The Art and Science of Podcasting: A Conversation with Alex Sanfilippo - Part 1

“Usually my podcast, I’d say, I probably say eight months of the year, it has no advertisement at all. But that way, when I do place it in, it’s on every single episode, and it’s there just for a short time to really pique someone’s interest, cause they’re like ‘This is different. What is this?’" “Yeah, that’s a really good option. Yeah, I like the dynamic insertion at the very beginning too, because people are that’s when they’re you’ve got them hooked. They’re there to listen, so you may as well. Yeah, that’s a really good option.” -- Alex Sanfilippo   This episode’s guest is an entrepreneur as well as the CEO and founder of PodPros, a podcasting software company. He’s also the host of the top-rated podcast Podcasting Made Simple and is a leading educator when it comes to podcasting.  His name is Alex Sanfilippo, and his ground-breaking business ventures have shaped the world of podcasting in a big way. If you’re looking to make more out of your podcast while also retaining your sanity, Alex has a few tricks up his sleeve that’ll help. As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and access to a resource called The Studio with lots of interesting sound-related mp3s, videos, educational pdfs, and exclusive discounts from previous guests. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.   (0:00:01) - A Journey Into Podcasting As the episode starts, we talk about how a sore throat forced Alex to postpone his first appearance on the show, and how Audio Branding just recently crossed its 200th episode milestone. “I can just tell you off the head,” he says, “because I just looked at these numbers. So, at the time of recording this, you have just under a 6% chance of making it to 200 episodes.” Alex also tells us about the hearing difficulties he suffered as a child and the surprising chiropractic treatment that helped him recover. We talk about children’s audio dramas like Adventures in Odyssey, and how they captured his imagination in a way that TV shows never quite managed. “But whenever it was audio only,” he says,” I would create the visions myself and I think that a lot of my creativity is owed to those moments.”   (0:05:15) - Podcasting and Software for Podcasters Alex tells us about his first encounter with podcasting, and how skeptical he was that anyone would just listen to a voice recording on a computer. “That’ll never work,” he remembers saying. He quickly changed his mind, though, as he began to listen for himself: “From that moment on,” he tells us, “I was like, ‘I love this, I hope it never goes away.’" We talk about how he began researching software and equipment during his early days of podcasting straight from his car, and the importance of not only having the right message but using the right words to express that message. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” Alex says, “and I always say, ‘but the right words are priceless.’ It’s just a matter of discovering those right words, and when you discover them, man is that powerful.”   (0:14:08) - Podcasting and Advertising...