Adventures in Podcasting - Podcasting is personal

Podcasting is personal

06/05/22 • 15 min

While on her break way from base, Pilar ponders on the nature of podcasts as "personal chronicles".
I hadn’t planned a show for this week, but I made an effort to keep to a regular schedule. I’m actually not at home, so the audio will sound different and the set up is not as comfortable.
The trigger for jumping behind the microphone was listening to Daniel Aragay in Haciendo el Sueco, where he talks about his time in Sweden. Recently he commented on a Twitter conversation, after a person shared a strange experience when he stayed with a Swedish family a long time ago.
As podcasters, we have the opportunity to set the record straight when people are talking about something with no access to the context - in this case, Spanish people talking about life in Sweden. In some cases, we can act as “culture bridges”, giving access to people from our country of origin to another culture.
We decide how much of ourselves we bring into our podcast, although it’s a shame when some hosts decide to leave most of themselves out of the conversation. Podcasting is such an intimate medium, that it seems like a missed opportunity. But there is no right or wrong.
Listeners also have a preference, with some enjoying those shows where they really feel like they get to know the host, while some prefer to get the information in a straight forward way.
By the way, my friend Simon and I are putting together an audio course. We’ve been working on the material as a text-based programme, but when we got to record some additional audio for it, we ended up with something that sounded more like the audio version of the course. We realised that the material would work as an audio-first course, delivered by both of us together, so we’re giving that a try.
Going back to the theme of podcasters bringing a lot of themselves and their lives to the show, I’ve recently come across Beyond Retirement, where the host started the podcast when she was about to retire, and now she’s retired. She’s talking to people at the same stage of life as she is in, and with a similar mindset. (I really like in her show how she has an interview with a guest in one episode, and then releases a solo episode with reflections on the interview.)
A podcast can be a “personal chronicle”, a kind of memoir. This show is a bit like this, and it also gives me the opportunity to talk about podcasting.
When we bring ourselves to the show, our listeners get to know us, and this is an example of “asymmetrical intimacy”, where listeners feel like they know us very well but we don’t really know them.
And don’t forget to let listeners know how they can get in touch with you! You can get in touch through the contact form here.

Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice yourself or connect on Twitter @Inpodcasting
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Previous Episode

Adventures of a new podcaster - well, of a new podcast host - with Marisa Eikenberry

Marisa Eikenberry is the co-host of Long Distance Work Life.
Marisa is the web developer at the Kevin Eikenberry group, and she has been editing their podcasts Remarkable Leadership since 2016 and Talk Like a Leader since 2019.
Marisa goes into detail of how these shows are recorded, her process with the hosts and the differences working between shows, talking about how much editing she does for both shows, what she looks out for when she’s listening back, etc So this will be of interest to those of you who are starting to podcast and wander what is involved in working with an editor, and get some ideas of what to look out for when working on a show. (And I realised how much I enjoy talking about editing.)
As well as those business shows, Marisa is also part of the editing team that turns Twitch streams into podcasts for GodSquad Church.
10.52 mins
The podcast Long Distance Work Life started as a way of promoting the group’s new book - well, actually, Marissa had been waiting for a while to get her co-host Wayne to do a podcast. Once they decided to start the show, they thought of ways in which to differentiate themselves from other shows covering similar topics.
The amateur-expert dynamic or teacher-student is a fun one to listen to, and Pilar has experience of that in My Pocket Psych, where she plays the “voice of the public” to occupational psychologist Dr Richard MacKinnon. (Pilar also mentions The Story Grid, as an example of this.)
Marissa is having a lot of fun with this, asking questions that she knows other people have, but also those that she’s unsure of (for example, what’s the difference between remote-first and remote-friendly)
16.35 mins
Our guest is really enjoying working with Wayne Turmel, his co-host.
On top of that, she now feels a complete part of the podcast community, something she’s never felt even though she’s been editing podcasts for a long time. She used to say she was “just an editor”, which now she realises was not being fair to herself. This raises questions like who makes the podcasting community, etc.
Recording for this show has changed her mindset. For example, she’s more regularly on LinkedIn, mindfully asking questions about podcasting and networking with other podcasters. She now feels like she can be part of those conversations.
22.00 mins
Marisa has been listening to podcasts since 2014 (she mentions the comedy podcast My brother, my brother and me) including ones on podcasting, like Podcasting Business School.

Pilar mentions The Audacity to Podcast, Podcasters’ Roundtable, Buzzsprout’s Buzzcast (here’s my affiliate link to Buzzsprout hosting) and Libsyn’s The Feed.

27.05 mins
Marisa mainly listens to podcasts with more than one host, or a host n conversation. Something she’s struggling with at the moment is taking up enough space in the conversation and also delivering the intros and outros, which would be easier if they weren’t also releasing the video version. (Pilar forgets her calls to action to...)
Past guest Myriam Hadnes talked about how she’s also learned to take the space with her guests, as a way of giving guests something to bounce off of.
It’s getting easier for Marisa with each recording, having less awkward pauses, adding to the conversation and asking better questions.

Connect with Marisa on LinkedIn.

Next Episode

Adventures in hosting multiple podcasts, working with different co-hosts and interviewing high-profile guests with J Thorn

J Thorn currently hosts Writers, Ink, The Author Life, and The Music NFT Show.

J’s prolific journey as a podcaster started, with the The Horror Writers Podcast. He stumbled around in the dark at the beginning, finding his voice and style - and you can hear what he sounded like in episode 1, “it’s as raw as it gets”.
10.20 MINS
There were a number of podcasts in between that J experimented with, like The Intronaut, a podcast for introverts. J wanted to share some of his experiences as an introvert, and dispel some myths like
14.10MINS
Going back to The Career Author podcast, J shares how Zach and him met, and how they became co-hosts (as well as great friends and writing partners).
“You have to be a more amplified version of yourself behind the microphone to be an engaging podcaster”.

In The Writers Well, J was the most vulnerable he’s ever been, due to his relationship with co-host Rachael Herron and the format, where they would ask each other one question on the show, some of which were very personal.
21.10MINS
J and Rachael really hit it off when J appeared in Rachael’s show and they started to podcast together, first as The Petal to the Metal, a name they changed pretty early on as it didn’t convey what the show was about.
“Podcast and book titles are not the places you want to be cute, because all that does is confuse.”
The Author Life was created as a way of answering questions that were emerging in their community’s online space. Most of the work on this show is done by Crys, J just shows up, which is great as he does most of the work on his other shows. J has been working in audio for decades (recording bands etc) and he’s been using the same software (Reaper) for over 20 years.
30.40 MINS
J often turns up in places where he doesn’t think he belongs, to see what unexpected things can happen. It was at Thriller Fest that he met J.D. Barker, who he (eventually) enticed to become the co-host in his new show, Writers, Ink.
J starts his interviews by trying to get his guests to laugh, to set the right tone for the show. Pilar has always wondered whether J gets nervous when he interviews his most high-profiled guests. J doesn’t get as nervous as before, but he does share one moment when he was shaking.

49.51 MINS
J has recently started a solo show, The Music NFT Show because he wants to be part of this new wave of web 3 technology that’s going to help artists to take control of their careers.
On a whim, Pilar asked whether J had been thinking of supporting podcasters in a similar way to how he supports authors. And you know what, he has!
J has recently set up related to podcasting is a digest of podcast episodes for authors who can’t keep up with all the shows going on, a newsletter curated by different people each week: The Author Podcast Broadcast

Find J over at The Author Life.