15: The Creator of the #1 Podcast Education Resource - Colin Gray

Oh My Pod | Podcast Strategy

This week, our hosts interview Colin Gray, founder of The Podcast Host, about his background in podcasting and business experiences. They discuss the importance of the message in a podcast and how it outweighs technical aspects like audio quality. Colin emphasizes the need to provide value to listeners and solve specific problems for a target audience. They also talk about niching down and building a connection with listeners, measuring podcast downloads, preparing for interviews, organizing episodes into seasons, repurposing content, and the challenges of video in podcasting. Colin Gray is a podcaster, international speaker, PhD and founder of The Podcast Host and Alitu. Colin started out in Astrophysics, before realizing how much math you had to do. Turns out Podcasting has less math, and more interesting puzzles! Now he’s been in podcasting for 12 years and aims to help everyone to get their voice heard. What we discuss: [00:04:26] Colin shares his journey into podcasting, starting from his work as a lecturer and his discovery of podcasting as a medium. [00:09:43] Colin stresses the importance of delivering a message in a podcast and making the tech invisible. [00:10:21] The group talks about the power of niching down and serving a specific group of underserved people in podcasting. [00:12:45] Colin shares the importance of building a connection and trust with the audience in podcasting, and the potential to convert listeners into customers. [00:19:31] The group discusses the challenges of measuring podcast downloads and the different ways hosts qualify listeners and downloads. [00:20:35] Colin explains how Apple Podcast Connect allows podcasters to track listener numbers and trends, and the significance of this data. [00:22:28] Colin explores the misconception that downloads equate to listens, and the need to filter out bots and automations when measuring podcast statistics. [00:27:24] Colin discusses the responsibility of the guest to provide interesting and unique content for the podcast host. [00:31:05] Colin explains the advantages of structuring podcast episodes into seasons, including increased consistency, better planning, and improved listener experience. [00:36:20] The group discusses the importance of promoting old podcast episodes and the value of seasons in creating substantial content. [00:40:35] Colin talks about the potential paradigm shift of incorporating video into podcasting and the concerns around maintaining the simplicity and intimacy of the audio medium. [00:45:34] Colin discusses the difficulties of convincing older generations to listen to podcasts and the various barriers to entry for new listeners. [00:46:56] Colin talks about his influence in the podcasting world, and the joy of teaching and spreading messages through podcasting. Episode Resources: Colin Gray | Instagram Colin Gray | Youtube Colin Gray | Podcast Colin Gray | Facebook