Things We've Learned From 100 Episodes of Podcasting
It’s our 100th episode and we are very proud to now be “seasoned” (x4!) podcasters. Today, we want to share the things we’ve learned about creating and maintaining a podcast for all those who are thinking of stepping out to be heard on the podwaves.
Here are a few of the tools we use and you might like to use too!
Podcast Hosting https://www.captivate.fm/
Podcast Editing https://www.thewavepodcasting.com/about
Recording Studio https://riverside.fm/
Transcript Creation and Editing https://otter.ai/home
Transcript
Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a
Jaz:gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how
Jaz:to tame your wild business beast, with tips, techniques,
Jaz:and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school.
Jaz:And have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts,
Jaz:Kim Beer, and Cara Taylor Swift.
Kimberly Beer:Hey there business animals. It's Kim with
Kimberly Beer:Be More Business
Cara Taylor Swift:and Cara with Fast Horse Photography. Hi, Kim,
Cara Taylor Swift:Happy New Year. I know we've already had a couple episodes
Cara Taylor Swift:come out in the new year. But this one we're actually
Cara Taylor Swift:recording in the new year for the first time. So Happy New
Cara Taylor Swift:Year,
Kimberly Beer:Happy 2023. I'm excited. It's here. I always
Kimberly Beer:feel like I'm waiting for you know, something to be born on
Kimberly Beer:that January 1st date. Now the new year is here and all fresh
Kimberly Beer:and shiny for us to play with and hopefully it'll be a good
Kimberly Beer:baby and behave itself and not grow up to be a really raucous
Kimberly Beer:obnoxious teenager like the last couple of years have so
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm expecting nothing but good stuff in 2023.
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm not Yeah, I'm not settling for anything less.
Kimberly Beer:I need 2023 to be an honor roll student. That's
Kimberly Beer:right.
Cara Taylor Swift:There you go. Well, what else are we
Cara Taylor Swift:celebrating today?
Kimberly Beer:100 Episodes. Look at us.
Cara Taylor Swift:That's right, I can't believe it. Kim, can you
Cara Taylor Swift:believe that? I don't know four seasons ago, 100 episodes ago,
Cara Taylor Swift:we decided to start this podcast and we're still doing it.
Kimberly Beer:I can't believe it. But the truth be told this
Kimberly Beer:is our official 100th published episode. But I don't know. What
Kimberly Beer:do you think this is probably like the 125th. One we've
Kimberly Beer:recorded?
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, yeah, because we've learned a lot of
Cara Taylor Swift:lessons on the way and we've had to trash a ton of them. And
Cara Taylor Swift:we've had some technical errors. And we've had times when we just
Cara Taylor Swift:hated how we sounded and we wanted to redo content. And oh,
Cara Taylor Swift:my goodness, yes, you're probably right.
Kimberly Beer:Yeah, well, I think we're I think we're past
Kimberly Beer:the 100 mark at this point. And for those of you who didn't
Kimberly Beer:know, it took us a year to get to the point to where we
Kimberly Beer:recorded the first published podcast, we played around with
Kimberly Beer:this a really long time and experimented. And we tried to do
Kimberly Beer:it like the way that you know, people say on social media, you
Kimberly Beer:know that, oh, it's so easy to put a podcast out into the
Kimberly Beer:world. And all you need to do is just push this button or have
Kimberly Beer:this piece of software. And we tried several pieces of software
Kimberly Beer:before we landed on the one that we use to record which is
Kimberly Beer:Riverside. And I can tell you it's not that easy. And we
Kimberly Beer:needed equipment, and we would listen back to them. And we
Kimberly Beer:would go oh my gosh, that's horrible. And we're also a lot
Kimberly Beer:like two year old colts going out the pen for the very first
Kimberly Beer:time we like we're wandering all over the place, we didn't have a
Kimberly Beer:clear vision of a topic, we just simply didn't know what we were
Kimberly Beer:doing. And frankly, I think that we were the two year old colt
Kimberly Beer:with a green rider to I don't think anything, there was no
Kimberly Beer:guidance whatsoever. None whatsoever. So it took us a long
Kimberly Beer:time to be able to figure out this process before we even
Kimberly Beer:started putting it out there. And I can tell you in that
Kimberly Beer:process of learning. I don't know about you, Cara. But I
Kimberly Beer:learned a tremendous amount from the people that helped us in
Kimberly Beer:getting out that first episode and, and getting us started in
Kimberly Beer:the right fashion of getting into becoming podcasters. Which
Kimberly Beer:now I absolutely love. I love being a podcaster I think it's
Kimberly Beer:the most amazing part of my week. Actually, I enjoy I enjoy
Kimberly Beer:doing the podcasts a lot. A lot.
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, we're podcast consumers too. So we
Cara Taylor Swift:listen to a ton of podcasts, we have our favorites, we really
Cara Taylor Swift:have I mean, I have a whole list that I'm waiting for every
Cara Taylor Swift:single week to pop up. So we're podcast consumers. So for us,
Cara Taylor Swift:they're part of the reason it took so long is that we would
Cara Taylor Swift:listen to these podcasts that we loved. We would listen to
Cara Taylor Swift:podcast sometimes for the first time, I'd be like, that sounds
Cara Taylor Swift:like crap. I'm not listening to it again. And then we would hear
Cara Taylor Swift:our show. And we're like, this isn't this is not what we want
Cara Taylor Swift:it to be yet. And it has to represent our businesses, it has
Cara Taylor Swift:to represent what we want to put out into the podcasting world.
Cara Taylor Swift:So we were pretty we had some pretty high standards. And it
Cara Taylor Swift:took us a long time to figure out how the heck to get there.
Kimberly Beer:It did. And I'll tell you for dear listeners out
Kimberly Beer:there, we maintain that high standard, or at least try to aim
Kimberly Beer:for it pretty high. Even now we had a couple of episodes last
Kimberly Beer:month that we had a couple of audio issues on and the upside
Kimberly Beer:to batching episodes where we record multiple ones in a day is
Kimberly Beer:that it saves us time and it keeps us focused and it keeps
Kimberly Beer:the episodes churning out like they should you but it also
Kimberly Beer:means that if you have a mic problem, you've got it on
Kimberly Beer:multiple episodes and we did we had a microphone
Kimberly Beer:and when we listened to it like it's
Kimberly Beer:sounded okay coming out of my computer speakers, but when I
Kimberly Beer:listened to it in the car so we, we listened to what you listen
Kimberly Beer:to the way that all the ways that we think you might listen
Kimberly Beer:to this podcast, we wanted to make sure we sounded good and it
Kimberly Beer:just didn't sound good. So we ditched that work and rerecord
Kimberly Beer:the episode. Because I know as a podcast consumer, if I tune into
Kimberly Beer:a podcast, and the audio is horrible, I will never listen to
Kimberly Beer:that podcast again, even if it is fantastic content, because I
Kimberly Beer:don't want to listen to the audio issues. So it is important
Kimberly Beer:in your listenership. And if you're gonna launch a podcast,
Kimberly Beer:which this episode is all about, and I know that there are people
Kimberly Beer:out there, I talk to them every single day who want to have a
Kimberly Beer:podcast, this is something that you need to consider is how are
Kimberly Beer:your listeners going to respond to your podcast? What's that
Kimberly Beer:going to be? Like? I talked with a woman yesterday about a
Kimberly Beer:podcast, she says I want to be you. I want to have the podcast
Kimberly Beer:kind of situation. Can you help me with that? And I'm like,
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely, I certainly can. But I do want you to know, it's not
Kimberly Beer:as easy as sometimes what people make it out to be Oh, it's just
Kimberly Beer:a simple thing. You you buy some equipment, and just or don't buy
Kimberly Beer:the equipment and just start recording, which is what we
Kimberly Beer:tried to do it first. And I can tell you, you have to buy the
Kimberly Beer:professional audio equipment if you want to sound good. Now, I'm
Kimberly Beer:not going to tell you we bought the highest quality of
Kimberly Beer:equipment, we bought good equipment, but I don't think
Kimberly Beer:it's we could have gone even higher if we wanted to on the
Kimberly Beer:audio equipment. But it's a lot of effort. Cara I proud of us
Kimberly Beer:100 episodes is a lot of work and a lot of effort.
Cara Taylor Swift:Me too. I'm we're going to keep going as of
Cara Taylor Swift:right now. So that's pretty that says something, I guess. And it
Cara Taylor Swift:really was a commitment. And there were some times in the
Cara Taylor Swift:beginning where I was just why are we doing this? You know, why
Cara Taylor Swift:are we stressing ourselves out to maintain this schedule. And
Cara Taylor Swift:to keep putting out this content? I definitely had days
Cara Taylor Swift:where I second guessed, like and had to recenter and you and I
Cara Taylor Swift:would have to have a little sit down chit chat and figure out is
Cara Taylor Swift:it worth still going. And here we are 100 episodes in. And
Cara Taylor Swift:we're still going and we do see value in it. So what our hope
Cara Taylor Swift:is, I think today is we're not going to tell you a step by step
Cara Taylor Swift:guide on how to start a podcast. But we are going to give you our
Cara Taylor Swift:typical big three that we go through. And then in the show
Cara Taylor Swift:notes because I know there's gonna be a lot of people
Cara Taylor Swift:listening, if Kim's okay with it, I will definitely put links
Cara Taylor Swift:to products that we use, you know how we get our transcripts
Cara Taylor Swift:done and captivate and you know, all of Riverside, I'll put links
Cara Taylor Swift:to those in there for folks that are interested. Podcasting for
Cara Taylor Swift:us has not been a cheap endeavor. So maybe there's
Cara Taylor Swift:podcasters out there that it has been an expensive endeavor. But
Cara Taylor Swift:for us, it's you know, we have included this in we have a
Cara Taylor Swift:budget for this show. So we'll put all that stuff in there for
Cara Taylor Swift:you. So that hopefully, for you guys, you're not out there
Cara Taylor Swift:testing out a bunch of stuff and learning and realizing that it's
Cara Taylor Swift:not right for you like we did in the beginning. So these might be
Cara Taylor Swift:some great places for you to start. If you're thinking yeah,
Kimberly Beer:and I think that I do think sharing our tools
Kimberly Beer:that we use because the tool box was one of the harder things to
Kimberly Beer:figure out with this. Before we dive into the big three though I
Kimberly Beer:want to talk for just a second about what I feel the value of
Kimberly Beer:podcasting is and for now, and in the future, I was listening
Kimberly Beer:to another podcast. It's the social media marketing talk
Kimberly Beer:show, which talks about marketing and all of the things
Kimberly Beer:that go on and in the marketing community, especially around
Kimberly Beer:social media. And they were having a discussion I listened
Kimberly Beer:to multiple episodes yesterday. And one of the episodes that I
Kimberly Beer:listened to specifically and it got mentioned on the other ones
Kimberly Beer:as well is how important podcasting is to marketing and
Kimberly Beer:to business growth as well as becoming a cottage industry all
Kimberly Beer:on its own. So the younger generations now I realized that
Kimberly Beer:not everybody has a Gen Z as a marketer, a person right now
Kimberly Beer:like a marketing target market, but they are the people that are
Kimberly Beer:growing up right at this moment to become consumers. They're the
Kimberly Beer:ones that are starting to hit the consumer chain at this point
Kimberly Beer:in time. So the light they're like the Hot Topic everybody
Kimberly Beer:wants to talk about is how to market to Gen Z, like 70 to 80%
Kimberly Beer:of them want to listen to podcasts, like they listed it in
Kimberly Beer:their marketing research as the way that they want to interact
Kimberly Beer:with the companies that they purchase from. They want
Kimberly Beer:podcasting and just the sheer number of them. That's the worth
Kimberly Beer:the effort to consider podcasting as an option. And the
Kimberly Beer:fact that pot more and more people listen
Kimberly Beer:to podcast and are like secure and I wear their Serial podcast
Kimberly Beer:listeners, it is such an amazing way for you to be able to grow
Kimberly Beer:your authority as an influencer in a certain target market,
Kimberly Beer:which I will tell you, you may not get direct dollars to to
Kimberly Beer:impact. In other words, you may not be able to trace the dollars
Kimberly Beer:in your business directly back to your podcast as the catalyst
Kimberly Beer:for that because there is not a buy button often in these there,
Kimberly Beer:there may be commercials, but I will tell you, it's had an
Kimberly Beer:impact on my business just because people now view me in a
Kimberly Beer:different light. And they get to know me and then want to work
Kimberly Beer:with me or to buy my book or to come to one of our events that
Kimberly Beer:we do. So there's so much value to this in you building your
Kimberly Beer:authority, even if you don't direct sell on the podcast
Kimberly Beer:itself. And it's just it's such a great medium. I love the audio
Kimberly Beer:medium. I love the fact that I can engage with the businesses
Kimberly Beer:that I want to engage with and the information I want to engage
Kimberly Beer:with in my car, or while I'm on a walk or while I'm sitting here
Kimberly Beer:in my office doing graphic design work if that's what's on
Kimberly Beer:the menu for today. So it's just an A very important I guess
Kimberly Beer:we're preaching to the choir Cara Because our I'm preaching
Kimberly Beer:to the choir in this case, because we have podcast
Kimberly Beer:listeners listening to us.
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, yeah, and it's, I mean, I don't know,
Cara Taylor Swift:for me, it's it's content, you can come back to over and over
Cara Taylor Swift:again, a lot of times it's bite size, you know, I think I don't
Cara Taylor Swift:know, my attention span seems to get smaller and smaller as the
Cara Taylor Swift:years go on. So for me to be able to get education from
Cara Taylor Swift:something or entertainment from something in a bite sized piece
Cara Taylor Swift:is huge. I mean, there's just so many reasons. We love the
Cara Taylor Swift:podcast, community, the podcast genre, like there's so many
Cara Taylor Swift:reasons we love it. But we also now have found this joy and love
Cara Taylor Swift:of being a part of that community celebrating that 100th
Cara Taylor Swift:episode.
Kimberly Beer:And it's a valuable community and a
Kimberly Beer:valuable medium for growing a business. Yeah, all of the
Kimberly Beer:above. And it's not going anywhere, folks, it's only
Kimberly Beer:getting bigger and better as time moves on. Oh, yeah, tons of
Kimberly Beer:money's being invested into it is in in terms of marketing,
Kimberly Beer:just tons of money's coming in from big companies, and it's a
Kimberly Beer:big deal. Okay, so let's do our big three, let's get started
Kimberly Beer:officially.
Cara Taylor Swift:Alright, so the first of our big three,
Cara Taylor Swift:which you've probably gleaned already is, take it from us. If
Cara Taylor Swift:you don't know what you're doing, get help. And don't waste
Cara Taylor Swift:your time, like we did for months and months trying to
Cara Taylor Swift:create something, just just get help. Like there are people out
Cara Taylor Swift:there that know what the heck they're doing, and they can get
Cara Taylor Swift:you started on the right path. The second of our big three is,
Cara Taylor Swift:you've got to have some patience. And you need to
Cara Taylor Swift:understand that podcasting. It takes time. It takes time to do
Cara Taylor Swift:it. It takes time to grow it. And it really does take time out
Cara Taylor Swift:of your day in your your week in your life, your life, it takes
Cara Taylor Swift:time. And then the last of our big three is keep the faith even
Cara Taylor Swift:when it feels and looks like no one's listening. They are there
Cara Taylor Swift:are people out there listening. And we'll talk a little bit
Cara Taylor Swift:about what that looks like for us, and how that shows up in our
Cara Taylor Swift:lives. So Kim, do you want to jump us into big three? Number
Cara Taylor Swift:one real quick get the help you
Kimberly Beer:I do so yeah, get help. First, I'm a big person in
Kimberly Beer:trying to figure things out from YouTube videos and reading
Kimberly Beer:articles. And I tend to go to the library of wherever that
Kimberly Beer:information is whether it's online, or the actual library or
Kimberly Beer:Amazon and order some books to figure things out. And a lot of
Kimberly Beer:times I can get it done. But this was not one of those areas
Kimberly Beer:where I could just read or study or watch a YouTube video my way
Kimberly Beer:out of the situation. It was where we needed somebody who had
Kimberly Beer:an insider track that wasn't going to scam us that was going
Kimberly Beer:to be focused on us alone. And who was going to really get us
Kimberly Beer:started in the proper and correct way. And here I found
Kimberly Beer:the golden goose where that's concerned and her her name is
Kimberly Beer:Jazz. So jazz was the first person that we came across that
Kimberly Beer:was a guide for us and she knew exactly what she was doing. She
Kimberly Beer:knew exactly what to tell us to do. Now, I'm going to tell you
Kimberly Beer:she didn't come out and say you need to record your podcast on
Kimberly Beer:Riverside and you need to use the whatever the heck mics we
Kimberly Beer:bought. It's some kind of a Rode mic. She didn't say that. What
Kimberly Beer:she did is she told us the basic parameters of what we needed to
Kimberly Beer:look for. And we did try a variety of tools before we found
Kimberly Beer:the right things with the software with the hardware
Kimberly Beer:component with the microphones. We picked those out with a
Kimberly Beer:little bit of audio help from a friend of mine that gave me some
Kimberly Beer:base ideas. And then we all bought the same
Kimberly Beer:microphones and I mean by all is that we drag our friend Phyllis
Kimberly Beer:along for the ride eventually. Yes, I think road should
Kimberly Beer:actually for our second podcast. So road and Scarlett the scarlet
Kimberly Beer:USB Deely I think they should probably give me like I don't
Kimberly Beer:know some type of a kickback I don't know how many of these
Kimberly Beer:setups that I've sold since we've started doing this because
Kimberly Beer:it's been a lot, because I've given other postures, everybody
Kimberly Beer:who wants to start a podcast, I'm like, This is what you
Kimberly Beer:should buy. Right? That was the beginning was that was helpful.
Kimberly Beer:We started learning how to use the audio equipment, which I'm
Kimberly Beer:going to tell you is probably in my personal opinion, is the
Kimberly Beer:biggest frustration in this whole process is this microphone
Kimberly Beer:and the setup, things can go wrong with it. And you just
Kimberly Beer:don't know. Because you you just don't know until. But from the
Kimberly Beer:get go guys, you have to find somebody who knows what the heck
Kimberly Beer:they're doing. Or you do spend a ton of time spinning your
Kimberly Beer:wheels, and then you get the stuff back and you listen to it.
Kimberly Beer:And you're like, that's just not good enough.
Cara Taylor Swift:Yeah, and you know, Jazz, she helped enlighten
Cara Taylor Swift:us to things that we didn't even think about to yet she sat down
Cara Taylor Swift:with with us and said, Okay, step one, this is what you need
Cara Taylor Swift:to do step two, because she was really clear, like you need to
Cara Taylor Swift:create a trailer. And you need to submit your trailer because
Cara Taylor Swift:you've got to submit your show for approval, because it has to
Cara Taylor Swift:be approved to be a podcast and, and to get on all of the big
Cara Taylor Swift:listening platforms. And she really kind of had like a guide
Cara Taylor Swift:through that process for us. Now, just so you guys know, we
Cara Taylor Swift:haven't talked about Jazz in a while because she eventually
Cara Taylor Swift:fired us and went on to bigger and better, more amazing things.
Cara Taylor Swift:And we still love her and we appreciate her. And if she ever
Cara Taylor Swift:listens to the show, she should know that. But if it wasn't for
Cara Taylor Swift:her, I think kind of getting us rolling. Lord knows where we'd
Cara Taylor Swift:be today because she really was she really was someone who we
Cara Taylor Swift:hired. And I will put that out there we hired to did help us
Cara Taylor Swift:consult at the early stages to get rolling. And she was
Cara Taylor Swift:wonderful for that.
Kimberly Beer:She was and by the time she had gone on to
Kimberly Beer:bigger and better things. We knew enough about what we were
Kimberly Beer:doing to be able to move on to we could take out training
Kimberly Beer:wheels off his guess I guess is what I would like to say, by
Kimberly Beer:that point, we knew enough about what we were doing how to get it
Kimberly Beer:done, that we could work with a different editing company. And I
Kimberly Beer:do want to be clear about this, we do not edit this podcast,
Kimberly Beer:somebody else we give it to another company that they go
Kimberly Beer:through it. They're the ones who clean up the audio, they get it
Kimberly Beer:ready, they get it ready for us to publish, we do publish it
Kimberly Beer:using a software that we have. So for those of you who wonder
Kimberly Beer:about the mystery of that process, neither Cara or I have
Kimberly Beer:the time to edit audio in the way it needs to be edited. And I
Kimberly Beer:will tell you from what it sounds like from when we record
Kimberly Beer:it to what it sounds like when you guys listen to it is a
Kimberly Beer:different thing. It's a different, it's a different
Kimberly Beer:experience. And even though it's good, I think when we close the
Kimberly Beer:can so to speak, having a podcast that's edited the audio
Kimberly Beer:editing piece is important. And that's one of the pieces that I
Kimberly Beer:don't think Cara or I either one had a clue about now I've edited
Kimberly Beer:a ton of video in my life care as edit a video. But editing a
Kimberly Beer:straight audio podcast is different. And there's a lot
Kimberly Beer:more latitude to it. And it's it's an amazing process that
Kimberly Beer:people specialize in doing. And it's a point where you do need
Kimberly Beer:to understand all of that to be able to get it to the right
Kimberly Beer:place. And if you don't have that guide to help you find
Kimberly Beer:those resources, it becomes super different. So in jazz when
Kimberly Beer:she left us did give us this company we work with now.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I was going to just go ahead and give
Cara Taylor Swift:them a shout out real quick since we're talking about them,
Cara Taylor Swift:The Wave, it's thewavepodcasting.com They help
Cara Taylor Swift:women start and grow podcast so they can leave their unique mark
Cara Taylor Swift:on the world. And they have been wonderful for us, they were able
Cara Taylor Swift:to grab us up real quick and get started. And we appreciate the
Cara Taylor Swift:work that they do. So I put their info in the show notes.
Cara Taylor Swift:For anyone who's looking for a great podcast editing company,
Cara Taylor Swift:it does say they work with women, which I love. So that's
Cara Taylor Swift:always my girl power go. I love that. So definitely check them
Cara Taylor Swift:out as well. Their information will be in the show notes.
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely. And curate when it came to talking
Kimberly Beer:with Jazz. Jazz didn't just give us basic equipment advice. There
Kimberly Beer:were a lot of things that we hadn't like completely prepared
Kimberly Beer:for. And you made a beautiful list of those things that I
Kimberly Beer:think everybody needs to take a look at. If they're considering
Kimberly Beer:starting a podcast. These are questions you need to answer and
Kimberly Beer:probably you should answer them before you even go find that
Kimberly Beer:guide because it'll maximize your time and impact with the
Kimberly Beer:person that's going to help you so
Kimberly Beer:Oh, yay. Tell us a lot of that stuff. Because you remember way
Kimberly Beer:more of this than I do.
Cara Taylor Swift:Yeah. So when we first got started, the big
Cara Taylor Swift:thing was is we knew we wanted to have a podcast, it was so
Cara Taylor Swift:casual. We were sitting around a table chatting, and I want to
Cara Taylor Swift:have a podcast, I want to have a podcast too. So okay, well,
Cara Taylor Swift:let's have a podcast. So we sat down, and we had to, first of
Cara Taylor Swift:all, we had no idea what we're getting into. But we knew we had
Cara Taylor Swift:to have a goal. So like, what is the goal of the podcast? And
Cara Taylor Swift:that has for us, it has shifted over time and will continue to
Cara Taylor Swift:shift, I'm sure. But we had to really determine like, what is
Cara Taylor Swift:our endgame with this? Is it just to hear ourselves talk? Or
Cara Taylor Swift:do we actually have a purpose and for us that was serving
Cara Taylor Swift:animal based business owners. And that was our goal. That was
Cara Taylor Swift:where we started from our starting place. And within that,
Cara Taylor Swift:we think about things like, are we trying to build an audience?
Cara Taylor Swift:Are we trying to build credibility or authority in the
Cara Taylor Swift:field? Are we trying to grow a network? Are we trying to add
Cara Taylor Swift:another income stream, we sure hope one day that this show can
Cara Taylor Swift:have a monetization piece of it, but just so you know, we've done
Cara Taylor Swift:100 episodes free, like we're not making money on the show.
Cara Taylor Swift:And then or maybe you just want to have fun, like, there are
Cara Taylor Swift:definitely shows out there that are friends getting together
Cara Taylor Swift:talking about movies, or, you know, they're having fun, and
Cara Taylor Swift:that's okay, too. But you do have to have a goal in mind. In
Cara Taylor Swift:the first place. The second piece of this that I'm thinking
Cara Taylor Swift:of is we had to sit down and actually think about who our
Cara Taylor Swift:intended audience was. So who did we envision listening and
Cara Taylor Swift:what would be important to them? So we came back to the animal
Cara Taylor Swift:based business owners, and for me, it's the small business
Cara Taylor Swift:owner like that solopreneur out there, maybe someone who has a
Cara Taylor Swift:really small team, but they're an animal based business owner
Cara Taylor Swift:that is trying to learn and grow their business. And then we had
Cara Taylor Swift:to sit down and think about okay, so what are we going to
Cara Taylor Swift:talk about? What's our content going to include? We need to
Cara Taylor Swift:define topics, we need to have a structure. So each show has a
Cara Taylor Swift:consistent structure, like for us, that's the big three on the
Cara Taylor Swift:show, we then had to think about well, okay, so what type of show
Cara Taylor Swift:are we going to be like, we have a co host conversation, that's
Cara Taylor Swift:the way our show was run. There's two of us on the show.
Cara Taylor Swift:But occasionally we bring on guest speakers, we do
Cara Taylor Swift:interviews, these are all different types of shows that
Cara Taylor Swift:you can have, you can run a show by yourself, and it just be you
Cara Taylor Swift:talking and sharing information. You can have q&a, where you do
Cara Taylor Swift:questions and answers on the show. You can be a storytelling
Cara Taylor Swift:show, or you tell stories, you could tell fiction stories,
Cara Taylor Swift:nonfiction stories, you can also have interview shows. So there's
Cara Taylor Swift:so many different types of shows you can have. But I do think
Cara Taylor Swift:consistency is really important. And there's one thing that Kim
Cara Taylor Swift:and I know really know is that if you're going to do a co host
Cara Taylor Swift:show, you have to like the person and be able to work with
Cara Taylor Swift:the person that you're gonna do a show with. And Kim and I have
Cara Taylor Swift:had, I wouldn't say we've had a lot of growing pains. But we've
Cara Taylor Swift:learned so much about each other because we spend so much time
Cara Taylor Swift:together, creating the show. And Kim, the very early days,
Cara Taylor Swift:remember you made us go through that personality. What was the
Cara Taylor Swift:personality test,
Kimberly Beer:I made Cara take the Keirsey Bates to typology
Kimberly Beer:sorters. So we would know better how to work together, which I'm
Kimberly Beer:going to tell you is has I think, been one of the keys to
Kimberly Beer:us, keeping our friendship and a podcast. First of all, you
Kimberly Beer:should know that Karen, I really didn't know each other that
Kimberly Beer:well, when we started this podcast, we'd been to some
Kimberly Beer:workshops together, we'd we'd shot alongside each other, we
Kimberly Beer:sat next to each other at the big table at the powder horn.
Kimberly Beer:And we knew that we could get along in that context, but we'd
Kimberly Beer:never worked together and it's always my experience that the
Kimberly Beer:better that you know how the people you work with navigate
Kimberly Beer:their world, the better you can work together and Carrie and I
Kimberly Beer:are very opposite as far as that typology sorter. She's an
Kimberly Beer:introvert I'm an extrovert she's an S which means she likes
Kimberly Beer:things well organized and researched. I'm an in which
Kimberly Beer:means that I show up and fly by the seat of my pants. We're both
Kimberly Beer:f so we feel into things and then carries a j which is highly
Kimberly Beer:organized and I'm a P which is more again fly by the seat of
Kimberly Beer:your pants kind of deal sort of spontaneous instead of that
Kimberly Beer:highly organized. So we had to figure out systems in order to
Kimberly Beer:accommodate both of us. And I honestly believe if we hadn't
Kimberly Beer:have done that we would have struggled a lot longer or we
Kimberly Beer:would not have come up with as good of a system as we came up
Kimberly Beer:with so the big three is nice because it's very much guidance.
Kimberly Beer:It keeps me reined in and it gives Kara research points that
Kimberly Beer:she can go look at which satisfies both of our
Kimberly Beer:temperaments and then
Kimberly Beer:And yeah, it's just been, it was a big boon to do that. And I
Kimberly Beer:will tell you, I feel like Cara has become one of my best
Kimberly Beer:friends over the last couple of years. She's one of the people
Kimberly Beer:that I call when I need somebody to talk to. So this podcast has
Kimberly Beer:become where her and I have become good friends. And we do
Kimberly Beer:get to know each other and work. We'd love to sometimes just get
Kimberly Beer:on Zoom and work together, because it's that we feel like
Kimberly Beer:co workers and buddies. So that's been a huge gift from the
Kimberly Beer:podcast is that relationship?
Cara Taylor Swift:Oh, definitely. And I think it was
Cara Taylor Swift:an unintended gift, like it was just a really nice, bonus piece
Cara Taylor Swift:of it, definitely. And I will go out and just say if we hadn't
Cara Taylor Swift:have spent that time learning about each other at the
Cara Taylor Swift:beginning, and how to work together, we probably wouldn't
Cara Taylor Swift:still have a show today. Because we are too different. I think we
Cara Taylor Swift:would have frustrated the heck out of each other and probably
Cara Taylor Swift:throwing our hands up and went our separate ways in terms of a
Cara Taylor Swift:podcast. So that was essential. And it has just done nothing but
Cara Taylor Swift:strengthen, strengthen, I mean, across the board. So yeah,
Cara Taylor Swift:absolutely. I'm gonna just continue on with this real
Cara Taylor Swift:quick, because I can't help myself. So the other piece of
Cara Taylor Swift:this is you've got to spend some time doing a little research. So
Cara Taylor Swift:what's already out there in terms of podcast shows that are
Cara Taylor Swift:similar to yours. When we first started doing the show, there
Cara Taylor Swift:wasn't anyone else talking about animal based businesses,
Cara Taylor Swift:specifically, animal based businesses in the business
Cara Taylor Swift:world, there were a few Nisha pieces around maybe equine
Cara Taylor Swift:photography, or around dog walking like so really niche.
Cara Taylor Swift:But we wanted to talk about the animal based business owners in
Cara Taylor Swift:general. And there was there wasn't anyone else out there
Cara Taylor Swift:doing that. So do your research. It doesn't mean if the topic
Cara Taylor Swift:isn't out there already. If the topic is out there already that
Cara Taylor Swift:you want to talk about it, people are already doing that,
Cara Taylor Swift:it doesn't mean that there's not spilled still space for you out
Cara Taylor Swift:there. It just means you want to take a look at what they're
Cara Taylor Swift:doing. And bring your own flair to it, bring your own ideas to
Cara Taylor Swift:it, bring your own style to it, because you will then find your
Cara Taylor Swift:audience. The last piece we've talked that I have on here,
Cara Taylor Swift:which we've already kind of spoken about is you do need to
Cara Taylor Swift:get good equipment, we're not going to listen to anything that
Cara Taylor Swift:sounds like crap. As listeners, we just if it hurts your ears,
Cara Taylor Swift:if it's hard to listen to, if you have to turn the volume up
Cara Taylor Swift:and down to hear different conversations that are
Cara Taylor Swift:happening, you're not going to keep listeners that way they'll
Cara Taylor Swift:move on to there's enough shows out there now that they will
Cara Taylor Swift:move on to a show that sounds good, and that they can enjoy.
Cara Taylor Swift:So thinking about things like that you're going to need right
Cara Taylor Swift:off the bat, you're gonna need a computer, you're going to need
Cara Taylor Swift:internet, you're going to need microphone, headphones, a way to
Cara Taylor Swift:record you're going to need editing and hosting software,
Cara Taylor Swift:you're gonna need a transcript generator, you're gonna need a
Cara Taylor Swift:hosting and streaming service, you know, podcast platform,
Cara Taylor Swift:these are things that you have to think about. And I am going
Cara Taylor Swift:to put in the shownotes links to a lot of the different things
Cara Taylor Swift:that we use right now. So like the way podcasting, we just
Cara Taylor Swift:spoke about his editing team, we're going to put a link in
Cara Taylor Swift:there for them. So don't hesitate to jump to the show
Cara Taylor Swift:notes when this episode goes live.
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely. And there's so much in there. And
Kimberly Beer:we'll even put a link to our microphones and equipment. If
Kimberly Beer:you want to know about that. There's a direct link we buy. We
Kimberly Beer:of course bought it from a photography company in New York
Kimberly Beer:that we both want to use called b&h. But yeah, and I did, I did
Kimberly Beer:a lot of research. And also we got suggestions from other
Kimberly Beer:people. And we did try several different types of software for
Kimberly Beer:various things. And I can tell you, I cannot be more pleased
Kimberly Beer:with two of the tools that we picked Riverside and which is
Kimberly Beer:how we record and captivate which is how we distribute the
Kimberly Beer:podcast. I believe Riverside has saved our butts numerous times,
Kimberly Beer:because of my internet. My internet is horrid. As you may
Kimberly Beer:hear us complain about that occasionally. I don't know if we
Kimberly Beer:always record the complaints, but we have a lot of them when
Kimberly Beer:we're not recording. And it gives me the ability to be able
Kimberly Beer:to do podcasting with terrible internet, which is fine, which
Kimberly Beer:is great. Although we are hoping someday it will be better
Kimberly Beer:because it frustrates Cara Because it there's a delay
Kimberly Beer:between what I say and what she when she hears me and we can
Kimberly Beer:respond. So it's an obnoxious thing when you're trying to have
Kimberly Beer:a conversation online. And then Captivate which is the tool that
Kimberly Beer:we use for distribution. I can tell you when we started with
Kimberly Beer:Captivate, it didn't have a ton of options. But over the last
Kimberly Beer:two years, every time I turn around, Captivate is doing
Kimberly Beer:something new and improved, and they've done so much stuff we
Kimberly Beer:were even talking just this morning, we need to go in there
Kimberly Beer:and look at some of the things that they've added because
Kimberly Beer:they've added things that really will help us as podcasters grow
Kimberly Beer:and monetize our podcast. So they're a really great team to
Kimberly Beer:be able to do that. I love all of our tools I feel like are
Kimberly Beer:really good tools. They're not free tools, though. I think that
Kimberly Beer:Cara mentioned this and then it means bears mentioning again.
Kimberly Beer:Podcasting is not a free endeavor, especially if you take
Kimberly Beer:it on seriously. It does cost some money it costs
Kimberly Beer:monthly money, it costs an upfront fee as well. So yeah,
Kimberly Beer:absolutely.
Cara Taylor Swift:So I think that takes us into number two
Cara Taylor Swift:big three. Number two, understanding that podcast takes
Cara Taylor Swift:time, time to do time to grow. For us, that looks like a lot of
Cara Taylor Swift:things. We have weekly meetings, where we discuss the show, we
Cara Taylor Swift:plan for the show, we have recording time that we spend
Cara Taylor Swift:recording, we have troubleshooting time where we
Cara Taylor Swift:have to troubleshoot issues, because we're 100 episodes in
Cara Taylor Swift:and we still make mistakes. And so we have all sorts of that
Cara Taylor Swift:kind of time. But we also have to plan our content. And Kim and
Cara Taylor Swift:I, we spend a lot of time thinking about episodes and
Cara Taylor Swift:laying them out in an order that makes sense. And Kim always
Cara Taylor Swift:comes with so many great episode ideas. But a lot of times we've
Cara Taylor Swift:got our next two seasons of episodes like listed out, we may
Cara Taylor Swift:shift them around, we may move around, we may bring in guests
Cara Taylor Swift:for certain things. But we pretty much know what we're
Cara Taylor Swift:going to talk about well in advance of when we're recording.
Cara Taylor Swift:And some of that's for me, because I need to be able to
Cara Taylor Swift:prep and plan that's that was the J in me. Is that what you
Cara Taylor Swift:said the SJ, the s of the jet? Yeah, so I have to prep and plan
Cara Taylor Swift:but we plan those episodes out way in advance, we schedule our
Cara Taylor Swift:recordings, and we've tried several different things we've
Cara Taylor Swift:tried weakly recording, we've done batch recording where we
Cara Taylor Swift:record up to four episodes at a time, we've attempted recording
Cara Taylor Swift:on the road, we've done recording in our offices, we've
Cara Taylor Swift:done recording from hotel rooms, I've sat with Kim while she sat
Cara Taylor Swift:in a laundromat parking lot one day, and we discussed episodes
Cara Taylor Swift:when she was on the road, because I know you got a lot of
Cara Taylor Swift:you that are listening know that we have full time businesses
Cara Taylor Swift:outside of podcasting that we run. And we each have a heavy
Cara Taylor Swift:travel schedule. So for us figuring out how to fit not just
Cara Taylor Swift:one show, but we have a second show now into our busy
Cara Taylor Swift:schedules. All of this double really is a scheduling issue, we
Cara Taylor Swift:have to schedule those recordings, you have to plan for
Cara Taylor Swift:problems, we learned that the hard way, you have to plan for
Cara Taylor Swift:problems. So what that looks like for us is we always try to
Cara Taylor Swift:have episodes in the cache. So we've got backup episodes, we
Cara Taylor Swift:try to be scheduled out so that we've got one or two episodes
Cara Taylor Swift:that at anytime can be dropped into the listening audience.
Cara Taylor Swift:Because there are times when we have had I mean, we've we're
Cara Taylor Swift:four seasons in so we've had things like health issues come
Cara Taylor Swift:up where somebody wasn't available to record. We've had
Cara Taylor Swift:traveling mishaps where we've had planes not go out when
Cara Taylor Swift:they're supposed to go out and we've missed recording times.
Cara Taylor Swift:Gosh, we've had just tons of stuff we've had internet outages
Cara Taylor Swift:and power outages and hurricanes and all sorts of things happen.
Cara Taylor Swift:So if you're gonna keep a consistent schedule, which is
Cara Taylor Swift:essential, your audience is expecting the show a certain
Cara Taylor Swift:time, every single week, if that's your schedule, or if
Cara Taylor Swift:you're a monthly show or twice a month show your audience is
Cara Taylor Swift:expecting it. And when you don't show up, we didn't think anyone
Cara Taylor Swift:would notice it. Because we did. We missed an episode once you
Cara Taylor Swift:guys and people let us know. Hey, did I miss your show? It
Cara Taylor Swift:didn't show up on Tuesday, when I pulled up the show. It didn't
Cara Taylor Swift:show up. And we we had this idea that no one would notice. If we
Cara Taylor Swift:missed a show. Okay, we've done 80 episodes, and we've not
Cara Taylor Swift:dropped the ball. And here we have nothing. we've messed up.
Cara Taylor Swift:We've had crisis happen. We don't have a show. And guess
Cara Taylor Swift:what people noticed.
Cara Taylor Swift:Yes. It's like what happened? Are you okay,
Kimberly Beer:Notice?
Cara Taylor Swift:people were texting us. And they were
Cara Taylor Swift:worried? Yeah. Is this show gonna keep going? And so what we
Cara Taylor Swift:learned from that is, you know, what, people are expecting the
Cara Taylor Swift:episodes to drop consistently. So we had to plan for that we've
Cara Taylor Swift:had to plan for problems. Yeah. So life happens. And but the
Cara Taylor Swift:show must go on is what we have learned. And we have have to
Cara Taylor Swift:prep for that. Absolutely.
Kimberly Beer:Yeah, I think that we were lulled into this
Kimberly Beer:sense of the fact that we had created so much and that the
Kimberly Beer:people had this whole cache of things that they weren't up to
Kimberly Beer:catching up with us in one episode wouldn't matter. But it
Kimberly Beer:did. Which tells me a couple of things. It tells me that people
Kimberly Beer:do engage with what we are putting out into the world,
Kimberly Beer:which is important, which is another reason for us to keep on
Kimberly Beer:going which I think is our which is our big three, the next one,
Kimberly Beer:which is keep the faith because even when no one it looks like
Kimberly Beer:no one's listening to you, they really are. So I rarely look at
Kimberly Beer:the analytics for this show. What I judge the success of it
Kimberly Beer:by is the messages that I get from people and in general, the
Kimberly Beer:universe is really kind because when I'm in a moment of
Kimberly Beer:thinking, oh my gosh, this podcast is a lot of effort and a
Kimberly Beer:lot of investment. Do we really want to keep on doing it? And
Kimberly Beer:then inevitably, like that day, I will get or the next day I
Kimberly Beer:will get a message from a listener that says, Wow, that
Kimberly Beer:episode that you guys just did it was exactly what I needed to
Kimberly Beer:hear. I am so glad you brought up that topic or that was
Kimberly Beer:something I was wanting to
Kimberly Beer:Learn and now you've given me the catalyst to be able to do
Kimberly Beer:that, or I really resonated with what you said. So our listener
Kimberly Beer:feedback, by the way, you all that is so important to us, it
Kimberly Beer:is the gold in all of this process is being able to hear
Kimberly Beer:from you, dear listeners in telling us how this podcast
Kimberly Beer:affects your life. And we do get those text messages and items
Kimberly Beer:and DMS relatively often to have people say, this is what it's
Kimberly Beer:doing. And and I'll tell you, every one of them is cherished
Kimberly Beer:by both Cara and I, whoever you send it to, we share it with the
Kimberly Beer:other. And it's just an amazing way for knowing what the impact
Kimberly Beer:is. And that's the truth of the matter is that this like
Kimberly Beer:anything entrepreneurial, because it's basically like
Kimberly Beer:having another business, it truly is like having another
Kimberly Beer:business to support.
Kimberly Beer:Any time that you get feedback, or you feel like you're doing
Kimberly Beer:things out into the right direction, it's so much easier
Kimberly Beer:to keep on going and keep that faith when you know you're
Kimberly Beer:making a difference for people out there and small business
Kimberly Beer:owners because that's the truth of the matter is that we built
Kimberly Beer:this podcast for people like us, these are the things that we
Kimberly Beer:would want to know or to want to know, as small business owners
Kimberly Beer:in the animal based industry where we have unique struggles,
Kimberly Beer:and then also the same struggles as other businesses across the
Kimberly Beer:map. And it just is nice to be able to have that conversation
Kimberly Beer:to feel that community to know all of those people are out
Kimberly Beer:there that are able to listen to this and be impacted by it and
Kimberly Beer:impact us as well, in the things that we can place out there that
Kimberly Beer:we would have wanted to know. So this is the podcast, we want to
Kimberly Beer:listen to, as much as we want you to listen to, I guess is the
Kimberly Beer:bottom line to that.
Cara Taylor Swift:Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know,
Cara Taylor Swift:like Kim had mentioned, you've got to treat the show like it's
Cara Taylor Swift:a business and you really do. So you've got to build the brand of
Cara Taylor Swift:the podcast. And you've got to do all the pieces that come with
Cara Taylor Swift:that. So just like we've talked about in the last 100 episodes,
Cara Taylor Swift:for running your small business, we have to do all those things
Cara Taylor Swift:for the show, too. And it's things like having a website,
Cara Taylor Swift:having social media channels, you've got to think of it like a
Cara Taylor Swift:business that you're growing, and you got to do all the
Cara Taylor Swift:things. And I will just say the last part is try to make it fun.
Cara Taylor Swift:Otherwise, it's not worth it most likely. So have some fun
Cara Taylor Swift:with it. It isn't fun all the time, I will tell you that it's
Cara Taylor Swift:a lot of work. There are times when you know, I have been
Cara Taylor Swift:sitting at my computer at 11 o'clock at night waiting for an
Cara Taylor Swift:episode to be finished editing so that it can be ready to be
Cara Taylor Swift:released a few hours later. So there are definitely those
Cara Taylor Swift:moments that we have had. And those are not fun. But in
Cara Taylor Swift:general, I think that Kim and I both can agree that what we have
Cara Taylor Swift:gotten out of this podcast in terms of it being you know,
Cara Taylor Swift:we've we've educated ourselves, we have built so many amazing
Cara Taylor Swift:connections out in the world, the friendship that we've grown
Cara Taylor Swift:between the two of us and with the new guests that we've had
Cara Taylor Swift:come on, that has been worth it for us. So Kim, I don't know if
Cara Taylor Swift:there's anything else that you want to add. But I would just
Cara Taylor Swift:tell anyone that is out there that's thinking about having a
Cara Taylor Swift:podcast, there's no reason why you shouldn't do it. But you
Cara Taylor Swift:shouldn't jump right into it. Take your time, plan it. Think
Cara Taylor Swift:about some of the things that we talked about today, check out
Cara Taylor Swift:those resources I'm going to leave for you in the show notes.
Cara Taylor Swift:And gosh, we wish you the best of luck out there. And hopefully
Cara Taylor Swift:we'll be listening to your show soon.
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely. I have nothing to add to that.
Kimberly Beer:Except just, you know, podcasting is a great medium.
Kimberly Beer:And I'm hoping that I like Cara that I'll be listening to your
Kimberly Beer:podcast soon. If you start one and any of this found useful,
Kimberly Beer:please let us know so that we can tune in and follow you and
Kimberly Beer:support you like you've supported us. With that being
Kimberly Beer:said, you can find us online at thebusinessanimal.com You can
Kimberly Beer:find us on social media at The Business Animal and we would
Kimberly Beer:love it if you would let us know that you heard the episode and
Kimberly Beer:what you thought about it. Thank you guys so much. Good luck out
Kimberly Beer:there.
Jaz:Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business
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