podcasting

The book poke the box had a profound impact on my thinking. The act of changing your mindset from sitting around waiting for permission to taking initiative can change your life in a positive way. If you have an idea to solve a problem, start it, then ship it out to the world once it’s finished.

This brings me to the title. If you have difficulty finding ready solutions why not create your own. At first, it might look impossible but you can start researching for ways to do it.

Richard Branson in his book losing my virginity talked about how he keeps a notebook with ideas for new businesses. What he does, he writes down the people he needs to call, the list of ideas, companies he can set up and people who can make things happen.

This is interesting because when he started virgin airline, he spent a day with a former airline businessman to learn about the business. After that, he went headfirst into the venture.

The lead up to him starting was being stranded on an island with no way of getting home. He organised a charter flight to get him and other people off the island for a fee. All this with no money in his pocket.

The lesson is to find out what you need to get your project off the ground then do it. Finish it, release it and move on to the next one.

So if something is bugging you and you have an idea to solve it do it now. Create your own solution.

Going to events is a good way to generate content for your podcast and other marketing channels. But here’s the problem, after talking with a lot of persons, the audio either sounds too low or has lots of background noise. Worse you can’t hear the person and the audio is unusable.

This is frustrating because you were hoping to use the content on your show. Now, what do you do?

These types of frustrating situations happen time and time again. I can relate because it has happened to me before. To prevent it from happening again, here are a few things to keep in mind when recording audio at events.

#1 Use an external microphone to record interviews

When doing interviews recording using the internal mic is usually a bad idea. The reason being the microphone on most recorders are omnidirectional. This means, when you point the recorder in front of the person you’re talking to, everything else around you gets recorded. This is why you get a lot of background noise in your recording.

Using an external dynamic microphone like a Shure sm 58, is the best tool for the job. It will isolate the person you are talking to even when the background is noisy. This works wonders because it only records in the direction you point it.

#2 Find a quiet space to talk

If you don’t have an external microphone then finding a quiet space to do the interview can help. This will give you the ambience of the event but allow you to focus on getting a good interview for your show.

It will also remove distraction for you and the other person because you are removed from the activity.

#3 Check your levels before you record

Before you do any recording test your levels. This will ensure that your audio is not recorded too low or too loud. Most recorders have a record pause button, hit that or just hit the record button if you don’t have that feature. Do a microphone check, look at your levels and make adjustments.

Doing these 3 things will make a big difference to the audio you record at major events. it will give you usable audio for your show.

One of the hardest decisions to make is deciding what to talk about on your podcast. With lots of ideas floating around its difficult to choose one or a few. Lots of questions floating in your head like will it help me build an audience? Will people like it? Am I good enough? All these and more are running wild in your mind.

But if you take a step back and look at the situation the real issue is not about your ideas. The real issue is insecurity.  You are not sure if podcasting or social media can help you to tell your story.

The fear of not knowing the end result is crippling.  Criticism is something that can make you hide. But hiding and running away won’t make you find the answers to your questions. Being curious will.

In Seth Godin’s book poke the box he says the greatest skill a person can have is initiative. Taking the initiative to ship what you’re working on. Poking the box and try to figure out how it works. The more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll be with the idea. The better you’ll get at doing.

Austin Kleon calls it being an amateur in his book share your work. Always have an open mind to learning new things. And then trying them in public to learn what works for you.

So you see deciding what to talk about is not the issue. Because your aim is always to share a story that solves a problem for your customers. Or in other cases talk about what you’re interested in. Once you do that and analyzing the reaction to your work is a better approach.

How do you choose the best ideas?

It all starts with who will enjoy the idea and who you think your ideal listener is. What I mean by that is choose the ideas that help you show customers how you can help them. How your product/service helps them. If you’re not selling anything choose ideas that interest them.

Start with those ideas first. Because you will get to the heart of the matter. You will gain trust over time.  It also helps if you are passionate about those ideas as well.

So what do you do with the other ideas?

Group them. That is it. If they have a similar theme group them for use later. It can be a series of episodes. It can be a talking point on your podcast. Even the ideas you’re going to start with group them. Then turn them into podcast episodes. So spend some time to group the ideas and plan out your shows.

But don’t forget the most important thing, record it, and publish it.

You’ve got the intro and outro recorded. You have edited down your interview. Now it’s time to put everything together into a podcast episode for distribution. 

If your editing software has a multitrack section then you’re good to go. This is where you will do all the work to make your show interesting. 

Step 1 Add music beds under different sections 

Music makes a difference for a podcast. From the introduction, breaks between sections and at the end. It sets the mode for what is about to come. 

What you do is play a couple of seconds of the instrumental then fade it under the voice over. You can fade it out after a while or up when you’re finished with that section. 

NPR’s How I built this podcast uses this production element to great effect. To add drama to the stories being shared, they use various sounds and instrumentals while the story is being shared. It makes the podcast interesting and fun to listen to and move the episode along quite nicely. 

If you want to add drama to your podcast episodes, then use music and sound effects throughout your show.

Step 2 insert sponsored messages

The next part of the production process is adding sponsored messages. These are 30 – 45 seconds ads from a business who sponsor your show. When packaging the show, you can insert these messages if you have recorded them from before.  This will save time as you can add them in later.

Step 3 Keep final levels consistent

It is also important to keep your levels consistent. Meaning that the sponsored messages, the interviews and the music is on the same level. This helps the listening experience. 

Check the volume on each channel to manage your levels. You can use a compressor / a limiter on the master channel to keep things consistent when you’re ready to export the final episode. 

The last thing to do is export your show for distribution. If your editing software allows you to insert the episode title and other information, do so during that time. This will ensure when the episode is being played people see what they are listening to, and what the show is all about.

After you’ve recorded your episode chances are you didn’t get it perfect. No worries because the show I pre-recorded and you’ll be able to tweak it before sending out. That’s where editing comes into play. This process is not hard but takes some time to complete. Here’s a four-step process you can use today to edit your podcast.

Step 1: Cut what you don’t want

The main part of editing is cutting what you don’t want. This includes taking out double-takes, umms and extra space in the interview. Take the time to go through your episode and take out what you don’t want to keep.

you can do this is by highlighting the sections of the audio you don’t want, and delete it. The aim is to ensure your conversation runs smooth and natural. 

After you make your cuts you can insert a couple of seconds of space for your music bed, and sponsored messages. This is the final part of this process. 

Step 2: Level the volume of the interview

Getting the conversation on one consistent level is the next part of the process. You can achieve this using a compressor or limiter. Open the compressor in your editing programme, Set the attack to 0 and the release to about 100. Set the ratio at 10:1. After that set the threshold to the average level of your interview. What you’ve just done is to use the compressor to make your interview consistent. 

Step 3: remove noise if it’s there

Noise reduction is the last part of the process. This is pretty simple. Select a portion of the noise you want to remove. Open the noise reduction plugin in your editing software and select capture noise profile. Then deselect the audio and reopen the noise reduction plugin. Make adjustments to remove the noise to taste. Your aim is not to remove everything but to turn it down to a level where it is not noticeable. 

Step 4: Save and export you show

Once you are finished editing save your edit. You don’t want to lose all that work you just did. Also, this is a good time to add your intro and outro music for your podcast. Once you’re done, export your final episode.  Label your file properly and you’re done. 

Pat yourself on the back you’ve just edited your podcast episode.

Podcasting is seeing a boom right now, and more persons are starting to create their own shows, but with all the excitement people rush into doing it and end up compromising the quality of their show, as a result of faulty editing techniques. This makes the experience less than ideal for the listener. Here are 3 mistakes freshman podcasters make when editing.

#1 The volume of the interview and music bed does not match

This is the first noticeable and common mistake. You start listening to a show, loving the intro music then the introduction comes in and you realize the volume to be way quieter than the music. Sometimes the difference in volume is so great it makes it hard to listen to the show without turning up the volume of your device. 

A quick fix for this is turning down the volume of the mic to match the interview. This is easy to do, just turn down the volume knob in your editor for the music track. Use your ears to match the volume. you know if it’s good enough is when the volume of the music and the interview does not drown each other out. Also, when the fade comes in it does not hide the words of your introduction.

#2 The interview is too quiet.

The other mistake noticed is that the actual interview is too quiet. I was listening to a podcast once and when the episode started I had to turn up the volume in my car to its maximum to hear what the person was saying. The information was good, it’s just that I had to strain my ears to listen. 

A quick fix for that is using the amp tool in your editor to increase the volume of your podcast episode. You can also use a compressor or a limiter to achieve the same result. This will help you to make the volume of the podcast consistent.

#3 leaving dead space inside the interview 

The last mistake I notice is persons leaving dead space inside the interview. An example of this is the guest might be explaining something then pause for a bit before finishing a thought. Some podcasters leave that in not knowing it can be taken out. You will be listening to the show and perhaps think it has ended, not knowing there’s dead space in the audio. 

To correct this problem you can just highlight the space in your editor and press the delete key. This will get rid of the empty space. While you are doing that, go through the interview and clean up space and make the conversation tighter.

You can also use this time to take out any “umms” and “ahhs” that you or the guest makes while talking. This will clean up the interview quite nicely and increase the quality of the show.

Conclusion

Fixing these 3 mistakes will increase the overall quality of your podcast. It will also improve the experience of your listeners.

The internet has changed the way people learn. It has provided multiple options and sources for students to find information. Youtube, blogs and podcast have added a new dynamic to the learning experience. But the question is how can educators use these tools to their advantage?

Imagine having a healthy discussion with a group of students around a topic. Some of them bring up points from your podcast or even ask other questions for clarification following an interview you did. That’s what a podcast can do.

Create a Study Resources

Young people live on their mobile phones, so why not create resources for them to use while they are preparing for exams. The beauty of a podcast is that instead of them listening to music, they can playback a lesson for further clarity on a topic. This is a neat idea to have notes in audio form catering to the learner who likes to listen

The other way to utilize a podcast is to add extra material not covered in class. This can be new analogies and examples to further explain your point. These extra examples can make a big difference to students retaining the material.

Expose them to real-world applications

Another way a podcast can help teachers is to talk about real-world applications of a subject. This can be interviewing industry practitioners and subject matter experts about current trends in the industry.

What this does is get persons to buy into the topic by seeing the relevance of what you are talking about. For example, a subject like English, talking to leaders about knowing how to communicate using the written word. This can help students see the relevance of the subject and learn to appreciate it.

Change the teaching style

Finally, changing your approach in your podcast can be a testing ground for new ideas. Maybe a more fun approach can be a way to get listeners drawn to your unique style. Maybe a more practical how-to-style or teach through stories. The possibilities are endless.

The aim is to experiment with different ideas. Finding what your students will respond to and get them drawn into your subject area. Podcasts can add that experience and offer a way to engage with students in a new way.