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Episode #74

Stop Building the Studio, Start Recording

A wired mic and your phone is enough to start a podcast. The fancy studio is the reason most people never record episode one.

9 min 50s
Listen on:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube

Key takeaways

  • Start with a €20 to €30 wired clip mic and your phone. Audio-only is fine. The equipment ceiling you set before you record becomes the quality floor you feel you have to meet, and that kills episode one.
  • Treat your first episode the way Paul treated his first DJ gig: a room of 80 people, not a festival of 10,000. Your tenth episode will be better than your first. Your hundredth will be better than your tenth. That's how it works.
  • Talk for eight to twelve minutes about the things you already love. You built your business around something you care about. That's the content. You don't need a topic strategy before you start.
  • When you launch and nobody listens, keep going. Paul pushed three episodes at once and almost no one heard them. The audience builds because you keep showing up, not because your first episode lands perfectly.
  • Repurpose after you record, not before. One video podcast episode becomes reels, clips, social posts, and a blog. Identity First Media handles that process. Your only job is to press record.

Timestamps

00:00Why the studio kills the podcast before it starts
00:52Your first episode is your best - until it isn't
01:21The DJ career: starting small, growing into it
02:40What people actually want from a podcast
03:55How Identity First Media repurposes one episode
06:00What happens when you share it: fans and customers
07:59The authority shift: from kitchen to studio guest
08:26Paul's own start: three episodes, almost no listeners
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Read the blog article

Why Do Most Podcasters Quit Before Their First Episode?

Show notes

What this episode is about

Paul Veth argues that the podcast studio is the barrier, not the solution. Most entrepreneurs who buy expensive equipment never record episode one, because high investment creates high pressure to be perfect from the start. This episode breaks down why that dynamic kills content before it begins, and what the actual starting point looks like.

The DJ lesson

Paul started as a DJ playing for 80 to 100 people at a local bar. He grew from there into venues of 500, then 1,000, then festivals of 5,000 to 10,000. His point: if his first gig had been in front of 10,000 people, the pressure alone would have ended it. Podcasting works the same way. You grow into it. You don't begin at the top.

What you actually need to start

  • A wired clip microphone (around €20 to €30)
  • Your iPhone, audio-only to begin with
  • Eight to twelve minutes of you talking about what you already love
  • A kitchen, an office, or a walk outside

Paul recorded this episode on his iPhone with a clip mic in front of his bookshelf. Raw, simple, and already more than most people have published.

What happens after you press record

Identity First Media turns one podcast episode, especially with video, into reels, carousels, short clips, social posts, a blog post, and a hosted episode on your website. But none of that works without the first recording. When Paul launched his podcast, he pushed three episodes at once and almost nobody listened. That's normal. It's practice. The people who love what you talk about will find you, and they will become customers.

The authority shift

After recording consistently from your kitchen or office, you start getting invited onto other podcasts, ones with proper studios. You show up, you get the recording, you cut the shorts. Suddenly your audience sees you in a professional environment and something clicks. They start seeing you as an authority. But that moment only comes because you started in the kitchen first.

Topics

how to start a podcastpodcast without studiopodcasting for entrepreneursIdentity First Mediacontent creation for businesspodcast with iPhoneentrepreneur content strategystart recording podcast

Full transcript

View full transcript
0:00
0I see people building an entire podcast studio and never record one episode. Want to know why? Here's the catch. When you start buying stuff, you start to buy a better microphone, better better lights, maybe a studio, maybe a green screen, stuff like that. And and you spend like 5,000, 10,000, maybe €20,000 and you are like, okay, now I have the perfect environment for my podcast.
0:31
0But at that moment, when you start your first recording in that studio, your first episode needs to be perfect as well. Because in your mind you connect those two to each other. Okay. I've got the best equipment so I need to push out the best podcast episode. That's never going to work.
0:52
0It's never like that. Your first episode will be the best episode ever until that moment because the tenth episode will be a much better episode. The one hundredth episode will be a much better episode than the first one. But until up that moment, the first episode is your best episode. But it's also the worst after you've done it a lot of times.
1:21
0When you buy a lot of stuff, put in so much effort for the external things, then you will never start recording because the barrier is way too high. I I noticed this when I was a DJ. I started play being a DJ at the local bar for 80 or 100 people and then I start growing into it. So my mixing got better, my audio quality got better, my performance got better and I stepped up the game. So I I played at venues for 500 people, then thousand people, then thousands of people and then festivals with 5,000 to 10,000 people.
2:06
0That's amazing. But if my first gig was for 10,000 people, I probably felt so much pressure I would lose it all. I probably feel so so big. It is just like that and it's the same for your podcast. And I see a lot of people still struggling to push out content, but podcasting is the one thing.
2:40
0It's always you and people want to see you, the real you. And in a podcast episode, don't have to talk for one hour. You can talk for eight to twelve minutes. That's enough. But if you just plug in plug in a microphone in your iPhone, just a simple one with the wire for maybe 20 or €30, I did it myself in the beginning.
3:04
0Just a wired microphone, a clip microphone, My iPhone, uh, I recorded it on my iPhone. Just audio, not video yet. Uh, later on, I used the same wired microphone for video as well. I had to zoom out a little bit on my iPhone and it worked. It's amazing because I started recording and people can see, yeah, it's recorded with a phone, so I don't care.
3:30
0This episode is recorded with a phone as well. It's just my iPhone and the microphone. That's it. No fancy studio. Here's my bookshelf.
3:40
0I'm sitting at home at the at the desktop. That's it. With with an old wall. Nothing fancy. It doesn't matter, especially when you start.
3:55
0And nowadays, you can repurpose your content very easy. We do it with Identity First Media for you, so one podcast episode, especially with a video, becomes reels, carousels, short video clips, all social posts, your blog on your website, and a podcast episode with hosting on your website. But that's the power of voice. You just start to talk to the camera or if you are still not ever recorded something on camera and never recorded something on audio, start with audio. You don't have to think about, okay, how I'm looking, how where do I leave my hands, where where am I looking to, what am I doing all the time.
4:49
0It doesn't matter. If you're just it's you and a microphone, you walk outside and you start talking into the microphone and that's it. That's your podcast and you just talk about the things you love because you're an entrepreneur, you love things, that's why you've built that business and you didn't build my business or the business of all the other entrepreneurs, you you have built your business and you start talking about the things you love, why you love it, why you help people. Maybe you can talk about clients or customers or guests without mentioning their name, it doesn't matter. And you start talking about use cases and you will find out that people want to listen to you if you are enthusiastic about it.
5:38
0And it's just you with the microphone, that's it. When you're walking outside, just shut up when somebody's walking by and you pick it up later. You cut the audio and you you paste it together. It's just like that. Or you ask an AI model to do it for you or you buy Identity First Media for your whole business.
6:00
0Of course, that's that's the the best thing to do. But it's really like that. It's so easy and when you push out a podcast episode and you start sharing this on your social channels, you will find out people will love it and some people will hate it, but they don't become customers and the people who love it will become customers of yours. And then suddenly you will find out you're walking somewhere and they start recognizing you. And that's how you start.
6:30
0You don't start with building the podcast studio that costs you too much money because that puts the bar way up, way too high, way too high. It's it's a barrier. It's it's becoming a perfect picture to look up to and you will never be able to to target it in your first episode. Not even in your tenth episode. Not even in your one hundredth episode.
7:02
0It's it's not it's not necessary like that. And maybe it's not necessary ever because after you've done it for a while, you start to be famous locally or famous in your niche or famous on one channel and then you start to receive invitations from podcasters and they have the luxury studio Then you are invited and then you are a guest and then you say, okay, give me the whole recording and then you cut out the shorts out of that. Then suddenly within the the humanly recorded podcast that are so simple, what other people really love, they love it. I promise you, sit in your kitchen and record it. It's amazing.
7:59
0And then they see you sometimes in a professional podcast studio and it's starting to click because they see you suddenly as an authority. But it begins in your kitchen or your dinner table or in your office just with one camera. It can be your phone and one mic. It can be a white mic for like €20. And yes, sometimes you have to scrape your throat.
8:26
0It's just like that because it's just raw material and that's amazing. Just do it like that and you will find out that if you start like this, the barrier is way lower because suddenly you can admit to yourself, okay, this is not the best quality. So it's okay, it's matching and it's a relief. And to be honest, when I pushed my first episode, I pushed three at once, nobody was listening. Maybe at that moment my mother was still alive, she started to listen and maybe some friends did listen, but nobody else listened to it.
9:11
0It doesn't matter. It's just practice for for yourself. Just go buy that simple microphone, plug it into your phone, start recording on audio or if you are okay with it, just switch on the camera. Talk to it for eight to twelve minutes. I even had my own rule when I made one podcast every day.
9:36
0I said, okay, minimum minimum at four minutes. It's okay because if you record it every day, people can listen to you a lot of times about a lot of subjects you talk about. It's amazing.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need professional equipment to start a podcast?

A wired clip microphone for around €20 to €30 and your iPhone is enough to start. Paul recorded this episode that way. High-end equipment raises your internal bar before you have the reps to meet it, which is exactly why most people with expensive studios never record episode one.

How long should my first podcast episode be?

Eight to twelve minutes is enough. Paul even set a personal minimum of four minutes when he was recording daily. Length isn't the point. Talking about something you genuinely care about for a focused stretch is what makes people come back.

What should I talk about on my podcast?

Talk about the things you already love. You built your business around something specific. That's your content. Your enthusiasm is what attracts the right listeners, and those listeners become customers. You don't need a topic strategy before you start recording.

What if nobody listens to my first episodes?

That's normal and expected. Paul launched his podcast by pushing three episodes at once and almost nobody listened. It's practice. The audience builds over time as you keep showing up. The people who do find you and love what you say are the ones who eventually become customers.

How does Identity First Media help with podcasting?

Identity First Media takes one podcast episode, especially with video, and turns it into reels, short clips, carousels, social posts, a blog post, and a hosted episode on your website. The repurposing is handled for you. The only thing you have to do yourself is press record.

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Discussion

The idea that a wired mic and a phone are enough to start cuts against everything the YouTube setup culture tells you. What actually stopped you from hitting record, and was it really the gear?

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