Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes here at Lifeway Women? From Bible study tapings, simulcasts, traveling for live events, leadership training, podcasts, webinars, social media, and so much more, a lot happens that goes unseen.
This year, we’re “pulling back the curtain” on all things Lifeway Women and giving you a look at what we do to make it all happen.
First up: We’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at our MARKED Podcast hosted by Kelly King and Elizabeth Hyndman.
The MARKED Podcast is a podcast for women who are marked by a hunger for God’s Word, a longing to impact culture, and a desire to discover and live out God’s calling in their lives. In each episode, Kelly and Elizabeth talk about what God is doing—how He has and is marking each of us. Listen to the latest episodes here.
Tell us a little bit about the history of the MARKED Podcast. (How did it get started?)
Kelly: It’s all Elizabeth’s fault! (She can explain.)
Elizabeth: When I was new to the team in 2014(?), our leadership at the time met and invited me to share some ideas for the future. I love podcasts and have for a long time, so I suggested we start a Lifeway Women podcast. Our team loved the idea, so I worked with Mary Margaret West to start the MARKED podcast. She was the sole host for a few years and then requested a cohost to help her out. Our marketing team nominated me to cohost, since I was already working on the podcast behind the scenes.
What do you do to prepare for each episode?
Kelly: It’s always a good idea to know a little bit about the guest we are interviewing. If she is a new author or someone I don’t know, I make sure I’ve either read something she has written or read a little of her story. But in some ways, it’s also good to not know everything, so I’m a little surprised when we discover something fun or unusual about a guest during the interview.
I will say we are probably a lot different when it comes to preparation. I’m more of a “shoot from the hip” kind of person, but Elizabeth is really good about watching the timing, thinking through the flow of the questions. Elizabeth is so good at coming up with thoughtful questions and her responses are always the ones that get praise from our guests. Sometimes I feel like I’m out of my league!
Elizabeth: Kelly was very kind in her answer. I did one podcast episode without prep and said never again! I like the conversation to flow organically but also need some guidelines ahead of time. Kelly is much better than I am at coming up with questions on the spot and helping the conversation feel less like an interview.
What does the process look like for each episode? (Recording, setup, production?)
Kelly: I’m truly grateful for Elizabeth because she does all the hard work. She has the recording software on her computer, and I mostly just show up and ask questions. The hardest part is that we aren’t experts or audio engineers, so it seems that every episode has its challenges, whether it’s with a guest or our own mishaps. You would think that we would have it down to a science with as many episodes as we’ve recorded, but Elizabeth is always having to fix the settings or telling me how to fix my microphone. And there’s Caleb who does our post-production. He fixes a lot of our mistakes and has had to give us lessons on all the things we do wrong. He loves us even though we give him a really hard time.
And then there’s Shannon who makes our lives so much easier. She connects with the guest, makes sure the questions are ready to go, and keeps all of the episodes organized and ready for production. Shannon also writes all our show notes.
We’re so thankful for our team! The MARKED podcast has come a long way from the original episodes where Mary Margaret and Elizabeth did all the work. Today it’s become more of a team effort.
How do you select topics and guests for each podcast episode?
Kelly: We have a team that consists of us and some of our marketing team. We meet quarterly to plan and throw out ideas for guests and start filling in the spreadsheet with details. We work with our Bible study publishing team to make sure we’re introducing new Bible studies, and we work with the B&H publishing team to get a list of authors that have new books. In addition, we also look for episodes that feature stories of women that work at Lifeway or women who have a faith story that we believe will be encouraging to our listeners and strengthen them in their walk with the Lord.
Elizabeth: We also get pitches from time to time. We want to talk to a variety of people living out their faith in a variety of ways and settings. We try to introduce our audience to people they’ve never heard before, as well as talk with people they already know and love. For our topical episodes, we think about what we’d want to hear. Kelly and I are in different life stages, which I think makes even our conversations with one another fun and interesting because we get to hear a different perspective.
Tell us about one of your most memorable moments on the MARKED Podcast:
Kelly: One of the funniest things I remember was when we interviewed the women of Point of Grace. First of all, it’s really hard to have a conversation with five women in thirty minutes, much less these ladies. We had all kinds of technical difficulties getting them all on, and I think we finally ended up recording them on Zoom. One of them was folding laundry, and they were pretty hilarious talking over one another. The entire episode was like herding cats, but they were a really fun interview and had a lot of wisdom to share with us.
Elizabeth: I have two. We talked about the first one a bit in our 100th episode, but doing our first live recording of MARKED at Lifeway Women Live a few years ago was so much fun—getting to see our audience (people actually listen to us!) and answer questions.
My second one was when I recorded the intros to Sermon on the Mount, the first Bible study we did on the podcast. It was during the first COVID lockdown, but the electricity was out at my house. (This happened a lot in 2020 due to all the storms we had.) I had to go to my parents’ house to record the intro. Our producer, Caleb, told me to get into a closet or a room with a lot of fabric to help with the sound. My parents live in an older house, so no walk-in closets. I ended up recording the intro crouched down between my parents’ bed and a curtained window to get as much fabric surrounding me as possible.
What is something you hope people take away from each episode?
Kelly: I would say that we both love the question that is asked in every episode when we talk about what has “marked” the guest in her journey with the Lord. The answers are never the same, and it always reminds me of the unique ways the Lord works in the lives of those who follow Him.
Elizabeth: I think my main hope is that people are encouraged. As Kelly said, I love that no two answers to our last question are the same. We’re all MARKED by God in different ways. Some of them look more like scars than others—born from tragedy or grief or hurt. Others are born from the sweet faithfulness of everyday believers—mentors, moms, grandmothers, friends. But hearing how God uses our experiences and even our pain to grow us and shape us into Christlikeness is always encouraging to me, and I hope it will be to others.
Elizabeth Hyndman
Elizabeth is an Editorial Project Leader at Lifeway. She managed to find a job where she uses both her English undergraduate and her seminary graduate degrees every day. Elizabeth grew up in Nashville, sips chai lattes every chance she can get, and believes everyone should have a “funny picture” pose at the ready. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram: @edhyndman.
Kelly King
Kelly is the Manager of Magazines/Devotional Publishing and Women’s Ministry Training for Lifeway Christian Resources. She holds a Master of Theology degree from Gateway Seminary and was previously an adjunct professor at Oklahoma Baptist University while serving as the Women’s Specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. She continues to serve in local church ministry as a women’s ministry volunteer and small group leader for high school girls. She is the author of Ministry to Women: The Essential Guide to Leading Women in the Local Church.
