This week I wrote a podcasting gear guide and it got me thinking about the value of tools — and why we often overvalue them.

As a creative exercise, podcasting is very tool-dependent. You need a good deal of equipment just to get started. AT the very least, you need a microphone and a computer, plus editing software of some kind. If you use an XLR mic, you’ll also need an audio interface. Already that’s hundreds of dollars in gear, but you can easily add more. Pop filters, sound-deadening equipment or treatments for your room, better cables, and all kinds of other peripherals are all available for sale, and it’s no challenge at all to find someone willing to tell you that not only is this stuff good to have, but you really can't do a good podcast without it.

Not only is that entirely untrue, it misses the point of making a podcast. At the end of your recording session, the goal is to have a podcast you can release into the world and feel good about, not to have the best or shiniest gear.

It’s true that gear can help. But if your show wasn’t good before you got the best and fanciest stuff to make it, it’s not going to get any better after you plug in a fancy new microphone.

The only way to get better at podcasting is to focus on podcasting. Focus on the essential parts of your show. What does your audience like about it? What do you like about it? Why did you start recording in the first place? What is it, exactly, that you have to say that the world needs to hear, and how can you say that in the best possible way?

That is the core of the art form. That is why you sit down in front of the microphone and speak. Focusing on these things — the craft of podcasting — will help you produce better episodes more than any piece of equipment possibly could.

Your tools can help you perfect your craft, but your tools are not the craft itself.