The weirdest place I've ever... recorded a podcast + listening tips

Are your headphones warmed up? Are your AirPods charged? Prick up your ears and get ready for a good dose of listening. Because it's quite fun to read about podcasts, but of course it's ultimately about the audio. Let's go!

In my previous publication, I talked about my podcast adventures at ZUID Creatives. Short summary: a few years of nagging and dragging, but then you've got something. The moment I was allowed to unpack mics, headphones and mixing console spontaneously swung me back to the faithful Sinterklaas years. Anyway, with just some nice stuff, you're not there yet. With colleague Niek van de Techniek by my side, I took the plunge.

Dude, why a podcast?

If you know me a little bit, you know that I'm not a slick salesman. Fortunately, you can get there when you bring a podcast to people, even if you have more of a face for the radio. There are a lot of arguments why you want to be a brand-with-podcast — feel free to Google — but for me, these are the most important ones:

1. Become a thought leader
‍Rather hip marketing term, but the bottom line is that you consistently answer your target group's most important questions about a specific topic. And there's hardly anywhere else you have as much space for that as in a podcast. So get behind that mic and become the authority in your niche.

2. Nice and accessible
Is the format correct? Are the speakers familiar? Then you can quickly throw a podcast out of the sleeve. Okay, if you want to do it well, it really takes some expertise. But what you create can be swung online the same day if you want.

3. Message coming in
41 minutes, that's how long the average listener spends watching a podcast episode. Provided it's properly put together. This way, they are (subtly) confronted with your brand for much longer than through any other medium or medium. And the message comes in because it is listened to while there is little mental distraction: while walking, cooking, driving, etc.

Enough tapping...

Oh yes, I promised you in the intro that you would mostly hear a lot. It remains a persistent feature of a copywriter that words tick. Nowadays, we just have ChatGTP, Bard and Ernie in front of us, of course. So check out a part of this podcast first, and I'll tell you a bit about it later:

hi, IT Support Cast

‍The very first customer we enthusiastically went into the studio with is hello*. What you probably won't miss while listening is the Brabant accent of the host (moi) and some of the guests. We therefore started the podcast from Tilburg, but now hello experts from all over the Netherlands are joining us. hallo is also active in Spain and on the ABC islands, so maybe another Caribbean adventure is in the offing 😉

Goal of the podcast: to make it clear that hello answers all questions about smart online workplaces, flexible telephony, business internet and secure cloud solutions. Not to be forwarded, but rather by sharing valuable tips that will help everyone. As a host, it's my job as an IT nitwit to ask the questions that also come to the mind of the listeners.

*hello offers ICT solutions for SMEs

Tip: make a script before you start recording your podcast, but don't hesitate to deviate from it if the story gets interesting 🙂

Podcasting around the treatment chair

‍What's the weirdest place you've ever... recorded a podcast? Well, in and around a doctor's office. For the Q3 Doctor's Heart series, where hosts Myra and Saskia visit doctors with an inspiring story. And not to take the “We from WC-Duck” to an even higher level now, but you want to hear those conversations. So you understand what drives that doctor to you.

Q3 deliberately chooses to burn the podcast subtly. The medical specialists who speak are the stars of the podcast. The 'calling' and 'comradeship' topics covered in the podcast are Q3's areas of expertise. That's how we make that link without being pushy.

Cheating for a while

Okay, here are three great listening tips. Don't you know them yet? Then subscription is mandatory.

This American Life

“In radio, you have two tools. Sound and silence.”

-Ira Glass

Ira started in radio as a teenager, but is now also a living podcast legend. Have you never heard his series This American Life? Then I can only be jealous, because you can listen back to so many more episodes:

The Third Half

Yes, I'm a soccer nerd. That's why I also listen to about 377 different football podcasts. I hear 89 analyses about Steven Berghuis's one pass alone. The men of The Third Half prove that it can also be a lot more dry-comical. In 45 minutes, they will take you through all the Eredivisie matches of that week. The jingles are the most enjoyable; so bad that they become good. Another good example of the power of sections in a podcast:

Appie

Former radio director at Talpa Network and current chief editor of BNR News Radio Marc Adriani thought it was time for a sabbatical between these two job heavyweights. Where the average person is lying somewhere on a tropical beach with a cocktail in hand, Marc went back to his native land. With Appie, he tells the story of the most violent supermarket robbery in Dutch history. A gem of a podcast that even made the news several times: