Episode 31 Adventures in raising the profile of women in science with Michele Ong

08/14/22 • 65 min

1 Listener

Michele Ong, is the host of Steam Powered and she joins Pilar all the way from Australia.
She started podcasting because she wanted to get a better idea of what women were doing in the STEAM fields. She knew many women doing incredible things in their work and their lives, and wanted to share their stories with others.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics/ medicine, but Michele talks about STEAM, as it includes “art”, which is key when interacting with technology and engineering.

Michele asks people to guest on her show after reading their research or coming across the work. Sometimes the women don’t accept, but this doesn’t surprise her. What did surprise her were those people who replied saying they didn’t think they would make good guests because their work was boring. This kind of mindset was a surprise to Michele - and to Pilar as she heard Michele's story.

With this example we can see the importance of podcasting in giving attention and reassurance to people who think their work is not interesting to anyone. Some people simply don’t want the attention and just want to get on with their work, but others underplay their contribution to the field. Sometimes we need someone else’s perspective to understand the impact and scale of our work.

Apart from getting their ideas out there, there is a benefit to guests by simply creating the space for them to reflect on their work for about an hour, to talk without an agenda, with no KPIs in mind: they’re simply talking about what they love doing.

19.00 mins

Michele has a release form for her guests making the copyright clear, after hearing from other podcasters that they’d had problems with some guests. As Michele wants to be able at some point to repurpose her content, she thinks it’s better to be prepared. You can find the Guest Intake Form, with the Release copy at the end here.

Michele is in charge of the whole production process from beginning to end, and it’s pretty much self-taught. She’s summarised everything she’s learned and shared it with the world in The Rail Yard section of her website. She has documented everything she’s learned along the way and shared her resources. Do check it out, as well as a space full of resources that might be useful, it’s a great example of how to showcase your podcast. www.micheleong.com/rail-yard/

Michele looks for ways to cover the costs of the show by setting up affiliate links, for example, she’s also set up Patreon and Ko-fi, although she hasn’t been active about promoting these links. It’s a fine balance to try to figure out how to support the project without feeling like you’re constantly asking for money for it. (Pilar also forgets, so don’t forget that you can support this show if you sign up to Buzzsprout through this link.)

Michele uses the Davinci Resolve to edit video, and she tried to fix the audio there too, but eventually she purchased Isotope RX. (Pilar uses Audacity and Auphonic.)

In the end, you need to understand the environment you’re working in and find something that works for you. It’s an iterative process.

Michele has some advice for new podcasters: just do it.
Three of her favourite podcasts:

You Have to Fail with Elizabeth Day

99% Invisible

My Nuclear Life
You can connect with Michele: www.micheleong.com
The website for her podcast STEAM Powered.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics/ medicine, but Michele talks about STEAM, as it includes “art”, which is key when interacting with technology and engineering.

19.00 mins

Michele uses the Davinci Resolve to edit video, and she tried to fix the audio there too, but eventually she purchased Isotope RX. (Pilar uses Audacity and Auphonic.)

In the end, you need to understand the environment you’re working in and find something that works for you. It’s an iterative process.

Michele has some advice for new podcasters: just do it.
Three of her favourite podcasts:

You Have to Fail with Elizabeth Day

99% Invisible

My Nuclear Life
You can connect with Michele: www.micheleong.com
The website for her podcast STEAM Powered.

Previous Episode

Adventures with delayed audio, listener habits and creating reflection space for others through podcasting

Pilar is back with her own adventures, recording when broadband is glitchy, and discovering the power of podcasting to give people much needed reflection space.
Due to some maintenance in her broadband, there were a couple of times when there was about a 1.5 seconds delay in the conversation between Pilar and the other person recording. For one of the shows it wasn’t an issue (and you’ll hear that conversation next week), but it did get some adjusting to. The conversation with guest Michelle Ong was structured, so they made it work.

However, when the same issue arose in My Pocket Psych, where the conversation is more fluid and requires more spontaneity, we couldn’t work with it and had to start again. It’s only when something like this happens when you realise how amazing the technology is now, and also how much harder it is to keep a conversation going when the speech from the other person arrives after it has left their mouth.

If we understand the nature of the conversations we have on our show we can decide how to deal with technical issues.

As she has mentioned before, Pilar struggles to record interviews with guests with the camera on. Even though she’s fully present for the guest most of the times, there are times when her attention needs to go to her notes, or the screen to check everything is still recording, the clock... and she doesn’t like the fact that the guest can see this and might distract them.

She was glad to read in the book You’re Not Listening, that there was a journalist who also prefers to talk to his interviewees over the phone for two reasons 1) like Pilar, they can be making notes etc without distracting the guest, but more importantly 2) they can prevent influencing the other person with their own body language. Pilar has noticed how much she communicates with the guest when the camera is on through nodding, etc.

Unfortunately, some guests struggle to record with the camera off, so Pilar now always asks guests what they prefer.

Recently, someone that Pilar went to school with guested on Gastronostalgia and told her and co-host Tomas how to make crispy tofu!

It’s always surprising to find out about listeners’ habits. One listener from Gastronostalgia got in touch to say that she never listens to the weekly episodes and instead, waits for the 1-hour bumper edition of the show, the “full menu”.

Some news for Management Café, Pilar is joined by Tim Burgess as co-host! The idea is to keep the episodes down to 20 minutes long, and guide managers’ thinking as they reflect on their own practice. They’ve come up with a new intro for the show, welcoming the listener into their conversation as the listener steps into the café.

Guest for episode 31, Michelle Ong, prompted a thought during the recording, that podcasts which invite in guests provide a space for guests to talk about things that are important for them, without a different agenda. For some people, this is really valuable, as they might never get the chance to take some time to formulate their thoughts. And the same happens when we get behind the microphone as hosts... Following this conversation, Pilar recorded with Myriam Hadnes for Facilitation Stories. During the episode, Myriam shared what she’d learned from a recent experience organising a festival and after the conversation, she thanked Pilar for the space to reflect on the experience, as she hadn’t got around to that yet.

Similarly, previous guest Marisa Eikenberry shared on LinkedIn how much the conversation for Adventures in Podcasting had brought up many things she hadn’t thought of before, and that she was still reflecting on.

Next Episode

Ep 32 Adventures in helping businesses find their intimate voice with Graham Brown

A different kind of guest for today - Pilar talks to Graham Brown, founder of the podcasting agency Pikkal & co.
Graham started podcasting before "podcasting" started (around 2014), recording conversations with guests, directly from the phone. At the time Graham was living in Lanzarote, and was missing having conversations with other people, in particular meeting other entrepreneurs. No matter how beautiful the surroundings, Graham missed the inspiration he got from talking to others.
He continued travelling, and eventually connected with other entrepreneurs in Asia, where he started living. Eventually, others started asking him how "how do I do this?" And without realising, it, he was running a podcast agency.
Podcast market fit happens when 2/3rds of your audience listen to at least 2/3 of your episode. So, if you look at the data and see for how long your audience listens to your show, you can see what kind of match you have. This can help you decide on your future content. It's not all about having high download numbers. Graham has seen that there are these "pockets" where there are low audience numbers, but high engagement. This can point to a niche who are really into the subject - and you can let this drive your planning. eg Should you set up a new show about it? Or do a whole series around it?
20.34mins
Graham has a specific example of being data driven, that of one of his recent clients who was creating episodes for one podcast in different languages. He also suggests a suitable cadence to help you grow your audience when you first start, but the most important thing is consistency.
So how should businesses approach podcasting, to connect as best as possible with their current and potential customers? The value of a podcast lies in "unlocking the human potential inside a company" ie reminding listeners that there are actual human beings within an organisation. And these people have stories, insights and values that are worth sharing.
This is the difference between traditional product advertising and true podcasting: unscripted conversations.
Regarding formats, that depends on the company and angle. But finding the right team is crucial, as is finding an "anchor", a regular host who is there as much as possible to connect with the audience. The host acts as the guide for the listener, asking the questions we want to know the answers. And talking directly to you, the listener.
To end the episode, Graham reminds us of the importance of understanding our intrinsic motivation for starting a podcast. And the fact that podcasting is a great medium to practice having conversations with others, a skill that will serve you for life.
To find out more about Graham, check out his website, grahamdbrown.com