How to Build a Profitable Podcast & YouTube Studio from Scratch [YouTube Marketing with Tom Brown, Part 5]

Transcript

00:00-00:03
Doing the video production stuff, I kind of saw a video podcast and it was going to be

00:03-00:05
stuff that was increasingly popular.

00:05-00:07
We can interview people like you’ve done with some of your guests.

00:07-00:08
It’s a good networking tool.

00:08-00:13
Getting people to commit to an hour new show can be quite difficult if you are not taking

00:13-00:16
your long form and pulling short clips out of it.

00:16-00:18
You’re really leaving a lot on the table.

00:18-00:20
They never checked out the full length one.

00:20-00:23
I mean, who really cares?

00:23-00:26
Recording studios that get into this business, there’s no need to have a $2,000 microphone

00:26-00:28
recording your voice here.

00:28-00:31
You don’t need to spend a significant amount of money on the cameras just because there’s

00:31-00:34
other bottlenecks in the system that are going to be problematic.

00:34-00:37
We recommend that if you are going to do something like this, which is a three-camera set up

00:37-00:40
that you ideally get cameras that are at least in the same family, that we could take a camera

00:40-00:44
that is three times the value of the one that I’m looking at right now, put it there.

00:44-00:47
And I don’t think most people would be able to be like, holy crap, that’s three times

00:47-00:48
as good.

00:48-00:54
Sometimes the next level is a big financial jump, but not a huge quality impression jump.

00:54-00:57
Even though I’m side-eyeing you a little bit, we get a little bit more face on screen, which

00:57-00:58
is important.

00:58-01:02
Watch it back in movies that you see the first scene of a new thing is showing the location

01:02-01:03
that we’re at basically.

01:03-01:07
And I’m sure when you introduced me, we went to the wide shot.

01:07-01:11
We see that we’re both sitting here and now people understand what the situation is.

01:11-01:13
If something’s not broke, don’t fix it.

01:13-01:17
We’ve kind of done that and this isn’t broke, so we just continue to use it.

01:17-01:20
Welcome back to another episode of the niche marketing podcast.

01:20-01:25
As always, I’m your host, John Bertino, founder and CEO of The Agency Guide.

01:25-01:30
If you’re frustrated with your marketing agency and these days who isn’t, please give us a

01:30-01:32
shout at theagencyguide.com.

01:32-01:38
We represent about 300 different vetted marketing agencies and consultants to whom we can match,

01:38-01:42
make your needs and your project based on your specific scope of work, budget, location,

01:42-01:45
personality, marketing needs, so on and so forth.

01:45-01:51
Today is an extra special episode, extra, extra, extra special, Mr. Brown.

01:51-01:57
We have Tom Brown, owner and founder of Anova Digital and the Chicago Podcast Studio.

01:57-01:58
Yes, sir.

01:58-01:59
Insert round of applause.

01:59-02:01
Colton, you got the round of applause back there.

02:01-02:02
We do, actually.

02:02-02:03
That is a thing.

02:03-02:04
We never do it though, but we’ll have to figure.

02:04-02:05
We’ll have to put that in a post.

02:05-02:06
All right.

02:06-02:07
Hurry up, Colton.

02:07-02:08
All right.

02:08-02:09
We’re off to the right foot already.

02:09-02:10
All right.

02:10-02:18
So, Tom, it really is a pleasure to have you on a lot of my podcasting journey and definitely

02:18-02:21
my studio journey originated with you, sir.

02:21-02:26
So, I’ll give the quick backstory for the listeners and then want to get your take.

02:26-02:34
But about two years ago, it’s mid 2024 right now, about two years ago, I recognized the

02:34-02:39
fairly obvious trends that all roads were pointing towards more video for marketers.

02:39-02:44
As a marketing consultant myself, I wanted to get more versed in the aspect of video,

02:44-02:46
especially as it related to YouTube and podcasts.

02:46-02:49
So like many people, I went where you go for that type of thing.

02:49-02:50
I went to YouTube.

02:50-02:51
Yeah.

02:51-02:57
And sure enough at the very top of the search results, as I remember it was yourself.

02:57-03:02
And to this day, your video on how to open a podcast studio has at least one, if not

03:02-03:03
several million views.

03:03-03:07
By the time this episode comes out, probably over 2 million views.

03:07-03:14
And it was genuinely an extremely valuable video or series of videos actually that were

03:14-03:16
instrumental in helping me get started.

03:16-03:19
Now me being me, I didn’t just take it at that.

03:19-03:24
I had to reach out to you directly and you were kind enough to help me quite a bit through

03:24-03:28
a series of phone calls and consulting, help me get my own little studio up and running

03:28-03:29
in New Jersey.

03:29-03:32
And you’re still helping me out to this day.

03:32-03:38
So when we wanted to start doing a series on YouTube marketing, podcast marketing, all

03:38-03:42
things YouTube and podcast studios, of course, you were one of the first people I had to

03:42-03:43
reach out to.

03:43-03:47
So here we are at your own studio, the Chicago podcast studio in Chicago.

03:47-03:49
Yes, Tom again delayed.

03:49-03:50
Have you?

03:50-03:53
I’m excited to be here and thank you for the flowers there.

03:53-03:58
And yeah, I mean, it was actually, you know, about when we met as, you know, I wasn’t,

03:58-04:03
I hadn’t been doing this for very long and I did the YouTube video as more of just a

04:03-04:05
documentation process just for myself.

04:05-04:10
And yeah, luckily the YouTube algorithm really helped out.

04:10-04:13
And over time, the video has done really well.

04:13-04:17
And it’s been a source of plenty of people like yourself that have come to me asking

04:17-04:21
for advice, but there’s probably plenty of people that have just watched the video and

04:21-04:24
taken what I’ve said in there and applied it to themselves.

04:24-04:25
And that’s obviously great.

04:25-04:30
You know, it’s been a fun experience to help other people.

04:30-04:35
And by doing so, we’ve been able to see our influence, I guess, within the community,

04:35-04:38
especially for people doing podcast studios.

04:38-04:41
And so, I guess that’s been rewarding to see as well.

04:41-04:42
Awesome.

04:42-04:46
And so to this day, you’re offering consulting services to other aspiring studio owners.

04:46-04:51
Could you remind me of the moniker that you have that under and then also the community

04:51-04:52
that you built to support this?

04:52-04:53
Sure.

04:53-04:54
Yeah.

04:54-04:55
So, the, we do some sort of consulting.

04:55-04:59
You can either just book, you know, personal calls with me, but for clients that want to

04:59-05:03
not build it themselves, but have us build it yet, we have just a different name under

05:03-05:07
CPS builds and which case we’ll go out to your location.

05:07-05:12
We will work with you to, you know, figure out what studio stuff makes the most sense

05:12-05:13
budget that makes sense for you.

05:13-05:14
And then we’ll come out and install them.

05:14-05:21
And so, we’ve done a handful of them locally and we’ve done a couple of them outside of

05:21-05:22
Illinois here.

05:22-05:29
So that, and then yeah, as of late, a recent addition is from the YouTube videos.

05:29-05:33
I kind of ended up rebranding the YouTube channel that was once under the veil of my

05:33-05:38
video production company to just be dedicated to what we call the studio business.

05:38-05:40
And that’s ultimately what our group became.

05:40-05:44
And so, we had a lot of people that were interested in getting into the business or people that

05:44-05:49
were already in the business, but just seeing some of the success that we were having here

05:49-05:52
and wanted to get a little bit closer to it.

05:52-05:57
And so this was my way to kind of Harbor a little bit more of a community, I guess, kind

05:57-05:59
of like an association as well.

05:59-06:03
So now yeah, it’s just a group of everyone else that’s kind of doing this.

06:03-06:05
Again, we have people from all over the world.

06:05-06:10
And we just talk about all things podcast studio and how to make a living doing stuff

06:10-06:11
like this.

06:11-06:12
I love it.

06:12-06:14
And how do people look into or join that community?

06:14-06:19
If you go to the studio dot business, you’ll be able to see our stuff and then you’ll probably

06:19-06:21
start seeing a lot of ads and stuff like that.

06:21-06:22
We’re just starting to push that a little bit more.

06:22-06:29
We did our founding member round a little over a month ago and got those people on boarded.

06:29-06:34
But now it is open to the public, but obviously it’s catered to people that want to get into

06:34-06:35
this specific business.

06:35-06:36
Okay, awesome.

06:36-06:38
We don’t usually start with the promotional pitches.

06:38-06:40
I wasn’t ready to.

06:40-06:44
But if you’re watching this video, you’re probably really interested in how to open

06:44-06:46
a podcast studio or YouTube studio.

06:46-06:48
I’m never sure how to refer to it.

06:48-06:49
Do you grapple with that too?

06:49-06:50
Well, and you know what?

06:50-06:53
I think we’re going through some change on that too.

06:53-06:57
I think the industry will ultimately land in this content studio.

06:57-07:01
I think I like the sound of that, but podcast studio makes a lot of sense and we obviously

07:01-07:05
do tons of podcasts here, so it hasn’t hurt us yet.

07:05-07:08
But yeah, I think a content studio makes the most sense.

07:08-07:09
Right.

07:09-07:10
Which is what we did in New Jersey.

07:10-07:11
Yes.

07:11-07:12
NJ content studio.

07:12-07:13
Might as well throw a plug in for myself.

07:13-07:14
Let’s get them out of the way.

07:14-07:15
Got it.

07:15-07:16
All right, cool.

07:16-07:20
So, I think it’s important to talk a little bit about your journey.

07:20-07:23
Because I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are in a similar position to where you were

07:23-07:25
when you first started opening this.

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What was the impetus or motivation to open specifically a studio like the YouTube podcast

07:32-07:34
content studio we’re in?

07:34-07:36
And how long ago did you do it?

07:36-07:39
So over two years ago, we moved in in November.

07:39-07:44
I guess I don’t know the year, but I guess the 22 and 22 then or 21.

07:44-07:48
But it was kind of a decent time in the work.

07:48-07:52
So I, when I was younger, I had a recording studio to tune audio only.

07:52-07:57
And that was my first kind of like venture into we’ll just say the studio industry.

07:57-08:02
And then as time went on, I developed doing video work, freelance video stuff.

08:02-08:07
And then that turned into a little bit more of a production company, which we still run.

08:07-08:12
But it got to a point where I needed to have a space to house some of my equipment.

08:12-08:17
And I naturally thought I was like, you know what, opposed to only doing stuff offsite,

08:17-08:23
we could bring some of the work in house and have a studio environment that’s set up that

08:23-08:25
we can kind of hit the ground running and make content.

08:25-08:30
As you can tell, I mean, this space is pretty much set up, ready to rock it at any moment.

08:30-08:32
And we record for a whole bunch of people.

08:32-08:36
So having that quickness to it helped.

08:36-08:41
So when I was doing the video production stuff, I kind of saw the writing on the wall that

08:41-08:46
podcasting and specifically video podcasting was going to be stuff that was increasingly

08:46-08:47
popular.

08:47-08:50
This was when Joe Rogan’s podcast started to really take traction.

08:50-08:57
And for a lot of time, people were under the assumption that podcasts are audio only.

08:57-09:03
And what I think I noticed is on my feeds, I would see so many just podcast clippings,

09:03-09:04
just short bits of things.

09:04-09:09
And I would still to this day, I’ve not seen a whole bunch of podcasts long form ever,

09:09-09:13
but I’ve seen a whole bunch of podcasts short form.

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And so, I was like, if we can just come up with a way to do this affordably, I think

09:18-09:19
it’ll be a hit.

09:19-09:23
And so we decided to move into this space and come up with at the time was just one

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set over there.

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And I had experience doing audio from the recording studio days.

09:29-09:34
I had experience with video, obviously, and lighting and I guess just general business

09:34-09:35
acumen.

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And so, you know, popped up a website and decided that I’d give it a go.

09:40-09:42
There was nobody else in the city really doing it at the time.

09:42-09:44
It was kind of an untapped market.

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And I think for a lot of people, it still is.

09:46-09:51
I think we’re starting to see more podcast studios pop up, but it’s still kind of a new

09:51-09:54
up and coming thing that you almost still have to explain to people.

09:54-09:58
But when they do find us, it’s usually met with like, this is so cool that this is here.

09:58-10:00
I don’t think that stuff like this existed.

10:00-10:02
Yeah, I still hear that myself.

10:02-10:06
You know, you touched on something there that I want to pull out and elaborate on.

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I think it’s super important.

10:07-10:10
I’m going to go a little bit off script here, not that there really is a script as much as

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a general guideline.

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And that is this idea of how do I put this correctly?

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Does the long form even matter?

10:19-10:20
Yes.

10:20-10:21
And I’ll answer my own question.

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Yes, the long form matters.

10:23-10:27
But what I’m starting to realize myself through my own YouTube journey, through also my own

10:27-10:30
studio journey, and I think you just touched on it.

10:30-10:34
Yeah, the long form is great and there’s a lot of value there, but I think you could

10:34-10:40
build a pretty compelling case that the short form is even more valuable or even maybe I’ll

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put it this way, even if nobody even ever goes to your long form, they never even look

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at it, you can extract tremendous value out of just having the clips and people are doing

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it.

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You were talking yesterday about a client of yours that does even, they kind of position

10:56-11:01
their short form as a preview for their long form, but there is no long form.

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So could you talk about this dynamic a little bit?

11:03-11:06
Because I think it’s really important for marketers to take a look at.

11:06-11:10
Yeah, well, you know, and I think it just kind of stems from the people that work with

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us want that that video side of stuff.

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Again, I think to just do an audio podcast is not very difficult.

11:18-11:23
And as you said, I think getting people to commit to an hour or a new show can be quite

11:23-11:26
difficult in a lot of people that pursue us.

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There are a handful of people that want to do podcasting.

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They want to be a host.

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That’s their dream.

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And then there are plenty of businesses that are like, listen, we don’t really, really

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care about having a podcast.

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We just want to make it seem like we know what we’re talking about to people.

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And we got a clip-on LinkedIn.

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We can interview people like you’ve done with some of your guests.

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It’s a good networking tool.

11:46-11:50
And so, there’s a lot of other value that’s derived from doing stuff like this that isn’t

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necessarily attached to the long form stuff.

11:54-11:56
So, I think, yes, it does matter at the end of the day.

11:56-12:01
That’s like the whole enchilada, as they say.

12:01-12:05
But I think people see bigger traction with the short form clips.

12:05-12:10
And I think that if you are not taking your long form and pulling short clips out of it,

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you’re really leaving a lot on the table.

12:13-12:15
Absolutely, no doubt about that.

12:15-12:22
I really think of it through the classic marketing funnel perspective, which suggests that if

12:22-12:26
you want people to ultimately convert to a purchase or convert to anything, they need

12:26-12:32
to be warmed up, they need to be nurtured through this “buyer’s journey” or sales funnel.

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But practically speaking, the short form serves as a top of funnel awareness play, but it’s

12:38-12:41
short so there’s not a big investment of, in this case, time.

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Because as Gary Vaynerchuk will say, in any marketer will tell you, there’s a real cost

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associated to our time, especially right now.

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Our attention is at a premium, right?

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So, the short form is your initial hook.

12:54-12:59
And then even trying to jump from get them to digest a short clip to a 45 minute, an

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hour long clip is, in my professional opinion, a lot to ask.

13:02-13:06
So, if you can then somehow get them from the short clips to a five-minute clip or a 10

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minute clip, aha, now you’ve started to nurture them, quote unquote, through that funnel.

13:11-13:14
And then maybe you’re in a better position to start to get them to the long form and

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to subscribe and all those things.

13:15-13:16
I think that makes sense.

13:16-13:22
And again, even going back to just the businesses, it’s like, again, if there was no long form

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and you just put, like we have realtors that come in and just talk about trendy realtor

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topics and they are just interested in the long form.

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They start off every show with like, welcome to our show and go right into it.

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Because the long form never sees the light of the day.

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And so while obviously you want to push people down the funnel, I guess, to watching more

13:42-13:43
of it.

13:43-13:44
Right.

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That’s the conversion.

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The businesses, especially that come in here are interested in pushing their business efforts,

13:49-13:51
not necessarily starting the podcast.

13:51-13:52
Right.

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So, if there is never a long form or it is your prospect never gets through to the long

13:58-14:01
form, they can still give you a call after watching that 90 second clip on LinkedIn just

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because they thought it was impactful.

14:04-14:07
And then at some point that’s a win right there.

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If they never checked out the full length one, I mean, who really cares?

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I mean, as sad as it is to say for the podcast industry, but that’s just kind of the trend

14:16-14:17
that we see.

14:17-14:19
I would completely agree.

14:19-14:20
Okay.

14:20-14:21
So, I was going to get back a little bit to your journey.

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So, regarding location, I would imagine, and please do correct me if you see it differently

14:29-14:33
or if it went played out differently, but I would imagine that, you know, you probably

14:33-14:38
had a little bit of a, you had to choose between what would be the ideal location and what

14:38-14:41
you could get at the right price to get started.

14:41-14:43
So, you always have to make some compromises.

14:43-14:47
So, talk a little bit about how you ultimately ended up here in the Ravenswood area of Chicago

14:47-14:49
in your current space.

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So, you know, I spent a good chunk of time.

14:52-14:58
I think this idea took hold about during the pandemic and it was like maybe a year or two

14:58-15:01
in my head before it was like, okay, ready to actually do it.

15:01-15:03
I live close by.

15:03-15:07
So, I think that this area was somewhat more the choice than anything else.

15:07-15:13
Although I wasn’t limiting myself to like a certain radius around my home.

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It’s a good part of town and then obviously you got to somewhat think of the commute.

15:18-15:24
And so, there are a lot of creative and like more spaces that might’ve been cool or interesting

15:24-15:29
or maybe better options that were in like the Pilsen neighborhood or, you know, a little

15:29-15:34
bit more in the South Chicago or West Chicago area or in like West Loop or a little getting

15:34-15:39
more out West, but I would have been committing to a potentially 45 hour there and back every

15:39-15:40
single day.

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And I didn’t want to do that.

15:42-15:45
And so I looked at a lot of the sites that everybody else looks at like LoopNet and,

15:45-15:49
you know, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace to find spots.

15:49-15:52
And I struggled to be able to find that.

15:52-15:57
I found a company that basically just deals with this like street.

15:57-16:00
The guy that owns this building owns a bunch of buildings on this street and he’s kind

16:00-16:06
of got the market cornered and they are bigger buildings that just have independent units

16:06-16:07
that you can rent.

16:07-16:12
And they’re very reasonable as far as rents and so far experience here has been really

16:12-16:15
great that it’s like we haven’t had to deal with too much.

16:15-16:16
Right.

16:16-16:21
But so that explains why you looked at this area, but what about what in a space did you

16:21-16:27
need in order for it to accommodate an initiative such as this.

16:27-16:33
Or perhaps the takeaway is there aren’t a lot of particular things that you really need

16:33-16:35
in a space to make this work.

16:35-16:41
So, the initially when I moved in, I was or when I was planning on moving into a space,

16:41-16:46
I was under the impression that more closed off offices, you could have multiple people

16:46-16:50
going in theory, you could scale the business bigger, you could have four sessions around

16:50-16:52
at the same time making more money.

16:52-16:56
And it was difficult to find a spot that had that.

16:56-16:59

And then there was going to be the problem too, as to the equipment side of stuff that

16:59-17:02
you either would be moving around the equipment between those rooms or you’d have to buy multiple

17:02-17:04
sets of it.

17:04-17:09
And at the time and still to this day, I don’t see buying multiple sets of it and as the

17:09-17:13
most streamlined experience, not to mention we’d have to have another person to run each

17:13-17:14
session.

17:14-17:16
So, it gets really complicated.

17:16-17:19
And while I think that that’s a hurdle, we’ll jump at some point.

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It’s we’re not quite at the volume where it’s like so many people are bumping into each

17:24-17:28
other as far as sessions and we’re losing opportunities because other people are booked.

17:28-17:31
So an open space was perfectly fine for us.

17:31-17:35
And I think that when we moved into this space, this felt big, but I was like, you know what,

17:35-17:37
we’ll dedicate a little area to the podcast stuff.

17:37-17:42
We’ll do a dedicated area to just general production, couch hangout area.

17:42-17:43
Again, this place has gone through some changes.

17:43-17:48
There used to be a little bit more of a lobby waiting area over there.

17:48-17:53
It’s changed and now we have four sets in here and the majority of the studio is consumed

17:53-17:55
by doing the podcast side of stuff.

17:55-18:01
But my advice for a lot of people is I think open spaces work pretty well because you can

18:01-18:05
do something like we’ve done here where the brains of the operation, the computer, the

18:05-18:09
cameras, a lot of the audio stuff, the majority of things are fixed.

18:09-18:13
And so we can kind of move the equipment between the sets.

18:13-18:19
And so that’s a speed efficiency thing as well as a cost and labor thing to some degree

18:19-18:20
too.

18:20-18:24
And I think that we’re able to get a slightly more unique look of it all.

18:24-18:29
It was tough to find office spaces that were big enough to maybe do something like this.

18:29-18:36
Some of our other sets are a little bit smaller, but private offices in a 1500,000 square foot

18:36-18:37
area usually is tiny.

18:37-18:39
They’re usually a little too tiny.

18:39-18:45
And so we decided to move into this space, and I think overall we’re happy that we did.

18:45-18:50
As we’ve talked off camera, I think that we’re planning expansion to a bigger, hopefully

18:50-18:52
better space at some point.

18:52-18:57
But what I thought was going to be a problem with the long openness of it has actually

18:57-18:59
proved to be a really valuable part.

18:59-19:02
Let’s do this because I think there’s more ground to cover on the space, but there’s

19:02-19:03
so much else to get to.

19:03-19:06
Can we do a little bit of a rapid fire?

19:06-19:11
I’m going to tell or suggest an aspect, a consideration of the space and you give me

19:11-19:15
something to the effect of a very important, not very important, surprisingly unimportant.

19:15-19:17
Give me a short answer.

19:17-19:18
Okay.

19:18-19:19
All right.

19:19-19:20
Ready?

19:20-19:21
Yes.

19:21-19:22
Soundproof walls.

19:22-19:24
Not as important as you’d think.

19:24-19:25
Yep.

19:25-19:27
High ceilings.

19:27-19:31
More important, not a total deal breaker.

19:31-19:35
Closed off rooms.

19:35-19:37
The double-edged sword.

19:37-19:38
Do I have any else?

19:38-19:45
I’m sure I have a lot of carpeting and flooring.

19:45-19:48
Not so important, but again, our cart rolls.

19:48-19:51
So if we had, if we didn’t have, if we had carpeted floors the whole way through, that

19:51-19:54
would be difficult, but we have a carpet below us.

19:54-19:57
So a little important, I guess.

19:57-20:03
Electrical that can accommodate lots of video and lighting equipment.

20:03-20:05
I would say not important.

20:05-20:09
We don’t, as far as I’m aware, have any fancy electrical stuff.

20:09-20:12
I don’t know enough to speak on it, but we have a lot of stuff plugged in and we’ve never

20:12-20:14
lost power or gotten yelled at.

20:14-20:16
So, and we haven’t started the fire yet.

20:16-20:18
So not too important.

20:18-20:19
Okay.

20:19-20:20
Very interesting.

20:20-20:25
For listeners, we not only have, as I mentioned, built out our own space and we’re very much

20:25-20:29
learning, but are looking into expanding our own.

20:29-20:31
And so a lot of this stuff is very top of mind.

20:31-20:34
And I know what others out there are thinking about, especially those that aren’t experienced

20:34-20:37
videographers like yourself.

20:37-20:41
So we’ll segue off that, but I do want to ask just kind of while we’re on the subject

20:41-20:43
of electrical, because it has certainly come up for us.

20:43-20:52
This issue of alternating current, like frequency interference from crossed cables.

20:52-20:57
Have you struggled with this at all or have you gone through any measures to prevent this

20:57-20:59
from happening?

20:59-21:02
So, it’s not too much of an issue for us.

21:02-21:03
Yes.

21:03-21:06
Power cables and microphone cables can’t really be touching.

21:06-21:07
Typically, you’ll be able to hear it.

21:07-21:13
So, all of the power goes off in one direction and the cables have usually clear paths to

21:13-21:19
our desk where things are housed, but there’s not too much interference aside from that.

21:19-21:22
I know other studios can deal with more problems.

21:22-21:26
Again, there’s some smarter people than me that could explain as to why stuff like that

21:26-21:30
happens with grounding issues, but it is luckily not something we really deal with here.

21:30-21:31
Okay.

21:31-21:33
Very good.

21:33-21:38
Let’s talk a little bit about equipment and we’ll link to your other video or videos or

21:38-21:41
if you have a playlist, we’ll get people to that.

21:41-21:47
But talk a little bit about kind of a similar through a similar lens of super important,

21:47-21:50
not as important as you’d think.

21:50-21:52
You know, here’s an area where you can save on costs.

21:52-21:56
So, we’ve got cameras, we’ve got lighting.

21:56-22:00
Let’s start with lighting and we, would you have some B roll?

22:00-22:02
We might be able to splice on top of this.

22:02-22:04
You can, you can pull from the videos.

22:04-22:05
There’s stuff there.

22:05-22:08
Just so I know is this like, as if people were maybe interested in pursuing this as

22:08-22:11
business or just for themselves or maybe the combination of the two.

22:11-22:12
Good question.

22:12-22:18
Let’s assume an operation comparable to this, which is a set, a professional looking set

22:18-22:19
or two without breaking the bank.

22:19-22:20
Okay.

22:20-22:21
So, and on lighting is what we wanted to start with.

22:21-22:23
Yeah, let’s start with lighting.

22:23-22:28
So, lighting there are like with all camera things or with any sort of tech stuff, there

22:28-22:32
are different tiers, different companies that operate at different price points.

22:32-22:36
I would say that mid-tier options work great.

22:36-22:38
Energy has come a long way.

22:38-22:39
All of these lights are led lights.

22:39-22:41
They don’t take a lot of power.

22:41-22:43
They don’t create a lot of heat.

22:43-22:45
Most of them can hook up to a smartphone these days.

22:45-22:47
You can dim and adjust them.

22:47-22:48
They’re light.

22:48-22:54
They’re fairly affordable in the long run, but I would not cheap out and get, I would

22:54-22:57
shop less on like the Amazon by price.

22:57-23:02
You know, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t buy lights that are seemingly too cheap or flimsy or especially

23:02-23:06
not the ones that actually have the like CFL light bulbs like at home.

23:06-23:09
Like a lot of people will look at, you know, too hot, right?

23:09-23:12
Well, no, more just like too garbage.

23:12-23:15
People just buy like the random stuff because they see like, Oh, a three-piece lighting

23:15-23:17
set up on Amazon for a hundred bucks.

23:17-23:18
Like just miss that.

23:18-23:19
Trust me.

23:19-23:20
Right.

23:20-23:21
So don’t do that.

23:21-23:23
We encourage people to look into a company called Amaran.

23:23-23:25
They’re a sister company of aperture.

23:25-23:27
Aperture is a professional grade.

23:27-23:29
So, one tier below.

23:29-23:32
Yeah, it’s they’re more a prosumer market.

23:32-23:36
And so, we have a lot of their lights, the hair lights that we have behind us are those

23:36-23:37
these lights.

23:37-23:41
And again, we have a bunch of kits of their stuff.

23:41-23:45
Nanlight is also another company that we use that again, as in that kind of sweet spot

23:45-23:48
of being in the middle for key lights or hair lights or whatever.

23:48-23:52
Nanlight is just another company that, you know, they all kind of make roughly the same

23:52-23:53
type of stuff.

23:53-23:56
I would encourage people to play within the same ecosystem.

23:56-23:59
So again, a lot of these lights at this set or Amaran so we can control them all from

23:59-24:00
the same.

24:00-24:01
You could control them from that iPad if you wanted.

24:01-24:04
We can adjust the colors, the brightness of things.

24:04-24:05
So that’s helpful.

24:05-24:07
So, you don’t have like six different apps, a bunch of different companies trying to talk

24:07-24:11
to each other because the technology is not quite there for them to all play so, so nicely

24:11-24:12
together.

24:12-24:15
But yeah, I would look into that.

24:15-24:19
You know, that’s I want to interject just be quick because you’re going quickly.

24:19-24:20
That’s an interesting point.

24:20-24:24
You know, if you buy lights from different vendors, now you’ve got all those different

24:24-24:26
apps on your phone.

24:26-24:29
That really slows you down and your ability to adjust stuff.

24:29-24:35
And one thing I’ve noticed being an S studio owner now is time is money.

24:35-24:40
Every little adjustment you need to make to change something between sets really ends

24:40-24:42
up adding to your costs.

24:42-24:45
So, the more efficient you can be with everything, for example, sliding the equipment up and

24:45-24:51
down the floor ends up being huge, has a bottom-line impact.

24:51-24:55
And so, I even just think something as simple as buying sourcing your lights through the

24:55-24:58
same vendor where you can imagine through one app could have been a significant time saver

24:58-24:59
and therefore, money saver.

24:59-25:00
There you go.

25:00-25:01
Yeah.

25:01-25:02
Okay.

25:02-25:05
I interjected, but, and I’m looking at you, your, the current set we’re in.

25:05-25:08
It’s a newer set from the one that you originally had.

25:08-25:09
The original video was based on.

25:09-25:15
It looks like you’re still sticking with the same formula of key lights down on the speaker’s

25:15-25:17
faces, a hair light up above.

25:17-25:21
In this case, you have ones that can change color and some light background lighting behind.

25:21-25:22
And that gets the job done just fine, right?

25:22-25:23
And that gets the job done.

25:23-25:29
I mean, this is pretty much a two, you know, a two-light set up.

25:29-25:31
And like you said, a key light is the most important one.

25:31-25:35
If you can’t, if you don’t have a lot of money spent, at least get a key light.

25:35-25:39
And while we could probably do some slightly more cinematic lighting, I think for podcasting

25:39-25:43
and for most clips, a little bit more direct in your faces for the best here.

25:43-25:44
So that’s what we’ve done here.

25:44-25:48
And then these are just kind of fun, what we call hair lights, and they are RGB so we

25:48-25:50
can change them to whatever color.

25:50-25:51
So, you have a nice pick.

25:51-25:54
We both have pink on us now, which is a fun thing.

25:54-25:59
But I think one of the things I like to add a little bit more attention to is that these

25:59-26:05
little accent lights throughout the studio really do work, you know, set a little bit,

26:05-26:08
just make you look a little bit above and beyond.

26:08-26:09
And so those are cheap.

26:09-26:13
Those aren’t professional grade lightings by any means, but they do a cool job of making

26:13-26:15
it seems like a little bit more of a cozy setup.

26:15-26:16
Okay.

26:16-26:20
And just to be clear, I mean, equipment is something we talk about forever.

26:20-26:23
So, we just want to give people enough of an overview and again, linked to Tom’s other

26:23-26:27
videos, maybe put some stuff in the show notes while we’re talking about the background,

26:27-26:29
you’ve got the acoustics here.

26:29-26:33
So now something I’ve learned again, I’m an outsider, okay?

26:33-26:38
Is that those don’t prevent any noise from getting in, but the microphones actually prevent

26:38-26:43
noise from getting in if they’re good enough, but they do explain the role utility they

26:43-26:44
play on the wall.

26:44-26:46
Is it just an aesthetic thing or is there additional utility?

26:46-26:51
No, they’re absolutely functional, but I think your question was like soundproofed walls,

26:51-26:54
like, you know, to really like soundproof room is very difficult.

26:54-26:57
I think a lot of people come from, yeah, the music side where it’s like you’re playing

26:57-26:58
drums and stuff like that.

26:58-27:00
And you don’t want your neighbors to hear that.

27:00-27:03
Like there’s not over, you know, we don’t need to soundproof our walls from the outside

27:03-27:07
because people are going to get bothered by us talking here today.

27:07-27:08
And so, you never know.

27:08-27:09
You might say something, Tom.

27:09-27:11
You should listen to our neighbor though.

27:11-27:15
He’s got some course words sometimes, but I know the sound panels are definitely functional.

27:15-27:17
This is a big concrete box, high ceilings.

27:17-27:21
And before we put a whole bunch of crapola in here, there was not anything in here.

27:21-27:22
And so there was sound was quite bad.

27:22-27:24
So that’s why we do have a rug.

27:24-27:27
That’s why over in the other set and those curtains over there have sound blankets in

27:27-27:32
between them, not just, you know, curtains there.

27:32-27:34
Professional sound blankets in between blankets.

27:34-27:36
That’s a new, I didn’t know about that.

27:36-27:37
I mean, see this wall here.

27:37-27:38
That’s those are them too.

27:38-27:42
And those are essentially like moving blankets, but with a little bit additional stuff in

27:42-27:43
there.

27:43-27:46
And so we have those throughout the studio and then yeah, these, these sound panels help

27:46-27:47
absorb sound.

27:47-27:54
So it’s not just reverberating off the walls, but a lot of the minute sounds that you hear,

27:54-27:56
again, we are in a commercial building.

27:56-27:59
So occasionally hear people walking in the hall or somebody jumping up on the stairs

27:59-28:01
or the bathroom door slams down the way.

28:01-28:04
We can’t entirely prevent any of those things.

28:04-28:07
And again, we could spend a lot, a lot of money trying to soundproof this whole space,

28:07-28:11
but the, the return on that would not be that great.

28:11-28:16
These microphones are designed to take you in and reject a lot of other noise.

28:16-28:17
And that’s been my experience too.

28:17-28:21
A lot of things that you think might, uh, you physically hear with your ear are not

28:21-28:24
things they’re going to get picked up on this and technology is getting better and better

28:24-28:28
about picking up your voice, making you sound crystal clear, but not allowing for a lot

28:28-28:30
of those other noises to come in.

28:30-28:31
Okay.

28:31-28:33
So, we might’ve just pissed off some professional audio and video people.

28:33-28:34
Probably.

28:34-28:35
I usually get yelled at.

28:35-28:39
And I, I, I am going to potentially piss them off some more.

28:39-28:46
Um, you know, John’s thoughts, everybody, um, this, this, this becomes one of those

28:46-28:51
things where if you’re, if, if, if the roles are reversed and instead you’re shopping for

28:51-28:56
a studio and you start to compare one studio against each other, there will be this thing

28:56-29:03
where, um, a studio will charge you exponentially more money because they’ll say we are 100%

29:03-29:04
soundproof.

29:04-29:06
We have state of the art microphones.

29:06-29:08
We have state of the art lighting.

29:08-29:10
You know, you don’t, these things matter.

29:10-29:11
You need this.

29:11-29:15
And it’s been my experience and this gets again, highly subjective and triggering for

29:15-29:20
people, but it’s been my experience that you can make beautiful podcasts without all of

29:20-29:21
these things we just discussed.

29:21-29:25
And it would seem to be that you concur in large part.

29:25-29:26
Yeah, I think so.

29:26-29:29
I mean, you definitely don’t need all the stuff that we have here.

29:29-29:33
Um, I think off camera, we talked that, you know, we have these microphones.

29:33-29:36
These are probably the most popular microphone in the podcasting space.

29:36-29:41
They’re $400 a piece and the mic that we had before or road pod mics, and we still have

29:41-29:42
a bunch of those.

29:42-29:44
We still use them for some various purposes.

29:44-29:49
They are a quarter of the price and definitely, you know, not as quarter as good, you know,

29:49-29:54
so, it’s like they do a lot of the same stuff and technology, like I said, has come such

29:54-29:59
a long way that, um, yeah, you’re able to get into stuff that is really high quality

29:59-30:00
recording studios that get into this business.

30:00-30:04
You know, there’s no need to have a $2,000 microphone recording your voice here.

30:04-30:08
You know, if we were doing audio books for a big audio book or something like that, and

30:08-30:11
you want to do that to have some cool points, great.

30:11-30:15
But yeah, you definitely don’t need to spend, uh, you don’t need to, to bet the house to,

30:15-30:16
to get into some good equipment.

30:16-30:17
Yep.

30:17-30:18
All right.

30:18-30:19
Excellent.

30:19-30:25
Um, so we covered mics, lighting, oh, and then behind the scenes, uh, tell us a little

30:25-30:28
bit about the audio interface and camera switching.

30:28-30:29
Yeah.

30:29-30:31
Well, actually I’ll just mention cameras too.

30:31-30:32
So, um, oh, of course.

30:32-30:33
Oh yeah.

30:33-30:35
Talk about those can get pretty wildly expensive.

30:35-30:40
And I think the biggest thing with cameras, uh, there are a lot of features that everyday

30:40-30:41
people will not use.

30:41-30:47
And specifically for podcasting, these cameras sit on, we’ll just call them a tripod, uh,

30:47-30:51
in, you know, just feed into our switcher, which does the, the, um, the switching of

30:51-30:52
the cameras.

30:52-30:57
Um, it, as of now with black magic is kind of caps to 10 80 P you can scale up to four

30:57-31:02
K stuff, but, um, you don’t need to spend a significant amount of money on the cameras

31:02-31:06
just because the, there’s other bottlenecks in the system that are going to be problematic.

31:06-31:10
So we have more professional cameras for the offsite production work that we do because

31:10-31:11
they can get higher frame rates.

31:11-31:16
They do more fancy pants things, but if all of these cameras were the bigger brother version

31:16-31:19
of the cameras, we would have spent a lot more putting it together.

31:19-31:23
So, um, you definitely don’t need to get the absolute top tier of cameras.

31:23-31:25
We recommend that if you are going to do something like this, which is a three-camera set up

31:25-31:28
that you ideally get cameras that are at least in the same family.

31:28-31:32
Um, and ideally if you can get the same models, um, I can continue to enroll.

31:32-31:35
I rant about a crop sensor and full frame and stuff like that, but I won’t.

31:35-31:39
Well, I’ll just quickly interject to say it’s important and we didn’t quite get to this

31:39-31:45
in the background section that you’ve done full-fledged high end and still do video production

31:45-31:46
for clients.

31:46-31:47
Yeah.

31:47-31:50
So, it’s not as though unlike myself, it’s not as though you’re just coming into this

31:50-31:51
trying to figure it out.

31:51-31:55
You, you know how the best stuff, yeah, you know how the best of the best works.

31:55-31:56
Yeah.

31:56-32:00
And if you really felt that it was necessary, you would tell people that I would.

32:00-32:01
Yeah.

32:01-32:04
And it’s, you know, we’re at a point now where it’s like we could, but it’s just a, we could,

32:04-32:09
you know, add more stuff, but with most things in life, the, sometimes the next level, uh,

32:09-32:16
is a big financial jump, but not a huge quality or overall, just impression jump.

32:16-32:20
And so again, we could have, we could take a camera that is three times the value of

32:20-32:22
the one that I’m looking at right now, put it there.

32:22-32:25
And I don’t think most people would be able to be like, holy crap, that’s three times,

32:25-32:26
uh, as good.

32:26-32:31
So, and again, to make this business a little bit more obtainable, it’s like, we, you know,

32:31-32:34
we try to illustrate that, uh, the, you know, the price point to get into something like

32:34-32:37
this is not crazy high as far as businesses go.

32:37-32:41
You know, you can, uh, put together a three-camera set up some lighting like this for

32:41-32:44
not a significant, significant amount of money.

32:44-32:45
Okay.

32:45-32:48
And then the audio interface, audio interface, every, uh, everyone’s familiar or not say

32:48-32:52
everyone, but if you’re into this business at all, you’re familiar with roadcaster and

32:52-32:54
so, or with road and the roadcaster.

32:54-32:55
Uh, so we have a roadcaster.

32:55-32:58
We actually maybe today, Colton, uh, we’re going to switch it out.

32:58-33:01
We just bought a new one.

33:01-33:03
That’s been a paperweight over there just cause it’s been like, you know, if something’s

33:03-33:05
not broke, uh, don’t fix it.

33:05-33:06
We’ve kind of done that and this isn’t broke.

33:06-33:09
So, we just continue to use it, but we have a new unit over there.

33:09-33:10
Um, same brand.

33:10-33:13
No, it’s by Mackie, which I think is actually owned by road now.

33:13-33:17
So basically, but, um, the different thing, there’s some other features of that, that,

33:17-33:22
um, we’re, we were interested in, uh, trying out and it was a recommendation from someone

33:22-33:24
in our group to, uh, to check it out.

33:24-33:26
A couple other people do that, uh, have this unit.

33:26-33:28
And so anyway, there’s that, but, um, mixers.

33:28-33:29
Yeah.

33:29-33:33
Is, uh, for people that look into mixers, it came from, you know, audio thing where there’s

33:33-33:36
a bunch of channels that go into it and recording the band.

33:36-33:39
If you go to a concert, there’s a massive mixing board, a bunch of inputs go into it,

33:39-33:42
but for podcasting, there’s just the two microphones here.

33:42-33:46
Uh, and so they make a specific unit that, uh, usually holds up to two or four people.

33:46-33:50
Um, and it has a preamp built in, so you don’t have to power the mics and such like

33:50-33:51
that.

33:51-33:52
So, um, it houses everything.

33:52-33:53
It records for you.

33:53-33:55
It’s got screens, got faders, it’s got headphone out.

33:55-33:59
I can hook up to a PC so you can, uh, you know, we could do this via zoom or something like

33:59-34:01
that or bring somebody else in if we wanted.

34:01-34:03
So that’s another pretty crucial part of it.

34:03-34:06
And then as you said, it would go into a video switcher, which is from black magic.

34:06-34:09
Uh, and that is what’s doing the actual recording.

34:09-34:10
So right.

34:10-34:15
And so, you like to do, or at least offer the option to your clients to, to include the

34:15-34:16
live switching.

34:16-34:17
In fact, that’s your default.

34:17-34:18
That’s the default.

34:18-34:19
Yeah.

34:19-34:20
Yeah.

34:20-34:21
And so that’s, that’s a nice perk.

34:21-34:24
I think the closer I look at, you know, essentially the business model for something like this

34:24-34:29
is the ability to have folks come in, do quote unquote live cuts through a device such as

34:29-34:33
an ATEM, which embeds the edits right into the file.

34:33-34:35
They come out with is a powerful thing.

34:35-34:41
Again, I think it’s a little bit disruptive and that’s, that’s, that’s powerful to somebody

34:41-34:44
comes in, they sit down, they rent the hour, a couple hours, and they walk out with the

34:44-34:47
file that already has the live edits in.

34:47-34:52
And if you adjust the audio thoughtfully while they’re here, you can also give them really

34:52-34:54
great audio right out of the door as well.

34:54-34:57
So again, I hesitate to trigger some people.

34:57-35:01
This might be my most commented on a YouTube video.

35:01-35:06
But if you get the audio levels, nice to begin with, you get the lighting nice to begin with,

35:06-35:11
you get the equipment better than average to begin with, and you embed the live cuts,

35:11-35:13
you can get people in and out the door.

35:13-35:14
Yeah.

35:14-35:16
It’s a deal without the editing necessarily.

35:16-35:18
Yeah, pretty much.

35:18-35:22
A lot of people that record with us either, you know, sometimes they’ll tack on their,

35:22-35:23
their intro, do a little bit.

35:23-35:27
Some people have their own editor do their last little touches themselves, you know,

35:27-35:30
just because they want to play it back and remove anything that they didn’t want to have.

35:30-35:35
But yeah, ideally, we’re giving them a pretty polished product by the time they leave.

35:35-35:39
So that’s been a huge, you know, part of the operation.

35:39-35:42
And again, for people that want to have a little bit more of everything, we have the

35:42-35:46
ability to do that, but not something that we do for people because the majority of them

35:46-35:48
would rather have less work to do.

35:48-35:49
Yep.

35:49-35:50
So, we make it easy.

35:50-35:51
And less fees.

35:51-35:52
I tip my cap to you on that.

35:52-35:53
Really.

35:53-35:55
With the time we have left, let’s just talk a little bit about set design.

35:55-36:00
We were kind of getting into this yesterday, again, with our probable expansion in New

36:00-36:03
Jersey, just outside Philadelphia.

36:03-36:09
We’re, we’re really trying to think of, okay, what’s the smartest utilization of the space?

36:09-36:12
So historically, when you first started, I know you did a lot.

36:12-36:15
How do you refer to a conference room style, kind of like Joe Rogan style?

36:15-36:19
Is this just what I always say at the table, at the table, so to speak.

36:19-36:23
And it sounds like from hearing you correctly, you’ve gotten more and more requests for this

36:23-36:25
kind of lounge living room set up.

36:25-36:30
Would you say on balance, more people are interested in this setup versus the table

36:30-36:31
setup?

36:31-36:33
I would say in general, yes.

36:33-36:36
And part of that is probably just because I feel like we need to do a remodel on the

36:36-36:37
table setup.

36:37-36:41
I think I’ve seen some cooler designs out there and I think that’s something we should venture

36:41-36:42
into.

36:42-36:46
What has made it somewhat difficult is because we do just have an open space.

36:46-36:49
It’s been difficult to get walls set up.

36:49-36:52
And so, it’s, it’s tough to confine a space to some degree.

36:52-36:58
Luckily, the space is large enough that you know, you, it doesn’t feel, you don’t need

36:58-37:00
the wall there to make it feel like complete.

37:00-37:03
But yeah, I think our desk space could use some improvement.

37:03-37:07
I don’t think that just because people don’t book, it doesn’t mean that it’s not something

37:07-37:08
that people would want.

37:08-37:12
But I think people like this set in particular, because one, it’s a little bit larger.

37:12-37:15
We can fit four people here a little bit more comfortably.

37:15-37:19
It is somewhat strategic that they are forward facing at that space.

37:19-37:22
And if you do it at a desk, you’re definitely hitting the side of their face a little bit

37:22-37:23
more.

37:23-37:24
And as you can tell, we’re facing forward.

37:24-37:28
So even though I’m side-eyeing you a little bit, we get a little bit more face on screen,

37:28-37:30
which is important for people.

37:30-37:36
And so yeah, people like this, I think that it’s a little bit more of a laid-back environment.

37:36-37:41
A lot of people come in here and do interviews and people are not totally used to doing them.

37:41-37:45
And so for whatever reason, this sometimes feels a little bit more laid back and a little

37:45-37:47
more casual.

37:47-37:52
It does feel somehow more relaxing than sitting across from somebody at a table now that you

37:52-37:53
mentioned it.

37:53-37:56
And I’ve done both for 18 months at this point.

37:56-38:01
So, I want to stay on set design, but a quick detour because it’s directly related, this

38:01-38:06
idea of the middle camera and also just camera set up in general.

38:06-38:12
So, your formula has historically been a three-camera set up one side of the table or one

38:12-38:16
speaker the other side of the table or the other speaker and then a center cam.

38:16-38:23
But there’s a challenge there when it comes to, how do you say vertical edits for social

38:23-38:27
media, which as we discussed earlier, one of the main value points of doing this whole

38:27-38:28
thing.

38:28-38:31
So, with this set up, do you essentially eliminate the center camera?

38:31-38:34
Do you even need it, or do you think it’s much of a value add?

38:34-38:36
I think it’s still needed.

38:36-38:40
We definitely use it the least because I think people, like you said, when they’re trying

38:40-38:43
to pull out clips, they’d rather have more full face of them themselves.

38:43-38:47
So, my assumption is that it’s on my camera right now.

38:47-38:52
And so, its colds his quickly panic.

38:52-38:55
But it’s no, I think it’s still necessary.

38:55-39:02
I think it also is somewhat of like an establishing shot, which is an industry term, but it’s

39:02-39:08
like watch it back in movies that you see the first scene of a new thing is showing

39:08-39:11
the location that we’re at basically.

39:11-39:15
And so again, I’m sure when you introduced me, we went to the wide shot, we see that

39:15-39:19
we’re both sitting here and now people understand what the situation is.

39:19-39:22
You’re no longer just kind of a floating head over here and I’m a floating head over here.

39:22-39:25
They see the sphere that we’re going to be playing in.

39:25-39:28
But again, I think the majority of the time we go with those side angles.

39:28-39:31
So, I don’t think you can eliminate the center one entirely.

39:31-39:36
And while it’s very civil between the two of us here and most times with two people,

39:36-39:41
when you start to get to groups of three or four, the crowd talk and talking over, he

39:41-39:43
gets a little bit more.

39:43-39:48
And then it’s tough from a camera operator perspective to select the best thing at the

39:48-39:49
time.

39:49-39:53
And so the wide shot is just kind of a catch all of like the chaos that’s happening at

39:53-39:54
the time.

39:54-39:59
Oh, I’m glad you’re kind of, for lack of better phrasing, pulled me back off of that a little

39:59-40:03
bit and justified the value of the center cam.

40:03-40:07
I think your point about multiple people talking to each other in particular really stands

40:07-40:10
out and then the establishment shot, is that what you called it?

40:10-40:11
The establishment shot.

40:11-40:12
Yeah.

40:12-40:13
Yeah.

40:13-40:14
Really, really interesting.

40:14-40:15
Okay.

40:15-40:19
And then just to kind of round out the set design chat, quote unquote talking head again

40:19-40:22
for an outsider like me, that was a new term.

40:22-40:27
So talking head is essentially whenever there’s content, somebody’s looking directly into

40:27-40:31
the camera and it’s usually just, I guess it’s just the one individual.

40:31-40:36
So generally speaking, would you say for anybody aspiring to do this type of thing that they

40:36-40:41
should have an either a separate set or an easy way to convert into a talking headset

40:41-40:42
up?

40:42-40:43
In other words, is there demand for that?

40:43-40:45
And is it valuable to have that set up?

40:45-40:50
I think it makes a sense, but like in theory, if you were only able to put together a set

40:50-40:54
like this, each one of our cameras now is boom, the talking head thing.

40:54-40:58
Instead of doing the wide shot, which would show that nobody was sitting next to you.

40:58-41:02
We would just keep it on this camera and now you could look directly at your camera and

41:02-41:04
do the talking head bit and call it a day.

41:04-41:08
So luckily, we have a couple of different spots at the studio that we can do that style of

41:08-41:09
content.

41:09-41:12
But in theory, we can do it wherever you’d like.

41:12-41:16
And so, you don’t necessarily have to have like a dedicated talking head space.

41:16-41:21
If you just have good looking angles, instead of me looking and talking to you, I can just

41:21-41:22
what’s up everybody.

41:22-41:25
I’m looking at my camera here and doing a talking head set up.

41:25-41:26
Good point.

41:26-41:30
It’s interesting though, because it’s almost like depending on the set design, I feel like

41:30-41:32
the talking head looks more natural.

41:32-41:36
So right now, we just have the conference style at the table set up.

41:36-41:40
And as much as yeah, we can just do the look at the camera and talk.

41:40-41:45
It seems not as welcoming or less than ideal than if we had a dedicated space looking at

41:45-41:46
it.

41:46-41:51
This I think is a step up from that for, so if you wanted to have just one space, my opinion

41:51-41:55
for what it’s worth is if you want to have just one space that you could easily convert

41:55-42:01
from people talking to talking head, it would probably be this set up over at the table.

42:01-42:02
Opposed to doing a desk.

42:02-42:07
Yeah, I think that that’s fair because we’ve done desk setups here where we remove the furniture

42:07-42:12
and then have someone sitting at a desk and then we can get a really symmetrical shot

42:12-42:13
shooting this way.

42:13-42:16
And so we’ve done stuff like that.

42:16-42:20
And I think that this gives off a little bit more of just like a homey vibe and it feels

42:20-42:21
more like again.

42:21-42:26
Definitely facing more or less forward opposed to like looking sideways and then you tilt.

42:26-42:30
So yeah, I think a set up like this, it’s a little bit easier to pull out a good looking

42:30-42:33
talking head set up than if you were to do it at a desk.

42:33-42:34
Excellent.

42:34-42:39
Well, we’re running out of time, but I think this was a good initial top funnel overview

42:39-42:44
that can nurture people to your other clips through their buyer’s journey.

42:44-42:53
Tom, for those that are interested in joining your community, consult, hiring you for consulting

42:53-42:56
or coming out and using the studio, what’s the best way to get a hold of you, brand names,

42:56-42:57
URLs, all that stuff?

42:57-42:58
Sure.

42:58-43:02
Well, so first thing I’ll say is that there’s, I’ve done a lot of free YouTube videos.

43:02-43:05
So, if you’re interested in getting into this, you know, check those out.

43:05-43:11
The community was something that I feel like I was pushed to do by the people that followed

43:11-43:15
me more so than me trying to start a cult by any means.

43:15-43:19
But it’s, it’s been a great resource and it’s really for people that are doing the same

43:19-43:20
thing.

43:20-43:23
It’s like, why would you not just want to like, you know, you don’t have to be the smartest

43:23-43:26
person in the room, but I’d like to be the guy that booked the room for the smart people

43:26-43:27
to be in.

43:27-43:29
And so that is what that was.

43:29-43:31
So, there’s really no hard sell on joining that group.

43:31-43:34
If you’re interested, you have your own studio, you’re interested in getting into the studio

43:34-43:35
business.

43:35-43:36
It’s a good resource.

43:36-43:40
But if you just want to learn about gear and maybe do this at your house, maybe not something

43:40-43:44
that you need to go through with, but you can, you find us on YouTube at the studio business.

43:44-43:48
You can join the community if you go to the studio.business.

43:48-43:54
And then if you want to learn about our podcast studio here, it’s Chicago Podcast Studio.

43:54-43:59
Tom really likes the exact match URLs, and they’ve served you well over the years.

43:59-44:00
I can’t afford the dot coms, man.

44:00-44:01
Everybody takes them.

44:01-44:04
So, you got to do these dots everything else, but it seems to be working.

44:04-44:06
It seems to get the job done.

44:06-44:07
Yeah, excellent.

44:07-44:08
Tom, so great.

44:08-44:09
Thank you for the interview today.

44:09-44:10
And also, all your help over the last couple of years.

44:10-44:11
Of course, man.

44:11-44:12
I was happy to do it.

44:12-44:12
Thanks, John.

44:12-44:16
Bye.

44:16-44:17
Bye.

44:17-44:18
Bye.

44:18-44:20
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