Podcasting Hacks

Build a Great Personal Show

Create a show that opens a personal window on your life, without exposing yourself to privacy risk.

Blogging opens up a whole new view on people’s lives with details that many thought would be too personal to share. Bloggers talk about their fears, their triumphs, their jobs, and their relationships at an intimate level of detail. Some have even been fired for doing so.

Podcasting, or audio blogging, raises the level of personal intimacy to a new high. Now instead of writing your fears, you are saying them to us as if we were sitting next to you. We can hear the emotion in your voice. But instead of whispering it to one person next to you, you are saying it loudly through the headphones of people across the world.

There is no one formula for how to create a great show about your personal life. However, there are some tips and techniques that can alleviate the potential risks and help build an audience through content that is compelling.

The Listener Is Right Next to You

When you are talking into your microphone, imagine that the microphone has disappeared and you are talking to someone right next to you. This is, in fact, what you are doing. You aren’t addressing a group of people, you are addressing an individual with headphones on.

As you are talking, that individual is creating an image of what you are saying in her mind. When you talk about your dog, she pictures a dog she knew. This is what broadcasters call the theatre of the mind and it’s what makes ...