20 Questions for the Superfriends

Sarah Burke (VO) 00:00:00
Welcome to the Podcast Superfriends. Five podcast producers from across North America get together to discuss podcasting.

Matt Cundill 00:00:13
We'll do it live.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:00:14
Do it live.

Matt Cundill 00:00:15
Doing it live. Podcast Superfriends. We're back again. Hi, and welcome back. It's like we say, welcome back, but it's like the only person who went away was me. But I'm back.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:00:25
Welcome back to the North American continent.

Johnny Podcasts 00:00:28
Matt, I'm glad you didn't forget how to speak English.

Matt Cundill 00:00:32
Yeah, I also didn't practice a lot of Spanish other than ordering my food.

Johnny Podcasts 00:00:38
Margarita taco, four for four.

Matt Cundill 00:00:42
So today for the Podcast Super Friends, I thought we would get into 20 questions. And I looked over the podcast news from the last month and go through emails and discussions, and it's basically just a lot of questions that people ask every day about starting a podcast. So what we're going to do today, it's not quite the Spanish Inquisition, but we're going to go around the table here with a number of questions. They're going to be short, snappers. We'll see how quickly we can get through 20 of them, and we'll see which question we spend the most time on and go from there. But before we start with the questions, we'll go around the table and everybody will introduce themselves, starting with Katherine.

Catherine O'Brien 00:01:20
Hey, everybody. My name is Catherine O'Brien. I produce podcasts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My company is called Branch Out Programs, and I'm so happy to be here and happy to see you, Matt. I'm ready for these 20 questions.

Johnny Podcasts 00:01:33
Hi, I'm Johnny Podcasts, coming from Fort Worth, Texas. I'm also a podcast producer and an avid trying to grow my Twitter account, so follow me there.

Matt Cundill 00:01:43
Boston, hello.

David Yas 00:01:45
Hello, Boston. This is David Yas in Boston. We produce podcasts here at the Boston Podcast Network. Pod617, in Pod we trust. Detroit.

Matt Cundill 00:01:56
Hello.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:01:57
Hello? Detroit. Jon Gay, Jag in Detroit podcast, originally from Boston, but that's not relevant to this conversation. I create podcasts for businesses and nonprofits. I also co host podcasts for those who may not necessarily have the gift of gab online at jagindetroit.com.

Matt Cundill 00:02:12
So 20 questions, here we go. And we're going to start with Jag. Your favorite microphone that you recommend to a client that has never recorded a podcast before.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:02:21
We'll probably have a lot of agreement in this group, but it is the Samsung Q two U-S-A-M-S-O-N. The model is Q two U. Johnny is holding one up right now for those of you watching on video. Thank you, Vanna. It is versatile because it can be plugged into an XLR cable for a recorder or straight USB in your computer, if you prefer. And it is a dynamic microphone, unlike the Blue yeti, which is a condenser microphone. The dynamic microphone will pick up more of your voice and less of all the background sounds around you. The condenser microphone will pick up every barking dog and screaming neighbor in your neighborhood. So Samsung Q. Two U for the win.

David Yas 00:02:59
David well, I hate to be repetitive, but I learned my microphones from Jag. It is also the Samsung Q Two U. My backup is usually anything by audio technica in the same price range. But the information that I will add is you can get the Q Two U for I'm looking at it right now, $50 on Amazon. And what a tremendous bargain, because it's all you need. And I think you probably spend more on a Yeti or a Blue or one of those other lame mics. So I just have to agree with Jack.

Matt Cundill 00:03:30
Johnny, you've already held up that microphone. Is that the one you recommend?

Johnny Podcasts 00:03:35
I'd like to consider myself the black sheep of the group, so I'm going to offer something different. So the microphone that I'm currently using is the sure MV seven. That is what I would recommend. If you are looking to have kind of the look and style of a Joe Rogan type podcast, this microphone is the little brother of the SM Seven B. You can plug it directly into your computer via USB cable. Or if you do want to go the handheld route, you can also try something like the ATR 2100 x from Audiotechnica.

Catherine O'Brien 00:04:06
Catherine well, Johnny just stole it right at the last second. The Audiotechnica 2100 x is a great right in the middle of there. I would say we've covered some good, better, best. We got some good, better and best choices for people, especially if they're getting started. Of course, you can spend as much money as you want on a microphone, but we've given you a couple of options. Two options that are great under $100, and one that is probably, what, 250 for the sure.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:04:33
Yeah, it depends on your price range. You can go 100 or up to four or 500.

Catherine O'Brien 00:04:38
Yeah, I like it. Good.

Matt Cundill 00:04:40
Jag, what mic are you using right now?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:04:42
This is actually the Shore MV Seven, which I upgraded in my office. I have an SM seven B downstairs in my studio. Those are about 400. The MV Seven that I'm on right now is about 200. Same as Johnny right now.

Johnny Podcasts 00:04:53
Doesn't stick to his own advice offers.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:04:58
The question was for a new podcaster just starting out. Yes.

Matt Cundill 00:05:04
I'm not going to make an offering of any sort. I'm just going to say and pat myself on the back for rescuing two clients from the Blue Yeti this week. Two of them showed up and they had Blue Yetis. And I said they'd actually recorded some episodes. And I said, These mics aren't even, A, on, and B, you're not even talking to the right to them, setting.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:05:23
For a Blue Yeti is off.

Johnny Podcasts 00:05:27
I feel like owning a Blue Yeti is like the prerequisite to wanting to start a podcast. I feel like you have to buy the Blue Yeti first and then you go, oh, I should start a podcast.

Catherine O'Brien 00:05:35
It's a rite of passage, right?

Matt Cundill 00:05:37
Yeah.

Catherine O'Brien 00:05:38
Well. And Jack knows this. I've actually started when I give materials to potential clients or just resources to people who are interested in podcasting. I actually now have a link to a very helpful video that will show people exactly how to use the Blue Yeti to get the best sound out of it because it's not intuitive, and especially if it's your first mic, you might be a little bit in the dark. So I've just started setting that out for the people who have the Blue Yeti who want to do podcasting until they get the mics that we are recommending.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:06:06
That link is now on my podcast equipment recommendation page. So.

Catherine O'Brien 00:06:09
Thank you, Kathy.

Matt Cundill 00:06:10
And even the term side address microphone still sails over my head, right?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:06:14
No, it's worth mentioning that for our listeners, which is an end address microphone, you speak into the end of it. A side address microphone, you want to speak into the side of it. So the pit and sake a lot of people make of the Blue Yeti, it is a side address microphone. If you are talking into the top of a Blue Yeti, you are not getting optimal sound from it as you would from talking into the side, the correct side, by the way.

Matt Cundill 00:06:34
Question for Catherine. The best recording platform, because there are some choices out there. These are the recording platforms that will allow you to record your show. There's a bunch of them out there. What do you recommend?

Catherine O'Brien 00:06:48
This is very interesting, Matt, that you'd bring this up right now because I'm currently using Zencaster and I've been happy with Zencaster. I know that some people have had whenever I say, oh, yeah, I've been using Zencaster, I've hear from people about one of their Zencaster disasters. In general, I would say, I think that most of the platforms are comparable in their skills. I do think that Zencaster, because they're trying to raise money and they're trying to get investors, they've been starting to put on some bells and whistles that I think at first weren't very helpful. And of course, as soon as they started looking for investment money, I started having technical problems. They've made significant changes to their free hobbyist platform. So that's just, in my opinion, essentially has gone away. So they're making a lot of changes, but I'm still using Zencaster for the time I've had success with Frankly, I have had success with Squadcast, and I've also, frankly, after manipulating the advanced settings, you can do okay with Zoom, but I'm sticking with Zencaster for right now.

Johnny Podcasts 00:07:51
Johnny David, the zoom guy over here. Yeah, I am definitely a simp for Riverside. That's just what works easiest for me. I would agree with Catherine that they're all very comparable. What I really like about Riverside is that it's really comparable to Zoom. Most people are really familiar with using Zoom, and I would say I've probably done 50 Riverside sessions over the past two months, all with different guests and have not had a single, maybe one or two people who have had issues getting onto Riverside. Riverside also has a mobile app, so if you don't have a laptop but you still want to get on as a guest on the podcast, you can join on your phone. Although I don't recommend it. Obviously we would all prefer for people to have microphones, treated rooms, things like that. Another thing that Riverside has just introduced is their transcription tool. So they're offering transcripts within their service, which I find it interesting. As with AI and all these tools that are coming out to make transcripts easier and easier, I find that less and less people are caring about them. They're like, wait, do we actually want or need transcripts? So Riverside would be my recommendation.

David Yas 00:08:59
David well, I'm not going to tell you that Zoom has the best recording quality, but I will admit that I use Zoom. I've used all the platforms that have been mentioned so far and just have had a bad experience here or there. The reason why I prefer Zoom is, in my opinion, if you have a good mic on the other end, you and your say you're doing it with a co host and you're doing it by Zoom. I do my music podcast like this. We use zoom. He has a good microphone, he's got a Samsung Q, two U on his end, I've got a good mic on my end. And 97% of the listeners are not going to notice that we're on Zoom. They really won't. Especially if you use good software to edit your podcast and run it through a filter if necessary. The reason I like Zoom is for the obvious reasons. People know it, they're familiar with it, it syncs with calendar, so I can send out a link to people and they can automatically book a time to be on my show and we all get the links at the same time and there's no confusion. Usually people are used to setting up the microphone and Zoom, although not everybody. But that's it. So for ease, I would just say if you're using Zoom, don't feel embarrassed. Stand up and say it loud and proud. Zoom is okay.

Matt Cundill 00:10:11
I should point out, by the way, Zoom is in the majority. Most people do use Zoom for this stuff, but yet we do our very best in this business to ostracize them and to make them feel silly about their decision.

Johnny Podcasts 00:10:24
I use zoom and I am proud.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:10:27
Jag I will say, if you are using Zoom, by the way, make sure you use the original sound for musician setting that's key to it. For me. I'm a squadcast guy. I like Squadcast because I've been with them for a long time. I find their customer service to be very good. And then also there's a little bit of a delay I found in Zencast or riverside, waiting for your guests to upload audio, you have to sit in the session until the audio is uploaded. I don't seem to have that issue with Squadcast. It seems to be pretty instantaneous. Squadcast has a cloud recording backup, I know, as others do, and for me, it's just been a matter of if I record in my studio and there's a Squadcast recording and there's a Squadcast backup, I've got potentially three copies of everything. So it's very rare that there's audio that I don't have that I lose.

Matt Cundill 00:11:12
I'm also going to go with Squadcast to remind everybody that they can get the first month free right now by going to Squadcast FM. Sound off. Wow.

David Yas 00:11:22
Well played.

Matt Cundill 00:11:23
Thank you. Thank you.

Johnny Podcasts 00:11:24
Matt wrote these questions, right?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:11:26
Yeah.

Matt Cundill 00:11:28
Jag, what do you use to edit your shows?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:11:30
As far as editing software, I'm an Adobe Audition guy. I learned back in the day on what was then cooled pro before Adobe bought them out. And so just because I've learned on it, that's the software that I like, that's the software I use. The best advice I've ever heard is the best Digital Audio Workstation software is the one you like. I hate Audacity. I know people that love it and make beautiful music or beautiful podcasts with it, but for me- 

Johnny Podcasts 00:11:54
Can make a great living just off of Audacity.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:11:57
Yeah. I am an Adobe audition guy, and I also have plugins from RX for Isotope, RX for some higher end stuff. And then I've used the Descriptio sound feature and the enhancements in Adobe as well. But Adobe audition for the Win for me. David?

David Yas 00:12:12
I use Descript. For those that haven't tried it, I really encourage you to do so. It was originally built, I think, as a transcription tool. The first thing it does is it transcribes your sound file. But then it does have the capabilities of fading sound out, splicing, moving things around just like you would in Audition or GarageBand or Audacity. And I just am in love with the ease to which I use it. If you're trying to find the part in the podcast where you talked about a Chihuahua and you want to take that out because you said something nasty about Chihuahuas, you search for Chihuahua. There it is. You don't need to go looking through listening through the whole show. I do use the feature that takes out the UMS and the US. And 99 times out of 100, there's not a problem with that. You do want to watch it. Sometimes it'll clip something you don't want to clip. But if you've got good sound, it's powerful, it's a huge time saver. And also it's got these artificial intelligent voiceovers. So if you want to add, like, a little sound effect that says, we'll be right back after this message, you can pick from, like, eight different voices. And I don't use it a lot, but it comes in handy sometimes. So descriptive.

Matt Cundill 00:13:26
So have you used the part of it because you mentioned the AI part, where maybe the guest or the host got the dog wrong. It's not Chihuahua. You wanted to say golden retriever. You can change the word, and the AI technology will use the voice to replace.

David Yas 00:13:44
So I've messed around with that. And here's the thing with that. First of all, if you think it's scary, it is. It's scary for someone else. For someone else to have the ability to simulate your voice and make you say anything you want. What the script does is only allows you to do your own voice. Now, granted, if you gave your credentials to someone else, they could do it. But you have to read a script that goes about ten minutes, and then it can in fact, simulate your voice saying Chihuahua or really anything under the sun. It's not perfect yet. If I typed out the Gettysburg Address and had me say it, a lot of the intonation would be wrong. Some of the emphasis would be on the wrong words. But in a pinch, yeah, you can use it. If it's your own voice and you've gone through the steps for the script to create a robot version of you, it's funny.

Matt Cundill 00:14:36
How do you use that?

Johnny Podcasts 00:14:37
I have my master's degree in Logic Pro X after getting my bachelor's from GarageBand, so started on GarageBand just because that's the free version. But if you're an Apple Mac user, it's the Apple version of Adobe audition. So again, it's like Jack said, it's whatever is easiest for you to use. It costs $200. It's a one time payment, which I find to be an advantage over the Adobe Suite. The Adobe suite is a monthly subscription versus Logic. You pay it once and you have it forever. I'm also a huge plugin nerd. I love to use crumple pop plugins Isotope as well. Waves has a ton of really great plugins. And then in terms of learning that stuff, I don't really think any of us went to school to learn this stuff. A lot of it is just self taught. You find out what works, you find out how to make great sound, how to use compression. It's all by trial and error, or you hire somebody like us. However, I'm also in the camp with David as well. I'm not big on cutting out UMS and us manually, so I will sometimes drop an audio file into the script and only use it for removing UMS and us, and then I'll export it back into Logic and do what I do with the rest of the episode. David I didn't realize how powerful the script actually was. I feel like you should do, like, a master class video course on everything that you can actually do with the script.

David Yas 00:15:55
It's crazy. Like I said, just a huge time saver. Johnny, you mentioned some of those plugins, but I don't know what they do.

Johnny Podcasts 00:16:04
Give us an example, for example, Crumple Pop has a plugin called Echo Remover, so that pulls the echo out. It's essentially a D reverb tool. And then for isotope, I really love the Deplosive tool, the deessing tool. And then in isotope RX, I think it's Ten, they offered an audio restoration tool where it has a different type of D reverb tool, which I have found works a lot better on voices that are not recorded with a microphone, but recorded with either AirPods or the computer speaker.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:16:36
Yeah. Dialogue d reverb.

David Yas 00:16:37
Right.

Johnny Podcasts 00:16:38
Yeah. And then on waves, I really love the CLA Two, which is a great compressor tool as well. And then I have one called the Elixir from a different company that I bought the plugin from, but that essentially allows me to stop clipping and peeking at minus three decibels, which I found is a really great audio. If somebody yells or laughs in a podcast, it can really hurt the person's ears if you're not skilled in using compression, and I think that really is the biggest thing that you need to learn is being able to stop someone's audio from going above a certain threshold. That is really what's the most key. And if you can do that and remove echo, and then you go into the next level of removing plosives or mouth clicking mouth d click is another great tool as well. All of that combined with a nice microphone, you're going to have a really great sounding podcast.

David Yas 00:17:30
By the way, Jag mentioned the studio sound function in Descript. And Jag, I think you might have introduced me to that in the first place. Also, I'm not sure, maybe we discovered it about the same time. But it is an absolute game changer, particularly if you're recording something where the other person doesn't have a microphone. And whether it's zoom or any other platform, if they just sound like they're distant, it can rescue your pod. It's amazing. You do have to watch it because occasionally it can give the person a lisp that you probably don't want them.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:18:01
Yeah, it can pull out s's, which is dangerous. And also, these AI things, they're always updating. So if you use the script, you'll see there's a new version of the script. Do you want to upgrade? And it'll restart and upgrade your description. So they're always tweaking it, and some of the tweaks honestly, are better than others.

Johnny Podcasts 00:18:15
The reason for that, that you get that kind of essing sound is when you put too much on the death because it's muting so much of that sharp s sound. Yeah, you really have to fine tune that, which is for certain people, that tool works. The studio sound. I like to get a lot more surgical with it, with the actual tool, and get really deep down into it.

Matt Cundill 00:18:36
Catherine, what do you use?

Catherine O'Brien 00:18:38
Well, Descript is going to be the name of the game right now. I started on Audacity and I used it for years and years and years, and it really was just one of those things where that's where I learned I was comfortable. The plugins that I figured out, I loved. And I still sometimes will use Audacity because I like the noise reduction. The noise reduction is probably one of the better daws for removing some of the noise. There's a great plugin for compressing dynamics that I also really like that is kind of like my secret sauce rescue if I ever need to do any sort of rescuing. But the ease of Descript has been very enticing. And so that's one of my projects this month is I'm actually going through some of the tutorials of Descript to learn all of the powerful functions because like many of us, because I was auto didact, I learned podcast production on my own and learned with Audacity. I just figured out Descript and didn't know a lot of the power that goes behind it. Studio sound, as we've already mentioned, has been a huge benefit to me and just the time saving of not having to manually remove the crutch words. I just think like, okay, I'd rather spend a little bit more time learning some of the functions of the script and using it to its full potential than fiddling around with a couple of different daws. And so far I've been having success, especially because so much of my business now has moved to remote recording more so than it ever has been before. I do have a comment about description is saved for when we're talking about transcription. Specifically.

Matt Cundill 00:20:19
We might get to the transcription part in part two of this. At the rate we're going through the.

Catherine O'Brien 00:20:23
20, we're doing fine. Come on.

David Yas 00:20:25
One. Just one.

Catherine O'Brien 00:20:25
Lightning. Lightning kids.

David Yas 00:20:27
I don't know if you guys have found that. Use Descript if you're using it with a lot of podcasts, delete your old files because it will mysteriously take up your entire hard drive before you know it. That happened to you? Jag yeah, it took me a while to figure out why I was running out of memory on my computer. It was descript. So you got a monitor.

Catherine O'Brien 00:20:45
Interesting.

Johnny Podcasts 00:20:45
I did not know that.

Matt Cundill 00:20:47
I use twisted wave. It is for Mac only. And you can put a lot of those toys that you were talking about, Johnny, like the RX, you can include that. It is Mac only and predominantly, you can't really mix with it. So it's really just- I use it just for editing and as well for my voiceover business. But I love twisted wave, simple as a $100 purchase. Podcast Host! Catherine, what podcast host do you love and why?

Catherine O'Brien 00:21:14
You know what I realized? Do you mean a person or do you mean a hosting company?

Matt Cundill 00:21:18
Hosting company?

David Yas 00:21:19
I thought you meant a person.

Johnny Podcasts 00:21:20
I have my spotify pulled up. I was like, what podcast do I really love?

Catherine O'Brien 00:21:24
That's so funny. Yeah, I interpreted I was thinking, oh, I can't wait to talk about this person. Well, I use Libsyn for most of the shows that I work on.

Johnny Podcasts 00:21:33
Okay. Johnny Libsyn and Megaphone.

David Yas 00:21:38
David I partner with a company called Adori, who started their company about the same time I started mine. So they're small but very useful. Terrific platform, Adori. I'll also say that I've used buzzsprout simplecast among others. Most of them are kind of all pretty good and pretty much the same, in my opinion. Jag?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:22:01
Simplecast, I have a network they set up for me so that all my clients can use dynamic ad insertion and get better statistics. I'm a big fan of Simplecast.

Johnny Podcasts 00:22:10
Don't you have an affiliate code, too? Jag? Yeah, we're all promoting ourselves. Go ahead, get your money, kid.

Matt Cundill 00:22:17
Yeah. I think a lot of these podcast hosts, a lot of them do a lot of the same things now, including Dynamic ad insertion and so I'm Megaphone and Art 19. But in the past I have used Libson. I've also used Podbean at one point. I guess do not use SoundCloud is still my mantra. Yes, do not use SoundCloud.

David Yas 00:22:39
Okay. They never really caught up, did they?

Matt Cundill 00:22:42
So, interesting question here the most underrated marketing hack for promoting a podcast that you have. What is the most underrated marketing hack for promoting a podcast? Jag?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:22:53
Something that I think a lot of people don't know is you can share a Spotify link to Instagram. If you hit the Share button on Spotify, you can post the direct link to your Instagram. And one of the problems with posting to social media is how do you move somebody over from the social media app they're on to the podcast app you want them to listen on one click Share. Spotify to instagram. David?

David Yas 00:23:14
Mine would be shout outs and then tagging people in social media. So to give an example, if you're doing a podcast about cars, and I know nothing about cars, but it's just an example on your Facebook page, put a question that says, hey, who remembers what their first car was? And you'll probably get a dozen people saying what their first car is. Now you do your podcast episode about everyone's first car, and the people that chimed in, they may not even listen to your podcast, but they responded to you on social media. So you say, hey, I just want to shout out, catherine drove a Buick and Johnny drove El Dorado, and sorry, I'm making that up. And then when you post the podcast, say, check out this podcast we did about first cars. And then you tag all the people that commented, and now you've got a bunch of people that are potentially ambassadors to your podcast. Not only are they going to listen, but maybe they'll hear it.

Matt Cundill 00:24:12
Catherine, what's yours?

Catherine O'Brien 00:24:14
Direct mailing. Burning your podcast onto CDs and sending them out in a special mailer to everybody.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:24:19
Wow, for real?

Matt Cundill 00:24:20
No, you had me.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:24:25
What is that?

Catherine O'Brien 00:24:29
I'm going to say doing cold emails to people, places, things that you talk about on the show, that's something with some of my clients that we've been starting to do is just doing a reach out. If we talk to people I'll talk about people on the podcast is sending them a little promotional emails, telling them where the segment starts talking about them. And I don't know what the response. It is something I am doing. I can't attest to the success or failure yet, but I think it's something that is worthwhile doing. It's just that little extra step for when you're talking about somebody on the podcast. Johnny?

Johnny Podcasts 00:25:02
Go on other podcasts. Go be a guest on other shows. And if you're thinking to yourself, oh, I'd love to go do that, but who's similar to my audience? What is a tool that I could use to find shows that are in the same lane as mine? Well, there's a great tool called Refhonic that's rephonic.com. They have a graph where you just type in your podcast name and it will show you based on listener data pulled from Apple podcasts, what other shows that your listeners listen to? You can find like 100 shows and it's like a little spider web. Graph your shows in the middle and all the shows that are really similar to yours are connected. Cold email them, I'd love to be a guest on your podcast. I think we have a similar audience. You can offer a cross promotion kind of deal to get on their show. They come on your show and you open yourself up to an entirely new audience and you've already with down the demographic to people who listen to podcasts.

David Yas 00:25:54
Johnny, do you actually mention in that email that you use this Rifonic tool? And I guess you don't need to you don't want to sound like you're pitch person for Rifonic.

Matt Cundill 00:26:04
I guess now you want to pretend that you're listening to their show. Your best friends ever. Mine's. The Facebook birthday. So when somebody that you've had on your show has a birthday, go on their Facebook page, wish them happy birthday and thanks a lot for coming on my podcast. And leave a link because who's going to listen to the show but all their friends?

David Yas 00:26:25
Wow, that's a great one.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:26:26
That's good. Yeah.

David Yas 00:26:28
Because they're going to have 500 people visiting their Facebook page, most of them only that day for the rest of the year. But that's the day they're going to visit them.

Johnny Podcasts 00:26:36
Love it.

Matt Cundill 00:26:37
David, what's the best day to release an episode?

David Yas 00:26:40
I have nothing more than conventional wisdom here that says Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but I'd say think out of the box and think about your audience. There's a music podcast I do, and we discovered that we actually did very well releasing on Friday or Saturday, and our thinking was that our podcast is much more of a dessert than. A meat and potatoes meal, and that people probably just save it for Friday or when they're walking the dog on a Saturday when dogs are pooping, that's when we want people listening to our show.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:27:09
Amen.

Matt Cundill 00:27:11
Well, Jag, you walked the dog this morning.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:27:13
I did.

Matt Cundill 00:27:13
What's the best day?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:27:15
I'd say Tuesday. Because to David's point, monday and Friday are too close to the weekend and people are out of routine. So I'd say Tuesday. But to David's point, do a little trial and error sometimes. You can sometimes get a better feel for where your audience is, but once you figure that out, be consistent. So I say Tuesday.

Catherine O'Brien 00:27:30
Catherine okay, this is blowing my mind, because almost every weekly podcast I listen to comes out on Mondays or Thursdays. But then whenever we have these kind of conversations, I hear Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It seems so crazy. I'm going to be day agnostic. I'm just going to say early morning. You have to do it overnight at midnight, plus a minute or whatever, because we all know that morning is the most popular time people are listening to their podcast.

Johnny Podcasts 00:28:01
Johnny let me counter that really quick, Catherine, because this recently, this conversation, that specific topic just came up of releasing it at midnight, and that's when I released most of the shows that I work on. However, the counterargument to that is if someone decides to release their episode at 04:00 A.m. Or 05:00 A.m. Or 06:00 A.m., everyone's still waking up at 630 in the morning, morning. Their show is now at the top of their feed, versus I now have to scroll down to yours that was released at midnight if I'm subscribed to a bunch of podcasts. So something to think about. As for Days of Release, I would say release it on the day that you can stick to consistently.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:28:32
I'm a fan of 06:00 A.m. As well. I'll co sign on that.

Matt Cundill 00:28:36
I'm a fan of 01:00 A.m.. I want it there overnight. I want them waking up to it. I don't think there's a bunch of episodes that really sort of pop up the way that they used to. I want it to get everywhere. And also my 01:00 a.m is somebody else's 07:00 A.m. In Spain.

Johnny Podcasts 00:28:53
None of us are international podcasters like you.

Matt Cundill 00:28:55
No, but I'm number one in Nigeria. Watch out, watch out.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:28:59
You're huge in Nigeria.

Catherine O'Brien 00:29:01
Yeah.

Matt Cundill 00:29:02
And by the way, most of my clients request Tuesday just because I think it's the easier marketing day and you can still get an ask out of people. Hey, listen to this podcast. As opposed to if you do it on Thursday, there's less time in the week for people to make a plan to listen to the show. But the correct answer, by the way, is to release it today.

David Yas 00:29:22
Today is Tuesday, whatever today is.

Matt Cundill 00:29:24
Yeah. Catherine, what was the very first podcast you produced for someone else?

Catherine O'Brien 00:29:29
Well, the very first podcast I produced for somebody else was the Paw Cast, which I did for Friends of the Animals, Baton Rouge. But then the first podcast that I was paid to do is solo travel talk for Astrid Clements, who is a travel writer.

Matt Cundill 00:29:44
Jag.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:29:47
What is that called? It's called living with cystic fibrosis. Laura Bunnell, my very first client, she has two daughters with cystic fibrosis. She has a foundation, and she puts together a tremendous podcast talking to people in the cystic fibrosis community. I have learned a lot about this horrible disease of this podcast. She's been a great client for four or five years now.

Johnny Podcasts 00:30:05
Johnny december of 2018, the Fort with Chris Powers still a client of mine today. We just released episode 275 today. He has crossed over a million downloads, and he's kicking ass.

David Yas 00:30:21
David the Cannab Show, featuring Joyce Gerber. So she interviews women who have done well in the cannabis industry. It's anything but a stoner podcast. It's very much about the business of cannabis, but I have learned a lot about cannabis over the years, and God bless her weekly, almost without exception. Sometimes she takes a few weeks in. The summer is off, but still doing it, still going strong.

Matt Cundill 00:30:45
Mine was your gut reaction with Marla Barr, which was released right around July of 2018. Hasn't pod faded, but we haven't produced an episode now in about eight months, so hopefully that one will restart again soon. But by the way, that question was inspired by Steve Pratt, who told me at a conference that you never forget your first when it comes to making a podcast.

David Yas 00:31:11
Do you ever go back and listen to the old ones you produced and say, oh, my God, garbage, because I suck? I say to myself, why did I let that person talk on that microphone? Why did I post this? What was I thinking?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:31:23
Every podcast host who's done ten episodes hates the way their first one sound, that editors and producers were all the same way.

David Yas 00:31:30
That's right. So just dive right in. Don't stop trying to make your first episode perfect, people, because no matter what you do, episodes two, three, four episodes, 21, 31, 100, they're all going to be better than your first one.

Matt Cundill 00:31:42
Johnny, what's the one thing you wish podcasters would stop doing?

Johnny Podcasts 00:31:49
Saying.

Matt Cundill 00:31:51
All right, David.

David Yas 00:31:57
Sorry, I got confused.

Matt Cundill 00:31:58
This is a real question.

David Yas 00:32:01
I wish they would stop stammering and avoiding the question like this podcaster is doing. I don't like the throat clearing stuff going on at the beginning of a show unless you've really earned it. In other words, if I click on a podcast and I want to know the three ways to help make my car go faster or whatever, I don't know why I keep talking about cars, but the three ways to make my peanut butter sandwich taste better, I want to hear those three things. I don't want to hear the host talking about how they got up this morning and shoveled the snow. And did you hear about how the clippers did last night? Come on, get to the point, Catherine.

Catherine O'Brien 00:32:40
This is a little bit from the host side of things. I'm really tired of podcast hosts debating all the things about the video podcast and the audio podcast. I'm really very tired of that conversation completely. And you know what? I'm getting a little sick of podcasts that are just chocka block with ads. That is starting to get to me as well.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:33:08
Jag using a Blue Yeti microphone.

David Yas 00:33:11
I knew he was going to say that.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:33:13
You all knew I was going to say that. My crusade against the Blue, the Blue.

Johnny Podcasts 00:33:17
Yeti rep that watches this stream.

Catherine O'Brien 00:33:19
I know we're never going to get a sponsor.

David Yas 00:33:22
I don't know if we'll get to this later, and I know we still need your answer, but if we could spend maybe 90 seconds on what Catherine said about ads, because I struggle with this. I've got a podcast that has as many as eight ads, and it's almost simply too many, but I don't know if you think it's worth talking about how you space those out.

Matt Cundill 00:33:40
Well, actually, Jag and I would have just flunked Match Game because I thought he was going to say for podcasters to stop asking for ratings and reviews.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:33:49
Yeah, okay. That's number two on my list.

Matt Cundill 00:33:52
Yeah, but I'm taking that answer, and that's my answer, but I don't mind talking. David, let's talk a little bit about ads for a second. Catherine's, point. So what's the problem with ads and how do we fix it?

David Yas 00:34:02
I worry about the pre roll ads because especially for a podcast that's still in its first year, I want to get to the meat. I know it's become part of the industry to have a couple of ads preroll, but if you're rogan, you can get away with that. So I tend to pick two mid roll spots and no more than 60 seconds each. That's what I aspire to. But I'm not necessarily right. That's just my test.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:34:31
I'll jump in. I'll say that pre rolls are not great, in my opinion, because your first minute of your podcast is your first impression, and especially of your most recent episode. In most cases, somebody finds your podcast, they check it out, or the first thing they hear is ads that's going to turn them off. So I hear what you're saying, David.

Johnny Podcasts 00:34:50
Hold on. I want to play devil's advocate really quick. One, the host gets money for having ads. You're going to make the most amount of money by selling pre roll ads. If the listener doesn't like the ads but loves your podcast, they'll skip through them. Fair.

David Yas 00:35:03
But I just worry about building audience.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:35:05
And yeah, that's existing listeners versus new listeners is what we're debating here. I think time codes.

Johnny Podcasts 00:35:09
Put in time codes. First question starts here. Touch that, skip everything.

David Yas 00:35:13
Well, does anybody worry about how we're all encouraging our clients to be on YouTube. If you're on YouTube, when the typical user clicks on the podcast, they're going to get an ad, a YouTube ad before the podcast.

Johnny Podcasts 00:35:27
So you get YouTube ahead of thousand subs.

David Yas 00:35:30
No pretty much any YouTube video, unless you're a premium user. We're all watching like a 15 2nd ad, right?

Johnny Podcasts 00:35:38
Okay. I don't know.

Catherine O'Brien 00:35:41
Well, let me pop in here. So there's like a little bit of a combination of what you guys are talking about. So I listen to some podcasts where the host of the show will do some host red ads that are built into the show. Then there will be dynamic ad insertion that is giving another voice or just like a standard commercial advertisement popped in either before midroll or even post roll in the outro area. And for years as a podcast lover, I have been diligent about listening to the ads because I saw it as part of my support of the show that I was liked. I have bought things using promo codes that I might not otherwise buy because I'm supporting the shows that I like. So I'm one of those people. I want to support the podcasting. But now it seems like because we're now into the territory of CPM, podcasts are being subjected to more of the standard advertising rate, that now podcasters are doing more and more advertising for smaller amounts of money. So it just is becoming more and I guess my thought was, forgive me for being nostalgic, but some of the magic of podcasting, of just having that show that is about the content, about whatever the subject is of the podcast starts getting diluted with so many ads getting stuck in there. And it applies to YouTube as well as just in the straight up audio.

Johnny Podcasts 00:37:17
Final counterpoint from my end. Dr. Andrew Huberman's podcast and Tim Ferriss are each doing over a million downloads per episode and the first nine minutes of both of their shows are ads.

David Yas 00:37:29
Yeah, I know.

Catherine O'Brien 00:37:30
Yeah.

David Yas 00:37:31
Who listens to that many ads? I mean, nobody.

Johnny Podcasts 00:37:33
They skipped through.

David Yas 00:37:34
Yeah. Well then why are we doing it?

Sarah Burke (VO) 00:37:43
This podcast supports podcasting 2.0. If you like this show or getting value from it, hit the boost button now. If you don't have a boost button, you can get one now at newpodcastaps.com.

Matt Cundill 00:37:59
Catherine, you get to start even though you just finished, you get to continue on here. What was the podcast that inspired you to get into podcasting?

Catherine O'Brien 00:38:08
Well, I think Adam Corolla, because Adam Carola was on morning radio in Los Angeles and he left like so many radio jobs. He did the podcast, he made the jump to podcasting, and it was the first one that I sort of watched in real time become successful. I also was a fan of public radio that were also releasing their show as a podcast. And it was just sort of like, what is this podcasting thing? It took me a while to get it, but I think Adam Crowle was the first one that I watched that was exclusively doing podcasting.

Matt Cundill 00:38:46
Jag.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:38:47
Probably the daily for the New York Times. That was the first one I listened to religiously. They do such a great job every morning on deep dive on one particular topic.

David Yas 00:38:54
David Calvin stole my thunder. Adam Corolla was the one that got me into it because I realized in listening to The Adam Corolla Show, even if he didn't have a guest that was entertaining. He was so talented in just the art of conversation and observing everyday things with his two sidekicks that interplay the art of that conversation became the reason for tuning in. There's one other I'll mention, and it was a short run podcast, was by comedian Jeff Garland, who most people know from Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's Larry's agent, but he did a series of conversations recorded live at Largo, in La. And he made it into this podcast series called by the Way. And what was interesting was he would be talking to his guest. The guest would share a story. Jeff Garland would say, that reminds me of that, and he would tell a story. And one time the guest was like, I thought I was being interviewed. And Jeff Garland says, no. It's a conversation. It's a conversation. And that really, to me is at the heart of podcasting is what I tell all my hosts is don't be afraid to talk. The listeners want to hear from you too. It's your show.

Johnny Podcasts 00:39:56
Johnny, congratulations with Chris Dalia stand up comedian who was since recently been canceled. But his was just kind of a solo ranting podcast and he just was just so good at just talking for an hour. And I just loved the medium of just hearing someone be so entertaining. And it's not music, it's not a YouTube video. It was just something different and I love it.

Matt Cundill 00:40:22
Has he not been uncanceled yet?

Johnny Podcasts 00:40:24
He's come back and he's back in touring and stuff, but I feel like I outgrew his comedy. It seems like it's just for a different age demographic. But that was who I first started.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:40:35
The youngest guy in the group.

Catherine O'Brien 00:40:38
Yeah, there's almost a double meaning to what you just said, too.

Matt Cundill 00:40:44
Mine was never mind a podcast called YoY, which is actually a dating podcast that was done by Panoply. But I just love the fact that they could go that they were recording people who were on dates. And then it sounded a little bit public radio, but it didn't it sounded very warm. And I thought, oh, that's a completely different sound than radio. And at that moment I said, I want to create audio that sounds like that. And that's kind of how I got here.

David Yas 00:41:09
If you had to pinpoint one difference between- and Jag, you're good to answer this as well- between radio and podcasting. Matt, I have my answer, but I want to hear from you, former radio guest..

Matt Cundill 00:41:20
Podcasting, you're speaking to somebody. Radio, you're speaking at somebody.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:41:25
I would say for me, radio is very cutthroat and it's us versus them. It's a limited pie. And for podcasting, it's more rising tide lifts all boats.

Matt Cundill 00:41:34
Wow.

David Yas 00:41:34
Yeah. You're both wrong. Even though you're former radio guys. No, I always thought it was that podcast guests can breathe.

Johnny Podcasts 00:41:40
You can let it breathe.

David Yas 00:41:41
It's what I tell a guest when I sit down. We're going to go for 30 minutes, but if we're having fun, we'll go longer. You can't do that on radio, right? It's like, look at the clock, look at the meter and all that.

Johnny Podcasts 00:41:50
Yeah, and that's a double meeting, too. You can let that episode now breathe forever versus for radio. I need to be listening to you in my car at 08:30 a.m. On Tuesday and Thursday.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:41:58
Do you want those Taylor Swift tickets?

Johnny Podcasts 00:42:00
Yeah.

Matt Cundill 00:42:01
Yes. That's so true, Johnny. But what app are you going to be listening to? Favorite app to listen to podcasts and explain your answer.

Johnny Podcasts 00:42:07
I use Spotify because it allows me to have my music and my podcasts right there. They're rolling it out for more and more people. But for some shows, there is a video component for podcasts. Not totally sure how that all works. Spotify also allows you to ask questions to the listener. If you scroll to the bottom of the show notes, you can have a Q and A. What did you think about this episode? Would you recommend this episode to a friend? You can totally customize all that as well. And then there's one more thing that I'm trying to figure out. I've seen it with again. Dr. Huberman's podcast is chapter markers. Not just the time codes. Time codes are listed out, but if you scroll even further, there are actual chapter blocks listed out there. So I'm trying to figure out how to get those for my clients.

Catherine O'Brien 00:42:52
Catherine podcast Republic, because I have an Android phone that's first now coming in strong. I'm listening to more and more podcasts on YouTube because I'm on YouTube for other reasons. And Spotify, I do like the user experience. So those are my top three.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:43:11
Jag I started on Apple podcasts. I went over to Spotify after I got frustrated with the UX or UI on Apple. I'm told Apple has improved it, but I'm good on Spotify. Even though I don't pay for Spotify, I feel no need to go back.

David Yas 00:43:24
David, after this podcast, maybe I'll switch. I don't know. I listen. On Apple podcast. I tried to go to Spotify. It just was like I was used to wearing this old shoe, so I went back to the old shoe. Apple tries. It's true. Yeah. You got to hit that Coke machine a few times before you tip it over. So I'm eager to hear more about what you can do on Spotify. It's a wonderful product. So apple podcast, but only out of familiarity. There are a lot of problems with it.

Matt Cundill 00:43:53
In the car. It's apple. On the airplane. It's Apple. In the home, though, it is Spotify. So I can sync it up with my smart speaker device. That's my story. I'm sticking to it.

Johnny Podcasts 00:44:05
You're like the one of ten global people that uses a smart speaker to listen to podcasts, according to Triton Digital.

Matt Cundill 00:44:12
Well, I'm still using Spotify. I'm just listening to it through the smart speaker. So I'm not sure Triton is picking up what I'm throwing down. So again, sometimes the data can be a little bit funky, right? Always.

Catherine O'Brien 00:44:23
That's true.

Matt Cundill 00:44:24
Jag, what's the hardest part about making a podcast?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:44:26
Planning out the content, making sure that you know how you're going to get from A to B to C. I can't tell you how many times I had a client say, let's just get on the riff for a while. And the final product shows Catherine the.

Catherine O'Brien 00:44:38
Time it takes to make a high quality episode.

Johnny Podcasts 00:44:43
Johnny dealing with a guest when you're recording remotely, they don't have a microphone, they have a shite internet connection, and their dog is barking in the background and their newborns on their lap.

Matt Cundill 00:44:57
David oh, sorry.

David Yas 00:45:01
Newborn. My newborn puppy. Scheduling guests, there's no way around it. It's a headache to try to stay on your cadence of posting and get guests lined up when you need to. So you got to be vigilant.

Matt Cundill 00:45:19
Jack, I'm going to ask this. What was the question again?

David Yas 00:45:22
It was the hardest part.

Matt Cundill 00:45:24
The answer is editing. It just takes so long, right? Especially if you're like David who- You get clients who just riff and riff and go forever. Now you got 2 hours to edit, and that's going to be four and a half hours. Jag, I think I know your answer with this one, but I want everyone to sort of name the podcast you've worked on that exceeded your expectations in terms of performance. And you mentioned the cystic fibrosis podcast. Was it that one or another one?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:45:46
It wasn't. Can I cheat and give you two? So, as I've mentioned in previous episodes, my Wjpz 50 podcast for my college radio station is now over 6000 downloads for a real niche audience of folks that would be tied to the radio station.

David Yas 00:46:01
But I'm going to give you another.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:46:02
One, and that is the Marrowmasters podcast that I work on with the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link. This is a podcast providing resources to folks who have been through a bone marrow transplant. And I'm looking at it right now on my screen. We have, I think, 78 episodes. And in 78 episodes, we have almost 20,000 downloads because this is super serving a community and they are spreading it within the community, this resource with information for people who have had a bone marrow transplant. So the Marrowmasters podcast for me, Catherine.

Catherine O'Brien 00:46:36
I have to say, living Love it by far. First of all, I've been having this phenomenal relationship working with the host of the show, Jessica, who works at this independent school based in Atlanta, Georgia. And she gets the most incredible feedback week after week after week regarding this show. She's had alumna who have not been in contact with the school say this is the first thing that made them feel connected to the school in a decade. We've heard from parents. We've heard from prospective families. We've heard from people who want to work at the school. I actually asked her, I said, are you making these up, these letters and these cards that you're getting? Because I'm just blown away by how much impact this show is having. And in fact, they were profiled in the Atlanta Journal Constitution paper based on the show. It's just been just tremendous. And I am so grateful to be a part of that show.

Johnny Podcasts 00:47:29
Johnny this show is called Think Like an Owner, hosted by a fantastic guy named Alex Bridgeman and similar to Jack, very niche audience. People who are looking to buy a small or medium sized business, small niche audience, however, very wealthy audience. And he was able to leverage partnerships with advertisers to go full time on the podcast, fully paid for his entire life at like 23 years old. And wow, it was just incredible what he's been able to do.

David Yas 00:48:04
David I produced a podcast called Monster Land, which was, you talk about exceeded expectations. I didn't know what to expect. These two dudes approached me. They are fans and enthusiasts of the paranormal, bigfoot UFOs, the whole deal. Turns out they're both funny, charming. They're not nuts, as I might have suspected. And you talk about a niche audience, it's just that thing. If you're into the paranormal, you are going to crave that information. And to this day, I think it's a podcast that garnered the most downloads of any I've produced. So never underestimate the passion of a niche audience of any weird thing you can dream up. That's what podcasting is a lot of times.

Matt Cundill 00:48:49
Yeah. And I'm going to say the exact same thing for two of the honorable mentions that I have, which is Humans on Rights, which is a podcast out of Winnipeg, championing human rights. And the other one is You Do Woo, which is a Texas based podcast about human design. But the one that I've really opened my eyes again, let's take this outside with Marianne Ives. And it's just simply about going outdoors and the number of people who came to support the show and support it through advertising. We sold out in six months, and now we don't have any place to put the ads.

David Yas 00:49:26
Good problem to have.

Matt Cundill 00:49:27
Well, again, but we also banged on having too many ads earlier on. Every show does put them all at.

Catherine O'Brien 00:49:33
The beginning, but it sounds like you have a limit. So I'm content.

Matt Cundill 00:49:37
Yeah, well, I'm sure she'll say, Why are we reading ten minutes of ads before I do my show?

David Yas 00:49:42
Shut up.

Johnny Podcasts 00:49:43
Take this money.

Matt Cundill 00:49:46
Catherine, transcription, what do you use? What's the best?

Catherine O'Brien 00:49:49
I have been using Descript and I'll say this is that because of the nature of a lot of my clients, they are in industries and this is speaking about US law. Because of accessibility issues, I recommend my clients have a transcript. People like them, let's say a limited number of people like them, some people rely on them, and so that's why we say yes to having a transcript, because I'm using Descript anyway, with my editing, that's where I like to get the transcription. Here's my beef. I just discovered, Descript, that if you put in two tracks, which is I record in multi track as much as I can a 29 minutes speaker, a audio with a 29 minutes speaker B into Descript. They count that. As 58 minutes of transcription eating away at my monthly allowance, which I think that's bogus because the final product is a 29 minutes audio. So I might have a sternly worded tweet to Descript later. To find out more about this, can.

David Yas 00:50:54
You combine the tracks, download it, and then re upload it, and then it's only one track.

Catherine O'Brien 00:51:00
Yeah, so that's just more work for.

Johnny Podcasts 00:51:02
Me, you're right, anybody here followed the blue yeti? Rep out of the chat room?

Catherine O'Brien 00:51:10
There goes my promo code. Promo code.

Matt Cundill 00:51:13
Catherine johnny, what about you?

Johnny Podcasts 00:51:17
I'm very old school, I use people. I have a gal out in Greece who does all my transcripts and a young lad in Pakistan who do transcriptions for me, and the reason I use People is I encourage them to use AI software, so in terms of actual products, one of them is called Otter, AI. Otter, like the cute little water dog? The reason I use people to do it is that they are proofreading it for me for grammar readability. And then I also have them bold out all of the questions that the host asks in order to clip those for blog posts, screenshot them to tweet, anything like that. But essentially it's so I don't have to read through it. I trust them enough to be able to do it.

Matt Cundill 00:51:55
Do you know what's so sad is I actually thought when you said People go people. What is that? Is that Ppl.com app?

Catherine O'Brien 00:52:01
Right?

Johnny Podcasts 00:52:03
It's a living organism hybrid AI.

Matt Cundill 00:52:08
David.

David Yas 00:52:09
So I do use Descript, but if you want an accurate transcript that you're going to put on your website, I don't think you can really use Descript unless you're ready to spend a few hours editing it. So for those purposes, I use Trent.com, which, of all I've looked at, that seems to be the most accurate, markedly more accurate than Descript. And we'll even do things like put in parentheses. Laughter the person laughs. Which I think is cool. Trent, like the name, Trent Trint, and I got to pay extra for that, but I wish the script was was super accurate because I love it for everything else.

Matt Cundill 00:52:50
But I think I took a look at Shrint and I thought, that's pretty high end.

Johnny Podcasts 00:52:56
Yeah, when I saw the price $60 a month. How much for unlimited transcriptions? Or $48 a month if you want to do seven files per month. 32 different languages, identify speakers automatically, custom vocabulary that you can add, capture from, zoom, edit simultaneously, and the teams up to three users share with anyone to view and comment.

David Yas 00:53:20
Yeah, it's pricey, but it's the one that I have to spend 30 minutes podcast. I have to spend no more than ten minutes scanning the thing to make sure there are no mistakes.

Johnny Podcasts 00:53:31
There might be a few, but translates to 54 languages.

David Yas 00:53:37
So if you want to translate it to Farsi just for fun, go for it.

Johnny Podcasts 00:53:41
That's legitimately. Great recommendation. Thank you, David.

Matt Cundill 00:53:44
Well, I'm having that success with Potent IO because I can listen back and it's 93% accurate and I can catch it all.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:53:52
I'm a descript guy. Although I have started playing around with a website called Capsha, C-A-P-S-H-O where they use AI to generate not only a transcript, but show notes and social media blog posts for your episode. It's a little on the pricey side. I'm going to dig into it a little bit more, but I'll report back next month.

David Yas 00:54:09
You can use Chat GPT to correct errors in transcription, but I heard that it might be just making an extra work.

Johnny Podcasts 00:54:19
It stops at a certain length. Yeah, exactly. Like, I put in a whole transcript into Chat GPT and it said, this is too long of an entry.

Matt Cundill 00:54:29
Let's go around with newsletters. Jag?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:54:31
AWeber. It's an email service that will actually pull straight from your RSS feed and you can set up an automation to go up when you hit publish on your podcast. A-W-E-B-E-R. Catherine.

Catherine O'Brien 00:54:46
For one client, I do some stuff on MailChimp which I would prefer not to do, so I have no recommendation. I'm open to recommendations. Johnny?

Johnny Podcasts 00:54:55
Www.substack.com/johnnypodcasts for a weekly newsletter that you will get in your inbox. It's the only email you will get. This is my promo for the part of the podcast. I love substac. I think it's great. I just recently switched over there after Twitter's newsletter thing got shut down. Loved it.

Matt Cundill 00:55:16
A little footnote do not put your podcast on Substac. There is no three one redirect.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:55:22
Oh, really?

Matt Cundill 00:55:24
Really, David?

David Yas 00:55:27
I'm with Catherine. I don't really do too many newsletters. On the occasions I have, I've used GoDaddy. It's fine, but not great, so I'm kind of useless.

Matt Cundill 00:55:35
I'm going to remain a little bit agnostic with this, too. I use MailChimp. But Substack- If I started today, I would probably start with Substac. You only get to use one social media platform to promote all your shows forever. What will. You use Catherine?

Catherine O'Brien 00:55:52
I have to decide. Twitter. It's too podcasty.

Johnny Podcasts 00:55:57
Johnny, you already know my answer. The tweet man. Jack, twitter is the most valuable, I think has the most valuable audience. You have to find the right audience. But I think that the most high value people that are using social media are on Twitter. Get rid of all the politics, get rid of all the social commentary stuff. When you find the right audience, they're on Twitter.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:56:21
For me, it's funny, my gut was Twitter, but I'm going to actually change and say LinkedIn, because I think you can make some real meaningful connections on LinkedIn with hashtags in your network.

Matt Cundill 00:56:30
David?

David Yas 00:56:31
I would also say LinkedIn, and especially if you're looking to appeal to a corporate audience. I've said this before, but when bank robber Willie Sutton asked why he robbed banks, he said, because that's where the money is. And if you had to pick one social media channel where corporations live, it's LinkedIn.

Matt Cundill 00:56:49
So I was going to say Instagram, but you guys have convinced me it's Twitter and LinkedIn. That is all. Before we get to the next question, I want Johnny to explain to everybody what an interface is. In the technical terms.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:57:04
An interface?

Johnny Podcasts 00:57:05
Interface. Like an audio interface?

David Yas 00:57:07
Yes.

Johnny Podcasts 00:57:08
Okay, great. So an audio interface is when you're looking at microphones. Am I correct? Is that what you want me to talk about?

David Yas 00:57:17
Yes.

Johnny Podcasts 00:57:17
Okay, you're moving your hand like, what are you doing? So when you're looking at your microphone, you see the big plugin. That's an XLR. Most microphones have the XLR option. Other microphones have an XLR and USB option. If you have the USB option, you can plug directly into your computer. If you only have the XLR option, don't worry, you are not out of luck. You can use what is called a USB audio interface. Like this. This is the Wave XLR. My XLR only microphone is running right into this fun little box that has a USB out that goes directly into my computer and allows me to use a really nice microphone on the Internet to record remote podcasts.

Matt Cundill 00:57:56
I'm glad you explained that, by the way, because when we talk about this, people are like, well, why do I need this? Yeah, go ahead, David.

David Yas 00:58:03
I was just going to say, certainly if you have a co host and you're in the same room together, don't try to do this thing where you plug in two USB microphones into the same laptop. It can be done, I think, but not well. So what do you got there?

Johnny Podcasts 00:58:18
This is a physical recorder. If you're with in person together, you can use your XLR microphones to plug into this. This is the zoom pod track p four.

Catherine O'Brien 00:58:27
Yeah, I was going to say zoom h four.

Matt Cundill 00:58:30
So, Catherine, that's your answer?

Catherine O'Brien 00:58:32
Yes.

Matt Cundill 00:58:33
Okay. I'm all right with the zoom h five.

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:58:36
All right, Jag, this is for a simple one on one if we can hold this in my webcam the right way. This is the Focusrite. One mic in, USB out to the computer. If you're recording multiple people, somebody over a phone, USB or anything like that, I would say instead, I would say you the rodecaster, which is pricey, but worth it.

Matt Cundill 00:59:04
And David.

David Yas 00:59:07
Yeah, I'm a rodecaster guy. Again, if you can afford it, it really is the way to go. If you're looking for one place, if there's one place you're going to stretch to take your podcast to the next level, it's the roadcaster. Although it's high end, it's made for dummies. It really is. It's like Fisher Price.

Matt Cundill 00:59:27
Well, we all know that David's got all the high end stuff going here today.

David Yas 00:59:33
Do you want more sound effects? I got sound effects. I know you want the theme to Benny Hill. Thank you.

Johnny Podcasts 00:59:42
Do you have the Seinfeld bass line?

Jon "JAG" Gay 00:59:50
That was not stop it right there. Stop it right there. So we don't get flagged.

Catherine O'Brien 00:59:53
Perfect. What about Curb Your Enthusiasm?

Johnny Podcasts 01:00:04
Would be easier to ask the things.

Matt Cundill 01:00:06
That you don't have demo of the roadcaster.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:00:11
And this is why podcasting is better than radio, because if we're in radio, we're about to hit 60 Minutes, we would have had to cut it off. We can keep going. Next question.

Matt Cundill 01:00:19
Be time for WBZ news.

David Yas 01:00:22
Nice reference.

Matt Cundill 01:00:23
What's the most overlooked way to monetize your podcast? Jag?

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:00:26
Come back to me. I'd think about that for a second.

Matt Cundill 01:00:30
Catherine, the most overlooked way to monetize your podcast?

Catherine O'Brien 01:00:34
I'm going to say get them on your list, because people still buy from the list. And so if there's a way that you can get people to opt into your email list, that is going to be long term the best way to turn something into money.

Johnny Podcasts 01:00:51
Johnny, there is a company out there for your podcast that aligns exactly with your niche, that is looking to market to your audience. You don't need to find ten sponsors, you need to find one company to get your foot in the door that can become the title sponsor of your show. Build a relationship with them over time. Hey, I want you to be the exclusive sponsor of my show. I'll put you on my cover art. I'll call you out at the beginning of every episode. That's all you need.

David Yas 01:01:16
David inviting potential clients on your podcast. This presuming, you have a day job. You're inviting someone that can be a client of yours in your advocation. They get dazzled by the job you do, letting them tell their story on your show. And in a way, doesn't matter if anybody even listens to that episode, the client loved it and they give you more business or whatever. There you go.

Matt Cundill 01:01:41
Mine is to actually show up. So it's to show up to a convention or a conference for your podcast. So if it's about radio, show up at a radio convention. If it's about Widgets, go to the Widgets convention, get in the middle of the whole thing and tell people about their podcast. You'll probably leave with some possibly some partnership or ad deals. Jag, is there anything you want to throw in?

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:02:00
Yeah, I believe the Widget conference is in Anaheim this year. That said, I would say lead generation. I work with a bunch of financial advisors, and you're putting information out there that's useful for somebody planning their retirement for a financial advisor. If they get one high net worth client, they listen to the podcast and wants to work with them. Podcast is paid for itself for a year at that point.

Matt Cundill 01:02:23
Headphones, what are your favorite headphones, David?

David Yas 01:02:27
Audio Technica. I don't know. Jag told me it's audio technica, something I defer to. Jag.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:02:36
Yeah, audio technica is kind of the way to go. Look, we've got three votes for it already.

Catherine O'Brien 01:02:42
I'm wearing parrot. I like them.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:02:46
I will say as an addendum though, in a pinch, your microphone is way more important than your headphones. Those cheap little white headphones that come with an iPhone. As long as they have that standard eight inch jack and not the square rectangular one, you can plug those in and get it done quick and dirty if need be.

Matt Cundill 01:03:02
Johnny, what are you using and what do you recommend?

Johnny Podcasts 01:03:05
So, for production, like post production stuff, I'm using the Audiotechnica M 50 x. Those are the highest end of the audiotechnica headphones. What I'm using right now are called the sure five one five. So these are just in ear monitors. I wear those over the ear headphones all day long. And then these, I feel like, just look better. I can show my hair off, I can wear a hat.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:03:28
We're all jealous. Well, three out of the four of us are jealous when you see hair.

Johnny Podcasts 01:03:32
I'm a big believer in the fact that most of the people watching and listening probably have AirPods. I think you're fine using your air pods. When you're recording a podcast as the listening device to hear the other person, it is important to be able to hear yourself. But as long as you're not drifting away from the microphone too much, that's what normally you're using the headphones for, is to make sure you're still engaging with the front of the microphone. I agree with Jack. I think spend the money on the microphone and the recorder headphones are 30 area.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:04:01
Tertiary, tertiary, tertiary.

Matt Cundill 01:04:04
I got a pair of bear.

Johnny Podcasts 01:04:05
I went to college, too, didn't even get that.

Matt Cundill 01:04:08
These are bare dynamics. They're a little bit more gentle on the ears with the low end. I rather enjoy them. They retail in Canada for 279, 239 in the United States. And I got them over the more popular Sony ones, which began to hurt my ears at one point. But I'm glad that you brought up Johnny, the over the ear stuff, because I think a lot of people don't want to appear on YouTube with big, bulky headphones, even though we are all on YouTube right now with big bulky headphones.

Johnny Podcasts 01:04:33
The cans, as they call them in the business.

Matt Cundill 01:04:35
We've reached the end. This is question number 20 and you're only going to be asked to part with one podcast prediction. Who would like to serve up a podcast prediction?

Johnny Podcasts 01:04:47
AI will not kill the podcast editor. At the end of the day, the tools can be as simple as possible. If you find the right client and that they're going to hire you, they do not want to edit their own podcast. Simple as that. It could be the same as just uploading it. The AI says, I promise you this will be perfectly edited and sound engineered to the best of your capabilities. They're going to want a human looking at it at the end.

Matt Cundill 01:05:13
I like that. Here, jag, you got one.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:05:17
I do. YouTube will incorporate RSS feeds by the end of 2023 and you will be able to count your podcast listens in YouTube and from your podcast host together in one place.

David Yas 01:05:30
David, I think the restrictions on using things like copyrighted music will continue to soften over the years. And I've noticed Spotify is sending out an email where they shrewdly will flag copyrighted material, but then allow you to click on a box that explains whether you're using it fairly or not. One of the great myths of copyright law is that you're not allowed to use any second shred or anything of copyright. It's not exactly true. There's a thing called fair use. So it's not a bold prediction, but that's mine.

Matt Cundill 01:06:03
Catherine, do you have one?

Catherine O'Brien 01:06:05
Yes. And of course, because it's me, it's sort of philosophical in nature. I think for the next year, let's say there's going to be more decentralization in podcasting, people who did a lot of acquisitions and what have you. Things are being shut down, people are getting laid off. I think that there's going to be a little bit of moving back to the podcasting with things getting decentralized, which will then quickly be followed, let's say a couple of years down the line by some recentralization people trying to get value and do that sort of consolidating to try and make podcasting gets the most that they can monetarily out of podcasting. I think that we see these forces coming in. There's a lot of people who have a lot of hopes and dreams wrapped up in podcasting and we never quite make it. And it's interesting to me because podcasting started as a decentralized medium, that was part of the appeal and people wanted to consolidate it because they want to make money and it's just going to be this little bit of a back and forth on that for the next couple of years.

Matt Cundill 01:07:13
So my podcast prediction is no good anymore. Jag ruined it because his prediction was more specific than what mine was going to be and I was just going to say YouTube is going to be looking for a new podcast strategy within a year. But Jag took it a step further and just mentioned, and correctly so, I believe, is that it will include RSS feeds at some point.

Catherine O'Brien 01:07:33
I'm sorry. I have one more prediction. The Podcast Superfriends are going to be just the go to resource for everybody who wants to know about podcasting.

Johnny Podcasts 01:07:44
When I think of the army of people screaming fair use, let me play music and sound effects on my podcast, I imagine David on the lead horse with his face painted blue and white.

Matt Cundill 01:07:53
Like braveheart boys with a roadcaster under his arm.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:08:02
He'll never take my music.

David Yas 01:08:05
Right.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:08:07
All right.

Matt Cundill 01:08:07
We've hit the end. This is where we say goodbye and everybody reminds everybody who they are. We will start with Catherine and we will go clockwise around and thank everybody and tell everybody where you can be found.

Catherine O'Brien 01:08:17
Okay. And after ours, this will be a teaser for our audience, is I have an idea for an upcoming episode. But my name is Catherine O'Brien. It's been my pleasure being with you. I want Twitter followers, too, so follow me. HelloCatherineO on Twitter. And my company is Branch Out Programs. Branchoutprograms.com.

Johnny Podcasts 01:08:35
I'm Johnny. You can find me on Substack when you search Johnny Podcasts, go subscribe.

David Yas 01:08:40
Pod617.com. The Boston Podcast Network.

Jon "JAG" Gay 01:08:45
And another one, Jon Gay, JAG In Detroit podcast, jagindetroit.com or on Twitter @jagindetroit.

Matt Cundill 01:08:52
Matt Cundill, the Sound Off Media Company, and also the Sound Off podcast network out of Winnipeg, Canada. That's it. Thanks, everyone.

David Yas 01:09:01
Good job, Matt.

Matt Cundill 01:09:01
Thank you!

Sarah Burke (VO) 01:09:02
Thanks for listening to the Podcast Superfriends. For a transcript of the show, or to connect with the Superfriends, go to the show notes of this episode, or go to Soundoff.network. Produced and distributed by the Sound Off Media Company.