Bret Keisling congratulates Certified EO on the launch of their podcast, talks about the importance of supporting each other’s work to help us all grow, and talks about the EO Podcast Network which will launch in September, 2021.
Listen to this episode on Soundcloud. Or subscribe on Google Play or iTunes/Apple Podcasts.
The ESOP Podcast is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.
Mini-cast 136 Transcript
Bret Keisling: [00:00:00] Welcome to the ESOP Mini-cast. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Bret Keisling and as it says on my business cards, I'm a passionate advocate for employee ownership.
[00:00:17] This week, I was excited to learn that Certified EO has launched a brand new employee ownership podcast called Original Owners, and you can find it on Spotify and presumably other places that you get podcasts.
[00:00:30] The first episode features an interview with Shawn Burcham who's the founder of PFS Brands, which has become an amazing employee owned success story. I wish Certified EO great success with their podcast. Thomas Dudley, who's a co-founder of Certified EO, appeared on Episode 142 of our primary EO / ESOP podcast. We also included excerpts from that conversation in Mini-cast Episodes 124 and 125.
[00:00:58] Certified EO does amazing work in growing and supporting the employee ownership sandbox. They provide tremendous services and value to their member companies, all of which you can hear about on our episodes with Thomas. I think it's great that they're going to bring the same level of excellence and dedication to their podcast as they do to all of their efforts.
[00:01:19] In a similar vein, you may be aware of another podcast called The Journey to an ESOP. This is hosted by Phil Hayes and he covers a lot of technical and procedural issues with a variety of talented guests. Coincidentally, you can find Tom Dudley on Episode 51 of that podcast.
[00:01:39] There are a couple of other ESOP podcasts that I've come across, although I'm not sure of their consistency or longevity, but I do want to acknowledge that they're out there. In addition, there are a number of podcasts about co-ops and collectives. And although I'm not knowledgeable enough to recommend any specifically, I hope you'll check them out as well.
[00:01:59] You may wonder why the host of The EsOp Podcast and ESOP Mini-cast is amplifying and celebrating other ESOP and EO podcasts. There are a couple of very simple reasons.
[00:02:12] First of all, if you listen with any regularity whatsoever, you'll often hear me talk about -- or to be honest, sometimes preach about -- the need for all of us in employee ownership to work together as collaborators whenever possible. Whether an organization, an advocate, or a service provider, we all have our own lanes, but I'm a fervent believer that if we work together to grow employee ownership, we'll share in that growth together.
[00:02:40] Let me repeat that. If we work together to grow employee ownership, we'll share in that growth together. Isn't that what we tell our employee owners and employee owned companies every day? The same thing needs to be true in the organized EO space.
[00:02:57] So, first reason is if I can preach that everybody else should be collaborative, then I want to step up and do that in the podcast space as well. The second reason is we need more podcasts. Take the worst sports team in the worst league that you can think of and I guarantee that they have dozens of podcasts devoted to them. There may be a dozen podcasts just on the offense. There could be three or four podcasts devoted just to coaching on that one team.
[00:03:26] Meanwhile, when I started The EsOp Podcast in 2017, we were the only ones in the space. One hint was that I was able to call it The EsOp Podcast. We quickly added a second with The ESOP Mini-cast and we have about 290 combined episodes as of this recording and over 76,000 total listens. I'm very proud of that, but like much of employee ownership, when we see all of the potential, our successes are put in perspective.
[00:03:54] There are somewhere between 2 and 3 million Americans working for privately held employee-owned companies and in four years I've only reached 76,000 of them. Meanwhile, in terms of podcast capacity we've been on a roll since fall of 2020. As I'm recording this, we have five full episodes of our primary podcast recorded that we haven't been able to air yet, just because of scheduling.
[00:04:18] It's a cool place for us to be, but it makes sense that there are so many stories in employee ownership that we need more vehicles to tell those stories. As I've shared on social media, The KEISOP Group, which produces this podcast, is launching the EO Podcast Network in September, 2021. We're in pre-production on four separate titles, two of them to be hosted by employee owners talking directly to employee owners. Another that will be a geographical look at employee ownership throughout the United States. And at least one, and possibly more, podcasts will be hosted by some folks in the co-op space, directed to the co-op space.
[00:04:57] I'll share more information about those upcoming titles over the course of the summer. But the thing that makes me happiest is that they'll all be hosted by other people. The KEISOP Group will produce, market, and distribute them and assist with content. But we're going to add as many voices as we can to the employee ownership conversation through podcasts.
[00:05:18] So congratulations to Certified EO on launching their podcast. I hope you'll check out that as well as the other podcasts I've mentioned and then I hope you'll find your way back here. I'm very proud that there will be other podcasts about ESOPs, but there will only be one "ESOP Podcast.".
[00:05:37] Thank you so much for listening. This is Bret Keisling; be well.
Bitsy McCann: [00:05:43] We'd love to hear from you! To contact us, find us on Facebook at KEISOP, LLC and on Twitter @ESOPPodcast. To reach Bret, with one "T", email Bret@KEISOP.com, on LinkedIn at Bret Keisling, and most actively on Twitter at @EO_Bret. Again, that's one "T". This podcast has been produced by The KEISOP Group, technical assistance provided by Third Circle, Inc. and BitsyPlus Design. Original music composed by Max Keisling, archival podcast material edited and produced by Brian Keisling, and I'm Bitsy McCann.
Standard Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are my own and don't represent those of my own firms or the organizations to which I belong. Nothing in the podcast should be construed as guidance or advice of any kind in any field and the fact that I mentioned an organizational website or an advocate or a company on a podcast does not reflect an endorsement, but if you've heard your name or your group's name mentioned on this podcast, I'd love to have you come on and talk about it yourself.
A note on the transcript: This transcript was produced by Descript, an automated transcription service. While it has been reviewed by The ESOP Podcast, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the transcription. Please refer to the original audio when citing sources.