Got dreams of being a professional podcaster, but have no idea what you're doing.
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This is impossible.
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That's about to change.
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A new kind of school.
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Welcome to the POD School podcast.
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Hello there.
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In today's episode, I'm going to be answering a question from Angie.
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She has asked a very simple question, but I think it's really important.
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And that is, is it okay to edit an interview down?
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What I would say about editing in general is you would never, ever, ever show ship out an episode of your podcast that didn't have some editing.
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I don't think there is a professional I have worked with in the business that could record a tight 20 minutes with no mess, no fluff, that requires no cutting whatsoever.
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It's not a measure of am I good enough and can I record something that doesn't need any editing?
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It's a measure of professionalism to edit a show.
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So it is really important to think about editing like a fantastic tool in your podcasting toolkit that allows you to sometimes polish a dirt.
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Now, you are never going to get terrible content back from the brink with editing, but I have certainly had some episodes where either I've been on shows or we've produced shows and the vibe's not quite right.
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Between the talent, something's a bit off in the studio.
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It feels like this ain't working, but then a little nip and a tuck afterwards and it sounds like everybody had a great day.
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The same happens with an interview.
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Sometimes it might take you a little bit of time to warm up.
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Your guest might be really long winded in their answers.
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They may not answer the questions that you've asked them in the way that you would hope they would answer them.
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And that might mean that you might ask a question multiple times to get the right answer.
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And nobody needs to hear all that.
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That is for sure.
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So editing is such a great tool and it is used by everybody.
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And sometimes I feel like when you're starting out a, you'd be really scared of editing because, yeah, it's a thing that you have to get your head around.
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It is not super difficult, but it does take practice.
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You need to understand the lay of the land, and then you need to really give it a try.
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And becoming a good editor is not something that you can get good at without really tuning your ear to becoming good at it.
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And you need to hear, when you're listening to something, does this sound edited?
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That's the basic sort of thing behind becoming a good editor and being able to hear that.
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It's like does this sound like this happened as a single seamless conversation?
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Or can I hear.
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These words are too close together and no one would talk like that.
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Or this really needs a breath in between it, because that is not a normal cadence of a conversation.
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Or like the phrasing is off, you know.
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So those are kind of some of the things that you need to be really mindful of.
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But you absolutely have to edit.
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It's essential.
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And you need to make sure that your audience is getting the best possible content when you press release on your episodes.
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So editing is in a really important part of that.
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The other thing I always say is that your audience has no idea what's in the cutting room floor.
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Sometimes you can get very attached to things as you're listening to them and you're editing them.
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And if you are editing properly, you are going to be listening to a track multiple times.
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The first kind of pass, you sort of cutting out big chunks of things and you go back to a bit more of a fine edit.
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You probably give it a third listen through.
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And if on that third listen you're like, I'm not really that jazzed about that bit anymore, cut it out.
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If you found it interesting in the first bit and you don't by the third bit, ideally you want to be hearing content that is going to be great to listen to no matter how many times you listen to it.
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So you need to be quite brutal sometimes with some of the stuff.
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And it is hard to not be attached to things that you have created.
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But that is a part of the editing skill as well, to be able to be comfortable, to say goodbye to things that your audience don't even know exist.
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So if you say goodbye to them and it means a great end product, all they know is listen to this great end product that I've got.
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What an amazing interview.
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I can't believe it happened like this in one go.
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And it just sounds interesting from start to finish and I'm loving every second of it.
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And the reality is it didn't happen like that.
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You edited it so it had happened like that.
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And that is very important.
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So make sure if you are going to be starting your podcast or you are doing a podcast currently, that editing is something that you are really putting time and effort into.
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You don't have to do it yourself.
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If that's not a skill, you can outsource that to somebody else.
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But you do definitely need to make sure that that is a part of the process of creating and releasing your podcast.
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If you want your audience to get the best of the best.
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And if you want to learn a bit about editing, I actually teach quite a bit about it in my online podcasting course, Pod School, which you can find out more about@podschool.com if you have a question that you would like me to answer, please head to the link in the description of the episode and I will add it to the list.
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Because there's lots of little questions that people have and I love it.
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It's so good because if you are not doing this every single day, it is natural that there are things that you would want to know more about.
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So no question is too big or too little.
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Some of these episodes I there will be a lot to dive into.
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Others it will just be a kind of tidbit advice that is a bit shorter.
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But all of this stuff is so important to be adding into your knowledge when you're creating a show if you want to be really shipping out the best show possible.
