Focusrite: Podcast Studio Makeover Contest
Back in March I had the opportunity to go to Podfest, a podcast festival in Orlando, Florida. Obviously being within my first year of podcasting I didn’t know what to expect but was excited to learn more about podcasting and network with others! At the time I was approaching my one year milestone as a podcaster. During Podfest I went to various workshops and panels on how to improve your podcast and learned ways to grow my audience. The speakers of Podfest presented me with new resources and ideas for my upcoming episodes of my podcast. I spent my time going by every vendor booth during the festival to introduce myself as well as getting familiar with their product or service. Overall my experience at Podfest was more step that has helped in the progression of Blackpacking.
In April I saw a post for a Podcast Makeover Contest that was being held by Focusrite. Now I remember going by the Focusrite booth at Podfest and I remember enjoying the quality and clean appearance of their equipment. The rules of entry went as follows: to submit up to a 3-minute video clip of your studio and a 5-minute sample clip of my show. The audio clip I chose was from one an interview with Brian who talks about the conceptual idea of borders and how they keep cultures apart as well as. The video I sent that was of my bedroom which for now also acts as my podcast studio. In the video you can see my studio area contained a bust mic boom and where I had ducked taped my microphone to my boom stand. I explained a summary and my goals for the show, and why I needed to win the contest.
Knowing how many amazingly creative podcasters there are out there, I knew the competition would be tough. I honestly didn’t think I had a chance, but my shot in the dark entry was noticed by Forcusrite! Some time had passed when one day I open my inbox and see an email from Daniel Hughley. The email said that he wanted to ask me some more questions about the show as they continued to make their final decision. While on our Zoom chat, I thought I was still trying to “sell myself” and convince them why I should win the contest. However, Daniel informed me that I had already won, and he did that to get my natural reaction to the announcement. I was in shocked
I won some amazing gear such as the Heil Sound Pr40 microphone, Heil Sound PL2T Boom Arm, Adam Audio SP5 headphones, the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 3rd Gen Audio Interface, and a Namba Gear Backpack! In addition to the gear I won store credit to Audimute to purchase acoustic panels, SquadCast, a subscription to Hindenburg journalist, and Podcast Hosting. Another highlight was receiving podcast coaching lessons from Harry Duran the host of Podcast Junkies. Talking with Harry helped me organize a plan for the future of my podcast and ways I can improve interviewing my guests.
The two other winners and myself joined Daniel Hughley for a session during the Outlier Festival which was all virtual. The two other winners are from the Doing It at Home Podcast and The Creator Speak Podcast. The Doing It at Home Podcast is hosted by Matthew and Sarah Bivens, and they have weekly episodes where they discuss home birth and why they chose a home birth path for their child instead of the traditional hospital births. The message of their podcast is to empower moms and their families to reconsider birth decisions to a more natural direction. The other winner was Melaine Scroggins who produced a limited series called The Creator Speak Podcast which was a limited series which were conversations with creatives about everyday concepts and how they have created identity through their projects. It is always a pleasure to hear about other individuals' podcast projects, and to hear what inspired them to create it.
It has been an amazing feeling to have the people from Focusrite believe in my vision and my podcasts. Winning this contest has been a reinvigorating feeling towards this project that reminds me to continue to make episodes. I have recorded two episodes now with the new gear and I love it. I feel like a professional podcaster but still a novice with learning how to get the full effects from the audio equipment.