Everything I learned from creating a podcast
When I created my podcast miniseries, I knew once it wrapped up, I wanted to take a moment and share learnings from the experience. Creating a podcast is one of those things a lot of people are curious about, but it can be hard to know what you’re getting yourself into.
So, here’s everything I learned from creating a podcast miniseries 🎙
The quick backstory:
Earlier this year, I created my first ever podcast, a 6 ep miniseries about exploring a marketing career beyond social media, called Handing Over the Passwords.
The learnings:
🤗 I liked creating a podcast! My main goal was to see what it’s like to create a podcast. I enjoyed the experience and would love to explore this channel again in the future.
🚫 The podcast did not help me sell any workbooks. My secondary goal was to sell more copies of my Gumroad workbook, Exploring a Marketing Career Beyond Social Media. In this aspect, I “failed.” I didn’t sell any additional copies. I didn’t put a bitly in the episode notes (whoops) but I can see my workbook had 17 views I can most likely attribute to the episode notes.
🎧 Getting technical help can help save time and create a better quality. As many of you know, my boyfriend Carlos is an audio engineer & producer, so helped me set up remote recording, edited the podcast, selected stock music, and advised on scripting intros and outs and structure, all of which sped up the process.
💻 That being said, you can do it yourself when on a budget. There are great free/cheap tools out there, like Squadcast, Descript (which I use for editing YouTube), and low cost mics (this is the one I use).
🗣 Not all formats are created equal. Mine was an interview podcast, and I found the interviews so energizing and such a fun way of connecting with others in my field. When I had to record the scripted intros/outros, it was a huge energy drain. Consider if you prefer a scripted, audio essay format, or an interactive interview.
🗺 Even if you are doing an interview, you should have a concept and a journey. For mine, it was around the experience of being a social media manager, realizing they wanted to explore something else, how they approached the transition, and what their new role is like, along with advice for others wishing to do the same. This probably could be even tighter if I was doing it again in the future. Jay Acunzo has great resources on this.
✌ Create a podcast in seasons or as a miniseries. This allows for you to first see if you like the experience and have enough to talk about to make ongoing. While I loved this topic and had a great time, I don’t feel the need to explore it more in depth moving forward. Hence, a miniseries was great!
📈 Metrics tell a story but not the whole story. I had 101 plays overall. It’s not a lot objectively, but I’m so grateful 101 individual people (more or less) took the time to listen. The first episode by far had the most plays. I’d recommend making your first episode very strong to represent your podcast on its best foot from the start.
I looove brainstorming podcast concepts so if you’re kicking one around, hit me up.
I’d love to create another one of my own in the future. Off to think of ideas…