Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and welcome to another edition of Access Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Maddie Stalt. This is your podcast about podcast and
Speaker 1: today it is especially your podcast about podcast because we're
Speaker 1: gonna kind of geek out and talk about branded content podcasting.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what that is, or if you're
Speaker 1: in general interested in the podcast business, this is definitely
Speaker 1: the one for you. We've got the one in only
Speaker 1: and I love him so much. He is everything that's
Speaker 1: good about Canada. Steve Pratt on the show. He has
Speaker 1: a principal at Pacific Content, the first branded content podcast
Speaker 1: company in the world, and he's also the host of
Speaker 1: a few podcasts, including one I Really love called Slack
Speaker 1: Rody Pack check it out. When she was researching the
Speaker 1: subject of happiness, she noticed a common pattern with the
Speaker 1: people she was talking to. The people who are facing
Speaker 1: a happiness challenge most often pointed to a habit as
Speaker 1: the obstacle. He's not only the principle and co founder
Speaker 1: of Pacific Content. I'd like to to think of him
Speaker 1: as a friend and I'm gonna be honest a tour
Speaker 1: Steve Pratt High, Steve, Hello, Maddie, how are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great? Pacific Content is not a company that
Speaker 1: most people will know about because what you do is
Speaker 1: something that is new for a lot of folks. Branded
Speaker 1: content podcasting. You've done a lot of them. I just
Speaker 1: think to start off, maybe we should just tell people
Speaker 1: what what exactly is a branded content podcast? And are
Speaker 1: we still calling them that or is their new name? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's interesting we started um calling them
Speaker 1: branded podcasts UM up until and then we we've actually
Speaker 1: changed the language to say that we make original podcasts
Speaker 1: with brands. And it sounds like a very small difference,
Speaker 1: but it's a fairly big one, uh, for a couple
Speaker 1: of reasons. The core of the business is trying to
Speaker 1: make fantastic shows that are funded by brands. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think initially when you say branded content, there's probably
Speaker 1: a connotation around ei they're trying to sell me something
Speaker 1: or this is going to be heavy handed marketing, And basically,
Speaker 1: change the language to original podcast with brands is that's
Speaker 1: not what we're making. We are making shows that are
Speaker 1: designed to be everybody's compelling as any of your other
Speaker 1: favorite shows. That's kind of the only way that they'll
Speaker 1: build an audience is if it's a great Joe, and
Speaker 1: it's more around the idea that some of the most
Speaker 1: interesting media companies in the future are going to be
Speaker 1: non traditional places like brands, and some of your favorite
Speaker 1: shows in the future are going to come from brands
Speaker 1: that are going to be smart and start acting and
Speaker 1: thinking more like media companies. UM. So, our job as
Speaker 1: a company is to work with brands and help them
Speaker 1: figure out how to map their brand and their strategy
Speaker 1: into a show that people genuinely love and it is
Speaker 1: an original show, not a piece of marketing. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about a couple of the show so everybody understands what
Speaker 1: exactly we're talking about. Let's start with the first one
Speaker 1: that that I was aware of, and one of the
Speaker 1: things that drew me to talk to you the first
Speaker 1: time was Slack Variety Pack. Now tell people about that
Speaker 1: show and and how it came about. Yeah, so, we're
Speaker 1: all a bunch of ex traditional media people, mostly from
Speaker 1: the Canadian public radio system, like the Canadian equivalent of NPR,
Speaker 1: and we noticed a couple of interesting trends going on.
Speaker 1: One that, UM, a lot of tradition media companies were
Speaker 1: missing their ad revenue targets every year because people were
Speaker 1: using you know, PVRs or DVRs to skip ads. Advertising
Speaker 1: was moving into digital spaces where people couldn't skip things
Speaker 1: as much. Um we're seeing the rise of companies like
Speaker 1: Red Bull who were making really compelling original programming in
Speaker 1: the video space that was not about their product or services,
Speaker 1: but it was more about how it made you feel.
Speaker 1: And then we also saw the rise of Serial kind
Speaker 1: of notewhere in the podcasting space that was you know,
Speaker 1: I think we saw the first ten years of podcasting
Speaker 1: UM as almost like the democratization of the the publishing
Speaker 1: tools and the distribution where anybody could make a podcast
Speaker 1: for next to nothing. There were no gatepers anymore, and
Speaker 1: I think the result was there's a lot of amazing shows,
Speaker 1: and tons of people made shows that never would have
Speaker 1: made shows, but the bulk of them were going to
Speaker 1: be unedited interview shows. And Serial kind of changed the
Speaker 1: game when that came out with this amazing, highly produced
Speaker 1: narrative series that grabbed everybody's attention. And I think all
Speaker 1: of those factors kind of lead to people thinking, you
Speaker 1: know what, podcasts are have enormous amount of potential to
Speaker 1: come Netflix for radio where people are going to choose
Speaker 1: amazing high quality stuff on demand on their own schedule
Speaker 1: and program their commutes and their workout and their dog
Speaker 1: walks and whatever else they're doing. UM. So we we
Speaker 1: kind of recognize that there's nobody doing that in the
Speaker 1: audio space, and we literally just pitched slack we We
Speaker 1: we kind of fin called a meeting with the CMO,
Speaker 1: a guy named Bill Massitis when he was in Vancouver
Speaker 1: for a meeting, and he was the first person we
Speaker 1: pitched it too, and he said, yes, it was We
Speaker 1: were just like, oh, holy moly, I can't believe this.
Speaker 1: Now we have to figure out how to make this
Speaker 1: show for slack um. And you know, we kind of
Speaker 1: we kind of worked fairly collaboratively with them, but a
Speaker 1: lot of it was kind of inventing it as as
Speaker 1: we went and trying to balance this idea of like,
Speaker 1: we need to figure out what Slacks voices an audio,
Speaker 1: we need to figure out how to represent what they
Speaker 1: stand for an audio, and we also need to make
Speaker 1: a show that is really fun to listen to. And
Speaker 1: I think it was one of the first examples of
Speaker 1: of a brand going out doing a high quality storytelling
Speaker 1: show that had interesting guests and stories in it. UM
Speaker 1: and they got a lot of traction from it. So
Speaker 1: from us, we were very fortunate to kind of connect
Speaker 1: with a really progressive, smart company that wanted to take
Speaker 1: a risk and do something like this, and because they
Speaker 1: did it, it made it easier for us to get
Speaker 1: a lot of other clients and to be able to,
Speaker 1: you know, use Slack Variety Pack as a showcase for
Speaker 1: what's possible for for brands and what the value is
Speaker 1: of building a fairly large audience fairly quickly. So Slack
Speaker 1: Variety Pack at the beginning. Now you guys have moved
Speaker 1: on to how many shows now is specific content producing
Speaker 1: for for brands? Uh, It's kind of it fluctuates. Uh.
Speaker 1: I think right now we're about seven or eight shows
Speaker 1: in production right now. Um, but you know we have
Speaker 1: shows that are kind of in between seasons and onboard
Speaker 1: new clients and things. So it does change. But it's
Speaker 1: really interesting, Like every every year in the fall, it
Speaker 1: seems like there's a new evolution of like the next
Speaker 1: level of brands coming into the space and wanting to
Speaker 1: make podcasts, and it's getting easier and easier to be
Speaker 1: able to talk about making amazing shows with all the
Speaker 1: clients too, Like I think in the first year we
Speaker 1: were just wanting anybody to say yes so we could
Speaker 1: prove the model and make podcasts and make this a thing.
Speaker 1: And then last year around this time, we're you know,
Speaker 1: having an influx of like some pretty big brands like
Speaker 1: Prudential came in. UM we started mostly with tech companies
Speaker 1: out of Silicon Valley, and then you know, when you
Speaker 1: get somebody Prudential coming in, like a big insurance company,
Speaker 1: it's like next level piece. And I think last year
Speaker 1: the focus was on kind of growing better quality shows
Speaker 1: and thinking about different formats of storytelling. And then for us,
Speaker 1: it's really been around figuring out the audience development piece
Speaker 1: with brands at a new level where you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting when you think about it, but
Speaker 1: brands have kind of a huge unfair advantage to be
Speaker 1: able to build audiences really quickly because they have all
Speaker 1: these built in strengths that they probably have not ever
Speaker 1: used to build an audience for the show before. UM.
Speaker 1: So we're just like, for example, we're doing show with Mozilla,
Speaker 1: and when there's a new podcast episode, you can open
Speaker 1: a new tab in Firefox and underneath the search bar
Speaker 1: is a promo for the podcast and it's driving tons
Speaker 1: and tons of listeners coming in, and you know it
Speaker 1: wouldn't work it was if it was a bad show.
Speaker 1: But it's a great show and they've got a tool
Speaker 1: that they own, they're gonna let tons and tons of
Speaker 1: people know about it. Um So has really been a
Speaker 1: year for us around like keep making the show is better,
Speaker 1: but like really think about how to go from zero
Speaker 1: to a big audience really quickly with kind of like
Speaker 1: the secret superpowers of every company we work with. I
Speaker 1: want to switch gears and talk about about you, Steve,
Speaker 1: my friend. This is this is where, this is where
Speaker 1: it's gonna get boring. Well, now this is where I
Speaker 1: get to you know, I've I wanna I'll just I
Speaker 1: wanna tell everybody how I met you. I was writing
Speaker 1: a paper for my graduate school class and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I teach a branded content class at the
Speaker 1: university that I work at, and I've been in podcasting
Speaker 1: for ten years, and I was like, hmm, I wonder
Speaker 1: if anybody's doing branded content podcasting, And I, you know,
Speaker 1: just did Google searches and there's one name in one
Speaker 1: name only that popped up several times. It was Steve Pratt,
Speaker 1: and I sent Steve an email and immediately we met
Speaker 1: like a week later, and and and it's I'm so
Speaker 1: glad I sent that email to start with. So this
Speaker 1: is a good chance. I want to know. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever gotten it really into to your story
Speaker 1: about about your radio story. Um, you know we all
Speaker 1: have that story of how we ended up in this
Speaker 1: this messed up business. What did you start thinking about
Speaker 1: radio as a career? And you know, we're we always
Speaker 1: into it. Well, it's kind of interesting, like I, um,
Speaker 1: I actually started my career in television. Um no, all right,
Speaker 1: and this is but I ended up in radio. I
Speaker 1: landed in radio after television, so it's I uh yeah.
Speaker 1: I was oddly like in university, I was kind of
Speaker 1: on track to go to law school and I've been
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of calm and improv and stuff like
Speaker 1: that when I was in university and was was loving it.
Speaker 1: And then I kind of had this, you know, crisis.
Speaker 1: I was saying, like, I don't think I really want
Speaker 1: to be a lawyer. Um, I want to do something fun.
Speaker 1: And I got a summer job at a TV station
Speaker 1: in Toronto, and I was just totally hooked at being
Speaker 1: able to go out and tell stories and you know,
Speaker 1: do something that actually got a reaction from audiences, or
Speaker 1: be able to kind of put a spin on a
Speaker 1: story that made it fun and interesting and exciting to
Speaker 1: listen to or watch. UM and I spent about ten
Speaker 1: years doing all sorts of different television, from entertainment journalism
Speaker 1: to comedy programming, two kids programming. I worked at a
Speaker 1: music network called Much Music that was kind of like
Speaker 1: the equivalent of MTV in Canada. I used to watch
Speaker 1: Much Music. By the way, well there you go. So
Speaker 1: we had it on, and we had it on in
Speaker 1: the United States. It'd come on like weekends and stuff.
Speaker 1: They'd have some shows on. But so yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 1: I was really like got to work in a ton
Speaker 1: of interesting places is with a ton of different programming
Speaker 1: formats and different audiences, and everyone was kind of like
Speaker 1: a new creative challenge to figure out what is it,
Speaker 1: what's the you know, the way to reach this audience
Speaker 1: and do something that's creative and fun for them that's
Speaker 1: different than the last one I did. UM And then
Speaker 1: after that I got a job at a O l UM.
Speaker 1: I was really interested in this is around, you know
Speaker 1: where when the Internet was blowing up and they were
Speaker 1: doing some really interesting stuff with online only content. And
Speaker 1: I've done a bunch of you know, digital stuff in
Speaker 1: the TV side, but it was really more of a
Speaker 1: secondary piece to TV, where the company's primary business with television,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to go to a place where their
Speaker 1: only business was the Internet and where they were doing
Speaker 1: all sorts of really progressive, interesting stuff to figure out
Speaker 1: audiences on the Internet. And I learned so much there, um,
Speaker 1: just around what works and measuring different ideas and be
Speaker 1: testing headloins and photos and all sorts of different things. Um.
Speaker 1: And oddly enough, one of my old colleagues at Much
Speaker 1: Music was at the Canadian Public Broadcaster and said to me,
Speaker 1: you know, like I recommended you for this job running
Speaker 1: this weird new music service at the Public Broadcaster because
Speaker 1: it's a mix of traditional media and digital um. And
Speaker 1: because I've done all the television and different formats and
Speaker 1: worked at a music service, and then because I also
Speaker 1: worked at a o L, I landed in this insanely
Speaker 1: cool gig at a place called CBC Radio three, and
Speaker 1: it was an online only music service that was launching
Speaker 1: a satellite radio station on Sirius XM, and it was
Speaker 1: only for new and independent Canadian artists, so if you're
Speaker 1: an established artist, you couldn't get played. If you weren't Canadian,
Speaker 1: you couldn't get played. Um. And it was the most
Speaker 1: niche thing you could ever imagine. And in a way,
Speaker 1: it was almost like a media lab where we got
Speaker 1: to try out all sorts of cool ideas around building
Speaker 1: communities and you know, trying different strategies for artists discovery.
Speaker 1: And very soon after I started is when podcasting started.
Speaker 1: You know, that Adam Curley Show was starting in I
Speaker 1: first heard it in late two thousand four and I
Speaker 1: started in fall of two thousand four, and we realized
Speaker 1: that all these indie artists that we were playing owned
Speaker 1: all their own rates, and that we could we should
Speaker 1: try podcasting. Um. It would be an amazing way to
Speaker 1: get music out to new people who are looking for podcasts,
Speaker 1: and nobody else had the rights to put music out there.
Speaker 1: So we launched one of the world's first music podcast
Speaker 1: that was actually legal. And when they launched podcasting inside
Speaker 1: of iTunes in I don't know, like May or June
Speaker 1: of two thousand five, they featured this CBC Radio three
Speaker 1: podcast worldwide and it just blew up. And it helps
Speaker 1: obviously that there's like ridiculously good independent Canadian music coming
Speaker 1: out of that time. This is like in the early
Speaker 1: days of Arcade, fire and Taking and Sarah and the
Speaker 1: new pornographers and Feist and broken Social scene and all
Speaker 1: this stuff. But anyways, a long story short. That was
Speaker 1: a really long story. But I've been in podcasting for
Speaker 1: for a long time as a result of all those
Speaker 1: weird factors kind of coming together, and you know, it
Speaker 1: was podcasting how a little bit of a dip in,
Speaker 1: you know, after its initial few years of catching on fire.
Speaker 1: I think Facebook and YouTube and Twitter kind of took
Speaker 1: some of the fire and attention away from podcasting. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of crazy that it's back and growing and
Speaker 1: bigger than ever. And it's the most creative work I've
Speaker 1: ever done right now, working with a really wide variety
Speaker 1: of interesting clients and just an amazing group of storytellers. Here,
Speaker 1: we're like really genuinely having an awesome time making really
Speaker 1: fun shows. What is the deal with Canadian radio? Tell
Speaker 1: me the rules? I somebody I was. I was in
Speaker 1: Canada for a semester once um in in in college,
Speaker 1: and you have to play a certain amount of Canadian music.
Speaker 1: What is that? Yeah? So um and this is this
Speaker 1: is so hard to try and describe to an American audience.
Speaker 1: But uh, there is a big part of Canadian culture
Speaker 1: that is um dominated by American culture. Where you know
Speaker 1: we're right you know, we're right next to you. And
Speaker 1: almost all the Canadian cities are right close to the
Speaker 1: American border, uh, because you know, you go further north
Speaker 1: and that it's too cold to exist. Um, So we
Speaker 1: get all American TV stations, we get loads of American radio,
Speaker 1: and as a result, it's really hard for Canadian artists
Speaker 1: to stand out. And the government in Canada, on the
Speaker 1: for Canadian broadcasters has a series of regulations called ken
Speaker 1: Con rules, which is Canadian content um. And if you're
Speaker 1: a radio station or if you're a TV station, you
Speaker 1: have to create a certain amount of Canadian content if
Speaker 1: you're like making shows, and if you're a radio station
Speaker 1: playing music, you have to play a certain percentage of
Speaker 1: Canadian music. And there's different tiers of Canadian music, like
Speaker 1: you can only play this much hit Canadian music that
Speaker 1: you actually have to play some emerging Canadian music. And
Speaker 1: it's designed to help build a star system and help
Speaker 1: expose Canadian artists to Canadians as well as you know
Speaker 1: obviously around the world, but it's really focused on career
Speaker 1: development for Canadians those very very unusual it doesn't exist
Speaker 1: in America. I love it. I think it's great and
Speaker 1: it's just one of those one of those things that
Speaker 1: I always thought was it was really cool and I
Speaker 1: think and I had no idea about your your first
Speaker 1: podcast in doing Canadian music like that is you know,
Speaker 1: those early days of podcasting. I sometimes forget that I've
Speaker 1: been in the business for for ten years because it
Speaker 1: really did feel at the beginning like we were gonna
Speaker 1: like take over the world, and it was a no,
Speaker 1: maybe not, and then Syrial came out, was like, hey,
Speaker 1: we gonna take over the world, and then okay, maybe not.
Speaker 1: And then but I feel like the last year and
Speaker 1: a half two years there's been just just great progress.
Speaker 1: What do you what do you see the future of podcasting? Uh? Going?
Speaker 1: You know what, It's funny because it is it has
Speaker 1: been now like thirteen years or something like that since
Speaker 1: since they first came out. So when I say it
Speaker 1: feels like a very young industry or it's in an
Speaker 1: infant in its infancy. Um Like, it's it's weird to
Speaker 1: say that, but I'm going to say that. I think
Speaker 1: we're still in the very early stages of what podcasting
Speaker 1: cannon will become. Um. I think on the technology side,
Speaker 1: there's still a whole bunch of people who have not
Speaker 1: figured out how to get a podcast and having't figured
Speaker 1: out how to connect their car to their phone and
Speaker 1: program their own commute. Um. I think that's going to
Speaker 1: get better. And the more and more, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: even connected cars will be just downloading podcasts into your car. Uh.
Speaker 1: The easier that that that process gets for people, the
Speaker 1: more people are going to start listening to podcasts. And
Speaker 1: I think even creatively, we're still in the very early
Speaker 1: days of what a podcast can even be. That I know,
Speaker 1: on just literally on our team, there's probably still you know,
Speaker 1: dozens of show formats or types of storytelling that we
Speaker 1: haven't been able to do yet and that we haven't
Speaker 1: necessarily heard in podcasts yet that are waiting to be done.
Speaker 1: Um Like, it's it's funny like the we're doing a
Speaker 1: show with McAfee about cybersecurity called Hackable, and the guy
Speaker 1: who's the host and the producer of the show. Jeff
Speaker 1: Siskin has a strong radio background, but he also did
Speaker 1: a bunch of television programming, and the idea that they
Speaker 1: came up with for the show was to take kind
Speaker 1: of like the idea of a MythBusters like format and
Speaker 1: apply it to cybersecurity in podcasting, so that you know,
Speaker 1: every episode is kind of like a a scene from
Speaker 1: a movie or TV show where you see a hacker
Speaker 1: doing something and boom, they've hacked it in like five seconds,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to test to see is that actually
Speaker 1: possible and how worried should you be about somebody hacking you?
Speaker 1: And so they actually get hackers to do it every episode,
Speaker 1: and usually it's Jeff getting hacked. Jeff as is he
Speaker 1: said so much of his life hacked on this show. Um,
Speaker 1: but the but the idea of saying, like, we're not
Speaker 1: just going to have cybersecurity experts on and interview them
Speaker 1: and get tips that we're going to build a format around,
Speaker 1: you know, taking this scene that people are probably familiar
Speaker 1: with and then having real hackers do it and you're
Speaker 1: kind of following along to see if he's going to
Speaker 1: get hacked and what you should be able to do
Speaker 1: to not get Hacked is infinitely more compelling than the
Speaker 1: expert interview sort of thing. So um, I think I
Speaker 1: think there's tons and tons of ideas that are going
Speaker 1: to be brought into podcasting as it keeps evolving. And honestly,
Speaker 1: like even just even just I Heeart that you know,
Speaker 1: the company that you work or putting more and more
Speaker 1: into podcasting this year, and you've got podcasting as a
Speaker 1: bigger part of your mobile app. I bet there's tons
Speaker 1: of people who listen to radio in the mobile app
Speaker 1: that are going to have their first podcasting experience this year.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, obviously biased, but I'm pretty foolish
Speaker 1: on where podcasting is going. It's funny yesterday I was
Speaker 1: listening to Dirty John on my Heart and I looked
Speaker 1: at the comments and there were three people who would commented,
Speaker 1: this was my first podcast. And I do feel that
Speaker 1: with my heart we are really, you know, we're really
Speaker 1: bringing podcasting to the radio audience for the first time.
Speaker 1: And and and it's new for everybody here. It's new
Speaker 1: for you know, for the you know, most of my
Speaker 1: talent that are doing podcasting they've never done one before.
Speaker 1: And uh and and it's in the amount of ideas,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you. I think there are so
Speaker 1: many formats yet to be tapped into into podcasts. It's
Speaker 1: really it's it's exciting and overwhelming sometimes at the same time. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting like the Dirty John when you you brought
Speaker 1: up um, like I was listening to your one with
Speaker 1: Max from podcast, Uh, you know another true crime company,
Speaker 1: and Dirty John is a true crime thing. There's lots
Speaker 1: of true crime and podcasting, So why did Dirty John
Speaker 1: break out and become this massive hit? It's really interesting,
Speaker 1: like just the same as I heart it's I personally
Speaker 1: think they've just done a massive smart marketing campaign where
Speaker 1: the l A. Times is a huge part of bringing
Speaker 1: people who may read the l A Times and go
Speaker 1: to the website. But I've never listened to a podcast before,
Speaker 1: and all of the Dirty John story is in the
Speaker 1: l A. Times, and there's big full page ads and
Speaker 1: things where they're bringing podcast to a whole new audience.
Speaker 1: I think, I mean, And it's not that it's not
Speaker 1: a good show, it's just that I haven't seen like
Speaker 1: a huge smart marketing campaign that's more like Hollywood or
Speaker 1: a TV network campaign for a podcast before like this.
Speaker 1: And the guy who runs the Wondering Podcast Network, Hernand
Speaker 1: Lope as the next TV executive. Uh. Just you know,
Speaker 1: huge kudos for like treating podcasts like a major medium
Speaker 1: and getting people excited about a new show. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: agree with you too, because I liked it. You know,
Speaker 1: I listened to it. It was a lot of hype
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, it's it was good. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I interviewed Phoebe Judge. Uh, she was on Last a
Speaker 1: week or two ago, and the same thing, like, if
Speaker 1: you like that, go listen to Criminal, Like they do
Speaker 1: this every week and they do all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: on criminals. So I think it will open it up
Speaker 1: to a lot more people. Yeah, No, it's exciting. It's funny.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I was listening to Dirty John on my Heart
Speaker 1: and I looked at the comments and there were three
Speaker 1: people who would commented, this was my first podcast. And
Speaker 1: I do feel that with my heart we are really,
Speaker 1: you know, we're really bringing podcasting to the radio audience
Speaker 1: for the first time. And and and it's new for
Speaker 1: everybody here. It's new for you know, for the you know,
Speaker 1: most of my talent that are doing podcasting they've never
Speaker 1: done one before. And uh, and and it's in the
Speaker 1: amount of ideas, and I agree with you. I think
Speaker 1: there are so many formats yet to be tapped into
Speaker 1: into podcasts. It's really it's it's exciting and overwhelming sometimes
Speaker 1: at the same time. Well it's interesting, like the Dirty
Speaker 1: John when you you brought up um, like I was
Speaker 1: listening to your one with Max from podcast, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: another true crime company, and Dirty John is a true
Speaker 1: crime thing. There's lots of true crime and podcasting, So
Speaker 1: why did Dirty John break out and become this massive hit.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting, like just the same as I heart
Speaker 1: it's I personally think they've just done a massive smart
Speaker 1: marketing campaign where the l A. Times is a huge
Speaker 1: part of bringing people who may read the l A
Speaker 1: Times and go to the website. But I've never listened
Speaker 1: to a podcast before, and all of the Dirty John
Speaker 1: story is in the l A. Times and there's big
Speaker 1: full page ads and things where they're bringing podcast to
Speaker 1: a whole new audience. I think. I mean, and it's
Speaker 1: not that it's not a good show, it's just that
Speaker 1: I haven't seen like a huge smart marketing campaign that's
Speaker 1: more like Hollywood or a TV network campaign for a
Speaker 1: podcast before, like this and the guy who runs the
Speaker 1: Wondering podcast Network, Hernan Lopez, is the next TV executive.
Speaker 1: Um just you know, huge kudos for like treating podcasts
Speaker 1: like a major medium and getting people excited about a
Speaker 1: new show. Yeah. I agree with you too, because I
Speaker 1: liked it. You know, I listened to it. It was
Speaker 1: a lot of hype and I'm like, oh, it's it
Speaker 1: was good. But I interviewed Phoebe Judge, Uh, she was
Speaker 1: on last a week or two ago, and the same thing, Like,
Speaker 1: if you like that, go listen to Criminal, Like they
Speaker 1: do this every week and they do all kinds of
Speaker 1: stuff on criminals. So I think it will open it
Speaker 1: up to a lot more people. Yeah, no, it's exciting. Alright, Steve,
Speaker 1: we're gonna end up with I. I like to still
Speaker 1: do my cheesy radio segments and this one's called three
Speaker 1: Killer Questions. I'm gonna ask you three questions and this
Speaker 1: is not related to true crime though. Actually you know
Speaker 1: what I will. I have one question that I switched
Speaker 1: up once in a while. I asked people what kind
Speaker 1: of sandwich would they be? And I believe I've i
Speaker 1: interview you some other time and ask you that. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you. I'm gonna tell you. I I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I have to tell you because I
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with schwartz Is smoked meat sandwiches in Montreal.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest sandwich on earth. You if you go
Speaker 1: to if you ever go to Montreal smoked meat schwartz
Speaker 1: Is and ask for extra fatty. Just just don't worry
Speaker 1: about the health thing. Go for extra fatty. It's the
Speaker 1: greatest sandwich you'll ever have in your life. That's what
Speaker 1: I would be. That's so yeah, well what I'm drooling? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: if if you were you were gonna be a criminal?
Speaker 1: Kind of criminal? Would would you? Would you be? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: I don't even you know what. I have kids. I can't. Wow,
Speaker 1: it must be bad. I have kids. Criminal? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I you know what I'm like. I what could I
Speaker 1: possibly say that? It's not gonna make me sound creepy
Speaker 1: if I tell what a grim I want to be.
Speaker 1: What was the first piece of technology that you used
Speaker 1: and said this is going to change my life? Oh hey,
Speaker 1: this dates me, um, but it was probably an atari
Speaker 1: um like game console when I was a kid. Um.
Speaker 1: I remember getting that for Christmas with my brother, and
Speaker 1: it was things like pac Man and Space Invaders, and
Speaker 1: it was just like, holy moly, this has changed. This
Speaker 1: has changed everything. But what we're gonna do with our
Speaker 1: spare time, Yeah, from now on. And it's funny like
Speaker 1: I you know, I, like I said, I have kids,
Speaker 1: they are they have you know, phones or screens or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's bizarre to think of how much things have changed
Speaker 1: and how far they have come since I was a
Speaker 1: kid in that situation. But yeah, it was. It's quite
Speaker 1: funny too because we did we do this show with
Speaker 1: UH with Dell called Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson, and one
Speaker 1: of the episodes we did a while ago was about
Speaker 1: the history of innovation in the video game industry and
Speaker 1: we got to talk to Nolan Bushnell, who's the guy
Speaker 1: who invented Pong and Atari and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: and like just a crazy, genius, smart guy. But it
Speaker 1: totally brought me back to my childhood and reminded me
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, that was that was really revolutionary stuff
Speaker 1: that you know, you just weird to think that had
Speaker 1: never existed before. You kind of went from you know,
Speaker 1: watching Magnum p I after school or Mash or something
Speaker 1: like that to being able to go do you know
Speaker 1: pac Man and Space Invaders? Is it was pretty cool?
Speaker 1: Or actually being outside like yeah, exactly. Yeah, my nephew
Speaker 1: get nature in sports and healthy things. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: sit in front of the screen. My nephews are like
Speaker 1: those uh, those salamanders that never leave caves. They burned
Speaker 1: up in the sun. Last question, super easy. What was
Speaker 1: the last podcast you binged? It was Dirty John? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny. So we have we have a podcasting club
Speaker 1: um at our company where every week we pick a
Speaker 1: different podcast and then you know, kind of unlike a
Speaker 1: mored more traditional podcaster book club where you kind of
Speaker 1: talk about you know, talk about what you got out
Speaker 1: of it or whatever. We're because we're a podcasting company,
Speaker 1: we dissect them more around like from an industry craft
Speaker 1: point of view, around like what worked, why did they
Speaker 1: make these choices? What would we have done differently? What
Speaker 1: do you think they're trying to do with this? Um?
Speaker 1: So we all our whole company BINGE listened to Dirty
Speaker 1: John this week. UM and we just had a big
Speaker 1: massive session that kind of discussion session about it yesterday,
Speaker 1: which was which is interesting. Ah, that's the same with me.
Speaker 1: I just I binged it yesterday. I was sitting at
Speaker 1: where I was like, hey, let's just binge this one.
Speaker 1: All right, Steve Pratt, thanks for coming on uh and
Speaker 1: good luck and listen to all the shows. They've got
Speaker 1: a Pacific hyphen Content dot com to check out all
Speaker 1: the shows. Thanks Steve, Hey, thanks man, this is really
Speaker 1: fun and congrats to the new podcast. I love it.
Speaker 1: So now is the time of this where my lovely
Speaker 1: talented producer and legal midget Z walks into the studio.
Speaker 1: I look for her because she's so small. Where where
Speaker 1: are you? Z? And then we talked about some podcasts
Speaker 1: that you should be listening to. Z. Was that last
Speaker 1: segment just too geeky for people? I mean, I honestly
Speaker 1: was about to tell you that that was one of
Speaker 1: my favorite episodes because you guys just knew so much.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, for any this episode, for anybody
Speaker 1: that's trying to get into podcasting, this is what they
Speaker 1: should really listen to because the inside information it was
Speaker 1: it was dope. It was dope. I can't wait. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to tell Steve rat that He'll be like
Speaker 1: dope A he's so Canadian isn't it. Yeah, And every
Speaker 1: time he says about it was Yeah. The first time
Speaker 1: I talked to I talked to the first time I
Speaker 1: listened to him on slack cast. Um, you know, i'd
Speaker 1: already met him and I I called him. I'm like,
Speaker 1: he was like, what do you think? I'm like, it's good,
Speaker 1: but you're you're just so so Canadian. It's you can
Speaker 1: also hear the politeness in his voice. Who's just so nice?
Speaker 1: Like they are. I I love Canadians. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: love Steve Pratt. If you couldn't tell, I'm I'm such
Speaker 1: a fan of that guy. So anyway, we were talking
Speaker 1: a lot about branded content and podcasting and if you
Speaker 1: listen by now, hopefully you figured out what they are.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of I mean, the thing is,
Speaker 1: the point of them is too are to be good podcasts. So, um,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good ones out there, and you've
Speaker 1: checked out a few. I'm glad. I'm anxious to hear
Speaker 1: which ones that you like. So the first one I
Speaker 1: picked was from Pacific Content and I'm really into tech
Speaker 1: and like where tech is going, and that's called Trailblazers
Speaker 1: with Walter Isaacson and They describe it as digital disruption
Speaker 1: and how innovators are using tech to enable human progress.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was super interesting because nowadays people
Speaker 1: really talk about tech on how it's the opposite of
Speaker 1: how it's not good for us and how it's ruining
Speaker 1: our communication. But this whole podcast is how it's advancing
Speaker 1: us in the good ways, and it's really interesting in
Speaker 1: Walter Isaacson is brilliant. He was the former I read
Speaker 1: former CNN chairman and CEO. Oh yeah, well Walter, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's he's a huge name, and when he came into
Speaker 1: the podcasting world, it was it's a it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: And I tell people all the time that say that
Speaker 1: to me, you know, because I work at a university,
Speaker 1: I work with a lot of young folks and and
Speaker 1: I always say, how many people did you talk to
Speaker 1: in the course of a day when you were nineteen
Speaker 1: and and the answer is probably less than ten. Where
Speaker 1: someone your age talks to between ten and twenty people
Speaker 1: every day, you just don't talk to them in the
Speaker 1: same way that we do. It's not like we're bad communicators,
Speaker 1: we just communicate in different ways. Let's check out this
Speaker 1: cool podcast. You may not have heard of Layon de
Speaker 1: la Grange, but everybody there's ever flown as a passenger
Speaker 1: in an airplane shares a special bond with him. Somewhere
Speaker 1: in France. On a blush streak day in March night,
Speaker 1: de Lagrange wedged himself in beside the pilot and a
Speaker 1: Voi sam biplane and a few minutes later became the
Speaker 1: first ever airplane passenger. He's so smart, it's like my
Speaker 1: grandfather is teaching me something. I have to say that
Speaker 1: he was old. Well, you know, he just sounds I'm old. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like it all right. What else you got? Next?
Speaker 1: One from your favorite people? Gimlet? Yeah, I do like them?
Speaker 1: You do. Um. It's called Open for Business and it's
Speaker 1: Brandon Content with eBay, and it's about building a business
Speaker 1: from the ground up, and it ranges in episodes from
Speaker 1: hiring and firing to how to deal and survive failure,
Speaker 1: which I think is such an important thing for when
Speaker 1: you're trying to start your own business because failure comes
Speaker 1: with it. So I think it's a really great podcast
Speaker 1: for anybody that's wanting to start their own business and
Speaker 1: where in the age of startup. So I think for
Speaker 1: anybody that's trying to do that. It's open for business,
Speaker 1: it's good. Andrea lives in a tiny German town called
Speaker 1: Reading It. Bow's business is based near Kansas City, Kansas.
Speaker 1: Andreas in the yarn business, Bow runs a tech company.
Speaker 1: Here's what they have in common. They've both watched your
Speaker 1: businesses fail and they've survived to tell the stories. And
Speaker 1: you can tell it's a gimlet podcast when you listen
Speaker 1: to it because of the it's just a storytelling. It's
Speaker 1: the way they tell stories. So that's that's gonna come
Speaker 1: with it. What else you got? So? My last one
Speaker 1: is from Shopify. It's with the company Shopify, which is
Speaker 1: an e commerce website where you can sell stuff online,
Speaker 1: on social media or in person. And it's called t
Speaker 1: G I AM what stands for Thank God It's Monday,
Speaker 1: which is not something you really hear that often, but
Speaker 1: it's really geared towards entrepreneurs who are excited to start
Speaker 1: the work week and are trying to build their businesses,
Speaker 1: where they tell people like successful stories of really businesswomen
Speaker 1: and businessmen and it's really to just inspire young entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: It's another one from Pacific Content to there we Go
Speaker 1: All right. I really believe that i Q is really
Speaker 1: not as valuable as people think in today's entrepreneurial environment.
Speaker 1: I've really been spending a lot more of time on
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence and the three e Q traits that I
Speaker 1: think every entrepreneur has to focus on are the following.
Speaker 1: And I've got one more just just for you. Uh
Speaker 1: check out. It's called twice Around. It's produced actually by
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Oh yeah, they
Speaker 1: do a few podcasts. This oneach two of the ladies
Speaker 1: that work at the bank and they talk about all
Speaker 1: kinds of issues and that are that that affect everyday life.
Speaker 1: Really well produced, good one. Go check that one out.
Speaker 1: You know, when we first decided Mary, that we were
Speaker 1: going to record an episode around bravery, the very first
Speaker 1: things that hop into my head as somebody running into
Speaker 1: a burning building and saving a baby. Oh yes, of course, yeah,
Speaker 1: and very heroic and epic sort of behavior. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing that kind of comes up for me when
Speaker 1: I think about bravery. And on the other side of
Speaker 1: the continuum where heroic is on one side, comes the
Speaker 1: childhood braveries where we have to Jody Access podcast is
Speaker 1: produced by Zindana Down, Ziana, Zion, Elvis, I'll get it right.
Speaker 1: It's only even three years. Engineer David Williams and horsewall
Speaker 1: In artwork by Dalton Running Bird music composed by one
Speaker 1: Casey Franco. And special thanks, of course to the God
Speaker 1: of podcasting Chris Peterson, Don Parker here in San Francisco
Speaker 1: and Katie Wilcox at I Heart Radio. Follow us on
Speaker 1: Facebook It's access podcast or on Twitter Access podcast one,
Speaker 1: and you can also follow me at Maddie Stout m
Speaker 1: A T T Y s t A U d T
Speaker 1: on all platforms nobody else has that name. And download
Speaker 1: the free I Heart Radio app if you don't have it,
Speaker 1: because we've got all kinds of podcasts and the numbers
Speaker 1: are growing and growing and growing, and we want you
Speaker 1: to listen to them, share them with people, and then
Speaker 1: tell your friends to listen as well. Thanks