In honor of hitting a quarter-thousand episodes, I decided to reflect upon the lessons I had learned about podcasting and provide the audience with a how-to guide for some easily-avoided pitfalls and problems associated with hosting a successful podcast. I was lucky enough to score Jeremy of Lopez Radio for this, especially since he worked in terrestrial radio for several years before starting his own podcast.

Below, we came up with a list of tips for how to jumpstart your success in podcasting. We also cheated a bit and came up with TEN lessons instead of five, so just consider it a bonus, just from us. The tips are broken up into two sections, Technical and Philosophical. We hope this guide is clear enough! Thanks for listening.

Technical

1. Do as much of your podcast live as possible.
   • It may seem like an obvious tip, but the more you do on-mic, the less you will have to edit once the show is over. Editing is fun and novel at first, but eventually it becomes a job just like everything else. Avoid burnout by doing your music and introductions live.
2. Invest in a microphone and pop filter.
   • Spend the money. This one is as simple as that. You need to get a mic that will sound good and invest in a pop filter to cut out your sibilants and plosives. A podcast that is difficult to listen to won't get anywhere.
3. Bank episodes as often as possible.
   • If you are a busy person -- and we're all busy, aren't we -- consider scheduling your guests for longer than normal and breaking your podcast into two chunks.
4. Aircheck yourself, listen back. Equipment can go bad and not function like it once did.  Also listen to see if you’re making any sense.
   • Not only that, but you should do a quality check on your episodes every few weeks in order to get a sense of whether or not you are coming off with the right tone and tone of voice.
5. Build an email list or customer funnel FROM THE BEGINNING.
   • This one, I am convinced, is the most important. You may be able to track listeners through their downloads, but if you want to keep them apprised of what you and your podcast are up to, you need to have a database, and that's where a mailing list comes in. Go right over to mailchimp and get started.

Philosophical

1. Anticipating people’s opinions can backfire.
2. Over-planning is as bad as under-planning. But planning is absolutely necessary.
3. Find a community to interact with, and make that a priority.
4. Life is a fluid system. Let your podcast change with you.
5. Have fun. [Do topics that interest you.]