Follow these 4 steps to get off the ground right:
Step 1: Slow down. Don't fail before you even start.
Step 2: Pick up a recorder. Your smartphone has a microphone and a recording app.
Step 3: Hit record.
Step 4: Ask people questions. At least 5 people.
Step 5: Listen back to the recording.
Simple, right? If you have never done any podcasting, you just want to get something on tape. It is going to be bad. Trust me. But this will help you get acclimated to some podcasting basics like recording, using microphones, asking questions, and listening to tape.
You have some audio now. Where to next:
Step 1: Audacity (PC) and Garage Band (Mac, iOS) are two very accessible, very powerful, and very free apps.
Step 2: Import your audio into your application. Need instructions? Here are the user manuals: Audacity and Garage Band
Step 3: Make some edits. Cut some of that dead air. Try cutting "umms," "likes," and uhhs." Isolate just the meat of the recording.
Step 4: Listen back to the recording.
You're really doing it!
Rob Rosenthal, lead teacher at the Transom Story Workshop, uses this focus sentence that he found in a book by Tod Maffin, former NPR producer:
Abel, J., & Glass, I. (2015). Out on the wire : the storytelling secrets of the new masters of radio. New York : Broadway Books. pg. 52
Alex Blumberg, best known for his work with This American Life and Planet Money. He is the co-founder and CEO of the podcast network Gimlet Media and coined this focus sentence:
Abel, J., & Glass, I. (2015). Out on the wire : the storytelling secrets of the new masters of radio. New York : Broadway Books. pg. 57
This was proposed by Soren Wheeler, the senior producer of Radiolab:
Abel, J., & Glass, I. (2015). Out on the wire : the storytelling secrets of the new masters of radio. New York : Broadway Books. pg. 60