I have a confession:
I love learning.
As an adult, part of my education has been The Urban Farm. Even after fourteen years of living green in the city, I still find new things to consider.
Late last year, I gave back to that learning community.
I recorded a podcast with Greg Peterson. After all the webinars and podcasts, the diverse interviews, and weekly newsletters, I thought I should raise my hand for the upcoming podcast series and talk about urban beekeeping.
The experience was a good one for me and I would like to share what I learned for a successful podcast. (My recorded podcast is here: http://www.urbanfarm.org/julia-mcguire/ Thank you!)
- Prepare responses before the interview. I was fortunate to receive questions from Tayler beforehand. (Thank you, Tayler!) I’ve hosted webcasts in the past and prepared for myself but not shared with the guests — my apologies! Knowing the topic was a great starting point, but the next level is knowing the order of subtopics — very helpful!
- Choose your words carefully. I knew from past on-camera work and from listening to many interviews over my lifetime that hearing a guest say “ummm,” “you know,” “well,” “actually,” etc. more than two times gets annoying. I am sure you know what I mean. Listeners don’t have time for non-productive words. I respect that. I want to learn the real stuff as soon as possible when I listen. And, I want to sound professional. (The above point decreases the chance of using those phrases.)
- Have choices for audio equipment. I am blessed to have supplies from my telecommunications spouse. The photo I took above was in my excited, testing stage. I wanted the Bluetooth headset to work, and we’re blaming the batteries, because for whatever reason, I couldn’t get them to function. I ended up using my backup, the one with a wire. I had another backup, too, just in case. Which leads me to my next point…
- Set aside more than enough time for the podcast. I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time unnecessarily — the production staff and podcast host deserve respect and professionalism. Staff let me know a month ahead of time that they used skype, what username I could expect to see, and asked for my username. If I hadn’t already had a skype account, I wouldn’t want to rudely have everyone wait for me to do so AND test my equipment AND struggle for words because I didn’t prepare beforehand.
- Do your homework. I knew from past podcasts about how long interviews could last and chose verbage based on who the audience was (I would get technical with experienced bee keepers in the audience, I would be more descriptive with audio-only, etc.). I had not been familiar with The Urban Farm, I would have taken time to get caught up on the great work it does, who the team behind the work was, etc.
- Chill out and have fun! Because I did all of the above, the podcast wasn’t stressful! I loved speaking with Greg! I already felt that I knew him from hearing past podcasts, so this was exciting. It was a ton of fun for me. I was able to be contribute to The Urban Farm, from which I have gained much knowledge. I was able to reach an audience that I wouldn’t normally.