Hiring a Podcast Editor

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If you're thinking of hiring a podcast editor, there's a 50/50 chance the first question you had was, "How much is this going to cost me?" Of course, as with most things, the answer is, "It depends."

But that doesn't mean anything goes.

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Hiring a podcast editor can be a bit of a scary thing - not only because you're giving away a bit of the control of your show. Giving up a little of the creativity. Trusting someone else to make decisions that are at least as good as what you would do. But that trust factor is only one.

Bringing on an editor is also a financial commitment. That is, unless you think you can find someone who will be willing to offer the level of service you need for some kind of barter agreement of the promise of experience and exposure.

Not to fear, though. While there is a financial component it doesn't have to be scary.

Like the other things we've talked about, it's possible to develop a plan. To have a framework for making the decision. All it takes is a bit of focus and planning.

Listen to Discover:

1. How to set your maximum budget
2. How to justify what you plan to spend on podcasting
3. Why asking, "How much does podcast editing cost?" is the wrong question

https://hireapodcasteditor.com/episode/what-should-you-spend-on-podcast-editing

Listen to Hiring a Podcast Editor

Hiring a Podcast Editor website

Mentioned in this episode:

15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor

If you want to get the clarity you need to avoid a hiring mistake with your podcast, you will want to grab this free guide. No email required. We just want you to make the best decisionfor yourself and your show.

15 Questions Download

Sponsored by Top Tier Audio

Check out Top Tier Audio! We offer professional podcast production for coaches, trainers, and consultants.

Top Tier Audio

Try Boomcaster for your podcast recording and streaming.

If you're going to record your podcast while streaming live with cohosts or guests, you need a way to capture great recordings. Boomcaster offers an excellent livestreaming experience, and also captures high-quality audio and video recordings. You can pre-schedule your livestreams to Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn. Or all of them if you would like. Use the promo code 'TOPTIER' or the link in the show notes to get 20% off your purchase. And if you do that, you'll also be helping the show (and I'd appreciate that). Boomcaster is what I recommend to capture a great recording while streaming.

Boomcaster

Mentioned in this episode:

15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor

If you want to get the clarity you need to avoid a hiring mistake with your podcast, you will want to grab this free guide. No email required. We just want you to make the best decisionfor yourself and your show.

15 Questions Download

Try Boomcaster for your podcast recording and streaming.

If you're going to record your podcast while streaming live with cohosts or guests, you need a way to capture great recordings. Boomcaster offers an excellent livestreaming experience, and also captures high-quality audio and video recordings. You can pre-schedule your livestreams to Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn. Or all of them if you would like. Use the promo code 'TOPTIER' or the link in the show notes to get 20% off your purchase. And if you do that, you'll also be helping the show (and I'd appreciate that). Boomcaster is what I recommend to capture a great recording while streaming.

Boomcaster

Sponsored by Top Tier Audio

Check out Top Tier Audio! We offer professional podcast production for coaches, trainers, and consultants.

Top Tier Audio

If you're thinking of hiring a podcast editor, there's probably about a 50/50 chance that the very

first question you had was, How much is this gonna cost me?

Of course, as with many things, the answer is it depends.

But that doesn't mean that the answer has to be, well, anything goes.

If you wanna have a good plan for what you're willing to pay for editing before you ever start

looking for editors, you'll want to keep listen.

Welcome to Hiring a Podcast Editor.

My name is Bryan Entzminger.

I'm a podcast editor and manager at TopTierAudio.com.

This show is intended to help you be able to find the right podcast editor for you.

Whether you're looking for your first editor or your next editor in season one, we're gonna help you get clarity

on what you really want before you start connecting with editors, and then provide you with the tools.

To make the right decision for yourself.

This show is sponsored by TopTierAudio.com, where we provide podcast production services for

multi-passionate coaches, trainers, and consultants.

Be sure to stick around to the end and I'll tell you how you can get a free tool to help you organize

your thoughts and make sure you don't miss anything.

I know I've mentioned this before, but hiring a podcast editor can be a bit of a scary.

I mean, first off, you're giving away a little bit of the control of your show.

You're giving up some of the creativity.

You're trusting someone to make decisions that are at least as good as what you would do, but that

trust factor is really only one part of the equation.

Bringing on an editor is also a financial commitment.

I guess unless you think that you can find somebody who's willing to offer you the level of service that you

want and need for some kind of barter agreement or the promise of experience or exposure or something like that.

Not to fear though, while there is a financial commitment, it doesn't have to be scary.

Like the other things that we've talked about in previous episodes, it's possible to develop a plan,

to have a framework for how to make the decision.

All it takes is a little bit of focus and a little bit of planning.

When we think about this, I like to think of it in two ways.

One would be.

What would you like to pay?

Or what is your target budget?

And the other one would be, what's your maximum budget?

And it's okay if there's a gap between these.

In fact, I think there should be.

But before we start talking about what the budget should be, let's talk about how you're going

to fund it or how you can justify the expense.

And we're gonna break that down with three question.

The first question is, what do you expect to be the funding sources?

Where's the money gonna come from?

Is it gonna come from your personal finances?

Is it coming from business income, maybe a marketing budget or something like that?

Is the funding going to come from grants?

Do you think that the funding is gonna come from donations from your audience, or something like that?

Make a note of all of the places that you think the funding is going to come.

Not all the places it could come from, but all the places you believe it will come from.

If you've already downloaded the 15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor guide, you can do that.

If not, that is available for free at Hire a podcast editor.com/fifteen questions.

Just write down all of those sources of funding where you think the money's going to come.

Question number two then is what do you believe is the maximum feasible funding from each source, whether that

is business income or personal finances, or whatever.

Write down those numbers for all of the funding sources that are in play, and if possible, break those down

into either per season or per episode numbers as well.

Question number three is what do you believe are the most reasonable expected benefits of having a podcast editor?

Now, if you're thinking of launching a podcast and bringing on an editor so that you can deliver

professional quality from the very beginning, Then this will be also possibly the results of having a podcast.

But think about this in terms of whatever it is that this editor is making possible for you.

What are those benefits?

We'll go through a couple of categories, but I do just wanna make a a quick mention that especially in the case of business

focused podcasts, these benefits may be pretty easy to quantify.

If what you're podcasting for or about is something that's related to social change or a non-profit or something

like that, it might be a little bit more difficult to quantify those, but I would encourage you to do your very

best, even if these benefits aren't business related.

As I think about a non-profit, the first question would be, does getting your stories out to supporters or

potential supporters lead to increased support and impact?

And if it does, what's that expected value?

What bringing on an editor is going to give you is more time.

What's the value of your time and how much time are you getting back if it's higher quality?

Is there a way to quantify the higher quality of what a professional editor would be able to bring to the table?

Is it the ability to focus because you're not distracted?

Well, what is the value of your focus?

Is it improved sales conversations because the people that are coming to you already know how you.

They already hear your voice.

They've, they're already connected to you.

Well, if that's the case, then what's the value of what seems like a shorter sales cycle?

What if the value is in terms of positioning or influence, or the affinity of your potential customers?

Well, what is the investment in your brand worth?

Go through the various categories of where you think you're gonna see that value, and then write down as best

you can, what you think those benefits will be in dollars.

And if you can maybe think about converting those into a per episode or a per season benefit.

Hi there.

I'm popping in for just a second to tell you about Boomcaster.

If you're going to be recording your podcast while streaming live, either with a co-host or with

guests or something like that, you're gonna need a service that does that and gives you high quality

recordings and Boomcaster is a great service for that.

They offer an excellent live streaming experience.

And super high quality audio and video recordings.

So later you can edit those into your final podcast episode.

You can find them at boomcaster.com or click the link in the episode notes.

If you use that, you'll also get a discount on your purchase and your purchase will benefit the show.

So I'd really appreciate that.

Boomcaster is what I recommend for you to capture those great recordings for your podcast.

Now we have a handle on two things, and these are two key ingredients.

The first is the maximum that you can reasonably pay, and the second is the expected benefit.

These two things will help you develop your desired budget and your maximum budget.

But before we get into that, it might be tempting to stop here and just ask, Well, what's the

average cost of editing a podcast episode?

How much do podcast editors get paid?

And I could share some numbers with you, but the reality is that it wouldn't be super valuable because rates can

vary pretty widely based on things like the scope of work or how quickly you need it turned around, or the level

of skill required to deliver what you're looking for, or perhaps equipment that's required in order to do that.

I don't know that there's a lot of value in that, but what there is value in is understanding what it's

worth to you so that when you start talking to people, you at least have an idea of what you're looking for.

So we're really just gonna answer two questions.

The first question is, what is your maximum spend?

And this really is just, if you take all of those funding sources that we talked about earlier,

and you add that number up, what is that number?

That's the maximum that you believe that you could spend for this podcast.

Now, this is not me trying to get you to aim high.

This is not me trying to get you to spend at all.

This is your, I cannot afford to spend one penny more than this answer.

So go ahead and take a minute and write that down.

Question number two is based on the expected benefits of having an editor, how much are

you willing to invest to get that benefit?

And that's really a question for you.

In some cases, you might be willing to spend a dollar to get a dollar 10 back.

In other cases, you might be looking for a 10 to one ratio for a return.

I don't know what that is, but whatever it is that you would be looking for, you can pretty easily take that ratio

and you say, Okay, well I have this much expected benefit.

If I want this kind of return, this is what I would reasonably willing to invest to get that.

And that's what we would put down as.

Willing to spend or your desired budget.

Now, I do wanna note here that if the budget for your desired spend is greater than you could possibly spend

from your funding sources, you might wanna rethink this.

This might not be the time to go out and spend your desired budget if your total funding doesn't support that.

This is just a thought, but now you have your two.

You have your maximum budget, that's the one that you can't possibly go over, and you have your desired budget.

That's the one that you would like to spend at, or.

And you also have all of the notes and everything behind that as far as why you're willing to make those decisions, which then

helps you understand and evaluate as you go forward, whether this is continuing to be a worthwhile investment for you.

As we're going through this, you're continuing to make progress, and if you're following the process,

you have a firm handle already on what you need and want, and now what you're willing to pay.

But the next question is, well, where can I find a great podcast editor?

Do you just post on Facebook or start searching Google for editor websites or things like that?

Well, that's what we're gonna talk about next time.

And believe it or not, like a lot of things we've talked about, the answer might not be the same for every person.

The right answer for you might not be the right answer for somebody else, so make sure that you come back.

You won't wanna.

If you'd like to be able to get the clarity you need in order to avoid making a hiring mistake, be sure to download our

guide, 15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Podcast Editor.

You can find it at HireAPodcastEditor.com/15questions.

It'll be linked up in the show notes.

It's totally free.

We don't require an email address or anything like that.

We just want to make sure that you have the tools that you need to make the right decision for you.

That guide has the questions we'll talk about on this show, some instructions and suggestions.

Even a place to take notes.

If you wanna get even more out of it though, be sure to subscribe to this show at HiraPodcastEditor.com/listen

and share it with the rest of your team.

Your work is important now.