Navigating the Complexities of Modern Podcasting: Insights from Gray Hair Dave

This podcast delves into the multifaceted world of podcasting, highlighting the significance of adaptability and innovation within the industry. I recently launched my new editing website, Gray Hair Productions, which serves as a platform for individuals seeking assistance with their podcasting endeavors. During our discussion, I emphasize the inevitability of embracing various formats, such as YouTube podcasting, to sustain business viability in a competitive landscape. As I navigate personal challenges, including recovery from a foot injury, I reflect on the broader societal issues of polarization and the necessity for open dialogue among differing perspectives. Ultimately, I encourage our listeners to foster kindness and understanding in their interactions, underscoring the importance of community in an increasingly divided world.
The discourse presented by Gray Hair Dave encapsulates a multitude of themes pertinent to the contemporary podcasting landscape. Primarily, the speaker reflects on recent developments in his professional journey, notably the launch of his website, Gray Hair Productions, which serves as a platform for potential clients to engage his editing services for podcasts. This initiative is underpinned by an acknowledgment of the evolving nature of podcasting, particularly the integration of video content into what traditionally constituted audio podcasts. Dave articulates his strategic inclination to adapt to this paradigm shift, positing that versatility is paramount for survival in the industry. He emphasizes the necessity of embracing diverse formats and methodologies to enhance business opportunities, thereby illustrating a pragmatic approach to entrepreneurship in the digital age.
Moreover, the episode delves into Dave's personal health journey, offering insights into his recovery process from a foot ailment that required medical intervention and therapy. His candid reflection on the physical challenges he faces, intertwined with the broader narrative of his professional aspirations, humanizes the speaker and fosters a connection with the audience. He articulates his preference for a gradual return to work, emphasizing the importance of health and well-being over immediate productivity. This personal anecdote serves as a poignant reminder of the balance between professional responsibilities and personal health, a theme that resonates with many in today's fast-paced society.
The latter portion of the episode shifts focus towards a critical examination of contemporary political discourse. Dave expresses concern over the polarization observed in political arenas, particularly during public addresses that evoke starkly divergent reactions from opposing factions. He critiques the lack of bipartisan engagement and the tendency for individuals to retreat into ideological silos, thereby neglecting the essential discourse that underpins a healthy democracy. His call for open-mindedness and dialogue reflects a deeper societal concern that transcends mere political commentary, advocating for a return to civility and mutual understanding in public discourse. Thus, the episode encapsulates a rich tapestry of themes, from personal health and professional evolution to the imperative of political engagement, all articulated through the lens of Gray Hair Dave's unique perspective.
Takeaways:
- The podcast emphasizes the importance of adapting to the evolving landscape of podcasting, particularly with the rise of YouTube.
- Gray Hair Dave has launched a new website for Gray Hair Productions that showcases his editing services for podcasts.
- Dave discusses his recent recovery from foot surgery, highlighting the challenges and progress in his physical therapy journey.
- A new microphone setup has been implemented to enhance audio quality, showcasing Dave's commitment to professional sound.
- The podcast touches upon the current political climate, urging listeners to engage in meaningful discussions across differing viewpoints.
- Listeners are encouraged to reach out and ask questions, as Dave aims to provide support and guidance in the podcasting world.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Gray Hair Productions
- Boomer Podcasters
- Riverside
- Squadcast
- Ecamm
- SM7B
- Cloudlifter
00:00 - None
00:00 - Introducing Gray Hair Dave
01:43 - Health Update and New Beginnings
03:57 - Transition to Podcasting Equipment Discussion
07:33 - Transitioning from Technical Setup to Current Events Discussion
09:40 - The Need for Dialogue in a Polarized World
13:25 - A Call to Action: Bettering Ourselves and Our Communities
Welcome to five Minutes with Gray Hair Dave.
Speaker AHe has gray hair.
Speaker AHe has a gray beard.
Speaker AHe wears glasses like the guy in the artwork.
Speaker AOh, and the guy in the artwork is better looking.
Speaker ANow here is Gray Hair Dave.
Speaker BWell, folks, I'm back.
Speaker BThank you for waiting.
Speaker BBeen an interesting week.
Speaker BSorry, I'm about a week late.
Speaker BA lot of things going on.
Speaker BWorking on my website for Gray Hair Productions, which is now live and new.
Speaker BYou should go look it out.
Speaker BIt looks really, really good.
Speaker BIt's at Gray Hair Productions, G R E Y Hair Productions dot com.
Speaker BIt's going to be my editing site where people are going to go to, to find me and do and book me for, to talk with about editing their podcasts, whether that's audio only or video.
Speaker BAlso, because we all know and may not like it, but YouTube podcasting is here to stay.
Speaker BI'm sorry.
Speaker BSome of my friends who are podcasters and are die hard.
Speaker BIt ain't a podcast.
Speaker BIf it's not, an RSS feed will hate me.
Speaker BBut I hope they understand that because I'm trying to attract business.
Speaker BI have to be open to everything, right?
Speaker BI mean, you can't just be open to one thing.
Speaker BYou got to be ready for more or you'll die in this business.
Speaker BI would, I would imagine.
Speaker BNo, I'm not positive of that.
Speaker BBut why take the chance?
Speaker BAnd why turn down the ability to make a little bit more money?
Speaker BWith that said, let's move on to the next subject.
Speaker BHow have you been?
Speaker BI hope that you're doing fine.
Speaker BI just got back from the doctor a little bit ago about my, my wonderful foot, which is healing rather well.
Speaker BShe says I start physical therapy tomorrow.
Speaker BSo that's why I'm doing this today.
Speaker BI have, have a feeling that when I get done with physical therapy tomorrow, I want to go home and just want to curl up in a ball.
Speaker BWith medication.
Speaker BI don't know.
Speaker BMaybe not.
Speaker BI don't know.
Speaker BI'm just saying.
Speaker BBut there is good news.
Speaker BToday.
Speaker BI am no longer using my knee scooter, which I was getting around on.
Speaker BSo I don't have to use that to go places unless it's long distances.
Speaker BSo I'm able to walk freely in the boot.
Speaker BAnd this boot is, is.
Speaker BIs cushioned and it keeps it straight and it keeps me and where they want it to be.
Speaker BBut additionally, they want to, they want to transition me into a brace and then, you know, nothing where I'm back to wearing shoes and going back to work.
Speaker BSo at least another three weeks without work here, which is okay with me.
Speaker BTo be honest with you, until I know what's going on with therapy and what I can and can't do, I prefer not to work.
Speaker BAnd I think that that work will feel the same way.
Speaker BI would have to go on to light duty again anyways.
Speaker BSo that's what's going on with the foot.
Speaker BI have to admit there's been a little less pain, but it's also a lot of the medication that was in the foot from anesthesia and whatever she did has begun to wear off.
Speaker BSo I'm feeling different things that I wasn't really wanting to feel, but I'm feeling.
Speaker BAnyways, that's enough about the foot.
Speaker BSo excuse me as I take a little drinky poo here.
Speaker BIt's Diet Coke.
Speaker BIt's early in the day.
Speaker BOkay, on to podcasting things real quickly.
Speaker BThis subject I have I have to tell you that I am now I'm using a new microphone.
Speaker BIt's an SM7B.
Speaker BI ordered this online.
Speaker BIt came in and I realized that I wasn't getting enough gain out of it kind of boost.
Speaker BI wasn't.
Speaker BI had to almost yell into the the microphone to get anything to come out to where it would record.
Speaker BSo I went out and I got a preamp cloud lifter which activates the boost and the gain on the on the microphone to where it's now legible.
Speaker BAnd, and I.
Speaker BYou can hear it and I can hear it and yada da da, off we go.
Speaker BWhich is the way it's supposed to be.
Speaker BAnd I'm hoping you notice a difference.
Speaker BI'm going to do a little different things with the editing, but I'm instead of it being just a regular dynamic microphone, which it is.
Speaker BIt's a dynamic.
Speaker BIt's also a condenser.
Speaker BIt's a.
Speaker BThe one I got is an XLR input or an output.
Speaker BSo not using my in ear monitors with it being hooked up to the microphone like I was on a Samsung Q2U.
Speaker BI'm now going through my digital interface and what that basically is.
Speaker BAnd we've talked about some of these things in other other episodes and I've talked about it a lot more on Boomer podcasters.
Speaker BThe the microphone goes to with an XLR cable which is a three pin XLR goes now into the cloudlifter, the cloud lifter, into the audio interface to where I have all kinds of ability to play with with gain with the lows, the mids, the highs right there.
Speaker BI can also introduce phantom power and you know, all kinds of Weird things.
Speaker BAnd it's.
Speaker BIt's really kind of nice.
Speaker BAnd I can monitor it and I can have more than one person on here with me because I can plug in two microphones into this, which is nice if I wanted to record somebody, you know, sitting here talking instead of going online to a program like Riverside or Squadcast or.
Speaker BOr ecamm, something to that effect.
Speaker BSo that's a plus.
Speaker BNow I am going to tell you that there's more cables involved here.
Speaker BIt was just one microphone, one cable out of the back of the microphone, right into the computer.
Speaker BNow you've got to go another way, and it's okay.
Speaker BYou can buy.
Speaker BYou can get a good interface relatively inexpensively and it just don't go overboard if that's something you're looking to do.
Speaker BWhat I have found, though, is that this SM7B is quite heavy.
Speaker BAnd I've already broken one brand new, which I think they're going to get back.
Speaker BMic stand.
Speaker BIt's.
Speaker BI don't know what the heck happened here, but I tell you what, it won't tighten up and.
Speaker BAnd hold it down.
Speaker BI don't think it was designed for it.
Speaker BSo I might just have to eat that one.
Speaker BYou know, put it on a little.
Speaker BPut on a little ketchup on it.
Speaker BMaybe it'll be better.
Speaker BOkay, now on to the next subject.
Speaker BI was thinking the other day after watching last week's presidential address to Congress.
Speaker BI think it was last week, may have been a week before, I don't know, just watching the amount of people go nuts online about this.
Speaker BI watched it, and one party was clapping, you know, and honoring people and clapping four people when it came to who he was showing and talking about that were in the audience.
Speaker BThe young man who'd had brain cancer wasn't supposed to even be alive today, but yet he is and wants to be a police officer, and he made him an honorary Secret Service agent.
Speaker BThey just sat there.
Speaker BThey sat there.
Speaker BThe other side, the Democrats.
Speaker BI'm sorry, I'm going to use your names.
Speaker BYou sat there.
Speaker BLake and Riley's mom and sister sat there.
Speaker BShe was brutally murdered by a illegal immigrant.
Speaker BAnd you guys sat there, didn't clap nothing.
Speaker BThe only thing you clapped for was giving money to a country that wasn't the United States.
Speaker BForeign aid.
Speaker BI don't know what's going on with you guys.
Speaker BYou need direction, at least a direction.
Speaker BI don't see any direction with you guys at all.
Speaker BWhat the heck's going on?
Speaker BYou used to be understanding.
Speaker BNow it's Just, well, if Trump says that we can't stand it and be.
Speaker BBye bye, come on, you guys have got, got to be better than that.
Speaker BYou know what I'm saying?
Speaker BYou got to be better than that.
Speaker BYou're, you're an elected official of all the people in your, in your district, not just the few.
Speaker BIt's, it amazes me and I would like to go on about this for a while, but I've also thought that we need to look at things better as, as human beings look at people and we've become a polarized world.
Speaker BAnd, and I want to get into that a little bit more next time, but it's, I'm sorry.
Speaker BThis belief that there's only one way to think is wrong.
Speaker BThere's more than one way to believe something could happen or that something is right.
Speaker BAnd if you're unable to, to listen to the other side and at least acknowledge that there are other ways, I don't know what's wrong with you.
Speaker BHave we become that obsessed with ourselves that if you don't agree with me, I have to hate you and don't want you to ever be seen again or heard?
Speaker BIt just, it, I give up on that when I see it.
Speaker BI do two things now.
Speaker BI walk away in disgust and I don't go back.
Speaker BNow that's wrong too.
Speaker BI should probably try and change things, but I don't see any back and forth.
Speaker BI don't see any give and take.
Speaker BI don't see anybody trying to have a conversation.
Speaker BIt's all about me, me, me.
Speaker BNot us, us, us as a country, as a nation, as a, as a world, as a people, as God fearing people.
Speaker BYou know I love God and you can't tell me you, I hope you can't tell me that this is what God wants of us or expects of us or thinks we need to be doing.
Speaker BPlease don't tell me that that's the case because that I would be very, very unhappy about that.
Speaker BAnd I think you should be too.
Speaker BSo on that happy note, I want to wish you all a wonderful, wonderful week.
Speaker BYou want to get a hold of me?
Speaker BLeave me a comment.
Speaker BYou can get a hold of me at five minutes with gray hair dave dot com.
Speaker BThat's the number.
Speaker BFive minutes with gray hair dave.com.
Speaker Byou can also get a hold of me at boomerpodcasting.com or gray hair productions.com that's the website for the business.
Speaker BIf you got questions on how to do things, I'm here to help you out.
Speaker BThere will soon be a Frequently Asked Questions page there, and hopefully I will answer some questions you might have.
Speaker BSo also, I wanted to remind you, if you know somebody who doesn't know what a podcast is, so know where to find one, what genres to listen to, how to follow, subscribe, anything.
Speaker BShow them for me, will you?
Speaker BJust help them out.
Speaker BOh, yeah, tell them to listen to me.
Speaker BThey might.
Speaker BThey might enjoy it.
Speaker BAlso, folks, don't forget, smile at somebody you don't know today.
Speaker BI realize they may not think the way you do, but you'll make their day.
Speaker BAnd, and that one turn, make your day.
Speaker BLet's all be better people, be better human beings.
Speaker BAnd on that note, Gray here, Dave here, saying, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker BBye.