Because of My Podcast: I'm Getting
Married
Today Matthew Cox from
"http://brunchwiththebrits.net" target="_blank">Brunch with the
Brits explains how he went to a podcast event who eventually
became his wife.
I had been contacted by a sponsor at
advertisecast.com. I decided to low ball my pricing ($10 an
episode) just to see if anyone would jump. An advertiser did. They
wanted 10 episodes of my Weekly Web Tools podcast. That would be
almost three months and the advertising would pay for my hosting
(minus the 20% that advertisecast take). I would take home $96. My
hosting will cost me $45 for three months. I might have some gas
money. Here are some of the bullet points:
To get started and receive a $50 signup
bonus
You’ll earn $1 for every new email lead and up
to $200 for every new member you refer from your
computer
Has already generated millions of dollars for
over 200,000 happy entrepreneurs
My audience is predominant male, and I know I
have some entrepreneurs in my audience. So far this sounds like a
great fit. Then I went to see what I was promoting.
It turns out the product was a video chat and
dating service. Hmmm, that doesn't really fit, but maybe I would do
this as an experiment. Then I dug a little deeper. You see this
wasn't some ordinary video chat/dating service. It was porn, oh I
wait I mean adult chat. Can we just call it what it is?
Porn.
Beside my religious beliefs there are lots of
non-religious reasons that porn is a cancer that most people feel
is "not a problem." Well I disagree. It's an opinion, and we're not
here to talk about that. Let's get back to podcasting.
I will not have a sponsor on my show that I
can't go to bed at night feeling I served my audience by sending
them toward a product I fully endorse. So I turned them down. I
also contacted advertisecasts.com and suggested they put in a way
for podcasters to save people time so I can say, "No porn,
cigarette, alcohol, etc)
Every podcasters starts with two things in
common. Zero listeners, and they have integrity. When you lose your
integrity, you may not ever get it back.
When I started college I thought I wanted to
"Fix stuff" so I went to an electronics school and got a degree in
electronic engineering. The other thing I got was a clear
understanding that I wasn't very good at fixing stuff. I fixed
copiers, but luckily got an opportunity (based on relationships I
had formed in the company) to go out and set up the equipment and
train the users. I was a customer service rep. Had I not gone to
college to be a technician, I never would've ended up in
training.
I later would go back to School to get a
Bachelor's Degree in Education. My dream job was to get back to
training people on Microsoft Products. I had the most fun doing
that in the past, and I was good at it. I could be funny and
educational. Because of my knowledge of computers I start to dabble
in building websites, and the Internet. That lead to me a guy who
had come back from a conference who told me about
podcasting.
I started podcasting, and got to know people in
the industry. Using my strongest skills of serving and teaching, I
created value. I developed relationships with all of the podcasting
companies. I remember one day about a year and a half ago when a
student asked me a question about combining two features in
Microsoft Excel. I explained I had never tried those two features
together, to which he pulled out his iPhone and asked Siri. Right
in front of my eyes, the phone solved my customers problem. I
thought, I'm going to be replaced by a phone. A year and a half
later what was once a staff of five trainers, what cut down to one
(and it wasn't me). However, because I had been playing with
computers, and playing with the Internet, that lead me to
podcasting. Those relationships I built over ten years lead me to
being employed by Libsyn.com (A podcast media company).
Now I would never have though my life would
turn out the way it has. Anything that put me into position to help
me later began by starting something. Knowledge is only power when
you act on it.
Richard Prior is considered by some to the THE
best comedian ever. Richard launched his career being very safe,
and incorporating a lot of physical comedy in his routines. He was
basically trying to be Bill Cosby. There was only one problem. He
was Richard Prior and being Bill Cosby-ish was not easy, and
eventually Richard walked off the stage mid-performance cause he
couldn't do it anymore. But he wouldn't have known that if he
hadn't started stand up. You can manage, pivot, adjust, something
that you never start.
It's hard to really come up with something
completely original. Why? Because talking and entertainment and
education have been around for a long time. In the movies most
plots can be summarized by one of seven plot lines.
Overcoming Monsters - Dracula
Rags to Riches - Cinderella
The Quest - Lord of the Rings
Voyage and Return - Alice in Wonderland, The
Wizard of Oz
Comedy - Four Weddings and A Funeral
Tragedy - Breaking bad
Rebirth - The Grinch who stole
Christmas
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots" target=
"_blank">Source
As I write this, the musician Prince died last
Thursday. Some might say there was nobody like Prince, and that is
true. What was original about Prince was his mixing of Genres and
styles. If you ever saw him live, he borrowed a lot from James
Brown. If you watched him play the guitar, he reminded you a lot if
Jimi Hendrix. There was a hint of gospel an blues. What Prince had
that was unique to him was his vocal range. He took that range and
surrounded with the stylings of James, Jimi, and his own
influences. So the way he paired these genres was
original.
I've spoken in the past about grabbing people's
attention right up front. One of the longest running shows on
television does this the best: 60 minutes. They pull at your heart
making it near impossible to turn off the channel. Can you
incorporate this into your podcast? You sure can.
What should have been a tidal wave of
opportunity was a drop of technology as Google Play Music was
"Launched" kind of. Here is what's missing:
70% of podcasts are listened on a portable
device but Google is using Flash technology which dosn't work
on mobile devices.
You can't download the podcasts.
It's not really available anywhere except on
the web
The good news is starting today (28th) you will
be able to have more stats to obsess over. HOORAY!
MTV announced five new podcasts focused on
film, politics, pop culture and, obviously, music that will roll
out over the next week. The shows will be hosted by a mix of
current MTV News journalists including Anna Marie Cox
and several new hires.
For MTV, the move into podcasting shows how
it’s targeting young people who are staring at their phones, rather
than the television. Dan Fierman, MTV News’ editorial director,
told Digiday that of its young target audience, 80 percent of all
content they consume is on their phones and that the audience
has been underserved with podcast options.
How do you handle more than one feed with
Libsyn or Blubrry?
target="_blank">John Wilkerson comments on last week’s show and
wondered why I didn’t mention WordPress.
BTW, I have a new favorite podcast because of
your “favorite podcast” episode at year end. Never heard of
No Agenda until I heard someone mention it on your end year end
show, actually it was last years show i listened to after
downloading the transcript. I know shame on me for being a
podcaster and not knowing of Adam Curry’s show until recently, but
I have not missed an episode since hearing about it earlier this
year and have also sent a few dollars their way. ? it’s
exceptionally good given the upcoming presidential
election.
Hope all is well and I’m sending money your way
too via Amazon shopping. ?
Thanks,
Richard Warfield, Jr.
RDubStudios.com
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