20 – I want to start a podcast but don’t have the time. What are the best ways to get started in just a few hours

Hello there and welcome to PodcasterPlus, the podcast offering tips and tricks to simplify and automate your podcast. You can find all the episodes at podcasterplus.com/show.

So today we’re tackling a question, which I hear all the time. In fact, it’s probably the number one reason people never actually hit record. And that question is, I want to start a podcast, but I just don’t have the time. Not really a question as such, it’s more of a statement, but you get the idea.

You look at the big news shows out there, the ones with dedicated studios, they’ve got producers, researchers, and you think to yourself. Hmm. I’m not really going to be able to compete with that, am I? So you think podcasting requires 40 hours a week and a degree in audio engineering?

Well, here’s the thing, it really doesn’t. If you’ve got a few hours lying around this weekend, you can start a podcast, and today I’m going to walk you through exactly how to do that, focusing on the absolute essentials, so that you can get your voice out there without burning out before you even begin.

So, as always, I’m gonna divide this podcast up into sections, and the first one is the myth of the perfect setup.

So let me start with a bit of an anecdote. When I began podcasting, I had this notion that I needed everything to be perfect, that I needed a really credible microphone, that I needed a really fine laptop, I needed to pay for some software on my computer so that things were perfect.

Well, you know what? None of that was true. The truth is your first episode isn’t going to be perfect, and that’s completely fine. In fact, it’s pretty liberating. The biggest time waster in podcasting is the pursuit of perfection. We spend hours tweaking EQ settings, sometimes agonizing over the perfect name, when what we really need to focus on is the conversation that we’re having, not the logistics. So if you are a time poor creator, or entrepreneur, you need to ruthlessly cut the friction between having an idea and publishing it.

So that brings me to section two, the minimum viable podcast. In the tech world, there’s a concept called the minimum viable product. Well, let’s apply that to podcasting. What is the minimum viable podcast?

Well, first you need a topic that you actually care about. Something that you could talk about unprompted for 30 minutes. Don’t spend weeks doing marketing research. Just pick a niche that you know well, and if you know a lot about, let’s say hiking, don’t make a general outdoors podcast. Make one specifically about hiking the 14 mountains which are in your local area.

Second, pick a format, which is easy to produce. A solo monologue, much like the one I’m doing right now, that’s the fastest way to record. You don’t have to coordinate schedules with a guest or a co-host. You just sit down, you look at your bullet points, and you begin to speak, which is what I am doing right now.

If you do want guests, don’t spend hours going back and forth on emails. Book, record, publish, repeat. Use a booking tool that syncs with your calendar. Your guest’s experience starts before the microphone, and dragging them through a chaotic email chain, it’s not really a great start. Book the time, send an automated reminder and just turn up, ready to chat.

And so the next section is what you actually need and what you don’t. Let’s talk about the gear then. You do not need a massive mixing desk. To start a podcast in a few hours you need exactly three things.

Number one, a decent microphone, preferably USB. Something like the Samson Q2U, or the Audio Technica ATR2100X. I’ll put some links into the show notes. Plug it straight into your laptop and you are ready to go.

Number two, you need somewhere quiet. Don’t worry about acoustic foam just yet. Just record it in a room with lots of soft furnishings. A bedroom or a walk in wardrobe works brilliantly to absorb the audio.

And three, you need some free recording software. You can use Audacity. If you’ve got a Mac, you could use GarageBand. A browser based tool like Riverside will also work well. Again, links in the show notes.

What you don’t need right now is custom music, professional cover art design by an agency or a multi-camera video setup. Using a free tool like the ones that I just mentioned will enable you to make completely credible audio, and you can use a free online tool to make a square logo. You can also find royalty free music, if you really must have an intro, that will be just fine.

Okay, the next section then is recording and publishing your first episode. So, you’ve got your microphone plugged in, you’ve got your topic chosen. How do you get it done today?

So I would recommend write down three to five bullet points. Do not write a full script, unless you’re very comfortable reading from one, because it takes ages to write down, and usually it sounds unnatural when you read it aloud. Then hit record, and here is the golden rule for time saving. Edit as you go, or rather don’t edit at all. If you make a mistake, just pause, take a breath, clap your hands loudly. These things will create a nice visual spike in the audio waveform, which you’ll look at in your audio editor so that you can find it later and simply repeat the sentence. Simply repeat the sentence. You get what I did there?

When you’re done, chop the start, chop the end, cut out the one mistake. And export the file. Don’t spend three hours trying to remove every single mm and ah, it’s a conversation, not a royal broadcast. Humans make noises when they think. Leave them in.

Then you need a podcast host. There’s plenty out there. You could use PodcasterPlus Blocks, if you want to render your podcast content natively on a WordPress website. Upload your audio, write a sentence or two as a description, and submit your RSS feed to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or somewhere else. Your RSS feed updates the moment. You hit publish.

And there you go. Boom. You are now a podcaster.

So let’s conclude. Starting a podcast doesn’t require a sabbatical. It requires a quiet room, a microphone, and some willingness to just hit publish on something that isn’t quite perfect yet. Suspend your incredulity about how you will sound, you will be fine.

If you want the full Monty, the entire step by step, well, there’s a detailed guide over on the PodcasterPlus blog about launching a show when you’re short of time. I’ll link to it in the show notes alongside the other links for the tools that I mentioned today.

Remember that PodcasterPlus handles the operations so that you can focus on the conversations that matter. Stop researching. Start record.

So there you go. That’s what I’ve got for you this time around. Thank you very much for tuning into the PodcasterPlus podcast.

Remember to check out the show notes for the links and resources mentioned in this episode at podcasterplus.com/show, and we will see you next time for some more tips and tricks to simplify and automate your podcast.