April 8, 2025 • 22 mins
Paul talks about one year of Forrest.Chat podcasting, what it takes, what it means and how you do it.
My favourite quote of the episode is "There's a balance between the skills and experience that the person has and what they do and often what they've done in the past and the skills they've learned make it easier for them to, to do something. And knowing that you actually have a particular set of skills that you have built up and experiences that you've had that allows you to get on and and do the things that you do as well. And if that gets lost, or missed, in somebody's formation of their thinking, then they'll think that they can't do anything, they're not good enough, or whatever. But all it really means is that they need to find something that will harness what they are able to do and they'll be able to get on and do it. And it'll be far easier for them than than they expect."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to Forrest.Chat.
I'm your guest host, Caroline van der Mey.
I've taken over from Paul tocelebrate his year of doing podcasts.
Forrest.Chat is where we talkabout individual endeavor in
West Australia, what it takes,what it means, and how to do it.
In today's episode, we will be talkingto Paul van der Mey about his role as
(00:27):
the podcast host and what it means to himand his family, and community at large.
Paul started his podcast a year ago andhas now released 57 unique episodes.
Paul's interviewed individualsshowing a range of achievements.
Paul chose to do an interview typepodcast, meaning each interview
(00:48):
and each podcast brings a newtopic to His audience, as well
as in most cases, someone new.
He's interviewing.
Welcome to Forrest.Chat Paul.
Thank
you, Caroline.
I'm, uh, very happy to be here.
Thank you for filling inas a guest host as well.
Oh, it's great fun.
I love interviewing you, and I like, Idon't mind being in the interviewee seat.
(01:10):
Because often I'm on the other sideas well, so it makes a change for me.
So, Paul, can you tell me moreabout producing a podcast?
So Forrest.Chat, we launched on the3rd of April last year, not, uh, 2024.
And we had four episodes at that point.
And with the episode that went outlast week, we've completed one year.
(01:31):
Wow, that's so exciting, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's amazing how quickly it's, come along.
It's taken a whole year,but it's gone so quickly.
So in that time, we got up 57 episodes.
And that includes the podcasttrailer, the Christmas episode,
and the New Year episode, which arethe three, non-interview episodes
(01:53):
Okay.
That's awesome.
And it must be so fascinatingfor you seeing how it's
all grown during that time.
It's pretty amazing.
We've had guests comeon and talk about sport.
about education, about work, about travel,about the community, and about arts.
It's been amazing to see thatbreadth of topics come onto the show.
(02:18):
And each of those guests has broughtalong a different perspective on what
they've been doing or a differentperspective on those topics.
So I've had people thathave been doing things.
We've had people that have been leadingthings, they've been organizing things,
they've been advocating, they've beenmotivating other people and they've been
(02:39):
achieving goals themselves, which, uh,and even with all of that, we're still
only barely scratch the surface of whatpeople are actually out there doing.
So I'm looking forward to more,
it must be very motivatinglistening to these people.
It is definitely.
You get a good sense of what some things.
(03:00):
Take to do.
And there and there really isn't that bigof a leap to go, oh, I could do that too.
excellent.
Sorry.
Except, except maybe thosecouple of world records.
Well, this is true.
This is true.
it's quite interesting the wide varietyof topics you've had, which also makes
(03:23):
it very interesting for your listenersas well because really each week
is something completely different.
So it's not like you're doing just sport.
You're bringing all in all these uniquetopics that some people may be, have
never heard about, but like I knowGeocaching was something quite out of
my realm before your interview on it,
Yeah, I really wanted to includea really wide range of things that
(03:47):
people do because a part of the reasonfor the podcast is to actually help
people understand that there is a lotof different things that you can do.
So yes, having all of thosedifferent, topics tied together by
the series of questions that, thatare effectively the same each time.
You know that first questionabout what are we talking about?
(04:09):
The next question about what does it take?
And that's about personal characteristics.
That's what I'm aiming to explore there.
And what does it mean?
Gotta have a purpose in your lifeand what you do hopefully contributes
to your purpose and how you do it.
So if someone wanted to followyou, how would that look?
And sometimes I've added in the,the question of what's next?
(04:33):
Mm-hmm.
You know, when you've done a hundredraced marathons, for example.
What do you do next?
101. You do 101 or do you do a differentdistance or, but the, it is a worthy
question to add on to some podcasts.
Well, for some guests,but not for every guest.
Mm-hmm.
Because.
(04:53):
When you are making cakes, for example,what's next is probably making a cake.
This is true.
So it must have also been quiteenlightening for some of the
interviews you've done seeinganother side of people as well,
that you maybe didn't know before.
What I really found was that I hadpreconceived ideas about a lot of the
(05:14):
different topics and my guests answeredin ways that I totally didn't expect.
And that was pretty amazing.
I really enjoyed that.
It, it really opened up my eyes to seeingthings from a, a different perspective.
And hopefully some of your listenersgot a different perspective on some
of the things that they might have notexpected to go in that direction as well.
(05:37):
That's right.
And there's a bit of an, a surprisehappening each week for my listeners
because they don't know until the.
Episode comes out, just whatthey're gonna have to listen to
and isn't that great, you know?
So I think that's reallyquite fascinating.
So Paul, what does ittake to be a podcast host?
(05:58):
Well, it takes Caroline,she's my biggest supporter.
It really wouldn't happen withoutCaroline, but it also takes the guests
and there's no show without a guest like.
Hmm.
Really it does need tobe an interview episode.
In order to get the breadth ofthings that you want to cover, you
(06:18):
want to share with people as well.
every guest brings along, somethingnew and different to the podcast.
Even if we are talking about thesame thing, even then, people bring
different things to the table,which I. I really appreciate.
That's really good.
And it just shows that it takes alot of variety to make the world go
(06:42):
around, so I'm very happy with that.
It also takes people spreading the word.
I've had some people that havebeen very good at thinking about
who might make a good guest andputting me in contact with them.
You've done that yourself a number oftimes, but there are other people as
well Have thought about people that theyknow and thought about the stories that
(07:05):
they, or the things that they do thatwould be worth sharing with some people.
And I had someone mention when Ispoke to them about the podcast just
the other day, and they said, oh, youcould talk to somebody doing this.
And they knew who that was.
But they also said, but they'reunlikely to jump onto an episode.
(07:27):
So I really do appreciate the peoplewho do jump on and, and become guests.
They are very much appreciated.
So it definitely takes having a guestand it takes people spreading the word.
And every time we have a conversationwith somebody, in the back of my
mind there's always the questionabout is there potential that this
(07:48):
person is a guest for the podcast?
So thinking about all the time, whomight make a, a good guest and a good
guest isn't necessarily the personwho's the most talkative or the loudest.
Because everybody, everybodyhas the ability to be a guest
within them, and they have aninteresting story and perspective.
(08:12):
The main thing is that they're outthere doing something and if somebody
else might be interested in doing thatsomething, then they've definitely
got enough to be a guest and somepeople a little bit concerned about
the conversation, but it really is.
Just having a conversationtalking about what you do.
(08:33):
And yeah, they're, the, the main thingsthat I, I see is around what it takes.
I find it quite fascinating talkingto people, and people are often quite
humble about what they've achieved.
I. And don't realize how their storycan actually inspire other people.
And that's one of the things Ilike about your podcast is yes,
(08:53):
I'm maybe a little bit biased.
However, I do think that tellingpeople about successes and what they
do and how they go about it is veryinspiring for other people to hear that.
And.
For them to acknowledge, wow,maybe I could do that too.
Or I'd like to take the first step onthat journey and investigate it more
because I've now been exposed and seensomeone who is a person just like me,
(09:18):
or you know, in a similar situation tome, go and achieve something wonderful.
Yes, it is.
And that's the question I ask about,meaning like everybody is doing something,
they do it for themselves normally.
In, in most cases.
In some cases people are doing it fortheir children or, or whatever, but
(09:40):
in most cases it, it's for themselves.
So they get something out of it.
They appreciate what it helps 'em achieve.
it helps 'em appreciate whatthey get out of it, and they
don't always, acknowledge the.
Positive impacts that they have on otherpeople and the inspirational effect that
(10:02):
they have on other people particularly.
So we've talked about what ittakes and after the break it will
be good to look at the difference.
Being a podcast host makes
you have interviewed awide range of people.
Where does the inspiration come from?
(10:22):
I think the inspiration comes from thestories people share along the way.
I set out to do something good withthe podcast and that was to let people
know that people can do things andpeople are doing things all the time.
Like I said earlier, we.
Only just scratch the surface andmost of the things people are doing
(10:43):
are, are not actually as hard as otherpeople might think that they are.
There's a balance between the skills andexperience that the person has and what
they do and often what they've done in thepast and the skills they've learned make
it easier for them to, to do something.
(11:03):
And knowing that you actually have aparticular set of skills that you have
built up and experiences that you'vehad that allows you to get on and and
do the things that you do as well.
And if that gets lost ormissed in somebody's formation
of their thinking, then.
(11:23):
they'll think that they can't do anything,they're not good enough or whatever.
But all it really means is that they needto find something that will harness what
they are able to do and they'll be ableto get on and do it, and it'll be far
easier for them than, than they expect.
And yes, hearing other people gettingthrough that can then inspire people who.
(11:49):
Uh, struggling or haven't thought abouthow they might get through something.
It, it is inspirational for sure to, forthose people especially to, to hear that.
So Paul, what does being a podcaster meanto you, your family or the community?
What means that I can do somethinggood in society to me, It also
(12:11):
pushes me outside my envelope.
It makes me stretch to meet people andtalk to people about the things that
they do, which helps to build a, abetter connection with those people.
It stretches my technical skills sometimeswith getting recordings done and getting
editing done and those sorts of things,and it also helps with my public speaking.
(12:36):
And I've not really had a lot ofpractice with public speaking.
I need to do more, and this has helpeda, a lot in getting me along that way to,
to being better in my public speaking.
I'm speaking with many of you ums and ahs.
I know that I can hearit when I go editing.
what does Forrest chatmean to your guests?
(12:57):
That's a very interesting question.
A lot of my guests come up tothe podcast, uh, quite quickly,
and they don't always appreciatereally what the podcast is about.
Some of my guests have notlistened to the podcast even
before they became guests, which.
isn't an issue because they were doingwhat they're, what they're doing.
(13:21):
So they may not realize at that pointjust how much good the podcast does
and that their actual contributionas, as a guest is a gift to people.
every guest makes a a positivecontribution and every guest will.
Have somebody that listens to theirepisode and that listener will then think
(13:47):
about how that applies in their life andthey'll go out and do something with it.
But my guest and my and myself probablywill never ever know that that's happened.
So while my guest has provideda a gift, they never know if
it's been taken up by any.
Listener or even many listeners.
(14:08):
So it really is a, a, a gift freelygiven and I think that's a very
important thing for my guests to knowthat there will be somebody who listens
to their episode and gets much moreout of it than anyone ever expected.
So I think that's a very positive thing.
(14:28):
Is a bit, and they may never, never knowthat it's happened, but that doesn't in
any way, shape or fi or form diminishthe positive impact that they've had.
It's a bit like therandom act of kindness.
You know, you do something forsomeone and because you've been
kind to them, they do something forsomeone else and it's all flows on.
So very much along that
(14:49):
line.
Yes.
Yes, definitely.
We've heard about what it means.
We're now going to take a break, andwhen we come back, we're going to
talk about how you become a podcaster.
So Paul, if someone's listeningto this and they think, oh.
(15:10):
Paul's inspired me to be a podcaster.
How do they go about it?
Podcasting as a sport is pretty easy
compared to running ahundred marathons, right?
Yeah, I think so.
The, the first thing you wannado with a podcast is to work
out what you've got to say and.
(15:33):
For me, I've got a very particular wayabout how I go about doing my podcast.
That might be very differentfor somebody who is doing a
podcast where only they on the show.
So you might have just a monologueabout something that you are very
interested in, and you might approachit from all different angles each time
(15:56):
you approach it from a different angle.
Or you might have a podcast where youare sharing guest duties or just talking
with another person, but the same personall the time, and you have a conversation
rather than asking questions or.
sharing a monologue.
So that's a another way.
(16:17):
And I happen to have chosen an interviewstyle podcast where every time you
have, I have a different guest.
So we've talked about why that's a, a,a good thing, but finding those guests
is a case of reaching out on a regularbasis and then reaching out again.
And reaching out again.
(16:38):
Because there's a lotof guests that you need.
When you're on a weekly schedule,it adds up and you do need to
identify those people that couldmake good guests and invite them.
So I run a spreadsheet because that'swhat you do, because I need to have
(16:59):
an understanding of where each.
guest is between, okay.
They're on a list of peoplewho are potential guests.
Um, I think they'll be interesting totalk about on a topic to the people
you've invited and you're waiting onresponses or they've responded and you're
waiting to do an interview or you'veinterviewed them and you have to edit.
(17:23):
And you've edited and you've got thephoto and you've gotta prepare everything
for publication, get approvals.
So you need to know where you are.
So it's handy to have, and mineis literally a, a spreadsheet, you
know, a row for each person and awhole list of things across the top.
And you give 'em a tickerview as you finish them off.
(17:46):
So that's how I do thatpractical part of things.
And.
When the idea of a guest comes up,then I put that, put that person on
the list, and then run through the listas many things as need to be done for
that person to get their episode up.
And within each episode, I have apretty consistent flow of the episode.
(18:09):
The durations of the episodes change,but The flow, the introduction, the
questions, they all flow in orderand that's the same each time.
So it's a pattern.
you might think about doing thator not having a pattern or having
a, a very time structured pattern.
You can do that as well.
So what I do on the way through,having done a year of it and
(18:34):
what has a year taught me.
A year has taught me that I need to,to look at how much time I spend on
each step, and I have done that andconsidered how I can do that step
faster, better, simpler, and I'vemade those changes on the way through.
You'll probably notice a bitof a difference in the style
of editing between the earlierepisodes and the later episodes.
(18:59):
hopefully you'll find thema little bit more relaxed.
With the later episodes and a bitmore fluent and coherent that happens
as you, you practice and improve.
Mm-hmm.
For
sure.
So, so you do want to actually make surethat you do that on the way through.
So Paul, can I just ask, howmuch of a barrier do you think
it is people's fear of talking.
(19:20):
in front of people.
I know they're not talking in front ofpeople, but you know, public speaking
is a big thing for people and the nunumber one fear for a lot of people.
Do you think that influences someof the people you ask to come along?
I'm sure it has.
There's some people who don'twant to be interviewed because
(19:40):
they're just more private people,they don't want to share and.
The people who have come on haveactually found it far easier to
be a guest than they expected.
I've had a number of guestsgo, oh, that was easy.
And almost like, oh, well you finished.
So that's been, uh, good that I'm a, areasonably comfortable person to talk to.
(20:04):
That's been good.
Yeah.
So that has.
An effect for sure on whether ornot people are initially going
to agree to become a a guest.
Once they agree to become aguest, they usually find that it's
far simpler than they expected.
'cause it's really like havinga conversation with you.
At the end of the day, ratherthan, you know, the whole public.
(20:27):
Speaking of, I can see theaudience and they've goal's got
their eyes staring up at me.
That's why I'm doing audio, audio only.
Absolutely.
And yeah, you just have aconversation around specific
questions and you speak one at a time.
That's pretty much the, key difference.
You try not to speak overeach other too often.
So thank you, Paul.
(20:47):
Being a podcaster, especially having aweekly schedule can be quite a demanding
schedule and I think, you've added to itby wanting a different guest each week.
So well done to you.
And congratulations on a year ofpodcasting, and I'm sure many people
have been inspired by the stories andyou probably, and the guests probably
never know how many of them havebeen influenced by what you've told.
(21:10):
Thank you for sharing yourexperience of being a podcaster.
Paul, I'm from a Forrest.Chat listeners,we wish you all the best in your future
endeavors and for the future podcasts.
Thank you very much, Caroline.
I appreciate it.
You've been listening to Forrest.Chatwhere we talk about individual endeavor
in West Australia, what it takes,what it means, and how you can do it.
I'm your host, Caroline van der Mey,and today's episode we talk to Paul
(21:33):
van der Mey about being a podcaster.
Remember, there are four ways youcan get involved with Forrest.Chat.
Share the domain Forrest.Chat withyour friends and family, and people
that you meet, and people you know.
Listen to the published episodesat Forrest.Chat slash episodes.
Book an interview atForrest.Chat slash interview.
(21:53):
Remember, you've got a story to tell too.
Come and share it and inspireothers and book an advert at
Forrest.Chat slash advert.
I'm looking forward to joiningyou with our next interview, and
maybe it'll be Paul next time.
Until next time, enjoy making it happen.
Thank you from Forrest.Chat.
Welcome to Forrest.Chat.
I'm your guest host, Caroline van der Mey.
I've taken over from Paul tocelebrate his year of doing podcasts.
Forrest.Chat is where we talkabout individual endeavor in
West Australia, what it takes,what it means, and how to do it.
In today's episode, we will be talkingto Paul van der Mey about his role as
(00:27):
the podcast host and what it means to himand his family, and community at large.
Paul started his podcast a year ago andhas now released 57 unique episodes.
Paul's interviewed individualsshowing a range of achievements.
Paul chose to do an interview typepodcast, meaning each interview
(00:48):
and each podcast brings a newtopic to His audience, as well
as in most cases, someone new.
He's interviewing.
Welcome to Forrest.Chat Paul.
Thank
you, Caroline.
I'm, uh, very happy to be here.
Thank you for filling inas a guest host as well.
Oh, it's great fun.
I love interviewing you, and I like, Idon't mind being in the interviewee seat.
(01:10):
Because often I'm on the other sideas well, so it makes a change for me.
So, Paul, can you tell me moreabout producing a podcast?
So Forrest.Chat, we launched on the3rd of April last year, not, uh, 2024.
And we had four episodes at that point.
And with the episode that went outlast week, we've completed one year.
(01:31):
Wow, that's so exciting, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's amazing how quickly it's, come along.
It's taken a whole year,but it's gone so quickly.
So in that time, we got up 57 episodes.
And that includes the podcasttrailer, the Christmas episode,
and the New Year episode, which arethe three, non-interview episodes
(01:53):
Okay.
That's awesome.
And it must be so fascinatingfor you seeing how it's
all grown during that time.
It's pretty amazing.
We've had guests comeon and talk about sport.
about education, about work, about travel,about the community, and about arts.
It's been amazing to see thatbreadth of topics come onto the show.
(02:18):
And each of those guests has broughtalong a different perspective on what
they've been doing or a differentperspective on those topics.
So I've had people thathave been doing things.
We've had people that have been leadingthings, they've been organizing things,
they've been advocating, they've beenmotivating other people and they've been
(02:39):
achieving goals themselves, which, uh,and even with all of that, we're still
only barely scratch the surface of whatpeople are actually out there doing.
So I'm looking forward to more,
it must be very motivatinglistening to these people.
It is definitely.
You get a good sense of what some things.
(03:00):
Take to do.
And there and there really isn't that bigof a leap to go, oh, I could do that too.
excellent.
Sorry.
Except, except maybe thosecouple of world records.
Well, this is true.
This is true.
it's quite interesting the wide varietyof topics you've had, which also makes
(03:23):
it very interesting for your listenersas well because really each week
is something completely different.
So it's not like you're doing just sport.
You're bringing all in all these uniquetopics that some people may be, have
never heard about, but like I knowGeocaching was something quite out of
my realm before your interview on it,
Yeah, I really wanted to includea really wide range of things that
(03:47):
people do because a part of the reasonfor the podcast is to actually help
people understand that there is a lotof different things that you can do.
So yes, having all of thosedifferent, topics tied together by
the series of questions that, thatare effectively the same each time.
You know that first questionabout what are we talking about?
(04:09):
The next question about what does it take?
And that's about personal characteristics.
That's what I'm aiming to explore there.
And what does it mean?
Gotta have a purpose in your lifeand what you do hopefully contributes
to your purpose and how you do it.
So if someone wanted to followyou, how would that look?
And sometimes I've added in the,the question of what's next?
(04:33):
Mm-hmm.
You know, when you've done a hundredraced marathons, for example.
What do you do next?
101. You do 101 or do you do a differentdistance or, but the, it is a worthy
question to add on to some podcasts.
Well, for some guests,but not for every guest.
Mm-hmm.
Because.
(04:53):
When you are making cakes, for example,what's next is probably making a cake.
This is true.
So it must have also been quiteenlightening for some of the
interviews you've done seeinganother side of people as well,
that you maybe didn't know before.
What I really found was that I hadpreconceived ideas about a lot of the
(05:14):
different topics and my guests answeredin ways that I totally didn't expect.
And that was pretty amazing.
I really enjoyed that.
It, it really opened up my eyes to seeingthings from a, a different perspective.
And hopefully some of your listenersgot a different perspective on some
of the things that they might have notexpected to go in that direction as well.
(05:37):
That's right.
And there's a bit of an, a surprisehappening each week for my listeners
because they don't know until the.
Episode comes out, just whatthey're gonna have to listen to
and isn't that great, you know?
So I think that's reallyquite fascinating.
So Paul, what does ittake to be a podcast host?
(05:58):
Well, it takes Caroline,she's my biggest supporter.
It really wouldn't happen withoutCaroline, but it also takes the guests
and there's no show without a guest like.
Hmm.
Really it does need tobe an interview episode.
In order to get the breadth ofthings that you want to cover, you
(06:18):
want to share with people as well.
every guest brings along, somethingnew and different to the podcast.
Even if we are talking about thesame thing, even then, people bring
different things to the table,which I. I really appreciate.
That's really good.
And it just shows that it takes alot of variety to make the world go
(06:42):
around, so I'm very happy with that.
It also takes people spreading the word.
I've had some people that havebeen very good at thinking about
who might make a good guest andputting me in contact with them.
You've done that yourself a number oftimes, but there are other people as
well Have thought about people that theyknow and thought about the stories that
(07:05):
they, or the things that they do thatwould be worth sharing with some people.
And I had someone mention when Ispoke to them about the podcast just
the other day, and they said, oh, youcould talk to somebody doing this.
And they knew who that was.
But they also said, but they'reunlikely to jump onto an episode.
(07:27):
So I really do appreciate the peoplewho do jump on and, and become guests.
They are very much appreciated.
So it definitely takes having a guestand it takes people spreading the word.
And every time we have a conversationwith somebody, in the back of my
mind there's always the questionabout is there potential that this
(07:48):
person is a guest for the podcast?
So thinking about all the time, whomight make a, a good guest and a good
guest isn't necessarily the personwho's the most talkative or the loudest.
Because everybody, everybodyhas the ability to be a guest
within them, and they have aninteresting story and perspective.
(08:12):
The main thing is that they're outthere doing something and if somebody
else might be interested in doing thatsomething, then they've definitely
got enough to be a guest and somepeople a little bit concerned about
the conversation, but it really is.
Just having a conversationtalking about what you do.
(08:33):
And yeah, they're, the, the main thingsthat I, I see is around what it takes.
I find it quite fascinating talkingto people, and people are often quite
humble about what they've achieved.
I. And don't realize how their storycan actually inspire other people.
And that's one of the things Ilike about your podcast is yes,
(08:53):
I'm maybe a little bit biased.
However, I do think that tellingpeople about successes and what they
do and how they go about it is veryinspiring for other people to hear that.
And.
For them to acknowledge, wow,maybe I could do that too.
Or I'd like to take the first step onthat journey and investigate it more
because I've now been exposed and seensomeone who is a person just like me,
(09:18):
or you know, in a similar situation tome, go and achieve something wonderful.
Yes, it is.
And that's the question I ask about,meaning like everybody is doing something,
they do it for themselves normally.
In, in most cases.
In some cases people are doing it fortheir children or, or whatever, but
(09:40):
in most cases it, it's for themselves.
So they get something out of it.
They appreciate what it helps 'em achieve.
it helps 'em appreciate whatthey get out of it, and they
don't always, acknowledge the.
Positive impacts that they have on otherpeople and the inspirational effect that
(10:02):
they have on other people particularly.
So we've talked about what ittakes and after the break it will
be good to look at the difference.
Being a podcast host makes
you have interviewed awide range of people.
Where does the inspiration come from?
(10:22):
I think the inspiration comes from thestories people share along the way.
I set out to do something good withthe podcast and that was to let people
know that people can do things andpeople are doing things all the time.
Like I said earlier, we.
Only just scratch the surface andmost of the things people are doing
(10:43):
are, are not actually as hard as otherpeople might think that they are.
There's a balance between the skills andexperience that the person has and what
they do and often what they've done in thepast and the skills they've learned make
it easier for them to, to do something.
(11:03):
And knowing that you actually have aparticular set of skills that you have
built up and experiences that you'vehad that allows you to get on and and
do the things that you do as well.
And if that gets lost ormissed in somebody's formation
of their thinking, then.
(11:23):
they'll think that they can't do anything,they're not good enough or whatever.
But all it really means is that they needto find something that will harness what
they are able to do and they'll be ableto get on and do it, and it'll be far
easier for them than, than they expect.
And yes, hearing other people gettingthrough that can then inspire people who.
(11:49):
Uh, struggling or haven't thought abouthow they might get through something.
It, it is inspirational for sure to, forthose people especially to, to hear that.
So Paul, what does being a podcaster meanto you, your family or the community?
What means that I can do somethinggood in society to me, It also
(12:11):
pushes me outside my envelope.
It makes me stretch to meet people andtalk to people about the things that
they do, which helps to build a, abetter connection with those people.
It stretches my technical skills sometimeswith getting recordings done and getting
editing done and those sorts of things,and it also helps with my public speaking.
(12:36):
And I've not really had a lot ofpractice with public speaking.
I need to do more, and this has helpeda, a lot in getting me along that way to,
to being better in my public speaking.
I'm speaking with many of you ums and ahs.
I know that I can hearit when I go editing.
what does Forrest chatmean to your guests?
(12:57):
That's a very interesting question.
A lot of my guests come up tothe podcast, uh, quite quickly,
and they don't always appreciatereally what the podcast is about.
Some of my guests have notlistened to the podcast even
before they became guests, which.
isn't an issue because they were doingwhat they're, what they're doing.
(13:21):
So they may not realize at that pointjust how much good the podcast does
and that their actual contributionas, as a guest is a gift to people.
every guest makes a a positivecontribution and every guest will.
Have somebody that listens to theirepisode and that listener will then think
(13:47):
about how that applies in their life andthey'll go out and do something with it.
But my guest and my and myself probablywill never ever know that that's happened.
So while my guest has provideda a gift, they never know if
it's been taken up by any.
Listener or even many listeners.
(14:08):
So it really is a, a, a gift freelygiven and I think that's a very
important thing for my guests to knowthat there will be somebody who listens
to their episode and gets much moreout of it than anyone ever expected.
So I think that's a very positive thing.
(14:28):
Is a bit, and they may never, never knowthat it's happened, but that doesn't in
any way, shape or fi or form diminishthe positive impact that they've had.
It's a bit like therandom act of kindness.
You know, you do something forsomeone and because you've been
kind to them, they do something forsomeone else and it's all flows on.
So very much along that
(14:49):
line.
Yes.
Yes, definitely.
We've heard about what it means.
We're now going to take a break, andwhen we come back, we're going to
talk about how you become a podcaster.
So Paul, if someone's listeningto this and they think, oh.
(15:10):
Paul's inspired me to be a podcaster.
How do they go about it?
Podcasting as a sport is pretty easy
compared to running ahundred marathons, right?
Yeah, I think so.
The, the first thing you wannado with a podcast is to work
out what you've got to say and.
(15:33):
For me, I've got a very particular wayabout how I go about doing my podcast.
That might be very differentfor somebody who is doing a
podcast where only they on the show.
So you might have just a monologueabout something that you are very
interested in, and you might approachit from all different angles each time
(15:56):
you approach it from a different angle.
Or you might have a podcast where youare sharing guest duties or just talking
with another person, but the same personall the time, and you have a conversation
rather than asking questions or.
sharing a monologue.
So that's a another way.
(16:17):
And I happen to have chosen an interviewstyle podcast where every time you
have, I have a different guest.
So we've talked about why that's a, a,a good thing, but finding those guests
is a case of reaching out on a regularbasis and then reaching out again.
And reaching out again.
(16:38):
Because there's a lotof guests that you need.
When you're on a weekly schedule,it adds up and you do need to
identify those people that couldmake good guests and invite them.
So I run a spreadsheet because that'swhat you do, because I need to have
(16:59):
an understanding of where each.
guest is between, okay.
They're on a list of peoplewho are potential guests.
Um, I think they'll be interesting totalk about on a topic to the people
you've invited and you're waiting onresponses or they've responded and you're
waiting to do an interview or you'veinterviewed them and you have to edit.
(17:23):
And you've edited and you've got thephoto and you've gotta prepare everything
for publication, get approvals.
So you need to know where you are.
So it's handy to have, and mineis literally a, a spreadsheet, you
know, a row for each person and awhole list of things across the top.
And you give 'em a tickerview as you finish them off.
(17:46):
So that's how I do thatpractical part of things.
And.
When the idea of a guest comes up,then I put that, put that person on
the list, and then run through the listas many things as need to be done for
that person to get their episode up.
And within each episode, I have apretty consistent flow of the episode.
(18:09):
The durations of the episodes change,but The flow, the introduction, the
questions, they all flow in orderand that's the same each time.
So it's a pattern.
you might think about doing thator not having a pattern or having
a, a very time structured pattern.
You can do that as well.
So what I do on the way through,having done a year of it and
(18:34):
what has a year taught me.
A year has taught me that I need to,to look at how much time I spend on
each step, and I have done that andconsidered how I can do that step
faster, better, simpler, and I'vemade those changes on the way through.
You'll probably notice a bitof a difference in the style
of editing between the earlierepisodes and the later episodes.
(18:59):
hopefully you'll find thema little bit more relaxed.
With the later episodes and a bitmore fluent and coherent that happens
as you, you practice and improve.
Mm-hmm.
For
sure.
So, so you do want to actually make surethat you do that on the way through.
So Paul, can I just ask, howmuch of a barrier do you think
it is people's fear of talking.
(19:20):
in front of people.
I know they're not talking in front ofpeople, but you know, public speaking
is a big thing for people and the nunumber one fear for a lot of people.
Do you think that influences someof the people you ask to come along?
I'm sure it has.
There's some people who don'twant to be interviewed because
(19:40):
they're just more private people,they don't want to share and.
The people who have come on haveactually found it far easier to
be a guest than they expected.
I've had a number of guestsgo, oh, that was easy.
And almost like, oh, well you finished.
So that's been, uh, good that I'm a, areasonably comfortable person to talk to.
(20:04):
That's been good.
Yeah.
So that has.
An effect for sure on whether ornot people are initially going
to agree to become a a guest.
Once they agree to become aguest, they usually find that it's
far simpler than they expected.
'cause it's really like havinga conversation with you.
At the end of the day, ratherthan, you know, the whole public.
(20:27):
Speaking of, I can see theaudience and they've goal's got
their eyes staring up at me.
That's why I'm doing audio, audio only.
Absolutely.
And yeah, you just have aconversation around specific
questions and you speak one at a time.
That's pretty much the, key difference.
You try not to speak overeach other too often.
So thank you, Paul.
(20:47):
Being a podcaster, especially having aweekly schedule can be quite a demanding
schedule and I think, you've added to itby wanting a different guest each week.
So well done to you.
And congratulations on a year ofpodcasting, and I'm sure many people
have been inspired by the stories andyou probably, and the guests probably
never know how many of them havebeen influenced by what you've told.
(21:10):
Thank you for sharing yourexperience of being a podcaster.
Paul, I'm from a Forrest.Chat listeners,we wish you all the best in your future
endeavors and for the future podcasts.
Thank you very much, Caroline.
I appreciate it.
You've been listening to Forrest.Chatwhere we talk about individual endeavor
in West Australia, what it takes,what it means, and how you can do it.
I'm your host, Caroline van der Mey,and today's episode we talk to Paul
(21:33):
van der Mey about being a podcaster.
Remember, there are four ways youcan get involved with Forrest.Chat.
Share the domain Forrest.Chat withyour friends and family, and people
that you meet, and people you know.
Listen to the published episodesat Forrest.Chat slash episodes.
Book an interview atForrest.Chat slash interview.
(21:53):
Remember, you've got a story to tell too.
Come and share it and inspireothers and book an advert at
Forrest.Chat slash advert.
I'm looking forward to joiningyou with our next interview, and
maybe it'll be Paul next time.
Until next time, enjoy making it happen.
Thank you from Forrest.Chat.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!