The Biz Dojo

S4 Bonus Episiode: So you want to start a podcast? Creativity meets technology.

June 22, 2022 Seth Anderson & J.P. Gaston Season 4 Episode 6
The Biz Dojo
S4 Bonus Episiode: So you want to start a podcast? Creativity meets technology.
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Show Notes Transcript

Almost every day, Seth and JP are asked about what it takes to launch a podcast.

So, we've created an episode that is meant to answer some of the very basic questions and ideas to get you started. In this episode we cover the simple elements to answer :
- What equipment do i need to start a podcast?
- What microphone is best for podcasting?
- How do i get my podcast onto apple, spotify and other podcasting platforms?
- Do i need a Joe Rogan style studio to start my podcast?
-  How do I edit a podcast? What software do I need to edit my audio?
- What about guests?

Of course, we also touch on a few other things like setting up your purpose and vision, which is a critical element before you really get rolling. By the end of this episode, you'll have just enough info to get you started... but if you really want to make a splash, send us a note or comment on our social media that you want more of these episodes, and we'll help get you there.

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The Biz Dojo - Podcast, Production & Professional Coaching
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JP Gaston:

It all started on a warm morning in August with four simple words. Hey, how's it going? When you receive a text like that from just about anyone at any time that just says, Hey, how's it going? The first thought is usually something like, oh boy, what does this person want? That's especially true when you haven't talked to that person for a while, and Seth and I hadn't connected for quite a long time. He had moved into a new role in our regular day jobs and my job had also had some changes after a couple of rounds of restructuring have moved me on to a new team. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Seth asked what I might know about podcasting, any equipment that might be needed, and if I'd be interested in starting a podcast together, that came from deep left field. Like probably out of the stadium, maybe even out of the city. I was not expecting to be talking about podcasts. But here we were. I had actually been thinking about podcasting to pass the time. We were in the midst of lock downs on and off and cancellation of sports and other activities. And I was finding that I had more and more time stuck in my home. So I was on board. A few days later at Benny's breakfast bar in South Calgary, Seth and I got together for a delightful breakfast as we explored his idea. The original concept of biz ninjas was great. And as we refined it, we came up with some pretty creative concepts for the show. The name was already taken by another company in Canada. So we eventually had to work that out to avoid any copyright law or challenges in the future. But the framework was there. We spent a lot of time thinking about our vision and purpose. For days, we would text and call back and forth until eventually, we booked our first guest. We recorded our first ever show, which never made it to air, but was a great practice run to get a feel for the journey we were about to embark on. A couple of weeks later, season one episode one was recorded and put onto all of the podcast platforms. We have officially started The Biz Dojo. After almost two years and over 100 episodes of our own, while also recording sub pods and working with a variety of companies and individuals to develop and produce their work. We find ourselves answering the same question almost every day. How do we start a podcast? So in today's bonus episode, we share some of the quick tips for starting out. And if you find this helpful, let us know. Maybe we'll create a little mini series for everyone. But for now, grab a table at your local diner for breakfast. Put in your earbuds. And let's explore some of what we've learned taking a creative idea from biz ninjas, to The Biz Dojo.

Seth Anderson:

So you want to start a podcast?

JP Gaston:

I do. Tell me more?

Seth Anderson:

How often do you reckon we've heard that? That statement? Hey, I'd love to start

JP Gaston:

a podcast. If if the week starts on Monday, I think I've heard it twice this week already.

Seth Anderson:

There you go. Every every week, it comes across somewhere. So we're here to share our experience in what it takes to start a podcast. And, you know, I think we've had some success at this. This endeavor.

JP Gaston:

Handful of awards, a few interesting names have crossed our paths, I think, in a number of ways you could measure us as successful in our endeavor to start a podcast that at least 13 people listened to. I think that was our original number, wasn't it?

Seth Anderson:

I think so. And I think I still enjoy listening to it, which to me is the most important part I've gotten over hearing my own voice. So you know, maybe tip number one, if you don't like hearing your own voice. You're either going to need to get over that or not start a podcast

JP Gaston:

or just never ever listened to your own podcast,

Seth Anderson:

which makes quality control difficult, I guess I would say. I mean, that's that's definitely part of the process. But I think where most people start JP and where we even started, I remember me being like hyper fixated on what equipment do we need to do this venture?

JP Gaston:

That was the first that was the reason that you originally contacted me. Yeah. Podcast, you had a bit of an idea that you wanted to iterate on and you thought who knows the equipment?

Seth Anderson:

TP and I was somewhat surprised by your response because you're like me, well Like, you could do it from your phone if you really want to. And I was like, but don't I need to spend like $10,000 on equipment?

JP Gaston:

To set up a Joe Rogan office?

Seth Anderson:

Yeah, I need to, like, manufacture a building and like buy all this fancy electronic equipment. And you're like, No, no,

JP Gaston:

no, I did, I was very specific and said, It depends on the quality you want. Because if you want, if you want something to just get off the ground and go like, use your iPhone, use, like whatever use your headset that you like your ear buds or your

Seth Anderson:

like, I guess non negotiables. From your perspective, on the technical standpoint, what would you say those are,

JP Gaston:

I would say a decent quality microphone is always recommended. You don't need to go out and buy a lot of people talk about these like road caster setups and whatnot. If you just have a decent quality microphone, and I'm saying like a dedicated microphone, not just a headset with a microphone built in, or a Bluetooth headset that you use for talking on the phone, like a gaming headset would be good or a you have a Blue Yeti microphone, those are great. They're dedicated and specific for talking.

Seth Anderson:

Now they're not as good as whatever you have, I would say like that has been one of my bigger frustrations in this journey is like I never sound quite as good as you do. Although I'm I'm maybe starting to think that you are doing that on purpose. But

JP Gaston:

yeah, I do. Turn up the treble on your voice a little bit, make you sound all tinny.

Seth Anderson:

So quality mic, you can get a Blue Yeti mic for certainly under $200. I don't know with inflation. And you know,

JP Gaston:

with inflation, they're like 2500 bucks right now. But you can get used ones too, like a lot of people will start out with a blue blue Yeti. And a lot of people have started podcasts over the last couple of years, which is, I mean, evident in the number of questions we get. But those people are now trying to sell their old microphones quite often. So they have more money to put into a more expensive mic. And for my

Seth Anderson:

experience, I have had the the version that just stands at the desk sort of the Speak into and I've also got the one with the boom arm, neither one necessarily worked better than the other, it really just depends on what your home setup is, which I think is where the second part of the non negotiable technical components live.

JP Gaston:

Yes, headphones, even if you're doing it on your own. And some people will tell you, Oh, you don't need headphones, if you do it on your own, I still recommend it. Because you'll be able to really concentrate on what you're doing. Even if you don't have a talkback feature where you can kind of hear yourself talking. It gets you into that sort of headspace where you're really into it. And then a dedicated space, ideally a soft room. And by that I mean a room with some items in it to help soften the walls. So if you've got some pictures, or the recommendation I gave to you and your gets a podcast, you can't see it. But currently standing beside one, you can hang blankets in your room just a couple inches off the wall. Or you could even just hunt yourself in a chair with your microphone in front of your face with a blanket over you. And what it does is it deadens the sound. So you don't get that echo you often hear when you're on conference calls or speaker phones or those sorts of things.

Seth Anderson:

Yeah, so for those of you who can't see me right now, I'm basically cocooned in a blanket hung with thumbtacks all around me to get rid of. It's also highly recommended that you get a clock that makes loud ticket noises, like from your grandparents house when you were a kid and just placed that like two feet away from your computer. Ideal ideal, you know, it really adds to the sonic quality and experience for your for your fan base.

JP Gaston:

It's also really good. If you've got someone that you're working with and they're doing the editing, the editor will just they will love that feature. It will be their favorite

Seth Anderson:

constant reminder that you gotta stay on time, I guess. Okay, so you got a mic, you've got a soft room filled with blankets. You've got some headphones. What next, JP, if you are embarking on this adventure of starting your own podcast,

JP Gaston:

you're gonna decide what type of podcast you want to do at some point. And you know, you should have a niche and a purpose, and we'll talk about that. But if you are deciding to just do a podcast on your own, you're pretty much there. You need a platform to put it on. And there are a number of platforms. There's anchor.fm There's a cast, there's Buzzsprout, which is one that we signed up with and have been using and have enjoyed so shout out to them. But there's a number of options for you.

Seth Anderson:

transistors, one that I've played with a little bit as well that's Canadian made product. And why why do people need a platform like what specifically does that provide? It

JP Gaston:

will basically Can we take the recording, and it will put it out into the universe or Metaverse, whichever, whichever version, the versus no course is just versus they will put it out everywhere that it needs to go. So when you sign up on anchor.fm, as an example, you can just hit record, talk into your microphone, do your recording, hit and and then click the Send button. And it will basically post it to Apple and Spotify and Google podcasts and overcast and all of the other platforms that you probably have no idea exist, but are out there.

Seth Anderson:

I will say with anchor though it is a little like it, it, it leans heavily towards Spotify.

JP Gaston:

Yes, it does, because it's owned by.

Seth Anderson:

And I've played with, like even like a dummy like me, when it comes to the technical side, I'm able to get around, anchored off, and it's very user friendly. And it's got sounds and music, you can actually take Spotify music, which was a feature that I really liked and incorporate it into your podcast. But it is more limited on the distribution side.

JP Gaston:

But if you're just looking to get something out there and make it as easy as possible, a program like that, actually, most of them are pretty easy. Like you either record or upload your podcast. And away you go. Yeah, so

Seth Anderson:

like if your goal is to be able to go to barbecue this summer, and say that you are a podcaster. And you have a podcast that is uploaded onto Spotify that can be listened to around the world. That's basically the steps, right like mic, headset, quiet room, blankets, hop on Anchor FM, it's free, I believe you can record directly on there. And you can actually record with a guest on there as well. So you can do everything you need. It will be uploaded on Spotify and away you go like that's that is probably the clearest path to the hoop.

JP Gaston:

That that is the equipment like less of the technical side of the path, the

Seth Anderson:

technical side of it, which is where everyone wants to start. So that's why we're starting, I actually think it is one of the least important things.

JP Gaston:

salutely Yeah, like people don't, a lot of people don't recognize this, you could do your own RSS feed, like that's basically the feed that goes to all the different places, you could make one yourself if you wanted to invest the time and in the programming required, and it's not difficult programming, but you could do it yourself. And you could manually go and upload it to all of these places. And then you could just basically do it from your Google Drive or from your own computer. And you wouldn't have to go through these other programs. But it's way easier to just click the button.

Seth Anderson:

Ain't nobody like if you're starting a podcast and you're asking that question, you probably don't know that I'm gonna venture a guess or, like, the time it would take for you to learn to do that. I mean, it's like learning to do cursive at this point, if you don't, like it's not going to be good ROI.

JP Gaston:

Normally, people get into adulthood, and they're like, you know, I'd really do some cursive writing, I thought

Seth Anderson:

maybe one more thing on the technical piece. I feel like we're gonna have to do a two parter on this. But on the technical piece, editing, so this is your bread and butter. This is where you live. i For the record, absolutely hate editing, I would rather send something out full of alms oz doors closing in clock ticking, then spend the time to edit. But, you know, obviously, we were lucky to have you on the team and you bring that to the table. If someone does want to incorporate even just some basic editing into their, into their podcast, what would you recommend from either a software or just Yeah, from a software perspective,

JP Gaston:

if you're doing things on your own, it's super easy. You can do it through audacity, that's probably the best program to use. There are lots of training videos out there. I wanted to get into the like gritty details. But one of the things that I just look for is the hums and ahhs and then the there's long moments of silence where people think about things, which is great in some situations. But for the sake of a podcast and keeping the flow. Sometimes you just want to bump that up a little so that the pause doesn't exist. And it just, it still feels like a really natural conversation and people just had their answers ready to go rather than having to think for a long time about

Seth Anderson:

it. I just broke one of our one of our rules, but I think one of the things my watch just beeped and we've we've had this with our own guests and some of the podcasts we've produced. The guest What do you tell the guests about the technical side and preparing for coming on the show?

JP Gaston:

I usually say hi headphones. Ideally, like, if you don't have a microphone, then use some air pods or just something like that that has a built in microphone, or they can use. I told the person doing the podcast to use it, but they can use like a telephone Bluetooth headset, those are fine for a guest. It's a case of I know that you're about to be on a podcast, we're going to do some recording, I want to make you sound as good as possible. And to do that, we got to make sure your technology is right. And please turn off any speakers or notifications on your phone for the time that we have together?

Seth Anderson:

Now, sometimes there is external influences,

JP Gaston:

like hammer.

Seth Anderson:

It's always the first thing I think of, you know, it can be very difficult as you get into it to coordinate timezones, that is a thing I've generally learned now that, you know, Europe is eight hours away, roughly. So I kind of have that built into my brain now. But it was very difficult for us to get one in particular guest just lined up with all of our schedules, he was based in Sweden. So we finally get it all lined up, it's the middle of the day where he is in early in the morning, where we are. And five minutes into the interview, we're having this great conversation, and all of a sudden, there's a hammer, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And we're like, trying to ignore it, trying to get past it. But there was nothing he could do, because he lives in an apartment building, and the neighbor was hammering something. So we eventually I think he ended up stopping.

JP Gaston:

Yes, he stopped. And then he, he said, I'm sorry. And he stared at his wall for a minute. He's like, I think they're done.

Seth Anderson:

So even like your best attempt to, you know, ensure the guests is prepared, especially in a world where you're most likely probably doing it on Zoom, or, you know, whatever platform that you choose, not always gonna be able to control the external factors. And for me, you know, I think JP is just, you just gotta roll with it

JP Gaston:

well, and I think it's important to you to think any editing you do is not about making it perfect, there's still going to be an AWS, there's going to be stuff you can't take out. I think of it more as like, where you just want to make sure that the person isn't distracted by the things that are going on. And even though in natural conversation, arms and ahhs will occur, by removing them, it actually makes the flow of the episode better.

Seth Anderson:

So that's the JP Jedi hack, remove the arms and

JP Gaston:

the arms, the eyes and the pauses for me, are some of the biggest things. And when you listen, if you listen to the radio as an example, there's generally not a lot of hums and ahhs from someone who's been on the radio for years, but when they have a guest on, and the guest is constantly coming, and I find it's not that the guest isn't knowledgeable, but they seem less knowledgeable as a result. And so by removing those, you're actually putting them back up to where they probably should be.

Seth Anderson:

Well, and that's the thing to like, you will come across, you know, if you if you stay in this game, for any amount of time, you will come across very experienced speakers, radio hosts, CEOs, professional athletes, and in our case, that are well used to speaking in that kind of way, right. But then, you know, sometimes you'll have like a really amazing person on but they've never been on a podcast before. They don't do public speaking. And so I think as hosts, it's our job to try and make them come across as awesome as possible. And I think that's where the editing does come in handy. For sure.

JP Gaston:

100%. So, to recap, mic,

Unknown:

headphones,

JP Gaston:

clock, don't forget the clock,

Seth Anderson:

don't forget the clock, software room, find your find your recording software of choice, the slash distribution methods, some of them are integrated, some you might have to find solo, if you're interested in editing, Audacity or other like products. Let your guests know, what you expect from them. Decide whether you're going to edit or not, because I think that's something useful for the guests to know upfront. Like, hey, if you say something, we're live in front of 1000 people and we can't take it back. Versus Hey, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna have a look at this and, you know, I can edit out anything that you're not comfortable with. I think from a technical standpoint, there's probably a whole other stream on video. Oh, yes. Which is, again,

JP Gaston:

there's probably a whole other stream even on just the audio portion but that to get you started that's

Seth Anderson:

getting you started in like some of like the your your checklist where you're going through and deciding okay, like, do you want to edit or not? Do you want to have video or not? That is a huge decision. And it's, it's, it's a huge decision for a couple of reasons. One, you got to be camera ready. So there's things that are required to do that if you're going to be posting it. The other thing is just pure size of file

JP Gaston:

well and editing, changes text editing. Yeah, like the game changes when you add video,

Seth Anderson:

it's a lot I've dabbled with this. And the editing alone is it's very time consuming. There's some great software that exists that make it easy. But if you don't know what you're doing, and if you don't have a good computer, I would highly like, caution you to go down that path. I learned a lot by doing it. Mostly that my anger management control system has improved. Versus a younger self that would have very likely punched some. Because like, it's not easy to get it, you know, to get the videos to do what you want to find the right formatting the upload, download, post clip cut. And not that I wanted to tell anyone, it's just like, it's a whole

JP Gaston:

thing. All right, so you've got your mic, your mic, got your room, you've got your blankets, you've got your software, if you decide to edit, you've got your guest, if you decide to guest your headphones ready to go. You're on your platform. What are you recording? Hmm, I think one of the biggest things that we went through, and you alluded to this at the start here, but one of the biggest things that we did that I think has given us a lot of success is the planning.

Seth Anderson:

Yeah, and we're not going to be able to get into all that's gone into that. But either way, you know, part two coming soon. We'll see what the response is to this. But the planning is probably it is really easy. And it's really difficult. At the same time. It's sort of a paradox, because anytime that I get really far gone into the woods, as you know, as you've you've seen me, I just get back to like, why did we start this? Who is this for? And the minute that I remember that we started this for us. And it's for us, and we just want to make cool stuff, talk to cool people, share some stories and have some fun along the way. Everything seems easy.

JP Gaston:

Well, I think that was there was a we had a long conversation like, what is our niche? Who are we building this for? Who's going to be our listeners? And those are really important questions to ask. And you might come up with something different than us. Of course we came up with, it would be amazing if one person listened to this podcast and took something away from it. But really, it's just about us having a chance to connect with cool people. And hopefully our listeners are along for that ride. And the handful of people will find it interesting. Turns out there's more than a handful from every corner of the earth, apparently. And then there's some bots and France that are listening to us too. But it seemed for me like whenever I get stuck, I go back to Okay, who are we doing this for? Why is it important? And that might change over time. Like maybe when we get into season five or six, we're like, you know what, we're not making this for us anymore. We're making this, you know, the universe. But

Seth Anderson:

no, I actually, I think it always needs to be about us at the starting point. Like I just think that's when we're our most creative. And I know that goes against all the conventional marketing, and demographics and all that stuff. But anytime I start thinking about something else, it just doesn't feel right, for this particular project and what we're working on now, that's not to say that we couldn't have or wouldn't have sort of sub projects that are very targeted.

JP Gaston:

We do. We, we have others that we support in there. Several companies and individuals that we've supported along the way, and they're their podcast, development. Yeah, that's, that's exactly the conversation we have.

Seth Anderson:

That's cool. And in some, I just think in our case, like, what this is, is is at its core is a fun project that you and I started because we we wanted to do something fun,

JP Gaston:

except for this episode. Except for this episode. All other episodes are for us. This episode is for you,

Seth Anderson:

this episode is for you. So I mean, that's not to say that we won't do things in here. Like ultimately, the other thing that it's at its core, I think, is to inspire and help people. So, you know, we've always tried to stay true to that and that has, but that has taken many different shapes and forms and you know, been iterated on a lot like how we, how we perceive that and try to bring that to life is different than how it was on episode one.

JP Gaston:

If you want to hear the difference, feel free to listen to episode one from this season and then episode one from season one and see if you see any progress.

Seth Anderson:

I mean, but I you know what I think is the conjoining link between the episodes though is you know, if I were to offer a third thing is to like what this is it's, we really try to center it around just having a great conversation and let the conversation go, wherever it goes. Now, we've dabbled with having topics we've dabbled, you know, with a few few different show structures at this point. But anything that I've ever gotten good feedback on or anything that I've ever felt really proud about, I guess JP as been at its core just a great conversation.

JP Gaston:

Oh, absolutely. And there's stuff. What's interesting to me is there's stuff that we wanted to try that we didn't try that we're now trying. Like, there's stuff that we put on the back burner, because we like, we don't need that. And now we're actually trying it out, given the given to the the old culture, give it a go. And I'm enjoying it. Like the stories we talked, I think we talked in season one or Season Two about putting a story at the front like iterating, on what we were going to do to open our episodes, and we just didn't have it in us at the time. And so this season, we were like, you know, this is a season of creativity, this is a season of something different. And we're going to try something. And that's I mean, that's also what this space is about, it's okay to try like you don't have to, I don't think the point of that initial figuring out and planning, what you want to do is about nailing down every single thing. It's about just knowing what your purpose is, why are you doing what you're doing. So that whatever you decide to create, or iterate on, or innovate, or whatever, you are guided by that, Northstar, that principle that you've set up for yourself.

Seth Anderson:

That's my advice. Because otherwise, like, if you're making it for someone else, it's just really easy to get sucked into metrics and really deflated when things don't go the way you hope or really, you know, you start to, you start to just change the structure or the tone or the all of it, because you're trying to get someone else interested. And I think we've, we've, we've had moments of that. So, you know, I guess the advice ultimately is like, why are you doing this, like if you can clearly articulate to yourself and whoever you're getting into this venture with why you're doing it, write that down?

JP Gaston:

Like, if you're thinking of it now, right? It's pause, and write it down, write it down, and then come back and press play.

Seth Anderson:

And then you've got somewhere to start, right? Okay, this is why I'm doing this. If you don't have that, or if you're doing it for anything. Like if you're doing it to make money, that's fine. But

JP Gaston:

I don't know, like, then all of your decisions have to be about how you are going to. So you will get caught up, no matter why you're doing it in stats. And you know, you'll want to see downloads, and you'll be excited about it and just know it'll Podcast Take time to grow. They can take a number of years to grow. I was watching a thing yesterday on a podcast that you know, for the first couple of years was looking at hundreds of downloads a day, or a month, and now gets 15 million downloads a month. Like it's crazy how once they hit the hit, but it will likely take you some time. So don't be discouraged. Do what you do. And for the reason you're doing it. But if you're if you're planning to make money, all your decisions should be about how you get to the point of making Yeah, which was not why we did this. Exactly. We did this for us. So all of our decisions are about what we want to do to keep this relevant and cool and timely for us.

Seth Anderson:

I think that's the key to the sustainability element. Because even you and I have both started other projects, solo projects working with other people, they haven't necessarily had the sticking power. And if I think about it, like it's not that they didn't have a Y, it's just the Y for The Biz Dojo between you and I it's almost rhymed. I think we spent a lot of time talking about it. iterating on it going back and forth. Like does this make sense? Does that make sense is this what this means? Is that what this is, like, there was just a lot of conversation now we had the benefit. I think of doing this during like a lockdown. Basically, during COVID. The time was there for us to really flush that out. But I think that's given us the staying power to do like we're at 100 Plus episodes at this point, and energized about what's to come. And I haven't necessarily felt that way on all the other things I've worked on.

JP Gaston:

I will say and maybe this is a good way for us to wrap. But if you have the opportunity to sit down at a nice diner, and have a good breakfast, and iterate on what you want to do and why I recommend it because that is absolutely where we started sitting down at a diner at the table. You even got a picture of it at the table, the old napkin drawings trying to figure out exactly what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. And that's that is the start and it can be as simple as that just taking a little bit of time to sit down pause and reflect on what you do and and why you want to do it. Before you take those steps into hanging blankets around your

Seth Anderson:

that's funny that napkin said business and just why why see and that wasn't what we ended up going with. But it was the idea. I don't know. Like I still think about sitting in that diner. It's funny because we just talked about on the last episode of coaches, Denzel and the sudden coming in it was like seven o'clock in the morning. But you know, that's that's our journey. That's that's the very basics of starting a podcast and I think I think we're gonna really have to do three or three or four more of these to really

JP Gaston:

well let's get some feedback. So yeah, you know, fire is your feedback, send us an out you can send it to literally anything at the biz dojo.com JP at the biz dojo.com or Seth at the biz dojo.com Or if your name is Karen Karen at the biz dojo.com We'll get it don't worry and let us know what you think. Let us know what you want to hear more about hear less about we're happy to share our experience

Seth Anderson:

and if we hear nothing we're we'll just assume you wanted us to keep going yeah, we'll

JP Gaston:

just keep doing it. We'll replace all of our episodes with these from here on out that's

Seth Anderson:

bloody easier to coordinate no times.

JP Gaston:

No hammers, no time zones. Great.

Seth Anderson:

Let the clock Alright, right