TRENDSETTERS: Podcaster Rick Tocquigny Shares his Insights on Success Made to Last

The Internationalist Trendsetters is written by Deborah Malone, founder of The Internationalist.

Rick Tocquigny began his career at Procter & Gamble as a brand management trainer, then moved to PepsiCo’s Doritos Brand Team and later transitioned to General Mills as VP Sales and Marketing for Colombo Yogurt.  However, he transformed his career a dozen years ago by becoming one of the earliest podcasters with the Life Lessons and Transformed Traveler Network.  

Today he is the Executive Producer and Co-Founder of Success Made to Last Productions, which includes America's favorite podcast about elite leaders-- the CEO in 10 show featuring Fortune 500 CEO's and serial entrepreneurs sharing stories about their breakthrough moments and favorite mentors.  He is on his way to recording his 3000th podcast episode.

Without question, podcasts are trending now, and their growth is attributed to an explosion of content and the increasing ease of discovery.  Ten years ago, 45% of people in the U.S. were familiar with podcasts; today 75% are aware of them.  The U.S. currently boasts over 100 million monthly podcast listeners or roughly 33% of the population.  The podcast phenomenon, though, is worldwide. South Korea leads in terms of the percent of total podcast listeners (58%), followed by Spain (40%), Sweden (36%), and Australia (33%)—which is tied with the US, followed by Canada (28%).

Remarkably, 80% of podcast listeners tune in for an entire episode.  While the average listener tunes into 6 shows per week, 14% of podcast enthusiasts tune in to more than 11 shows per week, according to a 2019 report by Edison Research and Triton Digital.  Half of all listeners, interestingly, admit to remembering more information by listening to a podcast than by reading. 

The podcast industry continues to accelerate with potential for advertisers. Marketers spent $479 million on podcast advertising in 2018; however, podcast ad revenue is projected to surpass $1 billion by 2021, according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC. In 2019 alone, podcast advertising revenue grew by 42 percent. And almost half of all podcast listeners recalled the ads they heard.

In our conversation, we discuss the following:

• The origins of the Success Made to Last series and why he choice the podcast format more than a decade ago.
• What he hopes people take away from his podcasts.
• The surprises he encountered through nearly 3000 interviews.
• What’s ahead for podcasts?
• How consumers are changing their listening habits.

 Rick Tocquigny is the CEO/Chief Servant and co-founder of Artbeat of America Designs that features several key brands: Gracefully Yours Greeting Cards, Church Kitchen Ladies cards, Marvelous Greetings, Life Lessons books, and When Core Values are Strategic books. He is the host of weekly podcast- Mentoring Monday podcast for 4wordwomen.org. Rick is also a mentor for startup entrepreneurs at Galvanize Boulder and Austin.  A graduate of Texas A&M University Mays School of Business, he holds a BBA in Marketing and a Masters Degree in Human Relations. He and his wife Carla reside in the Austin area and have two daughters, graduates of The University of Southern California and The University of Alabama.