• Home
  • My Favorite Topics
    • Blogging
    • Business
    • Career
    • Cars
    • Consulting
    • Epic Life Quest
    • Iceland
    • Marketing
    • Presenting
    • Productivity
  • My Life Quest
    • Future Achievements
  • About Me
  • My Recent Photos

Behind the Scenes of Launching the Office Hours Podcast

7 years ago
marketing, podcast, podcasting
2 Comments

At work, we do this weekly Office Hours webcast where people can register, then join a GoToWebinar where we just sit around and answer their questions. It’s half an hour every Wednesday.

But if you’re not there live, you miss the whole thing.

We used to try recording it, but it was kind of a pain in the rear. We had to set up a separate laptop as an attendee, set up screen recording software, record it, then afterwards edit it down, and upload it to YouTube. We didn’t want to hassle our employees with doing that kind of thing – we believe in letting SQL Server people focus on SQL Server stuff – so it meant only partners could do it. Thing was, partners couldn’t always join every week, and sometimes we were on the road without our second laptops, or we were in low-bandwidth locations. So we never really got a podcast off the ground.

When the company bought out Jeremiah & Kendra’s shares, it forced me to make go-or-no-go decisions about a few things, and one of them was whether we should keep doing the weekly webcast.

See, like Alton Brown, I’m all about multi-taskers. When I build something, I want it to get as many uses as possible. For example, when I write a blog post, I want it to build toward presentations, webcasts, and training classes. But the weekly webcast – man, that’s a lot of expensive man-hours for us to spend on something that only benefits the people who show up.

Office Hours ArtworkTo make this webcast a multi-tasker, I needed someone to:

  • Have their computer join as an attendee
  • Record the webcast with a screen recorder
  • Add our logo reveal to the video, and upload it to our YouTube channel
  • Make an audio-only version of the webcast
  • Upload that file somewhere, and get it into a podcast fee

I knew how all of those steps worked. I just didn’t wanna do them.

So I asked, “What’s it cost to outsource this?”

Upwork.com is a freelancer marketplace where you can post a job, and then find people all over the world to do that job. You see their relevant experience, their comments from past customers (along with the dollar & hour size of the past engagements), and their billable rate. You interview them, and pick someone to do the work.

We went with Pavel A (Zed P on Upwork), a professional podcast producer. He does this exact kind of work, and he had a whole checklist and process for us to get started with the podcast, promote it, and then manage it on an ongoing basis. The logo, the voiceover, the descriptions – he just took care of all of it, getting our input along the way.

It only cost us about $500 to set up, and $100 for each episode (for the recording, uploading, etc.)

iTunes New and Noteworthy
iTunes New and Noteworthy

The results are awesome: the iTunes podcast looks great, his advice on how to get podcast reviews really paid off, and we went to the top of the New & Noteworthy Technology charts on iTunes. This helps us reach, help, and train more SQL Server people.

It’ll get even better over time, too – for example, we can start having the podcast transcribed into a blog post, which will help people who are Googling for answers. In those transcriptions, we can add links to the resources we’re talking about on the podcast, which makes listening/reading a better experience. That’s going to require more work, though, so it’s on hold for now.

I don’t consider myself a podcaster by any means – I have even more appreciation now for the work that other SQL Server folks put into their podcasts. It’s just nice to have Office Hours putting in double duty as a marketing multi-tasker.

marketing, podcast, podcasting
Previous Post
My Top Blog Posts from 2015
Next Post
How to React When Company Ownership Changes

2 Comments. Leave new

  • Joel
    January 16, 2016 9:51 pm

    Brent, thanks for the details, I always appreciate those looks behind the curtain. What kind of headphones are you wearing in the last few videos?

    Reply
    • Brent
      January 17, 2016 9:16 am

      Hi! I alternate between Bowers & Wilkins P5 (original series, not wireless) and P7 headphones. The P5s are the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever used – I sleep with them on in planes. The P7s have deeper bass, but they clamp your head reeeeally hard, so they can be uncomfortable for long periods of time.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.

Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS, a 1964 Porsche 356, a 1971 VW Type 3 Squareback, and more.

profile for Brent Ozar on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites

© 2021 Brent Ozar, all rights reserved. Privacy Policy

  • Home
  • My Favorite Topics
  • My Life Quest
  • About Me
  • My Recent Photos