Episode Transcript
Krista: Hi, everyone. I'm your guest host, Krista Yuscow. We are joined today by educational audiologist and podcaster, Carrie Spangler. Carrie, welcome.
Carrie: Thank you, Krista. I'm so excited to be here today.
Krista: I know, we haven't chatted in a while. You and I have had a pretty interesting journey to our friendship. We do not live anywhere near each other, but somehow connect on many projects over the years now.
Carrie: I know. You do have your roots from your graduate program here in Ohio. Even though we didn't know each other, we have that connection here.
Krista: That is very true. I am an Ohio State Buckeye at heart.
Carrie: Yes, you are.
Krista: Carrie, we're pretty excited to have you here at The Future is Sound to talk about your experience with podcasts. This is new to me, but I know you're pretty seasoned, and now we have something else in common, both educational audiologists and now both, I can say, podcasters.
Carrie: Exactly.
Krista: I'd love it if you could introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your background.
Carrie: Just a snapshot version, I am an educational audiologist, like you said. I've been in the field for 24 years now, which is really unbelievable. I really got started in educational audiology because of my own personal journey of growing up as an individual that is deaf or hard of hearing. I was born with significant hearing loss in both ears. I wasn't diagnosed until the age of four, just because we didn't have newborn hearing screening.
I went through my neighborhood school with not a lot of support. When I graduated, one of my audiologists asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. She had suggested the field of audiology. I have not looked back since then.
Krista: I love that. It's so interesting because everyone's journey to the field is quite different. However, people who have experience being deaf or hard of hearing, it always seems like such a natural fit. So many of the students I've worked with, I just think, oh. I've had one actually who's now an audiologist. I do think it's an amazing way to share your experience and pass on your knowledge to others, your direct knowledge and experience. So that's awesome.
Tell me a little bit about your podcast experience. Tell us a little bit about your podcast, and then I want to know what inspired you to even start podcasting.
Carrie: My podcast is called EmpowEar Audiology, and really it is just a platform to interview professionals who are in the field or related to the field, anything about hearing, hearing loss, auditory processing, auditory needs, anything that really relates to those individuals that we work with. A lot focused on pediatrics, but I also look at adults as well.
In addition to having that platform to interview professionals in the field, I also like to interview parents or individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing and have their own personal journey. Really, it's just a platform to EmpowEar others who are out there, that listeners to be able to tune in and hear behind the scenes conversations with individuals who are out there making a difference in our field.
Krista: Would you say your demographic, your target audience is every parent, professional, teacher, whoever's out there listening?
Carrie: It really is. I think anybody that really has a connection can gain something from the podcast. I hear from different individuals who are like, oh, I really wanted to hear more about, for example, misophonia, which is just one of those niche topics. I had interviewed someone in that area, and I had other listeners who tuned in that way. But I would say overall, a lot of audiologists tune in, teachers of the deaf tune in, I've had parents tune in.
I think one of the exciting audiences that I always hear from are graduate students. A lot professors at different universities will have those students tune in to a certain episode or a topic, and they're able to use that as another learning tool in their toolbox to really talk about a topic, or to hear maybe a professional that they're not going to have in their own class, but they can get another way to get that professional into their class and have a conversation about it.
Krista: It's interesting, Carrie, because we've talked so much, but I've never actually picked your brain about your podcast, so I've got so many questions flying around. Back to that one question, what inspired you to start this?
Carrie: I always like to do new things, and I always like connecting with people. There's always been something about going to maybe a conference, you're sitting there in the audience, and then afterwards you have an opportunity to ask more questions, kind of that behind-the-scenes of what was going on with the presentation.
One of my colleagues, Dr. Todd Houston, had asked me to be on his podcast. It was called The Listening Brain. After the podcast, he said, have you ever considered your own podcast? I was like, well, not really, but it's an interesting concept.
He and there are about three of them colleagues that own what is called 3C Digital Media Network. It's really a platform for professionals to be able to connect and communicate with different individuals, whether it's through webinars, podcasts, or blogs, but they have the framework for everything.
He really was the one who inspired me to start this. Because I was able to work with him and 3C, a lot of the things that were stopping me from starting something were taken care of with the 3C Digital Media Network.
Krista: When was that? What year was that?
Carrie: I want to say my first episode was August 2020. We're coming up on three years now.
Krista: Isn't that a great time to start something with the pandemic and everything, everyone being online, and looking for access and connection that way? That was an ideal time to kick off.
Carrie: It was a very ideal time.
Krista: I've heard you mention episodes a few times. How often are you airing a new episode, and then how do you pick your topics or themes?
Carrie: For a while I was looking at every other week on a Thursday just releasing episodes. I'm actually restructuring a little bit right now and thinking about maybe having more of just a few episodes on a topic, then just going from there, and just seeing how that goes. I'm still playing around with that.
I have over 50 episodes right now that are out there wherever you listen. Whether it's Spotify, Apple, or Google, they are out there for the world to hear and listen to.
How do I pick my topics? I think it's all about curiosity and just brainstorming. I get these ideas from other listeners who are out there. They give me ideas about, this would be an interesting person or a topic to interview, and just reaching out that way.
Going to conferences and having that in the back of my head of these are hot topics, so this was a really good session. It would be great if they would be willing to share that information in a different way so that people who may not have attended that conference would be able to listen as well.
I always tap into my resources and the individuals that I already know out there, and just ask them if they would want to participate in being on a podcast. Luckily, most people say yes.
Krista: Much like you did today. I know how many irons you have in the proverbial fire. You're a busy, busy lady with your educational audiology, all of the speaking engagements, book chapters, and projects that you work on. How much time does this take for you?
Carrie: I think it goes in spurts. That's just one of those things that you just have to dedicate time to. We're gearing up to go back, but during the summer, a lot of times I will just schedule time to really bulk work on the podcast. Maybe I would schedule four, five, or six episodes that I'm recording, and then I'm almost banking them up for later on in the year when it's a little bit busier throughout the school year. That's just one way of doing it.
Really, I think my whole thing was at the beginning is just getting organized, brainstorming, and just writing list of all of the people that I might think about or all the different topics that I might think about, and then filling out a calendar throughout the year of like, okay, for this month, these two episodes or these two topics might be good to think about. Just breaking it down into smaller portions is really helpful.
Once you get into the flow of it, I think it's easier. You have your brainstorming, and then you get your organization in check. I use a lot of different folders for every episode. I have a certain template that I go by. I have a different intro and outro that is already recorded and systematic throughout the podcast episodes as well. Just reaching out to the different people that may want to come on the podcast, finding out more information about them, and then scheduling in some time that works for both me and the person that would like to come on to the podcast.
I don't know if I really answered your question. It does take a lot of time, but I think if you enjoy it, it doesn't seem as much. It's not as much a work thing, it's more of an enjoyment and hobby.
Krista: It is talking about how you format it. What's interesting is my experience thus far is minimal, but you create these questions, but it really gives us a time. Like I said, I haven't talked to you about this before, so it's just an opportunity for me to pick your brain about something really interesting.
Do you know of any other podcast other than The Future is Sound that is audiology-focused? Are there many out there, EmpowEar, this one, the one that you had mentioned earlier? Are there more that you know of?
Carrie: If you go on to wherever you listen and put audiology in the search engine, you will see that there are several other audiology podcasts that are out there. I can't remember. I feel like his name is Dakota Sharp, and he has a podcast called On The Ear. I've listened to his podcast too.
There's a teacher of the deaf. They have a podcast called Todd Pod. It's a nice little podcast to listen to. It certainly is a niche, but if you think about the podcasting world in general, there are—I think I tried to look it up—millions of podcasts out there that people can listen to. I'm sure just in your own experience of whatever you might be interested in, you can search anything and find a podcast about it.
Krista: Absolutely, anything. I'm a True Crime podcast listener myself. It's pretty neat to find quite numerous options in that area. Who have been some of your more notable guests?
Carrie: Oh, my goodness. I feel like every one of my guests is notable in some way, shape, or form.
Krista: Fair enough.
Carrie: It's so hard.
Krista: Were there a couple of standouts that maybe you invited them because of a personal connection, or that was something a little bit more meaningful to you? Of course, they're all interesting, but something that maybe was a bit more meaningful from a personal perspective, just someone that stood out in your mind, or even someone who you got amazing feedback from other listeners.
Carrie: I think one of my notable guests was one of my first guests that I had, and it was Dr. Carol Flexer. She was just so excited that I was starting this. She was my audiologist when I was younger, so we have so much history over the years. She was so willing to be one of my first guests and go through all of the bumps and everything that went along with starting a podcast.
I really enjoyed interviewing her and then finding out about her history of starting out in audiology, just like all of us do with applying to school and getting through all of that. That would be one of my first notable guests too.
I loved interviewing Cheryl DeConde Johnson because I feel like she's in our little niche of a field of educational audiology. She is that person that I think everybody thinks of in the field of educational audiology too.
One of my dear friends, Gail Whitelaw at The Ohio State University, and I have worked on many projects together. To be able to get together in this coffee talk format and share our combined experiences was fun too.
I think some that are not audiologists, Rebecca Alexander, she lives in New York City, she's a psychotherapist, and she also has a journey with Usher's Syndrome. She has written a book called Not Fade Away, so she's an author as well. She was just an incredible person to have on the podcast and was willing to share within her circles too when that podcast was released.
I would say those are some of the ones that really stand out. I always love interviewing parents, too. I just had an interview that hasn't been released yet. Actually, I interviewed her twice, Valli Gideons. She does a lot on social media, but she just authored a book called Through the Fog. It's really a handbook or just memories that she's had raising two children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Another way to get that information out there, whether it's professionals, parents, or individuals, so they have different resources.
Krista: That is the great thing about podcasts. It can reach so many different audiences with soap and provides many different resources. That's great. Do you have any process that you go through when you're researching the questions you want to ask or the background of your guests?
Carrie: I do. I feel like I spend a lot of time. If they're an author, I definitely will read their book and just take notes through that. That becomes my outline or a template that I'm going to be sending to them ahead of time, just so that they have an idea of the flow of the conversation might be like. If they want to add anything, or if they don't want to talk about something, they have that opportunity to take out a question if they don't feel comfortable with it.
For professionals, if they are a researcher, for example, and they want to talk about maybe their latest research, I will ask them to send me a couple of their latest articles that they may have or maybe a copy of a presentation that they just did, so that I can look at it and come up with some really good questions that they would want to talk about. Really, my first step is doing all of the reading, just taking notes, and coming up with different questions.
Once I do that, I usually put together an outline similar to what you did to get me thinking about what we are going to have a conversation about, and send it to them ahead of time so they have that opportunity to look at it and maybe get certain information that they might not know off of the top of their head into notes or whatever.
Krista: You said if it's an author, you read the book. Because of these years of experience you've had doing this and researching these different topics, you must have had the opportunity to dive into a bunch of really good resources. That's really exciting.
Carrie: It is. You just get to ask questions that if you saw them at a presentation, you wouldn't really be able to ask, or get the behind-the-scenes information about whatever that topic might be.
Krista: That's a good point. I love it. Everyone always wants to know, what are the biggest challenges? Have you had any challenges that are in general, but a specific challenge or a specific barrier that came up in your recordings?
Carrie: I think initially, the biggest challenge or barrier was that I don't know how many people like to hear themselves when they record themselves. To be able to, in my brain, overcome this, I guess, anxiety or fear of like, I don't sound perfect, I messed up, or maybe I should have asked the question in a different way, just giving yourself that grace to make mistakes.
It doesn't have to be perfect. It's a conversation. Conversations aren't perfect. I think that was my biggest challenge starting out. It was like, I don't want to listen to myself.
Krista: Do you listen to all of your episodes?
Carrie: I do. Once we record it, I send that over to 3C Digital Media Network. They do all of the behind-the-scenes with the intro, the outro, and all of that, and then they send it back to me because with my episodes, I want to make sure that I have transcripts available for listeners, who may want a written form of the podcast. All of those are available on the website themselves.
They're not available through Spotify or whatnot, but you can get them. That's when I listen to the episode. I will go through and correct anything that is misspelled or not right within the transcript process. At that point, most everything is ready for release. It's just me editing the transcript so that it can be uploaded onto the website.
Krista: As you can see, we are visually recording this. Is your recording audio only?
Carrie: I do a similar recording with Zoom that we can see each other just so that it makes it more personal. The actual episodes are only audio. Like I said, there's that transcript option, too. That is definitely a trend in podcasting, where a lot of people are doing more YouTube episodes, so they will record how we're doing it right now, and you see each other, and then they're uploading that into maybe a YouTube channel, so people can get the information or listen to the podcast with the visuals as well.
Krista: That's true for even news. I listen to the news on the radio, but when I'm away for work, I have it on the TV in my hotel room. It's a visual recording of them sitting in the audio recording studio. Yeah, it's true for a lot of things, I guess, that trend of visually recording the recording.
Are there any other trends in podcasting that you're aware of?
Carrie: I feel like podcasting is one of those fields that there’s no set of rules, I guess, for podcasting. It's really open. I think what I did initially, I listened to podcasts about podcasting to see what people are doing and the people who are really, I guess, their occupation is podcasting and teaching others about podcasting.
There is one podcaster, her name is Krystal Proffitt. I listen to her all of the time. She has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of episodes, but she's only talking about podcasting. What are their latest trends, how do you get more listeners, how do you market, or how do you advertise? Just different things like that. She does a lot with emails, which I don't.
She definitely has other ways that she markets her podcast through social media that I haven't been as good at doing. I'm getting the information out there, but it's something that I think with little steps, you can add something new or different to your podcast.
Krista: For anyone out there listening, if you're an aspiring podcaster, that's a good resource then for getting up and running.
Carrie: Yes. I would love to meet her someday because she just has so many amazing resources that are helpful for beginners out there. I think her tagline is, you have to start somewhere. That's really, I think, the basis for podcasting. If you're thinking about podcasting, you just have to start somewhere.
For me, that was having that nudge from someone asking me and then really just diving into YouTube videos, podcasts, books about podcasting and getting there. But at some point, you're never going to be 100% ready, and you're never going to be 100% perfect. You just start where you can.
Krista: That's a great piece of advice for starting. Do you have any other pieces of advice if there are any people listening who are thinking of starting their own podcast and think, oh, I don't know other than getting over the sound of your own voice and just jumping in?
Carrie: I guess if you're thinking about podcasting like, what is your why? Why do you want to start? What is your niche? What do you want to get out there to the world? I think overcoming your voice is one thing.
But also, knowing that whatever you're putting out there, how are you helping someone else? What information can you share with others that is going to maybe impact somebody in a different way?
I think finding your niche and finding your target audience are just some other ways that you want to think about when you're thinking about beginning a podcast.
Krista: That's true. Sometimes we don't even know the effect that our experience that we're sharing might have on someone. Someone just might connect with what you're saying, even if it's unintended. Just to put yourself out there a little bit.
Carrie: I have a great story that just happened a couple of weeks ago as a result of a podcast that I wasn't thinking about. There was a student who reached out to me. She was from Texas. She just said, I have been listening to your podcast, I just wanted to reach out to you. I'm also am thinking about going into the field of audiology. I have a cochlear implant and a hearing aid, I would just love to talk to you. That's how she found out.
She had been listening to some of my personal journey and some of the individuals that I had interviewed on the podcast. To be able to, I guess, make an impact in a way that I never thought the podcast would make an impact was really powerful.
Krista: Those stories probably just really warm your heart, right?
Carrie: They do.
Krista: I have one last question that just popped into my head. Has there ever been a situation, or has anything come out of the podcast that has changed your perspective as a practicing audiologist at all? Other than maybe some of the research things that you learn, but just something that you've internalized that has made you approach your job as an audiologist a bit differently?
Carrie: I think that comes from a lot of the parents that I interview and from the individuals who are living their life as a deaf and hard of hearing adult or a teen. To be able to hear their stories and know that every story is just so different in their journey is powerful. I think it’s just a great reminder that whenever we are working with individuals or families, knowing that we have to approach them all the same in the way that they're all different.
I think that is one of those things that every time I hear a story, there are so many similarities, but there are so many differences between the parents and the individuals, and we just have to remember that and take that with us everywhere we go when we're working with families and kids.
Krista: I always remember someone saying, patients aren't just a big ear. There's so much more. That just emphasizes that.
Carrie, it was so fun having you here on The Future is Sound. Thank you so much for joining us.
Carrie: Thank you, Krista, for having me. It was just exciting to be a part of today's podcast.
Krista: Maybe we'll have some new audiology podcasters out there.
Carrie: Yes. If anybody's interested, they can just find me on EmpowEar Audiology. Just search that. They can look on the 3C Digital Media Network and find the website there. I hope that people will listen.
Krista: I can't wait to hear the next episode. Thanks again for joining us. Listeners, we'll see you next time. Bye.
