I’ve been dying to talk about it and it’s finally here! Creative Type Podcast is now a reality and can be listened to on all of your podcast apps including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and more. We also have a video version of the podcast each week on YouTube. If you don’t  have any podcasts apps on your phone or want to listen from a computer or tablet, you can find us at https://creativetypepodcast.simplecast.com/  Just so you know, if you’re an iphone user, the Apple Podcasts app comes automatically loaded on your phone.

Let me tell you all about it! I’m really excited to share it with you.

It goes back a couple of years for both myself and my friend Lori Rivera. I’ve kicked around the idea of starting a podcast for a couple of years but it never really went any further than thinking about it. I’d never told anyone about it and I really hadn’t thought of asking anyone to do it with me.

(Below is Lori’s fancy microphone.)

Then last year somehow the subject got brought up between Lori and I. I listen to a lot of different podcasts, and I’m always sharing with my artist friends podcasts I enjoy or get a lot out of. That’s probably how it started. Lori said she’d always wanted to host a podcast and I said me too! So she suggested we start one together. Then we sat on the idea for a few months I’d say. Or more likely half a year!

So towards the end of each year, my friends Lori and Vicki get together for a meeting and we go over our next year’s art business goals with each other. It’s really helpful for all of us. It helps us stay accountable and we get ideas from one another. We really believe in community over competition with each other. The podcast got brought up again and we both added it to our short term goals for 2023.

January got here quickly. We made a plan to get serious about it and make it happen. The first thing we did was to start coming up with podcast names. I’ll bet we had over 100 between the two of us. It’s not good to rush names. Perfect example for that is it was late one evening and we were texting back and forth name ideas. I came up with a funny one that we loved right away and got a kick out of but we decided to mull it over for the night.

The next morning, the name felt totally wrong and I’m glad we didn’t use it. Good thing, because in the light of day, it really didn’t convey the message we wanted at all. Finally, we came up with what I think is perfect. Creative Type Podcast. It’s like someone whispering about another person “oh she’s one of those ‘creative types’ isn’t she?”. Ha ha… well I love it.

We searched and found the domain was available so we ran with it. We purchased a web domain to have show notes, photos, contact information, etc. for the show. Then, I was thinking I’d be building a WordPress site for the podcast.

Being a graphic designer once upon a time, I got to work right away with logo designs. Below, you can see the progression of some of my designs.

I finally found what I think is the perfect logo. It’s fresh, creative and light. I’ve got plans for this logo, too. I think it will make great merchandise like tote bags and painting aprons, etc. The sales of any merch will go towards the costs of having the podcast. Initially, we thought we could create a podcast for free, and you can, but you’re really limited if you do it that way. So we came up with a budget we could both live with.

Since there’s two of us, we occasionally have to compromise. We encountered a time or two of disagreeing about particulars. One being the tagline, but we worked together and came up with a tag that we both liked. I think if fits our podcast perfectly, because that’s what it is, conversations between us.

There’s lots of little things to buy that add up if you don’t have them. Of course, you can get creative and use what you’ve already got or find budget friendly options. Really, all you need is a way to record yourself talking, like a phone, a free hosting site and you’re in business. The stuff we bought was just to up our game a little.

Here’s what I purchased just to use myself:

• Microphone – Samson Q2U that was recommended via Buzzsprout $56 on Amazon
• Arm stand/boom for the mic (so I wasn’t leaning over all the time talking into it) $14.99 on Amazon
• Microphone shock mount (that I haven’t even hooked up yet and probably didn’t need) $12.95 on Amazon
• Emeet 1080p Webcam (because my very old iMac was having video issues I thought. It turns out it wasn’t, it’s my old early 2008 computer that’s the problem) You don’t need a camera if you’re not planning on using video. $40 on Amazon, I caught a sale.

Of course we’re on a fairly tight budget. So, our friend and fellow artist Vicki Wilson was our photographer and we used her cool studio walls as the backdrop. These are good until we maybe want to opt for a professional photographer who I’m sure will make us both look great. You have to cut corners somewhere and since we’re an audio podcast, this made the most sense.

Another thing we wanted but didn’t necessarily have to have was intro and outro music. There’s plenty of free music to be had, but I had read that if you purchase the music, even for a nominal amount, that will set you apart from most podcasts. We used Audio Jungle to buy our music. I wanted a funky beat to sound really different than others and Lori was onboard with that. She just wanted to make sure it was fast and peppy.

We listened to hundreds of samples and narrowed it down first by our favorite 8, then top 4 then the last round. We had the perfect song picked out and then we decided to sit a day on it. Actually, I think I was out of town on a ghost hunt so we didn’t make any decisions while I was gone. So the next day, Lori goes to buy it and it had increased in price by nearly 5 times! It went from $5 to $24.

I guess there’s a lesson there. So we bought a similar tract by the same artist for $5. It’s not that $24 was too high, but the fact that we had just put it in our saved folder and then it goes up was fishy to us. I even had a screenshot of the price from the day before. Bummer.

So, you can see it’s not terribly expensive to start up. Using Zoom (the meeting app made popular during the pandemic shutdown), we got to work recording a few episodes to get us going. We created an introduction to us and what to expect episode first. Since there’s a recording feature in Zoom, according to Lori, it’s easy to edit that footage, add the intro and outro, upload it to YouTube and voila! She’s doing the editing at the moment due to internet restraints in my rural area.

Lastly, we needed to make a final decision on what hosting site we were going to use. Your podcast has to have a place to live, just like a website. I had researched hosting sites and the plans they offered for several different ones but it came down to Buzzsprout, AnchorFM (which is owned by Spotify), and Simplecast – one that was recommended by a friend of Lori’s who has a podcast herself (The Charmed Studio Blog & Podcast with Thea Fiore Bloom) I’m so glad she recommended it.

Simplecast won. It offered the best deal for the money. We’re currently on a free trial, but will go with a basic subscription of $15/month. It’s very easy to use and their directions have been great so far. The plan with Simplecast is unlimited minutes and even includes a website.

Simplecast easily got our show distributed to all of the podcast players and next thing you know we’ve got a podcast and it’s on Apple Podcasts! My screenshot from my phone is below. We were so thrilled! Apple Podcast is the most used and downloaded podcasting app. It holds the most of the market’s share, 43%, the second being Spotify at about 20% at the time of this writing.

This has been a fun learning experience. It just goes to show, if you want to do something you can. The internet has everything at the tip of our fingers. If you think you’re interested in starting a podcast, I would recommend listening to the series of videos by Buzzsprout on YouTube. They’re very generous with their information. They also have a podcast with the episodes as well but the videos are better in my opinion and more up to date.

Lori and I are getting a groove going and I think we really work well together. Since we were already friends, it’s been easy. Right now, we’ve committed to keep this up for at least 6 months. We’ll reassess and see how we like it and how it fits into our already busy lives. Summer may be a challenge when the kids are out, but we’re going to figure it out. We’re a weekly podcast and we drop a new episode each Tuesday. Below is a sneak peek screenshot at this coming Tuesday’s episode. I hope you join us!

←New Graffiti Art Style Paintings /  First 2023 Public Art Exhibit at Alexandrian Public Library ⟶

Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page under the additional links menu. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery and telling mystical stories.

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