All About The Joy
All About The Joy is a weekly hang-out with friends in the neighborhood! We share insight, advice, funny-isms and we choose to always try and find the positive, the silver lining, the "light" in all of it. AATJ comes from the simple concept that at the end of the day we all want to have more JOY than not. So, this is a cool place to unwind, have a laugh and share some time with friends!
All About The Joy
Want to Start a Podcast? This Is the Episode To Help You Begin
Ever felt that burning desire to start your own podcast or livestream but found yourself paralyzed by questions about where to begin? You're not alone. In this candid, no-frills guide, we break down exactly what you need to start broadcasting your voice to the world—and spoiler alert: you probably already have the most important tool in your pocket.
Starting with a heartfelt email from Keisha in Kansas City who dreams of sharing her thoughts but doesn't know how to begin, we walk through the entire process from absolute beginner to confident creator. The beauty of modern content creation lies in its accessibility: your smartphone is all you need to take that first step. When you're ready to level up, we detail the affordable equipment that can transform your setup—from external cameras costing as little as $30 to microphones in the $50-80 range that dramatically improve your audio quality.
We demystify the difference between livestreaming (think live theater where anything can happen) and pre-recorded content (like film, where editing creates a polished final product), while sharing our own origin stories in the content creation world. The most valuable takeaway isn't about gear or technical setup—it's about overcoming that initial fear. As we emphasize throughout: if you're curious about something but hesitant to try, take the leap anyway. The only guaranteed way to fail is by never taking the shot.
Ready to share your unique perspective with the world? We believe in you. Remember, people don't expect perfection—they connect with authenticity. Your voice matters, and somebody out there needs to hear exactly what you have to say. Subscribe to our channel for more practical advice, and let us know in the comments what topic you'd love us to cover in our next how-to episode!
Carmen's Equipment:
Mic - Samson Q2U
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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.
Hi everyone, welcome to All About the Joy, the private lounge. I'm Carmen Lee Set. Your host, rick, will be showing up a little bit later, but I want to first start by saying this is our first how-to. We've gotten a lot of email requests regarding this over the past couple of years and I've kind of just never thought it was something that we could do. But now I want to read an email from one of our viewers and we'll get started. Hey, carmen and All About the Joy hosts.
Carmen Lezeth:My name's Keisha. I live in Kansas City, missouri. I work retail mostly and I help take care of my niece, but lately I've been thinking about starting a podcast or going live. Sometimes I've got thoughts, you know, on music, relationships, just life in general. I keep seeing people do it and something in me keeps saying why not you? I've been listening to your show for a minute now and I love how it feels like I'm sitting in the room with y'all. It's funny, it's real and it don't sound scripted. That's what I want, but I don't even know where to start. Like, what do you need? How do you even plan it? How do you not get nervous going live? If you could talk about how y'all started and maybe share a few tips. That'd be amazing. I think there's a lot of us out here who've got something to say, but we just don't know how to say it out loud yet. Appreciate y'all. Keisha.
Carmen Lezeth:First, I want to say thank you to Keisha for sending us that email. There were a few other people who had asked the same thing, so we're going to do our best to at least explain it on the basic level that I think I'm at. Rick has been doing it a lot longer. Level that I think I'm at. Rick has been doing it a lot longer. So we're going to chime in and try to do what we can to help people who want to start podcasting and live streaming. And here's the thing If you want to do it, you can do it. Trust me, you know how you always hear people say if I can do it, you can do it. I'm not even kidding at all. So let's answer the first question what do you need?
Rick Costa:But yeah, phone, just put it in front of me. I didn't have nothing fancy. That's what they always say when you want to start, just start. You don't have to have like multi-thousand dollar equipment, just start.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, using your phone is a great place to start, because here's the thing you can use your phone and go on certain social media like Instagram or TikTok or even Facebook, and just start playing around and it's free, right? You already have your phone, you can already access these social apps and you can actually just start recording yourself and then posting it and seeing how it goes. And here's the best part about it If you don't like it, you can delete it. It's really easy. So you can first start there if you're nervous about just trying to see if you want to do it or like to do it. Okay, so let's say you have tried using your phone, you kind of like the vibe, and now you want to upgrade just a little bit so that you can start actually doing things like this, like recording an actual show and then posting it maybe on your YouTube space. So the next step is basically investing a little bit into actual equipment that will help you look more professional. Now, as I say this, I'm kind of laughing because if you watch us regularly, which I know, those of you who are emailing us know we have so many gaffes all the time with technical stuffage. But let's just start with the basics. You're going to need a computer, because it'll be easier to do on a computer, so you can use your laptop, or I have a huge monitor, which is what I use and you're going to want an external camera. It's not that the camera on your laptop or your computer isn't great, but if we're just talking about upgrading to a little bit more professional, you can get a really good, cheap camera that will work. And when I say cheap, I'm talking you can get one for like 30 to 50 bucks. I know that's not cheap to everyone, but let's just say you've decided you're going to invest and do something a little bit different.
Carmen Lezeth:Now, rick had mentioned that he's had the same camera for years, and it's kind of true when you invest in the equipment you don't have to replace it all the time. So I've had this. This is a newer camera for me, but the camera I had before, the only reason why I had to replace it was because I dropped it and the lens cracked. So I had had that one for years as well. So my camera that I have, I'm going to put what I actually use in the show notes. I'm not promoting any of them, because they don't sponsor us and you don't have to buy what we have. But just so that you have kind of an idea what we're using to be as quote unquote professional as possible. So that camera is an external camera, it sits on top of my monitor, it can sit on top of my laptop, and that is what I'm looking into right now when I'm talking to you, and that's what gives you kind of that crisp, good look kind of thing.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, the other thing that's really important that Rick is a huge fan of is making sure you have great lighting. Now I have to tell you if you've seen our live streams. My live streaming is kind of dark all the time, but when I'm doing these recordings, I fix it in post right. I do it in editing. I am trying to figure out a way in which to get the best lighting possible for my space, but I kind of have my office in a little cave, so it's a little harder, but I'm working on it. But see, even though you guys think we're kind of professional, we're still working through it too. So lighting is extremely important as well.
Carmen Lezeth:The next thing and all three of these are really important, by the way, but it's your mic. You want people to be able to hear you clearly, you don't have to spend a lot of money on a mic. I'm actually using right now a mic that costs about $79, $80. Rick will tell you he spent a lot less money on his mic, but he also uses a mixer. So I think it's important to understand that when you choose a mic, you can buy a cheaper mic, but you might need a mixer in order to help elevate that really warm kind of voice and some of this might sound kind of foreign and stuff. Don't worry about a mixer, you don't need one.
Carmen Lezeth:But if you want to buy a decent mic, you can get one for about 50 bucks, 79 bucks, the one that's the most common. It's not the one that I use, but I just want you to know. The most common podcast mic in this level, like medium level or whatever is a Blue Yeti, so you can Google that. And again, I'm not endorsing anything, I'm just giving you guys some flavor. So again, we'll put those in the show notes. So, basically, to start doing live streaming and podcasting and setting yourself up on YouTube, all you need is a computer, an external camera, good lighting and a mic. So now you're all set up. Right, you're ready to do this, but now you're trying to figure out what's the difference between live streaming and podcasting.
Rick Costa:Oh, it's a big difference, for sure, because live, you literally just go on the button and you're on, there's, there's no editing, because you're literally live streaming. People are watching you and you're just on from there, like it's not like. Oh, I mean rewind, you can rewind, You're on. Everybody's looking at you right now. It's like watching the live news. If they make a mistake, oh well, the whole world just told me to make a mistake. But you know, but people that's another thing too. That was encouraging. People are like you're fine, you're fine, don't worry about it. Like if you goof, they're not gonna generally don't make fun of you.
Carmen Lezeth:They're like think it's cute, you know, so I wouldn't be worried about you know like what if I goof? So what? You're human. You can also think about live streaming and podcasting in this way the recorded aspect of it. Podcasting tends to be what we use. We used to just say that it was something you'd use for audio, but now that podcasting is part of a visual medium too, I think that's what's confusing people. But let's talk about live streaming.
Carmen Lezeth:Live streaming is like going to the theater. You're going to the theater, you're watching someone on stage and anything can happen. Right, an actor can forget their lines, somebody's phone in the audience could go off. Please, please, turn off your phones when you go to the theater. It's very disturbing when you do that, but the whole point is theater is live. It's happening right then, and there you may stumble, you may get messed up I'll stutter a million times or whatever and you just have to go with it because you're on live.
Carmen Lezeth:When you do a recorded type of thing, which is what you're watching right now, this is pre-recorded. This is a not live streaming. What this is is we go in, we have this conversation and do what we have to do, and then we edit it and then we present it to everyone and we send it out to all of our social media accounts and platforms that allow us to show it. So that's kind of the difference, and that, to me, would be more like film, right? So you have your theater, which would be live streaming, and then you have your recorded content, which is like film and television, right. That is all pre-recorded and you're watching it. It's not live, it's been heavily edited, and that's the difference. Oh, here's a great question how did we start?
Rick Costa:So Periscope was all the rage back in the day. I know some people today probably haven't heard of it, but back then it was like at the year that I started. It became the number one app on Android and iPhone. It was like super hot, everybody wanted to check it out, blah, blah, blah. So I started watching that. The first thing I ever recorded was it was supposed to be an eclipse and my phone was not very good quality to be able to capture that. I was like, oh well, I tried and I was like goodbye, see ya.
Carmen Lezeth:I started live streaming because a friend of mine who was on Twitter had invited me to their account on an old app that no longer exists. And that's how I started and that's actually how I met Rick, because it was a live streaming program, software, I'm not even sure what to call it an app, I guess an app and you would go on there and there would be people talking, having different conversations in different areas, and then people would have you come up and you would also talk with them and it's kind of like what we're structuring here on Friday nights here at All About the Joy. But this was a kind of different thing. But that's how I started. I was really comfortable in front of the camera because many of you know that I'm actually a performer at heart, but also I had been doing so many Zoom calls for so long, just business-wise, so it wasn't something that was foreign to me. It just became more kind of intense with meeting new people, because when we were doing Zoom calls from you know, with people in other countries or whatever, it was kind of the same thing. But this was like meeting new people, people you didn't know, and it wasn't business-related. So it was kind of cool and that's how I met Rick. That's how I started. Great question how do you plan it?
Carmen Lezeth:Rick will tell you that his show, that he does every single day and he does, he has a show every single day. It's a religious type of show. He's been doing it for so long, and I mean years. He's been doing it for, like I think, eight or nine years now. It's very formatted and it's very rhythmic for him because it's just him talking straight to camera. He knows what he wants to do and it's structured. And so you can do that too, if you want to have a show which is just you, straight to camera and there are tons of shows on YouTube where people are doing that because if you have something to share, people are going to want to know about it, right? So in that case his show is very structured, it's very familiar and it's pretty easy for him to do it.
Carmen Lezeth:Now All About the Joy is a little bit different, because we have more than one host. Right, I'm the host, but then I have my co-hosts on the show, then I have guests on the show. We also have a live on Friday nights. I think I've said that 17 times now during this whole thing for those of you who don't know. But we have very different structures for all of those different shows and we have a new show starting in September. So because of that, it's a little bit harder for me. When I eventually hire a producer, that'll make it easier.
Carmen Lezeth:But one of the things that I have to do on a regular basis is make sure we have content or a subject matter or something to talk about. And when we interview peoples, we all do all this investigation on who they are. When I say investigation, I mean we try to find out who they are, learn their bio and then have appropriate questions so that we can have a nice interaction. But you don't have to worry about all that. When you're first starting, you're going to figure out how to plan your show as you go along. I promise you, as you go along doing it, it's all going to make such sense and it's going to filter into however it is. You want to do it. You may do a very, very structured show, or you may turn around and just wing it, which is what we do sometimes Never. I'm very much a control freak, so as much as some things seem like we're winging it, we're not. Do you have any last tips Do?
Rick Costa:you have any last tips? I mean just really the basics. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, don't be afraid that people are going to throw tomatoes at you. They ain't going to throw tomatoes at you, you're home anyway. But you know what I mean, you know just, yeah, you're going to goof.
Rick Costa:Sometimes it's fine, like nobody expects, and actually it becomes endearing because they're like, oh, they're being real, they're trying to fake or be like. You know, I'm so professional, you know they find it endearing that you're, you know you're you goofed a little bit or whatever. And I laugh about. I'm like, oh, one for the blooper reel. I always joke, you know, if I make a mistake. But, um, yeah, it is nerve wracking, but the more you do it, the more comfortable you'll be, the better you'll get at it. Yeah, and if you like we're doing it to people here, if you want to do it with somebody, even better, because then you, then you're not feeling like the focus is only on you. You know, if that's how you have to start.
Rick Costa:And nobody likes the sound of their voice, just get that straight. Nobody likes the sound of their voice. Just get that straight. Nobody likes the sound of their voice. But another thing, too, is, if you're starting to do it, I always say watch yourself back, cause you're going to learn a lot about the things you do that you're like, ooh, maybe we could have did that better. So, yeah, watch yourself back too, cause that's very helpful. The thing that people said to me that was encouraging to them, that I would say, is go online because you know something I don't know, something that's common sense to you, that used to be in your mind thinking well, everybody knows that. Trust me, I don't know a lot of stuff that maybe I should know. You know stuff that I don't know and I would like to know, I'd like to learn from you.
Carmen Lezeth:I think the only tip that I would give isn't just about whether or not you should start doing your own YouTube channel or podcast or live stream. This is just in general. If you're curious about doing anything in your life, anything that possibly gives you a little bit of fear to do a little bit, that you don't know how to do it, but you're still intrigued by it and you think about it all the time, I say do it, jump in with both feet and try it and do it. You just never know where you'll land. You know what I mean, and it might be a fantastic, wonderful journey and you'll always learn from it. If you take that step and just try and do it, I think the biggest regret you'll have is never knowing because you never took the shot. Like, if you never take the shot and try to do something, you are absolutely for sure never going to know what happened. Right, that is the absolute outcome of never jumping and doing it full. On Keisha.
Carmen Lezeth:We hope we answered your questions, along with all the other people who have sent us questions about this same topic over the past couple of years. So anyways, that's it. If you have any other questions, please go to allaboutthejoycom. Go to the contact area and you can see how you can reach out to me. Specifically, the email does come to me and I try to read all of them. We've made some changes on how you can contact me because we also get a lot of spam and bots, but if you want to reach out to me and you have a question and you want us to talk about it in one of our how to's, we're absolutely happy to do it. And, yeah, I hope you're having a great day, a great evening, whenever you're watching this. Thank you for your support and remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy. Goodbye everyone. Thanks for stopping by. All About the Joy. Be better and stay beautiful. Folks, have a sweet day.
