Unlocking a Treasure Trove of Content: Katherine Burrows on Mastering Podcasting with Repurposed Material

Embark on a transformational journey with Katherine Burrows, the ghostwriter and book coach extraordinaire, who deftly navigates the podcasting world with her show, The Write Connection. Discover how she debunked the myth that scripted perfection is necessary for impactful podcasting, and learn the art of repurposing written content effectively. Katherine's experience transitioning from the written word to the spoken, and her strategy for leveraging existing material into engaging podcast episodes, will inspire seasoned podcasters and novices alike to harness the full potential of their content.

In this episode, prepare to be enlightened as Katherine unveils the secrets to finding a trove of usable content within your existing works, from blog posts to keynote speeches. She shares her personal hurdles and successes in curating content, providing invaluable insights on how to infuse your unique voice into each episode, thereby influencing and inspiring your audience. Listeners of Communication Connection Community will come away equipped with the tools to transform their communication strategies and elevate their podcasting game to new heights.

Connect with Katherine
https://www.katherineburrowscreative.com/
The Write Connection
https://www.katherineburrowscreative.com/the-write-connection

Social Media
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https://www.facebook.com/katherineburrowscreative
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineburrows/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Communication Connection Community the podcaster's podcast. This podcast takes a deep dive into modern day communication strategies in the podcasting space. We chat with interesting people who make the podcasting and speaking spaces exciting and vibrant. We also dive into the podcasting community with news updates, latest trends and topics from this ever-evolving space. So strap in, it's going to be one amazing ride.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Let's dive into today's episode, and I know that maybe it's scary for you as you're sitting here listening to these myths. You're going okay, I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable, but how do I bust through these myths? And what we're sharing with you is not just how to bust through them, but examples of people that have busted through these myths as well. Today. It's all about content, and our guest today knows all about content, but that was also the myth that she had to bust through.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Catherine Burrows is a ghost writer and book coach who helps subject matter experts and thought leaders write books for their businesses to improve lives, influence others and change the world. A lifelong writer turned entrepreneur, catherine is passionate about where storytelling and brand stories intersect. She hosts the Right Connection podcast, where she interviews experts, shares her wisdom and connects with her community. Now, when it came to the podcast, though, as I said, content was a myth that she had to bust through. So Catherine came to the podcast, though, as I said, content was a myth that she had to bust through. So, catherine, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:29

Thank you so much, Carl. It's always a pleasure to chat with you.

Speaker 1: 1:32

It's great to have you here and I'm very surprised that we're talking about this myth. So what I want to do is take you back and this isn't shell shock, I don't, it's not that kind of thing but I want to take you back to prior to launching the podcast you're working through. You know the mental exercises to get ready to do this. What was it about the content that made you uneasy or that presented a bit of trepidation?

Speaker 2: 1:59

Well, there was a couple different things actually. First, I struggled with the thought of creating completely separate content from you know, say, blog posts or other written content, that, because this is spoken content, that it would be a completely different thing, and also sort of how to transition that content. As you know, when I first started doing my podcasts, I wanted to write out every single word, this beautifully, perfectly sculpted script. Every word was chosen for a reason, every sentence was in a specific order and it was all laid out and I just wanted to read through it, and we had several conversations about that.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Yes, we did. Yes, we did, and I'm glad you mentioned this, because this is one of the challenges that people have with content, because they throw their hands up in the air, like I mentioned in the previous episode. They throw their hands up in the air and say how am I going to create all this content? Or I don't have any content. Where am I going to get this content from? Not knowing that we already have the content in us through, for example, books that we've written, but also articles we've written, facebook lives we've done, blog posts, all of those things. But you made a very interesting point and I want you to elaborate on this and your journey the content. Once you realize I have content, it's how do you take that content and curate it for a podcast? And that was a bit of a struggle back then.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Yes, yes, it was yeah. We you know, all of us who have been entrepreneurs for a while or coaches, have lots of content you know, all the ones you mentioned, but I also think of keynote speeches. You know courses we've done, maybe online courses or live webinars, boot camps, masterclasses all those kinds of things are great places to find content.

Speaker 1: 4:01

And when you're working with clients, you must share that with them too. You must say okay, well, I know you have content because you've given numerous speeches or talks or you have workshops or you have things that you've done, but it's the curation from those workshops. You can't just take a workshop and slap it into a book and say here's my book. There's a process that you have to go through when you're writing correct, right?

Speaker 2: 4:26

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 4:27

It depends on the audience, but it also depends on the medium that you're using you can't just run it through a transcription service or software and say, okay, here's chapters one through 10 of my book in order and send that to you for just fixing, because there's a certain formatic, there's a certain flow, there's certain things you need to that you need to do to format, if I can say that the book right.

Speaker 2: 5:07

Yes, and you know, we all know, that there's a difference between the written word and the conversational word. The way that we write a letter, or write a blog post or even writing emails anything that's business related is very different than how we have a conversation, and whether that's a conversation with our close loved ones or a conversation with business colleagues or at a networking event. Those are two different things. Not only is there some different language involved, but there's a very different structure involved.

Speaker 1: 5:39

And that was your challenge. That was your struggle because you're so comfortable with the written word and even taking it from spoken word into written word, or examples of somebody that might've used crib notes as their signature talk, for example. You're used to that, but what you had to do was take written word and get out of your written head and into your mouth, into your voice. How did that feel at first? You mentioned having to hold onto the notes, and that's fine, by the way. So for anybody listening, if you're thinking, oh my goodness, he says don't have a script. I'm not saying don't have a script, I'm saying don't stick to the script forever because you will sound like you're reading from a script. You will sound like you're reading from a script, but you evolve beyond that. How did that feel when you started to let go of the page and just speak more, not off the cuff, but speak more conversationally, as opposed to being handcuffed or chained to the script?

Speaker 2: 6:32

It was really scary.

Speaker 1: 6:35

It's like swimming without a life jacket or water wings. Right, it's uncomfortable at first.

Speaker 2: 6:40

Yeah, and I'm grateful that you were there to metaphorically hold my hand through the process of coaching me through it all. But it was a bit like jumping off a cliff and getting out of my comfort zone, realizing that I had to let go of all these, the way I had been doing things for my whole life, because I've been writing my whole life, so I'm very, very used to and comfortable with the written word. And just taking that flying leap off the cliff and saying you know what? I'm going to take a chance and I'm going to try this. And it was so freeing and I was shocked and delighted at how authentic it sounded when you and I first did that episode on my podcast. I think it's six or seven episodes in where we just had a conversation.

Speaker 1: 7:33

And congratulations, by the way, on taking that leap of faith. I think there were a few times you were telling me maybe not audibly, but certainly in your mind. You were saying, carl, you take a flying leap because I don't want to let go of my script, I want to hang on to it. This is my livelihood and that's totally understandable. But now that you're in that place and, by the way, just if you're listening to this, this episode here and we're recording this about a year and a half after Catherine launched her podcast, so this is late December of 2022.

Speaker 2: 8:03

And I'm well into season three now.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Yeah, catherine's coming up to her second year of podcasting, third season of podcasting, so that's phenomenal. Rome wasn't built in a day. It's been a phenomenal journey.

Speaker 2: 8:18

I've definitely honed my skills too, you know. Through practice I've learned what questions to ask, how to answer questions better.

Speaker 1: 8:28

Well, and I think one of the things you've learned is that you've learned how to be in the moment, yeah, and not try and plan out how to be in the moment when that moment happens.

Speaker 2: 8:39

It's true, and you talked about getting out of my head and into my voice, but to me it was kind of getting into my heart and being my true self, but then also appreciating the authenticness of the people that I'm interviewing, specificness of the people that I'm interviewing and being open to where they wanted to go, sometimes even if it wasn't exactly planned. Because what I usually do is, when we jump on the Zoom call to record an interview, kind of talk about maybe three bullet points that we want to cover and then just hit record, just so we're on the same page of kind of topic. Those unplanned moments, those unplanned tangents that we go on, those are often the most magical, the most insightful, the most beautiful moments of the whole podcast.

Speaker 1: 9:30

And full disclosure. By the way, I'll ask you this question, catherine how much prep time did we have for this episode? How many crib notes did you receive before I said, okay, let's hit record?

Speaker 2: 9:43

You did not give me any crib notes.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Well, let's be fair. I did say we're talking about the content myth. That's one crib note, I guess you could say. And the second crib note was at some point close to the end. I'll ask you for the final thought, but that's it. I didn't say, okay, I'm going to ask you this question. We sort of talked about it, but we didn't sit down. And, by the way, I'm not suggesting that you do this if you're not comfortable.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Catherine's method and I will do this too, by the way Catherine's method of having a guest, even if that guest comes already with an idea of what they're going to be talking about, even if they've given you, if you're using a podcast intake form I know Catherine uses one just even to help her filter through, to making sure she has the right guests on her show, and I will do that as well, by the way but I can also read an email and figure out okay, if you're selling lotions and potions, you might not be the best person for my podcast, but if you're a coach or consultant, then you'd be perfect.

Speaker 1: 10:38

But using that intake form even, there's still some flexibility to allowing yourself to be authentic. So when I have guests on, I'll do exactly what Catherine said, I'll make two or three crib notes or write down two or three questions that we can use as thought starters if we get into the conversation and we get stymied somewhere and, by the way, this is why we don't go live, and this will be another podcast, another discussion, another day the reason we don't go live is you never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to happen, especially if you're going in with not a lot of prep. But part of that, as you said, catherine, is the authenticity of it and being able to speak freely and let the magic come out.

Speaker 2: 11:19

For sure and, as you know, part of my work is about bringing out the authentic character of the business owner as they become an author, and I really think that being spontaneous and being in the moment on our podcasts also allows our guests and also our audience to see the authentic character of us and the guests and it just it allows them to really get to know us in a way that they don't from you know website content or social media posts.

Speaker 1: 11:52

And the podcast itself has obviously helped to springboard the business a little bit. You've seen some growth that maybe you hadn't seen before. You now look at people that have podcasts and say, hey, I can help you transform that podcast into a book. By the way, we're going to drop all of Catherine's links in the show notes. So if you're firstly, if you're thinking of writing a book, like I am it's almost time. Catherine's been at me for almost two years. When's your, when are you going to write your book? It's almost time. But even if you are a podcaster and you're thinking maybe I should convert my podcast, yeah, you can do it, Catherine can help you with that. But even if you're not a podcaster, if you're again, if you're thinking of writing a book or thinking of doing both, Catherine certainly can help you on that journey, for sure to get your message out there.

Speaker 2: 12:41

And we absolutely love to collaborate with each other in general, but we also love to collaborate with clients who are launching a book and a podcast at the same time to really create the content in harmony with each other, so that's also an awesome option.

Speaker 1: 12:59

I have to say, catherine, it's a pleasure working alongside you. I'm so excited for where your podcast is headed, I'm so excited for where it's where your business is headed, but how the podcast is fitting into that in elevating your credibility and positioning you as the go-to authority. As I said, all her links will be in the show notes, including the links to her website, all of the ways in which you can work with Catherine and, of course, her podcast, the Right Connection. You might hear two familiar voices on that show Just saying but before I let you go, catherine, I'm going to give you the final thought no-transcript. So much, catherine, for being my guest today. Catherine Burrows, ghostwriter and book coach, busting through the content myth. Thanks for being here.

Speaker 2: 14:07

Thanks so much, always a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 14:08

And thank you for joining us today. Special thanks to our producer and production lead, dom Coriglio, our music guru, nathan Simon, and the person who works the arms all of our arms, actually my trustyy assistant, stephanie Gaffour. If you like what you heard today, leave us a comment and a review and be sure to share it with your friends. If you don't like what you heard, please share it with your enemies. Oh, and, if you have a suggestion of someone who you think would make an amazing guest on the show, let us know about it. Drop us an email, askcarl at carlspeaksca. Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter as well. You'll find all those links in the show notes, and if you're ready to take the plunge and join the over 3 million people who have said yes to podcasting, let's have a conversation. We'll show you the simplest way to get into the podcasting space, because, after all, we're podcast. Solutions made simple. We'll catch you next time.