The Exchanges

Q Yeah, it's brilliant. So let's, let's get a little bit into the equipment and all that. I did so much research trying to make my podcast. I already had Bluetooth headphones because my phone didn't support a three by five millimeter jack. And so I just used it for here. So there's wired headphones, there's Bluetooth headphones. Which ones do you think are better and why?

A I do believe wired headphones might be better only because sometimes a signal can cut out. I have the Sony XM fours. The signal cuts out on them things at night sometimes. And I'll just be like, what? Like, I just get mad. They're good headphones, but you know, like, I just hate when it happens. You don't want that to happen in the middle of a production though. Like, so to me, I think definitely you should invest in some wired headphones monitors. They call studio monitors. You know, make sure you're using that word when you're searching, but honestly, any headphones would do, but if you want to be super technical and super audio geeky, then look for monitor headphones.

AI assessment note: “I do believe wired headphones might be better only because sometimes a signal can cut out.”

Q got two more quick things that I want to mention real fast. One of them is recording platforms. So I use Squadcast. There's also like StreamYard and there's a bunch of other ones where you can record audio, you can record video, you can do live streams, you can share them to other platforms. Do you have a preference? Mine is Squadcast and I'll tell you why when you're done.

A No, I don't have a specific Preferences. Squadcast and Riverside FM are the ones that people are using the most, and Riverside is gaining steam, I would say, amongst the remote recording community. Um, so I don't necessarily have a preference. I do know that these programs produce better audio. Zencaster as well. That's another one I want to mention. Um, these companies produce better audio than Zoom. While Zoom, like a lot of people like to use Zoom for their recording, Zoom doesn't allow local recording. The way that these platforms do, so if you're gonna do remote recording, I would rather you use a Riverside or a Squadcast or a Zencaster for that recording than to use Zoom itself. But Zoom is a good backup. I'll be honest, 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. Don't throw Zoom away. Zoom is a solid backup.

AI assessment note: “No, I don't have a specific Preferences.”

Q Great. Thank you for the intro. I appreciate it. So what made you want to get into creating a company that helps people create podcasts?

A We're just super consumers, you know, of audio content of entertainment of all forms. And I'm a big, big, big fan of storytelling. And so for me, podcast was like, I can't go out there and build the next Wakanda on film, but I can build in an audio. So that was the idea. Like, how can I create Wakanda in your ears? If I can't create it in your eyes. And so, uh, we wanted to create that in, in a lot of the urban black multicultural content that was coming out were mostly just conversations, you know, like talking to you about your latest business or late, you know, and these are my favorite podcasts, right? I'm on one right now. So these are some of my favorite. This is what I learned, but what about the stories? What about the immersion? What about the ones that entertain and just, you just don't want to think, but You just want to be entertained and you want to hear a great story that was missing. And we wanted to fill in that gap. And so that's the reason why I was like, you know what? I want to jump in. I want to do this. This is, this is something I have fun doing. I love stories. I love, you know, where the industry is growing. I'm going to jump in. And to be honest, in 2019, when I decided to jump into the podcast industry, the outlook wasn't as huge as it is now. Now the outlook is humongous as far as like now every television company is Creating an audio department. Net…

AI assessment note: “You just want to be entertained and you want to hear a great story that was missing.”

Q Why should somebody not create a podcast? Who's the wrong person to make a podcast?

A The person who's not going to be consistent does not want to take the time to learn how to use equipment. You know, a lot of people always come to me. I want to do a podcast, but I don't want to do any of this stuff that you are all a technical and that's just impossible. You know, there's going to be situations where you might have to be your own producer for a while. That's just what it is. You know, like you have to wear multiple hats. And so if you're that kind of person, then it's definitely not for you. If you don't have anything to talk about that's useful for another person, then podcasting isn't for you. If you can't find the, the lessons in your everyday life or your business or whatever it is that you do, then why would anyone listen to you? Nobody wants to hear about your day just cause you feel like you're super important. People are listening to podcasts to get something from it. Like, what is, what are the listeners getting from this? Is it just to boost up your own ego? Then it's probably not for you.

AI assessment note: “The person who's not going to be consistent does not want to take the time”

Q one to two minutes long where I talk about why I like this guest, what we talked about, why this was important to me, why I wanted to talk about it. Do you think if I were to make a video of that recording, that that's good enough, or do you think two, um, one and a half, two minutes is too long for people to sit there and listen?

A I don't think it's too long, but the, the goal is, will they get value from what you're saying? That's the test. That's what you gotta keep Iterating on because it's like, if they watched your video and then never clicked on your link or never listened to your, will they still leave your video with some nuggets of wisdom? Creating value is you just gave me something useful. That's exactly the reason why branded podcasts work because you're not blatantly promoting your product or your business. You're actually giving value. So you have to meta that down to Twitter and just say, okay, it's the same thing. Am I Am I actually providing something useful to the person who's scrolling? Or am I just blatantly telling them, Hey, you gotta go watch this video. I need to get value from the thing you were already giving me. And then maybe if I like it, then just maybe I might go check out the podcast. Like you go to the supermarket and you see those guys out with the sample tables. They're like sampling meat. Hey, you want to try this meat out? It's the same thing. Like you're in a supermarket. 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 the sample table. And if I don't consum…

AI assessment note: “I don't think it's too long, but the, the goal is, will they get value”

Q So you brought up really good points and I want to go into them a little bit more deeply. How can someone determine what kind of content to publish and how often to publish it?

A You know, it's kind of hard to get that in the beginning, because like you said, you don't have that community to get Feedback from. And so there are several ways, you know, number one, you can look at yourself and say, okay, what do I want to know? Was this something that I would want to know? Like, are you the consumer of the product you're creating? Sometimes I feed off of that for myself. Like, for instance, I would ask questions like, Hey, look, sometimes I feel really lazy. What's the science of laziness? Like, how do we get over that? I would assume there are many other people who would want to know that too. So like, I think I'm not alone in that. Look at the questions that you ask yourself. That's just one way. The other way is to hack other people's communities. There's sites like Quora, where people are asking questions all day long. You know, that's all the site is built for, is for asking questions. Look up the subject matter that you're an expert in. What questions are people asking in your subject area? You can apply that same thing to Reddit. Same thing for Twitter.

AI assessment note: “The other way is to hack other people's communities. There's sites like Quora”

Q How does a company determine whether to do video recordings, audio recordings, or live streams?

A It's really about where's the area where you feel like you're going to be more consistent. If you feel like, Hey, I can turn on the camera and be consistently doing this every day. And that's like more of live stream, then go for it. And if you're good, you can repurpose content, meaning take that audio from the live stream, put it on YouTube as a video, put it on Apple as an audio. You know, you can take a recording and repurpose it three, four different ways to end today. So you might want to think about doing that for your content. That way you're put it everywhere. Distribution is really key, and I think I haven't said that earlier, but distribution is your best marketing, and what I mean by that is everybody's content is native to the platform that it's on. 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. So for instance, most of the Apple listeners who listen to us, Never saw us tweet. Most of the people who are on LinkedIn, who look into, look at our videos, never clicked through to the other things. So just keep that in mind. There is a small percentage of people who would convert from your social media to actual being on the platforms that you're on. The best bet to get people to convert is through your email list or the actual custo…

AI assessment note: “It's really about where's the area where you feel like you're going to be more consistent.”