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Coffee with a Podcaster: Love Your Podcast Again
The Average is not Ideal & Taking Responsibility for Your Advice
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Take the candy preferences of 30 people, average their responses, and you will then have the best candy ever, right? What if you don't like the apparent best candy or you can't buy it in your country? This is exactly what the podcastingstack.com website has done, but with podcast hardware and software, and it's extremely problematic. In this episode, I'm going to tell you what not to take away from this website. Chiefly, that a democratic average of preferences does not create the ideal podcast stack for longevity. Importantly, I'll show you the incentives that the author has secretly included in this website. Then we'll finish up with what they should have done instead and what you should do when building your own podcasting stack. I'm Matthew Bliss, and welcome back to Coffee with a Podcaster. There are very few people in the podcasting world that would disagree that Alex Sanfilippo is a force for good. He does great things, his intention is great, he's always got a good incentive for helping podcasters get to where they need to be. But there's a couple of things that he tends to get incredibly wrong, and he keeps barreling down that path without making any change or taking on criticism. Now, I need to come out the front of this episode and say that I've been fairly vocal with my criticisms of what he does. And more recently, he released a website called podcastingstack.com or at least I presume that he released it because there's no authorship or correlated company that's listed on the website. But in seeing that, I immediately got my heckles up because I saw some very big issues with it. There are some great things with the website as well. Whether they still exist on the website at the time of recording, I'm not entirely sure. But in any case, the podcasting stack is a website that purports to give podcasters, usually beginners, the ideal hardware and software stack for longevity to set them up to succeed for as long as they intend to be podcasting in the space. Now, what does this mean? It means that you're going to be recommended a microphone, some room treatment, the software that you'd need to be able to produce, market, create, book interviews, all of these different aspects that you don't anticipate as a beginning podcaster. Now, on the face of it, that sounds incredibly helpful, because what is the most common question that we see in social media, at least in the podcasting subreddits and Facebook groups and all that kind of thing? What's the ideal microphone? For me, I have this budget, how much should I spend on earphones? What are the right ones? What's the best camera? So what this website promises to do is incredibly important. It's probably what the majority of podcasters are asking at the beginning or even, you know, after a little bit of time on their journey. The issue starts to arise when you get to the website and you see exactly how they've sought to do it. Now, from what I can see, they have queried the preferences of about 20 or 30 podcast professionals in the space, all of them varying from a founder of a podcast host to distribute podcasts, growth strategists, podcast network owners, new media influencers, consultants. There's a lot of company incentives in the people that have asked. But in perusing the list that I've seen, there are a lot of people there that I would trust their recommendations to tell me what would be best for my circumstances. But what the website has done has taken the average of every single person who submitted preferences. I presume the process by which these hardware and software recommendations were made hasn't been made clear, but every single one of them has had the average of their preferences taken in order to create the list of the best docking station, audio extension, lighting kit, microphone, camera, the best recording kit, CRM, all of this stuff. Now, it sounds like a great process from the beginning. If I trust these people, why would it be a problem? Well, there are some of them that have recommended 100% of the stack of the recommendations on the initial webpage, and some of them have only recommended 38%, some of them even less than that. And unfortunately, some of the people that I trust more than others have had less of their recommendations that have made the list than I would have expected. Now, what I said at the very top in the introduction, we cannot take the democratic average of preferences and, and expect to have the best result or the most ideal for any circumstance. Candy or lollies, sweets, depending on which country you're from. These are tied very closely to our personal preferences. We may not like certain types of lollies or candies. We may be allergic to certain ingredients, certain aspects, in which case we can't use or get access to any of these best lollies that would be available to us. Also, the democratic average of preferences, even across a large sample size, isn't going to arrive at the most ideal result, because people making selections or recommendations without evaluating their experience or their expertise before they get there can sometimes arrive at a result that doesn't work for the entire population. Now, you might say that this is a little bit nitpicky. I mean, podcasting is a space in which anything is possible. You could start with any kind of microphone. In fact, starting at the very bottom end of things is usually the best way, as is the common wisdom. But when you have someone with a great deal of positive influence, like Alex Sanfilippo and all of these people that have been listed on this website that submitted their preferences for the stack, you start to invest a little bit more in what's available there. And if what's available isn't ideal and you don't know any better, then it becomes an issue of duplicity. You don't and can't verify exactly what is actually useful here because you have no basis by which to evaluate yourself. You simply get a microphone, a camera, some sound treatment, and by the time you've bought them, you don't realize that they're not suitable for your space. And this is where my primary issue with it is that in taking the average of recommendations and probably incentives for people to provide access to this, this kind of gear or the software that's recommended as part of the stack, you're not teaching the person who's engaging with the site exactly why they should take these things. And the principal assumption I can only presume is part of this website is that the podcaster no longer needs to understand how a microphone works or how a camera works, how to understand the reverberant nature of a space that you have, understand how lighting works, understand that microphone audio capture is different on every device, different in every space, and every voice is different. So the plugins and processing that you need to do sometimes has to be different to optimize the sound, all of this isn't taken into account. So if at the very top of the podcastingstack.com webpage, instead of the ideal hardware and software stack for podcasters, it said your starting point as a podcaster for hardware and software, then I probably wouldn't have as much of an issue with it. But they've said the ideal and in fact, there's a section about the software that I'd like to just quote here from the website. Not every podcasting professional listed on this page agrees 100% on this exact stack. But one thing every single one of them agrees on is this. You must be willing to use premium tools if you want to position yourself for long term success as a podcast. Don't chase free or more affordable options. Stick with what's on this list and don't make changes. This is the most problematic thing I've seen on the website so far. And yes, it does make me quite irate. And I'm sorry if it feels like I'm just getting angry for angry sake here, but when you've been in the podcasting space as long as I have, you know that getting a bunch of things recommended by democracy, sticking with them for the duration, doesn't mean that you're going to be long term successful. There is far more that's involved in the process of being successful as a podcaster than just selecting a website product and a podcast host and a recording platform. Much more than selecting a microphone or the right earbuds or lighting kit. If you stick with these products and you make the best of them. Then again, this isn't ideal necessarily. This is the starting point. You will upgrade the gear. If you monetize your podcast, you will transcend the needs for this ideal hardware and software stack. And this is another part that I have a really serious problem with. It's making no apologies for what it recommends on the website as well. Podcasting industry professionals agree this is the best stack for independent interview based podcaster to use. We know that we are all different and this doesn't change that. The most common answer to what is the best microphone or how should I edit my podcast? Is it depends. There is no room for it depends on this website. One last thing that really gets my goat here is that what Alex has seen to do in a lot of the places that he creates his content is that he will put Podmatch incentives all the way through it. There are codes to software, there are reasons that the software cost or the hardware cost can be repaid to you by following what Podmatch does with its Network, with its PodMatch Payback scheme for when you guest or host podcasters, it pays you a little bit of money when that's successful. The website also talks about grants and tax savings, probably the only incentive less aspect of what I can see on this website. But everything draws you Back back to podmatch.com Everything draws you back into that ecosystem. And there is a set of website authority aspects to SEO that are important here too. All this backlinking, this linking authority that pushes this website to the top of the results for everything. This is an incentive for him and yet he is not listed or the company is not listed anywhere on this website. There is no responsibility taken From Alex or PodMatch for any part of what's on this webpage. And yet if you copy and paste the link into something that auto fills information from the web, then you can see Alex's Gmail address right next to the website. I think taking responsibility for information that you put out in the world is super important, not only to add credibility to the information, but taking ownership of what you recommend to the entire world, especially when you have a broad search circle of influence like he does, it's a huge issue, It's a massive issue and it doesn't set you up for success. Now you may look at this website and go, oh yeah, I've got a. I've used some of this software that's pretty good. I use some of these hardware pieces and bought them. They work really well in my space. But if you've looked it over and you've got some products already, it's not intended for you, it's for someone else who doesn't know any better. And the incentive to send someone from this webpage to another website, podmatch, which you will see if you go to the link making your first thousand dollars, where there are distinct five steps that largely involve affiliate earnings or tax benefits and specifically includes podmatch.com then I think it becomes clear that this is just a website to start pulling more authority, some more credibility towards podmatch and Alex Sanfilippo. Now, again, whatever I might say about Alex, generally, he's a force for good in the podcasting world. And I'll do an episode later on about the podcast Health report, which is on podmatch.com, which I've had a massive problem with for a long time. And if you've consumed episodes from me before about podcaster health, you'll know how I feel about the way that they contextualize podcaster failure. But in that incentive for good, despite how poor this website is at suggesting software and hardware that's best for you, we are about optimism on coffee with a podcaster. So I want to make sure that you've got something that you can take away and learn for yourself by going to this website. The only thing you should do on this webpage is click start here because it includes a interesting methodology they call the podcasting J curve. It's a line that indicates the basically the dunning Kruger or the relative effort and consequent result of you using equipment or software in the podcasting space. Basically, you begin, you go full bore, use anything that you want to from it and you'll understand a little bit. You'll feel like you're making a podcast, but then you'll realize eventually how much effort it takes to make it sound good or look good, how much effort it takes to distribute it and put it out there. And in that low period after the beginning, that's where you realize that you need to put in a bunch of effort in order to learn as much as possible. And then once you've learned as much as possible, you will start to begin optimizing what it is. And then what it describes as the top is when you've mastered whatever software and hardware it is that you've chosen and are able to use it to your best ability. This is unreal. I really enjoy this as a concept. It is unfortunate that this kind of concept doesn't lead the way to what is on the Podcasting Stack page, because this explains the reasoning behind the entire website. But it's not present on that homepage and I'm not entirely sure why. But you should take away this J curve as the opportunity for you to learn something a little bit different about how you've been approaching hardware and software and podcasting. If this doesn't resonate with you yet, learning software and hardware always takes time, and you are not going to be a podcasting expert from the very beginning. But if you stick with it and you're open to learning, and you have the time and space to experiment, play around and exercise some of that creative nature that I love to talk about in podcasts, then you will find yourself successful. But you do not need to purchase what it recommends on this homepage. In fact, in the Start Here section, just underneath where it explains that J curve, it says very specifically, podcasting hardware and software do not lead to a successful podcast, but changing them keeps you from creating one. All this means is that you need to select and stick with whatever you choose as equipment for as long as you need to to learn what you can and understand what is missing in order for you to improve the most. Sticking with the equipment and software that you select and is the best way to approach it because there is no ideal hardware or software. But at the same time, we can't tell you exactly what is most ideal for what you should use with your voice, with your space, with your goals. There's going to have to be a little bit of effort on your part to make that happen. You can begin with thepodcastingstack.com and have a look at the equipment recommendations. It makes some of them quite poor or unnecessary, but hey, that's what it is. What I would do instead is have a look at the podcasting experts on this page Find someone who most represents you as a podcaster. What do they like? Check out their podcasts, check out their videos, find your person in this list of podcasters and strategists and coaches that have submitted to this website and find the one that that represents you most. See what they use and then take that as a recommendation and then stick with it and follow the J curve. Because sticking with it as long as you can and learning as much as possible, you don't have to be an editing and a hardware expert. You just need to be an expert for the hardware and software that you have. And unfortunately the podcastingstack.com does not make that easy for you. There is no shortcut to finding the right equipment for you for getting recommendations, especially when you can clearly see that the incentives for Alex and Podmatch is that you select and use codes for any of the products that you see here they make a disclaimer at the very bottom. None of the links on the website are affiliate links. And yet there is still a benefit to be had by Alex here, at the expense of you spending less time learning how to be the ideal podcaster you want to be and instead blindly following their recommendations. Now I get to the end of this episode and I realize that it's quite scathing, and if you've made it this far, I appreciate that you want to hear the remainder of my perspective. There was some optimism promised at the end there, and the optimism from the website at least, is the J curve. But for you specifically, what I don't want you to do when you read this website is to regret anything that you've purchased. If you have invested in Simplecast instead of Buzzsprout as your podcast host, if you're on beamlead.com instead of podpage, if you don't use workflows or don't record with Riverside, you haven't made a bad choice. What you need to do when you look at these tools is not the ones on the website, but the ones that you have is to make a list of everything it does well for you, and then a list of everything that it does poorly. Perhaps you may not sound as good as you expect, and it takes way too long to edit the content when you record. Maybe your video recordings from whatever platform you use to record interviews has had a lot of errors lately, or maybe it's getting ridiculously expensive because it's packing in a bunch of AI tools you don't need, for example, and it might be time to move on to something else. Make a list of the things that you are currently lacking in or that you can see the possibility for improvement in, and then find the way for you to develop what you need to either improve or seek out an alternative software or hardware to make it happen. All this presumes that you've got a bit of money available to you to make these changes, but a little bit of money goes a long way. But do not disregard the free or more affordable options. Based on that quote that I read out earlier, free tools are just as valuable as paid tools. It sometimes takes a little bit more effort to get into it, but that effort will result in learning. And the more you understand about how you podcast and how podcasting works for you, not just in the industry or the average of the entirety of the podcasting world, but how it works for you, then you will be in a better position and you won't need websites like podcastingstack.com to make those recommendations for you. Make sure you keep learning. That's the most important thing for me. Make sure that you keep learning. Keep seeking to improve, keep working with the equipment you have and the software you have. Be aware of your circumstances, be aware of your constraints, and always seek to move onwards and upwards. Thanks for listening. I'm Matthew Bliss and I'll see you next time on Coffee with a Podcaster.