In the latest episode of Impetus Digital‘s Fireside Chat, I sat down with Rodney Hu, founder of 209|Digital and a popular podcast host. We explored Rodney’s work within the HealthTech space and what he believes has to happen for the healthcare industry to more readily adopt new digital technologies. We also discussed how Rodney’s experiences with working as an MRI technologist and with being a patient himself have impacted on his work and vision for the future.
Here is a preview of our discussion:
Q: One of the things that you obviously do well, and you have a couple, are your healthcare podcasts. Tell us a little bit about why you started these? Is this part of your marketing strategy? Tell us some of the rationale behind it and what has worked for you and what has not?
A: Again, I have to take a step back and explain how I even got into the whole online space because like I said my background was as an MRI technician. That’s what I went to school for, and that’s what I know. Everything that I’m learning and going to talk about is pretty much self-taught through trial and error and through studying from other people. I am a product of what I’m talking about.
After I graduated school and I was working, I had this source of income but I wanted to create another source of income. I had seen the power and the value of the internet and hear stories about people making money online, and I wanted to somehow figure out how I can get my foot in the door and do this as well. I started out creating video content, animated explainer videos for companies. In the beginning, it wasn’t just healthcare companies, it was anybody who was going to pay me to be completely honest with you. I was doing that just so I could optimize my team, optimize my processes, and be able to prove to myself and the market that I could produce quality.
As I am learning more and more, people are telling me to niche down. I said, “Okay, what do I have experience in and what am I already interested in? That’s how I came back to the healthcare technology industry. “How can I connect to these people?” I would reach out to people, “Hey, let’s learn about your company…” There was no response and no engagement. Technically, if you want to be real and transparent about it, I’m an MRI tech and not a video creative in their eyes. I asked, “How can I create that authority and influence to get people to want to collaborate and talk to me? What do I have to do?”
I started doing more research and started understanding the power of a platform. You have all these big-name YouTubers. They have a platform that allows them to share their message and share their vision of what they want to do. For me, I wanted to really understand the digital health industry and how people are going about having success and growing the business. That is how I came up with my podcast “HealthTech Hustle,” and the whole goal behind that was to pick the brains of the brilliant people who are actually striving to push the needle in this healthcare industry, and who are trying to disrupt the market. I’m just really figuring out the strategy and tactics that they use, and what is really on their minds when it comes to growing a company.
What I’m learning now is that it’s not just about the products and services that you offer but it’s really about the problems you solve and the results you can get. By starting this podcast, just talking to people, and using my platform to do this, I’m able to learn more about the market and what people are really interested in. That’s how I’m starting to pivot instead of just video content, how I can solve a problem for them from a holistic point of view. That is what lead me to start the podcast…
For more of our discussion, you can watch the whole Fireside Chat with Rodney Hu, or listen to the podcast version, below.
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About Impetus Digital
Impetus Digital is the spark behind sustained healthcare stakeholder communication, collaboration, education, and insight synthesis. Our best-in-class technology and professional services ensure that life science organizations around the world can easily and cost-effectively grow and prosper—from brand or idea discovery to development, commercialization, execution, and beyond—in collaboration with colleagues, customers, healthcare providers, payers, and patients.