I have seen people offering themselves as podcasts guest on LinkedIn. I have also seen ads for podcast guests – podcasters looking for people who can speak about their particular subject – entrepreneurship, overcoming obstacles, mental health, social issues. I have even put myself forward for some of these, but haven’t been taken up on my offer, yet.
I – as a broadcaster – am a talker. I alsways say, there’s no point at which I am not chatting and cracking jokes. This is not quite true of course. If I am climbing Everest, I’ll go into a kind of flight-or-flight, survival mode where I am using every ounce of my energy to put one foot in front of the other, and keep breathing. Incidentally, this is ONE of the reasons I will never climb Everest – it’s not my thing, not something I would find enjoyable AT ALL.
On the other hand, maybe podcasters would WANT someone who has climbed Everest, rather than little old me who has just sat in London.
Also not true – as I have done a lot of interesting things around the world, just not really PHYSICALLY demanding things.
Anyway, my point is – I am available for podcasts, bar mitzvahs etc. I suppose the subjects I can talk about are: broadcast journalism scrapes (reading the news on the telly!) including some quite high-profile events eg Princess Diana’s death and interviewing some quite interesting people from Prince Philip to Barry Manilow, Gordon Brown, Cherie Blair – not necessarily in that order. Filmmaking – I have worked on lots of films as an actor, crew-member and background actor – and met some Hollywood A-listers (and famously, failed to notice a Hollywood A-lister was in the room!)
And I have worked on quite a few government contracts, not all of which I can talk about (secret squirrel – not very good for podcasts). In addition, I am a mum, wife, daughter, daughter in law, sister in law – so lots of family issues and navigating family dynamics. I’ve been broken up with, woo’d, married for 26 years, had some health issues (who hasn’t had an ear infection or had to go for hilarious/uncomfortable screenings?) I have had some interactions with the NHS and various authorities. I have been employed, am running my own business, employed contractors, worked with many clients, made some good decisions and some less-good decisions – which I then had to worm my way out of/make the best of. I have come across difficult people, fabulous people, needy people, struggling people – who wanted my attention or input in some way or another. And I had to put boundaries in place. And have lived a bit, as we all have.
And – and this is the difference – I think I can talk about all these things in an insightful, engaging and entertaining way – as we broadcasters have to. So, get in touch if you need a podcast guest (or host – I also work as a host for webinars and podcasts… 🙂
A caveat: things I haven’t got much to say about: sport, fitness, gym routines, protein powders, Park Runs, marathon training, ultra-marathons (you get the idea), motor sport, football transfer season, tennis, cricket… So, no sport. I kind of go blank BUT, as a journalist, I go into ‘asking questions’ mode if I don’t know much about something. And I often DO NEED to cover subjects that aren’t my personal interest eg payroll software, any kind of software, coding etc. But I am curious and always like to bring out the passion in people, for their subject.
My point is:
…and this is my point: get in touch if you need a podcast guest and I will ramble on relatively engagingly for a while 🙂 till you tell me to shut up. Cut!
