Speak With Spirit: Stop Editing Out Your Authentic Voice – Episode 72

[MUSIC IN – GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS]

MARY: Podcasting is always going to be a long game, especially if you don’t have a large audience to begin with. Podcasting isn’t an overnight success, no matter what you may read about some podcasters. It is, though, a beautiful platform to share your message on a consistent basis. You need to put in the work to see the results so that you can easily podcast. And that’s why so many people start, but not very many last. And like any platform, podcasting is always changing and shifting, and 2024 is going to be no different. I’ve had a lot of questions recently with people who are just dipping their toe into the space and wondering, hm, should I do this? And a lot of people actually ask me the question, but what is a podcast? And, you know, those lines are being blurred. Is it just audio? Is it video? Is it something I’m watching on YouTube? Is it something only on Apple podcasts? It could get quite confusing. So yeah, what is a podcast? And how do we make it a success for us to continually create episodes so that our listeners can fall in love with us? 

In this episode, we’re going to dive into that and so much more to get you empowered and reclaim your voice, to continue podcasting, or finally start that podcast that you’ve always dreamed of. Welcome to episode #72 of the Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice. 

<< WOMAN SINGS: So so so so let’s go >>

MARY: Hey, welcome back. 

[MUSIC FADES]

I am glad to be back here with you after a little December, January hiatus that I do every year. And you know what? Let’s do some housekeeping first. On the last episode, I talked a lot about values, so I’m wondering, how did those go for you? Did you work on your values for your podcast? Right? That was the differentiator. Yes. If you already do values for your personal life, maybe for your business, but what about your podcast? And to update you? Yes, I did mine for my podcast. And how are they different from my personal or business values? Well, my family values, we did all get together and had, you know those brown rolls of packing paper? I had a large sheet of that. So I got my eight-year-old daughter to write out the words or draw a picture about some of our values, like, what do we value in life? What makes us excited to do things together as a family? And our big word is adventure. We love adventure. The secondary things are like cooking together, enjoying great food together. We’re a bike-first family, so cycling, getting outdoors, and also kindness and being open and transparent with each other. And like, those things are great, but they don’t really tie into business or podcasts, right? For business, yes. Kindness, openness, transparency. I love those things, too. For podcasting, yeah, those are also important, but what is like the key value, much like my adventure value with my family. 

And so my version of my podcast values, when I went through that exercise for myself, this is what I came up with. Curiosity, that a podcast, this podcast specifically is always going to be an experiment. This is a place where we get to try things out, ask questions, and discover what actually works in this moment in time. Because like I said at the very beginning, the podcasting industry is constantly changing. But what is working in this snapshot in your life for your podcast right now? The curiosity lens can help answer some of those questions. Value number two is captivating because you want your listeners to be captivated by your show, whether it’s your voice or the stories that your guests bring on. Podcasting is all about being engaging, interesting, and enticing all in one. So captivating is my word. The last word, even though it’s the last one on the list, I think it is actually quite crucial. And I say this all the time. I’m sure you’ve heard me say it a few times, play. Because like my life motto, if it’s not fun, I’m not doing it. It is just not worth doing. So through play, we learn, we get to go on a journey and we grow. So play is so, so important. So there you have it, curiosity, captivating, and play, are my podcast values. 

So I’d love to hear yours. Please share them with me. What did you come up with during the new year review? The tweaking, your planning. What were your values for your podcast? Let me know. Drop me an email visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com and let’s find out where you are with your podcast values. I love to actually keep my values on my Trello board, which is where I organize my episodes for my podcast so I can see it. And it’s got a, like, purple, just to match my branding, purple cover, so that it really highlights and I see it there. And it’s not just like this exercise that I do every year, but I don’t focus on it, so that’s where that is. And then for my business and personal values, I have them in my agenda, which I create every year on Agendio. It’s custom made planner so that I have my schedule, I have my notes, and I actually have a section for my values. So if you’re still looking for a customizable solution for an agenda or notebooks. Agendio is a great way to go, and I’ll put a link in the show notes for you to check that out. If you wanted to make your own agenda and put in your values so that every single week when I fill in my schedule, I also fill in my values in there. And so it’s just an active part of remembering and acting on those values every single week. 

[MUSIC IN]

So earlier I had that question, what is a podcast? Yes, those lines are definitely being blurred with the news last year that Google podcast is going to be sunsetting and shutting down in 2024. They, Google has made a huge shift in the YouTube space, so they’re actually letting you integrate your RSS feed into YouTube so your podcast can be generated on YouTube through your RSS feed, which is amazing because before, only certain media hosting platforms, which is the home of your podcast when it gets distributed out, only certain places had a YouTube integration. But now you can integrate your podcast into YouTube seamlessly. So that is going to change big on YouTube, and it gets you on YouTube music and a whole new platform for organic search. But then you’re like, wait, YouTube is a video platform? Yep, that’s right. And so then is it a podcast? Because what have I been always saying? Oh, yeah, it’s an audio-only first platform. But yes, it still is audio first. And I think a lot of listeners are still going to listen to podcasts as audio-first platforms. However, having that YouTube integration will change things over the years. There’s going to be no doubt about it. There will be change. 

So then, what really does define a podcast? A podcast, in my eyes, still is defined by that RSS feed. Because if you need to close your show, you want to sell your show, you want to move your show to another platform. It is that RSS feed that you own and that you move. And now that YouTube is integrating that, I say a podcast that is on YouTube is still a podcast because you may not create a video for it. It will just generate a static image of either your show artwork or your episode-specific artwork, if you have one. That is optional. And that is what’s populated as the visual aspect on YouTube. So it still is a podcast. But then there’s also people who say, well, what about the show that I watch on YouTube? I’m like, okay, so why do you think it’s a podcast? And they’re like, well, because I can see the microphone. Um, there’s two people talking. That’s a podcast, right? And the interesting thing is, there is research to back this up. Sounds profitable. Did some research. Um, they have an article called Sound You Can See Podcasting’s Video Dilemma. I’ll link to that in the show notes. But essentially what it’s saying is that they found out a podcast is what people are calling it. There are YouTube shows people are calling a podcast because yes, there are the mics and the guests. Like they were saying in the article, if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, it must be a podcast. I love that. So no matter what the industry itself wants to call things, whatever the consumers, the people, the listeners are calling it, it is what it is. 

So, if you don’t have your podcast yet on YouTube, which then is on also YouTube music, you want to make sure you integrate your podcast RSS feed with YouTube. I’ll put some links in the show notes on how to do that through YouTube Studio. It’s a seamless thing to do, quick and easy, so you can do that for yourself. And having a podcast is all well and good, but maybe we want to start focusing on finding out what it is you need to work on where you are at. You know, if you want to grow your show. Yes, adding your podcast to YouTube can help with that. But it doesn’t matter where your podcast is playing, if the content itself, the message that you have, isn’t one of my values, captivating. If it’s not captivating, people are not going to come back and listen. 

[MUSIC ENDS]

So if you want people to come back to listen, it really is about sharing your message through your voice and using your voice to its fullest potential. Because it’s not about the actual words you use. It is how it comes out through your heart voice, what is inside of you that really resonates with someone, that to the core, it is an emotional thing. What are you trying to do to your listener here? I always ask the question, how do you want your listener to feel? That within that feeling is you are doing something to that person when they’re listening to you, right? What is that emotional move that you want them to have? That’s part of the captivating piece. And so I want to expand upon this because it doesn’t matter if you’re going to be on YouTube, it doesn’t matter if it’s an audio-only podcast. However you are sharing your message, it is still done through your voice. 

And I had the pleasure of writing an article for The Sound Sorceresses magazine. It’s actually a quarterly online magazine highlighting the incredible work women are doing in audio storytelling. And, uh, there’s also a Substack newsletter, if you want to join in on that and read up on all the great work that people are doing in this audio storytelling space and, uh, catch up on all the publications. So my article came out in the January 2024 issue, so it’s already out now. And Rachel Hansen, who is the publisher of the magazine, the originator of the magazine, the creator, uh, she published my article, like I said, in the second issue, January 2024. And I asked her if I could read this on my podcast, because, yes, the article is great on the written platform, but as audio storytellers and as a podcast host, there is nothing like hearing it, out loud. Because that is how I write. I write with my voice. And so it really, in my heart, was more about how it was going to come out when I read it out loud. 

So even when I wrote it, I proofread it by reading it out loud. And that’s just something I’ve always done when I was in radio, because it will sound so different when you read it out loud. So, quick tip for you. If you ever write something that you want to read, make sure you read it out loud first so that you’re not like, stumbling over words or you’re like, did that makes sense? It didn’t sound right. So it’s a great way to figure out if it’s going to sound great as well. And definitely check out the whole magazine, because there’s some amazing articles on here as well, uh, about celebrating a century of sound and foley work as well, which is sort of like making the sound effects yourself. So creating that sound for your podcast. There’s some amazing articles in here, so make sure you check out The Sound Sorceresses magazine and their Substack newsletter. So I’ll put all of those links in the show notes. So I’m going to end this episode today with a reading of my article, Unleashing Your Authentic Voice in Podcasting. 

[MUSIC IN]

How do you want your listener to feel in podcasting? It’s not about you, the host, but about the listener. So why is it that our voices get policed and criticized, not just by those listening, but also by ourselves, with self-judgment? I bet when you started your podcast, you weren’t thinking, oh, yes, bring on the criticism, or, wow, I so enjoy editing out all the ums and ahs in this interview. So, where did we land as a society? That how one person speaks is good speech while others are bad? As a podcaster, or if you’re hoping to launch your own show, you were probably told or read at some point about what sounds good or bad. Anyone whose voice doesn’t represent the social norm in the western world especially, definitely knows this. 

For generations, we’ve been taught how authority should sound, but that comes from a really old model of race and class that doesn’t do us justice anymore. And if we’re being honest, it was never really about justice in the first place. Language evolves, so let’s progress with it. Looking back at speech in general, history tells us that men were the ones allowed to speak. They were the lawmakers and also creators of standard voices and accents, so that a typical broadcast voice on TV and radio, didn’t have a regional accent, as the expectation of professionalism, to have everyone look and sound the same. But podcasters and humans in general don’t all look and sound the same. We’ve had generation upon generation learning this bad behaviour of speaking differently. So it’s going to take a few more generations to unlearn this. It will take work and practice, and it can start with you to break this generational trauma. 

The voice you have today is not the one you were born with. As we grow from newborn to toddler, little kid to full adult, our speech evolves based on our community, like who we live with, or the kids in our class, but also the media, like TV, movies, and social media. I remember as a kid trying new words when I heard somebody else say them because it intrigued me. Does this fit with what I’m trying to say? Can I say it in the same way or in a different tone? Would using this new to me phrase, make me look cool? In grade six, I was given an award certificate with the nickname Motor Mouth Mary by my teacher because he deemed me too fast and loud when I talked. Throughout my childhood, my dad told me to shut up and know my place because of his traditional Chinese values, since I was the youngest of three and a girl. So, as I learned to fit in and navigate the world around me to find my identity, my heart voice became a combination of my history, my feelings, and battling my inner voice by practicing out loud. In the book Permission to Speak, author Samara Bay says, struggling in plain sight is a gift to your audience, and authentic is more important than articulate. During my interview with Samara, she offered that the old way of approaching how any of us might speak into a microphone is thinking about ourselves. 

The new way of thinking about how any of us might approach a microphone that you’re offering is connecting to our listener and making it not about ourselves, but literally our actions. How we want them to feel is well, what do we want to do to them? When you share your story through your voice, you are emotionally connecting to your listener. No one can take your story or connection away from you unless you’re working with an inexperienced editor, taking out all the crutch words and trimming away at silence. AI has played a huge role in recent years, essentially telling us that, um, like, I guess, kind of, you know, and other filler words are all bad, so they’ll magically remove them all with a touch of a button. Oh, wow. What joy. Insert your favourite magic wand sound effect here. [SOUND EFFECT: MAGIC WAND]

On the flip side, the idea that we have to take these words out of our vocabulary to sound, quote unquote professional has devastating effects. Have you ever thought that the ums and ahs, all have a job in podcasting? It can actually shift a whole conversation when they are taken out. For example, in a transcript, you might read, oh, yeah, I think you might like, um, want to see a therapist. When you look at that sentence word for word, the biases in your brain and Grammarly, if we’re being honest these days, are screaming at you that that is wrong. A correct edit would read, you might want to see a therapist. But even if you could edit the audio enough to make that happen and not sound like a truncated robot, you have taken out the nuance. The underlying message of the word, like, is used as a discourse marker to convey approximately, or for you to express in this way as a means of connection. It may be that the person who said it was indicating that they didn’t want to sound like an expert, so they’re using like as a form of illustration. Crutch words aren’t filler words at all. They all have jobs. If you want to dive deeper, listen to my episode with Alexandra Darcy, a professor of linguistics and the director of the Social Linguistics Research Lab at the University of Victoria, where she debunks the myth that filler words are bad. Alexandra reveals that a speaker wants to sound more friendly and unintimidating by providing a suggestion versus giving an order. Imagine hearing the line, you might want to see a therapist from someone who’s demanding or authoritative. You lose the tones of care and warmth. We want care and warmth. Without them we are bossy, cold, or, as we may have been told before, bitchy. Audio editing needs a human touch and a feminine touch. And I’m not talking strictly about gender, but when audio is edited from someone who is not part of the dominant speech patterns, something new is created, or, dare I say, something important is saved. 

This is especially true in podcasting when a lot of shows consist of interviews, whether they are cut up in a narrative or a straight-up interview-style show are words spoken out loud in real-time from our innermost thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Podcasting is an intimate platform. To connect emotionally with your listener while having a conversation, is to not memorize or pre-program messages to regurgitate. These emotional moments cannot be edited out. Without them, you lose nuance and a whole culture of representation for the current way of speech and language. Women, young girls, and those who don’t see themselves in regular media, are listening. Needing to hear themselves in you. Your voice is on a journey developed through perfect imperfection. You have permission to be yourself behind the mic, stop thinking, and start feeling. So whoever edits your podcast, especially if it’s yourself and you have to edit your own voice, they can feel along with you to truly showcase your message and what you stand for. Because what we’re really doing is speaking in a modern language and being leaders in language and speech, even if you, um, stumble, like, yeah, you stumble along the way. 

[MUSIC ENDS // OUTRO MUSIC IN – SHOW CLOSE]

<< GHOSTHOOD FEATURING SARA AZRIEL “LET’S GO” BEGINS >>

MARY: Thank you so much for listening to the Podcaster’s Guide to a Visible Voice. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you shared it with a podcasting friend. And to reveal more voicing and podcasting tips, click on over to visiblevoicepodcast.com.

<< WOMAN SINGS: Let’s go >>

[MUSIC ENDS]