Podcast
Ask Mike
Hosted by Walsworth Yearbooks · EN
Need to sharpen your yearbook skills? Ask Mike! Mike Taylor, CJE,
is exploring what it takes to tell a great story with your yearbook,
with a few laughs along the way. Mike enhances his already immense
yearbook knowledge through interviews with yearbook advisers across
the country and answers questions along the way.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ask Mike | Yearbook Staffers Support Each Other at Patricia E. Paetow High School
Apr 27, 202300:39:56Tap to summarizeWe’re close to the end of the year now, and yearbook editors are preparing to hand over the torch to the next generation. In the latest episode of the Ask Mike podcast, host Mike Taylor chatted with Yvette and Gabbie, soon-to-graduate yearbook editors at Patricia E. Paetow High School in Katy, Texas. Both editors have been on yearbook staff since seventh grade. They call each other their best friend. And they, along with adviser Sara Gonzales, have helped create a supportive yearbook environment that allows their staff to thrive.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | South to Texas with Chisholm Trail High School
Mar 23, 202300:41:16Tap to summarizeCortney Wood is in her first year of advising yearbook at Chisholm Trail High School in Fort Worth, Texas. She’s new to advising but has experience working on yearbook staffs in high school and college. Copy editor Sydney Hawkins also joined the conversation. In this interview with host Mike Taylor, CJE, Cortney and Sidney share their experiences creating a yearbook in the 2023 school year.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | North to Minnetonka High School
Feb 17, 202300:37:35Tap to summarizeAs Anna, Halle and Gabby work to finish their yearbook, they're also preparing for a significant absence. Host Mike Taylor sat down with the three editors from Minnetonka, Minnesota, to discuss their roles in the yearbook team, their interests, and how they fill their time outside of yearbook. They share the the highs and lows of yearbook photography, event coverage, learning new software, and dealing with deadlines. The conversation also touches on the good relationship the yearbook staff has with the school administration and how they have earned their trust.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | Onward to Orlando with Boone High School
Oct 27, 202200:16:18Tap to summarizeIn this episode, taped live from Elite Weekend in Orlando, Mike sits down with the editors of Boone High School to discuss their yearbook.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | Mike Goes Down to Florida to Visit Dreyfoos School of the Arts
Oct 7, 202200:36:54Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Mike chats with Faith Parksinson, Editor-in-chief at A. W .Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida. Their chat comes fresh off an Elite Weekend they both attended, and Mike and Faith discuss what was learned in the busy three days in Orlando.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | Staying in North Carolina with Southern Alamance High School
Sep 29, 202200:39:00Tap to summarizeThis week, Mike Taylor is in a different part of North Carolina as he continues his interviews from all over the country. In this episode, Mike speaks to Adviser Lynn Bare and the staff of the Southern Alamance High School yearbook. The Southerner’s Editor-in-Chief Noel, Assistant Editor Kinley, Sports Editor Lexie, Business Manager Emma, and staffers Xander, Abigail, Maddie, Giselle, Adriana and Lexie chat with Mike about all kinds of things. They share how they try to bring as much of their school culture and “what makes us us” into the book every year, like coverage of the strong FFA program at their school. They discuss challenges they’ve faced in recent years. Their business manager discusses selling books, senior tributes and business ads, connecting with the community, and dealing with the occasional difficult customer. And they share their favorite teambuilding activities – and one involves marshmallows and spaghetti.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | Heading South to Athens Drive Magnet School
Sep 22, 202200:41:22Tap to summarizeAsk Mike is traveling the country this season! The last episode was from Maine, and for episode two Mike traveled south to North Carolina to talk to staff members from Athens Drive Magnet School. Co-editors-in-chief Zoe and Greta and Head of Design Nevaeh shared their thoughts on creating a yearbook for the 2022/2023 year.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | Back to School with Presque Isle High School
Aug 25, 202200:40:49Tap to summarizeAsk Mike is back! This season, host Mike Taylor will chat with yearbook staffs all over the United States, starting with Presque Isle, Maine, in the far northeast corner of the country. Listen in to hear about the 2023 yearbook plans for Presque Isle High School, ideas for coverage that you can use, and more information about potatoes than you'd expect in a yearbook podcast.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | What Happens when Five of NSPA’s Top 10 Pacemaker Winners Sit Down to Talk?
Jun 10, 202101:04:41Tap to summarize“Every book that has ever been done at Northwest, if you’ll go look at it you’ll find the fingerprints, the thumbprints, of everyone on this podcast,” yearbook adviser Susan Massy shared early on in the latest episode of the Ask Mike podcast, explaining the importance of having a yearbook family. In this episode, host Mike Taylor talks to five of the yearbook advisers who made the top 10 of the National Scholastic Press Association's Pacemaker 100 list. In first place in the Pacemaker Top 10 is the Lair yearbook program at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Shawnee, Kansas. Susan Massy has been the adviser for the last 36 yearbooks. In the program’s history, they have won an impressive total of 23 Pacemakers and three Pacemaker finalists.Jim Jordan was the adviser behind 35 volumes of the Decamhian yearbook at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California. The Fair Oaks yearbook program was named second, with 20 Pacemakers and seven Pacemaker finalists. Crystal Kazmierski retired from her position as the adviser of Wings at Arrowhead Christian Academy in Redlands, California, after the 2017 school year. Their yearbook program placed third, with 22 Pacemakers and two Pacemaker finalists. Becky Tate, CJE, is the yearbook adviser at Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kansas. Their program came in fourth in the Pacemaker Top 10, with a total win of 18 Pacemakers and four Pacemaker finalists.Dow Tate is the current adviser of the Hauberk yearbook at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas. Their program tied for ninth with 15 Pacemakers and five Pacemaker finalists.
Transcribe →Ask Mike | How Can I Promote Myself?
Mar 12, 202100:45:02Tap to summarizeIn this extra special episode, Ask Mike and Yearbook Chat with Jim team up to talk about promoting your yearbook! Hosts Mike Taylor, CJE, and Jim Jordan are joined by three members of the Walsworth marketing team, Jenica Hallman, CJE, Jimmy Gilligan and Sarah Scott. They share tips for writing press releases, ideas for promoting your yearbook, and why you want to promote your 2021 yearbook more than ever before!Listen to the episode, then share your marketing with us! Send press releases to mike.taylor@walsworth.com or jim.jordan@walsworth.com, and be sure to tag Walsworth Yearbooks in any social media promotions you post. We would love to share your work. Find us on Instagram @walsworthyearbooks, Twitter @yearbookforever, and Facebook.
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