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As She Tackles Her Seventh
Recording, Arlene Finally
Embraces The Power Of The
Podcast By Arlene Martell I’m amazed at how effective my podcasts have been in bringing visitors to my website. I admit that I was reluctant at first, especially after I agreed to act as the guinea pig for James’ SUPER BootCamp. There was nowhere to hide. There I was, forced to succeed or fail before an audience. Now that I’m on my seventh podcast, I’m finally starting to feel less like an amateur. The nervousness subsides a little bit more with each recording, so I can finally take some time to enjoy the experience. On this occasion, I wanted to record an interview that dove a little deeper into the emotional aspects of being the parent of an epileptic child. Sad but true, our role can make us feel anxious or guilty, even though it’s not brought up very often.
Due to geographical restrictions, Dr. Mittan and I made the arrangements via e-mail. The interview took place the next week – which came as no surprise to me, since past candidates had always jumped at the opportunity to take a stand on important issues. I created a list of 10 questions to ask Dr. Mitten, based on a series of articles he wrote, along with my own thoughts and those coming from members of EpilepsyMoms.com. Within an hour, my rough draft was complete. All that was left to do was to type the questions into Microsoft Word. Now it was time for the interview. I don’t want my guests to feel uncomfortable, so I always provide them with a copy of the questions beforehand. To ensure as smooth a process as possible, I also send them the show outline and the conference call phone number. I ask them to call in from a quiet location and to use a landline whenever possible, to prevent the interference and distortion that can come from cordless and cell phones. I also request that the guest sends me a bio so that I can include interesting bits of information when they’re introduced to my listeners. Oddly enough, even though my listeners can’t see me, I still get nervous as crunch time approaches. While a podcast can be very exciting, there is still an element of fear that often seems to consume the guest as well! Taking some advice from James’ SUPER BootCamp, I set the interview for 6:00pm (Pacific Time), which frequently works best for most involved. I reminded myself that I wanted to keep the interview between 30 and 45 minutes and started the preparations.
About 30 minutes before the interview is scheduled to start, I sit at my desk and prepare myself mentally. I warm up by reading the introduction to myself a few times, then silence my phone to prevent any other disruptions. I use this downtime to relax and get myself into the right frame of mind to talk business. A few minutes before 6:00, I call in and confirm that my guest has arrived. I battle any lingering nervousness with a final deep breath and start reading the introduction. At this point, my words take on a life of their own – I’m now speaking to an audience and there’s no going back. James and I both use www.voicetext.com to record the call because it makes the process much easier. Not only do they provide the phone number and record the call, but they also send me the completed interview in MP3 format. James then takes care of the minor editing (such as removing ums and ahs), adds an intro and outro, then uploads it to the site for me.
Once the podcast appears on the website, the link is e-mailed to my subscribers and appears in the next newsletter. The podcast is then automatically sent to more than 25 podcast directories using my RSS feed. While the technical side of things might not make much sense to me, James did a great job in the SUPER BootCamp to make it all easy enough for me to understand. All the best,
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The
interview took place with
Dr. Mittan, who I met at an
epilepsy conference and
interviewed once in the
past. Following a discussion
about the guilt that often
burdens the parents of
epileptic children, Dr.
Mittan suggested that these
feelings of blame and
remorse should be the topic
of our next interview.
First, I always make dinner
early on podcast day so I
won’t have to work around a
hungry family. Next, I make
sure each family member
knows that an interview is
about to begin and this
means quiet in the house.
They also know that during a
podcast recording, I am not
to be interrupted.
