Bad Audio in Your Podcast - Who is to Blame?
Your podcast is your brand, and while your guests might not be as nerdy as you are with as nice as gear as you have, that doesn't mean we give them a pass when it comes to audio quality. In movies, plays, television, people audition to get a...
Your podcast is your brand, and while your guests might not be as nerdy as you are with as nice as gear as you have, that doesn't mean we give them a pass when it comes to audio quality.
In movies, plays, television, people audition to get a part and be seen. You should be no different. You don't have to set the bar super high, but the bottom line is it that it is YOUR show and how it sounds reflects on YOU.
You can ask a potential guest, "Can you provide a link so I can hear your audio quality?" as well as, "I'd be happy to interview you. As we have never met, I reserve the right to not publish the episode if you're not a good fit for my audience, is that OK?"
Anyone not confident enough in their ability to bring value will complain. You don't want those people.
People will often find themselves in a situation where they NEED a GUEST NOW (and will take anyone). Don't put yourself into a situation to be desperate. You make really bad decisions when you are desperate.
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I once had a car with 199,000 miles on it. And it was really sputtering and it was on its last, literally its last legs. And it actually died. As I drove on to the car dealer lot, this is not a great negotiation strategy, when you have no way to get home except for buying a new car.
I hear this a lot that my guest sounds bad. And they blame the guest. And I'm here to say, You are in control of every part of your podcast, it's actually a reflection on you. If you think about it, if you're cooking something, and you go to add an ingredient, and oops, you're out. And then you go to the store to buy that ingredient. And apparently, they're out too. So you get kind of the off-brand, the store brand. You go home and you put it in and you cook it the way you always do it. When it comes time to taste you think, "This is kind of funny doesn't taste as good. In fact, it kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth."
Now it's easy to say, well, it's we use that off-brand ingredient. We could blame them. But really the blame here is:
who started to cook this meal, before you had all the ingredients?
That would be you.
And if you serve whatever it is we just made and somebody goes, "Yeah, this tastes kind of funny." They're not gonna blame the off-brand ingredient, they're gonna blame you because you're the person that served it.
And so many times I see people get desperate, "Oh, I need I have to put an episode out this week. And I need a guest. " I see people that are actually like, "whoever has a heartbeat, you can come on my show. Because they think being consistent in your schedule is more important than being consistent in delivering value.
And I'm here to tell you, I would much rather have a late show that delivered value than an on-time show that wasted 20 minutes of my day.
Here's two questions you need to ask a potential guest.
Number one, where is a link to a previous interview that you've done, I want to hear your audio quality.
Number two, since we just met, is it okay? I reserve the right to not release our episode in the event that it turns out that this isn't a great fit. If somebody goes, "Well, I'm not going to do the interview unless you publish it."
Then that's okay. That's what you need to remember. Let's think about this. Let's say you're doing a podcast about how to lose weight. If you're over 50 and you find an expert. Are you here to tell me that there is not another expert on weight loss for people over 50? That this is the only person you can interview on that? I don't think so.
You are in control of what makes it to your audience. And if you get on and somebody is using the microphone in their laptop and the laptop is three feet away, that's not gonna work. Typically you want your microphone about a fist away from your mouth.
