Podcaster Interview: Learn what it means to be a great communicator and pick up strategies to improve your own communication skills.

With Communicast, I work to distill down what it means to be a great communicator. Each episode features a conversation with a business professional about communication skills and how they have impacted their career and overall organization. Listeners will also glean tips around how to hone their own communication skills.

From listening to questioning and empathy to psychological safety, guests share their expertise around how communication skills can make an impact in your career and organization.

Our listeners are from over 50 countries across the globe and are people looking to improve their lives by enhancing their communication skills.
 

I had been thinking about starting a podcast for my business, Communispond, for a while. However, I was nervous to make the leap. Fortunately, I was invited to be a guest on a podcast related to my industry and had a great time. I learned a lot, and with some support from my marketing director, I finally decided to start Communicast. I spent a couple of months learning as much as I could about the various podcasting platforms, audio editing tools, and distribution. From there, I leveraged my professional network to find my first few guests. We launched our first episode on November 2nd, 2022 and release a new episode every two weeks.

My company does a great job of sharing tips and strategies for how to be a more effective communicator. However, I wanted to provide an opportunity for others outside of Communispond, to share their valuable insights and expertise around communication skills.
 

We release episodes every other Tuesday morning. At first, it was a little overwhelming to fit this in to my day to day responsibilities of running a global communication skills training company. After a few episodes though, I got into a good routine and it is very manageable.
Between sourcing guests, scheduling, recording, editing, publishing, and creating collateral, I spend about 5 hours on each episode. I've been able to find some really user friendly tools that make the audio/video editing and collateral creating relatively easy.

One of the nice things about podcasting is that there is a very low barrier to entry. There are a lot of great tools that are either free or very low cost that make starting a podcast accessible to a very large audience.
 

There are several big benefits I get from podcasting. The first is that it helps to bring awareness to my company and what we do. We are able to use the episodes as part of our marketing mix. Beyond that, I am a lifelong learning. I really enjoy hearing from the guests and picking up tips and tricks from them that I can use at work and at home. Finally, it helps me to sharpen the saw. It gives me a regular opportunity to practice my communication skills and ultimately helps me in all areas of my life.
 

There was a decent learning curve at first. Once I landed on my platform, Simplecast, I found some great editing tools such as Audacity for audio and VSDC for video. For marketing, I use Canva to create episode art and video thumbnails.

In the beginning, I relied on my existing professional network to find guests. Once I got comfortable with the process, I starting reaching out through LinkedIn and used sites such as podcastsguests.com. After about the 6 month mark, I started getting inbound requests from publicists, podcast booking agencies, and individuals looking for avenues to share their expertise.

Once I get an episode scheduled, I often times have a brief call with the guest prior to recording. Beyond that, I research the guests a bit through LinkedIn and check out some of their prior podcast appearances. Also, if the guest has something specific to promote such as a new book or initiative, I review those as well. For Communicast, I use a framework of 5-6 questions to guide each episode. The questions are designed to give the show a little structure while being broad enough to take the conversation in a number of directions.

For the recording, I use Zoom and capture audio and video files. I pull a couple of short clips to use in our social posts to promote the episode on LinkedIn and Twitter. The video is also released on YouTube.
 

Most of our listeners are finding us through Apple Podcasts (50%). Behind that is Amazon Music (16%) and then Spotify (10%). Since a lot of what we talk about on Communicast is geared towards how communication skills can enhance your career, we have found LinkedIn to be a great promotion tool. In addition to that, we promote on Twitter, YouTube, via email and on our company website.
 

The main advice I have is to just get started. You can spend so much time trying to learn everything and never end up getting started. The best resource I have found is fellow podcasters. If you haven't been a guest on a show, that is a great place to start. You can learn a lot about questioning, flow, format, and promotion. Beyond that, most people with a show are happy to share their "lessons learned".
 

You can find the show at communicast.simplecast.com and connect with me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/scottdamico and learn more about my company, Communispond, at www.communispond.com.