Founders: be an active podcaster for your personal & startup brand

We were once an economy of factories. Now we’re an economy of ideas. The factory was a place of innovation. It converted cotton to cloth, grain to flour, ore to steel. The factory changed the landscape of our economy. It started in Manchester. It was manual. Now we’re doing it again, digitally. And it’s the podcasters leading the way, sharing knowledge, insight and opinions.

Podcasters are broadcasters, but they can be software engineers, designers, analysts, thinkers and doers, agile practitioners, optimists, coffee aficionados and bloggers. They can be gamers, walkers, parents, dog lovers, campers, chess players, musicians, five-a-siders, home-brewers, travellers and gardeners.

Everyone has something to say, and as a startup founder, you need to find your voice and be heard to reach your target audience with intelligence, humility and interest. I see so many people with the small white air pods in their ears these days. To visit a modern workplace is to walk into a room with music and podcasts playing simultaneously but to hear none of them. Everyone is sat beavering away headphones on, alone in their own world.

Listen to the silence, let it ring on. Staying in the same place, just staying out the time, touching from a distance, further all the time. It has never been easier to tune in to your own personalised soundtrack of music, audio books, personal development lessons or conversational podcasts. And there a former English international footballers showing us all what can be done.

The afterlives of English footballers typically involve a stint in coaching or a spot of punditry. The glaring exceptions are David Beckham, a businessman and walking brand, and Gary Lineker. He’s probably got the edge on looks, Lineker concedes, in a self-deprecatory tone that has helped make him an A-list broadcaster and, in his latest incarnation, a podcast star.

On his podcast, The Rest is Football, another retired striker, Alan Shearer, ribbed him recently for scoring goals from a few yards out. I couldn’t kick it any further, Lineker deadpanned. The podcast mixes insight with fun, the team is Lineker, the occasionally over-serious Shearer and the often over- exuberant Micah Richards. It is one of the most downloaded podcasts.

It is made by Goalhanger, a firm Lineker co-founded. Its basic format is a good structure for founders wishing to use this media: amiable, semi-serious, knowledgeable dialogue punctured with unshouty, grounded opinions. It lets you feel as if you’re with them in the room. Other Goalhanger output includes The Rest is Politics, hosted by the contrasting duo of Alastair Campbell with Rory Stewart, previously a Conservative MP.

The Rest is Politics is Britain’s top political podcast. Another title, The Rest is History, is downloaded 11m times a month. In a very C21st feedback loop, whereby digital interaction drives a yearning for the physical kind, the sport, history and politics hosts play live events to improbably huge audiences.

Launching in September, I’ll be airing my own podcast series – The Founder’s Mindset - where I’ll be interviewing startup founders at various stages in their entrepreneurial journey, discussions and reflections on their own slice-of-life startup stories – a smorgasbord of Alan Turing meets Harry Potter meets Michael Palin – unscripted, free flowing conversation naturally emerging. The title, The Founder’s Mindset, is an attribution to the spirit and energy of Factory Records, reflecting the Mancunian joie-de-vivre.

I was motivated to create a podcast for a number of reasons. Primarily, I’ve a face more suited for radio than the webinar screen, so podcasting was the medium to share and express my personal passion for understanding founder motivations, vulnerabilities and stories. I’m also an advocate of the open-source ethos, so hopefully in my own small way contribute and cultivate a community of like-minded listeners where others’ contributions can spark someone to launch their our startup venture.

So where did all this start? ‘Podcast’ is a portmanteau, a combination of iPod and broadcast, the term first suggested by The Guardian columnist Ben Hammersley in 2004. Use of the term predated Apple's support for podcasting to the iPod and its iTunes platform, which created some copyright issues back in the day around the use of ‘Pod’ in product names.

In October 2000, the concept of attaching sound and video files in RSS feeds was developed by Tritan Louis, with the idea implemented by Dave Winer, a software developer and author of the RSS format, and podcasting became a recognised medium for audio content distribution. The first application to make this process feasible was iPodderX, developed by August Trometer and Ray Slakinski.

This shift occurred as a result of the evolution of internet capabilities along with increased consumer access to cheaper hardware and software for audio recording and editing. Things moved on when Apple released iTunes 4.9 (2005) which added formal support for podcasts, removing the need to use a separate program to download and transfer them to a mobile device. This made access to podcasts more convenient and widespread as a content creation and distribution system.

So, why should you consider developing your own founder podcast strategy? Here are my ten takeaways of the business and personal benefits from podcasting, for founders building both their personal brand and that of their startup.

1. Develop empathy for your listener We all love the sound of our own voice, but the real skill to creating something people will listen to is putting yourself in their headphones - it’s not about what you want to say but what they want to hear on your subject. This means investing time to prepare and research your content, so that that you have some interesting, different and memorable points of view as ‘takeaways’ for your audience. Showing customer empathy is a key trait for successful entrepreneurs.

2. Use your voice to convey emotion and create rapport It’s easy to be animated telling stories and talking with friends, but when that red button is pushed, we can freeze. It’s all about the delivery…once more with feeling. I’ve found working on podcasts has made me relax and able to speak more conversationally, and be a better listener, something I will take into my zoom exchanges.

I try to convey feeling and emotion when speaking, being light-hearted and showing I’m enjoying the event – hopefully this comes across in my voice. I try to make the podcast a dynamic thirty-minutes of storytelling, sharing your personality makes us better communicators.

?3. Being creative and thinking on your feet Producing a podcast content and script is a creative endeavour. Generating your own content forces you to focus on creativity. You need to give yourself enough time to develop your thinking, but creativity is part lightbulb moment and part process and practice. We have a script and some key hook lines, but inevitably the podcast goes off script and we ad hoc. You need to be a nimble thinker to keep the conversation flowing.

4. Time management and flexibility Being able to manage your time is key to most successful entrepreneurial ventures, making every moment count can make the difference between a great outcome and mediocrity or losing your way. This is also true with podcasts, there are lots of moving parts, b

eing organised without being rigid, I’ve found the disciplined needed has provided valuable lessons in my organisational skills.

5. It’s part of your personal development Podcasting has added to my personal development. In preparation and research, I’ve listened to some amazing inspirational people out there sharing amazing insights through their podcasts. When you get together with your co-hosts or do research for each episode, this gives you a chance to collect information you may not have noticed before

6. Podcasts are far more than repurposed content Podcasting means more than simply additional background content, it has to standalone in its own right and be something that can engage, entertain, educate or inspire your audience. One of the most common ways people listen is on the commute into work, so you have the opportunity to really grab their attention in a moment when they have no distractions.

7. Make it authentic A lot of podcasts are simple, just a few folks seemingly chatting away about something that they're really passionate about. Some are polished including theme music and professional editing. The more home-baked efforts on the other hand, might have a few rough edges, but still grow a loyal following because of the relevant content.

8. Create a personal brand that builds connection Podcasting is a tool to create a personal brand extending your reach and connectivity. Podcasts can help in building familiarity and traction, as listeners usually subscribe to the series and regularly listen. As long as your series continues, your audience is quite likely to keep listening.

9. Podcasting is an alternative to video Whilst video marketing is a vital part of the digital marketing mix, it’s good to step away from the screen these days. Equally, not everyone is comfortable to shoot videos. As a result, podcasting is a channel to develop your reputation with a reduced budget compared to video. It’s a good start to building trust.

10. Where is the value to my potential customers? The value comes from your content, and your voice. Being able to give insights based on personal experiential advice in your space creates value for listeners. Wrapped by your own personality, this transparency and authenticity helps stand you out from the crowd.

You won't find a better way of learning than the podcast as a listener, nor getting your point of view or brand awareness increased as a broadcaster. We all want convenience, so by transforming your blog posts (and other content) into easily digestible audio versions, you’re delivering that.

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Would you want to read a blog post, or listen to a fun conversation about the subject matter on your way to work, at the gym, or while making dinner? Having an easy, convenient way to absorb information is the key to an engaging audience.

People are carrying around an entire library of podcasts in their pockets, listening on-the-go and have capacity to find and absorb much more information from a digital conversation than a traditional blog post. Go on, find your voice, be the next Gary Lineker. Once more with feeling!