Run the Business, a podcast hosted by Anthony Gay asks, “do runners make better leaders?”
Gay, a keen runner and business owner – with an extensive background in radio - is the chief strategy officer and european managing director at ReelWorld and co-founder of Reel2Media. He describes the podcast as having the objective of self-development and inspiration.
During each weekly episode Gay talks to CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders from around the world about their relationship with running in order to explore the place where running and leadership come together. Through these conversations, Gay aims to see if the relationship between running and business could be mutually beneficial and aid in achieving goals.
We asked Gay to tell us about the challenges hes come across while starting Run the Buiness and where he hopes to take it in the future.
How would you describe your podcast?
In a sentence, Run the Business is running inspiration for leaders and entrepreneurs. It explores the space between running, and business leadership and management.
Why did you start your podcast?
I think like many podcasters, the podcast came from individual passion. The best podcasts come from people that believe in and are passionate about the subject that they're talking about. I am a big fan of running. I do a lot of running in my spare time. I also run my own business, so the business world has obviously been an interest of mine for many years.
I started looking at the place where the two came together. I personally feel better after being out on a run and I’ve used runs as ways to solve problems, think about challenges at work and come up with new ideas. That’s when I started asking my friends if they found similar benefits from running; some of them did. That’s when I decided, let’s make a podcast out of this.
What advice do you wish you'd been given when you first started?
I think the technical side of things is always tricky at the start. My background is in commercial radio. Many years ago, I was a presenter and I have also run radio stations, but I was fortunate to have teams of engineers and technicians around. When you're doing it on your own, you have to be more aware of the technicality. It took me a while to find the right way of recording and capturing the interviews.
We now use CleanFeed and I think it is a fantastic platform for podcasters to record, but it took me a while to find it and get the best out of it. Equally, things like the microphone you use and the space that you record in all have an impact. If I could have had an engineer at the beginning, it might have helped move things forward a bit quicker.
How many people does it take to create an episode of your show?
It's a small team, there's three of us that are directly involved. I host it. I have a wonderful producer called Anna Harding who helps find guests and does the first edit on the show. She is also interested in running so she’s able to add value in terms of the questions and the direction that we go in. The third person in the mix is a guy called Chris Kelly who is Reel2Media’s content development director. Chris looks at the sound of the podcast, the picture of it and makes sure it gets posted on time.
How do you monetise your show?
We don’t monetise the show at the moment. I'd love to but at this point it's about building an audience and testing a concept. I think there is a space for this in the world of running and business podcasts, it’s got a unique angle. I've set myself the goal of releasing 50 episodes and then reviewing where we're at and deciding how to move it forward from there. I'd love to think down the line, once we've established it, whether it's through sponsorship or spot advertising, that it could succeed commercially.
How do you promote your podcast?
Because it is a passion project, we don't do any paid advertising or promotion, it's more about connecting with the people that are in our space and using that network to share it. LinkedIn is a great way to tell people about what we're doing from a business perspective. It also helps us find potential guests. Twitter is another platform where a lot of runners and businesspeople get together. There are also communities of running folk around the UK and the US that I connect with. It’s quite an organic approach at the moment. But the audience is slowly growing.
Who listens to your podcast?
It’s a mix of people who run and people who are interested in business. It’s also a lot of businesspeople who run so it's quite a defined target. We are targeting men and women and between 25 to 50. At the moment it definitely feels like our audience is leaning towards the runners.
What have you learned about yourself since starting the podcast?
The podcast has been more inspiring than I expected it to be in terms of the conversations that I've been having with people. It has really opened me up to the wider community of runners as well as the world of business. The interesting thing has been talking to people and listening. That skill is something which doing the podcast has helped me hone - paying attention and allowing people a space to speak and really listening to what they're saying.
What was the last podcast you listened to?
Probably Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel Better Live More. He’s a fantastic host, storyteller and interviewer, and I really enjoy the tone of the podcast. He has some fantastic guests and the pace of it is nice, the way he explores the subject isn’t too rushed and the content is useful.
