Podcasts from your office: as a guest first, then your own

Most people think an office studio is for starting your own podcast. The first win is usually smaller and comes sooner: turning up on someone else's podcast looking and sounding like you mean it.

Start as a guest

Plenty of podcasts are recorded over a video call, so you join from your desk and the host records it. A lot of guests join on a laptop camera with the ceiling light behind them and the room echoing.

Joining with proper light, a good camera at eye level and a microphone close to your mouth changes how the whole conversation comes across. The host notices, their audience notices, and the clips they cut from your episode look like something you'd want to share. It's a benefit I can vouch for myself, and it costs nothing extra once the set-up is in the office.

Then run your own

Once you're comfortable as a guest, running your own show is a short step. A solo episode is just you, talking to camera about something your clients care about: a change in the rules, a question that comes up every week, what you're seeing in the market. Nobody needs to book a guest or line up three diaries.

The teleprompter is what makes it simple. Write the episode, or just the points you want to hit, and read it while still looking the viewer in the eye. No memorising and no notes in your lap. Part of the install is a free session on writing a script and reading it naturally.

Video and audio in one go

You don't have to choose between a video podcast and an audio one. Record once and you have both: the video for YouTube and LinkedIn, and the sound for the podcast apps. Good sound matters more here than anywhere, because the audio version has nothing else to carry it.

Why office podcasts can stall

A common reason is that every recording starts with setting up: finding the lights, framing the shot, testing the microphone. A few weeks in, nobody's recorded anything.

The fix is a set-up that's already done. If recording takes four steps (lights on, camera on, open the software, press record), the hardest part of each episode is deciding what to say.

How our office studio handles it

A Turnkey Studio puts a 4K camera, two LED panels, a broadcast-quality microphone and a teleprompter on one height-adjustable workstation on lockable wheels. We tune it for your room once, during the install, and it stays that way. One cable into a laptop also makes it the camera for the Teams or Zoom call where you join someone else's show.

It's built for one person on camera, which suits a guest spot or a solo episode. It isn't set up for a show with several people around a table.

You record, then either edit it yourself with your own software licence, or send us the files and we'll edit it, quoted per video. See how to set up a video studio in your office for the rest.