Video & Podcasting – Top Production Tips

[00:00:00] Paula: Hello everyone, and welcome to chatting with the experts, the TV show, where typically I speak with women from Africa and the Caribbean who now live in Europe, North America, the UK, Australia, and also who live in Africa and the Caribbean. I love to explore the professional journeys of these women. And not just these women, but I also speak to their offsprings, like their daughters and their granddaughters.
[00:01:11] Paula: But today, the show is a bit different. I have an extra special guest. He’s a man. And we are going to be talking about something that’s very important to us, women and anybody else who’s listening in 2023. We’re going to be talking about the useful and simple tips that we can use to make the best video and podcast segments.
[00:01:42] Paula: So I know a lot of you in 2023 are doing podcasts, but I was wondering if many of you have YouTube channel, and you’re not quite sure of what equipment to use. Well, that’s why my guest, whose name is Mark DeLeon, is here. But before we start talking about that, I’m going to tell you about Mark. Mark describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, and he’s based in the eastern suburbs of Toronto.
[00:02:14] Paula: Currently, he is a licensed independent insurance broker specializing in group benefit plans for medium and small businesses. But Mark also holds a degree in criminology and is a certified computer and network technician. Since he was a teenager, he has been creating video content, shooting and editing wedding graduations, fashion shows and a wide range of other events. He currently produces a weekly live stream for College Park Church in Ontario, Canada. And he also is a podcaster. His podcast is called Protect the Dream Project, and he creates social media, video commercials for others. I’m so impressed. Mike, welcome.
[00:03:10] Paula: Like I said, Mike, because I’m so impressed. I’m like messing up his name, Mark. Welcome to chatting with the experts.
[00:03:17] Mark: Thank you for having me, Paula. I appreciate it very much. Thank you for allowing me to speak to your worldwide audience.
[00:03:25] Paula: Absolutely. So where do we start? There’s so much to learn. As I said, everyone has a podcast, but not everyone knows how to get the right equipment or how to even manage a podcast.
[00:03:38] Paula: So that’s what we’re going to be talking about. So let’s start. What is the basic equipment that anyone who wants to start the podcast should have?
[00:03:46] Mark: So I think the most basic thing about starting a podcast is not even really the equipment. It’s about deciding what you want to talk about and where you’re going to take your podcast.
[00:03:59] Mark: Everybody says, I want to start a podcast. And the first question you’re asked is what is it about? And the key to a successful podcast really is about having a niche that you understand. Knowing who your, for lack of a better word, I hear this all the time, knowing who your tribe is, who are you speaking to, what are you trying to do?
[00:04:19] Mark: For example, you are dealing with women in, within the diaspora around the world talking about their needs. So that is a very specific case. So once you’ve decided what your niche is, then you can start saying to yourself, okay. How am I going to, how am I going to do this? And the most basic place to start is about keeping things simple.
[00:04:41] Mark: Everyone carries a cell phone in their pocket. Some older, some newer. The quality may not necessarily be there, but the basic place to start is really taking out your phone, maybe setting it up in front of you on a tripod, if you want to do a video, and start doing your thing, or simply just start talking into it.
[00:05:01] Mark: And from there is where you go.
[00:05:04] Paula: I agree. I agree because what I’ve noticed is some of the best podcasts are those where the podcaster themselves are interested in the subject matter, or in the people that they’re talking to or educating. So I agree.
[00:05:20] Mark: It’s about keeping it simple.
[00:05:21] Mark: It’s been my experience that in the media production business because that’s what we’re doing, we’re producing media. It’s the newest, the fastest, the flashiest. It’s the most expensive. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s more about the content that you are delivering, than the method of the delivery. But it is important to understand the method of the delivery.
[00:05:48] Mark: So when you are looking at equipment, yes, you can start with a cell phone and a cell phone can take you many miles down the road. But when you use that in conjunction with other equipment, as you go along and you grow and you learn more, your production value increases, right? I know that in the last little while, I’ve been helping you with your production value.
[00:06:12] Mark: And we’ve moved from using, you’ve moved from using your webcam. To using a cell phone as your camera and, I think the camera quality difference has been fantastic, a fantastic difference. And that is not a, for most people, that is not going to be necessarily a costly expense to move from one to the next, right?
[00:06:34] Mark: So when you’re thinking about upgrading, think about simplicity. And ease of use, because once you have that piece out of your mind it’s better to be able to do a podcast. You’re not thinking about all your technology. Is it going to work? Is it not going to work? You keep it simple.
[00:06:52] Paula: It’s simple. And what he says is exactly the truth.
[00:06:55] Paula: Start with what you have. When I started, which was, some people were saying the dark ages in 2012. It wasn’t a video anyway, it was audio. And I basically started using my cell phone. No, it wasn’t even my cell phone there. I started, everyone had a landline, most people had landlines.
[00:07:12] Paula: And so we started with a landline and we put it on speakerphone. I put mine on speakerphone, put theirs on speakerphone. And I pulled up it was Audacity then. And I just recorded using, so start somewhere.
[00:07:25] Mark: Audacity is still an important piece for a podcaster to learn. There are a number of technologies that as you grow, that you will come run into, and you will need to know in order to make your podcast or video podcast of a certain quality or to increase the quality and audacity is a fantastic program. That is a windows computer based program, and it doesn’t cost you anything. The Mac side of it, or the iPad side of it, you want to call that is a garage band. So if you wanted to start a podcast. Using GarageBand is a fantastic way to do it as well too.
[00:08:02] Mark: There are many pieces of software that will cost you nothing to help you get your podcast up and running. In fact even distributing the podcast in many cases may not cost you anything. So you could have a podcast with many hundreds of listeners and the only thing you really put into it is time.
[00:08:25] Mark: So Audacity is a piece of software.
[00:08:27] Paula: And it’s free.
[00:08:28] Mark: I lost my train of thought. And have I frozen?
[00:08:31] Paula: No.
[00:08:32] Mark: Okay. So audacity as a piece of software. Garage Band is a piece of software. Now when it comes to the video side of it and recording we’re recording on zoom right now.
[00:08:46] Mark: There’s some things that you really need to understand when you’re doing recording, because if you want to go back and edit it your information you may be hit with a number of challenges if you don’t understand what you’re working with when it comes to video. Audio tends to be a little simpler to work with because you don’t have to deal with things like frame rates and resolution integrating the sound. And those are the three big things we need to deal with. So let’s talk a little bit about frame rates.
[00:09:16] Paula: Yes, please. And for those of you, you probably heard me say that I started off as audio. I started out as an audio podcaster. So I’m relatively new to this video podcast and beginning to enjoy it. I’m still learning.
[00:09:35] Paula: So yes, Mark, over to you.
[00:09:37] Mark: So when you’re talking, when you’re thinking about video, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. Where am I placing my video when it’s finished? What quality video do I want to put out? And how do I plan to record it? So let’s take this environment that we’re currently in.
[00:09:53] Mark: This is a Zoom environment. This is really good. This is a really good example of what I’m talking about. So when you’re finished with our interview here, and you look at your zoom footage will likely be 720p at 25 frames per second. Okay. And the file size, depending on how long we speak here, is going to be maybe about one gigabyte in size, maybe one, one and a half gigabytes in size for maybe a half an hour to an hour type interview.
[00:10:24] Mark: So here are the issues you’re going to face when it comes to editing. One because it’s 720p, you may not necessarily have the ending quality that you see during the lot that during the live interview that we are doing. Because it’s 25 frames per second, you may have issues with the editing because North American standards for frames per second or frame rate is either 24, 29. 97, 30 or 60. The standard that we use here in North America for television is called NTSC. The standard that is used in Europe and Africa is called PAL. It’s a slightly different format. And it uses a slightly different frame rate. And because Zoom happens to be a European company, they are using, I believe they’re European, I could be wrong, but I believe they’re European, they are using the European frame rate as their standard.
[00:11:26] Mark: A number of issues that come up that you’ll be facing when you’re editing is re syncing the audio to the frame rate. So that’s where you need to be careful. So when I said to you when you need to know where your product is going, That is the reason why. So you need to understand where your product is going.
[00:11:42] Mark: So you can film at a frame rate and a resolution that is applicable to the place you are putting your finished product. That makes sense?
[00:11:54] Paula: Yes. Okay. Quick question. So now that we are post-COVID and so many people all over the world are so comfortable with zoom thinking about, where is your frame?
[00:12:06] Paula: Where is your video going to be watched? That kind of takes on a new dimension because people are watching it literally all over the world now. It’s not a North American product or just for a North American audience.
[00:12:19] Mark: So quite often the eye won’t differentiate. I won’t differentiate what…
[00:12:24] Paula: okay.
[00:12:25] Mark: It’s the process of editing where the issue becomes a problem. And once you’ve edited your information and you’ve uploaded it, when you stream it at the other end, you won’t notice a difference. Okay. Okay. The viewer won’t notice a difference.
[00:12:40] Paula: That’s more of a technical thing for a video editor. So that one should be aware of.
[00:12:45] Mark: It’s very important. To be aware of it. If you’re going to be doing this, okay, because at some point you’re going to be editing at that footage. It’s one thing to just take it and just dump it wherever you want. That’s fine. That’ll work too. If that’s your modus operandi.
[00:13:02] Mark: But if you are planning to do any kind of editing to it, you need to be aware of what your frame rates are and what your resolutions are to be able to put out the kind of product that you want to put out. And to be able to match your provider. That’s their services.
[00:13:20] Mark: Now there are a number of streaming companies. For example, I believe StreamYard and Riverside and a couple other companies that will do video streaming that will provide you with North American standards in video, right? Video collection that may be of use to you or maybe something you’d want to consider.
[00:13:42] Mark: You can also do your videos through a recording like Zoom. Another option would be doing recordings using a product called OBS, right? which is a free download, right?
[00:13:53] Paula: I’ve heard a lot about it. Tell me more about it.
[00:13:56] Mark: So that’s open. OBS stands for Open Broadcast Services or Software. I’m sorry.
[00:14:02] Paula: Broadcast Services. Okay.
[00:14:05] Mark: No Open Broadcast Software. So Open Broadcast Software is exactly what it’s name is. It’s software that allows you to broadcast or live stream to the internet, but it also allows you to record and there are different plugins as if you want to call them that, that will allow you to do something similar to what we’re doing. You would send out a link to the client. You can then get their audio and video in and you can record it through your Open Broadcast Software. Because it’s an open source, meaning no company really owns it and it’s fluid in the way it operates.
[00:14:42] Mark: There isn’t one set structure for it. It tends to be a little bit more technical. You need to have a little bit more knowledge to to use it. And it tends to be a little more clumsy in the way it operates, but it’s free and the quality is not bad. It’s pretty good. My preference is a product called Vmix, which is a product out of Australia.
[00:15:05] Mark: It’s a competitor, I guess you could say to Open Broadcast Software and it’s a paid product and it does something similar, but in a simpler, more reliable way. Easier to understand. Allows you to be able to do switching a video within your podcast within your stream.
[00:15:24] Paula: Okay, and that’s called…
[00:15:25] Mark: vMix.
[00:15:27] Paula: Okay. Alright. Now what you’re talking about is, again, something that if… let’s say I’ve been doing podcasting for a long time, but let’s say somebody else. I’ll call the person Mary. Mary decides that she wants to start a podcast. Those are not some of the things they should think about immediately.
[00:15:44] Paula: That’s something that they can consider further down the line or have a video editor to work out. Correct?
[00:15:52] Mark: Correct. I think you’ll find that once you start, within a short period of time, you’re gonna be saying how can I make this better? And you’re looking for options that are cost effective, right?
[00:16:03] Mark: I don’t think it would be long from the point of view, from the point of going from that initial first day with that cell phone doing something simple to where you want to get a little bit more sophisticated in what you’re doing, high quality in what you’re doing. I think a lot of people are looking for or feel that they need to put out more of a TV quality type of broadcast and they’re looking for simple ways to do that.
[00:16:27] Mark: I said, there are services like StreamYard that can do that for you, or you can go the other direction, which is the direction I’ve gone, which is using a piece of software to help me. Yes.
[00:16:37] Paula: Alright. So that’s we’re talking about video. What other technology or other equipment would you advise them to these days?
[00:16:45] Paula: Like I know, of course, I’m dating myself by saying I started out with a plug in microphone. It was a condenser mic microphone called Blue Yeti.
[00:16:57] Mark: Yep. Now I’m going to tell you, I still use a Blue Yeti. Blue Yeti is relatively inexpensive product and the quality of Blue Yeti is excellent.
[00:17:08] Mark: You have a number of choices when it comes to microphones. Again, depending on where you are doing your recording, we really determine the kind of microphone that you want to use. I have this microphone here, I don’t know if you can see this is a boom, let me take this off, this is a boom mic,
[00:17:28] Mark: as opposed to my Blue, where is it, my Blue Yeti mic, and it’s actually Blue, I also carry what are called Lavalier mics. And I also have a little condenser mic. So depending on what you’re doing, there is a microphone that is best suited to your location. So for example, this boom mic why would you want to use one of these?
[00:17:51] Mark: This is designed to capture all of the sound coming into it directly and to exclude all the sound. on the side. So think of it as a this being the tip of a triangle, top of a triangle. So everything, so it goes out in a triangular pattern and everything within that triangle gets captured by the microphone.
[00:18:14] Mark: The beauty of having a mic like this is that if you’re outdoors, you can reduce the amount of noise coming from around it, right? And be much clearer in your production. Good audio makes a huge difference. People will stick around and listen to audio longer than watching bad videos, right?
[00:18:32] Paula: Huge difference. And so the boom mic is a directional or a dynamic mic where it’s…
[00:18:38] Mark: exactly.
[00:18:39] Paula: Kind of excludes the external noise and focuses just on the voice audio coming directly
[00:18:44] Paula: to it. Correct?
[00:18:45] Mark: Correct. And your other choices would be like one of the great things about the Blue Yeti is that it gives you the ability to have what’s called a cardioid mic or a condenser mic all in one. So it’s really gives you the option. So this is actually a called a Hypercardioid. So it has a more narrow focus than your traditional cardioid mic, right? . Whereas condenser mic takes in sound from all over. So you’d see that more with singers more with bands.
[00:19:15] Mark: And that’s not necessarily what you want with a podcast, right? You want something that’s a little more focused so that the person’s voice is what you’re focusing on. Checking the environment you’re at. Like for me, here in my studio, I’ve got some machines running in the back.
[00:19:30] Mark: I got some people walking above my head. And if you don’t have the right mic, you’re going to hear all that. Yes.
[00:19:37] Mark: That’s so true. But,
[00:19:39] Paula: again, referring to COVID and saying now post COVID, I find listeners and viewers are a lot more tolerant to real life scenarios than they were prior to it.
[00:19:50] Paula: You hear a dog barking, a child crying, noises upstairs. People are like, yeah, that’s life. And I think that’s a plus, in my opinion, than a minus because we are human beings and life does
[00:20:06] Paula: happen.
[00:20:07] Mark: That’s true. And you always gotta be prepared for that because you never know what the situation is going to be and where you’ll find yourself, right?
[00:20:13] Mark: But the goal should always though be great audio before great video, right? As I said, people will spend a lot more time listening to great audio if the video is bad. But if the video is good and the audio is bad, then you won’t have people sticking around very long. The next thing you need to think about.
[00:20:37] Paula: That’s a very valid point, yes, about the audio. And a lot of people sometimes have a video playing, but they’re listening, they’re not looking at it, they’re listening to it. And it’s got to be good. Because, if it’s too loud or it’s too soft, then move on to the next one. Our attention spans have changed, oh boy, so much.
[00:20:56] Mark: Yep. Mine’s very short. I have to admit that.
[00:20:59] Paula: Alright. Sorry, I interrupted you.
[00:21:01] Mark: The next thing you need to be aware of is your lighting that you’re using. The simplest thing to do is to do your videos by a window. No, not with the window behind you, but facing the window.
[00:21:20] Mark: And the best time of day to do it is generally in the morning at sunrise or in the evening, we call that golden hour, right? That’s where you get that golden glow, if that’s what you are looking for. But if that’s not a possibility and you need to do it in a studio or in a room, then you need to have decent lighting.
[00:21:43] Mark: Now it’s important to understand. The color of lighting, because now we’re into led light bulbs. So it’s almost like you need a medical degree to buy a light bulb at the Home Depot or at the local hardware store, because people will say, okay you know what? I’ll go out and buy the cheapest light bulb possible.
[00:22:02] Mark: Sure, you could do that, but you’re not going to necessarily get the light bulb at the right color that you want. It’s important to understand the scales of Kelvin with your light. I’ve got a little, I’m going to put this up here, hang on, let me just grab it. Where is it here? Oh, can you see that?
[00:22:20] Paula: Oh, yes.
[00:22:21] Mark: Okay, so let me put myself down in here. Bear with me one minute. Whoops. I lost it. Let me bring that back up again. So this is important to know scales of Kelvin. Let me take myself out of the picture. This kind of gives you an idea of what the color of a bulb will be based on the Kelvin rating or the warmth of that bulb.
[00:22:46] Mark: Okay. So most people will have a 2000 Kelvin or 1500 Kelvin light bulb in their house. That gives you that nice yellow, when you buy the old trend. The old 60 watt light bulbs, that nice yellowy golden glow. That’s the rating you’re looking at at the lower end. And as you go up to the upper end, 7, 000 Kelvins, you’re looking more towards daylight or more to a harder, colder, Bluer color.
[00:23:15] Mark: So when you see the difference between warm and Blue light bulbs, that is what you’re looking at in terms of scale. Okay. So incandescent bulbs are 2, 700 Kelvin roughly, and your old CFL, we don’t use, a lot of people don’t use CFLs anymore, but you’ll see LED light bulbs upwards to 6,500 – 7,000 in terms of the Kelvin rating.
[00:23:40] Mark: So when you are doing video, if you want to have a warmer tone, You go towards the lower numbers or a colder tone, you go towards the higher numbers with your pulse.
[00:23:52] Paula: Wow. As I said, I’m so new to video or relatively new. That’s something I need to pay attention to because I tend to just me focus more on let the, this is about sound very Christian as they say, let there be light. So I tend to focus on how good is the lighting, but not putting that into consideration, whether it’s warmer or a bit colder. I’m just let’s just have enough light because the ring lights, what are they?
[00:24:22] Mark: Ring lights tend to be more towards the cold side, right? They’re more towards the 5000, 6000, 7000 side. I personally, if my lights here, I’ve got two two softbox lights. And I use 5000 Kelvin lights, which tend to be more towards the cold side for mostly what I do, right? Ring lights, you can get them as variable colors, right? That you can adjust the Kelvin, the temperature of the light.
[00:24:51] Mark: My issue with ring lights. So I’m not a big fan of ring lights simply because people, particularly people who wear glasses, cause I do wear glasses is I don’t like to see the reflection of the ring light in the eye. It makes makes very strange. It makes people look very strange. It just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
[00:25:09] Mark: That’s just a personal foible of mine. So what I use are soft boxes or what I call soft boxes to give me a more even distribution of light. So there’s not a particular spot that’s really hot or glaring in my lighting. So understanding lighting is very important. You don’t need to spend big dollars for it.
[00:25:32] Mark: I’ve got a couple of soft boxes, but before I, I bought these soft boxes and I think I only spent maybe a hundred bucks on these. So they’re not that expensive, but I bought a couple of lamps from Home Depot. I paid 10 bucks for each one and I put them on a couple of tripods and I bought some cheap light bulbs and put them in there and away we went.
[00:25:52] Mark: So it doesn’t have to be, I think my initial setup when I first got involved in this business, I probably spent maybe 50 bucks, 60 bucks tops to get rolling. So it doesn’t have to be expensive.
[00:26:08] Paula: Wow. And for me, I tend to do most of my recording in my basement, which has very good lighting. I need to let you know that I had a relative come over who made me realize I needed to improve that. And there’s been a massive improvement. I see the difference.
[00:26:29] Mark: And you can have a really poor camera, but you can make that camera perform like magic. If you have really good lighting, right? Good lighting makes up for a lot of the shortcomings of poor-quality cameras.
[00:26:45] Paula: Okay.
[00:26:49] Mark: So if you’re having trouble with your camera before you go out and spend money on a brand new camera thinking that if I upgrade this camera to the next newest thing, upgrade your lighting, and you’ll see a huge difference, and you’ll save yourself a lot of money.
[00:27:05] Paula: Oh my gosh, that’s good to know because I know video podcasting is really on the rise now, especially all these shorts and what you can do with IG.
[00:27:14] Paula: People tend to, be attached to their phones and a new phone comes out and they say the camera, the resolution is better and people are trying to trade in their phones, which there’s nothing wrong with and get a newer phone because of the camera. You were saying you can cut down on costs. Like getting better lighting.
[00:27:32] Mark: Absolutely. And look, you know what, there’s nothing wrong with having the newest and greatest camera, right? And the technology is continually expanding, but I don’t like. I like to use my technology till I can’t use it anymore. That’s just a personal philosophy of mine. So I do most of my work on like this camera I’m using right now is an iPhone 11 that I’m running.
[00:27:53] Mark: I’m running right now and I’ve used it for a number of years and it’s done more than I’ve asked it to do. But as I’ve gone along. I have to understand what its limitations are and work with its limitations to be able to maintain a good quality image. So it’s not about putting out big money for a new device just make sure your lighting is right.
[00:28:18] Paula: That’s a really good tip, and it’s a money-saving tip as well.
[00:28:23] Mark: Absolutely.
[00:28:24] Paula: Okay. Wow. We’ve been talking for 20, almost 30 minutes. And there’s something I know you, you told me you really wanted to share.
[00:28:34] Mark: Yeah, there’s actually one thing I really want to share with you because it’s something that most people, they see it on their cameras all the time and they don’t know what the heck is this thing? I don’t know. It looks like this.
[00:28:47] Paula: Yes. What is that?
[00:28:48] Mark: Okay. This is the symbol for what’s called white balance on your camera. What is white balance? White balance is a way to tell the camera exactly what colors to use to make sure that your camera provides the best picture possible from a color point of view.
[00:29:10] Mark: When you use the white balance button, it allows you to tell the camera exactly what white is. So remember we talked about the different color lights previously? Okay, so white under a 5000 Kelvin bulb is going to be different. than white under a 2300 Kelvin bulb. So you need to tell the camera what white looks like under the light that you are using.
[00:29:43] Mark: And that’s what this button does, okay? It looks different. It looks, it may appear differently in it or in different places on your camera and they may have slightly different versions of it. You may see something that says AWB, which is Auto White Balance on your camera, or you may see settings like this, right?
[00:30:08] Mark: So Daylight, Shade… All of these are white balance modes to make sure that the white that you are choosing or the colors that you’re choosing match the light that you are working with. So get to know that function in your camera. It’ll help you make a better quality image and better quality picture.
[00:30:30] Paula: Now, when you say camera, would that even be applicable on our phone cameras?
[00:30:34] Mark: Yes. So in many cameras your phones, you will see something similar to this, right? Some apps have it, some don’t. Let’s say for example, there are a couple of new apps out or a couple of really good video apps out for iPhone.
[00:30:50] Mark: I believe they translate into Android as well. One is called Blackmagic camera app. And the other one is called Filmic Pro, which is something you may have heard of. And they allow you to control your camera on almost like a DSLR level. So you can get some really good quality shots that the actual camera itself doesn’t allow you to do through the regular traditional app with the camera. And you will see these, you will see a lot of these settings in that app, or rather you will see this button in that app.
[00:31:29] Paula: Wow.
[00:31:29] Mark: And it’ll help you to make your camera that much better. So get to know what the white balance button is.
[00:31:37] Paula: That’s awesome. That’s good to know. As I said, Mark is here to tell us about useful and easy tips when recording a video or audio podcast. In this case, it’s for video. That’s awesome.
[00:31:53] Mark: Is this not only for video? This can also applies to photography . So if you’re taking a static photo, understand your white balance.
[00:32:01] Paula: Yeah. Alright. Something else I learned today. We’ve talked a lot about the hardware. Let’s just quickly talk a bit about things that are also very important to someone starting a podcast. And that is like, where can I find guests? How can I get people to come on my show? If you’re doing an interview-style podcast, that is, because some people do solo podcasts where, they don’t need guests.
[00:32:24] Paula: They’re the guests. They are the main expert or they have a product or service to talk about. And so they don’t need guests. But for those who are doing interview style or panel style, do you have any suggestions on where they can get guests?
[00:32:38] Mark: Yeah. So that was actually a challenge for me.
[00:32:42] Mark: I ran into that problem, right? But I discovered there was a number of sites. One that I like to use is called PodMatch. It’s a subscriber base website. However, it’s not that expensive. I think it’s 12 bucks or something like that. So don’t quote me on that, but it’s relatively inexpensive.
[00:32:59] Mark: And it connects you with people who are actually wanting to be on your podcast. And it also gives you the opportunity to be on other people’s podcasts as well too. On our podcast I spoke with a gentleman who was on living on a sailboat out in Panama when I caught up with him. My last podcast was with a young lady who was a digital nomad and she was living in at the time she was in Amsterdam when I caught up with her.
[00:33:26] Mark: It’s really interesting. There are a number of sites like that you can become a member of that will connect you with other people who are wanting to be podcast guests.
[00:33:38] Paula: Yeah. And I can add to that one that I’m part of. It’s called Podcast Collaborators and it’s want a guest? Or, do you want to be a guest?
[00:33:47] Mark: Exactly.
[00:33:48] Paula: Exchange because as a podcaster, you can go both ways. You can be the guest or there’s some people who just want to, they don’t want to be the guest they want to do with the person behind the microphone interviewing. So that’s also another way. And then, there are lots of Facebook groups too, that you can join or even on LinkedIn.
[00:34:10] Mark: I think one of the ways I approach it as well is, I take time to listen to people’s story because people have some great stories, everybody has a story and sometimes you’re amazed by the stories that they tell you. You’re like, that really happened?
[00:34:23] Mark: Wow. So take some time and speak to your friends. Your friends have more going on than you actually think. I did back in 2019, my father experienced a stroke. And another friend of mine, his wife experienced a stroke about two months later, and he wrote a whole book about her recovery experience and he became one of my podcast interviews, we did one called Life After Stroke.
[00:34:51] Mark: But yeah, the people around you. Many of them have stories that they’d love to tell you but maybe not in the format, you’re talking to them now. But a podcast format gives them the opportunity to express themselves in a way they may not ever have. So reach out to your friends and say, Hey, this is what I’m doing.
[00:35:08] Mark: Would you like to be in a podcast? And they’re going to say to you what are we going to talk about? And you say tell me a story and see what they say.
[00:35:16] Paula: I like that mark because that’s a question I get a lot from, people I reach out to, so what am I going to talk about?
[00:35:21] Paula: And I’m like, everyone has a story that someone needs to hear, and you may not think it’s important, but to somebody else it is. I’ve learned so much from my podcast journeys. I’ve learned so much from the women. And guess what? In my case, a lot of them have become my friends. It’s amazing what you can learn, who you can connect with while doing a podcast.
[00:35:47] Paula: Mark, as we wrap up here, is there anything else that you can suggest to people who wanna take this to the next level?
[00:35:54] Mark: Yeah there is something. Put the fear aside, jump off the cliff and do it. You’ll never know what the experience is if you simply cower in the background saying maybe. Indecision is a killer. Podcasting, video podcasting does not have to be expensive. If you want to be, sure, there’s a lot of people out there that will sell you all kinds of things.
[00:36:22] Mark: But start small, jump off the cliff, give it a try. It’ll change your life.
[00:36:32] Paula: I can attest to that because it’s changed my life. I hated public speaking. And then I started the audio podcast and that got me over the hump. And then I was like I’m great. And then video podcast and became the thing.
[00:36:45] Paula: And I don’t know if I want to do it, but now I’m beginning to enjoy it.
[00:36:50] Mark: I’d just like to reiterate Paula if you’re going to do video podcast, if anyone’s going to do video podcasting, spend some time understanding the requirements of the video that your podcast is going to use and where you’re going to be delivering the video to.
[00:37:12] Mark: So if it’s going to be YouTube, how does YouTube want me to deliver that video? If it’s going to be Facebook, how does Facebook want me to deliver that video? Because each one of them has their own specific requirements that you need to either edit to or record to, okay? And once you’ve done that, you should be good to go. You should be golden.
[00:37:37] Paula: Thank you so much, Mark. And so to my viewers, I have to remember now it’s viewers and listeners, not just listeners. Wasn’t Mark DeLeon amazing? Mark, where can you be found if someone wants to get in touch with you?
[00:37:52] Mark: So you can reach me at pixzealeon.com at gmail. com. That’s P I X Z E A L E O N at gmail. com or you can find me on I’m on LinkedIn. I’m also on Facebook. If you look up Pixzealeon, you’ll find us there, or you can look up the podcast at Protect the Dream Project. Protect the Dream Project is on all major platforms. Yeah. That’s it.
[00:38:16] Paula: Amazing. Thank you. And again, I said to my viewers, if you enjoyed what you just heard, Please tune in every week.
[00:38:24] Paula: I always have an amazing and interesting person that you can listen and learn from. I do. And you can find me online on my website, which is www.chattingwithexperts.com. I’m also on LinkedIn as Paula Okonneh or on Instagram at My IG handle is at chat_experts_podcast.
[00:38:53] Paula: I’d love to talk with you because as Mark said, there’s nothing better than just putting yourself out there and learning and sharing what you can learn and share with others. Thank you, Mark. This has been awesome.
[00:39:12] Mark: Thank you, Paula. I hope to talk to you again.
[00:39:15] Paula: Absolutely.