4 Reasons You Should Start a Podcast (And How to Get Started)

Why Podcast

First of all, it’s a great creative outlet. For my day job, I run a venture-backed technology startup called StoryBox. I disclosed to my board members that I would be starting Beyond the Uniform, and I was surprised at their enthusiastic support. They told me “creativity in one area always bleeds over to creativity in another.” And this has been true of my experience. While it does take time and mental energy to keep the podcast going, I get that back in spades in terms of passion, knowledge, networking, and fulfillment.

I also think that there is a personal and professional advantage in cultivating an audience. As you refine your voice, message, and public speaking, you can build a following of people who appreciate your perspective. This can allow you, in the future, to promote causes you believe in or (in rarer cases) even find ways to cultivate a side income from that audience.

Furthermore, it’s a great way to get access to incredible people. I’ve really been honored and flattered by the caliber of guests that I’ve had on Beyond the Uniform: the CEO of Pepsi, NFL Players, Academy Award Nominees and more. When you reach out as a podcast interviewer it’s different than the typical cold outreach. It allows you to broadcast and amplify their message, which is appealing to most ultra-successful individuals and organizations. I think that BTU has helped me gain access to some incredible people who may not have made the time to just chat with me.

Lastly, podcasting for me is exceptionally easier for me than writing. A microphone, often a guest on the show, and a few notes is far simpler for me to execute on than a blank page and a pen. If you’re looking for an outlet for your creativity, I think that podcasting is far easier than writing, and also less time intensive than video. If you are a thinking about content marketing as a way to gain exposure for your veteran owned business, starting with a podcast is ideal: you can take the podcast, transcribe it to text, convert it to articles, combine articles into ebooks, and more.

How to podcast

Step 1: Pick a topic: The first step is to pick the topic for your show. You want this to be narrow enough that you can stand out, but broad enough that it’s something you can dig deeper on over the course of years. For me, helping military Veterans succeed in their civilian career was a niche audience where I could make a difference, but also gave me enough room to find variety to keep it interesting.

Step 2: Pick a format: I classify podcasts into two basic formats. One is a produced podcast and by that I mean it’s heavily edited. And the second is what I do which is more of an interview format. Truth be told, most of the podcasts I listen to are the produced type — they cost a lot of money, and a high production value, and are exceptional. However, I chose to do an interview format (similar to Tim Ferriss, John Lee Dumas, Pay Flynn, etc). The reason why I liked the interview format is that for me this was was something that I’m doing on lunch breaks and nights and weekends. If I had to come up with material for the show or if I had to heavily edit these shows I just don’t honestly have the time to do that. But one of the things that appealed to me with this interview format is all I essential have to do is find great people to interview, prepare for the interview, and do some light editing. But the guest is really doing all the heavy lifting in terms of presenting content and new ideas — I just need to be curious.

Step 3: Record (but don’t publish): I believe that consistency is key to podcast success — I do two episodes, every single week, without fail. I see a lot of people get excited about podcasting, but three months later their show lies dormant. The way to avoid this is to make sure you have 5–10 episodes edited, lined up and ready to go before you publish the first one. This also gives you a healthy buffer of content in case your day-to-day life gets disrupted, and you miss recording a new episode.

Step 4: PROMOTE!:Another reason that I like the interview format interview is that you can use a guest’s audience to grow their own. Although it takes a bit of courage, we’re meticulous at Beyond the Uniform about asking our guests to share the show with their audience. And we make it easy — we give them pre-written, social-condensed content that they can easily share. We also lead by example, blasting each episode out on all of our social channels and in our newsletter. Most guests reciprocate, and this makes a big impact on growing our audience.

Step 5: Keep learning: I try to learn from other podcasters about how to be more efficient. John Lee Dumas has a free podcast course [https://www.eofire.com/freepodcastcourse/] that will take you through all the equipment you need. I also subscribe to Reddit’s podcast group to pick up other tips and tricks along the way. I’m 275 episodes in, and still finding that I have SO much to learn — so approach this as a skill you’re continuing to master… it makes it more fun and keeps you learning and growing.