Starting Your Business Podcast

It’s kind of funny how Toastmaster’s Pathways wants me to do an Icebreaker speech. I'd rather be talking about my Sacramento Podcast. It’s the first speech of every path, even if you have already given 10 speeches and countless table topics. All the ice breaking things I could tell you about you already know: that I love to sing, I have dachshunds, I graduated from UC Davis and before that St. Francis High School, I used to be active in politics and I own a marketing business. Plus, I have a pretty open, chatterbox personality, so it doesn’t require high level investigative skills to get to know me. Given that situation, I thought I’d break the ice by telling you about what I want to accomplish in the next year. One of my goals in Toastmasters is to get proficient in online speaking - if I could teach a class or offer online training, I’d open up a whole new potential income stream. But it’s not so easy. When you speak online you don’t get the encouragement of smiling faces. You can’t observe whether your pacing for the speech is too slow or too fast. It requires special skills. My plan is to start a podcast. I’ve been thinking about it for several months, but just this weekend the idea gelled. I had been in a quandary about what should be the theme of my show. Does everybody know what a podcast is? It’s a radio show, or in some cases a television show, that you produce and distribute over the internet - you don’t need a station. Individuals subscribe to your podcast on iTunes or spotify and listen when they want. Each new episode lands in their inbox ready to listen to. Your show could be like NPR’s All Things Considered, Sid Mark’s Saturdays with Sinatra or KFBK’s Farmer Fred. You can find podcasts about almost any topic. Over half a million podcasts are being produced in 2018 and 44% of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast. That’s twice as many as 3 years ago when a quarter million podcasts were produced and 21% of the population has listened. Podcasts usually take one of five different formats. Interviews - host interviews someone either in person or via Skype - this is the majority of podcasts Location based - centers on the area where the podcast is recorded Personality - the host talks directly to audience either educating or entertaining (or both) Storytelling - tell a story, read a book, engage with people who are fans. I have a friend with an Outlander book podcast and Combo - two or more of the different formats. I’ve decided that I’m going to combine location - Sacramento and Interviews. There are several things that are critically important to make your podcast a success. The sound has to be excellent. People won’t listen if it cracks and pops Unique concept and style Have a consistent schedule Be sure to promote your show For several months I’ve been trying to decide what should be my hook and I’m happy to say I’ve figured it out. One of my clients is partnering with me on a website he created over 15 years ago called SacramentoTop10.com - I’m remodeling it because it’s really ugly, but we’ve been planning a launch for this fall. I think creating a podcast on the same topic will create a lot of synergy. I will interview restaurant owners and ask them about their favorite meals, promote it on social media and have some fun. Once we launch, I hope you’ll all listen.