We Asked the Pros: How to Run Your Podcast on Zoom

We’ve been blown away by how many of our customers are using Zoom to run their podcasts. We reached out to a handful of these pro podcasters to learn their tips for running a podcast on Zoom. In this post you’ll get advice from:

• Masters of Scale: Masters of Scale is an original podcast showing how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion. The series unfolds like a music-infused detective story as Host Reid Hoffman — the iconic Silicon Valley entrepreneur / investor — tests his theories with famous founders
• Chasing Earhart: The life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, hosted by Chris Williamson
• The Legal Geeks: A legal analysis of pop culture, hosted by Joshua Gilliland and Jessica Mederson
• Legends & Losers: Authentic business dialogue with an edge, hosted by Christopher Lochhead
• The Publishing Profits Podcast Show: A podcast about writing, publishing, and marketing, hosted by Tom Corson-Knowles
• Sales Integrity Podcast: A podcast all about helping B2B sales professionals, leaders, and organizations who sell complex technical products, services, and solutions to increase sales and earn more money, hosted by Sean Piket
• Selling With Social Podcast: Sales podcast, hosted by Mario M. Martinez Jr.

Masters of Scale: “We have a unique creative process for Masters of Scale, and Zoom plays an integral role. We hold Zoom video calls with Reid at two different points in the creative process — right after each interview, we hold a Zoom call where WE interview Reid. We capture his analysis of the interview and integrate it into the final script for that episode. We also hold a Zoom call to record Reid capturing the final script. The facial expressions and hand gestures we exchange in these sessions are really key for getting the tone of the show right — even though the final product is audio-only.” The Legal Geeks: “Excellent quality and ease of use. Ready to use exports that can be edited easily.” Legends & Losers: “It's awesome and easy for host and guests.” Chasing Earhart: “We use Zoom because it has built-in recording and it splits the audio from the video automatically, which makes it easy for our team to edit. The audio quality for Zoom is also superior to many other audio recordings. Often times not much editing is required to get the quality of sound that we need. Additionally, we use Zoom because of its flexibility and its ability to encompass multiple participants in roundtable discussions.” Selling with Social Podcast: “Podcasts just done over the phone don't end up working out as well as podcasts recorded via video with Zoom. You get to have a real live virtual discussion which creates a better listening experience because audience members feel as if they are in the same room as the host and interviewee. I hate podcasts that are boring and you feel like you are listening to two boring people. What is boring?  You've heard it, it's the podcasts which do not have the voice modulation, excitement and passion of a great conversation. That is why I refuse to do a podcast in any other tool than Zoom with video turned on. In fact, all of my notes show the attendee that they MUST have video turned on otherwise we won't be able to record.” Sales Integrity Podcast: “We use Zoom for everything (creating the podcast, creating sales coaching videos, creating online course videos, delivering live remote video chat coaching to clients internationally, hosting webinars, and we even integrated Zoom into our online coaching delivery software platform - MyCoachSite.com). We have committed to Zoom as our content creation platform at Sales Integrity due to its ease of use and high quality audio/video capabilities.” The Publishing Profits Podcast Show: “We use Zoom for every interview we do. We record both video and audio. We post the videos on YouTube and use only the audio for the iTunes podcast.”

Masters of Scale: “We record Reid’s interviews and narration into a Mac with Pro Tools 12 using an EV RE-20 microphone and TC Electronic Impact Twin audio interface. Our recording sessions with Reid are held via Zoom video. We use a whole different set of tools for sound design and mixing, which we're happy to share.” The Legal Geeks: “MacBook, Logitech Carl Zeiss webcam, and Logitech headset.” Legends & Losers: “Macbook & Rode Podcaster Mic.” Chasing Earhart: “Right now we use standard lapel microphones to record the audio for the podcast on our end. We use Adobe Premiere to mix each episode of the podcast and adjust audio.” Selling with Social Podcast: “Computer, HD 1080p Logitech camera and an Audio-technica ATR2100 USB Mic.” Sales Integrity Podcast: “Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB microphone plugged into a Macbook Pro using Zoom for audio/video chat hosting for the podcast. We then use ScreenFlow to import and edit the video file of the recorded interview from Zoom to create the final version of the podcast. We then take the fully produced video file and import it into GarageBand solely to extract the audio-only version of the podcast. We then import the audio-only version to LibSyn and publish it from LibSyn to iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. We insert the SoundCloud player into a blog on the Sales Integrity website in the podcast listings area. Finally, we take the video version of the podcast and publish it to YouTube. Of course when that is all done we then promote it on these social media platforms - LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.” The Publishing Profits Podcast Show: “Blue Yeti Mic and Zoom.”

Masters of Scale: “We have found it incredibly useful to see each other's faces as we work together creatively and record. it deepens relationships and understanding.” The Legal Geeks: “The use of the headset is very important to avoid audio feedback.” Legends & Losers: “Zoom is legendary. Don't bother with anything else.” Chasing Earhart: “It's easy to be nervous at first when you're recording. I would say that if you're going to be interviewing folks on your podcast, trust your research and keep the conversation casual in nature because those are the types of of interviews that people want to hear. And work with software that helps you get the most out of your interview. For us that's Zoom!” Selling with Social Podcast: “Unfortunately, the Audio clip doesn't produce an MP3, it only produces a M4A file. This means you need to find a tool that converts. We hope one day Zoom will change that so it produces an Mp3 version, but in the meantime, the output of the M4A is just the same and the converter tools to MP3 do not ruin the audio quality.” Sales Integrity Podcast: “Whether you are recording only yourself in a monologue format for your podcast, recording an interview of a guest in a dialogue format, or you do both from time-to-time like I do on my podcast, Zoom makes it easy to schedule and record your podcast no matter your podcast style or format and no matter where your guests and/or co-hosts are located geographically. Make sure to shut off all other software applications and Internet browsers you won't need to access during the recording of your podcast on Zoom to receive optimal performance, as other applications will compete for processing power on your laptop. You should make this same recommendation to your guests if you are interviewing someone so their laptop doesn't affect the Zoom audio/video chat performance. Make sure to set the proper expectations for joining the Zoom meeting on interview day for guests you may be interviewing if they haven't used Zoom before. Send them instructions to download the Zoom Client for Meetings by visiting https://zoom.us/download well in advance of your interview day/time. This will allow them to create  a free account with Zoom and launch the Zoom meeting using the Zoom app, which creates a better quality experience versus the web-only experience. Then all your guest will need to do is click the unique Zoom URL (found within the meeting invitation you send them directly from Zoom) at the start time of the interview. This unique Zoom URL is created specifically for your Zoom podcast interview. Proper expectation setting will help you avoid Zoom newbies from trying to do this last minute, which could cause a false start to your podcast interview. Finally, I recommend recording to your desktop versus recording to the cloud as it seems to produce a higher quality output for the Zoom replay of your podcast. This is especially true if you plan to record a video version of your podcast and not just the audio-only version.” The Publishing Profits Podcast Show: “Always click record! Make sure your interview guests are prepared with a great microphone and setup. Make sure your guests know that you're using Zoom and what to expect. We send all guests to this page before booking so that we're on the same page and we don't waste time showing up to an interview when they don't have a mic or video camera set up.” If you’d like to learn how you can produce your podcast on Zoom too, sign up for a 1-1 personalized demo with a Zoom product specialist today!