Category Guest blog

By Chris Zaldúa, Courtesy of Descript

Remote interviews are a fact of life for every podcaster, and in today’s era of social distancing, more so than ever. Since you rarely get the chance at an interview do-over, nailing down your remote recording workflow is essential. We’ll show you how to prepare for and record a remote interview, so you get it right the first time — with some additional tips along the way to make sure all your bases are covered. 

Choose the right remote recording setup for your podcast

The first step is to determine the remote recording setup that best suits the format and content of your podcast and your production and editing workflow.

In most cases, your best solution will involve recording remote interviews on Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, or a similar online conferencing service. This low-friction setup makes it easy for guests or co-hosts to contribute, but you’ll need to make sure you have the right software to record these interviews.

It’s also wise to make sure you can record phone calls. Phone interviews don’t offer great audio fidelity, but they make a great backup option in case of technical problems or schedule changes. Phone interviews probably won’t be your first choice, but it’s a good idea to be able to record a phone call just in case you need to. 

If you’re recording with the same remote co-host on each episode of your podcast, consider a double-ender setup, in which you and your co-host record your own audio tracks locally and combine them in post-production. For most podcasters, this isn’t the most convenient solution, but it does translate into the highest audio fidelity for you and your co-host.

The best way to record an interview is to prepare for it

When it comes to interviewing — especially remote interviewing — a little preparation goes a long way.

Do some research into your guest’s background, expertise, and projects. Who are they? Why is their work notable? What do you (and in turn, your audience) hope to learn from them?

Putting together a rough outline of the questions you’d like to ask will come in very handy. Write down a handful of specific questions and key points, but keep your outline broad and high-level. That’ll allow you to more easily adapt to the flow of conversation.

Maintaining that conversational flow remotely can be substantially trickier than doing so person-to-person. Prime yourself to listen more than you speak — in particular, try not to interrupt your guest. Editing out awkward silences between speakers is much easier than dealing with too much crosstalk!

When it’s time to record the interview, take a couple final preparatory steps to ensure a clean recording. Close all unnecessary software and set your computer to “Do Not Disturb” mode to make sure unwanted distractions don’t pop up (or worse: end up in the recording).

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By Genma Holmes

On September 17, 2019, around 3:30 a.m., I was catapulted into another world when I received a frantic call to come to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s adult emergency room. Without knowing any details, I knew the situation was bad because it involved my middle child and youngest son, Cornelius. As I raced to the hospital, the prior few weeks I had spent with him flashed through my mind. He was employed full-time and had re-upped to continue his military service and was on the shortlist for a possible deployment that he seemed somewhat excited about. I had attended his swearing-in ceremony, which was very meaningful to me. He was looking forward to becoming a new homeowner and was scheduled to close on a home in a few weeks. He was also elated over the prospect of becoming a realtor. He was a busy young man making his mark at the age of 28. His future was as bright as the stars above. I was one proud mama!

That “mama pride” kept me from collapsing after I walked into the emergency trauma unit. There was no sign of a young man with a bright future on the trauma table. I saw a mangled body with limbs dangling from sockets, wounds with gaping holes oozing with blood, pink flesh where it should have been brown skin, and a face that I only recognized my son’s eyes. I asked the attending nurse, “He was not in Iraq, what happened to him?” I said in utter shock as I was looking at him on the table. Iraq and Afghanistan came to mind because that was the only thing I could relate to that could produce so much damage to the body at once. It was not in Iraq, but down the street, where my son suffered catastrophic injuries from a workplace accident when a 2,500-pound sulfur bag blew up in his face. He received 2nd and 3rd degree burns to his upper body, multiple injuries, and deep lacerations to his lower body, especially his knees and legs. At the time I was staring at him on the table, I had not received the news that he probably would not walk. When I grabbed his hands to let him know we were going to get through this, he moaned through barely-there lips, “Mom, I have no face. It is gone! Look at me Mom. I have no face.”

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By Nicole Garrison

When applying for a new job, you want to do everything in your power to make a good impression and increase your chances of getting hired. While there are quite a few things which can help you achieve that, the most important one is related to the way you present yourself.

While many people might not be aware of it, both resumes and curriculum vitae are quite similar but also hold certain differences. These can play an important role in your search for employment. In order to help you succeed, here are some things you should know about both.

What is a Resume?

A resume is a document that describes certain qualities of an individual in a brief manner. It is generally no longer than a page and it aims towards offering the reader enough and important information.

The good thing about a resume is that is can carry a lot of information in a very short length. In addition to this, because of its short length, it is easily modifiable for every niche and every job one wishes to apply for.

What is a CV?

A CV or Curriculum Vitae means the course of life in Latin and serves the purpose of showcasing exactly that. A much lengthier version of a simple resume, the curriculum vitae can be made up of many pages. Thanks to this, the applicant is able to include a lot of details that can easily be overlooked in a resume.

Not only is it possible to include more personal information about one’s interests and other activities, but they are also able to include their whole professional career. Lastly, this document is also organized in chronological order and should be updated frequently.

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By Kerry Burke

It’s hard to believe that we are over a month into this new world of social distancing and remote working. For many of us, this is a strange and challenging new reality where we are learning to juggle multiple things at home while continuing to produce our best work – and all while emotionally processing everything that is going on in the world.

One of the most important things we can do to help us get through this time is to practice self-care. You may have heard the phrase “You can’t pour from an empty cup,” and that is important to remember as we navigate this new way of living and working.

There are many helpful resources online that share best practices for working remotely, and hundreds of articles on self-care during the time of COVID-19. Everyone is different, and it’s important that we all find an approach to self-care that works for us. A good place to start your self-care journey is by asking yourself: What can I do to take care of my well-being so I can continue to be the best communications professional for my company?

I’ve participated in numerous Zoom meetings, phone calls, and text conversations with friends and colleagues from across the country where we have discussed this same question. What I’ve learned is this: there is no right or wrong way to take care of oneself during stressful and uncertain times. As I mentioned, we are all different and you have to do what is best for you. Taking that into account, I started keeping a list of things that help me feel energized and motivated, and a list of things I did that would make me feel lethargic or stressed. Journaling these activities throughout the day helped me notice trends in my work performance and mood, and I have been able to adjust accordingly.

Important disclaimer: By nomeans am I a psychologist, nutritionist, or life coach. But as a professional communicator, I have a love for writing and connecting with others and I hope these insights in my journey towards self-care will help motivate you in being the best person and professional you can be in this “new normal” we are navigating together. 

Energizing habits:

• Maintain structure: I try to maintain my morning routine as much as possible to set myself up for success. If you aren’t doing this already, try getting ready each morning as you would for a normal workday – shower, get dressed (leggings are totally OK!), make your bed, exercise, etc.

• Eat well: I always feel my best when I’m eating healthier. I was eating a lot of processed foods when this all started, and once I got back to incorporating more fruits and vegetables into my diet, I felt 100 times better. The Harvard Health Blog published a blog about eating during COVID-19 that offers some great tips on how you can eat healthy to improve your mood and lower stress. If you have a tough time meal prepping or aren’t a fan of cooking, there are places that will do the meal prep for you, and some will even bring it to your door with contactless delivery. Some of my favorites in Nashville are Eat Well Nashville and Clean Eatz.

• Get some fresh air: During my lunch break, after logging off from work, and on the weekends, I find going outside for walks and runs with my dog Brady keeps my spirits up and re-energizes me (and Brady loves it, too!). Some of my favorite spots include the nearby 12^th South neighborhood, the Richland Creek Greenway, and the streets in my own neighborhood. I encourage you to find some areas near where you live where it’s safe to walk (sidewalk is preferable!) and not overcrowded or visit a local greenway.

• Breathe: At least once a day, I try to do a quick guided meditation or a yoga video. It helps calm my thoughts and be more present and mindful. Take a few moments each day to focus on your breathing, or try meditation and/or yoga. You can find many free guided meditations and yoga classes on YouTube, and many apps and gyms are now offering free videos as well.

• Stay connected: I’m so thankful for the technology that keeps us connected when we can’t be together in person – whether it’s Zoom, Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangouts. Zoom is my personal favorite, and I have weekly Zoom dates with friends and family to help me stay connected to them.

• Write it down: As I mentioned earlier, journaling and creating lists have been very helpful in my quest for quarantine happiness. You can purchase some fun physical journals – either blank or with daily journal prompts, and/or you can do what I do and capture lists and thoughts in a note app like Evernote.

Not-so-energizing habits / Habits to avoid:

• Watching too much news: After the first two weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was on media overload and had to take a break. It’s important to stay informed, but that does not mean we need to watch every press briefing and read every article. I now set aside specific times each day (usually once in the morning, and once in the evening) when I allow myself to check the news. I am careful to only read and watch reputable, unbiased news sources, and keep up with the most recent CDC guidelines.

• Social media overload: While social media helps us feel connected to one another during social distancing, it can also breed negativity and anxiety. Like I’ve done with my news intake, I have set aside certain times during the day where I check social media. Additionally, I try not to get sucked into reading negative posts or comments. The goal of designating times to check news and social media isn’t to be 100% successful (and I certainly have my moments of weakness!), but to help us be mindful and try to limit screen and scroll time so we can focus on other things.

• Indulging stress vices: Everyone handles stress differently. If you are a person who finds yourself indulging in “stress vices” like too much food or alcohol (I, personally, have been known to over-snack!), try to be mindful and limit those activities during times of stress. If you need additional support, check with your Human Resources department to see if your company has an employee assistance program or can connect you with helpful resources, or contact a local helpline.

• Isolating yourself from others: Loneliness has major impacts on health and well-being, and many are at risk for loneliness while social distancing. Make sure you are staying connected with others. Try to reach out to one person a day by phone or video. As a person who lives alone, having regular communication with friends and family has helped me immensely.

• Being hard on yourself: When this all started, I felt a little down on myself for not accomplishing all the impressive things I was seeing others do on social media: working out three times a day, reorganizing the entire house, cooking gourmet meals, taking on a new hobby, the list goes on. But then I remembered that we are all in different situations and we all operate differently. And that’s OK. Give yourself some grace right now, and take comfort in the fact that we are all doing our best – even if that looks a little different for each of us.

For more ideas on ways you can invest in self-care, I recommend checking out these articles on Forbes, Healthline, and Lavendaire. They provide great tips and tricks on how to keep you focused and motivated. Stay safe, be healthy, and know that you will get through this! 

Kerry Burke is a Business Communications Lead for Cigna and serves on the IABC Nashville board of directors as president-elect and Vice President of Social Media. 

By Michael Deas (Courtesy of Ragan Communications)

“Love in the Time of COVID.” If that title reminds you of “Love in the Time of Cholera,” the novel by Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (or perhaps more familiar, the movie starring Javier Bardem), the similarity is as intentional as it is striking. As unthinkable as this sounds in the second decade of the 21^st century, our society is being overtaken by a disease. Not since the Greatest Generation has a single conflict so consumed the entire globe.

What a very different year 2020 turned out to be. It’s hard to believe now that at the beginning of March, when the warnings were just starting to sound in our ears, my company held its annual officers and managers meeting, which is an internal communication tour de force. How quickly, over the next few weeks, did our communication work turn from strategic planning to pandemic management. We ended the month of March with a “work at home” order for all office-bound employees.

Since we are an “essential business” involved in infrastructure engineering and construction, the coronavirus outbreak presented us with a dichotomy: field employees (inspectors, construction managers, surveyors, etc.) involved in ongoing road and right-of-way projects needed to stay on the job; office employees needed a new kind of internal infrastructure to stay working while isolated and distributed. We learned some things along the way:

1. Everyone needs to be reachable. For us, that means urging every employee with a mobile device to download an app that connects to our cloud-based intranet. What may have been considered convenient before has become indispensable now.

2. Working at home means leveling the tech playing field. We cannot assume everyone has a workspace, desk, docking station, large monitor and other peripherals, wide-band Wi-Fi, and all the other things we take for granted in an institutional office environment. Our company provided a fund and a charge code so that employees, with supervisor approval, can upgrade and purchase equipment needed to create a remote office and can connect securely to our servers.

3. We need to stay focused. In addition to providing COVID-19 news, we found it necessary to give employees a steady stream of normal work news, along with encouraging messages from the CEO about the need to remain committed to our work and the company mission. While it is a “new normal,” it is still normal. We are striving to maintain business services as seamlessly as possible.

4. We must keep in touch. The Wall Street Journal recently noted the dramatic uptick in cell phone usage—for talking, not texting, entertainment, or social media. As an antidote to the constraints of social distancing and isolation, employees are voluntarily calling one another more frequently than ever. For us, this means sharing cell phone numbers, as well as posting instructions on how to forward desk phones to other numbers.

In four more weeks, our efforts may take a completely different turn. The effect of our shelter-in-place measures is hard to predict, both for good and for bad. But for now, there is plenty of love—aka communication—to give and to receive, even in the time of COVID. Maybe, especially in the time of COVID.

Michael Deas, ABC, SCMP, is director of marketing at Volkert, Inc. Deas also serves on the 2020 IABC Nashville Board of Directors and is the chapter’s accreditation coach.