We Listened To Your Podcasts And Gave Actionable Feedback

Send us a text

In this episode, we turn Buzzcast into a mini help desk: listeners wrote in with their biggest podcasting pain points and bravely submitted their shows for honest, constructive feedback. We dig into things like tightening edits without making conversations feel “too clipped,” keeping loudness consistent across episodes, making dynamic content transitions feel natural, and using your show title and cover art to instantly communicate who your podcast is for.

We also talk strategy: How creators with big audiences (especially on YouTube/IG) can guide casual viewers into becoming true podcast subscribers and getting guests to actually share their episode.

Podcasts we give feedback to:

7:20 Wander Worldschool

16:50 Two Guys on a Plane

27:58 Midlife with Courage

31:56 Confessions of a Recovering Micromanaging Perfectionist Martyr

37:57 How to Start Up

48:33 This Is How You Think

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Answer the Public
• Buzzsprout Name Generator
• Podcasting Q&A: How to Get Guests to Promote Your Podcast with Kate Casey

Question for next episode: What do you wish you knew when you started your podcast or what tool exists today that you wish you had back then? Tap the text link in the show notes and send us your answer.

Contact Buzzcast

• Send us a text message
• Tweet us at @buzzcastpodcast, @albanbrooke, @kfinn, and @JordanPods

Thanks for listening and Keep Podcasting!

Episode Transcript

Kevin (00:00):
Jordan, Alban, it got down into the 40s last night in
Florida.
And Alban and I went to playour our nightly uh Monday night
pickleball match.

Jordan (00:10):
You guys played outside?

Kevin (00:12):
We did.
And it was fine.
I thought it was gonna bemiserable, but it was totally
fine.
But here's the thing is that Iactually for a moment, I have
these moments, just very few ofthem.
But once in a while, I missthat we don't get to live in a
like a real cold weatherenvironment.
And I had one of these momentslast night.
I'm gonna expose a little biton my sensitive side.
But I was driving to thepickleball courts and I have to

(00:34):
go through this little it's likea cool little downtown area of
Jacksonville.
It's called San Marco, Jordan.
I think you've seen it before.

Jordan (00:40):
Yeah, it's pretty.

Kevin (00:41):
There's nice shops and restaurants and stuff.
I was at an intersection, andthere are people going to what
looks like a nice restaurant.
They're dressed up kind ofnice.
And there's a guy and a girlwaiting at the stoplight for the
light to change leg and crossthe street.
And the woman uh is dressedlike in a long, you know, cold
weather coat, and she's holdingon to her man's arm and she's
like cold, and so she likeshivers up next to him, like

(01:03):
pulls him tight.
And I'm like, oh, what a what alike a Hallmark Christmassy
moment, you know?
Yeah.
And I was like, if the snow wasfalling and stuff, like it just
would have been perfect.
But I'm like, gosh, you know,we we have these days here and
there, but we don't have themfor an extended period of time.

Jordan (01:17):
Yeah.

Kevin (01:18):
So today it's like back up into the 60s, it's warm
again.

Jordan (01:21):
Yeah, I don't like when it's super duper cold, but when
you have those days where it'ssnowing and it's like light and
frosty and but like still sunnyat the same time, and then you
know, you're just kind of likebundled up and on a walk
downtown.
There's just something very itfeels like you're in a movie.
Like it's just one of thoseweird moments where you get very
like self-aware.

Kevin (01:41):
Yeah.
These short little romanticcold moments that happen,
they're very sweet.

Jordan (01:45):
Yeah.

Kevin (01:46):
And then after like 24 hours, you're like, I'm done
with it.
I want to warm up again.
This is brutal.

Jordan (01:50):
Well, especially like it's it's so lovely when you get
that like gorgeous, fluffy,white, sparkly snow.
And then literally the nextmorning after everyone's driven
through it, it's like browntrudge kind of stuff.
Like just like, and it's growsand then it freezes, and so it
becomes like rocky ice andyou're just like slipping
everywhere.
It's nice for like two secondsand then it's over.

Alban (02:11):
I think that's why it's great to go and travel when you
go somewhere that you can seesnow for a few days.
But I don't think I've everbeen on day six and gone, man,
I'd love one more day of snow.
Because I don't know how Iwould handle four, five, six,
seven months of it.

Jordan (02:26):
Yeah, we had a this one year, it was, I think it was
back in like 2017, we had whatwe called Snowbageddon, and it
just snowed and snowed andsnowed and wouldn't stop.
And it's nothing I've ever seenbefore here.
The snow was like up to mychest.
And I remember like everysingle day you'd have to go out
and shovel, and you could notsee the top of my lamppost at
the end of my walkway.
And they would like shovel allthe snow out of the roads into

(02:49):
piles.
And we had like a mountainouspile that was like almost as
tall as our house.
And our house is like atwo-story, but it was just like
brown mountains in the middle ofthe road.
It was, it was gross, man.
Like it was nasty.
Welcome back to BuzzCampus, thepodcast about all things

(03:12):
podcasting from the people atBuzz Sprout.
A couple episodes ago, we askedyou to write in with your pain
points, and then maybe we coulddo like a help desk type episode
and you know, problem solve foryou.
And then Kevin added on that ifyou wanted to, you could submit
your podcast for feedback.
And it's really funny because Ithought nobody's gonna send in

(03:34):
their podcast for feedback.
That is ludicrous.
And jokes on me.

Kevin (03:40):
Well, you didn't mention that at the time I dropped the
idea.

Jordan (03:42):
I didn't want to poo-poo your idea, but I was just like,
no one's gonna send in theirpodcast.
It's fine.
And then literally everybodywho wrote in wanted some honest
feedback from us, and I waspleasantly surprised.

Alban (03:54):
Can I share a story about uh getting feedback?
I just went to this conference,it was like a marketing
conference, and one of thespeakers was somebody who does
uh YouTube videos, and he waslike, Hey, I want to bring some
creators up on stage and I'llcritique your channels and give
you feedback.

(04:14):
Submit your show if you want.
And I guess two peoplesubmitted and he worked on it.
And his entire talk is going tobe the feedback.
So he brought them both up onstage.
They had no idea what he wasgonna say.
The first guy he goes, Allright, let's start with you.
I'm just imagining the guy'sname's Mark, I don't remember
the name.
He goes, Mark, let's start withyou.

(04:34):
My first advice to you would beto delete the entire channel
and start over.

Jordan (04:38):
Oh my god, not a joke.

Alban (04:40):
First comment, and it just kept going.
And it was like some guy whowas like, I'm the head of
marketing for this company, theCEO does this podcast.
I'm trying to convince them tochange the way they do their
video strategy.
And the poor guy was up therefor 30 minutes getting feedback,
like he'd made all thesedecisions in opposition to what

(05:02):
the expert had been telling himthe whole time.
And afterward, I was like,What's going on?
He's like, Yeah, I knew itwasn't gonna be great, but it
just kept going.
It just not gonna happen today.
No, first is not gonna happenis because all of the ones I
reviewed, I was so impressed.
We got some really goodpodcasts, so yeah, but even if

(05:26):
that wasn't the case, we couldfind something nice to say.
Uh, we just delete the entirechannel.

Kevin (05:32):
That was the first advice.

Jordan (05:33):
That's so mean, right?

Kevin (05:35):
I went into this with the uh approach of definitely gonna
be nice, but we're also likeI'm trying to offer constructive
criticism or constructive ideasor feedback or suggestions.
So, like they are just that.
They are suggestions, they areopinions.
And if you don't agree with it,don't feel like you have to
take it.
This is not a you're doing itwrong.
Here's the right way.
Yeah, these are just ideas, andif you like the ideas, go for

(05:57):
it.
And if you don't, no big deal.
But I don't know, I've got I'vegot a list here of of some
things, and and I don't wantanyone to feel like I'm
criticizing it or you're you'renot doing a good podcast.
Everyone who wrote in andsubmitted the shows, like Alban
said, they are excellent shows.
And yeah, I I followed all ofthem, and I'll tell you, another
topic for another day, but Ifollowed them all on Apple
Podcasts.
I'll tell you what, what anupdate we just got in 26.2.

(06:18):
It is so tempting for me tomake that my daily driver with
the transcripts and the autochapter markers and all that
kind of stuff.

Jordan (06:24):
Yeah.

Alban (06:24):
And the links to the shows that you talk about.
So every one of these shows,when we talk about it, is gonna
get auto-linked in ApplePodcasts.
And I'm sure if we went backand pulled the clip, I'm sure I
would have kind of poo-pooedthis idea or said, I don't know
what that's gonna do.
I think you did initially, butafter you fully understood it,
you're like, oh, wait, thisactually might be really good.
Well, I am definitely on boardwith this is actually pretty

(06:46):
good now.
Yeah, it's just nice.
Like Kevin was sendingscreenshots as soon as the
update came out, sendingscreenshots of our show notes to
us.
And I was like, Oh, this isreally nice being able to see
every time we have fan mail,there's people we mentioned
their show and now they're allshowing up.

Jordan (07:02):
It looks like a pod roll on the episode page.

Alban (07:05):
It does.
And it might become a nice wayfor people to connect more with
the Buzzcast community.
Yeah.
If you listen to us talkingabout the same people who write
in every week, now you can gocheck out their shows and give
it a listen and uh maybe you canreach out to them yourself.

Jordan (07:19):
All right.
Well, let's hop in with ourfirst listener submission.
We had Susie with Wander WorldSchool write in, and she has two
pain points that she wanted usto address.
Um, the first one is about herpodcast title.
So she said, I originally namedit Wander World School and slow
family travel podcast, but thatfelt too long.
Still, shouldn't I be clearabout the topic to help with

(07:41):
SEO?
Should I shorten it or stickwith the full name for clarity?
I looked at it and her podcasttitle is Wander World School, a
slow and long-term family travelpodcast.
Yeah.
So I think for your podcasttitle, you could try shortening
it just a bit to Wander WorldSchool, slow and long-term

(08:02):
family travel.
And I think that'll take just acouple extra words out, shorten
it, tighten it up, and it'lllook a little bit better.
And I think that it'sdiscoverable and specific, but
having the word podcast can hurtthe ranking.
It's just one of those like SEOtips from like Apple Podcasts
and Spotify.
When people are using thesearch engine within the app, if

(08:22):
you have the word podcast inthe episode title or in the
actual podcast title, it doeskind of hurt the ranking.
The second pain point thatSusie wrote in with is I'm
recording interviews that run anhour or more, but I want to
keep episodes to around 30 or 40minutes and I may be
over-editing them as a result.
And so Susie asked us to listento her podcast, and she

(08:44):
mentioned that she listens topodcasts at 2x speed.
And so she likes a fast pace,but maybe not everyone else
feels the same.
And Kevin, I pulled you in forthis because I personally do not
listen to my podcast at 2xspeed.
And so I thought maybe it wouldresonate more with you.

Kevin (08:59):
Yeah.
So I listened to a bunch ofepisodes and I listened to uh
them at 1x, and then I moved upto 1.5, then I hit 1.8.
Two was a little fast for me onthis one because the editing is
tight.
So I found the sweet spot forme was right around 1.8.
I will say that I do feel likeyou're asking because I feel
like you know there you might beediting a little bit too much,

(09:19):
tightening things up a littlebit too much, and I have to
agree.
I think it is a little bit tootight.

Suzy (09:23):
Maggie emphasizes that early retirement provides the
time and financial flexibility,but is sometimes tricky with
busy teenagers, yet she valuestravel as one of the many ways
to raise well-adjusted children.
Welcome.
Please tell me more about youand your family.

Kevin (09:40):
At 1X, it's not that bad, but when I was up at 1.5, 1.8,
it felt pretty comfortable.
But then some of the sentencesjust cut right into each other.

Jordan (09:49):
Yeah.

Kevin (09:49):
And I could pick up.
Now I was listening for it, somaybe if I wasn't, I wouldn't
have noticed it as much.
But when I was listeningintently for like the editing
practices, I was definitelyhearing edit points.
And so I think maybe you couldleave a little bit of extra
space in some of those pointswhen you're cutting out words or
you're taking a thought from,you know, starts here, and then
they ramble a little bit, and soyou're just kind of cutting out

(10:09):
the rambling.
That stuff's great, but justleave an extra little beat in
there for people who arelistening maybe a little bit
faster, like you and I do.
And it would just flow a littlebit more naturally, I think.

Jordan (10:21):
Yeah.

Kevin (10:22):
I will say that I thought you had really great energy.
Um, you would ask a question,you'd listen to an answer, you'd
recap the answer, and thenyou'd either follow up or you'd
move on.
I thought you were doing thatso well.
Like that was you're so strongat that.
Oftentimes people ask aquestion and then hear an answer
and then move on without therecap or the follow-up or the
conversation around the answerthey just gave, but you did not

(10:43):
do that.
You really engaged with theanswers and summary like gave a
good summary of the answer.
Anyway, excellent.
And kudos on that kind ofstuff.
The next point that I hadthough was that as I moved from
one episode to another, I wasdoing my best to mimic like a
real listening environment.
So I was listening in my car, Iwas driving around and I'd go
from uh one episode to the nextepisode.

(11:03):
And I did notice that I had toadjust my volume a little bit in
my car, going from one episodeto another.
So we're getting some slightlydifferent like loudness settings
between episodes.

Jordan (11:14):
Uh-huh.

Kevin (11:14):
And also there were some, I don't know if it was dynamic
content or just clips thatyou're baking into the episode
themselves, like at the end, itwould get louder and then we get
softer.
And so the easiest way to solvethat is with magic mastering.
It would level all that stuffout perfectly and make sure that
every episode that you publishis set to the exact same
loudness and the and the episodeitself has the same loudness.

(11:35):
But if you don't want to uh payfor magic mastering, then at
least look at that in yourediting workflow to make sure
that you're exporting with thesame exact settings every time.

Jordan (11:43):
Uh, you were talking about how good she is at
interacting with the people thatshe's interviewing.
And it was funny because I alsolistened to an episode just to
give feedback.
And I got so into the episodethat I actually forgot I was
listening and I got like 15minutes into it.
And I was like, wait, I have tobe listening for edit points.

Kevin (12:00):
Right.
I'm working here.

Jordan (12:02):
Like but I really enjoyed it.
So if I forget that I'mactually listening to something
to like give a critique, so I'mjust enjoying the episode, then
that's a really good thing.
What I did notice is that Ithink where those sentences are
getting tight, when someone isis speaking, she's actually
leaving a natural cadence and alittle bit of like space within

(12:23):
the sentence structure.
But as soon as they're startinga new sentence, that's where
like the train cars kind of likebump up together, if that makes
sense.
And so what I think ishappening is she is like letting
them say their sentence.
And then she might have like aperson that she's interviewing
that stops to think for a littlebit too long, or they go, um,
oh gosh, what else was I gonnasay?

(12:44):
And then she's like, Oh, I'mjust gonna cut that.
And then those sentences get alittle bit too tight.
And so, yeah, definitely thinklike, okay, where is a natural
period in this audio?
And then just give it a beatbefore they start the next one,
almost like a slight breath.

Alban (12:59):
Somebody needs to do the work somewhere.
Either the work is a lot ofprep, the work is tight editing,
or the work is gonna be theslog of getting through the
interview, you know, listeningto it.
And I do appreciate someonewho's going, okay, I did a prep,
I did a good interview, and I'mgoing to try to tighten this
down to 30, 40 minutes.
It makes it really nice for thelistener because everything

(13:22):
you're hearing is going to bereally good.
And no matter how good theconversation is, there's always
10, 15% you can cut, even in thebest conversations.
Oh, yeah.
I'm I'm very appreciative ofit.
That's the way that I likepodcasts taking up less time.
I don't really want to speed itup.
So my preference is, you know,to tighten things up.

(13:43):
If there's a segment that'skind of boring, you can clip
that segment out, but you canleave a little bit more of the
authenticity in segments thatyou really enjoy.

Jordan (13:52):
Yeah.
I mean, that's exactly what wedo because our recordings have
sometimes gotten into thethreshold of two hours, and then
the finished product going outis like 50 minutes.
So there's a certain amount ofediting that must take place,
and sometimes it has to be alittle ruthless.

Kevin (14:09):
All right.
Let me uh quickly summarize.
I did a bit of a deep dive intoone particular episode.
It was episode 28, thegenerosity mindset.
And I've got a couple ofsuggestions, you know, ideas for
if I were gonna look at thisepisode and say, what could we
possibly try to make it better?
Here's some quick hits.
First, in the beginning, yousay you're you're talking about
listeners in different parts ofthe world.

(14:29):
I think you mentioned Orlandospecifically, and you said, Hey,
reach, you know, shoot me atext.
I'd love to maybe do a meetupor something if you're in that
area.
But I think you forgot tomention um how they send you a
text.
Oh I would just say, justremember, if you're gonna say
send me a text, say there's alink right in the show notes so
you can quickly do that.
At the end of the episode, Ilistened all the way to the end,
and at the end you said thesame thing again, and then you
said there's a link in the shownotes to send me a text.

(14:50):
So that's great.
Just remember to do that in thebeginning as well.
Uh also you did uh this episodelike recap feature in your
intro, which was really cool.
I love how it teased clips froma bunch of different episodes.
I think you you teased likethree different episodes in the
beginning, but that was afteryou set up the episode that we I
was listening to.
So as soon as I startedlistening, you did a great job
setting up the episode, and thenyou went into this recap of the

(15:12):
previous three, and then youset up the episode again, and
then you went into the content.
So it was like 12 minutes inbefore we kind of got into the
episode.
And so I love that section, butI just I probably would have
put that at the end.
So, like set up the episodereally good, um, bring some
energy, get me excited, go intotoday's episode and then say
something like if you enjoyedtoday's episode, I want to, you
know, highlight three othercurrent episodes, and then you

(15:33):
could do that recap section atthe end.
I think that might just flow alittle bit better and keep me
engaged a little bit longer.

Jordan (15:39):
Yeah.

Kevin (15:40):
And I I have an example when I talk about like bringing
energy after you do a reallygood job of setting up today's
episode.
Uh I just think the transitionfell a little bit flat for me
between the setup and thenactually going into the
interview itself.
Somebody who does this reallywell is um the decoder podcast.
So Neele does a great job ofsummarizing the episode and then
getting into it, but right likebetween those two things,

(16:02):
between the setup and the actualinterview, they've got like
very energetic music and he'sexcited.
Like the the setting up of theepisode, you see it's building
excitement in him.
And then he says, and so likelet's get into it.
And he's just like pumped upand then he goes right into the
episode.
And so that's for better orworse, if you like that or not.
I don't know if that's 100%your style, but it felt like you

(16:22):
were leading into this awesomeintro for what all these things
that we're gonna talk about.
And then it just like slowlytransitioned into hey, welcome
to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.
And then it just kind of feltlike, oh, we just sort of lost
some of that momentum.
So I would maybe think of a wayto kind of keep that energy
high as you're going right intothe interview.

Jordan (16:40):
Yeah, those are really good tips.

Kevin (16:41):
Thanks.
I hope it helps.
And you have a new follower.

Jordan (16:48):
Next up, we had Rich from Two Guys on a Plane ride
in.
And Rich was looking forfeedback on um how to revisit
some of the episode titles fordiscoverability or maybe even
strengthen show notes.
And so, Alban, I had you lookat this because I actually felt
like Two Guys on a Plane has anincredible website.
It looks like they havegorgeous branding and great

(17:10):
marketing tactics.
And I was like, I think this isa little bit above my
expertise.

Alban (17:14):
So Jordan sent me this one, and I immediately uh
started feeling insecure thatwe're the ones giving all the
advice.
Sometimes you give advice andyou think it's good advice, and
then I started looking at someof the podcasters, and I was
like, wow, we should be learninga lot from uh many of the
people who reached out.

Jordan (17:29):
Yeah.

Alban (17:29):
So two guys on a plane, it's a podcast, uh, two flight
attendants, uh, both men who aremarried, and they're just
telling some wild stories frombeing flight attendants.
And it seems to me like theaudience are probably other
flight attendants, people in thetravel industry, and they are
doing really well with promotionpretty much everywhere, but

(17:51):
Instagram in particular seem tobe doing extremely well, YouTube
doing well, threads doingreally well.
I guess the first thing theyhad was um the show name itself
could be more SEO friendly, butit's well known on social.
So I want to keep the brandingconsistent across platforms.
I completely agree with that.

Jordan (18:08):
Yeah.

Alban (18:09):
And so I went and I'm thinking, how big are they on
socials?
Because sometimes people willsay that and they're it hasn't
gotten that big.
Two guys in a plane, Instagram,I think Jordan sent me the
link, 151,000 Instagramfollowers.
Yes, we're well beyond thepoint of switching the name.
You have all the socials, andthey're all doing well, and they

(18:30):
all have lots of feedback orlots of engagement.
Let's keep the name.

Jordan (18:35):
Yeah.

Alban (18:35):
All right, so here's a few things I saw doing very well
on social media, lots of goodmemes, lots of clips of
episodes, short form videosdoing well both on YouTube and
on Instagram.
I'd imagine you're probablydoing TikTok and it's probably
going well there.
Overall, 20 episodes sinceApril of the YouTube videos seem

(18:58):
really well done.
I was actually surprised thatthey have not gotten more views.
They're doing a full videoproduction, at least three
different camera angles.
You know, they're kind of doingthe interview on the couch
style.
One of the best things is thegame they're playing on threads.
So this one episode really tookoff.

(19:18):
And it's on YouTube, it's donethe best.
On Buzz Route, it's done thebest.
It's the Ask the Audience,passenger pet peeves.
And what they did was they wenton threads and they asked, what
do people do when they'retraveling that you know drives
you up the wall?
What do people need to stopdoing?
And it got tons of answers.
And then they just had contentfor days where they could just

(19:41):
go through and read them andthen give their own spin on it
because they have stories foreverything.
Anything people said, they hada story.
So it worked really wellbecause they captured the viral
moment on social media and thenwere able to turn it into the
podcast.
All right, so that's all thethings.
They're going well, but I founda few ideas.

(20:02):
Recommendation number oneabsolutely keep the name.
You're doing really well.
You have a strong following.
Um, they asked about shownotes.
So one thing I specifically waslooking for even before I knew
you wanted quite uh commentsabout show notes is just links
back to the originalconversations.
Because they're doing this gamewith threads where they're

(20:24):
asking questions, they'regetting answers, and then that
makes its way into the content.
I want there to be a linkbetween those two pieces of
content.
So I went and listened to thisepisode about pet peeves, and
I'm cracking up listening to it.
And then I go to the show notesand I'm like, I gotta see the
threads.
Yeah, you know, theconversation over there, and

(20:45):
there wasn't a link.
And so then I had to go backthrough the threads until I
found it.
And then I'm trying to kind oflink up the comments that
they're answering.
I'd like to see it go bothways.
Like when somebody answered onthreads, they said, Hey, we
actually put you in the episode.
You know, you should check itout.
But also in those show notes,say, here's where the

(21:06):
conversation happenedoriginally.
And I think by connecting them,you're gonna get more people
who want to engage becausethey're gonna go, oh, I've got a
good story, but it'll be evenmore fun if my story might make
it its way into the podcast.

Jordan (21:20):
Yeah, I think that's a really good tip.
I mean, that's exactly what wetalked about in our turning
listener engagement into like anengagement loop last episode.

Alban (21:28):
Exactly.
Yeah, I was thinking of thatquite a bit.

Jordan (21:31):
Yeah.

Alban (21:32):
My intuition is the biggest area for opportunity for
your podcast is awareness ofthe podcast itself because
they're doing so well on socialmedia that my impression was
that a lot of people are notrecognizing that beyond just
lots of funny memes and goodclips, that you're doing a full
podcast with the same name.

(21:53):
Um, there's lots of clips ofthe podcast, there's clips on
YouTube, lots of people arewatching them, and it doesn't
seem like maybe they'refollowing the full path.
So, one thing I would like todo is at the end of the short
form video clips, I'd like tosee some podcast logos.
You know, maybe we're talkinglike one, one and a half

(22:14):
seconds, listen to the fullepisode, and then there's just
an Apple, Spotify, YouTube, youknow, logos there.
Uh and people see it, they go,Oh, this is a full podcast
episode.
They can find it on their own,or you could even put, you know,
the handle, because it's thesame handle everywhere.
You could put that there.
I think as soon as people wouldbe are aware this is a podcast,

(22:37):
they'd be more likely to go andsubscribe.

Kevin (22:40):
One of the challenges I think that creators that are
creating content on andpublishing to YouTube will have
will be getting their audienceto create a habit around
consuming their content, notjust YouTube content.
So what you want to do is youwant to make sure that when
you're you're talking in thesevideos and stuff and you're
using YouTube as a discoverychannel, you want to make sure

(23:02):
that people like you're tellingpeople, hey, if you're enjoying
this content, remember that youcan subscribe to us and we can
be a part of your podcastinglife as well.
You can always find us here onYouTube.
If you want to see us and ifyou enjoy content in that
format, fine.
But you're kind of at the whimsof the algorithm.
Like, are they going to serveup your content or not?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
But what will always happen ifthey subscribe in a podcast app

(23:22):
is they'll get a notification oryou'll be at the top of their
queue when they launch that appthe next time they're they're
going for a road trip or they'redriving, commuting to work or
whatever, going for a walk withthe dog.
You will be there not dependenton an algorithm.
So remember, YouTube isawesome, but it's really awesome
as a discovery channel forpeople to connect with you, but
you have to tell them how toconnect and you have to make

(23:43):
that a consistent message.

Jordan (23:44):
You know who does that really well is uh the Wi-Files.
He actually has a podcast.
It's his YouTube channel, butit's a little bit different.
And even in his YouTubechannel, when he's doing a
video, he'll talk about like astory that like he can't talk
about on YouTube.
And so you have to go to thepodcast on a podcast app to be
able to listen to that story.
And so I think that there is anopportunity in your YouTube

(24:08):
channel to like mention that andmaybe create like a little bit
of like a bonus tidbit that ifthey go and listen to the
podcast, they'll get anotherlike galley gossip is only
available on the podcast orsomething like that.
And with the YouTube shorts,Alban, what you were describing
reminds me so much of the NewHeights podcast.

(24:30):
They do those shorts sostinking well where it has a
hook.
And then it's like theirpodcast logo on a locker and
like where to listen to thepodcast.
And I think that they do thatso well too.

Alban (24:42):
Yeah.
I mean, Kevin said it manytimes.
Instagram is people are goingto Instagram because they just
want to burn some time.
And so you get to be part ofthat time every once in a while
if you've got the perfectcontent.
But we always want to be movingthem over to the podcast where
the draw is not Instagram fillthe next 10 minutes of my life,
but instead, oh, it's Tuesday.

(25:04):
I'm so excited for my nextepisode of my favorite podcast.
So we're just moving them downtowards being a bigger and
bigger fan.

Jordan (25:12):
Yeah.

Alban (25:13):
The last question they had was should we be doing some
more SEO work with the titles ofthe podcasts?
And I initially was thinkingno, but then I started doing a
bit of keyword research and Iwas looking around um like Ask
the Public, which is a websitewhere you can just type in like
search terms and it will findyou questions with those search

(25:36):
terms.
So just like what questions arethe most common around flight
attendance and travel?
Are either you not looking atwhat I wrote down?

Jordan (25:45):
I'm not.

Alban (25:46):
What's the most common thing people ask about flight
attendants?
Um, how do I get them to giveme an upgrade?

Jordan (25:52):
No, oh I think it's asking about like flight
attendants like love lives.

Kevin (25:58):
Not on my radar, but okay.

Jordan (26:00):
I don't know.
That's what I thought would belike a little search.

Alban (26:02):
We're all nosy.
Um but the thing that we allask, almost about every
profession, is how much money dothey make?
Oh, because like, you know,your brother-in-law, you know,
has some job, and you're like,well, how much money is he
making?
You know, I want to look it up.
So the top questions are like,How much do flight attendants
make?
How much do Delta flightattendants make?
How much do flight attendantson Air France make?

(26:23):
And it's just like every singleone.
So, what I would love is to tryto pick out some of these
questions that have a lot ofsearch volume, but then get
people to answer it over onthreads where they've got a good
following and they're getting alot of answers, and then just
weave in these funny storiesthat they both have.
Um, I'd love to hear, you know,what different comp packages

(26:45):
are there?
Uh, do airlines paydifferently?
I'm sure there's tons of funnystories built in here.
Yeah.
So uh why do flight attendantssit on their hands?

Kim (26:53):
Oh, yeah.

Alban (26:56):
Because their chairs don't have armrests.

Jordan (26:58):
No, that's not why.
There's gotta be something.
No, there's some sort of like,I don't know.

Alban (27:02):
See, these are questions that now are burning in your
mind.
You've got to know.
I know.

Jordan (27:06):
I have to look it up.

Alban (27:08):
Can flight attendants have tattoos?
Yes, I could just this could bea funny episode.
I can answer all thesequestions.
I'm not a flight attendant.

Jordan (27:15):
I think you're confidently wrong on some of
them.

Alban (27:20):
I'm sure flight attendants can have tattoos,
probably not visible tattoos,but you know, that just would be
a really funny episode oftalking about all the you know
crews they've been on, all theirfriends that have dumb tattoos.
People are probably could writein with stories, but a lot of
people are typing these intoGoogle.
So if we're gonna try an SEOgame, that might be where I

(27:42):
would be experimenting.
But uh incredible work on thepodcast, 20 episodes in since
April.
So you're going strong.
I'd love to see where we arenext year as long as you keep
podcasting.

Jordan (27:57):
Next up, we have Kim from Min Life with Courage
asking for any feedback on herpodcast.

Kevin (28:04):
Any.
I can handle that.
Okay, so as of the time of myreview, I want to say you were
around 247 episodes.
Maybe well, that's the one Ilistened to.

Jordan (28:15):
If I look at her Buzzbrow website, it says she's
been podcasting since 2021 andhas 260 episodes.

Kevin (28:22):
Amazing.
I know, absolutely amazing.
So good on you.
That's a huge accomplishmentand it should be celebrated.
Like, I don't know if I I don'thave any sound effects that I
can cue up quickly, but roaringapplause for you.
That's amazing.
Okay, so I listened to 247.
I heard around the 21-minutemark that you had some dynamic
content drop in, a promotion foryour own, uh like I think a

(28:44):
wait list for a course that youwere starting up or something
like that, which was very cool.
Good on you for using thedynamic content tools.
It did not have a transition.
So when you're using dynamiccontent in your podcast, dynamic
content is just content thatyou pre-record and then you can
insert into episodes at randomplaces.
This one came in around minute21.
The transition was good, likeit was a didn't sound out of the

(29:05):
blue, but uh it was just likethe music transition only.
So it just plays a little audiocue and then it goes into your
voice again, talking about yourcourse.
So because I work at BuzzSprout, I know exactly what that
is.
I'm concerned that as alistener, you might not.
They might hear a little audiocue and they're like, what is
that?
Is there some background musiccoming in?
But then it's still your voiceagain, talking about something

(29:26):
completely different, and then alittle audio cue and it goes
back to the interview.
So I would just suggestconsidering either choosing one
of our pre-built-in audio cuesthat say something like we'll be
right back, or here's a quickmessage, well, we'll be right
back after this quick message,or you can even record your own.
Like, let's take a quick breakto hear about a new offer that I
have or something like that.
You can record your own, youcan upload that.

(29:47):
But just letting your audienceknow that this is something a
little bit different, I'mtalking about something, and
then we'll be right back to theinterview, might help people not
get confused about what'shappening.

Jordan (29:56):
Yeah.

Kevin (29:57):
The other thing is that there is a little bit of reburb
getting captured on your audio.
So it's not bad.
It definitely is not to thepoint where I would be dis I I
wouldn't not listen to yourpodcast because of it, but it's
there.
And so if you're looking for anarea to improve, this is one,
and I don't know exactly whatyour setup is.
It could be your microphone, itcould be you're using a
condenser mic or a blue Yeti orsomething like that.

(30:19):
It could be you have a dynamicmic, but you're a little bit too
far away from it, and you're inan untreated room, or it could
just be the recording software,like you could be using Zoom or
something like that, and youdon't have the settings
optimized, so it's justintroducing what sounds to me
like a little bit of reverb, butmaybe it's more like digital
artifacts.
But either way, um there'ssomething happening there that
you could look into if you wantyour audio to sound a little bit

(30:40):
better.
The easiest way to fix thiswould be magic mastering.
I tested it and I'm gonna playa clip for you.
I've got a little 10-secondclip of just your raw audio, and
then I have it, I ran itthrough Magic Mastering on the
Power Clean setting becausepower clean is what you need to
use if you're trying to get ridof reverb.
The standard magic masteringwon't do that on its own.

(31:00):
So I turned on power clean andthen I ran it through.
Now, it might not play throughbecause Jordan runs all of our
episodes through MagicMastering, so it might actually
like clean it multiple times,but we'll try it.
So let's take a listen to yourbefore and after.

Kim (31:14):
Hello and welcome back to Midlife with Courage.
I am Kim Benoit, your host.
Hello and welcome back toMidlife with Courage.
I am Kim Benoit, your host.

Kevin (31:23):
So that's just a tiny little clip, and I hope it comes
through in our final.
But yeah, you can definitelyhear something sounds a little
bit hollow, a little bit echoechoey, like you're kind of like
in a it sounds like you're in alarge room, but you might not
be.
And then at the end, it justsounds much more like you're in
a treated professional studio.
So, like I said, the easiestway, the quickest way is magic
mastering, or you could look atyour microphone or mic

(31:43):
technique.

Jordan (31:44):
Or also just, you know, prop up some throw pillows
around.
There's nothing wrong with uhtaking some couch cushions off
the sofa.
Mags from Confessions of aRecovering Micromanaging
Perfectionist Martyr wrote in.

Kevin (32:00):
What a name.

Jordan (32:01):
That's a mouthful, saying, I love this so much.
Holy smokes, I finally listenedto an episode of your wonderful
podcasts.
While so many of your topicspiqued my interest, I just
haven't worked your show into mylistening schedule, but now I'm
officially a follower.
Thank you so much, Mags.
So Mags was looking forguidance.
She said that she had beenchipping away at this podcast
for some time.
It's based on her blog.

(32:23):
She says she still has no cluereally what she's doing, which
is interesting because she'sbeen podcasting since 2017 and
has 378 episodes.
So, Mags, I would say that youdo know what you're doing and
you're doing a great job at it.
And I actually listened to thepodcast and I didn't really have
any notes on audio quality oranything like that.

(32:44):
I thought it sounded reallygreat.
She was very energetic, reallyenthusiastic about the topics,
which made me enthusiastic aboutthe topics.

Alban (32:51):
Yeah, I actually did a deep dive into this podcast.
This was one of the two I wentdeep on.
And Max, you're a really goodwriter.
I read a few of the blogs andthen I went and listened to some
episodes.
Just a great job.
So there's one, there'ssometimes that people write in,
they write their ownconfessions, and she reads them.
Those are really good.
I was very impressed.
Audio quality, just ability toread in a way that's dynamic and

(33:15):
doesn't come across as flat wasdone very well.
So I actually had the sameadvice that see Jordan has here.
And I'd be looking at the titleof the podcast.
Yeah.
And I'm looking at the artwork.
But to be able to do 300, whatdid you say it was, Jordan?
You had 79?

Jordan (33:32):
Like 378, I think it's up there.
Okay.

Alban (33:35):
378 episodes.
Incredible.
That's such uh that's soimpressive.
Just the name, Confessions of aRecovering, Micromanaging,
Perfectionist Martyr, is amouthful.

Jordan (33:47):
Yeah.

Alban (33:47):
And I think we can all hear it and we kind of know how
those things tie together, uh,but we still might be missing
who this podcast is for.
This is me reading it.
So you can disagree and tell methat maybe I misunderstood.
It seems like it's mostly fortype A parents, especially
mothers, who feel like they'rerunning the household operating

(34:08):
system.
They overfunction, they plan,they fix, they anticipate, they
kind of carry this mental load,they're very high control, high
standards, and they're trying totrade that away for something
that's a little bit calmer.
And so I all the words that arein the title, recovering,
micromanaging, perfectionistmartyr, they all kind of hint in

(34:30):
that direction.
But I was thinking, is there away to find a title that says it
explicitly?
If you are a type A personwho's dealing with control and
you want to find a little bitmore joy or just a little bit
more space in the process of youknow running your home, this
podcast is for you.

(34:51):
All right.
So I ran it through the BuzzBroute Podcast Name Generator
just to see do any of thesenames resonate with you?
Here's a few that I liked thatare unique, that nobody else is
using it.
And do they hit the tone thatyou're trying to hit?
Parenting burnout recovery,less perfect, more peace, um,

(35:12):
competent yet chill.
Um, I kind of like ones thathave like a parenting idea.
Uh but you could run it throughhere a few times.
You could tweak uh thedescription.
Maybe my description's notperfect, but who's it for?
What's the podcast about?
And so when your audience seesthis uh name of a podcast,

(35:34):
they'll know that's for me.
I really want to engage with acommunity of people who are kind
of feeling the same way that Iam.
But really good writing, reallygood podcast, highly recommend.

Jordan (35:45):
Absolutely.
Yeah, so something that stoodout to me, especially when I
looked up this podcast on myactual podcast app, is that the
cover art thumbnail is superhard to read.
And so my advice would be tomaybe look at finessing the
cover art to where someone whois browsing through the podcast

(36:09):
apps will see it, will know thatit's for parents, and will know
that it's for, like as Albanwas saying, like type A parents,
because she has this lovelyfont on there and it's huge
letters, confessions, and thenthe rest of it is really tiny.
And I actually can't read itwithout my glasses on at all.
And in podcast apps like uhApple Podcasts, they actually

(36:30):
don't list the name of yourpodcast when you're browsing
through the app.
And so all you have to go offof is the cover art.
And so Max has this gorgeousphoto of herself with the title
in there.
But as someone who is justcoming in cold, like I don't
know what the podcast is about.
So just something to thinkabout.
Alban, you actually did theblog on cover art.

(36:53):
Do you have anything to add tothat?

Alban (36:55):
I mean, I would just do these in tandem.
Once we have a title thatreally says who it's for, we're
trying to keep the cover art toa few words, one, maybe two
fonts.
And just remember, while we mayedit it at a really large size,
3,000 by 3,000 pixels, it'soften gonna be viewed really,

(37:16):
really toned down.
And so people just can't readit very well, especially thin
fonts.
So it looks really nice, theconfessions, but that main word
I'm seeing is confessions, andit's pretty thin.
So it's just gonna be kind oflost.
But let me just say the hardestpart is doing the podcast
itself and making good content,and you're doing that part

(37:38):
exceptionally well.
Yeah.
So I love the opportunity tocome in and say, hey, maybe we
tweak the title and update theartwork, which is about the
easiest thing to do.
And that's our biggestfeedback.
So great work.
Congratulations on everythingyou've accomplished.

Jordan (37:57):
All right.
Juliet Fallowfield from How toStart Up wrote in, said she
loved to hear ourrecommendations on how she can
improve episodes of how to startup.
And then she also has a notethat on growth, her team is
feeling really discouragedbecause they are wanting guests
to share the show on platforms.

(38:17):
And they've had some guestswith big following, but they
don't actually share the show.
And so I want to touch on thegrowth part real quick.
So she mentioned that, youknow, they confirm with the
guests that they're open tosharing it.
They do the interview,everything turns out fine.
And then she has her team puttogether a Google Drive folder
and it has like audio and it hasall these different assets for

(38:40):
the guests to share.
And she says that they're happywith it, yet when they roll out
the content over a week and tagthem in their business, nothing
happens.
It's just crickets.
So her team's feeling likereally frustrated about it,
which is totally understandable.
And my feedback for that, Iactually did um an interview
with Kate Casey.

(39:01):
She has a show about reality TVshows and she has a lot of
celebrities on her podcast.
And so I asked her, like, okay,the hardest people to get to
share your podcast iscelebrities.
And so she went throughstep-by-step tips on how to make
it as easy as humanly possiblefor guests to share your
podcast.

(39:21):
And so um, I recommendlistening to that episode.
I will put a link to that inthe show notes.
But a quick fix immediately,just right off the bat, I would
swap your assets folder that youput into Google Drive that has
all these different uh things init.
Um, people are gonna get likeparalysis trying to choose what
things to post.

(39:41):
Um, you probably send it earlybecause you're on top of it and
your team's on top of it, andyou're making sure that everyone
has everything weeks inadvance.
So it's all set in place.
But I recommend that you justsend a single email on the day
you want them to share it.
And you know what?
If they share it a day or two.
Later, that's fine.
They're still sharing it withtheir audience because something

(40:04):
that you mentioned is that youjust need them to share one
Instagram story.
Like just one Instagram storywould make such a huge
difference to your podcast.
Well, then just send them thatone Instagram story.
Just send them one reel, givethem a caption, give them the
link to the episode so that theycan tag it and you're done.
That's it.

Kevin (40:22):
Wait, wait, wait.
But there's more.

Jordan (40:24):
But there's more.

Kevin (40:25):
So, so I think this is perfect advice.
I would simplify it down to theone thing, the most important
thing that you want them to do.
Make that super dead simple andask that one thing of them
immediately after you publish orimmediately when you want them
to do that one thing.
And don't let up on that onething until it's done.
So you send it to them 24 hourslater, follow up, 24 hours

(40:48):
after that, follow up again.
And like keep hammering thatthing thing.
There's nothing wrong.
If you agreed up front, and itsounds like you have that as
part of your screening processand your onboarding, that they
are agreeing that if we do thisinterview, if we do all this
work, that you're going to shareit, then there's nothing wrong
with you pressing for them touphold their end of the
obligation.
So guilt and shame and nagging,these are all completely

(41:11):
legitimate tools at yourdisposal once somebody agreed to
do something to hold themaccountable to do that thing.

Jordan (41:17):
Right.
But no one's above a littlenagging.

Kevin (41:22):
Right.
You said if we did this, thenyou would do this.
Now it's time to do this thingand just keep hammering that
thing until it's done.
Now, once that one thing isdone, I would then move on to
number two.
Unless it was awful painful toget number one done.
If you had to email them everyday for two weeks to get number
one done, then you can say,fine, now you're off the hook,
whatever.
But if you email them the dayafter and you say, hey, here's
one great thing.

(41:42):
Your episode just went live.
I'd love you to share it.
And then they share it and theywrite back and they say, Great,
you could follow up in a coupledays.
Say, hey, your episode is doinggreat.
It's getting a lot ofengagement.
I'd love to take this a littlebit further.
Would you mind cross-postingover here to LinkedIn with
another task and see if you cantake it further?
But I love Jordan's advice ofone thing at a time and then
some encouragement.
It's working.
Let's bring this thing evenfurther.
And then here's the next thing.

Jordan (42:02):
Yeah.

Alban (42:03):
This was something I remembered from that Kate Casey
episode, Jordan.
It's your job to remind theguest of how well they did.

Jordan (42:11):
Yeah.

Alban (42:11):
Because in their mind, they went on and they did an
interview and they felt insecureand they don't really remember
what they said, and they're alittle bit nervous that it
wasn't that great.
They have no clue.
And then you say, Here's aGoogle Drive.
Will you find stuff and postit?
And they go, I don't know.
I don't remember what I said.
I don't know if I soundedsmart.

(42:34):
And it's just easy to archivethe email and move on.
And I know I've been guilty ofthat.
When I share stuff, is whensomebody else puts the video
together and sometimes they'lljust post it themselves and then
they'll say, Hey, I just sharedthis.
Will you retweet it or will youshare it on LinkedIn or will
you comment on it?

(42:55):
And the job is to remind themwhat the episode's about and gas
them up.
Tell them, like, oh my gosh, itwas so good.
I loved the edit.
We were able to tighten it up.
It was so valuable.
Here's something I reallyenjoyed, and we're so excited to
launch it.
We're gonna post this video.
Will you share it?
Like Kevin said.
And following up, you're notthe one making it weird.

(43:17):
They're the one making it weirdby not by not doing the thing
they said they were going to do.
It's not weird to hold someoneaccountable for a thing they
promised.

Jordan (43:25):
You're weird.

Alban (43:27):
I have that feeling.
I feel like if a situation'sweird that maybe I'm the one
who's making it weird.
But sometimes, no, the awkwardthing here is that you said you
would do it and you're not doingit now.
Yeah.
That's what's awkward.
It's not that I'm asking youand reminding you of the thing
you told me you were gonna do.

Kevin (43:42):
I totally agree.
Now, Juliet, I've got someadvice that you didn't ask for,
but I'm gonna give it to you forabsolutely nothing.
And that might be exactly whatit's worth.
It might not be worth anything.
But I listened to your episodeand I enjoyed it, but I did make
a small note of something that,again, if it were my podcast,
if I were a producer on theshow, if I were involved with

(44:04):
it, I would make this slightchange.
And it's very minor, but it'show you're introing your
episodes.
And so you're doing a good jobof setting up the discussion
that you're about to have, andyou're using clips from the
episode, sometimes, sometimesone clip, but more often it
seemed like multiple clips fromthe episode.
And they're all kind of alittle bit out of context from

(44:26):
each other, just my experienceas a listener.
Like I was having trouble kindof connecting the larger context
from each little clip that wastaken.
Uh, and then it goes into theepisode.
Behind that, there's abackground track of like a bass
line, but it's a little bit, inmy opinion, a little bit busy, a
little bit like um, there's toomuch going on in there.

Jordan (44:44):
Yeah.

Kevin (44:45):
And it was a little bit hard for me to track the context
of multiple different clipswith some music.
Even though it's soft, it wasstill just a little bit busy.
And I think it was it's sort ofmuddled together for me.
So it was just that beginningpart, and then it kind of fades
off as you go into theinterview, and then the audio
quality was was great from thereon out.
So it reminded me of uh how Ibuilt this, which they also use

(45:09):
a baseline background thing, butthey just take one clip from
the episode and it's sort of asuspenseful baseline and it's
very clean and simple.
And then they set up a likeusually like a little bit of a
question and the beginning of ananswer with this sort of
suspenseful bass line musicbehind it.
And then I'm kind of hooked.

(45:30):
Like I have to listen to theepisode now to see how that
resolves.

Jordan (45:33):
Yeah.

Kevin (45:33):
And I feel like that play is similar to what you're
doing, but it's it's not quite,in my opinion, you haven't
nailed it yet.
Yeah.
And so I would just revisitthat with whoever is editing
your podcast.
And if you want, I have acouple quick clip examples of
sort of where you are today andlike where you could be with how
I built this.
So I'll play those for you nowand see if you can get a better

(45:54):
sense of what I'm talking about.

Juliet (45:57):
Thank you, Amy, for coming on how to start up this
morning.
Before we get going intoeverything about bootstrapping
the business, I'd love it if youcould introduce a little bit
about yourself and the businessthat you started.

Kevin (46:09):
Okay, so there we just hear the background music, which
is just there's just sort of alot going on there.
It's mostly this bass line, butit's also a like there, there's
kind of a lot.

Jordan (46:17):
Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of funky.
Like I was grooving to it, butI don't know if that's what she
was going for.

Kevin (46:22):
I do like the music, but it's not really building
anything for me.
And so I want to con likecontrast that with uh the how I
built this up intro.
Like, listen to this.

Nilay (46:33):
How much do you guys did you guys have to put in, the
three of you, to get this offthe ground?

Nilay Guest (46:38):
I remember, do you remember this, Slava?
I remember each of uscommitting $30,000.

Kevin (46:44):
Okay.

Nilay Guest (46:45):
The tone was so different.

Kevin (46:47):
Yeah, it's not a true crime podcast, but it they are
still using the music to buildsuspense around just a business
question, really.
Like, where is this gonna go?
Where is this?
And that to me is a little bitmore engaging and a little bit
more of a hook for me to listento the episode.
And it's also a lot simpler.
It's just doom, doom, doom,doom, doom.
It's not like I'm not dancing,but I am getting sucked in.

Jordan (47:12):
It's almost like a it's almost like a BPM issue.
Like, I'm sure that she wantssomething that feels upbeat and
positive, but if we were to justkind of like dial back the like
beats per minute a little bit,it might just like mellow out a
little bit.
It's not spooky, you know.
Like the the how I built thisone is like a little spooky to

(47:33):
me, but she could do somethingthat's just a little bit more
chill and sort of has that samevibe that she's going for, but
not as distracting.
Interesting.

Alban (47:43):
All right.
I knew she looked familiar.

Jordan (47:45):
Do you know Juliet?

Alban (47:47):
Yeah, you see her photo in the artwork, and I was like,
she just reminds me of somebody,and I couldn't figure it out.
She looks a lot like thiswoman.
That is that woman.
That is Juliet.
I met her in London in 2022.
I've met her in London.
No way.
We went to the podcast show,and I think this is at a pub.

(48:09):
Maybe we went with JamesCridlin.
It might have been the SherParty, but we took a photo
together, and that's just funnythat I saw the photo and I was
like, man, she looks sofamiliar.

Jordan (48:21):
Where have I seen her before?

Alban (48:23):
Where have I seen her before in real life?
Anyway, that's uh that's sofunny to see some of these
podcasts again.

Jordan (48:32):
Our final feedback is for Jewel Kim from This Is How
You Think.
And Jewel wrote in saying thatshe just started her solo
podcast this year.
She's been looking for anyfeedback that might help to make
the show more engaging orcompelling to listeners.
And so far, the only responseI've gotten, even when I've
asked, is just keep going.
To which I say, to be fair,Jewel, you were only seven

(48:54):
episodes in, and actually yourpodcast is really good.
So I somewhat agree with that,but I'm willing to step in and
give you actual feedback on yourpodcast.
So, what Jewel says that she'sstruggling with the most is the
recording session itself.
So she's hitting theseroadblocks where she's
struggling with like mictechnique and stumbling over

(49:14):
words and also finding the rightenergy to match the topics that
she's discussing.
This resonated with me so much.
This is this was me when Ifirst started my podcast.
She said, I usually end uprecording two to three versions
of an episode just so I canpiece together the best parts
when it's time to edit.
And I too was a perfectionistwhen I first started and I would

(49:35):
re-record things and it wouldget to the point where my energy
would actually drain just fromthe recording session itself.
And I would just feel the senseof like defeat the second I
flubbed something or I saidsomething wrong, and I was just
like, I have to record thisagain.
Can't believe it.
And then you'd just kind oflike Frankenstein together an
episode.
And that takes so much energy.

(49:58):
And so I think that what Julesrunning into is this need to be
perfect in her podcasting.
And that probably comes from asense of like insecurity about
like being judged by otherpeople, feeling, I mean, I could
be completely wrong, but thisis my interpretation of what's
going on is that she's she'sfeeling the pressure of putting
out content and putting herselfout there and being vulnerable

(50:18):
and you know, giving advice.
And then she's opening herselfup to the threat of judgment
from others.
And so I think that over timeyou're gonna let that go.
So, my feedback for therecording fix is I think that
stumbling usually happens whenyou're trying to sound written
or perfect.
So, to get over this, Irecommend that you play with

(50:39):
different outlining techniques.
And so some people feel soconfident and they feel a lot
better when they've scriptedeverything out and they just
read it out and it soundsnatural and it's totally fine.
And then you have other peoplelike Kevin who just show up and
there's like a couple bulletpoints on the outline, and he's
like, great, let's go.
I feel great.
And then you have people inbetween, like me, who maybe just

(51:02):
script out the segues intodifferent segments until I start
feeling like more confident.
So just play with it, figureout what works best for you.
And then on energy, what Ithought was really interesting,
looking at Jules about herpodcast, if you read her podcast
description, she has a verysassy photo, a very sassy

(51:24):
description.
And it's almost like thisdifferent approach to mental
health and like setting healthyboundaries.
And she's she's very cheeky inher description.
And then when I listen to theactual episode, she seems very
soft and sweet and sensitive.

Jule (51:43):
He's talking to his friend who just broke up with his
girlfriend.
And his friend is soemotionally invested that he
just can't let go.
And my client is questioningwhy is it so hard for his friend
to cut off that attachment?
Like just make a decision anddo it.

Jordan (52:01):
And so I'm wondering if there's some sort of like
disconnect going on between whatshe actually wants this podcast
to be, and then when she getsinto the actual episode, she
starts feeling that impostersyndrome, maybe, and then kind
of pulls in.

Kevin (52:15):
Jordan, I think that's really, really good advice.
We forget this all the time,but it's so different when
you're on in front of themicrophone versus when you're in
the earphones, like listening.

Jordan (52:25):
Yeah.

Kevin (52:25):
It's such a big difference.
On one hand, when you're behindthe microphone, you feel like
you're sending this message out,like you're presenting or
something like that.
But that's never how I consumeit.
I never fire up a podcast andconsume it as as if I'm feeling
like I'm an audience in anaudience of thousands around me.
I don't, I just feel like I'mone person listening to one

(52:46):
other person.

Jordan (52:47):
Yeah.

Kevin (52:48):
And so I think we have to remind ourselves when I listen
to Jewel record and her voice,it feels so personal to me.
First of all, her voice isabsolutely lovely and the audio
quality is super pure.
And I just feel like I'm in aquiet room listening to her
speak to me, just me.

Jordan (53:09):
It's very severance.

Kevin (53:10):
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah.
It's it's wonderful.

Jordan (53:13):
Oh, yeah.
Also think about how would youtalk to your friend or family
member if they came to you withthis problem?
So I think what she's runninginto is she's feeling like she
wants to approach some sensitivetopics with sensitivity.
But I would encourage you tomaybe think like, how would I
tell my friend about this?
How would I talk to my familymember?
Would I just be like, I get it,I understand where you're

(53:35):
coming from, but here's why thisis not good for you.
And I don't know, just be morecasual with it, perhaps.

Kevin (53:42):
When you're giving that advice, I love it.
Just make it a little bit morelike you're talking to your
friend, just like Jordan isrecommending, and less like
you're presenting to anaudience.
It feels very personal to mewhen I'm listening, except for
some of the words that you'reusing feels a little bit more
like a presentation instead ofjust a one-on-one conversation.
And I'm on the listener side,I'm just like, Jewel, it's just

(54:03):
me and you.
Like, chill out.
Like, just don't be so formalbecause your advice is
beautiful.
It sounds great.

Jordan (54:09):
Yeah.

Kevin (54:10):
But like there's not a bunch of people here.
It's just me and you.
And so as an audience member, Iwould just want a little bit
more of the casualness to theconversation, to the vibe.

Jordan (54:20):
Yeah.
Jewel could be a professionallike audiobook reader.
She just, I could feel theempathy coming through her
voice.
I could feel that she cares sodeeply.
But yeah, I think that there islike a little bit of chill that
needs to happen, especiallygiven, you know, what her
branding is appearing to be, youknow.

Alban (54:40):
I kept hearing something that I hear myself, which is you
want this to be perfect.
And so you're going quite a bitslower.
And you kind of need to get,it's not like get out of your
own head.
It's just like don't watch whatyou're saying because that's
what the edit's for.
And so you can just kind of letit rip a little bit.
You can just say what you'refeeling, not really think
through it, and trust when Icome to the edit, that's when I

(55:03):
can make any of these changesthat I want to make later.

Jordan (55:06):
Absolutely.

Kevin (55:07):
But one of the things you mentioned though was mic
technique, and you're nailingthat.
It sounds incredible.
Don't like check that box off.
You're nailing that.
No notes.
Yeah, it sounds really good.

Jordan (55:17):
All right.
Well, thank you to everyone whosent in your podcast for
feedback.
I know that that can be areally scary thing.
I hope that our feedback wasconstructive and good, and it
helps other people who might bestruggling with some of the same
issues because we're all in thesame boat.
Okay, let's get into fan mail.

(55:39):
Um, our first message was sentin by Jerry Barber from Gleaning
Mustard Seeds.
And Jerry sent his recordingchecklist over in response to
our podcasting workflow episode.
And Kevin, I wanted to take anote on his checklist, he has
printer off.
So it goes transcript, voicewarm-up, printer off.
And I laughed so hard.

Kevin (56:01):
Yes, I've got a printer right behind me that goes, it
goes, it does go off all thetime, right in the middle of our
recordings.

Jordan (56:07):
Yeah, your kids will just send something to the
printer right while we'rerecording.
And I think that is a veryunderstated tip.

Kevin (56:13):
Yeah, that's a good one.
I like that checklist.
Maybe you can throw it in assome chapter artwork so people
can look.
I would add, oh, oh, computerfocus.
Good.
I was gonna say phone focus,but yeah, focus mode.
Yeah.

Alban (56:24):
Printer for me is in a different room, but it's on the
same circuit breaker as thelight in this office.
And there's something aboutlaser printers that is a pretty
heavy draw right when it starts.
And so the lights will justkind of get a little flicker in
there.
So printer off.
I'm on board with that, even ifit's not the same room.
Yeah, it's just distracting.

Jordan (56:43):
All right.
And then we also had DaveJackson from School of
Podcasting Ride Ends say, youguys might try the road
connection service, as you allhave roadcasters.
I had someone connect me toroadcaster to roadcaster, and it
was like they were in the roomwith me.
I actually didn't know thatroad had a like remote recording
service.

Kevin (57:03):
Yes, they do.
And I have um fought with it tothe point of which I never want
to consider using it again.

Jordan (57:11):
Sorry, Dave.

Kevin (57:12):
Unfortunately.

Jordan (57:14):
Welp.

Kevin (57:15):
Yeah, I think it's called Road Call Me or something like
that.
And like to be fair to Rode, Ithink I might have tried it like
the week they launched it, andso maybe they were still working
the bugs out or something likethat.
But there is a way to configureyour Rodecaster, and you say
whether you're a host or aguest, and if you're a host, it
gives you a code, you can givethat to somebody else, and then
they can put in the code andit's supposed to connect you and
yada yada yada.
Didn't work, fought with itforever, kept saying it wasn't

(57:37):
connecting to the internet.
It's clearly connected to theinternet.
I mean, whatever.
But unfortunately, I got to thepoint that sometimes you reach
with technology where you'rejust like, I am so frustrated
with this, I never want toconsider even trying it again.
Yeah.
Like I, you know, an hour inand it was for something so
simple it would just wouldn'twork.
I was like, I'm out.
So I won't ever be trying that.

(57:58):
But I'm glad it worked for you.

Jordan (57:59):
I was gonna say maybe one of our listeners can test it
out and let us know how itgoes.
All right.
And for our next episode, wewant to talk about how to start
a podcast in 2026.
So, from our listeners, we wantto know what do you wish you
knew when starting your podcast,or what tool exists today that
you wish you had when you werefirst starting your podcast, you

(58:21):
know, however long ago, becausethings are moving fast.
So be sure to tap the text showlink in the show notes to send
in your response.
And until next time, thanks forlistening and keep podcasting.

Alban (58:36):
One of my favorite things that we do at work is every
Monday morning you get thisquestion, what did you do over
the weekend?
And it can't be work related.
Probably shouldn't be workingon the weekend anyway.
We get two days off spendingwith your family.
But right now, near Christmas,everybody is posting stuff that
are like their Christmastraditions.

(58:57):
And it's really fun just to seehow different other people's
Christmas traditions are, butthey're just so fun.
Like Jordan, you posted onewhere you took your girls
shopping and then you took themto get boba tea.

Jordan (59:10):
Yeah.

Alban (59:11):
And some people go skiing.
And, you know, I posted that wewatch some old Christmas movies
and then other people in thecompany.
So anyway, I was just it'ssomething I've enjoyed.
What are some of the traditionsyou guys like?

Jordan (59:23):
You know, it's hard because a lot of our family has
like moved away, or a lot of ourfamily of friends.
And so it's kind of starting tojust be us.
And I'm in this weird limbostage where a lot of my
traditions aren't really workingfor just like a small family
like ours.
And so I'm actually kind of inthe I'm window shopping right
now for family traditionsbecause my kids have asked me

(59:44):
like what we're gonna do on likeChristmas Eve and Christmas Day
and stuff like that.
And I'm just like, man, I don'tknow.

Kevin (59:49):
Oh, well, you've come to the right place.
I'm dialed, I'm locked on that.

Jordan (59:52):
Okay.

Kevin (59:53):
Okay.
Starting on Christmas Eve,right?
Christmas Eve tradition isChristmas Eve service.
And then on the way home, stopand get Chinese food.
I don't know why.
I don't know when this started,but sometime around the first
year or two of us having kids,we're like, we're not cooking
when we get home after church,and we've got to wrap presents
after we get the baby down.

(01:00:14):
And we're not, you know, likewhat's open, and the only thing
open is Chinese, and we're like,oh, cool.
New tradition, Chinese food,Christmas Eve.

Jordan (01:00:22):
Yeah.

Kevin (01:00:22):
Done.
So that still carries forwardto our two of our children are,
I think, legally, well, one willbe a legal adult the two days
after Christmas, the other oneis an adult, and then we only
have one teenager.
So but we're still doing it.
So 20 years in, doing it.
The next tradition is this onestarted seven, eight years ago.
And we take one gift for eachof the kids and withhold it from

(01:00:44):
under the Christmas tree, andwe hide them somewhere around
the house.
And then once they get donewith Christmas, there is always
an envelope tucked in the treesomewhere, and they pretend like
they still don't know it'sthere, which is very sweet of
them.
And I say, Oh, what's thatenvelope in the tree?
And they go and they look, andthat is the first clue for the
Christmas scavenger hunt of thatyear.

Jule (01:01:04):
Oh, yeah.

Kevin (01:01:04):
And so they open up the clue, they solve the puzzle,
which then reveals where thenext clue is hidden.
They run over to that place,they find the next clue, solve
the puzzle, and they go towhatever, to like, I don't know,
five or six different cluestill finally it leads them to
whatever the garage, and that'swhere there's three more gifts
hiding, and then they bring themin.
Okay.

Jordan (01:01:25):
I'm stealing that one a thousand percent.

Alban (01:01:27):
We've always done scavenger hunts in my family,
but we just do them randomly inthe gift giving.
It's so much of a better ideafor it to be the final gift, and
it's like, oh, it's all done.
Yeah.
Oh, what's that one in thetree?
And then you send them on thewild goose chase.

Jordan (01:01:42):
I am an only child, and like my parents never took the
time to do a scavenger hunt.
And so that didn't even likeoccur to me.
Like, I feel like just I don'tknow, a light turned on and I
can like finally see.
I'm just like, what?
That's an option.

Kevin (01:01:57):
Yeah.
A couple years ago, I took likeclue number three and I put
them in Ziploc baggies and tiedthem to rocks and threw them in
the bottom of the freezing coldpool.
And then I said, like, youcannot use like the pool net or
anything.
You have to jump in and swimdown to get the next clue.

Jordan (01:02:11):
I don't think I'll be doing that.
It's like 20 degrees here.

Kevin (01:02:14):
I know.
And then last year I made themum like run across the street to
a neighbor's house and sing aChristmas carol to get the next
clue.

Jordan (01:02:22):
Oh my god.

Kevin (01:02:23):
So the neighbor had the clue.
So I get more creative everyday.

Jordan (01:02:25):
See, I could do I could send the kids to the cigar
lounge across the street.

Kevin (01:02:30):
Cigar lounge on Christmas morning.

Jordan (01:02:32):
No, this is such a good idea.
I had like because they wereasking me, like, Mom, can we
play white elephant?
But it's just us.
And I'm like, uh, I don't wantto like just give out a bunch of
Roblox gift cards again and awhite elephant gift.
You know what I mean?

Kevin (01:02:44):
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, that leads me totradition three, which is family
game night.

Jordan (01:02:49):
That's my favorite.

Kevin (01:02:50):
So after Christmas dinner, um, my wife and I dress
up in reindeer costumes andmusic starts playing, and we
come out and we play reindeergames.

Jordan (01:02:59):
Cute.

Kevin (01:03:01):
And so it can be things from like um last year we did
Christmas trivia where theycould win prizes.
Um, so we put a bunch of stuffout.
So it's sort of a mix betweenChristmas trivia and uh like uh
uh like a Yankee swap stealgame.
So you um if you get yourtrivia question right, you can
choose a present and unwrap it,or you can steal somebody else's

(01:03:23):
gift type thing.
So if you get it wrong, youjust keep going.
Um this year we're gonna do um,we're gonna borrow something
that we did from a companyretreat a couple years ago.
We're gonna do holiday familyfeud.
So, yep, those are the threemain things Chinese food,
scavenger hunt, and reindeergames.

Jordan (01:03:39):
You are not kidding.
You do have this locked in,jeez.
You take it very seriously.

Kevin (01:03:45):
I love I just love the idea of tradition.
Like whether it's fun or not,like we're all gonna we're
either gonna look forward tothis thing because it's awesome,
or we're just gonna put ournose down and do it because it's
tradition.

Alban (01:03:55):
Yeah.
Whatever.
I I'm all with you, Kevin.
Like, the nice thing abouthaving kids is you only have to
do something like two or threeyears for it to be a tradition.
That's right.
And then it's pretty muchlocked in.
And we did a lot when I was akid.
We always had a Christmas Eveparty.
My parents always threw one attheir house.
It was pretty much the oneparty they threw every year, and

(01:04:15):
they're doing it again thisyear.
And they'll have like theydon't have a very big house, but
they'll have a hundred andsomething people over the course
of the night come by.
Yeah, it's like almost theirentire church will show up at
some point.
Everyone in the neighborhood,all their friends, everyone
knows they do it, and they showup and everyone eats Chinese
food because that's the onlything you can get.

(01:04:38):
And so they'll buy a ton ofChinese food and just have it
out.
It's the same place we went towhen we were.
I mean, I when I was nine yearsold, we would go to this place.
So 30 years later, it's stillthe same place.
We're still ordering Chinesefood from there.
It's still just as good as italways was.
Uh, so we'll go there forChristmas Eve, Christmas Day.

(01:04:59):
We now set aside for the, youknow, the three of us until it's
into the afternoon, and thenwe'll go spend it with my wife's
family because we pretty muchhave given up having Christmas
with my family.
Instead, we try to doThanksgiving with my family and
Christmas with her family sothat you kind of build the
traditions in with each family.

(01:05:21):
And so it's funny, both of mybrothers, when they got married,
they've kind of done the samething where they're like,
Christmas is your family, andmost people, Christmas is more
important for them.
But so for the family I grew upin, we've really gone all in on
Thanksgiving traditions.

Jordan (01:05:37):
Yeah.
Well, awesome.
Thanks, guys.
Calvin, I know that you're theone that introduced this, but I
think I got more out of it.

Alban (01:05:44):
Good.
Well, I I enjoy it.
I I've enjoyed seeing the onesthat you've posted.
I know you're you're probablyexperimenting with some, but
it's just fun to see what otherpeople are doing.
And it's a good reminder thateven with all the shopping and
all the obligations and all thewrapping and all the Christmas
card to send and the people toyou know thank and everything to

(01:06:06):
do, the main thing is you wantto spend some time with your
family and just celebrate theseason.
So I love seeing both of youdoing that.