Navigating the Podcast Editing Business Maze
Hey there, podcast aficionado! Strap in, because today we're serving up a heavy dose of reality about the business and mindset of podcast editing.
Imagine this: Bryan (one of your faithful Yetis) is in the thick of it - searching for quality-over-quantity clients, and we're joined by Jesse, Tara, and Amanda to help him (and you) cut through the noise. Expect unfiltered advice on pricing, embracing AI without losing our human touch, and finding that sweet spot between making bank and keeping the passion alive.
We'll dissect whether to fly solo or assemble a podcast editing army, tackle the tightrope walk between love for the craft and keeping the fridge stocked, and dish out strategies for staying sane in the editing game.
So perk up those ears, it's about to get real. We’re diving headfirst into the audio jungle, and trust me, you won’t want to miss a beat. Let's kick this off!
Listen to Discover
- That even people who have been editing for a while face challenges
- The key to finding the clients that are right for you
- How understanding your idea client can help you be more focused in what you do
- Why finding the intersection of your fulfillment and your client's needs is the key to unlocking growth, satisfaction, and success
- How pricing is so much more than just a math exercise
Links And Resources
- Podcast Editors Mastermind Episode 78 - Jesse was a Guest, "A Day in the Life: Podcast Editing 2030"
- Podcast Editors Mastermind Episode 83 - Jesse McCune is Creating a Supportive Community for Aspiring Podcast Editors
- Twenty Thousand Hertz - A podcast renowned for its stellar sound design, which Bryan admires.
- HoneyBook - This is Jesse's and Tara's pick for streamlining client onboarding, file uploading, and calendar syncing.
- Aardvark Girl - You can find Amanda here.
- Tansy Aster Audio - You can find Jesse here.
- Tansy Aster Creative - This is where you can find Tara.
- Tansy Aster Academy - The community that our guests, Jesse, Tara, and Amanda run for podcast editors and managers.
- Podnews Daily - One of Bryan's go-to listens in the realm of podcasting news and trends.
- Podcasting 2.0 - A podcast Bryan enjoys for its quality content about what's going on in Podcasting 2.0.
- Top Tier Audio - We talked about Bryan's website during the episode.
Keep in mind, we aren't responsible if any of these links lead to internet black holes where you'll find yourself binge-reading articles instead of getting work done. But I digress. Go forth and prosper with these tidbits of wisdom!
About Our Guests
Jesse McCune, Tara Kelly, and Amanda McCune run Tansy Aster Academy, a community for podcast editors and managers. Through courses, coaching, and resources, they help podcast production professionals start, grow, and run their businesses.
Connect with Jesse, Tara, and Amanda
Join Us Live!
We stream live to our Facebook page and to YouTube every other week.
Follow the Show!
Our Editor
This episode of the Podcast Editors Mastermind was edited by Alejandro Ramirez. You can find him on LinkedIn if you're interested in talking with him about editing your show.
Be a Guest
If you're a podcast editor, we'd love to see if you'd be a fit for a future episode. Fill out this form to let us know you're interested, and we'll contact you to see if it's a good fit.
Your Yetis Are
- Daniel Abendroth | Roth Media
- Carrie Caulfield | Carrie.Land
- Bryan Entzminger | Top Tier Audio
- Jennifer Longworth | Bourbon Barrel Podcasting
About the Podcast Editors Mastermind
The Podcast Editors Mastermind is for professional podcast editors who want to grow their business and get more clients. We’re creating a community of like-minded professionals that are passionate about the art and science of editing podcasts.
Our goal is to help you build your business by providing tools, resources, and support so you can focus on what matters most—your craft. This isn’t just another group where everyone talks about how great they are at podcast editing; we show our work!
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
So How much is that?
Bryan Entzminger:Mhmm. Alright. Welcome. We are the podcast editor's mastermind, and
Bryan Entzminger:we're getting started actually a little bit early again. That's twice in a
Bryan Entzminger:row now that we've done that. Not sure what's happening. But anyway, tonight, I'm gonna
Bryan Entzminger:be in the hot seat, and I'm not at all nervous about that. And we
Bryan Entzminger:haven't talked about it backstage or anything, but We'll be talking about that. The hope
Bryan Entzminger:here is that you'll pick something up for your business as well as we talk
Bryan Entzminger:through some of the challenges that I'm facing. Joining me on this side
Bryan Entzminger:is Jennifer Longworth with Bourbon Barrel Podcasting. You didn't say who
Jennifer Longworth:you were, by the way. Oh, okay. I'm Brian. You can find me at top
Bryan Entzminger:tier audio.com, which you may or may not wanna do this call. We'll see. And
Bryan Entzminger:then we have actually 3 special guests. All of them are from Tansy
Bryan Entzminger:Astra Academy, and you might recognize Tara And, also, Jesse, they've both
Bryan Entzminger:been on the show, and then we've also got Amanda joining us on the side
Bryan Entzminger:where my arm is sticking off the camera. So welcome to the 3
Bryan Entzminger:of you. So I'm the newbie here is what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much.
Bryan Entzminger:Yeah. You're the newbie, but that's okay because we're kind and gentle or something like
Bryan Entzminger:that. Anyway, On the last episode of the Podcast Editor's Mastermind, we were
Bryan Entzminger:talking about some of the things that are going on in our business, and I
Bryan Entzminger:shared that I'd faced some recent business challenges through the course of last
Bryan Entzminger:year. Business had declined for a number of reasons that had to do
Bryan Entzminger:with people stopping production, all that kind of stuff. And we said, hey. Maybe on
Bryan Entzminger:the next episode, we'll put Brian in the hot seat. I said,
Bryan Entzminger:okay. And then the next day, Jesse reached out and said, hey. This is the
Bryan Entzminger:kind of stuff that we do at Tanziastro Academy. Would you mind if we came
Bryan Entzminger:on the show and talked to you about it? So that's what we've done. With
Bryan Entzminger:that, I'm gonna try and get out of the way and let the 3 of
Bryan Entzminger:them Make this into something useful. So I'm gonna pass it on to
Bryan Entzminger:you. So you were talking about just
Jesse McCune:problems you were You were trying to plan for 2024.
Jesse McCune:Yeah. You said you were looking at pricing,
Jesse McCune:marketing. I think there were a couple other things we'll get
Jesse McCune:to. So, Tara, actually, Amanda,
Jesse McCune:you and I can start with the pricing stuff. The first thing I wanna
Amanda McCune:say, though, Brian, is you are not the only person who is dealing with this
Amanda McCune:at all. This is very common what you're talking about. People who've been in
Amanda McCune:business for decades run into the same issues you're talking about, so
Amanda McCune:it's not a it's not a Brian specific issue that's going on.
Amanda McCune:But pricing, I I feel like pricing is always the really
Amanda McCune:tricky part because you wanna be competitive, but you want
Amanda McCune:to make sure that you can get the clients, and you have to make sure
Amanda McCune:you're not working twice as hard for the same amount
Amanda McCune:as other people, and it's there's no right answer. You can't just Google
Amanda McCune:what should my prices be, and then you're good to go. Though a lot of
Amanda McCune:it, I think, just it comes into getting to know your clients, really talking
Amanda McCune:to people, trying to find those people who will be honest about
Amanda McCune:what They can afford to pay what they see value in
Amanda McCune:how you can differentiate yourself from others, but it takes Time
Amanda McCune:to build those relationships. I think sometimes people get in the, I need sales.
Amanda McCune:I need a client right now. They're offering half of what I know that I'm
Amanda McCune:worth, But I need the work right now, so I'm gonna take it. And that
Amanda McCune:just kinda gets you in a trap, but usually, if you're able to talk to
Amanda McCune:somebody and get to understand well, I
Amanda McCune:offer the these same services as other people, but I offer them in a
Amanda McCune:different way that might serve you better. But the communication
Amanda McCune:has to be there. You have to get them first, which is where Tara
Amanda McCune:and the marketing probably comes in. But And then
Jesse McCune:AI is changing all of this too, and so
Jesse McCune:many of us have, like, package pricing. And I think
Jesse McCune:we need to start shifting away from thinking of packages
Jesse McCune:as in the what that we do and more in the how.
Jesse McCune:Start looking at offering levels of
Jesse McCune:service where we focus more on giving
Jesse McCune:premium service to those who pay The premium,
Jesse McCune:having a standard service where it's a lot more we're
Jesse McCune:using AI wherever we can to have a
Jesse McCune:more efficient workflow because whether we
Jesse McCune:like it or not, trying to sell people on the
Jesse McCune:importance of quality is difficult enough now.
Jesse McCune:Wait another year, 2, 3 years down the road. It's going to
Jesse McCune:be almost impossible to try to tell people
Jesse McCune:why they need to be hiring us to do all of
Jesse McCune:this manual high quality work when they can't hear the
Jesse McCune:difference. So there's a lot of things kind of in
Jesse McCune:flux right now in the podcast editing space,
Jesse McCune:and it's just kind of a matter of figuring out What value
Jesse McCune:can we offer to clients that can't be replaced by
Jesse McCune:AI? If we really look at it, production
Jesse McCune:work is at the bottom rung of the overall
Jesse McCune:ladder. If we want to do better with
Jesse McCune:making income, We need to find ways to move higher up
Jesse McCune:that ladder so that we're not focused primarily on
Jesse McCune:the production. I mean, this has been kind of the
Bryan Entzminger:underpinning of conversations over the last year. Right? And it feels
Bryan Entzminger:a little bit like, Yeah. I know that, but,
Bryan Entzminger:also, I don't really know how to think about some of
Bryan Entzminger:this yet. There are certain parts of my workflow that do
Bryan Entzminger:Include some AI tools. I think I probably use some of the same tools that
Bryan Entzminger:Jesse does, which help with some parts of this. But there's still
Bryan Entzminger:in everything that I do, there's a a human element. I was actually having
Bryan Entzminger:a client call yesterday, and they were talking about using Descript.
Bryan Entzminger:And because I've used Descript before, I was able to ask a couple of questions
Bryan Entzminger:about some shortcomings of that software and highlight how I can do that
Bryan Entzminger:better. But at the same time, like, I can't see myself ever
Bryan Entzminger:offering what I would call only service. And I hate to pick on
Bryan Entzminger:that software, but, you know, the automated removals and
Bryan Entzminger:whatever it didn't properly scribe is assumed to be silent, and so you're
Bryan Entzminger:missing stuff here and there. Like, I can't see that ever being something that I
Bryan Entzminger:would offer, and so I'm a little bit uncertain to think about How I would
Bryan Entzminger:think about different levels of service and differentiation as it relates
Bryan Entzminger:to pricing. One of the ways is to Look at
Jesse McCune:the different services you offer and figure out what
Jesse McCune:stuff can we use more AI heavy,
Jesse McCune:what stuff I mean, we know tools are going to keep getting
Jesse McCune:better. Right now, the editing itself is the one thing that's
Jesse McCune:going to be Difficult to move to strictly AI
Jesse McCune:because more clients are looking for people
Jesse McCune:who can offer everything, show notes,
Jesse McCune:whatever the services are. Are there things we
Jesse McCune:can use AI to be able to offer
Jesse McCune:those without adding significantly to the price so we can
Jesse McCune:still compete without making everything
Jesse McCune:focusing on AI everything. So we
Jesse McCune:use, like, AI for show notes and descriptions,
Jesse McCune:titles, stuff like that, Not really adding a whole lot to the
Jesse McCune:cost, so we can focus on the manual work we need to
Jesse McCune:do. So is that kind of streamlining planning your internal processes so
Amanda McCune:you're spending less time doing the work so you don't have
Amanda McCune:to charge quite so much. Because if you can get into that flow where, Okay.
Amanda McCune:I can use these AI tools. It cuts a lot of the manual time, then
Amanda McCune:you're not feeling as crunched. Well, I have this show, and now I have to
Amanda McCune:spend all of this time doing this. And then I have do these show notes,
Amanda McCune:and I have to do all of this stuff, and then it becomes more
Amanda McCune:time intense per each client. Is it kinda using those
Amanda McCune:processes producer the amount of time you have to spend
Amanda McCune:on the same thing so you don't feel like you have to keep charging more
Amanda McCune:to balance your time. Because it's kind of a time management thing too. Right? Like,
Amanda McCune:you're 1 person. You can only take on you only have so many hours,
Amanda McCune:and it's being able to allocate those hours in a way that
Amanda McCune:helps you a little bit more. And sometimes it's not even
Jesse McCune:tools related to editing. There's the whole back end
Jesse McCune:process, client interaction. If there's ways we
Jesse McCune:can streamline the back end of the business, that helps us
Jesse McCune:as well. If if I can ask, what are the some of the things that
Bryan Entzminger:you've been able to streamline from the back end? Because I like to think mine
Bryan Entzminger:is pretty streamlined, but, hey, I only know my business. We're in the middle
Jesse McCune:of transitioning over to HoneyBook where we can
Jesse McCune:basically Automate the entire process from
Jesse McCune:the time they go to our website, they click a
Jesse McCune:link, they can book a call, We can gather information from
Jesse McCune:them, give then, say, have a
Jesse McCune:discovery call with them, provide them a quote with different
Jesse McCune:manager, they can choose the package. Once they choose
Jesse McCune:that, they get invoiced, then they get their
Jesse McCune:the client agreement. We can automate the onboarding
Jesse McCune:producer. So that's one of the things we're working on
Jesse McCune:right now as opposed to Having our contracts
Jesse McCune:and PandaDoc and trying to bring everything into one
Jesse McCune:place where we can automate as much of that process as possible.
Jesse McCune:Okay. Yeah. I guess I was thinking more in terms of, like, the ongoing client
Bryan Entzminger:interactions like file delivery, that kind of stuff. But that's a it's a good another
Bryan Entzminger:good take on it. They have these fun portals where you can upload files
Tara Kelly:and communicate that way to HoneyBook? And you can actually link it to your
Tara Kelly:Gmail account. If you have, like, your or if you have, like, Google Workspace for
Tara Kelly:your email, you can connect to that so you can sync your calendars
Tara Kelly:and all of that fun stuff. That's HoneyBook as well? Mhmm. Yeah. Oh,
Bryan Entzminger:wow. Okay. I guess I need to go check them out again. It does come
Amanda McCune:as as an expense. You know? We always try to keep your overhead low,
Amanda McCune:but It's that whole time time versus money. I
Amanda McCune:mean, both have the the value, but it's if you're able to,
Amanda McCune:maybe you spend the, And I don't actually know what HoneyBook costs, but you spend
Amanda McCune:a little bit per month and but you don't have to put
Amanda McCune:as much time and energy into all that back end and stuff. Now you have
Amanda McCune:more hours available that you can do the marketing things that you
Amanda McCune:don't really wanna do, but you know you need to, or maybe that's the time
Amanda McCune:that you get to spend with your personal things that you wanna do,
Amanda McCune:but it's sometimes that extra cost is going to be
Amanda McCune:minimal when you compare it to the amount of time you save. Yeah.
Bryan Entzminger:I I can totally see that. I was actually looking through my books earlier,
Bryan Entzminger:and, one of the things that I discovered was one of the Most significant
Bryan Entzminger:expenses I had last year, which wasn't a huge surprise, was subcontractors
Bryan Entzminger:because I had some people working on some shows for me. And
Bryan Entzminger:because the business has kind of declined, I've had to stop doing
Bryan Entzminger:that as you would expect. Right? You have to preserve the margin, And
Bryan Entzminger:so maybe there are some ways that this kind of automation could
Bryan Entzminger:reduce the need for that. I don't know that I would ever get back 2
Bryan Entzminger:hours per episode, but maybe there's enough there. Why do you think your business
Tara Kelly:declined this year? Because I'm hearing it a lot across the board, and it seems
Tara Kelly:like it's for similar reasons. A combination of client life
Bryan Entzminger:changes and different directions. So there was I didn't have any clients
Bryan Entzminger:that said I'm leaving you for another editor, but what I did have
Bryan Entzminger:was Three shows that were through a production company,
Bryan Entzminger:and that company stopped operations so I lost those
Bryan Entzminger:shows Because they're not making them anymore. And then I had 2
Bryan Entzminger:others where the hosts just stopped producing the show. You know,
Bryan Entzminger:they just said, hey. I'm done. It wasn't a whole lot of I'm losing them
Bryan Entzminger:to Jennifer or to Daniel or to Jesse. It
Bryan Entzminger:was a lot of we're stopping the show. Won't need you anymore because we're not
Bryan Entzminger:gonna pay you to not produce a show. Right? So that's kind of the driving
Bryan Entzminger:factor for me. I mean, I could guess at the overarching
Bryan Entzminger:Stuff. But I think it's it's really just the clients changing.
Bryan Entzminger:Right? Yeah. I guess I should all say on the on the personal side, Once
Bryan Entzminger:this started going, I didn't do a ton to go and try recapturing business.
Bryan Entzminger:I mean, I did put myself out there a little bit, and I did have
Bryan Entzminger:a number of client calls where Things
Bryan Entzminger:just didn't line up and never really got any feedback. You know, is it price,
Bryan Entzminger:or is it you decided you didn't need an editor. I never really got that,
Bryan Entzminger:but Didn't replace them with anything during the year, which is how we got
Bryan Entzminger:here. So I think that's a nice segue into marketing.
Bryan Entzminger:Sure. I was just gonna say, I I think when
Tara Kelly:people are fearing the, you know, recession coming, when
Tara Kelly:we keep hearing the r word, when we keep hearing People are losing jobs. I
Tara Kelly:mean, every time I sign on to LinkedIn, there's another layoff announcement, or
Tara Kelly:my feed is just filled with more and more of my colleagues being laid off.
Bryan Entzminger:Mhmm. My connection's being laid off. There's a lot of fear in the
Tara Kelly:air, and I think oftentimes the first place
Tara Kelly:people start to cut budgets is in
Tara Kelly:creative marketing. And one of the things I hear and I've
Tara Kelly:heard a lot this year over and over when it comes to podcasting,
Tara Kelly:when have talked to prospects when I've talked to clients, and I ask,
Tara Kelly:have you considered podcasting? Well, we did in the past,
Tara Kelly:but it was a lot of work and a lot of cost, and we
Tara Kelly:didn't see the return on investment. We couldn't really trace
Tara Kelly:how it was helping us with our business or how it was, you know,
Tara Kelly:helping us with conversions or getting us clients, so we stopped
Tara Kelly:because it just seemed like too much work and too much time. I've heard that
Tara Kelly:Over and over. And so when we're in this time period where there's a lot
Tara Kelly:of fear and penny pinching, People are
Tara Kelly:like, okay. I don't need the podcast anymore. Let's just stop that.
Tara Kelly:So in the marketing and branding world, we call that threats. Like, we
Tara Kelly:when we look for threats threats to our business when we do that
Tara Kelly:little SWAT chart. Are you familiar with that? Mhmm. I think that might be the
Tara Kelly:case here. Be and not necessarily that There's there was something
Tara Kelly:wrong with your service or they weren't happy with your service. It does seem
Tara Kelly:like a pattern across the board right now. So you
Tara Kelly:said that you work a full time job and you're traveling
Tara Kelly:a lot. A little more travel this year. Yeah. How many
Tara Kelly:hours a week Would you say you have to devote to your
Tara Kelly:podcast business? In the past, I've been doing about 10 hours
Bryan Entzminger:a week. It's significantly less right now because I don't have
Bryan Entzminger:the work to fill the time. But, yeah, 10, sometimes up to
Bryan Entzminger:15. That once I got to 15 is where things kinda got a little
Bryan Entzminger:shaky, and so that's when I started bringing in contractors because it it got to
Bryan Entzminger:be a little bit much. And then I discovered that I only get, like, a
Bryan Entzminger:50% return on having the contractor because I still have to go back and
Bryan Entzminger:review stuff, and there's an administrative overhead on that, but I
Bryan Entzminger:got back sometime. So you feel like 10 to 15 hours a week
Tara Kelly:is about your limit. If you were to get the clients back, that's
Tara Kelly:the most you could spend right now while working full time? I think
Bryan Entzminger:that's I mean, I don't know that I would ever say the most. Right? Because
Bryan Entzminger:there's probably a chance you could find something else here and there, but that seems
Bryan Entzminger:to be what was sustainable. And I'll call it nearly healthy.
Bryan Entzminger:I don't know that it was truly healthy, but at least nearly healthy. Okay. So
Tara Kelly:it says your you said your ultimate dream, at least by
Tara Kelly:2027 would be to have a full fledged
Tara Kelly:production business. Mhmm. Now Is is
Tara Kelly:your goal to eventually have your own business full time and
Tara Kelly:that be your main focus? Yeah. I find that as The
Bryan Entzminger:business grows. It becomes harder to maintain focus between the job and the
Bryan Entzminger:business. And so, like, when it's small, it's easier. When it gets bigger,
Bryan Entzminger:it's harder. So there's Eventually, you can't you can't have 2 full time
Bryan Entzminger:things. Right? Or at least I can't. Maybe other people can. What does the
Tara Kelly:production business look like? Does it have employees? Is it almost like an
Tara Kelly:agency, or is it just you and some contractors still? So, I
Bryan Entzminger:mean, that's partly what I've been struggling with because And maybe some of this
Bryan Entzminger:is presumption, but it's hard for me to imagine being able
Bryan Entzminger:to have a level of stability and provide stability for my clients
Bryan Entzminger:without having at least contractors or some level of employees. And
Bryan Entzminger:my experience so far has been that, contractors
Bryan Entzminger:are expensive, Then they should be. Right? Because they're good at what they do,
Bryan Entzminger:but there's a lot of not that I've had employees, but, you know, there's some
Bryan Entzminger:additional overhead or additional administration from having employees.
Bryan Entzminger:So I'm not super firm on what that would need to be. I just feel
Bryan Entzminger:like I shouldn't be the only person in the business ultimately
Bryan Entzminger:Producer because it all relies on me.
Bryan Entzminger:And as much as I enjoy doing the work, I don't think that's right thing
Bryan Entzminger:for the clients, and I'm not sure that it's the right thing long term because
Bryan Entzminger:I would hate to get sick for a week and have all my clients miss
Bryan Entzminger:their deadlines because I'm not there. Right? And, conversely, I'd
Bryan Entzminger:hate to reach out to Jesse and a couple of other editors and say, can
Bryan Entzminger:you do all of these this week? By the way, I don't have any guidelines
Bryan Entzminger:for you. Just figure it out. Like, that's Not only expensive, but it's not right
Bryan Entzminger:for them, and it's not right for the client. So, like, I feel like there's
Bryan Entzminger:gotta be a sweet spot there for me somewhere. Do you always wanna do
Tara Kelly:production? Yeah. That's part of the problem. Right? You enjoy
Tara Kelly:it? I do. Yeah. There's just something about it. I mean, like anything, it
Bryan Entzminger:you get into it, and sometimes you're not really feeling it. But, yeah, I love
Bryan Entzminger:it. I really do. So it sounds like the perfect scenario
Tara Kelly:for you. You get to continue doing what you love production, but you would have
Tara Kelly:help so you're not overwhelmed, and you can have ample vacation
Tara Kelly:each year. Yeah. You can have that flexibility to take time off when
Tara Kelly:you need it and have you know, be with your family, have that work, life
Tara Kelly:balance. Yeah. So I think the first question is thinking through
Tara Kelly:what would it take to get there? How many clients would that be? What would
Tara Kelly:that look like? What would you need to make? Right now, you said, you know,
Tara Kelly:you're look you want it to at least be comparable with your full time role.
Tara Kelly:Right? Yeah. I mean, it it would need to be pretty close, or I'd have
Bryan Entzminger:to have some really hard conversations with my wife. Right? Because
Bryan Entzminger:we have kids and and a house and stuff. Right?
Bryan Entzminger:So, I can't just abdicate that responsibility
Bryan Entzminger:because I wanna go chase my dreams. So, yeah, it has to be close. Yeah.
Tara Kelly:And without throwing out exact numbers, how Sorry. I can't
Tara Kelly:word this right. What percentage of your business income
Tara Kelly:is, your full time income? Doing math in
Bryan Entzminger:my head, which is a pretty bad thing to do. I would say as of
Bryan Entzminger:last year, it was probably 10 to 15%,
Bryan Entzminger:But the business declined through the year. And I'm also thinking profit,
Bryan Entzminger:not gross revenue. And the year prior, it was probably
Bryan Entzminger:closer to 20 to 25%, somewhere in that range. So
Bryan Entzminger:think like, job went up, business went down, so that widens
Bryan Entzminger:the gap. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's one of those things that's gonna
Tara Kelly:take time to build. It's gonna take time to get up to equal what you're
Tara Kelly:currently making in your full time income. Yeah. And I'll say, like,
Bryan Entzminger:maybe this is just me, but I can't foresee how I could
Bryan Entzminger:truly get up to parity at a part time level. Like,
Bryan Entzminger:there would have to be some kind of plan to close the gap,
Bryan Entzminger:or I'd have to be building out that employee base or whatever that looks like
Bryan Entzminger:in terms of support Because I can't I can't foresee something
Bryan Entzminger:where 10 editing only clients would ever get me
Bryan Entzminger:to anywhere near what I would need to be even if I was charging
Bryan Entzminger:Well, maybe with super premium rates. I don't know. I mean, it depends on what
Bryan Entzminger:you can get people to pay, but how long will they pay that? Right? I
Bryan Entzminger:mean, somebody might be willing to pay $1,000 an episode for an audio only
Bryan Entzminger:edit Right now? 2 years from now, probably not. And that that's
Tara Kelly:Amanda's expert. She is the expert of all things money, so
Tara Kelly:I'll let her delve into that a little bit more. But the first part when
Tara Kelly:you're thinking about brand and marketing is really clarifying those
Tara Kelly:goals, figuring that part out, figuring out, okay, I
Tara Kelly:have a ways to go before I can match my full time income. I'm not
Tara Kelly:gonna do it all this year because that's not realistic. So how many clients
Tara Kelly:do I wanna have this year? How many clients do I wanna have next year?
Tara Kelly:What do I wanna be doing? What does that look like? Do I
Tara Kelly:want to be managing employees? Would I feel more comfortable just
Tara Kelly:having contractors that help me out when I need the help? You know, thinking through
Tara Kelly:all that because managing and bringing on employees isn't for everyone. It
Tara Kelly:could feel like a huge responsibility. Other people are like, yep. I
Tara Kelly:wanna scale up. I wanna have a whole agency. I wanna go.
Tara Kelly:So thinking about Where do you fit there? What's gonna
Tara Kelly:be best for you? And then thinking about what income you
Tara Kelly:ideally want to make and then planning toward that
Tara Kelly:and thinking, okay. Well, what marketing activities can I
Tara Kelly:do that will help me reach these exact goals? Because then it'll help
Tara Kelly:you measure what your marketing efforts are doing
Tara Kelly:for you. So in terms of, let's say and I'm just gonna throw this out.
Tara Kelly:Let's say your goal this year was to get 20 clients. And right
Tara Kelly:now, you have 0 clients. So where do you
Tara Kelly:start? The first thing you'd wanna really look at is,
Tara Kelly:okay, Is my messaging working for me? Do I really understand
Tara Kelly:my target audience? Do I know where to find them? So I'll
Tara Kelly:ask that of you. Do you have a certain niche? Do you have
Tara Kelly:a certain type of client that you've worked with, that you
Tara Kelly:loved working with, and you want a 100 more of them? Yeah.
Bryan Entzminger:So that's kind of where I've been stuck. I've really enjoyed working with the
Bryan Entzminger:indie podcasters. I'll call it the 1 person show
Bryan Entzminger:Or a couple person show. Right? So you get to work with the
Bryan Entzminger:showrunner. You don't work with a committee. I really prefer that.
Bryan Entzminger:However, my experience has been most of them don't have the
Bryan Entzminger:budget to support the kind of editing that they actually want. So that's always been
Bryan Entzminger:the gap. So I have worked with a large company. We'll see
Bryan Entzminger:if that continues. I don't know. Their show is on hiatus, so we'll we'll see
Bryan Entzminger:if that ever comes back. I enjoyed that because I was still working with the
Bryan Entzminger:showrunner even though it was a larger company, but then you've got the issue of
Bryan Entzminger:payment terms. Right? You you never get prepayment from a large company. You
Bryan Entzminger:get net 30 if you're lucky. Right? And so there's some some
Bryan Entzminger:stuff I'm trying to work through, but I would say I like working with the
Bryan Entzminger:showrunner. I don't necessarily have a specific niche. I would
Bryan Entzminger:prefer people with a larger budget, business owners, that kinda thing, but not
Bryan Entzminger:necessarily Not necessarily tied to, like, the coaching community or
Bryan Entzminger:the whatever. I I don't really have a preference there.
Bryan Entzminger:I just wanna work with people that are passionate about what they do and can
Bryan Entzminger:pay. That's the tricky part. Are there any
Tara Kelly:topics that have really fascinated you? So, I mean, one of the
Bryan Entzminger:shows that I worked on was Focusrite's show, where
Bryan Entzminger:they interview audio engineers because I love audio. That's super interesting to
Bryan Entzminger:me. I was also really surprised that they would have outsourced their production because it's
Bryan Entzminger:a whole company of audio people, but they did, and I'm good with that. The
Bryan Entzminger:other one that really surprised me was I have 1 client right now that basically
Bryan Entzminger:just Interviews people about things, doctors, whatever.
Bryan Entzminger:It's just who she met and what what they can and, surprisingly,
Bryan Entzminger:Like, she's probably 15 years older than I am, something like that. But the topics
Bryan Entzminger:that she's choosing, even though it's not what I would normally listen to, I get
Bryan Entzminger:done editing every episode. I'm like, I'm smarter because of what she did. So, like,
Bryan Entzminger:it's just things I can learn about, I guess. I wish I was more
Bryan Entzminger:specific. I really do. You just wanna learn new things. What do you
Tara Kelly:really love about working with the indie show runners
Tara Kelly:specifically? Yeah. I mean, they care about what they're doing.
Bryan Entzminger:They enjoy what they're doing. If they didn't, they'd just stop. I mean,
Bryan Entzminger:for lack of a better they bring it or they don't. And they the ones
Bryan Entzminger:that I've worked with, they generally do. They care about growing their show. They
Bryan Entzminger:most of most of the ones that I work with care about the audio quality,
Bryan Entzminger:care about the show quality. Some of them, I haven't ended up with
Bryan Entzminger:anybody that wishes they could just hold my hand while I do the editing for
Bryan Entzminger:them. Like, can you like, they're not super control freaks. I don't have any of
Bryan Entzminger:this whole we have to deal with legal or any of that stuff. It's just
Bryan Entzminger:nice to work with the showrunner. I I think that's a lot of it right
Bryan Entzminger:there. Yeah. I'm what I'm hearing is you love working with, like, passionate
Tara Kelly:thought leaders and mentors Mhmm. Who love what they
Tara Kelly:do, who love to teach and educate others
Tara Kelly:and really want to keep growing and really
Tara Kelly:care about the quality of their podcast and the quality of what they put out
Tara Kelly:there. Like you said, they really care about what they do. So I
Tara Kelly:think when you're thinking about your messaging, when you're
Tara Kelly:thinking about your marketing, starting there, What would they
Tara Kelly:really resonate with? Because you really resonate with them. What kind of
Tara Kelly:messaging would draw them in talking about Those things talking
Tara Kelly:about I work with podcasters who really care about what they
Tara Kelly:do. I work with mentors. I'm a, you know, insatiable
Tara Kelly:learner myself, And, you know, I love
Tara Kelly:working with people who are passionate about these topics and passionate about educating
Tara Kelly:their community. I'm just spitballing right now. But these are
Tara Kelly:this is where you can start really connecting with the people
Tara Kelly:you wanna be working with in terms of your
Tara Kelly:external presence. Right? The other piece of it is
Tara Kelly:doing that market research. It helps to know who
Tara Kelly:you wanna work with, who you like working with. So you mentioned the indie
Tara Kelly:showrunner, but thinking about, okay, which one of
Tara Kelly:them has the budget? What are the ones who have the budget
Tara Kelly:to pay for my quality of work? Where do they exist? Where do they live?
Tara Kelly:Where can I find them? So thinking through that
Tara Kelly:piece of it, where do these
Tara Kelly:showrunners hang out online? Do you know? No.
Bryan Entzminger:Because if I did, I would totally be there.
Tara Kelly:Well, where did you find them? One of them was a referral from,
Bryan Entzminger:Well, same person. So Jesse went through the podcast
Bryan Entzminger:engineering school. That's how I found the Focusrite Show is through that. It was a
Bryan Entzminger:referral through that. One of them was just a random
Bryan Entzminger:post in a podcasting group where somebody said I'm looking for an editor,
Bryan Entzminger:and Somebody, I think it might have been Steve Stewart, tagged me and said, hey.
Bryan Entzminger:He lives in Nashville. You should talk to him because I think it was the
Bryan Entzminger:Nashville group. It was it was that kinda thing. Almost all of the people
Bryan Entzminger:I've found have either been referrals or somebody that I've
Bryan Entzminger:interacted with online, generally in one of the Facebook groups for
Bryan Entzminger:podcast, because I love those people even though, you know, there's a a
Bryan Entzminger:zillion editors in there. Every once in a while, I find 1, and
Bryan Entzminger:they actually wanna work with me. I I don't know why. I mean, you mentioned
Tara Kelly:passion for audio, so maybe you can start
Tara Kelly:there. Because it's easiest when you can at
Tara Kelly:least think of, Hey. I'd really like to do more
Tara Kelly:shows about audio, or I'd really like to do more shows about, I'm
Tara Kelly:just throwing this out here, like marketing or music. If
Tara Kelly:you have topics you already know you like in
Tara Kelly:industries that you feel drawn to for one reason or manager,
Tara Kelly:it helps when you're doing that research to be able to start with something because
Tara Kelly:it's easier than to pinpoint where Those people might hang
Tara Kelly:out and join those groups and join those communities. I find
Tara Kelly:people have a lot of luck joining groups and just
Tara Kelly:participating, engaging, and not selling anything, just being part of
Tara Kelly:those groups on, you know, community. There's Discord groups, for
Tara Kelly:instance. There's Facebook groups. There is Reddit.
Tara Kelly:Like, you can find just about any topic you would
Tara Kelly:ever want to know about, join. It doesn't matter what it is.
Tara Kelly:Type it in. You will find it. You will find a
Tara Kelly:whole group thread about it. But it it really is. It's
Tara Kelly:a good place to start and really think
Tara Kelly:of to start your research and gather that information
Tara Kelly:And meet people and talk to people. The other thing that
Tara Kelly:really helps is if you have, you know, communicate you're
Tara Kelly:still communicating with former clients or current clients or you have good
Tara Kelly:relationships with people who, hey. If they read a podcast, you'd love to work
Tara Kelly:with them, being able to talk to them. Just say, hey.
Tara Kelly:Would you have a coffee with me in person virtual depending on the
Tara Kelly:situation? And just ask them about their day. Ask them about their challenges.
Tara Kelly:Ask them, Like, if they were to run a podcast,
Tara Kelly:what would they be concerned about? What would they wanna do? It's just being
Tara Kelly:curious, learning about them So you have a better
Tara Kelly:idea again of how to talk to them, how to communicate with them. So for
Tara Kelly:instance, if you're setting up, like, a funnel on your website,
Tara Kelly:you know what offers to make them that are really gonna entice the
Tara Kelly:types of people you want to work with. So a lot of marketing isn't
Tara Kelly:necessarily just writing a bunch of blogs and posting a bunch of
Tara Kelly:social media. It's really connecting with and getting to know the people you you
Tara Kelly:wanna work with and talk to. So those are 2 things that I might
Tara Kelly:start with. Just figure out and get a clearer
Tara Kelly:picture of What you want to do, where you wanna go, and who
Tara Kelly:you wanna be working with. And I know that's hard when you're just a curious
Tara Kelly:person and you wanna learn everything because I'm the same way. So many people have
Tara Kelly:asked me, you know, Tara, you need to niche down with marketing? And I'm
Tara Kelly:a marketer. And I'm like, I I Amanda's laughing because
Tara Kelly:she knows. I'm like, I I love working with
Tara Kelly:nonprofits. I love working with creatives. I love working
Tara Kelly:with so many different types of people in industries, and I've I've
Tara Kelly:enjoyed doing that. And when somebody asked me niche down, That's a
Tara Kelly:little stressful because I'm like, I don't know. But I found
Tara Kelly:it's much easier to just pinpoint 1 industry
Tara Kelly:and start there and see how I like it. And if I
Tara Kelly:feel like, you know what? I wanna work with other types of people, I can.
Tara Kelly:I can branch out from there because it's so much easier to start
Tara Kelly:smaller and mark it there and grow than it is to
Tara Kelly:try and just say, oh, I'll work with anybody. You know?
Tara Kelly:I just love people. I love connecting with people. You can say that, But it's
Tara Kelly:a little bit harder to target your messaging and your emails
Tara Kelly:if you wanna do that. And the last thing I'll talk about, because I feel
Tara Kelly:like I'm taking up too much time on marketing, But, is
Tara Kelly:really thinking through your prospect journey, so
Tara Kelly:to speak, and what you're willing to do
Tara Kelly:marketing wise. What are your passions? Because it's not helpful
Tara Kelly:to do the things you don't love doing when it comes to marketing. Because if
Tara Kelly:somebody says, well, you you need to write 5 blogs a month,
Tara Kelly:Brian. How do you feel about that? Does that Make you excited?
Bryan Entzminger:No. Makes me the opposite
Bryan Entzminger:of excited. Exactly. What about if I said
Tara Kelly:you have to produce 1 podcast episode a
Tara Kelly:month talking about what you love and what's on your mind? That sounds a
Bryan Entzminger:little more interesting. It sounds a little more interesting. So it's about figuring
Tara Kelly:that out too. Yeah. You know, what are the things that you love doing
Tara Kelly:that you can put out there that are helping people, informing
Tara Kelly:people, educating people. I think the show is a really good part of
Tara Kelly:that Because people get to know you, they get to know your personality,
Tara Kelly:and that goes a long way. Yeah. I love doing this show. I
Bryan Entzminger:I honestly do. I mean, we struggle a little bit internally because we're always thinking,
Bryan Entzminger:like, this doesn't really point anybody else back to our businesses. Right? Because
Bryan Entzminger:our audience is Editor and producers.
Bryan Entzminger:So we're we're basically upskilling our competition, but we love them. So,
Bryan Entzminger:like, how do we not do that? Right? But that's a wonderful thing. You're helping
Tara Kelly:people, and you're actually growing
Tara Kelly:your peep people's trust in you and your brand because they see that
Tara Kelly:you're doing that, and you're not doing it to sell anything. You're just doing
Tara Kelly:it because you love doing it, and it comes across as authentic and
Tara Kelly:real, and I would wanna work with you. Sorry, Jesse.
Amanda McCune:It's fine. I'm used to it. Well, I'd say
Tara Kelly:the same thing about Jesse. You both have that. You're both authentic. You both love
Tara Kelly:educating and just helping people for the sake of helping people. And
Tara Kelly:who doesn't wanna work with people like that? You know? I mean, that is all
Tara Kelly:part of branding and marketing. It's you're already doing it.
Tara Kelly:It's more just thinking about, okay, what Avenues are gonna work best for
Tara Kelly:me. Thank you. And that kinda ties into, though, like you said, you're building
Amanda McCune:this community. Say you and Jesse have a lot of things in common. As
Amanda McCune:you do build your business and you get to that point where you need to
Amanda McCune:have somebody else because you can't be the only person doing the work all the
Amanda McCune:time, you need to go on that trip, You had mentioned that you, you
Amanda McCune:know, sometimes have to hire a contractor, but then you
Amanda McCune:and all of that. So if you have somebody like I'm just gonna keep using
Amanda McCune:Jesse because his face is right there, and he's the person to use for
Amanda McCune:that. But If you and Jesse could probably come to some kind of
Amanda McCune:agreement that would work, that if you work in similar ways, you
Amanda McCune:care about people in the same way because it's really hard to find somebody that
Amanda McCune:you trust that can do your work. Like you said, you even
Amanda McCune:go back, and you kinda have to check the contractor's work because
Amanda McCune:it's They're your clients, and you have a certain level of quality
Amanda McCune:that you want to deliver. It's really, really hard to get to
Amanda McCune:that point where you trust somebody else to do that same level of
Amanda McCune:quality so you don't have to go check their work. And I I you'd
Amanda McCune:say that from from my it took me years years years to find somebody in
Amanda McCune:in my production work, which is more in TV and film, but finding
Amanda McCune:somebody who I could actually just say, okay. You go handle this. I'm not
Amanda McCune:going to worry about it. You're gonna take care of it. You're gonna do it
Amanda McCune:in a way that I'm comfortable with. I don't have to second guess what you're
Amanda McCune:doing. We're okay here. But having somebody like that
Amanda McCune:eventually and I think a community like this, you're building that that
Amanda McCune:networking thing, not just in terms of clients, because once you get a Client's
Amanda McCune:word-of-mouth goes probably further than anything as far
Amanda McCune:you know, you find somebody like, oh, well, this guy does really good work for
Amanda McCune:me. Oh, You they then they hear somebody who might be looking for an
Amanda McCune:editor, and they'll refer you. But also on the internal business
Amanda McCune:side, If you have someone else that can help you with maybe the things that
Amanda McCune:you don't like. Like you said, maybe maybe Jesse loves blogs. I I don't
Amanda McCune:think that's the case, But maybe in this community,
Amanda McCune:you you find someone, and you're able to kinda work things out in a
Amanda McCune:way where you're supporting each other even if you're not in the same
Amanda McCune:business necessarily. You're not business partners, but you can still
Amanda McCune:partner with other, maybe, small business owners, individuals
Amanda McCune:that can build things going forward. And that that helps too because
Amanda McCune:then you're still doing your own business, but you don't feel so alone in
Amanda McCune:that business. It's important to start to realize
Jesse McCune:that the reality of making a living off
Jesse McCune:of podcasters is going to be difficult.
Jesse McCune:Ideally, we're looking for people who
Jesse McCune:happen to podcast but are other things.
Jesse McCune:Businesses, coaches, people who
Bryan Entzminger:have a monetary gain from the podcast,
Jesse McCune:They're going to value what we do better than podcasters
Jesse McCune:who are struggling to even pay for whatever
Jesse McCune:they're doing for the show. So like tarot was
Jesse McCune:saying, trying to figure out who you can work with.
Jesse McCune:If you try to market yourself to podcasters,
Jesse McCune:What happens when you see somebody post in a Facebook group saying,
Jesse McCune:I'm looking for a podcast editor? All the editors come out.
Amanda McCune:Exactly. Yeah. You see a 100 responses within an
Bryan Entzminger:hour. Mhmm. But if you go to let's use Tara's
Jesse McCune:example of marketing. You wanna work with marketers. If you go
Jesse McCune:into marketing group, you might be the only podcast editor
Jesse McCune:there. So when people have questions about podcasting, They're going
Jesse McCune:to go to you. So all of a sudden, you're the big fish in a
Jesse McCune:small pond as opposed to a fish that you can't even see in the
Jesse McCune:pond because there's so many of them. So that's one of the biggest things I
Jesse McCune:found is my best clients aren't podcasters.
Jesse McCune:They use podcasting as part of their business, whether it's brand awareness,
Jesse McCune:Lead generation, personal branding, whatever
Jesse McCune:the case is. So that's another
Jesse McCune:thing that kind of ties in with what Tara was saying. If we
Jesse McCune:try to target everybody, we can't really target anybody.
Amanda McCune:And that direct? I was
Tara Kelly:gonna ask. And what is your reaction to that, Brian? I can tell from your
Tara Kelly:expression. You're like No. I mean, that's That's not new news.
Bryan Entzminger:Right? It's just a real challenge to find that right
Bryan Entzminger:group of people. I'm Obviously, not opposed to working
Bryan Entzminger:with business owners. I do have a little bit of head junk to work through
Bryan Entzminger:in terms of the coaching space because almost everything I've seen in that space
Bryan Entzminger:is quantity, quantity, quantity. Who cares about quality?
Bryan Entzminger:It it's it's your MVP. It doesn't have to be good, and that tends
Bryan Entzminger:to overflow. And so my experience has been it's really hard to
Bryan Entzminger:find somebody who cares as much about quality as they're going
Bryan Entzminger:to expect you to care about the quality of their show, that makes sense.
Bryan Entzminger:I don't like being in the position where I care more about the client's show
Bryan Entzminger:than they do. That to me is very uncomfortable, So I wanna know that they
Bryan Entzminger:do more, and most of what I've seen isn't that. That doesn't mean
Bryan Entzminger:it's not out there. Maybe I'm just hanging out with the wrong groups. Well, that's
Jesse McCune:where really qualifying your client your prospects really
Jesse McCune:comes in. The more you can narrow that down, you can
Jesse McCune:focus your copy. You can make it clear to them if
Jesse McCune:you're the type that doesn't care about anything. You're looking for an MVP
Jesse McCune:product. I'm not the person for you. You can make it
Jesse McCune:clear. Like you were saying earlier, I wanna work with the people
Jesse McCune:who take pride in their show. They want the best, and they're
Jesse McCune:willing to pay for that. You use your website to communicate
Jesse McCune:that, and that helps kind of weed out
Jesse McCune:those tire kickers or the people that just want Fast
Jesse McCune:turnaround, large quantities regardless of how it
Jesse McCune:sounds. I'm taking notes as you should.
Tara Kelly:What podcast do you really love listening to? What are your top 3 that
Tara Kelly:you don't miss? So currently And it's not
Bryan Entzminger:because of the quality of the show. But currently, the podcast 2 point o
Bryan Entzminger:show, I catch that one pretty religiously, Pod News Daily,
Bryan Entzminger:And then there's a couple others that are kind of focused in that same
Bryan Entzminger:vein. But right now, because I don't have a commute and because I've
Bryan Entzminger:been fairly busy, my listening is way down from what it used to be. So
Bryan Entzminger:there are other shows that used to be in that queue that were more for
Bryan Entzminger:enjoyment rather than just staying up to date that have kinda fallen by
Bryan Entzminger:the wayside. So I don't really have one where I go like, that's my pleasure
Bryan Entzminger:listen. Well, what was your pleasure listen? I'm trying to think because it's been a
Bryan Entzminger:bit there there were some that kinda funny that I enjoyed. I'm not really thinking
Bryan Entzminger:about those. I think probably from a quality standpoint and
Bryan Entzminger:learning stuff, I really enjoyed 20,000 hertz, Which is, like, super
Bryan Entzminger:off the chain from a quality standpoint. Most of the
Bryan Entzminger:other scripted shows really kind of, I don't enjoy them,
Bryan Entzminger:but that was one where I was like, I really like what they've done here.
Tara Kelly:Do you enjoy more talk like, interview style type
Tara Kelly:shows where it's like this, Just talking back and forth, that's nothing
Tara Kelly:that's scripted? I tend to. Yeah. If I'm gonna do something scripted, it's
Bryan Entzminger:probably gonna be streaming video or something like that. For
Bryan Entzminger:podcasting for me, I tend to like it being that more raw
Bryan Entzminger:experience. Not no shade on the audio dramas or anything. It's just
Bryan Entzminger:If I'm gonna do a drama, it's gonna be something where I'm gonna sit down
Bryan Entzminger:and watch it so that it's actually taking my attention. If I'm
Bryan Entzminger:listening to a podcast, it's because I'm driving or doing something else.
Amanda McCune:Mhmm. Are those the kinds of podcast that you prefer producing?
Bryan Entzminger:The interviews? Absolutely. Interviews, monologues, panel discussions,
Bryan Entzminger:I love those. I've not really done much in the actually, I don't know
Bryan Entzminger:that I've done anything in the scripted space yet. Not that I'm opposed to it,
Bryan Entzminger:but that's not really what my skill set is. At least from my perspective, I've
Bryan Entzminger:gotten really good at the the audio repair, the mix and
Bryan Entzminger:master, and the straight through linear edit. I don't Tend
Bryan Entzminger:to do story edits. It's just not a skill set that I've really spent much
Bryan Entzminger:time with, and honestly, I've never had a client with a budget that could
Bryan Entzminger:support me going through and Mhmm. Mapping out their show and then figuring out what
Bryan Entzminger:to cut because that's gonna be multiples of what I currently
Bryan Entzminger:charge. I don't know how many, but it's not gonna be just 1 multiple.
Tara Kelly:Understandable. So I haven't heard of 20,000 hertz. What is it
Tara Kelly:about? It's about sound. I I know it sounds
Bryan Entzminger:ridiculous. It's a it's put out by a sound design company,
Bryan Entzminger:and they tend to go through weird things about sound. The one that I
Bryan Entzminger:remember was The people that do voice overs for subways,
Bryan Entzminger:I really enjoyed that one. That's kind of a ridiculous topic, but it was
Bryan Entzminger:really well done, and I enjoyed it. I don't enjoy the ads. I realized
Bryan Entzminger:I gotta pay for the show, but, man, 3 minute breaks for paid
Bryan Entzminger:ads, I'll skip that every day. So it sounds like you are just about
Tara Kelly:as obsessed with sound as Jesse, and I don't think I've met anyone
Tara Kelly:as obsessed with sound as Jesse. Like, he will hear things in
Tara Kelly:music And in TV shows and just about
Tara Kelly:anything. He'll he'll tell me the frequencies in my voice, like, where my
Tara Kelly:voice falls to a point where I'm like, I don't hear that. What are you
Tara Kelly:talking about? He's like, you can't hear that? No. I can't hear
Tara Kelly:that. Yeah. I have issues. They're
Bryan Entzminger:similar to Jesse's, probably. My wife still doesn't know what I mean when I say,
Bryan Entzminger:yeah. I can hear the tube saturation in that one, but That's okay.
Bryan Entzminger:Shouldn't have to. I mean, yeah, you both have that
Tara Kelly:similarity where it's really import that sound experience
Tara Kelly:is really important to what you do every day. You put a lot of effort
Tara Kelly:and love into that. So I think, again, Really bringing
Tara Kelly:that out. And, again, I haven't I know I went to your website a long
Tara Kelly:time ago. I haven't been to it recently. Talking about that
Tara Kelly:more specifically, like, let that Love of sound
Tara Kelly:and the experience that you wanna give others, the audio
Tara Kelly:experience. Let that shine through and talk
Tara Kelly:about it. Share your thoughts on it. Share the why. Get people to
Tara Kelly:care about it. Tell your story about it. Because I think you
Tara Kelly:know, granted, if we're using a bunch of Technical terms, and
Tara Kelly:we're talking about I'm not even gonna try to use sound design terms.
Tara Kelly:But if we're throwing a bunch of that out, Yeah. You might attract
Tara Kelly:audiophiles. You might attract people like you. But if you can find a
Tara Kelly:way to talk about what you do in a way that I could understand it
Tara Kelly:and relate to it or Amanda and put that out
Tara Kelly:there, I think, again, that's that can really help. You know, just thinking through
Tara Kelly:really unique ways you can communicate and do what you love and
Tara Kelly:put that out there in a way that's not forced. You're not writing those blogs
Tara Kelly:every month to talk about this or that. Another way
Tara Kelly:it's helpful to know who you wanna work with is you can actually
Tara Kelly:talk about those topics that they care about. So using
Tara Kelly:the example of marketers again. Marketers, they care about
Tara Kelly:conversion rates and open rates on email and what
Tara Kelly:What the latest thing with Google is and, you know,
Tara Kelly:basically, the latest compliance we have to go after, and
Tara Kelly:and we have to add these records to our, you know, business. Email
Bryan Entzminger:thing? Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Looking forward to that.
Tara Kelly:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because the it is. Like, life in marketing
Tara Kelly:is just filled with updates and keeping up with Technology
Tara Kelly:and keeping up with what Google is doing and what the latest,
Tara Kelly:you know, best practices are for our website and how we send
Tara Kelly:emails and how we keep data. It goes on and
Tara Kelly:on, and most marketers are just running around going, I don't
Tara Kelly:have time for this, and now they want me to start a podcast. Are You're
Tara Kelly:kidding me. I don't have time. Help me.
Tara Kelly:So, you know, if you were interested, for example, in working with marketers,
Tara Kelly:you might start Thinking through, okay, how can I help these poor people?
Tara Kelly:How can I make their day a little bit easier talking about some of
Tara Kelly:these topics? So, again, like, when you're thinking about
Tara Kelly:who you wanna work with or if there are some industries that you feel like
Tara Kelly:you can contribute to meaningfully, That's, again, a really good
Tara Kelly:place to start. And we don't have to get it right the 1st
Jesse McCune:time. This is all an ongoing iterative iterative
Jesse McCune:process. What matters is starting
Jesse McCune:somewhere, seeing what works, and adapt as we
Jesse McCune:go. I have a question for you, and it it's My stuff is always
Amanda McCune:the boring stuff. Right? It's like the business y stuff. It's the that's what nobody
Amanda McCune:ever wants to talk about. But So you said said that you
Amanda McCune:can allocate maybe 10 hours a week to your business,
Amanda McCune:but you haven't as much because you're you've lost these clients. Are
Amanda McCune:you still spending 10 hours on your business? Like, the time that you
Amanda McCune:used to spend on client work, are you using that for your marketing,
Amanda McCune:for your other things like, time management
Amanda McCune:becomes a really unpopular thing, but a very
Amanda McCune:necessary thing, especially, I think one of the hardest things to do is
Amanda McCune:to manage a full time job and then
Amanda McCune:try to build a a business in your off time Well, you said you also
Amanda McCune:have a wife and kids, and that's a whole lot of stuff. And you
Amanda McCune:are 1 person and, you know, same amount of hours in the day.
Amanda McCune:So it sometimes it becomes almost, like, giving yourself a schedule. Like,
Amanda McCune:you might only have a few hours of editing to do, but you'd know
Amanda McCune:Like, are you filling that extra 5 hours then with doing
Amanda McCune:things that can help you get to where you wanna be on the these next
Amanda McCune:steps? Or is it more like, well, I don't have the work right now, so
Amanda McCune:I'm gonna go do this other thing? Are are you thinking about
Amanda McCune:it pretty actively? Or I've been kind of
Bryan Entzminger:directionless, which is part of what led to the
Bryan Entzminger:conversation that we had a couple of weeks ago. So the answer is
Bryan Entzminger:no, But it's not because I haven't wanted to. It's because I
Bryan Entzminger:haven't really had anything to put my focus against, and so I
Bryan Entzminger:took the position. I'm not gonna sit flounder right now. I'm gonna wait until I've
Bryan Entzminger:got a little bit of direction before I start doing something,
Bryan Entzminger:and maybe that's an excuse. I'll Potentially own that as an excuse, but
Bryan Entzminger:it's what I've been doing. So I've been sleeping, in the
Bryan Entzminger:mornings instead of producing podcasts before I go to work,
Bryan Entzminger:which has been nice, but I'm I'm ready to start doing some
Bryan Entzminger:stuff. I think it's still finding that balance. Sleep is very important. You're gonna
Amanda McCune:do better work when you you're well rested. You're gonna feel better,
Amanda McCune:and I think it's it's the hard thing. Right? Everybody's trying to find this
Amanda McCune:work, life balance. You just happen to have 2 works. You have
Amanda McCune:your full time work, and you have the work that you're passionate about, and you
Amanda McCune:want to make your full time work, but you have to like, if if you
Amanda McCune:were to not have your full time job, Suddenly, you have, what,
Amanda McCune:40, 50 extra hours in the week whether you commute or not. Like, there's a
Amanda McCune:lot of time that is spent that you could then invest
Amanda McCune:into marketing and all of these other things, but then you don't have the
Amanda McCune:income to make you comfortable. It's that you know, it's
Amanda McCune:And everybody has their different threshold of when it's time to make that leap
Amanda McCune:of, okay. I'm I'm getting close, and I know that if I had more
Amanda McCune:time, then I could get to that next step in my journey, but that
Amanda McCune:next step requires letting go of the comfort and the security. And that's not what
Amanda McCune:I'm telling you to do by any means. I'm not advising ever anybody
Amanda McCune:to take that leap before they're ready because it you know, it
Amanda McCune:can be scary. It can be very exciting and and fulfilling and all of that,
Amanda McCune:but it's Do you have a lot of the things like, is
Amanda McCune:it all in your head mostly? Do you think about it a lot, but there's
Amanda McCune:not really like, I know you're taking notes now, but do you have any
Amanda McCune:Anything kind of written down just to get it out of your head of these
Amanda McCune:are the things I wanna do. These are things I need to do so you
Amanda McCune:can kind of get them organized in a way. Sometimes if you're a
Amanda McCune:visual person, just even seeing a bunch of things on a
Amanda McCune:maybe not pen and paper, but sometimes that works or Whatever
Amanda McCune:app you like to write or draw things in, but just to kinda get it
Amanda McCune:all out of your head. Because I think a lot of times, people,
Amanda McCune:Creatives, especially, but, you know, a lot of people, we just we think a
Amanda McCune:lot, and it it seems like, oh, well, no. I I know all the things
Amanda McCune:that I need to know. It's all in my head. But once you actually start
Amanda McCune:writing it down or typing it out or however it is, then suddenly
Amanda McCune:you realize, like, Okay. Yeah. I I I have some things to work
Amanda McCune:with here. And if I started at this point and then okay. Now I have
Amanda McCune:I can start building a strategy. Or if you don't like the word strategy, just
Amanda McCune:a, you know, a step by step a to do a fancy to do list,
Amanda McCune:if you will. Because sometimes words like strategy will throw somebody off. Like, no.
Amanda McCune:I I don't I don't wanna be strategic. I wanna be creative.
Amanda McCune:But that's the the other part about the running the business is You get
Amanda McCune:to do all the creative things, but, unfortunately, it does require a lot of
Amanda McCune:the this kind of stuff. Yeah. So
Bryan Entzminger:I I would say, Currently, no. Not a lot written
Bryan Entzminger:down. All the all the existing production processes, those are all
Bryan Entzminger:written down. I can do those from memory, but, yeah, those are all written down,
Bryan Entzminger:of course. The marketing and some of this
Bryan Entzminger:stuff, no. No. It's not. Don't have a good reason why except I've
Bryan Entzminger:not done it, I guess. I think you're good at you have the production processes
Amanda McCune:down because that's what you like to do. And that's, I mean, the stuff that
Amanda McCune:you don't wanna do, you're gonna intentionally put your focus on that because it's not
Amanda McCune:fun. It's like yeah. I always use bookkeeping as a thing. Nobody
Amanda McCune:wants to do bookkeeping. Keeping. Nobody is, like, thinking, I can't wait to get home
Amanda McCune:tonight and go dig into my accounts receivables. It's just not
Amanda McCune:really well, I there are probably people out there who do like that. I shouldn't
Amanda McCune:say nobody, but in the creative world, I have,
Amanda McCune:not met many of them. It's usually the first thing that people outsource,
Amanda McCune:But it is something to think about too that and I forget. You'd mentioned say,
Amanda McCune:like, again, we're back to blogs, and Jesse's, for whatever reason, not going to write
Amanda McCune:your blogs, And that's what you think that you need to do. There
Amanda McCune:is that again, with it's the value of time and kinda considering it.
Amanda McCune:It's you can do it yourself, But if it it takes all the joy out
Amanda McCune:of your world to think, I have to sit here, and I have to write
Amanda McCune:this thing, how much time are you spending on it
Amanda McCune:Versus if you hired somebody who loves to write blogs
Amanda McCune:or if it's bookkeeping, how much you know, you might spend
Amanda McCune:3, 4 hours doing this stuff that you don't enjoy doing is not making you
Amanda McCune:happy at all. You could pay somebody else, and, yes, that's an expense,
Amanda McCune:But that person who loves doing books might be able to do
Amanda McCune:that 3 or 4 hours of your work in 1 hour. And
Amanda McCune:so it's It's just but it frees up 4 hours of your time to then
Amanda McCune:dedicate to something that will make you happier or maybe
Amanda McCune:bring more value back to you. Like, maybe it's and maybe it is.
Amanda McCune:It's finding these groups that you wanna hang out in, and then you spend that
Amanda McCune:extra 3 or 4 hours interacting with the people you wanna be talking
Amanda McCune:to, and then that could lead to some work. So I'm always a
Amanda McCune:big fan of keep your expenses low. But if you're
Amanda McCune:spending a lot of time doing something that you hate or are not good at,
Amanda McCune:like, those are the 2 things that you outsource. If you don't like doing it
Amanda McCune:or you're not good at it or maybe not good at. You're just
Amanda McCune:maybe less efficient than others at. We'll we'll put it that
Amanda McCune:way. But sometimes that's a way,
Amanda McCune:Especially when you have such limited time to be able to
Amanda McCune:you are spending a little bit, but it's kind of an investment that you
Amanda McCune:can hopefully then because, you know, if you take that 3 hours and then you
Amanda McCune:get a new client, now it just it paid for that, you know,
Amanda McCune:BlogBryder bookkeeper person or people. And they're
Jesse McCune:all finished. Thank you. I've got one little thing, and then I know we've gotta
Jesse McCune:wrap it up. But, essentially, to get where you're going, you need to
Jesse McCune:get started. Every journey is 1 step at a time. If we
Jesse McCune:don't take that 1st step, we're never going to get anywhere. We
Jesse McCune:can't let the analysis paralysis Getting our
Jesse McCune:way. Thank you. Thank you all. With that, we do need to go ahead and
Bryan Entzminger:wrap it up because we committed to an hour, and we like to be people
Bryan Entzminger:of our word. But, also, I have a suspicion that some of the
Bryan Entzminger:people either watching live or catching the the replay or the
Bryan Entzminger:podcast later might like what they hear and might wanna take a
Bryan Entzminger:similar step for themselves. You guys did this for us for
Bryan Entzminger:free, which was very generous and very kind. But if somebody wants to be part
Bryan Entzminger:of the community, who should I ask about how they can do that? Tara, you're
Jesse McCune:kind of handling what we're working on right now.
Tara Kelly:Yeah. So I would love to talk to people and help them out. You can
Tara Kelly:reach me at tanziestr.com
Tara Kelly:and schedule a call with me. And we're actually
Jesse McCune:working on packages aimed at creatives
Jesse McCune:to help Them solve the problems they're having like
Jesse McCune:this. Which I guess made this the perfect time for us to all get together
Bryan Entzminger:and talk about this and The right time for me to have problems. So, everybody,
Bryan Entzminger:you're welcome. With that, we're gonna go ahead and say goodbye. If you joined us
Bryan Entzminger:live, we're super glad that you were here. If you caught the replay or the
Bryan Entzminger:podcast later, Glad that you could do that. So I'm Brian. I'm at top
Bryan Entzminger:tier audio .com. And, then on this side is
Jennifer Longworth:Jennifer Longworth, Bourbon and Barrel podcasting.com. Amanda
Amanda McCune:Annette, you can find me at aardvarkgirl.com. That's 2 a's in
Amanda McCune:aardvark. Jesse, you can find me at
Jesse McCune:Tansieaster Audio or Tanziaster Academy. Tara,
Tara Kelly:you can find me at tanziaster.com. And unable to
Bryan Entzminger:join us tonight, we're Daniel Abendroth at rothmedia.audio,
Bryan Entzminger:and Carrie, who you can find at carrie.land.
Bryan Entzminger:I should remember that because it's so much fun to say, but carrie.land. Thank you
Bryan Entzminger:everybody for joining us, and we'll see you next week. And I've gotta click a
Bryan Entzminger:button, so we'll see if I can do that. Bye. Bye.
Bryan Entzminger:So How much is that?