Creating a Podcast With the Help of a Strategic Partner with Carrie Allen Tipton

 

“Radio became a bridge to the larger world for me, especially regarding culture and arts.” -Carrie Allen Tipton Click To Tweet

Today’s Episode:

Carrie Allen Tipton is a writer, editor, lecturer, and academic with a PhD in Musicology, MM in Piano Performance and BME in Music Education. She also served as the Director of the Lecture Series for the Bach Society Houston and too many prestigious academic accomplishments to mention. She is also the host of the Notes on Bach Podcast. A podcast that shares scholarly information about Bach to the general public. 

We talk about how she got the idea to start her podcast. What shows she was influenced by and her love of radio. Carrie also shares the smart way that she created a proposal for the Bach Society of Houston, so they could form a strategic partnership and sponsor the show from the start. Without financial constraints, she was able to put the time in to produce the quality show she wanted to make. They even helped with promotion and creating a professional logo. 

“I love the idea of curating content that reaches people and engages people.” -Carrie Allen Tipton Click To Tweet

Show Notes

  • [03:20] Carrie was doing work for the Bach Society in Houston. She discovered that people enjoyed learning about Bach from scholars, but they had no place to find the information on their own. 
  • [04:19] As a music scholar, Carrie knew that there was a whole world of information about Bach that these enthusiasts weren’t being exposed to. 
  • [04:42] Carrie also discovered how the Ben Franklin’s World podcast connects people with scholars that write about the colonial period. Carrie thought this was so cool, and she knew that no one in the music world was doing something like this.
  • [05:17] She approached the Bach Society about sponsoring a podcast that would connect Bach fans with scholarly information. 
  • [06:01] She wanted a podcast about musicology. She also wanted the strength of an organization behind it. The Bach society provides funding, helps promote, and even generated a logo for the show. 
  • [08:34] Carrie has had a long standing relationship with radio. Radio allowed her to listen to classical music as a child.
  • [09:41] She always loved the mission of public radio, and she had the voice for it. 
  • [10:20] When Carrie discovered podcasting, she thought it was people taking radio into their own hands. She knew that was something that she wanted to do.
  • [10:42] She then thought it was worth writing a budget proposal for the Bach Society Houston. 
  • [10:57] Carrie writes a lot of articles for the general public about music, culture, history, religion, and the arts. She also does a lot of freelance editing and lecturing. 
  • [11:23] 80% of the work that Carrie does have a public facing component, so podcasting fit in beautifully with that.
  • [13:01] Carrie releases episodes according to the academic calendar or artistic year from August to May. 
  • [15:01] Nonprofits are always looking for new ways to meet a new audience. A podcast was not a big stretch for the Back Society.
  • [16:36] To educate a potential partner, give them a link to a similar show. For Carrie that was Ben Franklin’s World. 
  • [17:23] Emphasize how your expertise could be showcased in a podcast and emphasize your background and show communication experience. 
  • [19:12] Carrie shares success defining moments like when the Oxford University Press tweeted out a link to her show. Some others have embedded her podcast on their websites. Seeing her numbers grow also represents success.
  • [23:41] To prepare for her show, Carrie will read the book three months in advance. She has an elaborate note taking process. Most of the books on the show are argument driven. She scrutinizes the argument and the evidence. After spending two or three weeks reading the book, she puts it away. She then pulls out her notes and hashes out an interview outline. She gives the guest the outline two weeks before the show. She also asks for feedback. 
  • [26:23] She needs to improve technology preparation with the guests. 
  • [30:35] Make sure the guest has USB headphones and a quiet room. Don’t overwhelm them. 
  • [31:41] Carrie uses Trello for keeping organized with her podcast.
  • [35:19] Carrie learned that ideas and thinking are important from her parents. Her dad said that it’s good to be a thinker.
  • [36:15] Carrie reads self-help, mysteries, and everything in between. She’s currently reading Virgil Wander. 
  • [37:42] Her radio songs are late 90s country. 
  • [38:47] She likes Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast and the BBC’s In Our Time. 
  • [40:31] Takeaways from Darrell: She partnered with Bach Society Houston from day one. Carrie was intentional about finding that partner. She presented a strategic vision. Show how you are a content expert, show communication background, and share similar examples.
“When I found out about podcasting, I thought oh that’s really cool. You’re basically unilaterally becoming your own radio station. How cool is that? Someday, I want to do that.” -Carrie Allen Tipton Click To Tweet

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