← Podcasting for Latina CEOs with Podcast Coach Heidy De La Cruz
Podcasting for Latina CEOs with Podcast Coach Heidy De La Cruz
Equipment, Tools, and Systems for Podcasting - Ep. 22
00:27:24
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Welcome to podcasting for Latina CEOs. The go to Podcast for Passionpreneurs. Latinas ready to launch and grow their online businesses and own their voice with podcasting. I'm Heidi De La Cruz, writer, two time award winning podcaster and podcast launch coach on a mission to help you build a life of freedom, wealth and impact by turning your ideas into into income. If you're a Latina ready to break generational cycles and create your own table, this show is for you. Let's build our dreams. Untas con gamor. Coach Heidi welcome back to podcasting for Latina CEOs. I am your host and your coach, Heidi De La Cruz. And I am so excited to be here and recording another episode. Thank you again so much for being here. I was going to say week after week, but it's actually every other week. So thank you so much for being here every other week to learn about podcasting. And today I want to talk about the tools, the systems and the equipment that I use to run my podcast right. Because I have two podcasts, so definitely want to get into that. And before I do, I want to give a shout out to my most recent client, Kim from the Womb and Word podcast. She just launched her podcast and I want to read to you the testimonial that she left about working with me. And she said, when I first knew I was called to start a podcast, I knew it had to be something different. I wanted to be educational, meaningful and impactful. But honestly, I had no idea where to start. I felt completely lost. That's when I reached out to Heidi and everything changed from there. Heidi was instrumental in the creation of my podcast, from her guidance and resources to making sure I felt confident and supported every step of the way. I. She truly walked, walked me through the entire process. Even after the podcast was launched, her continuous support was just valuable. What really stood out to me is that Heidi genuinely cares about her clients, about the work she does, and about making real difference. That heart and intention shines through and everything she does. You truly would not go wrong working with Heidi. Thank you so much, Kim. Thank you so much for that testimonial. And I am so excited that you finally launched your podcast and I am so excited to be with you every step of the way, providing guidance and answering questions and anything that you may need. And I am very intentional with that. I don't want you to feel that like once your podcast has launched that I'm just going to leave you high and dry. No, like I will check in on you. I will see how things are going. I will see if there's anything else that I can help you with and be there for you because I don't want you to feel like you are alone in this process because you're not. Because I'm here with you. And let me give a shout out to Laura B. From Laura, Period. B, period. Healthy Laura and I met at the Business Boardroom conference at the end of January and her and I, you know, clicked and we talked about our businesses and our podcasts and she shares health tips like Healthy meals and helps women with their relationship with food. And she has her own podcast and she's also part of the Entrepreneursa group. And in the Entrepreneur group, I had shared podcast SEO tips and I linked my episode to the podcast SEO episode and she reached out to me and told me that she listened to it and she listened to some other episodes that she felt were really helpful and stuff. Stuff that she is going to now implement on her podcast because she's looking to grow that. So go follow her on Instagram and go listen to her podcast. And Laura, thank you so much for your support and for listening. And now, without further ado, let's get into the tools, systems and equipment that I use with my podcast. So let's start with the Immigration podcast, because I do interviews on that podcast. So there's a ton of some tools that I use over there that I don't use for this one. So for example, the very first tool that I use is Calendly, and this is an app where my guests will book their time to record the podcast. So for my immigration podcast, I only record on Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings because you guys know I have a 9 to 5. So I record in the afternoons, Mondays and Tuesdays. And so I have that availability in the calendar. And then Calendly also connects with my Google Calendar. And so when someone books on a Monday or Tuesday, it will block off the rest of my calendar because I only, I try to do just one recording. So if I record on Monday, I only do just one recording. And then so if I have a recording on Tuesday, just one at a time, right? So go ahead and block the rest of my calendar so I don't get double booked or anything like that. And then it also connects with Zoom, which is another tool that I use to record my interview based podcast. Right? So that is Calendly, that is the one that I use. Yes, I do pay for it, but again it connects with my Google Calendar, connects with Zoom, and it just Syncs and it also sends my guests a reminder, 24 hour reminder of our scheduled time. It gives them the zoom link and then it also sends them like a little thank you email after we're done recording. So. So I've had no issues with Calendly again. I've been using it since I started my first podcast and it's been really good. The next tool that I use is Google, like the Google Work Workspace. Right? I think that's what it's called. I use everything in there. So for my immigration podcast, I use Google forms to, it's like a questionnaire that I need to get from my guests. So there's a few questions that I gather to know, like whether they're immigrants themselves or they're children of immigrants, what age did they come to the US because that also shapes the questions that I ask them. Right. And then at the bottom of that form I also have a place where they can give me their links to their social media, their links to their website or anything that they want to promote. I gather those links there and then I also give them a chance. It's like, hey, do you want to sign up for the podcast newsletter? You can go ahead and, and say yes or no and then I can go ahead and add their email from there. And then I also have the link for them to subscribe on YouTube if they want to. So I use that form to collect all that data and all that information that I'm going to need later on for the episode, for the show notes and show descriptions. So I just gather all that at once. I also use Google Forms for the consent form. So it's very important that you get a consent from your guest. So they, the consent is them giving me permission to record them, to edit the episode and to publish the episode. Right. So I get that confirmed. And then the consent form also has like wording in there that like, you know, there's no money. There's like, they're not getting paid for this. I'm not, they're not paying me for their story. It's just like them sharing the story on the platform and that's it. And like I'm not going to use their story later on for money or anything like that. So I do use Google Forms to get that consent form and then within the consent form there is a link for them to upload their headshot. And that headshot is what I use later for the graphics for the graphic of the episode. So Google Documents I also use, I have a template that I Have already set up for my show notes. So I. And the template is a little bit different for the immigration podcast than what it is for this podcast, But I still have the template in Google Docs. So then I just plug and play what I need for that episode. So I'm not writing each show notes from scratch. Again, I also use Google Calendar, which is what I mentioned, that connects with calendly. So when people set up their recording, it already connects to my calendar. So then that way I know, like, okay, I have an episode to record this evening or not. Google Sheets. So I use Google sheets for both podcasts because I created a template to organize each episode, episode number, episode title, episode, like what we talked about. So let me back up a little bit. So for the immigration podcast, I have the release date, the guest name, what country they came from, and where the episode was recorded. Was it recorded in person? Was it recorded in. Zoom the episode number and. And then any notes. So editing notes. But because I record months and months and months in advance. So if there's anything that needs to be taken out or edit or anything like that, I put those notes in there. And right now those notes are. Were in the beginning were for me because I was doing the editing. But now I have a VA that does the editing for me for the immigration podcast. So I put those notes in there. And then I also put how long the episode is. So again, they know how long the episode and also when I have to review, like, okay, this episode was 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever. So that template is what I have for the immigration podcast. And honestly, I did that because when I first. First first started my immigration podcast, I was actually handling all the episodes on my calendar. So I was like putting. Because I released on a bi weekly episode, bi weekly schedule. So it was like every other Tuesday. And so I had, okay, Tuesday the 15th and then Tuesday the 21st. Right. But then I had someone that did not want to do their podcast anymore. They told me that, like, to pull their episode. So I was like, again, I was like months out in advance. And then I had to go through my calendar and like remove each episode one at a time. And I was like, okay, no, no, no, I need to come up with a better system. So that's where I created the spreadsheet on Google sheets to keep track of the episodes. And so, like, if I do need to move anybody or any episodes or anything like that, I could just do it there and on my calendar one by one. And. And that spreadsheet, I do actually have it on sale so you can buy it in the stand store for $7. And it literally again you episode number, episode title, any notes, the date of release, the date of recording and things like that. So it's already set done for you. So you just have to like save it, plug and play with your information. And it's ready to go, literally $7. So that's for the immigration one. For this one I use the same template, but it's just a little bit different. This one, since I don't have a guest, I don't need my guest name on there. All I have is like the episode number, the date that it's going to release, the topic that I'm going to be talking about. And then I put the notes and then I also put like my call to action, like what is going to be my call to action for this episode. I have those in the notes. Again, that template is available for you. Stan store, $7. The next tool that I use is Google Documents, which I think I already talked about. Yes, because I did. The show Notes template is in my Google Documents and then Google Calendar. Right. So recording for my immigration podcast again, I use Zoom. And a lot of people do not recommend Zoom because they say that the audio recording on Zoom is not good because Zoom technically is not set up to record podcasts. Right. So the reason why I use Zoom is because of the nature of my podcast, right. I'm interviewing immigrants about their immigration journey coming to the US A lot of times they're not podcasters. A lot of times it's their first time being on a podcast, but they already know how to use Zoom. So I just make it really simple for my guests. I don't need to educate them on how to use Zoom. Now if I were to like use Riverside or Streamyard or any of the other places, yes, I would have to like, hey, by the way, do this. Isn't that. But no, I don't have to do that. I make it super simple for them. We record on Zoom. I do pay for Zoom and so I actually record on the cloud to Zoom and there it gives me a transcript and I download the episode when we're done and then I upload it to my Google Drive and then my VA has access from there. And that's why I use Zoom because I just make a simple form, I guess. Now for this solo podcast I actually use Riverside. So I use Riverside to record my solo podcast. I like Riverside. User friendly as a podcaster, I use it to record. I also use it to Edit, because I like that you can just like, edit through the transcript. So if I have to, like, remove, you know, a pause or remove a filler word, I just remove it right click delete, and it deletes it from the video. So that's another tool that I use Riverside to record my solo and then Zoom to record my interview to edit again, I mentioned Riverside for my immigration one. I mentioned that my VA edits for me. Now. When I was doing my editing at first, I started using Imovie, which comes included with Apple products. So I used Imovie for a while. Let me back up. Actually, when I first first started the Immigration podcast, it was audio only, and I was recording directly on Anchor, which is now Spotify for creators. I was recording directly in Anchor and I was editing on Anchor. But then when they switched it, they actually connected with Riverside. And so what I did was and I started to record on Zoom because I started to do video because the people wanted video. So once that shift, then I started recording on Zoom, and then I was using Imovie to edit the video and the audio on there. And then. So sometimes now I use Cap Cut to. Well, I did at one point. Yes, I did. Oh, my goodness. I'm getting so confused because it's been so many changes from the last four years. So, yeah, so I did use Cap Cut to. To edit videos and sometimes audio only too, because I came across this platform, which I'll talk about, that really helps with the editing. Okay, so Kappa Imovie Grammarly. So I use Grammarly for everything. I'm a writer. I don't know if you know, but I have a substack. And then obviously I have blog. I blog about podcasting. So I use Grammarly to help with, like, punctuation and things like that. So it's already in, like, it's already on my desktop or on my laptop. So whenever I'm writing anything, it's just there. So that's. That is a tool that I use for grammar and things like that. Next tool, Canva. Canva. I used for creating the COVID art for both of the podcasts for the immigration one and for this one. Canva has podcasts cover art templates. So it already comes in the size that it needs to be for the hosting sites, and that's. And they have a ton of templates, so you can definitely use Canva to do that. I also use Canva to create the graphics for the episode. I create graphic with quotes for the Immigration podcast, and then I use Canva for both Podcasts to get the YouTube channel banner, to get the YouTube thumbnail. That's the word. And I also use Canva to create the COVID the reels for the immigration podcast. Because for this podcast, Riverside does the magic clips. So then I just use those. All right, so here's the tool that I, when I found out from another podcaster about this tool, auphonic and I had talked and I've talked about it before. So Auphonic is an AI tool that helps with audio editing. So it levels out the sounds for your audio, it removes background noise, it makes the audio sound like studio quality audio. It's actually really, really good. They provide two free hours a month. So you can try before you commit or you know, pay. And if you do do the two hours, they do add a jingle in the beginning and a jingle at the end. There's actually an episode that I forgot to remove the jingle. So you, you would hear it says audio production by alphonic.com and it sounds static too. So that's why I remove it. But I forgot to remove it on one episode. But when I was doing, when I had my first editing client, her podcast was audio only. And I would use Cap Cut to make, to cut the clips out or whatever it is that I needed. And then I would run it through auphonics so the volume was leveled and also to make it studio sound because I can't remember but I don't think she had an actual like podcast microphone. So Iphonic really helped with that again. So she was using the, her laptop mic, you know, like if you, you make it work the way you make it work in the beginning. Right. Sophonic really helped with that. And then, yeah, Cap Cut for video. The next tool that I use is Whisper Transcribe. And with Whisper Transcribe I came across of it. It's been over. This is going to be year two that I've been using it and I came across it on POD News newsletter and it at first when I first got it, all it did was just transcribe your episode. But now it does so much. It transcribes your episode, it creates content for you. So it creates your blog post, it creates newsletter, it creates your show notes, it can pull quotes for you. Like it gets like the most, you know, how do I say, like impactful quotes or whatever. It does a lot. Like they've really updated a lot since I first started using it. So the blog post that it creates, I don't use it word for word obviously because it is AI. We definitely want to use our own words. But I use it as an outline of the episode. And I also like that it gives you, like, a summary, too, of the episode. So then that way I can pull like, okay, these are the key points. This is a summary. This is what you'll learn from the episode. So Whisper transcribe. Honestly, it's. It's pretty good. I do have an affiliate link, so if you do want to try it, you can get my affiliate link in the show notes and show description to try it out yourself. And I'm trying to think what else. Okay, Equipment. This mic right here. So I did not start recording with this mic. I actually started recording. I laugh. I actually started when I first started my immigration podcast. I actually started recording with my work headphones. And they weren't even actually my work headphones. They were actually my husband's. I didn't have work headphones. I actually was using my husband's work headphones. The audio was horrible. You could sometimes, a lot of times you could hear my son in the background screaming. And. Yeah, and eventually, like, I was like, okay, I am actually going to do this podcast for a while. Like, I need to, like, you know, upgrade my mic and upgrade this audio. So I ended up buying a $40 dynamic mic. And if you want the list to the equipment and the tools, you can get that in my stand store. I'll put the link in the show notes and show description and you can get the. The links to all the equipment and the tools and everything. And for the equipment. Yes, that. Those are affiliate links. So I will get a percentage. I know. No extra cost to use. I will get a percentage if you use those links to buy the equipment. So $40 dynamic mic. I loved it. I was like, oh, my God. Like, the difference from the work headphones to that dynamic mic was crazy. So, like, I fell in love with that mic. It was amazing. And this mic. So there's a story behind the mic that I'm using now. So the mic that I am using now, it is a PO Podcaster by road. And this mic, okay, so I bought a mic. I bought the same mic online from another podcaster, and it was broken. And my husband was so upset that I had bought a broken mic because he, like, took it apart and he. We're like, we don't know why it's not working. So he took it apart and he was like, heidi, this mic has been messed with before. He was like, I think they sold you a mic that they knew did not work. And I was like, Ah, okay, whatever. Oh, for Christmas, that I was like really sad that the mic was not working. And I was like, oh no. Like I spent this money to buy this mic and it's not working, blah, blah, blah. So I was really sad. And so my wonderful husband found the mic online and bought the mic and the shock. And then this arm that you can, you can. Well, those who are listening, there's an arm that holds the mic and then there's a shock resistance that's on the mic. And then those who are watching, like, you can. You can see it. And so he bought the whole equipment for me and he surprised me on Christmas and I cried. It was like the sweetest thing because he really was very upset that the mic did not work and I was so sad. So this one is. I believe it was $200. So this is a bigger investment, which I, I honestly don't recommend for people to make those big investments. In the very beginning, I always say, like, make sure that you are going to be doing this for a long time before making those big investments because you can definitely again buy a $40 dynamic mic. And it works just as good as. So the headphones that I am using are Sony headphones. I bought them at Best Buy and I. The link is also in the list of equipment and tools. My affiliate link is in there too. I always recommend wired headphones because the Bluetooth one, especially the Apple ones, like sometimes just doesn't sound good using those Bluetooth headphones. And then sometimes I like picks up the mic from those Bluetooth headphones and it just doesn't sound good. So definitely get wired headphones. It. It's just much better. I had a client who bought the mic that the. The same mic that I. The $41. Right. And for some reason her thing was sounding very far away, like her recording. And so I was like listening to like give feedback on her first few episodes and I'm like, why does this sound so far away? What is going on? Like, is your mouth close to the mic? Is your volume up? Like, what is going on? So what it was, she was using wireless headphones and when she would put on the headphones or get close to the. The computer, the computer was picking up the Bluetooth of the headphones and that mic and not her actual mic. So she had to like go in and change the settings. So yeah, so please just use wired headphones. Works much better. Let's see what else My camera. I always recommend to start audio only first until you get your reps in. Until you know that obviously you want to do this for a while. It's definitely best to get an external camera. You can get like, HD camera on Amazon or, you know, you can really invest and get like a vlogger camera, which is what I have. I have, again, the link to my camera. So I have a Sony vlogging camera, which is the zv1f. Again, that link to the camera and with the affiliate link is going to be in the list of the equipment and tools as well. And then the computer that I have is a MacBook. Whatever laptop you have will work just fine. To be completely honest, I did end up upgrading last year because I had a MacBook Air and it was not handling the editing very well at all. So then I started using my husband's MacBook Pro and I was like, okay, this is much better. So I ended up upgrading to, like, the newest MacBook Pro that they had last year. So it's so much better to edit with the MacBook Pro than with a MacBook Air. So I will say that. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Those are the tools, equipment that I use for my podcast, the hosting sites that I use. I use simplecast for my immigration one, because again, that's part of a network. And then I host on buzzsprout for my this one, for this solo podcast. Again, I have an affiliate link for Buzzsprout if you want to use that. I pay $19 a month and it gives you six hours. So that's another thing I always tell people, like, do your research on hosting sites. I mean, I have a whole episode on hosting sites. Do your research for hosting sites and see what features they have and then what you need. Right? And I think that's it. So those are the equipment, the tools that I use for both of my podcasts. Again, you can get the list of that in my stance store. It's free. You just have, you know, just put in your email and then you will also be subscribed to my mentorship podcast email list. And I. Every Wednesday, I send out a new podcasting tip, which is usually different than what I'm talking about on the podcast. So you can download the tools and equipment list there. And I keep repeating the same thing over and over again. So until next time, if you have any questions, please feel free to send me a text. That option is in the show notes or you can send me an email. Heidiidelacruz.com thank you again for being here. Yeah, all the stuff will be in the links, all the links will be in the show Notes. Thank you so much. Feel free to leave a rating or a review of the podcast. I know that I haven't really mentioned that much about that on the show, but ratings and reviews really do help people discover the show and I will see you in the next episode. Coach Heidi thank you for listening to Mommy Bacas.