Behind the Scenes #3: Loop in a friend "research" tactic
A new way to research guests, and getting over mental blocks… Welcome back to the Statement Mondays biweekly update!
What is Statement Mondays? It’s a podcast for college and early-career women about being bold and authentic in the workplace. I interview career-minded women with strong identities who give examples, advice, and tools that inspire listeners to bring more of who they are into what they do.
👩🏼🎨 Since last time:
I’m going forward with the experiment but making sure not to make extra work for myself. I have almost everything ready and am finishing editing episode #2 (I’m seeking feedback on 2 episodes, both in general and comparing two different structures/~vibes)
Branding debacle: I think I’ll use Penji for at least a month or two to get me on my feet in terms of brand design. After that I can supplement with my own artistic hand or one-off commissions.
🧠 #1 thing on my mind: Loop in a friend -- interviewee 'research' idea
I have my 11th interview this week and I’m piloting a new tactic that I’m extremely excited about. When I send the guest my list of interview questions, I ask her to loop in one of her closest friends before the interview to answer similar questions about her.
Violà! These answers are both conversation kindling and an outside perspective on the guest by someone who knows her well. Now that I’m interviewing people I don’t already know, I hope looping in a close friend will give me the ability to take our conversation deeper faster (far better than LinkedIn research). Also a way I can differentiate from other podcasts… Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes in my next update.
🤓 Learnings:
I’ve finally started catching myself over-editing super nitpicky details while building out these first two full episodes. I’m getting better at morphing my perfectionism to scrappiness.
I also caught myself avoiding doing certain tasks, like recording the blurbs to intro the episode guest. So I outlined each of my top 4 priorities (website, experiment, branding, and more interviews) in terms of blockers to force myself to be honest about why I’m not working on certain things. Here’s one of the graphics:
🙌 Shoutouts:
Elizabeth Weil inspired me for this loop in a friend idea when she actually looped in her best friend to our email thread before her interview! The idea was to “keep her honest” on the answers to my interview questions. Thank you Elizabeth for the precedent.
Thank you to those of you who responded with branding advice -- I’m looking at you Vicki, Fischer, and Cason!
Aaand thank you to those of you who gave me tips or contacts for Berlin housing. I’m all set now and am headed overseas October 21st through the end of the year!
🍪 Asks:
Have any stories or pics of how you’ve been bold lately? Send ‘em my way, I might feature them in an update or a future social media post (when that’s up and running...) :)
Thanks for reading! And if you need a reason to be bold today, here it is -- today is Statement Monday.
Natalie Muenster
Founder | Statement Mondays