Sound quality is one of the most important (um THE most important) factors in your podcast. And if your audio isn’t up to snuff, your audience is going to bail…quickly. So I wanted to share with you the person who has helped me ensure that all my guest episodes sound great.
This week on the podcast, Daniel Romeros, my podcast editor and editor for several of my clients, is sharing why it’s not too late to start your own podcast, why there’s so much podfading going on, and important considerations when it comes to recording your episodes.
We also talk about tools you can use, why consistency matters, and why it pays to educate yourself about podcasting from the pros.
Be sure to tune in and make your next episode rock!
Mentioned In This Episode
About Daniel Romeros
Daniel Romeros is a Music Composer, Sound Designer and Audio Engineer based in Austin, TX.
Since 2015, Daniel has been extensively editing, mixing, and mastering audio podcasts and gaining great knowledge of the industry—as well expanding on his engineering techniques. With over 2,500 produced episodes, Daniel has not only become highly efficient in the work he does, but extremely informative of the industry field as well.
Daniel is an Alumni of Full Sail University with a Bachelors in Recording Arts and is a Certified Avid Pro Tools Operator in both Music and Post-production. Before the work of audio podcast production, Daniel worked (and still working) in the world of records, film, and video games—working for companies such as Paramount Pictures and Strange Fire Studios. With this past experience, Daniel has been able to transfer these skills into his high-quality and industry-standard podcast production service. Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn.
Transcript:
Abby Herman 0:08
Hey there, and welcome to episode 190 of The Content Experiment Podcast, podcast for podcasters. That supports the idea that content and marketing are ever moving targets in any business. And it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re doing it. All right all of the time, you have permission to experiment with little tweaks and changes in your podcast and other content, to find what works for you, what increases value for your audience, and what grows your business. And most importantly, what feels good for you. Running a business is hard, and I’ve been there on the struggle bus with you more times than I would like to admit, your podcast is a great way to nurture your audience and grow your authority, but it’s a lot of work also. So if you’re ready to make your podcast your primary content marketing tool feel easier and more streamlined. Keep listening, my guests and I will give you actionable tips and tricks that are easy to implement. So you can get back to serving your clients and making those sales all while helping you to grow your audience authority and business. And you can do all of this while you do business in a way that works for you. I can help by supporting you through building a content and marketing strategy, taking care of the podcast management for you or giving you the tools and resources to take this on yourself.
Abby Herman 1:26
Now before we get started, I want to officially invite you to my podcast ease q&a sessions. This was formerly called podcasting 101 When I mentioned it a few episodes back, but I think that podcast ease really identifies what these q&a sessions are all about. Starting next week on the podcast, and for the next 10 weeks, maybe more, I’ll be publishing a series of solo episodes that help you learn how to get your podcast started and grow the podcast that you already have. I’m covering really actionable topics like what you need to get started how to find your podcasting voice, determining topics for your podcast episodes, finding the best guests, best practices for your interviews, what to handle in house and how and what to hire out and so much more. Each episode is going to be really actionable. However, there’s only so much that I can cover in a single podcast episode. After all, it does take a lot of time and effort for me to put together each episode. And I know that each podcast that you have is unique. So you’re going to have some really unique challenges that you might need some answers to.
Abby Herman 2:42
So I’m giving you the opportunity to join me for a weekly q&a sessions from July 28. Through at least September 22, we might extend that a couple of weeks just because I have so many ideas for this series, I may not want to stop. The calls will be at 8am Pacific each Thursday, and they’re going to last for about an hour each. And if you can’t make the call live, you will also get a recording of each call. And those recordings aren’t they’re not going to expire. Anyone who signs up for the recordings. Anyone who signs signs up for podcast ease, will have access to all of the calls all the recordings for as long as the content experiment exists. This is your opportunity to pick my brain, get support around your specific needs and enjoy some small group time and collaboration. In the end, you will have all the information that you need to start or uplevel your podcast, even if there’s only one or two things that you need support with the price point of this q&a opportunity is well worth it.
Abby Herman 3:49
So what is the price? Well, you can head to thecontentexperiment.com/ease ea S E to register. And it’s only $99 to join us for all 10 weeks. If you’ve been wanting to start or grow your podcast but are struggling with how to move forward these q&a sessions are for you. And I will hold you accountable to join me at thecontentexperiment.com/ease. The first call is on Thursday, July 28 at 8am Pacific. And anyone who signs up is also going to get access to tools and templates that I have all around managing your podcast content, creating your content workflow and more. I mean, if you only join to get those workflows, it’s totally worth it. All right. Now on to this week’s episode.
Abby Herman 4:43
We are very quickly closing in on episode 200 Here at the content experiment and someone who has been with me essentially from day one is Daniel Romeros my podcast editor. As we begin this podcast is series i I wanted to have the person who’s helped me from the beginning come on and talk about his expertise, making sure the sound and quality of my podcast and several of my clients podcasts is on point. And honestly, I can’t believe that this is the first time that I’ve had him on the podcast, I was a bit surprised at myself over that. On this episode, Daniel and I talk about the popularity of podcasts, why there is still room for more. And that includes you how to avoid pod fading, and what you need to know about sound quality and so much more. So we’re gonna dig in, I knew this intro was pretty long. But let me tell you a little bit about Daniel before we get started.
Abby Herman 5:45
Daniel Romeros is a music composer, sound designer and audio engineer based in Austin, Texas. Since 2015, Daniel has been extensively editing mixing and mastering audio podcasts and gaining great knowledge of the industry, as well as expanding on his engineering techniques. With over 2500 produced episodes, Daniel has not only become highly efficient in the work he does, which is very true, by the way, he is also extremely informative of the Industry field as well. And I can attest to his great work, quick turnaround, and just all of the great things that he does for me and clients. And I hesitate to say that because I don’t want him to get so busy that he doesn’t have time for us. But I know he won’t let that happen. He has been fantastic to work with. All right. So I am going to turn it over to Daniel and my interview.
Abby Herman 6:43
Hi, Daniel. I am so excited to chat today. I’m so happy to have you on the podcast.
Daniel Romeros 6:51
Yeah, it’s so nice to be on here. Finally. Yeah, interesting hearing everybody talking about all the stuff they do. And then me being the one on here. Now, since I would edit everything. I’m the one that’s being interviewed. So this is very interesting. And also
Abby Herman 7:08
I know it’s like this full circle moment. It’s been like almost 200 episodes, and you’ve edited well over half of them. And I think that you started editing right when I write when I started doing guest episodes. So see you’ve done all of the guest episodes. So yeah, for the listeners there. Daniel is the one who helps this podcast get into your earbuds. So I’m excited to chat. Absolutely. Yes. So before I kind of already gave away what you do, but if you could share with listeners, what you do and who you do it for?
Daniel Romeros 7:46
Yeah, absolutely. So I edit podcasts. And everyone probably automatically thinks so podcasts are just audio, but I actually edit video podcast as well. So there is that world. So I do audio and video podcasting. I also do a little bit of like, launches and like helping people out in terms of like consulting, and then all that stuff. But yeah, I just have a whole bunch of clients that come on, and I help them either start from ground zero, or maybe they already have a podcast. And they are just needing somebody to help out and with all the editing process or anything like that. And that’s what I do, as I just added podcasts for my clients.
Abby Herman 8:23
Yes. And today, Daniel is helping me up level the sound quality on this podcast, because we’re trying out a new tool that I have been extremely resistant to even though Daniel has suggested that I use it multiple times. Oh, yeah, maybe next time, and then I’ve never done it. So we’re doing it today. So I’m excited. Can you share a little bit about the way that you work with clients and how that helps you to live the lifestyle that you want? Because I feel like you do work for a few of our clients too. And I feel like you’re probably working around the clock for the number of clients that you have. And how does that work?
Daniel Romeros 9:06
Yeah, so I mean, basically it’s it’s all remote, which is a great thing, you know, I don’t have to physically go anywhere to do all this work. It’s really great for me, because what I’m doing is like really helping out people get these podcasts to sound how they want it to sound also just making it sound fluid and just any kind of ideas, they have a do a great job of integrating those ideas, and making it all happen really. And it helps me live the lifestyle I want because it’s I can be anywhere when I do this stuff. I could just bring my laptop and just as long as I have some headphones can have access to the things I need to edit with. It’s really helpful in that front and yeah, it’s it’s really great.
Abby Herman 9:45
So why do you think that is because podcasts have really become popular. So both people listening to podcasts on a regular basis. There’s such a variety of podcasts out there and you know, obviously So I work with with podcasters. Why do you think it’s become such a popular content modality recently? And what do you think the future holds for podcasts in general?
Daniel Romeros 10:10
Oh, there’s a great future. For podcasts. It’s pretty wild, when you look at how popular podcasts are becoming, I mean, they’ve been around technically for a while, even three years ago, there was only about 500,000 podcasts, which it seems like quite a bit when you think about it, but when you compare it to YouTube, it’s nowhere near the same numbers. But fast forward to today, there’s about 2 million podcasts and about 40 million podcast episodes out there. And it just shows that over those three years, it’s grown crazy, wild, everyone’s catching on. And the reason for that is just everyone’s realizing how beneficial they are. They allow you to be that voice for your company, or movement, or whichever thing you’re putting out there to the world, people get to have this personal insight on you. And it builds trust. And that’s what people like. So that’s why you’re having all these podcasters show up. Because besides YouTube, there’s really no other better way to do just those things for your audience, then a podcast can do.
Abby Herman 11:16
So there’s 2 million podcasts out there. And yet, I know that there’s not 2 million podcasts that are publishing on a regular basis. So I’m really big into consistency, you know, if you’re gonna start something, well, I am also the queen of unfinished projects when it comes to things around the house and stuff like that. But when it comes to the podcast, and when it comes to marketing, and all of that I’m all about consistency. So if you’re going to start it continue, why have people dropped off, you know, people call it pod fade where they publish, you know, five episodes or 10 episodes, and then they’re like, oh, nevermind, I’m not gonna do that anymore. And then they just stop. And so their podcast still lives out there. But they’re not actually publishing. Do you have any insight as to why that happens?
Daniel Romeros 12:04
Yeah. So I would say there’s a number of factors for that. One thing is, it’s going to be, I would feel a lot of podcasters are probably trying to do too much all at once. They’re trying to do all the things in terms of like what other people have done, but they gotta really realize is that like, what these other podcasters that they’re listening to. And the level that they’re at is that they didn’t start at a point to like, where they had to just do everything all at once and have all these parts going all at once. Like they, they started at a point to where it was like they can manage it to a point to where it’s really easy for them. And then they kind of just build up as they go in terms of like maybe adding more teammates on or hiring somebody to do editing or anything like that. And I feel like that’s probably where one of the bigger factors come in why people leave. But another thing is probably just going to be like the recording aspect. Some people probably think they can do it. And then as soon as they start recording, they realize that maybe it’s not for them. But I think that’s just something that is something you just got to get used to basically when you’re doing it. Because if you haven’t record ever before, there is a lot going on, especially if you’re doing video, but if you’re doing just audio, there’s it could still kind of be a little intimidating, or just a lot of things going in your mind in terms when you’re recording is like am I doing things right? Do Am I gonna sound okay? How am I sounding like I know, for myself, I definitely always think in my head as I’m doing things like subconsciously how I look or sound or anything like that. So that’s just probably something that’s really hindering people to continue with their podcasts. But then there’s probably other things that’s going on too is like, maybe they have a life situation that has to make them stop the podcast, maybe the business that they’re doing is on a pause, or they just need to make a pivot and whatever they’re doing in the podcasts maybe is something they think is not going to be something they should focus on. So they focus on something else. So yeah, there’s, there’s a couple of factors. And yes, so there is 2 million podcasts out there. They’re not technically all active. But there is definitely still a lot of people coming on starting their podcasts and just starting them and just seeing if it’s it’s for them and going through that whole process of trying to consistently put out episodes and things like that. But you know, there’s still people that have been doing this for a long time. And they found their flow and making it work for them and all that stuff. And there’s there’s many ways to make things work with your podcast, it’s just finding the right flow and, you know, figuring out what’s going to be great for you in terms of making it all work.
Abby Herman 14:45
Yeah, yeah, well, and I absolutely agree with you that sometimes new podcasters or just anyone new to business, they try to do too much. They’re trying to do all of the audio grams and all of the social media posts and you know how Having a really complicated interview process and trying to manage it all yourself, it’s a lot, it’s a lot to do. I agree with that, for sure. And then the, you know, people not feeling entirely comfortable, you know, there’s definitely times that I’d still get on here. And there’s a particular guest I’m nervous about talking to, or I’m not sure what direction an interview is going to go. And so it’s, it can be intimidating. But I think that the more that you stick with it, the more success you’ll have with it, the more comfortable you’ll feel, you know, actually doing it. Absolutely. Another thing that I think, causes people to just stop. And I’ve talked about this in episodes before, but I think people get so because we have, you know, we live in the Instagram world, and we you know, we have instant gratification. And so we published a couple of episodes, and we expect to have all of the followers and, and you know, are we’ve all the downloads, and that’s just not reality. That’s not how it works. Right now, unless you’re a big name, and you’re starting a new podcast. And you know, everybody knows who you are already, maybe that will happen. But for regular people. That’s not reality. So I really think that the consistency and sticking with it is key. And that’s how that’s how you you get your name out there is just by being consistent and continuing to show up even when you don’t always want to.
Daniel Romeros 16:34
Yeah, that’s a good point, actually, that you brought that up about, you know, people expecting their numbers, basically to just skyrocket as soon as they go on. Unless maybe they’re like a high profile person. Yeah, that’ll probably happen for them. But they already have a following. They already have that, like, plug or community, if you will, that will gain all that traffic and all that stuff. But when you’re starting from ground zero, don’t really have that many followers or anything like that. It’s going to be a process. And it’s really a game plan of like trying to figure out how you’re going to be how you’re going to show up, how you’re gonna be able to build this community. And just like just trying to figure out how you’re going to basically get listeners and followers and just trying to find your right formula to make that all happen. So yeah, that’s that’s a really good point. And that is what deters people from like continuing on their podcast, is that factor? For sure?
Abby Herman 17:24
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So for somebody who’s new to podcasting, or who wants to uplevel, what they’re already doing, what are some important considerations that they should take into account specifically for sound quality? But if you have other thoughts on what that might look like, I’d love to hear that as well.
Daniel Romeros 17:44
Yeah, so someone that’s coming on, there’s a lot of things to consider, especially if you’re doing audio only podcast, you’re definitely going to want I mean, this actually pertains to video, too. You always want your audio to sound good, at least to the point to where people can hear you, and not having any kind of distracting noises in the background or anything like that.
Abby Herman 18:03
Can I? Can I just interject for a minute? Yeah, because I have to mention a pet peeve related to that. I was listening to a podcast the other day, and the guest was really clear and loud. And the host I could hardly hear and I usually listen to I listen to podcasts when I’m walking, my dogs are walking home from the gym. And I was constantly having to adjust the volume. So I don’t blow out my eardrums on the guest. And then have to like be you know, listen really carefully. So I just have to interject that yes, sound quality is so important. Really.
Daniel Romeros 18:37
Good point is like, you know, everybody can record on Zoom or anything like that it’s at this point, especially with like, what’s gone on with the world and pandemic, everyone’s like, isolated. Everyone can record their audio and stuff. But when it comes to actually putting everything together, you want to make sure everything sounds consistent in terms of like the volume levels. And if everyone is clear, you know if they can hear each other, or you can just understand what the person is saying, If there’s too much noise going on in the background, or if their microphones really bad, or a lot of people use the like your dongles sometimes, and that causes all sorts of issues most of the time, because it’s usually like rubbing against their clothes or anything. But that’s definitely something I would say, is important to consider when starting, but you know, when it really comes down to it, first get that part of it, you know, nailed down, at least to a good point to where it’s, it’s a decent, you know, recording that you’re doing. But the next thing is just really just making sure that you’re you’re creating content that’s going to relate to the people that you’re trying to reach out to basically, that’s what it really comes down to is just your game plan and how you are going to push out the content and that you’re recording or the topics that you’re talking about and things like that. That’s definitely something you want to consider when you’re starting a podcast for sure.
Abby Herman 19:55
Yeah, yeah. Know what the endgame is for the episode so that you can and ask the right questions. And, yes, so you know, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before on the podcast before, but I know you know this already, that I edit my own solo episodes. Because I record in Audacity, and I like, fix it as I go. Mess up, I’ll delete and you know, but I know that people try to edit their own podcasts using with guests, which I’ve never done, nor do I ever want to do for the reasons that you’ve already mentioned. Like the sound quality is really important. And it’s hard to, like, get them to balance sometimes. So never will I try to do that myself. But for someone who might be trying to edit for themselves, what does that look like? And how do you like? Do you have any quick, like non techie tips that you can give listeners if they’re starting and can’t afford to hire someone just yet?
Unknown Speaker 20:57
Yeah, absolutely, I would say, definitely pop on some YouTube to get some ideas of what happens when putting together a podcast. And just kind of seeing the process on what parts are put into a podcast when it comes to like intro or outro. Or just like how the editing works. And just kind of get a feel for it, you don’t have to like, become an audio engineer, master or anything like that, I would just say, you know, just do a little bit of research, a little bit of diving into how things work, just to get a feel for it. And then there are programs out there. And especially in today’s day and age, there’s one platform that I do recommend a lot of people use is D script. And basically the way this platform works is it’s all textual, visual kind of stuff. So you upload your audio or video and actually transcribes everything, and you can get in there and edit the actual text that is generated from the content that you recorded. And it does a pretty good job of that. So that’s something I would definitely check out. Everybody also, basically almost all everyone has Macs. And with MAC’s, you have a program called GarageBand, that is a great platform to get started in your sound templates to get you started. So you don’t have to worry about doing too much techie stuff, you just get in there, you choose the template, you start recording. And then you could just do the basic moving around things and basic chopping and audio edit point or something like that. And then you just export the mp3 and you know, something simple like that.
Abby Herman 22:38
That doesn’t sound simple to me. Right? Because of like, I don’t want to learn how to do that.
Unknown Speaker 22:45
Right? I mean, when it comes to it, I mean, you if you’re doing it yourself, you are going to have to do a little bit of a learning curve of like, how you want to go about putting it together, like maybe go on YouTube and just try to figure out how maybe type easy ways to put a podcast together. And I’m sure you’ll pull up a bunch of things that could help you for sure. But if you’re trying to save time, I would always suggest hiring an editor for sure. Because not only are going to make it sound great, but they’re going to put it together how you want it.
Abby Herman 23:16
Absolutely. And so that kind of leads to the next thing I want to talk about. So a client of mine recently moved from editing her own podcast, to having you edit the podcast, and which she totally has raved to me about you, by the way, what a great job you’ve done. But she told me how much time she was spending on her own editing. And that save I mean, I’m sure she’s gotten back 1520 hours a week just from the editing process and wanting things to be perfect or in a certain order and doing things in a really particular way. Which Yeah, you know, us as business owners as as coaches and consultants and service providers. That is not like that’s not our expertise. That’s that’s your expertise. I’m all for hiring somebody to do something that I don’t want to learn how to do or that’s beyond my time allowance that I have for something. What do you think, you know, aside from the time piece, and maybe maybe that’s it, maybe that’s the big one, but yeah, what do you think the benefits are of hiring somebody like you hiring someone to edit a podcast versus trying to do it yourself?
Unknown Speaker 24:33
Right? Yeah. So you did say the time is the biggest factor, even for people that don’t know what they’re doing or people that do know what they’re doing? Time is definitely going to be the biggest factor right there or the benefit for sure. Because I have plenty of clients that do edit their stuff themselves. And a lot of them are pretty well knowledge about how to do it and like what the certain processes are to make it sound pretty decent. But when it comes down to it’s just the amount of time it takes them Do It is not something they want to focus on, or they want that time to be focusing on other parts of the business for sure. And that’s where an editor definitely comes into play, you know, they just take that workload off of their hand, as opposed to somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing, that just is a huge benefit for them. Because they don’t need to wrap their head around the whole technical aspect of everything. They don’t need to figure out like, how to put certain parts together, like the intro and the music, and you know, the interview, if they have sponsors, how to insert that, and then how to, you know, exit everything coming out of the interview, and just all those parts, you know, this is where editor, they have the experience in terms of putting things together, but they also have the experience of making the conversation flow in a very consistent, fluent flow if you want. I mean, they just make it sound nice and smooth. They taken out arms and pauses, as long as any kind of mess ups and things like that. And we just know how to do that with just the user experience of editing podcasts and my background actually have not just experienced podcast editing, but also messing with films and dialogues and audiobooks and stuff like that. So I just have a vast knowledge and putting together narrations. Basically, to me, it’s just second nature of like how the flow of a conversation should sound and how it should sound natural and basically, not too choppy or anything like that. And that’s where an editor definitely comes into place, just making the show just sound really nice and fluent. And then also making it sound technically nice in terms of like, how balanced the levels are, how clear everyone sounds, and the overall package should be delivered that the client gets back.
Abby Herman 26:40
Yes, I love that. Absolutely. I would much rather have an expert, I’m in the process of, of remodeling a home and I am doing exactly zero of the work because a I don’t want to, and I don’t want to learn, I don’t know how to do anything. I’m not handy, but I want it done correctly. I know that when I flushed one toilet, it doesn’t come up in the other oil.
Unknown Speaker 27:08
Yeah, exactly. And that ended, that’s what we’re here is like we, the client, sometimes they do know what they want. Sometimes they don’t know what they want in terms of like how to put things together. And just from us having experience with other shows and things like that, we can help them come to a point to where they have their podcasts, you know, sounding really great, or just the structure of it, you know, how the intro comes in? Or how the watch parts just come first? You know, I mean, that’s just where we come into play and help them out with that kind of stuff.
Abby Herman 27:41
Yeah, love that. Okay. So this is probably my favorite question that I’m going to ask you. And I should probably start asking this to everyone, because it’s one of my favorite things to talk about. Pet peeves. I would love to know, from your perspective, what is the most annoying thing that you hear? Because I know that you’ve heard 1000s of hours 1000s upon 1000s of hours of of video and audio, and there are things that you probably you probably have told your clients because I know you’ve told me multiple times to do something about my audio, my audio quality, here I am doing it finally, but things that that guests need to know, as as a guest on the podcast things that the hosts need to know, as far as you know, conducting a good interview, because I know that you’ve just heard so many and I know that some of them have probably been fantastic. And some of them probably have been not so great. So I’d love to know, like some of the things that you’ve heard, tell us the dirt. You don’t have to mention anybody’s names, especially if it’s me.
Daniel Romeros 28:50
Definitely. I definitely wouldn’t. I gotta take a drink for this one. No. Okay. No fine. Pet peeves, I would say. So when I first started, I definitely had a bunch of pet peeves. And I was always kind of just like, why are they doing this? Why are doing doing that? Why don’t they just know, you know, like, why can’t you do it? Right. But I actually came to the point to where I realize that these people don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have that knowledge of like doing the right thing, or they haven’t learned about a certain thing. And I just really came to the realization that it’s not their fault. They just they’re still in the learning process. And that’s something that I instead of getting angry or upset or anything like that I actually want to help them figure out how to do certain things to just make it be better. You know, I mean, just make it their shows sound a little bit enhanced or anything like that. It’s like a point where I’m more trying to be helpful in terms of like, making people get the things that they’re trying to do just to be a little bit better. But I mean, I guess it is like internal pet peeves. But I just like I said, I came to the point to where like I understand now where I’m not like, yeah, upset over the things that they’re doing, but I’m rather
Abby Herman 30:13
what are some of the things that you feel like they like people need to know because you’ve you’ve had to tell multiple clients the same the same thing, or you’ve made the same recommendation about how someone brings guests on or something like that. Is there? Are there things that kind of stand out that you’ve had to mention multiple times?
Unknown Speaker 30:33
I think the most thing that’s common that I have to remind people about is just making sure they have the right microphone, that they want to record it that it’s set to the right setting. And it’s turned on maybe, like, yeah, this happens more often than you would think is people pop on Zoom, or they go to Zen caster, Riverside, whichever platform they’re using. And they think they’re already they have their mic right up to their mouth, and then they start recording, I get the recording, and it’s definitely not the microphone that they were trying to use. It was probably their like laptop or computer microphone, and it just sounds really echoey and how professional. So that’s something I definitely get a lot that’s, I just have to send reminders of like, hey, whenever you’re recording, or first I’ll say, Hey, I just noticed that your recording sounded a little off. definitely sounds like it was probably from your computer microphone, and not the professional one that you have. So that’s that’s definitely something that happens a lot. I think another thing would probably be the your dongle that has the microphone on it like the earpiece talking because you have one on but you’re not recording with that one. You’re you have no.
Abby Herman 31:41
Yeah, there’s not even a microphone on the one that I have that I’m using. I’ve just had my separate microphone. Yeah, right. Yeah. So tensional. So I don’t accidentally do that.
Unknown Speaker 31:51
Yeah, so I hope you guys know what I’m talking about. But basically, it’s just that your piece that goes in your ear has the wire that hangs down. But there’s like a little piece on that wire that is basically where the microphone is. And it never fails, that that little thing always moves around, it rubs against people’s hair or their clothes or as somebody has drawing on a necklace or anything like that 100% of the time, it’s always causing issues with sound. And that’s probably, I would say the most like frustrating part on my end. But it’s usually a guest that has that kind of setup. So what I always tried to recommend to the host is that if they see that the guest has that your dongle to basically just see if they maybe have something else or just secure their hair or any kind of jewelry to just make sure that none of the sound happens. So it won’t be distracting for the listeners.
Abby Herman 32:41
Yes, I. And, you know, I actually had this conversation with a client a while back because there was a lot of background noise on her guest on her guests side. And I said, you know, like I said, Do not feel bad for stopping the interviewer and saying, you know, hey, I can hear a lot of background noise, would you mind moving to a quieter location or whatever, because it reflects on you as the host when the the audio quality is not great. And when there’s a lot of stuff going on, I had a guest a while back who I could hear like dishes and stuff being done in the background. And I did, I stopped the interview and I asked her to either tell the person to stop or to move to another place. And I mean, it wasn’t rude about it. But you really want the best quality audio,
Unknown Speaker 33:36
you basically want to eliminate distractions, because that will hinder your listeners from getting the message. Basically, if they’re constantly hearing their subconscious, if they hear a sound, they’re gonna subconsciously hear, listen for another one will, which will take them away from the message that’s being sent to them. So definitely eliminate any distractions and stuff like that. The good thing is, is that we have like in today’s world, there’s technology that can eliminate sounds that are happening. But when they’re too loud, or they’re too prominent, there’s some really good software that can take out sounds but if it’s too prominent, even those things are not going to help as well. So you always want the sound to be great from the start. And yeah, that’s that’s a good point is if you are hearing those things happening during your interview, definitely feel free to pause. Not literally, like pause the recording, but you could just take a moment to tell your guests Hey, this is Yeah, I hear this Can we just take a minute to maybe try to reduce the sounds or anything like that and the good thing about podcasts it’s not live so that’s another thing to just like consider it’s not live you’re not having people watch you right now it’s all going to be edited so any kind of pauses that are mistakes are happening. Those can all be taken out and honestly there was a few that happened even during this recording. That is not going to be in here so you guys are not hearing that but it’s it’s just real life and that’s that’s just kind of The great thing about podcasts is that you know, you don’t have to worry about it being perfect right off the first tape, you can take things out and that kind of stuff. So,
Abby Herman 35:08
absolutely, yeah, I mean, I say, you know, I don’t do it all the time. But from time to time during an interview, I will say, sorry, in the middle of the interview, I will talk to Daniel, who is listening after the fact. And I’ll say, sorry, Daniel, gonna change that to this or, you know, cut that part out. And, and he does. And so yeah, that’s awesome. So nice to have somebody like you on my team. I love it.
Unknown Speaker 35:33
Yeah, no, I’m definitely glad to help. And that’s actually a good point is talking to your editor while you’re doing things, even if it’s your solo recordings, just literally leaving an audible note for your editor. It helps them so much to like, know that that’s the spot where they need to cut and go back to a certain point because I’ve had it happen numerous times where my client is recording, and then they’ll just restart in like, sometimes to me, it doesn’t even sound like it’s a restart. I feel like sometimes they’re just continuing going. But sure enough, I would send the episode to them and be like, hey, this was actually me restarting over again. And like, I didn’t know that because, yeah, I’m listening. But sometimes it’s really hard to catch the point where they restarted so I always say, least some type of audible cue, or even in your notes when you’re sending me an episode to let me know where edit point is. Yeah, I love it.
Abby Herman 36:21
Awesome. And I actually have an episode that came out in May. So this episode is going live in July. So in May episode 181, I talked about being a better podcast host. So I highly recommend everyone go listen to that so that you can hear how to make someone like Daniel’s life a little bit easier, hopefully.
Unknown Speaker 36:43
Because there’s multiple people involved. Here we are, we are unicorns. But sometimes, you know, if a process is difficult for us, it might take longer for it to get back to you.
Abby Herman 36:53
Yes, yes. Awesome. Well, Daniel, this has been so helpful and so valuable. But I know that it’s been about 40 minutes or so. So if you could like distill our entire conversation down into two tips, do you have like two actionable tips that if people don’t take anything else away from the episode, what do you want them to know?
Unknown Speaker 37:15
One big tip is if you are wanting any type of traffic, or wanting people to know about your brand, or business or anything like that, having a podcast is definitely going to be a good option for people to get to know you, or your business or just what you do, I would definitely say start a podcast, they’re growing so fast, you want to jump on the train, they’re going to help you out, there’s many people to help you in terms of launching a podcast, this is something I do as well. And not just like plugging myself in. But you know, there’s many people out there that that will help with this process of you starting one and walk you through like things that you can do to put it in all the right parts and structure it to have it be a successful podcast. And then the second thing I would suggest is just if you are in the process of having a podcast is just to make sure you always get the audio great from the start, because that will do wonders for the rest entire process of your quality of your episode.
Abby Herman 38:14
I love it. Great tips. Where can people find out more about you?
Unknown Speaker 38:19
Yeah, so unfortunately, I’m not like all over like social media. I’ve haven’t had the time to bid on Instagram or Facebook or anything like that. I’m working on it. But right now you can just find me at my website at a drpodcast.com.
Abby Herman 38:35
Fantastic. I’ll make sure I have links in the show notes. So thank you so much, Daniel, for being here. And for doing this and for all the work that you do for me and for some of my clients. I love it.
Daniel Romeros 38:47
Absolutely. It was a pleasure.
Abby Herman 38:49
All right, I am so happy that I was able to share that conversation with you. Daniel is a wealth of knowledge and clearly a much better person than me, as I tried to get him to talk about pet peeves, and he wouldn’t he wouldn’t engage. So kudos to Daniel, one of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that good audio isn’t as challenging as you might think. But it’s also probably a lot more important than the attention that you are paying it right now. If you are creating audio content, of course, the quality of that audio is paramount.
Abby Herman 39:27
And just a reminder that the podcast ease q&a sessions are coming up starting next week, July 28. I’m going to be hosting a series of at least 10 weeks of q&a sessions, all around topics that will help you to get started or grow your podcast. We’re talking about what you need to get started, how to find your podcast and voice how to determine what topics you will talk about on your podcast, how to find the best guests and so much more. The q&a sessions are Thursday mornings at 8am Pacific and they are $99 to join us for all 10 weeks head to thecontentexperiment.com/ease e a s e to register. I truly hope that I will see you there. If you found value in what you learned here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it on Instagram stories. You can tag me out to the content experiment for a shout out for me. The more you share, the more we can get the podcast into the hands of more business owners just like you who need to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time, take care.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
