Purpose of the Podcast

Cool Change Podcast celebrates people who are designing cooler lives. Don’t feel like that’s you? Perfect. All the best guests think that.

Ultimately the goal is to inspire people to be more intentional. To know why they’re doing what they’re doing, and to design a better next chapter if they’re dissatisfied with their situation. By sharing your story and insights, the hope is that people will find themselves somewhere in your story and be prompted to make a change in a direction of their own choosing.

What makes a change “cool”

The concept of “cool” is pretty universal. You generally know it when you see it. On this podcast, the concept of “cool” includes a sense of authenticity, purpose and meaning. It describes people who care for other people and are taking some risks to shift from one way of doing things to another. People who are putting themselves out there. The mantra around here is: “You’re going to make a change at some point, right? Why not make it cool?”

About Chuck Allen

Chuck is a reformed corporate exec turned podcast host and life design strategist. He’s spent the last few decades coaching executives and learning how to lead by example rather than by spouting more rhetoric. In addition to hosting Cool Change, he coaches a select number of leaders who are contemplating ways to design a cooler next chapter.

For Chuck, Cool Change Podcast is a labor of love. Guests do not pay fees, and the show is self-funded by Chuck through his coaching business, Chuck Allen Life Design LLC, along with a growing number of corporate sponsors. His goal is to connect fascinating stories of cool people with the world who can use some inspiration and maybe a kick in the pants to start being more intentional about designing a cooler life.

About the Audience

While there’s something for everyone on Cool Change, the target demographic are professionals from their mid-30’s to mid -60’s who have been in the workforce for a while, and who are motivated to take more control over how they can improve their impact and joy. Often they feel stuck or bored, and are looking for something cooler to do with their energy and time.

One measure of audience reach is RSS Subscriptions, which basically measures the number of hits to the RSS feed for the show through multiple channels. Cool Change is a relatively young show, with the first episodes published in Summer 2020, but has already gained a following and as of January 2021 was averaging around 25,000 RSS Subscriptions per month.

What makes for a good guest?

Most importantly, be yourself and tell the truth. Authenticity is a core precept of being cool around here, and listeners respond well to guess who haven’t gotten it all figured out quite yet. People like to relate to a guest and feel that they can see themselves in similar situations from time to time.

Cool Change guests range from popular CEOs to obscure individual contributors and everyone in between. A common trait among most guests is at least one or two significant life or career shifts, accompanied by some thoughtful insights about what happened before, during, and after these changes. It helps to be able to articulate a general philosophy of life, and its’ especially helpful if there’s a singular angle or idea that our interview is built around. A lesson of sorts that is a key insight that our listeners will find applicable and useful.

We ask that guests actively promote their episodes after they’re published to help reach more listeners. Cool Change will provide a promotions kit to help make it easy and fun.

There are basically two styles of interview. One is a traditional back-and-forth conversation that gets recorded and published as it is with little editing. The other way is more of a documentary style. It’s still conducted similar to a back-and-forth conversation, but the intent is for Chuck to narrate the content in between guest commentary segments. The choice between the two styles depends on the content and which method you prefer.

For an example of a traditional back-and-forth interview, check out Episode 22 with Stephanie Stuckey.

For an example of a documentary-style interview, check out Episode 26 with Ashley Baer.

Timing

We block two hours for the conversation, but most don’t take that long. Generally the final product will be between 30-60 minutes long.

Location and Method

There are three options for how and where the interview will be conducted:

• In person at the Cool Change Studio in Portland, Oregon

• In person at an agreed upon non-studio location (that is super quiet, has enough space, and has necessary electrical outlets). This might be your home, place of business, or a different space that makes sense.

• Online remotely using a web app called Zencastr. For this option, you will need a good USB microphone, earphones, a silent non-echo environment, and a strong, fast WiFi connection. Zencastr provides excellent audio quality when all of these elements are in place. If you do not have a USB microphone, we can make arrangements to send you one that you can return after the interview.

Approval

You will be given the opportunity to listen to and approve the dialogue in your episode before it’s published. If you have suggestions or changes, it’s no problem for these to be made before the episode goes live.

Social Media Marketing

Most times, Chuck will invest significant energy and dollars to market your episode for maximum exposure.

Because of how social media algorithms work, you may get more audience engagement if you post your episode yourself rather than share the posts from Chuck.

To make it easy for you, you will receive an Episode Promo Kit that will make it simple to share your story with as many people as possible.