What Happened to Hillary's Podcast?

Speaking with TJ Walker, dissecting the communication skills and practices of world class leaders.

The Problem with Podcast hi, I'm TJ Walker and this is my sense of the problem with so many podcasts. It's rare to see one this high profile do this. But the big problem most people have with podcasts is they just give up. A huge percentage never get to the sixth episode. The vast majority never get to the 23rd. But it's a little different if you launch a podcast and all of a sudden millions are downloading it. That's the case with Hillary Clinton. She started a podcast six weeks ago or so. There have been four podcasts put out. She's been in two of them. There's been nothing for the last couple of weeks. And I just think this is absurd. I actually in earlier podcast praised her podcast. I thought it was smart, well done, made her come across really conversational, nice, likable. And now it's just sort of wasting away. It was first every week and then it seemed like it was like 12 days. Now it's been a couple of weeks. Now I understand the Hillary Clinton campaign has bigger fish to fry, namely a debate that took place last night. I'm recording this on Tuesday and 100 million people watched it. But still, so much of this campaign is going to be about you get at the vote effort, keeping your own base, motivated and inspired. And that's where a podcast, I think really comes in handy, where you can talk directly to your supporters, keep them really energized, giving them a sense of what's really happening, the insider's perspective. For the life of me, I don't know why someone can't just follow around Hillary with a recording, ask her questions, and then only put it out if it makes the campaign look good. And I would advise the same thing to Donald Trump. But if you're going to do a podcast and call attention to it and put out press releases and announce to the world that to then just have it fade away, you haven't done much. And confession, I've done that, oh, 10 years ago or so I started putting some of my how to content on it. I wasn't even aware of it. I had staff doing it at the time and I don't know if we stopped after two episodes or 49 episodes, but it never really amounted to much. Times are different now. The audiences for podcasts are huge, or the potential audiences, I should say the audience for any one podcast for most people in the world is less than a couple of hundred. But Hillary Clinton was different. Her podcast catapulted to the top of the best listener list and after two tries it seems as though she's given up. Especially for a campaign like hers that is somewhat averse to holding press conferences. Many have argued she is just unfairly treated by the mainstream media. All the more reason to create your own media. I almost think that she should have a running essentially radio news service coming out of her mouth all day long as she's traveling from one spot to the next. But at minimum a one once a day podcast. But that is not happening. Anyway, I think it's a little bit sad for her, but for all candidates because when you look at the vast sums of money campaigns spend on communication, I just can't imagine why this wouldn't be a cost effective use of a little staff time. Because you're not having to buy TV ads. I understand you're not going to get undecided voters on a podcast. I understand that. But as a tool for keeping your own formers, your own, your own volunteers, your own staff really up to date, giving them insider information and your own perspective, I think a podcast is an excellent tool for doing that. What do you think? Post your comments. I'd like to hear from you. I'll share some of the comments from time to time right here on this podcast. You can post your comments on our Facebook page, LinkedIn, YouTube. If you're listening to the audio that was then turned into a video on YouTube, which for some reason some people prefer that outlet, then you can leave your comments there as well. Plus you can always email me tjediatrainingworldwide.com this is a mini episode today. No guest. I am about to. I'm sort of in between stops. I've been on the road in Las Vegas last week. I'm in town just for a few hours and then headed to Brussels. Now I am going to start producing shows on the road. In fact did one last week from Las Vegas. A few technical problems. I'm trying to improve that, but it's more a function of just time constraints. We'll be back with regular episodes starting next week and we'd love to hear from you on guests you'd like to hear from. Our focus on this program is really how the most interesting and influential people in the world communicate. So if you have suggestions, please let me know. Thanks a lot. See you tomorrow.

Thanks for listening to Speaking with TJ Walker, where the communication skills and practices of world class leaders are dissected.