How a Small Podcast Studio Became a Big Business

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How much does it cost a book of like session.

You could pay anywhere from sixty dollars to to fifty Our average client spends about three hundred per hour.

And what's the difference between sixty and three hundred sixty.

Is just audio. You're just starting out right.

Different studios also have different prices, always a little more expensive because of the landscape. But we kept our prices low on purpose because we know that the average podcaster that's watching us or wants to start up, they may not have all the bread. Then we got y'all who may spend four figure numbers when you need mobile shoots.

But you know what I'm saying, your podcast is bringing in more.

Horrible spends more as well because we need more bells and whistles. But if you just need baseline audio, sixty bucks. If you just want one angle one fifty, Like we've made it pretty easy, and we never raised.

Our prices either.

Oh okay, so like if we have a four camera set up here, but if it was like a two camera, that would fluctuate. Yeah, all right, So I remember when you guys were starting, it was just that one studio, and then this was getting built out.

You went over on that one. This is the biggest studio.

Is it the same price point or was like all right, now I know that the price that I need to be at to make sure that.

This is functional. We kept it at the same price point. So it's fifty again.

Yeah, so we never raised until now our newest location in Midtown, and that one's even larger than this. It's a little bit more premiere, and I think the only reason why it's a little bit more is just too offset. I don't want everybody rushing to the new one. So it's like just to keep a balance where it's like we still have clients that love coming here, but then also you know, when something's sparkly and new people want to try to go there.

I would assume, and this is probably right. The cameras are the most expensive piece in here, cameras, computers, like, so like if for the people who can't see, like, what are the things that are needed to make this things functional? Obviously cameras, So we got to show sm seven pps what else.

So it was important for me to like, you know, how new tech startups they want to disrupt the market or whatever. So I working in production for as long as I have been, I saw all the things people were doing wrong. And I saw also how like Kyllywood

But Alex making the choice to spend that much in equipment, I think is the biggest reason we flourished.

Yeah, we thought about that a lot.

I'm like, we only have this much to spend, why are you spending that? Just get some cameras. We cool everybody for the come tows anyway, And he was like, no, but nobody has these, and it's true when you look at other studios they almost have like that webcami look sometimes. And so I was like, but we're going to take so long to pay ourselves back. And he just had a lot of faith in volume, and he was right because it's true true a lot of studios don't have

So the fact that they.

Could work up to it is really the thing. That's why it's like low key a little fuobu for us, like four podcasters by podcasters, because we knew it costs too much to make something look nice, So.

What about what's the other revenue models you have? Brand partnerships.

Yeah, so that actually worked out for us really well because we started learning what we were spending money in and what was costing us the most monthly, quarterly, and annually.

One thing that was happening was lenses.

So al and Mike's so Alex literally started reaching out to all of the companies that you know, we're big in cameras, big in audio and being like, yo, this is our studio, everybody's going to use it. You need to be giving us free shit.

Shout out to Tiana, she was managing exactly like that.

But basically whatever, Like I went to a lot of those conventions where it's like you have all of the camera, audio lighting, all those playbill and just face to face and it's the best thing. And then you tell them about the studio and then they want to have a relationship with you because they know that, hey, if you have a show like Eil and Net bringing all these people,

Signal for the lens, black Magic's the camera.

Yeah what about we are we here? And I'm not even mentioned them for them, No, not not yet.

Not you had road, I thought a road for our wireless mics. This pH water.

But like that's the thing. We found out how much we were spending in like beverages alone, and it was like what, like we this is too much money. So now we probably saved twenty thousand dollars a year across the studios just having free beverages for clients, which is just it's a small little thing that you don't think about, but like, truly, that was it. I mean the next one, like I'm working on as a wayfair partnership. We spent mad bread in like furniture, and I learned that from

So let's talk about Kenya Barris. I mean, this is obviously a relationship. When I think of you, I mean the first time I met you. It's always been about the business of podcasts. It's always been business with you and in podcasts, and specifically, how did you develop that relationship and what did you do?

You currently exist in in the Keny Barras Yeah world.

So I was at a party.

I walked in and Keny was the first person there, and he was like, yo, are you Are you horrible decisions?

Are you easy? And he said I'm Kenny Barras and I'm like, uh.

Nigga, I know, And he asked me to take a picture, which I thought was hilarious. He's like, bruh dubbed me because he asked for tickets to his show in LA and I like wrote back or some shit, and I said it was sold out and he wanted to bring people from his office.

They loved horrible. So we start vibing.

He tells me about an audible deal and he's like, yo, I need someone to run it, like I'm film and TV, I have my music division, Like I want someone to run it. And I honestly believe that WTF Media. If not for being built that six months prior, there was no way I could have done that job.

So and Alex helped me so much.

So basically took on the job making podcasts easy, but when it came to building the landscape difficult. And it's great because I've literally funded all my businesses down to my TV show through the others. So Horrible brought me to Kenya Barris. Right then we've got to build studios.

I hire Alex.

Alex becomes you know, the audio producer for all of the projects and building out structurally how things will look.

You know.

We created a sound system for him in his loft, which was the studio that Gangster Grills was filmed out of. WTF Media then produced Gangster Girls because I had to hire, you know, a team.

So it's been great.

Right now, I mean I'm working on Kenya's other podcasts for Audible and producing all them, eping them, and it's an amazing relationship and partnership because what he really showed me is that you can you can't exist outside of your element. Kenya hired a podcaster to run his podcast division, and it was the smartest thing he could have done because whenever I was on zooms and meetings for him, it was all film and TV people, and they're talking

I know that's not true. You're giving me millions of dollars in a budget.

I'm like Niga, but like it's really that type of shit. These big entities and these big companies don't understand how rat gros grassroots podcasting is.

So when I came in, I.

Was able to really reinvent that for him and really show like, hey, like this is what we should be doing.

And it's been amazing. Like I mean, I.

Posted a picture with Malcolm gladwellman him the other day and I'm like, I cannot believe podcasting brought me here.

Brouh, Like it's it's.

A trip, because what's happening now people like us that were normal people that became famous from podcasting are the outliers. Word to Malcolm Gladwell but like, seriously, now it's the celebrities, and the celebrities are getting two million dollars to make a show and they're probably going to spend half a million in production.

That's crazy. Making a podcast for a year does not cost that much. But you give me half.

Of it, I'll tell you where to do it. And that's really what's happening, you know. So Alex and I have made our most money from the largest deals like that, not particularly Kenya Barris, like I'm.

Salaried, right, But but it's stuff like that.

It's the big company that comes in, Like, Yo, let's just say it's a bank. We had a meeting with a bank, right, huge bank. I would say, we all probably have the card in our wallet. They were given a certain amount of money a year to make financial videos for kids, so they know exactly how much they have.

Hey, what do we do with this? It's a six figure number. I'm gonna tell you what to do.

I'm gonna probably give you fifteen hundred to go home with. So you felt like you saved.

But at the end of the day, like you didn't tell them your leisure What do you mean, Like you said you know what to do with it?

Like you didn't tell them, Oh, I know the guys you should call.

They already had their It was a sponsored podcast by Bleep. But it's it's things like that. It's like being able to be trusted by companies. So that type of partnership is like, really what makes us money? Granted, being in here is amazing and making people's dreams come true by them having their own show and finding voices dope too, but it's the big fucking bucks.

So when you say that, when you are consultant to people companies to consult on their podcast divisions.

Pretty much, I mean as a production company, that's what we do, and we take a call, right, it's like, we figure out your needs, we figure out how you're gonna build something. And they probably asked two other companies, so.

You're shooting it for them.

Shooting is start to finish, like they just have an idea and they're like, hey, can you make it happen? So we'll come up with concept, how it's can be shot, the look of it, shoot it, edit it deliberate though.

It might even pair you with a co host and you might say, we know.

People you make social clips. Yeah. Everything.

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