Behind the Scenes: How I make a podcast

#136. (We'll... we've actually done 226 episodes in total. You'll hear me talk about the annoying decision around episode numbering in this 226th episode!)

This is The Silent Why, a podcast on a mission to open up conversations around grief, asking if hope can be found in 101 different types of permanent loss.

This episode is a little different. No blog, no interview, no Chris, and no focus on loss. It’s just you and me, pulling back the curtain for a behind-the-scenes peek at how I create this podcast.

I often get asked:
- What does it really take to produce an episode?
- Can podcasting make money?
- How do you find guests?

Today, I’m answering those questions (and more) while walking you through my own process of hosting, producing, and publishing a show.

Plus, if you’ve ever thought about starting your own podcast, this episode will give you a real sense of the time, effort, and resources involved. As well as some lessons I’ve learned along the way.

A huge thank you to everyone who supports this podcast and helps keep it going.

Special gratitude goes to our “I Love The Silent Why” members and above, on Buy Me a Coffee, who not only get a shout-out on the website but deserve a mention here too: Evelyn Calaunan, Peter Ellis, Jackie Waring, Diane Fopp, Greg Williams, and Emily Luckham. You’re amazing, and I’m so grateful for you.

Thanks also to those who support through one-offs or other levels on Buy Me a Coffee, and of course to everyone who tunes in each week. I truly couldn’t do this without you.

To learn more about the show, about Chris and me, our childless journey through loss, Herman, and everything else, visit: www.thesilentwhy.com

Send us a text

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Episode transcripts: thesilentwhy.buzzsprout.com

Thank you for listening.

Episode Transcript

Claire Sandys (00:02):
Hello, I'm Claire and welcome to The Silent Why
podcast, and this is an episodewith a bit of a difference,
because it's just me.
No loss, no hope.
Well, there is hope.
No guest, no Chris.
No blog.
Nope, it's just me and you,with a behind the scenes episode

(00:22):
on how I produce a podcast.
Now, now I've got some notes togo off, but I'm sort of winging
it a bit for this episode, solet's see how it goes.
A lot of people ask me aboutwhat I do during the week, and
when I mention I host a podcastor I produce a podcast, their
next question is either a veryblank look, a very curious look,

(00:43):
or what does that involve?
Or maybe can you make moneyfrom that?
A lot of people don't reallyknow what producing a podcast
involves and what takes up thetime when you're putting one out
.
So I thought I'd answer all themost asked questions in one
handy episode and tell youexactly what I do when it comes
to producing a podcast episodewhat takes the time, how you can

(01:06):
make money, how I find guests,etc.
Etc.
It's a look behind the scenes,if you will, to see what goes on
behind the episodes that youlisten to.
I'm really hoping this will beinteresting for those of you
that listen and mayberesourceful for those of you
that had considered setting upyour own podcast.
Now, I've been podcasting forfour years now and I've never
done anything like this before.

(01:26):
I had no idea how to do it whenI started and it's been a steep
but fun learning curve to getto where we are now, and the
first thing I'm going to tellyou is that it's not easy.
It's incredibly time consumingand if you're thinking about
doing it on top of a full-timejob, think very carefully.
You've probably seen podcastspop up and then shut down six

(01:47):
months later, or even sixepisodes later.
Well, after you've listened tothis episode, I think you might
understand why, because it's alot of hard work and, unless
some lovely people are willingto support you financially, it
also costs to do it Not justmoney, but time as well, unless
you're a celebrity with somekind of big network that pay you
to podcast.
To give you a bit of context onthe different types of podcast,

(02:09):
some of the bigger podcasts thatyou might listen to that are
part of big networks or that arehosted by a celebrity or
something like BBC Sounds orthose kinds of things.
The difference between thoseand a small indie one like mine,
independent one like mine arehuge.
Some of the big podcasts haveteams of up to 20 people working
on them.
Some podcasts are financiallyfunded by the host or investors

(02:30):
and sponsors, and so all theproduction, editing, social
media, marketing, etc.
Can be outsourced toprofessionals.
Some podcasts just have a hostthat walks in, presents the
material and leaves again.
Some podcasts have incomecoming in from subscriptions and
other models that give them upto well.
The last one I heard was$200,000 a month for a guy who

(02:51):
was just putting a $5 per monthsubscription on his back
episodes.
That's passive income.
None of these are mine.
I'm a sole creator that does itall myself, with the help of a
lovely co-host and husband andsome people who support me
financially.
So, although I'm not going togive you all the details on how
to set up a podcast from scratch, I will give you an overview of

(03:11):
the things you need to consider.
First of all, you need apodcast idea.
What do you want to share?
What do you want to say to theworld?
What is your niche going to beor niche if you're American and
listening, and the more niche itis the better you're likely to
do, which didn't make much senseto me when I started, but now I
really do see the value in that.
Once you have all that, ericNewsom's book Make Noise, which

(03:33):
I thoroughly recommend reading,tells you you should narrow down
your podcast idea to 10 words.
Describe it in 10 words and getvery specific.
Think about who your audienceis.
Who is the one person that youwant this podcast to go out to?
Describe them, give them a name.
Would this person like thisepisode?
Chris and I thought about a fewideas at the beginning of our

(03:54):
podcast journey.
We decided we didn't just wantto do one on childlessness,
which was our first idea.
We wanted to go a bit biggerand a bit wider than that.
We didn't really want to stayin that world all the time, so
we thought, well, if we'refacing this sort of grief a
grief that nobody really warnedus about, we don't know how to
fully process there must beothers going through similar
things with other losses, solet's find them and chat to them

(04:15):
.
We knew we didn't want it to betoo depressing, though, so we
just start again.
We knew we didn't want this tobe too depressing, though.
See, I'm not going to edit itout for you, I'm just going to
leave it in.
This is what it looks like whenyou do it raw, so we didn't
want it to be too depressing.
So we added in finding hope inthese situations.
Could you find hope in everygrief?
Then, to make it more specificand a bit of a challenge, we

(04:39):
decided to see if we could find101 different types of loss.
Then you need to think aboutyour format.
Do you want to interview people?
Do you want to write and recordblogs or news stories?
Do you want to have guests?
Do you want to put out episodesweekly, monthly, in seasons,
how long are your episodes goingto be, etc.
Etc.
We knew that we had to speak topeople who had been through
each loss firsthand, or else itwasn't going to be very credible

(04:59):
.
It couldn't just be us talkingabout things we'd never been
through.
So we decided we'd be doinginterviews and we'd mix in some
other types of episodes that wecould do in between.
Then you have to think aboutthings like your tech setup.
This is where I had a headstart, because my husband works
in radio production, so he had agood idea of what we needed.
However, I've also learned thatjust because they use the same
tech and they do a similar job,it doesn't mean that radio

(05:22):
people are naturally good atpodcasting.
They're two very differentskills, as Eric did warn us
about in his book.
So tech-wise, you need acomputer, at least one
microphone If interviewingguests in person, you might need
more Headphones for editing andinterviewing.
Software for recording andediting.
Pop filters, baby.
If you pop your peas a lot,those fluffy things that you see

(05:42):
on the end of microphones orthe big round circular bits of
net, they catch those.
So you don't get lots of onyour audio, as you might have
just heard.
And acoustic foam or somethingsimilar in the room that you're
recording in is a good idea.
I mean, you can sit in acupboard full of clothes.
That also works.
But if you want the best audioyou have to treat the room.
That was something I learnedabout.
That was a long session ofsearching for acoustic foam,

(06:04):
which is very expensive, but youwant it to create an atmosphere
where the sound's not bouncingaround loads of hard surfaces.
So ideally you want it absorbedinto something.
This gives you a much betterinterview.
So if you're being interviewedanywhere, good idea, stick a
cushion right in front of youand that absorbs the sound when
you're talking and makes youraudio sound better.
Then you need to think about apodcast host.
I don't mean the person that'sliterally talking into the

(06:26):
microphone.
These are like website hosts,so they hold all your episodes
and then they put them out whenyou tell them to and they send
them out to all the differentplaces that you get podcasts.
So when I put a podcast episodeout, I upload it to my podcast
host, who happens to beBuzzsprout, and then I set a
date and a time for it to go andwhen it goes, it's Buzzsprout
that sends it out to Spotify andApple and Pocket Cast and my

(06:47):
website and everywhere else thatyou listen to podcasts.
That's where everything goes.
It's also where you write theshow notes for each episode,
control the artwork for yourpodcast and see all the stats
where people are listening, howmany downloads each episode gets
, all those kinds of things.
There are ways to host a podcastfor free if you're not putting
many episodes out, but it'susually best to have one where

(07:08):
you're paying a monthly costdepending on the hours that you
use, and they store the episodesfor you, they keep them there.
You get a back catalogue, allthat kind of stuff.
This costs around £10 to £20 amonth.
I say it's probably aboutnormal.
Like I said, I use Buzzsprout.
They're absolutely lovely.
I have no complaints about themat all, some of the loveliest
people in podcasting.
So, yeah, thoroughly recommendthem if you're thinking about

(07:29):
doing a podcast, and I'veprobably got a link somewhere
that I can get some reductionfor you for if you're interested
in doing that.
So, yeah, let me know.
And this is where you wouldhave all your stats and things.
So if I go onto the Buzzsproutwebsite in fact I'll go there
now Let me have a look whilewe're here, I can look at how
many episodes we've put out.
I can look at how many downloadsevery episode's had.

(07:50):
I can see that.
I mean, we're not a big podcast, it's not like a big download,
but I think over the time we'vebeen doing it we're hitting
nearly 43,000.
Of those were Europe, 16 wereNorth America, 68 downloads just
68 in South America, 300 inAfrica, 988 in Asia, nearly

(08:10):
hitting a thousand, and Oceania,which I always thought was
Oceania, three to four thousand.
I can see that the top countriesand territories.
So the top countries UK, thenUS, then Australia, then Canada
and Ireland, then Singapore,then Germany, then Netherlands,
then New Zealand, ireland, thenSingapore, then Germany, then
Netherlands, then New Zealand,then France cities Gloucester
that's our most local one, whichI'm actually surprised.

(08:31):
That's the highest down low,but obviously we've got some
local fans, which is good thenLondon, then Cheltenham
Cheltenham's also very local tous then Virginia Ashburn I don't
know if you're listening there,but are thank you then Adelaide
, south Australia, then Dublin,then Sydney, new South Wales,
then Reading, then Perth inWestern Australia and then
Brisbane in Queensland, so wellup there with the Australian

(08:51):
places.
So thank you for that and itgives me, yeah, all the
information for all.
That's over all the time we'vebeen podcasting, or you can do
it by the last episode, all thatkind of thing.
So that's what your podcasthost is doing and producing for
you there.
There's lots of other stuffthey do I'll mention as we go on
as well.
So I'm going to do astep-by-step guide, kind of in
order, of how I put out apodcast episode and what it

(09:13):
takes.
I would love to say it's a10-step guide.
It is not.
I gave up on the wholenumbering thing.
It got way too complicated, soI'm just going to do it in order
for you.
So on the silent, why westarted the whole podcast by
doing two episodes a week Oneinterview on a Tuesday and one
blog episode that I wrote on aFriday.
Then we listened to a lot offeedback over the first year or

(09:34):
two and we've heard peoplesaying things like gosh, you put
out a lot of content or I'mstill trying to catch up on that
episode, and I thought tomyself why are we doing so much?
Let's just do one a week.
People can't catch up, it's alot of work.
Let's just do it weekly, whichfelt very refreshing.
So we did that for a while.
Then one summer I reduced itdown to every other week and

(09:55):
that felt like a much moremanageable pace for us and for
other people listening.
So now we're stuck to that.
We put out a new episode everyother Tuesday and I can't
remember how we ever managed todo two a week.
But my advice is start with less.
Don't do what we did.
You can build to more if you'vegot the capacity, but it is
very easy to overdo it and comein too quickly with too much and
then just burn out.
Or you can do seasons.
You can get a whole seasonready of maybe up to eight

(10:16):
episodes, put that out, have afew months or weeks break and
then do another season.
That's another way of doing itwhere you can work on it, put it
out, work on it, put it outright.
So first thing I need to thinkabout when I want to put out
another episode is the topic orsubject.
For us, that might be the nextloss that we're doing in our 101
loss list, or it might be aguest that I've got on, or it
might be a blog that I need towrite, or some audio from a chat

(10:37):
with me and Chris or somethingelse.
But you need something.
I need a topic, I need to knowwhat the next episode is, and I
plan my episodes a couple ofmonths in advance so I know
what's coming.
I try and space out the lossesand the let's chats and the
blogs so that people get a bitof a variety of different things
.
So I need to find a guest orwrite a blog.
One of the number one questionsI get asked is how do you find
your guests?
Well, they arrive in a numberof ways In the early days.

(11:01):
You have to find them becauseyou're a new podcast.
No one knows who you are andGod bless the first 10 or so
podcast guests that we had onwho were willing to chat to us
without really knowing what thepodcast would be like at all.
Every podcast host will be soappreciative of the first people
who say yes, when you haven'teven got a podcast for them to
listen to, so thank you for that.
And usually they're probablypeople you know or people that

(11:23):
trust you in the early days.
So sometimes I approach peoplestill who are talking about a
loss in public.
In some way I know that ifsomeone's talking about their
loss in public they're OK toshare their pain.
They're not nervous about itbecause it's not something that
everyone would want to dopublicly and I totally
understand that.
So sometimes if I see aparticular loss I'm like I'd

(11:44):
really love to speak to someoneabout that and they're already
talking about it.
I might approach them.
Sometimes I get a reply.
Sometimes I don't get anythingat all.
Sometimes I get a yes Not veryoften, but sometimes I get a yes
.
I do get a lot of PR emails thatcome to me from people who are
employed by authors or otherguests to approach podcasts to
be on them.
I always reply to these becauseI like to be polite, but I'm

(12:06):
cautious about them.
They rarely know anything aboutmy podcast.
They might have listened to thelast episode and mentioned
something from that, but on thewhole I can tell they know that
all they've seen is that it's agrief podcast.
They haven't really looked thatwe're doing 101 losses.
They haven't tried to fit inwith anything we're doing.
So occasionally I found a guestthat way, but not very often.
More likely to pick them ifthey're coming out and talking

(12:29):
about a loss that I just know isgoing to be very hard to find
anywhere else.
But a lot of people do kind ofgeneric loss stuff and that's
not really what I'm looking for,unless I fancy doing a let's
Chat with them because I'minterested in their story.
Sometimes the guests are peoplethat we know in real life.
Like at the very beginning wehad to ask people we knew.
Not all that often, but thathas happened.
We have got guests on ourpodcast that we know personally.

(12:49):
And then sometimes guestsapproach me and I think that's
actually some of the best onesthat we've had have come through
that route.
So there are three ways a guestmight approach me through a PR
person, like I mentioned,through an email or a message
from the website or throughsocial media that says something
like I lost my sister andthere's no more details or even
a name.
I always reply to these again,but it's not really how I'm

(13:12):
going to book a guest.
And the last way and it's myfavourite is through an email or
message that knows the podcasthas taken an interest in what
we're doing, identifies a losswe haven't covered yet that they
want to talk about, and sendsme a lovely message with details
of their loss and why they'dlove to be on the podcast.
You guys are podcast guest gold, whether they've done a podcast
before, whether they've neverdone one, whether they've never

(13:34):
even spoken about it in public,whatever their situation is,
even though they're a completenewbie.
I love these emails.
They tend to often be the bestguests and that's mostly because
I think they're invested inwhat we're doing and there's a
real interest to be a part ofthe kind of lost family that
we're building.
And if you ever want to be aguest on a podcast, then this is
your best chance to get onthere.

(13:55):
When you contact the podcast,do the same thing Show them that
you know them.
Show them that you know whyyou'd be a good guest.
Listen to their podcast, get afeel for it.
Don't get yourself on somethingthat you then regret later.
Tell them that you've listenedto it.
It makes a huge difference fora podcast host to know you've
got someone coming on thatalready knows some of your back
catalogue.
Now if I get approached bysomeone but I'm not sure they're

(14:16):
the right fit for the podcastor would be the right guest,
then quite often I ask them togo away and listen to a few
episodes, if they haven't donethis already, to see if this is
something they really want to do.
Because it's a very in-depthinterview about grief and not
everyone is going to want toopen up to that level.
So if they say they want tocome on and chat about the loss
of their sister or somethinglike that, they don't actually
want to talk about the grief.
They only focus on movingforwards.

(14:36):
That's not really the kind ofinterview we're looking to do.
We want them to open up abouthow hard that's been before they
then talk about the hope andhow we move forward.
So I'll tell people just to goaway, have a listen, get a feel
for what we do, kind of givethem a bit of a feel of how deep
we go into the grief so theycan get a feel for that.
Ask them a few more questionsabout it, see what happens.
Some of them at that pointnever come back.
At that point I think that'sprobably the right thing.

(14:59):
Some come back even more keenonce they've listened to stuff
and that's great.
So I don't book guests that arejust wanting to push a new book
or a product.
I will say that I do value youas an audience way too much to
just give you someone who isjust trying to sell you
something.
So I tell people if they'vedone things like that, they can
reference it.
Of course, if it's part oftheir journey and it's part of

(15:19):
their healing.
You know why not, and I'll putdetails in the show notes of
anything they want.
But we're not going tointerview anyone solely about a
project.
We're not going to have someonewith a book and say tell me
about this unless it reallyrelates to something we want to
know about.
A good example on the podcast ofwhere I think this did work was
actually Mary Frances O'Connor,who came on a let's Chat
episode to talk about a bookthat she just put out called the

(15:39):
Grieving Brain.
Now that was really interesting.
I wanted to talk about thatsubject.
What did it look like in thebrain?
So that kind of came from abook that had been released, but
I approached her.
If she'd approached me sayingcan I flog this book or can I
talk about this, I would havebeen a bit more sceptical.
So sometimes, as a subject, Ijust think, yes, I really want
to talk about that.
I know my listeners will likethat, but I don't have people on

(16:00):
that are just specificallypushing their own stuff.
So, and I also want to pointout, I've never paid a guest to
come on and they have never paidme to come on the podcast.
That is something that goes onwith some other podcasts as well
.
That's not something I've evergot involved in, not something
I'm ever going to get involvedin.
The other thing is that, yes, Iwant good stories, I want a bit

(16:21):
of grief, I want a bit of hope,whatever.
But I don't mind if the personisn't experienced or even really
great at being on the podcast.
So some podcasts won't put outinterviews.
They do that they don't thinkare perfect or amazing or
inspirational, or it wasn't verygreat.
I'm a little bit different tothat.
I do want to honour all ourguests.
So if I've done the interviewand they want it to go out, then
I'm very happy to do that.

(16:41):
I want their story to be heard.
I think everything has value init and, to be honest, if it's
not a great interview, that'sdown to me, that's not down to
them, so it should go out anyway.
So, yeah, I always put anepisode out.
However, it measures up againstperfect podcast content.
I'm not all about that.
I feel like everybody hassomething to give someone else.
Everyone has a story.
Everyone has something in thatstory that helps somebody else.
So I'll always put an.

(17:05):
So once I've found a guest, I domy research on them.
I Google them, I find out whothey are, where they are, what
do they do, what they've donebefore.
Sometimes there's nothing,sometimes there's loads.
It really depends If they'vedone loads of interviews on
podcasts before.
I need to listen to some ofthose.
I need to find out how can Imake mine a bit different for
them and for the people that arelistening.
How can I take a differentangle?
How angle?
How can I get something new outof them.

(17:26):
Sometimes I do a pre-interviewchat with guests on Zoom.
If we're not really sure whatthe exact loss is going to be,
or they're nervous about doingit, or they've got questions, or
they just want to meet me first, then we have a Zoom chat.
We meet, we go througheverything and we see if it's
something they want to follow upon.
Mostly we do, but justoccasionally it might fall away
at that point and they might beless interested.
Then I get out my trustyCalendly app.

(17:47):
That word is so difficult tosay, calendly I just use the
free version.
But this has been brilliant forme.
It was recommended to me bysomebody else.
I put all the dates and times inthat I could do for an
interview, and if it's 101 lastepisode, I have to bear in mind
Chris's work shifts and all thatkind of stuff.
So I put in everything that Ican do time-wise.
I send it to the guest and theycan pick and book a slot and a

(18:07):
time to chat.
And the great thing aboutCalendly is that it
automatically adjusts to theirtime zone when they're looking
at it.
So I don't have to worry abouttrying to sort all that out and
make mistakes, which I just knowwould happen because we're
always speaking to people indifferent time zones.
So I send out what I can do onmy time zone.
Calendly transfers it intotheirs.
When they're looking at it,they book something.
Once they've booked it, itsends an email to me and them

(18:30):
and it has all the details on itand puts it in my calendar and
theirs if they want to, and thisis typically about a month in
advance.
I might be doing this sometimessooner.
Sometimes it's two to threemonths away, really depending on
the time of year, how much I'vealready got scheduled and just
life in general.
So I like to try and not makeguests wait too much after they
record an interview before itgoes out.
So I try to record nearer theirrelease date, but I also have

(18:51):
to have allowed time to edit.
So most guests probably waitanything from one to five months
for their episode to bereleased.
It has been longer in the past,but I keep them updated on this
so they know when roughly it'sgoing to go out.
They're not going to besurprised by it suddenly
appearing.
Once I've done all this, I needto create three documents for
that guest in the folder that Ihave on Google Drive.
So the first document is theirbio and with this I put all the

(19:13):
information on, not just for mebut for Chris so he can read it
before the interview.
Where are they?
What do they do?
What's a rough age?
Are they married, single,widowed?
Are they parents?
Put dates on there?
If they lost somebody, when didthe person die?
How long have they beengrieving?
I also put on here links ofwebsites, social media that they
might have given me or that Ifound.
And when they book throughCalendly, it also asks them
questions on my booking form.

(19:34):
So it'll ask them where theylive, how to pronounce their
name if that needs clarification, any links they want to use in
the show notes, any hashtags onsocial media they use.
Have they been on a podcastbefore?
And I get them to confirm.
They can use an updated versionof Chrome, which is what most
recording software will require.
So I add all the informationthat's come in from that into my
bio sheet and that gives me agood indication of who they are,

(19:54):
which is really helpful if I'mnot going to be interviewing
them for I don't know, let's say, two or three months, but I've
just had a Zoom chat with them.
I get it all in there so thatI'll remember it in a few months
time.
The second document that Icreate is one with questions on
for this interview and the thirddocument is a text that I will
have for the intro outro thatwe're going to record for that
episode.
So I've got templates for allof these and then I just copy

(20:19):
and paste them for each newguest, so I fill out their bio
information and I note down anynames that I need to know how to
pronounce or specifics aboutthem.
Maybe they're just famous fornot using the word dead or maybe
they don't like certainlanguage around death.
So I note that down and then Istart to write some questions
for the interview on the otherdocument that I have.
So we might not stick to theseduring the interview, we might
use all of them.
But I start to think around thesubject or loss and ponder what

(20:41):
kind of questions people mightnaturally have for that
situation.
I imagine what might be hardfor them, how they've dealt with
that.
I find it helps, if they'vebeen interviewed before, to
listen through to anythingthey've spoken about and I can
jot down questions that come tomind that weren't asked or that
I was thinking during thatinterview.
Ultimately, though, once we'reinterviewing, we do tend to just
go with the flow and go withthe guest, but it's good to have

(21:02):
some backup questions, becauseif you have a guest, that is
particularly I don't know how todescribe this in a nice way but
if they're not forthcoming withinformation, it doesn't flow
out of them.
Some people are very chatty,some people are not, and if you
get a guest that's a lot lesschatty than you're expecting,
you need those backup questionsto go to.
You can't just rely on it justbeing a conversation.

(21:23):
I think that can waste a lot ofpeople's time if you're not
really being intentional aboutwhat you're going to ask.
It's good to have thosequestions, but we don't always
use them Out of interest.
An hour interview will haveanywhere from about maybe four
to ten questions, so I usuallyhave way too many.
I never run out really.
I've always got more than that.
I'm always surprised at how fewquestions you actually need to
ask people in an interview,especially when you're just

(21:44):
chatting about other thingsalong the way.
So before the interview so theguest is sorted, the interview
date is booked, I've got myinformation on my bio.
What do I need to do before theinterview, apart from prepping
questions.
Well, we record all ourinterviews remotely.
So I'm currently usingStreamYard's two hour free a
month plan, which suits me wellbecause I've got to pay for it,

(22:04):
but when I was doing up to fivehours a month I was paying for
something like Riverside orSquadcast.
These are all websites thatrecord audio and video for you.
It's a bit like Zoom, but theydo it in a sort of a better way.
They record the audio at yourend as the host and at your
guest's end, so you're notreliant on the internet
connection of the call.
It basically records what goesstraight into their microphone,

(22:34):
what goes straight into mymicrophone, and then it uploads
it to a cloud and then it sendsit to me.
So the audio is as good aswhatever is happening in the
room between that person's mouthand the microphone.
It's not relying on an internetconnection that might make that
be stuttery or drop out, and itrecords this all on separate
tracks for me, which helps whenI'm editing.
And you can pay anything from£15 to £60 a month for these
kinds of services probably over100 pound a year anyway which is
well worth it if you're doing alot of hours, but we're not
really.
So I just use this free planthat StreamYard has, which gives

(22:55):
me two hours free a month,which is plenty for what I'm
doing at the moment.
We don't record the video, but alot of these are giving you
video at the same time.
We just record audio only soguests don't have to worry about
what they look like, what theirbackground looks like.
But if you were recording andediting video then you'd be
paying for more for that,because obviously it's providing
the video and the audio.
So to have somewhere where youcan record one of these meetings

(23:18):
, you need a link, just likezoom.
If you want a zoom meeting, yousend someone a link.
It's the same kind of thing.
So I need to go into stream yard, set up a link for this
recording.
It creates a link and then Ican get out my template email
that I keep.
I keep that in my gmail folderin drafts and I amend it for the
guests so that I can send itout in good time to them.
So on this email I'll put thelink that I've just created for

(23:38):
the recording and then I'll tellthem also that they can check
their tech setup on this linkanytime before the interview you
can go in check your microphone, check your headphones all work
and then I confirm the date,time and the year of the
recording.
I used to work as a PA and I'velearned a lot of lessons about
confirming in writing meetingtimes, including the year always
very important.
And then I also attach mypodcast prep sheet, which is a

(24:00):
generic pdf that I've createdthat I send to all guests.
It contains everything theyneed to know on there so I don't
have to keep writing out in theemail, and it helps them get
ready and kind of puts them atease a bit so they know what's
happening.
I can tell them it's not goingto be video, so they know they'd
have to make their backgroundlook good.
They don't need to look goodthemselves.
I can tell them that we edit sothey don't have to worry about
what they're saying.
I like to know when I'm goinginto an online meeting whether

(24:21):
my camera is going to berecording the video.
But there is video so we canchat to them.
I give them tips for good audio.
Like I said, a room with softthings absorbs stuff way better
than the room with hard floorsand surfaces, where it echoes.
I tell them.
They'll need headphones,ideally with a microphone on
them, if not a separatemicrophone, a webcam and, most

(24:42):
important, I urge them to neveruse Bluetooth headphones for the
interview.
It does not give good audio.
All the recording platformsthat I've used have advised
against it, so I put that downthere.
I also make sure they knowabout the Herman question for
101 lost list, because a lot ofguests will have no idea what
that is.
And then for my metaphoricaltool shed question that I have
for let's Chat episodes, I givethem links which give them more

(25:03):
information.
Explain about that.
So they've got time to thinkabout it and they know they need
to need.
They need to know this ahead ofrecording.
I probably send this out abouta month or so before recording
and then I also follow up withan email nearer the time to
remind them about the date andtime and check they're still
okay to go ahead with it.
I believe that it's all thiskind of planning that's meant.
I've only ever had one or twopeople not show up for an

(25:24):
interview, and they were withvery good reasons.
Everyone else has always turnedup.
Then, on the day of therecording, I set up our podcast
studio, which is a small bedroomin our house that we've put all
our podcast stuff in.
I get the mics ready.
I make sure we've got pen andpaper each to jot down questions
we might think of while we'rechatting.
We also have a couple ofprinted bits of paper in front
of Chris and me that we can tapon or move.

(25:44):
One says I have a question, sowe know the next question can
come from that person, whichsaves a lot of awkward silences
or me and Chris trying to talkover each other to get a
question in.
And the other one says readyfor the Herman question.
So we know when each of us haveasked all our questions and
we're now ready to wrap up.
On the wide computer monitorthat we have in the podcast
studio we have a webcam on thetop so the guests can see us.

(26:04):
We have questions on one sideof the screen that we're going
to be asking them.
We then have our Zoom-likewindow of StreamYard in the
middle, which is where we cansee them and they can see us.
We've only ever done aboutthree or four interviews in
person, even if they're in theUK, and then hidden behind that
we have an amazing free programcalled Audacity which records
our interview at our end and Iuse this to edit the audio as

(26:26):
well.
It's a great program forrecording and editing and we
always record our audio throughAudacity as well as it coming
through StreamYard.
It gives us a slightly betterquality audio because it's just
right in the room recording andsometimes it's a good backup if
StreamYard was to fail, and viceversa.
So we spend usually around anhour doing an interview.
Sometimes it's longer.
We ask guests to allow an hourand 15 minutes if there's two

(26:48):
guests plus me and chris.
Sometimes it's even longer thanthat, but ideally it's around
an hour.
We start to wrap up.
So when we're ready to go, weget ready to connect.
Our guest is about to come onchris and I quickly pray before
we connect to our guest.
These are really delicate topicsand we really want our guests
to feel safe and enjoy theirtime with us.
We want to make sure that we'rekind and empathetic and
understanding and wise, so wejust do that quickly.

(27:09):
Then we connect the call and ifwe're meeting them for the
first time, we say hi and I gothrough my checklist.
And my checklist is veryimportant because I've never
been someone that hasn't pressedrecord on an episode and I've
heard this horror story manytimes on podcast chat rooms and
then you have to go to the guestand ask to redo it.
So I've got a checklist to makesure I never forget to press
record.
But it also has other things onit, like reminding me to tell

(27:31):
the guests that we edit all theinterviews so they can pause if
they need to or if they don'twant to answer a question.
They can say they don't want to.
We can take that out.
That's never actually happenedyet, but I think it just relaxes
going to happen.
This can be useful when I'mediting later on and then we

(27:51):
record our guest agreeing tobeing interviewed for us to use
this on the episode or on socialmedia or clips.
This was something that wasrecommended to us and it just
helps protect us so no one couldsay they didn't know that they
were being recorded.
So we do all that.
Go through my checklist, pressrecord on Audacity, press record
on StreamYard.
That all starts recording.
We record their agreement andthen we sort of start the

(28:13):
interview.
Before that, we might try andlook at if there's any tech
issues.
Chris is my tech man, for thathelps sort out these things.
We might make sure the rightmicrophone is picking up the
sound, make sure there's no echoor background noises that we
could turn off.
Things like that.
It can be quite complicated.
Sometimes somebody has got amicrophone in front of them but
the setup on StreamYard might betrying to use their laptop

(28:34):
microphone instead, so we're nothearing them as good as we
should do.
We have to work things likethat out.
Make sure we've got the bestaudio we can get.
During an interview we try andgo with the guest and see what
they want to share and askquestions about that.
Keep it quite natural.
But we also use our preparedquestions as well.
We don't always use all ourquestions, like I said, but we
do try to ask all our 101 lostguests the same questions about

(28:54):
whether they've ever asked thequestion why, what's their
experience of hope and, ofcourse, what's their Herman or
what's their tool.
If they want a let's Chatepisode and if it's a blog
episode, then obviously all ofthis is out the window.
It just me and the microphone.
I'm facing some acoustic foamon the wall and I'm just
recording what I've written.
So once an episode is finished,we say goodbye, we cut off

(29:16):
StreamYard, but depending on theguest internet speed, we might
have to wait a little while forthe audio to download.
If it hasn't finisheddownloading at their end, we do
need them to keep the StreamYardwindow open until it has, and
then we can shut it down, andthen I have to wait for them to
just process and come from thecloud down to my computer.
While this is happening, Ialways email the guest
immediately to thank them forbeing on, let them know that I'm

(29:36):
going to be in touch soon tolet them know when their episode
will be out, and I'll berequesting a photo for the
episode, artwork on social mediaand any links they might want
to add to the show notes.
Then the next job is todownload the audio that has come
into StreamYard onto mycomputer.
I then immediately upload itonto Google Drive, just in case
at any point it's not onStreamYard if I go to look for

(29:58):
it or you know, I can only keepso many hours on StreamYard and
then deletes it because I'm on afree account.
I don't want to lose anything,so I immediately download it and
then I put it straight onGoogle Drive, so that I've got
that there, because I might notbe touching it for another
couple of months, so I just needto know that's safely there.
So I sort all that out and thenthe next job will be to edit
the interview before it can goout, and record the intro outro
with Chris.
So while I'm editing theinterview, I have a document

(30:21):
that I referred to earlier,which is the intro outro one,
and I have that next to me andas I'm editing I take
information that they've used orthat I think I might want to
use for the introduction and Iput that into that so I can
remember topics they've covered,details they might want to
highlight what we spoke about,clips of what they're saying.
I put all that in there so Ican form the intro outro at a
later point.
So editing I do all my audioediting in Audacity and it's the

(30:46):
audio editing.
I think that takes up most of apodcaster's time if you do it.
Not everyone edits theirepisodes.
I think you can tell veryquickly if someone doesn't, and
episodes can tend to be longer.
Sometimes if it's just peoplechatting, that's fine, it's
actually really enjoyable.
Sometimes you get a lot ofwaffle and a lot of stuff that I
just sit there thinking thisshould have been edited out.

(31:06):
But anyway I like to respect'stime.
So I do spend a lot of time onediting to make sure that you
get the best interview possiblewithout anything you don't need
to hear.
So as a rule it takes aroundthe double the amount of time of
the interview to edit it.
So for an hour interview itcould take anywhere up to two
hours to edit.
In theory, I would say for mostpeople it's between two and six

(31:27):
hours to edit, really dependingon your skills whether you're a
newbie or a starter or a pro atthis, probably the programming
you're using as well.
I'm sure there's programs havea lot of things in them that
speed them up, but it alsodepends on the audio, the person
speaking, any imperfections weneed to get rid of, like we
might need to try and sort outsome fluctuations in sound.
Maybe there's some poppingsounds on their words we want to

(31:47):
remove.
Maybe Maybe there are way toomany ums and ahs, maybe there's
a fan in the background or a dogbarking at certain points.
You just go through it, justremove all these kinds of things
and just clean it up.
Also, because most of us aren'tprofessionals at this, it takes
extra time to learn all thisstuff at the beginning until you
get quite good at it.
So overall, you want to try andkeep the natural tone and

(32:09):
cadence of how someone speaks,so you don't want to take out
everything they're saying.
That's not like quite right.
But equally a lot of people,when they're recorded, do start
to erm and make thinking noisesor repeat certain phrases over
and over.
This isn't something thatanyone wants to listen to,
especially the speaker, so I tryand cut these down to make it
easier listening for them andfor other people.
We also bleep out any swearing.

(32:30):
Now, we don't ever tell ourguests not to swear, but we do
take it out for a specificreason.
If you have swearing on apodcast, you have to mark that
episode as explicit when youupload it to your host, although
a lot of people don't.
Another bugbear of mine.
It's just good etiquettebecause it warns people who
might be listening with smallchildren or might not want to
play it in certain situations.
Just warns them there's goingto be swearing.

(32:51):
In theory, you can get pulledup for not doing this.
However, if you do mark anepisode explicit, then there are
a few countries thatautomatically don't allow your
content to be played.
So since we felt it wasimportant that our content was
available everywhere because ofwhat we're talking about.
We bleep out the swearing, sowe don't have to mark them as
explicit and therefore ourepisodes can go wherever they
want to in the world.

(33:13):
And a top tip if the audioreally does need to sound a lot
better than it is becausethere's a lot of background
noise or for whatever reasonit's just a bad line, then I
really recommend Enhanced Speechby Adobe.
It's brilliant.
You do have to pay for it.
I'm on and off whether I'mpaying for it or not, but there
was a free thing.
I think it only does up to halfan hour or something for free,
but it is really good.
I'm fascinated by what it cantake out and how much better it

(33:35):
can make something sound.
So that's a little top tipthere.
If you're really struggling, itcan be worth it even just for
one interview just to findsomething like that.
A lot of hosts also offer thiskind of thing.
Buzzsprout has something calledMagic Mastering, which will do
something similar, and you canpay to have that put on your
episodes to make them soundbetter as well.
Another thing we do is to checkthat the levels are all right,
so I don't know any of thetechie words for this.

(33:57):
So if you're a professionallistening, I'm so sorry for this
next bit.
I hope I'm describing itcorrectly.
Chris knows more about thisthan I do.
But basically we want to makesure the podcast sound level is
at a set number and that numberkeeps it so that when someone
speaks really loudly or laughsloudly it doesn't blast in your
ear.
And then when someone getsreally soft, it's not so quiet

(34:18):
that you can't hear them.
So it keeps everything at a setlevel so you can hear things
getting louder and softer.
You know when someone'slaughing loudly or when they're
whispering, but it doesn't blastand change in your ears.
And you'll know this when youlisten to a podcast.
If they don't do it, becauseyou'll be adjusting the volume
constantly, you'll have troublehearing them when you're right
up loud or they'll be way tooloud when your volume's up high.
All podcasts really should bearound this particular level,

(34:41):
this particular number thathelps you listen in ease without
having to adjust your up anddown button.
So I really hope that's a gooddescription.
I'm embarrassed if anyone'slistening who knows what that
really is all about.
But we do that.
Chris is my person that doesthose bits, so I'm very grateful
for him for that.
We also then use the silence.
So you know, I said we record10 seconds of silence with our
guest.
We do that with us as well.

(35:01):
Basically you can record 10seconds of your room, which will
basically be silent, butthere's often a lot of noises
going on that you can't reallyhear or you're not aware of,
especially electrical noises andthen you can use that and apply
it to the whole episode and itwill remove that kind of
baseline of background noisewhich makes it just sound a bit
crisper.
So we use that.
And then when I'm editing the101 episodes, I'm also doing

(35:22):
things like taking out clipsthat we'll use for the intro
outro as well.
While I'm editing I'm takingout clips as well as keeping an
eye on all these differentthings sounds, taking out ums,
errs, anything that's beenrepetitive.
Maybe if someone goes on a bitof a waffle and I think this is
way off topic, no one needs toknow about this I'll cut that
out.
So I just try and make it.
Try and keep it relevant.
Um, I can edit a whole hour andsomeone's only removed three

(35:44):
minutes and I feel like I'vedone loads.
So editing is difficult.
If someone has to editsomething down from 20 minutes
to two minutes, which a lot ofaudio editors are doing, I have
a lot of respect for them,because it is not easy to be
able to hear stuff and knowwhat's important and what isn't.
I just feel like everything'simportant, so I find it very
difficult.
But on the whole, making itsound better.
I think I'm good at that sideof things.

(36:09):
So I thought I'd give you anexample of what it's actually
like before and after we editsomething.
So this is very crude.
I just wanted to show youwhat's possible.
This is a quick recording thatI did.
The original is bad withbackground noise.
I stood right next to a fan.
There's a stutter, there's acough, there's a bit of waffle.
Yeah, I've tried to put thingsin that we might get in a normal
recording.
And the second one I've cleanedit up, so I've cut out the

(36:30):
words that I don't think areneeded, I've adjusted the
background noise, I've removedthe fan.
Like I said, it's very crude.
I didn't spend long on it, butI just want you to see an
example of what can be done inan interview and how we can make
people just sound a lot crisperand sharper when they're
talking about something specific.
So here we go.
Hi, so my name is Claire and Ihost the Sign Up, my podcast.

(36:58):
It's sort of well.
We're based in Gloucestershire,england.
I'm married to Chris.
I love to write, drink, drink.
Ah, I love to write drink earlgrey and eat marzipan not sure
if you tried that.
It's one of my favorites, um,and one day I dream of owning a

(37:20):
donkey.
Hi, my name is claire.
I host the sign up, my.
We're based in Gloucestershire,england.
I'm married to Chris.
I love to write, drink EarlGrey and eat marzipan, and one
day I dream of owning a donkey.
Right, hopefully you could tellthe difference.
It gives you an idea of sort ofwhat we're doing and if you

(37:43):
imagine doing that on ourinterview, you can probably
start to see the kind of workyou're looking at.
Okay, so once I write the introoutro for the episode, chris and
I will then record that.
For the outro, we try to varywhat we mention because
apparently, if you mention toomuch, people switch off.
So rather than mentioneverything we'd like to in one
episode, we try to space it out.
So we might use this time toeither ask people to rate and

(38:06):
review the podcast for us, whichis really important, or to
suggest ways they could supportthe podcast.
We might tell them about buy mea coffee or buying a herman, or
sharing the episode with people, or maybe we'll talk in more
depth about hermans or somethingelse we're up to.
We try and pick something eachtime and try and vary it a bit.
Now.
Then I put the whole filetogether with the interview,
which is three different audiotracks for me, chris and the

(38:28):
guest, the two audio tracks withboth me and chris, the music
that we need to put in and theclips from the guest, and I pass
it to my senior editor, akachristopher, and then chris
sorts the music for me, so hemakes sure that the music dips
and rises in the right placesbetween the speaking.
The bit he does I cannot do isthe music track that we've got.

(38:48):
It's I don't know, two, threeminutes long, and we need to be
longer than that quite often, sowe'll need to cut it at a
certain point and then putanother version of that the same
track on.
That's not.
I'm really going to explainthis really badly.
We need to make it longer,basically.
So we're using multiple versionsof the same song to just cut
into the middle so that themiddle bit can extend, if that
that makes any sense.

(39:08):
Chris is really good at that.
He can match the beatsunderneath the talking, all that
kind of thing.
I can't do that, so I give itto him.
He does the music, he checksall the levels for me, makes
sure that overall it's a goodkind of production, and this is
where all his radio editingcomes in handy.
And then we're done, and whenhe's done that, he downloads a
WAV version of the file and wesave this with the title and
then afterwards it saysBuzzsprout ready on the end.

(39:30):
So I know that this is thefinal version.
And then Chris also saves a dryversion of this which is
basically all the talkingwithout any music underneath,
just in case we need that atsome point in the future,
because if we've put all thisproject down into one WAV file,
you can't then pull outdifferent sections of it if
there's music underneath.
So we have both those versions.
I suspect that's something thatthey do in the radio industry

(39:50):
that I'd never heard of.
Right, and then if we get timeI'll listen to it, make sure
it's all okay, but havinglistened to it already for hours
while I'm editing.
I don't always want to do thisbit, so it depends.
If it's a let's Chat episode,then Chris won show notes.
I tell them roughly when it'sgoing to go out.

(40:12):
Then I upload the final file tomy host, buzzsprout.
So once I've got my WAV filewhich is an audio file, by the
way, if you don't know what aWAV is then once the file is
there, I upload it to Buzzsproutand I need to schedule when
it's going to be released.
So for us they go out at 2am ona Tuesday morning.
Why?
Well, I did a lot of researchand a lot of people were saying

(40:32):
avoid Mondays and Fridays.
You know people are busy,stuff's going on.
So Tuesday, wednesday,thursdays are good.
I wanted it to be there for UKpeople when they get up first
thing in the morning.
So it's always there if youstart work at 6, if you start
work at 10, whatever.

(40:53):
While I'm uploading the file, Ialso need to write the show
notes that you'll see next toall episodes.
That's got all the informationabout it in a link and
underneath that there isinformation that automatically
attaches to every episode.
So I don't have to do it everytime and that's the bit that
mentions the website, theinformation on Herman's how to
support the podcast.
So that's there already for me.
So in the show notes Iintroduce the podcast for new

(41:13):
listeners, just briefly.
I introduce the guest podcastfor new listeners, just briefly.
I introduce the guest.
I give an idea of what we'retalking about in the episode and
any links to anything that wewant to reference or that the
guest wants us to mention.
It is a bugbear of mine when Iopen a podcast episode that
tells me nothing about what's init or doesn't give me any links
to stuff they're talking aboutReally annoys me.
It's very easy and quick to do.
So yeah, if you do a podcast,please put the information in.
It makes me listen.

(41:33):
Some of us just don't botherlistening if I don't know what
it's about.
I also fill in the other detailson the episode information.
So there's more informationthat I can put on there, like
the episode number, who the hostand guest is, keywords and
there's a set number ofcharacters for all the stuff
you're writing in the show notes.
So I also have to title theepisode.
This would be trickier if wehadn't glued ourselves to a

(41:54):
format of 101 loss and then Iput what it is and who the guest
is.
So that kind of sorts itselfout for me.
Really, if you're doing justdifferent episodes every time
about different things, then youdo really have to think about
this.
It is something you need tothink about grabbing people's
attention, bringing people in.
I haven't really got into thedepths of all that, but I can
see why that would help.
There's also lots of differentdiscussions about whether you
should put episode numbers inyour title.

(42:15):
I haven't done this.
It was advised against it.
I did put episode numbers and Ido in the show notes at the
beginning next to a hashtagsymbol Hash symbol Is it a hash
symbol or hashtag symbol?
Next to one of those.
I wished I hadn't startednumbering my episodes the way I
did, because it looks like we'reup to episode 130 something,
but actually we're over 200because I didn't number the

(42:38):
blogs.
I put them in as bonus episodesrather than actual episodes, so
that it doesn't represent howmany episodes we have.
So I don't really like that.
But the idea of going throughback through 200 episodes and
renaming them all is also notparticularly fun, and we refer
to episode numbers a lot in theepisodes we've recorded.
So if I change them now itconfuses everything.
So, yeah, just think aboutstuff like this at the beginning

(42:59):
.
It's the same as naming apodcast.
If I could do it again, I wouldprobably rename it.
Um, I like our name.
I think it works well.
I think the question why isoften silent.
People don't know why someonedies.
They know the who, when, how,what, but not the why.
So I think it works.
In that sense it works wellbecause there's a silent why in
our surname there's lots oflevels.

(43:20):
I like the title, butultimately people pick podcasts
quite often from the titlebecause it needs to say what
it's about, and ours does notsay what it's about.
So I've put a strapline with itthat says about grief and loss
and hope and stuff.
But I think if it had been thegriefy, loss, hope podcast, I
possibly would have got a bitfurther with people finding it
for the right reasons.
But anyway, that's a side note,so I've titled the episode.

(43:41):
Then there's other aspects topodcasts and that's producing
transcripts.
So you can produce a transcriptof every episode.
This is optional.
I, from day one, decided I wasgoing to do this because I heard
a lot of people saying it makesthe podcast accessible to
people who are deaf, or to thosewho want to translate it into
another language and hear it, orfor those who just prefer to
read these things and go backand pull out quotes and stuff.

(44:02):
So I've done this from day oneand I used to pay otterai for
that.
It was around £90 a year.
I put my episode in.
It would come up with atranscript and I'd painstakingly
go through it word by word andcorrect it, which took me an
hour or more, and I really didnot enjoy it.
Eventually I realised they'regood to have, but they aren't
used enough on my podcast, asfar as I'm aware, to keep them

(44:23):
perfect, like I was.
So I stopped doing them throughOtter and I found out that
Buzzsprout had released anadd-on that produces a
transcript for you, so I decidedto use that instead.
So I pay a bit extra each monthand every time I upload an
episode, buzzsprout produces atranscript for me and then I go
in.
I just edit the main things atthe beginning and the end now,
stuff that they all seem to getwrong, like our names, the

(44:45):
podcast name and all the links.
So I go in and do that.
I don't edit the rest inbetween, it's just too much work
and I just don't think it'snecessarily needed.
It will improve as AI improves,but it's there if people need
it.
I've still got one for everyepisode, but it's not perfect,
and I do warn guests about this.
As soon as I have the photo ofthe guest, I then pootle over to
Canva I used to use Photoshop,but now I'm on Canva and I pop

(45:07):
it into the template that I havefor the new episode.
I amend the title, name,episode number, lost number,
whatever and then I downloadthat into my downloads.
Once the episode is live, I wakeup that morning, I check it's
gone out, then I hope there's nomessages from loyal listeners
that are saying there's 10minutes of silence in the middle
of your episode.
Although if there is, I can fixit, because you just fix it and
then upload the new audio andit replaces it for me.

(45:27):
So it's quite easy to do ifthat is the case.
And then there's a few things Ineed to do.
So I have a Wix website whichhas a podcast player on it and
it automatically uploads a newepisode when they're released,
because it's like a plug-in fromBuzzsprout.
So as soon as the link to thatpage is available.
I add it to the episode detailson Buzzsprout because you can
put in their specific web pagesto that episode, which I think
Apple uses.
Then on the website I alsoupdate the 101 loss page or the

(45:50):
let's Chats page or the blogpage with the episode link and
the photo of the guest.
Then I immediately email theguest that morning with an email
template that I have in mydrafts folder on Gmail.
It's got all my information inthat I'm going to need and I
just populate it with the newinformation I need to put in so
it tells them that the episodeis now live and where they can
find it.
That's where I get my link fromthe website and put that in
there, where the transcript is.

(46:11):
I give them a link to theepisode on a different platform,
on Buzzsprout, which shows youthe transcript where they are on
the website, with the photothey sent me, and I attach the
social media artwork that I'musing in case they want to also
use it to promote their episodesomewhere.
Then I need to let people knowthat it's out there, because not
everyone just follows a podcastand gets notifications when the
episode comes out.
You can do that.
By the way, on most of them youcan set a notification and if a

(46:32):
new episode comes out if you'refor one it will just ping you
and tell you it's there.
So I've got that on a couple ofpodcasts I listen to.
So, yeah, I need to let peopleknow.
So sometime within the next 48hours of the episode being out,
I will post the artwork onsocial media with the link and
more details.
I post on Instagram, facebook,linkedin, twitter and threads.
The episodes automatically putthemselves on YouTube as well,
but I don't really do anythingwith those and they're audio

(46:55):
only.
I do think social media,annoyingly, is quite vital for
this.
I do find that people listenmore if I put it on social media
and remind them it's there.
So for people not doing anykind of promotion and expecting
people to find your podcast,it's incredibly difficult unless
you've got a celebrity orsomething involved.
I think that's probablysomething that's not going to
happen.
So I do need to put it onsocial media, but I don't do a

(47:17):
lot of social media at themoment.
I could do a lot more, but it'snot an area that I find
particularly easy.
I think the more you can engagewith people on social media in
different areas, not just aboutyour podcast, the more people
are going to find your podcast.
It's also really good to engagewith other groups that might
like your podcast grief groupsfor me, areas where people are

(47:38):
congregating that will beinterested in that kind of thing
.
There's loads.
There's loads you can do to geta podcast out there.
But, as you can see, there's alot to do anyway.
So people only have so muchtime they can do all this.
So that's, I think, mostlyeverything that I do.
I've probably forgotten somestuff, but it gives you a good
idea of what's going on behindthe scenes.
And if you're that also doesvideo, well then you've got all

(47:58):
that to contend with as well.
You've got video editing tosort out and clips that you can
put on different things, and youknow I could put audio clips of
my podcast on social media.
I'm sure that would be wellreceived.
I'm sure it'd be great.
I'm sure it'd get morelisteners.
But the idea of having to sitdown and put those together is
just a step too far quite oftenfor me.
And that's when I get emailsfrom people saying you could do
more with your podcast if you dothis, this, this, this and this

(48:19):
and we can do it for you if youpay us this much money.
I don't have a budget for that,but a lot of people do
outsource it and then they canhave lots of cool clips of their
guests and video of theirguests and all this kind of
stuff.
But yeah, it's a lot of peoplewould say audio only is the pure
way to do it.
So I'm going to cling to thatkind of mentality.
So, as you can see, it's a lotof work, especially if you want

(48:41):
to do it right.
Of course, however, can you saythose two things together?
You could just record yourselfchatting or interviewing
somebody on your phone, uploadit and be done with it.
I mean it can be that simple.
It doesn't have to be asin-depth as we're doing it.
Mean it can be that simple.
It doesn't have to be asin-depth as we're doing it.
That's another way of doing it,but it does come out very
differently and you know it'snot easy being small and

(49:02):
independent.
It is hard to get found by newpeople unless you put in lots of
extra work and money.
So, yeah, spare a thought forthe little people.
As one of my friends that's avery loyal listener said to me
the other day she was listeningto a podcast.
At the end of they were reelingoff all the names of the people
who had put it together, thislong list of production people,
and she said she was saying toherself, yeah, but Claire does
all hers on her own.

(49:23):
So I was like, yeah, I do so.
Yeah, appreciate those of usthat are trying to do this for
you just on our own, becauseit's a labor of love at the end
of the day.
So the other question I getasked a lot how can you make
money from a podcast?
Well, that is not easy.
If you are not a celebrity, ifyou're not well known, if your

(49:44):
podcast isn't on BBC Sounds orsome other big platform they
have in America, it can be verydifficult to do this and make
money.
There are several ways.
I'm going to miss a few out,I'm sure, because I don't know
all of them you can put ads inyour podcast.
I could put ads in my podcast.
Our host offers ads that youcan put in.
They come in.
I think you can have them atthe beginning or the end, or

(50:04):
mid-roll, as they say, and itfinds a place for them.
Personally, I don't likelistening to podcasts with ads,
although I totally understandwhy they're doing it because if
you want to make money, you needto.
I don't think many of my guestsare going to want to listen to
ads, so I think most of themwould maybe appreciate it if
they knew that was what itneeded to keep going.
I'm trying to keep away fromthat as long as possible.
Subscriptions you can havepeople subscribe to your content

(50:28):
, put it behind a paywall, allthat kind of stuff again.
I kind of wanted this to besomething that people could use
as a resource for anything, sothat doesn't right to me.
I don't know if people wouldpay for it anyway, because it's
quite a specific area.
I don't know, I haven't lookedinto it.
We could have bonus episodesthat we put on Patreon or
Patreon Patreon I always getthat wrong or buy me a coffee or

(50:51):
that kind of stuff.
But as you can see, it's a lotof work.
So the idea of doing specialextra episodes really fills me
with a bit of terror.
If I was putting out an episodeevery two, three months or
something, then yeah sure, let'sdo bonus episodes, but when
you're doing it as often as weare, it's just extra work to put
on top of that.
I just don't know how to factorinto life.

(51:12):
No-transcript.
It support you.
You would need to get intothose kinds of areas.
As you know, I just have buy mea coffee and people can donate
towards it, which works well forme at the moment.

(51:33):
I did get offered not to be inan the other day.
This is the kind of thing youget when you're a small
podcaster.
It wasn't a very well-knownpublication.
I'd never heard of it.
It was to be in a list of 10podcasters that are uplifting
and motivating audiences.
Well, that's lovely and I'msure that would be great
publicity for me.
And you know you're kind ofreading the article thinking, oh
, this is nice, somebody'sfinally found me, they want to

(51:54):
use me in some way.
This is great.
And then at the end it tellsyou it will cost you $500 to be
featured in this list.
I did get him down to $350, notfor any reason that I uh, I
wanted to be on there, but Ireplied and said look, I'm a
small podcast, I don't have abudget for anything like this.
He's like how about $350?
I was like, to be honest, I'dhave to think twice if it was
$20.
Um, he, he appreciated howcandid I was, but, um, yeah, I

(52:17):
was like this isn't going tohappen to me.
But that's the kind of thing.
You know.
Some podcasts will be doing thatand they get a lot more
publicity from it.
There's podcast awards which we, you know, entered a few when
we first started as new and upand coming and all this kind of
thing, and they're great toboost your profile, to get more
listeners, but they cost moneyto enter.
You have to enter these awardsand you don't often get anything
back from it.
And I found out very quickly Iwas up against huge productions

(52:40):
with massive budgets.
I think the one that won thenew up and coming was a BBC
Sounds podcast.
I was like, ok, they've gotteams of people working on them,
celebrities hosting them.
I don't stand a chance againstsomething like that.
So it is tough.
It's like a lot of creativeindustries.
The book industry is not a lotdissimilar.
So, yeah, it's awkward, butthere are costs for running a

(53:00):
podcast and so people do need tofind ways to cover those if
they want to keep going.
Things like podcast hosting,like I said, you've got 10 to 20
pound a month there Recordingprograms to record the
interviews.
They can cost up to 100 pound amonth your website hosting and
domain.
That can easily be 100, 150quid.
Social media and marketing tobe effective on any of these, to
get new listeners you need tobe boosting your posts and
paying to find them.
If I boost a social media poston the silent y and spend 20

(53:22):
quid on it, which might be fivedays, I'll be reaching new
people.
I might get 10 new followers.
I can't get those any otherways, not really.
They don't come in any otherway unless I'm out and about
talking about it somewhere a lot.
So it's really difficult forstuff like that.
There are quite a lot of costsand it's because of that that I
want to just take another momentto say a huge thank you to
those of you that are supportingmy work financially.
Because of some very kindpeople who donate monthly to the

(53:45):
podcast, all my fees arecovered to produce it.
I don't take any money from mytime because there's not enough
coming in for it to go that far,but the money does help to fund
that and the Herman company.
It finding more listeners.
It funds all the tech that Ineed to do the podcast at home
and on the road.
I have some lovely littlemicrophones now that I can do
things with out and about, andyou need to stay tuned for what
we might be doing with thosewhen Chris and I go away.

(54:07):
So this kind money that'scoming in allows me to fund this
and keep doing it, and doing itwith nice microphones that we
got in the beginning and allthat sort of stuff.
So I'm so grateful and I hopethat you'll join me in thanking
them, because without them I'mjust not sure this podcast would
have been able to continue.
It does cost money.
It costs a lot of time and,whereas I don't mind it taking
my time while I'm at this seasonin my life, if it was costing

(54:29):
us financially it would have tostop.
So thank you so much.
If you give money monthly tothe podcast and if you would
like to just join them, thatwould be amazing.
You can do that from as littleas £3 a month at buymeacoffeecom
.
Slash the silent Y link in theshow notes.
As you know, it puts it onthere automatically for me and
you can do that as a one-off.
You can just buy me a fancy teaor a few of those, or you can
support monthly going forwards.

(54:51):
We really appreciate it.
It's amazing to me to think thatpeople want to pay to help
things like this continue, thatthey have such a big heart, that
they want to help other peoplethat are grieving that much and
that they want to support whatI'm doing.
So thank you, thank you, thankyou.
But also, if you can't supportthe podcast financially, and if
you're listening and if you'velistened to all this and you

(55:11):
listen to loss episodes andyou're a pretty special person,
there's loads of other ways thatyou can support me, if you want
to, of course.
If you don't want to support me, then you won't be doing any of
these things, but if you dowant to, it doesn't take nearly
as much time as putting apodcast together.
You could just rate and reviewthis on Apple.
I am still sure there are morethan 17 of you listening.
That's what my downloads aretelling me, and yet that's how

(55:32):
many podcast reviews I have.
So when other people arelooking at the grief podcasts
and they see that the ones onthe big networks in America have
got 45,000 reviews, they aregoing to pick that over me.
I would.
So it makes sense.
So the more reviews I get, themore important it is.
So if you haven't done that,please find somebody with an
Apple phone and give me a review.

(55:52):
I know not everyone has Apple,especially in the UK, but you
can always find someone with oneand do it that way.
So that's one thing.
The other thing you can do isyou can share an episode on your
social media.
You might have like 20followers, you might have 30
followers, you might have 200followers If they all see the
podcast.
That's exposure for me.
So whether you're saying goodor bad things about it hopefully

(56:14):
good you can share it and thatjust gives me a little bit more
exposure.
That's another way of doing it.
Or share an episode with afriend that's struggling.
If somebody out there justneeds to know they're not alone,
send them the podcast or aspecific episode so that they
can just feel better about wherethey are.
That is why I did it in thefirst place.
That means so much to me.
And the other option, of courseyou can buy a Herman.

(56:35):
Hermans are on the website.
You can just go and buy one andyou can send it to someone that
is going through loss or thatjust needs a smile right now,
someone who maybe is just havinga really hard time and
initially I was a bit worriedabout Hermans because I was like
, is this the kind of thingpeople want to receive in the
depths of a nasty grief?
Is it a bit trite in some way?
But actually they've seen thetest of time.

(56:55):
Now I've sent enough of theseout to people that have lost
children, to people who havelost family members, partners,
to people who are going throughchemo, to people who've got a
nasty diagnosis, to people whoare alone, to people who are in
hospital.
A lot I've sent them to peoplein so many different situations
and I've only ever had nicefeedback back again.
People really appreciate them.
I've got a friend right nowthat's going through a horrible
loss and she's getting flowersturning up, which is great.

(57:18):
But what do you do with them?
You have to sort out vases.
It takes a lot of effort.
You don't always want to dothat when you're grieving and
then they die.
So it's like, yeah, maybe trysomething else, and a Herman is
perfect for that.
It's something that they canstay with them throughout life,
throughout their loss, and justremind them that they're not on
their own.
So that's another way you cando it, and that massively
supports the podcast.
When you buy that, it goes intothe same account as everyone

(57:39):
else that's donating to thepodcast and that also helps fund
stuff for me and that actuallypays for my time.
The Herman cost actually paysfor the time of me to make one,
so that's the only thing thatactually pays for a bit of my
time as well.
So there we are.
These are all ways thatmassively help my work and
encourage me along the way aswell.
Thank you for listening to this.
It's longer than I thought,which makes me realize how much

(58:00):
work I have to do for eachepisode, but I hope it's been
helpful.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
I hope you've given you an ideainto what's going on.
I hope for those that arepaying money to help this
podcast keep going.
You can see what you're payingtowards and the work that's
going into it, and thank you forlistening.
If you are a regular listenerthat gives me a download, then a
huge thank you to you.
I'm so appreciative of peoplethat come and join us on this

(58:22):
and want to kind of beinterested in our guests in the
way that we are as well.
So thank you for that and thankyou to all my guests, because
every single one of you hashelped me in my own grief and I
love that as well.
We've got some exciting stuffcoming up over the next few
months.
Stay tuned.
We're going to do an episodewith me and Chris to explain a
bit more, but from September toDecember things will be a little

(58:43):
bit different, but don't worry,we're coming back in January
and things will go back tonormal.
So, yeah, keep tuned for thatepisode.
It's coming up.
We've got another Lost episodecoming up and some other stuff
before that, so I'll be backsoon.

(59:03):
But thank you for listening andwherever you are today,
whatever you're doing andwhatever you're going through, I
just really hope that you knowthat you are not alone and that
there is always hope andmarzipan.