Don’t bring your audience along for the ride. Share the driver’s seat with them.

(Or: Bringing Hyperactive Imagination to life, part 3)

The official launch of my podcast, Hyperactive Imagination, is coming up fast (stay tuned for an exact launch date), and in the meantime, I’ve been taking you inside our development process.

Today it’s time to talk listener engagement.

This is anything but an afterthought for us. In fact, I think of the Hyperactive Imagination podcast as one part conversation, two parts listener showcase, and three parts magic.

Conceptually, this is because I believe we are at our creative best when we give oxygen to each other’s ideas. For a show focused entirely on the ebbing and flowing energy of imagination and creativity, we need this collaborative approach for it to really work.

More practically, engagement and listenership obviously live in a virtuous cycle. I want my listeners to feel heard, and I want them to feel enriched by the product we create together — that way, they’ll want to tune in for the next episode and the one after that.

On our show, this engagement will take several forms.

Listener contributions will be dedicated segments within the show, powered by PodInbox. These segments will include poetry and stories — both original and relayed — and will be woven throughout the series.

It’s a simple enough concept, but I believe that choosing the right tool to enable these kinds of contributions can make the difference between wild success and crickets. 🦗

Listeners need and deserve a great experience to get involved with a show.

We had originally intended to use a Google Voice mailbox with a custom phone number, but we discovered a couple important limitations.

One, it just wasn’t particularly reliable, and asking a listener to re-record a spontaneous and sometimes vulnerable contribution isn’t fair to them.

Two, this is 2022, and we can do better than telephone voice quality. Using a modern tool like PodInbox enables listeners to contribute in a way that actually sounds like them. They feel closer, both emotionally and sonically, to the show and to our audience. (By the way, PodInbox isn’t paying me — I’m sure there are similar tools available, it just happens to be the one we chose.)

We’re offering write-in contributions as well. This isn’t just a convenience for those who aren’t comfortable recording themselves — it’s an absolutely vital component for accessibility. In some cases, I’ll read these written contributions on their behalf, and in others, I’ll use AI or hire voice actors.

Here’s a contribution from James Vest…

Another goal of our approach is to increase awareness and exposure — for our interviewees, our contributors, and my services. Although I work with companies of all sizes in a consulting capacity, I also run programs that give individuals an opportunity to connect directly with me at prices that are… shall we say, a bit lower than my enterprise rates.

Because these programs (like Build-a-Bio) are complementary to the topics we cover on the show, it’s also a great chance to make listeners aware of offers that may interest them. A strategic benefit to me, and an embodiment of a principal core to the show.

Too often, we as creatives are taught to devalue our labor. To downplay it. To feel shame in selling it or to give it away for free. There is power in standing strong in what we do, really owning it, and being financially compensated for it. This is one way I’m modeling that.

Which brings me back to looking at things through the lens of my day job, brand work. The most resonant brands are the ones who walk their talk. The ones who don’t just do a multiple-choice exercise on values, but actually codify and live by them. The ones who grow and evolve and thrive because of them. Their rewards are the result of return on alignment. And if you’re looking for one way to reap those benefits yourself, just take another look at the headline of this post.

Anita Stubenrauch is an ex-Apple creative and the founder of Cause:Effect Creative, an agency that helps brands express visionary ideas with poetic power. Want to contribute a poem or story to Hyperactive Imagination? Visit hyperactiveimagination.com and tap the floating red button that says “Leave a Message.”