About the Roundtable Discussion Format
Lesson 9 from: Podcasting for Crafters and MakersTara Swiger
About the Roundtable Discussion Format
Lesson 9 from: Podcasting for Crafters and MakersTara Swiger
Lessons
Class Introduction: Build Trust and Increase Sales
03:12 2Why your Handmade Business Needs a Podcast
06:42 3What is a Podcast?
03:13 4How to Set up your Studio in 5 Minutes
04:48 5How to Launch a Podcast in 1 Week
05:58 6What Kind of Show will you Have?
03:02 7About the Interview Format
06:39 8About the Solo-Show Format
16:41About the Roundtable Discussion Format
07:55 10Which Format is Right for You
21:40 11Challenge: FInd What's Out There
03:25 12Choosing the Right Topic for your Podcast
14:19 13How to Make your Show Special
02:23 14Make Magic: Combine for a Unique Show
07:46 15Content Development Strategies
16:12 16Naming your Podcast Best Practices
07:34 17How to Introduce Yourself
11:34 18How to Write your Intro
03:48 19How to Exit with Confidence
09:00 20Where does your Podcast Live and Why iTunes Matters
20:06 21DEMO:How to Get your Podcast on iTunes
07:18 22How a Listener Becomes a Customer: The Customer Path
07:58 23Your Home Base: How to Set it up for Podcast Listeners
15:19 24How to Generate Content Upgrades
12:39 25How to Leverage your Podcasts to Sell your Product
04:53 26Question And Answer
06:58 27How to Launch your Podcast Successfully
18:06 28Defining "Success" for your Business
07:41 29Other Ways to Make Money from your Podcast
08:25 30How to Find Time for it all: Tara's Exact Workflow
25:19 31Wrapping it all Up
02:03Lesson Info
About the Roundtable Discussion Format
So, a round table is, like we said, just a couple people sitting there. It can be two, it can be five. The thing you wanna keep in mind is that you really need your chemistry to be right with your co-hosts. I don't know if you've ever had friends where, like, you are constantly talking over each other in a way, or you're like, there's weird, awkward silences in between what you're saying, right? You kind of know when you have the right patter with a friend that you could, people would find it charming. Somebody yesterday was talking about her and her sister. People are always like, "You guys are so much fun "to be around." That is the kind of relationship you wanna bring to a round table, where you're gonna bounce back and forth off each other, and both bring something different. Now if it's for your business, they don't have to have a business, actually be great if they just will ask you questions about what you're doing. If they do, if they are part of your business, like your husban...
d-wife team or they're one of your co-workers in your business, you can absolutely both bring your own perspective to the table. People love, love, just like they love to watch interviews, they love to watch these kind of shows, or listen to these kind of shows because you get to hear what people are really like in having a conversation. One of the joys of a podcast is you get to see real life, like it's actually people talking, right? It's not like a glossy, Instagram version of their life, it's actually the conversation they're having. Even when it's edited, it still feels so personal and intimate, so round tables can be really great. I'm gonna play a sample from the Yarn in the City podcast, these are two people who organize knitting events in London. They're Americans living in London, so they don't have the accent, but they're just so personable and so great, and they do a show where it's the two of them talking about all kinds of things and I just want you to hear how kind of casual and friendly and goofy they are, so let's listen to that. It's October, there is a new bite to the air and Allison mentioned the C-word on the last episode. So it's time to start digging into some serious pattern discussion. Woohoo. I know. There's nothing like crispy weather for talking about working with some crispy wool. (laughing) So I just love that because they're just, they're just being themselves and I've actually met them when I was in England, and that's exactly how they are in person, so you just get a real sense of who they are. And because they organize events, getting to know them is really important to people trusting them and spending their money and, like, letting them bust you around the city. (laughs) If you don't know them, it's kind of hard to trust people to do that. So, by them having the show, they're letting you get to know them. And then there are pros and cons to the round table as well. So, real pro is you don't have to come with everything on your own, you've got somebody to bounce off of. You can be like, "You know what, you decide what we're "talking about this week, I'm all out of ideas." Also, that fun hanging-out-with-friends vibe is really great. If you have a business where you need to build trust, and you have a business where your thing might be higher end, or luxury or more expensive, or require a lot of somebody's time and energy, when they get to know you and feel like you're their friend, it just is easier for them to trust you. And there are a lot of successful round table podcasts, but there're not very many in our space, in hand-made businesses, from makers and crafters, and really small business owners. There're just not that many. Like, there's some Slate podcast, like a political gabfest and a culture gabfest, and you'll find a lot of round table discussions talking about culture, movies and books, and music, and not that many talking about, you know. There's a couple talking about yarn, but not any that I know of, talking about essential oils, or talking about hand-made bags or talking about what it's like to have a business as a jewelry designer. So, I want to see more of these, because these are so much fun to record and so much fun to listen to, there need to be more of these in the world, is what I'm saying. So go out, make your round table podcast. The cons is scheduling conflicts. So I did a show with a co-host for a while that was on YouTube and we also put it on iTunes, and it just was really hard to find a time to both record together. So if you live far apart or you just have really different schedules, like one of you is going to CreativeLive back and forth, it can be really hard to schedule the thing. Also, you have to have the right chemistry. If there're weird, awkward silences, or you don't entirely like each other, it's gonna be bad. (laughs) You also, you're gonna have to develop a flow, so you're not talking over each other. 'Cause if you both are talking over each other all the time, the audio's not gonna be clear and people aren't gonna be able to tell what you're saying, so it's really important that you take a breath, (laughs) and not talk over each other all the time. And this can take awhile to develop. So definitely, with the show I did with a friend, the first couple episodes, it was a mess. We were both like, (rings tongue), the whole time. But after a while, I would just breathe while she was talking. (laughs) And not jump in, and then wait 'till she's all done, and then she would talk. So it takes a while, but it could be really fun and I think it's really great for building trust in your business. Do you find that some people, when they do round tables, you know, often you can't be in person with that speaker, you know, there's somebody who's gonna be a great interview, or that you could work with, who perhaps lives in a different location. What's the most common way for people to link up with audio? Is it via, kind of, Skype and record? Or have you used any... I think I have two softwares linked in the resource guide, specifically, it's in the interview section, but obviously you can use it for this section as well. There's a couple of really big YouTube channels that are two people in different locations, talking like this, and it's just a round table show, it's not like an interview show. So you can use Skype, along with the, you have to install and I think pay for the software called Call Recorder. So Call Recorder lets you record in different ways, you can adjust the audio, you can do the video. Skype is like, sometimes great, sometimes not, depending on where you guys are located. There's also Zoom, which I know Lizzy uses in her business a lot. So a free account will let you record for up to 45 minutes and then if you pay for a pro account, you can record much longer. What's really great about Zoom is that you can give that link to people and anybody can join, so you wanna explain how you use it? Also, it breaks out the audio already for you, so I don't know if you know that, but when you record a Zoom, it breaks it into three different things. The image that, you know, you use the video with the audio and the audio's separated already, which is really cool. And then you can save it, you know, straight to your desktop and upload it to Dropbox or whatever, but I actually use Zoom all the time to record myself, you know, if I'm doing something by myself or with multiple people, and you can have, like, 50 people on at one time, it's really cool, it's like you're on The Brady Bunch. So it's cool. So it will show all of your faces and you get to choose those settings as well. You can make it just show you, so that other people's weird, like, whatever they're doing, and they don't realize they're on camera, show up. But you can also bring on, if you wanted to do a round table, you can have, like, six faces showing. And then the other thing that's really cool about it is, let's say you do have a, like a craft or something that you wanna show them, you can actually share your screen with your audience at the same time, and show them details about something, whatever you're doing, so you can show them at the same time and not just have your face talking to them. Which is really cool, like a PowerPoint, or a website, or whatever. Yeah, so if you wanted to do something like, where you were talking about this software you were using, you can share your screen and show the software as you're talking about it. So even if you two are in, and I've seen people use Zoom, when two of them are in the same room and somebody is someplace else, or they wanna do that Q&A thing where people join, and come on and ask the question. So that's another way. We talked about Q&A, like, on Facebook and Instagram where their questions are popping up as text, but on Zoom it can be a live Q&A. You are there, asking me the question, I'm there talking to you. And both of our faces are on the screen. So it's really pretty cool. And I link to that in the resource guide. You can also just go to, like, Zoom.us, I think. (laughs)
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Tess
I design embroidery patterns and I love podcasts but I wasn't sure what I would talk about in my own podcast without being able to show pictures. After watching this course I already have 20+ ideas for podcast topics, plus I now know how to get a podcast up and running, step-by-step, AND how it fits with my business goals. Tara Swiger is an excellent teacher and coach. I filled page after page with notes!
Rhonda M.
Excellent, practical information.
Dawn Craig
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