If you’ve been wondering about the apparent hiatus in author interviews over the last few months, I apologize for the silence. If you didn’t know we had author interviews, I apologize for the site navigation. (They’re here, by the way)
It’s not that we stopped with the interviews, but rather that we’ve been stockpiling. Over the past 4 months, and with the help of the fabulous team here at Actionable (Andy and Andie, I’m talking to you!), I’ve recorded 28 new author and thought leader interviews, and I have to say that I think they represent some of our best work yet. Now it’s finally time to hear what you think.
October 6th, 2014 marks the official launch of The 21st Century Workplace Podcast.
Candid insights from the likes of Seth Godin, Chris Guillebeau, Pam Slim, Simon Sinek, Patrick Lencioni and many, many more. More than just big names though, I’ve been delighted at the caliber of conversation that I’ve been fortunate enough to have with these individuals. Maybe because we’re focused on the topic, rather than the individual. Let me explain.
When you launch a podcast, you have a couple choices. Frequency. Length and format of episode. Theme.
A lot of podcasters are rabidly focused on interviewing “the name” (ie. Simon Sinek). They want to use it for promotional purposes, and they hope the well-followed “big names” out there will mention them in a tweet or blog post, thereby driving 50,000 new visitors to their site.
We want that too, of course.
But when we made the decision to launch an Actionable podcast, we committed to pursuing idea over identity. We chose topics we believed would have the most value, then chose who to include in the series. Sure, we interviewed Seth. But first we chose to discuss the nature of “Tribes in the 21st Century”, and he was a guy worth talking to (he literally wrote the book, after all). We’ve interviewed lots of well known people, when they’ve aligned with the topics we chose to focus on. But we’ve also interviewed the wonderful Kim Hansen, who likely few of you know of. (Kim took his whole team to Bali for a month. Seriously.) And when it came to discussing how Social Media impacts HR, Pam Ross was a “must have” on the show. (Pam’s episode goes live later this month.. and it’s a great one!)
Beyond authors, beyond celebrities, this is a show about ideas. About the application of ideas. About the bizarre and wonderful world of work that we’re now fully immersed in, and the attitudes, skills and tools that will help us navigate it well.
From a structure standpoint, we’ve organized the interviews into 3 episode “arcs” around a particular theme or idea. Each episode provides a unique perspective and nuance of that theme, allowing us to go deep and wide on each topic, over the course of three episodes. Our show notes pages provide all the links referenced in the interviews, some of the show’s quotable highlights and a place for you and your community members to post your thoughts, comments and questions.
Here’s the link.
I’m personally very proud of this one. I hope you like it.
And if you do like it, please share. iTunes has this funny thing called the “new and noteworthy”. Basically, every time you download an episode, subscribe and/or post a review of the podcast, we stand a better chance of being seen & heard by more people.
If you’re new to the world of podcasts and/or iTunes, we’ve created an easy step-by-step guide for you. Thanks for listening!
