Beyond the Stage: Stripper Tales and Industry Insights

How do you find guests when your podcast covers extremely niche topics? It's a challenge many creators face, especially when starting out. Dave Jackson and Jim Cullison tackle this question head-on, providing practical strategies that go beyond the standard advice. Rather than endless online searching, they suggest going directly to where your potential guests gather, leveraging existing connections, and most importantly, asking current guests for recommendations.

The episode takes a heartfelt turn as the hosts pay tribute to podcasting pioneer Todd Cochran, founder of Blubrry, who recently passed away. Todd's unwavering commitment to open RSS, transparent business practices, and advocacy for podcasters has left an indelible mark on the industry. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, Dave and Jim highlight how Todd's principled approach to business and genuine care for the podcasting community set a standard that continues to influence the medium today.

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Transcript

Introduction

Speaker 1 0:13

Ask the Podcast Coach for September 13th 2025. Let's get ready to podcast. There it is. It's that music. That means it's Saturday morning. It's time for Ask the Podcast Coach, where you get your podcast questions answered live. I'm Dave Jackson from theschoolofpodcastingcom, and joining me right over there is the one and only jim cullison from the average guy dot tv. Jim, how's it going, buddy?

Speaker 2 0:42

greetings, dave. Happy saturday morning to you. Always good to be with you on saturday. And the lover boy song everybody's working for the weekend has never been stronger than yeah, thank goodness we got to the weekend.

Speaker 1 0:55

I played that in a band many moons ago. We're here for this. We made it to Saturday and Mike, if you've seen Mike Reno, I'll give him credit the lead singer of Loverboy. For those who are like what's a Mike Reno? He still goes for the high note in Take Me Loose and eventually gets there. It's not pretty and it kind of sounds like somebody strangling your dog, but I got to give him credit. Um, but if you strangle your dog, you know what will fix its uh, its throat? Yeah, a little bit of coffee. A little bit of coffee, absolutely.

Speaker 2 1:28

I'm out of whack. Hold on, give me a second.

Speaker 1 1:30

I didn't have it ready. Okay, here we go. There you go, and that coffee pour is brought to you by our buddy, mark, over at there. It is podcastbrandingco, because they're going to see you before they hear you, and I've used Mark for a lot of my artwork and anything you need that's going to be public facing. Well, you know you want it to look good.

Sponsor Messages and Coffee Pour

Speaker 1 1:55

In fact, a recent study said that 41% of people will give a podcast one shot. That's it, and if you don't make a good first impression, you're out and Mark is going to help you with all your visuals and your branding. If you're like I'm not sure what branding means, well, that's what Mark does, so hire him. He's a podcaster and an award-winning graphic artist, and so he understands podcasting. He's going to sit down with you one-on-one, figure out what your show's about and then make artwork. That's just amazing, and if you need a whole website to go with that artwork, even better, because he's the guy that does it all. When you're ready to look good and make a great first impression, there's only one place to go, and that's podcastbrandingco.

Speaker 2 2:44

Tell him, dave and jim sent you why would you want to hold the phone? The phone's the best part. Yeah, thanks to our good friend, dan lefebvre over there. Based on a true story, based basedonatruestorypodcastcom and, as Dan has said in the chat before, no podcast is released before it's time. So this week still out there Young Guns 2. If you didn't get a chance to catch it last week, catch it this week. Available for again. I love Dan's artwork. If you want to get a good look at creativity and the artwork for the podcast, check it out today. Based on a True story, based on truestorypodcastcom. And, as always, dan, thanks for your sponsorship and some delicious coffee yeah he's, he's got a great look.

Speaker 1 3:28

Talk about somebody making a good first impression oh yeah his artwork is always.

Finding Guests for Small or New Podcasts

Speaker 2 3:33

It's not a one and done, he's got. He does that. You know he does the album art, the original album art. Yeah, he's got his own art for it, his own rendition, his own take on it. A great way of thinking about how to do album art or, you know, even episode artwork creatively. So good, good, good on you.

Speaker 1 3:52

Dan, yeah, I got a fun question here. I think people are overthinking it a bit. Yeah, I got a fun question here. I think people are overthinking it a bit. He or she says help me think outside the box to find guests for my very small new show. It says I've been reading and following what people suggest here on Reddit for using the guest subreddit and approaching people in my niche to find guests.

Speaker 1 4:13

I host a solo podcast made up of my stripper stories, so I'm assuming this is a she. Then maybe you never know there are male strippers and would love to interview fellow dancers enthused customers. Boy, there's a, there's. Hey, I want to interview. Yeah, me, I, I love candy. You know ginger's the best different types of service industry folks, club staff and adult industry professionals on my show, which could be fun. I figure my best bet is to message other small podcasts and either do an exchange with a dancer podcast or, better yet, find small podcasts that are niche adjacent.

Speaker 1 4:50

This approach has been pretty tedious. It's obviously much easier to search and find large podcasts than small or very new ones. So my two questions are is this kind of tedious to be expected or am I just a crappy researcher? What's been working well for finding guests for your small and or new podcast. Thanks for reading. Curious to hear your thoughts. Now call me crazy, jim, but if I was looking for strippers, where could I find strippers? Yeah, well, that was my whole point. People are overthinking this. They're like I don't know how to find. I'm like I don't know. Go to the bad part of town. There's probably a few clubs where people dance around in less than normal clothes and go. Hey, I do a show for strippers. Want to be on my podcast, you know.

Speaker 2 5:44

So I mean listen, listen in general, as we just think in general about, especially in the niche, right, finding, finding your community. Let's, let's let's put it that way finding your community out there. Yeah, it's tedious, like especially the, the, the, the smaller, the you know, the tighter the niche, the the harder it is. And so you've, yeah, you're gonna, it's gonna be a struggle, you're gonna have to do some, you're gonna play some groundwork. That my advice always has been to podcasters who are looking who do the guest thing right. You know two, two things I always say with this.

Speaker 2 6:18

One is, when you find a good guest, make invite them back. You don't have to have an original one and done you know kind of thing. Oh well, you were on six months ago, you can't be back on again. My listeners won't know if they were good. Have them back on, right. So make sure you're reusing your good. You know your good, your good guests. And then two, with guests, make sure that you, when you find a good one, ask them hey, who do you know that I should be right. You know that I should be interviewing who should be on my show, who would you recommend? You know you're not selling things to them, you're just going to call them up and invite them on the show. So I think that's you grow your network in those two ways Keep the good ones that you have and then start using the folks that you have on there, and then and I guess maybe three would be there's plenty of podcast services right Now. To be honest, dave, they don't have everything Like I've.

Speaker 2 7:15

I've tried using both the big, the big ones, and you know for what I'm looking for, the kind of guests I'm looking for. I haven't really had that great of luck with them. Right, listen, they're great. They're great If you're doing a leadership podcast, if you're doing a, you know. If you're doing you know there's a. There's a couple of topics out there that are super hot, that I'm just not in that space, but so there's services as well. So that's what. That's what I would say I would like you got. You know, make sure you're taking care of the ones you have. It's just kind of like life right, make sure they take care of the friends that you have, and then ask those friends hey, who else do you know? Like, who else should be on here? And I think you got a good, I think you have a good run at it that way.

Remembering Todd Cochrane

Speaker 1 7:54

That's it. I could do this weird transition, and you know who likes strippers Todd Cochran. Actually, I don't know that for sure. Dave, what is wrong? With you this morning I have the weirdest transitions in my life here. No, I'm trying to keep it light and fun.

Speaker 1 8:13

I know, but yeah, we did lose Todd on Monday and that literally stopped me dead in my tracks. I was Mike Dell, was nice enough to call me. What was weird about that is I didn't have Mike in my phone. So twice in the morning, this wireless, this unknown wireless caller, calls me and I'm like I don't know about you, but I'm I.

Speaker 1 8:37

Right now I have a lot of people who keep calling me, asking me to sell a house I do not live in. They're like is this Dave? And I'm like yeah. And they're like, yeah, I'm calling about the property on Beachwood. And I'm like, yeah, I don't live there, nor do I own that house. So, whatever list I'm on, could you please take me off? And they're like, oh, I just bought the list, I don't run it. I'm like, oh, great, wonderful. And so I thought it was one of those guys and it was Mike Dell and he just said, hey, I got some. Cause it's weird. I was like hey, mike, what's up, you know? And he's like oh, I got some bad news for you. And I'm like, oh, and I literally just stopped walking. I was like what? No, because I just saw him, like three weeks ago, and he had dropped 30 pounds. He looked great and you know I was like, wow, we got lots of questions in the chat room. Wow, that was a very Dave thing to do Right in the middle of talking about Todd.

Speaker 1 9:30

I went squirrel, but it's just one of those things where you know somebody's there and then they're not, and I guess he had a blood clot of some sort. I don't know what causes blood clots and you know, when those things make it to your heart there's not a you know, no. No, your lungs, or your lungs, yeah.

Speaker 2 9:51

Yeah, this happened to my mom. She had fallen. And then they put a. They put a brace on her knee and then she flew. When she got off the plane they took the brace off and that's when the blood clots were released. She now she's. She luckily survived it. She was never the same, but that's a that's a tough deal. Yeah, we think about, listen, we think about the contribution that Todd made, by the way. Appreciate, you know, todd and Adam and Mike, and and those guys Rob Greenlee yeah, todd and Adam and Mike.

Speaker 1 10:18

And and Rob Greenlee yeah, rob Greenlee, getting together. Man, that was. There were times at the very end they played Rob and Todd from the last new media show, and you know. So Todd's like, all right, I'm Todd Cochran, we'll see you next week. And then you're like, it just was like, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 10:35

Yeah, you never know, right, you never know what going to. That's always the lessons in these. Right, we do these things and you think, oh, I'll do it tomorrow. Well, maybe not, right? I mean, there's some good opportunities in thinking, why wait till tomorrow what you can do today, if it's that important to get it kind of done? But listen, we have to live our life with planning too. You can't just live. I mean, if you try to just live every day to its fullest, I mean, that's not sustainable either. You need rest, you need to eat correctly, you need some of those things Well.

Speaker 1 11:11

I've already lost weight thanks to Todd. I was like okay, time to get back on the treadmill, you know, time to stop eating junk, you know?

Speaker 2 11:20

I think one of the things one of the things I take away from that from from from what, from Todd's life and what he did is he genuinely cared about podcasting and podcast oh man, yeah, genuinely cared about people in the, in the sense that he wanted what was best for them in podcasting and he wouldn't take crappy deals for podcasters, and he was always standing up for the podcaster sometimes to his detriment, right and and. But he, he didn't care, he, he stood in the gap, he did his job, he, he was always there, he was always consistent, he never missed things, like he was always at all these events. He was, I mean, he was just, you know, he, uh, you know, appreciated his service for the navy as well as a service to podcasters. And he, he was just he. He said what he believed and he did what he said.

Speaker 2 12:12

Yeah, man, that's not that's, there's not a lot of that. I mean it's not a lot of that. I mean it's not a lot of that today. And I just appreciated him and his commitment to it. And he leaves a big he lives a big gaping hole in the podcast space for sure.

Speaker 1 12:26

Craig said I was listening to the latest episode of the new media show and when he heard the tragic news and he goes, I felt like I lost a friend, even though I never met him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's my my favorite thing to hear Todd say was you know, I probably shouldn't say this because I knew whatever was coming was going to be a doozy. He was. I'm sure he kept his secrets, but there were many that I was like okay, it rhymes with right, grow soft, but I'm not going to say who it is. And you're like okay, so Microsoft did what you know, it's like so, but he was, and I mean I actually got it off eBay. It's, it's on its way here.

Speaker 1 13:00

I bought Todd's book. It was the very first book on podcasting and it doesn't mention iTunes because it wasn't in iTunes yet. I mean it was the first book on podcasting and you know he, it was funny because I mean I was in that meeting when all these media hosts got together and said, hey, if we all got together and rolled out this podcasting 2.0, like if we all picked one feature and then we all did it, then the apps could do it and then we rolled out another feature. You know, then this would. Todd saw where it's not going to work. Not because people can't work together, but you have different levels of tech debt and some hosts can move faster than others. And so Todd came out of the gate with like, ok, here's seven new features for Podcasting 2.0, knowing that that would be a little more of a burden on the support staff, because it wasn't that easy, but still not that easy to do the whole streaming Satoshi thing and all that. He was just the first company that publicly stated we're raising our prices, you know, and that's not, nobody wants to hear that. But he also, again, was very transparent, said well, look, I've got a staff that gets health benefits and you know, the minimum wage has gone up and it's like all these things, and they haven't raised their prices in 20 years. They hadn't raised their prices and nobody wanted to move first. And Todd was like well, we got to do what we got to do. So you know it's.

Speaker 1 14:35

He did a lot of firsts, you know, and was always. You know, we all kind of joke about being an old curmudgeon and I will take that moniker. I agreed with everything Todd ever said. Most of the time there's there's a fun statement. I agreed with Todd all the time, most of the time. But when it comes to open RSS, me and Todd were, we're buddies on that. When it comes to open RSS, me and Todd were buddies on that, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 14:58

The other thing about Todd is, you know we're all kind of joking because you know, Todd was a little rough around the edges but on the inside he was. I don't know what kind of candy is hard on the outside and gooey on the inside. He's like I don't know an M&M or something. But when you sat down and talked to the guy nicest guy on the planet he, you know a little unfiltered and but but the beauty of that is that was just Todd being Todd, like he wasn't, you know, and he'd be the first to say that he didn't have a voice for radio. And he in fact I think James Cridland played a clip where he's like, look, I butcher the English language. And he's like, look, I'm just some guy that you know I did the Navy. And he's like, if I can do this, anybody can do it. And so, yeah, it's. And the other thing that it.

Speaker 1 15:48

That for me is I think I had it might've been Gordon Firemark or somebody on about what happens if you die, like what happens to your podcast. And I remember that was like probably two years ago, if not more than that, and I was like, yeah, I probably should do something. And then when my buddy, neil Galarte, died, about probably a little over a year ago, I was like, yeah, I probably should get that in place and I still don't have that in place. So that's actually one of the things on my my, if nothing else, I just need to put a. It's funny because I'm in the.

Speaker 1 16:29

This was my parents' bedroom growing up and I'm pretty sure my brother could figure out that if Dave has a will, it's going to be in that closet on the left-hand side, because my dad would remind us every time I went to his house hey, you know like he's nowhere near dying. It was like, just so, you guys know, in that closet upper and you know like he's nowhere near dying. It's like, just so, you guys know in that closet upper and he'd make us here's the box and like, okay, so I'm gonna put whatever I have there, so my brother or whoever can figure it out. But uh, it's one of those things we need to, you know, to figure out. So there you go. Well, which makes sense.

Speaker 1 16:58

Todd was like a tootsie roll, yeah kind of crunchy, but you know, sweet and gooey on the inside Because he cared about everybody.

Speaker 2 17:04

He did. He did genuinely, and we're thinking about his family and all those around him and, of course, our friends over at Raw Voice and Blueberry, and certainly they have lost their leader and he's going to be. He'll be a tough, like always. Everybody's tough to replace, but he was such a giant.

Speaker 1 17:25

And on that, blueberry obviously will miss Todd, but it's not like they're going to fall away and crumble Like you know. They have people in place to. You know there are I'm not sure, because I think there were four or five people Like that wasn't VC funded, there were a bunch of people that threw the money in the pot and they just like, hey, we need a coder, we need a, we need an accountant, we need a lawyer, you know. And so they found a bunch of people you know, and so they'll, they'll be fine. Yeah, here we go.

Speaker 1 17:58

Randy Black says I'm not. Let me read this here. He says some feedback from the Lattice School of Podcasting. So I put out an episode that I had from Todd from 10 years ago when I was the head of the New Media Expo, and a lot of people have said that it's interesting because that was 10 years ago and a lot of what Todd said there is still absolutely true today. So Randy says you can make content that's remarkable. That isn't remarkable for a good reason. Bad can still be remarkable. Well, that is true.

Speaker 2 18:29

Well, it's beauty in the eye of the beholder, right? I mean, you can do something that commercially isn't a success, and if it hits one person I don't even know if it needs to hit one person Like, if you're proud of it, if you liked it, if you did it for you, it's good enough like I don't. You know we just, it just depends on what you're doing with it. So you know it's it it is. You know, the value of what we do is not always in a download number, or it's not always in it, even how well it's received. Yeah, well, for me to to that point.

Speaker 1 19:05

I do not get the musician lou reed, I just I I know I get it take a walk on the wild side, but other than that I'm like he's just a and this is I'm not. Is he foreigner? Is he the foreigner guy? No, no, that was lou graham. Lou reed was take a walk on the Side and if you watch a documentary on him, he was in the Velvet Underground and unfortunately it was just a junkie with a microphone, in a nutshell. But at the time it was really new because, hey, we haven't let a junkie on the microphone yet and so, yeah, so that's always kind of, but yeah. So. Todd Cochran RIP. It's going to be very weird to go to PodFest for me and A not have Todd in the booth and B not have Neil close Saturday night as a DJ. It's just going to be, you know, doesn't mean it's horrible, just it's the new normal and it is what it is.

Speaker 2 19:58

Well, hey, listen, we've been doing this long enough. We're not getting any younger, right? I mean, you and I are not getting any younger and these things are coming. It is a, you know, it's a. We need to continue to encourage the next generation in this space. Right, I don't I don't know if I see that enough, like I don't know if I see and listen there's plenty of younger younger than me podcasters that are out there, so I'm not too worried about it. But you know, eventually, you know we circle of life out of this place and folks get to come in behind. You know it will give some opportunities for some folks to step in and step up and fill that gap. Right, that's always what always happens. It's like you know, in the, when you're at the beach and you dig a hole and the water comes in and it fills it back in right, and so there will be there, there's, opportunities for people now to fill that gap that that todd has has left that's there we've got some opportunities right, and so we'll mourn.

Speaker 2 21:01

We'll mourn the loss and uh, and be sad for his passing and be sad for his family, yeah, um, and then we'll continue going on and just continue to try to to honor his legacy in the podcasting space and for the things that that he wanted to see, that it'd be great to see value for value take off at some point, yeah, or podcasting 2.0 take off. Listen, there's and there's, there's still folks who will carry that, will carry that on.

Email Service Price Increases and Budgeting Tools

Speaker 1 21:29

So well, and apple. It's not implemented yet, but apple has agreed to start using podcasting 2.0 chapters. So which daniel just put out a new tool for at podchapterscom I think I believe that's where that's at. So if you're using somebody like I don't know Libsyn, that doesn't do chapters, yeah, podchapterscom is a new thing. That what's cool about it is it does the 2.0 chapters, but it also embeds like the old school way of doing chapters was to put it in the MP3 file, and it does that too. So you're covered in both ways. So, yeah, so that's, the 2.0 thing is slowly being adopted. So that's probably partly due to Todd and Jason over the whole that little board thingy that they put together. I want to say it's the podcasting standards project.

Speaker 1 22:31

Jody said what happened to Neil. Neil unfollowed, or both. Todd and Neil just had massive heart attacks, just like boom, and Neil was 59 and Todd was 61. And as someone who is 6.0, that scares the. That makes me wet my pants, just just a little bit. So, and again, that's why I've been walking around the neighborhood a lot this week. So it'll be interesting to see where. Oh, jody says I've been using testing Daniel's new offering and it's great. Yeah, I, I it does a thing where it will, according to Dan cause. You know, buzzsprout does this, captivate does that, and Daniel is saying his AI and it looks really impressive. We'll go through and make maybe a little better chapters.

Speaker 1 23:16

Right now I've been using Buzzsprouts like I just turned on everything they have and they have they basically behind the scenes. They have Auphonic leveling it out. They call it magic mastering, but it's it's really just Auphonic, it's just built in and Auphonic has like an um remover. And so now Buzzsprout has an um remover and it does. It doesn't remove, like I usually go through descript.

Speaker 1 23:42

But now what I do is I basically, you know, take the file that we get done here I chop off because there's usually like a second and a half of me going. Is it recording? Yet At the beginning and then at the end, when the music fades out, I usually trim that down, re-export it and now I just upload it to Buzzsprout and go, turn everything on and it will spit out titles for me. It'll write show notes, which I usually use like a paragraph and a half from, and then I swap out the featured supporter of the month or the week and it just kind of does everything for me, and I've listened to the last couple episodes and, yeah, it's not as like I used to take out more than just ums, but the stuff that's in is, in my opinion, okay. There's nothing really too crazy, so it's fun how these new tools are getting better and better and you know, makes it easier and easier.

Speaker 1 24:34

We did have some questions from the chat room. So Stephanie says what are your thoughts on all the recent email services prices changing? Flowdesk is ending. Unlimited. Kit is raising prices. Yeah, if you're on a yearly plan, at first I was like, hey, it's going up $100. And then I was like, oh, it's $10 a month. Mailerlite is adjusting their plans. Lots of people spinning from it. Yeah, there are two ways to look at this. Number one is oh my gosh, I got to find something cheaper, so I get that. That's the knee-jerk reaction. Or you could go OK, I've got this tool that now needs to pay for itself.

Speaker 1 25:15

And an email list is something that, if you've got your own product or service, people are one click away from donating, from buying from whatever it is. You know, because that was my need, my whole thing was do I have a link set up for this? I found System, which is a free tool. Yes and yes, that is my affiliate link and it's a little bit like Go High Level. It's one of those we like. It almost does your laundry kind of thing and it does email. It does courses, it does their community actually looks okay. It does landing pages. It'll build a website for you, it slices it, dices it, even juliennes, and it's free.

Speaker 1 25:58

And I, I'm dying to get the video that. I had somebody like demo it for me for about 15 minutes and I said, hey, can I get a recording of that? And he said, yes, and I'm dying to get the video. I had somebody like demo it for me for about 15 minutes and I said, hey, can I get a recording of that? And he said yes, and I haven't got it yet because I wanted to share that with both the awesome supporters and the School of Podcasting, because the thing that doesn't make any sense is their free stuff.

Speaker 1 26:17

They don't take any fees. Now, I'm assuming they take the credit card fees, they're not going to eat those. But Now, I'm assuming they take the credit card fees, they're not going to eat those, but they don't take any additional money. And I'm like for the free version, because usually the free version, not only do they take fees, but they take a little more and they're like no, we never take fees. And I was like, unless you know, when you get up into the other tier, so, but it's kind of like we just mentioned with everything eventually is going to go up because every time and again I don't want to talk politics, but in my travels when you raise the minimum wage, everything gets more expensive. So the more money that we're making doesn't buy more, because now the guy at the grocery store makes more money and you know the guy at the McDonald's makes more money and you know it just kind of goes up. So so many of these companies never raise their prices and yet their employees, hopefully, are getting some sort of raise.

Speaker 1 27:16

Or if they do offer health benefits, health benefits are nuts. I mean, I know every year it's like we're doing all we can, but you know your monthly payment for your health benefits is going up, you know whatever. And when you multiply that by you know 10, 50, 100, 200 people, you know if you're in a company like Gallup, like Jim, it's a huge number of people and when you keep your prices the same, all you're doing is chewing into your profits. So it's the only thing that somebody made a point about Kit was Kit spent hundreds of thousands of dollars rebranding twice and I'm like yeah, you got a point, you know. But the other thing you have to think about is you're like OK, that's it. Like if I wanted to move from kit to system. I've got all my automated emails that I'd have to move. I've got all my tagging, all that automation stuff, and you have to ask yourself is the time I'm going to spend to learn the new system, to set back up all the automations? Is it all worth saving? You know four bucks a month or 10 bucks a month, and eventually you know if they keep raising it, it does, but you know things are going to go up. That's just the way it is. So, but it is funny because I'm right there with you, steph it's kind of like ooh, is there somebody cheaper? I'm like well, maybe I need to learn how to use my email If you go to let me get it here. I've been researching and I'm now part of one of her groups.

Speaker 1 28:48

Growthinreversecom is Chanel, and what Chanel does is I was listening to her story and she would spend like 30 hours a week writing a newsletter and I was like what? But you ended up with information that you couldn't get anyplace else and what she was doing is just there's not much on her website. It's just hey, sign up for my newsletter. So if you wonder, how do you grow a newsletter, well, you have a page where the only thing there is well, you're either going to join my newsletter or you're going to go away. But she studies people that are successful, hence growth in reverse. So she goes and finds somebody who's doing things successfully and then reverse engineers and goes wait, how did they get this to work? And so I've. Really, I met her at CE in cleveland and was like huh, that's kind of cool. So I don't know, jim, anything on your end going up any tools oh yeah, I have every listen everything especially on the enterprise side.

Speaker 2 29:53

Yeah, you had a stream yard. Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know for sure. Yeah it let's, we've got it. You know, like john jimango and chat was saying he he needs to probably put a spreadsheet together of everything that he's spending on podcasting During these times it's as we get close to the end of the year, it's not I was going to say probably a good idea, because that's the way I say it all the time no, it is a good idea to start getting you know.

Speaker 2 30:18

One, start figuring out where you're at from a taxes standpoint for next year. But two, what are those things that you're paying for and you, are you getting all the value that you should out of them? Because it's you know, sometimes we, we add, and we add, and we add, but and then we forget and you're like, oh man, I was paying for a subscription that I'm not really even using anymore. I, I pay for Google. I have a Google what do they call it? Workspace, whatever it is for some email and some other things that are in there. I don't know. I think I pay $12 a month per account and I have two accounts and you think it's $25 a month for email right Now they haven't raised their price yet, but it's coming.

Speaker 2 31:02

So if you think we are definitely not in an era of prices staying the same, friends, those days are over. Dave, you and I have lived through a, historically, you know, when we think about the economy over the last 30 years, I mean, prices just haven't changed that much. Of course there's always inflation, right, but they just haven't changed as much, even going through the Great Recession right of 2008, 2009. But definitely, the reality is you got to, you know, so you can't change it. It's going to happen.

Speaker 2 31:35

You got to shop around, but I think the first thing I would do is make a good inventory. What am I currently using? What's the value that I'm getting out of it? How do I measure that value? And then, is there an ROI on it? And you don't always have to have an ROI on something. Right, you can do something because you like it, that's okay. But it would be a good opportunity right now to kind of start that process. You could really get two things done at once and start getting ready for your taxes too, here at the end of the year. So it's never too early to start thinking about those things.

Speaker 1 32:12

Yeah I was trying to find. I'm in a tool I use and there's no way I can screen my screen share without either A showing how much I make a pod page or I'm like. So I can't do that. But I use a thing called Monarch money and what it does is you now they? They make you jump through 37 hoops, but they tie it to your bank and so every time something happens at your bank it goes into the software and what I love about it is it'll say, oh, this is from McDonald's. And I'll be like, oh, categorize that as fast food. And then it goes, hey, like, do you want me to do this? Every time it says McDonald's and I go, yes, so I rarely have to go in and categorize what things are, just because I buy the same stuff over and over. Hey, this thing from Walmart it knows Walmart is groceries, because that's pretty much what I buy at Walmart. And what's really interesting is at the end of the month you can make a budget and say it'll say, hey, this is how much money I make. And then here are my expenses and it goes hey, you got too much month. At the end of the money and you're like, oh, oops, hold on, maybe I don't, you know, and that's when you go in and go, wait, I'm not even watching Apple TV. Okay, let's, let's cancel that, let's cancel this. But it's an enlightening experience to kind of see at the end of the month.

Speaker 1 33:31

Wait, I spent $58 at McDonald's, like what is going on? Or for a while it was streaming Cause I had Hulu and Apple and Netflix and Peacock and I was like that's. When I was like, wait, I'm not watching half of these, like what is the whole point? Like I just canceled my Apple TV because it just dawned on me. I was like, oh, it's time to move on to Hulu because Murders in the Building is on. I'm like, ok, well, I'm adding one streaming service, it's time to kill another one. And it's what's always interesting is when you go to cancel, they're always like what if we gave you three months for sneeze and a whistle? And you're like wait, why? Why was I paying eight bucks a month when I could have gotten it for a song, you know?

Speaker 2 34:12

So, yeah, it's you know, yeah, I sometimes obsess about the nine, you know, the $9 plan when I have a $99 plan, that somewhere that I should really be more worried about, right. You know the and, yes, a lot of little things add up, right, but there are also some big. You know. There's some big things in our budgets that we should look at as well and be like okay, can I get a?

Speaker 2 34:34

you know your McDonald's example. You know it doesn't take. Well, okay, let me talk about you. Let me talk about me. We have a cafeteria at where I live. I can get breakfast and lunch there and it's super convenient. Just walk in and tell them what you want and they put it on a plate and it's delicious, right? Well, I mean that can be. You know you start spending and it's not like prices have gone down there either right through this process, so it could be a couple hundred bucks a month. And then I'm angry that the netflix thing went up by three dollars.

Speaker 2 35:09

You know you're like yeah, jim, you know there may be some areas in your own. You know, take the log out of your own eye first before you go after the speck in your brother's eye. So it is, it's you, it is it's you know it is, it's it I think it's that way in your budget is like hey, yes, there's little things and a lot of little things add up over time, but there may be some big opportunities for you there to make a change and they're worth looking at. Oftentimes they're sacred cows, though they are. You know you've, you've got oh, this is my thing, like I don't, don't mess with my thing, whatever that thing is Right.

Speaker 2 35:45

Or, especially in this era, in the podcasting era and I think Danny was talking about this that you, you, you start on something for free and you, you may not even be using it for the most part, but then the price goes up and you're like well, I don't, like, I don't want to not do it. I want to do it but I don't want to not do it because it's been around for so a stream yard was in this for me. I mean, I've been on the stream the ten dollar stream yard plan forever.

Speaker 2 36:12

And when they, it was like divorcing, like I had, I like stream yard Well, and I was like, oh, I don't know if I can use it for my, you know everything you know.

Speaker 1 36:25

Yeah, jim's, jim john says I'm it's an internal conflict. He goes stream yard, does everything I need, but it's 750 a year. I'm trying other streaming platforms but they're just not stream yard and that's when it works like. We use stream yard for years and never had a problem, never lost a recording, you know. And I tried riverside for the record a recording, you know, and I tried Riverside For the record. Riverside is, you know how we say it's the best thing ever. And then they change something and everybody hates it. And then they fix the bugs and then everybody loves it, except it doesn't do this one thing. We are definitely in a everybody hates it area with Riverside. I used it for the first time over the last couple of weeks. The very first time I used it, it kicked my guest out a minute and a half. In the second time I used it, I had a horrible echo and I'm like, okay, I'm just going to hang here until they fix the bugs. But yeah, danny makes a good point.

Speaker 1 37:15

The price increase at KIT is 35%. That's a big jump and it did make me. That's when I was like I found out about this system tool and the problem I think with system is it is a jack of all trades. And the thing I like about Kit and it's funny because I still call it ConvertKit and probably always will be is it does email, like that's what. Now they've added some things where you can do. You know you can receive money, you can sell products, so they're kind of getting into the jack of all trades. But I do like the fact that they do email. But I was looking at what I use it for and can I do that on system and I was like, hmm, because system's 17 bucks a month if you're paying for it for, I think, 3,000 subscribers or something like that. And I was like, hmm, and I did see that and I need to verify this. I think if you buy a year of any plan at System, they will move your stuff for you. And I was like, oh, now you've removed the time barrier, you remove the time barrier, so I just have to. It's just, it's one of those things where it always seems that there's always one thing better, no matter what you move to. You're like, oh, I should have that whole nine yards.

Speaker 1 38:36

Stephanie says can you add multiple accounts to Monarch? Yeah, I have, I don't know three checking accounts and a bunch of stuff there. So, and my PayPal, if you wanted to, you could tie it to PayPal. So it's pretty slick. I got that when I forget what I was using. I've used Dave Ramsey's money thing and it was not bad, except it would not stay connected to my bank. I was constantly just reconnecting, reconnecting, reconnecting. So you know, ralph says Intuit Simplify I've heard of that one as well, which is part of, you know, the whole QuickBooks family over there. Yeah, danny says I'll probably move off kit.

Speaker 1 39:14

They're pretty overrated, to be honest. Use them twice now and they haven't really added much. It's, yeah, it's one of those things. All I have it do in terms. I like the fact. Well, they make landing pages, which is fine, but you know I could make up my own landing page in WordPress if I wanted to. Or pod page.

Speaker 1 39:36

They do have a thing. When somebody signs up now for this, you know, let's like right now I have a thing. It's a content checklist, like hey, is your podcast growing? Here's a checklist you can go through. Make sure every episode has, you know, a couple of these in it and that got a few people signing up. And when you sign up for that it tags you as a potential podcaster and adds you to my welcome sequence where you get to learn about Dave Jackson and why you should buy his stuff.

Speaker 1 40:02

Okay, I don't know. Oh, and they do RSS to email, which is an interesting feature that I do not use. That's the other fun thing. Oh, but they have this feature. Oh, really, how's that working for you? I don't know. I haven't turned it on yet. A lot of times I'm very guilty of that. Oh, look at all the cool feature sets. Which one of those are you using that one? I did that a lot with guitar stuff. I bought an amp that can sound like anything and then I had three sounds. It was clean, dirty and really dirty. That was it. It's like I can get a million sounds out of this thing and I'm using three. Yeah, so it's kind of tricky with that. Danny says StreamYard wanted to move us to $500 year plan to enterprise at $20,000. Yeah, when you say enterprise, you better hold on to your wallet. Jim can probably attest to that more than I can. For sure.

Speaker 1 40:56

And I'm glad Danny said this. I always hear Danny talk about this platform and I always forget about it. He's using Boomcaster. He says it's an excellent platform and their streaming options really came on this year. So I trust Danny and so that's one I always want to try. See now Jody's having a great time with Riverside.

Speaker 1 41:17

I love Riverside, use it for all my interviews, but I also pay a producer to keep an eye on the tech. Yes, that's always fun. Yeah. And then John says Riverside looks amazing on paper. I want to use Riverside if it just did what it's supposed to do. And the guys at Buzzsprout brought this up. It is amazing that Riverside and Squadcast are two companies that, in theory, do one thing remote interviews and yet if you watch Reddit every three months, they suck at that one thing. You know what I mean. It's like can't you, you know? And why do they suck? Probably because they added this other new feature that isn't really exactly part of remote interviewing. It's editing or it's whatever, or they added a calendar tool or whatever. Not. Your core thing is recording that interview and they kind of you know, drop the ball on that because they listen to the feedback of their audience.

Speaker 2 42:20

You know that's the danger in. Yeah, you know somebody will contact them say you know, I love what you're doing from an edit, you know what we're doing from a recording standpoint, but could you make, could you add it so I don't have to go, you know so I don't have to go somewhere else for my editing. And then they're oh, oh yeah, this would be. I mean, it's competition, right. And then all of a sudden you have all this bolted on well, and I technology that doesn't work I still say god bless riverside.

Background Music Levels and Audio Mixing

Speaker 1 42:47

Because they have no idea what they're getting into when it comes to hosting, because I had somebody this week. They're like, hey, I want to embed my player from pod page into this other website and I'm like, well, number one, pod page is not a media host, we are a website. Well, that's our lane, we just integrate with everybody. I said you'd have to go to your media host and their media host was Riverside. I go, I don't know that Riverside gives you code for just a player that you can put on another website. I said so and, as somebody who worked at Libsyn for eight years, your people will find new and unique ways to break your media. So have fun with that. At Jive says you know, things are bad at StreamYard when their pricing page has everything except the prices. Yeah, that's never a good sign. Yeah, when you're like, oh, how much is it? And you're like, oh, click here to schedule a call, like, oh, that means expensive. Yeah, I always love that.

Speaker 1 43:49

There was a question in here from Ralph yes, I am finally shredding the script and prompter and I wanted to know some methods others use to create an episode idea and some techniques others are using to develop their content. Well, you see me do it every Saturday. I go to Reddit. So I don't know if there's a financial you know Reddit, I'm assuming there is See what your audience is struggling with and then give them the answer to what they're struggling with.

Speaker 1 44:19

So for me, the school of podcasting I'm always looking at a couple, couple different things. Number one always somebody who's somehow found a way to get their show to grow, whether that's through content. I have an interview right now I did with somebody who is kind of interesting because she's kind of a social person, like social media, but yet was very transparent and just saying oh yeah, this didn't work, I tried this and this didn't work, I tried this and this didn't work. And that's kind of, I think, going to be the theme of that interview is, here's somebody who wasn't afraid to fail Because you got to try stuff, because what works for Ralph may not work for Jim, what works for Dave may not work for Ed Sullivan, who just had a birthday, by the way. Happy birthday, ed. So it's always kind of fun because we're looking for that one-size-fits-all thing. And so, jim, how do you come up with ideas for Home Gadget Geeks?

Speaker 2 45:11

Well, let me just say I'm on Restream. There's another that I moved from StreamYard For Home Gadget Geeks. I moved from StreamYard to Restream. We stayed for work. They threw us a bone and gave us a pretty good deal. Now that may change. It's up for renewal here towards the end of the year, so that may change. We'll figure that out. But Restream has been good.

Speaker 2 45:32

I want to go back to StreamYard. To be honest, like I liked StreamYard, it worked perfect for me and I never had problems Not never, but I mean I rarely had problems with it. I never had problems not never, but I mean I rarely had problems with it. I certainly not the problems that I see all the time on, you know, on their support sites. But so you know, home Gadget Geeks is an interview show, so you know. But it's a gadget interview show. So I try to, I try to listen to what are the popular gadgets? You know, 15 years ago when we started the show folks wanted to hear about. You know windows and phones and and you know computers and some of those kinds of things. And today it's not those things Like. We have robot lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners and all kinds of gadgetry, of home automation. So I think you just got to keep your ear to the ground, so to speak, and figure out, like, okay, what, what, where are the topics? And then I think you being genuinely interested and this is, you know, just a general statement of you being generally genuinely interested enough that you cover the topics you're interested in it makes a difference when I'm covering something that I don't necessarily am not interested in, the interviews are not as good as they are when I'm genuinely interested in it. So, as far as format goes on the show, I think you've got to be, you've got to figure out what's the best format for you, right, because you're you will create a format that will draw listeners. If it's not you, then it's a whole bunch of work.

Speaker 2 47:06

You know, I always said, you know, I could fake it for about, oh, a month or two on. You know of being somebody I'm not, and then eventually the truth would come out I'm just not that good at faking it Like. It's a lot easier if you're just you. No-transcript, I'm not his core, I'm not his core audience. There's going to be people who aren't going to listen to you, right, for, for whatever reason, it's just not going to happen. But Howard is Howard, he doesn't. That's you're getting exactly who Howard Stern is when with. With Brian Seacrest, right? I mean, there's incredible talent there, but you never know. Is that really, ryan, like you know, you don't? You just kind of don't know. So it is. Be yourself right, don't? You just kind of don't know? So it is. It. Be yourself right. Create a, create a show structure that works great for you and then build things around that. That would be my advice we have some good questions.

Speaker 1 48:34

Ralph was saying to this he goes. No, I have the topic idea. I'm talking about the actual crafting part so opening, opening hook.

Speaker 1 48:43

Did you know that such and such wait till you hear the blah, blah, blah? Welcome to the show. This is where I help your audience, whoever that is, do whatever it is they're trying to do so they can benefit, however they benefit. I'm Ralph. Today we're talking about this, which is what you just hooked about. Get to the topic as quickly as possible, explain what to do, how to do, what to do something that's going to deliver value, and at the end of that segment, either A you're ending the show, because it's one topic per show, or you use your ending voice which kind of sounds like this right Transition music onto the next topic, and then you do the next topic with a little hook. Did you know that? You know, swallowing saliva over long periods of time will cause, you know, brain cancer? Whatever it is to get people to go wait what you know? And then you do your thing, and then you do your ending, and then at the end, somewhere in there, you could do a call to action. You don't have to do them at the end Like, hey, buy my free book. It's good, honest, I will ship it to you. Buy my free book. And, by the way, where can I find my free book? Here it is. Here's the website, the website, the website, the website, your call to action. I know you just did it three minutes ago, but that last call to action and the last thing they should hear is probably your website and that's it. You know, it's the whole. It's the reason people say this is because it's true. Tell them what you're going to tell them, although now I would change that into hook them into what you're going to tell them. Then tell them and then tell them what you told them.

Speaker 1 50:20

Sometimes you have to remind people of the value they just got. Don't go crazy on that, because I've heard people do the show twice. They're like, hey, and today I don't know if you knew this, but one plus one equals two. And then they're like what did we learn today? We learned that one plus one equals two, because if you take one and you add it to another one, it gets two. So two is what happens when you add one and you're like, okay, I got it the first time. So the little thing at the end where you're just reminding what's that main takeaway you want them to get, and then just do it and then listen to it and go.

Creating Episode Ideas and Content Development

Speaker 1 50:56

Does that deliver value? Did I repeat myself? Did I? Is my volume good? Is you know what? Repeat myself, did I? Is my volume good? Is you know what? And then you know. And then now that is a format Somebody had asked about. How do I break away from formats? Is podcast content stuck on, zoomcast style interviews and solo shows? What are the kind? It's either going to be one person or multiple, so I, I don't know. I'm going to do a podcast with no host. It'll be very quiet. It'll be up there with the sleep cast where you just like. Welcome to the power nap. All right, go to sleep, I'll see you in 20 minutes.

Speaker 2 51:34

You know there's, there's creative content out there. I mean, yeah, the, the, uh, the crime that's true crime mystery. That's true. Yeah, that's true, mr. Crime Religion you know there are all those kinds. Ralph says that in chat. He says, yeah, he's finding, I'm finding that I'm a reactor personality, not a generator. So that makes it really hard to do a solo show. No, it isn't. So I decided to add in listener questions.

Speaker 1 51:57

Let me say this there you go, add a question.

Speaker 2 52:13

Bingo. Well, because Ralph's really good at answering questions and then just answer the question like the person is sitting across the desk, reactionary in some regards. I don't, I haven't, I didn't do a solo show for 12 years like I didn't. I still don't, I don't, I don't like solo shows, I don't want to do them, I don't have they, they they feel yucky to me, so to speak.

Speaker 2 52:32

I get on my now. I've done a few in the last couple years. I've done a few, but I don't, that's not my gig. Yeah, it's not. So don't, don't, don't do that. Yeah, don't, don't. That's not your jam. Reactionary on it. And figure out some, you know, figure out some ways to make it work. By the way, the way you do it best may not be super popular, right? I mean, you get, you get down to that, and it's a good point. This is where our friends, you know our friends, in the industry, so to speak. I'll put air quotes on that. In the industry, so to speak, when you have a producer and an editor and a director, they just tell you what to do and then you do it, and you don't get a lot of creativity unless you're really famous, right? So, yeah, it's a dilemma, but find that thing that works best for you.

Speaker 1 53:34

Yeah, todd the Gator says open with facts and figures, that's always a good one. Did you know that 47% of children in Akron, ohio, didn't go to kindergarten? It's true, so that's always a fun way to start.

Speaker 2 53:48

You know that Nebraska beat Akron last week in football 68 to nothing.

Speaker 1 53:55

Wow, I knew it was going to be bad. I'm sorry, dave.

Speaker 2 53:58

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 54:01

Because Ralph is a member of the School of Podcasting. Go into Docs on the left-hand side, go into the library. There's a whole thing there on hooks that you can check out. Anthony says Anthony Arno, thanks for being here. Buddy, when adding background music over a guest talking, so NPR style, what would be a good DB level on audacity, so that the music is not overshadowing the guest, I usually don't look at the level. I mix with my ears. I know it sounds. I'm not being snarky, but that's what I do, I basically. And then I will listen through my headphones and then I'll take them off and listen through my speakers and it's.

Speaker 1 54:37

It's weird. Especially here's the trap that people fall into. They're on, you know, tune Real or whatever, and they find the perfect song, this is the best song, and they love the song too much that it's too loud because they love the song. They're like I want to make sure the song and it's like, no, it's just the background music is there too. I want to say, see, I just know it's like this much. I don't know what that level is Like. If full level is this, it's like half volume, and then I usually just vote with my ears. I don't know, jim, do you probably do anything with your business shows with? You know mood music? No, yeah, if any editors are listening right now, not in the shows that I do.

Speaker 2 55:19

We have added the Gallup. Gallup podcast is kind of news, you know, it's like NPR or a wall street journal style, and so they'll put little musical interludes in between segments just to kind of break them up. But no, I, I, yeah, I've never, I've never thought I needed music. I mean, that's not true, cause home gadget geeks has a little bit of a opening riff and I then I use a closing, I have a closing piece as well. So that's not true, because Home Gadget Geeks has a little bit of a opening riff and then I use a closing, I have a closing piece as well. So maybe that's not true.

Speaker 1 55:48

Yeah, ralph says I'd love to do a daily show. Another person is really tough. He might have his admin sit in. This week I listened to a show. I don't remember what it's called, I just know the guy introduces himself as Meredith's husband and Meredith is on the show and this guy really knows SEO and the bad news is I just want him to. Yeah, here's the show is called Meredith husband SEO for people who don't like SEO and the bad news is Meredith is on the show and it's his wife and this is a typical sentence and I will be both. I'll be playing both the part of Dave and Meredith.

Speaker 1 56:40

So if I'm talking to Jim and I go, you know Todd Cochran, yes, was a really great guy, yes, and he's been podcasting for a long time, right, like she. Every time the guy takes a breath, she pops in and I'm this morning. I'm like I think I'm going to send him a note because I really like his show and he really knows what he's talking about. I think I'm going to send him a note because I really like his show and he really knows what he's talking about. But and I'm not saying get Meredith off the show, but just my note would be.

Speaker 1 57:09

Please let Meredith husband whatever his actual name is complete his thought and then comment on it. But she's literally like, every four words, yes, exactly Right, oh, and I'm like and it's one of those things that once you notice it it drives me nuts. And I bet the reason she's there is because he doesn't want to talk to nobody in the room and I'm like that's great, but she's, she's driving me nuts with the ooh, uh-huh, yeah, right, exactly Right, right. Is her her favorite one, right? And I'm like you don't need to confirm that what he said was right, because if we thought he was wrong we wouldn't be listening to the show it's true.

Speaker 2 57:48

But that works in a conversation, right, we do. We often do that when we're talking to each other, right, and so you just don't realize how much of that actually happens when you're talking to someone. So it makes sense that for someone who's thinking about, I mean, I really over the years I've had to stop doing that, and you'll see me in this show. You're talking, I sit back, right, I get away from the microphone, push it aside, try not to be that. You'll see me respond and react and shake my head. If you're watching the video can't see that on audio, obviously, but it does take some work to to not be conversational.

Speaker 2 58:27

Now, if you want to be conversational, lots of you know I hear this in group podcasts all the time where they're really, they're in a. This is it's particularly bad, dave, when they're in a room together, because the vibe feels like, yeah, we're in this room, we're just talking, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, and we do that again. We do that when we're in person. I don't know if we do that as much. It's easy for me to take a step back, push the mic away, allow you to have the time to speak and the things to say. So I think maybe the dynamic is what's causing that of them probably being in the same room. I would imagine when they, when they do that podcast, you picture them looking at each other and they're having. I think I've done some interviews that way and yeah, they kind of take on that feel because that's what we do. Those are normal conversations when we're in person.

Speaker 1 59:17

Yeah, yeah At Jive says. I recall the podcast of two Swedes reading the Ikea catalog. I'm looking for stuff like that, inspired by that Devo documentary. Yay, devo, where are they from? That's right, a K R. Oh, I don't know how to do that. Oh, and where are the weirdos?

Speaker 2 59:35

Don't hurt yourself. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 59:48

Dave threw out his back. What was he doing? He was trying to do an end. It didn't work. Feels like everything is plateaued. I I do agree that it seems like I haven't heard a show where I'm like, oh that's, that's way different. It's either, like you said, solo interview NPR style. A lot of weirdos out there. I mean, oh, there's definitely weirdos to use that term right in a loving kind yeah, yeah, no, I mean they're still out there you In a loving kinding yeah, yeah, no, I mean, they're still out there.

Performance Voice

Speaker 2 1:00:04

You just got to. They're obscure, you got to track them down. They're not going to be as popular and maybe they will be, but you know, you got to use some of those discovery tools. Dig in on that. This would probably be a good place for AI to be honest with you. Have a conversation with one of the AI assistants, so to speak, about tracking down some podcasts like that.

Speaker 1 1:00:28

That might I thought about doing discovery that way. That might work for you. Yeah, Ralph, says I think Rush Limbaugh he used to speak to some guy named Bo Snirdley and it just worked.

Speaker 1 1:00:36

Oh, yeah, yeah, I find myself getting into performance voice and that's what I'm trying to shed. Well, there's performance voice, like I talk a little less energy when I'm actually off a mic. But the problem is is, if you're like, I remember once I was working with a client and when he went into mic mode he was way up here Like he was holy cow, like wow, he was ob, obnoxious, sports guy kind of guy and he wasn't doing sports. He just I'm like, all right, well, let's give it a shot. He's like okay, yeah, I'll, I'll give that a shot. All right, everybody, what's going on? I was like literally like Whoa, where's that coming from?

Speaker 1 1:01:16

And the problem is, if you make everything up here like this is the point I'm trying to make, because it's important and doggone it, you need to understand this point and you never bring it back down, then if everything is accented, nothing is accented. If everything is slow, then nothing is fast. So and the other problem you run into that is you know who else talks like this. Brothers and sisters, I'm here and all of a sudden you're, you're not talking to me, You're talking at me. And unless you want to be a preacher, you know and not not all preachers talk like this but a lot of them do when they're trying to make a point. And then the whole sermon, brothers and sisters, is a point and I'm trying to get you to wake up. You in the third row, dang it. I'm trying to make them you know and you're like, all right, what's, what's going on? You gotta you occasionally have to bring it down and it's just takes. So just, you know what I do on that is, there are times when I'll have bullet points and I will accent two words like, just to like. This is where I really want to make a point, like make a point for one word and go that route. But just yeah, john Germango shut up. Yes, we have a lot. Back to the volume thing, randy Black, I always duck the audio down about minus nine or minus 12. Yep, that's about sounds, about right.

Speaker 1 1:02:35

Jody Krangle from the Audio Branding Podcast says I use the music. My voice is now sore. Maybe I shouldn't scream for a minute straight. I use the music. My voice is now sore. Maybe I shouldn't scream for a minute straight. I use the music created for me by my podcast, intro and outro, which is a full song, segmented, you know, behind my intro. Yeah, I mean, it really does come down to somewhere in here. I think I have, yes. So here is some music, you know, and it's just a matter of like. Now I hear it in my headphones. It's behind the scenes, but if I keep turning it up we're close.

Speaker 1 1:03:07

Now the other problem you have is you have musicians that are going. Is that A minor and a C? And if I keep turning it up, you know, now we really hear the music. But also the actual guitars and the little keyboard in my left headphone is. It also depends on the music, because if the music is in the, if we get super nerdy, like, let's say, your voice is, you know from this, like tone? I guess not tone isn't right, but the actual note right. If I talk normally here and let's say this is an F sharp, my voice is right now F sharpish and I bring in music that's also F sharpie. We're fighting for the same signal. That's not the right word either, but it starts to blend in with the voice. So you have to be careful with that, that's so.

Speaker 2 1:03:58

Yeah, well, I was. I remember, just as a side tangent. I remember going to a concert one time and you could really hear the vocalists in. You know it was. It was in a room, it was not well treated and I was like, so I caught the audio engineer, you know, at the end of the program. We were talking to him and I was just said I said my great job mixing tonight, like I could hear all the vocals. And in in a room like that that's pretty amazing. He said let me tell you my secret.

Speaker 2 1:04:26

He goes we've taken all the instruments that have the mid ranges where our vocals live.

Speaker 2 1:04:31

So you know, as you're singing you only have a certain range that you stay with and then some go, some go higher and some go lower, but there's a pretty, pretty defined vocal range of a frequency range and he goes all the instruments are the, all their music is compressed or suppressed in that so that they're the vocalists are not competing with the music. And we we run into that problem in pod. If you're going to use music right, we think all music is good and if you've got like a second ago you played the music a little too loud and then all of a sudden I have to really strain to hear you, or you know I've got to work. You know, if you're like you said, if your voice is in a, if it's you have a higher pitch voice, a lower frequency music is probably better for you if you're going to play it underneath that. So, yeah, that stuff matters. Do you have perfect pitch, dave? Did you you were able to, or were you just saying okay, I do have the ability.

Speaker 2 1:05:28

No, if I have if I have.

Speaker 1 1:05:31

Like I did this last week in church. We were singing with a CD and I go, what's the name of the song? And insert Christian sounding song here. So whatever, lift me up, praise you forever, whatever Right. And I go, I don't know that song. I said, lift me up, praise you forever, whatever Right. And I go, I don't know that song. I said I'll just play with it. And she's like, well, wait, how are you going to play with it? You don't know. And I said, just watch, I go A number one, and I say this with love and compassion you want to talk about things that are not very original.

Podcast Listening Habits and YouTube vs Audio

Speaker 1 1:05:59

Most Christian songs I affectionately refer to them as 7-11 music it's the same seven words, 11 times, and it's usually three chords tops and then on the fourth verse we're going to go up a half a step. So it's once, I find, and it's a matter of like, oh, and also, if it starts on a piano, it's probably in C. If it starts on a guitar, it's probably G or E or you know, they're just it's you know whatever. 40 years of playing the guitar, I kind of know that, and so and that's to me it's fun, I used to do that because back before, even before cassettes, the only thing I had was the radio and vinyl, and so I would just turn on the radio and like whatever came on the radio, I would figure out how to play, which works really handy when you're playing in a bar and somebody comes in and wants to play reggae and you go, I got zero reggae chops and they play it anyway. I mean, when I was at Podcast Movement, we knew we were going to play one song and we did that and then they went into another song before I could get off the stage and I had to go over and stand behind the piano player so I could see his hand, his left hand. Then I could be like, okay, we're an F, and once I knew we were an F, it's, it's. There's only so many places you're going to go in a song there. If you look at the Ed Sheeran case, when he plays like seven songs and they're all the same exact chord progression, you know every 50 song has been. You know it was all the same song. So but my favorite music trick is, if we go back to this is when I'm I'm making a point and all of a sudden I really want to get your attention and that's why you don't do that. When the music drops off and you're like, well, where'd the floor go? And you, you make your point. That's the point. That's always a fun trick to do with music.

Speaker 1 1:07:44

Danny says for most podcasts, consistent background music doesn't work and it's distracting. That would be me. I'm like, please don't do that Because I'm going wait. Is that a C minor? Seventh Like that's. I'm picking apart the music, especially if it's too loud. That's where that.

Speaker 1 1:08:03

As for doing a solo show, john Jumango says I use bullet points instead of scripts. It keeps you on point, but it doesn't sound like I'm reading. That just takes. It's like anything else. It takes practice. And right now he says NoteJoy has become my favorite app to make show scripts. I drag and drop audio and video clips into the note. I always forget you can store a lot of like media in NoteJoy. I have a bunch of. I just took a really crappy course on SEO. I won't say who it's from, but at the end I was. I was this close to going. I think I'm going to request a refund because it was and I should have known it, because the person there was an SEO for podcasters and they they are a top 0.5% podcaster and I was like that's a listen note, stat.

Speaker 2 1:08:44

And I'm like and it was yeah, so but Before you go to our awesome supporters, let me wrap up the conversation with this If you're going to riff, if you're going to get in there, bullet points, whatever, just be aware, right, this is the danger of riffing, so to speak. You will start repeating yourself often. You only have so many, you'll have only have so many thoughts in your head and you, you begin to start saying it the same way, over and over and over and over again. And yes, you'll say you're screaming at me right now. No, I won't, not me, okay, that's fine. If you can't, if that's, if that doesn't work for it's, it's fine. Just be careful, you'll begin. You know, if you go back to the we were talking about Rush Limbaugh the other day you know, rush is like Taco Bell. He only had seven ingredients and he just kept mixing them together all the time. Right, it was literally the same things. You know over and over and over.

Speaker 1 1:09:45

And Dave Ramsey is the same way. It's the same veins.

Speaker 2 1:09:46

And. And then, just to be fair, we do the same thing here, like you know, we're here every week, so we hear ourselves.

Speaker 2 1:09:51

Dave, you hear me say the same things, I hear you say the same things. Writing it out or scripting it can help you prevent some of that, because it can. You can make yourself say it in a different way. Gives you a chance to edit it before you say it. Of that, because it can, you can make yourself say it in a different way. Gives you a chance to edit it before you say it's up. Just a warning if you think riffing is the way to go, it's got its dangers for sure.

Thank You Awesome Supporters

Speaker 1 1:10:10

Okay, speaking of riffing, well, before that I've realized something, as I was. You know, you're talking, I'm like, okay, cool. And I look over and I'm like, hey, zoom isn't running anymore. And I think there's a thing in Zoom, even though I'm paying my whatever 15 bucks a month, that if nobody joins the meeting it just nansely shuts itself off. Because I'm like hey, where's my Zoom window in case somebody joins? And I was like, oh, it's not there, but somebody I hope would be there would be. You know that I get to see. In fact, I get to see today If you're an awesome supporter.

Join the School of Podcasting

Podcast Hot Seat

Try Podpage

Home Gadget Geeks

Speaker 1 1:10:46

You got an email from me going hey, we're doing group coaching today and so you can be an awesome supporter by going to askthepodcastcoachcom, slash awesome and be like one of these people, like aviationnewstalkcom. Or if we just grab a Sonic Cupcake because it was Ed Sullivan's birthday I think it was yesterday, if I remember right. So, happy birthday to Ed. And the show is brought to you by theschoolofpodcastingcom, where you can get courses, coaching and an amazing community. Just use the coupon code COACH when you sign up. And if you go, dave, I've already got a podcast. Well then, come see me over at podcasthotseatcom, where you get honest, constructive feedback and but wait, there's more. That's right. A free month at the School of Podcasting, because there might be something you missed. You never know. Check it out. Podcasthotseatcom. And if you go to AskThePodcastCoachcom, that is using PodPage. And if you want to try PodPage, go over to tripodpagecom. And if you need more Jim Cullison and hey, who doesn't need more Jim Cullison then you can go over to theaverageguytv and check out his show Home Gadget Geeks.

Speaker 1 1:11:50

And it's time for the Wheel of Names. And shame on Dave, he does not have the Wheel of Names. I'm loading it as we speak. There we go and you'll notice that the wheel of names has maybe a little bit of pictures, because we had some awesome supporters that you know. Things change and life moves on.

Welcome to Earth Stories

You Can Be An Awesome Supporter for as little as $5

Speaker 1 1:12:11

So if you want to be an awesome supporter, you don't have to be a $20 supporter, but that's what you're looking at. So it could be Chris Stone at castaheadnet or John Muntz, or there's Ralph at Financially Confident Christian. Who will it be? We click the wheel and it goes around and around and around and it looks like it's going to be York, the one and only York from Welcome to Earth Stories. So if you like fictional fun stories, check out York over at Welcome to Earth Stories and York, thanks for being an awesome supporter. And if you hmm, and if you, there we go found that we saved you some time or we saved you some money. Maybe we even saved you a headache today. Maybe we kept you educated or maybe we just flat out entertained you, you can be an awesome supporter by going over to askthepodcastcoachcom.

Speaker 1 1:13:09

Slash awesome and just for giggles. Let's find out what here. Let's do this with the screen thingy. If I go over to dynamic content, we can see that last week the featured supporter was Craig over at AI Goes to College. And here it is. He had 877 plays at the beginning of the show. So that's one of the advantages of being one of the awesome supporters.

Speaker 1 1:13:38

If we scroll down here, one of the awesome supporters. If we scroll down here, let's see Ed Sullivan has had 1,200 plays. Jody Krangel has 2,247 plays. So Glenn Hebert, who's won a million times 2,941. And what happens is it just gets tacked on at the beginning of the show. So if you're looking for a way to support the show and if you're lucky enough to be the winner of the wheel of names plus, of course, I should always mention when you, when you're brand new. We give you a giant shout out at the beginning of the show and if you have a question, we now have the. The actual Zoom meeting is now running, if you try to join earlier. Chris Nessie has a fun question, he says just for fun. Chris Nessie has a fun question, he says just for fun. So, jim, grab your phone. How many unlistened to episodes do you have in your podcast catcher? And so I will grab my phone.

Speaker 2 1:14:31

My, I'm using pocket.

Speaker 1 1:14:33

Yeah, let's see I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 in my queue and if I go to, oh holy cow, 111. So there's 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Yeah, so probably somewhere around 30 episodes waiting for me to listen to. So that's and that's why, on one hand, now I have some shows like Podcasting 2.0, I listen to every Friday night. That's my routine Friday night. Go to Walmart grocery shop, listen to Podcasting 2.0, because it comes out on Friday. Thursday. I listen to no Agenda. Everybody else I just listen to.

Speaker 1 1:15:16

Like James Cridland, I listen while I'm showering His daily show, which is I have a playlist in Pocket Cast called Short Shows, and so it's James, it's Joe Polizzi from Content Inc and the newsworthy with that girl. I know she has brown hair, she has a son. What is her name? That's going to drive me nuts, but anyway. So the way I have it set up is I have my short show playlist and then I have a queue. So if I really like your show, I will have it like when a new episode comes down, put it in the queue and then I blow through my queue. And if I run out of that, then I go into playlists.

Speaker 2 1:16:11

So I'll go into my marketing playlist or whatever playlist I have. But I.

Speaker 1 1:16:13

How many episodes do you?

Speaker 2 1:16:14

think you listened to a day One. I just listened to the wall street journal podcast. Now, there you go. Then, when I have time, boy, it's amazing how like cause that's a 15 minute podcast, so it's twice a day, so on the way home, and then how much that's gotten in the way of the other podcasts, so then probably one or two others. I just got done listening to Randy Cantrell's latest episode. Ah, there we go. Whenever I need, like you know, you listen to the news and you're like yikes. So.

Speaker 2 1:16:38

I listen to Randy. You know I popped that in but I haven't been. I'm a big windows weekly guy with with leo laporte.

Speaker 1 1:16:47

Yeah, there you go. That's a. That's what you've been listening to for a while yeah, that, yeah, I have.

Speaker 2 1:16:52

Well, I listened to paul before he was even I mean, I used to read his newsletter before he was on with leo. So I listened to paul thrott, not listen. I. I've known paul longer than I've known Leo and, and you know, appreciate that podcast. So that's, that's a weekly. But I don't I'm not traveling as much as I used to, so I just don't get to as many. You know, as I used to have time to catch them everywhere, but I just don't. And, to be honest, I watch a lot more YouTube. I know they're not podcasts, but I watch a lot more.

Speaker 1 1:17:25

YouTube. I know they're not podcasts, but I watch a lot of content made on YouTube I at lunch now, cause I use a G cast to stream, cause I, my internet or my TV service is YouTube TV, and so I bought I used to have the Amazon fire and it was getting a little old in the tooth and I kept having to reboot it. So I bought a G-Cast and because it's a Google device, it comes with a YouTube button and a Netflix button, which I thought was odd but nonetheless. And when you hit YouTube it goes oh, did you want to go to YouTube TV or YouTube YouTube? And I go. These days we're going to YouTube TV or YouTube YouTube, and I go. These days we're going to YouTube I. I.

Speaker 1 1:18:05

The only thing I watch really on TV now is sports, and I watch it after it's been recorded so I can fast forward through all the you know 8 million commercial breaks telling me to go gamble my money away. Erica Mandy is the host of the newsworthy that's the woman I was trying to think of. But the fact that it has a YouTube button, you go over and I'll throw some you know chicken thighs in the microwave to heat up and while that's heating it. I grab my remote, I hit YouTube and what I really like and it's kind of weird because YouTube doesn't remember what I was watching in the bedroom which is kind of annoying or in my office, like if I'm watching whatever Jeff C in my office, if I go to the living room and hit my YouTube button, it goes back to what I was watching in the living room, like it doesn't know Different accounts.

Speaker 2 1:18:54

Yeah, no, it's the same account it's really weird, but there are times-.

Recording on Phone vs Computer and Technical Questions

Speaker 1 1:19:00

I'm probably bringing the history over or something, right? Yeah, I think that app is. Yeah, there's. There's some things in the TV app. There are times that I'm like, wait, where's the such and such button? Or especially if there's a, a QR code, or not a QR code, but a button or something. I'm like, oh, I want to click that. It's hard to do on the TV but. But there'd been times when I will have Jeff C shows on for my lunch and I'll watch you know whatever 15 minutes of it and I'll hit stop and go back and if I don't finish it or whatever, I'll come back the next day, hit my YouTube button and there's Jeff C, you know, and talking to Connor and the gang, and it just picks up right where I left off. So it's kind of annoying that it doesn't pick up where whatever I was on YouTube. But there are times when I say, oh, yeah, I was watching that yesterday, totally forgot to finish it, so. But yeah, I watch a lot more YouTube on my TV. So when you see that stat, that's partly me. I definitely watch more YouTube now than I did even six months ago, just because I'll give you an example, and it was a little too nerdy for me.

Speaker 1 1:20:04

But Rick Beato does this great channel about music and the music business and he got to interview the guitar player from Pink Floyd in that guy's studio. So A information you can't get anyplace else. I've never seen Dave Gilmour's studio. And then the fact that he occasionally would pick up the guitar and play, and it was like an hour and a half and I'm like this is so not a Jimmy Fallon interview on the Tonight Show, where it's like okay, I heard you, you know Jim, I heard you had a funny, you know vacation story. And Jim's like, yeah, my kid fell down in the tent zipper and blah, blah, blah. And you're like, okay, and roll the clip.

Speaker 1 1:20:47

You know, this was like to the point where I'm like, wow, I'm a guitar player and this is a little too nerdy for me. Like they went super deep and I was like I think this is why YouTube is YouTube. Like if you want to do a serious deep dive into stuff, it was. It was really really kind of cool. So how about you? Do you watch more? Well, it sounds like you watch a lot, it's all YouTube, it's all YouTube.

Speaker 2 1:21:11

Yeah, yeah, I've, I've. I just it's just easier, I don't know, for me it's just easier. So, and I have some. It's a great way to follow. You know, I have some YouTubers that would never say they're podcasters. They say they're YouTubers, right and they. But they provide some great content, some good lifestyle. You know, I don't know, it's just like watching my friends, so I enjoy it a lot. It has cut into my regular podcast though, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 1:21:39

That's it. I used to listen. I listen now to podcasts when I walk around the block or I'm exercising or if I'm driving anytime I drive I'm listening to a podcast. But yeah, I used to listen on my lunch and now I'm watching YouTube.

Speaker 1 1:21:52

So, and what's interesting is, in some cases, like Kevin Michael now and he needs to, he needs to pick a fence and he cause he's doing some things just in audio and some things in video, which is kind of fine, but his messaging is a little messy because this is the grow the show guy. And so there are times like I had actually unsubscribed from his audio because I thought he was just doing video. He was really doubling down on YouTube, and I like Kevin audio because I thought he was just doing video. He was really doubling down on YouTube, and I like Kevin. And so I started watching all this stuff on YouTube and then something came across, I think via email or something, that he said no, no, I'm still doing audio stuff.

Speaker 1 1:22:32

And I was like, well, wait, like if you keep making me dance back and forth not that it's hard, but you know, it's kind of confusing at times. Here's a fun one that I will put in the um, yeah, no, and this again is a brand new person, so we'll give them a break here. They say hey, tomorrow, me and my co-host will be starting our first podcast episode, looking for some good stories to talk about on our podcast. And that's when I get a like if this is your first episode and you're already out of content, I'm like that's, that's not a good sign. So I would and I I left a note, I was like hey, like maybe write out 10 topics you want to talk about one for each episode, you know, and maybe and it's not a no, but like if you're struggling with content and you haven't recorded episode one, this may be a not now kind of situation.

Speaker 2 1:23:25

Well, maybe they're just going to chat, though.

Speaker 1 1:23:26

Maybe they're just going to get together and chat.

Speaker 2 1:23:28

Yeah, it's a chat. It's a chat cast. Yeah, it's just a chat cast, and that's okay too.

Speaker 1 1:23:33

Yeah, that's okay too. And like if I recorded every phone call I did with my best friend and you would hear us talk about how hot girls were in the 80s and you know guitars and whatever else.

Speaker 1 1:23:48

And the fact that getting old sucks. You know like it's not a great podcast, but you know it's a place to start, you know? And again, nothing wrong with that podcast. Just don't turn around and ask me why isn't this growing Like? Because it's a conversation. It's not a show in a way, but it's great therapy, if you. You know that's another way to look at it. Here's a one. I see a lot too.

Speaker 1 1:24:12

How can I do a podcast with just my voice recorder? I have an Android phone, I have a built-in voice recorder, but I can't upload it to YouTube. Any suggestions outside of Spotify? I don't like Spotify and my whole thing.

Speaker 1 1:24:29

I get it that we all want to do things on our phone because it'd be easier, but at least in my travels, getting files off the phone so you can then upload them to your media host is not easy on a phone To me. I'm just like you can record it on your phone if you want, but then have a Dropbox or something, because I know, even on an iPhone, some apps will save it to like a folder on your phone, but then you have to plug the phone in to be able to see the folder that it saved it to Like. There's just these weird little hurdles that you have to jump through to the point where I'm just like you know, just because you can record it on your phone doesn't mean you should. That's for me. I call that painting with peanut butter. Just because you can paint with peanut butter doesn't mean you should, and I get it that. It sounds like a great idea. I'll just record it on my phone and I used to have. It might still be out there.

Speaker 1 1:25:28

There was a podcast I did called Podcasting for Free and that was my thing. I was like I think that was back then there was a free version of Dropbox and you would record it on your phone, you would send it to Dropbox. You would then get on your computer and finish it in Audacity and upload it to whoever the free host that hadn't gone out of business yet. Yeah, danny says auto-upload to Drive or similar. Use Zapier to move to your host. Is there Zapier on a phone? I've never used Zapier on a phone. I'm assuming that would make sense.

Speaker 2 1:26:00

But yeah, yeah, it could work.

Apple Stats vs Media Host Discrepancies

Speaker 1 1:26:05

Zapier on a phone. I'm assuming that would make sense. But yeah, it could work. Yeah, so then another. I saw this and I was like, oh, this is a classic question. I haven't answered this one in a while, so I'm like let's bring that one back. Then that is hey, how come my Apple stats are different than my media host? So in this case, this was in a Buzzsprout group on I think this was Reddit, and the reason for that is when you look at Apple stats, apple is only showing you people that listened on an Apple device, audiences on Apple, and you had a hundred downloads in Buzzsprout. Well then, you're going to have 40 people in your Apple podcast, not a hundred, just to keep numbers easy. And so you know you'll also see like for this show especially.

Closing and Upcoming Shows

Speaker 1 1:26:54

We get no love in Spotify. I wonder why? Only because I talk about how bad Spotify is every other week, but we don't. I don't. You know, the only show I've ever had do really well in Spotify was the podcast rodeo show, where it would get like three figures downloads and Spotify. Everything else it's like 12, 13, six, you know, maybe 20 every now and then, but I've never been big in Spotify. So, consequently, the numbers in your media hosts, whether that's Captivate or, you know, blueberry or Libsyn or whoever, those are always going to be different than what you see in. You know your stuff. So with that one we will hit the music and ask Jim, what's coming up on? Home Gadget Geeks.

Speaker 2 1:27:44

Yeah, thursday was 9-11. So I just took the week off. I was like so it was good, it was a good week to take off. But you know, if you want to go back, we've got episodes available out there Some of the best tech gadget conversation you can have homegadgetgeekscom.

Speaker 1 1:28:04

Yeah, danny says Spotify is consistently low for my shows and I'm okay with that. You actually thought about, uh, that's a whole other thing. I saw a video on just how messed up the music business is and a lot of it was around spotify and for I don't know nine seconds I thought I might pull my podcast from spotify and I was like that's not really gonna hurt spotify. It hurts my listeners, the you know both, both of them that are using Spotify. But on the School of Podcasting, as I mentioned earlier, I interviewed a person bringing her on because she's kind of a social, how to use social. She has a bazillion people on Instagram and we talk about how do you get people off of Instagram to your podcast. But also, I think the biggest lesson I got from her is she's not afraid to try anything and if it works, it works. If it doesn't, she moves on. So that's coming up.

Speaker 1 1:28:50

On the School of Podcasting, I was going to do part two of how to grow your audience and it dawned on me that a lot of that is my talk that I'll be doing at the Empowered Podcasting Conference, which is coming up next week, I believe, or the week after. I know it's yeah something. It's less than 10 days away in Charlotte, so I might put that one on pause for a bit, until after I get back. But thanks to the chat room, thanks to the one and only Jim Collison for being here every Saturday. Always appreciate hanging out with you and if you're watching on YouTube, like subscribe and ring the bell and don't forget to go to askthepodcastcoachcom slash. Awesome. Thanks to Dan from Based on a True Story Podcast and Mark over at podcastbrandingco. We'll see you next week with another episode of Ask the Podcast Coach.