TIPS: My Eight DUMBEST Podcast Mistakes You Definitely Shouldn't Make

I'm opening up about my podcasting journey and the blunders I've encountered along the way. Join me as I share some valuable lessons learned from my experiences so that you can avoid these pitfalls and create a smoother path to podcasting success.

Key Times to Listen:

00:01:00 - The Importance of Hitting Record

00:02:00 - The Power of Headphones

00:04:30 - Communicating with Guests for Video

00:06:00 - Embracing Dynamic Microphones

00:08:30 - Eliminating Interruptions and Disturbances

Key Takeaways:

1. Hit Record and Have a Checklist: Always press that record button and create a checklist to prevent the dreaded missed recording.
2. Wear Headphones for Quality Monitoring: Headphones are your allies in capturing and improving audio quality by catching unwanted sounds.
3. Select the Right Microphone and Settings: Double-check your microphone selection and settings to avoid ending up with unexpected recordings.
4. Prep Your Guests for Video: Communicate clearly with your guests about video recordings to maintain professionalism and prevent surprises.
5. Invest in Quality Equipment: Opt for dynamic microphones with cardioid patterns to enhance your sound and eliminate background noise.

I encourage you to join the conversation! Share your own podcasting mishaps and experiences by leaving a voice message here. 

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Episode Transcript

Niall Mackay (00:00):
I've been podcasting for years now, and in
that time, I have made so manymistakes.
So today, I want to share mybiggest mistakes that I've made
during my time podcasting sothat you don't make them too.
My name is Niall Mackay, thepodcast guy.
I'm the host of SmarterPodcasting and the founder of

(00:21):
Seven Million Bikes Podcast.
And even though it's my fulltime job, it doesn't mean that I
still don't make mistakes.
So the number one mistake thatI've made, so the number one
mistake that I've made, and youwon't believe this because I
have literally just made thesame mistake right now.
The number one mistake is don'tforget to hit record.

(00:45):
You're actually hearing me doingthe second take of this episode
because I pressed record on thepod track and I forgot to press
record on the video and I go tocheck it and it's not recording.
This doesn't make me sound good,but it's not the first time that
I've done that.
I don't know if there's a worsefeeling in the world as a
podcaster.
When you finish an episode andyou go to look at the recording

(01:08):
device, whichever you're using,whether it's online or a pod
track or an audio device, andyou realize that it's not
recording.
I cannot tell you howfrustrating that is.
And I remember during thepandemic when I was doing all my
interviews online.
Even though I knew it hadrecorded, I remember getting in
a panic every time when thatepisode finished and Zoom would

(01:31):
tell you that it's loading orwhatever it was called.
And you're like, Oh my God,please work, please work, please
work.
Did I do it properly?
Did I do it properly?
And as I've just given you anexample, I forgot even today,
even though it's written in mynotes.
The number one thing to do ispress record.
So don't make the same mistakethat I do.
Have a checklist, have itwritten down.
I really need to have it writtenon my forehead.

(01:52):
I'll have it written right hereso that you never forget to
press record when making yourpodcast.
There's no bigger mistake.
Number two, my second biggestmistake was not using headphones
in the beginning.
When you use headphones, you canhear exactly what the mic is
picking up, which is way morethan what your ears can pick up.

(02:14):
When I did one of my first everpodcast interviews, I was using
a Blue Yeti microphone, And itwas sitting on the table between
me and the guest.
Now, I had a glass of water andice just like this.
And every single time I pickedit up, all you could hear was
that in the microphone.

(02:34):
I didn't notice it in real time.
If I'd been wearing headphoneslike I am right now, I would
have heard exactly what themicrophone was picking up, and I
would have realized immediately,stop drinking water with ice.
now you may also have heard myglass go down on the desk there.
You might not because I'm goingto do some post processing with
studio sound, but maybe youheard it that time.

(02:57):
Every single time you put thatcup down on a desk, then that
may also be picked up by themicrophone as well.
So, make sure that when you dohave a drink when you're
podcasting, that you don't haveice in it.
that when you put it down, youput it down gently, and ideally
don't put it down on a desk or atable where the mic is attached
like mine is right now, And thenyou'll be all good.

(03:20):
Alright, mistake number three,and I'm not covering myself in
glory here at all, but as wellas making sure you press recall,
make sure you've selected theright microphone.
I made an episode that I foundso interesting about live music
here in Saigon.
We finished the episode, we saidgoodbye, and I was so excited to
edit it.

(03:41):
When I went to edit it, thesound was awful, and I could not
figure out why it sounded sobad.
There's no way with themicrophone I was using at the
time, which was the Blue Yeti,and even though there should be
a lot of background noise, thequality should never have been
that bad.
And then I realized...
It had recorded from theinternal microphone on my 2010

(04:04):
MacBook Pro, not the Blue Yeti,even though it was between us
and we thought we were talkinginto that.
So when you do set up yourinterview and you have your
equipment ready, make sure thatyou're recording into the
microphone you want to, becausethe default might not be the
microphone that you're using.
Number four.
So, if you are doing a videorecording, make sure you tell

(04:26):
your guest beforehand.
I made that mistake when I wasactually interviewing a quite
well known celebrity here inSaigon and I forgot to tell them
that we were going to be doing avideo.
When they showed up and they sawthe equipment ready to record,
they were pretty angry becausethey have an image to protect.
They were not camera ready.
respect your guests and makesure you tell them that they're

(04:49):
going to be doing video becauseit is completely different to
doing audio only.
My fifth biggest mistake wasusing a condenser microphone.
So I already mentioned the BlueYeti, and it's a USB microphone.
Blue Yeti is made by Logitech.
It's a good microphone, and it'srecommended a lot for
podcasting, and I'm not too surewhy.

(05:10):
So a condenser microphone isgoing to pick up all the sound.
Now that's good if you'reinterviewing somebody, for
example in your home, and youwant to put a microphone between
you to pick up both of yourvoices.
The quality though is not goingto be that good.
It is going to pick up both yourvoices and pretty clearly, but
at the same time, it's alsogoing to pick up all that white

(05:32):
noise in the room as well.
It's going to pick up thetraffic outside, any banging,
knocking, any children that arescreaming, any dogs that are
barking, all of that is going tobe picked up by the microphone
as well.
As you can see, I now use adynamic XLR mic.
And if you go back to my lastepisode, you'll see this is the
Meono PD200X that I just did areview on.

(05:54):
This microphone has a cardioidpickup pattern.
It only picks up noise right infront of it here.
It's not picking up any of thenoise from the room.
I'm in a living room with shinysurfaces everywhere for the
noise to bounce off of.
I have glass doors, it'scompletely untreated, no sound
panelling.
If you go back to that video,even before I turn on studio

(06:15):
sound type of post processing,the sound is still pretty good.
Then when you do that extraediting, it literally sounds
like you're in a studio.
That's only possible with amicrophone like this.
So my biggest regret in thebeginning was not starting
straight away with a dynamicmicrophone that was just going
to pick up each of our voices.

(06:36):
The problem is it does meanyou're going to need more
equipment if you're doing XLRlike I am, you're going to need
an audio device like the PodTrakP4 to plug into, or if you're
doing USB, you're going to needto make sure you have enough USB
ports and most of all, you'regoing to need two microphones
instead of just one.
but it is worth it.
I would absolutely recommend ifyou're having a guest, don't do

(06:58):
the condenser microphone.
The sound is not going to begood.
Make sure you get yourself somedynamic microphones.
You'd be better spending thesame amount of money on two
cheaper microphones than one,condenser microphone.
Now, number six, a mistake Imade was not recording multiple
tracks.
When you record multiple tracks,it means that you can mute one

(07:20):
of the microphones.
Now, some of my clients thatI've worked for have had squeaky
chairs, so every time they move,you can hear the squeak of the
chair.
Now, thankfully that was on twotracks, so I was able to delete
one of them, and then thelistener is none the wiser
because they don't hear it.
But when you record only onetrack and all the sound is

(07:41):
coming through that, you can'tdelete any sounds from one of
the microphones.
And I've done this before and itcaused me such a headache having
to cut out little bits here andthere to try and cut out just
one microphone.
So make sure you always recordindividual tracks and especially
online as well.
Go into the zoom settings orwhichever program you use and

(08:01):
make sure that it's recordingindividual tracks.
Trust me, this will help you so,so much producing good quality
audio.
Now, number seven is a commonmistake we all make, and nobody
should be doing it these days,is leaving my phone on.
the middle of an interview, yourphone starts to ring or audibly
buzz and vibrate.

(08:22):
Make sure you put it on Do NotDisturb.
Unplug the doorbell if you haveto.
Make sure you put it on Do NotDisturb, ask your guest to do
the same as well, and so you'renot going to get interrupted
during your recording, and it'sgoing to ruin the flow of your
interview.
And last one, number eight, thebiggest mistake I made, and

(08:43):
again, because I didn't wearheadphones, was not talking into
the microphone.
When you get a dynamicmicrophone like this one, I told
you the sound is all picked upright here.
As soon as you start to move toofar away, or you turn your head
to the side, the microphonepicks up way less sound.
Now, if you don't haveheadphones on, you're not going
to notice that.

(09:04):
When I take these off, my voicesounds the same here as it does
here.
When I have headphones on, whenI do this.
I can hear immediately that it'snot picked up.
So coupled with wearingheadphones, make sure when you
are using your microphone,you're talking directly into it.
If you are working with a clientand I've worked with clients
where I spend most of theepisode that I'm producing

(09:25):
continually, just moving theirface because it's really natural
when you're talking to talk likethis and move about.
but you need to rememberyourself or remind the clients
that you work for that thisisn't a natural conversation as
such and talk into themicrophone properly.
So those are my eight biggestmistakes that I've made in my
years of podcasting.
I'd like to think I'm perfectbut I'm not and we all make

(09:47):
mistakes but I'm telling youthese so you don't make them as
well.
I want to hear what your biggestmistakes are.
There's a link in the show notesthat you can leave me a voice
message and I'll select the bestones and play it on a future
episode.
And we can share these mistakeswith other people so that they
don't make them either.
But remember, nobody's perfect.
We all learn from our mistakes.
Happy podcasting.

(10:07):
Cheers.