Radio Interviews from the Home Office

[Lynn Terry]

I had an interview today with Entrepreneur Radio, voice of Entrepreneur Magazine. I've done interviews in the past at both World Talk Radio and wsRadio, and generally do them from my home office by calling in over the telephone.

While usually this is not a problem, as the children are either at school -or- given something to do and instructions to stay super quiet... today was the exception

16 minutes - it was just tooooooo long for a 7 year old to wait (LOL). She came in the room with an urgent message and I completely lost my train of thought during the interview. Obviously the message wasnt *too* urgent because she got distracted by the xylophone, which she decided to play - right then and there Realizing I was none too happy, she went outside... letting the door slam behind her.

As soon as the archives are available, I'll be sure to post the link...

If I ever felt like I was wearing too many hats and juggling too many tasks... this would be the day

[WAHumor]

I think that beats my kids running thru and my beagle barooooing during my first interview with Mary Goulet!

Ain't working at home grand, though???

[karadawn]

Oh Lynn yes I've had that problem myself!! One day a potential customer calls to ask me questions about natural products and where to start. Wouldn't you know my phone begines to die, so I have to run into the kitchen and plug it in. Well, since there is a gate up in the kitchen and I had to stand there by the plug in to talk, my 10 month old daughter begins to get upset (she always does when I'm in the kitchen, doesn't like that gate there!). My 3yr old son then hears her hollering, and comes to investigate. Instead of distracting her, he makes the situation worse by jumping over the gate and to play with his big dump truck that he got taken away from him the day before for ramming it into the walls. Well of course, he begins to ramp this big metal truck into the wall in the kitchen and when I put my foot out to try and stop him, he begins to scream. All this time both childern can be heard over the phone, and the woman ask how old the kids are. I tell her 10months and 3yrs, to which she replies "oh mine are the same age apart! My oldest is 2 1/2 and my new baby is 6 months, so I understand!" WHEW! Boy did I get lucky there

[webturtle]

Egads. That is pretty funny I don't have the issue of kids being around but I do have my WAH laughs just the same.

I was speaking with my programmer the other evening, rather late - he asked me to call after 9 pm - and was in the kitchen readying things for the next day. Every few days, I make a giant brew of decaf green tea sweetened with stevia and fill about 4 quart bottles in the fridge - its a change from drinking water all day. So I had my big cauldron brewing and absent mindedly starting pouring the hot tea into one of the containers, while talking to him about a web project and I HEARD him freeze in silence, mid sentence and I thought - what happened to him? And then it hit me - he heard the sound of the tea pouring into the container and thought I was in the bathroom!!!! Poor guy. I quickly told him what I was doing and heard him exhale - "oh. is THAT what you're doing?"

LOL

There are all sorts of ways to wreak havoc too - my kitchen is outside the office, so sometimes things will happen like I'll set off the smoke alarm while on the phone (client calls while i'm trying to fix some food and I forget about it), or I hit the "on" switch on the microwave and set off a flood of static on the cordless phone. I tend to pace when i'm on the phone - and i'm a consummate multi tasker so I can't JUST talk, I end up doing other mindless things while I'm talking. And sometimes I get caught.

[Lynn Terry]

Ahhh - you dont want to get me started!

I used to homeschool the children, so we were all three home together all day every day. I had "rules", which the children followed very well. The phone rang one afternoon and I threw my hand up and snapped my fingers once (the signal that 'chaos' turns to 'silence' - now). The TV went off and the children ran off to go do whatever it is kids their age do when they're "playing quietly" - usually meant reading, homework or playing monopoly in the play room.

This all happens by the second ring - we had a good routine. I dont have a problem working in the midst of my children or the sounds of their playing, but like things to be quiet and not to be distracted when on the phone or when another adult is in the room.

So I take the call, and its a new client... which turns into a good 45 minutes to an hour on the phone as they have a 'rush project' and we are working out the details. Its going great, I've almost sealed the deal... and then I hear this awful noise coming from the kitchen - some kind of cracking or popping noise. I get up to investigate, still talking in the meantime, and then I round the corner into the kitchen and see lightning coming out of the microwave and my poor daughter standing there watching like this:

I made quick apologies to my client and put the phone down to stop the microwave and make sure Ann Marie was okay. When I picked the phone back up she was laughing - turns out she was a single mother of four herself

I was off the phone pretty quick after that and checked on my daughter. She said she wanted a snack and knew not to interrupt me while on the phone, so she decided to heat it up herself (aluminum foil and all). LOL I still get tickled when I remember the look on her face ( ) hehe.

Working from home usually always means that we have more than one thing going on at a time... it requires multi-tasking

I'd love to hear more work-at-home stories... what do you do to maintain professionalism in the midst of household activities? What is your routine?

I have to say, Cheryl hit the nail on the head when she named her latest book Its a Jungle Out There and a Zoo in Here

[WAHumor]

This stuff is HILARIOUS!!!

It's 100% pure uncut WAHumor.

May I request the pleasure of publishing these...ummm..."exploits"????

All contributed content includes your URL and a short blurb, and is considered for placement in "The Best of WAHumor 2003", a viral ebook in the making.

Thanks!

[karadawn]

Yes Dan take mine ! Now you can stop bugging me about getting you an article

These are so funny, I love it! Amazing how many people really do understand and don't mind the noise at all

Oh oh how about this one. I wasn't on the phone (rarely am as I have no "clients"), but was working just the same. I thought Chase had gone up to his room to play, as it was quiet. Little did I know when he went around the corner he went past the stairs and into the bathroom (which is not a play room in this house). When I started hearing noises from inside the bathroom I went to investigate. The shower door was shut, and what I found when I opened the door was Chase standing in about an inch of watch holding our poor cat, Taz. Taz immediately let out a "help me please!" cry, and at the same time Chase says "Hi mommy, kitty wet!". And he was, too.........apparently Chase decided the cat needed a bath Oh poor Taz cat, he is so good for what he puts up with! I could barely keep a straight face while I explained to Chase while drying him off that kitties don't take baths and he is not to play in the bath tub.

[Lynn Terry]

I found the link to the archive, though they havent yet posted it on the Entrepreneur Magazine E-Business Show web page...

http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/wsradio ... gment1.asx

I was surprised that more of my "background noise" didnt come through during the show (thank goodness ). I did notice that I still seem to be stuck on that ONE word - "Absolutely" - I'm going to have to train myself not to say that during interviews anymore (LOL).

[americanwahm]

Thanks for posting Lynn! I am suffering withdrawal from talk radio

Kelly

[Lynn Terry]

I really love the concept of Internet Talk Radio, too

Some of my favorite (current) shows are:

The Mom Show at wsRadio.com
MomsTown at WorldTalkRadio.com
Writers Roundtable at WorldTalkRadio.com

... among others. What are your favorite shows? Know of good e-Stations other than wsRadio & World Talk Radio?? I would love to hear a few more!

[americanwahm]

Ok, it's time for me to open a new thread on my business journal!

Kelly

[WAHumor]

HA!

Now that I know the truth, Kara...

...you'll have no peace from me!!

Just kidding

[Barbara Camisa]

Hey Lynn,

Congrats on your interview I look forward to hearing that.

It's been many moons since my 3 'kids' were tots (there really is life after 50). I give you gals a lot of credit running a biz from home with little ones around!

I mainly listen to music on web radio. The first and only talk show I had tuned into is MikeLitman.com since I had met him at a couple of seminars and had a lot of fun hanging out with him and his partner Jason Oman.

The only other talk show I've listened to is the Mary Goulet show, from Lynn's link. I enjoyed that session with Lynn and Becky Hagel.

Lynn, did you count your uhs, ohs and 'you knows'? I just joined Toastmasters recently since I happened along one of their meetings with a friend. I aim to polish up my Brooklynese Just before that meeting, I attended a 'Listening' class which I flunked and almost got thrown out of 'cause I talk too much

Btw, you can get head phones to block out background noise at HelloDirect.com.

[optioncart]

Lynn,

Great interview - and I couldn't hear a thing as far as background noise. I also didn't notice you getting stuck on "absolutely". Just sounded really good to me.

I got the biggest kick out of all your posts on running a home business. I've never had a phone issue before, but I did have a funny thing happen with email.

When my daughter was very little, I used to hold her a lot while I emailed clients. In the middle of bidding on a job via email, my darling little one reached out and banged on the keyboard. She'd done that plenty of times before, and I would just erase the characters and type again. But this time, she must have hit the Ctrl + S, because the email was sent out prematurely. I quickly checked the sent box to see what damage had been done, and was mortified to find that not only did she send out the message early, but in big bold letters, right after I was explaining how I could help this gentleman, she had typed "*** Z". I had the auto signature on too, so it really looked as though I had stopped mid-paragraph, typed *** Z and signed and sent the email.

I immediately emailed the business owner back, explained what had happened and apologized like crazy, then finished the email (without holding my daughter this time). He seemed perfectly fine with it, though I never did get that job. Hmmm, wonder why?

Susan

[Lynn Terry]

.

LOL!!!

That one takes the cake, Susan

.