The Secret To Long-Term Podcasting: What Sets Successful Podcasters Apart

In this episode, we kick things off with a spotlight on KidsPod, an interactive platform that lets kids draw and color while they listen. We also draw a comparison with another kids podcast app, Kids Listen, highlighting the unique features and benefits that make KidsPod stand out. But that’s not all; we also delve into Apple Podcasts' efforts to improve discoverability for niche podcasts, and SXM's shut-down of the popular podcast app, Stitcher.

Then we discuss strategies for overcoming podcasting hurdles, emphasizing the importance of playing the long game, letting passion lead, and the significance of co-hosts in podcasting in terms of the accountability and consistency they bring. And finally, we discuss a new Guinness World Record set by a podcaster and wonder what records we could break.

View the DISCUSSION THREAD on Twitter!

KIDSPOD
https://kidspod.app/

APPLE IMPROVES PODCAST DISCOVERY
https://podcasters.apple.com/5304-elevating-nine-podcast-subcategories-charts
Apple added nine subcategories to the Search tab across devices, making it easier for listeners to discover niche shows.

SXM TO SHUT DOWN STITCHER
"Stitcher Farewell FAQ"
Stitcher will no longer be available starting August 29th, 2023.

INDEPENDENT PODCASTER MANIFESTO
https://www.thepodcasthost.com/business-of-podcasting/independent-podcaster-census
IndiePod Manifesto contains 10 pillars for independent podcasting success.

PODCASTING HARDER THAN PRO FOOTBALL?
https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/travis-kelce-podcasting-hardest-job.html
Travis Kelce thinks podcasting is the hardest job in the world, according to his interview on Pardon My Take.

PODCASTS IN GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/589531-longest-interviewing-marathon
A podcaster interviewed 137 people over the course of 37 hours & 44 minutes to break the Guinness World Record for longest interviewing marathon.
Check out other podcast-related world records!

📣 SOUND-OFF QUESTION: If you were to set a new Guinness World Record for podcasting, what would it be?
To have your response featured on our next episode, leave a 30-second voice message at podinbox.com/buzzs

Transcript

Marge: 0:00

Ugh Just start.

Alban: 0:02

Just start and then work it out. Live It's better Gonna work it out.

Jordan: 0:06

Okay, here we go. There's a new app for kids podcasts and it's called KidsPod. What's really cool about this is there are some podcast apps geared towards kids, but I feel like they're a little difficult to navigate and they're not like I don't know. It's not as bright and fun as you'd expect a children's podcast app to be. Looking at this, it seems really easy to navigate, it's got bright colors to it and they're doing these fun things to get kids more into podcasts. They're working with podcasters to give more interactive elements to the podcast for kids. If you sign up for the KidsPod app, you're able to have a full podcast page that you can edit and you can actually do a draw long mode with your podcast where the kids can actually do coloring sheets or something like that while they listen to the podcast. It's really cool.

Alban: 1:05

The kids will listen to a podcast and at the same time it's pulling up a coloring book and they're drawing with their fingers or something.

Jordan: 1:12

Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me. I imagine that you're providing the coloring pages. I think that bigger podcasts, such as Story Pirates or What If World or something like that, i imagine they would have coloring sheets pretty easily. I think indie podcasters could probably do something similar. Maybe get something made on Fiverr or something like that for kids to color along with, especially if they're telling a story or talking about a specific topic, and have a coloring page along with that, because a lot of kids listen a lot better when they're doing something else. I know that my daughter does better if she draws all the time It seems like she's not listening, but she is actually taking it all the information.

Alban: 1:54

That was definitely my experience in school and in college too. Most of my notebooks have very few notes from anything related to the class, but they're all just drawings. Most of those drawings were just a way to help stay focused on the content. I really like this app. It looks good. One thing I thought was very smart is it looks like the iPad app is the main app, or at least there is a very strong iPad app included, because, especially for younger-aged kids, they may have access to an iPad or an Android tablet before they ever have a phone. It looks like it's really geared towards younger kids. I see that when you submit a show, you can actually pick what age range your podcast is targeting, so it looks like they're doing pretty good curation and then you just let kids pick, based on their age, what they want to listen to, and I think that's really cool.

Jordan: 2:46

Yeah, there's one app that's somewhat similar to it. It's actually kind of like a community or a network. It's called Kids Listen. A lot of podcasters, especially kids podcasters, have heard of Kids Listen, but the thing that always kept me from joining the Kids Listen community is that it's like a $75 per year membership fee to be within that community, to be included on their app, to be able to talk to other people in that group on their Discord or Slack channel or whatever it is. I don't know, i'm very frugal, as I've said before. So $75 a year. I was like, nah, i'm not doing that, but it sounds like Kids Pod. It's free to get your podcast on their app. So I'm actually really excited for that. I think it's a really good opportunity for especially entry-level kids podcasters to get in on something really fun like this.

Alban: 3:42

So the idea with Kids Listen is it's basically a podcast app for kids where if you want your show to be listed, you'd have to pay an extra $75. You can't have it listed without. That's a pretty tough way to build a business. if you think about it. You're trying to convince parents hey, download this app so your kids can listen to podcasts. When they download it, there's only like 30 podcasts in there because there's like 30 people who wanted to pay the $75 a year And it's going to be hard to build a bunch of listeners if there's not a ton of podcasts. But it's going to be hard to get a lot of podcasts in there if there aren't listeners, especially if they have to pay $75 a year.

Jordan: 4:17

I think that they have a lot of members. I've heard it mentioned a lot. I've seen a lot of podcasters like listed on the Kids Listen website, So I think that there are a lot of people. But I think that a lot of podcasters feel like they need to be in that community in order to be successful And I just I don't really believe in that, obviously because I didn't join, but like they do have collaboration and stuff like that. So there is a community aspect to it, but I think 75 a year is a little steep.

Kevin: 4:46

Well, kidspod offers? I'm just reading their press release. They offer a free and paid subscription option. So they're doing the pricing on the other side like on the not on the podcaster side. So podcasters can submit their podcasts for free, they can upload additional and for like stuff like the coloring book stuff that you guys were just talking about, but then they're going to charge the listeners $4.99 a month or $35 a year to unlock additional listening features like user profiles, favorite library, offline listening, playlist creation and they're more innovative features like in-app coloring books. So, yeah, i think if you do a Kids Podcast, you should absolutely get in there. That sounds great. Jordan, have you submitted your?

Alban: 5:23

show yet.

Jordan: 5:24

I looked for mine and mine's already in the app.

Alban: 5:28

Hey, nice.

Jordan: 5:29

Yeah, they probably pulled from like podcast index or something like that. I was like ooh, i'm already in there, sweet.

Alban: 5:36

Done. If you want to check if your Kids Podcast is featured in KidsPod, if you go to kidspodapp and then click on podcasters, there's a way for you to submit your show if it's not already included. And if it's already included, let us know. If you see it in your BuzzFront stats. We'd love to see if it's starting to pick up for some podcast and see if it's performing.

Jordan: 6:01

So something that a lot of podcasters are going to be very excited about is that Apple has improved its discovery with categories. They've expanded their categories on their search and also within the browsing of the Apple Podcasts app. A lot of podcasters because their podcast is niche, they're not just going to be in the health category, in the business category, in the arts category, it's going to be a little bit more niche down than just that, and so Apple added nine subcategories to their search tab, and this is really, really great, because now the podcasters that are in these subcategories are not fighting to be on the charts with the other ones that are in a little bit more broad categories, like they have been in the past.

Alban: 6:49

So these are all subcategories that already were subcategories, but now they're getting their own charts. Yeah.

Kevin: 6:55

Yeah, so mental health, for example, is a subcategory of health and fitness. So it's health and fitness, mental health, and what they're doing is they're elevating these categories. Not only do they have their own charts, but you can find them easier. So, i mean, this is great news for anybody who has their podcast listed in one of these subcategories. You're going to get additional exposure now in all the Apple Podcast apps.

Alban: 7:14

It makes sense And I've seen sometimes where like one subcategory kind of dominates the whole category, if that makes sense Like I think we used tech news or some of the tech subcategories like dominate the overall chart for the main thing And I imagine if you're in like mental health space and you're talking about specific mental health issues and you're really focused, it's probably pretty frustrating to feel like, okay, there's no way I'm ever going to break in to the whole health category, which is going to be dominated by people who are talking about weight loss or talking about physical health things that more people are listening to. So I think it's cool. Relationships, self-improvement, personal journals Do you either you know what personal journals are?

Jordan: 8:00

I have no idea.

Alban: 8:01

I kind of want to listen to some podcast personal journals, so that'd be interesting.

Kevin: 8:05

Now they have to be your personal journals or they could. They can go grab anybody's journal.

Alban: 8:09

I imagine your personal journals are supposed to be your personal journals.

Jordan: 8:12

But, like hey, I'm reading my friend's personal journal. It's almost like the video diaries back in those days when people do like those vlogs of just their video diaries of everyday stuff.

Alban: 8:22

Yeah, those have really dropped off, unfortunately.

Jordan: 8:25

Yeah.

Kevin: 8:26

Speaking of kids pods, that would be, that would be a headliner podcast if there was, like some kids that stole their sister's diary and then they're reading them online. It's a kids pod and now it's in a top level category. It's going to be a chart. This is not a recommendation.

Jordan: 8:41

Yeah, my sister's diary. I'm seeing it right now. Yeah.

Kevin: 8:44

That's what it should be called.

Jordan: 8:46

It's calling in with, like their sister's diary entry.

Alban: 8:47

And then you can break into the new category that's being added Parenting when you have to deal with your kids. Read each other's personal journals on podcast episodes. And then two others on. There were books and language learning. I mean it's kind of exciting to see these. I wonder if each of these kind of represents growing areas that Apple Podcast is seeing more podcasts in each of these categories. We've seen a lot of very popular podcasts in language learning, where they're not just teaching you about you know second language, but sometimes interweaving like both languages together. So if you speak English and you're trying to learn Spanish, there are stories that have some Spanish and some English and over time it is more focused on Spanish words. This is cool. I like to see more charts. I like to see more ways to browse, because podcast discovery is tough, but this is a great way, if you're trying to find a good show in one of these categories, to find them.

Jordan: 9:44

You know I really appreciate the moves that Apple's making to increase discoverability on their platform, because I think that that is one of the things that has been lacking the most on their platform is that, basically, unless you were like featured by Apple or you were like a top podcast, it's very cyclical thing, like you had to get on their chart in order to stay on their chart, in order to be like discovered, because when you browse they only show like the top 200 podcasts And so if you're just getting started, unless you get like featured, you don't really have a chance to get in on that, and I think a lot of podcasters were experiencing frustration with that because you know you're not going to be in the top 200 podcasts for like health in general.

Jordan: 10:26

You know what I mean. So now it almost gives you like a fighting chance to be in the top 200 of like a subcategory. But you know they've added so many things just in like the last year with like the you might like or similar podcasts to this one. It really feels like Apple is taking into consideration podcasters frustrations with not being able to get discovered on their app.

Kevin: 10:50

Yeah, makes me wonder why. what's the like technical hurdle of treating every subcategory like giving it the same features as the top level category, like why could I not drop into what was the category we're talking about, mental health, but where to live before? well, where does it live still, i guess?

Jordan: 11:07

It lives in health and fitness.

Kevin: 11:08

Yeah, so health and fitness, it's like literally just health. Right. So why can't I go into health and fitness? And then now I can go mental health, but why can't I do nutrition or medicine or fitness?

Jordan: 11:18

Yeah.

Kevin: 11:19

I'm assuming they have some technical debt that they can't just do this for all subcategories and maybe they're just. This is the first nine they've started off with and the plan is to go the same route with all subcategories. But it sure does seem like that would be nice. Like cause we're in. Are we in like what are some of our categories? We're in news tech news and then we're a technology, top level. Then we're in like business marketing, but none of those category the tech news and the marketing haven't been elevated.

Alban: 11:49

Could it be, Kevin, not just a technical issue? I would imagine you could have an issue whether they're not really being enough podcasts in some of these categories. Some categories are just not that popular And if they're all of a sudden was like a top 200, you start feeling a little bit weird. If you're Apple and you're like there's really only 700 podcasts in this category and we're showing the top 200 and maybe something near the top of that, It's a bunch of dead shows or shows that really or not they're very low quality, Like you could start seeing people feel like it's gameable.

Kevin: 12:22

Yeah, i hear what you're saying. It does seem like those are solvable problems, like maybe there's the category small enough where you only show the top 100 instead of top 200 or the top 50 or something like that. It seems like they're solvable, and so that's why I'm just leaning on the fact that Apple podcasts have been around for a long time. They're a big company. They probably have a lot of old tech driving the systems as well as new tech, and some of those systems might not. It might not just be super easy to make changes like this. So that's why I'm leaning that direction. But who knows, we don't know anything.

Alban: 12:52

Can you describe Kevin for everyone who's listening and doesn't know what you meant when you said technical debt? What is technical debt?

Kevin: 12:58

It's just a generic term for old tech that maybe some of the newer stuff that you're writing is a little bit faster and more nimble.

Kevin: 13:09

It's easier to make changes Sometimes, when you got to go back to old code and old code is driving new systems, it's very difficult and fragile to make any changes in the old code because you could end up breaking things that you know, people who wrote that 15 years ago aren't around anymore, and so we don't know all the implications of changing some of this old stuff, and so it's just more in time intensive and requires more testing, and it might seem like, oh, there's a very simple change. It seems simple, but you don't know all the dominoes that are going to fall as soon as you make that change, and so that's when we describe technical debt in the technical field. That's what we're talking about, stuff like that.

Alban: 13:41

And we have a lot of this with Busbrough too. You know where there's something that was written in 2009 and it's not like you can't make changes to that area, but a change there is going to be a little bit more time intensive than making a change to something we just rolled out last month. You're using different frameworks. You're using different libraries. I mean, luckily for us, it's the same people are still here who wrote it, but a bigger companies is pretty common on the oldest stuff. No one knows where that guy is anymore. The girl who wrote that she's moved on and started her own company. So you can't get them back to say what were you thinking when you wrote this? Because they're, they've moved on and they've been promoted right.

Kevin: 14:20

That's one of the most common things that happens is you look at old code and you're like why? why did they write like? this is so much easier straight like this. I'm just gonna change this here cuz i'm in it. It's gonna be so much cleaner for the next person comes along. And then you roll it out and you find out there's all these problems and it was just because it wasn't even something you were working on. It was just something you noticed while you're in there. There was a reason, but nobody knew the reason.

Alban: 14:40

Fun stuff in the software field one app that will be difficult to find discovery in pretty soon is going to be stature, one of the oldest podcast apps, definitely one of the very very first Serious XM is shutting down stature at the end of the month and that month is August. i guess the end of the month i was thinking when this is going to be posted.

Alban: 15:03

Yeah, i said at the end of the month and then i looked at my note it says at the end of August. So it is going to be shut down at the end of a month and that month is the next month, so Glad i could clear that up for everybody. Oh man, so yeah, it's a bar. They're not small, they're actually pretty big podcast app and they're going to be closing and it's not shutting down stature podcast.

Jordan: 15:28

It seems like it's just kind of like cannibalizing them. So there's still going to be stature Podcast like original podcast, but they're going to be on the serious network. Is that right or a platform? i should say rather.

Kevin: 15:42

Yeah, i've never been able to keep the straight because they have your wolf yeah which i thought all their shows were branded under your wolf, but i maybe not.

Alban: 15:48

maybe there's some stature branded shows, but they definitely said stature studios and your wolf, so i guess they're different are going to remain unchanged yeah, i think it came as a surprise for a lot of people, because It was just a few years ago three years ago that serious exam bought stature for three hundred and twenty five million dollars, and now that includes the mobile listening app, which is being shut down, and Midroll media, which did podcast advertising, and all the original content, including your wolf.

Alban: 16:21

So i mean, i think i could see a good argument for a. Stature is now merging with their other app and so we're now going to try to consolidate under one single app. But if they're not trying to move everyone over to serious exams app now, it feels like there's going to be a interim period where they're not really they don't have all the podcasts in an app, and if they don't have easy transition, i think, like that consolidation play isn't going to be able to happen. And if that's what they're doing, that's the one thing that kind of would make sense to me yeah, i find it interesting also that your wolf is not.

Kevin: 16:56

I could be wrong about this, but i can't find that they're on board with the apple subscription service either. So i can find all the air wolf has a branded like channel page in the apple podcast app and you can find all their shows are all there. I can't tell from here and clicking in any of their shows and none of them look subscription enabled. I don't listen to these shows and i probably should have before we start talking about this. But i know persilla does, who heads up our sport team. I can ask her And report back. But i imagine when you listen these episodes they're probably saying things like go download the stature app to listen, to add free shows. And now they're probably gonna need to change those promos and say go download the serious xm platinum streaming app. Rolls off the tongue. I wonder what the decision was there.

Alban: 17:38

I'm probably assuming they don't want to give the 30% to apple, but i wonder how it's working out for yeah, it feels like the strategy would make much more sense to me if there was a consolidated hey, we're shutting this down and moving everything to serious xm. Serious xm obviously has multiple ways that they reach people. Now they have the app where you can stream shows, but they also have satellites that they launch and then they do satellite radio in people's cars, and so i could see them say We want everything to be all on this app. We're moving everything towards this app. If it's not going to be in the car through satellite radio, we're gonna overall, move everything towards one app. But until they start saying, hey, all the shows are being redirected, all those listings are being redirected. Maybe they could do something with the stature app that when it shuts down, like what people open it says, hey, we're moving everything over to the serious xm app. Open it up, and now you are actually a platinum subscriber already. Like there's gotta be a way that they could do that.

Kevin: 18:35

Yeah, hbo just did this. They did a really good job. Hbo did it with HBO max app and they have another one called HBO go. Yeah, and they launched a third app. They had HBO go.

Kevin: 18:46

HBO now to have a bunch of them is the only one out of one app called max and it had HBO. Max was the version I had Had different versions depending on how you subscribe. So if you subscribe through your cable provider, you had to get HBO max, i think, and if you just didn't have it with your cable package and just wanted it, then you had to get HBO now or something and then there might have a third version. Anyway, when I launched HBO max after the transition date, it said This apps no longer functional. Click here to download the new one. And I click there and download the new one and then it somehow they got my information from the app I had installed and brought it into the new one, like I was logged in it was perfectly seamless, like all my watch.

Kevin: 19:25

History was there and everything is great that's.

Jordan: 19:27

That's what happened to me too. I was really excited. It seems like Serious sex sex is putting all of the transitioning on the host and creators. They say hosting creators will determine availability and accessibility of the shows. To stay updated on the availability of the content, we recommend following the host creators on social media or subscribing to their newsletters. Like they're just putting all of that on the creators.

Kevin: 19:52

They need to call the folks over HBO and figure out how they did it, because everyone was convinced this was a terrible thing for HBO to do and I like they did it. They pulled it off, they transitioned everybody seamlessly.

Jordan: 20:05

And I remember being so frustrated when that popped up like this app is no longer available. I was like, fine, i'll click the button 30 seconds later, i'm set up and go. And on the other one I was like, oh, this isn't bad at all.

Alban: 20:17

Well, this takes are much higher here too. If you imagine, for serious XM, they're giving you content that's readily available a lot of different places, yeah. And so if you're saying, hey, go listen in the serious XM app or somewhere else, depending on where it's made available, you figure it out A bunch of people are going to go final, just listen an apple podcast or Spotify or Google podcast or what other app is already on my phone. They're probably not gonna say I have incredible brand loyalty to stitcher, follow you over to serious XM, since you just shut down my favorite app. Yeah, maybe someone who's saying My favorite app that I used to pay for.

Alban: 20:55

So you know if I was on that team and we have to have this whole transition set up completely before we shut it down. And I know that probably ear wolf was worth a lot of money and midroll was worth a lot of money. But man, three hundred and twenty five million dollars three years ago and the app, which is a very successful app, they're shutting it down now. That just feels like a big mess. Maybe this was part of the strategy, but I can't imagine That it's paid off. Three hundred twenty five million is a lot of money.

Kevin: 21:29

You know manifestos, they've kind of gotten a bad rap over the years And they have.

Alban: 21:38

they've got a bad rap versus the communist manifesto. Now you can't say manifesto.

Kevin: 21:43

you know, in the unibomber didn't do it, but we've stumbled upon a really good manifesto for podcasters it's not been scribbled out and like code sent to a bunch of like newspapers or anything.

Jordan: 21:56

Was that the zodiac killer? Oh no, that was the unibomber.

Alban: 21:59

Oh yeah, that's the zodiac killer. That was also a manifesto. No, i don't think so.

Kevin: 22:05

And those were just like clues.

Alban: 22:07

All right anyway, All right. So these are not clues. These are ten pillars for independent podcast success. Jordan, you put this in here. What are these? I really like? these are really good. Was this done by the podcast host?

Jordan: 22:20

Yeah, so the podcast host. they did a census with one thousand two hundred independent podcasters, just kind of surveying them on the way that they podcast, the reasons they podcast, and it's a 24 page document and I'll have a link in the show notes. I highly recommend going and downloading it and reading through it, because the podcast hosted a great job of breaking down the data into more of a storytelling format, which I actually really enjoyed. It's great to open up and read through it. But yeah, the 10 pillars for independent podcasting success, the first of which they say pillar one Indies play the long game, and this is talking about how Indie podcasters really attribute their success to podcasting over a long period of time, as opposed to marketing things like that.

Alban: 23:13

Yeah, if you think about the long game, i mean, podcasting is really young, 20 years old. Nine years ago I remember going to a conference and talking to someone and he said Oh man, i would have loved to have launched my podcast like three years ago, but it's obviously too late now And we read something like 30,000 podcasts in iTunes. At that point It was really really small. Podcasting was so much smaller And every few years, like somebody will say that to me Oh, i kind of missed the wave, i missed my chance. And I know that there's some kind of hindsight bias where we look back and go man, if I just started YouTube 12 years ago, that'd been great.

Jordan: 23:51

I just got Bitcoin.

Alban: 23:53

Yeah, if I just got a Bitcoin, if I had just bought this stock at this exact moment, or whatever, my life would be looks so different.

Alban: 24:00

Well, 20 years from now, there will be a number of things that if you just done something, you'd have been better off. Just imagine how bad would your podcast have to be for you to say after 20 years you wouldn't be proud of having done it for 20 years. So that makes sense. Like, no matter what it was, if you stuck with it for 10 years. You're going to get pretty dang good at podcasting. You're going to put out some really incredible episodes. You're going to have had a few people reach out and say, hey, it was a really low point in my life And that episode really impacted me or something really changed the way I saw the world And you had a really positive impact on me. Like those are going to start happening I feel like almost any skill level 10 years of trying it. You're going to get really really good And that'll be something you're really proud of. So I love seeing playing the long game as being one of the main things here.

Jordan: 24:50

So the second one Indies are driven by their purpose And they think really, really carefully about their why when they're creating a podcast, as opposed to just creating it to be successful and make money.

Kevin: 25:03

Yeah, yeah, i mean, we talked about this at length at nauseam all the time at podcast conferences. The main conversation we have at podcast conferences people come up and they say I want to grow my podcast, and we'd say why? Which is a weird answer to that question. But like why do you want to grow it? Why are you podcasting? What does success look like for you? If we don't understand the answers, those questions, then we can't figure out how to grow in that direction.

Kevin: 25:23

There's a lot of different ways to grow. Like you can pay somebody a million dollars and they can help you grow your podcast. That's one way. But if that doesn't align with your goals, then you're just going to be out of a million dollars. And so marketing, like do you want to grow your business? Do you want to grow your influence? Do you want to meet new people? Do you want to learn more about a specific topic? Do you have a topic you know a lot about and you want to teach more people? So growth isn't always the answer. It's why growth? Why are you podcasting?

Kevin: 25:45

And so yeah indies are driven by their purpose And it's so easy to forget, especially when you get. You know there's like that seven episode hurdle that a lot of podcasters talk about. It's easy to get five, six, seven episodes in and start to forget Like, why did you do episode one? Like, what were you thinking when you started out? Because now you're starting to experience a little bit of pain, a little bit of the. I got over the fun and excitement. I got my equipment set up, i learned how to edit a podcast and that was all exciting And it sustains you to five, six, seven episodes. And then you're kind of like, yeah, but there's only, you know, 40 people listening. That doesn't seem worth it. Well, why did you start? What was the original intent and excitement? Let's go back there and let's figure out a game plan. Now that you have all this knowledge, now that you started putting out episodes, now that some of that excitement is worn off, now let's go back and really talk about your goal and how we can get you there.

Jordan: 26:28

That's such a good point, especially thinking about pillar one, how it's so important to be playing the long game If you want your podcast to be successful. You're not going to be podcasting long term If you don't have that motivator propelling you forward through that. And one of the things I really loved in this point they list enjoyment, fun and creativity are not at odds with making money, and I think for me that really resonated because for me it was more just like a creative fun, like I felt like I could do this sort of thing And I just really enjoyed myself and really allowed myself to get creative with it And it turned into making money. But that wasn't the motivator for it. And it doesn't mean that just because I'm having fun doesn't mean I can't monetize the podcast, and I think that's something that people need to really remember is money's not the motivator.

Alban: 27:22

Well, if money's the motivator, you end up making a lot of different decisions. This kind of ties in with pillar 10. Indies put purpose and passion ahead of fame and fortune. This is the question we get a lot of times. It's a huge red flag. What's the best podcast category to be in that's growing? What's the most popular type of podcast?

Alban: 27:40

Thinking, i will start the most popular kind of podcast and thus I'll make it big and make money. But if you don't enjoy making the podcast, instead your goal is I want to make a lot of money. One, that's a very difficult road. But two, if you win, even if you make it all work out, you're going to be podcasting about something you didn't pick because you wanted to do it. You know, doing work day in, day out to get money And it's not exactly what you want to do. Most people already have that And it's called just a normal job. And if you're like going and you're betting it all at all this time and effort on something that, even if it's successful, it's just as good as like any normal job, well don't do it. I'd really advise you go ahead and like put all that energy into being better at your job at UPS and like. Keep rising up in the company, because that's going to be even more fulfilling than having a successful podcast that you don't enjoy the topic.

Jordan: 28:36

Oh yeah.

Alban: 28:36

It always seems strange to me when I see people like chasing the creator lifestyle, but not because they love the topic, not because if I win this actually just be joy and I'll love that I get to really dive into this community day in, day out. It's because, oh, there's probably a monetization strategy here, Man, that's just going to really stink when you actually succeed if you ever do And then you find out, oh really, the job I had before this was just as fulfilling as this podcast version.

Jordan: 29:06

Let's talk about the imposter syndrome that comes with something like that. That is one of the biggest issues that podcasters have is you have this sense of imposter syndrome always. It does not matter if you're the expert on the subject, you're going to experience imposter syndrome. So if you're just like out there faking it till you make it imagine once things got so out of hand, like how debilitating that would be, and if people were like wait a second, what a sellout. I just can't. that gives me anxiety.

Alban: 29:35

To be clear, imposter syndrome is not one of the pillars. You don't have to have imposter syndrome, though Very likely, i think everyone pretty much does. If you don't have some imposter syndrome, there's actually a bigger issue at play. Yeah, another syndrome.

Kevin: 29:50

Yeah, yeah Well, i dug in, of course, and got wrapped up in the indie streamlined workflow. I mean, because that is a lot of. What we do at Buzzsprout is that we do our best to streamline workflows for podcasters, and so we do that on the software side, whether we're talking about building a feature like magic mastering or cohost AI or tools to do your own chapters or transcripts or anything like that, or we'd also do it in our educational materials. So how to use equipment, which editing software should I use? Buzzsprout Essentials, just teaching you how to use the software that we built.

Kevin: 30:18

A lot of what exists in the podcasting space today for podcasters, whether it be Buzzsprout or other third party apps. They exist for the benefit of streamlining workflows. And so if you're a podcaster and you're feeling like this is taking too much time and it's starting to rob some of the joy, some of the reasons why I started podcasting in the first place, there's probably a tool that could help you with that. And so if it's not one of the tools that Buzzsprout is focusing on providing solutions for there's certainly a lot of players in the game, a lot of players in the space, whether it be, like you know, out of the box, thinking around how to do editing, like. If you don't like the idea of doing a more technical edit with like something that looks like you're chopping up a movie and moving waveforms around, you can go look at like a tool, like the script, where you're just editing the words and then the software is doing the actual technical edit on the background.

Jordan: 31:01

Looking at where podcasters are most likely to spend their money when creating their podcast, it's that zero episodes. It's pretty even keel between education, hardware outsourcing and software. And then it's funny because once you get a little bit farther into the podcasting journey so you know one episode, 10 episodes, 49 episodes, 50 plus episodes. It's so funny because the outsourcing just gets higher and higher and higher And I think that really speaks to how difficult it is to keep a podcast going, like how much work that is and how much podcasters you know. When you first start, bootstrapping everything and doing everything yourself is a great way to learn and it's definitely a great way to get started, but like, as you start going, being more okay with paying extra for like software or other people that are going to help you in managing or producing your podcast.

Alban: 31:58

I mean, doing all the work yourself is very difficult, especially if you're trying to play the long game and you're saying, hey, i'm going to be here for 10 years. You may have 10 years of ideas and 10 years worth of I'd love to be talking about this and I've got a cohost I really enjoy hanging out with and spend a lot of time together, but 10 years also of editing and doing social posts. if you do not like editing and social posts, it's okay to outsource. that It's also okay. you know, the best way to streamline and quote unquote outsource is to not do something.

Alban: 32:32

And there's tons of successful podcasts that have minimal editing. There's tons of successful podcasts that don't post on social media every episode. The number one thing to do would be to find what are the things in the workflow that really have to be done, and then you can look at which of those things has to be done by me or is enjoyable for me to do. And there's tons of people out there who really enjoy editing and would be excited to edit your podcast for you and make it great or maybe help you with the marketing, if that's an area where you need help. So it's encouraging to see by the end of it, 50 episodes. 60% of the money invested in podcasting is being spent on outsourcing, and that makes a lot of sense. You've already bought your microphone, you've already bought all the equipment and eventually you're paying for some software and the rest is probably going towards more focused on that outsourcing.

Jordan: 33:26

They have a chart here that says experienced indie podcasters are less likely to use video than new indie podcasters, and I think it's because seasoned podcasters understand what an increased level of difficulty you're going to have when you start introducing video and having to produce that as well. Like audio is hard enough, but once you add video into the mix, it's so much more difficult. And I recently saw Spotify's touting that they have like 100,000 podcasters using video on their platform. Yeah, okay, but maybe it's like brand new podcasters because, according to this, 48, almost 49% of podcasters don't use video at all. So it's like I don't record video, i don't plan to, and then some people only have video so that they can see their guests. You know, similar to what we're doing We don't publish video, we're just doing it so we can see each other's faces. So that's like half of podcasters are saying no, video's not going to happen.

Alban: 34:23

The video component is so interesting to me because I mean, we're gonna talk about a podcast later that has a very heavy video component, and when it's good, it helps. it's good for discovery. It's good to have multiple formats. It's great if you post on social. it's awesome if you have a blog and a newsletter and all these other things. Well, guess what? Everything you add? a lot of those things are additive, but also that means it's way more work. There's way more things to do.

Alban: 34:50

You're now incorporating video and multiple marketing strategies.

Alban: 34:55

There's a point like, if you're gonna play the long game, you have to make sure what you're committing to is sustainable, and so I think a lot of us have seen shows blow up because they were very successful and they did lots of stuff.

Alban: 35:07

It's very easy to imagine The hosts are the ones who did all of that, when often they have a full team also around them and they're showing up to do the recording and now all the video production and the editing and the publishing and the social everything else is being done for them. So if you're an indie podcaster and you're doing this on your own, video would be one of the first things I'd look at as okay. this is a way bigger investment and it's not a guaranteed return. I'm gonna put this on the side at least for a while and see is this something that's even wanted by my listeners? If it is, you can always add it later. but adding a ton at the beginning is like the best way to burn out quickly and not be here in a few years when you might actually be reaping the benefits of having done it and gotten better over time.

Jordan: 35:56

So that brings us into pillar four Indie's experiment and adapt. Thinking about the longevity of a podcast, one of the things that really plays into that this found is the format of the podcast and the experience that podcasters have. Usually, when podcasts first start out, it's solo podcast, so I think it's somebody similar to me being like I could do that. And then they start a podcast and, as you go, once you get past like 50 episodes, honestly, once you get past like 10 episodes, it starts really setting in how hard it is to do alone. And so you can see on this chart that they have here solo podcasts just really drop down, whereas podcasts that are interview format or have co-hosts actually go up. They keep going at it as their podcast gets older.

Jordan: 36:48

And I think part of that is accountability. When you're a solo podcaster, no one's telling you you have to publish. So when things get hard, it's really easy to say you know what, i'm just gonna take a break, no biggie, and then you just don't get to it, especially when no one's reaching out saying where's the new episode? Where's the new episode? It's really easy to just kind of be like eh and pod fade, whereas if you have other people that are counting on you. It's a lot easier to keep up with it And say like hey, we have to record today.

Kevin: 37:20

Yeah, I did find that chart interesting And it's something I hadn't really expected to see. I mean, I guess I totally understand how I'm seeing it But honestly, before I saw it I would have said it might have been easier to do a solo podcast, like for the long haul, than it would have been doing co-hosts, Because in my experience it's harder to continue to like you have to have two people that stay motivated, And I was discounting the fact that there's the accountability aspect that actually having the other person helps you stay motivated And you help them stay motivated, I suppose, doing it yourself. But yeah, it's very interesting that the solo podcasters they don't get as many episodes done than the co-hosted podcast. That's what's really interesting.

Alban: 37:56

Kevin, i'm thinking about this show. There have been seasons where I'm like I'm doing Buzzcast but I'm not loving doing each episode And you're much more into it than I've been. And then there I feel like there was a period where you were like I'm not as motivated by the show, but I was really into it. And I think that if it wasn't on the calendar that we did it every two weeks And we had Jordan following up with, like hey, here's some topics we need to read these and get into it, it would be so easy to pod fade.

Alban: 38:27

And I imagine if it was just me and I went, oh, i've got to go and pull the stuff together, it would 100% have pod faded. Because as soon as I hit the first time where I was not dead set like I've got to record today, i've got stuff I've got to get off my chest, as soon as you hit that point, you'd go I'm going to skip a week, i'm going to skip two, and maybe you even are back to it two months later and you kind of worked through that period where you weren't as motivated. Well, now you start feeling kind of awkward coming back two months later And it's kind of feels a little guilty. So I think there is something to having co-hosts and somebody who's there and excited when maybe a little bit of your enthusiasm is waned.

Kevin: 39:07

Yeah, it makes me think of like having a workout partner, like saying, oh, we're going to go to the gym three times a week. Monday was a Friday, we're going to be there at 6am. Very easy for me to get there Monday. All right, first, here we go, starting out Monday, wednesday's hard Like seriously have to go again Wednesday, but if I know, you know, album is going to be there, Jordan's going to be there, they're going to be mad If I don't show up, like that's so helpful to have whenever you're making commitment for the long haul, to have somebody there who you're letting down if you don't show up. And not just show up, but show up and, like you know, have your game face on, be ready to go, do your best work, because they're doing their best work. You don't want to let them down And it makes more fun too.

Jordan: 39:43

Yeah, i mean we've had episodes where there's just not a whole lot going on, there's not a lot to talk about and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel for topics, right, we've had that. And the thing is is like we've even had like a review on this podcast where it's like, when the hosts don't really have a whole lot to talk about, like you can tell Ooh, don't read reviews.

Alban: 40:04

I didn't see that review. accurate reviews Yeah, don't read the reviews.

Jordan: 40:07

Don't read the reviews, but like if we didn't do it and we just skipped, that would be a month skipped. It's not just like skipping an episode, it's like we haven't recorded in a month. So, even if there's not a lot to cover, we still need to do that, if not for the consistency of the podcast, but also for us to be in practice, consistently with recording, even if it's hard, even if there's not a lot to talk about, and we're really pushing it like we have to do it because that's what we've committed to do. It's what we needed to do for our own sake of not slipping into pod fade. You know, it's so important. There's a I don't know three or four more pillars that are equally as interesting and I have a link in the show notes If you want to check them out. I saw this article that quoted Travis Kelsey as saying that podcasting is the hardest job in the world. Did you see this?

Alban: 41:06

His exact quote is the hardest job in the effing world To keep coming up with new content that people want to hear. Have either of you watched or listened to new heights Travis Kelsey's Podcast with his brother? No, so Travis Kelsey is tight end for the chiefs and his brother, jason, is a center for the Eagles and They have this podcast. That's kind of like the two of them their brothers. They have all these interesting stories and they're kind of giving an inside look to their lives but also to what it's like being in the NFL. And Last year the podcast took off, but partially because both of their teams were really good and they end up meeting in the Super Bowl, so it was the chiefs versus the Eagles, and they did interviews with, like, their parents, and their parents are coming on talking about like Oh, i hope you both do well. I'm really gonna be excited for you.

Alban: 42:01

It was so interesting. You know they were doing it during the playoffs. They talked about what it would be like for each of them to win and it was really interesting because I'd watch that. And then, spoiler alert the chiefs won. So Travis wins, jason loses, and they talked to their parents about how they wanted to interact if they won or lost. And then you saw the mom like go and give her son who lost a hug. Having the backstory of the podcast made watching the Super Bowl with teams that I don't really follow So much more enjoyable, and then also seeing some of these human moments after it was really really cool. It's a good podcast and I'm encouraged to think that the best tight end Maybe ever in football one of the best tight ends of all time says that podcasting is much harder than being a tight end.

Kevin: 42:50

Yeah, i agree, having only done one of these jobs professionally.

Jordan: 42:56

Yeah, i mean, i can imagine like especially having the pressure of your podcast just absolutely take off. It's like, oh, now, this is serious. This is not just like me and my brother catching up like now. This is a very serious part of my life. And I like how he says Thankfully, my brother is a hell of a storyteller and he just has them banked. So he's talking about his brother like having the foresight to have episodes banked so they're not like stressed out about publishing these episodes and Oh, is it banked episodes or banked stories?

Alban: 43:27

I thought that he just had a ton of old stories to pull out at any moment. Oh, that could be it too, i assumed all the little clips and stuff I've seen have been pretty timely, and so I'm guessing that it's not banked episodes with banked stories.

Jordan: 43:41

Oh, that makes sense.

Alban: 43:41

I'll be honest when I've watched it. I've only ever watched. I've never listened to it on a podcast app because it's been pushed to me on YouTube. They do a really good job with YouTube. My experience has been that both of them are pulling their weight. It's not like Jason is telling all these stories and that Travis is just there for the ride. I think honestly it's. You've got insight into two people who are very good at football, Telling what it's like, but also like how much they love family and how much they enjoy each other and they're very funny And there's good chemistry, like there's all these other aspects to the show That really make it interesting and that's funny to hear that on Travis, society is like oh no, this is really hard. I'm just lucky that I got my brother pulling me along.

Jordan: 44:25

I mean it does make a huge difference having a co-host that is easy to like play off of and has the energy and Azari like Paved the way for you to get through the episode. You know It'd be a lot harder just doing it yourself.

Alban: 44:37

I think that's why so many of these kind of friend comedy podcasts have done well. You know where it's their comedians, it's like multiple comedians have a show together and there's like lots of these shows And I think they do really well because it's people who are good off the cuff. They're just riffing about current events and they're kind of coming up with stories And they're embellishing a little bit and they're just having fun And I think up for a lot of people, the best podcasts or podcasts where they're talking about things I'm interested in, but it's also friends who are having a great time And I think that's why this like co-host that have good chemistry with each other is such an important dynamic. I recently interviewed Adam Curry for a video on our YouTube channel.

Alban: 45:17

Adam Curry, the pod father, the co-creator of podcasting, and He said with all of his shows It was all about having the right co-host. And asked how he found co-host, he said basically I just meet someone. I really like them, we're already talking about something and then the podcast is just the decision to start recording the conversations. All the other stuff has to Already be there or he's not going to start a new show And I think that you know. This just kind of reinforces that feeling that if there's something there, you've already got a really good chemistry with somebody talking about a specific topic. That might be something to be a lot of fun to invite listeners into so they can feel like they're just hanging out with a couple of friends Listening to do brothers talk about being really, really good at football.

Jordan: 46:04

A new Guinness World Record was set and it's a Pennsylvania podcaster who interviewed 137 people Over the course of 37 hours and 44 minutes to break the Guinness World Record for longest interviewing. Oh my gosh and I was thinking like how could you possibly do that, like I would absolutely die. But I did see that he was allowed a five-minute break every hour, which he could like bank, so he was able to do a few hours then, like get a little bit of rest before going into it.

Kevin: 46:33

But do you guys? whenever you see a world record or read about one, do you immediately think I could beat it? I could do that, oh yeah.

Alban: 46:42

That's the whole point of the Guinness Book of World Records. Books is just so you read them and go. Ah, I could do that.

Kevin: 46:49

Yeah, i mean the ones about, like, the longest fingernails ever grown, like not, not those, but anything like this. I'm like 37, okay, 137 people. So now I'm starting to think like he was interviewing them for a long time, like why don't you just interview them for, you know, three or four minutes each, like make them shorter. Maybe they have some rules about how long they have to talk to them to consider a real interview, but I'm like I could do that.

Alban: 47:11

I think setting up 15-minute interview slots. So does he have somebody else who's like making sure people are getting into the zoom room on time So you can just jump for podcast interview interview?

Jordan: 47:22

I don't know, but you know what this reminds me of. It reminds me of that reply, all episode where they stayed up all night like they posted a phone number for a hotline. Oh, yeah, and they stayed up all night And it was like a marathon of talking to people on the phone and the entire episode was just the torture of them Talking to people for like 24 hours and it was fascinating.

Alban: 47:45

I think this sounds like one of my worst nightmares. Being on video talking to people for even two hours Completely wipes me out, kevin. I once we recorded buzzcast and then we both went into a big meeting. So that was another two-hour meeting after buzzcast, right before and at the end of it I just went to bed. It's like the middle of the day and Four hours of like, especially zoom. There's something about zoom being able to see yourself and other people. It just wears me out. The idea of doing 15-minute interviews like super quick hits for a day and a half more than a day and a half Just sounds exhausting. So, oliver, kevin, i may think we could beat your record. I do not want to try.

Kevin: 48:27

That's how it always goes. You always start off, you read the record, you're like oh, i could totally do that. Then you think about it for three minutes and then you're like Yeah, I'm never gonna know.

Jordan: 48:34

So his podcast is perspectives on healthcare and he's releasing the interviews as 15 minute episodes of his podcast. So I'd be interested to like go through and just kind of like listen back to back and see how much more tired and low energy Those interviews go, or if he's able to keep it up, that'd be pretty amazing too. But this led me down a little bit of a rabbit hole because I was like what other Guinness World Records are there that are podcasting related? So I looked it up and there's not many. One of the ones that I saw was the first podcast ever made.

Kevin: 49:09

So that one's done. Can't get that one.

Alban: 49:11

You can't break that one.

Jordan: 49:12

There's no topping that.

Alban: 49:13

I did notice that it said Dave Weiner is One of the first people to maintain a blog on the internet and help develop much of the enabling technology. Dave Weiner he did the whole RSS spec and then like that's how blogs were distributed, and then was the co-creator with Adam Curry of podcasting and built that into RSS. I think it's funny to say, did describe Dave Weiner as one of the first people to maintain a blog.

Jordan: 49:40

All right, so the next one we have is This is so niche the longest running movie podcast, and so oh no. The longest running movie podcast has been running for 18 years 167 days and was achieved by the host of film junk. Okay that's one That's a niche one and that was submitted in June 2023. So that's kind of anyone.

Jordan: 50:06

Yeah oh, this one's great, and I think that this has been easily broken like 10 times over. The most downloaded Podcast and this is from March of 2011 is the Adam Corolla show, which received 59 million 574 thousand unique downloads.

Alban: 50:26

I Think that's been broken many, many times. So that's remarkable that less than 60 million downloads as of 2011 would have gotten you the number one spot most downloaded podcast. That is not no case anymore.

Jordan: 50:41

No, I think we have podcasts on bus sprout that have broken that easily, right?

Kevin: 50:45

Well, i don't know if they're talking about specific episode or a podcast overall, i don't know, but that does feel like one that we could break because we could just go into the database and change the numbers.

Alban: 50:56

It says March 2009 to March 2011. So it feels like it's a whole show.

Jordan: 51:01

Yeah, well, and I know that audio check they posted. I think it was like last month or something like that. They broke 1 billion downloads, Whoa Yeah well, i don't even know how like.

Kevin: 51:10

I mean, how in the world do you even calculate that Everyone counts downloads slightly differently and like how many of those were real downloads or subway surfer ads, or we don't know?

Jordan: 51:21

I mean, anyway, like somebody could just submit a new thing for that one for sure, this is okay. This is the last podcast one I could find, so we're only sitting at. Let's hear one, two, three, four, five Guinness World Records related to podcasting. Okay, so the last one is most tickets sold for a podcast recording, and this was in July 2022. Most tickets sold for a podcast recording is 20,986 and was achieved by Mike Ward in Canada.

Alban: 51:49

That's pretty impressive. It's really impressive. Now, jordan, are you sure that these are all of them? I remember a podcast a few years ago started saying that they set the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest podcast festival of all time. Mmm, my black Kevin. Yeah, i do remember that. Yeah, you didn't see it in your research.

Jordan: 52:06

No, no, no, I think I did see it. I think that is ringing a bell. But I just decided to do like not a podcast festival, i decided to do like just podcaster specific only podcast.

Alban: 52:14

Yeah.

Jordan: 52:15

I lied to you, then I'm sorry.

Kevin: 52:17

That's a good distinction. No, it's fine because we're talking about individual people, but I think that was maybe the only one.

Jordan: 52:23

So yeah, so probably six Podcasting related ones. Yeah because I think I do remember seeing that one. But if you look you can go to their archive and you can search their archive and just search podcast. There's like nothing there for records. It is very minimal.

Alban: 52:38

Well, it's time to get some more podcast related Guinness Book of World Records out there.

Kevin: 52:41

Does, uh, does Guinness do like the other end of the spectrum on some of these records?

Jordan: 52:45

like least amount of.

Kevin: 52:47

Yeah, least amount of tickets sold for, because I feel like we could get that one.

Jordan: 52:52

All right, it's time for a sound off the segment where you are listeners, sending your tips, tricks and podcasting advice. Let's kick it off with some new booster grams we have. Yeah, so last episode we were talking a little bit about possible using podcasts in For political purposes.

Kevin: 53:07

We talked about a city that's doing a podcast and so some booster grams came in talking about stuff like that. So Dave Jones wrote in with a couple of booths RFK junior has had a podcast for a while And he dropped the link to that, which then, of course, i clicked on it and took a look at it and I gotta say The podcast artwork is not good. We need some better podcast artwork. These guys running for president He's a Kennedy, come on. Well, there's the artwork Kevin. Well, it's a picture of him. The picture of him's fine, like he's a good looking guy, but then it has like RFK Jr podcast in a font that was created in Microsoft Word. It looks like it was chiseled out of stone, like something that, and maybe Does he have a microphone on his cover too?

Kevin: 53:53

He doesn't have a microphone. It's just terrible. It's like I don't know. It's something. I totally created lots of podcast artworks like this when I was in middle school. This is not really podcast artworks, but this was like the cover for my you know, sixth grade world history report. It's what it looked like. It's the font I chose, so Is it active?

Kevin: 54:13

Yeah it's active. He just released an episode yesterday. Yeah, July 2nd, He released an episode Violence in France and Ukraine and Colonel Douglas McGregor Yep. So if you're looking for a presidential candidate that's doing podcasting, there you go. Thanks, Dave. The governor has also said I made 17 on the math portion of the ACT just by filling in A, B, B, A, C, A, D, A. I guess it doesn't really matter.

Jordan: 54:36

All the way down the scan trunks. It's Abba Kedaba Oh.

Kevin: 54:39

Abba Kedaba, it doesn't matter, i should have finished it Is 17 on the ACT.

Alban: 54:43

Really good, it's not bad. Yeah, yeah, imagine how well you could have done, dave, if you'd have read the questions.

Kevin: 54:51

I want to know what's going on in your life at that point that you just decided to do Abba Kedaba all the way down the ACT. It doesn't really matter. Send us some more sats and tell us what was going on in your head that day, gene.

Alban: 55:03

Bean sent us a boost and said oh man, it seems like my boost from the last episodes all came in as anonymous. The 10K was from me, That's where the other anonymous ones? I've been testing new apps. I halfway believe this.

Kevin: 55:18

Anybody could claim that Gene. I feel like a 50,000-stop boost would prove that it was you.

Alban: 55:22

I feel like you have to boost as much, if not more, than anonymous to get the credit. Kevin, this just reminds me Have you ever seen the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode about the anonymous donor? Yes. Maybe one of the best Curb episodes of all time.

Kevin: 55:40

Yeah, if you haven't seen that, we'll find some YouTube clip or something dropping the show notes. It's hilarious.

Alban: 55:46

Larry David donates to something and then his name is on the museum. Then somebody else Ted Danza donates as well but puts down anonymous. Everyone's like, oh yeah, it's great that you donated to Larry, but anonymous, they did that anonymously. Then Ted Danza is going around going yeah, that was me. He's telling everyone. They're all congratulating him, not only on the donation but also on the humility to not tell people. Larry David is so upset He's telling everyone he's not anonymous.

Kevin: 56:16

I also like that you call him Ted Danza, which is Tony Danza. Ted Danza What up?

Alban: 56:22

It was one of those guys.

Kevin: 56:24

This just happened to me Last week. I was out helping my mom with her Alexa and she's like it's broken. Well, she was calling it Alexis and she was saying Alexis, play Barry Joel. I was like it's called Alexa. I think you mean Barry Manilow or Billy Joel, but you got to choose one of the two.

Alban: 56:40

Wait, Kevin, is this real? This was a old SNL script. Have you seen this It?

Kevin: 56:45

was an SNL script and it happened in real life in my house. Alexis play Barry Joel.

Alban: 56:49

Oh my gosh It's called. it was like Alexa Silver and it was an Alexa assistant that would like respond to like somebody giving it the wrong name. So it was all for senior citizens in their silver years. God like Alexis what's the? weather.

Jordan: 57:08

Gene Bean also said I really love the idea of a city hall doing a podcast and may well pitch this to my city. Do it, gene Bean.

Alban: 57:15

Yeah, let's get more of those community podcasts going. And we had a sound off question, Jordan, did we get any responses to my question? What's a podcasting tool? you'd be devastated if you could never use it again.

Jordan: 57:27

We sure did. We have three responses, All right nice. Okay, first response is from Marge.

Marge: 57:33

Hi, my name is Marge and I'm the host of Bite Me, the show about edibles. What podcasting tool would I be devastated to never use again? Besides, obviously, my melodic voice? That's easy. Hindenburg Pro, that's the recording software that I use. That is geared specifically to podcasters and it makes the recording, editing and uploading of my podcast simple and easy, and I'd be lost without it.

Jordan: 57:56

Thanks Hindenburg Pro. That's a great answer.

Kevin: 57:59

Yeah, i love Hindenburg. That is my editor of choice as well.

Jordan: 58:03

Especially since they added so many new updates and stuff. It's like really good, all right.

Kevin: 58:12

You went on with that extra sound effect. I wasn't expecting it.

Jordan: 58:15

Our next response is from Andy. Hey, everybody.

Andy: 58:18

This is Andy Layman from the Dudes and Dads podcast, and the tool that I would be the most upset about if I could not use it again is Ecamm Live. I love doing my podcast live bring my guests in like that So the tool that I would be the most upset about losing would be Ecamm Live.

Alban: 58:37

Kevin, have you ever used Ecamm? Yes, I have.

Kevin: 58:40

Have I used it successfully?

Jordan: 58:41

No, I hadn't even heard of it. I had to Google it It's super, super popular.

Alban: 58:47

We used StreamYard for a while when we were doing streaming and doing stuff live, but I know a lot of podcasters and a lot of live streamers use Ecamm Live, so thanks for sharing that, andy.

Jordan: 58:59

All right, And last we have Roger.

Roger: 59:02

Hey guys, roger Goide here, podcast producer and consultant from Northern Ireland. For me, one of the most essential tools when it comes to recording podcasts is acoustic treatment, and by that I mean everything from pillows, carpets, rugs, beds, sofas, right up to professional acoustic panels anything that deadens the acoustic reflections in the room you're recording in. If I had the choice between an expensive mic and an untreated reflective space, or a cheap mic in a room with good acoustics, i'd take the cheap mic every day of the week. Anyway, that's my two cents. Love the show. Keep up the good work.

Jordan: 59:39

Thanks, roger. Oh my gosh, yes, this is such a good answer.

Alban: 59:43

Two things. One, roger the editor, jordan, nodded the entire time while listening to that audio. So, yeah, you get kudos from all of us. We totally agree. And then your point about having a cheap microphone in a treated environment versus an expensive microphone in an untreated environment. We made a video about this a long time ago, i think. Travis took a expensive mic I don't remember exactly what it was And he then had a Samsung Q2U. He said, okay, can I make this Samsung Q2U $60 sound as good as this other mic And a lot of it was trying to take out reverb and deaden the sound and bring in all sorts of acoustic treatments and bring in the mic close to his mouth, and by the end of it it sounded really, really good. So it's not totally scientific, but we did it once and I completely agree with you.

Jordan: 1:00:36

Yeah, when I first started I had an ATR mic. It was like a $70, $80 mic And I would do the StoneHead method with throw pillows, you know, just have like two pillows on either side and then one pillow stacked on top and speak into the mic from there, and it did really well. I actually didn't upgrade my microphone until pretty far into my podcasting journey. I was like making money by then too, and I was still doing that method. So it's very effective.

Kevin: 1:01:04

Well, those were three really good guesses. They were all wrong. The right answer, of course, is Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout is what we're looking for. Oh.

Alban: 1:01:14

I'll be honest, when I asked the question I was like I'm going to feel like I was really leading people if we start getting a bunch of people saying Buzzsprout. and we didn't get any.

Jordan: 1:01:22

We didn't no.

Kevin: 1:01:24

Too bad because there was a massive prize. We actually had a brand new Tesla. We were giving away a Tesla, So unfortunately no one's going to win that. But thanks for answering.

Alban: 1:01:36

What is our question next week? Jordan, I think it's your week.

Jordan: 1:01:39

Yeah. So the question that I have, especially talking about the Guinness World Records if you were to break a Guinness World Record for podcasting, what would that record be?

Kevin: 1:01:51

Oh, I love it.

Jordan: 1:01:52

I think mine would be like most time spent editing a 45-minute episode, i think I could break that record.

Kevin: 1:02:00

I'm hoping we get some ideas and then maybe we will attempt one of these ideas at podcast movement.

Jordan: 1:02:05

That's such a good idea.

Kevin: 1:02:07

Unless it's too hard, then we won't.

Jordan: 1:02:09

Maybe, like most co-hosts in one episode, will just have like a chain of microphones and everybody's running at once.

Kevin: 1:02:15

Yeah, most co-hosts in one podcast Try to get like 60, 70, 80 people together. Yeah.

Jordan: 1:02:20

All right. so just a reminder. next episode's question if you were to break a Guinness World Record for podcasting, what would that record be? To have your response featured on our next episode? leave a 30-second voice message at podinboxcom, send us a boost to Graham or tweet the answer at BuzzCast podcast. And, as always, thanks for listening and keep podcasting. What are you guys doing for 4th of July?

Kevin: 1:02:45

You know, not a whole lot. My two boys are probably going to have some friends over and we'll grill or something and just hang outside. I mean it's like it's sweltering here in Florida. You can't do anything.

Jordan: 1:02:55

How hot is it?

Kevin: 1:02:56

Today is going to be 98. Ooh, we might hit 100 tomorrow.

Alban: 1:02:59

Ouch, we've had back-to-back the last two days. We've had heat advisory warnings like texted to our phones and it's hot. I like it. I'd prefer it to be hot than cold, so I'm not complaining about it. But it is hot And 4th of July is going to be out of control. Yeah.

Kevin: 1:03:16

We live in a very patriotic state and people are into fireworks and, i don't know, drinking and whatever. Kevin, have you ever come to the beach for the 4th?

Alban: 1:03:25

No, i will not go to the beach or any sand, like patch of sand that you can drive trucks on, i'll avoid on 4th of July Where we used to live on 1st Street in this place called Neptune Beach, The entire road is pretty much shut down by block parties for multiple blocks And it's just all. The parties spill out from people's houses into their yards, then into the road, So it is impossible to drive through. But it's difficult for multiple blocks to walk through. It. It's just a total neighborhood And if you're riding a bike you can't ride a bike the whole way. You have to get off and walk to like navigate the crowds.

Jordan: 1:04:04

And are people like lighting off fireworks during this?

Alban: 1:04:07

I mean, i have seen people shoot off fireworks, but mostly, honestly, during the day, when most of people are partying, there's not as many fireworks. Oh So that's more drinking and pools and games.

Kevin: 1:04:18

But to be fair, like any day, you could be walking down the street in any Florida neighborhood and somebody could be shooting off fireworks.

Alban: 1:04:26

Yeah, we're always celebrating our patriotism. Yeah, but also, most fireworks are illegal in Florida, or at least we don't get any like the really big explosion ones.

Jordan: 1:04:36

but do they actually like enforce it though?

Alban: 1:04:38

No, yeah, but I don't know exactly. Have you ever seen these fireworks shops, kevin? They sell stuff that I know is not legal. How do they get around it?

Jordan: 1:04:46

We have those.

Kevin: 1:04:48

Yeah, you just sign a piece of paper that says something like you're not going to light them off in Florida, or something I don't know. I've never done it.

Jordan: 1:04:55

I've done it in all of those places every single year with my parents, because there's a bunch of them around here And I don't ever get mortars just because we're downtown and it's very dangerous for us to do something like that. But they have the good fountains, so I'll get those. But yeah, it's the thing where you have to sign a waiver just saying like I will not set these off in an illegal area.

Alban: 1:05:19

Interesting. I'm surprised that kind of a law works.

Kevin: 1:05:23

I mean how easy it is to do it.

Alban: 1:05:26

Oh yeah, you go to a drug dealer and you're like I will not do these drugs somewhere, that it's illegal, like, okay, great, we just got around that one.

Kevin: 1:05:33

Right Yeah.

Jordan: 1:05:36

Yeah, I feel bad even saying this Here. It's going to be. It's supposed to be 74 degrees on July 4th, around like 10 pm. And I'm so excited, especially hearing how hot it's going to be for you guys. It's going to be like so nice We always just like invite some friends over to our house and because we've got that big parking lot up back and we just have like a barbecue and everyone brings food over and we just slide off fountains.

Kevin: 1:06:01

I was around this weekend and I went out to dinner and people were like, oh my gosh, you look like you got some sun. What'd you do? I mean like I did nothing? I maybe I went and got the mail. That's what I did. I was in the sun for 26 seconds and I got burnt to a crack.

Alban: 1:06:15

Because you got burned or because you've got some color.

Kevin: 1:06:19

No, just because my face was red on Saturday. But it's stupid hot. You can't go outside unless you're in the shade. But I'm like Alvin, i do like it, like it doesn't bother me. I'll be outside, but shaded.

Jordan: 1:06:30

I don't think I told you this. I'm actually like what's the word? I'm like training to be in Florida in August or September.

Kevin: 1:06:40

It's still the same. I'm not even joking.

Jordan: 1:06:42

I've actually been going outside more. Even if it's like 98 or 99 degrees, i will go for a walk at like a nature trail just to like overheat myself, and I've been going.

Alban: 1:06:52

Trying to get a little heated, yeah.

Jordan: 1:06:54

And I've been like going into like a sauna for a period of time because, like I'm not going to get sick this time, like I'm going to be like acclimated to the intense heat.

Kevin: 1:07:02

Yeah, It's going to be Orlando which is one of the hottest places in Florida.

Alban: 1:07:06

Yeah, orlando, just there's no breeze and there's a ton of concrete. Imagine Orlando, at least in, like my mind's eyes mostly concrete and it's hotter than anything else.

Kevin: 1:07:17

I think if you take like a thermal image of the earth from space, you can find Orlando. Orlando is a huge red one.