If you want to know how to start a podcast, this is the episode for you! We sat down for over an hour with Davey Jones, of Davey and Krista , The Brands that Book Podcast, and the Till Agency. 

As you can see, we are on Episode 99, and the Brands that Book Podcast is at 97 episodes at the time of this episode going live. So, we all definitely know a thing or two about starting a podcast, and maintaining it. The only thing that isn’t amazing on this episode is that the audio isn’t as crisp as usual when Chris or I are speaking… This is admittedly the first remote interview that we are airing, and so we are still learning and expanding our podcast as well! But Davey sounds great! And this podcast is also available on YouTube in case you like to watch people talk about podcasts.

How to start a podcast:

– Don’t get stuck on all the things you think you should do – and just do what you can do. If you have Wifi, a good phone, and a great idea for a podcast – you are basically ready to start podcasting!

– Think about your audience, and who they are, what they want to hear, when they want to hear it, and make a battle plan through that lens. Davey releases episodes every Wednesday, and we release episodes every Sunday, for 20 weeks straight. Then we take a 6-8 week break! Your audience will come to learn your schedule, and then come to expect episodes from you on those days! Even if it’s once a month!

– Davey recommends having a website as the second thing to invest in when starting your podcast! Your podcast will live on a hosting platform (ours is Libsyn, Davey’s is Fireside), and people will listen to it on iTunes, Spotify, and other places where you can listen to podcasts. BUT, if you don’t have a website for yourself/your podcast, you don’t really ‘own’ your podcast. If Libsyn disappeared tomorrow – we would still have our website, and our episodes on their own posts. If you need a website – you should check out Showit.co – our fantastic podcast sponsor!

Davey and Krista are also website designers who design on Showit. They also have a design template specifically for podcasters, and it is AMAZING! We are about to re-release our website using their new template!

Equipment

• A cell phone if you want to go very basic – but still good! on iPhones, there is an app called ‘Voice Memo’, and the quality of that mic is actually really great! And the mic that comes in your airpods, and even the ear buds that come with your phone are really great. A Kristen Friend, who was on episode 68, records and uploads her podcast completely from her phone. You can find out more at Anchor.

• Blue Yeti. This is the most popular, and easy-to-use mic. You just plug it right into your computer via the USB port. It’s about $129 so it won’t set you back very much at all.

• We use this mic. Well, 4 of them. But keep in mind that we are 3 years into our podcast, and we primarily do in-person, group interviews. And we have this mixer for the 4 mics, and headphones.

• Davey uses the Shure SM7B. This is the same kind of mic that Michael Jackson used to record Thriller. You’re welcome for that piece of trivia.

• It was also mentioned that the lavalier mic plugs into your phone, and gives good audio. We haven’t used this before, but this appears to be a very affordable way to get a mic for your phone.

Services

• We mentioned earlier that you will need to find a podcasting host. Others include Zencast, and Blubrry. Most services range from $7-$20, depending on your storage/size needs.

• We upload our podcast onto Audacity, and that’s where we edit it. Others use Garage Band on their Macs.  This is FREE!!!!

• The Brands that Book podcast is edited by We Edit Podcasts. (A female founded company! Nice!) Their episodes are edited with transcripts. Pretty great! There are other services you can use at Fiverr for a little less, depending on your needs. We now use Andy Campbell for our podcast, and he is amazing! You can contact him here!

More services for your podcast

• Davey also mentioned that they use Fusebox to have a great podcast player on their website. This costs about $8/month .

• This episode was recorded on Zoom, and it’s not The best, but most people know how to use it (except apparently not us, since we couldn’t plug in an external mic…) As the host of the call, you can record the call, and then download the audio into Audacity or whatever editing tool you use. You can also take the Zoom recording with video, and upload it to YouTube, which is what we did. You can watch it here.
• A note on if you are using Zoom for your podcast: have everyone turn off their cameras if you don’t need to capture video. This will help your audio to improve cause it will be using less bandwidth than if you had to capture video.

• Davey uses Ecamm Call Recorder, which uses Skype. He doesn’t love it, but it serves its purpose. You will also be able to record the audio (in two separate files!) and have video as well. You can read this article to find our more.

You surely don’t need ALL of these tools and services. It’s best to start off with the most basic things, and add on as your podcast gains momentum.

Put your podcast on iTunes

You are going to want to upload your podcast onto iTunes, as it is one of the most popular platforms for consuming podcasts. To get ready for that, you will need to have at least one episode of your podcast recorded. Then you will also need artwork (a little thumbnail), a title, a description for your podcast, and which category you want to be in (we are in family, Davey is in business.) Submitting to iTunes takes some time, so it will take 24-48 hours to connect and validate your podcast.

Bonus advice for your podcast

Make sure that you and your guest are using a good mic/headphones from their phones or computer, and that all of you guys have your volume turned up on your mics. The podcast listeners can turn their volume down, but there is a max to turn their volume up to. I have listened to too many podcasts (and yes, some of them are our episodes!) and sometimes people record too quietly and then you can’t hear what people are saying. Which is sad. Because it’s a podcast and you are tuning in to hear what people are saying!

If you are more into videos, you can watch our conversation here!

More advice on podcasting! And life! 

Another great piece of advice for podcasters is to remain flexible enough to recognize that you can pivot at any moment. We love how Bob Goff talks about making tiny little turns that will actually change your trajectory in the long run – so this is good podcasting, and life advice! Maybe you will add more episodes per week/month. Or maybe you will add a cohost, or intro music, or who knows? But not feeling like you are trapped with one thing you thought you ‘had to do’ will help you to enjoy podcasting all the more.

Finish, by Jon Acuff is a great book that has really helped us to stop making insane and unattainable goals. It truly helped me to get this podcast off the ground. We’ve mentioned this book in previous book reviews, but it’s worth mentioning again how helpful it is!

If you are into Catholic podcasts, the two that Davey talked about are Catholic Things You Should Know , and The Counsel of Trent.

The Good Word of the Day

Davey encouraged all of us to think of the next step. Whether in business, or in life, this is good advice! We can easily feel overwhelmed, or anxious about all that is out there to do, and deal with. But just think of the next thing you need to do: feed your kids, and yourself, get some work done. 

We are SO THANKFUL for Davey and Krista and their time and support! Check out our new website next week! And feel free to connect with them at the above links we provided, as well as on social media!

We hope you feel confident in launching your own podcast! Let us know if you have any more questions on how to start a podcast.

If you would like to connect:

Fostering Voices on Instagram

You can also email us at hello@fosteringvoices.com

AND we would LOVE it if you would SUBSCRIBE and leave us a review on iTunes! This helps others to find our podcast so we can share these voices from the foster care and adoption community with more people!

If you want to see how to leave a review, check out this handy little video!

Join us again next week for episode ONE HUNDRED!