Episode 2

How to Describe Your Podcast to An Editor

When it comes time to describe your podcast to a potential podcast editor, you want to make sure that you have all your bases covered. You don't want to end up with that "deer in the headlights" feeling; you want to be relaxed, confident, and able to engage fully.

But what are the important topics to cover? What should you say? How do you know if you're missing anything?

Listen to this episode of Hiring a Podcast Editor to discover what's most important, and download the free guide "15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor" so that you can move forward with confidence.

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Links & Resources

Links & Resources

  • Podcasters' Roundtable - The Podcasters' Round Table is often a panel discussion format.
  • 2GuysTalking Podcast Network - Mike Wilkerson LOVES to create what he calls the "101 Episode," which is a great perspective on what an "Episode Zero" can be.
  • Christian Woman Leadership Podcast - The Christian Woman Leadership Podcast varies between monologues, cohosted episodes, solo interviews, and team interviews.
  • Focusrite Pro Podcast - The Focusrite Pro Podcast started out publishing every other week on an ongoing basis, and is transitioning to a seasonal production schedule.

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Transcript
Bryan Entzminger:

Have you ever been in that place where you are wondering how to describe your podcast to somebody?

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Maybe they came up to you and said, "Tell me about your podcast."

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Now, imagine how much more stressful that might be if you were actually talking to a podcast editor about potentially

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taking on some work for your show and they said, "Hey, tell me about your show," and then you didn't know what to.

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Welcome to Hiring a Podcast Editor my name is Bryan Entzminger.

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I'm a podcast, editor and manager at TopTierAudio.com.

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This show is intended to help you be able to find the right podcast editor for you, whether you're

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looking for your first editor Or your next editor.

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In season one, we're going to help you get clarity on what you really want before you start

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connecting with editors and then provide you with the tools to make the right decision for yourself.

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This show is sponsored by TopTierAudio.com, where we provide podcast production services for

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multi-passionate coaches, trainers, and consultants.

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Be sure to stick around to the end, and I'll tell you how you can get a free tool to help you organize

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your thoughts and make sure you don't anything.

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When it comes time to describe your podcast to a potential editor, you want to make sure

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that you have all of your bases covered.

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You don't want to end up feeling like a deer in the headlights when they say, "Hey, tell me about your show."

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You want to be able to be relaxed and confident and fully engaged in that conversation.

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And so part of that is going to be making sure that you've done some of the pre-work to make sure

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that you know, how you want to describe your show.

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You want to think some of that through.

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But if you've never done this before, you might not be sure what you want to talk about - what would be important to an editor.

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And of course, as an editor, I'm happy to share with you some of those things that are important.

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Some things that might be important to cover.

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And also in case you might miss something, just make sure that we talk about these.

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Now, of course, I'm not necessarily going to hit everything.

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I'm going to share some of the things that might be important to me or some of the people that I know.

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It's not possible to cover everything, but maybe we don't necessarily need to get everything because the

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reality is, if you're talking to an astute editor, they're going to help guide you through the process too.

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But if you've got your thoughts kind of lined up, then it makes it easier.

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So, in terms of describing your show to a potential editor, I like to think of it in kind of two broad categories.

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And of course there are kind of some subcategories as well.

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But in the first broad category, I'm thinking of it in terms of describing your show, like you might describe it to a potential

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listener or to a potential advertiser or something like that, where you're saying, "I want to tell you about my show."

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I'm going to talk about what's the goal of the show?

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Who is it that the show is serving?

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Who's that audience?

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Is there a strategic fit between the show and my business or, between the show and an organization?

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How does it serve them?

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How does it serve me?

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I'm going to talk a little bit about that because I think that it's important to do that when you

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share that with the editor, because it helps them kind of get a flavor of what's important to you.

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But that's probably going to be the smaller part in terms of this conversation, because there are going to

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be other things that need to talk about that are really more of the technical or the structural aspects of your

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show, so we're going to spend most of our time on that.

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When it comes to describing the things that go into your show or the, the show itself.

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First off, I would recommend spending some time thinking about the format.

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Now, if you've not launched a show, then of course think about the format that you might expect to

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have, but if you've already launched then yeah, absolutely, talk about the format of the show.

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And in this, I'm going to think of it in terms of, is it a talk show?

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Is it an interview show or something like that?

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Where the it's basically just a conversation or perhaps a monologue or something like that,

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where it's essentially a straight through show.

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You start recording.

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It's not that you don't edit, but you start recording, and then from top to bottom, you kind

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of go through the process and that is the show.

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Think of it like a lot of the shows that you might see on TV during the day where people are talking to each

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other, maybe a panel discussion or something like that.

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That would be a talk show as compared to what I would think of as a crafted story show.

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So a crafted story would be something that could be fiction.

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It could be an audio drama or something like that.

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It could also be nonfiction.

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It could be some kind of investigative reporting, or it could be some other kind of nonfiction that's a crafted story.

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Maybe you're going out and interviewing people and you're putting together a story with lots of different people.

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That could be a part of it.

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And then the, the third kind of broad category is a little bit of a blend of multiple things,

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and I just kind of call this the variety show.

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I'm not talking about a show that occasionally breaks format.

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I'm talking about a show where there are multiple segments and they're all kind of pieced together,

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and so it's kind of a talk show and certain parts of it are produced and, and that kind of thing.

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So I call that a variety show.

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In the world of old, old TV, this might have been something where you have a host and several performers

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that come out and perform things, or you have a host and you bring on multiple guests kind of in sequence.

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That would be more of a variety show.

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After you've talked about the format or you've thought about the format, then think about the cast of the show.

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And we've already kind of touched on this as well.

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So, for either kind of show, is it a cast of just you?

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Is it a solo or a monologue show?

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Is it a show where it's co-hosted?

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Maybe there's you and one or two other hosts.

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Maybe it's a linear interview where you interview somebody and it's just you and one guest or you and two guests.

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That could also be, generally.

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A panel discussion.

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I think of a show called the Podcasters' Round Table, which is often a panel of three, or maybe even

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four people where they will talk about some topics.

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And if you want to, you can check out the Podcasters' Round Table.

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I'll make sure that there's a link in that description for you, so you can click through to that.

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And don't feel like when you're doing this, you're going to have to necessarily describe all of the

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nuances, but do kind of think that through, because some shows do tend to break format a little bit.

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So I think about one of the shows that I work on is the Christian Woman Leeadership Podcast.

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And this is a show co-hosted by Esther and Holly, but sometimes it's a monologue with one of them.

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Sometimes it's a co-hosted show with both of them.

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Sometimes it's one of them with a guest.

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Sometimes it's both of them with a guest.

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And the episodes can vary in both length and the cast of characters that are there.

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So don't feel like you have to be tied down, but at the same time, in order to be able to share that with your prospective

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editor, somebody who might be coming on your team, or you might be bringing in a, a freelancer or somebody else, you

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want to be able to share that information with them because that's going to influence how they think about your show.

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It's going to influence pricing and some of those things, and you want to make sure you've got all that stuff up front so that

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you can create something that works really well for both of you.

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And so that nobody's surpris.

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We've talked about the cast of characters.

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We've talked about the format, but we really haven't talked yet about the length of the show.

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The length matters.

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And there's two ways that I think about this length, and it's important that you get clear on both of them.

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One of them is, "How long is the raw audio that's provided?"

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in radio, they might call that, "How much raw tape do you go through," or something like that.

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So if you are generally recording an hour long interview, then generally an hour of raw audio is

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what you're putting together or what you're providing.

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And when you think through this also think through how consistent do you think that's going to be?

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Is it always going to be 35 to 40 minutes?

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Is it always going to be 60 minutes?

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Is it sometimes going to be 15 minutes and sometimes going to be two hours?

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Think through that because it's important to make sure you have those conversations.

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And then also think of it in terms of how long is the finished episode going to be.

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In some cases, this isn't going to matter that much.

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If you think about an interview that typically runs an hour of raw audio and the interview, once you're done editing

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just ends up being as long as it is, that's one thing.

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It's another thing to be taking hours of tape and needing to create a four minute episode that can

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also be played on radio or something like that.

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So make sure that you're clear on what those goals are, what those kinds of things are.

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Also think through the publishing frequency and the duration of your potential engagement.

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Are you thinking about something that's going to publish once a week forever - so ongoing production that's on a regular cadence

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- or once a month or three times a week or something like that?

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So think through, is it going to be ongoing production?

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And if so, how often is it going to be published?

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Is it something that's going to be produced in seasons where you might produce 10 episodes or 20 episodes or

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something like that, and then get them all done, and then release them all at once or release them over the course

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of several days or several weeks with, then, a planned break in between to then create your second season.

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Is it something where you're just looking for an editor to help you get launched?

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Maybe they can help you with the technical setup of your show and then maybe they help you put together

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your trailer or your Episode Zero or your 1 0 1 episode.

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I've got a friend over at Two Guys Talking that calls the first episode, "Your 1 0 1."

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You can find a link to that in the description as well, but is it going to be something like that?

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Because that will definitely affect things because...

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Not so much because it's necessarily going to affect how that editor approaches pricing, but

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it's important to be clear on this up front.

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And again, this is something that can change.

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It doesn't have to stay the same.

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For example, one of the shows I work on is the Focusrite Pro Podcast.

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When they started, it was twice a month on a very regular cadence.

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And now they're in the process of transitioning to a seasonal show where they will produce, I think 10 episodes is what

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we kinda landed on, and they'll provide all of those and we'll get those into production, get them produced, and then

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they'll take a break and they'll come back and do a season.

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But because we have those conversations in the open, it makes it pretty easy to have the conversation

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around what kind of turnaround time do we need?

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Is it important that they always get them back at a certain time so they can hit a regular production schedule?

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Or is it something where we will get them released when we get them released?

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It all can vary.

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And like I said, all of this stuff is important.

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It can all be negotiable in the sense that you can have a conversation.

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But if you know what you want to talk about, then that can definitely help you get some clarity.

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Now what you have to do is important and your show is important.

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So go out there and make a great podcast.

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If you'd like to be able to get the clarity you need to avoid making a hiring mistake, be sure to download our

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guide 15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor.

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You can find it at hireapodcasteditor.com/15questions, and it'll be linked up in the show notes.

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It's totally free.

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We don't require an email address or anything like that.

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We just want to make sure that you have the tools that you need to make the right decision for you.

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That guide has the questions we'll talk about on this show, some instructions and suggestions, even a place to take notes.

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If you want to get even more out of it, though, be sure to subscribe to the show at hireapodcasteditor.com/listen

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and share it with the rest of your team.

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Your work is important.

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Now.

About the Podcast

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About your host

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Bryan Entzminger

Bryan Entzminger is the owner of Top Tier Audio, a podcast production company. He's the host of Hiring a Podcast Editor and cohost of the Podcast Gauntlet and the Podcast Editors Mastermind. He's also the founder of the Hindy Users (Unofficial) group for Hindenburg users on Facebook. He loves sharing the lessons he’s learned from his struggles and others he's met along the way so that you can have a podcast that you’re proud of without letting podcast production take over your life.