How to Start a Podcast Without Waiting for Perfect Gear

How to start a podcast without waiting for perfect gear — just pick a narrow niche and find your 10 episode ideas.

In this how-to episode, Slava and Jonathan walk through the actual process of launching a podcast in 2026, from defining your topic and audience to building a setup that fits your budget.

They cover the 10-episode test that separates viable ideas from broad ones that get buried, why specificity wins over production value, and a breakdown of equipment options from $0 (phone in a closet) to $300+. Then they tour their own setup: Rode NTG1 mic, Elgato arm and key light, Govee background lights, and a full DSLR rig — plus tactics for finding it all cheaper on Facebook Marketplace.

The bottom line: execution and consistency matter more than having the nicest gear when you start. Pick your niche, record 10 episodes, and upgrade as you grow.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Jonathan

Host

Slava

Digital Strategist. Co-Host. Aspiring writer of stories.

What is The Side Quest Book Club Podcast?

If you’re a reader looking for something deeper or an indie author working on your book, The Side Quest Book Club is for you. We skip the usual book reviews and ratings. Each episode turns fun side quests into real lessons, so you’ll leave not just entertained, but with a better understanding of why storytelling matters.

[Speaker 2]
Did you know that 90% of podcasts fail if they don't have more than three finished and uploaded episodes? And the reality is, it's not the gear. Most beginners start way too broad.

They want to do a sports podcast. They want to do a lifestyle show. They want to do a podcast about movies.

But in 2026, that is a recipe for getting lost in the noise. You need to be hyper-specific. Don't start a food podcast.

Start a podcast about raw milk in Oregon. As silly as that example is, that's what will guarantee success. Big celebrities dominate broad topics.

You do not have a million followers that will listen to you talk about anything. Whether it's shows on TV, whether it's sports, whether it's movies, you need a specific team, a specific hobby, maybe even the specific events of an event of a specific team. And as awkward as that sounds, boiling it down will make sense.

You need to attract a loyal, built-in audience that cares about your niche. The bigger, broader topics will come once you establish authority and trust with your small audience who will tell people about you, who will tell more people about you. And then, with your bigger audience, with an established authority, you can go as broad as you want.

But to start a podcast, you need specifics. You need a very narrow niche. Before you buy a mic, figure out what you want to talk about, and then see if you have in your head 10 episode ideas that you can talk about right away, or you can record right away.

If you can't, your topic is too broad, or you're not passionate enough about it. Now, once you have your 10 episodes, you don't need a studio. Recording in a closet full of clothes beats a $500 microphone in an echoey kitchen.

In fact, if you have $100, there are decent microphones and cameras to buy. If you have $0, use your phone, hold it four to six inches away from your face, and get into the closet. Also, in the description, you will find a package with a microphone, with a transformer, with all the wires, and a camera for roughly $250 to $300.

But again, don't have that money? Cheaper options, and you have your phone, the best option. So, your homework is to define your why and who.

Write out a one to two sentence elevator pitch. I want to talk about topic X, and discuss these four or five column parameters, column subtopics. Write it out, begin to think about the first 10 episodes, and you're a step away from becoming a podcaster.

If you want to know what we started with and what we use, Jonathan will tell you all about it.

[Speaker 1]
If you want to do a duplicate of what Slava and I are working on, there's a few options. If you've got about $300 or $400 bucks, and you want an all-in-one package, you'll still use your phone as a camera, but the Scarlett 2i2 has a kit, we'll link it below, that comes with microphone, the cables, a set of headphones, and the preamp. Now, a preamp gives your microphone an audio boost.

It gives it more power so that when you hear the microphone, when you hear the audio that you're recording, it's cleaner and it's louder. Because one of the things that you'll run into with your phone is you're going to hear that it's not very loud. That's okay when you're first starting, but when you want to upgrade, if you get something like the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, you'll need a preamp for your microphone, which just gives it more boost.

If you want to upgrade your camera, we started with our first upgrade being an Anker webcam. We did like a 2k webcam, I think it was about $60 bucks a pop. Again, we'll drop it in the link below.

We've now upgraded to DSLRs, mine's still on the way. Slava got his where we're using actual DSLR lenses to shoot us, which is why we've started being crisper. We also got nice lights instead of just using our overheads, so we're using the Elgato key light as well, and then I even have a little thing here from Elgato that allows me to turn my light on and off.

Oh well, it's not working, so you should definitely buy that.

[Speaker 2]
Amazon affiliate link below.

[Speaker 1]
But having a light here, we got background lights now. This is new where you can have some depth, so like I'm lit up well, there's a little bit of color back here. This little light here is an accent light, the dragon is breathing fire down, and it's a little too bright, but it's just a plug-in USB light, so I don't have the power to change the intensity of the light the way that I do with my light here.

But that's it, that's the list. We use a nice microphone, so this is a Rode NTG1. We use an Elgato arm, which I don't think you can see.

We can see it. To hold the microphone, the Elgato key light so that you can see me well enough. There's some depth between me and the background.

For my background lights, I use the Govee sconces, and then this one actually was on sale. It was a TV light. If you've ever seen TVs that change the backlight of behind the TV based on what's going on, I used that here instead.

Similarly, Slava has one as well. But at the end of the day, it's not about the gear that you have as much as the execution and the idea. Can you keep up the consistency?

Can you keep up the quality to make sure that people are tuning into something that they can listen to so it's not all muffled or not high-pitched squeal-y, there's not a bunch in the background if you live next to a truck stop or an airport or train station. That all stuff comes with time, but if you want to do an upgrade, those are the pieces of equipment that we use when we're making our podcast. So if you're starting a podcast in 2026, again, you can start with your phone as a camera and the microphone, then upgrade to a Blue Yeti or something like that for $50.

And frankly, I really encourage you, go to Facebook Marketplace. You can get this stuff for super cheap. And whatever they've listed it on, here's my little tip to you.

If you see that they've listed something and it's four weeks old, send them a message, hey, is it available? And then offer them 50 bucks less, right? Now, if it's 50 bucks total, they're not going to give it to you for free, right?

But if it's sitting there and it's been there for four weeks or more, some stuff I hit up that's like 12 weeks, they respond, hey, it's still available. And I go, okay, well, are you ready to sell it? Can I give you 100 bucks less?

Like the DSLR camera, it's supposed to be a $1,200 camera. It was sitting on there for 18 weeks. And I think I got it for like 600 bucks.

I was like, hey, this is an old model. Like it doesn't come with a great lens. It's been on here for three months.

Do you want some holiday money? And they were like, can you pick it up today? And I was like, yep, sure.

So 600 bucks for the DSLR with the camera and the lens and whatever, boom, got it for cheap, right? Like you don't need to buy brand new. You can buy used and it will be just as good.

So just make sure you don't get scammed on Facebook by buying something that's in a sealed box. That happened to me, that happened to me. I bought a sealed phone for my wife, Apple iPhone, something or other.

And it was actually just an Android device that was created to be an iPhone. And it was sealed. I literally, I pulled the wrapper off, the cellophane wrapper, everything.

I opened the box, it was closed. It came with a receipt. The number matched on the receipt and the box.

And I was like, oh, okay. No, very sophisticated scam. Don't buy iPhones off of Facebook Marketplace, please, for your own wallet's benefit.

[Speaker 2]
And you can do the reverse too, which I did.

[Speaker 1]
Sell scams on, oh, no.

[Speaker 2]
No, I got rid of a bunch of my old equipment, sold my old cameras and old mics on eBay, and upgraded to a Sony ZV-E10 DSLR, as you now see my face a lot more crisper. So either way it works, whatever works for you, make sure you take it slow and steady, focus on execution, focus on making content great. And as time and money allows, get more fancier stuff.

[Speaker 1]
If you have more questions, drop them in the comments below. If you're looking for the equipment that I just listed off, that'll be in the description. Be sure to click the links and go purchase and upgrade so that you too can have a microphone.

And, oh, hey, this thing works now. It's got the yellow dot now.

[Speaker 2]
Ooh, look at you. Did you pick that up on Marketplace too?

[Speaker 1]
You can turn it up higher and lower. So that's the color. Anyway, be sure to upgrade your stuff.

Use our links to support our podcast. Thank you so much. And we'll see you on the next one.