14

How to Start a Podcast: Mics, Editing Software, Music, Hosting

Steph Lee: [00:00:00] you're listening to Travel Agent Chatter, volume 14. I'm Steph Lee, the founder of Host Agency Reviews and your host for today's show.

In today's episode, we're getting experimental instead of our usual one-on-one interviews, we're doing a group interview with my favorite travel podcasts hosts.

Travel Agent Chatter is an audio series produced by the team here at Host Agency Reviews every quarter. If you missed the last episode, we've got an ambitious 20 2020 campaign going where we're aiming to hit 20 new podcast ratings in 2020. We're almost halfway there, and I'd love for you to leave us a review or rating to help us reach our goal.

Yep. Right. Now that's you pausing the podcast. Yup. Good. Glad to see you scrolling up. Yep. Or down. Find the ratings and review section. Bam. You hit that five star rating, like a pro, easy peasy!

And that, my friends, was our call to action for our podcast, which is one of the many things we'll be talking about later with our guests.

So come along as we discuss why you should turn that idea of a podcast into a reality. By the end of this, starting a podcast will no longer feel intimidating. You'll hear from multiple podcast hosts how do things, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable knowing there are many different ways to approach your podcast.

But don't you worry, we're not going to leave you without a roadmap. We're going to give you plenty of ideas of different ways you can nail your very own podcast to help you get clients. So settle in and listen up because this two part series is chock full of information. And now, let's get onto the show!

Intro

Let's get the elephant out of the room, shall we? How about this pandemic? I know, I know. It's crazy times in the travel industry right now. I know your income has dropped off a cliff. Uh, you're spending hours on hold rebooking and canceling clients, and you're wondering when this is all going to pick up.

Well, I don't have an answer for you on that, but what I can do is take you away from the on-hold music and grounded aircraft for just a little while. Today, we're going to be tossing things up here at Travel Agent Chatter. Instead of doing our usual one-on-one interview, we're going to have a freaking party in the house!

There is no social distance happening on this podcast, which means that we may run, a bit longer than usual. And I figured if there was a time to have a longer podcast, the time to do it is now when I literally have a captive audience stuck in their homes! :) So thank you, coronavirus.

The gaggle we're hanging out with today is going to share with you their podcasting knowledge and hopefully get your wheels turning on how a podcast might help you drum up some new business for your agency.

 Whether your podcast is about travel or you're recounting the paper mâche creations that you've been creating in lockdown. I'm going to leave that up to you, but with podcasts, the important thing to remember is that the work you're going to do today are the seeds that are going to keep growing.

So podcasts are evergreen, and the episodes you create today will still be listened to months and years down the road. If a podcast is something that interests you, it's a great avenue to reach travelers.

And in more simple terms, let me put it to you this way. So even if one of your podcasts episodes only has 50 listeners, would you not be thrilled if you had 50 potential travelers attend an in person event you held and you were able to build a relationship with them?!?

I thought so. The let's take today to teach you how to build that podcast and to reach new audiences so that when things open up, you'll have people calling.

One last thing to mention before we jump in. We've got so much great info for you today that we had to break this into two segments, both of which are resource heavy. So don't worry about jotting anything down. There's going to be a lot of information.

And you don't need to worry about waiting for part two. Both episodes are being released at the same time, and all those resources that we're going to be talking about, we'll link to them in the episode's show notes at Hostagencyreviews.com/TAC and then click on the episode.

So today's podcast itinerary . . . we've got five segments for you today. We just are going to start with technical details. For the second episode, we're going to move into marketing, making the leap, and then we'll wrap it up with something that I think we could all use a little of right now, our warm fuzzy segment.

We've got a lot of people's brains to pick, so let's dilly dally no longer!

Meet My Favorite Travel Podcast Hosts

All right, friends, welcome to Travel Agent Chatter! Uh, we've got a really fun group of people here with us today and I want to introduce you to them. Uh, what I've done is kind of created a variety of podcast styles that are joining us today, but they're all in the travel industry. So the audiences kind of run the gamut from consumer facing to travel trade only.

The styles are solo pod or solo podcast host to co-hosted. And the topics are everything from cruise reviews to how to grow your travel business. some of these people are doing it full time, some are part time, some have monetized, some have not. But the point is to show you that there's a whole different array of podcasting styles there to give you some ideas.

So let's start off with the longest running podcast. and Doug Parker of Cruise Radio wins that prize. He's been podcasting longer than I know. I've known him and I think I've known him for something like 10 years. Is that right, Doug?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:07:19] Yeah, 10 years. And you're making me go first with all these ladies and I go first.

Steph Lee: [00:07:25] Yes. So give us your backstory, why you started the podcast and. Yeah. Tell us about, so yeah.

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:07:31] I got into radio, uh, in 2001 during college. Mmm. Did every shift imaginable from creating commercials to pushing buttons, uh, morning show, afternoon show, mid days, blah, blah, blah. Got kind of tired of it. Mmm.

Waking up, I was, my last stint was doing morning, so I had to go be at the station at 3:45 AM. So I needed to create an outlet cause I was going crazy. So I started a Cruise Radio just for fun, really like as a creative outlet. And then next thing you know, I started, people were listening, which I had, I knew nothing about podcasting.

I knew everything in the world about the FM radio ethos, but nothing about podcasting. It was all new to me. This was '09. These companies like World Travel Holdings and such started reaching out and wanted to buy sponsorships. And then. Here we are, you know, 10 years, 11 years later. So, yeah, just while I went from a career in radio, FM broadcasting to full time podcasting, and I've been doing this since 2014 full time.

I left radio in 2014.

Steph Lee: [00:08:40] You have such a, like a radio DJ voice to it. It never ceases to amaze me when I listened to your podcast. and next up we have Megan Chappa with Travel Radio. So give us a quick rundown on your podcast, Megan.

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:08:55] Yep. Travel Radio Podcast actually started as Travel Agent Interview because I was exclusively interviewing travel agents and, uh, it came out of, I was a travel agent until like two weeks ago, which is a whole military move issue, not the COVID issue, but that's another thing. because it'd be at parties telling people about, oh, I know someone that does these wine cruises, or like, oh, pole dancing cruises or this like girl's golf getaway bonanza.

And they'd say, wow, my last vacation was super disappointing. I wish I had taken that vacation. So I started recording all these travel agents that I knew that had very niche specialties, uh, in order to, you know, both help them, my friends sell out their tours cause sometimes they wouldn't fill and it would be sad. Or, and also to introduce, uh, travelers to more exciting or just different travel options they hadn't thought of before. And I've expa to authors and linguists and sometimes an occasional supplier, or we'll have someone on that might, cause people will write me and say, how can I get into travel? And so sometimes I'll do an episode that is, you know, that direction too. But mostly it's very niche specialties, trying to introduce travelers to travel professionals and, uh, that do unique things.

So that's what I do. And, I'm an Oxford right now and. I'm doing it part time because it's a momming hard right now. Yeah. And likewise, I'm sorry if my internet, uh, is a little tricky, but Oxford has never done school online before. It is literally the old school, and so we're facing some challenges right now, so that's all.

Thanks.

Steph Lee: [00:10:36] Well, thanks for joining us, Megan. Christy Camren of Travel Geniuses is another travel pro turned podcaster. So what's your story Christy?

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:10:45] I actually started as a home based agent. I like to say before it was cool, like back around 9/11 when we would go to supplier events and hope nobody asks like where our office was and stuff.

So, I've been an agent for a long time and even back then was really frustrated by the lack of resources available. We didn't have Host Agency Reviews back then or really any central place to get any information. And since then I've become a real student of online marketing and business, just online business in general.

And I've worked in that space a little bit too. So I decided I had all these big dreams of what I wanted to do for travel agents. And they kind of got in my way cause it was like bigger than I could do. So one day I was like, forget it. I'm just going to start a podcast and see if anybody cares about anything I have to share and see if it helps.

And that was, I just realized when you asked this question two years ago, on April 30th is when I started the podcast. So, it's been so great. I hope the agents listening decide to start their own podcast.

Steph Lee: [00:11:50] Yes. We hope so too. Uh, so let's move over to Kate Thomas, the cohost of Travel Pro Theory and the owner of North and Leisure agency.

She's an active agent. but by your own accounts, Kate, you didn't really identify as a podcaster, so how did you fall into it?

Kate Thomas, Travel Pro Theory: [00:12:09] Yeah, so I am a supplier, so North and Leisure, I do fit for Ireland and Scotland, and my cohost and cofounder for Travel Pro Theory is Heather Christopher. She's a travel agent. I met her through a cold call at one point, and we just got to know each other, became friends, we're each other's clients.

And we started having more background conversations beyond just the, like, I'm a supplier, I'm an agent, here's how we can work together, kind of thing. And we had a similar experience of working for someone else and then going out on our own. And the podcast was actually my husband's idea because we were on the phone 24/7 talking industry, and he was like, you should just start recording.

And yeah, so we did. So, yeah, I would say we're a podcast secondary. Our travel businesses are our primary. And then Travel Pro Theory is very much a passion project. but what we're hoping to do with it is really open up more, more conversations because as you guys know, the industry is very spread out. And while, uh, it used to be uncommon to be a home based agent now, like everyone is at home, a very isolated, so we're just trying to kind of open that up a little bit more.

Steph Lee: [00:13:24] Yeah, it's all the rage right now. and last but not least, we've got Lynn Blanco with The Travel Agent Podcast. so you're fairly new to travel and podcasting and decided to kind of tie those two together. Tell us a little bit more.

Lynn Blanco, The Travel Agent Podcast: [00:13:41] So I started my travel agency, June of 2018 after, getting a lot of people just asking me how I plan my own trips.

And so I kind of decided, why not jump into it? And, I found out very quickly that it is a very difficult industry. So, while I decided that I needed help, I started reaching out to travel agents who've been in the industry awhile. And those conversations were so mind blowing and so essential to building my business in a much better way.I felt like I just couldn't keep it to myself. It just wouldn't be fair.

So, I randomly, uh, one year later, June, 2019, decided to start my podcast. And, uh, like most of you, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know if anybody was going to listen and it's kind of turned into a thing. So it's definitely part time.

So I'm part time travel agent part-time podcaster.

Podcasting Microphones

Steph Lee: [00:14:45] Perfect! Well, now that we've got intros out of the way, let's get this party started!

So let's jump into the first segment, which is kind of going over technical details. And as you can imagine, since this is in audio format, it's very difficult to go over technical things like it's step by step instructions on how to submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts directory.

Which would also be incredibly boring. So we'll be giving you something even better today and something you can find on Google, which is words of advice from other podcasters in travel.

So let's start with the basics. The first thing you need when you're getting started is a mic. And don't be scared. You do not need to be an audio tech to have a podcast, as indicated by my like 1990s headset that I'm wearing.

The idea that I have no idea how the audio sounds, but you can definitely get into some serious gear. I know, Doug, you have tons of professional grade things too but that is out of budget for most people.

So what do you use, what would you recommend for recording equipment for newbies?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:15:56] Yeah, so really all you need these days is just a computer and a USB microphone. Mmm. You can go a couple of different ways depending on your comfort level. Like, so like there's an audio technical mic that's a USB. You can plug it in.

I believe it. Is that what you're using, Kate? I think that's what Kate's using. Um. So you can use one of those, uh, you could also have, like, if you're, uh, don't need a mic, you can have like a lapel. Like I have aniRig ($49) right here, which is this thing, and it's just the mic you click on and put this into your phone.

I can record the podcast on the road for like my news briefs and stuff in a hotel room or wherever, just like this. Or if I don't have this, last resort, I can use my mic on my voice recorder on my iPhone. So there's tons of different ways to go. There's also, um. Like Yeti makes a, a mic, a good starting, mic.

It's called a nano, I believe. That's going to run you about a hundred dollars. But all of those have quality sound. In fact, when I do, segments with, like NPR, I legit use my voice recorder. And they ask me questions and I just go 'La La La' and then send this to the producer and they use it right from here and it sounds perfect.

So like this day and age, nothing's off limits. You don't need. Like back when I started, I built a $5,000 studio in my spare bedroom. Now you can do it with a laptop or an iPhone and a few dollars. Really.

Steph Lee: [00:17:22] Magic. So I just have to comment that I love that you were actually noticing what type of microphone someone else has because I would be like, well, everyone's using the exact same thing.

Alright, so Lynn, I know you had, in of your former life you were a music major. So probably have a better ear for sound than definitely I do. So what do you use for recording?

Lynn Blanco, The Travel Agent Podcast: [00:17:50] I use, it's a Yeti blue raspberry. I don't know if they make them anymore, but they, it's one of the smaller ones and it's so cute and the sound quality is awesome.

But when I go to places, I actually just use my iPhone headset and phone and voice recorder. So, honestly at this point, he's right. You can use anything. Like you really don't need even go buy anything. If you want to do it, all of it from your phone, and then transfer it to the computer, you definitely can.

Recording and Editing Software for Your Podcast

Steph Lee: [00:18:25] Well. Well, that was easy. See, so if you were nervous about getting started because you're not sure about the microphone issue, we've gotten that taken care of.

Uh, so let's move into recording and editing. And is it safe to say that for all of us, that when we're doing these virtual interviews, we're using Zoom, Skype, Google Meet (comment below or email us to get coupon for 10% off) or some other type of video conferencing or call conferencing program like that?

All: [00:18:51] Yeah. Everybody. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steph Lee: [00:18:54] So there's nothing fancy or tricky to learn there. I do want to mention, we just, if you go to Host Agency Reviews' blog and type in, I think travel agent deals, we just published a post on travel agency discounts and different deals that can help you cut costs during coronavirus

Zoom and Google Meet both have discounts going right on right now. So that's something to take a look at. If you want to start your podcast and are unsure of a programming, Zoom and Google Meet might make that work for you. Uh, so you might be wondering if you need some special equipment too, not just the microphone, but to recording and kind of edit the podcast.

And the answer is, essentially, yes, you will need some software. The nice thing about the software, is that the recording and kind of editing are bundled into one program. So Megan, Lynn, and Christy, I know you use Garageband for recording and editing, uh, and that it comes free with Apple products.

So, Megan, would you, will you give us a rundown? The obvious perk about Garageband is that it's free, but in your eyes, are there any other pros and cons of using Garageband? Like ease of use or...

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:20:13] It is pretty easy to use, but I actually record into a software calledEcamm. So I don't use Google Meet or Zoom or Google Hangouts, and I like Ecamm because it's, you can split the tracks really easy.

Okay. So the purpose of using Garageband, I want to have two tracks so that if someone, cause a lot of people are at home, there's going to be a dog that comes in or a kid that comes in or my kids will come in because they're relentless and they think the podcast is awesome.

So, in that case, I want to be able to split the tracks so I can drop the volume or edit out a section, uh, rather than missing a whole section, if we're talking over each other or the dogs and everything's on one track.

So that's why I like Garageband. And also because you can import a lot of things into it and the tutorials are just free and available and, and it's native to my laptop and so everything's gonna work. So that's why I like it.

I think the drawbacks could be the learning curve, but it's, I think for what you can do with it, it's worth learning because, for example, my neighbor turned on his washing machine or something yesterday. Now I was able to do a low cut and just remove that and keep all the other audio.

So it's, I think it's maybe a little more advanced and also maybe a little more basic than some of the software that's out there. But if you know, you have a room that's going to be quiet, you might not need that. You might be able to go with something else. So, I don't know if I answered the question, but that's what I'm going with.

Steph Lee: [00:21:57] No, that was perfect. Kate, you've gone a little bit rogue. You're not in the Garageband and editing software cult, right? Am I right that you use Squad Cast.

Kate Thomas, Travel Pro Theory: [00:22:11] Uh, it's, no, it's just called Cast. And their website is like, yeah, TryCast.com. If you just Google, try cast, it'll come up.

NOTE: Cast is not quite the easy to find. :) This is their URL: https://tryca.st/

And when we decided to start the podcast, I mean, we were like, okay, let's just roll.

So we bought a mic and I googled services and that one seemed pretty easy to use. And it really has been. It's low cost, it's $10 a month, covers what we need, which is like 10 hours of recording. And then they have a higher plan if you're doing a lot more recording, but it does work well if you are doing remote recording.

And because Heather and I live at different states, every episode is remote and it does exactly, kind of like what Megan was saying. It records on two separate tracks and you could do multiple guests and everyone could be remote, which is really nice.

And it has some basic editing in there. And just some basic analytics too. I would say if you're like, if you want like a lot of detail on your analytics, that's not the place for it. But if you just want something quick and easy to get started and you think that you'll be either have a cohost or guests that are remote, it works great. So what we do is I'll have that opened up and it's super easy to invite people in.

You just send them a link and it pops them straight into it. But it doesn't have videos, just the audio side. So we'll have a Zoom open with that muted so that we can see each other and then have the audio recording in Cast.

Steph Lee: [00:23:38] Perfect. So Christy, you also, you use, so you use Garageband for your Mac and Audacity for the PC, which is another free editing software.

Mmm. So how does Audacity compare to garageband in terms of use.

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:23:57] I don't actually use Audacity. I just know about it for Windows users. So it's a free option. If anybody has a Windows PC, but I have a Mac, so I just use Garageband. It looks a little more complicated to me, but, I don't know. I haven't actually used it.

Steph Lee: [00:24:14] I feel like I'm the only non Mac user here, so, and they've got like my old headset. I'm feeling, I'm feeling very sad!

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:24:22] So Steph, what do you use to edit?

Steph Lee: [00:24:27] Well, I use Camtasia. Yeah. But I think Christy, do you use it?

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:24:32] Yeah. I did. Yes, I did start with,

Steph Lee: [00:24:36] Yeah, I did in the 1990s Steph...

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:24:38] Well I've, I use it for video editing all the time. So it was just the first thing I started using, cause I knew it, but it was just more than I needed. So, and I had Garageband. It didn't cost me any extra, so I just went with that.

Steph Lee: [00:24:50] Yeah, I mean, I really like Camtasia. I think it's very similar to Garageband from what I've seen, when I look at people's screens. I don't know, like the power behind it, but for me, yeah, who, you know, just needs to do some editing and isn't an audio technician. It seems to work really well.

If you're listening to the sound quality's bad. I'm sorry. So, and Doug, you use none of these.

What do you use and any reason that you, I prefer that over any of the other products?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:25:21] Yeah, so I, I go back to, I'm using a pricey program. It's called Adobe Audition, but I was trained in radio on Audition back in 2000 so I just kind of stuck with what I know. But I have now you can have multiple licenses for Audition.

But before I did that, I was using Audacity for doing shows on the road. And Audacity, back before I had the Mac, PC-based of course, but it was, it's just like Adobe Audition, same functionality and everything. So it's a great program for free if you have a PC.

How Much Should You Edit Your Podcast?

Steph Lee: [00:25:54] Oh, cool. Thank you. Yeah. Well, let's. Talk about like a more practical thing, which is now we know the program.

Now how do we approach it? Editing. So Christy, when we had chatted earlier, you commented that it was taken away hour per 15 minutes of Travel Geniuses episode, to edit, which is kind of, yeah, crazy for a part time gig. So what would be your advice to new podcasters on striking the balance between too much and too little editing.

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:26:30] Don't do that. Okay. What I did, I started just like let the perfection go and I, like Megan mentioned, if there's a like something running in the background that makes noise, I just leave it. One time my--I can't say the name--my Amazon Echo thing started. It must've thought I said its name.

It started, so I was like, "stop, stop!"

And I just left it in. People want to know you're human and I think if you leave that stuff in and just, you can make a comment about it, but, yeah, I just don't get perfectionist about editing.

Steph Lee: [00:27:06] That's a great story!

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:27:08] I did get real... the reason it took me so long is because I was trying to edit out every single time I said, um or uh, and I just now, unless it sounds really ridiculous or I pause for a long time to collect my thoughts, I just try to leave those in. And just train myself to not say them as often. But yeah, just let the perfection go.

Make it easy and just be human. Do what you can do. It's better to put something out that's not perfect than to get caught in trying to make it perfect and not do it or make it too hard.

Steph Lee: [00:27:40] And that's great advice for like as the host of the show.

 Megan, when we had chatted, you talked about kind of the guest end of things.

When you're interviewing your guests, they may be really nervous and that can create a lot of editing work, which is something to think about. So what do you suggest I'm doing to try to combat that?

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:28:00] , I like to send them a format, like I want to have a candid conversation with you, so don't tell me everything up front.

Is there any concern you have before this before we get started? That is what I email them out. This is what I written; I'm not going to give you any surprises. Like if I think of a question, it's not going to be an 'I gotcha question'. It's going to be something that I'm confident you're confident talking about.

And then I try to talk to them about 10 minutes before they actually know I'm recording. Cause sometimes you get a good piece of information that you know, they tell me and then I have my authentic reaction. And I wish that that would have been later. So as long as they give me that. And I'll tell them at the end, 'Hey, I was recording, I just wanted you to feel comfortable and that segment was better. I'm just going to sign it up. Is that okay?'

But I think being able to give them a good format ahead of time, telling them that, you know, this isn't ... I'm not going to try to trip you up in some manner. I want this to be good for you too. They want you to be proud of it and show your friends and family. I want it to be good. And so, this is what I propose saying.

And then at the end, if I've missed anything, I give them the opportunity to go back or correct or interject. And tell them like, this is, I want it to be a conversation. You can ask me questions too, and you don't even have to tell me ahead of time. Just throw that at me; it's fine.

But sometimes we'll still get a really nervous one, and then that will create quite a bit of editing and that's okay.

Steph Lee: [00:29:32] And Doug, you have some tricks up your sleeve as well. So even if the interviews go really well, there's still editing that needs to be done. You need to add an intro, outros, if there's like commercial spot....

So when you're recording too, how do you keep track of mistakes so you don't waste time trying to find the places you need to edit?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:29:59] Yeah. So I'm clumsy. So you can actually set a marker on Adobe Audition but I don't do that because I'm afraid if I hit something and I'm going to stop the recording. So I time mark it with with a pad and paper and just look at a time mark.

If something, if it goes sideways, I'll put down like 16:11 or whatever the time mark is. And I'll go back and correct 16:11 if I have to. Mmm. But I also agree with, like with Megan, I have a pre-cruise review sheet I send out.

I mean, my templates been the same for the past 11 years, and so listeners are pretty accustomed to what I'm going to ask, but just for a comfort level so they can jot down notes or whatever about the dining or the state room or whatever.

And then also I leave all the uhs and ums and everything in there because it's natural conversation. Like Christy said. It's just, yeah, it's a natural conversation. Like you're talking with some friends. On a nervous level, when people are nervous, I normally have like a 10 minutes just shoot the stuff with them for 10 minutes about the weather or how far are you from the airport?

Just things that, it kind of calms them down, especially whenever I say, Hey, how's it going? And they're like, well, good. Are we doing this now? Are we recording? Like they start freaking out. So it's kind of like walking them off the ledge by just having a normal conversation. And sometimes I'll even, I'll hit record and don't even tell them.

Just to kind of slowly segue into the interview so they'll never know. And they're like, when are we going to record? I'm like, we already did.

Steph Lee: [00:31:27] Magic.

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:31:28] Yeah.

Steph Lee: [00:31:30] And you also streamline editing by having a template for every one of your episodes. Can you explain a little bit more about that?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:31:39] Yeah, sure. So let back up and say that I record, but my template says all calls are subject to be recorded. So I'm not just like recording and they don't know it. They know calling in that they're gonna be recorded.

As far as the template, yeah, because I have commercial spots. I have my voice guy who does intros and outros for me and calls to action. So my templates the same every week. And I just basically interchange my cruise news segment and my interview. And then save it.

So it saves a lot of time because everything else is basically the same every single week. Unless I change up a commercial or change up the intro or refresh some liners. So it's, you know, having a template is good to streamline things. You're not having to build something from scratch every single time.

Steph Lee: [00:32:25] Yes!

 I just saw that, I don't know if Camtasia had this prior, I just saw that they had templates after Doug and I were talking. I was like, that sounds like it would be really helpful.

Does anyone else's editing software do templates?

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:32:43]Garageband doesn't do templates, but you can record your intro separate and your outro separate, save them, export them as an MP3, and then you can add them into your loops. And then I just favorite that. And so each episode I'm like, bring up my favorites. Intro. Outro.

Steph Lee: [00:33:02] Plop it in.

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:33:03] Yeah. So, okay.

Podcast Music: Where to Find Royalty Free Music

Steph Lee: [00:33:05] All right. So one of the things you'll, well, you don't have to, but you'll probably work with when you're editing your podcast is adding some music in.

It's not a necessity, but it is nice to have. The trick is you just can't put your favorite music in there. You'll need to make sure it's royalty free. And Kate, I know you don't have music on Travel Pro Theory, but Lynn, you have some on yours. Where did you get yours from?

Lynn Blanco, The Travel Agent Podcast: [00:33:32] So I just did a Google search for royalty free music for podcasts.

Uh, Google is amazing. And several things came up and honestly, at this point I'm kind of scared. I don't remember where I got it from. It was a deal. It was $12.99. I got three 30 second clips. And you just download them. And I picked one of out of the three that I liked the best and just put my voice over it.

So if anything was to happen, I had to rerecord it, I don't know if I'd be able to find that website, but there's tons of them.

Steph Lee: [00:34:07] Yeah. And Megan, how about Travel Radio's music?

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:34:12] Yeah. My music is from Garageband, but like 10 Garagebands ago.

So I don't know if it's still available. So thankfully I saved that all as a file. I actually saved it in another place also, so that when I switched computers, if it didn't come with, I still had it. So it's just a loop that was in Garageband and there's tons of them. What you're looking for is a sound library. And so you can look for a sound library or music, uh, you know, MP3 library.

And some of them, you can do like five downloads for free before you have to pay for anything. So you can get like, I don't know if you want to bleep people out, you can get boops and beeps and car horns and whatnot. So that's what you're looking for as a sound library and there are a ton of them.

And so, yeah, you don't need to pay for music to get started. There's tons out there.

Steph Lee: [00:35:09] Yeah. And Camtasia has like an asset library that comes through free with the subscription, or with the product, which is really nice. It has the sound library.

And there's, there's actually also subscription services. And Christy, you go that route. Who do you use and why do you choose the subscription route?

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:35:28] Well, I got mine through Audio Jungle, which has thousands and thousands of anything you could want. To buy the license was like $13 a season. So every time, like I start a new season or just a new year of the podcast, I just renewed the license for that.

So, that has a lot of options too. And Lynn, that might be where yours came from.

Steph Lee: [00:35:53] Doug, you also do subscription services. Same question as Christy, who do you use and why?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:36:00] Yeah, so kind of weird given the current, uh, current climate, but it's called Epidemic Sound and it's $15 a month. But it's, the reason why I, and doing this and not doing the more affordable route is because I'll have my voice guy cut an intro for me.

Well, then I'll take that intro and make 10 different files with that intro. So a soft, open, a hard open, a cold open. I'll use all these different styles. If I'm going to come out strong, I want a nice boom. If I want to, you know, come in soft, ease in. So I kind of just, I have all these files to choose from where I don't have to pay you like per song or pay a license for just, you know, 10 sound bites.

Also, Epic sound or Epidemic Sound links to your YouTube account. So I auto import my shows, my new shows over to YouTube. So if I'm using some random file that I didn't pay for, it would shut me down and give me a copyright strike. So with epidemic sound, I actually linked my YouTube account to my epidemic account, and then everything is kind of kosher.

Who We Use for Hosting our Podcast Files

Steph Lee: [00:37:12] Gotcha. Well, those are great tips.

So we're just kind of chugging along and building our podcast here. Okay. We've got ideas from microphones, recording, editing, music. Um. Okay. We're almost ready to push it to the masses, but first we need to find somewhere where you can host your podcast.

So those that are unfamiliar with that, just like you have a host for your agency's website, we need create a central place that's going to store your podcasts that everybody can get feeds from, and it can go to all the different directories.

If that sounded like a bunch of gobbledygook to you we'll kind of go through it a little bit more.

So Kate, you're all about ease and simplicity with Travel Pro Theory. What podcasts hosting service fits the bill for you?

Kate Thomas, Travel Pro Theory: [00:38:01] Cast. So the same thing we use to record and edit. It's all in there. After, an episodes done I do, you know, like download it and save it offline as a backup.

But yeah, when you get started, they kind of walk you through the process of setting up your RSS feed and getting that all ready initially. Uh, so we did that at the beginning. We started by backloading. We have three episodes ready to roll.

Just because we decided if someone wanted to listen to episode 1 and liked it enough to keep going when we started, to just build some traction. So we, we had a few ready.

And once we started the RSS feed, it was just a matter of getting it submitted to iTunes and Spotify and Google Play. And now I don't do any of that.

As soon as I hit publishing Cast, it goes to those places and I don't have to go bat crazy, which is exactly what I want.

Steph Lee: [00:38:54] Yes. And Megan, you're over at Fireside.FM give us your elevator pitch and why the $19 a month is money well spent.

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:39:06] Uh, because I was using SoundCloud, and I was using [inaudible] and I was just on all these different platforms.

It was like, you reached this limit. You've reached that limit. You can only do this many hours. You've got this storage, blah, blah, blah.

I was like, I'm just so frustrated with this. For me, it was also ease of use. But I didn't, I have a background in music industry, so I kind of didn't need the Cast type approach.

I wanted to use Garageband. They have, it also gives you a front facing consumer website if you want it that's beautiful and easy to use. And it also pushes out your RSS feed, which means like. Your RSS feed is the data. It's a tool. When you send it out, it sends out your podcast to all these places. And it sends it out to, I mean darn near everywhere if you want it to.

So, and then it has beautiful metrics. So I feel like they're not quite accurate as far as, I think they get their regions like. I cannot possibly have as many people subscribing from Poland as I do, but I

Steph Lee: [00:40:09] Mmmm.. I don't know!

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:40:10] Okay. But you can at least see, it's a beautiful trend that if you wanted to, if, you know, pitch to an advertiser, you could show great statistics.

And then also it has really cool backend feature that if you had an advertiser, you can show them. Yeah, you can send them basically this backend thing, with the timestamps, so they can just listen to their advertisement and then it can show you their statistics right there. So it has some good backend features that I really like.

I don't know. It's really easy. And if you want, if you have a problem, you write to them. And Dan, who developed it, writes you back. So it's great.

Steph Lee: [00:40:51] That's perfect. Um, I myself use SoundCloud. You get three hours for free, and then it costs $12 a month, and I've been happy with it. But their focus is definitely less on podcasts and more on music.

So it's, from what I gather, it's not as feature rich as other podcast-focused hosts, but I'm, I'm totally okay with it because I don't really want to move it over somewhere else. But there are other options out there.

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:41:22] Can I say one thing about SoundCloud?

Steph Lee: [00:41:24] Yeah.

Megan Chapa, Travel Radio: [00:41:25] If you want to do a monthly podcast and you only need three hours, that would be perfect.

Steph Lee: [00:41:31] Well, it's not three hours a month, it's three hours total. So for me, it was really nice because I only do it quarterly. So that was like three quarters of a year I didn't have to pay for anything, which is why I did it.

Um. But I know we've got a few people on Libsyn, which starts at $5 a month.

And Doug, you've been there since you started. What are the pros and cons in your eyes?

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:41:55] I don't have any cons for Libsyn. The pros, I've never had the issue with my podcast being pushed out. I put out 104 on Cruise Radio a year and 365 cruise news briefs a year. So I've never had one issue with anything.

Yeah. I mean, like you said, it's staggered pricing. So $5 is going to get you like just a, a few megabytes a month. I think I pay for 20 right now, which is like, I'm sorry, I paid $20 for like 400 megabytes, but I get like the extra, uh, data as well. So it's showing me the kind of device or downloading on whether it's an Android or iPhone or whatever.

It also shows me the region they're coming from, and also like from Spotify, iHeart radio, where were they're listening to the podcast from. It shows me all that data with the, with the more expensive pricing. But just starting out, you can totally do it for like five or seven bucks a month.

Steph Lee: [00:42:56] Chrisy and Lynn, you're also Libsyn-ites, right?

Christy Camren, Travel Geniuses: [00:43:00] Yep.

Steph Lee: [00:43:01] Okay. Mmm. Lynn, you had mentioned you are on Libsyn, but you like Captivate.FM better. Tell us more about that.

Lynn Blanco, The Travel Agent Podcast: [00:43:13] So I have been encouraging everyone I know to start podcasts and really just trying to figure out the easiest way to create like a program to kind of give people the, to make it super easy. And Captivate.FM to me, was one of the absolute easiest, startups. And you can have multiple podcasts.

So in my house, I, since I love podcasting, I've told my husband and my kids, that it's like a project. You know, everyone in the house has to have their own podcasts. Well, on Captivate.FM, you can have multiple, podcasts on one $20 a month subscription, as long as you have under 10,000 subscribers a month.

So on Libsyn, it's $20, and it, and you could only have one. So, we basically kind of just use both because I'm not going to move my current podcast over to Captivate.FM, but all of the family's podcasts are, you know, on Captivate.

But it is super, super simple. It sounds very similar to Cast. Um. You can do everything in there, in there websites are beautiful, that they give you.

So you don't actually have to go and pay, you know, Google or GoDaddy for a website. So I, I love it. I think it's great.

Steph Lee: [00:44:26] Well, I love the idea that you had your kids and your family doing podcast during the lockdown. That's brilliant!

Well, okay. All right, team. We've got one last technical thing to talk about and that's submitting the podcast to directories. Because we have the host that holds it, now we need to submit it to places like Google Play or Apple Podcasts. It sounds scary and it sounds time consuming, but it isn't.

Kate, let's get rid of the mystique. Did you find it challenging or time consuming to figure out how to publish the podcast on different directories?

Kate Thomas, Travel Pro Theory: [00:45:04] No, not at all.

Once, we had the RSS feed set up in Cast. It was just a matter of going through and submitted. We don't go for everything. We were like, let's just hit the top. We need iTunes, we need Spotify. We threw in Google Play for good measure. And, if I'm remembering correctly, like the process of submitting took me, you know, a few minutes.

It's writing your description, it's uploading your art, tagging your categories. Uh, if you have a potty mouth, like we do, marketing explicit then, and then that's it. I think iTunes took the longest in terms of like the time to get approved. I want to say it was maybe a week or so.

But once, once you get that email saying you're good to go, you're good to go, it's ready to roll.

Steph Lee: [00:45:53] Yeah. And Doug, you're really strategic, uh, with distributing your podcasts. So tell us how Libsyn works for that, and then tell us a little bit about your strategy for smaller directories and YouTube.

Doug Parker, Cruise Radio: [00:46:08] Yes.

So like with Libsyn on the dashboard there you have the option to submit, like to Google Music, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Pandora. Like all these directories, all you have to do is just add the description, add your art and basically submit it. And it auto submits all these for you. Also with with YouTube as well, you can just connect to your account and it also pushes it out just as a file. Just as an audio file, but with your logo as the cover throughout the whole, whether it be 30 minutes or whatever. And that's pretty much it.

I also have found other directories too, like listeners will email me and say, 'Hey, I'm listening on whatever.com or whatever. I don't see your podcast'. Or 'I listened to my podcast on this. Can you get yours in there?' So then I'll like Google rover.com, or whatever it is, and then put in my RSS feed to get listed in there. Because there are directories outside of Libsyn, like TuneIn Radio and Stitcher radio and things like that where you want to, you know, just to make sure you're listed, cause you never know where people are, how they consume their podcasts.

Steph Lee: [00:47:22] Yeah. I just have to say before I have, the one problem I have with Libsyn... it's really hard to say.

Heading to the After Party. Won't You Join Us?

Anyhow. So, okay, so holy smokes, time flew by as we're kind of going through the technicalities and I was hoping to kind of smush this all into one episode like we normally do. But honestly, there was just way too much info and I didn't want it to be rushed. So we're going to get a little bit crazy and we're going to do our first ever two part show.

Just because we're ending this show right now doesn't mean the party stopping. Join us at the after party, which is to say tune into volume 15, and that's where the party is going to continue!

So yeah, during that episode, we'll kind of discuss strategies when it comes to how often you need to do publish, how to make sure your episodes are pulling up in search and the best ways to promote your podcasts.

So there's no need to wait in anticipation either. Normally we publish quarterly but we're going to drop these shows at the exact same time and it's just waiting for you to take a listen.

So thank you, Megan Christy, Kate, and Lynn for joining us on today's show, and thank you for dialing in! I'll see YOU at the after party!

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Thanks for listening. Be safe, be well. We're going to get through this. And most importantly, keep your head up. Things are rough out there, but you're not alone. Keep your eyes focused on the kindness and beauty that has popped up as a result of this unprecedent situation. Thanks for listening. Stay safe and be well, my friend.