Episode 8
Zach Moreno and Rockwell Felder of SquadCast
In episode eight of Podcaster Stories, I sit down with Zach Moreno and Rockwell Felder of remote recording platform SquadCast, and the Between 2 Mics podcast.
After looking to use a remote recording solution for their internal team meetings, both Zach and Rock were disillusioned at what was on the market. They knew audio and reliability could be better, and so SquadCast was born.
They believed remote recording should - and, more importantly, could - be just as good as offline audio recording. We sit down to discuss the evolution of SquadCast, and how the podcaster experience is at the forefront of everything they do.
Topics up for discussion this week include:
- How limitations of other remote platforms led to the creation of SquadCast
- Why SquadCast is built from the podcaster's viewpoint
- How Zach and Rock's day jobs led them to how they approached SquadCast
- Why audio quality equal to offline recording was a core goal
- How SquadCast's progressive upload technology differentiates them from others
- How SquadCast solved the problem of audio drift in remote recordings
- Why the SquadCast team refuse to settle for the status quo
- How the users of SquadCast have driven the direction of the platform
- How they're trying to help educate remote podcasters through their Remote Podcast Stats Report and State of Remote Podcasting webinar
- Why data shows the use of headphones should be mandatory for all podcasters
- How their well-known Board members and advisors became involved
- How the reciprocity of the podcast community drives Zach and Rock
- Why analytics is the next big challenge to bust in podcasting
- Why new podcasters shouldn't get bogged down by the technical side of things
- Why tools should concentrate on solving existing problems, not ones that haven't been found yet
- Why you shouldn't be discouraged early in your podcasting journey
- What Zach and Rock appreciate about each other
Settle back for an open and interesting chat about remote recording, and why settling for the status quo will only hold the podcasting industry back.
Connect with SquadCast:
Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com
My equipment:
- Rode Podmic
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen
- TRITON AUDIO Fethead In-Line Microphone Preamp
- Denon DJ HP-1100 Over Ear Headphones
- RockJam MS050 Adjustable Mic Suspension Boom
- Dragonpad Pop Filter
Recommended resources:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Transcript
Hi, and welcome to Podcaster Stories each week we will
Speaker:have a conversation with podcasts. It was across all mediums
Speaker:and share their story and what motivates them, why they
Speaker:started to show up as a group, the show and
Speaker:more, but also talk about their personal lives and some
Speaker:of the things that have happened. I've made them the
Speaker:person they are today. And now here's your host Danny
Speaker:Brown. Hi guys. And welcome to another episode of Podcaster.
Speaker:Stories where we meet the voices of the people behind
Speaker:the show. As we listen to this week, I've got
Speaker:two guests Rockwell Felder and Zac Moreno throw them SquadCast
Speaker:FM. So thanks for joining me a lot of maybe
Speaker:you wanna introduce yourself and what your doing as well.
Speaker:So I appreciate you having us on Danny and it's,
Speaker:it's a, it's our pleasure to connect with you and
Speaker:add value to your audience. And yeah, a little bit
Speaker:about us were cofounders, like, as you said, it was
Speaker:SquadCast dot FMB. And what we do there is help
Speaker:professional podcasters create quality content remotely from anywhere in the
Speaker:world. And we've been at that about three and a
Speaker:half years and beyond that rock and I are long
Speaker:time good friends.
Speaker:So, and I know looking at the, I was, I
Speaker:mean, I use SquadCast or FM myself. We are recording
Speaker:this episode on SquadCast FMLA as a whole Podcaster Stories
Speaker:episodes recorded. And I know from your website, one of
Speaker:the main reasons that you guys started with SquadCast FM
Speaker:is because of the limitations we have Remote record and
Speaker:you've got a remote team. What, what are you finding?
Speaker:What are the biggest limitations that were really, you know,
Speaker:impact in your team's effectiveness?
Speaker:Yes. Yeah. I mean, it was a little surprising to
Speaker:us at first that it was just so difficult to
Speaker:create a Podcast remotely and just how all across the
Speaker:board at different methods pod-casters were using, there was, you
Speaker:know, some very, ah, you know, to get the high
Speaker:quality AUDIO that we were shooting for. It seemed like,
Speaker:you know, it was really, it was a laborer, his
Speaker:effort, which is fine, but it's just like, kind of
Speaker:took the fun and sizzle a lot of it. So
Speaker:then when we use like easier solutions, like a Skype
Speaker:or zoom, that was also common with podcasters, we felt
Speaker:like we had to sacrifice the audio quality, which really
Speaker:didn't sit well with us either. So kinda went back
Speaker:to the drawing board because the original idea for this
Speaker:was that we want it to start a podcast of
Speaker:our own with a remote team.
Speaker:So it did kind of take us back to the
Speaker:drawing board and, and fortunately Zach is, and the guy
Speaker:who, who, who stays down to long and came up
Speaker:with another idea. And, and then it was like, well,
Speaker:let's build this for the Podcast industry. And so, you
Speaker:know, we kind of came in as outsiders and really
Speaker:fans of, of, of Podcasting and have experienced the magic
Speaker:as listeners, but then really needed to get inside the
Speaker:podcast producer publisher's head of, you know, what challenges and
Speaker:problems or they were experiencing. And, you know, it's this
Speaker:remote recording thing, a, a, an opportunity and, you know,
Speaker:do people care about quality, the way that we thought
Speaker:they did, or at least would a with the way
Speaker:that, you know, Podcasting was going
Speaker:Right. And you mentioned that you came in to the
Speaker:industry as podcasters to create the platform for
Speaker:Podcast those. So what was your background before coming and
Speaker:what was your story the other day job? But if
Speaker:you, if you were like before, SquadCast
Speaker:So lots of things and, and the, the podcasts that
Speaker:we want it to create was it was actually intended
Speaker:to be a, kind of a creative side project because
Speaker:I'm a software engineer and it was, was working in
Speaker:the government on 'em some environmental causes and that's, that
Speaker:was really great work. And I'm glad there are people
Speaker:doing it, but I was writing too much code to
Speaker:be Frank And wanted to go back to kind of
Speaker:a creative side project is I went to art school
Speaker:before that. And, you know, I used to paint every
Speaker:day and I didn't necessarily want to go and do
Speaker:that again. I wanted to try something completely new, and
Speaker:I was always a fan of podcasts from a listening
Speaker:perspective and really became kind of aware and hip to
Speaker:this new genre within Podcasting of, of audio dramas and,
Speaker:and fiction within Podcasting.
Speaker:And we, we sought to create one of those news
Speaker:shows. So, you know, a new, medium, a new new
Speaker:genre within that medium, and really wanted to kinda get
Speaker:out of our comfort zone and try something new. And
Speaker:we were pretty audacious in doing that, but also we
Speaker:thought we had a lot of the skills necessary to
Speaker:do that at a high level. My, my brother, Vince,
Speaker:who is also on our team is a, is an,
Speaker:an audio engineer and sound designer. I'm a software engineer
Speaker:and podcasts, or kind of a medium have the web.
Speaker:And then my good friend and, and myself have both
Speaker:kind of been published authors. So we thought we had
Speaker:a lot of the prerequisites to do something like that,
Speaker:but we really found this bottleneck of quality.
Speaker:And, and that's really where we, we pivoted from the
Speaker:Podcast to building something that kind of solved our own
Speaker:problem and turns out a lot of other people had
Speaker:that same challenge as well.
Speaker:Yeah. And, and for me, I was just a, you
Speaker:know, Zach and I are longtime friends, so we've known
Speaker:each other since high school, but, you know, in college,
Speaker:we, you know, when are we went our separate ways
Speaker:as far as like career interests went. And so he
Speaker:went the software development route, and then I went more
Speaker:of the business, accounting, finance, rout. I was working at
Speaker:an accounting firm, has a, a business auditor, which sounds
Speaker:probably boring to some, but for me, I actually thought
Speaker:it was really exciting and, and got exposed to a
Speaker:lot of different businesses and, and executives and founder's and
Speaker:stuff. So that's what started to, you know, help me
Speaker:realize how interested I was in, you know, taking a,
Speaker:a jump into the, something more creative and more independent
Speaker:and in an entrepreneurial as good as that job was
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:And I, I don't think I would be here today
Speaker:if it wasn't for that job much, like, I think
Speaker:Zach feels the same way about his previous job, but,
Speaker:you know, something was just kind of burning inside a
Speaker:us independently that we wanted to do something more, again,
Speaker:creative and independent, and, you know, it kind of just,
Speaker:and it was this intersection of Zach and
Speaker:I had already experienced working remotely and had success with
Speaker:that. And I think independently saw that as being a
Speaker:future thing that would be more common. And then this
Speaker:writing this curve of growth in Podcasting at the same
Speaker:time, that's kind of what the bet was that the,
Speaker:the two of those would intersect and folks would want
Speaker:to create high quality content. And we want it to
Speaker:be that, that platform to do that right
Speaker:Or remotely. And I know, I know you had mentioned,
Speaker:I mean, I I've previously previously used like zoom lens
Speaker:and cast it and stuff like that. And one of
Speaker:the reasons he came Abe, you know, SquadCast FM is
Speaker:the features that you have, like the green room that
Speaker:we are using at the moment, for example, the, you
Speaker:know, the, the, the, the separate audio tracks that are
Speaker:not a lot of them that are not once have,
Speaker:when you were coming in to the industry to create
Speaker:SquadCast FM, what were some of the biggest challenges that
Speaker:you've found as you build the platform up?
Speaker:Well, AUDIO can be very exacting a, so I think
Speaker:that was kind of one of the first design constraints
Speaker:that we have. Of course, we, we sought to strive
Speaker:for per producing quality audio. So if you, if you're
Speaker:cool with recording kind of whatever quality audio, then it's
Speaker:not very exact thing. But once you get in to
Speaker:kind of the, you know, the, the, the CD standard
Speaker:quality, or kind of the edge of human hearing capabilities,
Speaker:that's when things get, you know, a balancing act between
Speaker:what kind of modern computers and software and stuff like
Speaker:that can do versus, you know, where, where our ears
Speaker:can can hear. And, you know, you can record quality
Speaker:audio, even if you solved those problems than we did,
Speaker:if you record the best quality audio ever.
Speaker:And that file never actually makes it to the person
Speaker:who needs it to, to produce their show, then it
Speaker:doesn't really matter. So reliability is kind of that second
Speaker:factor that, that really, I think the combo of those
Speaker:two things together really is where our SquadCast shines is,
Speaker:is the high reliability with our kind of a progressive
Speaker:upload technology that we've developed that kind of auto saves
Speaker:to the cloud with our backup strategy that is recorded
Speaker:separately, have our primaries. So we always have that kind
Speaker:of safety net in there for high reliability support is
Speaker:another one of those factors. And then just setting people
Speaker:up for success in post-production with time-saving features like recording
Speaker:in separate files, recording those files locally.
Speaker:So there are that really high quality. And, and then
Speaker:also this problem of time sink issues can arise. So
Speaker:the so-called AUDIO drift, and I believe where the first
Speaker:a platform to have solved that. And we have some,
Speaker:you know, some patents pending around how we upload that
Speaker:audio that I mentioned, and then also the, the drift
Speaker:normalization. So all of those things combined really make, make
Speaker:a smooth experience on the surface, really easy for people
Speaker:to show up and record really great sounding AUDIO, but
Speaker:their there's all of these things under the hood that
Speaker:add up to
Speaker:Produce the quality, and I'm a reliability and setting it
Speaker:up for success in post production. So all in service
Speaker:of our listeners, which is, you know, a what, what
Speaker:we encourage podcasters to kind of make their decisions through
Speaker:that lens, the success is a podcast or follows with,
Speaker:with your audience. No, for sure. And I know I
Speaker:have one or the previous platforms that you used was
Speaker:a notorious for AUDIO drift, and that it wasn't something
Speaker:that was aware of until a lesson as we start
Speaker:either an email and, or pick at me on Twitter
Speaker:or whatever, and say, Hey, did you hear this are
Speaker:great because I was just have a lot on it.
Speaker:You know, when I first got started, you had mentioned
Speaker:some of the things that you see as the progress
Speaker:of uploads in the audience, you know, the, the, the
Speaker:lack of where are just et cetera. Mmm.
Speaker:What would, what would you say are some of the
Speaker:other things that separate you throw in a similar platforms
Speaker:you want to take this one? Rock
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, I think what it comes down to
Speaker:is that like were just really, we care a lot
Speaker:and we just really, aren't gonna accept the what's what's
Speaker:commonly used or what I thought as possible. We're not
Speaker:gonna take that as like, you know, we are not
Speaker:going to settle with that. And I think that's why
Speaker:SquadCast is what it is is that, like, we figured
Speaker:that there are just had to be a better way
Speaker:that was specifically catered towards helping empowering creators. And so
Speaker:I think, you know, all, everything that we work on
Speaker:really comes down to that in the, the best way
Speaker:that we do that is because we have the opportunity
Speaker:and the benefit of serving people that talk for a
Speaker:living. So like very early on, we just realized, Holy
Speaker:crap, like these people are telling us exactly what they
Speaker:want and they're, you know, they're well spoken.
Speaker:They know what they know how to say what's on
Speaker:their mind, which can be tough at first when it's
Speaker:critical, but, you know, if you've got thick skin, it
Speaker:can actually be super beneficial because, you know, we just
Speaker:listen to them and, and just do, you know, a
Speaker:lot of the stuff that we originally set out to
Speaker:do is pretty much there in the original vision, but
Speaker:a lot of stuff has been, you know, direct customer
Speaker:input and feedback, and just working with them every step
Speaker:of the way to make sure that we're, we're not
Speaker:just creating something just for the sake of being able
Speaker:to build and call ourselves entrepreneurs and stuff like that.
Speaker:Like, we want to be solving real problems for real
Speaker:people and, you know, making them really happy.
Speaker:So I think that's really what it boils down to
Speaker:is like AUDIO drift is something that we ran into
Speaker:as well. And it was really disappointing and scary and
Speaker:surprising, but we didn't settle for that because we thought
Speaker:that's, that's unacceptable. There has to be a better way.
Speaker:And then the upload process, we had similar stuff to,
Speaker:to what happened, what was going on with Zencaster as
Speaker:well, and just thought that's unacceptable. There's gotta be a
Speaker:better way. So then we develop this patent pending technology
Speaker:called progressive upload to help just have a better upload
Speaker:process, because we realized that time is so precious and
Speaker:there's so much work that goes into just getting that
Speaker:person in the interview with you. So when its time
Speaker:for, for SquadCast to go, you know, it needs to
Speaker:work.
Speaker:And so that's why we really try to, we really
Speaker:care about that. So everything has, is really with that
Speaker:in mind. And also it's because we are, we've been
Speaker:in your shoes now we have a podcast of our
Speaker:own, and I think that's really helped us understand what
Speaker:it's like to be a Podcaster. And, you know, we've
Speaker:experienced so many benefits of Podcasting, whether it's building an
Speaker:audience, which we, you know, are starting to do, but
Speaker:also the relationships that you can build through the connections
Speaker:of having the podcast, like what we're doing right now,
Speaker:Danny like, it's, it's, it's a pretty incredible thing. So
Speaker:we just care about it. We really like it. It's,
Speaker:it's a, it's a great, we feel like a lot.
Speaker:No, I know you, you know, what is that as
Speaker:an end user, I can see that coming through, you
Speaker:know, like I said, when I moved over from a
Speaker:previous host or Remote or record a host, I should
Speaker:stay and you can just see the difference right away.
Speaker:And, and speaking to the users, what, I mean, you
Speaker:must let me see countless amounts of Podcast being uploaded
Speaker:and then definitely types of podcasts. Etcetera. What would you
Speaker:say is possible is the biggest mistake if you like
Speaker:that Remote podcast does make either when it comes to
Speaker:the end of the process or the platform, or even
Speaker:on the record in what, what, what, what are you
Speaker:seeing and how I was SquadCast aiming to, so we
Speaker:fix that or if you like,
Speaker:Yeah. I think that there's a lot of opportunities around,
Speaker:around education, and that's always been something that is kind
Speaker:of near and dear to our mission, because we're all
Speaker:figuring out Podcasting as we go, it's a relatively new
Speaker:medium, so there's not this defined equation that you follow
Speaker:the recipe and everything, you know, it comes out the
Speaker:same every time. So that's really, you know, that that
Speaker:can feel kind of a paralyzing, but it also is
Speaker:empowering because it's like a fresh sheet of paper and
Speaker:we're all, you know, getting to innovate at the same
Speaker:time. So that can lead to a lot of, kind
Speaker:of non-intuitive things, different behavior and things like that around.
Speaker:Umm, and you know, we just published a very excited
Speaker:to say, we've just published our first Remote Podcast Stats
Speaker:report that has some very interesting data. And we did
Speaker:that in a webinar called the state of Vermont Podcasting.
Speaker:So that's a, that's on our blog and on our
Speaker:side, if you want to check that out at SquadCast
Speaker:FM and really there are some insights in their that
Speaker:answering your question. So one of them is the, the
Speaker:Microphone choice. There's a lot of recommendations out there from,
Speaker:from influencers and podcasters, but its all at the end
Speaker:of the day, anecdotal advice, we sought to bring clear
Speaker:data driven decision making to the Podcast community through the
Speaker:2019 year we had data and we, we brought that
Speaker:out to the community to really help people to inform
Speaker:their choice of Microphone to bring awareness to the times
Speaker:of day is that podcasters are recording.
Speaker:I think a lot of people think that anecdotally again,
Speaker:that it's nights and weekends, it's a hobbyist, it's all
Speaker:that stuff. Not true from, from what we've seen in
Speaker:our data. People are Podcasting during the Workday, which I
Speaker:think speaks to the professionalism and the evolution of our
Speaker:medium and community. Another one is a recording with headphones
Speaker:versus speakers. That's a big debate in, in our community.
Speaker:And we again were able to bring some, some clear
Speaker:kind of, you know, cut and dry data to that,
Speaker:to that picture in the conversation. And for anybody out
Speaker:there, please wear headphones, anytime you record AUDIO I think
Speaker:that's one of the, the big takeaways, things that we
Speaker:see kinds of people just, just showing up on SquadCast
Speaker:and jumping in head first, which is always good.
Speaker:We always tell people, just start your podcast, right? But
Speaker:it's it's it's not intuitive. Why headphones would impact quality?
Speaker:It's it's intuitive. Why the microphone would impact quality, but
Speaker:headphones is just one of those things. That's not intuitive.
Speaker:It's not a fashion statement or a coincidence that you
Speaker:see people in studios and things like that, all wearing
Speaker:headphones. There's a reason for that. And I can go
Speaker:into that, but you know, please wear headphones and your
Speaker:guest's as well.
Speaker:I, I, I know I'm I when I first had
Speaker:Podcast and I would just use the microphone And, you
Speaker:know, I've, I've always done it on my record and
Speaker:I've always wondered why I was shouting verses my guest
Speaker:is just, you know, I've come across naturally. And, and
Speaker:then when a group, when I got like the, the,
Speaker:the focus, right. And I got headphones, there was a
Speaker:whole new world with the direct monitor and it was
Speaker:crazy different. So yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. That's a big one. And then also this like,
Speaker:like if you're using speaker's that can, because this feedback
Speaker:echo loupe and we can cancel that out on SquadCast
Speaker:you don't need headphones to record with us. It can
Speaker:be canceled out, but that requires software to impact the
Speaker:quality of your audio. And we don't want to do
Speaker:that. We want to give you the sounds that came
Speaker:from your mouth. We want to give you that and
Speaker:nothing in between. So, so when we have to cancel
Speaker:out that, that feedback, it can really compress and, and
Speaker:drive the volume down and impact the quality of the
Speaker:audio. We don't want that. So a much simpler solution
Speaker:is just wearing headphones to cancel that at all.
Speaker:Okay. And, and I know you had mentioned earlier about,
Speaker:there are the recommendations of Microphone by choice and How
Speaker:so an original podcast or the influencers would go in
Speaker:and whether they were getting paid to do so by
Speaker:the brand, et cetera, who knows, but what I've been
Speaker:impressed with SquadCast and when I look at your board
Speaker:of advisors, for example, you've got some crazy experience, people
Speaker:that are like Pat Flynn, for instance. So how did
Speaker:something like that come about? Did they approach you or
Speaker:do you approach him somewhere in the middle or,
Speaker:Yeah, that's kind of the, it's what we were very
Speaker:blessed to, to kind of a, we didn't know what
Speaker:advisers were or what this advisory board was when we
Speaker:first started this startup game, but, you know, we're, we're,
Speaker:we're students of the game in love to learn new
Speaker:things. So, you know, when we were researching how to
Speaker:start a business and, and specifically a software company, you
Speaker:know, one of the things that came up was leaning
Speaker:on the advice of other folks that were either had
Speaker:deep industry knowledge or, or network connections, or, you know,
Speaker:obviously the ability to a,
Speaker:You know, build a business and, you know, it did
Speaker:for one reason or another, they all just kind of
Speaker:happened. It wasn't, you know, the most intentional thing, which,
Speaker:you know, because it has downsides, but it's also because
Speaker:a lot of this stuff we were just doing for
Speaker:the first time. So, you know, we went to podcast
Speaker:movement in, in 2016, it's like the first unveiling, if
Speaker:you will, of SquadCast to the Podcast community. And it
Speaker:was obviously very early days for us and, and, you
Speaker:know, an incredibly anxious time for us because, you know,
Speaker:we had no idea how we were going to be
Speaker:received and, you know, just were still operating under a,
Speaker:a lot of assumptions. So we're really, you know, like
Speaker:how has this community going to receive us?
Speaker:And like within the first five minutes it was like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh, they're like, it felt like it was
Speaker:at home. And these people were really awesome at this
Speaker:event. And in, in LA is when we met our
Speaker:first advisor, Harry Dorin. And he's kind of be the
Speaker:one that helps us with those other relationships. And that
Speaker:was really helping us set the tone of why those
Speaker:relationships are so important because we spent the next year
Speaker:with him really, you know, developing our, our positioning and
Speaker:our, our, our our message and not really understanding who
Speaker:were, were, were servicing and why and how to do
Speaker:that. And so a lot of what you see in
Speaker:SquadCast today is, is thank you, thanks to Harry Duran.
Speaker:But, you know, shortly after that, we started getting connected
Speaker:with other folks in the industry, like Espree Devora from
Speaker:where LA tech, Jordan harbinger, and Pat Flynn, who we
Speaker:were always fans of.
Speaker:And so the opportunity to work with someone like that,
Speaker:it was like men, you know, the no brainer. And
Speaker:then just to have them just open doors for us
Speaker:or see things in ways that, you know, just, it
Speaker:feels like we're skipping steps. I guess this is really
Speaker:what that helps us out with. Like, we would have
Speaker:figured out thing most of this stuff, but we've bumbled
Speaker:and stumbled our way on enough thing. So it's nice
Speaker:to, you know, be ahead of a few things when
Speaker:people can tell you like, Hey, this is what you
Speaker:should try, or you should think about it like this,
Speaker:or, Hey, I worked with this other company and this
Speaker:is what they did. So don't do that. Or do
Speaker:you do that? So it is, it's been an incredible
Speaker:man. 'cause, you know, we look up to these people
Speaker:and they've been indirect mentors of ours in a lot
Speaker:of ways, but to actually like work with them directly.
Speaker:And they're like, still that same person, its, its, its
Speaker:kind of trippy, but you know, we're, we're super grateful
Speaker:for it. And honestly like what we keep hearing from
Speaker:them is that they do, they're doing this for us,
Speaker:you know? And they do have like a, a, an
Speaker:equity stake in the company. But you know, it's not
Speaker:like a, a, a significant amount or a controlling amount.
Speaker:They don't make decisions. So a lot of this is
Speaker:coming from a generous place. I, I really think, and
Speaker:that's because other people have helped them along the way.
Speaker:And so I think one of the things that Zach
Speaker:and I are starting to see and getting really excited
Speaker:about as like our opportunity to, in a, to start
Speaker:helping folks in a little way, and as we continue
Speaker:to grow and, and get more experience and build our
Speaker:network to,
Speaker:To do that even more is, is really exciting to
Speaker:me. So is that weird?
Speaker:So you're about to Mics podcast came from the idea
Speaker:where it's introducing people to the wider community. I like
Speaker:people you admire for instance.
Speaker:Yeah. It's, it's a something that we felt tremendously grateful.
Speaker:Like we were really, as Rock said, we, we had
Speaker:some imposter syndrome early days and all, a lot of
Speaker:this was not validated and there was a lot of
Speaker:risk and all of these things that, you know, startup
Speaker:founders talk about. But as we started to really understand
Speaker:that, yes, there is a huge opportunity here. Nobody's kind
Speaker:of happy with the state-of-the-art and we can bring something
Speaker:fresh and new. And we got that to finally work
Speaker:and thanks to our advisors in the community. And, you
Speaker:know, I mentioned progressive upload before that that was not
Speaker:our idea. That was Harry Durand's idea. So thank you,
Speaker:Harry, for, for all of your contributions in the community
Speaker:as well.
Speaker:So that, you know, is where we found ourselves when
Speaker:we started the Between to Mics podcast was, Hey, we're
Speaker:in this incredibly fortunate position to have contributed something new
Speaker:to Podcasting. And as we built out connections and kind
Speaker:of awareness as to the Podcast landscape and community, we
Speaker:saw that there were all of these other great people
Speaker:out there who were also pushing Podcasting forward and one
Speaker:way or another, and kind of stretching the boundaries of
Speaker:the medium and the community. And like, as an example,
Speaker:Rock you mentioned a spree are adviser. You know, she
Speaker:was at, at, at symbol cast contributing two to their
Speaker:product roadmap.
Speaker:And simple cast is a, a very innovative podcast hosting
Speaker:company with analytics and really kind of on the forefront
Speaker:of, of what's possible in that part of the, of
Speaker:the industry. And ah, and there's a lot of other
Speaker:people. So its really about sharing those stories, making people
Speaker:aware, like Podcasting, like I said before, his is kind
Speaker:of a fresh sheet of paper. Like there is kind
Speaker:of some, some things like we know we need a
Speaker:podcast hosts. We know we need to record somehow in
Speaker:these things, but like in between the two, there's a
Speaker:lot of space for innovation. So we want it to
Speaker:explore and celebrate those people that are, that are helping
Speaker:innovate in the podcasting space, know us.
Speaker:I will see podcasters yourself and you know, the people
Speaker:behind SquadCast and the platform and what that offers podcasters.
Speaker:And if you could give one single piece of advice
Speaker:to new podcast, those are the people thinking about getting
Speaker:into there, the medium, what would that be?
Speaker:Yeah, I think that there's a lot of excitement and
Speaker:drive around creating Podcast is on the surface. So from
Speaker:the, from the listener perspective, it seems very easy to
Speaker:get started and it can be, but I think people
Speaker:get kind of bogged down in the technology sometimes. And
Speaker:with the experience with SquadCast we've always sought to, of
Speaker:course it's a technology tool and platform, but we've always
Speaker:strived to put as much of it below the surface
Speaker:as possible. So that it's really straight forward to just
Speaker:click record, walk away with awesome sounding audio files that
Speaker:are gonna make it easy for you to edit and
Speaker:publish that, that Podcast. So there doesn't really need to
Speaker:be all this fancy technology.
Speaker:There are problems though, and I think of technology as
Speaker:tools. So you don't go in like look for tools
Speaker:to solve problems you haven't found yet. Right? Like I
Speaker:think that's kind of, people kind of put those in
Speaker:the reverse order sometimes where it's like, well I need
Speaker:a, B C, but if you haven't encountered like, you
Speaker:know, the problem that AI solves, then you don't really
Speaker:need a right. So it's, it's kind of like a,
Speaker:is as complex as you want to make it. And
Speaker:I think people see professional podcasters with all this gear
Speaker:and all these boxes on their desks and stuff like
Speaker:that. And its like, Oh, that's what I need to
Speaker:be like, not true at all. You can sound great
Speaker:from anywhere in the world and, and you don't need
Speaker:a lot of technology to, to do that.
Speaker:And I think that that's something that, that, that kinda
Speaker:gets in people's way. And then a and then once
Speaker:you are started, keep going, you know, don't be discouraged
Speaker:by not sounding great on your first couple of interviews,
Speaker:like awkward pauses or not knowing how to do something
Speaker:in post-production and editing out like your, your dog's snoring
Speaker:in the background or something along those lines, like just
Speaker:look forward and look for opportunities to continue improving and,
Speaker:and just take ownership of it. Like, look, I don't
Speaker:know what I'm doing, you know, and that's fine because
Speaker:I'm going to get better and stick with me through
Speaker:this journey and then you'll have this archive over time.
Speaker:Any, any Podcast or who has been at it for
Speaker:more than a year or two, they all say like,
Speaker:Oh please don't listen to my first like 20 episodes
Speaker:or a a hundred episodes or whatever it is.
Speaker:But I, I like that stuff. And there's this, even
Speaker:this debate in the community about like deleting those episodes
Speaker:from your feed at some point. And I think that's,
Speaker:that's, that's like trying, you know, I like transparency, anybody
Speaker:who knows me. So I think, you know, just take
Speaker:ownership and just say, yeah, I'm way better now than
Speaker:I was then. And here's the proof.
Speaker:Yeah, no, and I, I know of less than back
Speaker:to my own. Podcast like the echo is on there,
Speaker:the noise and the back end and say, well my
Speaker:grief or what was I thinking? It's to your point,
Speaker:it shows go off and it shows someone willing to
Speaker:lounge. You know, I just see a take on a
Speaker:trip and I think people appreciated that more as opposed
Speaker:to someone that comes in with all the bells and
Speaker:whistles from day one, that's super slick recordings and everything.
Speaker:All right. So just to like switch it around a
Speaker:bit, what is something about a, you both know that
Speaker:people might know that there are people that know you
Speaker:may be surprised to learn of that don't already know
Speaker:him. And is it a good question? Should we go?
Speaker:You want us to do it like me answer about
Speaker:Zach and hymn about me or me answer about a
Speaker:know
Speaker:Myself. Oh, that could be for an actual, this is
Speaker:like a, a Mr. And Mrs. Pannell here and that
Speaker:it could be fun at the club. I did not
Speaker:mean to set it up like that.
Speaker:Well, I'll, I'll start and say something about rock. Is
Speaker:that sound good? Yeah, for sure. Okay. So Rock has
Speaker:these incredible skill's that he mentioned with, with, you know,
Speaker:finance and business and accounting and these like, you know,
Speaker:very kind of cut and dry skills. Like you can
Speaker:do something where you can't, but I have noticed that
Speaker:he, he often overlooks of himself his abilities to, to
Speaker:do things at a high-level outside of those in, in
Speaker:creative ways. Like those seem like very non-creative fields, but
Speaker:a as we've learned business is probably one of the
Speaker:most creative things that a person can do and rock
Speaker:and Xcel's in that environment.
Speaker:So that's convinced me that it's not all, you know,
Speaker:hard skills. There are, there are a lot of soft
Speaker:skills in there as well. And, and that comes to
Speaker:life every day in creative ways with our business.
Speaker:That's funny, you said that, man, because that's what I
Speaker:was going to kind of use is like the soft
Speaker:skills, you know, it can be very easy as someone
Speaker:in your position, who's got so much, so much work
Speaker:to do your job's almost always ending as our, our
Speaker:lead on, on, on the, the vision of our products,
Speaker:the development of our product. But then on top of
Speaker:that, you have on the job as CEO, as the
Speaker:leader of the company and the way that you set
Speaker:the tone at the top and the vision and stuff
Speaker:like that. So for me, it's been interesting to see
Speaker:someone who is doing both and he likes to do
Speaker:both, you know, it's, it's pretty awesome cause its like,
Speaker:well who better to communicate the vision of a tech
Speaker:company than someone who loves technology as much as Zach
Speaker:and believes in technology as much as Zach and he,
Speaker:he takes it very seriously, like almost to a fault.
Speaker:So maybe that's the, maybe that's the thing that people
Speaker:don't know about it is he's very sensitive about technology.
Speaker:So be gentle when discussing technology.
Speaker:Okay, well I'm a diehard geek, so I would never,
Speaker:ever looked a step on anybody's toes or when it
Speaker:comes to
like a pleasure. I really enjoyed a chat and I
Speaker:could see it for what I was just talking away,
Speaker:but I am wary of people that don't listen to
Speaker:podcasts like Joe Rogan for three hours or whatever. So
Speaker:I like it, you know, during my limits for people
Speaker:that want to learn about a SquadCast or the platform
Speaker:or, or listening to your podcasts or, or, or anything
Speaker:like that, or where's the best place for them to,
Speaker:to connect with you guys. Yeah.
Speaker:Our podcast is available everywhere and that's the Between to
Speaker:Mike's and number two and a, we talked to people
Speaker:who were pushing Podcasting foreword in one way or another,
Speaker:and we're always looking for the, you know, the innovator's
Speaker:in the industry and talking to them about their stories.
Speaker:And ah, like I said, there's no shortage of those.
Speaker:It's it's pretty amazing days. And Podcasting and, and were,
Speaker:were looking to celebrate and bring those stories to the
Speaker:community. And then at SquadCast we are very open and
Speaker:part of the community. So find us that meetups or
Speaker:a, or conferences when we kind of get to a,
Speaker:those hopefully in the near future here. And you can
Speaker:find us in the meantime, M on the, our website
Speaker:at SquadCast dot FM or on social media at SquadCast
Speaker:FM and a, you know, we're, we're very grateful, as
Speaker:I said at the beginning too, a to connect with
Speaker:you, Danny.
Speaker:So thank you for having us on. We appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you. Danny
Speaker:No, thank you. Okay guys. Well, this has been under
Speaker:our episode of Podcaster Stories if you enjoyed this big
Speaker:show and made sure to subscribe, so you don't want
Speaker:me to set up so that when it comes out
Speaker:and you can find the show either at Podcast Stories
Speaker:dot com all on your favorite apps, like Apple podcasts,
Speaker:Google podcasts, Spotify, et cetera, until the next time be
Speaker:well, and we'll speak soon. You've been listening to podcasts
Speaker:or stories. If you enjoyed this week's show, be sure
Speaker:to subscribe. So you don't miss an episode and feel
Speaker:free to leave a review on iTunes to help other
Speaker:trainers show to you. And we'll see in the next
