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Transcript

Your Podcast Idea Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect To Get Started · Buzzcast

• 0:00
  Jordan: Alban, do you remember when we did that Buzzcast episode with Megan where we were going through the process of starting a new podcast?
• 0:08
  Alban: No.
• 0:08
  Alban: I have no recollection of it.
• 0:11
  Alban: That sounds that sounds like something we would have done.
• 0:14
  Jordan: But now we have a new tool that would have made that episode take like 10 minutes, maybe.
• 0:21
  Alban: Okay, so this is the podcast starter kit.
• 0:23
  Alban: This is something that we had in the back of our mind for a long time.
• 0:28
  Alban: And then Dennis kind of put together a good idea of what it could be.
• 0:33
  Alban: And this is out there for the world now.
• 0:35
  Alban: It's deployed.
• 0:36
  Alban: Can we just start talking about it?
• 0:38
  Alban: Yeah.
• 0:39
  Alban: All right.
• 0:39
  Alban: So the idea with the podcast starter kit is that when you start on Buzzsprout, you can still do everything the way you already did it.
• 0:47
  Alban: Oh, I know my title, description, artwork.
• 0:50
  Alban: I already know all that stuff.
• 0:51
  Alban: But now you have the option to answer a bunch of questions about your show.
• 0:55
  Alban: similar to like what we did with the podcast name generator.
• 0:59
  Alban: But now it's quite a bit more involved.
• 1:02
  Alban: Who's your podcast for?
• 1:04
  Alban: What's it about?
• 1:05
  Alban: what does the audience get out of it?
• 1:07
  Alban: And you just start going through and answering these questions.
• 1:09
  Alban: And based on the questions you give us, we walk you through okay, here's some titles that fit your podcast.
• 1:18
  Alban: Here are titles that are unique and they fit all of the things we've learned over 17 years of hosting podcasts over 400,000 shows.
• 1:27
  Alban: We have a lot of data, we have a lot of experience with what works.
• 1:31
  Alban: And so we can recommend based on everything you've told us, here's some titles that will work.
• 1:36
  Alban: Here's a description that we think would work.
• 1:38
  Alban: And we walk you through all of it.
• 1:40
  Alban: We give you artwork, we find your categories, pick the podcast creator, and at the end of the day, you build a podcast starter kit so that everything is done and you're ready to launch.
• 1:53
  Jordan: Yeah, you actually ran through this with me and Megan to show us how it works.
• 1:58
  Jordan: And it was really exciting because we were just able to like make up this silly podcast.
• 2:04
  Jordan: It's actually what we used as the screen grab on the um like the the news site.
• 2:11
  Jordan: And um it was so funny just sitting down and being thinking like, what's a silly podcast?
• 2:17
  Jordan: And so we were like, okay, like let's do a podcast about like really expensive exotic cats.
• 2:22
  Alban: And no, the reason we did the exotic cats is because at one point I don't know, somebody made a bunch of money and then they bought like a bunch of sports cars.
• 2:32
  Alban: And so I was like, I couldn't see myself making any amount of money that I'd want a garage of sports cars.
• 2:37
  Alban: I went, Jordan, if you had a bunch of money, what would you buy?
• 2:40
  Alban: What's the weird thing you'd buy?
• 2:42
  Alban: He goes, a very expensive cat.
• 2:44
  Alban: I was like, why did you think a $50,000 cat or something?
• 2:48
  Alban: I was like, I didn't know that existed.
• 2:50
  Alban: So that's why we made your show about people who own very expensive cats.
• 2:56
  Jordan: Yeah.
• 2:56
  Jordan: But it was just like, it was so cool because we were able to just dream up, like, you know, kind of what's objectively like a very silly podcast idea.
• 3:07
  Jordan: And we were able to say it's for like people who enjoy fancy cats, you know, and specifically in Florida.
• 3:15
  Jordan: And so we're going through the those kind of things.
• 3:19
  Jordan: And it actually like it came up with like the categories that our like fancy cat podcast should be.
• 3:25
  Jordan: And then the artwork was so pretty, like shockingly beautiful.
• 3:31
  Jordan: It was so good.
• 3:32
  Jordan: The artwork that it generated, any one of the options would have been a very compelling option, like a very eye-catching one.
• 3:40
  Jordan: It stands out in the podcast apps and it looks really good.
• 3:44
  Jordan: And in a lot of podcast apps, like Apple, it doesn't actually show your podcast title underneath the artwork.
• 3:50
  Jordan: So your artwork has to have the title on it.
• 3:52
  Jordan: And so it really makes sure that you have that too.
• 3:55
  Kevin: Yeah.
• 3:56
  Kevin: So we're like five minutes into the episode.
• 3:58
  Kevin: I haven't said anything yet.
• 3:58
  Kevin: This is Kevin.
• 3:59
  Kevin: I'm also on the podcast.
• 4:01
  Alban: You say that like we were the ones hogging the air time.
• 4:04
  Kevin: You're just monopolizing all the air time.
• 4:07
  Kevin: And so I just have to interrupt.
• 4:09
  Kevin: but the team did a really wonderful job.
• 4:12
  Kevin: the the the the obviously the amount of AI generated artwork and graphics and funny things that have been floating around for the past year and it's continuing to ramp up are so obviously AI generated that it's getting really difficult to generate something that people wouldn't, you know, throw into the AI slot category.
• 4:35
  Kevin: It just looks AI generated, even if it's pictures of us.
• 4:38
  Kevin: You know, we do um episode artwork for our podcast.
• 4:41
  Kevin: It's clearly AI.
• 4:42
  Kevin: You know, it has our faces on it, it has the episode title.
• 4:45
  Kevin: I think it looks good.
• 4:46
  Kevin: It doesn't pass the sniff test.
• 4:48
  Kevin: Like it's AI stuff.
• 4:49
  Kevin: It's just good AI.
• 4:50
  Kevin: But for this stuff, we've um I'm I'm pretty sure, again, I wasn't on the product team.
• 4:55
  Kevin: Alban had some involvement in it, Dennis was the lead on it.
• 4:59
  Kevin: But I think the guys just did a fantastic job of generating stuff that doesn't necessarily look AI generated.
• 5:06
  Kevin: Yeah.
• 5:06
  Kevin: Super high quality, but this is our artwork that if this, you know, your fancy feed lines and all the other test episode artworks that came out during the testing period, they just look like classy, um, really good, high quality podcast artwork.
• 5:22
  Kevin: And and so much so that when we got done with this project, we're like, oh, we need to offer a rebrand kit now for all of our Buzzbrock customers because we have so many podcasters who just have have struggled to get really good, compelling artwork for their shows, but now they've been doing their show for a while, and it might be time for like a refresh of the artwork.
• 5:42
  Kevin: Oh my gosh, I'm so there's no more yeah, no more like jumping into Canva and or trying to find a friend who's a graphic designer.
• 5:50
  Kevin: Or, you know, your other alternative right now is to go to AI and you end up like getting something that's kind of generic that has doesn't pass the AI sniff test on design.
• 5:59
  Kevin: the team did a really great job.
• 6:01
  Kevin: Yeah.
• 6:03
  Kevin: So the team did a fantastic job of just building a very refined tool for this specific use case, which is what is really good high-quality podcast artwork look like that doesn't look like generic AI garbage that usually just spits out if you don't have a very honed, aligned prompt and model and flow and everything that goes into making that happen.
• 6:25
  Alban: So, what some of the stuff Dennis is doing, he's pulling in all the stuff we've taught about how to make good artwork.
• 6:31
  Alban: And so we have all these rules that we've had.
• 6:34
  Alban: And when we do audits of people's podcasts and we give recommendations, it's the things we run through.
• 6:39
  Alban: How many words are on here?
• 6:40
  Alban: Are you mixing a bunch of different types of typography?
• 6:42
  Alban: Are you using like two or three colors?
• 6:45
  Alban: Are you trying to make sure like this works at small sizes?
• 6:49
  Alban: Because a lot of times people put six things on the artwork and it won't work at a small size.
• 6:54
  Alban: All that plus all this data from podcasts that we have access to, plus all of the titles, descriptions, category, all the questions you already answered.
• 7:05
  Alban: And then Dennis is figuring, all right, based on all of this and the colors, what are the moods that would fit it?
• 7:12
  Alban: And it's highly directed towards these are the types of artwork I want you to make.
• 7:18
  Alban: So you're not getting like 600 different T pieces of artwork that all feel very similar to every other piece of AI artwork.
• 7:27
  Alban: They are finely tuned to here based on the categories and description, the questions and everything, this is going to make a really good package as a group.
• 7:37
  Alban: Kevin, sorry about all this AI artwork.
• 7:40
  Alban: I was just at the Thai restaurant near our house, and there's a thing on the table, and I'm like, that's not a picture of food.
• 7:47
  Alban: My wife's like, what are you talking about?
• 7:48
  Alban: I'm like, that's AI food.
• 7:50
  Alban: And I'm like, look at like zoom in, just hold this close to your face.
• 7:53
  Alban: I'm like, she's like, oh, that's not food at all.
• 7:55
  Alban: That's that's weird.
• 7:56
  Alban: And I'm like, yeah, I would not do this with food.
• 7:59
  Alban: It does work for podcast artwork when it's highly focused on here's what makes good artwork.
• 8:06
  Alban: And I was am very, very happy with the outcomes that we're getting from all of this.
• 8:11
  Alban: Yeah.
• 8:12
  Kevin: And I'm super excited because of course, about a year ago, maybe a little more, we rolled out the multi-podcast plans.
• 8:18
  Kevin: So for anybody who hosts more than one podcast with Buzzsprout, you're probably on a multi-podcast plan.
• 8:24
  Kevin: And so I think the first one allows up to five different podcast episodes.
• 8:28
  Kevin: And so now, like, hop in there.
• 8:30
  Kevin: If you have an idea, you have a friend and you are considering starting another show, like run through the podcast article kit.
• 8:35
  Kevin: I find it like inspirational.
• 8:37
  Kevin: You don't need to know a title of a show anymore.
• 8:40
  Kevin: You don't need to have the whole description all flushed out.
• 8:43
  Kevin: You just had have to have a rough idea.
• 8:45
  Kevin: This tool can help you get really excited.
• 8:47
  Kevin: It can be like, well, here's some really good names for a show like that.
• 8:51
  Kevin: And then here's how we'd write the description.
• 8:52
  Kevin: And then here's what your artwork would look like.
• 8:54
  Kevin: And then before you know it, you're ready to record that next first episode.
• 8:58
  Alban: So this is what happened with Jordan because I'm teasing her when I'm typing in these answers.
• 9:02
  Alban: And I'm like, yeah, it's about someone who wants to move to Florida and wants to buy a fancy cat.
• 9:06
  Alban: She knows it's her.
• 9:07
  Alban: And Megan's laughing and I'm answering it all.
• 9:10
  Alban: And then Jordan's like, okay, well, if I did a podcast like this, here's what you'd get out of it.
• 9:14
  Alban: And we're answering all the questions.
• 9:16
  Alban: And then it comes back with titles and description, artwork, and categories.
• 9:20
  Alban: And then Jordan at the end of goes, Hey, we should do this show.
• 9:22
  Alban: Megan's like, Yeah, I think we can do that.
• 9:24
  Alban: This is actually really good.
• 9:25
  Alban: Right.
• 9:27
  Jordan: Yeah, actually, there's a couple of podcast ideas I've been like kicking around.
• 9:31
  Jordan: Like Priscilla and I want to do a like a reality TV watch podcast, or you know, maybe just traders podcast, like niche it down a little bit more.
• 9:40
  Jordan: Like, we want to do that so bad.
• 9:41
  Jordan: And there's been a few times just since we launched this podcast starter kit that I've thought about going and just doing it and seeing what it would come out as, like just out of curiosity.
• 9:52
  Jordan: And maybe it would like be that spark where I'm like, all right, fine, we should do this because this looks really good.
• 9:57
  Jordan: But the other thing that I really love about it too is that when you're finished with it and you choose all the things, like you have the title, you have the description, you have the categories and the artwork, you can just like click start and then it all pulls into your Buzzsprout dashboard and it's all in there, ready to go.
• 10:13
  Jordan: And you can like click round and edit it if you ever want to in the future.
• 10:17
  Alban: Yeah, it helps you move the move forward, I think, a lot faster through that first stage of podcasting, yeah, which is very easy to quit.
• 10:25
  Alban: you know, people always talk about, oh, seven episodes.
• 10:28
  Alban: We can get through that, you're good to go.
• 10:29
  Alban: And I'm like, you get to one episode, you're already in the top 50%.
• 10:33
  Alban: Because a lot of people start podcasts and don't ever upload an episode because they get hung up on the title and the description needs to be perfect, and they're redesigning the artwork over and over.
• 10:44
  Alban: And I think it would be better to launch three podcasts over the next course of over the course of the next year and shut two of them down because he went, I tried a reality podcast, it didn't really work.
• 10:55
  Alban: I tried one about traders, that felt pretty good.
• 10:58
  Alban: I felt started one about cats, I shut that one down too, and then the traders podcast worked and we kept going.
• 11:03
  Alban: That would be better than way the way we all kind of seem to work, which is I want to have the perfect podcast all laid out in front of me with the full idea, with the next 45 episodes all planned.
• 11:16
  Alban: Now I'm ready to go.
• 11:18
  Alban: And you just don't know until you start seeing things and feeling what it's going to be like, and you start trying to record and you try to sync up schedules with the people you're working with.
• 11:28
  Alban: Then you realize is this something that's sustainable?
• 11:31
  Alban: Is it something I'm excited about?
• 11:33
  Alban: Or is it it was fun for the three episodes we did it?
• 11:36
  Alban: And then I went ahead and I parked it and I started something else.
• 11:40
  Alban: So my hope with this is that more people start like just a little bit of an experiment, do a few episodes and decide if you want to keep going.
• 11:49
  Alban: If not, you can always just let it go.
• 11:51
  Alban: You could just leave it on the archive plan.
• 11:54
  Alban: You could delete it.
• 11:55
  Alban: It's not a big deal if you didn't take it too seriously.
• 11:58
  Jordan: Yeah.
• 11:58
  Jordan: And if you want to try it out, you can go to Buzzsprout and start a new podcast and just say you're a new podcaster, and I'll pull it up.
• 12:05
  Jordan: Or if you already have a Buzzsprout account, you can go into your podcast settings and podcast details and you can try the starter kit there.
• 12:12
  Jordan: And I think if anyone does this, like let us know.
• 12:15
  Jordan: We want to see what podcasts you come up with.
• 12:17
  Jordan: That'd be really fun, wouldn't it?
• 12:18
  Jordan: So to tell us all about it, go ahead and tap the Send Us Fan Mail link in the show notes.
• 12:22
  Jordan: And until next time, thanks for listening and keep podcasting.