Podcasts
Creating podcasts is a similar process to writing great copy. It requires the same interviewing skills and ability to shape content. And after launching my own podcast series of interviews with business leaders, I've hosted and produced several series for clients.
Interviewing Keith Skeoch, then CEO of Standard Life Aberdeen, for the Scottish Business Network podcast series, 2019.
Creating your own podcast series can be a very effective way of attracting the attention of your target audience while demonstrating your expertise in a key field. If you can build 30/40-minute episodes that people genuinely want to listen to, you will literally be having a word in their ear for a prolonged period – something that many forms of marketing can't compete with. And you don't have to commit to endless episodes. Sometimes, simply creating a single season of five or six episodes may prove highly successful in pursuing a strategic goal. Entry costs are also minimal – but it pays to have an experienced podcast producer working with you.
In 2018, I launched a podcast series for the Scottish Business Network, interviewing some of the big personalities in Scottish business. Prior to COVID, many of the episodes were recorded in front of a live audience in London. I clocked up more than 90 episodes before stepping back in 2023 and passing the baton over – the full series is available here.
The experience opened several doors for me. I've created podcasts for a global consulting business based in Ireland, and an Arizona construction consultancy. I also teamed up with former colleague Malcom Triggs for Our Glorious Leaders, a short series profiling some of the world’s most tyrannical leaders (before succumbing to paranoid fears for our own safety).
I also love producing The Library of Mistakes podcast in which Professor Russell Napier interviews leading financial history authors. Launched in 2022, we now clock up more than 5,000 downloads per episode, putting it in the top 2% of all podcast series globally.
And one of my favourite podcast projects to date was working with Hampden & Co to create The Return Of The Woodland – a five part-series explaining everything you need to know to create your own forest. It was a fascinating topic to interview experts about, and we produced an in-depth report to go with it.
“Great podcasting requires great interviewing skills.”