RPF0200-Podcast_Equipment
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00:00:15.160 | I've been asked a number of times by different listeners how I actually create the show. What's the equipment that I use?
00:00:22.560 | What do I what kind of microphone do I use things like that?
00:00:26.720 | And so today I decided in honor of episode 200
00:00:30.040 | I'll share with you how I create the show and some of the lessons that I've learned and
00:00:34.720 | I hope this will be of use to many of you who have told me that
00:00:39.440 | You're planning on creating your own shows. So today I'm gonna help you get the shortcut through your educational process
00:00:47.900 | Welcome to the radical personal finance podcast. My name is Joshua sheets, and I'm your host and I have been your host for the last 200 episodes
00:00:54.900 | and so today
00:00:56.900 | Like I said, maybe I'll share with you some of the stuff that I wish I had known
00:01:08.020 | I'm gonna start with a little bit of a background on my podcast
00:01:10.820 | I'm gonna start with a little bit of a background on my podcast
00:01:12.820 | Like I said, maybe I'll share with you some of the stuff that I wish I had known
00:01:17.340 | I think I've made just about every mistake that could possibly be made
00:01:20.740 | Over the last 200 episodes, but I'm still here still cranking away. I've learned a lot and today
00:01:26.860 | Hopefully you can learn something
00:01:29.700 | On today's show I don't plan to share any financial planning specific information for you
00:01:42.340 | so if you have no interest at all and creating a podcast or no interest at all and
00:01:46.620 | Knowing how I do it then feel free just to skip and doesn't bother me a bit and we'll be back to financial planning content
00:01:53.100 | Tomorrow, but for those of you who have expressed an interest
00:01:55.820 | I'm going to tell you a little bit about my process and and
00:01:58.700 | Through creating this show and some of the mistakes that I've made and some of the ways that I've learned to make things better
00:02:05.740 | Also specifically the equipment that I use. I'll comment make a couple of brief comments on
00:02:12.020 | what
00:02:13.860 | Recommendations I would make because I wouldn't do the same thing
00:02:16.260 | I have done again if I were to do it again, and then also this will be important as I'm actually still
00:02:21.980 | Recovering from some of the mistakes that I've made and you'll hear
00:02:25.900 | Very soon here a couple some of you may lose the feed. So right up here is a front a quick announcement
00:02:31.940 | I'm still gonna be changing one of the things with the feed
00:02:33.940 | my email newsletter system many of you have noticed has not been working for quite a while and the reason for that has to do
00:02:40.660 | With the feed issues that I've had
00:02:42.660 | podcasting specific term
00:02:44.980 | Don't worry. This isn't gonna be a very technical show
00:02:47.380 | But some of you may see that the show might stop updating for you coming forward in a few days
00:02:54.360 | I'll put out a special episode as the last
00:02:56.940 | episode into the feed
00:02:58.780 | And you'll see that pop up in your feed if that's the last episode in the feed and if you've noticed that hey, wait a second
00:03:04.100 | Joshua disappeared unless you check Facebook and find out that I've died unexpectedly in the next few days, which I don't expect to happen
00:03:10.140 | Then you should know that what happened is your feed was one of the ones that was still affected
00:03:15.580 | And so what you need to do is unsubscribe from the show search in whatever podcast directory you're using
00:03:21.380 | For to download my show search for radical personal finance find the listing again
00:03:26.380 | And then just simply subscribe again or even better just search the App Store on your device for radical personal finance and install the app
00:03:33.080 | That's the best way to listen to the show and you'll know that is correct
00:03:37.100 | So a couple of questions and I'll just give you an example these use a couple of these as examples one question from Matthew comes
00:03:43.460 | In says Joshua was just curious. What kind of microphone you use for the show?
00:03:46.820 | I've been looking into acquiring one and I wanted to reach out because I think your audio is extremely clear
00:03:51.660 | Thanks for the help Matthew
00:03:52.780 | Another one comes in from Trey and Trey says I've been listening to your podcast for quite a while now
00:03:57.660 | You've inspired me to start my own podcast and blog
00:03:59.860 | Question you ran it in one of your episodes how you dislike the way in which online affiliate marketing
00:04:04.300 | Influence the type of hosting service that you chose for your website
00:04:07.100 | I've come across the same listings as those you mentioned and I'm just wondering what web hosting services
00:04:11.380 | Do you actually use now and why I know you've said your original choice was bad because once you wanted to start expanding it
00:04:17.240 | With new content and code it failed
00:04:19.860 | So I make sure I'm starting off with the best host possible that will grow with my site
00:04:22.900 | Same question would apply for what podcast program or service you use to set yours up for you to share it. I'd really appreciate it
00:04:29.220 | so
00:04:30.740 | there are other questions as well, but I thought I'd just share a little bit about how I actually create the show and
00:04:35.540 | When I started the show, I literally had it was a I don't know $10 recorder that I recorded the first 10 episodes on
00:04:44.220 | that and the onboard microphone on my laptop just a cheap Dell laptop and a
00:04:49.100 | cheap recorder the recorder came with a copy of dragon naturally speaking that I bought back in the day and it was just a cheap
00:04:54.460 | recorder and
00:04:56.460 | nowadays
00:04:57.620 | Every single one of you if you want to start a show you really don't need anything more than your cell phone
00:05:01.940 | You can do it with your cell phone
00:05:04.140 | It's not necessarily going to be the easiest or the best nor do I necessarily recommend it
00:05:07.780 | But every one of you has an audio recorder in your phone
00:05:10.500 | You have a voice memo function and with a little bit of planning you can create an excellent sounding recording with nothing more than that
00:05:18.460 | Microphone which is pretty cool when you start to think about it. It's a pretty cool world
00:05:23.860 | We live in that you can do that. There's an app that you can use on your device. I think it's still only for
00:05:29.180 | iOS devices Apple devices
00:05:31.780 | But there's an app called boss jock
00:05:33.620 | Which is the best app to use if you're going to do something like that and you can just simply use your onboard microphone
00:05:39.100 | you can use your
00:05:40.620 | Headphones you can plug an external microphone into the iPhone and do that and I'll tell you about that in a moment
00:05:45.740 | how I how I do that and
00:05:49.300 | Or you can invest in a whole setup like I do like I have so I started the show without any equipment
00:05:56.100 | I just simply said well, let me see if I actually can create something the first episode I
00:06:01.100 | Sat in the middle of my bed and it was about the only semi padded place to absorb some of the acoustical
00:06:07.220 | sound waves that I knew of and so I sat down and
00:06:11.660 | Just started talking and then at the end of it. I went back and listened to it and I asked myself the question
00:06:18.060 | I said would I listen to that?
00:06:19.820 | Would I be interested in that topic and I decided that you know, I I mean it wasn't great
00:06:25.700 | But I would listen to it. I would be interested in it and
00:06:28.940 | That was my litmus test or whether or not I should record a show and I did the same thing again
00:06:34.340 | And I I mean remember what the second show was but I did another I did it the same thing again
00:06:37.660 | And I went back and listened to it
00:06:39.460 | I said what I listened to that and I said well
00:06:41.580 | I probably would and I decided to go ahead and publish them and there's absolutely nothing more than that
00:06:46.940 | that was all I did and
00:06:48.940 | But I didn't stay there
00:06:51.100 | my point was starting there is the first piece of advice that I would give you if you were interested in really anything is I
00:06:58.980 | Don't believe even still to this day. Although this is changing and I'll qualify this in a moment
00:07:04.900 | I don't believe that
00:07:06.900 | focusing on the quality of production is
00:07:09.640 | As nearly as is nearly as important as focusing on the quality of content
00:07:15.420 | Now that has changed dramatically in the last few years and
00:07:20.380 | Today it is so easy to have a high production value
00:07:26.180 | That in my opinion, there's no reason not to do both
00:07:29.500 | So focus on doing both
00:07:34.300 | But if you have to make a mistake in one direction or another
00:07:37.060 | focus on the quality of the content and if you're gonna go through the hard work of creating something a
00:07:43.020 | podcast or a blog make sure it's something that you
00:07:46.060 | Really want to spend the time doing that you think is important
00:07:49.820 | Because it will not be easy
00:07:52.660 | It will be fun at the beginning and then it will not be fun for a while and
00:07:56.580 | Don't expect quick results
00:07:59.900 | It's not gonna happen. And if it does you'll agree with me and say well, it's not gonna happen. Don't expect quick results
00:08:08.380 | So if you still want to do it then go ahead and do it but start by focusing on the quality of content
00:08:14.300 | That quality of content is probably going to be dictated based upon how much you know
00:08:19.340 | About the subject that you're podcasting about
00:08:22.700 | I heard a speaking coach years ago say don't ever talk about something
00:08:28.700 | Unless you know ten times more than you're ever gonna cover in the topic of the show
00:08:35.340 | And I think that's pretty good advice make sure that if you're gonna make your take your time to sit down and work at stuff
00:08:42.100 | Make sure that you know a lot more about your subject than you're even gonna get into and talk about
00:08:47.580 | Even my own experience with personal finance. I wanted to start a personal finance blog and I tried several times. I
00:08:54.060 | never formally went through the work of
00:08:57.700 | Starting a fancy site but many times I would say I want to write about finance. I want to write about finance
00:09:02.980 | I want to write about finance and I tried and I started and just was like pulling teeth because I wasn't ready even though I'd
00:09:08.740 | spent years
00:09:09.940 | Perhaps studying personal finance from the personal finance approach. I really wasn't ready and it didn't flow
00:09:16.500 | At this point though, and this is not meant to sound arrogant
00:09:21.860 | I hope it doesn't but at this point though, I think I probably talk about on the show. I don't know three or four percent of
00:09:28.500 | It's not even 10% of the knowledge that I have in different areas
00:09:32.860 | But that's come after thousands of hours of study for me at least and that I find really helpful
00:09:38.940 | When I sat down and thought about what would make my show different
00:09:43.900 | and
00:09:46.140 | If you'll remember my story after those first for the first ten episodes, I didn't have a plan
00:09:50.260 | I decided let me just try this
00:09:51.940 | I wasn't sure that I was committed
00:09:53.860 | But then after I had to pull the show down and kind of think it through I thought through what was my plan?
00:10:00.060 | What was gonna be different about my show?
00:10:02.500 | What could I compete on
00:10:06.420 | And I think in any business is important to start with figuring out. What is your unique selling proposition?
00:10:12.640 | Do you want to use the MBA speak USP? What's your unique selling proposition? What makes your content different? I
00:10:20.340 | Don't have necessarily a very compelling story so I couldn't compete based upon that
00:10:25.460 | There's all kinds of personal finance people that do and I respect them and admire them for that
00:10:30.060 | But that wasn't me, you know, I didn't it wasn't I'm almost 30. I'm not financially independent yet
00:10:35.940 | I'm still working my way through so I couldn't point to my great story. I'm not a millionaire yet
00:10:40.180 | So I can't point and say well look I'm a millionaire. So you should listen to me and I don't like making stuff up
00:10:45.980 | So even you know, a lot of people do that in this especially in this world
00:10:48.940 | I'm gonna make something up so I decided well that doesn't really that's not really my
00:10:52.900 | ability
00:10:55.180 | but what I decided I did have which most people didn't have don't have is I had a depth of knowledge in the
00:11:02.420 | technical formal financial planning space
00:11:05.880 | that very few people have and
00:11:09.180 | I had intended to do that
00:11:10.620 | I was just building my own career in as a financial advisor and trying to you know, invest in my income
00:11:16.220 | that's why I spent so many hours studying all that stuff and
00:11:18.820 | I had a breadth of
00:11:20.700 | knowledge because of my weird interests
00:11:23.140 | And I said well, what can I do then? I
00:11:28.300 | noticed a distinct lack of depth of content from a technical perspective and
00:11:35.020 | a distinct lack of variety and
00:11:38.100 | So I decided well, I've spent all this time studying what I can do. I may not be have the best production value
00:11:44.660 | I may have my share of ums and ahs and I may have many things that aren't going for me
00:11:52.300 | But what I can do is I can focus on
00:11:54.740 | Creating a lot of content and
00:11:59.700 | Content that goes deep and
00:12:03.620 | since that's what I like I knew that over time the people that would be similar to me would find that and
00:12:09.980 | That was how I chose to compete
00:12:13.420 | And
00:12:14.940 | So far, it's it's worked pretty well
00:12:17.060 | Now I still obviously consider it from time to time, but it's worked pretty well. I
00:12:22.460 | Was willing to do it because I believed that I could create a business
00:12:27.220 | Directly off of the show and everybody told me I couldn't and I decided that well, I might as well try
00:12:32.540 | Now I don't think you need to do that just a podcast
00:12:36.660 | Having a podcast as a part-time hobby can open up an incredible world to you
00:12:42.620 | And it can connect you with amazing people
00:12:45.300 | Even though your show may never be big or never be, you know top ten in any category
00:12:51.100 | Doesn't matter it still could be useful
00:12:53.900 | At this point the history of radical personal finance the show has somewhere my guests about four to five thousand listeners
00:13:01.580 | Most of the episodes are pretty consistently
00:13:04.300 | downloaded about five thousand times
00:13:07.780 | Some of them more a few of them less but usually pretty consistently about five thousand times
00:13:13.420 | That's pretty overwhelming to me when I actually sit and think about that. So I try not to think about that
00:13:19.500 | I think about a few individual people that I've corresponded with a lot
00:13:22.860 | I think about some of the people that were around since the very beginning and
00:13:26.300 | I just try to think of a few individual friends and
00:13:29.740 | the cool thing is some of those few individual friends have been with a show from the very beginning and
00:13:36.140 | I don't think you need an audience of five thousand people or fifty thousand people to have an incredibly effective
00:13:42.220 | Successful show and I think as competition gets stiffer and stiffer. I
00:13:47.300 | Think the tremendous benefit that we have in this independent media space is the ability to
00:13:53.460 | Focus on very small groups of people and help those small groups of people
00:13:57.780 | intensely
00:14:00.660 | When I
00:14:01.940 | came back and decided to start the show I knew that I was going to be creating a lot of content and
00:14:07.140 | I knew that I didn't have time to mess around with the audio stuff. I'm not a techno nerd
00:14:14.060 | I don't like it. And so I said so what can I do and what I learned was
00:14:18.940 | Primarily, I watched a video there is a podcast consultant goes by the name of Cliff Ravenscraft
00:14:25.740 | He has a show called podcast answer man
00:14:27.820 | And I found a video when I was researching who are the people that would teach people how to podcast
00:14:32.100 | He's one of the big ones there are others as well
00:14:34.100 | But when I was researching
00:14:36.100 | How to podcast he has a video where he talked about his podcast workflow and it showed him sitting down and starting his show
00:14:43.620 | Playing all the sound effects recording into it and then just simply being done
00:14:47.620 | essentially in producing a finished audio file that didn't need anything further after that point in time and
00:14:52.500 | That made me realize that I needed to invest a little bit in equipment so that I could produce the show in one take
00:14:59.540 | So I bought a microphone
00:15:02.060 | the microphone that I'm currently using right now, which is a
00:15:05.800 | Heil PR 40 that was
00:15:08.640 | Cliff Ravenscraft recommendation, I wouldn't buy the same microphone again, but it does it for a perfectly good job
00:15:14.340 | I bought an audio mixer and that audio mixer makes all the difference in the world
00:15:18.740 | It allows me to bring in the sound effects. I have a soundboard here
00:15:22.740 | And so if I have sound effects loaded up on my computer or loaded up on you know
00:15:26.740 | I have a phone here. So if I want to play this listening to today's show I can play I can play
00:15:30.980 | Have all that stuff right there where I can play it live
00:15:33.980 | Real time while I'm recording the show I can fade it in and out just like they do with a radio station normally
00:15:40.440 | That's also connected to the computer so that I can record the Skype calls and all of those things and I have an external audio
00:15:47.220 | recorder so I invested in that equipment so that I would be able to create the show in one shot and
00:15:51.980 | That's primarily what I do. I sit down in front of the microphone and I try to have my notes laid out
00:15:57.800 | I have the audio I queue up the audio and I
00:16:01.360 | Have it ready to go. I do the little intros and I just record the whole thing in one shot
00:16:06.860 | the audio goes out from the soundboard into an
00:16:11.940 | External digital recorder and this external digital recorder that I use is a Roland
00:16:17.220 | R05 I wouldn't buy that again either
00:16:20.620 | but I it works fine and
00:16:23.300 | I
00:16:25.500 | Put the audio directly into that and so I can record the whole thing in one take
00:16:28.900 | Then when I'm done with that
00:16:30.220 | I take a little SD card out of the audio recorder and put it into the computer
00:16:33.580 | The audio recorder is nice. You don't need all that equipment
00:16:36.700 | You can record directly into a free piece of software on your on your computer called
00:16:41.180 | Audacity it's the any the editing software that I use but the audio recorder is nice because it makes it so that I don't have to
00:16:47.180 | worry about the computer crashing and
00:16:49.180 | It's a useful backup. It's just a piece of hardware. It works every time
00:16:54.140 | It doesn't have software glitches like the computer does and so that was really useful to me
00:16:58.860 | So I invested in that equipment so that I would be able to create the show
00:17:02.180 | quickly with a minimum amount of editing
00:17:05.500 | even going back to the USP I've thought a lot about the
00:17:10.220 | Lack of editing that my show has and I regret some of the shows that I have published
00:17:15.300 | Some of the shows have been too long. Some of the shows have rambled some of the shows have not been perfectly done
00:17:20.940 | Some of the shows I wish I'd edited sometimes
00:17:23.900 | I wish I'd go back and edit the guests out
00:17:26.620 | But the problem is if I were to do that, I would be going away from my plan
00:17:32.180 | for a
00:17:35.020 | What is my unique selling proposition as a listener?
00:17:38.700 | Although this is changing as a listener for me as a podcast consumer or a media consumer
00:17:44.740 | If the depth of content is strong enough, I can put up with some things that I don't love
00:17:51.180 | If it's a subject I'm interested in and the depth of content is appropriate
00:17:56.780 | Even the same way that if I bring in personal opinions things like that
00:18:02.340 | I listen to a lot of people that I disagree with and what I look for is not to agree with people
00:18:07.300 | but I look for them to
00:18:08.940 | Defend their case or to make arguments that make me think and so that's been my approach to the show
00:18:13.620 | So even though I often will get comments or people comment, man
00:18:17.340 | I wish Joshua would edit his idea his audio or shorten the showdown
00:18:20.380 | the problem is you have to focus on what you decided to do and what you decided you could do and then
00:18:28.300 | Check to see whether it's working or not. It doesn't eliminate the ability to say I should do something more
00:18:34.860 | I should adjust something. For example, if I had the ability
00:18:39.140 | The financial ability and I decided it were a good investment
00:18:42.820 | I've thought about hiring an editor for the show, you know someone to go through and edit it
00:18:46.300 | Pull out some of the content that maybe is a little bit extraneous
00:18:51.260 | Pull out some of the rambling that I may have gotten into or maybe pull out a rabbit trail that I
00:18:56.820 | Allowed myself to go down
00:18:58.820 | the problem is that requires capital and
00:19:00.940 | If I do that
00:19:03.780 | if I do it, it takes time away from my ability to produce and
00:19:07.700 | It requires capital and I just haven't decided it's a good use of the dollar
00:19:12.660 | So if you're gonna start a show you have to know what you're trying to do and how you're trying to compete
00:19:18.500 | If you want to complete with compete with marketplace morning report
00:19:23.340 | you need to go and produce a tightly edited six minute update on the markets and financial news and get it on NPR and
00:19:30.700 | And trust me marketplace has a much broader listening audience than my show does
00:19:34.780 | But I don't listen to marketplace. It's boring to me
00:19:37.980 | So a lot of people do I don't so I'm trying to create something and I had this I've had to stay
00:19:46.920 | focused on
00:19:48.980 | What I believe is my unique selling proposition and I'd encourage you to do the same thing
00:19:53.980 | If you have a vision for something that you'd like to create
00:19:57.660 | You have a vision that for something that you think should exist that doesn't then go for it
00:20:03.340 | my vision was to create the depth of content and the breadth of content that I always wished existed and
00:20:12.100 | I wanted that content to cross
00:20:15.540 | the divide between the low-level tactical put money in your 401k to get an employer match and
00:20:22.860 | the high-level metaphysical
00:20:25.460 | change your mental thermostat about money and connect those two and
00:20:30.220 | I never saw anybody doing it. So that was my
00:20:33.500 | Decision I'm going to connect those two
00:20:36.100 | the reason that I'm emphasizing this is
00:20:38.660 | If you're thinking about getting involved in independent media, I
00:20:44.180 | Think you should
00:20:46.180 | But if you are thinking about that then
00:20:49.740 | You need to understand what you're doing and why?
00:20:54.000 | because if you go out and you start to look and say well who's doing this and is it working and
00:20:59.540 | You start to try to say I want to copy something you may or may not know why what they're doing is working
00:21:05.860 | There are a lot of shows that are extremely popular that are very tightly edited
00:21:11.860 | There's just best example the biggest podcasts that have hit the podcasting space or what are they? What's that show about?
00:21:17.660 | The guy starting the business startup the guy who starts the does the show about his starting up his podcast
00:21:24.300 | It's an incredibly produced show
00:21:27.060 | It's in the style of this American life, which is a you know, they have a great show. It's in the style of
00:21:32.900 | That type of thing it's an incredibly produced show
00:21:38.940 | But if you just try to con copy the production value you might miss why what they do actually works
00:21:45.740 | Some of it is production value a lot of his storytelling ability
00:21:51.020 | It's a hugely popular show. I don't listen to it
00:21:55.360 | Because I'm bored by I mean I listen to a few episodes of startup
00:21:59.340 | But I'm just thinking about things like this American life or whatnot. I'm often bored by it because it's not applicable to my life
00:22:07.340 | It's an interesting entertaining story and I think it's awesome the work that they do but it doesn't help me
00:22:11.820 | achieve my goals and
00:22:14.380 | For me as an individual I spend all of my time
00:22:18.340 | Looking for content that's going to help me achieve my goals
00:22:22.200 | If I want to lose weight and get stronger, which I do
00:22:27.280 | then hearing a story as
00:22:30.380 | Beautifully produced and developed and told as it may be about sharks in the Indian Ocean
00:22:37.540 | It doesn't help me
00:22:39.540 | So I go and look for a podcast and sometimes I'll find the most horribly produced podcast
00:22:45.380 | But if I find it to be encouraging or I find something where it's just helpful to me
00:22:49.900 | I'll listen to that one because it's helping me get towards my goals. I
00:22:53.860 | Guess the two best examples that I would give here and I know I'm laboring on this point
00:22:59.620 | But I believe it's the fundamental basis of anything
00:23:03.220 | That you should be considering if you're considering starting a show but two examples that come to mind. I started listening to
00:23:09.540 | So Cliff Ravenscraft, I wanted to learn how to podcast so I started to go and find podcasts
00:23:14.740 | That was one of my goals. Okay, I need to learn how to podcast
00:23:16.740 | So I went and looked for podcasts on how to podcast I started listening through them and what I first looked for was the basics
00:23:24.380 | Primarily the basics related to vision and so I focused on that
00:23:29.900 | later once I
00:23:33.740 | once I
00:23:35.740 | had the
00:23:37.460 | Technology established. I had the show up and had it running then I started focusing and saying I need to become really
00:23:43.540 | Knowledgeable about the technical side of things because I need to improve my quality of my show
00:23:47.900 | So I started listening to content on all this audio geek stuff
00:23:51.700 | You know compression and normalization and equalization and blah blah blah all this audio geek stuff because okay
00:23:56.820 | I need to be exposed to it. I don't want to be an audio engineer, but I need to at least have a
00:24:01.780 | Understanding of it so that I can do a better job creating my show
00:24:04.940 | So originally back to the two examples
00:24:08.960 | Because I was listening to podcast information. I started listening to Cliff Ravenscraft
00:24:14.260 | Cliff Ravenscraft
00:24:16.780 | Ravenscraft's
00:24:18.660 | Show called podcast answer man, and then I heard him
00:24:22.260 | He has another show and this show is called pursuing a balanced life
00:24:25.100 | So I went over and I said, let me listen to it
00:24:27.700 | See what it's about the show has very low production quality in terms of beautiful sounding microphone
00:24:34.560 | Generally
00:24:37.140 | He records it when he's out on a walk or literally on the treadmill or elliptical trainer or something like that
00:24:43.340 | He says an audio recording. It's just him basically maintaining an audio journal
00:24:47.740 | But for whatever reason from time to time I found some of his content to be encouraging. He was super overweight
00:24:55.700 | He's been losing a bunch of weight. It's like wow, this is kind of encouraging and I like this no expert
00:25:00.420 | No fancy agenda to you know
00:25:03.920 | Sell me six-pack abs just and just a dude walking on his treadmill telling about what's worked and what hasn't worked
00:25:09.700 | But I've found some of the content encouraging now
00:25:13.460 | I don't listen to it all the time
00:25:14.500 | But that type of content what I mean is there's an audience for it even with the poor production quality
00:25:19.680 | Because I'm interested in the content
00:25:21.980 | The other example I would give what is the example of Jack Spirico's show the survival podcast?
00:25:27.860 | I enjoyed listening to that show for years. Well, he started his show in his in his car
00:25:31.720 | He was on having a 50-mile commute to work and to turn his driving time into something useful
00:25:37.660 | He started recording a show as I believe his story is at some point. I'm gonna have him on
00:25:42.220 | I've reached out to him to have him on but his story was that
00:25:45.340 | He got tired of listening to talk radio and just getting angry at the radio all the time without knowing what to do
00:25:51.140 | About anything so he pulled out. He got an audio recorder and he just started recording a show about
00:25:56.300 | survivalism in
00:25:59.060 | While he's driving to work every morning and putting that show on the air
00:26:02.100 | The production quality is terrible. He was in his car
00:26:05.200 | Driving at 70 miles an hour down the interstate
00:26:08.200 | But the content was good and when you get to an interesting niche, it's a topic that I find interesting
00:26:14.700 | But I find it hard because there's so many
00:26:18.180 | Very intelligent people who are legitimately concerned about things that are possible dangers in life and there's so many nut jobs
00:26:25.940 | That you've got to sort through them. And so when you can find a show like his that was well balanced
00:26:32.180 | That was well built and that was both rational and real
00:26:35.780 | It's attractive. He's got a huge show
00:26:38.420 | so when you're starting a show spend a lot of time thinking about what you're trying to do and why and
00:26:43.700 | If you just want to do a show for fun to see if you like it, there's no problem with that
00:26:48.100 | I think that's fine
00:26:49.540 | but it's gonna help you if you're clear on what you're trying to do and why and
00:26:54.420 | It'll help you a lot if you can understand. What is your unique selling proposition? What is different about you and your content?
00:27:03.220 | than anybody else
00:27:06.060 | May take you a little while to figure it out. That's fine
00:27:11.900 | But at some point you got to know the answer to that
00:27:13.900 | spend if you spend all your time on that and you sit down with a cell phone and
00:27:19.340 | Recorded on your cell phone and don't worry about all the rest of the stuff. You'll be well served
00:27:24.460 | If you spend all your time investing in fancy gear and
00:27:29.060 | Buying all kinds of toys and then you sit around and Twitter your thumbs because someday I'm gonna record a show
00:27:34.840 | But you don't know when that day is you've got a major problem
00:27:38.540 | Don't do that
00:27:41.660 | Back to the microphone question. So Matthew I use a Heil PR 40 and
00:27:46.540 | The key for you to know is not to use necessarily the Heil PR 40
00:27:51.460 | But rather to use a type of microphone that's called a dynamic microphone
00:27:56.660 | There are two major types of microphones as I understand
00:28:00.080 | One is called a dynamic microphone. One is called a condenser microphone
00:28:05.980 | Now, I'm not a techno geek and I haven't bothered to do spend too much time
00:28:10.700 | Understanding the difference here, but here's how I in my layman
00:28:13.980 | Vision
00:28:16.700 | understand the difference to be the dynamic microphone doesn't pick up so much noise in the room and
00:28:21.700 | The condenser microphone picks up a lot of noise in the room
00:28:24.780 | Now the dynamic microphone is far less sensitive
00:28:29.060 | To faraway noise
00:28:31.180 | so for example
00:28:31.940 | If I'm speaking to you like this and you'll notice if I start to back away from the microphone the actual sound quality will drop off
00:28:38.260 | Substantially when I do that
00:28:39.940 | There's a massive difference
00:28:41.940 | So the dynamic microphone I need is only good for recording
00:28:45.420 | Sounds that are specifically directly spoken into it
00:28:48.900 | And you have to be very careful and very precise if I even turn my head just a little tiny bit
00:28:53.640 | All I'm doing is swiveling my head here. You'll hear the difference in
00:28:56.180 | the recording quality
00:28:58.820 | The condenser microphone is very useful for many things
00:29:02.220 | But the thing I don't like about it is you need to have and it may even be better quality
00:29:06.860 | I don't know you have to ask the audio nerds
00:29:08.540 | But what I don't like about it is you have to have basically a sound booth and I don't have a sound booth
00:29:12.500 | The room that I record my show in is probably the worst acoustic room that exists. I have a
00:29:19.620 | Hard table in front of me. I have a hard
00:29:22.780 | Monitors right behind my microphone. I don't have a single thing on the walls
00:29:27.700 | The room is a tile floor without even a rug on it. It's got a ceiling
00:29:33.020 | That's drywall drywalled walls with no nothing soft. There's basically nothing in here that has any kind of sound quality
00:29:39.900 | but because I use a dynamic microphone and
00:29:42.860 | I speak right into it and I can turn the gain down a little bit because I have a voice that I'm able to project
00:29:50.260 | Then I don't pick up so much of that room noise. That would be very different if I were recording into a condenser microphone
00:29:56.620 | So that's the first thing that you want to look for. There are many types of dynamic microphones
00:30:01.380 | This microphone is certainly an excellent microphone
00:30:04.080 | It's an extremely high quality broadcast microphone. I think it was
00:30:07.500 | $350 or something like that. You don't need one the best entry-level microphone. That is a dynamic microphone
00:30:14.340 | That's much loved and I have one as well is called a an audio technica
00:30:20.520 | ATR
00:30:22.840 | 2100
00:30:24.700 | Audio technica ATR 2100. That's basically what every podcaster tells every other podcaster to start with
00:30:30.340 | I think it's 40 bucks 50 bucks something like that. It's a great microphone
00:30:33.860 | it is unique because it has an a USB connection so you can plug it directly into your computer and
00:30:40.500 | It also has what's called an XLR connection and that's the traditional
00:30:45.580 | Connection that is used on sound equipment with a three-prong
00:30:49.540 | Connector and it's an excellent microphone. I have one that I've used
00:30:54.780 | So for example the show that my wife and I did together
00:30:57.140 | I used that microphone for her and this microphone for me. I bought the audio technica ATR 2100
00:31:04.340 | And by the way, there's another one called an AT
00:31:06.340 | 2005 audio technica AT 2005. That's the one that I have there to save the same guts inside the microphone, but they have a different
00:31:13.900 | They have a different
00:31:16.180 | Body, there are different colors. I don't know what else is different with them, but they have the same guts
00:31:19.860 | They sound the same but I bought that so that I could record into my phone
00:31:24.660 | Because it's a USB microphone because it's a dynamic microphone. I can plug it through the use of a USB adapter
00:31:30.440 | I can plug it right into the bottom of my iPhone and I can record a show directly into my iPhone
00:31:36.380 | That's really really useful. That is what if I were going to start over today
00:31:40.460 | knowing what I now know I
00:31:43.340 | Wouldn't buy this mixer that I have
00:31:45.540 | What I would do in order to save money is I would just simply buy an application for iTunes called boss jock
00:31:51.740 | It's about 10 bucks goes right under your iPhone. I would buy the audio technica ATR 2100 and
00:31:57.420 | I would record directly into it the key about that app
00:32:02.660 | Is that you are able to play the microphone and your sound effects right over one another?
00:32:08.980 | So the same thing that I can do what you hear me do
00:32:11.560 | Let me not blast your ears out here
00:32:13.060 | But when you hear me kind of bring the music down so I can talk over and then bring it up
00:32:19.540 | And I can pull it down and talk over it which for a long time I was having issues which I won't even go into
00:32:24.060 | It's a lot of the early shows. I was the audio the music was too loud over the voice. That was because of the
00:32:30.540 | Post processing application I was using and I finally found a solution for that
00:32:35.220 | But that ability you can do that directly on just this iPhone app
00:32:39.220 | so
00:32:40.900 | Now one of my goals has been to be able to record shows on the road
00:32:44.920 | And now if I were going on the road, that's exactly what I'll do
00:32:48.020 | So at some point in time, I'll be recording a podcast from Zimbabwe and I'll be sitting out in front of a mud hut
00:32:54.980 | I have a microphone on in my hand. I'll be recording to my iPhone and then I'll upload it from an internet cafe and
00:33:00.500 | that's
00:33:02.340 | certainly doable in today's world, I
00:33:04.340 | think that
00:33:06.580 | If I were to do this over again, if I knew that that mic existed it what didn't exist when I bought my equipment
00:33:11.700 | I don't think it did or at least I didn't find out about it
00:33:14.140 | I probably would never have switched to this big fancy microphone because I don't find that for my style of content
00:33:21.000 | I'm not relying on my deep bass voice booming at you so that you feel
00:33:27.780 | Intensely about my show. I'm just relying on the audio being clear
00:33:33.260 | And I probably would still just be using that $50 microphone and it would be doing a great job
00:33:37.020 | But the key I find look for a dynamic microphone instead of a condenser microphone
00:33:42.140 | If you have a condenser microphone, go ahead and use it
00:33:45.500 | What you want to do is you want to create however some kind of sound booth type of environment go on YouTube
00:33:51.740 | You can find some tutorials on this you want to create some kind of cardboard box with a bunch of padding in it
00:33:55.960 | if you're using your cell phone as an example, if you were to take your
00:33:59.340 | Smartphone and you were to go into the middle of your closet
00:34:02.780 | amidst all of your clothes sit on the floor with your back tucked up into the
00:34:08.660 | Into the clothes and get the clothes in front of you and basically sit in the middle of your clothes and hold your iPhone
00:34:13.100 | About six inches in front of your face and just speak into it. You would be able to record excellent audio quality
00:34:19.900 | So if you have a cheap microphone or if you have
00:34:24.340 | Something that's just basic you'll need to make up for it with terms of soundproofing
00:34:28.700 | The advantage to this fancy microphone that I have is the fact that I just described to you. I have no soundproofing whatsoever. I
00:34:36.340 | Have essentially the worst environment you could possibly create for recording. Why don't I do something about it?
00:34:41.940 | Well, I'm in kind of a temporary bedroom right now. I think the audio is perfectly clear
00:34:46.140 | It's good enough. And if I switch to something else, maybe I will go ahead and try to make it better
00:34:50.980 | But for now, I haven't there's no easy way for me to make the room acoustically
00:34:54.940 | Perfect, and I haven't needed to spend the money or the time doing it. This is good enough. I
00:34:59.460 | Now own the other thing I would say and I said I wouldn't buy this microphone again
00:35:04.540 | I now own two other fancy dynamic microphones called a sure was sure SM7 and
00:35:11.540 | These are some massive microphones, but they're also dynamic microphones
00:35:15.740 | I bought them so that I could do in-person interviews at conferences and
00:35:19.820 | That's gonna be a big part of my show going forward is doing a lot more interviews out and about
00:35:24.740 | one of the keys
00:35:27.100 | I'm able to do a lot of interviews through Skype which works well
00:35:30.340 | and what I do there is I do what's called a mix - and
00:35:34.220 | Go find if you're interested go just do it
00:35:37.380 | You know duck that do a duck that go search and find some shows and they'll there's lots of tutorials out there on that
00:35:43.200 | But that's what I do
00:35:44.100 | I have my computer going into a soundboard and it coming back out so I can record things off of Skype
00:35:48.880 | but the problem is
00:35:50.700 | That a lot of the content that's created that way is people who are used to using Skype
00:35:55.380 | That's why in the podcast space basically the same 10 podcasters interview the same 10 guests over and over again
00:36:00.980 | well, I want to get in more interesting people so I invested in a
00:36:04.420 | professional quality studio quality
00:36:07.100 | Mobile podcasting interview setup and I can take this into somebody's office set it up in a few minutes
00:36:13.820 | It's in a little travel bag or I can take this to a conference and I can record all the audio directly
00:36:18.720 | While we're having a face-to-face interview now that I have those microphones
00:36:23.420 | I haven't chosen to go ahead and sell this one that I use every day and my only reason is because it's convenient to
00:36:29.220 | Have that as a kit and still be able to sit here and have this one on my desk every day
00:36:33.140 | But if I were gonna do it over again
00:36:34.780 | I would go ahead and and I wanted to spend money and get an expensive microphone
00:36:38.840 | I would go ahead and get the Shure SM7 and
00:36:41.660 | The reason why that one's more useful for interviews is because you don't have to be so disciplined
00:36:47.700 | With the position of your face compared to the position of the microphone
00:36:52.980 | Microphone discipline is a big deal
00:36:54.780 | I've tried to study and learn and and become more professional with regard to some of my techniques and
00:37:00.020 | Microphone technique is a big deal
00:37:02.660 | It's a good way to get better and as I was demonstrating earlier this tendency that if I talk like this
00:37:08.060 | I'm just moving about three inches here this tendency. You can hear the difference dramatically in your in your
00:37:14.580 | Headphones or in your car wherever you're listening
00:37:17.820 | I'm used to being disciplined and staying right in front of the microphone keeping my mouth very consistently positioned
00:37:23.620 | But when interviewing guests at a conference or in their office, they're not
00:37:28.580 | Most people are intimidated by microphones
00:37:31.220 | So they tend to back away from them. They tend to run away from them and
00:37:37.860 | the Shure SM7 the key reason why I spent a lot of money to get to get it is
00:37:45.420 | That it's very forgiving for a guest
00:37:48.620 | It has a much larger cone of sound around it
00:37:51.700 | Where instead of me turning my head for two inches and all of a sudden the the audio drops off
00:37:57.180 | With that microphone the guest can move around within a sphere of about five to seven inches and the audio doesn't really drop off
00:38:04.500 | But because the micro it's a dynamic microphone
00:38:07.500 | It does a good job of excluding some of the background noise that can be so strong with a condenser microphone
00:38:15.340 | So it's a really ideal setup for
00:38:17.340 | interviews in places without any sound
00:38:20.820 | enhancing material at conferences things like that and that's something that I'm going to be doing a lot more of going forward and
00:38:28.140 | It's a big part of my plan for this show
00:38:31.300 | With regard to my content, I'd love to produce a lot more deeper level content with fewer people that are often aren't interviewed
00:38:39.420 | You know
00:38:40.020 | I'd love to talk to Bill Sharp and fly up to Chicago and I think he still lives there
00:38:43.740 | wherever he lives and sit down with him for a few hours and
00:38:46.340 | Record kind of an in-depth interview rather than the more cursory 60-minute interview that is more common
00:38:53.580 | So I needed the equipment to be able to do that and to do it in a professional way
00:38:57.260 | Once I can get the revenue of the show a little bit higher to be able to justify that type of approach
00:39:04.280 | I'll do that at the moment the revenue the show isn't enough to where I can justify
00:39:10.360 | taking the time to prepare for that type of interview and/or to go and actually
00:39:15.240 | Do the expense of flying up there and making those things happen?
00:39:19.320 | So we'll see that's one of the plans. So that's enough of a discussion on microphones. Look for the audio technica ATR 2100
00:39:27.120 | I've gone through a few different things and don't worry too much about the microphone quality. It's at first
00:39:33.000 | but once you're sure of what you're doing, then go ahead and invest in quality and
00:39:40.460 | There are listeners like me who will listen to a poorly produced show if the content is good enough
00:39:46.140 | But that's changing and there are many people who won't put up with it
00:39:49.100 | So you need to have a high quality show and a high quality audio and it's worth investing in because the choices today
00:39:57.220 | It's a much more competitive environment
00:39:59.100 | There are many better choices that exist today than even six months ago, and it's only gonna get more and more competitive
00:40:06.940 | If your content is good enough, for example, go look at John T Reed site. It's from like 1992
00:40:13.060 | But he doesn't change it and it works and he makes a lot of money off of it and his content is good
00:40:18.340 | There are lots of financial bloggers who have very beautiful sites and who can't break Alexa 1 million
00:40:25.260 | So if your content is good enough, you can overcome just about anything
00:40:29.620 | But you do want to go ahead and do everything you can to put your best foot forward
00:40:35.120 | Talk a little bit about Trey's question here with regard to some of the mistakes that I made and the hosting situation
00:40:42.860 | Trey's referring to my upsetness with
00:40:46.180 | Using and going with a hosting provider called Bluehost. I
00:40:50.060 | Don't think there's anything wrong with Bluehost and I didn't have a very bad experience there
00:40:55.080 | What I didn't understand was their poor reputation among the techies
00:41:00.020 | I'm a big kind of take action guy. And so I reached to the point I said, okay, I need to take action quickly
00:41:05.800 | And so that was where I just said well, okay, I'll go ahead and use this Bluehost
00:41:09.440 | This is what this person is recommending and what I wish they had done was simply said if you want a cheap solution for your site
00:41:17.960 | Here's Bluehost if you want a good solution for your site
00:41:21.080 | Here's this other provider the provider that I switched to is a provider called WP Engine
00:41:27.600 | It's a well-provided. I think WP probably has to do with WordPress, but it's with WP Engine. It's a it's a much more robust
00:41:33.980 | More expensive but much more robust shared hosting platform without getting into the technical
00:41:40.180 | lingo
00:41:41.940 | Well to get into the technical lingo
00:41:44.100 | when you start off having a website you usually start off the most cost-effective approach is something called shared hosting and
00:41:52.940 | Shared hosting it costs almost nothing. You've got tons of people on a single server and that's where your site is held
00:41:57.760 | The problem is if you're if you all of a sudden get a lot of traffic your site will not it's not gonna work
00:42:05.040 | now depending on your host provider
00:42:07.320 | you may
00:42:09.720 | Be helped or you may not be and so what happens is some the mainstream
00:42:14.800 | Hosting services. The big one is Bluehost and Hostgator
00:42:18.840 | They're owned by the same company and they have another couple names for their stuff, but they're the same company
00:42:22.760 | but they put tons and tons of sites on the servers because most sites get not very many visits and
00:42:29.440 | even my site doesn't get very many visits to the actual site because the majority of you are
00:42:34.280 | Simply listening to the show and you never come to the site
00:42:37.140 | but if your site starts to get some traffic it can be quickly shut down and what they will do is because
00:42:45.800 | Each site affects the other sites on the server if all of a sudden your show or your site hits the front page of Yahoo!
00:42:52.460 | Finance they'll shut your site down so that not all the other sites on the server will get shut down
00:42:57.160 | That's a real problem
00:42:59.540 | so
00:43:00.860 | It was fine for a while, but I I'm very uncomfortable with that. So WP Engine has a much more robust
00:43:06.280 | System much better technology behind it. It's more expensive
00:43:10.680 | you went from four bucks a month to I'm hosting multiple sites now and
00:43:15.960 | splitting
00:43:17.720 | Splitting the fees it comes out to $100 a month. You're gonna have multiple sites
00:43:21.280 | mine, I split that plan with a
00:43:24.840 | Friend and it's 50 bucks a month out of my pocket to host the multiple sites that I'm hosting
00:43:29.800 | So we've worked that out and it and it works. Well, it can host up to 10 sites. I think on $100 a month
00:43:34.720 | It's a much more robust system. That's what I've switched to at this point. I don't necessarily think that it is
00:43:43.240 | Necessary that you spend more money in the beginning the difference between the equivalent of $5 a month with Bluehost versus
00:43:50.500 | 10 or
00:43:52.740 | $20 a month is substantial
00:43:54.740 | So it's good to save the money. That's what I wish those people had done. I'm actually in the process of in the coming days
00:44:01.300 | I'm gonna be setting up some affiliate links and I'm also gonna one of those things
00:44:05.320 | I'm gonna do is go ahead and set up an affiliate relationship with WP Engine because they have been excellent
00:44:09.580 | They're a good middle tier
00:44:13.120 | Solution now if your site grows at some point in time
00:44:15.980 | You got to get away from shared hosting and you get into I think they call it the virtual private server
00:44:19.940 | and then if you need to grow out if you outgrow that they need to go and basically set up your own server and
00:44:24.420 | Who knows maybe the show at some point will get to that level
00:44:27.900 | The major problem that I faced with the show was I followed most of the podcasting
00:44:33.320 | Tutorials that were out there and if you're starting podcasting you'll see them and the challenge is that I set up my site
00:44:41.680 | following the podcasting tutorials and most of the podcasting tutorials use
00:44:46.560 | Use a
00:44:50.360 | Way of setting up the feed and trying not to be too technical here
00:44:53.640 | But I'm but technical enough a way to set up the feed which is what all of you access on your device
00:44:59.700 | They deliver it through
00:45:02.280 | your server they set it up on WordPress and they deliver it through your server and
00:45:08.400 | So what happens is that you've got loads and loads of people and with the size of my files
00:45:13.840 | with the frequency of my shows and
00:45:17.080 | with the number of people downloading my shows that puts a ton of pressure on to
00:45:24.560 | the
00:45:26.640 | hosting system
00:45:28.160 | And that's a real problem
00:45:30.160 | Now I don't I'm not a techie enough to go any farther than that
00:45:34.440 | But I started to have some issues and this is what was causing it
00:45:37.880 | So what I did was I switched my hosting solution. I think this is what was causing it
00:45:42.960 | It's fuzzy at this point and maybe the podcast techies could let me know but I switched my solution
00:45:48.920 | My feed from being hosted and coming through WordPress into your device
00:45:53.800 | To being hosted directly with the company with which I host my audio files, which is a company called Libsyn
00:45:59.880 | There are various competitors to host your audio files and there are many more today than there have been in the past
00:46:06.920 | SoundCloud there's
00:46:08.920 | Libsyn there's a blueberry there's
00:46:12.760 | Spreaker there's maybe put stuff directly on YouTube
00:46:16.400 | There's a lot of different solutions out there, but Libsyn is excellent and they have done an excellent job
00:46:21.000 | They have a long history and I think they actually have a business model. I'm concerned about some of the
00:46:26.960 | Companies that are offering hosting at this point and some of the rates that they're doing it for because even though it's cheaper
00:46:32.440 | I'm concerned that they're not going to be able to stay in the business
00:46:35.920 | Libsyn has been awesome to work with and they have a very
00:46:39.320 | affordable and reasonable and value filled
00:46:42.960 | Plan and so in fact, I need to I need to go set up a Libsyn affiliate host
00:46:47.640 | So I'm gonna put a page on the show
00:46:49.440 | The next few days with recommendations and I would be thrilled if you guys would use some of my affiliate links to help increase the revenue
00:46:55.800 | Of the show but Libsyn has done a great job. And so now my feed goes directly with Libsyn
00:47:00.620 | So your device your iPhone your Android phone your Windows phone your computer iTunes, whatever
00:47:06.720 | they're pulling you're pulling the feed the XML feed for the RSS feed from
00:47:12.620 | Libsyn and it's not connected to my site and that gives me an extra layer of protection
00:47:18.180 | Whereas if my site goes down it doesn't mess up the feed
00:47:22.440 | So your devices will still work and for as a podcaster, especially as a podcast
00:47:27.040 | Primary podcast primary content. That's a big deal
00:47:30.780 | So I've got Libsyn taking care of my podcasting feed and the site is separate. I
00:47:36.900 | Wish I had done it that way from the beginning
00:47:39.700 | That would have saved me a lot now
00:47:42.480 | Most of you have made it back to the show
00:47:44.100 | But that was a real kick in the stomach to delete your entire audience when you're four months into the show right before you launch
00:47:50.060 | your membership program
00:47:51.760 | That wasn't and like I said, I'm still about to make some changes in the next few days. That is going to affect some of you
00:47:58.860 | Still recovering from that because what's happened is the old feed
00:48:03.540 | Directions are scattered around the internet in different directories. Some of you will listen to me on one directory
00:48:10.160 | some of you find me on a different directory and
00:48:12.540 | So those feeds are kind of still sprinkled out there. And so I still haven't fully recovered from that
00:48:19.540 | But Trey if you're gonna start off with blogging, I don't think there's anything wrong with Bluehost or the other cheap ones
00:48:25.300 | because chances are your site is probably not going to be that big that fast and
00:48:30.500 | if it takes you a few years of blogging and you've got five dollars a month versus twenty five dollars a month, then
00:48:37.680 | Well, it's probably gonna be okay
00:48:40.740 | You were probably better off saving your twenty dollars a month
00:48:44.040 | After all I would quickly run calculations. I look at all this money that you can save
00:48:48.900 | For me, I can't take that chance because I'm putting a lot of pressure on this as a primary business
00:48:54.020 | Then as a business I have a much heavier incentive to invest in
00:49:00.180 | High quality solutions and if you want the robustness then you can then you can do that
00:49:06.740 | I think there are some other niche providers out there
00:49:09.820 | I have thought about even going ahead and as I've been thinking through what are the companies and and
00:49:16.820 | Services that I can recommend
00:49:18.820 | Frankly and happily with affiliate relationships. I've seriously considered even recommending Bluehost
00:49:25.180 | But I need to do a little bit more because I had a fine experience. It was easy
00:49:29.860 | They have everything really integrated and they do a good job and and it was it's easy
00:49:33.780 | But I'm gonna do a little bit more research with my techie friends and just see if there's a comparably priced version
00:49:41.120 | crumpler comparably priced solution
00:49:45.540 | That might be better. I think for most people
00:49:47.540 | I've I think actually Squarespace is a better solution than even WordPress because I've had to learn a lot about WordPress
00:49:55.420 | But it's tough. And so I think some of these other solutions that are out there
00:49:59.340 | Squarespace Wix some of these other ones were are a better solution where they're all in one like I'm a big fan now
00:50:06.940 | Squarespace I didn't understand it enough in the past, but now I understand it enough to be a big fan
00:50:12.620 | So it's not the end. It's not kind of the biggest one of WordPress, but I'll go into that later
00:50:17.460 | I'm gonna see if I want to reach out to them and see if actually they want to advertise because I think
00:50:21.740 | When I get back to the fact that every single one of you and me we all need a website for ourselves
00:50:27.380 | And I think that the Squarespace value proposition is in many ways stronger than the normal Bluehost WordPress
00:50:34.900 | Solution and you don't have to be quite such the technical expert
00:50:38.080 | We'll cover that another day last couple of lessons here is
00:50:42.460 | One of the biggest things that I would encourage if you're thinking about starting a show is to recognize that podcasting is not
00:50:49.780 | blogging
00:50:52.620 | This one was tough for me to learn it still still affects me I
00:50:56.680 | Spent so much time reading blogs and I thought well, I'll just take this to an audio format
00:51:03.060 | but the type of content that is conveyed well and easily in
00:51:10.340 | Blogs is not necessarily conveyed well and easily in podcasting
00:51:14.780 | You can make a blog post. It's interesting and that goes viral
00:51:18.900 | Off of something that is relatively small and insignificant, but if I got in here and said I'm gonna record this as an audio
00:51:26.260 | Podcast it usually doesn't work
00:51:29.580 | For what it's very different
00:51:33.380 | so
00:51:35.660 | Blogging has its place
00:51:37.860 | But blogging is not podcasting. So consider approaching podcasting as its own unique art form
00:51:43.580 | That's the reason why I have not
00:51:46.780 | Really written any blog posts on the site
00:51:49.700 | Because I'm focusing on trying to learn how to more effectively create
00:51:54.620 | podcasts
00:51:57.540 | Podcasts are unique. They're also not radio. That's the other challenge
00:52:01.200 | They're kind of they're also not speeches
00:52:05.860 | They're not videos. They're pot. It's it's a different animal
00:52:10.060 | Radio is broken up by in general broken up by commercial
00:52:15.380 | Interruptions usually about 15 minutes is longest segment some of their segments are four minutes and because of those commercial interact interruptions
00:52:22.060 | If you actually listen to a radio show with all of the interviews cut out or the commercials cut out
00:52:27.020 | you'll have a very different listening experience than a
00:52:31.620 | podcast
00:52:35.660 | So
00:52:36.940 | It's not that it's bad or good or anything. I just encourage you don't make the mistake I did which was try to say
00:52:43.140 | Okay, here's an idea. That's perfect for a blog
00:52:45.940 | That's short and focused and then try to turn it into a podcast. It's a different format
00:52:51.540 | another thing that I will just mention as far as a lesson is
00:52:59.260 | Interviews interviews are tough. This has been the toughest thing that I struggled with have struggled with and still I'm
00:53:04.940 | grappling with is how to do an excellent interview and the mistake that I made many times was
00:53:10.380 | Primarily interviewing authors and I've gone back and forth trying to figure out what's the best way to interview an author
00:53:18.420 | My normal tendency is to research everything that I can about somebody
00:53:25.940 | Read everything they've written and then try to prepare a specific outline of what I want to take them through
00:53:32.620 | This is backfired a number of times
00:53:34.740 | there were some authors that I've interviewed on the show that I really was excited to talk to and
00:53:39.540 | yet what I realized was I was trying to take them through their book and
00:53:43.740 | They didn't want to go through a book because after all they wrote a book and if you want the book go read the book
00:53:50.080 | they just wanted to talk and
00:53:52.740 | They're kind of wandering here and wandering there in a story and I couldn't get him back to say look talk about your book
00:54:00.420 | Here's the outline look I prepared these ten points and how do you lead an author without just delivering it and
00:54:08.140 | So I learned that that
00:54:11.660 | excessive
00:54:13.380 | Research excessive reading thing at least right before the interview isn't necessarily a good plan
00:54:20.460 | so I switched and I started trying to just follow my curiosity and
00:54:25.300 | Trying actually not to prepare too much in advance
00:54:28.780 | but to have a general idea of who somebody is and then follow my curiosity a little bit and
00:54:34.260 | That's also very intimidating very challenging because then you arrive with a few ideas of ways that you're gonna go down
00:54:42.340 | paths of
00:54:45.180 | questioning that you can pursue
00:54:48.820 | But you're not quite sure and sometimes you're sitting there saying
00:54:52.340 | Okay, what do I ask next?
00:54:55.020 | so if you are
00:54:57.380 | going to
00:54:59.180 | Create interviews and do an interview show. I think that's a good idea
00:55:03.780 | In some ways the interviews are easy because he just asked questions
00:55:07.300 | It's much more difficult to come up with an outline for a 60-minute show
00:55:11.280 | That has a lot of depth and a lot of breadth and moves with an appropriate pacing
00:55:17.660 | it's more difficult sometimes to do that than it is to
00:55:20.660 | Do an interview but interviews in and of themselves are tough
00:55:25.380 | At the moment I tend to be more in favor of the follow my curiosity approach. It seems to be producing
00:55:33.740 | better results
00:55:36.260 | It's not a hundred percent
00:55:38.660 | Follow my curiosity
00:55:41.100 | I've been
00:55:42.420 | Having an idea of where I think we need to go because after all it's my responsibility as a podcast host to bring my audience
00:55:48.180 | Something that's useful
00:55:50.180 | but the approach of following my gut has been I think producing more interesting content and
00:55:56.860 | it has helped me to
00:55:59.500 | More effectively reign in somebody when they go off on a tangent or to just redirect the conversation a little bit
00:56:06.940 | so I've been learning and
00:56:08.900 | I hope that
00:56:10.380 | Many of you are able to hear that growth
00:56:13.220 | Which brings me to my final point and with this I'm done for today
00:56:17.300 | I've intentionally put everything out there with my show as far as leaving all of the old episodes and leaving the ones that
00:56:26.740 | Went crazy and did crazy tangents and crazy long and all of that because it's my goal to both teach
00:56:36.020 | The content and the ideas and the knowledge that I have that's specific
00:56:40.460 | But also to model my implementation of those things in a free and candid way
00:56:46.620 | If you've ever thought about creating independent media, please do
00:56:53.020 | And don't worry about being perfect but start
00:56:57.220 | Because you're the one who will gain the most from it. I
00:57:01.500 | Have gained the most from this show
00:57:06.300 | And I will continue to gain the most from this show
00:57:09.580 | and
00:57:12.700 | If you start creating media of some kind any kind you'll gain the most
00:57:18.140 | We live in one of the most incredible times in human history
00:57:22.980 | Especially from the perspective of free and open communication
00:57:29.140 | We can break down some of the walls that have existed for so long
00:57:34.060 | It's
00:57:36.060 | Not easy to do
00:57:38.300 | But we can do it and I would encourage you to try
00:57:43.380 | As long as you're not worried too much about the number of people listening
00:57:49.140 | Then you can have a successful experiment a successful podcast if it helps one person
00:57:58.420 | As far as I'm concerned my show has already been a roaring success because I've gotten an email
00:58:04.100 | From somebody saying Joshua. My life has been impacted now. I've been fortunate to get many more than one and
00:58:09.780 | That is the most heartwarming thing
00:58:12.660 | Had some former clients of mine over for dinner last night. We were talking and this was a client a couple that
00:58:23.020 | made tremendous changes in their life after our financial planning engagements and
00:58:28.540 | This couple was incredibly important to me as a young financial planner because I was so insecure starting off as a planner
00:58:36.980 | I've never even looked tell people what I did
00:58:39.060 | But then I started working with them and they would take me to you know
00:58:42.340 | They would want to a birthday invite me to birthday party and they would tell him this is Joshua sheets
00:58:46.500 | Like you've got to talk with Joshua sheets. Like he's he's awesome. He's our financial advisor. I didn't know what to do with it
00:58:52.460 | But the cool thing was just experiencing the impact that had really encouraged me
00:58:56.900 | And I was telling them that they were asking about how the show is going. I said the best thing about the show is that
00:59:02.180 | I've gotten the same response that I got from you from hundreds of people
00:59:10.420 | One is enough
00:59:14.820 | Two is awesome
00:59:16.980 | Dozens are gratifying
00:59:18.820 | And you get that from hundreds. It's worth doing
00:59:22.020 | One of the great benefits of independent media is we can model the growth factors
00:59:28.340 | We can leave the mistakes out there
00:59:31.580 | By the time you get to some big news anchor on TV, you never see the mistakes
00:59:36.740 | But the time you listen to Rush Limbaugh or whoever
00:59:39.900 | you know, I'm trying to think of who the the
00:59:43.860 | Counterpoint to him is on radio. I don't know. It seems like all the radio hosts are
00:59:49.060 | Right-wing hosts by the time you get to Rush Limbaugh. You've got someone that's been broadcasting for decades
00:59:54.140 | Decades
00:59:58.700 | But the cool thing is we can leave those mistakes out there to encourage other people
01:00:02.780 | And we can provide ideas and inspiration that are exactly where people need to be
01:00:07.460 | And when you're forced to sit down and write your ideas out in an outline and then deliver them
01:00:13.140 | You're forced to get clear on them
01:00:16.780 | When I have to do a show on
01:00:18.780 | What would I do if I won the lottery? I got to sit down and say what would I do if I won the lottery?
01:00:23.060 | How does it get any better than that because I
01:00:27.460 | Just wrote a show
01:00:29.980 | that was the result of my sitting down and saying well, what would I do and
01:00:34.260 | Then looking at my answers saying well, why do I really believe this?
01:00:38.660 | Do I really believe that?
01:00:41.300 | And that's the cool thing about
01:00:43.740 | Independent media you don't have to have a massive audience to have an impact. You don't have to be super popular now
01:00:51.060 | It's awesome. I'm working hard to get there. I'm doing everything I can but I'm doing it. I
01:00:55.780 | Don't want to sound too I don't have the wrong tone here
01:01:00.820 | It's it's really encouraging when the numbers start to grow and I'm thankful for every one of you that listens
01:01:06.080 | but I
01:01:08.940 | Just hate seeing people do things and then only focusing on the numbers do something because you think it matters
01:01:14.600 | Do something because you think it should be done do something because nobody's doing it
01:01:19.580 | And let the numbers shake themselves out
01:01:22.860 | The cool thing about voluntary content is your audience will self-select themselves
01:01:30.620 | No one's forcing them to listen no one's forcing them to read
01:01:35.620 | They will self-select and a lot of people come in they'll dip their toes in listen for a little bit and say yeah
01:01:42.540 | Not for me and you got to be okay with that
01:01:45.380 | but the ones who stick around will be an encouragement to you in the same way that so many of you have been to me and
01:01:52.380 | The benefits are massive
01:01:56.020 | So if you've ever thought about creating independent media of any kind figure out what's your likely best way to
01:02:05.380 | compete
01:02:06.860 | What you really want to do?
01:02:08.860 | Do you want to create video? Do you want to write? Do you want to speak and
01:02:12.460 | Do it because we need millions more people
01:02:16.540 | Doing this type of thing on millions more subjects
01:02:19.860 | It's just the beginning
01:02:22.340 | And if we get millions of people doing that
01:02:24.420 | Each person making a little change in their corner of the world
01:02:28.300 | The results are really gonna be amazing
01:02:34.300 | Hope this has been useful to you. I know there's no real financial planning tips in it. I guess there is a little bit
01:02:39.660 | I guess this one will go in under the increasing your income
01:02:42.360 | section because in today's world
01:02:44.860 | We all have to be our own marketers and in many ways and one key aspect of it is you need a website
01:02:50.660 | You need a site
01:02:52.460 | And you might need a podcast and if you do hopefully this will help you. I actually am say this earlier. I am going to
01:02:58.500 | create a
01:03:03.700 | Info product teaching financial advisors how to podcast and I'm gonna do it very specifically
01:03:08.460 | I'm gonna create a manual as far as all the technical stuff so that I can help people
01:03:11.700 | Avoid that but I read a real
01:03:14.580 | Heart to teach financial advisors how to podcast because I think every single financial advisor needs a podcast
01:03:19.860 | Not a podcast like mine not a podcast to try to get out five thousand
01:03:24.400 | You know listeners all of us cool if they can do that as many people have much bigger audiences to mine
01:03:29.440 | that's just I'm sharing my experience, but
01:03:32.940 | Financial advisors need a podcast so that their clients can get to know who they are in a non pressured situation
01:03:38.300 | I'm gonna create an info product teaching people how to do it. It'll probably start with a basic
01:03:43.180 | With a basic course like a $97 ebook type of thing
01:03:48.480 | It might if there's a lot of interest and a lot of traction
01:03:52.180 | I might make it some I don't know some fancy big fancy video course if you're interested in that do one of two things go to
01:03:59.020 | Financial advisor podcast calm I gotta get I'm gonna get that up over the weekend
01:04:02.900 | It's not up yet, but depending on when you're listening to it
01:04:05.780 | It may or may not be up go to financial advisor podcast calm
01:04:08.780 | There's a quick video and an email capture for put your email address in I'll put you on the list and then as I get that
01:04:14.820 | Created depending on the feedback. I may or may not do it
01:04:17.100 | I'm planning on it
01:04:17.900 | But I'd love to see you know at least a few people
01:04:20.620 | Interested before I put all the work into creating it if that sites not up just email me Joshua radical personal finance calm
01:04:27.500 | Let me know you're interested and I'll put you on the list
01:04:29.500 | Manual or give you the manual link to get yourself on the list
01:04:32.020 | Financial advisor podcast calm if you are interested in learning how to podcast with a specific focus on financial advisory space
01:04:39.280 | I'm not trying to be the next podcast answer man, but a specific focus on the financial advisory space
01:04:43.540 | And it'll be both the technical and also the big picture because I get a lot of ideas on this for financial advisors
01:04:49.060 | financial advisor podcast calm and
01:04:51.300 | Email me if it's not up Joshua radical person by calm. I'll be with you all soon. Cheers
01:04:56.220 | Thank you for listening to today's show, please subscribe to the podcast with our free mobile app
01:05:01.700 | So you don't miss a single episode just search the App Store on your device for radical personal finance
01:05:07.740 | And you'll find our free app if you have received value from the content of this show
01:05:12.180 | Please consider becoming a patron your financial support is how I pay the bills for the show and how I plan to grow our content
01:05:18.820 | You can support the show with as little as a dollar a month or as much as you feel the content is worth
01:05:24.100 | Details are at radical personal finance comm slash patron
01:05:28.500 | If you'd like to contact me personally
01:05:30.340 | My email address is Joshua at radical personal finance comm or connect with the show on twitter at radical PF and at facebook.com
01:05:38.160 | radical personal finance this show is intended to provide entertainment education and
01:05:44.380 | Financial enlightenment, but your situation is unique and I cannot deliver any actionable advice without knowing anything about you
01:05:53.460 | Please develop a team of professional advisors who you find to be caring
01:05:58.060 | competent and trustworthy and
01:06:00.580 | Consult them because they are the ones who can understand your specific needs your specific goals and provide
01:06:08.060 | Specific answers to your questions. I've done my absolute best to be clear and accurate in today's show
01:06:14.180 | But I'm one person and I make mistakes if you spot a mistake in something
01:06:18.700 | I've said please come by the show page and comment so we can all learn together
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