The Podcasting Playbook: Build a Successful Podcast Today

1. The Podcasting Playbook: Everyone, my name is Ellisva, and I've been doing podcasts back in the day when I still had to explain almost everyone what a podcast was about. Over the years, I've made a lot of mistakes, gone through frustrating moments because of those mistakes, learned a lot, made some more mistakes as one does, and learned even more. Today, I'm the host of two popular podcasts, InterPaT Seekers and the Hard warrior project. Both started with merely one, to ten listeners a month that have increased over the years to hundreds and now thousands of listeners each month. This course is perfect for anyone looking to start their own podcast and who wants to know all the ins and outs, tricks and tips, and secrets to podcasting that I learned from five years of experience, all condensed in a few hours. This includes learning in depth about equipment, software, and other platforms you'll need to start your podcast. You'll learn how to edit your podcast episodes completely and professionally from start to finish, yet easily enough that everyone can do it. We'll also talk about other ways to do the editing, such as hiring an editor, and what to look for when doing so and using AI video editing. Other essential things you will learn are how to create an optimal workflow for your podcast, so that creating episodes can be a much smoother experience for you. This will also include talking about how to keep your file safe and secure. You don't want all that work to just go to waste if something happens to go wrong. You'll also learn how to have backup systems for each piece of equipment and software you'll use, and you will come to see why this is a critical thing to have. What's more, I will walk you in depth through the process of how to find guests, and how I right from the beginning, manage to have some pretty big names on my podcasts, how I create questions from my podcasts, and how that process looks like. You will also learn how to prepare for your interview, what to do right before your interview, and so much more. And of course, there will be a whole lot of lessons on how to promote your podcast episodes. The many more ways you can use them to create content, and how to earn money with your podcast. I'm honestly excited to see you in the first lesson, where we'll kick off this adventure together. So, let's dive in and make your podcasting dream a reality. 2. Welcome - Watch First: Hey, welcome to the course. It's a real pleasure for me to welcome you here, and I hope you are excited to learn a whole lot more about podcasting. Whether you already have a podcast or are about to start one, there is some good stuff awaiting you. Now, before we dig into everything, I like to cover three key things to ensure you will have the best experience during this course. First of all, this is really important to know, so you will understand my reason for doing it this way. While I do mention software and programs, I do not have specific lessons on, for example, all the best recording software or the best kind of microphones available. Now, there is a good reason for that, and there is an even better solution that I offer in this course. The reason is that if you watch this course five years from now or even a year from its initial release, there is a high chance that all those technologies won't be relevant anymore. There might already be better recording software or better microphones. I mean, it's bound to happen. My goal with this course is to make it timeless, meaning that the content in this course will offer you relevant information, not just the day, but even after ten years. Therefore, to find specific recommendations such as recording software or microphone or any other kind of gear we will cover, please check out the resource file that I created for this course. Every year I will update that file with the latest and best gear software, and so on. So no matter when you actually happen to watch or follow this course, you will always have the most up to date information. Throughout the lessons, I will let you know when it might be useful or of interest to check out the PDF resource file. The way to look at the PDF resource file is to view it like an extension to this course. So if you haven't downloaded it yet, I recommend you pause the video for a moment and go and do so first. All right. Next, I'm an actual active instructor. Of course, I hope that most of the questions about podcasting will already be answered for you in the course itself. But if there are any questions that you might struggle with or are wondering about, simply use the Q&A section to ask me. As an active instructor, I will actually come online to give you a reply. But just give me a few days as I don't always immediately see your questions or have enough free time. But know that I will eventually come back with an answer for you. Lastly, I am very open to receiving feedback. Even more, I will actually do something about the feedback you give me. I'm always trying to make each course better. So of course, I need feedback to do so. If you feel there is another lesson to be made on a specific topic, and if more than one person will come to ask me to create one, there is a high chance that I will create a lesson on it. Course, besides feedback, if you simply feel that you've learned something from this course, and it made this journey to podcasting much clearer and better for you. Please take a brief moment of your time to leave a rating and a review. You have no idea how much it means to me and how much it helps me to know whether I'm doing a good job or not. Having said all that, let us get started on this journey and delve into the exciting world of podcasting. 3. Debunking Worries and Seeing if Podcasts are Truly for You: Spoken with many people about the idea of starting their own pod guest, and I'd like to take some time here in these following lessons to the bunkme worries that they have about starting a pod guest. Also, and I know this might sound a bit strange, but these lessons also serve to ensure that you truly understand what it means and what it takes to create a pod guest. What do I mean? There is a graveyard of thousands and thousands of dead pod guests out there that don't make it further than five to ten episodes. And while there are a lot of reasons why people stop doing their pod guests, a really big reason is that they underestimate what it takes to create good podcast episodes and to keep pod guests running. Now, I am by no means saying this to discourage you. In fact, this will help you to truly see if podcasts are really your thing or not. Just because something is trendy and all your friends are doing it, or you feel that you have to do it for whatever reason, does not mean that it is a good idea to do it. Mostly, it is a word doing if it doesn't truly speak to you. So these following lessons are here to help you ensure your success with any podcasts that you want to start or have already started. Let's dive into the first one. 4. Podcasting in a Crowded Space: Is It Still Worth Starting?: Let's start with what people are most often worried about when they want to start a podcast. Is doing a podcast still worth it. Now, that is a great question, right? Now, I can't predict the future. No one can. But what I will say is that the medium of audio has always been a part of us in some way. From people telling stories to each other in person to the evolution of radio, to today's podcasts, which is initially the same as radio, but just all At the core of it all, this originated from the stories we use to tell each other in person. The medium of audio is likely not going to disappear in our lifetime. And with that, pod guests will likely also stay with us for quite some time. So is doing a podcast still worth doing? I mean, honestly, that is up to you to decide, and it depends on how much you enjoy the medium of audio. If you like that medium, I can most certainly say that doing a podcast will be worth it. Actually, along with that question of is doing a podcast still we're doing. People also mean to ask if there aren't already too many podcasts out there, and if theirs won't just disappear in the ocean of other podcasts. So yes, this is true, right. Many years ago, it was easier to make your podcast rise above the rest because there was less competition. So people could find you more easily, and it was easier to hit the top ranks. However, you need to tackle this worry differently. You need to tackle it from the point of how this could actually serve you. And let me share an example to illustrate what I mean. There were only one airline in the world, they would set the standards of what airlines deliver, and what people should expect, as there is no other airline to compare and compete with. They can be rude to their customers, offer no food or long flights, and have awful seats. And everyone would have to accept that that's how taking a flight would be. But if another airline suddenly comes in and they are very friendly to their customers, offer food allong flights and have comfortable seats, the other airline has to up their game if they want to keep their customers. Yes, it can be frustrating for you as a new podcaster to have competition. I mean, even a lot of them. But in a way, you want competition, as it allows you to strive for better quality, more interesting guests, more insightful questions, and an altogether better show for your listeners. Now, as with the example, there is no perfect airline. Each one has something they could improve on or do better, and the same is true for podcasts. I mean, there is plenty of room for more good shows. So if you bring your A game and constantly try to better your shows over time, you will climb higher and higher to the top ranks. Of course, you don't need to be perfect, and you won't be, but you need to try your best. And, you know, do what I do to be slightly better each episode. To become a little bit better in the questions you choose, the guests you invite, the way you present your podcast itself, et cetera. Along with that, what helps is to listen to other top podcasts and see what they do so that you could borrow techniques and use them in your own podcast. Like life, your podcast will evolve and change over time. If I listen to the first and last episode I did on both my podcasts, I can hear and see a significant difference. And that is good. It means that I'm improving. If you continue to shape each episode towards a better version of what it was in the previous episode, then ultimately at some point, people will start to find you in the ocean of other podcasts. 5. What If My Podcast Doesn’t Top the Charts?: I've once received a very interesting question from someone, it was something that I think might somehow hold people back from creating their podcast, or if they already started one might discourage them down the road. And that question was this, Does it actually matter to even create a podcast or to continue doing yours if it will never be ranked in the top lists of podcasts? Why bother? Know, first of all, that it could always rank among the top pod guests. But realistically speaking, and I'm not saying this to discourage you, but most people watching right now will not receive millions of listeners, like some of those pod guest giants out there. Now, again, that doesn't mean that some of you here watching right now might not achieve that level. And look, it's also certainly not unrealistic to expect to have thousands of listeners if you deliver quality content and your consistence and persistence. But it does take some kind of perfect storm if you want to have millions of listeners. Most pod guest giants have had many of the following things happen to them. They immediately delivered high quality content. The person doing the interviews already had a lot of talent and skill in interviewing from the start. They already had a huge following. They have a team who can do the marketing and promoting for them. And they had luck in the timing of the podcast. For example, maybe they got in very early in the game, and with that, they had many more yes on them from the start. It's a bit of the same story for books or for that matter, any product, service, or company in general. You need a perfect storm of many things to be on the top of the list of whatever field you're in. Again, all of this does not mean that hard work won't play a role in your success. Or that you can slowly but steadily rise from the ground up to thousands or even millions of listeners. There are plenty of podcasts out there with that story. Also, like some books, not all podcasts that are ranked extremely high are truly good and worthy. But as I said, they might just have already had a massive following, a whole marketing team, and good timing. You often see the stamp number one best seller on books. But that doesn't mean anything in terms of how well the book is actually written or how much it truly brought joy information or change to someone's life. I mean, look, I can certainly mention a few books that should have been an article. Yet, through heavy marketing, those books did end up selling millions of copies. Now, anyway, back to the question that my friend asked me. Does it actually matter to even create a podcast if it will never be ranked in the top list of podcasts? Why bother? What people don't realize as my friend didn't, and this is also what I told her is the following. Hosting the two podcasts I have has completely changed my life. And look, I am for sure, striving to have my podcast rank higher by delivering quality and interesting podcast episodes. However, you can't focus on the numbers alone or on reaching the top. It will completely drive away any joy from doing a podcast. The road to increasing your listeners, it's a slow road for almost every podcaster out there. Focus instead on creating quality podcast episodes, having fun and how the podcast can change your life. And here we come to the gist of what I mean. On the IPS podcast, the number of life lessons I've learned because of what my guests have shared is enormous. I myself live a better and more knowledgeable life because of them. I've had private sessions with famous people in their field where I had the chance to ask them anything I wanted. With the podcast of the Hart warrior project, where I chat with fellow cardiac arrest survivors and cardiac health experts. It has also helped me to find support after surviving a cardiac arrest, but it also led me to one oh one talks with cardiologists and other cardiac health experts. Asking them questions that I'm very curious about and learning more about heart disease and cardiac arrest. Now, once I told her this, her eyes also opened up, and she immediately saw why you don't have to be at the top of the podcasting chart, for your podcast to means something and bring value to your life and those of your listeners. So keep this in mind while you are on this journey. Focus again on how your podcast can bring the most fun, meaning and general positive impacts on your life, and not so much on the numbers. And hey, look, if you do the former, the numbers as a consequence will generally increase too. 6. Fuel Your Podcast with Passion: Why Loving What You Do Matters: Words excitement fun meaning are three words I'm going to drop more often in this course. The reason is that they are crucial if you want to continue doing this pod gest, you've started. Unless you have a whole team at your side to help you with everything, Podcasting takes a lot more time and energy than most people realize in the beginning. So make sure that all this time and energy that you put into it is a worthy investment. One good way to ensure that it is a worthy investment is if the process of doing this podcast truly brings excitement, joy, and meaning to your life. With the IPS pod gest meeting new guests, learning from different experts, and having deep conversations about a specific topic are aspects I am extremely excited about and find very meaningful each time. The same holds true for the podcast of the Hart warrior project. Talking with fellow survivors is healing not only for the listeners, but also for me and the guest I'm talking with. Also, having a cardiologist or another health expert on Cardi arrest on the show now and then is not just insightful for listeners, but also something I'm deeply interested in because it affects my own life. Don't do something for ten episodes that you can't do for 500 episodes. You need to choose a game you can win. Therefore, don't simply start podcasting because everyone else is doing it. You will be outlasted, outsmarted, outmaneuvered by people who are really, really passionate about the medium, about the format. They're just going to be better, and they're going to last longer. I know that for some people, this might be a hard bullet to bite as we want to be rewarded for the hard work we put into things. And mostly we want that rewards in the form of money. I would say you should only do this if you're willing to do it for free. If you do this for the wrong reasons, you will burn out and become miserable as with anything that you don't find meaning and don't really enjoy doing. Bot gasting truly has to be a format that excites you. If not, Well, it might be better to look for another format where you do feel that excitement. However, if you do feel that excitement for podcasting, have fun doing it, and it feels meaningful for you. Podcasting truly is one of a kind format like no other that can change your life in more ways than you know, ways that you will learn more about throughout this course. 7. Keep It Simple: Streamlining Your Podcast for Success: Keeping it simple is key to many things in life. And it can certainly be true for podcasting as well. When the IPS podcast first started, and if you go, by the way, to the first interviews I did, you will hear the music, I added in several parts of the interviews. Now, I'm not saying that the music didn't work and that it didn't add some extra dynamic and drama to the message the guest was sharing. However, after about ten episodes, I really started to feel how much of an extra ssle it was to do this each time over and over again. As you will come to learn later in the course when I will teach you the ins and outs of editing your podcast. Editing your podcast without doing editing too fancy to it already takes up enough time. Adding more layers of complexity to it can be cool and worded for some. But in my case, I started to feel burned out. Looking for new music tracks that suit each episodes and editing them nicely to come out on good parts throughout the episodes was taking me hours and hours of work, and I started to feel that I was having less fun with the whole process. Once that is happening, it is time to re evaluate and see why that is the case and decide if you can change anything, to bring back the fun. And sometimes it can be as easy as dropping something. So that's what I did. I decided to drop it. While the equipment that is required to start a podcast is really nothing complex, per se. A lot of people underestimate how much time it can take to create podcast episodes. And we will talk, by the way, a lot more about the whole array of equipment and software required for a podcast in the second part of this course. There is a graveyard of that podcasts out there that don't make it further than the episodes. And while there are a lot of reasons why people stop, making things too complicated and losing the fun of it and burning out is a big reason. Keeping things simple sounds like, well, simple piece of device, but trust me. It's also one that can be a determining factor in the longevity of your podcast. So if you're just starting out with creating your podcast, ask yourself, How can I make my podcast as simple as possible, yet at the same time deliver a good show with quality content. Mostly, if you don't have any podcasting experience yet, this becomes clear once you start doing your podcast. That's where you can truly start to feel what can be too much of a hassle for you to do. Therefore, don't be ashamed to change something that isn't working or don't be overly committed to not wanting to change anything. Be fluids and adjust after some episodes as I did. Of course, if you have the money or if at some point you have enough, you can always hire an editor to do the editing and assembling of the episodes for you. But in the beginning or for most of the podcasting journey, many will do the editing themselves. Keep things simple and within the limits of enjoyment. Labor is always involved. I still put hours of time in each episode, and I certainly could make my podcast even simpler, but everything is within the limits of what I enjoy doing and care about. It's all about removing or changing things that you don't enjoy. Again, when you're just starting out with your podcast, try thinking about this already. Along the way, maybe, you know, after five or ten episodes, you can revaluate if you feel something specific is becoming too much of a hassle. And if you could solve it by hiring someone to do it for you, by changing it slightly to make it easier or by dropping it completely. The more simple you make it, the easier it will be to keep going. And you know, as well, the more authentic, it will be. 8. Why You Don’t Need an Audience to Start Podcasting: You don't have an audience yet, don't be afraid to start podcasting. I mean, almost everyone started with a small audience or none at all at some point and slowly true time ended up with a bigger or even a massive audience. Plus, as well, there are plenty of people who might have had already a massive audience from some other social media platform. And who started podcasting, but eventually failed in podcasting. The size doesn't determine the eventual success of the podcast. Sure, if you have an audience to whom you can announce your pod guest, it will be easier to get many listeners right at the start of your pod guest journey. However, once again, that doesn't mean people will continue listening to your pod guest. If you stop doing the pod guest, people will also eventually stop coming back, nor will there be many new listeners. If you don't have an audience yet, well, your pod guest can be the place to build that audience, right? Now, what I would recommend is that for the first ten episodes you do not focus at all on stats and how many people are following your podcast. Don't bother with it. Instead, focus all your time and effort on creating episodes worth listening to by mastering the craft of podcasting, your video editing skills, your interview skills, finding good guests, et cetera. After ten episodes, take a look at your stats and check if there are listeners. If there are even one or two every day or periodically throughout the week, That's a good start. Close those stats again and record five more episodes until you have 15, and take another look at your stats. Did the number of your listeners increase? And with increase, I don't mean massively increase, but maybe you got ten listeners a day or spread out periodically throughout the week. If yes, they good right, this means people are coming back and new people are discovering your podcast. Now, if it didn't increase, or if listeners decreased, this can be really tough and hard to see, especially when you've put so much time and effort into creating each episode. I know this might be easy to get discouraged. However, you need to seeds as a learning moment. Ask yourself the question. What can I do to improve the quality of my podcast even more? Take a look at other podcasts that you admire and like. What are they doing that you can apply in your podcast, too? Do you have to improve your microphone quality? Do you already do video podcasts? How engaging are they? Is there some dynamic happening between each angle? Do you have to get a better webcam? You have to improve the background or the room where your pod guests are being recorded? How interesting are your guests, how good are your questions? Can you increase the overall value people can get from your pod guests? Look at the total package you're covering right now, then compare that to a pod guest that you admire and adjust two to three things small or big in your pod guest. Once you do, record another five episodes until you hit 20 episodes. Now, take a look again at your stats and see if the total number of listeners has increased over this period of time. If, yes, well, it means the changes that you made might have had a positive effect. Now, if nothing has changed, take another hard look at everything you do and ask yourself again. What can I do to improve the quality of my podcast even more? Once again, make two the three changes and record another five episodes until you hit 25. Now, simply continue doing this, and the result for almost everyone should be that constantly improving things, step by step, and giving yourself time to become better at what you do and allowing time for your podcast to better shape its identity will grow the numbers of your listeners. If after many episodes and many changes, there is still no increase in the number of listeners. It might be a good time to ask yourself, Is this truly my medium? Everyone has their medium, wherein they will thrive. Maybe in the end, you find that audio isn't your medium, but quite possibly, it might be video or text. You can still convert those episodes to articles. Now, one last thing I want to say is this. What I just shared isn't something I do if my listeners are not increasing. It's something that I still do every five episodes myself, even though my listeners have been growing each time. I still ask myself after every five episodes. How can I make this pod guest even better? Then I compare it to podcasts that I admire, to see what adjustments I could still make. Honestly, if I didn't do that each time, I would still be doing audio Oly podcasts. The quality of the video podcasts I started would still be bad, and the show notes of each pod guest wouldn't be as detailed and useful as they are now. Furthermore, I wouldn't have started adding time stems to each episode, a transcription and so many more things. Every five episodes, take a moment to reflect other journey that you just took. And if you have to correct your course or see how you can make that journey more epic. So, the bottom line is, don't worry if you don't have an audience. Your podcast can get you there if you focus on creating good quality content. As is often said, the best SEO is good content. If you don't have an audience, good content will slowly but steadily get you there. So focus on creating good content if you don't have an audience. However, the desire to continue creating good content should never truly change if you care about further increasing your audience. 9. Professional Sound, Professional Presence: Appear Well in Every Episode: Let's go over a couple of concepts on how to appear your best on video where you do recorded video podcast. And let's start by talking about having a good background. Look, you can have the most incredible camera with the highest quality resolution possible and great lighting. But if your background is messy or plain boring, you are ruining most of the video altogether, and no higher camera quality or better lighting will fix that. While having a good background doesn't suddenly guarantee success in your podcast, you can increase the chances of success by checking off as many items as you can that are mentioned here in this course, such as having an orderly and somewhat mood setting background. You know what? The great thing is that this can be done fairly easily. Creating a good background does not have to be complex nor expensive. Now, I would like to go over three simple things that if you do them, will already dramatically improve the background for your video. First, remove any distracting clutter. Don't leave your underwear lying around somewhere that can be seen unless your pod guest is about underwear. But I guess you know what I mean. Don't leave a clutter of clothes or random boxes or whatever, lying within the frame of your background. I don't mean that you should have nothing in the room. No. Is a difference between mere messiness that's distracting and a room filled with many things that make sense and add to the atmosphere of the video. So, yes, it's perfectly fine to have a room filled with action figures, cars, unicorns, you name it, as long as there is some sense and order to it all. Having a clean room with a pile of random clothes lying around doesn't make any sense. This looks like a mess and clutter more than anything else, and thus is distracting and not beneficial to your video. Secondly, try to create some depth ER background. The way to do this is by creating layers in your studio. Basically, what this means is that there is some foreground object, which will likely be you, some middle ground object, such as a lamp, for example, and some background object, such as a plant or some artwork. What this will do is make your shot look less flat and in a way more dimensional. Can create more of a feeling for your listeners that they are part of the scene, and they will be drawn more into the video. A simple white wall behind you with nothing between you and the wall is very flat and boring to look at and doesn't really draw your audience in. And of course, let's not forget it's plain boring to look at. Besides having these objects in your background to create these layers, Tick to creating this feeling of depth is also to have your camera set at a shallow vocal length. Meaning setting the aperture of your camera to one of the lowest numbers it can go. This will blur out everything in the background, except for the object that is in focus, which will likely be you. If you're using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can adjust this on the camera. If you're using a webcam, your phone or tablet, there is often software that you can use or that's even required, where you can adjust the focal length of the camera and create a more blurry background while you are still in focus. Now, we will talk more about lighting to make you appear at your best on camera in a little while. But first, I'd like to talk more about having a light source in the background of your video that will solely serve to create an atmosphere for your pod guest. Often in podcast videos or videos in general, you'll see people who have a neon light, which you can have in any color or some other light somewhere in the background. Honestly, this doesn't cost a lot and is easy to set up, but it can truly create an incredible atmosphere for your video. While you certainly don't have to do this, I will recommend looking into this and buying some type of light that serves as an atmospheric light. Whether that's a neon light, Christmas lights, which work, by the way, really well, too, or something else. This is a fairly simple, yet effective way to create a background, e year video that has personality and feeling to it. I know that while everything that I just shared might be quite simple, but if these things are plied together, they can truly make or break a video background. So if you can, and if you truly want to put some effort and care into creating a good video background for your podcast, do apply these three simple pieces of advice, and you will achieve this. 10. Podcast Essentials: The Right Gear and Software for Great Episodes: Take a look at the equipment and software needed to create your podcast episodes. Now, it's important to note that you don't need the most expensive equipment to start a podcast. The most important thing is that you choose equipment that works well for your budget and your needs. As you gain more experience and your podcast grows, you may then want to upgrade your equipment to improve the quality of your show. I do not want to merely share the equipment and software you need to start a pod guest, as in truths, I mean, it's not super complicated at all. But I also want to provide additional important pieces of advice and tips related to each piece of equipment and software in each lesson. So even if you know what equipment you need and software to use, I would not skip this following lessons. Unless, of course, you already feel that you truly know everything about the topic of equipment and software. But if you feel there is room for learning, definitely continue watching. 11. Choosing the Right Hosting Platform for Your Podcast: All right, last, but certainly not least you need a hosting platform to place your podcast on. Now, what is a hosting platform? So this might be super clear for some. But if podcasting is new to you, it might be less clear. Therefore, I will take a minute here to explain what a hosting platform is. Simply put a hosting platform is a service that allows you to upload and store your audio files and disturb your podcast to various podcast directories, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and so on. Now, there are many hosting platforms out there. I would recommend you take a look at PDF resource file for a list of the most popular hosting platforms out there. In general, most hosting platforms work as follows. Pay a monthly fee, and that monthly fee will determine the benefits you will receive, such as advanced analytics, for example, which we will take a closer look at soon and how much bandwidth you'll have. Meaning how much megabytes or gigabytes you can upload every month. If you pay more naturally, you can upload more episodes. Now, note that the size of your episode file is determined by a couple of factors, such as whether it is audio only or video and audio. Video and audio will have a bigger file size. And then, of course, the length of the episodes will also be a major determinant of the file size. Now, there are other factors involved in videos, such as what resolution you export your episode in, the video codex you use, the video bit rates, et cetera. Now, these are all things we will learn more about in the editing section of this course, but these are things that will also determine the eventual file size of your episode. Now, to give you a rough idea of how much bandwidth you would need every month and use that to see which plan you might need. An audio only pod guest of about an hour can be up to about 150 megabytes. Again, this depends on the exact settings you use when exporting your episode, but this is just to give you a rough idea. Audio and video, on the other hand, could be up to about eight to 10 gigabytes for an hour of video with a resolution of 1080. If you don't know what 1080 means, it's what one would call high definition video. It is, I would say, the minimum resolution for video that you want to upload. It provides crisp and quality video that many devices can watch. Now, eight to 10 gigabytes, that's a lot. Not every hosting platform out there actually allows that much to be used in a month. Therefore, do check when browsing through the options, what the price is and how much bandwidth is available. If you decide to not do video, you might have way more options out there. However, it can be better to already choose a hosting platform that has a subscription plan with enough bandwidth for Video two. Now, if there is a concern about money, but you still want to record video, you could also upload the audio only on a podcast hosting platform, right? And then upload the video on three platforms such as YouTube, to attract even more viewers. Now, there are also hosting platforms that are completely free to use. Yes, even to upload both audio and video. There are also hosting platforms that offer a free subscription model, along with paid options that give you a fair chance to at least get started. I will place those along with any other good hosting platforms in the PDF resource file. Okay, so Bandwidth is one of the first important things to look for, but it isn't the only one. So let's take a look at a couple more features you want your hosting platform to have. You want a platform that offers analytics for your podcast and of each individual episode. Most if not all hosting platforms do offer this. It would be a bit strange actually if they wouldn't. But even though most hosting platforms will have it, do compare a couple of platforms as some already offer it at a more basic subscription model, and others don't or give very limited insights. Now, why is it essential to have analytics? Because it allows you to see how many downloads and listens your episodes are getting, where your listeners are located, and more. And why does that matter? Mainly, it can help you to see if your listeners are enjoying what you're putting out. If you gain more and more listeners each month, well, that's a good indicator. Without these numbers, it's hard to tell. Based on analytics, you can make adjustments to your podcast and see if any changes help increase the number of your listeners. Now, analytics can also help you to identify popular episodes. And this way, you can look for patterns in downloads and listeners retention to determine the topics, formats, or guests that generate the most interest. And of course, this knowledge can help you to produce more of the content your audience enjoys. Getting insights into demographics gives you good insights into your audience characteristics, determine their age, gender, location, and interests. This information can be used to help you tailor your content and marketing efforts to better target your core audience. Or, of course, it can also be used to help you set goals and measure progress. So define specific goals for your podcast, such as increasing listeners and improving audience engagement. You can then review the progress towards these goals, say every three or six months, and you can also adjust your strategies accordingly to optimize your podcast performance. Now, there are more reasons, but in general, it's for you to truly understand your audience better, because in the end, who are your listeners? Your analytes can give you an answer to that. Now, if you're interested in monetizing your podcast through products or service ads from other companies, then look for hosting platforms that offer advertising options. Now, I will say almost all the good platforms out there do offer ad. Likewise, look for other monetization options such as the possibility of creating a subscription model. Even if you don't have an immediate interest in using this, you'll never know in the future if you want to run ads or start offering a subscription model, then it would be handy that your current hosting platform already has that option. Okay. Finally, when you are looking at some of the hosting platforms out there, make an account with the ones that you're interested in, and simply explore the platform for a moment. How easy is it to find everything that we've just covered? How easy it to know where to upload your episodes? How easy is it to insert all the information about your podcast? How easy is it to find the analytics, how easy is it to find demonetization options? Mean, look, you don't want a hosting platform that makes it overly complicated for you to simply upload an episode. A good hosting platform should be user friendly. Try out two to three of them and see how easy they are to use. Try to find the one that has it all for you. A good price, good features, and easy navigation. Okay, let me end this lesson by mentioning one last important thing to know. So it doesn't mean that once you selected a hosting platform that you're stuck with it until the day you die. If in time you don't feel happy about the platform you've chosen, it's actually very easy to move your podcast from one hosting platform to another one. I've done this, and in general, many people have to. Sure, it's easier to never have to change hosting platforms at all. But if you do decide to switch to another platform, it should be a hassle free experience. You should find articles on how to move your podcast on the hosting platform that you want to move to, and even on the one that you are originally on. On the other hand, if you are on a good hosting platform, and you don't know how to do it at all, you can contact the customer service of your current hosting platform, and ask them how to proceed, they will help you. Now, again, do take a look at the PDF resource file to find some good hosting platforms with some grade three options as well. 12. Choosing the Right Microphone and Headphones for Your Podcast: If there is one piece of equipment that your pod guest definitely needs, and I'm pretty sure that you know which, piece of equipment that I'm talking about. That's a microphone. And as well, I would say, headphones or earbuds. Now, in this episode, I'm not going to talk about exactly which microphone or headphones to buy because, in a way, they all do the same thing. Also the best microphones and headphones out there will change over time. Therefore, it isn't very relevant to talk about that. However, in the PDF resource file, you can find a range of good suggestions for microphones and headphones for different budgets. As well, I will keep updating this for you every year. Now, what I do want to talk about in this lesson is audio quality. And note, this is not something that can be improved or ruined just by having a good or not so good microphone. Between video and audio, audio far outweighs video in importance. This holds true across the board for quite a lot of mediums, but it certainly holds true here as well for podcasting. You will stick much longer with this course if the video quality would be poor. But if the audio quality would be poor, I will tell you, I mean, you will leave so much sooner because you can't understand me. With the video quality being poor or of low quality, Well, at least you can still learn because you understand what I'm saying, right? Podcasts are predominantly about audio. So if there's one thing you should not try to shrimp on in terms of equipment. It's the microphone. Now, this doesn't mean you'll have to spend thousands of dollars or euros on your microphone. There are very good ones priced at around $100 or euros. Again, check the PDF resource file for more details on that. Poor audio quality isn't just a major turnoff for listeners. It can altogether determine how many people will end up following your podcast and sticking with it. Now, as I said, it isn't only a good microphone that determines audio quality. There are more things that can affect whether your audio quality is good or bad. Let's go through that list. Generally, there are two kinds of microphones, a condenser microphone and a dynamic microphone. A condenser microphone picks up sounds from all around the mic, thus picking up a lot of background noise. Whereas a dynamic microphone picks up sound from the front side of the microphone and not the back. The dynamic microphone is the one you should buy or check for microphones that have multiple settings. The main scenario where you might want to use a condenser microphone is if you want to use one microphone to record both you and a guest sitting in the same room. However, this is a big, however. If you are doing interviews in person, I would not recommend using the same microphone. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that. One. Everyone is going to be at slightly different distances from the microphone, meaning that one voice will sound louder than the other. Yes, you can have that happen, of course, if you have two microphones. But leading to 0.2, you will then have two audio files and one as you will have if you use one microphone. Benefit of having two separate audio files for each speaker is that you can increase the volume of one speaker if he or she speaks less loudly. So you can match the overall volume level for both yourself and the guest. But also, with only one audio file, you can't edit editing out of it. With two audio files, you can have the possibility of cutting out moments where there is too much talking over each other or certain distracting noises you make such as a cough or a sneeze while the guest is stalking. The only moment to use this single mic option is if your other microphone for the guest fails, or if you have a very, very tight budget and you have no other option. If your microphone doesn't have a built in pop filter by a pop filter. These are very inexpensive things that you put in front of or on your microphone to reduce any wind going through your microphone that will result in a pop. If it does have a pop filter, this should be highlighted in the description of the microphone. Now, some microphones with built in pop filters, especially those in the lower price range, will still require a separate pop filter to block all wind from going true. Now, again, this is such an inexpensive thing to buy yet one that can dramatically improve your audio quality. By preventing sound from popping. How can you test if your mic needs a pop filter? Set up your recording equipment, prepare your microphone and recording software on your computer, press record, and pick a script or set of phrases that include words with strong plosive sounds. For example, Patrick the musician pulled a pink rabbit from his polka dot hat? The painter painted a perfect portrait of a purple penguin. Here, let me do this myself, too. Patrick De Musician pulled a pink rabbit from his Polka dot heat. The painter painted a perfect portrait of a purple piuing. If you listen now to this recording of me saying those two sentences with no pop filter on my microphone, you do hear a lot of pes popping, right? If that is the case, then yes, you clearly do need a pop filter. Now, let's do this again. But let me now add my pop filter to my microphone. Patrick Demsician pulled a Pink rabbit from his Polka dot heat. Painter painted a perfect portrait of a purple penguin. If you can hear a big difference between the sentences recorded with and without a pop filter. Like in my case, you clearly know that, yes, you should not forget to do your interviews with a pop filter on your microphone. Otherwise, you can imagine how annoying it must be for listeners to have to listen to a whole interview where many of the words are constantly popping. It's not such a pleasure to listen to, especially not knowing how easy and inexpensive it is to fix this. So don't forget to test it out clearly if you need one or not. I mean, either way, it won't do any harm to simply have a pop filter or your microphone. All right. Next on is to reduce Echo, because I mean, you can have the best microphone out there that money can buy with a pop filter on it. But the room where you are in, where you are recording your podcast episodes, that too determines a lot of the audio quality of your pod guest. I mean, you might be actually better off using a cheap microphone in a well suited room with no echo than a high quality one in a room with a lot of echo. And I'm not saying that in the future, there might be not some kind of function to reduce the echo in any kind of room that you're in. But still, it doesn't hurt to improve your room to reduce echo. It's actually very easy to do that. Now, what is an echo actually? An echo refers to the audible reflection of sound waves in a room or space. When sound waves encounter hard surfaces like walls, floors, or ceilings, they bounce back and create reflections. These reflections can reach the microphone and get captured in a recording resulting in an echo effect. Giving it a sense of space or reverberation. It can make the audio sound distant, holllow, or unclear, reducing overall audio quality and intelligibility. So, yeah, that's something you want to avoid. If you record in an empty or nearly empty room with hard surfaces like concrete or tile, you'll hear a strong echo. Therefore, you need things in your room that can break the sound or absorb it. Now, the best rooms for podcasts are ones that are not so big and mainly, so it's easier to fill them and have some of the following in the space. Soft materials like curtains, drapes, carpets, and rugs help absorb sound waves and reduce the bouncing of sound of hard surfaces. Furniture, such as bookshelves, wall hangings, sofas, chairs, and cushions can help reduce echo. The more furniture you have in the room, the more sound reflections will break up, and the more waves will be absorbed. You could also easily add life plants. Not only do they look nice and cheer up the room. They can also act as a natural sound absorber. Finally, if all this isn't enough, and you still hear an echo, you can also play acoustic panels or foam on the walls and ceiling. But try adding more furniture and other objects first to your environment. Now, what if you don't have the money, to add these things to your recording room? Or what if you order something, but it's still on its way and you have an upcoming interview. Or what if you're traveling, but you still want to do interviews, and the room that you have has an echo. What can you do? Well, there are some easy solutions that whilst not taking all the echo away, can help reduce it quite a lot. Pillows. Yes, pillows. Place as many pillows as you can find in the corners of the space. This is often where sound bounces the most. You can also add as many pieces of furniture as you can to the room. Yes, this might look silly, having a bunch of chairs or random stuff in the room. But again, all this helps to reduce echo. I've actually done this quite a lot of times when I was traveling, and I will say all to good success. Also, don't forget, by the way, to frame it out of your camera. You know, it might be otherwise a bit strange to have a bunch of chairs in the background. All right. And finally, do not record an episode without headphones or earbuds, whether they're wired or not. That doesn't matter. Now, what's more, I will always try to ask my guests if they have any headphones or earbuds that they can use. The reason why is that you have something that's called audio bleeds, which can easily happen if one of you don't have headphones or earbuds on. Now, what is audio bleed? This is where the audio being recorded Bles to the other side. For example, if the guest doesn't have headphones on, but you do, and he or she is talking, and you reply in between with a yes or a m. If your volume on their side is loud or if they are using a condenser microphone and not one that is only recording from the front of the microphone, what you might say might be picked up by their microphone. And this is turned bleed true. The result here is that you can dimly hear your own voice at their end in their recorded audio file, and also at your end, in your recorded audio file. Now, I will show you a short clip from an interview that I did on the Iter Pat Secret Spot guests, where these audio bleeds is actually happening. Having connected relationships is the secret to a happy life. There is not money, not anything else. Harvard's been doing this very long study. There's books about it. The research is out there. It's the longest study on human happiness. I know this isn't extremely noticeable, but it is there, right? And it can be very annoying for your listeners to have to listen to this often throughout the whole interview. And again, this certainly happens if they are using a condenser microphone that picks up sound from all rounds and not a dynamic microphone that only picks up sound from the front. So if your guest is using a proper microphone, ask them to use earbuds or headphones, or see if their microphone possibly allows them to only record from the front and not their surroundings. As you can see from this lesson, having a good microphone is important, but there are more factors that determine good audio quality. So take note of everything here in this lesson. As I said in the beginning, audio matters more than video. So do your best to optimize it as much as you can. 13. Top Recording Platforms for Professional Podcasting: In addition to the hosting platform, you also need a recording platform, which is where you will invite your guests to record the actual interview. There are a couple of options to choose from, but what I personally would highly recommend you check out, and which we will also cover here in the lesson is to find an actual recording platform that specializes in recording pod guest episodes. The best way to record online podcast interviews is by using a recording platform. Now, what makes a recording platform that specializes in recording podcast episodes? So different from video conferencing software, such as Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, et cetera? Simply put, none of those video conferencing software are designed for recording high quality video? Likewise, they are not built to meet the requirements for a smooth online recording experience for interviews. Let's break down what you should look for in a recording platform? First of all, you want a recording platform that records your interview locally on both your computer and that of your guest. Why? Because this way, if the Internet connection sometimes drop, these drops will never show once the recording is done. Indeed, the recordings are recorded locally on each other's devices instead of over the Internet. Often see drops in connection throughout an interview when people use video conferencing software to record their podcasts, where the guest or the interviewer is saying something, and this gets cut off because of some connection issues. If this happens often during a recording, it can be very annoying for your audience to listen to. Recording your files locally, which a good recording platform will automatically do saves you any of this trouble, so your audience can experience a smooth listening experience. Once the recording is done, the recording platform will then upload those local files onto a cloud so you can easily download them whenever you want. While you can enable this setting on many video conferencing software, this often isn't done automatically unlike on a good recording platform. The key is to record separate tracks during your online recording. Now, why is this important? Well, we will learn more about the importance of that in this section on editing your podcast episode. In short, if you have only one video and audio recording of both you and your guest, it's nearly impossible for you to edit out any unwanted sounds such as when you sneeze or cough, or when an ambulance or any other noise comes from your side or that of your guests. You are restricted in so many editing options if you merely have one recording file of both you and the guest. If instead you have separate video and audio recordings of you and your guest, you have the possibility of removing that ambulance, siren, for example, in your background when your guest is speaking. Now, again, you will learn how important this is soon in the section on editing. But again, recording separate files is what a recording platform will automatically do for you and which you as a podcaster, you really want to have that. Also, you don't want both your audio and video recordings to get compressed. And sure there can be benefits to having a compressed file, such as that the file size will be smaller. But along with that, there is also often a reduction in audio and video quality. Which again, is something that you don't want in the recorded file you get. You want to aim for the best audio and video quality, right? A lot of video conferencing software will compress your files by default unless you adjust the setting somewhere along the line if you can even adjust it because many of them don't allow that possibility. Recording platform, on the other hand, aims to bring you the highest possible audio and video quality that won't be compressed. Also, you will have the possibility of setting the highest resolution, the best frame rates and a high audio sample rate. Again, as they are designed for podcasting, they also know the importance of high audio and video quality, and thus they will offer that. Lastly, and this is more of a general thing you want to look for in whichever recording platform you try. You want the platform that is easy to use, something that has a clean UI where you can easily find everything that you need and not have to spend minutes or hours figuring out how to invite your guests or change any kind of setting. So you want a platform that has 247 support available in case something before or during the recording happens. Or if indeed, you have problems finding something. A good recording platform made for podcasters will have this. Now, what I just mentioned here are what I would say the essentials that any recording platform you choose to go with should have. Now, as you might know by now, check out the PDF resource file, where I will link up some great recommendations, and where I can from time to time, keep them up to date. In all, we are living in a great time for online video podcasts, as there are more and more incredible recording platforms out there that have made the process of online podcasting so much easier while also providing us with a great experience and great quality that we in turn can bring to our audience. 14. Camera Choices: Which Type Suits Your Podcasting Style?: All right, so the next piece of equipment that we are going to talk about is a camera, something that can produce a video for your pod guest. Now, in this lesson, I'd not only like to talk about the different camera types, but I'm also going to provide tips about appearing on camera, which includes framing your camera, lighting, and creating a good background. In the end, all this goes together with the topic of video, and they are all important if you care about delivering some kind of quality to your pod guest. Already mentioned in an earlier lesson that I can highly recommend you to have video in your podcasts. Now, yes, of course, you need extra equipment. You also need put in more time in terms of the editing. It takes more work than just having audio alone. But I will say that the benefits far outweigh the negatives of, you know, the negatives being the extra equipment and the extra editing. Because you can do much more with your podcast once there's also video in it. With video, you have more platforms where you can distribute your podcast. You can create short pieces out of it to use on social media, which can help in furthering the reach of your podcast and people's awareness of it. And so much more which we will discuss later on throughout the course. Done well, meaning that you can clearly see yourself and your guest talking to each other, and there is good background and nice lighting. This adds up in terms of attracting people to continue watching your video, and feeling like they are much more a part of the actual conversation between you and your guests. Of course, how you edit the episode does matter a lot in keeping people engaged. You know, that's not for this lesson. That's something we'll talk more about in this section on editing your podcast. Anyway, let's start first and foremost by talking about what types of cameras there are to choose from. And of course, which one to pick. If you are already counting your money and worrying that you have to invest in a super expensive camera, let me put you at ease because likely you already have a really good camera lying around and probably not too far away from you. And yeah, I'm talking about the camera of your phone. If you have any of the latest smartphones, you can in fact use this phones camera as a webcam to record your podcast episodes. Or for anyone who has a tablet, the camera of your tablet can also be used as an external webcam. If you aren't sure that yours will have a decent enough quality, you can always do a quick search on the web by typing, Does the X and replace X with whichever phone or tablet you have have a decent quality camera to use as a webcam for podcasting, and you'll come to discover the answer quickly enough. So in the PDF file, I will provide this info on the specs you need to ensure that the camera you have on your phone or tablet has good camera quality. The reason why I'm not directly telling you now is because well, technology changes with time, right, and I can provide you with up to date info on this in the PDF file. Once again, if it's one of the most recent models of phones or tablets, the answer is very likely a definite yes. Now, once you figure out the answer, the process of how to turn your phone or tablet into a webcam is slightly different depending on the brand of phone or tablet you have as you will need to download an app or another software or your computer. Simply search on whichever web browser you use to find out how to turn your phone or tablets into a webcam and you'll find the answer. In the PDF resource file, I will link to a couple of websites that explain this for some of the most popular brands. The second best option I would recommend to record video podcasts is having an external webcam. If you don't have a good smartphone or tablet, or if you'd rather not use your phone for whatever reason, this is a great option. Compared to one of the latest smartphones or tablets, a webcam is going to cost you a lot less, which makes sense as you're only buying a webcam and not a whole device, that can do many other things. But that by itself might be all that you need. Alright, now, in the PDF resource file, I will link up a couple of good webcams ranging from the more budget friendly webcams, to, of course, you know, the more expensive ones. However, note that I will only link up those that match a certain level of quality and MT requirements for good video quality. Again, if you invest in something while it doesn't have the cost a lot, at least make the investment worthwhile. Do buy an external webcam that offers crisp and clear video quality. Now, besides that, there isn't much more to say about external webcams. I mean, they're easy to use. You simply plug them in, and you're good to go. If I had to think of two downsides of using the camera off your Smartphone or your tablet compared to using an external webcam, that would be one. There is more involved in setting up your smartphone or tablet as a webcam. You need some software that most of the time you also have to pay for. Is this a lot of money? Often, the answer will be no. But still, you also have to open the app on your phone or tablets and on your computer each time you want to use it as a webcam and connect it to your computer. Now, does this all take really, you know, that long? No, right? Is it there for a really big downside? Of course not. But again, it's slightly more of a ssle compared to a external webcam that you just plug in, and you're good to go. Okay, those two options that I just shared are, in my opinion, the two best options. What I would absolutely not recommend to you is using the internal webcam of your laptop. The quality of this compared to the other two options I just mentioned will be so much worse. Only if you absolutely do not have any money at all to buy an external webcam, nor do you have a smartphone, could this be considered? Otherwise, don't use the internal webcam of your laptop. I mean, laptops are not assigned to have good quality webcams. Finally, you could also use a DSLR or mirrorless camera, the same way you use your smartphone or tablet camera as a webcam. If you have one lying around your house, test it out and compare the quality with any other devices you may have to see which one delivers the best quality. But also find out which one you feel is the easiest to work with. Unless you have one lying around the house or you use a DSLR or mirrorless camera for other reasons such as, you know, if you use it for creating video content, I would look less into the DSLR options as the price tag can be far more expensive, and many people will benefit less from purchasing it. Now, certainly, when compared to using your Smartphones camera as your external webcam, Note that with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you'd also have to buy a lens. Unless, of course, it has one that's built in. Now, this course is mainly about doing online podcasts and less focused on details of, in person podcasts. However, the bridge between those isn't that drastically different in most aspects. If you're looking to do in person interviews, the type of camera you use will be different. Using a webcam to record in person interviews is weird. So do think about that, too. If I addition to online interviews, you're also thinking of doing in person interviews. Investing in a DSLR or mirrorless camera might be worth. Now, do look for cameras that allow you to record long enough videos. You have many cameras that are kept at recording 30 minutes before you have to press record once again. Since most podcasts are longer than 30 minutes, do your research on which cameras don't have that gap, and will allow you to record for much longer, such as 6 hours, for example. In terms of the lens, you primarily want to go with a camera lens that has a low aperture, and with low I would aim at finding something that is below four F. If you don't know the meaning of what I just said, the F next to a lens aperture value, such as 1.4 F refers to the lens maximum aperture or opening. Basically, a lower F number indicates a larger aperture, which allows more light to pass through the lens and reach the camera sensor. It also allows for this bouquet effect to blur the background behind you. The lower the number, the higher the quality of the lens you have. Now, for both good DSLR or mirrorless camera suggestions, as well as lens suggestions, do also check out the PDF resource file. And last but not least, whichever option you end up going with, don't forget, you know, to buy a tripod. Now, there isn't that much to say, per se about tripods. This is a simple piece of equipment that doesn't need much explanation. Refer to the PDF resource file for a couple of good suggestions of tripods for phones, tablets, and DSLR or mirrorless cameras. Well, having learned a whole lot more about the camera options to choose from, let's take a moment now to learn how to look at actually framing, lighting, and creating a nice looking background. 15. The Art of Camera Framing: Creating a Captivating Visual for Your Podcast: Let's talk about camera framing and how to frame your shot well. Now, this isn't rocket science, but I do want to take a moment here in this lesson to mention the difference between a well framed shot, and yeah, one, that isn't. Because just by taking the following two pieces of advice that we're going to cover here, you can create a much more pleasant experience for your audience to watch. Okay. So first, you want to make sure that you set the camera at eye level. Placing the camera too high. Yeah, does look kind of weird, right? And you know, placing it too low also looks kind of weird, right. Therefore, keep your camera somewhere at eye level like this, right? And you can easily measure this basically, by how your head is tilted. If your head is tilted quite up, then it's probably too high. And if it's tilted very low, then your camera angle is probably too low. Finally, when you frame your camera, give yourself enough head room. What is head room? V simply explained in videography, head room refers to the amount of space between the top of a subject's head and the upper edge of the frame within the camera's view. Now, let me make that clear by using some examples of what this is about and why it's good to pay attention to this. If I show you an example of a shot with no head room, like now. You can see that it does look weird. I mean, there's no space above my head. And in a way, it gives the subject me or subjects no room to breathe. Now, if I do the opposite like now and give the shot too much head room, well, it does feel like I'm floating around in a room, right? Therefore, it's best to leave a couple of centimeters of room, as you know, you can see here for your head to have some space. Now, it's important to achieve that balance here of not too much and not too little. The same applies here to your body. While, you know, your entire body does not have to be in the frame, give your body some space in the frame. Otherwise, it would feel, you know, like I'm crammed in some kind of a box. Now, on the other hand, too much room isn't good either, right, because that draws the focus away from me. Plus, as well, in this case, I can't hide my microphone then. So give your body some centimeters of space, but don't give it too much because once again, then the focus is gone from you. So, yeah, it's also a balance here. Now, while you don't have to put your whole body in the frame from, you know, bottom to top, whatever you do, do not cut off the chin. As you can see, Yeah, it looks ridiculous, right? You can cut certain parts of your body from the shot, but do not cut editing from your head. As like you can see, Yeah, it doesn't look right. Apply these two simple, but essential guidelines when setting up your camera to record a video podcast. Put the camera somewhere on eye level, and you'll have very simply achieved good framing. And with that, a more pleasant experience for your audience. So, you know, knowing these tips about framing can help you when you are with a guest who has, for example, the camera way too close to them and cutting off their chin. To better guide them in framing, these simple guidelines can make the shot so much better within minutes. 16. Podcast Lighting 101: Techniques for a Bright and Professional Look: All right, let's talk about lighting and how to light yourself well on screen. Now, note that you can make lighting as complex as you want. And there is so much we could talk about here that it could truly become a whole course on its own. So for the sake of not making things too complex, and it actually doesn't have to be overly complex for you to create a good lighting situation. I want to focus on one key lighting setup that you need to understand to get the best results overall and one that is versatile as well. And you will understand soon what I mean by that. And that one key setup is called the three point lighting setup. Now, maybe you've already heard of the three point lighting setup. It's one of the most commonly used lighting setups. Either way, let me explain what it is and how to set it up. As the name suggests, the three point lighting setup uses three lights. One light is called the Keight, another one, the fil lights, and the thirds and last one, the back light. As you can see from the image in the middle is the subject, at which these three lights are pointed. Now, let's talk about each light separately to learn what each one does. Klit. First, we have the Klit. The Kelte is the main light source which shines directly on the subject. This is usually positioned from either the front right side or the front left. The keylt establishes the overall look and feel of the shot. Among all the lights in three point lighting, the kelte should be the brightest. Position it somewhere about 30 degrees to the right or left of yourself and in a relatively high spot to reduce shadows on your face. Phyllt. The phyllite provides balance to the kylite by filling in the rest of your face with softer light. The phyllite should be positioned to the sit that's opposite of the kelite. In the scenario illustrated here, that's on the right side. Now, don't position the key and philts symmetrically. The phyllite should be at your face level and should get rid of any remaining shadows. The intensity of the phyllite should be about half that of the kylite. Back light. Finally, we have the back light. The back light creates a flattering rim of light around you, separating you from the background. This separation is achieved by creating a subtle rim or halo of light around the edges of the subject, you by adding depth and dimension. You'll want to angle it down from a high position to achieve this sharp outline on the edges of the subject. The oa of this light should be like that of the flight or even less powerful. Okay, so those are the very basics of the three point lighting setup to get you started. Now, I will have to say I fully understand that not everyone will have the space to place three lights nor possibly the budgets. But note that this setup is versatile, as I mentioned at the beginning of the lesson. You know now what a complete setup looks like and the function of each of the three lights. Now you can adjust the setup to make it work for your situation. You could, for example, adjust the setup to a two point lighting setup. In a two point lighting setup, there is no dedicated backlight like there is in the three point setup. This means that the subject may not have as much separation from the background. However, a two point lighting setup can still be highly effective for a wide range of scenarios, especially when a simpler and more streamlined lighting approach is desired. In fact, a two point lighting setup is often used in interview settings, such as during an online podcast interview. While a two point lighting setup is a simplified lighting approach compared to the more comprehensive three point setup, it offers several advantages for podcasting. It is a more simplistic approach because you need fewer lights. It is also more cost effective, and yet it still creates a clean and professional look for your podcasts. Now, here, the function of each light is the same as the three point lighting setup. Kelide serves as the primary source of illumination. Select a soft and bright light source, for example, a ring light soft box or LED panel for it. Position it in front of the subject U, slightly to one side. At the filight, which is, as you know, put there to reduce harsh shadows, creating a balanced and flattering look. You can use a soft box LED panel or reflector for this and place it on the opposite side of the kelight. And Voila, you have yourself a two point lighting setup. Personally, I use the two point lighting setup for online video interviews. It has achieved for me what I needed to be well lit and to make it a good experience for my audience to look at me when I'm talking. Plus, it's also easier to apply this lighting setup in most rooms, as you can play two lights on your desk. It's not always possible or easy to hide the third light the back light from the camera because your room might be too small for that. Whatever you choose in the end, it's essential to test your lighting beforehand and make adjustments as needed. Monitor your video feed to ensure that the lighting is flattering and that you are well lit. No matter what lighting setup or type of lights you decide to go with, it all comes down to asking yourself the following question. MI well and evenly lit. Now, how you achieve that doesn't really matter. However, you now have at least some understanding of one of the most common lighting setups, the three point lighting setup, and how it works. You also know how that can be adjusted to create a two point lighting setup. So you can choose what best works for your situation. Now, again, please refer to the PDF resource file if you want to find recommendations on lighting equipment. I will link up a range of different lighting options for different budgets that you can choose from. 17. The Role of Curtains in Your Podcast Studio: Enhancing Sound and Visuals: Make sure you have curtains in your podcast recording room. Why? Well, because of the simple reason that if you don't have any curtains or none that are thick enough to completely block light from the outside, you're going to end up with constantly changing lighting throughout your recording. If you have a whole lighting setup and maybe an extra neon light somewhere in the background to add atmosphere, but you don't have curtains, then your whole lighting setup and ambience will be constantly changing. And with that, your lighting setup and your neon light background won't achieve the effect that it should to make you and your background look good. In curtains that can block out any light from the outside will solve that and thus result in an overall better tone of video quality for your audience. Because again, the lighting will remain the same and not constantly change throughout your video. And ideally, you don't want this. You want to maintain the same kind of lighting throughout your episode. So curtains are a fairly simple and cheap investment to make that will also, as a nice bonus, help with the acoustics by reducing the echo during your recording. 18. Balance Everything: Okay, I want to end the lessons on how to appear at your best on camera by saying that while everything that I mentioned will improve the way you appear on video, do weigh the benefits against what's comfortable for you as well. Here is what I mean. While I have curtains that block out any light, I am at times guilty of choosing not to close them, which does lead to constant changes in the overall lighting and pretty much mixes up their effect in my episodes. But sometimes I just like to look outside once in a while. I often get headaches just staring at the screen for hours during an interview, and I find that being able to look outside now and then, somewhere in the far distance helps me to not get these headaches. So, yes, leaving the curtains open changes the lighting situation. And in that sense, it isn't perfect. But I can at least focus much better and us ask better questions because I don't get headaches. Again, I will close the curtains most of the time as it does help a lot. But just like everything else that I've shared in these last few lessons on appearing your best on video, it's also about finding the balance between quality and just keeping things comfortable, so you two can enjoy doing the interview. Same goes for Light. I don't always use a three point or two point lighting setup. In fact, when I'm traveling, it's hard to do that, unless I carry my entire lighting setup with me, but then I would need a second person to help me carry all that. So no, that's not a very fun way to travel. What I do if I plan on doing interviews abroad because I'm there for some months is that I simply try to make use of the lighting at hand and turn it into something that looks as best as it can. I asked myself the question, like I said, in the lesson or lighting, am I well and evenly lighted? In the end, post production still exists, too, right, which we will learn about soon and can do wonders when it comes to this. Again, why am I putting this out? Like I said before, you need to find your balance between comfort and quality. And while people can certainly be attracted to check out your podcast based on your background and how you look overall on screen, Note that that alone will not make people keep coming back to your pod guest. In fact, some of the best pod guests out there are known for their incredible background or winding setup. But rather because the hosts can make their guests feel at home, ask the right questions and find good guests to have on their show. 19. Finding the Perfect Podcast Guests: Strategies and Tips: Ever I tell people about my pod guests, especially the IPS pod guests, where I talk about live topics with a variety of experts, such as psychologists, neuroscientists, relationship experts, monks, you name it. I often get asked, you know, how I find these people. And honestly, the answer to that is quite simple. The Internet. However, since this is a course about podcasting, I will go more in depth into this than, you know, simply saying that. Now, the Internet is, of course, a big universe. However, there are a few great places to check where you can find potential guests. Now, the way I would recommend you get started is to first have some note taking application or someplace where you can start collecting topic ideas and potential guests for your pot guest. Here is an example of how I currently do it. Keep a list of topics you might want to cover, even if you don't have a guest in mind for that topic yet. Often, I already have a clear topic in mind of what I love to do for the next episode of the IPS pot guest. But sometimes I don't. If I'm looking for inspiration, what I often do is go on YouTube to search for T or TDX talks and scroll through the endless list of talks. For me, this is a great source for finding interesting guests who deal with the kinds of topics I cover. Like many of my guests that I find that way, I actually discover many of my topics that way too. Once I find an interesting topic in person, I search their name on the Internet, try to learn more about them and see if they might be a good fit for the show. Create a post in my note taking application under the tab of potential guests slash topics with the topic as title, write down the name of the potential guest, include a small bio at them taken from their website or another website, with info about them and add a way to contact them. Then I mostly continue searching unless I immediately have the feeling of, yes, this is the one, which sometimes does happen. But mostly I continue searching to find a few more people related to the same topic and eventually pick out the person that I think will be a good fit to interview on the IPS spot guest. Obviously, there are many more ways to find interesting guests and topics you'd like to cover on your pod guest, such as going through the latest book lists on the Amazon charts or going through pod guests with an angle similar to yours. This is the process I go through for the IPS pod guest and the way I find guests for that kind of pod guest, one that tackles different topics each time. Now, on the other hand, the process for the pod guest of the Hard warrior project is slightly different because it is a podcast that covers basically the same topic, Cardiac rest, and where I mainly have the same set of questions every episode. For that, I find my guests mainly true online support groups that I am a part of. Support groups that are on Facebook, edit forums, et cetera. Now, a support group is in a way a community, people who come together for the same goal. If you have a pot guest about, let's say, cost play, and you talk with different cost players on how they make their costumes, you might have a lot of success in finding guests by joining such communities found on Facebook, edit discord, forums, and so on, if you aren't already a member of one. This is a very effective way as well. But it again depends on the kind of podcast and the topic your podcast covers. Now, your process might be slightly different. If like the podcast of the hard warrior project, you cover the same kind of topic. Again, in this case, Cardi rest, your search will be less focused on the topic and more about finding a guest. While there are, of course, more ways to finding guests, these are the ones that I use that have proven very effective for me. Oh, do take a look at the PDF resource file, as I will add more places there where you can find guests. Okay, now, I'd like to end this lesson by sharing a few more important tips for increasing your chances of having interesting guests on your podcast. And especially with your first few guests. For many, these initial guests can be the most difficult ones to find. When your podcast is completely new, you don't have the credibility yet to approach the bigger names. Now, the way how I actually got quite big names in their field to guest on the IPS podcast right from the beginning is true networking. The big time guests such as a monk who has lived inside a monastery for 37 years, an award winning author and an ex SIS commander. I had already built those connections way before I had a pod guest. For example, I met both the award winning author and the monk on a riding retreat that I participated in. I went to that retreat to learn more about riding and meet other fun people, but also because I was already working on the idea of starting a pod guest and they all seemed very interesting people to me. Same story is true for the ex SIS commander. I met him while I was traveling in Australia and participated in the survival training course he gave. When thinking of first guests, think of your own personal network or people that you have already met throughout your life. People who could be well suited to your pod guest. If you don't know anyone in your personal network, it could be very interesting to go to some events and meet people there. Can go to, let's say, a few known cost play conventions. If you meet some people there who are truly passionate about cost play and who have just stunning costumes, you could invite them on your podcast. Or you can participate in a training program that you're interested in, but also look a bit further and see if the trainer or educator could be a good fit for your podcast, too. Down the line after you've found a few guests that way, you may want to look for more well known people. For example, check for book launches. These are great moments to send out an invitation to that person. They are also likely looking to promote the book as much as they can. So that's a great window, a great moment to invite them to the show. This moment of opportunity when something is about to be launched can also apply to movies, series, documentaries, events, et cetera. Finally, well as the inside, you should know that Indian far more people are willing to appear on your pod guest that you might actually realize. If you don't ask, you won't know. At the very start of my pod guest, I sent an e mail to Paul Gilmartin, the host of a very famous pod guest called the Mental Illness Happy Hour. And to my wildest surprise, he said, yes, to appear on the show. Again, if you don't ask, you won't know. Having said that, I do think that the reason why almost everyone with big names in general, said, yes, to my pod guests right from the beginning was because the overall quality was very high. If your podcast feel serious about what it wants to achieve, people will notice that. And by serious, I mean that you can see that there is a level of quality. And you can convey this all by having a website, a good logo, a clear podcast description, and a good invitation email to back you up. None of this means that everything has to be perfect, but still they should at least be able to see some effort at quality right from the beginning. Hopefully, this course will also help you with that. Now, talking about having a good invitation e mail. Let's take a much closer look at that in the next lesson. 20. How to Successfully Invite Guests on the Show: You have a specific guest in mind to have on your show. Now, the only way to actually get them on the podcast is, of course, by asking them if they might be interested. Now, this is a very exciting moment. But what exactly do you say to them? Sure, ask them if they want to be on your show. But what more can you do? How can you make the process of getting them to book a day with you? Go more smoothly? And what if they don't reply? These are all great questions that we are going to learn more about here in this lesson to increase the chances that this guest you have in mind will say yes. Now, in truths, I actually never had any problems getting people, you know, to come on the pod guest of inner Pad seekers and the Hard warrior project. What's more with the pod gest of inner Pad Seekers? I've had actually some pretty big names say yes to me right from the start, even though at that time, it was a very small pod guest. Now, how did I do that? Well, let's start by deconstructing it all. Try to make everything as professional as you possibly can. And with that, I don't mean perfect, but make sure it looks and sounds as good as you can make it. If you have a website, try to make it clean and modern, not messy or very old school. If you already have a few podcast episodes out, featuring people whom you know, try to make those episodes sound as good as you can in terms of audio quality, having a good intro and tro, and so on. Another way to make things look more professional when inviting guests is to make it as easy as possible for them to schedule a day and hour that fits into their agenda. This, you can easily do by using a scheduling platform. There are many out there, and I will provide links to a few in the PDF resource file. These are platforms that I have used or that I'm currently using. And yes, there are even some that offer three options. Only will the scheduling platform make it super easy for your guests and for you as well as you don't have to endlessly communicate back and forth to determine when you're available and when they are. But as I said, it also looks very professional and modern. And finally, something very important you should devote much time to as well, is, of course, having a well crafted e mail. These are all points to pay attention to. And if I look back at why I had such success right from the beginning, well, it was because I was to a degree on point for all of them. Now, let's delve deeper into these considerations. Starting by talking more about the e mail. Now, over the years, I have, of course, made some slight adjustments to the template that I created when I just started out. But I will say in general, the e mail has remained almost the same because it seems to have a high success rate. And, I guess, like they say, don't change a winning team. Now, I am going to share that template with you, which you can, of course, customize to your liking. Note that I do at times also change certain parts of my e mail to make it much more personal. However, the main framework of the template stays the same. Whatever you do with it and whatever you end up crafting as your e mail, just remember to try to write something that without sounding blunt, doesn't waste the time of the guest. Do your best to be clear and provide complete information so that they know for sure what your pod guest is about, what you want to talk about with them, and how they can schedule a day and time as your guest. All right. That being said, let's take a look at my template. Now, along the way, I will share some additional words about it. Dear guest name, I hope everything is going well with you. I'm Ye Sas founder of the IPS Project, an educational platform on life, offering practical articles, online courses, workshops and a pod guest, the IPS pod guest. On that, I interview fascinating people from all sorts of walks of life, such as a monk who lived 37 years in a monastery, an award winning author, a pancreatic cancer survivor and many more. Some of our guests have included doctor Rick Hanson, leading expert in positive neuroplasticity, Rich Hungerford former SIS patrol commander, Shan Bodrum, the Internet's most sought after certified sex educator, Christina Pultel, two time world record holder, and the first woman to run thousand hundred 44 miles alone True Rn. Here I make it clear what the podcast is about and list some of the guests that I have interviewed to give some examples and to show credibility of the podcast. Now, note that these list of guests who have been on the show is something I didn't have in the template at the beginning. But it hasn't stood in the way of eventually talking to these people. So don't stress too much about it if you don't have a list of people to give you more credibility. The least, let the guests you're inviting know what sort of guests you're looking for and what topics you aim to discuss. The overriding aim of everything we do at the IBS project is to provide lessons about life and this world we live in to those seeking answers and deeper roots. This is, of course, just an invitation. And if for whatever reason, you don't want to come on the show, that's no problem at all. But I would love to have you as a guest guest name. If you are interested, here is a little more information about the interview and the pod guest in general. After providing a small introduction about what the show is about and making it clear that I want to have them on it. Here is the part where I share more details about the interview. If they are still interested and still reading my e mail at this point, there is likely some interest to a degree on their part. Everyone I interview is specifically chosen because I want to draw out a particular piece of wisdom or lesson from that person, something that they alone hold. Main subject of the interview I want to conduct with you is about topic. I don't give you the questions in advance because firstly, I know you have the answers within you, and also because it then gives me the flexibility to move in different directions. The interview usually lasts about an hour. But of course, if you can spare that amount of time, we can always shorten it to a time that works for you. Here I clarify the topic I want to talk about with them. This is, of course, based on their expertise or their field of interest. What's more in my case, I don't like revealing those questions I've yet. And I'll explain why. Of course, you can do whatever you want here. You can already send in some questions as a teaser or provide a link if you have fixed questions as I do for the podcast of the Hard Warrior project. It's also good to give them an idea of how long the interview will be, so they know what they are signing up for. Even more give them the chance to adjust the time if they only have, for example, 30 minutes. So far, everyone I had on the podcast was totally fine with doing a 1 hour and even two hour interview. If you like, you can have a listen to an intro of an episode just to hear the quality and see if it is something you would like to get involved in yourself. I do think it is important as well to give them an example of a recent episode you did or one that you're proud of or that represents your podcast well, just to give them a taste of what they're signing up for. Of course, in the beginning, if you have no episodes yet, simply add this in your e mail later down the line. Your interview will not just be heard by a broad and ever growing audience of subscribers to the podcast, but also on the IPS project site and on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Well, as all that, it will also appear in a five bullet point episode. These are preview episodes of the podcast to help listeners find the right episode for them. I think it is beneficial to include information on where you are going to post their episode. So they know how well it will be distributed. In general, people who want to appear on a podcast also care at least to a degree, how much it will be spread around. Numbers don't always matter that much compared to intent and the potential of what can be. If this all sounds good and you want to schedule a time for the interview, this can be done here. Thanks. Guest name, and I hope we can connect with kind regards, is. Okay, so this is the first message I sent to a prospective guest. Mainly, I try to do this through e mail first, but if I can't find their e mail, I'll try their social media and send it through Facebook, Instagram, Linked in, et cetera. Wherever I can find the note taking app that I use, I will have this message written down on the topic page where I'm looking for guests to do the interview with. And that page, as I have shown in the previous lesson, goes under the tab focus. Again, you can do this, however you want. Once I send it to a guest, I write down the date in my notes next to the message I sent so that I know how much time has passed and to whom I have already sent it to. Mostly, I allow at least two weeks for people to reply. I mean, we're all busy, so I allow people sometime to get back to you. In the meantime, I will work on other episodes. Now, after about two weeks have passed, I will go ahead and send out a second message to them. Let's take a look at it. Oh, yeah, one more thing before we take a look at it, I will send the guest that I want to have on the show a message through a different channel. If you send an e mail to them the first time, try sending the second message on Instagram instead. That first e mail might have ended up in the spam faller, or you know, they might have justly forgotten about it. Or if you reached out on one of their social media platforms at first, try another platform the second time around. Maybe they aren't super active on that one. Okay, let's take a look now at the second message. Hey, guest name, I'm contacting you for a second time in another way. Maybe you missed the first e mail. I sent inviting you to appear on the IPS podcast. Perhaps it got lost in your spam folder. As you can see, here I explain to them why I am sending a second message. However, if you already read our invitation to come on the show to talk about topic, but you simply aren't interested or don't have the time, I fully understand guests name. If however, the e mail really got lost your spam folder, you can find in depth information about the interview in that e mail. Simply search your spam folder for the IPS podcast invitation, or let me know if you'd like me to send that information here to you. Here I provide them with the details of what to search for if they missed the first e mail, or I give them the option if they want for me to provide that info again, but through the alternative channel on which I'm now contacting them. Hope we can connect sometime soon. Many thanks for reading this message, guests name, and for the work you're doing. Kind regards Yellis. And those are the two message templates I use that have a high success rate. Note that there have been truly a few times when I didn't get a response on the initial e mail that I sent because it really got lost among all their e mails. I mean, the guests, when I actually was in contact with them, told me that they didn't find the e mail. I'm just sharing that because you shouldn't immediately lose hope that they might not be interested. So go on and send the second message. But first, of course, do allow some time between that and the first message. If after I send boat messages, I still don't get a reply, well, it might be that they are just too busy or are absolutely not interested. What you can do is to send something again at some point a couple of months later and or try yet another channel to reach them. All right, so I hope that these templates can help you in crafting your own. Okay, let's talk just for a few moments about how guests can schedule a call with you and specifically using an online scheduling tool. Again, it will make your life and your guest life so much easier. Now, how does such a booking system work? It's super easy. You create a booking page, and you can set a ton of different rules, such as how many people can schedule an interview that day, the hours between, the days, et cetera. Then you simply sync your online calendar to that booking page so that whenever there is a day or time that you already have an interview or something else going on, that day or time gets blocked so there won't be any double bookings. If you keep your calendar up to date, this system works so incredibly well. Yes, this system does work best if you also use an online calendar. However, if you don't, there are ways around this, too. For example, the moment you send out an invitation, you can block certain dates in the booking platform that don't work for you. I personally, I mean, I can't imagine doing podcast episodes anymore without this incredible tool. It saves unbelievable amount of time, and I promise you, you'll not come to regret using it, either. Again, check the PDF Resource file to find some suggestions. Lastly, note that while you can certainly have a great message to send out an easy booking page for your guests to schedule a day and a time for an interview. These don't mean that everyone will just jump to be on your pod guest. In the end, you got to be realistic, too, right? If you send an invitation to some famous movie star. Well, the chances that they are just going to say, yes, unless you're also a celebrity, are very, very, very low. Don't set yourself up for failure by reaching out to people who are in a way out of reach. At the same time, don't underestimate the possibility that someone who seems slightly out of reach will say yes to your pod guest. A lot of people might be way more willing to make time than you think, especially if you plan things at the right moment for the bigger fish, you could say. The time is right, such as when they have a book lunch. Every now and then, I would send out a message to someone who seems slightly out of reach, and very often, they have said yes. The bottom line is, if you don't try, you don't know, and you'll be surprised by how many people might actually say yes. 21. Interview Prep 101: How to Get Ready for Your Next Podcast Interview: Right, so you have found a guest, and you have invited him or her, well done because this is a big step forward to the actual interview. Now, of course, it might be that you have a pod guest or a pod guest D with a co host and that you just do episodes between him and her. In that case, you know, the whole process of finding a guest, which we learned more about in the previous lesson should be a lot easier. Now, whether you have guests or do a pod guest with your co host, preparing for the upcoming episode and interview, is important. Now, of course, the amount of preparation or what exactly you have to do will depend slightly on the type of pod guest that you have. You could have a pod gest where one, you cover a different topic every episode and does come up with different questions. Two, you have a set of the same questions for each guest. And three, you come up with all the questions during the interview. Of course, it's also possible that you combine all two or even all three during your interviews. A way, let's take a look at each one individually to see how you can best prepare for them so that ultimately, you can draw your own ideal preparation method out of it. For the pod guest of the Hard warrior project, I have a set amount of questions that are the same for each guest. Now, in the future, after x amount of episodes, I might mix up those set questions that I have. But in general, I stick to for survivors that I talk to, I stick to the same questions. Now, of course, I do not always ask every question. It depends on the direction of the conversation, and also sometimes, there might be other questions that I might ask. The, the set of questions that I have is more there to give a structure. To myself and also to the guest to have some idea of how the conversation might go. The reason why I choose to go with the same set of questions for the spot guest is because the general topic for every episode is the same surviving cardiac arrest. And by the way, these questions can evolve and change slightly through time. Therefore, it made more sense to me to create a set of questions that once again may sometimes vary during the conversation, depending on what pops up or who I talk to. Since it will be more or less the same questions. I also have on the invitation page, a link for the guests who are looking to book a conversation and take a look at the questions to come. However, here I also make it clear that certain questions might not be asked, and different ones could be asked as well. The main feeling that I want to go for in that podcast is of it being an actual conversation between two survivors. Now, I merely give guests the option of seeing the questions ahead of time. Basically, for some, he could really put their thoughts at ease knowing what might be coming. Now, since the questions are generally speaking the same each time, the preparation before the conversation is actually quite easy for me. I often take a look at the social media page of the guest to see any recent updates or what is keeping them busy in their life to determine if it's possible to ask them a specific question. But in general, I don't have to put that much time into the preparation for that podcast. This is nice, and it was also done with intention for it to be the complete opposite of the IPS podcast. Now, I do at times invite a cardiac health professional on the show to talk about a specific topic related to heart health for cardiac arrest survivors. However, my main intention with that podcast was to keep things simple, because as you will learn soon, the podcast of Inter Pat Seers takes a lot more work. Therefore, the way I prepare for the pod guest of the Hard warrior project is by asking followers and listeners what questions they might have for that health professional, who is my upcoming guest. I post it on multiple social media pages and in a couple of support groups for cardic arrest survivors that I am in. And I make an announcement episode with info on where they can go to ask their questions. Created a dedicated page for the health professional where listeners and followers can ask their questions. On top of that, since Cardi arrest is such a personal topic that can completely change someone's life and that of the people around them, this podcast style was intended to help give prospective audiences a sense of community. A sense that they too are a part of this project, a project that not only serves to support them, but also betters their lives. For my other pod guest, the pod gest of Inter Pat Seekers. That's where I do talk about a new and different topic each episode. Having a set of the same questions for this would be in a way a bit weird. I'm not saying there might be not some kind of possibility that it could work, but personally, I don't really see it work really well. With these kinds of interview style, a more work is required, well, I have to come up with good questions on the topic that we are going to talk about. And I have to do that for each episode. Now, if you're also going to do this kind of episodes or you know, this kind of way of interviewing, here is how I prepare. I open my note taking app where I will already have a page with the topic and the guest. Before I actually send the invitation out, I will already have thought about and brainstorm some questions. These are not refined questions, just rough questions that I think might be interesting to ask. Now, if you're wondering why put in time and energy to formulate some questions if you don't know yet if they will accept your invitation to interview. Well, because there are a couple of reasons for that. First of all, it personally helps me to feel less stressed when they actually book an interview with me, as I already have questions and a direction that I want to build towards. Secondly, if they should decide to not accept the invite, it isn't an actual waste of time as many of these questions can likely be used for another guest on the same topic. When I feel I have some questions ready and some sense of what I want from this interview, I will go ahead and send out the invitation. I will wait a couple of days. And during that, I will work on other episodes, look for other guests and just come up with other topics that I would be interested in to talk about or to cover on the pod gest. And once I get a reply with a date and time that the guest is appearing, that's when I will focus on that interview, in depth, draft out all the questions and create a general flow and structure that I want to create in the episode. First step in that process is to continue where I'd left off before I sent the invitation. And that is to simply write down as many questions about the guests and a topic that I can come up with. How do I come up with the questions? Where do I find inspiration simply by searching about the guests, which I already did to a degree before inviting them. But now I go much more in depth. I will check out their social media, and interviews they have done, read some of their blog articles, et cetera. And whenever a question pops up that I think might be interesting to ask, I write it down. That's literally any question. Again, this is not yet the face where I filter the questions. Next phase is structuring the questions that I wrote down. Now, of course, if I come up with other questions, I can still add them. So I tried to create a structure here by grouping different questions under specific topics. For example, for one guest who is a relationship expert, I had a bunch of questions on dating. So I made a headline titled dating and moved all the questions about dating there. I also had a bunch of questions about building a good relationship. So I made a headline titled building a good romantic relationship and moved all the questions that would fall under that topic there. And so on. Once I did that, I started moving things around and asked myself what I would like to dig into first. What would make sense? Once I'd done that, again, this could always be adjusted and changed during each phase. I moved to the next phase, and that is filtering out the questions. I started looking for any questions where I was asking almost the same thing and removed those. I looked for questions that are truly essential for the interview and moved the ones that aren't away. And I would look for unique questions and try removing the ones that might have been already asked repeatedly to the guest in other interviews. Once I have a structure and a set of filtered questions, I tried to get a general sense of how long it could take you know, to ask all these questions in a time frame of between an hour, two slightly more. Now, here is where I see if I might have to filter the questions even more. Now, sometimes there are guests whom I have so many questions for, but I know that I can't possibly, ask all of them unless they want to spend about 4 hours or something with me. Now, in these cases, I have to move even more questions around to ensure that I truly have the most vital questions I want to ask. And, you know, this can be very hard to do. But note that I don't remove any questions nor any that I filter out. I mean, well, except for the ones that are truly the exact same question, but formulated differently. I just move them all the way to the bottom in my notes there and keep them for a possible second interview with them down the line. Or for another guest, I invite to talk on the same sort of topic. Once that's all done, I move to the last phase, and that's where I tried to make each question as easy as possible for me to remember during the initial interview. Now, the key here is to work with colors because, colors draw attention. If you look at this example here that I'm showing from a past interview I did on the IPS podcast, you can see I use a couple of colors. The green text is the sentence, I could say to lead into the interview or build up to a certain question. Note that this is a reminder. Something I have to remember by heart or say in those exact words. It's simply something I like to have roughly written out to have some structure and sense of where to take the interview. Of course, I could say something different to at the moment. It's fine. But if I feel stuck, it does help me to get immediately back on track. The short red text is the question I want to ask, but written in one word or in a very short sentence. This just helps me to immediately know what I want to ask. It serves as a cue to what the full question I wanted to ask is about. Then the normal text color white is the initial question I want to ask. The orange text is for headings or some specific information, or something else I want to highlight, such as a reminder to let the guests say something when I welcome them to the show. Whether you make notes on a note taking app or on a piece of paper, colors are important to make sense of your notes. If I were to remove all these colors as you can see, it's so much more confusing and gives much less of a good overview of your notes. Create your own color code, stick with it and see how much easier your notes will be to read. Finally, to finish this lesson, and this is something that goes for both my pod guests. It's important to be okay with not being able to ask all of your questions. Stay flexible and open to unexpected turns in the conversation, as this can often lead to the most interesting and engaging moments. Don't force yourself to ask a question if it's not the right moment just because you wrote it down. In truths, I used to do that in the beginning. In the beginning, I almost always stuck with de prepared questions. But I do also realize now that I missed some true gems by not going deeper into what the guests said. Of course, it can be tricky at times, right? You might, for example, have a time limit with them. Therefore, it can be hard to decide whether to continue with the next question or to go deeper into what they said. I would personally say, try to be in the moment. Try to feel what makes sense. If your guest is getting really personal with something, then it might be more interesting to dig deeper into that instead of just switching to the next question. It's really hard sometimes to make the right call, but it comes down again to being in the moments and just feeling what might be the right call. That's the challenge as the host. That's also in a way, a fun part of it. You never know where a conversation or an interview might go to, and that makes it very exciting to be the host. 22. Pre-Interview Checklist: What to Do Before Your Podcast Interview: Alright, so it finally happened. You got your guests to accept your invitation. He or she booked a spot, and you prepared your interview. It's showtime. This is honestly a very, very exciting moment. Now, whether a lot of time and work went in before the interview or not, this is the moment where you don't want things to go wrong. Therefore, I would like to touch upon a few important points that I religiously follow over the years that have ensured that few to almost nothing goes wrong. Almost right. Of course, some things did go wrong, which I will talk about in this lesson, as well, that would hopefully spare you from the consequences of those same mistakes. Note that what I will share are steps that I have followed and cultivated throughout the years which have given me the best results. In terms of quality of things going as planned, and in making it fun for both me and my guest. You don't have to follow the exact same steps that I take. Once you start podcasting, you can develop your own routine that works best for you. As with many things in this course, you can take what works for you from this lesson and replace what doesn't with something that works better for you. Having said that, let's dig into the lesson and start with the first step that I always take. One, two, three days before an interview, read through your questions. If you have a pod guest in the style of the IPS pod guest that talks about different topics each time and where you are the one asking questions, I highly recommend that you write down your questions and read through them once every day, at least two to three days before the interview. This is what I always do. I sit down and in a way, pretend like I am actually doing the interview. Even with the pod guest of the Hard warrior project, which has a ready made set of questions for all episodes, I simply go through them once again a day before each initial conversation. Especially if it has been a few weeks since I did an episode for that pod guest. This way, you can assure that you know the questions you want to ask. Now, this does not mean that you have to study them and know them off the top of your head. Of course not. What this does mean is that you as a host should know how and where to steer the interview. If you have a little too no clue about the direction you want to take the interview, and you can have some sense of the direction by reviewing your questions some days before. Interview can become very messy. Again, this does not imply knowing the questions of the top of your head. But simply when you look at your notes, you can more easily know what questions you'd like to ask next. And again, you do this by reading Trudam a few days in advance. Now, note that it's not the worst thing if you have to take a moment to think. I mean, I have to do that at times too. But at least knowing the questions, since I've been reviewing them the past few days, helps me tremendously to not feel lost as the host in the interview. And this practice also reduces those moments of not knowing where you want to take the interview next and ensures a smoother and more enjoyable experience for both you, your guests, and, of course, your listeners. 35 to 45 minutes before an interview. This is where I start preparing all the equipment, plug my microphone and headphones in. Plug my camera in, put my notes at the ready and open the recording studio. Now, if there is any step, you think you could skip. Do not let it be this. I'm serious. If you care even a little bit about having a smooth experience, again, do not skip over this step. Always prepare your equipment before your interview. And most importantly, always do a pre recording test. Always. Like a pilot who always does a pre flight check before he or she takes off, you as a podcaster should also do a test to ensure that everything works properly before your guest arrives and you press the record button. I've actually been on a pod guest, where the person interviewing me didn't do this. And after an hour, he noticed that nothing was being recorded. Now, this is honestly a nightmare scenario to have to face an absolutely not fun for, I mean, yourself, but also not for your guest, right? Because they made time free that kind of feels wasted. You can avoid the embarrassment of having to tell your guest this and the frustration of your guest by simply taking some time before each interview to prepare your equipment and doing a test recording to see if everything works. Now, I to have actually had such an experience on my own podcast when I did not follow that one simple rule. After years of always following this rule, I got a bit lazy at one point and didn't do it for a few episodes. Until I did an episode for the podcast of the Hard warrior project, and the recording studio I used had the wrong microphone selected. Result was that once I started editing the recording, I had the worst possible audio quality anyone could have as it was recorded through my laptop. So the result of not following this very simple rule was, well, feeling like an idiot and ruining an otherwise great interview. Now, that interview is still live on the path gest of the Hard warrior project, but it's a real shame that it happened. And it's something that once again, And I'm really underscoring the importance here could have easily been avoided if I had stuck to following that one simple rule. So learn from this mistake. Don't get lazy with the step. Else, you really will regret it at some point. The last few minutes before an interview starts are always the most nerve racking, or at least they are for me. Now, what I always do once the equipment is prepared and ready, and I have done a recording test is to take my mind of the interview for the remaining time. The way I do this is to play some piano or guitar or meditate for 10 minutes. Find out for yourself what you enjoy doing to take your mind of the interview for a short while. Then about 5 minutes before the interview, I set myself up with a cup of tea and then go and place myself in my chair all ready to have a great conversation. And these are all the steps I take each time with every interview. The key is preparation. That's always the key to doing good interviews and having the most likely outcome of a smooth experience for both you and your guests. Lastly, I want to end by saying mistakes will happen. Some technical errors do occur, and your mind might go blank at certain moments. In the end we're no more than human. However, if you did everything that you could to make things run smoothly, your guest will understand. I mean, they to make mistakes at times. Now, the good news is that a lot can be improved in post production when you edit your pod guest. I mean, that's the beauty of it. But that's something which we will learn a lot more about later throughout decurse. Rights having learned about what to do right before your interview, let's learn now about what to do during and after the interview. 23. What to Do at the Beginning and End of Your Interview: So, you are on a call with your guests. Great. Now, what are some important things to do here? Well, let's go through them. The main thing to do is to make your guest comfortable as soon as you can. Depending on whether you're doing the interviews in person or online, you can try different things. The way is to make someone feel more comfortable very slightly for in person and online interviews. For example, it would be difficult to offer a drink to someone online. However, you can adjust things slightly to make them work online. You can ask them, for example, if they have something nice to drink at their site. Generally speaking, it's not that much different to make someone feel comfortable online or in person. Ask them how they're doing, and if they're excited to do the interview, give them some time to ask any questions as to how we will learn about that in a second. During online calls, I always ask my guests where they are during our call and what time it is. As for me, most of the interviews I do are with guests on the other side of the world. Having a short chat before the interview helps make someone feel comfortable. Now, since many guests have busy schedules, I also try to be aware of not spending half an hour simply chatting about this if they only have an hour to do the interview. Therefore, after a few minutes, I move on to the next step, which is to briefly explain the flow of the pot guest. Now, this also helps to make your guest feel more comfortable. When I feel that it's a good moment to explain a bit about the pod guest, I let my guests know that I will press the record button, so that's already out of the way. Then I simply explain to them a few things about how the flow of the pod guest will go. In my case, and this hod is true for both my pod gests. I let them know that an intro about who they are and what they do and the outtro about the pod guest will be recorded after the interview. You have pod guests that record these portions while the guest is present. But I don't see the added value in doing that. You only have so much time with your guests in the So I feel it's a bit of a waste of time for them to hear about themselves when we could already start digging into the interview. I mean, they don't have to be there with you to hear an intro about themselves. This is something you can easily do on your own. So you can spend the maximum amount of time with your guest. Also, doing an intro and an intro not during, but some days after you're done with the interview helps to fill in any details about the guests that you may have discovered during the interview. On the other hand, if something went wrong, such as a technical issue, recording the intro and outro afterwards would also allow you to tell the listeners about anything they need to know. After I explain that, I ask the guest if they have any more questions. Also, I always ask if they have anything that they don't want to talk about, and I take that into consideration. And I will say if you do that, this will instantly make the guest even more comfortable. Finally, I take a second to double check if my recording has started and if all my settings are correct. And then I ask the guest if they're ready. If yes, I give them a warm welcome to the show, and we are off. Once the final question has been asked and answered, and I've thanked the guests for taking the time for being on the show. I stop recording, and I just always thank them again. I often continue to have a short chat with them, ask them what they're planning to do that day, and then end by letting them know that once the interview is done, they will receive an e mail from me about where they can check out the interview before he goes live. And if they see anything that they want to change, I will adjust it accordingly. I also tell them these things at the start of the interview, as it does seem to put people at ease knowing that they can make a mistake and, you know, let their thoughts roam and talk freely. Even if in the end they say something that they regret or just choose to not want to have in the episode. They always have final say. And with that, this part of the episode is done, the interview has just been recorded. Again, this is to give you an idea of how to start and end calls with your guests and the things that I do during these calls. 24. Why You Need a Podcast Workflow System: Fore we go to the editing, there's one more thing we must talk about that is extremely important for various reasons that is the ground on which your podcast episodes will be built on. I call ground your Podcast workflow system. And what do I mean by a podcast workflow system? Basically, this is the place where all the files that have to do with your podcast will live and where the whole process of turning these files into actual finished episodes will happen. Now, there are two important things we are going to look into that are essential for a good podcast workflow system. First and foremost, it's a place that is safe, secure, and backs up your files. Don't keep those files of your podcast on some hard drive as that's bound to fail true time, and you will lose your work. And secondly, what's important is that the structure where the workflow is will allow you to work smarter instead of harder. Without going in depth into it, it should be clear and easy to navigate, and you should automate certain tasks that happen with every episode, which I will show you soon enough. So let's not wait and let us learn more about all this in the next lesson. 25. How to Keep Your Podcast Episodes Safe and Secure: All right. Let's talk about the first part, the ground layer upon which we will create a good workflow system. And that means finding a place to build on that will also keep your file safe and secure. Now, there are a multitude of options. However, we want something that is easy and hassle free to use. Now, why? Well, primarily because this will ensure that you will use this system. Therefore, using a cloud service is going to be the best and easiest solution there is. Now, if for some reason, you don't feel comfortable using a Cloud service, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, et cetera. You could also look into buying a NAS system. NAS stands for network attached storage. A NAS system is like a digital storage box that you connect to your home or office Internet and where you can store your files. Allow you to upload and download files remotely. In short, it's like having your own private cloud storage at home. As with everything, there are pros and cons to using a Cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox. Your account could be hacked. They could decide to block your account, and for some, it's a privacy concern. Technically, it's not that a NAS system is that much safer than a Cloud service. A NAS system can still be hacked. However, the chances of it happening for both options are, of course, low. Oly two advantages of having your own NAS system are that you can't be blocked or locked out of your account as it's your own cloud service you created, nor will privacy be such a serious concern? As, again, it's your own private cloud service. The biggest downside with a NAS system is that the initial starting price is much more costly. You not only need to buy a NAS system, but you also need to buy hard drives to insert into your NAS system where you'll store your data. Through time, you will also need to add to them as your free space on the hard drive will fill up at some point. With ano system, everything is up to you. It's up to you to keep this box safe and secure somewhere, or if a hard drive fails, it's up to you to buy a new one and replace it. You have to take care of it, and you don't have that with a cloud service, such as Google Drive or Drawbox, for example. In general, I would suggest using a cloud service, such as Google Drive, drawbox, et cetera. For the majority of people, a cloud surface will be a much simpler and easier way to keep their file safe and secure. Again, all of the negatives that I mentioned have such a slim chance of happening. I mean, it is really the easiest solution. That's why I also personally use this. I mean, once you have a subscription, you're set to go. It can't get easier than that, right? Likewise, if there are ever any technical problems, you can get direct support from the Cloud surface you're using. Again, if you have your own NAS system, all these problems will be up to you to fix. But again, if you're truly against using a Cloud service, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, et cetera, a NAS system will fulfill the same need and serve as the same ground layer on which we want to build our podcast workflow system. Step one is to find a Cloud surfce or a NAS system that fits your needs and that you feel comfortable using. In the PDF resource file, I will insert a list of the best Cloud services out there, as well as the one that I decided to use. Now, you can also find there a list of good NAS systems to buy. Now, once you have decided what to go with, we are ready to start building an efficient podcast workflow, and this is what I will walk you through in the next lesson. 26. Building a Podcast Workflow System: You've chosen from the many options of Cloud services out there to go with to build your Podcast workflow on. Now, let's learn how to build an effective one. While there are also multiple ways to do this, I will teach and show you what I found to be the best way after several trials and errors. Once I've explained how I do everything, you can simply modify it down the line to your own liking and to suit your own personal workflow system. All right, so we're here in my computer screen. We got one map called My Drive. This is a Google Drive shortcut that I placed that I can easily access. If we open that map, we got three other maps here. This one is just my personal documents here, and this two here are for my two projects. So the H art warrior project and the IPS project inter PAT Seekers. Let's open this map. And then we got, of course, a bunch of other maps. Now the one that we're going to take a look at is the Podcast map. And especially these two maps here we're going to look at. The episode map is the one just with the archive of episodes that I've done, and then the template map. This is the one where we're going to learn more about in this lesson. This template map consists of maps that I use every time in each episode that I do. And what I mean is, if I just open this as a second tap here, I can show you. So let's open the template map again consisting of again, the maps that I use in each episode here that I've done. So if we just take one and open, for example, the one with Craig Stann, you can see that the same maps of the template map show up here again. So what I do when there is a new episode that I'm working on is that I just take this copy them and already pre created them, right? It's a template. So I copy them, paste them here in the new episode that I'm working on, and then adjust it to the episode. What the episode is about, right? So the Google Doc here, that document is the show notes here. The show notes of that episode can be then easily written in the Tump Nail here that consists of photos and of Tub nails, here it's MD, right? And so goes for every other one here with music. There's music that I'm using for that episode. Here, well, this is the same track that I use for every episode. This ones are for just in the intro of the episode that I'm using in that specific episode. Finished is the finished version of that episode. Here, again, it's empty. This is an empty shell that I can use to fill the in that episode that I'm working on. Let's actually take a look now more in depth, what this template map consists of, what each of these maps consists of, and why it's good to have them. We all have so much time throughout the day, don't we? Therefore, asking yourself, how can I outsource tasks that I have to do repeatedly with each episode? This is a critical question to ask and one where you can take action. Now, this map is super important and can save you tons of time, whether you added your episodes yourself or someone else does it for you. Basically, each individual episode map contains the following maps that I have termed. Finished, flow, music, Tub nail transcription and a Google Doc, where I write out the show notes. Of course, you don't have to name these maps the way that I do, nor do you have to create all of them? I'm simply showing you my system that you can then build on by yourself. In the beginning, I created all these maps repeatedly for each episode, which, yeah, I agree, it doesn't take a lot of time per se. However, if you can outsource something so that what normally takes 5 minutes now only takes less than 30 seconds, that does start to add up after a while. However, it does save more time than that, though. Because if we go to the map titled flow here in this template map, I also created an ado premiere template that contains the same things that will appear in each episode. This structure is all laid out, as you can see, in the way the general flow of the episode will go. This contain the podcast ads that I have in the beginning, middle, and end, things such as a subscription, a link in D description animation, the end music that I play for each episode, the logo of the IPS project that is shown throughout the whole interview, and the banners at the beginning of the interview where I show the name of the guest and my own name. Basically, I laid out in this template what a whole episode would look like. Of course, since I don't have the actual video for the interview, yet, I simply used an empty layer to represent it, which I will replace once I record a new interview. I also color labeled everything, which is something you don't have to do, but something I personally love doing as it provides a better overview. Since this is a template, I also only have to do it once. The dark purple is for the ads. The light green is for the intro and outro. The dark green is for music. Yellow is for the logo. The light red is for the banners that show the guest name and my own name, as well as for the animations, such as the subscribe and link in the description animation. And the purple are, as I mentioned, the empty layers where the recorded interview will be placed. I highly recommend that you create such a template as well. You simply create a new file and create there what a complete interview for you would look And simply save this file, and I simply named it episode 000, which I can then easily number to the episode it is for. In the Cloud service you use in a map that you call template or however else you name it. Now, other maps that I have in the flow are the intro and outro map, where I will place the intro and outro for each episode. And then we have the map edited file. Basically, here I have another do premiere file where the whole editing of the interview will happen. This involves creating a dynamic interview video where the guest is shown when they speak, where I'm shown when I speak. Or where there are moments when we are both shown on screen. You can also see the map lines, which is simply where I place my side of the recording and the side of the guests recording. These are files that I will use in the do premiere file here, titled Edited file. But this is something we will come back to in the next lessons on how to edit your podcast episodes, where I will explain this in much more depth and explain the reason why I do this here. Having set all this in the template map means that whenever the next episode has been recorded, it will be super easy for me to immediately start working on it. I simply copy all the maps in the template map and go to the map titled episodes that I showed earlier, which holds each individual episode. I create a new map titled with the episode that I'm going to work on and pat the folders from the template map in there. And that's it. We are immediately set and ready to work on it. So setting all this up might take a little while, but once it is done, you can enjoy efficiency every single time you start working on a new episode. Therefore, once you have figured out how your interview will look from start to finish, you can then create a template of it. If you do that and build on top of a cloud service that keeps it all safe and secure, you have a solid podcast workflow to use for as long as you want. 27. The Best Ways to Edit Your Podcast Episode: All right. We have arrived at a very different stage of the course. We have arrived at the editing part. So let's learn all about it or at least the essential skills. You need to put all those video and audio files into one beautifully crafted bot guest episode. I have to start by saying that if you want an episode that has a certain level of quality, some editing will be required. Sure, you could just export the video or audio file from the recording platform you used and upload that directly to your hosting platform.'s likely going to look very silly in a way. The intro and tro will look very unpolished. It is impossible that there will be no technical problems at some point. It's bound to happen either on your side or theirs. Or maybe your guest shared something they'd rather not have shared in the full interview. And let's not forget without editing, there won't be any dynamic between the camera angles during the interview. Now, if you do only audio Yeah, well, that's not much of a problem, then, right? But if you do video, it is really boring to watch both speakers from the same angle the whole time without showing any other camera angles. And to achieve that, you do need to edit your episodes. I'm not saying there aren't pod gets out there that might do this, but there are a lot of reasons to edit the recorded file you have into a more polished file before uploading them to your hosting platform. Now, given that slight hint on why editing is important, let's talk about the different ways to edit your podcast. And yes, there's more than one. You could one do it yourself, and we are going to learn exactly how to do that. Two, you could hire someone to do the editing for you, or three, you could let AI edit the video for you. Now, each one obviously has a number of pros and cons. So let's take a look at those. Editing the podcast episodes yourself, pros of editing a podcast episode yourself. Cost effectiveness. One of the first and biggest pros of editing your podcast episode yourself is that this eliminates the need to hire a professional editor or get a subscription to use an AI video editor, which can save you a lot of money, especially if you're on a tight budget. This is a huge pro. Control and creative freedom. Okay, the second biggest pro, and for some, this might actually top the first one is that editing the episode yourself gives you complete control over the final product. You can make decisions about pacing, timing, transitions, and overall style according to your vision and preferences without having to try to communicate this to someone else or let AI decide for you. Earning opportunity. A third one is that editing your own podcast episodes can be a valuable learning experience. You can acquire new skills, improve your understanding of audio and video production, and know how a podcast episode is created. Or maybe you simply enjoy the process of editing your podcast episodes. Some hate it. So really love it. If you're keen on learning how to edit, it might be that you really like doing this. Cons of editing your own podcast episode. T consuming. This is by far the biggest con for me and for many. Editing a video and audio podcast is a time consuming process, particularly if you're new to it or if you're aiming for high quality production. It requires careful listening, attention to detail and patience. This can be a significant commitment, especially if you have a busy schedule. L earning curve. A second con, which can top the first one, and certainly in the beginning, is that there is a learning curve to all this. If you're not familiar with audio and video editing programs, there will be a learning curve involved. It may take time to develop the skills necessary to achieve professional looking results. Luckily, you will learn about them here in this course. This con, however, is one that will disappear after a while once you get better. Potential for burnouts. When you handle all aspects of podcast production, including editing, it can become overwhelming and lead to burnouts. It can become a drag, especially after doing many episodes. Balancing content creation, recording, editing, and other podcast related tasks may strain your time and energy. Letting someone else edit your podcast episodes, Ps of letting someone else edit your podcast episodes. Tim savings. Obviously, the time saving element is one of the biggest pros of letting someone else edit your podcast episodes. Outsourcing the editing task by working with an editor, frees up your time, allowing you to focus on other essential aspects of your podcast, such as content creation, marketing, engaging with your audience, or you know, just recording other podcast episodes. Professional expertise. Someone who does this professionally will likely have way more knowledge and skills in video editing, and outsourcing the editing to someone who has a much higher level of expertise and experience than yours, should also enhance the overall quality of your podcast episodes. Fresh perspective. While you might have your own vision about the way you'd like your podcast look and flow, it can't hurt to get a fresh perspective sometimes from someone who edits videos professionally. They might offer creative ideas that you hadn't considered, potentially making your podcast episodes a whole lot better and much more engaging. Cs of letting someone else edit your podcast episodes. Cost. This is likely the biggest con. Hiring a professional editor comes with a cost literally. Depending on your budget, this expense may be a factor to consider. Professional editing services can vary in price. So it's important to assess the value they bring to your podcast and whether it aligns with your financial resources. Relinquishing creative control. When someone else edits your podcast episodes, you may need to relinquish some creative control over the final product. The editor will make decisions regarding pacing, timing, and style based on their expertise and interpretation. Of course, with good communication and alignment of expectations, your editor should understand your vision for the podcast. However, to a degree, it will never be exactly how you would do it yourself. It can be challenging to find someone who is a good match. Working with an editor is having someone on your team that works with you on this podcast of yours. In a good team, you should also be able to communicate well with each other. Because sure, he or she might be a great editor, but how well do they work on their own? How much explanation do they need? How well do they understand what you mean when you explain something to them? These are things that can be challenging to find in the ocean of freelance podcast editors out there. The best thing you can do is to hire someone for an episode or two and see what the experience is like. You can assess how good they are, not only in terms of their editing skills, but also in the ease with which the two of you communicate. Using AI to edit your podcast, pros of using AI to edit your podcast. Cost effectiveness. Using an AI video editor can be cheaper than hiring an actual podcast editor. It can edit the vast majority of your podcast episodes and speed up your whole podcast editing process. At the same time, AI algorithms can analyze the content and structure of your video, making automatic decisions on cuts, transitions, and effects. Can be useful for basic edits or for generating drafts that can be refined afterwards by yourself or someone else. Time efficiency. If you added your old podcast episodes or have an editor do it for you. It will take a lot more time an hour or even more to edit all the segments where you'd like your camera angle to switch from you to another speaker to the two of you and back. On the other hand, an AI video editor can literally do this in a few seconds. Sure, you still have to check afterward if it did a good job and make some adjustments, but it does a pretty good job. This is especially beneficial if you need to release episodes on a regular schedule. Small learning curve. AI video editors can make video editing more accessible to non professionals or individuals without prior editing experience. They often provide user friendly interfaces and simplified editing tools, allowing more people to create and edit videos. Counts of using AI to edit your podcasts, lack of creative judgment. AI video editors may need help to execute the artistic choices and innovative intuition of human editors. They may not fully understand the context, emotion, or desired storytelling, and this leads to less nuanced or personalized edits. It might make cuts at certain moments where you'd rather not make cuts or change camera angles where you don't want it to. If you or someone else does this, this likely won't happen. Complex editing needs. If your podcast requires complex editing techniques, such as intricate sound design, specialized transitions, or a mix of multiple tracks, AI editors might not be as adept at handling these tasks as human editors like yourself or someone you hire with the necessary expertise. Advanced editing techniques, complex transitions, or specific creative effects may be challenging for AI algorithms to replicate accurately. Additional costs. Last but not least, money might also be a big con here, depending on your budget. High quality AI podcast editing tools might come with subscription or usage costs. Depending on your budget and needs, these costs could add up over time, potentially outweighing the benefits. Okay, now that we have seen the pros and cons of all three ways to edit your video. Let's take a moment to talk about which one to use and which one might be right for you. If you have enough money to spare and no true interest to learn about editing, then the answer is quite simple for you. Hire a podcast editor to do everything for you. If money is no problem at all, this is a no brainer for me. It will save you so much time that you can focus instead on doing more episodes. Way, this is the ideal scenario to be in, and I would also say the scenario that you want to work to achieve at some point. Now, you could also use the AI video editor. But compared to having an editor who does everything for you, you still need some technical knowledge here about how to use the AI editor and some video editing skills as well. So I would say this. If you love editing and you want to have creative control, and you do have some money to spend, but you also want to speed up the workload for editing your podcast episodes, then go with an AI Pod guest editor. In the PDF resource file, you can find some of the best ones out there. Last, but not least, if money is a big concern to you, then learning the basics of editing, which I will teach you very soon, and editing the episodes yourself will likely be the way to go. Now, let me say one thing that I feel is more of a personal opinion. If you decide to go with a podcast editor right from the start, I still believe it is valuable to watch the lessons to come on editing and to edit two to three episodes yourself. I think it's always good to know firsthand how something is done and have personal experience with it. What I will teach you about editing in the lessons to come is, in a way, similar to learning the basics of a language. Language that you can use to communicate with others like a podcast editor about how you'd like to have things done, and a language that you can use to manage situations yourself if you need to or when you have to, for example, make any adjustments. It's just my opinion, and you can do with this whatever you want. Either way, I will see you in the next lessons on editing, or if you have zero interest in learning anything about it, then I will see you in the next section of this course. 28. Edit a Podcast Episode with Me: A Hands-On Learning Experience: All right, are you ready to learn how to edit your podcast episodes? I mean, I guess you are. Hearing this lesson, I am going to teach you how you can edit your episode from start to finish. Now, the program that I use and the one that you might use can have different features. However, while you might not have all the same features, all the principles that I will explain can be achieved with any editing program two. They might just be located somewhere differently, or you might have to do it slightly differently to achieve the same way I will explain everything so that it can be done on whichever program you might choose to use. Okay. Let us get started, and let me walk you through everything by editing and episodes of my own. So I'm going to take you into my computer screen so you can watch with me how exactly I added podcast episodes. So you can afterwards do it yourself as well. So we got a map here, right? In the podcast folder that I have. We learned this about how to create a podcast flow and all the different maps that I have in another episode, right? So you might already be familiar with all this or If you followed just the course that you should be familiar. So, you know, the episode, this map is just the list, the archive of episodes that I've done. Here, the Podcast flow, that map. I got a map called template. And this is basically where I created a template of every map that I use for every episode. I'm just going to copy all this. I'm going to go into my episodes here, and I'm going to create a new map. And I'm going to just name it example episode. Like you can see, of course, if it is an actual episode, I will just call it ep, and then the episode number, and then the name of the guest. But this is an example, right? So, All right, I'm going to paste the maps. Yeah, Okay, that can be skipped. I'm going to paste the maps that I just copied. So we have already that, which is a parade. And then you go to whichever recording software or platform that you use where you did the interview. So this is from a past interview that I've done with Rebecca Hook who is a crisis supporter. And what you will need is the separate lines. Okay? So we got the one of mine that recorded me. We're going to click on high quality, and ideally you want the raw video file. That's going to have the most quality to work with. So we'll download that. And then also from the guests, also this raw video file. Now, in addition to that, in addition to those two files, It's also ideal to have the combined audio file. So all participants, you can see that here. High quality. Now, you don't need per se the video, just export audio only. And the reason why that will be useful is because we can use the combined audio file to sync the separate files that we have. And so everything is in line already. Again, we'll become clearer in a second. Okay, so once that's downloaded, and I've already downloaded them here, we got this map. I'll just close this for a moment. And yeah, we got our three files here, and, you know, just name them however you want. So I'm going to name this. And then the episode was that. This, I'm also going to rename combined audio file episodes bola. And then here Beca Hook. Okay. I'm a big fan of making things as easy as possible. So if it just takes a couple of seconds of work to name them correctly, I would highly recommend you to do that, so it's all clear. So we have those three files now. So we go now into the flow map. And here we got all the maps that we're going to use to start editing our episode with. Okay, the first thing, we got the Map here with lines, and I just named that map basically where I can place the different lines from me and the guest and then the combined one. I'm just going to take them and I'm going to paste them here in that map. All right, so they are now in this map, which is great, which means that we can just delete these. Don't need to, you know, have even more storage been taken from us. So we can delete that, close that map, and we will go now to the edited file. I'm going to open that premiere template file here that I've already created, which again, you learned about. You can do that for any other editing program that you use. You can create templates like this. So first of all, I'm just going to rename it. So again, it's all clear what we're working on to edited file episode 040, and I am going to open that. Now, I am going to go back to this folder here, and I am going to drag and drop all the different lines. So we got the one from Rebecca. We got mine, and then we got the combined file. All right, so let's close that. Let's create some space here. So that's a a lot of files here. We're going to clear that out in a second. Now, what I always love to do is again to make it as clear as possible. So the one from Rebecca, I like to always use different colors for each line so I easily know which one is which. So I'm going to right click on it. Go to go to label, and, for example, IP yellow. So that's yellow. Rebecca is yellow. I could actually keep minus blue. Okay, so we got different colors now, which is easier as an overview to see what we're working on. This is me, this is Rebecca, and that's the combined file. Whatever editing program that you're using, if you can color label things, like I just did now, I can highly recommend you to do that, so things become not confusing, which they easily can be, especially when we start editing. Now, the way how I'm going to edit these episodes, there are many ways to do one thing in editing programs like Edo Premiere or any other editing programs. This is personally to me, what I felt is the easiest way to do it. There are again, other ways to do it. And as well, I will say, what I'm going to teach you here isn't alone excluded from to do in do premiere. You can do this basically in any other editing program. Now, in the PDF Resource file, I will actually add a couple of videos, not for me, but from other people using other editing programs to learn more how to edit video podcast episodes and to see maybe what different techniques they use that might be easier to use in your editing program. But again, what you will learn here is quite universal. This can be used in basically every editing program. And again, I felt it's the best way and the easiest way to do edit episodes. So let's start. First of all, this is basically because of the settings. I'm just going to scale this, so it's going to fit the screen. Yeah. This doesn't always happen. And then I'm going to do the same for me. Okay. Yeah. Now, we got these three files. What we want to do are a couple of things. First of all, we want to synchronize because this is the combined file. We want to synchronize it with these two files. So the podcast episode, how it was recorded is the same. The track is going to be the same. The reason why we then afterwards want to remove the combined file is because then we can separately start editing pieces and parts out of the different lines. For example, if I want to remove this part here from me, I can do that. I can't do that in this here, because then I'm going to remove Rebecca as well. So just to show again why it's good to have different lines. So I Addo Premiere, it's quite easy actually to synchronize every file with each other and using the combined file here. We're just going to select all of them, right click, and then we are going to go to synchronize. We click on it. The standard settings here should be correct. We're just going to click on. Let Add premiere do its thing. All right. I moved slightly, not a lot because it seemed like it was already pretty well combined or pretty well lined up already. Now, what you can see is that this is matching, this year, and this is the same, if I will play, Yeah, it will be exactly the same. This is me talking. This here is Rebecca talking, and this two is lined up. Now, if your editing program doesn't have this neat feature that Edo premiere has, then you can actually manually do it. So it's still quite easy actually to do it without that feature. Let's say that this file here from Rebecca, let's just it. Let's say that your files were like this and you're like, h, k, how do I line this up now? What you can actually do is very easily just look at the puzzle in a way. We got this here, and you basically have to look for the matching piece, which is here, right? And then you just drag it over, and you try to just line it up. You can zoom in to be to find unit more. And this is pretty close to good, maybe a little bit back. Yeah. So this is perfect. So that too, you can easily do. You can just line it up yourself manually. Okay, so what we want to do next is, well, first of all, we can actually remove the combined file because it's aligned now both of these files here. So we can go ahead and remove that. Now, we have two angles here, right. We got me, and if you click on the icon here, you can just make that invisible for a moment, and we got Rebecca. What we want to do next is create actually a third angle showing me and Rebecca at the same time on screen. Right? It's going to be me on the left side and Rebecca at the right side. Of course, you can do whichever way you want ER episodes. Now, how are we going to do that? So, this might sound a bit complicated in the beginning, but it's actually quite easy once you've done it a few times. So let's zoom out here. Let's take both D files, and let's copy them. Right? So if the exact same ones, the same copy here of both these files. So we got four files now here. What we want to do now, and let's take this one, it doesn't matter so much which one we added on is go here to the effects and type in crop. Here you can see the Crop tool. Let's just click on it, take it and place it on for example, my file. Now, we're going to go here to motion and position, and we're just going to slide that to the left. I guess you can see where this is going. And then we got the crop tool here if you scroll down, and let's take some of the right side off. Okay. Something like that. We're still going to find tune. Let's click on Rebecca now, and let's move her to the right side. Now, in this case, because she's quite small, I'm quite big. We can also go to scale, make her a bit taller. See that it, I make sense. All right. So it seems like I, if we exactly want a 50 side by side here, needs a little bit more cutting at the right something like that. Let's see, maybe I need to go a little bit down. So this is the great thing, right? You can basically move the person around however you want. You can make them bigger, smaller if there is enough video at the top, or you can flip the position, I can put myself here at the left side, or at the right side, I can move Rebecca to the left side. You can play around with this quite a lot, so I can make Rebecca, for example, even bigger if I want. Now, to make sure that this is actually exactly 50 50, right, that this is about exactly the middle. The easiest way that I found is to actually have a combined file. This is an example one that I have in every template already that I can easily use. And I'm just quickly going to show what I will do with it. So I'm just going to drag and drop that over this year. And I'm going to go to opacity, which will decrease the opacity of the video. Just going to make everything a little bit bigger so I can see this better. And you can see that this is not completely aligned. So I'm going to click on myself. And I'm going to move myself a little bit more to the left side until you can see this is perfectly aligned, which means that it is in the middle, exactly in the middle. In the software that you use to record your episodes, you can most of the time already download something like this that has an exact side by side, which is exactly in middle here video. You can download that and just use a little clip here as an example for your template, so it's always in the file when you want to go ahead and edit. So we can remove that now, and let's just do that. Now, we got this file here that's combined, and we got this here, which are the separate files under each other. We can now combine these two files into one very easily by selecting all of them. Right click and go ahead and click on nest. We can call that combine 40. Now, do Premier has created now one layer. If you double click on that, you can see actually the two files in there. So it made now another tab. So we can remove the audio because we don't need that because we already have that here. Let's just put that to the top. And if we just align this, so it's matching ten, we got, it's not matching exactly, so that's better. Now we got three different angles. Okay, so once we got those three files, we cut the file of M of Rebecca and our combined file. We are ready to start editing the episode. Now, basically, what we're going to do is a lot of cutting. Here in do premiere, if you go to the razor tool, that's a tool that we will primarily be using in whichever editing program that you're using, it might be called differently. But again, it's the tool that will cut parts of the video. So very easily, you can see here on the blue audio here 'cause that's me that I'm talking up until this point. And that's where a peg is talking. What we can do is cut that part away, so it's just showing me, and that's what we're going to do. So we just cut that. Let's remove that, and like you may see, it's just me talking. And we can just drag that a little bit more to come a bit more closer to Rebecca. Okay. That's where Rebecca is talking. Let's just zoom in. And here we can cut that away. The combined file. Now, we're also going to cut me my line away. So we are coming down to the file of Rebecca. So we got three different ones here now. The combined one, M, and then Rebecca, three different angles showing up in quite a short time, which creates this dynamic, you know, fields or feeling in an interview that there is some variety happening. So just to show That's us. Showing to Rebecca. And okay, there we can continue editing. What you can see here in the file of Rebecca is basically just I mean, she's not talking. I'm talking here the whole time until here again. The beautiful thing with having different lines is that you cut away audio parts when the other person is not speaking because there's still going to be some noise that the microphone picks up or something is happening in the background. Like there's a little bit of something happening here. Okay. It's saying, Mm hmm. Now, we can, for example, leave that in. Cut that cut this as well, and then basically just remove all of that because there's nothing really being said here. So it's just audio that is again picking up some noise in the background that is unnecessary. So we could just completely remove that. Now, I could basically be talking here the whole time, but what you can also do Is to create some variety again by sometimes having and again, combined file, especially when the other person is maybe like nod or smiling or yeah, doing something like that. So we can cut that away. So we have a little part here where I'm talking, it's breaking now because there's another angle showing both of us, which is more entertaining for the viewer. And that's basically how we will repeatedly go through the whole file here, which can take quite some time in the beginning when you're just learning. But after a while, you start just read the parts of the audio. Because I can easily see, this is where I'm probably saying some short words. And here I'm saying nothing, so I can just easily maybe cut that out. So it's just beca showing. After a while, you can more easily start editing that and it doesn't take so much time. As it might be in the beginning. Okay, so this is what you will do throughout the whole episode, right? Just cutting, cutting different angles until you're happy. Don't forget, of course, also, to color correct your episodes, if you want to do that, if it needs some fine tuning. For example, here with me, this is quite dark, actually, especially compared to Rebecca. So if we go here to the right in do Premier and under Lumary color, we got some basic well, basic corrections here that we can make. For example, the exposure, which, if we bring that up, gives some more light in the shot. Well, we can play around with the shadows, the highlights, the whites. This is just very personal and very different in each episode for your episodes. The settings will be completely different. But that's just an idea already, right? If we then go here to the left and just unclick lumitry color, then it's already quite a nice change. Of adjustment. So do definitely do some color correction because most of the time it can be a nice extra touch to your podcast episode to give an extra layer of quality to it. The same goes, of course, for the guest, if you can see, like, Oh, the guest needs maybe some little fine tuning. Maybe the shot here is a bit too blue, maybe adding a bit of color temperature in there. For example, right? Maybe I don't know, what else could we do here? The exposure. Now that's pretty okay. Maybe the highlights reducing those slightly. Bringing the shadows a little bit more out. This is just very quickly done. If we just check before and after, it's slightly warmer. It's a little bit better. Okay? No perfect. Don't forget, of course, if you here in do Premiere, have the combined file, because, you know, that's where the effect has not applied to, right? If you see. So here in do Premiere, right click, go to copy and then go click on the combined file here, and then right click, first select, of course, the layer. Right click, then go to paste attributes. Then here we can basically select which ones we want. In this case, we want the limitry. Then click on that, click on, and we here have applied that. Then we go back to the same with the one from Rebecca here, right click copy, double click. On the combined file. Click on the layer of Rebecca here, right click, paste attribute. Here, it's already selected, lumitry color, and click on. So actually, it might be better to do the color correction first before you start cutting and doing all that and before you start creating the third layer here where you have the boat angles. All right. So just to give you an idea how it actually completely looks where you've cut everything, every angle, then well, the whole file here, this face looks like that. The colors here are different. This is the original edited file, so Rebecca is purple, I'm orange. But just to give you an idea, how this looks, like you can see, it's a lot of cutting. Now, this feel or look like very overwhelming and like, that's a lot of work. And yeah, like I said, in the beginning, it actually will take quite some work, especially where you're still learning the editing program that you're using and getting familiar with all of that. But after a while, when you do have a good feeling with your editing program, and you're able to kind of read the episodes good, the audio of the episodes where you're talking, when the guest is talking. This can actually become very quick to do this phase of editing the podcast. So we got this. Now, we're going to export that. Here in do Premiere, we go up to the left corner to file. We click on it. We go to Export, and we click on Media. Now, I always like to name this. Well, so first of all, edited file, and then episode, well, whatever episode it is. But then I always like to add finished so that I know it's finished. Make sure, of course, that all the settings are set to the highest quality. Right. The preset here is Adaptive High bit rate. Format. This format is a great one with great quality. And then we will click Export. Okay, then we're actually moving to the next phase of editing your podcast episode. And that's the fine tuning and the actual finalizing of the episode. Okay, so here we got the edited episode. Let's just put it in this map here. This is for the Phase one. We can delete that because it's in our map here, which is again a Cloud service, so these files are all backed up. This is the next do premiere file where we're actually going to finish up the episode to have the actual final editing of the episode, so it's finished. So I'm going to rename that here to episode. 40. I'm going to open that. All right, so now we're going to finalize the episode. The finishing touches in Phase two, which is the last phase. So we are this you already learned, right? This is a template that I also created for the second phase. In a previous episode, we already ran through this. I'm going to take now the edited file here, of Phase one, I'm going to paste it here. And now we are just basically going to just like a puzzle, take things off like this is just something as an example of where the actual first part of the episode will go. Then there's an ad of a product or service mainly mine because as you can see here, there is a middle here, so I will basically cut that. And then insert this parts here, and then the other parts here. And then here, the intro and outro that I've also edited and recorded, of course, before, will be placed here, and here. Now, let me close this and show you the final where I actually already done all this. So you can see how this all looks when the puzzle pieces are in place. Okay, so I showed you the example of the template where we then inserted the edited version here. Of course, there's also the intro and outro, which I have recorded after I've done the episodes, and that too, actually, If we just go here to the file of the original edited episode, the intro and outro. I also created just a separate file from that, right? So I also opened an do premiere file edited the footage that I had. So it is just one single file. So it's easy to just then finally put all those puzzle pieces. So the intro, the edited file into the finalized file where everything is going to be finished and polished. So we got that here. I also color labeled this with blue. That's for the intro. Then yeah, these things are using every episode. So they are already in the template. I basically just have to copy and paste the intro outro, the edited file in this template here, and then just make a little bit of some adjustments, right like this here that there's some fading the names that they're correct. So once that's done, you can go up again to file. You can go to export, media, and the same right. Here, you can name it, for example, Okay. Episode 40, and then finished. Again, check that the high quality settings are checked and exports, and you have your finished and polished episode done. All right, so that is hopefully helpful to you to show how to edit your episode. Check again, the PDF resource file to find some additional tutorials for different editing programs to learn maybe a couple more tricks and tips for that specific editing program. But what I showed you here is basically things that you can apply in any editing program. And just review the tutorial, this piece here of editing, what I just showed you all a few times if it's not so clear or if it's a bit confusing. Once it clicks, it clicks, and it mainly comes down to doing it and practicing it, and learning and developing your own style of how you edit things, and what you find easy and helpful for your podcast again, or just what makes sense in your case. 29. Edit Your Podcast Using AI: Okay. So, in the previous lesson, we learned about the various ways to edit your podcast episodes as well with pros and cons. And one was AI to let AI edit your podcast. Now, I'm actually going to show you here on screen an AI tool. It's actually an extension that will edit the episode with me and Rebecca to just show you directly, the pros and cons of AI editing your episode. Now, there's more and more AI editors appearing. I will list in the PDF resource file more and true Time. I will update them. Again, this is not a feature in EDO Premiere. This is an extension, right? So Edo Premiere doesn't have that feature. So here in Edo Premiere, we go to Window. We go to extensions, and the AI extension is called autopot. We click on Multi camera Editor. There are a couple of settings that we have to adjust. So cameras. There are three angles, speakers two, then just the names of the speakers and Rebecca. Then here tech speakers. So this is Rebecca, and this is all speakers, and then create multi cam d, and the AI is going to do its magic. This can take a bit of time depending on your computer and on the length of the episode. But yeah, it's estimating and encoding the episode. So let's give it a couple of seconds to do that. All right. So now the AI editor is cutting everything. Let's just see, you can see here, it refreshed and it made those edits. Let's see again, refreshed again. So yeah, it will just very beautifully make all these cuts for us with the three different angles that we have. Okay. So let's give it a bit more time to completely edit and cut everything for us. All right. So the AI is done here. And as you can see, I mean, it's legit, right? It cut everything. And it even tries, I mean, and this is pretty amazing to truly, have some diversity in the interview with different angles. You know, This is where it's both of us. This is where it's Rebecca. This is where it's me. And of course, this pieces makes sense because that's where she's talking, that's where I'm talking. But it's actually quite amazing that it tries its best to also see where it might be nice to have a combined file. I mean, the pro here is that this saves a lot of time. This can save hours of time. The con is, and you already learned is in the previous episode that st it's an AI tool, so it can't really read all the time correctly when it's a good moment to show maybe a combined file of the pot speakers. Or it makes sometimes really weird edits, where it's just showing the person like here, it does this quite a few times, where it's just showing Rebecca for just a couple of seconds. And that's not really it's not really, I don't know, nice. And even here, she doesn't do anything. So this is actually a big gun because it's not like you just let the AI do its thing and then just go and export the file. You actually have to review it, and you often have to make quite a lot of adjustments. Like here, I would have to probably remove that, the same like here, or I don't know, maybe make that a bit longer, like it's the two of us showing right? This is actually a nice part where she's like, responding with a nod to me, but the AI didn't read that at all. So you still have to review this whole thing here. And that's really the reason why I personally haven't really felt a great use of AI editors yet. This will improve, of course, in the future. But right now it seems to me to be taking the same amount of time to review this and to make adjustments, and, you know, yeah, to make those adjustments, then if I would just start from scratch and do it all myself, because then it's immediately as I want. So, yeah, plus, it's also it costs money, these AI editors or at least these extensions so far. So I at the moment, haven't found really a great use of AI editors. Again, yet. I'm really, really hoping that this will improve and continue improving to the point where it does a better job than me. And likely, I mean, this is just in early phases, these AI editors. It will get way better. So It is still something great to maybe try, at least, or at least to be aware of, to check again in the future, to see how well or how much better it got or to check on YouTube or wherever, to see some tutorials on AI editors and see how well they're performing. Again, in the PDF resource file, I will put a list of the best AI editors that I will, of course, also update through T as I myself. Am quite interested in this feature because if he gets really good to the point of as good as a human doing this, where you might still have to maybe review a couple of parts or where the AI editor might highlight. Oh, I'm not sure that I did that correctly here. Can you review that section? If you can get to that point, then yeah, you don't need to hire an editor anymore, which can save a lot of time and a lot of money. So check the PDF resource file for some good recommendations if you already want to check out what we got into in the world, and if you want to give them a try. And now you've learned how to edit your episode completely from start to finish. Even if at some point you choose to work with an editor, and you don't edit episodes anymore, it is still a handy skill to know, as you can always go easily into your editing program and quickly make any adjustments to your project yourself. Either way, you have learned a new skill that I mean, it will surely take some practice, especially in the beginning. But as you saw, it isn't very complex per se. Sure. Learning to work with the editing program might take some time, but the tasks you have to do aren't overly complex. And once you're familiar with your editing program and the routine of how to edit your podcast episode, I will just become much easier and quicker to do. 30. Do More with Your Podcast: The next couple of lessons, I want to explore a few ways to do even more with the podcast episodes you create or have already created. If you do half an hour an hour or certainly more hours of interviews, you will have so much content within each interview that you use on their own as separate content. Now, there are many ways to do more with your interview. I'm now saying you should use all of them, but at least experiment or consider each one that we will be learning about in the following lessons. Never know which one you might like doing and which one would work well with your podcast until you tried it. All right. Let's take a look at the first one. 31. Have Show Notes: Boost Your Podcast’s Value: One of the first things that I like to touch upon around the topic of doing more with your podcast is to have show notes for each episode you do. This is something that benefits not only yourself in terms of attracting more people to your podcast, but it would also benefit your listeners as it gives them this one page where they can find a lot of useful information about that specific episode they are listening to or have just listened to. Now, I'll share more in just a minute about what exactly to include in your show notes or what I've seen over the years that at least is vital to have. But first, I think it's important to answer the question, where do you place the show notes? Now, the obvious place to have your show notes is on your own website. If you don't already have one, I would highly recommend getting a website created if you truly care about building something up for the long term. There are alternative places to put your show notes instead of your website, but your website is something you own. It's your own unique place on the Internet. And it's best to lead people to the one place where you have full control and say about everything. And that's something you'll only truly have with your own website. It's not too complicated to get a website, and there are many, many tutorial videos to be found and enough courses to help you set up your own website. Now, let me share a few things to add to your show notes to make the most out of them. And not only in terms of bringing the most value to your listeners, but also for you to attract more new visitors. Inserting links to any resources your guests mentioned in an episode is a very useful thing to do for your listeners. Plus it makes your show notes instantly useful and worth checking out. In my intro and tro, I always make it clear to my listeners that any resources mentioned in the interview can be found in the show notes. Of course, where to find them, which is in the description of the podcast episode. I also always mention how to find them directly in case they can't find them there. Likewise, whenever someone mentions something during the interview, I will always let listeners know directly that this can be found linked in the show notes. Make it clear that the show notes are an extension of your podcast that are worth checking out. Now, you can determine, of course, how far you want to go with links in your show notes. And what I mean is that, for example, I also link up any public figure or famous person that was mentioned there too. I've often had the experience when I was listening to another podcast where someone mentions a person with a bit of an unusual name, and I have a hard time finding that person on the Internet. If this information could have been linked up in these show notes, I personally would have deeply appreciated that. Okay. The next thing to do is to make it super easy for your listeners to find and connect with your guests. Now, I know, of course, that this does depend on who you interview. With the IPS podcast, I interview a lot of public figures who have their own online presence and content that listeners might want to delve into. If that is the same case for your podcast, do make it easy for your listeners to connect with your guests by inserting all their social media pages and certainly their website on your show notes. However, not all podcasts benefit from that. As, for example, with the Hart warrior project, most of my guests there are not public figures and don't have content of their own for listeners to follow. Now, here in the show notes of each episode, it's also a great place to show in the easiest possible way all the platforms where people can find your podcast and listen to it. This is, in a way, such a simple thing to do. Therefore, do not miss out on doing that. If a random person comes across the page while browsing the web, it would certainly be useful for them to see directly where they can listen to that episode. There are other things that I do with my show notes, such as having a transcript of the interview, time stems, so people know the specific topics we talk about and the points to find them and a call for additional episode suggestions. These are all things we will touch on more in depth soon. But I just want to say here that you should try to do your best within the limits of what you can do in terms of time and energy to make these show notes worth checking out. Make them truly a useful source of information for your listeners, such as by adding even more helpful things, such as a transcript, time stems, et cetera. You can see, having show notes is something that for many podcasts, mine included is a vital extension that not only you can benefit from, but your listeners can find very useful as well. Now, in the PDF resource file, I will link up a couple of other podcasts, so you can see what they do with their show notes and draw further inspiration from them for your own podcast. 32. Adding Bonus Content: Okay. The following is something that works perfectly well with one of my pod guests, the IPS pod guest. Now, the exact same thing might not work for you, but maybe a variant of it or hearing about how I do it can bring you some inspiration about doing something similar. Let me first explain what I do as a form of bonus content, and afterwards, I will give you some other ideas for inspiration. When I prepare my interviews for the IPS podcast, I often have so many questions for my guest, that I end up not asking some of them, simply because I had to trim some of them for the interview due to time constraints. Many guests are willing to take time for an hour to 2 hours of interviews, but not for three, four or 5 hours, which means that I do not have the chance to ask all my questions. And likewise, during the interview itself, Other questions might come up in my head that I might ask then and there. These unprepared questions sometimes replace a few of the initial questions I wrote down. So I don't get to ask them because the guest might only have so much time for the interview. Therefore, I came up with the idea of doing bonus episodes where I sent the guest some of those questions that I wanted to, but was not able to ask, so that the guest can answer those questions on their own. This bonus episode is basically an episode where the guest takes over the pod guest for a moment. Of course, not all guests have the time for it or are interested in doing it, but many are. Also, this bonus episode helps promote them even more on the Internet, as well as their full interview on the podcast. So it's an added bonus for them and for me, as it means more content for both of us. For now, these bonus episodes are free. However, they could also serve as episodes for members only in the future. I do not know if I will do that, but it is also an interesting thing to think about who these extra bonus episodes could be for your own podcast, it could be interesting to think about the possibility of putting out some bonus content, either for members only or just to have even more content for your listeners to enjoy. Now, here are some other potential ideas for your podcast. If you edit many parts of the interview and cut certain parts out, you could also release the extended interview as some kind of bonus episode. A bit similar to what certain movies do. Bloopers or any other funny and entertaining moments from your podcast recordings, including mistakes, laughter, and unplanned conversations could also be offered as bonus content. Another idea is to offer a Q&A session at the beginning or at the end of the interview, either alone or with a guest answering some questions that were sent in. You could also do a whole episode like that, of course, as a form of bonus content. Or this could be done live, where all you or you and the guest answer questions live. Another one could be taking your audience behind the scenes for before and after glimpses of you doing an interview. For example, you sharing your thoughts before and after. Fill this in with additional value, either through entertaining or informative content. You could also do deep dive discussions where you choose a specific topic from one of your regular episodes and conduct a more extensive discussion in a podcast episode. This allows you to explore the subject matter in greater detail, which could be very fun and interesting for True fans. And one last suggestion to bring you more possible ideas is to offer bonus mini episodes. These are basically shorter episodes combining short tips from a couple of your past episodes. Dat so could be a great bonus episode. You certainly do not have to do bonus content for your podcast. However, take a moment to think about what could possibly work. And if you feel it could bring enough value for your listeners to actually do it. Wallace thing, I will say, just because it is bonus content, it doesn't mean that the value of that episode is less than the others. Know that anything that doesn't bring actual value in some way will not work in the end. So do think of the value that is directed towards your audience? 33. Maximizing Podcast Reach with Bite-Sized Content: Creating short clips from your full interview is something you see almost all podcasters do. For your potential audience or new viewers and listeners, it's a great way for them to get some insights into what the podcast episode is about, or simply a way for them to consume a shorter form of content from you. Creating short clips out of your interview is a whole different kind of content on its own. And you should also see it that way. When creating these short clips, I would therefore strongly suggest taking clips from your interview that can stand on their own. Now, what that means is that the short clips have value and meaning on their own. It means that the listener does not have to listen to the full interview first to understand the clip. With each interview that I do on both the IPS podcast and the podcast of the Hard warrior project, I create about two to three short two to five minute clips from the full interview. Then I post them on social media, such as YouTube and on other platforms. I do really long interviews ranging 1-2 hours. There is enough content in there. Some of these clips have generated thousands of views which have led many people to discover the full episode, as well as other episodes. This clips have also led them to visit the websites of both the IPS project and the Hard warrior project. And this has ultimately resulted in many new followers. Now, let's take a look at one of those clips from one of my podcasts, and we'll analyze it and learn a few good things to do when creating them. Since the aim of these clips is to further promote the full interview and your podcast in general, I would recommend that you have some text at the start of the clip to show which episode this clip is from and where people can find the full interview. So I would suggest showing that same text again at the end of the clip. Finally, I always end the clip by showing the actual pod guests from where the clips were taken. Then in the description, I provide a short explanation of what the clip is about and who the guest is and provide a link to the full interview. Now, as I mentioned, these clips can be posted on social media, but you could also use them in your newsletter if you have one. They can serve as a teaser for your new episode or to highlight any key topics. But you can also turn these short clips into articles that can be posted on platforms such as medium, or of course, on your own website. Likewise, you can create another pod guest, but solely for the purpose of posting these short clips. There are some pod guests that do this too. However, this might make things unclear and confusing for your audience if you have two pod guests with almost the same name. Therefore, if you do this, be sure it's clear to your audience what the difference is between your main pod guest and the one for clips. You can clarify this by adding words like clips or highlights or something next to the title of your pod gest. You can also put this in the thumb nail and make it clear in the description that this is only a short clip and where they can find the full episode. In the PDF resource file, I will include a couple of podcasts that have posted their clips on another podcast. So you can further analyze them and see if this technique might work for your podcast too. All right. With that, let's continue to look at a few other things you can do with your podcast. 34. Create a Transcript: Boost Your Podcast’s Value with Written Content: Making a transcript of your interview is another great way to produce even more content from your interview and further reach more people. I mean, there are people who are deaf or who simply prefer reading text over, listening to audio, who are currently searching the Internet to learn about what you are sharing on your podcast. So limiting your podcast to only audio cuts those people away from what you have to share. Now, I can hear you think, you know, that not take a lot of time to do. And actually, you'd be surprised at how easy it can be to create a transcript. There are some great websites out there that use AI to generate a transcript from audio. And these don't cost so much money per se and are very accurate in what they generate. I will post the links to these sites in the PDF resource file. Besides the fact that you open up the possibility for even more people to enjoy your podcast, there are other benefits to having a transcript of your podcast episodes. For one thing, it's great for your SEO. This can improve your search engine rankings and make it easier for people to find your podcast. Another reason for creating a transcript is that it gives your podcast life beyond audio. The text of the transcript can be used to create articles or for marketing campaigns, social media posts, you name it. For some pod guests, having the transcript at hand could greatly help your audience for academic or general learning purposes. It can make researching about a specific topic and taking notes from it so much easier. It also makes it simple for people looking to quote a portion of your interview. Another interesting reason to make a transcript is to improve yourself. I mean, sure we could listen to ourselves, but seeing our words written down on paper is a much better way to become better at what you do. For example, it becomes much more apparent in writing when you use certain words too many times. Also, for a beginner, it could be very interesting to read your transcript. It may help you see how you could have framed a certain question better next time. You could also more easily send a certain piece from an interview to someone who has much more experience and let them mark where you could improve. Again, all of this becomes a lot more apparent in text than in audio. Finally, a transcript of your podcast could also be used as a members only benefit for your site, along with other membership benefits. Here I would say that your transcript should certainly be close to 100% correct and thoroughly checked. Do check first, of course, if this makes sense. Is the content of your podcast valuable enough to your audience that they would be willing to pay for access to the transcript? I do think that for most podcasts, in general, it would be more worthwhile and appreciated by your audience to simply offer the transcript for free. There are links to some good transcription services in the PDF resource file. Aside from those, I will also link a few good podcasts that have transcripts for you to see how they use them. This is so that you can analyze what would work well for your podcast or arrive at a few good ideas on how to best use transcripts for your podcast. 35. Why You Need a Backup Podcast System in Place: Is one and one is none. This is a saying that is often used in the military. Basically, it means one single point of failure is going to let you down at some point and will lead to disaster. In the case of podcasting, technical problems and defects are bound to happen. Prepare for this so you can avoid such disasters that will happen at some point, and the way to prepare for them is to have a back up podcast system in place. Now, if you are just starting out, I would say you don't have to focus on this yet, as it would likely involve spending extra money on equipment and would take up even more of your energy while you're already trying to figure out many things. So first, find out how much you enjoy podcasting. But once you do and you decide to continue doing your podcast, And this is truly a very important thing to have in place. So please don't put it off. It's something that people often don't take seriously. And at some point, I can promise you, some piece of equipment will fail during an interview, and you would wish you had a backup system in place. I mean, it's bound to happen at some point, you know, yes, I speak from experience here. So learn from my mistakes, which is, what much of this course is about. I don't want the coming lessons to merely provide the simple answer of buying two of each piece of equipment. I could have just done that in one single short lesson. I'm someone who often travels or sometimes lives abroad. For me, there are moments when I simply want to continue working and doing podcast episodes. Therefore, the equipment that I have, as well as the podcast backup system I have, do not just have to deliver good quality, they must at the same time be portable and practical enough to take with me along with my normal podcast equipment. More, it feels a bit pointless to buy, for example, two laptops just in case the other one fails. It's not just expensive. It is also impractical to carry you on your travels, and to be fair, quite useless unless, of course, something goes wrong. Therefore, the Podcast backup system I have that we are going to look at can also be used in other situations besides doing podcast interviews. In short, many of them are multi functional. So not only can they be used as backup for when things fail. Also for other things in life, which you can feel in yourself. So let's start by taking a look at the first one. 36. When Your Cloud Service or NAS System Fails: Let me start with one of the most important things to know about this topic? You want to have those podcast episodes not just on one Cloud surface, but also on another location. There are plenty of horror stories of people getting kicked out of a surface they've been using with no access anymore to their files or of their accounts getting hacked and being unable to get them back. So, yes, this happens. Now, luckily, it doesn't happen often, right? But do you really want to take the risk if the solution can be easily put in place? In the lesson on having a podcast backup system in place, we talked about two options to store your files and where to create your podcast workflow, which means either using a cloud surface, such as Google Drive, Drawbox, et cetera, or using a NAS system. Both options are ways to safely keep and save those hours of work in an easy and hassle free way. The best solution for having a backup system using either a cloud service or a NAS system is to make sure that it is easy to use and hassle free because you could, for example, buy multiple external hard drives and manually back up your files on those external hard drives every now and then, and keep those hard drives safe somewhere. Now, while this does certainly do the trick, it's a lot of work that will likely result in you not using it as much as you should or simply forgetting to make those backups. Now, what you could also do is to have a cloud service and as well a na system and then choose between the two, you know, which one you would use as a backup system. For example, if you choose your NAS system as backup for all the files from your Google Drive map where you have created your podcast workflow system. You would have quite an easy and effortless way to create backups of your files. While this is a good way to do it, you do, of course, need to buy a NAS system, which isn't exactly cheap. You also need to buy hard drives to insert in the NAS system where the files can be stored. And after some years, you'll have to buy an additional hard drive as the available space will at some point be filled. Sure, your hard drive can take quite a long time to fill up, but at some point, you know, it will happen. It will be full. While this could be a much better solution, it is also a much more costly one, and you do have to worry about additional things, like, you know, buying more hard drives. Therefore, in my experience, as I have used, you know, the two ways I just mentioned, One of the best solutions is to use a Cloud storage. And yes, this is different from a Cloud service. Simply put, a Cloud service lets you upload and download files frequently. Essentially, it is suited for doing things with the data that you place in the Cloud. A Cloud storage on the other hand, is simply meant for storing data and leaving it there. It's not meant to be used to constantly download your data. It is exactly as it is called a service for you to merely store your data. Now, I hear you think, Wait, but what? I can download them, only store them. So again, it is not meant to be used to constantly download files. However, if in case you lose access to your Cloud service account, or for some other reason, the files on it are gone. You can request all your files or certain files to be downloaded again on your computer or even on another one. Some Cloud storage services also give users an option to request an external hard drive to be sent physically to your home, which can be handy, especially if you're talking about retrieving a big amount of data. So, in essence, it's there to keep your files stored. And you know, when some emergency arises, you can then request all your data to be sent back to you. Now, the way you can use such a cloud storage service is merely by installing their application on your computer and selecting what files on your computer you'd like to be stored. This could range from your entire hard drive to a specific map you've chosen, such as the map that contains all the files of the cloud service you're using or the map from the NAS station that you have. Then every X amount of time it will make backups from what you've selected on your computer to be backed up. That's it. It's super easy. It's also hassle free as you don't have to do anything once it's in place, and it safely secures the backups from all the files you keep on the Cloud surface or an station. Now, if you go to the PDF resource file, you can find a couple of great Cloud storage services to choose from, as well as the one that I'm currently using. Remember, two is one and one is none. It would be an absolute devastation if all your hard work, all your episodes should vanish like dust in the wind, if something goes wrong with this first place. Be it a Cloud surface or a n station or whatever you end up using. There is an easy and good solution to this. So do take a look at all the options we talked about here in this lesson, and especially D one for Cloud storage. 37. What to Do When the Internet Fails: Alright, this is the most likely thing that can potentially fail you right at those moments when you do not want it to fail, such as before or during an interview. Yes, this has happened to me, and, yes, it is frustrating as hell, when it does. Now, if you don't do online interviews, this problem might not be such a worry for you. If you do all your interviews or many of them online, it's truly important that you think about a backup solution for when the Internet fails. As with many things, they often fail at the exact moment we hope they wouldn't. Now, the solution to this is actually quite simple. You can use your mobile phone and connect it to your laptop using Tetering, using the mobile data of your phone to get Internet service on your laptop. In this case, you do need a sufficient amount of mobile data to pull this off, especially if you record both video and audio at the highest settings and do an hour or 2 hours of podcasting. Hard to say exactly how much is enough, as this depends on factors mentioned earlier, such as video resolution, frame rate, compression settings, and audio quality. But here is a rough calculation that I can give to help you see how much mobile data you might need for your podcast. Let's assume you are recording a 1 hour podcast at the highest settings with a video resolution of four K and high quality audio. In this scenario, the data usage could range from several gigabytes, for example, four to 6 gigabytes to potentially exceeding 10 gigabytes, depending on the specific settings and content complexity. Therefore, it is ideal to have a 15 gigabyte data plan or even better to have a 20 gigabyte data plan to be safe and ensure that you will have enough mobile data. Now, if you do podcast episodes that are only 50 minutes long, well, the amount of data you need is considerably less. So make your own calculations based on the info I just provided. Ally, of course, using your phones mobile data is only something you would need to do temporarily during the interview before you can switch back to your regular Internet connection. But this is truly by far the simplest solution that can also be useful for more than just this reason, such as using it for your private life. Therefore, take a moment when you start your podcast to take care of this because as I will illustrate more in these lessons. Thing that can fail will fail at some point, and you truly do not want that to happen during an interview. Once you have your correct mobile data plan, go through the motions of getting yourself used to how to connect the mobile data from your phone to your laptop so that you'll know what to do in those moments when the Internet fails you. 38. What to Do When Your Microphone or Headphones Fail: Yes, my microphone has once failed me at a moment that I wished it didn't. This was actually when I was being interviewed on another pod guest, which still sucked either way, right? As I had to postpone the interview to another date to give me time to get a new microphone. Now, personally, it would have been a lot worse, of course, if I was the one interviewing someone and had to ask them to postpone because of this. Now, is this the end of the world? I mean, of course, not, right. And if I would have told them, likely, they would have understood. Yet, it's still quite unfortunate, and it is something that can be easily resolved by indeed having two microphones. Now, I know that this sounds like, oh, another big investment to make. But in truths, both your main and secondary microphones don't have to cost that much at all to be of good quality. You can buy a very decent microphone already at the price of around 50 euros or dollar or whatever it is converted to your currency. Do check the PDF file to find a few good suggestions. Again, you don't have to make that investment immediately. See first how you like podcasting. But do make this investment at some point. You will regret it otherwise. Also, and, you know, this is way less of a big investment to make, but do make sure to have a second cable for your microphone. Now, if you bought the same microphone twice, then you already have a backup cable as well, right? Or if you bought a microphone with the same ports as your primary microphone, then that too is a win as you have an extra cable. But do make sure to have an extra one. As this two, can break. Okay, but what if both your microphone and the cable break before you can get a backup microphone and cable? That's really unfortunate, but, you know, it will likely happen to some person, right? And you don't want to postpone to another date. First of all, let me remind you of one thing. Audio matters more than video. Therefore, do consider postponing because, yes, alternatively, you could still use the building microphone of your laptop or your webcam. But the chances that they will give you bad audio quality is quite likely. That is unless you have a very high end laptop or webcam. But even then the audio won't be amazing. So do remember that. Don't simply proceed with the interview at the cost of poor audio just because you want to have it done or because you want another one prepared already. Your listeners would likely prefer to wait another week or even a month to listen to terrible audio from your side. Okay, let's say that you absolutely can't or don't want to postpone because you have this guest that you know won't make it to your podcast at any other time, and you do not want your audio to absolutely suck. Well, what you can do is to actually use your smartphone, if you have one to record your end of the audio. All of the latest smartphones have quite decent microphones to record audio width. Again, it's not fantastic, but it's often surprisingly good. Test out the quality between your laptops or webcams built in, mice and that of your phone to see which one delivers better quality. Now, if you feel that buying two of the same microphones isn't a logical thing to do, you could also buy a microphone for your phone, if that makes more sense for you. Are microphones that can be attached to your phone. This can range from level ear microphones to shotgun microphones, and both come in wired and wireless varieties. The level ear is a small microphone that you can clip onto your shirt. Shotgun microphones, which, yeah, sounds more aggressive than they are, are a type of undirectional microphone that collects high quality audio straight from the front of your phone. In contrast to the level ear, you place these shotgun mics on your phone and not on yourself. There are other types of microphones for your phone that I will insert in the PDF resource file. If you also do flogs or other videos, for example, maybe for your podcast, such as behind the scenes videos or something else, you can create your whole camera setup with your phone. If you have one of the latest phones, the video quality will be top notch. You will just need to add a microphone to it, and you're good to go. See what option makes sense for you and choose based on what will be the better investment to make. Now, finally, don't forget about your headphones. Note that you can also use wireless or wired head butts, but it also matters to have a second pair of these. Again, if you watch the lessons where we talk about all the equipment needed for your podcast and the one on microphones and headphones, you'll know how not having headphones can result in audio bleed, which is, as I mentioned, where the audio being recorded bleeds true to the other side. It's truly annoying if that happens for your listeners, and it can ruin an otherwise great interview. If you already have headphones, you don't have to buy another pair of expensive headphones. You can, for just some euros or dollars, buy the old fashioned wire earbuds, they will do more than fine. I keep a pair of them with me in my apartment or in my back whenever I travel. See what you have laying around at home. Maybe you have headphones, but also wireless earbuds, or maybe you have wireless earbuds and wired ones. Any combination works. Okay. Having learned about the options and reasons why you need to have a second microphone and headphones, let's advance to the next lesson. 39. When Your Laptop or Computer Fails: How to Keep Your Podcast Running: Almost happened to me right on the day of a very important interview where we had quite a big name appearing on the IPS podcast. Some days before this very important interview, my laptop started failing at random intervals. And I couldn't get it fixed in a rush because this started happening on a Friday, and the interview was that Sunday. So I couldn't bring it to a store. Get it fixed on time. Because the laptop still worked most of the time, and, you know, I didn't want it to reschedule the guest because I didn't know if and when he could make time again, I did decide to take the risk and do the interview. I did feel quite stressed because if my laptop did fail during the interview, it would disrupt everything quite terribly. I also feared that I couldn't get my laptop back on at all if it fails during the interview. In the end, it worked out fine, which, as you can imagine, was a big relief. That experience truly made me decide to have backup solutions for every piece of vital equipment and software needed to record podcast episodes, and to take this step much more seriously. So a few days later, I did extensive research on what possible backup solutions I can use. Now, as with every piece of backup equipment, to tried looking for something here that could complement my needs in my everyday life. So I didn't care too much about, you know, looking into buying a second laptop, but rather I searched for devices that I could use for other things too. Thus I ended up going for a tablet as my choice for the second system if my laptop should fail. Because for me, it had other good reasons as well to make my investment worth it. Use the tablets in my work for various other tasks, such as note taking, or if I want to travel super light, but still do some writing or other work. I can take it with me. I can also use it during interviews as this is where I write my questions, or I can use it for simple leisure activities, such as watching series or movies. If you have a tablet, that right there could be a perfect solution to have with you as a backup. When I intend to do some interviews while traveling to certain places, I always have my laptop and tablet with me. Again, I use it for other purposes in my work. Now, my third option if both devices should fail or get stolen is my phone. It is possible depending on the recording platform you use to record full interviews from these devices. What's more, you can connect a quality microphone to both a tablet or a phone. Depending on what the port of the microphone is, USB, USBC, Thunderbolt, or whatever else. And depending on what the input port is of your tablet or phone you might need to buy an adapter that allows you to connect, for example, a USB ports on your microphone to the USBC ports of your tablet or phone. The good news is that this is very inexpensive and very easy to use. In the PDF resource file, you can find some suggestions for adapters for different ports of both tablets and phones. Note that it is important when you do use an external microphone for your phone or tablet to double check before you start recording an interview and see if it is recording from the microphone. Because most of the time you first have to go to the microphone settings on your phone or tablet and change it there to select the external microphone you are using. In the end, it isn't only your laptop that can fail at the moment when you don't want it to fail. The charging cable of your laptop could also stop working. This has also happened to me. No before an interview or during one, but simply after years of using the same charging cable, it just stops working. For that reason, too, it is good to always have a backup system in place. Know that in the end, you can always reschedule the interview and get your laptop or charging cable fixed to try it again some other day. But for your own peace of mind, it's good to have a backup plan for your laptop because you just never know if right before or during the recording, your laptop or charging cable would fail. 40. What to Do When Your Camera Fails: Ensuring Your Podcast Stays Professional: Recording the video of a podcast episode, I use an external webcam. It's a very easy setup. I just have to plug it in, and it's good to go. And the resulting video is of good quality. Now, if that webcam should fail, I have my phone ready to use as a webcam. And if that should fail as well, I could also use my mirrorless camera as a webcam simply because I have it. And if for whatever reason, every one of those should fail or get stolen at the exact same time. But How much bad luck could one have then? I could use the internal webcam of my laptop. So, I know that's a lot of backup cameras that I have at hand. However, I didn't buy all of them just for backup. I use the mirrorless camera that I bought to take photos and videos, like what I'm doing now. However, it just so happens that it can also be used as a webcam. Even if I would never use it for that purpose, it's always good to do this exercise. Think about all the possible backup systems you might already have and good use in place of a specific piece of equipment. Such as for video. Most people have more pieces of equipment at home that could be used to integrate into backup solutions. Take a look and see what you might have lying around that you could use in this case as an alternative solution for video. Otherwise, see what other options besides webcam, phone or camera that might be worth buying that you can use at some point for more than only one purpose. 41. Online Backup Recording Studio: While this should rarely or almost never happen, the online recording studio you use might sometimes faile. There might be some technical issue on their side right at the moment when you want to record your episodes or during the call. Now, I'm not saying you should have two subscriptions running on two different platforms at the same time as that can become really expensive. However, what I would recommend is to look for two recording platforms. Refer to the PDF resource file for a few good suggestions, get a subscription with one for one month and record episodes there for a month. Then switch to the other platform you found and record episodes there for another month until you become familiarized and comfortable with both these platforms. Afterwards, decide which one you like using the most and use that as your main recording platform. You now not only have two platforms that you know how to use really well, and where one can serve as the backup solution, but you also have invested a bit of time and money to find the platform that you like the most that can serve as your main one without having to keep on pondering if there might not be a much better option out there. Therefore, if you ever run into technical problems with your main recording platform, you won't have to stress that much as you know very well how your backup platform works. Then at the particular moment when the need arises for a backup recording platform, simply buy a subscription plan for your backup platform, again, invite your guest there and continue the interview. The chances that a technical problem will happen are small, but it's possible, at the very least, if you don't feel like switching platforms for a month, sign up on another recording platform. And check if they have a free model that can allow you to at least get familiar with the platform and record a test episode. Now, I would much rather recommend that you record an actual episode, but the choice is yours. Again, refer to the PDF resource file for some good Podcast recording platforms. 42. Promoting Your Podcast: Essential Tactics for Building Your Audience: All right, promoting your podcast does matter so that people can discover it and so that the podcast can attract more listeners. Now, there are the various obvious ways of promoting your podcast, which is true social media and which we are going to talk about. But I also want to delve into a few other ways that you might not have considered or that you didn't know are also quite effective and the importance of using Here in this course, I tried to find a balance between truly highlighting and creating lessons about how to promote your podcast with the strongest results. I mean, there are many other things you can do, but marketing and promoting are a subject that would require a whole in depth course on its own. Therefore, I wanted to share in these next few lessons the real meat. Just a few, but what I found to be the most effective ways to promote your podcast. I mean, like I said, in the end, there are a whole bunch of other things you could do, but that will be the remaining 20% that might require a lot more time and where you want to hire or work with a full time or part time marketer at some point. So in the next few lessons, we are going to focus on the 20% that makes up the 80% ineffectiveness and results of promoting your podcasts. All right, let's dig into it. 43. Continue Creating Episodes: Start with a very simple sounding way to promote your podcast. But honestly, this is also something that you should not underestimate. I mean, one of the best ways to promote your podcast is simply by continuing to create new episodes. Now, here is one very important thing to know because sure you could create hundreds of episodes, and some people still might not get as many listeners as they wished, even though continuing to create episodes is a great way to promote your podcast. One key element when creating new episodes is that the episodes should continue to become better and better. The best SEO is good content. But the word good is important to underscore here. Therefore, if you can continue to create new podcast episodes that are constantly improving in terms of your guests, your questions, your own podcasting skills, editing, video, audio, and so on. It's all a game of patience, and slowly, but steadily, taking another step further or higher each time as your listeners increase in number. Certainly been true for me by doing exactly as I just said, I continued to improve myself and my two podcasts over time. If you do that, you can work with marketers and other people to promote your episodes. And if you have all the money in the world or at some point, when you have some extra money saved, you should do this. But in some ways, there is nothing as effective as truly creating good content. Why? Because if your content is truly good, people will talk about your pod guest. People will share it on their social media, send it directly to a friend or mention it in person to someone. From the moments people start doing that, you've already got something good going on. If you have bads or at the very least, mediocre episodes, which can mean different things, depending on the kind of pod guest you have, such as being not truly funny, having no real interesting topics or interesting guests, et cetera. You can throw as much money at it as you can to promote those episodes. But you will never get the same effect you will as where you have episodes. This is in many ways, still my main focus in promoting my two pod guests. I simply tried to continue creating better and better episodes each time and putting them out there. And it has had the result over the years of people starting to promote them for me in a way. If there's one thing you end up doing, then let it be this one, although I still highly recommend other ways to promote your pod guest that we will dig into next. 44. Promote Episodes Within Other Episodes: All right, so I am a huge fan of doing things that can stand on their own two legs, such as what I like to talk about here in this lesson, promoting episodes in other episodes. Now, let me explain what I mean by showing you an example from an interview I did with doctor Martin Inder Bitson, a pancreatic cancer survivor and a neuroscientist on the IPS spot guest. Is this now an investment in my illness or into my wellness, you know, because you're like getting the pressure from outside, and it just shows like how quickly we are influenced. Yeah, you're right with the alcohol part. It's super interesting. Cigarettes is definitely very clearly shown, like, you will get you can get cancer from it and the horrifying things that or can happen, which are all true, so it's really good, that's been shown. But with alcohol, it's not shown at all, the horrific things that can happen also with alcohol. And I actually did here on the podcast an episode about alcohol. With this naked Mind, it's a book. And it's very, very famous book actually for people to stop drinking. And I talked with Scott Pinard, who is one of the coaches there. Now, let us break it down. There are two important things to take note of when doing this type of promotion. First of all, it's essential that this promotion comes organically. Secondly, it's essential that what you mentioned in your promotion is actually something that has to do with the topic being discussed, and therefore, it truly brings value to your listeners. Notice might sound obvious, although I think it's still important to point this out. In a clip, I just showed we were talking about alcohol and the effects it has on the brain and body. Since that interview was not specifically about alcohol. I found it a fitting moment to recommend to listeners that if they are interested to learn more about the effects of alcohol on the brain and body, they can go to another interview I did on the IPS pot guest, Scott Pinard, head coach of this naked Mind, and that the episode was all about the topic of alcohol. Important is that you also mentioned to listeners where they can find that episode. For example, I mentioned that they can find the link in the show notes. Another thing you could do is to add more information in your outro. Once the interview is over, you can wrap up the show by suggesting some other interviews or episodes you did that are relevant to the current topic. Now, I would not recommend doing that in the intro, because in a way, you would then be leading people away from the episode that they are about to listen to. One more thing that I can certainly suggest you do as well is to include information in the show notes that listeners may be interested in checking out. Msioning a certain episode in another episode on your podcast is also a strategy I apply on the podcast of the Hard warrior project. And I can tell you that this can be a very effective way to further promote other episodes you have done. The real beauty of it all is that one, you're actually adding value to the episode and for your listeners. And two, as I talked about in the beginning, this is something that can stand on its own two legs. Once you suggest another episode during your interviews, and you link some up in these show notes. This takes on its own life and it can continue to work for you forever. And now, if you are wondering, you don't need a ton of episodes to start doing this. Now, it may depend on your podcast and the topic you have, but with the podcast of the Hart Warrier project, I started doing this the second episode. I mean, if there is a good moment to do it, then take it. Cross promoting your episodes in other episodes you do is something that, if done well, can lead to tremendous results in the long run. That is as long as you follow the two simple rules, make it organic and make sure it adds value for your listeners. It's easy enough to apply, so do not miss out on using this method to promote your individual episodes and your pod guest in general. 45. Promoting Your Podcast on Social Media: Effective Strategies for Growth: Sharing your new podcast episode or that of your business on your social media pages. Well, it's an obvious thing to do. And I'm sure among all the other lessons here on promoting your podcast, this one you already knew about. What I would like to share here in this lesson is a few key pieces of advice that have drastically improved the number of people taking the time to stop and read what I just shared, as well as click onwards, once I started implementing them and taking them seriously. Let's go through them. When creating the show notes of your podcast, it's, of course, important to have a clear and concise headline. Or if you don't do show notes, do the same for the title of the Pod guest episode that you will share on social media. But along with that, you should also aim to create a title that grabs people's attention and spark their curiosity. Now, creating a good headline may sound simple, and indeed, we, sometimes it is. However, there is a true to creating good headlines. The good thing is that there are some basic rules that you can follow to help you create a headline that will ignite that spark of interest and curiosity for people to check you out further on social media. Let's go over them. One, Use action words. Incorporate action verbs that create a sense of urgency or excitement. Action words can help make your headline more engaging. For example, use words like discover, explore, uncover, master, or reveal. To create curiosity, make listeners curious about the content by using intriguing or mysterious wording. This can encourage them to click and listen. For instance, how it feels to get shocked by an ICD, or what happens when you dive into the unknown. Three include numbers or lists. People are often drawn to headlines that promise a specific number of tips, strategies or benefits. For instance, ten essential travel hacks for budget friendly adventures, or learn how to talk to anyone. Even if you feel shy and insecure, ten tips and pieces of advice. Four, mention guest names or influencers. If you have a well known guest on your podcast episode, include their name in the headline. This can attract their followers and fans to your podcast. For example, how to rewire your brain to be happy, doctor Rick Hanson PHD, the signs of happiness. These are four basic rules that if you follow them, will help you create good titles for your podcast episodes or your show notes to increase the chances of people actually clicking on it on social media. Now, what could also be interesting to think about in writing your titles is the use of pain. And I know. Let me explain. Are much more motivated to find a solution quickly based on pain than based on something they feel okay about. For example, instead of saying, drink this so you can recover faster and feel better, you might say the easy way to feel less ****** after a tough workout. You are reminding them of the pain and selling them the solution. Now, this can indeed also be used your titles. Example, I changed the following title, the key to great relationships with psychologist doctor Abby Matcalf, to unlocking the cure to relationship struggles with psychologist doctor Abby Matcalf, which did see a significant increase of listeners. Or instead of saying how to feel good, you might say how to stop dark dots from consuming you. It's just a concept worth exploring, but one that does truly work well as people don't want to feel pain. Any kind of pain. If you can offer them a solution to that with an episode you did, craft your title to point it out. Now, one important note, don't write a headline just to get clicks. I mean, it's just not a nice thing to do, and in fact, often has the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve. I mean, sure you might get more clicks that way, but your listeners will bounce when they realize the headline has nothing to do with your actual episodes, and if you keep on doing this, you will lose listeners. Including eye catching visual elements, such as images with text or a video clip of your episode, can make your post of your podcast episode stand out in a crowded news set and increase the likelihood of people clicking on it. Now, let me break down a few thumbnails of episodes and videos of mine on the IPS project and provide a couple of general tips. In general, including people in your thumb nail has shown to work best. We are naturally drawn to look at people. Here as well, you are instantly more drawn to look a bit longer at the thumbnail because there is a person in it. Sure, he might be a quadriplegic, but still, if I show another thumbnail from another video of the IPS project with people in it, it does the same. If you take a moment to look, you connect and with that, you're drawn to the thumbnail. What's more marketing statistics show that dumb nails showing emotion get more clicks than those without. Meaning if the person or the people E or dump nail exhibits emotions such as happiness, love, anger, lust, confidence, et cetera. As you can see from this dump nail, which got a lot of clicks. It's not only the people, but also the emotion that they are showing that draws someone to look at the dump nail and click on it.'s because emotions tell a story too. In fact, they can tell a much stronger story at times than merely text alone, as it evokes a similar kind of reaction in us that we want or are looking to understand better. Also, adding a short text in your thumb nail can work very well to draw in more people. Here as well, you can simply apply rules mentioned earlier in creating a good headline. Here you can add things that you were not able to place in title, for example. Note that it is best to keep the text here short, or else things might become too chaotic. People should see at a glance what the episode or video is about. And besides being informative, you also need to draw their curiosity, so people will actually be interested to click on it. Mentioned earlier, there is a true art to creating good titles. It's best if you either work with someone who can do this for your episodes and videos or you take time, like I do, to write out a bunch of titles and text to place in the Tump nail. And finally, a last tip here as well, it is important that you shouldn't lie with your Tump nail simply to gain more clicks, the same as with the title for your episode or video. Try to incorporate as many things as you can from what I just mentioned, but don't force anything to the extent that you end up just deceiving people. No one likes that. And honestly, you don't have to do that. You can be honest and true regarding what the episode or video is about, and still end up with a thumb nail that gets plenty of clicks. Yes, it can take some time and effort to create a good thumb nail. If you incorporate everything that I just mentioned, you can practice and get better at it. The better you get at it, the more natural it will be for you to create these thumb nails and know what works best. While this takes some effort on your part, it doesn't take that much per se. Each social media platform has its own culture and audience members who mainly watch content there. What work for you on one platform might totally not work on another one. Therefore, try to do your best to understand the culture of that particular platform and become a local by also using it. For instance, if you've been successful on a platform like Instagram, where visually appealing images and short videos are popular. Transitioning to a platform like Twitter might require a different approach. On Twitter, concise and witty text based content often performs well, along with the use of trending hash text to tap into ongoing conversations. Tailoring your post to your target audience by using language and messaging that resonates with them can make your post more appealing and increase the likelihood of clicks. Reply and engage when someone leaves a comment. Even if it is one person, it is still a person. Once other people see that you engage, they are also more likely to leave a comment. Now, obviously, at some point, it doesn't become manageable anymore if you get hundreds or thousands of messages on a post. But in the beginning, you likely won't. Also, because it can be time consuming and energy demanding. It could be good to block off a specific time every week to focus on replying back to as many messages as you can. Personally, for me, this has made responding to messages feel much more enjoyable instead of doing so on and off throughout the day. It takes my focus away from other tasks that I want to do that day. Now, how to respond is, of course, for you to decide. However, it would be a good idea to try to reply now and then with an appropriate open ended question to encourage discussion. It can only help to further increase the reach of your post. While you might already know about these tips or at least heard about them, the real question to ask yourself is, do you use them? Yes, there are many more things you could do to perfect the art of creating highly engaging content on social media. However, I would say applying just these five tips will already get you somewhere. Now, of course, if social media isn't really your interest, which I can totally understand. Would say that once you have the financial capacity, you should hire a social media manager. There are some great freelancer platforms out there where you can find countless profiles of people who also likely work within the range of your budget. Just because you hire a freelancer doesn't mean that they have to work on this every hour of every day. No, you can make some agreement with them that they, for example, manage and schedule new social media content for you for 5 hours on a specific day. Take a look at the PDF resource file, as I will place a couple of great freelance platforms there. And I will also write a few additional pieces of advice and tips on hiring a freelancer there. Now, if you don't have the money at all to hire staff, I would say try out a few social media platforms and pick two that you enjoy using the most. This way, you will be much more committed to continue using them and promoting content on them. 46. Engaging with Communities and Groups: Let's talk about online communities and groups. Now, in a way, this ties in with the lesson we just had on social media, as many of these communities and groups are on a social media platform. Although not all, either way, I wanted to make a separate lesson as it does deserve. Now, likely one of the most effective but also the most difficult ways to promote your podcast that I found and felt from my own experience is by sharing it with an online community or a group. The reason why it is so effective is that you're sending your podcast episode to a community or group of active members who are there to interact and engage with others or anything that is being shared. Now, the difficult part is that if this is done incorrectly, you might end up being banned from that community or group, or people will just throw a lot of hate at you. Now, the reason why these things can happen is that a lot of times some people just join a community or group just to post an episode or anything else, and then leave. They never actually become an active member of that group. Maybe it doesn't sound like such a big deal to you. But imagine this. You're sitting in a circle with friends in real life, chatting about a topic you care about, when suddenly someone opens the door, someone you've never seen before, and shouts at everyone to come watch his or her show, and then leaves the room. Way, that's the same situation all line. People don't appreciate it if some random stranger merely drops a link and leaves because it shows that that person doesn't respect or care about the community or the group and the members in it. Yes, your podcast episode might be the best episode they might ever listen to in their life. But if you don't at least try to become a part of the community or group or at least show that you respect these communities and groups, no one will care about what you shared, and almost no one will check it out. Likely, it might simply get removed. Therefore, the best thing to do, if you want to explore this potential way of promoting your episodes is to join an online community or group that you care about first and foremost, and that that is the main reason why you're joining. I use this way of promoting episodes quite a lot, actually for the podcast of the Hard warrior project. I'm part of a couple of online support groups for cardiac arrest survivors. Again, I joined that group, first of all, because I care about the topic. I mean, I'm directly affected by it. I hadn't even created my podcast yet when I became a member of those support groups. If your podcast is about a specific topic that you care about, search for online groups or communities, join them and participate in conversations. Be a part of it. Note that this doesn't mean you have to be online every minute of the day and that you have to comment on everything that is being shared. Of course not. Unless you really want to, of course, but simply be somewhat active now and then. Once you have an episode, try sharing it and see how it is being received. If a lot of people mention rather mean comments or disapproving ones, well, they most likely don't appreciate it. Now, this could have something to do with how you post it. Don't just post and go. Write what the episode is about and why you are sharing it. Write why you think it can be helpful for the members of the community or group. If you do that, you share something that you generally think can be an added value to everyone. People will likely appreciate it. Whenever I share an episode from the podcast of the Hard warrior project, I get tons and tons of thank you messages from people, as I put a lot of effort into making each episode good and helpful. Now, for the IPA spot guest, I feel it's slightly more difficult to do since there isn't one primary topic. I mean, I cover various different topics around life education, such as mental health, the body and brain, the mind, relationships and money. Now, there are, of course, groups, such as self improvement and personal growth groups where I do it. I'm supposed an episode. It seems like people are snappier there than in communities or groups where people are there, you know, because they're affected by a specific topic or really passionate about it. And I'm talking about things like cosplay climbing collectors of something specific, or some disease, et cetera. People are there because they love that particular topic, or they are directly affected by that topic in their life. Or people are interested in a topic in another way, such as with cardiac arrest, cancer, or some other disease where it actually turns people's life totally upside down. People who are a part of such a group or community that focuses on a specific topic, seem to care more about it and thus seem friendlier to each other because everyone is there to their interest in that one specific topic. Still, for the IPS podcast, this way of promoting episodes has resulted in many more listeners. It isn't limited to podcasts that are about one specific topic. All right, where do you find such groups and communities? I think most people think at first of Facebook. And that is certainly a great place to start. I mean, there are so many groups there for almost anything. However, there are many more places to find an O line community and group, such as Rede, Cora, Discord, and Forms, for example. Now, in the PDF resource file, I will mention a few more to check out as they are bound to change throughout time, and I can keep them up to date in resource file. Take a look at each one of these platforms. Search for a couple of groups and communities that have the same topic as that of your podcast and sign up to be a part of them. I would say, invest in two to a maximum of three communities and groups on one to two platforms that you like the most. And see if this is something you care about doing. If yes, great. I mean, you just found an incredible way to not only promote episodes. But what's more you found a community and group to be a part of. If not, well, continue to watch through the aer lessons as there are many other ways to promote your episodes. 47. Promote Your Episode Through Your Guest: No a way to promote your podcast depends on the kind of podcast you do. If it's podcast that you do solely on your own or with another friend, there isn't really so much you can do. You can promote your episodes and your friend can promote them as well. However, if you have guests, like I do with both my podcasts, you should tell your guest that their podcast episode is life and make it super easy for them to share this episode with their audience. I always do this by providing them with a link to the show notes of the episode, the YouTube link and A Spotify link to the episode where they appeared as my guest. Also, when you promote their interview further on social media platforms, always tack your guest, so they too can see it and easily share it on their social media. Whenever I do this, it has led almost all my guests to link the episodes with their interview on their own websites and their social media platforms. This means that not only does their interview get a whole range of extra listeners and views, but the podcast in general does. If you do not have an audience yet, having guests on your show is a much easier way to build an audience or further build it out, especially once you have some guests with a very big audience, it can dramatically impact your audience size. This is a very easy way if you have guests on your show to promote not just a specific episode, but your pod guest in general. Once again, make it easy for your guests to find their episodes on all the different platforms it is on by sharing all the links with them. 48. How to Use Word of Mouth to Promote Your Podcast: Now, this might sound like such a simple way to promote your podcast. But honestly, it can be overlooked. Don't forget to simply promote your podcast, you know, by talking about it to people. In fact, I personally started doing this not too long ago for myself and with more intention. Now, it was actually my girlfriend who pointed out that I don't talk much about my podcast when people ask me what I do or that I don't dive much deeper into what my podcasts are about. Ly because I always feel I don't really want to bother people with it. Or because sometimes I do find it quite hard to openly share what I do as it has been created from quite a vulnerable place. She, on the other hand, and likely because she's somehow more detached from these projects than I am, talks to others way more often than I do about the IPS pod guest and the pod guest of the art warrior project, and what they are about. Still, my girlfriend has a good point. When I hear her talk about the pod guests, I find that most people are rather interested and curious to check them out. There are many ways to go about spreading the words about your projects. And that's what I actually discovered once I started doing this more intentionally. You can promote and talk about your podcast in multiple ways. You can give a short pitch each time explaining the podcast to people who ask about what you do, which can be your style, or maybe it isn't like actually found a much better way to talk about my podcast, one that feels more natural to me. When I'm in a conversation with someone and we're talking about, let's say, the topic of positive psychology. I might let drop if it makes sense and is rather an added value, that I had actually done an interview with a leading expert in positive neuropsychology, and that I learned X Y and Z about that topic. Again, all of this is, of course, if it is somewhere relevant to mention. Personally, I feel this has been much more effective and in line with who I am. I like giving value. And I'm not such a good marketer to be honest. Now, you could also take it a level higher and mention your podcast in a public speech or through some other means. For example, while I mainly use my two podcasts as examples to teach you things in this course, it might also possibly lead some people to check out my podcasts, which would be an added bonus. Truly, don't underestimate as I did the power of simply talking about your pod guest. If done with the right intention, you might just gain a new listener or two or more for your pod guest. 49. The Benefits of Guesting on Other Podcasts: Another very effective way to promote your podcast is to be a guest on another podcast that's in the same field of your own podcast. Now, it doesn't make much sense to do this right at the beginning where you have no episodes yet or very few of them like five or ten. Build up this podcast of yours first. Gain experience in the field, develop this project, this podcast that you're doing. And once it takes form and there is a list of podcast episodes to listen to, then this can be a great way to promote your podcast. Of course, you don't have to wait until you're famous or very well known for people to reach out to you. This podcasting is such a slow build. It might take years for that to ever happen. Therefore, don't wait for that to happen. Search for pod guests in your field that are looking for guests. For example, if your podcast is about financial freedom, search on the Internet using the keywords, podcast on financial freedom, looking for guests. Of course, you could also look for pod guests in your field and still reach out to them, even if they don't explicitly mention that they are looking for guests. Collect as many of those pod guests as you can find where you are interested to be a guest, and send them a message about who you are, what you do, why you'd like to appear on their pod guest, and what you can bring to it. This is in reality how a lot of people become guests on pod guests, especially when they're just starting out. I've actually done that, too. You could also offer in your message some sort of exchange of you being a guest on their show and they on yours. It does truly help to gain exposure and possibly new followers for your own show. Also, if they have show notes on their website, it will provide backlinks, which is always good for the ranking of your website. What's more, it's also very cool to meet fellow podcasters and to immerse yourself even more in this world. If you care about podcasting, it's really fun to also talk about this topic of podcasting and giving each other some tips and learn from each other. And last but not least, in addition to promoting your own show and meeting more people in the podcasting world, it's also an interesting experience, even just for once to be in the shoes of the one being interviewed. It can help you to become an even better interviewer, and you can experience how specific questions might feel to be asked or how it feels when the person interviewing you reacts to something you said. It can truly help you see the importance of what things you should do and what things you should not do when you interview people. It's a really good learning experience on top of everything else. So give this idea a shot at some point. 50. Earning Money with Your Podcast: Right? We have arrived at a part that I think many might be very curious to learn more about. And that is earning money with your pod guest. Now, here it is, once again, important for me to underscore that pod guests are a long term game. Very rarely, will you immediately earn money with them? If you skipped all the other lessons and only bought this course for this section, then I believe you're missing the point of pod guest. What is more, if money is your only driving force to start a pod guest. You will end up feeling very disappointed by the amount of work, efforts and patients that are involved in creating a successful pod guest, which means that ultimately, you will not succeed. If, however, you have followed each lesson or at least most of them and really want to start your pod guest or maybe you already started. Because you are genuinely curious and interested in this, you'll be on a much better path to eventually generating some income with it. Especially if you, as I already mentioned in other lessons create your podcast on a topic that you find fun and fascinating? Then the chances that you will put in the work and have enough patients are just far greater. So what you will learn in the next coming lessons isn't only about the more obvious ways to earn money. I would also like to spend a few lessons covering what else your podcast can give you. And by that, I don't mean just money, but something entirely different that many people might miss or forget about when they're just starting out. So why don't we get started with the first lesson. 51. Opportunities to Work with Others: Okay, so the first way you can earn money with your podcast might be a way you haven't even considered. And that's actually the fact that doing this podcast gives you the opportunity to work with the guest you've had on your show. Now, of course, this might not apply to everyone, and the way you do this might be different for you than it is for me. But let me give you an example. In the case of the IPS project, this podcast has led me to the opportunities to work directly with guests by creating online courses with them for the learning academy we have on the IPS project. The podcast has been the bridge that has allowed me to connect with potential people who are interested in writing an article, doing an event together, or creating a course with me. And this has happened multiple times, and I am working on making this happen much more. Depending on the type of pod gest you decide to create, you will have different opportunities to work directly with your guests. Maybe you have a podcast about food. So you talk with other chefs cooks or people who can cook amazingly. You could occasionally hold workshops together with them for people to learn how to cook better or to showcase new recipes. For this workshop, you have an asking price and earn money indirectly from your podcast. Or you may have a pod guest where you talk about video games with your guests. You could organize a land party and play a specific video game together with other people. For this event, you can also ask for an entry fee and sell any merge you might have, so you can also earn money indirectly with your pod guest. There are so many things that you could do. So see for yourself what the possibilities are to work with your guests, and I can guarantee that there will be something. Even if you don't know right away what kind of opportunities your pod guest has to earn, more and more ideas will pop up as time goes on. And since you've already made those connections with your guests, it is also so much easier for you to bring up any suggestions with them. Now, let me share a few extra tips and advice if you feel this might be something that could apply to your pod guest. Since my aim with the IPS project is to create many more high quality online courses on life education, such as about mental health, the mind, relationships, and the body and brain. I also look not only for guests that I'm generally interested in to have on the show, but I also find out if they might be interested to continue doing something else with me, such as creating an online course in the future. Of course, it's hard to know what they want to do in the future. But what I do in my case is to look for people who also have an online presence. Likely, they would want to establish that presence even more. And doing this course together is one way to ensure continued presence. Now, for yourself, you have to start taking notice of what works best. If your podcast is one where you chat with other chefs cooks or people who cook amazingly, and you intend to do workshops together with them eventually. Might help to send this opportunity to guests who live in the same country or area that you live in. If that proves effective, try choosing more guests who live closer to you. Selecting the right profile, not only in terms of an interesting guest, but also one who might possibly lead to further collaboration, it's something that you learn through time, experimentation, and experience. I highly recommend that after the release of each episode podcast, you continue to stay in touch with your guests. This is something that can be easily done by simply connecting with them on social media and liking or commenting now and then on something they shared that you find interesting. Or you can invite them to your show again after X amount of time like a year or more. Have invited certain guests multiple times to my pod guests, mainly because I found them incredible, and I was very excited to speak with them again and ask more questions. But in doing so, I also continued to stay in touch with them and build that relationship even further. If at some point I have some event or an online course that I love to do with them, it's much more likely that they might consider my suggestion, as the relationship between us has become much more prominent than if I'd never commented, liked or talked to them years, and then suddenly approached them with some opportunity to work together. If there is genuine connection between you two that has been built over time, people will be more likely to make time for you. 52. Earning Money Through Podcast Products and Services: Let's talk about another way to earn money from your pod gist, and that's true advertising your own product or service. Now, finding a sponsor and promoting someone else product or service is much easier to do than promoting your own product or service. Why? Well, simply because the product or service is already there. You just have to promote it, and that's it. You don't have to create anything. You don't have to deal with customer service, et cetera. If you want to promote your own product or service, there has to be something there first, and creating that something Well, that can take a considerable amount of time. Now, whether you should promote someone else product or service through sponsors or take time to create something yourself and then promote your own, that's honestly something you have to decide. Luckily, you can experiment with this, right? You can always promote a product or service from some sponsor to begin with, and then start promoting your own product or service down the line or vice versa. Knowing what works best is often about experimenting, not only finding out what you like, but also what your listeners like the most. Now, if you want to create your own product or service, and you're wondering what you could offer, but are still in exploratory phase of what it could be. Here are some general suggestions of possible products or service categories to choose from that you can then customize to suit your podcast and determine if it will be relevant to your audience. Terms of products, you could choose from the following, a book, which could match the genre of your podcast, such as a cookbook, a cell book, a fiction book, et cetera. Merchandise, such as T shirts, hoodies, and so on. Digital products, such as online courses, software, a PDF file with hundreds of summaries of books on relevant topics, for example, a music album, digital art, light room presets, et cetera. Any sort of art that you might create be that music, paintings, handicrafts, you name it. There are some ideas on services, consulting or coaching, which can be on any subject, events and workshops, whether online or in person, an online freelance service you might be qualified to offer, such as proof reading, web development, video editing, et cetera. Any in person service you may offer, such as photography shoots, speaking gigs, training, you might give on a specific topic, et cetera. Any tours you might offer, such as a speaking tour, a music tour, a comedy tour, et cetera These are some suggestions of the most common categories. If you take some time to think about this, you will come to discover that with whatever topic your podcast is about, you can always create some product or service that can serve your audience. In the end, why would it be a good idea to choose to promote your own product or service instead of a product or service from a sponsor? Well, here are some of the reasons why. Direct revenue When you promote your own product or service, you retain all or most of the revenue generated from sales. Working with a sponsor always involves sharing a big portion of the revenue with the sponsor. In the end, it all depends, of course, on what will sell the most, but potentially promoting your own product or service allows you to maximize your profit. Authenticity and connection. How much cooler is it if you can buy a product from your favorite podcast host that they made with a lot of passion and intention to provide the most value to you, instead of some sponsored product that the podcaster merely promotes. The same goes for any service they might provide. I personally think it's a lot more meaningful and authentic. At the same time, it builds an even deeper relationship with your audience as they buy something that is from you, not from someone else. Control. No matter what you do, you never have full control over everything. However, if you work with a sponsor that is earning you revenue, they can suddenly decide to cut you off the sponsorship program or to make some change in the revenue agreement or contract, which in turn can take a drastic toll on your overall revenue. If instead you're the one providing the product or service, you have a lot more control over the promotional process, and that ensures that your revenue stream won't just suddenly be cut off. Personal fulfillment. This is a bonus, but surely it is one that should be considered. Successfully promoting and selling your own product can personally be very fulfilling and a source of great pride. How much more amazing would it be if you sold x amount of your product or service instead of a product or service from a sponsor. I can tell you myself, it is a lot more fulfilling. If on top of that, you also receive e mails and messages from people telling you how much they have been helped by your podcast or how much they like your product or service, then it truly is one of the best feelings in the world. Again, in the end, the choice between promoting a product or service from a sponsor or something that you made yourself is one that you really need to ponder with time and experimentation. As for myself, I decided to go with promoting my own product and service. Might this change in the future. I mean, who knows, right? But that is the great thing in the end. You can experiment. You can try both options and see which feels best and most meaningful to you and which option makes the most sense for your pod guest. 53. How to Implement a Subscription Model for Your Podcast: Are certain podcasts that offer a subscription model where members can gain access to exclusive perks for a monthly fee. Now, this is actually a great model in general, as it allows true fans to support you while also gaining a range of exclusive benefits. Now, note that the journey towards implementing this model can take time. I mean, you first have to have some exclusive content that is truly worth paying good money for. Now, overall, the key is to offer members something of value that they can't get anywhere else, while also creating a sense of exclusivity and community Achieving this, it does require some thoughtful planning. Now, let's take a moment to look at the possible options that you could offer to your audience as members only benefits. While I'm going through the list, take time to actively think about and write down ideas how you could make this work for your podcast or a podcast you're planning to create. That is, if this is an avenue you might be interested in. Okay. Let's take a look at the most common types of perks you could offer for your members. You could give members access to exclusive episodes or content that is not available to non members. Can include, for example, bonus episodes you did with your guests or by yourself. You can show extended interviews, such as the unedited one or behind the scenes clips of when you are preparing for an interview, for example. You can offer content that is either entertaining to watch educational or boats, and this can be in the form of locks, for example. There is a lot that you could do here. Knowing what works comes down to understanding your audience and what they like. If your podcast is more scientifically oriented, you could also offer exclusive transcripts, research summaries or even an exclusive podcast for members only. You could also offer members early access to new episodes or content before it is released to the general public. However, note that offering this alone will not make people subscribe. For most to almost everyone, early access isn't much of an incredible feature. Instead, if you do live or all line events, which we will talk about soon, you could give your members early access to buy a ticket with a discount. You could also offer your members the chance to participate in Q&A sessions with you or a specific guest. This can be truly a very fun and great exclusive benefit to offer your members. If you get tons of questions from members on your social media page or true e mail, this could be a good indicator that people are curious to hear your opinion on certain things. Therefore, doing Q&A sessions can be a great members only perk. If you could also do this kind of Q&A session life, you'd have a truly awesome way to provide value to your members and create interaction and engagement with that community. As an added perk, consider extending exclusive discounts to members for podcast related merchandise or other associated products. It's worth noting, however, that while discounts can be a valuable addition to your membership benefits, relying solely on this may not be the sole drive for people to become a member or to remain one. It's essential to complement this offering with a well rounded set of other benefits listed here to ensure a more compelling and enticing membership package. Let's say you have a pod guest about coffee. You can partner with a coffee ros try to make an exclusive coffee for a specific season, that could be an awesome exclusive product that only your members can buy. Or maybe you are an artist with a pod guest, so you create a beautiful New Year calendar that only members can buy. Or you could offer a service for members only, such as some kind of group coaching session or mental health that only members can sign up for. Is a lot that you could do here. Just make sure that whatever exclusive products or service you decide to offer, it wouldn't be something lame. You know, Make it good. Make it worthwhile for people to become a member and remain one. You could give your members discounted access to live or online events or workshops with the podcast hosts, which, you know, will likely be you or your guests. You could also offer these events or workshops free for members only. You may have a podcast about mental health, and you organize events with guest speakers who are mental health professionals where your subscribers can get discounted prices to attend, or you may have a podcast about movie. So you organize virtual movie nights for members only where they can watch film together and discuss it afterwards. Again, there is an endless number of things you could do here that could be a great added perk for members. Now, there are other things that you could do, but these are some of the best, and therefore, also the most common members only perks you will find in a Pod guest subscription. Now, how should you offer these benefits? And how would you set this all up to allow members to subscribe to your Pod guest? You could of course, integrate all these on your website. Now if you don't have a website yet and you want to create members only content, then it might be a good idea to go for a website builder that allows you to do this quite easily. In the PDF resource file, I will link a couple of website builders. Now, you can also work, of course with a web developer to help you out on this. The easiest option could actually be to use an external platform. Again, in the PDF resource file, I will add the best options for this. These platforms are truly helpful as they are easy to use and designed as a good space for you to provide all your members only content. They also allow an easy and seamless way for people to subscribe. Now, whatever perks you decide to offer your members in the end, remember one thing clearly, if you want this to succeed, aim to create member benefits that hold true value and that are honestly awesome perks that people will want to pay money for. Creating a membership with worthwhile benefits is something that takes time, as I already mentioned. Most often, pod guests don't start with some subscription to offer, but they eventually built towards this once they know who their audience is and have a sense of what they want. And of course, this can only happen once there is some trust between you and your audience, which is something that you build through consistency, transparency, and delivering on promises. Now, once you have some awesome perks to offer for members O, a subscription can truly be a great way to create that exclusivity and community with your audience, which can also help pay your bills and ensure the continuity of your podcast. 54. Strategies for Promoting on Other Platforms: On the lookout for any other platforms where you can upload your podcast episodes, clips from the episodes, articles or any other sort of content you can create out of your episodes. Possibly, any time you might come to earn some money on the other platform. Furthermore, this approach can significantly expand the reach of your podcast, increase the likelihood of earning revenue through avenues, like sponsorships or the promotion of your own products or services. Now, what I mainly want to share with you in this lesson is a way of thinking about other platforms and how to use them. Something that will become clearer by the end of this lesson. Alright, let's delve into a few of these platforms now to inspire you with some ideas and explore the potential of the content you can add on these other platforms that will not only enhance your podcast, but also open doors to additional income streams. So I know that YouTube was certainly on your mind when thinking about other platforms. And well, yes, indeed, some podcasts earn their main income through YouTube or at least earn a substantial part of their income from it. Now, obviously, and this is important to know, it takes a lot of time before you will earn something directly from YouTube. It takes a lot of work before you can be accepted into the YouTube Partner program and earn on the ads that they provide. And it certainly takes a long time before that amount of money gets big enough to cover your rent. It's a slow journey. Yet that doesn't mean that it's not a potentially worthwhile one to take. What will certainly benefit you directly is that others can discover your podcast on another platform if you post the content of your podcast on YouTube. And in the long term, you might have the benefit of earning something from YouTube. Now, do note that the best way for your podcast to earn money is to incorporate more than just one way, you know, So everything that we've learned in the past lessons add a few of those things into your podcast. And that is truly the best way to earn something from your podcast. Add your podcast episodes on YouTube, but also link in D description any product or service that you want to promote or any sponsor that you're working with. Your own product or service or that of a sponsor can earn you money without having to first chalk up thousands of views and subscribers. So in that sense, you don't have to wait until you are in the YouTube Partner program to earn something from it. Now, you can take a much shorter route from earning from your podcast if you can add another source that you can earn money with, such as sponsors or the product or service that you yourself offer. Another suggestion to explore would be a blogging platform, such as medium, where you can, for example, write an article about a guest that you interviewed with the lessons that you learned from that person. Medium is another great way to also reach a new audience. Plus, as well, on medium, you can also in time opt into their partner program, just like YouTube, where you can earn money when people read your articles. Now, here as well, you don't actually have to wait for thousands of readers to catch on to your articles before earning something. You can also insert in your article at the bottom, for example, any product or service you offer or any sponsor you work with. I personally know a few people who are earning their income from writing full time on medium. So yes, it is a worthwhile avenue to explore if you love writing. One half hour, hour long or even longer interview, there can be so many discussion points or topics from which you could create several articles. Of course, you could also write an article based on multiple episodes of your podcast. There are so many possibilities worth exploring. Okay. Here is one last platform, even though that there are many more. This year, by the way, is what I meant when I said at the beginning that it will become clearer to you, what I want to teach you in this lesson, which is mainly a way of thinking. Another interesting kind of platform that many people might not have even thought about is a streaming platform, such as twitch. No, Twitch is certainly not just for gamers. In fact, a lot of podcasters use the platform to livestream their pod guests. So when you are recording a new episode, you could also livestream this. This in turn can earn you money through ads from Twitch, subscriber revenue or donations. Also, when you go live, you can make any announcement before during or after the interview so that anyone tuning in can learn about a sponsor you work with A product or service you offer. You can also live stream on multiple platforms, such as YouTube and which, at the same time, which can increase the number of live listeners and viewers even more. Plus, like with every other platform, such as Twitch, you expose your podcast to another audience, and you can also build a subscriber base there. That can lead to a further increase in the potential listener base of your podcast. Here is this way of thinking that I'm talking about. Say that you live stream each episode, and you've just finished recording one. You can mention during the live stream in the beginning, middle, or at the end this certain sponsor product or service you have. And that gets viewed by some people. Afterward, you or your editor can edit the episode to make it more polished, and you add an intro and an outt, maybe some music, if you like, and you also add a sponsor you promote or product or service you offer. You place it on various podcast platforms, on YouTube, et cetera. And then later you create a couple of clips out of that interview. And again, place them on YouTube or any other platform where you can refer to the sponsor you work with or the product or service you have in the description. And lastly, you write a few articles out of that episode, and you place that on medium. Again, you also insert either the sponsor you work with or the product or service you offer in that article. This is how you should think about using other platforms. How can they serve you to earn money and to further reach more listeners? And in which order would it make sense? Doing a stream while recording the episode takes a little bit more work. But, you know, then again, not too much, right, because you have to do the recording either way. You simply choose to do it with other listeners joining in during the recording instead of just between you and your guests. Only have to be comfortable with knowing that other people can be listening while you might make some mistakes. But at the same time, i polished and edited version that you will post Oline, you can cut any of those mistakes out. Therefore, live streaming your pod guest could be a great idea once you have some more experience. Of course, your guest too has to be okay with this. Most likely not every guest will be. But for some, if you tell them that the final episode will be edited and polished, and any mistakes or parts they don't want to include in the interview will be taken out, they won't make a fuss about it. Again, this lesson isn't about discovering all these other platforms, but rather exposing you to this way of seeing and thinking about other platforms and how they can be used to further your objectives. Find possibilities in other platforms, and of course, be on the lookout for more platforms that you can incorporate in a meaningful way into your pod guests. Select one to two of these other platforms, and you can do more, of course, if you can manage them all, and if you like using and interacting on the chosen platforms. This way, not only will your pod guest audience grow, but so will your income. 55. Why Money Isn’t the Only Reward: The Other Advantages of Podcasting: Would like to end this session on money with one final thing. Look, of course, it will be awesome if all of us made an incredible living from our podcast. And even more so that this would happen in the first year we started it. And I generally wish you and anyone with their podcast just that. But the amount of time dedication and hard work it requires often goes unrecognized. And most people will actually spend more money on their podcast than earn from it. Now, don't forget, however, that money isn't the only thing of value that your podcast can bring to your life. Even if you don't earn anything for the first few years Even if you never earn anything at all, that doesn't mean that your investment of time and your efforts working on this pot gest of yours have all been for nothing. A good investment isn't always about money. A good investment is something that enriches your life, and this can take the form of more than just money. It may come in the shape of personal growth or a sense of fulfillment. For me, if I never started the IPS pod guest, I would have also never had the chance to meet so many incredible people and talk to experts, have deep conversations about a specific topic with them and learn so much along the way, while also sharing something with the world that may improve the lives of others. Through the IPS podcast, I've met real friends from different countries, some of whom I've now met in real life. It is honestly mind blowing to even think that all this became possible through that podcast. And the same holds true for the podcast of the Hart warrior project. Talking with fellow survivors is not only healing for the listeners, but also for me and the guests. Additionally, having the chance to talk to health professionals every now and then, such as cardiologists and getting to ask any questions I want gives me the opportunity to improve my own health and that of others, which is just amazing. And apart from all that, making these pod guests has improved a lot of my skills. For example, I learned how to ask better questions, how to steer and lead conversations, how to improve my active listening, writing and scripting skills, and so much more. And lastly, these pod guests have truly boosted my confidence, especially the IPS spot guests. As I often interview well known people on there, and well, that can be nerve racking, right? Because you don't want to screw up or freeze during those interviews. True time, I actually became very comfortable with all these And now I can handle those moments. Even if certain things go wrong, like me tripping over words or having technical issues, I managed to keep a cool head now. Do not forget what I just shared while going on this journey. Starting a podcast has truly changed my life in so many ways, and I am deeply thankful for that and for having started it. Starting your podcast, and likely, will have a similar effect on your life. If, of course, you stick with it for more than just a few episodes. And if at some point, you can start making some money with it. Well, better rights, but never forget the value beyond money that your pod guests can bring to your life.