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How a Small Podcast Studio Became a Big Business · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:01
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• 1:51
  Speaker 3: How much does it cost a book of like session.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: You could pay anywhere from sixty dollars to to fifty
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: Our average client spends about three hundred per hour.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: And what's the difference between sixty and three hundred sixty.
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: Is just audio. You're just starting out right.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: Different studios also have different prices, always a little more
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: expensive because of the landscape. But we kept our prices
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: low on purpose because we know that the average podcaster
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: that's watching us or wants to start up, they may
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: not have all the bread. Then we got y'all who
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: may spend four figure numbers when you need mobile shoots.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: But you know what I'm saying, your podcast is bringing
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: in more.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Horrible spends more as well because we need more bells
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: and whistles. But if you just need baseline audio, sixty bucks.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: If you just want one angle one fifty, Like we've
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: made it pretty easy, and we never raised.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: Our prices either.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: Oh okay, so like if we have a four camera
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: set up here, but if it was like a two camera,
• 2:43
  Speaker 6: that would fluctuate. Yeah, all right, So I remember when
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: you guys were starting, it was just that one studio,
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: and then this was getting built out.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: You went over on that one. This is the biggest studio.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: Is it the same price point or was like all right,
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: now I know that the price that I need to
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: be at to make sure that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: This is functional. We kept it at the same price point.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: So it's fifty again.
• 3:01
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so we never raised until now our newest location
• 3:04
  Speaker 7: in Midtown, and that one's even larger than this. It's
• 3:08
  Speaker 7: a little bit more premiere, and I think the only
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: reason why it's a little bit more is just too offset.
• 3:15
  Speaker 7: I don't want everybody rushing to the new one. So
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: it's like just to keep a balance where it's like
• 3:20
  Speaker 7: we still have clients that love coming here, but then
• 3:23
  Speaker 7: also you know, when something's sparkly and new people want
• 3:26
  Speaker 7: to try to go there.
• 3:27
  Speaker 6: I would assume, and this is probably right. The cameras
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: are the most expensive piece in here, cameras, computers, like,
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: so like if for the people who can't see, like,
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: what are the things that are needed to make this
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: things functional? Obviously cameras, So we got to show sm
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: seven pps what else.
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: So it was important for me to like, you know,
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: how new tech startups they want to disrupt the market
• 3:47
  Speaker 7: or whatever. So I working in production for as long
• 3:50
  Speaker 7: as I have been, I saw all the things people
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: were doing wrong. And I saw also how like Kyllywood
• 3:55
  Speaker 7: and other places overcharged for a lot of stuff. So
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  Speaker 7: like I just found that middle where it's like, Okay,
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: let me get the highest end let's say camera, but
• 4:04
  Speaker 7: I can go for a cheaper lens to offset the price,
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  Speaker 7: and then the quality doesn't really drop very much and
• 4:10
  Speaker 7: I can keep costs down. So that was like one
• 4:12
  Speaker 7: of the things that was very important. And it's like
• 4:15
  Speaker 7: a lot of other studios they look cheap and I
• 4:17
  Speaker 7: didn't want that, so I wanted us to look premiere
• 4:20
  Speaker 7: because like that's going to be the main thing that
• 4:22
  Speaker 7: sells the studio. But then also I can't have like,
• 4:26
  Speaker 7: you know, red cameras like shit that you use for movies,
• 4:30
  Speaker 7: because then we would just beat go broke.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: But Alex making the choice to spend that much in equipment,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: I think is the biggest reason we flourished.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we thought about that a lot.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: I'm like, we only have this much to spend, why
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: are you spending that? Just get some cameras. We cool
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: everybody for the come tows anyway, And he was like, no,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: but nobody has these, and it's true when you look
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: at other studios they almost have like that webcami look sometimes.
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  Speaker 4: And so I was like, but we're going to take
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: so long to pay ourselves back. And he just had
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: a lot of faith in volume, and he was right
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: because it's true true a lot of studios don't have
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: this because it costs way too much. Having ten thousand
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: dollars cameras is ridiculous. One camera, like it's crazy, but
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: no one else could get it for that price. And
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: so instead, whereas one fifty was kind of cheap, now
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: we've got ten people a day at one fifty, whereas
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: if another studio had that, they may have been charging
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: five hundred a session, which is probably what you should
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: be paying for these, But we ended up just getting
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: people to come in. And so it's great because you
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: could see a podcaster like yourself have your show on
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  Speaker 4: a set like this, and then someone who may only
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: get one hundred views, but they're happy to be able
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: to do that too.
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  Speaker 5: So the fact that they.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: Could work up to it is really the thing. That's
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: why it's like low key a little fuobu for us,
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: like four podcasters by podcasters, because we knew it costs
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: too much to make something look nice, So.
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  Speaker 3: What about what's the other revenue models you have? Brand partnerships.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so that actually worked out for us really well
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: because we started learning what we were spending money in
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  Speaker 4: and what was costing us the most monthly, quarterly, and annually.
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  Speaker 5: One thing that was happening was lenses.
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  Speaker 4: So al and Mike's so Alex literally started reaching out
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  Speaker 4: to all of the companies that you know, we're big
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: in cameras, big in audio and being like, yo, this
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: is our studio, everybody's going to use it. You need
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: to be giving us free shit.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: Shout out to Tiana, she was managing exactly like that.
• 6:25
  Speaker 7: But basically whatever, Like I went to a lot of
• 6:28
  Speaker 7: those conventions where it's like you have all of the camera,
• 6:32
  Speaker 7: audio lighting, all those playbill and just face to face
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: and it's the best thing. And then you tell them
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: about the studio and then they want to have a
• 6:38
  Speaker 7: relationship with you because they know that, hey, if you
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: have a show like Eil and Net bringing all these people,
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: people are also looking at how it's being done. And
• 6:47
  Speaker 7: so so we have a brand partnership with Sigma, black Magic,
• 6:52
  Speaker 7: even Water, our soda, Like we have partnerships like that
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  Speaker 7: because people know that people are going to come in here,
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  Speaker 7: look around and see what's being used.
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  Speaker 2: Signal for the lens, black Magic's the camera.
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah what about we are we here? And I'm not
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: even mentioned them for them, No, not not yet.
• 7:07
  Speaker 7: Not you had road, I thought a road for our
• 7:10
  Speaker 7: wireless mics. This pH water.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: But like that's the thing. We found out how much
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: we were spending in like beverages alone, and it was
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: like what, like we this is too much money. So
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: now we probably saved twenty thousand dollars a year across
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: the studios just having free beverages for clients, which is
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: just it's a small little thing that you don't think about,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: but like, truly, that was it. I mean the next one,
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: like I'm working on as a wayfair partnership. We spent
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: mad bread in like furniture, and I learned that from
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: even you know, working with Kenya Barris. Rich niggas don't
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: pay for nothing. They don't pay for who was nothing.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: They put them credits right in your account. And the
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: more I've been around wealthy people that strategy. And it's
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: not like Kenya Barris, the one hundred millionaire times over
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: is hounding down Uber. Your team is figuring out how
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: to use your platform, your influence and be like, yeah,
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: you want this person to be writing in these types
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: of SUVs, they should have this. It's like that's the thing.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: So Alex and I kind of had to learn how
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: to do that. We've never paid for marketing or prs,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: so it's like, okay, how are we supposed to do this?
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  Speaker 4: So using our own profile to kind of leverage everything else.
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: So let's talk about Kenya Barris. I mean, this is
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: obviously a relationship. When I think of you, I mean
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: the first time I met you. It's always been about
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: the business of podcasts. It's always been business with you
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: and in podcasts, and specifically, how did you develop that relationship
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: and what did you do?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: You currently exist in in the Keny Barras Yeah world.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: So I was at a party.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: I walked in and Keny was the first person there,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: and he was like, yo, are you Are you horrible decisions?
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: Are you easy? And he said I'm Kenny Barras and
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: I'm like, uh.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: Nigga, I know, And he asked me to take a picture,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: which I thought was hilarious. He's like, bruh dubbed me
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: because he asked for tickets to his show in LA
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: and I like wrote back or some shit, and I
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: said it was sold out and he wanted to bring
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: people from his office.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: They loved horrible. So we start vibing.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: He tells me about an audible deal and he's like, yo,
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I need someone to run it, like I'm film and TV,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: I have my music division, Like I want someone to
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: run it. And I honestly believe that WTF Media. If
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: not for being built that six months prior, there was
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: no way I could have done that job.
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: So and Alex helped me so much.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: So basically took on the job making podcasts easy, but
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: when it came to building the landscape difficult. And it's
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: great because I've literally funded all my businesses down to
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: my TV show through the others. So Horrible brought me
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: to Kenya Barris. Right then we've got to build studios.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: I hire Alex.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Alex becomes you know, the audio producer for all of
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: the projects and building out structurally how things will look.
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: We created a sound system for him in his loft,
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: which was the studio that Gangster Grills was filmed out of.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: WTF Media then produced Gangster Girls because I had to hire,
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: you know, a team.
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: So it's been great.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Right now, I mean I'm working on Kenya's other podcasts
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: for Audible and producing all them, eping them, and it's
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: an amazing relationship and partnership because what he really showed
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: me is that you can you can't exist outside of
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: your element. Kenya hired a podcaster to run his podcast division,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: and it was the smartest thing he could have done
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: because whenever I was on zooms and meetings for him,
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: it was all film and TV people, and they're talking
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: in movie and TV language. They're thinking, we have to
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: spend twenty thousand dollars a shoot.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: I know that's not true. You're giving me millions of
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: dollars in a budget.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: I'm like Niga, but like it's really that type of shit.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: These big entities and these big companies don't understand how
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: rat gros grassroots podcasting is.
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: So when I came in, I.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Was able to really reinvent that for him and really
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: show like, hey, like this is what we should be doing.
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: And it's been amazing. Like I mean, I.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Posted a picture with Malcolm gladwellman him the other day
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, I cannot believe podcasting brought me here.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: Brouh, Like it's it's.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: A trip, because what's happening now people like us that
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: were normal people that became famous from podcasting are the outliers.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: Word to Malcolm Gladwell but like, seriously, now it's the celebrities,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: and the celebrities are getting two million dollars to make
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: a show and they're probably going to spend half a
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: million in production.
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: That's crazy. Making a podcast for a year does not
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: cost that much. But you give me half.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: Of it, I'll tell you where to do it. And
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: that's really what's happening, you know. So Alex and I
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: have made our most money from the largest deals like that,
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: not particularly Kenya Barris, like I'm.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: Salaried, right, But but it's stuff like that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: It's the big company that comes in, Like, Yo, let's
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: just say it's a bank. We had a meeting with
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: a bank, right, huge bank. I would say, we all
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: probably have the card in our wallet. They were given
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: a certain amount of money a year to make financial
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: videos for kids, so they know exactly how much they have.
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: Hey, what do we do with this? It's a six
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: figure number. I'm gonna tell you what to do.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna probably give you fifteen hundred to go home with.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: So you felt like you saved.
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: But at the end of the day, like you didn't
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: tell them your leisure What do you mean, Like you
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: said you know what to do with it?
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Like you didn't tell them, Oh, I know the guys
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: you should call.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: They already had their It was a sponsored podcast by Bleep.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: But it's it's things like that. It's like being able
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: to be trusted by companies. So that type of partnership
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: is like, really what makes us money? Granted, being in
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: here is amazing and making people's dreams come true by
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: them having their own show and finding voices dope too,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: but it's the big fucking bucks.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: So when you say that, when you are consultant to
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: people companies to consult on their podcast divisions.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: Pretty much, I mean as a production company, that's what
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: we do, and we take a call, right, it's like,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: we figure out your needs, we figure out how you're
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: gonna build something. And they probably asked two other companies, so.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: You're shooting it for them.
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: Shooting is start to finish, like they just have an
• 12:55
  Speaker 7: idea and they're like, hey, can you make it happen?
• 12:57
  Speaker 7: So we'll come up with concept, how it's can be shot,
• 13:00
  Speaker 7: the look of it, shoot it, edit it deliberate though.
• 13:03
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• 13:05
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