It’s International Podcasting Day today and as I love listening to podcasts, for learning, inspiration and entertainment, I thought I would do a post to showcase some of the podcasts that I listen to.
I use the iPhone native app for downloading, organising and listening to the podcasts. In the app you can create ‘Stations’, which I use to organise my podcasts into various categories to help me when deciding which to listen to.
The categories (Stations) that I use are as follows:
- Favourite
- Productivity and Organisation
- Health
- Business
- Inspiration
- Entrepreneurs
I have a ‘favourite’ Station so I get to listen to my favourite podcasts as soon as they are available. And I happily listen to all shows in the feed of those podcasts, which is not always the case with other shows!
What’s in there currently you might be asking?
I love Desert Island Discs. Kirsty Young interviews famous people and public figures about their lives, on the understanding that they are due to be cast away on a desert island and can choose a series of discs (or I suppose mp3s nowadays!) a book and a luxury item to take with them. It provides great insights into their lives, Kirsty is a brilliant interviewer and I have been introduced to some really interesting people who I otherwise wouldn’t have heard of.
I also love listening to Matt and Keris on the Fitter Food podcast. As you might imagine it includes lots of chat about food and also about health and fitness and a few other ‘slightly’ related topics. They are a couple and their style is very conversational with lots of banter. I often find myself giggling along with them!
Keris has also just launched a new podcast with Sarah Doyle called Fit Girls, which follows a similar style to the one that she does with Matt but as you can probably guess is mainly about girls!
The third of my favourite podcasts is ‘Own It! Your Business and Your Life‘ by Judith Morgan and Nicola Cairncross. They have a fairly eclectic style with a loose agenda that they follow including sections called, for example, ‘What’s Impressed?’ ‘What’s Fueled your Fire’ and ‘Client Challenge of the Week’
They are seasoned marketers and coaches with an honest, down to earth style that really provides some great insights, ideas and motivation. They also make me laugh to myself, and sometimes out loud, embarrassing when I’m walking around with the supermarket!
Then the final show in that section is ‘The Showrunner‘ from ‘Rainmaker Platform’. It’s run by Jerod and Jon who are podcasters themselves and they talk about how to be a ‘Showrunner’, which I’ve been finding useful as I’ve been working towards the launch of my own podcast.
Some of the other shows that I enjoy but I don’t listen to religiously are:
- The Tim Ferriss Show
- Ari Meisel – Less Doing
- The Read to Lead podcast
- The Productive Woman
- The Productivityist Podcast
- The Missing Link
- TED Radio Hour
- And a new podcast that may well make it into the ‘Favourite’ Station soon Inspiring Women Interviews
And I can’t write this without mentioning the podcasts that I host:
- Engage for Success – all about employee engagement
- Digital & Social Media Leadership Forum – not difficult to guess what this is about! It’s aimed at corporates.
- Soon to launch – POWER to Live More – all about productivity, Organisation and Wellbeing aimed at entrepreneurs and business owners who work from home
With the other sections I don’t always listen to every show that’s published. I scan the titles and maybe the show pages to decide if they’re worth listening to and I am then fairly discerning as I listen and stop if I’m not enjoying the show or if it’s not particularly relevant to me. I used to be the type of person who would read books right to the end or listen right through to the end of podcasts because I felt I should, but no more – life’s too short!
I also use the speed control as much as I can to listen to podcast at a higher speed so I can get through more of them. It doesn’t work with people who speak quickly though (not on my podcasts then!) but where it does work it’s really helpful. Oh, and it doesn’t work with Desert Island Discs unless you slow it back down for the music sections, for obvious reasons!
And finally, some ideas for when to listen to podcasts.
I listen when I’m walking – into town, through London, in the supermarket and anywhere where I’m on my own. It’s not very social or ‘in the moment’ if you’re with other people! I make sure I only have one ear piece in though so that I can hear what’s going on around me too – safety first.
I listen when I’m cooking and cleaning in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and all round the house and when I’m hanging out washing and doing other boring tasks!
The third place I listen is in my office when I’m doing mindless work like my accounts and stuff where I don’t need to concentrate on reading or writing.
I guess another option would be whilst in the bath but I like read then (but not on my iPhone!).
So, if you’ve not listened to podcasts before, hopefully this post has given you some ideas for when, where and what! Let me know what you end up listening to and which podcasts you recommend too. Enjoy!