Launching a Podcast

Earlier this year, I launched Women of Silicon Valley: The Podcast with the support of our amazing team. Although you can invest a great deal of time and money optimizing, it is relatively simple to get a podcast off the ground. There are three main parts: branding, hosting, and recording.

Branding

If you want to launch a podcast, you probably have an idea of the content and format. If not, ask yourself a few questions:

1. How do you want to structure the podcast?

2. How long do you want each episode to be?

3. What do you want to name the podcast?

4. How do you want the art to look for the podcast?

5. What music do you want to add?

   1. If you can't create your own original music, there are free options available online through sites like Youtube Audio Commons. Just be sure to check the usage rules of the audio you select.

Hosting

Although you probably listen to podcasts through Spotify or Google Podcasts, podcasts are hosted on a separate platform, and when you publish an episode, it is automatically pushed to those directories. For our podcast, we use Buzzsprout, although there are plenty of options. Through Buzzsprout, the process of getting your podcast listed on relevant platforms is relatively straightforward.

Recording

1. Zoom video calls can be recorded, so you can do an interview or recording this way, even if the only microphone you have is a simple wired set like these.

2. After the audio is recorded, you can edit it in iMovie, cropping out mistakes or adding in intro/outro music.