Join me for an insightful conversation with Chris Smith from Podtastic Audio as we dive deep into the world of podcasting audio.

I ask Chris why there seems to be a preference for audio podcasting over video and how listener statistics should inform podcast content. He shares effective ways to improve audio quality in podcasts, pointing out "With audio, you can do more with less. Audio is probably the only content that ever would exist that you can physically consume while doing anything else."

We discuss the immersive experience of audio, podcast advertising, challenges in video editing compared to audio, and much more. You'll hear nuggets of wisdom from Chris like "What's in it for the listeners? I know why you as the podcaster are doing it...But why should the listener care? Why are they here? What are they getting out of this?” We'll also talk about the statistic that 80% of podcasters DON'T use video as part of their podcasting production.

Tune in for actionable podcasting tips and insights on how to create a successful podcast without spending a fortune.

🎧 Listen to Podtastic Audio - https://podtasticaudio.com/

Highlights:

• Advice on creating a great podcast without spending a fortune
• The benefits of audio podcasts and the ability to create an immersive experience for listeners
• The preference for audio podcasts over video podcasts and the freedom and convenience it offers
• Understanding your audience and using listener statistics to inform content creation decisions
• The immersive experience of audio and the quick pacing of YouTube videos
• The significance of audio quality in podcasting and actionable tips for improving it
• The difference between radio and podcast advertising, and the ability to skip ads in podcasts
• The impact of microphone choice, headphone usage, and environment on audio quality
• The importance of engaging content and providing value to the listeners.

Timestamps:

• [00:00:00] Intro
• [00:03:46] Why Focus on Audio Podcasts
• [00:10:16] The Pros and Cons of Audio vs Video Podcasting
• [00:16:05] The Importance of Knowing Your Audience in Podcasting
• [00:21:17] The Power of Audio and YouTube's Quick Pace
• [00:29:48] Improving Audio Quality for Podcasts
• [00:35:51] The Importance of Audio Quality in Podcasting

📧 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://veritysangan.com/newsletter

Freebies:

✅ Podcast Launch Checklist and Episode Planner - https://veritysangan.com/launchchecklist

🎉 Grow Your Podcast Audience 5-day Email Challenge - https://veritysangan.com/5daychallenge

🙋‍♀️ Podcasting - Getting Your Business Heard - https://veritysangan.com/podcastwebinar

[00:00:05] Verity Sangan: I am so excited.

[00:00:14] Verity Sangan: We've got Chris from podastic audio.

[00:00:18] Verity Sangan: Please tell us who you are and also about your wonderful podcast.

[00:00:23] Chris Smith: It's a great pleasure to be here.

[00:00:29] Chris Smith: It's actually raining.

[00:00:31] Chris Smith: This stormcam out of nowhere, but I've been in podcasting for maybe four years or so.

[00:00:41] Chris Smith: We were just dating at the time and I said, hey, let's try a podcast because my son had like an Xbox game system and he had one of those headset players that you plug right into the console.

[00:00:55] Chris Smith: I ordered him one.

[00:00:57] Chris Smith: I plugged it into my computer at the time and I was like just playing with the thing and I'm like, wait a second, I might be able to do a podcast with this stupid thing.

[00:01:09] Chris Smith: She's like, I don't know, I'm too busy.

[00:01:12] Chris Smith: I'm like, come on, it'd be so much fun.

[00:01:17] Chris Smith: And I went on Amazon, bought a few cheap microphones and started tinkering around with that.

[00:01:31] Chris Smith: They say we're doing a good job.

[00:01:33] Chris Smith: I thought it was like a total amateur hour.

[00:01:39] Chris Smith: And I just started doing all kinds of research on how to do a podcast, how to make it better, and also without having to spend tons of money because that's the thing.

[00:01:56] Chris Smith: We eventually upgraded to different gear.

[00:02:03] Chris Smith: And then during the time when I think it was middle of 2020, deep in the heart of the pandemic, when everybody in their mother had a podcast or started a podcast.

[00:02:18] Chris Smith: How are you making your show so great?

[00:02:21] Chris Smith: And I'm like, well, I guess I could maybe do some consulting or things or coaching.

[00:02:28] Chris Smith: Maybe I'll just like on my own free time, I'll make a second podcast, kind of walking through what we've done on the other podcast.

[00:02:41] Chris Smith: It's kind of evolved since then, but basically it's behind the scenes of podcasting on the show that we were doing before.

[00:02:49] Chris Smith: We're taking a little break right now.

[00:02:55] Chris Smith: That's basically what podcasting audio is all about.

[00:03:08] Chris Smith: Normally it is.

[00:03:11] Chris Smith: I don't know if you can see out the window, but it's actually the sun broke about an hour ago, and last night it was kind of clear.

[00:03:25] Chris Smith: It came out of nowhere and it was like windy.

[00:03:33] Chris Smith: Man, working in the rain is horrible.

[00:03:36] Verity Sangan: That's awful.

[00:03:38] Verity Sangan: I really do.

[00:03:55] Verity Sangan: I feel to do video podcasts for YouTube, for all the social aspects, but I don't always do audio.

[00:04:07] Verity Sangan: It's podcast.

[00:04:11] Verity Sangan: And I know that you quite often do audio only, so I'd love to know a little bit more about that.

[00:04:26] Chris Smith: Well, I think for me, I'm just talking personally from my perspective, I've had a big radio background.

[00:04:39] Chris Smith: Radio stuff has been always in the forefront of my life since I've been a kid.

[00:04:47] Chris Smith: We didn't have multiple channels on tv.

[00:04:51] Chris Smith: One of them was just a fuzzy snow and, like a couple networks and stuff.

[00:04:55] Chris Smith: I didn't grow up on YouTube either.

[00:05:02] Chris Smith: Podcasting wasn't around, of course.

[00:05:08] Chris Smith: They had the night shows I'd listen to.

[00:05:12] Chris Smith: I love the call in shows because it'd be like the host will be talking about something the callers are calling in.

[00:05:19] Chris Smith: I love that kind of stuff.

[00:05:34] Chris Smith: There is the theater of the mind, which you kind of remove when you see a video.

[00:05:43] Chris Smith: So I've always loved radio.

[00:05:50] Chris Smith: So when it came to doing an audio podcast, I always thought of it as like another version of radio, which is what I was well familiar with.

[00:06:01] Chris Smith: And the idea of radio, side note about radio is that I was such a fan of radio, but it kind of almost burst my bubble.

[00:06:21] Chris Smith: And a lot of it is.

[00:06:29] Chris Smith: So basically, a lot of the stations here in America are closed on the weekend, and they're closed after like, 05:00 p.m.

[00:06:44] Chris Smith: But it's all pre recorded stuff they did during the week that they just put up there and it's on autopilot.

[00:06:52] Chris Smith: Yeah.

[00:07:00] Chris Smith: There's some big celebrities coming on the show.

[00:07:04] Chris Smith: And I always kind of thought that was OD.

[00:07:09] Chris Smith: People are on the road listening to the radio during the 07:00 hour.

[00:07:14] Chris Smith: But I'm thinking, did you really interview the big major celebrity at seven in the morning?

[00:07:19] Chris Smith: If they'd be up that early, would they be?

[00:07:22] Chris Smith: I think a lot of those are actually pre recorded interviews.

[00:07:31] Chris Smith: So a lot of that stuff's all like, I wouldn't say it's fake, but it's just a lot of know.

[00:07:41] Chris Smith: So I've always liked everything audio related for that part.

[00:07:47] Chris Smith: I did YouTube before like years and years ago.

[00:08:03] Chris Smith: Those are the kind of videos that I would shoot and I would watch.

[00:08:12] Chris Smith: But I know video like this and video for podcasting.

[00:08:20] Chris Smith: Video, you can do more with a video podcast.

[00:08:24] Chris Smith: You can show graphics of whatever you're talking about.

[00:08:29] Chris Smith: If we're reviewing a movie or something, or a clip from a movie, you can show a scene from that movie, or you can show charts and all kinds of graphs.

[00:08:40] Chris Smith: You can go very interactive with a video pocket.

[00:08:45] Chris Smith: Some people just do the talking head stuff.

[00:08:51] Chris Smith: And you do not have to do video.

[00:08:55] Chris Smith: You do not have to do video now.

[00:09:01] Chris Smith: That's the difference really between the video and the audio, is that with audio I can pretend that, like, I do this sometimes, I'll pretend that you are here in the same room with me.

[00:09:15] Chris Smith: They have no idea that we're not hanging around, or we can pretend that we're hanging around a park or the beach or wherever.

[00:09:29] Chris Smith: The listener has to imagine where you are and what you're physically doing.

[00:09:39] Chris Smith: You're telling them that.

[00:09:47] Chris Smith: You could be anywhere doing anything.

[00:09:50] Verity Sangan: That reminds me a lot of, I don't know if you guys have this in the states at all, but over here you have stories for radio which kind of come in series or whatever.

[00:10:05] Verity Sangan: And I love that because like you said, it's the power of the mind, isn't?

[00:10:25] Verity Sangan: Whereas one of the things that I love about audio only podcast is that I can literally have an idea for an episode, go upstairs, turn the microphone on, start recording, and I don't have to care about what I'm wearing or how I'm looking or my backdrop or anything like that.

[00:10:42] Verity Sangan: It's just, I'm just going to go and throw the ideas.

[00:10:49] Verity Sangan: Oh, bless you.

[00:10:51] Verity Sangan: I'm going to disagree, but I appreciate the sentiment.

[00:10:58] Chris Smith: But yeah, video is great for lots of different things.

[00:11:04] Chris Smith: If you go on YouTube, you look at some of the best videos or youtubers that just do the stationary, like at a desk doing a video, they do it so well.

[00:11:16] Chris Smith: We're talking thousands, thousands of dollars on a backdrop.

[00:11:23] Chris Smith: I don't subscribe to them, but I watch them on the little pop up.

[00:11:27] Chris Smith: Anyways, they have like, the whole roundtable desk set up.

[00:11:34] Chris Smith: And the desk kind of comes in a corner.

[00:11:40] Chris Smith: I think it's like a studio with.

[00:11:44] Chris Smith: Plus they got a wide shot camera.

[00:11:49] Chris Smith: It looks great.

[00:11:54] Chris Smith: That's more of like a talk show kind of thing.

[00:12:05] Chris Smith: It's going to be this kind of style.

[00:12:09] Chris Smith: That would be cool.

[00:12:17] Chris Smith: I know streamyard and lots of other cool tools out there.

[00:12:23] Chris Smith: I'm not saying they can't.

[00:12:27] Chris Smith: You got to go in, you got to make it amazing.

[00:12:33] Chris Smith: Plus, I think about this, too, is that you're also competing with every other visual format content in the planet.

[00:12:43] Chris Smith: Everything you physically can watch, you are now competing directly against.

[00:12:53] Verity Sangan: It's so true.

[00:12:57] Verity Sangan: I don't know.

[00:12:59] Verity Sangan: Yeah.

[00:13:05] Verity Sangan: And I was like, audio?

[00:13:07] Verity Sangan: It doesn't bother me whatsoever.

[00:13:12] Verity Sangan: And I don't know why.

[00:13:14] Verity Sangan: There's just.

[00:13:16] Verity Sangan: And if you're doing video, like you said, you've got to be, because we're so used to seeing these amazing productions, and we know that, like Amazon Prime, Netflix, they throw millions upon millions at their shows.

[00:13:35] Verity Sangan: And you're right.

[00:13:51] Chris Smith: I completely agree with you.

[00:13:55] Chris Smith: And one thing I love about audio versus video is that audio, I have to say, it's probably the only content that ever would exist that you can physically consume doing anything else.

[00:14:12] Chris Smith: You can't do that with video.

[00:14:15] Chris Smith: I mean, try driving a car and reading a book at the same time.

[00:14:19] Chris Smith: You can't do that, but you can consume audio.

[00:14:23] Chris Smith: It's so portable, it's so consumable that you can literally consume it doing anything else, anywhere you are in the world.

[00:14:34] Chris Smith: The problem with.

[00:14:39] Chris Smith: Check out this shirt I'm wearing.

[00:14:43] Chris Smith: See what it looks like.

[00:14:45] Chris Smith: I guess if you're really clever with the way you describe things, you might be able to describe things very well.

[00:14:54] Chris Smith: And that's one thing I noticed with like a.

[00:15:04] Chris Smith: Know, like, like, she's like, chris, nobody can see that.

[00:15:08] Chris Smith: So you have to describe that what Chris is showing you, what Chris is describing is this and stuff like that.

[00:15:25] Chris Smith: And I think you said earlier was the stats on that was the people, that 80% people are actually consuming the audio over video?

[00:15:37] Chris Smith: And also audio video especially.

[00:15:48] Chris Smith: You can still push the boundaries of bandwidth even with audio, because you can go like super high quality wave file formats and literally one podcast would fill up someone's phone because it's so massive with the highest quality audio possible.

[00:16:11] Chris Smith: I mean, you can be fun too, but you want to make sure you serve your ideal listener.

[00:16:34] Verity Sangan: But I think to your point, it's about knowing your audience because I often think, well, when do I listen to podcasts on the commute or when I'm doing the washing up?

[00:16:46] Verity Sangan: So like you said, I'm doing something as I'm consuming the content.

[00:16:54] Verity Sangan: And there's some other really interesting stats around the majority of Americans and Canadians will listen to podcasts on the commute.

[00:17:10] Verity Sangan: So like you said, it's about knowing your audience and who is your audience and where are they consuming and how are they consuming as well.

[00:17:27] Verity Sangan: You've got to know your audience because if they're more interested in video, then maybe that is something you need to explore.

[00:17:44] Chris Smith: Yeah, I mean, listen, if you have the ability to do both, I say go ahead and try both.

[00:17:49] Chris Smith: And I know you do some audio stuff too.

[00:17:54] Chris Smith: And that's fine because you're kind of serving both audiences.

[00:18:04] Chris Smith: There's two different sides to coin here.

[00:18:07] Chris Smith: They'll stick to YouTube and watch, even listen on YouTube.

[00:18:12] Chris Smith: It's all they know.

[00:18:16] Chris Smith: You know, things like.

[00:18:20] Chris Smith: It's kind of hard, but you tell them, oh, go to YouTube, they might know.

[00:18:28] Chris Smith: Like, I have this podcast.

[00:18:33] Chris Smith: I have a YouTube channel because anybody with a Gmail account has a, you know, so with Lipsyn, the audio host that I use, one of their features they have is they will create audio video version of your podcast and throw it over to YouTube for you, like included in your thing.

[00:18:52] Chris Smith: I mean, I get, like, no plays on the thing at all, but it's there.

[00:19:04] Chris Smith: YouTube is like the second largest search engine in the world, followed behind Google, which owns YouTube.

[00:19:10] Chris Smith: And so why not put it everywhere you possibly can?

[00:19:17] Chris Smith: Now, one of the cool things about video that I like is that you can take this little interview here, take little clips of it, and you can put it on all the social medias, Twitter, TikTok, all of them, and Instagram, whatever.

[00:19:37] Chris Smith: Yeah, they're all visual platforms, I think about it.

[00:19:50] Chris Smith: That's where I think video really outshines the audio.

[00:19:57] Chris Smith: You really feel like you're part of the conversation.

[00:20:05] Chris Smith: It's a deeper connection versus the video side of things.

[00:20:12] Chris Smith: I don't know.

[00:20:14] Verity Sangan: I mean, there's been some really fascinating studies all around.

[00:20:20] Verity Sangan: There's been some really interesting studies all about the emotions that people feel when they are listening to something versus when they're watching something.

[00:20:34] Verity Sangan: Things like heart rates and like I said, emotions and different parts of the brain light up when they do different scans and things when people are just listening as opposed to watching the video.

[00:20:53] Verity Sangan: Because it goes back to your point that you made at the beginning, because you've got to imagine so much in your mind.

[00:21:10] Verity Sangan: I don't know.

[00:21:14] Chris Smith: Yeah, I'm not a therapist.

[00:21:32] Chris Smith: All you have is the audio, and you have your amazing headphones, or have you listen to your stuff, and it just sounds phenomenal.

[00:21:40] Chris Smith: You just feel like you're just sucked away, and you just feel like you're enjoying it so much.

[00:21:48] Chris Smith: And that's why I think music is so powerful.

[00:21:52] Chris Smith: I love music and stuff like that.

[00:22:05] Chris Smith: I've always had cars that had better, upgraded sound systems.

[00:22:17] Chris Smith: Dude, I was all over that.

[00:22:20] Chris Smith: I got surround sound in my house here.

[00:22:24] Chris Smith: She hates it when I play surround sound.

[00:22:33] Chris Smith: I'll be playing music, not super loud.

[00:22:37] Chris Smith: But she'll say it's loud, but I'll crank it up.

[00:22:50] Chris Smith: So I love being able to listen to things anywhere and everywhere.

[00:23:02] Chris Smith: And I just enjoy listening to music.

[00:23:06] Verity Sangan: It's an experience, isn't it?

[00:23:22] Verity Sangan: It's just this immersive experience that because you've only got your mind to create the picture, you can literally go anywhere with it.

[00:23:34] Chris Smith: And I think also with the YouTube, I don't know if you ever look in, when you look in your YouTube stuff, your show, it goes directly to YouTube.

[00:23:46] Chris Smith: If you look at stuff, it's kind of soul crushing when you look at it on YouTube.

[00:23:53] Chris Smith: I have.

[00:23:54] Chris Smith: So I didn't want to look at that stuff.

[00:23:59] Chris Smith: You can actually look and see.

[00:24:04] Chris Smith: We can go in there and physically look and see how long the listener physically listens to your show.

[00:24:19] Chris Smith: The thing about YouTube, too, I love YouTube, but I hate YouTube at the same time.

[00:24:26] Chris Smith: So if you're watching something on YouTube, you'll look onto the right column.

[00:24:34] Chris Smith: They'll say, watch this, watch that, and next thing you know, you're clicking on this, clicking on that.

[00:24:45] Chris Smith: So we're going to feed you a bunch of cat videos and then maybe other animal videos.

[00:24:54] Chris Smith: You're like, was I supposed to be doing something?

[00:24:58] Chris Smith: Next thing you know, it's a time waste is what it is, really.

[00:25:12] Chris Smith: They'll get right to the point, right to it as quick as possible.

[00:25:18] Chris Smith: Like, there are some videos that are long on there.

[00:25:29] Chris Smith: I mean, maybe that's just me.

[00:25:34] Chris Smith: The quicker the better.

[00:25:38] Chris Smith: I don't know if he's famous or what, but he's been on YouTube for a long time.

[00:25:43] Chris Smith: And he was one of the earlier guys that did the quick jump cuts where when he does his editing, it's like jump, jump, jump, jump.

[00:25:52] Chris Smith: And he was one of the first guys to do that.

[00:25:55] Chris Smith: It's a backdrop.

[00:25:58] Chris Smith: He shows clips of the movie.

[00:26:00] Chris Smith: So it's not just him talking the entire time.

[00:26:07] Chris Smith: His videos are maybe like five to seven minutes long at the most.

[00:26:16] Chris Smith: And he has this whole scale system, what he thinks the movie is like different rankings and stuff like that.

[00:26:24] Chris Smith: I don't hear all the details.

[00:26:26] Chris Smith: Just want to hear that, what he thought of it.

[00:26:30] Chris Smith: It's very quick paced.

[00:26:33] Chris Smith: If you're just going to sit there and do an hour long recording on Zoom and the first 30 minutes is you and your budies thinking, I don't know, what do you want to talk about?

[00:26:44] Chris Smith: I cannot imagine that show being very successful, at least on YouTube, even on audio, too.

[00:26:55] Chris Smith: They may have put more duration in with listening to that stuff.

[00:27:00] Chris Smith: I know you can skip on YouTube also, but if you don't get to the point right away, God bless.

[00:27:09] Chris Smith: And if you're having fun, if all you're going to do is have fun, then congratulations.

[00:27:14] Verity Sangan: I think it goes back to what you were saying as well as what are people doing when they're watching YouTube or listening to your podcast?

[00:27:26] Verity Sangan: I mean, when I'm in my car, it only lets me skip every 10 seconds or something.

[00:27:32] Verity Sangan: Is it a 32nd.

[00:27:35] Chris Smith: Or is it like a 20?

[00:27:38] Chris Smith: Okay.

[00:27:41] Chris Smith: If I hear an ad on a podcast, I don't care what it is.

[00:27:47] Chris Smith: Skip skip, skip.

[00:27:54] Chris Smith: But I don't like advertising in a podcast, an audio podcast.

[00:28:11] Chris Smith: When you're listening to the radio on the regular terrestrial radio and you're ten in your car and you listen to your favorite station, and then the commercial comes on or goes to commercial break for the two to five minutes or whatever it is, well, you're kind of stuck unless you go to a different channel.

[00:28:29] Chris Smith: Maybe that's got a commercial, too, that kind of thing.

[00:28:32] Chris Smith: But with an audio podcast, if a commercial comes on, you could just hit the skip button.

[00:28:39] Chris Smith: And then you go straight to the content.

[00:28:51] Chris Smith: I mean, I know some people don't or they don't know.

[00:28:54] Chris Smith: By the way, tip of the day, kids.

[00:28:57] Chris Smith: You don't have to listen to them.

[00:29:02] Chris Smith: And then you can get to the content.

[00:29:05] Chris Smith: And with my truck, I have Apple Carplay.

[00:29:10] Chris Smith: I love it because it shows all your iPhone gadgets, all your icons right on the screen, even the skip button and all that stuff.

[00:29:19] Chris Smith: Skip, skip, skip, skip.

[00:29:21] Chris Smith: I mean, that's what I do.

[00:29:25] Verity Sangan: Skip through the bits you don't want.

[00:29:28] Verity Sangan: But I think it goes back to that point, doesn't it, is that we are on YouTube.

[00:29:41] Verity Sangan: I don't know, I just feel like you're more invested when you're listening to the audio, which I guess then kind of leads me on to my next question.

[00:29:53] Verity Sangan: How am I going to improve the audio quality for my podcast?

[00:30:00] Chris Smith: Okay, that's a great question because the podcastic audio basically started, because if you knew all the Zoom crap shows that came out in 2020, I think that.

[00:30:16] Chris Smith: Well, Zoom is fine.

[00:30:19] Chris Smith: I mean, people are doing it on their laptops, their iPads or whatever.

[00:30:26] Chris Smith: So using junk equipment.

[00:30:31] Chris Smith: I mean, I don't have a ton of money invested.

[00:30:35] Chris Smith: But one of the cool things about audio is that with proper editing and sound EQ, you can almost take any microphone and make it sound great.

[00:30:47] Chris Smith: I've taken webcam audio and made it sound great.

[00:30:55] Chris Smith: Well, I said, okay, good.

[00:31:05] Chris Smith: I've been throwing out these short little bonus episodes and it's whatever's on my mind at the moment or something.

[00:31:22] Chris Smith: And with that I'm like, I know it's got a microphone built in.

[00:31:30] Chris Smith: I wonder if I can just record a five minute like episode and see what I can do with the enhancement tools that I use.

[00:31:43] Chris Smith: And I did a fairly decent, decent job with it.

[00:31:48] Chris Smith: If you didn't tell me that you were using webcam, I wouldn't even have known it sounded that great.

[00:31:55] Chris Smith: Having had lots of different guests come in over the years on crap, you have to learn how to make them sound the best you possibly can.

[00:32:07] Chris Smith: They're going to come in with whatever, even a cell phone.

[00:32:13] Chris Smith: So when it comes to making good audio, a couple of things really is basically get close to the microphone.

[00:32:22] Chris Smith: And the reason why if I start pulling away, you might hear a little bit of an echo.

[00:32:36] Chris Smith: That's one key thing.

[00:32:45] Verity Sangan: Don't knock my blue Yeti.

[00:32:48] Chris Smith: They'll put the blue Yeti like 5ft from them.

[00:32:50] Chris Smith: So it's kind of picking up all this room reverb, and room reverb is when the audio hits something solid, like the floor, the wall, whatever, and it kind of bounces back to the microphone.

[00:33:08] Chris Smith: Mine is a dynamic, so it is the other version.

[00:33:11] Chris Smith: It's on my head, but I can't think.

[00:33:16] Chris Smith: It picks up a lot of audio.

[00:33:18] Chris Smith: The problem is that it picks up all the audio very well, including anything you hear around you, anything echo, bouncing and that kind of stuff.

[00:33:32] Chris Smith: They're designed for podcasting directly.

[00:33:37] Chris Smith: I said well that's got to be the one, right?

[00:33:40] Chris Smith: They're not very expensive.

[00:33:44] Chris Smith: And they plug right into the rodecaster Pro, which I'm using, which literally there's a setting on here for different microphones.

[00:33:54] Chris Smith: So then it does all the magic for me.

[00:33:57] Chris Smith: And of course even with that, I still take it and I'll still enhance it.

[00:34:03] Chris Smith: Make sure you use your microphone correctly.

[00:34:10] Chris Smith: If possible, try to listen live back to your audio.

[00:34:16] Chris Smith: Like when we were doing it on the Chris Christine show early on, I heard this trick too, right?

[00:34:22] Chris Smith: But I didn't have any mixers or nothing, so I just had the computer.

[00:34:28] Chris Smith: Plugged our headphones into the computer, right.

[00:34:33] Chris Smith: We could hear it back to our headphones, but it had a process at all.

[00:34:38] Chris Smith: And how it worked, it was a slight delay, so we'd say something.

[00:34:45] Chris Smith: What causes you to slur your words?

[00:34:50] Chris Smith: So you're like, when you're talking, which is no good.

[00:34:59] Chris Smith: The he is zero latency.

[00:35:11] Chris Smith: When you hear that delay, it throws you off when you go without a delay, like, I'm right now.

[00:35:16] Chris Smith: It's sweet sound.

[00:35:19] Chris Smith: But making sure that if you can monitor your own audio live as you record it, you can hear that.

[00:35:31] Chris Smith: As you start to hear yourself, you become more self aware of what you sound like live as you're doing it, so you can make adjustments.

[00:35:45] Chris Smith: There's obviously a difference.

[00:35:49] Chris Smith: Could I be talking like I'm talking normally and whatever?

[00:35:56] Chris Smith: What do I do?

[00:36:00] Chris Smith: And there's lots of different tools out there you can use to enhance your audio.

[00:36:07] Chris Smith: There's ones that can cost a lot of money if you go into the plugin universe.

[00:36:19] Chris Smith: I don't know, there's $1,000 pretty close for just a program that works with your audio software to make your audio sound amazing.

[00:36:37] Chris Smith: And I think you'll be just fine.

[00:36:46] Chris Smith: They can bring it up.

[00:36:48] Chris Smith: Or maybe they're worried about the hiss that you might get if you bring your audio up too high.

[00:36:53] Chris Smith: But don't worry, you can fix that too in your audio editor.

[00:36:59] Chris Smith: Just little tricks you learn along the way.

[00:37:05] Chris Smith: I never went to audio school.

[00:37:07] Chris Smith: It was all like trial and error.

[00:37:11] Chris Smith: Oh, let me try that little trick.

[00:37:13] Chris Smith: Or know, oh, I heard someone says, try that tool.

[00:37:19] Chris Smith: That's when you came on my show and I discovered clean feed because I was doing a Google search on ways to do remote interviews.

[00:37:31] Chris Smith: I don't know what we're doing.

[00:37:33] Chris Smith: And so I just tried it.

[00:37:36] Chris Smith: We did a few test runs with it, and I was like, wow, it sounds like we're in the same room, even though we're not in the same room.

[00:37:48] Chris Smith: So I say, I think we're onto something.

[00:37:54] Verity Sangan: I love that.

[00:37:56] Verity Sangan: And what I love about those tips and advice as well is that it's simple, but everybody can action, that everyone can think about.

[00:38:11] Verity Sangan: It's so actionable.

[00:38:22] Verity Sangan: Like, oh, I need to have this top microphone, this top set of headphones, whatever it is.

[00:38:35] Verity Sangan: If you don't know how to use it, then you might as well be using your webcam audio, like your example there.

[00:38:43] Chris Smith: And also, too, just because you have $10,000 in equipment does not guarantee your show is going to be successful.

[00:38:53] Chris Smith: You still have to have engaging content.

[00:38:58] Chris Smith: You have to have a reason why your listeners are going to come to your podcast in the first place.

[00:39:05] Chris Smith: It can't just be merely hey, I'm talking to so and so just because.

[00:39:11] Chris Smith: You're talking to so and so.

[00:39:16] Chris Smith: I know there's a lot of shows out there.

[00:39:19] Chris Smith: In fact, I sent that episode out to a few guys.

[00:39:31] Chris Smith: And he's always trying to catch the bigger guest.

[00:39:34] Chris Smith: Guest, guest, guest.

[00:39:39] Chris Smith: But I found another podcaster that also said, yeah, stop doing interview shows and do more solo shows.

[00:39:50] Chris Smith: They come for you.

[00:39:55] Chris Smith: Maybe he feels like he has nothing to really say, so he feels the guest, he brings the guest on for them to say.

[00:40:04] Chris Smith: Is it your show?

[00:40:09] Chris Smith: So I suggest doing more solo shows if you can.

[00:40:13] Chris Smith: I love guest interviews.

[00:40:14] Chris Smith: I've done a know, we do a bunch on the Chris Christine show.

[00:40:18] Chris Smith: Like, we'll do a guest interview, but it's not only the guest interview.

[00:40:24] Chris Smith: It's like a good 1520 minutes of us talking about stuff we want to talk about.

[00:40:31] Chris Smith: Like that guest was great.

[00:40:33] Chris Smith: Here's our website.

[00:40:35] Chris Smith: See you next time.

[00:40:41] Chris Smith: There's different formats, except there's a guest format.

[00:40:49] Chris Smith: There's all kinds of different things you can do with podcasting, and I think it's great.

[00:41:00] Chris Smith: You want your audio to sound not like, it doesn't have to be like NPR or whatever the best of the best is, it's not to be that.

[00:41:14] Chris Smith: It has to be better than that nonsense.

[00:41:25] Chris Smith: What is it in it for them?

[00:41:33] Chris Smith: Yeah, I know that's why you're doing it.

[00:41:36] Chris Smith: Why am I here?

[00:41:40] Verity Sangan: Yeah, it's always thinking about what is that?

[00:41:50] Verity Sangan: Isn't it?

[00:41:56] Verity Sangan: I've had so much fun.

[00:41:58] Verity Sangan: But before we sign off, please remind everybody where we can catch up with you and listen to your podcast as well.

[00:42:10] Chris Smith: Oh, thank you.

[00:42:12] Chris Smith: You say that it's so sweet.

[00:42:16] Chris Smith: It's great.

[00:42:21] Chris Smith: I'm the best.

[00:42:26] Chris Smith: And I want to say thank you for listening.

[00:42:32] Chris Smith: Very simple.

[00:42:35] Verity Sangan: Amazing.

[00:42:38] Verity Sangan: So please, everybody, make sure that you check that link out and listen to Chris's episodes because they are well worth your while.

[00:42:49] Verity Sangan: I have had a blast chatting with you.

[00:42:53] Verity Sangan: I've just thought I need to link down in the show notes as well.

[00:43:00] Verity Sangan: So we'll link that episode down as well.

[00:43:03] Verity Sangan: But otherwise, Chris, like I said, thank you so much.

[00:43:09] Chris Smith: Oh, thank you so much.

[00:43:11] Chris Smith: Thank you for having me, inviting me all the way over here from San Diego.

[00:43:17] Verity Sangan: Well, in my mind, it's sunny because like I said, it's California.

[00:43:24] Chris Smith: It is most of the time, brilliant.

[00:43:29] Chris Smith: All right, thank you.