This week’s episode is the season finale! The first season of Seedling is officially finished and I’ve loved every minute. In this week’s episode I’m reflecting on some lessons I’ve learnt, how I’ve felt the first season has gone and I’m sharing some tips for you if you’re thinking about launching your own podcast.
I also wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who listens, and those who have messaged me or shared that they listen online - it honestly means the world. I’ll be taking about a month off while I prepare and start recording season 2. If you have any ideas of topics you want me to include, let me know over on Instagram.
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or listen here:
LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
- How to start a podcast
- How to edit your podcast (the easy way)
- Josephine Brooks (lots of great blog and podcast content on planning)
- Canva (where you can make your artwork)
- Premium Beat (where I got my music)
- Audacity (the editing software I use)
Transcript
Introduction:
This week’s episode is the season finale and I can’t quite believe we’re at the end of season 1, but here we are! And I really wanted to spend today talking a bit more about podcasting, how I’ve found it after doing a whole season, sharing some tips with you if you’re thinking about setting up your own podcast, and some really important lessons that I learned along the way. So if that all sounds interesting to you, then settle in, get comfortable, and yeah, let’s jump into it!
Episode:
Hello everyone! And welcome back to the podcast. I hope you’re all doing well and if you did have a break over the festive period, I hope you’re taking it easy going back to work. I’ve actually quite enjoyed coming back to work because, while I loved relaxing and taking time off and sitting on the sofa watching Netflix all day, there is something about creating that I do miss when I’m off. So I’m really enjoying creating again.
And, speaking of that, I wanted to talk about creating this podcast today. And, now we’re at the end of season one, I wanted to talk through kind of how it’s been, if it’s done the job I wanted it to do, and share some tips with you, if you’re thinking about starting a podcast yourself.
So let’s start by recapping on why I set up this podcast in the first place.
So I’ve always been a podcast fan and I always had a bit of an inkling that I would like to try it out myself one day. But I always assumed that I didn’t have the technical ability that was needed and I was just so in love with writing and blogging that I just put the idea to one side. But then, as time went on, I kind of saw more and more people doing it, making their own podcasts. And I thought, well, why not me? And I also noticed how my behaviour was when it came to the content I was consuming. I was reading blogs, but I was listening to podcasts a lot more. And I was getting a deeper connection to people through that. So I started to realise that me making my own podcast could potentially lead to a more engaged audience and also put me in front of some new people.
So I guess the question is, did this happen? And I would have to say it really did! I’ve had such lovely support from people who were already following me when I started the podcast, and I’ve made some new connections through it as well. So it’s basically done exactly what I was hoping it would do, and I’ve just been loving putting it out every week.
Now, onto a couple of the lessons that I’ve definitely learned from setting up this podcast. Number one is that I learned you do not have to do it alone! So the thought of doing the whole process just using Google nearly stopped me from trying it at all. But then I found a podcast workshop run by Lucy Lucraft, who is someone I follow online. And I realised that I could get support from her. And then, when I felt totally overwhelmed by the project and other projects that I had going on, I found a planning workshop run by Josephine Brooks and got support for planning how I was going to actually make this thing happen.So both of those workshops really had an instrumental role on me setting up this podcast. And the lovely thing is that both Lucy and Josephine offered extra support and said that I could email them at any time. Both had their own podcasts and had done it all before so they were really open to supporting me with any questions I had along the way.
So obviously, not all of us can afford to go to multiple workshops or buy courses, but I did find loads of helpful videos online and, if you know someone who runs a podcast, all I would say is ask them if they can give you a couple of pointers! As long as you’re not asking them to literally give you a detailed run down of how to start a podcast from scratch, they’re quite likely to be happy to help and give you some advice! That’s definitely the number one lesson that I learned, is that people are really willing to help if you ask for it.
The other support I had was definitely from my partner Dan. So he helped me really finesse my editing when I first started. He has a background in music editing, he knows what he’s doing when it comes to the technical side of things, so that was really helpful. And having the support from your friends and loved ones, and even people online, it can make all the difference. Because it makes you realise that other people believe in you, so definitely don’t try and do it alone and get some support if you can.
The other lesson that I learned is that people resonate with people. So people listen to this podcast because they wanna hear what I’ve got to say about a certain subject. It doesn’t matter if I get my words a bit muddled or if there are builders working whilst I’m recording - which you might remember from a previous episode - so when I couldn’t figure out how to end the podcast - the first couple of podcasts I kind of really didn’t know how to end it, I stumbled and made a joke about it and I was worried about leaving it in because I thought it was unprofessional and unpolished, but I got so many messages from people saying how glad they were that I left it in. I figured out that just being yourself is key.
So don’t try and put on a voice of a podcaster. Don’t try and impersonate other people you listen to. Just do you.
So, with all of that in mind, if you are thinking of setting up a podcast, my recommendation would be 100% do it. I know it’s not for everyone and there’s definitely quite a time commitment involved and some costs that you have to pay out for, especially initially. But, in my eyes, it’s been completely worth it and I think it’s worth at least trying it and seeing how you get on. If you realise you don’t like it after trying, at least you can say you tried. And if you’re feeling a bit held back, maybe by the idea that there are already so many podcasts out there, I wanna remind you that you could say that about books, TV shows, films. But we still love discovering new ones! And we still love discovering new podcasts. I know I love finding new podcasts out there and listening to different people and resonating with different people. So your podcast is gonna be totally individual because it’ll be your voice, your thoughts, and your approach.
So please don’t worry about the many podcasts that are out there. We’re all different and we’re all gonna want to hear from different people.
So, if you’re feeling ready to dive in, then your first job is to really do the groundwork. So you need to think about what do you want your podcast to be about, what format is it gonna take, what feelings do you want to evoke in the listener, what’s the purpose of your podcast. When you have all this down, you’ll need to think of a name and get some royalty free music as well. So I tried to see nine as a bit of a brand and made a bit of a mood board and wrote down some words that came to mind when I was thinking of how I wanted people to feel, and I used this as my guide.
And I really wanted mine to be aligned with my existing brand so being really gentle, trustworthy, and a safe space to explore personal growth. And I think that the artwork I made and the music really reflects this. I made my artwork in Canva, which is a website you can use online totally for free, just using a picture of myself and some wording. It was so easy. I’ll make sure I pop a link in the shownotes to Canva if you’ve not used it already. It’s fantastic.
And then I bought some music from premiumbeat.com. Again, I’ll pop a link in the shownotes. But there are other sites you can use and you can get music completely for free. You don’t have to spend money on music. I just chose to because I found a piece that I loved. And the piece of music for this podcast is actually called ‘Wild Flowers’ and that was just a bit of a sign to me. My podcast is called Seedling and the music was called ‘Wild Flowers’ - t just all fit together a little bit too well for me not to get it!
So, once you have those bits down, it’s time to get technical. So you’re gonna need a microphone, editing software, and a podcast host. Now, instead of going into the nitty gritty of all this, there are so many different options out there and I really want to instead point you into a direction of someone who knows more about this. So I’m gonna link to a couple of blogs by Lucy Lucraft on this subject because she’s got so much knowledge in this area and really helped me and these blogs in particular really helped me too. So definitely look there if you’re thinking about what microphone you want, editing software, and all of that kind of thing.
But all I’ll say is it’s a lot easier than you think it’s gonna be. It can be very overwhelming at first, but once you’ve just made some choices, things can get so much easier.
So, once you have all of this together, it’s time to record and edit! And I would advise definitely get used to your editing software by just having a play. Just start recording some bits, chopping things up, putting it together, get a really feel for the software and be prepared to make some mistakes. I know I definitely have. And then just you’ll get used to it over time and you’ll learn how to use it. As I said, there are loads of videos online that can help with this. I use Audacity and I’ve found it really, really easy. Once you know what you’re doing, it becomes so much quicker. So don’t be kind of scared if it takes you a long time at first. Just keep sticking with it and the more you do it, the quicker you’ll get at it.
And once you have recorded and edited your first podcasts, you’re going to need to submit it to iTunes. Which again, sounds a lot scarier than it is. I remember feeling a real block when it came to doing that, when it came to submitting it to iTunes and making sure it was on all the different apps. But again, it can be made so much easier by your host. I use Libsyn and they submit it to most places for you. The only place you have to do separately is iTunes and it sounds really scary but honestly it’s just clicking a couple of buttons, filling in a couple of forms. It really does not take long at all and it’s so much easier than I thought it was gonna be, so please don’t worry about that!
And your only job then is to get out there and tell people about it! So I personally told my online audience that I was making a podcast whilst I was in the process of making it. I did that to kind of get the excitement built a little bit and let people know what was gonna be coming up. And then I put a trailer up two weeks before I launched. And again, this just enables people to subscribe early if they know they’re gonna be wanting to hear from you and it means they can share it with other people as well.
And there you go! Once you’ve done that, you can just schedule episodes to go out however frequently you want. I’ve chosen to do it weekly. You might want to do it every couple of weeks, once a month. All I would say is try and find a schedule that suits you and your lifestyle, not the other way around because, as I said, podcasting can take up a bit of time so you wanna make sure you have the bandwidth to do that. So don’t force it and rush it - just try and do what feels good to you. People will love to hear from you whenever.
And there you go! You have got a podcast! So if you do decide to launch a podcast, I would really love to hear about it. Definitely let me know over on Instagram, I’m @katbluejay and all I can say is it’s such an exciting thing to do. It can feel a bit overwhelming at times. I definitely had some blocks when things came up that felt like just too much for me to do and scary, but I would really advise leaning on other people for support. I couldn’t have done it without the people I’ve mentioned in this podcast. I couldn’t have done it without lots of Googling online and watching lots of videos. But it can be done! If I can do it, I promise you, you can do it as well!
And it’s such an exciting thing. It’s just such a nice way to connect with people. I love being able to speak to you guys more on Instagram through this podcast and I’ve just loved every single minute so I really wanna say a big thank you to everyone who has listened. I’m gonna be taking a month’s break whilst I start to plan and record season two, so I’ll be back mid-February. And of course, if there’s any topics you wanna hear in season two, let me know. Just reach out to me on Instagram. And yeah, I’ve just really, really appreciated your support. It’s meant the absolute world. And if you have enjoyed the first season, I would really love it if you would be able to give a rating and a review on iTunes, or just share it with your audience or a friend who you think might enjoy it. These little online acts of kindness make such a huge difference and it’s something I know I definitely want to do more of myself in 2020.
So whilst the podcast is taking a break, there’ll still be content coming from me. There’ll be blogs going live every Sunday over at bluejayofhappiness.com, there’ll be newsletters going out every month, and I’ll be over on Instagram as usual, just faffing about on Stories and posting content to my grid. But yeah, definitely go over and check out the new website because it is shiny and it launched last Sunday and I’m really proud of it and excited for everyone to see it! And that’s where the shownotes live as well, so just head over to the podcast section and you’ll get the shownotes, which have all the links and stuff that I talk about here.
But yeah, that’s it from me. I will be back with you in a month. I hope that you have a really wonderful one and a lovely, lovely, start to 2020.
