Empire Builders —
the podcast about
brands that became empires.

Two hosts. Great conversations. Needed someone to make them sound right.

Stephen Semple and Dave Young had the thesis — how do mom-and-pop businesses turn into household names? — and they had the interviews to back it up. What they needed was an audio producer who could take raw conversations and shape them into something worth subscribing to.

The role was focused: editing the interviews and producing the promos. Not guest booking, not strategy, not social — just the audio craft that makes a good conversation into a good episode.

Clean the cut. Protect the conversation.

Interview editing is surgery — you remove what doesn't belong and you never let the listener feel the seams. The hosts are natural talkers, which makes the job about pacing, not rescue. Finding the rhythm of each episode, tightening without losing the warmth.

Promo production followed the same philosophy — pull the most compelling thirty seconds from an episode and frame it so a new listener wants to hear the rest. No hype, no trailer-voice. Just the moment that earns the click.

• Interview editing — each episodeD.01
• Audio cleanup & mixD.02
• Promo production for upcoming episodesD.03
• Consistent audio standard across seasonsD.04

A show that sounds effortless — because the production is invisible.

The show runs on a consistent release cadence with a consistent sound. Listeners get the conversation, not the production — which is exactly the point.

The ongoing relationship is the simplest one in the portfolio: they record, I edit and produce, the episode goes out. No moving parts, no drama. The system works.