Review That Review with Chelsey and Trey

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► Tell us about you and your podcast

Chelsey and I are both professional actor, comedian types. She lives in LA and I live in NY. We met back in 2017 and hit it off immediately when we dined together on a pre-fixe promo for LA Restaurant Week.

Our show is a comedy podcast dedicated to reviewing hilarious pedestrian reviews on Yelp, Amazon, TripAdvisor, etc. What Siskel and Ebert did for cinematic masterpieces, we do for scathing or SUSPISH online reviews about the Squatty Potty or the Central Park Zoo, or a Ross Dress for Less store in Virginia.

Our listeners vary from those in the exclusive Yelp Elite crowd, to the folks who have searched amazon reviews and found themselves feeling LESS informed after yielding wildly differing reviews. We're your BFFs while you're stuck in traffic, or folding laundry and just need a chuckle.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

We are an interesting mix here, Trey is an avid podcast consumer and Chelsey is more of an audiobook connoisseur. We've found that our experiences offer a really beautiful ying/yang to the table. We both possess different skills for one another which has really fueled our working relationship in very exciting ways. We are both students of each other which just makes working together so much fun.

We first discussed the idea of podcasting together in March 2021. By the end of the phone call, the title, concept and basic premise was born. It was so exciting and just took off. We wanted to iron out the format and the segments before launching so we actually spent all of March, April, and May doing "rehearsal recordings." We did five full hour-long 'episodes' with major dissecting and tweaking between each recording. We learned so much about pacing, our intended style, what WASN'T working, and what needed more development very very quickly. It was astounding.

We officially launched with 3 episodes on June 23rd at midnight. It was so trilling and was a solid 3 months from first phone call to our launch. In that time we also talked with every friend who podcasts, read the incredible Glen Weldon book, "NPR's Podcast Start Up Guide." Consumed all of the free content from Buzzsprout and ThePodcastHost, Castos, and Captivate. We also went through many different artists before landing our cover art.
 

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

Our podcast is a weekly show that drops new episodes every Wednesday. Since we are on opposite coasts, we record over Zoom (Separate Audio Track Recording is GENIUS) every Monday. Our recordings are always under 90 mins and edited episodes are generally around 50 minutes.

Since our show is evergreen content and we generally don't discuss topical issues, we've really front-loaded a bunch of recordings so we never feel like we are in a scramble. We released episode 5 this morning and we currently have 9 recorded. I downloaded software called Mix16Pro for all of our sound cues, segment intros, and music so that makes editing simpler since we record all of that live. Each episode opens with us "Lodging A Complaint" and ends with us giving 5 Stars to someone in our lives as "Our Royal Highness" So, we are also spending about half an hour on our own time prior to each recording picking our complaint and who we want to highlight as our own personal five star recipient in addition to sourcing great reviews for the meat and potatoes of the episode.

Chelsey and I split the costs 50/50. We were surprised how things do add up, financially, so it helps that we are a co-host situation.
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

We are an independent podcast and haven't begun down the path of sponsorships yet. We want to get our flow and 'brand' established before venturing into pitching to networks, or joining Podcorn, etc etc etc.

Aside from financial gain, Chelsey and I have both gained so much as individuals and creatives in this process. Also, on a deeper level, we have both remarked on the discovery that came from reading so many reviews... that everyone has an opinion and the only power someone's negativity holds, is what you allow it to.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

We record on Zoom since we are in LA and NY. I do a first pass on Audacity to combine all the audio files into one and to eliminate any glaring mistakes or flubs. Then I export that file and upload it into Descript which transcribes the audio into text and then I will do a pass at fixing any transcription errors while simultaneously editing narratively from the words. This helps me to see when we repeat ourselves unnecessarily, to see the uhs, ums, I means, etc and to cut them out. I've noticed a pattern of trimming down upwards of 5-6 minutes just from this process. Then I will export the srt file and the audio file and then I upload that into auphonic for all of the audio mastering.

We are beginning to add a segment where we interview people who have been burned by negative reviews, but are still in the process of developing those questions and the full structure.
 

► How do you market your show?

We send a weekly newsletter to subscribers and supporters, plus we run an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and youtube page. We are hosted on Captivate so our show is on all the major directories, but so far our trends are 63% Apple Podcasts, 10% Spotify, 10% Overcast (we are currently running an ad on Overcast and in just 2 weeks we have received 43 new subscribers! Highly recommend.)
 

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

Open, honest, very direct communication about intentions and goals with your collaborators is the number one piece of advice I would share.

I also hear a LOT how much work is required, and well... they weren't kidding. But it has been thoroughly stimulating and exciting.
Honestly, ThePodcastHost's How to Start a Podcast was open on my computer for the first 2 months. It's free and totally walked us through the process.
 

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

We'd love for you to join us, we are having a total blast!
Our website is www.reviewthatreview.com
We are @TheReviewQueens on ALL social media platforms.
@ChelseyBD & @TreyGerrald
You can find your preferred player here: followthepodcast.com/thereviewqueens
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Thank you so much!! :) If you need anything clarified, or expounded upon, just reach out!
Trey - treygerrald@gmail.com