You know that overused slide, the one that seemingly every single IT Vendor uses to pitch their product? It goes a little something like this; there’s a big picture of an iceberg, but you can only see its tip. Then underneath the iceberg, there’s a whole bunch of dark blue water with text floating around that says “unknown costs.”

Maybe if they are feeling really adventurous, they’ll put in a graphic of a little boat screaming straight towards the iceberg. Care to guess what the boat symbolizes?

Yes…you’re right; it’s your organization! How original!

I can see you rolling your eyes already.

But here’s the thing; as cliché, overused and frankly pandering as that image is, after just successfully launching my first podcast, I can tell you that there’s a whole lot of truth to the cliché.

So if you really want to dominate the podcasting game, you’re going to need to learn a few things about icebergs! Because believe me, as I underwent my own adventure in podcasting, I found very quickly that the waters underneath were very dark and very mysterious.

But also…I found that they were not unconquerable.

There is no problem underneath the iceberg tip that you cannot solve; the hard part is simply understanding what the problems are in the first place.

And guess what- you aren’t alone.

I fought like hell to launch my podcast- The Richer Geek. And I am so beyond proud of that accomplishment. But tof course here were times throughout the process when I thought the iceberg was going to topple me. But I did come out on the other side- and you will too.

That’s why I want to share my takeaways and experiences with you. Because with a little information at your back- I know you can have a gratifying, thrilling adventure as you work hard to bring your own podcast to life.

So let’s strap on our diving suits, and together explore the fathoms below that big, hulking iceberg we call podcasting.

The Tip of the Iceberg

When you think about starting a podcast, what do you picture?

Recording set-up? No problem!

Hunting down and interviewing guests? Easy peasy.

Editing and publishing- piece of cake!

But here’s the thing- that’s only the part of the iceberg that you “see”.

Because the truth is, each of these ingredients is actually a full work stream, comprised of multiple component parts that must all work in tandem.

Be warned; this will take up a great deal of time. At first glance, you will never comprehend the amount of work inside each of these steps. But once you get your hands dirty, you’ll see very quickly for yourself how time-consuming this process really is.

So with all this work on our plate, how could I possibly even think about starting a podcast- especially while working a 60+ hour job? And here’s the answer…YOU DON’T.

We must face the facts; if we want to have success in the podcasting game, there is no way humanly possible to achieve this monstrous feast without…A TEAM. Because the depths beneath that iceberg are deep, and it’s going to take more than one diver.

And even if you have the best team in the universe- that alone won’t be enough. You also must also arm yourself with an ironclad reason to do all this work! Because without a strong motive, without guiding passion driving you- unfortunately, the extensive work will consume you and you will most likely give up on the endeavor.

Why do you want to start a podcast?

Starting a podcast is going to cost you money, and it is most certainly going to cost you time. So if you’re going to tackle this endeavor, you best have a good reason.

But here’s the real deal; it can’t just be a reason that appeals to you. It has to appeal to an audience.

Maybe you love 16th-century British ornithological practices. And believe me, I’m sure you would make the most fantastic podcast about it. And your grandmother would love it too! And that would unfortunately probably be about the end of your audience…

And eventually, without any listeners and subscribers, your motivation for your 16th century British ornithological practices podcast would fall away as well.

So what was my reason?

The Richer Geek was started as a platform to share new ideas and strategies to the Information Technology community, specifically on how to make their money work for them. It’s a subject that is relevant to a wide swath of potential listeners; it’s a topic that many of us have a desire to learn more about and it’s a topic that honestly just gets the finance geek in me really jazzed!

But even more, The Richer Geek allows me the ability not only to educate others about my own experience building a real estate portfolio, but also to learn from my peers, colleagues, and mentors within the industry.

The key here is passion, sustainability, and interest. If your podcast does not serve a specific and broad enough audience, it will fail. If your podcast does not get you personally excited, it will fail. And if your podcast does not bring something new and exciting to the table, it will fail.

But if you work diligently to craft something smart, profoundly engaging and strategic- then maybe you have a shot at creating some podcasting magic.

Name and Logo

So here was a little step that gave me some unexpected trouble. Your name and your logo are critical to setting yourself apart from the Walking Dead zombie hoard of competing podcasts.

The next time you scroll through your podcast feed, take a look at how tiny those little logos are. And now ask yourself, is the logo I’m looking at standing out to me? And what about the name? Can you tell what this podcast is about just from the title?

So- let’s recap; a small space, a logo that must stand out and a name that communicates vital information to the audience- oh and don’t forget…the name has to be available. Chances are if you think your name idea is the next great podcast title, there’s a good chance it’s already gone. And guess what? Many podcasts go dead after a few months. But even if one of those ghost accounts is using your title idea, you, unfortunately, are SOL . It’s theirs forever- not yours.

How I got The Richer Geek

I realized very quickly in my own journey that there was no way I could come up with a title to satisfy all of these specifications. So I enlisted some help.

SquadHelp is a fantastic platform that lets you run contests where thousands of creatives from all over the world can compete for the honor and business of designing your name and logo.

When the title The Richer Geek came across my desk, I about near vaulted out of my chair. I loved it so much that I knew I needed to protect it quickly!. Which brings us to another forgotten point hidden underneath that iceberg... trademark.

To protect your amazing new title, you must now register the domain name and submit for trademark. Is this the hardest process in the world? No. But it is just another task that begins to pile up on your unending list of to do’s while making a podcast.

Creating Your Website

You’ve got a podcast idea, a title, a logo- but where will all this content live? If you’re going to run a podcast, you must have a website.

I decided to build The Richer Geek site on my own. I tried my hand at different WordPress themes, and I quickly found that building and maintaining the site had to be intuitive and straightforward for me. I can get a little…ummmm- let’s say- impatient when I have to watch tutorial videos.

Trust me; you won’t like me when I’m impatient.

So instead of becoming the Hulk, I decided to set myself up on Squarespace, which enabled me to do approximately 80% of all the site work without having to watch videos, read instructions or break all my furniture.

And then finally, I set up a G Suite account so that my podcast email could use my domain as the extension instead of a generic and unprofessional “@gmail.com.” This can really come in handy when you are reaching out to potential guests, especially ones who may be a little above your pay grade.

Building Your Team

After joining a couple of podcasting Facebook groups, I began to learn quickly that there was no way I could ever handle the logistics of launching a podcast with my current work schedule. If I was going to pull this off, I was going to need a team.

I considered using Upwork.com to find a VA but soon realized that much like any IT project, if you have multiple team members doing different tasks without coherent project management and guidance, the project would ultimately fail.

Since I’m not a project manager myself, nor do I have the time or experience to learn how to manage a go-live launch, I decided I needed to find a one-stop-shop. And that meant I needed a good referral.

I’m a big fan myself of Heather Gray’s podcast Business Mindset Mastery, so I decided to email her and ask for advice. She recommended a few folks and I ended up deciding on Tasha Booth and her company The Launch Guild.

This is where everything changed.

The minute I began working with Tasha and her team, it felt like a boulder had been taken off of my back. Now I was the one being “project managed,” and while this led to a lot of work, I was so relieved to have an experienced team handling technical details, offering guidance and holding me accountable.

Do you have to hire a launch team? No, of course not. But anyone in the tech sphere understands that you can do any project only as fast as you are willing to pay for it. Of course, DIY would have been cheaper, but there would have been a cost; it would have eaten up 4X of my time.

Podcast Tools

A lot of the Facebook groups focused on podcasting tools like microphones, headsets, recording software, editing software, and hosting sites. There are a HUGE amount of tools out there for making podcasts, and the inventory can undoubtedly be overwhelming.

After slogging through mounds of advice- here are the tools I acquired

-A quality headset and Mic

- Free software for recording

-Hosting at Libysn

- Music from audioblocks.com

-Editing- I outsource to my team so as to avoid this…

Additional Tools

While the aforementioned tools were critical to launching my podcast, this list below were tools that I used to support the podcasting workflow.

-Google Drive for sharing episode details including recordings, guest biographies, headshots, show notes and graphics

-Asana for podcast project management

-Calendly for coordinating the recordings with guests

-Canva for creating graphics for social media posts and website.

Guests

Finding and interviewing guests is the core of podcasting; it’s also hands down the most fun and rewarding part of the whole process. When I hear someone’s story or find myself with the opportunity to learn a new area of expertise, I am so excited to not only share it with my audience but digest it all myself as well!

When looking at my landscape for potential guests, I have boiled down the categories into three sections;

1) Peers- these are people who work in tech full time, and have started their own business, bought a franchise or own investment in real estate. These peers help me broaden the audience and essentially keep things real. No showboating of unicorn stories, no IPO wealth tales, no romantic tech startup myths. These are just ordinary everyday people who worked hard in tech, took their W-2 income, invested in businesses, and grew their wealth the tried and true way.

2) Experts- these are the guests who provide a specialized insight into our topics. They can provide insights into business matters such as research, funding mechanisms, management support, risk mitigation, or tax preparation.

3) Lessons- the guest of this type of episode is…Me! My husband and I have spent years building a real estate portfolio that includes apartment complexes, single-family homes, and a hotel. So in these episodes, we pull back the curtain and reflect on our lessons learned, what we are working on currently and what resources we’ve leveraged to help us build our business.

From my experience, peer guests can be the hardest to find. I’m not sure if it’s because “everyday people” are uncomfortable presenting themselves on podcasts whereas the experts have become accustomed to it, but it is a genuine phenomenon and something you may need to work around.

The lessons episodes have been a struggle as well. Much like listening to your own voice on the answering machine, I hate the way my husband and I come across on our podcasts. I always question whether we are actually imparting any value or whether we are just blathering on to the determinant of the listener. It makes me self-conscious, but it has been a challenge that has led to a lot of growth, and I guess that makes it worth it.

How to find guests

I found my first group of guests through my own network or the networks of my close friends. For the experts, I simply reached out to the industry folk that we already use in our business today.

At some point, I needed to “level up” my guests though, so I subscribed to the Phoenix Business Journal, and I upgraded my Linkedin member to allow me to send InMail to those I’m not currently connected with. Through these tools, I’m now contacting CEOs and experts all over the world.

I’m also learning that I can leverage Linkedin to find more peers, and I’m using those peers to find even more guests. You would be surprised how many connections you can make simply by asking.

One guest shared with me that she had a friend with a successful business importing specialty products for pets. Another guest put me in touch with the owner of two fitness franchises. And now I have two amazing episodes to look forward to, and I am sure that those guests will be able to put me in touch with even more prospective guests! And just like that, you keep the ball rolling and rolling and rolling until you have created for yourself an empire of guests.

Another tactic I use is pairing peer episodes with expert episodes. For instance, one guest recently self-published his first book, and so I paired his episode with a discussion with the CEO of a company that helps authors self-publish.

Right now, my engagement with guests is pretty high-touch. I first reach out to see if the potential guest is interested, and then I work out a set of questions for their review. Once that is accepted, I share the link to Calendly, and we schedule the recording.

I’m also adding a Guest Submission form on the show’s website so that potential guests can easily reach out and let me know if they are interested in being on the podcast.

Show Support

While the show is being edited and prepped for upload to the podcast host, there is so much more happening behind the scenes.

· Show notes must be created by a copywriter
· Recordings are sent to Rev.com where they are transcribed so that content can be leveraged for future use
· Graphics are created for social media posts specific to each episode
· Website is updated with the podcast episode information, show notes, and resources

Audience Support & Growth

An area of the show that I am currently working on is how to grow on my own audience support. Some areas I’m exploring for the future are;

• Email communication- providing episode recaps, transcribed show information, and creating a platform to receive feedback on topics. This did, however, require integration of yet another tool that almost led to a complete nervous breakdown, which any IT peer can relate to. Thank goodness my team at Launch Gild came up with an elegant solution. No. More. New. Software for me to learn!!!!

• A Facebook group- I’m exploring the option of adding a Facebook group as a vehicle for the community to share ideas and ask questions. Depending on the size of the group, this could require hiring a community manager.

Social Media

I find social media to be extremely overwhelming. Create engagement? Raise awareness? What do these things even mean?

If I’m just posting pictures of my rescue dogs, that’s easy. See look!

But using social media to get the word out about my podcast? That’s an entirely different challenge; one that requires…more software!!!!

I’m starting with Facebook and LinkedIn platforms, and I may potentially add others in the future dependent on my success with my current lineup.

How to Beat the Iceberg

I hope this article seemed pretty overwhelming. Because guess what…podcasting is! It’s totally overwhelming.

But it’s also an amazing experience and something that if I had to do all over again, I would in a heartbeat. You have in front of you the ability to create your own content, content that allows you to both educate others while also educating yourself. We live in an age where information is spreading like wildfire. It is a powerful development for the history of our society, it can be a very lucrative endeavor, and also, it’s just a boatload of fun!

But podcasting is also something that needs to be respected. Creating a successful podcast cannot be treated like a hobby; it’s a full-time job. And, if you already have a full-time job (like me), you may need to hire a team to help support you. However, you get there, ensure that you have an ironclad strategy, a team ready to help, and a motive for making a podcast that will sustain you through the dark days.

So here’s my final verdict- starting your own podcast? It’s a piece of cake.

That is if you are only seeing the tip of the Iceberg….

If you want to see a little dash of my own podcast magic, head on over to www.TheRicherGeek.com and scout out some of our episodes. You’ll see quickly that this whole podcasting iceberg is nothing to worry about.

Is podcasting hard work?

Absolutely!

Is it impossible?

Not a chance ☺

How To Launch a Podcast in 45 Days While Working 60+ Hours A Week