Hardly. He’s doing what countless people exhort us all to do – fulfill yourself by doing what YOU want. Make your life all about YOU. Find out what YOU want to do. Find out what YOU are best at. Stop doing what YOU don’t want to do. Start doing only the things YOU want to do.
I’ve been a Christian for 45 years now. I’m still learning and admittedly, a long way to go in many respects. However, I can’t get past what the Bible teaches. I can’t buy into the popular notions about happiness, pursuing passion and success.
I confess it’s a mindset. Well, partially. But it’s much more really. It’s a faith thing. It’s a belief thing. It’s a truth thing.
We love to consider anomalies and outliers as average, but they’re not. We want to read stories of people who went from homeless to millionaire in 90 days. You’ve heard people say of their own success, “If I can do it, anybody can do it.” Perhaps that ex-homeless millionaire said it. And we instantly think, “You know, he’s right.”
No, he’s not.
Jason Whitlock wrote a story about Tiger Woods, who came in 6th at the British Open this weekend. Whitlock talks about Tiger’s curse. Bad karma for his past sins. Yet, there’s really nothing to prove that such things exist. Bad behavior has consequences. Bad behavior is often found out. See Aaron Hernandez, Bernie Madoff and scores of other people who behave badly.
But this isn’t about scoundrels. It’s about us. Ordinary people chasing dreams. Average people struggling to rise above average.
I probably should have sub-titled these episodes, “How You Can Launch Your Own Podcast…Or Anything Else!”
Did you miss Part 1? Click here. It’s much shorter than this one. The next episode will absolutely, positively be shorter! I had a lot of ground to cover in today’s show, but I didn’t want to drag this out into a third part. But no matter, it’s a podcast…that means you can listen to it in chunks suitable to your schedule.
I decided to record today’s entire episode on video, too. I’ll upload that to YouTube very soon. It’s part of my current fascination with YouTube. 😉
Let’s dive into the actual preparation stuff now. Part 1 dealt with the stuff that prompted the idea and other “soft” stuff. Now we’re going to discuss the actual things that must be done to successfully launch a podcast.
Here’s a list:
• The subject of the show
• The name of the show
• The domain for the show
• The format of the show
• The technology required to produce the show
• How to get podcast cover art
• How to do podcast show notes
• How to find guests
• How to line up guests
• How to interview guests
• When to release shows (including frequency)
• Submission to Apple iTunes and other podcast directories
• How to market the podcast
• Sustaining the effort
There’s a lot to it. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. And there are plenty of podcasting experts who have lots of great advice. Free.
Podcast Coaches And Experts
– Cliff Ravenscraft aka Podcast Answerman has a series of 8 video tutorials that are completely free. You don’t even have to opt in with your email address. Additionally, Cliff has hundreds of podcast episodes and accompanying show notes filled with useful information to help people launch a podcast, or improve an existing podcast.
In addition, Cliff offers a comprehensive in-depth training course called Podcasting From A To Z. It’s an intensive 4-week course designed to take people from no podcast to launching their podcast. This is group coaching that usually consists of 30 people or so. Just yesterday he posted this video which can give you a glimpse of the kind of help he can offer you.
The crown jewel of Cliff’s enterprise is Podcast Mastermind. That group is intended for people who approach podcasting with a more professional approach. It is a paid membership requiring a minimum commitment of 1 year.
As you can see, Cliff has a wide variety of resources. You’re bound to find something useful.
– Dave Jackson runs the School of Podcasting. He does some podcasting coaching, consulting and has a membership area, too. His podcasts and show notes offer lots of free information worth checking out.
– Ray Ortega is a podcast producer. That’s his day job, but it’s also his passion pursuit. He operates a site, The Podcaster’s Studio.
There are others, but that gives you a great idea of the talent out there ready to teach you a thing or two about podcasting. Each of them have their own style and focus. You’re bound to find a connection with one or more of them. Check them out. Listen to 3 or more episodes of each one and that should give you a better idea of how they approach their work.
Quite some time ago I had an idea to start a new podcast, an interview-based show. The idea was mostly born of loneliness. Business loneliness.
Isolation is common among solopreneurs. Since 2008 I’ve been on my own solopreneur journey. About a year into it, the isolation hit me fairly hard, but it was profitable because from that sensation was born this idea.
I was listening when Cliff “PodcastAnswerman” Ravenscraft launched his cleverly branded podcast in 2006. I was a fan of podcasts because mostly I was an audiophile and I loved electronic gear. I had built my own little studio (since named The Yellow Studio because the walls are mustard yellow), but podcasting wasn’t the initial objective. I’m a Christian and I was doing some web work and other things that were church-related. Posting sermons online, doing some audio editing and interviewing folks…those were the real objectives. It just so happened that the stuff I used in The Yellow Studio were the very things that made for a professional sounding podcast. Mixers, microphones, vocal strips, a telephone hybrid and a broadcast workflow were ideally suited for this relatively new thing, podcasting.
I faithfully listened to Cliff’s show because he was geeky and I shared his passion for the art of podcasting. I also listened to other guys who were more into the professional audio gear. They were more in my wheelhouse early on because I had spent my entire adult life in the electronics business. I was also a longtime audiophile (stereophile, really). The voiceover community had always fascinated me and many of them had killer home studios. Guys like Mark Jensen over at New Media Gear did product review type shows. In those days, gear envy drove a lot of us. It still does, but some of us have learned to temper our enthusiasm for the tools.
Driven by the desire to simply “pass it on” I launched a podcast at Leaning Toward Wisdom. You won’t find any of the back episodes now. I rebooted the entire site just recently and there is only one episode there now. But that was where I posted my first podcasts. Shortly after that I launched at Bula Network, my home base. Given that the company name was Bula Network, LLC it just made sense. At no time was there any motive or plan to create a business of either podcast. I was simply an experienced guy sharing ideas, thoughts and opinions – primarily aimed at my now grown kids. Honestly, it was about legacy of knowledge and wisdom. It was my little way of being virtual for those I love the most, my family.
I had no designs on anybody listening and I didn’t really care. I knew that one day, my family would want to listen. Honestly, I don’t think any of my family has listened to a single episode. If they have, they’ve not said so. And that’s fine. I’m used to talking to myself anyway. 😉
Well, back to the Chasing DFW Cool story.
I’m not an inexperienced guy with audio, or podcasting. As we say here in Texas, “This ain’t my first rodeo.”
But, this is the first time I’ve launched an interview-based show and it’s the first time I’ve launched a show with so much as a sniff of a business idea behind it. No, it didn’t start out that way, but I admit I’ve given some thought as to how I might be able to at least have it pay for itself. I’m not looking to create some money making machine. I’m just thinking of how I might earn a few thousand bucks a year to have the thing pay for its own way. And if it doesn’t, then that’s okay, too.
Interviews
Back in the 70’s when I went to journalism school we had many classes that focused on interviewing. Other than tedious research, interviews are how journalists gather stories. It’s all that who, what, when, where, why and how stuff you learn in Journalism 101.
One of the first books we were required to read was a book entitled, “The Craft Of Interviewing” by John Brady. Brady was then the editor of Writer’s Digest. The book was published in 1976. I’ve still got my original copy (pictured there to the left).
A few years later, in 1979, a book came out by Barbara Walters, who was just making a real name for herself and breaking that glass ceiling for women in broadcast journalism. It was entitled, “How to Talk with Practically Anybody about Practically Anything.”
I’ve read scads of books about interviewing people. Of course, just because you’ve read books doesn’t mean you know how to do something. Thankfully, I’m so old and experienced (and have spent so many years in face-to-face selling), that I’m pretty comfortable talking to just about anybody. Even so, interviews are more than conversations. They’re prepared conversations with a purpose. Emphasis on “prepared” and “purpose.”
I knew I wanted to interview people because I wanted to make connections. Not with some ulterior motive in play…just because I wanted to hear the stories of what other people were doing.
Cool
Some words transcend the times. Others, not so much.
“Dig” is one that didn’t transcend the times. It sound corny today when I hear people use it. Come to think of it, when it was popular it sounded corny, too. To me, at least.
“You dig?” Reminds me of a bad episode of Mod Squad. I did love Linc though. His favorite word was “solid.”
The word “cool” has survived a long time. Not a day passes that I don’t hear somebody use it, usually after somebody tells them about something good. “Really? Cool.”
What is cool? It’s whatever you think is awesome, unusual, extraordinary or interesting. At least that’s how I’m using it for this new podcast.
I’m going to ferret out the people in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area who are cool people doing cool things. Okay, maybe they won’t all be cool, but their work will be. We usually find people interesting if they’re doing interesting things. Funny how performance and action determine those things, right? There’s a lesson there for all of us I suspect.
DFW
I live in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. Remember, isolation was the impetus for this idea. One day I realized, “Hey, moron. You live in one of the biggest, most vibrant cities in the country. Why don’t you get out more?” Yes, I call my names when I talk to myself. It makes me less anxious when I call other people names.
So the purpose (see above) was to tell cool stories of people doing cool things right here in the metroplex. One side benefit would be for me to get out more and connect more. But a big part of it was for me to focus on people who only had one thing in common. They live and work here in DFW.
Not long ago I stumbled onto a vlog (video blog) by a young guy in North Carolina, Ty Moss. He has over 80,000 YouTube subscribers. That prompted me to dig just a little to see which YouTubers had the most subscriptions and to see what kind of content they were producing. Some of them I was already familiar with, but most were completely foreign to me. Stick with me here.
One of the few I knew about was Blimy Cow. They have over 186,000 YouTube subscribers. In fact, they just launched their audio only podcast over at Apple iTunes and rocketed to a top position with dozens of reviews. All with a single podcast episode.
ShayCarl has just over 1 million subscribers…well, to his main channel. The ShayTards channel has about 1.3 million. The ShayLoss channel has a bit over 300,000. He’s got quite the franchise going. I admit it, I’ve watched it more than a few times.
sWooZie has over 1.25 million YouTube subscribers. Extremely high production elements. Very entertaining, too.
To give you some perspective, WheezyWaiter (one of my favorites) has yet to break the half million mark. He’s currently at about 467,000.
But let me give you a bit more perspective.
Lockergnome guru, Chris Pirillo has about 294,000. Perhaps one of your all-time favorites, Pat Flynn has just over 20,000 while social media rockstar Chris Brogan has slightly over 3,000.
Are you learning anything yet? Yeah, me too!
The point isn’t whether these people are worthy of their audience or not. The fact is, these are the audiences they’ve got. At least on YouTube, which is still the number 2 search engine on the planet behind Google.
Here’s the point. There is a much bigger world than the one you occupy daily. Those folks you follow on Twitter. The ones whose blogs you read and who have podcasts you listen to…they’re not the only people on the planet drawing a crowd. Fact is, they’re not likely even in the top tier of people attracting attention and building an audience.
Lady Gaga is 27. According to Forbes she’s earned $80 million through June. Not a bad first half. She’s got 38 million Twitter followers and 58 million Facebook fans. Boy, am I feeling microscopic these days!
I just mention those numbers to give you some perspective on how vast the world is and how vast the popularity is of people that you may care nothing about. It’s likely that the people who influence you the most are rockstars in a very small pond. It’s also likely that the pond in which they swim is very large to you.
In part 2 I’ll dive more deeply in the actual process I’m using to get ChasingDFWCool launched. I hope you’ll “tune in.”
I feel the hiatus coming to an end. It’s time to turn a new life over.
Here’s what that means…
• Checking Facebook no more than twice daily. Think 10am and 7pm.
• Checking Twitter no more than twice daily. Yep, think 10am and 7am again.
• Checking email no more than three times daily. Maybe a Dr. Pepper routine of 10, 2 and 4.
• Writing something – anything – every single day.
• Taking photographs of something – anything – every single day.
• Talking with somebody about something emotional – happy, sad, frustrating, thrilling, etc. – every single day.
• Reading fiction regularly.
• Reading biographies regularly.
• Avoiding books, articles, blog posts, podcasts or videos that are all about business and only business.
• Listening to more music. This may be hard because I listen to a LOT of music.
• Singing more (why don’t people sing more?). I need more privacy for this.
• Drawing (I used to do this all the time). This will require discipline.
• Picking up my guitar and for the first time with purposeful intention to learn 5 cords (G, D, C, A and E). This will require greater discipline than drawing.
• Interviewing at least 2 people a week for the project – Chasing DFW Cool(I’m planning this and hope to get it started after the July 4th holiday).
It’s that last thing that is the professional thing. I say “professional” and not “business” for a reason. I have no idea about making money with it. That’s not the point. I don’t even care about it. I’m going to launch Chasing DFW Cool because I want to. Because I know I can do it…and do it well. Because I know there are tons of people in this area – Dallas/Ft. Worth – doing cool things. Because I want to hear and share their stories.
Making a living? Yes, I have to keep doing that. I’m not quite yet financially independent. Probably never will be. But I’m comfortable and debt-free — so that’s a good thing. A few months ago I went all in with a single client. It was the right thing to do. I’m fully vested – emotionally and otherwise – in helping him build his business. That’s the business part of life and for now, it’s the only business part of life. Mainly, because that’s how I want it and need it.
I’ve always loved to plan and strategize. I’m known in business circles for being a very strategic thinker, but I’m working without a net these days because I feel it’s something I need to do. I need to just take the leap and GO! And I need to take the leap in creative endeavors, not business ones. Because I’m sick of business. Hey, these things happen after 40 years. I’m tired of business. Bored with it. Except for helping a single client.
As for the podcasting – oh, that’ll continue. I’m going to get back on a schedule here very soon. I’m still sorting through all that. And I could use your help.
How long is long-lasting? From my experience, it’s always too long. But I can be given to feeling melancholy.
A friend recently described his own family as being prone to feeling blue. Instantly, I could relate.
Amazement is the only word to describe my feelings toward people able to remain upbeat under the saddest circumstances.
When I was younger I was more stoic, but even as a child I was prone to bouts of melancholy. It might be something others thought stupid. Like the time a distant cousin took shots at a turtle in the yard with his BB gun. Shooting it repeatedly in the head until he made sure it was dead. The cruelty of it overwhelmed me. I didn’t cry, but later when he got some old boxing gloves out and wanted to box – I bloodied his nose.
Maybe that’s a key to overcoming melancholy – physical exertion or aggression. Surely not, but when I was a kid and boxing gloves were around, it was a viable option.
Melancholy has value I think, but I also think it can become too close of a friend. A friend unworthy of our love or kindness.
Let’s be clear. I’m not talking about depression, at least not in the clinical sense. That’s a very different malady.
I’m talking about feeling blue. It can range from momentary feelings of sadness to hours, maybe days, spent feeling sorrow or even heartbroken.
Music has almost always been part of my melancholy. Not a cause and effect part, but the music in my life has often been chosen because of my mood. I confess that I rarely select music to jolt me from my melancholy mood. No, I usually embrace it and feed it the sounds that seem most fitting.
I was 15 when I first heard John Prine. There were many things for me to love about him. For starters, he wrote some great pensive, sad songs (Hello In There, Sam Stone). But he also wrote some sarcastic, snarky songs, too (Illegal Smile).
As I look at the sounds of melancholy in my life some of my favorite records of all time are steeped in sadness. In fact, one of my all-time favorites is a record by Jackson Browne, Late For The Sky. The title track and Fountain of Sorrow have been lifelong favorites.
For me, the lyrics, the story and the melody are integral components of the sounds of melancholy. Nobody typifies them better than Prine and Browne.
Setbacks. Disappointments.
Business disappointments are not unlike other disappointments. They range in severity from devastating to annoying.
We all have them, but there are two kinds of disappointments that sting the most: the ones we didn’t see coming and the ones that represent the enemy of something we really wanted.
The more personal the disappointment, the more it hurts.
Disappointment doesn’t care who you are or how much power you’ve got. It doesn’t knock. It just blows the door off the hinges, comes right in and camps out where you can avoid it. It may hit people a bit differently, but it hits everybody. Sometime.
Disappointments can be sometimes be measured in time, distance, money, impact and recovery.
Time.
I remember the day the phone rang. It was the worst kind of setback. A death. Of our founder. He was only 32. I was in my 20’s. His life was gone. Mine was changed.
We thought we had more time to build more stores. To grow our business. Together.
We were wrong. Time ran out and there wasn’t anything we could do.
Distance.
When my children were quite small I found myself mired in a bad circumstance. We lived in one city, but I was working in a different city. The real estate market was pitiful at the time and we had to live apart through the week, looking forward to very short weekends together. It was painful disappointment.
I hated it, but like so many disappointments in our lives, I had to endure it until I could figure out some solution. Disappointments wouldn’t be so bad if you could fix them…and quickly. It’s not always possible.
Money.
Missed sales goals. Lost bonuses. Frozen compensation. Increased insurance premiums. Elevated lease rates. Money disappointments are endless.
Because business is all about generating sufficient profits to sustain the enterprise, money tends to be the end-all, be-all. Most of us measure success or failure with a dollar sign.
An advertising campaign that we felt sure about falls flat. A landlord tells us the lease renewal demands a 20% increase. Our insurance rep informs us that workman’s comp insurance is going up 15%. Meanwhile, our profit margins are stretched because vendors aren’t taking less, but customers are giving us less. It’s the ying and yang of business. The push/pull tug of war that every business owner or leader feels constantly.
Impact.
When a founder dies in an automobile accident the impact is sudden, unexpected and irreversible. Depending on the size of the business, it can be vast, too. Vendors, financial partners, suppliers, employees – everybody hurts.
Some business disappointments impact us in the moment, but it’s more like ripping a Band Aid off a scab. Painful at first, but it’s over before you know it.
Recovery.
Recovery is tied to impact. The more severe the impact, the more difficult the recovery. The lower the impact, the quicker (and easier) the recovery.
A devastating blow might just do you in. Failure to meet payroll can be deadly. Failure to meet payroll habitually is sure death.
So with all these facets of disappointments and with all the varying degrees of disappointment, how can we possibly find profit in them?
Can we always find profit in them?
I think so.
That’s literally the bottom line for today’s show…finding ways to profit from our disappointments and setbacks. That’s what I intend to do by tapping the brakes for just a bit. Lord willing, I’ll be back soon. Recharged. Refreshed. Reenergized.
Be safe. Take care of yourself. Take care of business. I’ll be talking you soon with one more pre-hiatus episode.
It’s hard to believe that One-A-Day vitamins are older than me. Miles Labs introduced them in 1940, making them 73 years old.
I’ve been a customer and I know the value of taking daily vitamins.
But vitamins and podcast content aren’t the same thing. Podcasts are so much more valuable. 😉
I am not being critical of anybody who releases an episode a day, or multiple episodes a week. While I’ve never done a daily podcast, I have been known to release up to 3 in a single week.
I have no idea how people do a daily podcast. The sheer grind of that would depress me to no end.
I have no idea how people consume daily podcasts either. I’ve tried to keep up with a few, but in short order I’ve declared podcast-listener-bankruptcy and given up. I don’t subscribe to any daily podcasts.
Sometimes I’m asked by people who want to start a podcast, “How often should I post a new episode?”
I usually tell them, “As often as you want. Just try to be consistent.”
People get hung up on making sure everything they do is perfect or highly valuable. The other day I heard a guy say the path to success is to “be awesome.” Well, there you go. Be awesome!
Easier said than done. Truth is, I don’t know anybody who is always awesome. And I don’t believe that everything you create must be awesome!
I’d like to challenge you to consider something about content. All kinds of content. Audio. Video. Blog posts. Books. Magazine articles. Anything.
How often do you experience content that is profound?
Permit me to define profound very simply. Let’s assume that profound is something that you remember a month later. A podcast you remember a month after you heard it. A video you remember a month after you watched it. A book you read and remember a month later. A magazine article you read and remember a month later.
My guess is, there aren’t many pieces of content that you remember a month later. Most of the stuff we consume is consumed and forgotten. And when you think about it, that’s how it has to be…otherwise, our heads would explode.
Profound really deserves a better definition though. How ’bout we ramp it up and say that something is profound if it changes our life?
Do you consume content that changes your life on a regular basis?
Spiritual alert.
I do, but it’s only one book. The Bible.
Nothing else I consume regularly has a profound impact on my life. Nothing.
Does that mean it’s not worth consuming? No. It just means profound (life changing) is a very high standard to meet.
As content creators, I don’t mean that we shouldn’t aim for profound. I just mean we shouldn’t avoid creating content unless it’s profound because profound is really difficult to achieve.
Contradiction alert.
The more you produce the more likely you can create something profound. I believe that (mostly). That’s not always true, but I believe it’s mostly true.
In 1972 a guy named Willis Alan Ramsey released a critically acclaimed record. I wore out two copies of this record when it was vinyl.
It was a one and done deal. To my knowledge he didn’t produce anything before that record, or after. Come on, we all know how rare that is! It’s crazy.
Ramsey was (is) an exceptional talent. Or, maybe when your first content is so spectacularly well received you just call it a day. Maybe if you hit a home run at your first “at bat” you earn enough money to ride it out.
I don’t know if that’s true for Ramsey or not. I love this record and still listen to it regularly. I saw Willis live in concert a lot while I was in college so I’m an avid fan. Bewildered perhaps, but still a fan.
Willis Alan Ramsey is not typical.
For every hit song most artists likely have written countless others that weren’t even worthy of being recorded. It’s just how the odds work.
Profound is extraordinary. Everything else is…well, ordinary.
Can you produce profound content without producing the ordinary content? Not likely.
For one thing, you won’t likely be able to predict or even recognize profound. How many times have we read or heard interviews with musicians who vowed they thought a song would be a hit, only to realize that another song – one they thought would never make it – turned out to be “the one.” Predicting hits is as difficult as predicting what content will be profound.
Bloggers and podcast producers often comment how something they produced that they thought was awful turned out to be among their most popular stuff. You just never know what will resonate or catch fire.
For another thing, there’s the proficiency issue. People can argue all they want about perfect practice making perfect, but there’s real truth to practice making perfect. Unless you’re a moron, you’ll figure out how to improve your practice. You’ll ask others who know more than you. You’ll observe what others are doing. You’ll stick with it and work at it. And over time, you’ll improve.
Will you be able to produce something profound?
Maybe not. There are so many other elements involved. Like talent. Uniqueness. Opportunity. Luck.
Here’s what I believe – the more you stick with it and the more you produce the more likely you are to figure out how to produce something profound. Yes, I think quantity matters.
Whatever you do, do it a lot. Do it as often as you can.
Will it be too much?
Maybe. Maybe you’ll find that you’re producing more content than you can sustain. Fine. Step back and figure out a pace that you can sustain. Be consistent.
Maybe you’ll find that you’re wearing people out with more content than they can stomach. Fine. Step back and stop blitzing people. Slow it down in hopes you can become more attractive.
That might mean you still write, video, shoot photos or record audio as much as you’d like…you just don’t put it all out there for public consumption.
But what if the one you don’t release is the one that might be your hit?
What if Willis Alan Ramsey hadn’t released his 1972 record? It would be the world’s (and his) loss. That’s what.
Besides, how many songs have you listened to that you quickly forgot? See, we all have amnesia when it comes to most content – good or bad. So I say, produce all the content you want. Stick with it. Grow, get better and don’t be afraid of producing too much. Or not enough.
Quit worrying about everything you do being profound or remarkable.
Even a blind pig can find a truffle every now and then.
Surely you’re smarter than a blind pig.
Me? I’m working on it. Being smarter than a blind pig that is.