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How Do You Start A Podcast?
Ryan Westa • 2021-11-02
Dylan Carnahan:Welcome to the Simple Questions Podcast. I'm your host, Dylan Carnahan. That was Join Me by Jazlyn, that is spelled J-A-Z-L-Y-N. Jazlyn is a 24-year-old R&B singer, songwriter, and actress born in Springfield, Missouri, and she has lived in Kansas City for the last six years. Getting her bachelor's in musical theater, Jazlyn has always known music was the missing piece to her heart. Her biggest inspirations are Prince, Aliyah, and Chris Brown. Recently, she performed at Made Mob's First Friday event. You can find her music on all major platforms under Jazlyn, and follow her on social media under Jazlyn Epps, E-P-P-S, Jazlyn Epps, for updates on all upcoming performances and singles. The question for this episode is, how do you start a podcast? A few things that you'll learn in this episode are the early obstacles all podcasters face, the reasons you should and shouldn't start a podcast, and tips on how to get guests on your podcast. Our guest is the host of Neandertalk Podcasts, where they've recorded over 150 podcast episodes and been named the best local podcast of 2021 by Kansas City Magazine. I introduce to you, Ryan Westa. You see what I did there? I took that from you.
Ryan Westa:It's in three, two, one. Yes, nice, I appreciate that, nice. I thought that's what you did, but you gotta keep going. You gotta go in three, two, one. What's up, welcome guys, this is Dylan. You gotta flow with it, or else you just leave it there, leave it hanging.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I did, well, you did perfect it, so.
Ryan Westa:Thank you for noticing, by the way, that's cool.
Dylan Carnahan:I had to do a little bit of research, right?
Ryan Westa:Nice, I never do.
Dylan Carnahan:You never do any research?
Ryan Westa:Almost never, my research is very basic. I just talk to people that I think that I would like to talk to, but then I don't want to do too much research because I like to be surprised about their story or different talents they have, or just, I don't know. I like to be surprised. I like to pull things out of people. I like it to be more organic. And if I feel, I feel like if I start researching people, I might get on a certain topic. I don't know, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do research. I probably, it might benefit me to do research, but just as long as I've been doing this, I just do very basic, like, oh, this is a, oh, I like this rapper, I really like his music, I want him on, I just want to kick it with him. Like, I want this dude to be my friend. Like, that's how I look at it. Like, I just, you know, I don't know. I'm different, I guess.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I mean, there is an aspect of that with, you don't want it like too choreographed. And like you said, I mean, you want it kind of be a mystery. If I knew everything about you, verbatim, and we were, this conversation would be pretty boring for me, right, and for you as well.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I keep things fresh. I'll keep you on your toes. I tell you what, if you listen to every single one of my podcasts, you'll know me inside and out. You know, I've been doing this for, you know, I don't know, three and a half years. And I just have so many in-depth conversations with people that that I get, I pull a lot of emotion and stuff out of people. In turn, I'm also opening up a whole lot and putting myself out there. And it's weird. It's like, you know, I'm not, I'm private, but I'm not like, if you just listen and you know, man, there's people out there that like know me. Scary.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, there definitely is an exchange in talking to people too. It's, there's a transaction going there emotionally. Now, three and a half years ago, three years ago, what does Ryan think of podcasting and how does he get into it?
Ryan Westa:Well, I'll save all the personal stuff on why I got into it. But ultimately, I just wanted to do it. And how did I start it? That is a very interesting question with a lot of different answers. So what kind of answer do you want? Do you want technical? Do you want?
Dylan Carnahan:I want authentic. I want.
Ryan Westa:I know I can go. Why did I start? How did I start? How did I start it? Three years ago, how did I start?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah.
Ryan Westa:All right, man. I had a friend. Okay, I had a how like, do you have a time limit on your podcast? Like, I like is it cool if we just wrap like, let's let's say seven minutes or give me seven minutes. All right. There we go. So I want to start a podcast. I had this friend, he is legitimately crazy, like bipolar, crazy depression, Dunning Kruger syndrome, like just a real he's been in prison. He's been in Mexican prison and shipped back here, like a real wild dude. And he was like a really good friend of mine. And I was going through a hard time in my life. And he was like, man, I want to help you get out of this. And he had, he would have money, like come into money sometimes like he was roller coaster with money, just like, okay, okay, but he's a crazy dude. He gets a lot of money with whatever, however he does it. And he's like, I want to help you build your dream, your podcast dream, you know, my dream was to start a podcast. Okay, I was like, all right. And then so he kind of was like, let's let's do this. And we started Googling YouTube, basically, that's it, YouTube, how to start a podcast. And we just I had this vision in my mind on how much I wanted my studio to look. Joe Rogan is a big influence of mine. I've been listening to his podcast since it first started. And his, his second studio, first and second studios, I really liked the vibe of it. So I kind of wanted to create a vibe like that. And I just YouTube how to start a podcast. And you just go start there. Go there, you know, and then you go, what mics do I want? Then you got to research what your budget fits for what kind of microphones you want and how big and deep you want to go on this podcast. And I wanted to go pretty deep. And so I spent we spent a lot of money to build this nice studio. And it was all YouTube. Here's the funny thing. So once you do that, you buy all the stuff you think you need. That's great. I had it all in my studio and I was like, I don't know how any of this works. I'm not a technical dude. I don't know anything like you got all the gadgets, but I got everything. And like I got an iMac and I didn't even know how to turn it on. So then I had everything going and I was ready to start the podcast. So then I had to start a whole nother like YouTube rabbit hole of how to put all this stuff together. And so I spent months researching everything to get to I got like almost a like a community college degrees worth of like engineering, you know what I mean? Or not engineer, but audio engineering. So that I mean, there's no easy answer. But there are ways to start this podcast podcast if you want cheaper and easier.
Dylan Carnahan:But I wanted to I wanted to do it right, you know, you took a dive in the deep end and then and then you had to backtrack by going to the shallow end on YouTube and started at iMac.
Ryan Westa:Yep. Well, I figured that out. I did find the button eventually. It's like, there's got to be a button on here somewhere. I was like, oh, wait, there it is. And yeah, it was. Yeah, it was. It's been a journey. I mean, that is just like the Cliff Notes quick, quick hit version of it. But that story I should really go I haven't done like a full deep dive into that whole old story, because it really is a nutty story.
Dylan Carnahan:There's more to that for sure.
Ryan Westa:There's more than in that guy. That guy has been on the podcast, he was on episode one. And then episode I think like 34 or something like that. It's Como Barrio fresh out of jail. He had gotten arrested in Mexico by the federales. And then they held him in Mexican prison for a couple months, holding them there till they could transport him up to the states to prison. And then he got off because of some, I don't know, some technicality or something. Yeah, some kind of weird technicality. And for honestly what they were busting him with, it was garbage. And then he got out and then he's like, Hey, man, I just got out.
Dylan Carnahan:Let's do a podcast.
Ryan Westa:34 or something like that, yeah, it's just Como Barrio fresh out of jail. And you'll see how crazy he, I mean, you just, you'll see, he's a character. You know what I mean? He's a character.
Dylan Carnahan:How have things evolved from kind of that episode one, episode 34 to your, what, 160 around there?
Ryan Westa:Close to, something like that, like 158 or something like that. How has it evolved? Yeah, everything technically and all that stuff's been pretty much the same. But I've grown as, first you start finding your voice. It takes a while to, as funny as that sounds, to like find your voice, how to interact with people, how to use the mic, how to sound. I don't know, just be comfortable in front of a mic. I think that's what that means.
Dylan Carnahan:In terms of a technical aspect, or is this like personality?
Ryan Westa:Not personality, just getting comfortable talking on a microphone. Like, go take anybody off the street and say, hey, start a podcast and start talking in this microphone. It's gonna be weird. I mean, listen, I mean, so you have to, yeah, there is just, it's like doing anything with practice, you get become better at it and talking is no different. And when you're talking to other people, I don't know, there's just, I don't know how else to put it. You guys got to find your voice. You got to get comfortable with being on a mic. A lot of people don't like their voice, you know? And you got to get comfortable with that too.
Dylan Carnahan:You know, you bring up the point, you can't take some average show off the street, you know, because we're, you and I, we're crazy sophisticated, but you can't just take-
Ryan Westa:You might be, I'm not. No, no, no. It's called Neandertalk Podcast. I'm a Neanderthal. I'm just a dumb caveman, far from sophisticated.
Dylan Carnahan:When you put, you give someone a microphone, yeah, it is a little more complicated. I will say a trick that I used is I'm pretty big into video games.
Ryan Westa:Oh, nice, me too.
Dylan Carnahan:When I play video games, I use the podcast mic.
Ryan Westa:Okay.
Dylan Carnahan:That gets me comfortable, you know, like, hey, search and destroy Call of Duty, you know, third round, we're Russian B, and hey, you know, it kind of gets that nuance of talking in a microphone out of the way pretty quick. If you do play.
Ryan Westa:That's a good point. That's a good point. Even then, take some of those gamers I play, play with a lot of gamers. You want to hear some of those Xbox kids on here trying to get them in front of a mic for a while when they have to be, you know, talk to somebody.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, that's true. That's true.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, there's definitely, there's a muscle you got to learn. If you want to podcast, you have to want to podcast. And I think that kind of personality already has something in them that will allow them to get to that voice. Like if you want a podcast, you know you're gonna have to get comfortable with your voice. So I think, you know, I don't know where I'm going.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I mean, if you have the desire to make a podcast, you inherently have some quality. You'd hope that would help you with your podcast.
Ryan Westa:Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Now, you, it seems like you interview people quite a bit. Like that's, that's the...
Ryan Westa:I hate the word interview, but it's not because I'm not interviewing these people. I'm having them in and we're just kicking it and having long form conversation. Like I think an interview is more like having a certain amount of questions or like just, I mean, for lack of a better word, I guess interview, but I don't like calling that. That's not what my, that's not what my podcast is. I have all kinds of people on that I'm interested in talking to, but I don't like calling it an interview because that sounds like it's me asking all the questions. Like I'm going to ask you everything and then you're going to bounce and you're just going to answer them. That's not what I do. I want my guests to ask me questions. Like we get in the talk, we'll tell stories. You know what I mean? It's just, I'll have comics on and we just get goofy. I'm getting drunk with other podcasters. Like it's just, it's, it's just not an interview, you know what I mean?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's more of that goes back to that, like transaction we talked about kind of earlier. It's a little bit less straightforward than, hey, like set specific, more free.
Ryan Westa:And there's nothing, and I'm not disparaging people that do that type of podcast or style. Interviews are great. I like them. But it's just, I don't, I'd rather, I just not, I can't, I don't know, I'm just not built like that. My mind doesn't think like that. I don't know. I don't know.
Dylan Carnahan:The people you have talked to kind of was that, like I said, like you've mentioned, was that kind of the catalyst? You're like, hey, I just want to kick it. I want to talk to so and so and that's kind of the kernel, I guess you build everything around.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, for the most part, I want to talk to interesting people. I want to talk to smart people, funny people, I don't want to just talk to random people. And I think that's some something that it's hard to get people interested in that sometimes, if they just see. Let me say a Brandon Pat, I got a picture of Brandon Patrick right here is a Kansas stand up comedian, hilarious. But if you see on like, oh, Brandon Patrick, or I have, oh, my gosh, which is just whatever the names I have, they're not famous people, people don't know them. And they just think, oh, who is this person? But I get people that are just are really exceptional human beings. Because I've been learning that, like, there's just a lot of exceptional human beings out there that a lot of people just don't know about because they're just not famous for whatever reason, or they're not marked, they're not good at marketing. Like, I think that's a lot of what comes with with these people that are famous is they're just good at marketing. You look at some of these podcasts that are getting these awards or nominated for awards. It's like, it's all just marketing. It's like, like, I don't know. It's just, yeah, I'd be good. You got to be good at certain different things to become somebody. I don't know. There went off on a couple different branches there. I'm sorry.
Dylan Carnahan:No, you're good. There is an aspect like you bring up marketing like that is it's true. Like some people aren't necessarily familiar with how to market themselves using the internet.
Ryan Westa:Damn, that's me. I don't know how to market at all. It's my biggest issue. I know how to podcast. I'm good at podcasting. That's it. Anything. Pimping myself marketing. I don't know how to do that.
Dylan Carnahan:So how do you find these people? How do you find them? I mean, because you're saying like, hey, I don't know them based upon name recognition. So how are you coming across these people?
Ryan Westa:Usually, I would say a good 80% of them are probably from Instagram.
Dylan Carnahan:Really?
Ryan Westa:I just find really cool people on Instagram. I like what they're doing. Or, you know, some is just music. I listen to a lot of local hip hop. That's my I just I've always liked hip hop, and I've really fallen in love with the Kansas City music scene. And so I reach out to the people I like, the musicians I like, or topics like, I don't know, I had like I was into cryogenic cryotherapy for a while. So I was like, Oh, I want to learn about this. So I found a cryotherapy guy. I've just find things that I'm interested in. I'm interested in so many different things. Artists are really cool people. Like if there's a cool mural, I'll see who did that. Maybe talk to them. Well, I'm gonna draw some blanks. I've had so many, it's hard to pinpoint. Cause I've had over 150 different guests. So it's harder, I don't know, I'm just my brain's wrecked right now. If I could look at my guests, but oh yeah, yeah. Like other podcasters are really fun. I don't know. And I just find, and then I found them on like, so Bumble has, you know, Bumble the dating app.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. There's like a business or friends version. I know that.
Ryan Westa:So the business, the Bumble business, I've gotten some off there.
Dylan Carnahan:How did you, how did you get on to that?
Ryan Westa:On Bumble?
Dylan Carnahan:On Bumble business.
Ryan Westa:Come on now, holler at your boy, single ready to mingle. Come on, ladies out there, Neandertalkpodcast at gmail.com. Neandertalkpod on Instagram, sliding these sweet DMs.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. That was good.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, so that's how, that's how. And I was like, oh, what's this business? Let me go on there.
Dylan Carnahan:Let's, all right, let's, let's kind of go, say, man, I like what Ryan and Dylan are talking about, like talking to cool people. I think that's what my podcast is going to be about. I think I'm going to be talking to, you know, talking to people that I think were interesting. How, step one, you got your premise. Let's not go any further than, say, talking to cool people. How, how are you choosing your name and how are you getting the logo? Like, you just give up at that point?
Ryan Westa:To come up with a name? Did I give up?
Dylan Carnahan:No, no, I'm saying like, you're like, is that a lot of work? Like how much work are we talking?
Ryan Westa:Coming up with a name and a logo?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah.
Ryan Westa:Oh, that's a good story. I came up with the name Meditating once, and I came up with two different names. One I'm really glad I didn't go with. It was very pretentious. It was going to be called the Consciousness, Conscious, Consciousness Plateau, Conscious Plateau, something stupid like that. And I don't know, I was just, I don't know. One day it was like, I'm a dumb caveman that wants to talk. And I was like, Neanderthal. It just came to me. I don't know how to tell you. I was just meditating one day, and it just came to me, Neandertalk, like Neandertal with talk. Boom. And there was a, you know what? That's funny. I was dating a girl at the time, and I believe I met her on Bumble.
Dylan Carnahan:Dude, so you're telling me Bumble has its hands all over the formations podcast?
Ryan Westa:It really does. I could, dating apps, Bumble, yeah, you have no idea. I really do need, this is, I'm glad I'm having this conversation with you. It's just bringing out a lot of stuff that I need to bring up on a podcast of my own. So I sent, I told her the name of it, and I was like, but I need a logo. What do I do? I go, here's kind of my idea. And I had sent her a picture.
Dylan Carnahan:You're telling me this bumble girl is helping with this logo too?
Ryan Westa:Yes.
Dylan Carnahan:All right, just to clarify.
Ryan Westa:And I had sent, you know, we were dating, so we sent each other pictures from time to time. And she had one of me that she really liked of my logo, that face that I'm making. And she sent, she, that was just, I just sent her that one day, and she sent that back to me with like a red filter over it type thing. I was like, oh, that's really cool. And then I was like, I, you know, like again, inspired heavily by Rogan, and I liked his, his logo. I wanted something similar to that, just like the circle type thing, because it goes good with logo placements on computers.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, those like avatar pics.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, it's a perfect avatar pic. So, and I was like, I like that. And then I just did like a shitty phone edit and put text over that, you know, Neandertalk Podcast or something. And I was like, eh. And then I know my sister was going to college at the time and she's good on Photoshop. And so I just hit her up. I was like, hey, can you do something like this? Here's my idea I want. I just told her my idea for the logo. She worked on it a day or two later, sent it back. I was like, oh my gosh, that is perfect. I love it. I absolutely love it. And I still love it. I've had, you know, people on Instagram hit me up all the time. Oh, you know, I can make a new logo. I was like, get the hell out of here. I love my logo.
Dylan Carnahan:Stop it.
Ryan Westa:So that's that's that story.
Dylan Carnahan:That's that's interesting that like the formation of your name. I know personally, I had a very similar experience. I was watching Midnight Gospel, which is an animated podcast on Netflix. And I had I was watching this. It's really like I watched like super cool looking, but it's just a podcast that's been animated. And I was watching that and I went to bed and I woke up and I was like, man, I'm thirsty. And I go to get the water. I'm drinking it. And I just kind of come up with Mike. Well, what if I had a podcast? And what would it be? You know, and then I'm like, well, I'd ask people simple questions. I'm like, well, what would you call that? Simple Questions Podcast. And that was really it. And it's just interesting how you can kind of... And it was really abstract, you know, how that happened. It wasn't, you know, like...
Ryan Westa:It just came to you. Yeah. It's like a gift. I mean, I look at things like that as like a gift from the universe. I think, you know, you can go way back to however long creative people in coming up. And, you know, they used to call that the muse, if you will. But there's just, there is that the universe just gives us little gifts like this. And they're out there all the time. You just got to recognize them and seize them and grab them when you can. That's nice. You caught it. You caught it, man. Nice job.
Dylan Carnahan:Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. I think the logo was a more formulaic route. I'll say, where did a craft brewery? First episode. Shout out to Red Crop Brewing Company. Chris and Misty, if you're listening. And the guy who did their logo. I'm like, hey, who did your logo?
Ryan Westa:Nice.
Dylan Carnahan:And he did my logo. Very complicated stuff there. I will say to, you know, and I do have like some Photoshop ability, wasn't proficient enough, I felt like, to make a logo how I had wanted. I will say that a good place to start for stuff like that, if you're just like completely bewildered by the idea of starting a logo, is Fiverr.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, I would suggest the same thing for sure.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, like Fiverr is ridiculous. You can find people just grinding, making hella good content, whatever it may be, in this particular instance, like a logo. There are some very talented individuals on that platform.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, and you can get them for cheap. And another route, too, would be just use your social media, put a question out there. Hey, does anybody do Photoshop? Does anybody make logos? I'm coming up with a podcast. Here's the name. If you could help me out, hit me up. Don't be afraid to use all your platforms out there, too, for looking for help. I do that, too, for guests, too. I throw it out there all the time. Like, hey, any guest suggestions or does anybody want to be a guest or blah, blah?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, a lot of that stuff, you'd be... And this is just like for anyone, you would be amazed at the response you would get from people if you simply aren't afraid to ask.
Ryan Westa:Oh, yeah, that was my...
Dylan Carnahan:It's crazy.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, that was my... What do you call that? Strategy in the beginning. I mean, it still is. You just have to ask. You know, I started out with... I had the idea, you're talking about guests, how did I get guests? Well, when I first started, I had all these ideas. I want to talk to this kind of person, that kind of person. But in reality, I had like six or seven people I could draw from. I didn't have an Instagram yet. Your network? Yeah, I had nothing. But in my mind, I've got all these great ideas. And then so I just started asking some of my friends that I knew would be interesting to talk to, or I could get some content or just the ball rolling. You got to get the ball rolling somehow. And then I just... You have to be bold. You have to step outside yourself. I was one of my first guests that I got. Check this out. I was on a bumble date with a different girl. And so we went on a date, a coffee date, downtown, and then in crossroads at Messenger Cafe. And then afterwards, we're like, oh, let's go walk and check some graffiti out. Well, we go down... Have you been down the crossroads where all the graffiti's at? We go down and we're like, I smell paint. They must have just painted last night. This will be cool. And we walk down and then we hear some music bumping. There's a hatchback with its doors open. And there's two dudes with like 50 spray cans. And they're just tagging. They're just doing cool, badass art. And I hit them up and I'm just chatting with them. I'm like, oh, I need podcasts, guys. I want to talk to a graffiti artist. And then so, you know, I just met this dude in the street and he came on and then I networked with him. You never know who you're going to meet. You got to ask people. I've asked bartenders. I've been out. I've handed my podcast business card out to different people. I don't know. You just got to get yourself out there and ask everybody that you want. Like you were saying, yeah, you just have to ask.
Dylan Carnahan:I think that's a big thing. It's just simply even... Here's the thing. There are ways to increase your success rate on asking someone. Like being nice or simple stuff like that. But by and large, I think advice would be just simply just start asking. You talk about talking to your friends. You go, hey, I got like seven people I can talk to. So to date, this would be my ninth episode. The first people I interviewed, I had mentioned this earlier, I worked for them at that craft brewery. Next, a guy that worked with my brother, Lieutenant Tyson Kilby. After that, a guy that was my mentor that I was his mentee. I played baseball. For instance, like this story, Buddy Biancalano. He worked with my team, and I just asked my head coach, can I have Buddy's number and talk to him about something? So I had to ask him, which is uncomfortable. And then he sent a group text, like, hey, buddy, here's Dylan. And then he got to talk to him, right? And Lemony Snicket series of asking people uncomfortable questions. And that's the key. You got to be comfortable being uncomfortable to a certain degree. And it's really not that crazy. It's really not.
Ryan Westa:It's usually just an email or an instant message, a DM, and you'd be surprised. I mean, who doesn't want to be on a podcast? I've been turned down very few times. I've been turned down, but it's not as often. It's not very often. It's people want to do a podcast, you know, especially if you've been doing it for a little bit or it looks good or sounds good. As long as it looks kind of professional, to say yes to a lot of things. I have so many people come in here and be like, Oh, can I cuss on your podcast? I'm like, you have not done your research. Yeah, like, yeah, they just, I don't know. It's funny. Just ask people. A lot of times they'll do it.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. I mean, you have a platform and everyone's slightly narcissistic.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, exactly. Everybody wants to. And I've talked to some, you know, a couple people that were probably, I don't know. I was surprised as they said, yes, they were kind of not big names, but, you know, kind of, at least to me, like, you know, if people know this person, a lot of people, you know what I mean? Like, there's a few people like, whoa, you know, they got a blue checkmark. They had one guy. I had one guy that was on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Like, so it's that. That is crazy. I know.
Ryan Westa:I've had a guy that's done a Ted talk, you know, I've had a bestselling author, like huge, huge, big name author. I guess.
Dylan Carnahan:And you sat down and talked with them. Like, how cool is that?
Ryan Westa:Oh, my gosh. It's well, the bigger ones, I don't, they're usually like the author was in Vancouver. The guy that was on Rogan shows and like Milwaukee or like this way. They were over Zoom. I prefer to do in person, but it is cool to get those people to that you really respect and look up to, like right across the seat, like right across the table for me, I get to hang out with them. It's, it's awesome. And then I've, you know, like one of my favorite rappers is now one of my best friends. It's amazing.
Dylan Carnahan:What would be your advice on reaching out to people like that?
Ryan Westa:Just do it. Just DM them. Instagram them. I like I said, I prefer Instagram. And just DM them. Hey, my name is Ryan, I'm hosting Neandertalk Podcast. You know, if you got some accolades, you can throw that on there. And just like, I'd love to talk to you. I really love your music. I really love your stand up. I love your books. I love your movies. I'm really curious to learn about your opinion on this or that. I heard you on this podcast or whatever. Just you know, give you know, feed their ego a little bit, but it's not really feeding them. I mean, if it's something you're really genuinely interested in, you know, they're gonna feel it. And then they're gonna come in, they're gonna want to talk to you. Like if you're interested in somebody, convey that you got to convey that and you got to put initiative and you got to be you're saying not be nice. You got to be nice, but not just that, but be professional a little bit. Just, you know, know your crowd, know your audience.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah.
Ryan Westa:Well, just reach out, just do it.
Dylan Carnahan:Well said. Just do it. Yeah, a hundred percent. I think, you know, like for anyone listening, like you're you're over here, like, hey, this person's cool. And same here. And you send them a message on social media. Like that's the barrier to entry we're talking about. Out of all the things, you know, whatever, like think, you know, it's pretty low. It's pretty low.
Ryan Westa:And it's just it's just a DM. The person can read it and not even let you know that they read it if they're not that interested. You know, it's not that I mean, you're not out anything and you're just I mean, you're just a profile to them. You're not even a real person of them yet.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, they don't have that connection. You're just another bumble pick.
Ryan Westa:Yeah. Maybe six or seven picks. A couple thirst traps on there, you know.
Dylan Carnahan:You're okay. You got you got you booked someone, right? You got someone's like, hey, Ryan, sounds sweet. 9am Sunday. Let's do this.
Ryan Westa:Let's do it.
Dylan Carnahan:And then you go, holy cow, I don't have any equipment. I have none. What what equipment do you need?
Ryan Westa:Okay, it depends on how much money you want to spend. Depends on how deep you want to go. Depends on the level of your seriousness. If you want to be super serious, you spend, you know, you're gonna have to spend a couple thousand dollars at least. Yeah, at least 15. If you want it like, I don't know, I podcasts are all to me. It's all about the quality of audio. So you just got to spend a little bit of money. You can get away with 1000 bucks for a really good setup. Get yourself a zoom h6 and then a couple good mics and some chords. And maybe even cheaper than that if you don't want to, you know what, I take that back, you can get it and you can get invested. You can get good quality for fairly cheap for five or 600 bucks, I bet get a used zoom h6 and two microphones. I got Audio Technica AT 2020s. I think they're called probably 80 bucks a piece, XLR chords are maybe 20 bucks a piece or you're looking at 100 bucks per mic. And then your zoom h6 going to be a couple hundred bucks, one, two, three, 500 bucks. You can have a professional quality setup for two for two people. Now, if you want to step it up, you know, you can add video or add nicer mics or this that the other headphones and mixers and this and that the other. But if you want to go cheaper, there's an app called anchor.fm. I don't know if that if you're familiar with that, yeah, they do free podcasting on there and you can use your iPhone, you can just record on your iPhone and upload it through that. You're not going to get the best audio quality out of that, but it'll get you in the door. You're putting out content, you're putting out content, you're getting comfortable with doing it. But it's just don't ask me to be on your podcast if that's your setup. Like I'm picky. Like I listened to your podcast before I agree. Like you know, I read your message is like, let me check in as like, okay, it sounds professional. You know, it's good quality. I'll do that. But if it's like some garbage, I'm not going to be associated with that. So and then from there, if you have just a computer, you can get a cheap mic like a USB mic for like 50 or 60 bucks. But then again, blue yeti. Yeah, yeah, but blue yeti 80 bucks or something like that. The snowball it's like 40 or 50. But yeah, just just spend it just just invest invest in yourself. That's what I would say, because if you invest in yourself, say you spend $1,000, that's a lot of money, a lot of money, a lot of people don't have just 1000 bucks to blow on a hobby. But if you have a thought if you can just work a little extra over time or pick up another job for a couple months and just do that, that's going to kick you in the ass. So you get even more motivated, like I just spent 1000 bucks. I have to do this. I have to reach out to guests. I have to put content out. I got aggressive with it. That was kind of my mistake. When I first started my podcast, I was like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to do this. I'm gonna have all these people. I'm going to do it once a week. I was too. That was so I mean, I've been doing it, but that was such a stupid mistake. And now I'm like stuck doing it once. I mean, I love it. But it is it's a grind. It is a grind to do it every week. And I mean, it's a good grind, fun grind. But you got it. But when you spend that kind of money, you're going to invest in yourself. And so if you just got to invest in yourself and believe in yourself, put that 1000 bucks down and get a dope little set up and do it if that's what you really want to do. And if worse comes to worse, you know, sell it on eBay and take a loss, go on, go on Facebook marketplace. Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:What you brought up the h6 is that what is the h6 is that interface?
Ryan Westa:Is that what that is a podcasting audio mixer? Like it's it's the it's probably the number it's one of the best things that podcasters use. So your microphone, so I use XLR mics. I think you do too, right? So yeah, and I have that connected to it's called an h6. So those go to that I can I can take this anywhere I want it can be portable, you can put batteries in it and I can take these microphones and my h6 anywhere and do a remote podcast with it and get audio. It'll sound just as good. And that's it. It's got a mixer. It's got little dials on it, and it's got different channels. It's got like four channels. And you can just it'll sound it just makes it sound professional wherever you go. Like how I was how my podcast sounds in my studio, it'll sound just like that anywhere because it's just it's like a little podcast machine. And then I have that. And that that will record everything on a when an SD card, okay, and then you can put and then you can put that in your computer. I have it hooked up directly to my computer. So just records everything on my Mac. But you don't have to go that deep if you don't want to. And then also, what you could do. This actually isn't bad if you want to save even a couple hundred more dollars, get just the H6 and it comes with one microphone attached to it. And you can do the quality on that's pretty good. I know there's an idea to get your H6 with with the microphone on top of it and record great audio with that to your SD SD card.
Dylan Carnahan:What?
Ryan Westa:There's so many options for podcasting. It's crazy. That's why you got to just do a little bit of research and figure out what best what works best for your budget. Come up with your budget first and then figure it out.
Dylan Carnahan:Use the budget to pick to get what you want.
Ryan Westa:But like I said, invest in yourself spend spend something that's uncomfortable to you. Something that's going to hurt your wallet a little bit like shit. Put yourself behind the eight ball a little bit and make your ass work for it. You know, it's a strategy people I don't know it's it's it's difficult. It's difficult, but difficult things come with rewards and you can get past that and you will. It's just going to just invest in yourself. Number one piece of advice.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I would say if you're if you're really serious about it, it's no akin to akin to like investing yourself via education. You know, I mean, that's investing yourself going to going to school. If you're really wanting a podcast, that similar thing would be to invest in the equipment to do so.
Ryan Westa:And also, I mean, there's so much comes along with starting a podcast. It sounds great, but you got to be honest with yourself. And you have to be honest with yourself on why you want to do the podcast in the first place. You want to do it to make money? Do you want to do it to be famous? Like what's your goal? You better not want to make money. You better not want to be famous like that. Everyone's got a damn podcast. There's just that everyone has a podcast. It's crazy. And it's fine. It's fun. But it is very hard to make money. And it's very hard. You have to be passionate and you have to do it because you want to do it. It can't be vain. It can't be just, oh, I'm going to make money a quick buck. Like, that's very, you know, you got to catch lightning in a bottle for that. I'm not saying it can't be done. But you have to have you have to have good intentions. You have to have a real reason why you want to start a podcast.
Dylan Carnahan:So a bad, bad idea to get in would be like something vain, like, hey, be making like 10 mil in the next 10 years through my podcast. What?
Ryan Westa:Well, I only say that because that's probably not going to happen. And you're going to notice that real quick. Oh, my gosh, nobody's listening. Well, it's very hard to get going. Like, what? I only have 30 listeners. This like, you know, what the hell? Like, you know, that's how it starts off. It starts off with 20 or 30 listeners, and then you got to start building it up. But it takes a while. It takes a while. And if you're just looking at those numbers, you're like, oh, my God, this isn't what I thought. I thought I was going to have X amount of, you're just, your expectations are going to be way, you're going to be shattered with disappointment having these expectations. If you think you're getting in this for Azure profession, it's just probably not going to happen. You have to just, you can't set, because you're going to quit. You're going to quit. If you have the expectation of making money at this, you're going to quit, because you're going to get very disappointed, very discouraged early.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, you have to, there is a little, if that is the case, like there is not instant gratification. Like I have looked at my anchor analytics and gone, wow, thank you, mom, dad, brother and sister. You guys are great, right?
Ryan Westa:Yeah, and you got to be consistent with it. You know, that's the other dirty little secret. You got to be consistent with it. If you schedule, if I'm going to do one once a month, I'm going to do one bi-weekly, you have to do it. Your audience has to trust you, and they have to get comfortable and know that, hey, like my podcast comes out, I say on their most Mondays, because sometimes I take a day off, or sometimes a guest skips out on me. So most Mondays, my audience can expect that there's a new episode of Neandertalk. And it's been three and a half years, and for the most, there's quite a few I've missed, but for the most part, my audience can trust that I'm going to have an episode out for them.
Dylan Carnahan:You initially said that you had picked once a week, and that was a hard feat to pull off.
Ryan Westa:I'm still doing it. It's not easy, man. It's been, yeah, it's not easy.
Dylan Carnahan:So I guess how did you come to say hey every Monday? How did you get to that point, like picking that schedule?
Ryan Westa:Because that's the start of the week for me, because I'm a mailman, I hate my job. But one of the things that gets me through my day is podcasts. And Monday is the longest worst day, and I look forward to listening to podcasts on Monday. And so I just use that as like, hey, what would I want? When would I want to listen to podcasts this Monday? So I was like, I'm gonna throw mine out there. And that way, also when I release it, in the morning on Monday, people have all week to listen to it. Like, oh, I'll listen to it on Wednesday or something. So it's there all week for people. And just, I don't know, it just made sense. It's just how it worked out for me.
Dylan Carnahan:There's a lot of like scratching your own itch in this. You know, as far as like, hey, I wanna go talk to people about this topic. I'm gonna go do that. Or I like to listen to things on, say, Monday. I'm gonna put it out on Monday. And I think that can be used as a guide, a lot of times for, you know, doing whatever, whether it be podcasts or anything else. But I'd say scratching your itch, it plays a big role in kind of any of these decisions.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, a big part of it for sure. And just kind of what makes sense to me. Like I try to do things that, what makes the most sense to me. And I don't know, I think a lot of these things I do make a lot of sense. A lot of things I do don't make sense, but I don't know, some things, I don't know. That's just, I don't know if it's working or not. It seems like it is, you know? And like I was saying, that the dirty secret is consistency. You just gotta, that's the thing. You gotta be consistent to grow.
Dylan Carnahan:I mean, it can be really hard.
Ryan Westa:What? It's very hard, especially for a person like me. You don't know, man. It is, it's, I have horrible, horrible, horrible discipline. I have the worst procrastination of anyone you've ever met. It's stupid. I hate it. It's my biggest flaw. I hate that about myself. Both those things. I wish I was more disciplined and I wish I didn't procrastinate with everything. But it's just, I don't know. It's my flaws. For some money, I've got many flaws, but those are my, whatever. But for whatever reason, I just have been able to do this one thing consistently for the most part. I don't, it's just, it's because I'm passionate about it. You know, it's the reason I got into podcasting in the first place was just to, I needed something to kind of live for outside of when I have my children, because I got two kids, I'm divorced with two kids, and I have them, I have them every week, every weekend. But when I don't have them, I needed something to focus on and just, you know, it was a dark, dark time in my life from the first start of the podcast. So this just helps me, I don't know, it's fun. I love it. Being the podcaster that I am, it's, yeah, it's been an amazing journey. I have just, it's been awesome. So glad I've started. And like I say, it is hard doing it consistently, not because I don't like doing the podcast, but I don't like scheduling it. It's hard to schedule. I don't know, it's just, it's hard to schedule and get people. And that gives me anxiety. Like I need my schedule booked for like at least two months in advance or else. Like I'm like, I'm always afraid my podcast is going to end. I'm always afraid it's just going to stop. Yeah. Oh yeah. All the time. All the time.
Dylan Carnahan:I think it's just going to end.
Ryan Westa:How would it stop? Yeah, I just, it's just a struggle that I have with myself. I'm afraid that I'm just, what if I just quit because I can't get a couple of guests? Or if I, like I almost quit in January, February, March, I almost quit in March of 2020. And yeah, I was, I was, I was this close to quitting. I had, I think I had three guests left on my schedule. I was like, I can't quit now. I have to at least do these three people because I've already committed to them. And then I don't know what happened. I just kept going. Like after I was like, I'm just gonna keep going. I think there was somebody I wanted to talk to or somebody wanted to talk to me. I was like, all right. And they just, it just kept, and then I, I don't know. I just kept going.
Dylan Carnahan:How do you, how do you pull yourself out of those lulls?
Ryan Westa:That's a good question.
Dylan Carnahan:Because, you know, they happen and they, they, they can happen late March, 2020. When you've been doing it for two years, they can happen. Say you published that first episode and you're like, damn.
Ryan Westa:Well, when you first start, you're just invigorated. Nothing's stopping you. At least for me, I was just, nothing was stopping me all day. Every day I was doing what I could and not, but yeah, now I do get lulls. I don't know how, I just get, I just do them. I just, I'm a hard worker, man. I'm just a hard, hard worker. And if I commit to something, I, like if I have guests, I can't quit on my guests. Like I can quit on myself all the time, but I can't quit on my guests. So I guess that's why I schedule it for two months in a time.
Dylan Carnahan:That accountability?
Ryan Westa:Yeah, I just, I can't let these, I have committed to them. I asked them to come to me. I can't just say, no, I'm done. Like I have to, so you got to be there. And so you just, and then here's the thing. I will get these lulls. I'm like, I just, I just, you know, but then I'll have the guest on and I'm like, this is why I don't quit. This is why I don't do it. Cause I have so much fun. Like I talked to some, some of these people and someone I'm like, oh, I don't know if I don't know how this one's going to be. And then they blow my socks off. I'm like, I love doing this. Like I have so much fun. Like it just, it reinvigorates me. It's like, you almost forget about it. Like, especially if you take a couple of weeks off and you get like in that comfortability of not doing it, not being disciplined. But then you get that guest in and it's just a good time. It's just, that's what keeps coming back is these people is just, I just have so much fun doing it. It's just so much fun. I laugh so much. I've learned so much. It's just, it's awesome.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah.
Ryan Westa:It's selfish. It's selfish really.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. The thing is, what I find is when I kind of hit a low, it usually is, and kind of what you're saying, I enjoy this conversation with Robin, right? And then I spend time looking at WAV files and editing things. And I'm over here looking at the video and editing that. I'm making the thumbnail, all right? And then I'm like, I don't like this. I don't like podcasting, right? And then I put it out, and then you look at your four listens, and you're like, well, that's done.
Ryan Westa:Was it worth it? Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:Was it worth it? And it's really only until, hey, I reached out to Ryan. I send that Instagram message. Hey, we're talking right now. And I'm like, I love this. You know, this. But it's that grunt work, and you paid on the back end that I find can kind of be emotionally taxing.
Ryan Westa:Yeah. Well, what you're talking about there is being an editor and not a podcaster. And so I'm not an editor. I've been dabbling with it. Like, I'm going through that right now. I've started another YouTube channel and where I'm doing like pink drink reviews, like going to different restaurants or bars and reviewing them and just chopping it up like it'll take me, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 hours to edit a three minute video, four minute video. And then I think my biggest one's got like, I don't know, 75 views. I'm like, and then the other ones are got like 20, 25, 30. I'm like, it's good content. It really is good. It's entertaining. It's quick. It's it's just good. And I'm like, I can't keep am I going to keep doing this for like, I'm not an editor. I mean, so my trick around that for the podcast is I just I don't edit anything. It's you come in, you sit down and we're and it pretend this is live. I pretend everything I pretend my podcast is live. I go in 321. Boom, Sherlock, boom, here we go. I got Alan Wayne to prod you with me. His new album just came out. It's the demonstration or actually whatever it is. And we just go and it's just live. And then that's it. I edit in just my my intro video. I added that in. And then I put my logo and song in. Then I put that is this very, very, very little editing. Very, very, very little.
Dylan Carnahan:That's that is definitely a good way to circumvent. I know that you know, you mentioned like basically keeping it as if you're going live. That's a great, great way to do that. And that like you're saying, I mean, like this conversation, like probably just keep, by and large, vast majority of it in frame on the episode. And that's saving you however many hours. I know, God, the first episode I put out, I don't know, I spent some insane amount of time editing. I had Audacity up and just beaten on my keyboard. Like I'm playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Spent, I stayed up till like 2 a.m. on like a Saturday and Sunday. As a full-time college student playing baseball, I'm over here on my weekend just killing myself. And gosh, there's just like, you can spend like hours editing and...
Ryan Westa:Yeah, for what?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, exactly.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, I'm not about that. I'm not about that life. That's just, yeah, that'll take it out of me. It's just I'm not an editor. I just want a podcast. That's like a whole other thing.
Dylan Carnahan:What do you use to edit? What's your software? I think that's something we haven't mentioned for like an equipment.
Ryan Westa:Okay, that's great. Great question. What do I use? Well, the H6 just goes straight to my computer and creates... Creates my file on... What do I use? I'm sorry. I know I do use something. Gosh darn it. So since I do video, I have... You're a gamer. Have you ever heard of... You know what Twitch is?
Dylan Carnahan:I am well versed.
Ryan Westa:Okay. I used to stream on Twitch. Anyways, so that's how I got familiar with this, is there's a program called OBS. I think it stands for Open Broadcast Software. And it's a free program. And you do that, and then you can hook all your cameras. I have four cameras in my studio, and they are webcams. They're just cheap, but pretty decent quality, like 1080, I don't know, HD 1080p. Yeah, and they're HD, whatever, webcams. And Logitech, they're probably 80 bucks a piece for those. And those sync up to that program, along with all the audio. This was all stuff I had to learn. This was all the stuff I had to teach myself, watching all these YouTube. But it's a free program, and it's not that difficult to learn. And then I hit record on that. And then when you do that, it just goes straight to a file. When you're done recording, you'll have a video file of it. Or you can also stream it live, if you want, to YouTube or something. And then that's it. I just record it with open broadcast software through my Mac. And then I use that file.
Dylan Carnahan:I would say something, video is something I haven't really incorporated until recently, quote unquote. How important do you think video is in a podcast?
Ryan Westa:It's not important. I don't think. So the only reason why I do have video is because I made a really nice studio. But I made a nice... Well, I only made a nice studio because I wanted my guests to be comfortable. I wanted a nice, comfortable environment to talk to somebody. But then I was like, oh, it is a nice studio and webcams aren't that expensive. And so I just put them, you know, it was like, you know, like I said, 80 bucks a piece. So I spent a few hundred bucks on those with as much money as I ever had invested. I was like, well, why not? And I'll just throw it up on YouTube and see what happens. And so it's hit or miss. It's really hard to get people's attention span on a video podcast. It's just podcasts aren't necessarily meant for video. At least for me, how I ingest podcasting is audio. It's in my headphones when I'm out doing stuff, working out or at work or whatever. It's not too often where I'm sitting in my living room and I throw on YouTube to watch a podcast. It's just so it's very, you know, some people like to watch them. But yeah, but I mean, I have some, you know, it's hit or miss with those. You can have some of like 5000, 3000 or 1000 views. And I've got some that got like 12. I'm like, why doesn't this 12 want to have more like, this is a great this you guys are missing some gold here. Come on. So it can be frustrating that way. And then recently I stopped putting mine on YouTube and I've started a Patreon. And just because I want people, if people wanted to support me, I've got different options. But if you want my video, if you want access to my video, it's a dollar a month on Patreon. And you can have all the video of the new episodes. And it's good. You know, it's good video. I have the other thing I didn't mention on OBS is you can switch cameras on the fly. And so I have a camera guy come in and he switches them on the fly. He's like a little producer. Like he just switches cameras, camera one, camera two, camera three, camera four, and switches them on the fly. So it's good. It keeps you interactive. It keeps going. And so if you go to like patreon.com/neandertalkpodcast, you can get them there. That's it. It's a buck a month. Who can't do that? And you get them a video. And then if you want like five bucks a month, I got some extra goodies. I do extra podcasts on there. And then I give you like a magnet. It's just, you know, different levels for different things. But I don't think it's, I don't think video is necessarily that important. But if you have a gimmick, you can make it work. You know, there's all kinds of gimmicky podcasts out there that work with video.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I mean, it's at its heart. It isn't a visual format. It's a podcast, right?
Ryan Westa:It's like AM radio. Yeah, talk radio for me. I mean, that's I grew up with talk radio, sports radio, podcast, and then the podcast. I'd like this has been my favorite. I've just been into this art form, if you will.
Dylan Carnahan:You know, you were sounds like a pretty big podcast listener prior to starting the podcast.
Ryan Westa:Oh, yeah. I was like, I went to podcast listening 101 is like, because I was listening to so many of them for so long. I just felt like I would have been good at it because I've been listening to this stuff forever.
Dylan Carnahan:Let's let's go. We say got the got the guest booked. We got all of our equipment here. What kind of format are we going to follow?
Ryan Westa:That's wherever you want. Whatever. See that this is a wonderful thing about podcasting. The people out there that are wanting to start a podcast. You have to do what you want. For me, it's long form conversation because I am by nature a very curious fella. One of my tags is I want to either be laughing or learning. And that's like my goal. I want to either be learning something for somebody or just chopping it up, laughing our asses off, like having fun. But there's people that love crime. Crime podcasts are huge. If you're into crime, do some kind of... There's niche little niche networks out there you can get involved in, the frisbee golf. There's big frisbee golf ones. There's big poker podcasts. If you just have something you're passionate about, maybe you're passionate about baking the best sourdough bread, and you're really into talking to bakers and then figuring out the... I don't know. There's little things out there if you're interested in, you can start a podcast about it. And the more unique that niche is, the more chances you're gonna... the less competition you're gonna have for podcasting in that area. And you might have a bigger chance of blowing up quicker on something. One of the... There's a podcast in Kansas City that keeps getting nominated for one of the publications here. It's a comic book podcast.
Dylan Carnahan:Really?
Ryan Westa:And it's not Kansas City-centric or anything, I don't think. It's just they talk about comic books and comics, and that's one of the bigger, or I guess voted on podcasts in one of these publications here for whatever that's worth. I've never even heard of it, and I checked it out a couple years ago when they first got nominated. I was like, huh. So there's different things out there. Find whatever you're super interested in. I don't know, maybe chess or dominoes. Podcast on that. Talk to... I don't know, whatever. Whatever you're interested in. Just find that niche that you like.
Dylan Carnahan:Well said. You brought up Anchor earlier. So I use Anchor to kind of distribute my podcast. What do you use and what are some other options out there for that?
Ryan Westa:So when I first started... But I was... Let's just put it like this way. I had a lot of money invested in the studio. But then I was like, all right, I got to put this out there. And I started looking. There's a thing called Podbean is a distributing distribution app. And then there was another one.
Dylan Carnahan:Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout.
Ryan Westa:Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout. And I think there's a couple of ones out there where you can just upload your podcast files to it. And then they'll put it on every podcast app out there. iTunes, Spotify, whatever, Apple, all the ones you've never heard of before. And it was like, I don't know, $20 a month, or $10 a month or something was like, golly, like, that was gonna hurt me. I don't have a lot of money. I'm divorced and got wrecked financially. Like I have to give this another story on my podcast, I gotta give this chick a lot of money. And so money was tight, and then I found someone was like, Oh, have you ever heard of Anchor? It's a free platform that does all that I was like, what's the catch? No, there's no catch. Just do it. And there's no catch. Anchor. I think it's anchor.fm.com.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it's anchor.fm. Yeah.
Ryan Westa:And it's free, you just it's so simple and easy to set up. And it you put in and you put your podcast on, you upload your audio file, when you want it to drop, you know, what day, what time it drops, and it puts it out there for for you for free. It's amazing.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I've had really good experience with anchor and that was my first exposure. So I'm not really sure what what else is out there on that front.
Ryan Westa:And you don't even need to know. That's my opinion. I don't even need or want to know this works so perfectly. I just don't understand what the other ones would could possibly offer you. I don't know what they offer you that this one doesn't offer for free. Like, if you want to spend money, go spend money. I don't care. Go spend 20 bucks a month on pod bean. Go ahead. You know what I mean? But you're gonna get the same thing as I'm paying, whatever, which is nothing. Yeah, it's pretty intuitive to like, I mean, yeah, it's yeah, if you can figure out how to start a podcast, you can certainly figure out anchors app. And yeah, the only issues I've ever had with them is just me being like, man, why don't you retweet one of my or reshare or share one of my stories on Instagram, because I hit them and hashtag them all the time. And I see them promoting other ones and they're not promoting mine. And I got all I don't know. I'm like, all right, I unfollowed them for that reason.
Dylan Carnahan:You got a whole silent war going on with anchor FM.
Ryan Westa:Did you have no idea how many silent wars I have? You have no idea how many silent wars I have with local podcasters, with anchor. I got some silent wars with past guests or guests that were supposed or non-guests that were supposed to be guests. I got some silent wars. It's not healthy. I need help.
Dylan Carnahan:You need more meditation.
Ryan Westa:That's what I do. That's true.
Dylan Carnahan:You know.
Ryan Westa:This one is kind of a silly one, but it, I don't, when I, if you work in an environment with a lot of people that you interact with, that you're kind of, you know, your coworker friends, your coworkers, and if they know about it, you know, you're gonna get a little, I don't know, mine like to joke around, oh, we should do a podcast about this. Oh, what are you gonna do a podcast about? I'm like, dude, I don't even talk about my podcast at work. Very rarely do I mention it. And it's like, you'll, I don't know, getting like needled by people sometimes. That can be just annoying. You know what I mean? It's like, oh, hilarious.
Dylan Carnahan:Just that nagging a little bit.
Ryan Westa:Nagging and just like, you know, sometimes a little bit of hate from people, but hate fuels me. Like I kind of like it. That was, I don't know.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, Ryan, what are you gonna do, make a podcast episode about the water cooler being empty?
Ryan Westa:Oh yeah, come on. Oh yeah, yeah, that's real interesting. I'm like, no, do you think you're interesting enough that I would talk to you? I just work with you, you're a mailman. What do I wanna talk to you for?
Dylan Carnahan:You're nothing, Sarah.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, it's like, I mean, I'm a mailman too, but hey, I got a podcast.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I'm a special mailman.
Ryan Westa:No, I'm kidding, I've actually have had, I've had one of my co-workers, two of my co-workers on one of the early episodes, but they were, yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:What other obstacles are you facing? I know like the learning experience, and you mentioned this earlier, like, yeah, I remember like I recorded my first episode and I'm like, yeah, what do I, how do I edit this? Like, yeah, like there's just so much learning that has to go on. I mean, it's not, even if you got all the right stuff, even if you got all the right bells and whistles, you got all the right equipment, I mean, there's so much to learn.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, those are just the first biggest obstacles you have to jump across. But once you do, it's pretty smooth sailing after that. Jump over those hurdles, and it's just a sprint, man. So I do interview a lot of hip hop artists, local ones, and I will from time to time, more often I'd like just get these rappers that'll just slide in the DMs, yo, what do I need to get on the podcast? Put me on your podcast. What's up, bro? I love your stuff. Can I get on the podcast? And you get all that all the time, it's just these low level rappers that I've never heard of, and which is fine. Kansas City's got over a thousand rappers, I bet. So it's fine if I never heard of you, but you gotta come correct. You can't just, yo, let me get on your podcast.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it comes back to how you and I reach out to people. You're not just like, hey, Ryan, or we hit you up like that, and then later, can I be on your podcast? Be formal, have some feel, have some feel.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, just be, yeah. So and then you get a lot of disingenuous people. Oh yeah, I've been listening to you for a long time. You just followed me. I can see when you started following me. And so just dealing with some of that kind of stuff, like clout chasers or just people that are wanting to promote themselves selfishly. And just some of that was like, I wouldn't call them hiccups, but they're just kind of annoying.
Dylan Carnahan:You're gonna have to deal with it. Like that's just gonna come up.
Ryan Westa:But it's fine. I mean, that means you're doing something right. If you got people hitting you up like that, they know about you and they're hip to you one way or another. But I mean, also I like legit people hitting me up going, oh my gosh, I really like your stuff. I would like to come on. I appreciate that. I want people to ask me, but just come correct with it. Don't demand it.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, what, at what point within your podcast, did you kind of see that start to happen? Cause I haven't really gotten to that point where I've had people like, hey Dylan, love to be on.
Ryan Westa:Okay, so we're after that graffiti guy I was telling you about. Oh, shout out to Lucid Flows, by the way. This is his shirt.
Dylan Carnahan:It's a tight logo.
Ryan Westa:That's his shirt that he made. You can see this Teddy Pendergast or whatever. That mural is down in the crossroads too that he did. And you just put it on the shirt. Anyways, Lucid Flows. When I met him, he was like, after him and I hit it off on our first episode, and he was like, hey, I know this chick you might like to have on your podcast. She's a music, a musician, manager type chick, blah, blah, blah. I was like, oh, yeah, I'd love to. She came on, we hit it off, and she's like, oh, I want you to be part of my group of like artists, like we can network together. I'm like, I'm not going to do much of that, but if you want to get people sending my way, and you know, if I like them, I'll have them on. And then I just kind of got involved with them with her little group, and just started getting guests that way. What was it? Oh, and so once I started doing that, that's when it first started, just she, and what that was, was her, I didn't realize at the time, but just kind of using me and using my platform, and it wasn't as...
Dylan Carnahan:There wasn't as much reciprocity there as you would have liked.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, that's a good word for it. But yeah, so it started pretty early, but that's because she saw my platform and how hard I was working, that I was doing it all by myself and hustling, and she wanted to get a piece of that early on. And so that's when that started. And then just the more guests I've had and the bigger guests, it hit social media. So maybe episode, I don't know, 15 or 20, I started every now and then getting people reaching out to me.
Dylan Carnahan:Interesting. How much of an impact do referrals play for you?
Ryan Westa:Depends on who's referring them. Like if it's somebody I trust, and they're like, yo, I wanna send your information to so and so, is that cool? Or but if some people, yeah, referrals are huge if it's from somebody I trust. Like if it's somebody that I'm not cool with and referring somebody, probably, you gotta trust your source.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah.
Ryan Westa:And then sometimes I'll have, which is nice is building a network. The more you do this, the more people you know. Like I said, I've become good friends with some local rappers that I highly respect. And sometimes I'll get some of these rappers that hit me up that they're, they are kind of, they're nicer and they're like, oh, hey, I'd love your stuff. Well, what can I get on your show or whatever? Then I'll hit some of my other guys. Yo, who do you know this dude? Cause I'll see if they're friends with them. I'll get, yo, what's so and so's deal. Like, is he cool, legit? Like, no, I wouldn't fuck with him. He's this, that or the other. Or like, yeah, that dude's dope. Get him on. So that's, yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:What other vetting do you do? I mean, you got the social aspect. Like, hey, do you know this person? You check out their content as well, you know?
Ryan Westa:For the most, yeah. Like, yeah, it's people, yeah. I'll check out their, yeah, I check out everyone's content first. Well, you know what? That's not true. Early on, when I was desperate, I would take those rappers that would like, yo, let me get, not let me get on, but like the lower ones, like, oh, I heard about you through so and so. Can I get on? And there were a couple where I, I was just like desperate for content and for guests. Cause when you are, when you're in the beginning, you're just trying, you'll get anybody and whoever. And so there were some, some people, not necessarily just artists, rappers or anything.
Dylan Carnahan:In general.
Ryan Westa:There were some people I kind of took without really checking their stuff out. And then afterwards I was like, ooh, I do not like their music. Like, so I won't, like, if you listen, listen to my intro. So I do an intro, a solo intro before every podcast to let people know what's happening. And if I say, hello, I love their music. I love their album, go check it out, blah, blah, blah. I love it. Oh man, I had this guy on, he was a lot of fun. We had a good time chopping it up. He does music, you can find it here, but yeah, we had a good time hanging out. I won't really, you can tell the difference if I like their music or not. Like I'll be pimping and then like excited about it or other times I'm like, oh yeah, he was on, he had this rapper on, blah, blah, blah. But you can tell if I don't.
Dylan Carnahan:How hard you're pushing it, how big of an advocate. Do we need to edit this part out? Is this a trade secret?
Ryan Westa:Nope, no, I wouldn't know. Now they know.
Dylan Carnahan:Let it hang.
Ryan Westa:Let them know.
Dylan Carnahan:That's good. Yeah, there is an, like, there's an aspect of like, I don't wanna use the term quality control because that sounds like superficial. I think it goes back to kind of what you said like the whole coworker thing. It's like, not just anyone, I'm not just gonna have any person come on my platform. Like, you know, or it's not that kind of thing. I don't know, how would you kind of, how is it for you? I think it's...
Ryan Westa:I'm taking it serious. That's it. You have to come at it with a mindset of just taking it serious and not, you know, and having a certain amount of respect for yourself and for your show at some point, you know, you just have to understand there's also levels and steps and you have to be okay with some of these steps, but then you got to level up. You got to constantly level up. And so it's okay to not necessarily get anybody at the beginning if that's the kind of style podcast you're doing, but you know, you're gonna be a little more generous with the invites probably or stuff like that. But then once you start leveling up, you know, they get better.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, no, I've seen that firsthand personally. And it really is, it's like, who do you know at the beginning? And then you really got to, it's like, I always say like on Craigslist, it's like trying to flip a paperclip into a house.
Ryan Westa:Oh yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:You know, to a certain degree, it's like, all right, I got my-
Ryan Westa:One red, was that one red paperclip?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Yeah, it was something like really just miniscule, just nothing, right? You know, and not to say that that's what necessarily happens early on, but it is to a degree, you got to build a base and then kind of leverage that. And you do have to build your credibility in a way. And I know it was so hard early on, like before I put out like a four minute episode zero, which is just kind of me describing, you know, what the podcast is. And until I really put that out, you know, it was just an idea. Like, oh, I'm going to make a podcast, you know, and I had like equipment, you know, and I was still like trying to get a logo and still kind of ironing out like what my format would be. And man, if you, the more tangible you make things, you know, like, hey, I have a catalog. Now I have X amount of episodes. And someone can like, it's palatable. Someone could go out and hey, oh, I can listen to it. You know, it really is, it's just an idea. And that makes it really hard for people that don't know you or don't care about you or whatever, that are more distant from you, to really grasp what it is that you're doing. Mm-hmm.
Ryan Westa:Yes, yes, it's about creating a resume. You know, it's a podcast. Look at it as, I mean, so many different metaphors and analogies you can use for it. I mean, just look at it as like a plant, you know, it starts as a seed and then it starts to grow. That thing grows slow. You can't, you know, it's gonna take a while. But once you start growing it, it starts to grow. And then at some point, well, that thing will just explode and get little flowers on it and stuff. You know what I mean? It's like, oh, I've developed a resume of XMI. I've got, you know, I've got 75 episodes. You know, that's a nice number. You can start reaching out to some bigger people probably if you want this.
Dylan Carnahan:I don't know. I don't know.
Ryan Westa:Now, patience.
Dylan Carnahan:In your journey, in your podcasting journey, what are some helpful resources that you've come across?
Ryan Westa:Just YouTube, you just YouTube. That's probably the best resource. I don't know. You just YouTube, Google and YouTube's your friend to learning how to build your best podcast within your budget. Outside of that, another good resource is other podcasts. Just start listening. If you love crime podcasts, and that's all you listen to, step out and listen to a sports podcast. Listen to a long form conversation podcast. Just diversify your listening habits of podcasts and start grasping how other people are doing things. What are their ideas? Just look at how other people are doing it. Do a little bit of homework. Do some research. You might find out you like movie review podcasts or whatever. Just get out there and use those as resources. Use other podcasts as resource as to get ideas, maybe even motivation from.
Dylan Carnahan:Learning from others that do what you want to do. Huge, huge there.
Ryan Westa:And different perspectives from it too.
Dylan Carnahan:That you bring up like the talking to different genres of podcasting.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, just listen to all different, listen to all kinds of stuff.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, that has been useful. I know I've kind of stepped out. I was big on like the JRE and kind of stuff. I like sports. I played baseball, sports podcasts, Luke Warm on, you know. But I will say there is stuff you can pick up from people as far as like maybe how they talk or the format. You can always pick up something from someone. All right, ending remarks on podcasting, ending remarks here.
Ryan Westa:Podcasting in general?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Your journey. What do you want? What do you want a new podcaster to know?
Ryan Westa:Don't do it. Don't do it unless you are unless you have to do it. I say don't do it. That's my that's how I would end it. It's unless you are passionate and you love it and you want to do it for the art and the love. That's why you do it. Don't do it for any other reason because it's a hard grind. You're going to get discouraged often. You're going to. It's just I would say don't do it unless you have to do it. I have to do it and I love it. But don't do it unless you have to do it.
Dylan Carnahan:If you don't have that that passion, you won't drive for it.
Ryan Westa:If you Yeah, if it's not something like I said, yeah, and even if you're kind of thinking about it, I would say don't do it.
Dylan Carnahan:Really?
Ryan Westa:Don't do it if you're just thinking about it. But you have to you have to want to do it. I talked to so many people all the time. I've been wanting to do it. I want to do I want to do it. And then they just never do and then they start and then they quit after a little bit. It's like, you didn't really want it. You got to want like it's just hard. I don't know.
Dylan Carnahan:You got to want it. No, no, that's and that's, I think that's with everything. I've experienced that at every point in my life. You know, I think that comes down to it. If you wanted to do it, you would have done it. Mm hmm.
Ryan Westa:You might just you might need a kick in the pants because I did. I needed a kick in the pants. And I got that. But you need if Yeah, I don't know. I say don't do it. It's hard. It's hard. Unless you have to do it. Don't do it. There's a million podcasts out there. What What do you got to say? That's so interesting. Probably nothing. Just listen. Just listen to Neandertalk podcast. I got you covered.
Dylan Carnahan:Well, Ryan, it was a pleasure talking to you. Thank you for coming on. This is the first time I talked to a fellow podcaster ever.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, those are the best podcasts. I doesn't want some of the ones I had the most fun with. I like because, you know, the other podcasters know how to do this. It's seamless.
Dylan Carnahan:We know we know what's up. So thank you.
Ryan Westa:Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me, man. I do appreciate you reaching out and wanting to get on. This was a lot of fun. Like I'm always out there. I've been promoting for years that I do want to help people with podcasts. Like if you have questions, hit me up, ask me like I want to. I do want to help other podcasters out that are serious and want to do this. Like I'm all about if you want me on your podcast, I'll probably come on. If you have questions about it, hit me up. I'll help you just I love helping podcasters.
Dylan Carnahan:And just to just to wrap things up here in a bow, where can people learn more about you and Neandertalk Podcast?
Ryan Westa:Instagram is great. Neandertalk pod on Instagram. And then just Neandertalk Podcast. It's on all the platforms, Patreon. There's I still have like 150 plus episodes on YouTube you can go watch. And then, I don't know. That's it. Neandertalk Podcast. Find me. Google me.
Dylan Carnahan:That wraps up our conversation with Ryan Westa. We talked about how a budget dictates what podcasting equipment you get, ways you can get a podcast logo made, and the importance of having a passion for podcasting. Go ahead and follow Neandertalk Podcast on Instagram and give it a listen on your preferred platform. Check out Jazlyn's music on all platforms and follow her on social media under Jazlyn Epps. And lastly, subscribe to the Simple Questions Podcast to see our latest episodes. Next episode is about a baseball game, but not an ordinary baseball game. It's a game that occurred in the early 1980s between the Royals and the Yankees. I'll leave you with that to figure out. Now, in the meantime, thank you for listening, and remember to keep asking questions.