520. How Audio Branding Makes Your Podcast Stick

0:05 Marc Ronick: Good morning, Today is Tuesday, May the 19th, 2026 And today, if listeners can hear your podcast, but they aren't feeling it, Jody Krangle is here to help. We're exploring sound, storytelling, branding, and the audio choices that create real connection. So, if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, top right-hand side of the screen, and share it however And if you're catching us via podcast, YouTube, et cetera, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now, give us about 30 seconds, and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. The podcasting morning show is powered by Ironick Media, helping podcasters launch, polish, and grow great shows, and by Content creators build real business behind their Good morning again. Podcasting morning show.

1:22 Thank you so much for being here. I am your host, Mark Ronick. And currently on the virtual stage with me, we have bear with me, because I got to look in multiple places. Ralph Etep, Matt Bliss, D.R. Fay, who else do we have here? I'm, I think, is that everybody? Oh, Jason Cercone, of course, my my business partner from Empowered Podcasting, and a great podcaster. And look at this, we also have.. let me invite Phil Better up on stage as well. We've got Phil Better joining It's been a minute since he's been here. Of Jason Cercone: course, he's The Canadians won last Marc Ronick: That's right. There's a fellow Canadian, night. because our special guest today is Jody Krangle. Hello, Jody. How are you? Jody Krangle: I'm good. How are you? I'm Marc Ronick: great.

2:03 It's great to have you here. Before we get to Jody, let me share with you that it, we are still soliciting for our Spotlight series, so if you'd like your podcast to be featured on the Podcasting Morning Show for free, no strings attached. This is just a community thing we're doing to help support you, our fellow community member. Submit a 62nd clip about your show, something that gives people a feel for your podcast. And then, if we select it, we'll play your clip on a future episode, we'll share what stood out to us, and ultimately introduce your show to our community of podcasters and creators, so all you got to do is go to Podcasting Morning show.com/spotlight submit your introducing your show to us, show and a clip from it, we'll to make sure we're hearing from you, the host, and you're giving us an explanation of what your show's about, who it's for, etc. D.R.

3:04 Fay: I know we've gotten going to play the first one? Marc Ronick: I think, well, we played one last Friday, that was our first one that we played. The next one, I think we play this coming Friday. We're just trying to leave a little space for people to keep submitting. need more. We want to really do this right. So, submit yours, whether you are a regular co-host here or a casual listener. We will accept your entry. So, submit it at Podcasting Morning show.com/spotlight And with that, I'm going to hand the Go for Ralph Estep Jr: it. Good morning, everyone. And today we're excited to welcome Jody Krangle to the show. Jody's a professional voice actor, she's a singer, she's a podcaster, and an audio branding expert who's been working in voiceover since 2007 Now her voice has been trusted by major brands, including.. and listen to this list, I was amazed, Dell Fedex, Lint, and The CW Network, and she's also a Voice Arts Award winner from the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Narration Demo Reel.

4:13 Branding Podcast, where she branding, marketing, emotion, with that, what they hear. So, today we're going to talk to Jody about how podcasters can what professional voiceover can teach us about delivering connection, and how the right more memorable, more So, please join me in welcoming Jody Crangle to the Podcasting Morning Show today. Marc Ronick: Hello, Jody. Jody Krangle: Great intro, and Thanks for being here. Marc Ronick: Yes, Gabe is over, both in actually two places. Gabe is on Clubhouse and also watching on YouTube. Love that.

4:54 Jody Krangle: Oh, cool. Marc Ronick: Yeah, so yeah, Ralph, so I think you want to lead us off with our first question for Ralph Estep Jr: you. I do. being here. Now, your career seems to be a mix of voiceover, music, podcasting, and branding. How do you describe what you actually do every day? Jody Krangle: What I do every my job, that's my career, that's And the podcast kind of came out of that. I've been a voice actor since 2007 but my podcasting career kind of started in 2019 so I decided I was going to do a podcast about kind of why people don't pay enough attention to sound, because as a voice actor I was finding that I was the last person called on to a project, and it was disappointing for me, because I'm not a band aid, I'm not a bow on a present, I'm like, I should be my voice or someone like me, or the music, or something like that, the sound effects, whatever you're going to put on your commercial branding project, whatever the should not be an afterthought.

6:05 from the start. So, to me, it's if you're not baking it in from the start, you're leaving money on the table, because the emotion won't be there. You're not going to be able to reach people. You want people to feel this project, whatever it is, I tend to do things that are or less, so I stick in the short disappointing to me when I find that I'm an afterthought, because it shouldn't be an makes people feel you can get you can really appreciate the make you feel the way that sound Ralph Estep Jr: I agree with Jody. So, what came first for you, the love of sound, the love of music, or the love of using your voice, since you're using your voice every day, what came first? Jody Krangle: I've been singing since I was six, so, and I come from a very musical family, so we were always musical. We were always creating music at home, and I did it all through school, and as much as I can, I keep my fingers into little musical projects here and there, but it's not how I make my living, and the way that I came to understand how powerful the voice can be was through volunteering my time at the CNIB, so I read books, magazines, really onto reel to reel tape in 9596 for the

7:39 Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and I loved it. It was so much fun, and not only was it fun, but I actually enjoyed the tech, like even running the reel to reel, like that was fun for me. Marc Ronick: Yeah, I used to love being able to, you know, use those razor blades and cut it right in that precise spot, and yeah, I used to love doing that. Yeah, it was. Jody Krangle: Yeah, now I mean, I only did it for a year, so you know. Yeah, yeah, and it wasn't like once a week, I think I was there once a week for about a year, and I loved it. But I had no idea what voiceover was before that. I knew about radio DJs, I didn't know anything else, and I was doing SEO and internet marketing at the time, like 95 that was, I was an early adopter of the internet and had a songwriting website, so Muzik, and and I just didn't really decide to get into voiceover until 2007 and really because the remote options became more and more available because I'm living in a suburb, it's actually even beyond a suburb, they call it the GTA, so I'm north of Toronto, and Toronto was a mess, I'm not saying it's not a great city, I'm just saying that the roads and the parking and the one-way streets and all of that is a mess for anyone coming in from outside Jason Cercone: hockey kick this

9:13 morning, Jody Krangle: it's awful, it's just awful. So, if I don't have to drive into downtown Toronto, all the better, and also I have clients from all over the world. So, being in my home studio means I can connect with one person for half an hour, one person for an hour and a half, one person for 20 minutes after that, like you know, one after the other. I don't have to be traveling from studio to studio, it's all there. So, so it just makes it a lot easier for me to do what I do, and remote, really, I mean, it honestly didn't really get going until 2013 I even want to say, like, that was really when it became super easy for me to just stay home.

9:59 But before that, you know, had to be going into downtown Toronto all the time, and it was a bit painful. Marc Ronick: Well, let's dig all that with us. I didn't know some of that about you, so that's good to learn more about you, and I, you know, to be honest with you, wasn't until we were preparing for this interview that I didn't even really know that you were, your passion is singing, so this was cool to learn more about you, and yet doesn't surprise me with that voice. I think somebody in the chat here in on YouTube, I think, who was it? It was John that said something about how, or somebody said Gabe said, "Your voice is silky smooth. And actually, someone else Jody Krangle: asked about the mic, Marc Ronick: yeah. John asked about your mic.

10:44 Jody Krangle: Okay, so this is This is the mic that I use when I'm on podcasts. My inside mic is a Sennheiser 416 which is a $1,200 Marc Ronick: mic. Jody Krangle: So that's my job, that's my career, that's what I use when I'm doing voiceover, and it comes out pristine, like really nice, but this mic is a USB condenser mic. It's called a Hyper X, and if you are on a PC, you can make it whatever color you want it to be. If you're on a Mac, I believe it scrolls through the rainbow, and they have a black cased one and a white cased Marc Ronick: one. Okay, cool. Jody Krangle: $100 mic, it is not, yeah, Marc Ronick: right, right. Jason Cercone: I mean, you sound wouldn't you use the $1,200 mic for a podcast?

11:28 Marc Ronick: Yeah, Jody Krangle: because I wanted to be outside of my booth, so yeah, it's it's kind of in that space, and I don't want to be switching it over all the time, and also, I mean, hey, that looks pretty cool. Ralph Estep Jr: It's definitely a cool looking mic. I think cool looking mics are cool. I Marc Ronick: see that, Ralph. I see that with yours over there. Yes. And by the way, Jody Krangle: why not? Marc Ronick: Yeah, why not? And that other voice, that was Jason Circon. I know I introduced him, but not officially. I didn't say hello. So, if you're wondering who that voice was. If you're listening, that's my buddy Jason. All right, so let's let's talk a little bit about sound. Right, this is your area of expertise for sure.

12:11 When you talk about the power of sound, what do you wish more creators understood? What do you wish more podcasters understood about sound? Jody Krangle: That paying attention to it means that your listeners will pay attention to you longer. Marc Ronick: Expand on that. Yeah, Jody Krangle: well, okay. Part of part.. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, a lot of marketing podcasts specifically, and what I'm finding more often than not is that they're miles away from their microphone, and I can hear the echo of the room around them. I am not here to say that everyone needs to have absolutely pristine sound. If you're not a professional and what you can do. But one thing that will help you get better sound is just to be closer to your mic, and I am not asking the guests to worry about that.

13:06 That's up to the host to figure out, you know. If the guest sounds like they're in an echoey room, okay, fine, right? Because, like, not everybody has Marc Ronick: I mean, we even see they are okay with that, Jody Krangle: exactly. Yeah, but the host, Marc Ronick: right, Jody Krangle: the host needs to sound like they know what they're doing, and the host needs to be closer to their mic. I am not in a sound-treated room smaller room, but because I'm close to my mic, you're not hearing my room, and that's that's enough, that's all you need to do, so you know people who are, you know, wanting to keep the mic out of the picture or whatever, like that, get over it. Marc Ronick: Agreed, Jody Krangle: I don't care if it's in the, in the screen or whatever, it, you know, and I'm, podcast since episode 150 and it's been a while, and luckily I that, and I'm not the one doing the editing, but I have never been concerned with having a mic Doesn't it, doesn't matter, and the closer you are to that mic, the more rich your voice sounds, the more, the more you kind of sound like you know what you're doing.

14:24 Marc Ronick: Yeah, yeah. Good point. Great point, by the way. I did want to say also, what, what I find interesting is when we were talking about your microphone and sound being pristine, or whether that matters or not, and yours being a condenser microphone, I know that we here talk a lot about, we encourage newer podcasters that maybe don't have the sound environment to avoid those condenser mics, and so I just wanted to, did you want to speak with her question? Jody Krangle: Well, a condenser will pick up more nuance of the voice, so again you can. Block the problems that you might have with a condenser by being close enough to it, so a lot of the reason that people go with dynamic mics is because they don't want to worry about proximity or they don't want to worry about the sound of the room or noises that might come in around them or something like environment, if you're in a place where it might be noisy.

15:27 Yeah, sure. I mean, Dynamic Mike will muddy some of that, it won't let it come through all that nicely, but it also muddies your voice, so as a voice actor, I can't just. it's just it's I Ronick: even, even for a different mics, for I Jody Krangle: mean, yeah, it's a different mic, and it's a USB mic, as opposed to an XLR mic, you know, but, but no, I need a condenser, from that's for me, though, like I'm not, I'm not assuming everyone is the same as and and I just like the idea of being able to hear a proximity effect if you're close, and the idea of what that means is it kind of like deepens your voice, it makes it more resonant. It's an interesting effect that happens when you're closer to a mic, and I find that the condenser mics offer a little more nuance, you hear a little more clearly what the voice really sounds like.

16:30 Marc Ronick: Yeah, yeah, I know that one way that I like to do what you were just describing, technique is, you know, like positioned away from my mic, so you can hear right now what that sounds like, right? But sometimes when I want to get a little more intimate with the audience, when I really want to kind of pull them in regarding what I'm saying, I'll get in a little closer to the mic and I might even soften my voice a little bit more. Jody Krangle: It makes it more Yes, Marc Ronick: yeah, yeah. So, okay, we have several people that from the panel here that want to ask questions. We're gonna go to Dr. We're gonna go to Jason, and then we're gonna go to Matt Bliss. Go ahead, Dr. D.R. Fay: You stole my question It was about the condenser versus the dynamic, and yeah, as go with the dynamic. There's, you know, let's get over that learning curve that a condenser might take, and just go with the dynamic. It's going to be fine for you right now. I'll fix it in the post, you know. Marc Ronick: Yeah, I think with us with podcasting to your point, Dr. I agree with you.

17:40 And back to Jody's point, I agree with Jody, where you know it's different strokes for different folks, right? You may have different preferences, different reasons for it, and I think it's different types of mics if sounds best for you and your All right, so then this means we're going to go to Jason, and then Matt Bliss. Go ahead, Jason. Jason Cercone: I want to go back the mic being out of the people that have said that their the mic is in picture. And we can open this to the whole panel and to the whole room. What do you think about that? Is there any logic or any science to a microphone being in your screen that makes you appear to be even smarter than you actually are, Jody Krangle: you know. What, let me relate this to something sound-related that I actually studied in one of my podcasts, and that is that we actually assume that things aren't working if they don't, like for instance a leaf blower, if it's not loud, we assume it's not working, or if a hair dryer, if we.. if it's not loud enough, we assume it's not working right. So, if the mic is in the picture, unconsciously or subconsciously, maybe people are I don't know, like it.

19:03 like that. I don't think, honestly, that it, it's the thing about it being in the picture that's the issue. I just want the sound to be better. Marc Ronick: Yeah, agreed. Ralph Estep Jr: I actually had because I hired a publicist, and together, she said, Ralph, she shotgun mic, because I said I do audio as well, but I do video. you put the mic in the shot, it gives you street cred, and I was like, well, that, and I hadn't really thought about that, and we did some testing, and she's absolutely right, and because I was so hesitant, because I didn't want the microphone in the shot, so I spent a lot of money on a nice se, and it's great, like it sounds great, but this microphone that I'm using now is the Heilfin, and it just gives street cred. So I think there's something be said for that, Jason, as well as answering what you were saying to Jason. Alex Ballish: I think it's just more nostalgia, more than anything else, and I think that's what people have to just get over.

20:00 Yeah, and I think even if you used a shotgun mic, if that's doing the job for you, Ralph, and you wanted to have that other mic in the shot, and just as good as anything else, you know, a lot of other people have put that old style mic, because people like Jody said is believing it, kind of thing. Marc Ronick: Thank you, Alex Bailish. Welcome to the stage, by the way. And Tim, before I get to you, Matt, Tim puts in the clubhouse chat, what does Jody recommend for guests in order to keep their vocal cords lubricated and to help prevent mouth noises? So, Jody, hold, we're going to go back to that question after we hear from Matt, but let's just plant that seed now.

20:44 Matt, what was your question? Matthew Bliss: I don't like being the guy who says, "Hey, that was a great segue, but that Okay, none D.R. Fay: of my Matthew Bliss: question was going to be related to you talking about using a USB condenser mic in the ideal environment. There's probably a lot of things that you've practiced over time, Jody, that you do with your voice and your mouth, and setting yourself up for success in what is probably a fairly standard one. Because if I plopped some beginner podcaster sitting where you're sitting right now, I'd say it wouldn't sound as ideal as it does on your own voice. So, have you got anything, any of the big ones that you might reflect on over the last couple of decades of work don't speak Jody Krangle: directly into the mic, so the reason that it works so well with where I'm seated and where my mic is, and people who aren't seeing it won't realize what is happening here, I'm actually talking diagonally across the mic, I'm not talking directly into it.

21:43 Yeah, hear the pop. Yeah, hear the pop. Right, Marc Ronick: you can even just hear a difference. Just Jody Krangle: all I did was turn my head. Yeah. Okay. So really, it's all about where the mic is placed, and it can be close to you, but if it's directly in front of you and all the air is popping into that mic directly right on, and you don't have a, even if you have, like, a guard, you know, it's not, not gonna sound as good. So, yeah, it's all about mic placement, it really is. Matthew Bliss: But let's say, I don't want to take credibility from you, Jody, like there are things that a voice actor does with their, their mouth, like you probably have done anti-sibilance practice, and Jody Krangle: yeah, works teeth and things like that. Jody Krangle: There are, there are some ways to prevent that. I know that I do have sibilance if I am in my studio, and I have to sort of sometimes I have to take care of it in post, because there's just, you know, there's only so much you can do, but what you can do is place some, like a finger in front of your lips, kind of like this, and it sort of parts the air a little bit, or use a pencil or something like that. I've known a lot of people to do that to make them make less explosive peas, for instance, like, you know, it blocks it from being too, too much, so there are ways to do that, and we'll get into mouth clicks and stuff like that with the next question, but, but yeah, there are techniques, but again, these days it's so easy to take

23:15 care of and post that, you know, I don't know a lot of voice actors now who worry about Marc Ronick: So, then, yeah, here. So, he's asking about keeping vocal cords lubricated to help those mouth noises. So, you talked a little bit about positioning being helpful, but what can you tell us about lubrication on our vocal cords? Jody Krangle: Well, you need to have had water at least 20 minutes before you're going to because your vocal cords need to moistened. I don't know, that's not a great word to use, but they need that time to absorb the moisture, and it doesn't happen if you're sipping water while you're talking, that just makes it worse.

24:05 Also, I have heard, and I have done this myself, and it does work that green apples, like just biting into a green apple, will get rid of a lot of mouth noise. D.R. Fay: It helps a lot, Marc Ronick: personally. Jody Krangle: Oh, yeah, and it does work. It totally works. Marc Ronick: Yeah, that's Jody Krangle: It's the pectin in that, like there's something all of that away. So, if you really need to do that, you know that's an option. Marc Ronick: Yeah, Jody Krangle: yeah, everyone's different. Like, some people are on medication that makes it Some people have ventures, like, there's like there's all sorts of reasons why this might happen, so you just have to find the things that work best for you, but there are a number of options. Marc Ronick: Thank you, Jody.

24:53 And by the way, I guess Matt, you owe a thank you. I guess you got a new listener because John just put in the chat on Clubhouse. That he subscribed to your podcast, Matt. I guess the question you asked, or the things that you're saying, was enough for him to hit that subscribe button. So, and by the way, let me say that since we're following our fellow creators here, I want to share with you to go visit Jody's website. Jody, you want to give the URL for everybody? Jody Krangle: Right, when I was taking a sip.. Oh, Marc Ronick: I'm so sorry, I have looked. Jody Krangle: No worries, I am at Voiceovers and vocals.com The podcast is at Audio Branding podcast.com if people want to check it out directly, but it is All right, so go check Jody out for sure.

25:39 I think Ralph, you had a question. Ralph Estep Jr: Yeah, I just there, too. I keep this on my, in my studio, it's called Biotine Dry Mouth Spray, and I use this a couple of times when I'm doing recording, and I have found it to be fantastic, for you get that dry mouth, you get that cracking, but I'm not trying to promote it, I don't have an affiliate link with them, it's literally here on my desk, here in my studio, I found it to be really useful, but Jody, I wanted to pivot a little bit. So, when podcasters hear the word audio branding, which is what you talk about on your show all the time, they might instantly think, well, that's just the intro music, but what does auto audio branding actually include? What does it mean? Jody Krangle: It's a pretty wide related that people would that you say at the beginning out. People get used to hearing you say that phrase, and if you don't say it, they want to hear it. They ask you about it.

26:36 There's certain music that There are segments, maybe segment sounds that go in between things inside of your podcast? It's, it's a whole bunch of things, and it's also the personality of the host, so, or the co-host and the host, you know, like, there, there's there are things that the hosts do that make people feel comfortable, and a lot of that is in the sound of their they ask questions, in how they segue, you know, all sorts of interesting things that make to, and honestly, people listen to podcasts, maybe for the information at first, but they they're there. Marc Ronick: Yeah, absolutely.

27:26 Ralph Estep Jr: So, Jody, thought about this before. What are three sound decisions they should make on purpose? Jody, Jody Krangle: first thing I would say is be close to your mic, because that will make you sound a lot better, and the proximity effect will probably be there, so they'll get the full effect of your voice, and you want that to be intimate, because you are talking in someone's ear, that's kind of how this works, so that would be number one, number two would be to have some kind of an intro, it does not have to be long, it doesn't even have to have music if you don't want it to, although that is a nice way to differentiate the intro from the rest of the podcast. And my other suggestion, I've, because I was listening to a lot of marketing podcasts, and I was hearing what they were doing teaser intro, and I think that's be two minutes long. If you're gonna do an intro a minute or less is great, you know?

28:30 When someone starts to wonder, well, is this the actual podcast or what's going on here? Like, they did an intro, they didn't do anything, what's going on? When they start to question that you know it's too long, and I came across that in several me. So that's just one thing. Well, I guess, yeah, I mean, you can have it in the outro, but I think if you mention how people can subscribe, like where they can find you, et cetera, earlier on in the podcast, as opposed to little more bang for your buck. I'm not saying don't have it at the end, but also have it somewhere else. Marc Ronick: Yeah, okay, cool.

29:15 So, what should a podcast sound communicate before the host even Jody Krangle: Well, the sound what you're doing and why you're So I think that is very important. Marc Ronick: Yeah, take a second adjust. Take a second. My wire here. Yeah, I am wired in, so actually that's another thing I could mention. Being wired in to your of some kind that are actually immensely, because then you can turn off your echo cancelation, and echo cancelation takes your audio and.

29:59 Muffles it and doesn't let people talk over each other, and it just ruins it in general. So, you really don't want it. Marc Ronick: I think that's a people a way to connect it with what you're saying. Is it's common that Zoom has that turned on, and you'll hear when you're having those Zoom calls when you're one person's talking, the and the other person's talking at the same time. One of them is almost muted, and they're trying to get in their words, and you can't follow it, and it makes it very confusing. And that's one reason why a lot of people discourage Zoom as a tool for recording podcasts. I will say, I wouldn't discourage it, as long as you know how to tweak the settings appropriately. Jody Krangle: Yeah, there's a sound like sound for musicians or something like Marc Ronick: that. I turn that on, Jody Krangle: turn that on. Marc Ronick: I can't remember much better. Okay, so it's turning it on.

30:52 That's what Jody Krangle: it is. Yeah, you want to turn that on, because I think that turns off the echo cancelation and all of that stuff, although you can go in and drill down and find it, but also I have had issues with people who connected using iPods or light AirPods or whatever, because it's constantly seeking the Wi-Fi, and when it's doing that, it's interrupting the audio, so I got absolutely horrendously horrible audio from my guest, because they were using AirPods or anything Wi-Fi that had to constantly connect to their computer. It just made it so bad. So, please, please, if you're going to do it, be wired in and wear something in your ear, like I'm wearing Bose noise-canceling headphones right Okay, like they're in ear buds, yep, but they're noise canceling, and I have a really long extension cord, and it goes I didn't want to look like exactly, yeah. But you can get away with it that way, yeah. Marc Ronick: All right.

32:00 Well, Matt Bliss has another question. Go ahead, Matt. Matthew Bliss: I just wanted to add a corollary to what you were saying there about the wireless and having cables. I would say that I like to think that I'm the best at that, being working with audio as long as I have, but I have been an instance where I didn't check my devices before getting into a virtual session, and the problem with using a separate earphone that can't monitor your own signal means that you can't check unless someone tells you if you're on the wrong microphone. So, in the middle of a recording nothing over-ear Bluetooth earphones, and unfortunately, halfway through the episode, manually turn the microphone off Riverside would then decide it mic, and then I was crossing my fingers, because I was like, come on, pick the mic I want, you can't switch them in the corollary to what you said you've picked a wired device, knows that you've selected that device as the one that you intend to use. Jody Krangle: That is such a good point. And I will say also that I'm on a Windows PC machine, Windows 10, actually.

33:17 I love this machine, it's a huge, it's a very expensive build that I did many years ago, and I have no intention of changing it or going to a Mac or anything like that. Everybody keeps trying to urge me to go to a Mac. Marc Ronick: Dr. can relate. Jody Krangle: Yeah, so frustrating. I've been on a PC since DOS, so I am not switching. There's. it's not happening. Okay, but what that means is, though, that you need to check your sound settings really every time that you go into a new session. So, when I am using my in-booth setup, it seems to hold its position, it seems to hold its settings, and I don't have to worry about it, but this one, because I am constantly going from bone conducting earbuds that I wear all over, like every day, that's..

34:10 I don't even.. I just don't take them off, I just wear them all day, and I'm plugged in, right? And when I use this, I have to make sure that the audio settings are set so that you can actually hear the mic, because PC, for some reason, or Windows, it suppresses the sound back to like an eight from a 59 and I have to constantly make sure that I am looking at that. I once went into a session with a guest who was a fantastic sound design person, and knew his stuff, and sounded great, and I had not checked my mic before I went into that session, putting it all together, I was so soft, and he had put the gain Fay: Wow, Jody Krangle: so yeah, just make sure that you check your settings before you go into a recording session.

35:05 I mean, if any recording session, but yeah, make sure you check. Marc Ronick: You know what's funny, Jody, is I find it funny that, and I get it, that you're interested in hiding the wires from your headphones, but not your, but your microphone, you're cool with being in the shot. Like, why is that? Jody Krangle: You know what, being, Marc Ronick: the other you're trying to avoid. It's like, I'll just keep it all in at that Jody Krangle: mic being here. headphones on my head. Marc Ronick: Yeah, I don't. I get Jody Krangle: it. I have nice hair, that Marc Ronick: you do have nice hair, you do go for it, Ralph.

35:48 Ralph Estep Jr: All right, Jody. Thank you, that's a great conversation there. So, I got a question for, as a professional voice actor, what do you do before recording that podcasters usually skip, and we could start to do to be more effective in our delivery, Jody Krangle: that is a really I mean, before I go into a session in voiceover, I make sure I know the script, and when I say no, I don't mean memorized, I mean I am familiar with it, I know how to pronounce I know how it all fits together, I know what the timing should be, so for me that is preparing for a session, and of course being hydrated, and all of that stuff. But when it comes to podcasting, you do your show, because a lot of people do have set questions that they go through, and they know stuff the way that I do my show is I have a list of questions. I always do the first one the same, so I always ask my guests if they have an early memory of how sound moved them. That's my first question for everyone, because I want us to have a sound discussion, and once I do that, everything else is kind of gravy, because we're in a discussion, and I want to follow their threads.

37:06 So, I mean, my advice to anyone who doesn't actually just go through set questions is to actively listen. Just make sure that you're listening to what your guest is saying, and think about the people who are listening to your podcast, and what they might want to know more about. So, for instance, if they're layperson may not understand, you know, ask them that Ralph Estep Jr: Jody, I want to follow up a little bit, because where I was going with that, and clear on that, I just finished working with a speech coach, and one of the things she wrote with me is about breath and pacing, emphasis, and energy, and as a voice, you know, actor, I'm assuming those are all part of the skill that goes into doing those things for Dell and Lint and the CW numbers. How can we, as non-professional voice over people, start to develop that skill set, Jody Krangle: practice? do it enough times, and it just becomes natural, but yeah, breath control, I mean, that's always a thing. Yeah, it's hard for me to say, because I'm not a coach, and I do a lot of this stuff unconsciously, so it's hard for me to put into words exactly how I would suggest other people do it, but knowing yourself is really key to all of this, because people want your authentic self. They don't want you to put on a voice. So, me telling you that you need to rely on vocal techniques or something, or it's just

38:38 going to make you sound like a bad radio DJ, I don't want you to do that, you know. Voiceover doesn't want you to do that. Marc Ronick: Yeah, so, so then, how much of voiceover is because I'm about to ask this question because I know so many, especially new podcasters that can't stand their voice, Jody Krangle: right? Marc Ronick: They just hear it How much of voice over is having versus knowing how to perform? Jody Krangle: Oh, it's like 5% to 90% Like 5% is about as much as they're gonna pay attention to the sound of your voice. Yeah, that's great, but if you don't get the script, if you don't connect with what you're saying, if you're not actually having a conversation, they're not going to hire you. So it's all, yeah, it's nice to have a nice voice, but it can actually work against you in some instances. If I'm too polished in a way, when it doesn't call for polished in a particular ad, or whatever, I need to dial it just depends on what your style is, and I understand that people don't like the sound of their voice on recordings, because recordings are completely objective, recordings take your voice outside of the resonance of your own head and. Make it an objective audio experience. They just put it out there, and my suggestion to that is, yes, get more used to hearing

40:09 your voice, and it will annoy you less. But as you do this more often, you're going to get more effective at what you do. It's just going to come to you more naturally. So, just doing it over and over again is going to make it better, but, but also, it's sometimes I hate to say it, If you don't like the sound of your voice, maybe you should look into a different mic, and you know that's not always the case, but it's something to think about, Ralph Estep Jr: yeah. Talking my language, spend some money. I love it. Jody Krangle: It doesn't have This is like $100 mic. This is not an expensive mic.

40:50 There are many very inexpensive mics that you could experiment with. You do not have to spend a lot of money. The only way I spend money in my booth is because people pay me. So, if Ralph Estep Jr: you were going to spend a lot of money, and we're going to pivot to AI in a second, but if you're going to spend a lot of money on a microphone, Jody, what would you spend money on? Like, what? Because obviously the more you spend, the better quality you get. This is beyond a straight, though. Jody Krangle: I'm not saying you I will say that there are, I would say, maybe like three or four tiers of mics, like you probably have, like a lower level 100, $250 mics that all generally sound sort of the same, have kind of the same feel to them, depending on whether they're condenser or completely different feel get up to like the 300 to $500 little bit of a step up, those voiceover, for instance, I had think it was when I first mic at the time, it's probably workhorse, and it did great Now, of course, it was a condenser mic, so you know I'm talking about condensers here, but dynamics, I'm sure, have the same kind of scale, and then you get into like the $1,000

42:22 to $3,000 mics, and those are something special. And honestly, for podcasting, I don't think it's worth it. I would not suggest anyone go unless you're making a living Sure, yeah, Jody Krangle: there's no reason otherwise, but you can get even more than that, like, there are $20,000 mics that you would see in a studio, like, yeah, wow, that's insane, yeah, Marc Ronick: wow, okay, yeah. Let's see here, I'm trying to figure out how I want to orchestrate it, because I know that Ralph just teased it. We want to get into AI and synthetic voices and the future of audio in that regard, first, I want to, Matt, I'm going to actually ask, if you don't mind, I'm going to move, push forward a little bit, because I know we're short on time.

43:07 Ralph and I were talking that we thought it would be important to ask you a little bit about sound auditing with your podcast, right? So, if you were auditing a podcast sound, or maybe your very own podcast, if you were auditing it. What do you listen for first? Jody Krangle: I listen to the If I can understand the discussion and the levels aren't changing all the time, there are a whole bunch of different things to think about, but levels are a big one, because people who might be listening in their car or listening when they can't adjust the volume, they need to know that they can just listen straight through and not have to Yeah, so that's a big one. I agree with Marc Ronick: you.

43:53 I agree with you, because, yeah, especially when you have a show like ours, which I know not a lot of people do, where there's so many voices, leveling becomes really important, because definitely to sit there and, like you were talking about, ride that volume control constantly, and give up. I mean, it's too much of a pain, especially like if you're in a car or you're doing your laundry, listening to have to constantly - it gets annoying as a listener. So, I think I agree with you, that would be definitely one of my first suggestions, Jody Krangle: yeah. Also, recording in a quiet space, and I'm not even talking about being close to your mic, that's a given. Okay, please be close to your mic. But when it comes to sounds, like if I'm listening to a podcast and I hear a constant cat meow, like, come on, come on, Marc Ronick: right?

44:41 Right, Jody Krangle: like, unless that's a feature, Marc Ronick: right? Unless you're doing a podcast about cats, like that might work, Jody Krangle: or your cat is the co-host, and you've made her or him the co-host, go for it, right? Like, if that's you can make it work for you, but otherwise regular, like noises and. Bangs and people are often these things. I've had this happen with some of my guests, where they're fidgeting with something on the table, and I can hear it, and I have to, or they're moving back and forth, or you know, their foot is tapping, or something like that, and it's like I can hear it, and I know it's going to be on the recording, and I have to tell, I making this noise, and you really don't want to be doing that. So, listening for that kind of thing, and hopefully nipping it in the bud before it becomes a problem, is really the idea. You don't want to record it if you don't have to, but if you have it in your recording, there are various ways to get rid of it, but yeah, don't just leave it in, Marc Ronick: right? Okay, Jody Krangle: if you can do something about it, don't just leave it in, it becomes very annoying. Marc Ronick: So, before we get into AI, my last question around this whole sound audit question, sounding overproduced? Jody Krangle: Oh, that is a good hurt our ears. If it's annoying, then it's

46:13 not going to work in your favor. If it's clean enough that you can get what you need, and you sound like you're close enough to your mic. Your room isn't completely echoey, and you haven't cut off words. Like I was auditing something just recently, where clearly they let the AI just go words were cut off at the end, cancelation, like you could hear someone else's recording, and stripped the music from the back to earlier episodes, I knew what the heck just happened It was just like, first of all, audit your recording, like don't just let it go before you listen to it, because some things can come through that you maybe didn't think came through.

47:13 perfect. I'm not saying you have to be perfect. I'm saying the sound should be good enough that you can get what you need from the podcast without it becoming a thing, Marc Ronick: yeah, yeah. Jody Krangle: If it can fade sound good, and you have some kind of sound, and you have that you can, you know, show all you need, and the rest of it your own voice and what you say and how you sound and what your mannerisms are. Marc Ronick: Yeah, and I think that's it. I think if we embrace that, if we're confident in that, that really comes through to the audience. Yeah.

47:58 All right, I'm gonna first let me just say, by the way, Happy Clubhouse anniversary to Dave. I just noticed he has the little Happy anniversary, Dave and Gabe. I'm going to try to get to your question in the YouTube chat, if I can, but first, Ralph and I want to lead us into a little bit of a discussion around AI. Go for it, Ralph. Ralph Estep Jr: Yeah, Jody, I week, and I know you've been you've talked about AI's emphasize the importance of So, where do you see this balance? How do you see AI helping podcasters right now? And what does it look like for your industry as a voiceover person?

48:39 bit of a shock to the system. definitely a concern, and I will say that at this point I kind of consider voice over to be a bespoke service, so it's something that people pay for when they want the connection, when they want a human emotion, and the thing about a human voice over is that we can layer on emotions in one word, right? You say things when we talk to each other as human beings, we don't just have one emotion in our voice, we have many emotions, you know. You can have sadness with a bit of wryness and a little bit of mischief, you know, like you can have all of these things in one sentence, and AI can't do that yet.

49:23 I'm not assuming it will never be able to, but AI, in the sense that we're using it now, is derivative. It is. It kind of extrapolates what would most likely come next, so it doesn't truly connect. It doesn't have a lived human experience, and when you're advertising, when you're these are important things to experiencing your brand. You don't want to cheap out on that, unless you have to. I mean, there are some people who are tiny, and they just want to get the word out, and they're going to make their whole. Ad in AI, and okay, fine. They never would have hired me anyway. I know that, right?

50:06 Right, but for people who care about the connection, that's when you hire human, and you know there are various aspects of that. There are various levels of that, but I would say that AI is great for creativity, not great for product. Sorry, it's great for productivity. Pardon me. Marc Ronick: Yeah, Jody Krangle: erase that bit. Marc Ronick: Yeah, Jody Krangle: for productivity, it's not great for creativity. It gives you the middle of the road. It's the American idol of creativity, right? Because it always gives you the middle of the road, most expected thing. And I know creatives in the advertising industry that will ask AI what it would suggest, and then go and do completely the opposite thing, because, Marc Ronick: yeah, that's a good unexpected, right? You don't want to do what's expected, Marc Ronick: yeah. And, or, do you have any concern, because, yeah, it's right now we can safely say, like, what you're, what you're describing, that if we want emotion, if we want that human element, we go and hire somebody human, right? But are you concerned that we're going to get to a point sooner than later that AI is going to be able to convey that human side, that emotional side, through voice, Jody Krangle: the AI, as it exists now, no.

51:25 Honestly, because it's emulating, it's not being so. When AI actually gains consciousness, maybe that would be an issue, but it doesn't have consciousness right now. It's just an algorithm extrapolating what the next most likely thing would be, that's all it's doing, so we call it AI, but it's not really AI, it's just processing things much quicker than we could as human beings, and when that becomes just its baseline and it moves to something else, well, then yeah, I think we have to worry about a lot more than just replacing voiceover, Marc Ronick: yeah, Jody Krangle: there's a lot more that goes into that, yeah, but, but right now, no, I'm not worried that it's going to, it can sound human light, but it doesn't sound human, and in small doses, it, you may not be able to tell the difference, but I interviewed a fellow named Joe actually is a neurologist, like he's a marketing neurologist, that's what he does, and his indicated that even if we don't consciously understand that it's an AI, we subconsciously behind that, because we are not getting a connection, we're not feeling, we're not feeling, Marc Ronick: yeah, Jody Krangle: like that's the problem. And I think if you're in advertising, marketing, and you want, because people

52:58 what you want. Marc Ronick: Yeah, Jody Krangle: and a forgotten advertisement is a failed advertisement. Marc Ronick: So, my next you ever consider licensing your Like, having AI use your voice, would you ever do that? Jody Krangle: I've done it. Marc Ronick: Oh, you have. Jody Krangle: Yeah, okay. With a specific location, and for me, having entire licensing control, Marc Ronick: okay, Jody Krangle: that's the The there are a whole bunch of different options out there for people to license their voice. A lot of them have to do with subscription services, and you paying a subscription service, and then you have access to whatever voices over the period of a month, or whatever, that does not pay the voice actor anything.

53:44 It doesn't. It just doesn't. It's like Spotifying our voice for me, like you know what Spotify did to musicians. You know, subscriptions are doing that to voice over, and that's just not.. I don't even want a part of that. So, because what I do is licensed, like a photograph is licensed, like a piece of music is licensed. I'm not giving my time for dollars. That's not what this is about. they have to pay to use that That's dependent on how many people are hearing it, where they're hearing it, how long they're hearing it, in what medium they're hearing it. That's all dependent on that.

54:28 And if I have control over what I allow to license, I'm fine with whatever AI doesn't matter to me, as long as they're paying. They wouldn't pay a session fee because they wouldn't be paying me a session because I wouldn't be there, but they're still paying to license my voice. Marc Ronick: Okay, fair enough. other questions around AI I know Jason's gonna chime in here in a second, but just wanted to make sure if anyone had any other AI-related questions. Okay. Ralph Estep Jr: Hey, Mark, Mark, for one second. It won't take but 30 seconds, go. For I know on one of your shows, Jody, you talked about how a lot of voice actors are in this chase to the bottom now because of AI, and I like what you said. You actually said this is an opportunity for us to actually charge more, and it's an opportunity for us to be able to be that human connection and make those high - I'm gonna say high ticket dollars, but, but honestly, that's what it is, right?

55:19 I mean, people have to few seconds ago. They weren't going to pay me anyway, and as the money guy on the show, I love it when people say, 'Listen, I have a skill, I have a talent, pay me for what I know how to do. So I just wanted to champion it, but I wanted to give you a second to talk about that. Jody Krangle: Yeah, no, I Yeah, what I was talking about with it being bespoke is, I mean, people pay for bespoke, right? You could go into $1 store and buy a $5 mug, but if you go to Walmart, sure, like you'll pay a little more, but if you go to like a local craft market or something, you might pay $25 for that's a really low end for what you get, and human Also, when you're making an AI four hours to make something Right now, if you don't have the money to pay a voice actor, I understand, you know, not everybody does.

56:14 It's, you know, if you're a small business and you just want I understand AI has its uses, but if you hire a voice actor, the reason you're hiring a voice actor is also for efficiency, because I can get take you three to four hours to do with an AI, and it'll sound great. Yeah, it isn't just gonna sound acceptable, like that's what people pay me for, yeah, yeah. Marc Ronick: All right. Well, then here's what we'll do. Thank you for that, Jody. And let's wrap it up. Jason's got something that he found in the chat that he's gonna ask you. Go ahead, Jason. Jason Cercone: Yeah, this is a, I guess, a lighter way to wrap things up, and it's something about before, so I'm excited to hear the answer as well.

57:01 This comes from Gabe. Has Jody ever done a voice reading that made her laugh so much that she had to record it multiple times? Jody Krangle: Yeah, definitely. honestly, it's the more touching record many different times. So, as a voice actor, you kind of need to have that empathy on like supercharge, because you need to understand what the gist of the script is, where it's trying to take you, what emotions people want to feel, what the people who wrote that script want people to feel when they experience the end project, and a lot of times I do a lot of hospital work, I do a lot of healthcare work, and I can never get bogged down in the oh my god, this is so awful of it, because people don't want that, they want hope, they want, they don't want you to be light about it, but they don't want you to be overly dramatic and deep and dark and upset, right? They want you to be hopeful.

58:07 So, I've seen some scripts that come to me where, oh my god, this person's going through such an awful time, and like watching the video, looking at what's going on in this person's life, I'm don't know, I'm sure a lot of to speak when you're crying. scripts that have taken me in sort of like almost take a step back, because if I'm too involved in it, I can get too place to come at it from either, to be very careful about how much empathy I feel for what's going on, Marc Ronick: yeah, Jody Krangle: otherwise I wouldn't be able to speak, so yeah, but I mean, you come from that place, you come from a place of humanity of feeling badly for these people and wanting to help, Marc Ronick: yeah. Jody Krangle: And so that's where I have to take it. That's that's where the hope comes in. Marc Ronick: So that's Voice Overs and vocals.com If you want to hear some of Jody's work, see And if you're there, you could also go to Voice Overs and vocals.com/podcast to learn about her audio branding podcast. Jody, thank you so much.

59:30 We finally got you on the show after all this time, and I guess that's due to our change, our time change, that's part of Jody Krangle: it, right? Marc Ronick: So, the 8am is getting great guests like you. knowledge and expertise, sharing We really appreciate you. Jody Krangle: Thank you so much for having me here. It was so much fun. Marc Ronick: Yeah, and thanks I know you've been popping in here and listening and joining us in the chats and all that. So, thank you. It's been great to have. Jody Krangle: Here at eight, Marc Ronick: yes. Agreed, agreed. Trust me, it only took four years of torturing myself to realize that Jody Krangle: we got to learn the hard way. Marc Ronick: Yes, and I want to remind everybody that we are back tomorrow at 8am Eastern We are covering all the headlines around the world of podcasting, talking news, and giving you our thoughts and opinions on some of these stories that we'll cover.

1:00:23 So, join us tomorrow. You can do that by going to Podcasting Morning show.com/join us. And until then, make it a great day, everybody. Take care.