Podcast Launch Planning (Part 2) - Follow My Planning Progress

Hello WA Family 👋

Hope you are all well and that your online business is growing and thriving.

This blog post is the follow up of this post: Podcast Launch Planning that I posted three days ago. Today, I would like to share my planning progress. I appreciate the support that I have got so far.

I have done the why, the perfect listener, and the cornerstone titles, and the first three episodes titles. They are all covered in my previous blog post 👆🏼.

THE PODCAST COVER

Based on the feedback I got from my previous post and the result of a poll I created on my Instagram, I decided to re-create a new cover logo for my podcast using Canva. I changed the wording

Here is the BEFORE and AFTER. Please let me know what you all think.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The wording is not the same as my website name. I still keep the same tagline. The color scheme is red, just like parts of my website (not the logo which is green).

Since I created it on Canva, and I used a Premium picture (I paid for it), it is still a stock image though. So there's a debate whether or not this is brandable or trademarked.

Here's our discussion on our podcast group:

I am not sure if we have some designers here. WA Family, could you share your thoughts on creating and using logos from sites like Canva?
For now, I will be moving on to my next plan and just use this new cover I have created.

THE CONCEPT

Yesterday I posted a question with a small questionnaire to the community: Is it appealing to you if a website has a podcast?. I received great answers. Please feel free to add more answers based on your experience in podcasting or as a podcast listener. Any feedback and experience you can share in the thread 👆🏼, I sure appreciate you all with your support. 😀🙏

So, basically, I am still trying to figure out the concept or format for my podcast. It will obviously in English. In a nutshell, the podcast will be dedicated to helping people who are struggling to heal and have a good quality of life due to their mental illness.

At first, I got all these whys and what-if questions in my head.

"Why do people want to listen to me?"

"What if people don't like my voice? My English accent?"

"What if I don't have a "radio voice"? Will people still be willing to stay and listen to my podcast until the end?"

etc.

All those things show self-doubt and I know for sure that it is a dream killer and a success blocker. So, I just keep going with the planning.

Not knowing much of what and how I do it, so I joined a podcast Facebook group and watched a masterclass on podcasting. It has been a learning curve but I am excited to embark on this journey.

Here are some ideas that I laid out so far:

Concept: I am going to talk about the importance of mental health, the different mental illness and how to treat them, how to live a happy life (even if you have a mental illness), etc.

Duration: Between 10 to 30 minutes. It could be longer if I have a guest appearance.

Music for intro and outro: I am thinking of getting help from my friend back home (Borneo, Indonesia) who owns a dance academy. They make and record their own music by using traditional instruments. So it will be using a 2 or 3 strings traditional guitar instrumental.

I wish we could attach mp3 files here. Since we can't do that, so I will just share the picture of what the instrument looks like.

(Dayak guitar - source: Pinterest) Dayak is my tribe.

Guest appearance: There will be talks or interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists, mindfulness experts, caregivers, etc. I have some list of guests already. Some are the new connection that I made via the podcast group I joined. Yay!

EQUIPMENT AND HOSTING

In terms of equipment, I got 2 laptops, multiple headphones that I use for online teaching, a recording mic (Chinese brand). I have not gotten a professional mic yet (the Blue Yeti is going to be one of the mics I want to have in the future). I don't have an audio mixer. Not so sure if I need it when I first started. At least, I cover the basic stuff (I think, I hope I don't overthink this).

Regarding where I will host my podcast, I am thinking of Libsyn. It requires an investment of $5 a month, but I think it is going to be worth it because Libsyn will help me to get more reach compared to a free hosting like Anchor. There is another one called Podbean, but so far, Libsyn is my preferance.

What about recording and editing software?

There are options for recording: Skype, Zoom, directly using my phone.

For editing, the options are: GarageBand, Audacity (recommended, so I will be using this), Adobe Audition, Descript, Pro Tools.
If I can give the percentage of completing the planning process, I feel like I am still in the 70%. This means I am close to the actual launch date.

THE LAUNCH SCHEDULE

I am thinking of launching my podcast sometime between November and December this year. A friend of mine said, just do it already lol... I told him, I want to do it the right way. It is not that I am being a perfectionist, I just want to make a good first impression on my launch day. I know it is not going to be perfect.

How many episodes per week? I would start with one episode per week. Once I feel comfortable with it and get the hang of the technical parts, I will be doing at least 2 episodes a week.

Alright, WA Family. That's all the planning progress report today.

I would be so grateful if you could give me some feedback on my new cover, the concept, etc. Any ideas and thoughtful input will be much appreciated.🙏

Thank you all in advance for your valuable input.😀🙏

Have a great day/evening wherever you are. 😀👍

Stay safe, happy, and healthy, WA Family. Enjoy your weekend!

To Our Success,

Arizona, October 24th, 2020 - 4:05 pm

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