An Insider’s Guide to Starting a Podcast

– Subscribe to the Podcast or Write a Review: –
Stitcher – Google Podcasts – TuneIn – Apple Podcasts

A few years ago, it was totally fine to have the sound of someone doing dishes in the background of your podcast (true story).

Today, not so much.

Recently on B2B Revenue Executive Experience, I chat with SquadCast founders Zachariah Moreno and Rockwell Felder, about all things podcasting. Zach and Rock tell me all about how expectations have changed recently and advice for getting started in podcasting.

Before, it was good enough to get your audio out there.

The podcasting community has new expectations about quality, though.

Let’s dive right in!

Changes in the podcast community

Since founding SquadCast, Rock and Zach have noticed some changes:

• Remote collaboration
• Higher audio quality
• Lagging technology

“That really became the catalyst for the idea behind SquadCast as it is today. So we really just dug into that challenge that we faced,” Zach said.

People can’t meet up in a studio to record a podcast. It has to be done remotely, background dishes and all. SquadCast aimed to create the cloud studio experience.

Listeners have come to expect higher and higher quality, even as more people are guesting on podcasts in their living rooms with their kids doing school on computers.

The uphill debate about whether quality matters?

Everyone agrees that quality is important.

“Sure, a microphone is definitely going to make you sound better than not recording with a microphone, but it is only going to get you so good.”

Rock Felder of SquadCast

Content coaching

Besides the technical quality of the sound, the quality of the content matters, too.

Doesn’t matter how much you spend on equipment if you don’t know how to create recurring content to build an audience.

“Sure, a microphone is definitely going to make you sound better than not recording with a microphone, but it is only going to get you so good,” Rock said.

It’s these 2 things together:

1. Quality
2. Reliability

Quality plus reliability equals credibility.

Knowing how to make your guest sound like an expert (because they are) is just as important as remembering to send the file and knowing how to do some audio editing.

To deliver this, SquadCast has two intellectual property patents pending that help with progressive upload (think cloud autosave) and audio syncing.

3 places to focus

Getting started in podcasting is not easy, especially if you think about competing with so many professional-sounding podcasts with huge followings.

Here are 3 things that Zach and Rock suggest focusing on when planning a podcast today:

1. Intention: Get clear on who your audience is and what your goals are.
2. Growth: A podcast is part of your business, so how are you adding value to help your clients?
3. Cadences: Recording and publishing regularly is imperative for nurturing an audience.

Bonus tip … Consider video.

Rock said that the most requested feature is adding video (which they’ll be rolling out pretty soon). “I need to be where my audience is, and some of my audience is on Spotify, some’s on YouTube, some is going to find me on social media,” he said.

In other words, make your podcast easy for your audience to find.

“The most common one we see is for a business to connect with their customers and share value and insights around the challenge that the company helps their customers solve.”

Zach Moreno of SquadCast

The next big trends in podcasting

Whether you’re leveraging YouTube, Instagram, Patreon, or what have you, it matters to produce something useful.

“The most common one we see is for a business to connect with their customers and share value and insights around the challenge that the company helps their customers solve,” Zach said

Podcasts fail when they focus on the short-term. They need to bring empathy to the long-term relationship beyond company gain.

“Too often when dealing with sales folks, I feel like they’re very focused on the short term and focused on their needs, and not so much on what the customer actually needs,” Rock added.

Think about it this way: the sale doesn’t end after the sale. You’re building a relationship with a customer that is going to last a long time (if you’re doing it right), and one important way for that relationship to stick is for customers to hear your voice speaking to their challenges and experience.

The next trends in podcasting?

Relationship. Community. Connection.

Look for ways to make things a win-win. Position your podcast to help other people, and your business will grow as a side effect.

This post includes highlights of our podcast interview with Zachariah Moreno and Rockwell Felder at SquadCast.

Subscribe to hear this episode and many more like it. For the entire interview, you can listen to The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, we suggest this link.

‍