The @workingdraft podcast invited me to talk about the topic “TYPO3 Performance”. In this post I will share how it came to that invitation. In the second part of this post I describe the learnings out of my first recorded podcast.

The history

In November 2017 my colleague Dirk Döring retweeted a “call for topics” of the @workingdraft podcast. The workingdraft podcast is a major german podcast with about web development topics with about 14.000 downloads per episode.

After some days of thinking I sent a DM, that I would be interested. There were three main reasons for that:

1. I hear various podcasts since years, so I know this medium “from the other side”
2. I was thinking about curating a podcast myself for several months, but had no experience. This would be the chance to make my first step in this area.
3. I have a topic, which I talked about several times at conferences, usergroups and TYPO3camps: “TYPO3 Performance”

So I was very happy to read, that they accepted me as a guest. After some planning on a kanban board, we did the recording mid December. After much audio editing, the podcast went live this week. You can hear the result at http://workingdraft.de/326/ or in the podcatcher of your choice. (Sorry for my english speaking readers, it is a german podcast … but stay tuned and read on about my ideas ;-) )

My Learnings

As already said, it was my first invitation to a podcast … so I learned a couple of things.

Take your time for setup

Especially if podcasting is not a day to day business for you, take your time to setup your equipment and test it upfront. I started about 1.5 hours before the recording began. Unfortunately my external microphone did not work and with my BT headset I did not hear my own voice. This had two effects:

1. I got more nervous upfront as it would be necessary.
2. I felt quite uncomfortable with the setup, while recording the podcast.

Both points could have been less, if I would have had the equipment the weekend before.

Equipment

Due to the malfunction of the external microphone, I had to use the microphone, which is build into my Apple MacBook. As you might notice, the sound quality is “not optimal”. So if you can manage to use an external mic, do it. Your audience will appreciate it.

The other point is, that your headphones must reflect your own voice.  You must hear your own voice. If you do not hear it, you cannot speak with confidence.

My recommendation is, if you are lending the equipment, lend it at least one week before, in order to be able to change and to get confident with it until the recording starts.

Duration

If you want to be part of a podcast episode, choose the topic, for which you do not need more than one hour. The longer it takes, the more exhausting it is. We needed about 2 1/4 hours for a final recording length of 1 1/2 hours.

The last half an hour I was so exhausted, that I did not get out a normal german sentence any more (This was at least my impression). I hope, you can get something out of this part.

Next time I would prefer smaller topics or splitting up into two recordings / episodes.

What’s next?

I don’t really know ;-) As already written, I would like to try curating a podcast about TYPO3, which should be published regularly, f.e. once a month. Currently I am in contact with an english native speaker about setting up a podcast. Hopefully I can update you with this project in the next weeks.

Starting this podcast project, would also mean diving into new areas, like audio tools, recording and cutting episodes for me. I am quite curious what will happen.

If you would like to talk about a TYPO3 specific topic (in english), drop me a note. It would be very helpful to have topics at start, when talking about concept and possible schedule.

Conclusion

I would be very happy, if you enjoy Revision 326 of the workingdraft podcast and take away one or the other hint for TYPO3 performance. Additionally each layer will be covered in a special post on this blog. If english is not your favorite language, you can take the chance to meet me at the next TYPO3camp Mitteldeutschland in Dresden.

Credits

I want to thank my supporters via patreon.com, who make this blog post possible. If you appreciate my blog and want to support me, you can say “Thank You!”. Find out the possiblities here:

I found the blog post image on unsplash. It was published by Jonathan Velasquez under the Unsplash License.