Recently, I was at a coffee house on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a good friend. We were catching up on life and it’s challenges. This was a local coffee house with art on the walls and old couches situated against those walls. After an hour or so of coffee and camaraderie, my friend and I got up leave and as we headed out the door she encountered a man she knew. After a quick intro, my friend, who has already read Tripio, said “You should have Jerry on your podcast.”
And that was it. He asked me to be a guest in a couple weeks. This was after I ran to my car to retrieve a copy of Tripio. As any good direct published author would do, I always travel with a copy of my book, just in case. This time it paid off.
I have tried numerous times over the past year to be guest on a podcast but to no avail. A podcast spot had taken a lower priority on the journey of Tripio. Is was still an aspiration, yet one that had yielded nothing positive so it was hard to keep trying. And now, without trying, I was to be on a podcast. “Damn. What the f*** do I do now?’
One thing I did do was read a post entitled ,”77 Pieces of Advice for Podcast Guests from Hosts” by Dan Moyle. That helped. Yet as the day neared, I questioned Tripio, my coffee acumen, my ability to match verb and subject to form a coherent sentence.
On the fateful day, I was told that I was the third guest, sitting behind two regular contributors. Everyone was friendly but I still felt like the odd man out. This only enhanced and further agitated the swarm of butterflies in my stomach. Once the first guest had completed her segment, I did something the old me would have never done: something.
I am shy and introverted. A fairly typical writer type. All good. But in order to get the world to notice Tripio, I have had to do things that I was new to and uncomfortable with. Lots of them. Maybe that is the real value in all this? Then,out of the blue, I recalled a favorite wisdom. This one from Elanor Roosevelt, “You must do the things in live you think you cannot do.” I feel that putting Tripio out for the world to read has caused some personal growth in myself. Faith? Belief? Maybe. Whatever it is, it got me off my chair. I walked over to the guest and her friend and made conversation. She was human. I began to feel more at ease. In a few moments, guest two was finishing and it was my turn. Now, after hearing myself speak for few moments and not be laughed at, I was ready.
I felt like I did well for my few minutes and will put the results up on the blog when I receive the edited Podcast. For now, I have four (not 77) tips from my experience that helped me. For fun, I’ve paired the steps with those needed to make a great cup of coffee.
1) Use the best coffee beans you can find = prepare, prepare and prepare more. Listen to a couple podcasts in advance. Review your book for new things to talk about. A lot may have happened in this world since it was published. It is helpful for the book to be topical and appear fresh. Don’t rely on old or dated beans.
2)Grind the beans for the coffee brewer= If you are using a French Press pot, grind the beans coarse. For a cone shaped filter, a finer grind is needed. Do not force your message or book if it isn’t’ the right fit. Don’t use the time given you to do an infomercial for the book. I able to work in Tripio several times during the podcast even though our actual topic was coffee culture as a whole.
3)Use hot, just-off boiling, water to extract maximum flavor when brewing=Let the host guide you. He or she will be able to fill in or pull back when needed. And don’t forget, the podcast may be further cleaned up before posting.
4)Enjoy the cup= Now that the coffee is done, share it with your host and listeners. Relax and tell stories. Tell fun and quirky stories about your book, how it came to be. As a writer. it is expected that you will have stories. I had done my research and was able to recall the story of Kaldi and his goats, who are given credit for “discovering” coffee, after the host unintentionally prompted me on topic.
There you are. I hope it helped. If not, try to brew another pot tomorrow morning…
” May I help who’ next”
