Episode 22: When It Finally Sinks In
When what finally sinks in? This! Well what is this? Right. Before 2012 I was all out radio. Not against podcasting. I was just radio. I mean a totally sick puppy that spent 12 to 15 hours a day writing and producing commercials while performing physical shows in several different markets. Part of the workday plan was to blog. The goal? Write about everything. Not text. Not IM. Blog! It was my real voice. I could say anything. Which put me in several large circles outside the realms of radio.
Cool! A following that wasn’t being controlled by program directors and consultants. I was in charge of my own content and how it was being delivered. The goal was to drive the numbers up on the stations website. Big task for a non-morning show air talent. Not a battle. No war wounds. Just an open mind to walk and not jump into this new age of sharing information.
I loved my readers so much that letting them hear my physical verbal inflection had to be the next step. I know! I’ll Vlog! They can see and hear me! No no noooo. A total disaster. It was at this point of the digital journey that I realized most blog readers want the intimacy of reading alone. Pictures of long haired radio people with radio voices interrupted the interpretation of what they were pulling from the blogs.
My numbers dropped in the worst way. How the hell was I going to get them back? Angry at my decision to one up the performance I chose to walk away from the entire digital process to write a book called Scrambled Eggs. I wouldn’t return until it was published.
When it finally sinks in. When what finally sinks in? This! Well what is this? Right. That 2.5 year break from blogging and pretending to be a radio performer is what set the stage up for podcasting to take up space inside this open field of who the hell am I? Then there it was. A television commercial for Chevrolet bragging about how their new models featured wireless internet.
My Beatles moment. Blue Tooth was going to connect smart phones to the sound system in the car. I wanted to be on that platform! But with what? I talked over song intros. Podcasts are an hour or longer.
I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. I sat down many times with national decision makers. The man that brought me to the Carolina’s in 1985 seemed ok with the idea but I can still hear him, “It doesn’t make money. So no you don’t have my attention.”
Every publication and broadcast blog spoke of the proper podcast length but nobody could decide. There wasn’t enough research to prove anything right. I was in charge of production for six radio stations I couldn’t stop the wheel to pull off an hour long show. Which is a cheap way of saying I had no fricken idea what I was going to talk about.
When it finally sinks in. When what finally sinks in? This! Well what is this? Right. Wait! It’s 2012! Those closest to the money in broadcasting aren’t interested in what I’m doing means I can make up my own rules! It was sinking in! You can’t break something if what you’re trying to create doesn’t exist.
Sixty second Classic Rock Reports. Yes! The more I did the more listeners I was picking up. Before long I had the attention of music promoters which led to actors, authors and famous chefs. But something was still missing. My real voice. The one created by blogging. Where I could talk about anything! Vlogging didn’t work, why would I take a chance on podcasting? I finally broke the ice in 2013 with a Podcast called The Choice. My addiction to creativity would serve as the platform. Normal people don’t put in 12 to 15 hours at work. I had a habit and it was all connected to creativity.
Utilizing my passion to write blogs I redesigned the layout by getting the attention off me and onto the listener. I’m not the only creative person on the planet. Outside of Julia Cameron where are the coaches and mentors that lead the builders and shapers through the desert? They’re not there!
When it finally sinks in. When what finally sinks in? This! Well what is this? Right. Bringing life to a niche requires unique and a willingness to learn how to fail. Each time I found my face in the mud I went deeper with the exposure of what it’s like to be a creative. Transparency became the steps that started to climb.
While the conversations with the people of fame continued to grow stronger and stronger so was the podcast The Choice. Texture was beginning to take shape. Learning how to find listeners meant playing by the same blogging rules. Write and talk about everything. One podcast will lead listeners to other podcasts. Cross pollinating the podcasts served as an invitation for listeners to explore. Oh he does this too! And this?
A friend asked me in 2015, “What are you doing? One minute you’re landing a conversation with Yoko Ono then you’re talking about writing books. Your Facebook page doesn’t represent the person I thought I knew.”
Remember I am no expert. I’m a daily student. I show up in this recording studio every morning at 5:30 to try and figure out why I’m here and not where my dreams should’ve landed me. Only one GM supported my footsteps during my final moments in terrestrial radio. He was enthusiastic because I was energized. He listened to my gut reaction to how listeners could get what they on demand. Any subject about every possible thing. This is where you put in the sponsor.
His exact words, “I don’t know what you’re doing but I understand why you’re doing it.”
Today iHeart Radio boasts with a very loud voice how they’re the world’s largest podcast outlet. I’m blessed to host 9 completely different podcasts on the platform.
So what’s the moral of the story? When it finally sinks in. When what finally sinks in? This! Well what is this? Right. That moment when you decide how important your art is to the world. When you sit down and record your first podcast. Struggle to get the second finished while endlessly envisioning new ideas that could lead my listeners to your performance.
When it finally sinks in that podcasting isn’t going away. It’s just getting started. There’s a lot of weeds in this wheat field. Quoting Steven Furtick, you can’t pull what doesn’t belong in the field out. You’ll injure the roots of the wheat. In all things podcasting, great shows to shake your head can’t believe I just sat through that. Let it grow. Let the weeds live with the wheat.