Let's answer the question a lot of podcasters quietly ask themselves: should I just edit this myself?
The short answer is: it depends on what your time is actually worth. And a lot of hosts do this math wrong, because they only count the cash and never count the hours.
The true cost of DIY editing.
Let's say you spend three hours per episode editing. That's actually a conservative number once you're doing audio cleanup, leveling, cutting dead air, pulling clips, and writing show notes. Now do the arithmetic:
- At $50 an hour, which is the value of your time doing the thing you're genuinely good at, that's $150 of your own value gone per episode.
- If you publish weekly, that's roughly $600 a month, and that's just the editing. It doesn't even count the reels, the show notes, or the scheduling.
So the "spend nothing" route is rarely free. You're paying with hours you can't invoice and energy you can't get back. The money you save is real, but often the hours you lose cost a lot more.
When DIY makes sense:
- You're just starting out and you want to learn the craft for yourself.
- Your budget is genuinely zero, and this is the only option.
- You have hours to spare and the editing actually energizes you rather than draining you.
When hiring makes sense:
- Your time is worth more than what the editor charges.
- You're consistently late publishing because editing keeps slipping down the list.
- You hate editing, and it shows. A host who resents the edit will often skip the careful passes, and the quality starts to stick out.
- You're trying to grow the show, and reach matters more than the money you'd save.
The middle ground people miss.
You don't have to choose all or nothing. Some hosts do a rough pass themselves and then hand off the polish, the reels, and the notes. Others just record, and a producer handles everything after that. Either way, the goal is the same: your job is to be great on the mic, and the craft doesn't have to be your job.
The honest part: an editor isn't really a cost. It's a purchase of your own hours back. If you're a founder, coach, or consultant whose income depends on your presence and expertise, that's usually a very good trade. The question isn't "can I afford an editor." It's "what am I giving up by not having one?"
That's the model I run. I'm a solo producer who takes your recording and returns a finished show plus a week of content, and I keep the roster small so the quality holds. If you want to know what that would look like for your show, let's hop on a call.