On this episode, the importance of building community and how showing up online helps experts stand out to the press. Like no, no press release that you send or no like e-mail that you send. I would love to be on your show is going to be more powerful than actually having a video of you discussing it and doing it in a dynamic way that is fun and and interesting to watch. So like, save the time right in the long release in news you're getting a million of those.
But if you're if there's a video that pops out to somebody, that stands out to somebody, that is super powerful for getting your voice out there. That is Kendall Brightman, the community manager for Riverside FM, an online recording and editing platform for content creators, mainly podcasters. I'm using Riverside right now to record this for YouTube and also for all podcasting platforms. Everyone, this is on Cam ready.
I'm Jamie Maglietta. Thanks so much for being with us. I hope you're enjoying these episodes. Please like this video if you are, and subscribe to the channel before we get started. I'm in the process of building my very first digital course and I'm focusing on podcasting. Ever since I was podcasting at Cnni have been exploring the world of podcasting as an independent content creator, and I've learned a lot from equipment to platforms and I'm really enjoying everything.
I'm learning and I want to help you navigate this space without as many hurdles as I felt like I was trying to jump over and climb. So I'm putting together this course and if you're interested, visit my website on camready.com to sign up for my newsletter so you can learn more. And if you're enjoying this, remember, please like the video, maybe even write a review if you're listening on a podcasting platform. Now to our guest.
Kendall, as I said, is the community manager for Riverside. 00:02:08,720 In her role, she leads Riverside's community of thousands of content creators. I'm in a few of the groups that she leads and I love them. We'll talk about that. She advocates for their needs and helping them achieve their goals in these communities. And if you are a Riverside user, you should be on Instagram and also Facebook and joining the groups because they're wonderful
resources. Kendall is also a journalist, which is what really attracted me to Kendall. Before joining Riverside, Kendall was a political reporter and television producer for news outlets like MSNBC, Bloomberg News, Politico and USA TODAY. So we have a bit of a background that overlaps. I worked at MSNBC for a short time, but we also know what it takes to put together incredible content and really build out conversations. So on this episode, we'll discuss ways to prepare for a
podcast or television interview. We're also going to talk about how experts can really attract the press by showing up online and creating content like their own podcast. If you own a business, it's my opinion that you should have a podcast. Put yourself out there. Make sure that video clips show up when journalists are searching your name. Plus, we'll also discuss all the latest tools that Riverside has to offer, including its new AI
features. So let's get to the conversation, and Kendall is with us now. You know, Kendall, thank you so much for being with us of. Course, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited about this. As I said in the intro, you know, your journalism background is very appealing to me. You know, we have some overlap with MSNBC and I just think, you know, tapping into your mindset and what you do with Riverside
can really help our listeners. You know guys, as I mentioned, she is a community builder with Riverside. And if you are someone who is an expert and you really want to put yourself out there creating content, creating podcasts is a great way to do that. So Kendall's here to help us break down some wonderful ways to either build a conversation or to put yourself out and pitch guests or pick up guests,
really. So Kendall, why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into building the community space for Riverside? Yeah. So as you said, my background's in journalism and I had covered like the 2016 election. I was covering presidential politics. And after that I would, I had moved and it really was like a time to reset, figure out what I
wanted to do next. And I started doing writing jobs after journalism and kind of quickly realized that it wasn't the writing that I loved so much about journalism. It was really hearing a bunch of different people's stories and then sitting there and saying what's the story from this? Right. So from doing that, it actually community management kind of fell in my lap.
Within Riverside, they'd reached out to me and when I was reading through it, I was like, wow, this really connects to actually the things that I loved about journalism, hearing those stories, bringing people together, understanding why people feel how they feel, do what they do, follow their passions, that kind of thing. And so that's kind of how I entered the the community building space.
And I really thought that it'd be this completely foreign type of idea, cuz I'd never done it before. But it really just connects to different things that I'd picked up throughout my career anyway, so it was a pretty natural fit. Storytelling is so essential for anyone who wants to put their business out there or sell products. You know, having your story and knowing what your story is and
how to tell it is so important. And with your background, you know, I really want to get into helping people craft out an interview, but before I do, I want to just stick on this community building for a second guys.
You know, Kendall is working on building a community across Instagram, Tiktok, LinkedIn, all the platforms and those are the platforms where you should be because she posted on the Riverside Instagram account about hey guys, let's use this post to help everyone match up and find guests for their podcast. This podcast post generated so much community building. I mean, it was great, Kendall. I wound up connecting with five or six people. We all were chatting in the DM. It moved to e-mail.
It was great and that's why I think I even messaged saying we need to do this more often. Yeah, but. Yeah. I'm glad the community is great. 00:06:57,960 Exactly. Thank you. It's it's also just about like and this can be applied to anyone who has a podcast or a channel or anything. It's about really understanding what the people who follow you want or if they don't follow you, why they would follow you because they're chasing what they want. So that was really an initiative
in that way. I mean, beyond just saying, hey, Riverside has new features or things like that, we're trying to create opportunities for people to feel like, you know, this kind of FOMO, like if I'm not following the Riverside page, I'm kind of missing out on those opportunities to get ultimately what I want, which are guest connections, your own
community. And guys, you know this also this post she had on Instagram, wound up on Facebook and then on LinkedIn, and it generated different types of conversations. And that's also a part that of the conversation that we are constantly having here.
If you're an expert, you need to be in these spaces and it's important to join the groups because you really do start to build community And if your effort if your effort there is is valid and you're putting in the work and you're commenting, you can also start to build relationships that result in maybe sales or people following you on your accounts. So you have to think about the potential outcome of building a
community. And I just think you're doing a great job, Kendall. So I'm glad we could at least talk about that a little bit. Thank you. What are tips? Actually, for people. Who want to build community? I would say that a big tip for me when I was starting out was actually like never assuming that you understand what your community wants. So I so again because I'd come from journalism, I'm like, OK,
community, what do people want? They want connections because that's kind of your your currency and journalism, right, Like your sources, the people you know. And then I held actually one-on-one calls with users and didn't ask them like what do you want from community? But I started to understand more about what drives them and I understood that they wanted connections but not because they wanted to network. It was more about the way that people wanted to learn from each other.
People want to mentor as a person to ask their questions to. Yeah. So I think that my first step would really be to under to try to gain as much of an understanding that is not based on your assumptions. It's actually based on seeing people and or speaking to people. And the follow up I guess would be that like a lot of people, I came into a community and you know, we could reach out to users. It's much easier.
So if somebody is like, well how do I reach out to these people, go to communities that already exist. So I say all the time, if you're like a health and Wellness podcaster, go to Facebook groups about your topic and just see what people are talking about there. Sometimes start. I like my kind of metaphor for it is that you want people to come to your party. And sometimes it's about going to other parties and seeing what's working and seeing what the cool one is.
What got the type, yeah, to be able to get people to come to yours. And so I think that observing and learning and listening is like, incredibly key in building a community. And then also, just don't post. And Ghost is what I say. Like don't just post something on Instagram and then go, OK, the algorithm will do its work. Respond to people, start those conversations and you'll get more out of it. Yeah, you know, building a
community is so hard guys. And you know, I'm, I'm always trying new things and testing things out and it's all about trying and putting yourself out there and showing up. You know, as Kendall's saying like you really just need to start having that that confidence to just put yourself out there and even ask questions, you know, if you have them ask them. And then it can really open the doors to so much. It's open the doors to numerous podcast guests for me on this show.
And you know, I'm always looking for people with Kendall's background, especially because of her journalism background and the fact that she worked in television really does help. And a lot of people may be thinking, well, I don't know how to pivot those skill set, those skills from journalism to another job. Well, Kendall's an example of
how. So I really do hope that if you're if you're interested in Kendall that you'll check out the link in my description to her bio and even network with her on LinkedIn, find her and just seek her out and and maybe she can even help you and guide you as well. She's offered her advice here but you never know. Connect it's community guys. Find out more about her by linking by clicking on the link in the description.
All right. So guys, we really want to focus on podcasting today and interview prep. So since she has worked in television, and I believe the same tactics apply, I would love to hear what Kendall thinks about interview prep and how she advises people to prep guests
before interviews. Yeah, So a lot of advice I have here, but I will say that when you are prepping first thing that I do for podcasts, for television, we would always on our team look at previous interviews, watch previous interviews that people have done. And when you're doing that, two things you want to look for first is you want to look for questions they've been asked over and over again because you want to skip those or you want
to take them a step further. But you will notice that when you're watching people's interviews, their questions they'll get over and over again. The second is, I used to watch interviews actually on other news shows and see where they didn't ask a follow up, but they should have.
So if I'm watching something and I still have a question from that interview they did, it would be even a really cool way to show somebody that you did your research by saying I actually heard you say this on another podcast, play the clip. But I wanted to go a little step further. What do you feel about this or has your thinking on this changed? So really watching those interviews, first would be something that I would do and then second would be to write down your questions.
I would usually write down my questions like on the left hand side of a sheet of paper, divide it in half, and on the other side see how I can push it. So an example I give is what's one thing all podcasters should be doing? Like, fine question, but I'm not excited about it. And a way to kind of push that would be what's something that most podcasters aren't doing. What's 1 mistake that you see
people making all of the time? And not only is that a more interesting question, that answer is kind of made for social right because it's controversial. It's saying kind of against the the grain. So those are my like the two things that I start with.
But my big tip is that I don't like to come to over prepared because I personally like, I hate interviews where you can tell that the person had their list of questions but they're not straying from it. It's like at the end of the question there's this kind of awkward, like great, and then you move on to the next one, like there's no follow up, no back and forth type of thing. And those are usually a product of being so prepared that you don't want to stray from that
prep. But sometimes the most magical kind of moments in an interview happen when you stray from the prep a little bit, when you when you like, ask a little bit of a follow up, when you add a little bit more context to your questions. So while prep is important, you don't want to, like, go into a blind. You also just want to make sure that you leave that room to have a conversation. And you know, I also liked how
you called. You know, the conversation that you may have with a guest before podcasting your green room, I mean, because we both are in television, you know, we have an understanding of the green room. But one of the podcast conversations you had, the guests seem surprised, like why a green room But a green room, guys, is typical because that's where the anchors and the guests would really kind of meet before
they go on air. That's where the guest is sitting before they are appearing on television. So Kendall, why did you decide to start calling these conversations before the podcast at Green Room Conversation? Yeah, I It's fun to be talking with you about this because you get it in this way of like before I. So I was a producer at places like NBC and Bloomberg, and there would just be this kind of special time where before the guest comes on, they're sitting in the green room.
They'll usually have their staff with them and they're kind of on their phones. And if you think about it, like, that's not the vibe you want before you go on TV. You want somebody that's talking, they're excited, You don't want the first words they've really spoken in the last 30 minutes to be live on your TV. So what people would do, like myself, you go into the green room and just say like, hey, what's going on?
You got everything you need. We're going to be talking today about XY and Z. Like what are your thoughts on that? And then they'll talk about it and you'll go, Oh my gosh, can Can you believe? Like I would usually come in with a news story because I was doing news. Can you believe what so and so said about this and that today? And then they'd get really animated. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that they said that or I actually think it's good strategy. You just get them kind of talking.
And what I realized with podcasting is that people would maybe sometimes do a pre interview and it would be a little bit more informational. It's a we're going to be talking about this and that please show up 15 minutes early and people when they have that are a little bit more like buttoned up. They're a little like when people come to go on a podcast, they if it's for a professional setting the per the mode you're going to get from them usually is a bit more professional.
But if you have what I call a green room conversation, you set the tone so if you want it to be a little bit more playful you can start speaking like that. And it's always just before the interview, because it lets them. It guides them into that next room, which is your interview room, or in the case of a green room, your your live television set.
And guys, you know what, What Kendall is also saying is, is so essential Because I've, you know, I've talked to people who who don't really even hash out the conversation before air. And it sounds it, you know, you're like, oh, that sounded rough, you know, so in television, we would put together packets, packets of information research and we would essentially provide that to the anchor or the reporter.
And then we would also interview the guests that's coming in to really get a better sense of what they may say. So then you can also tell the anchors like they're really passionate about this. They really are enjoying this angle, but having that helps, right? So when I put together this podcast, I sent Kendall a list. Like here's some of the topics, Here's some of the points I would love to get from you. Like 3 tips on this.
One tip on that, you know we're not sitting here ironing out how it's going to flow. Like these are the questions we're ironing out, like the direction we would like to take the conversation. And Kendall responded saying, I would love to go this direction, you know, and before we started this conversation, we had our little green room chat, you know, where we're talking right before. So all these points are great. Kendall, I'm really glad you
could share them. The other thing I wanted to talk about was just, you know, yes, it is important to have the the guest prepared and the host prepared, but what we didn't really iron out was the talking points that the guest should come prepared with. So when you're on a podcast, how do you prepare your talking points and what are talking
points? Yeah, so actually it's funny because I still use this tip from news and my wife was actually interviewed for local news recently and I passed her tip the tip to her because it's just it really is. It works every time. Especially if you're if you feel a bit all over the place and you're a little bit nervous to be live, I would recommend to guess and I do this for myself. I write down sometimes a like a post it note on a post it note like three to five bullet points.
And they're not complete sentences, they're just like quick bullet points because when you're talking sometimes live, you'll maybe go off on a little side tangent and then suddenly you're like, where was I taking this right. And So what I would recommend doing. And then also besides that, you also don't want to kind of get up from the chair and be like Oh my God, I totally forgot to talk
about this one point. So it's to keep you on track and to make sure that all the points that you wanted to get across come across. So if I were having one now, maybe I'd have a post it note that says like importance of green room conversation community management, why it's important like those kinds of notes so that I can always bring myself back. So keeping a post it note with just three to five bullet points of what you want to say. And of course you're going to say more.
But it's just for those moments that you're like, if I start veering off topic, this is where I take it back to and it makes you feel confident to come into something and feel like you have a little bit of backup so you don't feel like you're kind of going into it without without any of that. So that's that's usually what I recommend and what I do myself. And the other thing you can do is really iron out like your thoughts by writing them out and thinking, OK, what questions
might they ask? Like I know the direction, What questions might they ask and how might I answer them? And when I answer them, how can I incorporate my messaging so that I'm also getting my interests across during the conversation without it feeling forced trying to figure out your messaging and your pivoting right.
So if you do get a question that you're like really much to say about that you can kind of pivot to something that you do feel passionate about that's similar to what you're talking about. You know it works. So trying to iron out your pivots, your talking points are all great tips when you're preparing for an interview when you are a guest on a podcast. I also just quickly add that like I think to prep for who the
messaging is for. So one thing that I learned from covering politics is that I'd watch the same speech.
I'm serious, like over and over and over again the same candidate would give it. But this if a candidate was in Alabama versus New York City versus Nevada, the way that they deliver it, the the things that they expand on a bit more even the way that they would kind of dress, I mean that's different for podcasting, but thinking about who which podcasts are going on and what their, who their audience is so that your message you can make sure it connects with those people.
So like I would just add that on top of there. Thanks, Kendall. That's really great advice about messaging. I'm really glad you could join us today, everyone. We're with Kendall Brightman, the community manager for Riverside. Guys, It's an online recording platform and editing platform, guys. It's not just for podcasters, it's also for content creators. I've been using Riverside and I absolutely love it. I think it's a wonderful
platform. It's developing and there's so many new features including this AI feature. And just recently actually like 2 days ago, I was able to edit a 2 1/2 minute open and then add it to my Riverside so I could play it out during a live. So these features that are being added are really awesome. Kendall, why don't you tell us where Riverside is at so everyone's aware? Yeah. So as you said, like we're recording editing kind of end to end content creation platform.
And what we're also trying to do, a big goal of ours is that we understand that people who are creating content you want to get from. Like we all love recording the conversations and that's really like having these interviews. But we want to get from record to publish as quickly but also professionally as possible because when you try to do things quickly, you can end up kind of losing a bit of the quality. And with this, that's what's something that we're really committed to.
So beyond getting these high quality video and audio tracks at the end of it, we also are giving, as you mentioned, like AI show notes and AI transcript clips of the most engaging parts of your interview, kind of already put in this real format. 00:23:44,080 You can add captions to it. You can change the layout to make it good for Instagram reels or Tiktok or something like that. And so that's really what we're focused on is making high quality production more accessible to more people.
So you don't need these intense editors or things like that that are that suddenly this, this becomes almost a blocker to you telling your story. Instead, we're just really focused on trying to create high quality that that makes your life easier for creators. Yeah, I think it's great. You know, sometimes the AI notes like they'll what you'll do is you'll say, hey, you know, generate AI clips for social. Sometimes they're on point, sometimes they're not, you know,
guys. So it's like it's still like AI, it's still figuring it out. But what it's great is it at least shows you what it feels is a great sound bite, you know? So coming to it from a journalist perspective, I always pick something different, but someone else may be like, this is great. So it could be really an A great resource to people who are looking for sound bites to put on social. And then there's all these captions that you can add onto your social interview clips,
which is great. So there's just so many wonderful features and AI has come so long and I'm really glad that we could at least talk about that. You know where there any points that we didn't get to discuss that you want to bring up before we wrap? I think, I mean, I think that we covered it. But yeah, I would just kind of to go off of the AI point that I think that the even if you're able to, I found them from AI.
Of course, it's not always right, but in the way that I think that sometimes even if it just picks up one thing, you're like, Oh my gosh, there's so much that we have to do as content creators. But even sometimes having that one thing off of your plate, they're like great, I'll get a clip out there today then that, yeah, it's been helpful for
that, for that way. But I even think I would encourage people if you're already using Riverside that as you were saying, there are other really great use cases for it to let's make your life easier in other ways. So for example, I record all of my meetings in Riverside and then at the end of it, if somebody missed the meeting, I just take the AI show notes and I just like copy and paste it. Here's a summary of our meeting. There you go.
I'm able to, like, have a transcript of that in case I kind of want to go back with a user call or something like that. So incorporating it to make other aspects of your content creation that aren't exactly the interview that you're recording easier. It's just it's it's a helpful way to make the entire process just for seamless for you. Yeah, I I agree. I love that there's a transcript and you can even edit by the transcript, which is something that other AI editing platforms
offer. But now it's all here inclusive at Riverside. So I just think it's a wonderful platform. I rave about it. If you go down into the description, you'll have a link to Riverside if you want to sign up and get your get your podcast going. I also offer tips on how to transform your podcast idea into a show. So if you're looking to develop a show reached out to me, having a background in television really does help you skip a lot of steps and get through the process really quickly.
I have a road map to help you, so reach out and you know before we go, there's just one point that I really would love to get your thoughts on. So many experts do want to create content to put themselves out there. What are your thoughts on podcasting as a way to try to help them lean into the news and attract the media? I definitely. I think that it's a really smart
way to do that. And I think that as somebody again that's worked in news that we're looking for people like if there is something going on in your industry, sometimes even something that's not going on in your industry, if you're able to connect it with yours to be able to have a sound bite out there that has you commenting on it, it's great for Discovery.
So let's say that there's some news story and then you have that, that you're able to kind of comment on if you're able to get that out and put some hashtags on it or if you have a podcast and it's that that keyword is in your description. If you're able to pick up people that are searching for that topic, maybe not for your content, but because they're searching for that topic, they come across your content.
So I actually think to be able to have some news pivots in there, in your podcast, in any of your content is smart because those are the trending topics you know beyond kind of what's trending on TikTok. If you're able to have some kind of news plug in there, I would definitely recommend doing that, because that's just another it's it's adding another way to get discovered and that's not ever. That's not going to hurt you.
And that's that's really great to hear from you, especially since you know, I'm out there regularly telling people like you just need to be discoverable. Like, you need to be putting yourself out there and showing the value that you can offer so that a news agency wants to pick you up. You know, if you're pitching and you have nothing online, they're gonna be, can this person even like be on TV? Like are they gonna hand, can they handle the lights? Can they handle the on camera
conversation? So putting yourself out there in my opinion helps. I mean, do you have any other thoughts on this before we? Yeah. I was just gonna see that like no, no press release that you send or no like e-mail that you said and I would love to be on your show is gonna be more powerful than actually having a video of you discussing it and doing it in a dynamic way that is fun and and interesting to watch. So like, save the time right in the long release.
Because you and I both know that we're like in news. You're getting a million of those. But if you're if there is a video that pops out to somebody that stands out to somebody that is super powerful for getting your voice out there. And then I also just wanted to kind of plug because I had forgotten to you that I, as I said before, lead a community of podcasters.
And I know that this can kind of feel like a lonely path sometimes because you're do a lot of people are recording remotely if you're doing this on your own or you might not have other people in your life that are that's doing this. So there are communities out there.
Riverside's is Conversation Creators by Riverside on Facebook. And it's just there are thousands of creators and something that I love that's different than journalism is that in creating space, everyone is so willing to share what they're doing, how they're doing it, what which platforms they're using. Like enlist those communities to really help build you up, because they want to and they're actually very good at it.
Yeah. And make sure you follow Riverside on Instagram. You can also follow Kendall on LinkedIn or Riverside on LinkedIn. They both. There's great resources out there guys and on Facebook as she said you know to join that group. And guys if you're if you're out there look for me because I'm also active in those groups under Jamie under score, the producer or my new handle on Cam Ready which matches this podcast.
And remember to go down to this the description for links to learn more about Kendall Riverside and what we have to offer here on Cam Ready. Thank you so much for being with us and I'll see you online.