Jeff Umbro from The Podglomerate discusses the strength and willingness of the podcast community
In this Q&A, Megaphone sits down with the founder and CEO of The Podglomerate, Jeff Umbro, to discuss the importance of the podcast community and exciting trends to look forward to in 2021
What is your current day job like?
I’m the founder and CEO of The Podglomerate, which is a company that produces, distributes and monetizes podcasts. We offer all of these items in-house as a service business. In terms of my day-to-day job, it usually consists of a lot of phone calls, Zoom meetings, and sort of ping-ponging between any one of a dozen software platforms we use on a daily basis.
What gets you excited about the podcast movement/business today?
There are a lot of unique players that are moving into the space; everyone from athletes, celebrities and big influencers to unique brands and academics. You can talk about the unique players from the publishing and content side, which is incredible to see, but you can also talk about it from the advertiser side. Advertising is the lifeline of the industry right now and it's cool to see who’s getting involved, mainly because it's an indicator that things are working.
It’s also really amazing to see what’s happened on the podcast tech side. This piece of the industry has matured almost more than any other in the last few years, and I’m excited to see how it will evolve in the next few years.
What new and exciting trends do you see in podcasting?
With all the consolidation in the industry, it's like every big company is competing to provide the most benefits to their users. Just a few years ago, if I would ask for new features it would take months to implement, if it happened at all. Now it seems like every week you have to sit down and learn about a new tool or feature, which is exciting.
On top of this, the level of talent that is coming into podcasting is another trend I’m watching closely. Whether it is sports, true crime, or fiction, people at the top of their game in other mediums are starting to see podcasting as a valuable place to park their ideas and creativity.
Are there any concerns you have for the industry?
As exciting as it is to see so many new faces in podcasting, it’s also a little scary to see people with more resources operating in the same sandbox, but I guess that’s just inevitable.
Beyond my own paranoia, something I’ve been watching closely as the industry matures is how it’s dealing with potential technology constraints and privacy issues that may not have been top-of-mind a few years ago. I do feel like the industry is weathering these concerns pretty well so far. From what I’m seeing, these issues are popping up in every industry across the world, so podcasting isn’t unique. Fingers crossed that the podcast industry is able to hold out long-term and continue to evolve.
What are some of your personal favorite podcasts?
I'm excited for Serial’s new show, The Improvement Association. I’ve been a Zoe Chace fan for a while and this seems to be right in her sweet spot. I am a huge fan of everything Peter Kafka does with Recode Media, and The Ezra Klein Show has been putting out really amazing episodes lately, especially since moving to the New York Times. Outside In is a show from my hometown NPR station, New Hampshire Public Radio. It’s a great listen, especially as the weather gets nice, since it’s a show about the outdoor world. If you want a quick fun one, Australian comic Chris Lilley just put out a new show based on one of his characters called Ja’miezing.
I should also plug a Podglomerate show called Trail Weight, (episode one published April 15th) which documents Andrew Steven’s journey hiking the John Muir Trail. It’s our first narrative podcast, but it also combines a unique blend of fitness, storytelling, and advice on overcoming issues of grief and personal endurance all in one podcast.
What surprised you about the podcasting business?
Everything we’ve discussed has been surprising, but it’s also the reason we’re all in this business. We knew that it would evolve sooner rather than later, and here we are. I would say one of the more surprising parts of the industry is honestly how great everyone is. Everybody is so collaborative and fun to work with, which makes working in podcasting day to day a lot of fun. There’s still a lot of competition, but way less than you’d think. You’d assume that folks at competing companies would hate each other, but it’s the exact opposite. Everyone is so willing to help each other out for any number of things, that’s been a really refreshing thing to see.
What has changed in your new world of work? Any big lessons/observations from COVID-19?
So we actually built The Podglomerate back in 2016 with the intention of it being completely remote. We felt a couple weeks or months ahead of everyone else because we were accustomed to working remote. We did lose some advertisers initially, like a lot of other companies did, but they came back quickly.
More importantly, what this pandemic has taught me is that our business plan was well thought out and executed and that it doesn’t really matter what you are doing for work everyday if you are not paying attention to the outside world. Going back to what I was talking about with how great the podcast community is, if you don’t have that sense of community then you have nothing. That is the piece that showed me more than anything else, that we have people there for us who have been checking in and seeing how we are doing over the past year. The pandemic has really shown me how great podcast people are to each other.