When I moved back to California about a year ago, I carried with me something I created and was proud of sharing.

That was a little digital podcast called My Food Job Rocks.

I told everyone about it, how it made me a bit of cash, how it got me a job,how it took up most of my time, how it made me feel wiser and better about myself.

I told this to people I just met, and people I haven’t talked to in years.

Some were like, cool, others were inspired, and very few wanted to do what I did. When someone wants to do what you did, you need to push them to do so.

This article is about two different podcasts which I helped guide. One is food industry related and one isn’t at all. One I take on more of a mentor and motivator role, another, I am a co-host. But overall, the challenges of launching and how it solidifies the people you work with.

Beer Talk Now

I met Darryl Neal at a Northern California IFT event. I think it was either my first or second one back in California so that was about a year ago. Darryl works in the food industry. He’s really tall, has a football MVP aura around him and is very humble.

We had a good talk, I did my intro and he wanted to buy me a drink after the event to learn more about my really strange history.

We talked for about 2 hours while drinking beer and I think I said some motivating things and he started asking about podcasting and I told him pretty much everything.

So you’d think Darryl would start his podcast right after that motivational talk but that wasn’t the case. Luckily, NCIFT is an amazing organization and they host their events monthly. Darryl kept showing up to these events and so did I. I never think much when people want to start something, I don’t bug people about it because life changes and it’s hard. But me showing up was a reminder to Darryl to start it. Every time Darryl saw me in these monthly events, we’d go to a local bar with a small group of young professionals and he would always just ask me advice on how to start. He wanted to interview local breweries and learn about their beer. We had to iron out the mission statement, plan out being consistent, all that fun stuff.

It wasn’t until maybe 2 months ago, Darryl invested in podcasting gear and started to ask me all sorts of advice. I was happy to help him because he’s a good guy but also he actually is now invested in starting something amazing. Beer Talk Now has about 5 episodes on iTunes and has a really buzzing Instagram account. I check on it from time to time and usually text Daryl on what to fix.

Episode 170 will be a repost of Daryl’s episodes. Enjoy!

The Random Article Podcast

I met up with my childhood friend, Bijan in November. We went to middle school and high school together and then split away during the college years. We maybe hung out a few times, but now since I was back, we could talk a bit more.

I was talking to him about the startup, Better Meat Co, and how it all happened because of podcasting. I probably talked his ear off about podcasting.

During Christmas, a friend of mine had his annual party. It wasn’t a cool party, just a get together with friends and we all had to go around in a circle talking about what’s new in life.

Eventually, I started playing a few video games with my friends and Bijan reached out about doing a podcast. But he had no idea on what.

So we got on skype and just shot some ideas. We recorded one episode about us just looking at dumb advice on the internet.

Eventually, one idea stuck where we’d just use the random article button on Wikipedia and talk about it.

The Random Article Podcast took 5 months of planning but we already have a lot of episodes in the back burner. Our editing approach is a bit different, going through a 3 phase editing process: I do an awkward cut (cutting out awkward spacing and weird stuff, Bijan does a content cut, and then I do a final run through for the shownotes. We might optimize this in the future, but it’s good practice.

The marketing challenges of showcasing a comedy-duo podcast is a bit trickier than something like My Food Job Rocks. There is no tangible value other than comedy and there is no networking effect because it’s just two guys talking. I’m excited to try different experimentation methods over time to see what happens but just doing this type of podcast allows me to learn and have fun.

The Random Article Podcast is a weekly podcast that launches a new episode every Wednesday and we have socials on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Don’t think this type of podcast could work with LinkedIn!

Lessons Learned

No one cares when you start

No one caring when you start is a double-edged sword. For one, there is no pressure in launching something. But also, because there is no pressure, you’re less likely to start.

To solve this, have an accountability partner who cares when you start. You have to be there to constantly remind your friend that you need to stop talking, start doing.

Everyone cares when you keep going

Even if they don’t care, you have to show them you’re serious about this. That you’ll show up every day. Eventually, some people will see that you do care and will cheer you on.

A replicable model

Why did I do these projects for free? To really prove I can not only mentor but do it again. There were a lot of mistakes that I made when I launched My Food Job Rocks. If I could redo it, what would I change?

Doing The Random Article Podcast, I realized that it was probably time to buy my own music (therefore we now have a new intro I think is pretty cool). For Beer Talk Now, Darryl added his own style on how to do his podcasts and I went with it, and learned something new.

Finding out that you can repeat the process solidifies the skillset and gives you more confidence in your own ability.

Just the beginning

There is a point where the euphoria of launching will wither and you’ll be faced to decide whether to quit or not. There is no right answer to this. In my basic philosophy, if it’s not fun or you’re not learning something, then there is no point in doing it. I’ve mentioned before that I follow the rule of 6. If you do 6 episodes and it sucks, don’t do it. If it’s good, go for 60. Coincidentally, if your life hasn’t improved in 6 months doing this project, then it’s ok to quit. It’s ok to quit things. Life’s too short not to quit things.

It’s a gamble to quit versus keep on going especially as you invest more and more time into things but you have to really notice diminishing or negative returns when it happens.

However, once you start, it is truly just the beginning. it might have felt like you’ve gotten to the finish line launching, but now the road ahead is even longer but to quote a wise man, the journey of 1000 miles begins with one single step.