Software Engineering Unlocked Podcast

Hey fellow indiehackers,
I'm so excited to share that the Software Engineering Unlocked podcast got its first sponsor.

And the best part is not only that this means I can concentrate even more on producing and growing the podcast, but that the sponsor - CodeSubmit - is also an indie business.

Their mission is to make the best take-home assignments for tech recruitments. This is a perfect fit for my podcast which focuses on software engineering methodologies, company culture, and often highlights the hiring and interview experiences of people getting into various (often fancy) companies.

Well, this is the first revenue that the podcast makes, and I'm super thrilled to finally replace the 0 revenue counter here on indiehackers.

So, I'm sure many want to know how I got this sponsorship.

I actually waited a long time, and I was always on the fence if it's the right time to invite sponsors. After the podcast got a significant number of monthly downloads, I started to plug my own business.

And, it worked.

I'm running a consultancy and training business, and due to the "ads" that I run in my own podcast, I sold quite a few workshops and got one large consultancy gig over the last three months.

Well, since October, I decided to also start my own software product to complement my consultancy and training work.
This means that I put a hold on giving workshops until February 2020.
So I decided it's time to invite others to advertise on the podcast.

The steps I did to get my first sponsor were the following:

• Announce it on Twitter
• Let my email list know
• Announce it on the podcast.

So far, I had three companies reach out because of this. With one, I decided it isn't a good match. The other is still deciding how they want to progress. And the last one, well, is the one that was the best fit and worked out.

In the future, I want to reach out to a couple of companies directly that I think will make a good fit, but I'm quite unwilling to get into "sales" and to improve my skills in this regard. So, I procrastinate as much as possible.

Well, as I said at the beginning, it means a lot to me that I announce an indie business on my podcast.
I hope I can continue that way: So, if you are also interested in reaching quality-focused developers, or people looking for the next career move, please have a look at my sponsor page or DM me on Twitter.

In any case, just wanted to celebrate with you and share my story.
Give the podcast a listen, and let me know how you like it.

Happy indiehacking!
Michaela

The Software Engineering Unlocked Podcast reached 15,000 downloads this week.

Over the last 6 months, many things have happened. I started the podcast just with the hunch that I'll like doing that, and luckily I was right.

I really love producing podcasts. And today, I finally launch it on Product Hunt. If you have some time, I'd love for you to check it out and leave some feedback. 👉https://www.producthunt.com/posts/software-engineering-unlocked-podcast

Also, I wanted to share the five main lessons I learned along the way:

1.) Producing a great show is a lot of work

I did not expect that it will take me that long to produce each episode. I spend on average 4 minutes for each 1-minute recording. In the beginning, I recorded way too long (over 90 minutes) with the idea of reducing the show later on, so that I have enough great content. I'm not doing that anymore, because, it gives you much more focus for the interview if you know you have let's say 50 minutes max to get it right. I also experiment with different tools to reduce and automate some of the work. Normally, I edit the podcast with Audacity, but I switched to descript for the last episode because it lets you edit the podcast like a text document and creates a transcript at the same time. There are still a few features that I miss in that tool, but, I definitely recommend checking it out.

2.) Getting the process rolling

In the beginning, I had a hard time finding guests. Funnily, the more V.I.P. guests were the higher were my success rates. So, many not so "well-known" people just never responded, or said they did not have the time to be on my podcast.
It was also quite a challenge to keep track of conversations, especially because the happened everywhere. Right now, I use Trello, to keep track of who I contacted (on which platform) and what the status is. I also prepared a document that includes the interview instructions that I send to each guest. The invite message is never based on a template but written individually for each person.

3.) Being amplified by thought leaders

I'm very grateful that some very influential people - such as Courtland Allen, Scott Hanselman, Cassidy Williams, Suz Hinton, Dan Abramov - took a chance on me and help me by amplifying my tweets. This definitely helped me kickstart the podcast. Apart from that, I'm not marketing the podcast in any way. I just do not enjoy the promotion of the podcast - it's probably the only thing about it that I do not like. So, I accepted that, and I focus purely on creating awesome content. The best content I can. I hope over time, that will speak for itself.

4.) Do not follow every advice

I also read a lot of advice from others about how to make a podcast successful. One of the ideas that came up quite frequently, was to prepare tweets that your podcast guests can share in order to reduce their burden. I like the idea of reducing the burden for the guests but also felt weird when "putting words in their mouth". So, yeah, I tried that, but it never felt right, and I haven't had a single person use the prepared tweets. So, I stopped doing that. There is also other advice that did not work for me, especially around researching, editing or producing the episode. I think, learning from others is important, but once you got a bit of a grip, it's even more crucial to listen to your own instincts.

5.) Finding the right podcast host

I researched a lot about which podcasting host to use. I wanted something reliable, that would not break the bank. I was suspicious of the completely free ones because if it's free, it normally means you are the product. In the end, I decided to go with simplecast. It won over libsyn because the UI is so much nicer and intuitive. I also thought about pinecast, and in hindsight, I might choose them. I did not, because I was afraid if they provide enough reliable uptime. Turns out, simplecast was down right after I released my first episode. So, so much for that!

Well, that's it. I hope you got something out of those five lessons.

If you haven't, please check out the Software Engineering Unlocked podcast here 👉se-unlocked.com, and give it some love through feedback on ProductHunt 👉https://www.producthunt.com/posts/software-engineering-unlocked-podcast.

Also, let me know in the comments if you have more questions. It would mean the world to me!

Wohoo! The Software Engineering Unlocked Podcast reached over 5000 downloads.

One of the episodes with Leif Singer from Automattic did quite well on HackerNews and brought in another 500 downloads.

I also mirror the podcast on its own podcast YouTube channel, and one of the videos got a bit of traction and has now 1.2k views.

Also, the Twitter account grew steadily to over 1000 followers.
Overall, I'm satisfied with the progress. People seem to enjoy the content, and I really enjoy producing the show.

The first episode of the Software Engineering Unlocked podcast just passed with 1300 downloads the 1000 downloads mark. It's two weeks since release.

The second episode, that I released two days ago now passed the 500 downloads mark.

Overall, I'm happy with the results.

My main marketing strategy was to use my personal Twitter account to promote the episode.
I also used the the preparation time before the launch, to build up a small mailing list of around 100 people.

Shortly before the launch, I created the podcast's own Twitter handle, which I could grow to 660 followers right now. I do not tweet much there, but all tweets are focused on the podcast.

I used the Headliner App to make small snippets of the podcast that give a sneak peek. After releasing an episode, I share those with the Twitter followers. I really like to make them, and they are well received. Have a look here to get an idea.

In the weeks before the release, I started to build a mailing list, which I could grow to 100 people by now. There was no incentive for people to jump on the mailing list other than being informed when the show is released. I mainly used it as I did not have any other way yet (no Twitter, and no podcast feed) for people to follow. After being on iTunes etc. it did not grow much, but that's mainly because I redirect people now to follow the RSS feed. I plan to experiment with sharing the behind the scenes information on making and growing this podcast with the mailing-list subscribers.
I plan to invest quite some time to grow this list in the future, but for now I focus on getting people to know the podcast.

Yesterday, I started to promote a Facebook page and an Instagram account that I made or converted for the podcast and to reach out to my personal network. I'm not a huge FB or Instagram fan, so this won't be my number one priority. My priority is to focus on Twitter for now.

Finally, I submitted my podcast episode to PodHunt - a new website from a fellow indie hacker.

So, that's what I do so far in terms of promoting and marketing my podcast. I keep you updated on what I learn of what works and what doesn't for promoting this podcast.

If you have ideas how to increase my reach, please let me know!

On day three after the release of the first episode of the Software Engineering Unlocked podcast, we just crossed the 500 downloads mark. It might seem small to others, but I'm actually quite pleased. I shared two small teasers on Twitter so far. And I'm still learning on more ways to promote the podcast.

Yeah! The 1 episode of the Software Engineering Unlocked podcast is live 🚀😍

In this episode, talk to Cassidy Williams, a senior software engineer at CodePen about
🎙️working remotely at a small but thriving start-up
🎙️changing tech stacks from Ruby on Rails to React and GraphQL
🎙️finding a fulfilling career
🎙️and making tech a more welcoming place through humor.

I'm so thrilled I finally launched the podcast!
You can find the episode here: https://www.software-engineering-unlocked.com/episode-1-cassidy-williams/

I just finished editing the first two episodes for the Software Engineering Unlocked Podcast. Now, I have a few last things on my todo list before it is time to launch.
I'm super happy and excited and I estimate the first episode goes live in less than two weeks. Can you imagine?

Last week, I recorded the first three episodes of the Software Engineering Unlocked Podcast.

I was quite nervous at first. Especially as I am not a native speaker.

So, I did around ten dry runs and five mini-interviews with people as a test.
After I felt comfortable, I had the first real interview. Unfortunately, I had some audio quality problem with the first episode. The microphone picked up the noise when I slightly touched the desk, or moved in my chair. Luckily, I can resolve it by spending more time editing.
To stop this from happening in the future, I bought a microphone stand so the vibrations of the desk get not caught by the microphone that easily. I also make sure to move even less during talking ;-)

I am glad I did the first episodes. And I am happy with the outcome. Now comes the editing, which I already started. Since I am new to this, it takes quite some time.

Here is my set-up, for all the ones interested:

• A Blue Yeti Microphone (it has a great sound but as said picks up noise easily),
• A microphone stand (having the mic on the table caused the audio problems I mentioned before.)
• Audacity for editing (this is a great open-source software)
• https://zencastr.com for recording (the nice thing is, guests do not need an account)

I am very pleased so far with my setup. I also tried Zoom for interviews, but the quality was substantially worse than with zencastr. I also like that zencastr produces two separate audio recordings, one for the guest and one for myself. Otherwise, I couldn't improve the audio problems I experienced.