532. 5 Real Podcasting Challenges (And How to Handle Them)

0:04 Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, good Today is Friday, june 5, 2026 and today we're going into the mail bag. We've got five real podcasting questions to talk through together: a co-host quitting after three years, beginner gear on a budget, a client with impossible production expectations. How to create smoother podcast transitions, and whether host notice flaws that listeners don't. So, for everyone listening on Clubhouse, hit the share button, top right hand side of your screen, and share however Clubhouse let you to join us live. Go to Podcasting Morning chat.com/join us. So, give us about 30 seconds going. Thank you so much for being here today. Marc Ronick: The podcasting morning show is powered by Ironick Media, helping podcasters launch, polish, and grow great shows, and by Content behind their content. Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, good morning again, everybody. Welcome to the podcasting morning show. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host today.

1:27 Mark is traveling, so he is going to be.. I see he's in the audience, so Mark, we're glad to see you there. But he'll be doing some traveling today, so DR. and I are going to hold the fort down here on the live stream. Also joining me, we've got Janae, we've got, like I said, DR. and BC Babbels and Sid Meadows, and then join us from the audience we have Dan Schultz joining us today. And before we get started here, I want to play this week's we'll be talking about some but I wanted to start off with Now, this one is from the Boomer Bunker, and John Domingo, who oftentimes joins the audience here, and he's been on stage with us a few times as well. He sent this in to us, and this is what he says. He says the Boomer Bunker is an unfiltered conversation show where no topic is off the table, day, delivered with zero corporate polish, its adult theme has adult language from a Boomer and Gen X perspective.

2:25 So, let me go ahead and play his submission right now. Audio Clip: Welcome to the out of Jersey, where we don't it like we see it, loud, proud politics, culture, everyday We're diving in. If you want polite and polished, go listen somewhere else. But if you want real talk, Jersey grit and laughs, this is your spot. The Boomer Bunker Podcast, Jersey Tough, Boomer Bold. Check us out at Boomer bunker.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Ralph Estep Jr.: What a great I just hear DR: great. Ralph Estep Jr.: Oh, it sure does. Dr. and his co-host, I listened to his show in full His co-host, Kate, has a great.. they call it the Duchess, actually. She's got a great voice and just a fantastic.. did anybody want to make a comment about that spotlight submission? Go ahead, DR. DR: Well, I think this is speaking to me because I am a boomer, and I think this is going to be right up my alley.

3:23 I gotta, I gotta tune in now. Is what days does he drop? What does days.. So he Ralph Estep Jr.: does a live stream on Monday and Thursday evenings, and then what I've noticed, he usually has the podcast, because he does a podcast, it's usually released the next day, but I think he goes from 630 to eight on YouTube, Rumble, and X, I believe. He said, so it's, it's pretty. He also has a Discord channel, I mean, he's got all kinds of stuff. You can find him at Boomer bunker.com actually. But DR: great, Ralph Estep Jr.: great friend of the program here, John. So, thanks for sending us family DR: So, it feels good to, you Ralph Estep Jr.: He absolutely So, Dr. is going to read the first question here in a second, strategy, it's actually about losing a creative partner, and they've.. this particular one, the show's getting momentum, and further ado, Dr. if you want to jump right into our first question, then I'm going to open it up to everybody for your comments, questions, concerns, and what we can do to help this person. DR: Right, so this writer writes, we are coming up on our three year anniversary of the show, and we are finally starting to grow.

4:35 We are with a great network, we've been getting some great fans doing fun collaborations with other shows like Live Laugh Larceny. live event this week, but this that she needs to step away. was coming for a while, and I of her decision. But it still sucks. I'm struggling with the decision to keep the podcast going, trying to find a new co-host or pivot into something totally new. I'm wondering who has had something similar happen, and what did you do? This is a tough one. Ralph Estep Jr.: This is a tough and this is a really tough And so let me ask, let me ask the room this.

5:23 Let's get started with this first. You know, who here has had a creative partner lead? Does anybody want to comment about that? I've not experienced this, so for me this one is sort of outside my normal area of things doesn't happen sometimes. Does anybody want to chime in? If you want to chime in, go ahead, go ahead, BC. I see you wanted to make a comment. BC Babbles: Yeah, good morning, everyone. I'm curious, did they mention whether or not this co-host has been there since the very beginning, or has she been a recent addition? I'm wondering if that might be a caveat to help him decide one way or the other. DR: It doesn't say in all, it to gain some traction, a lot of fans and everything, so it feels like they're established as a duo.

6:09 Ralph Estep Jr.: See, that would probably started this together, reading that into the question. BC Babbles: Gotcha. So, yeah, so I see his concern for sure, if he's worried that with that established relationship, and those numbers, if she goes away, then those numbers will drop. So that might be a great sabbatical opportunity. Honestly, Ralph Estep Jr.: that's a very good point. BC, when you're in that position, I just.. the thing that worries me about taking a sabbatical is if you're in a place where you're seeing momentum, that's an audience If I think, if you stop creating stuff out there that might actually, actually work against you, because from what I've seen is people grow accustomed to you being there right there, they're they get the day that you come out normally, all those sort of things, like right now, I can tell you on my daily show, we've and my big concern with that is people are used to hearing my trained your audience, basically.

7:07 So, I don't know if BC Babbles: the timeline will be too long. What about repurposing the older content with her, like from the beginning of the show until she comes back, assuming that her stepping away is numb to law, DR: there's nothing in this The other part of it is also something to Sid Meadows: add to this. By the way, Ralph Estep Jr.: go ahead, Sid. Sid Meadows: Sorry, I raised my pepper a couple of times, but Ralph Estep Jr.: here's what I Here's what I'd like to suggest for everybody, because I think this is easier. If you'd like to make a comment, can you put a one in the chat?

7:49 That would be really helpful. Yeah, and that way I'll know to go back to them. But go ahead, Sid. I'm sorry I didn't see that. Sid Meadows: Well, no worries. When Janet had raised his pet for two, so.. but you know what I think is it sucks to lose somebody that you're been partnering with and doing something, having fun with, but what I would encourage this person is, it, I think it's if this person, if you love podcasting and you love creating into a solo show, or you could search for a new host. I know doing a solo show is not easy, but the other thing that you might do is bring on a special co-host for each episode. Go into your community, maybe go into your audience, and tap them and say, hey, so and so has left the show, and I'm going to be the next several weeks, I'm going to be having guest co-hosts come on and continue the show. If you love this show, if you love producing, and I would try to figure out a way to keep doing it, but I'll encourage you to take time to grieve the loss of this. Right, you got to, you just kind of let this process that a person that you're close to has left, so take a moment just to let yourself grieve and be sad about this, but don't stay there.

9:07 Ralph Estep Jr.: Let me ask you a follow-up question. Sid, so one of the things I had my notes here today was, do we want to do a goodbye episode if the co-host is willing? And do you, how do you handle this with the audience who's used to hearing two voices and there's a chemistry there? Sid Meadows: I think that's a know, we're making a change, Let's, yeah, let somebody know that they're this person is leaving the show, and give that person the opportunity to just say goodbye, and why, if they want to, why they're leaving the show. And then that also allows them that same conversation allows the host to pin it to whatever it is they're going to do next, right? And that's a brilliant idea to have a goodbye episode or farewell to co-hosts or something to that effect.

9:51 I love.. well, thank you, Sid. Go ahead, Janae. I'm sorry again, I didn't see you speak up. Go ahead, Janine. Junaid: Yeah, no problem, Sid. Already took what I was gonna say, so you know it's been built community going. I mean, just look at our community, right? How has it grown? How has new people like you've come in, and you know you've helped support keep going this the podcast morning show, so the want to comment before I have Dr. move on to our next question? I just wanted to say one thing here. I, again, we've gone through this process of, hey, we've got Mark this is my take on

11:51 this, and I think you don't kill a three out for a week, who's gonna fill in, and we did this last year low when he was on vacation, so that's something that we can tell him, like, hey, here's something that's already worked for us, you could try it out. In fact, a friend of mine, who was part of this community where in five years, and then the own, let go of it, so one of the like, you know, I'll take over now she's passing it out to keeping that community going, so can do if she's really, really That's a great idea, Jenny.

12:55 Now I want to go to Dan. Dan, go ahead. You have some comments to make. year show immediately, but you happened. Either, you got to respect the departure, and then test the next version, and then decide what you want to do. That's one of the emotional sides of podcasting, you know. That's a tough thing. But let's go ahead, Dr. We're going to switch to our second question of the day, and this question comes to us beginners looking to get started with gear.

13:40 So, Dr. Flag is yours, my friend, and just in full disclosure, Dr, and I were on camera together, but Dr is having some camera issues, so just me on the camera today, so you're welcome to join us live, you, yeah, I sent a link to those folks, but anyway, go ahead, DR. DR: Okay, so a friend and I are looking to co-host our show, and we have no idea on what we need for setup. We have a space to record. We have our idea now. We just need to get our gear together. It's worth noting that we are indeed on a budget. I've heard a lot of good things about Samsung Q as a budget-friendly option, but I want some other opinions before committing to anything.

14:24 We're looking for a good tabletop mic that we can put between us on a table that Also, recommendations for preferably free, would be experience there, Ralph Estep Jr.: yeah, I don't know about anybody else. When I read through that, and they said they're going to put a tabletop microphone they're both going to share, I sort of cringed a little bit, and I said, yeah, that's going to make a challenge. What does everyone else think about that particular issue? What do you think, DR. DR: Well, definitely for the editing stuff. Where free Audacity is great, and you know they're coming out with a new version very soon, before the end of the year, probably.

15:08 So check Audacity out. As for the mics, you know, I, I really don't have a whole lot of experience with my clients being in the same room with who they're interviewing, so the whole mic bleed thing. I am not, I don't have a lot of experience with Mike Bleed. Ralph Estep Jr.: I'm just picturing a blue Yeti, though, in the middle of this room. I'm just saying, like, I'm being honest, like I'm picturing this Blue Yeti on a Junaid: Blue Yeti. Ralph Estep Jr.: Aren't you I'm thinking Yeti in the middle of the table, and the poor person that's trying to edit themselves. It is going to be a disaster, and I mean that in a positive way.

15:50 I want them to get started, but I didn't mean to interrupt your train of thought, Dr. But that's just that's where my mind went. DR: That's where my mind went as number one, they are very, the holidays, is coming up, so discounts around the holiday, so And don't, what do you think about the lavaliers? Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, you know, and the problem is, and I'm not an expert, but I don't think they sound as great to me. They sound very shallow. I want to go to BC here in a second, because he won the comment, but to me, I've tried out the lavaliers, and I think it's the size of the diaphragm, as I understand it.

16:32 It just doesn't give you that rich sound that you get. We're going to go to BC now, and then Junaid, I've got you up on deck after that. Go ahead, BC. BC Babbles: Yeah, I agree, windscreen pop filter, and maybe microphone, it's still gonna be too sensitive. I think they want to consider the room that they have. It sounds like they at least have a room decided upon. Listen to the ambient noise. Do you want to get sound panels for the walls? Do something, get a carpet under the table, try to dampen as much of that gnat sound as possible before looking into the end of microphones, and I hate to suggest this, because anti yeti on here, but we're not So I would say I've seen a lot of good feedback for some, don't tell me, TikTok microphones that are on the TikTok shop, like toner microphones or fine microphones that are supposed to be supposed to be pretty good for tabletop, and they're a lot more affordable than even like a Some of these on TikTok are like 55 plus, so they're on a budget, might be an option, consider learning how to do like Adobe Audition, just have a before they upgrade to either to Riverside, just to help them to have a bit more manual quality manipulation. Those are my thoughts so far.

18:02 Ralph Estep Jr.: I want to go to have a comment in the live This is from Livestream Consultant. It says the short answer is, do not do it. Using a shareable mic is fine in a conference call situation, but in a live streaming podcasting setup, use individual mics. They can be from $40 and up. And thank you for making that comment. I think that is a very valid thing to say, but I just want to acknowledge them in the live stream, because we got a few people over there joining us. But go ahead, Janae, you're up next. Junaid: As the resident home studio architect, I would recommend that they do not buy any gear at all. So, what I would recommend is grab their phones and record an episode or two, and see what that experience feels like, because that's going to give them a lot of things. It's almost like you're telling somebody to go buy running shoes, and they haven't even stepped outside yet, right? So you want to make sure that you're testing these things. What BC mentioned, you know, check the room sound. Do you have flat surfaces in that room? Treat them with curtains with rugs and whatnot. Is this an audio only podcast, or are they also going to do video?

19:12 So, think about those things before you even step into it. Thinking about buying a microphone just because you're doing a podcast, I think, is the wrong direction to even get started with, so I know as a podcaster I'm totally saying things, my what? No microphone, no, because we all have microphones in our pockets, in our phones start using that one, because that's going to get you on a path of, hey, what do we even sound like, and how is the conversation flowing right down, and you don't have to We're just testing test episodes, and then go through the different software that are available. Audacity is great. I've never used it, and there's other software that you can use.

19:57 Again, there's so much good Out there, even if they had a subscription to Adobe Podcast, that's going to help clean out all of that junk that might come from a bleeding-in microphone, because that software is getting so good. So, I would say, experiment, experiment, experiment, publish. Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you, Junaid. Those are very solid comments. Go ahead, Dan, you're up next. Dan: Real quick, Janae just made can clean up the voice now. What we've done multiple times, we do a travel show, and we have to travel a lot and be in the same hotel room, and we just use a Zoom, I think they're called handies, depending how much your budget is, like the h1 through the h5 or whatever, they're basically interfaces that you plug in between, you put them right between you.

20:45 They have two directional mics, one facing you, one facing the other person. The microphones are right next to each other, but they do a really good job with separation. The other thing that is really neat, you just put sound cards in and you actually record both tracks at the same time, so you, in effect, you have two microphones, but one unit. Hey, Dan, smart. Yeah, Ralph Estep Jr.: Dan, can I interrupt you for one second? Can you bring your level up a saying your level is pretty low? Dan: Yeah, probably. I don't know. Let me see here. Ralph Estep Jr.: I noticed it me. Dan: Does that help? Ralph Estep Jr.: Not really. If you can bring it up a little bit more, just.. I know it's going to sound funny, but I can't do it from this end. It seems like it's coming from your side. Dan: Okay, my input level is That's weird. It sounds like he's way away from his mic. Ralph Estep Jr.: Yeah, it does sound like that. But Dan: oh, hold on a second.

21:34 Another thing you can do is like make sure you're on the right microphone. Ralph Estep Jr.: Oh, see, this is a great time to talk about this, right, Dan. Dan: Yes, don't number one, comes. If we're talking about microphones, don't listen to me. So everything I just said. No, um, yeah, I don't know. Uh, club deck just switched my microphone for some reason. I was on my headphone microphone. Is this better now? Ralph Estep Jr.: It sounds a Go ahead, Dan. I didn't mean to interrupt. I just want everybody to be able to hear what you're saying. Dan: Yeah, so there's Zoom handy whatever your budget can take. It's good for a couple reasons, like I said, there are two microphones on this one unit, you can plug it in, put it right on the table, and you know, in the middle of you, they do a pretty decent job of separating, but the cool thing is that you're also recording via track, so you're going to have, like, you put a SD card in, and everyone's going to be on their own track, which is obviously going to help you with everything, because everyone will be on their own track. There's still going to be a little bit of mic bleed, but if you have the SD file, you're the card, you can go in and deal with it, and I was just saying that Janae is totally right about everyone can basically have AI software that can, you can take a crappy mic and turn it into something pretty decent. Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, thank you, Dan. I know Dr. has a comment she'd like to make. DR: Yeah, so when it comes to the Adobe Voice Enhance, please pay for that one.

23:03 Don't go for the cheap, don't go for the free one, because it's level, leveled up all the way to 100 and that's not ideal. If you can pay, I think it's like $115 or something like that, but it comes out to be a little less, I'm sorry, a little more than $8 a month, and it is so worth it. You can adjust the levels when You can adjust all the levels, and it really makes a big, big difference. Ralph Estep Jr.: Did you say that was called again? I'm sorry, I missed that. DR: I think that's Adobe Okay, and if you pay for that, you also have access to Adobe Studio as well, so you can, that's your, you know, that'll be your editing station as well, and also you didn't ask for this, but you did mention that you and your friend are thinking about doing this podcast together, so I always say, please, please, please have an agreement, a written agreement between the two of you.

24:08 You know what happens if one of you gets sick? What happens if you get in a What happened? You know who does this belong to? Who's responsible for doing what? So please have something written point. Well, let's go ahead. If does anybody else want to If not, we've got three more questions, and let's go on to the next question. DR. So, if you want to go to a question three, this one is really interesting. They want to tease yesterday about hand signals. So, go ahead, DR. DR: Yep, it says I just got back from witnessing and being a part of the most unhinged podcast editing session in my life, and I need to know if I'm losing my mind or if this is actually as insane as it feels.

24:53 So, here's the setup: small room, multiple cameras, guest host, co-host, plus. A center wide, I'm not sure what a center wide is. also sitting there, no space to reposition anything. The client is extremely specific, wants a perfectly clean show, no ums, no pauses, natural conversation flow, they, they sat next to the editor for two hours, critiquing The moment that broke me, this is the writer saying, the moment that broke me, the guest uses his hands when he talks.

25:39 At one point his hand briefly covered part of his face. I didn't flag it as a human being gesturing naturally. The client pulled me aside and said I should have stopped that live recording, interrupted the conversation, and told the guest wouldn't block his face. I asked, How is he supposed to know that? Their answer, that's your job to catch and correct. like a client for Bill. That's your job to catch the correct catch and correct in the moment. Now, the kicker, Caleb, and I guess that's the editor, Caleb, and I agree that the only real fix is moving the cameras, but the room is too small. We suggested alternatives like higher tripods, digital crops, losing the dedicated guest cam.

26:39 one because they're very instead of accepting physics, babysitting to guess Am I crazy for thinking this is insane? And it goes, have you ever had a client this deep in the perfectionism rabbit hole. How do you handle it without getting fired? And seriously, do I need a left hand only cost in my next contract, or should I just run? I say run. Ralph Estep Jr.: Let's go ahead and go to Sid, he was first, and we'll go to BC and Janae. But go ahead, Sid. Yeah, Sid Meadows: this is a very interesting listening to this. My first reaction, you know, somebody who runs a business, not every client is the right client for you. Based on everything that I've heard, without knowing all the situation, I would fire the client. This is not, this does not sound like a client I would want to work with, and their expectations exceed what's this client's not worth it.

27:43 replace this income. So, I would fire the client. Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that is they've never worked with any kind of editing, any kind of situation like this. That's what it sounds like, that the clients are new to this as well. Ralph Estep Jr.: It does sound very valid points. It even in my practice, I've had to fire clients that I just did. We didn't get along, and it's okay to do that. But let's go ahead. Sid, by the way, go ahead. BC, I know you have a comment about claustrophobia too. I see here. BC Babbles: Gee, yeah. Listen to the description of a very tight space. My claustrophobia was definitely being triggered by the story set up there. I want to know if this person - it sounds like they didn't do a discovery call with the person, or if they did, this client had a great facade during the discovery call, because I wish I would, this person would have gotten some kind of hint of this create crate well before having to enter that that space with with these people. Also, I also had to wonder, with the specificities that they had, is the host's wife like a former set manager on, like, a trying to, like, relive the good fired, like all these left hand, not the right hand, thing, it's like it almost seems they're talking about, but beyond what the scope of this Ralph Estep Jr.: Very good BC, I want to go to Janae, and then Nikki has a question as well. But go ahead, Janae.

29:13 Junaid: I think the main wide the people speaking on there, cameras, so it's like a three like, and what it means is that the hand gesture, blah blah blah, I think he's better huff said, because if the editor or about editing, maybe they should mean, why did they even hire an expert, right? And that's what I say when I'm working with clients, like, hey, if you have so many requests, why don't you do it? Because I've been doing it for ages, but maybe you could do it better than I can. Ralph Estep Jr.: I think that's a brilliant point, man. I have that in my accounting practice sometimes. People will say, hey, let me take a look at what you did. I'm like, well, you hired me to be the professional, so I but very good point. Knikki, excuse me, Ty Tutoring, aka Knikki, you're on deck.

30:10 Go ahead and let us know what you're thinking. Knikki: Thank you, guys, I was, I had an interesting experience last night. I've had a really good podcast cast of people that have come on my show and shared some amazing insights, and I've always done the pre-interview, like you guys have suggested. I thought that was a great way to vet people, and sometimes every once in a while, always catch myself kicking myself, because every once in a while my intuition will ping, and it'll say, do not put this person, this person on your show, and I'll be like, okay. And sometimes I'll dismiss it, and sometimes I won't, but I always have to stick to my guns. I have to, I know that now. So, anyway, I had this lady on my show last night, and thank God it's not live, it's all pre-recorded.

31:01 personal growth coach, life started asking her some evident about 15 minutes into actually have any level of from the pre-interview I could I said, "Well, maybe, you know, I doubted myself. Well, it was, it was obvious once the show was filming and recording, so I started asking her some questions, easier questions to try to help her get into a rhythm, you know, where she could talk about some things Well, anyway, she, about probably 25 minutes in, she just stopped mid-interview, like completely stopped, and she says I have to go, and I was like, okay.

31:45 And then she left Zoom, and then that was it. And I was sort of bum puzzled in a way. I've never had that happen before. I was wondering if anybody in this space have ever has ever had that happen. I know some of you guys bring guests on. Have you ever had a situation where somebody comes on your show, they say there's something, but they're not, and then you find out, like mid show, that they're not who they said they were, and then they just want to pat out on you. I thought it was interesting. Ralph Estep Jr.: What a great Sid, I'm gonna go to in a second. I actually had a situation where I was on someone else's show, they were hosting it, and they apparently were recording the video from a used this room well. About halfway into the interview, somebody knocks on the door and says, 'You got to get out of here, your time is spent.

32:31 Not exactly the same situation, Nikki, but I feel for you. in. And I guess my clean takeaway from that is, I guess, trust your intuition next time, and just be like, I don't think this is going to work, but go ahead, Sid. I see you wanted to have a comment on that. Sid Meadows: Yeah, maybe for you. Yeah, I've never actually had that exact situation happen, was a blessing, right? That she abruptly ended the show, so now you really don't feel like you have to publish it, but what has happened to me is I have a pre call with somebody and their energy is really good, they're exciting, they're just sharing a lot of value in the pre call, and we get really a different person shows up, I'm like, where are you, where's the person that I did the pre call with, where's your energy, where's your excitement moment?

33:17 That's happened to me a couple of times, and that's so frustrating because you person that's who's going to show up and then they don't and then I had somebody that he just couldn't stop talking, he did not do that in the pre call and he took a question, took him seven minutes to answer the question, I finally interrupted him and I said, "Hey, my audience expects us to have a conversation and you took seven minutes to answer be able to go back and forth. I know you're nervous, I know what the potential impact to you let's take a deep breath and So, I think the messaging there is there's likely always going to be guest-related issues come up, you know.

34:01 I don't think we can avoid it now. Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you, Sid. I want to mention what Julie put in the chat. She said you should play the episode and add your own commentary. It would be fascinating. Yeah, that would be fascinating. I'm not sure how the guests would like that to play out, but does anybody else want to make a comment? If not, we're going to go ahead and move on to our next question. Well, go ahead, DR Let's move on to our next question. This one is about transitions. DR: Yeah, so it says I'm at a stage where I've edited my audio, but it's lacking a nice transition because it jumps straight into talking introduction. I have a pre-recorded intro and outro, which will remain consistent, but it's just not enough. When I listen to the edited episode, the obvious answer would be a few seconds of intro and outro music, but I'm open to other ideas, as it's been extremely difficult for me to find music that I don't have to pay for. I want to comment on.

35:00 That, by the way, that fits the rhythm of my speech. Any ideas are welcome on the below topics. Number one, finding music that fits, like the vibe, the speed of speech, etc. Number two, finding music that you don't have to pay for. Podcast is a hobby, and I'm not making money from it, number three alternative transitions that don't involve music. Well, you know, Audio Jungle is a fantastic platform. You can set the, the amount of money that you want to pay. It could be $5 it could be $2 You can set the amount, you can set the rhythm that you want, like the count, the beat count.

35:46 There's.. it's an amazing that you can get very, very specific for very little money. So that is my suggestion. Audio Jungle, and yeah, Ralph Estep Jr.: is that a subscription platform? DR. DR: It is not. It is not. I don't have a subscription to it, and I go to it whenever I need to, but again, it's, you know, you pay one time for, you know, a little jingle here and there. So, okay, s Ralph Estep Jr.: o it's like a la carte thing, you pay for the jingle that you want to use, and then you move on. DR: Yeah, yeah, and you can set the amount that you want to pay, like a range, I want to pay want it upbeat, and I want it.

36:30 kind of requirements that you it's a great platform. Ralph Estep Jr.: Awesome. Go ahead, BC. I see you want to make a comment. Then we're going to go to Sid. BC Babbles: Yeah, expanding on uploading her content to YouTube Studio has an entire audio library with where you can section things up by mood, genre, length, words in the title, so lots of options there. I would say don't just put a few seconds of music for transition and add a whole music Learn the beauty of L cuts and J cuts, and it'll really amplify the quality of your show. And let's see, she's even using.. I don't know what's.. if she mentioned what she's using for production, but if she happens to be using, say, was a Capcut. Capcut also comes with its own audio library, and most of these things, like with Audio Jungle, don't require attribution, you just plop it on, you add that magic, and you're good to go.

37:27 DR: So, basically, for the newer mentioned a couple of words here the jargon wheel. Can you explain L cut? Did you say I Dan: so BC Babbles: yes, Elka, so Elkin and J cut, it's their name that way because of how they look visually when you're making them, so an Elkhead is when the audio from a previous shot or scene flows into the next scene, with a bit of the previous scene stripling in and out, then a J cut is the opposite, you're coming towards the end of a scene, and then the sound from the next scene intrudes on the idea before the visual actually cuts to the next shot, so it's a sorry about that broadcast, broadcast undergrad term that I threw in, there were those the only two DR. DR: I think so. Yes, thank you.

38:27 BC Babbles: Attribution, are we are we good on attribution? We get there. DR: Oh, let's do it. BC Babbles: So, attribution for new podcasters basically is whether or not you have to, if artistic property from another have to give them their dues on whatever you're using them for, so if you happen to find a piece Studio that requires attribution, it'll actually give you a paragraph talking about the artists, when they made it, a bit more about the artist's profile that you have to include, say, in your YouTube description for the video you use their music ad. Ralph Estep Jr.: Thank you. BC, let's go to Sid. Sid, go ahead.

39:09 Sid Meadows: There have been about this, so you can Google be several places to come up. music, and we've had the same of different ways. We've looped it before, all those things, and we just, in the bottom of the landing page, in the bottom of the show notes, there's a little sentence attribution where we got the music, who it's from, the link to the website, all that kind of stuff, and it's just like one sentence, so it was free, and I think there are lots of resources to get free music that you can cut up and add to your show. So I would encourage you to search for it. Ralph Estep Jr.: That's a very good point. And Jessica put in the chat, Sound Lab is free and has an audio editor, you can upload your sound and edit it, faded in or out.

39:58 It also has a compressor. Teacher, too, and my takeaway from this one is they said they're a hobbyist, and that's a tough spot to be in, if you think about it, because they probably don't want to spend a lot of money, and it's easy to go find stuff to spend money, but I think we've all given them to our final question, so that we have time for wins of the week. So, go ahead, DR. DR: The last question is, I think podcast hosts notice different things than listeners do. Sometimes I have been realizing lately is that podcast hosts, and wait a minute, some something I have noticed hosts and listeners often seem differently. As a host, it is easy to obsess over things like missed questions, a rough transition, a moment where you lost your train of thought, or something you wish you had said differently.

40:51 But when I talk to people about podcasts they enjoy, they rarely mention any of that. They usually remember an interesting story, a strong something that made them think time podcasters spend worrying barely notice. Curious if others have experienced this. Have you ever disliked an episode you made only to find out listeners ended up enjoying it? Ralph Estep Jr.: I think this is aspect of life, you know. If you are a banker, you're going to notice a teller when you go into another bank. You're going to notice a teller who does her job really, really well. Gosh, I really like the way you covered out those $5 bills. You know, you're just going to notice things differently, no matter what genre you're talking about. Ralph Estep Jr.: Yeah, so let me the listeners liked it, or vice versa?

41:49 Go ahead, Sid, I see you want to comment. Sid Meadows: Yeah, this happened record an episode and go, oh turn out real, that's not going to turn out good. And then I gotta listen to it, and I'm like, oh, wow, that's a really great episode. I'm picking my editor back and forth, like this is gonna need some work, it's not really good. And then it turns out great. And then when I listen to it, because I listen to every episode before it publishes, and then I'll be listening to it, and I try to put my listener ear on, right? And, but it's really hard, dang, you should ask this Why didn't you go deeper on that particular topic? And I've had episodes that I think had one a few weeks ago, I think was really good. In fact, I would put it at the top of my list for best episodes this year, but it did not land well with my audience at all, and so it's just, I mean, this is a journey and a roller coaster.

42:47 I'm not sure you're ever going to get off of, right? Because, as the creator, you're always going to be critiquing, but you can't necessarily think the way your audience thinks. So, it's definitely a roller Ralph Estep Jr.: I love that Roller coaster, we're going to go to BC, and then we're going to go to Dan. Go ahead, BC. BC Babbles: Yeah, I got a couple One of them was due to a tech issue that I didn't realize was happening in the moment. Something happened with the SD card to where it only caught literally every other five seconds of our spoken audio. So, in posts, thankfully, I had a camera recording, I had to go and post and use the camera's audio to fill in all those gaps for a one hour conversation, and I couldn't get the guests back.

43:30 This was this was the second attempt to recording, and they were just, they were done trying to reschedule. So it's still out there, and I'll even share it if anyone wants to, but it's just really bad. You hear the back and forth Rodecaster camera audio, and I still hate it so much, but the other one I guess I should say that I hate is the one that we fired a couple years ago, but on the other hand, that got some of the highest numbers in the history of my show, so I know at least everyone else was eating it up. Ralph Estep Jr.: Yeah, that's the way it works, isn't it? PC, go ahead, Dan, you're up, and then we move into our wins of the week, here in just a minute or two. Dan: Yeah, I mean, ultimately it someone's listening for the first time, they're gonna like it or they're not gonna like it, and no matter what, somebody's gonna hate it and somebody's going to love it.

44:15 Like, it's just.. it's ridiculous. One thing that is a little bit said kind of reminded me about When you actually go into the real world and you meet your people and they say, oh, well, I really love this episode. You don't want to say, oh God, that one sucked. You know what I mean? Because it's like really easy to do that if they loved it and they're telling you they loved it. You should always be like, oh, this is awesome. I'm really happy you said that. We were trying to do was blah blah blah blah blah. It's ultimately what the listener experiences, and it's not usually what what you take out of it. My co-host and I argue about this all the time. When we record something, we might be like, 'Oh, God, this sucks. When I edit it, I'll be like, 'Jen, you're way wrong.' then she'll listen to it and be like, oh, this was like our best episode ever. So, hopefully you'll have more of that type of thing, but yeah, I don't know.

45:10 Ralph Estep Jr.: Very good I just want to read two comments. Sambaza put, I have also had the same experience when I look at show and say that it wasn't all that great in the letter. I have so many reviews on it that are positive, and Jessica said podcasting is its own art form. The challenge is that we judge of perfect without appreciating the unique West the medium works. The impact matters more than the polish, and Tide says we are our own harshest critics, and I agree with all of that. I think the thing that we have to take away from this, and I actually took a different angle on this. I thought they were more talking about the audio quality, and I think it was Daniel J. Lewis, and actually he's going to join us on the show Tuesday, by the way. But he said something his last podcast says, "Maybe you listen to your podcast without headphones on, because he said you'll hear things with headphones that you don't hear otherwise.

45:57 But I thought that was a really good point. Does anybody else want to make a comment before we move on to our wins from the week? All right, then we are going to go to our wins of the week. Well, this is your time to share your wins of the week. I will get started. Then I'm going to go down the list here. I'm going to be leaving here soon after we get done this live show. I'm going to be getting to an airport here in Philadelphia, Texas, to see my little My wife and I are super excited, so please keep us in your thoughts. But that is my big win of the week, a healthy, happy grandson. My daughter-in-law got admitted to the hospital two days ago. I'm happy to report she was released last night, so everybody is doing well. So, Janae, I come to you for your win of the week next, and then we'll just go down the list here, if that's cool with everybody.

46:44 Well, I may have said, there we go, Janae. Junaid: I'm streaming my win of the week. I got to celebrate my 50th birthday yesterday and launch my Pod Glue software operating system for podcasters yesterday on a three hour live stream. I got a ton of activity in the comments. I got to showcase the software that I've been building, and on top of that, I also released the album that's associated with Podglu, because you know Todglute solves certain problems that I was happening, and those are things that I captured in music form as well, so 700 conversations, no one, nobody did, or guest best, best guest ever, like those are some of the episode or songs that I also got to play on the live stream, so that was a lot of fun, and I think I'm going to people to join me, coming, you know, next few weeks.

47:46 Thank you, Janae. And podglu.com correct. Absolutely, that's podglu.com podcast host and wants to join the join, join the or add you to the software, so Thank you, Ralph Estep Jr.: Dan. We're going to come to you. Do you have a win of the week you'd like to share with everybody? Dan: Yeah, we officially wrapped and I reached out a few months ago to a bunch of various publications and just found out yesterday we're getting some major press in something in the UK, some huge daily newspaper, and then some huge podcasting literature newsletter type of thing. So it's pretty cool.

48:34 Ralph Estep Jr.: Congratulations, Dan, and thank you for sharing that. Let's go ahead and go to Knikki. Do you want to share a win of the week? Knikki: Yeah, just thinking one of the biggest wins that I had was I run some ads in the middle I'm doing, and one of my podcasts had a great and easy segue into a book that I had edited alongside my client, and we were able to sell, you know a nice little chunk of copies of the book I believe from from that one ad in the podcast, so it was really cool to see that. Ralph Estep Jr.: Well, fantastic. DR. I'm going to go to you, and then we'll go back to BC. If he has a win, he wants to share. DR: Yeah, I do have a win, Sid.

49:19 Okay, yeah, he's not even on here anymore, so anyway, for the past several weeks, my husband's truck has been in the truck hospital. Everything went wrong with it. So yesterday, my husband went to go get a new car, and we now have a new car. We're proud owners of a beautiful 2023 Camry. and it makes us look like such classy people when you drive past our driveway. Now, thank you. I Ralph Estep Jr.: thought that one was appropriate, because it's not only a celebration, but So that's fantastic. Well.

50:00 It, oh, thank you, DR. Before we close out. Does anybody else want to share a win? It looks like BC has a win this year, and then we'll, we'll be wrapping it up a couple minutes early today. BC Babbles: Yeah, most of my big in the wait, so I'm gonna hold I will say the very least it's going up to the 90s this It's gonna be a nice pool weekend, so I take that for my win. Ralph Estep Jr.: Very good, BC. everybody for all your support I think we had a great show answering some great real mailbag questions of people just like us who started, or we've been through these struggles as podcasters. So I just want to wish everybody a great weekend. Make sure you join us Monday.

50:40 Monday, and then I'll give you a On Tuesday, we're going to have Daniel J. Lewis. Daniel J. Lewis has been in podcasting for a very long time. He's going to talk about two things: he's going to talk about pod gaugement, and he's also going to talk about his other project, which is called Pod Chapters. We'll do our Wednesday news, and then joining us Thursday is going to be Dave Jackson, and Dave is going to talk about how to prepare well for an interview from the host perspective. What you should research, so you're not just showing up with a, I don't know, sure what I'm going to ask you questions. He's going to dig in to how to really ask the best questions and how to build your research before you get started. So, I just want to thank everybody for joining us today, I want to wish you a super wonderful weekend, and I'm going to go catch a plane and go see my grandbaby. So, thank you so much for everybody who joined us today, and I will look forward to seeing you again on Monday.