Who'd have thought I like to talk so much? Welcome to my thoughts on creating a podcast!

So, the idea of creating a podcast has been lurking in my brain for a couple of years. But, honestly, I kept pushing it away, thinking I'd probably overshare and turn it into a life reflection for all to hear. So, when I found out that for one of my classes we would need to produce a podcast in groups, I was definitely enthusiastic. Firstly, coming from a childhood in performing arts I figured I would enjoy talking into a microphone about anything and everything, which I was right about! However, I also knew that podcasting involves a ton of other stuff too - branding, content, audio editing, you name it.

Despite my enthusiasm, group projects can be a bit of a gamble. The whole group selection was anything far from pleasant, it almost felt like speed dating. Everyone was in a one room trying to figure out who would work well with who. Fortunately, Maggie and I already knew we collaborate well and that our conversations flowed seamlessly. In the end, we formed a team with Donna, Anushka, Razan, and Harsh. It was a somewhat blind collaboration, but, in my opinion, it turned out quite well, despite occasional challenges.

We had some initial meetings to figure out a direction for our podcast, throwing around topics and name ideas. Picking topics was surprisingly easy—we were all into things like mental health, cultural semiotics, and AI. Our biggest challenge was agreeing on colour schemes and a visual direction. After some back-and-forth, we settled on a bold and friendly colour palette.

Behind the Scenes Experience.

Maggie pitched a great idea of using the campus photo rooms for a podcast photoshoot. I discovered that even though being in front of a camera doesn't usually bug me, being still for pictures is a bit more awkward and nerve racking for my liking. What I didn't know, is that I actually enjoyed taking photos and wasn't too bad at it either! I will admit though, I know nothing about camera settings and lighting, but I'm keen to learn in the future..

At the beginning of the process, I threw out the fact that I would like to practice my design skills within this project. So I joined the branding process with Anushka and Razan. Overall I enjoyed working with them, I got to see things from their perspectives and learn from their experience. After some brainstorming and Pinterest board creations, we all got to work on individual logos to present to the team. Even though we didn't go with my logo, I enjoyed the design process and was definitely happy with what I produced. With that being said, looking back at them now there are a couple of things I wish I did differently and ideas I wish I had earlier. I then took over the website design and social media content planning. I knew this was a lot for one person, but I figured I'll manage. Designing the website was definitely not a small task and took up quite a lot of my time. Wix is not always the most user friendly platform and tried my patience a few too many times. With that being said, I enjoyed the process and having to work with Adobe Photoshop to create the 'Behind the Scenes' section of the website. This gave me the opportunity to work with colour alterations, background removal, outlining and a few other things. After wrapping up most of that, I moved into the social media tasks. Being an over planner by nature, content planning was right up my alley. It gave me a taste of social media management, and I got excited seeing a post I created hit over 1.5k views in about three days! Admittedly, I got overwhelmed with the remaining tasks and got some help from Maggie. She took charge of editing our reels using the video content from our recordings, and they turned out great.

Learning curves.

I know I make it sound like the process was smooth sailing and there were no downsides to this project. However, it did have its challenges; for instance, the background music debate sparked some disagreements. Opinions varied, personally finding it distracting at times, but we couldn't reach a consensus to remove it. These things happen when working in groups and learning to navigate such differences is a skill I need to keep working on. Another learning curve for me was stress management. As a planner, I kept track of deadlines and nudged team members when necessary. However, this did get frustrating and irritating when people weren't always finished by the set deadline. I came to realise that the stress and frustration I was feeling had no positive to it and was only making a situation worse in my head than it actually was. Maggie played a role in helping me recognise that I was shouldering too much work alone and that sometimes things aren't that deep and you need to let it be.  On another note, I got a mix of praise and constructive criticism on my work, which even though stung in the moment, it helped me produce better work at the end of the day.

I always wondered if I would enjoy the process of podcasting, and if I would be any good at it. I'd say I'm decently good at talking into a microphone and would definetely consider doing it again in the future. In fact, after receiving such great feedback from listeners, we are talking about the possibility of continuing the podcast during the year. This could be a fun project amongst all our classes and master project!

Take a look at The Mind and Mic Podcast final project here