Gill Phillips 00:00
Listen in the box room, listen in the park. Listen in the morning, listen after dark. Listen in the bath, listen in the car, stop and listen, wherever you are. And people are. Lovely to meet Cat Thomas from Community Catalysts, who tweeted to tell me she is indeed listening in the box room. So who would have thought it? We've got to 10 episodes already. So I thought I'd do something a little bit different and stop and reflect on my podcasting journey so far. You get a little whizzy congratulations thing with sparkles from Buzzsprout. It's all rather encouraging. Short version, I'm loving it. There you are, you can stop listening and carry on with your weekend. But if you want to know a bit more, then please stick with me for a bit of a roller coaster ride. Some of it has been harder than I thought. So here you have a podcast about podcasting, the reflections of a newbie. And for a bit of moral support. Here's a lovely reflection from my friend #FabObs Flo. Florence Wilcock, the creator of the awesome 'The Obs Pod', a podcast about all things maternity
Florence Wilcock 01:18
my wonderful friend Gill recently started a podcast, 'Wild Card Whose Shoes'. To celebrate her 10th episode, she's asked me to reflect on what I think she's achieved, and how it's made me feel as a listener. I always knew Gill was an amazing person with an incredible network of fascinating people. The key thing of Wild Card Whose Shoes, for me, has been that reinforcement that there are fantastic people everywhere across the system, in every aspect and every role, who are enthusiastic, want change, and are fighting to get it. Those rebels, those boat rockers, I really feel that Wild Card Whose Shoes has helped refreshed me. It's given me new energy. It's made me realise I am not alone. As someone who wants to improve things. Some of the episodes have really hit me at the core. I think my favourites so far have to be the incredible Joan and his desire to improve and change. And to do it in the face of being told not to do it, and how he tries to win hearts and minds, but in a slightly devious way. And then the latest episode with Rachel Grimaldi of Cardmedic, her idea that for every person you treat, they should feel that they are the only person that you're looking after, that there are no other drains on your time. It's obvious, but it's really given me pause to reflect and think about my own practice. And is that really true? When I have a family sitting in front of me and I'm talking to them? Am I certain that that's how they feel, that they are the only ones, that they have my full attention. And it's even making me think I need to do my own podcast episode on that topic. So congratulations, Gill on reaching episode 10.
Gill Phillips 03:38
Thanks for that, Flo. Congratulations Joan and Rachel for making it into Flo's favourites so far. Flo is my magic mate. So of course, I'm going to be recommending one specific episode of the ObsPod. It's called 'Magic mates'. The episode that we recorded together, talking about how we've used creativity, and other maverick tactics to build the incredible social movement that is #MatExp, maternity experience. I love making connections, friendships and of course, occasionally, magic mates. One super bonus of making this podcast is connecting with lots of new people, both as podcast guests, and particularly listeners. Huge thanks to all of you. Sometimes this is leading to a deeper relationship or just having the chance for real catch up with people that I already know, by being able to chat to them on the podcast, or those conversations where you say "We must catch up". And now we do. I really do know some amazing people. And of course when you invite them to talk about what's important to them. They often open up about aspects of their life and their work, anecdotes and stories that you didn't previously know. And which make you just so proud of them. Really exciting aspect, which I hadn't fully anticipated is that the podcast is serving to connect contributors and listeners to each other. A real Wild Card network is growing. Obviously, a lot of this is online, but it's also translating into real life meetups. Now, I'm very excited to be getting together with a little gang of people doing fantastic work around reducing health inequalities. I came across the ultimate network Weaver in our podcast last week, and things have gone up a gear, Rachel Grimaldi. We've never met in person, but we're now planning a meet up in London with two of our most innovative #FabObs friends. That means fabulous obstetricians - #FabObs is the shortcut that we use on Twitter, who are all doing great work around language, communication and interpreting services. In no time at all #IntentionalCoffee morphed into intentional hot chocolate, and has now become a plan for intentional dinner. We'd better make it happen soon, or we'll be planning an intentional World Tour. Serendipity can also play a part. I couldn't believe it when I realized that Flo and I were both talking about translation in our podcast during the same weekend. And of course, that gives extra opportunities to bounce off each other and spread ideas and conversations further. Rachael is so lovely. She's so passionate. And since we recorded the podcast last weekend, she's been sending me spontaneous little voicemails simply buzzing with ideas and practices that make people's lives better. Rachael'san anaesthetist, and loves taking photos or coming up with other little touches to improve birth experience, in accordance with a woman and her partner's hopes and wishes. As I say, these voicemails were not recorded for the podcast, but I love the energy and the spontaneity so much that I asked Rachael, if I could share a clip or two. And she kindly agreed. I really hope I didn't bounce you into this, Rachael, but I love them so much. You can hear Rachael walking along in the autumn leaves.
Rachael Grimaldi 07:17
Yeah, it's just wonderful. I always take photos for my patients, because I'm like, you don't want to miss you don't want to look back and they didn't get a picture. So I'm always the official photographer doing videos and afterwards when the baby's born and up close pictures of them holding the fingers and mommy and daddy looking at the baby or mommy and mommy or daddy and daddy or, you know, looking at the baby and having those first cuddles cutting the cord, weighing the baby trying to capture all of it. Very doable to be official photographer. And I love it. I love capturing those little moments. Yeah, I think it just really helps make it really personal. I always want to make sure that you know if women have a birth plan, that if they end up coming to theatre that you know other things on that birth plan we can do, like put music on, or I don't know, whatever it might be if they want a doula to be there or something, then we have a doula. It is harder to recreate these things in theatre.
Gill Phillips 08:13
When people get laughing and chatting about possibilities. That's when the magic can happen. I loved hearing Rachael chatting about being imaginative and pushing the boundaries to make care more personalized. And as she says it just fits in so well with our #MatExp maternity experience.
Rachael Grimaldi 08:31
It's just like learning from other people's stories, isn't it? Because sometimes you think, oh, fairy lights in theatre, I wouldn't have thought of that. We should do this as a thing. And I was , Yeah, we should have, some kind of package that you can offer a woman to when she comes into there to say, you know, would you like the calming package where we allow the fairy light garlands and dim the lights and obviously you can't do the with a caesarean because you need to see what you're doing surgically. But if you're doing a trial by forceps or something, you need some lighting, you can dim the lights a bit and get the music on and obviously we can't burn candles, but we can definitely do some gentle lighting and soft music and things. And there are bits of that you can do for C sections as well.
Gill Phillips 09:38
Listening to Rachael talking there, it's really important to make clear that this is not just an idea. Using fairy light garlands in theatre is something that Rachael's actually done and didn't get into trouble for. It's such a wonderful thing to think that instead of the whole birth plan going out of the window, as women so often say, these amazing healthcare professionals are constantly looking for ways to adapt their practice and find safe ways to make the experience as good as it can be. As Maya Angelou said, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". People will remember that they felt safe and cared for, that someone went the extra mile, stringing up fairy lights on drip stands during the pandemic. We sometimes have strings of lemon lightbulbs at our Whose Shoes workshops. So who knows, perhaps one day someone in theatre will enjoy having those. Perhaps this will be the next thing, like Jenny the Midwife #SkinToSkin challenge or Flo's lithotomy challenge? 'The calming package challenge!' I love it. It will be interesting to see what people think. Please tell us your thoughts and share examples of what's actually happening. As there is so much great work happening around personalising maternity care.
Gill Phillips 10:44
I have two other super networkers coming up. Terri Perrott from Fab Change Day, and Yvonne Newbold, the inspirational author of the Special Parents handbook. It will be interesting to see what new webs of connections we can build from those. If you like our Whose Shoes poems, Terri and the Fab NHS stuff team have invited me to run a 'Wild Card Whose Shoes' poetry tent at the forthcoming Fab NHS Change day. Mr. Whose Shoes' face was a picture when I told him that. I have absolutely no idea what we'll be doing but a few friends have agreed to join me. People from the NHS have written really powerful poems. So I'm really looking forward to it. The event is on the 24th of November, and our tent unzips at 2pm. So you're very welcome to join us. I'll put some details in the programme notes. So I'll chat first about my experience of podcasting and what I've learnt. I might come on to talk about the process a bit more, as several people have asked, "How do you make a podcast?", we'll see. I love working out loud with this podcast series. It's all so new to me. If I say I have a problem, someone will usually jump in and help. Similarly, people seem to enjoy hearing about some of the ups and downs, I don't know. We'll find out in terms of the response to this episode. And whether people would like me to share a few more reflections as I go along with the series. I'm really trying to grow the series in an organic way. As I plan each episode, and try and work out where the series goes. Next, I have the structure of my Whose Shoes board games sitting loosely behind what I'm doing. And so far, we've had a good mix of people with lived experience, healthcare professionals, people doing amazing things in the community, and people in positions of slightly more formal power. And those are the main perspectives and groupings in Whose Shoes -no hierarchy, just people is a central mantra to my work. But I want to include people with positional power and am choosing the ones who really 'get it' and are able and willing to engage with grassroots people. I've almost hooked one or two, but they're being a bit elusive. Watch this space. I'm deliberately not going in any way that specialises in a particular area. Some people are suggesting that we could do more in depth work around this or that, but I'm keen to mix things up. I want to keep it broad and light, counter balancing, difficult or thought provoking topics with something lighter and more entertaining. It's always been my Whose Shoes dream to break down silos and show how everything joins up, or at least should do. How we're all interdependent, as we've learned so painfully during lockdowns and the whole pandemic experience really. The ways in which we're all far more similar than we are different. Our shared humanity comes through strongly in our Whose Shoes workshops, very similar themes come through regardless of whether people are talking about dementia, say or maternity or Children's Services, or whatever it might be. Good communication, dignity, respect, being listened to, basically being treated as a human being with hopes and dreams, and aspirations. Just take a look at some of the graphic records produced by our friends, the wonderful visual recorders from New Possibilities, who capture the conversations at our workshop so authentically. These are the themes that we're exploring and fleshing out through people's stories in this podcast series. Annie and Carrie the graphic artists will make wonderful podcast guests at some point, as they see and hear so much. So many different conversations, and particularly so many different workplace cultures, through the work that we do. We sometimes joke between us that when the CQC or other inspectors come in, everyone's trying to paper over the cracks. Whereas in our sessions, we're aiming to create the conditions for people to feel safe and inspired enough to want to expose those cracks and then work together to fix them. In terms of actually inviting podcast guests and setting up the recordings, and any kind of pre chats that we have, it's been a bit like the Hokey cokey. One guest is lined up. But then life gets in the way people are busy or sick. The dreaded tickly cough gets in the way. I know I had a tickly cough when I recorded the session with Carol Munt. But because squad cast the software that we use, records our voices on two separate channels. I was able to cough while Carol was talking. And the finished result sounds as though the overdose of Pholcodine that I took worked really nicely. Similarly, the podcast recordings come along like buses, in terms of actually arranging dates. Everyone's free at the same time. One thing I've learned is that I only ever want to record one session in a day. They take energy and I find them personally quite draining. Similar really to what I find when I run an actual Whose Shoes workshop. I want to be able to give full attention and energy to each person, including trying to come to the conversation as well prepared andwell informed as I can be. It reminds me of what Rachael Grimaldi was saying about making each person feel genuinely (in her case, she was talking about patients) that they are the only person who matters to you at that time, as Flo picked up and liked so much in the clip that I shared at the beginning. So I think it's ensuring really that both of us, me and the podcast, guests have the time and feel safe to really just chat without any outside pressures. People are also suggesting new people that I can talk to, which is fantastic. But I already have quite a long list. So far, typically, each guest has insisted that I must speak to at least one more person, someone in their network. So at this rate, this series will have that elusive quality, that lovely buzzword ... sustainability. I just need one of my entrepreneurial friends to create an app, which finds one, only one amazing person a week and then pins them down to a fixed time and date. That will work well. As planned recording dates come and go. Things also change fast. I'm really looking forward to speaking to Dr. Alice Ladur. For her PhD at Bournemouth University, Alice used Whose Shoes with men in Uganda to bring about culture change and improve maternal outcomes. As you can imagine, I so want to capture this story. I'm so proud of Alice. But I'm glad that the session was postponed because in the meantime, Alice has won the Vice Chancellor's Award for her work. What a shame it would have been to chat without being able to mention this wonderful achievement. The podcast series is very organic. But sometimes it's good to tie in with external events. Some are planned long in advance. I've already mentioned Fab Change Day, we'll put Terri Porrett's podcast recording out on the actual day 24th of November, to make it topical and to have maximum impact. She's got her team lined up to do some great tweets. But some opportunities pop up at much shorter notice. As many listeners will know, as co-founder of #MqatExp with #FabObs Flo, maternity care is very close to my heart. And there's a #marchwithmidwives now planned for next week, the 21st November, it's springing up all across the country. So I really want to be part of that. Not only attending my local event, but using the voice that I'm creating through this podcast series to help make more people aware of the issues. Now all being well, I have something - someone - very special lined up - someone to chat to me about the issues and pressures, currently facing maternity teams. And we'll put it out next week to coincide with the 'march with midwives' events. But that's come along suddenly, within the last two or three days really. So what about statistics for the podcast series? It's easy to get hung up on statistics. How's each episode doing? How many downloads? Where are the listeners? It's possible to find out all sorts. Who's this cluster in Staffordshire? I blame that Lyse Edwards. ;-) We seem to be doing okay. "I've been following your podcast series" is such a lovely thing to hear. And it's happening quite a bit now. One thing we do seem to be doing particularly well is the geographical spread. It intrigues me: We've got listeners from so many places. I know their locations, but I don't know their faces. Or perhaps I do. Who are you. From ... Finland, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia, Italy in Canada, and dotted around Malaysia, United States Egypt, France and Qatar, Germany, UAE, Greece, Africa, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Romania. Not to mention the dear old UK. My geography is improving. Seeing new places on the map is very moving. I've never been a great one for statistics. I prefer the human stories. But I want to know who the people are who are listening in all these different countries? Are they people I know. Of course, some of them tell me. Some of them are even kind enough to write reviews, which is amazing. But many of them are there as tantalizing snippets of data: listeners in all these countries, with some regulars, it seems. Thank you so much. How are you finding it? I live in wonder all this technology, perhaps it's my age, but I simply can't take it for granted. As a child, I remember when my mum used to found relatives in Australia. And she planned what she was going to say because it cost a pound a minute, and a pound was a lot in those days. The technology is awesome, isn't it? Yvonne Newbold mentioned and reminded me of the starfish story. I won't tell it properly here. But if you Google the starfish story, you'll easily find it. Basically, if you influence one person in a positive way, and Yvonne Newbold influences 1000s of families, then it will all have been worth it. It feels as if the podcast is also a bit self indulgent. But hopefully in a good way, a bit of a legacy for me. I know so many amazing people, here's my chance to bring them together and share their voices, and have a permanent record of it. A bank have amazing resources to draw on in the future. Like a lot of people, I'd love to write a book one day, the Whose Shoes story, or perhaps a MatExp, special with Flo, we'll see. When my children were young, I started a book called 'Life in the slow lane'. Well, it was so slow that I never actually got anywhere with it. Certainly not in terms of getting over the finishing line, or being published. But I still enjoy revisiting it for myself occasionally, capturing those little moments and anecdotes that would otherwise have been long forgotten. I guess I would have done it as a blog these days. I'm finding that a podcast series is similar to that. You don't need all the discipline of writing carefully structured chapters. I'm not very good at discipline. It doesn't really fit with being a Wild Card does it? Or at least that's my excuse. So a podcast series is probably more realistic than writing a book. After all, I haven't even got around to finishing my website that I've been talking about for the last six years or more. I thought I'd better say that before someone else did. You know who you are. And crowdsourcing is definitely what I do. With a little bit of help from my friends and all that. I'd like to say a big thank you to the people who are listening, particularly the growing band of regular listeners. It's so lovely when people come in and tell me they're looking forward to the next episode. And then, if we're also attracting a more specific audience for each episode, according to who the podcast guest is, whether they promote it strongly through their own networks, for example, and of course, depending on what the topic is. But I'd also encourage you to jump around and explore some of the other podcasts beyond the obvious ones for your specialty. For example, I think everyone will really enjoy the Halloween special that I did with children's author, Rachael Wong. I think some NHS leaders would find Rachel's key messages around not being scared of innovation and creativity ... Very Useful Indeed. Or listen to Carol munt for sheer common sense. Cat Thomas tweeted about that episode. "Love this episode. Absolutely no filler. Soooo many powerful insights. Great to hear about positive actions and 'can do' rather than just focusing on the issues". I love it when people recommend other people's podcasts. I've been a bit slow to the party with podcasting. I've always enjoyed a few. I mean, obviously, the ObsPod but now I've discovered this podcast app. I'm like a little squirrel. It's the same mindset really as how I collect and source Whose Shoes scenarios. So now I collect lots of podcasts in my very own podcast wallet. And you can pick each one up listening from where you got to. It's really very clever and simple. I particularly like the podcast which had chats between friends or or people who clearly feel at ease with each other. Flo's just recorded a podcast with Jenny the midwife, a wonderful friend of ours who's been a fearless global leader in promoting skin to skin of mother and new baby, including inoperating theatre after caesarean births. Pippa Kelly's just spoken to Wendy Mitchell on her 'Well, I know now' dementia podcast. The King's Fund podcast has just spoken to Fatima Shah Khan. All podcast guests that I admire greatly as being outspoken, human and very real. Just as I like connecting people, if I hear a good podcast, I want to share it, particularly one that's like mine new and needing a bit of help to get off the ground. Now Yvonne Newbold told me about a fascinating podcast started by Dan, a really interesting and engaging 17 year old, talking about his mental health and other issues during the pandemic. I feel strongly that young people have not had much of a voice during the pandemic. So it's my great pleasure to give a shout out to Dan's podcast. It's called 'The Perception Podcast'. And so far, I've listened to the first couple of episodes. In Episode 2, Dan is joined by his mom, and Sam, his 8-year old brother. And I found it a really compelling insight into a family during lockdown, their family dynamics, a really honest conversation, and in particular, some tips that might help other people. So who can help Dan spread his podcast further? It would mean the world to him. So thank you, Yvonne, for bringing this to my attention. And I'd invite people to please look him up. I love informality on a podcast. I like things that make people laugh. Mr. Whose Shoes was busy listening to an episode of PC- Pro this week, talking about the pros and cons of a one-off payment for software, as opposed to a subscription payment. One of the presenters' cats became the star of the show, meowing loudly in the background, reminding them of the need to keep the cat food subscription up to date. I haven't had our cats on on my podcast yet, but perhaps I'm missing a trick. So as I come towards the end of this episode, I want to give a special shout out to my very first podcast guest my lovely JUST DO IT friend, Dr. Farzana Hussain. Farzana, you got this series off to a perfect start capturing that informal, possibly elusive note that I was looking for: chatty, insightful, passionate, engaging, honest, and oh so human. So what other early outcomes have there been from the podcast series? Each week we collect lemon light bulbs that emerge during our conversations. People have apparently found these incredibly useful. Someone I much admire messaged me, and she said, Gill, give me your inspiration. I'm just finalising a talk for next week that I'm doing for NHS England. One of the things they've asked me to do is look at asking challenging questions back to the system. Any ideas? Well, what a great question. I thought about it. And then I just referred to the lemon lightbulb summaries that are published in the programme notes of each episode. And she she replied, "All the breakdowns are so good, Gill!!!! I love them!!!! So useful!!!!" ... and using up the world's supply of exclamation marks in the process. So I took that as a success. Lots of other ideas are flying around. The most exciting is around linking whole networks, perhaps a festival of ideas, bringing inspirational women together. The theme of women supporting each other is strong. I think back to the Whose Shoes workshop that we did with the Brighton maternity team for International Women's Day, where they displayed this amazing gallery of inspirational women. And to be honest, my mind goes a bit crazy with possibilities. There are possibilities for doing some kind of group podcasts, linking two or more people who've met through the podcast series, and getting them chatting together. I'm feeling more confident to try this now. Now that I've done some of the one to one sessions. How we get reliably in people's diaries is another question. How about a webinar bringing everyone together? A few months - I don't know how long - into the podcast series, contributors and listeners meeting each other online talking to each other No Gill. There's no time to talk about the process of making a podcast or the hard work that goes into even the most basic of edits, producing a description, a transcript, programme notes, chapter headings, little sound bite extracts, and all sorts. I've talked enough. Perhaps another time, or perhaps that's just boring. Let me know what you think. So finally, Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of the NHS, I hope you're enjoying the 'Wild Card Whose Shoes' series. Don't forget, I set up this podcast series, especially for you. Perhaps you're one of the listeners flagged up in these tantalizing statistics. But as we know, data only comes alive when we have human stories. And so huge thanks to everyone helping me to tell them here.