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.
Get this and every article at https://podcastadvent.org
★ Support this podcast ★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.