Hey friends, hope you’re doing well. I tried to do a little more writing for you for this week’s episode.

I spent too much time reading Twitter and following the news this week, and by the time Friday rolled around, my brain was hurting and I decided to take a break.

Putting away the phone and laptop for most of Friday evening and Saturday helped reset and recenter me, and I decided to share a few things that have helped me keep moving throughout the wild changes of March 2020.

I hope this episode helps you, and as always, I’m here to talk if you need someone to talk to.

March 29, 2020

1

Text or Call a Friend

I’m learning to up my friend game right now. Make a list of every person that matters to you and just text them. - @Rogie

Exactly what we should all be doing every day. Friends bring comfort and support, and both are necessary for this moment in history.

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2

Stronger Connections and File Sharing

I know that for 99% of my world right now, I’m in a privileged position and deeply thankful for it. The 1% I’m missing is internet connectivity. I cannot get it (access + infrastructure) - and as we are a remote working household this is absolutely not ok. 1/ - @TheElsieEscobar

Read this thread. Everyone needs reliable internet, and throttling shouldn’t be a thing in 2020.

To all of you creating content and resources, please, PLEASE think of the end user. Note how large files sizes are and if there is anything at all that you can do to have an option of making them smaller or providing a smaller size option 11/

If you do have to share large audio files with other people (a podcast editor, for example), consider creating and sharing 320 or 256kbps MP3 files for your raw audio. They’re smaller and take less time and bandwidth, and still sound good enough (even after editing) to be the final episode file.

Speaking of final episode files, the final episode audio file you upload to your podcast hosting platform should be between 64kbps and 128kbps MP3 files. In light of recent events, I’d recommend trying 64kbps if you haven’t yet. The reduction in size will be greatly appreciated by folks who have slower or limited internet connections.

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3

Daily Planning, Disruption, and How We Handle It

For those of you who are now working remotely, or who aren’t currently working because of SARS-CoV2, I’d like to highlight this podcast episode I recorded back in early 2016:

Planning Your Day for Maximum Efficiency in Under 5 Minutes and Still Accounting for Unplanned Events

It’s about the very simple method I adopted for daily planning. It helped me stay productive once I started working from home. The key was deciding and writing down what I wanted to spend my time on every day.

I found writing out a plan for each day made it easier for me to focus on the important things and also reduced my stress and anxiety.

One of the main things that causes us stress is feeling like we have more things to do than we have time for. There’s always more to do. Before I was planning out every hour of my day, I was overestimating how much I could actually accomplish in a day.

There’s a lot of great advice about working from home going around right now, this episode is about what worked for me.

The important steps:

1. Write down the hours of the day in the left side of a notebook
2. Write down what you want to or have to do, and when
3. Update and makes notes about your progress every hour or two

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4

How to get great-sounding audio from your podcast guests… from a distance

From T. Brockwell on Pacific Content’s Medium blog:

So things are a little hairy right now for podcasters and media folks alike booking and recording interviews from the comfort of our respective homes, which most of us if we’re privileged enough, are hunkering down at.
Understandably, interview subjects are reluctant to head to a studio or have an Audio Recordist (or what we folks in the industry like to call a Tape Syncer) come directly to them to mic and record them to get that oh-so-desired broadcast sound quality. I recently scheduled an interview with an 80-something year old woman who forbade a tape syncer to come to her house as the number of reported coronavirus cases in her city was rising and her age puts her at high risk. I also had a guest host cancel his studio time because his wife was displaying symptoms and he decided to self-quarantine while they awaited test results. And I don’t blame either of them!
As a result, over here at Pacific Content, we’re revisiting some old and discovering some new recording options that allow everyone to stay put, and sound their best. What’s that saying? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Here’s our recipe, it’s pretty decent.

Questions to ask your podcast guest:

• How strong and fast is your Internet connection?
• Is your computer’s operating system up-to-date?
• Do you have the latest version of your browser?
• What kind of phone do you use, iPhone or Android? What version?
• Do you have an external computer microphone?
• Do you have a pair of wired headphones?

Your guest’s recording environment:

• The ideal recording space is a small, windowless environment with carpeted floors, drapes, and few, if any, hard bare surfaces.
• Record away from glass windows/walls, and concrete walls and floors.
• Lots of soft surfaces like curtains, rugs, and blankets help dampen sound waves.
• Avoid banging the table with your hands. You might not notice you do this when you are expressing a point, but the microphone will notice.
• Avoid chair swiveling noises
• Please do not wear dangling earrings during the interview. They can bump into your headphones or earbuds and cause noise in the recording.

The advice here about telling guests to setup their cell phone in front of them to record an audio file with it is perfect. Recording on a computer is easy to mess up. I know, I’ve done it multiple times myself!

Switching a phone to airplane mode, opening an app, hitting record, setting it somewhere close by, and then sharing the resulting audio file after is simple and nearly fail proof.

The audio won’t sound as good as audio recorded through a nice microphone, but it will almost certainly sound better than the audio from a Skype or Zoom call (which you should also record so you can have a backup).

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5

Podcasting for Remote Teams: Using Audio to Connect, Engage & Inform

From Colin Gray on thepodcasthost.com:

It might not be exactly by choice, but remote working is fast becoming the new normal. One of our greatest worries, though, is a real drop in engagement and connection amongst staff. Can your people feel part of a team and stay motivated when they're not spending time together every day? Here, I want to show you one way in which they can: through audio. Let's dig into podcasting for remote teams, and how it can help you in these crazy times!

Impressive in-depth article here.

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6

How to Turn Your Podcast Hobby Into a Business

From Gerri Detweiler on podcastbusinessjournal.com:

When LuAnn Nigara started her podcast, A Well Designed Business, she fully expected it to be the business that would take her through retirement. She, her husband Vince, and their cousin Bill Campesi, own Window Works, a successful window treatment and awning retailer, and while she didn’t want to retire, she also knew she wanted a business that wouldn’t require her to “knock on doors and design draperies” forever. 
After guesting on a business podcast, she knew this was the vehicle for her. It was designed as a business from the start. “If I wanted a hobby to fulfill me, I’d become a yoga instructor,” she laughs.  

I won’t give away all the takeaways, but do check out the article if you’d like to make money with a podcast. 

What worked for me was identifying my audience, identifying revenue opportunities, and then putting in the time and work.

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7

New York Times acquires Audm, whose narrators turn long-form journalism into audio

From Paul Sawers on venturebeat.com:

The New York Times has acquired Audm, a subscription audio platform that uses professional narrators to transform long-form written articles into the spoken word. Audm, which had only raised a small seed round of funding after graduating from Y Combinator in 2017, already worked with major publications including Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. It will continue to serve those outlets, in addition to the New York Times, which is now integrating the service with its own various properties.

Rather than using text-to-speech, however, Audm pays actual humans to read articles from myriad publishers and then bundles them under a single subscription. Audm subscribers pay $8 per month, or $57 per year, to access the entire library of spoken word content.

I’m keeping my eyes on this situation. Curious to see how it goes.

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8

How the coronavirus is affecting podcast downloads

From James Cridland on podnews.net:

In conclusion: — we think that most podcasters can expect a small decrease, with 20% the rough guideline for now. It remains to be seen how tighter restrictions affect this further, though.

The comments are open, below.

Other Links:

• First look: how is coronavirus changing podcast advertising?
• Has Podcasting Just Made A Big Shift?
• The Casted Podcast: Earning Your Audience with Dan Misener
• Blanket Forts and Pantyhose: How to set up a decent-sounding podcast studio at home

Closing Thoughts

I know this is a difficult time for a lot of people. If you can help other people, help them. If you need help, ask for it. Take care of each other, and I’ll talk to you next week.