A Simple Checklist for Founders Starting Their First Podcast
- Gigi Kenneth
- Sep 15, 2025
- 3 min read
Thinking about starting your first podcast? It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. You don’t need a studio setup, a production agency, or a full-time team. What you need is a simple system you can actually stick with.
Here’s a founder-friendly checklist to help you record, publish, and share your very first episodes, without overthinking it.
1. Define Your Podcast Identity
This is your foundation:
Title: Short, memorable, and tied to your brand.
Cover Art: A square design that looks clean across platforms (Canva is a good starting point).
Thumbnail Template: If you don’t have an agency creating custom thumbnails, make one reusable Canva template. Update it with the guest’s name, photo, or episode number.
Intro Line & Description: A sentence that explains your podcast and a longer description covering what it is, who it’s for, and the topics you’ll cover. Make it SEO-friendly so people can actually find your show.
2. Create the Right Accounts
At minimum, set up:
YouTube for video episodes (or audio-only uploads with a static image).
Spotify for Podcasters to host your podcast, generate your RSS feed, and distribute to other platforms.
Apple Podcasts if you want to manage your listing directly.
Some tools (like Riverside) let you publish directly to multiple platforms, but YouTube + Spotify will cover most of your audience.
3. Pick a Format You Can Sustain
Type: Solo episodes, co-hosted conversations, or guest interviews.
Length: Short and punchy (15–30 mins) or deep dives (45–60 mins).
Frequency: Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Choose a rhythm you can realistically maintain.
4. Gather Gear (or Use What You Have)
Start simple:
Recommended: A USB microphone (probably a Blue Yeti, Samson Q2U, or Fifine) and a pair of headphones. YouTubers and podcasters usually share their favourite gadgets, so it may be worth looking out for those.
Budget option: Your laptop’s built-in mic and camera. Not perfect, but tools like Riverside or any video/podcast editing tool can help boost audio afterwards.
Background: Tidy your space, use decent lighting, or try a virtual background (a lot of people are not fans of virtual backgrounds, which is fair, but better a virtual background than panicking about not having an aesthetic one).
5. Choose Recording & Editing Tools
Recording options:
Lightweight: Google Meet, Zoom, or your phone’s voice recorder.
Podcast-focused: Riverside or Zencastr.
Editing options:
Free: Audacity, GarageBand.
All-in-one: Riverside lets you record, edit, and even create short clips for social media.
6. Plan Your First 3 Episodes
Trailer (2–3 mins): Introduce yourself, your show, and why people should listen.
First Guest: Start with someone you know — easier to secure and helps you build a portfolio.
Bullet-Point Outlines: Keep it light. Just prompts and takeaways, not scripts.
7. Add Intros, Outros, and Music
Intro & Outro: Record one evergreen intro and outro that you can reuse across episodes. You can create custom ones for each episode, but evergreen ones help.
Music: Use royalty-free intro/outro music for polish. Free options exist on Pixabay or YouTube Audio Library.
8. Host & Distribute
You can:
Use Buzzsprout or Podbean to handle hosting and distribution automatically.
Or keep it lean with Spotify for Podcasters, which generates your RSS feed and pushes your podcast to multiple platforms.
9. Promote Without Overthinking
Share short clips or audiograms (Riverside makes this easy).
Post quotes or takeaways on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram.
Ask your guests to share their episodes.
Mention it in your newsletter or Slack/WhatsApp groups.
Submit to communities you’re part of.
10. Stay Consistent
Podcasting isn’t about a “perfect launch.” It’s about showing up regularly:
Batch record when you can.
Keep a light content calendar.
Focus on consistency over perfection.
Final Note
Your first podcast won’t be flawless — and that’s the point. Start with what you have, get your voice out there, and learn as you go. The most important step is simply hitting record.
🎙️ If you’d like, you can check out my own podcast, Blush and Bloom. It’s about women’s health, femtech, and healthcare for underrepresented groups.
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