- Transcript for Episode #2
Welcome to the second episode of the official RSS.com podcast aptly titled Podcasting 101 with RSS.com. In part two, we continue our discussion with company founders Alberto Betella and Ben Richardson who discuss the future of podcasting, how it’s slowly becoming relevant in the media space, and why there’s never been a better time to start a podcast.
Episode Chapters (click to jump to section)
Why Now is the Best Time to Start a Podcast
Why RSS Believes in Diversity in Podcasting
Every Podcaster Can Create a Ripple Effect
Ben and Alberto Discuss The Future of Podcasting
Grow Your Tree – Start a Podcast!
Why Now is the Best Time to Start a Podcast
Ben 2:07
You’ve probably heard the saying when’s the best time to plant a tree? The first answer is 20 years ago. The second answer is now. Why is now the best time to start a podcast. It’s not if you don’t have anything to say, it’s not the best time to start a podcast. If you’ve if you feel like everybody has said everything that’s needed to be said, every opinion that’s needed to be shared has been shared. But if you do feel like you have something to say, if you do feel like your opinion matters, if you do feel like you might be able to impart a little light into the world, a little hope, a little reminder, then now is a great time to start a podcast.
You can affect other people. I mean, at the end of the day, a podcast is not for the person speaking it’s for the person listening. And if you are able to impart something, and leave it digitally on your digital mark on the world for the remainder of time that there’s electricity on the planet, then your time to start a podcast is right now. So yeah, I mean, I don’t think anybody’s gonna lose opportunities if they start a podcast in a week or in a year. And certainly people’s interior inside voices change just as much as their, their, their you know, we talk I don’t know, I don’t want to get into psychology, but the ego, the super ego, the ID, all those have voices that change over time.
So your third podcast might be your best, your best podcast, your 15th podcast might be your best podcast, or your first might be your best podcast. But you aren’t, you aren’t going to get there, if you have something to say, by waiting. Just you could you know with us, you can get a free episode, and upload it. And then tomorrow, if you don’t like that episode, or you feel like you can edit it better and more succinctly, or write a new script, you can just swap it out, there’s your first episode again. And then once you’ve really fine tuned to your what your message is, then go ahead and create your second episode. And if you’re if it’s an educational podcast, you’ll get a big discount. So yeah, that’s anyway, that’s probably a long winded answer for saying, yeah, right. now’s a great time to start if you have something to say. But remember who your listener is going to be and how you can impact them. And I think it’s a very powerful sort of proposition.
Alberto 4:35
Regarding why now? Again, it’s not necessarily now from someone that was you know, that got acquainted with these with podcasting back in 2005, 2006. Then was the time to start, you know, but I just think that now that the two factors one mentioned by Ben – a lot of people have things to say whether it is you know, chat with friends or some powerful message from them that that is very important for from for, to share. But at the same time, podcasting is almost commoditized, meaning it’s easy to start it, it’s cheap. So now it’s a perfect moment just because it’s simple. And so there’s no there’s no effort there, there’s really the friction is is small. And that’s why now everyone is, let’s say it’s a in the past two years, we’ve seen a climax in the industry of people that want to create a show and to put their voices out there.
Ashley 5:36
RSS believes in diversity in podcasting. Why do you guys think it is so important for multiple cultures to start a podcast?
Why RSS.com Believes in Diversity in Podcasting
Ben 5:44
Well, I think the question kind of comes from a perspective of that there’s something different about us. And I think that is absolutely true. There’s also so much that is common among us. And podcasting is a great way to experience that. So we do celebrate diversity, we feel like everybody’s voice has meaning and matters. At the same time. Like I said earlier, podcasting is also about the listener, and where your message resonates with somebody else, is where there’s true impact.
So you as a diverse speaker resonating with somebody else on the planet, because they have a similarity to you, regardless of how diverse that similarity might be, how unique that similarity might be, is a very, very powerful thing. So we celebrate diversity in the fact that it can impact people who feel alone, feel marginalized, feel left out, because they aren’t. Because everybody feels marginalized, everybody feels left out, everybody feels alone at some point in their life. And as you can, as you as a podcaster can touch that one person that’s listening, it matters a lot to that individual. So you know, to me, that’s the essence of diversity. It’s not a function of there being something different, it’s there being something common. And finding that commonality in unexpected places is a very powerful thing.
Alberto 7:19
And I would like to add that it also comes naturally for us. Because our team is in two continents, five different countries. 80% of our team speaks three languages or more. So naturally, we are used to interacting with people from other cultures or other languages. And I think it’s very straightforward and clear that the next step for us is to focus on long language diversity, for example, Spanish speaking podcasting, but also broadening the horizon to new languages.
Every Podcaster Can Create a Ripple Effect
Ashley 7:59
Definitely makes me want to learn some more languages. Every time I hear you guys talk about how many languages you speak, I want to learn more. You know, you talked about how it brings so many cultures together and how you can have an impact. And one of my favorite podcasters, Shane Sams of the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast, I’m probably gonna mess up the exact wording, but he talks about how everything that you do is like throwing a pebble in the water, and the ripple effect that it can have. And it’s just amazing to me how with podcasting, like you said, you can just when you throw that pebble in the water, the ripple effect that you can have, you don’t even know what you could possibly cause as your ripple effect. But just the way that you can touch people with just your voice and the content that you can create from that voice. It’s just a wonderful time to be in podcasting. And everybody should start one.
Ben 8:49
I agree.
Ashley 8:50
I know we’re kind of getting low on time here. But I’m kind of curious. What do you guys see for the future of podcasting?
Ben and Alberto Discuss The Future of Podcasting
Ben 8:58
Wow, there is so much that we have planned some of it top secret. But I guess publicly announced intentions and plans are to expand into Latin America to help foster and grow the podcasting space in Spanish speaking markets. Because there’s, there’s really a need there. It’s not saturated in the United States or in English speaking markets. But that’s where podcasting basically started. And so now it’s time to move out to a broader – if I spoke Chinese, I would be, you know, pursuing this in China, although I’m sure it’s fairly well developed there. If I spoke Hindi, or one of the 26 other languages of India we’d be we’d be you know, working with the folks there as well.
But there’s some commonality in our approaches that makes Mexico and Latin America very target rich for us in the sense of growing podcasters. Growing our co-produced content as well. And fostering the economic models that exist down there. So we have some advertising initiatives that we’re working on. We have some partnerships that are very exciting that we’ll be announcing at some point in the future. And then we’ve got some technological things that, you know, Alberto and I, prior to this call, we’re discussing a patent that we’re filing in a couple days. And we’ve got some technological opportunities as this medium grows for really kind of taking it into new and amazing sort of places. So we’re working on so many different things. It’s hard to keep up with all the things we’re working on. But it’s super exciting.
Alberto 10:45
Yeah, perhaps just to add to the strategy we are pursuing for the future. Also, an overview in terms of technology. When it’s very exciting, the future is very exciting. We have smart speakers, we have smart cars, smart watches, we have technologies in terms of content distribution, which are cutting edge. For example, decentralized distribution with IPFS, interplanetary file system. Very interesting topic. We have a value for value, which is a shift in paradigm in how content creators are going to monetize, right, rather than the subscription model, which everyone is pursuing right now. Right? We have Spotify, we have Apple, the idea is that you pay for what you consume. So this is a shift that we may see in the broader media industry. So what we can tell is that for the next couple of years, we will not get bored. We always say that Ben and I will not get bored. We have so many things. And it’s going to be very exciting.
Ben 11:48
Yeah. Agreed.
Grow Your Tree – Start a Podcast!
Ashley 11:50
That’s awesome. And since the industry is changing so quickly, I mean, who knows where podcasting is going to be in a few years, but we know it’ll still be here. Like that’s the exciting part is that if you start today, grow your tree. Grow your tree already. Yeah. Well, is there anything that I know, like I said, I know you guys are wrapped on time. But is there anything that we didn’t actually get to cover that you really want to make sure is in this?
Ben 12:14
Well, I mean, also, I think it’s what you talked about Alberto is so – what you talked about, I think it’s so important that people understand is that there are technological advancements coming down, through through the hosting providers or through the listening apps that are going to help change podcasting for the better. They’re going to deliver richer content, they’re going to deliver it in a way that is more interactive. They’re going to allow for greater flexibility from the host’s perspective for getting their message heard and understood.
And for monetizing their podcast, if that’s something that’s important to them, we know that that’s important to about 60% of podcasters, maybe a little bit less. And so that’s that’s a voice that we keep conscious that we need to listen to is how do people pursue this, this hobby or this business or this this, this project in a way that can be self sustaining, and the podcasting 2.0, RSS feed changes are critical in in that for keeping it a free and open platform for everybody and not not just relegating it to these silos that that creep into our life.
Ashley 13:33
Be sure to tune in to our next episode, where we’ll sit down with Kate Erickson of Entrepreneurs on Fire to talk about systems and processes. Until next time, you can learn more about how to launch and grow a podcast at RSS.com/blog/podcasting-101/.
