December 15th, 2017
Podcasts are a great way to educate yourself. Whether you’re on the train, in the car, at your desk, or anywhere in between, this medium is an incredible vehicle for supplementing your industry knowledge. Every week, I’ll be sharing with you some of the best marketing podcasts around, spanning the whole marketing landscape.
Whether you’re new to podcasts or you’re a seasoned listener, I know you’ll find value in each weekly round-up. Let’s get listening, shall we?
Six Pixels of Separation #595: Future Proof with Minter Dial
Six Pixels of Separation #595: The awesome name “Minter Dial” should be enough to entice you into listening to this episode. Minter is “American, with French citizenship, born in Belgium, educated in England, living in France,” and the author of Futureproof: How to Get Your Business Ready for the Next Disruption.
After host Mitch Joel allows Minter introduce himself at the top of the show, Mitch chides him about the other work Minter leaves out of his own introduction, specifically his time as a senior leader for L’Oréal. The two go on to discuss Minter’s book, which explores three core mindsets and 12 disruptive technologies that, according to Minter, businesses must master to grow in the current market.
Takeaway: One of the biggest disruptors of the future, according to Minter, is company culture. Employees find it much harder to sell without core values. This might seem like a very “non-tech” answer for such a digitally focused book, but it makes a great deal of sense to me.
Predicting the future is a fascinating business—Mitch himself even wrote about this in his 2013 bestseller Ctrl Alt Delete. The biggest players in our industry are curious about the future, and we should pay attention to what they find.
On Brand: Why Brands Should See Ideas Everywhere with Ashley Zeckman
On Brand: I discovered Nick Westergaard five years ago when he and DJ Waldow started The Work Talk Show (which, even three years after their final episode, still remains one of my favorites). He has one of the best voices in the marketing industry, and the advice he gives in his book Get Scrappy is some of the best small business information you can find.
In this episode of his agency’s podcast, Nick speaks with Ashley Zeckman, Director of Agency Marketing for TopRank Marketing, about the importance of promoting yourself even when you’re in the business of promoting external clients.
Takeaways: When it comes to finding inspiration for your next big idea, campaign, or product innovation, it’s okay to look outside your own industry. In fact, Ashley recommends it! She adds that she consults the Social Media Masterminds group on Facebook for ideas and tips, while also abiding by all things Ann Handley (which, to be frank, is pretty great advice).
Also worth mentioning is Ashley’s shoutout to the dog toy and treat subscription service Barkbox, which delivers monthly boxes of fluff and joy for my dog, Colette, and Jess Ostroff’s Doodle, Hummus! Their marketing is top-notch and full of dog puns. Ann Handley has commended their email marketing in the past, and I’ve always been impressed with their ability to write witty, subscription-driving copy. Ashley loves their marketing, too, and believes all of us can take a page out of their marketing playbook.
When finding inspiration for your next campaign, it’s (more than) okay to look outside your own… Click To Tweet
HBR Ideacast: How Technology Tests Our Trust
HBR Ideacast: How often do you find yourself in an unfamiliar city, placing full trust into Waze? I’m confident we’ve all been there, and that’s exactly what this episode covers: the amount of trust we give technology.
Host Sarah Green Carmichael begins the episode with a story of how she and a group of friends were traveling in an unfamiliar country. To get around, they used a GPS—and quickly found themselves on a goat path.
The faith we have in our technology is why Sarah brought Rachel Botsman, the author of Who Can You Trust?, onto the podcast. Rachel and Sarah talk through how trust works (regardless of whether it be machine, human, or societal norm) and why we shouldn’t let our tech make decisions for us, no matter how convenient.
Takeaways: According to Rachel, “Efficiency is the enemy of trust.” Since efficiency is the primary goal of most technologies, you might assume she considers technology an enemy. Instead, she turns the responsibility back to us.
“Technology doesn’t like friction, but friction is often human connection. Friction is when you consciously slow down and start to ask whether this thing is worthy of your trust. This isn’t new because we’ve seen this play out with information, like the way we share information. You know that wonderful study that was done that 80 percent of people shared a piece of content just based on the headline? That’s a really good example of just giving our trust away too easily.”
Rachel’s advice seems to be a lot like the advice our parents gave us growing up: Don’t talk to strangers, and definitely don’t let them put a cookie on your phone without your permission. This conversation was terrific, and I look forward to listening to more of Rachel’s information.
That’s all for this edition! I’ll be back with a new batch next week. In the meantime, share any podcasts you think I should know about with me @jwsteiert on Twitter or in the comments below!