QUESTIONS?
Whether you’re curious about features, a free trial, or even press, we’re here to answer any questions.
Rob Southgate is the founder of ThePodcastProfs and co-founder of Southgate Media Group (SMG). Rob has had various careers throughout his life, both in the creative world, education sector, and the business sector.
Currently, Rob is a professor of digital marketing, communications, and consumer behavior. He is a professional voice-over actor, a consultant, and content creator.
For the last nine years, Rob has launched, hosted, and executive produced 125+ podcasts. He has created and produced 9 live podcast events, created and produced micro-cons for comic artists and writers, directed plays, and is about to publish his second self-published book.
Rob loves sharing ideas and networking. He immerses himself in leadership and business development and has a strong passion for empowering others.
Rob is an entrepreneur with two Bachelors degrees in business (science of management and science of marketing) and an MBA in Marketing. In his Master’s Thesis, he successfully argued that you don’t need to be a celebrity to be a successful podcaster.
My Passion
Two things I have been obsessed with for the bulk of my life are podcasting and marketing. When I was a kid, podcasting did not exist so I found myself recording my own “shows” into my first tape recorder. If a kid does this today, it’s a podcast. Back then, it was me pretending I had a radio show. When podcasts finally became a reality, I could not get enough. I would listen to every show I could find, regardless of the subject. It was the creativity and passion for communicating ideas that lit me up. I started dreaming of starting my own podcast and mapping the ways I could market it. Regardless to say, I started podcasting not long after discovering the medium, and shortly after that my wife and I started our own podcast network.
Having a network allowed me explore marketing in a number of different forms. My passion for marketing took over and eventually lead to an MBA in marketing. I did not get the MBA to make more money at a 9 to 5 job, I did it to gain knowledge. Knowledge that I could apply to my network and to building my podcast business at the highest level possible.
My third and not so secret passion is teaching. I love to share what I know and to help small businesses become the best they can be.
When I started as a podcaster, I had a million questions. I wanted to know not only how to make a podcast, but how to get real engagment with listeners. I wanted to know how to use social media effectively, how to use email to market, and how to get the most out of my website (spoiler: work that SEO). What I found was a lot of confusing information, and in some cases incorrect information. It took me years of studying, testing, asking, and doing (including a fair amoung of failing) to become a marketing consultant. Even as a college professor of digital marketing and owner of one of the largest podcast networks in the world, I still learn every day so I can truly understand marketing and so I can share the highest quality knowledge with the creatives that hire me to help them.
How I Got Here
In 2015, I was finding Facebook to be a negative experience. What used to be a fun way to connect with friends had become what seemed like an endless stream of negative opinions and depressing news. I decided to inject some positivity into the world and came up with a project he called 30 Days of Dreams.
What I decided to do was post a dream of mine, every day, for 30 days. Dreams as in projects I wanted to do, goals that I wanted to achieve, or things I had always dreamed of doing. The idea was that by putting a dream on my timeline made it real. It made a public declaration that I had a dream and now people would know. I asked others to join me on this journey and share their dreams. It was not an easy project (you try coming up with 30 dreams) yet ended up being a life altering experience.
I found that even seven days of dreams proved challenging, so the project needed to evolve quickly. Sure, I shared my personal dreams and got people to share theirs, but then Ie decided to make my followers active instead of passive. I asked them to help people with their dreams if they could. I wanted people to be proactive. Ultimately, I wanted to be a catalyst for people achieving their dreams.
Not only did friends start mentioning how inspiring these posts were, but I also had people I didn’t know reach out to tell me about how these posts were affecting them. I was told about people connecting people or to offer advice to friends with dreams that they had done nothing with for years. I found that several of my own dreams were set into motion, no matter how big, due to people helping on my journey after reading about it on Facebook. The love I witnessed and felt was an unexpected by-product of this 30 Days of Dreams project. It was this experience that lead to me becoming a coach.
My Goal
From the beginning, I have dreamed of helping others achieve their goals. I have a true passion for helping people make dreams a reality, be it writing, music, art, or any other creative endeavor. My creative profession has given so much to my family and to me, I want to give back.