I love podcasting. Love love love it. Not only are there tons of opportunities that can come from it, but it’s a great way to improve your speaking skills and meet interesting people.

That being said, here is some of my best advice for people either getting started or who already have a podcast. I’ll include my favorite resources and links to them.

First and Foremost

If you want to have a podcast, understand that greatness takes time. If you look closely in the iTunes store, you’ll see thousands of podcasts that only have a handful of episodes. While some people only wanted to do a few episodes, I’m guessing that most of those were ideas that got started, but people gave up because it was hard, or they didn’t see the results they were hoping for.

If you are serious about starting a podcast, I recommend committing to at least 100 episodes. If you do two a week, that’s about a year, if you do one a week that’s about two years. At the end of 100 episodes you’ll find a few things.

1. Your show is a lot better than when you started.
2. Your skills as a speaker and radio host will have vastly improved.
3. You’ll have an audience, even if it’s a small one, and they will enjoy your show and want more.

My friend Derek Loudermilk who runs The Art of Adventure said that everything changed for him when he started seeing his first 50 episodes as practice. It takes time to be great! Jump in and get the first 100 episodes under your belt.

Be a Podcast Fan

Every great author is an avid reader, and every great podcast host is also a fan of great podcasts (or radio shows). There are so many out there, here are a few of my personal favorites if you’re just getting started.

This American Life ~ Ira Glass is a legend in the world of in depth journalism and is in so many ways a master of his craft. This show is not only interesting and entertaining but it’s a great example of authenticity as a show host.

Serial ~ This show is insanely popular in the podcast world and for good reason. It combines fascinating story telling with extremely well done editing. The people who run this show also work at This American Life.

Reply All ~ Ok, so this is another one like This American Life and Serial, but it’s too good not to mention. It’s a show about the internet and the hosts are fantastic. Extremely likable and authentic.

Set Up + Equipment

For this, I recommend the very comprehensive guide put together by Pat Flynn, you can find it here. I used it, watched all the videos and it taught me everything I needed to know in an easy to understand, well thought out way.

Resources I Like

For intro voices, fiverr.com is perfect (use that link to get $5 free services).

For royalty free intro music, YouTube provides a great archive, visit it here.

For logo graphic design (which I think is very important), I used 99designs.com.

Note: A few of these links are affiliate links so if you use them I earn a commission. If you do that, thank you in advance for supporting this site.