We've talked a lot over the last few episodes about what you want and need, and that's important. But one thing I think many people miss when they are looking for an editor is that not every editor has the same kind of business model.

Think it doesn't matter?

Think again. Your editor's business model will significantly influence the kinds of services they are able to offer, the way you work with them, and so much more. Each different business model archetype has some pros and cons.

After today, you'll have an understanding of each, and be able to pick the one that you think will work best for you. And it will absolutely influence where you look for the best editors and how you make your choice.

Here are the 4 categories:

1. Freelancer
2. Small Team
3. Agency
4. Employee

Listen now, and then take a minute to think through what will be best for you!

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Bryan Entzminger: 00:00:00

So you're thinking about hiring a podcast editor, but have you ever considered that editor's business

Bryan Entzminger: 00:00:06

model and how it matters to what you're looking for?

Bryan Entzminger: 00:00:09

There are actually four different categories of podcast editor, business models, and each one of them has its own pros and cons.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:00:16

If you're not considering all four of them, you might actually be leaving your best option on the.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:00:25

Welcome to Hiring a Podcast Editor.

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My name is Bryan Entzminger.

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I'm a podcast, editor and manager at TopTierAudio.com.

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This show is intended to help you be able to find the right podcast editor for you.

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Whether you're looking for your first editor.

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Or your next editor in season one, we're going to help you get clarity on what you really want before you

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start connecting with editors and then provide you with the tools to make the right decision for yourself.

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This show is sponsored by TopTierAudio.com, where we provide podcast production services for

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multi-passionate coaches, trainers, and consultants.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:00:57

Be sure to stick around to the end, and I'll tell you how you can get a free tool to help you organize

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:01

your thoughts and make sure you don't miss anything.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:06

We've talked a lot over the last few episodes about what you want and need and that's important stuff.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:13

But one thing that I think a lot of people miss when they're looking for an editor, is that not

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:19

every editor has the same kind of business model.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:22

Now you might be thinking well, does that even matter?

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:25

And the fact is.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:27

It does your editor's business model will significantly influence the kinds of services they're

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:33

able to offer the way that you work with them.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:36

And a whole lot of other stuff as well.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:38

Each one of these business model archetypes has some pros and some cons after today, you'll

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:43

have an understanding of what each of them is.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:46

And have some information to help you pick the one that you think will work best for you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:50

And it will absolutely influence things like where you look to find the best editors and also how you make your choice.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:01:58

So here are the four categories I'm just going to go through them quickly.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:02:01

Then I'm going to go through each of them a little bit differently.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:02:03

So here are the four categories.

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One category is freelancers.

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Then we have number two, a small team.

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Number three would be an agency.

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And number four.

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Is an employee.

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Let's talk about these a little bit more deeply.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:02:16

First up is the freelancer.

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And I think this is what most people probably think of when they're thinking about a podcast editor.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:02:24

This is the kind of thing that I see very often in Facebook groups.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:02:27

When somebody says they're looking for an editor.

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Typically, they're looking for a freelancer.

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This would be working with a single editor or maybe a podcast manager who is essentially a one person shop.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:02:40

There are some pros to this business model first off.

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Depending on your preference, it might be great to know that you're working with the business

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owner, that you have a direct connection to the person who's doing the work and owns the business.

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They're often very responsive to you and they may have, they may have a faster turnaround

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time than some of these other business models.

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And they may also have a lower price point.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:03:04

However, this does come with some cons.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:03:06

When your editor wants to go on vacation or has an illness, do they have.

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Any redundancy at all, or do they have limited redundancy?

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How do they handle that kind of stuff?

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And also if you have a freelancer who offers a huge suite of services, how do you know that they're

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actually able to do all of those at a very high level?

Bryan Entzminger: 00:03:26

So those are some of the trade offs there.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:03:28

As an example, I'm just going to make up a, a few examples to help demonstrate how these might play out for the freelancer.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:03:33

We're going to talk about freelance Freddie now, freelance.

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Freddie has a show.

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It's a combo show.

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He does half interviews and half monologues, and he's supporting his business by nurturing relationships and helping to stay in.

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Of his ideal listener.

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However, he has a very small budget.

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He's doing things like bootstrapping his social media content.

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He also batch records once a month and releases weekly.

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So he really just needs somebody to edit those.

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So he records at the end of a month and then re releases over the following month.

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So that editor has time to work on stuff.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:08

He doesn't need that person to.

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All of the other things just wants to work with an editor.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:13

In that case, a freelancer might be an I ideal choice for freelance.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:17

Freddie.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:19

Next up is a small team.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:21

Now this could be a business with some employees.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:24

There are definitely some of those out there.

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It could also be a.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:27

An independent contractor or a freelancer who works with a small team of other independent contractors.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:33

Some of them may be formal relationships.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:35

Some of them may be informal, but they work as a team.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:38

And so you're starting to get some of the benefits of having a team without the infrastructure

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:43

of having to support a team as much.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:45

So this could be a small business, it could be a group of people that just work together.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:50

One of the pros is that it's still likely going to feel.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:55

Personal and very responsive because typically you're going to have a single point of contact who

Bryan Entzminger: 00:04:59

is the person that you're primarily working with.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:02

They're going to be responsive to you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:04

They're going to have a team of people that are very good at what they're doing.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:07

So they're going to have some specialization, whereas a freelancer who offers everything may not have that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:13

And they may even have some redundancy built into their network of businesses.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:17

They work with.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:18

However, this may also come with some cons.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:21

They might have a slightly higher price point than a.

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Person doing this all for themselves.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:26

They may still have some impact for vacations and illnesses.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:30

If, for example, you're working with one particular person who does have a team of independent contractors they work

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:36

with, but this one person is still your point of contact.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:39

When that person is ill, there could be some challenges that arise.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:43

So that could be something to think about in terms of a small team, but it is another option.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:48

And it's kind of that middle place between.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:50

Working with a single person and working with a much larger business.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:05:54

For this example, we're going to talk about small team Sydney, small team Sydney interviews, thought leaders, and offers a

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:02

membership program in coaching as well as a couple of courses.

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Because of this small team, Sydney already has a very full plate and she plans for her podcast to become the

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:13

pillar content for her marketing strategy going forward.

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She wants help with production and podcast management, but also with creating and implementing social

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:22

media marketing content and advertising programs.

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However, this is.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:27

All that small team Sydney is looking for and small team Sydney still wants some of that personal relationship.

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She wants to feel like she's got a connection with the person that she's working with.

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That she's really working with the business owner, even though this is a small team.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:42

So this is why small team Sydney might be looking for.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:45

A small team.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:47

Hi, there, I'm popping in for just a second to tell you about boom caster.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:50

If you're going to be recording your podcast while streaming live, either with a co-host or with guests

Bryan Entzminger: 00:06:56

or something like that, you're going to need a service that does that and gives you high quality

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:00

recordings and boom caster is a great service for that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:03

They offer an excellent live stream experience.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:06

And super high quality audio and video recordings.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:09

So later you can edit those into your final podcast episode.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:12

You can find them@boomcaster.com or click the link in the episode notes.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:17

If you use that, you'll also get a discount on your purchase and your purchase will benefit the show.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:22

So I'd really appreciate that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:23

Boom caster is what I recommend for you to capture those great recordings for your podcast.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:28

The third kind

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:29

that we're going to talk about

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:30

is the agency model.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:31

This is typically going to be more of a full service business.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:35

Sometimes you'll find this where an agency offers a full suite of marketing services and podcasting is just a part of that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:42

It also might be an agency that offers podcast production and management services, and they offer a full suite.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:49

Services to support that.

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So there's kind of a couple nuances there.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:53

Typically this is going to be something

Bryan Entzminger: 00:07:54

where you may have a dedicated account manager, or maybe they have a team of podcast managers that work with you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:00

So you're going to get some

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:01

level of relationship, but you're probably not going to be working day in and day out with the business

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:05

owner or with the particular team member that you work.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:09

Other than that account manager, there are some pros to this business model.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:13

One is that with this kind of business model, you will often find a high level of specialization and

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:20

redundancy.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:20

You're going to find that

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:21

they have built their team with people that are very good at what they do.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:25

And

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:25

typically they're going to have more

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:26

than one person in each kind of

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:28

role.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:28

They're going to have some

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:29

method of planning for vacations within their team, and they may also offer a larger scope of.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:36

Or maybe a larger menu of offerings.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:38

So because they're a full service agency, they probably offer a large number of things that

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:44

some of these other models couldn't support.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:46

And if you need those things, this is probably the way

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:48

that you're going to get that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:49

There are some cons though, an account manager could feel personal or it could feel like you're

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:54

just getting the employee that was assigned to you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:08:57

And so it's not maybe going to be quite as engaging as working with a business.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:01

If they've got a great account manager, it might be even more engaging than working with that business owner.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:05

You might also find that there's maybe a little bit less flexibility in what packages they offer, because

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:12

they, they may be doing a large volume of work.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:15

They may have to build their business around having consistent processes for everybody.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:19

So you may not get as much flexibility for that kind of thing.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:22

And you may also find that there's a much higher price point to this kind of business model,

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:26

because there's a larger infrastructure to support.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:30

Now, there may sometimes be some benefit because of things like economies of scale.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:34

But typically you're going to find that this is going to be a higher price point.

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And at some point there is going to be a diminishing return for your increased cost.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:43

And so that's really something that

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:44

you're just going to have to think

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:45

through and determine if this is the right tool for you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:48

Agency,

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:49

Annie, this is going to be the right

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:51

solution.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:52

Annie is a full-time podcaster, whose podcast is the center of her content ecosystem.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:09:58

However, she also offers coaching and consulting.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:01

She sells advertising and has a magazine, and she also has three books that are out there and she needs help with.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:08

Everything she needs help with editing and content strategy.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:11

She wants to do something with a really high production value.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:13

So she's going to need help

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:14

with story editing and writing scripts and research, and a whole gamut of other things.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:21

Her show is going to have a very

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:22

high production value and she needs to know that it's going to be great every single time.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:28

So she's looking for an agency that can help her deliver.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:32

The last one.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:33

And I think this is one that a lot of people skip and it is probably because it's maybe not appropriate

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:37

for them, but there is the option to have an employee working full-time or part-time for you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:42

This may be something where they have additional duties beyond just.

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Editing a podcast.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:48

The pros for this kind of model is that you are typically going to have a stronger working relationship with this person that

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:55

you may not have to share their workload with other people.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:58

Right?

Bryan Entzminger: 00:10:58

So if you're working with a freelancer that freelancer may have other clients, whereas if you have

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:04

somebody working for you, they're working for you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:07

And one of the benefits that a lot of people maybe overlook is that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:11

You can define their success metrics based on what's good for your business goals.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:16

So you can make sure that the metrics that the editor that you're working with, that the editor that you hire

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:22

as an employee are aligned with your business goals.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:25

So that everybody's sort of marching to the same drummer, if you will, as opposed to, if you're working with somebody.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:33

Is a contracted business or a freelancer.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:35

Typically what you're going to be measuring them on is what's specified in a contract, which

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:40

may not be at all related to business goals.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:43

So that's, that's the benefit there.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:45

The cons though, is depending on how this plays out, it could be significantly more expensive when

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:50

you start thinking about things like insurance and employee taxes and all of those kinds of things.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:55

It could be more expensive.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:11:58

You're going to be the one who's responsible for supplying an appropriate amount of work and

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:02

management oversight and all of that kind of stuff.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:05

And you're back to being the one who has to plan for vacations and illnesses.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:08

This is just part of having a business.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:10

And so if you've got an employee, this is going to be part of that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:13

Our

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:14

example here is going to be employer.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:15

Eli.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:16

Eli has actually been in the process of outsourcing the production of his podcast for a while.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:21

He also has some other videos and some other content that a production team handles for.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:26

He loves what they do, but he's starting to feel constrained by having to fit everything into their production timelines,

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:32

because they're always balancing the needs of multiple clients.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:35

He's decided

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:36

that it's going to be the best

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:37

thing for him to bring in the editing and production into his business so that he

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:42

can ensure that everybody's working towards the same goals and can be responsive to changing business needs.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:49

He already has people in place who can handle things like social media and the other marketing and all that kind of stuff.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:54

Even though that other team was handling that he can bring that in.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:57

He's confident that his team can handle that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:12:59

So he just needs to find somebody who can come in and be part of his business and handle the video and the audio content.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:06

So here's the question for you?

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:08

Does one of these, describe you or maybe fit your needs a little bit, given the chance would you choose to

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:14

work with a freelancer, a small team, an agency, or an employee make a note of that and then come back next

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:19

week.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:20

We're going to talk about

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:21

what you're going to do with all the time.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:22

You'll get back by having an editor working on your show.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:27

If you'd like to be able to get the clarity you need in order to avoid making a hiring mistake, be sure to download our

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:32

guide 15 questions to ask before hiring a podcast editor, you can find it at HireAPodcastEditor.com/15questions,

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:41

and it'll be linked up in the show notes.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:42

It's totally free.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:43

We don't require an email address or anything like that.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:46

We just want to make sure that you have the tools that you need to make the right decision for you.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:50

That guide has the questions we'll talk about on this show.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:53

Some instructions and suggestions.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:55

Even a place to take notes.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:13:57

If you want to get even more out of it, though, be sure to subscribe to this show at HireAPodcastEditor.com/listen

Bryan Entzminger: 00:14:04

and share it with the rest of your team.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:14:06

Your work is important.

Bryan Entzminger: 00:14:07

Now.