Summer Reading: For Your Ears

Feast your ears on some great brain food podcasts that can help pull you out of thinking about work all the time.

Sick of summer reading? Try a summer podcast.

Summertime reading lists include “Best Summer Books From Wall Streeters,” “The 39 Books We’re Talking About This Summer” or for the extremely aggressive reader, “73 Books to Read While the Sun is Out and the Days Are Long.” Seventy-three books? There are only 92 days in the summer season. If you’re up for that kind of reading, good for you and I’m envious.

I’ll be completely up front about this: The last full book I read just for fun was “1776” and I think I read that in 2006.

To make up for that lack of entertainment/educational reading, I turned to podcasts years ago and my consumption of them has grown tremendously. Like some people do with their reading habits, I have my podcasts categorized: Work-related/financial, news, politics, local information and pure entertainment.

I think, like many bookworms, this way of consuming information and entertaining my brain fits with my lifestyle. I’m either completely alone (with the dog) in the house working, driving a lot or asleep. It might sound silly, but that’s just how it’s been for a long time.

And, again, like some avid readers, you find an author whom you really like and connect with, and it’s the same with podcasts and their hosts. Sometimes, yes, you get stuck in a rut. For instance, one reader I know is completely loyal to all things Michael Connelly. They think the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series are the best and they rarely stray from those books. I found myself stuck in a podcast rut with the WNYC Studios series of podcasts. That crew produces some amazing content like On the Media and More Perfect. Just wow! But I had to pull away from those and expand my earholes into some different content production studios.

When I first began pushing former employers and clients into podcasts, I just (and still do) loved the production process and audience connection. It was like my former radio days when you’d get instant positive or negative feedback from your listeners who’d call in and either add to the topic of conversation or call to tell me I sucked.

I’ve been thinking about all of these summer book-reading lists and wanted to share some great brain food podcasts – some that are purely indulgent and can also help pull you out of thinking about work all the time.

Credit Union-Related Podcasts

The credit union podcast production volume has varied over the past eight or so years. There was a time when many credit union teams and league marketers were attempting to create their podcast voice and content. Some have stuck it out and a majority have quietly faded into the digital afterlife. Here are my picks for some credit union/credit union-related podcasts to give a listen to this summer:

Listening to regular episodes from these organizations, you’ll start to understand the rhythm and mood of the industry and of the organization itself. What do I mean by that? It’s like watching your local news, where you get to know the anchors and know when the weather is coming on. It’s very similar with podcasts and these hosts. Some you’ll like one better because you personally might connect with them. And the opposite is true – you might not like one because personally something doesn’t connect with you. And that’s OK.

I cannot stress this point enough: Like any marketing or public relations plan, have a succession plan in place in case your podcast host quits, leaves for another job or is promoted or moved into another job inside your credit union. There are a lot of really good credit union podcasts that were started and have been dormant since the host left for another job. I’ve started my fair share of podcasts in this and other industries, and they’ve either died a quick death, slowly faded into podcast history, or someone else took over and continued the work.

To their credit, there are credit union marketing teams who’ve attempted podcasts by hiring voice-over talent to read a script of financial advice for 20 minutes. Technically, that’s not really a podcast. That’s just someone reading marketing materials out loud. If you’re looking for engagement, bring in guests, community leaders or small business owners and talk about real life problems and solutions.

All of the five podcasts listed above are worth your time and your ears.

News/Financial Podcasts

If you’d like to hear some good examples of how bigger news and financial organizations are building and producing their podcast network, try these. These are some great money-focused (they sometimes spread into other topic areas) choices for you to download:

These podcasts show you the significance of being consistent with your production process, and creating and showcasing the money and/or topic experts.

Give Your Brain a Break Podcasts

This summer I’m focusing on trying out new-to-me podcasts about movies, music and just fun things. I absolutely love movies, but I rarely go out to the theater. These podcasts have been a blast to absorb:

And in the music and plain fun categories, I’ve been downloading these excellent (and sometimes very emotional) podcasts series:

I know I have a podcast problem. My wise mother would say the same thing about her incessant book-reading habits. I’m hooked on podcasts and I’m always searching for new takes on familiar topics. I was actually looking forward to taking a bit of a break this summer from trying out any new financial-related podcasts until I discovered a blog post on Alliant Credit Union’s website. The blog post listed some new financial podcast suggestions – dang it. It looks like I’ll be downloading Stacking Benjamins. Thanks a lot Alliant.

Michael Ogden, CU Times Executive Editor

Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.

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