The Missing Link in Product Leadership: Could It Be You?

Sep 27, 2023

This page is an FAQ for potential guests, PR agencies trying to book their clients on the show, and advertisers interested in getting their products and services in front of my audience on The Way of Product Podcast.

Here's what is covered:

1. What’s in it for you?
2. Show stats like audience growth, average listens, and reach
3. Target Audience
4. How to get the most out of your investment
5. The Mission of the Show
6. The Show Format
7. List of top episodes
8. What I have learned after releasing 100 episodes

If you like what you see, send all inquiries to caden@wayofproduct.com

1. You are probably wondering why you should be interviewed on “The Way of Product”…

Simply put, there could be two possible reasons:

You were doing interesting work! If that’s the case, I think you’d be an awesome addition to the growing Alumni Network of guests.
Or, someone else told me you were a rockstar and I should talk to you!

In short, you are a leader, and there are people who could change the course of their career after listening to even one sentence of your interview on this show.

And “NOW” has never been a better time to record an interview on
“The Way of Product”

Here’s what’s in it for you…

Become a respected voice in the product industry: Use your episode to find that next hire, client, or dream job.
Your interview will be widely distributed: We are on all major podcast platforms.
Be Omnipresent: Videos/Clips/Reels of the Interview will be purpose-edited for the following platforms and mediums.
- YouTube: Full Interview + Shorts
- TikTok: Highlights of your interview
- Clips shown on my Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Be part of a Free Alumni community when it launches next year.
Be able to come back to write guest posts on the newsletter when you have something to promote things like products, courses, or that you are hiring.
Free Lifetime Access to a “Way of Product” premium subscription when I launch it next year.

In addition to all that, the reach of an episode is guaranteed to find you your next hire, job, or client for your business.

2. Here are some numbers to paint the picture…

Audience growth has a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 97.7% YoY and has become the top 10% of podcasts listened to in the world (Spotify for Podcasters)

Average download per episode 263 within the first few weeks of being released. But top performers who have a solid promotion practice get their episodes far above 700 in the first month…

…That's like a well-attended speaking engagement at a local meetup on the low end…
…and on the high end, a talk at a product conference…

But unlike any of those industry events, you get downloads in perpetuity. The most popular episodes eventually double their initial impressions.

That growth came from me working part-time on it while holding a full-time job, raising a young family, and skiing (a lot) during the winter. It's not because of me, it’s because of you: the guests!

If you are an advertiser, send me an inquiry to show@wayofproduct.com and I’ll forward you a media kit indicating placements and pricing.

3. Say hello to your target audience

We have guests ranging from product executives, hiring managers, and ICs from MAANG companies to some of the hottest startups in the industry. Your episode will help you get in front of that next big career move, especially if we properly promote it.

4. How to get to 700+ downloads on your episode

That’s not all, I have finally got to a point where I can give you guys more opportunities to reach more people.

I’m putting more time, money, and resources into making this show one of the best investments of an hour of your time.

But if you want to beat the average downloads, you’ll need some help… here’s where my team and system come in.

Before your interview is published, you’ll get 14-day access to a GDrive link to all the repurposed content for your own promotions! All of those videos will be sent across my channels, but the real network effects come from you sharing your interview clips with your own network.

To be honest, 700 episodes was the top when I was releasing 12 episodes a year. With the new improvements to my social media team and you promoting your content, things are going to get a lot more interesting!

Are you ready?

Again, one sentence from this one episode can change the course of someone’s career, wouldn’t you want to make that impact?

Then Let’s Chat: show@wayofproduct.com

5. The mission of the show

The average tenure of a product leader is only 2 years—because they fail to get their teams to make an impact. I’m trying to crack the code on how to build a team of amazing creative technologists.

So I invite you to join me on my podcast, "The Way of Product," to share your wisdom and lessons learned.

The mission? To elevate the craft and make product teams incredible. Use the button below to schedule a 60-minute interview.

6. What’s the Format of the Show?

The format of the show is fireside chat. So we usually focus on one subject and leave room to go deep. The ambition is to be curious about the merit of ideas and think "out loud" about how we can become better builders of things that resonate with people. So have fun and be ready to explore! Many guests have mentioned that they are finally able to synthesize ideas they were wrestling with while recording on the show!

Here's a skeleton of the hour recording:

I will ask you to briefly introduce yourself and tell your story to the listener. For example, Who you are, what do, and why you do it.
I’ll ask you a broad question to kick off the discussion, and we will go from there. My goal is to keep you talking until the hour is up. Feel free to pivot if you find an idea interesting and I will help facilitate smooth transitions.
Around the 50-minute mark, I'll start winding down the interview by asking, "Is there anything you think should be mentioned before we sign off?"
End recording.

Post Recording

I'll send you an email, explaining how and when to expect your episode to be released to coordinate your promotions of the interview!

7. The Top Interviews of the Show

8. What I’ve learned after 100 episodes

Just a handful of guests I have interviewed.

You might think, "Why should I? What difference can one podcast make?"

I get it; I've been there. I’ve been on the verge of quitting for 5 years. Most of the industry podcasts I followed in college have long since fizzled out.

I started this podcast (with the original moniker of “The Way of Product Design”) to break into the industry. Well, my second guest hired me—and I’m still working with him to this day. He’s also a guest on episode 100. “The Unspoken Rules of Becoming a VP of Design”!

For 3 companies I’ve worked with this guy and our crew of A-Team Designers. I got really lucky finding a great boss. Crews run the world! This is us in Mexico doing some customer research work for ProducePay.

Okay, so I broke in—now what do I strive for? The next thing was to see the podcast as a way to get job security, and to have options, “think of it like an insurance policy.

Then several guests and fans of the show wanted to hire me. I now had too many opportunities than I could act upon… now what?

So with the mission accomplished, I thought I'd cap it at 100 episodes and pat myself on the back, enjoying the fruits of my labor.

But over the last couple of years, the podcast grew, and the flywheel started to spin and I was only working very, very, very part-time on it. I never wanted it to be my main thing one day. But I did learn one thing, consistency over time usually yields results.

What stopped me from quitting…

When your podcast grows roughly 100% year after year, you realize that the message and guests of the show resonate with people.

This show suddenly became bigger than me, and I lost my way for a bit…

Suddenly PR agencies started sending me guests on a silver platter, I didn’t have to hustle anymore, and it showed in a few of the episodes. I’m not proud of that and it was frustrating that I didn’t have a “Why” to keep the energy at a high enough level to do my fans a service.

I had no idea why I was still working on this show.

But you know how Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker “With great power comes great responsibility?” I suddenly had this superpower, a platform I could use to further the pursuit of community knowledge… and I was squandering it. Turns out, the biggest danger of success is success itself. You lose the hunger, the drive, the reason you got there in the first place.

So I stopped answering inbound emails, dodged PR agents, bought a plane ticket, rented a car in Lisbon Portugal, and road-tripped to Andalusia Spain to reflect on why was I doing what I was doing. Where did I want to go with this “hobby”?

Then I had an epiphany.

Pictures of Spain — No big itinerary, I let myself wander while I listened to old episodes and 5 audiobooks!

While walking through historical old towns, AirPods in, re-listening to a combination handful of my favorite interviews and Simon Sinek books to discover my “Why”, I finally connected the dots on what I learned from a hundred episodes of the show.

Communication and executive presence can elevate an Individual Contributor (IC) to massive heights, I am a testament to that, but a team's true success is sculpted by its leadership.

I’ve crushed it at every role, yet I don’t have a big win under my belt, no exits, famous products, nothing.

I can point to some metrics I improved with my designs. Why? Because the leadership team didn’t know how to bring out the best in their team.

They made it so their people worked in the business rather than on it.

But they did everything the thought leaders said, they read all the right books, and they implemented OKRs, what went wrong?

That's why I can't just pack up my mic and call it a day—I have to talk to you.

The next chapter, and you are invited to be a part of it

So, I shifted my mission. It's no longer just about surviving and thriving in corporate America as a designer. It's about building extraordinary teams of creative technologists and providing them with the frameworks, SOPs, and philosophies that enable them to operate like a well-oiled machine.

In this next chapter of my podcast journey, I’m tackling the challenges of laying down the blueprint for amazing teams. You could be the missing piece to this puzzle.

Your insights could be the key that many are searching for, the missing link between failure and creating a legacy as a product leader. This is the climax—the moment when you decide if you'll take that step to be part of something bigger.

All it takes is booking a recording session to dive into the easiest and possibly most impactful interview of your life. It's your stage to share your wisdom, your challenges, and your solutions.

By sharing your story, you're not just adding another line to your LinkedIn. You're contributing to a mission that could change the face of product leadership and how people choose to operate. I wouldn’t invite you to come on the show if you didn’t already have the reputation that people admire.

So here’s my ask: Don't let your wisdom go unnoticed.

Let's amplify your impact and redefine the future of product leadership. Your first step? Shoot me an email:

caden@wayofproduct.com

Do you know someone who should be on the show? Share this page with them!