{"id":22015,"date":"2020-10-01T21:18:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T04:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=22015"},"modified":"2020-10-02T06:56:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T13:56:19","slug":"ccatp-655","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/ccatp-655\/","title":{"rendered":"CCATP #655 \u2013\u00a0Jill (from the North Woods) McKinley on Starting a Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smallstepspod.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<figure style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/new-logo-small-1.png\" alt=\"Start with Small Steps logo\" title=\"#title#\" width=\"150 \" height=\"150\"><figcaption style=\"text-align:center\">Start with Small Steps Podcast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/a>This week our guest is Jill McKinley of the Start with Small Steps Podcast at <a href=\"https:\/\/smallstepspod.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">smallstepspod.com<\/a>. Those of you who listen to the NosillaCast may already know her from her many fantastic tech reviews for the show as Jill from the North Woods.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a fan of the Start With Small Steps podcast thought it would be fun to have Jill to come on to talk about what it&#8217;s like to start a podcast in 2020. All of my experience and knowledge about starting is 15 years old so I was curious what it&#8217;s like now.  We talked about why she wanted to do a podcast in the first place, what kind of hardware and software she&#8217;s using for her recordings, and how she makes her podcast feed.  We get into the style of reading vs. bullet points and even into editing a little bit.  We talked about community engagement and whether to obsess on download statistics. We learn from Jill how important it is to her to always give attribution to her sources.<\/p>\n<p>Jill mentioned that she uses her iPad with an app as a teleprompter. It&#8217;s called <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/promptsmart-pro-teleprompter\/id894811756\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PromptSmart Pro and is available in the App Store for $20<\/a>. There&#8217;s also<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/promptsmart-lite-teleprompter\/id922921003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> a lite version of PromptSmart in the App Store<\/a>.<br \/>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-22015-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2020_10_01.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2020_10_01.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2020_10_01.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"mp3 download\" href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nosillacast\/traffic.libsyn.com\/nosillacast\/CCATP_2020_10_01.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mp3 download<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Outline of our discussion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What made you want to do a podcast in the first place?\n<ul>\n<li>Are you pursuing fame and fortune or is there another<br \/>\nmotivation?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I do a bit of public speaking for my job and<br \/>\njoined Toastmasters for a bit. I learned I really loved speaking<br \/>\nand teaching. Without travel, right now, I wanted to keep doing<br \/>\nit. I wanted to start with a topic I knew very well. I read a<br \/>\nlot of books primarily in the productivity area. I personally<br \/>\nstrive to become better at all the things I do. I had success in<br \/>\na few areas that were large hurdles to me. I attribute, in part,<br \/>\nmy ability to come out of my childhood intact to the books I<br \/>\nread back then. I thought of a technical podcast, but I worried<br \/>\nabout the cost and time. But I love podcasts and started<br \/>\nlistening in 2008. I now subscribe to 145 podcasts and monitor<br \/>\nanother 128 for interesting topics. I really love the medium and<br \/>\nI am listening almost of my time. It works for me at home and<br \/>\nworks for me when I travel for works. Starting my own is a great<br \/>\nthing for someone who has technical skills and a desire to speak<br \/>\nso it feels that podcasting is the perfect cross between being a<br \/>\nham and being a geek and being a learner. I also had more time<br \/>\nand money lately because of Covid, so this was a great time to<br \/>\ndo this. I hope by the time I retire this is a great place for<br \/>\nme to spend my efforts and it can be a small business for me to<br \/>\nhelp others with.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>How did you decide what to use to recording?\n<ul>\n<li>Recording software\n<ul>\n<li>I started with Audacity which is fantastic<br \/>\nin so many ways and free which is amazing. However, because I<br \/>\nhave a job and other obligations I needed a way to speed up the<br \/>\nprocess of producing a podcast but retaining the quality. The<br \/>\nfeatures in Hindenburg allows me to set up enough of the podcast<br \/>\nand shortcuts to speed up the process. That is most important<br \/>\nright now. For video editing, I use Corel Video Studio which<br \/>\nallows multiple cameras and I can record off the same mic as<br \/>\nHindenburg at the same time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Recording hardware\n<ul>\n<li>I built a recording area in my guest<br \/>\nbedroom. From there I have a dedicated recording PC and use the<br \/>\nShure58 microphone. I started with the Audio Technica ATR 2100.<br \/>\nWhich is a great microphone for a great price. I felt like I had<br \/>\nmore lower tones in my voice the ARS mic was missing and went to<br \/>\nthe Shure58. But the different is small and they are both great<br \/>\nmicrophones. I use a Gator Frameworks Short Weighted Base<br \/>\nMicrophone Stand. I will use the other microphone for interviews<br \/>\nor future podcasts with my friend. I also have two Logitech 925e<br \/>\ncameras for the future YouTube work. It really is amazing that<br \/>\nyou can put together a very professional sounding system for<br \/>\nunder 1000<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>when a decade ago it would cost 10s of thousands.<br \/>\nWe live in an era where most people have the ability of<br \/>\nHollywood or radio in their houses.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Can you talk to learning about what a feed is, and how to make one?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Probably good to explain what a feed is. You would be better at<br \/>\nexplaining this. It uses an old technology of RSS feeds that<br \/>\npeople used and use now to follow blogs and website updates.<br \/>\nBecause it can be flexible enough, it can be re-used for<br \/>\npodcasting. I think it has upsides and downsides. With a feed it<br \/>\nis hard to tell who is downloading and using the feed. But it is<br \/>\negalitarian and cannot be messed with algorithms. The feed is<br \/>\nuploaded to a website and services are informed there is a<br \/>\npodcast feed at this location. Anyone can subscribe through<br \/>\nservices or directly. That ability to have a feed without being<br \/>\nmessed with by modern tech companies appeals to me. Its re-use<br \/>\nis ingenious, and it means podcasting is one thing that is not<br \/>\ntinkered with by social media. Right now, it is a very open<br \/>\nsystem, but I suspect that is about to change with services<br \/>\nclaiming podcasts and putting them behind a fee structure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Did you test a bunch of tools to make the Feed?\n<ul>\n<li>This<br \/>\narea is the aspect of podcasting I knew nothing about. I have<br \/>\nbuilt rss feeds by hands in the past for blogs and updates. I<br \/>\nhad no idea how people created the feeds podcasting. Advice you<br \/>\ngave to me and felt strongly about is to own your own feed. Once<br \/>\nI made that decision I searched for software. There are a few<br \/>\nplugins that seem ok. But you suggested Feeder 3 and there is<br \/>\njust nothing like it out there that has so many advantages. I<br \/>\ncan set up the podcasts, have them look nice and get ahead on<br \/>\nepisodes and push the button to publish on time. I am primarily<br \/>\nin the Windows world but do have a MacBook and so I can use<br \/>\nFeeder 3. Once you helped me set it up properly, it is so nice<br \/>\nand easy. I can&#8217;t imagine anything better.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Did you look at other automated options like Blubrry or Libsyn?<br \/>\nI did not. I had a website space already with Bluehost. I<br \/>\ndecided to keep working with them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>We might talk here about my strong opinion that you should own<br \/>\nyour own feed<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>These companies that host for you do a lot for you but they also<br \/>\ncost per podcast. When you mentioned the downside of not owning<br \/>\nyour own feed for purposes of changing in the future. The cost<br \/>\naspects appealed to me. I think I would like to start several<br \/>\npodcasts and they would each cost on a hosting solution. Since I<br \/>\nhad the technical ability to start a website, I felt like I<br \/>\ncould do this only by self-hosting. The different in cost is<br \/>\npaying 13 dollars a month per podcast for limited abilities. I<br \/>\ncould spend 200 for 2 years and have as many as I want. Between<br \/>\nthe advice you gave me to own your own feed. My technical<br \/>\nabilities to do that and the cost of other solutions, I<br \/>\nself-hosted.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>What&#8217;s your recording process?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have a OneNote notebook full of<br \/>\nideas that is growing all the time. I have Blinkist too. I also<br \/>\norganized all my productivity and self-help books I have in Audible<br \/>\nand Kindle to gather my resources. I have a few hundred! I write the<br \/>\npodcast in Word and then store them in OneNote. I have a pc in my<br \/>\nrecording guest bedroom. I start talking and reading. I place the<br \/>\nfiles in my synology drive where I can edit them on my main pc which<br \/>\nis in a noisy part of the house. I usually need a file where I<br \/>\nchange words or rephrase a few things. Put in some additional points<br \/>\nin. I edit them into a file. And then edit them back into the main<br \/>\nrecording. I finish the transcript either by hand or now trying<br \/>\nOtter.ai. I have yet to determine which saves the most time. I use<br \/>\nHindenburg to add the ID3 or metatag fields and chapter marks. I<br \/>\nlike podcasts with shortcuts in the segments, so I felt like I<br \/>\nneeded them despite the shorter format. The I upload the podcast. I<br \/>\ncreate the WordPress post and make it a bit prettier. I then finish<br \/>\nthe Feeder 3 entry. I create the social media posts and graphics<br \/>\nwith quotes. Monday night late, I post the podcast. That&#8217;s a lot!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Off the cuff? Scripted? bullet points?\n<ul>\n<li>I started working on segments for your podcast which gave me the knowledge that I really do love<br \/>\npodcasting and enjoy it. I watch you do it live every Sunday for fun<br \/>\nbut also to learn. I started by scripting it entirely and doing some<br \/>\nadditional comments and changes to make it sound more<br \/>\nconversational. But I noticed that even as I get a few episodes in,<br \/>\nI am more confidently saying my own words and less reading. I would<br \/>\nrather start with an outline and freely talk. When I train for my<br \/>\njob I can do it 5 days 8 hours or training and never use notes or<br \/>\noutlines. Same thing when I present at conferences. I would rather<br \/>\nget to that point with podcasting as well. I think it would sound<br \/>\nmore free flowing. This next episode I am trying the outline and use<br \/>\nOtter.ai for the transcript.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Do you end up doing a lot of editing at this point?\n<ul>\n<li>It will get easier\n<ul>\n<li>I am doing too much editing right now. I<br \/>\nrecorded 23 tries at my trailer. About the same for the first<br \/>\nepisode. I spent the first dozen saying the wrong name of my<br \/>\npodcast! The first episode put the sausage in making the<br \/>\nsausage. But even on episode 2 and 3 it got marginally better. I<br \/>\nam doing better, and I am learning how to fix mistakes while<br \/>\nrecording instead of later in editing. It must get easier. It<br \/>\nreally can&#8217;t get harder I have a real tendency to complicate<br \/>\nthings, so I fight that battle inside me of all the time. Right<br \/>\nnow, I have a curious Hindenburg issue I need to sort out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Did you create a website?\n<ul>\n<li>Believe it or not many people don\\&#8217;t I did create a website<br \/>\nusing WordPress. I started that process in July and looked<br \/>\nthrough so many WordPress templates and finally found a nice one<br \/>\nthat is flexible with a lot of features. Then all the graphics<br \/>\nand colors took a long while too. I use CorelDraw for graphics<br \/>\nand colors I used <a href=\"https:\/\/coolors.co\/\">https:\/\/coolors.co\/<\/a> to find a palette I<br \/>\nliked. What I loved about your podcast is the information but<br \/>\nalso the website. I refer to it a few times a week and prob 20<br \/>\ntimes a week while creating the podcast. I decide to buy a<br \/>\ngadget, I look to see what you recommended because you have such<br \/>\nhigh standards. So, I wanted my own website for reference.<br \/>\nNothing disappoints me more than hearing something in a podcast<br \/>\nand not being able to find information or the books used. For<br \/>\ngraphics and sound files I use Envato Elements which owns Audio<br \/>\nJungle and graphics content.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>How do you decide what to put up on your website? I based my<br \/>\nwebsite on some blogs I liked. I find photos interesting, so<br \/>\neach podcast has a photo which is from various photo services<br \/>\nonline. I really wanted a place to put the transcript of the<br \/>\npodcast in case people wanted to go back. Something you said<br \/>\nabout people reading your information vs listening to it and I<br \/>\nfeel the same way. I don&#8217;t care how they hear it. I know there<br \/>\nare people who are not technical and have no podcast app, so I<br \/>\nwanted to have a built-in audio player for them. I want to help<br \/>\npeople in whatever way that is.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>I social engagement with your audience important to you?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>How would you like to see that happen? You have such a strong<br \/>\ncommunity and I love that about your podcast. I have been in<br \/>\nother podcasters communities where they don&#8217;t interact or take<br \/>\nquestions. I found it a bit of a disconnect with their podcasts<br \/>\nwhere they say, &#8220;I want to hear from you!!!&#8221; Most of them mean<br \/>\n&#8220;I do coaching once you pay, I want to hear from the listeners&#8221;.<br \/>\nSometimes it isn&#8217;t quite it is a busy life running a podcast and<br \/>\nhaving a job and doing something else from time to time. I am<br \/>\nsure it has a lot to do with priorities. But I wanted people to<br \/>\nask question and talk about their own experiments. I think we<br \/>\nshould not listen to other people but instead take good advice<br \/>\nand try it. put your own take on it. I want to have a Slack<br \/>\ncommunity like you do where we can talk about that. Ask each<br \/>\nother questions. Building a new internet community is a bit like<br \/>\nmaking a brand-new hotel. You wait there behind the desk hoping<br \/>\npeople show up. I also have Pinterest and Instagram quotes. I<br \/>\nhave a digital picture frame that I like to put quotes and<br \/>\nreminders in. I have put graphics in from other podcasts, so I<br \/>\nwanted to offer this to my people. I also Facebook twitter. I<br \/>\nhope to someday do Zoom calls with my community.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Honestly, this is not my strength. I am not much into social<br \/>\nmedia nor like it that much, but it seems instrumental in<br \/>\ngetting people to hear about you. Marketing is also something I<br \/>\nam not interested in maybe only because I know the least about<br \/>\nit. I think right now the challenge is figure out what not to<br \/>\ndo. When you started, you were a pioneer without much help or<br \/>\nsoftware. Right now, the challenge is opposite. There is so much<br \/>\nout there in terms of advice and what you can get involved with.<br \/>\nDozens of social media sites, marketing, personal brand,<br \/>\nnewsletters, hosting options, ads, affiliates. It is dizzying.<br \/>\nKeeping your goal in mind is key and not getting distracted by<br \/>\neverything else. I have seen podcasters become selling machines<br \/>\nand hire business managers and lose the very charm or aspect I<br \/>\nsubscribed to in the first place. There is a balance in there.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Are you obsessing on download statistics? I am but am trying not to.<br \/>\nHonestly, I am glad anyone is listening at all. I know that podcasts<br \/>\nare a long game. I know that you must like what you are talking<br \/>\nabout and enjoying it. I think in the end the numbers can only be<br \/>\ndemotivating. It&#8217;s like weighing yourself on a scale. If you gained<br \/>\nweight you are sad. If you stayed the same then you are sad. If you<br \/>\nlose weight, it is never enough. I think you must come up with other<br \/>\ngoals. Right now, I am just trying to get ahead a bit. Thinking<br \/>\nabout future podcasts. I really want to make this efficient. I know<br \/>\nthere will come a time when I don&#8217;t have as much time on my hands as<br \/>\nI do now. It must be streamlined before that happens.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Are you having fun yet? It has been fun since I started this in July<br \/>\nbut also a lot of work and I have been very busy doing this. I had<br \/>\nmonths to work on this and hopefully get it right. It is taking over<br \/>\nmy life right now. I wake up in the middle of the night with podcast<br \/>\nideas, so I am also sleepy! I also have very little time to listen<br \/>\nto podcasts. It was a bit harrowing the first weeks after it was<br \/>\nreleased, and I was stressed out. After that I started getting<br \/>\nslightly ahead. I have an outline for the first half year. I am also<br \/>\nopen to change. I have seen quite a few people who started with<br \/>\nsomething and realized it should be something else. I am open and<br \/>\nflexible about the future. I would like to get into video for<br \/>\nYouTube someday. I might want to write books or booklets that come<br \/>\nfrom the topics in the podcast. I would like to do more public<br \/>\nspeaking since that is what I really love the most and I think<br \/>\npodcasting can help me get there. I am trying to find that fine line<br \/>\nbetween enjoyable and burdensome. Also, this all must work out after<br \/>\ntravel and life returns to normal. I<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The best advice I have ever received came from you &#8220;the hardest<br \/>\nthing is to actually start. the best thing you can do for your<br \/>\nfuture self is to do a bad job of the first episode so you can see<br \/>\nhow far you&#8217;ve come.&#8221; I tend to be risk adverse and this was exactly<br \/>\nwhat I needed to hear.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Start with Small Steps Podcast This week our guest is Jill McKinley of the Start with Small Steps Podcast at smallstepspod.com. Those of you who listen to the NosillaCast may already know her from her many fantastic tech reviews for the show as Jill from the North Woods. I&#8217;m a fan of the Start With [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,737,172],"tags":[4335,187,1040,180,4334,4333],"class_list":["post-22015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-ccatp-lite","category-ccatp","tag-attribution","tag-community","tag-podcast","tag-recording","tag-show-notes","tag-small-steps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ChitChatPond_V8_lite_300px.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22017,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22015\/revisions\/22017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}