In early 2020, Don and I were lying in bed talking like we always do at some ridiculously early hour. By then, he had named the hour of the morning that I liked to talk about all things pop culture and reminisce on our childhood my “chat and bother hour.” He said, “You know, this should be a podcast.” I brushed it off, but he still purchased the domain name.
As the pandemic started to take hold, I worked on some very cool online projects, and while I didn’t start the podcast, I did reserve our social media handles, Gmail, and all that. Eventually, surviving the pandemic became the priority, and we didn’t really think about the podcast anymore. Fast forward to December 2022, when we just decided to go for it. I went to reserve our social media handles… yes, I know – I had already done that in 2020. What they don’t tell you about Gen Xers is that by now, we forget stuff. When I saw all the handles were taken, I was devastated. I had waitied too long. After a brief panic attack, I realized that yes, they were reserved – by me – and took that as my sign to just keep moving.
We had all sorts of equipment from my life as a blogger, but all we really needed was a mic, which I had purchased back in 2018, and my computer.
If I had known what I know now about how starting a podcast works, we would have gotten going back in 2020. Here are five things I wish I had known that day that we reserved this domain name and decided a podcast would be a great idea.
It Was SO MUCH EASIER to Start a Podcast Than I Thought
I don’t remember what I thought I would have to do to start a podcast. It seemed so daunting. How do I get on Apple Podcasts? Spotify? How much will hosting be? Who hosts these things anyway? I have a friend who had been running her podcast for some years, so she gave me some insight during one of our many random conversations. I had been on her podcast a couple of times, so I knew what I needed to have as a guest – a mic, headphones, and a computer. Her set up was fancier than mine was as a guest, BUT it was essentially the same.
Related: How to Market Your Podcast WITHOUT Social Media
After going through several hosting company websites and comparing them, I picked Libsyn for $5 a month. I listened to several podcasts and picked up on the format that most of them used, wrote outlines for our first couple of episodes, sat down at the kitchen island, and hit record on Adobe Audition (it could have been GarageBand or the voice recorder on my phone, but I had been using audition for years by then).
Setting up Libsyn? 20 minutes – tops. Distribution to all of the podcast platforms? Another 20 minutes – if that. If I had known it would be that simple, I would have started in back in 2020.
You Don’t Need Fancy Equipment to Sound Professional
After we dropped our first few episodes, I got calls, texts, and DMs asking what equipment we used. I didn’t have a lot to share. I gave them the link to my microphone, a USB plug-and-play one at that, and at the time we weren’t doing video episodes, so that was it.
You might think you need an expensive mic and all these panels and mixers. But one decent USB mic, inexpensive headphones, and some reasonably quiet space were all it took. So many people commented on how clear the sound was. Yep, just us and our four-year-old microphone.
It Was More Affordable Than I Imagined
One of my biggest fears was the budget. We had two teens in high school – homecoming dances to fund, sports, events, trips, fees… I didn’t see us adding another bill to the pile. I was bracing myself for recurring expenses, fees, and all these equipment costs. But let me tell you—starting a podcast was one of the most affordable creative projects I’ve ever taken on.
We used what we had. Luckily, we did have a lot of software that I was using to edit audio and video as a blogger. But when I started doing my research, I found so many free tools that did similar things to my paid tools. Our hosting is $5 a month. The great thing about that is, if life starts life-ing, and we don’t get episodes up, we are only out the price of a $5 Biggie Bag from Wendy’s. I can handle that without being hard on myself.
Eventually, our listeners told us they wanted to be viewers too, so we started making the podcast available as both video and audio. While we do have other cameras, we record our video episodes on Don’s iPhone 15.
Bottom line – you don’t have to go broke to have a great show.
Related: Create a Podcast That Your Audience Can’t Get Enough Of
People Were Excited to Support It
We had NO idea who would listen to us. No one had said to us “you should start a podcast!” Literally, no one. We had done no market research. For me, since marketing is what I do, the way we started made zero sense. I need data to feel safe. We had none of that. We had $5 and a mic.
The response blew us away! Our friends and family became fans. They gave us valuable feedback, helped us test out new things, liked, commented, shared, left reviews. MOST people aren’t “haters” – they want to see you succeed. If you have a good show, they will definitely tune in. Honestly, since we didn’t plan at the level that I am used to planning professionally, I assumed we’d be talking into the void – this was going to be a hobby. But once we shared the first few episodes, friends, coworkers, and even total strangers tuned in and rooted for us. It was Good Morning America level heartwarming.
People want to support you—all you have to do is hit publish.
Related: How to Prepare for Your Podcast to Go Viral Like Shannon Sharpe
You Don’t Need to Know Everything to Begin
I used to think I needed a full plan, a niche carved in stone, and a strategy that went five years out. Let me tell you—I had none of that. It was very much outside of how I usually do things, I love a plan, but I didn’t necessarily NEED a plan. I just needed to start.
We figured it out as we went. Some episodes were tighter than others. Some went a little off the rails (in the best way). But what mattered most was showing up and being real. Every mistake helped us get better, and every episode built our confidence.
If you’re reading this and thinking about starting your own podcast—please take this as your sign. You don’t need a studio. You don’t need a fancy mic. You don’t need to have all the answers. Just press record.
Thank you for being on this journey with us! If you’ve got an idea for a podcast, I hope this gives you the nudge to go for it. If we can grow our hobby into an award-winning podcast, so can you.
