Doug Downs: Strategic Storytelling for Brands

Doug Downs joined me to trace his journey from a tape-recorder-obsessed kid in Scarborough to radio, TV, corporate communications, and ultimately podcasting. Doug shared how overnights at a country station, brutal newbie pranks, and a move through Ajax, St. Thomas, London, Kirkland Lake, Sudbury, and eventually Edmonton shaped his love of audio and storytelling. We reminisced about the ITV / CFRN days, that micro-fame of local TV, and why he ultimately pivoted into PR at Epcor, learning to think in terms of stakeholders, key messages, and strategy.We dug into why ums and ahs can actually help comprehension, how PR thinking makes for sharper podcast positioning, and why your premise and target audience matter more than trying to be Joe Rogan. Doug broke down the real role of video and YouTube (discovery, not depth), how to use consumption metrics from Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and why podcasters should not disappear over the holidays.Connect with Doug and launch your podcast. Please sign up for the SOUNDING OFF Newsletter. All the things that went unsaid on the show.Also we added the Sound Off Podcast to the The Open Podcast Prefix Project (OP3) A free and open-source podcast prefix analytics service committed to open data and listener privacy. You can be a nosey parker by checking out our downloads here.Thanks to the following organizations for supporting the show:Megatrax - Licensed Music for your radio station or podcast production company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.