Before a recorded conversation goes public, the guest agrees twice: once to the recording, and again, in a signed release, to what may be published from it. The guides below follow both. Two of them share one interview, so the release signed in the planning guide is the one the publishing guide checks every finished piece against.
The guides in order
An adviser with a guest in mind and nothing recorded yet starts with how to plan a recorded interview you can publish. It follows a broker's plan for a half-hour audio interview with Sam, who sold a cleaning company; the broker and Sam are both made up. The real case in it is a 2006 ruling of the California Supreme Court on calls between a brokerage's Atlanta office and its clients in California. The interview plan worksheet prints the same plan on one sheet, with a filled-in copy for Sam.
When the conversation was with a client rather than a guest, how to turn a client conversation into a public lesson comes next. It splits one conversation into a private follow-up and a public lesson, and sets out what the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides ask of a quoted client. Its real case is the Pulitzer Prize The Washington Post gave back in April 1981 over a composite story.
How to release one conversation across several channels picks up Sam's interview after the recording. The publishing brief in it has five rows, one per piece, and a status column that counts a piece as sent only after someone has seen it live. Its real case is the settlement in which Harvard agreed to caption its online video.
Left to other sources
The guides stop when the last piece goes out. They review no recording or editing software, and they say nothing about building a mailing list or getting email to land in an inbox. Whether a signed release clears every right in a recording, and what changes when a guest is outside the United States, are questions for a lawyer.
Reading path
- How to plan a recorded interview you can publish
What an interview is for, and who agreed to what, settled before the call so the recording can be published.
- How to turn a client conversation into a public lesson
How an adviser teaches from a client's situation while keeping the client private and quoting them only with permission.
- How to release one conversation across several channels
The pieces cut from one recording, the order they go out in and the check each one passes before it is sent.
Worksheets for this guide
- Interview plan worksheet
One printable sheet for planning a recorded interview, from what it is for to the permissions still open before anything is published.