This last week I received an email from a student of mine who was inquiring on how to become a great podcaster.  When I read the reason why she wanted to become a great podcaster, I saw this as an opportunity to lift her spirits so she doesn't find the podcating process so daunting. 

I want to share parts of the email exchange I had with her in this blog post. I hope that when you read this post, you can understand that you are not alone in your quest to becoming a great podcasters.

Meet Sharia

Sharia has been communicating with me since the start of the pandemic.  She reached out wanting to take my training course on designing a podcast and had many other questions that she wanted answered.

Her background was that she had a podcast at one point in time, but didn't like the outcome of how it sounded or where she was publishing her podcast.

The nature of her podcast is to help parents and students with getting more information for student athletes.  She...

Today, we're talking about multi tracking and whether or not it is more beneficial to ,you as the podcaster or an editor in the long run. In today's post, I want to share with you a couple of philosophies on whether multi-tracking will be better for you in the long run.

First, we run into this situation when a podcaster wants to record a podcaster with softwares and hardwares that perform the function of recording different audio inputs as isolated audio tracks. For example, the Zoom H6 field recorder will allow you to record yourself and your guest as separate audio tracks, pull them from an SD card , transfer those files over to your computer, then export them into your digital audio workstation (DAW). Then you would have to match up the audio in a multitrack system and edit from there.

You can also do the same exact thing with the Zoom video conferencing software or even Zencastr.

I don't know where the idea came from where podcasters said they have to absolutely record two...

Nearly every day I get asked through my YouTube channel, “What is the best way to create a successful podcast?”

The answer to this question just isn't in one answer. Creating a successful podcast has many moving Parts. There just isn't one way to create a successful podcast.

Also, podcasters shouldn't compare their success to someone who has already become successful. Nearly every week I get a question from a podcaster that asks, "I want to be just like Joe Rogan. How can I create a podcast that is just like his?"

I'll be the first one to tell you that success comes in all shapes and sizes. You don't necessarily need to have the success of a Joe Rogan, but you can set the bar for yourself and determine how successful your podcast will be.

And just a reminder, Joe Rogan had to start from the bottom just like everyone else.  From my understanding, the one thing Joe Rogan had for himself was that he had a celebrity name. This helped catapult his podcast into the ears...

Take me back to the time when our only worries were raiding Area 51.   Who remembers the big event that was created by Matty Roberts?  

It seemed like all that was in the news was the fact that a million people responded to attend the event in Nevada that could potentially happen.  It kinda did, but it was far more low-key than what it was made out to be online.

But it didn't keep friends from reaching out to me and asking me whether or not I wanted to go. As much as it would have been an experience to go, life had felt like it was happening to me...

Humor me for a bit...

THE BACKSTORY OF 2019

If I were to lay out all of the things that happened to me in 2019, I would skip this blog post and just publish a book.  So, let me just give you the highlights.

January - Supporting Friends During Their Time Of Loss

Helped a friend go through a traumatic experience of losing her son in a car accident. I spent a solid two weeks with her to help her cope with the...

In today’s blog post I want to answer a viewer question that came through my email recently.  The question was, “How do you start a podcast in a niche or topic area that doesn’t have very many examples?”

Inside the email, this viewer said that she has  been actively involved with poverty solutions and homelessness. It's a topic that she can really lose herself in, and that she would love to create a career around it--especially because she grew up in poverty. I

It's a topic that's obviously very passionate for her. 

This viewer says that she's finding it hard because she can't find any other podcasters or YouTubers that cover this area of expertise. The closest thing she has found is just one individual podcast that was featured on the Freakonomics podcast. The podcast wasn’t an entire show dedicated to the idea. Instead the idea was just one episode. 

She continues by saying that she wants to break the mold and it's a great...

Today I want to explore productivity tools for podcasters--in particular the Rocketbook Fusion. Not all tools come in the form of tech and equipment. Sometimes they come in the form of different tools like notebooks that will help you with the podcast creation process. Maybe you are trying to figure out a set of questions that you want to ask your guest on your upcoming podcast or maybe you're writing out a script by hand to help with that creative process.

Today's blog post is really going to explore why the Rocketbook is something that you should have as a podcaster and how it can help you organize your thoughts and ideas without losing them altogether.

What is the Rocketbook Fusion?

I stumbled upon the Rocketbook back in December of 2019 when my sister gifted me a Rocketbook Everlast. When I opened up the packaging, I looked at it, flipped through the 30 pages that it had and I ungraciously asked my sister, "Why would you give me a notebook?"

She responded, "This just isn't any...

Now that the world is operating at 50%, I continue to hear from podcasters who tell me, "When the pandemic is over I am going to start my podcast."

The first thing I think when I hear that statement is, "If you already know you want to start the podcast, what are you waiting for? Why don't you get started on it now?"

I've also heard from people who continue to watch my videos and get inspired to improve upon their skills so they can re-boot their podcast to come back stronger than ever.

Before I go any further, I want to share a quick story that will hopefully inspire you to work on the weaker areas of your podcasting...

WORKING THROUGH PAIN TO INSPIRE GROWTH

If you didn't know, a few weeks ago I sprained my ankle walking down one of my favorite paths close to my house. I wish the story was juicier, but I was just walking down the path and rolled my ankle on the edge of the pavement into the dirt. Shan Man DOWN!

As I sat there, collected myself and waited for the...

 On September 4th, I was interviewed by RadioInk Magazine and contributed my thoughts on how radio broadcasters can become better podcasters. If you are interested in reading the article in full you can click here.

As I reviewed the article, I realized the advice that I was giving to radio broadcasters applies to just about anyone who has a podcast or is starting a podcast.  

The content below will have a little bit of inside baseball lingo, but it doesn't detract to the overall idea of creating a successful podcast.  In fact, radio broadcasters are content creators just like anyone else.  The only difference is that they have access to better equipment and more ability to create valuable content.  

Please take this into account when you're reading this Q & A and enjoy!

Radio Ink: If podcasting were a nine-inning game, where is radio in that game right now?

Shannon: First, I’m going to exclude public radio from this section...

Today we're talking all about plagiarism and whether or not your podcast is in threat of being accused of plagiarizing someone else's content.

The reason why I bring up today's topic is because as of recently there was an article that was posted about a particular set of podcasters who supposedly lifted some content from a journalist--and that journalist accused those podcasters of taking his content and using it as their own.

What ended up happening was that those particular podcasters ended up deleting a number of episodes because they feared as though maybe they were plagiarizing some other piece of content.

Is this the right course of action that those podcasters could have taken? I don't know.

I don't think that it's wise to necessarily delete episodes, but maybe that's what needed to happen anyway. Secondly, it all comes down to the process of when you're creating content and when you're researching.  Are you citing the correct sources. Let's examine what you need to do...