I don’t watch TV, never listen to the radio and rarely pull up a magazine.

Why?

I cannot stand the advertisements. The four minute commercial breaks drive me bananas. Instead over the years, I’ve capitalized on my commute to and from the office, long trips and late nights by listening to, and watching, podcasts. Have you heard of these? They are amazing.

Podcasts are like radio shows that you can listen to or watch on your iPhone, iPod, computer, or other device.  They are a great resource for staying on top of the latest news or trends, learning a new trade, or honing your existing skills in a particular area. The amazing thing is that you get to choose the content or the topic and there is a ton of them. In addition, since they are downloaded to your device, you can listen to a show at anytime and if they do have commercials then just scroll through them.

For example, I like to stay on top of tech news so I listen to a weekly podcast called “This Week in Tech”.  This show goes through all of the weeks news with industry analysis by top tech leaders. I also like to learn from entrepreneurs and what their businesses are all about, so I listen to “Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders” which is a Stanford University syndicated show where they bring in business leaders who talk about their start-up business experience. To learn more about social media, I listen to “Inbound Marketing – Hub Spot TV” where all of the latest Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn news is overviewed with pragmatic insights. I have about 30 other topic specific podcasts as well.

So, if you are looking to learn more about a specific topic, you can go directly through iTunes and browse their podcast collection. You can listen to anything from business, to sales, to tech, to sports, to sports business to…well it goes on and on. Once you choose a podcast, you can subscribe (almost always for free) and they will sync to your iTunes and your iPod, iPhone, etc. If you are using an Android or another device, you can use Google Listen (http://listen.googlelabs.com/) and for Blackberry users, there is an app called “Podcasts”.

So instead of zoning out to some music or in front of the TV, take a look at some podcasts. They are an amazing resource for college coaches to continuously learn without the inconvenience of having to listen at a specific time set by someone else.  Instead, listen, watch or learn on yourtime.