The podcast “Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing” recently featured Rory Bathgate and Jane McCallion, the dynamic voices behind IT Pro’s podcast. Together, they delved into the unique intersection of technology and journalism, sharing insights on how tech advancements shape reporting, content creation, and the art of podcasting. Rory and Jane discussed their journey in carving out a distinct podcasting voice within the fast-paced tech world, highlighting the importance of ethical journalism and the challenges of audience engagement in a crowded digital landscape.
Listeners are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the technical and creative processes, from navigating live event recordings to the fun mishaps that often occur during production. They also provided valuable advice on maintaining listener engagement, crafting compelling narratives, and choosing guests that resonate with their audience. The discussion emphasized why rich, nuanced conversations are often better suited to audio, allowing listeners to experience tech stories in a way that transcends traditional print media.
This episode is essential for B2B marketers looking to understand the value of podcasting in today’s media environment, especially as it relates to building a loyal audience in the cybersecurity and tech sectors. For those considering starting a podcast or refining their content strategy, Rory and Jane's tips are invaluable.
Dive deeper into these insights by reading the full transcript below or listening to the podcast episode to uncover how you can elevate your own marketing strategies.
Transcript:
Gianna Whitver (00:19.121)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. I am having a wonderful day and I am so excited to host this podcast today because my amazing co-host
Maria Velasquez (00:36.53)
Maria Velasquez.
Gianna Whitver (00:39.013)
has joined the Cybersecurity Marketing Society full time. Finally, Maria.
Maria Velasquez (00:46.12)
That's right. I was playing hard to get for a while, but then you got me at the end.
Gianna Whitver (00:51.537)
It only took two years of bribery. And I'm especially excited because we have two amazing guests today and they are very, very even more special than usual because they're also podcasters by their own right. We have Rory Bathgate, features and multimedia editor at IT Pro and Jane McCallion, managing editor at IT Pro, which includes IT Pro.
Maria Velasquez (00:56.182)
Ha
Gianna Whitver (01:20.325)
the website, then also IT Pro Podcast. my gosh, you guys, thank you so much for being on.
Jane McCallion (01:25.802)
Hi Jenna, thank you for having us.
Rory Bathgate (01:28.334)
Yeah, thank you so much for having us on the show.
Gianna Whitver (01:30.545)
Awesome. Just gave you like one second there so you could both thank me properly. So we're excited to have you on.
Jane McCallion (01:34.9)
hahahaha
Maria Velasquez (01:36.756)
you could tell they have the podcaster voice. As soon as they said thank you, was like, OK, yes, two belong right behind the mic for sure.
Jane McCallion (01:46.348)
you
Gianna Whitver (01:50.289)
Exactly. We have our pod quad here today and I'm so excited. So you guys have your own podcast. You have the IT Pro podcast. Before we jump into more of your roles and what you do and how to produce an amazing podcast, which is what the focus of today's episode is on, tell us a little bit about IT Pro and and what IT Pro and the podcast are and do.
Jane McCallion (02:17.548)
Sure, so ITPro is a B2B tech website. We've been going for about 15 years now. I'm get a slap on the wrist for not knowing the exact date. I just know it's longer than I've been there. We started the ITPro podcast in 2019.
Jane McCallion (02:41.292)
That was me and my former colleague, Adam Shepard, who has gone on to ever greater and more podcast-ier things. We sort of saw that there was a bit of a gap in the market. We'd both been involved with the PC Pro podcast and were avid podcast listeners, which is a trait that continues to this day. And yeah, we just thought, do you know what? There's room in the market for a really solid...
B2B tech podcast speaking to IT professionals and who better to do that than the IT pro team.
Rory and Jane reveal their roles at ITPro and secrets to a killer B2B tech podcast.
Rory Bathgate (03:21.57)
Yeah. then, so I joined IT Pro in June, 2022. I was working with Adam initially on the podcast and then around the time that Adam left, he handed me the reins of the podcast for three months before Jane returned from maternity leave. And yeah, we've been hosting it together ever since then. It's gone from strength to strength.
Maria Velasquez (03:46.324)
That's amazing. What are some topics and what types of guests do usually have on your show?
Jane McCallion (04:07.83)
Cybersecurity is a perennial favorite. Graham Cluley, the cybersecurity blogger and expert was our launch guest or one of them. We've had several cybersecurity episodes on kind of various things, whether that's ransomware, we had a really good recent episode on like the psychological impact of a ransomware attack.
Jane McCallion (04:37.836)
where we discussed it being a little bit like a burglary, like the burglars might have gone, but are you ever gonna really feel safe in your house again, knowing that somebody has been there rummaging around in your stuff? And aside from that, we have done sort of sustainability. We recently did something on water resource management and data centers, training, anything that's really relevant to the B2B tech professional audience.
Rory Bathgate (05:09.58)
One of the benefits actually of the podcast itself is we get a 30 to 40 minute window to talk about a topic in depth. So every month we have our news and analysis editor, Ross Kelly on, and we go through some of the top stories of the month in more detail. But also as Jane has said, we can really drill down in depth on topics like private 5G. Jane just mentioned data center sustainability.
Gianna Whitver (05:17.638)
Good.
Rory Bathgate (05:38.184)
We actually had one episode on energy and another entire episode on water when it comes to data centers. So, you know, if you wrote all that out as words, obviously you'd be talking about several articles of worth condensed into two different episodes. yeah, anything B2B tech, we're happy to have people on and come and talk in detail.
Gianna Whitver (06:00.401)
How do you decide on what, you know, how do you decide on the topics that get turned into podcasts? Because like you just said, and since you guys run a media company and you're like basically editors, journalists, you write about stuff, but then you can dive deeper into it as a podcast episode. Is it based on metrics? Is it on gut? Is it just because you're personally interested? what are, how do you decide this is a great topic? Now let's actually like go talk about it for 40 minutes.
Jane McCallion (06:34.216)
say there's an element of gut involved like we review servers on the website and that is something that's really interesting really useful to our audience. I think most people would die of boredom trying to listen to a review of a server. Perhaps if we had a video element yeah but you know if it's just me or all of you just being like yeah you know we're gonna have to paint a picture of our words of this box.
Gianna Whitver (06:50.161)
you
Gianna Whitver (06:57.147)
Yeah.
Jane McCallion (06:58.54)
you know, that doesn't quite lend itself. So it has to be something that you can kind of talk about for 30 to 40 minutes. It can be niche, but it's got to be a broad enough niche or interesting enough that there's going to be enough material there. Also, it can be tricky. Ultimately, Rory and I, like you say, we are journalists. Neither of us come from a technology background. You know, I've been doing this for
Discover how the ITPro Podcast carved its unique voice in tech journalism.
Jane McCallion (07:27.464)
over 12 years now. So I'd hope that I have a decent knowledge of the kind of IT space. But at the same time, you know, I have not dedicated my life to quantum mechanics and quantum computing. I am not a cryptographer. All of these things. So there has to be can't be so niche that we're not going to understand. And also, to be fair, that we're not going to be talking to just two people.
the audience. We do want all of our listeners to be interested, even if it is not directly like one of their specific interests, if you get what I mean.
Maria Velasquez (08:06.774)
So that's a great point then, Jane, do you both regularly survey your listeners for new ideas, new guests they'd like to see on the show or particular topics you haven't really covered but they would like you to cover?
Rory Bathgate (08:38.218)
It's interesting. We don't have much direct feedback from our listeners in terms of we don't get too many direct comments from listeners or Q &A answers. And what we do get is obviously in traffic, we can see which episodes perform well. And we get a lot of offers on the back of episodes coming out. So, you know, our audience on the one hand, yes, they're learning about the tech sector, but on the other hand,
They are the leaders in the tech sector. We get emails sometimes that specifically reference, we heard this episode, we found that very interesting, but we have a client that disagrees or actually, you mentioned this specific piece of regulation in passing, he can speak to that. We noticed that you last spoke about this in 2019, 2020.
Jane McCallion (09:32.881)
You
Rory Bathgate (09:37.706)
know, we have a client, she thinks that you'll do an update, that kind of thing. So that's always helpful to receive those kind of pitches when it comes to the podcast. On your point, you mentioned earlier of choosing between a written piece and a podcast episode. As Jane said, part of this is gut. But also sometimes when you're when you're doing an interview piece, say with someone, you as the journalist know that there's
Gianna Whitver (09:41.041)
Hmm.
Rory Bathgate (10:05.614)
of good stuff that just hits the cutting room floor because it has to because you have to make the piece readable and you pick the most relevant quotes say but if sometimes you have a conversation and you think if I could just publish the entire thing verbatim I would because that was golden and that's really what a podcast episode is it's that chance for that expert to get that unedited so far as time pressure goes airtime to to kind of speak through their specialism
Jane McCallion (10:35.596)
There's one format as well that we haven't really spoken about yet, which we do do more this year than we have previous years, which is recordings live from events. So as a team, we go to a lot of conferences, big, medium, some smaller ones, and either we will try to get somebody to interview at the event or if that's not possible or
Sometimes if it's one of the other members of staff who might not be so comfortable with interviewing for podcast, we will have them on as a guest and interview say our news editor or our staff writer or whoever it is that's happened to have gone out. It gets very in the family.
Gianna Whitver (11:21.358)
That's cool. The recording live at events, Maria and I have done that just a few times for Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing for this podcast. I don't know why I'm saying the whole name here. And we've also done it at our conference Cyber Marketing Con, which this year will be held December 8th through 11th in Philadelphia and anywhere virtually. So I hope to see all of the listeners who listen to this episode out there. But yeah, it's kind of a different
Jane McCallion (11:27.777)
Mm.
Gianna Whitver (11:49.295)
ball game. What do you guys do to prepare for a live episode as opposed to like this pre-recorded sort of virtual experience that we typically operate in as podcasters? Is there anything you do differently?
Rory Bathgate (12:08.878)
I'm happy take this one if you want. From my perspective, it's all tied up in the preparation you would normally do for an event. So in the weeks preceding any conference, for example, you're checking in on the news since the last one. If you were at the last conference, you're rereading your notes from last year. You're looking at major strategic decisions the company's made in the interim.
Jane McCallion (12:10.155)
You're a threat.
Gianna Whitver (12:17.796)
Mm-hmm.
How live events bring fresh energy to podcasting.
Rory Bathgate (12:37.676)
So you come prepared with all of that, but then there's also an element of reacting to the news on the ground and thinking on your feet. So typically a podcast recording for an event will happen a few days in. It won't be just as you land on day one. So you'll come into that conversation with all the context of the keynote speech, if there was one. Other partner conversations you've had, the mood on the ground, any discussions you've had with vendors or people on the showroom floor. So you can tie all that in.
So it's very much a mix of the kind of preparation that you would do for another event or for another podcast episode. But you also get that extra kind of special source that comes from being there on the ground and, you know, looking at the person across the table and gesturing around the event space that you're in.
Gianna Whitver (13:26.361)
Right, like, hey, this huge announcement just dropped. Like, we can talk about it right there.
Jane McCallion (13:31.404)
Yeah.
Rory Bathgate (13:32.289)
Exactly.
Gianna Whitver (14:06.577)
So, you know, speaking of, you know, being preparing for your episodes and the differences between on air and in person and virtual, I think one of the benefits also of being in person is that it is more of a conversation. Sometimes it's hard for us as podcast hosts to kind of keep the conversation going in the right way because we're missing so much context, right?
Jane McCallion (14:06.828)
You
Gianna Whitver (14:34.691)
every layer you get away from face to face in person, you lose a little bit of context between the two people who are speaking. So, you know, something we're constantly thinking about is how to keep this podcast conversational and not a diatribe of which I am very guilty of, like literally right now. So how are you guys making sure your guests who are often potentially maybe not media trained like speakers, how are you making sure to keep this?
Rory Bathgate (14:53.486)
you
Jane McCallion (15:00.51)
Mm.
Gianna Whitver (15:03.045)
conversational, interesting and entertaining to your listener.
Jane McCallion (15:08.492)
You know what, Jenna, it's funny you say that, but I think looking back on how, so when we first started the podcast, Adam and I were very insistent that people had to come to our studio, heavily kind of bracketed studio in London and record in person. We would not do it virtually because the audio quality would be terrible. And they had to come to us where we had our mixing desk and our soundproofing that we put around a meeting room.
Gianna Whitver (15:27.003)
You have a studio.
Jane McCallion (15:37.74)
Yeah, the studio. It was absolutely, it was a very small, very small room where we just shoved like foam soundproofing on the walls. This is it, the studio. Yep. Don't breathe too heavily or the soundproofing may fall down. But we were insistent on that. Like there was, were no quarters given. That is how we do it. If you want to be on, this is what you do.
Gianna Whitver (15:38.385)
the studio. Like an office cube with like foam on the wall.
Gianna Whitver (15:49.529)
Yeah, you took the vacuum in the broom out and you're like, this is the studio.
Rory Bathgate (15:53.34)
You
Gianna Whitver (15:56.913)
You
Yeah.
Jane McCallion (16:08.832)
But obviously, you know, we launched like I say in 2019, maybe six months into the podcast, one of our last live as in, yeah, well, yeah, live ones that we recorded in person. I'm not in it because I have coronavirus. So yeah, sort of we had to go virtual. And I will say that in doing that, we actually opened ourselves up to a far greater variety of
hosts than we had previously. actually, it's probably, you know, depending on your personality, it might be kind of like a little bit special going into a recording booth, going somewhere to do it, you know, that's the kind of personality that I have. Somebody says, come in, you know, kind of do that. how exciting. But for a lot of people, think that, you know, it can be more intimidating. So being able to do it in a familiar environment, potentially without any special equipment, you know, if you've got a mic, that's brilliant.
but really our main stipulation is headphones because the mics on laptops nowadays, you know, they're kind of fine. They will absolutely do. And it means that we can speak to anybody, means that we can speak to anybody anywhere. Most time zones really, we can be quite flexible because we don't have to book any space in the meeting room slash recording studio. Yeah, like I get what you're saying. I like to meet people occasionally in person too.
Gianna Whitver (17:27.665)
Thank
Jane McCallion (17:34.83)
But I think that the opportunities are greater doing it virtually than they perhaps were when we were insisting on in-person recordings.
Gianna Whitver (17:43.995)
That's a good counterpoint to what I just said, right? Like even though maybe it takes a little more work to balance and to speak directly to someone through a virtual environment, it's more accessible. However, for a lot of folks who would not be able to come to London to come work, to come record in an office because they happen to live in North Carolina or India or wherever the heck they live. Right. So there is that.
Jane McCallion (18:00.49)
Yeah.
Jane McCallion (18:07.188)
Indeed. Yeah. Yeah.
Peek behind the scenes of the ITPro Podcast
Maria Velasquez (18:08.436)
Right. And in a way, you're kind of expanding your listenership too, right? So if you're having a guest from that region, then most likely that region will also become an avid listener as well.
Jane McCallion (18:21.162)
Yes, we can hope.
Gianna Whitver (18:23.043)
Very good point. We can hope.
Rory Bathgate (18:27.426)
To your point, Maria, that feeds back into what I was saying earlier around our audience are also our potential guests. Like you're saying, it expands our audience, which then expands our potential speaker pool.
Maria Velasquez (18:35.84)
That's true.
Gianna Whitver (18:41.585)
That's how we do it as well. So since our podcast is focused on marketing in cybersecurity, our guests are marketers in cybersecurity and y'all, but our guests are usually marketers in cybersecurity and therefore our guests are listeners and our listeners are our guests and it's a nice like loop. Similar to how someone who's running a security podcast might have
a security SME as the host, then invite security SMEs on to speak. So it makes a lot of sense. On the topic, back to the topic of content, because content, think is such a hard hitting thing. And especially for our listeners who would want, who may want to like pitch someone to be on the IT Pro podcast or to have an SME speak on the IT Pro podcast. What, is there any?
Besides like, it's a topic that's meaty enough, we could dig and eat it and chew on it for 30 minutes. Is there any other do's not do's topics that are interesting topics that aren't interesting for y'all?
Rory Bathgate (19:48.078)
So something that we do get, something that we do get pitched to us on occasion, which we will give a flat no to is cryptocurrencies. We don't cover that as a brand. we, yeah, we don't want.
Gianna Whitver (19:48.859)
There's none.
Gianna Whitver (20:00.945)
BOOOOM
This is very insulting to me and Maria, who are both crypto billionaires.
Jane McCallion (20:10.694)
Yeah
Rory Bathgate (20:11.457)
Well...
Maria Velasquez (20:11.69)
Yeah, can't believe you're on the show right now.
Gianna Whitver (20:15.979)
Actually, right, we're going to press end recording. Sorry, keep going, Rory.
Rory Bathgate (20:19.246)
We're here to provide the bold voice, counter to that. I think the dos and don'ts of pitching topics, aside from a couple such as cryptocurrencies, or we're not here to offer financial advice wrapped in a tech topic really in any guise, the dos for pitching are do pitch something that
Jane McCallion (20:24.812)
you
Rory Bathgate (20:48.318)
A, you can speak about for 30 or 40 minutes. But also B, you are happy to talk about in quite a venn-diagnostic way. You can give specific mention to something that your company has done if it's relevant to the topic. But you should also be prepared to speak on a sector-wide basis, route that in your own experience from throughout your career, not just at one company. And also be willing to
Gianna Whitver (20:58.993)
Mm.
Rory Bathgate (21:17.27)
except follow up questions on the topic. I know this is something that Jane can speak to, but we don't provide questions in advance to our guests. And that is primarily just to keep the conversation flowing as naturally as possible. So when you're pitching a topic, be aware that we'll probably come back if we really like it and say, that's great, and start talking dates rather than running questions past you.
Maria Velasquez (21:43.798)
That's a great point.
Gianna Whitver (21:43.813)
That is exactly how Maria and I do this podcast as well. In case anyone was wondering how it's so polished and so completely not full of bullshit all the time. It is because we don't prep at all. No, I'm just kidding. We prep with the guests. how our process is, is we do a 15 minute scoping call with each guest and then we'll cover the high level topics. For us, was the process. For this episode, it was the podcast process and how to stay conversational and like...
Jane McCallion (21:58.185)
Yeah.
Gianna Whitver (22:13.627)
tech topics and like what are the things that you're looking for in a podcast and what's it like being a podcaster and we did like a very short scoping call about those topics but coming in you don't know what we're gonna ask they're gonna be around those general topics but we give a warning that's like hey this might go off the rails and be prepared with your parachute because I don't know where this is going or where it's gonna end up
Maria Velasquez (22:42.774)
Cool. I was thinking about the cybersecurity marketing folks or maybe even on the sales team that are listening to your podcasts and possibly want to pitch somebody to come on your show, not providing questions ahead of time, I think pushes the cybersecurity vendor to truly send somebody in that can talk to that topic.
off the cuff, right? It's what they're an expert in and they don't have to study the questions ahead of the show instead of, you know, and I'm pretty sure you've probably seen this where they'll send a salesperson or, you know, somebody just to pitch the product. actually pushes the other side to be as editorial as possible to match your process.
Jane McCallion (23:31.104)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. you know, we have had issues. If people do get the questions ahead of time, then they become too scripted. you can end up in a situation where you're like, you know, who's the current monarch of England? And they will be like, well, the thing about our product is, and it just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you're asking them. You will get the same.
Gianna Whitver (23:56.977)
you
Jane McCallion (24:00.562)
answer. There was an episode, there's only been one, that we had to spike because it was like that. The guy had been over-briefed. probably, he was either too nervous or didn't know enough to be able to ad lib. And so yeah, had to, once the recording was over, we emailed the PLs and we were like, yeah, that won't be going out. And they were like, yeah, we figured that that was how it was. Cause it was just...
Rory Bathgate (24:01.71)
Yeah.
Maria Velasquez (24:26.966)
then do the work and send somebody in to make it work instead of they already knew that was not gonna
Jane McCallion (24:30.604)
What can I say? can I say? Yeah, I think that they figured out during the recording that it was not going well. Yeah. Yes, yes. Sorry. I should have said. no, that's what the mute button's for. Off cam, off mic going, yeah, I imagine. But yeah, that's happened once. We occasionally get people decide to do like a
Gianna Whitver (24:39.195)
They were sitting in and listening and they were like trying to cover their mouth. Like, I feel like.
Rory Bathgate (24:46.478)
You
Jane McCallion (24:59.36)
great recording with us. And then we'll be at the end would kind of go, okay, and you know, we think we've got everything that sounds like a good rap. You know, there are any things that you wanted to add that we haven't spoken about, you know, key parts that we think we've overlooked. And they'll suddenly be like, yeah, I just wanted to talk about one thing. yeah, go, you know, you say it will ask the question. They'll be like, Okay, yeah, sure. The Blitzmaster 5000 is the fastest food processor in the world as
It's all about community
Rory Bathgate (25:23.15)
You
Maria Velasquez (25:23.638)
Let's not.
Gianna Whitver (25:25.659)
you
Jane McCallion (25:28.512)
guaranteed by whoever. And really anybody who is looking for a new food processor should buy the Blitzmaster 5000, which is available at all good retailers, including, and you're just like, what's this got to do with? No, and what on earth has this got to do with literally anything we just spoke about? And so we get to the end, we'll turn it off, we'll like, bye bye bye bye, yeah we'll cut that.
Gianna Whitver (25:30.437)
you
Rory Bathgate (25:40.43)
You
Gianna Whitver (25:42.715)
Mm-hmm.
You
Maria Velasquez (25:47.081)
you
Rory Bathgate (25:52.832)
It's when you hear the paper rustling. That's a red flag. If you can hear paper rustling, there's something there, they want to read it. Don't. You know, speak from the heart.
Jane McCallion (25:56.96)
Mm.
Gianna Whitver (25:57.552)
Yeah.
Gianna Whitver (26:02.49)
HAHAHAHA
that's funny.
Maria Velasquez (26:06.196)
That's when you like speed up the sound and make it sound like, you know, the end of the commercial where they kind of go through all the disclaimers and all the legal fine print in like five times the speed.
Rory Bathgate (26:13.934)
Yes, yes.
Jane McCallion (26:14.028)
Yes!
Gianna Whitver (26:20.561)
That's funny. I mean, I guess those guests who, you know, I can see from the perspective of a guest that, you know, I got this opportunity, my company got me this opportunity, and I have to say something about the company or maybe the marketing team will be mad. None of us would be mad as marketers, folks. Like anyone listening to our podcast would not be mad, but maybe a less sophisticated marketing team or PR team would be like, you didn't mention the Blitzmaster and how it can turn vegetables into mush in 0.7 seconds? Like...
Jane McCallion (26:30.849)
Yeah.
Rory Bathgate (26:45.71)
You
Gianna Whitver (26:50.736)
So.
Jane McCallion (26:50.826)
Yeah, you know, I think that there's probably a lot of that happening that they've been kind of like, reminded to drop, you know, mention of their product or company into the conversation and they've decided to do it in the most unsubtle way conceivable. Just like, bam, at the end. Here we go. Okay. Yeah. Whereas like, you know, we've had guests on in the past who are far more sophisticated with it who have managed to kind of
Gianna Whitver (27:06.769)
Do
Gianna Whitver (27:10.545)
Like a 30 second ad read.
Jane McCallion (27:20.684)
pepper mention of like their company or whatever throughout in a way that is just like, I mean, you know, kind of bravo, bravo to these guests, to be honest with you, because they're doing it in a way that actually kind of makes it hard to remove, but it's like, because it's part of the conversation. I'm not encouraging anybody to behave in this way, just to be clear. Just to be clear, but yeah, yeah, pro tips on the...
Rory Bathgate (27:45.39)
You're giving the top tips to the guests.
Jane McCallion (27:49.876)
like achieving marketing apotheosis when trying to talk to journalists and podcasters.
Gianna Whitver (27:54.775)
that's funny.
Maria Velasquez (27:56.736)
So Rory, Jane, I imagine for the IT Pro podcast, there are opportunities for companies to pitch organically, but there are probably opportunities to also sponsor a couple of episodes or sponsor an ad read. How does that work and how does that differ in terms of like process and editorial piece to it?
Jane McCallion (28:20.492)
Sure. So, for an ad read, there's various steps to do with scripting and stuff, but ultimately it would be me or Rory or both who read it and there might be maybe a couple of variations, especially if it's a long running partnership. That's, yeah, sorry, the most, why do I say sorry? God, so British. That's sort of the most straightforward.
Maria Velasquez (28:43.828)
Hahaha!
Jane McCallion (28:47.986)
guess, you know, kind of commercial partnership. We also do sponsored episodes. These are called special editions in our feed. Those are outwardly sponsored by a partner, whoever that may be. And sometimes those are sold on their own, or sometimes they're as part of a wider commercial relationship, which can include advertorial.
on the site, other supported content, ad takeovers, newsletter takeovers, you name it, we've got it. If you want to sell your stuff on ITPro and the ITPro podcast, we will help you do that.
Gianna Whitver (29:32.081)
Nice. If you want to actually sell the Blitzmaster, we'll help you. But we'll probably help you do it in a way where it doesn't sound like an ad also, I'm guessing. there we go.
Jane McCallion (29:36.553)
Eugh.
Jane McCallion (29:40.384)
or it sounds like a good ad, yeah. But yeah, so, but that's all I feel like I should point out here that that's all handed by our commercial and sales team. you know, as about to say interface with the clients. This is strictly speaking true, but yeah, it feels weird to call it that. They are the ones who work with the clients, who work with clients representatives to come up with what they want, agree it, you know.
Gianna Whitver (30:04.593)
Mm-hmm.
Jane McCallion (30:08.67)
agree prices and stuff and then Roy and I are brought in at the kind of ideation and production phase after all the deal's bit is done.
Maria Velasquez (30:24.02)
amazing.
Gianna Whitver (30:24.315)
Cool. Very cool. Well, if folks want to reach out to you guys about having either a guest on if they want to pitch a guest or if they want to buy some ad slots and some podcast and some media from IT Pro, how do they get in contact?
Jane McCallion (30:43.094)
best way is probably to email either me or Rory. I am jane.mccallion, which is double C, a double L, I, O, N at futurenet.com. And Rory is Rory. So r, O, R, Y dot bathgate, B, A, T, H, G, A, T, E at futurenet.com Or for specific sort of commercial relationship inquiries, you can email Ben Topp, who is ben.topp, T-O-double P, at futurenet.com.
So I think it's time for us to play our game now that we've gotten all the all the podcasting out of the way. We're going to play a game Maria want to explain the game.
Jane McCallion (31:43.206)
No!
Maria Velasquez (31:47.702)
Stretch a little bit for this one. This is gonna be tough.
Gianna Whitver (31:50.233)
I know you're doing like calisthenics
Jane McCallion (31:52.67)
Ha!
Maria Velasquez (31:53.15)
Yeah. So Rory and Jane, for every guest on the episode, Gianna and I tried to guess what they would be doing career-wise if they weren't currently working in their respective careers. So in this example, know, tech journalists, podcasters, so we can't guess that, but we would have to guess what you would, you know, what's your passion?
If this isn't your passion, what would you rather be doing? If money isn't an issue or career aspirations or whatever else. And then sometimes we're really on point and creepy with the guests. Most of the time we're not. So then we both take turns and then you tell us which one did best or which one was closest.
Jane McCallion (32:36.775)
You
Rory Bathgate (32:36.887)
You
Rory Bathgate (32:43.724)
Okay.
Maria Velasquez (32:43.862)
Cool? Awesome. Gianna, you go.
Jane McCallion (32:44.588)
Okay, yeah.
Explore why tech stories resonate deeper in podcasts than in print.
Gianna Whitver (32:47.281)
All right, so I want to say journalists so bad because y'all are just quintessential journalists to the core. But obviously that's off the table. That's cheating and not allowed. So I'm going to choose something different. Rory, I'm going to go. I think I'll just go nuts today. Rory, you would be an Elvis impersonator for a living. And and I think that would just be what you do. I think you could definitely.
If you tried hard enough, get to very good crooner status in, don't know if you sing or not, but we'd get you there if you want to, if you want to go down this journey with me. and Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane, mysterious Jane is not that mysterious. Sorry for calling you mysterious. It's a, it's a positive word. I think you would own a tea shop somewhere in some, really, I don't know anything about England.
Jane McCallion (33:32.427)
You
Gianna Whitver (33:45.603)
Somewhere in like a really cute beach town in England, you would own a tea shop. But in the back of the tea shop is a metal, is a welding college where people can learn how to weld and become like underwater diving welders. Okay.
Rory Bathgate (34:06.358)
specific. It's very specific.
Gianna Whitver (34:09.093)
Maria's unhappy.
Maria Velasquez (34:12.906)
This is why you lose every year, Gianna. This is why you lose. You come with these crazy... First of all, can we just confirm if there... Can we confirm if there is actually a cute beach town anywhere on the island?
Jane McCallion (34:17.196)
you
Gianna Whitver (34:17.268)
yeah, this is a competition.
Rory Bathgate (34:20.578)
We're keeping score.
Gianna Whitver (34:22.064)
Yeah.
Gianna Whitver (34:28.025)
Wow! Offensive, Maria, offensive. Is there no cute beach town?
Jane McCallion (34:31.468)
This call is over. This interview is over. We're done.
Maria Velasquez (34:37.589)
you
Rory Bathgate (34:37.634)
Worth pointing out here that Jane and I are both from counties with famously cute beach towns, so...
Maria Velasquez (34:43.646)
Okay, so I stand corrected. need, we need, can you send us pictures or at least send us the names of these kids?
Gianna Whitver (34:44.305)
Jane McCallion (34:44.374)
Yep.
Gianna Whitver (34:49.135)
Okay, I... It's, yeah, it sounds like you're gonna lose, Maria, even if you guess right.
Jane McCallion (34:49.442)
You
Gianna Whitver (34:59.153)
What are the cutest, sorry. What are the two cute beach towns, Rory and Jane, that you want us to highlight on the episode?
Jane McCallion (35:11.116)
I'm tempted to go for Mausel in Cornwall. Yeah, so I'll go for Mausel in Cornwall just because it's got such a cute name. It's spelt ma- typical English stuff. It's spelt Mouse-hole. All in one word, but it's called Mausel. It's chiseled Cornwall.
Gianna Whitver (35:26.641)
Okay.
Rory Bathgate (35:28.462)
I like, I'm going to go for Home Pride and I'm going to say Thorp Ness in Suffolk, which is designed for some reason to resemble in part scenes from Peter Pan for some reason. They have a man-made lake there and stuff, but the actual coast itself is typical North Sea kind of cliff beauty.
Jane McCallion (35:53.652)
actually I say lime as well, lime regis in case you want some fossils they literally just fall out of the rock face yeah yeah yeah
Maria Velasquez (36:00.35)
No kidding. That's so cool.
Gianna Whitver (36:02.267)
That's awesome. You heard it here first, folks. The Mausel and some Thorn Press and Lion Hall, think. And we'll put some pictures up on the video version if you're watching of these cute. Maria, what is your guess?
Jane McCallion (36:10.493)
Maria Velasquez (36:10.656)
Sorry.
Maria Velasquez (36:19.766)
I'm just gonna do the loser walk out of this episode because I was looking at Thorpness pictures right now on my phone and it's actually beautiful. for our listeners that were very offended, I do apologize. Okay, so for you Rory, you give me theater vibes.
Jane McCallion (36:27.18)
You
Rory Bathgate (36:30.85)
Philip Ness, yeah.
Gianna Whitver (36:31.089)
you
Jane McCallion (36:31.212)
ThoughtNurse.
Jane McCallion (36:34.828)
Hmm.
Maria Velasquez (36:47.402)
So I'm gonna say you would be either an actor in theater like Broadway or you would be like a director, like a Broadway director, producer. And then for Jane, you actually give me teacher vibes. I don't know, I'm thinking like somewhere in education with little kids.
Gianna Whitver (37:07.033)
I mean, I technically said that with the welding studio, but fine.
Maria Velasquez (37:10.27)
No, that was no, that was definitely a wild guess for that one. Mine is a little more, you know, reality based.
Gianna Whitver (37:18.137)
Whatever. Okay, whatever. All right. So folks, Jane, Rory, who won and who's right? And is it me? And it's probably me. And then also what would you be doing if you weren't able to be a journalist? So all those questions at once, go.
Jane McCallion (37:25.964)
you
Jane McCallion (37:33.804)
you go Rory.
Rory Bathgate (37:36.878)
I would have to say, so thank you for the vote of confidence on being an Elvis impersonator. I feel like I would have to be one of those Elvis impersonators who's just there for photos. I'm not sure I would stand up to scrutiny on video or even audio on its own because I could probably get the accent down. I'm not so sure about the pipes. I'm not sure I've got the pipes to be the king, but huge vote of confidence from both of you actually, because I'm also not sure that...
Maria Velasquez (37:51.712)
Yeah.
Rory Bathgate (38:06.176)
appearing on Broadway would be necessarily my thing. But I think directing is the closer of the two. I would definitely be involved in some kind of creative outlet if it wasn't writing as a creative outlet, it might be directing. could be photography as well. I'm a pretty keen photographer outside of work. If I could make that, maybe in another life, I made that work as a career. Who's to say?
Maria Velasquez (38:15.668)
Last.
Rory Bathgate (38:35.744)
I'm sure. unfortunately, yeah, I don't know. mean, I'm in Vegas yearly, but it's not for being an Elvis impersonator.
Gianna Whitver (38:44.928)
Damn it. All right. Jane, what about you?
Jane McCallion (38:50.188)
so yes, two quite differing opinions on what possibly I would be doing if I weren't a journalist. so Maria, it's interesting that you thought that I maybe would be a teacher perhaps with little children. I have thought about like maybe tutoring or something of that. Perhaps I would be a good teacher, but that is as a result of having been an editor. So that's kind of not where that it's gone in the other direction. Jana.
I can't imagine living. But so there's something really odd about your guess.
Gianna Whitver (39:22.385)
Thank
Gianna Whitver (39:26.897)
I knew it, what is it? Tell me.
Maria Velasquez (39:27.378)
No. Creepy odds, right? Like like she has an eight ball somewhere.
Jane McCallion (39:27.647)
Ha ha ha!
Jane McCallion (39:32.204)
It's a really, it's an odd thing. So what I would be doing if I were not a journalist now is I would be a translator. I studied modern foreign languages and translation at the University of Portsmouth, which is famously not a cute seaside town, but is a seaside city. a famous port town.
Gianna Whitver (39:37.009)
Really?
Gianna Whitver (39:54.565)
Mm-hmm.
Jane McCallion (39:56.817)
which is also the home of the Royal Navy so perhaps my team of welders in the back could perhaps be doing their apprenticeship before going to work for the Navy, know, doing welding stuff. Yeah, so weirdly closer than Maria's despite the fact that it was a right wild card.
Gianna Whitver (40:08.389)
I know. Exactly. See?
Gianna Whitver (40:20.537)
I was so hoping that you were gonna say that, well, actually I did go to welding school for like a minute, like...
Jane McCallion (40:26.668)
No, I'm not, I'm far too accident prone for anybody to let me near a blowtorch or anything, or metal. A D at GCSE Design Technology is I think everything everybody needs to know about my potential for being a welder or running a weld in college in a tea shop.
Rory Bathgate (40:35.008)
I yeah
Gianna Whitver (40:48.241)
Where you would find one.
Pro Tip Alert
Rory Bathgate (40:50.732)
Yeah, you really saved it with welding. You started with T-Shot, but the marine welding really pulled it back.
Jane McCallion (40:53.381)
A coastal town, yep.
Maria Velasquez (40:59.124)
I can't, like, I am in awe. I am in absolute like disbelief. Well, here we go.
Jane McCallion (41:03.484)
Hahaha
Gianna Whitver (41:05.871)
Aren't you glad, Maria, that this is your full-time thing now?
Maria Velasquez (41:09.514)
Yes, it's ridiculous. Well, it's Okay.
Jane McCallion (41:09.9)
you
Gianna Whitver (41:12.561)
Rory Bathgate (41:14.53)
I'm not sure what that does to the score. You know, is that a tie? What does that count as?
Maria Velasquez (41:17.61)
I know. Well, it's up to you both. I'm guessing Rory, my guess was closest. And then for Jane, was Gianna's. OK, well, I guess, it is a tie. Yeah.
Jane McCallion (41:26.892)
Diana, apparently. Yeah! I just think with the location and stuff it's like closer than the teacher. Yeah.
Gianna Whitver (41:29.137)
Wait, really? That's where? Yes! Winner!
Gianna Whitver (41:37.393)
See, this is that English politeness, because sometimes I'll guess and then Maria will guess and guess will be just like, no, neither. Like, yeah, like let's twist what you suggested into making you the winner. Good job. Like, good job, sweetheart. know, like, nice try. A for effort.
Jane McCallion (41:45.26)
hahahahah
Rory Bathgate (41:45.806)
Yeah
Maria Velasquez (41:46.038)
you
Jane McCallion (41:55.231)
Yeah
Maria Velasquez (41:57.462)
Thank you, A for effort.
Rory Bathgate (41:58.958)
Paradoxically, that is quite a teacher thing to do, actually, thinking about it, you know? So we were...
Jane McCallion (42:04.284)
I'm sorry.
Gianna Whitver (42:04.783)
Rory, stop it. I already won. I already won.
Maria Velasquez (42:05.11)
Thank you, Laura. I knew you and I had a connection. I knew it. Thank you. Thank you. That's two points for me. No, just kidding. Well, thank you both so much for being on the show today. We really enjoyed chatting with you and kind of putting podcasters on the other side of the microphone, which is always super fun. And I'll say I learned a couple of things from you both on how to be a better podcaster. Hopefully our listeners did too.
Jane McCallion (42:11.528)
Gianna Whitver (42:14.129)
This is it.
Jane McCallion (42:26.572)
you
Maria Velasquez (42:33.654)
Well, thank you so much again and thanks to our listeners. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe. There's a new episode that drops every Wednesday. hit that subscribe button so you can get the alert and give us five stars if you haven't and tell your friends in marketing about the show and see you all next time.
Gianna Whitver (42:52.374)
See ya!
