Use Descript for Your Mini Podcast

One of the things that I have been hammering On social media in my newsletter and on this podcast. Is if you want to start a podcast You should make it a mini podcast. There are lots of reasons why you should start a mini podcast. I cover that in a previous episode. Which will be in the show notes over at make pod.com/two 16. But a follow-up question i always get about mini podcasting is what should i use to record how do you record how do i still make this easy Today i'm going to tell you the tool that i use to record my mini podcast It's called de script and i love it Here on make money podcasting. Okay. So first of all, if you haven't listened to any previous episodes or seen any of my stuff, if this is your first episode, welcome, and thank you. Uh, a mini podcast is a solo podcast that is 20 minutes or less. I recommend people start with a mini podcast because they are generally easier than most other podcasts. You're picking your area of expertise. You are outlining. Or writing a short script and then you're reading it and releasing it. So there's no coordinating with guests. There's no advanced editing. And actually one of the reasons I recommend Descript is we'll get to in a minute, but you can sound good without actually having a super good setup. Uh, that is why I think people should have a mini podcast. Now Descript. Is a video and audio editing app or program, uh, that allows you to edit via transcript. So. Uh, with de script or descript, I say Descript. So I'll keep saying it that way. Um, they, they bill it as all in one audio and video editing as easy as a doc. Uh, and the, the real power here is that. As you talk or, or when you drop into recording Descript, we'll transcribe that recording. And then to edit you highlight text from the transcript, delete it. And that audio gets deleted as well. So. As far as editing goes, like they say it's as easy as editing a word document or a Google doc. Uh, or a text file you delete text and the audio disappears. As well. So I use de script for everything I record directly into Descript. Uh, so that I can see what I'm saying, as I'm saying it. Uh, and then if I mess up, I just stop the recording and, uh, and delete that text and pick it back up. I'll I'll talk, I'll talk more about how I use the script at the end of this episode. Um, but that is a mini podcast. That's what de script is. Now. I want to tell you my top three. Descript features. Uh, there are a lot of features, so. Uh, you know, you, you kind of, I recommend that you go to the descript website. To check out all the features they have to offer, but these are my top three favorites. I've already. Mentioned the editing via transcript. Uh, so that is my first. Favorite feature. Um, And I should say that they they're like a full, like, it's not just like record and do a few things. They have like fading and like full video editing. They have this overdub feature, which is really cool, but I really like the. Um, The, the ability to edit via transcript. I think that's, I've got my setup, like really dialed in. And so, uh, just the ability to delete text. Uh, or if you pay for the right plan, Add text and they'll overdub your voice, which sounds not bad, which is a little scary. But anyway, Um, I'm just going to gloss over that feature for now. My first favorite feature is editing via transcript. Second is now I call this templating. This isn't technically. Templates. Um, I'm just. Copying. A project, but I have this template file. And, uh, I, that's what I always use for my starting point. Um, and so I guess my second feature is basically like the ability to easily. Make they're called new compositions. So you have a project and inside of a project, you have compositions. And so I have a project called make money podcasting. Uh, and then inside of make money podcasting, I basically copy. The template or duplicate. The template composition. And then I have the starting point for my new episodes. So I have the music and the ducking and the intro set. And I just talk. And again, I'll talk more about that in a Uh, the third feature, I really like. Is, uh, The studio sound feature. I don't use this because I have a professional podcast set up and it actually. Makes those sound worse, but if you're using like the built-in microphone or a very echo-y microphone, Uh, or there's like a lot of background noise. These grips has this killer feature called studio sound. That will totally clean up the audio for you. Um, now obviously, if they're like, these random sounds like dogs barking or whatever, like it might not get that, but if you sound like low or echo-y the whole time it'll make it. So that you're using, it sounds like you're using a professional microphone. I think this is a great feature for new podcasters, because it means that they don't have to spend a ton of money on a microphone. They can just start a mini podcast with the equipment they have. Um, and I do recommend you invest in a, in a decent microphone, but if you don't have like the sound dialed You can use studio sound instead of having to like learn. All of this other stuff, like high pass and low pass filters or whatever. Uh, in garage band or logic or anything like that. So the script really lowers the barrier for. Editing and sounding good. Now I'll give you one more bonus feature. Since the templates, isn't really a feature. Um, they're publishing. Like sharing features are really great. You can share videos directly to YouTube. Uh, but I can also upload directly to both Castillo's and Buzzsprout. Uh, from D scripts, it works a little better on Buzzsprout. If I'm being honest, like DCR or, um, Casto said it hasn't worked reliably, but with Buzzsprout I record the episode, I name it and then I published a buzz sprout and it does the uploading and I get an email and it's done processing. So. Um, then I go in and add the show notes and stuff like that. So that's a really great feature as well. And again, just kind of fits with the mission of, of de script, which is to make. Creating, um, multimedia and publishing it as easy as possible. So those are my top features. Uh, oh, I, you know, I did have a bonus feature in my outline, uh, remove filler words. I don't do this. Again, well, I shouldn't say that. I try not to say I'm a lot. I don't think I say it too much. Maybe now that I'm pointing it out, you will notice I say it a lot. But if you say, um, a lot, you can use this feature, remove filler words and it will remove. Ums AHS likes. So's you knows you can pick the filler words that it removes. And while I don't use it to remove filler words, I think if you remove all the ums and AHS. It sounds unnatural. But let's say I have a guest who swears a lot and I want to remove the swear words. I can choose. The word I want to remove. The other thing that it does with remove filler words is it'll remove duplicate words. So if I say, um, um, or like, like, It'll remove the second, like, or the second, um, So, again, transcript it's doing Finding her place. Right. But it's editing the audio as it does that. So. That's another killer feature just makes it a lot easier. Okay. With the remaining time. I want to tell you how I use Descript. I've kind of given you the overview. W throughout, but I just want to lay it out for you. So that you can get a few ideas. When I put together my mini podcast make money podcasting. Right. Aye. Outline it in craft. That's my notes app. So I'll have a list of everything I want to talk about. I don't usually script my shows. I have a template for make money podcasting in a project called make money podcasting. And so that template has the intro music. And then I have prerecorded my intro. So I have that and the music layer, so that there's ducking. So I don't have to do that Before. And I also have it's called like a gap clip. So it's just like three seconds of silence. That's a really cool feature in Descript as well. So I have. That template. And then before the GLA the gap clip and the music starts, I put the cursor on my timeline. And, or the scrubber. On my timeline. And I Start talking directly into the script. I recorded directly into these scripts. And I do the intro. So like the cold open teaser that you hear before the intro. And then I placed the cursor or the playhead. At the end of the intro. And I started talking again. I hit record. And I start talking again and I talk for a while. I watched the transcript. If I mess up, I pause the recording. Delete the words that I mess up on and I pick up recording. So. I record right into Descript. I don't make edit points because I can see the words and delete the word. So if I mess up, I stop. I delete. The mess up and then I keep going. And then I'll review everything once more. And then. I'm done and I click share. And I published directly to Buzzsprout. So recording a mini podcast for me takes about 10 to 15 minutes for the outline. And then however long it takes me to record. And then a few minutes to share and process. So I have a full episode in probably 40 minutes, maybe an hour if I'm like working on good copy. And. It's much closer to a one-to-one ratio than. The normal podcasts, like if you're doing an interview podcast, They say it takes four hours for every finished hour of content. So, if you have an hour long interview show, it takes you at least four hours to produce that And maybe that doesn't even include research or scheduling. So. That's something to think about. It's a it's about an hour. For a 20 minute video for me. So like a three to one ratio, I guess, three to one. Time versus finished product. So de script just makes it so much But that's it. That's it for this episode of make money podcasting. I hope you enjoyed it. Definitely check out Descript. At make money pod.com/d script There'll be a link in the show notes That is an affiliate link and I'll get a kickback But. It doesn't affect your price at all. And it's, it could be your little way of supporting the show if you So that's make money. pod.com/d scrapped. Thanks so much for listening for all of the show notes, you can go to make money. pod.com/ 2 1 6. And until next time. I can't wait to What you make.