Introduction

Today I’m going to do something a little bit different. Everybody’s wondering about the behind-the-scenes look of the podcast, what it takes to produce it, and I’m going to give you a behind-the-scenes look into all of that, creating a real podcast, including this one. So stay tuned.

YouTube Channel

If you haven’t done so already, make sure you check us out on our YouTube channel. Our handle is @mywedsongs, so it’s youtube.com/@mywedsongs on YouTube to watch this on video. For those that are just listening, I’ll try to make this as entertaining as possible so that way you can picture what this actually looks like.

Recording Setup

What I have today is a video camera looking at me and my screen, so that way I can share the process of what it looks like creating a podcast episode. I do all of my podcasts on Zoom, so on the screen, you will see the screen for Zoom. One of the things I want to say is that you have to make sure that you hit record, but what I’d like to do is I don’t like to download it to my computer.

Recording Preferences

What happened in the first couple of episodes is I had to record to my computer and then I shut down the computer after everything was over and then I forgot, and then I lost the recording. So don’t make that same mistake. If you record, make sure that you record it to the cloud, and that’s my preference.

Scheduling a Meeting

So let’s go with the first thing. Let’s go to Zoom and schedule a meeting. When I go to Zoom, I go to meetings and then schedule a meeting. Then what I’ll do is I’ll copy that invite, and I’ll send it to the person that I am interviewing. I try to set it up for an hour, but I always tell them, “Hey, the podcasts are about a half hour, give or take, depending on how long we expand on the topics.” I want to at least have them thinking, “Okay, it’s an hour episode, but I’m going to be editing it,” which I’m going to talk about in a minute. Now we have our Zoom meeting created.

Interview Questions

I actually have interview questions that I have for all of the people that come on the podcast. So I actually have a template, and this is just for me. I want to know their name, their company name, where they’re located. Like I said just a few seconds ago, please set aside 60 minutes, even though the average podcast is about 30. But most importantly, based on your responses, this conversation-type interview could take any direction. This podcast will not be live, and it will be edited. That way, it helps calm the people that I’m interviewing. It’s not being broadcasted live on YouTube or on Facebook or anything like that.

Icebreaker Question

I always like to start off with an icebreaker question. You probably have known this already if you’ve listened to past episodes. I ask pretty much everyone, “Can you share details of a unique wedding moment?” But then I also want to make sure after that question that they introduce themselves to our listeners. Then I also focus on a specific topic. But one of the cool things is, I always have closing questions, and there’s always two: “Is there something we missed that you want to share?” It really makes sure that if they have something that they want to talk about, that they do talk about it. And finally, “Where can the listeners connect with you?” I’d also give them what I need, which is a headshot and a bio paragraph to market the podcast episode.

Technical Setup

Alright, so that’s our interview questions. Now I have everything set up. I’m going to do Zoom. Now what? Well, how about before that? What technical stuff am I using? I’ll share these items in the comments, but what I’m using is very simple. It’s an $80 microphone. It’s the Audio-Technica ATR 2100. If you’re looking at the screen on YouTube, you can see what it looks like, and then you can also see that I’m not using the desktop stand. I actually bought a boom arm to hold it. It’s just using a USB from the mic to the desktop computer, but what I really like is it has an audio output to the earbud, so that way I can hear simultaneously. There’s no delay in me speaking and what I’m hearing in my ears, which is really essential.

Camera Setup

Next up, I have the camera. What camera am I using? The Nexigo N930AF Webcam. It is an Amazon’s choice, about a $40 purchase. I am sorry I don’t have the boom arm up. I forgot what that cost, but I’m sure you can find that on Amazon. Then I also have a side light as well. It’s the clip light reading light. It’s a 48 LED clamp-on desk lamp, just something that I have in the background to add a little bit more light. Sometimes I’ll hook it onto my desktop screen. Sometimes I’ll hook it up to the desk. It just depends on how bright the light is. Unfortunately, as you can see in the camera, I’m right next to the window, so it’s extremely bright out. I do most of my podcast recording during the day, and so the shades are always closed. Just trying to manage the light in this room is quite honestly a nightmare.

Recording Process

So now guess what? We have a recording. We process all of the questions. Now we have our finished product from Zoom. So from Zoom, I go to the recordings and I download the recordings from Zoom. And that includes the recordings and the transcripts. I personally don’t use the transcripts from Zoom. I use it from my editing software. I always tell people I may not be the greatest interviewer, but I’m a great editor.

Editing Software

So on the last podcast, I have Justin’s up here, and what’s great about this is I’m using the tool called Descript, and it imports all of the items into Descript, words, everything. I have a lower-paying version. There are better versions out there, but I’m a little bit cheap. So if somebody uses the word “like” a lot, you can highlight a word and remove all of the filler words. But the trick to this is I don’t remove them. I just ignore them because sometimes it’s better to have the word in there than not in there, and then I can just ignore it. Whereas if I delete it, it’s completely gone. On editing, it usually takes me about an hour to two hours just to edit. I’ll listen to it again just to make sure it makes sense. I’ll get rid of all of the “ums” and the “ahs” and the “likes,” and I’ll get rid of all of the big pauses. Is it less authentic? I don’t really think so because I listen to a lot of podcasts, and man, is it ever hard to listen to somebody that says “like” all the time, like “this happened” and “like when it happened.” And for me as a listener, as I’m walking, I just get extremely frustrated from those types of interviews. So I want to keep the authenticity but also make it highly listenable, if that makes sense.

Cover Art

I do use cover art in the video itself, just as the cover image and also the closing credits. But then I also have another version that I want to use in the promotion of it. So I’m using the same cover art for all of it, and then I’m just swapping out the picture. To do this, I’m using Canva. If you’re watching on YouTube, here’s a picture of the template that I use for the YouTube video that’s horizontal, but then I also have a square for promotion on social media. I’m updating both of those to insert for, like I said, the marketing and for the video. And I’m just importing this right into Descript.

Editing Process

When I have the script up here, I import my intro. I’m editing all of the texts. I have the video starting, and then what I’d like to do too, I just started this not that long ago, is I try to have a commercial for my newsletter that’s a free and paid version. Then I throw the commercial in there with the cover art for that. Then we go back to the video and then the closing credits. So that’s kind of how that works. Usually takes about, like I said, about an hour and a half or so. But what’s cool about Descript is I can hit export. And then I can export the transcript, which I do. I export the audio and I export the video. So the video gets uploaded to YouTube. The transcript is for the website, and then for the audio, I use Buzzsprout.

Podcast Hosting

Buzzsprout is my podcast hosting platform, and I pay $12 a month for hosting my podcasts. Then all I have to do is go to podcasts and upload those podcasts. So then you’ll see on here too, Justin’s was posted a couple of weeks ago. Jody’s has been on there two weeks longer. If you go to stats and you go all-time, we have surpassed 75. We’re actually at 76,359 downloads so far. We’re just on Buzzsprout or uploading a new episode. Drop it in there.

Descript Editing

And then we now can edit all of the descriptions that get posted online. So I just have a little bit about what we’re going to talk about. I have about him that he provided as a bio, his links to his social profiles and websites, the show notes, and then also a final message with some links. That gets put out through all of the platforms: Apple, Spotify, iHeart, all of them.

Posting Schedule

Now I have the episode posted on YouTube. I have it on Buzzsprout and all of the forms for me. I do it every other Thursday at 5:00 AM when I post all of the episodes. Also, like I said, I get the transcript. Now, the transcript, I open that in Word, and what’s great is I use Copilot AI and I say, “Okay, here’s my transcript, Copilot. Why don’t you turn this interview into a blog post that has headings, it has the main points, and then you’re correcting all of the grammar as well.” So that spits that out. Now I have just like I was doing in Buzzsprout, the same information, but now I’m embedding the Buzzsprout widget so that way people can listen to the episode right here, the show notes, and then the podcast recap. I just have this opening up in a dropdown so that way it doesn’t take up the whole page. But then I say, “Okay, guest introduction, this is all Copilot.” That’s turning this into a digestible interview that if somebody wants to follow along and read that, that way they can. And that’s what it looks like on the website.

Conclusion

That’s all about the podcast. Not a drawn-out podcast interview this week, sorry, but wanted to give you behind the scenes. Thanks for listening, everybody. You’re actually in our office based in Las Vegas, me sitting at my desk. Well, what else is on my desk? I have a pen holder from the 2008 World Series Champion Phillies. Yes, thank you very much. I have a coaster of my favorite beer, Alaskan Amber, and this was a gift from my sister-in-law. If you can see this, I know the window is in the way a little bit. This is a net for Frisbee golf. Nice little toy to have on your desk. So there you have it. There’s behind the scenes. I’m going to do another solo episode next talking about a trend of nobody dancing at weddings, and I’m not talking about what does the DJ do. I’m talking about society as people are less dancing at weddings. Thanks for listening and have a great day.