Do We Have Fans featuring Priscilla Brooke

Transcript

Rob Dwyer (00:01.934)
Hey everyone, if my voice sounds different, it's because Logitech G-Hub sucks. Welcome to Next in Queue. Today Priscilla Brooke, who is happy to help, but she was unable to help me fix my technical problems. I don't understand how that works. Hi Priscilla, how are you?

Priscilla (00:22.189)
I can't believe you're starting it off by throwing me under the bus.

Rob Dwyer (00:25.196)
right out of the gate, directly under the bus. All the wheels of the bus go round and round right over you. Priscilla, I would only do this because you're the Head of Podcaster Success at Buzzsprout. I am a podcaster. I feel like I'm not having success right now because of this mic issue.

Priscilla (00:49.455)
But are you a Buzzsprout podcaster?

Rob Dwyer (00:52.331)
No!

I knew there was a problem.

Priscilla (00:56.783)
That's where you went wrong right from the beginning.

Rob Dwyer (01:01.506)
You're right. You're right. I am a failure. It is. And my assumption, and we'll get into this, but my assumption is that you don't do like tech support for hardware that podcasters are using, or does that happen?

Priscilla (01:03.896)
you

No, no. Technology is hard sometimes.

Priscilla (01:26.393)
So, you know, at Buzzsprout and on the podcaster success team, our goal is to make podcasters who use Buzzsprout successful, right? That's the baseline there. And so if that means learning a little bit about the mics they're using and helping them troubleshoot some microphone issues, we definitely will try to do anything we can, even if it's not directly in the Buzzsprout realm. With that said, I am not a microphone expert and

the brand you're using specifically, I don't have a ton of insight into. So it makes it kind of hard to troubleshoot things on the fly. But we do like to offer that kind of support to things outside of the Buzzsprout realm when we can because all of it works together to make podcasting happen. And so you got to be able to help your podcasters even if it's not always specifically with your product.

Rob Dwyer (01:58.658)
Yeah, well.

Rob Dwyer (02:19.136)
You are truly happy to help them.

Priscilla (02:21.759)
I honestly am, yes. I love working in customer support. I think it's such a fun role to play. think part of that is because I'm in the podcasting industry, which is a really fun industry to be in. And so yeah, I am happy to help. And it's not just a fun name for the podcast, even though it is a fun name for a podcast.

Rob Dwyer (02:24.716)
Love it.

Rob Dwyer (02:45.506)
It is absolutely okay. we've gone off the rails already. Let's get back on the rails. Let's just start with what is Buzzsprout? So I know what Buzzsprout is, but not everybody knows what Buzzsprout is. So let's just start there. What is Buzzsprout?

Priscilla (02:49.219)
Great.

Priscilla (02:57.208)
Yeah.

Priscilla (03:03.951)
Sure, so Buzzsprout is a podcast hosting company, service software that podcasters use kind of as their home base to get all of their content, their episodes up online, hosted in an RSS feed. And then we help podcasters get distributed all across different apps like Apple and Spotify and anywhere you find your podcast. A misconception is that the episode is uploaded to that

directory, but really it's just a directory and all of them look back to your RSS feed. And so we at Buzzsprout provide podcasters with that RSS feed and then a whole suite of tools to help them monetize and promote and grow their show over the length of their show. And so that's what we get to do all day on the podcaster success team is work with podcasters, help them figure out technical challenges, help them log into their account, encourage them on their podcasting journey. And it's a really

a really fun job.

Rob Dwyer (04:04.77)
Yes, it sounds amazing. And I'm glad that you brought up the RSS feed. think people who have not done a podcast maybe are considering doing a podcast. It is really important to understand that wherever you host, yes, that's where your podcast lives.

It still needs to get to all the other places and there's some effort that goes into getting all those other places to look and grab your RSS feed so that it can truly be in all the places people get their podcasts because people consume their podcasts in all kinds of different places.

Priscilla (04:48.653)
Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. I think it's one of the challenges in this industry, in the podcast, the podcasting industry is that technical education side of things, because there's definitely this sense of, it's funny. feel like I see it from different sides of the spectrum. Sometimes people are like, it's so technical. could never figure it out. And then there's people that are like, wait, why is this technical at all? All I want to do is share my story. And so.

You kind of have to find, you get people from both sides. And so you have to reassure the people who are scared of all the technical stuff that it's really not that hard because it's really not that hard. But there is a level of understanding that's necessary in order to really have a smooth launch process. One of the things at Buzzsprout that we care a lot about is making it easy. you know, we originally years and years and years ago were

Do you edit much on this podcast? Okay, I was gonna say, I don't know if I actually wanna say this part, so I'm just gonna skip it. But yeah, we care a lot about making podcasting really easy so that anyone who wants to do it can come in and successfully launch and really share their stories. That's really what podcasting is about. Share stories that inspire people and that can connect you with an audience of people that are gonna be, you know.

Rob Dwyer (05:47.606)
Thank you.

Skip it.

Priscilla (06:13.345)
in the same boat as you. And so it's really, we try to make it as easy as possible. That's really one of our main goals at Buzzsprout. And so the support team or the podcaster success team is really working alongside that for the ease of use, which is what we like to make sure we're doing.

Rob Dwyer (06:29.858)
Now you've been there for a while now, including what I think of as the before times.

Priscilla (06:34.124)
Yeah.

Priscilla (06:38.863)
I know. I have been here. So I have loved podcasting since 2011. I came across a podcast from NPR. think it was in 2011. It's called Pop Culture Happy Hour. And I fell in love with it. I mean, they talked about all things pop culture. I just loved it. That was the first podcast that I really loved. And

Then, you know, Serial came out. was already a big podcast fan at that point. And I felt very cool that I was already into podcasting before Serial came out. But in 2017 is when I joined Buzzsprout as their first full-time support person. And really podcasting just completely changed around that time and then into 2020 during the pandemic and everyone started podcasts. And now it's like.

If a celebrity doesn't have a podcast, then they're going to have one tomorrow. It's wild how many podcasts there are. And it's great. It's such a great way to tell stories. And so I love it. But yeah, it's been really fun for the last decade or so to, or I guess eight years to really see that growth and to be in the industry as it's growing. It's been a really fun ride.

Rob Dwyer (07:54.414)
Yeah, I have to imagine you talked about that explosion in 2020 and hey, I'll throw my hat in there, even though I didn't start in 2020, I started in 2021. But it certainly was a time when I think...

Priscilla (08:01.783)
Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (08:15.266)
People were trying to find new ways to connect because we were all so very disconnected and podcasting is one way you can do that. I wonder though, do you find in support, right? You're talking to all of these podcasters, some of whom have been doing this for years and maybe they've got tons of episodes under their belt. And then I imagine a lot who are

Priscilla (08:21.837)
Yeah.

Priscilla (08:38.702)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Dwyer (08:45.292)
just kind of getting started. You find that people are disillusioned a little bit when they start and they don't have, you know, a million downloads right out of the gate because that's rare, right?

Priscilla (09:04.011)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely have people who expect that podcasting is going to be their moneymaker, right? And they go, I'm quitting my job. I'm starting my podcast tomorrow. I'm really excited. Help me make money. And you go, man, you know, if you and it's funny, we have been telling podcasters this since my first day on the job. If you are starting a podcast with

the goal to make money and become famous, you should not. That is not going to happen for you. And I don't mean it in a way that's like, you know, so sad you're not gonna be popular. I really mean it in the reality of, I think it's like the top 1 % are the ones that are making enough money to live off of. The other 99 % of podcasters are doing it, one, because they're passionate about what they're talking about. They love whatever it is, like,

whether they have a community of 2,000 people that are listening to their podcasts, that's a huge, if you look at the podcasting numbers, having that many listeners consistently is huge. You're already leaps and bounds ahead of the average. And so I really think when you have someone new that comes in who wants that, you have to kind of...

Adjust their expectations and say listen if you're going into this because you want to have thousands of downloads every episode You might get there. I don't want to Disappoint you or tell you not to do this because you might get there But that can't be the driver that can't be the reason you're doing it the reason you're podcasting has to be because you care about the content that you're creating One because those numbers are not going to come right away And so you're gonna have to do it without the numbers and be okay with that

And then the other thing is that after five episodes, you can't run out of stuff to talk about. And a lot of people are like, I want to start a podcast about this very niche thing. And it's like, that's great. If you can't talk about that for more than a couple hours, you're going to be falling off after episode seven because you are running out of things to talk about. And so we really try to encourage our podcasters like define that why and

Priscilla (11:21.161)
make sure that your motivation is not fully based on the numbers. There are so many other things that you can look to that can encourage you to podcast and it can be your audience. It can be the content, but just looking at the numbers, the download numbers, that's never gonna be enough to get you to create quality content week after week, episode after episode.

Rob Dwyer (11:46.304)
In my experience, my background is in contact center and there is no business that looks at KPIs like contact centers. And what I hear you saying is don't let downloads be your KPI when you're podcasting. Otherwise it will crush your soul.

Priscilla (12:05.357)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it will. It's true. You can't let downloads be the driver. Just like you can't let CSAT scores be the only way that you measure success in your support. They can't be the only thing because you don't, someone might be having a terrible day and you give them really great service and they give you a bad score because they're having a bad day and it doesn't have to do with your service and you can't let that be the thing that you measure all of your value on.

Rob Dwyer (12:36.174)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Okay, one thing I want to talk about, because I find it a little bit ironic. You are also the host of a podcast called Happy to Help, the Buzzsprout support podcast. It's kind of new. Why now? Why, why?

Priscilla (12:44.514)
Okay.

Priscilla (12:48.803)
Yes.

Priscilla (13:02.625)
Why now? Yeah, so we launched about a year ago and it's something that I had been thinking about and talking about with our with the partners at Buzzsprout for a little while. And really, I think the reason we decided to go ahead and launch it was because our support that we offer our podcasters felt very unique in that.

We really cared about our podcasters. We really care about them as humans, as people. And when I was looking at other support teams at the time, a couple of years ago, that's not what I was seeing is this real, true care for people. the motivator behind the work you're doing being that you care about someone that you want to make them happy. was so much more focused on those metrics and focused on, you know, getting in and out and response times and all of that.

And so I really thought, you know, we have this really unique way of offering support and I want to share that with people. And I also selfishly want to learn from other leaders in the space who are doing support the way that we're doing support. And I feel very strongly that we, a lot of people would respond to our support over at Buzzsprout support and say, my gosh, you guys are like.

this is such a breath of fresh air, right, to experience this great support. And I'd like, man, I hate that. I hate that you're not experiencing this every single time you need help. Like, come on, why is that not happening? And so part of the reasoning for starting the podcast was my hope that it will help with everyone else who is also talking about this to elevate the standard of support that we're offering.

as an industry, as the support industry, so that that becomes the expectation is that you're gonna get a great service and not the exception is that you're gonna get great service. And so that's really why we launched Happy to Help. I also really love the idea that we really are happy to help people and I hire people for my team who love people and are excited and happy to support and help people. And I think that

Priscilla (15:22.167)
That's kind of where the name came from, but I like the idea of looking at the joy of customer support and realizing the cool thing we get to do, which is positively impact people's days every single day.

Rob Dwyer (15:36.246)
Yeah, I, I love it. It's funny because your podcast name and our company name Happitu very much in the same vein of that. We're happy to help that mindset that comes. And it really is a mindset that you need to hire for as opposed to the skill set that often it's.

Priscilla (15:58.882)
Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (16:05.558)
It's hard to put that mindset on a resume.

Priscilla (16:09.207)
Yes, it really is. it's, and honestly, if you're trying to hire and grow your team quickly, it's hard to find people that fit that consistently and can do the work that's required because really you do need those technical skills. You do need those writing skills, but the soft skills that you're talking about that makes someone really excited and passionate about doing this kind of work is harder to find. And so it means

a little bit probably longer in the hiring process and being more intentional about how you're reviewing people to find that quality, which can be hard to find.

Rob Dwyer (16:47.394)
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so I have a question about you're a year into this your own podcast journey. What have you found to be the surprising thing about doing this that either you didn't expect or has been harder than you anticipated?

Priscilla (16:55.298)
Yeah.

Priscilla (17:09.665)
Yeah. So I think the thing that struck me right off the bat, this was about a year ago when we were launching, putting it in perspective, I've worked in podcasting at this point for seven years. This is, you know, last year. I have a producer that I'm working with, so I'm not doing all of the editing. So I've got someone really helping me on the technical side. I work for a company that does podcasting. So we have a studio, we have all of the equipment. So literally I am in the

easiest position to start a podcast and it was so hard. And I don't mean it was hard like I couldn't figure out the technical stuff like it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I was gonna have to sit down and share my thoughts in a recorded way and then have that pushed out and the vulnerability of it. That's what was hard for me in the beginning. So all of those other things like

I remember thinking, this is gonna be a challenge, it's new, I'm have to figure this out. But I didn't realize how vulnerable I was gonna feel pushing publish on that first episode, even with all those things in place. And I think it really has helped me to empathize even more with the podcasters who write into Buzzsprout and say things like,

I've just, I'm so nervous about this first episode because before I would say, don't be nervous. It's this great. You're going to get better. It is one thing to tell someone else that it is another thing to feel that and to go, my gosh, I have to push this out. And then I have to tell all of my coworkers that it's live. And so they're all going to listen to it. And then I have to go and promote it to my friends and family. then I have to, and then I have to go and promote it to strangers. And that is.

can be very scary. And I think that was something I didn't expect to feel and felt it really strongly. And then we were just talking about those numbers. When I didn't see numbers showing up immediately, I was like, my gosh, no one's listening. no, I have nothing important to say. No one cares about what I'm saying. And that imposter syndrome really did a number on me in the beginning. And luckily I have a really great group.

Priscilla (19:33.175)
of people here at Buzzsprout who are very encouraging. But it really, again, made me realize that if you are a solo podcaster and you don't have that support system telling you, hey, you're doing great work. This is great content. The stats will come. The downloads will come. You will grow. If you don't have that encouragement, it can be really hard to get past two or three episodes. And I think those were kind of the big things in the beginning there that kind of struck me as, I see the value now.

even more of having a team of people like the Buzzsprout Support Team there to encourage you with each episode that you publish because it can be so isolating, especially if you don't have a producer and a co-host and all the things that I was luckily able to have. It's so important to have that team of people and I love the fact that the Buzzsprout Support Team can be that team of people for our podcasters.

So if someone needs some encouragement and they're like, man, I'm just feeling, I'm feeling like I'm at the end of this and I don't know if I can keep going. And they know they can reach out to us and we will listen to their episodes, give them feedback, help them out. I think that that value that we offer became so much more real when I was feeling it myself.

Rob Dwyer (20:51.5)
Yeah, it is.

For anyone who has not sat in this seat behind a microphone and done this, whether, and I would say even guesting on a podcast is very different than hosting a podcast. Guesting on a podcast is easy. It really is. It feels like you're in the hot seat a little bit until you host a podcast and then you go, no, this is the hot seat, right? I'm the one who needs to facilitate

Priscilla (20:59.107)
Mm-hmm.

Priscilla (21:08.396)
Absolutely.

Priscilla (21:21.763)
Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (21:25.136)
facilitate this conversation. need to I need to be the type of person that asks questions to make the other person sound smart and look smart and get there. They have insights, right? I may need to kind of yank them out of some guess some guess you don't you don't have to anything. They know what they're doing and and they're happy. They're "Happitu" talk.

Priscilla (21:27.907)
Mm-hmm.

Priscilla (21:37.828)
Right?

Priscilla (21:44.984)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. There you go.

Rob Dwyer (21:53.1)
And they're happy to help you along that journey, but it is really hard.

If you also include video in your podcast, which I have done since the very beginning, because my intention was I wanted the video for social media. wanted the clips that adds even more to that vulnerability that you're talking about. And I think.

Priscilla (22:06.67)
Mm-hmm.

Priscilla (22:22.424)
It really does.

Rob Dwyer (22:26.592)
It's difficult to hear our own voice when we listen to it back recorded. And then it's even like it's take that times 10 when you're watching yourself on video and you're like,

Priscilla (22:32.835)
Yeah.

Priscilla (22:38.031)
I can't do it. I'll tell you right now. I won't watch this video version. I'll listen to it. I've gotten to the point where I can listen to myself, you know, but I probably won't watch it. can't. I agree with you. It's another level of that vulnerability to put your face physically on the content.

Rob Dwyer (23:00.76)
Yeah, absolutely. And right now everybody's using high def cameras and the recording quality is so good that it almost can feel invasive and being able to just get past your own insecurities, whether it comes to communicating about things that you're passionate about and know about, or whether it just means I'm...

Priscilla (23:08.524)
Yep.

Priscilla (23:13.359)
Mm.

Rob Dwyer (23:28.684)
I'm okay with being on camera. I've actually had guests who said, you know what, it's not really for me because I am comfortable with the audio portion, but I don't want to be on camera. And I get that. really do. So you talked about this variety of people that you've had to work with. And I wonder from a support standpoint,

Priscilla (23:39.405)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (23:55.512)
who's more challenging to work with? The people who are really tech savvy or the people who are, for lack of a better term, pretty clueless when it comes to the tech and really just wanna get that story out there.

Priscilla (24:09.027)
Mm-hmm.

Priscilla (24:15.311)
That's a hard question because for me what it comes down to is so much less about where your level of understanding is and your approach to the problem and to following troubleshooting questions, right? So you might have someone who has no technical understanding and they write in and they expect you to solve a problem in one email, but it's a bigger technical issue than that. And so you have to troubleshoot.

but they don't wanna troubleshoot, they just want it solved. That is hard, but then you have the same mentality in someone who's super technical, right? And they also are like, just solve it, I don't wanna, and so I think that's the hardest person to work with is the person who expects that immediate solution to something that's more complicated and that more information is needed, you know?

And so I think that's harder. I don't think it relates more to the level of knowledge. It's more the type of person that's writing into us and the type, you know, that personality of, you know, take this and solve this. You have to fix this. And I think a lot of times the reason that someone comes at support with that mentality is because they expect to not have a good experience. And so they're coming to it going, like, I'm already mad at you because I,

already know how this is gonna go. And so that's the harder thing to work. It's like you're working out of a deficit at that point because you've already started in the hole and now you have to figure out how to convince them, one, that this is gonna be good experience and to get them to help you help them type of thing. But there's challenges that come with the person who has no technical knowledge. But if they're eager to learn and if they...

recognize that they're starting from ground zero, then we can teach you the technical. It's not that difficult. luckily, our marketing team builds a ton of really wonderful resources for podcasters to get started. So we have so many videos, so many articles that will walk you step by step through the technical stuff. So as long as you're willing to do a little bit of the work to learn it, we can.

Priscilla (26:32.451)
be with you every step of the way and teach you anything you need to know about podcasting. And then on the other side, you'll have super technical people that write in. And we have a team of people who love podcasting and that are pretty knowledgeable in the technical side. But in the support team, our technical knowledge has a limit. And so there's definitely an aspect of, hey, if you're willing to like sit with me while we troubleshoot things, then this is great. And

If I need to, I'm gonna pull in someone with that technical understanding that's gonna help you get to where you are because you're so much higher than where we are. As long as you are willing to like accept the humanity of like we're humans who are trying our best, then it's great. It's when you have people who write in who don't, who are like, you need to solve this and you kind of wanna go, okay, but I'm a human person. I need to get a little bit information in order to solve this for you. That's where it gets a little bit more difficult.

It's much more personality and much less level of technical knowledge.

Rob Dwyer (27:34.542)
I has that those people that don't necessarily acknowledge the humanity on the other end has the volume or the percentage

Priscilla (27:43.598)
Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (27:49.95)
of that type of inquiry changed over time. And the reason that I asked this, I'll just couch this for you, is I'm curious as we move toward more and more automated solutions, not necessarily in your organization, but in organizations across the globe, we see whether it's chat bots, kind of the traditional chat bots, all of the automated solutions that are out there. But now with

Priscilla (28:08.067)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Dwyer (28:19.854)
and AI type of chatbots and even voice bots. I wonder if people are starting to have different expectations when they reach out for help and if that's changing attitudes. Do you see that or is it pretty consistent?

Priscilla (28:40.911)
I that I'm a little, I think that we are in an interesting spot at Buzzsprout. I have always kind of felt like our podcasters, our customers are the best customers, right? So we definitely have people who are frustrating come in upset and have that, a more negative starting point. We definitely have that for the most part.

I think we have the best customers in the world because they are so kind and they are so understanding and they work with us. And so I want to acknowledge that I think I'm coming from a place that is not naturally where people are coming from. I think that over the years, I feel like I see that expectation of the service to be higher. feel like in the beginning there were more, it was much more.

acceptable for someone to come in kind of like with these low expectations, they'd get a mediocre response and they'd be okay with that and you'd move on and it wasn't a big issue. I think now expectations are a little bit higher when it comes to the personal aspect. And I think when you talk about chat bots and just AI and the way that that's starting to, and it really has always, but really is starting to like.

get into the support world. I think the thing that I see is that people are even more blown away when they have the personal conversation. And so they expect, man, I have to email this team. Like we don't have a chat bot right now. It's all email based. And so people expect it to be a 24 hour turnover. my gosh. And so they write in and they go, OK, I'm going to get some AI response. And then we respond.

And they're like, whoa, they responded. This is a real person. They noticed this about my podcast and they pointed it out. Now I know that I'm talking to a real person. think that is that like ability to blow people away when you have, it's like that relational side of it. The value is so much higher now when there's the understanding that a lot of people are using AI as they should as a tool to help their, like help them offer a better experience. But

Priscilla (31:03.849)
really leaning into that personal side of support and like I said, making sure that people know you care about them and showing that you're happy to be doing this job and going out of your way for that relational side, that has such a huge impact even more now than it did seven years ago before AI was ever a part of the conversation.

Rob Dwyer (31:28.93)
Yeah.

It always strikes me when I know a detail about one of our customers business that they just don't expect me to know. And it comes up in conversation. They're like, wow, how did you know that? you know, I do pay attention. I do care. I want you to be successful. And you can tell just by the sound of their voice.

Priscilla (31:41.518)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Dwyer (31:59.826)
or look on their face like, that's unexpected. And I know that it builds that relationship that we have that becomes more than just this transactional, we're a vendor, you use us for X, Y, or Z. No, no, it becomes.

Priscilla (32:04.109)
Yeah.

Priscilla (32:15.438)
Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (32:22.892)
becomes I like to work with this person and they happen to provide this solution. So 100 % agree with you. I think some companies, however, are losing sight of that and would do well to remember it's about relationships.

Priscilla (32:29.262)
Yeah.

Priscilla (32:39.128)
Yeah.

Priscilla (32:46.223)
And the relationship aspect of it is what's gonna push your support and the experience to the remarkable, excellent level. You can have really solid support that you offer someone and not have that relationship side of it and give it like a really good service. You definitely can, but what's gonna make that service excellent, remarkable, the thing that's gonna make people wanna tell other people about using your product?

that's the relational, at least that's how I feel about it and what I see in my work with Buzzsprout. And I think, you you were saying that like knowing little information, like knowing information about your clients and you know, we work with 120,000 podcasters. So it's hard to always know information, but you can, you know, go look at their podcast, get a little idea of what they like and let that be part of the conversation. And in turn, you can let them know about you. We, you know, we...

in all of our emails, you you have a line for your job description. Most places would say like, OK, senior support specialist, that's what you put there. And for us, we don't do job descriptions. We do personality descriptions in there. So, you know, we have a guy on the team who's a huge fan of the Denver Nuggets. And so his job description is currently obsessing over the Denver Nuggets. And you'll be surprised how many people bring that up to him.

They see it and they go, my gosh, I'm a huge Clippers fan. Did you watch the game the other day? I don't even know if those two teams usually play each other. I'm not a big basketball person, but it is, it's so cool to see that. And, and we don't go, other than adding it into our, you know, our job description line, it's not something that we go out of our way to bring up, but people will bring it up to us. And we have someone who's, is based in Colorado and does a lot of skiing. And so she's.

hers has something to do with being a ski slopes dominator. And the amount of conversations she'll get in to with a podcaster about, I went skiing at this place last week, or I love to go to this spot. we went there last week. It really builds that relationship. And then when that podcaster runs into an issue with their podcast, they go, I know that Kate,

Priscilla (35:04.505)
the girl who loves to ski in Colorado is gonna be able to help me. So I'm gonna reach out to Kate and she's on my team. Like I know her. And I think that there is, especially within podcasting, because it's such a solo sport in so many ways, having that connection with the people who are using your service really does strengthen that bond. And you do it because you care about people and you want them to feel understood.

The benefit is that they don't want to leave your product because then they're leaving their team. They are leaving Brian who loves the nuggets and Kate who loves to ski. And it's like, I don't want to leave those people because of this other company that has this new shiny thing or whatever, because the support I'm getting here is so relationship, so relationship focused. So I really think it's a huge thing that just changes your support from being good to being remarkable and being excellent.

Rob Dwyer (36:03.822)
Well, I can't agree more. And to Brian, I'm just going to say, I hope you guys find a GM and a coach. So sorry. But I am not a Nuggets fan, but I'm a Christian Braun fan because I to KU and I'm a KU fan. So I do pay attention to the Nuggets and I do hope that you.

Priscilla (36:10.7)
I know. We talked about that yesterday.

Rob Dwyer (36:27.15)
team gets this figured out wild that you just fired a coach who won a championship a couple years ago.

Priscilla (36:31.071)
Yeah, I don't know much about it, but I did hear about it yesterday and it seems pretty wild. I, my family, we're Mavericks fans, specifically Luka Dondžić fans. And so that was a pretty hard one for us to deal with a couple of months ago. So now my Lakers fan, I don't know.

Rob Dwyer (36:47.092)
I don't know how anyone is a Mavericks fan at this point. Like, that was wildest thing that's ever happened.

Priscilla (36:50.895)
We were watching the game last night where the Lakers went and played the Mavericks for the first time in Dallas. And it was emotional. It was emotional, for sure.

Rob Dwyer (37:07.842)
those of you who don't follow sports, I'm sorry that this devolved into a conversation about basketball, but your point about that personal connection, I have said this for...

since even before I started the podcast, but certainly people know my background. So if you're watching the, if you watch the video version of this or you see the clips, you see my background, it's the same background I have anytime I meet someone new, whether it's on Teams or Zoom or whatever. And I guarantee you,

eight out of 10 times, we will first have a conversation about what's behind me. And that becomes number one, memorable. And number two, there's this instant association that happens with that. So that association makes you

Priscilla (37:53.199)
you

Rob Dwyer (38:12.044)
makes you more memorable because now it's one of those tricks that has to do with like remembering names, right? Lots of people will talk about the struggle to remember names and there are some tricks, but they're really strategies that go into remembering someone's name. And it's part of really creating those neural pathways in your brain that says, when I see this face, I know I'm talking to Priscilla or whomever.

Priscilla (38:18.819)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Dwyer (38:41.952)
And you can really hack that way that our minds work by creating something memorable about yourself, whether it's that you're obsessing over your favorite sports team or that you've spent a ridiculous amount of money on LEGO Star Wars or whatever it is, but it helps create an emotional

Priscilla (39:03.695)
Yeah.

Rob Dwyer (39:09.966)
connection with people who either share that same passion or share something adjacent to that passion where they can understand it. And it just makes us more human. Like that's, that's an important.

Priscilla (39:21.059)
Yeah, it humanizes us. think that's the thing that, you know, I think a lot of times, especially now in this society that we're in, so much of everything we do, work related or not, is transactional. So what can I do for you? What can you do for me? And how can we make this an even split or a split so that I'm benefiting from this transaction? And it's a tough one because there is so much more.

to us as human beings than what we can offer each other in that way of what I can do to benefit you and vice versa. And there's so many things that make me up who I am beyond this one little niche. And so I think, you what you're saying about being able to see from just this image that you are a Star Wars fan is helps me understand who you are more, which allows me to empathize with you more.

It allows me to be more patient with you. We always tell people when they're starting on the Buzzsprout support team, if you're having a hard time being patient with someone who you're working with, imagine that they're your mom. Because you can be more patient with your mom. If your mom is trying to learn something technical, you're going to be a little bit more patient with her because you know her. But Sally, writes in, who might be the same age as your mom, the same technical background, it's going to be harder to be patient with her because you don't know her.

And so we always say, think about it as someone that you know. It's easier to empathize and be patient and be kind with people when you know a little bit more about what makes them up. And so it's kind of a strategy for us in a way to include that because it humanizes us to our customers and says, hey, I am a human and my job is to help you and give you a really good experience. And if you remember that I'm a human person and not a robot,

Hopefully you'll have a little grace for me because I'm gonna mess up. It's gonna happen, we're humans. And we all know that we've spoken out of turn or we've said something that wasn't exactly accurate or whatever in an email. And the times when people have grace for that is so nice. But the times that they don't is really hard. And so I think sometimes you have to find those boundaries and say, hey, I'm a human person. I'm really trying my best here.

Priscilla (41:43.033)
have a little grace with me. And sometimes you don't have to get to that point if you can humanize yourself before it gets to that place. And so I love that you have the, think that our first conversation when we first met, the first thing I said was something about the Star Wars because we had that same replica in my office because my boss is a huge Star Wars fan and his little personality description is a troubleshooting Jedi. So it's great.

Rob Dwyer (42:10.606)
I love it. If there is nothing that you take away from this episode, this is the strategy people. Change your titles in outgoing emails from your support team to something that they love and humanizes them. think it's just a wonderful strategy. You mentioned, what was it? 120,000 podcasts. Okay, here's what I want to know.

Priscilla (42:35.35)
Yes. Yeah.

Priscilla (42:40.111)
Okay.

Rob Dwyer (42:41.068)
What's your favorite podcast that you've discovered through working in support at Buzzsprout, whether it was just word of mouth on your team, or you actually were working with that podcaster to help them on something. What's that podcast? It's time to give them a free shout out right now.

Priscilla (42:59.023)
Mm.

Priscilla (43:03.979)
It's tough, it's tough because we say so many, okay? There's so many of them. And the one that comes to mind is probably a little more popular, so I'm sorry that I'm not shouting out a super indie one, but I am a big fan of comedy and comedy podcasts. And one of my favorite comedians is Paul F. Tompkins. I think he is just a genius when it comes to comedy.

And he and his wife started a podcast in the, in the pandemic called Stay F. Homekins because they were home all the time. And I worked with them a little bit in the beginning to help them get going. His wife was really pushing, the podcast and starting it and launching it. And so I worked with her a little bit and that's how I discovered that it was happening in the first place is because she reached out to our support team. And so that really, when I think of like,

a show that I discovered and really fell in love with through support. That's the one I think of, Stay F. Homekins, and they're still doing episodes. So I highly recommend that you go and listen to it. They're just, it's a husband and wife after dinner podcast, and it's really just lovely, and they're so funny, and so it's so worth listening to. But it's amazing how many different shows you interact with.

And you start to realize that there are so, I mean, you can literally look up anything and you will find a podcast about it. And you will find someone who is passionate about that thing. And, you know, we were talking about that being the reason why you should start a show is because you are passionate about the topic that you're talking about. But you, is, it's encouraging. Sometimes it's a little weird. You're like, what, this is the thing that you want to talk about? But it's wonderful. And it gives people an outlet.

Rob Dwyer (44:52.06)
you

Priscilla (44:55.385)
to talk about the things they love and to find that community. It's kind of like Reddit, know, how you have, like, you can build these subreddits and have, find your community of people who like to talk about what you like to talk about. It's a similar idea with podcasting. You can find the thing you love and you can start to build your audience and then build this little community of people who all love the same thing you love. And it could be super niche.

You know, I'm a big Taylor Swift fan, so there's Taylor Swift podcasts that I listen to and love and feel like I'm friends with. And like I said, the comedy podcasts that I listen to, it really is like such a good way to connect with people. And sometimes a little bit like, you know, as a listener, you're like, I'm connecting with you. I feel like we're friends, but we're not friends. And you don't know me. So you have to be realistic about those boundaries. But I think that it really is such a cool way for connection. And

to find your people and to find that group of people that feel the way you feel about whatever it is that you love.

Rob Dwyer (45:56.834)
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like you really hit the nail on the head in kind of comparing this to Reddit, although podcasting certainly is not the same animal as Reddit. can go down a rabbit hole with any given Reddit post.

Priscilla (46:11.832)
No, it's not.

Right.

Rob Dwyer (46:18.104)
but it does allow you to dig deeper into things that matter to you or allow you to be a voice about things that matter to you. And I think all too often there are incredibly passionate, wise, knowledgeable people that could offer a voice.

And don't for some of the reasons that we already talked about, right? Imposter syndrome, not wanting to hear your own voice, not wanting to see yourself on camera, or simply not having the confidence to say what I have to say, what I think about on this topic matters or people will care about that.

Priscilla (46:53.368)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Dwyer (47:10.41)
And I do think that if you're considering starting a podcast, just do it. Be thoughtful about it, but just do it. It's easier than you think.

Priscilla (47:21.709)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Dwyer (47:30.454)
I love it.

Priscilla (47:31.599)
That was a perfect way to end that talk. I agree with you 100%. There are so many. I just had this experience about a week ago. went to, I'm in Jacksonville, Florida. I'm based in Jacksonville and I love to go to our symphony, our Jacksonville symphony performances. And I went to an event last week where one of the music directors gave us a quick, probably a 45 minute talk about the pieces we were about to watch.

to the history of when they were written and who wrote them and where they were coming from and what led them to write certain things the certain ways and all the different movements and all of this. And it was a very cool informational little session before we walked into the actual auditorium and saw the actual show. And I thought this would be a great podcast to companion with or to be a companion.

to the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. And so I went up to him afterwards. I said, you need to start a podcast. That was so great. You already have the content. The rest of it's easy. The content is hard, but you can do this. And he said, well, I don't know. I don't know if I can. I don't know if I have. And I thought, you just sat and talked to us for 45 minutes and told us all of these details. And now you don't think it's important enough. You don't think that this is something new that anyone will listen to.

And I think it goes right back to what you were saying. You might feel like the things and the thoughts that you have are not important enough to share. But the reason you think that is because you've been thinking them. They're yours. They're in your head. You are familiar with them. So you don't think they're unique. The reality is other people don't know what you know. And you can share that with them. And that might make them look at something differently. It might make them

change the way that they approach a problem or change the way that they listen to symphony music. mean, there's, it's, think that so many of us get stuck in that, well, the thing I have to say is not that important. And it causes a lot of people to not want to do the vulnerable thing of sharing that. And I'm right there with you. If you feel passionate about something, do it. What's the worst that could happen? Start the podcast, do a handful of episodes.

Priscilla (49:55.819)
If you don't like it, you can stop. But you might find that it's really nice to organize your thoughts and to share them in an organized way. And then to have people react to that and feel like they are being inspired by you. And it's all that connection. We are very divided right now in our country, in the world, and sharing those stories and finding those levels of

similarities, that is what's going to bring us together. And so I think, like you were saying, just do it, just start it. There's no reason not to share your information, share your thoughts. They are going to impact people. And if you decide that you want to stop doing it, you can always stop.

Rob Dwyer (50:43.98)
When you start your podcast, because you just listened to Priscilla tell you to do it and you got inspired, make sure to let her know and connect with her on LinkedIn, like going down to the show notes, you know where they are. And when you're starting that podcast and you're like, I don't really know what I'm doing. It'd be great if I had some support. I imagine that Buzz Brow would be Happy to

Priscilla (50:54.211)
Yes.

Rob Dwyer (51:13.914)
Help you with that.

Priscilla (51:16.479)
Yes, absolutely. If you want to start a podcast, reach out to us. If you're not sure if you want to start a podcast, reach out to us. You can just email us at support@Buzzsprout.com. You can jump into my LinkedIn messages and I will be in touch with you there. But yeah, reach out to us. Let us answer your questions about it. mean, even if you're not sure and you just want to know a little bit more about what actually goes into making a podcast.

You can reach out to us. can walk you through it, whether you're a customer or not. We want to help you because we really feel strongly that podcasting is a really awesome way to share your stories and inspire people.

Rob Dwyer (51:54.05)
Well Priscilla, you have been really awesome joining me. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Priscilla (52:01.323)
Yeah, thank you for having me. This has been a lot of fun. I love to talk about podcasting. I love to talk about customer support and maybe making people's day better. And so thanks for having me on to talk about just that.