Things We’ve Learned From 100 Episodes of Podcasting

by | Jan 17, 2023 | 0 comments

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
Jaz:

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

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that January 1st date. Now the new year is here and all fresh

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and shiny for us to play with and hopefully it'll be a good

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baby and behave itself and not grow up to be a really raucous

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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

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the 100 mark at this point. And for those of you who didn't

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know, it took us a year to get to the point to where we

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recorded the first published podcast, we played around with

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this a really long time and experimented. And we tried to do

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it like the way that you know, people say on social media, you

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know that, oh, it's so easy to put a podcast out into the

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world. And all you need to do is just push this button or have

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this piece of software. And we tried several pieces of software

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before we landed on the one that we use to record which is

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Riverside. And I can tell you it's not that easy. And we

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needed equipment, and we would listen back to them. And we

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would go oh my gosh, that's horrible. And we're also a lot

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like two year old colts going out the pen for the very first

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time we like we're wandering all over the place, we didn't have a

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clear vision of a topic, we just simply didn't know what we were

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doing. And frankly, I think that we were the two year old colt

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with a green rider to I don't think anything, there was no

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guidance whatsoever. None whatsoever. So it took us a long

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time to be able to figure out this process before we even

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started putting it out there. And I can tell you in that

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process of learning. I don't know about you, Cara. But I

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learned a tremendous amount from the people that helped us in

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getting out that first episode and, and getting us started in

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the right fashion of getting into becoming podcasters. Which

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now I absolutely love. I love being a podcaster I think it's

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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

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there, we maintain that high standard, or at least try to aim

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for it pretty high. Even now we had a couple of episodes last

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month that we had a couple of audio issues on and the upside

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to batching episodes where we record multiple ones in a day is

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that it saves us time and it keeps us focused and it keeps

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the episodes churning out like they should you but it also

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means that if you have a mic problem, you've got it on

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multiple episodes and we did we had a microphone

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and when we listened to it like it's

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sounded okay coming out of my computer speakers, but when I

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listened to it in the car so we, we listened to what you listen

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to the way that all the ways that we think you might listen

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to this podcast, we wanted to make sure we sounded good and it

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just didn't sound good. So we ditched that work and rerecord

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the episode. Because I know as a podcast consumer, if I tune into

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a podcast, and the audio is horrible, I will never listen to

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that podcast again, even if it is fantastic content, because I

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don't want to listen to the audio issues. So it is important

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in your listenership. And if you're gonna launch a podcast,

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which this episode is all about, and I know that there are people

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out there, I talk to them every single day who want to have a

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podcast, this is something that you need to consider is how are

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your listeners going to respond to your podcast? What's that

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going to be? Like? I talked with a woman yesterday about a

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podcast, she says I want to be you. I want to have the podcast

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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

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as easy as sometimes what people make it out to be Oh, it's just

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a simple thing. You you buy some equipment, and just or don't buy

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the equipment and just start recording, which is what we

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tried to do it first. And I can tell you, you have to buy the

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professional audio equipment if you want to sound good. Now, I'm

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not going to tell you we bought the highest quality of

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equipment, we bought good equipment, but I don't think

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it's we could have gone even higher if we wanted to on the

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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

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that we use because the tool box was one of the harder things to

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figure out with this. Before we dive into the big three though I

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want to talk for just a second about what I feel the value of

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podcasting is and for now, and in the future, I was listening

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to another podcast. It's the social media marketing talk

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show, which talks about marketing and all of the things

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that go on and in the marketing community, especially around

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social media. And they were having a discussion I listened

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to multiple episodes yesterday. And one of the episodes that I

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listened to specifically and it got mentioned on the other ones

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as well is how important podcasting is to marketing and

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to business growth as well as becoming a cottage industry all

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on its own. So the younger generations now I realized that

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not everybody has a Gen Z as a marketer, a person right now

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like a marketing target market, but they are the people that are

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growing up right at this moment to become consumers. They're the

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ones that are starting to hit the consumer chain at this point

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in time. So the light they're like the Hot Topic everybody

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wants to talk about is how to market to Gen Z, like 70 to 80%

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of them want to listen to podcasts, like they listed it in

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their marketing research as the way that they want to interact

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with the companies that they purchase from. They want

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podcasting and just the sheer number of them. That's the worth

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the effort to consider podcasting as an option. And the

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fact that pot more and more people listen

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to podcast and are like secure and I wear their Serial podcast

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listeners, it is such an amazing way for you to be able to grow

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your authority as an influencer in a certain target market,

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which I will tell you, you may not get direct dollars to to

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impact. In other words, you may not be able to trace the dollars

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in your business directly back to your podcast as the catalyst

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for that because there is not a buy button often in these there,

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there may be commercials, but I will tell you, it's had an

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impact on my business just because people now view me in a

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different light. And they get to know me and then want to work

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with me or to buy my book or to come to one of our events that

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we do. So there's so much value to this in you building your

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authority, even if you don't direct sell on the podcast

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itself. And it's just it's such a great medium. I love the audio

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medium. I love the fact that I can engage with the businesses

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that I want to engage with and the information I want to engage

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with in my car, or while I'm on a walk or while I'm sitting here

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in my office doing graphic design work if that's what's on

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the menu for today. So it's just an A very important I guess

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we're preaching to the choir Cara Because our I'm preaching

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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

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getting bigger and better as time moves on. Oh, yeah, tons of

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money's being invested into it is in in terms of marketing,

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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

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trying to figure things out from YouTube videos and reading

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articles. And I tend to go to the library of wherever that

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information is whether it's online, or the actual library or

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Amazon and order some books to figure things out. And a lot of

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times I can get it done. But this was not one of those areas

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where I could just read or study or watch a YouTube video my way

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out of the situation. It was where we needed somebody who had

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an insider track that wasn't going to scam us that was going

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to be focused on us alone. And who was going to really get us

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started in the proper and correct way. And here I found

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the golden goose where that's concerned and her her name is

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Jazz. So jazz was the first person that we came across that

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was a guide for us and she knew exactly what she was doing. She

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knew exactly what to tell us to do. Now, I'm going to tell you

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she didn't come out and say you need to record your podcast on

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Riverside and you need to use the whatever the heck mics we

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bought. It's some kind of a Rode mic. She didn't say that. What

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she did is she told us the basic parameters of what we needed to

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look for. And we did try a variety of tools before we found

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the right things with the software with the hardware

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component with the microphones. We picked those out with a

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little bit of audio help from a friend of mine that gave me some

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base ideas. And then we all bought the same

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microphones and I mean by all is that we drag our friend Phyllis

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along for the ride eventually. Yes, I think road should

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actually for our second podcast. So road and Scarlett the scarlet

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USB Deely I think they should probably give me like I don't

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know some type of a kickback I don't know how many of these

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setups that I've sold since we've started doing this because

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it's been a lot, because I've given other postures, everybody

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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.

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We started learning how to use the audio equipment, which I'm

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going to tell you is probably in my personal opinion, is the

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biggest frustration in this whole process is this microphone

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and the setup, things can go wrong with it. And you just

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don't know. Because you you just don't know until. But from the

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get go guys, you have to find somebody who knows what the heck

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they're doing. Or you do spend a ton of time spinning your

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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

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bigger and better things. We knew enough about what we were

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doing to be able to move on to we could take out training

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wheels off his guess I guess is what I would like to say, by

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that point, we knew enough about what we were doing how to get it

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done, that we could work with a different editing company. And I

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do want to be clear about this, we do not edit this podcast,

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somebody else we give it to another company that they go

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through it. They're the ones who clean up the audio, they get it

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ready, they get it ready for us to publish, we do publish it

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using a software that we have. So for those of you who wonder

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about the mystery of that process, neither Cara or I have

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the time to edit audio in the way it needs to be edited. And I

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will tell you from what it sounds like from when we record

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it to what it sounds like when you guys listen to it is a

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different thing. It's a different, it's a different

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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

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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

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straight audio podcast is different. And there's a lot

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more latitude to it. And it's it's an amazing process that

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people specialize in doing. And it's a point where you do need

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to understand all of that to be able to get it to the right

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place. And if you don't have that guide to help you find

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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

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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

Jaz:

Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And

Jaz:

if you learn something today, leave us a review. To learn

Jaz:

more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love

Jaz:

to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well

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