2015 is turning out to be yet another “Year of the Podcast” and while I am myself still procrastinating the launch of my own podcast (any week now…), I very much enjoy listening to the podcasts of others during my daily walks with our Goldendoodle Simona (pictured below!).
In addition to following podcasts on social media and digital marketing, I have also been “glued” to the Serial podcast (good luck with your appeal Adnan Syed!) and picked up the Swedish hit interview series “Värvet” now also available in an English-speaking version Varvet Intl.
What I have not done enough of to date, however, is to help spread the word about the podcasts that I recommend others tune into and today marks a particularly timely occasion to start doing more of that. The situation is that one of my favorite podcasters, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, is yet again up for a Business Podcast of the Year award. (Beyond the To-Do List by Eric Fisher is another great one amongst the finalists by the way!)
So, why do I think that Pat Flynn is most deserving of this award? For starters, he is generous and transparent with his audience about sharing both his successses (many!) and failures as he conducts a rather impressive series of experiments with his own online entrepreneurial ventures. He even calls himself the “crash test dummy of online business.”
In addition, he features an intriguing list of guests on his show that includes not only the “big names” but also people you’ve never heard of. Using this approach, Pat effectively illustrates how a varied set of small businesses, solopreneurs, and part-time entrepreneurs can achieve impressive results both cost-effectively and in relatively short order. Through his disarming charm and curious attitude, Pat manages to get guests to open up more than on the average podcast to the benefit of listeners such as me that stands to learn from their experiences.
Tips and tactics shared on Smart Passive Income revolve around how you can best leverage tools, time, and resources for maximum impact and value to the communities you serve. He shares his favorite tools, explains how he uses his time and experiments with his morning routine, and increasingly Pat also includes discussions about how you can scale up a small business through the use of outsourcing without losing the human touch. In this last respect, Pat has been inspired by his best buddy Chris Ducker, the Virtual CEO and author of the eye-opening and best-selling book Virtual Freedom.
There is no doubt that sales and marketing is undergoing a radical transformation fueled by increasingly powerful new technologies and platforms available at low cost and I think it is critical to stay up to date with what those opportunities are regardless of whether you are strive for a corporate life or enter into online entrepreneurship to some extent.
At least, I know that many of my students are looking at all the emerging technologies with a mixed sense of bewilderment and overwhelm and I don’t hesitate to recommend they listen to Smart Passive Income for clarity and to get with the game. For corporate managers and executives, I also think it makes sense to learn what a new generation of online startups are up to as they and the companies they work for otherwise risk becoming obsolete unless they too become more responsive to the needs of clients and adopt some of the same tools, principles and strategies as those discussed on Smart Passive Income.
So, if you are not convinced yet that Smart Passive Income is a podcast deserving of your vote as Podcast of the Year, please give it a chance and listen to some episodes first and I think that you’ll come around 🙂 Thanks Pat for all the good work that you do that also undoubtedly also helps me stay up-to-date and relevant as a Social Media Professor. I am also looking forward to seeing you and Chris Ducker and learning more about this exciting time of online business and entrepreneurship that we are living in at the 1-Day Business Breakthrough event in San Diego on April 24!