Podcast Spotlight: Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast
Living with ADHD can make all sorts of everyday tasks difficult, as hosts Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright know well. If you too experience this, then welcome to the podcast dedicated to offering support, life management strategies, and technology tips for those living with ADHD. Kinzer and Wright cover real issues and share practical tips for organizing paperwork, impulse buying, procrastination, and more. They even interview therapists, authors, certified ADHD coaches, and people living with ADHD. If there’s a topic you’re specifically interested in, take a scroll through their back catalogue of hundreds of episodes to find what you’re looking for.
Kinzer and Wright take it upon themselves to create a welcoming and cheerful environment where no question asked is a bad one. This podcast is recommended for those with ADHD and those who want to support a friend, child, or partner with ADHD. Whether it’s hot tips and tricks or exploring the brain, listeners are sure to learn something new each show. To share your own ADHD experience, connect with Kinzer and Wright at takecontroladhd.com.
We were fortunate to talk with Nelson about the podcast, how they differentiate from other podcasts, and their future plans in podcasting. See below for our full Q&A.
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DISCOVER PODS: How’d you get into podcasting?
KINZER: I was asked to do a local radio show as a regular weekly guest and when I presented the idea to Pete, he said, instead of going local, let’s go bigger and start our own podcast. I had no idea what a podcast was, this was back in 2010. I really thought it was something that would just be on my website.
WRIGHT: That’s funny ー I actually have no memory of that. Too many podcasts under the bridge.
I got into podcasting because I was originally in television news and after a number of years in PR and marketing, I missed pressing buttons. Podcasting with others was a great fit in early 2006. I was inspired by guys like Adam Curry and Leo Laporte so I started a short-run podcast called “Tuesday, Noon” for my company, which evolved into “Beer:30 Live!”, which we chose as a title so that we could record in a bar and write off beer on our taxes. (Not really… but maybe). Many podcasts since, but The ADHD Podcast is my longest-running and most popular by a country mile. It’s incredibly gratifying that our show has become a support for so many people living with ADHD.
DISCOVER PODS: In your own words, why should listeners tune in to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast?
KINZER: I believe Pete and I bring a different perspective, because he is a person who lives with ADHD and I am an ADHD Coach. Our mission has always been to be a resource where people can be educated about ADHD but also listen to conversations about ADHD. We want people to walk away feeling inspired, motivated, and most of all understood. Both Pete and I positive people and this comes through in our shows.
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DISCOVER PODS: What kind of feedback have you heard from your listeners?
KINZER: People have been so kind and it’s humbling to read. We will get messages on Thanksgiving from listeners who say how much they appreciate us. Many people tell us that we are the only ADHD podcast they listen to now. People tell us that with our show, they feel understood and walk away with hope, motivation, and feeling better about their ADHD.
From one of our listeners…
“Listening to your kind words and shared experiences have given me a sense of self understanding, a positive inner dialogue and a new relationship with my ADHD. I truly cannot thank you enough for bringing to light that my “normal” is, in fact, normal.”
DISCOVER PODS: Describe your recording set up? What equipment are you using?
WRIGHT: We record multi-enders whenever we can. Each of us as regular hosts record into Audio Hijack on our local systems. Nikki records with the ATR2100x and Pete uses the Neumann KMS105. Our respective environments aren’t all that quiet — we aren’t recording in bespoke studios or anything — but AUDynamicsProcessor makes for a nice gate/compressor that makes our edits in Logic Studio pretty straightforward.
We record guests in Zoom, locally with separate tracks enabled. Our guests are generally not podcasters and are recording with conference headsets or AirPods. Given the audio quality of those recordings isn’t always stellar, going through the motions of capturing local guest audio natively has been more of a technical hurdle than it was worth. We used to use Zencastr, but we had enough guests for whom it would fail the health checks that it was inconsistent and unreliable. When it works, it’s best in class for what it does. But rotating guests with different systems made it tricky.
So, Nikki and I record our local audio in Audio Jijack, each recording reference tracks of the guest as well, and we prefer the individual Zoom guest track for mastering the final show.
DISCOVER PODS: What’s the biggest challenge you face as an indie podcaster?
WRIGHT: Monetization is always tricky. We’re a mid-level podcast so CPM advertising has been just out of reach for us. But our community is vibrant. Last year, we launched with Patreon and were thrilled to discover a consistently growing group of dedicated listeners willing to subsidize the production of the podcast for the larger community. It’s been incredibly powerful to watch and unbelievable that they feel strongly enough about something we’ve been creating. In fact, our membership income has made our interest in traditional CPM advertising evaporate.
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DISCOVER PODS: Where do you want to take your podcast?
KINZER: We want to keep building a community of listeners and offer new and exciting ways to support them. We’re currently working on a dedicated resource library for users to easily search for every link, book, podcast, and product we’ve ever discussed on the show. Our next Patreon tier after that will be our first podcast we’re offering exclusively for members — a twice-monthly podcast about technology, process, information management, and ADHD.
DISCOVER PODS: What other podcasts are you listening to now?
KINZER: Armchair Expert, How I built This, Online Marketing Made Easy, Super Soul Conversations, Over My Dead Body, Crime Junkie, Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, Serial, Crimetown, Oprah’s Masterclass, and more.
WRIGHT: I love podcasts. Upgrade, Systematic, The Story Grid Podcast, Sawbones and MBMBaM, The Informed Life, Marvel Movie Minute, Automators, Throughline, ATP, 99% Invisible, Dear Hank & John, California King, The Swashbuckling Ladies Debate Society, The Truth. List goes on and on and on.
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