► Tell us about you and your podcast
TechFirst is conversations with people who are inventing the future. I've always been fascinated by tech and have built apps, websites, and more, but I'm a crappy developer. I'm a better storyteller, and I love handing the mic to people who are actually creating the technologies and mindsets of the future.
Guests include former Apple CEO John Scully. The head of Facebook gaming. Amazon’s head of robotics. GitHub’s CTO. Twitter’s chief information security officer, and much more. Scientists inventing smart contact lenses. Startup entrepreneurs. Google executives. Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold.
And many, many more!
Guests include former Apple CEO John Scully. The head of Facebook gaming. Amazon’s head of robotics. GitHub’s CTO. Twitter’s chief information security officer, and much more. Scientists inventing smart contact lenses. Startup entrepreneurs. Google executives. Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold.
And many, many more!
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
As a senior contributor to Forbes, I had a face-palm moment about 18 months ago. I'm talking to all these amazing people to write a story.
Why am I not recording them?!?
So I started recording our conversations in audio and video, publishing the audio to the TechFirst podcast and the video to my YouTube channel.
And it's absolutely taken off like a rocket ship. Plus, I love it :-)
Why am I not recording them?!?
So I started recording our conversations in audio and video, publishing the audio to the TechFirst podcast and the video to my YouTube channel.
And it's absolutely taken off like a rocket ship. Plus, I love it :-)
Demystify the podcasting process
Get the weekly email where the podcasters share their creative experience of podcasting. Stay informed and inspired, for free.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
I have to talk to startups and tech companies and scientists and engineers anyways to write my stories at Forbes. So it doesn't take that much longer to just record it, do a bit of post-production, and publish it to the world in audio and video as well.
I typically release two episodes a week.
I typically release two episodes a week.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
I love podcasting. I would do it without pay :-)
That said, TechFirst is often in the top 100 tech podcasts in the U.S., plus dozens of other countries around the world. And ListenNotes says TechFirst is a top-10% podcast.
So I will monetize it at some point ... probably via my creator coin on Rally.io, the $SMRT coin.
That said, TechFirst is often in the top 100 tech podcasts in the U.S., plus dozens of other countries around the world. And ListenNotes says TechFirst is a top-10% podcast.
So I will monetize it at some point ... probably via my creator coin on Rally.io, the $SMRT coin.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
I record both video and audio in StreamYard, edit in Descript, publish to Anchor and YouTube, and publish a complete transcript to my website, johnkoetsier.com.
► How do you market your show?
I honestly don't really market it at all. I do embed videos and links to the audio podcast in my columns at Forbes, so when I have a very popular article I get a big boost in listeners and viewers.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Start.
There is magic to starting. You will learn. You will grow. You will get better. And so will your podcast.
Don't buy a ton of tech right away. You can get lost in the tech and the process and the must-haves and never get off the bench.
Just start. And have fun!
There is magic to starting. You will learn. You will grow. You will get better. And so will your podcast.
Don't buy a ton of tech right away. You can get lost in the tech and the process and the must-haves and never get off the bench.
Just start. And have fun!
► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
The best place is my website where I publish full transcripts of all my podcasts:
https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/
https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/