Podetize, one of the world’s largest podcast production companies, announced the launch of new initiatives in support of its long-time commitment to supporting women in the podcast industry. Studies report that female listenership reached an all-time high in 2021 and project that overall listeners in the U.S. could increase from 75.9 million to 100 million in the U.S. by 2024. There are 2,423,127 podcasts in existence, including over 62 million episodes. But women are underrepresented – only 22 percent of podcasters are women.
“Clearly, there is tremendous potential for women in the highly lucrative, high-growth podcast industry. Podetize remains determined to expand their leadership role. I hope Podetize can serve as a role model for women. We’re women-founded and women-led, but it’s not all about us. We’re just one example of a profitable, scalable company that leads the fast-growing $1.6 billion podcasting industry. Podetize has 4.2M monthly listeners with 500+ subscribers and 1,000 podcasters on its platform, including just 390 female hosts. Collectively, the industry can do better, and we’re here to make change happen,” said Tracy Hazzard, CEO of Podetize.
Key components of the Podetize mission to boost women’s role in the industry are:
Train and educate women podcasters
Podetize now offers female podcasters the opportunity to apply for a scholarship to attend its Podcast Certified Strategist Program. It teaches existing or aspiring podcast coaches, managers or producers how to launch or reinvent their podcasts. The program also focuses on how to monetize them via easy-to-use solutions for hosting, content creation, advertising and audience retention. Sessions include pricing and packaging, client service and management, lead generation. and knowledge training. This includes how to set up and record a great show on a powerful platform, achieve marketing goals, create binge-worthy content, incorporate easy-to-use technology, introduce great branding and unique tips for success. The program offers private sessions, mentorship sessions and live group coaching. Podetize guarantees that if the coach brings in three or more production clients within one year, the annual renewal is free.
Allow underserved female voices to shine
A free bootcamp course open to women includes mentoring, live coaching and masterclasses every week. There are live group opportunities to ask questions to Podetize’s team. Women learn to build their business model, determine their ideal podcast format and focus on their strengths. These strengths work together to support a powerful podcast platform. By offering women live and recorded training opportunities, there’s a high probability that things will progress smoothly. There’s always a model that will work for women and their businesses, regardless of the stage of the business. Women who have a mission and a message to bring out to the world need a platform.
Lead by example with women at the helm
At Podetize, 11 of the 15 segment teams are led by a woman, including production, video and graphics, operations, marketing and social certified coaching. Additionally, the company is majority-women-owned by Tracy Hazzard and her daughter Alexandra. This provides a unique opportunity to examine the role of women from a stockholder’s perspective and a team leader’s perspective. The fact that Podetize has women in leadership positions results in a high rate of referral. This is not just externally from clients who refer the business to other podcasters, but also a high rate of referral for employees referring other employees. This goes a long way and supports Podetize’s reputation as a great company at which to work.
Promote and build confidence in women podcasters
Both internally and externally, Podetize has programs in place to support women and provide a growth path as they build into their roles and position. Often, there are tests along the way – for example, whether they can manage people and processes. Women who excel in these areas often receive aggressive promotion even if their confidence level lags. Podetize wants to support women because of their great indicators of skill, attributes and personalities to run top-tier podcast programs.
“Considering that women are the most valued demographic in any age group or category, buying or influencing over 80 percent of consumer purchases of goods and services in the United States, it’s clear that the podcast industry represents a tremendous growth opportunity for women. To date, our challenge has primarily been figuring out how to be seen, heard and found so that we can edu-tain the broadest and most engaged audience possible – of both men and women. We want to be front and center leading the effort on behalf of all women who aspire to podcast success,” Hazzard said.
To learn more about Podetize, visit https://podetize.com/.
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About Podetize
Podetize is a leading global platform for podcast hosting and production. The company helps podcasters launch or migrate their podcast to a hosted platform that provides unlimited storage, statistical reports on the show’s reach and syndication to all the major platforms. Hosting is available for a flat monthly rate. Podetize can help monetize shows through their patent-pending “ad mixing” across their growing syndication network.
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