The Mark & Jeanette Podcast
This podcast about two friends having a drink while having a conversation about current events, the entrepreneur spirit, Conspiracy Theories, and self help all while having a good laugh.
Come have a drink with us.
The Mark & Jeanette Podcast
The Mark & Jeanette Show: Ep 49, Don't Let Your "What Ifs" Kill Your Podcasting Dreams
Ever dreamed of starting a podcast but felt overwhelmed by the seemingly high barrier to entry? This candid behind-the-scenes episode pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to begin creating content.
From my first $20 microphone and ancient laptop to professional Shure mics and a Mac Mini, I share the step-by-step evolution of our podcast setup. The message becomes clear through personal anecdotes and technical mishaps: the most important element of podcasting isn't expensive equipment but simply starting with whatever resources you have available.
The journey unfolds through technical challenges that became valuable learning experiences—figuring out how to connect multiple microphones, adding soundproofing to eliminate echo, creating proper lighting, and developing a visually appealing background. Each improvement represents not just a technical upgrade but a deeper commitment to the craft and the audience.
Beyond equipment, we explore how living in New Mexico provides endless fascinating topics—from historical legends and ghost stories to UFOs and border issues. The rich cultural tapestry of the Southwest creates a natural wellspring of content that connects with listeners seeking authentic conversations about both mainstream and fringe subjects.
At its heart, this episode is about overcoming the biggest obstacle to creating anything worthwhile: yourself. As Henry David Thoreau observed, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Too many potential creators never start because they're waiting for perfect conditions or guaranteed success. The reality? Even when episodes don't turn out exactly as planned, the experience itself provides immense value.
Ready to start your own creative journey? Press record with whatever equipment you have. Your future self will thank you for having the courage to begin. If you enjoy our content, please subscribe and join us as we continue improving with each episode.
One, two, three, four. All right, that's good and we are live. Okay, thanks for joining us here at the Mark and Jeanette Show. We have been doing this now for solid going on about a year now, but this project is probably about three years in the making. So if you've stayed with us this long and you've hung through our shenanigans, through our inception, I thank you for joining us. That's very awesome of you, and today it's going to be just a real short show, but thanks for taking the time to hang out with us.
Speaker 1:You know, when we get together, we always get together like friends, do? We always say we get together like friends and have a drink. And if you've been on this long enough, you know I always have a bang, but these things are really good. I don't know. I often question how healthy they are, but this Blue Raz Bang has just been my favorite. It's been my drug of choice, so to speak, and I don't know what to say. If you're like me and you drink coffee and chew nicotine gum and have energy drinks to get you through the day, then you know where I'm coming from, right? But anyway, yeah, thanks for joining us. I hope you have something to drink, or you're at work or you're on the drive and you're just kind of flipping through the stations and trying to find something good to listen to, or you're on the drive and you're just kind of flipping through the stations and trying to find something good to listen to. Thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 1:We try to make this fun content. You know, kind of light. We touch bases on news items, things that pop up, whether it's US politics, whether it's national news. We tend to get bingy and go down the rabbit hole with all sorts of topics related to UFOs and ghosts and craziness going on in the world, and sometimes we just talk crazy shenanigans and have a good laugh and you know, I kind of like where we go with that. You know it's been really nice and it's been very cool. We've had some cool people on here our usual guests Artie I don't know, I guess I shouldn't say guests Our usual co-hosts, jeanette and Artie. They're a staple of the show and they're very busy with their lives and sometimes it's hard to get one or the other on or even myself, and I think this today's show is for those of you that are, you know, kind of looking like to start your own podcast or you're questioning yourself like good Lord, I don't get a lot of viewers, or man, this is just a lot to put together, or what do I use?
Speaker 1:And I know it gets hard, like it gets kind of crazy difficult at times. It gets kind of crazy difficult at times and I don't know you know where to tell you to start or what it takes, and I don't know you know like or maybe I shouldn't say I don't have the best advice for people other than just do it. You know, if this is something you want to do and you're kind of wanting to dip your toes in the water, so to speak I mean, that's where I came from I wanted to dip my toes in the water and just kind of see what happened, where this went to, and then why not Go for it? I think it's easy to drop cash, drop tons of cash, and I know a lot of us are working a job or two jobs or three jobs, side hustles, all sorts of stuff going on. You probably do like DoorDash or Sparks Delivery or Uber. I mean, I know I do, and that's on top of having a full-time job and family life and gym and friends and all that. But you know. If this is something you want to do, then I would say don't hesitate to pull the trigger. You know, make it happen, go for it. You're not letting anybody down by not doing it. But I think you get a nagging feeling in the back of your head like what if and I think it's a what if that really kind of kill us in our life, in our day to day. Right, what if I did that? What if? And some people, you know, some people legitimately, they don't do things because you know what if they fail? You know, then they have nothing to show for and I, me myself, personally, I'm not from that camp. If it doesn't work out, personally, I'm not from that camp. If it doesn't work out well, there's a lesson learned, there's experience gained. You try once. You don't succeed. You know, yeah, it's kind of corny to say, but I am of that school where it's like, yeah, you get back up and you try again.
Speaker 1:I started this with a very old, very cheap laptop that I had for years. You know, one of the kind of laptops back in the day where you had to leave it plugged in because the battery was dead. You couldn't find batteries for it. So that was my first laptop and my first microphone. This is it right here. Actually, it looks really cool. I bought it either on Amazon or eBay. It came in really nice packaging and I guess it worked good for what it was, but it was like 10 or 20 bucks. I was so excited.
Speaker 1:I didn't know the cable types. I didn't know how to get these cables to plug into the computer, how to make that work, and that's kind of a cool experience to have, though, right, like you go through it and you just kind of figure it out. You know my little microphone. I got my little microphone stand that I clipped to my desk and I did a couple of short recordings with this sitting at my desk and with really nothing, just to say I think my first 20 videos were just like test, test, test one, two, three, and I'm glad that I got past that. So this is what I started with, and and and I think you know when you're dipping your toes in the water, it's okay to try something like this. Why not? Right? Because, uh, you know you have to start somewhere. These, uh, auto technique technicas.
Speaker 1:This was like my first attempt at getting a better, high-quality mic. It was recommended off of a podcast program I use, and this was kind of a cool mic. I definitely could tell the difference in the quality of the volume with this versus those Chinese-made ones which I don't know, these might be Chinese-made too, but they're just higher quality. And I still have one there on the on the uh the table there. But my, my, my, I don't know how to say it my art right. The triumph uh uh that I got were these, uh, sure, mics. I think I've seen them on every professional podcasting forum, from joe rogan to gosh, I don't know. Every everybody I've seen doing a podcast, video, video podcasting has these mics and they're amazing. They just sound good.
Speaker 1:And this I feel like that was the first step up in my game, like I was doing something right. You know, probably the next best thing I did. Well, there's a couple things I did. I had an, an iPad, and I just gave it away and it was an iPad Pro. Again, same thing battery was kind of half dead on it, so you had to keep it plugged in here and have to get everything to plug into my iPad. And that was a big evolution too, because Apple really let me do a lot of cool stuff like that in terms of editing and putting having a good camera. I had a camera stand where everything plugged into and I would record off my iPad, and so that was kind of cool and I would edit on my iPad because there's all sorts of really cool apps you could download as well.
Speaker 1:I think probably the next best thing I got after that was these Mevo Logitech multicams. I got about a box of three of these. They're wireless. They connect wirelessly. They work great with my iPad Pro. I really like these and they're very mobile. I don't have really like a desktop or tabletop stand. I have tripods everywhere that I use for these and these were really cool and I think if you're a podcaster, whether you're goofing around or you're trying to do something a little bit more serious, that's kind of a cool way to go to, you know.
Speaker 1:But I've made these little leaps and bounds where I could because you know, first, everything costs money. Let's be honest. It's just it takes money to buy this stuff and you know, I got these used $600. These were about $100-something. My cheap mic was like $20. These ones were a lot more obviously, and my newest addition and I'm excited about it but man, it's been frustrating, but it's been kind of cool.
Speaker 1:I guess I just got the Mac Mini with the M4 chip in it and I just got the Apple editing software and I'm trying to get a nice little setup here. I have kind of everything just set up here just so I could make it all work and I'm excited I'm trying to use it. I've had some glitches with the cameras, getting the cameras to work. You know there's no new apps or whatever, but that kind of comes with it, right. You kind of figure out how you have to step up your game. Like when I first started going multi-mics, trying to get that to work, I had to buy a little Chinese soundboard Cheap but it has all the different plugins for your mics and that Trying to figure out how to get that into the computer.
Speaker 1:And then probably another big step for me were these Auto-Technica headsets Getting these rolling and trying to figure out how to listen to yourself. And you wouldn't think that's a big deal because you're talking right. But it's kind of interesting, like when you're talking how when you get really close to the mic it just sounds so much differently. Like I'm all the way up to the mic here, but if I go further away here. You don't get a sense of it until you have headphones on. So that's been a really cool experience to have as well.
Speaker 1:So I uh, probably the other thing I did you can't see this here, but off camera I have a, a mounted, uh, um 26 inch monitor on the wall which I probably could upgrade that as well, and I probably will at some point. But uh, and see, I just had a glitch. Right now I don't know if something fell asleep. Oh, I'm still recording. Oh, my, so this is. I just got this Mac Mini, I'm just setting it up, but the screen just fell asleep for a second. I had that happen once when I was doing a like a long version podcast where we had three. We were like two and a half hours in and the display went to sleep and everything shut down and, and I don't know how much video I lost. It must have been like 45 minutes, half an hour. But these are all things that happen to you when you're doing this podcasting, you know, and I guess there's no better experience or tool to learn from than experience.
Speaker 1:You know, I watch a lot of videos and some people have some really cool setups, good Lord, I mean it's beautiful. I don't know if they have the disposable income to throw at it. Maybe they have sponsors that pay for it. I don't know. I don't know how they do it, but it's really cool to see what people do and then trying to figure out what works for us here.
Speaker 1:You look around me. You say like God, my background's all black and you have a couple things up. I bought these shelves off Wayfair and I started decorating with cool stuff. I got some cool you know World War I helmet. This is a Vietnam Marine helmet from the Vietnam War era. I've got this German pickle hum here and just slowly I've started putting stuff on my shelves and slowly I'm trying to think what I'm going to add onto the wall because I put all this soundproofing on and it really, you know, it really helps with the echo.
Speaker 1:If you've never done podcasting and you just kind of set chairs up somewhere, you make it work and you're like, all right, that's cool. Then you realize, like in my case, I realized our first couple of episodes were just sitting in front of a closet walls, doors. You know there's a white wall, closet doors. I'm like, okay, how can I improve on that? And so then, as all this soundproofing went up, it's all black. Then the next question is okay, what do I do about lighting? So I've got some lighting in here, but now it gets hot in here and it's just. It's not unbearably hot, but it's summertime right now. Outside, it's like nine o'clock right now and it's probably it's probably at least 80 degrees outside, so it's really warm in here. This is like a. The sun hits the room, you know, most of the day, so it gets really warm. But it's been a cool experience and it's been exciting and I think you know people.
Speaker 1:You know if you want to do this, you should give it a try. You don't have to buy the crazy expensive stuff. You can do things on your iPhone. You don't have to buy the crazy expensive mics. You don't have to buy the expensive cameras. I know people that use those Sony mirrorless cameras. They hook those up and those are phenomenal and that's you know. I'm paying $600 for these three little cameras here and those are like over a grand a piece, brand new. You know what I mean. So you've got to find what works for you and kind of figure out what you know, what approach you're going to take to make this work.
Speaker 1:Like I say, I was fortunate to have my iPad Pro, which is kind of why I got it, but even that at some point when I was editing it's like, oh man, that's just, it's easier, but it's not as easy as I'd like it to be. So that's why I upgraded to my Mac Mini. I've got my box here. I was totally excited about this. I got this from Best Buy and, yeah, we'll see how this works. You know it's supposed to be super, super good. And the Apple, the video editing software I just, you know, subscribed to it just seems pretty legit. Yeah, I got Final Cut Pro, so that's gonna be a new uh thing to learn. I used to use cap cut, which was, I think it was made more for like, uh, um, like tiktok and uh, stuff like that. But uh, or um, instagram, but um, I'm trying to take the next step. I guess you can say so we'll see how that goes. Um I there's.
Speaker 1:There's a number of people I watch online. Obviously, I think everybody watches Joe Rogan. He was like the leader of this, all right, when he started podcasting long format and just really good content, really interesting topics. And then I started watching. Oh, I think it was called the Incredible Channel, the Impossible Channel. It's this guy on YouTube and his stuff is just great too. I really like how he edits and let me see if I have that here. Yeah, it's called that Is Impossible. And he has a second channel called the James Channel. I think that's called the James Show, the James show, and it's spelled James J-A-Y-M-E-Z, and he has really good content too and he does really good editing and, uh, I can see him starting off this way a long time ago too. Right, like just trying to figure it out as he goes along, but his content's really good and uh, um, the Y files I know that's been getting bigger and he has really good topics as well.
Speaker 1:So I've been watching them and see what they do and you know you want to pick something that's interesting to you and you don't want to pigeonhole yourself into one topic or another. So I think we all try to figure out what works for us and then present in a way that's interesting to you, in the hopes that there's probably some other people out there that find it interesting to you. I know myself I always think you know, like gosh, if I find this topic interesting and we can talk about it. There might be some other guys like us that would too, and so that's always been our approach. You know, if we find it interesting and we could have a talk or laugh about it or find it interesting, we present it that way and we try to, you know, hopefully make a connection with the people that will watch us. And if that's you, hey, we appreciate it, thank you. And I say we, but it's really like a small group, there's like two, three of us, but it's fun and it's exciting. And for those of you that are thinking, like gosh, I can do this, yeah, I would say, you know, give it a try, you know, and be appropriate and pick things that you think are going to be legitimate for you. I think you know we wing it.
Speaker 1:We don't have like a lot of script writing. We. I've really just have started getting into like AI. I use Grok a lot, sometimes ChatGPT, but I'm a bit more into Grok and I've been using Grok as giving me more of a layout of what to follow on certain topics, and that's been working for the time being. So I've been pretty excited about that. That's been working well too, but it's just been a whole project, what turns out to be something we're going to do real quick for an hour, turns out three, three and a half hours Technical difficulties breaks to be like something we're going to do real quick for an hour, turns out three, three and a half hours technical difficulties breaks. We always have all sorts of drinks up here because, again, our theme was just always kind of just a couple of friends hanging out talking about current events. So, yeah, so I. So.
Speaker 1:I guess the point of that is like you know, yeah, do what feels good. You know, try to. Uh, if you're trying to get your toes wet with this, don't be afraid to do it. Don't worry about not having high-end equipment, don't worry about, you know, if you don't have an Apple, if you have a PC, it works, go for it, just do it.
Speaker 1:You know our biggest enemies is ourself, right, I think you know whenever, growing up, you know all the times you want to do something. You're always your biggest stumbling block. You know when? I always tell people when I was a little, when I was younger I shouldn't say when I was little, but when I was younger I was this short, fat, shy guy that mumbled too much and couldn't get two words out right and, god you know, wasn't really very physically active and I don't know when I started just jumping, diving in, just going at it. But you, you come to a point where you just have to get past these things and I think that's a very legitimate stumbling block, block that we face in our lives. We are our biggest enemies and it and it doesn't have to mean on social media, it doesn't have to be in the gym or dating, meeting girls, guys, it could be your work life, it could be anything right. We always just kind of get in our own way. So, you know, take a chance. If this is something you want to do, just do it.
Speaker 1:I've really enjoyed this and I'm going to try to continue to do this and I think my goal is to really, you know, try to step up the content for the people that do like the way we present it. You know they do kind of like my little studio here I've put together. They kind of find it interesting. Then I want to continue to provide you guys with something interesting. Hopefully I can provide more diverse topics. I'm following the Russia-Ukraine thing pretty hard and I still do.
Speaker 1:Although we don't talk about it as much, we talk about a lot of history stuff, a lot of events. Like I say, we go down the binge or the fringy rabbit hole pretty often too and talk about our experiences. I don't know if anybody knows this, but we're here in New Mexico, in southern New Mexico man, that's like fringy topics is top of the list here in New Mexico. It's called the Land of Enchantment and we call it like an old country, right. There's been inhabitants here for thousands of years and you've had Indians, europeans, spaniards. You've had all sorts of people come through here gunslingers. There's legends, spanish Trail, and people have lived and people have died here and they've had celebrations and what have you. And so there's a lot of stories, there's a lot of memories, there's a lot of things here. You know Billy the Kid, right, and along with that old history you hear stories of ghosts and La Llorona and all this stuff that's just really attached to the land here in New Mexico. That's really interesting.
Speaker 1:And then you get into the modern era where you're talking about, you know, world War II and you're talking about Roswell, and then you start talking about UFOs and there are stories here about Bigfoot and abductions and where we're at, we're not far from the border. So there's cartels and there's drugs, and there's immigrations and politics, and there's just such a diverse amount of topics here that we dabble with that. You know, I don't think we can adequately cover in one show in one week or one month, or whether it's long format or short, but you know it's still though. It's cool to talk about it all. And you know, once we start talking about all that stuff, you know Texas is right here, so we get stories from Texas and we, you know, start talking about Arizona Before you know it we're talking about the whole Southwest and this side of the United States and just the stories go in so many directions. And that's what's really cool about this, especially when you have people on here that you really like, you just don't know where the topics are going to go and it's just so exciting and if that's for you, you should give it a try. We did and we're really enjoying it.
Speaker 1:You know my co-host, jeanette. She's super intelligent and she's a hardworking professional and I've learned a lot from her and she's learned a lot from, I hope, from me. She's maybe one or two things from me. Let's be honest, artie is this really dynamic guy and he's just such a go-getter People like him. He's very outgoing and he's very pleasant to have around and he's just going after it. He's been doing a lot of acting, a lot of acting gigs and what have you? It's guys like Garty you've got to tip your hat to because you can look at him. And it's guys like Garty you've got to tip your hat to because it's definitely like a reflection. You can look at him and it's a reflection of yourself. Like when you see a guy going at it hard like he does, you know you hope that you have that drive to be just as successful, because he's going to be great. He's going to really do stuff in this world. You know, going to really do stuff in this world. You know, Probably our off-camera person that we've had from time to time is our good friend.
Speaker 1:We call him Fabio Fabuloso Dario and again, just another piece of the puzzle that we bring in Super intelligent he's yeah, I always tell people he's the most intelligent person I know and I think all of us here we just learn so much from him and his approach to life and family and work, and he's the kind of guy that you wish you would be, in the sense that he throws himself into things and when he wants to learn something he really throws himself at it until he fully understands it and it's just so admirable really throws himself at it until he fully understands it, and it's just so admirable. So I know another person we've had on here often is Mark Monger, and you know he's just retired and I've we were both named Mark and we I always say he's my better half or he's the better Mark, and again, very insightful man, he's traveled, he, he's worked hard, he's been successful and uh, and he's he's different than, say, dario, than already. And and for me, when I hear him, he just really, he really uh gets to like, uh, looks like. I watched a video here but he really uh hits a part of me that I get and I I really love his humor because it's it's from my generation. If I, I talk about like the 80s, I grew up in the 80s, I was a kid in the 80s but and it marks a little older than me, but man, the things he says just reminds me of people in my life that have been on my journey and uh, and I get it and I click with it. And we had, we had one episode in here that was like four hours long and we were just sharing all sorts of stuff and, man, it was good, I really liked it, and I never aired it because we talked about a lot of personal stuff and we talked about our friend and shared a lot of things and we just decided it would be best to save that video for us, which I did. But yeah, so that was just really good stuff and it's the kind of things, the kind of opportunities you wouldn't have if you didn't do this.
Speaker 1:Now, for me, moving forward, I'm not a perfectionist. I would say I'm the kind of guy that I'll work hard at something and I try to improve and I try to learn from my mistakes and I'll keep going at it and keep going at it until I get what I want and the quality of what I'm doing in here. Yeah, the format it's almost where I want it to be, just at this level. It's not a professional studio, it's not a warehouse, it's just a simple room that we're doing the best what we have with and try to throw some cool stuff up. But as we move forward with this, yeah, we do have plans of what we would like to do and be able to present better content and learn how to edit. You know, I think there's programs where they have people that are paid for editing and video overlays, photo overlays and they just look so solid. But I'm pretty sure those programs when they first started they kind of started.
Speaker 1:Like me, I like to think that a lot of these people that are getting good at what they do, they're just kind of like the guys that were in the garage just tinkering away at events and stuff. Well, here we are tinkering away on this on YouTube. You know, if you watch me on YouTube or Rumble, or if you listen to me on one of the podcasting platforms, you're just, you know, we're just one of those guys that are just chipping away at it, but it's cool and it's exciting. And again, I can't stress this enough If you're an older guy like me I'm not going to say I'm older, I'm not going to say I'm younger, I'm just kind of there. But if you're one of these guys that you're like, you feel like you have a pretty good message and it's worth being said and worth being, you know, listened to and that you might have people that might find you interesting, do it. You know there's no time like the present and, yeah, I just think you should just give it, just give it your best shot and go at it. You know, and as time goes on, you start to figure out maybe you need this, maybe you need that, and that's just how this goes. That's just the name of the game, you know. So, anyhow, I just wanted to make a short video, make some content. I'm going to try to do a better job of making content and, yeah, you know, and I would definitely. You know, if you like what we're doing, give us a like, give us a subscribe. That always helps out. And if you, you know, stumble across our podcast and you want to, you know, pour yourself a drink or have an energy drink, like I am, or you're just trying to pass some time and you're listening to us, we appreciate that too, thank you.
Speaker 1:You know I was looking up a quote and I just can't think of the name of the quote right now, but let me look it up real fast. It's a quote I often say on here a lot and it's just a really good quote. Oh, okay, here it is. It's by Henry David Thoreau and I think about this quote a lot. It's just, it's one that speaks to me and I hope it speaks to you, know, to everybody. Or I hope it hits you guys the same way. Speaks to me and I hope it speaks to everybody, or I hope it hits you guys the same way it hits me. But this one really hits me pretty good and I reflect on this one a lot. But basically the quote says the correct quote attributed to David Henry Thoreau is the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and I say this to a lot of people.
Speaker 1:But don't live a life of quiet desperation. Go after your dreams, Do what you want to do. You know I'm not telling you to go hurt anybody, go rob a bank, go assault somebody on the street. If that's you and that's your issue, I'm not talking to you. But if you're a man or a woman, young or old, if you're trying to make your way through this world and trying to find your place and make your mark and figure it out, don't live a life of quiet desperation. You know, if you want to clock out of work and you have a day off and you want to take a quick road trip somewhere and you can get there, be back in time for work and slum it out, living out of your vehicle. Go surfing somewhere, go have some tacos somewhere. I mean, we're just blessed in the United States you can get in your vehicle, you can drive anywhere you want to and be anywhere in a reasonable amount of time and meet new people and do cool stuff. And if you want to do that, do that.
Speaker 1:Like I say, don't live that life of quiet desperation. And if you want to do this, then get a simple setup, just do it. You know, and I hope you have a very successful, you know journey doing this. And you know that whatever it is that you do choose to do, that that it is successful and that it bears you much fruit. And you know that whatever it is that you do choose to do, that that it is successful and that it bears you much fruit. And you know, and if it doesn't, if it doesn't work out, that's okay too. You know you learn from it. You've got great memories, you meet good people along the way. So even when it doesn't work out, it kind of still does work out. And I always tell people this you know, I always say that life has a way of working out. And just because something doesn't work out right now or doesn't work out the way you want it to, it just has a funny way of working out in the end. You just have to be patient enough to get there and see what happens, see what comes of it. So, anyways, thank you, you have a good night.
Speaker 1:And, like I say, this is my very first podcast using my new Mac Mini, so I was excited to give it a go because I want to figure it out before I bring somebody back on and have it crash on me. But it looks like we've made it and it's kind of holding up and, yeah, we'll continue with this. So thanks for being on this journey with me, thanks for putting up with our silly shenanigans. I hope to be making better content, better editing and just better things across the board. So be patient with us as we get better at this and thanks for your time. And when we come back up again, get comfortable or do what you're going to do. And if you want to have a drink and chat with us, cool, drop us a comment, give us a like, give us a subscribe. We really appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you, have a good day. Bye.