Podcasting Creates Interest and Excitement

Today we launched a podcast at my association. It's called Fluid Power Forward, and on it, we plan to interview interesting people who are helping to move fluid power technology forward. If you're interested, you can listen to our first episode here.

The project was fairly long in coming. The idea was first hatched at the tail-end of 2018, when I realized that there was a lot of interesting things going on in our industry, that we consistently presented and talked about those things at our workshops and conferences, and that podcasting might be a (relatively) quick and easy way to capture some of that content and push it out to a much broader audience.

As an avid podcast listener, I already had some ideas about how such a "show" could be packaged and delivered, but still what followed the initial idea was about six months of planning, developing, branding, rehearsing, recording, and packaging. As I write this today, I'm still a little surprised that we've got it up a running. I've got a soundboard and microphone at a table in the corner of my office, a love-hate relationship with Skype and Audacity, four episodes "in the can," appointments on my calendar to record two more, and plenty of lines in the water for future guests.

Lots of things surprised me along the way -- and I'm sure those surprises aren't over yet -- but one surprise that really stood out to me was how consistently the idea of doing a podcast was positively received by the people hearing about it.

My staff loves the idea. I've kept most of them somewhat at arm's length as we developed and learned how to deliver it. As you can see from the graphic, my face (and voice) is plastered all over this thing, and I think I instinctively knew that I needed to keep it close to my vest if it was going to sound authentic. But now that it's up and running I'm talking about it more broadly in the office and everyone seems engaged and excited by it.

But more than my staff, my members are also totally on board. For the first few episodes I reached out to members I knew well -- folks who I thought not only had interesting technology to talk about, but with whom I already had some kind of rapport. That, I thought, would make both me and them more comfortable, and help ensure that the first few episodes (which can often be clunky as the podcaster in question is learning their equipment and figuring out what they are really doing) go more smoothly.

When reaching out to them, I felt like I was asking them to do me a big favor. It's an experiment, I told them. If it turns out bad we won't use it. But they were all immediately on board. It's great, they told me. We'd love to participate. One even told me that his boss was especially interested and would be listening. Whatever they could do to help, just ask.

And now that the word is out that we're podcasting, the messages are starting to roll in from people who would like to get involved. I'm not naive -- for most this is an opportunity to promote themselves and their technology, but that's okay, because that's what the podcast is for. As I said, there are a lot of positive things going on in our industry, and generally speaking, not enough platforms from which to promote them.

In some ways, I suppose it's surprising to me that a fresh approach on an unmet need should be met with such interest and excitement. But I guess, in most ways, that shouldn't really be surprising at all.

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This post first appeared on Eric Lanke's blog, an association executive and author. You can follow him on Twitter @ericlanke or contact him at eric.lanke@gmail.com.