Welcome to Podcasting Tech, a podcast that equips busy

entrepreneurs engaged in podcasting with proven and cost effective

solutions for achieving a professional sound and appearance.

I'm Matthew Passi, your host and a 15 year veteran in the podcasting

space. We'll help you cut through the noise and offer guidance on software and

hardware that can elevate the quality of your show. Tune in weekly

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strategies for podcasting success. Head to podcasting tech dot

com to subscribe to this show on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform

and join us on this exciting journey to unlock the full potential of your

podcast. It is not often when you talk

about podcasting and services and companies that are assisting that you were talking about

something that's not a microphone, a mixer, or a piece of

software. No. Today, we are talking about podcast

furniture. Like what? Yes. Podcast furniture, very

specifically, podcast tables. We have Jason

Villanueva. He is the owner of podcast tables. You can find

them at podcast tables dot shop, and they

build this table system specifically

designed for podcasters to give them great looking sets,

easy cable management, something that's gonna look really nice. And I could

say that because we have actually used them so excited to talk to Jason

about this, how it got started and maybe what plans they have for the future.

Jason, thank you for joining us today. Yeah. Thank you so much for reaching out

and, and having me today. Oh, it's it's our pleasure. So

were you into podcasting and that led to the

tables? Are you into furniture? And you're like, oh, I see a gap. Like, how

did you go from whatever it was you were doing into, I'm gonna be the

podcast tables guy. Yeah. How about that? So I was actually

in podcasting in 2017. We started a faith based

podcast, and we had a studio down in the basement at our

facility. And, we just built that

out and evolved with this scenario. So it

started off as audio only. Eventually, we introduced video

with introducing video. Now you've got camera angles

and that kind of stuff. And so started with a square

table, then we moved to a oval conference

table, really just trying to adjust people around the space to get the

good shots and the good angles. But we ran into the issue

where sometimes we'll have 2 people, 3 people, 4 people.

And so I thought, man, I really need a table

that I can add and subtract pieces if needed,

and I need something that is gonna create this half moon scenario,

kinda like a news desk or a sports desk, ESPN, CNN, whatever

however you wanna put it. Got all the guys at the table and, just

better for camera angles, better for layout, better for spacing. And

then eventually thinking, you know, I need a hole here for a cable.

I need some cable clips, need some wire management, you know, etcetera,

etcetera. So it started off essentially solving a problem

for myself in our studio, and then it's just evolved over time.

That's pretty cool. So what are the

the the basic, you know, offerings that you have right now? Because I see

you're unveiling some new ones, maybe changing out some colors. But if I were to

go to podcast tables, your dot shop, what is it that I would

expect to find? You know, what's the the kind of flagship product that we're looking

at? Yeah. So the flagship product is our Real

Wood modular style podcasting table. So, no, that's

a mouthful, but I want people to know that it's real furniture. It's solid

wood. We have, oak, Hevea. We've got

walnut. And so this is furniture that's

gonna last a long time. It's I I hate to say it's not

IKEA because I love IKEA. I was in IKEA in

Houston, and then a week later, I was in IKEA in Kansas City because we

just you know, I've got some ideas. We're going down with family and that kind

of stuff. So I love IKEA, but it's not IKEA. It's not a hollow core.

You know, it's built to last, and it it'll last for a long

time. So Real Wood modular style podcast table. We call it

modular because it comes in sections. And so if you have 3 people on

your show, you can buy 3 pieces, and they all connect together. 4 or

5, we even had somebody buy a full circle, which is 8

modular pieces, and so that was pretty cool. But you'll find the

What kind of camera they're using with that one? Well, they're

yeah. They were going back and forth with, like, adding

pieces and taking pieces away. So, essentially, the

8 piece circle served as a conference table for all of their, you

know, management, and then they would take pieces away and then

record content on them. So, you know, kinda multipurpose. But

we've just recently added what we call a it's a powder coated

MDF table. So it's, MDF, medium density

fiber board, and so it's powder coated UV cured. So it's water

resistant. It's a hardtop. It's it's heavy. It's nice, but

it's a different material than real wood. And so we're able to offer that a

lower price point, and you just make it a more affordable table for people

who are into podcasting. And so same modular design, you can

add the pieces, get as many as you need up to 8 to create the

circle if you need that. And, you know, we've got a

couple of other pieces that are like an oval table, a rectangular

table. We've got something called the mini that's a little wedge that

sits between 2 chairs for a soft seating setup. And so we've really tried

to think about all of the use cases And,

you know, starting with the RealWood modular

design, we've just evolved from there again. So

always trying to think outside of the box. What do people really need this

for? And one of the interesting things is

every time I set up a table for a customer, I do that sometimes.

You know, if I get the opportunity to deliver to a

customer, it's it's really great because then I have to

put the thing together, and then I get real user experience.

And then I make adjustments, and I'm like, that sucked. And

so we're gonna fix that because, you know, if I know

how to put these together and it sucked for me, so how do I make

it easier for the next person after I go through that

process? So what were some of the, what were some of the sucky

things that were happening? Like what are some of the latest innovations that

benefit podcasters putting this together and using it? Yeah. Let, well, let me tell

you a story. 1 of them is we used to offer

screws. So just a wood screw with a thread that you would have to use

a power drill with a bit to drive the screw into the

wood. So we would pilot the hole. And so it meant it's just

screwing something into a piece of wood, but not everybody's done

that. What people are used to is they call it RTA, ready to

assemble furniture, where you have an Allen key or an Allen wrench, whatever you

call it, with a bolt, and there's a thread, and you just you know, it's

super easy. So there was one day where I was

putting together one of these tables, and the

screws that I was using, they weren't going all the way in, and the heads

were stripping out. And I was like, well, that's not good. So then I switched

screw sources. Essentially, I switched screws,

and then we made the pilot holes bigger. And that helped,

but then I switched where I was buying the screws,

and we just got a bad batch. And, I was driving

home from Podfest. Went to Podfest in, Orlando

back in January, like, end of January. And I get

a text message, and the guy's like, hey. I just got my table, and the

heads are popping off of these screws. And I'm thinking to myself, man,

that freaking sucks. You know, there's nothing I can do about it. It's just a

bad screw, whatever. So I'm like, well, I can send you some new screws. Like,

you know, if you go to the hardware store, here's the type of screw you

should buy. I'll send you an Amazon gift card just to kinda help cover some

of that cost, you know, like maybe ease some of that inconvenience.

And he's like, okay. That sounds good. Thank you so much. Well, then I decide

to look this guy up and on Facebook, he has 4,000,000 followers.

Oh. And so I think to myself, the guy

that has the issue putting these tables together has

the most influence out of anybody who's bought one of our tables so far. And

we had gotten a lot of ideas being at Podfest, and I was like, okay.

What are this? What are my steps when I get back? So one of the

things we did was we bought a CNC machine, and this is,

an $8,000 expense. But what that allowed us to

do is to route out the bottoms of the tables

where the table leg plate will set into the table. So there's

no question where it goes, and then the holes lined up to thread

metal threaded inserts, and now we offer bolts and Allen keys. So it's, like,

super easy to just line the pieces up and drop

the bolts in and then, tighten them with an Allen key. So

we solved that problem. It was a big expense,

but, you know, it peace of mind for me is worth the

money so that I don't have customers who are running into issues, you

know? So right. You want, you want the experience of somebody gets

this table, puts it together quickly, starts using it.

People watch it and say, man, I love your setup. And when they ask you,

what is it that you want that person to say with a big smile on

their face? Oh, it's a podcast table. It was easy to set up. It

looks great. It works great. Right? You don't want any way to be like, it's

cool, but right. Like, you don't want that. So

I I appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into it and kinda, you know, making

sure it's as easy as possible. So some of the other features for folks who

haven't seen a podcast table, and obviously, we'll link to the website so you could

check it out. But you've got holes drilled in to easily

insert microphone stands. You've got holes drilled

in there to easily run your cables through the table. Right? Good cable

management. You have the option of putting in, you know,

grommets for power. You've got underneath, you've

got all these tools in, in there for cable management. Right? So cables aren't just

hanging down, ways to cover it. What else am I missing? What are some of

the other accessories or or features of the table that podcasters will

get to, enjoy if they check out your tables? Yeah. I think you nailed it.

And we really do pride ourselves on

the the design and the way of cable management and

keeping the tops clean. And so we've got grommets in in

4 different places, and so people can mount their arms

right next to those grommets and run the cables down. And so as you go

through the bottom of the table with your XLR or power cable, whatever it is,

now there's clips where you can you clip everything up to the

bottom of the table, and then we offer the tables with or without

panels. And that's just a a word we chose that is

essentially like a lip or an edge around the the front and the

sides of the table, and that's to help hide some of

that cable craziness that's going on under there. But then also,

you know, I actually have a lot of people ask about the panels and if

they can get them longer because they wanna hide legs and knees and that kind

of stuff. And so, you know, all all the,

legs have leveling feet, and so you can level out the table.

There's latches that connect the tables at the seams. So once you put them

together, you latch them together, and you can kinda shift the table

as one piece, and something we've started offering

recently. And I you know, I'm not sponsored

by anybody yet. I'm ready. So if they're listening, let's go.

But, you know, the Elgato low profile boom arms, we love

those. We think they look great with our table. They're

highly functional. They've got cable management built into them. I mean, that's what I'm

on right now is with our setup in our studio. We have the

Elgato low profile arms, but what we've done is we're able to

modify our tables by simply putting a quarter inch hole through

the through the table. And then we run a quarter inch bolt

up through the table, and we can mount the base of the Elgato arm

without the clamp, essentially flush mounting the arm onto

the table. So it just looks clean. It looks custom.

You know, and I think that's a big big deal too. It's like we do

sell a design, but you can add some of these little features

that really make the table look different than maybe what other people are

doing with their tables. So we're offering that. We've done custom

holes for the Rode PSA 1 mics, and

recently we've been doing custom holes for the bushing for

the OC white boom arms, which are getting really popular and are really expensive.

Yeah. So What, what are there

any other customizations like something, you know, somebody

says like, listen, you have great options. It's cool, but I really need this. Is

there like a really specific customization that you've

done that, is worth sharing? Yeah, for

sure. You know, it's it's gotten a little more difficult

lately with order volume to to really put

focus on customization, but I do it anyway

because, you know, I want as many of our tables

out there as we can possibly get. Right? So if someone says,

hey. We like the table. We think 36 inches on the long side. It's

just a little too short. You know? I did have

a a phone call from somebody at the Dallas Stars, and they're like, hey. We

like your tables, and, but we're gonna be interviewing hockey

players. So can you make the tables bigger? Can you make them

taller? We're like, absolutely. We can. So, you know, we

have 28 inch tall legs, which are just a standard table height. So

if you go to a restaurant, you sit at an office desk, you're looking at

28 inches. But some people ask for 30 because it went a little more room.

Some people ask for counter height. Some people ask for bar height. So there's

been some customizations to make the tables taller

and then again, like wider. So instead of it

being a 36 inch wide edge, we go to 48. We add a

foot. But with that, you know, you increase the footprint of the table. So

I always tell people we'll draw what that's gonna look like and then

give you the dimensions, and you can see if that's actually gonna fit in your

studio because, you know, we've had people you know, they ask all

the time whether dimensions, and we tell them and, like, oh, that's too big. And

so just a a word to the wise if somebody is

considering buying one of our tables, and the 4 piece is, like,

the most popular setup, you wanna be in a

room that's at least 12 feet by 12 feet. Anything else, you're

there's not enough room to move around or mount a camera and get a wide

shot and that kind of stuff. So there's different things like that too that go

into, you know, thinking about where these tables are gonna live.

Great. Good to know. And so once again, you can learn more about this at

podcast tables dot shop. We were chatting with Jason

Villanueva. He is the owner of Podcast Tables. Jason,

before we let you go, we always like to ask everybody a few questions about

the podcasting space. And so, you know, let's let's get your take on what's

happening right now. Is there something in the podcasting world,

whether it's from the creator side or from the listener side that you

would like to see, you know, some massive improvement on?

Massive improvement. Or small improvement. Just something that you

think would make podcasting better for everybody in

the, you know, creator and or listening experience.

What's gonna make it better? You know, I I just

think edge education's gonna gonna going to go a long way

for people. And so if there's

a way that podcasting or

content creation can be taught on a very elementary

level to make it understandable for for the

masses because, essentially, it's being mass adopted right now. And so

you get people who are like, oh, we're gonna do that, and kudos

to the DIY person, you know, the person then go and learn on YouTube and

all that stuff. But I just

think, you know, people don't really know what they're getting into

until they start. And so, yeah, I

you know, where are the where is the

where are the big influencers that are really trying to teach things on

an elementary level to the masses? That's I mean, that's the best thing I

can think of right now. Alright. So better education or at least more

well, well known easy to find better education. There's a lot of folks who are

claiming to teach at a podcast, but, you know, you want us to come from

reliable sources and and not just someone who's trying to to to

get paid. And I would say even so, like, not a not

even a philosophical or marketing philosophy

approach to podcasting, but truly practical. Like, hey. This is an

XLR cable. You've probably never heard of it, but this is what it's called. What

does XLR stand for? I don't actually know, but it plugs into the

but it plugs into these 3 holes like this. And so now you have a

mic. This is how you plug in a mic. Right? Like, as

elementary as you can get, like, teaching a 5 year old how to plug in

a mic. You know? That is a, a a good question.

And I'm gonna I would take a stab at it and guess what it

is, but I don't wanna get, feedback from people telling me I'm wrong right

now. So I will I will avoid going there. Speaking

of, so what about technology? We always like to see, is there a piece

of tech? Right? Is there a microphone, a mix, or something that either

is out there that you wanna buy or something that hasn't been made yet that

you think would, that's on your wish list for podcasting.

Yeah. And maybe maybe on the wish list

of a lot of podcasters who wanna get started right away and don't

wanna spend a lot of money on technology as they wanna like, hey,

how do I use my phone? Well, you know, I don't I

haven't found a really easy,

like, quick setup for a mobile phone

podcast scenario. Like, how do you plug in a USB

mic, or how do you run your audio into your

phone to record into your phone? And so

I know that it and I think it's crazy because now you've

got lightning port, now you've got USB c, so things keep changing.

So if there was some sort of and maybe it exists. I don't know about

it. Maybe you can teach me, but, like, how do I get a mic plugged

into this guy right here and, like, I'm ready to go? And I

think people are looking for that scenario, and I'm like, well, you

can try this dongle, and they're like, well, can I get it on Amazon? I'm

like, not really because not all third party dongles work

with iPhones. It'll tell you that the accessories you know, you can try

it, but it's not guaranteed. But then buy this from

Apple, but then you're gonna need another connector, and so I

don't know how to do it. That's fair. There are some decent

mobile easy solutions. IRig, I think makes a couple of decent

lab microphones that you can use in that situation. I mean, I used to

be able to plug in my Samsung Q2U or HR

2,100. I can't remember which one it was at the time into my phone. I'm

not even sure if those will take with a lot of, phones

and and platforms you wanna record through, but,

that's that's a good thought. Right? Just trying to make the whole mobile

phone studio experience better. So, I like

that challenge accepted. And finally, is there a

podcast out there that you listen to that,

right, you might be doing something else. You might be listening to something else, but

when that podcast hits, you're gonna stop what you're doing and check it out. Right.

What's your, like, go to, you know, listening right now?

Oh, I've got it 100%. So I I used to

listen to podcasts religiously, like, all the time while I drove, while I

worked, and everything. And, I don't know if my attention span has changed

or what, but I used to really enjoy

business style podcast and marketing podcast and, you

know, conversational style podcast, all that stuff. But there's one that's out right

now that's a fictional podcast. It's called The Program. And I don't know if you've

ever heard of this, but it's I I might nerd out on this for a

second, but Take your time. It's a thanks. It's

a post it it's

presented as a postapocalyptic utopian

era, except it's

as you listen to it, you realize how much of a dystopia it is.

But in their utopia, they look back on our era

and call us a dystopia. So it's really interesting and

it's, very it it's very

tech driven. So the premise is there was this app or

this program that was introduced into society. And as

that program began being updated over time,

it actually was implemented as the rule of law

over all of the land, and so there's an entity

or entities behind the updates. And every time there's

a new update, everything in society changes, and it's supposed to be

driving them more and more into a a Utopian era. So

it's really great. It's, you know, it's voice acting, so it's

it's a story, but then there's people who are acting, and it's well

produced. And, you know, I think it's

listener funded, so they don't have episodes all the

time, but, you know, I came across the

podcast and I binged it until there were no more episodes.

And now I've been waiting 3 months at a time for the last year for

new episodes to drop because, you know, they're they're

they write them and then they get them produced, and it takes a lot of

money and a lot of time. So if that pops up and it says new

episode program, I'm listening right away. Alright. So

program audio series.com, you know,

according to Jason, don't just check it out, but support it as well. So you

can get more great content and, and, and, you know, help them

to put out a show a little bit more often for, for Jason's

sake. We have been chatting with Jason via Nueva. He is the owner of podcast

tables. You can find them at podcast tables.shop. And of course we'll have a link

to it here in the show notes and try and throw up a couple of

pictures. And before I let you go, I should specify, we have purchased and used

podcast tables when we've done studio setups.

They are fantastic. They are sturdy. They are heavy. I

don't say that as a, as a bad thing. Just telling you, like, they are

really heavy duty. They are gonna last you a long time. You don't have to

worry. Like Jason said earlier, it's not Ikea furniture. They can sit on an accidentally

break. You know, so they're gonna do a really nice job. So, keep

an eye on their website, see what they are offering, see all the changes and

modifications and new varieties that they're making. And, if you're looking to create

a nice studio video in particular, I would encourage you to go check out

podcast tables dot shop. Jason, keep up the great work, and thanks

for joining us. Man, thank you so much. I appreciate you inviting me

on and taking the time to hear more about what I do.

Thanks for joining us today on Podcasting Tech. There are links to all

the hardware and software that help power our guest content and

podcasting tech available in the show notes and on our website at

podcastingtech.com. You can also subscribe to the show on your favorite

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you're there. Thanks, and we'll see you next time on Podcasting

Tech.