Since we started in 2019, our show, Between Two Mics: The Remote Recording Podcast, has primarily been my co-host (and co-founder) Zach Moreno and I interviewing people who define podcasting and push the boundaries of what’s possible in this space — all recorded on SquadCast.

With Zach stepping away from work and the show to become a parent, we needed to develop a way to keep our production on schedule. The show must go on. We’re big advocates for podcasting with consistency — publishing weekly to make sure our audience has the content they need to keep up with us.

With this in mind, we decided to make a mini-series called SquadStories. Credit to SquadCast Community Manager Arielle Nissenblatt for the idea. Instead of interviewing podcasters, on SquadStories, we would chat with the people who make SquadCast…SquadCast — recorded on SquadCast, obviously.

And I wanted to write this blog about our creative and production process, a) to encourage you to check out our series and b) to share a method that we’ve so far found to be successful for content creation. Listeners seem to be loving the behind-the-scenes nature of SquadStories. Maybe it’ll work for you, too!

The team has grown a lot in the last year, and what an excellent opportunity to introduce these new faces and voices to the rest of our audience, and to the larger podcast community.

We kicked the series off with our Marketing Manager, Kim Reyes. Kim may not be the most talkative person, but oh my, does she have a way with words. You wouldn’t know this was her first time behind the mic. Truly a natural, and she made it look effortless. We discussed her career before finding SquadCast. Fun fact: for a while, she wanted to be a journalist and even spent some time reporting on politics in Sacramento! Now that she’s in marketing, she really enjoys the people-first-marketing tactics, AKA asking customers what they want more of and then making decisions based on that feedback.

For two other episodes, I spoke with some of our incredible Software Engineers, Jean Perez and Anthony Pelot. My mind continues to be blown by these two and our entire engineering team’s talent. But what I found through my interviews is that they’re also very different people.

Jean is literally the most organized and structured person I’ve ever met. Anthony is taking it one day at a time and is happy to be alive. Jean has an incredibly structured day from wake up till sleep. Anthony goes on in-line skating tours of San Francisco. I enjoyed learning more about their stories and interests beyond their technical knowledge and skills. They are just as gifted IRL as they are behind a computer.

The series tearjerker was with Vince Moreno Sr., aka Big Vince, aka Zach’s dad. Hearing his thoughts on fatherhood, working under his sons, and becoming a grandad was a great example of what makes their family so special. Moments like that are what podcasting is all about, and I’m grateful to have helped get it on tape for Vince and his family. During our conversation, we also discussed the beginnings of SquadCast. I recalled the first-ever meeting we had, wherein Vince Sr. really had to learn what a podcast was and why the software we were proposing (that would become SquadCast) was necessary. We’ve come a long way since that moment. Vince is instrumental in helping us gather data about our customers — are they happy? What upgrades do they want?

It was such an honor to chat with everyone in this series for their first podcast interview. And this was a learning experience for me, too. Some of the interviews needed to be re-recorded because I skipped the basics and best practices that we’re always preaching at SquadCast — stuff like a soundcheck before the interview, making sure guest’s equipment is working correctly, turning off notifications, and more. It was a good reminder of what our customers on SquadCast usually encounter with their guests and why those pre-interview steps are so critical.

The silver lining was that the re-recorded interviews actually turned out to be worth it and better than the originals. I told the production team it was all part of the plan, but they aren’t buying it.

As much as I absolutely love talking to podcasters, it was refreshing to interview people and have conversations that didn’t focus on podcasting and content creation. I got to have conversations getting to know these fantastic people I work with on a more personal level.

I think that’s the big thing I learned here: I got to experience what the best podcasts do – long-form conversations that build this special connection between our guests, our listeners, and ourselves.

Since announcing Zach’s family leave and time away from the show, we’ve received many compliments about the more human approach to the show. It’s been wonderful to hear, and perhaps this is a sign of what our audience wants.

Leaders will say how people are a company’s biggest asset, or people give a business meaning. SquadStories is our way of sharing that with the world.

If you haven’t checked out SquadStories, I highly recommend it if you want to learn more about what makes SquadCast different and how we’re defining and leading the Cloud Recording Studio category.

We’re also exploring more potential mini-series for Between Two Mics. If you’ve got ideas, we’re all ears!