AP 0464: How Much Podcasting Equipment Do I Need?

AskPat 464 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What up, everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to Episode 464 of AskPat. Thanks so much for joining me today.

We have a great question today from Patti, but before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks.com. They make it super easy for all of us to organize our finances, our business finances, our money coming in, money going out, and invoicing. And they make it incredibly easy. They also have an award winning mobile app so you can check your financial health of your business on the go too. Income tax season, it's going to be very easy for you to organize everything so you can get those numbers right and not worry and have a headache, so go ahead and check it out today. For 30 days, actually for free, by going to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “AskPat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. That's GetFreshBooks.com, enter “AskPat.”

All right, here's today's question from Patti.

Patti: Hi, Pat. My name is Patti Good, and I am an empowerment expert for motherhood. I have a website, which is PattiGood.com. My question is that I would like to start offering extra value to my audience through audio and I came across podcasting, which I didn't know anything about. And I've had a look at some of your stuff and my question is, do I need to do the full podcasting setup? Because what I would like to do is simply record Skype calls. I'd like to be able to speak to some experts, speak to some mums about their great birth stories; you know, about 10, 15 minutes, and I'd really like to start simply just by recording my Skype calls. And do I need to, can I just start with that? Is that good enough? Can I get good enough audio quality from that, or do I need to do a full setup? So just wanted your help with that. Thanks!

Pat Flynn: Hey, Patti. Thank you so much for this question, and kudos to you for what you do. I think moms are the most important people in the world. Obviously, I wouldn't be here without my mom. My wife is a mom; she's awesome. Moms are awesome. Thank you for helping them out and empowering them. They deserve all the credit in the world.

Now to help you out: do you need this full podcast equipment? It's hard, because whenever we want to start something new we always want to get the best stuff, right? Especially those of use who are tech nerds. It could be really easy to just spend thousands of dollars in podcasting setup, but you don't need that. Even if you want to record great podcast episodes on your own, it doesn't really matter. All you need is a great microphone, an audio editor of some kind, whether it's GarageBand, or Audacity, or maybe you have access to Adobe Audition, which is what I'm using right now—doesn't matter. Need a good mic, a decent mic, you need editing software, and if you're recording calls on Skype, you need Skype, obviously, and a way to record that. And if you're on Skype and you want to record your calls, if you're on a Mac, use Call Recorder for Mac. It's by a company called Ecamm: E-C-A-M-M. You can look it up and download it straight from their website. I think it's $29 or something, and it allows you to record your calls, even video calls, and then you can export them as MP3s, which you can then drop into your editor, and that's it. That's all you need. If you're on a PC, use Pamela for Skype, but either one will allow you to do that, and that will give you great audio if you have a decent mic; that's going to be the most important thing here.

Now, what mic would I recommend? Well, the one that you're using right now isn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend using it. It has a sort of hollow tone, and that's no offense to you; it sounds like one of those traditional headset microphones, which are great for conversations but for recording a podcast, you know the audio is one of the most important things, or one of the most important things. So what I would do is actually get hooked up with what is called the Audio-Technica, the ATR 2100-USB microphone. So that is the ATR 2100 by Audio-Technica. And that plugs directly into your computer via USB, and that gives you this great sound quality. It sounds almost like the one that you hear coming off my mic right now. It's very close; people that don't have a trained ear won't even notice the difference really, and it's 20 percent of the price of this mic, the one that I'm using right now. I'm using the Heil PR 40, which needs a mixer and all that stuff, so that's going to add additional cost, and you don't need that. You don't need that; you don't need the full professional setup. Really, it's going to sound really professional with the ATR 2100 from Audio-Technica, your Skype calls, and that's it.

You're going to want headphones on, of course, so you can listen to the person at the same time. That sound doesn't go into your microphone coming off of your computer speakers, but besides that, just an audio editor, whether it's GarageBand, or Audacity, or maybe Adobe Audition, if you have access to that already. But that's really all you need.

And I would recommend going to PodcastingTutorial.com to follow the instructions there. I go over some of these microphone options too. I show you the ATR 2100, if you want to see what that looks like. That goes for about $50 to $70 on Amazon, so it's very, very easy priced, especially if you're going to be doing this. You want your audio to sound great. Now the thing I will say is, sometimes the audio on the other end of the Skype calls aren't going to be so great, and that's okay. They do on my episodes, because most of the people I speak to also have a great microphone; a lot of them also podcast, so a lot of the time the people speak to on my podcast, they have a great mic setup, and we both sound great. But sometimes they're on a phone, and that's okay. Sometimes they have the Logitech headset microphone, and that's okay too.

As long as your audio is great, your audience isn't going to expect both sides to be perfect. As long as they can hear it, and then you can do a good job of summarizing what people are saying and just, again, if your audio quality is great, it's going to really enhance the show and make it fantastic and make people want to listen to it more. Even if you have the best content in the world, if your audio quality is, especially as the host is terrible, it's not going to even be worth the effort. So again, invest a little bit in that microphone; it's not going to cost you that much. The Audio-Technica ATR 2100. And get Skype, which you have already, and then ECAMM's call recorder for Mac. Or, if you have a PC, that's Pamela for Skype. And then your editing software. That's really all you need.

So again, head on over to PodcastingTutorial.com. It's completely free, walks you through six videos showing you the ins and outs of podcasting, how to get it all set up, how to get it up on iTunes, and all that stuff. That's going to help you out, but really, you don't need that much to get started. Hopefully this helps a lot of you who know you want to start a podcast, you know you should've started a podcast already. Hopefully it's going to break down some of those barriers and get rid of those excuses you have, because, I tell you, podcasting has changed my life. It's changed my business, of course my business. It's changed how many people I've been able to reach and serve, and it's just been amazing.

So I wish you all the best, Patti, and can't wait to hear your podcast, and keep me posted. If you have any more questions, let me know. Look me up on twitter @PatFlynn, and hopefully by having been introduced to podcasting, you will become a podcaster soon too. So cheers, and best of luck to you. We're going to send you an AskPat T-shirt for having your question featured on the show.

And for those of you listening, if you have a question, who would potentially like to be featured on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com. And ask right there on the page, and I'll collect your question from there and try to answer as many as I can. Five days a week here. Thank you all so much.

I also want to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks.com. It made it super easy to manage our business finances. They also have an award-winning mobile app, so you can check the health of your business on the go too. Just a couple buttons to print out all those necessary forms that you need for taxes, and they serve over 3 million small business owners, including myself, so they can serve you too. Go ahead and check it out for 30 days for free, 30-day free trial, at GetFreshBooks.com. And make sure you enter “AskPat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Again that's GetFreshBooks.com enter “AskPat.”

Thank you again so much for listening, and I really appreciate you. We're finishing the week off here great. To finish off, here's a quote from John Cleese, and that is, “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating”. Thank you all so much. I appreciate you. Have a scary but safe and fun, exciting Halloween for those of you who celebrate, and I look forward to seeing your pictures on Instagram. You'll see mine on Halloween Day on Instagram, @patflynn—check it out. Thanks so much. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for all the reviews on iTunes. I'll see you next week. Bye.