I am a podcaster.
When I first discovered podcasting, I had no real goal or plan, and no idea where it would take me. All I knew was that it was exactly what I had been waiting for, something I wanted to do, for a long, long time. I wanted to use my voice to talk to the world.
I was always a talker. The moment I uttered my first words, there was no stopping. I talked about anything and everything that i could think of, and more. My parents couldn’t shut me up. My dad suffered my relentless rambling, my mom did pretty much the same. My grandparents thought I would be a lawyer someday, simply because of my ceaseless, often nonsensical orations. Others would simply roll their eyes and braced themselves for the tumultuous torrent of tongue wagging when I began to open my mouth.
I liked to talk.
I talked my way through grade school, and got myself into a lot of trouble with my peers. I talked a lot on the job, which sometimes inhibited my productivity. When I started my own computer business, I talked with my customers incessantly, primarily with the goal of educating them on the products and services I sold, but in so doing, also “giving away the farm” so to speak, so they could do it all themselves, and not need my services.
I talked too much.
But I reached a critical turning point. I was not happy with where I was. The business I started was stagnant. Years of struggling with it, I was losing interest. It was no longer fun. I was burning out. I was becoming discouraged, trapped, and I didn’t know what to do next.
Then I discovered podcasting.
It was in the early spring of 2006, or was it the winter of 2005? I don’t remember which, and it’s not important anyway. What I do remember is the light that went on in my head the moment I first head about it. This is what I had been waiting for. This is was what I wanted to do. This was it. But, how was it going to work? How was I going to make it happen? How could I make it my next career?
So, I did a little reading about it, came up with an idea, and in late spring 2006,I made it happen. I bought a microphone, set it up on an old, used computer, and recorded my first podcast.
That was over 18 years ago. It changed my life.
As an early adopter, there was very limited competition in my chosen niche, so I was able to monetize my podcasts within the first dozen episodes through host read ads. It didn’t pay the bills, but the meager earnings did incentivize me to do more with the medium.
The podcast also received quite a bit of recognition, landing a spot in the Small Business Trends list of 100 best business podcasts each year for a number of years.
In 2007 I closed my computer business and sought other career opportunities. Unfortunately, I found myself at a crossroads. My community of listeners began to push back on montization of my show, a few even attempting to villianize me for doing so. It was still early in the new media space, so podcasting was still not mainstream enough to support a show with a broader reach that was finanically sustainable for me.
So I pivoted. I added podcasting to my resume.
This action turned out to be quite fortuitous and provided me a position in a company that, 14 years later, I still hold. It also led to the creation of one of the longest running, highly rated podcasts about specific types of products in a niche market that, as of this writing, was twice nominated for a People’s Choice podcast award in the Technology Category.
In the course of all this, I learned many things about podcasting and other new media technologies. Much of it I incorporate into my job as a professional podcaster and media producer, some of it turned into life lessons. All of it has contributed to a first hand experience in the evolution of the medium and continues to provide me with an ongoing, real world education of podcasting as it actually exists that I could never gain from a university, training course on podcast theory or some ridiculously overpriced “Mastermind Group” with high monthly membership fees and low or incorrect information from those operating it who are relatively new or inexperienced in the medium themselves.
I am not a mastermind, nor am I some high paid consultant with a certificate or diploma on the wall of a home office with a bookshelf and some strategically place awards and nick knacks to impress you with my prowess in podcasting and new age marketing skills. I am, however, an active, working, veteran podcaster with nearly two decades of real world experience in the space and who keeps up with industry trends, continually honing his skills to prepare for what comes next.
I am a professional podcaster.
If you really want to pay thousands of dollars for second hand advice about starting a podcast from someone who likely got their information from keyword searches online, and without the knowledge or wisdom to separate fact from fiction, there’s nothing more I can say to you other than this: good luck with that.
However, if you want simple, no nonsense facts, tips and guidance from an old podcasting curmudgeon who has been there, and without a requirement to pay for it, and no obligation to even take it, then by all means subscribe to the RSS feed on this site and enjoy the benefits it has to offer. You’ll probably be glad you did. After all, it’s free. And you can’t beat free.
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