The Squadcast Story: [ Part II ] with Co-Founder, CTO, & CEO Zachariah “Zach” Moreno on Episode #0203

Intro [0:00]
EA Interviews, Episode 203. Inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview.

Mario Fachini [0:13]
We’re talking about podcasting today. And we’re going to be talking about the tech side of podcasting. But even cooler than that, I have none other than Zachariah Moreno with me, CEO and co-founder of Squadcast, and we’re gonna get the perspective of the tech side of this, because you might just think we’re recording an episode. But what if you had a dream to build your own business? And you wanted in the software space in the tech space? What does that take? I’m interested to find out more right after we thank our sponsor.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [0:48]
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Mario Fachini [1:03]
Here he is ladies and gentlemen, Zachariah Moreno . How are you doing Zach?

Zachariah Moreno [1:08]
Very well, Mario. Thank you for that warm introduction. Appreciate it.

Mario Fachini [1:11]
Oh, I’m sincerely excited to jump in. Because I was telling your partner Rock on the last interview, I developed a software to build WordPress websites automatically. And I know that tech is no joke. And I’m really curious, because I’ve heard nothing about… nothing but great things about Squadcast. And I want to know, some behind the scenes, what did it take to get it off the ground, and you know, what’s it like to keep up with it? Because I know you’re doing great things with the help and a lot of podcasters out. But I know it’s no joke. And there’s a lot of people who think it’s just probably pushing a button. And I assure you it is not.

Zachariah Moreno [1:48]
There’s a lot of buttons pushed and respect for the work that you’ve done in technology. That’s… it’s very cool to hear. And, you know, it’s a very interesting journey that I find myself on and we find ourselves on. And we’re just tremendously grateful to start with to even have the opportunity to innovate and create some cool technology. And that’s all in service of empowering podcasters to record quality, remote conversations. So our mission is to remove barriers to quality conversation, and we remove a lot of those barriers, and are removing more in fact with the technology that we have the pleasure to develop. So that’s been about a four year journey, and made a lot of progress along the way. And it takes a lot. So, lots of time and listening, go into creating really quality experiences for our customers and their guests to record these podcasts, interviews, and it’s all really in service of their audience. So it’s one of my great pleasures to help empower people to be creative. And this journey with Squadcast is the biggest impact that I’ve been able to have when it comes to helping people express their creativity.

Mario Fachini [2:25]
Well, I love what you’re doing, because there’s so many people who want to get into podcasting, and some think it’s this daunting task. And I will say it could be construed that way. And depending on your background, depending on… but that’s true with anything. And other people are like it’s the simplest thing in the world. And then there’s companies like you making it even simpler. And I just want everyone to be abundantly clear. How much do you… I already know the tech plays a big role, but why shouldn’t you worry about the tech side so much, even though it’s a huge part of it? What is the main thing they should be focusing on to have a quality interview, a quality episode? And then I’ll piggyback on the tech that makes it happen?

Zachariah Moreno [3:58]
Yeah, so the obvious answer is typically you’ll hear podcasters and OG podcasters, influencers talk about, you know, microphone and audio interface. And in this case, the camera and a number of these different kind of things that exist little boxes that we put on our desk and those kinds of things. And those can help get quality audio, but when you are introducing a remote conversation with somebody on the other side of the planet, the constraints really start to change when it comes to capturing quality audio that to your audience is, you know, it’s kind of invisible to them that you’re not in the same place. So that’s really the trick is, how can we make it easier? Yes, so that it is fun to podcast and that should be the case. You’re not worrying about the technology or kind of, if your guests file is going to show up after you’re done recording. Those are things that you shouldn’t even really have in your mind. They can distract you from having a really flowing and engaging conversation. So that’s really what we focus on is one, making sure that that foundation of technology is there in service of ensuring quality first and then close second, reliability to make sure you’re always capturing that content and keeping your audience happy and growing. But also, while you’re recording, you and your guests are having this, this flowing dialogue, and the technology at that point should really just fade into the background. So that’s really the trick, is how do you have all of this innovative, robust new technology? But have it really be in the background and disappear? And that’s really where the magic of Squadcast lies.

Mario Fachini [5:47]
Can you dive into some of that magic? Because I have a question about the audio. We’ll just start with the audio because I’m talking to no microphone right now just like you are and I know that signals getting processed. You have uncompressed file formats. You have WAV file formats, mp3, AIFF, all these different things. And we’re using one thing in common the internet. And I don’t know what connection you’re on. I know I’m on. But I’ve had people on the show from Australia, and they’re in the middle of the backwoods country. And it’s not… it’s not a slight to them, they just flat out, say it on the episodes. And they’re literally on a one and a half to two meg connection. And I was blown away, because I’m like, What is it 2001? And how do you deal with all these different things in varying internet connections and all the different file formats, and then record high quality without killing the bandwidth or having a breakdown? And if it does break down? How do you not lose everything?

Zachariah Moreno [6:48]
Yeah, and the situation in Australia is particularly interesting, because they’re kind of at the mercy of just a handful of internet service providers, ISPs. And that’s a really tough spot to be in. And there’s a ton of podcasters in Australia and content creators creating all sorts of awesome content. So that’s thankfully improving, to answer your question, though, is we really separate the quality of the conversation that we’re having is one quality and that is traveling over the internet. But it’s important distinction, that that’s not actually what’s being recorded on Squadcast, what we’re recording is at the same time, we’re recording each participant, in this case, Zach and Mario, are recording locally on our device before it travels over the internet, we record it, and then we’re pushing it up to the cloud, in the background while you’re having that conversation. And that’s really what empowers the reliability of our solution and our patent pending technology is, is this autosave, this progressive upload that’s happening while you’re recording locally, so it’s kind of having our cake and eating it too, we can get that really awesome sounding audio quality recorded locally. But without the constraint of what happens in the worst case scenario of my network shutting down or my power going out, or my microphone being unplugged. All of these things can and will happen at some point. So we embrace that reality. And we engineer for this highly available redundant solution. So I’m a huge space nerd. And that’s how we got to the moon, right? Not everything worked perfectly. It didn’t have to, because there was there’s levels of redundancy that were taken into account by the engineers, before we ever gotten a rocket and sent people to another you know, planetary body in that case, but with podcasting, you know, we can, we can achieve a very high degree of reliability where we have this progressive upload, autosave that I mentioned, but then in addition to that, we also have a backup. A backup recording engine that is completely independent, and is recording the conversation that’s going over the web. So you walk away with all of this content that you can put into your podcast and keep your listeners happy and growing.

Mario Fachini [9:18]
See, and I just want to stress this point, because I don’t think people grasp it. I get it from both sides, both as a host and a developer. I’ve had countless conversations with my team, because from the business side, the CEO side of me is always thinking the business and how we can improve things and make it more efficient and keep it profitable, and all these things. The developer creative side of me is going well what does it take to get it done? But the host of me is going yeah, there’s been some serious stuff that’s went on. And of course, you don’t want to have to re-record it, redo it, because best case scenario, it’s not fresh anymore. You know, as a public speaker, I can deliver the same presentation. But if I’m doing the same presentation 10 times in a row that day, you better really know what you’re doing and have some behind the scenes like refueling and re-energizing things to keep the energy up. And you can just tell, you can tell on people’s voices. It’s why I’ve implemented certain practices on filming and recording day. So that way, it’s always fresh no matter because the reality is I am seeing some of the same stuff. And I don’t like it when it gets lost. And I don’t want to have to do it again. And heaven forbid, you’re doing an interview show, which I think a lot of podcasts are now you’re dealing with logistics and consulting, someone this and that. And there’s a degree of professionalism. And I think it’s great you have this focus. And I will tell you, I’ll tell Expert Authority World, not all systems do. One of the things that annoyed me about one of the ones I tested that I’m not going to mention ’cause everyone had whatever, I’m not gonna mention it. When you’re doing episodes back to back, you might only have 30 seconds in between, I can’t wait 45 minutes to get that recording done. So I want to ask you, where was this when you were thinking of it? Was this like, number one? Or was this… it had been in the top 10? I just… I know you’re thinking about it the right way, and you developed… It sounds like you were thinking about the podcaster and then thought about everything they needed, you didn’t just go, “Oh, that’d be a nice feature.” Then added it did you?

Zachariah Moreno [11:41]
No, we always work to respect everybody’s time. So that includes your guests. And if you need to re-record, then that’s not a great place to be coming from. And we learned that lesson really early on by listening. And that answers your question as well. So we started out by organically just kind of stumbling on this challenge of recording quality content remotely with an audio drama podcast that we had a distributed remote team for. And that’s really what led us down this path. And from there, of course, any technology startup, any kind of company, really you start off by making assumptions. And those are informed assumptions, the best that you can. And it was very helpful that we were trying to solve our own problems. So there’s a lot of empathy that comes from starting there.

Mario Fachini [12:41]
Yeah, you know the pain points.

Zachariah Moreno [12:42]
Right, exactly. So we knew what we were after was a higher quality, and thankfully, audio quality is measurable. And can be, you know, looked at objectively. So we knew we wanted to provide a higher quality. But the real trick was how do we deliver that every time? And that’s really what sets us apart is the reliability of how does your app experience you know, still affect people before, during, after the actual production conversation. And still, you know, deliver that value proposition every time. So that was a journey for us. And it wasn’t obvious, we had more of a traditional upload style when we first started. You know, that took 45 minutes. To use your example, when we first started, we got that down to about 15 minutes. And that’s not workable.

Mario Fachini [13:45]
It’s better.

Zachariah Moreno [13:47]
But what happens, the real question is, what if we never actually got to the end of the interview, what happens to that file, what happens to my guest recording? And that did happen and does happen is that the internet is out of all of our control. Like we can do things to try to improve the strength of the connection, we can work with a different internet service provider, depending on what country we’re in, that may or may not be a free market choice. We help podcasters in over 120 countries. So it varies, the reality of the situation. But how can we succeed even in those extreme circumstances. And that’s really what pushed us to actually I can’t take credit for progressive upload or having that brilliant idea. All credit goes to our founding advisor Harry Duran with Podcast Junkies and Full Cast. He was the one…

Mario Fachini [14:38]
Harry’s awesome.

Zachariah Moreno [14:43]
He is.

Mario Fachini [14:44]
That’s fun to know. I’ll have to mention that next time I see him.

Zachariah Moreno [14:47]
Thank you, Harry. Yeah. And it’s also led to, we have two patents pending, you know, and that’s one of them. So they wouldn’t… my attorneys wouldn’t let me put Harry’s name on that document. So that’s where I give him credit wherever I can, because it really was the catalyst for asking us very simple question of what’s happening while we’re recording, does it have to wait until the end to start uploading that file? And the answer wasn’t obvious. But you know, physics wise, like basic principles. No, it can start before, it can actually, we can use that time to our advantage where people are having that flowing conversation, you don’t need to know that every couple seconds, audio is being pushed up to the cloud. But that is what’s happening. And that’s how we succeed, even those extreme circumstances where somebody’s power goes out because there’s a wildfire in California and high winds and all of that stuff, power power can go out, it’s out of our control. So that’s really… was the focus was just asking the right questions, and then getting out of the way and listening to what people were telling us they needed. And the rest really flows from there.

Mario Fachini [16:02]
That’s so cool you were able to incorporate that. And that’s exciting, too. Yeah, Harry’s cool. And, you know, these are things I thought about, and it sounds like you think a lot of the same way I do when I was setting up the production of the EA Interviews because, you know, there’s so many moving parts to it. I was just like, “Okay, cool. How do I get it to just work?” Step one is just work. And then it’s like, “Where are the bottlenecks at?” And the internet, you know, I actually have multiple ISPs that if for whatever reason, some car runs into a tower, I can switch the ISP.

Zachariah Moreno [16:38]
Nice.

Mario Fachini [16:39]
Because I don’t want to lose, you know, it would for sure, knock this out. But I could say, okay, you know, do come back and say here, click this instead of that, and I don’t need to explain it to you in the moment. But the reality is, I’m now not backing up stuff and rescheduling, you know what I mean?

Zachariah Moreno [16:57]
Right. And if you go into any physical studio, like you have been in Mario, the engineers, they’re like, you know, we think of it like, we walk in the talent walks and sits down, and then you know, you just kind of start talking. But with a podcast, you’re kind of the crew, you’re the production, you’re the post production. Sounds like you have a great team behind you.

Mario Fachini [17:25]
100%. Very thankful for.

Zachariah Moreno [17:27]
Yeah, yeah, same here. And even with that though, in physical studios, like NPR, or Vox, or ESPN, the companies we have the pleasure of working with and helping record, they’re always recording backups, like, it’s just not on the surface, they don’t have to use them very often. But when you do, you know, we all are thankful that that engineer had a backup HDMI cable in his bag that never needed to be touched until you really needed it. Right? So that’s very much how we approached it with my brother Vince, who’s our Chief Audio Officer and Head of our support, he is a sound designer and audio producer. So that was very much a part of our culture and approach to engineering early on, was taking that same approach.

Mario Fachini [18:14]
See, and I love that you’re diving deep with this, because Rock has his strengths, you have yours, your brother has his and some people, I think it’s great when people go, “Oh, all you need is a mic and just start recording.” But the reality is, when you’re more invested, you’re going to do a better job. You know, it’s…

Zachariah Moreno [18:34]
Your audience can tell like, that’s really what all of this is for. It’s not, I don’t like having this microphone and lighting and stuff because of like, my ego and what how I want to look, it’s because I respect you and your production and your audience, and also my audience, and their experience matters to me as a creative. And that’s true with our technology that we engineer as well, like the user experience of our product is paramount. The user experience your audience experience of consuming your podcast is paramount in that same way.

Mario Fachini [19:09]
Yeah. and I would think if there’s any… and I would never say be mean to your customers, don’t do a good job. However, if there’s ever a medium were word is going to get around real quick, it’s probably podcasting. Arguably, maybe, probably podcasting would go faster. Truthfully, I was gonna say something else. I’m not going to though because everyone is on a mic, and it’s less work to do audio. And people…

Zachariah Moreno [19:40]
Let me go back off of that though, that’s one of the strengths of working in this industry. And we learned that lesson very early on that in an industry full of people who speak and talk for a living, we have to be really, really good at listening. And it’s a gift that we have our entire industry speaking articulately and clearly telling us what they want and need from the technology that they’re using to capture that speech. So, you know, we double down on that really early on and have continued to invest in our community most recently by hiring the best community manager in the world. I’m convinced is Arielle Nissenblatt with, you know, EarBuds Podcast Collective and Outlier, and now with Squadcast, that’s something that we’re continuing to invest in, and Arielle is crushing it already. She’s been on the job for about two weeks. So thank you, Mario.

Mario Fachini [20:39]
I’m happy to hear that. And I can tell that, you know, I can tell you’re doing it the right way. And I have no doubt you’re going to be around for a long time, because you’re doing it the right way. You’re not just taking the buy and the old microphone approach and just start something. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I want to be abundantly clear, because I started with what I had. But I didn’t stay there. Some people just stay there. And that’s a whole mindset thing. But…

Zachariah Moreno [21:04]
Yeah, I think it’s as complex as you need it to be. But because podcasting is kind of, it’s not like video where there’s YouTube where there’s a centralized place, that kind of is the the standard setting body, it’s moving in that direction. And who knows, maybe one of them will get there.

Mario Fachini [21:24]
I don’t even know if I’ll be upset with that. Because if it’s one more thing off my plate, there’s plenty on it. And…

Zachariah Moreno [21:30]
I think there’s some merit to that thought experiment and some of the early vision of Squadcast, you know, went there, and we still have those. And that’s really interesting momentum we see in the industry. But we focused really early on being the best at solving this problem of quality remote conversations that you get, every time you walk away with your content and your audience is really at the center there. So you know, having the gift of people telling us what they want and being able to articulate that very clearly is something that is an energy that we have harnessed and that would only be possible through listening. So that’s a core tenet of principle within our culture.

Mario Fachini [22:16]
And I just want to reiterate what you said, it’s a great Expert Authority Insight with an industry that talks we need to listen, that was powerful. And not everyone does that. And it doesn’t matter of the industry. Some people just, you know, think they know everything, you know, you need to humble yourself. And like you said, with the lights and stuff, it’s not because you’re like, “Look at me.” It’s you want to give it the best experience, you know, the same reason I set everything up I did, because I go I don’t care if someone listens or watches or whatever I just you know, enjoy, enjoy the show.

Zachariah Moreno [22:50]
Exactly. And with podcasting, you should just start if you’re interested in it, and you don’t need much to start. But I think that what we’re getting at is that it’s an evolution from that starting point, to really try to optimize and improve your audience experience and everybody wants to know how to grow and foster and engage with an audience, but wants to keep things like really beginner and starting out at that place. And you can do that. But I think you will find growth once you start to really optimize for your audience experience through your content, but also just the quality of the content that you’re providing them with is a really big component to that.

Mario Fachini [23:39]
Wow, you’re awesome. That was another great insight I just thought of, you know, like the butterfly, it’s like, you’re not going to grow if you’re always staying in the cocoon.

Zachariah Moreno [23:50]
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it’s beautiful, because you can get started and there are no gatekeepers and no platform dictating to you or saying that you’re going to be de-platformed or something like that. But it’s kind of, you know…

Mario Fachini [24:03]
That’s a huge point right there. I heard that.

Zachariah Moreno [24:08]
Well, you know, it’s choosing when to add complexity and designing for that. And your production is the degree of complexity that it is, I’m sure there’s a lot of reasons that have preceded that have gone into that, that weren’t that complexity that really add up to this very polished production that your audience I’m sure really respects and loves to, to, you know, take part in every week. So that’s really where you have choices and you can opt into those choices. But some choices impact your audience and others don’t. So we’re, you know, to come back to the community I love and really frankly miss going to meetups here in the Bay Area. There’s great meetups in the city and on the East Bay, and we participate in contribute to all of those. And you know, one of the first questions is microphone and hosting. And those are good questions. But only one of those really impacts your audience’s experience, like your audience, they don’t care really who you host your podcast with. You care.

Mario Fachini [25:21]
Do you think any of them would even know?

Zachariah Moreno [25:25]
No and it’s pretty, there’s proof because people switch their podcast hosting companies all the time, back and forth, and the audience can still subscribe. And then it’s completely detached from them. The quality of the audio is not improved by hosting. There are some hosts that actually reduce the quality of the audio that they’re publishing… I won’t name names, but you know, that’s something to be wary of. But it’s… you should be mindful of that choice. I am friends with a lot of people who have an empower… you know, great services for podcast hosting, I’m not trying to knock them. I’m just saying that that decision is about your experience as a host. It’s not about the…

Mario Fachini [26:11]
The audience doesn’t know. How many people do you think listening actually think that? How many of them do you think it’s actually hosted on iTunes?

Zachariah Moreno [26:24]
Yeah, I think most listeners, that’s their experience, right? It’s like…

Mario Fachini [26:29]
I listen to your show on iTunes.

Zachariah Moreno [26:31]
Yes.

Mario Fachini [26:31]
Good. What about the other 38 destinations or whatever there are?

Zachariah Moreno [26:35]
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And…

Mario Fachini [26:37]
How much do you pay iTunes each month for your show? Nothing. It’s free.

Zachariah Moreno [26:42]
Yeah, exactly. I completely agree with you. And what I always nudge people who asked that question is, it is a good question. You do have to make that choice. But it’s not a question that impacts your listeners what it is… and it’s not even really a question of media hosting, it’s a question of analytics. And analytics are critical when it comes to further down the line, we all want to set ourselves up for success when it comes to monetizing our podcast, and analytics being IAB2 compliant are critical in being able to secure those ad deals and really inform what your CPM rate is with those ad platforms. So you’re setting yourself up for success there, you’re making it easy on your process. You mentioned WordPress before, you know, you’re pretty much choosing a content management system for your podcast, and analytics come baked into that. So that’s where I think… it’s actually once you get that first episode, or maybe you batch a couple episodes and publish those, once you get that first batch up, your question immediately immediately switches to who’s listening? Not how do I publish my show? So I think that’s the longer term decision that you’re making is who’s listening and the analytics really informed that.

Mario Fachini [28:00]
You’re phenomenal.

Zachariah Moreno [28:02]
Well, thank you kindly. I appreciate that.

Mario Fachini [28:04]
You’re honestly nailing it. I knew you are good, but…

Zachariah Moreno [28:10]
Well, how can I be better? I’m always looking for that. So open to feedback, and I’m enjoying myself as well. It’s good to have these platforms to share these ideas. And a lot of these picked up through conversations with the community. So I’ll come back to that. And, you know, if you’re not an active participant, or there’s not a meetup in your city for podcasting, I highly encourage you to join one, contribute, or start one if there’s not in your area. They’ve really had a lot of constructive, you know, development on my perspective of the podcast industry. And I noticed you have, mutual friend of ours Chris Krimitsos in your introduction…

Mario Fachini [28:56]
I was just thinking of Chris and gonna mention what do you think about live events and shout out to Pod Fest and Chris and… awesome event, it was my first one I went to, and I couldn’t agree more the community, you know, local, national events, worldwide events, whatever the case is, get around other podcasters for sure. And Pod Fest is one of the best ones.

Zachariah Moreno [29:19]
It’s beautiful because one, Chris and the team are really focused on providing an environment for the community to flourish. And it’s… you know, the event that I prefer, although we frequent lots of events, we always have the most fun, even though I’m not the biggest fan of Florida. But I’m a huge space nerd, like I mentioned. So getting to go to, you know, Cape Kennedy is always a dream come true. So thank you Chris, for all of your contributions to the podcast community. And because podcasting is actively being defined. It’s a fairly nascent medium. We think of it as an interview, or we think of it as now, maybe audio dramas are in that mix as well. But it’s really all being figured out. And it’s still pretty early days. So that’s really where engaging with the community, there’s people who are trying things and doing new things that are having huge impacts on their growth and their show, and their ability to deliver value to their audience. And that’s something that live events really constrain and synthesize down into, into a few days or one day, I mean, we…

Mario Fachini [30:39]
Oh, it’s sure shutting off, I’d say six to 12 months easily for each one. I know people that have had shows for five or 10 years, they’ve never gone to one. And then I went to one after I launched mine and did some different things with the frequency just changed a few things about the show. And like a few months later, they’re asking me like, well, what are you doing for this? So I’m like, “You’ve had six years on me.”

Zachariah Moreno [31:02]
Yeah.

Mario Fachini [31:03]
And part of the, the giver in me is like, yeah, let me tell you all the secrets, the other side of me is just thinking, like, how have you not gotten to one thing in five years? So, but you know, that’s the beauty of that people get, people get to do whatever they want.

Zachariah Moreno [31:19]
Yeah, and it’s all being figured out. So that’s really where you get the best of, you get the best of the community. And one thing that I’ll say is that, because it’s a community of people who speak for a living, the bar is so high for presentations, and if you put in, by all means, put in an application to speak at one of these events, for your audience, and you know, I’ll do it too, but we are… I’ve been denied so many times. And that’s how I know it’s great. Like, the content is at that level, where it’s like, you go, and you watch and you listen and learn from people who did get accepted to speak. And it’s super clear right away. Like, wow, I am not on that level, and I aspire to be and this is how I’m going to do it, it’s by being in this room and listening. So don’t be… and you’ll get in there.

Mario Fachini [32:19]
Getting around the right people makes all the difference in the world. And I’ve gone through it too. Some of them, I’ve spoke at Pod Fest multiple times. I’ve got denied from other stuff. And I’m like, cool, you know, like you’d appreciate it. It’s just data. It’s just feedback, you know, adjust try something new.

Zachariah Moreno [32:38]
Yeah, it is always inspiring to me. The ideas that other people come up with, and what you’re getting as an attendee of those events, and myself as a sponsor of those events is, you’re getting the best of the best every year. Or, you know, now they’re doing virtual events. And…

Mario Fachini [32:58]
Yeah, and it’s only getting better as what I’ve noticed too. As my show grows and progresses, I’ve also noticed the events are growing and progressing. And it’s just fun to be around people like yourself who are going, Hey, we’re not happy staying where we are. And there’s always just progress being made. So I appreciate you for having that mindset. Because not everyone does. And like I said, You’re phenomenal. I’ve noticed that early on, I got one more question for you. And this is a fun part before we go to the sponsor, and we’ll come back for the Imperfect Action Round, but the famous, Wheel Of Whatever, and your question is, where do you see Squadcast 10 years from now?

Zachariah Moreno [33:43]
Yeah, well, in the coming months we’ll be releasing video recording. So that’s incredibly exciting. And it’s been a little bit over a year in the making. And we’ll have the same focus on quality and reliability that we do with audio. And it’s actually the same approach that we take to audio we’re applying to video to achieve that. And that’s something that I’m incredibly excited about. So still focused on the podcast community, it may seem like, “Oh, Squadcast is jumping into video. So they’re gonna focus on YouTube now or something like that.” Absolutely not. We’re not changing our focus at all. Podcasters have asked us for this to grow their show and meet their audience in more places. And that is based on the overwhelming feedback that we’ve received from the community that because we’ve always had video for the flowing dialogue and conversation, it’s an obvious next question to say, “Well, can we record that? And my audience would love that and I can grow my show across different platforms and have more places to provide quality content.” So I absolutely appreciate that feedback very much. And we’re taking that to heart and have built something that I believe is very special. So that is right around the corner. And we’ll continue to expand on our mission from there of removing barriers to quality conversations. So other barriers that exist that are fun to think about, and I think we’ll be informing our product roadmap and company roadmap is the audience experience that we’ve been discussing. There’s the kind of once you publish it, of course, your quality and your content are impacting the audience’s experience. But there’s kind of a delay there where your team produces this content and publishes it. But we’re also live right now. And wouldn’t it be cool if you could have a live audience while you’re recording on Squadcast, both for a private audience and a public live audience?

Mario Fachini [36:03]
Ooh. Sounds like you got some cool stuff coming up.

Zachariah Moreno [36:07]
Yeah, the live audience… I think you pretty much know what to expect there. But the private audience is something that is direct, again, direct customer feedback, and, you know, community feedback of wanting to have added value for maybe a premium Patreon tier, wanting to engage further with your audience.

Mario Fachini [36:26]
Yeah, and that’s been one of the biggest things I’ve seen in across the board as people want to interact with the community easier, not necessarily on any specific platform, but be able to give them something more and behind the scenes. You know, I’ll just say the studio tour, if you will. You know, maybe there’s some bonus Q&A. And that’s the beauty you can do pretty much anything you want with it. Well, I’m happy to hear that that’s what’s coming up, because you’re already killing it. And I know you’re gonna keep staying on the same tracks. So thank you for that.

Zachariah Moreno [36:57]
Well, thank you. Yeah, that’s me talking, like as our CTO, and you know, technology nerd and all that stuff. But I am also our CEO. So I’m happy to report that.

Mario Fachini [37:07]
I appreciate that too.

Zachariah Moreno [37:09]
Thank you. The company that we’re building is also paramount, because if we go off and build all this fancy technology, but we’re not empowering that through a sustainable business model, then it’s all for nothing and Squadcast would disappear, like tomorrow or something like that. Knock on wood.

Mario Fachini [37:27]
You got to have that vision. And that’s honestly, why I asked you because I have no doubt you’re gonna be around. And that’s why I was like, “Hah! Can I get some company secrets out of here?” Because I have before. One of the coolest emails I got, I asked one, someone in the email back from the team after we did the episode. They’re like, I didn’t even know what flavors were coming out. I’m like, “This Wheel Of Whatever is working on my favorite here, huh?” What’s gonna happen in XYZ? So we’re gonna thank our sponsor.

Zachariah Moreno [37:56]
I’m proud to report that we are building a sustainable healthy business, so yeah, we’ll definitely be here to innovate.

Mario Fachini [38:02]
Sounds like it. We’re gonna thank our sponsor, and come back for the Imperfect Action Round.

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Mario Fachini [39:38]
And we are back with the Imperfect Action Round. Zach, are you ready to take Imperfect Action?

Zachariah Moreno [39:43]
Absolutely.

Mario Fachini [39:45]
All right, these are 60 second rapid fire answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to the profits?

Zachariah Moreno [39:52]
Listening.

Mario Fachini [39:55]
Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Zachariah Moreno [40:03]
Not focusing on their audience. And that’s really straightforward to fix by listening to your audience. I know that’s counterintuitive because they’re supposed to be listening to you as the podcaster. But listening to your audience is paramount.

Mario Fachini [40:15]
That’s huge. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Zachariah Moreno [40:23]
Giving them a lot to look forward to, but also focusing on today. So focusing on today, but also the future. Being transparent with that, I think a lot of people in technology get secretive with it, and you’re putting yourself in a vacuum, so you’re not going to get the feedback that helps inform your direction. So getting out of that vacuum and giving people things to look forward to.

Mario Fachini [40:46]
Very good. What books would you recommend the Expert Authority World that have helped your business?

Zachariah Moreno [40:55]
Yeah, that’s a good question. I really love the Shape Up book from Basecamp. That’s one that I’ve read least recently. And the… I’ll say, the startups for the rest of us podcast as well. Rob Walling is a mentor of ours, and I’m drawing a blank on the name of his book, but if you listen to that podcast, he talks about it often.

Mario Fachini [41:23]
If you’re on the internet, you can find anything.

Zachariah Moreno [41:25]
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I love to learn from podcasts, because that’s the kind of homecourt advantage, and it’s fast as well.

Mario Fachini [41:35]
Excellent. Well, thank you for those. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this. Where would you like people to learn more?

Zachariah Moreno [41:41]
Yeah, we are very open and part of the community, so if you’re in the Bay Area, come to one of the meetups, we’re always there and happy to contribute. Whatever your stage of your show, whether you’re in person or remote, whatever. Not really a sales thing. We just like helping people improve their podcast and we’re online at SquadCast.fm. Arielle is behind our socials now. So she is an expert in her own right. And also we participate a lot in those conversations as well. And our website is SquadCast.fm. If you’re into recording podcasts, and you need to do that remotely, we can help you do that very easily without sacrificing any quality of the audio.

Mario Fachini [42:27]
Excellent. Well, thank you again, so much. This has been incredible. And it’s been a pleasure having you.

Zachariah Moreno [42:34]
Thank you, Mario. Appreciate it.

Mario Fachini [42:36]
All right, Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. God bless.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [42:44]
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www.EAInterviews.com [43:17]
Hey, thanks for listening to today’s episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out EAInterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow.