Tips & Tricks

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FREEBIE: Tips for Interviewing Podcast Guests

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FREEBIE: Tips for Interviewing Podcast Guests

While your comfortable (or getting comfortable) behind the microphone, your guests might not be. Although they may have amazing insights to share and your audience will love them, it's still nerve-wracking to be put on the spot.

While I can't do much to take away their nerves (aside from give you my recipe for Sangria, maybe), I can offer some tips to help them feel more at ease about sounding good.

While it might be easier to have your guest join you in your studio, it's not always possible. The tips in this post are for podcast interviews done remotely.

Quick Tip: Podcasting with a Blue Yeti

Quick Tip: Podcasting with a Blue Yeti

If you've ever gone into a podcasting Facebook group and asked about microphones, you may have noticed some contention around the Blue Yeti USB Microphone. 

"It picks up everything."

"It sounds like you're in the bathroom/tunnel."

"You can't use it with a mixer."

For the most part, the first two can be fixed with some tweaking, as you'll see below. And with some extra cables and software, even the third problem can be fixed.

 

Putting Yourself Out There (and Staying Safe)

Putting Yourself Out There (and Staying Safe)

With technology evolving and more ways to connect than ever before, it can be incredibly easy for someone to find out a lot about you by just searching your name in Google or on social media.

Before you begin a podcast, know that you will be putting yourself out there to the masses and it's a good idea to evaluate what other information you may already have that's easily searchable. And it's a good idea to take precautions sooner rather than later

Remembering to Thank Your Audience

Remembering to Thank Your Audience

As Thanksgiving is upon us in the United States, it's important to take this time to think about what we're thankful for in our lives. And that includes our podcasts.

It's easy to get caught up in the game of comparing your podcast to others, especially those with more experience than you. But I can't tell you the number of times I've been turned off by podcasts I'm listening to in which the hosts complain about their "low" numbers.

Don't be those podcasters. Remember, everyone starts with zero listeners, as one of my podcasting mentors Dave Jackson says. Moving that number up is your job as a podcaster and marketer. And the more you cherish the audience you already have, the more they'll feel compelled to become your podcast ambassadors and spread the word about you and your show.

"You Can't Do That on a Podcast!" (yes you can)

"You Can't Do That on a Podcast!" (yes you can)

A line you might see in articles that seem to come out every few months is the idea that podcasts are "the wild west of media." While I don't necessarily agree with the idea that podcasts are new (shameless plug for my podcast The Story Behind Podcasts), I love the idea that new podcasts are being created and new formats are being experimented on all the time, and it's wonderful.

I get disheartened when I see emerging podcasters lose steam when they see a podcast that's similar to what they are producing or, maybe even worse, not seeing any podcast that sounds like the one they want to produce.

But that's the great thing about podcasting. Could anyone have predicted that following a true crime investigation of a single case for 12 episodes would be a huge breakout hit? Or that a guy in his garage would get to interview the president of the United States? Or that indie shows like a show with the premise of ghost tours for the theater of the mind would surpass 2 million episodes and thrive on being entirely listener-supported? Or that a stack of found letters between two girls and their landlord would become a cult phenomenon?

Getting to Know Your Voice

Getting to Know Your Voice

The first time you hear your voice on a recording, you might be shocked at how different you sound vs. what you thought you sounded like.

What you hear when you're speaking is a combination of your voice coming from your mouth plus the sound from your vocal cord vibrations, whereas when you hear a recording of your voice or when others hear your voice, they only hear what comes out of your mouth.

When you listen back to your first podcast episode, it might be tough to get used to hearing your own voice, and even weirder if you're the one editing it, having to hear it over and over again.