Here’s another amazing wall art moment from our recent Alternative Bucharest tour. This mural was made by chipping away at the building’s exterior. It was stunning to see in person.
The Global Podcast Editors newsletter
…is where I share heaps of podcast editing business and technical information, my own audio, and podcast video editing experiments, as well as timely conversations I'm having in the space.
I am Stephanie Fuccio, podcast editor, podcast writer, and generally podcasting-obsessed human being. Although I write this newsletter, it has become the cornerstone of the larger GPE community and in fact, paid subscriptions fund many of our events.
There are two themes for the newsletter and they run on alternate Mondays: podcast editing technology AND podcast editing business. When there’s a 5th Monday, I'll cheer in textual silence.
Hi Wavie,
I’ve been a little too talkative lately. So much so that I’ve been slowly sharing my guest appearances on podcasts. Don’t get me wrong, I loved doing them all. Otherwise, I wouldn’t share them at all. I’m not that polite. But I hate posting one after another after another. This week I want to share this epsiode with Matt Medeiros of Castos on the Audience podcast. It was a magical experience. One of those conversations when I felt seen, understood, and heard. Yes, yes, there’s practical info about podcast editing and being an engaged podcaster for you there as well. Let me know what you think.
I’ve also been doing more consultations lately, which is ironic because the avalanche of consult requests came as soon as I took down my consultation page to revise it. Is that a sign from the universe that the page sucked? Probably. I wonder if I even need to publish it again. Hmmm. Thoughts?
Okay, enough about me, let’s get you info drenched.
Steph
FEATURE: Are we charging too much?
I’d like to invite you to the podcast editing service pricing seesaw I’ve been riding for the past couple of months. Sometimes I think I’m/we’re not charging enough for my/our services and sometimes I think I’m/we’re charging too much. Up, down, up, down. The prices go in my head. Let me explain.
It’s not just the global economic downturn
The fallout from three years of covid and the havoc it has had on the global economy is definitely a factor in an industry reevaluation. But it’s not the whole thing. The industry is possibly going through an early 20’s identity moment and we are possibly supportive aunts and uncles trying to cheer it on from the sidelines. With this coming-of-age analogy, there is a bit of letting go and a bit of extreme honesty. Honesty for the coming-of-ager (the podcasting industry) and to ourselves.
Others put words to my thoughts in a more succinct way
Before I could verbalize these observations I started to see others do so. Evo had a powerful episode of Podcast Pontifications, 2023: The Year Podcasting Has To Pay, where he very aptly summarized my hunches with this shift with a much wider (U.S.) industry lens. Then Heather Osgood highlighted this and similar trends in Podcast Advertising Playbook episode 6 Podcast Advertising Trends To Watch 2022. In fact, at 8:50 she dives into how content development is changing, with “…a higher level of intentionality” as a driving force. Both of these and many other podcast episodes, articles, and such were talking about a downturn. Or a reevaluation of podcasts.
I’m/we’re seeing it in my/our business request
I’m also seeing more folks wanting ….
🗓️ GPE Calendar
All Events: GPE and other remote events (click on links for your local time)
October 31st: GPE Monthly Virtual Meet Up: FREE.
November 1-30, I (Steph Fuccio) am participating in National Podcast Posting Month again this year with 10-minute daily lives. That’s 30 days in a row of podcast editing goodness! Global editors are invited to help me explain the importance of these podcast editing nuances that are DAW-agnostic in pre-production, recording, and post-production. If you’d like to join us, check out the full details here.
November 3, 2022, @ 11 am Romania: GPE Live Chat: What’s your biggest podcast editing for clients challenge right now? 1 guest space open. Apply.
November 17, 2022, @8pm Romania: GPE Live Chat: What’s your biggest podcast editing for clients challenge right now? 1 guest space is open. Apply.
November 30, 2022, @8 pm Romania: Monthly virtual meet up. Goal: Crowdsource a list of 25 ways to find clients AND 25 ways to attract clients (yes, they’re different!).
REMINDER: You can now join our GPE Google Calendar to see all our GPE community events.
☕ Business Espresso Shot: Nuanced pricing factors
Podcast episode: Running a Successful Podcast Production Studio with Zack Hanni – PES 240, Chris Curran of The Podcast Engineering School.
At 8:55 Chris asks Zack how he handles pricing, reflecting back at the year as a whole financially, and they end up in a really interesting conversation about the client's difficulty levels and pricing.
This is something that’s really difficult to talk about, right?
If a client is more difficult, do you charge more? I’ve heard this from many freelancing and small business podcasts and articles. Some even say that if you don’t want to work with someone, the price is so high that they’ll say no. If you do that, you’ll run the risk of them saying yes, so be careful.
🎟️ Recent GPE Live Chat: Podbean Collaboration
October was a special month for the GPE live chats because we did a unique collaboration with Podbean. Norma Jean (below, top left) is the Head of Events at Podbean and she contacted me a few months ago and proposed that we do a live event about how to get into podcast editing. I loved this idea!
Usually, on our GPE live chats, we talk with each other about our challenges editing for clients. But this live gave us a chance to talk to two audiences we don’t usually talk to:
podcasters who like editing their podcasts about the potential in that skill
podcasters who don’t like to edit their podcasts and have been thinking of hiring a podcast editor
Norma Jean is an insightful interviewer and she brought out some very nuanced aspects of podcast editing for clients. The timestamps are below so you can jump to the section that you like easily (cause I know how limited your listening time is, wavie!)
Thank you to Fay Fay, David, and Puneeth for joining us during this session!
0:00 Introduction to the event
1:17 Meet the editors and find out how we got into podcast editing
6:32 What exactly is a podcast editor?
12:13 What are the creative aspects of podcast editing?
20:40 When can a self-taught podcaster who edits their own podcast start taking on clients?
33:57 What are the factors in pricing our services?
42:05 What makes a good podcast editor?
52:40 When did we personally feel like we were able to go pro with podcast editing?
59:22 How did we attract clients?
1:11:11 How has community impacted our podcast editing businesses?
Podcast Editing Pricing Example: Alison Kinsey
These pricing examples are here to inspire you to include things on your page to show your podcast editing personality, NOT to say one services page is right and another is wrong.
There’s so much goodness on Alison’s podcast editing services page.
Here are the things I personally like.
There are only two packages to choose from. Potential clients won’t waste a lot of time comparing options.
How she describes the parts of the services is simple. She even has Google Sheets as a way to keep track of the workflow for the client. As someone who hates kanban boards, I appreciate the simplicity.
She has a photo of her next to the services. I know that we like tech but many people are anywhere from scared to frustrated with it. Personalizing and humanizing the service does a lot to ease these negative emotions.
If you’d like to talk through your podcast services website in a $50, 30-minute consultation call with me, hit REPLY and let me know. I’m not a web designer but I do have a knack for creating a podcast editing services narrative.
🐙 Subscription Update: Rate Changes as of November 1st
As of November 1, 2022, rates will be increased
New Rates:
Monthly subscription: $10
Yearly subscription: $100
Founding Member: $200
Monthly subscribers will be affected in November whereas yearly subscribers won’t see the increase until their annual subscription renewals.
Thank you for supporting this community.
Remember, you, the professional podcast editor, can probably expense this newsletter. This is a global community so I can’t speak to every country regarding this so please check your local income tax and business laws for specifics.
Note: If you’re in a country that Substack payment does not support but you’d like to subscribe to, please contact me for an alternate payment method.
Need to outsource podcast art OR art for your business?
I’ve recently connected with Marlene Sharp of Center for Learning Unlimited (CLU) while I was looking to outsource a podcast logo. After talking to her I was convinced that I needed to share the info about CLU with you. This is NOT an advertisement.
CLU is a non-public, day school in California, U.S., which is home to a swiftly growing animation career training program for adults on the autism spectrum.
Some of the artwork you can outsource to CLU include (but is not limited to):
Podcast logos
Animated logos
2D and 3D animated content, such as short films, explainer videos, music videos, book trailers, film trailers, commercials, etc.
Print advertisements
3D-printed figures/figurines
Workflow info
The CLU studio is almost a year old and has a roster of 15 autistic adult artists and 4 instructors/job coaches. Due to the special needs of our workforce, we evaluate opportunities on a case-by-case basis and make recommendations to potential patrons based on the scope of work, studio capacity, and client budget.
To browse an interactive animation student art gallery with related news items, please visit the CLU/Brainstorm LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/center-for-learning-unlimited.
🎙Podcasting Globally newsletter
A friendly reminder that there are quick podcasting inspirations in the Podcasting Globally newsletter.
🎈 GPE Live Chats November 2022
3 November @ 10:00 Central European Time (4am New York)
Complete this form to sign up for a chat and I'll add you to the schedule:
forms.gle/8PSyMPKNes7JcxLw5
Watch live on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQSRd29J5yU
Topic: What's your biggest podcast editing challenge recently? (it can be technical, business-related or editing creativity-focused).
Participants:
1.
2. Briana Reese (US) , twitter.com/EFMBri
3. Rachel Hanson (US) https://racheledits.co/
4. Steph Fuccio (American expat in Romania): Host!
17 November @ 19:00 Central European Time (1 pm New York)
Complete this form to sign up for a chat and I'll add you to the schedule:
forms.gle/8PSyMPKNes7JcxLw5
Watch live on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUhUyNThryQ
Topic: What's your biggest podcast editing challenge recently? (it can be technical, business-related or editing creativity-focused).
Participants:
1.
2. Bethany Sands (Arizona, USA), www.linkedin.com/in/bethany-sands-36737b94/
3. Jesse McCune (USA), www.tansyasteraudio.com
4. Steph Fuccio (American expat in Romania): Host!
Founding Members of the GPE Newsletter
Amelia Hruby of Softer Sounds
Jason Sheesley of Abridged Audio
Sam Jacintho, Podcast Editor
If you’d like your name and business info here as well, consider becoming a Founding member. If you’d like to support us with an alternate payment method like Wise, Paypal, or Zelle, email me for details.
I love coffee and tea but in this photo, I was the one having tea. The Americano on the bottom is my husbands. Look at that crema!
The next newsletter will be Monday, October 24th! It will be a technology-related issue.
Until then…DAWingly yours,
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