Podcaster Greg Soros didn’t have to build a mentorship program. His company, Podcraft Media Lab, could have stuck to premium clients able to pay top rates for production work. Instead, he set aside time and studio resources for creators who rarely get that kind of access, a choice that shaped his reputation as much as any client project has.
The effort runs through the Podcast Academy’s diversity fellowship, which connects Soros with emerging voices from underrepresented communities. He brings a background from Berklee College of Music along with years working inside major podcasting studios, giving mentees both a creative and technical foundation to build on before they ever release an episode.
Teaching Beyond the Microphone
Fellows work through narrative structure and sound design early on, but Soros pushes the curriculum further into territory many mentorship programs skip. Pitching advertisers, negotiating distribution agreements, and building a revenue model all show up in his sessions.
“Most mentorship programs focus on creative development, which is important but incomplete,” Soros said. “We also teach the business fundamentals. That’s what transforms a hobby into a career.”
That approach has already produced tangible outcomes. Several mentees have secured distribution deals, and three shows to come out of the program hit six figure download numbers in their first year, a track record Greg Soros podcaster points to when explaining why business training matters as much as creative coaching.
A Widening Circle
Word of those results has spread. Competing podcast networks have begun standing up similar mentorship tracks, treating the approach built by Greg Soros as a template worth borrowing.
Soros describes the long game simply: diverse perspectives make better content, and reaching creators before they leave for lack of resources keeps those perspectives from disappearing.
He measures success less by any single award and more by whether mentees stick with podcasting long enough to build lasting shows, a bar he says separates his program from shorter workshops that end once the training does. Refer to this article for related information.
More about Greg Soros on https://about.me/greg-soros-podcast