Foundr Journal publishes in-depth interviews with the world’s biggest entrepreneurs. Our articles spotlight key takeaways from every month’s difficulty. We talked with Max Cutler, founding father of Parcast and former Spotify government, about what’s subsequent for podcasting. To learn extra, subscribe to the journal.
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In 2011, podcasting was an rising medium. In 2016, there have been 300,000 podcasts. This yr, there are 5 million.
Everybody with a distinct segment pastime, enterprise, or model appears to be podcasting. If you wish to make a stranger’s day, stroll as much as them and say, “I really like your podcast.”
Does this imply podcasting is oversaturated? Is it too late to start out? And if in case you have one, how do you stand out amongst a crowd of celebrities and networks pouring thousands and thousands into the medium?
We propose listening to Max Cutler.
Cutler is the founding father of true crime podcast community Parcast and Spotify’s former head of discuss creator content material. He grew to become a podcast pioneer when he bootstrapped Parcast, which offered to Spotify in 2019 for $55 million. As a Spotify government, he signed and produced a number of the hottest podcasting personalities, together with Alex Cooper, Brené Brown, Emma Chamberlain, and Joe Rogan.
Within the spring of 2023, he introduced he was leaving Spotify to return to his old flame—entrepreneurship. However he’s nonetheless obtained loads of recommendation for anybody searching for to create a profitable podcast.
For starters, Cutler says, “It’s [about] being genuine. It’s very exhausting to misinform an viewers. And the podcasts which have tried to be somebody they’re not have a tendency to return and go fairly shortly.”
What Makes a Podcast Host Profitable?
Throughout Cutler’s four-year tenure at Spotify, he helped handle record-breaking unique offers with expertise, together with Joe Rogan, Brené Brown, Emma Chamberlain, and Name Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper.
He knew Spotify’s attain was incomparable to what he may have achieved alone at Parcast. “The flexibility to … assist affect expertise, to assist construct one thing particular at a world scale was actually interesting to me,” Cutler says.
In response to Cutler, three attributes make a chat podcast host compelling:
- Intimacy: Do your listeners really feel like your greatest mates?
- Chemistry: Are you able to discover a cohost or producer with a longtime rapport?
- Authenticity: Are you able to stay true to your self and communicate truthfully?
“I feel the most important errors which were made in podcasting within the final three or 4 years is executives going after present Hollywood expertise, for instance, or present expertise in different media and pitching them on a podcast,” Cutler says.
He explains that simply because somebody has a following doesn’t imply it should translate to the medium or the expertise can be dedicated to creating the very best present. Cutler says that is very true if a podcast is only a “line merchandise” of their work they usually don’t need podcasting to be their main supply of revenue. Cutler says,
“It’s not the dimensions. It’s not the famous person. It’s the engagement; it’s the ardour.”
Ardour is one thing that may be contained, not quelled. Even after all of the megadeals and development at Spotify, it was his ardour for entrepreneurship that saved calling for Cutler.
What’s Subsequent in Podcasting?
In February 2023, Spotify introduced that Cutler would go away the corporate within the spring. The transfer ushered in a possibility for Cutler to launch a brand new firm—an choice he’d foreseen since Parcast was acquired.
“I knew that earlier than I obtained to Spotify,” Cutler says. “I leaned into Spotify after I was there. I realized a lot from so many wonderful folks and was in a position to develop a staff of a whole bunch of individuals globally and set to work with one of the best expertise on the earth. And all these experiences are going to permit me to achieve success in my subsequent enterprise. Plain and easy.”
Cutler thinks it’s good to know your objectives—irrespective of your age or expertise as an entrepreneur.
“You actually have to consider your long-term aim as a result of when you promote, it’s performed. And so you must be comfy with that call,” Cutler says.
What Cutler missed about entrepreneurship was the velocity.
“The benefits small firms have [are] round velocity and decision-making and with the ability to transfer actually shortly and adapt to issues which might be working,” Cutler says. “I feel if you’re at a bigger firm, naturally issues have to maneuver small, transfer slightly slower as a result of [there are] much more decision-makers.”
Returning to entrepreneurship permits Cutler to ponder the subsequent evolution in podcasting. If Cutler have been advising somebody who needed to begin a podcast in 2023, he would deal with making a present that’s resourceful fairly than entertaining.
“I’d take into consideration producing content material as a utility that was most likely day by day or … twice per week, that needed to turn into an plain a part of someone’s day,” Cutler says.
Cutler advises that beginning a podcast as we speak is greater than turning on the mics and speaking.
“You need to construct for the subsequent model of media and the subsequent model of the trendy media,” Cutler says.
He explains that trendy media firms should curate content material, advertisements, fan group, and ecommerce right into a expertise, way of life, or model.
“Whenever you’re pondering of that perspective, the podcast serves to steer the content material, to set the tone, to set who you’re, to set your identification on the market, to construct a connection, which then results in your group,” Cutler says.
If you happen to’re an entrepreneur, Cutler believes you have got a possibility to start out a podcast firm or media firm as we speak as a result of there’s a saturation of normalcy. He says that in podcasting and enterprise, developments have a breaking level the place every thing seems and feels the identical. As an entrepreneur, that’s when it’s good to strike.
“If everyone’s going proper, you have to be going left. That’s how I’ve at all times made my success,” Cutler says.
“Everyone appears to be very anxious, and anytime there are macroeconomic points happening, anytime there’s disruption taking place, that’s an enormous alternative for an entrepreneur to enter that house.”
Cutler describes himself as an entrepreneur turned creator turned government. However since he began Parcast, tales have guided his each transfer.
“The best way you discuss, the way in which you inform your factor, it must be story-focused. You should take your traders or whoever your viewers is on an journey, on a narrative,” Cutler says. “And most necessary, it’s good to be genuine to your self. I feel any sensible investor or potential consumer, they’ll know in the event you’re simply pushing a product. They’ll know if it’s probably not you.”
As with all engaging crime podcast, you’ll should tune in to listen to what’s subsequent in Cutler’s entrepreneurship story.
What Makes a Podcast Profitable?
- Intimacy: Make your listeners really feel like your greatest mates.
- Chemistry: Discover cohosts who’ve an off-air connection.
- Premium: Make story-driven content material that may be binged.
- 360° Method: Market your podcast content material throughout your model’s platforms.
- Utility: Change into an plain a part of someone’s day
- Don’t Half-A** It: You probably have a podcast, make it a fixture in your online business.
