7 things I Learned About Podcasting | S3E001

If you're tired of hiding your brilliance behind

stage fright, scripts, or playing it safe, then

you are in the perfect place.

This is the Inspired Speaker Podcast, and I

am your host, Danielle Benzon, professional rebel, voice

coach, and your guide to speaking with confidence,

charisma, and zero BS.

Around here, we don't chase perfection.

We choose connection.

So grab a hot beverage, warm up those

vocal cords, and get ready to fall wildly

in love with the sound of your voice.

Let's get inspired.

I have to say, I am really appreciating

these six episode seasons that we've been doing

on the Inspired Speaker Network.

I know that this isn't exactly what Michelle

Abraham meant when she said you could do

whatever you want and do a season at

a time, which is what really involved me

on the idea of doing a podcast in

the first place.

But oh my goodness, I am loving it.

I love the freedom of being able to

kind of shift focus a little bit every

six weeks.

I love the idea that I could take

a break if I wanted to, although to

be honest, I don't think I ever will

again.

But it sparks my creativity and my curiosity

in a way that I think thinking about

the podcast as one long thing, even a

year season, which I know is what most

people think of when they think of a

season, even a year season would feel very

heavy for me and really, oh, how am

I going to do the same thing every

week for a year?

I'm just loving the six-week season idea.

So I'm running with it and I apologize

if it's not.

Do I apologize if it's not normal?

I don't.

I don't apologize if it's not normal.

I'm loving it and I am embracing it.

And hey, there's nothing normal about me.

So there we go.

Today is episode one of season three.

We are doing industry insights this season.

So as you may have noticed, I launched

a podcast network recently or not recently, depending

on where you're listening, when you're listening to

this, but recently in time right now, as

of recording, we launched our network on the

4th of August, 2026.

And the idea came to me around June,

2026.

And we did it all in about a

month, maybe five weeks.

And it was an experience.

And during those five weeks, I actually ended

up interviewing quite a few people who make

money doing podcasts in one way, shape or

form.

They work with podcasters, they do bookings.

I interviewed someone else who is also a

producer, a podcast producer.

And so I have all these interviews and

I wanted to put them together in a

season, kind of an intensive educational season for

people who are looking to do their own

podcasts, not necessarily starting your own network.

I'm not sure if I would recommend that

to everybody.

It is a lot of work depending on

how you want to do it.

But definitely, I think having a podcast is

such an amazing machine for your business, for

your soul, for your message.

There are so many wonderful things that come

out of it.

And yes, I know that a lot of

people have podcasts now compared to in the

old days, everybody and a dog has their

own podcast now.

And there's such a low barrier to entry,

but that is a wonderful thing.

Think about what Netflix did for television.

Think about podcasts.

Anyone can make a podcast.

And yes, the production value is going to

vary greatly depending on who's doing it and

how they're doing it.

But the level to entry, the barrier to

entry is so low that it is allowing

more diverse voices than ever before.

And also, it's allowing a kind of equalization

of the market in a way that is

wonderful because you get to be your unique

flavor of you and people get to sort

and get to decide who they're listening to.

And so, that diversity can really be in

your favor.

You don't need to be big and flashy

and fancy to get a loyal following.

You just need to be really specific and

really real and maybe, I hope, authentic and

kind of niche down.

And I don't mean in the kind of

traditional way of niching.

I work with moms between 40 and 42

who have 7.5 kids.

A bit of ridiculous niche there.

But it doesn't need to be a niche

like that.

But niche through your values, through your interests,

through who you are, through how you show

up.

And that uniqueness calls to certain people.

And that is how we get to decide

who we listen to.

So, I think it's a fantastic thing.

And I am loving running the network.

I am enjoying meeting new people.

I'm enjoying interviewing folks.

I'm loving watching all of the podcasts.

I personally watch every single podcast that goes

live on my network.

And so, I'm loving watching all the other

podcast hosts and what they're doing and who

they're interviewing.

It is so rewarding.

And before I share with you all of

the interviews that I've done, this won't be

all of the interviews.

You're going to get five because it's a

six-episode season and this first episode is

just me.

So, you're going to get five of the

industry insight interviews that I've done.

And then I'll do another one when I

have another six.

And I'm really excited to share this with

you because there are some amazing insights in

these interviews that I'm not applying all of

them yet to my podcast and to my

network.

But I have a long to-do list

based on these interviews that I am going

to be implementing over the next few months.

There's so much value in these interviews around

what to do as a guest, how to

monetize the experience if you're a guest, how

to monetize the experience if you're a host,

how to build relationships, how to approach people

who maybe you're not sure if they would

listen to you because they're so experienced and

they've got so many followers.

There's so much information here.

We talk about some tech stuff with Chen

There is so much valuable information in this

season that I really, really want you to

absorb like a sponge.

You may have to watch a couple of

these episodes over and over and take some

extra notes.

I know I did.

But before we get to that, I just

wanted to share a few things that I've

learned in launching a podcast network because I

have coached now six people launch their podcast,

not six people.

Well, yeah, Tammy and Shannon are two, so

six.

Five podcasts, six people.

I coached them from zero to running their

podcast, knowing what to say.

And I was there in the room helping

them out in their first episodes.

And there are some things that I have

learned that are non-negotiable.

And I would like to share them with

you.

If you are thinking of starting a podcast

or if you are thinking of expanding your

reach and starting to speak as a guest

on podcasts or summits, these apply.

These rules that I have learned, these lessons

that I've learned, apply on any kind of

online speaking situation.

They even apply sometimes to offline speaking situations,

but that is a different genre.

So we're going to keep this to podcasting,

podcast guesting, podcast hosting, podcast guesting, summits, interviews,

online content creation.

I'm not a huge kind of TikTok short

person, but it might apply to some of

those as well.

So I've written them down and I have

seven.

So here we go.

The first one is you take as long

as you have.

We did this whole thing in five weeks

and we got it done and I had

no idea how we were going to do

it.

But my theory was if we set ourselves

an impossible goal and we didn't hit it,

then we just extend it.

But I wanted to see if we could

do it in five weeks.

And I did my best to set us

up.

We set deadlines.

Sometimes we hit them, sometimes we didn't, but

we had enough give to hit the final

deadline of the launch date, even though we

didn't always hit our internal deadlines.

Because also when you have six podcasters submitting

information, some people are a little bit early

and some people are a little bit late,

kind of evens out.

So what I found was everyone waited until

the deadline to submit artwork, music decisions, name

decisions, oh my goodness, even afterwards.

So I also had to set a time

for this is the deadline for making the

decision.

And then after that, you can change your

mind, but only after this time.

I had to create deadlines around boundaries around

each of those things.

Because the thing is, if we are procrastinating,

if we are scared, if we are trying

to get it perfect, we will take as

long as we are given.

If I had given those podcasters six months

to come up with the name of their

podcast and their target audience, it would have

taken them six months.

If I had given them six weeks, it

would have taken them six weeks.

It's amazing how we do.

We just fill that time.

I know there's a name for this.

I have forgotten what the name for that

is, but I know there's a name for

this phenomenon.

And that was just really reinforced.

So what I would suggest, if you are

starting, instead of saying, well, I'll do it

when I'm ready, or I'll just do this

much, set yourself a deadline.

You know what's realistic for you.

If you have help, it can be done

in a month.

But I did a lot of the work.

I did a lot of the organizing and

reminding and that kind of thing.

So you may not be able to do

it in a month.

But whatever you do, set yourself a deadline

and do your darndest to hit it.

And then also set yourself a deadline, a

point of no return deadline.

So maybe you set yourself a deadline of

I want to have all my material recorded

by this date, and it doesn't get there.

And you say, okay, well, this is the

launch date.

So I have to have everything recorded by

that date.

And if I don't like it, I can

redo it.

But I can only redo it after all

these other things have been done.

So maybe once everything's up and running, and

I've got the next season scheduled, then I

can go back and fix and edit or

I'm going to redo the intro or I'm

going to redo the podcast, the episode image,

whatever it is that you're not happy with.

Don't only give yourself a deadline to complete

it, but give yourself a point of no

return.

I have to submit it no matter how

unhappy I am with it.

And I can change it later.

Everything can be changed later.

Everything can be updated later.

It's a bit more work sometimes, but usually

you can change anything retroactively.

So give yourself that done is better than

good deadline, because otherwise it will just take

forever.

And it will just go on and on

and on.

Number two, I'm looking at my notes.

And this is hilarious, because this is number

two.

We can always tell when you are reading.

Always.

I don't care how sneaky you think you

are.

I don't care if your notes are right

up there next to your camera.

I don't care if you've got one of

those fancy teleprompters.

We can tell.

We can always tell.

Even if you're a good reader, sometimes we

won't mind.

If you're a really good reader, we may

not mind that you're reading.

If you're really good and you manage to

stay connected with us at the same time,

we may decide that your connection is so

strong that we don't mind that you're reading,

but your audience can always tell when you're

reading.

And I'm talking about audio-only podcasts, too.

It's not just about your eyes going left

to right.

Your vocal tone actually changes.

You have a different voice when you are

reading compared to when you are speaking.

And even if you are reading really well,

your voice is different from candid speech.

Not necessarily worse.

If you're a really good reader, it may

not be worse.

It may just be different.

But it is different and we can hear

it.

And the more AI tries to take over

our jobs and our world, it tries to.

It's trying to.

It's not trying to.

It just is.

But the more it is replacing humans, the

more that predictable, good reading isn't going to

matter anymore because AI could do it.

The only thing that makes you different, that

makes you separate, that makes you special, that

makes you exciting is your candid speech.

And the human ear does react differently to

that kind of chaos of, I don't know

what I'm going to say next.

That unscripted, unrehearsed, candid speech sounds different.

When you are real and you are raw

and you are alive, there is an unpredictability

to your speech that cannot be replicated.

And that is going to become more and

more important as the years go on.

So, learn to speak without a script now.

And if you're curious about being scriptless, talk

to me because that's my speciality.

What's number three?

Oh, I'm getting old.

I can't read that here.

Oh, my goodness.

In my naivete, just like everybody else, I

thought that the best type of mic was

a kind of fancy podcaster table mic.

This is not true.

Well, it's kind of true, but it comes

with a caveat.

A headset microphone is the best option if

you are doing podcasts on a budget.

They're cheaper and they don't require a full

sound studio in order for them to work.

The mic is right next to your mouth,

which, okay, can be dangerous.

And I do, I'm just going to move

mine away from my mouth.

Just noticed it's quite close to my mouth

now.

If it's right in front of your mouth,

that can be a real problem because then

you catch all the P's and T's and

things.

So, you do want the microphone to be

a bit further away.

I actually really love, I've got, ah, where

is it?

I have one of these little hooky over

the ear ones that I really love too.

And then the microphone ends up being about

halfway down your cheek, which is even better.

I love those little wireless ones.

They don't always play well with my tech.

So, sometimes I just do the wired mic,

but a headset mic is your best bet

unless you are able to deal with all

of the traps that come with a fancy

tabletop microphone.

So, first off, the fact that it's on

your table is a problem because your hands

are close to the table and your shirt

and your jewelry and all sorts of other

things.

Your computer fan is closer to the microphone

than your mouth.

This is a problem because all of that

ambient sound gets prioritized over your voice.

So, that's the first problem with a tabletop

mic.

The second problem is, of course, you're probably

touching your desk without noticing.

You're rustling your notes.

Well, hopefully not.

Hopefully, you don't have notes.

But you're touching things.

You're fiddling with things.

You hit the microphone occasionally.

So many dangers.

It's perilous, that desk microphone.

Now, if you put it up on a

stand above you and you have it coming

from above you and towards your mouth, that

is, of course, much better.

You're much less likely to hit it and

you can actually position it in exactly the

right place.

The danger is still that you are not

in a sound booth.

You are not necessarily wearing headphones because a

lot of people think that they can get

away with having a microphone and not headphones.

You cannot do this because this microphone is

going to pick up anything, any echoes in

the room.

So, as soon as you have a guest

and your sound is coming out of your

computer speakers hitting the wall around you, hitting

your microphone, all sorts of horrible echoes are

going to happen.

Zoom does an amazing job of lessening those

echoes, but it can only do so much.

It's not magic.

And I think Riverside actually also has an

echo cancellation, but still, it's not magic.

And chances are, it's going to ruin your

sound.

So, even if you have a desk mic

or a mic that's hanging over you, if

you have a traditional microphone, you still need

to wear earphones because the sound of your

interviewer, interviewee, the sound of your interviewee, your

guest, that needs to come in through your

ears and not bounce around the room.

So, I know they look cool.

And hey, if you want to have one

as a prop, go ahead, be my guest.

But it's going to look a bit funny

if you're wearing headphones and you have one

as a prop.

That's going to look a bit weird.

But please, before you go out and invest

a fortune in one of these fancy microphones,

please be aware the room that you are

in is much more important to your sound

quality than your microphone.

If you have just one of these cheap

headsets that you just put over your head,

like a gaming headset or anything, or I

think they're like the telemarketing headset, if that's

still a thing, so much better.

And then we don't have to worry about

all this stuff.

Now, I'm not saying that it's not possible.

It's just, it's a trap and it's dangerous

and you'll end up spending a lot more

money to get that professional value sound than

you would if you just took the shortcut

and wore a headset.

I'm going to stop ranting about that now.

Okay, what's next?

Oh, have a buddy.

Buddies help.

Buddies help with accountability.

Buddies help with, you watch your podcast back

and you go, oh my goodness, that was

terrible.

I cannot show that to anybody ever.

They watch it and they go, what are

you talking about?

That was great.

You are not your own, well, you are

your own best critic, your own worst critic.

You know what I mean?

You are not an objective person to watch

your videos or to listen to your sound

and make a decision about whether or not

that is good to go out to the

public.

You are not the person to make that

decision.

If you have a coach or a buddy

or a group of buddies who can help

you out with that, please, they have to

be honest because they do have to tell

you if it is not okay.

You do need to have people you can

trust, but launching the network with six other

people who could listen to each other and

could calm the insecurities and the nerves and

keep each other excited, do it with a

buddy.

It is so much more fun.

It keeps you accountable.

It keeps the energy up.

It helps you overcome your insecurities.

It gives you an objective eye on something

that you are never going to be objective

about.

So if you can, do it with a

buddy.

What's next?

This is a very simple one.

No wobbly chairs.

You see I'm on one of these.

Then I hit my desk as well.

You see these chairs, these swivel chairs?

Make your life easy.

And if you have a swivel chair in

your studio, have a stool or just a

normal chair that doesn't swivel nearby so that

when you record your podcast, if you are

sitting down, if you record your podcast, sit

on a chair that doesn't move.

It is just so much easier than training

yourself out of moving.

If you're one of those people who moves

on your swivel chair, it is almost impossible

to train yourself out of doing that.

It's easier just to use a different chair.

Similarly, if you're the type of person who

shifts from foot to foot, this is going

to be a thing to deal with.

Maybe something that I do, which is a

bit weird.

I either don't wear any shoes and I

bend my knees quite a lot to sit

into my pelvis so that I'm not as

tall as I normally am.

I'm kind of almost doing a half squat,

but it helps me stay grounded.

Or I'll wear heels so that I can

very consciously bend my knees.

Otherwise, I also do this and it's going

from side to side, bobbing from side to

side or bobbing up and down.

It's extremely distracting.

So don't do that.

Obviously, that's only important on video.

No one can tell if you're swiveling from

side to side on sound unless you're not

wearing a headset because then your voice is

going to go away and then come back

and then go away and then come back.

And that's going to be very noticeable.

All right, what's next?

Oh, I love this one.

Keep going if you mess up.

There's a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly, you actually don't know how bad your

mess up is until you watch it back

afterwards.

You might flub a word and think it's

the end of the world.

And then you listen to it later and

you're like, that's just totally normal.

That is how we speak in normal speech.

So keep going.

There's a couple of reasons for this.

A, you need to remind your nervous system

that a mistake is not a big deal

and that you can keep going.

Your nervous system, if you stop every time

you make a mistake, you are training yourself

into getting flustered and making a big deal

out of things.

Even if you don't use that take, you

don't need to use it, but do finish

it.

Even if you don't use it, it really

trains if the act of speaking is so

important and training yourself into being able to

keep going, even when you do make a

mistake, training yourself to recover.

That is a skill all in its own

right, and it only comes through practice.

So if you stop every time you mess

up, you are sabotaging yourself and you are

training yourself into a really bad habit that

is difficult to get out of.

So that's the first reason.

The other reason is you don't know how

big a deal it is.

So maybe you think, okay, well, I'm going

to throw this takeaway, but you finish it

because you're doing well.

You're doing best practices and you finish it.

You watch it back.

You're like, oh, actually I'm not going to

do it again.

That was perfect.

Good enough.

Because that flub wasn't nearly as big a

deal as you thought it was.

And sometimes those flubs can be magic.

They can be what breaks the tension or

it makes you relatable or what lights you

up because you, oh my goodness, I'm so

silly.

And then you have a laugh and then

everyone laughs with you.

Everyone who isn't with you because you're all

alone, but everyone who's listening will have a

little giggle with you later in the comfort

of their own homes or cars or walks

or wherever they're listening to you.

And it can really be a relatable moment.

It can be a connection moment.

So there's that.

And then there's the third reason.

Oh, the third reason is if you are

creating video content, if you have 10 takes

of up to the first half and only

one good take of the second half, if

you need to be edited for any reason,

if you are creating content that, you know,

you're editing in and out and maybe you're

splicing it around.

If you only have one piece of the

final piece of content and 10 pieces of

the first piece of content, that makes you

a nightmare to edit.

You need to have multiple takes of the

beginning, the middle and the end for your

poor editor to stitch things together.

You may have said it perfectly the second

time at the end, but the first time

at the beginning, and then we can stitch

those together.

And that might be depending on the type

of video you're doing.

If it's a podcast, I try to edit

as little as possible.

But if you're doing content creation, if you're

doing some sort of educational content, we're going

to be cutting in and out with slides

anyway.

So you may as well choose the favorite

piece.

You know, it doesn't really matter at that

point.

So depending on what type of content you're

making, it's a really good habit.

It's best practice to have more than one

version of all of the pieces of your

talk, not just the beginning.

Because that's we tend to get very beginning

heavy.

Oh my goodness, I need a different pair

of glasses for reading.

Also, my handwriting is terrible.

Number seven.

I think that was seven.

Number seven is imperfect is perfect.

That kind of ties into what I just

said.

No one wants robots.

We can listen to AI.

And oh my goodness, am I listening to

a lot of AI these days because I'm

really interested in the content and a real

human being couldn't be bothered to read it.

So I have to suffer through this AI

garbage.

Please.

Imperfect is so much better.

Your personality shines through.

Yes, you make mistakes.

Yes, you have aborted sentences.

Yes.

Occasionally you say I'm in awe.

It is all so much better.

It is a relief compared to these kind

of fake perfect voices.

But really, they're not very interesting.

And it's just, it just frustrates me so

much.

Human is better.

Imperfect is perfect.

This is what we need.

This is what we want.

We want to connect to you.

We have to have some imperfection in order

for us to listen to that beautiful chaos

in order for our ears to pick up

that sound.

So if you're feeling like, oh, but it's

not perfect.

It is.

It is perfect.

Unless you are saying something that is factually

incorrect.

If you have said something that you don't

believe or is factually wrong.

If it's just a little bit messy, put

it out there anyway, because people are going

to love it.

We secretly love mess.

We do.

It's part of how we connect.

It's who we are.

And we love to see that people are

succeeding and out there and doing things without

having to be perfect.

Because one of the biggest lies that we

have been sold as humans is that we

have to be perfect all the time.

It's garbage.

There's no such thing as a perfect human

anyway.

There's no such thing as a perfect anything

really when it comes to humans.

So why we're striving for it, I don't

know.

But let that go right now.

Let that idea of perfection go.

High standards?

Yes.

Absolutely.

I have very high standards.

I hardly ever meet them.

But they're there.

I grow into them slowly.

Have high standards.

But even if you don't meet your standards,

submit it anyway.

Put it out there in the world anyway,

because the only way that you are going

to improve, the only way that you are

going to grow is if you do the

thing.

And I know that that's hard to hear.

But you can do it.

And I know that you can do it

because I have just watched six other podcasters

on five other podcasts do it with me

over the last two months.

And oh, my goodness, it has been an

honor.

I was very chaotic.

And I was very honest.

But I didn't really know what I was

doing.

But we were going to do it anyway.

And they were so generous and understanding and

patient with me as I worked things out.

And they are still, we are still working

out a few kinks in the network.

And they're still being very patient and generous

and lovely.

But oh, my goodness, have they grown.

And just watching the self-esteem that comes

with having a platform and knowing that you

have a space to express yourself and the

people who want to listen to you will

come and listen.

This isn't like, oh, you must listen to

me.

Podcast is a beautiful thing because you're just

inviting people in.

And the wrong people aren't going to come

to you.

So you don't have to worry about it.

It has been such an honor to watch

them grow.

The amount of self-esteem and their speaking

skills have all improved.

If you haven't been listening to the people

on the Inspired Speaker Network, go check out

some of them now because they are powerful,

powerful people.

And they have really beautiful messages to share.

It has been such an honor and such

a joy to go through this process with

them.

And we're only at the beginning.

We're only at the beginning.

I am only in episode one of season

three.

I'm so excited.

So if you have any doubts about who

you are and what you have to say

and whether or not someone wants to listen

to it, please listen to the rest of

these interviews.

Listen to me.

Listen to the other people in the podcast.

Get inspired by them and let that inspiration

carry you into the courage of sharing your

message.

If you're still scared, call me.

We'll have a conversation.

I am never scared to chat to someone

who is maybe not sure about who they

are or what their message is.

Maybe I can help.

Maybe I can help boost your self-esteem.

Maybe I can give you some tools or

some recommendations.

Maybe I can just give you a little

bit of encouragement.

The world needs more human voices right now.

The world needs your voice.

So I hope you enjoy these industry insights.

I'd love to hear what you have to

say about them, actually.

If you have any comments or questions or

suggestions, please reach out, let me know.

And if you have any curiosity about the

Inspired Speaker Network, I'll make sure that there

is a link in the show notes for

you to go and check it out.