Why Is the Program So Expensive? Why Not Just Learn All This From YouTube Videos?

*Note: The correspondence below occurred when PES launched and was offering a 5-day in-person course. Soon after that we switched to an online course. All the points made below still apply, though.

A note Chris received:

I’m wondering what about this program constitutes a $3000 or $5000 dollar price tag?

I’ve been podcasting for 2 years, I’m an editor on some very high profile shows, and I’ve never had any formal training. It’s all stuff you can easily learn from YouTube.

Sure people can get a crash-course in 5 days, but podcasting is a very open community and if you reached out to pretty much any podcaster they’d show you the ropes.

To clarify: This is all amazing stuff that podcasters should learn. Audio quality is so important but it’s just a lot of money.

Chris’s response:

Hi _____,

I appreciate your post and questions.

The Podcast Engineering School program is for individuals who want to have a professional career or business as a podcast engineer/producer. Or die-hard audio geeks who really want to learn the audio engineering side of podcasting.

The program is NOT for casual podcasters or casual podcast producers/editors. Casual/amateur folks, as you mentioned, can easily obtain general knowledge as well as find answers to specific questions via YouTube.

The podcasting industry is growing up. There is a legitimate need for a professional school. There are job openings and business opportunities. The paradigm that “podcasting is a hobby industry” and therefore no one needs professional training is changing. Professional companies want to work with professionals. And I’m saying this because I’ve been hired by Forbes, Dun & Bradstreet and many others to produce their podcasts.

I saw a post this morning asking, “What do hate most about podcasts?” Bad audio quality was the number one response. Any legitimate audio engineer who evaluates a large sample of existing podcasts will conclude that the overall sound quality of podcasts is pretty bad. As the industry continues to grow and more companies and professionals continue creating podcasts, they want professional quality – not the amateur quality that is so prevalent now.

I know podcast producers (some have been on my show) who never touch an EQ or compressor when producing episodes. As podcasting grows up, these types of producers/editors will gradually be leap-frogged or replaced by professionals.

These days it’s not hard to get by as an amateur podcast producer/editor, but many individuals want to do MORE than that AND GET PAID more than that. They like the idea of being a respected professional in their field, receiving professional training as well as having a respected Certification on their resume.

With regards to self-learning on YouTube:

As I mentioned above, it’s a good tool for finding general knowledge or answers to quick questions. I do this often.

However, when it comes to deeper learning, few are the people who know WHAT they need to learn, can go find it, learn from it, AND implement it. And of course there’s all the time wasted searching and evaluating and learning all kinds of unnecessary or wrong things. Professionals recognize the wise use of their time. For instance, 30 minutes of quality conversation between teacher and student can easily be more productive than months on Youtube. This is what ALWAYS happens when I consult individual producers.

In the world of professional training, nothing compares to being taught 1-on-1 in-person by a highly accomplished professional. It’s not only top quality knowledge that the student receives – it’s attitude, confidence, and context – and these are critically important to becoming happy and successful in your field.

Time: Individuals who want to become respected professionals in their field realize that it’s going to require a lot more than watching YouTube videos. Attending a real school program with a highly accomplished instructor cannot be compared to surfing YouTube.

Calibre of instructor: Many would argue that the teacher is more important than the content, providing he or she is a highly accomplished individual with regards to knowledge, skills, experience and practical success.

You wrote: “I’m wondering what about this program constitutes a $3000 or $5000 dollar price tag?” Anyone who wants serious professional training in preparation for a lucrative career (or business) will find this price a steal! Everything the student needs – all the relevant and important knowledge, skills, workflow, hands-on training, solutions and confidence will be neatly delivered to them by an instructor who has already accomplished what they want to accomplish. As I said above, casual hobbyists won’t be interested in my program because it’s overkill for them.

You wrote: “I’ve been podcasting for 2 years, I’m an editor on some very high profile shows, and I’ve never had any formal training. It’s all stuff you can easily learn from YouTube.” I’ve already addressed this above, and now that you hopefully understand that this program is professional training, you hopefully realize that YouTube is good for many things and it’s very handy, but watching YouTube videos cannot be compared to the Podcast Engineering School program.

You wrote: “Sure people can get a crash-course in 5 days, but podcasting is a very open community and if you reached out to pretty much any podcaster they’d show you the ropes.” It seems like you’re talking about reaching out to others when you have a question or two. A couple of quick questions is vastly different from in-person professional training. Would I be able to reach out to you (or anyone) and ask you to train me in-person for 5 full days and 4 webinars and mentoring sessions and software/plugins discounts – all for free?

You wrote: “To clarify: This is all amazing stuff that podcasters should learn. Audio quality is so important but it’s just a lot of money.” As I mentioned above, for individuals who truly value professional training, this program is a bargain. It’s an investment in themselves which no one can take away, and it’s a springboard for a successful lucrative career or business.

Hopefully this makes sense to you, _____. Your questions were actually a good excuse for me to articulate many points, which, btw, I’m going to post on my website in the form of videos of me explaining some of these points in addition to the actual program details. That should be helpful to others 😉

Keep Shining,
~Chris Curran