#508 Why Podcasting Is Crucial For Your Business: The Most Underrated Growth Lever in Modern Leadership - Interview with Gal Ko
Why Podcasting Is Crucial For Your Business: The Most Underrated Growth Lever in Modern Leadership - Interview with Gal Ko
Podcasting has evolved from a niche medium into one of the most influential channels in modern business communication. Yet many decision-makers continue to underestimate its strategic value.
In this high-level discussion, Niels Brabandt and Gal Ko examine why podcasting has become a critical growth lever for organisations and why leaders who ignore it risk falling behind.
The Executive Audience Shift
The consumption habits of decision-makers have changed fundamentally. A significant proportion of executives now engage with podcasts on a weekly basis, using them as a primary source of insight, learning, and decision support.
This shift has profound implications. Unlike traditional content channels, podcasts create a high-trust environment where listeners engage deeply and consistently.
For leaders, this represents a unique opportunity to influence thinking and decision-making at scale.
Why Starting a Podcast Is Not the Answer
A common misconception is that every organisation should launch its own podcast.
However, as Gal Ko highlights, this approach is often inefficient and unsustainable. Most podcasts fail to gain traction, and many cease production within a short period of time.
The operational demands are significant, and the return on investment is uncertain.
Instead, a more effective strategy emerges.
Borrowing Trust Through Existing Platforms
The most efficient way to leverage podcasting is to appear as a guest on established shows.
This approach enables leaders to access existing audiences, build credibility, and scale their message without the burden of production.
By participating in multiple podcasts, leaders create a compounding effect. Each appearance reinforces authority, expands reach, and generates reusable content across multiple channels.
This is not merely content creation. It is strategic positioning.
The Multiplication Effect of Podcast Content
One of the most powerful aspects of podcasting is its ability to generate a wide range of derivative content.
A single interview can be transformed into articles, newsletters, social media content, and video clips.
This multiplier effect significantly increases the return on time invested.
For decision-makers operating under time constraints, this efficiency is critical.
Authority Through Storytelling
A key barrier for many leaders is the belief that they lack the credentials or profile to appear on podcasts.
This assumption is incorrect.
Authority is not defined by external recognition alone. It is built through experience, perspective, and the ability to articulate meaningful insights.
As Gal Ko emphasises, a compelling story and a clear message are sufficient to create value for an audience.
Podcasting, therefore, becomes a platform for authentic authority.
Evaluating Opportunities Strategically
Not all podcasts offer equal value. Leaders must assess opportunities carefully.
Key criteria include audience relevance, engagement levels, consistency of publication, and alignment with strategic objectives.
This disciplined approach ensures that time is invested in high-impact platforms.
Overcoming Psychological Barriers
Many leaders hesitate to engage with podcasting due to perceived limitations in communication skills or confidence.
In reality, podcasting is one of the most natural forms of communication. It is a conversation, not a performance.
This human element makes it particularly effective in building trust and connection.
Conclusion: Podcasting as a Strategic Imperative
The insights from Niels Brabandt and Gal Ko position podcasting as a critical component of modern leadership strategy.
It offers access to engaged audiences, scalable content creation, and high levels of trust.
For decision-makers, the message is clear. Podcasting is not an optional activity. It is a competitive advantage.
Leaders who act now will shape conversations. Those who delay will follow them.
Niels Brabandt
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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
Is excellent leadership important to you?
Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com
Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Niels Brabandt is an expert in sustainable leadership with more than 20 years of experience in practice and science.
Niels Brabandt: Professional Training, Speaking, Coaching, Consulting, Mentoring, Project & Interim Management. Event host, MC, Moderator.
Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
You might now think, "Well, I'm listening to this podcast, and maybe I should start my own," or "Maybe I should appear on podcasts, and maybe this is beneficial for my business." The question is: is it actually a viable option? Does it work? And we have an expert on the matter with us here today. Hello and welcome, Gal Koh.
Gal Ko
Thank you so much, Niels. I'm happy to be here.
Niels Brabandt
Thank you very much for taking the time. So you are an expert on podcasting. So how would you say, when now people think, "I think maybe podcasts could be beneficial to me," but people have absolutely no idea how to do it, what is your advice when people consider anything with podcasting and they are business owners, so they're probably pretty busy and they don't have much time at their hand?
Gal Ko
So yeah, to address it, obviously podcasting will serve you better because nowadays 83% of executives are listening to around five hours a week of podcasts, and 68% of them are actually making buying decisions based on what they hear. So just to be out there on podcasts, I bet that most of your competitors or the listener competitors are already trying to do it. But to open up a new podcast yourself, that is something that I will not recommend to anyone, just because you're a founder, you already have your own job, your own things to take care of.
Niels Brabandt
And I can tell you it is a lot of work. Anyone who sells you the online class of, "Do your podcast, it's just one hour a week, here are the news," it's not. It is way more work than that.
Gal Ko
Yeah, and statistically speaking, most podcasts die within the first seven episodes, and most of them don't even get to 1,000 monthly listeners in a year of effort. So to be a founder and to open up a new podcast, that's insane, and I would not do it.
Gal Ko
What I recommend people to do is to hop on podcasts that already established their audience in their industry and to go from show to show, but borrow the audience and get the trust that you want. Because one show, obviously, it's not enough, but when you multiply it and you repurpose it in ways that it's super easy to repurpose podcasting at the moment, you can create blog posts, newsletters, long form, short form, whatever it is that you want from one episode, and you've got all the angles, you've got all the insights that you share.
Gal Ko
So it is the fastest and the best multiplier that I've seen in content, and I've been in marketing for 14 years now, over 14 years now, so yeah.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, excellent. So I can tell it was a lot of effort to get where we are right now. We have more than 100,000 listeners to this podcast so far. We had quite a number of top rank, which is probably why you got in touch with us and you passed the barriers that we set, because we roughly receive 300 pitches a month and we accept roughly 10 to 20 people per month maximum. So well done you here.
Niels Brabandt
When people wonder, "Okay, I'm a founder, I should be on a podcast," however, doing that research and finding the right show and doing the outreach, how can that be done without spending 10 hours a week on either outreach or research?
Gal Ko
Oh wow. So before we get into the research and the outreach and how to pitch yourself on shows, I think that most business owners at the moment, they think that they're not a right fit for a podcast. Now, that's the thing that we need to tackle first, because most people think they have to have a certain amount of followers, for example, or Forbes 30 Under 30 list, or a perfect company or a perfect brand.
Gal Ko
But the fact is that they don't need all of these. They just need a story, a lesson to share, some sort of a transformation, and a message that helps people. That's actually what got me here today, because I can help founders and listeners to get on podcasts. But the thing is that your story is your authority, and it's your experience, and this is what I need to boost first before we get to research and how to pitch.
Gal Ko
So after we've done that and we basically changed your perspective on podcasting, that's when we actually try to pitch and research and all of those other things. Now, I actually have a very good framework that I use in order to find and vet the right shows. And the way I did it is, well, I got scammed. It is shamefully to say, but I got scammed and I paid $200 to be featured on a show with a name that its name is so good. Do you know, maybe, do you know Chris Voss, the FBI negotiator? Never split the difference, the book.
Niels Brabandt
Yes, of course I know him. Yes, of course. Yeah.
Gal Ko
Amazing, right? So one day, January 2024, I opened my email and the Chris Voss show was pitching me to get on this show. It only costs $200 and it is a 30-minute session. And I was like, "Oh my God, Chris Voss actually contacted me and mentioned me and maybe I'll get on his show." So I didn't dig deeper. That's why I reinvented the framework, how to score podcasts. But I didn't dig deeper.
Gal Ko
I already paid and I was preparing to go out on this and I was so thrilled, so motivated, and I shared it with my friends and they told me, "Gal, did you check his YouTube?" And then I checked his YouTube account and I've seen that some videos have zero views, some videos have, most of the videos have zero engagement. And then it came across that this is not Chris Voss. It's a different Chris Voss, but it's not the Chris Voss FBI.
Niels Brabandt
He's just harvesting the name. Yes, there you are.
Gal Ko
Yeah. So this is why I invented a framework called Stage. And this is the way I teach how to score podcasts.
Gal Ko
So S stands for Signal Insight. So you have to check if there is a real audience to the show. If they have views on YouTube, for example, if they have newsletter readers or any social activity, that's S.
Gal Ko
T is for Topic Fit. You have to align yourself with the topic of the show. Obviously, I will not go to a true crime show and just speak about podcasting. It would not make sense.
Gal Ko
A is for Activity. So you have to see that there is a consistent activity and they publish. So if, for example, a podcast hasn't published for the last 30 days, just don't go over there.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, they're usually dead. Usually dead. Yeah.
Gal Ko
G is for Guest Friendly. Obviously, most shows are guest friendly, but there are some shows that actually don't host guests. So don't pitch yourself to those shows, obviously. That would be a waste of time.
Gal Ko
And E is for Engagement. Now, when we're speaking of engagement, it is really important to check the engagement of a podcast. Search maybe on Spotify, they have comments there. On YouTube, if they have any action, not just people that buy views from overseas where it's cheap to get views.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, yeah.
Gal Ko
Yeah.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, excellent. So what do you tell people who are business owners who will tell you, "Look, Gal, I am more of an introvert person. I am an expert. I really don't think I'm good with interviewing. I think I will really be pretty bad on a podcast." What do you tell these people who are probably really good experts, however, they think they are not suitable to be interviewed as a personality kind of issue?
Gal Ko
So I would say that I think that, and I've been in marketing for a while now, and I've seen so many people trying to sell so many content packages, video packages, and people are riding a price tag that is way above everyone's imagination. But I would say that, and I would argue that podcasting is one of the most human activities that you can do to promote yourself. And I think that having this conversation between us, that's actually what podcasting is. It's just two friends or two people that are interested in the same topic having a discussion. And it doesn't necessarily have to be promotional, because if you're doing a hard sale, people will not listen to you.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, usually that's something which I also don't appreciate on my podcast. If anyone does a hard sale here, I usually tell them, "This is not going to work." Yeah.
Gal Ko
Yeah.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, excellent. So thank you very much for doing the research here, because I don't know if anyone who's listening to that, because we don't post about our rankings very often, but we are top 300 in the US as a non-native speaker podcast, top 50 in the UK, top 100 all across Europe. So we're doing pretty well.
Niels Brabandt
And we don't have any kind of fake outreach. I'm running this for six years now, so I built it up from my kitchen desk to where it is right now.
Niels Brabandt
When you now say people think of, "Okay, I'd like to be on these podcasts," however, what is it that you can do for me? Let's say someone approaches you and they say, "What can Gal Koh do for me?" How do you help people specifically?
Gal Ko
Well, look, I've been in this industry for the past two years now. I've been in touch with over 1,000 shows. I've put founders on over 600 episodes. But the way that I repackaged my service now, it is that I just want to help everybody, because I feel that podcasting is sort of a movement. And I think that all those marketing gurus and content gurus have sold you up so many lies. So I just want to open up that movement to everyone.
Gal Ko
So actually, I have a school community that is totally free, and I do Matchmaking Monday Mania. That's every Monday I match you with podcasts from my own database, and I do it for free for anyone inside. But besides that, obviously, I have a challenge to get you booked on three podcasts in under 30 days. And when you do that, you win your money back.
Gal Ko
As I mentioned, I'm here to help people grow this movement, grow this activity of podcasting, and make more human-like content rather than AI vanilla. So that's the thing. Besides that, I also do it done for you service, but this is usually for big companies, B2B tech companies. I already worked with Unicorns and big startups. So yeah.
Niels Brabandt
Brilliant. When now people say, "Hey, I think this might be really good for me," and they wonder, how can they get in touch? So how can they get in touch with you personally?
Gal Ko
So if you want to get in touch personally, I would recommend just connecting with me on LinkedIn, but leave a note so I can know that you just listened. That will make the difference. But besides that, you can just join the school community at school.com/podstar, and it's totally free, and I'm there all the time. I always answer any DMs. And yeah.
Niels Brabandt
Brilliant. Now just one last question, and then we're done for today. When people now wonder, "Okay, I'm thinking of doing this, however, I have my client appointments. I have to run my business, the accounting and all of that, and well, maybe I do it next week." And you know these people who said next week about 50 times last year, and now we're here, and they said, "Yeah, I pushed it 52 times for next week last year." What are your top three steps when you say these are the three steps you have to do to actually get started to be serious about podcasting?
Niels Brabandt
Gal Koh's top three tips for the final of this interview.
Gal Ko
So first and foremost, one of my first lessons inside the school community, which is free, is the real framework. And the thing is, people need to create their own sort of speaker page, just some sort of a media kit to send over to podcasters, just so they can feel you, see what your topics are. If you have any logos of companies that you work with, for example, that is also bringing much more to your authority. That's the first thing.
Gal Ko
But I think that if people don't find their intrinsic motivation to do something, they will not do it. But I can tell you that for sure. Some people that haven't done this real framework and didn't create this profile speaker, they just entered the community. They just spoke in a bit, was active, and they already got booked on shows. So all you have to have is the right setup, be in the right place at the right time.
Gal Ko
In Hebrew, we say mazal. Mazal means luck, but mazal is also makom, which is a place, zman, which is time, and lamed is lifol, which is to act. So you have to be at the right place, at the right time, and to act. And that's all you need. And in terms of that, I think I've created mazal and luck for everyone with my community. And yeah, I would try to encourage anyone just to do it. It's so human.
Niels Brabandt
Brilliant. Absolutely perfect final words. I think I can tell you from my own experience, starting podcasting, especially any good show is looking for good guests. And I can tell you, when I receive these 300 pitches a month, 50% are absolutely crazy. People who want to talk about leadership never let anything. People who talk about sales never sold anything. So when you have your own business and you're good at what you're doing, get in touch with podcasting, because I hardly know any executive who's not doing podcasting. Anyone says on the way to work, on the way back from work, during lunch breaks, I listen to podcasts. That's the way to go. So at the end of this interview, there's only one thing left for me to say. Gal Koh, thank you very much for your time.
Gal Ko
Thank you so much, Niels, for being here. It's been a pleasure.