My new podcast, The No Bullsh*t Guide To A Happier Life, launches on Tuesday 25 May, and I am so excited to see this project come to life. How did I get here though, what is involved in starting a podcast? In this week’s blog I will take you behind the scenes…

I have wanted to do a podcast for ages, but I couldn’t figure out what it should be about or how it would work, so I put it in the “one day” pile and let it be. Every now and again I would think about it but the idea wasn’t quite fully formed and I kept putting it back in the pile.

Then one day early this year, I was walking into town from my house and the idea just formed. It was the title that landed in my mind first, because I realised that was what I had been providing to people for years in any case: straight talking tips and suggestions, focusing on how to just enjoy life more and cut out the BS!

As soon as I had the title, the episode ideas just flowed. I decided I wanted to publish an episode once a fortnight, and by the time I got to my destination in town I had noted down 24 episode titles – a year’s worth of content. I started with business orientated titles such as organisation and productivity, moved towards things I discuss with clients in my coaching sessions like self belief and work life balance, and then just wrote down every topic that I wanted to talk about, based on everything I know is of importance to the business owners in my network, on my client list and in my community.

Feeling incredibly excited, I nevertheless knew that I would not have the time to put any of this into action unless I hired someone to produce the podcast for me. Enter Lisa Curtis of LVC Projects, whom I had met a while earlier and who was already providing support to Clear Day clients. I knew that Lisa was moving into podcast production so I got in touch.

The great thing about having a producer? It makes the whole process so straightforward. All I needed to do was:

1. Buy a microphone – I opted for this sexy little number, the Snowball

2. Download Audacity – the software on which I record

3. Get recording!

I knew I wouldn’t have the patience to write a script for each episode, and I didn’t want to anyway as I wanted it to feel more relaxed. So I write down notes of the things I wanted to hit in each episode (my “beats” as Brene Brown refers to them) and then go for it. Sit down to record my 15 minute episodes.

The next bit is the best bit: I simply download the recordings, warts and all, send them to Lisa and… she does the rest! It really is that simple. Lisa creates polished audio files that can be uploaded to podcast platforms, and I have not had to worry about the tech side at all.

We had to do a few fun things to get the podcast ready for launch though. We bought a piece of music to use as the jingle, and asked the lovely Victoria Murray to create a logo from the Clear Day logo she had previously designed. We recorded a trailer and Lisa created little audiograms that can be used on social media. Plus, I started talking about it on my social media accounts, which meant I couldn’t back out. It’s happening!

For anyone who is thinking of starting a podcast, it doesn’t have to be a daunting task if you get professional help. There are some great people out there offering podcast production, and they make it so easy for you to get your content on the air. The important thing is for you to have something to say, and to know that you can sustain that for a good amount of time. So many podcasts start and then fall by the wayside, so make sure you have a lengthy content map at the beginning so you know you can keep it up!

I will leave you with a picture of the printout I keep beside me whenever I am recording, as it is the closing line of every one of my episodes:

P.S. be sure to grab your free place at my podcast launch party here. It’s going to be loads of fun, I can’t wait to see you there!

Helen Calvert
Coach and Director of Clear Day
May 2021