0:02

Welcome to corporate podcasting.

0:04

Smarter for business communications training and marketing.

0:07

Corporate podcasting Smarter is for enterprise level and professional organizations and is an official podcast from pod beam.

0:15

We feature interviews with industry experts learning and development use cases,

0:19

podcast network advertising, best practices and helpful tips for how to get the most out of podcasting within your organization or media network.

0:36

Hello and welcome to corporate podcasting Smarter.

0:38

Today's episode is a replay of our live event how podcasting helps with employee retention.

0:43

Where I'll be having a conversation with Dave Delaney,

0:46

the founder of Future fourth, who's a keynote speaker,

0:49

corporate trainer, author and podcaster.

0:52

We'll be discussing how to use podcasting to encourage and empower your employees,

0:57

creating community within your organization and so much more.

1:00

Stay tuned and here we go. Hello and welcome.

1:04

We are here with Dave Delaney. He's a keynote speaker author,

1:07

podcaster and founder of Future fourth dot com.

1:11

Hi Dave, how's it going? I am awesome.

1:14

I'm very, very, very good on this wonderful day.

1:17

Yes, can't complain. Yeah, absolutely.

1:20

And we're so excited to talk to you today because podcasting is re really the implementation of it is really being used with within organizations for learning and development training and today we're going to talk about podcasting for employee retention right?

1:37

Because so many businesses you're spending so much money on recruitment on onboarding on getting somebody on your team and making sure they're the right person and then what do you do to keep them right,

1:49

like what do you do to make sure they're happy they feel heard.

1:53

Um and you know how can podcasting play into that.

1:57

So I am so excited for our conversation here today.

2:00

Um, tell us a little bit about yourself because you have an amazing background within corporate communications and podcasting.

2:07

So before we jump in, just tell everybody a little brief intro about your experience.

2:11

Yes, thank you so much.

2:14

So my podcast, I have a podcast.

2:16

It's called the nice podcast, which you can find a nice podcast dot co or over at future fourth,

2:22

but I've been podcasting since 2005.

2:25

So I had the second podcast,

2:29

a parenting podcast back in the day called two boobs and a baby.

2:35

And uh with full disclosure,

2:37

the boobs meant my wife and I are idiots.

2:39

Um, and some days we still are,

2:42

but just ask our team kids these days.

2:44

But yeah, we started podcasting, you know, five.

2:47

Um, and did that as sort of an audio baby book where we could share our own journey as new parents with our friends and family abroad.

2:57

And my wife and I met in Ireland and she's from Tennessee.

3:02

We live in Nashville and I'm from Canada uh in Toronto.

3:06

So, um, so yeah, funny where life takes you.

3:09

So, and I've had multiple podcasts over the years.

3:12

I used to have one that when I walked the dog,

3:14

it was sort of just whatever was on my mind.

3:17

Um, and sort of, you know, unedited and just off the cuff kind of deal.

3:21

I've had multiple interview podcast over the years,

3:24

I've got a book called new business networking and I had a podcast all about networking and speaking of very smart people all about that topic and yeah,

3:34

so I am, I'm a big fan and uh,

3:37

of podcasting as both an early consumer podcast but also creator as well.

3:44

Absolutely. And you also have this background within corporate communications and um speaking to that.

3:51

So tell us a little bit about that aspect as well.

3:55

Right. So I've worked in marketing and communications pretty much my whole career.

4:01

Um and I've worked for some some great great companies,

4:04

but over the last decade I went out on my own and launched future fourth and we helped fast growing technology companies and retain talent and improve communication and collaboration and culture ultimately.

4:17

So the really the the end goal is to improve employee retention right?

4:21

Because the cost of losing talent both from a cultural level but also from a costly level.

4:28

Um you know, that's that's such an important thing.

4:30

So yeah, so and I do corporate workshops and training and leadership consulting and and guests presentation.

4:39

So yeah, it's, it's all,

4:41

it's all about that. And so that's that's kind of my my wheelhouse.

4:44

Absolutely. So let's dive in,

4:48

you know, employee retention is such a big issue right now.

4:50

Companies will spend time, they'll spend money filling a role within the organization and there's a cost on boarding and so with that in mind,

4:59

let's first speak a little bit about how, how important employee retention is,

5:03

right? Because you know the job market,

5:05

everybody's talking about it right now. Um, and companies spend billions of dollars on recruitment.

5:12

Yes, it's actually trillions.

5:14

It's a trillion dollar problem now actually just published a blog post about that.

5:20

So, so sure the society for human resources management did a study a while back and they found that between six it costs between 6-9 months a person's salary to replace that person if they leave.

5:34

So if it's a $60,000 employee,

5:37

it costs between 30 to 45,000.

5:39

That's the number. By the way that I memorized.

5:41

I'm so bad at math though.

5:44

That's the top of my number. Yeah,

5:46

absolutely. But that's easy, right? Half is 30 and three quarters is 45.

5:50

But that's quite a lot of money.

5:53

You know, we're not getting work from that,

5:56

that employee, right? Just the cost for a business.

5:58

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Like we built, we built a free calculator.

6:02

You can check out future fourth dot com plus you can punch in a salary and actually it'll spit out how much it's gonna cost probably to replace that person.

6:10

So, so yeah, those costs as you said,

6:12

I mean it is incredibly costly and it's really a matter of,

6:17

it's, it's, it's not just retraining their replacement,

6:20

which is part of that cost. But it's also finding that replacement as well and,

6:24

and the recruiting and the retraining and all that.

6:27

So yeah, that's a very big cost to a business.

6:31

What are some things that affect employee retention?

6:36

Um, one of the biggest ones is a lack of appreciation or feedback or recognition in one of the talks.

6:44

I do the R. O. I. Of nice.

6:46

Um, I talk about how one of the best ways that a leader can recognize a team member is by writing,

6:54

writing, old school going analog here,

6:56

Get ready a thank you card,

6:59

like an old school actual card and you don't have to put in like a gift card or anything like that within the card,

7:06

literally taking a moment. Uh,

7:09

you know, maybe once a week, take a moment to think about somebody on your team who you appreciate and then write them a thank you card and then mail it to their home.

7:18

Um, and, and just send them and don't just write thanks,

7:22

you know, but take some time to write it out,

7:25

Make it personal. 100%. Yeah.

7:27

And let them know why you're thankful for them.

7:30

Um, that goes a long way.

7:32

Just having something tangible like that warms your heart and it's,

7:36

it's a great way to also for you if you're in that leadership role where you're doing this for you to slow down a little bit each day or each at least once a week to do this and to be grateful for the people on your team and so for you to stop and actually think about this,

7:53

you realize like, whoa, wait a minute. Yeah,

7:55

I love norma jean, like she's awesome,

7:57

you know, and then write that thank you cards.

8:00

So that's a great way just to provide some quick,

8:03

quick little nod and, and people appreciate that.

8:07

Yeah, absolutely. And I really love what you said about employees not feeling appreciated.

8:12

I think that's a really big one. Organizations,

8:15

you know, while they great products and services are made up of people and so it's that it's,

8:21

it's knowing that and having that as a,

8:25

as a top of mind in terms of your values of how can we not only appreciate,

8:30

you know, how well we're doing in terms of the product creation or the,

8:33

or the services, but how well are we doing in terms of the people,

8:36

because that's who comprises the organization.

8:38

Those are the building blocks of a company in a lot of ways.

8:41

Um, and so making sure that people feel appreciated,

8:45

making sure that people feel heard is is huge.

8:47

Um, and I want to talk a little bit about your nice method,

8:50

which you briefly touched on, so if you can walk us through that,

8:53

that would be great. Yeah, so the nice method is a framework I developed that includes basically there's three tiers to the nice method,

9:01

the first is hearing your team, so how to actually hear your team,

9:05

and that includes providing feedback as well.

9:07

Um it also includes like active listening,

9:09

like really listening to people in your organization.

9:12

Um the second part of the nice method is about really overcoming not fearing failure,

9:20

but also making uh making it building a company that that people feel comfortable in um and that gets into life outside the walls.

9:28

And what I mean by that is considering bringing your team together in ways beyond the walls of your organization and that might mean doing outings together.

9:40

It might mean workshops and retreats,

9:42

you know, in this day and age where so many businesses are,

9:45

are either hybrid or perhaps fully distributed if you don't bring your people together in person at least once or twice a year,

9:54

um it's very difficult to build sustainable relationships with your colleagues when you don't meet in person ever.

10:02

Um and so that's an important part of it.

10:05

Now, I have other components to uh to life inside the walls and and outside the walls to the other thing is avoiding the wrecks.

10:13

So that's the third part of the nice method and avoiding the wrecks means uh,

10:18

these wrecks can can occur from communication breakdown um from,

10:22

you know, poor communication internally,

10:25

and they can also be caused by fear of management and,

10:30

you know, people, people don't quit jobs,

10:32

they quit managers as the old lion goes,

10:35

so, so yeah, so, and I do,

10:37

so I teach team members the nice method and I have you know,

10:42

a whole bunch of other parts of this of course in a lot of the workshops and training that I do as well.

10:48

Yeah, absolutely. And it sounds like you really kind of have your finger on the pulse of what is going to make a difference.

10:54

So that really leads into my next question.

10:56

What initiatives have you seen make an impact within an organization in terms of employee retention and keeping the talent that an organization has gone out of their way to um find and foster internally.

11:11

Right. Yeah. So I mean there are a lot of different ways that you can do this and uh you know we were you know we're talking about podcasting as well.

11:19

Right? Let's get yeah,

11:23

so one of the ways and I was I was speaking to a friend of mine clark Buckner who's uh just a wonderful podcasting podcaster as well and he has a company called relation ERI marketing and and clark was sharing with me a story from about Bridgestone,

11:41

you know the good people who make the tires and Bridgestone actually have an internal podcast and they use it um to promote and to interview their their team members.

11:56

Um and in doing this it also helps to recognize team members and also to teach them maybe different elements of the of the company as well.

12:04

So if you're on boarding for example it's a great resource for,

12:08

for new hires because they can get to know who's who and learn more about,

12:12

you know, the culture of the organization but also it's used to retain talent because you're promoting from within on that podcast,

12:21

so you're shining shining the light on your best talent and this is just a wonderful way of,

12:29

of, of promoting your talent and, and,

12:31

and subsequently their studies have found that they've increased retention as a result of doing this as well.

12:37

So pretty cool. Like I love,

12:39

I love that. It's kind of the best of both worlds really when you think about it.

12:43

Um, you know, we love podcasting here,

12:46

obviously we live and breathe it and it's something where we're seeing companies get results.

12:51

So that is such a great example and I love what you said because the use case for podcasting is there,

12:57

it's varied, You can do so much with internal podcasting and an organization.

13:01

Yeah, and I do have to say,

13:04

you know what we've heard is learning and development obviously onboarding training,

13:10

that kind of thing. You know, whether it's uh organization wide or or specific to a,

13:16

to a specific part of your business or department like sales.

13:20

You know, if, if you have a sales force on the ground when windshield time,

13:23

that kind of thing. Um, but hearing employee stories and highlighting what people do within the business is huge,

13:31

right? Because people want to feel like they're a part of something,

13:34

right? People want to feel like they're making an impact and what they do matters and finding out who else is a part of that organization and how their job clicks into the larger mechanism of an organization really helps inspire people to,

13:51

you know, be mission oriented,

13:54

b team oriented, be organization oriented.

13:57

Um and there's also that celebratory aspect as well,

14:01

right? Where you know,

14:03

you see that somebody has done a great job and you want to do a great job yourself because you know maybe you want to be featured as a side,

14:13

I mean like as a side benefit,

14:15

but you know you want you it's inspiring,

14:17

you want that success to you want to contribute to that success further within the organization as well you really do.

14:25

And one of the things that give you a little tip, our our our listeners that tip here,

14:29

if you're if you're thinking about starting a podcast where you're you're interviewing your your team members,

14:35

one thing you can do, this is something I do with the nice podcast.

14:38

So if you if you go and not tooting my horn here,

14:42

but if you go to a nice podcast dot co and you scroll down to the bottom of the page,

14:46

you'll see the tag cloud and if we've been online for a while,

14:49

you know all about tag clouds. Um the way I use Tag clouds for my podcast is I choose like three main topics in each interview that I do that we talk about and I include those in the tag cloud.

15:03

So for for my scenario,

15:05

like if you come to my come to my page and you look at the tag cloud and you're like,

15:09

oh okay retention, that's a topic I want to hear more about.

15:13

You can click that tag cloud and that will take you to all the podcast interviews I've done that.

15:18

I've cut that. We've discussed employee retention.

15:21

Right? So now think about this from an internal perspective.

15:26

Right? So now let's say I interviewed norma jean,

15:28

she's amazing. She just joined the team and,

15:32

and you have these like great talents and podcasting being one of them,

15:36

let's say. So I would,

15:38

I would use those tags of your different talents and maybe where you're from and what you're into and your hobbies and so forth.

15:45

So that if I'm a new hire and I'm going through this archive,

15:49

you know, it may be pretty daunting because maybe there's 100 or 1000 employees.

15:54

I could go through this tag cloud and see some and see,

15:58

okay, well let me find someone who's interested, Oh podcasting.

16:00

Well let's just choose that. I could click it and that would take me to the episodes of interviews with talent that are,

16:08

you know, hobbyists or interested in podcasting for example and then I would find norma jean's,

16:13

I'd be like sweet and I click that listen to you and that would be a great reason for me to then follow up with you and say,

16:19

hey, I'm new here, but I just heard you on the podcast and uh,

16:24

you know, I'm also from Toronto or I don't know where you're from,

16:28

where are you from? Oh, I'm from Pasadena.

16:31

But no, I think, I think it's absolutely,

16:33

it's great. And within at pod bean we have an enterprise solution that is secure internal podcasting.

16:39

You can absolutely do that with tags and you can create custom playlists and its technology is really amazing.

16:45

Um and we'll have the link to that here in the show notes,

16:47

but I definitely agree, you know, having those topics and making sure that,

16:53

you know, whether it's something niche or whether it's a skill set that people within your organization can find that common ground.

16:59

I think that's so important. Yeah.

17:01

Even if you do like, I'm sorry,

17:04

I've had too much coffee clearly.

17:06

Um like I really have actually had way too much coffee.

17:10

Uh, so if you look at like,

17:12

like if you do a disc profile analysis or,

17:16

you know, personality assessment,

17:18

stuff like that, you can actually use those disks or those,

17:21

the results from whatever term you use like or whatever or yeah,

17:27

something like that. You could use those results also in those tags of that person.

17:32

So that way you can also connect with kind of similar,

17:35

similar people, if that was who you were seeking out an organization.

17:39

So yeah. And pod is awesome by the way.

17:41

I will, I will toot your horn that I think.

17:44

I think pod beam beam has been around as long as I remember.

17:49

Yeah, we've been around for a long time.

17:51

Yeah, a really long time and pretty much since the beginning and we host over 600,000 podcasts.

17:59

Um, it's really, it's, it's you know,

18:01

we're really a leader in the industry. I mean we have so many different products.

18:05

You know, we have an ads marketplace, we've got live streaming,

18:08

we've got recording, we've got the app,

18:10

we've got, oh gosh, you know,

18:12

we've got our enterprise platform, which we mentioned before.

18:14

So it's really, you know, sky's the limit and it's,

18:16

it's really one of those things where in terms of podcasting if,

18:20

if you have an interest we have, we've got you covered pretty much.

18:24

Um, but in terms of, in terms of employee retention,

18:27

I think that's really important to make sure that people feel like they're part of a community.

18:31

I think that's such an important aspect in terms of fostering that feeling of being heard and being part of an organization.

18:39

Um, and and I want to kind of pivot a little bit or maybe hone in on how podcasting can help with assessing the needs of your employees right?

18:48

Because sometimes employees don't always speak up.

18:55

So how have you seen podcasting help with that?

19:00

Well one of the results, like one of the things is um so when I when I work with my clients I usually begin an engagement.

19:07

If I'm doing like an internal uh you know from doing consulting in house um I usually begin with an anonymous employee survey to get a feeling for for what's happening,

19:19

right? Um But with the podcast,

19:22

I mean it's a great way again by interviewing your team members.

19:25

If it's strictly internal of course um you can get a feel for for the the you know,

19:32

nobody wants to be bashing the company but but sharing like where where there are areas for improvement,

19:39

right? And if you are let's say uh in the leadership team c suite person,

19:44

maybe an HR manager or someone to that effect or or if you manage a specific division,

19:50

let's say um you should as part of your role be subscribed to that podcast and listening to those interviews to hear this feedback yourself.

19:59

Because it's one thing to get feedback but it's another thing to act on that feedback and do something with it.

20:05

That's one of the biggest frustrations for employees is that when they do share feedback no matter what the medium is,

20:11

they use to share that that feedback.

20:14

Um when nothing gets done about it and they don't see any movement and they never hear about it again.

20:20

You know that's uh that can really affect uh you know,

20:24

sentiment at work. So um so podcast is a great way because you can interview your team members find out,

20:31

you know, where they would love to see things improved and also what they love now.

20:35

I mean it's not about criticizing but it's about,

20:38

you know, constructive criticism maybe. Um,

20:40

but also celebrating what, what's great and making sure to note that as well.

20:44

So that maybe maybe it's well,

20:47

you know, we love the off sites we do.

20:51

Um well then maybe putting in more resources or doing those more frequently,

20:54

things like that. Yeah,

20:57

absolutely. And I think you really,

20:59

you know, touched on trust,

21:02

that's a really big one, right?

21:04

Um, having that trust between an employee and a manager or employees and an organization is big.

21:12

Um, and so I wanna,

21:14

I wanna get back into podcasting in a second and I want to talk about how podcasting works within this.

21:19

But what are some best practices for involving and improving employee communication and trust.

21:27

It's a great question and you know, because we're all about podcasting here,

21:31

of course I'm gonna, I am gonna bring it back into podcasting because this is a perfect example.

21:35

So, um, so a lot of the podcast community old schoolers like me who have been around a long time.

21:45

Um I met them at a conference called podcast new media expo which was called P nme,

21:52

which turned into blog world years later.

21:55

But this is a podcast new media expo in Ontario California back in oh seven and that's when I met a lot of the at least american,

22:05

mainly american podcasting community being from Canada.

22:08

Uh there was a great conference, they're called podcasters across borders.

22:12

But the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I'm a big advocate for companies who send their team members to conferences.

22:22

So when you go to a conference representing the business as a,

22:27

as a team member, the company is sending you to this conference.

22:30

So you know, consumer electronics show for me,

22:33

South by southwest for me, you know,

22:35

these other kind of tech conferences in my industry,

22:39

you were there representing the company and the company is not just following you everywhere you go,

22:45

they have allocated budget for you to go and represent the company and and they have trusted you and in turn you are gaining their trust because you're there to build relationships.

22:56

Um hopefully you have, you know,

22:58

you have some good goals set out before you embark on this.

23:02

And so networking is such an important part of all of this.

23:06

So, you know, with the podcasting point is,

23:08

you know, it was P nme that I was sent to in oh seven from the company,

23:13

I was working with Emma at the time,

23:16

they sent me there and uh and the M O is an email marketing company.

23:21

So and podcasters need, you know email newsletter so it was a logical fit.

23:26

Um, so this is a great way.

23:28

I'm a huge advocate for companies to send their team members to conferences and trade shows and,

23:34

and that kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely.

23:37

Um, and I think that networking aspect is so big in terms of,

23:42

in terms of trust, right? Your company is,

23:44

is allowing you to or asking you to represent them.

23:48

And so that that instills trust in a lot of ways.

23:50

And I think that's true from a podcasting aspect,

23:53

right? Like especially whether it's,

23:56

you know, an employee spotlight or um,

24:01

you know, something where you're, you're augmenting or highlighting someone's work,

24:06

the company is saying, you know, not only do we applaud this,

24:08

but this represents who we are. So I think it's it's that ability to feel as though,

24:14

you know, you can represent your organization so that that's fantastic.

24:18

Um and if you ever go to a podcasting conference for everyone out there,

24:21

listening pod means there come say hi,

24:24

we've always got freebies at the booth,

24:26

so it's definitely a big one. I will,

24:29

may I plug that for a second actually.

24:32

So I'm a huge, also I'm a big fan of talking to strangers and when I speak about networking,

24:38

that's what my first book, new business networking is all about.

24:41

Um, and I wanted to share this very quickly.

24:44

So I was at a conference and there was a woman sitting behind this booth,

24:49

kind of looking terribly bored and she she was obviously a publisher,

24:54

there was a pile of books, you know, kind of displayed at the table,

24:56

but she looked terribly bored. And as I said,

24:59

I'm a big proponent, a big fan of talking to strangers.

25:02

So I got to practice what I preach. So I went over and just made some small talk.

25:06

Now I knew some of the the authors on the table,

25:09

I knew I knew them personally. So I said, oh yeah,

25:11

I know this person and that person, you know, we've,

25:14

you know, blah, blah, blah. And she was like,

25:16

oh, that's great. And then next thing she says,

25:18

uh, what's what's your book?

25:21

And this is before my book came out,

25:24

and I said, well, I don't have a book.

25:27

And she said, well, you know, yeah, but what's your book?

25:30

And she put me on the spot. And I and this is the first time ever that I had actually said the idea for my book out loud even to my wife,

25:38

she didn't, I've never said it to anyone.

25:41

And I said, well, I've always thought about writing a book about networking best practices,

25:45

doing it the nice way and which is what I'm all about the next method,

25:50

but networking both online and offline.

25:53

So using social networks of course,

25:55

but then using your own events create,

25:58

I have a lot of experience creating my own events or or attending conferences or doing what we're doing.

26:03

I even have a chapter on podcasting as a way to network.

26:07

So she says,

26:09

well, I love that idea. And so we exchange information.

26:14

I followed up with her,

26:16

we exchanged a little more information and I followed up one more time and I got a book deal.

26:23

So that's a long winded way of telling everybody that if you are at a conference,

26:28

um, go and talk to the exhibitors because they're not sitting there,

26:33

you know, they're not paying to have a booth or a table to just sit there bored,

26:38

they want to talk to people. And it's amazing what can happen when you go and you talk to strangers,

26:43

not just the people working at the booth, but of course other attendees and organizers and speakers and so forth.

26:49

So, and as a speaker, I always love talking to people.

26:53

It's always better by the way to go and talk to the speaker before they speak because usually it gets a little busy afterwards.

27:00

Hopefully. Yeah, absolutely.

27:02

And I think that's such an important that that's such an important aspect,

27:06

right? Like that, that networking side of it and podcasting really enables that from,

27:11

and the thing with podcasting that we always tell people is that if you feel like you're in a vacuum,

27:15

right? You feel like it's you and the microphone and, you know,

27:17

your, it's almost like a monologue,

27:19

but that's not the case, right?

27:21

You're, you're having conversations, you're having interaction and even if it's a,

27:25

it's a, it's a podcast with a singular host.

27:27

Um, and, and it's just a monologue,

27:30

you're still having the interaction with your listeners and your audience.

27:33

And so it's so important from a podcasting aspect to have that engagement in mind and to speak to the audience or to speak to your guests and in regard to networking internal podcasting,

27:46

you know, within your organization. So that,

27:48

that's such a big aspect of it as well.

27:51

Um, and absolutely on the conference side,

27:53

um, we're at, we're at all the podcasting conferences.

27:56

So come and say hi actually,

27:59

uh, this is august 16, so we will be at podcast movement next week.

28:03

Come say hi to me, I'll be at the podcast booth,

28:05

the team will be there.

28:08

There you go. But it's definitely something where,

28:11

you know, within an organization,

28:13

if you're looking at employee retention,

28:15

making sure that people feel heard is so important and and inviting them into the experience is such a big part of that,

28:24

right? So whether it's,

28:27

you know, obviously, you know, if you have a podcast internally within your organization,

28:31

your employees are going to hear your podcast but inviting them on inviting them to be part of that initiative and also what we've noticed with podcasting here at pod being because we are enterprise platform is incredible.

28:43

Um, is that podcasting is pretty exciting.

28:45

And so what happens is is that 11 department will start podcasting and then,

28:52

you know, it just takes off because everybody wants to start a podcast,

28:56

you've got learning and development, you've got onboarding,

28:59

you've got um, sales,

29:01

you know, you've got diversity and inclusion and equity.

29:05

You, it's all there. And so, you know,

29:07

what we're noticing is that as people start to take part in these participatory experiences,

29:14

even as a listener, they become creators as a result.

29:17

And and and take on that initiative and take on that ownership within the organization.

29:22

And that really leads to that ownership really leads to feeling like you're part of something and that job satisfaction with an organization because you,

29:30

you know, are actively, you're actively creating something within a community almost.

29:36

So it's it's really fantastic.

29:38

Um yeah, and I love that aspect of networking because within podcasting,

29:43

you know, obviously in person. Um,

29:45

and also, you know, within a podcast,

29:48

that same interaction is still there.

29:50

Um, and it's important to foster that within your organization if you're utilizing podcasting,

29:55

um, which is such a powerful tool.

29:58

Um, I wanna, I wanna pivot a little bit and,

30:00

and and and talk about storytelling because storytelling is,

30:07

is so important within an organization.

30:10

Um, and it really does make an impact,

30:13

right? You know, the story of your brand,

30:15

the story of our company, but also the stories of the people that comprise your organization.

30:21

So how have you seen storytelling make those impacts within an organization,

30:26

you know? Yes.

30:30

Stories. I mean when you do, when you share a story,

30:34

it it reveals like for for from a personal perspective,

30:39

like when you share a story you're opening up to the world and sharing something about yourself and and if you want people to,

30:49

you know the old know like and trust uh deal right?

30:52

Like you want people in order to people for people to get to know you better.

30:57

You need to share stories right?

30:59

And those people will start to like you because of the stories.

31:03

Hopefully. Um, and by knowing you and liking you,

31:06

they begin to trust you. Uh,

31:09

so it's completely logical for for professionals to share stories,

31:14

the professional story is much more interesting I think or the founder story than the brand story itself,

31:21

right? Because the brand story is, is conceived.

31:24

Uh, you know, it's, it's not as,

31:27

it's not that it's not authentic, it's just not as human,

31:30

right? Where the personal story and if your personal story,

31:34

if you are personally representing that brand and sharing a story,

31:39

that's that's what pays off because again,

31:42

when I, I ran um,

31:44

social media among other things for consumer electronics company back in the day and when I was doing that,

31:52

I was always representing myself, but representing the brand on social and personal conferences and so forth.

31:58

Um, so, and I would often retweets or hear from customers who would go to the Apple store,

32:05

pick up our competitors product and pick up our product.

32:08

And they even and they said this like multiple different people in different ways.

32:12

Said I chose this product because of Dave because I was thinking of you Dave and that is how that's how this all pays off in the long run because people have and attachment to so people like norma jean of course,

32:28

right? They like you. So I will probably do business with pod bean because I like you and you're a great person.

32:34

So it's logical. So again,

32:36

and the way we open up and the way we allow people to get to know us is by sharing stories and it's been happening since the old days around a fire and it's still happening today in every different kind of medium out there.

32:50

So yeah it is and I love what you said about the founder story over the brand story that's that's so important because you know like we've been saying it's the people that comprise an organization and it's so important,

33:04

right? So when you hear from the person who says, you know,

33:07

I had a dream to start this company or you know,

33:10

I created this product or you know,

33:12

however it is, whether it's, you know people,

33:15

people love to hear those origin stories. Um and I don't think it's I don't think it's exclusive to the founders of companies.

33:22

You know, I think people within an organization want to hear about the professional trajectory of people within the organizations,

33:29

whether they're people who are peers or colleagues or executives,

33:32

um, who stayed with the organization or who,

33:36

you know, have specific experience or a very unique professional journey.

33:40

It definitely adds to, you know,

33:43

that community and, and feeling heard,

33:45

we also talk about a statistic here at pod Bean,

33:48

our director of Communications, talks about this all the time,

33:50

Shannon Martin, and she speaks about how when information is told in a story,

33:55

we remember the facts more. Yeah.

34:00

And so I think it's something where, you know,

34:02

that brain link is so important,

34:05

and especially with podcasting and audio in general.

34:09

Um, it's something where the emotional aspect of it is present because when you're reading something,

34:14

it's flat emotionally, right?

34:17

You're reading it on a page or, or in an email newsletter within your organization,

34:21

it's flat. Um, but when you're hearing the intonation of someone's voice,

34:25

you're hearing the emotion behind it, you're hearing them talk about,

34:27

oh, you know, I, you know, I didn't know what I was going to do at this point in my career.

34:31

Oh, I I love working here. And it's so incredible.

34:34

You know, it's something where, you know,

34:36

that that emotion really comes through and it it adds to the experience in a way that you're not going to get from,

34:44

you're not going to get from print.

34:47

Um, and in terms of video,

34:49

the engagement is different. It's it's,

34:51

you know, you're you're looking at video,

34:54

but you can't do anything else at the same time,

34:56

right? If you're, if you're a sales force, you can't drive,

34:59

you know, to your next appointment, you're watching a video that's not gonna work out right now.

35:06

We're not quite there yet. We're not quite there yet.

35:09

And also, you know, I think, I think the other aspect of podcasting that's really important,

35:14

and we just had um,

35:16

Mark rico come on a couple of,

35:18

a couple of months ago and he spoke about, um,

35:21

how with podcasting and audio you fill in the blanks like you would when you're reading,

35:28

so if somebody is describing something or if someone's talking your brain is going to automatically try and come up with,

35:34

you know, what they look like or, you know, a house that they're describing or a place that they're describing.

35:40

And so there's that participatory aspect of it.

35:44

Yeah, that's interesting. You're creating part of the experience.

35:47

And so the storytelling aspect of it is,

35:49

it's huge. Yeah, it's funny,

35:51

I was gonna mention something earlier.

35:54

Um, but your point there actually solidifies the point that I was going to make,

35:59

which is um, so I was listening to,

36:01

you know, we're talking about like founder stories in an audio sort of way and Guy raz of course every podcaster should know,

36:09

hosted. You know, 11 of my favorite podcast,

36:13

which was how I built this. Yeah.

36:17

And so he interviewed jenny Bauer and jenny bowers,

36:21

the founder of Jeni's splendid ice creams.

36:23

I have no stake in the company,

36:25

but but I like using,

36:28

I like thinking because this is an example of,

36:30

of what you're saying. So um so she started this amazing ice cream company out of I think Ohio and they have multiple locations here in Nashville now and,

36:40

and I'm sure they've expanded elsewhere and quite a,

36:42

quite a successful company.

36:44

You know, basically homemade, kind of really yummy delicious ice cream made from very bizarre flavors,

36:50

like mixes that you're like, wait what?

36:53

But you know, and they taste great together.

36:55

Um and her story, I was fascinated by,

36:59

it stuck with me because her story was sort of like punk rock kind of girl and and kind of my origin story a little bit.

37:06

Um and how she worked in a,

37:09

in a farmer's market making ice cream and she would come up with these different flavors from the produce that was available at any given day.

37:17

And of course this produce would change from time to time over what was available,

37:22

what was in season and things like that. And she would make ice cream with like,

37:25

you know, fresh peaches and and weird things anyway,

37:30

um but what I found was really interesting was one of the biggest mistakes she made and she shared this story was the fact that because she kept coming up with new recipes.

37:39

people were disappointed with the spot on.

37:44

Yeah, you nailed it. Yeah, they wanted that one.

37:46

Right? So they, so she learned because she was so excited about creating these,

37:53

these new flavors all the time that she,

37:55

she didn't realize that. Oh, so if I have like the same flavors,

37:59

maybe add one flavor of the week or whatever,

38:02

but the rest are the consistent ones.

38:04

Then when I bring my friend to jenny's booth at the ice cream market,

38:08

I know that I can give her the biscuits and peach flavored ice cream because it's gonna be there.

38:14

Uh so, but again, this story has always stuck out to me a because you know,

38:20

I love the ice cream shop and things.

38:23

Um and it's a cool story, but it was all because I heard her interviewed about this and her origin story and I've spent time over the years and like farmers markets in Toronto and Nashville that I envisioned what this farmer's market looked like,

38:37

that she was in. And even though I didn't know what it looked like,

38:41

but I have some assumptions, right? So painting that picture as you mentioned earlier.

38:45

So yeah, right.

38:48

And we're gonna, we're gonna apply it to our own to our own lives in a lot of ways and I really love what you said about,

38:54

you know the mistake and telling the story of those mistakes.

38:56

So internally within an organization,

38:59

I think it is so important and it really speaks to,

39:03

you know, the vulnerability of the fact that we're all just human beings,

39:06

right? When you can share, you know,

39:08

challenges within an organization where you can share those vulnerable moments or projects or um,

39:15

you know, hiccups that happen,

39:18

you know, whether it's in a project, whether it's in a timeline for a new product launch,

39:23

whether it's, you know, in terms of sales numbers or or your quarterly reports,

39:28

you know, just adding that human element of it is so important,

39:33

um separate from the storytelling.

39:36

But I think I think speaking to that vulnerability aspect of it,

39:40

I think, you know, the more, the more vulnerable we are,

39:42

the more it invites those around us to feel like they can be vulnerable um,

39:47

or human in a lot of ways,

39:49

we're all just here to be human.

39:52

Um, and I think it's something where, you know,

39:54

within a corporate, within a corporate setting,

39:57

it's something where people can feel like maybe they don't,

40:00

they don't have the freedom to be themselves that much.

40:03

And you know, I think sharing,

40:05

sharing those aspects, not just the winds,

40:07

you know, like social media and the wind culture that we've all kind of become accustomed to,

40:12

but to to share, you know, a lot of those multifaceted experiences and a lot of the time,

40:18

you know, a wind comes after a challenge or a loss,

40:21

right? And so it's it's sharing that journey within your organization that really inspires people to buy in as well.

40:28

It's not just, you know, we're perfect, you should be perfect,

40:31

which I think can inspire people to not feel like they can make mistakes as well.

40:39

So it's a really important aspect. Um,

40:42

and I wanna, we have a few minutes left here and I want to talk about um,

40:46

you know, how podcasting can really sustainably deepen organizational communication and,

40:54

and I want to talk about some of the initiatives that you've seen and worked with your clients on that have created that lasting impact within the organizations.

41:04

Yeah, and I think to your,

41:06

to your question, I mean I really do believe that podcasting is,

41:12

you know, for all the reasons we've discussed,

41:14

like podcasting is a kind of perfect way for you to.

41:19

So an example of this would be um,

41:22

you know, I was doing marketing for a start up,

41:26

a business accelerator here in Nashville and I was,

41:29

you know, consulting with them.

41:32

And so part of the goal for for that,

41:35

what I was doing with them was to try to,

41:38

you know, raise awareness of,

41:40

of what they were doing. Um,

41:42

and so in that I would interview,

41:45

I started a podcast um,

41:47

and I interviewed, you know, famous entrepreneurs and marketers and people that you'd be familiar with,

41:53

you know, Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki and,

41:56

and many others. Um, but I would also interview,

42:00

um, the founders of the startups involved in that business accelerator as well.

42:06

Um, so it would be a mix, it wouldn't just be like,

42:09

you know, quote unquote a list people,

42:11

but it would be a mix of different people,

42:14

um, some and at different,

42:17

different levels or not levels,

42:20

but different, different places in their own entrepreneurial journey,

42:25

right? So, so I'm just starting out some,

42:28

you know, struggling with where they are,

42:30

someone trying to, you know, moving to acquisition phase and things like that.

42:35

Um, and, and doing that for the company,

42:39

for the business accelerator itself was a great way and did raise awareness because it was a public podcast.

42:46

It was out there. Um, so we gain listeners who then learn more about what the business accelerator was doing.

42:54

And that also increased inquiries into,

42:58

um, you know, people wanting to learn more about what we're,

43:02

what we're doing there. So, I mean, that's just one example of how you can use a podcast to promote your people to promote your products and services and at different levels of their career.

43:14

This is the other thing, right? It doesn't have to be,

43:17

yeah, you know, you want to tell those stories,

43:19

but it doesn't have to exclusively be straight from the top,

43:22

right? You can, you can share what it's like to,

43:25

you know, be just starting out in your career or to have,

43:29

you know, up skilled and entered a new career,

43:33

you know, I think a lot of those stories aren't being told essentially.

43:37

And so making sure that your content is inclusive of the rainbow of experiences of that people within your organization have is such an important aspect.

43:48

Oh yeah 100% absolutely,

43:51

absolutely. Well we've gone over such a lot of such a lot in this conversation and if you have any questions pop them here in in the comments for us,

43:59

but you know I just kind of want to wrap up,

44:01

you know, we've had such a great conversation today,

44:04

speaking about employee retention and and how to help employees feel valued,

44:09

how to buy in, how to share their stories,

44:12

how to, you know,

44:15

increase that vulnerability to allow for open communication within your organization um and to really honor and highlight the people that comprise your organization across the board.

44:27

So it's been,

44:29

it's been such a treat, it's been such a treat.

44:32

Dave Delaney will have your links here in the show notes and obviously if you want to know anything about business podcasting,

44:37

reach out to the team here at pod bean, we have our enterprise link in the show notes and you can also reach out to us at podcasting smarter at dot com jay Delaney.

44:45

It has been such a pleasure, thank you so much for joining us for this corporate podcasting,

44:50

smarter livestream how to use podcasting for employee retention.

44:54

My name is norma jean blinky, I'm the head of events here at pod bean,

44:57

we are a podcast hosting a monetization company and we host over 600,000 podcasts.

45:03

We have an enterprise and business solution and adds marketplace and so much more.

45:07

Dave. Thank you again and thank you everybody have a great day,

45:12

Have a great day. Thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us for this replay of our live event episode.

45:18

If you have any questions about podcasting and want to get in touch with the pod bean team,

45:22

reach out to us at podcasting smarter at pod Bean dot com Happy podcasting.