Making magic is one thing, but knowing the steps that go into pulling off the trick is another challenge entirely.
The latter is the job of Anne Deeter Gallaher, founder of Deeter Gallaher Group and one half of the Grit & Gravitas podcast alongside Universal Media President and CEO Anne Carnathan. After two whirlwind seasons, the duo has over 50 episodes under their belt, and has generated countless business vitamins and invaluable lessons when the microphones are recording. But it is all the effort that goes in before and after that truly gives G&G life.
“It’s not dissimilar to an entrepreneurial journey,” Deeter Gallaher said of the behind-the-scenes aspect of the podcast. “Most podcasts never make it to 10 episodes. So, after 58 episodes, 2 ½ years of stories, launching our own website, bringing the podcast to life on social channels, inviting guests–it’s a lot of moving parts. And you also have the technical side, with the studio setup, shooting, editing, and file uploads.”
Though it was Carnathan who originally came to Deeter Gallaher with the idea for G&G, Deeter Gallaher coordinates much of the work under the hood. That includes arguably the most daunting aspect of the job: procuring guests. From local superstars to national names, G&G has hosted a plethora of highly influential women from across the business world, and there is never a guarantee that they will agree to dedicate the time necessary to appear on the podcast. But so far, G&G’s success rate is nothing short of perfection.
“We haven’t had any guests decline. One has postponed,” Deeter Gallaher said. “And we’ve had some internationally renowned guests who easily could have said, ‘I don’t know who these podcast women in Pennsylvania are, maybe I don’t want to spend 30 minutes with them.’ In return, we think we have amplified their message and introduced new people to their resources and their story.”
In “amplifying” their guests, Deeter Gallaher and Carnathan enter a mutually beneficial relationship with those who appear on G&G. They do their best to invite guests from a variety of business verticals, creating a unique array of stories in different episodes and serving to magnify the message of every woman they host.
But the most direct beneficiary is the listener–the businesspeople whose learning curves are shortened by the opportunity to hear real-life stories and learn real-life lessons. From Deeter Gallaher’s perspective, that is a priceless tool not even the world’s best classrooms can offer.
“If you have a passion or a desire to learn more about business, we offer lessons you’re not going to find in the classroom, that you’re not going to find at Wharton or Shippensburg University,” Deeter Gallaher said. “Those are textbook scenarios. We give you real-world examples of what really worked. How do you come through a COVID-19 crisis if you’re in charge of HR for a grocery retailer? How do you immediately pivot? How do you decide to become a traveling nurse during COVID? We talked to people who did all that.”
In business, success is often quantified by tangible numbers–there is no commission on a sale you almost make. But for G&G, it is impossible to encapsulate the whole of its impact in a single empirical metric.
“It’s very apparent what you can’t quantify,” Deeter Gallaher said. “The other day I was at the swimming pool, and a young mom came up to me and commented on how much she appreciated our podcast and the experiences we shared. She had never liked any of our social posts, never sent an email, never sent a message on LinkedIn, hadn’t shared anything, so she wasn’t coming up in any analytics. But there is a whole pocket of people out there that are listening and putting these insights to use, and that kind of first-person experience is really my exclamation point as to why we do this.”
There is a huge amount of behind the scenes work that goes into making G&G a reality, but in more ways than one, the impact is immeasurable.
