Pod-Crashing Episode 29: Shapes and shades

The many shapes and shades of this thing called podcasting. The new age way to blog. No really! That’s how it got started. A ton of words were being tapped into the face of a computer. Everybody was doing it. The postal worker, the sewing machine lady, the ice cream teen. We were communicating! Yeah… maybe a little.
There they were! The writer’s thoughts! Nicely crafted paragraphs. But you weren’t picking up their vocal inflections. The reader was forced to use their own interpretation. I endlessly received daily emails from readers that couldn’t figure out my mess.
A trainload of research hitting a brick wall. Before podcasting I tried V-logging. Taking my blogs and reading them on video. I totally sucked at that! I tried too hard to create a connection. Plus the amount of time that goes into editing. Especially when the screw ups were total bonehead moments. It was making the videos bumpy and pretty small town market uncool.
Everybody’s got their own story as to how they got hooked up with a podcast. I was a terrestrial radio junky with an ego the size of every holiday and I needed a stage. A performance. An outlet! Being there in 2012 felt like the moment my daughter and I shared while riding horses on my Uncles ranch in Ranchchester Wyoming.
She asked, “Where are the trails we’re supposed to follow?” My only reply was, “Make it up as you go.”
Oh I can’t gp back and listen to the early day podcasts. I had one of those fake disc jockey voices. If I was telling the story of a musician or actor it sounded like a Casey Kasum reject project. I knew how to talk over the intro of a song on the radio but damn this new level of podcast play where there’s no music had turned into a beast!
Honestly it’s been fun. To physically explore newer ways to perform by way of creating a listening community has been incredibly engaging. But there are many shapes and shades in the game of podcasting. Just as there were in Blogging. You can get on there and say pretty much whatever you want. To rely on improv requires skill and craftsmanship. Even with those two tools in the box, I’ve heard some brilliantly funny comedians totally suck with the podcast.
I think its body language. When we see the funny people on stage their facial expressions and body movement sell the punch line. Comedian Jared Freid knows of the separations. He won’t take his podcast to a live public performance. He doesn’t want fans and followers of the podcast to suddenly be thrusted into an atmosphere that’s based heavily on the performance and not a conversation.
Which you can clearly hear when Dax Shephard and Chelsea Handler take their podcasts outside the comforts of four walls and a dog or cat lying next to your feet. As much as I love their podcasts I usually don’t make it to the end because as a listener I feel like the Uber driver that can’t stop the car and party with you.
Let’s get back to the body language. If your episodes sound a little flat and out of tune. Let’s put a mirror in front of your microphone and study your patterns of delivery. My studio overlooks a beautiful forest in south Charlotte, NC. Everything is facing the window. I can see my reflection. No conceit. I’m talking to that person. I’ve made them part of my conversation. The best part is? I can have earphone hair and they can relate. They have it too!
Keeping track of your body language allows you to shape your thoughts and how they’re being delivered. Too much energy can easily be seen as well as heard. 99.8% of all podcasts are listened to by one person. Not a group. It isn’t the family hour year 1933. One person. Your voice. Their ears. Share a conversation. Don’t blast their eardrums.
Which I kind of do when I’m hosting motivational episodes on The Choice, Lyrics From Billy’s Forest and The Daily Mess. There are times I get so emotional that it feels like my hearts about to implode. Keeping it under control requires an honest man’s walk. Really! I take a two mile hike with my dog Jazzie and listen to the episodes. I study their behavior outside the studio. Am I yelling or getting too preachy? How will followers react?
The many shapes and shades of this thing called podcasting.
Bob Pittman totally utilizes the strength of his one on one-ness. The CEO of iHeart Radio has this way of developing a relationship with his weekly guests and mindfully includes the listener. He’s very much aware of our existence. Whereas many podcast hosts think along the line of I’m here and you are living vicariously through my performance.
For Bob Pittman it’s almost as if we can see him embracing each question and or reaction with nothing but body language and total awareness of where his fans and followers are in their day or night. The microphone is part of him. He’s not sitting behind a large silver cylinder projecting his baritone vocals. It’s almost like there’s no mic in the studio. Which allows his emotional connection to paint pictures on this side of the podcast.
The reason why I bring up the microphone is because it’s a serious game changer. You’ve seen the pictures of the performers with desktop stands or the long arms stretching across studio boards. That microphone sits right there in front of their face. All things being shared must move through it and you’ll turn off your body language to make sure those vocals are perfectly pushed forward. Those speaking think you have to sit up straight, pull your stomach in, uncross your legs and don’t lean on the table.
Do all you can to break that habit. While watching the classic sitcom Cheers did you ever see Woody Harrelson reaching for the microphones above? Sports announcers wear headsets for a reason. Let the body do what comes natural. That doesn’t mean to go out and buy a pair. Great quality at that level of play means you’re gonna pay.
Go to a comedy club and study them there people on that microphone. Headliners make the vocal catcher part of their movement. Openers and features are still trying to muster up a plan to somehow get the other hand in on the job.
So what’s the moral of the story? Be yourself without making listeners feel like you’re in a can. Constantly ask, “Do I sound natural?” Be confident without forcing it. If you’re taping yourself during a podcast such as Facebook Live. Someone’s being cheated on. Viewers want to be looked at and listeners need you to talk to them. You can try to do both. But it sounds like it. Besides, those that Facebook live it have the worst microphones! Most of the time you can barely hear the conversation.
Don’t be just the performer. Be greater in post production.