Adventures with Myriam Hadnes: Nurturing guests, mapping out episodes and a different view on sponsorship

Myriam Hadnes is the host of the Workshops Work podcast, where she talks to guests about facilitation and collaboration. We also talk about the role the podcast has taken in developing her business and community, sponsor breaks and how she uses a visual map to guide people into her show. 

Workshops Work was part of her business communication, and a year and a half into her podcast, she actually changed the name of her business to match the podcast. 

Her first guest was her mentor, who also introduced Myriam to workshops. She then reached out to her close community and friends. 

The show structure has become freer now - Myriam has gone from scripting all her questions and following the script, to sending some questions through to give "the illusion of preparation" and be able to follow the conversation. 

17.50 mins

Through podcasting, Myriam has also learned "the art of taking space", a concept she came across through improv. By being vulnerable and sharing her own perspective, she supports her guest helping them to play with the content, instead of being responsible for creating the content for the episode. Being of service to the other person is also something that comes from facilitation. 

Myriam edited the first 25 episodes herself, which is important to do to get a real sense of your own presence and the conversation dynamics. "We don't want a thinking break to be confused with a tech issue." She used to take 4 hours per hour of episode. 

27.30 mins

When conversations are long, the episodes are split into two shows, as Myriam asked her audience about their preferred length - they said 40 minutes and that it would be good for longer episodes to be split into two. This shows there's all kind of preferences, and it's worth asking your audience. 

32.36 mins

A few years ago, Myriam went to a conference and was so dissatisfied that eventually, after being prompted by a guest, she set up her own conference. She invited her guests to do something at an event, where they would do something that had never done before.

The first 24 hour festival took place in November 2020, and now it's evolved into this whole thing, the Never Done Before community and events: https://neverdonebefore.org/

40.50mins

Myriam talks about how she decided to get her listeners used to "sponsors breaks" since the first episode so that, if at some point she could sell sponsorship onto the show, the audience would already be used to it.

46.50 mins
Myriam has a wonderful visual map on Mural for her episodes. You can find it here: https://bit.ly/podcast-map , 

Finally, Myriam talks about what she likes best about having her show: those moments when her and the guest forget that they are recording a show and have memorable, or incredibly fun conversations. Some of her favourite moments are her conversation with Meg Bolger, and Howard Gray.

You can connect with Myriam on LinkedIn, and also check out her site Workshops Work. 

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If you're thinking of starting your own podcasting adventure, I recommend Buzzsprout as host - click here for my affiliate link, which also gets you a little discount, and Riverside FM for recording, which you can access through this other affiliate link.