I got some great personal news this week – I was named to the Podcasting Hall of Fame after nearly 20 years in the pod trenches. I’ll be honored along with ten other notable podcasters in Orlando at PodFest next month, where I’ll be introduced by another Hall of Famer, Dave Jackson, who is also in the human being hall of fame.
I’ve got years ahead of me in this business, but nearing the two decade mark in podcasting and receiving this honor was a bit of a cause for reflection. You see, all of this was really part of a plan, and I’ve been working that plan pretty much from the beginning. I thought I’d share this not-evil plan with you, because I think it’s actually pretty solid career advice.
When I started in podcasting, it wasn’t a business by any stretch. I wanted to work in the field because I was already working with the radio industry, and to me, everything was going to go to on-demand as soon as it was technically friction-free for the user. However, I also wanted to make money, and podcasting was fairly profit-resistant at the time.
So, what do you do when your passion plants you in a field where you can’t make a living? I think you have three options:
– Keep watering your own plant in your spare time, in the hopes that it will grow
– Help other people water their plants
– Work on the garden
I chose to work on the garden. If you are a creator, and you struggle with how you are going to make a living in the field you want to be in, I think a solid thing to ask yourself is, “How can I create the space that will make it possible to earn a living in the future?” What can you do, now, that could help future you and future others actually make viable careers in the field you are passionate about?
At the time, my hammer was research and everything was a nail, but I also knew that the space wouldn’t be monetizable if we couldn’t count it properly. So I worked on counting it properly with my former colleagues at Edison. To this day, my filter for taking on a research project is always to look for limiting beliefs and unfounded objections to podcasting that credible data could counter – and where those objections are real, to pass on that knowledge as well, to make things better.
If the market for your passions doesn’t exist, what can you do to create that market? How can you develop what you love not just into a paycheck, but a future? This year saw a lot of layoffs in the media business, and some people will exit media entirely because of it. If you were impacted by layoffs, your first priority is to support your family – and it’s also a good time to think about the garden you’d rather live in, and how you can give that a little water and light, as well.
I’ve been very lucky in podcasting, and I am certainly not trying to paint myself as a selfless saint. Like I said, I wanted to make money in podcasting, and this was my 20-year evil plot to get there. But I truly do want to help people build careers in this space, because I never want this space to go away. When I retire, I want to do little more than lay around and listen to podcasts, because I love audio storytelling and always have. I want podcasts to be there for me when that day comes (not soon, Bryan).
Today, when my son, Sam, tells people at college what his dad does for a living, he tells them “he’s big in podcasting,” which is not what he used to say. And his friends don’t laugh, or at least he keeps that from me. I don’t want people to laugh when we tell them we are podcasters. I have told this story before – I flew to Toronto the month I joined Sounds Profitable, and when I told the Global Entry customs officer that I was a podcaster, he was taken aback – “And you use Global Entry?” I want us all to use Global Entry.
Actually, I don’t. Lines would be terrible again. Don’t use Global Entry.
See? I’m not that nice.
I’ll close by saying that making the Hall of Fame is important to me. It’s important because the Hall of Fame is important, and The Ambies is important, and anything we can do to increase the visibility of podcasting is important, both for your careers and for the careers of our children.
I am grateful for anyone who ever showed up to watch me show pie charts, I’m grateful to our more than 180 partners, who make all of this possible. I’m grateful to my wife, Tamsen, who didn’t flinch when I told her I was steering into podcasting full-time. And I am grateful to my business partner, Bryan, who keeps me off the streets. Most of all, I am grateful to the storytellers. You’ve kept me company all of my life.
New Partners
Sounds Profitable exists thanks to the continued support of our amazing partners. Monthly consulting, free tickets to our quarterly events, partner-only webinars, and access to our 1,800+ person slack channel are all benefits of partnering Sounds Profitable.
- Multitude is a podcast collective, production studio, and ad sales provider based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
- Media CRTL is a production company specializing in branded content, commercial and digital media.
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