Starting a podcast from scratch

Since June 2022, I’ve issued a fortnightly podcast that melds my niche writing and research areas of education and STEM.

The Out-of-Field Teaching Toolkit podcast is a passion project with no budget, although I do pay to have each episode professionally edited.

I’m keen to share my learning journey about podcasting regularly – its challenges, benefits, personal rewards and how it fits into my small business operations.

Why a podcast?

Podcasts are still growing, with The Verge

forecasting their ad revenue will be a $4 billion industry by 2024. Then again Spotify hasn’t had a lot of luck with its investments in podcasts, according to this report from The Wall Street Journal. Most podcasts are free, but some will charge for ad-free or bonus episodes.

Over the years, I’ve done some radio such as news reading for a decade with a community radio station and various media spokesperson spots for live or recorded radio stories. OK, as kids, my two sisters and I used a cassette recorder to create many comedic episodes for our own ‘enjoyment’. Who knew that speaking into a metal rubbish bin could create such a scary voice or, eventually, a niggle to put my voice out to the world via a podcast?

So, what’s prompting you to podcast? Is it for fun, learning, brand building, skill building or something else? How will you justify commitment time, brain space, maybe funds (for audio editing) to use this channel. I’ve heard that it can take 17 hours to organise a one-hour podcast from start to finish – that includes all of the back engine admin, planning, recording, editing to promotion. I spend about three hours a week on podcasting, so that means I’m under the ‘average’, but there are no bells and whistles on my pods.

These days, my pod ticks these boxes for me:

• Offering an extra service for my communications consultancy work as I grapple with the technology and process of podcasting
• Helping refine my interviewing skills and keeping them fresh
• Boosting my knowledge about the out-of-field teaching phenomenon – handy for when I write opinion editorials, news stories, ghost write about it as well as for my PhD. I haven’t repurposed the content from the pod transcripts apart from posting a couple of lightly edited transcripts on my business website. I’ve recently heard about CastMagic, a platform with the catchcry ‘turn audio into content like magic’. Worth checking out
• Increasing my network among those with an interest in out-of-field teaching
• Altruism – feeling good about this volunteer work to create a free sound repository available internationally on an important topic in the face of teacher shortages and, yes, a ‘broken’ education system in Australia
• Prompting me to be more active on LinkedIn, which is where I mainly promote these pods, and
• Giving me a forum to reflect on my PhD studies every three months and share my insights.

Deciding on content

So, my topic ticks a lot of boxes for both my paid writing work, brand building and PhD research. What about you?

You might already be knowledge about a topic and want to share your insights without having any interviewees. Or you might be starting your learning journey and be keen to build up knowledge by interviewing experts. That way, your pod chronicles your learning journey.

Here are some prompts for content:

• Interviews with one or a couple of people
• Offering a commentary/thought leadership on a hot news topic
• An explainer, such as how apprenticeships and traineeships work and are proving a great way to build a talent pipeline for your business
• Case studies – talk with a client/customer about the problem they had and how your company/organisation helped them, and
• How your business/organisation overcome challenges, and
• Answering your clients frequently asked questions, etc..

How I started my podcast

My first step was to discuss my plan and approach with Rich Bowden [https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbowden3/], a seasoned podcaster and audio editor. Key prompts:

• What are your expectations about having the podcast? (Think metrics if that’s your style.)
• Who’s your target audience? (Time to create an avatar)
• What’s your call to action for each episode? (Share, like, comment, promote, suggest future interviewees, are you selling your services/product, etc)
• How long should each episode be? Riverside.fm suggests 15-30mins if you’re targeting commuters, 10-15 mins for kids, so be mindful of your audience’s needs
• How frequently should you issue them? (What’s feasible for you?)
• Will you do solo eps, such as commentaries, even occasionally?
• Will the format involve you as interviewer or two interviewers; a single interviewee or more?
• How much splicing of voices, sound effects etc into the pod do you wish to include, if at all?

Rich suggested various podcasting platforms and I chose Anchor, by Spotify, because it was free. It’s since merged, so it’s lost some functionality. It appears I can only upload one file for each episode, so can’t add an ‘intro file’ or music files through Anchor. A bit annoying. However, I can still schedule episodes. Rich also suggests having a ‘podcast team’ you can bounce ideas off (even better if they can share some of the workload, too).

My well-honed process for setting up interviews

I seek potential interviewees via LinkedIn, email or Facebook, noting my contact with them on a Google doc as the ‘single source of truth’. This helps me review when I need to do a follow up.

Here’s the email I usually send as I scout for interviewees:

Dear XX

I actually think your perspective and insights would be really valuable for a podcast I’ve been issuing fortnightly since June 2022 called the Out-of-Field Teaching Toolkit podcast.

The aim is to create a repository of interesting conversations from across the globe with, about and for:

teachers (in/out/near field because most have to do OOFT invariably!)

school leadership and department heads

policymakers, bureaucrats, pollies

education entrepreneurs and consultants

researchers

education writers/editors

industry associations/unions, etc.

about the out-of-field teaching space. I also add special podcasts chronicling my part-time distance PhD student in this space for a bit of variety. 

Does this sound like a podcast for which you might like to be interviewed?

If so, my process is … to send you some decent thinking points. I embed these in a kind of script for myself so you’ll get a sense of how I will introduce you, your expertise, and the basic structure of the interview. I’m open to you deleting some questions/adding others and, of course, going with the flow. 

There’s no rush for the interview as I have several already queued up to be issued. 

Thank you for considering my request.

Rgds

M

If they agree to an interview, I next send a list of thinking points and encourage their feedback, which I incorporate.

Once we’ve tee-ed up a Zoom interview, I’ll send this info that Rich recommended about setting up a good recording environment. He says it comes down to:

• Carpeted floor.
• Book-lined walls (if possible) or clothes or blankets
• Good mic (again if possible)

Time to record

Just before I press record, I’ll do a warm up of less than minutes with the interviewee.

Here’s some great overarching tips from Curtin University and the Australian National University about what makes for a great interview:

• Clear communication and expectations.
• No ‘gotcha’ moments.
• Mutual respect
• Enthusiasm
• A relaxed approach
• An interviewer who has a genuine interest and is open-mindedness
• Understanding of, and respect for, the interviewee’s cultural, religious and personal values
• Fair and accurate reporting, and
• Some follow-up or feedback.

I’ll add to that a suggestion to do a verbal wrap up at the end of the interview … what you understood the ‘take home messages’ to be. And if you have a call to action, that’s where you should state it. Maybe it’s a simple ‘if you liked this podcast, please rate and review it, so that others can find out about it’.

After the recording, I’ll get the audio professionally edited, and then upload that file to Otter.ai to get a transcript. Reviewing this helps me draft a blurb to go with the pod. As a courtesy, I’ll send my draft blurb to the interviewee, including title options and incorporate their feedback.

Getting your pod into people’s ears

Start small and feasible with your promotional approach. This is what’s manageable for me:

• Once the pod is live, I share it via email with the interviewee, and if they were organised through a PR agency, or media person, them, too. I explicitly ask them to share it among their network – don’t want to assume they’ll do so
• I add a link and nudge to listen to the latest pod via my email signature
• I’ve added the word ‘podcaster’ to my descriptors on my email signature, too, and link that term to the home page of the pod
• I promote it on Facebook, thinking carefully about which groups/pages it suits best. Often, I post it on subject specific teacher groups, and
• If I think someone in my network would be interested/benefit from listening to the pod, I’ll suggest that to them. Either I’ll email them directly with a link or tag them via my LinkedIn post
• When I present at conferences, TeachMeets etc, I’ll ask if I can do a small ‘plug’ for my pod. Often I’ll feature it on the last slide, and
• Over time I’ve added the pod to various platforms beyond Anchor (by Spotify), including Google Podcasts and more.

So, there you have it. Hope you’ve enjoyed a tour under the hood of my podcast.