There’s no denying the popularity of podcasting as a content marketing strategy. You need only look at the moves of companies like Spotify to understand the significance.
Besides consuming many podcasts, I have produced a few over the years.
~ Blade Ronner Creative Director/Content Strategist, Ron Dawson
Table of Contents
Photography Podcast
The first podcast I ever created was back in 2007. It was created purely as a strategy to elevate my persona in the eyes of professional photographers. That year I pivoted the focus of my video production company to doing commercial work for the professional photography industry, and I didn’t want to be seen as just “that video guy” when photographers saw me running around various conventions with my camera. The strategy was successful.
The podcast, called F-Stop Beyond, was a personal conversation with some of the country’s top commercial, portrait, and wedding photographers (e.g. Chase Jarvis, Vincent Laforet, Jerry Ghionis, Jasmine Star, etc.) I referred to it as “Fresh Air” for photographers (alluding to the NPR podcast by Terry Gross). It became the third highest-ranked creative arts podcast on Podbean’s network. Instead of “that video guy,” I was “Ron Dawson from F-Stop Beyond.”
Filmmaker’s Interview Show
The next show I created, Crossing the 180: The Filmmaking Podcast that Breaks the Rules, was similar in style to F-Stop Beyond, but geared towards filmmakers. On that show, I interviewed everyone from directors like Albert Hughes to game-changes like Vincent Laforet (yes, Vincent showed up on both shows).
The original run of the show was from 2010 to about 2013. Those episodes are no longer online (it’s a long story). But, I can get you access to them if needed.
UPDATE: In the summer of 2021, I revived the show as part of Pro Video Coalition’s Art of the Frame podcast network. The biweekly show has the same interview format as the original run, with a little bit of storytelling. You can subscribe to the AOTF feed here. If you just want to access just the Crossing the 180 episodes, go here.
Audio Documentary Anthology
When I re-entered the podcasting game back in 2015, I wanted to do something I had never done before. In fact, I wanted to do something that no one had done before in the filmmaking podcast realm. And thus was born, Radio Film School.
To my knowledge, this was (and is) the first and only audio documentary podcast about the craft of filmmaking. Think of it as This American Life for filmmakers. The popular filmmaking blog No Film School called it “The filmmakers podcast we’ve all been waiting for.” Within a few weeks of launch, it became #1 on the visual arts podcast.
Each episode was scripted and music supervised by me. Episodes were tied to specific themes, and I would cull audio clips from my various interviews that fit the theme. Each episode was painstakingly, but lovingly created to tell a story in an engaging way. Aside from my memoir, it is the artistic endeavor I’m probably most proud of creating.
This extended preview introduced the show. It will give you a feel for the style and substance.
Diversity and Equity in the Workplace
In the fall of 2020, I began as the story producer on a new podcast for Wistia. The show would be unlike any other show they’ve produced. As one of the leading video marketing and hosting providers, most of their shows have been geared towards marketers, video producers, filmmakers, and content creators. This new show, called A Better Workplace, would be a show about how to foster more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. As story producer, I find and book guests, write the scripts that drive the opening and closing segments, monitor the conversation and help keep the conversation on track, and make sure the post-production runs smoothly with the executive producer and engineers. My scriptwriting and creative input largely steered the feel and direction of the show. That, combined with the great chemistry between the cohosts, and the engaging guests, makes this one of the most unique podcasts on the topic (in my humble opinion. 😊)