#53 - Making Research Relatable
w/ Kate Young
Host, Writer & Producer of This is Purdue Podcast
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SHOW NOTES
My guest today is Kate Young, host, writer and producer of This Is Purdue, an award-winning podcast that highlights exciting stories of innovative Boilermakers and shares them with a global audience.
In this episode, Kate provides an inside look at how This Is Purdue came to be, how it fits into Purdue's overall content strategy, and key lessons learned along the way.
Key Takeaways:
Starting a podcast as a hobby can give you valuable experience and open unexpected doors, like Kate's role hosting This Is Purdue.
Consistency and social promotion are key to building awareness and audiences for a new podcast. Start small if needed, like monthly vs. weekly episodes.
Feedback and impact stories, though rare, are powerful reminders of how podcasts can uniquely reach and resonate with listeners.
Repurposing podcast audio and video into short-form social content expands reach and gives new entry points into the full episodes.
Experiment with trends like memes and popular formats as inspiration for companion social content beyond repurposed clips.
Research-focused episodes can showcase fascinating work happening at universities in an accessible way to various audiences.
Connect with Kate:
Twitter: @KateMYoung https://twitter.com/katemyoung
Podcast: https://www.purdue.edu/podcast
Connect with John:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnazoni
Website: https://unveild.tv
Newsletter: https://unveild.tv/newsletter
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Transcript (done with AI so only about 90% accurate):
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:19:21
John Azoni
My guest today is Kate Young. Kate is the host, writer and producer of This Is Purdue, an award winning podcast that highlights exciting stories of innovative boilermakers and shares them with a global audience. And today, we're taking you sort of behind the scenes of this is Purdue and its impact on the university's brand and will probably talk about a bunch of other stuff.
00:00:19:21 - 00:00:21:05
John Azoni
But Kate, welcome to the show.
00:00:22:02 - 00:00:31:08
Kate Young
Thank you. I am so excited. I was telling you before this, I have been listening to your show and a couple of episodes to prep for this and I'm really excited to be here.
00:00:32:02 - 00:00:40:15
John Azoni
Cool. Well, so we always start with a little icebreaker. So tell us something that people would be surprised to know about you.
00:00:42:03 - 00:01:11:23
Kate Young
Okay. So the first part of this is that I feel like it's timely and relevant right now. I'm a huge swifty. I was born two days before Taylor Swift, December 15th, 1989, where I grew up listening to her music just absolutely love her. Got the chance to go to her Aras tour in June. So. But but the main part of why I'm telling you that, too, is because I've always been into pop culture or I love reality dating shows.
00:01:11:23 - 00:01:38:00
Kate Young
The Bachelor franchise, Love is Blind, all that good stuff. So I actually started a hobby podcast with one of my friends and a former coworker who worked with me and news back in the day and being able to learn the inner workings of how podcasting works and how you promote a show and the consistency of getting it out every week and just all of the things that you learn behind the scenes.
00:01:38:00 - 00:02:10:05
Kate Young
I taught myself how to edit. So now when I'm in a pinch, I can quick edit. This is pretty good if I have to. But just learning, you know, as a as a hobby and as a fun kind of side gig actually led me to getting this job at Purdue University. So I hope that story helps. If anyone out there is thinking about starting a podcast, do it, because even if it doesn't, you know, lead to lots of money or fame, it can lead to other really cool things.
00:02:10:23 - 00:02:16:00
John Azoni
That's awesome. So we are big swifties at the is household.
00:02:16:05 - 00:02:17:09
Kate Young
Yes. Yay!
00:02:18:12 - 00:02:34:10
John Azoni
I have to cut my two daughters, eight and six years old. They are huge Taylor Swift fans and I have to cut them off. They want to listen every every trip, anywhere to the grocery store. It's Taylor Swift. And I'm like, I cannot listen to these songs another time.
00:02:35:04 - 00:02:37:02
Kate Young
You've probably memorized them by now.
00:02:37:03 - 00:02:51:18
John Azoni
Pretty much. I am. Usually you know how you like. Like you. You're on like, tick tock and you, like, memorize the the memes and stuff like and you're like, saying them throughout the day. That's Taylor Swift songs for me. I'm just like, and then, like, making up funny versions of.
00:02:52:05 - 00:03:03:21
Kate Young
That because my husband does the same thing. Like, I think he's not listening, but really, and how could he not be listening? Because I'm always blasting and then he'll come up with his own verse and all of a sudden I'm like, So you do like Taylor Swift?
00:03:04:01 - 00:03:31:02
John Azoni
Yeah. Yeah. So we got to we just got a puppy. She's a mini goldendoodle and she's a she's in training right now to be a therapy dog. My wife is is a trauma therapist. So I say that because we had to name her and my daughter's got to pick the middle name. And, of course, her. So her full name is Mabel Swift Azalea.
00:03:31:02 - 00:03:33:15
Kate Young
I love it. I need to meet your daughters.
00:03:34:00 - 00:03:40:03
John Azoni
Yeah, they're. Yeah, So? So, yeah. Kindred spirits over here.
00:03:40:06 - 00:03:42:00
Kate Young
Yeah, I love em.
00:03:42:23 - 00:03:49:12
John Azoni
And I'm super into love is blind like I am more into that show than a human should be.
00:03:50:04 - 00:03:50:12
John Azoni
Right?
00:03:50:12 - 00:03:57:18
Kate Young
I agree. I think there's a new new series coming out soon. Or a new season, I should say. So I'm looking forward to that.
00:03:57:23 - 00:04:23:00
John Azoni
Yeah. We watched the Brazil one, which is all dubbed in American, which is really it takes some getting used to. Yeah, but anyway, we could talk about love is blind. All that could be a whole nother episode anyways. It really could. So it is. It is. Valentine. I didn't prep you with this part cause I wanted to. I wanted this to be an impromptu thing.
00:04:23:21 - 00:04:45:13
John Azoni
It's Valentine's Day. When we were recording this, and I bought my oldest daughter, Allie. I bought her part of her Valentine's Day was a would you rather Valentine's book? I You should buy the kids like a book plus candy and other stuff so I pulled out to. Would you rather Valentine's related questions and let's see which side of the coin you fall on.
00:04:45:16 - 00:04:46:02
Kate Young
Okay.
00:04:46:21 - 00:04:59:12
John Azoni
So, Kate, would you rather eat a box of tuna flavored Valentine's chocolates or a bunch of lollipops that taste like sour, rotten milk? These are obviously questions formulated for kids.
00:04:59:12 - 00:05:16:08
Kate Young
So I think I'm going to go with the tuna flavored chocolates that the suckers would take a while, would like be in your mouth for a while and you'd have that taste. Whereas the chocolates, I think I could try to down them and get it over with.
00:05:17:05 - 00:05:24:05
John Azoni
Yeah, I think tuna and chocolate has a better chance of being a good combination than sour milk and anything. Yeah.
00:05:24:15 - 00:05:26:00
John Azoni
Yeah, yeah.
00:05:26:09 - 00:05:27:05
Kate Young
That's what I'm going with.
00:05:27:12 - 00:05:43:00
John Azoni
Yeah. Good choice. Okay. And then lastly, would you rather have a heart shaped head and never be able to wear a hat again? Or would you rather have a or a heart shaped or heart shaped feet and never be able to wear shoes again?
00:05:44:03 - 00:05:57:19
Kate Young
Oh, definitely going with the heart shaped head because I don't really wear hats anyway. I feel like hats are sometimes hard to pull off and so I'm going to keep my shoes and my shoe game going.
00:05:58:14 - 00:05:58:23
John Azoni
And.
00:05:59:08 - 00:06:01:00
Kate Young
Avoid hats. That's fine with me.
00:06:01:11 - 00:06:11:02
John Azoni
Okay. And you're free to use any of these questions on your podcast. I mean, this is feel free to take inspiration from, you know, how this episode has started here.
00:06:11:15 - 00:06:18:13
Kate Young
I think that could really throw off the guest and I here for I might be here for that. Like what is their reaction to that?
00:06:19:11 - 00:06:19:21
John Azoni
Yeah.
00:06:20:16 - 00:06:25:07
John Azoni
Okay. So give us a broad overview of the podcast.
00:06:25:07 - 00:06:53:01
Kate Young
Yeah. So this is Purdue is the official university podcast. So we are, are doing shows and episodes around all different topics related to Purdue. Purdue's very into engineering heavy STEM focused. You know, we have all different types of programs. The College of Liberal Arts athletics is huge. We're part of a massive Big Ten school that loves all things athletics.
00:06:53:01 - 00:07:17:02
Kate Young
So sometimes we have focused our episodes around that and tell stories around some of our athletic centered guests and coaches and players. So it's a variety of topics, but the whole goal is really to tell these incredible stories that are coming out of Purdue University. And I know we'll touch on some of those here soon, but it's really, you know, it's brand awareness.
00:07:17:02 - 00:07:49:15
Kate Young
It's it's getting it out there on social media so that people know the podcast exists. Right. A lot of times we hear I didn't know Purdue had a podcast. I'd be interested in that. So making sure with that consistency, getting it out on schedule, on time and again, like using that, all the amazing social media accounts and presence that we have on social with alumni and other fans to promote it and let people know that that the show exists and this level of of storytelling and this format exists for them.
00:07:49:22 - 00:07:53:09
Kate Young
To hear more about Purdue and what we're doing here.
00:07:53:09 - 00:08:03:16
John Azoni
Cool. And you told us a little bit already in the in our an intro question here, but how did you arrive at being the host of this is Purdue.
00:08:04:15 - 00:08:30:17
Kate Young
Yeah, I've had quite a journey. I graduated from Purdue in 2012. I was part of the College of Liberal Arts, so proud Boilermaker myself and I started in news. So I was in a newsroom. I was a producer back when, you know, social media, you'd post once a day on Facebook. Instagram didn't exist, dating myself, but so lots of posts.
00:08:30:17 - 00:08:31:01
John Azoni
On your.
00:08:31:01 - 00:08:32:20
John Azoni
Wall of yeah.
00:08:33:03 - 00:08:57:20
Kate Young
Yeah, you post on your wall posted, you know, brands brands had like what, 500 people maybe liking them at the time. So yeah, it was yeah, it was quite, quite a journey. I did a little bit of on air work as well and then I got, you know, the news stability of, of local news isn't, you know, what it used to be.
00:08:57:20 - 00:09:23:06
Kate Young
So I decided to branch off, I got into public relations as I did some sports marketing for Indy car, different sports around Indianapolis. So that was really fun and exciting. Lots of traveling and then I decided to try my hand at a startup opportunity that came my way. So really small company and it was all professional podcasting and B2B based podcasting.
00:09:23:06 - 00:09:45:01
Kate Young
So that was when I first came into the professional world of podcasting. Then like I said, I started that hobby show knowing that I kind of knew how to start a podcast, so why not try it myself? And then I got a LinkedIn message one day from Purdue and they said, Hey, we're hiring a host for this this official university podcast.
00:09:45:01 - 00:10:16:13
Kate Young
Are you interested? And the rest is history. But yeah, I would say LinkedIn is obviously very important. And John, I know you're on there a lot, but having a presence and being in the podcast space kind of at an earlier time has has really been beneficial. When I think about like finding my niche and you know, even like your personal brand just posting as much as you can, I really think that helped me, you know, get this opportunity at Purdue and I've been here three years now.
00:10:17:19 - 00:10:41:09
John Azoni
That's awesome. That's such a cool, cool journey. Yeah, I love I love being on LinkedIn and I love just like the community that's that's building. I honestly never I actively did not want to start a podcast like when I when I when I left the previous company I was working at and started unveiled my boss at the previous company is huge podcaster.
00:10:41:09 - 00:11:00:20
John Azoni
He's got he's got a couple of big ones. He was always he was always interviewing somebody. I'm like, That sounds exhausting. I'm an introvert. I, I do not want that to be my marketing story. And then I just kind of stumbled into it. I was like, I'll just I have this storytelling presentation that I do. So I was like, I'll just record the audio of it.
00:11:00:20 - 00:11:40:04
John Azoni
And then I have a reason to send that to people, you know, for cold outreach. And then I was like, Okay, that was actually kind of fun. I'll write another episode and, and it just kind of snowballed from there. But like, I love the I love the community that that podcasting has given, you know, me personally, I think it's I've made so many rich, rich relationships with, with people in higher ed and people outside of higher ed and just to have a platform for people to come on is it's a it's a very powerful tool when you can when you can build it up to be to have a little bit of momentum.
00:11:40:21 - 00:11:49:10
John Azoni
Just the the effect on like the community in your life. I think, you know, if nothing else is very strong.
00:11:50:07 - 00:11:51:22
Kate Young
Yes. I absolutely agree.
00:11:53:06 - 00:12:21:13
John Azoni
Um, so tell me how the the podcast fits into Purdue's marketing strategy, because I'm thinking about like I know of schools that want to start a podcast. I know of schools that are like, we should start a podcast, but we're not going to anytime soon. So like, what is like the business case for this is Purdue in terms of how it fits into the brands strategy?
00:12:22:19 - 00:12:53:06
Kate Young
Yeah, absolutely. And that's something that, you know, we've really honed in on over the past three years is is the strategy behind the podcast and why it matters and who's listening and who's accessing it. Right? But, you know, we have we have all these amazing writers, so we have the writing team creating these stories for our persistent Pursuit page, which is the premier storytelling place where alumni can go, Purdue fans can go, parents of students can go, their students can go there and read these stories.
00:12:53:23 - 00:13:17:09
Kate Young
But then, you know, when you boil it all down, you have the podcast, which is of course different than listening or I'm sorry, than reading an article or reading a social media post, right? You can hear the guest, you can hear the nostalgia in their voice or maybe the excitement or the sadness or the vulnerability. It's just a different experience than, you know, reading an article.
00:13:17:15 - 00:13:45:23
Kate Young
So a lot of times, though, part of the strategy is did this story do really well on our on our main website? Is this something that we could turn into a podcast? So creating all of those different avenues of content, you know, we reengage too on the podcast. If this episode did really well, could it also be a written piece that we tell in six months when there's new updates to the story and then we shared on social media or we create YouTube videos.
00:13:46:15 - 00:14:10:08
Kate Young
So just really piecing together the content strategy as a whole and finding the right people from Purdue to tell those stories too, is is a big part of it. But again, it's it is about brand awareness. It's about letting people know there's all these little things going on there. Even myself as an alumni I don't always know about or, you know, I want to tell people about.
00:14:11:03 - 00:14:35:21
Kate Young
So that's really where, where the podcast comes in. And I'm thankful that, you know, the marketing department has, you know, just really bought in into podcasting. And again, in a in a time when brands and companies are kind of testing out a podcast strategy, we were in early, we started it in 2020. So knowing that we've been able to grow, we just had 100 episodes a couple of weeks ago.
00:14:35:21 - 00:14:48:11
Kate Young
So there's been some really exciting growth and really good like just feedback and stories that we that we hear about the podcast that we know it's, it's, it's worth it and that it's working.
00:14:48:11 - 00:15:22:15
John Azoni
Yeah, yeah. It's, and it's, it's a really unique platform. The idea that someone will choose to just sit and listen to such a long conversation like there, that's, that's really like that sort of Netflix effect in play where like if you got a show like Love is Blind or whatever, you're like, you're going to commit to it, you're going to listen, I'm going to watch this show and you're going to just keep watching and watching until you burn out.
00:15:23:21 - 00:15:48:02
John Azoni
But like, I mean, podcasts, maybe not that bingeable, but like, what a what a privilege it is to have built a platform where people want to sit and listen to you and a guest talk for a very extended period of time like no other. Marketing is is like that. I mean, we're so focused on, you know, me in being in the video world.
00:15:48:06 - 00:16:15:23
John Azoni
We're clients are so focused on like creating short stuff. Like, yeah, they're always they're always fighting against like the enemy is people's short attention spans, but they don't give enough credit to like context and how like I actually will not listen to a podcast if it's too short. Like if I really if I go if I go to an episode and it's like 10 minutes long, I'm like, I really want I don't want to be interrupted in 10 minutes, then switch topics.
00:16:15:23 - 00:16:31:14
John Azoni
I want to really sink into something for a long time. And that's different than if I'm on LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever and I'm scrolling. I don't I don't necessarily I'm not committing. I'm most likely not clicking on your link to go read your blog.
00:16:32:05 - 00:16:34:14
Kate Young
Right? So that's really.
00:16:34:16 - 00:16:35:14
John Azoni
Interesting. Yeah.
00:16:36:04 - 00:16:57:15
Kate Young
Yeah, that's super interesting too, because I've been kind of thinking through some of our episodes, our 25 minutes, and some of them are 55. They're almost an hour. Our our hundredth episode was over an hour. So I've been like, Should I be leaving more on the cutting room floor? Should I be focusing on, you know, what I think our audience will think is interesting?
00:16:57:15 - 00:17:18:18
Kate Young
Or should I just let the guest talk and play out exactly, you know, their thoughts and their stories. And really, I've been leaning more towards not cutting too much and having the guest have this platform to tell the full story and not, you know, cut anything too short or, you know, place edits just just to kind of place them.
00:17:18:18 - 00:17:21:03
Kate Young
So. Mm hmm. I like that you said that.
00:17:22:01 - 00:17:22:07
John Azoni
Yeah.
00:17:22:17 - 00:17:44:02
John Azoni
Well, for people listening to I mean, just just anecdotally, you know, I know there's there are podcasts in higher ed space that are very much to the point. And I think that those server a great deal of value. There are other podcasts that really meander and you might, you might think like, Wow, if I tried that, like people would be really bored.
00:17:44:02 - 00:18:14:22
John Azoni
But like for example, meanders meander is a pejorative word. That's not what I mean. But like, for example, Josie Ahlquist has her podcast is Josie in the podcast and she interviews higher ed marketing leaders. And my favorite part about listening to her podcast is the off topic stuff that happens because she's always asking. I emailed her recently. I was like, I have never listened to a podcast where I'm like, I'm like one minute getting like really good, like value out, like how to do social media.
00:18:14:22 - 00:18:39:11
John Azoni
And the next minute I'm like, I should call my mom just, you know, to say hi. You know, it's like it's this emotional ride, you know? And I'm like, I love it. I'm like, in my woodshop, just listening. And I'm just I love I love being wondering, you know, And I think we don't give enough credit to podcasts being an opportunity to just be a real conversation and not be like, you know, we got to keep on listening.
00:18:39:11 - 00:18:45:14
John Azoni
We got to keep on listening, We got to worry about the drop off point, you know? Yeah, I and I like not worry about it.
00:18:47:01 - 00:19:10:06
Kate Young
Yeah, I recently had an interview with she's the H.R. director at Ford Motor Company and she's a Daniels School of Business alumna at Purdue. And I was kind of like opening up to her about all the different job career struggles, for lack of a better word, that I've had or like I've gotten laid off. I've had agencies that went under because they were mismanaged.
00:19:10:06 - 00:19:35:21
Kate Young
I've had this and that, and then she gave me personal advice. But I put that in the episode because I'm like, This is advice for everyone. She didn't just just mean me right? She's like, Your failures are what shape you and just this really great, like, topical, incredible advice that I was like, even though people don't need to know my journey necessarily, I cut that out.
00:19:36:22 - 00:19:46:08
Kate Young
She shared advice that that would resonate with so many people, so that's that's a good little thing that I just a story I just thought of when you said that.
00:19:46:20 - 00:20:20:09
John Azoni
Yeah. Okay, cool. So thinking about think about a smaller school with maybe a smaller centralized marketing department, why might this format of storytelling be worth considering? Because Purdue does a lot of big I mean, you guys are like no small cookie or whatever. What what the phrase is. I'm trying to you guys are a big school, you know, And I think people look at you guys as like, okay, but Purdue has a lot of resources and they've got a whole team of writers and things.
00:20:20:09 - 00:20:24:03
John Azoni
But like, what would you say to a smaller school?
00:20:24:03 - 00:20:47:11
Kate Young
I think, you know, I've talked to other, you know, fairly big universities who they have a podcast and that podcast person isn't necessarily full time on the podcast. They're writing other stories. Maybe they're in charge of the monthly newsletter or other marketing initiatives. But advice I would give is you don't have to start a weekly show. We don't have a weekly show.
00:20:47:11 - 00:21:11:14
Kate Young
It's bi weekly. It comes out every other Thursday. Start with a monthly show, put, you know, organize and put together 12 episodes, you know, batch record a couple and maybe have six ready to go so that if anything else comes up, if team members are on vacation or sick or whatever it may be, or you need to allocate, allocate resources somewhere else, you can do that.
00:21:11:14 - 00:21:36:11
Kate Young
But start off, you know, a little bit slower paced and see how what your results are, what your metrics are, and you can build, you know, a strategy from there, but you can record virtually. You don't have to have all these fancy video setups, all this equipment. You know, some of our best interviews are done with alums who live in California and aren't going to come back to Indiana for the interview.
00:21:36:11 - 00:22:02:05
Kate Young
Right. So I think there's a lot you can do, you know, working in startups. I also had all this experience with what are really good options to use when we don't have a lot of money. So Riverside that we're reporting on right now, it's like $30 a month. Yep. There's different tools that, you know, hobby podcasters use all the time too, that don't, aren't making a big, you know, salary or have this huge budget.
00:22:02:05 - 00:22:22:20
Kate Young
So look into the resources that, you know, there's so many out there that aren't expensive, aren't going to eat away at your budget. And then again, start small, test it out to maybe even use different hosts. You could do an episode on one topic and, you know, maybe a writer who's really interested in athletics is hosting that one.
00:22:22:20 - 00:22:52:18
Kate Young
And then you take another, you know, marketing employee or communications employee and have them talk about a different topic. So you're not you're not eating up that one staff members time maybe, but there's a lot of different things you can do. And I think, you know, starting it and getting it off the ground is almost sometimes the hardest challenge and just being able to keep it consistent and being able to, you know, tell those stories in a different format, test it out, like what's the worst that could happen?
00:22:52:18 - 00:23:10:03
Kate Young
Another approach I've seen is like a seasonal approach. So you have a season come out and then you take three months off, four months, six months, whatever you need to do to organize for the next season. But then your audience also is aware, you know, I'm not going to get this weekly or bi weekly or monthly on my feed.
00:23:10:08 - 00:23:16:06
Kate Young
It's going to drop as a season such as Love is Blind on Netflix, right?
00:23:16:06 - 00:23:44:21
John Azoni
Yeah, I like the seasonal approach and I think that that is a real smart way to reduce overwhelm for people because you can you can batch record these are going monthly or something like that. It's it's really I think it's a lot of the post-production that's that's that's hard that I think I don't I don't know this for sure but I think that that might be the one the thing that scares a lot of people off is like you have this episode, but then what do I do with it?
00:23:44:21 - 00:24:09:22
John Azoni
I got to, you know, get a transcript. I got to, you know, optimize this for social. Yeah, I got to do all this stuff. And one thing I found that that was really transformational for me was going on Upwork and hiring two virtual assistants that that one one edits the podcast and the other one preps the episode for the editor and kind of like it's like the project manager.
00:24:10:20 - 00:24:31:14
John Azoni
So literally, like all I do for this episode is have the conversation, write a few notes on like what? Maybe look out for this part, cut that out or whatever, and that's it. And it just shows up, you know, in my in my feed, everyone's like, Yeah, it is the best.
00:24:31:14 - 00:24:58:01
Kate Young
So yeah, and I know same with like even graphics. And in my startup life we found people on and now I can't remember the oh, fiber fiber and they would create like a graphics template And so you can just plug and play with the guest headshot and switch out the titles and the episode numbers. But you know, you don't have that pressure of like, I don't have a designer on the team.
00:24:58:01 - 00:25:05:12
Kate Young
You know, you can workshop a couple of things and use outside resources when when you have to, when it makes sense.
00:25:06:09 - 00:25:32:03
John Azoni
Yeah. Having I've had I've had freelancers, I had fiber design templates for me in Canva and that's huge. Every proposal that I send out to them, to a to a client is in is done through Canva on a nice, cool designed branded template. Yeah, I had that I had made and that just and everything is just plug and play.
00:25:32:03 - 00:25:50:22
John Azoni
Just copy and paste. You know, for the podcast it's the cover image in Canva that that I had designed. And then all I'm doing is changing the title and then popping their headshot in there. And you know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, as they say in the business world, right?
00:25:50:22 - 00:25:56:19
Kate Young
Right. Even my personal podcast, I paid $30 and they came up with an intro outro song.
00:25:57:15 - 00:25:57:23
John Azoni
Yeah.
00:25:58:08 - 00:26:11:05
Kate Young
Like a musician on Fiverr. I mean, it was amazing. That's $30 off or like just just taking things off your plate. There are a lot of resources that you can kind of play around with if you're on a budget.
00:26:11:05 - 00:26:42:01
John Azoni
Yeah, Fiverr is one of the best kept secrets I think that not enough people use for very task oriented things. I've used it for so many things I had. I had a virus. Enter my website at one point several years ago and it was like it wouldn't work. And I was like, I have no idea where to even start with this because I'm not a coder or anything.
00:26:42:08 - 00:26:50:17
John Azoni
I just hired a guy for $15 in India. Oh, he went in there, boom, boom, boom, done the next, the next morning I woke up, it was fixed.
00:26:52:02 - 00:26:55:10
Kate Young
It was it's just the best $15 you ever spent, right? I mean.
00:26:55:10 - 00:27:20:14
John Azoni
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So the Purdue Research series. So I really like this and I, I, I am really gravitating lately towards research content, you know, for schools to be publishing research content because I just personally find it very interesting. But tell me about that series and why is it its own thing?
00:27:20:14 - 00:27:49:02
Kate Young
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, after a couple of years doing going episode to episode, all these various topics, it was kind of discussed like, what can we do with the really, you know, technical STEM based, you know, or not STEM based honestly, research, the really important research that, again, maybe our alumni don't know is happening, maybe media doesn't know is happening on the outside.
00:27:49:02 - 00:28:19:00
Kate Young
Like, what are these things that make Purdue so unique and special and how how can we highlight that and how can we highlight how Purdue's researchers are providing these, like practical solutions to the world's toughest challenges? How is Purdue like for a better I mean, for how essentially how are we changing the world? So we honed in on a couple of our our experts, you know, based on university initiatives.
00:28:19:00 - 00:28:47:10
Kate Young
What is our President Myung Chang, really focused on for Purdue and our growth? So we came up with four different topics. And one of the episodes had two different food science professors on it. So we had five different guests total, but we honed in on these topics that are, you know, either really hot in the news or, you know, timely and and, you know, took it from there.
00:28:47:10 - 00:29:16:10
Kate Young
So a really good example is Purdue's research and education with the semiconductor world. You know there's a huge shortage It's being outsourced overseas. How can we educate engineers in the US in Indiana and encourage them to, you know, get internships, go into careers with this semiconductor technology and grow that and really solve that problem? And so that was a great example of actually a shorter episode.
00:29:16:10 - 00:29:43:13
Kate Young
So that episode was around 25 minutes and it was short, sustained to the point. Then some of our other episodes within the series are a bit longer and we, you know, like you said, kind of talked about different things. One of the professors works on the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. So he, you know, is directly working with NASA on this this massive initiative.
00:29:43:13 - 00:30:13:08
Kate Young
And he lives in West Lafayette, you know, is a professor at Purdue and has has his hands in this incredible research. So but he focused a little bit on we love the West Lafayette, Lafayette community. My wife owns a business here. So kind of more of that. You know, again, like that nostalgia that that people can feel are like, yes, I felt the same way when I was at Purdue, that it's a it's a large campus, but it's this community that really supports each other and is so special.
00:30:13:08 - 00:30:45:09
Kate Young
And we're so glad that, you know, we chose to to come here and work here and be part of this community. So there's a lot of different storytelling angles within the research series. But the other one was food, Food science. Like I said, we had two professors who spoke to that. So food safety, sustainability, how they're educating people in countries, you know, that don't know as much about food safety or why or why are we getting sick from this and world hunger?
00:30:45:09 - 00:31:23:14
Kate Young
How can we provide more food as the population keeps growing? And then our last one was on bio archeology. So, you know, the ancient Nubians and how they interacted with the ancient Egyptians and more of that kind of you know, if you're really into history, you know, then that would be an episode that appealed to you. But but how those findings and that research impacts how, you know, health care is treated today and how you know humans and different like how we all interact together today.
00:31:23:22 - 00:31:36:04
Kate Young
Mm. Can be learned from that research from all those years ago. So lots of different aspects and components, whatever you might find the most interesting, they all varied immensely.
00:31:37:06 - 00:31:52:07
John Azoni
That's really cool. I like that. I listened to the semi conductor episode and I was like, I didn't know what a semiconductor was until until I listened to that. So now I.
00:31:52:07 - 00:32:17:04
Kate Young
I was right there with you. Yeah, I was right there with you. I, you know, again, I'm Laurence Arts. I'm more communication writing, speaking, all of that, all of those good things. But, you know, learning about the importance of semiconductors, like, oh, wow, this is a huge initiative that Purdue is is leading and is really at the forefront of and you know, hearing why it's important.
00:32:18:04 - 00:32:21:03
Kate Young
So, yeah, I'm glad I'm glad you listened to that one.
00:32:21:20 - 00:32:43:20
John Azoni
Yeah. So when we I think like, you know, when we think about storytelling, I think that we often okay, my kids just got home. So if they hear screaming I'm sorry. Yesterday I had my my youngest I did an interview and I was I brought her into my office and I was like, I'm you are the screaming police.
00:32:43:20 - 00:32:51:10
John Azoni
Can you help me? Like, not like, can you make sure nobody in the house is screaming? She did so good. She, like, took it so seriously.
00:32:53:03 - 00:32:55:04
Kate Young
That's the way to do it. I mean, you have tricks.
00:32:55:11 - 00:32:55:20
John Azoni
Yeah.
00:32:56:22 - 00:33:39:00
John Azoni
Anyway, but yeah, I think when we think about storytelling, you know, we often think about, like social proof stories, like student testimonials, alumni testimonials, stuff like that. I think this research series is a good way to kind of blend the two because they're people that are connected to Purdue, right? And and I just think there's like such a big opportunity to tell, you know, the stories of, of, of world issues, you know, what's like what's going on in the world that people care about that that that we want to, you know, learn about and learn from a through a Purdue lens or whatever your your school's brand is what spouse cares what what's been the
00:33:39:05 - 00:33:44:17
John Azoni
the the response from your audience on the research stuff versus the other episodes.
00:33:46:05 - 00:34:18:10
Kate Young
Yeah you know we we wanted to again stay stay in branding and keep that brand awareness continually, you know continuously being built up. So we didn't tailor too many things, but we did some subtle things. We added some special music. We designated, you know, the graphics had designation that this was the research series. So when you're scrolling through Spotify or any of the other platforms, that was part of the title and it was part of our episodic graphics on social media too.
00:34:18:10 - 00:34:35:23
Kate Young
So that was really fun creatively too, to work together as a team to think about, okay, we don't want to shift things a ton. This is still part of this is Purdue, but how can we have these little tweaks that that let our audience know that these episodes are going to be a bit different, They're scripted a bit differently.
00:34:37:10 - 00:35:12:11
Kate Young
I think there's really cool feedback that we've seen just through certain like accidental stories. So I went to podcast movement back in August, the largest podcast conference in the country, and someone came up to me and was like, Oh my gosh, I listened to your episode about semiconductors, and I was like, Oh, okay. And she's like, Yeah, it was, you know, I saw it on LinkedIn and I work for a higher ed company, and I work with a lot of student engineers who are who are interested in, you know, where they can take their career.
00:35:12:11 - 00:35:32:18
Kate Young
And so I sent them that episode and said, What have you thought about semiconductors or have you thought about an internship with with a company producing semiconductors or helping, you know, solve some of those issues? So that was really cool. That was the first time that I was like, Oh, wow. Someone approached me and knew this is Purdue, which is always just super special.
00:35:33:07 - 00:35:48:20
Kate Young
Yeah, Another really cool story that one of the guests I can't. It's still confidential, so unfortunately I can't share everything. But one of the guests got this really cool opportunity to do a Taylor Swift. If I had Taylor Swift on the show. Oh, my gosh.
00:35:49:06 - 00:35:51:11
John Azoni
Oh, sorry. The cat's out of the bag. Taylor Swift.
00:35:51:22 - 00:35:52:03
John Azoni
Yeah.
00:35:52:18 - 00:36:17:07
Kate Young
Yeah, it was Taylor Swift, So I'm not telling any secrets. Yeah, but this guest got this really cool opportunity to do, like, a broadcast opportunity, I should say. And he said that this person Googled and was trying to find the right fit for this. And who are we going to feature? And sure enough, our podcast came up. So then he listened to the podcast.
00:36:17:07 - 00:36:40:08
Kate Young
So then he heard about, Oh, all these students love this professor and you know, he knows X, Y, Z. Listen to him talk about on this podcast. This is our guy, this is who we want. And so I just got that email about a week ago and I cool, This is perfect. You know, like, I know people are focused on metrics and how many lessons do you have?
00:36:40:08 - 00:37:02:22
Kate Young
How many subscribers? What what can you tell us about that? But those those stories that like direct feedback that you you know, it's very rare in podcasting, right? But like when those stories do come, it's it's just painting the perfect picture of why podcasting is important and why, you know, it's such a great brand awareness play. It's a great storytelling place.
00:37:02:22 - 00:37:10:01
Kate Young
So those are a couple of of the stories that recently that that I've heard about.
00:37:10:13 - 00:37:46:18
John Azoni
Yeah, I think the the double edged sword of podcasting is, is the metrics don't really tell the full story because if you look at my I mean if you look at my podcast metric metrics like downloads per episode, it looks like not that many people listen. But, but in the real world, I like reach out to that because every day I spend, you know, I just try to spend a half an hour every day just making new connections and like having meaningful connections with people on LinkedIn rather than just like LinkedIn knowing people.
00:37:47:22 - 00:37:55:15
John Azoni
And on more than one occasion, I've reached out to someone for the first time and they'd be like, Oh, I listen to your podcast and I'm like, I'm always so surprised.
00:37:56:14 - 00:37:57:00
Kate Young
Yeah.
00:37:57:18 - 00:38:37:11
John Azoni
Yeah. And it's like, and once. But yeah, once in a while you'll get like I'll get, I had a, a director at a, at a little small liberal arts school reached out to me and was like, I quote your podcast all the time to my team, you know, And I'm like, Oh that's so great. And what's great about it is like when you do hear that feedback, it's usually like a very deep, like rich thing because people are choosing to listen to you for like up to a, you know, sometimes like an hour, you know, they're like, yes, they're really invested and, and it's just and it's and it's so cool.
00:38:37:11 - 00:38:53:14
John Azoni
I just think it's such a privilege, you know, to to be able to provide that value for for for people that they would have enough of a rich experience to come up to you and be like, something happened because of your podcast. You know, I listen.
00:38:53:14 - 00:39:15:06
Kate Young
To it. Yes. And it's it's it's the ultimate compliment. Like how I mean, I think when people give that feedback to you, they don't understand. And I try to tell them, but I'm like this compliment, this feedback. It makes my whole not my whole day. It makes my whole month like, mm, I will, I can always reflect back and say, well, this happened because of the podcast and this is a really cool story.
00:39:15:06 - 00:39:18:21
Kate Young
So yeah, I think that feedback is so special to podcasters.
00:39:19:08 - 00:39:33:14
John Azoni
Yes. If you, I will say if you are listening to this and you like a podcast, um, definitely take a minute to leave a review, a rating, anything because what people don't do is that.
00:39:34:06 - 00:39:34:09
John Azoni
It's.
00:39:34:12 - 00:39:56:03
John Azoni
Like people, you can tell people on your podcast up and down all day long, send me an email if you want to chat, like leave a review or whatever. Like we really want to hear from you and, and like it's it just makes our lives, you know, to even just hear, just get any sort of feedback on it on an episode.
00:39:56:03 - 00:40:18:12
Kate Young
Yes. Yes. Or people will send emails to the general like marketing, communications, email and then like talking about the podcast and then and it's just like, Oh my gosh, like you took the time out of your day to find on our website, like the contact us like, yeah, that email. So it's, it is, it's really cool and special.
00:40:19:02 - 00:40:30:13
John Azoni
Yeah. So where do you see like the biggest untapped potential here, like around using research podcasts like this as marketing tools for, for universities.
00:40:30:13 - 00:40:58:09
Kate Young
Yeah, I think, I think there's so many different avenues that you could go and things that you can do with it. But really just I think sometimes when you work at a university or you work in higher ed, you know, you're not quite always aware of like, Wait, slow down, this is really cool. I can't believe that that we're doing this or you're having a conversation with your mom or, you know, a sibling or a friend.
00:40:58:09 - 00:41:20:14
Kate Young
And you mentioned something about work and they're like, Wait, why that that's so cool. That's so meaningful. That's that's really going to change things for a lot of people. So I think just immersing yourself in that in in your university and in that culture and, you know, working with campus partners, hey, what is what is your school doing?
00:41:20:14 - 00:41:50:00
Kate Young
What is your college doing and hearing their their thoughts and, hey, this professor I know people say this professor's great, this professor's awesome. He's really good at that. She's really good at that. But really listening to those those resources and those people on campus who are really involved in some of these topics and maybe, you know, doing a pre-interview or getting some extra additional research done yourself.
00:41:50:00 - 00:42:09:18
Kate Young
But like, where could we take this story or like as a marketing department, hey, we got this pitch about this person or this research that's being done and then having those creative minds, you know, come up with different ideas, different video ideas of how to shoot the interview or where to shoot it. Sometimes. Sometimes that's really fun, too.
00:42:09:18 - 00:42:40:21
Kate Young
Like, where are we going to shoot at? That reflects what our guest does and why it's important and so taking taking those relationships with campus partners, those stories that you're hearing even on Facebook, if there's a comment, hey, you know, so-and-so is doing this. And my kid said, it's the best classes ever taken. And I think those are a lot of resources that are right in front of us, but maybe we don't always know what to do with or we don't dig into it further.
00:42:41:15 - 00:43:04:12
Kate Young
So just taking time to listen and get some some feedback or do your additional research, like I said, to dive into that topic and it could be one of the best episodes you've ever done. And also we've done episodes that I don't think will be really successful. And sure enough, we get all this feedback and all these lessons and I'm like, Oh wow.
00:43:04:12 - 00:43:20:03
Kate Young
Like, that's a super interesting component to in podcasting where, you know, sometimes if you aren't sure how an episode is going to perform and it surprises you, that's like a great takeaway too, when you look at your show overall and how it's doing and everything.
00:43:20:18 - 00:43:46:18
John Azoni
Yeah, I like what you said about just talking to campus partners and finding out what what's going on, because I think it doesn't you don't have to have a research school, you know, to to take cues from from this approach. It really is about like just broadening your horizons of what storytelling is about and and and just getting people onto a platform that's just low pressure.
00:43:46:18 - 00:44:05:22
John Azoni
And, you know, you don't have to feel like, okay, this person is doing something cool. Now I got to like, get a whole video crew and yeah, baby, sit this project for six months and, you know, or we got to bring in our writer and, you know, put it in the writing cue to like write a blog about or whatever.
00:44:06:05 - 00:44:33:06
John Azoni
It really like that's what I like about podcasting is just like you're doing something cool. Quick message to you like, Hey, you want to come on my show, you know, and talk about that? And people are like, Yeah, cool. And then we then we do it, you know, and it's like, you know, and, and I think that's I think that's like really in terms of content marketing, that's what really takes a lot of the, the pressure off of, of, of doing storytelling on that format.
00:44:33:08 - 00:44:59:15
John Azoni
It is, it is just very, just casual and you can you can act on those opportunities when when someone is doing something cool. And I think like just like every literally I think literally every professor could do their own episode or even if it's just getting it doesn't even have to be a podcast. But even just like just sit him down for a video interview and just have them talking on camera.
00:44:59:15 - 00:45:23:19
John Azoni
It doesn't have to be like fancy B-roll and it doesn't have to look like a movie, right? You know, But like, they they, I'm sure, have something interesting in their career that they've done that that you can really zero in on and stop and no don't don't think about it as like a but we have to find some way to market the university through this It's really just like just shine the light on something cool that that's happening.
00:45:23:19 - 00:45:32:15
John Azoni
And it came it came right out of someone from your school. And I think we don't give enough credit to how powerful that actually is.
00:45:32:15 - 00:45:34:03
Kate Young
Absolutely. Yes.
00:45:35:15 - 00:45:57:15
John Azoni
So, okay, so on your YouTube page, you you guys repurpose content a lot, which I think is is cool. And that's also another great benefit of podcasting. So what do you guys have a repurposing strategy? How are those clips like distributed? How do you guys think about like your YouTube page in that format?
00:45:58:19 - 00:46:27:17
Kate Young
Yeah, absolutely. So we just we're about a we just celebrated our one year birthday of creating our own YouTube page, branching off from the official, you know, pretty universal accounts. We were posting all of our podcast clips on there and then, you know, we really wanted to dive into focusing on podcasts content because, you know, from a 30 minute episode, from an hour long episode, there's all these amazing nuggets that you can pull.
00:46:28:02 - 00:46:34:00
Kate Young
And if people don't want to listen to the full thing, they can hear the three minute clip that the guest said about this topic. So.
00:46:34:07 - 00:46:34:14
John Azoni
Right.
00:46:34:21 - 00:46:56:22
Kate Young
We had all this amazing video because we were, you know, utilizing the video strategy, whether it's virtual or in person on campus. And then also, like our YouTube team and our paid team has, you know, all this data about YouTube, Short said. So that's the greatest thing. That's the next best thing. You know, we got to get in on that.
00:46:58:06 - 00:47:32:03
Kate Young
So we had all this great data to show us what we should be doing. So from there and, you know, you can kind of tell in the interview, I'm like that that's a quote or that that's a snippet I'm going to use, you know, So anything that stands out to you in the interview, but creating those kind of like snack sized content bits for social media, again, if you're if you're on YouTube and you don't want to listen to the whole episode or watch the whole video interview, you can just simply click on on a clip that that's a little bit shorter.
00:47:33:20 - 00:47:55:12
Kate Young
So, you know, we put a lot of time and effort into our social media strategy. So our trailer video is kind of just that, like a movie trailer. It's previewing the episode. So we're taking like the best little snippets from the guest and piecing that together for a minute long clip. And so while it's going on YouTube, it's also going on all of our social platforms.
00:47:57:02 - 00:48:04:09
John Azoni
That's a great idea. That's a great way to launch an episode is make a little trailer.
00:48:04:09 - 00:48:24:15
Kate Young
Yeah, and it's and I always say it's a what are we choosing for this? That it's going to make people click and want to listen to the whole thing. So we have this. I'm so excited about it. We have an upcoming athletics episode coming out and one of the guests and it says, Well, do you want to know the real story?
00:48:24:19 - 00:48:28:11
Kate Young
And I'm like, That needs to be the opening thing for every.
00:48:28:11 - 00:48:30:05
John Azoni
Possible clip.
00:48:30:05 - 00:49:03:07
Kate Young
That we do like. I mean, it was just gold. And as soon as I heard it, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is like because I've never had a guy say that. Well, I don't know. Do you want to hear the real behind the scenes story or. And I'm like, Yeah, that's exactly why we're here, right? So just knowing that there's those moments and knowing that, you know, anything you can do to hook them and get, get those people on social or get those people YouTube to either subscribe to the YouTube page or go to the full interview.
00:49:04:02 - 00:49:25:14
Kate Young
That's that's a lot of, you know, our strategy and it's been evolving, you know, lately our YouTube team is like short shorts. That's where it's at. So we're taking those 1 to 3 minute YouTube clips and and and kind of scrapping those and focusing on creating like three YouTube shorts instead. And so again, that's a minute and or under.
00:49:25:15 - 00:49:49:18
Kate Young
So how can I cut certain things to help my video producer get it under a minute? Whereas if their full thought is a three minute long answer to the question or a three minute long thought. So that's been kind of fun and challenging to to think about how can we cut this to make it a shorter and make it shorter content for people.
00:49:49:18 - 00:49:59:03
Kate Young
So yeah, and then of course, all the trends that the Instagram reels, tik-tok, YouTube shorts, you have all that great trending stuff that you can play around on.
00:49:59:15 - 00:50:25:15
John Azoni
Well, I notice that you're even starting to create content for that channel that's not from the podcast. So I notice you did the what's the trend? The of course, you know, I'm a podcast host, of course I'm well, I thought it was super cute and so yeah, what's, what's that been like? Where does that kind of stuff fit in the strategy?
00:50:27:07 - 00:50:48:03
Kate Young
Yeah, it's grown a ton. So obviously, you know, YouTube shorts are fairly new and you know, for you made the decision we don't have a TikTok account so we really went all in on Instagram reels. And then again, that repurposing strategy of wait a minute, if we have an Instagram reel, we can put this on YouTube as well as a short.
00:50:48:03 - 00:51:09:14
Kate Young
So but also knowing what makes sense for a real verse, what makes sense to to try on as a YouTube short. So yeah, that's a great example. I did a a real and, and a short for this instance of you know I'm a podcast host. Of course I love, you know, having these, these headphones on. Like is it really an episode without them.
00:51:09:14 - 00:51:35:18
Kate Young
Yeah. And playing, you know, kind of like, you know, teasing, making a little bit of fun at being a podcast host. So that was a trend that, you know, we saw a lot of students doing with their content. We saw a lot of just companies brands doing it. So we did that. Another good one was back in the day, that Pedro Pascal meme of him eating pizza.
00:51:35:18 - 00:51:36:23
John Azoni
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:51:37:13 - 00:51:37:21
John Azoni
Yeah.
00:51:38:18 - 00:51:59:11
Kate Young
That one. It's been a minute, but yeah, so we did an interview. The president of Pizza Hut is a pretty alum. He graduated from our business school. So, yeah, we went to Pizza Hut to shoot the interview, obviously. And then we were like, We have to use this meme. Like it came out at the perfect time of when we were releasing the episode.
00:51:59:11 - 00:52:26:22
Kate Young
So we played, we did this big play on I Love Pineapple on My Pizza. I might be causing some drama there depending on what side you're on, but I asked the president, Pizza Hut, you know, like is is pineapple a good topping on pizza? And that got a ton of engagement. We had the Pedro meme up as a YouTube sort of like me waiting around to hear if pineapple is inappropriate.
00:52:27:08 - 00:52:52:14
Kate Young
You know, top down on pizza. I'm sure it was a lot better than that. I'm just paraphrasing, but it was a way to to take that trending content and have it apply, you know, to the podcast. And sometimes it's luck, right? But sometimes, you know, I saw the of course strategy are of course trend going around and I'm like, I'm going to capitalize office, I'm going to shoot this and let's, you know, see what happens.
00:52:52:14 - 00:53:13:20
Kate Young
And if it's if we can piece it together and post it and it ended up great. So there's another real short that we did with one of our old who was a former Purdue NFL quarterback. And so it was really simple. It was just him throwing a football. And we're like, give us like three tips on how to throw a football.
00:53:13:20 - 00:53:37:20
Kate Young
And now when you Google how to throw a spiral that's on Google's first page, are YouTube short with this quarterback, Curtis Stoner. So we've again, it's kind of like what's going to take off and resonate with audience and maybe we we've produced some that we think are really cool and fun and they don't take off, but it's been really fun to see that strategy grow.
00:53:37:20 - 00:53:53:00
Kate Young
And again, all of all of the team members contributing all these great ideas and hey, I saw this, what about this and how could we tie that into the episode and into the short? So it's been it's honestly just all about experimenting.
00:53:53:16 - 00:54:19:01
John Azoni
Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. So I would love to I've been doing I've been kind of on a on a failure kick lately. I posted a poll on LinkedIn about like something about, you know, stories of a failure. And then and then I followed up with those people. And I've had some people in that. I've done video interviews with those telling me stories of marketing failure.
00:54:19:13 - 00:54:30:07
John Azoni
And those have been those have gotten some good traction. So I want to know, can you tell me a moment where something didn't go right on the podcast?
00:54:30:07 - 00:54:54:00
Kate Young
Yeah, I was thinking through this one. So we have had a guest not show up, just like I complete no show and we had everything set up and these setups take you know, hours. Yeah. And it was all miscommunication, it was all good. I mean, they felt so terrible, like, I know, oh gosh, you know, things happened. Life happens, right?
00:54:55:01 - 00:55:22:14
Kate Young
So that was one. But the other one that it goes back to that that episode that's coming out soon that I was just talking about. We have an episode with three members of our women's basketball team who won the 1999 NCAA championship. So it's 25 years later. We're reflecting on it. They all live in different places. So how could we get all three together?
00:55:22:14 - 00:55:48:18
Kate Young
It was a virtual interview situation, and the night before, one of the women said, I have a flight to catch. Like my plans changed. Can we postpone? Can we change the time? And it ended up that she did the interview from the airport. Oh, and I'm like, this is going to be a disaster. There's going to be all this background noise.
00:55:48:18 - 00:56:11:19
Kate Young
There's going to be you know, she's going to be short on time. It the value of having the three women together to reflect and discuss and their relationships and their friendships. It was it was so important to the episode, like, what's the audio perfect of her at the airport now was. But it wasn't really it wasn't bad, to be honest.
00:56:11:19 - 00:56:35:20
Kate Young
She had headphones plugged in. Her audio was clear and and I heard some background noise at the time. But, you know, when we download the track, I was like, Hey, this is this is pretty good. And again, the value of having the three women together was more important than if her audio was, you know, a tiny bit fuzzy or there was a little bit of background noise.
00:56:35:20 - 00:56:54:06
Kate Young
So that was a failure that turned into, you know, at the time I was really stressed about it or, you know, how are we going to make this work but that so that's a failure that turned into, you know, something that was essentially good. She didn't have to leave a little bit early. It cut out a little bit early because her plane was boarding.
00:56:54:06 - 00:57:02:05
Kate Young
But you know that those are two things that as I was reflecting on this question, those those came to my head for sure.
00:57:02:17 - 00:57:35:13
John Azoni
Yeah, I think it's okay for the guests to have poor quality audio, but I think there's in my mind, there's less forgiveness for like the hosts. Like the hosts should have good audio and then I think it's expected that these guests are just virtual. They're kind of wherever. You know, I had a one of my favorite podcast, like Funny Moments was like I was interviewing a content manager at a university and why I started asking if, like, do you have a hard stop?
00:57:37:01 - 00:58:05:04
John Azoni
Because for like kind of wrapping up the episode, like kind of like mid mid question, you know, still kind of we haven't gotten to the outro yet and she's like, Oh my gosh, I'm supposed to be in another meeting right now. She's like, I am so sorry, I have to go. So she had to jump off and then I had to like and then I had to like sort of like record something that sounded like I was like wrapping it up, you know, like, okay, well, thanks for being here.
00:58:05:04 - 00:58:08:13
John Azoni
Yeah. Yeah, that's.
00:58:09:05 - 00:58:23:11
Kate Young
Totally. Oh, yeah. Sometimes I'm sure you've had experiences, too, where, like, the guest maybe doesn't open up as much as you wanted or, you know, Yes, you ask a question and the answer is like 15 seconds and you're like, okay, I guess I'll move on to.
00:58:23:11 - 00:58:24:11
John Azoni
The next question.
00:58:25:01 - 00:58:38:12
Kate Young
There's always going to be some of those awkward moments or like, Oh, could you expand on that? You know, and some people just that's not part of their personality or they're not really like verbose. So yeah, I've had those too.
00:58:39:16 - 00:58:57:01
John Azoni
Yeah. I find that's where I find like the pre-interview helps a lot as you can kind of you can at least get a sense for like how are they, what's their, what's their mode of operation here and like how they answer questions. And then you can kind of of course, correct. And like prepare for that. I've Had guests.
00:58:57:08 - 00:59:12:00
John Azoni
I've had guests be really short and I'm like, man, I wish I had thought of like double the amount of questions, you know, so that I actually have more things to ask because we're we're burning through these questions here.
00:59:12:00 - 00:59:15:01
Kate Young
Yeah, I've been through Yeah, I've had that experience for sure.
00:59:16:10 - 00:59:36:08
John Azoni
Well, Kate, this has been super fun. Thank you so much for for being here and taking us behind the scenes a little bit. We're obviously people for people listening. Go listen to the this is Purdue podcasts and go subscribe to their YouTube channel. I am the I'm the 556 subscriber.
00:59:37:15 - 00:59:42:04
Kate Young
So thank you.
00:59:42:04 - 00:59:48:05
John Azoni
So yeah, um yeah. So where can people connect with you at.
00:59:49:14 - 01:00:18:01
Kate Young
Yeah, absolutely. I'm on, I'm on LinkedIn. Kate Young You can read more about my bio or of course listen to the podcast, learn more about the podcast at Purdue Dot edu slash podcast. And then I'm also on Twitter or X, whatever people are calling these days. Kate Young on there, And I also like to discuss podcasts. Love is blind, even maybe, and Taylor Swift's on on Twitter.
01:00:18:01 - 01:00:35:10
John Azoni
So I want to do a I want to do like an episode that's like completely off topic. And I think we should just do A Love is Blind recap. Just talk about the Who's Who. So maybe I'll maybe I'll start like a side.
01:00:35:10 - 01:00:36:08
Kate Young
Invite me on that.
01:00:36:09 - 01:00:51:19
John Azoni
Yeah, I'll start a side podcast for like the higher ed, the real higher ed people who like, want to talk about like real like, cool. So let's come over here to talk about love is blind or like, let's unpack Bachelor or something like, But.
01:00:52:07 - 01:01:18:18
Kate Young
I was recently on my friend's podcast and they were asking me, I came on as like the Taylor Swift correspondent. Like, okay. When she first appeared at Travis's game back in September, we did an episode and like, Is this fake? What is this? And then we just did an episode for the Super Bowl and all the different Taylor Swift theories, what she might wear, who she might be with in her suite.
01:01:19:03 - 01:01:23:07
Kate Young
So that was really fun. So that's all I love all the pop culture ties.
01:01:23:17 - 01:01:24:03
John Azoni
Yes.
01:01:24:11 - 01:01:27:18
John Azoni
Me too. All right. Well, thanks so much for being here. We appreciate it.
01:01:28:20 - 01:01:30:20
Kate Young
Thank you. It was a blast. Thanks for having me.
