Inside Flight Cast: The Video-First Hosting Platform Behind Diary of a CEO
When I first heard about Flightcast on the Podbiz show, I thought, "I have to have Rox Codes on my show." I had Rox do a Flightcast demo for members of the School of Podcasting. Rox has worked for Mr. Beast, Microsoft, Facebook and many more.
In this episode of the School of Podcasting, I sit down with Rox Codes, co-creator of Flight Cast, the video-first hosting platform built in partnership with Steven Bartlett from Diary of a CEO.
If you’ve been thinking about getting more serious with video podcasting, YouTube growth, or centralizing your stats from multiple platforms, this one is for you.
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What We Talk About in This Episode
In this conversation, we cover:
- What Flight Cast actually is (and who it’s for)
- Why it’s a video-first hosting platform
- How “one upload, one dashboard” pushes your show to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, RSS, and audio platforms
- How you can keep it simple or go crazy with customization
- Simple upload, powerful customization
- Upload one episode and:
- Send video to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, RSS
- Send audio everywhere else
- Schedule different release times per platform (e.g., 6 AM audio, 8 AM YouTube)
- Use different titles, descriptions, and even different edits per platform
- Upload separate versions of the file (say “subscribe” in one, “follow” in another)
Use AI to:
- Generate titles, descriptions, and chapters in your own style
- Auto-format chapters correctly for each platform
- All your stats in one place
- How Flight Cast pulls:
- YouTube views
- Spotify streams
- RSS downloads
- And rolls them up into a single “plays” metric
- Additional analytics you get:
- Day-by-day performance
- New vs returning followers
- Cross-platform uniques
- Breakdown by platform, country, state, city
- A built-in “giant spreadsheet” you don’t have to build yourself
- Audience overlap (who listens to episode A and episode B)
- Using the built-in AI chat to answer questions like:
- “Rank all my episodes on YouTube in the last 6 months by views in the first 24 hours.”
- “What’s my 100-day average per episode?”
- Ads, programmatic, and retention data
How Flight Cast handles:
- Geo-targeting
- Programmatic ads
- Dynamic ad slots
- Why retention graphs matter more than a single download number
- How to look at:
- Drop-off moments (what caused the skip?)
- Chapter jumps (what are people skipping to?)
- Rox’s “favorite stat” and why views still matter most in his world
- Clips, test channels, and experimentation
- Lets you “always be testing” in the background
- How to ramp up clips:
- Start with 1 clip/day
- Slowly increase to 2, 3, then 4 max
- Why this kind of ongoing experimentation is like treating your show as a recipe, not a statue
- Moving from audio to video (without losing your mind)
Rox’s core idea:
Video isn’t a file format, it’s an algorithm
- On YouTube, TikTok, Reels, Shorts: publishing and discovery are the same thing
- The big mindset shift:
- Audio podcasting = small optimization games (SEO, cross-promo, ads)
- YouTube = “get good” at a few big levers:
- Thumbnails
- Titles
- Ideas
- Intros
- Why the first 30 seconds, title, and thumbnail matter so much more than most of us want to admit
- Talking-head video vs fancy production
Why talking heads are NOT bad content:
- Joe Rogan is talking heads
- Diary of a CEO is talking heads
- Why audio quality is still 80% of the experience even on video
- When 4K matters (and when it doesn’t):
- 720 → 1080 is a big jump
- 1080 → 4K is “nice to have,” not mandatory
- Flight Cast’s support for full 4K, including Apple HLS video, and why they built it to “respect” creators who go the extra mile
Who Flight Cast is for and pricing
- Target user: serious video podcasters / “intermediate plus”
- Why Rox calls it a “jackhammer”—powerful, but you don’t always need that much power
- Pricing (at the time of this conversation):
- Starts around $50/month for everything except clips
- Higher tiers ($100–$250/month) if you want more clips and higher download limits
- Basic plan includes:
- Up to 50,000 downloads/month
- Full 4K video, Apple HLS, no bandwidth charges
- Around 3 TB of storage (which almost nobody hits)
Learning YouTube: resources Rox recommends
- April Lynn Alter (YouTube channel)
- Patty Galloway (YouTube channel)
- Creator Hooks by Jake Thomas (newsletter)
A dose of reality about YouTube and video
- We talk frankly about:
- People who spend days or even weeks perfecting a thumbnail
- The sheer amount of time it can take to get good at YouTube
My big point:
- It’s okay if you don’t have that time
- Just understand what you’re up against so you don’t get discouraged
My biggest fear:
- People add video to an already full plate
- Burn out on video
- Then quit podcasting entirely
- I want you to set realistic expectations
Bonus: For audio-only podcasters who still want better stats
- PodAnalyst.com – in beta with their pro plan free for now
- Tracks:
- Listening completion at 25%, 50%, 75%, etc.
- How long people are actually listening
- To me, that’s the real “is my show any good?” metric:
- If people are only listening to 25% of an episode, that’s a signal
- You can track up to 10 keywords, share stats with team members, and export data while they’re in beta.
My Takeaways
Here’s what I want you to remember from this episode:
- If you go into video, YouTube is an algorithm game, not just a file format.
- You don’t need cinematic production; you do need:
- Strong audio
- A compelling title
- A curiosity-driven thumbnail
- A sharp first 30 seconds
- Tools like FlightCast can:
- Save you time by distributing everywhere from one upload
- Help you understand your audience by putting all your stats in one place
- You don’t have to “go full YouTuber” to benefit from thinking like one.
And again, if you’re already overwhelmed with audio, please don’t feel like you “have to” add video. I’d rather you keep podcasting than burn out chasing an unrealistic video workload.
Links Mentioned
I’ll have links to everything we mentioned in this episode in the show notes at:
Research Links
- Buy Dave a Coffee and Support the Work He's Done.
- Get the Creator Hooks Newsletter by Jake Thomas
- Paddy Galloway YouTube Channel
- Aprilynne Alter YouTube Channel
- Your Podcast Deserves a Better Website | Podpage
- School of Podcasting: Launch, Grow, and Monetize Your Podcas
- Flightcast | Podcast hosting platform made for video
- Pikzels - Viral Thumbnails & Titles in Seconds
- 1 of 10: Best YouTube AI Tool for More Views: Research Viral Ideas
- VidIQ - Grow Your YouTube Channel Faster with AI
- What Podcasting Can Learn From YouTube Growth with Rox Codes - PodBiz | Acast
- Expert Talk: Rox Codes From Flightcast - The First Ever Video First Media Host - YouTube - Demo of Flightcast from Co-founder Rox Codes
Thanks so much for listening. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend who’s thinking about video or YouTube for their podcast.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Get Some Feedback On Your Show
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Give Your Podcast A Home
When you look at our podcasting pieces, your media host is the engine. But your website is the home.It’s where your audience learns who you are, explores your episodes, and decides to subscribe.At Podpage, we build podcast websites that are fast, reliable, and designed to convert visitors into listeners. Every episode is automatically published, SEO-optimized, and structured for growth—so you can focus on creating, not managing your site.If your media host powers your podcast, Podpage gives it a place to live—and a place to grow.Start building your podcast’s home with Podpage by going to www.podpage.com/preview and start your 14 day free trial today.
Live Appearances
I will be at the Empower Podcasting Conference (Year 3!) in Charlotte North Carolina. This is my favorite type of conference with a cap at 250 people, it's a great crowd without being overwhelming. Great speakers, great networking, and a great location.
Question of the Month
This might be harder question to answer because when I ask people, the sometimes freeze. The question? How do you measure success for your podcast beyond download numbers?I need your answer by June 26th, 2026. Don't forget to tell us a little bit about your show and your website address so I can link to it in the show notes.
00:00 - Untitled
00:00 - For the Video Curious or Video Stars
02:06 - Welcome Rox Codes
02:15 - What is Flightcast?
02:44 - Keeping it Easy
05:29 - All the Stats Combined
07:09 - Ready for Ads
07:44 - Testing Videos before They Go Public
08:32 - What is Your Favorite Stat?
09:14 - What is Best 1 of 10?
11:58 - Flightcast as a Consultant
12:51 - Which Video Should You Prioritize.
13:07 - Pricing
15:01 - Flightcast Target Market
17:51 - Going From Audio to Video
18:42 - How to Grow on YouTube
20:04 - The Three Main Factors of YouTube
20:59 - But What If We're Just Talking Heads
22:21 - Where Do I Learn Titles, Thumbnails, and Intros?
24:35 - Insights into thumbnails
25:13 - What's Coming in the Future?
27:47 - Podanalyst - Stats in One Place
29:37 - Go In With Your Eyes Open
31:48 - Spotify Agrees to New Definition
35:21 - More Thumnail Resources
36:30 - Join the School of Podcasting
If you've been thinking about YouTube and video, boy, do I have a show for you.
Speaker AToday we're interviewing the co creator of Flightcast, Mr.
Speaker ARocks Codes, who along with Steven Bartlett from diary of a CEO have created FlightCast.
Speaker AAnd we're going to talk about what makes FlightCast FlightCast because it's doing some things that nobody else is doing.
Speaker AWe talk a lot about stats today and I found a free tool that enables you to see all of your stats in one place.
Speaker AAnd yep, Dave has yet another reason to strongly disagree with Spotify.
Speaker AHit it ladies.
Speaker BThe school of podcasting with Dave Jackson.
Speaker APodcasting since 2005.
Speaker AI'm your award winning hall of fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson.
Speaker AThanking you so much for tuning in.
Speaker AIf you're new to the show, this is where I help you plan, launch and grow your podcast.
Speaker AAnd today we're giving you insights into a somewhat new media host that came out of the gate video first.
Speaker AIt's called flightcast and we are interviewing one of the co founders, Rocks Codes.
Speaker AAnd the other co founder is Steven Bartlett from Diary of a CEO.
Speaker AIn fact, that's kind of how this whole thing came into play because if you're new to diary of a CEO, they like the details and FlightCast has it.
Speaker AThis show is brought to you by the schoolofpodcasting.com and podpage.com if you're looking to have a great looking website.
Speaker AI'll be talking about that later, but right now we are going to talk to Rocks Codes who if you go to his website I'll have a link to that in the show notes.
Speaker AHe has created and sold different companies, many of them around YouTube, thumbnails and social media.
Speaker AAnd he's an amazing guy.
Speaker AAnd when I first heard about flightcast I was like I would love to see a demo of this.
Speaker ASo I really thank him so much for coming on the show.
Speaker AThe one, the only Rocks Codes.
Speaker CHappy to join the one and only Dave Jackson.
Speaker AAnd so I wanted to get into kind of just like if you're new to media hosting, what is flightcast?
Speaker CFlightcast is a video first podcast hosting platform.
Speaker CThe idea was very simple.1 upload one dashboard.
Speaker CSo it should be as trivial as I upload one episode to Flightcast and it goes everywhere.
Speaker CSo that's video to YouTube, video to Spotify, video to Apple, video to RSS now and audio everywhere else and then get all my analytics back into one dashboard.
Speaker AWhich is amazing and it sounds kind of complicated, but it turns out their goal is actually fairly easy.
Speaker CFlycast is A video first podcast hosting platform.
Speaker CThe idea was very simple.
Speaker COne upload, one dashboard.
Speaker CSo it should be as trivial as I upload one episode to Flightcast and it goes everywhere.
Speaker CSo that's video to YouTube, video to Spotify, video to Apple, video to RSS now, and audio everywhere else.
Speaker CAnd then get all my analytics back into one dashboard.
Speaker CSo you just drop your video in, drop in a thumbnail, drop in a cover art, drop in a date for whenever you want to schedule it, and then title, description, chapters, metadata, so all the extra season numbers and everything, and then you just hit save schedule and it goes live to YouTube, Spotify, wherever you want it to, wherever you don't want it to.
Speaker CAnd if this seems very simple, it's because you've actually hidden every ounce of customization behind these little customize buttons.
Speaker CSo if you want to do a custom audio edit that is a different mastered version of the audio, you can do that.
Speaker CJust click custom audio and then drop in an MP3 file.
Speaker CIf you want the episode to go out at a different time on each platform.
Speaker CA lot of people have it go live at 8am on YouTube, but 6am on Spotify and audio, because they want people in their car to be able to listen to it on their commute that morning, but not necessarily on YouTube.
Speaker CAnd same for titles.
Speaker CYou can do a title for the video versus a title for the audio rss.
Speaker CYou can even do different descriptions if you want to for each different platform.
Speaker CFor, like the audio versus the video, it'll generate descriptions for you based on your previous descriptions.
Speaker CIt can generate titles for you based on your gener, your previous titles, so it'll always sound like you.
Speaker CIt can generate chapters for you based on your previous chapters.
Speaker CIt'll put the chapters into your description.
Speaker CWe got this little placeholder guy, so you can just move this around and that'll make sure that the chapters get put in the correct format for each platform.
Speaker CSo like for YouTube, they want no parentheses.
Speaker CFor Spotify, you have to have parentheses around them.
Speaker CThat all just gets magicked away.
Speaker CIt just gets handled.
Speaker CAnd then you can customize each platform on the right here by just saying, oh, on Spotify, like, I actually only want it to be audio as opposed to video or on YouTube, I want to go to various different playlists.
Speaker CBut that is the most fundamental feature of FlightCast is get it everywhere on a screen that looks very simple but has hidden beneath it all the ability to customize everything however you would want and, and do all the different versions of it.
Speaker CYou can even upload different versions of the file to YouTube and Spotify.
Speaker CSo if you want to say the word subscribe in one edit and the word follow in another edit, you can drop different versions of the video in.
Speaker CBut if you don't want to do any of that, you can just drop episode thumbnail cover art.
Speaker CPick a day, generate, generate, generate, hit publish, and it'll just go.
Speaker AWhich I thought was pretty cool.
Speaker AIt can be as simple or with their customize button you can go in and I'm here to tell you, change anything you want.
Speaker ABut the thing that kind of blew everyone away was the fact that you had stats from all these platforms in one location.
Speaker CWe've got streams from Spotify, views from YouTube, listens from RSS, aka downloads, and I add those all up into plays because I didn't know what else to call it.
Speaker CAnd then we've got all of those stats day by day.
Speaker CWe've got new versus returning followers gained total uniques across every platform, whether or not it's your new stuff or your old stuff getting you views each different episode that popped off.
Speaker CWe've got a giant spreadsheet because everybody kept making spreadsheets.
Speaker CSo I made you a spreadsheet that you can just export.
Speaker CWe got breakdown by platform, we got breakdown by country, breakdown by state, city and percentages or direct amounts, kind of whatever you want there.
Speaker CBreakdown of every website all the way down to some more advanced stuff like audience overlaps.
Speaker CThis will show you like how many people that listen to episode A also listened to episode B.
Speaker CSo you can start to see if your returning audience is truly like the same people.
Speaker COr if you talk about business and then you talk about health, are the same guys showing up or do you have sub audiences within your main audience?
Speaker CAnd if that kind of stuff sounds interesting to you, well, you can dig in even farther into that with our AI chat that we have where you can just say, I don't know, rank all my episodes on YouTube in the past six months based on views in the first 24 hours.
Speaker CAnd it's basically just an open box for you to ask any questions.
Speaker CVery good.
Speaker CIf you have like non technical people on your team or you're on a call with a sponsor and they ask you for some really obscure number like hey, what's your hundred day episode average?
Speaker COr something else that nobody in their right mind would ever know offhand.
Speaker CAnd no dashboard's going to make easy enough.
Speaker CSo we put that in there for you.
Speaker ASo there's all sorts of stats that I was just like, wait What?
Speaker ABut if you're a person that's been running ads, it covers a lot of the things that your media host probably does now.
Speaker CIt handles, you know, geotargeting and programmatic and your dynamic and different kinds of ad slots and everything that you would ever want out of, out of an ad system.
Speaker AAnd an easy way to look at.
Speaker CThat is it's good enough for the Diary of a CEO.
Speaker CThat's.
Speaker CThat's usually what I say.
Speaker AThere you go.
Speaker ASo retention data, anything you're getting now, you definitely get, plus all these extra things.
Speaker AAnd one of the things I thought was interesting is it basically creates a bunch of clips and tests them before you then make them public.
Speaker AIs that something like every creator would then set up their own test account to last these two, or is that something that you guys are doing?
Speaker CSo they create the test account.
Speaker CWhen you set up, it takes all of 30 seconds to make a blank YouTube channel.
Speaker CSo.
Speaker CSo we have you make it.
Speaker CWe give you a little bit of guidance on how to make it.
Speaker CThere's like a 10 second onboarding for that.
Speaker COnce it's made, we generally recommend you start with one clip a day to kind of like warm up the channel.
Speaker CAnd then eventually, like after a week or two, you can bump it to two.
Speaker CAfter a week or two, you bump it to three.
Speaker CAfter a week or two, you bump it to four.
Speaker CI wouldn't go past four.
Speaker CFour's a lot.
Speaker CThen it's just this sort of always on experimentation in the background.
Speaker AAnd I always say your podcast is a recipe, not a statue.
Speaker AAnd I love the fact that they're always experimenting to learn.
Speaker AAnd so after looking at all those stats, I asked Rox if he had a favorite stat.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CWhich of my kids is my favorite?
Speaker COh, that's such a good question.
Speaker CYeah.
Speaker CSuch a reasonable question.
Speaker CThe real answer is it's always views, no matter what, the truest.
Speaker CWhich, like, sounds like a cop out because it is by many considered to be like the lagging indicator.
Speaker CRight?
Speaker CIt's like, oh, yeah, well, I got the views because of the other stats.
Speaker CSurely and kind of yes, but kind of no.
Speaker CAt the end of the day, the episode that got the most views is the episode that's most successful.
Speaker CAnd views is the biggest metric of success.
Speaker CAnd I guess views as opposed to downloads.
Speaker CI'm looking at YouTube views.
Speaker AAnd then we got into a best one of 10 discussion.
Speaker AAnd in case you've never heard that expression, here's what it is.
Speaker CSo YouTube basically will rank your relative performance of an episode.
Speaker CSo so it's like, hey, your episode's been out for two days.
Speaker CUsually after two days you get like a thousand views.
Speaker CRight now you're at 1200 views.
Speaker CSo this is like your third best episode recently within a two day period.
Speaker CLike in your first two days.
Speaker CThis is a pretty good episode.
Speaker CIt's not the best performance you've had in two days, but it's like the third best performance you've had in two days relative to your last 10 uploads or so.
Speaker CAnything outside of your last 10 is considered kind of.
Speaker CAnd so we take that and we do it per platform.
Speaker CSo usually this is actually very interesting because this ended up being backwards, but this outperformed on Spotify.
Speaker CFor these guys.
Speaker CThis episode performed pretty good on YouTube.
Speaker CIt was a seven out of 20.
Speaker CWe do it out of 20.
Speaker CI like a little bit of a longer reference point and then a 5 out of 20 on Apple.
Speaker CSo it's been very interesting how differently things will perform on different platforms.
Speaker CBut usually you will see YouTube is like a 5 or a 3, but Apple and Spotify will still be like a 10 because they don't really go viral.
Speaker CRight.
Speaker CSo at the end of the day I'm focusing on all the YouTube stats.
Speaker CClick through rate is great to look at, but it is a subset of many different things.
Speaker CAverage reiteration is a great thing to look at because it's telling you if people are actually watching through.
Speaker CBut really, like I would analyze this retention graph, I would spend most of my time here because this is not one single number.
Speaker CThis is like, hey, what happened here?
Speaker CDid I have an ad here?
Speaker CWhy is there this giant drop off?
Speaker CLike why did I lose 5% of people now?
Speaker CThey skipped, clearly.
Speaker CSo there's probably some ad there.
Speaker CBut then, okay, whatever this chapter title was, I should write that down because people skipped to this chapter, right?
Speaker CBecause why is this at 23 but right before it's at 18?
Speaker CThat means people skipped over here.
Speaker CSo that's usually the thing that I'm analyzing the most to try and improve.
Speaker AAnd I like that point because I'm always been a big fan of chapters, but I've never thought of them as a way to maybe get people to click again.
Speaker ANot just your title, but the title of your chapters could get people to click.
Speaker CI also really like 30 second retention.
Speaker CI consider that like intro success.
Speaker CSo at 30 seconds, how many people were still there?
Speaker CAnd if you're going up in that percentage over time in general, like if your episodes slowly get a higher 30 second retention, the whole of your YouTube journey will improve massively if you get really good at making intros.
Speaker CSo I've kind of like benchmarked that for myself as like a intro quality metric that I measure.
Speaker AAnd so you have all these amazing stats and they don't just want to be a media host.
Speaker AOnce you have all this data, flightcast can become a consultant.
Speaker CI started chatting with a lot of our like more strategic or very like deep creator customers on what those questions are that they're asking often and then pre baking those into the analytics page as just graphs or like analyze this episode type UI or whatever else we can think of to try and make that a better flow.
Speaker CBecause we have all the data, we have everything from everywhere, forever.
Speaker CSo now it's just a question of what do we do with it, how do we want to analyze it, what is the best opportunity for growth.
Speaker CSo to some extent Flycast is kind of meant to be a consultant, like a YouTube consultant in my head or just like a growth consultant in general.
Speaker CSo this is the start of that.
Speaker CThe clips is the start of that a little bit.
Speaker CBut ideally there's so much data you shouldn't have to know how to analyze it.
Speaker CIt should just kind of do it for you.
Speaker AAnd of course as we recorded this, more and more places were adding video.
Speaker AAnd if you're wondering, well, which one should you prioritize, end of the day.
Speaker CI focus on YouTube because YouTube is the top of the funnel and it is the middle of the funnel.
Speaker CSpotify and Apple come a little bit later.
Speaker CBut if you can get people to Spotify and Apple, that becomes a very, very valuable audience member because they will keep coming back.
Speaker AAnd you've probably heard me say, hey, if you're doing video, it's going to get expensive.
Speaker ASo how much is this at FlightCast.
Speaker CStarts at 50 bucks a month for everything except for clips.
Speaker CAnd then if you want clips, it goes up to 100 or 250amonth, depending on how many clips you want and how many downloads you want.
Speaker COther than clips and downloads, pretty much everything's in every plan.
Speaker CSo the basic plan gets you up to 50,000 downloads a month.
Speaker CYou get full 4K video, you get Apple HLS video, you get everything.
Speaker CThere's no bandwidth charges, there's nothing really complicated.
Speaker CYou'll be able to tell in your dashboard real quick where you're sitting.
Speaker CIt's like three terabytes of storage, which is insane.
Speaker CNobody's ever used it.
Speaker CIt's a great limit.
Speaker CSo feel free to not compress your Files.
Speaker CIt's fine, we'll do it.
Speaker CAnd just give us your, your original versions.
Speaker AWhich brings up the subject of format.
Speaker AShould we do in 4K?
Speaker AAre we allowed at 1080, 720?
Speaker CMy recommendation is after 1080p, it's not necessary, but it's nice to have.
Speaker CBut at least hit 1080.
Speaker C720 To 1080 is a massive jump.
Speaker C1080 To 4k is nice.
Speaker CIt's not needed.
Speaker CYou know, I think Mr. B still doesn't do 4k, or at least for a long time did not.
Speaker CBecause he was like, well, I don't think most people watch it that way.
Speaker CAnd I think it's almost like uncanny sometimes.
Speaker CBut a lot of people do do 4K.
Speaker CFlycast will ship it out.
Speaker CSo I just did it as a way to kind of respect the customer, where I was like, if you're gonna put all the effort to do 4K, I'm gonna make sure that, that 4K gets to where it's supposed to go.
Speaker CYou know, I'm not gonna like downgrade that.
Speaker CSo even for Apple video, we do 4K, I believe we're the only ones doing that.
Speaker CBut most phones aren't gonna load it right.
Speaker CMost people are not on Internet connection fast enough.
Speaker CBut if you're sitting there at your house with really fast Internet and you wanna see it, and eventually I'm sure they'll put it on TVs and stuff.
Speaker CAnd for that day I wanted to just be ready.
Speaker CSo, yeah, just do at least 1080p and you're, you're okay.
Speaker CBut if you can pull 4K, might as well like iPhones can do 4K, you know, so sometimes, sometimes it's nice to watch people laugh in HD.
Speaker ASo we've heard a lot about FlightCast.
Speaker ASo I wanted to know like, what is the target audience of flightcast?
Speaker CSo, yeah, it's for a very particular kind of like serious video.
Speaker CPodcaster is generally how I word it, or at least like intermediate plus.
Speaker CBut it's powerful.
Speaker CIt's powerful.
Speaker CIt is a jackhammer, but you don't always need a jackhammer.
Speaker AI also asked him about his thoughts when it comes to talking head videos.
Speaker AAnd okay, maybe you're not an advanced YouTuber, so what resources would you use to become one?
Speaker AAnd we're going to hear those along with some new features that are coming right after this.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker BThe school of podcasting.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker AAs I know you might be a person that's not doing any video and you're thinking about going from Audio to video.
Speaker ASo if that's the case, what do we need to know in this?
Speaker AAnswer almost put me out of my chair.
Speaker CAnd I think this is a thing that the industry at large kind of doesn't frame well, which has always been kind of interesting to me coming from, like, the YouTube side.
Speaker CVideo isn't a file format.
Speaker CIt is an algorithm.
Speaker CYouTube has an algorithm.
Speaker CDiscovery and publishing were never two different things on YouTube.
Speaker CDiscovery and publishing are never two different things.
Speaker COn TikTok, on Instagram Reels, on, on YouTube shorts, they're all the same.
Speaker CAnd what's been crazy to me is realizing how much marketing exists in podcasting and how much of, like, how to grow your show.
Speaker CIt's like, there's no how to grow your YouTube channel that has any guidance other than making better videos people want to watch.
Speaker CGet good at thumbnails, get good at titles.
Speaker CThat's foundational to the content, right?
Speaker CThe answer to how to grow on YouTube is get good.
Speaker CYou know, like, that's it.
Speaker CThat's the whole of the advice.
Speaker CAnd I think the main thing when you go from audio to video is you learn how to live in an algorithm world.
Speaker CAnd that's a completely different world to what you're used to.
Speaker CBut.
Speaker CBut you'll also find infinite opportunity on the other side of it.
Speaker CIn equal terms, you will find as much frustration and struggle because you can't just publish.
Speaker CYou have to get good at it.
Speaker CIf you get good at thumbnails, you have to get good at titles.
Speaker CYou have to be a student of the game because there is a game to learn now.
Speaker CWhereas with audio, there almost isn't that much of a game.
Speaker CEverybody's kind of drawing at smaller straws of like, ah, do these ads.
Speaker CThere's some SEO optimization you can kind of do and this and that, and everything is, you know, 10%, 20% gains or advertising within other podcast apps.
Speaker CAnd it's a lot of paid media and everything.
Speaker CEvery YouTube advice is make a better thumbnail, make a better title, have a better video idea, make a better intro.
Speaker CYou have about four things you control.
Speaker CMaybe five.
Speaker CEdit the thing better, but that's the fifth, right?
Speaker CAnd if each of those take up equal amount of time, you're only spending 20% of your time on the edit and 80% of your time on everything else.
Speaker AI want to jump in here just to make sure we caught that point.
Speaker AHe said it over and over and over throughout this interview.
Speaker AGet good at your first 30 seconds, your title and your thumbnail.
Speaker CThat will be jarring that will suck.
Speaker CYou will realize how much time it actually takes to go into being good at YouTube.
Speaker CIt's a lot of time.
Speaker CIt is hundreds, it is thousands of hours.
Speaker CBut what do you want?
Speaker CWhat's, you know, to define success, we must define the goal is the goal, Growth is the goal.
Speaker CMore people is the goal, the right people.
Speaker CBut generally, I find that most people putting out content into this world would really enjoy if people heard it and if people saw it.
Speaker CSo in terms of that video is, in my opinion, without a question, the absolute best place to be and the absolute most infinite opportunity.
Speaker CBecause it's hard to be a podcaster, but it's possible to be a YouTuber.
Speaker AWe've spent our hundreds and thousands of hours working on our thumbnails, working on our titles, but in the end, what if we're just talking heads?
Speaker CTalking heads are not bad content.
Speaker CJoe Rogan's Talking Heads, you know, Diary of CEO is talking heads, right?
Speaker CThe visual of it all doesn't have to be four K8 cameras, you know, 1080p and two cameras and three cameras, or, you know, a couple of iPhones is nearly as good.
Speaker COr one iPhone and it's fine.
Speaker CYou know, if you're interviewing somebody interesting and you have some good takes and they can make some good clips, think about the content.
Speaker CLike, the production quality is still 80% of the importance is just the audio of it all.
Speaker CThe video doesn't have to be gorgeously made.
Speaker CThat doesn't really matter.
Speaker CThe thumbnail does, the title does.
Speaker CThe first 30 seconds has to be edited well, but it doesn't have to be so crazy interesting.
Speaker ASo again, in case you missed it, the audio is the most important thing in video.
Speaker AA lot of people skip that.
Speaker CBut would I go out of my way to make a trailer?
Speaker CIf you have the time, yeah.
Speaker CWould I go out of my way to, like, pick good moments for clips?
Speaker CYeah, that's why I built a whole fricking feature about it, you know?
Speaker CBut no, you don't have to be putting in B roll and doing all these other things.
Speaker CMost of the successful podcasts in the world don't.
Speaker ABut what if we're new to this whole thing?
Speaker AI gotta learn thumbnails, I gotta learn all this other stuff.
Speaker ADo you have any resources to figure out how to do this?
Speaker CYes, I will give three recommendations.
Speaker CThe number one is a YouTuber called Aprilyn Alter.
Speaker CShe just sort her channel by popular and watch like the top 10.
Speaker CEvery single video she makes is like months of research distilled down into like 30 minutes of a framework.
Speaker CShe's also kind of built for intermediate plus.
Speaker CBut you will realize how much you don't know very quickly.
Speaker CAnd then if you need additional info, you'll find it out.
Speaker CBut if you're, like, a bit familiar with how thumbnails and titles and stuff work, she'll quickly go from like, here's the foundation of it to here's how to do this at the next level.
Speaker CLike, here's how to go.
Speaker CHere's the.
Speaker CYou know, it's not just colors, it's curiosity, right?
Speaker CAnd then she has another video that's like, give me eight minutes, I'll make your titles 80% better or something.
Speaker CSo I'd watch her thumbnail video, her intro video, her title video, and her ideation video at a minimum.
Speaker CI think ideation as a concept is something everybody could get a lot better at.
Speaker CI'd recommend looking at Patty Galloway.
Speaker CPatty Galloway is.
Speaker CHe is advanced, but his content is mostly breaking down.
Speaker CHow YouTubers got successful and what it is about their content.
Speaker CAnd I think generally think like a YouTuber is a really good mindset for most podcasters, because think like a podcaster doesn't get you as far in terms of growth, because there isn't much growth to be had.
Speaker CThinking like a podcaster, that's mostly more about the quality of the episode and the quality of the interview, which is great and awesome.
Speaker CBut for YouTube, 60 or 70% of it is just the first 30 seconds, the picture and the title.
Speaker CSo you should be spending a lot of that time on that.
Speaker CAnd then my final recommendation would be there is a newsletter called Creator Hooks by Jake Thomas.
Speaker CAnd I would recommend that he's very, very, very good at breaking down titles.
Speaker CAnd I would take those three things and I would study them like it's a religion.
Speaker CAnd I would truly just consume all of it.
Speaker CBecause you ever wondered how Mr.
Speaker CBeast got big, everyone?
Speaker CHow Ryan Trahan got bigger, how anybody else got big?
Speaker CThey all studied.
Speaker CThey tried and they studied and they learned and they improved.
Speaker CAnd there is infinite information out there, but those are some of my favorites.
Speaker AAnd I'll have links to those in the show notes.
Speaker AJust go to schoolofpodcasting.com 1040 and he mentioned April Lynn Alter.
Speaker AI'm gonna play a quick clip from her video on making thumbnails.
Speaker AShe's amazing, but listen to the dedication that she's talking about.
Speaker DBest YouTubers in the world view thumbnails as a priority, not as an afterthought.
Speaker DAnd while most of us don't even start thinking about thumbnails until right before hitting publish.
Speaker DTop youtubers take the time to finalize their thumbnails first before they even start working on the video itself.
Speaker DSo don't be afraid to spend days or even weeks perfecting your thumbnail.
Speaker DIt's worth taking the time to get it right.
Speaker ASo that jumped out at me.
Speaker ADays or even weeks working on a thumbnail if you want to get it right.
Speaker AAnd of course, anytime you talk to somebody who's building software, you always ask them what's coming in the future, which, you know, has got to be really frustrating.
Speaker AI just gave you a giant list of all these features, and I'm like, great.
Speaker AWhat else you got?
Speaker CI think there's a lot that can be done on audio analytics that has yet to be done.
Speaker CSo I'm going to be pursuing a lot of that and just generally speaking, a lot more of that analytics, a lot more of that growth, a lot more of that experimentation.
Speaker CKind of like the second bastion of flightcast after having completed all places video could ever go.
Speaker ASo this was the very first expert talk that we had out at the School of Podcasting.
Speaker AKeep in mind, there is a free version of the School of Podcasting, and that would get you access to these kinds of talks.
Speaker ASo thanks to Rox, and again, I'll have a link out to FlightCast.
Speaker AI should say up front that the link in the show notes is an affiliate link, but that's not why I brought Roxanne.
Speaker AI brought him on because I'd actually heard him on another show called Pod Biz, and I was like, man, I want to know more about this stuff.
Speaker AAnd then when I saw it, I was like, holy cow, this is amazing.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker BThe School of Podcasting.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker ASo I realize you might be thinking, you know, it'd be cool to have all those stats together, but I really don't want to do video.
Speaker AWell, check this out.
Speaker ARight now, There's a website, podanalyst.com and they're in beta, and you can get their pro plan, which is normally 50 bucks for free, during their beta, so you can get this information.
Speaker ABut just know somewhere in the future, they're gonna pull the rug out from us.
Speaker ABut this is a really interesting site in that you can go in and yes, it tracks kind of keywords, which is things like pod SEO does, but it really can go in, and it will look at your episode and kind of grade it at the 25% mark, the 50% mark, the 75, etc.
Speaker AAnd so you can easily see, hey, how long are people listening?
Speaker AAnd for me, that is the metric, because people go, well, I wish I knew if people thought my show was any good.
Speaker AWell, if they only made it 25% through, I don't think that's a good sign.
Speaker AAnd so I'll put a link to that because I realize not everybody wants to do video, but they would like these kinds of stats.
Speaker AYou can track 10 keywords.
Speaker ASo again, that's a little bit like Pod SEO.
Speaker AYou can actually share stats with team members.
Speaker AAnd on the free plan, they give you email support.
Speaker AAnd you can also export your data, which is kind of cool because they've collected it all in one spot.
Speaker ASo I'll put a link to again.
Speaker ASchoolofpodcasting.com 1014 yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker BThe school of podcasting.
Speaker BYeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker AI'm always afraid I come across as anti video, and I'm not.
Speaker AI just want you to go in with realistic expectations.
Speaker AI will give the example.
Speaker AIn my 20s, 30s, 40s, and part of my 50s, I played in different bands, and I was in one band that was really successful here in Ohio.
Speaker AFor a local Ohio band, we played big outdoor festivals and things like that, but we knew we were never moving to Nashville.
Speaker AWe were never going to, you know, make it as a.
Speaker AAn original band.
Speaker AWe were a good, fun party band.
Speaker AAnd so I say this because we knew that and we set our expectations to do what we could do to be the best band in Akron, Ohio.
Speaker AAnd I think we achieved that.
Speaker AAnd so when I say, and I play a clip from someone that says you should spend a couple days, if not a week on your thumbnail, you might be going, well, I can't do that.
Speaker AAnd that's fine.
Speaker AAnd I will say this till I'm blue in the face.
Speaker AIf you want to do YouTube, do YouTube Just realize there are people that are spending days on their thumbnail.
Speaker AAnd we heard over and over and over, it's your title, it's your thumbnail, and it's your first 30 seconds.
Speaker ASo if you don't have time to spend on your thumbnail, your title, and your first 30 seconds, your mileage may vary.
Speaker AAnd I'm just here to let you know ahead of time, hey, here's what other people are doing so that you don't quit.
Speaker AMy biggest worry is that people are going to add video to their already full plate of audio podcasting, and when video doesn't work or just burns them out, that they're going to not stop doing video.
Speaker AThey're going to stop doing podcasting.
Speaker AThat's my biggest fear.
Speaker ABut if you want to do YouTube, by all means, go right ahead.
Speaker AJust go in with realistic expectations.
Speaker AYou may not be the next Joe Rogan.
Speaker CDave has another reason to hate Spotify.
Speaker AAll right, so if you care what's going on or if you care about advertising, Spotify has adopted the alliance for Podcast Measurement definition, their definition of a play.
Speaker AIt used to be the iab.
Speaker ANow, that's the one where everyone got together.
Speaker ATv, even and media hosts and all sorts of people got together and decided what a podcast was.
Speaker AThese people met in secret meetings.
Speaker AOne of them was Spotify, and one of the other two were DraftKings and BetterHelp.
Speaker ASo a bunch of advertisers and they came out and said, hey, now on Spotify, if you listen to 30 seconds, that now counts as a play.
Speaker ASo it used to be a minute.
Speaker ASo congratulations, everyone on Spotify, you just got twice as many plays, if not more.
Speaker AI need to read a little more into the specific.
Speaker AAnd so now we need to see if Apple's gonna follow suit or YouTube.
Speaker AIt's funny, we really do not have an official clarification of what a play is on YouTube.
Speaker AThere are a lot of people that think that it's 30 seconds, but YouTube, you know, because their YouTube never really said.
Speaker ABut the thing that's gonna be weird now is I'm a podcaster, you pay me, and I'm just gonna make this up $5 per 1000 impressions, or shall we say plays.
Speaker AAnd now because we've cut what a play is in half, I now get 2,000.
Speaker AThat means I get $10 because it's $5 per thousand and you just doubled my income.
Speaker AWell, if you think that's what advertisers wanted, hey, can we come up with a way where I pay more money?
Speaker ANo, that just means they will cut the price of advertising in half.
Speaker AI think it's silly.
Speaker AI think it's stupid.
Speaker AAnd if you don't believe me, you know, I will tell you that in the past, I have a show that gets programmatic ads, and it was somewhere between three and five dollars per 1,000 downloads.
Speaker AI came out and said, hey, guys, if supply and demand is still in play, I think we're gonna see the price of programmatic ads.
Speaker ASo those are those automatic ones for Geico and everything else, and then we're gonna see those go down.
Speaker AAnd people literally said, oh, he's just click baity.
Speaker ADon't listen to that guy, he's crazy.
Speaker AYeah, I just got my notification.
Speaker AI made a dollar.
Speaker AA dollar CPM for that show that I'm using for cpm.
Speaker ASo I know your mileage may vary.
Speaker AI'm just here to say if the plan is I'm going to start a podcast and get ads and quit my day job.
Speaker AHmm.
Speaker ANow, if you want to do partnership like my buddy Ray over at around the Layout, that's different story, post red ads.
Speaker ABut I'm talking about the you can make money from day one stuff.
Speaker AThis is just silly by coming and cutting down what a play is for 30 seconds.
Speaker AAnd I think the reason they do that is, well, what's your average pre roll ad?
Speaker AIt's 30 seconds.
Speaker AYeah.
Speaker AIf you want to rid yourself of all this really boring talk, start yourself a supercast, start yourself a Patreon.
Speaker ASell something that your audience would want.
Speaker AAds are just not my favorite way to monetize.
Speaker AIf you're a person like me, like, oh, I don't know if I have time to learn about how to make thumbnails.
Speaker AThere are some resources.
Speaker AOne is called Pixels.
Speaker AI tried this one and it has some really great features.
Speaker AI just couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to do.
Speaker AAnother one is called one of 10, which kind of goes in with the conversation we were having today with both.
Speaker AThose are between 40 and $50 a month.
Speaker AAnd then I forgot about Vidiq.
Speaker AThis is a tool.
Speaker AIt's a YouTube kind of coaching service that researches your competitor and what they're working on and it gives you all sorts of stats and such.
Speaker AVidiq is 20 bucks a month and that is a subscription I have and sadly am not using.
Speaker AThat's one of those that I probably need to cancel and come back later when I have a little more time.
Speaker ABut if you're kind of like this thumbnail thing, there are tools that'll do it for you.
Speaker AAnd this is where again, I say you're either gonna pay in time or money.
Speaker AUse the one you have the most of.
Speaker ABut I'll have links to those again out in the show notes.
Speaker AGo to schoolofpodcasting.com 1040Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker AI will have links to everything out@schoolofpodcasting.com 1040.
Speaker AThanks so much for hanging in and checking out this episode.
Speaker AI know video isn't for everyone, but you're still here and I just want to let you know I do appreciate you.
Speaker AAnd if you want to get your podcast going and this kind of news that I bring up here, I'm doing this almost daily in the school of podcasting going, hey, if you're going to use, for example, if you're going to use that tool I mentioned, Pod Analyst, I have a video that shows you.
Speaker AHey, if you're using Captivate, don't forget or Buzzsprout for that record, don't forget to unhide your email because my goal is to help you avoid those little potholes that come along in the world of podcasting.
Speaker AAgain, the website schoolofpodcasting.com use the coupon code LISTNR that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.
Speaker AAnd if you need a website for your podcast, check out podpage.com/preview will get you over there to start a 14 day trial.
Speaker AAnd you don't even need a credit card.
Speaker AI'm Dave Jackson.
Speaker AI've been helping podcasters for over 20 years.
Speaker AI can't wait to see what we're going to do together.
Speaker AAnd until next week, take care.
Speaker AGod bless.
Speaker AClass is dismissed.
Speaker AIf you like the show, please share it with a friend.
Speaker AIf you like the show, pretty, pretty please share it with a friend right now.
Speaker ANow.
Speaker BYeah.






