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Welcome to Podcasting Smarter, the podcast for podcasters by podcasters.

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Podcasting Smarter is the official podcast from Podbean, featuring podcasting

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interviews, best practices, and helpful tips.

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We're here to give you the tools, resources, product updates,

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and news to help you get started podcasting and keep your podcast growing.

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So I want to talk next about starting with zero revenue. We have gotten some

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questions about people who are interested in podcasting, but don't have a lot

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of money for startup costs. So in terms of getting started, let's talk about some of the easiest and most

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cost effective ways to start. For me, just I want to answer this first, the Podbean app. That's what you want.

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You can and record your podcast for free on your phone.

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It's built in. It's great quality. It's literally built into the Podbean app.

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So if you have the Podbean app, check that out in terms of recording.

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It's going to be great quality. You can live stream directly from the app.

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And like John said, you can get donations from day one. It's really going to

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help you get things off the ground. There are a lot of free resources out there. It doesn't have to be,

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you don't have to throw money into it. You should have a mic. If you don't, you can record from your phone with the

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Podbean app. That's a good place to start, to be honest.

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If you have zero revenue, if you're starting zero, you're starting with a couple

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hundred bucks, I'd say make sure that you have, and you can also edit, sorry, really quickly.

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You can also edit your episodes that you record on the Podbean app in the Podbean app. Cool.

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Next step off of the app would be microphone and editing software,

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any kind of editing software. I mean, we love Hindenburg and Descript.

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We've got integrations with them. So you can publish directly from those platforms

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where you're editing or creating transcripts or anything like that.

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You can publish directly from them to Podbean, so you don't have to download, re-upload.

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After that, we can talk about audio interface and all that stuff.

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And in terms of microphones, there's a couple out there that are pretty good

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for maybe a couple hundred bucks. If you want to spend four or five hundred bucks, there's quite a few more.

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John, you and I are both using the MV7 from Shure today, which we love.

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There's also great, we have a lot of mic recommendations.

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So Ronnie, we can also pop that link to our mic recommendations in the chat

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here if you have any questions about that. But just know that you don't have

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to have hundreds or thousands of dollars to start. You just have to start.

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I think starting is the hardest thing. And so don't let maybe the lack of funds or the lack of whatever you're able to start with stop you.

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Because literally with the Podbean app, we have an app where you can record

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and edit and publish directly from your phone from a free app.

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You can get started today, really. Yeah.

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And you know what, I'm going to just put out a scenario right now,

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too, because if we're really talking about who submitted this zero budget question,

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because it's a very, it's a very good question.

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And there's I'm going to take it very much at face value and talk about a really

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interesting strategy and put over Podbean in the process, because that's why I'm here.

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This is from one of our friends on Twitter. Hello, Twitter friend.

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So let's say you don't have a budget. And let's say we're talking about using

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the Podbean app because the Podbean app is free.

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Also, with Podbean, you do get a free five hours that you don't have to pay for.

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So let's say you come in, you say, hey, I have zero budget whatsoever.

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Not even OK to pay for the hosting, but let's say you come in with zero budget whatsoever.

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Right. What are the two things that we have at the disposal? We have the Podbean app.

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You can start a Podbean account for free. You get those five hours and you have live stream.

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Cool. I don't have any funds. What do I do?

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Let's go ahead and figure out how you can maximize those five hours on the Podbean

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app for absolutely free. People always ask how long... I'm going to go on a tangent here.

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I'm sorry. Stop me at any point. So how long is an average podcast episode?

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Okay. We often say that it's usually 22 to 25 minutes, things like that, right?

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Let's say it's an average. So what you can do, take that, extrapolate it to

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the five hours, and create a variety of content that puts you at that five hours.

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It hits about 20-minute episodes, right? Then what you can do using the Podbean app is you start a live stream that you

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do weekly and let people know, hey, I'm doing this live stream.

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Come check in, and it's going to be however long, 20 minutes,

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30 minutes, an hour, whatever the case may be. But you go ahead and you create the...

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Schedule that you're going to be doing your live stream, however many times

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a week, live stream gets popped up in the Podbean app, you gain an audience

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through there, you say, hey, if you like the live stream content,

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check out what I have over on the podcasting content.

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And you can reshuffle new content, old content, you could just tell people listen

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to what the podcast content is,

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you can bring up the strategy of, hey, donate to me here, so I can keep the

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podcast going, they donate to you over time, that pays for your hosting costs,

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you end up paying, you get the expanded storage, you get the unlimited storage

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that we have, And then you can record however many podcasts you want.

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It's one of those things that I think people often ask, how do you get started with zero budget?

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And usually that translates to, I don't have much money to podcast could be

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the best solution for the best cost.

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But I really wanted to take that question into a different way.

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Let's say you don't have anything. No, if you have zero, you can do it with zero budget.

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Totally. And John, like you were saying, let's say even you make your episodes

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20 minutes, you've got five free hours.

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That's 15 episodes. That's almost four months if you do a weekly show.

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So in four months, you're going to want to, you know, how you're going to build

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revenue from there. Hey, I've got a weekly live stream following.

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Hey, I've put merch online. People are starting to buy it. Hey,

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I've set up a patron with Podbean. People are donating to even just pay for the hosting.

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So you can definitely bootstrap it. And we're talking like zero,

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zero. We're not talking like an ideal zero. We're talking like, okay.

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I've got a smartphone with an app and a pair of headphones. You're good to go. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. And then think about it too. You also get the RSS feed.

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So it's not that you can't submit your podcast to the directory.

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So don't think that you're also just landlocked to being in Podbean.

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You can get on the different directories. You can grow that audience.

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You have all of these tools at your disposal. So if it is something where you

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do want to grow and you want to test it out, like you said, you could put that

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out to about a four-month period. You have live stream. You could do all these things. and when

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we say it's really just a matter of getting started and you

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say hey i really just don't have i don't

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have i have zero budget you really can get started

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grow an audience and even get a little bit of income potentially to start your

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podcast in an even deeper way so where there's a world there's a way and with

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the pod being app you have that way for basically zero money too so Bear in

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mind that this is all like hardware, nothing.

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There's no like the even the fanciest microphone in the world is not going to

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help a boring podcast not be boring.

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So one of the best things you can do if you have no money and you're just starting

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from zero, also perfect how you speak with your podcast. Because if you're as

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engaging as possible, people are willing to overlook quite a bit if they're

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engaged with the podcast. If they hear some weird background noises, if there's some pops and crackles

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as you continue to podcast and as you start building yourself up and you invest

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in the different hardware, cool and awesome.

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But if you're not engaging from episode one, you're not going to get that audience built up.

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Practice reading aloud, figure out how you want to pace your episodes,

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figure out how you can speak without having the awkward pauses.

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Remember to breathe because even I don't remember to do that.

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Worst habit ever. But perfect those things as you're growing your podcast so

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that you can really start growing your audience from episode one.

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Yep. Absolutely. That's such a great point, Ronnie.

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And the other thing that I also want to say just really briefly,

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which is tangential to what we're talking about, is that most of the audience

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growth and podcast growth tactics are similarly free.

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It's just about how How much energy you want to put into posting on social media,

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to reaching out to other podcasters for episode swaps, for ad swaps, for cross-promotion.

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Most of that is really about research that you're going to do,

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the network you're going to build, and taking the time to reach out to people

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in a thoughtful way as well. So a lot of podcasting is life force.

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It's the energy you want to put behind your show and what you're excited about. Just remember that.

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I would say it's probably...

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40% skill, 30% tech, and 30% heart and excitement.

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You got to have all three. They're all pretty important.

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And next, we have a question from another listener, another kind of,

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I think, a Twitter friend. How can one get a Podbean branded t-shirt or coffee mug? Did anybody put that

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John catchphrase in there? I think, John, we should let it out of the bag.

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I'm going to keep it going. Oh, hold on. I'll just pull the shirt off. They can have the shirt.

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You got to keep guessing it. And you know what? If you don't get it in this

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one, you got to come to the next one. And if you don't get it in that one, you got to come to the next one.

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And if you don't, you get where I'm going. Until somebody gets it. And I'm going to find the emoji for the bell.

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Ding. And it's going to be that thing. Perfect. Oh, my God.

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So the question is, how do you get Podbean branded stuff, basically?

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Visit us at conferences. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's it. If you come to a conference, that's probably the

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place where we have, as of right now, yeah, that's the only place where you

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can get Podbean exclusive content. We try to be pretty cool with what kind of content there is,

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though. We've had microphones. We have conference exclusive stickers.

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We've done that before. We're going to be going back to that. We've done water bottles before.

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We've done lots of really cool stuff. Backpacks.

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Listen, the backpacks are awesome. You know why the backpacks are awesome?

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Because we started giving those away in 2020.

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And the first time we gave those backpacks away was in California.

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And I came back to our office in New York City.

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And there was someone walking down the street with a Podbean backpack.

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And it wasn't me. And it wasn't my coworker. So that's just crazy.

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They traveled to New York not to just walk around with the backpack.

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But they ended up showing up with the backpack.

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That's really cool. Cool. Also talking to Ronnie's earlier point about why podcast

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merchandise is so important. But the point that we're trying to get to here is if you want Podbean merch,

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then you got to come see Podbean at the booth.

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And we're going to be doing some cool things at the booth also just going forward.

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So when you when you come back to us, maybe there'll be some really cool merch

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there. And I'm going to pass it over to Ronnie here. I'm going to do a virtual tag.

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I'm hoping that they're over there and not over here.

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Ronnie's above you. I'm actually above you. so.

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How's the weather down there, alright Ronnie tell us about the merch.

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Recently, as you might have seen, we've also started giveaway merch during contests.

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We've done some giveaways. We did a giveaway over on TikTok, and we did actually send somebody a Vocaster and a Podbean backpack.

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So in the future, keep an eye out on the giveaways that we're doing because

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we'll probably give away merch then as well. Not just the backpacks, but we have a fun, cool new toy that we're going to

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be handing out at Podcast Movement Evolutions that I'm very excited about.

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So you have to come see me and come get it. Oh, and one thing I do also want

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to put Ronnie over on real quick. This is one of our stickers and this was designed out

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by ronnie this looks super cool so most of

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the content that you see designed is designed by

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the podbean team so it's just

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when you see that then just give an extra little crisp high

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five when you see it at the conferences be like yo that looks really cool thank

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you the crisp high five ronnie makes

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the best stickers it's true right and there are

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people who collect ronnie's limited edition stickers so just know

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that there are collectors out there and there

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are some stickers that have been discontinued they're like original never

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gonna get them again so ronnie ronnie is

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the ruler of stickers check out our blog post you'll see

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all the contents you'll see all exactly exclusive stickers

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yes exactly and come visit us at conferences and what's

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great also about conferences is that if you ever have a question you want

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to talk to us about just come by the booth we talk to people all the

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time we literally help people launch their podcast from the booth sometimes it

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has happened but any question you have there's

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no podcasting question too small and of course that's why we're here today so

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we also have a next we haven't we also have another question from the archery

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parent podcast and they ask when hosting a video or audio podcast what are some

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subtle techniques to redirect conversations without seeming rude especially

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when wanting to expand on a briefly mentioned topic.

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Oh, I love that. Okay, so I can go first, if that's okay with everybody.

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Go for it. I, number one, editing. That's what editing's for.

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Just know that the great thing about podcasting is that you can edit.

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So just before we jump into any techniques or tactics, that's what I preface,

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want to preface my answer with. You can edit it out. Don't worry. Let people have their say.

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And there's times where sometimes things get edited, and that's okay.

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That's number Number one, I think also in my, and I've coined this phrase so

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you can quote me, I call myself a natural interrupter.

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And I tell people this before the interview, before it starts,

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hey, I get really excited. I just want to let you know I'm a natural interrupter. So I may jump in.

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And if you set that standard, people will know, oh, hey, you're not being rude.

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You're just keeping it moving. Also, if you want to have a short answer to some things, you can also include

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like a lightning round of questions. Hey, I just want to answer these in one minute or less.

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That can also be a really great technique as well.

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And don't be afraid to not cut people off, but jump in with a turn.

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Jump in with, and we're bringing it back. And it's okay because it's your show.

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And like I said, you can always edit. So if they really go off and there's nowhere

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for you to jump in, just know you can cut.

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Or you can repurpose and have multiple episodes with one specific guest.

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I think that's also a really great aspect as well. You don't have to confine things.

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You you can also expand things. That's also another option.

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Yeah. So those would be my tips off the cuff. John, Ronnie, do you guys want to jump in?

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There's two ways to, there's actually multiple ways to do this.

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But the first thing I want to point out is that if somebody's mentioned something

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in passing, but you want to go back to that topic, you can quite easily just

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say, hey, you mentioned X. Can we bring that back in? Can you tell me a bit more about that?

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And gradually bring it back into the conversation.

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The other thing is that regardless of if you're doing an in-person interview

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over the Zoom interview, over the Zoom interview through Zoom,

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or if you're moderating a panel, which Norma Jean has done plenty of times,

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so she'd probably speak on this more than I could. But if you let them know the questions in advance and say, hey,

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here's the order of questions I'm asking so we can keep the conversation flowing,

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then they'll know and they'll gradually come to the next step for the next question themselves.

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And you can even say, oh, hey, yeah, I'm asking them in this order because I

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want to keep this particular narrative going with this topic.

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So there's nothing wrong with letting them know that you're trying to craft

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something with the episode. And of course, you can fix it in post.

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But I think everybody knows that by now. If not, maybe we just need to say it

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one more time. John, you want to cover me there?

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Fix it in post production. Fix everything in post production.

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I also want to jump in with a couple of more things.

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I think number one, it's a double edged sword with that, Ronnie,

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because sometimes if you share the exact questions you're going to ask to your guests.

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They've already answered it in their head, and it doesn't come off natural.

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It comes off stiff. It comes off a little bit clunky.

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And so what I always like to do if I think that someone wants to know the questions

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first, I'll send them the bullet points of what we're going to talk about.

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But the way I specifically formulate the questions, I don't always share that

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because, especially for us at Podbean, we want everything to come off conversational.

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We're all about community here. We're all about empowering our podcasters.

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And so we don't want to come off as stiff, right?

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That's not our brand. And when I'm sharing questions or talking points with

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any of our guests coming on, generally, I won't send them the questions verbatim.

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I'll say, here are the things we're going to talk about, just so that they don't feel nervous.

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I'm not going to pull any skeletons out of the closet. This isn't like a gotcha interview.

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But at the same time, they know what to be podcasting. Gotcha.

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Anyways, so I think it's something where you want to make sure that you have

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your talking points. That's important. Feel free to share them. For me personally, I don't share the specific interview

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questions as a general policy, just because it comes off a little bit more natural, a little bit smooth.

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And then I also want to say that there was a great point made years ago by Adela

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from Podcast Brunch Club. So shout out to her, where I think we were on a Podcast Brunch Club,

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like in a, I don't know if you guys know about Podcast Brunch Club for everybody

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out there. It's great. It's like a book club, but for podcasts.

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So every month they have a different playlist and then you meet up with cool

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people and you you talk about it. It's very fun. And so she mentioned once that when you're interviewing someone,

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not to interrupt, this was her style, but to take notes.

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And that if you have a thought or you want to jump in, or there's something

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cool you want to expand upon, let the person finish.

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And then make sure everything you've written down, everything that you do want

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to say, or you do want to respond to so that you don't forget in the flow of the conversation.

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So that's also a really great tip as well. And it really depends on your style.

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And there's different styles for everyone.

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Don't feel like there's one kind of set thing and you have to be really formal in your interview.

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But you can create the tone of your show however you want. It's your show.

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Yeah. And I think that there's lots of different modes to go down.

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And I think that for someone asking this question, it might not just be in an interview format.

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This could also apply to multi-person booths like we have here.

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The fact that you're on video, it's very helpful to be able to read people's cues, right?

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It's very helpful to also say, hey, if I want to go ahead and get something

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in, there's nothing wrong with throwing up the hand real quick or anything like that.

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If you're using something like Zoom, you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature there.

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If you're using, and I go back to Zoom because it's an easy chat window thing,

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you can also in the chat that doesn't even display on the video side,

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just like, hey, I want to jump in here real quick. And then everybody's looking at the chat.

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They can then go and say, oh, okay, cool. Yeah, you want to throw something in here?

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Or they can just know that maybe their tangent is coming or should be coming

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to a close here to give somebody else the opportunity.

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There's a lot of different ways to go. I think so long as you try to talk about

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those things up front before you hit record, it makes it a lot easier.

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Otherwise, and I'm in the same boat as you, Norma Jean, I tend to.

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I don't know if I'm like a natural interrupter. I just know I talk a lot.

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So it's hard for people to jump in. And I also have a general continued cadence.

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So it's not like you can really find a break.

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But you will hear in our podcast episodes that Norma Jean does have a really

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good ability to cut in my cadence.

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So listen to how Norma Jean does it. Yeah. Thanks, John. And then I just never get to talk.

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No, but it is something where I think if you feel like you're somebody who's

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going to naturally jump in, let people know so that they know it's not personal

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or they don't feel offended. Because a lot of the time, if you're recording something and you jump in,

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you know, people can shut down or feel like, oh, maybe I'm being cut off.

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And you can just say on the front end, hey, I get really excited.

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This is a dynamic interview. I'm a natural interrupter.

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And just Just say, if something comes up that I want to expand upon, I'm going to jump in.

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And I think if you set the standard with people, and it's up to you as the podcaster

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to really set the tone for your show, set the tone for your interviews,

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figure out what works for you and go for it. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Podcasting Smarter.

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If you have any podcasting questions or want to get in touch,

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send us an email at podcastingsmarter at podbean.com. Thanks so much.

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Music.