Earlier this year, I set out to answer a simple question: can you reasonably record a podcast from your phone? As someone obsessed with gear and high-quality production, I assumed the answer would be no.
But after some experimentation, I discovered that not only is it possible, but it can also be a game-changer for podcasters who want to create raw, behind-the-scenes content.
Here’s how I streamlined the process into a low-effort workflow anyone can replicate.
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About Streamlined Podcaster: This is the show for solo podcasters who love their podcast but hate how much time it takes. Each week, host Joe Casabona shares the systems, workflows, and podcast automation that let you run a great show without burning out.
Joe has been a solo podcaster for 15+ years and helps solopreneurs replace manual tasks with reliable systems so they can take time off worry-free. He knows firsthand what it takes to produce a quality show solo — and he's here to help you do the same.
Get Joe's favorite podcasting tools: https://streamlinedpodcaster.com/tools
Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Earlier this year, I set out to answer a question.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:08 Could I reasonably record a podcast from my cell
00:00:08 --> 00:00:13 phone? Now, as somebody who is obsessed with
00:00:13 --> 00:00:18 gear, I thought that this would be hard. Right?
00:00:19 --> 00:00:21 I have lots of headphones because I really care
00:00:21 --> 00:00:25 about sound quality. I've invested in a bunch
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 of gear to sound as good as possible even when
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 kids are running around upstairs. But I know
00:00:31 --> 00:00:37 that I've over invested in this setup. So it
00:00:37 --> 00:00:42 got me thinking. What if I just bought a decent
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 microphone, the one I'm talking into now, the
00:00:44 --> 00:00:50 DJI mic. and recorded from my phone. Would a
00:00:50 --> 00:00:57 voice memos podcast work? But then I thought,
00:00:57 --> 00:01:00 what if I just did the whole thing from my phone?
00:01:01 --> 00:01:05 How easy is it to save files and then upload
00:01:05 --> 00:01:10 them to my audio host? How easy is it to write
00:01:10 --> 00:01:15 a description and maybe create show notes? So
00:01:15 --> 00:01:20 in August, at Podcast Movement, I decided to
00:01:20 --> 00:01:23 launch Joe's Audio Notes, which you can subscribe
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26 at at Casabona .org slash notes. I'm going to
00:01:26 --> 00:01:31 talk more about the strategy or the experiment
00:01:31 --> 00:01:36 of audience growth with that show in a different
00:01:36 --> 00:01:41 episode and blog post. But today I just want
00:01:41 --> 00:01:45 to talk about The act of recording and uploading
00:01:45 --> 00:01:49 and how maybe you could do it, too. So what I
00:01:49 --> 00:01:55 do is I use the voice the whisper memos app on
00:01:55 --> 00:02:01 iPhone I like using that app because It all in
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 one app. It's really easy to record. I basically
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 push a button and Launch a shortcut that then
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 automatically starts recording. So I just hit
00:02:09 --> 00:02:13 one button and start talking then it transcribes
00:02:13 --> 00:02:19 the audio and it gives me three easy actions.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:24 Copy the transcript, share the audio, share the
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 transcript. So what I can do from there is save
00:02:27 --> 00:02:33 the audio to files and then take the transcript
00:02:33 --> 00:02:37 and throw it into chat GPT and ask it to come
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 up with just like a one to two sentence summary.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:43 That's good enough for this show right so I should
00:02:43 --> 00:02:47 tell you right. This is a voice memos show and
00:02:47 --> 00:02:52 so There's not a lot of production value Right
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 if you want that there are apps like ferrite
00:02:55 --> 00:02:59 that make it easier to edit audio but For this
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 kind of show where I just want to just kind of
00:03:02 --> 00:03:06 like raw thoughts This is a great workflow save
00:03:06 --> 00:03:11 the audio to files send it to ChatGPT, and then
00:03:11 --> 00:03:16 upload it via Transistor. So I use an app called
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 TeachyTabs. This is a really niche app, but the
00:03:19 --> 00:03:22 cool thing about it is that it means, like it's,
00:03:22 --> 00:03:27 you can basically pin seven websites, easy access,
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 and it's always gonna maintain state. So you
00:03:30 --> 00:03:34 should theoretically never get logged out, which
00:03:34 --> 00:03:35 is nice because that, again, that just makes
00:03:35 --> 00:03:39 the process a little bit easier, so. I upload
00:03:39 --> 00:03:45 the audio, I upload the description, I upload
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 the transcript, and I publish. And that's it.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 That's really easy. So again, the components
00:03:50 --> 00:03:54 for this are the DJI microphone that plugs into
00:03:54 --> 00:03:59 my iPhone and the Whisper Memos app. Now I'm
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 recording a video for this as well. I have like
00:04:02 --> 00:04:06 a new... mobile rig setup that I'm testing out.
00:04:06 --> 00:04:07 I don't know if I'm going to release the video
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 or not. But as far as answering the question,
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 can you record a podcast from your phone? The
00:04:15 --> 00:04:22 answer is yes. The scope or the goal should change.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:27 And the reason I'm leaning into this strategy
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 is for a couple of reasons, right? I think that
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 people like behind the scenes content. So this
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 is not something I'm just releasing on my main
00:04:35 --> 00:04:40 feed for the Streamline Solopreneur. It's behind
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 an email signup form, right? So people have to
00:04:43 --> 00:04:47 give their email to get it. But it's free. It's
00:04:47 --> 00:04:51 a free private podcast. I wanted this to be low
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 effort. Like the main goal is that I won't do
00:04:54 --> 00:04:58 this if I have another podcast to edit. So I
00:04:58 --> 00:05:02 want it to be low effort. I want to see if I
00:05:02 --> 00:05:06 could grow my mailing list. Something that drove
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 this point home for me was when I was at Cabo
00:05:09 --> 00:05:16 Press, Luria Petrucci was talking about the thought
00:05:16 --> 00:05:22 leader content versus the real kind of influencer
00:05:22 --> 00:05:27 style content. And that's that is what kind of
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 crystallized this was two months after I launched
00:05:30 --> 00:05:35 the show but this gave me the confidence to keep
00:05:35 --> 00:05:39 going because when there's video content there
00:05:39 --> 00:05:43 is there's two types of content like Luria says
00:05:43 --> 00:05:45 there's the thought leader content which is what
00:05:45 --> 00:05:50 all of this gear that I use for my videos is
00:05:50 --> 00:05:55 for right my teleprompter and my $1 camera
00:05:55 --> 00:06:00 and lens or $1 camera and lens and the Shure
00:06:00 --> 00:06:04 SM7B with the Rodecaster Pro and the in -ear
00:06:04 --> 00:06:11 monitors and the very framed picture that I use
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 when I create these videos and the controlled
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 lighting. That's the thought leader video stuff,
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 right? The high quality stuff that is expected
00:06:20 --> 00:06:24 of high quality content. But then there's also
00:06:24 --> 00:06:29 this influencer content. The content that in
00:06:29 --> 00:06:34 the short form video world is just people recording
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 raw video from their phone and uploading it.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:41 The stuff that tells you they're real people.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:45 And I think the same thing can happen for podcasts,
00:06:45 --> 00:06:49 which is why I'm doing this voice memos style
00:06:49 --> 00:06:53 show. And I'm not the only one. Jay Klaus started
00:06:53 --> 00:06:57 doing this too, and he got the idea from another
00:06:57 --> 00:07:04 person, right? I got the idea from a casual conversation
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 I was having with a friend, and I thought, we're
00:07:06 --> 00:07:11 sending voice notes to each other. Voice notes
00:07:11 --> 00:07:13 feels like a really interesting way to make content.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:20 So... For podcast advent today, I've written
00:07:20 --> 00:07:24 a lot of long articles and today I just wanted
00:07:24 --> 00:07:28 to give you some insight into how I'm producing
00:07:28 --> 00:07:32 Joe's audio notes. And it really is just these
00:07:32 --> 00:07:37 three components, right? The whisper memos app,
00:07:37 --> 00:07:41 the DJI microphone, and then the ability to upload
00:07:41 --> 00:07:46 it from my phone to transistor. If you want a
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 show like that, you can definitely do it from
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 your phone. And I'll say that, you know, I know
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 like Stephen Robles edits his podcast on his
00:07:55 --> 00:08:01 iPad. I know that Jason Snell has done podcasting
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 from his iPad for his shows at the incomparable.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 I don't do a lot of editing for my show. I'm
00:08:08 --> 00:08:12 not quite ready yet to do something like that,
00:08:13 --> 00:08:17 but If you're looking for this short form audio
00:08:17 --> 00:08:22 content, voice memo style content, I think this
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 is a really good use case for it. So I hope you
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 enjoyed this episode. I'll probably release this
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 on Joe's Audio Notes as well as the Podcast Workflows.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 And if you have any questions, you can always
00:08:34 --> 00:08:38 head over to PodcastWorkflows .com and comment
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 on this article. But until next time, thanks
00:08:41 --> 00:08:42 so much for listening.