What's interesting about this adventure, is that I have absolutely zero speaking talent, so you can imagine what a death-defying stunt it was to make a podcast.
What is more I didn't even own a working computer (which was broken by a borrower). So why am I drawing attention to myself? I'm talking about my experience doing this, because it might help others to get the courage to try the same. After all, who else is going to give you the low-down on doing a radio program other than someone immersed in a similar struggle himself?

Now, don't misjudge me, I tried to get support from those around me, but everyone around me was afraid to take the risk of doing an
online interview or participating in any way. I emailed my mother, that if she participated, the radio concept might be useful in her course of instruction at the university where she teaches. "It's rather like a conference call, I believe," I told her. But my mother absolutely refused to be interviewed or to even call in. I also asked my house mate. She, too, shook with fear at the very thought. Neither of the two had ever put up websites, so I guess I just I'm just overly ambitious for my environment.

Like the "little red hen," I figured Internet radio is an exciting technological challenge, opportunity and privilege, so I want to give it a full whirl, even though I'm a complete novice.

Marlon Sanders, a money guru, sells a product he created called "Push Button Letters," to help people reduce the time it takes to write a successful sales letter. I needed a product similar to his, but called "Push Button Interviews," instead.

Naturally, I was very nervous and did not believe I could do it. I knew I would have to write down every word I planned to say, but there would still be some unknowns I could not prepare for: I had no idea how the still-hoped-for interviewee would act.

For this task, I had to look deep inside myself, remembering the advice of guru's, like Lee McIntyre, Jim Edwards or Stephen Pierce or Phil Morgan, to think positively, to believe in myself, to believe I could succeed. I might could have used two, recent, hot, new reports on hypnosis, "Secrets of Hypnosis Revealed" and "Disguised Hypnosis

," to help me calm my mind and relax, had I known of them.

Some of the best radio shows I have listened to are broadcast right from Blog Talk Radio. There you rub shoulders with some of the greatest, most professional interviewers you have ever heard perform. I had heard a few of them carry a show for an hour, even though their expected guest never showed up. But I knew I would just go completely blank, if something like that happened to me. Worse thing of all about my planned endeavor, though, was that I had no one at all to interview. That meant I would have to carry the "live" show alone, even though it wouldn't be a surprise and even though it would be something I could prepare for in advance.

So, I decided make my show short and not to invite anyone to listen to my broadcast and, in this way, to try to limit the amount of negative publicity that might arise from my likely failure.

From the accompanying report that came with signing up for a Blog Talk station and several instructional videos, I learned I was expected to show up about 10 minutes early, ring up, plug in my Pin number, wait to be recognized and then to check into my "switchboard." The switchboard looked both friendly and dizzying, at first. It gave me data about the time, about my callers (whether they were on the air or off), about my pre-uploaded files, such as my music files and about my chat room, which I might be expected to host at the same time I carried out my podcast. There are a number of controls (music, on-air buttons, chat room) to master at one time, I had no idea if I could pull the whole thing off.

I decided to use headphones, as I was going to have my hands full, just pushing buttons on and off. I also decided to load up some images, in advance, for my radio page, so that I could refer to them during the program and the images were linked to their respective websites. Just looking at these images gave me some inspiration about what "content" I could talk about during the actual on-air program.

Since I was reading my speech and my eyesight is bad, I thought it might be a struggle to turn pages over quietly. Eventually, I decided to borrow an extra laptop and to put my speech on that. Then on the day, my podcast was scheduled, I showed up and did my thing. During the actual program, the sound of my introductory music did gymnastics in my headphones, causing me to break into the show too soon, but eventually, I finished the show.. After it was finished, I felt great. If I had to do it again, I would probably do it differently, remembering to follow the advice below from experts at wikiHow, but at least I had the experience of participating to some small degree in this miracle age of technology and communications.

Here now is a list of things to do to prepare yourself for your first podcast presentation.

Steps

Research the podcast element. Learn precisely what PodCasting is all about and how it works. Search for "Podcast Radio" on your favorite search engine.

Physically search out only the true professionals. Create a list of those podcasters that undeniably know exactly what they are doing. Align yourself with only the best. From this list, call them on the phone and pick their brain(s). If you cannot locate an actual telephonic point of contact, wipe them from your list. You want to do business with those that believe in "touching" their market with more intimacy and one-to-one personalization rather than just an email. Remember, you are looking for a friend. A mentor. Not necessarily someone to take your money and be off. A solid partnership (friendship) is your objective here.

Discover Your Passion. What passion do you share with others? What true value will your audience glean from you? Who is your target audience? Understand your "WHY"!

Develop Your Plan & Work Your Process. What do you need to learn? What do you need to do? What specific date will you be ready? Who will provide you with the support you will need to fulfill your plan. What equipment is required?

Make Your Podcast Happen! As you roll out your "new-to-you" adventure, don't expect total perfection on day one. Be kind to yourself and know that you will evolve. We all started from square one. Enough practice and desire can make you near perfect, but do be fair with you and give yourself time to grow.

Listen to other professional podcasters. Listen to your local radio stations. Read books and articles like this one on a daily basis. (Find them at

CBGlobe.com or CBMall.com)

No excuses! If you really want to crank up the heat on your marketing efforts, than podcasting will give you the significant marketing advantage.

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