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The Four Keys to Any Podcast
Start with four questions, build a room, and make something unforgettable. That’s the heartbeat of our talk with Ti King, co-founder of the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative, board member at The Podcast Academy, and producer of issue‑driven, documentary‑style shows that turn stories into change. We dig into the practical steps that pull a podcaster out of the “everyone is my audience” trap and into a clear niche with a sharp value promise, then show how the right data turns guesses into growth.
Ti walks us through the “four walls” every show needs: name, focus, audience, and value, and why a one‑sheet and elevator pitch can unlock grants, sponsors, and great guests. We explore the craft and workflow behind documentary podcasting: tight interviews, purposeful b‑roll, and edits clean enough to export audio‑only without losing momentum. If you’re building for discovery, we cover why YouTube is the largest podcast platform, how Shorts drive first‑time listeners, and which visual fundamentals, composition, depth, and angles, make clips stand out. Gearheads will love the Sony setups, Tamron lenses, matte boxes, V-mount rigs, and drone shots, all used to serve the story over specs.
We also spotlight the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative’s mission to lower barriers for creators in a “flyover” state with hands‑on coaching, local studio partners, and a festival that brings the NASA podcast team to town. The community‑nominated, community‑voted ARKAST Awards return with handcrafted trophies and a bigger stage for regional voices. Whether you’re trying to beat podfade, refine your niche, or take a more cinematic approach to your episodes, this conversation offers a blueprint grounded in clarity, craft, and community.
If this helped you sharpen your show, tap follow, share with a creator who needs it, and leave a quick review.
Hello, everybody. Welcome to AutoFocus. I am your host, Brooke, and I am here today with Ty King.
SPEAKER_02:Hey.
SPEAKER_00:So, Ty, tell us a little bit about you. Who are you and what do you do?
SPEAKER_02:Who am I? That's a deeper question.
SPEAKER_00:The deeps. Yeah. Let me read it. Yeah. We only have like 30 minutes, but we can go.
SPEAKER_02:I know. Okay. So I'm one of the founders and uh the executive director of the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative, which is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that helps podcasters, particularly in the South region and even more particularly in Arkansas. So we try to push the medium of podcasting. You are speaking of the gospel to the choir over here. But we try to help them get it over the hump of I don't have the tech skills or I don't know where to start. And so we give them the coaching and get them connected to the resources that they need to go ahead and get their show started.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. What is the most common thing that that you run into for most people? Is it they don't know where to start with like tech? They don't know where to start with their story.
SPEAKER_02:There's so many of those I don't know where to start, but there's also uh I don't know if I'll have anybody to listen to me. I don't know if I have anything to share. I've got an idea for what this is, and it's this big. And well, and I ask, well, who is it for? Who's your audience? Well, anybody. That's the always comment anybody and everybody. I'm like, well, we're already starting off. We need to narrow this down.
SPEAKER_00:It's like you gotta come in. Yeah. The niche audiences. Is that is that kind of what you recommend to people? Like the niche audiences seem to work better.
SPEAKER_02:Tell people, I was like, you know, Amazon didn't start off as Amazon as it is now, right? It was a bookstore that was like you particularly went there because you wanted to buy a book because you didn't want to go to the bookstore, and so it's grown to now you need a vacuum cleaner. Um, so like tell them, like whenever you see it, like you're gonna have people that jump on your show that naturally are drawn to it, but who are you particularly aiming for? And so I was asking these four questions, and once you have these four questions answered, you can they're basically the four walls that you can make this room where you can make your pop mark ass be anything at all. And it'll help you refine your show, it'll help you build it and be better. But what is the name of your podcast? What is it about? Who is it for particularly? And what a value do they get from listening to your podcast?
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, those are good, those are good.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And so if you can't answer those four, you need to think about a little more.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And you're constantly defining that too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because like once you because once you get started, then you learn more. Yeah. Because like once we notice is like once we start looking at the um analytics, and so like you're doing like a topic over here, you're like, I was like, let's do one about the lights that are behind us, let's do one about, you know, like this, the cameras them themselves, and then you use you start doing all these different things and you just kind of see what what the audience really likes.
SPEAKER_02:And sometimes you look at your analytics. Yeah, you gotta look at it. My audience is completely different than what I thought I was revealing to you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, which episodes are actually hitting and getting the most views, and it's uh yeah. I've got it mostly uh uh female demographic between 35 and 45. I thought it was gonna be males between this age and this age.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And so you kind of bend your show up.
SPEAKER_00:It changes a little bit, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, I guess it's made for these people, and here's the value that they're getting out of it.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, yeah, we totally said we saw that too, because we did we did we we started off as like just gear and like we talked about like this is how you use the gear. Yeah. Um, but then we did one about composition. Like it was just like this is like this is just like your six composition basics, you know, when it when it comes down to like this is how this is why when you see this, this is why it looks good. And uh and people loved it. So like now that's why we're like we're like, let's do more about training and like advice and telling people what to do. And like, you know, we talk about the gear, but that's not as much as as as we do, and it's been it's been working. So yeah, analytics.
SPEAKER_02:Analytics, check 'em.
SPEAKER_00:Check 'em. They are so important. Yeah. So you are here in Northwest, Arkansas, and you don't normally live here. So what brings you here?
SPEAKER_02:Normally live here.
SPEAKER_00:You don't normally live here. Do you do you yeah, uh what brings you to Northwest Arkansas?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, there's some maybe donate a house or something. A second home here. You just come whenever you want. Back and forth, yeah. Uh so today, right now, I'm I'm up here to check out the venue for our annual podcast festival, which is going to be happening on November 22nd, yes, Mount Sequoia Center, um, where we are bringing in the podcast team behind NASA's podcast. And so they're gonna come up, they're gonna join us and talk about how they create their shows. And we're gonna have a lot of students this year, which is really amazing, um, that are going to be learning exactly from that team, but also we're gonna have a lot of hands-on demonstrations of like the the tech, and uh there's lots of things. But that night we're having the Arcast Awards. This is the second year for that, even though it's the fourth year for the festival, and it is community nominated, community voted, and so the winners get to walk the stage, accept their award, and we're gonna have a great night.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Yeah, I wanted to talk about that. So it's put on by the Arkansas Podcast Collective Collaborative Collaborative. I think I literally wrote down collective.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Collaborative. Yeah. All right. So what is okay, so what is the Arkansas Podcast? Collaborative.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so it is the 501c3 uh I was talking about. So we're we're a nonprofit organization, and the only one that exists in this area where we are, you know, helping people find out the tech skills because you know, uh consultations they cost a lot whenever you're like, I think I want to start a podcast, and then you go in there and then you get it started, and like it can cost a lot of money to put down to get started, and you don't know, like the majority of podcasts that get started don't last, right? So there's like a small percentage of the ones that start that actually get are consistent. And so we try to, it's like, why is that? Why is there such a drop-off? Why is there such a fall off? And so there's multiple things where it's like the uh learning curve of the tech, there's the learning curve of getting your your content together, um, but also the the consistency model where you're not seeing the numbers of people watching or consuming your content, they get discouraged and they just stop and or time consumption. And so we try to teach them along the way of not not only like encouraging them and showing them how to do it, but also uh how to do it in a way that is consumable for them and doable to where they're consistently putting out content so that we're you know creating that. Because I mean Arkansas, we're a flyover state, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so because we're flown over, and because in most media, you in order to start a career in like Hollywood or whatever you want to do, you gotta go to New York or you gotta go to LA, right? And so coast to coast. But with podcasting, the barrier to entry is so low, um, you could literally do it on your phone at home to get started, right? And then escalate and move yourself up. Um, so what we try to do is uh take those voices that have developed because because nobody's come here to pick from a talent pool, which we have so much talent, but we are we're a flyover state. But because we've been so forgotten, we've kind of developed our own community and and culture and voices and stories to tell. And so there's absolutely something to learn from everyone. And so what we try to do is encourage them and then also get them connected to the right resources, like your your studio here, you know, like this is great. If they don't want to learn uh how to do the tech or invest a lot of money in the because you know, yeah, it's a lot of money. Yeah, so this is the cheap.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I've got addictive personality, so I just continuously buy new lenses and cameras and microphones and stuff. And like they're my new toys, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but no, uh, it's much more affordable, much more uh you know, doable, and they can focus on the show whenever they have like a studio like this they could just walk into and they can do their show and put all their focus onto it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, because you just walk in, we record, uh we'll we could, you know, and it depends on what you want to do. We could edit it, help help you distribute, help you do everything. Right. And you know, and that basically we take all of the like like the stuff that's not fun, like that's not that's not creative, and we we can take all that stuff off off you like and um and so but I wanted to talk about the RCAS awards and what and you were talking about how it's uh like it's public voted, which I think is like super, super cool. So, how does that work? I saw the Google form and so I was like, I was like, oh, we're gonna go do that. Um, but how does it work? So like each is like it's like a is attached to like an email?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh so it's commute, it was community um nominated, and so we have that for like the beginning of the year. We for so many months we have it open and people go in, they they fill out the form. Um, but yes, it's attached to their email, so like you get one nomination. Where but there's there's all these categories that you can nominate people for, right? Um, so we gather all those up, we put them in their proper categories, and then we send it out as a voting form and it's up to the community. And yes, one vote per email. Yes. Um, that's the only way we can really keep track of it. Make sure it's fair, you know. Uh because we didn't want to just like choose and pick our favorites, you know what I mean? Yeah. We wanted to be completely open and completely publicly voted that way. Um, like it's completely it's honest and fair, definitely, right? I think it's only right. So uh we love celebrating those podcasts that have such a following that they get all of the people rounded up to come in and support them. Uh John Tyson Elementary School is one of those where oh my gosh, they do such a good job. Those kids, man. They're they're so good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that is so cool. Uh where is that that one is that Springdale?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Um one of my friends, no, he works in Rogers. He used to work in Springdale, but he does he does like the video for like Rogers Public Schools. So I'm sure he does, I'm sure he has his own podcast. I'm gonna have to read that. But yeah, that's so cool. And so, um, but like so anybody can go. Like, you don't have to be a podcaster. No, no, no. Like if you like if you just had go to like the website, which I saw. Yeah. Um, so you basically just go, you can you can basically Google Arkansas Podcast Collaborative, and then it comes up, you can click it, and then like right there is the banner.
SPEAKER_02:So you could just anybody can go and Arkansas Podcasters.org is the website, yes. And like tickets are uh by notation only. So I mean, if you feel like giving us a dollar, we appreciate it. If you just want to come for free, we also appreciate that as well. It's a way to watch you to be there. We much want to make it as uh accessible as possible and get as many people there as possible to learn.
SPEAKER_00:It's awesome. So voting is right now. When does voting close?
SPEAKER_02:Uh in the end uh next month.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And then and then the basic you'll tally everything up and then you you go and you get get the award. Do you have like like award awards, like little trophies?
SPEAKER_02:So we make them by hand. Yeah. Um, I'm very much a supporter of of crafts and and uh doing things yourself and and try to make it as nice as possible, right? So uh last year we had the glass that we etched, um then we put it on boards and we painted it and all these different things. And so uh I think this year it's gonna be a little bit different involving 3D printers and casts and such. That'll be fun. Yeah, that'll be a surprise whenever we come.
SPEAKER_00:That's really cool too. So like every year it's like it's like your own individual piece of art.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So that's super cool. All right. Um, okay, so this is really cool. So everybody, you know, make sure you go and you vote for your favorite podcast, but you don't even need to be in Arkansas either. Like anybody. That's exciting. Okay. Uh, but are all the podcasts from Arkansas?
SPEAKER_02:They are. Well, they're from the region, at least, you know, around here in the Delta area, whatever you want to call this. Um, or yeah, Missouri, Oklahoma, yes, everybody surrounding, but the majority of them are from directly in Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of them right here in this area.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I was kind of going through and seeing like all the other podcasts. Yeah, it was super cool. There's a lot of cool people there. It's uh, I'm excited. Um, okay. But podcasting, but the podcast collaborative isn't the only thing that you do.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:So you also have podcasts and creative projects of your own. So what would you want to talk about some of those?
SPEAKER_02:Sure. Yeah. So I do a lot of things in podcasting. It's so hard whenever somebody asks, like, what do you do? I'm like, I do a lot of stuff. Like, which one's gonna be more interesting to you? We can we can continue on that subject. Um, so I'm on the board of governors for the podcast academy, which is the nonprofit organization that is an international that hosts the Ambies, which is like the Oscars for the podcast uh industry itself. But um other, you know, other shows that I work on. So one of them is called Long Term. That's my passion project where it is about recovery, um, trying to learn about recovery. Uh, we started with learning about substance abuse recovery, but we've also learned about you know sexual abuse recovery, like all kinds of different across the board. Um, how does it work? What resources are available? How do we make a sustainable future so that we can get people on the track of recovery? Uh but trying to understand it from the perspective of someone that's never had to go through recovery for addiction. Um, and I knew that I grew up in a household where my father was uh he was an alcoholic, right? But I never really thought of it like that. Like he was an addict when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because you don't, because you're you're used to it.
SPEAKER_02:Just in like survival mode.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:And like you know that your house is a little bit different than everybody else's houses when you go to a sleepover. Um, but then like it wasn't until I was an adult that I really realized, oh yeah, he's he's definitely in there. Like that's it may not have been on drugs, and maybe he was, I don't know. But like so, it's been a really great experience, like traveling the country and talking to people that run you know recovery organizations and have lived experience. And policymakers, I've done ride-alongs with police officers, I've done you know the interviews with Supreme Court justices and just trying to figure out you know, top to bottom, how does this work? Um the other one is smart justice. And so smart justice is with the Restore Hope um organization. And there's a different social justice uh sort of topic that's covered every every uh season. So this last one we did was about juvenile justice. Why is it that there are more juvenile detention centers in Arkansas than there are for adults? And so we looked into it and figured out like how does this how does this system work as well? Because if you have an addiction problem and you're 13 years old, right? You get sentenced to a year or 18 months and you go in there, and if you don't have a stable household to uh go to go home to after you're done with your time, they can hold you until you're 18 years old. And so you can spend the most formative years of your life uh in lockup trying to defend for yourself, right? And then they throw you out and be like, okay, now be a citizen.
SPEAKER_00:Because I mean, even if I mean it's at 13, something happened, like it's not your fault if you're at the substance abuse problems.
SPEAKER_02:So there's lots of holes and and you can see the obviously the things that are wrong with that. Um, so what we did is work with DHS and DUIS and like all the departments of those different organizations and the facilities and tried to find out what what works, how can we uh prevent, but also intervene in a lot of these different cases that are happening and put more maker spaces out there, making opportunities for the kids. And, you know, uh a lot of them just feel like they weren't being invested in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, especially if you're just gonna be basically locked away till you're 18. Right. And then just go have productive lives. Yeah. You're like, that's not how it works.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly, right?
SPEAKER_00:It's not. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, worked on that, worked on policy change. And so it's uh it's really rewarding. I mean, like you get to sleep a little bit better at night because you're like, you're doing some good. Whenever you make those incremental little changes, you're like, oh man, we did something there.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. That's really cool. Um, but okay, so when you tell the stories, like how do you do it? So you use pod podcasting, but you do a different type of podcasting. That's kind of it seems kind of new.
SPEAKER_02:I call it documentary podcasting just because there's not a really better word for it, but it's basically like we're filming it like a Netflix documentary. But we when I edit it, I will, you know, not only shoot the interview where I'm behind the camera and we're asking questions and we cut down the answers just like you would see on Netflix, but we also interviews, you know, some b-roll that we go out and shoot. Um, like I said, big believer in doing everything by yourself. And so if we don't if no stock footage, we're we're shooting our own stuff.
SPEAKER_00:AI generated stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Um, and uh, so that's where my addiction to camera work is that comes in handy. I'm like, I have a drone, can I do this? This thing. Yeah, I've got so much stuff to use. But no, going out and shooting those interviews uh and making those impactful statements and then you know cutting them in with uh you know the b-roll, but also when we edit it, we make it to where the audio is tight enough to where you can export it as an audio file and release it as an audio podcast on you know Apple and Spotify and and and uh Amazon music and all those. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I was gonna ask like what what the difference was, but basically like there's an audio version because I know that like you know, because like in regular documentaries, there might be like long breaks where you have like gnat sounds, and so where it's not, you know, where as a podcast, like when you're watching it visually, it makes sense, but like when you're listening to like cows in a field for too long, you're like this is weird and boring. Like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And so we we started off doing you know, just the video version and then a separate audio version where it had more of the the the ambient sound and stuff like that, but like, oh my gosh, it was it was way too much, especially for a two-person team working on this. Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You're just like, no, there's one version of it.
SPEAKER_02:Like, no, we're just gonna edit this whole video version and make it tight enough to where it can be exported as audio.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, how long is an episode?
SPEAKER_02:About 40 minutes. Really? So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I made a, I mean, I made a I was uh my master's degree is in documentary film, and I made a doc documentary there. And so I I made two in like like mine are like 20, like 20 minutes. And it, you know, and I spent like nine months on it. Yeah. So how long do you does it take you to put out like a season? Or like I guess you do like one episode at a time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and it depends on how many episodes are gonna be, you know. Uh-huh. I I can put an episode together within you know two or three days, you know, as long as we can get the interview. Once I have that in the can, like I it's nothing for me to go out and get the b-roll, put it all together, chop it up, and then yeah, export it. But um, yeah, that's the hardest thing is getting people's schedule snelled down to Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So how many people do you interview for like one episode? I guess it probably varies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it varies. Um, you know, sometimes we do the one-on-ones if it's important enough, like if we're gonna do get the prosecuting attorney, let's say, um, that's gonna be its full episode, right? Because that person has a lot of uh experience on their side that they need to like first inform you how it works, but then also point out some of the holes and the things that they're working on and what they hope to work on. And so there's a lot to go through. Um, but then other times you'll have a round table of you know four or five people that are sort of um just having a conversation and kind of reminiscing over what we've already gone over kind of in having a live conversation over that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I can see that. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, okay, so this is autofocus, and we are based on the gear. So we do have to talk about the gear a little bit. So what kind of gear? I know you're excited. All right. So what kind of gear do you use? I know I brought I always bring in this is my camera. This is from I got this, and my parents let me have it. So I became the family photographer at like 12. Nice. So um my but like, yeah, this is the camera that my parents had um when like probably from the 70s, and then I took it over when in like the 90s, and like and then I kind of made it mine. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, that's my that still looks like a really good, nice camera.
SPEAKER_00:It is, so it's not so like what happened is like so I ruined it at the beach when I was like a senior in high school. Yeah, and then um, and so my parents took it and then fixed it, but while they were fixing it, I got another camera, and so I like I didn't even realize they fixed this until um like a couple years ago. Yeah, and like they were moving, and so like when they were moving, they were like, Oh, we have this camera, and then I was like, Well, I ruined it, and they're like, Oh no, we had it fixed. And like, it's like it's perfect. I know, check it out.
SPEAKER_02:Does he even have a high shoe there? Yeah, it was made in the 70s.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Look how clean it is. I know, because like it it literally hasn't been touched since like the 90s.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, so no, I wanna um with that's that's one of my goals is to get some film and do some film, film, film project and see if I remember how to do it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's awesome. Um what about yours? Okay, you brought up the graphics. So I love to shoot with Sony cameras. Um, I was shooting with uh Black Magic, the 4K bucket cinema ones. Um, but there's like this, I don't know, you you guys use black magic. Yes, we have the mic, the and they look great. So I can never make mine look this good. Mine are always they got that faded look in the in the f in the in the color, you know what I mean? Yeah, and I just don't know how to fix that. And it I've watched so many YouTube videos on trying to fix the try color correct, and I don't know how to do this, yeah. Um but bought Sony and Sony does a lot of it in in camera because they're glass and makes it easy. Yeah, it's so good. So I use a uh ZVE10, which is supposed to be like a vlogging camera for and I use that for 4K, 24 frames per second. That's what I film with with the Tamron lens. But then this is the my latest one for taking photos. I was using a Canon M50 um with uh a cinematic lens on it, um, which I still love. It's really great because it's a a prime lens, and so off that boca blur at the back. Oh, so yeah, anyways. So this is the Sony uh A7R III, and so specifically the R ones, I don't know, you probably know this, but it's about resolution.
SPEAKER_00:I have no idea.
SPEAKER_02:So there's the A7 III, so like the the basic version.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, the basic version. Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, A7S, I believe, is for video, and then A7R is for resolution. So it's particularly like it will shoot video, but this is specifically for photos. And so I take my really good photos with this one.
SPEAKER_00:That's really good. So yeah, that's really cool because I guess it's gonna be like real lot of color. It's like national geographic kind of stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:National geographic. Like that. Not until I get one of those huge lenses that's like the 500 millimeter.
SPEAKER_00:The five million party. And you can like shoot like you can shoot the animals.
SPEAKER_02:But I've never held one, but those things look like they weigh a hundred pounds.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I used to do newspaper photography, and you just have to get the you have to get the monopod because like that you might some some people might have too, but you have to get the monopod that will go into the lens because like it's so heavy. Like you can't put the monopod on the camera because like it'll like it will literally bend the mount the mount. So you have to put the monopod. You have to have a monopod. Yeah. Or else like it will bend the it's so heavy it will come off the camera.
SPEAKER_02:That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. Someday.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So what else do you use? So you you're talking about the drones and stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So you use uh oh, a DJI uh the 4K drone.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Uh the mini.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean I don't you know, I I use drones to rare.
SPEAKER_02:You ever seen those Osmo 3s that everybody has? It's basically an Osmo 3 that has propellers.
SPEAKER_00:It has and it's just like and it's really flies.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it's beautiful. I think of it. Like you, yeah, you fly it up in the sky over you know, like Pinnacle Mountain stuff. I'm gonna do it here when I go to Mountain.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's going to be so nice.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, yeah. I'm at that. I brought it with me. Um, but those things, like those are useful to shoot like overhead shots. Like I went to Dallas Fort Worth and like shot both of those cities and into roll as a b-roll. But um, supposedly, if if this uh contract doesn't go through by the end of the year, they're gonna be illegal to even have because they're uh Chinese manufactured.
SPEAKER_00:Oh gosh. Oh, it'll go through.
SPEAKER_02:I hope so.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, God, and drones. I yeah, because I when I learned it how to do drones, it was like when the and when the FAA was like being really, really strict about it, you had to like have a pilot's license and all this stuff. Because we were we had we had started doing that for white for white spider, and then literally the FAA came and shut us down.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and they were like, you have to go get a pilot's license. And it was gonna be like$5,000 to get me a pilot's license. And they were like, No, we don't want to do drone that bad. And I was like, fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, can't fly anywhere near an airport or yeah, there's a lot of rules.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, especially here, because like we're right next to an airport.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There's like and you were just really it's like like you just don't even realize like how like how how far it goes out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You're like, you can't shoot anywhere, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, nowhere.
SPEAKER_00:Oh that's awesome. So okay, any other gear that you really, really like, and that's uh what is your what's your favorite stuff to take out there with you when you like when you go and do you how big do you put it like is it like a backpack you can like?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I got it back. Well, there's yeah, yeah. So I've got my backpack and it's got all my different cameras and stuff in there. But my my ones I shoot with, I'm built off this like huge rig. Um I use like all small rig stuff, and so I got a mat box. So I've got the V mounts battery to go on the back, and uh like it's got a shoulder mount, it's got handles right here.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, cool.
SPEAKER_02:So I can put it on my tripod or I can take it off and just lug it around.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:I've put in so many handles on this thing. There's like 50 handles on my arc so that I can like hold it like this, I can hold it like this, this, this, I can do it like this. That's hilarious. Yeah, so that's really fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Is that so um like is that kind of like like your favorite thing to do? So when you're is that like like is that and like when you're moving the camera around, what is it? I mean, I feel like that's like what a lot of people are missing these days is like just the creativity that that that that comes from angles. Like we talk about that a lot because it's like I feel like um, you know, like the angles is like really what will take you like from like you know, just regular level to like up.
SPEAKER_02:Never and even when I'm taking photos, never shoot at eye level. That's my rule. Yeah. Never shoot at eye level, never stand up and just take a picture at your eye level. Yeah. Because that's the like it may be pretty, but like it's it's not going to be eye capturing, you know what I mean? So we can get those unique perspectives like what you're just talking about. So yeah, try to go a little bit lower or down and to the left and think about the the rule of thirds, of course. Um yeah, I'm sure you've gone over that.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, forever. Yeah, yeah. And no, it's so yeah, I mean it just angles are like so so so important. And so that's kind of like why you have so many different because like each each setup can like is a different angle, basically.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Is that why you is that why you did it?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, for sure. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, I mean, just to ask the obvious question.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh but yeah, so why do you think it's so important um to like basically kind of push the boundaries for like creativity and doing different types of uh pod podcasting? You know, like like why break the boundaries, you know, innovate and try things that that are new.
SPEAKER_02:Why isn't important? Why is it ever important to innovate? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because I mean it'll be boring. I know we don't want to be boring, we don't have to take try sheets.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like we would still like that would we would stuff on that camera right there. It's pretty good. I don't know if it works as well as those over there for recording video, not at all. So um, but yeah, there's such there's such room, and like the podcasting is just it it's the wild west, you know, it's been around for you know a few years, but like it's still uh in its the most for you know the the years where it's being formed of like what is this? What is the future of it? I mean, Wondery just got dissolved by Amazon after it, right? So Amazon bought Wondery, they dissolved it, dispense the shows over to um uh Audible. Um, and so like that's huge because Wondery was like the big podcast thing, but like it sort of left people scrambling. But there are so many people that are doing interesting things with podcasting. It's such a versatile tool, like the kids I mentioned earlier, they're using it as their school announcements, right? It's fun. Yeah. Instead of doing the intercom, now you listen to the podcast and they do a great job. Uh, we are using that Smart Justice podcast to help you know reform policy and change specifically in a certain state. Um, you can do it for like that. And then there are uh caretaker podcasts, there are I mean like anything you can think of. But yeah, breaking outside the bounds is you know, my friend Ariel says, learn all the rules of podcasting, first of all, and then break them all. That's how you make your a name for yourself, but also how you find you know something original. Like there's the sky's the limit in this right now. There aren't a whole lot of rules. Yeah. Like, like I said, that you build those four walls with the what is your name of your podcast? What is it about? Who's it for? What value do they get of it? Now you've got a room to build whatever. Just whatever.
SPEAKER_00:And how you want to tell that story is totally up up to you. Exactly. So you like you can tell it, you know. Uh I guess when we were at podcast movement, the the the Clucky and Kitty or Kitty and Clucky.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't see that one.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, they were so cute. They but like theirs is like a podcast, but they use a lot of like like sounds, you know, like in posts, like like sound sound effects. And so I thought that was really cool and like you know, very, very different. And they're they're audio only, you know, and so like they they don't even though they have cool costumes, they don't even want to go like they're like I was like, I was like, but video, and they're like, no, we'd like to keep it, you know, like audio only because we can have yeah, I guess I guess because it's they send it to kids and they can have much more imagination with just the sounds than if they saw the pictures, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02:In a way, yeah, I I it makes sense. But I will say, yeah, so YouTube is the number one podcast platform in the world. So uh if that's if that's what that is, why would you not use video? Because I'm pretty performing as is is video, and then the number one way that people are finding out about podcasts is through YouTube Shorts. So if you're not using YouTube, I don't know. Like it's a harder climb up, you know what I mean? I know it's a lot harder.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I know that's I mean preacher the choir. Podcast videos. Yeah. So that's right. In the name.
SPEAKER_01:There you go. Yeah. Like that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We do, we love the videos. But yeah, no, this is awesome. Okay. Two more questions. I always ask, what advice would you give to someone um if they're just starting out? So what is like the number one piece of advice that you basically that you do give to people when they're first starting out? Other than the four, because you already get that's a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Um, so it's that four. So once you have that that laid out, I always recommend that people make it into uh a simple statement. You know what I mean? So like you're taking those four things, if you're you know what podcast name is, what it's about, who it's for, what value are they getting out of it. Okay, now next is to make a statement. My podcast name is blank, uh, it's about this, and it's for the people that do this, and they they get this out of it. You know what I mean? And that's your elevator pitch, right? That's the version of it. But having a one sheet based on that, you can do a lot of things just based on that right there, because it clearly defines what the show is, who it's for, and maybe it's appealing to the reader or not, you know. Um, and you can do a lot of things with that. So one of the things that we also help with is help getting uh grants for podcasts, right? It's really, really, really important that when you're pitching an organization or a grant giver on uh your show, if you want a grant for your podcast, they're gonna have to know clearly and very quickly what your show is about. And they're not gonna read 15 pages, they don't have time for that because there are lots of people that are submitting a lot of different different projects. And so if you clearly define, let's say you're you're pitching to an organization that that specifically deals with oh, I don't know, like underprivileged children in a certain area, right? And that's what your podcast is is trying to appeal to, is probably trying to give uh education to parents that helps them to I don't know, better give resources to those kids. And that organization's like, well, this perfectly aligns with who we're trying to reach. So we will give you that funding for this podcast. And so, but without that sheet, like you really don't have anything to build anything off of. Yeah, but also it's just good for you because like it clearly defines, I mean, in life itself, right? Well, you asked me in the beginning, who are you?
SPEAKER_00:Who are you?
SPEAKER_02:Right. I have a sheet. The more you work, well, the yeah, the more that you work on that, even for yourself, um, the more clearly defined you know what your role is in the world and who you are. And so that helps with your self-esteem. That helps with your career, it helps with your life, relationships. And so, like the same thing with your show. Like the more you work on this, the more defined you're gonna get it and the more confident you'll be in it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh no, that's really great advice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's the yeah, that's some of the best advice we've had so far. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And I want to leave let you do have one last plug for all for the R R Cast Awards and why people should come and go vote.
SPEAKER_02:And go vote. Yes. Uh, why you should vote right now for the R Cast Awards is because there are a lot of really, really great creators that are doing a lot of things outside of the bounds of what you've already seen in podcasting, but they're doing it right here in Arkansas. So going there, giving them a vote so that they can have that another booth of confidence whenever they walk the stage and get to have that award, like it means a lot to people. You know what I mean? Just to be recognized for the art and how many, how much time, you know, this is really, really, really time consuming. Um, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into these shows. And that's, I mean, like it means the world to them and it helps encourage them and it helps inspire and show the rest of the world that hey, there is actually a career that you can build in this, and this is worth investing in. It boosts our economy, it boosts our creative economy and artistic economy and makes more shows that help educate, entertain, and all the above. Um, so on November 22nd, we are gonna be at the Sequoia Center and uh we're gonna have a full day. We've got the NASA podcast team coming in. We're going to be showing a uh podcast documentary. And we're gonna be doing the art cast awards that night, but we have a lot of other fun stuff that's surrounding it. So uh come out. Um, tickets are free. If you want to give a donation, we we greatly appreciate it. It helps us to continue us to do more events and do more educational events. And so uh yeah, we're really looking forward to it. And it's exciting every year, and I love it.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming and uh let's stay in touch.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Bert.
SPEAKER_00:Let's work together. All right.
SPEAKER_02:There it is.
SPEAKER_00:Bye.