I’m very excited because my new show has been launched! So I thought I’d talk a little bit about planning your podcast and getting started. Listen by clicking the play button above. Or you can download the mp3 here.

The Audio Pod Artist Show - Episode 1 

There are lots of opinions on creating familiarity for your audience by producing a ’signature’ sound and format and sticking to it but the flip side of that is it can delays us in getting started, especially those of us who are time starved and prone to procrastination (what a combination!).

It’s daunting enough being faced with getting to grips with the physical part of the podcasting process. But if we then take into account that we’re not ‘allowed’ to start until we’ve found the perfect intro and outro music, decided on whether or not we’re going to have a guest speaker segment and worked out the exact format of the show it can take forever to just get out there and start podcasting!

I agree with the ‘planners’ to a certain extent. Yes it’s really important to know the theme of your show , after all, you don’t want to hit record and find yourself rambling about what you had for dinner last night. And it’s useful for you to have a little plan as to how you’re going to break up the various parts of the show and it would be ideal to get your theme music sorted out before you add your dulcet tones. However, don’t sweat it if it’s not all perfect, it’s never going to be. Just keep it simple so that you can get started.

So, whilst I have a theme for my show (talking about podcasting of course - did you expect a show on budgerigar management?) I’ve decided to take the pressure off myself and allow myself to do several things with it as it grows organically:

• If I feel like changing the music then I will!
• I might decide to introduce new segments or remove old segments, depending on what me or my audience prefer.
• I may or may not stick to the length that I’ve started off with (it’s roughly 12 minutes at the moment)

There’s a lot to be said for allowing a show to grow organically - remember, your show is to help mark you out as an expert that your clients can grow to know, like and trust - they don’t expect a professional radio show. Meanwhile, you will learn what works and what doesn’t, and therefore be able to polish your show as you become more familiar with podcasting as a way to get your voice in their head.