For Headliner Highlight 9, we hear from Carleena Angwin of The Carleena Show podcast.
Tell us about your podcast.
My Podcast is The Carleena Show, where ordinary people share their hero’s journey. I interview people from all over the world who have overcome some sort of adversity and are trying to do something positive or inspiring now.
Why did you start podcasting?
It really began at a narcotics anonymous meeting that I attended with someone who had just been clean for a couple weeks. I remember sitting at that meeting with him, and hearing all of the stories from other people who have been in that program for as little as as a week, to as long as decades. The stories that they told really resonated with with me because of the power of those stories and how hearing those stories can help someone like my friend, who I was sitting next to, who can say, “You know, maybe that can be me next year, or in five years.” I also noticed the power of the people sharing those stories. So, they got up in front of the room and say, “You know, this is where I was, this is where I am now.” And there’s something powerful about being able to share your story and to help other people.
What do you do to share & promote your episodes?
I share and promote my episodes on social media. I have all of the different social media accounts, and the ones that work best for me are Instagram and occasionally Facebook groups, and my personal Facebook profile. I haven’t had much success on the Facebook page. I think that’s because Facebook really wants you to promote or boost your posts and pay for that. So I don’t think they freely share your posts in their their new algorithms.
What has been most effective? Least effective?
I try to be strategic in the Facebook groups where I share posts. So, for example, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 2000s, and I recently interviewed someone who is heading off to Peace Corps Paraguay. So, I posted that episode in a Peace Corps Facebook group and just introduced myself and said, “Hey, I’m a returned Peace Corps volunteer, I have a podcast and I interviewed someone heading off to the Peace Corps.” And that post caught the attention of someone who works in Peace Corps administration and they contacted me and said, “Hey would you be willing to write an article about your podcast and we’ll put it in the newsletter so that it’ll have exposure to so many returned Peace Corps volunteers.”
And also from that group, I met another returned Peace Corps volunteer who has a podcast, and she invited me to come on her podcast and talk. So, that’s another way of promoting my podcast, just by talking about it on another podcast, or writing an article that goes in a newsletter or on a website. The least effective way of promoting my podcast has, like I said, has been on on the podcast Facebook page. So, I post something there and it usually gets a handful of views, but not too many. So, I still post there but I don’t use that as my main source of traffic for the podcast.
Why do you make Headliners?
Well, I just learned about Headliner a couple of weeks ago. And I follow other podcasts on social media, just to see what they’re doing. So, I follow some of the big podcasts, like Joe Rogan and Sam Harris, and This American Life and a couple others, so I kind of keep an eye on what they do and I’ve noticed that they’ve used a lot of these short video clips, or I guess audio clips. I wasn’t sure quite sure how to make those, but, in one of the Facebook support groups that I’m a part of, someone posted the Headliner website. I went and just kinda played around with it and I found it to be really easy. I started making just a couple practice ones to see what it would look like and, within an hour or so, I had a couple clips that I ended up sharing on Instagram and were quite popular.
Current podcasting setup?
- Remote Interviews: Skype w/ecamm Call recorder, $20 earbuds with a mic to record.
- In-Person Interviews: 2 Lav mics direct to the computer with QuickTime
What is something you think is overrated or underrated in podcasting?
Overrated: All the equipment that some people think is necessary to record an episode.
Underrated: The amount of prep time that should go into each episode. I choose a lot of time choosing my guests, talking to them before we record the episode, and doing research on them and the topic we are going to be discussing.
If someone was to only listen to one episode of yours, which one would you send?
Tom Bodkin: “People in Recovery Are Valiant Warriors.”
