Debut of the Voitanos Podcast + relaunch of YouTube channel

I’m finally getting around to doing something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while. But… it’s not just one thing I want to share with you in this post. There’s a lot to talk about… a new podcast & updates to our YouTube channel!

But first, I want to explain why I’m making these changes.

Backstory on my thinking

Up to this point, I’ve used the Voitanos blog to convey high-value educational & informative content related to Microsoft 365 professional development topics.

But blogs are good for those of you who prefer to read. That’s just one way people like to consume content. One size doesn’t fit everyone… many people prefer to watch videos while others prefer to listen to podcasts. I’ve wanted to reach out to these other two audiences, but that’s a lot of content to produce for a small business.

Until something occurred to me: why not triple dip? I’ve researched and tried out a few different shows & channels to see how they do it, and it lead me to the following approach:

• I can write blog posts to hit the people who prefer to read…
• Then I can flip on the camera and record a screencast of me talking and showing the same content covered in the blog post… that hits the people who prefer to watch…
• And… if I’m smart about how I record the video, I can just lift the audio track from the video and publish it as a podcast to hit those who prefer to listen.

All three of these resources will cross-reference each other. So, for example, take someone like me who likes to listen to long-form podcasts when I exercise; if the host references links pictures, or demos, I can always go back & watch the video or get the links from the blog post.

Will it work? Only time will tell… it’s just my hypothesis. The only way to know is to try it!

Now that you know where I’m coming from, let’s dive into the details.

Debut of the Voitanos podcast! 🎉🎙

Today I’m excited to share with you that I’ve launched a new podcast, the Voitanos podcast! Subscribe today by heading over to voitanos.io/podcast.

I’ve published a few episodes to seed the show that consist of an introduction episode, and the audio from a few videos I’ve published to our YouTube channel recently.

The most recent episode on SharePoint Framework v1.14 - What’s in the latest update of SPFx? goes along with this post. In fact, when you’re reading a post on the Voitanos website, you’ll see a link to the podcast episode it in the right-hand margin (or below the page if you’re on mobile):

So… the blog posts will serve as the podcast episode homepage. While I’m going to strive to have each installment have a read/watch/listen option, there may be exceptions to it. I’ll use the Voitanos blog to announce new podcast episodes or videos posted to YouTube.

What you can expect from the podcast

While it may evolve over time, the current plan is to focus primarily on topics directly related to topics that Voitanos covers. For instance, today that’s going to be SharePoint Framework & the Microsoft 365 Developer Associate certification. But in the future, that will likely expand.

I also want to address my plans for the release cadence. I’m a big proponent of a podcast publishing regular episodes. While I’m going to strive for that, with this being my first solo-show, and adding more than just an episode to each drop (as I explained above), I’m also going to be a realist. I know what my goal is, but to set expectations for the worst-case scenario, you can expect new episodes at least once a month.

The other big aspect to a podcast is the format of the episode. The majority of the episodes are going to be educational in nature. There may be the occasional guest or interview, but the focus will primarily be to be an audio version of the blog posts on the site.

Heads up - I might reference something you can see

When you listen to the podcast, you may hear me reference something that you can’t see. For example, I might be talking through a demo or reference a picture. For those, remember you can always go back to the podcast or the video.

This would be the case for a few of my initially seeded episodes, specifically episodes 2-4, that are all related to my SharePoint Server On-Premises definitive guide articles.

How the Voitanos podcast differs from the Microsoft Cloud Show

Now, I bet some of you are asking yourselves the following

Good question! Yes, I have another podcast, the Microsoft Cloud Show, that I started alongside by good fiend Chris Johnson in October 2013. Since then, we’ve published over 400 weekly episodes that primarily focused on the Microsoft cloud & competitive landscape! In that show we talk about all things Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure and related topics like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and industry news. Our episodes are a mix of news, deep dives exploring features, and interviews with both community & industry leaders.

The Voitanos podcast, at least at this point, isn’t going to focus on interviews or cover the latest news. The primary focus of the Voitanos podcast is educational content.

So… if you’re a subscriber of the Microsoft Cloud Show, don’t expect “more of the same” from the Voitanos podcast.

Learn more by tuning into episode 1 of the podcast!

Interested to learn more? Check out episode 1 of the podcast!

Now… the podcast isn’t the only thing I want to cover in this post…

Renewed focus on the Voitanos YouTube channel

As I covered already in this post, I’m going to use the YouTube channel to publish the watch aspect of my read/watch/listen plan.

Much of what I’ve discussed above applies to the YouTube channel as well.

Just like the podcast, videos will usually be associated with blog posts. For example, the most recent episode on XXXX goes along with this post. In fact, if you’re reading this post on the Voitanos website, you’ll see a link to it in the right-hand margin (or below the page if you’re on mobile).

Click this link to jump straight to the video on our YouTube channel.

And just like the podcast, you can also subscribe to our channel & get notified when I drop new videos!

Learn more by tuning into the video associated with this post!

Interested to learn more? Check out the video I’ve published that goes along with this post!

Conclusion

I’m excited about this change. This read/watch/listen approach of an episode is something I’ve wanted from the different shows & sites I frequent. Of the ones I’ve been checking out that have similar approaches, I’ve found it to work quite well.

I’ll have my own spin on it, and like many things I expect things will evolve over time.

But I’m curious what you think of this approach? Drop me a comment on Twitter, or in a comment under the video associated with this post and let me know!