What Makes PES More Valuable (and More Expensive) Than Other Online Courses?

Question:

This is a whopper of a price tag. What makes the contents of the course worth more than a few months of similarly themed Udemy or Lynda courses?

And full disclosure: I want you to sway me Chris. As a producer in this space I always looking for people who know more than I do so that I can learn from them and be better.

Answer:

OK, first off, regarding “swaying you,” that’s not possible. All I’m able to do is answer questions and convey details. 

PES is different than any other podcasting course available. It’s not for podcasters; it’s for individuals who want to become a professional and earn really good money engineering/producing podcasts. Some people look at PES and automatically believe that it’s just another course about how to plug in a mic and publish to iTunes, etc…..another John Lee Dumas course or Cliff Ravenscraft A-to-Z course or Shawn Smith course or whoever else.

I have built a podcast production business engineering/producing shows for mid/large companies who want to work with professionals – not someone who learned a few things by watching some YouTube videos. These companies want to pay good money to a professional.

Now, most individuals who are producing/editing podcasts, or want to, don’t have enough confidence/guts to charge something like $750 per episode instead of $75 per. What you charge depends on the value you deliver, and a big part of the value for mid/large companies is having a dependable professional on their team who can handle any audio situation professionally.

Bulletproof confidence is essential – that you absolutely know what you’re doing, you know the fundamentals, you have the right tools, equipment, software, you know how to communicate with guests and clients, you know how to communicate your value, and you have access to an accomplished mentor and a community to step in and help at any moment.

PES delivers all these things, including 1-on-1 mentoring from me, ridiculous academic discounts on amazing software, a vibrant community of 20+ (and growing) alumni all helping each other, unlimited Q&A, a course project, and 7 in-depth lectures on audio fundamentals, hardware, studio configurations, software & plugins, recording, connecting and recording guests, listening exercises, mixing, editing, mastering, publishing, the business aspect, and more, all in great detail.

Another unique value: As the instructor I am combining my audio experience from the music business with tons of advanced podcast production experience and boiling it all down – I’m able to teach students what they need to know to immediately avoid many pitfalls and problems, and of course allow them to immediately perform tasks at a professional level.

Can you get all that from a Udemy course, or 5?

You see, students don’t know what they don’t know. So how could they possibly go out and find all the training they need to handle all possible situations at a professional level? Ralph M. Rivera and I had a wonderful discussion about this on this session of The Podcast Engineering Show. 

It’s been quite an interesting experience helping so many individuals become audio professionals and grow their careers, or just earn good money on the side part-time. As the podcast industry grows I feel PES will serve an increasing important role. It’s my vision for companies to seek out graduates of PES in the future, once they know the quality of the graduates. I’ve already had several production companies ask for introductions to PES graduates.