Finding Things That Spark Joy Through Every Aspect Of Life

I'm Susmitha Veganosaurus, host of The Feel Good Factor podcast. I'm a vegan chef, micro influencer, restauranteur, meditation teacher and artist. I live in Bangalore, India.

The Feel Good Factor is all about consciously finding things that spark joy through every aspect of life.

The podcast features contemplative talks, interviews and meditations, covering a wide range of topics from compassion to self-love, wellness to abundance, and so much more.

It's all about infusing fun, peace and uplifting, high vibe energy into our everyday moments by making feeling good our highest priority.

The content is meant for anyone who'd like to focus on happiness and self-care.

I started listening to podcasts a couple of years ago and over time I was inspired to start my own. I have so much to share, I figured this would be a great medium to do it.

I needed a few months to do research and contemplation. But once I had learnt enough about the basics of podcasting and made my decision to launch the podcast, I didn't wait too long to take action.

Within a couple of days I had recorded my first two episodes and uploaded them. It was after I posted my third episode that I decided to launch and publicise the podcast on social media and within my inner circle.

I launched The Feel Good Factor in December 2019, just a couple of days before the new year. It seemed like a great time to do something new for myself, as well as create a happy place filled with inspiration and motivation for everyone.

Even though I was very enthusiastic to start churning and sharing content at first, I didn't want to risk burning out. So I made a very conscious decision to release only one episode per week. That turned out to be an excellent move because each episode seems to take a LOT more time and effort to produce than I'd imagined before I began podcasting. haha

I release a new episode every Tuesday and promote it through the day. Then I put in a little bit of effort each day for the rest of the week to plan, record, edit and publish the next episode.

So far I haven't spent any money on my podcast. I currently use a free hosting service, but I do plan to switch to a paid one soon. I believe that'll help me grow and take the show to the next level.

I do all the editing, marketing, episode art creation and everything else myself. I had zero experience with audio production and editing before. So I'd like to say that even people without any experience can produce good content and pretty decent audio quality. All they need to do is put in time and effort learning about audio editing and podcasting. There are plenty of free resources to learn from. More than enough for a beginner.

As the show grows, I'm aware I might need to outsource at least some of the work. I'm very particular about the quality of the audio so I'm extremely diligent with editing out distracting fillers like breaths, umm, errs and such. So that's probably the not something I'll be outsourcing very soon.

If I need to spend money on the podcast, I will initially be funding it myself. But in the long run I am looking at affiliates and sponsorships.

Podcasting has been a wonderfully rewarding feeling. But so far, all the benefits I've gotten have been non-financial.

The podcast is just over three months old and the audience has been steadily growing. I've been receiving a lot of positive feedback and some great reviews. The Feel Good Factor also got into some top charts on Apple Podcasts India a couple of times, reaching #12 at its peak.

Just hearing people share how joyful listening to the show makes them feel in itself makes all the effort worth it. That is after all my biggest reason to have started the podcast. To make a positive difference in peoples lives.

However, I do plan to work with affiliates and launch sponsorship packages soon. I believe I can do a lot more with the podcast if it's funded.

I started out recording and editing the episodes on my phone. But around my 10th episode, I learnt the magic of Audacity! It completely changed the quality of the audio and made it far superior. I went back in and polished up all the older episodes too. It's totally worth the time and effort!

Now I use my laptop and the mic on my earphones to record each episode. For my solo talks, I record directly on to audacity and edit there. For my interviews, I've used Zoom and Zencastr to record. Then I edit the audio files on Audacity.

So far, all my guests have been from my circle of friends and acquaintances. There are so many wonderful, interesting people I already know with inspiring stories. So I don't see the need to reach out to strangers yet.

I believe that as I keep going, the podcast will attract the right guests. I won't need to go looking for any.

I've submitted the RSS feed of my podcast on to most major podcast platforms. And I mainly market the show on my instagram profile @veganosaurus (instagram.com/veganosaurus).

There's also a mailing list that people can subscribe to on my website veganosaurus.com

About half my audience so far have been using Apple Podcasts to listen to my show. The second biggest set of listeners comes from Spotify. Castbox brings in a nice little chunk of people too.

1. As long as you have a good reason why you want to run a podcast, it's definitely worth starting one.

2. Take time researching and learning up before you begin. There are some great podcasts about podcasting. I started off by listening to Anchor's own podcasting series. The Buzzsprout blog has a lot of useful information too. For audio editing and marketing tips, Pat Flynn's podcast and youtube videos are excellent resources.

3. Please be sure you can commit time and effort to your podcast. It takes a lot more of both than you can imagine. Don't start until you're sure you can commit, because starting a podcast, publishing a few episodes and disappearing is a very sad thing.

4. Be consistent. Even if you do one episode a week, a fortnight, a month, it's okay. As long as you're consistent. Your audience should know when to expect the next episode and be able to look forward to it.

5. You don't have to spend too much to start off. Don't stress over equipment. Find a quiet place and just start recording. I do my recordings in my walk in closet. hehe It's a perfect setting to begin at!

You can find my podcast by searching for "The Feel Good Factor" or "Susmitha Veganosaurus" on your preferred podcasting platform.

And you can learn more about me on my website veganosaurus.com

Website: veganosaurus.com
Instagram: instagram.com/veganosaurus
ListenNotes: listennotes.com/podcasts/the-feel-good-factor-susmitha-veganosaurus-4aom3sEQYwC
Podchaser (please leave a review here if you enjoy my podcast):
podchaser.com/veganosaurus