Learning by Podcasting: My 7 Step Ultimate Guide To Learning From the Best in the World
Finding great teachers is a big part of learning anything.
But for most people, the top experts are off limits.
They’re only available to
the few who can afford to fork out for their services, or a select who have spent
years working their way up in the industry have the privilege of meeting and
working with them.
So what if I told you that in 12-24 months you could be speaking to any teacher
or expert you wanted?
That you could create your own education, build your own curriculum and learn
from the best in the world.
You’d probably be interested.
And you’d probably say I was crazy.
But in the last 18 months since launching the MetaLearn Podcast, that’s exactly what
I’ve done.
The internet has made it possible for you or me to reach the type of people who
were previously off limits, armed with nothing more than an email client, Skype,
some call recording software and a microphone – all for under $100.
At the time of writing (January 2018) the MetaLearn podcast
has reached 100+ episodes and a fast growing audience in 140+ countries.
Guests interviewed include:
- Successful entrepreneurs like marketing hall-of-famer
Seth Godin, Sumo founder Noah Kagan, and Memrise Founder Ed Cooke
- Top
academics like Harvard Psychologist Ellen Langer, Professor Barry Schwartz and University
of Michigan Richard Nisbett
- Top bloggers in the learning space
including Farnam Street’s Shane Parrish, Scott Young and Kalid Azad of Better Explained
- Wired Editor and Technologist Kevin Kelly, world class Blues Pianist Paddy Milner and acclaimed TED Speaker Julian Treasure
When I started I had no experience interviewing people.
I had no experience with audio and podcasting.
And I had no experience reaching out to high profile
individuals.
But I figured it out and you can too.
And to help you on your way, this post is my seven-step roadmap that will take
you from a beginner with no idea, to learning from the best in the world in a
matter of months instead of decades.
*******
1) Choose Your Niche - How to Focus Your Podcast
Any learning project needs to have a focus, and starting a podcast is no
different.
You need to pick something that you’re genuinely interested in so that you’ll
be able to get through the inevitable ups and downs along the way.
If the main goal of the project is to learn as much as
possible, you can be as broad or narrow as you want.
But, if your intention is to build an audience and business around this
project, it’s wise to start with a niche that’s narrow enough to get people’s
attention.
With MetaLearn, I knew I wanted to focus on the themes of learning and
teaching, but I also wanted to explore broader areas of interest such as
technology, entrepreneurship and philosophy.
I also knew that I wanted to create courses in the future and build a business
around the project.
By creating a container that was focused enough to grow an audience but broad
enough to satisfy my own interests, I was able to find a balance that worked
for me.
The key here is not to spend too much time or energy worrying about this at the
start.
Consider it and start off with a plan, in the knowledge that
it could well change 5 episodes into the process!
If you’re having trouble
deciding what you want to learn about through podcasting, then grab a blank sheet
of paper and write down as many ideas as possible.
Externalising your thoughts
in the physical world can really help because one or two will usually stand out
as clear winners – so pick one and get started!
Once you’ve decided what niche to focus on, it’s time to start reaching out to
people and scheduling your first interviews.
The goal at the start is just to get things moving…even if that means grabbing
your roommate and doing an episode right then and there.
And in fact, that’s exactly what I did. I’d been thinking about starting a
podcast for over a year before I actually recorded my first episode.
And when I finally did start, I grabbed my roommate Josh, who happened to be
interesting and well spoken enough to make the first episode work well.
Obviously don’t do this if your roommate is an inarticulate idiot who has
nothing to do with your niche, but you get the picture…
While you want to interview people who you can learn from, don’t be too ambitious
at the start.
It’s unlikely you’ll get the biggest name in your field to speak to you in your
first few episodes when you’re starting out and have no audience.
All the same there is one rule and one rule only when it comes to reaching out
to people, whether you’ve done one episode or one hundred, whether you have an
audience of a hundred or or a hundred thousand.
Add value to them.
Even if you’re just getting started and have no audience to give them
exposure to, asking someone for an interview is a compliment.
You’re telling them that they’re worth speaking to and creating a piece of
content that will allow them to showcase their expertise.
For many people, that’s more than enough to get them on the show.
Obviously, as you move towards the big hitters, audience numbers and previous
guests do matter.
But to get started with, don’t worry about all that.
Reach out to as many people as you need to over email and book your first three
interviews into your calendar get ready for them.
Add a line in your email about why you think that person would be a good fit
for your podcast.
Keep the email short and to the point and make the request clear e.g. tell them
it’s a brief 30-minute interview over Skype so they know what to expect.
The gear you need depends on the type of podcast you’re producing – and in particular if the interviews you’re doing are in person or over Skype.
If you’re just getting started I strongly recommend starting with Skype interviews
– it’s easier to organise for you and the guest and you need less equipment to
get good quality recordings.
All you need to start with is Skype, some call recording software (eCamm for
Mac or Pamela for PC) and a pair of standard ear-buds that come with every
smartphone (the microphone on these is surprisingly good).
If you want to, you can throw in a starter USB microphone but you certainly
don’t have to. I started with the Blue Yeti, and still use it for my Skype
interviews.
The key is not to get hung up on equipment – there are so many people who never
end up starting because they spend too much time deliberating over equipment
reviews.
Just buy a tried and tested product like the Yeti if you want to buy a
microphone and get started. You can always improve as you go along.
Most instructional posts spend a long time going through the pros and cons of
equipment. I’ve been there and I know it doesn’t matter.
So don’t be fancy, get what’s absolutely necessary and move on to the next
step!
Send your guest a message in advance asking them to use a pair of ear buds for the interview - almost everyone has them and it can really boost the audio quality massively compared to a standard computer microphone.
The brand of your podcast is important enough to spend a little time on but not so important to get hung up on.
The more you want this project to become a business, the more important this is
at the start, because it can be hard (although not impossible to change along
the way)
The amount of projects that have never launched because people spent too long
thinking about the name, or playing with the logo is shockingly huge…and it’s
basically just another form of procrastination.
The key to branding your show is simply to ask:
What qualities do I want people to associate my podcast with?
Once you’ve answered that, the rest should follow relatively
easily.
For the name, just keep it simple. If you’re struggling, you could always go
with the “Your Name Podcast” or the “Your Niche Podcast”
For the logo, go to Fiverr or 99 Designs and create a brief of what you’re
looking for. Then pick your favourite design and roll with that.
For the Jingle, go to Pond5 and pick something you like that fits your brand
and evokes the type of emotions that you need to.
For MetaLearn, I typed terms like “learning” and “brain” into the search bar
and found a track called neural network that felt like a perfect fit.
Again, the key here is not to procrastinate and jeopardise you actually getting
this off the ground.
Obviously, if you want to build a business around this, the name and logo are a
little more important…but not important enough to stop you getting started!
If you’re struggling with the brand, ask yourself what the podcast would be
like if it was a person.
Fun and outgoing? Smart and sophisticated?
Then pick a name, logo and jingle that match these
qualities.
Once you’ve got the basics of your brand down, it’s time to record those
interviews.
There’s nothing stopping you from doing these before, but there’s usually a gap
between scheduling the interviews and doing them, during which you can get on
with the brand.
What I’ve learned from all the interviews I’ve done in the past two years is
that the key to any good interview is preparation.
If your guest has written a book that’s relevant to your discussion, read it.
If they’ve done other interviews on podcasts or on YouTube, check those out
too.
Go to their website, read their bio and check out their work.
Then start to draft some sample questions in a document.
Ask yourself what you
actually want to learn from these people, because the best questions come from
a place of genuine curiosity.
I’ve found it helps to organise the questions in terms of themes and have them
in a document in front of you during the interview in the first few episodes.
This allows you to focus on actually listening to what they’re saying and
improvise rather than worrying about what to ask them next.
You may find during the interview that the conversation goes off in a
completely different direction than you expected.
This can be great, provided
that it’s still relevant to what you wanted to discuss.
Use your prepared questions as a plan to work off, rather than a rigid
structure that can’t be changed.
Sometimes, the best conversations are the ones that go a little off-piste so be
flexible and willing to adapt on the fly.
Make sure everything is working ahead of your first interview – you don’t want
any mishaps.
Do a trial recording into free software like GarageBand for
Mac or Audacity for PC and ask your guest if they can hear you OK at the start
of the call.
Once you’ve recorded your interviews, it’s time to edit them down.
I strongly recommend you start off with a clear concept for your show and a
target length that you stay consistent with for the first few episodes.
This helps to take the guesswork out of the editing process because you know
how much you need to cut or keep.
This is something that I didn’t start off with but switched to after 10
episodes when I realised I needed that structure to stay consistent.
It can be very tempting to outsource the editing from the start, but I strongly
recommend you do this for yourself.
By editing you become more familiar with your own speaking tendencies and blips
and this allows you to correct them in future episodes.
But more importantly you get to listen to the episode back and process
everything you discussed, which is an excellent review process.
It also helps you to listen to the show in the shoes of an audience member and
start to get a feel for what’s interesting and what’s not.
Take the movie track from your Skype recording and split the movie tracks
before converting them into MP3s (see image below)
Then import these tracks into your free editing software of choice - GarageBand
for Mac or Audacity for PC - and start editing.
The key to this process is to focus on the big things –
don’t worry too much about filler words like “ums” and “ahs” (like I did!) and just focus on removing chunks of the interview that are less interesting
to cut the conversation down.
Then tack on a short intro to open the episode along with your jingle music and
you’re ready to go.
You can also use a free
service called Auphonic to automatically level your audio file and add tags to
it before uploading.
Most people don’t like the sound of their own voice when they hear it for the
first time in a recording.
Don’t let this throw you off track – just edit for content
and focus on getting the job done.
Whatever you produce at the start is going
to be imperfect, so accept that ahead of time and commit to improving every
episode.
If you’re doing the hard work of contacting experts and learning from them, you
may as well share your journey with others who are on the same path.
The key to this is the frame you set – don’t pretend to already be an expert if
you’re not one.
There are teenagers who have produced hugely successful interview based
podcasts that started off as learning projects.
They were genuinely interested
in learning and that sincerity came through to their guests and audience.
Once you’ve got your edited audio files upload them to a
hosting service of choice (I use Libsyn) and register your Podcast for the
iTunes store.
If you’re struggling to do this, Google is your best friend for technical
questions.
Tens of thousands of people have started podcasts and every question
you can possibly have has already been answered online.
If your main goal is to learn, then don’t worry about your downloads and shares
to start off with. Just focus on getting the podcast up and running.
For low hanging fruit, ask your guests to share your conversation with their
audience if they have one and promote the podcast to your own friends on your
social media channels.
Then start joining online communities and forums where your listeners hang out
to get a feel for the space.
Don’t be the guy or girl who spams and self-promotes,
but start paying attention to the conversation and provide answers where you
can.
You may even get ideas for new guests in the process.
When I started MetaLearn, my focus was on learning as much as possible, and
upgrading my own skills.
It was only after I had a few episodes under my belt that I even started to
think about marketing more seriously.
The key is to find out where your audience hangs out and start getting your
stuff in front of them – and that takes time, patience and a lot of trial and
error.
Ask your close friends and family members to leave reviews for you in the
iTunes Store.
This will boost your ranking and give you a shot of getting on iTunes New and Noteworthy,
which will give your podcast a big boost in terms of exposure.
*******
I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interview inspiring
people from all over the world through the MetaLearn Podcast – from esteemed
psychologists and successful entrepreneurs, to prodigious polyglots and memory
mavericks.
The process of speaking with these people and listening back
to the conversations has taught me more in a short space of time than I could
ever have imagined.
But none of this would have happened if I didn’t get started.
I designed this guide to take most of the guesswork out of the process for you,
because 95% of research is
procrastination.
I was thinking about starting a podcast a year before I actually recorded my
first interview. And I could, and should have started sooner.
But the important thing is that I did start and since then, I haven’t stopped.
If you follow the steps in this guide, you may even avoid
some of the mistakes I made and get to the top experts in your field faster…
You’ll learn a lot about the subject you’ve chosen to focus on and you’ll also
learn a lot about yourself in the process.
And once you get started, you’ll realise that it’s not the speed of getting
from A to B that matters – it’s the journey in between that counts.
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