On this episode, the importance of building community and how
showing up online helps experts stand out to the press.
Like no, no press release that you send or no like e-mail that
you send. I would love to be on your show
is going to be more powerful than actually having a video of
you discussing it and doing it in a dynamic way that is fun and
and interesting to watch. So like, save the time right in
the long release in news you're getting a million of those.
But if you're if there's a video that pops out to somebody, that
stands out to somebody, that is super powerful for getting your
voice out there. That is Kendall Brightman, the
community manager for Riverside FM, an online recording and
editing platform for content creators, mainly podcasters.
I'm using Riverside right now to record this for YouTube and also
for all podcasting platforms. Everyone, this is on Cam ready.
I'm Jamie Maglietta. Thanks so much for being with
us. I hope you're enjoying these
episodes. Please like this video if you
are, and subscribe to the channel before we get started.
I'm in the process of building my very first digital course and
I'm focusing on podcasting. Ever since I was podcasting at
Cnni have been exploring the world of podcasting as an
independent content creator, and I've learned a lot from
equipment to platforms and I'm really enjoying everything.
I'm learning and I want to help you navigate this space without
as many hurdles as I felt like I was trying to jump over and
climb. So I'm putting together this
course and if you're interested, visit my website on camready.com
to sign up for my newsletter so you can learn more.
And if you're enjoying this, remember, please like the video,
maybe even write a review if you're listening on a podcasting
platform. Now to our guest.
Kendall, as I said, is the community manager for Riverside. 00:02:08,720 In her role, she leads
Riverside's community of thousands of content creators.
I'm in a few of the groups that she leads and I love them.
We'll talk about that. She advocates for their needs
and helping them achieve their goals in these communities.
And if you are a Riverside user, you should be on Instagram and
also Facebook and joining the groups because they're wonderful
resources. Kendall is also a journalist,
which is what really attracted me to Kendall.
Before joining Riverside, Kendall was a political reporter
and television producer for news outlets like MSNBC, Bloomberg
News, Politico and USA TODAY. So we have a bit of a background
that overlaps. I worked at MSNBC for a short
time, but we also know what it takes to put together incredible
content and really build out conversations.
So on this episode, we'll discuss ways to prepare for a
podcast or television interview. We're also going to talk about
how experts can really attract the press by showing up online
and creating content like their own podcast.
If you own a business, it's my opinion that you should have a
podcast. Put yourself out there.
Make sure that video clips show up when journalists are
searching your name. Plus, we'll also discuss all the
latest tools that Riverside has to offer, including its new AI
features. So let's get to the
conversation, and Kendall is with us now.
You know, Kendall, thank you so much for being with us of.
Course, thanks so much for having me.
I'm excited about this. As I said in the intro, you
know, your journalism background is very appealing to me.
You know, we have some overlap with MSNBC and I just think, you
know, tapping into your mindset and what you do with Riverside
can really help our listeners. You know guys, as I mentioned,
she is a community builder with Riverside.
And if you are someone who is an expert and you really want to
put yourself out there creating content, creating podcasts is a
great way to do that. So Kendall's here to help us
break down some wonderful ways to either build a conversation
or to put yourself out and pitch guests or pick up guests,
really. So Kendall, why don't you tell
us a little bit about how you got into building the community
space for Riverside? Yeah.
So as you said, my background's in journalism and I had covered
like the 2016 election. I was covering presidential
politics. And after that I would, I had
moved and it really was like a time to reset, figure out what I
wanted to do next. And I started doing writing jobs
after journalism and kind of quickly realized that it wasn't
the writing that I loved so much about journalism.
It was really hearing a bunch of different people's stories and
then sitting there and saying what's the story from this?
Right. So from doing that, it actually
community management kind of fell in my lap.
Within Riverside, they'd reached out to me and when I was reading
through it, I was like, wow, this really connects to actually
the things that I loved about journalism, hearing those
stories, bringing people together, understanding why
people feel how they feel, do what they do, follow their
passions, that kind of thing. And so that's kind of how I
entered the the community building space.
And I really thought that it'd be this completely foreign type
of idea, cuz I'd never done it before.
But it really just connects to different things that I'd picked
up throughout my career anyway, so it was a pretty natural fit.
Storytelling is so essential for anyone who wants to put their
business out there or sell products.
You know, having your story and knowing what your story is and
how to tell it is so important. And with your background, you
know, I really want to get into helping people craft out an
interview, but before I do, I want to just stick on this
community building for a second guys.
You know, Kendall is working on building a community across
Instagram, Tiktok, LinkedIn, all the platforms and those are the
platforms where you should be because she posted on the
Riverside Instagram account about hey guys, let's use this
post to help everyone match up and find guests for their
podcast. This podcast post generated so
much community building. I mean, it was great, Kendall.
I wound up connecting with five or six people.
We all were chatting in the DM. It moved to e-mail.
It was great and that's why I think I even messaged saying we
need to do this more often. Yeah, but.
Yeah. I'm glad the community is great. 00:06:57,960 Exactly.
Thank you. It's it's also just about like
and this can be applied to anyone who has a podcast or a
channel or anything. It's about really understanding
what the people who follow you want or if they don't follow
you, why they would follow you because they're chasing what
they want. So that was really an initiative
in that way. I mean, beyond just saying, hey,
Riverside has new features or things like that, we're trying
to create opportunities for people to feel like, you know,
this kind of FOMO, like if I'm not following the Riverside
page, I'm kind of missing out on those opportunities to get
ultimately what I want, which are guest connections, your own
community. And guys, you know this also
this post she had on Instagram, wound up on Facebook and then on
LinkedIn, and it generated different types of
conversations. And that's also a part that of
the conversation that we are constantly having here.
If you're an expert, you need to be in these spaces and it's
important to join the groups because you really do start to
build community And if your effort if your effort there is
is valid and you're putting in the work and you're commenting,
you can also start to build relationships that result in
maybe sales or people following you on your accounts.
So you have to think about the potential outcome of building a
community. And I just think you're doing a
great job, Kendall. So I'm glad we could at least
talk about that a little bit. Thank you.
What are tips? Actually, for people.
Who want to build community? I would say that a big tip for
me when I was starting out was actually like never assuming
that you understand what your community wants.
So I so again because I'd come from journalism, I'm like, OK,
community, what do people want? They want connections because
that's kind of your your currency and journalism, right,
Like your sources, the people you know.
And then I held actually one-on-one calls with users and
didn't ask them like what do you want from community?
But I started to understand more about what drives them and I
understood that they wanted connections but not because they
wanted to network. It was more about the way that
people wanted to learn from each other.
People want to mentor as a person to ask their questions
to. Yeah.
So I think that my first step would really be to under to try
to gain as much of an understanding that is not based
on your assumptions. It's actually based on seeing
people and or speaking to people.
And the follow up I guess would be that like a lot of people, I
came into a community and you know, we could reach out to
users. It's much easier.
So if somebody is like, well how do I reach out to these people,
go to communities that already exist.
So I say all the time, if you're like a health and Wellness
podcaster, go to Facebook groups about your topic and just see
what people are talking about there.
Sometimes start. I like my kind of metaphor for
it is that you want people to come to your party.
And sometimes it's about going to other parties and seeing
what's working and seeing what the cool one is.
What got the type, yeah, to be able to get people to come to
yours. And so I think that observing
and learning and listening is like, incredibly key in building
a community. And then also, just don't post.
And Ghost is what I say. Like don't just post something
on Instagram and then go, OK, the algorithm will do its work.
Respond to people, start those conversations and you'll get
more out of it. Yeah, you know, building a
community is so hard guys. And you know, I'm, I'm always
trying new things and testing things out and it's all about
trying and putting yourself out there and showing up.
You know, as Kendall's saying like you really just need to
start having that that confidence to just put yourself
out there and even ask questions, you know, if you have
them ask them. And then it can really open the
doors to so much. It's open the doors to numerous
podcast guests for me on this show.
And you know, I'm always looking for people with Kendall's
background, especially because of her journalism background and
the fact that she worked in television really does help.
And a lot of people may be thinking, well, I don't know how
to pivot those skill set, those skills from journalism to
another job. Well, Kendall's an example of
how. So I really do hope that if
you're if you're interested in Kendall that you'll check out
the link in my description to her bio and even network with
her on LinkedIn, find her and just seek her out and and maybe
she can even help you and guide you as well.
She's offered her advice here but you never know.
Connect it's community guys. Find out more about her by
linking by clicking on the link in the description.
All right. So guys, we really want to focus
on podcasting today and interview prep.
So since she has worked in television, and I believe the
same tactics apply, I would love to hear what Kendall thinks
about interview prep and how she advises people to prep guests
before interviews. Yeah, So a lot of advice I have
here, but I will say that when you are prepping first thing
that I do for podcasts, for television, we would always on
our team look at previous interviews, watch previous
interviews that people have done.
And when you're doing that, two things you want to look for
first is you want to look for questions they've been asked
over and over again because you want to skip those or you want
to take them a step further. But you will notice that when
you're watching people's interviews, their questions
they'll get over and over again. The second is, I used to watch
interviews actually on other news shows and see where they
didn't ask a follow up, but they should have.
So if I'm watching something and I still have a question from
that interview they did, it would be even a really cool way
to show somebody that you did your research by saying I
actually heard you say this on another podcast, play the clip.
But I wanted to go a little step further.
What do you feel about this or has your thinking on this
changed? So really watching those
interviews, first would be something that I would do and
then second would be to write down your questions.
I would usually write down my questions like on the left hand
side of a sheet of paper, divide it in half, and on the other
side see how I can push it. So an example I give is what's
one thing all podcasters should be doing?
Like, fine question, but I'm not excited about it.
And a way to kind of push that would be what's something that
most podcasters aren't doing. What's 1 mistake that you see
people making all of the time? And not only is that a more
interesting question, that answer is kind of made for
social right because it's controversial.
It's saying kind of against the the grain.
So those are my like the two things that I start with.
But my big tip is that I don't like to come to over prepared
because I personally like, I hate interviews where you can
tell that the person had their list of questions but they're
not straying from it. It's like at the end of the
question there's this kind of awkward, like great, and then
you move on to the next one, like there's no follow up, no
back and forth type of thing. And those are usually a product
of being so prepared that you don't want to stray from that
prep. But sometimes the most magical
kind of moments in an interview happen when you stray from the
prep a little bit, when you when you like, ask a little bit of a
follow up, when you add a little bit more context to your
questions. So while prep is important, you
don't want to, like, go into a blind.
You also just want to make sure that you leave that room to have
a conversation. And you know, I also liked how
you called. You know, the conversation that
you may have with a guest before podcasting your green room, I
mean, because we both are in television, you know, we have an
understanding of the green room. But one of the podcast
conversations you had, the guests seem surprised, like why
a green room But a green room, guys, is typical because that's
where the anchors and the guests would really kind of meet before
they go on air. That's where the guest is
sitting before they are appearing on television.
So Kendall, why did you decide to start calling these
conversations before the podcast at Green Room Conversation?
Yeah, I It's fun to be talking with you about this because you
get it in this way of like before I.
So I was a producer at places like NBC and Bloomberg, and
there would just be this kind of special time where before the
guest comes on, they're sitting in the green room.
They'll usually have their staff with them and they're kind of on
their phones. And if you think about it, like,
that's not the vibe you want before you go on TV.
You want somebody that's talking, they're excited, You
don't want the first words they've really spoken in the
last 30 minutes to be live on your TV.
So what people would do, like myself, you go into the green
room and just say like, hey, what's going on?
You got everything you need. We're going to be talking today
about XY and Z. Like what are your thoughts on
that? And then they'll talk about it
and you'll go, Oh my gosh, can Can you believe?
Like I would usually come in with a news story because I was
doing news. Can you believe what so and so
said about this and that today? And then they'd get really
animated. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that
they said that or I actually think it's good strategy.
You just get them kind of talking.
And what I realized with podcasting is that people would
maybe sometimes do a pre interview and it would be a
little bit more informational. It's a we're going to be talking
about this and that please show up 15 minutes early and people
when they have that are a little bit more like buttoned up.
They're a little like when people come to go on a podcast,
they if it's for a professional setting the per the mode you're
going to get from them usually is a bit more professional.
But if you have what I call a green room conversation, you set
the tone so if you want it to be a little bit more playful you
can start speaking like that. And it's always just before the
interview, because it lets them. It guides them into that next
room, which is your interview room, or in the case of a green
room, your your live television set.
And guys, you know what, What Kendall is also saying is, is so
essential Because I've, you know, I've talked to people who
who don't really even hash out the conversation before air.
And it sounds it, you know, you're like, oh, that sounded
rough, you know, so in television, we would put
together packets, packets of information research and we
would essentially provide that to the anchor or the reporter.
And then we would also interview the guests that's coming in to
really get a better sense of what they may say.
So then you can also tell the anchors like they're really
passionate about this. They really are enjoying this
angle, but having that helps, right?
So when I put together this podcast, I sent Kendall a list.
Like here's some of the topics, Here's some of the points I
would love to get from you. Like 3 tips on this.
One tip on that, you know we're not sitting here ironing out how
it's going to flow. Like these are the questions
we're ironing out, like the direction we would like to take
the conversation. And Kendall responded saying, I
would love to go this direction, you know, and before we started
this conversation, we had our little green room chat, you
know, where we're talking right before.
So all these points are great. Kendall, I'm really glad you
could share them. The other thing I wanted to talk
about was just, you know, yes, it is important to have the the
guest prepared and the host prepared, but what we didn't
really iron out was the talking points that the guest should
come prepared with. So when you're on a podcast, how
do you prepare your talking points and what are talking
points? Yeah, so actually it's funny
because I still use this tip from news and my wife was
actually interviewed for local news recently and I passed her
tip the tip to her because it's just it really is.
It works every time. Especially if you're if you feel
a bit all over the place and you're a little bit nervous to
be live, I would recommend to guess and I do this for myself.
I write down sometimes a like a post it note on a post it note
like three to five bullet points.
And they're not complete sentences, they're just like
quick bullet points because when you're talking sometimes live,
you'll maybe go off on a little side tangent and then suddenly
you're like, where was I taking this right.
And So what I would recommend doing.
And then also besides that, you also don't want to kind of get
up from the chair and be like Oh my God, I totally forgot to talk
about this one point. So it's to keep you on track and
to make sure that all the points that you wanted to get across
come across. So if I were having one now,
maybe I'd have a post it note that says like importance of
green room conversation community management, why it's
important like those kinds of notes so that I can always bring
myself back. So keeping a post it note with
just three to five bullet points of what you want to say.
And of course you're going to say more.
But it's just for those moments that you're like, if I start
veering off topic, this is where I take it back to and it makes
you feel confident to come into something and feel like you have
a little bit of backup so you don't feel like you're kind of
going into it without without any of that.
So that's that's usually what I recommend and what I do myself.
And the other thing you can do is really iron out like your
thoughts by writing them out and thinking, OK, what questions
might they ask? Like I know the direction, What
questions might they ask and how might I answer them?
And when I answer them, how can I incorporate my messaging so
that I'm also getting my interests across during the
conversation without it feeling forced trying to figure out your
messaging and your pivoting right.
So if you do get a question that you're like really much to say
about that you can kind of pivot to something that you do feel
passionate about that's similar to what you're talking about.
You know it works. So trying to iron out your
pivots, your talking points are all great tips when you're
preparing for an interview when you are a guest on a podcast.
I also just quickly add that like I think to prep for who the
messaging is for. So one thing that I learned from
covering politics is that I'd watch the same speech.
I'm serious, like over and over and over again the same
candidate would give it. But this if a candidate was in
Alabama versus New York City versus Nevada, the way that they
deliver it, the the things that they expand on a bit more even
the way that they would kind of dress, I mean that's different
for podcasting, but thinking about who which podcasts are
going on and what their, who their audience is so that your
message you can make sure it connects with those people.
So like I would just add that on top of there.
Thanks, Kendall. That's really great advice about
messaging. I'm really glad you could join
us today, everyone. We're with Kendall Brightman,
the community manager for Riverside.
Guys, It's an online recording platform and editing platform,
guys. It's not just for podcasters,
it's also for content creators. I've been using Riverside and I
absolutely love it. I think it's a wonderful
platform. It's developing and there's so
many new features including this AI feature.
And just recently actually like 2 days ago, I was able to edit a
2 1/2 minute open and then add it to my Riverside so I could
play it out during a live. So these features that are being
added are really awesome. Kendall, why don't you tell us
where Riverside is at so everyone's aware?
Yeah. So as you said, like we're
recording editing kind of end to end content creation platform.
And what we're also trying to do, a big goal of ours is that
we understand that people who are creating content you want to
get from. Like we all love recording the
conversations and that's really like having these interviews.
But we want to get from record to publish as quickly but also
professionally as possible because when you try to do
things quickly, you can end up kind of losing a bit of the
quality. And with this, that's what's
something that we're really committed to.
So beyond getting these high quality video and audio tracks
at the end of it, we also are giving, as you mentioned, like
AI show notes and AI transcript clips of the most engaging parts
of your interview, kind of already put in this real format. 00:23:44,080 You can add captions to it.
You can change the layout to make it good for Instagram reels
or Tiktok or something like that.
And so that's really what we're focused on is making high
quality production more accessible to more people.
So you don't need these intense editors or things like that that
are that suddenly this, this becomes almost a blocker to you
telling your story. Instead, we're just really
focused on trying to create high quality that that makes your
life easier for creators. Yeah, I think it's great.
You know, sometimes the AI notes like they'll what you'll do is
you'll say, hey, you know, generate AI clips for social.
Sometimes they're on point, sometimes they're not, you know,
guys. So it's like it's still like AI,
it's still figuring it out. But what it's great is it at
least shows you what it feels is a great sound bite, you know?
So coming to it from a journalist perspective, I always
pick something different, but someone else may be like, this
is great. So it could be really an A great
resource to people who are looking for sound bites to put
on social. And then there's all these
captions that you can add onto your social interview clips,
which is great. So there's just so many
wonderful features and AI has come so long and I'm really glad
that we could at least talk about that.
You know where there any points that we didn't get to discuss
that you want to bring up before we wrap?
I think, I mean, I think that we covered it.
But yeah, I would just kind of to go off of the AI point that I
think that the even if you're able to, I found them from AI.
Of course, it's not always right, but in the way that I
think that sometimes even if it just picks up one thing, you're
like, Oh my gosh, there's so much that we have to do as
content creators. But even sometimes having that
one thing off of your plate, they're like great, I'll get a
clip out there today then that, yeah, it's been helpful for
that, for that way. But I even think I would
encourage people if you're already using Riverside that as
you were saying, there are other really great use cases for it to
let's make your life easier in other ways.
So for example, I record all of my meetings in Riverside and
then at the end of it, if somebody missed the meeting, I
just take the AI show notes and I just like copy and paste it.
Here's a summary of our meeting. There you go.
I'm able to, like, have a transcript of that in case I
kind of want to go back with a user call or something like
that. So incorporating it to make
other aspects of your content creation that aren't exactly the
interview that you're recording easier.
It's just it's it's a helpful way to make the entire process
just for seamless for you. Yeah, I I agree.
I love that there's a transcript and you can even edit by the
transcript, which is something that other AI editing platforms
offer. But now it's all here inclusive
at Riverside. So I just think it's a wonderful
platform. I rave about it.
If you go down into the description, you'll have a link
to Riverside if you want to sign up and get your get your podcast
going. I also offer tips on how to
transform your podcast idea into a show.
So if you're looking to develop a show reached out to me, having
a background in television really does help you skip a lot
of steps and get through the process really quickly.
I have a road map to help you, so reach out and you know before
we go, there's just one point that I really would love to get
your thoughts on. So many experts do want to
create content to put themselves out there.
What are your thoughts on podcasting as a way to try to
help them lean into the news and attract the media?
I definitely. I think that it's a really smart
way to do that. And I think that as somebody
again that's worked in news that we're looking for people like if
there is something going on in your industry, sometimes even
something that's not going on in your industry, if you're able to
connect it with yours to be able to have a sound bite out there
that has you commenting on it, it's great for Discovery.
So let's say that there's some news story and then you have
that, that you're able to kind of comment on if you're able to
get that out and put some hashtags on it or if you have a
podcast and it's that that keyword is in your description.
If you're able to pick up people that are searching for that
topic, maybe not for your content, but because they're
searching for that topic, they come across your content.
So I actually think to be able to have some news pivots in
there, in your podcast, in any of your content is smart because
those are the trending topics you know beyond kind of what's
trending on TikTok. If you're able to have some kind
of news plug in there, I would definitely recommend doing that,
because that's just another it's it's adding another way to get
discovered and that's not ever. That's not going to hurt you.
And that's that's really great to hear from you, especially
since you know, I'm out there regularly telling people like
you just need to be discoverable.
Like, you need to be putting yourself out there and showing
the value that you can offer so that a news agency wants to pick
you up. You know, if you're pitching and
you have nothing online, they're gonna be, can this person even
like be on TV? Like are they gonna hand, can
they handle the lights? Can they handle the on camera
conversation? So putting yourself out there in
my opinion helps. I mean, do you have any other
thoughts on this before we? Yeah.
I was just gonna see that like no, no press release that you
send or no like e-mail that you said and I would love to be on
your show is gonna be more powerful than actually having a
video of you discussing it and doing it in a dynamic way that
is fun and and interesting to watch.
So like, save the time right in the long release.
Because you and I both know that we're like in news.
You're getting a million of those.
But if you're if there is a video that pops out to somebody
that stands out to somebody that is super powerful for getting
your voice out there. And then I also just wanted to
kind of plug because I had forgotten to you that I, as I
said before, lead a community of podcasters.
And I know that this can kind of feel like a lonely path
sometimes because you're do a lot of people are recording
remotely if you're doing this on your own or you might not have
other people in your life that are that's doing this.
So there are communities out there.
Riverside's is Conversation Creators by Riverside on
Facebook. And it's just there are
thousands of creators and something that I love that's
different than journalism is that in creating space, everyone
is so willing to share what they're doing, how they're doing
it, what which platforms they're using.
Like enlist those communities to really help build you up,
because they want to and they're actually very good at it.
Yeah. And make sure you follow
Riverside on Instagram. You can also follow Kendall on
LinkedIn or Riverside on LinkedIn.
They both. There's great resources out
there guys and on Facebook as she said you know to join that
group. And guys if you're if you're out
there look for me because I'm also active in those groups
under Jamie under score, the producer or my new handle on Cam
Ready which matches this podcast.
And remember to go down to this the description for links to
learn more about Kendall Riverside and what we have to
offer here on Cam Ready. Thank you so much for being with
us and I'll see you online.