Transcripts
1. Introduction: To the micro podcasting
for beginners class. My name is Armand Jodi, the founder of Armani Talks. You may be thinking, why
exactly micro podcasting? I've heard of podcasting
before, but micro podcasting, this feels like something new, and that's the beauty of
it. It is something new. Within content creation, you always need to be
willing to experiment. And if you're one
of these guys that is caught up in the past, then you will struggle. In this beginner's class
on micro podcasting, you will learn what exactly is why should you learn
micro podcasting? How can you practice and how you can upload your own episodes? In the land of content creation, you don't want to be
one of those people that is just consuming
on the sidelines, but never taking the effort
to do something yourself. You definitely want to
get into the battlefield, create content, whether it's
micro macro, doesn't matter. But I would recommend
that you start off with Micro because it's way easier
to practice like that. If you're ready and excited, I look forward to
seeing you inside. Who is Armand Jodi? My name is Armand dry, the founder of Armani Talks. Armani Talks is a media company
that helps engineers and entrepreneurs improve their
communication skills. Guess what? One way that I
help engineers and entrepreneurs is by
working with podcasts. Thus far, at the time of
recording this class, I have recorded over 1,000 podcasts that deals with a variety of topics on
communication skills. The unique thing with
podcasting is that it allows the listener to
use their imagination. It's not like I'm giving them visuals which they only can see. Instead, they are
consuming the audios, and from there, they're using
their life experiences, their imagination, their
critical thinking skills to decipher whatever lesson they want to get out of my content. And throughout my journey of recording over 1,000
plus episodes, I've had multiple people
come up to me and be like, Armani, your content has
helped me get a promotion. Your content has helped
me find a girlfriend. Your content has made me a confident communicator,
especially in meetings. That is the power of podcasting. Therefore, if you
are someone that is thinking about getting
your life experiences and packaging it
into content that other people can understand
and resonate with, I would highly
recommend that you stick with podcasting
to start off, and from there, you
can always expand. My name is Armand Jodi and I look forward to
being your instructor.
2. What is a Micro Podcast & What Should You Discuss?: Is a micro podcast? A micro podcast is simply
short form audio content. Unique thing with micro
podcast is that the content, it can be purposeless
or with a purpose. I've seen creators
do both strategies. Some people, they just talk
about their day aimlessly, which is perfectly
fine because there are times that we don't
want to think too much. There are TV shows
that we resonate with, and one of the reasons
we resonate with it is because it's purposeless. And by having a long day and we consume this
purposeless content, it allows us to relax and vibe. That is one strategy
that you can do whenever you're
creating a micro podcast. Another strategy to follow is to have a purpose behind it. Shortly, I'm going to be
talking about a couple of different purposes that your
micro podcast can have. Just know that these
type of episodes, they have an intent behind it. You're not just creating it
Willy Nilly, but instead, you're creating it
because there is a reason that you want to create
it. There is this intent. You may want to educate, you may want to entertain. You may want to
educate and entertain. Just know that
there is a purpose. How you publish micro
podcast is really up to you. You could do it
weekly, you could do it daily, you could
do it monthly. It doesn't matter. The main
thing that you want is to actually record
these episodes, and from there, how you publish
is completely up to you. The topics that you can
discuss is really up to you, but I'm going to give
you some suggestions. One strategy is you
can make a purpose less and completely
ignore this slide. But let's say you
are someone that wants to have a
purpose behind it. One thing that you can do is to tell stories about yourself. What exactly is your story? What was your childhood like? Did you ever go
through a tough time? Any of these experiences can actually turn into a lesson
for one of your listeners. There have been
times that I'm over here just talking about a day to day life for me. And
you know what happens? The other person that
is listening is like, Hey, I kid you not. That one episode where
you were just rifting, it changed the way that I think. I'm thinking, Wait, for real? And they said, Yes, it changed
the way that they think. And one example I'll give
you is that growing up, I used to be really shy. And there was a period
when I was talking about when I just could not
raise my hand in class, even though I knew the answer. I was just talking
about that story. And what happened was another person that was listening to that episode felt hard because
he is now a grown man. It's not like he's in class. But he's in work meetings. In a work meeting, one
time he knew the answer, but for whatever reason, he could not articulate
his idea out loud. When he saw that, I went through the same exact thing a
couple of years back, that's when he
resonated with me. Telling stories
about yourself is an underrated way in order to build an audience, guess what? As long as you're living, you always have content material. Another type of topic to talk about is something related
to personal development. Are you going to the gym?
Are you writing more? Are you doing something that
is leveling up your life? If so, you want
to talk about it. Because you are at
that stage right now where you are
actually doing the task. When you are actually
doing the task, other people who are
listening to it are like, I resonate with
this more because this is not just book
smarts knowledge. It's based on facts. It's based on this man or woman's experience and this type of content, it's teaching me. This is another type of material that you could talk
about personal development. And one of the final
topics you could talk about are any types of
skills that you're learning. What exactly are you
learning right now and what are you could say
growing pains with it? Are you trying to
learn how to cook? Are you trying to learn
how to build something? Are you learning how to
code? Just talk about it. You don't have to go to the nitty gritty details
or anything like that. But what you can do
is take the time to talk about the ups and the
downs of your journey. I mean, think about it
like this. How many people do you know if they documented their entire
entrepreneurship journey? It would help you out. You see how these people deal
with real world challenges. When you see that,
it makes you want to maybe become an
entrepreneur yourself, start a side business. If you are learning any
type of skills out there, these are perfect topics
for your micro podcasts.
3. Which Tools do You Need?: So you're going to
need three tools, and this is the basic bare
minimum, as you can say. One is that you need
audio software. This is where you are
recording your voice into. I like to use audacity. It's free. The next thing
you need is a microphone. I recommend you go on Amazon and see whatever your budget is and buy a microphone from there. The types of microphones I personally like a lot
are the USB ones, the ones that you could plug
right into your laptop, but choose whichever
one works for you. And from there, you
can actually just begin practicing
recording your episodes. But if you want to
distribute the episodes, you need a hosting platform, and there are plenty of
different options out there. There's pot Bean,
there's SoundCloud. And these, I would say, are
the two more popular ones. I personally like
to use SoundCloud because it's easy for me
and it's within my budget. But find a platform
that you would like to host on once you are
ready to distribute. In the very beginning,
all you need is a audio recording
software like audacity, and you need a microphone, and from there, you
are ready to begin. Where can you buy the tools? You can buy it in Amazon or any sort of
physical retail shop. Personally, I like using Amazon because I like
online shopping, and anything that I need
is typically on Amazon. It's pretty beneficial for me. But if you're one of those
people that like to actually try out something or
at least hold it, then a place like Best
Buy may help you out. Maybe you are not allowed
to try it in the store, but at least you can hold it and you see what you are
getting yourself into. One little hack that I have is that for the beginning
of your journey, use Amazon, especially
when you're trying to buy, let's say, a $20 microphone. But later on, when you're
trying to invest in a pretty expensive product
because you're trying to amp up the quality of your
podcast and you want to, let's say, spend $200
on a microphone, that is when I recommend you go beyond Amazon and you
actually hold the product. This is when I recommend going
to places like Best Buy. So how you buy your
tools is up to you. Just know that there are
plenty of options out there.
4. How to Practice and Get Better: How to practice. This is a personal blueprint
that I'm going to give to you because
this is how I did it, but how you do it is really up to you. Just take what works. The very first thing that
I want to introduce you to is what I call the Dark Zone. These are the
episodes that you're going to record in private, and I recommend that
you have fun with it because no one is
ever going to see it. As long as you don't
want them to see it, I mean, within my laptop, I have hundreds of videos and podcasts that I know no one is ever going
to see besides me. This allows me to experiment,
and during this stage, I learn to discover
and create my voice. So during this time, you want
to record it in private, but you do want to give
yourself a cutoff. Otherwise, you're going to be recording in private forever, and no one is going to hear this amazing podcast of yours. I would recommend you record roughly ten to 20
episodes in private, and that is when you
began going public. By the time you
begin going public, you have to get these
episodes and put it on your distribution
platform of choice. I basically upload my podcast to SoundCloud and I connected SoundCloud to a
bunch of RSS feeds. So once I upload
it on SoundCloud, it automatically gets
published to Spotify to Apple, to other platforms where
you can listen to podcasts. That's something I will let
you figure out on your own. But eventually, you
have to go public. If you don't go public and
you're always staying private, then you will not grow. By the time that you go public, you need to have the
following mindset. Publish, publish, publish. The more that you publish,
the better that you will get. The more that you publish, the better that your
voice will become. You'll start to become
familiar with your voice. You'll see the good parts, the bad parts, things
you can improve, things that you don't
want to improve, and much more, but
you need to publish. You have to listen to
your old episodes. Plenty of people, they're going
to sleep on this section. They're not going to do
it. They're going to think that only recording
episodes is the way to go. But I would highly
recommend that you do not forget about this
step right here. You need to listen to
your old episodes, and you need to sit
through the cringe. There are going to
be plenty of times you're listening to episodes
and you're going to think, I sound like that. Yes, you do. Or better yet, yes, you did. But eventually, you evolve. Whenever I'm listening
to my old school or Moni Talks episodes, one thing that I
notice is yikes, I was so monotoned. Come on, amp it up. Show some color in your voice. But I'm not showing
color in my voice, and it's hurting my
confidence back then. But when I'm listening
to it right now and I understand what my
voice sounds like now, I feel confident, and that's why I'm happy that I
sat through the cringe. And from there, you
want to see what you did right and what
you can improve. There are plenty of times that I'm listening to
my old episodes, and I'm thinking, Man, you're doing certain
things very well. Your storytelling is on point. The way that you're
delivering it is with power. I like that. But what you can improve
are X, Y, and Z. You don't want to be critical with yourself
the entire time. You want to see what you can improve and
what you did right. From there, you are going to consistently build your library. The more that you publish,
publish, publish. The more that you
have a library, the better it is for
you to go through different episodes and
see how you have evolved. If you have a small
body of work, it's hard to see how
far you have come. But by the time you hit
1,000 plus episodes, that's when you have
this huge library, and it will take you a while to go through all of your episodes. In your free time, you should be listening
to your episodes. Eventually, make a practice on when you will listen
to your episodes. For me, I like to do it daily. Anytime I'm driving, I will listen to roughly two episodes, which for me, my episodes
are roughly 5 minutes, so that's 10 minutes of my time. These are micro podcasts, so you can absolutely
do the same thing. Listen back to your episodes.
5. Final Project and Conclusion: Now is the time for
the final project. I want you to record
a six minute podcast on a skill that you
know very well. It could be cooking, it could be weight lifting, it could be playing
basketball, something. From that, I want you to explain the fundamentals of the skill. Explain it to me as if I have no clue what this
field is about, and I want you to make
me laugh at least once. When you have that intention of trying to make me
laugh at least once, the entire content of your
podcast episode changes. I would say it gets better. You have a beautiful tonality and you're learning
to entertain. You don't just want
to educate me. You also want to entertain me, and that is a skill. Once you are done with
this podcast episode, I want you to post it in
the final project section right on below so I
could listen to it, I can learn from it, and
I could laugh from it. Well, this was fun, my friend. But now we are at
the conclusion. If you enjoyed
this class and you want to get more content
from the Armani talks brand, you definitely want to
go on Armantokot com. Within this website, you
will see a lot of my videos, my micro podcasts, my blogs, my books, and much more. And within this website, you will have so many
resources on public speaking, storytelling, emotional
resilience, and much more. Go on armontkot com. And if you ever catch me on Twitter or any other
social media platform, go ahead, slide in my
DMs and stay in touch. Thank you very much
for joining me and good luck on your micro
podcasting journey.
Arman Chowdhury, Confidence thru Communication
