0:01
Hello, elevated entrepreneurs, welcome to the brand new episode of the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. If this is your first time here, thank you for taking the time to listen to me and hear what I’ve got to share with you I know your time is valuable. So I really appreciate you being here. If you haven’t already, please check out elevatedentrepreneur.fm. WHere I’ve got all sorts of good things for you, including show notes, transcriptions and even specific downloads that I’ve created for each and every episode just for you. And if you’ve already been listening to the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast, I thank you too, because I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for your love and support. And remember, you can always send me your feedback thoughts, or just a hi, by going to elevatedentrepreneur.fm/speak which is S P E A K.

0:56
Now, today’s episode is about how I produce content. Specifically, how I produce this podcast. Some of you have asked me about content and I’ve been having some conversations with my team about thought leadership, and content is a big part of thought leadership here in 2021. Whether it’s a blog, whether it’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, really putting out content is going to be key for people to become better in their business as well as become better as thought leaders. So I hope with this episode, I’m going to be able to show you how I hear at the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast, create an episode so that you can take away some good stuff, and maybe start your own YouTube channel or a podcast or even a blog. In this episode, I’m going to take you from how I think about the topics, how I put my show notes together, how I produce the episode, and what happens in the post production process and also what kind of gear I use, because that’s a big question that a lot of people ask. Obviously, gear is a big part of this process, but it’s not the most important part. So if this is something that you’re keen to listen to, I’d love for you to grab your headphones. If you’re driving drive safe, turn the volume up and help me cue the music. You’re listening to the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast, a podcast designed to help retailers, restaurant owners and entrepreneurs simplify business operations and use modern technology to elevate their business. Here’s your host, Dhiren Bhatia.

2:31
Hey, everybody, welcome back to this episode, where I’m talking about how I create this episode. Yeah, I know a little meta, but today’s episode is focused on how I create, think about and produce these episodes for the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. So let’s get started with step number one, which is gear and equipment. And just before I talk about gear and equipment, I just want to say that getting equipment is not the most important thing in this process I know I spent countless number of hours looking for the best mic and the best headset but in hindsight, it’s not the most important piece of this conversation but here’s what I use to record these episodes. Let’s get started with the mic. The mic, as you can imagine, is the most important piece for a podcaster I use a Audio Technica 2100 USB mic. All that means is it is a mic that I can plug into my laptop because it has a USB connection, but you can also get one with an XLR connection, which is probably the one I will upgrade into using an XLR mic because it sounds slightly better, but if you’re just getting started, any mic, we’ll do. The next piece of equipment that I think is very important that I use is a pair of headsets. headsets are great because it allows me to listen to myself and also prevent any feedback from going back into the mic and I use Apple AirPods. They are brilliant because they’re wireless and they connect to my Mac. And I typically have them in my pocket at all times.

3:58
You can also invest in a wired set of headphones, those cheap little headphones that you can buy off of Amazon, those are wonderful. The third piece of equipment that I use is a laptop, and this is my primary recording device and on this laptop, I have the application called GarageBand. It’s a free app, I usually will fire up and start recording right into. The secondary piece of equipment that I use sometimes is the zoom h5. The Zoom h5 is a portable voice recorder pretty tiny, and can take some memory cards and I’m on the go. I will connect the mic and I will set up the equipment in less than five minutes to start recording my episode, especially if it’s a guest episode it makes it really simple to get started. That’s it that’s all I use in technology really simple setup and I have to say the reason I like keeping it this simple is because when I’m thinking about producing content, the last thing I want to be doing is fiddling with buttons and knobs. I want to be able to fire the laptop, plug in the mic and start recording and that makes for a really easy workflow.

5:04
The next step in this process is what I call the pre production process. The pre production process for me is really where I’m thinking what I’m going to be talking about. And typically the way this works is I will draft any ideas, any thoughts that I have into a scratchpad, I use notion to capture all my ideas and I will just dump all my ideas when I’m out for a run for a jog if I’m talking to someone, if I’m watching something, I’m reading a book, I will generally get some ideas and some thoughts, which I will then plug into the scratchpad and then leave them for later. Every Wednesday of the week, I’ll try and spend some time on shaping those ideas into actual topics, I will take them, give it some outlines, give it a title, put some key words into it and really just think about what this episode is actually going to look like, I haven’t recorded yet that’s step number two but in the pre production process, I’m just playing with that idea, giving it some more shape and form so that actually becomes a topic that I can talk about. At the same time, I’m going to be doing this for a few episodes, I typically like to do this for three to four episodes at a time, so that it makes the recording process really easy and this is called batch producing content. So when you were thinking about recording, you’re not spending time creating outlines, you’re just in the flow and you’re recording one after the other and that’s the process that I use as well.

6:29
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6:59
And that takes us to step number two, which is the production process in the recording process is really simple on Wednesdays, I have some time blocked off for podcast episodes and I will step into my office, put my headphones on turn the laptop on and start recording the episode that I had already thought about and use my outlines as a starting off point or a jumping off point and then play with it as I record. Typically, I will add a little more color when I’m recording because I don’t like to create full scripts, I just create an outline and that outline is a few bullet points that I will use to jump off and start recording and it takes a few takes for me to get the episode ready.

7:37
The third step in the process is the post production process. The post production process is really where all the magic happens. I have two amazing editors Kaz and Riche. Kaz is the editor and Riche is the producer and they do a phenomenal job. Kaz will take that episode that I recorded in GarageBand and polish it up, make sure that I’m sounding really nice and if there are any mistakes those have been removed any filler words like hums and ahhs have also been removed, and then that episode will then be handed to Riche who will really begin the production process. In that, she’s going to create a cover art, she’s going to upload the episode into my podcast host and also publish a blog episode, which you will then find over at elevatedentrepreneur.fm together with show notes and transcriptions.

8:25
The reason to create show notes, this is purely optional. You don’t have to create show notes but I like to create show notes as a podcaster so that someone who’s listening to the episode can also get a really good summary of the episode without having to listen to the whole episode, and the transcription is really just there to help disabled people who can’t listen, and to be able to read and consume the same content so, the transcription is really just a word for word playback in text of what was said in voice and that’s pretty much the entire pre production production and post production process for the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. Now, I typically do a few more extra steps, and that is really around promotion marketing.

9:07
So Riche will also helped me create really good looking images for social media, which I will then post on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, so that my listeners like you can find the episode and if I can get someone who is interested in the topic, potentially could also find the episode through social media and that’s really about marketing. That’s completely optional, can be done at a much later stage if you’re thinking of getting started. Now, the most fun part of this episode is my afterthoughts is the things that I want to share with you as a podcaster, who’s been doing this for a year, and some thoughts that I think will be really helpful for people who are looking to produce their own content.

9:46
Firstly, I know that the entire process can be really intimidating, it can be quite daunting and the first step is really to get started. Don’t worry about the equipment, don’t worry about the gear, don’t worry about the process really the first after having produced over 30 episodes, my advice is to just get started. That has to be the first step. The second thing that is really important is to give yourself the permission to not be perfect. I knew I beat myself up the first few episodes about trying to sound just right, and I have to tell you, that’s absolutely not how this is going to work. You need to be able to give yourself the permission to not be perfect, to make mistakes, and then learn from those mistakes, and move along the process. That is so powerful, especially when creating content because it really teaches you a lot about you as a content creator, and the things that you like and don’t like.

10:42
The third thing that I’ve come to learn from my experience as a podcaster is that the idea of creating an episode and recording an episode are two different steps, they’re not the same, a lot of podcasters will begin by creating the outline recording the episode all in one go but I think that’s an exhausting process because if you’re trying to use your creative side of the brain to create the episode, and then record it, can take a lot of effort and can be quite tiring .Which is why I recommend creating the episode and content in batches and then recording them separately in batches and those are two very disparate steps in the process. In fact, I’ve made the same mistake of trying to record and create the content all in one go and I find those episodes are the ones that are the most exhausting ones, because I’ve put so much time and effort. So I’ve made sure that I’ve blocked off Wednesdays and divided Wednesdays into two halves. The first half is typically where I will start to play with the content, create the outline the show notes and the second half of Wednesday is when I will typically record the episode.

11:47
On the days where I’m running behind the schedule and I’m not able to do this, I will spend a lot of time on weekends trying to figure everything out, which is not the fun part of this process. So really give yourself the room to be creative. Think of topics, create an outline, and also then reserve some time to actually record the content and have fun with the process. I hope that this has given you some ideas and some thoughts on how you can get started with your own content creation process. So thank you so much for listening.

12:21
Thank you so much for staying with me till the very end of the episode you’ve done it. I’ve got three specific asks for you only if you think that this podcast is worthy of your support and if you’ve enjoyed the content, my first request is for you to hit the subscribe button actually smash that subscribe button so that you can get notified when new episodes come your way or if you haven’t already, head on over to elevatedentrepreneur.fm and subscribe to the podcast on the website so that new episodes are emailed to you right away. My second request is for you to help me spread the word with your friends and families and business owners that would enjoy this podcast and help elevate them to you can do that either by leaving a review on your Apple device or just telling your friends how cool this podcast is. And finally, if there’s a question that you’ve been dying to ask me, or this pieces of feedback that you’d like to give me, head on over to elevatedentrepreneur.fm/speak where you will be able to record a voice message that I can listen to and also may be feature here on the podcast together with my answer I’d love to hear from you. Thank you much love and I’ll see you in the next one.