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I was invited by Kerry-Ann Augustin, Senior Writer at airasia to speak about my experience as a podcaster. View the published article on airasia’s website. Read on for the full unedited interview. Thank you for this opportunity to share my tale.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: Tell us a bit about your professional background.
Jasmine Low: I’m co-founder of an independent creative agency where we create, produce and disseminate content. What’s interesting is that what I’m doing now has nothing to do with what I studied at university and yet it has everything to do with it. I graduated with a Bachelor of Economics, majoring in Commercial Law, Econometrics and French and was a little crushed that it took me more than six months to find a job after graduation. I finally got hired and joined an American firm as a sales representative of their voice unit. Mornings started at 7.30am and by 8.30am, we were all sent out on the field. I was selling handheld dictation units to radiologists. It was a tough start and I remember crying in my car not having filled my weekly sales quota. It made me think long and hard about my career progression and I decided that I wanted to explore the media industry. I soon joined a publisher and became an advertising sales representative. That role sent me travelling across Australia and I liked it so much, I decided I was going to approach a few publishers to let me represent them back in Malaysia. I started my first business venture in the conference room of my dad’s office and that set me off. Business seems to run in our family as my dad’s father was a calligraphy artist turned tea merchant who also ran a photo studio in Jalan Ipoh, while my mother, a school teacher used to teach tuition after school and ran a micro business from her car boot.
In the past 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to create and produce live events like conferences, concerts, eSports qualifiers as a gateway for youth to participate in some of the most exciting international video games tournaments worldwide, arts & cultural festivals including a Chinese new year festival, Mando-pop concert & food fair with 60,000 people in attendance. Together with co-founder Nikki Yeo, we have created some memorable milestones and I will always cherish those moments.
Throughout my career, I’ve made some good decisions and a lot of bad ones as well, some I feel awful about until today. I wish I could go back in time and undo some of those events but I’ve learnt to grow and learn from those bad decisions. Even bad decisions can turn out good when you know how to pivot from them.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: When were you first introduced to the podcast world and what were your first impressions of it?
Jasmine Low: I thought podcasts were the best thing since sliced bread! I first got into audio books (in the form of cassettes or CDs) and started listening to them around 2002 in the car. Most of the books were personal development programs and I even had a King James Bible version! Audio books and podcasts are really today’s version of Radio Rediffusion, which was subscriber based and such a hot invention, everybody had to have it. I remember the brown box that was in my grandfather’s house in Penang. My grandmother would be listening to Hindi storytelling, Hokkien dramas and whoever it was that was in charge of content scheduling at the time, I’d honestly love to speak to them! How much fun they must have had to be able to curate, produce and localise content for the Malaysian market.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: What triggered your interest/want to start podcasts?
Jasmine Low: Sound and audio has always been something I’ve been interested in. With some friends, we hosted hundreds of music gigs and spoken word events for about a decade. Sydney and KL were thriving with live events at the turn of the millennium and I started organising gigs because I was intimidated to join the existing scene, which featured more established musicians. I suppose I brought a different kind of gig, something that even the uninitiated would dare show up and perform. I’m thankful for the support we received from proprietors of establishments like La Bodega and Liquid KL.
My friends and I met Sunitha and Patricia of the British Council and we were invited to co-organise more spoken word events in collaboration with Apples & Snakes UK and in doing so, we were exposed to spoken word artists who were doing it for a living! Live performances of language, tongue twists and word play on stage provided much satiation for not just my inquisitive mind but that of the community.
I have been wanting to produce an audio book since 2005. It was to be called ROOMS, and the idea was to archive the voices of Asian women for future generations. I collected about three voices at that time, but the project didn’t take off. I’m glad to share that this project is now coming alive in another form… podcasts!
Kerry-Ann Augustin: Tell us about your first few attempts to start a podcast. How did it go? And what did you learn from it?
Jasmine Low: I got into the podcast world in late 2019 when I signed up a client in Sydney, and one task was to assist him in the production and marketing of his podcast. He was also just starting out, but had some pointers from his circle as he was formerly a broadcaster. So I learnt on the job and studied on the side, listened to a lot of podcasts, watched a lot of YouTube explainer videos and voila! I’m still learning and this is a skill anyone can learn, and hone. But to do that, you need to put in the hours to learn and listen to how others have done it. Eventually, you’ll find your own way and your own style of hosting. Everyone has their own signature style.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: What were the most intimidating and the most exciting aspects of working on your first couple of episodes?
Jasmine Low: Sound quality! In the past when I was an event organiser, I remember musicians complaining about sound. At the time, I wasn’t trained in sound and focused on the event and marketing aspects. Later on, I realised and understood the importance of sound quality. Imagine your voice right beside your listener’s ear. Now would you dare serve them quality below par? Sometimes it’s understandable if it’s a recording from a live event, but if it’s a personal interview, there should be no compromise. It’s also a form of respect for your listeners and it’s what stands out between an amateurish podcast and a professional one. Spend the time to get the right equipment, learn from the best sound engineers and technicians and don’t compromise with shortcuts. Until now, I’m still learning and sometimes even correct past episodes.
I have a few close friends that help out by giving my podcasts a listen and their feedback. Feedback from close friends is important especially when you’re starting out. It’s intimidating to hear but it’s important to hear what others think.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: You’ve been working on three different podcasts – Asia Fitness Today’s Kurang Manis, Move8 and Listen By Heart – tell us a bit about all three shows and what triggered the idea behind each of them.
Jasmine Low: In February 2019, I had won a second prize from the Motion Picture Association International Script-to-Screen Workshop Malaysia for KURANG MANIS (Sugar, Less), a documentary about six Malaysians who bare all about their hopes and dreams about New Malaysia and what it means to be amongst one in two Malaysians who are obese. The prize was a trip to attend the Australian International Documentary Conference in Melbourne in March 2020. We attended this and learnt so much about factual content-making, and it also opened our minds about content distribution. Although Kurang Manis was to be a film project, MCO lockdowns in Malaysia and filming restrictions meant that co-producer Nikki and I had to improvise and to launch the documentary as a podcast first. This is an impact project inspired by our own health, spurred on by national health statistics that show Malaysia’s alarming figures of increasing non-communicable diseases and the objective of the project is to entertain while educating Malaysians about nutrition and sedentary lifestyles. So we buckled down, and self-funded and produced the first season of Help! I’m Prediabetic! The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast which rolled out on 9th February 2021. Our first season includes an impressive list of guests; 2020 Australian of the Year, Ophthalmologist and Chairman of Sight for All Foundation, Dr. James Muecke who champions diabetes awareness to prevent loss of sight and also The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time (squash) Nicol David among other stellar guests which included scientists and physicians. We’re now in the planning stages of season two.
In addition to Kurang Manis, we also produce The Move8 Fit for Good Podcast where we interview fitness professionals who use their fitness for good. Here, we speak about exercise, movement therapy and strength building from a physical and mental standpoint.
I also write, produce and host Listen by Heart: Stories from Women of the South China Sea Podcast, a podcast inspired by my mother. I started recording her storytelling on my phone. She would often break into storytelling mode and I’d grab my phone to record her. I also found it therapeutic for her as well as myself to listen, talk and have conversations with our elders even though they have dementia or are absent minded. Too often, people living with dementia are sidelined and shut off from family conversations. That only leaves them confused and isolated.
As co-founder of Asia Fitness Today Podcasts, it’s only natural that all of our podcasts are in the health and wellness area and we plan to launch five more shows by 2022.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: There are a couple of stages in podcasting – conceptualization, pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. Which of those do you feel are the most challenging and why?
Jasmine Low: Each area has its own challenges. I find the most important phase of all is the conceptualisation of a show. It anchors everything else. I invest a lot of time on pre- and post-production and not enough on distribution. I’m now in the distribution phase and am still learning to promote the podcasts via the many channels.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: From your observations, what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about podcasting?
Jasmine Low: It’s not uncommon for successful podcasters in North America for example, to have millions of listeners download their podcasts. In fact Oberlo statistics show that about one in three Americans listen to podcasts, and they listen to about six shows per week while working on their PC, exercising, driving, cooking, baking. Why do they do it so well? Well, for one, it’s a numbers game. There are more people tuning in to content generated from the US and UK. We’re so well exposed to content from overseas that it’s second nature. Next, it’s a cultural thing. Why is it that US-based content makers are so much more far reaching across Asia Pacific than say a Malaysian-based content maker vying for listeners across the other side of the Pacific Ocean? Malaysians consume a lot of overseas content but it’s really interesting to see more Malaysian content makers making a mark in their own home country and overseas as well. Cultural authenticity is the biggest selling point I reckon. Some of the biggest misconceptions are that your podcast needs the whole wide world as an audience, but I believe on the contrary. It’s when you podcast to just your lounge room and expect listeners crowded in that same lounge room listening intently to you speak, that realisation will then spur you on to tell them secrets. It’s that invitation to listeners to “come inside into my intimate living room” approach that can be a winning factor for a successful podcast. But once they’re inside, be sure to entertain or inform! Or out the door they’ll go and never come back!
Kerry-Ann Augustin: What advice would you give someone who is keen on starting a podcast?
Jasmine Low: Come up with a one-page business plan, stare at it for a month, invite your first three guests, then record it. Don’t skimp on audio quality. It’s a podcast after all, so focus on the audio quality. Unless your target audience is of the YouTube kind, then you could be producing a Vlog instead and not a podcast. Be authentic, be true to your objective and mission. What is it that you’d like to do? Don’t be afraid to approach friends or people who have produced podcasts. Ask them. Learn from them. Don’t go head-in without direction. There are 48 million episodes of podcasts out there according to Podcast Insights (2021) so make yours count.
Kerry-Ann Augustin: What are some of your favourite podcasts and why?
Jasmine Low: I reckon people listen to podcasts to go behind the scenes to understand why something happens. It’s no surprise that some of the most popular podcast genres are music, film, science, crime etc.
I love interviews. My favourite was the one that featured the author, Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club). I usually search for a subject matter, as opposed to following a podcast show.
I love Michael Moore’s podcast called Rumble. It’s issues-based, very opinionated and that’s why I like it.
BBC, ABC (Australia), NPR have great documentary-style podcasts. Also, if you’re researching topics, some established universities have good podcasts as well.
I also enjoy listening to podcasts that go behind the scenes of film festivals or conferences. These give valuable insights to the ideas and concepts that spur a film.
Finally, there’s a podcast by John Buck, produced under the 7News brand called A Perfect Storm. I absolutely am so inspired by the production quality of this show and he’s also hit more than a million listeners. All curious to find out the facts behind the death of Azaria Chamberlain. The baby that got snatched by a dingo in the 70s.
Thank you, airasia and Kerry-Ann!
airasia berhad is a Malaysian multinational low-cost airline. Since 2018, the group’s businesses have include hotels, holidays, activities, online shopping and a robust travel, lifestyle and e-commerce platform delivered via the airasia super app. Most recently, the group has pivoted to offer integrated logistics including last mile deliveries through Teleport and digital financial service via its money app, BigPay.
Listen to Talks with Tony, a new podcast by airasia Co-Founder and CEO Tony Fernandes.
Interesting links:
Investing in the Podcast Ecosystem in 2019
Posted in Andreeseen Horowitz by Li Jin, Avery Segal, and Bennett Carroccio