Episode 41: AMA How do you start a podcast and is it hard?
Today’s episode is a solo one. I get asked tons of questions about podcasting
and I thought why not get a few more by asking on Instagram, and I added some of
those questions to this podcast as well as others I’ve gotten over the years.
I was inspired to start a podcast after listening to a few podcasts and falling in love with
that method of storytelling, and it resonated with me because that’s how I grew up
listening to my parents, aunts, uncles share stories, poetry etc. Its been important to me
as a Muslim woman to have our narrative told through our experiences and not through
stereotypes, and podcasting has been a great way for me to share the stories of
amazing Muslim women using their own voices to amplify their work and lives in a way
that is both motivating and inspiring to other women.
In this episode I talk about how and why I started podcasting and I touch on the process of podcast creation and I also answer questions I am often asked about podcast production.
In this episode.
My desire to help the Muslim community and leave something behind for the future of our community.
The meaning behind my podcast title “Naptime Is Sacred”
Finding time to create podcast episodes as a mother
Podcasting gear and how to record
Cost and expenses of creating a podcast
What type of podcast should I create?
Instagram:
instagram.com/naptimeissacred/
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Transcription
Hey Guys! Asalaamu Alaykum this is Fousia host of the Naptime Is Sacred Podcast . Today's episode is a solo podcast. I told you guys that I would incorporate more of these in the podcasts episodes as we go along. And this is one of them. So today's episode is "why podcasting?". This is a question that I get all the time. And honestly podcasting is a little bit confusing to people because they don't necessarily listen to podcasts themselves or they've been given the impression that podcasting is this insanely difficult task that you know only the pros can do and I'm here to tell you guys that that is false. OK. Anyone can podcast. There's several ways to podcast and we'll go through those Insha'Allah. So why podcasting?. And I love listening to podcasts and I listen to a bunch of them anywhere from storytelling podcasts to interviews empowerment. You know current event podcast and I really enjoyed listening to them and at the time I had a really hard time finding podcasts for Muslim women by a Muslim woman sharing our experiences and our stories and I thought you know what if there isn't something like this right now that I can find for myself to listen to I'm going to go ahead and create it. And this is how almost all entrepreneurs stories are all creative start. They're looking for something they can't find it so they create it. So that's it's a little interesting tidbit about how I got started.
Now when I started I had no clue about podcasting. It involved a lot of research a lot of asking questions. My husband also was hosting a podcast back then called the debt free Muslims. So I would just constantly be asking questions getting tips getting advice. Now mind you we both have podcasts that are a little bit similar but we're very different as well. And the way that we podcast is really different. He's all about like done is better than perfect and I'm trying really hard to be a little bit more like that but I feel like everything has to be done like exactly the way that it's supposed to be. And that's something that I'm kind of learning to let go all of a little bit just to make it like something that I'm enjoying more instead of something that is stressful because I'm trying to make it the most amazing podcast in the world. So one of the main things about the podcast is each episode features a Muslim woman who is either an entrepreneur an author she's a creative somehow she's a social media influencer and she has something that she wants to share with the listeners on the show that InshaAllah benefits them in their personal lives as well as their businesses. And it's all about creating content that inshaAllah. Long after we've all passed is able to have made an impression able to have made an impact in someone's life in some way.
I really believe in serving our community and leaving a legacy for the woman after us to build upon and to InshaAllah one after the other we achieve these goals that often we feel like society tells us that we have to be held back from because we're so busy and we're just trying to survive each day. But honestly surviving is good but surviving and thriving is even better handled. So far all of the sisters who have been on the episode have shared a wealth of knowledge and information and actual tangible things that we can take back into our own lives and hopefully learn something from what they've been teaching. The next question that I get all the time is what is naptime sacred. What is the meaning behind that. So when I started the podcast I had two school aged kids. I had one kid that was almost going to start school and then my youngest who was just born and that was like a hectic time. So the only time that I can find to do anything that I wanted to be in a shower eating a meal doing laundry cleaning up you know just relaxing for a few minutes and catching my breath was during nap time. And that is how the day Nap time Is Sacred came up. One of the other questions people ask is How do you have time to podcast when you've got four kids and now a the line working part time as a pharmacy tech and like you know where do you get the time to do that.
Honestly if there's something that you want to do the time will come up. You just have to maybe take five minutes from this five minutes from that five minutes from this other activity that you're doing and just kind of make an hour or 30 minutes to sit down and work on your dreams and work on your life after when your kids are grown up like What are you building for yourself right. And that's the ideology that I try to stick with is what kind of life. Am I building for myself now. That is going to be of benefit to me when I'm older and my kids are out of the house during college or they're married. I don't want to be at home looking at four walls and thinking to myself "Oh my God what do I do with myself now"?. I've sacrificed so much to take care of my family and you know when you do that it makes your relationship with your family really difficult you find yourself like constantly butting heads with your husband because he's built this life for himself whether it's career or personal all these things that he's had going on while you've been home with the kids or like you know your kids you're constantly interfering in their lives because that's all you've ever done is just be in their lives. So this is just a way for me to kind of make sure that I have like some sort of sustainable hobby a craft maybe a business in the future that comes from this that I can look back on and say I use my time well I used it to improve myself. So going back to that question -I went on a little bit of a tangent there- but going back to that question "when do I make the time| so nap time is a great time when my toddler used to nap. Now he doesn't so much so I predominantly have a couple of days off of work during the work week. And so those days are the days that I set up recordings. Those are the days that I record and I highly recommend batch recording which is something that I'm just starting recently because I noticed that I wasn't consistently uploading podcasts because I was always playing catch up and it would be long periods of time that you guys wouldn't hear from me because life had gotten hectic and I hadn't been able to contact anyone to record or even have the podcast episode edited so batch recording is what I'm doing now so that hopefully months ahead I already have something no matter what is going on in my life.
I have something that is going to be published Inshallah. This is something similar to what you can do for blogging or making YouTube videos is just doing as many of them as you can ahead of time that well you have time to work on the back end of your podcast or your YouTube channel or your blog which is getting all the social media content ready getting all the pictures taken doing all that stuff. So it gives you time to work with. So yeah those two days that I'm home is when I batch record and I also work when my kids have gone to sleep for the night. I try to spend an hour or two trying to work on it build connections talking to people and that is how I try to do it. And may Allah make it easy for me and for you guys as well who are moms who are working and have a hobby or a craft that they're also doing on the side.
Another question is what all do you need to start a podcast like. Do I need a mike do I need studio time doing that computer do I need all of these kind of things. And honestly that's an individual kind of question that you have to tell her to yourself is "What do you want out of podcasting?" what is feasible for you time wise as well as the space that you have in your home and as well as money like how much money do you want to put towards something like podcasting especially in the beginning when you're not sure if you're going to stick to it. I have a simple mic it's a blue Yeti. That's what I'm using right now to record. I'm not in a studio. I've got pillow fort surrounding my mike to kind of keep the sound insulated from the outside noise. I've got my laptop which right now since I'm doing a solo episode I'm using Adobe Audition to record this episode and then like for Adobe Audition you would need to pay money to get like all the adobe kind of apps that go with all this kind of stuff. And then if you want something free you can use Audacity. If you want to have a really simple podcast something that's easy for you to do no matter where you are there's an app called Anchor and Anchor allows you to record right off of your phone you can do your intro you can put all of the sounds together do everything that you need to do and have it up there with your album art. And if episode art I believe as well and you can do that right off of your iPhone I'm not sure if it's on Android that's something that I will have to look at but yeah... That's pretty much how it goes and it's not really hard. For me I predominantly use Skype for my interviews you can use something like Zoom as walls zoom I've had a couple of issues with it just because of everyone's internet connection has to be great all the time or the audio doesn't pick up as well. Whereas in Skype when the audio gets a little bit choppy you still have some audio that maybe you can salvage if possible so that helps me be able to work with it if someone's Internet gets a little bit bad or choppy whereas in zoom like the audio from that person during that time period where the Internet was bad it isn't recorded properly at all. So those are the things that I use. I also keep a notebook where I write down questions and tips for each episode like the things that I want to ask the person what they're good at things that I've noticed on their social media that they talk about anything that can help me have a more organized and coherent episode with the person I try to keep it in those notebook notes. Another thing that I use is Canva and I use Canva for album art as well as episode art. Any social media art that is not a picture of me or the other person I use can but to create those and I find it really simple and easy to use because they have so many free templates you can upgrade for a little bit more money to get some of the premium pictures. But I've always been able to make do with just using their free templates. So that's something to always look at. The other things that I have paid for in the past in terms of how much does it cost in startup podcast is the space to host your podcast or like in places like SoundCloud. You can have a free account you can start off but once you reach a certain amount of minutes or I guess you've gone over the bandwidth that you've been allowed then you have to pay more for that so you upgrade and the more episodes you have. And right now I think I'm at a 30 something episodes and we're very close to 40. You know you pay a little bit more as you have longer episodes now like if you have five minute episodes it'll take longer to reach that point where you have to upgrade but if you have a 30 minute to our two hour episodes then you'll have to try to make sure that you're budgeting properly to be able to upgrade when you need so your content doesn't disappear and you're able to have it all in one place. Same thing goes with Libsyn depending on how much episodes you're uploading and how much space you're taking up. You will have to upgrade. So those are also things to look for. Another place where I keep my episode notes and show notes which is something else that you should do you don't have to but generally to keep notes of what you've spoken about so people can get an idea of what each episode is about as well as creating transcription if possible that's something that Insha'Allah I will be bringing to you guys soon. You have to have a place to host all those kind of things. And so we also pay for a blog write our website where our episodes are living where you have your show notes the picture of the person who's your guest and you're talking about each episode. I highly highly recommend a place of your own that you're able to keep your audio as well so that you're not just relying on just keeping it on iTunes or Libsyn and or you know Google podcasts or any of those places but you have a dedicated website with your podcast name if possible or if you already are a blogger or a business person and you are just adding a podcast to what you're already doing. I would go ahead and add a podcast page to your blog already or your business page. That way the people who are already following you have one more content of yours that they're able to listen to no matter what. That's not going to be dedicated just solely to being on the computer all the time so yeah. That's what I would totally try to do.
Another question that I get all the time is "do you get paid to podcasts"? Now... This is one like the jokes of podcasting right. Everyone thinks that they can start a podcast and then all of a sudden the money is going to start rolling in and they're going to have sponsors and ads and things like that. And it does work for people. And I'm talking about people who like let's say the Huffington Post has a podcast or CBS starts their own podcast they've got money to work with they've already got connections with advertising companies like huge advertising companies who will come and because they know that this is a big company and they're reliable and they have a lot of listeners that they'll be able to do advertisement. Now I also know that there's a lot of micro podcasts and by micro podcasters I mean people who don't have a lot of following who do have sponsorships. So I mean it is possible it's all about the amount of effort that you're putting into each episode and your podcast whether that's a goal of yours to even begin with. And like consistency consistency is key. People want to see you. Hey you might not have a lot of downloads you might not have a lot of listeners and the people who do listen to you are regular listeners of yours and there are going to keep coming back and those people believe in what you have to say and they are willing to click on those ads or go back and purchase those things using codes or whatever way that advertisers are giving you the opportunity to show their stuff.
So now one thing that people always ask me is like "how do you figure out what kind of podcast that you want to have"? and honestly look around what do you love. What do you love to talk about what comes easy to you because if you're constantly struggling to come up with content if you don't know who this content is for it's going to be really hard to be able to maintain it. So if you have a blog What do you talk about a new blog?. If you have a business what do you share on your business? how can you help people with your tips and advice from creating that business? with the information that you have been able to help people who are listening and even a step further than that is what kind of impact do you want to leave on people's minds. Do you have tangible things that you see for your future that you want other people to be able to see for themselves. And I think one of those things is looking... for me... I'm looking for Muslim woman. That's who my podcast is dedicated to so that's a niche right? And then I'm looking for women who are interested in personal development who whether it's starting a business going back to school starting a hobby who are interested in like social media and influencer life and all those kind of things like how do you build your impact in the world.
And a lot of communities are ahead of us when it comes to this because they're all about leaving a legacy and how you can serve your community. And I think as Muslims we need to think about this. when you look at it has changed a little bit. And I think we kind of need to figure out how outside of the masjid that we can leave an impact on other people's lives. Being a Muslim woman or a woman in general what are you leaving behind for people to be able to help make their lives more useful. So that's it for all the questions in this. Amy these are questions that I've gotten over the last couple of days on different platforms and just talking to people face to face in general where they're asking you know podcasting What is that all about?. How did you get started?. I hope this episode has been useful to you guys. I can not wait to bring you another one Inshallah I'll talk to you soon. Take care! if you are new to this podcast don't forget to hit the subscribe and leave a positive review so other people can find the episode. As always you guys can find me on social media at Naptime Is Sacred. So that's Instagram Facebook Twitter and you can find everything you need to know about the podcast and me at nap time is sacred dot com. Take care Asalaamu Alaykum