Brad Smith, Simplecast – InnovaBuzz 228
Brad Smith, Simplecast
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Brad Smith of Simplecast. Brad is an entrepreneur and professional daydreamer – self described, the founder and CEO of Audios Ventures, the home of Simplecast; a podcasting platform empowering audio creators with the tools they need to share their stories, evolve their craft, and connect with a world of listeners.
In our discussion, Brad talked to me about:
- The importance of standards when measuring anything and the IAB proposed standards for podcast plays.
- What is really important when it comes to podcast metrics and the insights that you can get to drive improvement of your podcast
- Some of the exciting things happening in podcasting, from corporate internal podcasts to dynamic content driven by listener behaviour and much more.
Zach Moreno on episode 184 suggested we interview Brad.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
The minute we lose our ability to daydream, we lose a lot of our vision and our focus on what drives us. @Brad on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
Show Notes from this episode with Brad Smith of Simplecast
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- Being a professional dreamer is part of being an entrepreneur. It means coming up with ideas and daydreaming about what we want to build and what we want our companies to be.
- The minute we lose our ability to daydream, we lose a lot of our vision and our focus on what drives us.
- Being an open medium and RSS are two of the things that make podcasting really beautiful.
- Improving data and data integrity will bring more trust into the world of podcasting. More trust in the world of podcasting means advertisers will become more interested. More interested advertisers mean more dollars flowing into it and more dollars flowing means that the industry is growing and creators are making money.
- There’s so much more to downloads as a system of measurement.
- Content can be made better through data.
- Data helps you understand how people are listening to your show.
- Data is important for monetization.
- Data helps create better content and better shows. It can help drive a better understanding of who your audience is and where you are meeting them.
- Audio is the oldest form of communication. It is the most intimate and the easiest to consume. Audio opens a lot of doors for opportunities.
- Simplecast is a platform that provides creatives with the tools to create their passion and their content, distribute it to the world, and get data back to make it better and to monetize.
- You will find your audience. If you’re doing it well, someone will care about what you are doing. Someone will want to hear the words that you are saying. Share what’s important to you and do your best in that job.
If you're doing it well, someone will care about what you are doing. Someone will want to hear the words that you are saying. Share what's important to you and do your best in that job. @Brad on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Brad’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Find a way to share what matters most to you.
- Best thing for new ideas – Fall on my face a lot. The key to making the best thing is to learn from those experiences.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Stay creative and passionate. Focus on your “why”.
- Keep project / client on track – Having the best project managers. Look at what you want to accomplish and break it down into the smallest bite size pieces as possible then take it one piece at a time.
- Differentiate – To not care. Try not to care if you are differentiating and just do the best version of what you are doing.
To Be a Leader
You have one shot at this. You are going to stumble. You are going to mess up and you are going to fail. It takes hard work to put something out there that people will be interested in and will care enough about, but it’s all worth it.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Brad through their website and on Twitter.
Suggested Guest
Brad suggested I interview Dan Misener of Pacific Content. So Dan, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Brad Smith.
Links
- Website – Simplecast
- Twitter – @Brad
- Blog: New to Your Simplecast Dashboard: Spotify Data
- Blog: Web Player Analytics
Cool things about Brad
- He’s the publisher of The Great Discontent, a digital & print magazine, podcast, and live event series featuring inspiring conversations with today’s artists, makers, and risk-takers.
- He’s written several books that he never published.
- He’s owns a lot of Post-it™ pads, more than any human should ever own.
You have one shot at this. You are going to stumble and you are going to fail. It takes hard work to put something out there that people will be interested in and will care enough about, but it's all worth it. @Brad on #InnovaBuzz… Click To Tweet