1st Meeting, Setting Everything Up

The team is me, Mary Claire Anderson and Toby Wallwork.  We meet at a location in Newport Beach (which may sound more exotic than it actually is) and framed out the way forward, aiming for Sunday, May 7th as our first podcast.

Toby created a script of sorts (which I recommend for those thinking about this) so we know what to prepare for the show.  We also added our first guest, a good friend who has a lot to say about film.  The meeting was fun and filled with great energy.  There’s no substitute for enthusiasm when it comes to working with a team.  The idea that everyone is just as engaged as you are is powerful and wholly invigorating.

I should mention that one of things that instantly makes way forward much, much easier is that Toby already has the hardware and skill-set to do the show engineering.  He’s got mikes, mixer, digital recorder, etc. plus software – and, and this can’t be emphasized enough – the skills already in place as a professional film editor to do the cutting when it’s time.  He did a podcast a few years back and still has all the stuff necessary – podcast in a box the man is, basically.  Toby sometimes reminds me of that mechanic you take your car to who says ten words and just knows how to fix anything wrong with your vehicle.  I almost expect to her him phrase everything as “yup.”

Because MC is such a fan of podcasts, she has an intuitive sense of what’s needed to make the show flow.  She’s already sent me a list of podcasts that she thinks would be beneficial for me to listen to.  MC lives connected to a high energy source.  She’s like a Tesla coil; dealing with her is like touching source of endless energy – just being in the same room with her transfers that energy into your brain and you find yourself sympathetically beating with the same rhythms that drive her and her boundless enthusiasm.

Yep, I got lucky and found the two people in my life who could make me look a lot better than I actually am.

Jealous?  Ha!  Go find your own team – you can’t have mine.

After the meeting, I started to build the infrastructure support for the podcast.  I am a web developer on the side so the first step was a domain name (which I’ve had for years,) a website, and email addresses.  Since I have my own reseller hosting, none of this was difficult but it was time consuming.  But since this was probably the 100th WordPress site I’ve done (I also work in all other platforms) it was on rails.  The main work comes on the filling-it-out phase where a hundred little details are triggered.

I slammed this WordPress site up and configured some of it then added supporting email addresses.  What I don’t know yet is how the whole podcasting hosting thing works.  I know there are tons of plugins and themes for this in WordPress but I also know that there are things like stats, iTune submission, and tags that need to be considered so hosting the actual podcast files is a question mark.  Toby mentioned PodOMatic as a possibility.  I will check it out.

I’ve also set up:

  1. A Facebook page (page, not group for many reasons,)
  2. A Twitter account,
  3. A Goggle account (for a common Google doc and Google drive account to share,)
  4. A Slack group for communicating with everyone instantly,
  5. A ToDoIst group for show organization and a few other support systems.
  6. A Skype account for allowing guests to call into the show using their webcam,
  7. A Google voice number for people to call in and leave questions and comments.
  8. A podomatic account which I know nothing about – yet.
  9.  Artwork/logo for this site and all the social media.  I’m also hearing (reading) that this is important in iTunes – which I still don’t quite get – but creating high-density graphics for print is something I do so I can do it easily enough.  The issue is what should it look like.  Hmmm.  A mic, certainly – or it that too cliche?  Thinking….naw, a mike to start, film strip wrapping around it maybe.

I do have a lot of these accounts already for other parts of my life – I think these days everyone is connected to several social media accounts for their various activities.  I wanted to keep the podcasting stuff completely separate.

Honestly, it’s just a ton of sh*t.  But it’s done.

Now onto learning more about podcast hosting and getting my show segments together.

Yay!