What originally was an undergraduate senior project turned into a creative outlet and digital experiment. The first five months of KWK I worked with a professor who was more than equipped with knowledge around audio engineering and production. I worked alongside this professor to produce a clean, well informed, and organized podcast each week during my senior year. This resulted in interviewed New York Times Best Selling Author Laura Dave on the show!

Click HERE to listen to the Laura Dave interview.

My professor and I mimic the relationship of a communications director and an employee asked to create an industry standard podcast for a functional company. I combine my video production and social media marketing skills to additionally create a brand and social media campaign alongside each episode. The final product within those 5 months was a minimum of five episodes editing at industry standards and an active Instagram account that documented my campaign.

PRE-PRODUCTION: I scripted each episode around a topic, organized each step of the creation process for the week, and gathered equipment I needed for the creation process.

CREATION: Record 30-60 minute long episodes on said topics using a dynamic and entertaining style to maintain engagement while record myself for post production content. 

POST-PRODUCTION: Using Adobe Audition I would edit each episode to podcast editing standards, and use adobe premiere pro to clip together segments to post on social media to increase listener count. At the end of each week I would send my professor a “progress report” that include the podcast’s analytics, social platform analytics, and my “actions items” for the next week to generate improvement each week.

There are many reasons why I decided to start a podcast during my senior year:

I’m fascinated by the growing industry and wanted a chance to experiment directly in while it was growing at such an exponential rate.

Audio engineering is a topic I continue to research due to it’s complexity.

I want to advance my skills in podcast production.

I am very passionate about great public speaking and believe the best people and leaders are some of the best speakers.

It’s a lot of fun!

115 people listened to the first episode.

Engagement flattened after the first 4 episodes.

There was a direct relationship to consistent episodes and consistent increase in following on every social platform.

I expanded my knowledge within audio production and delivery.

I got an A+, yay!

Consistency is ESSENTIAL.

Having a “niche” is up for debate (and I’d like to continue to see just how true or false this is).

Video clips are a growing essential, but not necessary to increase listeners directly from social platforms.

Creating a brand around your podcast does increase your engagement.