Today is another solo episode. Just me and a few thoughts. It was about a year ago that I released the first episode of this podcast. When I started the podcast, I had the goal of helping veterans, their family members, and the military community as a whole share their stories, find resources to services that can help them, and just provide a sense of hope to those people so that they know they’re not alone. 

I remember when I first started recording, I was really unsure of myself. I had been a guest on podcasts before, but I never had to do anything more than show up and answer a few questions. I quickly realized that hosting a podcast was an entirely different beast.

I was so unsure of myself that I didn’t tell anyone that I was doing a podcast except for my wife until probably around the 6th or 7th episode. Actually, my wife was my first guest on the show, so I could share her story and get used to interviewing someone. I figured it would be easier to do an interview with someone I spoke to every day. The next 9 interviews were all friends that I had comfortable conversations with in the past too, so it made it a little easier to have that conversation. It wasn’t until episode 21 where I interviewed someone who I’d never met before.

Before I started I had this cheap microphone, which was better than the built in microphone on my computer, but it still sounded like crap. So I spent a little money on a better microphone to make the episodes sound a little better. I didn’t really know much about microphones – I still don’t really. I did a little research, and found out what some other friends who have podcasts use, and found out that there is a lot to learn about microphones. It got really overwhelming actually. Eventually I just pulled the trigger on something that had decent ratings and wasn’t too expensive. I figured if I analyzed all the options, it would take forever and I’d probably never start recording. 

Then, since most of my interviews are done remotely, I had to figure out what recording software was the best to use. I started off with a service called Zencastr, then moved to Clearcast, then eventually I ended up using Zoom, which I still use now.

So, when I started using Zencastr I was initially drawn to it because they had a free plan. Since I don’t make any money off the podcast, free is a great price to pay. That is until I was recording episode 15 with my friend Cory Miller. I realized after recording that free is a very expensive price to pay sometimes. I ended up getting through the entire half hour or 45 minute recording with him, and found that it recorded all of my side of the interview, but only about 10 minutes of his side. I was extremely embarrassed.

At that point I had two options. One, just write the interview off and never publish an episode with Cory. This would have left him confused about why he spent an hour talking to me and I never released anything. He probably would have been put off a bit too by that. Like, what I wasn’t good enough to be on your show? Did I say something wrong? Actually, I know Cory. He wouldn’t have an attitude about it at all, he’s a great guy. But regardless, that wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. Instead, I decided to reach out to Cory and explain the situation. The technology screwed up, but ultimately it was my fault. I skimped on the recording software that we used, so I apologized to him, and asked if we could re-record the interview using a different software. This time we would use Clearcast. It was a paid service, and I know several other podcasters who use...