A few week’s back, we had the pleasure of guesting on marketer-extraordinaire Danny Brown’s podcast – called Podcaster Stories.
He launched Podcaster Stories because, as he says, “I’ve met many people who’ve shared their stories of overcoming adversity, like abuse, cancer, and more. Their stories inspired me. We listen to our favourite podcasts, but don’t always get to know the stories of the people behind these voices. Podcaster Stories looks to change that.”
Danny’s a super cool, craft-beer loving, Scot, and he’s worn many MANY hats over the course of his marketing career – consultant, executive, author, featured speaker, award winning blogger, podcaster – seriously, the list is as long as your arm! 👏🤯🏆👏
But, more than that, Danny’s a husband, father, and an overall swell human being, who recognizes (through personal experience) that yes, we’ve all been up against the wall at points in our lives – whether personally or professionally.
And those times make us all more interesting. More experienced. And more lived. And those are all things that also allow us to be better marketers.
His mantra? Deliver the best interactions for customers and audience at every touchpoint by:
💫 Being good people.
💫 Telling better stories.
💫 Being better businesses.
💫 And living better lives.
As he says, “After all, business comes and goes, but we only get one shot at being good people in life and in business.”
PREACH!!! ✊✊✊
Here at c+p we talk a lot about lifting others up, and sharing your special sauce of success with others.
The old 🍸🚬🥃👔 MadMen days of marketing are over, friends. Praise be!
This week, we had the pleasure of hosting Danny on the 4 AM Report! Reciprocity, peeps!
Here’s a bit of what we chatted about!
Why Podcasting?
“It’s always good as a marketer to at least try to understand some of the mediums that your clients may be looking at or, you know, the audience of your clients may be looking at. And I kind of got a little bit bored with the blog. I’ve been blogging on and off since 1999. We’re back in live-journal days. That’s a long time. I’m not a great typer. I’m one of these two finger typists, that plods along and does maybe 30 words an hour, if you’re lucky, you know? So, I’d been listening to podcasts, and I really enjoyed the medium. I liked how it was kinda intimate. It almost feels like it’s one on one with the person that’s speaking. And that you’re basically giving your ear to someone for 20 minutes, 40 minutes, whatever it is. And it’s a really intimate medium. And I think the ease in which it is available to pick up as both a podcaster and a listener makes a big difference as well. [When I started out] I wanted to get used to the medium whilst doing my favorite thing, and that’s talking about the world while having a good single malt whiskey. So that was good, we’re good.”
Keep it Simple, Stupid
If you don’t understand how podcast apps work, then you may struggle to listen to your favorite podcast. So basically, I recommend people put together a ‘lesson page’ – basically a page on your website that explains exactly what a podcast is, how easy it is to listen to, and you can just listen online via an embedded podcast player that has your latest episode on it. Or you can listen on Apple podcasts or Google podcasts or Spotify. If you have an account with any of those platforms, and most people have an account with either iTunes or Spotify or something like that. And I think that the verbiage has to move away from subscribe, to listen, right? Because basically, that’s what we’re doing. We’re listening, right? We’re not subscribing to a podcast, we’re listening to it as it’s playing. So move that language and make it really easy for people to understand.”
Socio-Political Brand Responsibility
“Just this week, you’ve seen another black kid, shot by police in the US, you’re looking at the republican convention this week. It was like a weird, crazy event, and I think that seeing more brands have taken responsibility and are standing up on societal issues. It used to be that [certain] brands would take a stand, obviously, Nike with Colin Kaepernick, etc. Look at the craft beer industry – which I’m a big fan of, I love craft beer – and you know, what they’re doing at the moment for Black Lives Matters with the black is beautiful campaign and really trying to educate, crack the craft industry – predominantly white males – and be more inclusive and more diverse, you know, with their approach to marketing. And it’s really cool to see brands do that, because I think it’s important to know that… there’s such a weird thing going on at the minute with populism and nationalism, I think. And here in Canada as well, we’re seeing it. You know, I don’t want to get too political on your show. But we’re seeing it at the moment with the Conservative Party in what their mandate has been for the last 12 to 18 months, I guess. And obviously, they just had a leadership race, and I think he’s already been called out for his policies. You know, they’re kind of anti Canadian, if you like. And you know, what’s happening to us in the UK, to know that there’s certainly a battle brewing between right and wrong, left and right, or whatever, and you’ve got a bunch of kids that are like, the next generation of consumers. As marketers, we have to be aware, our kids are coming out of you know, these are kids that have gone through lockdown drills because of school shootings, etc. They have a very powerful voice, you look at the march for our lives movement from the kids in the US. So society’s having a very, very zeitgeist moment, if you like, on doing the right thing. And I think if brands stay silent, they become complicit, and whether rightly or wrongly, you know, perception is everything. People want brands that align with their values.”
That’s just a snapshot of what we discussed in this episode – take a moment and listen to the entire thing if you can!
Plus, if you’re losing sleep over a particular marketing/business related problem during this Covid-19 economic uncertainty, or if you have a guest idea on the topic, let us know. Drop us a line.
And as always, sweet dreams…well, hopefully!
