Issue No. 2
The Making of Season 4
I started Enneagram Restored Podcast in 2021, and since then I’ve concluded four seasons.
Well… technically, three seasons because I still have produced the last episodes of season four (they’ve been patiently waiting in the wings).
Anyway… with each new season, I try to change at least one thing about the podcast. But so far, season four has had the most changes with a total of changes reaching past six.
Why make so many changes at one time?
The answer is simple… my end goal. From the beginning, it was my intent for Enneagram Restored Podcast to evolve. In 2021 when it all began, I wanted the podcast to be informational and to educate because I wanted those who may have never of The Enneagram or those who had a very minute knowledge about The Enneagram to be able to understand it easily. Essentially, I wanted to present a breakdown and build a foundation of knowledge about the Enneagram during the first season.
Now, I never wanted the podcast to stay in the educational realm; furthermore, the intent to was to go from educational to conversational over the first five – seven seasons of the podcast. I mean I already knew that wanted it to evolve into deep and meaningful conversations based on lived experiences, and I wanted the overall vibe of the podcast to be as if we were all—listeners, guests, and myself—sitting in a room and talking about our lived experiences as friends. Which brings us back to the question of why make so many changes in one season.
Although it was my original intent for the podcast to shift slowly over the first seven seasons, when I began planning for season four, given the nature of the theme of the season, it just felt right to speed up the process and make all the necessary changes more immediately.
So, to help you understand why it felt right to speed up the change process, we must talk about where every season’s concept begins.
Where does it all begin? How do I take each season of the podcast from concept to reality?
It all begins with a question. And that question is “What’s the current human condition?” Of course, I can’t speak to the entire human condition, but I’m able to take sort of a sample poll through myself and my spheres of influence. And when I began to conceptualize season four of the podcast, there were many themes that I could’ve addressed; however, the of the most prominent themes came from a single word… waiting. It’s such a simple word but it carried with it a huge emotional suitcase.
This just wasn’t I theme that I was experiencing. This was a theme that I heard my family and friends talk about. It was a theme that I heard other Enneagram coaches and enthusiast talk about. And it was a theme that I even heard strangers talk about. So, you can see why I chose the theme of waiting over all the other options.
THE LARGEST FORMAT CHANGE
Season four was the biggest format change that I’ve ever made to the podcast so far
CHANGING THE SCRIPT
Amidst all the other changes that I made to podcast for season four, I even changed how I write my scripts. For the first three seasons, my scripts were basically a teleprompter; I would write them so I could read pretty much verbatim while still sounding natural during recording. (About 98% of each episode I read verbatim from my scripts.)
Why do this?
I wrote my scripts so they could be read verbatim because I wanted to keep each episode as close to 45 minutes as I could. So, I did this so I could rehearse them and write down how long it took me to cover each topic for each episode.
It was really during season three when I start to make the change to my scripts. It was then that I stopped rehearsing the timings and did less verbatim reading and more ad-libbing.
However, season four was when I started to do little to no verbatim reading. I wanted to go deeper into the engaging and authenticity side of conversation, so I changed two major points of my scripts.
The first major point was that I was less time conscious. For the first three seasons, I would literally time each topic as best as I could and when I recorded the episode, I would stay close to that time. But for season four, my thinking process was different. The way I viewed the topics for season four is that I had an idea of how long each topic should take, but I was okay with the topics taking longer than planned.
The second major part that I changed about my scripts is that I went from more of a teleprompter style to more a bullet notes style. For season four, I didn’t write everything verbatim; I wrote just enough so I knew how I wanted the conversation to flow, but often times the conversation took on a whole new flow. In fact, there were at least two guest episodes where we completely skipped some of the topics that I had planned because we didn’t having enough time to record everything.
THE TONE CHANGE
To me, the biggest change that I made was the tone of the podcast. The tone of the podcast went from educational (what you need to know to understand) to conversational (knowledge applied in real life examples). Like I said earlier, this wasn’t an unplanned change; it was intentional. Although it was an intentional change, it wasn’t supposed to happen all at one—it was supposed to change over several seasons. However, I must admit that I wanted the tone change to start happening in season three, but because I was unable to secure enough guests during season three it had to wait.
So, in the end, season 4 wasn't just about a change in format—it was a shift in identity. And though the season isn’t fully wrapped, I think it’s safe to say that the real work wasn’t about finishing episodes... it was about becoming more human behind the mic and practicing what I preach.