Introduction
Sacha reached out to me on Facebook Messenger. She wanted to ask me some questions about podcasting. Here are my answers that I wrote her. This podcast is the oral answers to the same questions, but come off differently. In a way, these are questions that many people have asked me over the course of making Oscar Mike Radio.
Question One: Why did you start making podcasts? What were your inspirations?
When I was thinking over the concept of Oscar Mike Radio, there was a lot of things going on in the Veteran Community. There were issues around Veteran’s Suicide, and other Veterans were trying to build their lives after serving their country. I wanted to do something that would provide hope, allow Veterans to connect with each other and tell stories about the military one wouldn’t hear anywhere else.
I liked radio growing up. However doing a conventional radio show would be costly with no real idea if it would even be effective.
I met a man named Keith Hayes at the Ist Annual Dale Dorman Media day and he said go for it. We got together later and he showed me how to do podcasting and not quit!
Question Two: What do you think is the hardest part of the process? (uploading regularly? Coming up with content ideas? Finding people to collaborate with?)
Doing anything with sound is very technical. I did not have an audio engineering background so learning what equipment did and did not work was frustrating. It is much easier now, but I am always learning. So I would say learning about making sound technically good is hard.
The other difficult part is making a story or situation connect with people that listen to my podcast. It can be challenging making a story about a military aircraft appealing to someone who doesn’t know anything about military airplanes.
The rest is simply being adaptable, open to learning, and not quitting. I can’t say this enough. There are times when the process (story search, audio setup, editing, blogging, and promotion) is challenging, but not quitting is the key to overcome any difficulty.
Question Three: In your opinion, what makes podcasts stand out from other formats such as radio shows or blog posts?
I don’t believe there is any other format that allows someone to connect an idea, advocate for cause, or tell a story like podcasting. You can take a simple recorder or an advanced sound studio and tell a story your way. Your way, how you want the story to be told on your terms. 1 person may listen, or 100,000 people might listen, but the point is, they chose to listen to what you produced. You can take a podcast and use it to effect change locally, be that ripple in the pond that keeps going. Look at this answer now, I don’t know why you reached out to me, but if I wasn’t podcasting we would have never crossed paths. Maybe, something I am doing here will allow you to move your podcast forward. There is a possibility you may learn something from my mistakes that allow your podcast to shine.
You can’t connect like this with a TV show or movie. YouTube is one thing, but people get distracted easily looking at their phones.
Blog posts are great, and I do one for every podcast, but nothing beats the sound of the human voice in your ear. There is simply nothing like podcasting.
Question Four: Do you make any money making podcasts? Does your listener count matter to you? If not, why do you still do it consistently?
I do not make any money at this point in time. That is not to say I wouldn’t like to get a sponsor or sponsors;). Wishful thinking is I will be the next “King of All Media”, but I learned something from guest I would like to share with you.
Steve Kimball owns Kimball Painting. I did a podcast on him in #120 (https://oscarmikeradio.com/2018/11/09/episode-120-army-veteran-steve-kimball-owner-of-kimball-painting/)
I asked Steve for some feedback about his experience. I told him it was to improve and grow. Steve looked at me and said if I approach guests with the mindset of adding value to their lives, cause, or business, the rest will take care of itself. Sure enough, when I quit worrying about downloads, subscribers, Facebook Likes, and ensured my podcasts were about adding value people gravitated to what I am doing.
This method keeps me honest and constantly looking to improve what I am doing while having fun doing it.
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