This week's podcast is from the Effective Public Speaking book.
A funny thing happened on the way to the podcast. I've been heads-down, proofing and finishing the book. I plan to start the index today. That's all finishing the book. I hate this part, but if I don't do it, I can't publish the book.
If you receive the podcast in your feed or watch the video on YouTube, you might have noticed I did not publish at 12:01 am today. That's because I separated my work into two parts yesterday. Why? Because I separated the creative part of my work from the finishing.
The creative and publishing parts are two separate tasks for this podcast. They are also two separate projects for products, such as books.
The Behind-the-Scenes Look at How I Create and Distribute
Even though I normally publish the podcast and video on Fridays at 12:01 am, I record the podcast (and video) on Thursdays. My process is:
- Write the script. That includes these steps: Take some text from the book and put it in a word processing document. Make sure I have the correct episode number.
- Record in ScreenFlow.
- Edit the recording. (I eliminate the sneezes and coughs, etc.) These short videos take me between 5 and 8 minutes to edit.
- Export the recording to an MP4.
- Use Permute to create an MP3 for the podcast.
- Upload the MP4 to YouTube. Add all the data and schedule. (Takes about 2 – 5 minutes.)
- Upload the MP3 to Libsyn. That takes slightly different data and schedule. (Takes about 2 – 5 minutes.)
All of this together takes me about 20 – 30 minutes. (When I had the severe colds, it took longer because I edited a lot more.)
Yesterday, I knew I had a lot of competition for my creative time: lots of writing and an interview. So I did steps 1-4 when I had ten minutes in the morning. I stopped at Step 5. Yet, I marked the entire task as done. Because why would I forget to do the publishing part? (Insert wry smile here.)
I wrote all the words I wanted to write and finished all my work for the day. Hahahaha. I forgot the distribution part: publish the podcast and the video. I did this morning.
Many product development teams separate their product creation from product distribution. Sometimes, that makes sense. Other times, not so much. I should not have separated those steps yesterday. I have now learned something quite valuable!
The Podcast:
The Transcript:
This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for August 15, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
This is from the Effective Public Speaking book.
Anonymize People in Your Stories
If you're talking about real people, anonymize them. I always tell my audience that every story is true, and that includes all the stories in this book. I always changed their names and often their genders. That creates realistic stories while protecting the innocent and the people who did not realize the effects of their actions.
I don't call the people who created the problems “guilty.” That blames people for their ignorance. Besides, I hope some of those people will be in the audience, so I can offer them alternatives. That allows my audience to start trusting that I won't blame them for their problems.
Consider anonymizing people by using common names. That helps prevent people from feeling any blame.
The Video:
The video link is here.