Being An Engineer: From Thought Exercise to Effective Marketing, with Aaron Moncur
For Aaron Moncur, a podcast is more than just a marketing tool for his custom engineering services business, Pipeline Design & Engineering. It's a way to build relationships, showcase expertise, and ultimately drive revenue. With over 250 published episodes, Moncur's "Being an Engineer" podcast has become a cornerstone of his company's growth strategy, and among the most popular shows in engineering.
From Surfing to Engineering: Moncur's Journey
Moncur's path to engineering was somewhat unconventional. Growing up in Hawaii, he was more interested in surfing and hanging out with friends than planning for his future. It wasn't until his senior year of high school that his father suggested he consider becoming an engineer. "I said, great, that sounds wonderful. Let's do that," Moncur recounted. "And I really, truly didn't know. I knew engineers were kind of like there was a mechanical aspect. Maybe you built things, but I didn't understand really what an engineer was."
Despite this initial lack of direction, Moncur found his calling in mechanical engineering. Today, his company Pipeline Design and Engineering develops custom equipment, fixtures, and automation for engineering and manufacturing teams.
Launching "Being an Engineer" During COVID
In early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact businesses worldwide, Moncur's business coach posed a thought-provoking question: "What if COVID shuts your business down? What if you have to close the doors, what are you going to do next?" This prompted Moncur to reflect on his strengths and passions outside of engineering.
"I started thinking about, well, what about public speaking or writing? These are things that I do kind of enjoy," said Moncur. "I'm taking a thought from my brain and putting that thought into someone else's brain. I've always been pretty good at that."
From there, the idea for "Being an Engineer" was born. Moncur realized he could combine his engineering expertise with his communication skills to create a podcast that would not only serve as a marketing platform for his business but also provide value to engineers worldwide.
Building Relationships and Driving Revenue
While Moncur had some "vanity goals" for the podcast, his primary objective was to generate more revenue for Pipeline Design and Engineering. And on that front, the podcast has been a resounding success. "I can measure a significant amount of revenue back to the podcast," said Moncur.
Interestingly, the majority of this revenue has come not from listeners reaching out directly, but from guests who have appeared on the show. "I can call a VP of engineering somewhere at a company that I'd like to do business with," explained Moncur. "This person is almost certainly not going to answer the phone and almost certainly not going to respond to my email because he or she gets a dozen interactions like this every week. However, if I have that person on the podcast as a guest, now I get to spend an hour with him or her talking about engineering, getting to know each other, building rapport, developing a relationship."
Several times, these conversations have led to new business opportunities for Pipeline Design and Engineering. In one instance, Moncur and his team developed a fully automated machine to help a medical device manufacturer streamline their packaging process and prevent repetitive stress injuries among their operators.
The Future of "Being an Engineer"
As Moncur looks to the future of his podcast, he's grappling with how to balance his desire to expand the show's scope. "I've interviewed a lot of engineers now, and I started to hear a lot of recurring themes and patterns. I think it would be interesting to open it up and just do interesting interviews with anyone, any professional out there," said Moncur. "But that starts to dilute our message a bit."
One potential avenue for growth is repurposing the wealth of content generated by the podcast. Moncur has already begun experimenting with using transcripts from the show's 200+ episodes to train a custom GPT model that can provide engineering insights and problem-solving strategies based on the collective wisdom of his guests.
Regardless of the direction "Being an Engineer" takes in the future, one thing is clear: for Aaron Moncur and Pipeline Design and Engineering, podcasting has proven to be a powerful tool for building relationships, showcasing expertise, and driving business growth.
