Hey everybody, welcome to The Streamlined Podcaster,
a show that teaches you how to create a podcast
that's worth listening to so you are not spinning
your wheels. My name's Joe Casabona. I've been
podcasting for 13 years, and today I want to
talk to you about creating a voice memos podcast
or a voice notes podcast. Recently, my good friend,
Becky Pearson -Davidson went on Podcraft. and
talked about how beneficial her podcast has been
to her. She says, she says this on LinkedIn.
I'll link it in the show notes. The podcast takes
her 15 minutes a week and it's changing everything.
She's made deeper connections with subscribers.
She's nurtured leads to close more sales and
she's created more quality human content in less
time. Shout out to Becky. She also gave me credit.
for this. I know I'm not the first person to
do voice notes podcasts but I feel like I did
bring it to our circle of friends. It was something
that I tried doing as a private podcast at first
just like a lead magnet and I realized this content
was really good and I didn't want to just like
put it behind a paywall. I wanted to create maximum
impact so I made it its own feed and then eventually
I just started making it as part of my kind of
flagship show, Streamline Solopreneur. So now
those voice memos episodes show up in the same
feed as my main podcast. They talk about pretty
much the same thing. But today I want to talk
to you about why you might want to do this and
how you could go about doing it. So why would
you want to do a voice notes podcast in the first
place? Well, my friend, Luria Petrucci, who just
knows so much about creating great video, talks
about two different types of content, right?
She talks about the thought leader content, which
is the type of content that requires a video
setup like the one I have. Great lighting, it's
maybe scripted or semi -scripted, and you are
imparting wisdom in a very structured way. But
then there's also the more relatable content,
the seemingly casual, behind -the -scenes, imperfect
content. And that's the stuff that nurtures and
builds relationship. Becky talks about it for
her voice memos podcast. Luria mentions that
you need to do both if you want to build relationships.
And a voice notes or voice memos podcast is a
perfect way to do this. You are giving people
raw, possibly unfiltered, definitely unpolished
thoughts. it feels like they're having more of
a conversation with you. A podcast is already
a great way to build connections because it is,
I've always said, a more intimate medium, right?
It is you in someone's headphones most likely,
and they are listening to you talk. But a voice
notes podcast almost feels like a friend is calling
you, and the connection is stronger. I've seen
it on my show, Becky has seen it on her show.
There's a reason why these are becoming, I would
say, more popular. But the other reason is that
producing a podcast is hard. Especially now,
if you are trying to integrate video with your
podcast. And a voice memos podcast is decidedly
easier. So... It feels like all upside, right?
It's easier to produce. You don't need super
expensive equipment and you're forming a stronger
bond with your audience. You could be like Becky
and you're nurturing leads to close more sales.
That sounds like a win win win. So let's talk
about how to produce a voice memos podcast. First,
you need a topic. or a promise. This is true
of every podcast, right? Your show needs to promise
something to your audience. What problem are
you solving for them? What are you telling them
you're going to deliver? For Becky, it's about
building memberships and communities. She's offering
essentially like five minute tips on building
a community. Super consumable and amazing for
her audience. And then again, her audience is
saying, hey, what you're talking about is great.
Can you do it for me? My voice memos podcast
gives you a behind the scenes look at what it's
like running a solo preneur business while also
being a super present father. There's a lot of
challenges there and I feel like there's not
a lot of content for parents. And my voice memos
deliver on that promise. Here's what I'm thinking
about. Here's what I'm struggling with. Here's
what it's like on a day where my kids are all
sick and my wife's at work Very relatable content
and honest to God Those episodes get way more
feedback than my longer form episodes So what
is your promise? Can you deliver that promise
in 10 minutes or less? That's like that's not
a hard requirement, but that is something I think
about because again We don't want this content
to get too long. We don't necessarily want it
to drone on for a while. And if we're delivering
these voice memos, like imagine if somebody sent
you a 15 -minute voicemail. I don't even know
if you can do that, but you'd stop listening,
right? So what is a promise that you can deliver
in bite -sized content? Now, as far as gear goes,
Again, we want to make this as simple as possible.
I strongly recommend the DJI mics. I've got one
and I've got a pair. I find actually the pair
sounds better than just the one I have. I'll
have an affiliate link in the show notes, but
these things are super portable. They plug right
into the bottom of your phone and the audio quality
is a lot better than just the built -in microphone
but you know i mean the new new phones have really
good built -in microphones but i like to pace
i like to walk and having you know having the
portable microphone allows me to have a consistent
sound quality even if i'm walking or moving around
so i would strongly recommend the dji mic Road
has a similar one. There's a couple, right? There's
a receiver that plugs into the bottom of your
phone. And then a phone. That's it. A phone and
a microphone. That's all you need for this podcast.
You could have an AI tool. I was using an AI
tool for a while. I have stopped doing that.
Because I was using it to make the transcript
and summarize and create a full -on description.
But I have found that With a five minute podcast,
have a good title and have a one -liner about
what it's about. You don't want people to spend
more time reading about the episode than listening
to the episode. So I think whatever summary you
have of those five to ten minutes is fine. So
those are really the two things you need. And
then of course you need a voice recording app.
If you have an iPhone, there's voice memos. If
you have Android, I think there is a suspect
that there's an equivalent. I also like whisper
memos on the iPhone or their super whisper. We
want to keep it as simple as possible. I would
just use the voice recording app on your phone.
Voice memos on your iPhone definitely automatically
transcribes now in newer versions of iOS. I'm
gonna go out on a limb and say the Android version
also does that. You don't need the transcript
per se, but I do like releasing the transcript
of all of my episodes. So that's one less step
that I would need to do as well with the voice
memos app. OK, so your phone, a DJI mic, a recording
app. I like voice memos. The idea here also in
getting a decent mic and keeping it short is
we don't want to have to edit these episodes.
Because editing turns it from raw, unfiltered,
like a friend is leaving you a voicemail, to
thought leader stuff. Because now you are shaping
your message. And that is really important for
full -length podcasts. Always edit your full
-length episodes. But for things like this where
the purpose is different, I don't think you should
edit them. Hosting. I'm going to recommend RSS
.com. It is very affordable. I am the evangelist
for RSS .com, so full disclosure there. But I
also just think it's the best hosting for most
people. It's easy to use. It works very well
from your phone. And it has a lot of really great
features for podcasters. So RSS .com, big fan.
I wouldn't be their evangelist if I wasn't. Also,
You know there are like other like we I mean
we have RSS .com we have like dynamic ads now
but the feature set is really focused on creating
a really good podcast so I like RSS .com. Okay.
Publishing your first episode. I think every
podcast should have a trailer and so I would
recommend you do the trailer in the same format
that you're going to do the episodes. You can
maybe semi script this because I think the trailer
should follow a story. Why are you doing this?
What's the show about? What are people going
to get from it? How can they listen? And again,
you can keep that to one to two minutes. So if
you're launching a voice notes podcast separate,
I still say have a trailer. If you're adding
it onto your main show. I would just preamble
the first voice notes episode with what this
is and why it's different and let me know if
you like it. So that's publishing the first episode.
And then you need all the stuff that a normal
podcast needs. You need a title, make the title
clear, have a tagline for who it helps, what
problem it's solving. Make some artwork. I think
if it's a voice notes podcast, your face should
be on it. It is you. people should get to know
you. And then you need a description. I think
podcast descriptions should read like movie synopses,
synopses, where you agitate the problem or you
set up the promise and then you talk about how
you're going to deliver on that promise. So that's
it. That's everything you need to start a voice
notes podcast. I also one kind of like side tip
here is since I am releasing my voice notes podcast
on my long form podcast feed, I like to append
square brackets with I call them Joe's audio
notes. So I append audio note to the end of it.
And I do have custom episode artwork that's called
Joe's audio notes for those episodes to help
them stand out a little bit more in podcast players.
Especially ones that support custom artwork,
which I think most of them do now. Apple does.
Spotify does. All the ones I do do. So that's
just kind of a side tip. If it's a strict like
voice notes only podcast, you don't really need
to do that. But if you're adding it to your long
form, I like to make them stand out a little
bit so people know immediately the type of episode
they're getting. But that's it for this episode
of Streamline Solopreneur. If you want to learn
more, if you want help launching a voice notes
podcast, I mean, you're listening to this show,
so you probably don't need help. But if you do,
I'll have a link in the description and you can
head over to Casabona .org to get in touch. Thanks
so much for listening. And until next time, I
hope you find some space in your week.