How to Start a Thought Leadership Podcast (With Examples)
Achieving thought leadership status is a goal and desire for many companies and professionals.
But how do you share your expertise at scale while also strategically networking with other leaders in your field?
The answer is launching a thought leadership podcast.
In this post, we’ll outline how you can start your own engaging B2B podcast to position yourself as a respected thought leader.
Why Start a Thought Leadership Podcast
Podcasts are Growing
The podcast trends are clear. With over one million active podcasts worldwide and more launching every day, it makes sense that companies and leaders are eager to start their own podcasting journey.
When 82.4% of podcast listeners spend more than seven hours per week listening to podcasts, and three out of every four podcast listeners tuning in to learn new things, there’s no denying the influence podcasting can have on boosting your thought leadership status.
Furthermore, since 93% of people who start tuning in to a podcast listen to most or all of the episodes, these listeners are engaging with your brand in a more in-depth way compared to other content mediums.
Podcasting Positions You as a Thought Leader
One commonality between thought leaders in all industries is that they’re creating and publishing content. Without the consistent sharing of valuable and high-level ideas, there are limited ways to position yourself as a thought leader in your field.
Luckily, podcasting is arguably the best medium to get your ideas in front of your audience and potential prospects. In fact, you will find that many of the best business book authors in the industry have their own podcasts as well.
By launching and hosting an engaging podcast, your content quickly becomes a respected resource in your industry. In fact, while there are many different routes, podcasting is one of the most accessible ways to position yourself as a professional keynote speaker. Through a podcast you can demonstrate your storytelling, your own technical expertise, share your big ideas, and build an audience who wants to listen to you.
You also now have a platform to network and converse with other leaders in your field. This naturally elevates your authority status simply by being associated with these other thought leaders. Podcasting is a great way to showcase your areas of expertise.
Podcast Networking is the New Conference / Live Event
Prior to the pandemic, live events and conferences were the go-to ways to network and get expertise out into the open.
But, in our new normal, virtual channels and platforms will replace a vast majority of in-person events for the foreseeable future. For this reason, podcasting will be leveraged as a valuable platform to share the expertise that would’ve been shared at these in-person events.
Didn't get the chance to hear from a specific industry leader you value at that annual conference?
Invite them on your podcast and have them discuss the topics they didn’t have the opportunity to share.
Didn’t get the chance to highlight your unique expertise at an event that was canceled until further notice?
Use your podcast to get these ideas out into the world NOW instead of later.
When you think of podcasting in this light, there are many creative ways you can leverage your podcast to simulate the value found at live events.
Repurpose your Podcasts
The most prolific content creators you follow today aren’t coming up with brand new ideas every time they post or share something.
Instead, they’re taking pieces of content they’ve already created and repurpose them into many smaller and shareable social pieces.
This process of repurposing can become streamlined when your efforts are centered around a podcast.
Think about it…
When you’re producing an hour-long podcast every week, and that episode can be repurposed into 5-10 different types of smaller content pieces, you simply will never run out of shareable material.
In our experience, podcasts can be effectively repurposed into:
Short video clips
Audiograms
SEO articles
Quote-based social posts
Blogs
How to Create a Thought Leadership Podcast
Planning
Before jumping into your first podcast episode, there’s some necessary upfront planning you’ll need to do.
Here are the fundamentals:
Choose a concept: In order to position yourself as a thought leader, you’ll want your show to cover topics and ideas that prospects and other leaders in your niche would find engaging. Do some research and come up with a concept that will distinguish you from possible competitors.
Choose a name: Though there’s no right or wrong way to go about selecting a name, be sure that the name corresponds to the subject matter of your show. There’s no harm in getting a little creative with your name, as long as your target market can easily understand what the podcast will be about. Brainstorm on this to find some relevant angles.
Select a format: For thought leadership podcasts, we recommend interview-based formats. This is one of the best practices we see for B2B professionals to gain the maximum benefits from podcasting.
Buy equipment: You’ll need a microphone, pop-filter, and microphone stand.
Get recording software - Here is a list of the top podcast recording softwares.
Creation Process
For your podcast to come alive, you need a consistent creation process.
Here’s a breakdown of the moving parts:
Creating artwork: Find a designer to create episode thumbnails, cover art, and associated social graphics.
Scheduling guests: Get specific with who you want to target and begin sending invitations through email or Linkedin. Be genuine, professional, and use social proof to maximize your outreach efforts.
Recording audio: Use Zoom alongside Riverside.fm to capture both audio and video. You will also need to purchase a podcast microphone and set up a semi-professional home studio.
Build your podcast team: You will need a variety of roles to build a podcast. All of these hires can be replaced by hiring a B2B podcast agency like Content Allies or another podcast production company. If you choose to hire your podcast team directly, you will need to hire:
Audio Editor
Show Notes Writer
Graphic Designer
Podcast Producer
Guest Outreach
Video Editor
Publishing VA
Conducting interviews: Be sure to research your guests in advance and brainstorm relevant questions that you think will be engaging. It’s helpful to let your curiosity guide the conversation and always have a set of fallback questions you can rely on if the conversation gets stagnant.
Uploading and syndication: After you have your recording edited, upload your podcast to a host such as Anchor, and syndicate it with all of the major podcast platforms.
For a full guide on this production process, read our founder’s detailed list and explanation of how to produce a podcast.
Promotion
Once your podcast is live, you need to promote it in order to increase your reach.
Here are a few tactics we recommend:
Share repurposed content: Post video clips, blogs, audiograms, or blog posts repurposed from your podcast on all of your social channels.
Paid promotion: Use a service such as QUUPromote.com or boost your efforts with Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter’s paid promo tools.
Enable guests to promote the episode: Be sure to send your guests social promo materials so they can share them with their network.
Best Thought Leadership Podcast Examples
To showcase what thought leadership podcasts look like in action, here are some of our current favorites:
Illuminate Higher Education
Host Kiran Kodithala interviews higher education tech companies, industry leaders, and students about important issues and solutions that will lead to a brighter future of higher education.
Rethinking Supply Chain
John Abrams, host and CEO of Venzee, discusses the world of supply chain management alongside other industry leaders.
Animalz Content Marketing Podcast
A rotating group of hosts from the Animalz team interview internal specialists and other thought leaders about all things content marketing.
The Unstoppable Podcast
Hosts Diana Chen and Matthew Gould discuss all things related to the decentralized web and the leaders paving the way in this exciting new industry.
The Thought Leader Revolution
Host Nicky Billou interviews top thought leaders and discusses how they leveraged their expertise to produce results and achieved their status as authorities within their fields.
Sage Thought Leadership Podcast
Looking to learn from other thought leaders about their journey? The Sage Thought Leadership Podcasts has entrepreneurs share and tell their stories and knowledge with others.
Leveraging Thought Leadership Podcast
On this show, your hosts Peter Winick and Bill Sherman focus on the business of thought leadership. They explore how ideas are brought to scale within the business world. Past guests include professional keynote speakers, business book authors, specialty consultants, and business-school academics.
The Thought Leader Revolution Podcast
Interested in building thought leadership around your expertise? On this podcast, your hosts profile key thought leaders to learn how to become well-known and highly-regarded in the marketplace for the work you do. Guests include independent thought leaders who share lessons and anecdotes from their journey. For more information check out the Thought Leader Revolution Website.
The Thought Leadership Project
On this podcast, your hosts Jay Harrington and Tom Nixon help lawyers turn their expertise into thought leadership.
Ready to start your thought leadership podcast?
Interested in starting your own thought leadership podcast?
Content Allies can help your B2B company launch a revenue-generating podcast.
We schedule interviews between you and your ideal prospects and strategic partners.
You show up and have engaging conversations, we handle everything else.
Start growing your business through podcasting today.