A discussion with Mangesh “Mango” Hattikudur, one of the hosts of the highly successful “Part-Time Genius” podcast from How Stuff Works (receiving more than a million downloads monthly) and co-founder of Mental Floss Magazine, on what it takes to build and grow a podcast that’s able to compete in an increasingly crowded space, the state of the industry, and what shows are in development. Plus, an interview with Christian Brito of “Eat. Sleep. Fantasy – Fantasy Football Podcast”, along with the latest podcast and in-demand headlines from Podnews. MouthMedia Network studios are powered by Sennheiser.
In this episode:
- Hattikudur as a cofounder of Mental Floss Magazine, and after 17 years joining How Stuff Works to start the podcast “Part-Time Genius”
- Bringing humor into serious topics, and a perspective of state on podcast industry
- Treating all culture like pop culture, use bits of humor, how get people to pay attention
- Humor as a way in such as the famous “swimsuit issues” of historical figures
- Working with largest for profit company in the podcast space, as there are more people in the space it gets harder
- The methodology of taking culture and treating it like pop culture
- Word of mouth, creating true relationships with audience members, how authentic connections create evangelists
- Having people on show to play competition would write a note to their mom about how smart they were, created word of mouth and shareability
- Growing as fast as possible vs. paying attention to individual listeners
- After 8 months went to 1 Million downloads per month
- The idea to be selling back issues of Mental Floss at full price and why it worked
- Creating new concepts, crime stories in works done from a different angle
- Strategies for each new show, including getting local press
- How it important to be patient for big change in life—slow growth is more valuable growth
- Best ideas can always live on in different wasy with audience to connect
- It’s natural to make mistakes — constantly trying to improve and be critical of what you did last and move forward
- Can create friendship with audiences podcasting like no other medium
- Make mistakes, learn from them, be friends with people
- The competitiveness of the market, how press only moved the needle so much
- How thethe fastest way to get people on your podcast is to be on a podcast
_________________________________________________
In this episode:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.