Shorty #6 Thank You for a great 2022 and Warren Talks About Podcasts

While Warren is flying solo again, All of us want to thank you for an excellent 2022. 

Warren answers questions:

• What does he look for in a podcast
• What podcasts does Warren listen to HR and not HR 

Transcript

Announcer 0:00

Had you actually read the email, you would know that the podcast you are about to listen to could contain explicit language and offensive content. These HR experts' views are not representative of their past, present, or future employers.

Warren 0:15

Welcome to J Did HR I'm Warren, and once again I am Flying Solo. We have a shorty episode today, just sort of a 2022 wrap-up. Might be one of the shortest shorties we've done thus far, but yeah, I just want to wrap things up and answer a couple of questions we've gotten. But the first thing I really want to do is give my most sincere thanks to all of you listeners who've listened to us through the years. You keep us motivated, you keep us engaged, and for me, this has been a passion project, and you've helped fuel that passion of this passion project. But the podcast is continuing to grow, and it's growing because of you. And I do think it's funny to think that there are many days in a month where the podcast gets as many downloads in a single day as it would in a month for maybe the first year we were getting low numbers like that. But we've continued to grow. Here it is, December 2022, and we have four times the amount of downloads we had in December 2021. I just think it's very awesome. I couldn't can't thank you enough. But please remember to you're what helps this podcast grow. So connect with us on social media, share your stories. I think our next episode, we're going to have a couple of stories to go over that y'all have sent. You can leave reviews, but also engage with us on social media. I am out there trying to be on Twitter once again. I'm trying my hardest. It's not my jam, but I'm trying, but I am on Instagram. But I did want to answer a couple of questions that I do get about podcasts. And when people find out I'm a podcaster, two questions generally come up either in person or online. I've gotten this a few times as well. And I'm going to sort of go with the second one first because it's shorter. But they ask what I look for when I'm listening to a podcast. What makes me want to listen to a podcast? And so I came up with a little bit of a list. The first thing is I'm looking for content that I like. And I'm a nerd, but I do like what I would call edutainment, where I can both have some fun and learn something new. I hope J Did HR is that for some of you. I hope you learn a little something while we be crazy and silly and things like that. So that's number one I'm looking for in a podcast. Number two, good hosts. You've got to be able to connect with a host. You need to be able to feel like you have a connection. I've turned off so many podcasts where it's just a humdrum, milk toast host, good topic, good content, just very dry hosts. And maybe that's me, who knows? But uh let's see here. The next thing I am looking for in a podcast are podcasts that stay in their lane. And what I mean by that is let's just take an HR podcast, for example. I don't want to hear politics, religion, etc., in my HR podcasts. If I wanted to listen to a political podcast, I'd pull up whoever they are the most popular political people are for whatever version of events you want to hear. That's what I do. I don't want to get too political or, God forbid, religious in a podcast or anything like that. That's just such a turn off to me. You know, there's some good podcasts out there I turned off because they got way too political. And I don't want to listen to HR podcasts for that. Or an entertainment, maybe one of my science or history podcasts. Don't want to listen to it for that. The next thing I have is on my list is audio quality. Now I know I have not done the best job always editing the uh podcasts, and audio quality has been pretty bad at times, but there have been some podcasts that I like the hosts, I like the content, I like everything about them, but I just can't listen to them. It sounds like they're calling in from one of those old football phones you'd get with a ESPN or excuse me, sports uh illustrated subscription back in the 80s, and it was just such bad audio. Microphones are cheap, y'all. We started this podcast with some condenser mics that were what $25 a pop. Since then, Feathers and I have both upgraded to some actually pretty highly rated yet inexpensive dynamic microphones. And I tell you, editing and recording is so much easier with these. So less than $100 you can get yourself a high quality dynamic mic. And so that that's another thing for me, audio quality. Next thing is podcasts that have guests that are just trying to hawk something. Maybe they're selling a book, or maybe they're with a software company or something like that. And the whole podcast is not about making good content, it's about giving the person opportunity to hawk whatever it is they want. And I guess if you've listened to more than one episode, you know my feelings on that. So that that's a huge turn off. And then the final thing I would say what I'm looking for in a podcast is a regular publishing schedule. You know, Jaded HR will be out there every Thursday or every other Thursday if we decide to cut off the weeklies, but they're getting good good downloads, so I think y'all are enjoying them. But let us know either way. But yeah, I want to know a regular publishing schedule. I want to look forward to say, hey, JDHR is coming out. I can download that today and listen to it at some point. When it's sort of haphazard when a podcast gets posted, maybe that's just not as attractive to me. Oh, but sometimes it's a surprise, and uh that's fine. So those are some of the things I'm looking for in a podcast. If you have any other ideas, shoot us a message. Let us know what you may like or dislike about the the way I do this podcast. But uh question number two, I get most often, both online and in person, when I tell them I do an HR podcast, is tell me about other HR podcasts you would recommend. And so I made a list, and I hope I'm not forgetting anybody. I spent like some actual time thinking through this list that I wrote down. But there's two sort of categories of podcasts. There's podcasts that I'm gonna listen to every episode, regardless of what the subject or topic is. I just like it that much, and I'm gonna listen. And then there's some other really good podcasts out there. I like them a lot, but I do pick and choose when I listen to them. I pick and choose based on the topic, the guests. That isn't to say that sometimes I won't just download the cop the episode and listen to it anyway or not, but it's it's sort of hard to listen because my my podcast cue is awfully long as I'm an addict and I have an hour plus commute each way, so I got plenty of time to kill in the mornings and the afternoons. So starting with the HR podcast category, podcasts that I listen to absolutely every episode of, first and foremost is gonna be Hostile Work Environment by Mark Alifance and Kate Bischoff. You've probably heard me talk about it any number of times before. They're just hilarious. They're two employment attorneys that talk about just crazy things happening in the employment law world, and it is awesome. I will always recommend that first and foremost when someone asks. It's very funny. You learn something from it, just a great, great podcast. The next podcast I would recommend is What the Heck Is Happening in HR. It's a newer podcast. It's hosted by Kelly Rexroad. One thing I like about it, it's not necessarily funny, funny, but it's brief. Some episodes are as low as five minutes, sometimes I think the longest one has been 15, 20 minutes of something along those lines. Quick and easy with a little bit of humor in there, a good guest on there. So I do enjoy that one as well. And then the third one that I pretty much listen to every episode of is HR Famous. The hosts are Tim Sackett, Jessica Lee, Chris Dunn. I don't know what it is particularly. I can't put my finger on this is why I like this podcast, but I do like it. They they're very conversational, they know their stuff, they're it's good to listen to, but it's funny is I feel some episodes it's just listening in on them chit-chat versus listening to them spound HR. And sometimes I did I even talk about HR in this episode, but I still enjoyed it, so I do like that one. Then moving on to the the list of podcasts that I subscribe to, I listen to them more often than not, but I do pick and choose the episodes based on title and things like that. And these aren't in any particular order, just whatever they came to my mind, or as I was flipping through my podcast app looking at players, or I use Google Podcasts, but um Rebel HR with Kyle, you know, we were on his show two years ago. I do enjoy it, very insightful. Guess you can learn a lot for it from it. Good, good podcasts. The next one on my list, I was I I wrote this list like a week ago before I knew what was happening, but last week, last Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday, whenever it was, they posted their final episode, and that is the HR Social Hour, Half Hour Podcast with uh John Thurman and Wendy Daly. Their last episode was actually a long one for them, and they uh said their goodbyes, told why they're leaving. So uh that's a great podcast. Give a they have an excellent library, 300 plus episodes, or I don't even know how many. Excellent library. Listen to it. Our friends Christina and Jasmine have been guests on there. They've had some really great guests throughout the years. So give that a listen. Another one, Drive Through HR, but that's with uh Crystal Lay, Dwayne Lay, Michael Vandervoort, and Robin Schoolin. Listen to that quite regularly. Very good, very insightful information. You can learn, you can get a laugh. I like the banter uh between the hosts. I like that one a lot. HR Happy Hour, Steve Boss and Trish McFarland. Once again, like that, that podcast. Very informative. I love the banter between Steve and Trish. It's like you're sitting in their living room listening to them BS sometimes, but you do get some good informative information. Another one is HR Talk, Ricky Baez and JC. This is now they are a long form uh podcast. Their episodes are sometimes an hour, hour and a half long. Get a lot of information. They focus a little bit on Florida, but that's fine. I really do enjoy it. I listen to it, you know, quite often. But yeah, HR Talk by Ricky Baez and JC. JC makes a second appearance on this in the listening to the HR Lady podcast with Wendy Sellers. Another great podcast to listen to. The episodes are short, generally 15 minutes, no longer than half an hour, I don't think, with that. So uh really good podcast there to give you a listen. Uh a newer podcast, maybe it's only a year or so old. People Problems with Alexa Baggio and Tyson McKenzie. This is quite funny. They they get HR. They are jaded and cynical in some ways, but they're also a little bit more uplifting than I am in in their talk and commentary, but definitely give that one a list. And then the final one is one that I've just started listening to lately, is Good Morning HR by Mike Coffey. Like it overall. It I've probably listened to a dozen episodes or so. And uh those are in my queue that I can pull up and listen to. But there's another podcast I want to mention. You can probably still download it. It's HR You Kidd Me. The hosts were Whitney and Sue. They went off the air sort of abruptly. I don't know what exactly happened. Whitney and Sue, if you're out there listening to us, please reach out to me. I'd love to have one or both of you on as guests. I really, really enjoyed this podcast. It was hilarious. They knew their stuff. I really thought highly of it. Actually, one thing is I still keep it in my subscription queue in hopes that it'll come back online. Sort of like Hostile Work Environment did. It went off for maybe a year or so, I don't know exactly how long, and then all of a sudden it started uh appearing in my uh feed again with Kate as the co-hosts with Mark. So that was really uh good. So I keep it in my subscription list, just hoping that maybe it'll come back. And then finally, before we start wrapping things up, I want to talk about other podcasts I listen to besides HR because I'm not just an HR nerd, I'm a much broader nerd than that. So what else do I listen to besides HR podcasts? Anything and everything, Dan Carlin, and uh especially his hardcore history, I love those. I I'm just a geek for those. I eat them up, I don't care what the topic is, and I've found each and every one of them. His the way he explains it, he the research he does is just incredible. Same thing goes for a more weekly podcast called the Pirate History Podcast. I don't even know how I found this podcast, but I I listen to it every week. I love it, and I love pirates, I love history, it's it's cool. Then getting into some more mainstream podcasts that aren't independent, Star Talk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, I love it. Uh a lot of fun, I learn a lot there, have some fun, it's it's funny as well. And then when it goes to strictly being funny, I like uh Fly in the Wall, David Spade, and Gina Carvey, love that show. Cono O'Brien Needs a Friend, love it. And then some others I listen to, uh The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe, and then LeVar Burton reads. That sort of rounds up, I don't know, what's that, 20-ish podcasts that I subscribe to, and then I'm always getting suggestions from friends. Oh, listen to this, listen to that. And most of the time I will end up listening to those, just to at least give it a try. It never hurts to find something new, so just like I find some of these uh through friends, be sure to tell your friends about Jaded HR so uh they can get the fun and enjoyment out of this. But that's all I have for today. It's a shorty episode. I think I went longer than I expected to go, but we'll be back the first week of 2023 with feathers and we got a couple of listener stories that we're gonna read and we're gonna discuss. So please listen, uh go on with your favorite podcast player, rate and review us, and connect with us on social media. All these links are in the show notes as well. So thank you very much for an awesome 2022. I'm looking forward to an even better 2023, and hope you all have the best as well. Y'all take care.