I’m Trying To Make This Better

0:00Okay, so I may sound a little bit different to you and that's because I'm holding a microphone that's plugged into my phone and the reason I'm doing this is because I got a email from my friend Doug Cunnington, the Doug show on YouTube, Doug Cunnington on YouTube, I believe, keyword golden ratio of keyword golden ratio fame is he's the one who invented that. He sent me an email that said that was critiquing my podcast, this podcast, and said that the audio quality was not good. And of course, if you've been a fan of the show for a long time and I know Doug's listened to some of the episodes, I know this, right? We know that this is the case. And I've actually tried to do a couple of episodes with a podcasting

1:00microphone. In fact, I've done one, I think I've done a few with this particular microphone. And I've done some with a DJI wireless mic as well. And when I listen back to episodes, whether I do them just on my phone or do them with a microphone, honestly, I don't feel like they're that different in terms of tone and quality. But I can definitely tell on this microphone that you get less room noise. I'm bringing this up because I actually did a test. I went downstairs where I you know, I had just recorded an episode on my phone, you know, using the phone microphone. And I did one, an episode using this microphone. And I went and listened to both of them. And I was like, okay, like this microphone obviously sounds better.

2:00But the other microphone, I'm like, that doesn't feel that far off. So I was like, is it worth plug? I mean, look, to plug in this microphone and walk around the brewery like I normally do with my phone in my hand, it's not that hard. I can absolutely do this. But I kept thinking, no one really cares, right? I mean, I've asked you and you've emailed me back and said, like, yeah, podcast quality is fine. And so I went inside and I was talking to staff and I was like, hey, you know, Doug sent me this email and I'm been contemplating just using a microphone and she goes, and I was expecting her to say, yeah, why are you going to do that? Like you're just making it harder for yourself. She goes, well, yeah, I don't listen to the podcast obviously, but I have listened to a few and it's really hard for me to listen to when you're just on your phone. I was like, well, why is that? And she's like, why listen to podcasts with like noise canceling headphones? And so hearing

3:05you just kind of like hearing the entire room is just distracting. And I was like, oh, okay, all right, I didn't, I never considered that. I actually didn't, I don't listen to things on headphones. I usually listen to it on a home pod or on my speakers and my computer when I listen to podcasts. So, or I listen to what in car speakers. So I never put on headphones to listen to podcasts. I know that if I did, I would hate, I would hate listening to the show. So I was like, okay, for this episode, I'm going to use this microphone. I'm going to take Doug's advice. I'm going to try to make it a little bit better. And I want to hear from you. I want you to send me an email, mad at jivinesi.com or just sign up at jivinesi.com and email me. What? Is this noticeably better? Does this make the podcast better? And I responded to to Doug after this after I listened back to the two and I went, that's not that

4:07different. And I was like, well, what are, what are other people in my space? How are they recording? Let me hear what their podcasts sound like. So, you know, I pull up a couple of like big name, you know, business podcasts. And of course, like a lot of it's really polished, right? Then I pull up friggin Alex Hermosi's podcast. And that guy is just doing it. He's not even close to the microphone. It's just the, he's like far away. I don't, it's not, I know, it's probably not every episode. But the one that I picked, the most recent one, as of this recording, he was like, in a room, you can hear other people in the room like sniffing and coughing and moving their chairs. And he's like, he sounds like he's at the back of the room. So for me, I'm like, what the, like, this is, this sounds, my podcast sounds awesome compared to that one. And that one's like one of the biggest

5:09business podcasts on the planet. So if we're, if we're comparing, clearly, he doesn't give two shits about the audio quality. That doesn't mean I shouldn't, but Doug's argument was not just that the audio quality is bad. And it makes it hard to listen to. It's hard to get past. But also he said, when I think of you, you're the person I think of, like, I don't know if he said exactly this, but it's like you, you tend to do high quality stuff. And to go, and to go and do low quality stuff on purpose feels off brand for you. Now, that, that resonated with me. So I'm like, oh, that he's got a point. But my retort was simply this in a world, in a world where everything is just more AI generated and everything just looks much more polished, right? Because anybody can just generate it

6:12now. Having something that looks low quality, just using your phone, using what average people have makes you more authentic. And I said that to staff as my argument, she's like, come on. And I go, but it's true. If you go on TikTok, like some of the best creators are just using their phones, some of them, not all of them, but some of them have that microphone that like wireless mic that I have, the DJI mic too, you know, with a little fuzzy top that they're talking into, or they use, you know, Apple headphones or some other type of like lapel mic plugged into their phone. So it's not this end all be all like, this is the way it should be done. But I do think there is some authenticity that's lent to this like off the cuff style of podcasting. But to his point, to Doug's point, I don't, I very rarely do anything that's like low quality. So why would I, why would I do it? Now

7:18I, I, I'll admit, I'm looking at the wave forms as I'm recording this. And in between my speaking, it's much quieter. You're not hearing the room noise. It's still there. This microphone will pick it up, but it won't be nearly as bad as just the microphone from the, from the iPhone. And truthfully, I have a long cord. I have it's a USB-C mic. And I just put the phone in my pocket and I can walk around. So I'm still counting my steps. I still have two hands. And now I'm just using a real microphone, which I'm much more comfortable with than the iPhone. But that does change the cover art. Doesn't matter. I might go back and forth. But here's again, I need you to let me know if this is truly better, if this makes the listening experience better for you. And if it does, I'll continue doing this. It does not take me any more time to do it. And sometimes I'll go back to

8:23just the phone, but you know, if I just don't feel like carrying a microphone, that's fine. But this microphone is always in the brewery where I record this show. So it's just sitting there, not being used. I just plug it in. It takes two seconds. It doesn't require power. It's very easy. So that's, that's where we are. Now I have another thing to talk about on this episode because this all has to do with my personal brand. I started with the podcast. Now I'm moving to video because I got a couple of emails. In fact, when I started my newsletter on kit, people were happy that I started doing that. And I went, okay, this feels right sending emails to my audience. I like doing this. I like communicating that way. I like responding to emails. This is great. Finally, feels like something's moving, something's growing. So they're, I've been getting emails from people recently because here's what I've been doing. The last two emails that I sent, I wrote mostly

9:30what I wanted to say in the email. And then I linked to a video where I could expand on what I was talking about. It's a loom video. If you're familiar with loom, it's like screen recording software. Now loom from my recollection, I'd spend a lot, I mean, I use loom almost every single day in my life. That's how I communicate with people on my team. And you know, it's even how I just record to work through some stuff. So I thought, well, I'll just send the loom link. How easy is that? That's what it's for. But I got a few people who email me back and said, why are you putting these on loom? Because if I want to make a comment on your video, I have to, I have to sign into loom, which I did not know. And then the other day I get an email, or I get a loom video from my developer on, and I looked at it on my phone. And loom made me sign in. Now I don't know if I had to

10:36sign in, or I just missed where I could just watch as a guest. But that's kind of annoying. Or it was it just because I had loom downloaded on my phone. So it's making me open the app. Who knows? But that's kind of, that's not great. That's not what I, that's not the user experience. I expect it. What I expect it. And what I want is when I send an email to a video, I want that to be the only place you can watch that video. So I had two people reach out to me, say like, you know, I would love to comment, but it's making me sign up for a count. I don't want to sign up for a count. I totally get that. I would, if anybody gets that, I get it. Infuriates me when I have to go sign up for an account that, let me, let's just talk about it for a second. When I park now in the city, have you seen this? When I park, I'm doing a bit. When I park in the city,

11:43I put my car somewhere. They make me download an app. Are you fucking kidding me, dude? An app? It's like, you don't want my money. I think I'm doing like a Sebastian Menescalco thing here, but I don't know. I don't have never seen it stand up. So anyway, I fucking hate that, man. I hate, it's like, hey, park, am I, can I just pay a meter? Can I just put a couple quarters in the meter? Can I, can I go to a booth and just pay a guy? Can I do this when I get home? I don't want to be on my phone and I have to set up an account and I got to add my license plate and I got to add my, and I have to pull my card out and add my card. It's like, I'm going to be here for 15 minutes. And guess what? It's not uniform. It's not like everyone's using the same app. It's like every single time I park, I'm downloading another fucking app. So I understand when you're trying to just

12:45watch something that they're making you log in or down. It's like, yeah, forget that shit. So I asked Steph about this. I said, somebody emailed me and said, why aren't you just putting these on YouTube? And the reason in my head was, well, because then if they're on YouTube, then they're not, then like, what's the point of subscribing to my email list? If you subscribe to my email list, then it's like, I'm basically just sending you a YouTube video, which is like, you can just subscribe to my YouTube channel. It's a difference. You know, um, and Steph's like, well, why don't you put them on YouTube unlisted? So that way you get all of the benefits of YouTube. You don't have to worry about creating a thumbnail or, you know, a crazy title. And I was, and you could still use Loom to record it, just export it to YouTube. Sure. I could do that. It is a little extra work.

13:52It's one additional step. But if it makes the user experience better, then that's what I have to do. If there was a way to do it where I could just, well, you know, instead of using Loom, I could probably use Ecam and just save Loom for my team stuff. That's, I'm fine with that. But use Ecam and create like an actual nice looking video. That's not a terrible idea. I could do that. And then I can have Ecam automatically uploaded unlisted to YouTube. Because you can do that through Ecam. All right, I'll think about it. I don't think that's a terrible idea. And the other thing too, I guess, is if a video does well, I could post it live. I don't know. We'll see. But that's all I wanted to talk about. It's kind of a quick episode. I wanted to just talk about two improvements I want to make to the personal brand.

14:53I want to get your feedback on the sound quality of this podcast with this new microphone. I'll do a couple of episodes like this. You let me know what you think. Shoot me an email, mad at jibanesi.com. Or again, you can just go to jibanesi.com, g-i-o-v-a-n-i-s-e-i.com and subscribe to my newsletter. All right. Talk to you next time.