Podcasting Has Its First Breakout Hit

During our recent offsite strategy session, Sharen Sellgren, suggested that we start an MtoM podcast. I honestly hadn’t listened to a podcast in such a long time and they had never really been “my thing.” I love to listen to books and I have an insane Audible library. I also listen to talk radio all of the time and prefer it over music. How had podcasts not become a regular part of my life? Then Sharen told me about Serial and I couldn’t turn it off. I listened when I should have been working and late into the night. I was completely addicted and started digging around to learn more about podcasting and it’s popularity.

A USA Today article in 2013, Remember Podcasting- It’s Back- and Booming, stated that Apple has surpassed 1 billion podcast subscriptions via iTunes. A 2014 Edison Research report estimated that in the past month 39 million Americans have listened to a podcast. Wow- it really is back and booming. I had honestly thought podcasts were something of the past.

And I should admit that podcasts (video podcasts to be precise) really were a part of my past. I created a video podcast with my sister Alex, back in 2005ish, when she lived in Portland, OR and I lived here in Arlington, VA. It was called East Meets West and we modeled it after the fairly successful video podcast by the Gilbert sisters. My maiden name is Gilbert and so Alex and I thought it was so cool that we could do something similar but even better. Well, a few test podcasts later and we were over it. Life was too busy and we didn’t really know what the heck we were doing. We certainly weren’t video editing experts and our points of view were unclear. But it was a fun thing to try.

So here I am in 2014 with a booming business and I want to connect with other business leaders in an interesting way. After a lot of brainstorming with the team we decided we wanted to learn what made these people tick and do it in a fun and relaxed way. Sort of like Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee but with alcohol of course. And so Spirited Conversations was born. We provide the spirit our guest prefers (in the form of wine, cocktail, or beer) and they provide the scintillating perspective and insight. I sat down for the inaugural interview- mainly to test the equipment- so please enjoy. We will be publishing a new conversation each week.