hate editing so prefer to leave the slight boobs in the recording for authenticity, unless its really bad and a proper technical hitch.
Eve – I use Garageband which is easy to use and you can easily remove stutters and accidental cussing if your show is clean, etc.
Get a jingle & Backing Track
Jingles sound great and professional to start off a show and again represent consistency. You can get one on fiverr (Eve – I just did mine on Fiverr too) for a cheap price. Its also a nice idea to use a backing track. Make sure its one that does not require a licence.
Just go for it
Is really the best advice I can give. Just go for it, record and send it out. You first podcast will most likely be rubbish and full of mistakes but who cares. No one really. Please don’t listen to my first podcast.
Lynn – Someone very clever, possibly Damien from Money to the Masses said its important to have a rubbish first podcast, video, blog post so you can compare to how far you have come.
Eve – When you launch, it’s a good idea to launch 3 episodes so people know what to expect. Don’t be afraid to share the link with friends, family, social media strangers and ask for ratings and reviews, would you listen to a podcast with no ratings?
A few tips for getting your podcast heard by many
Some sharing tools that work well include
Lynn – Promote your podcast before it goes live, just a warmup a few hours before on Twitter and Instastories. Ask your guest, if you have one to do the same.
Eve – I produce graphics on Canva.com with the guests image and a quote as well as a 30-60 second video on Headliner of the guest talking so they can share on their social media to promote their interview (and my podcast) to cross network and make it easy for them to share.
Lynn – When you are recording the podcast broadcast it live on Facebook Live via your business page and share it as watch party to any groups you own/admin. I will do a Facebook live video on Mrs Mummypenny and then share via a watch party to Mrs Mummypenny Money Saving Tip and on my personal Lynn James Facebook page. Ask your guest to share as a watch party too. Facebook stories seem to get a lot of views too.
And whilst you are live engage with people who join and ask questions to improve reach and watchers. When you Facebook Live has finished you can download the video and share it your YouTube channel as well.
Distributing Your Podcast
There are so many places to share your podcast, here are a few popular places where you can build reach, get reviews and rise the search rankings.
Lynn – Mixcloud – simple to set up an account. You can host your podcasts on here. You can use the coding from here via an iframe to save to your website, so you are not clogging your website with large audio files. Create a separate page on your site to host the podcast episodes as well. In here I will include a short intro to the episode with some of subjects covered and a follow link to guest website.
Eve – I was advised not to host on my website (squarespace) as if you start having a lot of traffic it will crash the site. Instead, I host on Libsyn and share the embed code in a complimentary blog post on my blog. Libsyn creates an RSS feed you can share to have it available on Spotify, iHeart radio, iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, etc as well as auto share to all of your social media channels as soon as you hit publish.
Eve – Libsyn allows you to set up where you share to. With iTunes/Apple Podcasts you have to submit your podcast and wait for approval (normally within 48 hours). Make sure you follow their artwork guidelines, to be eligible for featured placement in Apple Podcasts, artwork must be a 3000 x 3000 pixel JPEG or PNG file with 72 dpi in the RGB colour space, otherwise it’ll fail the submission process. You don’t need to add keywords as Apple Podcasts no longer recognises episode tags/keywords, so it’s recommended to weave your tags/keywords into your episode title.
Lynn – Once the podcast is saved onto the cloud get sharing. And do this at the same time every week. Publishing early in the morning is good as auto subscribers will get their new episode ready to listen to on their morning commute, work out, school run.
Eve – You can upload to your host at anytime and schedule it to be released at your chosen time. It doesn’t really matter when you publish, what’s important is that it’s always released at the same time and day so your audience knows when to expect it.
Share it across all your social media channels, and I would share it a few times on Twitter. Always tag your guests to ensure that they share as well. Do some hashtag research and use relevant tags.
Are you ready to go for it?
Enjoy and be patient. Podcasts are slow to build but are so much fun and totally worth it. And people love coming on as guests and will often reciprocate and offer you an invite back onto their podcast as well. Most people quit at the episode 13 marker, don’t be that person!
Thanks Eve for you brilliant input!
