Do you think that you should sit down and record a conversation and post that as an episode?
It’s incredibly boring to be the person that’s not interacting. You have to remember that conversations are fun for the person interacting (telling or responding).
It’s story time. And we’ll turn the table to a musician I once knew.
What a great singer, and performer – and a decent songwriter. She was as charismatic as they come. Every other week, she’d head down to the hipster coffee shop in small college town nowhere, and sing a few of her original songs. She was friends with all of the regulars and would never shy away from meeting the new faces.
Time and again the patrons would sing her praises after completing her three song set. And for a good reason.
Through her sing song storytelling, she’d guide the audience to smile, cry, laugh at all of the appropriate spots of her song. Her stage presence was killer!
“Oh my God! you should record these songs. They’re so good.”
“Oh thank you! I really hope to some day.”
And then she did. And the response was a resounding, “Check out this artist. Oh my gosh, she’s so much better live!”
And that’s all it took. The CD was a flop. A coaster for sweating cups. It was boring. It lacked… interaction. It was stale.
It could’ve been a number of things: the producer, the recording engineer, or the performer – but what it felt like was a person singing in a microphone – not someone singing to me, or the audience.
The lesson of this story is that our conversations are exciting in the right setting. We perform better when we have facial expressions to gauge, and responses to ignite. But simply recording that conversation will not convey the same energy to a podcast audience.
Don’t forget – THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF PODCASTING – It’s ALL about the LISTENER EXPERIENCE. Hosts are replaceable, and good stories are a dime a dozen.
A final experiment for you. Go ask two friends to sit down and talk about a common interest of yours, something you ALL LOVE. Tell them to ignore you. Are you having as much fun listening as you would be talking? Are you bored?
Now ask those friends to sit on stage and have that conversation in front of 100 people. How many would get up and walk out?
