AP 0393: How Do I Record My Podcast Guests?

AskPat 393 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 393 of the AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. Before we get to today's question from Tehout, I do want to thank today's sponsor which is FreshBooks.com.

Making it super easy for those of us who are doing small business to manage the finances in our small business, from keeping track of the income, the expenses, and everything else in between, FreshBooks is the way to go. It's absolutely the number one software to use to manage your finances. I use it, and so do three million other small businesses, and you could use it too for 30 days for free. You can check it out for 30 days for free by going to GetFreshBooks.com, and by entering “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, and enter “Ask Pat.”

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

Tehout: Hi, Pat. My name is Tehout, and I have a consulting firm, and my question is about podcasting and audio quality. I have a mic at home, so I can control the quality of my voice, but when I'm calling people to interview them, they obviously may not have that kind of equipment on hand, so how do you, and I noticed on your podcast your interviewees sound great, so my question is how do you ensure the audio quality of the person that you're speaking to if they don't have the equipment? Thanks a lot. Hope you answer my question, and I really appreciate all the content that you provide. You do an awesome job. Thanks, and take care.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Tehout. Thank you so much for the question. I appreciate this because I remember when I first started podcasting I had the exact same question, and I was worried. Now, I'm in a space, the internet marketing online business entrepreneurship space where most of the people who I interview also have Skype, and when you do a Skype-to-Skype recording, and I use Call Recorder for Mac which is a tool by Ecamm. E-c-a-m-m. Just look up Ecamm Call Recorder for Skype. You can see that there's a tool out there for Mac users that helps you record Skype calls. Whether you have a person on the other end who's on Skype or not.

You can use that tool and the same too for the … The equivalent for PC users is Pamela for Skype, I believe. Whichever one you use. You are on Skype, and you're recording yourself, but you're also recording the person on the other end. If they are on Skype, it's going to sound great. Obviously their microphone and their setup matters, and that's why in the space I'm in, the sound quality on my podcast episodes are usually great because the person on the other end, they either have a podcast of their own, or they at least have some sort of mic because they do consultations or something like that where they want to sound good, so they sound good when they're recorded.

Now, I will say I've had a few people on my show who are on the telephone, and to record those I actually get those people's phone numbers, and I call them through Skype, so I pay Skype 299. $2.99. Not $299. $2.99 a month to be able to call landlines and cell phones, and that allows me to record people, and have conversations with people who don't have Skype, or who are maybe on the go. Most of the people who I record on my other podcast at FoodTruckr.com, the Food Truck School is the podcast, those people are typically food truck owners who are on the go, and those people are on a cell phone or on a speaker phone with a partner, for example, and their sound quality isn't as good, and that's just what's going to happen.

As long as your sound quality is great the sound quality of your interviewees doesn't have to be very great, and your audience is going to be okay with that. It's like if you've ever listened to the radio, and you've heard the radio DJ, and they sound great. You know, they have that radio voice, and then they have a caller call in, and it usually sounds like they're on a speaker phone, or they're on a telephone with traffic in the background, or there's some noise in the background. Nobody ever complains about that because that's expected, and the same thing could be the same with your podcast, so I wouldn't worry too much about the equipment that the other person is using. I would just let that person know that if they have some sort of microphone, even if it's one of those Logitech headsets or some sort of desktop microphone, that's going to sound better than through a phone, but if they don't absolutely have anything else beyond the phone, or they're built-in desktop or MacBook Pro, PC, laptop, built-in microphone, it's going to be fine.

As long as your sound quality is great, and that's what you publish, the sound quality of your guests doesn't have to be great, and that's it, so hopefully that helps out, Tehout. Just a really short answer there for you today, and then something I would recommend that everybody pay attention to and just know that it's okay if other person doesn't sound great. Now, they obviously have to sound audible. Like you have to be able to understand what they're saying, and when you get on a call, and you notice that the sound quality isn't great there's a few things you can do.

You can see if that person has a microphone. You can ask them, “Hey, your audio quality is a little … It could be better. Do you have anything handy near you? Maybe a microphone, or maybe you can change some settings on your computer to have the audio sound a little bit better?” You absolutely have permission to do that. It's your show, and you are able to do that, and of course the person wants to sound great as well.

Now, if it's not possible for the other person to sound great, and you know that if you were to record it it wouldn't sound great at all, you would have to delay it. I mean, that's a call that I've had to make a few times. Not because of the sound quality, but just because a person just didn't seem ready, or they had a cold, or I had a cold. You just kind of make that call sometimes, and say, “You know what? I don't think this is going to work out this time.” I mean, maybe you don't want to say it that way. It almost sounds like you're breaking up with them, but you might want to say, “You know, the sound quality isn't as good as I thought it was going to be. I am not able to publish an episode with the sound quality because you're not audible, and I don't want to waste your time.”

Always make sure you say that. If you're going to cancel an interview for whatever reason just say, “I don't want to waste your time.” That way it doesn't seem like you're just taking control, but that you're also thinking of them as well, and you can just offer, well honestly if it's somebody who you really, really want on the show it would be kind of cool to send them almost a cheap microphone. You know, a Rode Smartlav for example if it's a high end person. That might get them to actually say yes, or to really share the episode as well.

I've never heard of anybody actually sending a microphone that they would want back. For example, I'm just thinking off the top of my head here how you could do this in a little bit of a cheaper way, but most people nowadays either have a phone or a desktop or an iMac or a MacBook Pro, or a PC that has a decent mic where you don't have to worry about it as much anymore, and again like I said as long as the audience can hear the other person on the other end, and your quality is good where it sounds like you sound like a radio DJ, and the other person sounds like they're calling in, it's going to be totally fine. You won't have to worry about it.

Tehout, hopefully that answers your question. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it today, and we're going to send you an AskPat T-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show just head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask right there on that page.

I'd also like to thank FreshBooks.com for being today's sponsor. Making it super easy for you to keep track of your income and your expenses, and also all the health of your finances for your business. They also have a great invoicing system that allows you to professionally invoice the people who you're working for, or excuse me, who are working for you. Students or anybody you're coaching or any consultations that you do. It just makes it really easy for you to create professional looking invoices so you can get paid, and then focus on what you need to focus on for your business.

Go ahead and check that out. You can go to GetFreshBooks.com and enter “Ask Pat” in the “How did you hear about us?” section to get a 30 day free trial. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, enter “Ask Pat.” Thanks so much. I appreciate you, and here is a quote from Audre Lorde. She said, “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I'm afraid.”

Cheers. Take care, and I'm see you in the next episode of AskPat. Thanks so much.