Over the last eighteen months, I’ve been pondering the idea of starting my own podcast.
My initial idea was ‘Two Beers In’, a podcast that does interviews with entrepreneurs and other people in business after both the interviewee and interviewer had two rounds of beer. Aside from making the interview a bit more lively, there would be an element of featuring different beers every week. The downside? I’d have to drink more beer, something I’m not entirely keen on. I could however befriend two cans of San Miguel Light a week, if it results in an entertaining conversation with someone who might have a more diverse taste in beers.
… and being the overcautious and anxious entrepreneur I am, I figured I’d register the domain before publicly talking about it. Except, it’s taken already. And you know why? Because someone already had the same idea. Only better. Watch it, they’re seriously funny. And that’s coming from a German.
TwoBeersIn out of the way, let’s move on the next idea I had: ‘Being in Bangkok’ (or alternatively ‘Beings of Bangkok’). It would be an audio-based look at lives in the city. Maybe I’m subconsciously imitating ‘Humans of New York‘ a bit with that. Pictures may have a higher reach than audio, but to me, they tell less of a story (which might be due to me not being a very visual person to begin with). Maybe I should team up with a photographer.
There definitely seems to be interest in a Thailand-focused podcast. Vern Lovic from ThailandSnakes mentioned he owns thailandpodcast.com and was keen on doing something with it. Dom Dumais, who podcasts about his life and hobbies, mentioned he was keen on setting up a podcasting community in Thailand. Then of course, there’s Greg from GregtoDiffer and Tony, who used to run bangkokpodcast.com – a project that had been laid to rest a few years back. Since I know Greg a bit, I should maybe get in touch to see if that’s something that could be restarted.
If I were to go with a Thailand-focused podcast, I would probably aim to get people on board that showcase different lifestyles and professions: From English teachers at ISB to former inmates at a Bang Kwang, from dating site owners to art school directors, I can see a wide range of non-celebrities that all offer an interesting insight into life in the city. I haven’t contacted any of the above in regards to this yet, but these would be some of the first people that come to mind.
The countless digital nomads I know through Dynamite Circle (DC) all seem to be into podcasts. I always assumed part of that was a bit of a selection bias, as the primary recruitment tool for the Dynamite Circle is the TropicalMBA podcast. Through a DCer, Mariza Leal, I actually managed to get on my first published podcast: Borderless (you can listen to the episode with me here).
On the one hand, a podcast seems like a no-brainer: much faster and easier to create content and a very good way to build trust with my audience (voice tends to work better than the written word when it comes to creating trust and familiarity). On the other, I’m acutely aware of my own tendency to get distracted with side-projects and to diversify too much and too early. That also explains why I’ve had it at the back of my mind for more than a year without reaching a final decision.
For now, I was thinking I’ll stick to appearing on other people’s podcasts. It’s a good way to reach an audience I otherwise wouldn’t, build relationships with other content creators and at the same time, avoid having to commit a significant part of my time and attention to build a new acquisition channel. I’ll have to put some time aside to approach pod cast producers (please do feel free to recommend anyone I should contact).
If there were a clearer defined objective of this blog (e.g. a certain revenue target, a certain audience target), it would be easier to justify. But since for now, it’s mostly self-expression, I don’t quite see how podcasts really contribute yet.
At this point I’m really curious what the readers of the blog think? Would you prefer a podcast over having the same content in written form? Are there any specific topics you’d like to see covered in a podcast? Would you rather have me focus on written content and stick to the things I’ve been doing so far? Any comments are welcome!