Jeremy Weisz 7:23
So I’m sorry, let’s just say like we’re not technical wizards, right. So the advice that you’re gonna get from us, we’re about simplicity, and simplicity that produces a good product, but it’s not going to be we’re not going to we don’t geek out on technical related things. So let the caveat of you. There’s probably lots of people who are way more experienced in this than we are. We just find something that works really that works well. That’s fairly affordable, and go with it.
John Corcoran 7:57
And the funny thing is, I will say to people with pride. If you paid me, me, meaning me individually to launch your podcast, I couldn’t do it from start to finish, I couldn’t do it. I don’t know all the different steps that are involved. We have an amazing team that does an incredible job of setting all those pieces up. But the reason that I’m proud of that is what I’m really good at and what you’re especially good at what our superpowers is, is making sure the podcast is profitable, make sure that you use it to develop tremendous relationships to connect with people that you admire, to have great conversations to continue that conversation beyond the interview. How do you take it further? How do you go further? How do you turn that into a referral relationship or strategic partnership of some sort? That’s really where a lot of people drop the ball. And so that’s really what we focus our energy intention on making sure that that’s right. Now as far as the microphone is concerned, I’m speaking out of an Audio Technica ATR 2100. The funny thing about it is 11 years ago, I purchased this microphone, not this exact one, but the same exact model. 11 years ago, it lasted me about nine years. I made a decision at the beginning. I purchased it, boom, I didn’t think about it for nine years. And then it crapped out, it stopped working. And so I bought the exact same one again, I didn’t even upgrade, I didn’t even spend more and get a nicer one which you have a nicer one, because I just figured out much nicer.
Jeremy Weisz 9:24
And by the way, if you’re listening, and you have a suggestion of a mic you like Feel free to put it in the comments if you’re listening to this live, but, but yeah, ATR 2100 I think they have a newer version. This was probably the one you got. This is a Blue Yeti. I mean, yours is probably $70, this one is $120. And it’s a USB mic. I mean literally you could get a USB mic plug into the back of your computer and use it. Okay. Yeah, people have fancy sound boards, they are probably plugging in and out of maybe nicer, fancier mics, but as you know, you can get a nice sounding mic for $70 to $150. And this is a Blue Yeti, I have yours, John actually over there because when I travel, I don’t like detaching all this stuff. So I bought another one, which is yours that
John Corcoran 10:16
I bring with me, my main microphone is his backup.
Jeremy Weisz 10:19
Oh, I mean, because like he said, I could be in the middle of interviewing someone. And this could I mean, this is I don’t even know, this may be 10 years old. And this is really I mean, you can get the newer version, which is pretty much the same thing. But so that is part of the equipment we recommend, if you have other suggestions, put them like, you know, put them in the comments or whatever it is. And I want to point out, we have a whole cheat sheet of the different equipment and tools and other things. So if you are, if you want to check out Rise25media.com/cheatsheet. You can share more recommendations of how to get clients, referrals, strategic partners and about the tools and equipment for everything there too. And so the mic, I don’t know if there’s any other combination, though, the thing I want to say is their podcast arm is very helpful. Typically the mic just comes on a stand. So getting some kind of boom arm is helpful. This one is like a Rode podcaster boom moments and $99 I have another one that I get when I travel. They bring when I travel, it was like $20 it works fine, you screw it onto the desk.
John Corcoran 11:24
So it’s actually a great point. Because this actually gets a lot of comments having this boom arm here. And I say to people all the time, because they look at it, and they’re like, Oh, you have an amazing microphone. I like the microphones, they are not that amazing. What’s amazing is just this arm thing here. And it’s just kind of amazing. Actually, this is not that expensive, an arm, but it’s just helpful and gets it out of the way. The other point I’ll make is people I see all the time that have purchased like a $300 microphone, and then they record like this, they’re like standing over here. And so the audio quality is poor, because they’re not putting the microphone right in front of their mouth. So what I say to people is just make sure that you get to put it right in front of your mouth. And if you use the cheap little three inch stand that came with the microphone, a lot of times it’s gonna be way below where your mouth is.
Jeremy Weisz 12:13
Yeah, and there’s a certain setting if you’re using the Yeti, which I learned because someone’s like your son’s doesn’t you weren’t using it correctly for and so they coached me on actually using it way back when 10 years ago. So there are certain settings, you want to have this on that it works properly.
John Corcoran 12:29
So what other software recommendations? That’s a hardware mic.
Jeremy Weisz 12:33
So what microphone? Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s a mic conversation and a USB mic that’s decent, is good. You know, the other one we get asked about is what to use to record. You know, actually, if you are doing live streaming, that’s a different answer than if you are not live streaming. But you can use something like StreamYard to live stream. And this will be a podcast episode as well. We use Zoom. I mean, most people were on Zoom back when I used Skype with ECAM Call Recorder. But Zoom is just so easy. And everyone’s used to being on it. We just use Zoom. There’s a lot of different ways to record. I mean, anyway that you find is easy for you that you’re normally using. There’s no we don’t necessarily have a preference, we just want to make it easy for the other person and for yourself to have any barriers in recording.
John Corcoran 13:27
Yeah, and yeah, and that’s a great point, it again goes down to it’s funny, because I’ll talk to people that have got a massive business, they have 100 people working for them, 200 people working for them, or they’re doing 10 million 20 million a year. And they want to know what software they should use to record. And I’ll also honestly say to them respectfully, this is not something that you should be focusing on. This is really, you know, spending your time thinking about those things is not the best use of your time, what’s a lot better use of your time is focusing your energy intention, not on that piece. But having said that, it is important, and it is simple just to use something like a Zoom, which everyone’s familiar with. You don’t have to use any kind of fancy recording software. Beyond that. Jeremy, what about any other software recommendations?
Jeremy Weisz 14:17
That yeah, I mean, as far as software goes, um, people ask, Well, how do I Where do I put it, like as an audio host? So isn’t it I mean, again, like the caveat is also this stuff changes, software changes, Zoom you whatever five years, 10 years from now people may be using something else. So just follow whatever is easier. Where do you put it? How do you get it up on all these channels? Well, you need an audio host, just like a website needs a web host you need an audio host. We’ve been using Libsyn for over a decade. You know, we like Libsyn, there are lots of audio hosts out there, right. Yeah, but so again, we just look for something That is been in the industry for a long time and is stable and dependable. And all of them are mean there. The range of pricing is going to be from like $5 to $60 no matter what audio host you go with and we just like Libsyn they’ve been around for a long, long time. You know, some people ask us, you know, should I use Anchor, it’s free? And John, you have an opinion on Anchor for free. You know, there’s nothing that is free, I want to pay for my services and know that I own the account. And it’s not going anywhere. I know, Anchor was purchased by Spotify by them. I can’t modify it. Okay, so yeah, so they have major backing, which is fine. But they also I forgot if you saw the social dilemma, but if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product, the app. So if you are on Facebook, and I think well guess what you are the product and same thing with Anchor if you’re not paying for it, you are the product so they can use your message channels.
John Corcoran 16:09
And we’ve seen this story before we’ve seen it play out. It happened with the I forget the name of it, but was owned by Twitter, the platform shorts, short video snippets are like six-second video snippets. And I remember reading an article about a guy who had 2.7 million followers on this platform, and Twitter and it was a free platform and Twitter just decided one day to shut it down. No notice, nothing. And these people completely lost their livelihoods. These massive forces like Vine or something fine, thank you. Yes, yeah, yes. And so Anchor could be the same thing. They could just decide one day you know what this didn’t work out free podcast hosting turns out who knew it didn’t work. And so they just shut it down and you lose your feed, you lose your subscribers, everything you put into it, because you didn’t spend anything for it. You lose all.
Jeremy Weisz 16:54
a little $15 a month or something? Yeah.
John Corcoran 16:58
10 initial plans are $5. Yeah, exactly. It’s absolutely manageable. Alright, so people say that people also ask about now, people ask me all the time, but different software that comes along. And you know, podcasting has exploded in popularity. And so there are a lot more people asking about these different tools that have come around, and generally little to say to people is, yeah, there are some good tools that are out there for creating all kinds of digital additional assets out there. But again, you know, since we’re usually talking to a b2b business, that’s profitable to begin with, it’s using a podcast for business development for content marketing purposes. Again, usually, I say to people, not something you should focus on, something that you should be focusing on is how you’re going to use the podcast. Yeah. And I also will say this, and I said this to people, even before, we had a vested interest, and we were helping people with starting podcasts, that you should create pressure for yourself. By having someone outside not within your team, you should focus on what you do best. And you should have an outside company or team that is worrying about these things. Because these tools change all the time. And you don’t want to have to, you know, go down a rabbit hole, spending an hour trying to figure out some tool that isn’t working, when you can just send an email and have them handle it. And much better use of that hour is you interviewing people who may be great champions of yours, that’s a much better use of your time. So for most companies, it makes a lot more sense for you not to worry about these various different tools.
Jeremy Weisz 18:28
That’s a good point, John, and like when we’re speaking, we’re speaking to that b2b business owner. If someone is trying to create the next cereal, or whatever the next series, they’ll probably, you know, geek out on the technical part and make sure the sound quality like NPR style. They’re in a different type of business, right, their business is in the business of the podcasts are the content. Because I remember when one of our clients said, you know, I’m thinking of I heard the audio quality is like, three times better than Zoom or something. And they went and they use that platform and wanting the platform. And the person on the other end couldn’t get it working, then that recording didn’t show up. I’m like, just lost recordings. Yeah, just don’t worry. Like it wasn’t a necessity for them.
John Corcoran 19:24
And so yeah, one last tool I want to mention, which you might laugh at but this is really important is Calendly or some kind of online scheduling tool. There was a purely scheduling or Calendly. Yeah, the reason why this is so important is it’s amazing. But this one piece of streamlining the front end process of scheduling people to be guests with you on your podcast without having really been time-consuming. It can become really time-consuming and it can sink the ship from the beginning because you know, I do two episodes a week Jeremy does two episodes a week we polish over 100 a year. I don’t recommend that forever. And for most people, I recommend a weekly podcast. But that’s still 5045 to 50 people a year. And just the process of scheduling can be really difficult, it can be draining of people’s energy. So using a tool like Calendly, to, to automate that process and to streamline it is very powerful. So you want to make sure that you put some time in just to get that set up properly from the beginning. And that’s not all. There are other pieces that we recommend for it. But we do recommend using a tool like Calendly.
Jeremy Weisz 20:31
Yeah, I wanted to say that, you want to make sure you have the best customer interviewee experience you can and when you use a tool like that, first of all, it eliminates the back and forth. So it’s nice, they get to choose a time as convenience. Nice it also follows up with the most frequently asked questions because you can set a follow up with here’s what most people ask me. And it just helps with the follow up so the person’s prepared, because they may have questions. What’s the show? Like? What should the setup be like? And so you could have that follow up in an automated fashion to best create the best experience for that guest.
John Corcoran 21:10
Yeah, yeah. Benjamin fulgur says, unfortunately, this has happened to us last, I wonder what he’s talking about. He might have been talking about not having or misfire on the scheduling piece. I think that might have been what we’ve been talking about. So yeah, I mean, we see it happen all the time, where it’s game-changing.
Jeremy Weisz 21:28
Yeah, for me to set up. And some people resist this, John, I mean, maybe we talk about the resistance point, which is like, well, I want to control my schedule. And I mean, listen, I’ve gone through all that as well, like, well, I want to kind of look at it to see where I should put people in the end. Just send them to the Calendly link to schedule.
John Corcoran 21:52
Absolutely. Right. It’s gonna make things so much faster.
Jeremy Weisz 21:58
So software, I’m trying to think of as any other questions we get, we get how to record, we get mics, we get the audio host, we get scheduling wise streamlining the process, which is the scheduling link.
John Corcoran 22:10
Is there any other software or tools that people ask us about? One thing that’s become really popular is creating micro content out of your podcast, which we do, if you look, if you follow us on LinkedIn, you’ll see us sharing that we create interactive dynamic audios, and we create graphic images. And you know, there’s no silver bullet perfect software out there, it requires a human to look at these episodes, look at what’s the best snippet that’s going to position, you know, both the host and the guest appropriately, sometimes you need to cut it down shorter. So there’s a bunch of different pieces. And there’s no AI that’s gonna perfectly do those things these days. But that is creating micro content, and there’s a host of different tools and there will be more tools is a great way to take your content and have it go further.
Jeremy Weisz 23:03
Yeah, that’s a good point, John, it’s like our process for doing that is the writer identifies what the best snippet is, then they basically hand it to the editor because you know, it’s transcribed and then the audio or video person will cut it at that certain point then that, you know, the editor will go back through to make sure the transcriptions correct. And then there’s someone posting it on the different channels and making sure that people are tagged in the right comments so there’s a lot that goes into that little 62nd snippet, right.
John Corcoran 23:36
Yeah, it’s a multi step process. So you also want to make sure that you have that streamline because again, it shouldn’t be something that you’re doing, it should be something that is handled for you because the best use of your time is spent having great conversations with great people.
Jeremy Weisz 23:54
There’s one other piece I forgot on the technical end because we’re so not the expert when it comes to some of the technical stuff is Ian Garlic actually the lighting okay so the lighting if you’re doing video um Ian Garlic I made him get on there was some episode Facebook Live they made him just get on to explain it so well to find it and like link it up so people can watch it but I just got I think like $100 set on Amazon of these big lights and my leg is not even that great in this place because you know he advised I put something right in front of me which I don’t but because it just don’t have the room but a good lighting that where you’re you know lighting in front of you is you know will make it look much better as well.
John Corcoran 24:41
Yeah. So with that Jeremy, where can people go to learn more about Inspired Insider and Rise25?
Jeremy Weisz 24:47
Yeah, go to inspiredinsider.com to check out more episodes of the podcast. I’ve had everyone from the founder of Kettle Chips to Atari to P90x to Big League Chew and now John. And go to Smart Business Revolution Podcast where he’s had amazing founders and he has some amazing this week alone, and Netflix and what was the one that was later today?
John Corcoran 25:09
Comedy Central.
Jeremy Weisz 25:10
Yeah. And you can go to rise25.com. And check out more if you’re interested in learning more about podcasting. And go to rise25media.com/cheatsheet to grab a list of these different tools, offers, and recommendations.
John Corcoran 25:18
And that’s it for this week. Thanks, everyone for being here, and we’ll talk again soon.
Outro 25:28
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com and while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.