Anyone can change their own oil

Interesting question came across a podcast editor’s group that I belong to on Facebook. The question was, how are things different here in 2022, going into 2023 regarding getting clients, and keeping clients. Is technology catching up with the humans, making yesterday’s essentials a necessity? 

It’s a legit question. If you look at industries such as TV repair, vacuum cleaner repair. Back in the day, if you bought a TV, it was meant to last forever. And if something broke, you just took it to the TV repair man and he fixed it.   

That’s not the case today in 2022. Your TV breaks, you buy a new one and junk the old one. It’s not right or wrong. That’s just the way it is.  

Now I am coming from the perspective of someone who in nearly 8 years of making podcasts has outsourced the editing of my episodes but one or two times – and I was so disappointed in the results I vowed to never again allow anyone else near my podcasts.

Not only that, but other people pay me to edit their podcasts. So I understand where the fellow is coming from. He wants to know, is this a viable trade? Is this something that is worth my time to learn the skills? Or should I be putting my  attention elsewhere? 

My answer to this is there will always be people who don’t want to do the editing and production themselves. 

Here in 2022, going into 2023, it’s easier than ever to edit a podcast. There are tools available that allow you to basically press record, hit stop, and  the technology will take care of the rest. It really is that easy. 

But as someone who makes his living editing podcasts (at the moment,) it doesn’t scare me one bit.

I have had clients who told me that they were going to stop using my service because they realized they can do it themselves and they’re going to save a few bucks and go it alone. I wish them well, and tell them to have fun with it, because it really is fun! I’m not going to get upset because someone is going to derive pleasure from something that has given me a lot of pleasure over the last seven or eight years.

But there will always be people who just don’t want to do it themselves. It’s like changing a car’s oil. The steps involved in changing oil are not difficult; it’s something anyone can do. You elevate your car maybe two or three feet off the ground so that you could  get underneath it. You take out the plug in the canister in your engine that’s holding the oil and let it drain out. You  close the plug, open up the thing on the top of the hood or the top of the engine, and you put in  he new oil. You get the seal of the new filter a little bit wet with the new oil, slap it in, and you’re done.

I’ve changed my own oil before, but I’ll never do it again. I prefer to pay someone $50 to change my oil. Why? For one thing, I have to do it but three or four times a year. So I’m happy to pay someone who knows cars, knows engines far better than I ever will, just give them some money and let them take care of their kids. In which case I have purchased the most precious commodity of all: time.

I don’t have to take the time to do the work of changing the oil, getting myself dirty, cleaning up, changing my clothes, and then getting on with my day. I don’t have to take an entire Saturday morning that I’d ordinarily be maybe sleeping in or walking and writing an email. I have bought my time. 

So even though the technology is really making things as easy as pressing record, pressing stop, and then hitting upload, there will always be people who don’t want to do it, who are happy to pay an editor like myself and who does it all the time. Because for them it’s worth it. 

It does take time and it gets a person out of that hypnotic rhythm that Napoleon Hill talked about in his book, Outwitting the Devil.

So my answer to the question on the Facebook group was basically, you learn a craft, you get really good at it. You find people who don’t have time to do it, and they’ll pay you to do it.

Anyone can change their own oil, but very few people actually want to do it themselves. The vast majority of people are willing to pay the technician at Wav Mart or Jiffy Lube, even their neighbor down the road who works on cars all the time. They’re happy to do it because it buys them the time and saves them all of the trouble of doing it themselves.

Now there might come a time where it truly is to the point where someone will not make their living primarily editing podcasts, but at the end of the day, do you make your living editing podcasts? 

I say no. You make your living servicing customers.

You give over the top customer service and you’ll always have work. It may not be as much work as you want, but you’ll always have work. Because people value people. That’s just the way we’re wired, even if technology really is to the point where someone can do it themselves very easily. If you’ve developed a relationship with these clients, they’ll have a visceral reaction inside to even think about parting ways with you.

We’re in the people business and we’re in the business of taking care of people and solving a problem that they have. And not only that, but focusing on that sense of community that we all crave and you can’t go wrong. 

You might find yourself in a position where the service that you’re providing is no longer relevant. It could be that five years from now podcast editing  is obsolete, but when your focus is on providing services that people need and you focus on the people, that’s a recipe for success in my book.