Podcircle Podcast

[00:00:00] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: doing what's outside your skillset is keeping you from doing things you do best inside your expertise.

[00:00:07] KYLE CUMMINGS: Yes,

[00:00:08] KYLE CUMMINGS: what is an hour of your time worth? I say, what are three hours of your time worth? ' cause that's about how long most podcast editors spend editing.

[00:00:16] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:00:17] KYLE CUMMINGS: I spent 30 minutes having a podcast conversation with someone, and then I spend three hours editing it.

And it's just

[00:00:23] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yes.

[00:00:24] KYLE CUMMINGS: That's just not time well spent,

[00:00:25] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: So hire an editor and get back to doing what you do best. That's what I

[00:00:28] KYLE CUMMINGS: Welcome to the Podcircle podcast, where we bring practical tips and insights for every podcaster.

[00:00:33] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: getting started or you're already a seasoned podcast pro, these conversations dive into all the topics that matter most to you.

So today we are diving into part two of our four-part series about your weaknesses. If you haven't listened to the last episode, we encourage you to head over. To our episode from January 16th, episode 22, outsource your weaknesses and stop doing it all because we provide kind of an overview of what this topic is and what it means to outsource your weaknesses.

So just as a refresher, outsourcing your weaknesses means delegating, hiring, or abandoning the things you're not good at or aren't worth your time. That's the, uh, key thing right there, so that you can spend your time and energy doing the things you do best.

[00:01:17] KYLE CUMMINGS: right. So we talk about this a lot. Only one in five podcasts make it past their first year. So

[00:01:24] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:01:25] KYLE CUMMINGS: one in

five podcasts, 20% don't make it into the second year of their shows. that's mostly because podcasters are just trying to do way too much. They're

[00:01:34] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Mm-Hmm.

[00:01:35] KYLE CUMMINGS: So you try to do all the things you end up doing none of the things very well. So

[00:01:40] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:01:41] KYLE CUMMINGS: area we believe that you should outsource. When you have the margin, remember, you may have more margin than you think because your time is worth something. It's not free.

The first thing you should outsource, I think, is editing.

[00:01:54] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: So if

[00:01:54] KYLE CUMMINGS: you have an

audio podcast, outsource your audio editing. If you have a video podcast, outsource your video editing

if

you

have an audio and a video podcast. outsource your editing. It's too much for 95 of people to learn and do for on a weekly basis. If you have

[00:02:09] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:02:10] KYLE CUMMINGS: and sustain your show and not get burnout and, and to enjoy your show.

I talk a lot about just what will it take for you just to enjoy your show

For most people, that means outsourcing your weaknesses, offloading the things that are just taking up way too much of your time and are outside of your expertise.

[00:02:27] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Right. And as you know, this is podcircle's expertise good reason honestly. Right. Kyle, you I would hope so your 10,000 hours, in this exact area. podcaster myself, I know I know the work that it takes to put out and put out a a quality show every week.

I I wear a ton of hats, especially when I was starting out. I was doing everything. I was the guest booker, the content strategist, the co-host, the producer, the marketer. It was tiring. And outsourcing my audio editing to Kyle is the number 1 best decision I ever made because, one, we we have a great product.

We were able to, from the very beginning, create a quality quality show, and it took one thing off my plate and I knew the the time and the effort that it was gonna take to learn how to do audio editing was way outside of my skillset.

joked that I am just one Google away from being an expert on something, but in this area, I'm glad I didn't try.

[00:03:22] KYLE CUMMINGS: Yeah, and when it comes to content strategy and marketing, you know, I can maybe Google fumble my way through that, but that's your expertise. I. And that lives, that lives in your domain. so, uh, we're gonna talk about today three things. The top three things you can gain from outsourcing your weaknesses and hiring a podcast editor again, whether that's an audio editor, video editor, whatever your

[00:03:43] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Mm-Hmm.

[00:03:44] KYLE CUMMINGS: and the number one thing that you can and should get right outta the box is expert sound quality.

[00:03:50] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: one

of the

[00:03:50] KYLE CUMMINGS: number

one reasons that people give when they quit listening to a podcast

[00:03:54] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: is poor audio

[00:03:55] KYLE CUMMINGS: quality.

People

can't stand it

because the next podcast in their feed is probably gonna sound great. And

it's like man

I love the content of the other podcast, but the quality, it's really bad. There's an echo. I can't hear the guests, the host, you know, it's all that stuff.

We

just have better options. There's just, there's not a lot of good excuses to have bad audio quality in 2023. So one of the most significant advantages of hiring an expert to edit your podcast. Is increased audio quality. Also, listeners are more likely to stay engaged with your show, subscribe to your show, especially if it sounds professional and is easy to listen to. they're actually stats about this statistics, you can look 'em up. also professional editors can work their magic to eliminate persistent background noise. So I'm thinking like if there's kinda like a fan in the background.

Or a, you know, maybe a, a a hum or a hiss on your microphone. Anything that's just kind of there all the time. hire someone from Upwork or Fiverr

[00:04:52] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: hmm.

[00:04:53] KYLE CUMMINGS: or you try to do it yourself, they're probably not gonna have the tools to do that and do it well. Um. professional audio editor is gonna adjust your volume levels so that you're, so, that they're ma they match

[00:05:04] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Mm-Hmm.

[00:05:04] KYLE CUMMINGS: you and

your guests also, so that they're consistent across all of your episodes. and just create a consistent listening experience. for your listener. Also when I say professional editors, I don't mean, like I mentioned random people that you find on Fiverr Upwork.

I'm not trying to throw shade, but I am trying to make a distinction because there

is a distinction

so they might edit your podcast for $40 an episode, but you're gonna get. Exactly what you

pay for.

[00:05:34] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: an

[00:05:34] KYLE CUMMINGS: So I promise you their tools and their experiences are gonna be far inferior to what our editors have here at PodCircle Why? Because I started this whole thing as an audio editor.

[00:05:45] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:05:45] KYLE CUMMINGS: I started

this whole thing as a musician and a music producer, and that's where I got my 10,000 hours. And then started this back in 2016 as a side hustle, and now it's grown

into what it is today. So I have, I place a premium on audio.

premium

video quality. It's, it's a big deal to me and it's something that our clients here at Pod Circle for the past eight years, love. It's a big reason.

They stay

[00:06:08] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:06:08] KYLE CUMMINGS: of other

reasons.

[00:06:09] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: I have thrown some insane situations at you. I have said, Hey, this entire episode, the guest is recorded at a really, really low volume. Um, for some reason there was a big lag on Riverside because our guest had really poor internet quality. We're all over each other. Um, can you make this sound like we had a cohesive conversation?

And I'm gonna be honest, I don't think there's a situation I've thrown at you that you haven't been able to solve.

[00:06:37] KYLE CUMMINGS: I

[00:06:37] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: So another one for you, Kyle. That's what I usually say. All right. The second thing you're gonna get when you outsource, uh, your audio and video editing is just consistency.

You're gonna be able to maintain consistency. So not only. Our show cadence and release consistency. Essential. Honestly, uh, you're never gonna miss a deadline again. I think that's one of the things I see the most is when someone's trying to do their own editing or trying to do something that else is, that is outside their skillset.

When you have all of the podcast tasks and you're not doing them well, or you're doing too many, that's when you start missing deadlines and when you stop releasing on time. Um.

I also wanna say segments and elements within your show are really important. So listeners like to know what to expect when they listen to your show.

That means music, that means transitions, that means different things that are like quality that you're gonna have consistently across the board. And I know Kyle, like you have a preset for me, and you know, like. This is what my intro sounds like. This is how we bring in, um, we always have at the front end of our episode similar to Pod Circle as like a quote or someone talking about a little snippet from the interview.

And as an experienced podcast editor, they'll help you maintain a consistent style and tone throughout all of your episodes, and you'll be able to reflect your brand identity more effortlessly. It'll feel more cohesive and it'll just feel better, um,

[00:07:57] KYLE CUMMINGS: One of the ways

that, to your point,

[00:07:59] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Mm-Hmm.

[00:08:00] KYLE CUMMINGS: like how

[00:08:01] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:08:01] KYLE CUMMINGS: fades up and fades

out. Like I feel like that's a, that's a big differentiator be between a really good seasoned editor and someone just gonna throw a fade and then, like,

it's in the details, you know what I mean?

So, And then another thing we do for a lot of our podcasts, yours, uh, included the

[00:08:17] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: mm-Hmm.

[00:08:17] KYLE CUMMINGS: Podcast that, at the very beginning for the teaser clip that we pull,

[00:08:23] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yep.

[00:08:24] KYLE CUMMINGS: or that you

have us pull, we time out the music,

[00:08:26] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Hmm. Yeah.

[00:08:28] KYLE CUMMINGS: We count the measures like, 'cause we're, I think all of our editors are

[00:08:32] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: We're musicians.

[00:08:33] KYLE CUMMINGS: which is which

[00:08:34] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:08:34] KYLE CUMMINGS: huge value add and a big deal to

[00:08:36] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Mm-Hmm.

[00:08:36] KYLE CUMMINGS: I know at least two of us are, are drummers in particular, so we understand timing and flow so we do that for every episode. And I'm just telling you, you're not gonna get that with just kind of your, your run of the mill Google search

[00:08:49] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Right.

[00:08:49] KYLE CUMMINGS: Cheap podcast editor. You're just not. And, and I think that there's just a noticeable difference in quality there.

So I hope it doesn't sound like we're just patting our, you know, ourselves on the back. But these are, these are things that our clients have commented on

value adds. So, uh, the number three thing, is to give your listeners a seamless listening experience. So even the most

[00:09:09] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: I.

[00:09:09] KYLE CUMMINGS: podcasters. mistakes during recordings. It's, and, and I mean, we do, we have a

[00:09:14] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah,

[00:09:14] KYLE CUMMINGS: like

we make mistakes and they get taken care of in the edit. So,

[00:09:18] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: sound perfect, but that's just because Kyle has made us sound perfect.

[00:09:21] KYLE CUMMINGS: Oh, it you sound fine. I have to edit, you know, myself the

most 'cause I've got, you get in there and you realize, man, I was like, man, I got some verbal ticks that I need to work on. I need to hire a speech coach or something.

[00:09:33] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: And you're probably your own worst critic on that. I'm sure that I, I mean, I do know that I say like a lot or I say, you know what I mean? You know, I have, and right there, you know, right there I have verbal ticks, so those can be super distracting.

[00:09:48] KYLE CUMMINGS: It's the ums for me. Golly. When I look,

when I look at 'em, I'm just like, there's just, there's just so many. So we remove those for people,

um, as much as, um, as much as we possibly can, you know, so, common verbal ticks we all use, um, like, know,

[00:10:06] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Uh, yeah.

[00:10:07] KYLE CUMMINGS: Using a lot of these in repetition over the course of. 30 minutes, 40, it gets distracting for people. So

an

experienced podcast editor, and I the word experienced in there very intentionally. An experienced podcast editor can edit out these awkward pauses, verbal fumbles, crosstalk, especially on remote interviews when there's a

[00:10:27] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:10:27] KYLE CUMMINGS: and you, you know, one person's wrapping up, kind of wrapping up talking, but the other person starts early and there's kind of a, a misfire there. We can clean that up and make it sound. natural. You know, it's all about preserving the naturalness of the conversation. And if there isn't a lot of naturalness to the conversation, a good editor can help find.

naturalness there because just having this conversation remotely with you today, of that lag, there

[00:10:55] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yep.

[00:10:56] KYLE CUMMINGS: bit

of a barrier. There is a little bit of unnaturalness just built into the medium

[00:11:00] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:11:01] KYLE CUMMINGS: using. So a really good editor editor is gonna close those gaps and make that conversation sound. What I teach my editors and tell them all the time is make it sound like they're sitting across from each

[00:11:10] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:11:11] KYLE CUMMINGS: Even if they're like, McKenzie and I are right now on totally different continents.

[00:11:16] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:11:16] KYLE CUMMINGS: sound like they're

in the same room together as much as you can. So you know, this kind of attention to detail is gonna help maintain your show's quality. It's gonna set you above just the run of the mill podcast. that's gonna fizzle out after five or six episodes. So, if you want to, an example of how we do that at Pod Circle, um, I made a video it's on YouTube. I'll link it in the show notes, but it's

[00:11:36] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:11:37] KYLE CUMMINGS: Crosstalk. stutters in remote podcast recordings. Kind of a long name.

Again, I'll link it. but we have a, a, a series that we're gonna be adding to called Podcast Pro Tips on YouTube, where I show you exactly what we do, how we edit out crosstalk, stutters, filler words, things like that. So, I'll drop a link to that in the show notes. You can check it out and see, kind of see me in action in real time, uh, of what we could do for you for your podcast.

[00:12:02] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: remember watching that video and just being in awe because again, when you see someone operating in their skillset and their expertise, it's just incredible because it's things that I wouldn't think of. You have your 10,000 hours, right? It was just so incredible. So I really encourage you to hit the show notes and go check that out.

Um, is it time to outsource your editing? Unless you are a seasoned professional audio engineer, the answer is yes. And I firmly believe that. Um, asked in the last episode, how much is an hour of your time worth? I think when you really start to be and intentional and think about what am I not doing so can learn how to do this audio engineering, what are my listeners having to.

through every week. How could having an editor, um, take the quality of my show to a new level? The answer is easy. It's yes, you'll find the money, you'll find the time, you'll find are really, really serious about putting out a quality show. So whatever you're doing that's outside your skillset is keeping you from doing things you do best inside your expertise.

[00:13:08] KYLE CUMMINGS: Yes,

So, and

[00:13:09] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yes.

[00:13:09] KYLE CUMMINGS: what is an

hour of your time worth? I say, what are three hours of your time worth? ' cause that's about how long most podcast editors spend editing. The whole

[00:13:17] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah.

[00:13:18] KYLE CUMMINGS: I spent 30 minutes having a podcast conversation with someone, and then I spend three hours editing it.

And it's just

[00:13:25] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yes.

[00:13:25] KYLE CUMMINGS: That's just not time well spent,

[00:13:26] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: So hire an editor and get back to doing what you do best. That's what I say.

[00:13:31] KYLE CUMMINGS: Yep. And like we've mentioned, if you're tired of doing it all, maybe you can relate to a lot of what we've

[00:13:36] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yes.

[00:13:38] KYLE CUMMINGS: at Pod Circle. We've got you covered. This is what we do, and we wanna help you do less of what's not in your expertise so that you can get back to doing what you do best. And just enjoy recording your podcast. That's

[00:13:49] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: Yeah,

[00:13:49] KYLE CUMMINGS: probably didn't get into it to edit it. You probably

[00:13:52] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: no.

[00:13:52] KYLE CUMMINGS: it to

record it and release it, and that's what it's all about. So you wanna have a conversation about this, I would love to, if you're maybe in the beginning stages and you're contemplating editing your own podcast, let me talk you out of it. If you're already into it, you've been editing your podcast and you're tired of doing it, let me help you out. So let's schedule a free consultation call with me. You can just email me directly. Kyle, KYLE, at pod circle.com, and we will get you sorted out.

[00:14:20] MICKENZIE VOUGHT: if you are at those beginning stages and you wanna launch smarter, get our complete podcast starter kit today at pod circle.com/start. So thanks so much for joining us. We will see you again. We have two more weeks of this series, and we are excited to help you build out your podcast team.

[00:14:37] KYLE CUMMINGS: All right, see you then.