Mobile Audio Technology & Podcasting On the Go - Putting Audio to Work

“I get a bigger satisfaction working with things that has a constraint in terms of budget, you know, cannot be overly expensive. You have to deliver a ton of value for the money. I think this is so cool to work with that and like kind of, you know, work a miracle out of the parts that you have. Then, you know, go super fancy and, oh, this is the best thing ever. And you should pay, you know, ten grand for this. And then you can basically use anything. I think this is sort of like the movies that when, you know, the budget is short, sometimes the movie is a lot better and then the sequel, when you have a lot more budget, much more money to make the movie, maybe it’s not as good.” -- Fernando Eid Pires

This episode's guest is a relentless entrepreneur and a highly skilled electrical engineer with five patents and an inspiring history to share. His name is Fernando Pires and I first came across him and his expertise when a fellow VO reviewed a wonderful audio interface he'd come up with. It's currently called the PodMobile, but he may change that name in the future. It's a useful new tool to help voice actors and podcasters alike, get the best sound for their recordings: I've tried it myself and can tell you it is an excellent piece of equipment. We talk more about where his love of sound started, his electrical engineering, his current interest in sound, and where he thinks it'll end up. So stay tuned!

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Between Toys and Sound

The interview starts with Fernando’s memories of listening to music in the car as a child, and we talk about how audio became a passion for him early on. “I was between toys and sound equipment,” Fernando explains. “But when I was twelve years old, it became pretty much all about audio.” He tells us about growing up in São Paulo and how its music scene helped cultivate his love of music. “If you want to listen to jazz on a Tuesday night,” he says, “you got it. If you want to listen to blues, you got it. Bossa nova, you got it. Samba, you got it. Anything. So rock and roll? Plenty.”

An Expensive Lesson

Fernando talks about his first patent, a beautifully designed and ingenious custom audio mixer that turned out to be hopelessly impractical. “It was a wooden cabinet painted silver,” he says, “like automotive paint. It was like the iPod of professional audio. It worked great. It was a pleasure to use, but to build it? Oh my goodness.” We talk about the hours of work he poured into each one of the hundred devices he eventually sold, and the lessons he learned from that project. “Honestly, that patent resulted in nothing,” he admits. “It was just extremely expensive. It wasn’t a good idea.”

Entrepreneurs from Birth

The conversation turns to his success with the PodMobile and the entrepreneurial spirit that carried him through those early setbacks, a spirit he thinks many people possess without realizing it. “I believe that most people have that in them when they’re young,” he explains, “and it kind of, it never gets reinforced basically, unless your parents, one of them are an entrepreneur.” He talks about how his early jobs supported him while he developed the PodMobile, and his desire to help create jobs for other people who might also be starting out as entrepreneurs. As Fernando puts it, “I think there’s, personally, I think there’s a moral duty. I feel a sense of obligation to at least try to do it.”

Me Helping You

We talk about his storied career as an inventor, and how those early mixed results nonetheless helped him reach his goals today. "As I made errors and invested money in this prototype and that patent and then a hundred units that turned no profit whatsoever," he tells us, "I kept recycling that money. I never spent that money personally. But I recycling it and putting on the next thing and then the next thing" Fernando talks about how his work with audio technology and podcasting clients brought him into the voiceover industry, and how welcoming and supportive a community it's turned out to be. "The VO world is not like me versus you. It's me helping you, and the mindset was beautiful."

Episode Summary

• Fernando’s early memories of sound and experiences as a guitar player
• How a surprise friendship helped him learn the importance of salesmanship
• Fernando’s first patent and the expensive lessons that it taught him
• The entrepreneurial instinct and how children often lose it over time
• How Fernando gained a fresh perspective through the VO industry

Tune in next week as we discuss some of the technical challenges and innovations behind PodMobile, the grandfather whose life inspired Fernando’s journey as an entrepreneur, and how digital music, from Spotify playlists to lofi hip hop, came through for him during some of his darkest hours.

Connect with the Guest:

Website: https://fpires.com/

Audio Sigma: https://audiosigma.com/

Jumpstart by Fernando Eid Pires: https://fpires.com/jumpstart/

Connect with Fernando Eid Pires on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pireseid/

Connect with Fernando Eid Pires on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fernando.eidpires

Follow Fernando Eid Pires on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PiresEid

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Editing/Production by Humberto Franco - https://humbertofranco.com/