This is an amazing topic and a fickle one with regards to me and my business. I love to listen to podcasts because they’re inspiring and if done right, can be almost like a mini-course.

When I say “fickle,” I meant it because if in the first 15 minutes of listening to a new podcast, I don’t connect with the speaker, I tend to shut it off and move on. It can be the sound of their voice or they’re just rattling on with non-sense (which is usually brought on by the annoyance of their voice). It can be a vicious cycle. Sounds crazy right? But it’s true.

Also, I find the most important thing I need from Podcasts is value. Now mind you these are generally business podcasts. But in thinking about it, the same can be true for when I listen to something based on Marvel or a comedy because I’m expecting some sort of value from them as well. Bottom line, don’t waste my time with a bunch of boring gibberish.

Which bring me to when I publish my podcasts. I will need to focus on bringing valuable content and hope that my voice isn’t annoying to people like me. But, perhaps my content will be SO great that it will win people over EVEN if they think my voice is annoying.

Now that leads me to my TOP FOUR favorite podcasts that I listen to right now. I say “right now” because I believe this list will be ever growing and changing. I will also say that some of these listed, in the beginning, I had to get over their voices because they made me sleepy or I didn’t connect with the tone. BUT they ALL offer such amazing, valuable content that out weigh voice tone and sleepiness. My advice to you, just listen in the morning and NOT at bedtime.

Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield

Amazing content provider. Wow, she is something to inspire too and I hope I can bring as much value to my audience as she does.

Podcast Answer Man with Cliff Ravenscraft

Very transparent and uplifting. I guess that’s what I love about all these podcasters, is their transparency. Cliff gives great content, tips and information.

Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn

I love the questions Pat asks on his podcasts when he interviews people. It’s amazing and very direct. He’s a really nice guy and people respect him for that. Pat is very positive, inspiring and genuinely cares about his audience.

This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt

Besides his wonderful speaking voice, Michael gives great advice and has great topics he talks about. I really like the format of the podcast. Instead of him simply speaking, he has a host to ask him questions and lead the conversation for him. Great content to walk away with, integrating your business and personal life.

These are probably some very popular podcasts and there’s a very good reason for it. I think what I will do is start listing my top favorites I’m listening to in the sidebar of my website for you to reference and maybe consider if you’re starting your business like me.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and hope you have a wonderful week!

Samantha

Wow! What a week this has been!

I completed editing and publishing my FIRST podcast for this journey! Now, if you listen to it, there are a couple little blips but overall, it went well. I have NO intro or exit music yet. I am going to hire someone to put this together for me. Someone other than me. 🙂

For this first recording, I set up with a simple folding chair in my clothes closet (which was like being in the perfect padded sound studio…it was amazing!) with my Tascam digital recorder on a tripod. I ran an extension cord under the door so I didn’t have to worry about battery loss in the Tascam. When I was done, I took out the SD card and completed editing the sound file using my Mac Book Air’s preinstalled application called Garage Band.

What I used to complete my first Podcast:

Tascam Digital Recorder – I already had this awesome device from previous interviews I used to do when I interviewed artists. It’s awesome because it gives me high quality recordings, transports easily anywhere (you can use a battery if you need to) and it uses an SD card to easily transfer the audio files to your computer for editing.
Garage Band application – used this to edit my podcast. I watched a Garage Band podcasting video on Lynda.com to get up to speed real quickly. In the past, I used the open source application called Audacity for editing my audio files. Garage Band was really easy once I knew the basic controls. If your super new to podcasting, there’s a bit of a learning curve that online tutorials will help you with.
Skull Candy Noise Cancellation headphones – having great headphones is a must for recording and these are my favorite. I have no shame and will wear these big babies ANYWHERE! Mainly because I despise ear buds because their painful, annoying and most won’t fit properly in my ears.

Goals completed (and more):

• Create podcast logo.
• Set up account with iTunes and Stitcher radio.
• Create Plugins resource page/post.
• Recorded, edited and published Podcast 1.
• Create a website resources page.
• Create a resources link on my website.
• Provided new client with list of needs to complete web page
• Learned how to use Garage Band for Podcasting

Goals not completed:

• Finalize Opt In page and see if its ready to implement.
• Layout content schedule for this with in CoSchedule.
• Meet with business coach. (We have been back and forth and will be scheduling this one out)
• Did not finish or EVEN start the book Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook. 🙁 (I’m VERY disappointed about this one)
• Although I recorded Podcasts 2 & 3, I did not edit the audio files yet.
• I did not review strategy recording that I had with business coach and write a blog post about it.

Next weeks goals:

• Thoroughly go through Google Analytics
• UTM Coding
• Journal Entry
• Content scheduling in CoSchedule for at least 30 days in advance for Twitter and Facebook.
• To remove the verbal hesitation “UM” from my everyday conversation vocabulary so I won’t use it during podcasts or any other form of public speaking.
• Add Podcast link to main horizontal menu at top of my website.
• Review strategy recording that I had with business coach and write a blog post about it.
• Refresh the WordPress plugins page to have a landing page rather than a list of blog posts that have a plugin category.
• Start reading book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook
• Add Opt-In page