Daily News Update with a commentary episode about current events every Saturday

I'm Reagan Van Beek and I'm a college student actually studying Business, but studying politics has been my hobby since I was 12 years old. Ever since I've been able to understand American news and politics it's been my dream to help others understand what's happening and what it means. Morning Update is that dream come to life, it's all about helping my audience truly understand what's going on and what it means for them.

My listeners are Christians who feel unrepresented by the views and events in modern America. Morning Update not only helps you to understand the news and politics, but it also brings our Christian perspective into this new era of politics.
 

I started a podcast because I've always had something to say and no other platform or method really works for me. I've tried writing articles and even making videos before, but podcasting really sticks to me because it incorporates all of the things I'm good at and more. Initially, I only planned to do one podcast episode a week and it would only be news commentary. I wanted to get my voice out there and I had noticed that I was good at speaking (I was in high school speech at the time) so I decided to make a podcast show and just upload a single episode and see how I liked it. Turns out I liked it a lot and that led to me keeping that podcast show until I was in college.

Now I host the Morning Update podcast, which I started in June of 2024, with News Updates Mon-Fri. and Saturday commentary every Saturday. My first episode of Morning Updated was actually released 2 days after setting up my new podcast show. I set up my show, prepared a template for my daily episodes, recorded it the next day, and then scheduled it for upload the day after.
 

Episodes are released every day, but Sunday with regular News Updates Mon-Fri. and Saturday Talk/commentary episodes every Saturday. It takes roughly 2 hours or so to prepare each episode, and then anywhere from 5minutes to 1hr 30minutes to record, depending on whether I'm recording the daily News Update or Saturday Talk episode. After recording I spend about 30 minutes to an hour editing and scheduling the episode to be uploaded the next morning.

Finding time for podcasting was actually an issue at first. I had a Summer job that takes an enormous amount of time in the late Summer, so I had to actually stop uploading in July, but I found the time to continue once college started up again. It isn't easy, but right now I record and edit before or after my classes for the day.

I am entirely self funded by working a little bit while in college and working my Summer job. It's not super expensive, but the more I plan to expand, the more expensive it gets. Right now I only spend money on editing software and some other software programs that allow me to expand my podcast into uncharted areas like Apple Podcasters community program and Canva so I can design posts for social media. All of that is entirely self funded and I think it's roughly $35/month when you add everything all together. That will get more expensive and everything as I grow and expand, but that's where I'm at right now.
 

I don't have any financial support currently, but I am open to receiving some. I'm 100% self funded while I learn about podcasting more and grow my audience, but I'd love to receive sponsorships in the future if they fit my audience type. I benefit from you benefiting. I want to see everyone in America able to understand what's going on and why and that's why I made the podcast. When my audience is benefiting from my episodes, then I'm benefiting by having the satisfaction of knowing that I've made a positive difference.
 

I use an online editing software called Podcastle to edit my episodes because it offers a variety of features that are relatively easy to learn and I use Canva to make designs for posting on Social Media. I also use Zoom for interviewing people and making my Saturday Talk episodes with my commentary cohost, John.

Each episode is prepared via a template that I made and saved on a Word document. I edit the template usually the day of or day before recording, with all the recent news and current events.
 

My listeners are mostly from Spotify and Apple Podcasts, I believe it's about a 50% 40% split with the other 10% coming from a variety of other platforms like iHeart Radio and others.

I try to reach out to my audience via X where I post a link to my most recent episode and any updates to the channel to keep you updated. If you want to look for me there, search for @MorningUpdated and you'll find me.
 

Podcasting isn't easy, no matter what type you're doing. It takes time and effort, but if your vision is something other than money, then you'll reach your dream eventually. Never leave your uploading schedule unless you 100% have to, your audience wants to hear what you have to say and they don't like having to miss a day.

I actually received a book all about podcasting and podcast marketing for my birthday not too long ago, it's called Podcasting Made Simple by: Daniel Larson. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get started.
 

You can find the podcast X account at https://x.com/MorningUpdated and my personal X account at https://x.com/ReaganVanBeek. You can also listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, whether it's Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Listen Notes, etc.