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460- Interviewing a celebrity for a podcast- a case study

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a case study of how a podcaster can get a live interview with a CELEBRITY at a live event, even though it was not planned and just happened to be done on a moment’s notice — with only a business card as an introduction to the celebrity.

In this case, I did an interview with Joseph Galloway, celebrated author, speaker and correspondent. One of his most famous works was the book We Were Soldiers…and young. It was co-authored with General Hal Moore (RIP). It was then made into a motion picture (with the same name, almost), starring Mel Gibson in 2002.

Now, as a case study for a podcaster, you may want to know about the tasks of getting on the radar at a live event, in an impromptu situation to get a live audio interview with a personality that is being surrounded and mobbed by the fans.

Here are the issues that I encountered and met:

  • Have your business card available and ready (you never know when you may need one). In my case, I had been a Public Relations officer of the local chapter of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association (since I did serve as a combat infantryman in the Vietnam War).
  • Make your way politely to the celebrity and get his attention, so that you can be recognized quickly;
  • Plan in your mind what questions you will ask and what the key points of his background are so that you will hit upon the issues that are most important to him, while being of interest to your audience;
  • After introducing yourself, ask for 5 to 10 minutes of time for a quick interview — and you do this while you pull your Zoom H2 (or similar portable recorder that has a very small footprint) recorder and power it on so that it can be ready to record;
  • Many times, the celebrity will be flattered and see that you are prepared; and he may not point you to his handler or agent for a very quick 5-minute interview;
  • Give the quick intro to the recording and praise the celebrity with his fame and his relevance (i.e., WHY he is important to your audience);
  • Ask the questions and take the lead from the celebrity’s answers to get a reaction and quickly go to the next point;
  • Do NOT go over the time that was granted by the celebrity for the interview; respect the time frame;
  • Finalize, summarize and thank the celebrity for his time and trouble;
  • Let the celebrity know that you will deliver the final mp3 file with the interview to him in the next day or two;
  • End the conversation with a good phrase, slogan or other relevant saying that is part of the celebrity’s positive past.

In this case, Mr. Joseph Galloway was the keynote speaker for the unveiling of the permanent memorial (a permanent “wall” with all 58,000+ inscriptions of the names of the fallen soldiers during the Vietnam War). He was always surrounded by hundreds of veterans after his presentation.

But he granted me the 5-to-10 minute time frame for a quick interview.  And I was grateful.

As you will hear in this audio interview, I had my Zoom H2 portable recorder — and with the background noise of a live event outdoors (especially with a Huey helicopter taking off in the background as we spoke) and I tried to get the best audio that was possible as I was reading the audio indicators on the device for his mic and for mine.

Afterwards, I tried to get the best quality audio with the tools available at the time in post-production. However, because it was live, impromptu and outdoors with ambient noise, most of the time, your audience will understand and will not be bothered by audio that is not studio-perfect.

Now, I have used this same technique for interviews that were not planned or done over the internet with either Skype or via double-ender. And this process seemed to work well, with the celebrity being appreciative once the final mp3 was received and reviewed.

Just a word of warning — if the celebrity reviews the final mp3, then please make the edits that are requested by him, and then send them back again for a final review and approval.

So, we hope that your interviews that are done in a live and unplanned environment can become good VALUE for your listeners — as well as for the celebrity — and that these will help to make your podcast show a success.

And at the end, we deliver to you the complete episode from a prior podcast that contained the 8-minute interview with Joe Galloway.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Joe Galloway and We Were Soldiers. All rights reserved.

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433- Red Zone strategy for Podcasting

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we focus on the theme of strategies that can make or break the success for a profitable podcaster. And this theme was targeted for creative individuals and entrepreneurs. It was taken from a podcast episode by Todd Henry from his podcast show, The Accidental Creative. And the title of the podcast episode was “Do You Know Your Red Zone Activities?”

As you may well know, in American professional football (i.e., NFL), the Red Zone is an area for 20 yards that can either make or break the success of a team in scoring — and usually, the team who can score within this area usually can win, whereas the teams who struggle to score touchdowns from this area is exposed and may not win.

As you will hear in Todd’s audio podcast, there are several qualities that can mark your own red zone activities; and you need to address to make sure that your podcast show can be sustaining the revenue streams and remain profitable:

  1. Activities that you can uniquely do or add value to because of your position or expertise.
  2. Activities that increase your personal capacity to generate ideas, such as study, purposeful ideation, or intelligence gathering. These are typically the first to go during a busy or stressful season. Are you taking the time to sharpen your mind and your creative intuition?
  3. Activities that provide cohesion or creative traction for your team and increase future capacity. 
  4. Activities that feed your energy, such as adequate sleep, exercise, or spiritual practice. These are most often neglected during busy or stressful times, but you will need these to be prepared to be profitable.

And Todd does explain with examples what he means in each of these qualities.

Now, do you yourself have what it takes to be a profitable podcaster and execute successful strategies for your own “red zone?” According to Todd, it does not take a super-hero to be successful, but rather someone who can place the proper emphasis at the right time: “The most accomplished people aren’t always the smartest or the most talented. Rather, they are the ones who do small, important things every single day for long periods of time. They succeed in the red zone.”

So for this podcaster, my suggestions would stem around the productivity areas where you can plan effectively and execute your plans and strategies effectively, with the proper importance to tasks.

We hope that you can include all 4 of these qualities in your own life and then execute your strategies that can help make your podcast successful and profitable.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Todd Henry. All rights reserved.

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426- Some criteria for best entrepreneur podcasters

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we repurpose an older episode that dealt with the criteria for discussing who would make the best entrepreneurs. This episode dealt with the article published in an email newsletter from Michael Hyatt.

Originally published in the recently-podfaded show called The Struggling Entrepreneur, we can relate to the idea of the criteria for the more successful entrepreneurs — especially in the area of podcasting.

Yes, the romantic ideals of the younger aspiring entrepreneurs visualize the young college drop-out starting a business and growing to be a business titan. Well, these are the exception and not the rule.

As you will hear in this audio episode, the more successful entrepreneurs are those who have age on their side — and with that, they also possess maturity, experience, resources, drive to succeed and knowledge of lessons learned.

“So who makes the best entrepreneurs?  No, it’s not who you think.”  As Michael Hyatt states, it is usually those over 40 years of age — and the numbers tell us that. So if this episode bursts your ideal bubble of romanticized billionaires and your path to join that club, well, join the rest of us who can accept the valid research and then also put our own strengths into channeling our resources, our drive to succeed, our age, our experience, and most of all OUR MATURITY into becoming a successful entrepreneur and podcaster.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2020, Matrix Solutions Corporation and MichaelHyatt.com. All rights reserved.