We’ve got many SquadCast staffers on the show today! Alex Whedbee, our head of design, and Arielle Nissenblatt, our community manager, join Zach and Rock to chat about the end of the year at SquadCast.

We’ve got a bunch of fun things headed your way in December 2021 and early 2022! In this episode, we discuss our end-of-year scavenger hunt (with prizes worth over $5000)! We also discuss our upcoming v5 launch.

Links we mentioned

Thank you to our Scavenger Hunt prize donors

Extras

Our podcast stack

  • ATR 2100 Mics
  • Apple AirPods Max Headphones
  • Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interfaces
  • Adobe Audition
  • Buzzsprout

Episode Transcription

Cecy: [00:00:00] Hey, I’m Cecy with Level of Latina. And before we get to this week’s episode of Between Two Mics, we want to tell you about another show we think you’re going to love. And it’s recorded on SquadCast. The Level of Latina podcast is all about coaching first generation Latinas and all Latinas to gain the confidence they need to achieve their goals. We’re transforming the next generation of Latina leaders by finding balance, making career moves and building wealth. We recently interviewed Rock Felder, the co-founder of SquadCast. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. Now, let’s go to this week’s episode of Between Two Mics. [00:00:36][35.9]

Zach Moreno: [00:00:40] Welcome to Between Two Mics, the podcast that brings you remote recording resources from SquadCast Dot FM. [00:00:46][6.5]

Rock Felder: [00:00:48] I’m Rock Felder, co-founder and CFO of SquadCast. [00:00:51][2.8]

Zach Moreno: [00:00:52] And I’m Zach Moreno, co-founder and CEO. [00:00:54][2.2]

Rock Felder: [00:00:56] On Between Two Mics, we bring you interviews with podcasters, experts in the field of remote recording, we discuss current events in podcasting and so much more. [00:01:04][8.5]

Zach Moreno: [00:01:05] Twice a month, you’ll hear a founders episode. That’s just the two of us chatting about all things remote recording, updates to SquadCast, what we’re up to, and what we’re listening to. [00:01:16][10.9]

Rock Felder: [00:01:17] The other two weeks of the month, we’ll bring you interview episodes. Zach and I will sit down with experts in the podcast space to discuss their companies, their podcasts, their thoughts on podcasting, creating content and more. [00:01:29][12.2]

Zach Moreno: [00:01:30] The most exciting part? We’re recording all of this on SquadCast, the best place to record remote audio and video interviews in studio quality. [00:01:39][9.1]

Rock Felder: [00:01:40] So let’s get Between Two Mics. [00:01:43][2.7]

Rock Felder: [00:01:45] Let’s do it. [00:01:45][0.5]

Zach Moreno: [00:01:46] Welcome to a founder’s episode. A few things before we jump into today’s conversation, which actually features a chat with two of the SquadCast team members, Alex and Arielle. [00:01:56][10.0]

Rock Felder: [00:01:58] First, if you haven’t yet, make sure to tune into last week’s episode of Between Two Mics, a conversation with Alan Seales of the Broadway podcast network. Alan was an absolute ball to talk to, and we think you’ll really enjoy it. [00:02:10][12.0]

Zach Moreno: [00:02:10] And next, fun news this week. We are proud to be featured on Castbox’s Staff Features list. Check us out on Castbox and thank you to our friends over there for listening and loving Between Two Mics. [00:02:22][12.0]

Rock Felder: [00:02:24] Then SquadCast. FM slash share. You heard a pre-roll from a SquadCaster. You can submit a little ad for your show too. Just go to SquadCast. FM slash share. More info is available in the show notes. [00:02:37][13.2]

Zach Moreno: [00:02:39] Next, and this was just yesterday, we had our SquadPod town hall for this fall. We chatted about all things SquadCast with our community. Do you want to join our community? We would love that. We’ll have an application link for you in the show notes. [00:02:53][14.3]

Rock Felder: [00:02:54] And finally, we have some big end of the year and beginning of next year announcements coming up. That’s why we have Alex on the show. So let’s get ready to break out the champagne and let’s get into the show. [00:03:05][10.9]

Zach Moreno: [00:03:10] All right, Alex and Arielle, you’ve both joined us on the show before. Thank you. But let’s have you reintroduce yourselves for the listeners very quickly. [00:03:17][7.1]

Alex: [00:03:18] Yes, so I’m Alex SquadCast’s lead designer. Been with the company since almost day one. Was it that bad? [00:03:34][16.2]

Arielle: [00:03:35] No, it was great. It was great, but I thought you were cutting it right then I thought you were like, I am Alex. [00:03:38][3.3]

Alex: [00:03:39] I thought about it and then I was trying to make it go on a little bit longer. [00:03:41][2.6]

Arielle: [00:03:43] OK, so for folks who don’t know, Alex is very nervous. Let’s just say that. [00:03:46][3.4]

Rock Felder: [00:03:46] Lean into it. [00:03:46][0.0]

Arielle: [00:03:47] He’s a great talker. He’s going to be great. [00:03:49][1.6]

Rock Felder: [00:03:50] We won’t be here without him. [00:03:50][0.3]

Arielle: [00:03:50] Brings a lot to our team, and we’re going to we’re trying to make this as as lovely as an experience as possible because he’s got a lot to share with us today. OK, Alex, continue. [00:03:59][8.5]

Alex: [00:04:00] Oh, that was it. No, I’m Alex. [00:04:05][4.3]

Zach Moreno: [00:04:05] And you have some construction going on outside of your, yes, your recording environment. [00:04:09][3.6]

Alex: [00:04:09] Yes, there is some new construction going on, but we’re here to power through so. [00:04:13][4.0]

Arielle: [00:04:15] And me, my name’s Arielle. I am the community manager at SquadCast, and I am excited to be back on Between Two Mics, one of my favorite podcasts to guest on. And we’re talking about something that I am very excited to tell the community and the large the SquadCast community and the larger podcast community about. So shall we, Zach and Rock and Alex? [00:04:35][20.3]

Rock Felder: [00:04:36] Let’s do it. I mean, Alex, you were the one that came up with this idea. I mean, you and Arielle are been instrumental in making this come to life, but I do believe this idea came from you. Where where did this come from? What were you doing when the idea came to you? [00:04:50][14.0]

Alex: [00:04:50] It was actually a shower thought. I don’t know why it came to me in the shower, but. [00:04:55][4.2]

Rock Felder: [00:04:55] This company’s been built on shower thoughts. By the way, [00:04:57][2.0]

Alex: [00:04:58] There’s been quite a few. [00:04:58][0.4]

Rock Felder: [00:04:59] Generally, hot water seems to help us get good ideas, is what I’m saying. Continue. I’m sorry, Alex. [00:05:03][4.9]

Alex: [00:05:04] No worries. So yeah, I just was trying to think of ways that we could share other benefits of SquadCast beyond just our our awesome recording platform. We have a huge community. We have some great partners that we work with, and we offer a lot of tips and tricks on how to do hold remote remote podcasts. So I thought, you know, scavenger hunt kind of push everybody through each bit that we have to offer, maybe even share some new things that might be coming down the road with v5 in there if you participate, but just want to make it fun and also give back to our users and other podcasters by giving away some, some cool stuff. [00:05:45][40.9]

Arielle: [00:05:46] We kind of buried the lede. We were talking about it for a little bit before saying what it actually is. We are holding a scavenger hunt for the month of December, I believe, is the time period that it’s running. From December 1st, we kick it off December 31st. We shut it down and there will be different tasks that participants can complete in order to receive points. And those points will eventually translate to a grand prize winner. First prize second prize. Third prize. So there are a lot of cool things that we’re giving away, and that is why Alex and I are here to talk about that. [00:06:17][30.6]

Zach Moreno: [00:06:17] Yeah, we’ve seen some really interesting approaches to a scavenger hunts. I think when you first brought this to my attention, I was thinking of a really big kind of like the Cotopaxi company does, like this annual scavenger hunt thing. And in the Bay Area, I think and I don’t know, that’s like in the physical world, this is throughout the internet, right? I think that’s worth saying. We’re not like we’re not actually expecting people to like travel, especially during like, you know, a global pandemic and things like that. So for the people listening, thank you. But what is this experience going to be like? They’re going to get like a list of some stuff, and they’re encouraged to go through this list from where to where and why is it going to be fun for them? [00:06:57][39.9]

Alex: [00:06:57] Yes. So once they sign up, we’ll be taken to a page and gives them just a bunch of tasks to do. So viewing all of our social channels, it might be. Follow us on Twitter, retweet something or check us out on Instagram. [00:07:12][14.6]

Arielle: [00:07:13] Take a SquadShot. [00:07:14][0.3]

Alex: [00:07:15] Yeah, there we go. We even have some, some crazier ones. Take a SquadShot with 10 people and then also going through our YouTube and then along with some of our other partners that we have going on with this, this contest kind of sharing what they have to offer as well. [00:07:30][15.2]

Zach Moreno: [00:07:31] It’s a contest, so we’re trying to see who can get through the hunt, right? [00:07:35][4.4]

Alex: [00:07:36] Yeah, you don’t necessarily have to get through the hunt for each task, depending on the task. It’s point based. So you might earn twenty five points for following us on Twitter, or you might earn 100 points for referring someone into the contest. And then at the end of the event, we’ll have randomly selected based on how many points you have they’re treated as entries. So the more points, the more opportunities you have to win. [00:08:03][27.2]

Arielle: [00:08:04] And we have some really incredible prizes from amazing community partners and we’ll talk about that in a second. But I think the reason somebody might want to participate in this… For us, our hope is that, you know, you become familiar with the larger SquadCast internet ecosystem. So of course, we’ve got our in-app recording platform. You know, that’s what we’re doing right now. The four of us are on SquadCast, we’re talking to each other, we’re looking at each other. There are a few things that we can do on here, we could take a SquadShot, we could post that on social. But we also have we have an Instagram, we have a Facebook, we have a Slack channel, we have two Facebook groups. We’ve got other places where you can interact with us and we want everybody to become familiar with that. Whether you’re a SquadCaster now or you’re considering becoming a SquadCaster. We want to make everybody aware that SquadCast is not just this in-app experience. We’re a community beyond that. And I think that’s really the driving force behind this, this scavenger hunt, this end of year scavenger hunt to reward folks for getting to know our product. [00:09:05][61.1]

Rock Felder: [00:09:06] Before we dove into all the partners and amazing prizes that are going to be a part of this scavenger hunt, I’m curious if y’all have ever been familiar with like a scavenger hunt like this before. Of course, I’m familiar with the the in person ones that you mentioned, Zach. I think the last time that I remember being a part of one is like one of those events, like podcast movement or Pod Fest, but I’ve never really seen a virtual one or none nor participated in one. What examples have you ever seen that like this? [00:09:33][26.6]

Alex: [00:09:33] So I’ve participated in in a few. One most recently was it was a Meter and it’s a Internet of Things thermometer for barbecuing. But they teamed up with like Trager and a couple of other other companies and kind of sent you throughout the realm of barbecuing and and following them through all their social channels and showing you things throughout their app and such. [00:10:02][28.9]

Arielle: [00:10:03] And we’re using a platform called Vyper. Alex, how did you find Vyper? [00:10:07][3.8]

Alex: [00:10:07] It was actually recommended to us by Harry Duran a couple of years ago. We tested out, but I think we are still in our real early days and didn’t have much of a following. They actually are now on Vyper 2.0, which seems to have recently rolled out. So it seems seems a bit more robust and easy to set up, so it should be pretty fun. [00:10:28][20.9]

Arielle: [00:10:29] Yeah. So Vyper is where we’re hosting all the tasks, it’s where we’re keeping track of all the points. It’s really going to be the brains behind the entire scavenger hunt, so shout out to Vyper in advance. We already like working with the interface and yeah, just really cool to bring this together. And I just remember when Alex he messaged me in a huff, he was like, I have an idea. Can we set up a meeting to talk about it? And I was like, Yeah, absolutely. [00:10:53][23.7]

Rock Felder: [00:10:55] You could tell he was inspired, eh? [00:10:55][0.7]

Arielle: [00:10:56] Oh yeah. Shower thoughts are incredible, and you must honor your friends when they have shower thoughts. [00:11:00][3.7]

Alex: [00:11:02] Had to get it out there right before I forgot. [00:11:04][1.5]

Rock Felder: [00:11:05] How long until you were dry before you started sharing this idea, Alex, were you still, you know, were you still in the towel? Is that weird to ask? [00:11:12][6.7]

Alex: [00:11:12] Yeah, honestly, I was. No, not weird at all. Honestly, as far as I get out of the shower, I literally just sit down. I have a nice chair next. [00:11:22][9.9]

Rock Felder: [00:11:23] Shower chair, ok! [00:11:23][0.4]

Alex: [00:11:23] Sit down with a towel. I used to have a shower or a chair in the shower. That’s really relaxing, but. [00:11:29][6.0]

Arielle: [00:11:30] Remember when you were nervous to start now you’re talking about showering? [00:11:33][3.4]

Alex: [00:11:35] Truth. [00:11:35][0.0]

Rock Felder: [00:11:36] Sitting in your shower. [00:11:36][0.2]

Alex: [00:11:38] But yeah, yeah, I kind of just wanted to get it get it started right away, especially being the end of the year, coming up knew we would have to move fast. So I’m glad it took on and we’re getting it going. [00:11:49][10.9]

Arielle: [00:11:49] So Zach and Rock, what are your thoughts on how the scavenger hunt fits into our overall end of year plan? [00:11:56][7.0]

Zach Moreno: [00:11:58] I’m really inspired and, you know, proud of the work that you’ve put into it in a in a short amount of time to make this work. It’s going to be a lot of fun like the prizes and partners are amazing, and I know I’ve seen how tough some of that is to pull together. So I love that part of it, and I think it’s all going to come together in some similar to kind of like anybody who’s like, planned a wedding before. There’s like all this stuff that you got to do in advance and all this stuff so that people don’t have to think about it and they can just have a good time, right? And I feel like that’s what’s going on here with the scavenger hunt. The team has put in amazing work here and it’s going to be a lot of fun to go through and go through the tasks and check those boxes and all the while getting to know us a little bit better. And that’s just the start of these relationships because the community is not a static thing. There’s people helping each other. There’s questions and ideas and, you know, guest swaps and all this kind of the Squad P’audits that we do is, you know, I think part of part of this that we want to get more people exposed to. So we could just like send out an email, right and be like, here’s all the links to all the things that we’re doing. Glad you know now, or right, we can do this and we can have points and have it be a contest and have prizes. And yeah, just strikes me as like a lot of fun. So I’m excited to go through it as a participant in this contest, I don’t think I can count my points, but it’s going to be a lot of fun. [00:13:30][92.3]

Arielle: [00:13:31] Rock, anything to add? [00:13:32][0.9]

Rock Felder: [00:13:33] Yeah, a few thoughts for me, so I think when it comes to seeing the idea form and start to materialize into something real and exciting is impressed. I’m really impressed with the work that you all have done. A lot of times the ideas have come from from Zach and or me, which, you know, SquadCast needs to be the best version and really become this special company and service and product that we all think it can. It needs to transcend beyond just two individuals. So seeing you all kind of take it and take it and run with it. But the other thing, the other thought that comes to mind is gratitude and gratefulness, because we really don’t ask much from our peer companies or partners. And I’m not trying to say that it’s like some badge of honor. It’s more so like we just we just don’t do it enough. And so to see us kind of asks for that. And of course, these companies have some type of incentive to participate, but to ask them if they do want to participate and to see the reaction and to see the package that we put together, I’m just really, really grateful for it, grateful that we’ve established these relationships and put ourselves in a position where it’s not a big ask. So I’m just really glad that y’all did that and really excited for it to hit the community and just want to thank you and thank everyone that’s participated in this. [00:14:48][74.9]

Arielle: [00:14:48] Yeah. So speaking of the community, as we said up at the intro, they have known about this contest for twenty four hours, but they don’t have a head start because it doesn’t technically kick off until December 1st. And you know what else is happening on December 1st is that we are having an event, a live event, a kickoff party on crowd cast will have a link to it in the show notes of this episode. And if you attend that, I think we’re going to work it out so that you get extra points to really start you off on the right foot. And that kick off party will not just be like, What is this scavenger hunt? And come meet some other SquadCasters. It’ll also be meet the people who are supplying the incredible prizes. So that’s my transition to what are the prizes? [00:15:29][40.4]

Rock Felder: [00:15:30] Tell us, Alex. [00:15:31][0.4]

Alex: [00:15:32] Yeah. So we got some stuff provided with podcast movement. [00:15:35][2.8]

Arielle: [00:15:35] Shout out to Jared at podcast movement. Resonate Recordings is going to be sharing some T-shirts. [00:15:39][4.1]

Alex: [00:15:41] Captivate is going to be providing some hosting.[00:15:43][2.7]

Arielle: [00:15:45] Legend. The Association for Independents and Radio, otherwise known as Air Air Media dot org. They’re going to give away a one one year free membership to their incredible organization. [00:15:54][8.3]

Alex: [00:15:55] And we even have some equipment coming from Samon and Focusrite. [00:15:58][3.6]

Arielle: [00:15:59] We are also excited to be partnering with Lauren Passell, who has a newsletter called Podcast The Newsletter. She’s going to be featuring the winning few podcasts I believe in her newsletter. [00:16:09][10.2]

Alex: [00:16:11] The winners will be featured on Goodpods. [00:16:12][1.9]

Arielle: [00:16:14] Bryan Barletta, who runs a podcast newsletter and podcast called Sounds Profitable, is offering a consult, a consultation for you and your podcast. Then we’re also working with Dan at Podspike, who is going to be offering free podcast marketing services. That one is huge. They’re all huge, and we’re still working on a few more and we will update folks as they come in. But of course you got to know what we’re giving away. Alex, what is SquadCast giving away? [00:16:42][27.6]

Alex: [00:16:42] We’re giving our away for a grand prize, our largest video plan, along with a couple of other accounts as well. [00:16:49][7.2]

Arielle: [00:16:51] Yeah. [00:16:51][0.0]

Rock Felder: [00:16:51] Massive. [00:16:51][0.0]

Arielle: [00:16:52] I know I really want the prizes. [00:16:54][1.4]

Zach Moreno: [00:16:56] Lots of cool stuff in here. Great work putting this together, and the winner is getting a lot, I mean, yeah, you’re getting featured in a few places like you’re leveling up your podcasts and like a couple different ways. Bryan Barletta with monetizing your podcast, marketing services with Podspike, AIR is like its own huge community with a bunch of resources and guides, and they have their own bonus that comes with like memberships. So, yeah, very, very valuable package that we put together. That’s awesome and some hardware too. I mean, Samson and Focusrite, are two of the best hardware companies that serve podcasters, and I’m on a focusrite Scarlett right now. And yeah, Samson’s in our most popular microphone list. So really awesome stuff and grateful for all the people who have contributed prizes to this list. Thank you. [00:17:41][45.0]

Arielle: [00:17:41] The prizes are incredible. We’re very excited to get people signed up and we really hope that folks participate from all over. Whether you’re a SquadCaster or not, you don’t have to be a SquadCaster to participate. You might get some advantages if you already have an account, but you can always sign up for a seven day free trial. And then Zack and Rock don’t like when I say this, but you can let me know if you want to extend that free trial. [00:18:03][21.5]

Rock Felder: [00:18:05] Ah, Arielle, if you are here in person. [00:18:06][1.9]

Zach Moreno: [00:18:10] Just ask. It’s it’s remarkable how many people don’t ask. [00:18:12][2.2]

Rock Felder: [00:18:14] Don’t give away all the secrets. [00:18:15][0.6]

Arielle: [00:18:17] OK, so Alex, where can people go to sign up if this sounds interesting to them? What’s the next move? [00:18:23][5.8]

Alex: [00:18:24] You can visit squad cast dot fm Backslash Contest, and that will take you to the sign up page with all the info. [00:18:32][7.6]

Arielle: [00:18:32] And that is available starting now. Even though the contest begins officially on December 1st, you’ll get signed up early. You’ll get all the emails letting you know that it is time to go when it is time to go. [00:18:42][9.7]

Rock Felder: [00:18:45] Let’s take a short breather. We’ll be right back. [00:18:48][2.3]

Arielle: [00:18:51] Hello, SquadCaster, Arielle, your community manager here with a quick message. At the beginning of this episode, you heard a pre-roll ad from a SquadCast customer. They told you a bit about their podcast and then gave us a nice introduction into this week’s episode of Between Two Mics. If you record your podcast on SquadCast, you can submit one of these pre-roll ads too. We want to show off your podcast. For details on submitting an ad for your show, head to SquadCast Dot FM slash share. That’s our new content submission page. In addition to voice clips, you can submit SquadShots, feature videos and more. Again, head to SquadCast Dot FM slash share. Super easy URL to remember. It’s SquadCast Dot FM slash what? Share. Squad cast dot FM slash share to submit your voice clip so that we can feature you on this podcast. OK, let’s get back to the show. [00:19:45][53.8]

Arielle: [00:19:47] OK, Alex, you’re here for another reason and you’re here because in the next few months we are releasing the next iteration of SquadCast and that is squad cast V5. Zach, as our CEO, also our CTO, very up on the tech of what’s going on in SquadCast. So he’ll talk a little bit about V5 in the next few months about what that’s going to mean. But Alex, you are the guy behind the design. So what is V5 looking like? [00:20:15][27.4]

Alex: [00:20:16] It’s totally different. It’s a nice refresh. So just to kind of take a step back. We’re coming up on year five. So we’ve had a lot of iterations and new features roll in and we kind of just been Frankenstein ing them together as we go listening from our customers feedbacks and their needs as we hear it. We like to kind of work fast, so we would just plug these new features in without kind of thinking of the overall product. And we felt this was the time to kind of take a step back, redesign everything, get a full fledged design system going so we could continue to create faster but more polished features. And that’s kind of where step five started and we added a bunch more features. Zach, I don’t know if you want to talk about those. [00:21:06][50.6]

Zach Moreno: [00:21:08] Sure! I mean, I do think it really starts with the design, though. I mean, it’s a it’s a complete, complete redesign to your point and also rebranding, right? So design of the app is separate from our our brand. So I’ll let you come back to that in a few minutes here, what that shapes up to be like. Features wise, of course, there’s, you know, the new design language, but there’s also I think the biggest three things would be, you know, adding organizations that have, can have multiple shows and teammates and team members that can collaborate across different roles within those shows to have kind of shared access for pre-production and post-production. So we call that teams and shows. And you could imagine Google Records a bunch of shows on SquadCast and they can have that all under one collaborative account. Our mission is to amplify collaboration, so this feels like a really big step forward in service of that mission. New forms of collaborations for teams working across multiple shows and then the production or the cloud studio as as we call it, right, we’re bringing in all those people into the recording experience and in what we’re calling backstage. So, yeah, V5 is just a shorthand for what we’re calling backstage and backstage is how people can collaborate not just like they do today on SquadCast, on mic and on camera and being recorded, but off camera kind of more passive. And that kind of shapes up to be on either the production side of the house or the guest side of the house. You can invite people to be participate in the recording session in the backstage as a as a producer or as like a guest of the guests, let’s say. And sometimes, you know, high profile guests come with like PR people or sometimes even like their team or attorneys or anything like that, they’ll be able to join in the conversation. And, you know, new forms of collaboration are possible with when you add all these things together of teams and shows and backstage that I think are going to really, really make V5 pretty magical and beautiful at the same time, thanks to all the work of the design team. Rock, with all these changes coming in v 5, what are you looking forward to the most? [00:23:29][141.2]

Rock Felder: [00:23:30] Yeah, I mean, it’s always exciting to have the next version in the next iteration. Of course, we we think it’s always getting better and progressing, but I think taking a step back and starting to think more about like what’s gone into this update is really what’s exciting to me. Because like Alex said, a lot of the a lot of the way that we built SquadCast to date is by incorporating customer feedback, that’s why we’re big on customer support, community, just any way that we can talk to our customers in the community at large and just learn of where is podcasting going and what tools are they going to need to get them there? And that’s really what this is. But what I love is like, it’s bigger than just SquadCast, the SquadCast, team members like. There’s so much more data and information that’s really informing these moves that we’re making. And so it’s really like a step up for us as a company for anyone interested in like the behind the scenes behind the curtain of developing software. It’s like, you know, we were doing our best and always talking to people. And, you know, luckily, we have an amazing community that’s really been helpful kind of being our compass. But like now we have that plus data plus professionals really guiding these efforts. So, Alex, what’s that experience been like having to design the app but having like a team to help you do that? And really, the team is the one who proposed this project of like here, here’s this big design project. Maybe you can explain why, what the benefits are and how that’s going to impact our customers. And you know, change can can be scary, some folks, too. So I think it’d be it’d be smart of us to talk about that like, you know why we think this change will only enhance the experience on SquadCast and why it’s just going to be better because we understand how, you know, nobody really likes change. But why do we think it’s going to be better? [00:25:13][103.5]

Alex: [00:25:14] Yeah, it is only getting better. Working with the team on this project was nice. It’s not all put on on one’s shoulders, but they were able to help break down each section of the app and kind of find what the user’s needs are going to be. How can we fit everything there without crowding them? How we can make sure that our users are confident and creating their content on our platform? So with having the team, it was it was nice to be able to create this design system following some design principles that we we started from from the beginning and always check ourselves as we’re going through. Does this meet our accessibility needs? Does this is this too too crowded for our users? Do they understand it? So working through that whole process and getting to where we are now with it really kind of sets us up for the future and going forward with implementing new, new features as well. [00:26:13][59.0]

Zach Moreno: [00:26:14] And Arielle, like, what’s it like from your perspective? We haven’t talked about this very much. So I’m curious, what do you what do you think about V5 and all these changes? [00:26:23][8.2]

Arielle: [00:26:24] Yeah, I’ve been excited about V5 for a while. I spoke about this at podcast movement. I was on a panel with podcast taxonomy folks about why we need to taxonomize roles and credits in the podcast space. And I think SquadCast to v five fits into that really nicely because we are allowing folks backstage to identify themselves as host or guest or whatever other role they feel like they need to fit in that particular recording. So from that perspective, I’m excited, but also from the community perspective, I’m pumped because there are going to be a lot of improvements to SquadCast that benefit the community. So for example, I’ve been talking about SquadShots forever, which is when we take a screenshot of our current SquadCast recording, but we’re going to automate that. We’re going to make that a button that you press and then you get a little picture and then you can easily share it out to all of your socials. So we love that. We’re super excited for that. That’s a really great community feature. We’re also doing this really cool thing that we’re starting up sometime after the new year, where every week we’re going to have an onboarding session. And anybody who’s new to SquadCast or feels like they want a refresher of some sort can join us in a SquadCast session. And one of the SquadCast staff members is going to walk you through best practices with SquadCast, and we’re pumped about that. That’s just going to be a thing that happens every Friday, no matter what. And, you know, except for holidays and yeah, so lots of really great improvements and new features coming for SquadCast v five. Oh, so I had one question for you, Alex or Zach or Rock: what do you say to the folks who who say, aww SquadCast is changing its interface? It’s changing its logo, it’s changing its branding. I liked the old SquadCast! [00:28:03][99.4]

Zach Moreno: [00:28:04] I love the old SquadCast, and I was, you know, Alex knows I’m the biggest fan of every design iteration that we’ve had, and it’s amazing how quickly it looks old compared to the next thing that Alex will share with me. The work from the design team is it’s crazy, and I think it’s also kind of, you know, it’s like I said, it’s core to our mission to empower and amplify collaboration. And I think we really have that nailed when it comes to like recording audio and video and studio quality from around the world, right? Like that’s the biggest impact that we have. But there’s we’ve learned a lot about people’s workflow and the teams that contribute to these podcasts like we can often think of as like, listeners like, oh, wow, the host is super talented, this guest was very insightful. But there might be like three or four or five or 10 other people working on that show that made it really magical. So to your point Arielle, about the taxonomy piece of this and the different roles and bringing those people into the workflow is something that I think just it makes SquadCast much more valuable to the creators that we’re serving. A lot of them already have teams. So just rather than sharing one account right, you can invite all these people and have multiple shows. And if you want to add a second show or a fifth show or whatever you know and collaborate with a producer that you just are working on a project basis or your co-hosts like, you can invite all of these different people in. And these are forms of collaboration that are underrepresented in our current experience. So I think that constraint drives a lot of the design changes that we’ve made. What does it look like for a producer accessing your recordings after you recorded your session a couple of days ago? What’s that experience look like? That’s not really, we don’t have a meaningful answer in our current design system, so this is what necessitates us to start to ask new questions and innovate the experience to facilitate these workflows for these different roles. And when you add all those like permutations up together, it requires a step back and a blank sheet of paper. And you know, I’m really, really grateful and looking forward to the work that the design team put together, and the engineering team is having a lot of fun building it. So we’re very excited to be bringing this out in the beginning of 2022. I think is our timeframe here. Yeah, it’s going to be a great year. There’s a lot more than what we’re just covering here. These are the things that we are most excited about. But something even like SquadShots right, is an innovation. It’s a new form of content that we’re helping people create and collaborate on right with with images. So we have audio and video today. Images are the next one up with SquadShots. You know, that’s not some like growth hack. That’s like a new form of content production that we’re helping people work on. So that. [00:30:58][174.0]

Arielle: [00:31:00] And they’re cute! SquadShots are so cute. [00:31:00][0.6]

Zach Moreno: [00:31:02] It’s a lot of fun. And I think that as creators, it can just be another thing that you have to remember to do right as part of promoting your episodes. So to be in service of that? Yeah, we’re really excited about. [00:31:13][11.3]

Rock Felder: [00:31:14] Voila! [00:31:14][0.0]

Zach Moreno: [00:31:15] All right, so to recap, we just threw a lot at you, a lot of new information, a lot of exciting things to wrap up the end of 2021. It’s been a marquee year for us. We’ll be doing a recap. We’ll be sending some fun emails to like, help recap your journey with us through this year. So look out for that. So look at what we’ve talked about today. We talked about our scavenger hunt. You can get signed up for that by going to SquadCast dot FM slash contest. [00:31:37][22.0]

Rock Felder: [00:31:38] And we’re also having to kick off party where you can score some early points. So please show up. It’s December 1st at 5:00 p.m. Pacific, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. That’s December 1st, 5:00 p.m. Pacific, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Details in the show notes. We hope to see you there. [00:31:52][14.1]

Zach Moreno: [00:31:53] Stay in the loop with all things V5 and V6 and V10. By subscribing to our newsletter, you can do that at Squad Cast dot FM slash newsletter. [00:32:03][10.0]

Rock Felder: [00:32:04] Did you just say 10? You animal! All right. And finally, send us all your pre-roll ads. We want to show you off. So do that. Where’s that at, Arielle? [00:32:11][7.3]

Arielle: [00:32:12] Thank you so much for tapping me in. SquadCast dot FM slash share. [00:32:15][3.1]

Rock Felder: [00:32:16] That’s right. All right, we’re out. That’s a podcast, y’all. [00:32:18][2.2]

Rock Felder: [00:32:24] Thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of Between Two Mics. [00:32:27][2.7]

Zach Moreno: [00:32:27] We hope you enjoyed our conversation. If you learn something or are we intrigued you a bit, let us know on social media. [00:32:33][5.9]

Rock Felder: [00:32:34] You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn by searching for SquadCast fm. [00:32:40][5.6]

Zach Moreno: [00:32:41] And if you want to show the podcast Some Love, you can leave us a rating or review wherever it is you’re listening right now. [00:32:47][5.5]

Rock Felder: [00:32:47] This show is put together by us, Zach and Rock. It’s mixed and produced by Vince Moreno with help from Arielle Nissenblatt. Our logo is designed by Alex Whedbee. [00:32:57][9.3]

Zach Moreno: [00:32:57] Since we’re a podcast about podcasts, we want to shout out the brands and products that we trust. We’re recording using SquadCast dot FM, and here’s our current stack. For recording, we’re using ATR 2100 mics, Apple AirPods Max headphones, and Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 audio interfaces. [00:33:17][19.6]

Rock Felder: [00:33:18] We edit the show on Adobe Audition in our hosting site is simple cast. [00:33:22][3.3]

Zach Moreno: [00:33:23] That’s it for us this week. We’re back next week with more from between these mics. [00:33:23][0.0]