Why Your Local Business Needs a Podcast: Storytelling and Community with Azim Shah

Ben: Hello and welcome to Berko and Beyond, the local business podcast for Berkhamsted and the surrounding area. I’m Ben Baldwin, your host, and on the show this week, it’s a little bit of self-promotion if we’re honest. Azim Shah, who runs the studio here that we record this very podcast in, joins me on the chair opposite.

Let’s dive in. 

Azim Shah, welcome to Berko and Beyond. 

Azim: Hello Ben 

Ben: And welcome to Berkhamsted we should say as well ’cause you’ve just set up your business here in Berkhamsted or one part of your business. Full disclosure, there’s a bit of self-promotion going on in this episode today, right? 

Azim: Just a little bit. Yeah. 

Ben: So Azim runs Red Branch Studios, which is indeed this very studio here, which this podcast is recording, which is a partnership with my business, Chuffed Productions. So, uh, this is our studio and office and we share the studio and unfortunately part of the office now as well, uh, with Azim and Red Branch. So, uh, this episode could go basically anywhere today.

Azim: Yes, it can. Well, firstly, first off, any good podcast, I got you a gift. 

Ben: Ah, okay. 

Azim: Um, you should be giving me a gift ’cause I’m the guest, but that’s okay. Um, here, I’d like to present you with some Nespresso coffee pods not sponsored. 

Ben: Excellent. Uh, ’cause uh, for those, yes, there is background to this.

You’ve drunk all my coffee and now you’re replacing it at last. Thank you. 

Azim: for months. 

Ben: Put that with the machine. Thank you very much indeed. Um, welcome to the show again. Uh, talk to us about podcasting then. Um. Which seems weird to say when we’ve, I’ve got a podcast, so obviously some of these questions I’m asking, I’ll know the answer to.

Um, but how did all this come about? How did coming to Berko and opening Red Branch Studios start? 

Azim: So. My background’s in broadcast and you know, as you know, I’ve been a freelancer for a long time and then I set up my own company and you kindly gave me a lot of good business advice, which is, that’s your one compliment I’m gonna give you today.

But no, you’ve been very kind, you’ve been very good. Um, and then doing the freelancing, I sort of used a few different podcasting studios. You know, I got asked to a few podcasts by clients. So, you know, we booked spaces and things. To be honest, there was a lot of, there was a lot of variety with the podcasting within the podcasting space.

Uh, and they varied in quality. Um, and then I sort of thought, you know what, we can sort of give this a go. There’s a market there. Uh, and in the area in Hertfordshire, there’s not much podcasting wise, there’s no sort of studio spaces, I’m sure you know, and there was definitely a gap there to be filled. So I sort of, you know, approached yourself.

Yep. As you know. Said, you know, I think of starting this thing up and you kindly said, I’ve got a space. 

Ben: Yeah. From a business point of view, uh, it’s interesting ’cause people would think two video people who own video production companies surely aren’t gonna want to be in the same building together and doing stuff.

But that’s often not how it works in video production. We’ve talked about it on the podcast before. I niche in a certain area, you niche in a certain area and at the time neither of us were doing podcasts. So it just actually made quite a lot of sense. And you, I mean, I think the thing I said to you was, don’t build it and they will come.

’cause we kind of did that here and they didn’t, or they not as much as we thought. So actually the studio space wasn’t getting as much use as we wanted out of it. So it made total sense for us for you to use it as a test bed for a podcast studio. 

Azim: Yeah, and it’s been the perfect sort of testing ground, which has been great.

And also, and further than that, you know, it’s, it’s gaining speed and picking up momentum because the demands there. That’s, that’s the whole point. And going back to your point about, um, collaboration like that, it’s really, really important. You know, I’ve maintained that since I started out years ago in the industry.

I say that to people now, you know, collaboration is really important and it doesn’t have to be some kind of battle all the time between two people, you know? Um, and you taught me that very well. You know, I approached you or you could have turned around to me and gone, oh no…  

Ben: Naff off mate. Yeah, no chance.

Azim: Yeah, videos?

Ben: This is my town. Forget it. 

Azim: Sling your hook. 

Ben: Sling your hook. 

Azim: But you didn’t, and you were quite open to, you know, the conversation. You helped me, you know, you’ve sort of helped guide me through the initial stage of starting a business and you, someone I trust, and trust is really important in this game, in most of the business game really.

I think you can build a lot with that. And so this space is like a testament to that. And I mean, look, you know, we’ve built a whole studio and we have people coming in and creating content and it’s brilliant. 

Ben: I mean, I just wanted to start my own podcast. So it was a bit of a no brainer really. It was, but actually the, this podcast was almost an afterthought from when we talked about it, because I was like, well, hang on, if we’re gonna do that, why don’t we do a podcast? And, um, you know, as you know, my background is TV presenting years ago, so then behind the camera then B2B video product. And actually for me, I, this is a nice way for me to sort of stretch my presenter’s legs again, which is a phrase I seem to have made up.

Azim: You say it a lot. 

Ben: Yeah, but I, it’s starting to stick, right, but why would it when I’m sat down? But anyway, um, I digress. Um, so. We’ve talked about podcasts, you and I quite a lot, obviously. Yeah. And I think that it kind of falls into two categories. There are businesses that are making podcasts, there are individuals that are making podcasts, and then also there’s gonna be room in the studio for TikTok shop and for live streaming as well, for, uh, live streaming town halls and that kind of stuff.

Um, if you don’t wanna do them on your own premises, um, but why is that demand for podcasts there? Why, why are podcasts so popular? 

Azim: So nowadays, as you’re aware, and I’m sure most people are aware, podcasting has become a massive thing like globally. I mean. I think there’s like 600 global listeners or something around that money.

Ben: 600 global listeners. 

Azim: Six. There’s 600. Sorry. Lemme start again. 

Ben: Do, do you wanna get your notes out? 

Azim: Yeah, I do wanna get my notes out actually.

Ben: We’re not editing any of this bit out by the way. 

Azim: Oh, that’s okay. 

Ben: You know that massive long pause that we edited out from me earlier when I lost track. That’s going out.

This is staying in. Freddie, Editor, by the way, sat in the background. Oh, I know. I’m not cutting any of this out. 

Azim: Yeah, he is like, this is gold. 

Ben: He’s like, this is golden. 

Azim: Watch this, watch this. So globally there’s 600 million. 600 million. 

Ben: 600 million listeners. 

Azim: Yeah. Globally. Um, 1.4 billion pounds plus is being generated by podcasts 

Ben: Per year.

Azim: Yeah. Per year in the industry. And that was based on a 2024 market valuation. Uh, expected to hit 5.8 billion, so roughly 6 billion by 2030. So that’s, that’s pretty big numbers, really. 

Ben: And is that generation come from mainly sponsorship, presumably? 

Azim: Yeah, quite a lot of it’ll be through sponsorships, um, and then advertising deals as well, you know, um, not just, like I say, there are podcast sponsors, but then remember around that, around episodes, around, you know, production houses, 

Ben: Product placement. 

Azim: Yeah. 

Ben: That kind of stuff. 

Azim: But, um, it’s worth, you know, it’s worth a lot. And so people are engaging with the content a lot more. Um, and there’s quite a lot you can do with a podcast if you’re a business or if you’re know, you’re a content creator. So the business side of things, you can help grow an audience and you know it.

You can help grow an audience and it’s your authority that’s being displayed when you’re on a podcast, whether you’re a guest or audience. 

Ben: Not on this podcast. It’s not currently. 

Azim: Some of us are authorities. 

Ben: Yes.

Azim: Not all. 

Ben: Yes. Sorry, I was speaking for myself as the host. 

Azim: But um, yeah. So the authority’s one thing, um, you know, your reach in terms of your client base and your audience, you know, people are increasingly consuming more short form content. 

Ben: Yes.

Azim: TikTok and Instagram reels and stuff and attention spans are shorter. 

Ben: Now look, even though that’s true, I’m good. I am the champion of long form content. That’s, I’ve decided. With my stretching my legs as a presenter., I am now the champion of long form content because I mean, you, you are dead, right.

There’s lot of appetite for short term content out there, but there’s also massive appetite for long form content in the podcast, but you were gonna get around saying that, weren’t you? 

Azim: Yeah, but that’s, but that’s it. You took the words outta my mouth. But that’s true. That’s the thing. And that’s why you can grow a more loyal audience.

If someone’s willing to listen to your podcast for half an hour, 40 minutes, you know that’s a dedicated person. They’re dedicated to that time, listening to you talk about whatever topic you are talking about. And with that comes loyalty. And they also have time to get to know you. Get to know your personality, you know, your quirks and whether or not you drink everyone’s coffee or whatever.

And it’s something that is important to people. And now this is like a slight tangent, but in this day and age, um, business aside, or, you know, conservation aside, AI is becoming more and more prevalent. And it’s, it’s picking up pace every day. Um, automation is becoming a thing and there is demand, definitely for more human based storytelling or human based content.

Ben: So what’s your podcast gonna be then? 

Azim: Well, 

Ben: On the spot.

Azim: On the spot. So I’m about to launch a podcast, which will be about podcasters, podcasting. If you have a podcast, you can come on and talk about your podcast, or if you’re a producer of a podcast, you can come on and it’s essentially around that sort of industry.

And we’ll have, you know, special guests occasionally who have, you know, something interesting to talk about. But there’s not a lot of podcasts that talk about that sort of thing specifically. Yeah. I mean, people do guests on each other’s podcasts a lot. 

Ben: So, uh, putting the, however many billion it was aside.

Azim: Yeah. 

Ben: Um, there are somewhere in the region of 600 million listeners to podcasts, um, in, in the world, in the globe. Obviously, you know, podcasts like this are not aimed at getting anywhere near that amount of viewers. Not saying that there are, there is one podcast that all those people listen to, but if people are out there thinking, oh, I wanna start a podcast for my business, or I wanna start a podcast for my hobby, or whatever it is, uh, why should they and how do they go about it?

Azim: So nowadays, storytelling’s really important. Um, with the advent of AI and that being pushed so much and it growing more and more and more and more people using it, um, there’s, there’s a concern, um, from some people, as you’re aware, we’ve talked about AI before, um, that you, you’re sort of losing that human connection, whereas when you have a podcast, you know, you listen to somebody for half an hour, 40 minutes, and you are with them. You know, that’s, that’s the long form content. And you know, short form content wise, everyone’s looking at that and intention spans are getting less and less, you know? There have been studies which say that. And with Instagram and TikTok and stuff, people are just like scrolling through reels and things, whereas with podcasting, you get to know the host, you know you are with them for an extended period of time.

You also get to know their personalities and their quirks and you feel more connected, you know? Like you and I having a conversation now this is more reflective of how we actually are rather than like, you know, sat down formal Jeremy Paxman interview. It’s very, very different. Um, and people want that connection.

And so if you’re a business, you’re growing an audience and you are growing loyalty through customer, your customer base, and you are also showing authority and showing your knowledge by being on a podcast or hosting your own podcast in whatever area you are, if you are a content creator or just someone with a story to tell.

It’s where we’re getting stories out there. I mean, there is a project that I have an idea for, in the pipeline, which I’m not gonna say too much about on here, but involves…

Ben: Oh, that’s a tease. 

Azim: It is. It involves human storytelling, which I need to talk to you about, which is quite important. But 

Ben: we could, well listen, we could talk about it now and that could be 

Azim: well, 

Ben: Or is it?

Azim: Yeah we can. No, no, no, we can.

Ben: Alright, let’s talk about it in a minute. Well go on then. This is, so this is what we weren’t expecting this, so this is, uh, 

Azim: It’s quite, it’s quite an interesting angle. Um, and it was, I’ve had it planned for a while with the video production side. 

Ben: Okay. 

Azim: But it’s legacy content. So you have, um, your parents or grandparents and you sit down,

Ben: I know where you’re going with this.

Azim: Yep, yep. And you have an interview with them. The thing is, every time I’ve mentioned this, you know, I’ve mentioned this to friends in, you know, in the pub and having a chat about it and, you know, a couple of other people, you know, um, Sam does marketing with me, I’ve mentioned to her, and the thing around it is family’s important and we live in an age where you can capture everything. Yes. 

Ben: Yep. 

Azim: But it’s not in a structured format. Um, and podcasting, long form. You can sit there and how many people have a sit down interview with their mum, dad, grandad, grandmother. And I thought about it because, um, a couple of years ago, a friend of mine lost his dad to cancer and I’d thought about offering to record him just as a, you know, I’ll, you know, I can film something with his dad.

Literally two days later, his dad died. And I was like, oh, why did I not just do it? 

Ben: Yeah. 

Azim: You know, I hadn’t, I hadn’t mentioned it to him yet, but I’d said to my wife, you know, I was thinking of doing this. And she was like, that’s a really nice idea. And then, you know, before that we’d lost, um, my wife’s grandmother, who we were all quite close to.

And same again. I said I should record it. And, you know, I regret not. And that’s like a very personal thing, but it’s not just me. You know, hindsight’s an amazing thing. Um, but there is something around it and there are people who do it. 

Ben: There’s definitely something around it. I think if I could, as you know, I lost my, my dad five, five years, six years nearly now.

And, uh, but or to Alzheimer’s and Alzheimer’s related. And so really, I, I lost him way before then. Um, and to have, and there are recordings of him and there’s stuff that we’ve got on phones and stuff like that. And sometimes when it’s, you know, when something’s popped up on, on your memories and it’s been a, a live photo.

Azim: Yeah. 

Ben: And actually you’ve got the audio and like there’s his laugh on there or there’s bits we’ve recorded at kids’ birthday parties and stuff like that. ’cause you know, he had this most incredible laugh. But he had so many stories and to have, have that to look back on. I think it’d be be amazing. And, um, there’s test cases for it and this, and that sounds weird to say test cases.

There’s case studies of it because I know production companies in the states that do it, and they do it on a fully fledged all singing, all dancing, we’re talking $25,000 to, uh, you know, your, your kind of legacy piece. But this is like the, um, I was gonna use the words entry level but that would be really unkind to it. But no, to be able to bring someone and sit them down in a studio like this and to have those conversations that can go in any direction. Like, yeah, that, I think that’s brilliant. 

Azim: Yeah, and I think it’s, it’s something that you have to be a certain kind of person. Like the legacy video thing, that’s where it started. Yeah. And it’s something that, you know, hopefully I, I wanna try and pursue one day.

I’ve got way too many other things. 

Ben: Yeah. But, so kind of as I said to you before, maybe just do the podcast studio to start with and, uh, and yeah. And then, oh, what happens? You get on a podcast to promote your podcast studio and we end up talking about something entirely different. 

Azim: Well, this, but this is the thing.

It, it’s not, this is like a. This is a pipe dream. 

Ben: It’s my interviewing technique is what it is, mate. I’ve managed to just get those little.

Azim: You got it out. 

Ben: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve managed to pull, I just saw that little thing and then I just went, oh, I just tug on that little string there and there we go. 

Azim: Louis Theroux.

Yeah. So it’s, um, but yeah, the legacy video thing was something I looked at before, you know, when I started doing, um, well, when I said about my friend’s dad and Becky’s nan and stuff. Yeah. I started looking into it then I thought, is it a thing? It is a thing, as you mentioned. I spoke to a couple of companies in America, I got in touch with them and was like, you know, just looking for some guidance and advice and dah, dah, dah, dah.

And then since speaking to them, you know, and their productions vary from like quite small to massive. 

Ben: Yeah. 

Azim: But, um, I was like, well, it’s something that I, you know, I think about for later, but then doing this now, and the human storytelling piece and the legacy piece. It’s, it’s something that’s, you know, I think would work quite nicely for people in this day and age.

Definitely. 

Ben: I think so. You know, we talk, going back to niches when that, that’s what those video production companies in the states, they literally, that’s all they do. 

Azim: Yeah. 

Ben: That’s what differentiates them, them, and that. I’m already, I’ve just built the packages and while, while we’re sat here, but it’s still all based around a podcast studio. 

Azim: But that’s it. And it’s an extension of what we do here, you know, and like I say, whether you’re a business or whether you’re a content creator or then families, you know, wanting to record content, you know, you’re recording some meaningful content for yourself. Um, and the legacy thing is quite a worthwhile thing, I think anyway. 

Ben: So, back to those people that are starting podcasts. 

Azim: Yes. 

Ben: What’s the most difficult thing about a podcast? I really should be asking myself this question, having just, yeah, it’s just been episode five of ours, but I’ll see what you think first. I’ll go afterwards. 

Azim: I think it’s underestimated how important planning is.

You have been in the game for a while and you know about video production, you know about pro processes. You’ve got you at Chuffed have so many processes in place. And you know. Looking at you and how you do things. Then also, you know, working on big productions myself and then also, you know, getting jobs myself now stuff I’m trying to implement, processes being, you know, a bit smaller and a bit, 

Ben: yeah, 

Azim: bit younger than you in my journey.

Um, but that is really, really important and I think when people come in to do the, do the podcast recording or, you know, content in general, but mainly the podcast side. You can come in and do it. Absolutely. A hundred percent. You can come in. Come in here, sit down, hit record. Good to go. We’ll sort you out. Brilliant. 

But if you want to make something that’s actually good. You have to have it planned out. You have to have a plan of, you know, where you’re going with your format of your episode, you know what points you’re gonna talk about roughly when it doesn’t have to be set in stone. I mean, look at this, 

Ben: I’m laughing ’cause we’ve not done any of that for this episode.

But it’s all good. It is good advice because yes, 

Azim: But also,

Ben: We’ve gone off on tangents, 

Azim: But also we are used to it. 

Ben: Yeah, 

Azim: We know that. And you’ve been in front of camera alot, I’m more used to being in front of camera now and I do public skeeping and bits and pieces, and I do public speaking and bits and pieces so that makes a big difference, you know, I’m not camera shy.

Ben: Sorry, just to point out, you’ve just said that thinking that Fred’s gonna edit your, your fluff on the first mention of public speaking.

Azim: No, he’s not.

Ben: He’s not.

Azim: No, I know he’s not.

Ben: He’s gonna leave that in there.

Azim: He’s gonna throw me under the bus.  I know where his car is.

Ben: But actually.  You can’t miss it with all that stuff on the dashboard. He’s got all these toys on the dashboard.

Um, this is the point actually, uh, ’cause this podcast episode will be somewhat edited. Probably not a lot, ’cause it’s more fun leaving the outtakes in as far as I’m concerned, particularly as most of them are yours. But you can sit down and do a podcast. You can sit down in the studio, hit record, take all the files and go away.

Azim: Yeah. 

Ben: But we would always recommend is use the profe, and purely from a business point of view, is, um, there’s a great book, and I’ve forgotten who’s written it, but it’ll go in the show notes. Who, not how. So.

Azim:  Who not who?

Ben:  Who, not how. So, it’s not, it’s one I’ve recommended to you before.

Azim:  Yeah you have.

Ben:  You’ve obviously not read, but it’s not about doing it yourself.

There’s a whole thing. As a business owner, you can go, right? Or as a business, how do we do this? How do we do that? How do we do, let’s learn how to run a YouTube channel and let’s learn how to do where, how, or get someone else to do it. And the, uh, video production is, is always a part like that. It’s like, well, can we just edit it ourselves?

Or, actually the classic one is, if we just shoot some stuff on an iPhone, can you edit it for us? And it’s like, well, you, I’ll let you answer. If I just shoot some stuff on an iPhone, can you edit it for me? 

Azim: No. 

Ben: Why not Azim? 

Azim: Absolutely not. It’s a nightmare. And also it won’t look right. And also you haven’t logged the footage properly.

And also it looks terrible. And also you probably filmed it terribly. And also it’s gonna take me ages to go through all your terrible footage and yeah, it’s all those things, as we both know. And 

Ben: Yeah, on a serious note, it is down to the experience of knowing what to shoot, how to frame a shot, what shots match with each other, how to get audio right, ’cause video is basically 60% audio, if not more. 

Azim: But that’s the thing people will tolerate poor video and we’re very fortunate in here with our set up to have, you know, nice cameras and it looks really, really nice. Yeah. But people will tolerate poor video. They will not tolerate poor audio because if you can’t hear somebody, they will switch off.

Especially in this kind of situation. So if you’re recording stuff yourself on a phone, half the time the audio is terrible. And I’ve had people come to me and been like, why is my sound so bad? Because you’ve recorded it on your phone. There’s no need. 

Ben: Anyway. My point being was you can sit down here in this studio, uh, you know, back to the self-promotion. For, uh, Red Brand Studios and, uh, the podcasting service. Um, you can come down, sit, sit in here, hit record. You’ll leave people to it. They can film the thing, take it away and do it. But by far the better idea is a package where you come in, sit down, then you edit it, give them the whole thing complete.

Then they can go off and work out how to put it on YouTube and on the podcast platforms themself. Or you could probably offer advice on that, yes?

Azim: Yeah exactly.  Well, that’s it. Like, doing an all encompass package sort of makes sense.

Ben: Yeah.

Azim: Um, because of that very reason. You know, it’s all well and good people coming in and recording and then going off and having it edited, but, as I’ve found with some people, you know, then they give it somebody who can’t, maybe not can’t, but who is not as confident an editor, or experienced an editor, and then they get a product which isn’t as good as they would like back.

Ben: Yep.

Azim: Whereas we, uh you know from being from video production backgrounds, and as I said, you know, from a broadcasting background, I have, like such a high standard of quality, that I want things to be up here all the time consistently. So when you come in here and if you have a package with us and you record an episode fully with us and we edit it for you, and we do an introduction for you and all that, you know, you’re getting something solid at the end of it.

Um, because as you mentioned earlier. It’s better to trust things to people who know what they’re doing. And I’m learning that with business like you, you have shown me that, to be honest. 

Ben: Alright, stop that now. I’ve not given you loads of advice. Maybe a bit. 

Azim: Don’t want people coming to you for free advice. 

Ben: No, definitely not. 

Azim: ben@chuffed.video. Anyway. 

Ben: Thanks for that. 

Azim: It’s a plug. 

Ben: Yeah, yeah, 

yeah. Oh, great. Um, I’ve totally lost my train of thought. Now you can leave, you can, you can edit this bit out though, Fred. Oh yes, I got it. You were gonna ask me the same question back. Given that I’ve just launched a podcast, you were gonna ask me what was the most difficult thing about launching a podcast?

Azim: So Ben, what was the most difficult thing about you launching a podcast? 

Ben: Well, first of all, that’s really interesting, uh, question. And thanks for, thanks for asking it. Um, I think at consistency and cadence, and that is we’re, we’re on episode, your episode five that we’re filming today. 

Azim: Thank you. 

Ben: Uh, no thank you.

And it is basically like anything else in business. It’s habits and it’s habit stacking. And from our point of view, as a production company, we know schedules, but then all of a sudden you, you are doing the same thing. And we’ve committed to doing one a week and we started off publishing on a Tuesday. So we published two on the first, ’cause all the advice is launch with at least two or three episodes. So then the viewers have got time and listeners have got time to effectively listen to two or three in a row to get into it and get a feel for it. And then you go for your cadence for which I’ve decided once a week purely from the point of view, ’cause if I know if I do it less than that, it’ll fall by the wayside.

Where if I’ve said right, and I’ve said it to a few people, I’ve said it to a couple of business mentors of mine as well, they’re gonna hold me to account to it, you’re gonna hold me to account to it. Um, so it’s that, it’s that consistency and the cadence. And then actually we’ve just sat down where you heard the call.

Me and Emma were just going, actually we’ve bumped the episodes now to a Wednesday because it gives us a bit of breathing space, ’cause we want to record our episodes on a Friday most of the time and record, I can do three in a day without my mind being completely boggled. Well, I think I can, we’ll see. 

Azim: Well that’s another interesting point actually.

Um, because like you said, the consistency is key, but doing less is sometimes more. You are an experienced presenter. You’ve, you know, you’ve presented a lot and you, you know, you speak in front of people quite a lot, you know. you’re, you have the stamina, as it were. Can I say that? 

Ben: Yes. I used to do four hours of live television a night with no script.

Azim: Yes, exactly. So you are, you are very much used to that kind of thing. Um, but generally speaking, it’s a lot to do more than two in one go. 

Ben: Yeah. 

Azim: So I’d recommend, you know, breaking it up, you know, doing two, and you’re exactly right. That’s how you build an audience and that’s how you get people into it, like the first two episodes at once and then, you know, then the third.

But if, when you’re recording, my suggestion would be to, you know, record two and then have a break. 

Ben: Also brings in, that brings in other complications, the challenge of going, right, hang on a minute, so I’m filming three. What order are they gonna go out? Are we gonna, so we could easily make it slightly, easily make it easier by not mentioning episode numbers or anything like that, because then you could change them around and put them in any order.

So that might be something we decide to change later on, and we’ll only do. We’ll only number the episode in the introduction ’cause the introductions, if you haven’t noticed, are filmed separately and 

Azim: You’ve ruined the illusion. Broken the, 

Ben: Well, I don’t think it ruined that illusion. 

Azim: It definitely. Well, it has for me.

Ben: I’m sorry about that.  

Azim: I know I’ve been in here, but 

Ben: We’re about to swap seats and record another. And record another episode, by the way. 

Azim: Can’t wait for that. 

Ben: So there is that? I think so. But once you get into that. As we are now getting into that cadence and, and, and going, right, hang on a minute, that’s what we’re doing.

And it just becomes regular and you’re like, well, every other Friday or every three Fridays, it’s gonna be for us. We’re recording three episodes of the podcast, then we’ve got them. 

Azim: Yeah, 

Ben: because we’re not making any money out of this podcast at the moment. 

Azim: No. 

Ben: So for us it’s about just keeping, keeping going and keeping consistent, but it not taking up all our time with us getting, um all arty farty with it, getting the crayons out as we like to do as creatives and in video production. And oh, not quite happy with that shot and people won’t notice as much, but it still looks great ’cause of the way it’s been, it started, 

Azim: Well, what is the phrase? Um, you’ll probably have to correct me, I’m probably gonna butcher it, but it’s don’t make perfect the enemy of good.

Ben: Oh, I don’t know that one. 

Azim: So basically. If you’re aiming for perfection, you’re not gonna make any progress. Whereas if it’s really good, 

Ben: yeah, 

Azim: It’s still great and you’re making progress by doing it. So you can aim for it to be perfect, brilliant. But if it’s not perfect, it’s not the end of the world because you are still moving forward in what you’re doing.

Ben: This being a local business podcast, we should have, we should have perhaps write ’em on the wall, all these kinds of things. So it’s like all these, all these slogans about, you know, 

Azim: the mantras. 

Ben: Yeah, all those mantras. Um, that’s new on me. We’ll, uh, 

Azim: we see, 

Ben: we’ll start a list 

Azim: Every day is a school day, isn’t it?

Ben: Every day is a school day. 

Azim: See, I knew I’d add value to this, 

Ben: So what about, absolutely. Yeah. And yeah, long, long may that continue? Um, but education’s a good point, isn’t it? Because, uh, we’ve talked about business, we’ve talked about people just, you know, talking about their hobbies and, I think for a podcast for, for people that, like you said, that human connection, just, I’ve started one ’cause I’m curious.

And, uh, the business has been in Berkhamsted actually for six years at the moment. But we, we had, there was a break over COVID we’re here before then as well. Um, and actually I thought to myself, I, I just sometimes come in and out and I don’t know, you know lots of, lots of businesses or lots of other people, and there’s loads of interesting people around here.

I thought this is the easiest way to meet them actually, is just invite ’em into the studio for a chat. 

Azim: Yeah. And it’s great. And it builds community. That’s the thing. And that’s in places like this, like Berkhamsted and you know, other places in the area, St. Albans and places like that. You know, community’s really, really important.

And that’s the thing that differentiates us in this space. That’s one of the positive things. And people have commented on it, you know, people have come to Berko to record their podcast. They’ve been like, oh, Berkhamsted’s really nice, isn’t it? And I was like, what are we expecting? It’s not East London, no offense to East London, but you know, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a really, really nice town.

And people go into Central London to record podcasts in these studios. And it’s really busy. And then, you know, you are rushed to get there. And here it’s it, you come in, it’s really nice. You have loads of local businesses, you know, coffee shops and places to eat and things like that. You know, everything you need is here.

Ben: Yeah. 

Azim: And it’s just really, really nice. And it’s nice to have that community feel on that’s what doing, you know, your podcast is like perfect. 

Ben: Cool. Well, we will of course put all the details, uh, in the show notes of how to contact you. People wanna kind of have a little look around the studio. They can come and have a sit and try it out.

Um, but for now I will finish on another business mantra, I think, this podcast is done, which is better than perfect.

Thanks for watching this week’s episode of Berko and Beyond. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, then drop us an email: podcast@Berkoandbeyond.com, and don’t forget to like and subscribe wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts. We’ll see you next week.