Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Robotics are here to make our lives easier so we can have more time with people that we care about, more time with our family, more time with our friends, those kinds of things. And so when I hear about things like Chef Robotics, making food easier, that frees up time for us to do the things that we want to do. And that's really what I love about technology.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Automation Matters podcast. I'm glad you're here and thank you for subscribing. And this is kind of a special podcast for me. Jeffrey Bremner, who is my audio engineer and a systems engineer and he's all kinds of engineers, is going to join me and we're going to talk about podcasting. So I've kind of created this podcasting 101. So if you've maybe listened to the other podcasts that we work on together, the Robot Industry podcast, you've probably heard Jeffrey Bremner's name a lot, because I thank him all the time for doing the hard work and the heavy lifting of making me sound really good and making our guests sound really good. So, Jeffrey, can you kind of introduce yourself a little bit for the audience?
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Hi, I am Jeff Bremner. Like Jim said, I'm his podcast producer, musician, audio nerd.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: So can you tell the audience what we're doing here? We're actually at your house.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: That's right, yeah, we're in my house. We live pretty close to each other. So, yeah, I just happened to be that way when my old audio teacher from OAR put us in contact and then we saw each other down the street and we've been working together. How long has it been? Four years.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Probably around the four year mark.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: So I think we're up to like podcast number 130 in the other podcast, the Robot Industry Podcast. But we're starting this Automation Matters podcast and it's kind of about the front end of automation. And we're going to talk a little bit about the efficacy of starting a podcast and what you have to think about if you want to do that. But you also work in the voice industry.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Yes, that's correct. I work for voices.com, full time.
Love working there too. Did a lot of podcasts, learned a lot about voiceover record. Like, again, I get to be an audio nerd there, so I'm in my natural space.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: And what microphone are you working with today while we're being nerds?
[00:02:17] Speaker A: So today we got on my voice we have a Shure SM7B. So that's the Ubiquitous. I call it the podcast mic. Most of the popular podcasts are using a Shure SM7B or a Shure MV7 USB version of the Shure SM7B that a lot of people are using out there that's hitting the market. And then Jim has the rode nt1a, which is. I like the microphone quite a bit, actually. It's a great voice microphone, good for voiceover.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: And we'll put these in the show notes. So if you're driving or something, don't worry about it. But you have lots of hobbies as well. You play guit, you play piano, you play all kinds of different instruments. You do a lot of recording.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Yes, I record. I do. I record foley, which is like sound effects, basically, nature sounds. I record everything now. Started with guitar, now it's voice, and then it was voice, and then now it's just anything.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: And I think that's kind of fun because you give away those sounds for free, too. And we're going to talk at the end, we'll talk a little bit about how you can be found on the Internet and where your sounds can be found and all these other things. So we actually taught a course together. And just for fun, I think you could maybe tell the audience a little bit about this because I think it's really important.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah, so we do. In London, Ontario, we did a local podcasting course. It's just a crash course in podcasting. Jim being the host, expert level, he's got the reps in, so knows what he's talking about there. And then me on the back end of the audio production side of things, it's a crash course on how to podcast really quickly.
That's the sum up of it.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: And of course, you always learn a lot about when you do things like this, but can you just tell the audience a couple of the things that were for you or takeaways that kind of kept coming up and up in those courses that we gave?
[00:04:12] Speaker A: Yes.
So for me, my philosophy, the that I bring to the course, and I think you're on as well, is how easy is it to hit record? Make it easy to hit record. And then this year when we were teaching, I was thinking to myself, it's not enough to just hit record, you also have to hit publish.
If I had to say two things to anyone who wants to get into podcasting, it would be hit record and then hit publish. And once you go through that series of actions, hitting record isn't just hitting record. You have to find someone to hit record with. You have to have a microphone, you have to have a good room. And then hitting publish. Well, how are you going to publish, where are you going to publish and what are you going to use to publish? So those two things have a lot under them. Go through the process of hitting record and hitting publish.
Things will become a lot simpler and you just have to. You have to go through it a bunch of times and you'll answer a lot of your questions by doing those two things.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: That makes total sense. One of the things that when I was listening, I'm doing the course with you is about the environment and about having, like, we're sitting here in a really nice room. You've got a rug, you've got furniture to absorb sound. So that was one of the things that was one of my big takeaways is, yes, click record, yes, publish. But also make sure you have a good environment that's quiet.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yes, quiet is good.
I could talk at length about noise, but let's make it as simple as possible. There's different kinds of noise. You don't want noise in your room. So there's people in the background talking. For example, there's people opening and closing doors. There's dogs barking. That type of noise a little bit more difficult to control. Don't worry about it too much. If you can't, try to stay away from that type of noise if you can.
And then there's other stuff like fans and air conditioning units and like fridges and that kind of noise also, if you can't do anything about it, don't worry. But if you can get away from it, that's great. I would say that now with noise also, there's a lot of really good AI noise reduction tools that are popping up that can deal with a lot of those things. So I think as we move forward into the future, we'll have to worry about that a lot less. And people can find more environments that they can record successfully in.
But I think for recording a conversation with somebody, it's good to just not have noise and not have things distract you. So I'll stop there.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: That's okay.
One of the things that we're doing is we're recording on two different tracks. Yes, we're recording live on two different tracks. And that's why a lot of times if I go on site to a trade event or something, I'll bring two microphones so that even though there's going to be some common noise and I don't mind having a little bit of noise in the background, it's a little bit harder for you as the editor, but it kind of gives you that, hey, this live feeling.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and I think that's great. It's like you'll start shows and say, hey, we're at this trade show. And then, yeah, you get a bit of that background noise. I think that's tolerable for me personally, there's some times I listen to a show and if there's too much noise, I won't want to listen to it. But yeah, some background chatter, it's. It's almost like a nice coffee shop feeling that I get in my head. And for me, that's relaxing and that's conducive to good conversation. And you would get that same kind of feeling in a conference. I would say also, the microphone that you're using assure SM7B is very good in those types of environments. It won't be too bad sounding, in my opinion. And so, yeah, and also if you want to hit record there, hit record there, get the show in, you're going to learn a lot, you're going to have a conversation and then you'll be able to hit publish after also. So don't shy away from recording in a live environment like that if you need to, just know that there's going to be noise. And that's just one of the challenges. And again, hit record.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: And your microphone, the Shure SM7B, this is one of these microphones that you have to be very close to. And you use a phrase.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I say eat the mic. So get close to the microphone. You don't want to be too far from it. There's a rule. Open your pinky and your thumb. Yep, that's about a good distance from the microphone. For those that are just listening, you want to make a fist and then point your pinky out and then point your thumb out. That distance from your mouth to the microphone is a pretty good distance and, you know, plus or minus a few inches.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: And you're using a recording software today to record this episode before you edit it. And it's called Reaper, correct?
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Yes, I use Reaper personally. Again, that's what I use. Audio nerds all, you know, will argue about this at length, but use what works for you. So if you're looking to record on your computer locally, I would recommend Audacity. It's free. It's the best free desktop daw I've found. That's just free. Reaper is also free. It's a pay what you want tool.
I've paid for it after using it for years now. That's more for advanced users who really want to get into the weeds, I would say, not to deter you. If you want to go use it, go for it. It's just going to be. There's lots of knobs on it. And then another tool I would highly recommend is Riverside. And that is something that you can record your podcasts online.
It'll transcribe your audio, and you can also do edits on there as well. So if you're looking to just hit record and then hit publish easily, I would actually start with Riverside now.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: And I think Riverside has a really interesting thing. I'm using SquadCast, which is a competitor to Riverside. And what they do is they use text based editing so you can go back, look at the text, delete the text. It'll delete the video too, depending if you're having an audio or audio and video podcast. So. But I wanted to kind of talk a little bit about process because I'll record on squadcast, I'll then download the file and I'll shoot it over to you. You edit the file and then put it on and I put it on the website. And that's really as simple as the. There's lots of other processes in there somewhere. But that's basically the simplicity. And what I love about working with you is that I don't have to be an audio expert to put out a really good audio file. But I wanted to. This is kind of a long way to get to this question. I wanted to talk to you about the hook that we have going on and what that hook is.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Okay, two things. I'll get back to the hook. But first you're saying recording processes. The way that we produce the podcast is, I don't want to say traditional because it uses a lot of digital recording and we're not recording to tape. That would be more traditional. But with the revolution of AI and you mentioned text based editing, I don't think that's specifically in AI. I'm pretty sure it's not specifically in AI method of editing. But yes, there are text based editing tools out there that can allow you to edit your podcast just with text, which opens the door for a lot of people who want to produce the podcast from end to end without like a quote unquote audio professional. It has its limitations, but it's, from what I've seen, it's pretty good. And again, it allows you to hit record and it allows you to hit. It allows you to hit publish. So if you Want to hit the ground running. That's one way to do it.
The way that we do it is more traditional.
We record the audio and then you send it to me and then I edit it on my computer in a daw That's a little bit more of a traditional way. More granular edits and a lot more control over the sound. And then now we're at the hook. So that's something that I do when I'm editing the podcast. I listen. When I find something that I think is interesting, I highlight that in my daw. And then after I'm done with the show, I'll have five or six highlighted sections of the things that I think are most interesting.
And I'll put that part of the conversation at the very beginning of the show. Because if you listen to a lot of the really popular and really podcasts with a lot of listeners, they almost always have a hook at the beginning of the show. It's like a preview. It's so people know what's going to happen in the show. It's something that's going to get them interested to maybe listen to the whole thing or maybe listen to at least 50% of your show.
And it's like a preview and to get. And it delivers value right away. So it gives value to your listeners right away so they can feel invested in your show. And it's just a good marketing play as far as I'm concerned.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: I like it too. I think it's a really clever way to get people hooked onto listening to the entire podcast.
Love James Bond movies. And James Bond movies always have this little movie before the movie. Right. And so I always think of the hook as a little bit like that. But I want to kind of get back to the kind of global thing. What you've listened to thousands of podcasts. You've edited hundreds of podcasts.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: What do you like in a podcast?
[00:13:25] Speaker A: That's a really good question.
Wow.
Yes, I have. At this point, I've probably edited at least 500 podcasts about. Again, the traditional way. I don't use text based editing. I edit the audio like the raw audio, because I like to have full control over what I'm editing. Not to take away from people who want to use text based editing. What do I like?
I like quick edits.
I like quick edits.
Sometimes when I listen to a podcast, I actually speed it up to 1.25 or 1.3x speed.
I've recently started doing that.
I like when ums are cut.
I like when people Speak succinctly. Hopefully I'm doing that. Jim, you're really good at doing that.
Much better than me. Yeah, I like speaking succinctly. I like quick edits. I like when fluff is cut out. So a lot of what I'm talking about is with the edit, but it also has to do with what actually happened in the recording.
Sometimes people go way off topic, but I also like when it's natural and it also depends on what I'm listening to the podcast for. Sometimes I listen for entertainment and just to like laugh at something. So if it's funny, that's great. Depending on what I'm listening for or if it's a self improvement thing. There's a lot of self improvement content out there and kind of what you're doing is offering a lot of insights for people who might be. This is my perspective, who would be wanting to break into the industry. So from a marketing perspective or from a manufacturing perspective, that's like a value add. So learning about, for your show, specifically learning about what's happening on the ground level at a lot of different manufacturing plants and on this newer show, like how people are promoting their brand and promoting their business, that's useful.
So that's really useful for people. That's an educational thing. So there's a lot of educational content.
Podcasts can really be anything from my perspective. It could be like a reality TV show, or it could be educational, or it could be self improvement. It's revolutionizing the way that we're learning. I think, in short, you've probably learned.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: A lot about robotics just on the outside, right? So you take a guy who doesn't know anything very little about robots, say you probably have a wonderful part.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: I love it actually, and it's exciting to me.
I'm not looking to break into the robotics industry, but I know a good amount about it and it's just interesting to learn about what's happening on the manufacturing floor and to think about the future of manufacturing.
I think it's really interesting and I think it makes me hopeful for the future that there's a lot of good that technology can do.
And that's what I love about audio and AI and all that stuff.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: So you mentioned that there's a couple of episodes and I don't want to spend too much time on this, but a couple of episodes of the podcast where you're like, wow, that hit it right out of the park for me, Jim. Or whatever. I think one of the ones was Chef. I think it was Chef Robotics.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's one of them. Yeah. Yeah. I always like to do a little dive into the company on the ones that are really exciting. I think Chef Robotics was one of them. I see a lot of this is my take. So I'm not saying this is how I see the future is. Robotics are here to make our lives easier so we can have more time with people that we care about, more time with our family, more time with our friends, those kinds of things. And so when I hear about things like Chef Robotics making food easier, in short, that frees up time for us to.
To do the things that we want to do. And that's really what I love about technology and robotics and AI and similar things are happening in the audio world now. Podcasting is being more accessible to a lot of people. We couldn't have done this maybe 10 years ago. We could have, but it wouldn't have so much attention 10 years ago. So it's allowing us to be more social. It's allowing us to connect with people.
It's really just about using the tool responsibly. That's how I see it. Yes. It can be used for irresponsible things as well.
Back to the question. So Chef Robotics is an example of using technology for good. There was another episode. It's escaping me, but I know that I've reached out to those people and said, those were great episodes. Do you remember?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: I think it was the pipe.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Pipe Dream.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: The Pipe Dream.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: That was one of your favorites.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: And Pipe Dream is a really interesting idea and an interesting name for a company that is delivering goods underground in a pipe. And it's just so fascinating. And you'll have to go back. You'd probably just Google Pipe Dream Robotics, the robot injury podcast, and you can listen to it. But I wanted to really get to the meat of this, which is kind of the efficacy of starting a podcast. So barriers are really low. It's really simple to start a good podcast.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: I'm glad that you think it's simple.
We'll circle back to that efficacy of starting a podcast for a business.
Yes. I have a lot to say about that. It's a long play.
From my perspective, if you want to start a podcast, you should do it because it fulfills you on a personal level. This is just my personal opinion, because you're going to be doing it for a long time before you actually see the returns. And you can probably agree with that because.
Yeah.
And you probably started it because you thought it was interesting.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: You know what? I was teasing the association that I do a lot of work with. And I'm like, you guys really need a podcast. You need a podcast. And they're like, yeah, we just can't do it right now. So I said, well, what about if I do it and you can help distribute it and promote it? And they found some interest in that. And so that's kind of how we started. And that was like four or five years ago now. So I do think that, you know, you'll never get rich. You probably won't get orders. I think it's kind of complicated for say we'll use our industry as an example. Like, maybe people don't want to hear about your robot all day long from your perspective. Like, it's, to me, it can get a little bit self promoting. Like, I could see your boss saying, hey, listen, let's talk about this. And you're like, guys, we should really be on the educational side. That's why I like being a bit independent. So I don't, you know, don't have to, like, I'm my boss and I can do what I want. Right?
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's, that's, it's, it's a really, it's a deep question. Honestly, there's so many ways that you could start a podcast as a business. It could be a community building play. Yeah, you're, you're right, you can't.
I think for the most part, if you're starting a podcast to make money, I don't think that's the, my personal opinion, I don't think that's necessarily a good idea. You should do it again. You should do it because you're interested in it and you want to talk to people and you're passionate about what it is you're talking about. That's my personal take. I could be wrong. And I'm sure there's people out there that have started podcasts and made money just through their podcast as self promoting whatever their product is or their business or their brand. But I do think if a business starts a podcast, I think there are people that are interested in, for example, your robotics. I'm interested in it and I'm not even breaking into the industry. I'm just listening to it and I think about what's happening on the manufacturing floor and I think that's interesting, maybe because I'm a nerd, but then if I think it's just interesting, there's probably other people that would think that also.
And I think for people, definitely being a guest on a podcast, for example, If I was a robotics manufacturer and I'm trying to get people to join my company, I would want to be on your show because.
And I've thought about your show like this for a while. I think it's perfect for people that are trying to break into the industry. So people just graduating from school, I think it's an exciting thing to listen to. So it's a great way to attract talent to your business, is what I'm trying to say.
If you're from both ends, being a guest on the show or having a show, because now you have a brand and now people understand your business and now you can attract talent to your business.
I'm going to use Chef Robotics as an example. If you're Chef Robotics, if you have a podcast and you're 100 episodes deep and you're trying to attract top talent, that's a great way to get people to learn about your business and a great way to have people hit the ground running, which is probably what you want as a business, I would imagine. So that's one thing about the efficacy of starting a podcast from a business perspective is talent recruitment. Having people join your company and really have a good understanding and just like a personal good feeling potentially towards your business. The other thing is attracting customers, if your customers. I think we're moving, even with the revolution of AI, I think we're moving to a more human centric future where people are really looking to develop those human relationships.
And so customers are looking to have that relationship with people, basically, and the businesses that they want to do business with. So that's one way that you can sell a product.
Now, making metrics for that and tracking how your podcast is actually making you money that way, that's a little bit more difficult because how can you track somebody's emotion towards your brand and then how they bought your product because they listened to like 20 of your episodes and they like the show. That's hard to say, like without. Without surveys or something like that. Or like, oh, how did you hear about us? Or maybe you have something to say about that.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because I do get that call a lot of times, and we were talking about this in the warmup that I do get lots of calls from primary who. Who would love to have their robot company represented on the podcast. And I have to make that judgment to say, are you really interesting enough or what's happening? I serve a very educational audience, but they'll say, who are your listeners? And I absolutely say, I don't know, because now I know what city they're from. Maybe, like, believe it or not, I have a lot of fans in London, Ontario, for some reason.
But I know we're really, really big in the us. We're really big in Canada, we're big in all the English speaking countries, but we're heard in 60 countries around the world. And it's, it's really fun. But I'll say I. Absolutely. I have a guess, but I really don't know who our listeners are.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's hard to track that down.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: And so then it's hard to track down how the podcast makes you money.
Except for the belief that building community will be a long play that will build you more revenue.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: Yes, you probably. We have fans, we have, we have haters, probably.
But. But in a lot of cases, you don't absolutely do it for the money. You do it for fun. One thing I would say that I do get, because I have a podcast, is that I do get access to a lot of people that I might not normally get access from.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: I get to go, go to trade shows for free because now I consider myself media.
I'd be interested. Do you think?
[00:25:01] Speaker A: I mean, no, absolutely. This is the future.
Like my belief, this is the future.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: It's the new media.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
And no, that's another great thing to mention about the benefits of starting a podcast for a company. Now more people know who you are. Probably you can't track.
It's difficult to track where they're coming from. And you would know. And I would know because I've tried to do that also.
It is difficult. But sometimes, every now and again, you'll get someone say, oh, I heard your show and that happens. And like you're saying if you're going to conferences, which is what I'm calling a trade show. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
People will know who you are and it gives you credibility.
People see you again, my opinion, but I think, I think it's a psychological thing when people see somebody with a microphone in front of them or they hear somebody on a microphone. It just gives them this credibility. That's just my feeling.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Could be wrong.
There should be a study on this somewhere.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: It's kind of like when you're standing up doing a presentation, you know, you're in front of the room and all these other people aren't. So. Yes, I think it does give you some cred. And what is. I gotta say that this doesn't happen a whole lot, but the other day I was in a trade show in Chicago. And somebody came up to me and said, hey, are you Jim Beretta? And I'm yeah. And they're like, hey, I was just listening to your podcast on the car ride up. I had a two hour car ride and so I just put your podcast on. So it is kind of fun when people. And I always thank them and I'm like, hey, what episode did you like the best? Because it's kind of fun for me to know that.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: And they know your voice. Right. That's another thing, you know, that is a thing.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: I think I'm very comfortable, like, for the podcast. I listen to.
I really like listening to people's voices. I get comfortable. I trust them. Like, there's a lot of things about the human voice which are really interesting to.
To people on both sides of the conversation.
Jeffrey, did we forget to talk about anything?
[00:27:07] Speaker A: I don't think so.
Well, yeah, I want to try and sum up everything so the efficacy of starting a podcast. It's a long play. It'll give you credibility. If you play it for a long time, people will recognize you. It's a great way of recruiting talent. It might contribute to your revenue, but it's difficult to.
And maybe people out there listening probably know a better way to track this kind of thing. But it's difficult to track how a podcast is improving your revenue, except for the belief that it builds community and people want to do business with humans.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: One of the things that I've found, like, think a little bit about Chef Robotics and maybe Pipedream even here. You know, a person might not know that brand name. Like, there's lots of technology companies and robot companies and automation companies that you've never heard of, but if you hear it enough, you're like, I better Google that company. So I do think for brand awareness it is. And you know, for people who are having something really innovative or something really interesting to offer to the to, you know, I think of them as my audience. Right. I'm always very careful to make sure that I'm hopefully creating value. And we kind of talked about that.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: So one of the reasons that you and I are friends and we do business together is that I just didn't have the talent to do audio. You've done so much in audio. You make me sound good every week or every two weeks or whatever. So how do people get a hold of you? And can you also give me your website so that if I wanted to go find out some of the sounds that you have, or even if they're crickets or water or.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Yes. So I have a link tree, which is, I call it my content ecosystem. So everything I've done out there, so music, free sounds, I've got multiple albums, I was in a couple bands that's out there.
So yeah, my email will be on there. But also, honestly, LinkedIn, everything is linking to everything. So that link tree that I told you is on LinkedIn. But yeah, if you want to get in contact with me, honestly, LinkedIn would love to hear from you.
And yeah, it's Geoffrey G E O F F R E Y Bremner B R E M as in mango, N as in nectar E r so Jeff, like Geoff G E O F F Bremner B r e M N E r. You can find me on LinkedIn.
That's where you can find me.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Hey, thanks for joining me today. I think it's a really interesting, interesting topic about the efficacy and kind of podcasting 101, especially for the industrial markets. And if you do have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Jim Beretta Today's podcast was produced by Customer Traction Industrial Marketing. I'd like to thank my team, Chris Gray for the music, Jeffrey Bremner for audio production, my business partner Janet, and our sponsor is Earhart Automation Systems.
