The older I get, the harder and harder it is to look trendy. Well, I could tell you ever since I started podcasting, it has been transformative for my business. Let me show you my journey with podcasting and how you can make it work for your business.
So, if you’re not already a busy entrepreneur, you can always add one more thing to your list. And for me that is podcasting. It’s kind of been one of those scratch in my head like,
“Why should I podcast? Who cares about podcasts?”
Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing marketing strategies you can do as a business owner. But there are some significant challenges to getting set up. So, I’m going to walk you through the process that I used in learning how to actually do podcasts and be an active podcaster. And it has been just a fascinating journey. I’m just so excited to share this with you.
When you’re starting out, you are going to need the right equipment. I’m going to walk you through some of the products that I use for my “Search Party Podcast”
Yeti Mic
The first thing you’ll need is a good microphone, I use a Yeti mic and I love it. You could use any good microphone but I find that this one tends to have the best quality recording and it’s also super cute.
Mine is rose gold and white so it’s… You know, it’s a… It’s an aesthetic thing for me but it’s a fantastic microphone and it’s a Yeti. Y-E-T-I. You can find them easily on Amazon. They’re everywhere but they’re fantastic mics.
Zoom.us
The second tool I use is Zoom, this has been a wonderful way to record my podcast. Guests are on one side and I’m on the other. I start the zoom meeting. It records. And it also records the audio. And then I send that recording to my next service and they clean it up and turn it into an actual podcast.
My job is just to get the guest on the call and record the call, that’s all it is. You don’t have to have that deep radio voice like, “Welcome to KS 101.” It’s not like that at all. It’s just a casual conversation on a specific topic. But let’s keep going on with actually the equipment that you might need. So zoom is a service.
Podfly
I use a professional podcasting service called podfly. P-O-D-F-L-Y. Podfly, they take my raw recordings from zoom. And they then clean it up and get it ready to be an actual audio file that I upload as a podcast.
Libsyn
Now, the trick is you have to have an account that’s going to syndicate your podcasts. So, when people are searching for podcasts, whether it be on a podcast icon on iTunes or it be podcast nation or stitcher. There’s a lot of different podcast directories. You have to have a syndication service. So, you’ll go in there, you set up your account. Podfly uploads your recordings directly to Libsyn. And off you go.
Now, you know, how is anyone going to find it? I was having 100 plus listeners a day on podcasts. And the numbers just keep going up and up and up. It’s crazy. So, podcasting is a lot of work. So, you have to sort of be ready, this is going to be big like doing YouTube videos. This is another big hurdle of learning. But once you get through it, it’s a piece of cake.
The next thing I did was I hired a professional voice over to do my intro to my podcast. And it
sounds fantastic. This is a friend of mine, Glen Thayer. And I call him “Velvet voice” because he has the most gorgeous voice ever. So he did my intro. Sounds very professional. It’s very light. be very light-hearted. You can find him here: https://www.emcee.com/ make sure to tell him I sent you.
Okay, so now we’ve got our microphone, we’ve got our service like zoom that’s going to record
the call. We have Podfly. Who’s going to then take that call and convert it into an actual podcast and upload it to libsyn. And Libsyn is the syndication service that gets it out to all the podcast sites. So, that’s the basic elements that you will need just to get set up.
Now, the next big hurdle is going to be getting guests. How do I get guests? I always say getting Podcast guests is like herding cats, not fun, and a lot of work. Come up with a list, a dream list of people that you want on your podcast. Reach out to them via LinkedIn. Tell them what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, what’s the purpose of it, how you’re going to be featured. as well as what are they willing to do if you interview them on your podcast. What will they do to support the publicity for the podcast?
I made a list of all the people I really admire. People who run amazing businesses wrote amazing books or had some kind of really spectacular tool. I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth. So, I set up a series of interviews. And if you go to findability.com/podcast, you can see all the podcasts that I’ve got in the can right now. Now, it’s nice that I have a whole blog post about how podcast guests are like herding cats.
It’s a bit challenging when you’re trying to get you to know a weekly or a monthly podcast guest. So, this is going to be a great resource. I’m going to put these links to the blog. I’m going to put them in the description below this video. And then you can go directly to these blogs and learn how to set one up, how to get guests, and then ultimately how to produce all of them over time. It’s pretty fun.
I really, really, really enjoyed it. So, guests. Make sure you get them on the calendar right away. Go after your dream list. If you want the big A-listers, you may just land them. The one person I have always wanted to interview was Matt Cutts. Now Matt Cutts manages the Google algorithm at Google. I was having an argument with a couple of people in my office about something. And I went to Twitter and I said, @MattCutts or whatever his handle was. “What do you think about this?” And he responded back almost instantly. I almost fell on my chair. He’s like God in the SEO world. So, it was amazing how easily you can reach someone.
Don’t give up. Find the person you want to interview. Reach out to them and find a date as quickly as you can.
We send them a little tiny gift box that has all these different goodies in it to get them excited about being featured on our podcast. And then once you get it, then, of course, you send it to podfly. That’s my company that produces the audio piece. So, remember you have to upload it to libsyn. That’s the one that’s syndicated out to all the different podcast sites. But make your
dream list. Go for it. And if you read an amazing book, contact the author. If you are amazed… If you have like a youtube crush on somebody that you’d like to interview about how they’re… How they’ve built their business through YouTube. Just ask.
The final step is the day of the production or at least the day before the production. Now, my assistant always goes in and tests their audio to make sure that it was working well with the guests. We also sent them a series of questions that I could ask them as part of the interview process with the guests.
Finally, if I want that podcast to be findable, I’m going to attach a keyword to the content of that podcast. So, I’m like, “Okay, we’re talking about keyword research tools. Or today we’re talking about how to do social media on Twitter or whatever.” And I’ll make sure that whatever the topic of the podcast is also something that’s trending in search. So, I have absolutely loved podcasting. I highly recommend it. You will learn so much just by being on the phone with these experts. It’s like a little mini tutorial University class. Every time you meet with one of these rock stars.
I’ve had so much fun. Check out my podcast at https://www.findability.com/search-party-podcast-heather-lutze/ and you’ll be able to subscribe to my podcast so it comes right into the end of the podcast apps you have on your phone. And we can spend some quality time together. Check it out. Podcasting is awesome. Maybe someday soon I will be listening to your podcast.
Are you ready to podcast?
WATCH full video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwN2LP6IYD0