If you learn most from your mistakes, then our first podcast taught us plenty! Join us as we share the trials and tribulations of two rookie podcasters’ first time behind a ‘hot mike’.
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Transcript
Boris 0:02
Hey there. Welcome to another podcast episode of the Quiz Makers. This time again it’s Boris and Mike. After you listened to our first episode as a guests, hopefully last week, if not go back and do that first. Because Mike is going to give us a little post mortem of all the things that went really well and did two or three things that didn’t, right?
Mike 0:25
Well, two or three is optimistic, but like all great things, you learn more by failing than succeeding.
So our first podcast went really well, the guest was lovely, but we definitely had some quick takeaways of like, wow, we could have definitely done a number of things better.
We want to pass this on to you guys. In case you’re looking to run your own podcast.
Okay, so let’s start off. So with The Quiz Makers, we’re doing this both as an audio podcast and as a video podcast. And I forgot to take that into account. So in our discussion, I was talking about something I was wearing, like, oh, and as you can see, and I pointed to something I was wearing, forgetting that, “Oh, wait, this is not going out only as pure audio.”
So our lucky listeners who are listening to an audio won’t be able to catch that. Always think, if you’re doing on both, which we do recommend, because, frankly, why not? More exposure, the better.
Second, this is totally obvious, but also easy to kind of forget in your busy day. But test the audio test your whole setup. Have a friend be a dummy guest and say, “Hey, Bob, just make sure you can hear me, I can hear you.”
And the audio is recorded properly on your setup, because nothing is more embarrassing than having to ask to redo a podcast with a guest. Thankfully, we didn’t have to do this. But to go back to your busy guests and say, “Yeah, sorry, could we borrow another half hour of your time?”
Boris 2:02
Yup, that would be bad. You know, the audio was challenging and still remains to be challenging. I guess it makes a huge difference if you’re quarantined because of Corona, which we’re still are, we’re still all working from home, where there may be too much echo. You may be in a room that’s too big, too noisy, versus an office that’s soundproofed. We still spend a lot of time we’re using Adobe Audition right now to filter filter out all the strange noises and get audio in shape. It’s a lot of work. Even for just 10 minutes of podcast. It’s probably half an hour of work. Yeah, it’s still terrible. I don’t know.
Mike 2:46
Well, it’s interesting because we’re approaching this like a, you know, like a classic startup. Basically saying, “Hey, we’re just getting going. Let’s test it out. Let’s see what people think if there’s an audience for this, so we’re not spending hundreds hundred of dollars or pounds on the best microphones, the studio level equipment.” We’re saying, you know what, let’s just test it out. So there’s a give and take; there’s compromises. And the quality is one of them. Then obviously there’s the guests’ audio.
Boris 3:16
Right? Even if we spend money on high end audio, we can’t ship a Blue microphone to everyone that appears in our podcast, but we’ve learned from our first guest, right, so Mike, what was your big takeaway from how to invite guests?
Mike 3:32
Well, so I’m actually shamelessly copying or being inspired by one podcast I was a guest on. They did something really smart. They sent a lovely checklist for someone who’s never been on a podcast here are the six or seven steps you need to follow quiet room, things like that.
So that’s something I definitely will do future because our first guest I didn’t prep her at all, and so naturally, she had her iPhone in a vertical position, which works but it leaves a lot of blank black space, because YouTube and everything else is in a landscape format. For audio not critical, but if you’re doing the video AND audio, that’s something.
One other tip – she was just on speakerphone. Next time I would say, “Oh, hey, next time even just use the headphones that are come with your smartphone.” Because that just cuts out a lot of echo and just makes everything a bit better. Right.
Boris 4:32
So how do people react when you invite them to a quiz maker podcast? Do you have to convince them or are they excited and enthusiastic about coming on?
Mike 4:43
Yeah, bribery, you know, shameless plugs and beers.
No, actually, it was really easy. It was delightfully easy.
Because, you know, Boris, you and I, we went through our, you know, as part of Riddle. We are all Big customer support geek. So we are actually in one on one contact with a lot of our customers frequently. We came up with a list of people like, “Hey, these guys are doing great things with quizzes.”
I next asked 10 saying, “You know, we like what you’re doing. Would you like to be a guest in the podcast?” I was hoping for two or three. And I think we got about six or seven out of 10. It’s great. And they’re all very enthusiastic people who reaction is “That sounds like a lot of fun. How do I do it?”
Boris 5:31
So? Okay, well, that sounds good. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, don’t think about, you know, how many thousands of listeners you’re going to get. At least if you’re doing it as a business to run a podcast, you know, as a side business. We’re not making money from the podcast, but you can use it to talk to your customers and get to know them better. Right?
Mike 5:54
Absolutely. And actually one of the things I always like to ask in our episodes, and you’ll hear more as we do more episodes, is a “How is marketing changing? And what predictions do you have for marketing going forward?”
But then I also like to ask, “You’re using riddle, what can we do better?”
Maybe that sometimes does not make it onto the podcast. But customers love hearing, you know, and giving feedback on what we can do better. So it’s both a podcast, but also a great chance to get to know our customers better.
Boris 6:26
That sounds like a good plan. So we’ll follow up on that. In the next episode, we’ll have another guest, right?
Mike 6:33
Yes. Got a whole slew of guests lined up. Very excited.
Boris 6:36
Okay. Well, we promised we would keep this under 15 minutes. So I think it’s time to wrap it up.
Mike 6:43
Perfect.
Boris 6:45
Perfect. Well, thanks for checking in everybody. I will talk to you next week. And you’ll hear Mike talking to another guest. Alright, see you then.