https://www.listennotes.com/e/fdca7933c3e64b04b2abddcc9bf4a816

This.

Is Feed youd Brand with hosts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard.

Hey everyone, welcome to Feed youd Brand. I'm Tracy Hazard and along with my co-host Tom Hazard, it was tax time yesterday. Hopefully you filed your taxes or your extensions, but hopefully you got a refund. Most of you business owners and entrepreneurs out there, you really should be getting a refund. If you're not, maybe you really need to reconsider how you run your business. that's for another show. And not one, I'm not a CPA. So although I have filed our taxes going on 30 years, well, and in this business out of 33 years of marriage, I've probably filed them 30 of the 33.

Right. I mean, in this business, though, we did have a CPA involved in the beginning and used them for our taxes until they screwed up so badly and you ended up pointing out to them how they screwed up so badly. And at that point we're like, all right, we're done with you. I mean, with a lot of small businesses and business can get to a point where it gets beyond this, you actually can do better with one of these modern tax softwares and you're particularly good at this. So yeah, that's what we've been doing.

Anyway, we did ours months ago. So we've actually been sitting on our tax refund since January. So we filed it extra early, or maybe it was like the 1st of February, I don't know. But we already, we got our refund months ago. And one of the things that people don't think enough about is reinvesting that tax return back into their business. Research and development is great. Tom and I do that all the time because we're always advancing our portal, adding AI, adding lots of cool tech and tools, and all of that is research and development funds. So that is one of the ways that we keep our taxes low. But another way that you could do that is to reinvest your tax refund into some upgraded podcast gear. And to me, everybody wins, right? You gave yourself a gift, so you got some new equipment, and isn't that always fun? And your listeners benefit because you sound so much better. and you get another tax write off for the next year. So it's all good all around. So that's what we wanted to do. That's why we tied this topic in today. I mean, normally we don't really do stuff that's that anchored in time, but we thought it would be fun seeing we were live streaming the day after tax day.

And I think it makes a lot of sense. It's a good time of year to talk about that. And there's another reason, and again, I'm gonna ground this episode in time, which we don't often do, but there's a lot of uncertainty right now with what's going on with the tariffs. And even though there's tariffs on and tariffs off, it seems daily or weekly recently, one thing is pretty certain, at least for quite a while, is that there are the highest tariffs ever placed on goods from China and China putting back on the US. And this is not a political discussion, but a lot of this gear that you may need for your podcast at the time of recording this is still available from all kinds of retailers and Amazon. And I'm actually going to be sharing in this blog post for this episode, Amazon links for this different gear options we're going to talk about today. And you can still get them in stock and not pay twice as much or whatever it ends up being when new inventory comes in and it's subject to tariffs. So There's actually a few good reasons why you, if you're wanting to upgrade your game, getting that gear now may be in your best interest. Wouldn't you think so, Traci?

I absolutely think so. You know, this is the thing about it is, is that Tom and I are experts in product. Like that's actually how we started. So we are an expert in consumer products and consumer goods, and we've been through all kinds of recessions and actually we've been in industries that were tariffed before. So we also understand how to design around it. How to do all of those things, how to work through the system. But one thing we know is that there is always a time period right after tariffs are announced or right after something happens where there's an inventory shrink. So now's the time to get it. If you've got some cash and you see them available, now is the time. And that's another reason for us making sure that we're putting this front and center for you today.

And all of the links that I'm providing in the blog post for this episode at podcastersunited.org were available and the prices that we're sharing are the prices at this time. So if you see a sharp rise in price, you'll know, oh, well, maybe the tariffs starting to affect that one where they've run out of inventory or something.

Right. So if you do message us, let us know, we'll update our links, but we'll also try to find some alternatives for you. So if you message us and say, hey, this doubled in price or whatever it might be, we'll find you another one. So reach out to us anywhere on social media or send us an email. We're happy to help you. You can go to the blog post for this episode at podcastersunited.org, don't forget, that's where we try to keep everything up to date.

All right, so should we get into it, Tracy, the gear?

Yeah, but I mean, I think we should state and say that we already have the best and worst microphones. This is one of our most popular blogs on our site ever. And this minimum things we recommend to people. In fact, we send them to clients. Like this is a part of our setup packages when we launch clients is a microphone, earbuds and, you know, just that basic stuff, a mic block, and then usually a stand comes with it. So the simplest thing that we recommend you should already have. If you don't, we will also have the link for that blog post here in the episode as well, because we want you to do that. And that one's going to be right in the description for the podcast episode. So if you're in it, you'll see that one as well. So you can go straight to it. so you can get the base equipment. And Tom, why don't you just recap that base equipment really quickly?

All right, well, the most fundamental thing is your microphone. It's your most important piece of equipment as a podcaster. And we recently updated the best and worst microphone episode a couple months ago. And there is one microphone that is, in our experience, a standout winner for the best microphone, and that is the AT2005, which is a...

Audio Technica.

Audio Technica, it is a cardioid dynamic microphone, and there is a link to it on Amazon. This microphone, still the best piece of equipment, and it's not one that a lot of other podcasters recommend. There are others they tend to recommend, and I'm not gonna take a deep, deep dive into microphones and why this one's better than others. Again, there's another episode for that. What I will tell you about this microphone over the years that we have been using it and recommending it, which is about 10 years now, this microphone, once upon a time, was about $120 a piece. And over the years, it kept reducing and reducing in price. The way that economic conditions were and the price of electronics and maybe the fact that it was not the newest microphone out there. It has as a somewhat of a commodity had dropped in price. Today it's $59 on Amazon. And if you're Prime, that's just the price delivered to you. And it's the best price ever. Still in stock. In fact, I just ordered a bunch more of them today for our own needs for our customers.

So if you go there and you don't find any inventory, it's Tom's fault.

No, there's still inventory as of the time I did this. Yeah, there's still inventory. But I actually think, you know, these things are going to change. And, and, and I'm fear it's gonna maybe go back up to $120 in future months, depending on what the tariff situation is with China.

But I do want to say that whether it's $69 or $120 over the years, Tom and I have been podcasting for over a decade. Our daughter's about to turn 11. So, like, we know it's been 11 years that we've been podcasting. And the thing about it is, is that I'm only on my second mic.

But of the same kind, right?

Of the same exact kind. I've only had to replace it once. And the reason was, is because I threw it in my bag and traveled with it, and I did a little damage to the, because I didn't put it in a bag properly. It was my own fault.

It is a great mic for travel as well as using, you know, in your studio, your desk, wherever you record. But it travels very well. It's more compact. It's not like, you know, the Blue Yeti that so many people tout, which we do not recommend. And I'm not going to go into why, but watch that. you know, episode about all the mic reviews and you'll see it even there's videos and unboxing and stuff. That thing is not a good travel mic. This one is and it's the best quality mic anyway. But yeah, when you're gonna travel with it, when you're more active, I mean, yeah, things are gonna happen and you might have to replace it. Yeah, it was my fault.

Stuff got into the bottom of it where the cords go in and it just crashed and that was my own fault. But still, I'm only on my second mic. But so I can tell you, like if I paid 120 bucks for it, 'cause I did back then, 12 bucks a year, that's nothing. Nothing for a microphone.

So. So I wanna share a good related gear. Mike called this an accessory to the microphone. As you mentioned, Tracy, this mic does come with a really very compact, what I would call portable stand, tabletop stand. But the reality of a good portable tabletop stand, its benefit is that it travels well, it's very lightweight, and doesn't take up much space in your computer bag or your purse or briefcase, whatever you may travel with it in. But as a stand by itself for everyday use, it's not the best because it easily topples over. It doesn't have a good heavy low center of gravity. And if you talk with your hands the way Tracy does, it's pretty easy to knock it over.

Yeah, I can't use that one anymore. It's not good for me.

So what do we do? Now, I'll tell you, 10 years ago, Tracy and I each use these big sort of boom microphone stands spring loaded that are kind of like the old, if you know what a Luxo lamp is, you know, where you sort of could.

Or if you've ever watched a Pixar movie.

Yeah, Pixar movie, just like the light that, you know, bounces around and all that, you could move it anywhere. Wherever you move it, it will stay. But the pain in the neck about those that I really don't like them and I don't recommend them at all anymore is because they clamp to your desk or table and that clamp always inevitably loosens and falls over. and then your mic falls and hits the table or hits the floor, and then you might break the mic and have to buy a new mic. So I don't like those. What I do have that I recommend is a tabletop mic stand that is only $29 on Amazon as of writing this. And it's got a very good heavy weighted base and it's got an arm extension. I'm using it right now. You don't even see it 'cause it's off camera, but then I swing it around away from me. It stays on my desktop all the time. I swing it around. All right, Tracy, you're going to have to talk for that video to show up.

Okay, so I'm trying to show mine. It's actually heavy. It's really heavy for the price, which is $29. Like, it's crazy that this is $29. It's like, I mean, it's probably a good £5.

Well, it is. And that's the point because you need a counterbalance to the microphone because if you hit you this mic with your hand, you're not going to knock it over. You might just swing out of the way a little bit, but you can swing this arm like 180 degrees away from you to get the mic out of your way most of the time when you don't use it and swing it in when you do and just leave it on your desk all the time. That's the way I tend to work. I'm these first couple, actually several, a lot of the equipment today we're recommending not only do we recommend it for a lot of very good reasons, but we use them. We're sharing what we actually use with you. So I do recommend this tabletop stand. I recommend it to all of our Done For your production customers and DIY customers too. But I mean, the Done For your customers, you know, always are recommended to have this. So we're not presenting it, by the way, in this episode, multiple choices for some of these things. We're letting you know the best ones that we recommend. Sometimes in certain things, if there's a good option to consider, we have more than one that I'm sharing.

But you can always like on Amazon go and find more like this or similar to this and you can find another another one that you like or one that's in stock in case it goes out of stock. So those are always options. But we're going to tell you why we chose the ones that we chose. And remember that Tom and I designed a lot of products over the years, so we're actually pretty Discerning. I think over time, I probably bought about a dozen different mic stands, and this is the only one that can withstand me hitting it and not falling apart because I do talk on my hands.

No, it's really held up, and it's proved itself over the test of time. I mean, I think we've only been using this particular mic stand for a couple or three years, to be honest, as opposed to the mics.

No, I think I got it when I moved into this office, so that's almost.

It's more than four years. Four and a half years ago. Okay. I didn't use it as early as you did. I got mine later, so I'm probably three years for those. The microphones we've been using for more than 10 years. But when we find something better or newer, We're going to let you know. All right. So let's talk about another very important piece of equipment, how you're going to listen to your guest in a remote interview. And now if you're recording solo episodes or you're recording always in person with people, then you don't need this equipment. But I think the majority of independent podcasters that are having conversations with others are doing it remotely and need a way to hear their guests. And again, not just through the built-in speaker to your computer that is not recommended for a lot of good reasons of, you know, Echo and other things. But I have two things to share with you. An over ear headphone. And I'll tell you, Tracy, I went.

And we used to have them.

We used to have them. I preferred them, actually, especially when we were interviewing a guest and then in the same room, you and I recording, which we used to do all the time. and I liked this particular headset and I've tried a lot of others over the years and I keep coming back to this same one even though it's not the cheapest one. So what I'm going to share is an over-ear headphone which is by Sony and people might think it's kind of old school. It's been around for a long, long time but I'll tell you my number one reason for recommending this one. It's not what you might think. It's not the tech of the headphones. It's the comfort. Because if you're going to wear an over-ear headphone, it needs to be a very comfortable one because you're going to spend a lot of time with it on your head. And the other, the one tech or technical feature I'm going to recommend to all of you with an over-ear headphone is that you don't get a wireless one, meaning a battery-operated one. I know you may think, oh, well, Tom, that's the modern technology and I'm probably going to get criticized criticism for being old school here. But the issue is you have one operated on battery. At some point, you're going to be using it in the middle of a great conversation and it's just going to stop working because guess what? The battery ran out and you didn't charge it long enough.

It's actually happened to me on an interview.

Yeah. With someone else, though, right? The other person. Yeah.

They were interviewing me and theirs died right in the middle of the conversation. Right.

Very unprofessional, very unfortunate. Highly recommend that you don't do that.

So if you go to the blog post for this episode, you're gonna see a picture of Tom and I, you know, I'm not a fan of the over-the-ear ones because, well, I look like Princess Leia. And so we had over-the-ear ones, though, when we were very first starting, because everything was plugged into a big mixer and we just had all this equipment and you absolutely, really needed it because you really needed to block the sound. Also because we were, like, across the table from each other, so I needed to block the sound of hearing him. there, you know, and not along with the guest we were interviewing. So it just was one of those things where we did use them back then. But as soon as I could, I've replaced them with just the earbuds, which I, I probably replace them every couple of years. I try to buy a better quality one. I actually had a really hard time finding new earbuds, Tom, without a microphone in it, and that were decent. So I had a hard time this time because I have a really specific kind, like, I like that snuggly in my ear.

I do think there's definitely when it comes to earbuds, which is the other option and is what now we use all the time. I don't really use the over ear ones anymore in general. I use the earbuds. And I have a favorite of mine that I've used for a lot of years. They're from House of Marley and they are made of wood. And, you know, I'm not gonna lie. Oh, earbuds like this. only lasts so long. They are not going to last you for a decade. Okay. I go through a pair every year, if not more often, but they're also not that expensive. These are 19. Now, you can get a seven or eight dollar pair of earbuds at Target, but you're gonna get what you pay for. Okay. A less expensive pair usually means they're going to last a lot shorter period of time. So I go through at least one pair a year, but I want a nice quality one. And these ones are made. They actually are made of wood. on the outside. And I kind of like that quality personally, but. But it's a nice, got a nice braided cord. And I do like one with a microphone in it, Tracy. You need to be careful. You make sure you got to make sure your microphone is set in your recording software for the proper microphone, like the at2005 that you want to be recorded on. But the reason I do like them with a microphone now is because I often am recording screen share videos and things for customers on my laptop when I'm not connected to my good mic, and then I have a mic on the earbud that then records. better than the one built into your computer. So just a quick note about that. Now, Tracy, we got quite a few more things to share with our audience, and we need to go kind of rapid fire.

Yeah. So I just want to show before you go, I did have a podcaster who was like, I don't know, I think he was just, he didn't like the look, I think he had no hair. And he didn't love the look of like them sticking out of his ears. And I think he was bald, if I remember right. And he was impressed because mine were hidden by my hair. Like mine were usually today, have it pulled back slightly so you can see them better. So he actually recommended this kind that like go into your ear and then they hook behind so that you can stick the cords behind you. So I've added the link to that one as well. It's, you know, there's a lot of different brands of it. This one is an Ame M E E and it's a sport wired earbud. But what I discovered is if you're going to put it behind your body, you've got to get the extension on it and you have to have a, make sure you've got the extra long cord and cable. to make it work. This one's only like a $14 thing, so it's not expensive at all. But you do have to buy the extra, like, extra long cable thing, as you can see it. You know, it gets all stuck in my hair and everything, so I didn't-- I tried it and I thought, oh, this is really cool. And it does look really good because you see nothing from the front. But, you know, for me, it gets stuck in my hair and I still managed to pull the cable with my hand when I'm talking, you know, it just didn't work out for me.

Well, as we are wanting to make sure it's clear, and hopefully that is clear to all of our listeners here and our viewers on YouTube, that we're letting you know what we use and offering, you know, a good starting point. We have good reasons why we're using the equipment we do, but obviously do your own research and make your own decision. And when it comes to USB webcams, because a lot of us podcasters, of all our customers, fully about 80%, are recording and publishing video on YouTube as well as their audio and all the podcast apps. your camera can be very important. And what I've got, I've got three that I'm sharing that are USB webcams and from, you know, a low end to high end. A good USB webcam is usually a lot better quality than the one built into your laptop if you're using a laptop. Now, that technology is going to change with laptops. My Apple MacBook Air from 2013 had a much better webcam than my newer MacBook Pro. from just a couple of years ago. They cheapened the camera and that's why I use a USB webcam. But there is a good low-end Logitech at $68. There's a higher-end Logitech for $125. We've got links to both of those. And I use one called a Vitade, which is no big brand name, but it's $49 USB HD webcam that actually has a built-in light to it. If you want that or need that, I don't use it because of my glasses. But three really good options, unless you want to go ultra high end. And I'm not even recommending a camera for ultra high end the way Tracy uses like a Sony digital SLR that does plug into your computer for web streaming. But that's like a $800 solution, which.

If you've got a decent tax return, it's not a bad investment. And it is exactly how I bought mine. I did buy that with our tax refund that year because my social team was complaining about how bad the camera looked. And so we'll have to show a side by side before and after.

Well, Tracy, we can show a photo of your little setup and a link to your camera if you want. But I mean, that wasn't even a buy it on Amazon thing. That was a buy it from like, I forget what that camera store is in New York City or whatever, but I forget the name of it. But anyway, that's a high end solution, but it's higher maintenance. I mean, Tracy does a lot of extra work sometimes on a daily basis to keep that thing operating properly. So just buyer beware and be warned. I mean, higher quality with a big lens and a big camera. Sure. Higher maintenance. Definitely. Okay. All right. So then one thing when you record in person, like you have somebody coming in and you're recording them live in your own office or studio, and we, about five percent or less of our customers do this where they record with actually multiple cameras that are not connected to the internet. They're not live streaming the interview, but then they edit one, two, or three, or we edit one, two, or three videos together. Then you need to use a real video camera. And we have some, we've had three of them and used them in the earliest days of our first podcast. They were about 199 each at the time, but that was a decade ago. And they were called a Canon Vixia, and they were pretty inexpensive HD cameras. Recording to SD cards separate from your computer. We still do that sometimes when we have an appropriate thing. It's not for our average podcast episode recording. But there are some similar cameras like that that we have a link for that I'm calling Canon Vixia like that, you know, if you want to do that, you can check out that kind of camera and there's still a couple hundred dollars you can, and even less, in fact, you can get something like that. But then if you're going to do in-person recording of audio, that is really with multiple people, it's really important that you have a recorder that can record separate track for each person. And we still recommend the Zoom H6. It's the best piece of equipment for that. And that's not Zoom, the people that do Zoom meetings. It's an entirely different product and company. We still use them for in-person recordings of multiple people because it does a great job. But again, it's recording to a SD card. That's $299 on Amazon today. And then you might need a, let's say you just want to connect a couple of mics directly to a computer. You might need a USB interface that also has some mixing capabilities. We've got an option for that that's only $45 here, or one that's $90 that has a capacity for more than two microphones up to eight. Now, those are more complicated pieces of equipment. The prices have come down dramatically because I'll tell you about 11 years ago when we bought our first mixing board, because Tracy and I always recorded in the same room, needed to feed it into one computer and mix it properly. I think I paid $1,100 or something like that for, or maybe it was 800 but 1100 in total equipment, one of those two. But it was a lot more expensive, easily 10 times. What a decent mixing board is today. as of before the tariffs anyway, they're very inexpensive. So those are some important things. Port expanders, if you're gonna be plugging in multiple USB devices to your computer, are very important. And you can get one for $25 for a Mac. I don't know about the equivalent for Windows because I've never, I haven't experienced that. We've got a link to a good one, and there are lots out there. There's a lot to choose from, so feel free. Some work better than others because none of them are made by Apple and that can cause compatibility issues.

So, and that's another tip, right, the area that I want to just quickly say is that if your microphone stops working, your cameras are stopped working, something's stopping working, check the Drive Hub first. Sometimes we find that the little, where you're plugging in and out, because I do it all the time, I plug mine in and out, right? And it wears it out. So it may not be the whole hub, so you think, oh, the whole hub is fine. Power's going to it. It's powered, so it can't be bad. But that little section where your plug is going in and out has died. So that I've had to replace way more than my microphone. I think I'm on my fourth one. So they do go bad quickly. So keep that in mind. But you only spent 25 bucks on them, so not as bad.

All right. So another piece of equipment with video that can be very important is to have some lighting on you. And the typical ring lights that everybody has seen for years are kind of old. old school and not, you know, they reflect in your glasses. There's a more modern version that's kind of like got like a light panel. And I've got a good example for $30 that on Amazon that I'm sharing. And then the last piece of equipment.

Wait, hold on. On some of those lighting, they can be camera holders, phone holders. They can also double as that. When I send you a picture of what mine looks like, mine is my light. And it's also a hacked version because I couldn't get my camera to hold on it because it was that light fixture was set for a mobile phone and I'm hooking a Sony camera to it. So I've had I've hobbled it together with a little bit of duct tape and you'll see a ruler in there, but it works just fine to hold the camera and it's actually a great angle with the lighting coming from right behind it.

And Tracy, I looked up, try to find your device and I don't think it's available anymore.

I, yeah, I don't think it's available. Yeah.

So that's why I didn't share that one. But I shared something very close. And then what I think is to me a very important piece of equipment for a lot of people that are recording video, I personally like, and I'm a big fan of the green screen. And anybody who's listened to the show or watched the show long enough, I think knows that. I think it's very professional, better than having people just see your environment unless your environment is specifically propped and made for video the way Tracy's is when.

You look at her background. that might be how mine looks, right? Exactly. And then you might want to invest in a can of paint and get some good color behind you.

Absolutely. So I've got several green screen backdrop options starting at $9 if you just want material that you can actually pin to a wall to $36 that has like a stand that can stand it up behind you that's portable, could take down to a pop up screen like the old fashioned pop up screens we used to have in school back in the 70s and 80s, Tracy, when they would do some sort of slide or film strip presentation. That goes back. And then my favorite is like a pull down roller shade type that it gets attached to your ceiling or your wall. So you can pull it down when you need it and retract it. And of course, you could always just get a gallon of the red colored green paint and paint your wall if you were willing to leave that up. Doesn't matter. But a lot of options for the green screen. I'm a big fan of that. So that really concludes the equipment recommendations. We've got all the links for you at podcastregina.org to blog post for this episode and I hope you get some good recommendations here from us. I hope you enjoy them and check them out and I hope they're still available when you need them. But if you're listening to this anytime soon after we've published this episode, I'd highly recommend not waiting and letting the grass grow under your feet because some of these things may be gone. I think we're gonna have a lot of inventory issues at least. If not, price adjustments. And I just wouldn't trust that the prices are going to be the same going forward.

Or less, they won't be less later. So the last thing I want to say before we go, Tom, is just that if you're going to invest and you only have a limited budget, you didn't get as big a tax refund as you wanted, that's okay. Invest first in your sound, second in the imagery, and then third in all those extra accessories and all the other fun stuff that come along with it. Lighting goes along with that video side of things, right? And then mixers and extra sound equipment, recording devices, like all those other things can come later. But the sound that you're sending out to your audience matters more than anything. You're a podcaster, act like a professional. You got to have professional sound.

All right, Tracy, that's a great, great point to close with. Thank you, everyone, for listening to or watching this episode. Go check out the blog post at podcastersunited.org for any of those links. There's a lot of them. and we'll be back next time for another great episode here on Feed youd Brand.

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