In this episode, Pilar talks to Stephanie Fuccio, seasoned podcaster who now also helps solopreneurs with their own podcasts. They talk about Steph’s reasons to podcast, how she approaches edit, why she’s set up a global community for podcast editors and her “solopreneur podcasting tips”.
Stephanie has been podcasting for about six years. At the beginning she podcast as a way of processing life, living abroad… “getting it all out”. It eventually became a way of connecting with others, and now one of the aims is to generate leads for her business.
Her first show lasted for about 60 episodes, starting with a solo show and then morphing into an interview show with a “living overseas” lens. (Pilar thinks it can be very therapeutic to podcast, as well as a strong advocacy tool.)
Now Steph hosts the show Geopats (the name has changed a few times), exploring living abroad through different cultural artefacts. Her main show is: Solopreneur Podcasting Tips, a very niche show (Pilar admires this.).
Solopreneurs have different needs to entrepreneurs, small business owners or even indie podcasters. Steph has set up to help them with their audio and video podcasts, and helps to adapt the more general tips to this sector. When she started the show, which started in November 2022 as part of National Podcast Post Month, she invited some of the Global Podcast Editors community to co-host, who resulted in about 15 co-hosted episodes. These were video-first, live when possible, and then repurposed into audio.
(Steph gets really productive when she does a challenge, so they’re great to kick off these kind of projects.)
Solopreneur Podcasting Tips starts as a live show, streamed through Streamyard, which sponsors the show, and then it goes out onto eight platforms including a number of YouTube channels and LinkedinLive.
Steph talks about the challenge of creating daily episodes for NaPodPoMo (week 3 is terrible but week 4 is heaven…). There are many advantages to podcasting every day – Pilar hasn’t done this, but she’s tried the writing equivalent, NaNoWriMo. Steph has done the challenge four times, and this year she tracked loads of data, to see how well a solopreneur podcast did in audio vs video format. It did really well on all platforms – but in different ways.
With conversations that involve other people, Steph feels that showing people’s facial expressions and the connection between two people gets more momentum in video – especially if the episode is live. The momentum in the chat helps energise the guests.
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Steph got sponsors by constantly reaching out to them on social media, and emailing some people – but the emails got the higher proportion of rejections. She often spreads information out through various channels and see what works. Of course, the fact that she had a body of work behind her really helped to pick up sponsors.
Stephs’s been working as a podcast editor for over three years. From light video editing, to heavy audio editing – anything she’s tried herself, she offers as a service to solopreneurs. “Anything they need that she doesn’t hate doing.”
Pilar wants to know how Steph decides what to edit and what to leave as is. Steph does this moment by moment, deciding which “mistakes” or filler words help to convey emotion – retaining people’s speech patterns while making them sound good. She leaves in more “thinking sounds” than she used to, especially as two of her guests mentioned that they spoke fast (it was due to her editing). She also learned how to let her own language sound like her, by leaving some of the sounds that might “sound more unprofessional”.
Steph shares a time she tried out for a job that required a lot of editing, which was a completely different kind of work to what Steph is used to. There are many different ways of editing, so it’s worth playing with different styles to see what works for us. And it’s always easier to edit other people’s speech than our own…
There is reference to a conversation Steph had on editor’s imposter syndrome, and this comes up when seeing if a client wants to work with her, not necessarily during editing. Then of course, there is noticing how much there is to learn… if you want to.
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Pilar feels like she wants to learn everything about all the tech out there, so she asked Steph how she manages that. After trying out everything under the sun, Steph now restricts the technology that she looks at and learns to use.
She prefers to dig into the tools she’s already using, and make the most out of them. She still uses Streamyard, since 2018, and she also uses Hingerberg Pro (she’s getting certified!). She uses Acon Digital Plug-ins like DeVerberate and Voice Extract and the MacVolumeWav plugin, which she’s not quite sure she’s using right… When Steph edits video, she uses Reaper.
Steph recorded this episode from a co-working space, where she rents a locker to keep her recording gear. She records with a Samson Q2U and some very colourful pop filters, a mic stand that is not very stable, but she that she can fold away in the locker.
Now: Pilar and Steph disagree on what your first microphone should be as a podcaster. Pilar suggests the Yeti (yes, many disagree) for first timers, and then upgrade to a dynamic microphone. But Steph recommends they start with a dynamic microphone from the beginning, as it mainly picks up your voice and sounds much better.
Steph started the Global Podcast Editors community in November 2021 as an experiment, because she felt a bit isolated as podcast editor. She also wanted to tap into how people in different locations were working. They started to meet regularly online, doing live panels talking about different things about editing – mainly about challenges, as the audience seemed to engage more with those kinds of conversations. Have a look in the Global Podcast Editors YouTube channel. The community is connected through a newsletter, gmail list and regular online meetings.
Solopreneur Podcasting Tips is a podcast and a newsletter, and is the front of Steph’s business through which she helps entrepreneurs to make the most out of their podcasts, mainly through editing.
A podcast is a great way for solopreneurs to tap into potential clients and customers, as listeners get to know them intimately. By the time a listener contacts a solopreneur, they’re looking at how to work with them, rather than deciding if they should. As an example, Steph feels like her discovery calls are getting better since her potential clients are listeners of the podcast.
When Steph meets someone to see whether they can work together, she sees whether they’re the right fit personally, and whether they have a goal for their podcast – when you have some kind of goal, you’re likely to podcast for longer.
As well as podcasting, Steph likes reading and sharing pictures of coffee – you can follow her Instagram account here: https://www.instagram.com/stephfuccio/
Steph recommends the books “The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It” by Valerie Young and Make Noise: A Creator’s Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling by Eric Nuzum
Remember you can get in touch with Stephanie through her website: www.stephfuccio.com/
Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice yourself or connect on Twitter @Inpodcasting
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