Analogies between music and Business. The podcast for people with a musical heart and a wicked job.

I am a joiner by trade and have an MA in Musicology, philosophy, and art history.

For the last 25 years, I have worked in multiple roles like Creative Director, Design Thinking Coach, Service Designer, Facilitator or Musician.

I am the author of the Music Thinking Jam Cards (2018)and The Power of Music Thinking book.

My podcast is about business, society and music in the broadest sense. I have conversations with the most brilliant people in the world that are 'ALSO musicians' or have at least an amusical connection. We talk about music and business and look for analogies, success patterns and how music can inspire us.

My listeners are looking for inspiration, stories and 'success patterns' to master their challenges in work, society and beyond.
 

In 2020 I was writing a book about how I work together with clients in change projects using music as an analogy. The book was nearly finished, but somehow it was missing something - so I put it aside for a while.

Coincidentally at the beginning of 2021, I was invited as a guest to several podcasts to speak about Music Thinking and how I use music as an analogy to let people better work together and apply tools in service design, branding and organisational change. After listening to the episodes, I realised that my speaking sharpened my writing. And so I started The Power of Music Thinking podcast, but now as a host.
I worked for two months to figure out the technology, hosting, and gear and find my format. I started with three episodes with conversations of about 50 minutes and released everything on 19 May 2021 (the 'birthday of my consulting company Creative Companion).

I listen to many podcasts; my favourite ones are the Twenty Thousand Herz, Questlove Supreme, The listening Service by BBC and some dutch and german speaking podcasts.
 

In the beginning, I released an episode every 2 weeks, now I am on average between 1 or 2 per month. I have a schedule for guests to ask, guests that like to come on the show and planned recordings. Normally I do an online conversation because the guests are from all over the world from Finland to Cyprus and Los Angeles to Munich. I am also experimenting with different styles of solo episodes, I call them 'specials' and on location or company visits with interesting sound atmospheres. The last one needs a lot more editing and has more the style of a radio programme, than a podcast conversation. The podcast is just one piece of my work besides the book, the jam cards and the workshops I offer. So everything is connected and complements each other. The podcast is not funded yet, but as we speak I am looking for a sponsor to help to finance the costs.
 

I did not (yet) think about monetisation too much. The podcast is one way to connect with an audience worldwide, across all borders. I use it to show my expertise and drive traffic and engagement to my consultancy where I offer speaking assignments, workshops and interim companionship (online and in-person).
 

Technical: I use a rodecaster with rode microphone together with zoom (I worked with zencaster, riverside, but found this no extra value). The rodecaster I use also as backup (via SD card) and do the post-production in Garageband.

Preparation: I have long list in Trello with possible candidates and plan the workflow, from pre-interview chat (to find out if it is a good match), willing to do an interview, plan the conversation, editing and post-production.

Because I listen a lot to other podcasts, I am always on the lookout for people that are doing something special AND are musicians. Sometimes I get a hint from a friend to contact someone, and people connect directly with me to be on the show.
 

The Power of Music Thinking is via podbean distributed on all possible platforms and I make an episode page on musicthinking.com including links to other episodes or blog posts that are related to the theme of the episode. I link to the episode page via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (in that order). LinkedIn is most important because it connects directly with my offerings.
 

Like in any other business: Listen, listen, listen.

Make three episodes and release just when you have planned at least 5 more, to keep you going.

Make a long list of possible (wish) guests and be open to giving feedback on a show via e.g. LinkedIn to start a conversation.
 

Universal chartable link to subscribe on any platform: https://link.chtbl.com/fleQe5kL
Podcast page: https://musicthinking.com/podcast/
Consultancy business: https://creative-companion.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/music-thinking/