Nov 25, 2021 · 41m · we-live-to-build
How Do You Build Wakanda in Someone's Ears
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the We Live to Build podcast, host Sean Weisbrot interviews ABF Creative founder Anthony Frasier to examine the strategic, cultural, and technical fundamentals of launching a successful branded podcast. Frasier shares actionable insights on multicultural audio storytelling, frictionless social media distribution, and cost-effective production workflows designed to build customer trust and scale enterprise growth.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Sean holds 30.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Sean as informed peer 3.7 Guest teaching 5.1 Guest disagreement 0.2 Sean pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Sean, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 24:05 Anthony rejects traditional link posting mindset
Anthony firmly reframes content strategy, insisting creators must accept that social media users refuse to leave their feeds and algorithms will punish non-native link posts.
Hardest push from Sean ▶ 20:38 Sean challenges lack of native audio player optionsSean pushes back on audio distribution limits, pointing out that host platforms fail to provide functional embedded players within social media feeds.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 19:47 Platform algorithms suppressing external trafficAnthony educates Sean on how social media algorithms systematically demote posts directing traffic away from their ad-supported platforms.
Sean holds their own ▶ 35:36 Sean details professional plugin mastering sequenceSean demonstrates legitimate production chops by outlining his precise sequence of noise reduction, compression, limiting, EQ boosting, and normalization.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Sean as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Sean pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Frasier on ABF Creative and Multicultural Podcasting | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Anthony outlines the business thesis behind ABF Creative and the lack of multicultural narrative audio. Sean listens attentively and shares his personal milestone of releasing 71 episodes. | |
| The Seventeen Episode Cliff and Podcasting Pitfalls | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Sean brings up the industry statistic of podcasts dying after seventeen episodes. Anthony validates the stat and explains how branded podcasts nurture customer trust and purchase intent. | |
| Networking Power Investor Transparency and Content Catalogs | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Sean notes how podcasts offer transparent insight for investors and foster guest networking. Anthony reinforces this with his experience booking prominent founders and uses rapper Russ to illustrate the value of back catalogs. | |
| Content Ideation and Native Platform Distribution Strategies | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | Anthony educates Sean on mining Reddit and Quora for content ideation and explains that modern platform distribution requires keeping content native rather than broadcasting external links. | |
| Navigating Social Media Algorithms and Audio Friction | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | Sean explains his frustration with audio link previews not embedding playable audio on social media. Anthony explains how platform algorithms penalize off-site links and counsels Sean on posting direct video takeaways. | |
| The Supermarket Sample Analogy and Frictionless Video | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | Sean asks if his podcast intros work as promotional videos. Anthony uses the supermarket sample table analogy to explain that clips must provide standalone value with zero production friction. | |
| Audio Equipment Headphones Microphones and Pop Filters | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | The pair engage in a peer-level technical breakdown comparing wired vs wireless headphones, cardioid vs condenser mics, and wind screens vs pop filters. | |
| Digital Audio Workstations and Mastering Plugin Chains | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Sean demonstrates solid audio mastering knowledge by reciting his specific five-plugin chain in Audacity. Anthony, an experienced engineer, praises Audacity's noise reduction tool. | |
| Remote Recording Software and Enterprise Hosting Platforms | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Sean and Anthony evaluate remote recording options like SquadCast and Riverside against Zoom's stability, followed by enterprise hosting networks like Megaphone and Sounder FM. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Frasier: 41% of US Podcast Listeners Are Non-White
“Brands are missing out on this, and this is a three trillion dollar audience, and not only is it a three trillion dollar audience, but 41% of podcast listeners in the U.S. Are non-white.”
Frasier: Netflix Appointed a Head of Audio and Created an Audio Division
“Netflix just announced their head of audio and they created an audio department.”
Frasier: HBO Max Announced Podcast Streaming on Its Platform
“HBO Max just announced a few weeks ago that they're now allowing podcast streaming on their apps.”
Weisbrot: Only 100K to 150K Podcasts Surpassed 17 Episodes Pre-Pandemic
“Before the pandemic, there were over a million podcasts that had ever been launched, but of which only a hundred or a 150,000 of them passed that 17 episode mark.”
Frasier: Hosting The Fat Startup Podcast Enabled Booking High-Profile Tech Speakers
“We had a podcast called the fat startup that we did years ago, and then we built a conference. We were able to get high profile guests at the conference simply because we had a podcast. We were able to talk and convince Gary Vaynerchuk, James Altucher, Ben Hor…”
Frasier: Posting social media links no longer drives podcast subscriptions
“Gone are the days where you can post a link on Twitter and say, hey, go subscribe to my podcast. Most people who subscribe to our podcast discovered us on the platform that they were on.”
Frasier: Email lists and existing customers drive the highest podcast conversions
“The best bet to get people to convert is through your email list or the actual customers of your business. That's usually the best way to get them to be subscribers to your podcasts, et cetera.”
Frasier: Social algorithms penalize accounts and posts that include outbound links
“Anytime you're encouraging people to leave the algorithms for social media will start to punish your account. This is something people don't talk about. So YouTube, for instance, when you create a YouTube video in the description, the first thing that you say …”
Frasier: Major audio players struggle with Twitter engagement, making video essential
“If you look at some of the larger audio kind of Players in this space. They all suck at like audio engagement on Twitter and all these. Rarely do you see, you know, really taking off video is the best way to go.”
Frasier: Short promotional videos must provide standalone value like supermarket samples
“Social media is a big ass supermarket and people have their tables out. You have to make sure, like, I have to taste it, and it has to be like, oh, this is great. Let me go into the aisle and go buy a full box of this. That's what your videos are, is literally…”
Frasier: High production value creates friction that makes creators quit video
“I think when you try to make a production, that's when you'll go wrong. Don't try to make a full on production. Literally look at the camera with the headphones on, with the mic, the same way you're looking at me right now. Record the video and upload it As is…”
Frasier: NPR Used $60 Microphones to Record Audio
“When I was working at NPR, they were using a sixty-dollar mic to record people.”
Frasier: Audacity's noise reduction plugin beats some commercial software
“Actually, I think Audacity has one of the best noise reductions, plugins, even better than some of the commercial shit.”
Frasier: Squadcast and Riverside mess up often compared to Zoom
“When things like Squadcast and Riverside FM start messing up, they do quite often. Zoom is that handy dandy backup that you know it's gonna work exactly how it's gonna work.”
Frasier: Audio SEO will be humongous in two years
“There's one that I'm really a big fan of called Sounder FM, and they're doing a lot with audio SEO, which is just going to be humongous in the next, you know, year or two.”
Frasier: Pioneer Jerry Lawson Shared a Computer Club With Steve Jobs
“It's about a engineer who was responsible for the first cartridge based video game console. And a lot of people didn't know he existed. This is black man. He's like six, five, 300 pounds. Big Afro was in the same computer club as Steve jobs and Steve Wozniak.”