Case Study: how podcasting has built zoe’s reputation

I want to share with you a conversation I had with Zoe Routh, leadership guru, prolific author (both non-fiction and fiction!) and host of the long-running Zoe Routh Leadership Podcast, which Chris Ashmore Media has had the privilege to edit and assemble these last few years.

Zoe’s successful weekly podcast has been instrumental to positioning herself as an authority in the market. It’s a combination of 45-minute interviews interspersed with solo-episodes.

If you’re considering podcasting to build your personal brand and create deeper engagement with your market, why not learn from someone who’s been doing it and doing it well?

Chris: Where did the idea come from to start this podcast?

Zoe: I wanted to run an event. And I wanted to interview leaders as part of promoting that event. And to entice them to be part of the event. I said, I'll showcase you on my podcast, which I didn't have at that time. So the interviews became the start of the podcast. And I interviewed a whole suite of leaders in the industry, across different industries on their social contribution.

So that was the sort of origin theme that I launched the podcast on, here are leaders who are running their businesses and making contribution to society. That was the original purpose. And then I kept interviewing, because it got good feedback. Leaders liked being interviewed, they felt very privileged to be on the show, and to be able to showcase what their businesses were doing to a broader audience and to communicate in a way that they hadn't communicated before.

Has it helped you position yourself as a thought leader in this space?

Absolutely. People keep tuning in every week because they enjoy the quality of the guests that I have. They enjoy the quality of the conversation and the questions that I get to and dig into and the guests enjoy it too because I've been told by a number of guests that the way that I question and the type of interview I run is a lot deeper than other ones that they may have done previously. And so we dive deeper into the issues. It becomes a richer conversation that's easier to process.

So, the podcast helps with positioning yourself in the market?

It's really shown me as a professional, somebody who's interested and investing in their own thought leadership in their own industry sector and becoming a voice that is promoting different types of leadership principles and ideas. So I'm growing an audience, I'm speaking to people who are like-minded in terms of what they're interested in, in terms of making a difference in their own leadership, and making an impact in the broader community.

That's the kind of ethos and principles I'm hoping to seed in my podcast show and the messaging that I'm getting out there. And what I've noticed too, in conversation with people, they go, ‘Oh, you have a podcast?’ and they go and check it out. And they're really impressed by it. And so my reputation increases through that way. And I think it's such an intimate medium, people really get a sense of who you are as a human in a different way than they would either reading your articles or reading a book.

So I quite like it from that point of view is that when I show up in people's ears every week, that they're having this very particular personal relationship with me through the connection of my voice. 

I'd say it's made me appear more professional, it's made me appear more dedicated to my industry. And it's elevated the impression of me as a professional more broadly, in people's minds has also kept me front and centre in terms of people's radar. So when they're looking for leadership development, or thinking about strategic planning, or working on their culture, that I come to mind because I'm in their ear every week. And so that's been really helpful in terms of keeping me front and centre and fresh in front of people's ears and eyes.

You’ve been doing this for around six years, almost every week, and well over 300 episodes. How do you keep it up? How do you find the guests on a regular basis and just keep it going along smoothly?

We're a couple of months ahead of time in terms of recording, which makes it easier. Over the next two weeks, though, I've got a batch of interviews to do. So I sort of put my mind and creative energy into those interviews. And then once they're done, I can forget about them for a couple of months until they come up for promotion time.

For anybody who is thinking of starting a podcast or wanting to launch a podcast, any advice?

You want to align strategically to your goals. I think some successful podcasts had been based around author's books. So they've got a message that they want to spruik they've got a book to support it. And they build their podcast based around that.

How do you promote your podcast?

We do an audiogram, so we do a little quote, audio quote, from it and we post that out as well. And then we post the whole episode. We have a signup page on my website where people can sign up explicitly for the podcast. So they get notification every week of the episodes as they go along.

So, for each episode, we're promoting it at least three times across social media, we post it to our own direct list. And then we ask guests to also post and we tag all of our guests and all of the social media as well. We ask our guests to also recirculate it, encourage them to put it on their own websites as part of their media roster.

One of the things we also do is flashback Fridays, where we look across our content, the 300-plus episodes and have a theme and pick maybe four or five different episodes and say, ‘Hey, looking at this theme across the years,’ these are some really good lessons that you can go back to. So we recirculate the content that way as well.

Well, after more than 300 episodes, and all these years, well done on the podcast, and here’s for another six years and beyond! Thank you, Zoe.

Thanks, Chris. It's been a delight to share the insights. And I look forward to what's coming next in the podcasting world and seeing where the show goes and where it takes us.