44. Building Confidence on Mic for Podcasters

Hey Besties! I’m baaaaack! I hope you had a fab summer and that as things start getting a little cozier you're ready to dip back into podcasting magic.

Today, I'm giving you my top tips for building your confidence on the mic. Thinking of podcasting as a voice note to the group chat? Game changer. Stick around for my other confidence builders. 

Shoutouts & Resources 

• Check out the Partners Beyond Parenthood podcast where I shared my solo parenting journey—Listen Here
• Big love to the Epi Pod hosted by Danielle Price and Sarah Fry, which has been a game-changer for me as a new allergy mom—Listen Here

Connect with Me:
I’m so stoked to be bringing you new episodes of Up An Octave—and we're here to get even more raw and real, (the vibe is: slumber parties and chai lattes while we chat about all things podcasting) Follow me on Instagram @SoniviaStudios and let me know what you’ve been up to this summer!

Ready to dig a little deeper? Drop me an email at rue.sonivia@gmail.com to schedule your free consult!

Don’t Forget:

• Subscribe to Up An Octave so you never miss an episode!
• Leave a review and let me know what you think—I cherish your feedback.
• Share this episode with your friends who need to hear it.

I'll be back next week to talk about adapting your art to fit podcasting!

Music Credit: Up An Octave Theme by Rue Spence with additional vocals provided by Darnell Spence

Up An Octave is hosted by Rue Spence of Sonivia. Up An Octave is a podcast for women and nonbinary people who are ready to take up space in podcasting to share their voices with the world.

Transcript

 Oh my gosh! You're here, and I'm here, and that means it's time to say welcome back to Up An Octave. I am so excited to be back with you. I took the summer off, and that felt really, really good. Uh, I want to give a big thanks to the people who checked in and said, “hey Bestie, when are new episodes coming?”

Or, “hey Bestie, I've seen that you haven't put any new episodes up, you good?” Truly, that means the world to me. I know this summer has just been such a whirlwind, honestly, so, super quick recap, um, because this is not intended to be a super banter heavy show, but, yeah, over the summer I was able to go visit my folks a fair amount of times.

I was able to go see Hozier, which healed things in me. And I also, I mean, there were some not so good things too. I've been solo-parenting more than I'm not. And I actually got to talk about that on the Partners Beyond Parenthood podcast, which I will link that in the show notes because that was. an absolutely incredible experience getting to talk to Saba and just kind of share what's up.

Uh, I started making apparel and didn't see that on my bingo card. And also I became an allergy mom, which is very uncharted water. And so I also want to give a shout out to Epi Pod, which is hosted by Danielle Price and Sarah Fry. That has been really illuminating as I try and learn about what my new normal looks like now that little mama is uhhh, going through it. All that's to say, uh, yeah, taking the summer off felt really good and it kind of came from a place of like I talk about so often, just checking in with my audience, which is something that I am so passionate about encouraging you to do is kind of see what feels good for your audience.

And I was seeing a lot of the people who I know listen, we're having super busy summers and trying to go on vacation, trying to do all this, had kids home. They did not have time to listen to extra podcasts.  And also, you know, it doesn't feel good for me to be making content right now. And so kind of once I ran thin on my batch, I was like, you know, let's just table this until we're all ready to come back to it until it's meaningful and impactful both for me as a creator and for you as my audience.

So hi, welcome. We're here. Uh, so today I want to talk a little bit about just building your confidence and getting more cozy on the mic. This is something that I have talked about before and I will talk about again because it is something that I'm so passionate about. And the first thing that I want to talk about is how, especially if you are new to podcasting and you may think, I have never done this before.

I've never spoken into a microphone. I've never been on a stage. That's so freaking irrelevant. That's honestly the advice I'll give is that that is so irrelevant. I have performed on stage. I've done theater. I've done choir. I've done spoken word, slam poetry, you name it. I've been on stages, and honestly, this is nothing like that.

Once you get over the tech of, yes, technically I am speaking into a microphone, and yes, that is the same as doing stand up slam poetry, whatever other thing that uses a microphone, that's kind of where the similarities end. This is so much more like something that I am pretty sure that you're already doing, and have probably even done today, and that's dropping a voice note into the group chat.

Honestly, that is what podcasting is. When you drop a voice note into the group chat, your audience is one, two, maybe five people, but it's the exact same idea. You are sharing something intimately.  with your voice because it's easier to share it that way instead of writing it all out. That's what podcasting is, my dude.

If you were to share all of this information written. That's a blog. Blogs are just kind of written podcasts. Podcasts are just spoken blogs. It's the same energy as, hold on, this is too much to type. Let me just drop you a voice note. That's exactly what it is, and we're doing it all the time. So if you are someone who's like, I'm so nervous about getting on the microphone and, you know, I've never done anything with a microphone before, Literally, all that a podcasting mic does, it makes your voice sound a little more palatable for a podcast. 

There are times where me and my girlfriends are driving while, like, drinking an iced coffee while eating in the car, doing voice notes to each other. And it sounds chaotic and it sounds unhinged. And we listen to that because. I really, really care about and love my best friends and they love me too, but that's not necessarily how I want to learn about 13th century undergarments, right?

Like if I'm listening to just some random podcast, I kind of want it to sound a little bit more polished because I have less skin in the game, but that's the only thing that separates using a podcasting mic versus just talking into the group chat. So I want you to think about it that way first and kind of let that be what guides.

how you see speaking on a microphone and how you see yourself speaking on a microphone. Because again, so much of what we talk about here on Up An Octave is about just the confidence. And that's really what it comes down to is just building that confident muscle.  Now in breaking down some of these misconceptions or ideas or whatever you want to call it,  There are some things that I do notice that greener podcasters will do, and again, they almost all come down to confidence.

And one of those is just speaking incredibly swiftly. I am someone who speaks incredibly swiftly, just naturally. I also have like a high palate, which makes it so that I garble my words more than I'd like to. I'm someone I have to really be diligent about slowing down and about enunciating. But something that I hear from people who are still figuring themselves out, and especially from people who are not super comfortable with interviewing, is that they just rush really fast, and they kind of stumble over themselves, and then they just push through  And that's where I remind you that editing is your friend.

It exists to help you, to support you, so that you don't have to just try and mash your way through your sentences. If you realize that you had a weird throat bubble. or that you don't like how you said something. Instead of just plowing through and trying to make it okay, you are invited to stop. Take a breath, gather your thoughts, and then course correct.

So that's probably like the biggest thing that I see. And then there's just the wandering, right, which is where people start, and then they kind of meander through their point, and then we kind of circumnavigate it a little bit, and then eventually maybe we do or don't get there. This is a big turn off, because Especially, like I said, if someone doesn't know you and love you and have a lot of skin in the game and interest in listening to you, if you are not effectively sharing information.

And by the way, when I say effectively sharing information, that can be on a podcast that's about the  Pythagorean theorem, or it could be breaking down what exactly a brat summer is. Like, it doesn't have to be super technical. Um, but no matter what you're talking about, if you completely lose the plot, your audience is definitely going to have lost the plot. 

Another thing that I have people comment on of like, Oh, it must be so easy for you to podcast. You've done this forever. Blah, blah, blah. Another reason that it comes off like that is because I've just done it, I've practiced I understand how low the stakes are, how none of this actually matters. And that allows me to be so comfortable.

I love what I'm talking about. I love the people that I get to share it with. And I get to do it from my couch. P. S. This new era of Up An Octave is super cozy. We are drinking chai lattes. We are in slumber party mode. We are just hanging out on the couch together. That's the vibe. Even if you have a more buttoned up feeling podcast.

Get to the point where you feel like you can rock it, you feel like you own it, and you feel like you are so ready to share that information. That is such a helpful thing as well, is just to really feel like you are the one in the driver's seat. And of course, this comes down to the imposter syndrome and the comparison and all of that.

It really does get in the way, but that is just us being our own biggest enemy. Of course, I still have those things too, but really, when I sit down at this microphone, everything else kind of comes second to me. I know that I'm following best practice, but I also know that my AC has kicked on twice since I've tried to record this.

I know that I live on a military base and there was a helicopter that just flew outside my window. I'm watching my baby monitor for any sign that my kid's gonna wake up. I know that there are real things that are happening and that are going to interfere with my ability to produce this at the level that I'd like to, but I've decided that that's okay because I so believe in what I'm sharing.

So, while that takes practice, and while that takes effort to get to a point where you understand that you're doing everything you can to sound great, you just have to make the thing. And once you unlock that, the confidence that you arrive at, is unmatchable, un-f-wittable, as Kid Cudi would say, that you just obtain this new confidence that really resonates and shows on the microphone and makes you that much more magnetic to your listeners.

Another thing that I hear from podcasters that are like kind of green or still not very confident yet is pacing, pacing, pacing, pacing. This comes from a couple different things. Partially, that's where the speed that I was talking about comes into play. But another thing is that that can also be that you're reading off of a script.

This is where I kind of bully you a little bit not to read from a script. Make your bullet points. Make your notes. But do not pre script your whole episode unless that is the nature of it. If it is a storytelling podcast, if it is something like that where it makes sense. That you are reading a script.

Sure. But if it is anything else, if it is a more organic show, please don't use a script because you sound like you're reading. I hear this often where it sounds great. You've worked very hard to curate a beautiful script that effectively shares the information and. It's awesome, but if you just sound like you're droning on, like you've read this because you've written it, and it just, it loses some of the magic that you sparking to a new thought.

Oh, and that reminds me of this, or yeah, I want to talk about that. And how cool is this? Like when you add that fire back into your show, it changes how engaging you are to your audience. And because I always have an asterisk, the caveat to that is.  Obviously, like, a storytelling or something that is scripted should not sound boring.

And not that, okay, boring's the wrong word, droning, let's go with droning, should not sound like that unless you are doing a podcast that's like, sleep with me, shout out to Scooter, thank you, thank you, thank you, um, but yeah, if you're doing like an ASMR  or sleepy time, sleep stories, those kind of things, a meditation maybe even, those are different rules.

I am talking. about someone who wants to talk about horse grooming. I'm talking about the people who want to talk about quilting. I am talking about the people who want to talk about cleaning techniques. I am talking about true crime. For that style, even though you are communicating a lot of information that has to be notated, still you can share it with your own flavor.

And it's your flavor that is going to keep people coming back and choosing to listen when it would likely be quicker for them to just read this information somewhere else. All right. So I'm going to leave you with just practice. Remember that editing is your friend and it allows you  to have some grace with yourself and to try things out and to practice and to play and to enjoy the process of podcasting.

Again, in this new era of Up An Octave, things are going to go a little quicker just because I really have come to cherish how little time we all have. So I want to get in, get out, and get you on your way to making the best podcast you can. I will see you next week. Thank you so much for your patience.

And hey, hang out with me on Instagram @SoniviaStudios and tell me what the heck you've been up to this summer. I will be back next week, so make sure that you have subscribed, you're following me on whatever platform you're listening to this on. Like I said, come hang out with me on Instagram. Feel free to shoot me an email if you need any help at all with your podcasting adventure.

I'm rue.sonivia@gmail.com. All right. Thank you so much for being here. I cherish you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for helping me take podcasting up an octave.