Winning Awards with Donna O'Toole
Winning Awards with Donna O'Toole
Ep 18: Turning your message into an award-winning movement - with Host of the Unconventionalists® podcast, MARK LERUSTE.
As the Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of the Ministry of Purpose and Host of The Unconventionalists® podcast, Mark Leruste is on a mission to help entrepreneurs and business leaders have an impact on the world with their message.
Mark previously served as Country Manager at the Movember Foundation, where he helped raise €2.8 million for men’s health and inspired 110,000 fundraisers to sign up, winning multiple awards along the way.
Since then, his videos have been viewed over 2.5 million times on social media and his podcast has had over 160,000 downloads from more than 100 countries. His book “It’s Not You, It’s Me” is a modus operandi for unfulfilled professionals looking to find more meaningful work.
Mark believes everyone needs a purpose and that no one should have to be one person at home and another at work. That’s why his big goal is to create a world where the vast majority of people feel connected to an important mission at work and feel seen, heard, supported and appreciated along the way – in essence, fostering a positive culture for people to bring their true selves to work and feel inspired to show up every day.
Over the years, Mark has worked with pioneering organisations, forward thinking leaders and disruptive conferences including Google, TEDx, Intuit, INSEAD, Method & Ecover, L’Oreal, StateStreet, The Guardian, Samsung, General Assembly and VirginStartup.
Donna O'Toole is CEO of August, and she has had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious awards in the world. Seeing first-hand how receiving awards and recognition has motivated teams, solved problems, supercharged brands and raised their profiles, helping businesses to grow and do even more good things for their employees, their industry and their community.
Hi, I'm Donna rattle and you're listening to my exclusive winning awards podcast. Over the years, I've had the pleasure of supporting entrepreneurs, business leaders and teams to win the most prestigious awards in the world. I've seen firsthand how receiving awards and recognition has motivated teams, solve problems, supercharge brands, and raise profiles, helping businesses to grow and do even more good things for their employees, their industry and their community. In this podcast, I'll be sharing valuable awards, insights, tips, and inspirational stories to make sure that you get the recognition that you deserve, so that you can go on and achieve your dreams. So what are you waiting for, it's time to start winning. As the founder and host of the unconventional list, marketer roost is on a mission to help entrepreneurs and business leaders to have an impact in the world with their message. Mark previously served as country manager at the Movember Foundation, where he helped to raise 2.8 million euros for men's health and inspired 110,000 fundraisers to sign up winning multiple awards along the way. Since then, his videos have been viewed over 2.5 million times on social media. His podcast has been downloaded over 160,000 times in over 100 countries worldwide. In 2020, Mark was nominated in the podcasting for Business Awards. And so I've invited him here today to talk to us about what exactly that meant to him to tell us all about his podcast and the stories that he's been telling on there and all of his amazing guests, and what winning and award has meant to him since so Hi, Mark.
Unknown:done so good to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Even welcome.
Donna O'Toole:So tell us then you've obviously got this huge that I mean, that's quite an introduction, isn't it? You know, all these downloads and all these amazing statistics that tell us a little bit about your journey so we can understand what you do and what the unconventional is means.
Unknown:Sure. I mean, first I'm gonna say this, it's always a little bit weird to hear your own bio being read out, you know, when you hear is like this, like versus like, Really? I did it. Yeah. Okay, that sounds pretty cool. Um, yeah. So I mean, the short version is what I was country manager at the Movember foundation for four years, I spent the majority of my time travelling and speaking to anyone who would really listen. And it could be in a small group of mates in a bar to Google, you know, head office in Paris, to banks to a yacht club, like it was just it was such a such a weird mix, right? And every time I'd have these conversations, what I thought was crazy was the month of November used to be the month that most people look forward to, because it was the month that for once, they could have a bit of fun, grow, moustache, and raise, raise money for a good cause. And I thought Surely, if you wait 11 months of the year for just one month of the year to have a good time. And that involves facial hair and looking like a total idiot. Like something has to be turned right? So I decided to try and take what I learned at Movember from, you know, fundraising. But more than that, just engaging and turning your message into movement. How do you take a story that is so compelling and emotionally charged that people want to join you on your mission, and I wanted to help organisations do that. And it was pretty accidental At first, the first week, I don't think I've ever said this. But the first gig I ever got was L'Oreal, which is weird, because it's kind of it's like a fortune 500. Right. But Laura was like my first client that brought me in to give a talk. And I thought it was crazy. They wanted to know, how can they create a community of raving fans? And how can they start building people around a product they want to launch and All I said was, basically just care. Just be genuine, and just show that you care. I know, it's crazy. But if you're going to say something, do it, if you say you're this thing, be that person. And that kind of, you know, trickled into more opportunities, working with other banks and the, you know, Googles and YouTubes, and all that kind of stuff. And what I realised was that there was a yearning both in the workplace but also for entrepreneurs and, and business leaders, to both tell better stories and to have better stories be told. And I know this because again, back in my day Movember would hear all these stories of these incredible courageous men and women for that matter, they would share stories of how they've been impacted by suicide or, or mental health, or cancer or right, like all this kind of stuff was really difficult things to hear at times. But at the same time, I kept on thinking, if only more people could hear this, if only more people could listen to this conversation we're having right now in this bar, as you're telling you what it's like to have testicular cancer, to only have one testicle and the fear of bringing someone home after a night out and having to explain to them that before you get intimate, by the way, there's only one testicle down there and the fear that brings up I thought this is what 1000s and 1000s of men have to deal with. But no one talks about it. So I thought, how cool would it be to have conversations with people that are intimate, real, honest, and candid and unscripted, and then get to share those with the world, right? So basically inviting the world to be a fly on the wall. So that's what it was. And so I launched the unconventional lists, which congratulations for pronouncing that. Well, we can talk about the funny story about the awards if you want to. But um, the bottom line is I started in 2015. I've interviewed over 100, I've got over 150 episodes at the time of recording this. I've had some incredible guests. obviously haven't had you on yet. So my podcast isn't complete. But it's it's no, it's been an honestly, it's been an amazing journey. And until being nominated last year, December 2020. was, was brilliant. It was it was weird. No, it's weird thing. Because I can say this, right? Hopefully this can benefit people listening. I was always one of these people who maybe deep down, I wanted to win awards, but I never went for them. Or if I did go for them, no one knew about it. Right? Like I would go I tried to on my own, it would probably be a terrible application. under the radar. under the radar secret. No one doesn't tell you what you maybe like my partner, right? Maybe. But it's because I didn't want to set myself up for failure. I was too scared that if I didn't get it, then I'd look like an idiot, or I'd feel stupid or whatever. So I didn't. But for whatever reason, this one was different. I decided to fully embrace it. And I kind of decided to tell the world it's like, hey, world, I'm gonna go for this award. And I really want to win it because I really think that I can win it.
Donna O'Toole:Do you think that was because part of the the, you know, the nomination process was actually you talking? It was less about you and more about the amazing interviews that you've been doing with these amazing guests, and actually about their stories, you're able to slightly detach yourself from it?
Unknown:Yeah, I think there was. It was interesting, because it was at a time where the world and as we're still growing as we're recording this, right, this huge shift, what's been happening in South London, literally my doorstep, right, like where I take my daughter to the park every day clap and comment. And so there's a shift in in what's in what's happening around the conversation that needs to be had, in order to change the conversation, we all need to embrace rights. So I'm quite lucky that on my show, I can talk about, I can have someone that comes on the show to talk about what it's like to losing a partner, I can have someone that comes on the show to talk about what is like being black in a society that is constantly having microaggressions like, I've got all these different topics, mental health. And so I kind of went with that I kind of lead with the idea that diversity actually comes from having various opinions on different topics, and being exposed to a wide range. So I kind of went with that. And, and I put a very strong focus on storytelling, and how having the courage to share your personal story authentically can transform your business and change your life. That was kind of like my, my angle. And so yes, when it was nominated, I was like, Oh, well, they got nominated. That was December. So that was a lovely way to finish 2020.
Donna O'Toole:That's a fantastic way. So I funnily enough, actually, this, this conversation has come up for me quite a lot in the last week where I've talked to other entrepreneurs, like yourself who have said, Oh, no, I don't. And actually, someone just said to me, oh, when it comes to awards, I have imposter syndrome. I just don't think I'm good enough to be in them. And I just don't see how you can make me sound good enough to be in them. Like, hey, this is the challenge, you know, this is gonna happen. But do you think that's something you went through at the time?
Unknown:Yeah, so so it's interesting you say that because that would come up for me? Like if you told me like, Hey, Mark. I think you've got i don't know i'm just gonna make this up. Right? I think you've you can win Entrepreneur Award, like an entrepreneur or like a coaching award, or like something other, like, get out of town on what you're talking about. There's no it's not gonna happen. I get it. And it doesn't matter. Like I could show you some of the success stories I've had, I could show the impact of adding clients. I wouldn't own it, they would show up there. But when it came down to podcasting, two things happened. This really weird paradox that's happening, this walking contradiction, almost this deep belief that the body of work that I've displayed in terms of podcasting, I truly believe that the individual says is one of the best interview podcast shows in the world. It's not one of the best producing shows out there who do it 10 times better than I do. But I believe that my ability to hold a space and have a conversation with people is in the in the top podcasts in the world. I really believe that because I put so much work. Now that I get I mean, but so I knew that right? So I really held that with this nagging voice that kept on telling me you're not going to get it and you're just setting yourself up for failure. You're gonna look like an idiot. Don't allow you To say that you're going to get it or want it because you're only going to you're only going to fall from a higher higher ladder you know, so I had to really balance those two and the only way and it's gonna sound crazy but listen to this just I'm going to caveat this with I am not a Woohoo. Uber spiritual visualisation manifestation guy like it's just not me I respect and love to anyone who is but what I did do is every single day as I do my kind of you know morning practice when I've got two young kids that were basically talking 10 minutes before you know the the baby's cries and the milk is getting yeah tempted right and tempted luxuries you know what I'm saying? So I used to I was writing in my journal and I get this writing this line. I am the winner of the podcasting Business Awards Best interview podcast I can still remember I was just saying every day I received an even I was crazy as I received this with gratitude and grace and you know May this be an example for everybody else to go out and shine a light right and I did that every day for like 30 days right 30 days I was doing this and I was like this is ridiculous This is so ridiculous. And and then the rewards night i mean you know what you know you know you know the the rest is
Donna O'Toole:I was very happy to be watching the podcasting Business Awards It was very exciting yeah and and like a lot of awards at the moment or certainly at the beginning of the year and at the end of last year were virtual went online you know, so that everybody could attend and I i'm not sure i think it might have been their first year online Yes. Yeah. So it was great seeing all announced and seeing everyone's categories come up but it was quite entertaining particularly watching
Unknown:so can I speak to that Yeah, so get right so everyone listening to this you got to remember that um, I have friends and people I know watching this right family and and and I put it you can go watch this video if it is good watch on YouTube you can look it up I think it's like my like behind the scenes of podcasting for Business Awards. I've got a tux and everything and waist up and basically the category comes up right like best interview podcast, cadre comes up. They start reading the nominees and then the one was reading the awards, the award nomination, she gets I don't know, I don't know how she did this. But anyway, she starts going more cruised hosts of the uncontroversial lists. And I'm like What did she and I was like that must have been just a slip but she didn't just say it once said like twice or three times and then like said another thing like another word in the middle of the description of the show, which is completely off. And so you know, at first I'll be honest, I was a little bit upset, but I did a choose the most unpronounceable podcast name in the world. And B She must have been really nervous and I felt for her like I felt like the nerves being live in front of like all these people watching
Donna O'Toole:and see it's not the easiest word to say.
Unknown:It is not the easiest word to say I look I've been working with Hadrian shortly from the word and he's like a brand strategist. Right? And I had to have a serious conversation myself. Do I keep it? Or do I change it? Yeah, because it has everything a name shouldn't be. It's difficult to memorise it makes you look stupid when you try and say it it's difficult to pronounce and it's difficult to spell those are the four worst attributes that any British business brand name could have. But I conventional is by nature Yeah,
Donna O'Toole:but I have to say my brand name comes up in conversations like that as well because everyone thinks August August as opposed to August and that it's the month and that perhaps I was born in that month or perhaps my children were born in that man Yeah, well there's something out there right it's nothing to do with the month
Unknown:I know I was the same I remember that was August come from He's like, actually it's a it's a word has a lot of significance. I was like,
Donna O'Toole:second sense of the word means inspiring and honoured, respected and all those good things that we help people to be however, I would say is having a slightly different brand name means we're going off topic now but means that people will have conversation with you about it. Yeah, and that is a good thing for a brand so it's always a good opening conversation.
Unknown:I agree. And for me attracts the right kind of people people who love my business name are the kind of people I want to work with anyway, they're kind of like hey, I really liked that name. What is it? Like what do you do you know, like, what is it about so you know, it's kind of the
Donna O'Toole:whole via podcast, it fits you know, you you it's unconventional stories, right? It's stories it's people's stories. So tell us and again Sorry, I interrupted the whole story. So then you were about to receive your award.
Unknown:Yeah, no, and then and then so that was it and then so she kind of messed up if names and then they then they said the name and it was like the unconventional list and I was like, Oh, you know, it was amazing. It was really cool. And then and then just got pulled by messages and just really lovely Like for a few days I've got to say there was this kind of almost I don't we call it like like like a like a shower of of just praises the word wrong word I want to I want to use but you're saying like just recognition I guess is that the word and that felt lovely and there was you know and I'm going to hit on you know I don't know if this is just audio or video but I'm holding so you can see it on at least
Donna O'Toole:lovely award.
Unknown:Yeah, and I was like, Oh my God is real you know and it and I put in so much I really put this you know what my podcast has been the one constant thing in my life since 2015. It's the longest thing I've had longest more than relationship more than any job. It's like the longest thing I've had so the fact that I got recognised in a kind of a really lovely way like that and especially because you know what people need to and this is just me being honest. When I applied there were three different categories I was going for. So my number one was this one best and then I went also for entrepreneurship, but I also went for marketing. So I didn't get nominated for marketing entrepreneurship and I was like, yeah, that's fine. But when I saw my best podcast was like, Okay, I've got a chance then a list then I again just being fully transparent. I looked at the competition like the other great podcast hosts and I listened to all of them. And one really word concern like I would really thought Actually you know what, this is a super strong podcast and if I lose this person, I wouldn't be so upset about it because actually I think it's a brilliant podcast but if I lost the other two I'd be upset and so then I won and then I was like, oh my god so yeah,
Donna O'Toole:isn't that good as well? Isn't that nice? And this I mean this is the same for any award when you can see yourself in a category with others you know that you see a strong competition that's yes great alignment already because that tells you somewhere about where you are already before you even know what the result is okay well great I'm not here with you know this that I really respect and I think is a great podcast so that's already you've got an achievement because we always say to people you know you win or you learn because not everyone will then go on to win you had a really happy ending and you went on to win and that's amazing. But not everyone will but even just having got that far will have given them the boost and the validation to keep going
Unknown:well on that I applied four years in a row for a similar podcast award but it wasn't business with like a general and I never even got nominated and it crushed my heart every time is because obviously I didn't work with Madonna that's why I didn't get me but but it you know it really was because and this comes maybe from a place of ego and I've got to I've got to say that but there were genuine years when I was like even nominated I would see the list of nominees and I would think How on earth did I not even get nominated? Some of them were like you can't it's really difficult to compete when you're talking about huge studios like the guardian and not you know you're competing against major studios or like the likes of you know some of the huge podcasts in the UK but to have not been nominee It was really hard and I almost gave up I almost gave I was like I'm done with with awards the podcast awards I'm done to get my heart broken it's a bit like if you want a date or you're trying to you know you're trying to meet someone and they keep on rejecting me every time on the line to be oh my god so much
Donna O'Toole:you are being judged and you know human wants to be judged really
Unknown:no no no no so that I so understand people listening to this who are really hesitant to go for awards because it fears rejection but here's the thing it's like you may not win but what if you do yeah like what if you do like what are the odds What if you roll the dice and you know especially if if people work with the organisation then they've got a much higher chance of setting themselves up for success but really I almost give up and I just say you know what, one last one one last one and and I want it and and yeah and I can tell you like what's been great from winning I don't know if that's helpful people this yeah
Donna O'Toole:so what has been the impact them for you and for the podcast?
Unknown:Yeah so number one I think internally for me it's validation for sure. Like even if I do understand that people say you don't need awards for external validation but actually it's it's it's just great to have that feeling of like I'm hosting an award winning podcast but then what what's been really cool is guests like just the calibre of guests that I can reach out to now are are much higher my confidence and be able to book like even like I've got pretty big names on my show, but I've always had this kind of lists of Obama's kind of a top of my list right so I'm not there I'm not there yet but you know, so going for like bigger names so that then I've had people reaching out to me who've got quite big profiles and said hey, congratulations and you know, all this kind of stuff. So that's been lovely. sponsors. So conversation responses, you then elevate your fees and your prices as a podcast host because you can go hey, we're win award winning show now. Tough luck, you could have come on board beforehand, and you have tated and now you want to it's going to cost you so that's cool. And then oh, well, okay, that's interesting. So I didn't think about this, but just just just when you introduced like when I've been running a bunch of workshops, right, it's a Friday, I run a workshop for 60 plus entrepreneurs and business leaders. And, and the whole the whole workshop is around the power of storytelling and how we can a great story can get you booked on great podcasts. And so it was kind of like how to get booked on on on podcast shows coming from a podcast host perspective, and shaping people's way. And it was brilliant, because it's like, then you got instant credibility. Yes. I think you know, an award whether you whatever you want to, whatever you want to say like I don't need award Well, okay, great. Maybe you don't, but at the end of the matter is, it's going to it can only help, right? You can only help because I, when I was a student, my final year, I ran a car, I went into the car to be a public speaking competition. think this might be an exclusive he had done nothing. Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah. Why it's not it's not exciting. But basically it was like, the the brief was you have five minutes. And it's supposed to be without any notes without a clock. And you have to finish on the door or they stop you right? And it was about your university experience. That was the brief. So I show up. And I get there. And it's like an auditorium, right? Pretty much for the people. I don't know how many people that were, like few 100. And my friends are there. And I'm nervous. And I haven't got any notes because that was the brief. And I get up there and I just talk about my student life of pot noodles, and, you know, some some stupid things, whatever, like, I get a few laughs and I get up on stage. And then everybody after me comes up with notes. Everyone's holding cards, and I'm just like, what, what, what, that's not the rules and like I was getting really upset about it. And so then then then the judges gave away the prize, right? Like number one, number two, number three, and I didn't wait, but then they had the Audience Award. And I won that I won the Audience Award. And what I realised then was that the reason why I won it was because I was so present, yeah, that I wasn't busy with my notes, but I was present with engaging, right and so that thing that was one of the first of all, and then when I was on November, I won an award every year. And it went from like, they ran a competition globally around coming up with the best intrapreneurship it was called the intrapreneur intrapreneur Award. And it was coming up with an idea of how can we stimulate our fundraisers for like this initiative is boring. So I come up with this idea and it was picked and so when that I want best campaign of the Year in my final year when best content or best regional Employee of the Year, like so I won a bunch of awards, but even with all these accolades, if you had to sit down with me and say well we're going to look at what awards we can enter but there's no way to win any awards done. What I'm talking about. So anyone listen to this, it's like it's it's you still feel that same resistance. Yeah. Even after having you know,
Donna O'Toole:there's definitely there's an emotional side and there's a logical side right? Yeah, the logical side is how, how is winning this award gonna help you to grow your podcast? how's it gonna give you more opportunities? How's it going to give others more opportunities to come on the podcast? how's it gonna make your podcast more commercially viable, you know, very logical, structured, practical thing so so we sort of look at awards as a tool for making those practical things happen but then there's the emotional side so you're an entrepreneur you're running a business you know and you're you're needing to have as entrepreneurs we all need something to drive us forward and to keep us going and to motivate us and validate our ideas are right and that they're working and that we're not just completely nuts and barking up the wrong tree and you know, we're actually doing something that people want and we're giving them something they want and that's what that award does is it tells you yeah this you're doing the right thing
Unknown:yeah and and also to be honest, I haven't I haven't leveraged it the way I could have I could have reached out to a bunch of media and press with like a press release and I could have done a way more than I did I just been a bit you know, typical entrepreneur stuff like kind of running around doing 1000 things but um yeah and I think it's also like it gives you access to certain people as well so now when I reach out to be like, you know there's I'll give an example there's this guy hopefully I can't name him yet because he hasn't said yes, but he's one of the biggest figures on clubhouse at the moment in UK and I really love his style and vibe and he doesn't do any podcasts but he's interested in doing mine because because I kind of said win this award and, and like the other thing is, I've been helping people launch their podcasts for the past four years and I kind of have done with that aspect of the business. So I'm going to I'm going to the online course will be for evergreen it'll be there for people want to get it but I've now partnered up. I've been a strategic partnership with the awards organiser, who now also helps people launch podcasts. I did a strategic partnership prior to basically migrate my business to her and basically said look, I'm gonna I'm gonna pass on all my students onto your programme because I Think that you've got a great little Facebook page going, there's nothing little to it, but it's so that again, it's just
Donna O'Toole:an entire opportunity that will just yeah, and then otherwise 100% 100%
Unknown:and I think you know, I already know now right? Because I think you know this but you know, I'm writing my next book, I'm in the middle of writing my next book at the moment. And so I've already got my eyes now for 2022 for winning an award in my book, like, that is gonna be my next my next thing is going to be okay. You know, I've won I've won awards as a kind of a fundraiser have won awards as a public speaker won awards as a podcast I was the next next one is that would be that that would be the ultimate journey because I grew up dyslexic being judged for my lack of ability to spell and and so having a book that is out there in the world that is being recognised as like making a difference, that would be huge. I'll come I'll come for you. How come to see you don't
Donna O'Toole:have money as you say that because I know a few authors who've been in the same position and actually one lady that I had a chat with on my podcast recently, Ashley, Allison Erica, she's amazing. And she's talks about her dyslexia quite a lot. And she says she calls it her superpower. Yeah, because you know, she's, she's used it as a tool to help her look at life and look at things in a different way, which has actually helped her to really grow and evolve and share her story. And actually, she's an award winning author now. So yeah, similar, similar thing is it. And the one thing I'll say about becoming award winning is no one can ever take it away from you, once you've won the award, and you get to say, I'm award winning, you're always award winning forevermore, after that. So that investment of time and energy, and the bravery and courage of actually putting yourself into that melting pot and allowing yourself to be judged, comes back with Yeah, it comes back with an award. And that comes back with a lifetime of actually being able to tell your own wedding, which brings with it hopefully a lifetime of opportunities and self awareness as well, and self motivation and drive and all those, you know, pause
Unknown:on that, I think, I think there's also the amazing process of, of going through award entries, no matter where you end up on the selection process, it forces you to really look at what you do, and it forces you to kind of acknowledge some of the things that we may not be great at saying out loud, we are good outrights he kind of says, look at the impact you're making. And so, you know, I had to look at some of the stats, like how much my podcast grew, what kind of guests I had, I had to look at some of the feedback, I was getting reviews and so it kind of and it's also nice morale for the team. Right. So like, for example, the the the Edit of the video that has been working on my podcast for the last couple of years. And you really like it's just nice for him as well. You know, he know you can say I worked on editing and award winning podcast.
Donna O'Toole:Exactly. No, it's great for everybody involved. Sure. So what's the plan now going forward? So now that you've got new opportunities? Yeah, bomb is coming on.
Unknown:Right? Okay, so So to be honest with you, what's interesting is now, now that I've come to a point where I'm like, Okay, what are the options? It's, it's silly to say this, but it's actually to become much more strategic. And so I've now kind of streamlined my business and my offering. And so my podcast actually going to become a big awareness or branding awareness campaign towards these programmes, right? Like, I'm actually and so now I'm actually thinking about, okay, now that I've got this visibility in this platform, how do I now leverage them? And so that's number one. Number two, really, the next thing is, is the book, I mean, that that is gonna be my centre of attention. And I want to replicate what I did with a podcast with the book. I'm going to be interviewing people in the book for the book. I'm in the middle of having conversation with publishers at the moment. So yeah, it's like, I don't know I'm sure you I'm sure you can relate to this in some way. But it does feel like the spiral upward spiral. It's like you're this kind of tumble dry of going up, going up a ski lift.
Donna O'Toole:Yeah, I think once you once you get on board, that's it. It's just gonna keep going. So what would you say then? to somebody who's perhaps thinking of starting a podcast, and they're not sure or they may be not so confident, and they certainly can't necessarily see themselves getting to being award winning one day, but they could very well be, what would be your message around starting? Perhaps, you know, perhaps using that as something in to be positive in 2021?
Unknown:Yeah, so I, I wish I could screenshot and share something right now, which is one of my students who took my podcast revolution course, right, the online podcasting course. sent me an email saying, We're seven episodes in. And in six months from now, we're going to become an award winning show, I'm sure and that very same person had no idea If they were ever going to watch podcast didn't see how they could ever launch a podcast. So there is a clear, predictable path to make it easy for you to launch a podcast. So if you're, if you're listening to this and you're thinking I want to launch a podcast, but you haven't, I've got some truth bombs that's gonna be uncomfortable to sit with but hopefully will change your life. The problem is on informational. It's 100% emotional. Well 95% emotional, let me let me distil that most people will come to me in the past, about one and launch a podcast, they usually start with questions like, what microphone should I buy? What hosting platform? How regularly should he not like all these questions that you can literally Google within five minutes? You get the answer, right, there's 1000 videos. What I know to be true now having seen over 500 people come through my programme and workshops and stuff. It is the internal emotional fear that is linked to being emotionally exposed. That is getting away of launching a podcast. So here's what I say to people that it's like, okay, great marks what I do about it? Well, first of all, acknowledge it that the reason why I haven't launched podcast isn't because you don't know what microphone it is show. It might be a technical stuff. It's mostly because you're terrified of what people might think of you if they finally hear your voice. What if nobody listens is tumbleweeds? And then everybody makes fun of you. What if you What if you say something that you regret, and you can never take it back? Like all these kinds of fears. But instead, I want to point you towards how much more fun you could have through a podcast because a podcast is evergreen. There are 1.8 million podcasts out but compared to 30 million YouTube videos, and an a ridiculous like 150 300 million, whatever's blogs, it's a drop in the ocean. And here's the other good news that people are gonna want to hear. 93% of podcasts do not go past episode number 12. I really, right. So if you get 12 podcasts, talk to 13 podcasts out, you're in the top 7% of all podcasts around the world. So keep that in mind. Right? Because
Donna O'Toole:that's exciting. There
Unknown:you go. You know, you know, a common friend, you know, Dan, Daniel Bruce, he says this, he says, you know, if you're in a marathon, and everybody stops walking is everything. Everybody else stops running. All you have to do is keep walking, and you'll be miles ahead. But that's the truth. We podcast, right? And it's so much easier than you think. And you've got to think about it as a way of you can, you can actually use it for business purposes. Right? I think there's two ways to see podcasting. Either. It's a pure passion hobby, you just want to explore it, because you've got a curiosity. You're interested in butterflies, and you geek out about butterflies, you want to talk about that and share with the world. Great, do that. But if you want to be strategic with business, you absolutely can. Because it can be a great way to expand your network, reach out to new audiences, raise awareness about what you do give you give your brand a voice, create new strategic partnerships. It's limitless what you can do with it. But I will wrap it with a bow that says be strategic.
Donna O'Toole:Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I think actually, since I started my podcast, which I didn't allow myself to procrastinate over, which is quite a shocker for me because I, I just literally launched in and did it because I knew if I didn't, I would never, ever, ever started. jumped in, did it? And what I found, actually, is that what it's helping people with is podcast conversations are so much more intimate on so much more natural. Yes. And you say so much more than you would ever write down in a blog. You would never write this stuff in a blog because you'd look back and go, Oh, my goodness, what am I talking about? What's this? Yeah. But actually, it's natural. It's human. And it makes us feel more connected and closer to that person. And I've got more into listening to podcast since I started doing a podcast. Because I think now I understand, you know so much more about how it works. And I just feel like I can learn something really significant in 20 minutes, that would have taken me hours to find out otherwise. So I try you know, I always think was our podcast, it's all about, try and share you know, if there's one thing that somebody can take away that could make a difference to them that day or that week, or that they can share then I'm doing my job.
Unknown:Yeah. I love it. And you know, the one message I would leave is around this idea of that quote, you know, what if I fall, but darling, what if you fly is that it's kind of like what if I don't get here, but what if you do, right? Like if you don't, doesn't matter, just you've got what have you got to lose? And actually, you know what, I'll tell you. The first person who told me about awards was Richard Reid, the co founder of innocence. And he basically we used to say, when you especially when you're starting off in business, or when you're early, early stage, enter as many awards as you can, because it forces you to really get clear on what your offer your core audience are, like all these business really vital things, but also enables you to mingle with lots of different people because every time we go to an award Assuming that you're invited, you can meet your network people who already in the same kind of space or similar vibes, then when you get nominated, you start getting more visible if you when you start getting featured in newspapers and magazines. And so he was like a massive advocate of, of entering awards for the sake of raising, you know, your profile and building your brand and getting out there. So
Donna O'Toole:they're an amazing brand innocent smoothies.
Unknown:I know, right? Like, yeah, they're super strong. And Yep, so anyway, anyone listen to this, you should really consider that you may be not equipped to see what you have to offer. And that you may need to reach out for help for someone to look to put a mirror in front of you and say, Hey, I know you say that you you won't win anything. But have you What about this and this and this you go you actually had that might be something? Well, we think we can get you into this award. And I think you have a high chance of winning at this. And I think that's a gift.
Donna O'Toole:It is. Thank you, Mark. This has been a very enlightening, I would say especially for people who are thinking about getting themselves out there people who are already doing podcasts, and maybe they could get some recognition for theirs. And anyone listening who who's thinking about getting on the podcast train, then obviously mark is your man to the unconventional lists, not the uncontroversial lists.
Unknown:That's right. And one thing I forgot to say is two of my students who did my accelerator, the podcast revolution. Tiffany and Reuben they one of them got, they both got shortlisted. Yeah. For the categories, one of them in diversity, the other one in health and well being. And Tiffany ended up runner up in a category and it was like she just launched a podcast. So anyway, so here's the thing. When you launch your podcast, all of you listening to this, if you launch your podcast, you all can enter in any podcast award ceremony. Best New podcast award. You've got 12 months from the moment like you know, this 12 months bracket, right, but everybody who's launching a podcast should be entering best new podcast award, that the very minimum should be your first your first goal.
Donna O'Toole:Yeah. antastic Thank you, Mark. Well, I think this will have been inspiring, and I think we're gonna get loads more cheese next year. So maybe the competition is going to be raised. Who knows. But you've got yours now.
Unknown:I have I've done good luck, everyone.
Donna O'Toole:Brilliant.
Unknown:Thank you. Thanks, Donna.
Donna O'Toole:Thank you for listening to this episode of my winning awards podcast. If you enjoyed it or found it helpful, please share it on Twitter and LinkedIn. And if you have any questions, please head over to crafted by auguste.com where you can find out more about winning awards and contact me. On the website. You can also take our free awards test, which will identify your award strengths and tell you how likely you are to win. I really hope you've been able to take away some ideas today so that you can go ahead and win awards have an even bigger impact on the world and achieve your dreams.