(Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts)
Meet Ana Xavier: Originally from Portugal, Ana created her first podcast back in 2008 (!!) while completing her bachelor’s of science in communications and journalism from the University of Porto. After a decade of experience in podcasting, broadcasting and digital marketing in Portugal, and London, UK, founded The Podcast Space. Ana and her team have helped more than 40 professionals and entrepreneurs launch and improve their podcast. She was recently named Marketing Maverick of the Year and has been featured by Riverside.fm and Captivate. Learn more here.
What makes a great podcast?
Beyond the basics, like having a clear beginning, middle, and ending to each episode - Ana and I discuss how we help our podcast clients think strategically to get the most out of their time and money producing a podcast.
If you are creating a podcast to support your existing business, a great podcast for you will be one that helps you and your clients.
Start with what you know.
What do your customers care about?
What problems are they struggling with?
Who are they?
What questions do you get asked over and over again that you’ve gotten pretty good at answering or explaining?
It’s important to ask yourself these questions before you start a podcast. Answering these questions for yourself will help you become more clear and focused on the goals for the podcast which, in turn, will help you decide what kind of content you want to create, what guests you want on the show, etc.
One simple way to achieve value from your podcast is to create a micro-episode. Here’s a clip (viewable on Substack) from the episode where Ana and I discuss this.
The Creating and Maintaining Part…
Ana and I both agree that perfection is way overrated. It’s more important to get started and allow yourself to iterate as you go.
Realize the original title for the show isn’t catching folk’s attention? Change it!
Don’t have the time to produce a show every week? Change to monthly or bi-monthly. It’s OK to change things as you go - just keep going.
Another big part of creating and maintaining a podcast is setting up a home studio that is easy for you to use.
Ana and I discuss this in great depth in our conversation. I’m a bit techy and opted for a more complex set-up with a mixer, but Ana uses a $50 USB microphone and sounds and looks fabulous! She sounds so fabulous that I’ve purchased that exact microphone to take with me when I’m traveling and need to record.
Here’s a clip (viewable on Substack) of us talking about our podcast studio setups.
Want links to our exact studio equipment? Sign up for a paid subscription and get the links! Your paid subscription helps me keep this Podcast & Substack going! Thank you!
How to find Ana and The Podcast Space:
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