As much as I rail against the "podcasting is cheap and easy" mentality,

podcasting is cheap and easy for a lot of podcasters.

But your content doesn't have to sound that way.

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

So I had a bad thing happen to me not long ago.

I tried to hide this from you, or shelter you from this, but it's going

to come out and you're going to hear it.

I'm not sure how it happened, but I take great pains to ensure that

things like this do not happen.

But during the recording of another podcast, not this show, my audio was bad.

I know.

The horror of it all!

And not so bad that you can't hear clearly what I'm saying, but it's

so bad that it's markedly different from the way I strive to sound on,

well, all of my recordings, right?

Whether it's a show I'm producing or whether it's an appearance I'm making on

another podcast, I want to sound good.

It's not bad enough for us to scrap the entire episode.

I've done that before.

But it is bad enough that, at the top of the show, there's a

disclaimer that's going to be placed that says, "Evo's audio is bad."

I don't like that.

Now, people brand new to the show are thinking, "Oh, great, yet

another audio pre-Madonna who won't accept anything except perfection."

And while that statement is directionally true, it's very superlative

and that does not describe me.

The reality is I care less about perfection, but I won't settle

for anything that isn't quality.

Now to me, quality means doing the best you can with what you have to work with.

That's my definition.

That means your environment, your equipment, your voice, your experience,

your level of comfort, all of those things are part of the what you have

to work with portion of that statement.

And I think all of them can be made better, up to the point where they're

all working together that allow you to make a quality podcast or appear

as a quality guest on a podcast.

But not a perfect podcast.

Perfect is an imaginary destination.

It's a goal we strive toward.

But quality?

Now that's a commitment you can make to every single piece of content

you produce starting right now.

My approach to quality this way - again, doing the best you can with

what you have to work with - is why you won't hear me giving a lot

of How To advice on this podcast.

Look, every word in that phrase, "doing the best you can with what you have to

work with" is unique to every podcaster.

And it's your best.

Not everyone's best.

It's what you have to work with.

Not what everyone else has to work with.

Approaching quality this way means you are not chasing the perfect microphone.

You're not looking for the perfect recording solution or trying to select

the perfect format for your episodes.

Heck, you're not even looking for the best of those things or even

the top rated of those things because those things are things.

They're just objects, objects that will perform differently under your

hands, like they perform differently under my hands or as they would perform

differently under someone else's hands.

It's the you that brings the best to the party, not those objects.

Making a personal commitment to quality means you care.

You care about your own listeners to your own show.

You care about the listeners of other shows that you appear on.

You care about the craft of podcasting.

And also that means you're committing to quality in all the

things you do with podcasting.

Again, every single time you're interviewed on another podcast.

Yes, every episode of your podcast, but also every presentation

you give at a conference.

Everything you do podcast-y, make that commitment to quality.

But remember, a commitment to quality does not mean a refusal to

accept anything that is not perfect.

A commitment to quality doesn't mean you can't act like a goofball

sometimes, lord knows I do.

A commitment to quality simply means that you are confident that you are doing the

best you can with what you have today.

And if you can get to better tomorrow, you will.

With that, I shall be back directly with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.

He's on a mission to make podcasting better.

Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes

section of your podcast listening app.

A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at

podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected

transcript, both created by Allie Press.

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.