March 31, 2025 • 31 mins
Embark on a journey from a humble closet recording setup to the realm of full-blown media empires. In this episode, we dive deep into the solo podcaster’s struggle—juggling every aspect of the show—and unveil the first steps to scaling your passion. Discover how to delegate tasks, streamline your workflow, and diversify your income streams, all while keeping your creative spark alive. With insights drawn from success stories like The Ringer and My Favorite Murder, we explore how to transform your one-person operation into a dynamic media brand without losing your sanity.
The Solo Podcaster Struggle
The reality of being a solo podcaster: juggling content creation, editing, marketing, and monetization alone.
Funny examples of “wearing too many hats” (e.g., the podcaster who is also the unpaid intern, the social media manager, and the IT department).
Signs it might be time to scale:
✅ Overwhelmed by tasks that don’t involve actual podcasting.
✅ Episodes are getting bigger, but time isn’t.
✅ More opportunities (sponsors, partnerships, guest requests) than you can handle alone.
The First Steps Toward Growth
Outsourcing vs. Hiring – What should you delegate first?
Editing and production
Show notes and transcription
Social media and marketing
Finding the right people – Hiring freelancers vs. in-house help.
Building Systems – Why automation and processes matter before adding people to the mix.
📢 Pro Tip: Start small! Even outsourcing one task can free up time for bigger-picture growth.
Monetizing Beyond Sponsorships
Expanding revenue streams beyond ads:
✅ Courses & coaching
✅ Memberships & exclusive content
✅ Live events & speaking gigs
✅ Podcast production for others
✅ Brand partnerships & consulting
How successful podcasters are leveraging their platforms to create sustainable businesses.
For ex: The Ringer (Bill Simmons)
Started as: The BS Report, a sports and pop culture podcast by Bill Simmons, originally under ESPN.
Grew into: The Ringer, a full-fledged media company producing podcasts, video content, and written articles, later acquired by Spotify for over $200 million.
Key Growth Factors:
✅ Expanded beyond sports to cover pop culture, tech, and entertainment.
✅ Hired a team of expert podcasters and journalists.
✅ Built a diverse podcast network with multiple high-performing shows.
Becoming a Full-Fledged Media Brand
Branding beyond the podcast: Turning your show into a recognizable brand.
Expanding your content ecosystem:
✅ YouTube or video podcasting
✅ Newsletters, blogs, and social content
✅ Merchandise & branded products
The Power of Collaborations – How partnering with other creators and companies can speed up growth.
When to consider forming an LLC or media company structure.
Pro Tip: You don’t have to do it all at once—grow at a pace that feels right.
Case Study: My Favorite Murder (Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark)
Started as: A casual true crime podcast between two friends in 2016.
Grew into: A massive brand with millions of listeners, live tours, a best-selling book (Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered), and a full media company (Exactly Right Media), which now produces multiple shows beyond My Favorite Murder.
Key Growth Factors:
✅ Built a dedicated community (Murderinos fanbase).
✅ Expanded to live events, book deals, and merchandise.
✅ Launched a podcast network to help other shows grow.
Lessons Learned & Takeaways
Biggest mistakes to avoid when scaling.
The mindset shifts from “podcaster” to “media entrepreneur.”
Encouragement for podcasters who feel stuck: “You don’t have to be the next NPR, but with the right steps, you can turn your podcast into something much bigger than you ever imagined."
Thanks for listening to Podcast Insider, you can subscribe to new episodes out every Monday.
The best place for support with any Blubrry product or service is our ticket system.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing
specialist at Blueberry. And I'm Todd Cochran, CEO
of Blueberry. Today, we'll discuss how anyone
can turn their one person podcast into a
full fledged media company.
You're listening to Podcast Insider, a weekly podcast
bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks
to help you start, grow, and thrive through
(00:21):
podcasting
with the support of your team here at
Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.
Todd, I know you're speaking from a personal
experience here, so I think we're gonna have
a really good episode.
Yeah. You know, it was,
we we're we're gonna go way, way, way
back today because,
you just never know what's gonna happen when
(00:43):
you start a podcast. That's for sure.
That is true. Yeah. Well, I like to
surprise you with some topics sometimes and,
sometimes when they're more involved in your background
in podcasting, it's fun for me.
You know, it really began and it's probably
what happens is a lot of podcasters are
like, I got this idea for a show
(01:05):
and
they're trying to make a decision whether or
not they're gonna do solo,
if they're gonna do some of the co
host,
if they're going to have a team
and
but I think a lot of people
start out,
you know, I think it's more often than
people realize start out as being a solo
(01:26):
solo podcaster.
And,
you know,
I learned this very early on and, of
course, there was there was none of the
tools that we have now, but
in the real the reality of being
a content creator,
editor,
marketer,
you know, all these things, all these hats
(01:48):
you had to wear,
you didn't realize it. And and the thing
is we didn't even think about it in
those early days. We're just okay. Let's get
the show done. Now there wasn't social media
in those early days so you didn't have
that distraction,
but you did have the distraction
of how do I get people on my
website?
(02:09):
You know, how do I get traffic here?
And there was other ways that we did
that,
which are now extinct. Some of those marketing
ideas that we use in those early days
are, you know, we we used to go
to forums. You know? Who who yeah. I
I don't belong to any forums anymore. Maybe
a goose a a Google group or something.
Like, all the comments on every different platform,
(02:31):
that's the forums now. That's where people are
learning how to do things. The closest thing
I feel like people still have is Reddit
and Discord.
Yep. And and you really are the,
the unpaid
intern when you begin. You know? You're You're
the social media manager, the IT department,
sales.
Really, there's Simultaneously
(02:52):
CEO and unpaid intern at the same time.
That's right. And Yeah.
It's it can be overwhelming, especially if you're
working a regular job, you have
a family, you have a partner,
maybe you've got kids. You know, there's there's
always something. There's life.
And,
and and and that that doesn't change.
(03:13):
And
but one thing that we don't
that we can't change is time.
Time is That is true. Time is not
infinite.
I've always wondered what would happen if I
had twenty six hours in a day and
I would probably just be more tired.
So, I
think there's a meme out there that shows,
okay, we're gonna all of a sudden that
(03:34):
something happens in the in space and all
of a sudden the Earth,
slows down a little bit and we we
have twenty five hours, I think there was,
the general consensus is we would spend it
sleeping. You know, that would be the
the the extra time that Certainly what I
would wanna do. But I but I don't
know if we would would we would we
use that additional hour to sleep?
(03:58):
A phrase that I like,
I'm showing my millennial is we all have
the same twenty four hours a day that
Beyonce does. Oh, that's true. And and she
accomplishes
so much that can be said about so
many people. But,
going going back to what you said of,
like, when you were starting this
and there were kinda less distractions, I think.
(04:19):
There was there was probably more focus on,
like
and more time being spent on the technology,
like the equipment, the gear that you were
using, that type of stuff and figuring out
like how do we make this get on
to everyone's phone? People don't have smartphones yet.
How do we get it on everyone's iPod?
That type of stuff. Yeah. And I think
now that that time,
(04:39):
that twenty four hours that we have is
just
how is the technology changed to give us
that time back. I mean, that's one of
the reasons you made PowerPress. Yeah. And, you
know, and one of the reasons too is,
you know, the very early days, I think
even new podcasters struggle with this today is
I bought a $14
microphone from Walmart or someplace and
(05:00):
that thing was, you know, tinny.
Tinny was the you know, it was horrible
audio.
And, you know, so then I went and
spent $50 or something at
some place that sold microphones
and I used that for the first year
and, you know, things got better over time.
But, yeah, we were overwhelmed with the tech
and then trying to explain, you know, oh,
(05:22):
I'm doing a podcast or what and get
this cross eyed look and, oh, this you
you can have an app.
No. Actually, there was no apps. You could
have a program
to put on your desktop
that if you plug your m p three
player in, if you have one
Yeah.
It will sync and magically you can take
(05:43):
this with you. And and people are like,
why would I do that? And that's why
people often listen to the shows on their
computers. But,
you know,
luckily today, we have this opportunity
to
not have to be focused on the tech.
We don't have to focus on worry about
publishing our show. That is a very straightforward
process.
(06:04):
Even social is getting easier.
So as a solo podcaster,
you have this ability now to produce a
pretty high quality content
with a minimal amount of time. I still
today
take the same amount of time produce an
episode as I did twenty years ago, but
(06:24):
I get so much more done
in those two and a half hours.
You know? So much more done.
And,
before, if I did in those early days,
if I would have had to have added
social
that that that that that that, I'd be
like, no way. I I couldn't have done
it. It had been ten hours of work
(06:45):
just for one hour. One of those
those things is, yeah, you're spending the same
amount of time, but the quality of everything
has just gone up. Yeah. I think that's
across the board for everyone.
And I think too what happens is then
you grow. And I know for many, many
years, I was solo, solo, solo.
And then I made a little money, and
I decided my time
(07:08):
was valuable.
So I actually,
still to this day, I pay someone to
do my show prep. Now I still have
thirty
to forty minutes of prep to do after
they've done an hour and a half, but
I got that hour and a half back.
And for
and Right. That to me
(07:29):
was
time is money. So it was well worth
the
the the expenditure of hiring that person to
help me. And then in that person came
from my show.
So I, you know, I basically said, hey.
I need someone to help do show prep.
You gotta be geeky.
You gotta like these topics.
I'm gonna give you the keys to the
car and how to find the content
(07:50):
and it was
just, you know, he's been doing it now
for me for,
I think, more than ten years and
it's like my brother from another mother. He
Yep. We're synced. It's very rare that I
will throw something out that he has found
in prep.
I'll add some stuff from time to time.
But so I think when it comes to
(08:12):
outsourcing
versus hiring,
you
should delegate what you can.
Mhmm. Social media can be done by people
that listen to your audience and sometimes they'll
do it for free.
It's very true. That's that's a fairly easy
one to do as long as you have
some someone
trustworthy. Trustworthy. You know, you've built that relationship.
(08:34):
You didn't you had this somewhat of a
relationship with this person who helps you with
your show notes or with your show prep
Yeah. Before you essentially started working together in
that capacity. And and I think it's also
good
that, I mean, I know some people are
sticklers and they're like, I want this to
be a % completely mine.
My brain only is on this. But when
(08:55):
you when you open it up to other
people, the out like, whoever you're hiring or
outsourcing some of the work to, it does
evolve,
You know? And it it becomes something bigger
than yourself.
And and I look at the evolution of
my show notes over the last year.
AI has changed completely. I I don't have
Absolutely. I don't have to hire nobody. The
AI is
(09:15):
does the show notes, and I take
five minutes to edit,
you know, 500 words.
And
it's rare that I have to change too
much.
And it's it's good. And now
I don't do any editing. I'm very
some people
(09:36):
this show is edited.
Mhmm.
But I don't edit my two primary shows.
I because it was also this trade off.
I had to make a decision.
Yeah. Was it gonna
be family? Do it I have enough time
for family
or would I sacrifice family time for editing?
(09:57):
Because editing at the time was gonna have
I'd have to sacrifice more time. I said,
okay. I just cut the ends. It is
what it is. I just had to learn
to be a better podcaster.
Especially when you have longer shows like yours
when they're like an hour plus. That is
insane to edit on a weekly or you
were doing like sometimes twice a week for
years there. So, yeah, that's a lot of
time. But some of those tools now like
(10:19):
Descript
will help you with if if you're not
too what's the word? I don't wanna use
the word I wanna use. If you're not
too wrapped around the axle.
And you're just willing to take out some
ahs and umms
and not get too tight in it, you
can be in and out of the script
(10:39):
in thirty minutes.
If you are an editor, if you
wanna spend more time, you you again need
two two, three hours. But then do you
outsource that to someone?
So then you have to find the right
people.
I think there's also like if when I
was editing our episodes, when I was doing
this by myself for, you know, years ago,
(11:02):
I was
getting fed up with the mistakes that I
was making in the show. So I just
stopped making them in general. They just I
was like, I don't wanna edit that out
next week. So I'm just not gonna do
it. Right. Yeah. And I've done enough episodes
now that even though I may say,
it's it's just gonna have to live in
the content. Person. And, you know, and be
(11:24):
honest with you from episode to episode and
this is gonna be true for creators. Some
episodes I get doesn't man, I knocked that
baby out of the ballpark
and then sometimes I'm like,
that one wasn't so good.
And
but also that becomes into a whole another
topic that we're not covering today is sometimes
you shouldn't record.
(11:45):
You know? If you've got a cold and
you're feeling like crap, don't record. Save it
to another day. I mean, whenever we were
picking a time to record this today, you
were like, I'm gonna be better if we
do it before,
you know, 1PM in the afternoon. Right. You're
like, I just am. Yeah. Because I'm overseas
right now, and it's it's midnight here. So
once it gets to about two,
my clock starts
(12:07):
you know, I start
it doesn't matter that I'm working to five.
I still am not as productive.
But but I think as as shows progress,
you find automation and processes that help and
find people
and then
it turns into okay. If your if your
show's growing, then do you monetize
(12:27):
and There comes the gravy. I think after
you've kind of gotten yourself into that good
spot of
I'm doing this. Other people are doing this.
Mhmm. We're putting out, like, quality
output every episode. Right. It has, like, a
flow. It has a routine. It has something
that advertisers can
rely on. Mhmm. Like, it's it's predictable
in that sense,
(12:49):
kind of the way that, like, a safe
driver is a predictable driver.
That same goes for a podcast trying to
get monetized. And I think a lot of
shows now have realized that, the content they're
creating can lead to a book.
Mhmm.
Courses and coaching.
If you're building a really big audience, maybe
some sort of event.
(13:10):
Or merch. Merch.
I've never I did merch,
but my audience was never into my merch
and maybe it's just because
I'm not an
artist. So the merch was just like logos
of my show. It was who wants to
wear a Geek News Central logo on their
shirt. That's you know, that's you got to
(13:30):
be a super fan to do that. I
I I think,
they kind of excel in the the comedy
section probably where it's, like, you know, where
it's jokes that you can put on a
shirt, something like that. But, yeah, it's
all of that is,
you know, you can do memberships, exclusive content.
We do premium podcasting here. So does Apple.
Yep.
All of those different things that you can
(13:52):
really
add to your show whenever you want.
And there's been a lot of people that
have, over time,
as they built their show have built in
a build into being a speaker, you know,
paid speaker at events, keynoters,
in in their perspective
topic field that they're doing within their shows.
(14:12):
So if you're a business show or tech
show or
whatever you're there there is a place for
you to go and address your peers
and or
inform people. So there's all kinds
of opportunities,
and I think that's what oftentimes podcasters forget
about. They get so focused
on making money
(14:33):
Yeah. That they forget about all the other
opportunities that are available to them that their
content is going to unlock.
That's the real value in podcasting in my
opinion.
And the skills that you acquire doing it.
Yeah. I remember the first time I was
asked to speak to I went to Las
Vegas and spoke to
the Cook County.
(14:54):
It was basically 500 or 600 teachers,
and I'd never really done a keynote before
and,
that was, you know, your first one when
you're you're in front of 500 people and
you're trying to impress them,
is and, of course, podcasting is new at
the time. So it was pretty easy
to have a, you know, good presentation. But
(15:15):
still, you know, walking on that stage,
your slides better be good or, you know,
you don't you don't wanna get booed off.
Yeah. But again, those are the you know,
that was a paid deal. I I I
earned my first real
speaking check from that event. And,
I didn't ever dreamed, you know, two years
earlier that that would have even been possible.
(15:36):
I actually saw something the other day that
the the job market is
not so awesome right now, for lack of
a better word.
And
with with the introduction of so many different
technologies and AI right now, a lot of
companies are saying, like, they were coming out
with, like, this is actually
skills that we need you to have. And
(15:56):
public public speaking was one of the ones
on there. Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah. Because it's like,
you know, anyone can have
AI
write anything for you at this point, but
you still have to be present and have
that,
you know, be able to converse with other
people and really get your point across
poignantly.
And, I think podcasting is probably something good
(16:18):
for a lot of people. I know we've
had,
podcasters who've done, like, Toastmasters
before, which is just like a whole public
speaking,
Yep. Club organization.
So it's it's definitely
not a bad thing to have
on your resume
just saying like, yeah. I do a podcast
because it does encapsulate
(16:40):
so many different skills that you're that you're
talking about. So there's definite levels too. You
know, we've got an example of Bill Simon
who started as the BS report as sports
and pop culture podcast
on ESPN and that grew into Ringer, which
is a full fledged media company and there's,
like, $200,000,000,000
or something that they were That's huge. They
(17:00):
were bought for. And then you have
someone that had nary a presence.
I think a Ming Yang Fogarty and Grammar
Girl.
And she started with just this show.
And then all of a sudden she's got
12 shows.
And then she's
basically being represented by a major media company
(17:21):
and then she has multiple books.
And
now,
basically, she still does her show, but everything
is managed by her team and she has
a full fledged media team and it just
and she was
she wasn't Oprah.
She wasn't Bill Simons. So, again,
the growth path is,
(17:43):
possible for anyone.
You don't have to looking
hey.
I was an aircraft aviation electronics technician.
So, you
know,
anyone can do
this. Right. Anyone can do this. And you
don't have to have
a complete
grasp of the English language either because believe
(18:05):
me, I've destroyed
my fair share of,
of words,
speaking and written over the years. So thank
God for Grammarly,
at this point. But,
you know, you can build,
into something big and, you know, go back
to the Bill Simons exam Simmons example,
expanded beyond sports.
(18:27):
Yep. Had a team of experts and of
podcasters and journalists and, again, build a diverse
network.
And, you know, when we built tech podcast,
we're just a bunch of hobbyists. We had
no clue, but we end up moving in
those early years, like, 20,000,000 downloads a month
on that little network. Now that's That's amazing.
(18:48):
Small considered compared to today.
But,
again, these are the folks that were
had no media experience whatsoever. So I think
this is the excitement about,
the potential of becoming a full fledged media
brand.
Yeah. So when you are
kind of in that stage of becoming a
(19:10):
full fledged media brand, you were you were
branding outside of just your podcast. You are
a full website
brand. You have your reputation. It is not
just people know you
in the app on their phone. Yeah. This
is this is like a whole thing that
people are doing. It has you have a
newsletter. You have merch. You have products. You
(19:31):
have social media content, you probably have
some type of YouTube video presence For sure.
In some capacity. Yeah. It it the list
goes on and on. Yeah.
And
oftentimes,
I think back to when we formed tech
podcast, there was originally seven of us
and we just said, hey. Let's
(19:51):
it's so funny. We
we we launched it as a business model
as a coop
and,
here's one thing I've learned about coops.
Don't build co op. Co ops don't work,
because you know, everyone's supposed to in the
co op do equal amount of work.
Yeah. In a network,
(20:12):
you're gonna have to have someone that's gonna
be the lead. Someone that's gonna do the
heavy lifting. The coop was was me, you
know, doing the heavy lifting
and and and, you know, bringing ad deals
and the collaboration and organization and all that.
But that partnering with other creators,
we all rose together.
Yeah. We had one team member.
(20:35):
He was making so much money.
He promised me. He said, Todd, promise, promise.
Never ever never ever mention how much money
I'm making from the show.
And,
it was a healthy 6 figures and
he said,
I'll be he's retired now so I'm safe.
He said I'll be I'll be fired by
(20:55):
my company if they find out I'm making
this much money on this show.
So,
you know, so also for those of you
that are building something like this and you're
finding success,
don't go to work bragging about it. Just
kind of, you know, yeah, I'm the end
of this podcast thing. Yeah. I got some
merch.
Yeah. The YouTube's doing okay. But
(21:17):
just make sure if you need Move in
silence. Move in silence and make sure that
that you keep your JOB protected,
because
collaboration can lead to big things. Now I
started
a business
early.
I I was lucky enough to get a
(21:38):
book deal,
and the book deal was done on a
October.
But then when GoDaddy sponsored the show in
02/2005,
I got to thinking, okay, which way to
and and I went overboard. I went full
c corp from the very beginning.
That was dumb. I shoulda just went, with
a limited liability
corporation.
(21:59):
You know, talk to your tax accountant before
you do anything in forming a company or
or get a tax accountant to ask which
type of business you should form.
AI is also not a tax accountant.
No. It can mess you up. So I
I I shut down the corporation
in 02/2019,
built a new company entity for my personal
(22:21):
self. So now I have an LLC
and it's easier tax wise.
And it's is a corporation. I was paying
taxes on
the company earnings and then if I paid
myself, then I was paying taxes on that.
It's just too stupid. Just pay the taxes
once,
on the LLC.
(22:42):
But,
so again, talk to your
tax accountant and find out what's right for
you.
I also did it for protection,
and I wasn't being controversial. But if you
are doing controversial
topics,
that might get you sued,
it might be good to do an LLC
(23:03):
or sooner than better and protect your home
and any assets you have and put your
show underneath the LLC.
And, it doesn't completely protect you, but it
does give you a little more
It's certainly not bad advice. Yeah. But again
It it does lead us into the example
though of
My Favorite Murder by Karen Killigraf
(23:25):
and Georgia Hardstock
because that show
blew up. And that is I mean, murder's
controversial.
Mhmm. To talk about that for sure.
And so they just started doing this
as, you know, two friends together and it
absolutely
blew
up. That show gets insane downloads. They have
a wild community. They do live events. They've
(23:47):
come to podcasting events that we've attended.
They have a whole network now of similar
shows. So
I'm sure that they evolved from doing this
just, like, together,
you know, in their living room to an
LLC, something like that. And they they probably
went from zero to a thousand.
And and also legal advice is good too.
And there's a lot of, folks out there
(24:09):
that do legal advice, a couple of podcast
specific
folks. I think of one Gordon Firemark that
does legal advice, and it's not an endorsement.
I just know him.
And I He's just very relevant. He's very
entertainment law. Yeah. So, you know, and it's
it's good if you're seeing success to,
(24:29):
you know, and maybe you need to have
some papers formed
and contracts and that kind of stuff. So,
you know, just yeah. And you have to
treat it as a business too. So and
the advantages is if you're running it as
a business, then there are x advantages of
running in it as a business.
But I would always say have a conservative
CPA. Don't have a a CPA that is
(24:51):
oh, we can take this one deduction that
and this and that. That's where you run
into getting trouble with audits. But a conservative
CPA and a good lawyer will save the
day every day of the week.
Yeah. I mean, that right there, that sentence
leads us into,
wrapping up the episode is what are the
lessons learned and the takeaways
of people going from just, you know, doing
(25:11):
this
in at their house to a fully fledged
media company still maybe in their
house. Lesson learned, don't do a co op.
And it's so when I so how I
got how I transitioned
the co op
was we had an agreement.
So the coop wasn't working. So I said,
listen,
(25:31):
we're gonna buy you I'm going to buy
you out.
Yeah. And I bought the seven out
and,
and and they got it under a different
different legal
so Entity. Entity and and and basically, it
treated it as and and it still is
(25:53):
treated as a true business. So, you know,
just again,
I again, ChatGPD is not a replacement for
legal support, but I think that if you're
going to go full fledged media company,
it's good to have the right tax set
up, the right,
the right legal
infrastructure.
(26:13):
And but don't get scared. These are all
good things.
Yeah. You're you're protecting yourself,
because there's something worth protecting there. Yeah. And,
you know, the second company I formed,
I used LegalZoom to set up the LLC
and to make sure I had all the
because I basically,
(26:34):
knew what I needed,
but I also know that I needed a
binder of specific things, bylaws, rules, you know,
these types of things and LegalZoom helped me
with that. Now
probably the lawyers off there like, oh, you
shouldn't use them, but it worked for me
in the second company that I said. But
again,
if you if you're feeling stuck, you don't
have to be the next NPR, but
(26:56):
but the right steps, you can turn your
podcast in something much bigger
than you ever imagined. I I remember coming
home from because the show originated when I
was on travel in Texas, and I came
home and and I'm explaining this to Shoko,
my wife at the time. And I'm like,
I'm doing this and she's like pointing a
(27:17):
finger at me and she says, okay. You
got two years to figure out how much
make money. And I had I wasn't thinking
about making money, you know, but it put
me in this mindset
of, okay.
You know, this this is costing money at
the time and it was very expensive to
do a podcast in the early days.
I've got to figure out a way to
make this sustainable and it really put me
(27:38):
in the right
mindset
and I wasn't completely focused on
the sponsorship piece.
A book deal came before the sponsorship
deal. So
yeah, you never know what doors are gonna
open up.
Yeah. I think you, you hit the nail
on the head there is you can't just
think of yourself as a podcaster or content
creator. You know, if you if you want
(28:00):
to evolve like this, you have to just
think of yourself as a
as a entrepreneur
in some capacity. And and Blueberry exists for
one reason only.
I was having a phone call in February.
I was talking to Chris Redlinger from GoDaddy.
We just finished the first month of sponsorships
with her, and she said to me, do
(28:21):
you know other podcasters
that would like to advertise GoDaddy?
And I said, yes. I do.
And in back of my head, I'm thinking
there's a business here.
And
that were formulated for a couple of weeks
in my head. And then on my podcast,
I said, I'm looking for a lawyer. I'm
looking for an MBA. I'm looking for a
(28:41):
graphics guy, and I'm looking for a programmer.
And that led to a call that led
to a business
that led to Raw Voice that led to
Blueberry and here we are. That led to
20 later with the two of us here.
Right here.
And it all came and it really centered
upon
a single phone call where I realized there's
(29:02):
an opportunity
bigger than what I can handle myself.
And
I thought I could have done this by
myself. Matter of fact, for the first month
I did because it took us a little
while to get the business up and running,
but I very I transitioned that into the
business immediately because
(29:22):
there was just no way I had enough
CPU cycles.
I was working a full time job, still
in the navy, had kids,
had a podcast.
Yeah. There was no there was no time
left. You you know, that twenty four hours,
I was I used 20 of it up
every day for years
and,
(29:43):
so here we are twenty years later.
Yeah. So you never know. And then you
don't have to be early. So, oh, Todd,
you were early.
Well, no. No. No. It came this idea
came from a
conversation
with someone that was sponsoring the podcast. So
it's not too early for anyone. No. People
are successful every day. Every day. You just
(30:04):
gotta be able to recognize when there's an
opportunity and
and, you know, willing to to go all
in on it. And,
believe me,
it was it was a I I didn't
never imagine.
We would not still be around if we
did not believe in people's podcast either. Yeah.
You know, in in February
when I started the show, never in a
(30:26):
thousand years
would I have imagined that twenty years later,
we'd be sitting here doing,
you know, preparing for a twentieth year in
podcasting at this company. So Mhmm.
Just don't know. Right?
And some of you starting today and who
knows where you're gonna be in twenty years.
So Yeah. So it is possible to go
from, you know, solo podcaster to a fully
(30:47):
fledged media company.
So what's your vision for your podcast future?
Are you happy as a one person show
or do you dream of building something bigger?
That came from Chad's BDT by the way.
Let us know on social media
or send us a voice memo. We'll be
feature you in a future podcast. Thanks everyone
(31:08):
for listening.
Thanks for joining us. Come back next week
and in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com
for more information,
to subscribe, share, and read our show notes.
To check out the latest suite of services
and learn how Blueberry can help you your
project, visit blueberry.com.
That's Blueberry without the e's because we can't
afford them.
Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing
specialist at Blueberry. And I'm Todd Cochran, CEO
of Blueberry. Today, we'll discuss how anyone
can turn their one person podcast into a
full fledged media company.
You're listening to Podcast Insider, a weekly podcast
bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks
to help you start, grow, and thrive through
(00:21):
podcasting
with the support of your team here at
Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.
Todd, I know you're speaking from a personal
experience here, so I think we're gonna have
a really good episode.
Yeah. You know, it was,
we we're we're gonna go way, way, way
back today because,
you just never know what's gonna happen when
(00:43):
you start a podcast. That's for sure.
That is true. Yeah. Well, I like to
surprise you with some topics sometimes and,
sometimes when they're more involved in your background
in podcasting, it's fun for me.
You know, it really began and it's probably
what happens is a lot of podcasters are
like, I got this idea for a show
(01:05):
and
they're trying to make a decision whether or
not they're gonna do solo,
if they're gonna do some of the co
host,
if they're going to have a team
and
but I think a lot of people
start out,
you know, I think it's more often than
people realize start out as being a solo
(01:26):
solo podcaster.
And,
you know,
I learned this very early on and, of
course, there was there was none of the
tools that we have now, but
in the real the reality of being
a content creator,
editor,
marketer,
you know, all these things, all these hats
(01:48):
you had to wear,
you didn't realize it. And and the thing
is we didn't even think about it in
those early days. We're just okay. Let's get
the show done. Now there wasn't social media
in those early days so you didn't have
that distraction,
but you did have the distraction
of how do I get people on my
website?
(02:09):
You know, how do I get traffic here?
And there was other ways that we did
that,
which are now extinct. Some of those marketing
ideas that we use in those early days
are, you know, we we used to go
to forums. You know? Who who yeah. I
I don't belong to any forums anymore. Maybe
a goose a a Google group or something.
Like, all the comments on every different platform,
(02:31):
that's the forums now. That's where people are
learning how to do things. The closest thing
I feel like people still have is Reddit
and Discord.
Yep. And and you really are the,
the unpaid
intern when you begin. You know? You're You're
the social media manager, the IT department,
sales.
Really, there's Simultaneously
(02:52):
CEO and unpaid intern at the same time.
That's right. And Yeah.
It's it can be overwhelming, especially if you're
working a regular job, you have
a family, you have a partner,
maybe you've got kids. You know, there's there's
always something. There's life.
And,
and and and that that doesn't change.
(03:13):
And
but one thing that we don't
that we can't change is time.
Time is That is true. Time is not
infinite.
I've always wondered what would happen if I
had twenty six hours in a day and
I would probably just be more tired.
So, I
think there's a meme out there that shows,
okay, we're gonna all of a sudden that
(03:34):
something happens in the in space and all
of a sudden the Earth,
slows down a little bit and we we
have twenty five hours, I think there was,
the general consensus is we would spend it
sleeping. You know, that would be the
the the extra time that Certainly what I
would wanna do. But I but I don't
know if we would would we would we
use that additional hour to sleep?
(03:58):
A phrase that I like,
I'm showing my millennial is we all have
the same twenty four hours a day that
Beyonce does. Oh, that's true. And and she
accomplishes
so much that can be said about so
many people. But,
going going back to what you said of,
like, when you were starting this
and there were kinda less distractions, I think.
(04:19):
There was there was probably more focus on,
like
and more time being spent on the technology,
like the equipment, the gear that you were
using, that type of stuff and figuring out
like how do we make this get on
to everyone's phone? People don't have smartphones yet.
How do we get it on everyone's iPod?
That type of stuff. Yeah. And I think
now that that time,
(04:39):
that twenty four hours that we have is
just
how is the technology changed to give us
that time back. I mean, that's one of
the reasons you made PowerPress. Yeah. And, you
know, and one of the reasons too is,
you know, the very early days, I think
even new podcasters struggle with this today is
I bought a $14
microphone from Walmart or someplace and
(05:00):
that thing was, you know, tinny.
Tinny was the you know, it was horrible
audio.
And, you know, so then I went and
spent $50 or something at
some place that sold microphones
and I used that for the first year
and, you know, things got better over time.
But, yeah, we were overwhelmed with the tech
and then trying to explain, you know, oh,
(05:22):
I'm doing a podcast or what and get
this cross eyed look and, oh, this you
you can have an app.
No. Actually, there was no apps. You could
have a program
to put on your desktop
that if you plug your m p three
player in, if you have one
Yeah.
It will sync and magically you can take
(05:43):
this with you. And and people are like,
why would I do that? And that's why
people often listen to the shows on their
computers. But,
you know,
luckily today, we have this opportunity
to
not have to be focused on the tech.
We don't have to focus on worry about
publishing our show. That is a very straightforward
process.
(06:04):
Even social is getting easier.
So as a solo podcaster,
you have this ability now to produce a
pretty high quality content
with a minimal amount of time. I still
today
take the same amount of time produce an
episode as I did twenty years ago, but
(06:24):
I get so much more done
in those two and a half hours.
You know? So much more done.
And,
before, if I did in those early days,
if I would have had to have added
social
that that that that that that, I'd be
like, no way. I I couldn't have done
it. It had been ten hours of work
(06:45):
just for one hour. One of those
those things is, yeah, you're spending the same
amount of time, but the quality of everything
has just gone up. Yeah. I think that's
across the board for everyone.
And I think too what happens is then
you grow. And I know for many, many
years, I was solo, solo, solo.
And then I made a little money, and
I decided my time
(07:08):
was valuable.
So I actually,
still to this day, I pay someone to
do my show prep. Now I still have
thirty
to forty minutes of prep to do after
they've done an hour and a half, but
I got that hour and a half back.
And for
and Right. That to me
(07:29):
was
time is money. So it was well worth
the
the the expenditure of hiring that person to
help me. And then in that person came
from my show.
So I, you know, I basically said, hey.
I need someone to help do show prep.
You gotta be geeky.
You gotta like these topics.
I'm gonna give you the keys to the
car and how to find the content
(07:50):
and it was
just, you know, he's been doing it now
for me for,
I think, more than ten years and
it's like my brother from another mother. He
Yep. We're synced. It's very rare that I
will throw something out that he has found
in prep.
I'll add some stuff from time to time.
But so I think when it comes to
(08:12):
outsourcing
versus hiring,
you
should delegate what you can.
Mhmm. Social media can be done by people
that listen to your audience and sometimes they'll
do it for free.
It's very true. That's that's a fairly easy
one to do as long as you have
some someone
trustworthy. Trustworthy. You know, you've built that relationship.
(08:34):
You didn't you had this somewhat of a
relationship with this person who helps you with
your show notes or with your show prep
Yeah. Before you essentially started working together in
that capacity. And and I think it's also
good
that, I mean, I know some people are
sticklers and they're like, I want this to
be a % completely mine.
My brain only is on this. But when
(08:55):
you when you open it up to other
people, the out like, whoever you're hiring or
outsourcing some of the work to, it does
evolve,
You know? And it it becomes something bigger
than yourself.
And and I look at the evolution of
my show notes over the last year.
AI has changed completely. I I don't have
Absolutely. I don't have to hire nobody. The
AI is
(09:15):
does the show notes, and I take
five minutes to edit,
you know, 500 words.
And
it's rare that I have to change too
much.
And it's it's good. And now
I don't do any editing. I'm very
some people
(09:36):
this show is edited.
Mhmm.
But I don't edit my two primary shows.
I because it was also this trade off.
I had to make a decision.
Yeah. Was it gonna
be family? Do it I have enough time
for family
or would I sacrifice family time for editing?
(09:57):
Because editing at the time was gonna have
I'd have to sacrifice more time. I said,
okay. I just cut the ends. It is
what it is. I just had to learn
to be a better podcaster.
Especially when you have longer shows like yours
when they're like an hour plus. That is
insane to edit on a weekly or you
were doing like sometimes twice a week for
years there. So, yeah, that's a lot of
time. But some of those tools now like
(10:19):
Descript
will help you with if if you're not
too what's the word? I don't wanna use
the word I wanna use. If you're not
too wrapped around the axle.
And you're just willing to take out some
ahs and umms
and not get too tight in it, you
can be in and out of the script
(10:39):
in thirty minutes.
If you are an editor, if you
wanna spend more time, you you again need
two two, three hours. But then do you
outsource that to someone?
So then you have to find the right
people.
I think there's also like if when I
was editing our episodes, when I was doing
this by myself for, you know, years ago,
(11:02):
I was
getting fed up with the mistakes that I
was making in the show. So I just
stopped making them in general. They just I
was like, I don't wanna edit that out
next week. So I'm just not gonna do
it. Right. Yeah. And I've done enough episodes
now that even though I may say,
it's it's just gonna have to live in
the content. Person. And, you know, and be
(11:24):
honest with you from episode to episode and
this is gonna be true for creators. Some
episodes I get doesn't man, I knocked that
baby out of the ballpark
and then sometimes I'm like,
that one wasn't so good.
And
but also that becomes into a whole another
topic that we're not covering today is sometimes
you shouldn't record.
(11:45):
You know? If you've got a cold and
you're feeling like crap, don't record. Save it
to another day. I mean, whenever we were
picking a time to record this today, you
were like, I'm gonna be better if we
do it before,
you know, 1PM in the afternoon. Right. You're
like, I just am. Yeah. Because I'm overseas
right now, and it's it's midnight here. So
once it gets to about two,
my clock starts
(12:07):
you know, I start
it doesn't matter that I'm working to five.
I still am not as productive.
But but I think as as shows progress,
you find automation and processes that help and
find people
and then
it turns into okay. If your if your
show's growing, then do you monetize
(12:27):
and There comes the gravy. I think after
you've kind of gotten yourself into that good
spot of
I'm doing this. Other people are doing this.
Mhmm. We're putting out, like, quality
output every episode. Right. It has, like, a
flow. It has a routine. It has something
that advertisers can
rely on. Mhmm. Like, it's it's predictable
in that sense,
(12:49):
kind of the way that, like, a safe
driver is a predictable driver.
That same goes for a podcast trying to
get monetized. And I think a lot of
shows now have realized that, the content they're
creating can lead to a book.
Mhmm.
Courses and coaching.
If you're building a really big audience, maybe
some sort of event.
(13:10):
Or merch. Merch.
I've never I did merch,
but my audience was never into my merch
and maybe it's just because
I'm not an
artist. So the merch was just like logos
of my show. It was who wants to
wear a Geek News Central logo on their
shirt. That's you know, that's you got to
(13:30):
be a super fan to do that. I
I I think,
they kind of excel in the the comedy
section probably where it's, like, you know, where
it's jokes that you can put on a
shirt, something like that. But, yeah, it's
all of that is,
you know, you can do memberships, exclusive content.
We do premium podcasting here. So does Apple.
Yep.
All of those different things that you can
(13:52):
really
add to your show whenever you want.
And there's been a lot of people that
have, over time,
as they built their show have built in
a build into being a speaker, you know,
paid speaker at events, keynoters,
in in their perspective
topic field that they're doing within their shows.
(14:12):
So if you're a business show or tech
show or
whatever you're there there is a place for
you to go and address your peers
and or
inform people. So there's all kinds
of opportunities,
and I think that's what oftentimes podcasters forget
about. They get so focused
on making money
(14:33):
Yeah. That they forget about all the other
opportunities that are available to them that their
content is going to unlock.
That's the real value in podcasting in my
opinion.
And the skills that you acquire doing it.
Yeah. I remember the first time I was
asked to speak to I went to Las
Vegas and spoke to
the Cook County.
(14:54):
It was basically 500 or 600 teachers,
and I'd never really done a keynote before
and,
that was, you know, your first one when
you're you're in front of 500 people and
you're trying to impress them,
is and, of course, podcasting is new at
the time. So it was pretty easy
to have a, you know, good presentation. But
(15:15):
still, you know, walking on that stage,
your slides better be good or, you know,
you don't you don't wanna get booed off.
Yeah. But again, those are the you know,
that was a paid deal. I I I
earned my first real
speaking check from that event. And,
I didn't ever dreamed, you know, two years
earlier that that would have even been possible.
(15:36):
I actually saw something the other day that
the the job market is
not so awesome right now, for lack of
a better word.
And
with with the introduction of so many different
technologies and AI right now, a lot of
companies are saying, like, they were coming out
with, like, this is actually
skills that we need you to have. And
(15:56):
public public speaking was one of the ones
on there. Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah. Because it's like,
you know, anyone can have
AI
write anything for you at this point, but
you still have to be present and have
that,
you know, be able to converse with other
people and really get your point across
poignantly.
And, I think podcasting is probably something good
(16:18):
for a lot of people. I know we've
had,
podcasters who've done, like, Toastmasters
before, which is just like a whole public
speaking,
Yep. Club organization.
So it's it's definitely
not a bad thing to have
on your resume
just saying like, yeah. I do a podcast
because it does encapsulate
(16:40):
so many different skills that you're that you're
talking about. So there's definite levels too. You
know, we've got an example of Bill Simon
who started as the BS report as sports
and pop culture podcast
on ESPN and that grew into Ringer, which
is a full fledged media company and there's,
like, $200,000,000,000
or something that they were That's huge. They
(17:00):
were bought for. And then you have
someone that had nary a presence.
I think a Ming Yang Fogarty and Grammar
Girl.
And she started with just this show.
And then all of a sudden she's got
12 shows.
And then she's
basically being represented by a major media company
(17:21):
and then she has multiple books.
And
now,
basically, she still does her show, but everything
is managed by her team and she has
a full fledged media team and it just
and she was
she wasn't Oprah.
She wasn't Bill Simons. So, again,
the growth path is,
(17:43):
possible for anyone.
You don't have to looking
hey.
I was an aircraft aviation electronics technician.
So, you
know,
anyone can do
this. Right. Anyone can do this. And you
don't have to have
a complete
grasp of the English language either because believe
(18:05):
me, I've destroyed
my fair share of,
of words,
speaking and written over the years. So thank
God for Grammarly,
at this point. But,
you know, you can build,
into something big and, you know, go back
to the Bill Simons exam Simmons example,
expanded beyond sports.
(18:27):
Yep. Had a team of experts and of
podcasters and journalists and, again, build a diverse
network.
And, you know, when we built tech podcast,
we're just a bunch of hobbyists. We had
no clue, but we end up moving in
those early years, like, 20,000,000 downloads a month
on that little network. Now that's That's amazing.
(18:48):
Small considered compared to today.
But,
again, these are the folks that were
had no media experience whatsoever. So I think
this is the excitement about,
the potential of becoming a full fledged media
brand.
Yeah. So when you are
kind of in that stage of becoming a
(19:10):
full fledged media brand, you were you were
branding outside of just your podcast. You are
a full website
brand. You have your reputation. It is not
just people know you
in the app on their phone. Yeah. This
is this is like a whole thing that
people are doing. It has you have a
newsletter. You have merch. You have products. You
(19:31):
have social media content, you probably have
some type of YouTube video presence For sure.
In some capacity. Yeah. It it the list
goes on and on. Yeah.
And
oftentimes,
I think back to when we formed tech
podcast, there was originally seven of us
and we just said, hey. Let's
(19:51):
it's so funny. We
we we launched it as a business model
as a coop
and,
here's one thing I've learned about coops.
Don't build co op. Co ops don't work,
because you know, everyone's supposed to in the
co op do equal amount of work.
Yeah. In a network,
(20:12):
you're gonna have to have someone that's gonna
be the lead. Someone that's gonna do the
heavy lifting. The coop was was me, you
know, doing the heavy lifting
and and and, you know, bringing ad deals
and the collaboration and organization and all that.
But that partnering with other creators,
we all rose together.
Yeah. We had one team member.
(20:35):
He was making so much money.
He promised me. He said, Todd, promise, promise.
Never ever never ever mention how much money
I'm making from the show.
And,
it was a healthy 6 figures and
he said,
I'll be he's retired now so I'm safe.
He said I'll be I'll be fired by
(20:55):
my company if they find out I'm making
this much money on this show.
So,
you know, so also for those of you
that are building something like this and you're
finding success,
don't go to work bragging about it. Just
kind of, you know, yeah, I'm the end
of this podcast thing. Yeah. I got some
merch.
Yeah. The YouTube's doing okay. But
(21:17):
just make sure if you need Move in
silence. Move in silence and make sure that
that you keep your JOB protected,
because
collaboration can lead to big things. Now I
started
a business
early.
I I was lucky enough to get a
(21:38):
book deal,
and the book deal was done on a
October.
But then when GoDaddy sponsored the show in
02/2005,
I got to thinking, okay, which way to
and and I went overboard. I went full
c corp from the very beginning.
That was dumb. I shoulda just went, with
a limited liability
corporation.
(21:59):
You know, talk to your tax accountant before
you do anything in forming a company or
or get a tax accountant to ask which
type of business you should form.
AI is also not a tax accountant.
No. It can mess you up. So I
I I shut down the corporation
in 02/2019,
built a new company entity for my personal
(22:21):
self. So now I have an LLC
and it's easier tax wise.
And it's is a corporation. I was paying
taxes on
the company earnings and then if I paid
myself, then I was paying taxes on that.
It's just too stupid. Just pay the taxes
once,
on the LLC.
(22:42):
But,
so again, talk to your
tax accountant and find out what's right for
you.
I also did it for protection,
and I wasn't being controversial. But if you
are doing controversial
topics,
that might get you sued,
it might be good to do an LLC
(23:03):
or sooner than better and protect your home
and any assets you have and put your
show underneath the LLC.
And, it doesn't completely protect you, but it
does give you a little more
It's certainly not bad advice. Yeah. But again
It it does lead us into the example
though of
My Favorite Murder by Karen Killigraf
(23:25):
and Georgia Hardstock
because that show
blew up. And that is I mean, murder's
controversial.
Mhmm. To talk about that for sure.
And so they just started doing this
as, you know, two friends together and it
absolutely
blew
up. That show gets insane downloads. They have
a wild community. They do live events. They've
(23:47):
come to podcasting events that we've attended.
They have a whole network now of similar
shows. So
I'm sure that they evolved from doing this
just, like, together,
you know, in their living room to an
LLC, something like that. And they they probably
went from zero to a thousand.
And and also legal advice is good too.
And there's a lot of, folks out there
(24:09):
that do legal advice, a couple of podcast
specific
folks. I think of one Gordon Firemark that
does legal advice, and it's not an endorsement.
I just know him.
And I He's just very relevant. He's very
entertainment law. Yeah. So, you know, and it's
it's good if you're seeing success to,
(24:29):
you know, and maybe you need to have
some papers formed
and contracts and that kind of stuff. So,
you know, just yeah. And you have to
treat it as a business too. So and
the advantages is if you're running it as
a business, then there are x advantages of
running in it as a business.
But I would always say have a conservative
CPA. Don't have a a CPA that is
(24:51):
oh, we can take this one deduction that
and this and that. That's where you run
into getting trouble with audits. But a conservative
CPA and a good lawyer will save the
day every day of the week.
Yeah. I mean, that right there, that sentence
leads us into,
wrapping up the episode is what are the
lessons learned and the takeaways
of people going from just, you know, doing
(25:11):
this
in at their house to a fully fledged
media company still maybe in their
house. Lesson learned, don't do a co op.
And it's so when I so how I
got how I transitioned
the co op
was we had an agreement.
So the coop wasn't working. So I said,
listen,
(25:31):
we're gonna buy you I'm going to buy
you out.
Yeah. And I bought the seven out
and,
and and they got it under a different
different legal
so Entity. Entity and and and basically, it
treated it as and and it still is
(25:53):
treated as a true business. So, you know,
just again,
I again, ChatGPD is not a replacement for
legal support, but I think that if you're
going to go full fledged media company,
it's good to have the right tax set
up, the right,
the right legal
infrastructure.
(26:13):
And but don't get scared. These are all
good things.
Yeah. You're you're protecting yourself,
because there's something worth protecting there. Yeah. And,
you know, the second company I formed,
I used LegalZoom to set up the LLC
and to make sure I had all the
because I basically,
(26:34):
knew what I needed,
but I also know that I needed a
binder of specific things, bylaws, rules, you know,
these types of things and LegalZoom helped me
with that. Now
probably the lawyers off there like, oh, you
shouldn't use them, but it worked for me
in the second company that I said. But
again,
if you if you're feeling stuck, you don't
have to be the next NPR, but
(26:56):
but the right steps, you can turn your
podcast in something much bigger
than you ever imagined. I I remember coming
home from because the show originated when I
was on travel in Texas, and I came
home and and I'm explaining this to Shoko,
my wife at the time. And I'm like,
I'm doing this and she's like pointing a
(27:17):
finger at me and she says, okay. You
got two years to figure out how much
make money. And I had I wasn't thinking
about making money, you know, but it put
me in this mindset
of, okay.
You know, this this is costing money at
the time and it was very expensive to
do a podcast in the early days.
I've got to figure out a way to
make this sustainable and it really put me
(27:38):
in the right
mindset
and I wasn't completely focused on
the sponsorship piece.
A book deal came before the sponsorship
deal. So
yeah, you never know what doors are gonna
open up.
Yeah. I think you, you hit the nail
on the head there is you can't just
think of yourself as a podcaster or content
creator. You know, if you if you want
(28:00):
to evolve like this, you have to just
think of yourself as a
as a entrepreneur
in some capacity. And and Blueberry exists for
one reason only.
I was having a phone call in February.
I was talking to Chris Redlinger from GoDaddy.
We just finished the first month of sponsorships
with her, and she said to me, do
(28:21):
you know other podcasters
that would like to advertise GoDaddy?
And I said, yes. I do.
And in back of my head, I'm thinking
there's a business here.
And
that were formulated for a couple of weeks
in my head. And then on my podcast,
I said, I'm looking for a lawyer. I'm
looking for an MBA. I'm looking for a
(28:41):
graphics guy, and I'm looking for a programmer.
And that led to a call that led
to a business
that led to Raw Voice that led to
Blueberry and here we are. That led to
20 later with the two of us here.
Right here.
And it all came and it really centered
upon
a single phone call where I realized there's
(29:02):
an opportunity
bigger than what I can handle myself.
And
I thought I could have done this by
myself. Matter of fact, for the first month
I did because it took us a little
while to get the business up and running,
but I very I transitioned that into the
business immediately because
(29:22):
there was just no way I had enough
CPU cycles.
I was working a full time job, still
in the navy, had kids,
had a podcast.
Yeah. There was no there was no time
left. You you know, that twenty four hours,
I was I used 20 of it up
every day for years
and,
(29:43):
so here we are twenty years later.
Yeah. So you never know. And then you
don't have to be early. So, oh, Todd,
you were early.
Well, no. No. No. It came this idea
came from a
conversation
with someone that was sponsoring the podcast. So
it's not too early for anyone. No. People
are successful every day. Every day. You just
(30:04):
gotta be able to recognize when there's an
opportunity and
and, you know, willing to to go all
in on it. And,
believe me,
it was it was a I I didn't
never imagine.
We would not still be around if we
did not believe in people's podcast either. Yeah.
You know, in in February
when I started the show, never in a
(30:26):
thousand years
would I have imagined that twenty years later,
we'd be sitting here doing,
you know, preparing for a twentieth year in
podcasting at this company. So Mhmm.
Just don't know. Right?
And some of you starting today and who
knows where you're gonna be in twenty years.
So Yeah. So it is possible to go
from, you know, solo podcaster to a fully
(30:47):
fledged media company.
So what's your vision for your podcast future?
Are you happy as a one person show
or do you dream of building something bigger?
That came from Chad's BDT by the way.
Let us know on social media
or send us a voice memo. We'll be
feature you in a future podcast. Thanks everyone
(31:08):
for listening.
Thanks for joining us. Come back next week
and in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com
for more information,
to subscribe, share, and read our show notes.
To check out the latest suite of services
and learn how Blueberry can help you your
project, visit blueberry.com.
That's Blueberry without the e's because we can't
afford them.
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