So you want to start a podcast?

Welcome to Spark, a weekly newsletter from Vivace Content. We curate and distill the best thinking and ideas from our community — on themes spanning the business, financial, and cultural landscape. Send tips, pitches, and feedback to [email protected].

By now, you likely know that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate for this historic election.

The governor lives just two miles away from me here in Saint Paul, albeit in a much grander home, and I have been excited to watch his meteoric rise in the national media and social ecosystem over the past few weeks.

There will be many profiles and interviews of Governor Walz in the coming days (Hot Ones first, please), but if you’re looking for something of substance to dig into, I highly recommend his recent podcast interview with Ezra Klein.

Podcasts are on my mind for all kinds of reasons, which is why we decided to dedicate today’s column to them in full. Careful readers will note this is an update of a post I wrote nearly a year ago in my LinkedIn newsletter. And while a lot can change in 12 months, some things haven’t changed at all. Podcasts are as popular as ever with audiences and brands alike, but the balance between brand and storytelling remains difficult to navigate, and competition for engagement is fierce.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time and energy thinking and learning about the ins and outs of starting and running a podcast. Though it might feel like we’ve hit peak podcast, they can still be an effective way to tell your story with the right framing. Here’s what I’ve learned…

-joel

I have been obsessed with podcasts for the better part of the past decade. My love of the medium, as it does for so many, goes all the way back to Serial, and my close attention to the space writ large goes back to when Nicholas Quah (now the podcast critic at Vulture) started his influential newsletter Hot Pod.

Over the years I’ve had many ideas and aspirations to start my own podcast or at least work on a show, even applying for radio jobs here and there, but the spark to actually get going didn’t really come. Luckily, as I progressed in my content marketing roles at companies like Refinitiv and LSEG, I got to learn loads and get practical experience producing and launching podcasts and video series, eventually leading a small team of producers and strategists and partnering with some wonderful audio experts along the way.

Last year I finally started my own: Connection Request. So far we’ve released two seasons across which I had the opportunity to interview business executives, journalists, entrepreneurs, artists and a local state senator about why they do what they do, their journey, and what they’ve learned along the way. In the upcoming Season 3 we’ll be bringing Connection Request under the Vivace umbrella and evolving the show to be more decidedly about creative entrepreneurship, big ideas, current affairs, and the future of work.

These 13 pod-starter questions are the result of years of podcast producing for other brands, as well as launching and producing two seasons of my own podcast last year. They’re a great starting point for anyone embarking on a podcasting journey, or deciding whether to invest in one.