The older buildings here in Bucharest, Romania are intriguing. Telling. And yet secret keeping looking.
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.
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’m thinking a lot about when to admit that something started out as accidental but has become intentional.
When do we claim it as being a choice? When do we realize the transition happened even?
A lot of time is spent on origin stories as if they’re recipes. We can’t replicate someone else’s story or success. Personally, I tend to act first, then make sense of things later. Like Captain Hindsight in that South Park episode. Only less tragic. This feels like a less respected way to do things and I'm learning to shake that off. It’s never stopped me from doing but it does sometimes stop me from proudly talking about the doing.
So here it is. After 3 years of trying to make sense of this new life, where I'm working IN podcasting, not just as a spectator or avid listener. But IN podcasting in the business sense. No matter how big or small of an influence, I’m one of the people that’s making this space what it is.
And I've finally landed on how I feel comfortable describing what I'm doing: I’m a solopreneur. I don’t want a big business, I don’t want to outsource. A comfortable, stable, intentional, and story-spreading life is my goal. That’s what I want. That’s what I nearly have. Oooooh, 2023 is going to solidify this. I can feel it coming and it’s like the furry wall in Meet Me At The Greek. The epitome of comfort and peace. Possibly what the Danish term hygge.
Steph
🎯If you do one thing after scanning this issue, I hope you take loud and proud credit for something that you started to do by accident that's now a choice. It can be admitting it to yourself or online. If it's the latter, please tag me @stephfuccio. I want to cheer you in!
🌸 Our November Daily Live Sponsors
A special thank you to our sponsors for this month’s podcasting advice lives.
Streamyard, Editor and Community Leader Steve Stewart, The PodcastHost, Podcaster Daniel Goodson, The Podcast Setup Newsletter, the Podcast Marketing folks at Podspike, and Content Strategist Dee-Anna Pippenger.
Find out more about these wonderful people and their services here.
😔 FEATURE: Front and center growing pains
The break-out text is lyrics from "Out Here On My Own” by the late Irene Cara
Sometimes I wonder where I've been,
Who I am,
Do I fit in.
Make believein' is hard alone,
Out here on my own.
I’m having a doctor-heal-thyself moment with my own new solopreneur podcast, Meet Your Podcast Editor (MYPE). It goes a little something like this.
Surprises are abundant
Every day this month I've been recording podcast episodes where I'm trying to convince solopreneurs to let their personalities come out in their podcasts. That's not exactly what I thought the month's over arching theme would be but in retrospect, it's super clear. This doesn't surprise me.
What does surprise me is that the entire time I'm saying this to them I'm hearing to my own inner critic telling me to be more professional in the episode, especially the video element. My bright mic covers, “excessive” laughter, and out there analogies are unprofessional, the voice stresses. I hadn’t planned on showing up as anything other than my natural, somewhat goofy self, so this inner critic confuses me. And it makes me wonder:
Have I been reassuring myself all month that it's okay to be me in my own solopreneur podcast?
We're always provin' who we are,
Always reachin'
For that risin' star
To guide me far
And shine me home,
Out here on my own.
Why now?
I feel a bit exposed even having this thought. More so typing it here. Experimenting with MYPE in public during the 30-day episode challenge is not weird for me. I've had a blast putting my stuff out there since I had access to the internet. I share, it's in my DNA. And that's why after an entire adulthood of creating things for general consumption without hesitation I'm confused that my inner critic has been so loud.
When I'm down and feelin' blue,
I close my eyes so I can be with you.
Oh, baby be strong for me;
Baby belong to me.
Help me through.
Help me need you.
Me: front and center is terrifying
Podcasting is one of the few spaces in my life where I’ve felt understood.
That's huge. But it…
🤑 How much did podcast editors charge in 2022?
Steve Stewart and Mark Deal of The Podcast Editor Academy have completed their annual podcast editors survey and have released the results. Here’s a nibble of their findings.
“This year we found:
The average cost to edit 60-minutes of audio grew from $167 to $193 USD
The effective rate was $63 per hour, vs $56 in 2021
This year age, gender, education, and location were NOT statistically significant
Time spent editing impacted many more factors this year
…and more!”
Watch the video where they break down the study into more detail here.
🦑 If you enjoy this newsletter, please LIKE it on Substack. Thank you!
☕ Business Espresso Shot: 8 Huge Client Red Flags for Freelancers
This video of client red flags is spot on. I'm not going to struggle-and-tell but I've faced at least half of these 8 red flags myself in the 3 years I've been editing podcasts for clients.
The biggest one for me has been #5-won’t share company goals.
I used to wonder how much I should press or let go of knowing this big-picture information. Then I added a few questions about this in my pre-discovery call form. I also bring it up in the discovery call because I saw too much pod floundering and podfading happening. Unclear goals are the worst.
“What does success look like?’
…is a question I stole from my husband (who got it from a work colleague years ago). It's what he asked folks who were interviewing him for a job. I use this question often not too in discovery calls. If the client stumbles, it does NOT mean they are a bad person but it might mean that they don't know the overall goal of their business podcast. That's probably the biggest reason they're not sharing. They simply haven’t identified the goal yet. It’s not malicious, it's just unorganized and I don't want to be a part of that.
Pick your battles
It's a personal choice which of these battles you want to elevate to the next level, as Stefan says, or simply decide not to deal with at all, as I do sometimes. Pick your battles, right?
The key takeaway from this list is to know when to push back, walk away, or educate and work with someone. Intentionality. The word that I think I've used the most in 2022! The video is under 7 minutes long and well worth a watch.
To get more business espresso shots that cover time management, client attraction and freelancing, subscribe to the newsletter!
🎟️ Have you seen this content yet?
Daily lives during National Podcast Post Month
GPE Live Chats, here’s our chat from November 17th
National Podcast Post Month article. Could this challenge benefit any of you or your clients next November? It’s the one that I did this month for MYPE.
Pre-Recorded Lives with Streamyard, my latest promotions obsession!
🎈 GPE Live Chats December 2022
December 2022, 1 December @ 20:00 Central European Time (13:00 New York)
Topic: What's your biggest podcast editing challenge recently? (it can be technical, business-related or editing creativity-focused).
Complete this form to sign up for a chat: forms.gle/8PSyMPKNes7JcxLw5
Deadline to sign up: November 30th
Check out the first quarter 2023 schedule AND sign up for a spot.
🎨 Outsource artwork?
If you need to outsource some artwork for your business or your client asks for a referral, I hope you’ll consider the Center for Learning Unlimited (CLU).
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.
To browse an interactive animation student art gallery with related news items, please visit the CLU/Brainstorm LinkedIn profile.
Center for Learning Unlimited (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. 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.
👣Ways to Support The GPE Community
Podcast Editors: become a paid subscriber
Companies and organizations: contact me for sponsorship info
Global Solopreneur podcasters: place a podcast editor job posting
Anyone who doesn't fit into the above: Please email me at stephfuccio(at)gmail(dot) com for options
Thank you for all your support!
The next newsletter will be Monday, December 5th! It will be a technology-related issue.
DAWingly yours,
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.
Oh, and I’m coffee obsessed.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Global Podcast Editors to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.