Podcasts are a great resource, but don’t over-consume

Podcasts are a great resource, but don’t over-consume

Silver Cloud CEO, Tony Quinn, shares his favourite business and tech podcasts – and a useful lesson he’s learned along the way.

I’m always looking for new ideas, or an original perspective that can spark my own creativity. That might be stories and advice from other entrepreneurs. Analysis of human behaviour that can help to build better teams. New developments in the tech world. I’m open to the lot.

Podcasts are a great way to get access to all of that conveniently and effectively. The problem, of course, is that there are just so many to choose from. There’s a danger – and it’s a trap that I’ve definitely fallen into before – of over-consuming. In one week I might find six ideas that I thought were fascinating and inspiring, and definitely wanted to explore in practice. I’d speak to people and get all six initiatives started in the business. In hindsight, of course, that doesn’t work. People need focus, and a single, simple message is much more likely to break through.

I’ve learned to be absolutely focused, find people who can help us on our particular journey, and put all my energy into a small number of really good ideas.

So I thought I’d share three podcasts that I particularly value. I hope they’ll be useful for you too.

The first is ‘The Diary of a CEO’ by Steven Bartlett, the founder of the social media marketing company Social Chain. You might also have seen him on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den. Aged just 29, he’s the youngest ever investor on the show. I really admire his style. He’s very grounded and realistic: he talks more about the practical challenges that entrepreneurs face in the real-world, and how to deal with them. Rather than just the output or the theory. He’s a very inspiring character, and I’ve probably learned more from him than from anyone else.

Another is ‘A Bit of Optimism’ by Simon Sinek. He’s got a real genius for putting his finger on a particular idea or issue, and then explaining it in a human and down-to-earth way. It’s worth checking out his Ted talks too, and other lectures: there are loads of them on YouTube and elsewhere. Although what he says is highly relevant to the business world, he looks far beyond that. He’s particularly interesting on human behaviour – both as individuals and at the organisational level.

I think my favourite piece by him is ‘The Power of Why’, in which he talks about why we do what we do: the Why, the How and the What. He draws a great example using Apple. They talk more about why they do things – to challenge the status quo, to make people’s lives better – rather than what they do. As a result, you don’t particularly think of them as a computer company but as something much bigger.

My third recommendation is very practical and news-based. The podcast Cybersecurity Today is an excellent source of information and insight on an issue that’s very important. And it’s only going to get more important: it’s estimated that soon 80% of all IT spend will be on security. It’s a constant battle between the people who are trying to defraud us and those who are trying to defend us, and the more you know about it the scarier it is!

Those are three podcasts that give me a lot of return for my investment of time. I hope you find them useful too. And if you have any other suggestions, please let me know. I’m always open to new ideas.

Tony Quinn

CEO, Silver Cloud

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