► Tell us about you and your podcast
Hi there, my name is James Writtenhouse and I'm the guy behind JWN Radio Hour. I prefer to refer to my podcast as an "audio program" because I have a particular feel that I'm going for.
The goal of my podcast is to share practical strategies, concepts and ideas for your life and business. For example, I have a series on my podcast called "On The Simple Science of Invincibility" where I share practical concepts on what you can do to develop a bullet-proof mindset.
My listeners are people who have an interest in philosophy and/or business. They have an entrepreneurial mindset and strive for personal development on a daily basis.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
To be honest, I was initially hesitant to the idea of podcasting. I had always imagined that I needed to have some sort of fancy setup in order to get things going and I've never been a big podcaster myself, but what had initially piqued my interest as far as getting into audio was this app called Anchor.
I was scrolling through Facebook one day and I see this ad with Gary Vaynerchuk talking about some hot, new app that just came out. This was towards the end of December 2017. I clicked through and downloaded the app and came up with my first podcast: JWN-FM.
I started messing around with for a little bit, but left it because I had a video channel that I needed to work on and I had a lot of videos to make. Once I finished working on that YouTube channel, I came back to Anchor after their "big update" and decided to give podcasting another go because I saw it as a way to expand my reach and get in front of my audience in a rapidly growing medium.
I had been studying the trends and had noticed that smart speakers have been on the rise and audios (e.g., audiobooks, podcasts, internet radio, etc.) were becoming more of a thing. By this point, it was March and I decided to change the name of my podcast from JWN-FM to JWN Radio Hour.
I deleted everything from my old podcast, and released my first episode on February 25, 2018. Releasing my first episode was a piece of cake. It's a conversation that I had with Kevin Touch, a friend of mine that I had met on Anchor. Speaking of which, we had talked about doing a weekly show on my podcast. I think I need to get back to him on that.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
I release an episode every week. Since I'm re-purposing content from my YouTube channel, it doesn't take very long for me to create an episode, plus I schedule several episodes in advance so I only have to work on my podcast in short bursts.
In the near future, I do plan on creating original content for JWN Radio Hour and I've also considered doing interviews as well as having recorded conversations with other entrepreneurs, influencers and marketers.
Also, Anchor makes it very easy to record and upload audio so if you're just getting started in this, then I highly recommend using Anchor. You can host as much audio as you want on Anchor and never have to pay a dime.
I'm not spending anything on marketing at the moment and have been primarily promoting my podcast on social media like Facebook and Twitter. In the future, I do want to set money aside and invest in paid advertisement.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
Currently, I do not have any sponsorship, but I am open to the idea of taking sponsorship if it makes sense.
Podcasting benefits me because it allows me to expand my reach and connect with more people. I think podcasting is great because people can listen to it while doing other things.
For example, you can listen to a podcast while you're driving to work. The same can't be said for a video or graphic which demands visual attention in order to be properly digested.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
My two main podcasting tools are my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone (amzn.to/2FvZKSW), and my laptop. It's not much, but where there's a will, there's a way. I don't interview guests at the moment, but Anchor makes it very easy to record with multiple people at once, so I might start doing it in the future.
I usually prepare several episodes in advance. I have a main theme that I focus on and under that theme, there are sub-components that I use as the basis for each episode.
► How do you market your show?
Listeners can find my show on various podcast directories like iTunes, Blubrry, Anchor, and Pocket Casts, just to name a few. I currently don't have a breakdown of my listener sources since it's still relatively fresh at the time I'm writing this.
I find social to be the most useful because you can expose yourself to a large audience through social very easily.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
My one piece of advice for new podcasters is to treat podcasting like a marathon, not a sprint. I also recommend checking out podcastfasttrack.com. It's a gold mine of information.