Ep 60: The Power of Audio: Creating Immersive Experiences through Podcasting – with Chris Smith

[00:00:00] Podtastic Audio: Behind the Scenes of Podcasting

[00:00:00] Verity Sangan: Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Lazy Girls Guide to podcasting.

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

[00:00:07] Verity Sangan: It is the week of new year and as a little New Year's gift, I have got a wonderful guest lined up for you today.

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

[00:00:16] Verity Sangan: Chris, I'm going to hand over to you.

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

[00:00:22] Chris Smith: Oh, thank you so much.

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

[00:00:25] Chris Smith: Join you all the way from not so sunny San Diego, California.

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

[00:00:30] Chris Smith: Today is the day of record.

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

[00:00:38] Chris Smith: I started my original podcast with my wife Christine.

[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.

[00:00:52] Chris Smith: You can talk to your friends and stuff while you play the game.

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

[00:00:56] Chris Smith: It came in the mail.

[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.

[00:01:07] Chris Smith: And then I'm like, hey Christine, let's do a podcast.

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

[00:01:11] Chris Smith: I don't want to do a podcast.

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

[00:01:14] Chris Smith: And she's like okay, we'll just try it out and see if we like it.

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

[00:01:21] Chris Smith: We got a few episodes going and we actually got some positive feedback come back to us like after the first 2nd episodes and I was like, whoa, people actually say it's great.

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

[00:01:32] Chris Smith: And I didn't think it was that great.

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

[00:01:36] Chris Smith: We know what we were doing and I was playing with it and getting better.

[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.

[00:01:49] Chris Smith: You can spend thousands and thousands of dollars on this stuff or you can spend a few bucks and get basic stuff like we did.

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

[00:01:57] Chris Smith: We eventually upgraded and then we upgraded to having guests on the show and different things and it kind of evolved from there.

[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.

[00:02:15] Chris Smith: I got people asking me, how did you do it?

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

[00:02:20] Chris Smith: What are you doing?

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

[00:02:26] Chris Smith: I'm like, I ain't got time for that.

[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.

[00:02:36] Chris Smith: And that's where podcastic audio came from, and that's how I do podcastic audio now.

[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.

[00:02:48] Chris Smith: We kind of still are.

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

[00:02:51] Chris Smith: But basically it's all things podcasting and podcasting stuff.

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

[00:02:58] Verity Sangan: I love that.

[00:02:59] Podtastic Audio: A Conversation with Chris Smith on Audio Only Podcasts

[00:02:59] Verity Sangan: First of all, I have to say, I hate the fact that you said that it's raining because I'm from Britain, so I just picture anywhere in California to be sunny 100% of the time.

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

[00:03:10] Chris Smith: And I think it's getting sunnier today.

[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.

[00:03:19] Chris Smith: And then, and I started dumping rain on me last night and I took a video of it and it was like pouring, almost like a hurricane.

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

[00:03:27] Chris Smith: I felt the wind picking up, and all of a sudden this rain started just coming in sideways on me and I was soaking wet.

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

[00:03:35] Verity Sangan: Oh, that's awful.

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

[00:03:37] Verity Sangan: I feel for you.

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

[00:03:39] Verity Sangan: But I am so excited for you to be here today because we are going to be talking all about doing audio only podcasts.

[00:03:46] The Power of Audio: Why Focus on Audio Podcasts

[00:03:46] Verity Sangan: And we were chatting a little bit before we hit record all about how there's such a push or there seems to be such a push at the moment.

[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.

[00:04:05] Verity Sangan: Well, I don't always do audio, obviously, I have audio.

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

[00:04:08] Verity Sangan: I don't always do video a lot of the time, I do audio only.

[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.

[00:04:17] Verity Sangan: Where does that choice or decision kind of come from to focus more on the audio rather than audio and video, for example.

[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.

[00:04:34] Chris Smith: I've listened to more audio via radio, satellite radio, regular radio.

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

[00:04:45] Chris Smith: For the most part, I grew up very poor.

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

[00:04:50] Chris Smith: We had a few channels.

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

[00:04:54] Chris Smith: And then, of course, YouTube.

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

[00:04:57] Chris Smith: So it was all about the radio and commuting far to work and commuting far to school.

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

[00:05:04] Chris Smith: So all we had was those morning talk shows, or you guys like to call breakfast shows.

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

[00:05:10] Chris Smith: There was like the call in shows.

[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.

[00:05:17] Chris Smith: They'll give advice.

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

[00:05:21] Chris Smith: And when you actually have the video part of it all, you kind of remove the element of knowing or at least thinking what the people on the show look like with the room they're in, what they're talking about.

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

[00:05:40] Chris Smith: You don't have that in your idea of what it's supposed to be like.

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

[00:05:45] Chris Smith: I was on radio in college, back a long time ago, and I've always loved all things audio.

[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.

[00:05:59] Chris Smith: I love radio of audio.

[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.

[00:06:08] Chris Smith: Almost like telling kids Santa Claus doesn't exist, is because I found out with radio, a lot of the radio stuff you hear, not sure how it is in Britain, but here a lot of it is pre recorded, a lot of it is not live.

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

[00:06:23] Chris Smith: They call it voice tracking, is what they call the term called voice tracking.

[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.

[00:06:35] Chris Smith: It's all pre recorded stuff, all set out in a timeline, and it makes it sound like the dj is there tracking a song or something.

[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.

[00:06:51] Verity Sangan: I didn't know that.

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

[00:06:52] Chris Smith: And the same thing with one thing, the morning shows that I used to love listening to, they would say, oh, at 07:00 hour we have guest so and so.

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

[00:07:02] Chris Smith: They always push it on the 07:00 hour.

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

[00:07:05] Chris Smith: And the reason why is the 07:00 hour in the morning is like the busiest time.

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

[00:07:13] Chris Smith: Great.

[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: I don't know.

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

[00:07:21] Chris Smith: I don't know.

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

[00:07:25] Chris Smith: They just slot in, make it seem like it's live, make it appear like it's a whole live thing.

[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.

[00:07:36] Chris Smith: It's almost like a podcast, but just put in a live slot time slot.

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

[00:07:44] Chris Smith: So I did the podcast audio, no brainer.

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

[00:07:50] Chris Smith: But the YouTube videos I ever did were like outside doing stuff like taking the kids to the zoo, taking the kids to the park, going to Disneyland, going to, you know, going to the know, going snorkeling.

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

[00:08:06] Chris Smith: So when it comes to video versus audio, that's kind of where I kind of see video.

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

[00:08:17] Chris Smith: When it comes to video, I was thinking about this the other day.

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

[00:08:23] Chris Smith: Like visually, you can do more.

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

[00:08:27] Chris Smith: You can show clips 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.

[00:08:38] Chris Smith: You can physically show that stuff on the screen.

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

[00:08:44] Chris Smith: Not saying everybody does that.

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

[00:08:48] Chris Smith: Listen, if it's talking head, you don't need that because you can do it audio only.

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

[00:08:53] Chris Smith: Everyone says you got to do video.

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

[00:08:57] Chris Smith: With audio, you can do more with less.

[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.

[00:09:11] Chris Smith: And because there's no video element, the audience has no idea.

[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.

[00:09:22] Chris Smith: There's so much more things you can do with audio because there's that element of the theater of the mind.

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

[00:09:35] Chris Smith: You can be on the moon for all you know, and they can't see it all.

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

[00:09:40] Chris Smith: And if you bring in sound elements and soundscaping, then it can appear to the audience, to the listener.

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

[00:09:49] Chris Smith: I love that.

[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.

[00:10:02] Verity Sangan: And yeah, it's like the acting on the radio.

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

[00:10:10] Verity Sangan: It's theater of the mind just creating all of this imagery and it really can take you anywhere.

[00:10:16] The Pros and Cons of Audio vs Video Podcasting

[00:10:16] Verity Sangan: And it's funny what you were saying as well about video, because I often think that with video, you almost need to be camera ready, or this idea of being camera ready.

[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.

[00:10:41] Verity Sangan: And do I look on brand?

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

[00:10:46] Chris Smith: Well, you look, you look absolutely lovely, by the way.

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

[00:10:50] Verity Sangan: It's 09:00 at night.

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

[00:10:54] Chris Smith: Yeah, well, you just say, well, I bet this way it looked great.

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

[00:11:01] Chris Smith: I think also, too, the competition is stiff with video.

[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.

[00:11:14] Chris Smith: Lots of great lighting, great cameras.

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

[00:11:19] Chris Smith: I think there's one podcast that I kind of watched their YouTube clips.

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

[00:11:26] Chris Smith: I think I've subscribed to them on YouTube.

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

[00:11:31] Chris Smith: It was like four people on one side, four people on the other side.

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

[00:11:36] Chris Smith: Beautiful backdrop, almost like a soundstage studio.

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

[00:11:41] Chris Smith: I think they've got four or five cameras because each person has a camera on each one.

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

[00:11:47] Chris Smith: Plus they have the best gear, the best everything.

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

[00:11:50] Chris Smith: And they got celebrities in person doing the roundtable stuff.

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

[00:11:57] Chris Smith: But for the most of us average indie podcasters, we're going to be doing like the Zoom show or this thing or whatever.

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

[00:12:06] Chris Smith: It's not going to be you hanging out with me in the same room, all that.

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

[00:12:10] Chris Smith: But I think that's where video really makes a big difference.

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

[00:12:20] Chris Smith: Ecamm live, they can do lots of cool things.

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

[00:12:24] Chris Smith: I'm just saying that if you're going to do video, you got to do video.

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

[00:12:29] Chris Smith: You got to compete with all those other shows.

[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.

[00:12:39] Chris Smith: We're talking Netflix, Disney plus, movies, television.

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

[00:12:48] Chris Smith: If you go solely video only.

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

[00:12:54] Verity Sangan: And then it's also the editing of it as well.

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

[00:12:57] Chris Smith: Oh, God.

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

[00:13:00] Verity Sangan: Someone asked me recently, they were like, how do you feel about editing audio versus video?

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

[00:13:06] Verity Sangan: I love it.

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

[00:13:08] Verity Sangan: I said video, for some reason, I just find it a slug.

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

[00:13:14] Verity Sangan: But you're right.

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

[00:13:15] Verity Sangan: There's so much competition.

[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.

[00:13:30] Verity Sangan: Now, the production budget is just crazy, crazy numbers.

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

[00:13:37] Verity Sangan: You're trying to capture people's attention and take them away from this really elite content and focus on you which is great, but it's such a competition.

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

[00:13:53] Chris Smith: Yeah, it's hard.

[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.

[00:14:11] Verity Sangan: I don't agree with you.

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

[00:14:14] Chris Smith: You can't do it with reading a book.

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

[00:14:17] Chris Smith: Try watching YouTube and driving a car.

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

[00:14:21] Chris Smith: That's one thing I love about 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.

[00:14:32] Chris Smith: And it's fantastic.

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

[00:14:35] Chris Smith: The only problem with video, I mean, audio is that you can't physically show stuff like, hey, check me out.

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

[00:14:40] Chris Smith: Check out this thing I'm doing here I am painting this painting.

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

[00:14:43] Chris Smith: You can't really.

[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.

[00:14:50] Chris Smith: Sometimes most of us don't describe things as well as we should, especially audio podcasting.

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

[00:14:57] Chris Smith: I know when Christine and I do a podcast and we'll be saying things and she'll actually correct me and I'll say something, let's see this thing.

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

[00:15:06] Chris Smith: Or audio podcast.

[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.

[00:15:13] Chris Smith: So you have to be mindful of the audio listening audience if you're doing a zoom or video style of a show, just because not everyone is physically watching it.

[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?

[00:15:36] Chris Smith: Yeah.

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

[00:15:39] Chris Smith: You're getting to like, if you get 4k video and high end res video now you're talking like, a lot of data and a lot of bandwidth and stuff.

[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.

[00:16:04] Chris Smith: That can happen.

[00:16:05] The Importance of Knowing Your Audience in Podcasting

[00:16:05] Chris Smith: You also have to be aware of your audience, and hopefully you're making a show for them, not for funsies.

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

[00:16:16] Verity Sangan: Yeah, I think that's so, so important because going back to the stats, I haven't conducted these stats myself, but I have read in several different places that it's around 80% of podcasters who don't do video and do audio only, which I always find really interesting because I just find that everybody talks about video constantly.

[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?

[00:16:45] Verity Sangan: Something like that.

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

[00:16:50] Verity Sangan: Well, I can't watch that at the same time or hold the book open and what have you.

[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.

[00:17:03] Verity Sangan: So again, it's easier to listen to things than it is to watch something as you're running up and down for the trains and what have you.

[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.

[00:17:23] Verity Sangan: And I think that's a really valid point.

[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.

[00:17:32] Verity Sangan: But equally, if they are listening in a way, which is only giving them the opportunity to listen as opposed to watch as well, then that's probably going to tell you how you need to generate your content as well.

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

[00:17:48] Chris Smith: I know you do both sometimes.

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

[00:17:51] Chris Smith: But you also, mainly, you got the video stuff going too at the same time.

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

[00:17:58] Chris Smith: People think that like, oh, just because I put the video version out doesn't mean they're going to listen to it on the audio side.

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

[00:18:06] Chris Smith: People love video.

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

[00:18:11] Chris Smith: All they know is YouTube.

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

[00:18:13] Chris Smith: And then there are people who know how to use a podcast player app.

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

[00:18:17] Chris Smith: Like try and tell an old person how to use a podcast player app.

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

[00:18:25] Chris Smith: So YouTube is fine.

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

[00:18:29] Chris Smith: Podcastic audio does have a YouTube version on YouTube.

[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.

[00:18:51] Chris Smith: So I'll go over there.

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

[00:18:56] Chris Smith: I mean, you can actually listen to my audio podcast on, you know, it's another place to put your show.

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

[00:19:09] Chris Smith: So I guess the same thing.

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

[00:19:14] Chris Smith: So I always say, try to get your content out as many places as possible.

[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.

[00:19:30] Chris Smith: You can use them as like a teaser or something visually, because all the social media platforms are like visual platforms.

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

[00:19:38] Chris Smith: So put something visually on those platforms, and that's where video, I think, really comes in to help promote or for your new episode and things like that.

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

[00:19:53] Chris Smith: But the audio, cool thing about the audio is that, like you said, you really get deep into a conversation.

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

[00:20:01] Chris Smith: You're connected with the host more.

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

[00:20:09] Chris Smith: Some may argue with that, but that's the way I feel.

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

[00:20:12] Verity Sangan: No, I completely agree with you.

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

[00:20:18] Verity Sangan: I mean, we were chatting about this just before we hit record.

[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.

[00:20:31] Verity Sangan: And you can see all these like, oh, it's absolutely amazing.

[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.

[00:20:45] Verity Sangan: And I think it really shows that connection that people end up fostering, really, when they're listening.

[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.

[00:21:00] Verity Sangan: And I think there's a lot of emotion that words create, that video and visuals don't necessarily.

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

[00:21:11] Verity Sangan: I feel like I'm getting in a bit deep about psychology that I don't know enough about.

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

[00:21:16] Chris Smith: I play one on tv.

[00:21:17] The Power of Audio and YouTube's Quick Pace

[00:21:17] Chris Smith: But I think with audio, too, as I was thinking about this, too, is that if you listen to a really good piece of music, like, really good piece of music, done very well, not that you're watching a band or a concert play in front of you, but you're just listening.

[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.

[00:21:38] Chris Smith: It takes you to another world.

[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.

[00:21:47] Chris Smith: It's so great.

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

[00:21:51] Chris Smith: And I love audio.

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

[00:21:53] Chris Smith: And I've always been, I wouldn't say an audio file, but I always kind of had to have the best or better sounding equipment than the average crappy whatever system on my vehicles.

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

[00:22:09] Chris Smith: I would upgrade the sound system when movies had surround sound for the home consumer.

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

[00:22:19] Chris Smith: I got the surround sound set.

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

[00:22:22] Chris Smith: Although Christine hates it.

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

[00:22:26] Chris Smith: So I only play it when she's gone and stuff like that when she's not here, literally, I'll crank music and play and do the dishes and stuff.

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

[00:22:36] Chris Smith: I don't think it's that loud.

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

[00:22:39] Chris Smith: And in the garage, I set up a sound system out there where I can plug my phone in, listen to podcasts, listen to music and stuff out in the garage or things of that sort.

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

[00:22:57] Chris Smith: One of the first things I set up in the house was surround sound, was audio stuff was the first thing I set up.

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

[00:23:05] Chris Smith: Enjoy listening to things.

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

[00:23:08] Verity Sangan: I think that's the beauty of audio, is that it's just this immersive experience, which, to your point, you can just take it anywhere, be it in the garage, in the kitchen, go for a walk in the car.

[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: Yeah.

[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.

[00:23:41] Chris Smith: Do you ever look at the duration, rate of the, the listener, how long they listen?

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

[00:23:51] Chris Smith: I have not really tinkered with it too much.

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

[00:23:53] Chris Smith: But I'm like, oh, man.

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

[00:23:56] Chris Smith: But I know you can look at that stuff with all your audio podcast stats.

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

[00:24:00] Chris Smith: With Apple, I think Spotify, I think Amazon, they have backdoors.

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

[00:24:09] Chris Smith: But going back to YouTube, if a YouTube video makes it 50% duration, they're like top tier.

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

[00:24:22] Chris Smith: It's like YouTube, they love keeping you on YouTube, right?

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

[00:24:29] Chris Smith: If you're on a computer or something, you'll see all these other videos, things you never even subscribe to.

[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.

[00:24:38] Chris Smith: Things you never subscribe to are being force fed in your feed because YouTube knows that you like cat videos.

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

[00:24:50] Chris Smith: And then if you like those animal videos, we'll show you other videos, and next thing you know, an hour goes by.

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

[00:24:56] Chris Smith: I forgot I was supposed to be washing the car, washing the dishes.

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

[00:25:02] Chris Smith: And I think with video on YouTube, you have to be quick because people are jumping from video to video so quickly that you'll notice those videos.

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

[00:25:15] Chris Smith: And they're usually not super long.

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

[00:25:20] Chris Smith: I'm not saying they're not, but I think a sweet spot for YouTube videos has got to be, like, in the ten minute, 15 minutes range, maybe.

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

[00:25:30] Chris Smith: I'm just thinking of the videos that I've watched all the way to the end.

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

[00:25:35] Chris Smith: There's a guy on YouTube that I watch.

[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.

[00:25:41] Chris Smith: He does movie reviews.

[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.

[00:25:50] Chris Smith: Each sentence is a quick jump.

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

[00:25:54] Chris Smith: And he just gets.

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

[00:25:56] Chris Smith: It's like a canvas or something.

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

[00:25:59] Chris Smith: He does show things, too.

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

[00:26:02] Chris Smith: He'll show clips of the movie and stuff and does these reviews, but it's very short.

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

[00:26:11] Chris Smith: And at the very end he gives his review or what he thinks of the movie.

[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.

[00:26:20] Chris Smith: And sometimes what I'll do is I'll skip to the ranking to see what he thought of the movie.

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

[00:26:25] Chris Smith: The movie.

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

[00:26:27] Chris Smith: So YouTube, it's very quick.

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

[00:26:31] Chris Smith: And you have to kind of keep up with that.

[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?

[00:26:41] Chris Smith: I don't know what 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.

[00:26:51] Chris Smith: I think the audio podcaster may listen longer.

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

[00:26:59] Chris Smith: Or they skip, skip, skip.

[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.

[00:27:07] Chris Smith: Know they're having a fun time, I guess.

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

[00:27:13] Chris Smith: Good job.

[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?

[00:27:20] Verity Sangan: If you're driving, you can't really be skipping to the next episode or whatever.

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

[00:27:30] Podtastic Audio Interview with Chris Smith

[00:27:30] Verity Sangan: Start scrolling through.

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

[00:27:34] Chris Smith: 32Nd clip, skip?

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

[00:27:36] Verity Sangan: Yeah, no, mine's 10 seconds.

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

[00:27:38] Chris Smith: Yeah, whatever it is.

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

[00:27:44] Chris Smith: If it smells like an ad or I think, wait, is this an ad?

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

[00:27:48] Chris Smith: And then if I go too far, I'll just get the skip back button and then I'll go back and catch up if they said something or whatever, that kind of thing.

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

[00:28:01] Chris Smith: I think the problem with that is that people confuse podcasting with radio and radio advertising.

[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.

[00:28:28] Chris Smith: So you switch channels, go to another one.

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

[00:28:31] Chris Smith: Right.

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

[00:28:37] Chris Smith: Skip, skip, skippity skip, skip.

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

[00:28:41] Chris Smith: So from an advertiser standpoint, I was kind of wonder, how do you make money if everybody's skipping your ads?

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

[00:28:53] Chris Smith: You can do that.

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

[00:28:55] Chris Smith: You can skip these commercials.

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

[00:28:59] Chris Smith: No one says you got to pitch play on those, so skip them.

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

[00:29:04] Chris Smith: You can get to more episodes quicker.

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

[00:29:09] Chris Smith: It's phenomenal, by the way.

[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.

[00:29:16] Chris Smith: So you can skip stuff, look at new episodes.

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

[00:29:20] Chris Smith: And it's great.

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

[00:29:23] Verity Sangan: I love that so much.

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

[00:29:28] Verity Sangan: Absolutely.

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

[00:29:34] Verity Sangan: It's just so much easier to skip away and find something else, whereas on the podcast, you're much more.

[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.

[00:29:48] Improving Audio Quality for Podcasts

[00:29:48] Verity Sangan: I would love to know if somebody is kind of thinking to themselves, right.

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

[00:29:58] Verity Sangan: What would your advice be to them?

[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.

[00:30:12] Verity Sangan: Was like my second episode that I did on this podcast is stop using Zoom to record.

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

[00:30:18] Chris Smith: It's just you have to have a microphone.

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

[00:30:23] Chris Smith: They'll be holding it 5ft from them and stuff and things like that.

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

[00:30:28] Chris Smith: No, I mean, you don't have to spend a million dollars in equipment.

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

[00:30:33] Chris Smith: I may have a little bit, not a ton.

[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.

[00:30:46] Chris Smith: Like really great.

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

[00:30:50] Chris Smith: I've taken cell phone audio and made it sound great.

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

[00:30:59] Chris Smith: Great is a strong word, but I made it sound good to where I did an episode on podastic.

[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.

[00:31:11] Chris Smith: And I did an episode a while back where I was in a hotel room and I didn't plan on doing a podcast at all because I didn't bring any gear or nothing and all I had was my MacBook Pro laptop.

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

[00:31:25] Chris Smith: I know it's got the stuff I wonder if I can just do in a hotel room, right, which is not really sound treated or nothing.

[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.

[00:31:38] Chris Smith: See what I can do to make this webcam audio sound the best I can.

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

[00:31:45] Chris Smith: In fact, somebody wrote in and they said, I didn't even know.

[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.

[00:31:53] Chris Smith: Thanks.

[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.

[00:32:03] Chris Smith: Because not every guest is going to come in with the best gear.

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

[00:32:10] Chris Smith: You're going to make that sound somewhat decent.

[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.

[00:32:20] Chris Smith: Like I'm probably fairly 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.

[00:32:27] Chris Smith: I don't know how it sounds you, but the closer you get to the microphone that eliminates a lot of that reverb sound.

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

[00:32:37] Chris Smith: I think a lot of people when they do their podcast, especially if they're using the blue yeti, I think you're using the blue yeti microphone, but they'll.

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

[00:32:46] Verity Sangan: I love it.

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

[00:32:50] Chris Smith: Right.

[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.

[00:33:01] Chris Smith: And the blue yeti microphone is, I think it's what microphone version?

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

[00:33:11] Chris Smith: I can't think.

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

[00:33:15] Chris Smith: Anyways.

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

[00:33:17] Chris Smith: It picks up audio very well.

[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.

[00:33:25] Chris Smith: The microphones that I like to use are the rode pod mics, which are designed for vocal.

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

[00:33:34] Chris Smith: In fact it says podcasting microphone like right out of the box.

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

[00:33:39] Chris Smith: So I get those.

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

[00:33:41] Chris Smith: I got like four of them or three of them.

[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.

[00:33:50] Chris Smith: So I put it on the rodecaster Pro microphone setting.

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

[00:33:56] Chris Smith: So it sounds great.

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

[00:34:01] Chris Smith: So get close to the microphone is one.

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

[00:34:05] Chris Smith: Set the game level correctly if possible, not always.

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

[00:34:14] Chris Smith: I know it's depending on your setup and gear.

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

[00:34:21] Chris Smith: So.

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

[00:34:24] Chris Smith: So I plugged our USB microphones into the computer.

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

[00:34:30] Chris Smith: And I had the computer tricked out to where it could hear.

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

[00:34:37] Chris Smith: And it was a solar computer.

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

[00:34:41] Chris Smith: There'd be just maybe a millisecond or a half second delay back to our headphones.

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

[00:34:48] Chris Smith: Because you're trying to catch up to what you're hearing.

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

[00:34:54] Chris Smith: So we upgraded to an interface which had zero latency, which is great.

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

[00:35:00] Chris Smith: And a lot of these cool microphones now, I think the blue Yeti, and I think a lot of them have headphone jacks right on them, which you can basically hear yourself, like, live in real time with no delay.

[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.

[00:35:14] Chris Smith: Oh, my gosh.

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

[00:35:17] Chris Smith: I can tell you it sounds amazing.

[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.

[00:35:25] Chris Smith: Like, okay, I'm hearing a buzing, or I'm hearing a chirping from outside, or it doesn't sound right, or you can kind of hear your.

[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.

[00:35:38] Chris Smith: Like, if I noticed that I was sitting back at the couch back there and I was talking to this microphone over here, I could physically hear.

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

[00:35:46] Chris Smith: Now, if I wasn't listening, I wouldn't even know.

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

[00:35:51] The Importance of Audio Quality in Podcasting

[00:35:51] Chris Smith: And then you get your audio track, you're like, whoa, why does it sound like I'm in a cave?

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

[00:35:57] Chris Smith: So if you can do that, that'll help out quite a bit.

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

[00:36:06] Chris Smith: Trust me, I use them.

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

[00:36:14] Chris Smith: When it comes to audio plugins for your audio software, there's some that cost.

[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.

[00:36:27] Chris Smith: Now, for the most of the audio consumers that listen to podcasts, I think it just has to be good enough, better than that echo chamber, really.

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

[00:36:38] Chris Smith: And also to bring the volume up a little bit, too, some shows release their audio a lot lower, and I don't know if they just don't know.

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

[00:36:47] Chris Smith: I just don't know.

[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.

[00:36:52] Chris Smith: You get that hiss level brings it up, too.

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

[00:36:57] Chris Smith: You can take that out before you bring it up.

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

[00:37:02] Chris Smith: All the stuff I ever done, I never went to engineering school.

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

[00:37:06] Chris Smith: I never went to that stuff.

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

[00:37:09] Chris Smith: Like, oh, let me try this little trick.

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

[00:37:12] Chris Smith: Oh, maybe this will work.

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

[00:37:17] Chris Smith: Let me try that and see if it worked.

[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.

[00:37:28] Chris Smith: We tried the zoom thing, and we're like, it doesn't sound quite right.

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

[00:37:32] Chris Smith: It doesn't sound know.

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

[00:37:35] Chris Smith: It was free.

[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.

[00:37:42] Chris Smith: It sounds that way because I'm looking at the wave files, I'm looking at them and I'm hearing them and I'm like, it sounds pretty darn good.

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

[00:37:51] Chris Smith: So that's kind of how I evolved with that.

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

[00:37:55] Verity Sangan: That's such actionable tips.

[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.

[00:38:04] Verity Sangan: How are they sitting with their microphone, thinking about their wearing headphones, thinking about their environment?

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

[00:38:13] Verity Sangan: And like you said, you don't need to be spending thousands of dollars at all, which I think is something that people get really, really caught up in sometimes.

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

[00:38:29] Verity Sangan: But actually, I'm a big fan of saying that you can have the most expensive equipment going.

[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.

[00:38:42] Chris Smith: Yeah.

[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.

[00:38:52] Chris Smith: It doesn't guarantee any of that.

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

[00:38:56] Chris Smith: You have to have a reason why you're podcasting.

[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.

[00:39:02] Chris Smith: You have to deliver them something valuable.

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

[00:39:10] Chris Smith: Why do I care?

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

[00:39:13] Chris Smith: What does so and so do for me?

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

[00:39:18] Chris Smith: I was just listening to a podcast last night.

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

[00:39:22] Chris Smith: I sent out to somebody who actually does interview only shows, and he lives and dies by the nature of the guest, like how big the guest is.

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

[00:39:33] Chris Smith: Bigger guest.

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

[00:39:35] Chris Smith: And I suggest doing more solo shows, but he'll never listen to me.

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

[00:39:47] Chris Smith: Solo shows are more valuable.

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

[00:39:52] Chris Smith: And maybe he feels like he's not important.

[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.

[00:40:02] Chris Smith: But then again, it's like, whose show is it?

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

[00:40:05] Chris Smith: Is it their show?

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

[00:40:12] Chris Smith: Guest interviews are fun.

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

[00:40:13] Chris Smith: They're great.

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

[00:40:17] Chris Smith: We do a mixture of both.

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

[00:40:22] Chris Smith: The whole show is not guest interview.

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

[00:40:29] Chris Smith: And then we'll bring the guest in and then we'll wrap it up.

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

[00:40:32] Chris Smith: So on and so forth.

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

[00:40:34] Chris Smith: Enjoy.

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

[00:40:36] The Power of Podcasting

[00:40:36] Chris Smith: So with podcasting, you can do pretty much anything you want to do.

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

[00:40:43] Chris Smith: There's a solo format, there's the roundtable format, there's the reviews.

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

[00:40:52] Chris Smith: And I say anybody that's going to say, go ahead and do it, just remember that even with video, it gets video and audio, too.

[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.

[00:41:07] Chris Smith: It just has to be better than the guy in the walkie talkie, out in the field talking, whatever.

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

[00:41:17] Chris Smith: And it has to be a reason why your listener comes to your show.

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

[00:41:28] Chris Smith: I know why you're doing it, because you're talking to big so and so big shot smarty pants on your Zoom chat.

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

[00:41:35] Chris Smith: But why am I the listener?

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

[00:41:38] Chris Smith: What am I here for?

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

[00:41:43] Verity Sangan: Why and what are you serving and who are you serving and how are you meeting that need?

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

[00:41:50] Podtastic Audio Interview with Chris Smith

[00:41:50] Verity Sangan: But oh, my gosh, so much goodness in this episode.

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

[00:41:57] Verity Sangan: Thank you so much.

[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.

[00:42:05] Verity Sangan: Because your podcast is amazing and I would suggest everybody goes and listens to it.

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

[00:42:11] Chris Smith: Bring a tear of my eye.

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

[00:42:14] Chris Smith: I love people say they love my podcast.

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

[00:42:16] Chris Smith: Even though I'm not one to be all flashy dashy and say, like, hey, I'm the best.

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

[00:42:22] Chris Smith: But I appreciate everyone who listens and stuff.

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

[00:42:27] Chris Smith: You can find out everything you want to know@podcasticaudio.com.

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

[00:42:33] Chris Smith: Podcasticaudio.com.

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

[00:42:35] Verity Sangan: And that is going to be linked down in the show notes as well.

[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.

[00:42:46] Verity Sangan: Otherwise, Chris, thank you so much for joining us today.

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

[00:42:52] Verity Sangan: I'm also actually going to link.

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

[00:42:55] Verity Sangan: When I was on your, you invited me on to come onto your podcast as well.

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

[00:43:02] Verity Sangan: Have a listen to that.

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

[00:43:05] Verity Sangan: It has been an absolute pleasure hosting you today.

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

[00:43:10] Chris Smith: This has been a blast.

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

[00:43:15] Chris Smith: Not so much sunny San Diego.

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

[00:43:21] Verity Sangan: So for me, as a Brit, it is always sunny over there.

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

[00:43:27] Verity Sangan: Well, you have a great day, and we'll chat soon.

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