Publishing a Podcast Episode of Elsie's Yoga Kula: My Process

I often get questions regarding podcasting. I love it actually, as I love podcasting and truly enjoy helping folks get themselves going. I thought that I’d share my process with one of my podcast episodes. My podcast is primarily my live yoga classes recorded and posted, but within the past 6 months I’ve been posting a series within Elsie’s Yoga Class: Live and Unplugged Podcast called Elsie’s Yoga Kula (EYK). In this series I don’t ‘teach’ per say, but offer responses to feedback that I receive, share products and reviews of yogic things, and as of the latest, do interviews. 

This episode was unique, as are much of the EYK episodes, so the following process is not necessarily the norm, but it may give you a bit of insight of what it takes to commit to producing something like this. 

The Process:

Scheduled interview with James Wvinner way in advance, so I’d have time to prep for it, and made sure that I would have babysitting, as holding interviews with a 16 month old is not optimal. 

Prepped for the interview (1.5 hours)

• Googled subject
• Studied personal site/business site, 
• Studied FB pics and vids. 
• Searched for any other social media profiles.
• Researched prior interviews.
• Emailed subject list of possible questions, plus a request for feedback, making sure to honor his boundaries, plus to give him the ability to tell me specific things that he’d like to speak about. (I don’t do this with all my interviewees, I feel it out, depending on what is the intention of the interview)

Conducted interview (30 min)

• Used my Zoom H2 Recorder to record my audio.
• Had James call into my conference call line, and recorded our conversation there. 

*I did not do any Skype recording because I do not have the luxury of being in one place. Being a Mom I have to be ready to record anytime anywhere, whether there is an Internet connection or not. This is the set up that at this moment gives me the most freedom...although not the best audio...but it’s enough for the moment.

Wrote “script” for the rest of the episode (30 min)

• I’ve been currently using MacJournal to write my blog posts/shownotes/scripts. It works lovely for me, as I have everything organized in one place. 
• I also use Evernote for the feedback that I use in the show. Whenever I get an email, FB message, find an article I put it in Evernote tag it (example eyk #4) and when I’m writing my script, I just search for my tag, and voila!

Recorded the episode (20 min)

• Using my H2 Zoom Recorder. 
• In the bathroom in the middle of the night (quietest place and quietest time)
• Macbook on my lap with MacJournal on Full Screen (makes for a lovely ‘TelePrompTer’)

Edited episode (2 hrs)

• Imported all audio from the H2, plus downloaded MP3 from the conferencing site.
• Used Garageband to edit all audio, exported to iTunes. 

*Usually it doesn’t take me THIS long to edit an episode but the interview really did take me a while.

NOTE: Made sure that I got all editing done, as I knew that all the other stuff  (id3 tags, artwork, uploading, etc) I could do while taking care of my toddler. The editing was all done at night (dawn).

Polishing Audio (60 min) 

• I downloaded the audio to my iPod and listened to it while I washed dishes and fed my baby, to make sure the quality and levels were ok
• Re-encoded the audio as I wanted better quality
• Edited id3 tags and added artwork 

Publishing of Podcast and corresponding shownotes + publicity (2 hrs)

• Uploaded audio file to Libsyn
• Used Smultron to edit my final shownotes
• Finalized shownotes on Wordpress, plus added pictures and a gazillion links
• Published podcast episode in Libsyn
• Pinged iTunes
• Published corresponding blog post for episode
• Posted link to FB Fan Page/Personal Page
• Twittered

NOTE: Thanks to my daughter taking an unusually long 2 hr nap I was able to get all this done at once! If not, this process could have taken the entire day. 

Tallying the time, the whole process took me almost 6 hrs! How’s that for quick and easy? No wonder I haven’t been posting as much as I would like. My intentions are always there. My ideas are always flourishing, but motherhood is the sucker of all time and energy. 

So, fancy peeps, see any ways that I could streamline the process? or wanna know more or have any questions?

Look forward to hearing from you!

Extended Follow Friday for September 18, 2009: @victorcajiao #ff #followfriday

Victor, his wife Mary and I

A Typical and Worthy Expert

The story goes like this:

In 2006 I fell in love with podcasting due to the acquisition of an 5G iPod for Christmas '05. In a way, the iPod was the catalyst for the discovery of my inner tech geek, (as I had already found my yoga geek.) I gobbled as many podcasts as I could, plus nurtured dreams of podcasting. As I watered the seeds of my podcasting dreams I began to see that the soil that I was using was not optimal: it was a Gateway Laptop.

Like a good gardener, I searched for ways in which I could fertilize the soil in an organic way, for me it was by subscribing to beginner how-to PC podcasts. This is how I came to meet this weeks #followfriday subject, my dear friend and podcasting guru Victor Cajiao. Back in 2006 Victor was still producing The Typical PC Podcast, which I came to LOVE, as he taught me so many things about my PC that I had no idea about. I often wrote him emails with questions...um...a euphemism for problems, that I had with my PC. Three wonderful things happened in these first exchanges with him: he encouraged me to podcast, he instilled in me a love for Macs and I got the blessing to gain the friendship of a truly wonderful human being.

I heard of Twitter and got an account because of Victor, plus he was the first person I followed on Twitter.

Currently Victor has two wonderful podcasts: The Typical Mac User Podcast and the Typical Shutterbug Podcast. He also makes appearances in many other Mac podcasts such as The Mac Round Table Podcast and The MacCast. No matter in which podcast you hear his voice, you have the opportunity to learn from someone who truly cares about teaching and reaching his audience. He loves what he does and he does it well. He cares about his community and any exchange that you have with him is genuine and honest. I absolutely appreciate his honesty and his willingness to always tell it like it is. His guidance has been, either one on one or simply through my ears, invaluable. I have lost count how many times I have gone to Victor with some crazy tech problem (now mainly other devices NOT my Mac :) ) and he has immediately lend a helping hand.

Expert Typical know-how

In conclusion, Victor Cajiao is a must follow on Twitter (or any other platform, most importantly his podcasts) if you are a Mac lover, a photography lover or even simply a very new enthusiast of the Mac platform or photography, as his podcasts are great for the "typical" person looking to dive into their passions.His voice is down to earth and full of integrity.

Oh yea, sometimes no matter how much you fertilize the soil, it's just not going to give you the results that you want, so since November 2006 I have been a Mac Girl and love every minute of it! Thanks to Victor!

By the way if you're wondering about this extended #followfriday, refer to my post explaining all about it :)

What does the new iPod Nano announced at the 9/9/09 event mean for yoga professionals?

I know that when I did my first teacher training I could not write notes fast enough. I worked so hard at writing down pristine notes and did my best to sound out all those sanskrit words that I was hearing for the first time, hoping with all my being that I would be able to decipher what in the world I wrote when I got home later. I got a little better at it as I continued doing more trainings. I do believe there is a part of our brain that absolutely gets a work out when we write notes like this. I know that it helped me to seal some of the information within me as I did this.

I also know that my rabid note taking took away from some of the experiential aspects of being in the yoga trainings. I most definitely know that I missed some pretty yummy meditations, pranayama or simply some of the sweet bliss that comes from truly being 'present' in a pose, 'cause I was writing, writing, writing :)

I have to say that with some of the announcements from Apple refining their iPod line, it would have been a teeny bit easier to let go of the writing and just be. The new iPod Nano has to be the device that I've been longing for: a built in mic for recording sessions, a camera for recording demos, it's small and the price is really hard to beat! I think this little guy, as much as it's going to be great for yoga teacher trainees in their training, or at workshops, it's also going to be fantastic for seasoned teachers. The nano is a great simple little device that teachers can use to create simple and quick new media content, very efficiently. I venture to say it's a great device to invest in if you are deciding to start your own podcast. I'm going to have to get myself this little guy to see how it works out as a supplementary device to use for the production of my podcast :)

Is all this ease of use all good for yoga teachers?

That depends on your point of view. Social media, new media, social networking, picture and video sites, blogs, etc. are really changing the landscape of what it means to teach yoga in 2009. I don't believe as yogis we can deny this incredible progress, and we would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we tried to stop it. Our students will be bringing recording devices to our classes, taking pictures of us and posting some of this media to social media sites, whether it be personal blogs, or very public sites like YouTube. We must remember how helpful having a recording of something was for us, or having a picture of that pose we'd never seen or watching a video of one of our master teachers do an adjustment, simply so we could refine ourselves. Yet, at the same time we must draw boundaries regarding this media and request that the integrity of the space and the integrity of the teachings remain intact. You have got to be clear of what your boundaries are in your own classroom. 

How do you feel about these things? I would love to hear your experiences regarding class recordings, privacy or any other issues that technology may bring up in your yoga. 

How about that iPod Nano? Nice :D