Episode 8

full
Published on:

6th Mar 2024

Equipment for Podcast Guests!

You asked for it - PART 2 for folks who want to be a GUEST on podcasts and livestreams!

Do you have something to promote and you want to get your name out? Perhaps establish credibility? Or continue to give your community some great content?

Then it makes absolute sense to collaborate and guest on other's shows!

The question is: But are you a GOOD GUEST that comes prepared to look and sound good for your hosts?

Join Ben Baker and Syya Yasotornrat to #GnawOnThis riveting conversation, or you could say "Part 2" from "Pitching Yourself For A Podcast." (If you missed this episode, links are in comments!)

Gnaw On This...Business Bytes is produced by Brilliant Beam Media and Your Brand Marketing.

Learn More:

Gnaw On This LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gnaw-on-this-business-bytes-podcast/

Syya’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/syyayasotornrat/

Syya’s Website: https://brilliantbeammedia.com/

Ben’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourbrandmarketing/

Ben’s Website: https://yourbrandmarketing.com/

#livestream #podcast #digitalmarketing

Transcript

0:04

[Applause]

0:06

if there's one thing we've learned about

0:07

business in life is that people are the

0:09

X Factor they constantly surprise us

0:12

both in amazing ways and not so much

0:15

we're B Andia and welcome to n on this

0:18

business bites podcast this show is all

0:21

about real life things we all deal with

0:23

every day how they relate to business

0:26

and how to make some sense out of our

0:28

daily chaos welcome to the

0:31

[Music]

0:40

show and welcome back to another episode

0:43

of non this business bites well I don't

0:46

know if you heard cni's rant a week or

0:50

so ago about podcast guests and you know

0:54

what we maybe we went off a little bit

0:56

you know we were we went off a little

0:58

strong but you know what it in our mind

1:01

it needed to be said it taking taking by

1:03

the the the comments that we probably

1:05

got is I will bet that we weren't that

1:08

far off from a lot of people because I

1:10

know a lot of podcasters and they all

1:12

say the same thing today we want to talk

1:17

about the technology we want to talk as

1:20

a podcast guest what we can do to be

1:24

able to make sure that we have the right

1:29

technology

1:30

in play and it doesn't have to cost us a

1:34

fortune but to be able to make sure that

1:37

we present ourselves in the best light

1:41

and the best sound possible to be that

1:44

great guest on a show so seea let's know

1:49

on this oh look peoples you you heard it

1:53

from me all the time if you're going to

1:55

be a guest a lot understand there's a

1:58

very big difference but between being a

2:00

guest on a live stream and a podcast and

2:03

a zoom call yes okay I see too many

2:08

people treating live streams and

2:10

podcasts like a zoom call and to

2:14

me it makes and it diminishes the

2:18

content greatly because yes it's a

2:21

conversation but it's still meant to

2:24

edify

2:25

entertain right uh

2:28

engage so

2:30

Zoom calls to me are usually

2:32

meetings we have an action item we're

2:34

doing something we're doing a task

2:36

collaborating on something a live stream

2:39

podcast is usually meant to entertain in

2:43

a conversational way that's going to be

2:46

interesting interesting is a key word

2:48

here but here's the fun part if you're

2:51

in doing a collaboration over zoom and

2:53

you're doing work you don't care what

2:55

you guys look like and you care you

2:56

don't care what you sound like because

2:57

that's not the priority you're working

2:59

on I don't know some TPS reports that

3:01

you guys got to fill out okay but if

3:03

you're doing a live streaming podcast

3:05

guess what your priority should be how

3:07

you look at how you

3:09

sound that that's my thesis for today I

3:12

I'll never

3:13

forget I had just started a podcast

3:18

about five six years ago it was it was

3:21

it and i' landed a

3:25

fairly prominent guest who was a

3:27

worldwide speaker and he said yeah I'd

3:30

love to be on your show you know I you

3:32

know i' love what you're doing love to

3:33

be on your show you know do it so he

3:35

booked booked the meeting and I said

3:37

great wonderful I get a call from him

3:40

three weeks before and said um I'm going

3:43

to be in

3:45

Portugal I said okay he says it says you

3:48

know I'll readjust the time so we

3:49

readjust the time for the

3:51

recording but what he didn't tell me was

3:55

he was going to be on his cell

3:57

phone in a museum that was built into a

4:03

cave it was the most

4:05

echoey

4:07

staticky

4:09

podcast what I should have done and this

4:12

is on me this is on me I should have

4:14

said look why do we reschedule this for

4:17

when you're back when you're in your

4:19

studio because this guy's you know this

4:21

guy has a studio that was like a cockpit

4:23

he I think he had four different cameras

4:25

two different mics you know it was it

4:28

was perfectly sound I great we're going

4:29

to have a perfect great interview and

4:32

I'm on the middle of a cell phone in

4:34

Portugal in the middle of this Museum

4:36

that's built into a cave and you know

4:39

the echo on this thing was

4:42

abysmal and it killed me and I went I

4:46

can't ask him to re redo it but you can

4:50

here's the thing as a as a host you're

4:52

saying says look you're not going to

4:54

sound your

4:56

best you're not going to sound your best

4:58

you're going to come off as not as good

5:01

as you can be and my job is enable you

5:03

to shine let's

5:05

reschedule yep and that's my fault

5:08

that's my fault for not having the guts

5:10

to be able to stand up and say hey but

5:13

we need to think of when we're on a

5:17

podcast this is not a oneandone type

5:20

thing podcasts and live streams live

5:23

forever yep they live

5:26

forever and people are going to go back

5:28

and look at the library some of my most

5:30

popular podcast episodes are four and

5:33

five years old yep that people just go

5:36

back and listen to them over and over

5:38

and over again and they're four and five

5:40

years old they have no video attached to

5:42

them they're Audio Only but the content

5:45

of them are so good and the guests are

5:46

so good that people just go back and

5:49

they look for them

5:51

great but they come down to the fact

5:55

that those guests were prepared and had

5:59

a proper

6:01

location to be able to do the podcast so

6:04

they sounded good they didn't sound tiny

6:07

they didn't sound echoey they you know

6:10

were actually had a live mic they

6:12

actually had earphones in and they were

6:15

in a quiet place and they weren't on

6:18

Wi-Fi they were actually hardwired or if

6:20

they were on Wi-Fi they were right next

6:22

to the router so they could have steady

6:25

stream and it's th it's those simple

6:28

little things it's those simple little

6:31

things you know what I have been on a

6:33

podcast where I've I've inter people

6:35

interviewed people with on their

6:38

iPhone with a set of you know just

6:41

standard

6:43

earbuds and have had great Audio Only

6:46

interviews that that is that is the

6:50

critical component here guys you don't

6:52

have to spend a lot of money to look and

6:54

sound good you do not you could use your

6:57

phone if your phone is newer okay

7:00

uh it doesn't take you could even put

7:03

your phone if you have to use your phone

7:06

uh on like a bookshelf or whatever and

7:08

just leaning it up against and so you

7:10

could get in a proper position and just

7:12

do what you need to do put your earbuds

7:14

in and by the way I get this question

7:17

all the time Ben well I've got a

7:19

microphone why do I need an earbud I'm

7:21

using my laptop

7:22

speaker so do you want to answer that

7:25

question or shall I you can but it

7:27

sounds to echo echo echo echo echo

7:31

echo yeah you may not hear your own Echo

7:34

but we can hear it and it makes it

7:36

unlistenable it makes you unlistenable

7:40

so guys you can get and I I actually

7:42

still have it this is I stole from Avis

7:46

I don't know how why I ever I don't even

7:48

use Avis so I don't even know how I got

7:50

it I I I loathe to think I might have

7:52

stole out of someone else's ear um but

7:55

no yeah a cheapy thing here's the thing

7:57

you guys when we ask you for those ear

7:59

earbuds whatever it's not because we

8:01

want you to buy a can like this now

8:03

granted if you're editing obviously this

8:05

is really good for all that but you just

8:07

need to hear there you go you just need

8:10

enough to hear you don't need to hear in

8:12

Stereo stereo stereo okay we don't need

8:14

that but what we're saying is is this

8:16

little thing here prevents us and your

8:19

microphone from picking up that audio

8:21

and that's what's happening it's

8:23

catching everyone else's uh audio so I

8:27

there's some people just don't

8:28

understand that I'm trying to be patient

8:30

here and give Grace that's why we don't

8:32

need to hear our own voices in your

8:34

micro microphone so and speaking of

8:37

which depending on how old your laptop

8:40

is some of the mics are pretty damn good

8:43

they're getting better yeah but it's not

8:45

radio quality so if you want the if you

8:48

want the radio quality sound and how you

8:50

doing today then you might want to

8:52

invest into it um but you don't need to

8:54

invest into a lot the cheapy ones you

8:56

can get for under 50 bucks they actually

8:58

work pretty deep decently now I have an

9:00

Audio Technica mic right here okay this

9:03

Audio Technica mic is

9:07

$69 it's a

9:10

$69

9:12

microphone and does a phenomenal

9:15

job you know sure I've also got A500 or

9:18

$600 sure

9:20

mic but the mic that I use every single

9:23

day is this

9:26

at:

9:31

practical it plugs right into my headset

9:34

and it's and it's it just sit there it's

9:37

it's comfortable with my voice you know

9:39

it it actually works with my

9:42

voice I love it I have the:

9:45

this is my go-to is has been infallible

9:48

I've had this baby since:

9:50

never never not knock on uh Audio

9:53

Technica at all I just happen to have a

9:56

Shore now just because I like the sound

9:58

of the shores too but yeah

10:01

guys there are brands that are popular I

10:04

will say one thing I don't like the blue

10:06

yeti I'm just gonna say it I don't like

10:09

the blue yeti sorry Blue Yeti don't like

10:11

it don't want it and I hate it when I

10:14

see clients using it I I don't

10:16

understand some people sound great with

10:19

the blue yeti and others I swear to God

10:22

I would just want to shoot myself like

10:23

seriously it's really it's really simple

10:26

most people don't know how to use a blue

10:28

Betty they have it too far from their

10:30

too far from their voice they don't have

10:33

a wind screen on it they are not what

10:35

you want to do is there's a there's a a

10:37

mode on it it's got a heart on it that's

10:39

the that's the mode you want to be on

10:42

you want the mode that's got the heart

10:43

on it I can't remember what it is but

10:44

it's it's a heart mode okay and you also

10:47

want to put attach it to a boom mic so

10:49

it can be so it can be near it can be

10:51

near you you also don't want to talk

10:53

directly into it you want to talk across

10:56

it some mics you want to talk directly

10:59

into it some mics you want to talk

11:01

across some Tes you want to talk to the

11:03

side it depends on how the mic is built

11:06

and you need to you know you need to

11:08

look at your individual mic and

11:10

experiment with it and see how do I best

11:14

come across I need to be sitting here

11:18

going let's see it's looking from from

11:20

my chin to the mic is about that far

11:23

that's about the dist that's about the

11:24

distance that it is you know some people

11:26

want to be right up next to it and you

11:29

can tell the difference when I'm right

11:30

here and when I'm right here you can

11:33

tell the difference in terms of the

11:34

sound so therefore it enables you to be

11:37

able to sit there going am I clear or

11:39

not and what you can do is you can ask

11:41

your host how am I coming in am I coming

11:45

in

11:46

clear the same thing goes with video the

11:49

same thing comes with video are you well

11:52

lit you know if you have a window right

11:55

in front of you that's open guess what

11:59

if it's on the side it's fine if it's

12:01

right in front of you you're going to go

12:03

completely you know gray you know you're

12:06

just going to go you're just going to go

12:07

blackface and that's the way it is it's

12:10

just the fact that you're going to hide

12:11

behind the the camera it's just not

12:13

going to be able to pick pick up the the

12:15

light on your face the best the uh sorry

12:18

if the if the uh if the light's behind

12:20

you you want to have the light on your

12:22

face but if the light's behind you all

12:24

you're going to do is your your face is

12:26

going to be in Shadow so you need to

12:28

take a look and say where is the light

12:29

source I've got two LED lights one on

12:32

either side of me and I got a great big

12:34

par can in front of me guess what I

12:37

bought these over

12:39

years and as as I've gotten better and

12:42

as I've become more sophisticated as my

12:44

videos have become more sophisticated

12:46

I've upgraded my equipment when I

12:48

started this 11 years ago I had a $40

12:52

microphone and a set of $10 earbuds and

12:55

that was

12:57

it so we need to sit there and say we

13:00

don't need to spend a fortune but we

13:02

need to put ourselves in a position

13:03

where we can be heard we can be seen and

13:07

we and we don't sound all tin and echoey

13:10

no and look you don't have to be

13:12

technically Savvy either let me be very

13:14

clear on this too because I see people

13:17

like oh I just spent $5,000 worth of

13:18

equipment I don't know how to plug it in

13:20

I'm like why the hell would you do this

13:22

why would you do

13:24

that I get it people like their gadgets

13:27

they also want to look good and sound

13:28

good and all that stuff but

13:30

understand just because you can buy a

13:32

Lamborghini doesn't mean you know how to

13:34

drive a Lamborghini okay they've got

13:37

like touch troll like changing it's

13:40

there's no automatic in those supercars

13:42

okay you got to actually known how to

13:43

drive right so just because you buy a

13:46

high-end thing doesn't mean it's

13:48

necessarily the best thing for you okay

13:50

I think USB mics are fine they really

13:53

are people's it's it's ultimately think

13:56

about this if you want to buy an

13:59

expensive microphone right so I've got

14:01

this drawer and I'm talking to it then

14:03

then learn mic control that's a

14:06

different thing that's when you have to

14:07

learn how to like not breathe in so heav

14:11

or like oh my God if I hear more Pops I

14:14

have to edit that out I just want to

14:15

shoot myself oh the other

14:18

thing oh my God I hate the mouth noises

14:21

so look maybe you don't need to be that

14:22

close to the microphone so unless you're

14:24

into the whole ASMR lip smacking sound

14:27

which okay that's your own kink uh

14:29

typically you can go further away from

14:30

the microphone right um the other thing

14:33

too is uh lighting is your best friend

14:38

okay I get it there are some there are

14:40

some cameras on laptops that are

14:42

improving greatly so I'm not going to n

14:44

uh like hit on that too hard but but if

14:47

you're using an older laptop and you

14:50

also don't clean your webcam like window

14:52

often you're going to

14:54

look worse than the Star Trek hazy

14:57

filter that they used to put on for the

14:59

women when they were all pretty you

15:00

would just look like one big blur like

15:03

you look like that 80s like glass that

15:06

you know back in the day that you can't

15:07

see through um but okay so on the

15:12

contact of lighting one ring light will

15:15

do you good guys I get it and here's the

15:18

other thing even if you're traveling for

15:21

example and you're in a hotel you could

15:22

literally use the lamps around you to

15:24

achieve the lighting effects you need so

15:27

for those that are really on a budget or

15:28

you're just not sure I've actually said

15:30

this many times hey do you have a lamp

15:32

in the other room you can just pull over

15:33

for a moment then let us move it around

15:35

and let's adjust it and you'd be

15:37

surprised light is light now granted

15:39

mostly it's yellowy lighting or it's

15:42

that weird harsh like the spiral light

15:44

that we all have to do now a lamp shade

15:47

you guys again like I've done this to

15:50

even my own Lins when I think it's too

15:52

like bright like I'll I'll put like um

15:55

what do you call that paper towel over

15:56

it yeah just to soften the lighting up

15:59

right it I get it don't leave it there

16:02

too long especially if your light bulb

16:04

gets hot then you're going to set the

16:05

house on fire so don't do that too long

16:06

but it's good for the duration of an

16:07

hour trust me it'll be fine you know but

16:10

anyway so yeah lighting uh the sound of

16:13

your voice with microphones uh hearing

16:16

uh so make sure you get an earbud ear

16:18

plug uh and camera you can get all that

16:21

for under 100 bucks I kid you not 100

16:23

bucks just to get a decent setup and

16:25

then as you progress as you start making

16:28

I guess you monetize your either people

16:31

pay you or you're getting business as a

16:32

result right or you're selling books

16:34

then maybe invest in a little bit more

16:36

as you go so that's that's my I I know

16:39

we went hella Along on this but it's

16:41

just so important part two to understand

16:44

the hardware is just as important as the

16:46

words you use because ain't no one

16:48

listen to you if they can't hear

16:51

you and that's the words to this so I'm

16:55

Ben I'm seea and we'll see you soon

17:03

hey hey hey thanks for listening to

17:05

another episode of not on this business

17:08

fights if you liked what you heard we

17:10

most humbly ask that you like share and

17:13

hit that subscribe button if you want to

17:16

communicate more effectively within your

17:18

organization contact Ben atyou brandmark

17:22

dcom or me at brilliant beam media.com

17:26

we can help you build your community

17:28

brand awareness and personality through

17:30

digital content and podcasting we cannot

17:34

wait to hear from you so see you next

17:36

week for another episode of not on this

17:39

business

17:47

fights

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About the Podcast

Gnaw On This...
Business Bytes with Ben & Syya
If there is one thing that we have learned about business and life
IT’S THAT PEOPLE ARE THE X FACTOR
They constantly surprise us, both in amazing ways . . .
And . . . NOT SO MUCH
We’re Ben and Syya
AND
Welcome to GNAW ON THIS . . . BUSINESS BYTES
This show is about the real-life things
we ALL deal with EVERY DAY
HOW they relate to business
And HOW to make some sense out of our daily chaos
WELCOME to the show!

About your hosts

Syya Yasotornrat

Profile picture for Syya Yasotornrat
Syya is a tenured tech sales professional with her time at SonicWALL and Hewlett Packard (HPE) with some hospitality at the Walt Disney Company and IT recruitment experience in the mix. She is currently a podcast strategist and consultant, helping others to bring out their voice and legacy through podcasting. She loves to learn and talk about anything, so feel free to reach out!

Ben Baker

Profile picture for Ben Baker
Ben has been helping companies, and the people within them understand, codify, and communicate their unique value to others for more than a quarter of a century.

He is the president of Your Brand Marketing, an Employee Engagement Consultancy specializing in helping companies communicate more effectively inside their organizations.

He is the author of two books: “Powerful Personal Brands: a hands-on guide to understanding yours,” and “Leading Beyond a Crisis: a conversation about what’s next,” and the host of IHEART and Spotify syndicated YourLIVINGBrand.live show with more than 300 episodes behind him.

You can reach him at www.yourbrandmarketing.com