• How do you go about creating a podcast? I love yours but wonder where does someone start? – Ffion
• I love your podcast and it sounds amazing! Could you tell us about the equipment and software you use to create and host it? – Amy
• What surprised you about the process of creating + sharing the living adventurously podcast? – Jonny

This time last year I had been interviewed on a bunch of podcasts (here’s four I enjoyed), but I had never recorded one. So I suppose that to be now answering questions about how to create a podcast is mostly testament to getting on, trying something, and realising it’s not nearly as big a deal as you imagined…  

I cycled around Yorkshire interviewing people who were ‘living adventurously’ in all sorts of different ways. I’d love you to have a listen and subscribe on the podcast app of your choice (or here).

The Living Adventurously podcast has been so much more of a success than I could have imagined. It reached #15 in the UK chart for all podcasts (albeit briefly 😉), was showcased on Apple’s New & Noteworthy page, and so far has had 107,000 downloads after 4 months. (Stats down at the bottom of the page for the geeks among you.)

Yet it was only a few days before the ride began that I even decided to record the interviews for a podcast. I had planned to do the interviews (and record them somehow) to use in a book I hoped to write. Then, as I walked out of my shed one morning I was literally halted in my tracks by a sudden thought:

“I should do a podcast on this trip!”

And so began a frenzy of Googling and last minute shopping which culminated in me recording my first-ever podcast interview on the first-ever occasion I used my new equipment. This is not a technique to be recommended!

• It has been such a fun thing to do! So much quicker than writing a book. Less faff than editing a video. Much simpler too. Cheaper than a big night out. Asking someone really interesting if you can “interview them for a podcast” is easier, less cringey, and far more likely to succeed than asking “can we hang out together for a morning because I think you are fascinating?”
• If you are even slightly tempted to launch a podcast, I would say try it. Give it 6 episodes, like Tim Ferriss did, to see if you want to continue.
• The cheapest way to launch a podcast is to record the audio on your phone. That is totally fine (and I considered doing it that way myself, primarily to save weight). But I’d urge you to at least invest in a microphone for your phone, like these from Rode or Sennheiser. Duff-sounding audio will deter even your keenest listeners!
• The easiest way to get your interview out into the world is by using Anchor, ‘an all-in-one platform where you can create, distribute, and monetise your podcast from any device, for free.’
• It’s amazing really: the phone in your pocket, plus a cracking interview is all you need to storm the world of podcasting. The barriers are so low. There are very few excuses not to give it a try!

I decided to skip the test-it-out-cheap approach to podcasts and went for the other sensible option: spend enough money to coerce you into action!

I did this because there was not enough time for me to experiment, but also because I’m generally impatient.

I have a good friend who has been planning a podcast for many a year. When (If) he launches, I will enjoy it very much. But for now it remains just a daydream. He has, however, done a basquillion hours of research on podcasting equipment and he sent me lots of advice.

Ultimately I kept things really simple. I decided to just copy the gear Tim Ferriss uses in his fantastically successful podcast! 10 minutes of Googling, 10 minutes of online shopping, and a shiny selection of gear was winging its way to me. Having now tested it in over 40 interviews I can vouch for, and recommend everything here. (I’ve used affiliate links, as I do throughout this series.)

• Zoom H6 Recorder. People online seem to spend a lot of time arguing between this and the H4. I didn’t. Works a treat. The key thing a recorder like this does, which your phone doesn’t, is record up to 6 tracks separately (i.e. my microphone and your microphone). This is really useful if you have to do any tricky editing.
• Two Shure SM58 microphones and 6-foot XLR cables. My mics came with ‘dead kittens’ (the fluffy windstopper thingys: they are really important.)
• Bog-standard wired, in-ear headphones to monitor audio levels during conversations. Foolishly it took me a few interviews to realise how important constant monitoring is.
• 64GB SD card. Massively more storage than needed, really. But you do not want to run out of space mid-interview!
• Lots of AA batteries (see above explanation).
• My daughter’s floral school lunch box to carry it all in.

And that’s it! Now, go ye forth into the world and record some good stuff…

Done? OK, what do you do once you’ve returned safely and backed up your SD card?

• For reasons of laziness and efficiency I had made the decision that I would not edit my interviews. If you go down this route you need to be on the ball during the interview to keep the pace, direction and duration under control.
• There are various simple software programmes you can use to polish your audio, and remove the hisses and peaks etc. For reasons of laziness and efficiency I instead paid Greg to do this stuff for me, as well as splicing on my introduction and getting the files into the optimum format to go online. I have recorded two of my audio books with Greg so I knew I could trust him. (He also needs to put his prices up!)
• The part I was most confused about launching a podcast was how to actually get it online and onto all the different apps. In fact this is really simple. You just need to choose which company to use, and then they store the files and zap them magically out to the Apple Store, Spotify and so on. You pay for this, and how much you pay depends upon how many listeners you end up with.
  There are about 5 major companies, and they all seem to do pretty much the same thing if you decide to research thoroughly.
  For reasons of laziness and efficiency I instead went on the recommendation of someone I trust (Paul Jarvis) and signed up with Transistor (affiliate link). My simple summary is that it’s fantastic, intuitive, works perfectly, and has brilliant analytics and customer support. 
• After that, it’s simply a case of uploading stuff like a blog post: the audio file, cover art, text etc. You have to do some clicking here and there to get it all linked up to iTunes, Spotify and the other Podcast apps, but even a dimwit like me could do it easy enough. You don’t have to go live immediately, so you can give yourself plenty of time before launch day.
• Pro Tip: for some reason it takes up to two weeks to get listed on the Apple podcast site. So you definitely want to submit a teaser episode to get in the pipeline prior to your planned launch day. Apple is the biggest podcast provider by miles so you’d be daft to launch before you are listed there. (My most-popular apps are Apple Podcasts by miles then Spotify. Significantly lower come Castbox, Podcast Addict and Overcast. Then a long tail of all sorts of other random little apps.)

1. Say something interesting on your podcast. If you don’t then do not pass Go, do not collect £200 etc.
2. Ask good questions. Dare yourself to be silent when your guest seems to have finished answering – that’s when the good stuff often comes.
3. God (Allah, Yahweh, Darwin whoever) gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen more than you speak! (Unless you decide deliberately not to.) I can’t stand podcasts when the interviewer seizes every opportunity to talk about themselves (or asks annoyingly long questions, or makes statements rather than asking questions… This is now turning into a rant against the Radio 4 Today programme! 😂)
4. Following on from that point: listen to lots of podcasts. Copy the aspects you like, reject the bits you hate. So for me that meant not interviewing the same group of people I hear on every adventure podcast. And it definitely meant not having an advert in the middle of the episode, regardless of how much that might cost me.
5. Nod your head encouragingly whilst your guest is answering rather than doing the usual “uh,huh, yup” type thing that we do in normal conversations.
6. Before you begin, teach your guest how to use a microphone properly.
7. Before you begin, learn how to use a microphone properly yourself. (Simple answer: park it on your chin throughout.)
8. Once you’ve done all that, you need to give some thought to launch day. Sensible advice seems to be to launch with a few episodes. I launched five at once on Day 1 allowing early adopters an early binge and an easy boost up the rankings.
9. Getting a spike of early listens is vital to trick the internet algorithms into thinking that you are amazing, exactly like when you publish a book.
10. You’ll need to employ all the usual marketing tactics – social media, newsletters, teaser clips, word of mouth etc. Push really, really hard (to the cusp of annoying your audience) in Hour 1, Day 1, Week 1.
11. If things go well and you get enough people to listen, the Holy Grail is getting listed on the Apple New & Noteworthy chart. This exposes you to a massive new audience.
12. However, as ever, I issue the cautionary cry against such fast and dirty tactics: yes, I got a massive early spike of new listeners. But virtually all of them disappeared after a week or so. Better, as always in the life of the working adventurer, to build slow, steady, loyal audiences.

I have loved everything about diving into the world of podcasting. It has been far easier than I anticipated. Its impact on people (judging from email feedback) has been more profound than I imagined.

I have been surprised by quite how many people I meet who still have never listened to a podcast, nor even quite understand what they are. For this reason I believe that it is by no means a ‘saturated market’ and you should jump in with your own ideas.

And I was extremely surprised by the power a microphone gives you. Shove a microphone under someone’s nose and they seem duty-bound to give honest and interesting answers to whatever topic tickled my curiosity! I felt so fortunate that all these fascinating people (most of whom I had never met before) welcomed me so generously and patiently and indulged me with my quirky deck of question cards. The whole experience was a delightful privilege.

And finally, a quick word about sponsors, because you won’t have read this far down unless you’ve sniffed gold in them podcasting hills…

I initially couldn’t be bothered to find a sponsor for my podcast. I wanted to be ‘pure’, to ‘not sell out’, and stuff like that. Then a wise friend sat me down and said, “you’re an idiot!”

So I sent some episodes round to various companies, asking if they’d like to sponsor the show. But it is really hard to sell an unknown entity like a new podcast. All I could say to companies was, “I have no idea how many people will listen. X people follow me on other platforms, but this podcast is brand new. It could be 10 people, it could be 10 million. Your guess is as good as mine! Fancy taking a punt?”

At last, komoot decided to give it a go and sponsor the podcast. (Use my code ADVENTUROUS to get a discount at that link…). I was delighted: komoot is a fantastic brand, perfectly aligned with what I do. We tussled amicably about the length of the advert, and whether they could have an advert mid-episode (nope!). My agent and komoot locked themselves in a dark room to talk numbers (or wherever it is that such mysteries happen). Then komoot licked their finger, squinted into the wind, and gave me some cash to sponsor Series 1: all 42 episodes of it.

Personally I believe that the listening stats from even the first few months means that komoot got a good deal in terms of a highly-targeted listener demographic receiving a weekly drip-drip of name-recognition advertising. Plus the podcast won’t go away, so they’ll be benefiting from those ads for years to come. I’m really happy about that.

However komoot decided not to sponsor a second series of the podcast. That’s fine, of course — marketing plans change all the time, plus it’s really hard to put a tangible, precise number on what counts as ‘value for money’ for a podcast. The KPIs are hazy and moveable. Never mind: I remain enormously grateful to komoot for taking a punt on my debut podcast. I really hope that over time enough people listen to the episodes for them to feel that they got a decent return on their money.

All of which is a long way of saying it’s really hard to find a sponsor for a brand-new podcast. I would recommend that you treat any funds you do secure as a bonus rather than a prerequisite for beginning.

The true rewards of my podcast have been reaching a newer and wider audience, learning so much from the people I met along the way, making new friends, and having a lot of fun.

Go on: give your podcast idea a try today!

PS – Please do subscribe to my Living Adventurously podcast. 😉