fbpx

Tag: radio

Quick Look at Podcasting

Podcasting has been around for a while, serving as a way to democratize the audio medium for each of us. Today, you can produce audio content and have an audience listening in a matter of hours. Before podcasting, gatekeepers at radio stations prevented diverse content offerings by limiting the number of shows fit into their schedule and model. Whether a podcast focuses on the migration patterns and life cycles of penguins or something equally specific and niche or a show that serves as a place to perform long-form interviews with celebrities, they all bypass the conventional audio medium of radio and radio stations. 

If you listen to podcasts like Hustleburg, you probably know enough about podcasts to be able to find the shows you’re interested in, as well as how to listen to them when a new episode is available. If you’re new to listening to podcasts or have found them by clicking a link on Facebook or another social media platform, here’s a bit of information to bolster your podcast awareness:

Podcasting Background

  • Podcasts really aren’t that new. They date back to the 1980s, but it took Apple’s introduction of digital audio content to iTunes in 2005 that helped to kickstart their popularity among the masses. 
  • Did you know that President George W. Bush was among the first “podcasters?” In 2005, WhiteHouse.gov made his weekly radio addresses available for download on the White House’s website.
  • It didn’t take long for traditional broadcast media to jump on board, with newspapers, radio stations, and tv networks creating shows based around the content they were already creating. As a result of their first-mover advantage and locating terrific audio production, NPR is one of the most popular podcast publishers of all time. Their smash podcast hit This American Life, publishing weekly since 2006, and the top downloaded podcast of all time, Serial, give it serious clout in the podcasting world.

“How Do I Listen?”

This is frequently the biggest hurdle for most people. Obviously, there are ways to publish directly to the web to listen on a phone or computer through the web browser and be found, but phone makers have made it REALLY easy to jump right into listening to podcasts on their devices. Since separating podcast content and making iTunes music-only last year, Apple Podcasts has been the dominant force in connecting podcasts with listeners. With a similar timeline, Google Podcasts entered the scene in 2019 as well, taking podcast content from their Google Play Music service that shutters later in 2020. With both of the major operating systems now offering a built-in app specifically for finding and listening to podcasts, getting started as a podcast listener has never been easier. 

You may have noticed Spotify jumping into the podcast world, making quite a splash in hopes of being a disruptor in the industry. They previously featured popular podcasts within its streaming app, but recently opened up their platform to podcasters of any size. In 2020, they also gobbled up exclusive content from Joe Rogan, whose Joe Rogan Experience podcast is one of the world’s most popular, and Michelle Obama, who launched her podcast in July 2020. Additionally, Spotify purchased a podcast creation and hosting platform, Anchor, to also make waves on the production side of podcasting.

There are plenty of podcast players available to match just about any taste when it comes to layout, features, etc. We LOVE the cross-platform Castbox player for listening to shows, as it does a fantastic job of managing them across both an iPhone and an Android.

Learn how podcasting can help your business.

Top Podcasts for the Budding Entrepreneur

It may seem like self-development in business and entrepreneurship means a lot of reading, but there is a world of podcasts that we consume. Here are our recommendations of the top podcasts for the budding entrepreneur:

Akimbo: A Podcast by Seth Godin

On Tuesday mornings, we’re probably looking most forward to Akimbo: A Podcast by Seth Godin it gives you a marketer’s view of how we can act to change the culture. We’re not just talking about the culture at large, but the culture specifically around what we do, the culture around the people that we serve, and the community that we are. Every week, when Akimbo comes out, it is it definitely goes to the top of the queue. There is just something amazing about how Seth Godin can look at something and talk about it in an engaging way.

EntreLeadership Podcast

The EntreLeadership podcast offers you some of the top minds in business. Formerly hosted by Ken Coleman, and now hosted by Alex Judd, it’s primarily an interview podcast based around the leadership philosophy that Dave Ramsey used to build his entire business network. That philosophy governs all of the things that Ramsey Solutions does, and they do a fantastic job providing some amazing resources for small business leaders. In addition to the podcast, they’ve built a community that serves small businesses, often giving away excellent resources completely for free to podcast listeners. This podcast publishes weekly on Mondays, which makes for a great start to the week.

HBR IdeaCast

The Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast publishes on Tuesdays and offers listeners an opportunity to hear about emerging trends in business. The really cool part about the IdeaCast is that you get to experience the best interviews from each of their magazine’s issues in full when listening, rather than what they’ve pared down for the article they sought to publish in that month’s issue. The full-fledged interview, between one of the two hosts, both senior editors for Harvard Business Review, and the business or thought leader, provides you with a lot of data and findings surrounding what’s happening in business today. It’s terrific to hear from the study researchers and professors about the things that they’ve learned and share.

The John Maxwell Leadership Podcast

John Maxwell has written many books on the subject of leadership, and it’s amazing that none of them made the top books article, but we wanted to keep things solely focused on small business. The John Maxwell Leadership Podcast gives you lessons, insights, and candid conversations about how to be a leader. When your business grows beyond “solopreneur” status, you’re going to need to be able to lead your team. The podcast takes a deeper dive into the lessons he’s written about and Mark Cole, Jason Brooks, and John himself discuss how you can bring those ideas to work in your own life. Regular episodes publish on Wednesday, and the occasional “candid conversations” usually appear in their feed on Fridays.

The GaryVee Audio Experience

This daily podcast is the absolute holy grail of marketing knowledge. You’ll hear me frequently talk about looking for attention, and this is where that idea came from. The GaryVee Audio Experience is a daily dose of drinking from the fire hose of marketing. At first, I didn’t like Gary Vaynerchuk. His larger than life personality and style turned me off, but I listened beyond that first impression. As part of panels, on other podcasts and as part of other programs, the fact that he really understands what we’re all looking for in business, and that is the attention for our brand. We’re looking for the attention necessary to sell what we sell and to do what we do. The audio experience is a variety of different ways for you to consume that, whether it’s a keynote and Q&A that he has given, an interview that he’s done for radio or television and had the audio stripped, or his sage advice in conversations with celebrities and up-and-comers, it is an awesome documenting of the process. In it, you get to see an aspect of what he does in a way that is is very useful and very educational for every businessperson.

Would you rather read? Check out this article detailing our favorite books for budding entrepreneurs.

As we’ve shared on Hustleburg, we love Castbox as a podcast listening app, and the image above is a screenshot of my favorite podcasts in that app.

Why Aren’t You Using the Internet to Market Your Business?

Television? Radio? Billboards? Those are so yesterday. You can’t even measure their effect directly, so how would you even know if they are working? Why would you continue to pump money into the unknown abyss of their ineffectiveness? 

Do you watch TV commercials? Or are you watching the content available to you via Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, etc? Even if you are watching television live as it airs, aren’t you picking up your phone, iPad, or laptop to monopolize your attention until the show comes back? 

Do you listen to the radio in the car? I can’t remember the last time I drove without having a podcast, streaming music, or an audio-book playing. I couldn’t even tell you a single local radio station for the last two major metro areas I’ve lived. 

Billboards require capturing attention to be effective. The next time you’re driving, take a look at the cars you pass on the road and those that pass you. The passengers nearly all hold the familiar pose. Head down, eyes locked on the screen in front of them. The kids are watching Frozen in the backseat for the 116th time, and the driver HOPEFULLY has his or her eyes on the road and isn’t engaged reading something on their phones or responding to their latest text. Who’s going to see your billboard? 

Get Their Attention

Digital marketing, on the other hand… It’s 2019, and everyone, including your parents or grandparents, uses the internet in some capacity. The key here is understanding how to harness the power of it. 

You have the ability to truly examine the return on investment for each ad you run, down to a granular level to examine your geographic, demographic, and psychographic impact. While your organic content for many platforms is somewhat “spray and pray” in regard to how it’s displayed, your paid advertising is very specific, down to a microscopic level. 

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the platforms outside of advertising, however. Your efforts there should be engaging and listening in nature. You have a FREE focus group that will freely tell you about your business. They will tell you what they love, so you can keep delivering in those areas, and they will tell you what they hate, so you can shore up a deficiency and invite them back to show them you care enough to fix it.