I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it over and over again. podcasting is so special. And the reason why I think podcasting is so special is because there's so much more collaboration than competition in this space. And today's interview is the perfect example of that, because I had a chance to sit down with Veronica and Steve from over at pod sound school. And we just had a blast. I mean, I'm just I'm not gonna
spoil all the things that we talked about. But it was just so refreshing to have a really genuine conversation with people who do very similar things to what I do. And I felt nothing but invigoration and energized and I was like, Oh my gosh, I love that I've met other people in the world that love to help other podcasters other content creators and they just have such a big heart to help other people share their message. So like I said, I'm not going to give you any
spoilers here. I cannot wait for you to enjoy this conversation with Veronica and Steve from pod sound school. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving
shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Alright, Proffitt Podcast listeners, I have some extra special guests for you. today. I am speaking to the people over at pod sound school. And I am so honored to have Veronica and Steve here with me today. So welcome to the show.
Thank you for
Hello everybody!
Hey, everyone. How's it going?
We're excited to be here.
Yeah, it's fun. I don't often do a lot of interviews where it's three people. But I do like it. I do like that we have two women and a guy here. And everybody's used to hearing my voice. So they'll at least know I've done a few interviews where it was me and two other guys. And they're like, wait, I don't who's talking Who's Who? So this will be fun. It'll be a lot of fun. But...
Stephen is not going to be talking a lot. We'll take over the conversation.
Well tell us a little bit about your story. How did you get into podcasting and doing all the amazing things that you're doing today?
Oh, no. Yeah. So um, it's been, I think the reason why we started the pod sound school. And the whole reason we are where we are, is because we wanted, I wanted a creative outlet. I
wanted a creative project. I felt like Steven had that creative part, figured out and he's been in the music production and audio production and movies and he's been very creative his whole life, you know, even when he was a kid, but me I decided to go the attorney around and going to law school and graduating have good grades and be in the corporate world and I failed armful fail. I failed that that was in my path. I would come home and he will be just happy creating and doing his things
and I'm like, Oh, I want to be part of that. So I finally got so fed up with my job that one day he he proposed to me to just started this company. And that's why that's what we did when started the pod sounds cool. And at that point, he had created a couple of podcasts. Yeah. And I said to him, okay, I am not going to be behind the microphone. I'm just going to be the CEO. I'm just gonna you know, have all the the administrative and financial things in check. And then one day just
he was very sneaky. He's like, just come over here and say, so little by little I'm like, no, not because I was terrified of the microphone. Like, there's no way I'm going to be in front of the camera, or I'm going to record a podcast with you. Yeah, they won't. What about if you write a script? I'm like, Yeah, I can do that because I am a very good writer. So I'm going to write a script and read it and the first times they were absolutely
Just the debacles were just luckily she was brave enough to start this crazy adventure with me as we were listening At the time to don't keep your day job, the podcast, the healer, the healer, and so that luckily Rocca had her head full of that podcast and she was ready to. And she's always been a crazy podcast listener.
Yeah, I love podcast and I. And I think that she's just so great to show you what the possibilities are when you just tap into your creativity and into your purpose and you connect with with that in your life, and then that you can have full filming Fulfillment by doing what you love doing. Yeah. So that's what I wanted in my life. And Steven was, you know, he wanted that too.
Yeah. And it's funny when Veronica was talking in just about her experience in the in the whole debacle of getting her in front of the microphones.
We have stories. Yeah.
I mean, it also she just, you know, has the English being her second language, everything else you would think this confident lawyer type would be. But no, it was very interesting. We used to have to play music in the background for her when she was recording podcast episodes. And like, just anything to get her into the, into the vibe, and now she just takes it and rolls with it.
Yeah, I think you just have to come to the realization that you have to let go. Like, it doesn't matter how it comes out of your mouth. Well, unless it's something terrible, and you are insulting people. That way you need to like right away, just set the record straight, that that's not what you meant. But you just have to let it go. And then people will find that genuine. And we'll find that endearing that despite your accent. Despite that you don't have you know,
everything figured out. You're really trying to put yourself out there and to connect with other people. There's just as terrified as you are.
Yeah, exactly. I think that's, that's really cool stuff. Because that's actually showing up and being your authentic self and being we like we say transparency is trending. Yeah. So just like being who you are, and whoever that is, and actually allowing the unique parts of yourself to shine. You know, being really wearing those as badges, like your accent or your weirdness or your obsessions, or whatever it is, you're crazy laugh that that will blow out. You know, that's the kind
of stuff that people really resonate with. And, and, you know, now fast forward a few years later, when of us just getting started on a whim. You know, I think Veronica's touched a lot of people and she's inspired a lot of people to get out of their comfort zones, because she was brave enough to do that. So that's, that's pretty cool.
I think that's our role as a podcast coaches. Really.
That's awesome. I love how y'all I mean, y'all are just like pitching and catching the compliments like this. So when did you start pod sound school? What year was that?
It's 2019. Yeah. 2018. So we're still very new, just going on three years now. And yeah, we just like Frankie said, we had a couple podcasts. So that I had produced and I had been in music production, everything else for a long time. So it was actually an episode of I remember from that podcast, don't, don't keep your day job. And it was the grammar girl. I can't remember her name. But she was just talking about why she started the grammar girl and how she had all this expertise in
grammar that she could share with people. And I was thinking like, man, I listen to all these podcasts. And we've been listening to hundreds of podcasts because we were doing relentless rate review swaps with podcasters on a previous podcast we had, and they all just sounded really bad. You know, and they were great podcasts and great content, great personalities, great ideas. But the audio production was pretty lousy. And I thought,
well, that's something we can share. That's something that I would love to share with the community. And so that's kind of how it got started was, let's teach podcasters how to get better audio quality. And then we got taken into a
lot of different directions. And now we teach people how to get on YouTube, and we teach people branding and storytelling and all the other stuff that goes into not just podcasting, but content creation and how your podcast winds up just being one of the many things one of the many things under the umbrella of the of the brand that you're creating.
Yeah, this is this is really where you know, whenever it comes to yalls content, I was first introduced to everything that you do on YouTube because I hadn't seen because I started around the same time that y'all did, and I started Really just kind of playing around with YouTube because I had no idea what I was doing. And I could definitely like maybe I'll ask you some questions about your YouTube strategy, because y'all have done amazing things over there.
But I really was in the same kind of position as y'all have, like, let's like, start putting stuff out there. Let's see what works. And let's see what people respond to. And I'm just so blown away by, you know, you, I started in 2018, as well. So I feel like this baby, right, like a baby in this face. But also, we've been around so much longer than people that are even listening to the show or possibly watching us been, they're just they're looking to us, it's like, we need your help. We
need your input in our own journey. And I just think that it's so fascinating how quickly technology and how everything in the podcast space is changing. So I want to know, what's the thing about podcasting? Like, is it the people? Is it the message? Is that the connection? Is it the equipment? Like what is the thing that you're just like, Oh my gosh, I just love it so much. And I want to help other people with it.
Oh, for for me, the biggest thing is the and I'll go first on this, I guess, is the the I think it's the perfect stepping stone into stepping into your greatness is kind of, for me what I've seen like, and we've worked with clients to help them start their own podcast, it's amazing to watch people's transformation of getting confident, but then also getting a clear understanding about what they're meant to do or what their purpose is or like why why they're even
wanting to create content in the first place. I think that a podcast more than anything helps you to figure all that out. Maybe it's the long form content, maybe it's just the the looseness of talking, interviewing and or even if it's an interview podcast, like putting scripts together. It's just really magic that way it's so it's the the changes that happen behind the scenes with people that is what gets me going so much on it. Yeah,
for me and I been a podcast junkie for
for many, many years. I think it's I think it's that connection that you develop with your audience and the connection that you develop with people in your industry that really gets me emotional and really just makes me recommend podcasting to anybody and it's because when you put somebody behind the microphone and they just let go of any expectations or any you know, insecurities, or if you're nervous after a while to just relax and then you just get into the zone
when you bare your soul, your show yourself. You're your ideas, your dreams, your stories. And I think in my opinion, it's the best way even better than social media than video to get somebody and in their realness. And, for example, we were we were helping one of our neighbors in Utah, and to have a podcast for only their family.
They wanted to memorialized stories of grandma and grandpa and people who are like getting old and they're losing, you know, their memories and all that so memorialized all that I just think that that's that's beautiful how you can record audio record stories, and just cause that connection and emotional reaction. And, you know, save those stories for for future generations. I just think that I mean how many there I can't even tell you
how many times a podcast has made me laugh. A podcast has inspire me to inspire me to quit my job. How many times I have learned about things from a podcast how many times that have left you know,
but there's also a lot of issues that by listening to podcast has caused crime True Crime fan Yes. It's my guilty pleasure apparently. The other day I had a shoe and I was just looking at my exercise bike shoe and I needed to tighten the screw on my came in the room with the shoe and she I guess I was gonna murder her. listening to these True Crime podcasts.
Yes. And but I'm a crime junkie fan. Last night, we had to sleep With the windows open because the smell of pain is, by the way, we are remodeling our home in our studio and is there's pain all over and just all sorts of mess. We can't even find our guy or equipment. We're just we're
lucky we're here. We left the windows open. And I'm like, What do you think that somebody is gonna, you know, get get inside of the house through those windows of murder as I remember this case that the entire family got murder because they left a window open just yeah, I can. But I listened to that podcast religiously. I'm obsessed with.
It listens to it with our 12 year olds. On the record, everybody thinks I'm gonna end It's me. I'm the one who's gonna kill everyone.
I know that's so funny because my husband, he loves dateline, and like, the 48 hours, like he doesn't listen to it on a podcast, but he watches all these shows. And I'm like, I can't do it. He used to travel a lot for work. And we have three boys. And it's like, he would leave and he's like, Alright, I'll be back. And then I would be like, you're leaving me here with these three kids. And all these crazy stories are in my
head. Like, he just tells me about like it. This is like secondhand stories that he tells me I don't even watch them. And I'm freaked out enough. So I'm like, No, I don't need those. I'm not a true crime. I freaked myself out enough. I'm that person to this day. I still we have our boys bathroom. They have a shower curtain, the old school shower curtain. Anytime I go in there, I swear. I'm always like, one day, the cat was in there. And he jumped and I jumped. And it was just
a bad thing. So no, no to crime for me. Not not. Yeah.
He doesn't like to cram. But I'm like, Listen, so I have stories, you know, I have the story for you. He's like, well, please.
So I guess like anything else, you can take something and you know, you can get, get what you want out of it. So I guess to sum up both of our answers, it's just the it's the freedom of the freedom and the authenticity, I think,
yeah. And also, I feel like, you know, tick tock and Instagram and social media is just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling and fast pays fast pays. And podcast is just such a fresh, fresh air. You know, it's just so you just tune into your podcast, and you forget about the rest. And you can spend 45 minutes listening to somebody. I mean, if you're not into podcasting, you should. You should consider that consider getting into it. Yeah.
That's awesome. Yeah, I love it. I love the ripple effect of podcasting, too. It's like, you know, you could share a story. Well, just like what we were doing. It's like, you know, Veronica hear something, she shares it with Steve. And then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, he knows about that podcast, or he knows about that story. So it's like, not just about the person directly listening to the host of the show. It's about the people that you're going to tell or you're going
to share. So I just, I see it having an even bigger impact. And I'm just curious, do you have any, like students or members of your community that have had like this, this awesome when are like a fantastic moment that you're just like, this is why I do what I do. Do y'all have any specific examples of that?
You can go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So recently, one of our clients Aaron, and she's the host of You're such a catch podcast. She was feature and podcast magazine. And we were like, Oh, we couldn't believe in it was so cool. Yeah. And not only will that was a good thing, but it's just to see her how she has taken her podcasts. And she's building a whole brand around her podcast, and it's just a coolest thing. what she's doing within just a couple years, within just a couple of years. It's insane.
Yeah, when she when we first started with her, you know, very timid behind the microphone, and you can go listen to her old episodes, and just kind of unsure of what her podcast was about or unsure about any of that stuff. And now she's just confident she's not working her corporate job anymore. She's building a, she's building a brand that she's doing her podcast full time. Also, her podcast was about dating and in your late 30s in LA, and she was all just telling her crazy dating
stories trying to find true love. Well, she found true love through the podcast, which is crazy. Like that's actually how she met the guy was he he came Yeah, he knew her but the listener knew him because he was a listener of her podcast. And so now she found true love. She's like manifested everything she wants in life. She's in the pocket. Cast magazine, just like wow, this is unbelievable. So that's probably our biggest,
biggest Yeah, our biggest like, success story. The other one for me that I think about is, is a weak friend, a colleague and, and a student to Eric Henley with his YouTube channel is really crazy to with after we're helping him with that because he was he has a podcast called the unstructured podcast where he interviews people relentlessly. And like one year, he had like 100 100 episodes in a year or something. And just one of the hardest working podcasters. But his downloads were never
exceeding a certain amount. And he was just kind of in this plateau after a while. And then he got himself onto YouTube. And he started going live on YouTube. And now he's like, he's got 46 a lot of 30,000 subscribers or something like that. Yeah, just not that the numbers are what matters, but he's like, actually generating profit now. And he, you know, he's really found a place and a calling and an audience and a community. And it's just so
cool to see that he's having fun. Yeah, and he's having fun, and he's all he's lit up and what it is that he's doing, it's just so cool. There's a tipping point, you know, and I think that's what it's about is just the consistency and the open minded if, if the P if we're open minded and if we're, you're like, willing to adapt and change and face our insecurities and things like that.
And we stay consistent, then we, we actually see like, a lot of really amazing things happen in the world of social media and the website or the interwebs.
I love that. I actually, I want to go back to what you were saying about having fun, because I've watched so many of your videos, and y'all crack me up. I love the different personalities. I love the different like, Oh, you know, like this person thinks this. Well, what about this? Like, I just, I love it so much. So I want to know, in your content creation journey, did you have this idea of what you wanted your YouTube or your podcast? Like anything that you're
creating what you wanted it to be? And that's what you're creating? Or has it been kind of an evolution over time, like, when we tried this, but now we want to do this? Like what does that journey look like? for y'all?
It's been an evolution. It's been a it's just so funny, cuz, you know, we seem it seems like from the outside, we know what we're doing. But we have no, we're just constantly experimenting, and like pushing the boundaries a little bit with our videos. I think that we're still as a company and as as the channel, we're still trying to figure things out to find the balance between providing value but also being creative and, and just like owner, who we are as
creators, and what we bring to the table. About it's been it's been an evolution, I remember, one of the first few videos Stephen made me do, it was me talking about was, I don't, I don't like audio production. I like writing and content strategy and all that that's kind of like my social media. But he is the audio engineer. And then he made me stand in front of the camera and read a script about signal flow,
which and in in hindsight to that was something that's changed is it's kind of like, I wanted people to be passionate about the things that I'm passionate about. But I think that's, that's something that is a journey that a lot of, well a few of our clients have gone through as well too, which is we start by creating about ourselves, it's all about us. It's all about like, a very internal, very self centered, and then it
becomes more about your community. And it becomes more about what people need and how you what they want, what they want. And that comes from like market research. I remember a big moment when things change for us pretty early on was francha. Also really, and I love her too, but rocker really loves this influencer. Vanessa Lau she has a Yeah, yeah. And I love it. Yeah. And so we actually were students of her Instagram course and kind of took
her course together. But she really got us into this idea of like, Who is your ideal listener who is your, you know, she was the one who kind of pushed us into that marketing world of, and we've since really, really gotten into that a lot is is like who is it that we're making our content for and I think that's Really when things changed and so now we've taken a step back and if I am going to talk about signal flow which is pretty important and I think very fascinating it's got to
be it's got to be spun in a way that our audience is going to actually find it useful
and I think it's been once been very beneficial that we are very different people that he is trained in the technical side of things in audio production is that when he comes to me with a certain idea is like okay tell me what is good for Don't tell me I'm okay signal flow and all that Okay, tell me what why I need to understand that in order for me to record my podcast
I'm like oh well actually you don't so yeah, we will make that video
just tell me one blue board where to plug things I didn't know that
she needs to know she calls it a thingy majingy thingamajiggy Where do I put the thing imaging and give me that you know
what I feel like over the years I have learned a lot about equipment it's
crazy yeah,
but yeah so me any you know like dumb mean that I didn't know anything about signal flow signal flow. I made that video and you can you should go see it on our channel. It's pretty hilarious. He is really nice. Great. My eyes are going from one end to
the other. Yeah, and there's a green screen and the animations are
kind of cool but I'm like talking about something I had no idea about.
But the The other thing that I guess is is the the real takeaway to answer your question because we it's a very long winded answer is it's about the audience and when we shifted from, from being self centered to being audience centered, the like, because I'm an audio engineer and you know the signal flow thing and I'm very uptight about certain things but the idea of podcasting on a phone or using a phone to podcast was one that you could have never talked me into I would have
been very very like oh I'm too good for that like I would never would have and in all of our market research and keyword research and looking it's like so many people are searching for that like everybody's wondering Can I start a podcast on my phone so when I put my own you know, thoughts aside of that and really just got into Okay, well
how can you start a podcast on your phone? And that we put together a video teaching people how to do that using the anchor app and that's our that's actually what has blown up our YouTube channel is that one video and so it's like just give people what they want and it's about service more than it is about I don't know about that. Yeah, so fulfillment or fame or I don't know what it is because that's definitely not why we got
into it. I think we really wanted to just help people yeah help better their content Yeah.
Well, we're gonna put the signal flow video in the show notes for this podcast. What video I was like I haven't seen this so I have to go watch this. We're gonna do it
well, there's another route that you should watch too.
Oh no, no, it's not good.
Which one is it? We we got to know.
The Apple one?
yeah, the apple
fruit Yeah, I think I was mad that day. I don't know what was what was it? Was that how to submit your podcast to Apple? Oh,
yeah. How does it make your pocket? There's an impersonation there that people should go
but they're actually hidden. Hidden in a lot of our videos like Veronica will like burp during it like sneak that in there I would have fence yeah or we have like arguments or fits so we like to sneak those in there just because yeah, it's it's fun and that's the other thing I think that it above everything I think it should be fun yeah that's our first in our you know every business should have like a five points of your of your you know, I've got a loss of words but our
very first point and are all of our bullet points our mission statement or whatever is are we having fun? You know, we stopped a lot now is that are we having fun, though? Maybe we should like take a break and
do something different and sometimes when we go with our gun with something that we feel super creative about and are having fun. Those are the videos that performed the most Yeah, the best. Yeah,
I think that's awesome. And I think that that's why I was drawn to all y'all is content because that's the same thing for me. It's like I love to have fun. I like to be a little silly. Yeah, put it out there because this is who I am. Y'all ain't so hard for me to try to pretend
to be something that I'm not. So I'm going to share about the ridiculous things that I do when I'm recording or the fact y'all my cat like we're Literally recording and I forgot I shut the doors to my office and the cat is in the office with me. And then he was like, Look, I was like, he's gonna jump on the shelf, when you're like, he's gonna
knock something off. And now he's just sitting on my desk, and I'm like, really, like I want to, I want to push him off and just be like, get it, but then he's gonna be stuck in here with me, and he's gonna be mad. So I'm just gonna leave them there. But these are the things that I think people really relate to is when you are yourself, I think that you can tell when people try to do silly things. And you're like, that's not really this
person's personality. And they're putting on a show, and it feels weird, and maybe a little cringy. But with y'all like, it's so entertaining, and it's so natural. And I think that that's what people are drawn to, because y'all are, you're having fun, and it's very apparent, and I love this. I think it's I think it's fantastic. But I actually I want to talk to y'all about being a
team. Because for me in my journey, I have been you know, I've had project managers, I've had virtual assistants, and I've had people behind the scenes, helping me with a lot of pieces of my business. But when it comes to my content, it's usually myself doing solo episodes solo YouTube's unless I'm doing a live stream or an interview with someone. So I don't have the experience of working with a co host. So can you share any
thoughts? Like, maybe a high and a low that you all had on this journey working together as a team?
Hmm, that's great. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that?
Um, I think it's been, it's been so great to be able to work with Steven because he's so creative. He's He's a very creative person. And he, whatever I bring to the table, he's like, Yeah, let's do it. And he finds the way to, to materialize my ideas. And I feel like we, we communicate pretty well. We know how to, like, just get on the same page with certain things. With that being said, it doesn't mean that we
don't struggle sometimes. And now we don't have these agreements, or that we just like I can work with you today because, you know, it's just it's, it's how it is it's difficult to have our co host is difficult to work with your significant other is not always. How do you so I am so bad at expression expression, idiomatic, idiomatic expressions,
like not always hunky dory.
Always hunky dory is not always, you know, kisses and hugs and we're all happy here. No, we we had our disagreements. And it's because we have we both have very strong personalities, and we know what we want. And then when the other person is not getting it, we just get into this. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then sometimes we have to take some time apart and then just breathe and he's very good at what
he does. And I'm very good at what I do. But it's just to find it's been a matter of finding that okay, we need to drop this here because we're not going to places we're just like how to separate and then we reconvene, yeah, reconvene?
Yeah. And that's also been part of the journey, too. That's been really valuable is the personal growth that happens through all this stuff. And you know, because when I get into like, setting up the gear and setting up the cameras and setting up the microphones and the cables and all that stuff mode, I kind of get into a little bit of like a psycho psycho. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't gonna say psycho. I was gonna say,
he was real quick with that.
And actually, yeah, I like start making making noises and stuff. Yeah, we've had a talk. I can't say boop anymore. Because if I, if I go, then it's, it's like PTSD. So yeah, so there's a lot of that kind of stuff. And we're lucky in that sense, because I've never really, I don't think I could work with anybody. Besides Veronica, our personalities mix really well to collaborate. So if you play well with others, and if you
collaborate, you can communicate really well. But I also think that co host relationships sometimes cause a lot of problems too. Especially if there's like passive aggressive things going on. A lot of times with podcasters. And people there will be one host that kind of just does everything and the other one just kind of shows up prepared. So it's, you really do have to have the the uncomfortable
conversations. Yeah. And it makes sure that you're not only that you're being heard, but then you're also open minded to Yeah,
to watch. What I tell my clients is that if you're going to work with our co hosts, you need to take this relationship as a view are creating a business together, I put things in writing as much as you can divide roles and super important who's responsible for what and when and have established schedules and things, the more clear you have the roles that each person will
play in their relationship, the better. Yeah. So I think that will be one what my advice because you know, you want, you want your podcast to be this place of creativity. And when all the administrative planning thing is taken care of, and you just show up and you do your work, then it's not about you, when you're, you know, in your drama that you have going on is like, it's about your audience is about the content that you're
creating. And I think that's, that's what, what is helping us a little bit is that we get to a point, okay, we just had to let go, this isn't about us anymore. This is about our, our community, our audience, and we just have to let our egos aside and come to an agreement, and then you're gonna start bait and stop beeping. Yeah. And I'm gonna let you talk, because I interrupt in all the time, I don't let him talk. So because my ideas are better,
but I'm the one they are. I just push the buttons, you know, but I like to make sound effects when I push buttons, like push my buttons. But I'm very interested to hear just a little bit about your experience with virtual assistants and online people as far as on your team, because that's something that we've definitely struggled
with. Yes, we have some troubles finding the right
pizza, I guess it comes down to communication. But so when you say that you've worked with people, what are what some of your experience, I'd be really interested to know how you deal with those kinds of
Yeah, what would be your your suggestion for somebody who is looking to find somebody? Yeah, for social media or virtual assistant virtual assistant? Because that's some
Yeah, for sure. So I have used Um, I've had a project manager who I worked with for about six months really closely in, y'all just be really honest, if if you've watched friends, and you're a friend, like a friends fanatic, and people on my show, notice, my business was like Monica's closet, everything looks so beautiful, organized, like on the outside. But there was this one corner. Yeah. Like, don't open it, you don't want to see what's in there. And that was like my
Google Drive all my files like Canva. Like everywhere, where I had all these really important assets of my business, they look great when they're out on social media, but behind the scenes, it was hot mess. So I had her come in, and really helped me put in, like systems and processes and workflows. And that has actually set me up to have more of a well oiled machine that
didn't have a lot of friction. So for anybody that's listening, you know, and especially for y'all, if you're thinking like, I want someone to help me in my business, you have to ask yourself like, and a lot of it just comes down to asking those hard questions that we've been ignoring. Like we've been in denial, we're like, no, it's fine. It works. Like the process isn't great, but
it works. If you've been saying that you need, let's sit down and actually look at it, because you have to find like, pinpoint the areas of friction, and then ask how can I create a system or process around this and honestly, what I have found, instead of hiring a bunch of people, I have looked to a lot of applications that can do some of that work, like, you know, back in the day, it was calendly. And like, I just got to have a
scheduling system to get everything set up. So that was one of the first things that I did and then my transcriptions I outsource that to otter and that you know, otter does all of my transcription. So see where you can automate pieces of your workflow no matter what kind of content that you're creating, and then ask yourself what are the pieces that no one else can
do? And for me that was creating the podcast actually being on video right the behind the scenes as a different story, but being on video for YouTube or for social or whatever, like those things, I can't outsource to anybody else. But then I like just sat down and wrote everything that I do in a week's time or in a month's time. And it's kind of hard because you're just like it happens on autopilot so you don't think about all the things that you do, your honor. What's
happening is freaking out your shutter. Like, he's in the window. He's trying to Window the shutters going up and down. I don't even know what's happening. He's trying to attack a bird outside. I don't know what's going on. But anyway, but like just looking at all of your tasks and saying like, what can I actually let go of because I'll be very honest, I'm a control freak. When it comes to my
processes. I'm not the, like, most digitally organized person, but I'm a control freak when it comes to, I want things done a certain way, not in a perfectionist way. But because and y'all know this to SEO works a certain way. And whenever you put out information, especially on YouTube or you know, on Google, it has to be done a certain way. And so instead of outsourcing those important pieces of the puzzle, I would say, How can someone help me with my show notes? And that doesn't mean
giving them access to my whole website? Because then I'm like, what, if something breaks, what if they don't really know what they're doing that makes me a little uncomfortable. So what I have them do is, let's do all of this in a Google document, right? Because they're still helping you and maybe the last few things you have to do until you get on a better relationship basis is take that information and put it on your website from a Google document but baby step into those higher
level tasks. Because I mean I got to a point where I just handed over the keys to the kingdom and I was like here do everything and she organized everything like beautifully and things work so much I'm proud to before when she first came in, it was like Hang on, let me let me throw a bunch of things like in the closet will call me and she was like no, it's okay Just let me see your whole
mess. And then she helped me clean it up. So if that is a place that is listening, and you have a digital mess on your hands, that is the first person I would look to hire as someone that knows how to clean up a digital workspace to make it where it's functional and you can actually find things because now I can do a lot more things just because I know where they are it's so sad I felt like I needed to like home edit my life like in the background of my digital world but it just it
helps so much so that would be my first recommendation.
That's great. I love that thank you for sharing that because yeah, we're we have a hard time we've hired people and worked with people that really just wound up making things worse. That caused more work. Yeah, so we've been through a lot of that and with the hiring process
yeah and it takes a lot of time to train them to get to your level and you know by the time they learn what they need to learn it's like I should have done that myself. Yeah, Yeah, I do. We have a lot of we have a few online courses and we have you know certain things that we'll funnels and things that are very sensitive and that they need to be connected the right way and so that's why we have to do it ourselves.
Definitely. But I think you hit on something that's really good which is just you kind of have to know what you need help with to Yes, yeah. When we first started we're just like, help us but we didn't even know
Yeah, when in fact what we needed was a babysitter. That's really
the person we ever hired was a baby was a way busier yeah
because we were both able to to work together and to do a lot of things get blessed I
think the next the talent that's really easy to to hire and also affordable as podcast editors or video editors and that was something that was really hard for me to give the oh yeah keys over to that because I'm really into editing video and I love editing podcast but take so many hours you know three three hours at least on a podcast episode sometimes are six to eight hours on a video video and so that's just something that we've outsourced now and it's still kind of hard I
get sad about it but because I love doing that work but it just frees up all that time to do more stuff.
Well I'm so glad that we're having this conversation because I'm kind of in the same boat where I had sat down and I was like what can I outsource and one of the first things that I did was we hired a cleaning service for our house because previously I was you know I was kind of a stay at home mom doing a lot of these things part time and I mean even it's only I guess as of us recording this we're just now getting into like the first few weeks of my youngest son going to
kindergarten so I'm just now stepping into doing this full time and for a long time I was like no I can't do that like I need to keep I need but I need to hire somebody else to do this I was so quick to say I need to hire someone in my business but then even when I was done with my business I was like there's this killer grows like what like lands on me like what's happening here. That's
what I did. As well as like this is a gift to myself instead of focusing like I would rather spend a little bit more time in the business and outsource other places in our lives to I outsource like shopping like I do the curbside pickup at our local grocery store like so doing little things
like that, that can help you. You think it's just the the personal and then the business side but there's so much overlap when you sit down and really look at like and I've heard this by many people who are like running activity, time management experts. It's like you do a log, like do a diary log of what you do over a week's time, every single thing. And it's so tedious, and it's
the most ridiculous thing that you'll ever do. But at the end of the week, you'll have everything and you'll say, Oh, I can outsource this, or I can stop doing this, or I can like, this is not that important. And I can wait and do that at the end of the month, or whatever it is. But I'm just those baby steps to get started. And I just, I think that it's so important that you know, especially with you all working as a team, that you sit down together and say, How can we do like,
what's the vision? What's the thing that would like really take us to the next level, because y'all are the only ones that will be able to do those things and then say, Where can we get some more help? And then when it comes to finding quality help, that really is a challenge. Like I'll agree with you Like, that's probably the hardest thing. But I think waiting for that right person, instead of training a bad person, and
you're just like, I hope that this gets better. I think it's just easier to like cut bait and say no, we're gonna keep looking. Look for Yeah, yells
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And even if you have to go at a slower pace, or Yeah, yes. Yeah, I think I think that's, that's a good idea.
That's really good advice. And we're and that's where we're at is is sort of this reinvention place, sort of a noose? Yeah.
We're, yeah, to look at like, yeah, like,
where do we want to go next? You know, so, yeah, so
our studio is going to be done soon. Hopefully,
yeah, we kind of have a new studio and a new plate and new beginnings. Now we went from Utah out of North Carolina. So we're really excited about all these changes and stuff like that. So
we will have to all will be watching on the YouTube channel to see are y'all gonna share like a behind the scenes of like,
yeah, we're thinking about
Yeah, we're doing the kind of the every now and then we drop like a vlog style video. So where you can see, you know, all the, but they're already it's there because like we had to, we're shooting videos in hotel rooms and more
like, Yeah, something that we made a commitment very early this year, because we decided that we wanted to list our house and to uproot our family and from Utah and move to another state. So we knew that this year, what has was going to come with a different set of challenges for us as a company, and as a family,
too. So we just sat down and we made the commitment that no matter what, you know, even if we don't show up on social media, or even we like a little bit on the podcast that our YouTube channel was something that we were gonna honor. Yeah, and that will we're going to post videos every Sunday no matter what. And I think we we've done it. We don't know about this week though.
Hopefully there's one this week thatshows up.
Yeah, but so far so good.
So far, so good. I think that's just you know, that's it is continuing to show up for our audience and at least so that people know we're still here, even though we're in this transitional place. And yeah, that's, that's important, but
and that it's, it's perfectly okay, don't get discouraged, don't get sad, don't get desperate, because right now you're in a situation that you have to reassess. And there are other things that are taking priority. Take this time to refresh take this time to write down your you know, new ideas for your podcast, or for your YouTube channel if you have one. And just, yeah, just embrace what's going on in your life right
now. And you're Yeah, show up as you are and, and don't ghost your audience, keep them informed of what's going on with your life with what's happening, and then you just plan a big comeback. And that wouldn't mean that we're all humans things happened. We have lives we have kids, we get sick, we move and it's, it's it's okay.
I think that you just gave somebody listening a big gift in like just showing up as they are like sharing your humanity. And like, just keep going, just keep showing up. Whatever you do, keep showing up. Because there's going to be someone in your audience like people listening, there's going to be someone in your audience is going to appreciate you showing up, just as we've all showed up here today with cats and like, in the background, like this is real
life. And that's what this is all about is sharing the journey of everything that you're going through. So this has been so much fun, Veronica, Steve, but I actually have a few more rapid fire questions that we ask all of our guests. So are you up for those?
Yes. So with the rapid fire Should we do like every other one so they're super rapid or do you want to do them at the same time
At the same time?
Okay, okay.
These will be really good. Okay, so I only have three so that's not it's not really like a ton of them. So the first one is what piece of advice would you give to a brand new podcaster?
Start!
Yeah, I would say the same thing. Just Just get going. Don't wait until you get the best gear the best microphone to start on your phone. Yeah, just start. Just start. And yeah.
Now okay. Yeah.
Now yesterday.
Yeah. doesn't have to be perfect.
Yes. The next one is a two part question. So it's number one. What's the dream podcast? You would love to be on? Number two, who is the dream podcast? Guest you would love to interview?
You go.
Oh, I was gonna say I like to be in crime junkie will have to be dead or murdered. No, I think I would like to be interviewed at Kathy Heller's podcast. I know that she interviews people in her community that has had tremendous success and that because of her, so I would like to being her podcast and be like, look at what you've done. Look at look at where I am right now. And it's because you know, you planted the seed. And I forgot the second question.
Would you like to interview?
Oh, you go?
I don't know. That's a hard question. I don't know because it's I don't know if it would be somebody in the podcast world or would probably be somebody more in the like the music world or something I don't even know. I would love to interview jack rise there from dark net diaries podcast. And to have something to do with that podcast to like, just get it get to be behind the scenes and see his work process because I'm a big fan of what
and then and then for me, I am a big peloton fan. Oh, wait. Yeah, and one of the peloton instructors. And her name is Robin, Robin, nurse and Robin if you're listening to this, I would like to interview you.
Because she is incredible. And I'm just like her after having little baby a thing. happening. I know right? Is she is so we're gonna link to Robin's Instagram account and he's phenomenal. The last question is Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
Yes. Well, yes,
I used to.
I used to but now Yeah, that's how I would say yes, but then it's like no,
I used to but now I'm finding fun and I'm taking ownership of my mess and I'm letting go
Yeah, like pardon me but this interview for example, like normally the camera not being right and us being too close in the background, you know, weird and the lighting is not right on us at all. Even if you're not having any intentions. I'm putting this anywhere for anyone to see what we look like. That would just not be I mean, we have to cancel you know, but now I just have to go with things. Yeah, like we just have to Yeah, because we are and do it.
Yeah. And then the thing that we all need to think about is that we may missing out on opportunities because we need to have everything perfect. You know the lighting has to be perfect and we would have missed out on this like really cool. conversation is really cool. Interview just because the lighting is imperfect or whatever we're here and you know, in this little room, it doesn't matter what matters is that you show up and then you meet people just, you know, have conversations and have fun.
Yeah, but I do like being a perfectionist. It gives me joy. to just be so nitpicky with things. It's like one of my great happiest times.
Well, I could tell you from my personal perspective, and many guests on the show, the title that we prefer is recovering perfectionist. Yeah, that's me. I'm like I'm a recovering perfectionist, and hand over my heart. Yes, so much. This has been so much fun thank y'all for hanging out with us today. where's the best place for everybody to connect with you and learn more about what you do?
You can find us on Find us on youtube at pod sound school
and then Veronica hangs out on Instagram at pod sound school and I'm the Twitter guy at pod sound school. Yeah, come and say hi Yeah, whichever one you like more, you can come bug the bug is on me Of course. Yeah, it's usually around. But if you're an audio if you're an audio nerd, please like I don't have friends. Everybody likes Veronica better, but that's all righ
Well, we're gonna leave To all of those in the show notes, you'll be able to learn more about Veronica and Steve and all the incredible things that they're doing at pod sound school. Thank you all so much for being on the show today. This was so much fun!
You're welcome it was. Yeah.
Yeah. So much. Yeah.
You know, it's funny because I've had those same rapid fire questions for I mean, since the beginning, since the beginning of time, it's what it feels like. But since the beginning of the podcast, like I've always asked the same rapid fire questions. And I always like hey, you know, what's, what's the dream podcast? Who would you want to? Who show would you want to be on? Who would you want to interview? And can I just say, I want to interview people, just like Veronica and
Steve, forever and ever. Because we had so much fun. The conversation was so genuine. And we just had a blast just being ourselves and you know, talking about true crime podcast and the fact that like, we're all you know, like, secretly afraid of like somebody coming in like to get us in the middle of the night or like, Oh my gosh, like, I'm, I'm still so just embarrassed of how just
scared I get in the bathroom by myself. I know, I'm not the only one that pulls back the curtain to make sure the boogeyman is not back there. Okay. Like, there's probably a whole generation of people that will do that forever, for the rest of their lives. But y'all, okay, this conversation was so good. And I cannot tell you. Like, I just, I could go on and on. Like, I felt like such a fan
girl talking to Steven Veronica. And we just had so much fun, please go to the show notes and check them out, run to YouTube, and watch the videos because they're so helpful. And I think that they just bring such a fun element to creating their content, that it's just a joy to watch what they create. So the Show Notes for this episode are KrystalProffitt.com/Episode298. So go check them out, go follow him on Instagram go, just just go check out all their resources, because they're so
much fun. I cannot wait to collaborate with them again. Because, like I said, I just want to interview people just like Veronica and Steve forever and ever because it was such a blast. And I hope that you enjoyed our conversation. But that's all I have for you today. So if this is your first time tuning in, welcome I'm so happy that you're here. Make sure you hit that subscribe follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast, and I would love it if you would take a
screenshot and share it on social media. tag me tag pod sound school on Instagram and let us know what you thought about today's episode. But as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.