This was something I wanted to do for a very long time now, but I always found the perfect excuse to postpone it… Until recently.
In the beginning of August, I decided that I was going to start podcasting every day (weekdays). I had no idea what I was going to talk about, but as soon as I took the decision it popped in my head.
I was going to talk about the stuff I love learning and sharing, personal growth. The second thing that came to mind was to keep it short and simple, this way it would be harder for me to trick myself into avoiding getting it done.
With the concept in mind, I’ve started thinking whether I wanted to do this little project as a part of my site (rodgomes.com) or if it would be better to separate it.
This was also a quick and easy decision to take. I didn’t want to feel pressured until I experimented with it first. So I went to a standalone site.
I’ve decided to grab the domain 1minute.tips for this podcasting experiment.
The next decision I took, was to keep it in stealth mode until it reached at least 30 episodes published or 30 days.
I had the concept in mind, a GOAL, and new domain name.
Next step was to find a suitable WordPress theme. To my surprise, there’s a shortage of themes developed with podcasting in mind.
With so many popular bloggers/podcasters out there…
My first go-to solution was to use a regular theme with the SmartPodcastPlayer Plugin by Pat Flynn. But I missed the Beta Launch, meaning I couldn’t grab a license.
This was the only plugin I had interest in using.
Without the SPP Plugin, my best option was to look for any podcasting related themes on ThemeForest.
And there I found my solution. The Podcaster theme.
This was the last piece of the puzzle:
- Concept
- Starter Goal (30 episodes)
- Domain
- Site
I was good to roll!
Now what?
Now I get behind the mic and start speaking, right?
I was lucky enough to have a Blue Snowball, which I bought a couple of years back when I started thinking about podcasting.
It’s an entry-level USB mic that is more than good enough to get started.
I hit record and go…
Where did my English go? haha
It’s been WAY too long since I’ve had regular spoken conversations in English. I do write in English daily, but to speak? That’s a whole different ball game.
I was quite shocked when I noticed how bad my pronunciation sounded.
But I kept trying, I’d hit that REC button and try to speak about whatever came to my mind. It was getting frustrating, fast!
I knew I needed to change my plans, or I’d start thinking about bailing out of the project before it even started.
The plan B
Almost instantly I decided that I’d try reading from a script, instead of “free styling”.
And this was definitely the best solution for my problem. I quickly wrote a script and started reading it.
It sounded way too robotic. The next step was to “write-as-I-speak”. And this did the trick.
It’s definitely not the best way to podcast. But it allowed me to get started.
I came up with a list of about 50 topics. What I do is to sit down and write the script for at least 5 of then in one sitting. So I end up with a week worth of podcast content.
The next thing I do is to start recording, for this, I use the Blue Snowball and Garage Band. It allows me to record good quality audio, and to convert it to mp3 without any issues.
I try to record in batches as well. If all goes well, I’ll end up with a handful of mp3 files.
This would be enough if I didn’t want to do YouTube videos.
So in this case, my next step tool of choice is Camtasia.
In case you never heard of Camtasia, it’s a great tool to do screen casts and minor edits.
I keep it pretty simple.
My Camtasia editing consists of adding my logo, episode number and tittle, background music, audio and video transitions, and of course, importing the mp3 file.
It took me a while to get it done the first time. Now I use it as a template, so every new episode looks and feels the same. And the process is fast and painless.
When I’m done, I export the Camtasia project to mp4 (video).
Now I have the raw mp3 recording and the finished mp4 file. The next step is to convert the mp4 file, this way I end up with a mp3 containing all the edits of the video (audio transitions, music, etc).
It may sound complicated or complex. But it’s a really simple and easy process.
After the creation process is over, now it’s time to distribute.
When I started, my only worry was to get the content out, using my site. To test things out.
Then my next step was to submit it to Apple (iTunes). The WordPress theme I use does all the heavy lifting, all I had to do was fill the information needed and it took care of the requirements, giving me a feed URL, which I submitted and got approved.
Besides iTunes, I also use Soundcloud, Stitcher and YouTube.
I believe this is all for the creation and distribution process.
Enjoying the process
It’s funny because I’m basically talking to myself. But it feels great to keep delivering content on a daily basis.
Since I talk about topics that I enjoy and try to learn more about, every single day, it’s a huge learning experience. Making it 100% ok to talk to myself. 🙂
I’m still afraid of speaking, I do make tons of mistakes. But my goal is to keep going and keep editing to a minimum.
I’m having a lot of fun with it.
If you ever thought about doing the same, give yourself permission to get started. You probably have all the tools you need. You definitely have something interesting to share with others, there’s no need to get all fancy to get started. Just do it!
If you want to check my podcast out, here are the links:
1minute.tips/itunes (Want to help me out? Please rate and leave a review if you can.)
1minute.tips/stitcher (Want to help me out? Please rate and leave a review if you can.)
1minute.tips/youtube (Want to help me out? Please like and subscribe if you can.)
1minute.tips/soundcloud
Of course, if you have any questions or suggestions, please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Feel free to share your podcast URL as well, if you have one. So I can check it out.
Thanks for reading!