SEC40: Graham Bell and Lesley Fuller from Kibble Education and Care Centre (Part 3)

Kibble Education and Care Centre has existed in Paisley for 175 years. That’s a long time. As stated in part one of this interview, it could be argued that Kibble has in fact been a social enterprise for that entire time.

However, as we briefly discussed in part two, 2004 was a landmark year for Kibble as we decided to embrace the social enterprise route.

In this episode, Chief Executive Graham Bell, and Funding Marketing and Communications Manager Lesley Fuller talk about 2004, social innovation and some of the other things that have helped Kibble achieve the longevity it has.

Alongside this interview, we should take a moment to discuss podcasting as we’ve now reached a landmark forty episodes!

Often, I use these blogs to talk about social enterprise and the work that a particular organisation does. Yet I haven’t given very much over to podcasting, and the art thereof.

Most podcasts don’t make it this far. In podcasting, there is a phenomenon known as “podfade”. To put it simply, this is what happens to podcasts that start to lose steam, when schedules become patchy and updates are few and far between.

Many podcasts don’t make it past seven episodes. “Podfade” tends to set in before this. If you’re podcasting once a week, like many people do, that’s seven weeks. That’s almost two months. Often people start to become disillusioned because not enough people are listening. If you’re struggling to build an audience, it can be disheartening. But podcasting is a long game.

The next magic number is fifty. Very few podcasts exist for a year. If you’re podcasting as a hobby, it can be time consuming for what you might see as being very little return. Real life can start to get in the way, which is why some podcasts don’t last much longer than a year – other things in life take priority.

Fortunately, we’re in a position where this podcast is growing, and soon we will be expanding the whole podcast network with new shows. But it is important to reflect on where you’ve been, and to celebrate the fact we’re still going strong.

Forty episodes is a milestone for us, and I’m extremely happy that we’ve made it this far.

I hope you enjoy the episode.