What you think you know about storytelling success may be all wrong. Introducing my new test for clarifying your creative direction and taking more risks: The Backpack Test.
Hi Elaine, this post really resonated with me. As a former radio producer who has now made just over 30 episodes of a podcast I think curiosity is at the heart of good story telling. If you are truly curious about that subject you will find interesting people and you won’t run out of questions. I also believe that passion about a subject always shines through in audio. So this post contains such good advice for anyone thinking about starting a podcast and wanting to get beyond that ten episode mark. ‘Follow your heart as well as your head’, as a good friend of mine once said to me.
Sally, I remember your lovely whimsical logo for Our Plant Stories! I'm so glad my quirky post resonates with you. I'm sure in your years at the BBC that you were fascinated by some of your coverage -- and some was just obligatory. Both extremes are true in my career. I'm looking forward to listening to your show. Share its origin story with us? Feel free to include a link.
Hi Elaine ...yes totally and it was the joy for me when I worked in Radio Documentaries -you could just pick a subject that you were fascinated by and suggest a programme...I did both forgiveness and false teeth!
The story of Our Plant Stories begins in lockdown when my daughter (then 18) was sharing an office with me. She had deferred her start at University and was working for a charity. They asked her to make a podcast and what I love about young people is they just google it and get on with it! I pointed out she couldn't edit and she said "no but you can!"
And so it was at about 1am (she's a deadline junkie) she would ask: "are you still in your happy place?"
I was SO IN MY HAPPY PLACE! I had forgotten how much I love to edit and research and record. In my BBC career, I had gradually got further and further away from radio documentaries, ending up as the BBC's Charity Appeals Adviser.
Aside from audio, I had another passion - plants. I have loved them all my life and from my first tiny balcony in Liverpool to my small London garden, plants have always been a part of it. I took the opportunity to do some exams with the Royal Horticultural Society in 2016 and I think they taught me the language to talk to gardeners and horticulturalists.
I left the BBC to follow a new path and in April 2023, I started Our Plant Stories.
Plants tell stories. They tell us stories about the people who grew them, the places we find them and the reasons we love them. So this is a podcast where those stories are shared and we learn how to grow the plants.
Your post resonated with me because I think your advice about choosing a subject that you really love is key to making a podcast. I have now done over 30 episodes and each story leads to more 'offshoots' and I am learning about plants, all the time. I find plant stories everywhere I go! And the podcast means I get to visit gardens, interview gardeners and grow more plants.
Thanks Elaine for the invitation to share this and thanks for all the great advice on your podcast. Your most recent one on revealing interviews was interesting to me. As a radio 'producer', I was very good at cutting my questions out of all my interviews, enabling them to slot into a programme presented by someone else ! So putting myself back into the interviews and presenting the podcast has been a fun challenge.
I'm so glad it resonates with you, Carey! Thanks for taking the time to write. (And as a side note, the universe agreed with me. It rarely rains for very long in Colorado, but it rained all night on the mountain, and was predicted to rain all the next day. They came home early. :>
Curious to hear more about which former Creative Director at Pixar is working in audio now!
Ah, if I could only tell you!
Hi Elaine, this post really resonated with me. As a former radio producer who has now made just over 30 episodes of a podcast I think curiosity is at the heart of good story telling. If you are truly curious about that subject you will find interesting people and you won’t run out of questions. I also believe that passion about a subject always shines through in audio. So this post contains such good advice for anyone thinking about starting a podcast and wanting to get beyond that ten episode mark. ‘Follow your heart as well as your head’, as a good friend of mine once said to me.
Sally, I remember your lovely whimsical logo for Our Plant Stories! I'm so glad my quirky post resonates with you. I'm sure in your years at the BBC that you were fascinated by some of your coverage -- and some was just obligatory. Both extremes are true in my career. I'm looking forward to listening to your show. Share its origin story with us? Feel free to include a link.
Hi Elaine ...yes totally and it was the joy for me when I worked in Radio Documentaries -you could just pick a subject that you were fascinated by and suggest a programme...I did both forgiveness and false teeth!
The story of Our Plant Stories begins in lockdown when my daughter (then 18) was sharing an office with me. She had deferred her start at University and was working for a charity. They asked her to make a podcast and what I love about young people is they just google it and get on with it! I pointed out she couldn't edit and she said "no but you can!"
And so it was at about 1am (she's a deadline junkie) she would ask: "are you still in your happy place?"
I was SO IN MY HAPPY PLACE! I had forgotten how much I love to edit and research and record. In my BBC career, I had gradually got further and further away from radio documentaries, ending up as the BBC's Charity Appeals Adviser.
Aside from audio, I had another passion - plants. I have loved them all my life and from my first tiny balcony in Liverpool to my small London garden, plants have always been a part of it. I took the opportunity to do some exams with the Royal Horticultural Society in 2016 and I think they taught me the language to talk to gardeners and horticulturalists.
I left the BBC to follow a new path and in April 2023, I started Our Plant Stories.
Plants tell stories. They tell us stories about the people who grew them, the places we find them and the reasons we love them. So this is a podcast where those stories are shared and we learn how to grow the plants.
Your post resonated with me because I think your advice about choosing a subject that you really love is key to making a podcast. I have now done over 30 episodes and each story leads to more 'offshoots' and I am learning about plants, all the time. I find plant stories everywhere I go! And the podcast means I get to visit gardens, interview gardeners and grow more plants.
If anyone wishes to listen they can do so here: https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/listen
Thanks Elaine for the invitation to share this and thanks for all the great advice on your podcast. Your most recent one on revealing interviews was interesting to me. As a radio 'producer', I was very good at cutting my questions out of all my interviews, enabling them to slot into a programme presented by someone else ! So putting myself back into the interviews and presenting the podcast has been a fun challenge.
Passion for your project is everything 😊
Isn't it, Elizabeth? I know YOU know!
Hello Elaine! Carey Sipp here, friend of Lise’s with whom you spoke last summer.
Thanks for your story. I so related! Stay or go or jerk around making then decision so long that the decision is made for you?
Your choice for self-care was a winner. And how cool that you had so many fun little adventures with yourself.
Thanks for making the podcast world better; advancing the importance of great stories as a way to better understand others and ourselves.
Peace!
Carey
The friend of Lise’s who works in preventing trauma; healing trauma; advancing early relational and community health. ❤️🦋❤️
I'm so glad it resonates with you, Carey! Thanks for taking the time to write. (And as a side note, the universe agreed with me. It rarely rains for very long in Colorado, but it rained all night on the mountain, and was predicted to rain all the next day. They came home early. :>
Thank you, the backpack test is a great metaphor. I sincerely appreciate this!
I'm so glad to hear it, Lindsay! Are you making some decisions about what to do and what NOT to do?