Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther.
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're joined by Charlotte Foster, podcast producer from Charlotte Foster Podcasts, an agency that helps companies make and at podcast. And we're talking about podcasting. Welcome, Charlotte.
Thank you for having me. It's a relief. We're talking about podcasting, isn't it?
We couldn't really talk about anything else after that intro. So, Charlotte, we met a few months ago and just totally hit it off. So we had to have you on the podcast. What got you into podcasting?
Everyone laughs at this story, including myself. So my background works in radio. I always say I've done pretty much every job working in radio, from making the tea for the presenters who like to call themselves the Talent. I've said that with enough sarcasm. I hope that everyone understood how I actually think about it, to actually be in the talent one day as well. So I used to be one of these annoying breakfast presenters who would sound really awake and alive at 07:00 in the morning. And the reason I sounded awake and alive at 07:00 in the morning is because I've been up since 04:00 a.m. So it's not glamorous working in radio, so I was freelancing in radio, so basically I was the substitute teacher. That's the way I would say it, when the radio station needed someone to go in and read the news that's I would rock up and do it. And I kind of felt a little lost doing that because I wasn't working where I was living, whereas I had been working at the local radio station and I'd left there and I sort of felt like a little bit of a disconnect, really, with what was going on around me. But I was reading the news in Liverpool, Manchester Derby, but not in Staffordshire, where I was living. So the city that I lived in, Stoke on Trent, was going for the City of Culture bid for 2021. It didn't get it, but I think after 2021 it was quite a relief that we didn't get it because it had been ruined by the pandemic, let's be honest. But at the time the city was going for it and it just felt positive because for those who don't know, Stoke on Trent, it's a postindustrialized city that is a little bit down on its luck, I think is the best way to say it's built on the pottery industry. The Potter industry has moved abroad. So there's lots of kind of negatives about the city, but actually there's loads of really good stuff about the city as well. The people are brilliant, there's lots of hope, there's lots of let's push things forward. But nationally, people laugh about Stoke and Trent and joke about Stoke on Trent. It's a bit of a bit of butt of the jokes sort of thing. Stick with me on this. There was a by election in the city for an MP to new MP because the city wanted quit his job. I said, well, he got better off at the Victoria and Albert Museum. So he decided, actually, what shall I do? Go work at the VA or be an MP in the city? That doesn't really like me at the moment. Anyway. So You Kip was standing in the City and Stoke on Trent had a really strong Brexit vote. And everybody thought You Kip was going to do quite well in the city. So it had a lot of national media attention. And the national media attention went something along the lines of, I'm paraphrasing slightly here, but it went something along the lines of look, we've come up from London where everything is brilliant and if you look at Stoke on Trend, everybody is poor. They all voted for Brexit, so they must be thick as well. Look at things boarded up. Well, I'm going to go back to London where the streets are paper of gold. Like I say, paraphrase slightly, but that was it. And I got really angry that that wasn't the Stoke on Trend I knew. And I'm not sitting here roasting two glasses on going, Everything's lovely and Stoked, there's stuff that needs changing, but that isn't the city I know. So I was like, what can I do about this? I'm really angry that people are saying so many bad things. And I knew that if I was still working at the BBC radio station I was working at previously in Stoke that I would be on the radio banging my hand on the table, going, Come on, what are we going to do about this? How can we show the world that Stoke on Trend isn't this place that they seem to think it is? And I just went, Why don't I do a podcast about it? It just took me ages to kind of like Bing do a podcast about it. I do my own radio kind of thing, even though podcast and radio are very different, which I learned quite quickly when I spent about six months preparing this podcast about a spoke on Trend because I planned it in the same way you would plan a radio for award winning documentary. It was like minutely detailed to everything. And then I heard that the city had been shortlisted for the City of Culture Awards and I went, I need to get this podcast out pretty quickly to go off the back of it. So I did a podcast about culture in Stoke on Trend and that's where everyone laughs when they say culture in Stoke on Trend. Ha ha. But what I was doing was I was talking to people at a real kind of community level and hearing their stories. So people who run nittanasa groups, people who organize street parties on their streets or States, those kind of that sort of level almost too local for local radio, too hyper local. But what it did was amazing. I was amazed at the response. I had listeners in pretty much every continent across the world listening to this 15 minutes podcast, talking to people in Stoke on Trent about what was going on in the city. And it all had to be kind of positive stuff. Every continent in the world, across the country, across the world. I think Antarctica was missing, which is a shame. And then the response from people was, Charlotte, you do a podcast. I'd like to be on the podcast because I've got this to talk about. And we built up this huge momentum really quickly. And that's what I became known for. I wasn't known for waking people up every morning, Monday to Friday on the radio show. I was known for doing this podcast. And people would come to me and go, oh, I've got a Press release about this event we're doing. Charlotte, would you like to come along? Charlotte, would you mind hosting this event for us? Because you're culture, aren't you? You do culture. Would you host this event for us? And then it became I was on the city Council did like a cultural forum. They asked, would I like to be on the cultural forum before that? I'm a non executive director of an arts organization at CIC because of me starting this out of this cultural podcast about Stoke on Trend. And if anyone knew me at school and I'd said to them, I'm involved in an arts organization. I'm involved in culture. My teachers, my art teacher would have absolutely just died with laughter because I can't draw a stick man. But because I got myself involved in the world and I got known really well and quickly with the podcast. That's what I became known for and famous for. And then people started asking me about podcasting. You do a podcast? Can you tell me more about podcasts? So I started doing some workshops with people saying, oh, this is what podcast is. This is what it's good for. And it dawned on me that actually this might be a business opportunity and that actually businesses could really do well for it, because if you want to become famous for something very quickly and when I say famous, I don't mean Brad Pitt famous. I mean famous in the world you're in. And podcasting is a great way to do it. So that's how it all started. Just a little podcast about Stoke on Trent and the culture in the city.
Well, that's all we have time for today. Thank you so much for joining us at the podcast. Quite seriously, what would be your takeaway for people who are listening to this podcast? It sounds like you're very, very niche when you started, when you started. So is it nishing that's going to really help a business really stand out and get all these invites into certain areas?
100% is being leash. So I'm sure we've all listened to podcasts. There's lots of podcasts out there. I have a talk and a little what's the word I'm looking for? A little bugbear about dudes talking rubbish. And I've sanitized it for the podcast because the title of it is something different, Dudes Talking Rubbish. That's the podcast that is over there's too many of them. The market is saturated and it's where people just go, here's my thing. And this is what I'm going to talk about. And here's my thing. And yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. It just becomes boring. I'm just going to say it's boring and too general. And you start to see the same guests on the same podcasts at the same time. The inspirational story podcasts. Now, I love an inspirational story as much the next person. But I've heard the same story a thousand times, I think at least. And you know what? It doesn't affect I'm not going to solve my problems by walking up Mount Everest for many reasons. Number one, I'm not going to walk up Mount Everest for love. No money. Number two, I don't have the money to walk up Mount Everest and take all that time off my day job. So I don't really want to hear from someone who solved their problems because they went and had a walk up Mount Everest and now they're all happy again. Right. That's not relevant. And there's lots of those stories out there. If you can niche it down and talk about one thing really well, then that's how you're going to get hurt. It's about that inch wide, mile deep. I can't remember who said that, but someone very clever said that. So know your subject. Talk about your one subject very, very well. And it's been famous for that.
So for people starting out and podcasting, because we said just before we came on this, Melanie and I have only been doing this, I want to say two years now.
That's really experienced, by the way. Oh, two years will be podcasting.
Good night. It just means we've been doing it a while.
Oh, well, okay.
It's an achievement.
It is. Right? We were nominated last year for podcast of the year. But just saying. But when people start out, can they just use their phone? Do they need fancy equipment? What software, what hardware? What you know, people.
It is mind blowing. Right. If you type onto Google, go, I want to start a podcast. You'll have so much out there. I started mine using my phone, an Apple iPhone. I used a voice memo app that's already on the phone. There's another one you can use. There's lots of on there that you can use by voice memo app. And this was part of my problem because I spent so long over planning it. And then I just went, I haven't got a microphone. I haven't got this. I can't do it. When I worked at the BBC, which wasn't that long ago, we were being sent out to do interviews for the radio using our mobile phones. So if it's good enough for the BBC, it's good enough for your podcast. Okay.
Even if you don't surprises me.
No, I see you're just doing this. Just doing that. Microphone. Is your phone. Is your microphone the biggest tip I can give, though, if you're on your own recording a podcast on The Apprentice, they walk around with the phones on speakerphone and they're talking to it. They're holding the phone up to their mouth. They never got the ear in the traditional phone style, they're holding up to their mouth. My biggest tip is don't record like that because it sounds really breathy. If you're just on your own recording, like a monologue podcast or just hold your phone up to your ear. So you're talking on the phone to somebody because that's how your microphone on your phone is designed to work. It will cut out background noise. It'll do all the sorts, all the fancy stuff. That's the premium way of getting it recorded like that. But that's all you need a phone. And then if you want to do the editing yourself, if it's just a simple edit top and tail, you want to keep all your mistake or your UMS and ears in there. And don't over edit is my biggest tip as well. If you've got a Mac, you can use GarageBand, it's there already. If you haven't download Audacity, it's free and it's really simple to use loads of tutorials on YouTube that you can find. And then you can upload it via Anchor, which is a free podcast host. And they do all the hard work for you of getting all the technical stuff and making sure it goes to Apple Podcast. It goes to Spotify, it goes to Google Podcast and goes wherever else. It really is really simple.
So you don't need the thousands and thousands of pounds, dollars, euros. Insert your currency here to start and get no.
But don't tell my husband that because I've told him I need all these microphones.
I taught mine to see him.
Nine microphones and counting.
nine? Oh, my God.
And I've got to have a few more on the wish list as well.
So what about planning? Okay, because that okay is not admittedly our strongest point, but it is something that we should do. But it is something that we do know makes a significant difference to the success of a podcast. How far in advance would you plan your podcasting schedule? Is it vital to have guests on? Or is it okay to do it either on your own or with a partner in your business? Is there a magic formula that makes this work? What I love most about podcasts is the answer to every question is, well, it depends. There we go. So it really depends on what you want to do. My biggest tip, again, if you're just starting, just commit to a series, and that makes your planning a lot easier. So just commit to a series of podcasts that you're going to do. So say six to ten episodes, whatever feels right for you. And then you can plan them out, plan them out so that they make sense. They flow almost like a book. So that episode one is chapter one, and it moves along nicely. You have one theme for that series so that you can talk about your thing in that one theme. So for me, if I was doing a podcast about podcasting, which I used to do the series one would be how to start a podcast as basic as that. And then you'd go through all the different things you need to do. Series two could be how to grow your podcast. Series three, this is just off top of my head, could be how to maintain your podcast in different times. So have a theme, have a set amount of episodes that you're going to do and record and plan what each of those is going to say so that they're bingeable. You want people listening to your content for as much as possible. Don't you think of it as Netflix? And when you're going you see Netflix and you're like, Right, excellent. I know I've got six episodes, and I'm going to sit down and watch them all on Netflix again. Podcast, I've got six episodes. When am I going to listen to them then? It's about keeping people listening, because the more they're listening to you, the more their voice is in your ear, your voice is in their ears, and you're building up that relationship. If you want to have somebody on your podcast, have somebody on your podcast, but the planning becomes a little bit more tricky. Who says what? How do they say it when you're doing it? Guests. I love having guests. I love being a guest, but guests can be a pain in the backside. Right? And I'm not going to tell everyone that you're nodding your head viciously. Here the therapy. But the problem with guests is you go, Brilliant, that's all booked in the diary. We're going to put that episode out two days after the recording. The guest cancels the day before you meant to record. You have a big gap in your schedule. If you're going to go for guests, make sure that either so far in advance. If you're doing like a continuing one, you've booked them in well in advance so that if they do cancel, you can rearrange and not have a Midnight Panic or make sure you're recording everything before you put it out so that you've got it all there. I quite like doing the series and just putting it all out in one go in the same way that Netflix will drop a series because it's there and you can just refer to it all the time, and once it's there, it's done. And you can just chill out and it's good to have and it's quite fun to do it that way. Let people binge when they want it rather than keeping coming back. But you can still cows class. It is like a weekly thing if you wanted to by putting your stuff out each week and going, don't forget in this episode I talk about this and have your content across of it that way.
It depends. When you went on holiday, wasn't it?
Yeah.
So I wanted to ask when you've got your podcast where we found out quite late how significant Show Notes were in helping you get found in search. We've got them now, but who would you use to get them transcribed? Is there a tool or would you use a VA? How important are Show Notes in helping you your discovery?
So Show Notes and transcriptions are different. So transcription is the episode word for word. But I always get so I have a transcriber that I use and I know dead posh. Right? She says right. In it I get someone who does the transcribing and they're so good because they will write it in an easy to read way. So all the errors that I do get rid of and all of that because I use captivate for my podcast hosting and they have a little bit where you can add the transcription. So it's like a separate bit to the show notes and that helps with the SEO, with the searching, with the Google scraping, all of the bits and the finding. It also massively helps people who have hearing difficulties. And that's so, so important because accessibility is a really big thing for me and making your podcast as accessible as possible. Another thing I didn't realize is I have a friend who teaches English as a foreign language or a second language. That's it isn't it whatever. Anyway teaches English abroad and they use English language podcasts to help their students learn English, especially colloquial English as well. So if they have the transcription as well as the written, it can really help. So there's loads of different ways that Transcribing helps. Transcribing also then helps me write my show Notes because I can take out all the bits that I thought were interesting. With Show Notes, you just have to really think about what people are searching for or what you want people to search for when it comes to your podcast and really make sure they are bang on. If you host your podcast on Google Podcast, which I recommend you do, I recommend you host it wherever you can. If you go to the Google Podcast Manager, it will show you all the terms that people have Typed in and found your podcast with. So the analytics on Google are great because you can go, okay, so that question is bringing up that so that can help you refine your show notes as well. And the other reason I like Transcribing is the basis for some social media posts and blog posts as well. Get the most bang for your buck.
Yeah, that was a damn fine question, wasn't it?
Yeah. And share your stuff out everywhere, right?
There's lots of jokes out there, right. So I'm someone who does a lot of running. And the joke is always, how do you know someone running a marathon? Don't worry, they'll tell you first. All right. It's true, isn't it? And they'll say this and upsets some people as well. How do you know someone's a vegan? Don't worry. They'll tell you first. Right. So insert how to know someone does CrossFit. Don't worry. They'll tell you first. I'm offending everybody here in equal measure. I say, but that's how you should be with a podcast. If you've got a podcast, the joke should be, how do you know someone's got a podcast? Don't worry. They'll tell you first. I have a T shirt that says, I have a podcast on it. And I have one that says, Ask me about my podcast. That's how you need to be. And there's ways and means you can do it as well. So if you're using podcasting for your business, which I really recommend, you do, you know those people that ask questions all the time and you know they're not going to pay you any money. They just want your expertise for free. We have a coffee and a catch up. No, we can't. How about you listen to this episode of my podcast where I talk about exactly what you want to talk about. It's a really good way of getting rid of the tire kickers or actually those tire kickers, then become they know what they're talking about. I will come in and start investing in you. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things, especially. You get loads of messages, don't they? I get loads of messages on LinkedIn. I was just wondering if you could help me with this. Here's my podcast episode where I explained it all.
So, we talked about getting started for free. But when should you start investing in your nine microphones and your PED audio platforms and things like that?
When you know it works for you, it might not work for you. Podcasting isn't necessarily going to work for everybody. If it's something that you can see working for you, you've done it. You've enjoyed it. There you go. There's your first thing. You might hate it. I hate video. I absolutely hate video. So I've got no further than a selfie stick thing. Tripod, that's the word. And I'm not going to do anymore. You're not going to see me on TikTok. You're not going to see me on Instagram Reels. You're not going to see me do a LinkedIn live even though I have the I've had the ability to do it for quite some time. I'm like, no, don't need to do that. Don't want to do that. It's not my thing. So I'm not going to invest in camera equipment. If you've started podcasting and you love it and you're seeing some return from it as well. And when I say return, you're not going to be Joe Rogan anytime soon, I'm afraid. But what you might do is get clients, you will get people onto your list, your email list, into your Facebook group, whatever it is.m That's when I would start saying, then you start investing, then you start going, okay, the iPhone isn't necessarily the one I want the microphone out of choice anymore. And then you start looking and you can get a decent USB microphone for around 100 pound Mark, which isn't expensive, really. And it's so good. You just plug it in and you talk just brilliant.
Yeah. Keep it simple.
And it sounds like we can hit you up for some spare mics as well.
No, they're not. There just be very clear here. They are not spare.
They're for the surround sound effect. They capture all angles.
And also I do go to places. So part of the services I offer is I go to businesses and we have a little recording session on the day. So I take my kits to them and I watch them like a Hawk. No drinks in here. So that's one of the things I do, is I go into businesses and do the recording for them as like a producer of Headphones and everything.
And how can people get in touch with you then if they would like to hire you for your services?
They can find me at I'm on LinkedIn at Charlotte Foster. And I kind of put myself down as the podcast Queen because I come from Royal Berkshire, for goodness sake. I must get some Royal in this somewhere. And also my website is charlottefoster. Co. Uk. And those two places active on my website, I'm active on LinkedIn is the sort of like the social platform. If that can be a social platform, I don't know.
Yeah. No, that's great.
Well, thank you so much for coming on today. We've really enjoyed your stories, basically, of explaining the explosion of your business and the fact that it started from ultimately a problem you were having. Solutions come out of problems we're having and we know we're not the only ones having them.
Yeah. I never imagined I would be running a business. Never. I used it to try and get a job back in radio and now I've got a business.
You're stuck with it.
This is not what I meant to happen. Quick tip. I know you want to finish up one quick tip before you start your podcast. Decide what your success measure is, decide what success looks like for you and keep going back to it and understanding it. And success is whatever you want it to be. It doesn't have to be number one in the Apple podcast charts. It can be getting ten people on your list getting one new client but decide for yourself what success is. Sorry.
No, it's an excellent tip. You're quite right. People don't ask enough calls to action in their podcasts. They just speak and hope that does enough. But you actually do have to add in a call to action.
Yeah, absolutely.
On that point. You can sign up for our podcast newsletter on the website, wasn't it? It'll be more planned for next time. US planning? Never. Thanks and Charlotte for joining us today. That's it for us for another week. We'll be back next week with more wealthy morning marketing podcast. Until then. Bye.