Let’s talk about the fact that we’re all stuck inside for the foreseeable future. Now – working from home is something I’ve been doing for so long that the thought of having to work in a room WITH other humans is more or less unimaginable. But it all feels a little different, and a lot more challenging right now. So, I want to preface this with, if you’re not in a place emotionally, financially or in any other way to think about podcasting, or growing your business, or networking or anything other than keeping calm and spending time with your family and distracting yourself with whatever tickles your fancy – honor that. There’s been a lot of chatter out there about “using” this quarantine time productively. And some people can, and that’s great. Other people can’t – and that needs to be fine too. There’s no right way through this, so listen to your body, pay attention to your feelings, and IF you feel like exploring ways to use your podcast to take a lot of normally off-line activities online – read on friend! (If you don’t feel like that, please accept a virtual hug, a reminder to make sure you’re hydrated, and a recommendation to reread one of your favorite books from years ago.)

Back to online media. What I’ve been doing over the last more-than-a-decade of remote work is helping people create different kinds of media for the internet – first online and digital courses, then podcasts. Right now, I imagine it’s becoming a lot easier to see the value of both online courses and podcasts – and let’s face it, we’re in the for the long haul with this distance work thing. Even when things start to look a little more like they used to, I suspect we’ll be seeing more people working from home, more of the time.

I want to talk a little about the ways One Stone Creative helps our clients use their podcasts – because it’s not all about becoming famous – there are benefits that have many time the value of just a piece of media that people can listen to. Here are some of them:

1. Weekly structure. Oh, how we miss structure once it’s gone. Podcasting is great because it forces you to have a content production schedule, and keep to it. It’s a guaranteed professional contact, once a week. It’s also a reliable content posting, social media marketing, and blog check-in. I know a handful of people who have been genuinely amazed at the kinds of connections and engagements, connections and opportunities that have come out of just being consistent about creating things – then sharing and talking about them.
2. Consistent Content Creation. Consistently creating content is found way more frequently on the “I should do it” list then “I do it” one. Podcasting takes away that problem because if you’re not consistent, you’re not really podcasting. The content you create can become blog posts, sales materials, social media shares, and even larger projects like online courses and authority building books. The trick to making this work is to really think about your goals in advance, and create a content calendar. Remember – companies that market – content or otherwise, during downturns or challenging times do better in the recovery than those that don’t.
3. Networking! Obviously we have access to plenty of facebook groups, and LinkedIn walls, but podcasting can give you steady access to a stream of desirable potential clients, joint venture partners, experts and innovators. It’s pretty unlikely that our normal industry conferences are going to be happening this year – and who knows what the future holds – when you have a podcast where you invite people to have conversations about your own area of expertise, you’ll be consistently developing new, important relationships to grow your business.
4. Diversification of Marketing Channels. It’s important to have multiple methods for clients, partners and colleagues to find out about you, and what you’re offering. I know you’ve heard the one about an unspecified number of eggs in a hypothetical basket, and what is true for poultry products is true for increasingly digital businesses. You have to have multiple paths for strangers to come into your orbit, and podcasting can get you a lot of content for a lot of different platforms in return for your investment.
5. Staying Connected. If you’re part of a larger organization or a close professional network, then a podcast is a totally safe, easily accessible, free, intimate and MEMORABLE way to stay connected. Here’s a great example of this – my partner works for the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and they have a podcast – two parts, actually – one is external interviews with the doctors that publish with them about the research, and the other is internal; interviews with members of the company, so that a broad, diverse, and largely remote team can get to know each other, and feel like they’re part of something. If I have any prediction for the future of podcasting, it’s going to be that we see a lot more initiatives like this, where the medium of audio is used to connect remote teams.

Now – obviously I’m extremely biased in favor of podcasting, but if you’re what I like to call pod-curious, lets talk. My job is making podcasting very, very easy for people. You can book a call with me right here, or click one of the links below to read one of our other articles.