Swell AI Transcript: 365: Starter Podcaster Setups

Melvin:

Hey there, it's Melvin.

Melvin: Today's podcast is supported by the American Psychological Association. If you are a psychology professional, which I think is most of us that are listening to this podcast, maybe you're considering your next career move. Well, the American Psychological Association's PsyCareers service actually has a listing of over 400 available positions in psychology. You can check it out over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash APA. And you can create a free account, upload your resume, set up job alerts, and submit all your applications. Again, that's over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash APA. So we'll jump right into today's session.

undefined: Hello, hello, welcome to today's session of Selling the Couch. I hope you're doing well, having an incredible day.

Melvin: So it is so freaking hard to pick gear as a podcaster, both when you're starting out as well as just various points during the journey. And this trying to figure out and pick this gear gets more complicated depending on a couple of different factors. Whether you are doing the podcast solo, whether you have a co-host, whether the guests that you are going to be interviewing on your podcast are coming in live, or are you doing it over the internet. It just adds such a different layer of complication. And today, one of the most common questions that I get when it comes to podcasting is like, Mel, what is a good setup for me? And today I just wanted to walk you through the four most common scenarios when it comes to podcasting gear setups. And based on the four most common scenarios, we actually have a buying guide that is part of our HealthCasters course that we give to all of our colleagues. So it paints these scenarios and then paints every other possible scenario. includes all the gear recommendations. All they have to do is literally click on it. And today I actually wanted to share just most of that guide with you just because I feel like sometimes it's just good to be helpful. And and I've learned a ton when it comes to to podcasting now having done this since 2015. So the the thing I really wanted to start out with is I worried so much about gear when I first started the SDC podcast. I had in my mind that I needed this pro level setup. I needed sound blankets and $1000 plus mics and all of that kind of stuff. And if you're watching this on YouTube, like beautiful imagery like this and high quality DSLRs and all of that stuff. But when STZ first started, I had a teeny tiny budget. And literally, I used a $60 mic and a super cranky, cranky, creaky, colder, and all of these things. It costs right around $110. And that's honestly what I used for the first five years of the STZ podcast. And I kept worrying about whether people would notice, whether I would get emails being like, Mel, you really need to upgrade your sound, blah, blah, blah, right? Like all of these fears and narratives that I had in my mind. And can I just be honest with you, 99.8% of the listeners didn't seem to notice and they didn't seem to really care. In fact, I used that same setup for four plus years as the STC podcast hit a million total downloads. And so before we even jump into gear recommendations, I think this was one of the struggles that I had in creating this episode. I didn't want you to hear it as, now go and purchase all of this gear. It's more like, hey, you don't, it's what you should actually be optimizing for at the beginning parts of your podcasting journey. And I consider like first two years beginning parts is getting to become a better storyteller, getting to become a better interviewer, And if you're doing video, like I am, just getting to be more comfortable in front of the camera because this, doing this video thing, does not come at all natural to me and it's been quite quite a journey. So let's jump in. The first scenario, and this is really the most common scenario that most of you that are listening, that are thinking about launching a podcast are going to run into, which is you are a single host for your podcast. So you host your podcast, you do solo episodes, you record those. And then you will do interview, you will interview guests over the internet. This is honestly what I have done since 2015. This is I have not had a co host on the STC podcast thus far. I have not done live interviews, meaning like where the person comes, well, I've done one, but the vast majority of them have been over the internet. And so the starter setup that I would recommend is, first of all, the mic that I would look at is the Samsung Q2U, S-A-M-S-O-N Q2U. I actually used the Audio-Technica ATR2100, But they upgraded that mic and they like increased the price of it and the reviews on it are kind of a little bit mixed. So that's why I don't recommend that one anymore. And it's hard to find the previous version of it. But if you look at the Samsung Q2U, it's around $60 on Amazon. It's what's called a dynamic mic. And so a dynamic mic, without getting too technical into it, you really want to try to go with a dynamic mic, especially if you are recording in a room that's not like sound treated. So which is the vast majority of us, right? So you don't have like insulation and all of this kind of stuff. And yeah, so that's like a, that's what I would recommend. Now, these mics need to be held up onto a shock mount. And the main reason why you want a shock mount is, and you'll kind of even notice this if you're watching this on YouTube, sometimes when I talk, there's times where my mouth hits the mic. And a shock mount basically allows you to absorb some of that sound so that it doesn't get picked up in the actual recording. There's a bunch of them on Amazon. I just did a quick glance. The one that I saw that had a lot of reviews was this brand called Coolertron. microphone shock mount. So it's K-O-O-L-E-R-T-R-O-N microphone shock mount. But basically do a search of like microphone shock mount and and then you should be able to to come across this. The next kind of thing that you need is you need an on stage what's called a windscreen. And so there's a bunch of these companies that that make this. This is also known as a clown nose when it comes to when it comes to podcast recording. So this right here, if you're looking at my mic right here, this is actually, this is my Shure SM7B. Do not get this mic right when you're starting out because it's, there's just a lot more gear and technical stuff that you have to navigate. It's not worth it, even though it's a great mic and it sounds great. But this mic actually has this pop filter and that's basically this, this foam material right here. And so the main purpose of this foam filter is a couple of things. So one is generally when we talk we spit so any saliva and stuff doesn't get into the actual microphone and mess up the electronic stuff in there. That's one of the main reasons. The second reason is, at least in English, when generally when we say words that start with a P or a B, like generally we tend to make these pop pop pop pop right like that that noise that popping noise and for someone that's often listening on for example most people are listening to podcasts on while on a commute or they might be hiking and have airpods or something plugged in those p noises are really can be really distracting and can be loud and just and and you don't want to like annoy your podcast listener, right? So basically this windscreen helps to buffer against some of that sound that's coming in. The next thing that I would recommend, especially if you're starting at this setup, is what's called a pop filter. The one that I use is… you can do a quick search for the windscreens. There's a one from Onstage, it's called the Onstage Foam Windscreen. That one is like $4 or something, and it's rated really well. Onstage is also like a common brand when it comes to music kind of stuff, so it's a reputable brand. The next thing is the pop filter, and you don't technically need a pop filter because the windscreen acts kind of as a pop filter as well. But I like to have a second pop filter, especially when I was doing the episodes, because I just felt like it added a different layer of filtering and it really like limited those plosives and just made the sound just a lot better. And the trade-off with putting this pop filter is it looks basically like a big circle and it goes like right in front of it and it looks a little clunky. So especially if you're doing video, it can show up kind of weird and hide some of your face. So that's the only thing just to think about. So if you are doing video, I would recommend just leaving the pop filter off, just so that you get a better visual experience. If you're doing video, for example, like you're taking your podcast and you're planning on having the audio, but also putting the video component of it on YouTube as well. The next thing that we love to do and or I would recommend is you having some sort of a microphone stand, right? So you've got your microphone. There's really two options here. There is the option of a stand, which is basically you put your microphone on, twist it on, and you've got a nice stand. The one that I recommend is by this company called Gator Frameworks, and it's called the Short Weighted Bass Microphone Stand. And the benefit of this one is it's weighted on the bottom so that it won't easily tip over whenever you have it on your desk. And like at a practical level, let's say you're recording or you're talking to a guest and you you're writing something down and it hits your hand, the microphone then won't tip over. And now you've got a big clanking noise that that comes on on the actual recording. Now the other option that you can think about is what's called a mic arm. Now this gets the weighted microphone stand I think it's around like $25ish. The other option is what is called a mic arm and That's what I am using for the STC podcast. The benefit is because I basically want to walk into my home office, plug in three things and be good to go. And with this stand, again, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see this like it's very easy to move and I can just move it enough in into the screen, out of the screen. And when I put it away, it's just kind of tucked in on the corner and everything is ready to go. Whereas with the weighted stand, you gotta like likely plug the mic in, all of that kind of stuff. I wanted a very easy to set up kind of thing. And so, but I know that many of us may be recording podcast episodes, for example, from office or something like that. So a stand may make more sense than having like a proper like arm that's there. The one that I use is by a company called Rode. It's the Rode PSA-1. It's around $100 on Amazon, which is why, like, it's a little bit more expensive. And now, if you look on Amazon, you will see a bunch of, like, $20-ish mic arms. But if you look very closely at them, what you'll see is a lot of them have springs on them. and I tried a spring one and it was fine for a little bit but like if there's like one thing you're taking away try not to buy a spring my garm because what ended up happening for mine was over time it would start sagging and then the other more annoying thing was the springs would start creaking over time So then I would like get these like little noises or I would have to be super gentle and I'd be constantly worried about whether the sound of the spring was getting picked up. So that's the starter set and that can range anywhere from about $100 to $225. The big driver of course is whether you go with that Rode PSA mic arm. There's also a company, a couple of higher end companies, like I think Blue is making one that has a mic arm as well. That one looks visually like, again, this is such a small thing. This Rode PSA mic arm is fantastic. It's super stable. Like I've literally had this for four, three, four years. No issues with it. In fact, I have a second one that I use for my, when I'm just doing videos without the podcast mic, I have a second mic and I use that one as well. And it's like no issues with it. But visually, again if you look on YouTube you can see like visually it's not the best looking and the blue one is kind of cool because it's like one solid arm and it just looks and it's like a matte black so it looks pretty sweet as well. But again it's like a minor thing. From a quality perspective this has been great and I haven't had any issues with it. Now The second scenario is I am the host of my podcast and I'm going to interview guests in person. This format is becoming really popular with video YouTubers. So think like Joe Rogan, think like Ali Abdaal, think about anyone that is basically… Hey there, I hope that you're enjoying today's podcast session. So I've jumped back into private practice and I decided to go the private pay route. And one of the things I've been thinking a lot about is, how do I tap into outer network benefits for clients that might want to use it? Now, the common sort of perspective or tip that a lot of folks say is just to provide a super bill for clients. But the reality is, I feel like most clients aren't going to go take a super bill and then call the insurance company and then deal with that whole mess of trying to communicate with the insurance companies and waiting on reimbursement and all of that kind of stuff, right? And then at some point, especially if they're keenly aware of budget and stuff like that, they're like, oh my gosh, I may not be able to afford working with this therapist and all of those kinds of things, right? This is where Thryzr comes in and the really cool thing with Thryzr is that they will actually float the clients for the sessions. So basically when you sign up for Thryzr you can automatically submit out-of-network claims for your clients. It's simply done through an app, it literally takes seconds, and Thryser takes care of all of the insurance stress. So we don't have to deal with it as clinicians, our clients don't have to deal with it, and clients just pay what they owe for actual sessions, i.e. like the difference between your rate and the reimbursement rate, in order to skip the long insurance wait. All they have to do is pay the standard 3% credit card fee. There is no monthly contracts or fees or anything like that. If you would like to try out Thrizer, You can go to sellingthecouch.com forward slash thrizer. Enter the promo code STC so that your first $2,500 in fees are waived. Again, that's over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash thrizer. And thrizer is spelled T-H-R-I-Z-E-R and enter the promo code S-T-C. Bringing guests in and they are, they've got a whole like live set up here. Now the benefit of this setup is you're seeing another person in person. It's like when you do in-person therapy versus telehealth. Telehealth gets you like 80% of there with the experience and all of that. But there's something really powerful about when our clients are actually in the same room as us. We can pick up non-verbals. We can just pick up subtleties that we may just miss on video. Visually, also, it looks great if you are planning on putting that content on YouTube. That's highly what I would recommend because honestly, if you're also going to the time, taking the time to do like a live thing, you might as well like repurpose the content strategically. But again, that gets expensive. This is will probably be another episode at some point. Let me know if you would like an episode like this, but on video setups. I don't want to get too much into that because that can get there's just a lot of a lot of more technical stuff. And I feel like this one's already technical enough. Now the negative part of having a being live with somebody and you having this proper studio setup is you'll have to set up your home office or like a co-working space or if you have like own a building you may have to have a dedicated studio space something like that where it's just practically a lot better to have a setup there and then literally for you and the guests to be able to walk in and just record the episode versus like having to construct something, deconstruct it, and then construct it back up, it just becomes more like a logistically a little bit more of a nightmare. The other issue with it is it's already hard sometimes just to coordinate like times for podcast guests. What we do for for anyone that comes on the STC podcast is I use Calendly, so I will just send a Calendly link and they pick between a couple of slots that are available. and they just have to show up online. So think about that plus they got to drive to you or meet up at a location. It just adds more more complications. And then the I just wanted to like highlight and double tap this thing. I'm not going to get too much into this but you will again you'll need likely like a multi camera setup if you are having a single host with a single person, single guest, you'll likely need almost like a three camera setup. So one for you, where the camera's looking at you, one the camera's looking at the guest, and then one where it's both of you together, right? Translation, this can get really expensive and technologically complicated very fast. So, which is why, honestly, I haven't gone down that route of setups because I've seen some of these behind the scenes pictures of these live podcasting studios and they look fantastic and I'm sure they're getting their ROI, most of these folks. But it's also like, man, I, one, I just don't have the budget for it. And then two, it just seems like there's just more things to coordinate and figure out. Now that being said, eventually I would like to do a multi-camera setup here for SDC. So we've got a single camera setup right now, but I would love where it's possibly like an angle that's coming from one side and then possibly like an overhead shot so that people, if I'm like writing something or drawing something, there's an overhead shot that I can show stuff on. Now, with this setup, it's basically the same setup, but it's going to cost around $700 to $1,000 now. So let's just say, starter setup, Samsung QTU, you'll need two of those. You need two mic holders. You need two windscreens. Pop filters, you technically need two of those, but you can leave those out because I think visually it looks a little bit better. And then you need two tabletop stands and two mic, or two mic arms. Now here's where I think it gets a little bit more complicated because you'll need to figure out a way to record the conversation because it's not directly like through a computer for example. So the thing that I would recommend is using what's called the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and what you can do is plug in your podcasting mics into there. and then plug that into a computer and then capture the recording that way. I think that's probably the cheapest route to go. Now, once you start rolling that focus right in, you're going to need a different cable than that comes with the Samsung QTU. Well, it comes, I believe the Samsung QTU comes with two types of cables. So one is, it's what's known as an XLR USB mic. So you can plug it either into the USB slot on your computer or the XLR slot on your, or XLR slot. So XLR slot is like this thing right here. Again, if you're looking on YouTube, you'll see it. It's basically like a higher quality sound, but it's a different type of cable. I'm pretty sure the Samsung QTU comes with it as well, but as soon as you have that Focusrite in, you're going to need XLR cables because it doesn't support plugging in multiple USB cables, as far as I know. So you'll need two XLR cables, plug that into the back of the Samsung QTU, plug that into the Focusrite 2i2, do that for each of your mics, and then plug the Focusrite back into your computer, and then you can you can be sure you'll be able to hear. So, alright. And then the last two scenarios, the first is, I have a co-host for my podcast, my co-host and I connect over the internet, and we will interview guests over the internet. So basically, this would be like, the most common scenario would be, I mean, an example of somebody doing this would be therapy reimagined, right, with Caden with Katie and Kurt. And they do this tech as far as when I just recently had an opportunity to do that. So Kurt logged in from his house, Katie logged in from her house, I logged in from my house. And then we recorded everything over the over the internet. But Curt and Katie co host the podcast. So the benefit of this setup is you are with the you like it's just from a logistical planning perspective, like coordinating three schedules, I think it's just so much easier. And yeah, you literally just have to log in. It's great, right? Now, the negative of this setup is I feel like… Oh, the other benefit again of a co-hosted setup is if you get sick or something like that, it's just you've got a co-host there that can take over. And also the other side of this is I think there's something really nice when you connect with somebody and you have you co-host a podcast it's fun to do a project together. Now the negative parts of this are you as with most things I feel like when you're starting a podcast with a co-host it you have to there's a relationship and a connection that's being formed with the person. And so it requires nurturing and all of those kind of things. So within this sort of scenario, right, where I would do is, I'm gonna almost talk about it like a setup for each host, right, this will cost basically between 100 and 225. So you need the basically the Samsung key to you, the mic holder, the windscreen, the tabletop stand or the mic arm. And each of those mics are plugged into the computer and you are basically recording. Now there's a bunch of different ways that you can record this. I still use Zoom to record a lot of the STC conversations. I am playing around with a couple of different ones. CamLive is one that I'm playing around with as well because I use it for live streams as well. There are a couple of different other companies that allow you to do remote recording as well. So, but, I would say, for that setup, like, if you have a co-host, this is probably kind of the best, best sort of scenario setup. Now, the final scenario is, I have a co-host for my podcast, we get together in person to record, and we will interview our guests in person. right so it's basically going to be like three people minimum in sort of a live scenario this is honestly a dream setup because everyone is in person the connection the opportunity to network before and after the interview this setup can well side note on this You can often do a setup or version of this, like at industry conferences, for example, you have a booth or you interview people in your hotel room or a space in between, like some sort of a third space that's connected to the hotel between sessions. I haven't done this, frankly, because the logistics of it stress me out. But I think it's a cool scenario, right? Because you can especially start to think about like if you have a co-host for your podcast, and even if you're doing a solo one, even doing it on the road. I think it's a it's a pretty cool, like, pretty cool, pretty cool scenario there. Now, I'll come back to this. But the negatives of this setup are there's a lot of logistics, you'll have to set, you'll have to have some sort of again, a setup like this in a co working space or a home office. That's the ideal scenario. So you're not like building and breaking down again, The one thing I've learned with the STC podcast is I used to do a lot of like building the putting the gear like I'd have a completely clear desk and then when it was like podcasting day I would plug everything back in and inevitably like something wouldn't work and I'm like what in the world so I would like spend all this time one setting it up and then the other scenario like trying to figure out what is happening here and what I realize is just more better to just keep it all plugged in and just plug in as minimal as you need it. Now, again, with this sort of like three person live, you need, again, lots of multi camera setups and all of that kind of stuff. Now, here's the setup that I would recommend. Now, this you will notice the cost like significantly bumps up. So just a general rule that I found is the more people that you have on your podcast, whether it's a co host or a scenario where you're doing it live, the costs will generally like exponentially go up. So even like a in this scenario, where up where you've got co hosts, where you're recording in person, where you've got guests, in even up to four guests, this scenario can run upwards of $1,900. So you've got a Samsung Q2U, which is like three or more of those, you've got a mic holder, three or more of those, You've got a foam windscreen. You've got a tabletop stand or a mic arm. What I would recommend in this scenario is the RODECaster Pro or RODECaster Pro 2. There's also a new one that just came out. I think it's called the RODECaster Pro Mini. I have the original RODECaster Pro. And again, like a little tip, I'm sure I haven't done too much experimenting or like research on the RODECaster 2 and RODECaster Mini, but I'm sure they're like fantastic devices, but also look at the original RODECaster Pro because it's still a really great, really great machine and I've used it for four plus years now. and like I haven't run into a scenario where I like I haven't I have thought like oh I wish I had a RODECaster 2 and at a practical level you can often get it much cheaper because it is like an older model so once you have that RODECaster Pro the cool thing with the RODECaster Pro is you you don't need a separate computer so it actually has a mini SD card that you can actually put in the back of the RODECaster Pro So I would recommend like a 32 gigabyte one. And once you put that in, you can actually record everything directly into the Rodecaster Pro. Now in this scenario, again, because of all these mics, you'll need an XLR cables. And so just account for buying as many XLR cables as you need, as many as you have. Now the yeah so yeah that's sort of the the scenario that I would recommend. Again in this setup anytime you introduce any of these new tools like a Roadcaster Pro there's just more stuff to learn. Again I wouldn't necessarily recommend it when you're first starting out because it's just For me, looking back, one of the best decisions, and again, this was practical because I just didn't have the funds, but one of the best decisions that we made for SDC in the first three to four years was keeping it really lean and not building out this current setup. This current setup that I've had for about three years, it's cost around $5,000 and I built it up over time. It's a very nice setup, but I knew I was going to be doing YouTube videos. I knew I was going to be doing talks. teaching masterminds and all of that stuff, so it made perfect sense for me, but it would not have made sense for me in the year 1 and 2 when I was still figuring out, like, what the heck I was doing with STC and all of those scenarios. If you happen to be watching again this on YouTube, I will link to a video of what my setup actually looks like if you are curious about it. And so I hope this is all incredibly helpful. And I know this was a lot of like technical conversation, but I think the main kind of takeaways from this is really think about what setup that you want. My recommendation is, especially in the early days of your podcast, try to do the interviews. If you're going to do interviews or if you have a co-host, try to just do it all over the Internet, because it just it makes things a lot less complicated. And you don't have to account for a whole bunch of different kind of scenarios. And yeah, it just becomes a lot, lot more frustrating. So and then the other thing is, again, you don't need an expensive setup to run a successful podcast. I think that's something that I, I had ideas about. And even the thought of like, I had this weird thought of like, I need an expensive setup, how am I going to afford this expensive setup? And then oh my gosh, having an expensive setup was way too overwhelming. And so I would say you don't need any of it. And you can just be really thoughtful about and keep it lean, especially in the first days. And here's kind of the side benefit that I mentioned earlier that I wanted to come back to, which is there's something really powerful and humanizing when you do a very basic setup and people see your journey versus like when you start at a pro level setup people are like oh it's like you're less relatable to them and it's even something to be completely honest i struggle with currently with stc because i mean i've invested a lot of money into this setup but it looks great and visually and all of that but then i'm like man like there's a part of me i kind of miss the old days where it was like a webcam with a $60 mic. So maybe I'll go back to that water off for some of these episodes. But yeah, just wanted to at least highlight that as well. Now if you are a therapist that's listening and you've been sitting with a podcast idea for a long time, we also have this free workshop that you can check out over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash podcasting workshop. It's called using podcasting to grow your business and it has a ton of tips and strategies that I've learned here over the last nine plus years as STC has continued to grow. We're about to hit, we just passed 1.8 million downloads, so we're getting close to the 2 million download mark, hopefully here pretty soon. Have a great rest of your day and appreciate you for tuning in. Bye.

undefined: Thanks for listening to the selling the couch podcast for more great content. And to stay up to date, visit www.sellingthecouch.com.

undefined: Hey there, it's Melvin.

Melvin: I hope that you enjoyed today's podcast session. Just wanted to take a moment again to thank the team over at the American Psychological Association for supporting today's podcast session. If you're a psychology professional that is looking for your next job in psychology, definitely check out PsyCareers, the American Psychological Association services. career centers. CyCareers now has over 400 job postings posted specifically for psychology professionals. You can connect with leading employers and explore roles that match your skills and your professional and personal goals. You can check all of that out over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash APA, sellingthecouch.com forward slash APA. Create a free account and get started.