How A Podcast Helped A Student Find Her Way To My Class

this stuff works, even when you least expect it

One of the cardinal rules of effective content creation is to be consistent. While I know this as a marketer and I teach this as an Assistant Professor at NYU I don’t always practice it for myself. Which is why my blog, now my Substack does not publish every week and my podcast goes on periods of hiatus before coming back for six or seven consecutive episodes.

While both of these have helped to build my personal brand, neither of them has directly made me money. Which is the best reason I can give you for the inconsistency. The salesperson in me, who earned her living selling advertising for twenty-five years, still operates from that perspective when her plate is overflowing and she has to decide what will take priority. What’s making me money today is the question I still ask.

The blog got quiet as I was working on my latest book. The podcast has gotten quiet as I have been working on the audio version of that book (which is coming soon!)  Both the podcast and my blog posts bring me great joy and fuel my creativity and energy but the truth is sometimes I just get lazy.

Sometimes I wonder who is reading or listening or if I really have anything important to say and if either of these are worth the time and effort I put in. Because both are a lot of work.  I wonder if any of that is making any difference in the world.

Then something like this happens.

A student walks into my Social Media and the Brand class at the beginning of the Spring semester. I always ask my new students why they’re taking the class. The answers range from It’s a requirement in the track they are taking in the Integrated Marketing Program to they wanted to learn more about how to use social media. What I had never heard before - until this semester - was that it was because of my podcast.

Flattered, I wanted to know more - so I did what I preach. I asked.  In all honesty, I expected to hear that this student was deciding between instructors, was vetting her choices, and decided to give a listen and after sampling an episode or two decided to take my class.

But that is not what happened.

The story I heard was of a young woman headed for law school who wasn’t feeling that was the right choice for her. Marketing sounded more appealing so she decided to learn more about it before changing the trajectory of her path. A search on Spotify for podcasts on marketing led her to mine. (Thank you Spotify!)

The title, Marketing, Mindfulness, and Martinis is what drew her in. Lucky for me it was Spotify and not Google she did the search on. Google’s results comprise a list of all of the articles written with titles like 12 Marketing Podcasts Worth Your Time or The 10 Best Marketing Podcasts To Listen To Now arranged in order of what got the most engagement and/or who is paying to be there.

Josephine became a listener. She liked the approach I took and she liked the guests I have on. She became more interested in marketing - interested enough to start investigating programs. Having been an NYU undergraduate she saw that NYUSPS had a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing degree program. She made the connection that was the program I taught in.

She applied and was accepted. She informed me my podcast was not just the reason she was in my class, it was the reason she was in the program. Then she thanked me. She is happier on the marketing track than she was on the lawyer one.

To say I was moved would be an understatement. One of the most gratifying things about teaching is the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. I am aware of that every day I walk on campus.

But what I am not as aware of is that as a creator, be it my podcast, my books, or this Substack I also have that opportunity. Most days I have no idea how much and other days - like that one, I am reminded that by using our voices - whether we have a large or small platform - we have the opportunity to create change and make a difference - in even one person’s life. And that is reason enough to keep on creating.

Does that make sense? You tell me.