Celina Podcast work is not actually that at all. In fact, I would argue that creating The Celina Radio Podcast is actually quite fun! Now don't get me wrong, it IS work! Up front, one can see the finished product, some former Celina police officer who now does real estate sitting down with random guests and recording. BUT it's what you can't see that's the real challenge.
For me, every Celina podcast I do starts with finding guests and topics for the show that people care about. I want engaging topics and fun or thought provoking people. Once I have a guest (target) in mind, the next big task is trying to schedule them on a CelinaRadio.com recording session. There is usually quite a bit of back and forth, scheduling, rescheduling and so on. Eventually, I fill up two huge tactical bags with mobile recording gear and head out to meet the latest Celina Podcast guest.
When I arrive, finding a suitable location to record is the next big task. Why is it so big? Well because we need to have relative quiet to record a podcast episode. I also need a place that isn't filled with echos, ambient sounds and the like. The location also has to have a place to set up shop. Mic stands, mobile recorders, headphones, paperwork... the list goes on.
Finally, after multiple sound checks, we get to start the actual recording process. Is my voice too raspy, too tired sounding, what? Is my guest in a good mood or are they fairly nervous? (usually they are NERVOUS.) Mic up, mic down, volume up? Wait, is that too much gain? Where's that humming coming from? Dang, I forgot to mute my phone. Then their phone goes off. Sure, it's muted, but its sitting on the table on vibrate. Sounds much more like a Formula 500 car warming up. Or a really mad bee.
Eventually the conversation begins. Yes. It's an interview, but it can't be a BORING interview. That's the thing, EVERYONE has a boring podcast. I want my Celina Radio Podcast to be different, very different. So sure, there are the standard questions and such, but not too many. It's an easy trap to get pulled into, then you end up with the same Celina podcast that everyone else has already done, like 50 times.
Which brings up another point. Many of the folks around Celina that do Celina podcasts have told their stories over and over and over. That's exactly what I wanted to avoid with CelinaRadio.com. My goal was to share the story, but to have fun doing it.
The rest of how the actual recording goes is generally up to the talent (in this case, that's me -although I would argue that I am not anywhere near "talent") to make the show work. Yes, you can have predetermined questions and all of that sort of thing, but again, it's so easy to slip into boring, robotic show host status.
After the Celina podcast is recorded, the real fun begins. Hours and hours of editing, adjusting gain, etc. Should it have more this or less that? Oops, someone just banged the table on that part, got to edit that out... I usually edit the CelinaRadio.com podcast over the course of a day or two until I have everything as perfect as I want it. There's whats called a "sound bed" of music to find and license, then the music has to be lengthened to fit the show, and ultimately assembled into the finished podcast in such a way that it all seems natural.
After all of the post recording editing is done, it's time for artwork. With CelinaRadio.com, I use real images of the guests on all of the promotional ads, but NEVER their real image on the podcast cover art itself. Why? Because this little piece of Photoshop art that I create for each episode is another step that we take to be better than the rest. Each bit of podcast cover art is created by me to represent the "feel" or "perception" that I had of each guest.
Ultimately, there are ads and promotions to create. Facebook, Instagram, on and on. Short audio snippets, full length videos, just lots and lots of editing and creation of promotional materials.
Somewhere in there I still find time to run a ranch and a very successful Celina, Texas based real estate company. And answer the phone. Again. To book the next guest.
And that makes me happy because I love Celina, Texas and I love it's people.
