March 06, 2018

Podcasting How To’s and Tips with Jeff Bradbury and Vicki Davis

Jeff Bradbury on episode 267 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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Jeff Bradbury, IT Coach and Podcaster at the Teachercast Network and I talk about education podcasting and how it all works.

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Enhanced Transcript

Podcasting How To’s and Tips with Jeff Bradbury

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e267
Date: March 6, 2018

Vicki: Teachers, today I’m talking with fellow podcaster and friend Jeff Bradbury @JeffBradbury from the TeacherCast Network https://www.teachercast.net/.

Jeff, you and I are both podcasters. Why did you START podcasting? What do you get out of it?

Jeff: I love being able to reach out and work with teachers. We’ve been doing this for seven years now, and it’s been a great opportunity to not only meet people but have people on the show and share their stories.

Vicki: You know, I learn so much — like talking to people — and it’s almost addictive, isn’t it?

Jeff: It absolutely is.

Vicki: So what kind of feedback do you get from the audience? I mean, does that keep you going? What keeps you doing the podcast?

What keeps you going?

Jeff: Oh, you know, I get amazing feedback — not necessarily on the show, but on the things that we talk about.

Just a quick story here.

Many of you guys know that my wife is in remission from breast cancer and she recently put out kind of small stories on this show. And it was so amazing and so wonderful to get feedback saying, “I’m glad your wife is doing OK. Please send her our best and send her our love.”

That is the feedback that I absolutely love hearing about the show. People that listen and, you know, they get what you’re doing. They get that you are a family person first. I absolutely love my audience.

Vicki: Yeah, it’s really a blessing, and I have a hard time calling 10-Minute-Teacher “remarkable educators” and I have a hard time calling out my audience because I just sort of feel like it’s a shared experience.

Isn’t it hard, sometimes, adjusting from — you know, we both kind of feel like we’re just regular educators, right?

We’re just regular educators

Jeff: Absolutely. We’ve done over 800 shows here. I’ve always said that I’ve never once interviewed anybody. I’ve just always had amazing conversations with them.

Vicki: So tell us about…
What’s one of your most amazing… where you’re like, “Ohhh, this is so awesome!”

One of Jeff’s most amazing experiences as an influencer

Jeff: You know, one of my favorite shows was one that I didn’t even know that I was doing. This was five, probably six years ago. It had Dan Callahan on from — at that time, he was kind of working with the EdCamp Foundation and founders, and we just did a show on, “What Is EdCamp?”

Six months later, I got an email from this random person that said,

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know… We’re here at EdCamp Buffalo. The reason that we’re at EdCamp Buffalo is that I’ve heard your show, and it inspired me to create my own EdCamp. And now we’ve got a couple hundred people here.”

That’s pretty awesome!

Vicki: (agrees)

Jeff: And I love that story because you never know who’s listening.

Many people say, “Well, what are your numbers?”

Well, it’s not your numbers. It’s who’s listening and the impact that you have on them — it might be next week, and it might be next year. But everything that we do has the opportunity to impact the world.

Vicki: And it’s about the students.

It’s about the students.

I remember a Spanish teacher from the northeast who sent me an email once, and he said that he was a new teacher. Not only did he thank me, but his students thanked me because he was so excited about teaching in the classroom now. He just felt like he had a new life.

When you get those emails, you kind of go, “You know, I get to do this? Really? I get to love on kids every day and love my colleagues, and then I get to help other teachers fall in love again?”

It’s just awesome.

Jeff: It’s pretty remarkable.

Vicki: Yeah. It is.

So, you and I both self-produce our podcasts.

Jeff: (agrees)

Vicki: And I know that you’ve recently relaunched everything.

Is it hard to put this into your weekday routine?

Jeff: The day’s pretty simple, right?

I go to work. I come home, and now I’m a dad of 4-year-old triplets. They go to bed around 8:00. So after that is my family time with my wife or my Teachercast time here.

We recently relaunched. We rebranded, re-did everything here. The new website is AMAZING. I hope you guys have a chance to check out teachercast.net

It’s just a matter of making sure that you’ve got time to do everything.

And that was the whole idea of having the new website, was to provide myself with a resource that not only is going to knock your socks off when you see it, but also give me the time with my family that they deserve.

Vicki: Well, it’s about routines and habits, and something called batching.

So, I’m interviewing you, and we’re talking today.

I think you’re my 6th or 7th interview today.

So you know, people say, “How do you do it?”

Well, really, three or four days a month, I’ll sit down and interview six or seven.

And it’s just about routines.

And you’re right. It’s about making the back end even more efficient.

So I’m always saying, “How can we save time? How can we more helpful? How can we be more useful?”

Right?

Jeff: Absolutely. And I always preach, “Have templates ready.”

You know, make sure that your Shownotes follow a path. Make sure that your intro follows a path. That way, everybody can kind of keep on the same beat.

Vicki: And finding people to help you. Do you have some folks that help you on your show?

Jeff: You know, we have our show on Tuesday (although we might be changing it) called our Tech Educators Show. We’ve got some great co-hosts on, somebody who was recently on your show, Dr. Sam Patterson…

Vicki: (laughs) Oh yeah! I love Sam!

Jeff: You know, we’re kind of partners in crime on this.

He’s got the west coast people. I’ve got the east coast people here.

It is important to have a nice team around you. That being said, everything you see on Teachercast, from the recording to the editing to the Shownotes to the… I’ve been doing it strong by myself for about basically for seven years.

It is important to have a team around you

Vicki: (disbelief) Whoa… I don’t know how…

Jeff: But I love doing it that way. I’ve tried outsourcing it, but… I’ve gotten it down to… I can record an hour show and have it edited out in about 5-6 minutes, and published within an hour and a half of hanging up.

Vicki: Wow…

Jeff: You know, you do it so long? It’s like teaching, right? You do it so long. You get into a rhythm. You’re good to go.

Vicki: Well, we’ve just been going a year — a little over a year — with the 10-Minute Teacher.

There’s me.

There’s my husband, Kip, who is the producer.

There’s Dr. Lisa Durff, who sets all the appointments because I just can’t keep it all organized.

And Kymberli Mulford, who does the transcripts.

And Jim Beeghley, who keeps the hackers and gremlins off of my site.

I mean, it’s just so much! It seems like..

Educators, you CAN do it by yourself. Or you can do it with a team.

It can be done either way, right, Jeff?

Jeff: Absolutely. You know, you don’t HAVE to do it by yourself.

It’s just a matter of making sure that you always have your audience in mind. And it’s always about, “What does your audience want to listen to?”

So keep in mind why we’re doing this. It’s to make some great content and improve the lives of students worldwide.

Vicki: So, Jeff, what’s the worst thing about podcasting?

The worst thing about podcasting is…

Jeff: (Sighs.)

You know that you have to put a show out tomorrow or the next day, and you don’t have a guest yet to fit the spot.

Vicki: (agrees)

Jeff: Or, you’re doing a live show in five minutes, and the power goes out and you’ve got a live audience waiting for you.

Vicki: (agrees)

Jeff: I live in North Jersey up in the mountains, and I literally live on an island. When the power goes out, you’re the last people that the power company comes to.

So we’ve had that, unfortunately, a couple of times now, where everyone’s ready to go, and I’m ready to go, and then (CLICK)… nothing. (10:00)

Vicki: So your show is live, and then you turn it into a podcast, right?

Jeff: I do one live show a week. On any given week, I could be putting out anywhere between 10-15 podcasts.

Right now, like I said, when we re-launched, we actually had nine shows online plus my client shows that I do.

Plus my client shows. I do a show for the Jersey Educators Association and I also do it for Microsoft Education. So I guess that’s eleven shows total that I’m running simultaneously.

Vicki: Wow.

Jeff: So it’s a very, very, crazy, crazy thing. But I love doing it.

And for me, it’s the — you know — CAN you do it? And I love being able to help anybody.

I mean, one of the things if you go over to educationalpodcasting.tips. It’s our new private Facebook group. You guys are welcome to come in and join us.

We’ve got a growing community there. We’re an educationalpodcasting.tips. Every day we’re doing tips and tricks, and share your stories, and share your favorite this-n-that. It a little community.

Vicki: So Jeff, we have 30-seconds to wrap up. If somebody’s thinking about starting their own podcast, what’s your advice?

What’s your advice to anyone who wants to start podcasting?

Jeff: Call me.

I’ve been working with podcasters. I love working with teachers.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be anything huge.

Like I do a lot of work with teachers who want shows, or media content in their classrooms. Just as much as I love when people want to make studio like we have here.

Call me anytime. Educationalpodcasting.tips and of course you can always reach out at Teachercast

Vicki: So, educators, we’ve talked about podcasting. Als, we’ll add to the Shownotes all the equipment that I use, and I know Jeff, if you have a link to yours. He and I both use the ATR 2100 and he have a what? 2500 mic?

Jeff: Yep ATR 2500 USB. They’re fantastic microphones.

Vicki: They are, and they’re just really easy to use. I actually have two of them. So if I want to podcast with my students and bring my personal rig to school, I can do that.

And you can get started, and you can do your own podcasting.

You can partner with others. There are a lot of ways to do that.

I think… here’s the big thing.

Podcasting is so intimate to me. I listen to podcasts. I really love learning from podcasts.

And the thing about it is that we customize our own radio now, and that’s one of the things that I love about it the most.

Take a look in the Shownotes and at the teachercast relaunch and all that Jeff Bradbury is doing.

Jeff, thanks for coming on the show and for being my friend.

Jeff: Thank you so much for having me.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford kymberlimulford@gmail.com

Bio as submitted

Jeffrey Bradbury, author of Kidblog: An Introduction to Blogging With Your Students, is the creator of TeacherCast.net, TeacherCast University, and Educational Podcasting Today. He is an ASCD Emerging Leader, Google for Education Certified Innovator, Google for Education Trainer, PBS Learning Media Digital Innovator, Microsoft Innovative Educator, Microsoft Surface Expert, speaker, writer, podcaster, broadcaster, consultant, and educational media specialist. He is currently the Coordinator for Technology Integration and Instructional Technology Coach for a K-12 Regional School District in New Jersey.

In 2012, Jeff was recognized as one of top 50 educators using social media at the first ever Bammy Awards and has been nominated three times in the category of Innovator of the Year. Jeff has provided Keynote speeches for the Pearson Authentic Learning Conference, EdTechNJ, and most recently at Columbia University’s Teacher College and Podcast Mid-Atlantic conference.

Jeff earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. In his free time, Jeff enjoys teaching, web design, broadcasting, playing viola and violin, conducting, and spending time with his wife Jennifer and their four-year-old triplets.

Blog: http://www.TeacherCast.net

Twitter: @teachercast

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

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