Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Todd Cochrane Of Blubrry Podcasting On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
Always be the first to get to work and the last to leave.
As we all know, over the past several years there has been a great deal of discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. One aspect of inclusion that is not discussed enough, is how businesses can be inclusive of people with disabilities. We know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. What exactly does this look like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Cochrane.
Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry Podcasting, wrote the book on podcasting. Well, at least the first one: “Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide.” The founder of the People’s Choice Podcast Awards and the Tech Podcast Network, he’s also credited with introducing the first advertisers into podcasting, GoDaddy. Cochrane was inducted into the inaugural class of the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015. But perhaps his biggest influence on podcasting is Blubrry Podcasting and its parent company RawVoice, which is a full-service podcast hosting service, with the №1 podcasting plugin for WordPress, and much more.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?
I was one of the very first podcasters. I started in October of 2004, then did some of the first podcast advertising deals in the industry. That led to my company, Blubrry Podcasting, being formed and building a diverse team over the past 17 years.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
1. Looking ahead. Podcasting is rapidly changing, and I have always paid close attention to the space and looked for ways to improve our product line for our customers. The recent initiatives around podcasting 2.0 and the expansion of the technical spec are something that is early for the average podcaster, but we need to stay ahead of trends.
2. Choosing the right remote team. Part of being a good leader is surrounding yourself with great people who can navigate this new remote working environment. Having had a largely remote company to begin with during the pandemic, it was an easy transition for us.
3. Being open to new ideas. It’s important to not just listen to the advice of others, but to be willing to take calculated risks that may not always be backed up with firm data. Sometimes you have to build for the 3% so that you can move the rest of your customer base along.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
As the founder, I was one of the last to go on the payroll as we poured money back into the company. So while my podcast and military retirement put food on the table during that time, it was definitely challenging to go through all that while we patiently built the company.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
The number one thing our customers want to know is, “How do I grow my audience and my show?” We have been laser-focused on providing them actionable, intelligent information to help them with that. Luckily, many in the company understand these challenges, and we’re continuing to expand the statistical data we provide to our customers.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about inclusion. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?
As a small company that started in 2005, we really did not have a DEI policy per se. Our goal was always to hire the best people, and we got lucky in that we built a very diverse team. As DEI efforts have become something companies are now more mindful of — including mine — we do our best to make sure those are part of our hiring process.
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?
Company culture is very important. Without diversity in the workforce, you’re going to have some blind spots because you’re not going to get all the perspectives you need to be able to compete. Podcasting is unique in that today, it is one of the most diverse mediums in existence, with lots of unique voices sharing their stories. We are very excited to be part of that eco-sphere.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what this looks like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Can you please share a few examples?
We have a long-term employee with serious vision impairment, and based on his location, we made sure very early on that he had the monitor and tools he needed in order to be successful. We knew that traveling might be a challenge, so we have always made in-person meetings optional. We value this employee’s input and perspective very much.
The same goes for our customers. We have always made any accessibility issues a top priority. One of our biggest challenges was making audio podcasts themselves accessible to the hearing impaired. This year we set out to bring to market the first web-based closed caption capable podcast player. Much larger companies in the space are under lawsuits to provide accessibility, but if a small company like ours can do it, there really is no excuse for a Fortune 500 company not to be accessible.
Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? If you can, please share a few examples.
The key is very simple — make accommodations for people with disabilities, to allow them to achieve their goals.
Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help promote disability inclusion? Can you share with us how the work culture was impacted as a result?
As my company has been largely remote from the beginning, we have been able to allow our employees to work from home in an environment that is already set up to meet their needs.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
I was in the military for 25 years, so my experience is slightly different. But the five main lessons I wish I would have known are:
- Hitch your train to the smartest person and learn from them.
- Always be the first to get to work and the last to leave.
- Go to the gym every week.
- Take real vacations, where you actually disconnect.
- Network, network, network.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
Never build a business that is solely reliant on another company. Changing business models on the other company’s part can actually cause the failure of your own business.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Podcasting has the opportunity to allow us to learn more about other cultures and lifestyles, in a way that is not shaped by the government or media.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow us at Blubrry.com, NewMediaShow.com, and at @geeknews on Twitter.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Todd Cochrane Of Blubrry Podcasting On How Businesses Make… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.