Podcasting For Your Job – PCI 356

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Promotion. That's always a hard one for people to get their head around, but definitely, you know, promote it just like if you were doing your own podcast, because it is kind of your own, even if you're doing it for work.

Speaker 1 00:00:13 I mean, if anything, I feel like you have a bigger outlet of people to reach. You have all of your previous customers or networking connections that you've made over the years. Don't just create this amazing podcast and then like, release it day of, and then expect people to come in droves. You know, you have to build up to it.

Speaker 2 00:00:37 You're

Speaker 3 00:00:37 Listening to Podcasts Insider, hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochrane, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcasting. All with the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.

Speaker 1 00:00:57 I am Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist here at Blueberry.

Speaker 0 00:00:59 And I'm Mike Dell, VP of Customer Relations at Blueberry. So what happens when your employer wants you to podcast for the company? Today we're going to explore the best practices of podcasting at work. Mackenzie, you and I have quite a bit of experience in this realm since this podcast is the official Blueberry podcast, but you had, uh, even, even a harder thing,

Speaker 1 00:01:28 Yeah, that I have firsthand experience with this, but you actually are the one that reminded me of it. It's been quite some time, but when I started at Blueberry, Todd threw me into podcasting and said, all right, you're gonna do the company show. And, you know, had me set up a microphone, do the editing, handled, getting guests doing, showing up the whole thing all by myself. It's

Speaker 0 00:01:58 Fun with the equipment down there. I came down to help set that up. It never worked quite right.

Speaker 1 00:02:06 It was, it was frustrating to, to say the least at times of having your work become something a little more personal where you're, you're gonna be representing the company in a different way than you might've imagined.

Speaker 0 00:02:25 Yeah. Like I said, we threw you the wolves and you did good, you know, with a little push and pull there once in a while.

Speaker 1 00:02:33 Yeah. Yeah, I figured it out. Luckily, I did have experience with being on the radio in college, so I was, I was fine from that standpoint. It was just, what am I, what the heck am I talking about? Which leads into the first, one of the first best practice tips that we have is define what your show topic is. You know, really get into the nitty gritty here if you want to.

Speaker 0 00:02:58 Right. Well, you know, when we first started this show it, well, actually it started even before you got there, it was just community updates for the blueberry community. And it was haphazard and it wasn't scheduled and wasn't always the same people doing it. It just kind of fell by the way side. So when you came on board, we decided we'd do the Power Press podcast. Basically you were interviewing podcasters that were using Power Press, and that was the topic. And then we switched it up again and ended up with Podcast Insider where we were talking about news and, and other things. And then just lately we did a little bit of a format chain change and got rid of the news , which is good.

Speaker 1 00:03:46 Well, it's been, it's been, you know, about eight years, so we figured it was time for a change. Yeah.

Speaker 0 00:03:53 You know, there's a lot of people out there covering podcast news and, you know, all we would do is read all those newsletters and come up with something that we thought was interesting and, and all that. But I'm kind of glad that's gone. I'd much rather talk about more generic topics and what's going on here at Blueberry. So that was our show topic, at least currently.

Speaker 1 00:04:14 Agreed. I think it's, I think there's a lot that can, you know, be missed if you don't really put a lot of time and effort into thinking about this of, you know, some people flounder at the beginning, what they wanna talk about, and it's like, okay, well actually sit down and take some time to think about it and you'll make your life a lot easier. Yeah.

Speaker 0 00:04:35 And get the rest of the team involved. You know, uh, that was, I think one of our biggest problems was, you know, we only had a few of us that were working on the show and now we're getting more of the team involved in it, and that really helps. So, you know, reach out to your coworkers and your, you know, your bosses and managers. You know, maybe, you know, they, they'll help you define the show topics, I'm sure. Of course. That goes into the next thing you're, you had in the list here is setting a goal.

Speaker 1 00:05:05 Yeah, that's a good point. I think reaching out more team members, when we decided we wanted to reformat again recently, and we had to ask ourselves, okay, what is, this is what we have been doing, what do we have? Like, what's our goal for changing? You know, what do we, what do we wanna do? And so some examples are, do you wanna just inform your listeners? Are you trying to teach them something very specific? Are you trying to hopefully persuade them to purchase your product or your service or whatever it is. You know, we have people who do private podcasting for their company and it's, you know, like they're training people. So there's a lot of different ways that you can go about it.

Speaker 0 00:05:48 Right. Yeah. Todd and I did an episode on setting goals for a podcast that works out about the same for a company show, except for you're a little more accountable to the management, so you have to, you know, weigh that when you're selecting your goals and your, uh, topics and, and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 00:06:07 Yeah. And to, you know, you're not necessarily always going to agree of what you want the goal of the podcast to be, but that's just what it is sometimes when it's a company or when it's a podcast for your job, .

Speaker 0 00:06:19 Yep. Yeah. You know, like I said, it's kinda, you know, it is unique. There's not a ton of podcasts out there that are basically employees podcasting for their company. There's a fair amount of those, a lot of 'em in the podcasting world it seems. But , you know, we, we run into this a lot, you know, where, you know, my boss says I need to do X and Y and Z, you know, and I hear that, hear about it in support, you know, and one of the problems I run across with company shows is the person I'm talking to about, you know, some tech support issue or, or something like that, isn't always the person that's in charge of the tech. So make sure you have it well defined. We don't have that wrote down, but make sure you have it well defined. Who's gonna be the contact for the show?

Speaker 0 00:07:13 You know, because you know, well, I need to get that login from my boss and, and you know, or you know, worse yet you set up a one-on-one call and you get 12 people in the room. That happens to me a lot. So don't make it overly complicated and make sure, you know, your management knows that, you know, podcasting is not as complicated as some people tend to make it out to be. And it's really good to, you know, have one or two people that are the main contact that can do the tech and can make some decisions.

Speaker 1 00:07:49 It can be very organized. I feel like we've got that down pretty well for this podcast, at least with our team of, you know, oh yeah. Who's responsible for what and like where to find everything, that type of stuff.

Speaker 0 00:08:00 Right. And, you know, and we have, you know, you and I are pretty much in charge of show prep and, and then you publish the show. I do the, the backend show notes for while we're recording and you know, we've got defined jobs, you know, Todd's just talent, you know, , which is good. And we have, we also have an editing team, which is your next thing on the list.

Speaker 1 00:08:27 It is, yeah. So I'll just dive in the recording and the editing. A lot of the time people are terrified and feel very nervous about hearing their own voice and you just have to get over it. . Yeah. You grow. I don't really have many words of wisdom. You just have to get over it.

Speaker 0 00:08:46 Yeah. You get used to it. What, what I did, you know, when I first got on radio is I would record myself and then listen to it and then record some more and listen to it. And then, you know, once I got used to listening to myself when I'm not talking, then I started wearing the headphones. It's always good to monitor while you're recording, but you get used to it. And then, you know, now when I get on a set of headphones that that doesn't feed back what I'm saying. It's actually uncomfortable. Now,

Speaker 1 00:09:15 , there's also, you know, after a while people figure out how to manipulate their voice and you can have like your podcast voice and then your speaking voice and it's, it's just like people, like newscasters and DJs and everything, like you figure it out. It's not that difficult. You

Speaker 0 00:09:29 Get your DJ voice on Yeah. , you know, mostly podcasting. You're kinda yourself. That's, you know, I'd like to think, you know, on this show, you know, the three of us that, that are the main hosts here, if we're sitting at a restaurant table talking to each other, we sound about the same.

Speaker 1 00:09:48 Generally we do, yes. Maybe

Speaker 0 00:09:50 A little more cussing across the table. But

Speaker 1 00:09:53 I would never . I would never

Speaker 0 00:09:56 No, never.

Speaker 1 00:09:57 No, but what, you know, what does help with that is whenever I do, our editing team will take out my swearing .

Speaker 0 00:10:05 Yes, there you go. And you know, it's nice to have an outside editing team. You know, we've got Blueberry Pro who takes care of us and you know, you don't have to go to that extent. You know, there's a lot of freelancers out there that do a pretty good job of audio editing, but sometimes it's not good for you to edit yourself. It's just like writing. I know, you know, when I write something, I run it by somebody else because you know, it might look good to me, but, you know, I might be look, especially grammar. But,

Speaker 1 00:10:38 Well then on the opposite end of that is people being too self-critical, just the way that they are about their voice, they will nitpick every single thing in the recording into a very negative way. Um, you know, it's trust yourself, it's good. And if you don't enjoy the editing yourself, especially if this is for your job, you know what? There's probably, if you're just learning it and you feel like this is not really your thing, someone else on the team, it might be

Speaker 0 00:11:07 Right. Right. You know, and sometimes good enough is good enough, but Yeah. You know, you gotta hear about branding. Yeah. Don't skimp on your artwork. You know, we did an episode, you and Aaron did an episode on, uh, doing artwork and you know, there's a lot of good tips in there, but don't, don't skimp on it. Make, you know, make it, make it good. 'cause that's how people are going to see your show.

Speaker 1 00:11:32 That's your representative. Yeah. Don't judge a book by your cover is also for podcasts.

Speaker 0 00:11:37 True. But

Speaker 1 00:11:39 That's what happens.

Speaker 0 00:11:41 People do, you know, if someone's got some crappy artwork, I'm less likely to hit play on it. Not consciously. I mean, you know, I know podcasts that I listen to, some of 'em, 'em have really crappy artwork.

Speaker 1 00:11:54 Oh yeah. I'm, I'm super judgy. . I have been, you know what? People have had time on the internet to make things look good. If you can't figure out how to make it look good at this time, I am gonna be judgy .

Speaker 0 00:12:07 Yeah, yeah. You know, that's, that is important and especially for, you're doing it for a company. Your company's logo's probably gonna be part of the artwork.

Speaker 1 00:12:16 Yeah. This is another arm that people can clinging on to for your, for your business. And you want it to represent yourself. Well,

Speaker 0 00:12:25 Yeah. Like in our case, the same people that designed our logo, designed our artwork. Uh, actually Aaron at this point. But yeah, that is important. So promotion, that's always a hard one for people to get their head around. But definitely, you know, promote it. Just like if you were doing your own podcast, because it is kind of your own, even if you're doing it for work.

Speaker 1 00:12:52 I mean, if anything, I feel like you have a bigger outlet of people to reach. You have all of your previous customers or networking connections that you've made over the years. Don't just create this amazing podcast and then like release it day of and then expect people to come in droves. You know, you have to build up to it.

Speaker 0 00:13:15 Yeah. We didn't start off here with a, you know, huge audience. It's growing over the, over the years.

Speaker 1 00:13:22 Yeah, you can certainly do that, but if you want to let people know when you're releasing, why wouldn't you?

Speaker 0 00:13:31 Right, right. Yeah. We have kind of an unfair advantage with us because everybody, everybody that uses Power Press has our show in the welcome screen. Yeah. I'm sure we get a lot of listeners just that way because A, if they're using Power Press, they're interested in podcasting. B, nobody else can be in Power Press like that . So, but you know, use any unfair advantage you might have if you have a newsletter you have, uh, you know, if you advertise it or on your, on your website, you know, the people come to your website anyway 'cause apparently their customers are looking at buying something or whatever. So make sure you use all that unfair advantage you can.

Speaker 1 00:14:13 Yeah. If you're creating value the way that you think you are, then it's not really an unfair advantage. It's just getting where people have their eyes already.

Speaker 0 00:14:21 Right.

Speaker 1 00:14:24 Talking about regularly releasing. This kind of goes with planning the recording and the editing sometimes of, you know, when are you going to be releasing these episodes? Are you gonna do a series or a season? Are you gonna do every week once a month? Whenever you have something to talk about. You know, just set some expectations there for your listeners, but also yourself, including the, the setup of the actual equipment. Like what , how is that gonna function in your, in your office or home or whatever. It's,

Speaker 0 00:14:56 Yeah, we've been going through that, you know, since we're totally virtual now, you know, picked up a decent microphone last year and got a good setup there. So you sound way better than, than even in the studio

Speaker 1 00:15:11 Yeah. Than years past

Speaker 0 00:15:13 It. It's important. You know, get that, get that set up whether you're home or in the office and make sure it's quiet. You know, you tell, tell people, Hey, I'm recording, shut up, you know, or whatever, if you're doing it in the, in the office and make sure you plan for stuff like pay time off, otherwise, you know, other absences and whatnot. It's always good to have at least one recording in the can, but sometimes record ahead.

Speaker 1 00:15:40 Yeah. That also goes with the organization that we were talking about earlier. You know, if you're gonna be gone, what other team members gonna have access to this? Are they gonna be able to find everything? Are they gonna know what they're doing? Are you guys just gonna take some time off? That type of stuff.

Speaker 0 00:15:54 Yeah. You know, there's nothing particularly wrong with taking time off. The only thing is, is people build you into their schedule. So, you know, like we, we put out an episode generally Thursday evening or Friday morning unless we have some technical glitches. But you know, people pretty much expect that we're gonna have an episode sometime on Thursday or Friday and that's really good. And you know, our editing team takes off a few weeks in July and so they told us, Hey, you need to get your July episodes recorded. So we did . So that's what we're doing now.

Speaker 1 00:16:32 Which honestly is, was kind of nice because then that leaves time to worry about it less in July. It does leave that opportunity for, uh, you know, more, more leeway for not having to be chained to your desk as some people say with a microphone or whatever it is, you know?

Speaker 0 00:16:50 Yeah, yeah. Nothing worse than scrambling to do show prep, uh, two hours before the show, you know?

Speaker 1 00:16:55 Yeah. .

Speaker 0 00:16:56 So, which we still do

Speaker 1 00:16:58 In a much more calm manner than it was before.

Speaker 0 00:17:02 Exactly. Exactly. Since we haven't been doing live, I don't know how we would do live nowadays. That's a whole topic for a whole nother thing.

Speaker 1 00:17:11 Yeah. Actually people, do you wanna do a live podcast for your company show ? Yeah,

Speaker 0 00:17:18 It forced me to dress up one day a week , because I was gonna be on camera,

Speaker 1 00:17:23 You know, any, any time I had to do it for blueberry, I would definitely clean my living room and wash my hair. .

Speaker 0 00:17:31 There you go. There you go.

Speaker 1 00:17:33 You know, the simple things

Speaker 0 00:17:34 For forced, uh, hygiene I guess. Yeah. But, uh, you know, when you work from home, you know, that's, that's one thing if you in the office probably take care of all that stuff all the time, but you never know, you know?

Speaker 1 00:17:48 Yeah. I think there think there was, I think there was change for quite some people from working in the office to working from home.

Speaker 0 00:17:56 Yeah, for sure. But you know, one of the things is, you know, is, you know, if you're the right person to do a podcast for your company, a lot of you guys that listen to our show already podcasters, so probably, you know, probably you'd be the natural fit for your company. And, you know, don't, don't be afraid if you wanna do it to, you know, bug management about it. Say, Hey, we need a podcast and I'll be willing to host it, you know, and that can help you out in a lot of ways,

Speaker 1 00:18:29 . Yeah. You know what, if anything, look out for a blog post later this summer of how to pitch doing a podcast for your company. Yes. That's something we've talked about in the past and I don't know if we've had like a full feature for it, so No,

Speaker 0 00:18:45 No, we should do that. Know that one of the companies I used to work for was a magazine publisher, you know, and we had a bunch of in-house magazines and I thought, oh man, a podcast for these niche magazines would probably go good. They didn't, they didn't believe me, so they never did it. And now I see that they, they are, now that I'm not there, .

Speaker 1 00:19:07 So Oh, how things change in in five years.

Speaker 0 00:19:11 . Yeah. It might be terrible. I haven't looked or listened. Look, look for Pointing Dog Journal, .

Speaker 1 00:19:19 So overall doing a podcast for work, it really is a lot of fun. We look forward to it. It's nice to see that people are listening and, and getting this information and we're happy to share it. So take these tips and if you have any questions, please just reach out to the blueberry team.

Speaker 0 00:19:39 Yeah, for sure. And, uh, if you have a topic you want us to cover, we don't say this often enough, but please email, you know, McKinsey blueberry.com or mike@blueberry.com. Dad, don't bug Todd. He's got enough email .

Speaker 1 00:19:54 Yeah,

Speaker 0 00:19:55 Let us know and maybe we will do an episode about it. And of course, you know, if you wanna record something that we might play on the show, that's always cool too. Send that to me.

Speaker 1 00:20:06 Yeah, I'd like, I'd like to see more, uh, clips from listeners that we can insert into these episodes and chat about whatever insight you have. Yeah,

Speaker 0 00:20:15 Maybe. We'll, uh, 'cause traditionally what we, traditionally we've only been doing it for a few months, , but uh, whenever there's a fifth Thursday of the month, we always do some sort of special thing on the fifth Thursday. And, uh, this, you know, and usually it's, you know, all three of us, you know, we talk about something different than what we would normally talk about. Uh, so, you know, like last month, the end of June, we had the episode about closing the office in Columbus and setting up to work at at home podcast at home. So, you know, maybe for a special episode, one of those fifth Thursdays, whenever that happens next we'll have a q and a session. That might be fun. So anyway, we're planning the podcast on the podcast. That's not cool. , why not

Speaker 1 00:21:08 Let us know if you would like to be on .

Speaker 0 00:21:10 Well, that's what the insider means. You get to see the get get to see the donuts being made, I guess. Yep. Everybody have a good week. See you in August.

Speaker 3 00:21:19 Thanks for joining us. Come back next week and in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. Check out the latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast. Visit blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the ease because we can't afford the ease.