3 Pro-podcasters share practical tips to create podcast content

By Sng Ler Jun

Podlab is now in its full swing, with established podcasters sharing detailed insights on podcasting every week. From tips to monetise your podcast to learning about podcast marketing strategies, attendees have benefitted from these informative sharing sessions.

In this special blog post, we spoke with three established podcasters—Nathaniel Fetalvero from Tech In Asia who runs Deep Dive and Startup Snapshot, Kelvin Tay from Renegade Radio, Peng Han who leads StoryFM —who shared with us on how they got started in podcasting, the mistakes they made, and how they wished they could do better.

Check out our exclusive interview below.

How do you go about procuring content for your podcast?

Nathaniel Fetalvero: It depends on which podcast I’m working on.

For Deep Dive, since it is a monthly news show, I looked for recently trending articles—either in terms of page views, conversions, or social media engagement—and reach out to the journalists who wrote them to sit down with me for a chat.

If I’m looking at stories for Startup Snapshot, which is a profile-centric show, I scour social media for people sharing their experiences with running a business or check who has been making headlines on Tech in Asia or other startup-focused publications, and determine whether there is enough of a story to flesh out in a 20 to 30-minute episode.

Kelvin Tay: I believe content creation should be the last few stages of creating a podcast. You’ll need to first come up with the concept of your podcast. What is it about? Who is it for? What is the takeaway? — once those questions have been answered, it would be a lot easier to plan and procure the content needed for your podcast.

Peng Han: At present, 70% of our content comes from our community of listeners. In every episode of StoryFM, an ordinary Chinese person will tell a story with his/her own voice and that sends a relatable message to every listener. Deep down inside, it is also about respecting our storytellers and operating our community.

What do you think makes a podcaster stand out from the rest? 

Nathaniel Fetalvero: There are so many things that make podcasters stand out from the crowd. It could be the intrigue of the stories that they bring to their audience, the passion and energy with which they speak, the hard-hitting questions that they fire at interviewees, or even their likeable and relatable personality.

Peng Han: Details. The ears are sensitive organs. Listening to a storytelling podcast is an all-round experience, and attempts to build a cinema in listeners’ heads. Every cut, every breath, every tiny sound has a role in this. The more you pay attention to these undetected details, the more like you will become a successful podcaster.

How can one find his or her niche? 

Nathaniel Fetalvero: Your niche is defined by who you are. What are you an expert on? What do you like to do in your spare time? What’s your favourite food? What questions keep you up at night? What motivates you to get up every morning? What's your life’s mission? Once you know yourself, your niche will come pretty naturally.

Kelvin Tay: Find something that you are comfortable with, believe in, or have extensive knowledge of. Always remember, if you jump into a niche that you have no interest in, your audience will know. Lucas from The Fashion Weak podcast shared with me a piece of good advice: “If you’re not having fun (on your podcast), what’s the point then?” Don’t get trapped in a niche that you’re uncomfortable with.

A good podcaster is also a good

listener. To what extent is this statement true? 

Nathaniel Fetalvero: 100% true! Most podcasts involve interviewing people, and the best interviews to listen to are the ones that sound like a conversation. If you’re a bad listener, it will definitely show.

Kelvin Tay: 110% and very true. Podcasters with interview and conversation-based podcasts understand that being a good listener is part and parcel of being a good “host”. However, you’ll also have to learn to think on your feet and not leave your guest(s) hanging as you search for the next question.

What are some of the notable challenges you face when making an episode?

Nathaniel Fetalvero: My biggest blocker is story identification, especially for Startup Snapshot which is locked behind a paywall. There’s a lot of pressure to deliver a story that listeners would be willing to pay to listen to. Because of that, I spend a lot of time making sure that a story I am considering pursuing is a story worth my listeners’ bucks. Otherwise, I would be wasting my time and that of my listeners’.

Kelvin Tay: Two things immediately came to mind.

The first would be booking a guest and finding right time in your/their schedule to agree on a recording date and time. Sometimes, you will have to sacrifice your weekends to interview them or have late-night recordings. The second would be having guests who are not able to effectively express themselves through emotions. They would be monotonous, answer your questions in a sentence or two, and make the entire experience a challenging one.

Peng Han: For a podcast that releases three episodes a week, we may have too many episodes going on. Newbies could consider planning in advance.

What has been your greatest failure throughout your podcasting journey? Why do you think it happened? 

Nathaniel Fetalvero: Honestly, I cannot think of anything I have done that is so damning that I would consider it a failure. That said, I have definitely published episodes that performed below expectations, missed out on scoops that I could have gotten if I did a little more research, and spent months working on stories that did not turn into anything. Those are all part of the job. You are going to make a few mistakes here and there. What matters is that you learn from them.

Kelvin Tay: Not adapting video content as soon as possible and learning the importance of marketing.  Now, you will have to account for the thousands of people who consume podcasts on YouTube. There are hundreds of micro-content you can use on social media, such as Instagram Reels/TV and TikTok, it would be wise to learn how to adapt.

Peng Han: This is not exactly a failure, but a pain point. For StoryFM, recruiting new producers has always been gruelling. Most candidates interested in our position come with the experience of writing content, and there’s a huge gap between audio storytelling and text storytelling. Filling that gap takes time.

If you could rewind time to the beginning if your podcast journey, what would you have done better?

Nathaniel Fetalvero: I would have done better market research. When I started podcasting about the startup scene, I had only listened to a small handful of podcasts in the same beat. Knowing the competition would have better informed my decisions at the time, and the first season of Startup Snapshot would have probably performed a lot better than it did.

Kelvin Tay: Adapting video content or learning video editing earlier in my podcasting career.

Peng Han: I would start commercial collaborations much earlier than we did.

The responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.