Podcast Production 101: Practical Tips from an Expert Audio Engineer

What if you could elevate your podcast production professionally...without breaking the bank? This is exactly what we explored in today's conversation with our guest, award-winning singer, and sought-after voiceover artist Cami Galles, who is also the CEO of 3V Productions. 

With a unique blend of experience from her time as an advertising executive at Google and AOL, Cami shares some incredible, practical insights on taking your podcast to the next level.

Cami pulls back the curtain on finding a quiet space to record, the importance of understanding the acoustics, and even reveals how a simple microphone plugging into your phone can dramatically improve your sound quality. 

With the power of free editing software like GarageBand, we discuss how you can cut off the tails, pops, and dead spaces in a podcast, ensuring a smooth and seamless listening experience. Plus, she shares the importance of audio markers and why a good mic check is non-negotiable. 

Last but not least, we dive into the concept of audio fatigue and how diversifying voices can help keep your audience engaged. Cami explains how you can create a distinctive branded identity in your podcast intro and outro and the importance of selecting a voice that's contextually relevant to your podcast. 

As a cherry on top, we also explore the role of visual elements in podcasting and the boundless possibilities of creating sizzle reels for businesses. To wrap things up, Cami leaves us with her golden advice - done is better than perfect. Whether you're an aspiring podcaster or a seasoned pro, this episode is a treasure trove of practical tips and insights. Don't miss out!

How to Start a Podcast Guide: The Complete Guide
Learn how to plan, record, and launch your podcast with this illustrated guide.
Make More with Matt Heslin
Explore strategies to thrive financially, build legacy, and enhance life experiences.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

When I find people that love to nerd out on all the things behind the scenes whether it's audio or audio and video or mic setups or equipment like, it just makes my heart flutter and it brings the biggest smile to my face, and that is why I'm so excited to have Cammy on the show today. So Cammy is the CEO of 3V Productions and she's a true trailblazer in digital marketing because she's combined her over 15 years experience as an advertising executive for Google and AOL with an artistry as an award-winning singer and sought after voiceover artists. Like. She has all of the experience that I'm like tell me more. Like I want to hear about that. Like let's go in that direction. But she has a community of over 150,000 followers and she knows the importance of strong storytelling, brand identity and compelling calls to action. So she takes all of that together, using the mind of an executive with the heart of an artist, while overseeing a mighty team. So 3V's mission is to help brands and business owners unlock the boundless revenue generating possibilities that come with exceptional voiceover Video or visual marketing assets, and you will totally see this whenever you check out all the work that Cammy has done.

Speaker 1: 1:33

But before you do that, I want you to enjoy this incredible conversation that we have. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Prophet, 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 content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we All right? Profit Podcast listeners, I have brought to you today an audio nerd, and I love that. This is how you introduce yourself. Cammy, this is so fun. We're going to have an excellent time just talking about audio and video, but I'm so happy to have you on the show, so welcome.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Crystal, thanks for having me. Yes, I'm an audio nerd. I am a longtime marketer. I'm also an artist, but I hold an audio engineering degree, so a lot of folks don't know that.

Speaker 1: 2:39

I love this so much and I actually didn't know this before we started recording. I had seen a lot of your background and the awesome things that you've done that I really want to dive into. But knowing an audio engineer like you are a rock star in my book. Like you, you're a rocket scientist, because this is something that I don't really do too much here on my show specifically. I am a homegrown like grassroots. You know telling people. You can get started by recording on your phone and you can do this. So I imagine you're like Crystal please don't, don't tell people to do that. But I'm curious, what, what made you like? What is it about audio that got you interested in the first place?

Speaker 2: 3:19

So I always say it's a great place to start. You know, so recording on your phone is great. How I got started out is that I am a singer. So I've been singing since I was four and you know, back then singing into a Walkman cassette tape, and I always was so fascinated with being able to record myself and scale. And you know, back in the day when I was going to college, you had to be in a studio. There were only a couple of programs and I just knew that there is so much freedom in scaling your voice and that first came with being able to record it. I also am obsessed with science and math, and that's probably also why I'm a singer and a musician. So it just seemed to go hand in hand with me that I really wanted to be able to control my recording with the goal and the intent of being able to get it out there and distribute it.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Oh, it's so interesting. So what type of music do you sing? I'm not going to put you on the spot and be like Kimmy, can you sing for us? But is there like a certain like, like what's your vibe? What type of music do you love to sing?

Speaker 2: 4:20

I would be, you know, if Chade Adele and, you know, Megan Traynor all were one person. That's kind of my vibe of music. I really love smooth music but has, you know, electronic elements. It's danceable but it's also poppy. All of my music is on any platform. You can go back and listen to it by, you know, just typing in Kimmy Gallis, okay.

Speaker 1: 4:46

I love this so much because I'm like I want to, I want to, I have to go do this. I didn't know that before this, so I'm going to have to go like we're going to link to that in the show notes too, as you go, listen to Kimmy's music. That is so fun. But I want to get back to why we are here today, and that is to talk about podcasters, their production and what that looks like, because you and your company this is what you do so well. And it was funny because you reached out to me about let's just, you know, have a chat, let's see if we could possibly collaborate.

Speaker 1: 5:18

And then I went to your website, of course, you know I'm like, oh, I don't know who this is. Let me do some like investigative research, some detective work on seeing who Kimmy is. And I looked at your website and immediately I see Suzy Moore's face pop up, who I am a student of, suzy Moore, I've taken her five minutes to famous, you know course. And I knew exactly who she was. I've listened to her Let it Be Easy podcast. So immediately Kimmy was checking all the boxes for me. I'm like validated yes, yes, yes, let's have a chat. But I want to know how did you get into helping podcasters, and is that something that, whenever you started the company, you were looking to do?

Speaker 2: 6:00

So 3V Productions is a production company that specializes in voiceover video and visuals and we got into helping podcasters and specifically working with podcasters when I had so many amazing businesses learn the power of starting a podcast or, you know, really taking their blog from an audio space into, you know, from a, I would say, word space into the audio sphere with a podcast. So that's how we really started working with them. Also, we do so much audio production for ads, for television spots, for radio, and it just became this natural thing because eyeballs are shifting to now being on YouTube and not even watching it and just kind of listening to it. And I know, you know this, but audio now marks the day it used to be. We're going to turn on daytime television and turn on the news before we go to work. Now people are turning on their favorite audio streaming platforms to listen to podcasts 100%, 100%.

Speaker 1: 7:04

So when did you kind of make that shift into thinking let's go from you know some of the other things in the production agency to looking more at podcasts? Was that a recent shift or is that something that's happened over the last few years?

Speaker 2: 7:18

Yeah, it was really about a three year shift when we had a couple of big advertisers in the technology space that came to us and said we really loved this mini docu series that we did and they really, really wanted us to work from an audio perspective and one of the directors behind the mini docu series also worked for the brand and they're like hey, we really want to get more into this podcasting space. Can you talk to us about how we need to mix this or can you guys just mix it for us? And we're like, wow, you know, there's so much opportunity for not just the big studio houses or the big celebrities who are coming out with their podcasts to these amazing voices and storytellers for them to be able to start a podcast and understand like the barrier to entry is not that low. I mean not that high, it's actually very low once you realize that you don't have to do it all and it doesn't break the bank.

Speaker 2: 8:17

So it just came from a lot of folks reaching out to us to say, hey, you know, we saw this ad that you did, or we're working with so and so and they're starting a podcast. You guys do exceptional work, like do you happen to do audio and we're like, yes, that's actually how the production company started. So it was just by need, I would say. And then us learning a couple of people who were just exceptional and so funny that we came about learning from you, know, through the Instagram sphere and just being in the industry, where we're like you're starting a podcast, great, we'd love to help you with it.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Yeah, oh, I love this because I feel like, like you said, you're going back to your roots of audio and the things that you're interested in anyway, and I can only imagine that it was like this spark of duh like why aren't we doing this?

Speaker 1: 9:08

Let's start. We have everything to serve podcasters, and having that audio piece makes it even more crucial. But now, even in 2023, video podcast or such a big production and people are really looking at how can I up level from? Maybe they've done an audio only podcast for a while and now they're shifting into incorporating video, even if it's clips or maybe it's a full production. But one of the questions that I get asked a lot and I'd be curious to hear your take on this is well, how much investment do I have to have up front? Do I have to go record in a studio? Do I have to do it at home? You know, like, what is the best way for someone getting started in 2023 if they want to have a professional sounding podcast but they may not have the budget to rent studio time in a large studio.

Speaker 2: 10:01

Yes, this is one of the most asked questions that we love to share with people. It is the most important to have a quiet area. You don't have to rinse to do your time, no, but you need to understand that audio quality is the most important thing. If you went to a movie and you could see it clearly, but you can't hear the dialogue, you're not going to have an emotional connection with that and you're going to walk out. So it's super, super important to understand what are the quiet hours of where I live. Meaning, if you have kiddos at home, when are they sleeping? If you're like me and you have a husband who loves to watch TV at the highest level, you probably might not be able to record in your kitchen or something like that.

Speaker 2: 10:47

So, just understanding the acoustics and how they work, you want a dead room. For a lot of people. That's going to be their walk-in closet with a lot of clothes, it might be your coat closet and starting out with a microphone that plugs into your phone. Great place to start, always making sure that you have some type of monitoring or being able to listen to your playback without having to use your cell phone speaker. It's going to be great. So I would just say it's a lot of trial and error, but the most important thing is quiet space, understanding where you're going to be uninterrupted. You don't have any parallel walls. Essentially, you've got professional acoustic paneling or you've got a moving blanket, you got a closet. That's all that it really matters. You've got a recording device, you've got a microphone and you've got a way to listen back. Those are the most important things. So, no, it doesn't require you to break the bank at all, and there's also ways to partner with people that have pro materials that you don't have to break the bank either with.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Yeah, I love all those and I love the phone piece where you said one that is connected, like plugged into your phone, because I've tried different. I mean, like camey, I feel like this is a safe space for me to tell you this. I probably have 10 or 12 microphones in this office where I'm sitting, there's all kinds of great ones, woods that didn't make the cut, and actually, if you're watching on video, this is my $20 microphone that I originally like it's being, you know, trophyed back here that I got started with. So I've tried all of the things and when it comes to recording on a mobile device, a tablet, you know, whatever it is that plugged in, like it makes all the difference.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Don't use your AirPods. I've done this, okay, so I'm guilty of doing this. I'm like I could just use my AirPods. They're fantastic. Nope, no, no, no, no, no, it doesn't work the same. So if you are getting started on a budget, like, just think about those things that can help you really increase the quality of what you're recording, because then and this is where I want to go next you don't have to do so much post production, like having to clean things up in the back end. So I'm curious when this is going to be a super nerdy question. So everybody that's like I'm here for the day Like okay okay, good, good.

Speaker 1: 13:09

I'm curious, as you know someone that's dealt with so much audio when you open a file, do you visually edit it first, or do you immediately want to throw on the headphones and listen? And I guess a better way of asking that question is are you looking at the waveform to determine where you're going to get started, or are you automatically just putting on the headphones and let's go from the very beginning to the very end?

Speaker 2: 13:36

So I've been doing this for a very long time.

Speaker 2: 13:39

I've been doing this for about God, I want to say 12 years, and a lot of folks that are the audio mixing engineers and post production on my team have been doing it for 20, you know, and some of them are just out of school and they're like the best in their class.

Speaker 2: 13:52

But what we all do essentially when we're bringing audio in to our digital audio workstation, you might hear people say that we're da in the audio production world, but when we bring that into our computers, we immediately can see the waveform and if it's just what you call a wall waveform, it means that you have distorted audio. So we don't even need to put on our headphones to know this is like resuscitation or like you need to like rerecord, I mean, like we can't bring it back to life. So it's a literally a just like if you were doing a mirror check to see how you look. It's literally that we loaded in, the waveforms populate and then we're like whoa, we're in distortion mode. There's some things that we can do, but that's also why, having an external microphone and not holding it super close, I love to see these people with these lovely or mics being like.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Hey, you know yes, don't necessarily want to do that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:49

It's like this is not ASMR. You know, this is an actual podcast, but we're able to see it in one second and for me it's always listening. And you know there's things that we share with people when they're recording their podcasts. I mean, as you know, in the movies people always see the slate marker. In the audio world we do that with snaps. You know, we wouldn't ever want to clap in front of some of our microphones because they're so sensitive and they're very, very, you know, dialed in. So for us that's a snap.

Speaker 2: 15:20

Some people do it with their mouth, which is really fun. You know, it just depends on what you have and what your style of doing things. That's what's so great about podcasting. It's what you want to do. It's like having a conversation is different for each person. It really comes down to how you do your audio markers. But we can tell within 10 seconds what the audio form looks like. But we always I always listen. That's the first step is getting it in, seeing if there's any damage control that we need to do, and then listening to start the edit.

Speaker 1: 15:54

Okay, I love these behind the scenes. Well, first of all, thank you for letting us nerd out on this, and I have a few more nerdy questions. They're coming, I don't know how long, but I love hearing how other people do it, because that's typically what I do too. Is you know whenever, of course, always do a mic check if you're recording locally in you know your software. I always tell people like you have to do, and I have fun with it. I love to be like mic check one, two, one, two. Like I'm just a big dork behind the scenes anyway, and so I'm like you got to make it fun and so I'll do these mic checks and then I'll have my audio.

Speaker 1: 16:29

It's recorded, great Sounds, beautiful, and this is typically where people kind of shut down in my world. They're like I just want to record the thing and zoom or wherever I'm recording it, and then I just want to hit publish and upload, like I just want to export it and make it like send it off to wherever it needs to go. And I think that I was this way in the beginning of I don't want to make it complicated, like I was nervous to either invest the time to learn the skills that I needed to really understand audio editing and production. But I think it was also just this intimidation factor, like I had this mindset of like I'm not an audio engineer. This is not. I had no prior experience in podcasting or audio video production before I got started back in 2018. So I've been doing this for a while now, but is that something that you see, like people having this, I guess, avoidance of getting into tech. I'm sure that's what it is. That's why they hire you, right, that's why they come to you.

Speaker 2: 17:35

Yes, I mean I think there's. We see two instances of it where people are like, which I love and appreciate. I just want to be the talent, I'm the brains behind the operation and I don't want to have to figure out how to put all the pieces together. I just want it to be done and it is what it is and there's a lot of freedom in that. And I do agree that some point it is important to just focus on what you're delivering and really focus on having really great content, focusing on those emotional connections and ensuring that you know your listeners aren't getting audio fatigue, which we'll talk about later. But there isn't. It's not that hard, and I shouldn't say this because I paid a lot of money for my degree and I worked at a lot of really amazing you know places in New York City, for you know Sony and a lot of different places, but it's really not that hard now in the sense that technology is so amazing and it's the. It's so easy to do, and I'm not saying that people don't need me or they don't need 3v productions, but there is a way to literally just put things into free programs like GarageBand and just cut off the, the tail, what we say, the tails, the beginnings, where you're going. Oh, you know, doing your one, two, three mic check fun, or like your pops, like you know things like that, and cutting off the dead space, or you know you have.

Speaker 2: 18:58

You have to repeat yourself. We're human. Some people flub or stutter and you wouldn't want that in there. So I liken it to. You know, you can get ready in the morning and do that without a mirror, right? Imagine a man shaving without looking in the mirror. For us ladies perhaps we're doing our hair and makeup without a mirror. It would be so much easier if you could actually see it before you left the house, right? So it's just putting it in one area, because audio, you know you're not seeing it. It's going into into a program or into a microphone. You don't get to see it. So this is your opportunity to see your creation and make sure that it's really what you intend it to be.

Speaker 1: 19:40

Okay, I love where this conversation is going because I feel like my audience, everybody's nodding Like, yes, this is so good, this is what we needed to hear. And since you're talking about, you know these different pieces of you, know the snaps and the different parts of an entire just audio flow do you typically work with? Whether you're working with them or you're. You know, maybe this is a client that's just asked for some coaching, or you know how do I get started. Do you advise people to just hit record and don't hit stop until the very end? Because my audience asked they asked me this all the time, crystal, should I record in the different segments and then piece them all together whenever everything's done, or do I just hit record and start talking and then I can make all the adjustments in the end? Is there something that you have found works best?

Speaker 2: 20:34

What works best and this I have to pull this back from even voice talent that we use for recording, because we also do voiceover. So some folks are narrating audiobooks, some people are narrating e-learning, as you know. Some people are narrating our, our brand pitches or ads for podcasts and podcast intros, and we always have folks that don't record it themselves. So they come into the studio or we go, or they go to a remote studio where we're recording them. We always have them, leave it rolling.

Speaker 2: 21:05

There are some instances where you're going to want to just say one thing stop the tape, stop your recording device, hit, you know, pause, re-recorded again.

Speaker 2: 21:15

But with podcasts being a continuation of a thought and kind of almost a two way conversation, even if you're just a solo podcaster, you want to have that room for it to live and breathe.

Speaker 2: 21:27

And when you're stopping and starting, stopping and starting it doesn't have that natural flow for us as an audience to come along with you and it's really sometimes missing that emotional element for us to kind of attach to. So I always like to say for folks that are just starting out, you need to talk to your microphone like it's your best friend. If that's your mom, amazing. If that's your you know best friend that you grew up with, or maybe a work pal or someone who really believes in you, or a sibling. You need to talk to them like that microphone is them and just let it roll and just know that you are going to be your most comfortable as the time goes on and then you can go back and chop it.

Speaker 2: 22:12

I'm a big advocate of looking for the diamonds within the gold, and you don't get the gold unless you hit record and you just are okay with whatever comes out, because you can always edit it. You know this isn't written in stone. You're not doing this live like us here. You know you're not doing also doing this live on air, so you have so much freedom and so much room to be yourself.

Speaker 1: 22:38

I love the diamonds within the gold. I've never heard that before and I think that that is fantastic and I love to think about that and it's so true. I remember that there's been interviews that I've done, there's been solo episodes where I'm like I wish I was recording that, like why, why were we not recording? And so I love that perspective of just have it rolling and then whatever you need to chop on the chopping block later, you can make that happen, and then you can also have the original file for something else in the future.

Speaker 1: 23:10

That's another thing that I don't really talk a lot about to my audience, because my editing is kind of like a solo only venture. I'm doing it, you know, when my kids are asleep. I'm like, okay, like I'm up editing, and it's something that I do, you know, on a pretty regular basis, but I don't often share all the behind the scenes, the, the mental things that are just happening, because it's my style and that's the thing too is it's really all the style of the host, the listeners, and so you mentioned this earlier. I want to talk about the audio fatigue. So can you explain to listeners what that is and if they may have signs of it on their podcast?

Speaker 2: 23:52

Yeah, so audio fatigue. So imagine you went to a restaurant and it was an amazing restaurant that people are telling you. You got to go and the owner of this restaurant was the host. You checked in with them, they were your waiter and then they were back there, you know, making the food and they also were the bus team right cleaning the table. You probably would be like wow, we've seen a lot of this person. Like how are they doing this? All Like, oh, I feel bad, asking for this, or you know like, or you know this is incredible.

Speaker 2: 24:30

The audio fatigue happens when your audience for your podcast, is only exposed to you and is only exposed, exposed to your voice. So you know you're the opening intro, you are also the one that's doing. You know this podcast is brought to you by, or you're the only one who's out there pitching brands to have a, you know, an insert into your program or an ad spot, and you're also the outro, so you're not necessarily giving the audience a different segment. You know something to refresh the mind. So when we go to concerts, there's always an opener. When we watch TV, there's things to break it up, like there's an intro to the show that normally isn't the actor speaking to you, you know. And same with movies Movies aren't shot in the same area and they don't have the same audio all the time. So we, as humans, we need that stimuli. We need the different sounds, we need the different visuals and it's great that some podcasts are visuals but for those listeners we need what we call in the audio world your candy. We need something to break it up.

Speaker 2: 25:41

And one of my favorite clients, who you know well and you mentioned earlier, suzy Moore, is fantastic in the sense that love her. She's like the media queen. She's such a great business coach. She's actually a very dear friend of mine. I've known her for God I hate to admit this because it makes me sound old, like 13 years from now and she really nailed this and understanding that she wanted a beautiful introduction. So we did an amazing introduction for her that has music behind it that really went with the theme and the flow of her style of podcasting, which is, you know, confidence, inspirational lifestyle, and so she's not.

Speaker 2: 26:22

You know the intro voice and her podcast voice. So she allows the listeners to understand the sonic identity of her podcast because the intro sets the tone. It's very calming. I mean her podcast is let it be easy. So it's a very easy listening sounding intro and then you've got her. So that's what we always tell podcasters that are starting out you. You don't necessarily have to do it all it's. It's also better if you don't. It's better if you have a different voice for your intro or if you have a different voice for your outro, because it allows your listeners to really be able to focus on you.

Speaker 1: 27:34

I love this so much and Susie has the best. Susie, if you're listening, I doubt she listens to this show Maybe she will one day but she has the best voice, like I've watched webinars with her. I've listened to her podcast and I'm like she just has, like she has this accent and she just she's so calming and I'm like this could be a meditation podcast, like the way that she delivers it. It's so awesome. So, okay, this is like we're just plugging in Susie, so we're going to link to Susie's podcast in the show notes so you can go check out all the cool things that Amy or sorry, amy Kami and her team have done. That way, you can go see exactly what it is, because the intro you mentioned that the podcast ads.

Speaker 1: 28:17

And then I want to go back to what you said because, when I think of this, whenever I was first getting started so flashback to 2018, there were a lot of podcasters in the space that had intros and outros and ads, but it was very jarring. It was not something that felt cohesive with the brand. It was like a big, booming males voice for a woman's you know, a woman's podcast. It didn't really make a lot of sense and it was kind of confusing to the brand itself. So if someone is listening to this and they're thinking, oh okay, like you know, kami says I have to, you know, have something that doesn't deliver audio fatigue throughout the lifetime of my content, what are some things that they should consider when they're thinking about that?

Speaker 2: 29:04

Yeah. So things to think about when you're trying to stave off audio fatigue and have the most engagement with your podcast is to think about the voices or the sounds that compliment you and we share. We did the Suzy Moore intro and you'll listen to that folks when you have a chance and or go to 3D productions and listen to any of the other podcast stuff that we've done. But if you are like Crystal and the Profit podcast you might have, you know it's a fun, it's an energetic, it's a lively podcast. So you necessarily wouldn't be wanting to pitch brands or sponsored by that deal with. You know hardcore, you know financial things or hunting spots, you know things of that nature. So I think, understanding in your mind and saying, okay, I really want fun, younger, energetic tones, maybe perhaps a female, you know and or male. These are the kind of voices that I feel align, they're contextually relevant for these advertisers in these spots. Then that allows you to think about okay, if that's what I want, then I can partner with production companies to put together what I like to call mock advertisements that then you can go out and pitch to certain brands. Like, let's say, you really, really want to have sure microphones sponsor one of your podcasts and you want to have or an audio sponsor, you would go out and say, okay, I want this voice to sound really great and I want them to kind of sound like me.

Speaker 2: 30:43

But it's not me, and you know, the our production company sometimes puts together these mock scripts and then the podcasters send out these, these as audio pitches to say, hey, this is a, this is a spot that we're holding seven seconds for, this is the voice that we've identified. Here is like a placeholder script. Is this something that you would be interested in sponsoring or doing a paid ad for for X amount of dollars? So you have the control as the podcaster. Because, yes, there are podcast platforms where, if your podcast is on them, there already is an ad spot in the beginning or the end and you can't control that. So don't beat yourself up about it. I say the best way to again avoid the audio fatigue is to put in your own paid, direct to the sponsor or direct to you, or almost put in your own mini ad spots that have a different person's voice that you have picked and you have selected, that is, you know, relevant to how your podcast sounds and to your audience.

Speaker 1: 31:44

I feel like that was a masterclass just now. That was so like. I mean, there was just so many nuggets of everything that you just shared. And when you think about because I'm obsessed with understanding analytics and really looking at what performs well, what doesn't, and the idea of using other people's voices I think it's been something I've been hesitant to do, I've been a little nervous about. I've been trying to run ads on my podcast and they're self selected by me and it's actually through my podcast hosting platform where it's integrated into the system, so I absolutely listen to them before they come onto my show.

Speaker 1: 32:22

But there's this like tick mark that I can. I can give them a reason if something isn't a good fit and it'll say you know, I'm not interested or poor quality. This just doesn't work for my show and most of the time it is. It's these big, booming voices that don't really align with the dynamics of the show. It almost sounds like someone's screaming and this is what you need to do, like I don't know if you have lawyer ads in your area where you hear them on the radio. It's like certain ones.

Speaker 1: 32:52

Or it's like if you have an accident and this is what happened to you and I'm like, oh my gosh, I couldn't do that. I would be so jarred if that happened. Well, I was listening to a show, but I love how you laid all of that out when it comes to ads and the different types of production. Now, do you do the same thing with video, because we've talked about podcasts and how you work with? You know podcasting host and their different teams, but when it comes to video, what does that look like in working with your team? And do you have any fun partnerships, because you've worked with some really cool brands that you could share about.

Speaker 2: 33:29

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, we love, love video. I mean obviously because we're 3V productions voiceover video and visuals and for us, you know, the visual side of podcasting has come about. I mean, obviously, we're doing it right now. So we have helped some really amazing people that were legacy podcasters come in with a video element, and we also create TV commercials. So we're here to help brands and business owners, because if you have a podcast, you have a business. I hate to break it to you, but we help brands and businesses reach their audiences at scale through amazing assets that engage people and make them have emotional connections.

Speaker 2: 34:10

So, for, from a video standpoint, yeah, we've worked with everybody, from Dell to Tonal Fitness to Tatcha Beauty, which was a lot of fun, and you know we work with a lot of podcasters to create visual identities, right. So ways to actually let people know that there's a visual element to the podcast. So teasing out that like, hey, this podcast is now not just living in the audio world, it's audio and visual to highlight real sizzle reels, to those video pitches to help people get more, I guess I wouldn't say more illustrious, but I would say bigger, bigger names, yeah, bigger names for people to interview as well. So there is also another notion of you know. People might not know what the podcaster literally looks like, and when you're pitching folks that are, you know, really top tier, they want to know who's on the other side of the microphone, and you usually can't do that unless people know and can hear and see you. So even just putting together a video audio pitch for people to get interviewees is also another thing that we focus on.

Speaker 1: 35:23

Okay and I love. I mean it's like it's full service production. Right, it's 3V. It's touching on all of those. Do you do voiceover work yourself?

Speaker 2: 35:33

I do, but my days of doing voiceover are somewhat numbered because you know I'm not trying to say that I'm very expensive, but you know I, you know I am very expensive and there's also a lot of folks whose budget doesn't necessarily call for someone who's also doing, you know, tv commercials, right, yeah so, and there's also folks that I'm not the best fit voice for right. We have some people who have podcasts that are more crime series or people's podcasts, that is, that are making gobs and gobs of money because they really do the rundown of the Bravo Housewives and, you know, recapping television. I'm not a great voice for that, you know. So I myself, yes, am a voiceover artist and I do pick the projects, but where I really come into play for a lot of the podcasters is that I'm directing and producing a lot of the sessions.

Speaker 2: 36:31

So we have some folks that are just getting started in the podcast world. They don't know what to say and I'm like you know you don't. Again, you don't need to do it all If you need someone to script your intro or your ads, or again, even have a step stone into video and figuring out what your little pitch package looks like. That's really where I come into play and then producing the talent you know, some of the best voices in the industry and I'm sure a lot of your listeners can relate to this don't want to be the ones that excuse me are producing and recording themselves. They just want to show up and they just want to know what to say and they just want to have fun. So I'm a big facilitator of fun and making sure that we get the best asset and the best result.

Speaker 1: 37:19

Yeah, and I love that you share that kind of behind the scenes, because I think that there's a lot of people listening to the show that are either Independent podcasters or their solo entrepreneurs and they look at these very large shows maybe in their niche, maybe in their category and they're like, oh, they just make it look so easy, but can we just share the secret?

Speaker 1: 37:41

They may have a whole production team behind them doing a lot of these things, and so I like the idea of, first of all, just don't ever compare your journey to someone else's, because you don't know Like you just don't know what someone else is doing, but also that you could have that same level of show if you're connected into the right pieces, of being very honest with yourself on knowing what your strengths are and where you just need to outsource it, because this is something that you know. In the beginning of my own journey, I was like I'm gonna do everything, I'm gonna do DIY, I'm gonna learn how to do it all and in 2023. I do not have that same mentality of I'm just gonna spend hours and hours on YouTube to figure out how to do something.

Speaker 2: 38:24

I'm like take my money, I don't like, I don't have time to do this so yeah, yeah, youtube University is a real thing, you know, and it's good and I encourage that for everybody. And you know I'm we're also out here wanting to share with folks that you don't need the budget of a Netflix television show. You don't need to be, you know, a super mega star who's out here producing content in a studio. You know we offer all a cart services that are done for you to podcasters, whether you're just getting started out or you're adding on, or you are like crystal here and are like I don't need to do it. Oh, you know, there's some elements that I really love of this and I'm gonna see what it would, you know, cost me to Not have to do this, because I don't enjoy it, but I know it's necessary and then enjoy the benefits of seeing how much more time Enjoy that that opens up for them to focus on other things that they love about podcasting.

Speaker 1: 39:22

Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. And I actually I wanted to go back to because we talked about this before we started recording and it got me so excited. So Kimmy and I are gonna be talking off the air about it. But you mentioned that you also do sizzle rills, so you mentioned this earlier about doing commercials for TVs, and I'm sure people that have online businesses and businesses they're listening to this podcast and they're thinking, well, I don't need a full Commercial for my business or I don't even know what that looks like. We're a full, you know, fully digital business. We don't even have a brick-and-mortar store and so, for some minutes listening, is that something that your company offers and what does that really look like? Because somebody hearing this is thinking one budget, but they're also thinking Production, like how long does it take to go from Just an idea to an actual concept and having something that's deliverable?

Speaker 2: 41:04

So if you want to have a scissor reel, so sizzle reels are great. That's a little bit of a tongue twister, yeah, real sir. Fantastic in the sense that we're already working with content that's been published, so those tend to be a lot faster to work with, because we're able to take things that are already, you know, approved from a production standpoint. They sound great. We know that you love them and we pull out the best parts of it and put them together. We make sure that they're engaging, they fit together and they tell a cohesive story as to why you need to listen to this podcast, why you need to sponsor it, why you need to be the next guest on this podcast. So that's kind of the lens that we come from from a business perspective.

Speaker 2: 41:45

The sizzle reels and what is super important is we we blend almost the the role of an explainer video with the why of a company, and what's so important about that is that 87% of people Will take an action after seeing something explained, your services explained, your product explained, and then, if they know the why behind it, that allows them to have that Psychological attachment to say like this is why they're doing it. And I believe this is why it would help me or why I need it. So you know the those videos, depending on if we're coming out to shoot with you, if you already, or if you want us to create the content and send it to you, it really just depends on you know what you're looking for when we're coming out to location. You know we kind of have to add a day or so in because we need to get the content. If the content is already there, it's something that can easily be turned around within literally a business week.

Speaker 1: 42:45

Yeah, oh my gosh, this, this is so good because I'm in my head thinking, oh my gosh, is this months and months like, what would this even look like? And I bet somebody was just listening and their ears parked up and they're like I've been wanting to do this. I've been wondering how to do this and it's why I wanted to bring it up, because I know there's a lot of people curious about having something like this. So I love that. Hey measure. Go to resource like I'm literally handing you like silver platter for all of your audio video visuals, all the things like go check out camey and her incredible business. So I actually want to wrap up today. I have three rapid fire questions for you that we ask all of our guests. So are you up for those? I am up for those, okay. So the first one is what piece of advice would you give to a brand new podcaster?

Speaker 2: 43:38

Get started and just do it. And if you have a great podcast idea, there are people that want to listen to you, so record it, edit it, do it.

Speaker 1: 43:51

So good, so good. Okay, my second question is it's a two part question what is the dream podcast you would love to be on and who is your dream podcast guest you'd love to interview?

Speaker 2: 44:05

Oh my gosh, I really would love to be on it. This is so controversial because it's like, oh, I don't know. I would really like to be on red table talks, which is not necessarily just a podcast, but I feel like they get into, like, as women, they get into some really juicy stuff and if I had a podcast, who would be my dream guest? I would want. I mean, I'd want to talk to all the singers. So I'd want to talk to Eva. I'd want to talk to you know, ariana Grande, what's going on right now, and your personal life girl, you know what. I'd also want to talk to, you know, some of the really great female business minds as well. So it really kind of runs the gamut. But I would say I'd first start out with the singers, because that's who I resonate with.

Speaker 1: 44:55

Okay, I love this so much and I think that's fantastic and I have to tell you on this, magical things happen when you speak them out loud on this podcast, because we just had two people that interviewed this week that they had said a dream guest and things are like happening. So I'm just saying, just saying, magical things happen whenever you say it out loud. Okay, my last question for you is do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

Speaker 2: 45:23

Oh, I'm a perfectionist in reform, and I'm in reform because I've learned the hard way that done is better than perfect and there's perfect is boring, you know, and you can hear it in now in the music world and then sometimes in the audio world you can hear this thing called auto-tune and it sounds computer generated and or when something is super perfect and polished, we're like that's not real. We're here for the real. I'm here for the real now. So I'm not a perfectionist, I am in. It's gotta be one of the best things. If it's coming from 3V, it's gonna be one of the best things that you've ever seen or heard or experienced. But it's not gonna be perfect, because nothing is perfect.

Speaker 1: 46:11

This is so good and I have to attest to everything that she just said. Like y'all have to go check out, check out. They have a page on their website 3V projections and I'm actually gonna have all of these linked in the show notes, but they have a page specifically for podcast and then also the our services page. But go look at all this like I love. I mean, obviously you do commercials so well but I was clicking through and watching all these and thinking I want, I want to go stay there. It was one of the hotels that was done.

Speaker 2: 46:43

That one's actually me. Yeah, there's we've got to put a lot more of our other stuff on there, but we've just got so many amazing projects going that it's like. That's another thing that I want to share with the podcasters. If you do have a website, or at least your socials, make sure you're updating it with the fresh fresh, because there's so much success that will snowball, but always spend a little bit of time updating your assets and your presence on your website.

Speaker 1: 47:08

Yes, for sure. Yes, and go check. If you need an example of what that looks like, go check out their website, because y'all do a fantastic job, can we? Is there anywhere else where people should learn more about you, or should they just head over to the website?

Speaker 2: 47:22

Head over to the websites, you know, 3v productions and then the podcast link is really great for podcasters, like I said, that are just getting started, some people that want help, and you know, definitely don't hesitate to reach out. We have a 15 minute strategy sessions to help people if they're they don't know what they need or they're like will this work for me, or this is what I had in mind. We are here to meet everybody where they're at Perfect thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Speaker 1: 47:50

Thanks for having me. Wow, like I love it when I have people that come on the show that make me a better podcaster. I truly do, because I've said it once and I'll say it again, I don't know everything that there is to know about podcasting, about audio engineering or even about marketing and running a business, but when I can bring people onto the show that add value to your journey in some capacity, then it just makes my heart so happy and I'm so grateful that I met Cammy. Like I said, go check out her, like all the things that she's done the videos, the commercials, all the fun things. And if you listen to Susie Moore's podcast, then just know that Cammy had a hand to play in all the cool things happening behind the scenes for getting Susie's podcast off the ground. And, of course, I just love the name of Susie's show. Let it be easy. Fun fact, I do have a cool partnership coming in 2024 with Susie and that just felt like the right time to add it in Cammy's episode because they are dear friends and I just admire them both so much for being trailblazers in their industries. So make sure you go check out all the fun things that Cammy has for podcasters, because we talked about this Like, how can you work with Cammy and her team for your podcast?

Speaker 1: 49:18

Go check out all the things that they have. You can go to the show notes, but it's 3vproductionscom forward slash podcast. Or you can just head over to their website and go to the services page and then learn more about all the things. But I'm telling you, it's worth going and looking at the video production that they've done and hearing some of the voiceover stuff, because Cammy's voice it's like smooth, like butter, right Like it just it sounds so awesome and I loved her studio setup. It just was like everything was so crisp and so clear and it's just it's goals, right, it's goals to have that one day. But for now, I hope that you can settle with this incredible conversation with Cammy and I'm just so grateful that we were able to bring this chat here to you today. But that's all I have for you. So make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you are listening to this podcast and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.