Megaphone Partner, C-Suite Network brings insight into how podcasting has evolved since radio
In this Q&A, Megaphone sits down with Steve Conlin from C-Suite Network to discuss the changes he has seen in podcasting over the past couple years and exciting trends to look forward to
What is your current day job like?
I am known as Community Developer and Business Development for C-Suite Network. I also get the tag Head of Talent for C-Suite Radio which means I get to connect with a lot of people in the podcasting world that we can bring over to our platform. It’s a title that I take honor in having because the talent resides with the ones who are sitting in front of the microphone everyday and my job is to be an advocate for them.
What gets you excited about the podcast business today?
I am an old school radio person and have loved radio for a long time. Everything that radio represents, like the intimacy of it is what I see in podcasting. However, I think podcasting is a step beyond radio because you have the ability to convey that message with the boundaries opening up for podcasting to evolve. With podcasting, you get that amazing diversity of voices and a great variety of content and messaging that podcasts are delivering to people. One thing that radio doesn’t have is convenience. You can listen to any podcast, any time. You don’t have to miss a show or wait 40 mins to listen to the weather.
Do you feel that podcasts are capturing those “golden age” of radio?
I think it's different because during the golden age of radio you would have to bring content together from east to west coast, podcasting has dropped that as you are able to be anywhere. Now we have audiences in different countries. I just love the audio aspect of engaging in a conversation.
For C-Suite Network, we are a business-based podcast network so it has a more specific niche to where we are looking to expand to. This is for people looking to educate themselves, to learn about leadership and be entertained as well. With the “golden age” of radio, it was all about entertainment and while podcasting is about entertainment, it also is about education for the listeners.
What news and exciting trends do you see in podcasting?
Variety is the spice of life. With podcasting there are so many news sources to follow that everyone has their preferred source to get their news from. The industry is always waiting to see where the big name podcasters are going to go on a given day, but recently it has been those big players comparing downloads and what the potential change is to a subscriber based platform. The exciting trends that I see is just the unknown that can happen. With podcasting, these small businesses have so much opportunity to disseminate their message -- even in their corporate websites -- to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Podcasting is a valuable tool to help anyone grow their brand and their audience.
What keeps you up at night in the podcast business?
Numbers will always keep me up at night. Podcasts are growing so fast that it is hard to keep up with them all, so it’s hard to listen to them all. While there’s no current rating system to measure a podcast’s outreach, there’s an industry-wide effort to capture downloads and impressions, which helps with advertising. Also, being able to bring brands into play for our podcast has shown that people are becoming more tolerant of ad placements because they recognize what it provides for podcasters as well as their brand. There's an interesting push-pull when it comes to subscriber-based ad free versus ad supported.
What are some of your personal favorite podcasts?
Well, pick your favorite child from the 300 on C-Suite Radio and that will probably be my personal favorite. I set out at the beginning of this year to listen to at least one episode of all our podcasts at C-Suite Radio because I feel that I owe that to our podcasters. It’s essential for me to know the ‘product.’ What is amazing is that they are outpacing me, but there are some great people out there adding great content to the platform. With podcasting, there definitely is that fatigue factor which shows how dedicated they are to their craft and that makes it so much more worth listening to because you know what goes into making such great content. They love what they do and they see the value of sharing with others which makes it such an intimate medium.
What surprised you about the podcasting business?
Despite its growth, podcasting is still at the early stages of where it will end up. It still has a long way to go and we have only begun to explore the width and breadth of what it can do to create content and even help generate leads for businesses. Podcasting is definitely acting as an extension for businesses and that is a whole new area for the industry. Also, the relatively inexpensive advertising for people is a big surprise for many. It will be interesting to see where podcasting gets if we get beyond the typical per thousand model of advertising revenue.
What has changed in your new world of work? Are there any big lessons or observations from COVID19?
Well it changed everything for everyone, not just in the podcast industry. It did speed up digital transformation which we have been talking about at C-Suite over that past year. People knew it was coming, but didn’t expect it to be so sudden. For me, I really enjoy conversations and hands on interactions, but I also need people and in person interactions which is something I really miss. The expression “sizing up” was so important before because you were able to fully understand someone through that in person interaction, but now it is over a Zoom meeting. Being in the physical presence of someone, you are able to take a lot from that.
With C-Suite Network, we have learned to adapt like everyone else has. We pivoted all our events from in-person to virtual events over the past year because we know how important keeping that connection with the entire community really is. For example, we do a virtual happy hour on Fridays to bring everyone together and celebrate the week’s wins and connect with each other. These virtual events have brought great conversations and have forced us to deal with this change of pace. As we begin to go back to in-person, we will be pivoting again. Some might even begin to commute again and hopefully continue listening to podcasts. As long as good storytellers are around and looking for an audience, podcasting will serve them well.