I’ve had clients who are friendly, warm and completely themselves when we’re having a casual conversation before recording, and then they hit record and suddenly sound robotic and cold. It’s like listening to two different people.

Then I’ve had others who sound exactly how they do in real life. They laugh, go off on random tangents, stumble over their words sometimes and maybe let a swear word slip when they get passionate about something. They tend to sound more comfortable from the beginning and that definitely helps people connect with them and want to stick around.

But I don’t think that just comes down to personality.

Confidence plays a massive part too. So does how comfortable you are speaking, how easily you can articulate what you’re thinking in the moment and whether talking into a microphone feels remotely natural to you. Those things aren’t everyone’s strengths and I don’t think you need to pretend they are.

Some people can sit down, hit record and talk for 40 minutes without thinking twice about it. Other people know their subject inside out but struggle to get their thoughts out once the microphone is on. That doesn’t make them less interesting or mean they’re not cut out for podcasting. Sometimes they just need time to get comfortable doing something that feels pretty unnatural at first.

And that comfort can build.

I’ve watched it happen with clients over and over again. They find their flow, gain confidence and stop thinking quite so hard about every word coming out of their mouth. More of their personality starts coming through because they’re not using all of their brain power trying to get podcasting right.

That’s where I think the connection starts to change too.

There are millions of podcast episodes out there and a lot of people talking about similar things. The information might get someone to press play, but there’s a good chance you are part of the reason they keep coming back.

So if you’re naturally warm, funny, curious, sarcastic, passionate, a little awkward or someone who goes off on a tangent before eventually finding your way back to the point, I don’t think recording an episode should suddenly mean you have to become some polished version of yourself.

And if you’re not comfortable enough to let all of that come through yet, that’s okay too.

I used to over-polish the shit out of episodes

Back when I first started my business and had only just started working as a podcast producer, I used to remove pretty much every single breath, lip smack and tiny mouth sound I could find.

I genuinely thought that was the way to go. Clean audio meant good editing, so the more I could clean up, the better.

It didn’t take me long to realise I was also taking some of the spark out of the episode because that’s just not how people sound in a natural conversation. We breathe (luckily!), we make weird sounds sometimes, we stutter while we’re collecting our thoughts, we pause and we stuff things up.

Real and raw beats overly polished for me every time.

That’s not to say I leave absolutely everything in an episode now. I don’t. There are breaths I’ll remove because they’re distracting, filler words that become too repetitive, sections that don’t land and mistakes that genuinely need cleaning up. There’s definitely a balance between the two, and knowing what to leave alone is just as much a part of editing as knowing what to remove.

Sometimes I’ll be editing and a host will make a mistake, laugh at themselves and start again. I’ll find myself smiling or laughing along with them while I’m sitting there editing it. Most of the time I’ll keep that in because it has personality. It’s human.

And human is what builds connection.

Also, everyone has a filler word

EVERYONE has some type of filler word or phrase they cannot stop saying because it’s so subconscious.

I once counted “you know” almost 300 times in a 40-minute episode.

Three. Hundred. Times.

We got that down dramatically in the edit where we could, but having a filler word isn’t unusual at all. Some people say “um”. Some say “like”. Some have a phrase they use constantly without having any idea they’re doing it.

You’ll probably become more aware of yours the more you record, especially once you’ve had the horrifying experience of listening back to yourself enough times. But your listeners are generally not sitting there analysing every tiny thing you do the way you are.

Clean up what needs cleaning up. Work on the things that are genuinely distracting. But don’t get so caught up in trying to sound perfect that you make yourself scared to talk naturally.

You don’t have to pretend you know everything

One thing I LOVE in a guest conversation is when the guest brings something up and the host genuinely doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Not because I enjoy watching someone have no idea what’s going on, but because of what can happen next.

When the host is comfortable enough to admit they don’t know and asks the guest what it means or to explain it further, they’re being authentic and vulnerable but they’re also genuinely curious. The host gets to learn something in real time and so do all the listeners who were sitting there thinking the exact same thing.

There’s something really connecting about that because as a listener you’re thinking, oh good, we’re the same. I didn’t know either.

You don’t have to prove you’re the expert in every single thing just because you’re the one with the microphone. Sometimes being willing to say you don’t know something and asking a good question makes for a much better conversation anyway.

Scripting can actually help

I’m definitely not anti-script.

Mate, I script phone calls and replies to voice messages so I can make sure I say everything I need to say properly. Thanks to my AuDHD brain, having something there to fall back on helps.

Even just feeling more prepared can give you a little extra confidence when you’re recording.

What I don’t usually recommend is writing a full script and then reading every single word from a sheet of paper or your Notes app. You can hear it. It starts sounding robotic and inauthentic, and you lose a lot of the natural expression and changes in your voice that happen when you’re actually talking to someone.

A loose script or dot points can work really well instead. Know the main things you’re trying to get across and use those points to keep yourself on track, but give yourself enough room to actually talk.

And remember you can do as many takes as you need.

You don’t have to smash an entire episode out perfectly in one take. If you forget something or make an error, pause, breathe and repeat it from the beginning of the sentence again.

Edit it out later. Easy.

It gets less weird

For some people, sitting alone in a room and talking to themselves is a really weird feeling.

Not me, haha. Apparently I’m fine with that.

But I’ve worked with plenty of people who don’t find it natural at all, and I think that feeling has a lot to do with why some hosts sound so different when they first start recording. They’re suddenly very aware that they’re talking into a microphone and that other people are eventually going to hear it.

Once that feeling becomes less intense, that’s usually when I start noticing them becoming more themselves.

They’ve found a bit of a flow. They’ve gained confidence. They’ve also got evidence at this point that it’s working and that they can do the hard thing. They’ve recorded episodes, made mistakes, survived listening to themselves and realised they don’t have to get everything right.

There’s no set timeframe for that. Everyone is different. But I think giving yourself the space to get there is important rather than deciding after your first few episodes that you’re just not good at podcasting.

And yes, I know this is easier said than done

I can sit here and tell people to be themselves, stop worrying about sounding perfect and let people see a little more of who they actually are.

It’s still a struggle for me too.

I’m an introvert and I’ve spent years being the person behind the scenes helping other people put themselves out there. Stepping out into the limelight more with Kollective Playground and being more visible, authentic and vulnerable myself is actually one of my biggest challenges.

So I’m definitely not sitting here pretending I have all the answers or that I find any of this a walk in the park.

A lot of what I know comes from years of working with clients and watching what happens as they become more comfortable. I’ve heard the difference between someone trying to sound like a podcast host and that same person once they relax enough to sound like themselves.

I’m also now having to practise some of it myself.

Maybe that’s part of why I care about this so much. I know how uncomfortable being seen can feel, but I also know that hiding all the bits that make you you doesn’t make connection any easier.

Good production has a place. Editing has a place. Preparation and scripts have a place. I literally make a living helping with some of those things.

But they should support the person behind the podcast, not polish them away.

If you laugh at yourself when you stuff something up, maybe we keep it. If you don’t know what your guest is talking about, ask them. If you need dot points beside you so your brain doesn’t forget everything the second you hit record, use them. If you’re naturally someone who gets a bit sweary when you’re passionate about something, that’s probably going to come out occasionally too.

You don’t have to suddenly become a different person because the microphone is on.

And if you’re not quite comfortable enough to be fully yourself behind it yet, give yourself some time.

The person you were five minutes before you hit record is still who we’re trying to hear.