f you're anything like me and you love your community, then you might talk about it all the time.  Hence is why I do the Good Morning Gwinnett Show 4 days a week live.  It's been almost 4 years since I launched the podcast and I love it just as much today as I did when I first launched.  

I wanted to be more involved with my community and I love to share stories and podcasting has allowed me to be the voice of my community.  When you launch a community podcast people will start to invite you to tables that were unavailable to you before.  What you must realize is that podcasting is a big part of new media.  As a podcaster you can break a story in a New York minute without having to get approval from anyone.  The other great thing about starting a community podcast is that you can become a community partner.  You can shine the spotlight on people and places in your community that you love.  You can also become a marketing arm for small businesses who don't have the time to start their own podcast.

If there are causes that you care about, you will be able to share those messages with listeners around the world.  There is just so much you can do as a community podcaster.  The more you talk about your community the more people will look to you for that up to the minute news.  

The best part about taking this podcast journey is that you can make your podcast whatever you want it to be.  You're not locked into a certain way of doing it.  It can be the way you want to serve your community.  Just listen to an episode of Good Morning Gwinnett.  The way the show is formatted is entertaining, informative and empowering.  It's also fun for me to produce, otherwise I would not be going live 4 days a week to do it.

So don't sleep on podcasting.  It could change your life and shine the spotlight on your community.

​Welcome back. Welcome back. So, listen, it's talk business Tuesday, and we're going to talk about podcasting because, um, one of the things, you know, I love is podcasting and I think that, um, I talk about podcasts and a lot, but sometimes people don't know why they should start a podcast. So, I'm going to give you a few reasons today.
 
Why I think you should start a podcast, especially if you're a business owner. So. And I'm going to be talking about podcasts and the light, and I'm going to be doing trainings all over Georgia in the next few months. So, I'm going to be all over the place talking about this because it's powerful. So, when you think about podcasts and a lot of times, if you're not a podcast or you think if you think of podcasts as a form of entertainment, right?
 
So, when you think of it that way, it's like, Oh, I listen to podcasts on the business side. If you're a business owner, if you have a message to share, if you're a nonprofit, if you're a ministry, this could be a perfect platform for you to get your message out there to the masses. Right. Good morning when that is in over a hundred company countries around the world.
 
So even though my, my show is locally focused, I'm here in Gwinnett County. I talk to people around the world because people want to know about what's going on in Gwinnett County. Believe it or not, because when their County is a beautiful place to live. And I talk about it all the time, we have an amazing school system.
 
We have great leadership. And I talk about that all the time. We're growing. We're right outside of Atlanta, which is a major Metro here. And so, I talk about that all the time. Why? Because I love it. And so, what made me get into podcasts and well, When I moved to Georgia, I thought about going into politics and I've always thought about going into politics.
 
But when I came here and I actually spent some time in a few meetings, I realized that it's not a good use of my time right now. I want to do something different. I want to do something where I ain't fighting with the people on my, on me. In my party. Cause that's what was happening. That's pretty much what turned me off.
 
Like we were in a meeting and we spent about three hours trying to determine where a comma was going to go in a sentence. And um, and then they had a fallout and then, and then people quit, and I was like some sitting there thinking. Wait a minute. Cause these people were like, really, they were really seasoned in politics.
 
Right. I was brand new and I'm sitting there watching this go down. I think I was eating some potato chips, or some carrot sticks or something with some dip and I'm sitting and I'm watching this go down and I'm watching them literally like get. Physically like mad, like angry, because they were trying to figure out how to put a sentence.
 
And one person said it should be this way. The other person said to me that, Oh, it was horrible. And I left that meeting that day. And that was probably about mine. That might have been me. Fourth meeting at that point. And I was like, yeah, this is not for me. This is this. Not, not now, maybe later when I'm more mature in the space.
 
When I learned more about what it takes, I'm going to go through, I'm going to go through one of the academies. Um, but I, I just haven't found the time to do that yet. And, um, I just realized that, nah, that's not, that's not it, that's not it. Um, and so I went back to my love. I went back to podcasts. I was like, no, I'm going to start a podcast called Good Morning Gwinnett.
 
And I just, I just started it. I started in December 2018 and I'm almost at 500 episodes. And so, you know, it's a powerful platform and because I've started this, it has opened up so many doors for me and I'm, I'm sure it's going to open up even more doors. So, here's the thing. Why should you start a podcast?
 
You heard my story of why I started mine. Why shouldn't you start one? What if you're a business owner? The first reason is it gives you a lot of exposure. A lot, because remember this, I talk on this microphone once a day, four days a week for about an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. Right. That message goes out to thousands of people I talk live.
 
So, the platform that I use is speaker. When I go live, sprinkler puts it out to everybody that I'm talking live. I don't even have to do nothing, but turn my microphone on, cue up my music, come up with my stories for the day and start talking. That's all. That's all I do. I pay spree good. $20 a month to do all of this stuff.
 
I just said it's freaking Dan takes my show, send it out. Live, send it syndicated to iHeart radio syndicated to Apple podcasts, syndicated to Google podcast, syndicated to Deezer, syndicated to Stitcher, syndicated to SoundCloud, syndicated to be YouTube syndicate to Facebook. It sits, I pay $20. Y'all $20 a month.
 
So as simple to set up. It's inexpensive to run. It's a good way to get your message out there. If you are a business owner, I don't care if you have a product or service, this is a great platform to help you get your message out there. So, let's say for instance, you sold socks, right? You could call it; you can launch a podcast called sock stories.
 
Now, here's the thing. If you're doing interesting things with those soft, let's say for instance, you're kind of like Tom shoes, right? Or what's a Bumble socks. Bumba is one of the companies that Damon John runs and, and times shoes y'all know the story about how he started Tom shoes for every pair of shoes, you get a pair, get donated for every pair of socks.
 
You buy a pair of Bomba, a pair get donated. You can tell us; you can have a podcast called sock stories. I know that sounds crazy, but guess what? People collect, suck socks are collectibles for some people they I'm telling you, go in there and look the look up sock collectors. I guarantee you there's some people out there who collect socks and you can interview those people on your show.
 
Right? You could talk about why they collect socks or why they collected a certain sock. Right? Put the story out there. And then at the end of each show, you know, you say, Hey, if you look for a great pair of socks about be sure to go over to my sock company.com. Yeah, that's a great way for you to put your name out there.
 
It is a great way for you to connect with people. So, if you're a business owner that is a great way to help you market your business and build a brand good morning, go net is a brand. It is a brand that I'm on a, on a mission to take to a million dollars. Right. When I started, it was just my podcast and it was my way to connect to my community.
 
It was my way to be a voice in the community politics wasn't going to be at right now. I was like, okay, not yet. I'm not ready for that yet. I don't have the temperament quite yet. Um, so let me do something that I actually love that could really benefit the community. Let me share news about what's going on in and around Gwinnett County, but then let me invite other people in from other places.
 
So, when that County can meet them, So it's like a two-fold with me. What, what's your thing? And it's easy to come up with something when I tell you here's the thing, though. If you're not going to be committed to it, don't do it. Don't do it. If you say, you know what, I know I need a podcast for my business.
 
I know I have a message. I know my ministry could benefit from a podcast. I have a client, her ministry, her podcast is called bleeding in the dark. And this is how we came to this conclusion. I met her at eight. We were going to get out. We were going to, we had to go to compliance training because I'm an insurance license agent.
 
She's a licensed agent. We had to go compliance training. That's when we met, had never met before. We were at compliance training for our licensing to make sure I licensed state enforced, even though I don't write hardly write any life insurance. Um, I, I still keep my license and tech. Because I never know when I may need to write a policy for somebody.
 
Um, anyway, so that's how we met. And so, we were talking and she's like, you know, I'm wanting to start a podcast. And so, we, we do the consultation and everything, and she's like, yeah, she's a minister. And she said, you know, I want to have the medicines. I want to have the leaders because they, you know, they stand at the pulpit and they, they, they talk about the message and behind closed doors, they're bleeding in the dark.
 
And I said to her, that's the name of your podcast? And she was like, that's genius. And I thought that was a great podcast because she, she ministered to leaders like herself and she said, they get up there on Sunday and they give this great message. And then they close the door and they're crying and they are bleeding in the dark.
 
They're bleeding in the dark. And so, the name of her podcast is called bleeding in the dark, but she has a ministry called by faith global ministry where she does a lot of good work. Like they just took sent transfer trucks of water to. Um, to Mississippi because they had a storm and it messed up the water system.
 
She collected, I'm talking about 18 wheelers, y'all full of water and she lives in Georgia and they took that water to, to Mississippi. And they're still taking water because people are still donating water, but her podcast and her ministry is benefiting from that. I'm still working with her right now, because she's going to be launching a streaming TV channel for her park for a ministry.
 
Why? Because she can go on there and she could put her message out there, be her podcast via her TV channel to millions of people around the world who may want to donate to her organization. She's a ministry. Now you may not be a ministry, but you may have a nonprofit. Put your message in front of people so they can hear it.
 
Yes. You may be in Georgia. Heck you may be in Maine, but you got to message. You got message. You need support. Talk about it, share with the world, put it out there so people can support you. And one of the best ways to do that is with a podcast inexpensive to get started, simple, to get started, simple to syndicate.
 
All you got to do is put in the effort and the commitment. So, you know what I'm going to get up on Tuesday and I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna talk every day, every Sunday at 6:00 PM afternoon. And I'm gonna talk for seven minutes. I'm gonna do a set lists and there are podcasts out there right now that are one minute one.
 
And now you may say what that can I say in a minute? You can say a lot in a minute. If you know what you're talking about, that that's what I'm going to tell you. If you know what you're talking about, you can condense it to one minute. One-minute segments, right? And guess what you can do, you can take that podcast and then you can put it over on Amazon flash briefings, and now people can listen to you because now you're not only, not only are you on your podcast platform, syndicated all over the place.
 
Now you'll Amazon. So podcasting is powerful. So, backs. Let me, let me just, um, summarize this. Why don't you want to start a podcast? Why you should start a podcast. Simple to get started. Inexpensive to get started. Let’s you get your message out to the world. Lets you show that you're an authority in your area helps you build your brand.
 
Those are some reasons to start a podcast, all right, going to my last song of the day and I'll be back and give you my words of inspiration for the day. Stay tuned.
 
welcome back. Welcome back. So listen guys, that's all I got you to gay, but before I go, I want to give you my word of inspiration. And here goes someone sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree along a long time ago. Hmm, let me say that again. Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
 
Warren buffet said that, let me tell you something. Somebody is waiting for you to step up right now and share your message. They need the inspiration that you've gone through. They need to know that, you know what, I'm going through this now, but I can come out, plant that tree for somebody, share, start your podcast.
 
Somebody is waiting for you to share your story. Somebody wait for you to inspire them. Somebody is waiting for you to share your poetry with them. Somebody is waiting for you to share your cooking tips with them. Somebody who's waiting for you to show your books, to share their bookstores. Somebody is waiting for you to share your dark collection with them.
 
Let me tell you something, Georgia. Doesn't talk about this much, but she has a doll podcast called in the Dow world. That podcast is taken off like gangbusters. And she said to me that wasn't my intention. It wasn't your intention, but it was God intention. Some people love her. Somebody, somebody she says she had, they have like fans.
 
Right. I don't even know if I have fans on good morning with Nick, but they have fans. And she was able to, I think, talk to one of her fans or it was something that lady was like, Oh my God, I'm so excited. Her husband was excited because they got the lady, got his hands to talk to her. Why? Because she was waiting for them.
 
She was waiting for them to share their story. She was waiting for them to share that passionate about dolls.  started a doll company. In.
 1999, the big, beautiful doll company. That's how she knew, but she was a doll collector long before I was even thinking about dolls. I'm still not a doll collector.
 
She collects doll. So she loved dolls. Me personally, I just got a few hundred dollars a week in vintage. I got them around the house. You know, they're not in the cases hundred dollars in cases, she take care of my, and the boxes in plastic. She's a doll collector, she's a dog lover. And so it only made sense when they launched in the dog world, she and her friend, her partner, Tammy, but they just did it because it was something that they love.
 
Tammy has $4,000. She's a doll collector. Judy has their doll collectors. It made sense. And because of that passion, they put together a podcast called in the DOL world. They later turned the podcast into video. So now they have a channel on noise and a channel on YouTube called in the DOL world. And they have 700, 400 followers because people love that show.
 
People were waiting for them. Now they're like celebrities in their industry. They got doll awards for the doubtful in a dial world podcast. Let me tell you some podcasts and as a powerful platform, that's a tree that you need to plan. So somebody can sit in the shade later, but you plant your tree.
 
That's all I got for you today. Listen, thank you for listening. It could be anywhere in the world. We just spent the last hour and three minutes with me and I appreciate you and love you to life for that. Be sure to golden. Good morning with net. If you miss any episodes of this show and listen to the past episodes there.
 
And also if you feel in your heart, The support, the show, click on shop and just buy something. That's going to help support the show and helped me keep it going. Also be sure to share the show with your friends. We have an app it's called the good morning. Good net app. If you've got an Android phone or Apple phone, there's an app in the app store for good morning.
 
Good Morning Gwinnett. Download the app and share that with the friends. Also be sure to follow me on Apple podcasts, find your favorite two episodes and give it five stars. Appreciate you and love you for that as well. If you want to follow me on Facebook, you can do so by going to good morning Gwinnett on Instagram.
 
Good morning, and on the Twitter at GMGwinnett. When that I'll be back again tomorrow at 10:00 AM God willing. Thank you so much for listening. Stay safe out there. Keep your mask on and tell your family and friends you love them. And until next time y'all know what it is. Make it a great day. Bye y'all. You've been listening to good morning Gwinnett.
 
Make sure to tune in Monday through Thursday at 10:00 AM Eastern time to find out what's happening around Gwinnett. If you like this episode, subscribe now and share with your friends to learn more about noise media network. Visit www.noisemedia.us.

Once a business owner begins to think about starting their own podcast, they will often get nervous because they have so many unanswered questions. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about podcasting.   Check them out to help you make an educated decision on whether or not podcasting can help you accomplish your business goals. 

1. What is podcasting?
Podcasting is a way of creating internet-based audio files for the purpose of offering information and entertainment to a wider audience. 

2. How do I create a podcast?
To create your podcast you will need a microphone, some software to record the audio file, and a place to store the audio file so other people can listen to it. 

3. What kind of microphone should I use for my podcast?
Buy a USB one for under $100 that has high-definition sound quality. I personally use the Yeti which I bought off of Amazon for $99.

4. Do I need special software?
The industry standard is Audacity. It does take time to learn, but it is free to use. You can use this if you will be pre-recording shows that need editing.  I use Spreaker which allow me to pre-record my shows or go live.  Most of the time I go live.  I have the pro plan for $19.99 monthly.

5. What should I talk about on my podcast?
Choose a niche or specialized area or topic you want to talk about. It should be something that you are passionate about and have some knowledge about.  If you try to do a podcast on something that you are not passionate about it will come across as inauthentic.  Then think of how you can help people interested in that topic who have problems that need to be solved. Offer free information that will lead to paid product referrals, your own or someone else’s, that will make you money with each podcast.

6. How do I get people find my podcasts?
There are many ways to do this but the simplest way is to share your podcast on your social media pages with your friends and colleagues.  A content provider will create a podcast channel, or feed. Within that channel, they will create programs or tracks. Every time a new track is created, the channel will automatically update content on subscribers' computers. 

7. How can people listen to podcasts?
Your audience can listen to the files on their computer, cell phone, in their car or load them onto an MP3 player such as an iPod.  Many of the newer cars are now coming with podcast players already installed in them.  I don't have a podcast player in my car, but I listen to all of my podcast in my car by connecting my cell phone to the aux jack in my car.

8. How can people subscribe to my podcast?
There are so many ways for people to subscribe to your podcast depending on where your podcast is syndicated.  Here are three common ways they can subscribe. The most popular way is through an online service with software such as iTunes. Or, people can add your feed to their FeedBurner, that is, program that accepts RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. You can also embed your feed into the pages of your blog or website and they can listen to them there.

I hope that this information help you in deciding if podcasting is right for you.  Podcast is one of my passions and as time goes on not only do I want to share my show with you, I want to share my passion for podcasting with you.  I want to be able to help you launch your own podcast, so this is the first in a series of articles about podcasting that I will be writing.  Be sure to check back often for more great information about how to start and grow your podcast.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey