Colin Gray is full BEAST MODE when it comes to podcasting. He has been deeply involved in it since the mid-2000’s, and he’s a huge influence and resource for how I started this podcast.

Colin is superior at creating valuable content with ZERO fluff, and he is a humble and sincere teacher for anyone looking to start or grow a podcast as a hobby or career. He’s one of the few who have figured out how to make money from podcasting, and he does an incredible job teaching others how to reach this point and sustain it.

He’s the founder of ThePodcastHost.com and the PodCraft Podcast, where he covers a wide variety of valuable topics ranging from selecting podcast equipment to building a website for podcasting.

In this episode, we talk the ropes of podcasting 101 for beginners, the power of creating your podcast and the effect it can have on your life, and tips, tricks, and resources from the mastermind Colin himself.

Word!

Highlights 

• 06:20 : A brief background on how Colin took his educational and technical background to teach web design and development in a university then moving from that to podcasting,
• 10:49 : How podcasts can be beneficial to people’s lives and Colin’s very helpful strategies in setting up and maintaining a podcast,
• 15:52 : A run-through in the process of how to start a podcast for beginners,
• 22:20 : Colin shares his key points during his talk in Manchester about breaking the rules of podcasting,
• 29:34 : About hosting in different feeds and his best practices in managing multiple podcasts,
• 33:19 : His tips and approach for someone who doesn’t have the knowledge of recording software, and
• 38:21 : Colin’s advice for podcasters to grow their audience.

To defeat Godzilla with his talents…

“Being a podcast and audio producer, I am surrounded by a thousand meters of cable in my office, so I’d make some sort of net made out of those able, catch him and trap him down.”

Advice from the show…

• People claim sometimes that all you need to do is have passion, but that’s not true in this case. The approach that I always teach is strategy. It’s making plans. It’s sitting down before you set up your podcast and working out what you want to go over.
• Podcasting is difficult. It takes time to create, it takes time to build the audience that you need to be able to make a living out of it or even just to get the reward that you want to get- even if it’s not profit.
• At the start, keep it as simple as possible. The key is, at the very start, you want it easy so that you will get your content out there every single week.
• I often tell people to do the 10-episode plan because you will get little feedback in those first 5-10 episodes. By the end of that 10, keep asking for feedback and you will start getting it. This is what will push you forward towards your 100th episode.

Colin’s Links…

• Podcraft
• Podcast Courses
• Article archive: Podcast Planning Category. You can get other categories in the right hand column from here.
• Colin’s interview with Harry Duran in Podcast Junkies
• Colin Gray: Breaking the Mould Event in Manchester
• Colin’s Suggested Headset: Sennheiser PC8
• Suggested editing softwares: GarageBand for Mac and Audacity