#GrabTheMIC Client Journey Interview

In this #GrabTheMIC client journey we speak to Andy Smith, co-founder of Made By Mortals. They’re a musical theatre organisation. We provide podcast consultancy to support them with podcasting marketing and promotion for their podcast Armchair Adventures.

We start by asking Andy why they do what they do over at Made By Mortals,

Made by Mortals works with people in our local community and provides services and products that improve their health, well-being and positivity. We want to create creative communities where people talk to each other and are not isolated. This was something we wanted to achieve even before the pandemic. It’s about collaborating with people and sharing stories.

MIC is the podcast expert that we needed. You challenged our approach, particularly in terms of podcast marketing but also in the quality of the product that we’ve been making. We value MIC because of your knowledge of both podcasting and the VCSE sector.

So how did your podcast Armchair Adventures start?

We use real people from the community in the making of our work and our live shows. Because of the pandemic, we couldn’t meet those people or do those shows. We had to think of a way that we could create live musical theatre collaboratively and we felt that podcasting was the right way to go. That’s how Armchair Adventures was born.

What do you love about what MIC?

The knowledge base that MIC’s got. We started off as a musical theatre organisation, doing live shows and performances in theatre’s and conferences and nursing homes and schools etc. But when the covid lockdown started, we wanted to move that into a digital landscape and podcasting was the way forward for us. But we have no expertise in podcasting and so MIC was recommended to us by a few people, including the company that puts together our Armchair Adventures podcast!

I now feel I have a much greater understanding of the whole podcast world. I certainly wouldn’t have understood the strategic aspects of podcasting without MIC’s support!

What was the main problem you were trying to solve when you thought about getting MIC involved?

It was about how do we transform live music theatre into a podcast world and maximising the potential of that podcast. Thing is, we didn’t know how to make podcasts and we certainly didn’t know about podcast marketing or how to promote them. We know how to make audio and live musical theatre. I’m a musician and my colleague and Made By Mortals co-founder Paul is a theatre maker. But podcasting is different to all that

Do you look for anything particular when you’re choosing a company to work with Made by Mortals?

At the beating heart of our organisation is the people that we serve. We want to work with partners who are community-minded too, who share those values, and understand the types of communities that we work with.

The second is how they can collaborate. We’re always learning as an organisation, so one of our strengths is that we’re really adaptable and flexible. However, one of our weaknesses is that we’re really adaptable and flexible! We need partners who get that and can challenge and openly question us!

These are really important to us and MIC ticks all those boxes.

“MIC’s got us a massive reach and maximum exposure for our Armchair Adventures Podcast. We wouldn’t have been able to do this on our own. We’re on all Virgin Atlantic flights as part of their in-flight entertainment and even an endorsement from the future King!”

What’s it like actually working with MIC?

Amazing! What was difficult at the start was that we thought we had an idea of what we wanted in terms of promoting Armchair Adventures, but that quickly changed because you challenged those. MIC’s approach is methodical and you did it in a really, smooth and clear way.

I like MIC’s personable approach, from you mapping out a marketing strategy that was achievable for an organisation our size, to the relationship being a collaboration. Yes, we got MIC in to provide a service, but it hasn’t been transactional. Working with MIC has been much more fluid and that really benefits our organisation and the way we work.

We also love how great MIC’s communication is. We get a lot of value for our money.

How’s MIC’s involvement impacted Made by Mortals?

We’ve had ideas presented to us by MIC that we wouldn’t have thought about before. These have helped us to consider what our offer is to the people that we work with and realise our artistic ambitions.

MIC’s also helped to give our Armchair Adventures podcast an identity. We talked about Armchair Adventures for so many months in funding applications that our website has started to read like a funding application! But you guys get us, you get the area and the audience, and so presented this colloquial, friendly northern tone of voice for Armchair Adventures – which we love.

That tone iss across our social media, shownotes, blog and you also our other public-facing documents and that will continue to help us moving forwards.

Have you received positive feedback as a result of what we’ve done for you?

We’ve had so many positive testimonials – including BBC Radio 4 – we wouldn’t have got that without MIC’s work with us. We wouldn’t have been on Fun Kids Radio, on Podcast Radio or in PodBible Magazine, we potentially wouldn’t have had the letter of support Angela Rayner MP!

Also, what I’ve come to understand is that there isn’t a direct monetary value on the number of listens to our podcast, but there’s a very high indirect value.

For example, our funders see the number of listens that we get for our Armchair Adventures podcast. It’s an amazing and growing reach that nobody in terms of our direct competitors in the region has. So we’re positioning ourselves as experts in creating immersive, community-led musical theatre. Plus as a gateway to a potential, international audience of thousands. That exposure is massive.

Working with MIC has contributed to solving our problem and continues to help us solve more!

“Through the success of our Armchair Adventures podcast we’re building reputation, confidence and trust amongst current and potential funders. As a result, they’re more likely to fund us. Working with MIC has helped us to successfully position ourselves in this way.”

Take a look at the Made by Mortals Client Journey digest

Are you looking for podcast consultancy? Perhaps you'd benefit from a podcast MOT?

Contact MIC HERE, let’s have a chat about how we can help your podcast.