Flying Solo on a Live Show: Where's My Jamie?

So I saw this question on Reddit that says, I've been running into a frustrating workflow issue lately, and I'm curious how other solo hosts handle it.

You know that moment when you're recording and you realize you needed to, you know, state a specific stat, a date, or a chart to make your point.

So what do you do?

You either option A, stop and Google it and kill the vibe of the conversation.

B, you keep talking, guess the number and risk looking dumb later.

C, flag it fix in post, which adds 20 minutes of editing time later.

Well, we're going to answer that today because I know Joe Rogan has Jamie.

He can say, hey, Jamie, pull that up.

And you don't have the budget for that.

So what do you do when you don't have a Jamie?

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So he missed an option here.

You could Google it, you could guess it, or you can fix it in post, or d have everything you need before you start going live.

In this case, we're assuming.

Yeah, he says handle live fact checking when you are going live.

Some people say this makes a better podcast because you do more research.

You have to be ready live because you don't want to go, hold on a second.

Now, there are other ways to handle it.

Now, when I record this show, the one I'm doing right now, if I were to mess up, I would just pause a good two to three seconds, something that makes a very easy to find blank space in the recording.

And then later I go back and fix it.

I do this on all my shows that I record solo.

Now, when it's live, that's a different story.

And if you're doing live and you have a chat room, it's a whole different ball game.

I do a live show every Saturday called Ask the Podcast Coach.

You can find that at ask the podcast coach.com live every Saturday at 10:30am Eastern.

And I go ahead and I have a bunch of questions ready, but primarily we are answering questions from the chat room.

And so I can't prepare for that because I don't know what they're going to ask.

And there are times when we will take a tangent and I will have to look something up.

Now, on the YouTube version of that episode, there's no editing because, well, YouTube sucks and it doesn't let Me replace the file.

But on the audio version, there are times that I will edit something out, especially if it's something very visual.

So if somebody says, how do I do this in this software?

In some cases I will just pull up the software, I will share my screen and I'll be like, yeah, just click here and do that and then click here and that's it.

And that's the other thing.

If you are doing video and you're going to later put out the audio, you have to explain.

I'm clicking on the file menu, I'm going to open.

I'm going to click here so that those that are listening might be able to follow along later.

But just to prove my point, I actually just did a mess up and I will play it now.

It's crazy.

I do a show every Saturday called Ask the Podcast Coach.

And the fun part of that is I can prepare in that the fact that I have.

In the fact that I have.

Where was I going with that?

Don't know.

But I was like, yeah, that's not gonna work.

So it's easy for me to stop.

And then what people call punch in.

I just basically go back to the last completed sentence and pick right back up where I left off.

But I'm not live right now.

Live is a different story.

Like I said, it's a different beast.

And the best thing you can do when you're going live is to be ready for all the questions.

So you have to think about, okay, I'm talking about topic A. I need to know this, that, this, that and that, and where do those come from?

Those are the questions that your audience would ask about that subject.

So keep that in mind if you're going to go live.

And really keep that in mind if you're not going live.

It stops you from having to do what I just did, which is go, oh, wait, and then kind of punch in later.

I've done that before where I'll be talking about a piece of gear.

And I'm talking about the piece of gear because maybe of its characteristics or something.

And then I'll be like, yeah, that goes for about X amount of money.

And I don't know.

So I will stop, I will go check the price and I'll come back and say, oh, that goes for about $99.

So it is all about the preparation for the episode.

I always say.

And this kind of makes me sound old.

Cause I don't think they make these anymore.

When I was growing up, they had these things called teeter totters.

Which was basically a big piece of wood with a handle on one end of it and a handle on the other.

And then you would basically prop it up on this big metal pole in the middle, and you would sit on it, and your friend on the other end would go way up in the air, and then you would kick your legs, and then you would go up and hence the teeter totter.

And so if you think about it, the more planning you do, the less editing you do because you're prepared.

And then likewise, if you go, ah, I know what I'm talking about.

I'm just gonna wing it.

It's a really good chance you're gonna end up doing some editing on that.

So more planning equals less editing.

The other thing you might consider is how many people are showing up for your live presentation.

And maybe you just don't do it live.

I know for me, my live show, I have a co host.

Thank goodness, because I am running the show.

I have sound effects, I'm checking the levels, I'm reading the chat room, I'm doing all this stuff.

And there are times when I am answering a question while at the same time trying to figure out what's the next question.

And I'm a bit add.

So my brain's going crazy because it's just squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.

Just so many things to pay attention to.

And so I will toss it over to my co host and go, well, what do you think about this?

And while he's answering, I'm looking at the chat room.

I'm figuring out what the next question is.

I'm figuring out, are we done with this topic, or are we going to have other points that we need to make on this before we move on?

There is a lot going on in your head during a live show.

Maybe that'll be my next episode.

Some tips on doing live.

But that's really it.

It's one of the things just.

Just like anything else, whether you're tap dancing, you're reading poetry, you're playing the guitar, any kind of public performance, you practice that before you do it live.

And I know when I try any kind of new technology, I always do my best to practice with it first.

You do not want to do something for the first time in front of people.

It's no fun.

Many moons ago, I played in a band, and a person walked in from Jamaica, and the lead singer of the band knew him and said, hey, get on up here.

And I looked at him and said, dude, I got zero reggae chops, you know?

But in the end, I was able to pull it off, but I was sweating bullets up there on stage because I'm like, besides, I shot the sheriff.

I'm out of that.

And that's not really, you know, I know it's Bob Marley, but come on now.

So you don't want to be in that boat where you're doing something for the first time in front of people.

It's kind of exhilarating, and it also makes you kind of wet your pants.

So don't do that.

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That.

That's my new slogan.

I can help you not wet your pants.

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