Podcast Perspectives

In 2021 HubSpot made a surprising move to acquire The Hustle, a newsletter along with the My First Million podcast. The Hustle and MFM eventually became the base of what today is the HubSpot Podcast Network, an audio unit within HubSpot aimed at funneling sales towards their other more lucrative products. The network has greatly expanded over the last two years, today boasting dozens of shows and millions of monthly downloads.

One of the players helping the network’s meteoric growth is Sr. Growth Marketer Jonathan Barshop. On Twitter, Jonathan constantly shares the ways he’s growing the shows on the HubSpot Podcast Network– from relatively novel approaches like listener giveaways to tried-and-true cross-promotional strategies. 

On this episode Jonathan and I get deep into how he’s thinking about podcast growth. We also spend some time chatting about video podcasting, an area where HubSpot is seeing a lot of success.

To find more from Jonathan you can follow him on Twitter @bar5hop, where he shares some incredibly useful insights on podcast growth. 

I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro 



The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

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This year the podcasting giant iHeartMedia launched a new division called Ruby, which works exclusively to create and amplify podcasts for brands. To understand why iHeart made this move and what Ruby is up to, today I’m chatting with Ruby’s Director of Audience Development, Amber Smith.

Amber has an eclectic background in the audio world, working as a producer at SiriusXM and a manager of podcast partnerships at Pandora after SiriusXM acquired the platform, all before landing in audience development at iHeartMedia. Today, she works to grow iHeart’s branded content, which includes shows from huge companies like Max, IBM, Mattressfirm, and many more.

To learn more about what Ruby is doing you can visit their website ruby.iheart.com. You can find Amber on LinkedIn.

I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro 

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

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Evan Shapiro writes the newsletter “Media War and Peace” where he maps out the state of the media industry using data visualization models. He’s also a professor at NYU and used to work in podcast and television development at IFC Sundance and NBC Universal’s Seeso.

This background allows him to have a comprehensive view of the podcast industry from a global perspective, and how it’s situated in the broader media environment. It also allows him to know from experience how to make a successful and sustainable podcast. This all made for a really interesting conversation with Evan, where we unpack his career and what it’s taught him about the audio industry at large.

You can find more from Evan online at his Substack: Media War & Peace. He’s very active on LinkedIn, andmakes a podcast with his daughter, Jamie Shapiro, called Cancel Culture. 

I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro 

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need.

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

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In 2017 after stints at SiriusXM and Audacy, Chris Colbert founded his own podcast agency, DCP Entertainment. DCP defines itself as a media platform for underrepresented voices, including people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other overlooked communities. Fast forward to today and DCP works with some of the biggest brands in the world, including State Farm, Dell, Acast, and creates some of the largest shows in the industry.

In this episode, we chat with Chris about why he left his senior position at SiriusXM, the very concrete ways in which DCP elevates underrepresented voices in the podcast industry, and the ways that DCP is innovating in the podcast space. 

To learn more about DCP and what they’re working on you can visit them at www.dcpofficial.com. You can find Chris on LinkedIn where he is very active.

I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro 

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. 

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

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Is the podcast industry at the end of an era? The beginning of a new one? Or are we just seeing the natural ups and downs of a developing market? Today’s episode collects a panel of industry experts to weigh in on this discourse by taking a step back and looking at the entire podcast industry through its past, present, and future.

The panel includes:

– Amrita Khalid, reporter at The Verge and writer at Hot Pod, one of the largest newsletters covering the audio industry.

– Alex Goldman, formerly a producer and co-host of Gimlet’s Reply All, now a freelancer spending a lot of time thinking and writing about the state of the industry.

– Rachael King, CEO and founder of Pod People, a full-service podcast production agency.

Jeff is on all the socials @JeffUmbro 

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. 

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

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The Washington Post’s Lillian Cunningham produced, wrote, and hosted one of the Washington Post’s first podcasts: Presidential, a series about the history of the American presidents. Despite the show being Lillian and The Post’s first audio project, it was an immediate hit. Since then, Lillian has gone on to produce and host three more narrative series for The Post, including Constitutional, Moonrise, and most recently Field Trip, a series about the messy past and uncertain future of America’s national parks.

In this episode, Jeff speaks with Lillian about Field Trip and how she goes about telling the sweeping stories, how The Post’s audio unit has developed since Presidential, and the current landscape of history podcasting. As a bonus, we also hear some audio from a 2017 interview Jeff conducted with Lillian for another podcast. 

To find more from Lillian, you can go to her website https://lilliancunningham.com or find her podcasts Presidential, Constitutional, Moonrise, and Field Trip wherever you get your podcasts. I’m on Twitter @JeffUmbro

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to bring a popular show to the next level, we offer what you need. 

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

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In 2017 Russell Weissman joined All Things Comedy as an early employee, and was recently promoted to COO. He’s been a key figure in guiding the company’s growth. Today All Things Comedy is one of the largest podcast networks in the world, and by any measure can be considered a media company that spans well beyond podcasting. And yet! They still maintain the original indie / co-op foundation the company was founded on.

Russell and I cover a lot of ground in this conversation, including All Things Comedy’s approach to working with artists and developing IP, how to develop a brand identity for a media network with dozens of shows, and the current role podcasting plays in the lives of comedians.

To learn more about All Things Comedy you can find them at allthingscomedy.com. You can reach out to Russell on LinkedIn.

I’m on all the socials @JeffUmbro 

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or a seasoned podcaster, we offer what you need. 

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2017 Bradley Davis and a small team founded Podchaser, a company that has since become a leading database for podcast discovery – it’s widely been called the “IMDB of podcasting.”

Jeff and Bradley discuss Podchaser’s use-cases for podcast listeners and producers, the so-called “podcast discovery problem,” and Acast’s 2022 acquisition of the startup.

You can learn more about Podchaser at https://www.podchaser.com/ and find Bradley on Twitter @beradleydavis.

Jeff is on social @JeffUmbro

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to bring a popular show to the next level, we offer what you need. 

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently there’s been a lot of chatter around the public radio in podcasting discourse. Joining Jeff to break it all down is Rebecca Lavoie, Director of On-Demand Audio at New Hampshire Public Radio. Rebecca has been with NHPR for 10 years, but is also familiar with the commercial side of the industry through her work with Netflix and Partners in Crime Media, the audio company she runs with her husband.

Rebecca breaks down how the public radio space works: how stations make money, their relationship with NPR, and most importantly: why they might be uniquely positioned to make industry-leading podcasts.

You can find Rebecca @reblavoie on Twitter or check out The 13th Step and Bear Brook Season 2 wherever you get your podcasts.

Jeff is on all socials @JeffUmbro

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to bring a popular show to the next level, we offer what you need.

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many, “B2B podcasting” conjures up some bleak images: 45-minute pitches on a vaguely defined product, buzzword-filled conversations in an exec-filled Zoom call, or the dreaded infomercial-style podcast. Here to change that is today’s guest, Harry Morton. In 2017, Harry founded Lower Street Media, a podcast services company for enterprise companies, agencies and startups. Lower Street produces award-winning podcasts for brands of all sizes.

Jeff and Harry chat about what actually makes podcasts an effective marketing tool, the lessons he’s learned from traditional narrative shows, and how Lower Street markets itself in a crowded landscape of podcast agencies. 

You can find Harry @podcastharry on Twitter or on LinkedIn where he’s very active.

Jeff is on all socials @JeffUmbro

Looking for more actionable podcast strategies after today's episode?

Check out The Podglomerate's free resources:

The Podglomerate offers production, distribution, and monetization services for dozens of new and industry-leading podcasts. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to bring a popular show to the next level, we offer what you need. 

To find more about The Podglomerate:

– Show Page and Transcript: https://listen.podglomerate.com/show/podcast-perspectives

– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Podglomeratepods

– Email: [email protected]

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podglomerate

– Twitter: @podglomerate

– Instagram: @podglomeratepods

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices