Audio Branding Jodi Krangle

“You know, 'do you have any advice for me?' And I say, 'Yeah go write one hundred bad songs. Go finish them. Because that's going to do way more for your career, even though you think they're like really bad songs.' I'm like, 'yep, you got to get through those to write the one that's going to actually start a fire for you. I'm not saying you have to put them out, you know. Just go write them. Go give me the draft. Give me the worst draft you can on anything you know.' And the older I get the more I'm just like 'Oh how much time did I waste.'" -- Casey Cavaliere
 
This episode’s the second half of my conversation with record producer, musician, and artist coach Casey Cavaliere as we talk about the art of creating an experience, how the secret to writing good songs is to write bad ones, and the surprising truth he learned about being a DIY artist.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House, at 2pm Eastern every Wednesday. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest Clubhouse rooms will be about. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.
 
Spreading Like Wildfire
As the second half of our discussion begins, we talk about all the different musical communities and genre niches there are in the social media landscape. “There are an infinite number of different sub-communities right?" Casey notes. "The Venn diagram is wildly rich." He tells us about how he’s working to connect different aspects of the music industry for mutual benefits that might not be apparent at a glance, and how the future of music and fan communities will, as he says, “be through messages, art, ideas reaching those communities and then spreading like wildfire.”
 
The Perfect Release
We also talk about some of the pitfalls that new artists run into when putting out their first album or starting their career, including worrying too much about getting everything right on the first try. “Not taking action and spending too much time trying to craft the perfect plan,” Casey says, “craft the perfect release... that just doesn’t exist.” He also tells us about his firsthand experience as a ‘DIY artist,’ and how he found out the hard way that the acronym doesn’t mean you should tackle everything alone. “I learned very early on that it was not a sustainable model to do everything myself.”
 
Getting to Episode 100
Casey also tells us about his podcast The Record Process and how it offers a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into making a record, from the band to the cover art to the studio engineers and production team. “We try to flip that camera,” he says, “and give you, at least every season, you know, a whole 360 look at what a record looks like from all the kinds of people who have a hand in it.” We talk about creative ‘resistance’ and his steps for pushing through it, and about how important it is to keep a long-term view of your dream when you’re starting out, whether you’re an indie...

“I just want to try to take a more thoughtful, mindful approach to helping artists think for themselves and become self-sustaining. Because the industry is going to change. The things we’re talking about right now are going to be either way more relevant or way less relevant ten years from now.  But I want you to be able to gain the tools and frameworks for kind of going through and saying ‘Hey well, how do I talk to this label? How do I pitch this label.’ And being like ‘Hey a better idea is, let’s flip the lens and put your hat on in a way that allows you to think about what behooves them and what their objectives are.’ And that’s maybe a better pitch.” -- Casey Cavaliere
 
This episode’s guest is an American record producer, musician, and artist coach. His creative work ethic has been sculpted by a career spanning over two decades with his band The Wonder Years, including multiple Billboard chart-topping releases, extensive global touring, and the mentorship of music industry heavyweights. His mission outside of the studio and the stage is to help educate and inspire a new generation of independent artists by teaching them how to think critically about the way they market, promote, and brand themselves and their music.
His name is Casey Cavaliere and I think you’ll find him incredibly inspiring. I know it’s tough out there for musicians right now, but the best is yet to come, and this discussion will help demystify what it takes to be a working musician.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House, at 2pm Eastern every Wednesday. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest Clubhouse rooms will be about. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.
 
Can We Plug This In?
We start the show off with a look back at Casey’s memories of sound, and the big impression that his dad’s role as a bass player in a classic ‘70s rock band made on him as a child. “And I was like ‘Dad, can we plug this in?’" Casey recalls. “He’s like ‘honestly, I don’t even know if it still works, but I guess we can try.’ And we did, and boy did it still work” As he puts it, “I just didn’t stand a chance after that.” He tells us about living his lifelong dream as a professional musician, and how the thought of it being his career still leaves him in awe. “I still can’t believe it myself,” he says, “but it’s been, you know, the better part of two decades in a band from Philadelphia called The Wonder Years”
 
Your Own Shiny Object
Casey talks about the most rewarding part of his career as a musician and how it’s led him to help other artists who are just starting out. “I wake up every day,” he says. “and still have such gratitude to see the impact that we’ve been able to make, even in our little sub-world of punk rock and alternative music.” We also discuss the impact online platforms have made over the years, and how, as he puts it, artists should look past this or that “shiny object” to find their own value and approach to...

“So a lot of times they feel like they have to pack this thing with so much dense information. I'm like, dude, you have 30 minutes and you have three of those to hook somebody and you still need to leave a little bit for Q&A. You still need to leave a little bit for engagement. So if you're not going to answer everybody's question about something highly technical in the span of a podcast or the span of a technical talk, the span of an explainer video, you always have to get them to that act. They need to take a step and learn more. And that's where then you get a next level of engagement. You have a more detailed conversation. You have a one-on-one with somebody.” -- Brian Richardson
 
This episode’s the second half of my conversation with technical communicator, Dragon Con host, and Play It With Moxie drummer, Brian Richardson as he shares his advice on effective communication, some of the most memorable actors he’s worked with at Dragon Con, and the surprisingly rustic direction his life’s taken thanks to a move to Oregon and his new YouTube channel.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House, at 2pm Eastern every Wednesday. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest Clubhouse rooms will be about. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.
 
Knowing When to Speak
As the second half of our discussion kicks off, Brian tells us more about the advice he gives technical professionals for connecting with their audience, such as gauging how fast you talk and making sure you’re engaging with the listeners. “Some of it is voice and some of it is language options,” he adds. “There's also a third element depending on the audience, which is when to speak. So when we get into a lot of it, it’s basically word choice.” He shares his stories from Dragon Con, including some surprisingly introverted actors that he’s helped along the way. “Actors are not always outgoing people,” he says. “Some actors are actually introverts. And some of those folks really love the panel environment. They feed off of it. And then they will go back in their little cocoon at the end of the hour.”
 
Fandom is Fandom
We talk more about Dragon Con, his experiences with the casts of shows like Firefly, The Expanse, and Strange New Worlds, and how he works with guests so they know he’s on their side. “‘Is there anything we shouldn't talk about?’” he quotes his list of pre-show questions. “’Should I deflect from the audience?' And that's your safety zone, right? Now you understand that I'm not just going to feed you to the wolves because fandom is great. But fandom is also sometimes fandom." He also explains how his skills as a moderator have also proven useful when it comes to helping technical experts bridge the knowledge gap with clients. “This idiot in a colorful shirt,” Brian says, poking fun at his own role as the panel host, “said ‘I'm sorry, we have to go.’ So I'm, I'm essentially a buffer, a valve between...

“And I carried that into engineering in college and was going to go into computers, but then kind of got into robotics. But through all of that, I was still doing college radio. And again, that was like backdoor access to, ‘Hey, can I use the studio in the off hours? Can my band record our CD here in the summer when the stations technically shut down?’ And then that got me into, well, I’m on-air talent now, which in college radio is, as Strongbad used to say, I can describe college radio in five words: dead air, um, dead air.” -- Brian Richardson
 
This episode’s guest is an engineer turned technical communicator who’s currently working as the Security Initiative Lead for Intel’s Data Center & AI Marketing team. He also produces DIY videos from his farm in Oregon, hosts events and panels for Dragon Con, one of the world’s largest pop-culture conventions, and is one of the co-founders of their in-house video team, commonly known as DragonConTV – and he certainly has some interesting stories to share about that.
But I know him best as the drummer and emcee of the band Play It With Moxie that we’ve been performing in together for over 18 years at a small music convention in Atlanta. His name is Brian Richardson and not only is he a very funny guy, he’s also extremely knowledgeable when it comes to helping techies share complicated ideas.  His answer? Infomercials! I’ll let him explain.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House, at 2pm Eastern every Wednesday. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest Clubhouse rooms will be about. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.
 
Dead Air, Um, Dead Air
We start off the episode with Brian’s early memory of sounds, from taking apart an AM radio to the first time he heard a lightsaber. “I vividly remember seeing Star Wars at the age of five in the theater,” he recalls. “And I don’t remember like the entire plot of the movie, but I remember it moving me and there’s a whole element of sound design in that like the lightsaber noise.” He tells us about how his fascination with sound and audio engineering led to band, then AV club, and then his first radio gig. “And then that got me into, well, ‘I’m on air talent now,’” he says, “which in college radio, as Strongbad used to say, I can describe college radio in five words, dead air, dead air.”
 
The Human-to-Nerd Interface
Brian and I talk more about his early years at Dragon Con, and how he helped create what’s become known as DragonConTV. “Once we got the whole DragonConTV operation up and running,” he says, “that’s a whole different story. But I ended up in this parallel track of like becoming sort of the, the human-to-nerd interface, whether it was on the technical side of things, or whether it was on the actual, like stereotypical nerd side of things.” Being the human-to-nerd interface, as he puts it, taught him about the subtleties of communication, and he realized that it’s an often-neglected...

“So I think that when people can get that one word that hits them in the heart and in the gut, that’s what makes a good podcaster. When it’s just information, it’s information. And that’s where we often think, well, ‘I’ll just read the blog.’ You know, ‘I’ll go get a book on that.’ ‘I’ll look it up.’ You know, ‘I’ll just do a Google search and find it.’ But if someone is adding something to it that we haven’t thought about, and it puts a feeling to it and a story, and it makes us come alive, that’s what makes a good podcaster.” -- Elaine Clark
 
This week’s episode is the second half of my conversation with best-selling author, voiceover expert, and prolific voice actor Elaine Clark as we talk about the power of storytelling, what makes someone an expert, and the importance of style in everything from company meetings to ASMR.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House, at 2pm Eastern every Wednesday. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest Clubhouse rooms will be about. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.
 
Getting to the Good Stuff
As the second half of our discussion begins, Elaine talks about how crucial finding the right pace can be when it comes to podcasting. "There are a lot of podcasters out there that have a podcast," she says, "but you have to wade through to get to the good stuff." We also talk about streaming shows and the new golden age of television and how binge-watching owes its success to the power of narratives and the importance of emotional storytelling. "People are anxious to tell a story," she explains, "and people really want to hear more of a story and have someone emotionally connected with it."
 
The Wrong Notes
Elaine tells us more about how the accessibility of podcasting, for creators and listeners, has helped it continue to thrive even after the height of the pandemic and offers advice on everything from the right equipment to the right vocal exercises. "You have to think of it like going to the gym," she says. "If I went to the gym and lifted some weights for a while, that will last me the rest of my life – if only." We talk about stepping outside our comfort zones and how breaking out of a rut can be the key to finding your best voice. "That's how," she says, "through patterns and how I listen to someone, I realize whether they're stuck in a place and different ways they can change, and that makes a huge difference. Because it's usually their vocal range is fine, but they just got stuck on the wrong notes."
 
Making It Their Idea
As our discussion wraps up, we discuss the future of audio in the digital age, from social media to branding opportunities. “In society,” Elaine notes, “the visuals mean so much. But over the phone or in podcasts, the voice has become just as important, if not more,” She also offers her advice, gleaned from her work with both professional clients and her own children, on how to persuade people...

“Most people speak with three different rhythms in a sentence. So if I’m not thinking about it, I have certain parts that are gonna be faster and other parts where maybe I’m thinking about, they’ll be slower, and then something in the middle. That’s what keeps our attention with that melody, that melodic change that’s happening there.” -- Elaine Clark
 
My next guest is the author of two best-selling books, There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is and Voice-Overs For Podcasting, the creator of two voice and diction apps (Activate Your Voice and Adding Melody To Your Voice), and the host and creator of the speech communication podcast Real Talking Tips. She’s an actor, director, and producer in a wide range of entertainment and business genres, from video games to business events. Over the past forty years, she’s coached C-Suite executives, newscasters, television hosts, podcasters, multimedia journalists, presenters, sports reporters, salespeople, and narrators. She specializes in developing a “tune of speaking” through word focus, movement, dynamics, tempo variations, storytelling, and musicality.
Her name is Elaine Clark, and I'm looking forward to her perspective on how to be a better speaker. It's not just for people on stage but people who have to make presentations, podcast hosts, and anyone who just wants others to pay more attention when they're trying to get a point across. If you want to learn how to make a deeper impact with your voice, this is the podcast episode for you.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. You can also join regular Clubhouse chats in The Power of Sound House, at 2pm Eastern every Wednesday. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest Clubhouse rooms will be about. And if you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page. I would so appreciate that.
 
The Musicality of Words
As the episode begins, we talk about Elaine's early memories of sound and how the variety of accents she heard growing up in Louisiana, California, and Germany led to her lifelong fascination with the cadence and melody of speech. "So I thought," she says, recalling all the different speech styles she encountered as a child, "'oh, there's the flowing and then there's the staccato.' So that was also what brought to mind the musicality of words." We also talk about storytelling and how it became her guiding principle when it comes to voice direction. "It's the theater of the mind. It's just like podcasting," Elaine says. "The way I work with people is, you see it first, you feel it, and then you speak."
 
Solving a Problem
Our conversation focuses on storytelling and how Elaine uses it to guide the relationship between the speaker and listener. "Storytelling is a way of establishing authority," she explains. "When we know where everything is located, when we know how we feel about the various people that we're retelling the story about, people get into that story." She tells us how she helps clients communicate with more confidence and to stay focused on the true purpose and value of...