Kevin Palmieri: Building a Profitable Podcasting Business One Episode at a Time

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Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy

 

 

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entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective

 

 

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solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance.

 

 

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I'm Matthew Passi, your host and a 15 year veteran in the podcasting

 

 

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space. We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and

 

 

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hardware that can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly

 

 

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for insightful interviews with tech creators, behind the scenes studio tours, and

 

 

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strategies for podcasting success. Head to podcasting tech dot

 

 

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com to subscribe to this show on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform

 

 

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and join us on this exciting journey to unlock the full potential of your

 

 

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podcast. It's been a little while, but excited to get back and do

 

 

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one of our studio tours here on Podcasting Tech. Today, we are chatting with

 

 

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Kevin Palmieri. He is podcaster, speaker, podcasting coach. He

 

 

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has a show, the Next Level University podcast,

 

 

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and he's all about self improvement and helping people with a better life. Kevin,

 

 

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thank you so much for joining us today. Matthew, I appreciate you having me on.

 

 

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Any chance I get to talk about podcasting and all things podcasting, I am

 

 

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always excited. So I appreciate the opportunity. Oh, glad to have you on.

 

 

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So literally just before we we started to hit record, you were telling me what

 

 

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you were doing in life working for a company that helped out schools improve their

 

 

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energy efficiency. But, obviously, you're not doing that anymore. So what

 

 

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kinda led you from the the 9 to 5

 

 

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to switching to more of a entrepreneurial life and and get into podcasting?

 

 

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Yeah. When I was doing this job, I was convinced that if I made

 

 

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a certain amount of money, if I made a $100,000, all of the problems

 

 

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in my life would go away. I made the money, and it didn't it

 

 

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didn't seem to work like I had hoped. And I

 

 

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ultimately, I realized that for most of my life, I had lived unconsciously. I didn't

 

 

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know why I was doing any of the things that I was doing. The

 

 

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opposite of unconscious is hyperconscious. And in

 

 

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2017, much like a lot of people, I was watching a lot of Joe Rogan,

 

 

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listening to Joe Rogan, and I said it would be really cool to have a

 

 

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podcast about this. So in 2017, I started a

 

 

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podcast. I fell in love with it. Then the following year, I was

 

 

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sitting on the edge of a bed contemplating suicide because I was just

 

 

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so miserable, and I felt so stuck.

 

 

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And then I ended up leaving my job a few months later and then

 

 

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trying to figure out how to do this and how to do it profitably for

 

 

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the next few years. And here we are 7 years later. So

 

 

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you you used the word in there that I'm sure caught the ears and attention

 

 

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of lots of, listeners profitably. So

 

 

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what was the initial thoughts about how you're gonna be profitable with the

 

 

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podcast, and and where did it eventually lead you?

 

 

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Initially, I think I was very naive where I just thought, that'll happen

 

 

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eventually. It'll happen the way it's supposed to eventually. And that

 

 

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just wasn't the case. I was 2 years in, so we didn't monetize

 

 

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for 2 years. At that point, I was $30,000

 

 

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in credit card debt riding the struggle bus. And I said to my

 

 

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business partner, I said, I I really need to start making some money here, man,

 

 

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or I'm gonna I'm gonna be in a bad place. And he said, I think

 

 

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we should start coaching for free. And I said, I don't know if you heard

 

 

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the last part of what I said, but I need to start making money. So

 

 

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free is good, but I need to make money. And he said, well, Kev, you've

 

 

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never coached in this line before. You have to build trust with our audience. You

 

 

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have to build belief in yourself. So I reached out to 5 people who

 

 

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I knew listened to the show, because I had talked to them. And I said,

 

 

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hey. I'm interested in doing coaching. I've never done it. I will coach

 

 

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you for free weekly for the next 8 weeks, and

 

 

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there's no strings attached. And everybody I

 

 

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reached out to, all 5 people said yes. And I said, okay. This is something.

 

 

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This might be something. At the end of the 8 weeks, I said, I can't

 

 

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do this for free anymore. I'd love to keep coaching you. What do you think

 

 

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of $50 per call? And everybody said yes. So I went from

 

 

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making $0 to $250 a week, and that became

 

 

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the process of everything for us. That has been our business model

 

 

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since, I guess, 2019 when we started coaching people.

 

 

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Very, very nice. Is there any direct monetization from the

 

 

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podcast itself, or is it just the podcast as a vehicle for

 

 

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driving up sales in other places, which, by the way, I'm all for and highly

 

 

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encouraging people, but just wanna see if there's anything else you're doing that is, you

 

 

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know, more podcast direct. No. We've never done

 

 

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ads. We've never done sponsors. We've done never done affiliates. We have our own

 

 

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products. We sponsor ourselves, and we're kind of our own affiliates. So that's kind of

 

 

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the way it's it's worked for us. Okay. So, if

 

 

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you're not watching this, if you're just listening to the audio version, you're

 

 

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missing out that Kevin has a pretty nice studio there, really nice background.

 

 

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Take us through a little bit about the evolution of your technology and

 

 

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and how you get like, what you started with and what you are working with

 

 

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today. Yeah. In the beginning, I started with the old Audio

 

 

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Technica ATR 21100 mic. I have it here. Reliable. Alt

 

 

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yep. And then I had a I believe it was also an Audio

 

 

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Technica little mixer, a little USB interface.

 

 

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I started there. I wasn't I was using Audacity.

 

 

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Still use Audacity. Yeah. Still still a huge fan. In the very beginning,

 

 

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there was no video. So all I was

 

 

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doing was sitting in my living room, recording into my

 

 

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ATR, using Audacity, and then figuring out kinda how to do

 

 

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the audio editing there. Then we moved into

 

 

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my business partner's mother's house,

 

 

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and that became our first, quote, unquote, studio. And we had

 

 

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a couple of inexpensive Sony cameras. We

 

 

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got a new mixer. We had, like, a really big mixer that is way

 

 

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overkill that nobody ever really needs. And we kept using the

 

 

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same mics, and we kept doing that. And then, eventually, we

 

 

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upgraded to the camera I have, the Sony a 73.

 

 

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That became our studio camera. For a while, we had, like, multicam

 

 

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shots. And then we ended up I I would say

 

 

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the pinnacle of of the experience was at one point, we had our own

 

 

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studio, and it was it was the best. We had,

 

 

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like, TVs on the wall, lights everywhere, curtains,

 

 

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but it's really been the same equipment throughout

 

 

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until we upgraded to the I think this is the a t 2020 or the

 

 

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a t 2040 mic. Big fan of Audio Technica.

 

 

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Obviously. So it's, yeah, it's kind of been that. It there haven't been that

 

 

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many technological differences. A lot of it

 

 

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has been the branding and then, like, kind of the the backdrop. So I have

 

 

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3 d wall art. I have a bunch of lights in my studio. I have

 

 

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lights on the ceiling for downlighting and uplighting,

 

 

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and that's kind of and I have a TV that I'm seeing you on. So

 

 

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it's kind of mayhem in here. Behind the scenes, it's a hot mess, but it

 

 

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looks good on camera, and I guess that's all that matters. So I wanna talk

 

 

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about that 3 d wall art in just a second, but you you said you

 

 

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put together your own studio. So, Juan, is that where you're speaking to us

 

 

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from today? No. No. This is from home. Okay. So you have this

 

 

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studio. Is it like a commercial studio that you rent out and and use with

 

 

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other people, or is it just something for you and your crew to to use?

 

 

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This was just for us. It was an old mill building who they I

 

 

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think it was probably, I don't know, 300

 

 

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square feet. They gave us free rein. They said, yeah. You can put stuff on

 

 

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the walls. You can do whatever we want. So, yeah, it was it was in

 

 

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a mill building, and it felt really legit. There's something about

 

 

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turning the key, opening a door, and seeing your own studio that makes you feel

 

 

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super professional. So, it definitely helped me in terms of the belief of what we

 

 

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were doing. Very, very cool. Alright. Nice. And now

 

 

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let's talk about this 3 d wall art. So, again, if you're not watching this

 

 

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on YouTube or if you're not seeing one of the clips, please go check

 

 

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it out and and take a look just because it is a really fascinating backdrop

 

 

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that you have there. You said it was a 3 d backdrop. Does that mean,

 

 

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like, you printed it yourself, or do you buy it from someone else? I bought

 

 

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it on Amazon. Okay. I think it was, like, $100

 

 

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for, I don't know, whatever it is, 50 square feet. And then

 

 

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I just used the command strips

 

 

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to put it on my wall. Didn't like the way it looked. So

 

 

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they're black. It's black wall art. I didn't like the way it looked just black.

 

 

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It just looked plain to me. So then I got a bunch

 

 

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of lights to kinda angle off in certain directions so

 

 

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I could get some reflections, and then I kinda changed my lights. So I just

 

 

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changed my lights from whatever color it was to orange because we're kind of in

 

 

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hall halloween season. When we get closer to Christmas,

 

 

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maybe I'll do black and, green and red. I don't know black and red. So

 

 

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we'll see. We'll we'll see what happens, but I'm always trying to change something to

 

 

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keep it fresh. Very, very cool. You know, and

 

 

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in fact, we'll we'll we'll try and get a link for you from, where you

 

 

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got those so we can make it available for people. It's a very, very cool

 

 

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backdrop, and I imagine it does also help with the sound, but, right, it just

 

 

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creates a very dynamic look, going on behind you. What

 

 

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would you say, having been doing this for a while, was the

 

 

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biggest challenge in podcasting,

 

 

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or what remains the biggest challenge for you in podcasting?

 

 

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Man, I think the the thing

 

 

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that remains the biggest challenge for me now is making sure

 

 

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there's so much advice out there, and there's a lot of really good advice.

 

 

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But figuring out what advice actually applies to us, I

 

 

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think we're we're in a different space where we have a successful business, and

 

 

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this is very sustainable now. So it's not like I'm

 

 

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necessarily clamoring for listens. I'm more

 

 

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focused on making sure that the episodes are really good. We don't have guests

 

 

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anymore, so that's kind of been a different pivot for us. So I

 

 

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think the the hardest thing was monetizing, really, because

 

 

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this was the thing that was gonna pay my bills. So making a

 

 

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$1,000 a month wasn't gonna be enough because I I had more bills than that,

 

 

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unfortunately. Now it's really sifting through the information to figure

 

 

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out what is the most applicable information to us that

 

 

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we can take and run with, and then just making sure that we're focusing

 

 

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on what's the 20% of stuff that's gonna get us 80% of the

 

 

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results. That's really a a big thing for us, because without the

 

 

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podcast, none of this exists. So we have to make sure

 

 

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that we're producing high quality content. And when you're doing an episode every

 

 

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day, it's a challenge when you have dozens of

 

 

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coaching clients and a 20 some odd person team to make

 

 

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sure that you're putting the podcast first. So I would say

 

 

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that's kind of the the hardest thing now is with more opportunity,

 

 

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you need more discipline to make sure you're doing the right things that brought you

 

 

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the opportunity in the first place. Is there any software or any

 

 

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platforms that help you manage the podcast or

 

 

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or keep the, you know, trains moving on time? I

 

 

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love OpusClip. OpusClip is great for taking your

 

 

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long form content and breaking into short form. Other than

 

 

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that, no. Not really. We use Metricool for all of our social

 

 

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media posting, so that makes life a little bit easier. You can just set it

 

 

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and forget it. You can do that in Facebook groups too, so that makes it

 

 

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a little bit easier. We have Facebook group. I'm a huge fan of

 

 

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StreamYard. I know we're on Riverside here. Riverside's great, but StreamYard, we've

 

 

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used for a 1000 episodes, and that's been good. I always tell

 

 

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folks, like, you know, if if it works for you, then it's the correct solution.

 

 

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I mean, I I like to suggest certain things. I prefer certain things.

 

 

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But, really, when somebody says, oh, I see you use this. Do I have to?

 

 

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It's like, is what you're doing working? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Stick with

 

 

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it. Yeah. I tell people that all the time about Zoom. They're like, well, I

 

 

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need to upgrade from Zoom. It's like, just do Zoom. If it's if it's easy

 

 

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for you now, do it. And if you're here in 50 episodes, then you can

 

 

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upgrade. Don't you don't have to do it a second. Right. I've also, you know,

 

 

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seen the folks who are like, oh, but I gotta spend money on Riverside. It's

 

 

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like but do you? Like, use it. And then if you're making

 

 

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money and you wanna upgrade later, go for it. Just keep doing

 

 

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what works for now, and focus on the content. Don't be so obsessed with the

 

 

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the technology even though, of course, we're here on the show about why this technology.

 

 

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As a reminder, everybody, we're chatting with Kevin Palmeri. He is podcaster,

 

 

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speaker, and coach, Next Level University podcast. Of course, we'll have a

 

 

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link to that and all the places where you can find Kevin here in the

 

 

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show notes. Before we let you go, we have a couple questions we'd like to

 

 

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ask everybody on the show and and get your take. So one is that,

 

 

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is there a place in the podcasting world, whether it's

 

 

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from the producer experience, the listener experience,

 

 

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anything like that where you'd like to see some improvement? I would love to see

 

 

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improvement in terms of the analytics. I think right

 

 

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now, the analytics is just the Wild West, and

 

 

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it's hard to read. You don't really know what

 

 

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means what that analytics. I think analytics need to come

 

 

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way up. That's fair. I know a lot of folks working on that, and the

 

 

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the 2 point o crowd is is trying to get in there and do a

 

 

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little bit better. Some of it is just limitation of the technology. Some

 

 

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of it is regulatory limitations and privacy concerns, but I can

 

 

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I've always had, in my days of production and

 

 

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consulting, analytics, and and having a better understanding of our show is always

 

 

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a sticking point for people, so I I can totally get that. Is

 

 

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there any technology on your wish list, whether

 

 

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it's a piece of equipment, some sort of software, whether it's something that exists or

 

 

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something you'd like to see created that, you're yearning for? Oh,

 

 

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I'm very much looking forward to the days where the

 

 

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studio is bigger and there's a multicam. It

 

 

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wouldn't be a lie it wouldn't be, like, a live multicam, but I would like

 

 

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to have multiple cameras in the studio just because I think that makes for a

 

 

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nice dynamic product. It does.

 

 

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And in fact, I don't know if you saw recently at the time we were

 

 

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recording this, RODE just unveiled their RODEcaster video Oh.

 

 

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Which is a multicam video switcher. And while it

 

 

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has scenes that you could set up and you could switch the cameras very easily,

 

 

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it also can do AI switching in that. Right? It'll

 

 

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it'll jump to whoever is talking. So that's a really it

 

 

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seems like if it works the way it claims it's gonna work, it's an amazing

 

 

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product and seems like that could solve that problem for you that you're discussing right

 

 

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now. So, we'll try and throw a link to that in the show notes as

 

 

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well in case anybody else wants to check out the Rodecaster video. I

 

 

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am drooling for it. Hopefully hopefully, somebody will, you know, wanna put it

 

 

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on my holiday wish list this year. You know, the the cost, the price?

 

 

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About 1200. That's not terrible, all things considered. No. I

 

 

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mean, if it does if it lives up to the hype, it's well worth it.

 

 

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Mhmm. If not, yeah. But

 

 

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Rode hasn't put out a terrible product yet, so I I have very high hopes

 

 

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for it. Alright. And lastly, do you have a podcast

 

 

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that you listen to? In other words, is there a show that as soon as

 

 

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it comes out, you stop listening to other stuff or, you know, you

 

 

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you can't go a day or 2 without listening to

 

 

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this show, when new episodes drop. I know I always sound terrible

 

 

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when I say this, but, no, I don't really listen to anything else because I'm

 

 

Speaker:
00:14:58

trying to review ours to make sure I'm getting better. And

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:02

with with one every day, it's hard for me to do anything else other than

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:05

that. So no. That is fair. Is there anybody,

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:09

or any shows you just wanna mention or give some love to while you're here?

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:12

Oh, man. I would say Grow the Show is

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:16

a great show. Kevin Chennaldin, that's a great

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:19

show. The oh, Mark

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:23

Asquith has a show. I don't remember the name of it. Oh, Mark has a

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:26

bunch of really good shows. He just launched a new one with Danny Brown. Those

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:30

are all good. He was doing 1, on his own for a long time. He

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:33

also does a Star Wars one. So Any any of those, specifically the

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:37

podcasting ones, any of any of those, I would recommend for sure. Anything from Mark

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:40

Asquith deal. I have no problem I have no problem putting a a link to

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:44

Mark here on the show and, giving him some extra love. Well, Kevin

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:47

Palmeri, podcaster, speaker, coach, host of Next Level

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:51

University podcast. Please check out his stuff.

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:55

We'll put links to everything that he does, including his coaching work if you are

 

 

Speaker:
00:15:59

in the market for that. Kevin, thank you so much for joining us here on

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:02

the show today. Thank you for having me, my friend. I appreciate it very much.

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:06

Thanks for joining us today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:10

all the hardware and software that help power our guest content

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:14

and podcasting tech available in the show notes and on our website

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:17

at podcastingtech.com. You can also subscribe to the show on

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:21

your favorite platform, connect with us on social media, and even leave a rating and

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:24

review while you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on

 

 

Speaker:
00:16:28

Podcasting Tech.