5 things NOT to do when you’re starting a podcast

I've helped to launch more than 100 new podcasts in the last two years. So I've seen pretty much all of the mistakes in the book when it comes to launching that very first podcast, getting it off the ground. 

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5 mistakes to avoid when you start a podcast

I'm going to share those five things not to do. There are definitely more than five big mistakes that people tend to make when they're launching a podcast, but these are probably the five most common.

 

 

Mistake #1. Buying the microphone first

Now, I hate to tell you this, but choosing your microphone's probably the easiest part about podcasting. Your microphone isn't going to make or break your podcast unless you spend forever choosing it. It's very easy to spend your entire budget and your entire time budget trying to choose a microphone for your podcast. But at the end of the day, as long as that sound quality is good enough, it's not about … nobody's listening to your podcast because it's perfect sound quality. They're listening for the content that you're creating. And as long as that quality is good enough, then that's not going to have a real measurable impact on your show's success. Instead, instead of spending that time focusing on which microphone, focus on the strategy behind your show. Why are you starting the show? Who is it for? What is your show about? Getting really clear on that topic is much more important than choosing that microphone.

 

Mistake #2. Name it something that is already taken

Especially if they own the trademark. Now, I've seen this happen a few times where somebody's launched a brand new podcast only to find out that actually somebody else has that name or somebody else has the trademark even if it's not already used as a podcast. At best, they might nicely send you a letter asking you to change your name and at worst, it could end in legal issues. So we want to avoid that if possible. And even if they don't ask you to change it, even if it's not trademarked, it's still a little bit confusing for your audience and it can be a real issue for marketing your show if there is more than one podcast with the same name.

 

Mistake #3. Copy the format, the style, or the topic of a show that already exists with the same target audience as yours

I understand it's really hard when you have a podcast that you love and you're like, “Oh, I can do this, but better.” It's really hard not to want to emulate that. But if somebody's already listening to a show that they love in that format with that topic, why would they go and listen to a new show that's basically the same? Why are they going to sacrifice that time that they would spend listening to that other podcast and go and switch and listen to your podcast instead? They're not going to switch shows unless it's something different and something better suited to what they want. The same thing goes for interview guests as well. Don't interview all of the same people that everybody else in your space has interviewed. Try and find new and exciting people with fresh stories.

You see this a lot in the business space, when somebody has a new book coming out, all of the podcasts will be interviewing the same one guest. And it's probably quite likely that that guest's answers to the questions are going to be very similar across the shows. So instead of rehashing the same interviews, instead of having the same guests, how can you find new people with new and exciting stories to share?

 

Mistake #4. Being vague about your topic or who the show is for

There are more than 2 million podcasts out there. So unless you know exactly who your show is for and what it's about, it's going to be a real challenge getting people to listen to it. Podcasting is really about being specific because we don't want to reach everybody. We don't want to reach that mainstream audience. We want to reach that specific audience. We don't want to reach that mainstream audience. We want to reach that specific audience and identify your standout topic.

 

Mistake #5. Putting it off forever

You're never going to feel 100% ready to start your podcast, just like you're never going to feel 100% ready to do anything that feels like a growth thing. Podcasting is scary, especially if you're somebody who's not confident in your voice and you're not a confident speaker, it's going to be scary. I used to find it terrifying. I have never been a confident speaker and it's only really in the last year or two that I've started to feel confident speaking into a microphone without a script. And only really in the last six months that I felt confident videoing myself speaking into a microphone without a script. And now it's just part of my weekly routine.

So it does get a lot easier as you do it and you can figure a lot of it out along the way, but you just need to start. And your first few episodes will probably suck compared to where you'll be a few years down the line. Like if you were to back and listen to episode one of this podcast, it would be terrible compared to what it is now. But over time, I've improved with practice and you will too.

 

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