I struggled last week during a guest interview so I talk a bit about that, as well as my involvement with a new podcast with a chain reaction format, creating transcripts and using a recording platform.
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I recently interviewed an “unsolicited guest” for the 21st Century Work Life podcast, who was also the founder of a product. I’ve had so-so experiences interviewing those developing online tools, but the tone of this email was different and I was really glad I interviewed him because the conversation, around asynchronous communication, was great, and I might even use it as bonus content for a course I’m working on.
As a podcaster, you might want to check it out, it’s a way of communicating via video, text and audio asynchronously. I said I wouldn’t put the link in the show notes, but I’ve changed my mind, here it is. https://zipmessage.com/
I’ve become quite choosy in who guests on the show, so I’ve even turned down (with a heavy heart), some high profile people in our industry (management and online stuff) and being careful that the content is right for the audience, and I’m not just replicating what everyone else is featuring.
What I’ve found is that the more specific and narrow the topic is, the more I can avoid tangents, and the shorter I can keep the conversation. And in fact, the more it turns into a conversation rather than an interview.
08.40 mins
As a podcaster, I thought I could drive a conversation about anything, but that’s not true. I recently realised how much it helps when I really understand a topic. I was caught short in an interview for the Next Stage Radicals podcast, when I was interviewing someone who amongst other things, coaches people at work who are autistic. I realised I lacked the vocabulary to talk about it, honouring the neuro-difference but without making it sound like I was being patronising to people who actually, are just different to me.
I also wasn’t sure what to ask…
This episode was the first of a “chain reaction’ that will drive the Next Stage Radicals podcast from now on, so the person I interviewed will bring in a guest for the next episode, who will the host for the episode after that, etc. I’ll be preparing a short document on how to host the show, but this document is for non-podcasters, so I have to keep it really simple!
I’ve suggested that every episode is run through Auphonic so that all the episodes have the same sound level.
17.30mins
I’ve been using the free trial of Zencastr with its whole load of features.
Even if a guest has used the platform before, ask them to try to log in before the recording time, as one of my guests recently had problems logging on, maybe due to how the permissions were set up in Chrome.
I still prefer to record audio only, so although you can have the camera on, I ask guests if it’s ok to turn it off. (You can also record video.) I need to make notes, look through my notes, etc which means that every now and then I run the risk of distracting the guest.
Zencastr records each person’s audio locally, and then they’re uploaded to their servers. They also produce a transcript which, although they’re not ready to be published, they can be useful for people writing the show notes, or for reference if you want to share the content with someone, who might just want to browse through it, rather than listen to the whole episode.
Talking of transcripts, we’ve released the first one for 21st Century Work Life, for episode 293 and I’ll see what the feedback is, as in, is it useful to anyone. With a limited budget and team, creating transcripts that make for a good reading experience is still costly, so I’m going to see how they go down. I’ll be asking the audience for around 10 episodes.
It could also be that the transcripts are used for the people doing social media, clients and other things, so we shall see.
23.47mins
Yesterday I ran a Meetup for the London Podcasting Community group . It was a “build your own dilemma” session, which allows both beginners and seasoned podcasters to get something from it, as both people seeking advice and giving it.
Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice yourself.
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