Keeping it Real

 

I am attending the New Media Expo in Las Vegas for 2 1/2 days of interesting presentations from a variety of speakers.  So far I’ve heard from Michael Geoghegan, who produces Disneyland’s podcast,  Gary Vaynerchuck, podcaster for Wine Library TV, and Scott Whitney, a professional podcaster.

One common theme through their presentations was to make sure that recordings are spontaneous, passionate, and emotional.  Vaynerchuck shoots his video for tv.winelibrary.com in 20 minutes in one take every day without editing.  Geoghegan admits that he doesn’t know much about Disneyland.  When he learns a new Disneyland fact in his podcast he’s genuinely excited and interested, and it shows up in the podcast.  Whitney coaches his clients not to read from a script when he interviews them, and will stop an interview to encourage interviewees to speak from the heart.

For business podcasts, spontaneity is challenging for 2 reasons.  First of all, it’s not easy to be articulate, interesting, and effective in one take off the cuff.  Secondly, businesses are all about messaging and branding.  Business communications are intentionally precise.

How do you reconcile precision and spontaneity?

When you are recording your subject, give them guidance to help them cover the appropriate material, and get across key messages, but let them chose the words.  All speakers I have heard at the conference agree–do not script answers.  Give a subject the conversation topics or questions ahead of time.  Allow them to use talking points.  But do not script their content.  Let them own the material and communicate it in a way that is natural to them.

Also, when you are considering a speaker for a podcast, make sure they are the most knowledgeable about the material.  Passion and energy come from knowledge.

And the latest tip I learned was to try to evaluate the abilities of the speaker before you record them.  If they are not going to work out, then don’t record them.  Make sure you put people in a position to be successful.  If your recording becomes a train wreck, then nobody wins.